When I Can't Sleep... I Can Scrapbook!

Happy Scrapper

Don't know why but I've loved scrapping with YELLOW lately! I've never really been a yellow fan before, but now I most definitely am...

Catch up Scrapbook Pages

I found this picture not to long ago and realized that I had never scrapped it. Tate was such an adorable baby!

I still have a few more that I'm wanting to get to. But, I figure this is a good start...

Anniversary Scrapbook

Bryan's parents celebrated their 30th anniversary earlier this month. Their children all put together a surprise party in honor of them. They planned it all out from a Mexican Buffet to a beautiful Carrot Cake (the same that they had on their wedding). It was so fun to be a part of it and to watch Keith & Dianna's faces as they arrived.

Prior to the party, each of the children (and Dianna's Parents) documented their favorite family memory and provided a picture to go along with their story. I had the honor of compliling each of these special memories into a scrapbook that we gave Keith & Dianna as an anniversary gift. Each of the squares in the above picture represents one page of the scrapbook. We had them printed at Costco as 8x8 inch photos. Then we placed the pages in sheet protectors and into a binder. It turned out really awesome if I do say so myself.

Since I love to scrapbook, it was a ton of fun. But I must admit it was just a tad crazy trying to complete this project in less than 3 days...

Just a Few New Pages

Before/After & Possible Craziness

After

Before

After

Before

I feel that I'm just now starting to figure this whole scrapbooking thing out (especially the drop shadow and making the pages look "done". So... I've redone several of the pages that I did when I first started. Here's the before and now the after. Just a little better, right? Or maybe I'm just going crazy like my dear husband has so kindly stated.

I'm On a Roll Today!

I had a lot of time today to scrap! Yeah.

Updated Page

Although I really liked this page before, something seemed not quite right (or finished) about it, so I made a few changes and additions. What do you think? Better?

That's another thing I love about DIGITAL SCRAPBOOKING. If I make a mistake or simply don't like where I put something, it's extremely easy to fix. I'm totally known for changing things A LOT so this works great for me.

Newest Pages...

It seems like I haven't done scrapbooking in forever, and for me it's always harder when I'm out of practice. Anyhow, here are my most recent pages... Even though they took forever, I LIKE THEM so I'm happy.

52 Blessings-Week 9

My blessing this week is the Mountain that I see every day of my life. The Superstition Mtn. is especially meaningful to me because of our first baby "Hannah" that was stillborn. She was cremated and her ashes are sprinkled on this mountain. Every day I look up at "my mountain" and think about her and the time that I felt her moving within me. It is sad to think that I will never get to hold her, but I feel comforted knowing that H.F. has a plan for each of us, and it wasn't her time to live. I'm so grateful that I was given a son soon after our loss with Hannah. Tate means the world to me, and I don't know what I'd do without him. But, I'm also thankful for the hard experiences that I've gone through because they've strengthened me and blessed me to become the person that I am today!

Sorry this is kind of deep but sometimes it feels really good to talk about it :)

52 Blessings-Week 8

My blessing this week is my raised garden! For anyone thinking about planting a garden, this is the way to go. It not only looks pretty along the side of the wall, but it takes up less space and it is very nice to be able to have somewhere to sit while gardening. For a small family, it gives us just the right amount of produce plus a little extra to share with family and neighbors.

I can't tell you enough how important soil preparation is when it comes to gardening. I've posted soil instructions on my blog twice before, but it never hurts to do it again. Click HERE for AZ garden soil prep.

52 Blessings-Week 7

I've been slacking majorly with scrapbooking lately, especially with the journaling part. Every time I sit down to scrap it seems like I haven't been able to come up with anything or it takes me forever to think of something. I'm hoping that it's just a fluke thing and that it comes back to me. Anyways, my blessing this week is GOOD FOOD! What would I do without it?

52 Blessings-Week 5 & 6

Today my blessings are the girls in my life-my dear Mother and sister! I love them both so much and I'm so thankful for them.

I haven't gotten around to the journaling page yet, but It's coming soon.

My Very Favorite Thing About Photoshop...

When I first started to do digital scrapbooking, I would get so frustrated because I would have the hardest time coming up with pictures, paper, and embellishments that all matched without buying a new kit for every page that I made. I wanted the colors in my paper collection to match the colors in my photos better and sometimes the other way around. One of the greatest days of my life came when I learned how to recolor (change the hue/saturation) of a picture... All of a sudden the possibilities were endless!

HERE is the tutorial that opened my eyes several months ago. Notice the differences in these two pages. Here is the after...

And this is the before. With changing the hue/saturation I can use the same paper and make it blue, green, white, or whatever!

Oh, and another one of my favorite things is using templates or sketches that somebody else has already made up. This is one from Jennifer Woodbury-she is amazing! HERE are some more of hers.

Minature Wedding Scrapbook

Today was my parents 32nd anniversary! Congrats Mom & Dad! To celebrate we had a really fun party tonight at the church with dinner & games.

I wanted to make them something meaningful yet inexpensive. Here's what I came up with...

(Please excuse the pictures-they're kind of blury)

I made the pages out of some old chipboard that I had from paper packages. Basically, I just mod podged the paper to the chipboard and sanded the edges to give it an antique look.

I scanned a ton of their wedding/anniversary documents and pictures and shrunk them to fit the pages.

I added a few cutsie embellishments that I got from Scrapbooks Etc. (My new favorite store)

To make it more personal, I added some stories that they had written many years ago (upon my request when I was a teenager) about their dating and courtship.

And last but not least, I placed a little surprise in the pocket on the last page... A minature WEDDING LICENSE.

I'm so proud of myself because I typically just copy everyone elses good ideas for crafts, and this tiny wedding album was 100% thought up by me.

It was a ton of fun making it, makes me want to do one for me & Bryan!

52 Blessings-Week 4

My blessing this week is PRAYER. I can't really put into words how grateful I am that H.F. knows me and loves me individually and that he takes the time to answer my prayers.

Cute Story:

Last night we had a chicken salad for dinner and Tate asked to offer the prayer. Here's what he said, "Heavenly Father, this food makes me sick!!! Please bless it so I can eat it, so I will not be sick. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen."

52 Blessings Week 3

I can't begin to possibly describe how thankful I am that Tate is in my life! He is my little shadow, and I LOVE him so much.

52 Blessings-Week 2

Bryan is the biggest blessing in my life! He is such an amazing person and he loves me for who I am.

(Side Note: Our computer monitor stopped working for some reason this last week. Fortunately we borrowed one from Bryan's Dad, but unfortunately it's a big box monitor and the colors are all messed up on it. It was pretty crazy trying to guess if the colors looked okay on this page, hopefully they do. If not, I'll just fix it next week when we get our new monitor.)

52 Blessings-Week 1

I decided to begin a new scrapbook dedicated to my many blessings. Every week I plan on making a new page for it, and in a year I'll have a total of 52. Although I think that I want to make my scrapbook with double page spreads (The first for the picture of the blessing and the second for an explanation of the blessing.)

My first page is of President Monson (16th President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.) It was inspired by General Conference that was held this weekend.

What WE Do...

Someone asked me the other day what I've been up to... I totally spaced it and couldn't think of anything besides the things on this list. Ha, Ha.

I LOVE being a Mom!