35 Years!

In December my parents celebrated their 35th anniversary, and my brother took some really fabulous pictures of them while he was visiting from England. This past Saturday was my dad's birthday, so I thought I would make a scrapbook page for him. (Several years ago I started a scrapbook for my dad. I do 8 1/2x11 pages, and gave him an 8 1/2x11 frame so he could frame the first layout. The idea was that every time I made him a new page he could put the new one in the frame and the previous one in the book. The only hitch is that he likes the first one I made him so much he's never taken it out of the frame!)

 And my mom mentioned how much she liked the "10 Years of Us" layout I posted last month, so I thought I'd do a version of that, and I stole their wedding album last weekend to find a suitable picture.  Here's the result:

Aren't they beautiful and handsome?  My dad liked it so much he has decided to buy another frame so he can put this one up too, and not have to switch out that first layout. :)

Hmm, I don't think I've ever posted that one.  It's pretty darn cute -- I'll have to post it in the next couple days!

Valentine's Chalkboard Wall

Ah, Valentine's Day is almost upon us.  And while I'm still trying to figure out something fun and romantic for my hubby and me for V-day, I thought I'd share what I did with my chalkboard wall for this month of love...

I didn't ever figure out what to do for Valentine's decor, so I just gathered up all my red and pink washi tape, red and pink spools of thread, and red and pink flowers from my crafting stash to fill my apothecary jars, and found a spray of pink flowers to stick in my vase.

Matryoshka (Nesting Doll) Family

Ever since I painted my first peg doll family, I have developed a real love for painting wood figures.  I just love turning a piece of unfinished wood into something completely new and different.  My awesome-socks husband totally gets me, and he surprised me at Christmas with an unfinished matryoshka (nesting doll) set that I could turn into our family.  I hadn't even thought of that, but I was tickled pink!  I finally had a chance to sit down and paint them a little while ago, and here's the finished product:

I decided to go with a much different face style than I've ever done before (I've always stuck with a super simple set of eyes and that's it), but I took a deep breath and tried to capture all our goofiest grins.  My hubby is sporting his newly cleanshaven face, his favorite leather jacket, and the ever-present Seahawks shirt.  I don't actually have a turquoise chevron sweater, but I would totally dig that... Sam (9) is the oldest and is totally into computer programming, so I had him write down some code for me to put on his shirt.  Josh (7) is the middle, and he has the CUTEST no-front-teeth, scrunchy-eyed smile right now.  (Wanting to capture that smile is actually what made me want to give everyone smiles.)  He gets an air bender symbol on his shirt, as a shout out to his current obsession with Avatar.  Then Eliza (4), the little princess, who gives bats her eyelashes and asks us "So, do you think I'm fascinating?"

These just make me smile every time I see them.  I think I'm going to have to do more in the future!

Game On!

Kristin over at the ScrapbookUSA Expo blog has started a fun monthly challenge, and here I am on the last day of the month, just sneaking in!  You should, too -- the prize for the randomly chosen winner is two free Early Bird tickets to the Expo.  That's a $40 value.  Just sayin.

Also, the challenge is to use this sketch from Shawn of Nuts About Sketches, which is a great one I can see using over and over:

Here's my take on it:

I used the cute "Little Sport" collection from Fancy Pants, and chipboard letters from Jenni Bowlin Studio that I snagged at the last ScrapbookUSA Expo.  I created the football accent myself with a scrap of leather-ish vinyl and some embroidery thread.

Look at that face -- little cutie.  And would you believe after doing this whole layout I remember I bought some of those professional player/team pics they do and I totally forgot to include them?  Oh well -- I guess another page is in my future!

To the one I love... Valentine's Card for ScrapbookUSA Expo

Back again with another card for ScrapbookUSA Expo, using the delicious Kissing Booth collection from Basic Grey.  This collection has a lovely eclectic style.  I used a pre-die-cut scallop-edged card, then added the doily and stitched ribbon border strips.  The paper doily went so nicely with this collection, and then trimmed a couple of hearts from one of the sheets of patterned paper.  The flag is one of the great stickers from the collection.

Thank goodness for Valentine's Day -- just the thing to warm up the cold wintertime!

10 Years of US... for ScrapbookUSA Expo

Time again for a project for Scrapbook USA Expo, and this month I get to play with the lovely Kissing Booth collection for Basic Grey. This collection has a lovely eclectic range of papers that would be great for any Valentine's project, or anything romantic or girly.

 Last year my wonderful hubby and I celebrated our tenth anniversary and had new family pictures taken in the same spot where we'd done our engagement pictures. I was inspired by a similar layout I saw in the most recent issue of Creating Keepsakes and started with our engagement picture, then added a small picture from each year of our marriage, and ended with our most recent picture. For this layout I loved the effect of the layered, stitched border strip with buttons, which came pre-made with the collection. How handy is that?! I also used the letter and number stickers for the title and to label the first and last pictures.

Click to enlarge -- you know, if you're dying to see us close up... :)

Click to enlarge

 Valentine's is such a fantastic time to celebrate the loving relationships in our lives -- what better way than with a layout chronicling your journey together?

Infographic: Our Family in 2012

I wasn't planning to make time for Christmas cards this year -- just one thing I couldn't squeeze in -- but then I saw THIS POST from the Nicole's Classes blog on Pinterest, about making an infographic about your family instead of the typical card or newsletter.  I fell in love and decided I'd have to get it done one way or another.  I still wasn't able to get them out in time for Christmas, but I just finished it up and decided it will be perfect to send out as a New Year's greeting.

Click to enlarge

I also set up this photo to include in the envelope.

Hope your New Year is starting out fantastic!