Game Ball & Fun

Happy Monday! This past week I was able to catch up on my son's Handbook Album and today I want to share two of the 6x8 traditional layouts that I put together.

First up is Game Ball, a layout documenting Hayden receiving the game ball after having pitched an amazing game:

 

This layout was inspired by the NSD Sketch Challenge at Studio Calico. You can see it here. 

 

This next layout is a little bit more minimalist, a trait that repeats itself throughout his album. I think that this simpler style is really indicative of the point in his life that he is at right now--he's fourteen, four years away from being an adult, he knows absolutely everything, and he's "cool", so I take it a little easy on his layouts.

   

"Forced Family Fun" would have been a more appropriate title! Ha ha. It is incredibly hard to get my teenager to join in the fun sometimes. On this particular day I basically kidnapped the guy. I picked Hayden up from school and told him he was going to the park to play with us, end of story. Lucky for us he was in an indulgent mood ;). 

 

I am currently really digging all the chipboard and stickers from Ali Edwards' Story Kits, I find myself applying them to so many projects lately. I thought this one really caught the moment--the girls with their huge smiles and Hayden bracing himself and the girls for the abrupt stop at the end. Love this "Seriously Fabulous Moment."

Michelle

P.S. I too have gone down this slide and more times than not I end up on my bum--it is steep and fast and the landing is so totally awkward and emberassing for those of us who are no longer pint size. And I whole heartedly believe the makers of this slide had that exact idea in mind!

Sweet Memories

During this past Winter (and currently Spring) I often sat in front of my computer amazed at the amount of snow the eastern parts of the country were getting. My IG feed would be full of white snow and longing for the sun to come out. My winter on the other hand didn't look anything like what I was seeing, instead it looked this:

 

A little different right? Yes, we were at the beach in February. In bathing suits. Meanwhile, the majority of the country remained buried in snow. Weird.

 

Last week, which was the official last week of winter by the way, I spent my free time working on scrapping my winter beach pictures and this is the first layout and coordinating pocket page that I came up with:

 



 

This layout was inspired by a recent sketch from Studio Calico.

 

 

 

 

I love beach photos. I don't love picking and choosing the "ones" that make it onto a layout though, so my solution is to include a pocket page or two.

 

 

 

So now tell me--what did your winter look like? As the above pictures suggests, I don't live at the beach. The beach is a couple short hours drive from where I actually live, but even here in the mountains, the winter was dry. No snow days. Nothing. If I could have, I would have certainly traded our beach day for several snow days ;).

 

Michelle

He Loves Adventure

I'm at it again, stealing photos off of my husband's phone ;). This time I took pictures of our dog from one of their recent hikes.

 

No one can get my dog to sit still like my husband. If I had attempted this, it just would not have happened! 

 

 

As I worked on this layout, I really fell in love with this color combo--navy blue, turquoise, and pink. They really are so pretty together and sort of compliment my dog's fawn colored fur :).

 

Wishing you a great day full of adventure!

 

Michelle

Simply Magical



This year I decided I would be bold--and take my youngest daughter who is two to the movies. I know, I know, two year olds are unpredictable and rarely able to contain themselves long enough to sit still in a dark theater and not disturb grumpy adults ;). But you see, I LOVE the movies. I do. And since having my oldest daughter Maleia in 2010, trips to the movies have been far and in between. Last year I was finally able to venture into the theater with Maleia and she behaved beautifully. But she was four and acts like she's twelve. The littlest, Allora, not quite so mature yet. And she's sort of loud. But I did it anyway because I am STARVED for movies and took both girls to see Big Hero 6 and lo and behold, Allora rocked it!

 

 

Allora has now been to three movies, with Paddington being the most recent and the most enjoyed by all three of us. And because the movie touched us all, I had to document it :).

 

 

People, I just have to say the Life Documented collection from Simple Stories is awesome! It's been a while since I have really fell in love with a primary colors based line, but this one had me from the beginning. I have missed the color combo of red, blue, and yellow so much.

 

 

 

 

I had so much fun working on this page. The combination of the story and the colors, and the products really got me excited! Thanks for stopping by today :).

 

Michelle

 

P.S. I do not recommend taking young children to see Into the Woods--way too long and a little too complicated. I certainly liked the movie, but I had a totally different idea in my head of what the movie was going to be like and I was a little off. LOL. It is a total understatement when I say I was relieved when Allora finally fell asleep :).

 



Adventures in 9x12 Scrapbooking

I'm a pretty dedicated 8.5x11 scrapper, who likes to dabble in the 6x8, but recently I took the leap and tried out a 9x12....

 

I really didn't think the size difference would be that much, but it was. In the words of my two year old, the page was "giant-normous." Ha ha.

 

 

As part of my 2015 memory keeping plan, I am doing one album just for me-related stuff and I've chosen to go with the new 9x12 white leather album from Studio Calico. It's actually quite an understatement to say that I am really excited to get some stuff in it. Is it strange that an actual album excites me??  Ha ha. (Is it even more strange that I laugh at myself, often??)

Michelle