Great Minds, Right?!

It was rather freaky when I perused the Two Peas Gallery a few days ago and found this layout from Jen Gallagher:

Here's why. This page of mine was sitting on my easel. Can you see the similarities?

I have always admired Jen's style. Isn't it cool that we both created pages somewhat similar in color scheme and design, right down to the corrugated strip across our red, kraft and blue banners?! I promise you, neither of us had seen each other's page. Great minds, right?!

Love You

Reaching way back into my photo stack, I found this adorable picture of my youngest son, now 13 years old. He was (and still is) so cute! This photo was so typical of our everyday...play, play, play. We certainly enjoyed our daily routines. In this particular photo, Teddy Bear is the recipient of little Kevin's love and smothering affection. Literally smothering.

Little bits of red are brought into the page, with the large brad at the top...

and the "everyday" strip beneath my journaling:

The little house shaped wood veneer reminds me of my own house! To give it a little color, I swiped a Tim Holtz inkpad over the veneer, a favorite and super easy way to color the embellishment, while leaving the wood-grain visible.

The house veneer and flowers were from my stash,  but everything else is from Scraptastic's June kit and add-on, Carry On.

Birthday Wishes...too much?

Uh-oh...is it too much?! In creating this card for my mom's birthday this week, I might have gone a bit overboard. I kept finding little pretties that I wanted to include, and tried my best to limit them to my favorites. 

Of course it needed a doily, a few snippets of patterned paper, and flowers to match. I had this perfect pocket and included in it one of those Mason jars that are all the rage. (I decorated the inside with another one!) Then there's the flags. Finally, there was no room for anything else! Hahaha!

Maybe it's that I don't make cards too often.
Maybe I was trying to pull off all of my ideas at once.

Maybe BECAUSE I don't make cards too often, my mom will realize that this is special.
And I was trying to load it up with everything I love, to show MY love. :)

Captain Jack, If Your Please

I don't know about you, but I LOVE all the nautical inspired scrapbook papers and embellishments that are available lately. Anchors and whales, and color schemes that include a true blue make me happy. If you are not a fan of these collections, you must live very far from the shore! ;) 

Actually, these papers have inspired me to tackle more of my Disney photos, those from the POTC attraction. See the journaling? The further out I get from our actual vacation, the less I remember…so a Captain Jack quote (from the movie) says pretty much what we were saying all week...back in 2011. Yep, we'd arrived at a very special place!

On this page I've used a few products from the Fancy Pants' Down By The Shore Collection, including the wonderful stripe and anchor print papers, a large banner, and small tags. The ampersand journal card is from another nautical favorite, Glitz' Uncharted Waters.

One day when I run out of these stitched look fabric Thickers, I'm going to be very, very sad:

The little "tweets" scattered about are so perfectly pirate that I can hear them squalking:

It's a good thing we don't go to Walt Disney World more often. One trip can keep me scrapping for years!

A Day At The Zoo

I'm all over the place when it comes to what year (decade) I choose to scrap next. Today's layout features some really terrible pre-digital age photos that I still felt the need to scrap. Isn't that face adorable?! I had put the pics aside years ago, but challenged myself to "just do it"! My "baby" is 13 now, so it's kind of bittersweet to look back on these pre-school days. 

Papers are from Fancy Pants' Trendsetter collection, which I happened to pick up when I visited a real, true-to-life, brick and mortar scrapbook store recently.

That store was Scrappin' Friendzee. I had found it on a google search a while ago, but didn't have a good reason to seek it out. I lived on the other side of the river (read: other side of the world) from the place, and had no recommendations to spur me to make the drive. But last week Tommy and I had to drive over to pick up a bed frame from a shop on that side, and he asked if there was anywhere else I wanted to go while we were over there. A lightbulb went off in my head, and that's how I found myself wandering the aisles of an honest to goodness scrapbook store! Boy, I've missed browsing paper stacks. Internet shopping has its perks but it's just not the same.

Do you have an LSS (local scrapbook store) where you live?

P. S. Those tags on the top are not actual tags. It's a patterned paper! I cut around the top of the tag images, punched holes, folded to make a crease between each "tag", inked and then pop-dotted the paper on the page! Don't they look real?!

Sunburst Sketch

With Susan Stringfellow's sketch in mind, and Scraptastic's May kit, Destinations Unknown in hand, I knew just what I wanted to do for this Easter Sunday photo of my dad. And it was going to be colorful! But before chopping up those papers willy-nilly, I planned out the sunburst design by drawing a template on printer paper and assigning colors to the various pieces. Assembling was then quite easy.

Did you catch the shine? Although we had quite a laid back Easter Sunday, I wanted this page to be special. After piecing the sunburst pattern, I used gold mist to add a bit of sparkle.

The 2 circular Road Trip icons from Chic Tags fit perfectly into those over-sized bottle caps from my stash. I used the striped vellum to fashion an envelope for my tag and decorated it with all sorts of fun tidbits, including a Studio Calico speech bubble, Ormolu flair, and October Afternoon "doo-dads", all from the kit and add-on.

The little birdies (originally included in one of the October kits), were a playful addition. Tweet, tweet!

You can check out the sketch and all the rest of the sketch-inspired layouts on the Scraptastic blog. TFL!

Happy, Happy Birthday

When I was first married all of our family birthdays were in the fall, tucked between the end of August and first week of November. My dad, father-in-law, mother-in-law, husband, myself and our first two children were all in those months. And then came my boys. I don't know what happened, but we now have a birthday in each of the first three months of the year. And I always try to take a photo of them with their cake. Here's the March installment:

Supplies are from the Scraptastic May kit, Destination Unknown, and my stash.

This cake has become a family favorite. (OK...well, not for Kevin. But everyone else LOVES it!) Three layers of moist deliciousness and a cool, light frosting are what make Mandarin Orange Cake special. It's not particularly difficult, but still...I won't make it for just anybody. ;)

Back in January, we celebrated Kevin's 13th birthday with another homemade cake whose chocolate frosting was covered with sprinkles. The letter stickers look like they are sprinkled in color themselves!

Supplies are from the Scraptastic's March and May kits, and my stash.

Unfortunately, I don't have a birthday page for my February child. He was away at college on his special day, wishing for a slice of that Mandarin Orange Cake!

Mandarin Orange Cake

1 package yellow cake mix, without pudding

3 eggs

3/4 c. oil or 1 stick butter, softened (we use margarine)

1 can (11 oz.) mandarin oranges, undrained (reserve three segments for garnishing top)

1 can (20 oz.) crushed pineapple, undrained

8-oz. or 12-oz. carton Cool Whip, thawed (we use no sugar added)

1 package (large) vanilla instant pudding mix (we use sugar free)

Grease, line with waxed paper, grease again and flour three 9" cake pans.

Combine cake mix, eggs, and oil and beat 2 1/2 minutes.

Briefly beat in one can mandarin oranges, juice and all.

Pour into cake pans and bake 15-18 minutes at 350 degrees.

Cool, remove layers and frost.

Frosting 

Combine undrained pineapple, Cool whip, and pudding mix.

Beat for 2 minutes at medium speed.

Let stand for 5 minutes until it reaches a good spreading consistency.

Spread between layers and on top of cake.

Decorate top with reserved orange segments and chill 2 or more hours.

Store in refrigerator.

(If you desire frosting on all sides of the cake, double frosting recipe.)