Where in the world did March go!!!!!!!!!

Wow, this has been a crazy, busy month for me! The next few months will also be a whirlwind. I hope to get to all the blogs that I love to visit so much and get caught up on all the fantastic happenings that I know all of you have been up to! I miss visiting everyone!
I didn't get a chance to do any layouts in the last three weeks but had to squeeze in some gifts and softball projects. Here are two of my bigger projects wrapped into one post.
This first project I just finished is a paperbag album for my neighbor who is having a baby boy within the next month. Each month has a coordinating journaling tag that tucks away behind the photo mat. We all know how busy that first year is and I thought how wonderful it would be for her to have a little book all ready for a picture each month. They grow and change so fast! Her shower was this past weekend and she adored this little book. I made a similiar one for a baby girl last year, but like this one much better!

"1st year" cut using plantin schoolbook end caps feature regular and shadow

new arrival for title and journaling tag is the expecting mommy; photo corners are an svg file
new arrival for plane and banner; plantin for journaling tag; ribbon is from a cute little pack I got at m's

This is the first bag pocket and I made a card out of it; prima flowers; flat back pearls

here is the inside for the journaling tag and photo; plantin for the journaling tag; jasmine photo corners; designer calendar for "moms day"; fabulous finds for tab; script embossing folder; prima flowers and flat back pearls

I wanted dads day to be special also so I made this page a card that flips upward. sizzix die cut for the turn dial and brackets on top; a childs year for dad and son and "june" scalloped oval title

inside top half.. designer calendar for "dads day"; george for journaling tag

inside bottom half..

a childs year for rocket; the journaling tag is the flag cut on that cartridge on regular and blackout

a childs year for baby and umbrella; d'vine swirls embossing folder on background paper, swiss dots embossing folder for the sand. the journaling tag for this one is a starfish cut from acy also

The puppy is an svg file and I attached it to a standard tag for journaling; home decor for bird; paperdoll dressup for fence, wagon and clumps of grass; pooh and friends for kite

this is the next pocket pull out so again I made it a card. paperdoll dressup for trick or treater; a childs year for witch; plantin schoolbook for "moon" and the paperdolls eyes

inside I used martha stewart drippy goo punch; accent essentials for journaling tag holder and photo mat; happily ever after for pumpkin on photo mat

wildcard for the journaling tag which is the card feature

no cricut cuts here; border punch is threading water

christmas solutions for santa and reindeer over moon, the tree, bear and rocking horse; a childs year for photo mat; stardust stickles used on snow and star

joys of the season for journaling tag

accent essentials for snowflakes; jasmine photo corners

joys of the season card feature cut in half for journaling tag the font is scal

plantin schoolbook for heart border from a design studio file that dlh from the cricut messageboard had shared last year; jesse james heart buttons

the journaling tag is a graphic image from The Graphics Fairy that I printed and then trimmed

this tucks into the last pocket of the album. a childs year for clovers and the journaling tag is the shamrock hat from that cart also; accent essentials for photo mat

this is the flip side of march. pooh and friends for easter egg sign; doodlecharms for the eggs; plantin schoolbook for grass; the egg with the legs sticking out is an svg file I made to resemble the quickutz chick and egg die; the journaling tag is doodlecharms egg

I wanted to include a first birthday layout so I made a card to put in the last pocket also. no cricut cuts on the front

inside of the birthday card on the left. the journaling tag is doodlecharms present; swiss dots embossing folder on background paper.
jasmine photo corners; swiss dots embossing folder

This was a gift for my grandniece who turned one. I used a child's year for the scalloped font.

a child's year for the fairy girl; accent essentials for the photo mats; flat back pearls

storybook for photo mats; prima flowers; cotton candy stickles for flower centers

accent essentials for photo mats; flat back pearls; quote, bird and brackets from paper stack

script embossing folder; a child's year for leaves; prima flowers; buttons

walk in my garden for dragonflies; a childs year for photo mats

just a quick card to go with gift. a childs year for card cut, mat background and birthday child; swiss dots embossing folder

Getting To The Root Of It

This is for the sketch challenge for 2/26 at http://www.stuckonusketches.blogspot.com/ by Aymee Gandy. This is one of my all time favorite pictures of my son when he was younger. He was wearing the cutest little 501 levi's and had one of my gardening tools in his hand. He is grown now and currently maintains the grounds for a University--who knew! The blue jean paper and multi-colored squares paper came from a pack I bought last week on clearance for $1.99(K & Co. 36 double-sided)! I use scrapbook.com for a lot of my titles and found this one fit my picture perfectly. I wanted a few more elements representing my picture than the sketch called for so I added the sun, the cute garden tools and grass border. close-up of the butterflies that were pop dotted. I love the way these turned out with the multi-colored paper!
I curled the garden tools and the grass border was pop dotted in random spots for added dimension.

CRICUT carts:

Walk In My Garden for butterflies @ 1-1/2", garden tool border feature @ 1-1/4" and grass border feature @ 1-1/4"

Doodlecharms for the sun @ 2"

SCAL for title @ 1-1/4 " - the font is called Gesture thin brk

CUTTLEBUG embossing folders:

tiny bubbles and script

PAPER is all K&Co

The cowboy girl

This layout is for the 2/19 sketch at http://www.stuckonusketches.blogspot.com/. The beautiful sketch is an original by Liz Qualman.
This is also being linked up to http://www.graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/ for brag monday. Karen has such beautiful images that she so generously shares with all of us--thank you Karen!
The photo's are of my youngest daughter when she was in daycare. Once a year this company would come to her school and take pictures of the children on the ponies. I think I have four years of these but this particular year I had the three different poses. When I saw the fabulous cowgirl image from graphics fairy and the fabulous sketch by Liz, I knew they would be perfect for my photo's. I also used an image of Karen's called cowboy ledger that I cut the picket fence out of and lined it up so the cowboy and dollar amount showed up (close-ups lower down) and also used the ledger image for my flourishes. Used cricut accent essentials at 2" & 3" for the flourishes, paperdoll dress up for the little horse @ 2" and the picket fence @ 1", mini monograms for the scallop circle behind the cowgirl image. Prima flowers, buttons, brads for small flower centers, paper from stash and lots of inking. I can't believe I have no doodling!!

close-up of the fence showing the expense ledger from 1904 with the cowboy and his wages entry.

Here is a close-up of the cowgirl image from graphics fairy. I cut it into a circle and attached it to the scallop.

Sugar Meltdown

I used a july 09 pagemaps sketch for this layout. My oldest daughter (with my sister) back in the 80's got into some sugary sweets on Christmas day and made quite a mess of herself and then had a little bit of a meltdown. I used paper doilies that I got at the dollar tree. The little cake squares at the bottom are from an image at http://www.graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/ that I cut into individual squares, inked and pop dotted. The little buttons in between the cakes are "dress it up christmas cookies" buttons. All the edges of the lighter brown paper have been sanded so the white core would show through; patterned paper photo mats I used fiskars corner punch and all the paper on the layout came from Debbie Mumm harvest & holiday stack. The fonts are accent cookie dough and ravie cut with scal.

The brown strip of paper will be used for my journaling

I used pom poms to stuff the foil of the ferrero candy wrappers.

closer look at the font

Trick or Treat

This layout is for the 2/12 sketch over at http://www.stuckonusketches.blogspot.com/. I can't believe I was going to use hot pink instead of purple and then grabbed that pumpkin paper and thought how cute--completely forgetting the sketch challenge was to use red or pink and I already posted my link!! Ugh!! Well on to the layout as it did turn out. My sister made the adorable rainbow brite outfit. The trick or treat title, little candy along the picture and candy corn corners are from a recollections 3D sticker pack that I bought for 99 cents! The little ghosts floating out of the treat bag are from a Jolee's sticker pack. Printed rainbow brite and then used mini monograms to cut the scallop circles; plantin schoolbook for circle behind the word trick and then used cuttlebug d'vine swirls embossing folder and inked. Used Martha Stewart drippy goo border punch on the edges of printed papers and used swiss dots embossing folder on the green stars and moon paper. Lots of inking and doodling.

150 lb. pumpkin

This layout is for the 2/5 sketch challenge over http://www.stuckonusketches.blogspot.com/.
The pictures are of my oldest daughter back in 1985. She was asked to draw a name for the halloween basket giveaway and the store manager gave her this 150 lb. pumpkin that was on display. With the help of several people, it found it's way to our home. I ended up making Thanksgiving pumpkin pies out of it--a lot of work but so worth it! I didn't actually take a picture of my pies at the time but thought it a very important part of this layout so I printed a pie off the internet.

Cricut paperdolls for the pumpkin

george and basic shapes for font and numbers on pumpkin

Remember

This layout is for the sous 1/29 sketch by Aymee. The pictures are of my son and oldest daughter over the years. I loved the clock paper representing time passed . The clock was inspired by the paper and also Beatriz Guzman. She did a layout using a compass on hers that really looked nice. I did the rest of my title around the clock-inspired by Leah's darling layout in which she put words around her circle mat. Thank you both for the inspiration! Along the clock reads: being brother and sister means being there for each other.

Carts :

graphically speaking: clock and "remember"

joys of the season: birds

plantin schoolbook: circle behind clock

cricut marker used on the word remember before it was cut with blade

cuttlebug embossing folder tiny bubbles on birds and remember

Tim Holtz tea dye ink on everything
button on clock from stash

lots of doodling

title around clock is from scrapbook titles website