january 11, 2012

Over the past few months I have been slowly selling off most of my scrapbooking supplies.  I never thought it would happen, but it just seemed like it was time.  I haven't truly dug into my supplies for over a year and a half.  It kept getting harder and harder to jump back in and I found that I just really didn't want to.  I tried to force myself but that just led to guilt and frustration.  Not to mention the feeling of being "behind".  I now had two boys' books to keep up on and it was just too overwhelming.  Eric and I chatted about it and he looked at me like I was a crazy woman. He asked me why I would let a hobby make me feel so miserable.  I realized he was right.  So I went through my stuff and I only kept a few things that I truly love or could use for other craft projects, and I sold the rest. 

Right now I am just going to focus on taking lots of photos and getting my favorite memories recorded in some way.  I will probably keep up with a simple school album for each of the boys.  I will definitely continue to be crafty in one way or another.  I think I just needed to accept that sometimes things change, even things that you really love.  And that's okay.

doing a happy dance....

I went to Archiver's last weekend to scrapbook. Unfortunately, I did not get much done (only 2 pages!) but I did complete the final page for Cannon's first year album! That's right, it is done!!!

I have the hardest time scrapbooking professional photos. I am not sure if it is because usually they are so large or if I just overthink them because the pictures are "special" somehow. I just tried to keep this one simple with the focus on the photo. Eric calls this Cannon's George Costanza photo. You will probably only get that one if you saw that Seinfeld episode. It just makes me laugh when I look at it.

Here are the ultrasound pages with all the journaling from my MANY doctor's appointments.

I was dreading working on these pages because of all the text, but I really wanted to include all of the journaling. I am so glad that I have it all written down and I know I will love to read through it all later. When I was going back through my blog to get the journaling I was surprised how much I had already forgotten!

And here is the completed album. I just love the WRMK albums, especially this red one.

Just for fun, here are a few stats on this album:

Number of pages: 54
Number of photos: 126
Number of 2-page layouts: 2
Number of months to complete: 21
Having this album finally finished: priceless

july freehand scraps reveal...

The July Freehand Scraps kit is now available! I really liked that I was able to do a variety of different subjects and didn't feel like this kit was too "themed".

I had this picture printed at Costco in 8x12 (only $1.49!). I loved all the white space on the right that was just begging for a big, bold title. For the bottom, I just punched out some circles, crinkled them up and then stitched them on. The glitter buttons were the perfect finishing touch!

On this page, I cut out some of the circles from the Girls Paperie paper on the bottom and then added them on top of the yellow October Afternoon. Then I stitched some messy circles around them to help them stand out a little more. I also added the Maya Road envelope and a few October Afternoon stickers to finish it off.

And this last one is a page I made with one of my favorite pictures of the boys. I could not believe I had never scrapped this one yet! It was taken the day after Cannon came home from the hospital. I didn't know what title I was going to use, but I got the word "be" in the vintage scrabble letters in my kit (everyone gets a different word), and this title seemed perfect. It is definitely something I have to remind them of everyday now that Cannon is older and can fight back! :)

Be sure to check out the rest of the gallery. The other girls did such a great job with this kit.

Hope you have a wonderful holiday weekend! Happy 4th everybody!

it is sneak peek time again!....

The July Freehand Scraps kit is full of bright colors, fun embellishments and THREE alphabets! My favorite embellishment is alphas, so I felt like this kit was put together especially for me! :)

The October Afternoon and Girls Paperie papers are perfect for just about any occasion making this a very versatile kit.

Check out the kit and the rest of the gallery here on the 1st. You won't want to miss this one!

the dreaded holiday pages....

Holiday pages are not my favorite pages to complete. This would explain why I am just now getting around to Christmas 2008 & 2009! But, in an effort to get Cannon's first year done, they had to be done.

From here on out I am just going to be putting all the holiday pages in a family album because I am definitely not going to scrapbook them all twice for each of the boys. Since this was Cannon's first Christmas, I made a few pages specifically for his book. All the paper on this one is from Crate Paper's North Pole Collection. I cut the snowflakes with my Slice and then stitched them on and added a few embellishments. Definitely one of my all time favorite pictures.
Cannon's first visit with Santa. Cannon had only been home from the hospital for a little over a week and was so tiny! This page will go in the family book. I cut the stars with my Slice and added the embellishments. I just love this North Pole collection from Crate Paper.
And this one is not a holiday page, but one that I recently finished up as well.
I just got done putting these pages into the album......aahhh, it feels so good!

more cannon layouts....

I have continued to plug away on Cannon's first year album. I have been so inspired lately and am finding myself stealing any free moment to work on my pages in progress on my scrap desk.

I had so many photos of his first birthday that I just picked 2 for this layout and then put the rest in pocket pages. This polka dot paper from American Crafts is one of my all time favorites. I used it for his invites too. The color of it photographed kind of weird here, it is more of a khaki with white polka dots. The felt monkey is from Sassafras and I thought it was the perfect accent since it fit the theme.


I struggled with this one for a while because I was having a hard time picking out the right accents, but I think the stars look pretty good. I love that banner sticker from Sassafras too.
And lastly, this page is about our visit that we had to the neurologist last summer. I am not completely crazy about how the journaling part turned out, but it is better than my previous 2 attempts. I love the orange polka dotted paper. You can definitely see my alphabet sticker addiction in this page.
Hopefully I will soon be able to say that I am done with this album. It is getting very, very full!

june layouts.....

I am so happy to say that with these last few pages I completed with the Freehand Scraps June kit, I am officially done with Cannon's monthly update pages. I still have quite a few other pages I want to do to finish up his first year album, but I feel like I have made a good dent in it.

The kit came with these chipboard frames from American Crafts. They were all different colors/designs so I painted them all white so I could put the patterned paper behind them. Other than having to paint 4 coats of paint, this page was simple and came together quickly. I laugh out loud whenever I see this picture of Cannon.

I had tons of scrap papers when I was finished with my layouts so I put together this quick card. I love having these types of cards ready to go because then I am much more likely to send them out.

Another layout showcasing all the cute patterned papers and that beautiful ribbon. I did create separate 6x12 pages with all the milestones/text like I have shown here before. They are just so simple I didn't take pictures of them for the gallery.

Here is a layout with the chipboard frames in their original form. I have actually changed this page a little bit because I remembered that I had the little baggie of hair that the hairstylist gave me. I removed that chipbaord scissors from the yellow circle and put the baggie of hair behind it. It turned out cute. I am just too lazy to re-photograph it. I just ruffled up the ribbon as I fed it through the sewing machine. I will have to say that this layout is much, much cuter in person. I am not sure why I couldn't get a good photo of it.

My pages are usually so simple I don't really feel like they need an explanation, but if you have any questions feel free to ask! The kit is still available at Freehand Scraps. Go get one.

june freehand scraps sneak peeks....

The June Freehand Scraps kit is adorable. It is full of grey, yellow, green and a very pretty salmon color. It has two alphas which I always love. The ribbon was gorgeous. I just loved it all.

Check out the full reveal of the kit and gallery on the 1st of June at Freehand Scraps.

cannon's monthly updates documented.......

I decided it was time to buckle down and try to get Cannon's first year album done. I still have quite a bit to do. Some of my favorite pages are his monthly updates, but I find them the hardest to do since they have so much text (which I just copy from here). For these I made a separate 6x12 page for all the text so I could focus on the photos on the 12x12 layouts.

These layouts are easy and simple. The nine month layout was made with the Cosmo Cricket Joyride line. I love these papers.

This one I pretty much copied from here. That yellow cloud paper is from Pebbles. It is one of my favorites right now. I love the yellow and anything with clouds.

This one was also pretty much a copy. I found it here. (the buddha belly page) I love that elephant paper and figured I better use it before it becomes too "baby" looking.

I think I have 2 more of these to put together. After 18 months, I will just do them yearly like I do for Charlie. Now, back to my scraproom...I have work to do!