Cousins

There is something special about cousins.  In my daughter's case, her cousins are her closest friends and confidants.  She falls in age between the two; she is 9 months younger than one and 4 months older than the other.  The three of them together are a joy to watch because together they are more like three sisters than two sisters and a cousin.  Recently, these "sisters" whom she has always lived close to moved out of state.  Somehow for her scyping with them is not as great as being able to ride your bike to their home on the spur of the moment. For my daughter's birthday, we surprised her and flew her cousins to San Diego for the weekend.  Seeing her reaction to their arrival was truly priceless.  The weekend was filled with shopping, dining, get togethers with friends, makeup consultations and more shopping.  The perfect combination for a 13 year old girl...


I have been holding on to pictures from her birthday weekend waiting for the motivation to hit me.  The Heart 2 Heart Challenge this week along with the Stella paper I ordered from CTMH was just the ticket. The challenge this week required that you create something using 1 stamp, 2 different patterned papers and 3 embellishments.  The embellishments could be the same or different. 

I know these girls will laugh and talk about this weekend for years to come.


Paper-Stella, CTMH
Stamp on flowers-Hooray Bouquet-CTMH
flowers cut from Art Philosophy
CTMH buttons and twine


P.S.  I would like to send a big thank you to Heart 2 Heart for choosing me as a top ten winner in January.  That will help motivate me to keep scrapbooking.

Heart 2 Heart Photo Inspired Challenge

The H2H Challenge this week is photo inspired.  When I first saw it I immediately thought of the layout I did in my Gratitude Post.  I really like the Dreamin paper from Close to My Heart that I used for the layouts and this was the opportunity to use up some scraps (one of many New Year resolutions).
Here is the inspiration photo:

What inspired me in this picture was the bird stamp on the tag.  I just love birds, and I knew I had a stamp somewhere in my stash that I hadn't used.  Here is the card I created:

Still having paper left over, and now on a roll,  I made two tags along this same theme:

This paper is so much fun, I may need to order more before it is all gone....
Have a great day,
Kim

Paper: Dreamin-CTMH
Stamp Sets: C1408 Live Inspired (Bird)
                    D1187 For Every Occasion (Best Wishes)
Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge (Tags and Branches)
Cricut Serenade Cartridge (Bird Cage)

Christmas Card Photo

Every year I tell myself I will take the annual Christmas Card Photo in September or October so that when the Holiday rush hits I am not trying to put together a card at the last minute.  So it goes without saying that every year during the second week in December I am trying to convince my children to give me five minutes of their time and just smile nicely so I can take their photo.  In the background my supportive husband is saying, "Why don't you do this earlier in the fall?".  I don't have an answer to this question or an excuse.

If I had to make up an excuse, I would blame my children.  Taking their picture, though they are photogenic, is not easy.  They like to give their mom a hard time and do anything but smile nicely for the camera.

Personally, I love their antics and the pictures that result from them. Don't tell them that.  I think they showcase my son's patience and my daughter's sense of humor.

Of course, I had to create a scrapbook layout using these photos:

The layout design is this from the January 11th challenge at Lets Scrap.

Paper-Jingle CTMH (retired)
Lettering-Cricut Base Camp
Ornaments-Cricut Art Philosophy for CTMH

Gratitude

I have been thinking about gratitude a lot lately.  Maybe it is because it is a new year and in addition my  yearly resolutions of getting organized, exercising, eating healthy, and scrapbooking; I am trying to take a deeper look inside myself and focus more on the present.  Or it could be that my son just turned 16, leaving me to wonder where the time has gone, and by trying to focus on the present  maybe I can slow that time down just a fraction.

Anyways, it seems wherever I am lately the word gratitude is surfacing. Just the other day while driving home from dropping my kids at school I was listening to Oprah on the radio and guess what? The topic was Gratitude.   Sarah Ban Breathnach, the author of Simple Abundance, was reminding me that I need to consciously give thanks each day.  By doing so, I could make a bigger change in my life then just getting the office organized.  Taking her advice, I purchased a blank book so that not only me, but my entire family could start recording what we are thankful for.  It now sits in the kitchen and I have told my family that they do not need to journal everyday, but when something comes up that they are thankful for just write it down.  It could as simple as a note from my daughter giving thanks to her dad for picking up her favorite ice cream, Cookie Dough. I think by recognizing what I am grateful for I will be more present in my day to day life.

To put this into practice,  I called a friend to walk because we were having warm summer weather in January with high surf and I wanted to stop my busy life and enjoy it for a moment.  While doing so, I took these amazing pictures of the ocean (the ocean was amazing, the pictures aren't nearly as good). I knew I would want to scrapbook them, after all scrapbooking is a form of journaling and reflection.  I found the perfect layout sketch at Heart 2 Heart for my inspiration.

I like the way this turned out, and I had more paper left, so I created a second layout to compliment this one:

Tell me what you think.  I think the two look good together...

What I like most about these layouts is that I was present enough at these moments to not only take the pictures but enjoy the beauty.
Enjoy your day,
Kim

Supplies used:
Paper-Dreamin Level 2 packet from CTMH X7142B
Leaves and pendants-Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge Z1686
Letters-Cricut Base Camp Cartridge
Coral-Cricut Life's a Beach Cartridge

Tic-Tac-Toe

I saw a valentine tag on anythingbutperfect.com and it inspired me to make something similar of my own:

The stamps and ink are from Close to My Heart.  The front has a tic-tac-toe design and on the back this stamp has enough room to write a short love note.  How cute would these be tied to a cellophane bag full of M&M's or Sweatheart candies?  You can find them at my Etsy shop, kimalessio.etsy.com

Spring Baseball

After spending a good deal of time creating the layout in yesterday's post, and still having more pictures of spring baseball my creative juices were gone.  This is when I love Close to My Heart the most.  CTMH has great idea books for when I am not feeling creative or just need some inspiration. The layout for this post is from the book, Magic.

I think these two pages turned out great and it didn't take forever to put them together.  All I had to do was follow the layout instructions in the book.

If you are stuck, and need some inspiration, Close to My Heart idea books are a must for scrapbookers.

Enjoy,

Kim

Another Try

Alright I failed, or had an epic fail as my kids would say, on last year's resolution.  So here it goes again...
In an effort to become a blogger and deal with my every increasing pile of pictures that need to be scrapbooked, I am going to try to create at least two layouts a month.  A month?  I would like to say that I am going to try and create a layout a week, but let's not set the bar too high.
One way I am going to make the time is by entering all those scrapbook challenges and weekly layout ideas that I view regularly.  I don't expect to become a design diva, but this is my way of setting a goal and finishing an album.

One site that I often visit is practicalscrappers.com.  They are having a layout contest that ends today at midnight CST.  The best part about this contest is that you just need to submit a layout you have made in the last two months.  I have done that, granted the pictures in the layout are from Spring 2010.  I am so deep in a hole, but I am determined to get out of it.

As you can see, my style is rather simple.  I like clean lines without too much fuss, but I did go a little overboard for me with the banner and stamping.  I used CTMH paper, Game On, for this layout.  The banners were made using the Art Philosophy Cartridge on my Cricut.  If you don't have Art Philosophy you need to get it through Close to My Heart. It is a crafter's dream.

Okay everyone, here it goes, another new year and a fresh beginning.

Kim