Happy 43rd Birthday!

I had to bring my husband to the airport today for a flight to San Francisco for a week and then on to Tokyo for a week.  I'm really sad that I won't see him for 15 days!  I'm not used to the fact that he has to travel for work now.  We got to spend some quality time together this week though, going out for dinner for his birthday on Wednesday and then cooking a nice meal together on Saturday night and watching a movie (although a bad movie!.)  I thought I'd share the card that I made for his birthday.

I made the card with the April Studio Calico kit, City of Lights (with the exception of the yellow dotted paper.)  The three different colored washi tapes that were in the kit went together perfectly and then the ad card from the kit just happened to have the same colors.  This card is really liftable - please feel free to borrow it!  Just grab three coordinating washi tapes and find some scraps of paper to make into pleated folded flowers.  I think I'm going to lift it myself and make a card for my niece who has a birthday coming up!

Have a great week everyone!

Finally Spring!

I love the sight of forsythia blooming in the early spring!  It not only means that spring is on its way, but to a tax accountant like me, it means that tax season is almost over!  I'm not sure which one I get more excited about.  

I took this photo on Easter Sunday and wanted to create a layout about my happiness that spring is here and tax season is finally done.  I also had taken a photo of some pretty pink tulips that I had planned on using the page, but I couldn't make it work.  That is how the pink/yellow color scheme originally came about though.  

I used the April 2012 Studio Calico kit, City of Lights, for my layout.  I loved the Pink Paislee mask that come with the kit and that was the starting point for my page.  I printed my journaling over the misting which I got a couple of comments about.  I actually have a photo printer which can print photos up to 12" X 17".  I use that for all of my journaling, so printing on a 12" X12" piece of cardstock is no problem.  The mist colors are piglet (LOVE!) and sunshine Mister Hueys.

Happy spring, happy end of tax season, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY WONDERFUL HUSBAND!

Have a great week everyone!

April Crate Color Challenge

Crate has become one of my favorite scrapbooking companies.  It all started with the Restoration Collection, which is one of my favorite and most used collections of all time.  Since then, I have also fallen in love with the Portrait Collection, Farmhouse Collection, Paper Heart Collection, and the Storyteller Collection.
The February and the March Studio Calico kits contained lots of Crate goodness.  I also bought the entire Paper Heart Collection from my local scrapbook store.  So when I saw the April Crate Color Challenge on the Crate blog, I had plenty of product to play with.
Here are the colors:

I created a layout with a recent photo of my cat Elliott.  It is hard to get a great photo of a cat, but I love how this one turned out.  I call Elliott the "BIG E" and I used both of his names on the layout in different fonts.  The three fonts were all cut with the Silhouette.

Have a great week everyone!

March 2012 Studio Calico - Story Hour

Each month this year I have been posting all of the layouts and cards that I create from the time my Studio Calico kit comes until the day the next kit comes.  Here is what I created this month with Story Hour.

I create a layout each year about the books that I read over the past year.  This is the 2011 version.  To take a peek at 2009 and 2010, you can see them both here.

I loved this paper from Crate Paper so much that I went to my local scrapbook store and bought another sheet or two of it.  (Hence, two layouts with the same paper from one kit!)  I loved the gray and the light blue together and I thought of this photo of my husband on our vacation to Iceland several years ago.  I love the look a bit of Mr. Huey gave to the background.

I did a little photo shoot of all of my family members a couple of summers ago when I was in Wisconsin visiting.  We took a quilt and hung it over a swing set in my brother's back yard.  I really hope to do this again this summer!

I love using creating layouts with vintage photos.  I have this stack of photos from my dad that is mostly distant relatives, but some of the photos are so great, I have to scrap them.  I had my dad research who the kids in the photo were and he was able to get the names and ages and where they were living.  The back of the photo said that it was September 1952 and that it was their first day of school.

I hope you enjoyed this month's layouts!  I have the April kit, City of Lights sitting on my desk, waiting for me to get busy!

Have a great week everyone!

girly shoes

I was walking by the baby aisle in Target the other day and saw an adorable gray and yellow outfit and the first thought that came to my mind was that I have never created a layout with that color scheme and that I really should!

If you knew me, you would know that I am not like normal women - I really kind of really dislike shoes!  I find a pair that I like and I wear them for years (and years!)  Well, our office recently adopted a casual business jeans day Friday policy.  So, something between business casual and jeans day.  What it meant for me was that the shoes that I normally wore with jeans needed an upgrade!  

If you knew me, you would also know that I hate clothes shopping in general.  So shopping for shoes - MISERABLE!  

I went shopping, expecting to find nothing.  Instead, I found these adorable ballet slippers from J. Crew!  Of course, they didn't have my size - 10s - but I ordered them online and they arrived a few days later.

I used my  February 2012 Studio Calico kit, Daydream Believer (my sixth with this kit!)   Chevrons are so fun and easy (yet time consuming!)  I used bits of different papers from the kit.  My favorite little addition to this page is the little rhinestones that I added to the center of the butterflies.  They were from a BasicGrey bling snowflake that i bought a few years ago and never used.

Have a great week everyone!