Sunshine and baby books

This page took forever. But when I saw this piece of paper I knew exactly what I would do. Every morning Owen went into Cora's room and said "Good Morning Sunshine!" It was so sweet! I spent a lot of time affixing buttons and bling, but I love it. I cannot figure out why the main image is sideways. It is correct on my computer. Ideas?

Cora's Baby Book -- Finally

This month I have begun a baby book for Cora - yes, she is 11 - and I am having fun using more than one sized page, varying techniques, and loads of feminine details. I am loving this project.

This page is 6x12. The photo was taken on the day we left the hospital. I used a creamy yellow paint on top of the brown pattern paper, punched one edge and added a butterfly. I love the page (though not this photo of it).

This page is very simple. I wanted the focus to be on those tiny ultrasound images and the story. It is however my first use of a doily and I love it.

Here is the first page in my book. All the photos are of my pregnancy. I have used some lovely handmade embellishments and included many little journal details. I love this page.

A little paint & mist

I have recently found that I enjoy paints of various sorts. My first attempt at paint is on this layout. I am not sure I like it, and I think the photo is awful, but I am sharing it anyway. Maybe I am just proud of the way I am thinking outside the box and trying new techniques! I am also unhappy with the bling flower (though I LOVE bling!) -- I think I will probably replace that with a flower from Tessa. I have an order coming, so maybe one is in there ... if not it is a great reason to make another purchase. :)

Butterflies and flowers

At the end of the school year all the kids at Columbine enjoyed a day of play outside for Super Kids' Day. These photos were taken in May 2009 at the end of Cora's 4th grade year. I scrapped them in the spring. The color is a bit washed out. I wish I could have shown the sense of playfulness the yellow and red brought to the layout. This summer I have also discovered etsy and lovey handmade embellishments. If I were to change this page it would be to include handmade flowers.

Playing with Thread

The photos in this 2 page spread were taken in 2008, but I scrapped them in the last few months. This is one of the first layouts where I played with thread -- creating a frame of sorts.

here are a couple of detail shots:

My art -- Scrapbooking

On many occasions I have claimed that I am not artistic. Except that I scrapbook. And recently I have realized that this is my art and that when I sit with photos and paper my creative juices flow. I love to scrapbook. Today I attempted to photograph a few of my recent pages. I am still not confident in the results but I have decided to share anyway. This page is for my husband. He is smart, educated, witty, funny, kind, loyal, honest. This page is about the second item on that list. Educated. These photos were taken on the days of his high school graduation, his graduation from Wooster and then from law school.

The color isn't great. Hopefully I can get a better shot one day soon. The butterflies are punched from photos and though the photos are old and not of great quality they are better than this pic shows. I used a white pen to create a line on my frame.

Gratitude

Today I am grateful to one of my favorite bloggers... you can follow her here. She amazes me. Her photography is stunning, her scrapbook layouts are ones of which I am completely envious, she is a mom, a wife, and an incredible blogger. One of her regular, weekly posts is about gratitude. She picks one thing for which she is thankful that week. Today she shared that her blog is now ten years old! She outlined some of the changes in her blog over those years and during the time I read her post I was inspired. I have struggled to find a focus for this blog... mainly because I thought I was writing for my audience. And I didn't know what they (you) wanted to read. Do you care about my scrapbooks? Do you care what I read? Do you want to know about the quiet ordinariness of my boring life and that I am often lonely? Or about my random memories? I last posted in June because of this confusion. I had almost decided to stop blogging. Then I read this post! I do not yet have a focus. But I no longer care. I will blog for me, and hopefully along the way a post or two will interest you. Thank You, Karen!