We Love Candy

Who doesn't love candy? My kids have inherited their mom's sweet tooth. Although, as I've matured I forgo the sour patch kids, smarties, and other pure sugary goodness, but will still indulge in dark chocolate. Caleb is my chocolate guy, Alexis loves peanut butter cups, while Zach and Alyssia love anything sour. Although we have our own preferences in candy, we all agree on a really cool candy store - Mrs. Whizzy Fizz Popp's in Bolton Landing, NY.

The kids love the oversize Adirondack chair out front and it's become a tradition to take a picture of them sitting in it. I love taking similar pictures each year, but the challenge in scrapbooking is to create layouts that don't look the same every year. So far, this is my favorite candy store layout.

Scrapbooking Tips:
I created my own candy embellishments for this layout so I could match the paper I wanted to use. I have a lot of candy stickers, but they weren't large enough to fill the pink strip. So I pulled out my candy2share stamps, dies and inks from The Stamps of Life. I stamped the wrapper in licorice ink and then filled in the candy with guava, ocean and grape ink.

Although I loved being able to create custom embellishments for this layout, they looked a little dull. I added a clear dimensional glaze to the candy and then sprinkled some glitter on the glaze while it was still wet. I was really pleased with the finished result, although they did have to dry for a couple of hours before I could add them to my page. I used foam adhesive to attach them to the layout. 

To check out these cool stamps visit The Stamps of Life: candy2share

Stealing Mommy's Coffee

One of the aspects of scrapbooking I enjoy the most is capturing those little everyday moments that time would definitely erase. This layout captures one of those memories. 

These photos were taken when I was homeschooling Caleb and he was in third grade. This layout shows Caleb stealing my coffee while we were doing schoolwork. I had left the room just to grab something, and when I got back to the kitchen, Caleb was drinking my coffee! I loved the expressions on his face, and in the second picture with the way he raised his eyebrows, he reminded me so much of his father.

To anyone this layout would look like just a little kid with cute expressions. But most importantly, this layout documents a miracle! We were told that Caleb would only experience weakening muscles and wouldn't progress from where he was when he was two years old. Doctors said he would never write. Here he is doing his own writing on a worksheet and LIFTING A FULL MUG TO HIS MOUTH! That is the miracle. Caleb's muscles were holding their own, and getting stronger. 

You don't realize how much you take for granted until you're given a front row seat to someone battling a disease or disability. The little things that are mindless for you and I might be something to celebrate in others!

Scrapbooking Tips:

I challenged myself to make at least 50 layouts using my The Stamps of Life 6x6 paper pads, and their stamps & dies, and this is one of those layouts. I used their YAY collection pattern paper pad, Coffee Statement Set, coffee4two stamps and their Coffee Cup Dies. 

I created the embellishment and title by using the coffee4two stamp and then cut it out with the coordinating dies. I adhered it to my layout using foam adhesive to give it dimension. I then created the simple title using the Coffee Statement Set. I do admit I cut out a couple different color combinations until I settled on the white text and red background. 

Because I wanted to lay the title over my embellishment which was already dimensional, I added two layers of adhesive foam under the "ee" and just plain tape adhesive under the "c" . This way the title laid flat against the embellishment but still popped off the page.

The Stamps of Life carry so many great products that are versatile for both card making and scrapbooking! I am really enjoying incorporating their products into my scrapbooks. It's definitely stretching my creativity! You can check out The Stamps of Life coffee themed products here: TSOL Coffee Products

Think Geek

This was a fun layout to make! I feel like I was able to capture so much of my boys' personality in this one photo. . . . 

It was summer vacation, and Zachary asked me to take him to Think Geek. If you have never been to this store let me describe it as a paradise to my video game, Star Wars, Marvel, Pokemon, Legend of Zelda loving sons! There are all sorts of figures, collectibles, T-shirts and oddities of every kind. Want of waffle maker of the Death Star from Star Wars? They have it! What about a dress suit covered in R2D2? This is your store! Or how about a larger than life statute of the Infinity Gauntlet from the Avengers movies? Yep - they have that too!

Both boys wanted to go, so I made a deal with them. They would have to go to the gym with me, and then we would go right from there to the mall. We got to the mall ten minutes before the stores opened. I suggested we wait in the car and listen to music. Nope, they wanted to get the store just incase it opened early. 

Think Geek is conveniently located right across from the food court and a comfortable sitting area. So I suggested we could sit down and we'd be able to see when the doors opened. Nope, they had to stand right at the doors. I sat down and snapped this photo. An older man was sitting there, chuckling at the boys and asked me what type of store that was that the boys were so excited to get in. After I explained it he just shook his head and laughed.

I decided right then that I was going to do a layout with this picture, even if the only reason is it makes me smile. I want to remember this little moment in time where the boys were so excited they couldn't wait to get into the store. If I hadn't taken this photo, I doubt I would even remember this day. Now that it is scrapbooked, I'll never forget their eagerness, my conversation with the old man who was also enjoying the boys, and just how much I enjoyed that morning with them.

Scrapbooking Tips:

This was an easy layout to put together because I scrap lifted myself! I had already used this layout twice before, based off a Scrapbook Generation sketch. 

                    

The simple background of four pattern paper squares is such a great way to showcase one photo, and I'll admit that this is one of my favorite "go to" layouts for a quick and easy page. One major difference is that I did not put a title on this layout. Because you can see "Think Geek" so plainly across the storefront, I let it do double duty as my photo's focus and the layout title. 

Because my boys are such video game lovers I had some cute pattern paper and controller embellishments in my stash. They fit the merchandise of Think Geek perfectly and that's what I wanted to emphasize. 

Close up of the journaling

Brothers are Better than Super Heroes

In our house, brothers (& step sisters) are better than super heroes! While I do not have the same experience or perspective as my kids, I can only imagine how hard it must be to have a special needs sibling. As hard as I try, I know there are times where Caleb's needs demand more of my time, attention and resources.

I can't begin to tell you how much "guilt" I could carry as a parent. I feel guilty when I suggest an activity for the kids that Caleb can not participate in, such as jumping on the trampoline. If  I recommend they play video games, which Caleb loves and excels at, I feel guilty because I'm encouraging something sedentary and non-educational. And don't even get me started on finding accessible activities to do on vacation that the whole family enjoys!

Zach has been Caleb's best buddy his entire life. When Caleb would drop a toy, Zach would pick it up. If Caleb needed his iPad plugged in or video game changed,  Zach would help him. As soon as Zach was big enough to move from his crib to toddler bed, he would come get me if Caleb ever needed anything at night. He would tip toe to me and announce, "Cawub needs sumptin [something]."

Since 2017, when treatment for SMA became available, Caleb's doctors appointments and treatments have greatly increased, and his care providers are three hours away. Zach and Alyssia have come along for the ride, many times by choice, to be supportive of Caleb. It melts my heart to see how much they're willing to support their brother.

I've done many layouts documenting Caleb's medical treatments, but when I saw these pictures of Zach, I just knew I had to do a layout on what an awesome brother he is. I knew exactly what papers I wanted to use - Echo Park's Imagine That line because it had some super hero embellishments - and that is what Zach is to Caleb - a SUPER HERO!

Spinraza Rock Star

Here is a layout that shows just what a rock star my son is! I made it at Caleb's request to "showcase" a major part of his life - medical procedures, and a picture of an xray taken during Caleb's Spinraza injections.  I added a bright yellow arrow to highlight the needle in his back, in between the hardware from his spinal fusion. He was also proud of the toy Yoda one of the staff gave him after his procedure!

I know that many times I talk about scrapbooking techniques, but today I want to share part of Caleb's journey with you. This blog is called Scrapping My Blessings, and the fact there is now a treatment for SMA, is one of the biggest blessings in our family's life. I created this layout to remember that even in the midst of trials we would never choose, God has been faithful 

Caleb was born with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). He has never walked, and has prolonged muscle weakness throughout his entire body. Every four months we drive to Rochester for Caleb to get intrathecal injections of Spinraza, which is an amazing drug that halts the progression of Caleb's disease. If you are like me, and are not sure what intrathecal means, it's an injection into the spinal canal so drugs can reach the CSF, or cerebrospinal fluid. Think spinal tap . . . 

Caleb is awake for these procedures and is absolutely amazing! While we are in the prep room, the doctor comes in and puts some numbing cream on his back. Thirty minutes later they wheel him to the procedure room and transfer him to a table under fluoroscopy machine, which was described to me as a "x-ray" movie. 

A close up of the X-ray photo I used on this layout

Once positioned, the doctors inject lidocaine into the lumbar area to numb Caleb. Then they try to find what Caleb and I call the "sweet spot" where they can inject the Spinraza. When Caleb had his spinal fusion surgery back in 2017, the surgeon worked with the neurologist and this team to make sure that 3-4 vertebrae in the lumbar area of Caleb's spine were not fused so he could get these treatments. It takes the doctor time and patience, along with the guidance of the x-rays, to get the needle into the correct area.

Because headaches are often a risk of any type of spinal injection, they take out 5 cc's of Caleb's CSF before injecting 5 cc's of Spinraza. From the time they get Caleb on the table, it takes about 10-15 minutes! Caleb always jokes with his doctor to see if he can do it faster than the last time, to which he always replies, "I'm going to take as long as I need to keep you safe."

The whole time this is going on, I am sitting behind a wall, watching through a window and listening. Caleb spends the entire procedure talking about Star Wars and video games with the Child Life Specialist who sits up by his head with an ipad, with the sole purpose to make him feel comfortable and distract him. He hardly says, "Ouch". He might make a noise when they first stick him with the lidocaine, but there have been many procedures where he never even says, "Ow."

This whole experience has taught me so much as a mother, and a Christ follower. First, it proves to me that God does have a sense of humor! I have never been great at medical stuff and have passed out many times in doctor offices (and even once at the dentist). Here I am, suiting up to go into procedure rooms with my son, and watch as they use scary looking needles on my baby and I don't even flinch. 

I've also learned that Caleb is an amazingly strong kid! There were so many emotions when he was first diagnosed, and Dave and I knew that there would be many doctors and procedures in his future, and I cried at the thought of everything he would have to go through. While Caleb doesn't like to have medical treatments, God has blessed him with a maturity beyond his years to understand that the long term benefit outweighs the momentary discomfort. He has complete trust in God that everything will be ok. His faith never wavers. At times he may be sad, or wish things were different, but now that he is older, he's told me with sincere conviction that he knows God has a purpose for his life. 

Finally, the most important life lesson I have learned is to recognize God's peace that transcends all understanding. We ask for lots of prayer on appointment and procedure days, and I can tangibly sense God's presence in these scary, sterile rooms, watching Caleb repeatedly go through painful experiences. I have a calm come over me as I silently pray for the doctors, nurses and technicians who work on Caleb. I ask God to guide their hands, and protect Caleb. And the miraculous thing is, I feel his presence right beside me. I know that he is in that room standing right beside Caleb. I can't describe in words, but there is such a holy presence, more powerful than anything I have experienced, a still voice whispering in my ear, reassuring me, "I am here." 

Beach Time

To say that this is a crazy time is an understatement. However, if there is one thing that my life has taught me is to count my blessings, and one of my biggest blessings during our quarantine is that I have more time to scrapbook. When I was upset, stressed or worried, Dave would always take care of the boys and would send me to my scrapbooking area and tell me to just, “Scrap it out!” And that is what I’m doing with all my extra time, and I am so grateful for this creative outlet that is such a stress reliever! Looking at photos of my family is one way I can count my many blessings.

This past weekend I participated in my first online crop through Scrapbook Generation’s Scrap Squad, which is a Facebook group run by my all-time favorite scrapbookers, Allison Davis and Debbie Sanders. They presented a couple of scrapbooking challenges, giving us until Sunday at midnight to complete. When our pages were done, we’d upload a picture and it was so much fun to see all the amazing layouts completed! Talk about scrapbooking inspiration!

I’m sharing the layout I created for the 8x8 paper challenge. Debbie Sanders had created multiple sketches featuring 8x8 blocks of paper. Our challenge was to pick one sketch and design our layout. 

I pulled out some photos and paper I had set aside for an upcoming vacation album I’ll be working on. Using different colored papers, I cut my 8x8 squares and adhered them on my white card stock.

Then I arranged my 6x4 photos and 4x4 photos on my layout. One element I added that wasn’t on the original sketch was a ¼” striped border on top of the 6x4 photos. I LOVE using stripes on my layout because it’s a quick easy way to add a lot of color.

My favorite element on my layout were the hibiscus flowers and leaves. I made these flowers using the tropical2stamp dies from my all-time favorite stamping company, The Stamps of Life. You can purchase your own hibiscus stamps and dies here: tropical2stamp dies

I matched the color of my hibiscus flowers to the colors in the striped paper. I framed the upper left corner of the photos and the title. But to create a visual triangle, I added one more flower on the bottom row of photos.

This layout was so easy to put together and I loved the results! If you’re looking for a quick and easy layout to get your creative juices flowing you should check out these free sketches from Scrapbook Generation: Sketches Using 8x8 Paper. Happy Scrapping!

Father's Day

In recent years, Father's Day has been a painful day for the boys and I as it tends to highlight Dave's absence. There's nothing I can do take away the boys' pain, except maybe a few extra hugs and a shoulder to cry on. However, since God brought Jim into our lives, we have a reason to really celebrate again. These photos are from our first Father's Day with Jim. The first of many celebrations as a blended family. 

One thing that I am learning as part of a blended family, is that holidays can trigger or exaggerate emotions that lurk right under the surface. Not only for the boys and girls, but even for Jim and me. While we are happy that we all have each other, there is pain because this is not how any of us originally pictured our life.

While we do not have this whole blended family thing perfected, one thing that amazes me is how God's grace is so evident in how our kids respond to each other on these special holidays. For example, today, Father's Day 2019, Alyssia used her own money to buy flowers for the boys to place on Dave's grave. On holidays where the girls have to split there time between mom and dad, the boys are genuinely willing to wait to celebrate until the girls have arrived. 

So today, we celebrated. The girls celebrated their father and the boys celebrated the memory of their dad and the awesome step-dad they have. We laughed and cried (a little!) but most of all, recognize the blessings of a heavenly father who made us a family and is faithful to continue to knit us all together with every new memory we make!

Scrapbooking Tips:
I wanted a masculine looking layout and didn't have any other photos than the ones of Jim opening up his presents. My solution was to create a grid layout. I loosely took this idea from a Scrapbook Generation sketch, but had to adjust it because I did not have a lot of photo options to work with.

I used 6x6 pattern paper from The Stamps of Life to create the background and banner detail in the upper right corner. I was happy to have this Father's Day documented and the bright, cheerful look to the layout!

Reptiles

I need to start this post with a disclaimer - I absolutely, positively HATE reptiles, especially snakes. I've told my boys that I will never allow them to own a pet snake, and most likely nothing from the lizard family either! However, my boys don't seem to mind snakes or any other reptiles, and they were totally enthralled with the reptile tent at a carnival type event we attended in 2015.

They wanted me to take their pictures as they handled the snake and touched various other animals. So despite the fact I cringed as I look at these pictures, I couldn't leave them out of the scrapbook.

Scrapbooking Tips:
With the exception of the letter stickers I used in the title, I used all The Stamps of Life supplies to create this layout. I created the border by die cutting various size circles, overlapping them, and adhering some with adhesive foam.

I did die cut some circles using the Dotted Circle Dies and used the holes to stitch around the circles to give some dimension to the border. All in all, I really like this page - even if there are snakes on it!

Watering the Flowers

This is one of those moments with a toddler that can't help but make you smile. For some reason, Zach had shed his shorts, put on a swim diaper, but got sidetracked when he saw a watering can on the porch. I had to keep from laughing as I saw him come out in a polo shirt, his sneakers, and a swim diaper! This kid probably made ten trips in and out of the bathroom, filling up the watering can, and watering the tiger lillies out front. Too cute!

Scrapbooking Techniques:

This was a fun layout to put together and it features one of my favorite techniques - using strips of brightly colored paper to create a background! 

One way I stretch my stash of letter stickers is to mix and match when it comes to creating titles. Many times, I will use tiny letter stickers to spell out the smaller words in my titles, such as: the, and, of, a, in, etc, like I did in this title. It also can be more aesthetically pleasing because you can scrunch a title to fit in a smaller place, or more easily center it because you don't have to fit in the full size letter stickers.  

Zach in the Bushes

I love to create layouts of the everyday, normal things that happen. The way I think is if something was cute enough to take a picture and laugh about it, it is "scrapbook worthy".

Dave was outside working and the boys were playing in the yard. For no apparent reason, Zach started climbing into the bushes! He was extremely determined to get into them and would not give up. Then, as soon as he seemed to reach his goal, he climbed back out. At the time I found it very funny. Zach didn't typically stick to something for longer periods of time and to see him be so persistent for something that didn't make a lot of sense was cute and quirky! So . . . it ended up in the scrapbook.

Scrapbooking tips:

Because of all the green in the pictures, I used green/earth tones for these pages. I thought the rusty orange color was a nice contrast so I carried the orange strips across both pages.

I did not want to take a long time on this layout, so I chose a sketch from Scrapbook Generation that featured all 4x6 and 6x4 photos to save time on cropping. The thick strips of paper were easy to cut and ink, and I used stickers that coordinated with this paper collection to embellish the layout. The stickers had phrases on them to take the place of the title, and thereby saving time on spelling with letter stickers. Altogether, this layout took only 20-25 minutes!

I even kept my journaling short and sweet!

Ice Cream for Breakfast

I created this layout to showcase just some of the ice cream the boys (& Mommy!) ate for breakfast at Give Kids the World Village. What I found funny was that out of all the flavors and toppings they offered, both boys got the exact same thing every visit - a chocolate cone for Caleb and a vanilla cone for Zach. Not much has changed . . . except now Caleb will ask for lots of chocolate syrup and Zach will have a little vanilla ice cream with his whip cream!

Scrapbooking Tip:

I loved the pattern paper I found with ice cream and popsicles, but it was a busier print than I typically use. The only embellishments I used were ice cream cone stickers and then I left well enough alone!  

Splash Pad

  

While staying at Give Kids the World Village in Florida, the boys loved the Splash Pad! It was so much fun watching Zach run and play in the water. He was having a blast! Caleb wanted to experience it too, and thankfully he was still little enough I could pick him up and carry him. Dave would do anything in his power to let Caleb experience everything Zach was doing, so not caring what I might have looked like or what people thought, I just picked him up and got wet right along with him!

Scrapbooking Tip:

This is a quick and easy layout that went together in just a few minutes. I followed a Scrapbook Generation sketch that I have used multiple times. I love being able to include six 4x6 photos and it saves time because you don't have any photos to crop!

Even though I love to include journaling, there are some pages that just don't need it, and this was one of those layouts. It is in a vacation album, so that alone tells me when and where these pictures were taken, and the pictures are pretty self explanatory. Scrapping a vacation album can sometimes feel like an endless project and if I can get away without journaling on a couple pages it saves so much time! Also, I find when I'm working on a specific album, the more I can get done in a shorter amount of time, the more my creative juices flow!

Never Forget

I put together a layout of pictures to remember the time we went to the NY State Fair memorial honoring all state law enforcement officers and firefighters who have died in the line of duty. The boys and I were there for the dedication ceremony in August of 2014, but it was the first time we had been back. Jim was visiting a gun show being held at the State Fair in April of 2017. The fairgrounds were empty and we walked over to show Alyssia. 

I am still blown away when I see all the names of men and women who have died in public service - and these memorials don't even count military losses. For every name there are families who loved and grieved. Children who grew up without their father or mother, spouses who kissed their loved one goodbye not knowing it was their last moment together, and parents who had to do the unthinkable and bury a child. 

In the past, when I would see these memorials, I would walk right past. It wasn't that I didn't recognize that people have died for my freedom, and to keep me safe, but it wasn't until Dave died that I understood the cost. Now when I pass memorials of any kind, I'll linger for a minute, read the names, and think about the family left behind. In the act of stopping and consciously reading some of the names inscribed, it is a way of honoring and never forgetting the sacrifices made.

Scrapbooking Tips:

This is a layout I made using paper scraps from my Stamps of Life card kits. I also followed an Allison Davis sketch from her SixbySix2 scrapbooking class. In that sketch's notes she described how to create the piece work which involved cutting paper into 1x2 rectangles then cutting the ends on diagonal lines. 

When I showed some fellow scrapbookers this layout, a recurring comment was, "This must have taken so long!" It did take longer than most layouts I do, but it didn't seem it because I broke the work down in chunks. I cut my rectangles and then stuck them in a bag. During my lunch break at work I traced and cut the slanted edges. While watching TV, I inked the edges of each piece. By breaking the layout down into smaller tasks, it didn't feel like it took that much extra time. I also felt like I was scrapbooking a little every time I pulled out my paper rectangles!

I also have been asked why I chose a purple and grey color scheme. Those are NYSP colors, and Dave was a very proud NYSP Trooper. 

In the photo below, if you look at the stone under 2013, Dave's name is the last one listed.   

Catch a Wave

All around the pool at Give Kids the World Village there are photo opps set up. That's where we took these fun photos. Zach was really getting into posing but he kept climbing up on the wave and wouldn't stay on surfboard! 

Scrapbooking Tips:

Because I used so many full size photos, I kept my design as simple as a 1/2 inch border running above and below the photo block. I placed my title directly on top of the photos to draw your eye right to the pictures.

If you look at the layout, you'll notice that it looks like I did not leave enough space between "a" and "wave," but that was deliberate. When I carry a title across two pages I make a mental note to adjust for the space that will naturally occur when I put my layout in an album. If I had left a space between those two words it wouldn't have looked right once they were in the page protectors.

Once in the album, the title spacing looks normal.

After trying many styles and brands of albums, I decided to use  We R Memory Makers three ring albums for a couple of reasons. The biggest and best reason is the ease of putting layouts into your album - you can add pages without taking apart the whole album. Another reason I chose to use these particular albums is the wide variety of colors they come in. I choose a different color for each year's layouts and my shelves look like a rainbow of color! They are also durable, high quality albums - and the price is right if you wait for JoAnn's to run a 30% off sale and use a free shipping coupon! 

You can check out my favorite albums here.

Castle of Miracles

If you read the previous post, I talked a little about Give Kids the World Village, where we stayed when Baking Memories 4 Kids sent us to Florida. Here is another layout showcasing some of the magic of this experience. 

At Give Kids the World Village, they have a Castle of Miracles where every "wish kid" can sign a star and it is placed somewhere on the castle's ceiling. After signing your star, you leave it with a volunteer after they give you your star passport. The next day you go back and scan your passport and a fairy shows you where your star has been hung. 

Both boys also received special wish pillows from a magical tree. They were still little enough to believe there really was magic in that castle. 

Scrapbooking Tips:

I created a border with gold glitter star stickers. When I had just the stars it didn't look "quite right" so I added red sparkly jewels. The round red embellishments helped tie in the polka dotted paper. 

Give Kids the World Village

This layout shows some photos from our Baking Memories 4 Kids trip to Florida. We stayed at an amazing place called Give Kids the World Village. You can only stay here if you have a terminally ill/disabled child. It was an absolutely amazing experience. 

You stay in villas with 2 bedrooms, a kitchen, accessible bathroom and a washer and dryer instead of a hotel room. You can go to the Gingerbread House for meals, or have it delivered to your villa. There's even an Ice Cream Palace where you can have Ice Cream for Breakfast! Give Kids the World is staffed by volunteers who do whatever they can to give families a break from our day to day reality. 

Scrapbooking Tips:

This was an easy layout to "throw" together that uses 4 full size photos! I used a sketch from Scrapbook Generation to showcase some of our favorite photos that I didn't really want to trim down. 

To keep continuity in this vacation album, I tried to use a lot of bright primary colors - especially red when I scrapped layouts of Give Kids the World Village.

Journaling Close Up

Face Painting

This was a fun layout to put together! The boys loved having their faces painted so elaborately - Zach was Iron Man and Caleb had Angry Birds painted. They waited in a long line and then sat still for a long time. As soon as they were done they asked me to take a picture of them so they could see their faces. I love the big smiles!

Scrapbooking Tips:

I have challenged myself to use my card making supplies to create 50 layouts before the end of the year! I'm calling it "Scrapping My Stash". What prompted me to do this was the abundance of The Stamps of Life supplies piling up in my craft room. I love the bright colors and cute patterns that Stephanie Barnard designs and I wanted to incorporate it into my scrapbooks. The only issue was that my scrapbooks were 12x12 and the card making pattern paper was 6x6. So when I found a class by Allison Davis from Scrapbook Generation that focused on using 6x6 paper pads I knew what to do!

I created this layout using only 6x6 sheets of paper. I cut strips to create banners following one of  

the sketches. I cut photo mats out of The Stamps of Life cardstock that coordinate beautifully with the pattern paper left over from a card kit. I had left over embellishments from another card kit and the layout all came together! Creating this layout opened my eyes to all the awesome possibilities I had in my "stash" of card making supplies.

Click the link to check out one of Allison Davis' scrapbooking classes!

My Boys

This is one of my favorite pictures of the boys! Dave and I had gone away for the night and the boys spent the night at Grampy and Grammy's. The next morning Grampy posted this picture on Facebook and my heart melted. 

These two made me a mommy. They are the ones who came to me to have their boo boos kissed, to dry their tears and make them feel safe when they were scared. I don't always do right by them. I know how imperfect I am, and the mistakes I've made as their mom. But, just when I think I couldn't love them anymore, they do something to make me fall in love with them all over again!

Scrapbooking Tips:

Because I wanted to do this layout just for me, I didn't want to use any typical "boy" colors. I loved my mother-in-law's flower boxes in the background and the bright purple petunia's and that inspired the lavender / pastel color palette.

I Love Zach Hugs

What is better than hugs from your child? We were at Hershey's Chocolate World in Hershey, PA, and poor Zach was getting tired. He wanted me to hold him and when I picked him up he curled right up and hugged me.

This is such a special memory. This was a little less than two years after Dave died. I decided to take the boys to Lancaster, PA to Sight and Sound Theater to see a show, and then to Chocolate World - something Dave and I had planned to do together. We had made this same trip in 2001, and I was having such a hard time, remembering being there with Dave and feeling guilty that I was the one getting to see the boys experience everything.

When Zach cuddled up for a hug, my heart melted. It was just what I needed.

Scrapbooking Tips:

I used two of my favorite techniques on this layout. I made my own embellishments and added some hand stitching.

Once again, I used pattern paper from The Stamps of Life and created hexagon embellishments to mimic the pattern paper I used for one banner. This technique is not hard, just a little more time consuming than adding a sticker. Although I love using stickers, sometimes I feel like doing a little extra on the pages that bring back really special memories.

I also took the time to hand stitch the heart in the title. I love the look of stitching on my pages and wish I had the time I could do it on every page, but I know that is just not practical. This was a quick simple heart that took less than 10 minutes from start to finish! I used a stencil and paper piercer to poke the holes in my page.

I chose to stitch the heart to mimic the design in the hexagons to tie everything together. I really try to give my pages a cohesive look and I thought the stitched heart would help pull everything together!

Facial Time

I am blessed in the fact that my husband loves taking photos just as much as I do! When I saw the selfie he took with Alyssia, I immediately began imagining the scrapbook layout I would make. I love that Jim joined in and wasn't afraid of looking silly and even took the selfie.

Although I love to scrapbook the big life events like birthdays, Christmas, school events, it's the everyday moments that fill my scrapbooks. Moments like this would be lost without the time and attention to take the photos, and then my obsession to scrapbook them.

Scrapbooking Tips:

I used a sketch from Scrapbook Generation as my inspiration, and then went through my scrap pile from cards I had recently made. I cut my scraps into strips and inked the edges in black ink. I followed the sketch pretty closely and lined the top of the page, and then created the design behind the photo.

My favorite element on the page is the hexagon embellishments I created using dies from The Stamps of Life. I took the inspiration from the pattern paper I used. I thought the flower design in the hexagons gave the page a more feminine look, and picked green, pink and blue to be the accent colors. I used these same colors in the banners at the top of the page to help keep cohesive look.

The overall page is bright and cheerful and I was really pleased with the final results!