Boys Best Friend

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Only my Mama would want to give a three year old a puppy! But that's what Urijah got this year. Don't worry, she didn't send the puppy home with him. Cadie lives at Gma & Gpa's.

They were so cute running around the house together. She's the perfect size for him at this age. Both of them are tiny. And full of energy! He runs around. She runs after him. He doesn't know what to think of her. But he's gotten use to her now. 

Whenever he comes to visit, Mama makes sure to tell her "Your little boy is coming". 

Cadie is so good with him. She licks his face and he giggles hysterically. I'm hoping one of these days they get this on tape!


For this page about my nephew and his puppy present, I printed two instagram shots. So happy they turned out! It's not easy to capture an energetic 3 year old and a hyper puppy! And lucky me Urijah was running around with that pretty yellow balloon. 


I used my Sock Hop kit and pulled all of the blue, green, yellow and gray from it that I could. Originally, I excluded the green but added it in breathed some life into the page. It's one of those balancing colors that made the whole layout sing!


Oh, and the puppy stamp isn't from the Sock Hop kit. It's from an old Paper Moon add-on. I couldn't not use it for this page about my nephew and his puppy.


Also, cheers to you all who have stuck around! I know I've been horribly negligent. Between NYC and Thanksgiving last week, helping throw a weekend away Bachelorette Party this upcoming and moving the following weekend, I'm going nuts! But bear with me. I'll be back and blogging soon enough.

Now off to my most dreaded task...packing up the scrapbook supplies (seriously my lip is quivering). The few hours I spent today playing with paper was the most relaxing thing I've done in weeks! Here's hoping I survive.

cheers & besos,

Happy Accidents

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Raise your hand if you ever added something to a scrapbook page and immediately regretted it? Or felt that by adding just the one little element, it suddenly through the entire page off balance?

Oh man, do I do this all the time. 

Like for this page, the top red fishbone arrow that I stamped was driving me absolutely nuts. But I mean I stamped it, so it wasn't like I could just move it around on the page.


That's the point when it becomes a personal challenge. And when my creativity kicks in and my brian starts churning out "get out of jail" options.


What I came up with ended up adding a lot of texture to the page albeit very subtle texture. 

I punched scallop and pinked circles out of the blue cardstock to cover it up and also to add that texture I was talking about. Now, I didn't have another piece of that cardstock, so I had to get creative and cut out a big square from behind where I matted the patterned paper.

See, the back isn't pretty:

But it's fixed! In my eyes at least. 

Want to know another secret about this page? I used blue cardstock for the base as another of my fixes. My original idea for the background was to just use the patterned paper. But I ended up cutting it down to 7 1/2 x 11 by mistake. My fix was to turn on its side, trim and adhere to the cardstock base. Problem solved!

The page went in a totally different direction than what I had originally thought. But that's ok. I like how it turned out in the end. 

Happy accidents & minor mishaps, although seemingly mistakes, push your creativity. That can't make them all bad!

cheers & besos,

Flock Together

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Sock Hop has been my friend. I decided to play around with my latest Studio Calico kit today. A mental gift to myself after this incredibly stressful week.

Did I tell you I'm moving? Oh, probably not since I only found out last week!! My apartment complex is being redeveloped (i.e. torn down) and we all need to be out ASAP. It's pretty terrible timing (when isn't it really) but at least I have a new apartment lined up! I'm very excited about it, just not at all excited about actually packing up and moving. I have so much stuff!!

Have any of you had to move a scrap room? Any tips or tricks would be appreciated =)

But anyway, back to my scrapbooking. Yes, I scrapbooked. And yes, I totally needed it. Plus, I completely love this page!!


I jumped on the feather trend and came up with this page about our annual Mountbatten meet up. These are some of my old flat mates and also my grad school friends. We live very far from each other, but we still try to make time to see each other at least once a year.

This year's meet up was last month in DC. We mixed it up a bit from last year and Patrick made the drive over from Connecticut.



For the page, I went a little Native American with the motif. But I completely love it. Love having the feathers dangle down from the bottom of the photo. There's 5 of us and 5 feathers to match.

But the dipped ends are what get me. I used these feathers from Anthropologie as inspiration. But I have to give Geralyn credit for spotting these and remarking what a great idea it would be to incorporate it with the wood veneer feathers in this month's kit. Why yes ma'am I do agree.


Ooookkk, back to packing and worrying about packing I go...
But hey I scrapbooked! It can't be all bad.

cheers & besos,

Queen Card

Friday, November 9, 2012

Happy Birthday Mrs. T! 

It's MT's mama's birthday today. So I made her a card for him to send. I used an old Simon Says Stamp card kit that I hadn't touched (I know!!) and made it a bit shabby chic. It's not my usual style, but I still liked how the card turned out.


I gravitated to the crown patterned paper and a gray/pink/white/cream color scheme. And just layered some elements on top of a doily, before paper clipping (and also adhering them) to the top of the card.


The dimension is what makes this card for me. I only glued the one corner together, the rest I left to hang loose a bit.


I printed the sentiment out on vellum, bordered punched the bottom and washi taped it to the card. And for some extra texture, I wrapped baker's twine around the card and finished it off with a bow.

cheers & besos,

Birthday Boy

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Someone just celebrated his 32nd birthday =) We feasted on cheddar biscuits with bacon jam, burgers, steaks and pumpkin cheesecake. Not too shabby!


Of course, I had to make a card to celebrate. I used the Roller Rink card kit and some Papertrey Ink dies.

And can I just add, the mileage I've gotten from that Martha Stewart Happy Birthday punch is almost remarkable. It's definitely paid for itself!


Happy birthday babe! I hope you have a wonderful year!

cheers & besos,

Christmas with Urijah

Sunday, November 4, 2012

I scrapped! I just couldn't take not scrapping anymore. I started these pages last night at 10:00 pm. 

Last week, I pulled out my Christmas box. I went through it all, rediscovering some of the great products I had, getting ideas and inspiration for this year's Christmas card. But I ended up with a pile of patterned paper scraps and odds and ends on my desk. Which was really helpful with this week's Studio Calico challenge.

As soon as I saw that it was a puzzle challenge, I knew I wanted to make a star. I pieced this one together tucking one leg under the photo and one over a corner that didn't have much in it. I love how it's all tucked in there nicely, the way Urijah is tucked into my brother's lap. And I love that the stars point and frame the two of them.

This page ended up being super hodge podge, as I pulled a ton of different designers and lines together. I like scrapping like that. I'll have to start doing more non-kit scrapping!


This next page was almost entirely done using last year's Studio Calico/Ali Edwards December Daily kit. I still really love that kit. And yes, I'm even ashamed to admit that I haven't used as much of it as I would have liked. But I'm doing it now, right! That has to count for something?!

I also used last week's Studio Calico Sunday Sketch for this photo of Urijah opening up his presents. I changed it up a lot, to make it work with my photo, but the basics are all still there.


Can I just say, I love a red and green color combo. Most of the time I'm trying to not let this combo look to Christmasy. But now, as I'm making these pages, I get to go all out!

I also love how they look in my book side by side. It just makes me happy =)


Oh, and in case you're wondering. I did not use last year's kit as a December Daily album. It's my Christmas album that I plan to keep adding to over the years.

What about you? Did you buy any December Daily or Christmas kits? Do you plan to DD or just use the stuff? I'd love to hear!

I pre-ordered both (yes I know I'm obsessed!) the Studio Calico and Kelly Purkey kits. I cannot wait for  them to get here. I already have plans for my KP kit. Still working on what I'm doing with SC's. Stay tuned, we'll find out together!

cheers & besos,