Baby Days

It's been a month since I last blogged? WOW without the team being around I just went on a mental vacation but I did not realize how fast the days would go by!

Thought I would come share  a layout I created tonight when going through some old ultrasound pics of my girls. I had weekly ultrasounds when I was pregnant with Katelyn and I journaled that inside of the die cut of the pregnant mommy. Isn't it cute? I bought that a few years ago and just never got around to using it. Sometimes if you don't feel that the right paper fits with an embellishment, hang onto it and the right paper will come out. That is what happened in this case. I love the ♥  paper and immediately thought of baby pictures. I am so glad to finally have gotten another layout done for the baby book for baby #2!!!

Here is how it all turned out :
Deb♥

Fair Time!

What an adorable layout Michelle has for us today. The use of patterns are a perfect mix and it makes it feel like a fun time!
Deb♥


We went to the County Fair while we were visiting my Aunt, who lives in North Central PA. I don't remember the name of the County, but we had fun and it was much larger than any County Fair that I ever experienced.

When I started picking my papers I wanted something to go with the yellow stripes of the tent we were in. But I didn't find anything that matching other papers. I pulled out Dotty For You Paper Pack Promo from Close To My Heart loved the Summer Fair feeling I got. There is not much descriptive details since this page is apart of our Trip to PA Album. Having the album exclusive to our trips there. I just needed to label the event, thoughts and moments. My parent and family have been visiting my Aunt and Uncle's property in PA for over 20 years. The property started as their vacation destination and over the years became their home after retirement. So, since starting to scrap my trips I now have to add extenders to my album.

I used 5 different pattern papers, even border punched some cardboard packaging(under the word County in the Title) Cut out the large Green polka dot circle using Creative Memories Circle Cutter System. Ink Distressed the edges of my papers with Hollyhock Ink. Attached the pictures to the Yellow polka dot paper. Stamped the word Fair and fuss cut the circles, then added them to a circle punched blue polka dot. Stitched a half circle using Baker's Twine and added a felt Butterfly.

Happy Birthday Groovy Katelyn ")

It is so hard to believe with each passing birthday how fast our children grow. We watch them go through each moment that gets captured if we are lucky, and then recorded in the baby book. I am sharing this layout I made of Katelyn when we celebrated her 1st birthday. It has a pocket behind the row of pics so I could store more of them from that special day. Continue scrapbooking! It is the best baby book we could ever give our children :) :) :)

If It's Groovy June Challenge by Groovy Deb♥

This month I have challenged the Groovy Chicks to put their spin on an all white layout. I was thinking about June brides in white when this came to me, but did not ask for wedding layouts in particular, but instead to just go as far as possible with white. I hope you will enjoy as we each show what we came up with over the next few days! It is harder than it seems and I know that because I always do the same challenges, lol! Here is mine with all the white I could add :) The only color comes in from me and Baby Katelyn back when she was only a month old. I did use a gray gel pen to outline the white in order for it to show up on camera. I used spray adhesive and added the fun fur behind the layout hoping to give it a softer feel like a baby blanket.

Come play with us! We really want to see what you can do with this trying challenge!
Deb♥

Aflutter by Penny

Penny has a beautiful granddaughter and she is here today with her beautiful smile :)
Would it not be wonderful to keep this smile on all day?
Deb♥

This layout is of my granddaughter Madison, she is always closing her eyes when she smiles! Since this photo was large, and the layout had a lot of embellishments, I added a hidden journal box, behind the photo. It is the brown label next to her face. I left the journal block empty so that her mother could write her a note on it herself. (Trust me she has plenty of my handwriting!)

The supplies for this layout include:
Patter Paper -
Recollections Glorious Garden - Chelsea Garden 125172 83916-2009-11
Brown heart - unknown, I've had it forever
Yellow polka dot border - Basic Grey
Cardstock - Green & Black - DCWV
Border strips - K & Co. 30614772 SW Nature Icon, the other strip is from K & Co also but I don't have that number.
Flower Punch - McGill Buttercup petal - P/N 64005L
Heart Punch - Marvy Uchida
Brads - Recollections - round and square
Large Butterfly - This is actually a Christmas tree ornament - Holiday Time - BC Butterfly X10481
Martha Stewart - Gems
Letter Stickers - Colorbox

For a neat technique I added the square brads in the holes of the light tan border strip. I hope I have inspired you to create something this week! Happy Scrapping! Love Penny

Gift Giving

A gift made with one's hands is one of the best I feel. I am sure the recipient will love what Tammy has done here today. FYI Tammy...there are never enough lol!
Deb♥

My mom gave me this picture of her friend's great-granddaughter and asked me to make a page we can frame for her. I love to cluster my embellishments...so much so that I always have to ask my daughter if I need more, 'cause in my head I ALWAYS need more LOL! And she always is honest and tells me when enough is enough ;) I used stuff from my stash...the scalloped paper is Making Memories, there are some K&Company embellies, and the rest I don't know :) Thanks for looking, Tammy

A Wedding Day in Penny's Life :)

Take note of Penny's tip for dollar store flowers. I too have done what she suggests and you will find that it is a money saving tip!
Deb♥

This is a layout of my daughter Sequita and my granddaughter Madison, on Sequita's wedding day.


For this layout I used the following items:
Sketch was taken from here:
http://blog.basicgrey.com/?p=1857
Pattern Paper:
Basic Grey - Urban Couture - URB-363 Pashmina
Basic Grey - Perhaps - KISA - PER - 738
String clasp:
Basic Grey - string clasp - 542631
Stickers:
Basic Grey - 551152
Word Brad:
Studio K Basic Grey - 564688
Inks:
Tim Holtz Ink- Vintage Photo - TIM - 19527
Studio G Ink - WM 0028 Lime Green
Fisker's Paper trimmer - the really old one, I still love and use it even though I have several more that are more expensive!
Elmer's Craft Bond Glue Stick - 4021
Cardstock:
1 sheet of 12 x 12 Dark Green Cardstock
5 tiny strips of white cardstock for journaling strips.
K & Co. Border strips (these came in a pack, and I have found that I use the "wrong" side of these as much as I used the "right" side.
Flowers:
Floral Garden - Silk flowers 967173- 1109 (I purchase almost all of my silk flowers from either Dollar Tree, or Dollar General, and just remove them from the stems, and use them on my layouts, much cheaper than the more expensive one's that are for scrapbooking.
Small hole paper punch
Ribbon:
This is actually 330 Wrights Hem sewing tape - Seal Brown 092
Assorted brads - unknown
Assorted jewels - unknown flea market find
Pop Dots
Zots glue dots
1 small sheet of mulberry paper

I started this layout by cutting one of the background papers almost in half, and then cutting out some of the background flowers and popping them up off the main background sheet on the layout with the pop dots.

Next I tore strips from the dark green cardstock, and the rest of the mulberry paper to form the lines on the layout, along with the K & Co. border strip, and held them in place with glue and brads.

I then added the mulberry paper, as a photo mat, and placed my photo.
I cut and placed the "hem" tape, using brads and glue.

Next I free hand cut the butterflies, and inked their edges, and placed the jewels on the butterflies with glue dots. (If you don't want to free hand cut the butterflies, you could use stickers, or a cutting machine to make yours.)

Next I cut and inked the journaling strips, and added my journaling.

Then I inked the flowers with the lime ink, in order to make them match the layout colors, and added them to my layout with brads. (They appear brighter in the photo than they actually are.)

Then I added the string clasp and title stickers.

The journaling reads:
Sequita and Madison, the 2 girls of the family now. Given the task as memory keepers, as most girls in families.

Now it's your turn to make a layout like this of your own! Happy Scrapping!
Love Penny

Penny has a few Secrets!

I had to LOL when I read what Penny has written about the camel...I think we as family members can related...you'll see what I mean, but also read on for the tip, uh hum secret, Penny shares about the alphabet letters. It's a great tip!


I used the following supplies for this layout: Pattern Paper: Basic Grey - Oh Baby Girl - OBG-442 Sophie Stickers are also from Basic Grey Round pattern vellum - these were actually from a wedding invitation kit and were not really round, I just cut them to be that way. The other sheet of what looks like pattern paper is actually a post card by: Pratt & Austin - Penny Wise Post cards, I used two post cards and just tore them in half so that I would have enough room for my journaling. Tim Holtz Ink - Vintage Photo TIM 21056 Assorted brads Floral Garden silk flowers - 19971 - 1105 (This is just the code for one of them, but I purchased my flowers at Dollar Tree, or Dollar General. Toner Craft Twine - 86244 K & Co Borders Buttons Photo turn yellow thread.

To make this layout I first inked the K & Co. borders and then sewed the twine through the holes of the border. To make this process easier, I glued the tips of the twine so that it didn't unravel during the sewing process. Then I glued the vellum in place making sure that no glue would show after I placed my photos on the vellum. Next I inked and glued the two postcards together and placed in on the layout. Then I glued in place my photos, and then glued in place the sewed borders, but I added brads just to make sure they stayed in place. To make the words out of twine I used a plastic bag from a sticker sheet and worked and glued the twine into the letter shapes.

After getting them close to what I wanted I then started gluing them to the layout. Then I added the flowers and stickers. It's not clearly visible in this layout but here is a small vellum banner under the top flowers. I then sewed the buttons in place, and the cross stitch pattern on top of the left hand side of the postcard. The journaling reads: I took these photos of Madison while we waited for Matthew to finish ball practice. She carried that "horse" around for months. We never did tell her it was really a "camel"! What a sweet face! 2008 Now it's your turn! Happy Scrapping! Love Penny

Bring Back Summer!

I cannot take it! It is 37 degrees down here in VA today and I am missing Summer so much! I want to see this again!!! Deb♥

Jen's Bird

Do well call our kids money and bird? I wonder because I hear lots of parents call their kids monkey...and I do that, but the other thing is that I call my youngest Blue bird and here is Jen today talking about her bird too! I guess we must think of cute little baby animals and then relate them to our own cute little babies :)
Deb♥


For this page of my oldest daughter, I just loved how the colors of the papers matched her shirt. I then used matching border and word stickers to anchor her picture on the paper and added the title above( which is one of her many nicknames I call her)and added a bird sticker to go with the title, and that was it a super simple page. tfl!

A Liftateer Project :)

I believe I have mentioned that I have a few groups going on the Fiskateer message board known as The Liftateers and Card Lifters. Michelle is a member there and when this layout was created I asked her if I could show it over here because it is so pink and pretty :) We all need some color in our lives as the leaves start falling off the trees and Winter brings it's colorless days and nights. This one will definitely brighten up a day! Love it!
Deb♥


I am a member of the Liftateers at Fiskateers.com
The Liftateers honor a scrapbook page every week by lifting it! During week 3 we were honored to lift Vicky #1509. Vicky used a circle element and flowers on her page.
I had just got a bag of clothes from another scrappy friend who has a daughter a year older than my daughter. Becky, my daughter was in the middle of a "Fashionista Designer Showcase!" Trying out her new finds and playing the fashion diva that is my daily morning fight. Anyway, when she came in wearing her pink ladies jacket, all I thought was Grease and which character did she fit best! Becky is a cross between Sandi and Rizzio, but she has her own sass in their too!

I was looking for the right pinks to match some thickers letters I had and found the ladybug paper from a Heidi Grace paper pad. I used a scalloped die cut and a stamp set called Love Bug from Close To My Heart. Stamped a few ladybugs around the scallop and fussy cut another by the corner of my pink lady.

Deborah aka Dance Mom

I am a Dance Mom! Do you watch that on TV? I love watching and see what the moms will do next! I am so glad that at the studio my daughter dances for that thee is not the hoopla going on as we see in the show!

So in my role of dance mom I try my best to capture Katelyn dancing and posing for the camera as often as I can :) Here is a picture that I took but there were way too many people in the background so I faded the background and I love how it turned out...then there was fitting one more picture on the layout. It was not going to happen so I cut her out and put pop dots behind her and it looks like a paper doll of her :)

TFL!!!
Deb♥

Get Behind Your Photos!

I think this is a fun technique that Michelle is sharing today! Have you tried it before? It can be freeing :)
Deb♥


I For this page I tried out for the first time a technique I saw done on a page. The page I saw was a heart torn and rolled up with a 8x10 photo behind it! I love the effect and changing it up a bit from just matting your photos!

The idea behind this technique worked great with my photos. Since my daughter was "stuck" behind the torn frame. When I took this picture all my daughter kept doing was throwing her hands up in the air and saying, "Stuck" "Stuck"! So that made my title easy.

To make this page I placed my photos behind the paper with the print side down and traced the space of the photos I wanted shown. Then cut and "X" with my craft knife flipped over the paper and started rolling back the paper. If it got too bulky I rip off the extra bulk and kept rolling until it fit the photos. When I was happy I inked up the rolled edges and then placed my picture behind. I also adhered a strip of paper to the back with the pictures for support. I used my alpha stamps, cut them out and pop dotted the letters around the torn frames. Fussy cut one edge of my journaling tag, rolled the other edges and inked.

Create Your Own Embellies!

Silvana is sharing a very sweet Dollbabies layout with us today. She also is giving good advice about creating something from something else. Check out the focus on her cute birdie!
Deb♥

Today I want to share a simple layout and as most of the time in my layouts I like to put just one big picture and use a few embellishments . For this page I used a pic of my daughter from last year went she started crawling and usually I choose the colors of papers and embellishments base on the clothes she is wearing (silly but it works for me , how do you girls choose your paper and colors? ...just curious ) but in this case I had a set of embellishment that I haven't used yet so I took this tag that say "giggles" and I start my layout from there. I like this pink and blue with a little bit of green. The other thing is that I wanted was a little bird for this page, but I didn't have any so from a blue butterfly chipboard I made this cute little birdie =). Hope you girls like it =)

My Baby Girl

Why do our little dollbabies grow up so fast? This one of mine will be 16 this summer and it is so hard to think that once upon a time she was this sweet little baby and that in just a few years she will be heading off to college. Wow, where does time go? Enjoy those precious baby moments. I am so glad I had another baby picture to scrapbook of Kristen!!!
Deb♥

Hidden Journaling

I know I shared with you that I am designing over at The Moments, but the one thing I have not told you that I LOVE about The Moments is that on Friday night there is a sketch posted 7pm EST and you have 2 hours to put your spin on it and come back to share :) If you have not joined please do and tell them I sent you so we can both be entered in their April prize contest. When you get there look for the tab that has Friday Fast Track if you want to come play along ")

Here is the sketch that was posted last night and the layout I created to go along with it. I know that journaling is something that is important to a lo and I am trying harder to include more of it since I have not been doing that lately, So, I thought about that when I created this lo and if you take a look at the following photos you can see that I adhered the journaling to the back of my photo and allowed for it to swing from under it. One day when my daughter is grown it may be a little mystery for her! Try it, it was easy and fun!

Thanks for coming by!
Deb♥

Daddy's Little Girl

EVERY time Darlene shows us a picture of her little dollbaby daughter I cannot help but think just how much the two of them look alike! Both are beautiful young ladies and I think Darlene has given us a SUPERB idea today to involve our children's fathers for the scrapbooks that one day they will treasure.
Deb♥


My little girl loves her daddy so much. She is so cute posing with him on this day at the duck pond last Summer, so naturally, I had to snap some shots of them two. :)

I used mostly scraps of Sassafras paper for this simple design, with just a touch of Basic Grey chipboard and cute various brads to make it all work together.

I convinced the husband to write the journaling in his own handwriting for once—this way my daughter has a record of his handwriting and his words for her as well, amongst the many layouts I have handwritten on for her. Maybe this small way of being involved with my craft will make him a more likely participant of the scrapping hobby. Wouldn’t all wives want their husbands to show a bit more interest? Try sneaking in the “just journal what you want here” line and see if you get through. :))

Baby Fever!!!

Have you heard of Baby Fever? No? Well for those who have not, it is the desire to have a baby to hold in your arms once your own children have gotten bigger and don't "need" you so much anymore :(

My girls are 6 and 15 so they are at those stages and I am wishing for one more day to hold them as little infant babies who needed Mommy so much. Scrapbooking this lo of Katelyn made me think just how awesome that would be if we could go back in time. Would you?
Deb♥

A Beautiful Layout from Natalie

From the oversized tag to the chipboard letters and beautiful pics...this is a great lo with a great message as well. Natalie reminds us of something important. Contact your local Humane Society or shelter if you are looking for a life-long pet, but be sure to ask how the animal you pick is with other members of families such as children and other pets. They will do your best to provide the proper info and connect you with a friend with fur!
Deb♥


This layout was hard to make. The day before I did it, I had to relinquish the cat in the picture, to the Humane Society in our county. He was a lovey kitty, but very aggressive. He had bitten me twice, once I excused because he had been riled up by our older cats as we were trying to acclimate him into our home. He was a feral cat and we were trying to domesticate him. He sealed his fate the other day by attacking my daughter in our yard and biting her several times and scratching her on the abdomen. She admitted to poking him and playing a little rough. She is only 3 and I had to choose. Letting a cat overrun our yard where we want to be free from fear or give him away. There are many people in our county with land and they get these cats and feed them. We did neuter him to begin with as we wanted to help stop the feral cat problem as much as we could.

My daughter loves to play outside and plant things, now she can without the fear of being bitten or harassed. Let this remind all of us that it is oh so important to support the efforts of your local animal advocate groups in spaying and neutering feral cats and adopting animals from shelters. Both of my indoor cats consist of a shelter rescue and a feral rescue.

The layout is inspired from one of my sketches. I used my Cricut and Gypsy to cut out the title, bird, and birdcage. The title is from Storybook cart, and the bird and cage are from Serenity. The large "tag" has a pocket behind it holding a letter to my daughter explaining what happened and why we had to let the kitty go. I inked the edges of everything and used the Xyron 1.5" Create a Sticker for attaching the letters to the page. 3D pop dots where used with the bird and cage.

It looks as though birds are still trending this year and I patterned mine after an uncaged canary!
Natalie

Fairy Cuteness!

It is with great sadness that I post this project being that it is the last from our Groovy Chick Jeannie, but I also as well as the other team members do wish her much success as she moves into new areas. You will be missed and here is a most beautiful send off made by Jeannie :)

We love you Girl! Best wishes, Deb♥


I will call this my FAIRY PROJECT in progress. I have had this ensemble done forever. I had the greatest hopes of mass producing these kits and putting them inmy ETSY store and making a fortune. Well after I got on kit all together, that was all I was making. This ensemble consists of: A custom made purse with a pocket that has a fairy in the vinyl pocket. The fairy is all paper pieced, by me. The fairy is called FAIRY ISABELLA, my wonderful friend and fabulous artist made this for my youngest when she was in the hospital in San Francisco, many hours from home. The artist is no other than the awesome Therese Travis. Look her up sometime and see her wonderful work.

Back to the ensemble: A purse, a notebook with attached pen, fairy decorated crayons, CD holder paper doll kit (handmade by me) and the grand finale, a scrabble tile necklace with a tiny version of FAIRY ISABELLA on it.

The hardest part of this was the CD paper doll kit. I just have not been able to come up with a way to make paper dolls and keep them Isabella proof. I laminate them to make them strong. But after laminating them, they are slippery and I have not come up with a way to attach the extra clothes that is doable for little hands. Adhesives do not stick to laminate, paper clips would be goofy. I can’t attach magnets since adhesive will not stick to the laminate.

In the middle of trying to finish this project, before Christmas, I had a FACEBOOK status about losing my marbles over my Paper Dolls. Now you are all in the know as to why I was losing it. I finally came up with the idea of attaching all the clothes and hats with strategically placed decorative brads. It looks cute enough, but my 3 year old can’t do them.

I decided to give up on making my life’s fortunes from CD paper doll kits. The whole adhesive issue did me in. If you are reading this post and have some genius way for me to make these dolls durable but still playable for a 3 year old (almost 4) princess, please let me know. She would love to play with them, but sadly I have not let her use them yet for fear the first play day will be the last for the CD paper doll kit.

So, the lesson from this post? Sometimes fabulous ideas take flight and are very successful and sometimes grand plans just do not work out the way we want them to, even in crafting, the crazy world we all live in. This is Groovy Jeannie reporting, I am going back to the drawing board on this one!