Gossamer Blue Life Pages (January 6-12)

This was a fun week. Mostly. We got back into the routine of non-Christmas vacation. Had a bit of 12th Man fever. GO SEAHAWKS! Miss I was able to go to TinkerTopia (and be on local TV!) and I figured out how to comb those My Little Pony dolls from Build-a-Bear (wig brush, warm water and detangler).

In the midst of the January Gossamer Blue kit, I mixed in some of my Elle's Studio stash, and whatever letter stickers I could find. This month uses some Fancy Pants chipboard, Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type and Basic Grey stickers.

If you are in the greater South Sound area, I suggest checking out TinkerTopia. It's a "Creative Reuse Center" that blends recycling and art. It's pretty darn fun!

I loved the sweet pics from this week. I love capturing honest, wonderful moments of pure joy.

Gossamer Blue Life Pages (December 29-January 5)

I started this year by snagging the wonderful Gossamer Blue Life Pages monthly kits. I really adored their Scrapbook kits, but life was getting in the way of me using them as much as I had liked... So I made the switch, and will scrapbook using past kits and my stash instead of the monthly kit. I had made a deal with myself, that if I didn't complete the four layouts needed for the Album Challenge, I had to give up my scrapbook kit until I could make that happen. I also really liked seeing the great things that came out of the Project Life style of scrapbooking, but really wanted my layouts to express myself, and think that the GB kits really do that.

This is the first full week of January. I started with Gossamer Blue's January 2014 Kit and their amazing die cuts! As you can see, we hung out, I added a few pics of what we did, and my sweet date with my oldest.

Can you tell that my littlest figured out how to snap her own pics?? I also have the same version that my oldest took when she was this age!! Too sweet!

Most (if not ALL!) of my pics are taken with my iPhone... LOVED the movie Frozen. If you haven't already seen it, I highly suggest going to see it!!

Life Pages Update-How I Plan and Organize my Weekly Scrapbooking

Over summer, I started doing weekly scrapbooking. I still have a few weeks to catch up from summer (maybe over Spring Break... Or a long weekend??) However, I started getting the Gossamer Blue Life Pages kit (I gave up my subscription to their AMAZING scrapbook kits to try this out for awhile. I love it! I found that I really need to organize my thoughts before I sit down and start working.

I started with this amazing planner from Marcy Penner. I print two per page, and paste them into a sketchbook that I keep in my basket. Since I'm using the GB kits now, I nixed a lot of the "stuff" that I had in the basket, and focus more on what's available in the kit, with of course, a few things thrown in like mini bags, sequins, enamel dots, etc.

The white GB box fits in one of the pockets, along with a paper cutter, my sketchbook, Staedtler markers (which I've had for over two years now and they are still kicking!!).

A few extra cards (just in case, but I really haven't used them) and my FANTASTIC! Xyron/Teresa Collins stapler. 

Xyron Adhesive Dots, photos (which by planning out my layouts, I only print what I will use).

And of course, at least one extra mini alpha. I love mixing those up and plastering them all over.

Halloween Parade Layout

This has been kicking around my scraproom since, well, Halloween. I love this picture of all of the children in my kiddos' school... Even though mine aren't even looking at the camera. Hilarity! I used mainly Elle's Studio products, including pieces from their monthly kits and a couple of random pieces of patterned paper.

AUTHENTIQUE: Easy Peasy Easter Cards

Today I have a couple super quick cards using  Authentique's Promise Collection and the  Enhancements Cut Apart 12x12. Come see how truly easy peasy these gorgeous cards are today!

Iolite Series!!!! Impressively Iolite!!

I really wanted to get back into scrapbooking life, and I was able to with this last gem from ScrapbookSteals. If you haven't heard or seen the Mid Week Mojo series, please check out this link. Unfortunately, I didn't really get back into blogging regularly and so while many of these were created quite awhile ago, I never blogged them. There are a few that I created while working hard this weekend as well.

Iolite 1: Butterfield Horse
This statue is by Deborah Butterfield, and is on permanent display on the Central Washington University campus. 

Iolite 2: Best Day Ever (Snow Day)
Okay, so this one didn't get blogged because I temporarily lost the memory card with the cutest snow pic on it. I found it over the weekend... And then it snowed :)

Iolite 3: The First Meeting
Throwback pics from when Miss Ro was born!!

Iolite 4: La Fondita
Just a little special remembrance of one of our outings to a favorite restaurant of ours.

Iolite 5: Date Night!!
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Iolite 6: Today
Another layout that I had finished on time, but just never got around to blogging... Seriously, I'm going to really try to get these all done in a timely fashion this next series!!

Iolite 7: Holiday Card 2013
This one has also been floating around my craft studio for awhile. I just loved the banners on this. 

Iolite 8: Family
A quickie family portrait during a family member's wedding reception. I really loved the banner, and swapped the second photo for a pile of die cuts. Mainly because I didn't have a second photo. :)

Iolite 9: Your View
I snapped this photo over the summer, during a quiet moment at the park. I know I've scrapped a different version of this day, but this moment was just special.

Iolite 10: Love

Since this one is on time!! Here's the sketch for it:

This isn't quite complete yet. Mainly because I am going to add quite a bit of journaling, but I haven't figured out exactly what I want to say quite yet. I'm still mulling it over. We don't get a lot of photos of just the two of us, and I'm working on that. I did however use that fantastic Teresa Collins/Xyron stapler. My favorite tool next to my Silhouette.

Well, there you go. I'm now Impressively Iolite.

Love (Creative Scrappers Sketch #256)

I first saw this layout on one of my blog readers' lists for Paper Issues. It's from Creative Scrappers, sketch #256. I loved the rays on the sketch, and made a pretty literal translation of the sketch. Instead of using a ray however, I used a grouping of triangles in various patterned papers from my Novemeber Gossamer Blue Scrapbook Kit.

I love how the simplicity of the sketch, with all of the patterned papers, makes such an impact.