Sunshine and Rainbows

As you may have guessed, as most parents do, we are often calling our girls Rainier and Sunday by the cutsie nicknames we've adopted in our house. We usually call Rainier, Rainie, but we love to call her Rainbow, too. And we named Sunday with the intention of using Sunny, but we somehow just fell into the habit of saying Uhn-day like her sister, who doesn't say the S. Sunday's smile is like a burst of Sunshine for the heart, and in that way she and her sister can make any dreary Washington day brighten instantly :-)
Here is my latest uploaded Scrapbook Process Video, featuring their smiling faces:

I was having a blast editing this clip, however, it didn't seem to translate well when I uploaded it, so a lot of the transitions are weird. I hope you enjoy it anyway, and hopefully my girls can brighten your day like they do mine!

Daddy Daughter Posing

This photo makes me smile every time I see it; when I first showed it to Ray, he immediately joked that we needed a paternity test for Sunday! At the time she seemed to look SO different than him that I wasn't at all offended by his comment. Now, after a few months, when I look at this photo I can't see that they look different at all, to me they have the exact same expression on their faces!

I tried something new on this layout... new, and yet so often repeated, lol. I dug through my scrap box and found a bunch of brown shades with a little reddish and pink thrown in, trying to match the softness of the colors in the photo. I even found some oranges that seemed to go along nicely from CTMH's old Aspen line. Isn't this Prima background paper beautiful!? I thought the grey was a terrific neutral and it happens to be the same color as their eyes looked on this day.

This weeks episode of Two Peas In A Bucket's Glitter Girl asked that we challenge ourselves to incorporate stamping into our layout, and also to talk about how we used some design principles when adding them in. At least, that was the challenge I was remembering to follow. So, since I have about a zillion stamps, I looked through them all, and after a little impromptu sorting session, I pulled out some journaling, sentiment, and of course the Dad stamp that is so rarely used.

I was trying to create a visual triangle with the colors, using the timepiece and the two stamped doily pieces. I don't usually use vellum but it was so softening against all the harsh corners and angularness of the many layered papers. Then the soft sherbet orange ribbon fit in that white space perfectly for my last finishing touch.

The only thing I sort of don't like so much is that stamping on vellum resulted in some smudging because I can never remember to keep my fingers away from the stamped areas. I probably should have used some embossing powder to set the image cleanly, but alas, my heat gun is in a drawer that refuses to open.

Another great part of making this layout is that it came together really quickly and Rainier and I were able to craft it while Sunday was sleeping. I think she's starting to get some teeth because she is grabbing her mouth and throwing her head back while nursing. That, and whimpering in her sleep, poor baby!

Thanks for stopping by, and please, share any completely all natural teething solutions with me!

 

Garden of Plenty

There is a certain simple beauty in this photo that a year later compels me to scrap it... the late afternoon sun casting shadows of the tomato plants across Rainiers face and the warmth reflected in the ripening fruits causes a reflective pause when I flip past it in my (non-scrapped-photos) album.
 

Do you remember your early experiences with gardening? I do, and what I remember most is the endless weed pulling! But then there is all the fun of harvesting to look forward to -after chasing all the slugs away!

I based my layout on a sketch from shimelle.com using sun rays. Its my first time doing this type of cut apart at the top of my layout and I'm really pleased with it. That seemed to be what a lot of the sketch-submitters were saying too :-)
  I used CTMH's Tommy papers mixed with Simple Stories. Same for the embellishments with a splash of Authentique and Fancy Pants too. The sticks holding my canvas pinwheels came from our shish-kabob skewer stash!

I'm glad the picture I chose to work with is from last year, that way I can do it again in my this year's album and it won't be too repetitious. This year we are already getting peas, summer squash, blackberries of course, and yes the tomatoes are growing. Looking forward to some potatoes, Zucchini, and Spaghetti squash, beans, carrots, leeks, lettuce and a log of weeds too I'm guessing. A bountiful harvest in our back yard!

Sew Thoughtful

Hi there!

I made the sentiment box on this card using the outside of a used frame sticker by SEI. Basically, I just stuck the leftover sticker border in to the paper and cut around it before stamping the sewing machine (CTMH's Puns of Praise Occasions clear stamp set).

The inside says You're Sew Thoughtful.

Fun With Photos

I hope you had a pleasant day celebrating our Nations Independence and the sacrifices of all those who make our freedom possible.

I enjoyed a wonderful day with my family, and even squeezed in a quick card made from some scraps and a few punches. Since my newborn isn't exactly fireworks-friendly, I had some time alone at home while she sleeps. I decided to try out a new photo app! I added a Sparkler effect to the top and bottom borders, the Stars and Stripes border, and it was really easy to add my text, too.

To find this app, I simply went to the Google Play Store and searched "photo." That was hard, right?! I love how my picture enhancement turned out. Hmmm, maybe I can start digitally scrapbooking this way...

Made with #Pixlr# - http://pixlr.com

Poking Fun At Myself

I've had to chuckle at myself a few times today, and since it has been happening ALL DAY, I figured I'd share it so I can start feeling a little less like a crazy person laughing at herself!

Okay, so on Sunday night I finished up my 30th layout for the month of June. And felt so great about having met my self-issued challenge that I went ahead and created one more page :-) The next day I started co-crafting six-by-six pages for a small album. Co-crafter being my oldest daughter, Rainier, who is almost 2 and a half.

So what could be so funny about all of this? Well, I am finding myself wandering in and out of my craft room. In, and out. In, and out. Because I have nothing to work on! No project sitting on my desk! No page to count towards a monthly goal like last week! I would go ahead and blast through that small album, but I really want to make it with Rainie (even though I am a glue hog when it comes to helping her).

I got a much-welcomed email from my Aunt this morning, and so I figured, Aha! I will make her a card! But then I realized, I already had the perfect card made. Boo. Does writing a letter count as crafting?! Then, I flipped through my bursting at the seams album and thought about trying to get it to not burst...decided that was not crafty enough (and requires tools). Boooo! Totally didn't do that!

I finally scratched the itch a bit by cutting out some Pooh and Piglet characters on the Cricut with my Rainbow. This activity turned out to be a lot of fun, and I did get to hog some glue, too. She loves her little cut-outs and even dialed up her Mimi & Gran'daddy online to show them off.

Such a simple little activity, and yes, I did get one picture of her during our session, so I can now use those little paper dolls on a page chronicling how much she has grown to enjoy stories out of the Hundred Acre Wood. I will have to include the information that she has yet to see any of those movies or shows and so we still have a lot of fun making up voices to go along with what we read in the books. So far Pooh and Piglet are her favorites- she knows they are best friends!

I also (forced) encouraged her to scrap two more stops on our Northwest Paper Chase 2013 trip :-)

Hopefully I can find a few crafty moments in the next few days; my parents will be here all weekend helping with the girls and celebrating our nation's Independence.

Happy Fourth of July to all you American's reading this, and a Happy Weekend of Fun to all you other Internationals, too !

Mission:Complete!

I will be the first to admit, my craft excitement today is even higher than normal! That's in part because I successfully accomplished my 30 Layouts in the 30 days of June challenge to myself!

It feels great to have gotten so many beautiful memories preserved. The only drawback was, I need like five more albums to house said memories :-)
Despite my overflowing album I still have a full "regular" album (regular meaning :no embellies, just photos in sleeves), lots more pictures to scrap. I'm considering mailing some away to relatives and friends to make it easier for me to move on into the rest of the summers forthcoming photos.

My other excitement factor is that this morning I found out I won a contest! Yahoo! More details to come on that...
 I just had to share my met-the-deadline excitement while its fresh. I feel so accomplished!

Next up for July? Making a six-by-six album with my oldest daughter featuring the pages we got during our Northwest Paper Chase tours in 2012 & 2013.

I hope you're enjoying the summer so far! I know we are :-D