Scrap Our Stash - December Stash Challenge

Hi All - I hope you had a Merry Christmas and are getting ready for the new year! We are trying to get the house back in order and doing some cleaning today..not fun but love when it is done. Anyways, I am sharing a layout I made for the December Scrap Our Stash Challenge. I unfortunately did not get it posted in time to link it but still thought I would share.

The challenge was to use a phrase from a piece of Word Art posted on the blog and use 4 photo corners. I used the phrase "We are Blessed" and used 2 pick and 2 yellow photo corners. For the rest of the layout, I used items from the Studio Calico Blue Note Scrapbook kit and Project life kit as well as the Bennett Add-on and Armstrong Add-on. The background paper is called Flashback and is from the Recorded line by Allison Kreft for Webster's Pages. (The picture is a little blurry but I just realized this and the layout is now with my mom as it was part of her Christmas gift - so it is what it is!)

The "we are" was written by me and then cut with my silhouette. To do this, I first wrote the word with a black sharpie on a white piece of paper. I scanned it in to my computer and then opened it in my silhouette software. I then traced it to give it cut lines and then had the silhouette cut it out. I used gold POW paper from American Crafts. I find this is usually faster for me than looking for the "perfect" font when I have what I want in my head.

Make sure to check out the winners of the Scrap Our Stash challenges from December which are posted on their blog today - Congrats to the winners!

Hope you have a fun New Years Eve - Thanks for stopping by!

Megan

Merry Christmas!

Hi all! Since it is Christmas Day, I thought I would share our Christmas card from this year. I used one of Becky Higgins' free templates. You can find them HERE. There were a lot of cute designs. I decided on this one mainly because I needed one that worked with a horizontal picture.

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas! Thanks for stopping by!
Megan

Scrap Our Stash Design Team & a Layout

A few weeks ago I was asked to join the Scrap Our Stash Design Team starting in January and said yes almost immediately! Since I found their blog, I have really enjoyed doing their challenges and they definitely help me use up some of my supplies. They announced the new team on the blog yesterday, which you can see HERE. I hope you check it out and play along with the current challenges, which you can see HERE.

Also, today I wanted to share a layout I made awhile back of Eli and his cousin, Micah. These two are about 17 months apart and are inseparable whenever they are together. We live about 7 hours away so it is not often. They are always, always copying each other!

I found this background paper when I was re-organizing my stash after our move and knew I wanted to use it because it is just so pretty! The paper is from Cosmo Cricket and a lot of the other items are from Dear Lizzy Polka Dot Party.

I hope you are having a good weekend...What is left of it anyways...The weekends go by too fast! Thanks for stopping by!

Megan

Christmas Memories / December Daily - Day 1 & 2

Today I am sharing the first page of my Christmas Memories (or December Daily) album, as well as Day 1 & 2. (You can find out more about December Daily on Ali Edwards'  blog.) I am calling it Christmas Memories instead of December Daily as I am trying to just document the memories around our holiday. Also, I am trying not to be too strict on the days, but so far, I have had a page or spread for each day so I may stick to daily.

I am mainly using the December Daily kit from Studio Calico. I decided to use the Studio Calico Magical Handbook though instead of the Handbook from the kit. It was just cute not to buy! Here is my first page and Day 1 and 2:

For the cover, I colored the "25" wood venner with Prima Fluid Chalk Edger ink in Lady Bug. The transparency is one from Hambly that I picked up from an Archiver's a few months ago. The round letter stickers are from October Afternoon. The rest is from the kit I am using. I decided to go ahead and put the transparency in a page protector because my boys are rough on things and I wanted them to be able to look at it without it tearing apart (well immediately, anyways)...

These are some of the 6x8 papers in the kit cut to 3x4. I just left them plain to give a cute backdrop to the transparency.

This is a spread of my day 1 & 2. Some days I plan to do a whole spread, but others will just be one side.

Yes, Eli named our elf, Eli. Awesome...I am guessing other kids do this as well??? hopefully! Anyways, the silver letters are from Target's $1 bin. Everything else is from the kit.

This page is documenting my work's charitable Christmas project. The "2" is from glitter Thickers from the Maggie Holmes collection. The stamp on the journal card is from Technique Tuesday. The red "Yes" letters are from Simple Stories Snap line. The grey letters are from Target's $1 bin.

My book is caught up through Friday. As you can probably tell from my pages above, my plan is to keep it simple so it will actually get done this year. I love all the December Daily albums with lots more embellishments but for me, I have to keep it simple to get it done.

Happy Monday and thanks for stopping by!

Megan

Sweet Cousins

Happy Monday! I cannot believe December is already here! Seriously, where has the year gone? Nevertheless, I am excited to get started on my December album. I am still deciding if I want to do daily or just include 25 memories. I am not the best at the Daily thing....hmmm...we shall see.

Anyways, today I am sharing a layout I made a month or so ago that I just have not gotten around to sharing yet. (I actually have quite a few of these.) I found the background paper for this layout when I was reorganizing my paper at my new house. I picked up the Studio Calico Penn Station add on during a Last Call sale and this paper from Glitz Design came with that kit. (I actually broke up the kit when I got it but still ended up using some other paper that came in the kit...kind of funny when that happens!).

As soon as I saw the paper again, I really wanted to use it right away so I set it aside and thought about a picture I could use with it. Since it is rather "girly", I did not think it would go that great with my everyday pictures of my boys. I ended up using a picture of Max with his cousin, Mia, who he adores! She is about 6 years older than him and he thinks she is the greatest thing! Here is my layout:

I really like how it turned out. I used various items from my stash so if you have a question about a particular one, just let me know. Thanks for stopping by!

Megan

Teacher Cards

Hi - I just wanted to pop in today and show a picture of some cards I made for the boys' teachers. Max switched classes recently so I wanted to give his "old" teachers a card and a gift. I also ended up getting Eli's teachers something as well because they have been so great! I normally don't do Thanksgiving gifts, but I am so very thankful for them that I thought I would do that this year. (By the way, I typically get gift cards to Target as I have had many teacher friends and they always seem to like that...)

Here are the cards:

I mostly made these with the Studio Calico Antiquary Card Kit - I think I have said this before but this is definitely my favorite card kit so far. There were a lot of great projects in the design team gallery for this kit and these two in particular inspired some of my cards - Happy Happy Birthday to You by Lisa Spangler and  Happy Birthday to You by Maile Belles.

Thanks for stopping by and hope you have a great Tuesday (and are staying warm - it is cold and supposed to be snowy here in the Nashville/Clarksville area!)
Megan

Layout for Scrap Our Stash Challenge #9

Today I am sharing a layout I made for the Scrap Our Stash Challenge #9. As soon as I read about the challenge earlier this month, I thought of using my 6x6 pad to make a border around the layout, which is something I had not done before. I got some time the other night to try out my idea and I like how it turned out. I mainly used the Echo Park All About a Boy 6x6 pad, as well as some from the Fancy Pants Trendsetter 6x6 Paper Pad. The "title block" even came from a paper in the All About a Boy pad. My 6 or more premade embellishments are enamel dots from Basic Grey and My Mind's Eye.  Here is my layout:

I printed the words from a song by Darius Rucker on the layout. I changed the wording a bit to make it geared more towards a boy vs a girl. I heard this song on Max's birthday when I was at work and listening to Pandora...Of course, it made me cry to think about how big my "baby" is getting. (He turned 2 this week.) I wrote the journaling at work in a small notebook I had with me (it references the song). I wanted to leave it as is, so I just tore it out of the notebook, cut off the edge, folded it and stuck it in a small paper bag from Fancy Pant's Trendsetter collection.

The other items I used on the layout were: Studio Calico Handwritten Star wood veneer, American Crafts Valentine's roller stamp from Target, Hero Arts Shadow Ink in Navy, Fancy Pants Fundamental Stickers and Label Stickers, Tag from office supply store, and Recollections Lace on a Roll from Michael's stores.

I have said it before, but I really like the SOS challenges as they are not too constraining. I hope to get time to do their sketch challenge as well this month as I already have an idea for it...

Hope you have a great weekend. Thanks for stopping by!

Megan