Digital Layouts | July Edition

Happy Saturday, friends! I hope everyone had a great week. I have several layouts to share tonight using some fun new products from the girls at Pixels & Co. Most of these layouts I created while I was in Washington, using photos from our trip. I love that I have fresh photos and memories already scrapped. :)

(Template: Scotty Girl Designs Skyscraper Templates.)

(Papers, metal frame, tag, butterfly, heart, stitching, pearl: Scotty Girl Designs/Mye De Leon Everlasting Kit. Sequins, metal clip: Mommyish Basically kit.)

(Template: (Wild Blueberry Ink) Blueberry Seeds No. 3. Patterned Paper: (Gennifer Bursett) Scarlet Letter. (Mye De Leon) Easy Livin'.. Quote: (Robyn Meierotto) Snippets | Love. Eyelet: (Mommyish) Basically - Full kit.)

(Scotty Girl Designs: Walt's Park, Adventure, Frontier, and Swirly Stitches.)

(All supplies are Karla Dudley Designs. Kit: Mellow Yellow.)

(Using Wild Blueberry Ink's Just a Boy kit.)

 (Patterned paper, washi tape, tag, label, sticker, cardstock: Dawn by Design - Day Tripper. Staples: Karla Dudley - Digi Essentials. Wood star: Wild Blueberry Ink - Just a Boy. Blue star: Robyn Meierotto - Dude. Mist, stitched frame: Mommyish - Basically)

Now I just need to send my layouts off to Mpix for printing... I can't wait to see them in person! 

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by. :)

Karla Dudley Desings | Sweetpea

Happy Monday, friends!

After 5 days on the couch, I am finally on the mend. My energy level (and appetite) are not quite back to normal, but I am feeling so much better! We celebrated Easter with some good friends of ours, and today I dropped in on Evan's classroom and delivered some birthday cookies for him and his classmates. I am so glad things are returning to normal around here.

Karla released two new collections last week: Sweetpea and Anywhere. Both kits are fabulous, but for tonight's layout I worked with Sweetpea. I don't usually work with pink/purple/red (most of my pictures are of the boys!), but I was really drawn to the beautiful watercolor flowers and washi tape. All 6 photos are Instagram pictures that I downloaded to my computer before resizing.

 (All supplies are Karla Dudley Designs except date stamp (Scotty Girl Designs) - Patterned paper, flower stickers, washi tape, label: Sweetpea. Jewelry Tag: Anyday Extras. Staples, stitching: Digi Essentials. Stamped Alpha: Brook Loft White Frames: Insta Luv.)

The book I'm reading in the bottom right photo is Elevate the Everyday by Tracey Clark, and I cannot say enough great things about it. It is thoughtful, encouraging, and beautifully presented to share some of Tracey's favorite/best photographs. I have thoroughly enjoyed it. 

I will be back tomorrow to share two new cards using some of Great Impressions Stamps newest release. Thanks for stopping by! 

Hello Hybrid

Last week I discovered several folders of photos I had printed earlier this year. Most of the photos are from the first 6 months of 2012: birthdays, Valentine's Day, my parent's visit, Uncle Tom's visit, school parties, everyday photos. About 200 random, but important photos, of our lives. I want to get these photos scrapped in our albums, so I pulled out a few from Uncle Tom's visit in February to work with. I've also been interested in doing more hybrid layouts. I have so many beautiful kits from Karla (and other designers), that it seems natural to combine digital and traditional scrapbooking.

For this layout I used several digital elements from Karla Dudley Designs that I re-sized/edited in CS5, then printed using my Canon color printer. 

Here is a look at the whole spread:

The circles were cut using my Silhouette Cameo. I layered the circles over some digital paper that I printed, then stapled all the layers together. The journaling spot in the lower left corner is a 3x4 journaling card, also from Karla's Damselle collection, that I printed and embellished using traditional supplies. 

A look at the digital patterned paper:

A monogram "j" from Karla's Rusty Alphabet set:

More digital patterned paper (the kraft polka dots):

You can view all of Karla's digital kits and supplies here and her blog here.

Erin.

Catching Up

I can't believe we are already a week into March. February was full of family visits, a trip to Orlando (and the Nickelodeon Hotel), Mark was away on business for a week, a trip to the beach, two trips to the zoo, homework, the start of spring baseball and soccer, doctor's appointments, physical therapy, and so much more. I love being busy. But I also love our down time, and last month was a crazy mix of both.

Mark was in California on Valentine's Day, but he did send me this beautiful bouquet of flowers. Thanks babe. :-)

I have been playing catch-up as I sift through hundreds of photos from the last few weeks. I am almost caught up with Project Life and printing photos. Almost.

My Uncle visited us in February for almost a week. Evan really wanted to take him to the zoo so they could Kayak together, and the boys also played in the water for a bit, too. Jack was not happy to leave the water, but he reluctantly agreed as long as we could go see the new dinosaur exhibit.

And today is my Uncle's Birthday. Happy Birthday Uncle Tom! We love you. :-)

Have a wonderful week!

Summer Vacation 2011

The kids and I returned home yesterday from a week in Washington State to visit family and friends. We are all exhausted, but our trip home was worth every yawn from the boys.

The boys and I met Cousin Zach and Aunt Abby at the park for a play date last Wednesday. I couldn't believe how big Zach has gotten! And he is such a cutie, too. Evan loved racing around the park with his cousin. Evan still talks about going to the park with his "big cousin Zach."

On our last full day in WA, the boys and I met up with some dear friends of ours at a park in Auburn. I haven't seen Karen or the kids in over 18 months, and I was delighted to spend a few hours with them. Evan claimed he doesn't remember Aidan and Ethan, but they hit it off right away. Look at those smiles! Seeing them made me miss Pullman... they were a big part of our life while Mark was in school.

Jack and Jocelyn are exactly 5 weeks apart. I just can't get enough of her cuteness. :-)

Jack wanted to swing, but the infant/toddler swing was being used by Jocelyn. He insisted on trying the big boy swing, and he did great holding on. He scared me half to death, but he didn't fall off. He kept saying "whoa!" and laughing. Goofy boy.

Evan wants to do everything Grandpa does, including golf in the front yard. I'm not sure why he has such a grumpy face? Maybe he's tired of Mommy taking pictures of him.

Monday we took a trip to the Seattle Aquarium. We met Cindy, Ray, and their daughter and grandson for a few hours. I knew the temperature would be cooler in Seattle, but I was not prepared for 62 degrees and pouring down rain. The kids were real troopers and I only heard a small amount of whining when we were walking through the rain.

Evan took a great picture of Abby, my Mom, and me, but it's on her camera. Hopefully she will send me that picture so I can post it here (hint, hint Abby!). But I do love this photo of Abby, Grandma, and the boys. Evan couldn't be happier than when he gets to spend time with Abby and Grandma.

Isn't this sea anemone cool looking? Such a pretty green.

This little boy is a big fan of his Auntie Abby, too.

My parents treated us to a night at Great Wolf Lodge last Saturday night. Evan and Grandpa hung out in the wave pool for almost 3 hours, while Jack and I wandered around the toddler/pre-school area. I wasn't expecting the water park to be so loud, but it was a fun two days.

Miss Kaitlyn celebrated her 6th birthday last week, and we were lucky enough to be in town to celebrate with her. Happy Birthday Kaitlyn!

Friday night I cooked a big dinner for some family friends. The boys were less interested in the Ranch Style Chicken I cooked, and more interested in playing in the backyard.

At the Puyallup Library:

What could be better than curling up on the couch with Grandma? Playing Angry Birds, of course! Evan is addicted to the game, and he has installed 5 or 6 versions onto my iPod. If I had a nickel for every time Evan asked to play Angry Birds, I would be a very rich woman.

We also had a lovely BBQ with Mark's parents, lunch at the Olive Garden with Uncle Tom (and my Dad), a mini play date with Evan's girlfriend, Jayden, and a quick trip to the South Hill Mall. I can't believe all that we did in 9 days!

Have a wonderful Friday, friends.

Magic Kingdom: Part 2

I am still working through our photos from our trip to Orlando. We took a ton on this trip!

Mark took a lot of the photos in this post. He has been picking up the camera more and more these days. I love finding unexpected photos on my memory card when I transfer them to my computer. He sees things differently & interacts differently with the boys than I do, and his photos represent that.


I love the big smile on Evan's face.


I took this photo right before we left the park. I wish I had asked my Mom or Dad to take one of the four of us, though. We didn't get a single family photo that week.















Some of my favorite memories from our day at Magic Kingdom:

* Paying $34 for ponchos with the Disney logo on them. I really wanted to ask the cashier how much the ponchos cost when it's not pouring down rain.

* Going on the Buzz Lightyear ride with Jack. Evan and Mark were in one little pod, and Jack and I were in another. He figured out how to control the joy stick and had us spinning in circles for the entire ride.

* Riding the Speedway with Jack and my Mom. We were all wearing ponchos and the car was soaked, and I couldn't figure out how to keep the car from ramming into the metal rail, but it was a blast.

* Having a late lunch at the Crystal Palace with Mark, Evan, Jack, and Uncle Tom. The food was good, the dessert bar was yummy, and having the characters come right up to our table and interact with the kids was great. I was not about to stand in line with two kids, in the rain, just so they can pose with a character or two. Character lunches were a great choice for us.

* Tracking down a green Mickey Mouse balloon for Evan. He insisted on a green one, but none of the street vendors had green balloons left. One of the vendors was nice enough to run to the back of the park and get one for him & Evan was so excited. I was less than excited when he told me the darn balloon was $10.00.

* Running around Tom Sawyer Island with Evan and Jack. After standing in lines, sitting in a stroller, and being generally confined for most of the day, the kids were thrilled to have some space to explore the island.

* Rides, rides, rides. It was raining most of the morning, which I'm assuming is the reason the crowds were tolerable most of the day. Between short lines at the less exciting rides & my Dad and Uncle walking ahead to get fast passes for bigger rides like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad & Space Mountain, we were able to do almost everything.

I cannot wait to go back to Magic Kingdom. It is definitely my favorite of the four Disney parks & I would love to visit again without the ponchos. :-)

Magic Kingdom

Our first of four days at Disney World was spent at Magic Kingdom. We arrived at 9am and took a ferry across the lake to the entrance. Just as we were passing through security the skies opened up & it starting pouring down rain. It rained & rained... but I was not about to let a little rain get in the way of our first trip to Disney World! We rain into a store along Main St. and purchased 4 over-priced ponchos and ran to our first ride: Cinderella's Golden Carousel. Evan hated wearing his poncho (he doesn't like plastic things touching him... tags, wrappers, and apparently ponchos), so he was a bit crabby, but we were all happy to be under cover while the ride was moving. Next we went on Snow White's Scary Adventure, followed by Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. After Buzz my parent's and Uncle arrived at the park & we took Evan on Space Mountain for the first time. Ev is .5 inches above the minimum height requirement for most of the roller coasters, and I was nervous he would not like the twists and turns, or the darkness, of Space Mountain. At the end of the ride he said "it was scary in the dark", but he wanted to ride more coasters. By the end of our trip he had ridden Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Test Track (Epcot), Expedition Everest twice (Animal Kingdom), and Space Mountain. He told us several times that the roller coasters were his favorite part of our trip.


We made reservations to eat at the Crystal Palace with Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, and Piglet. Evan and Jack adored meeting the characters from one of their favorite books and movies, and Evan had no problems posing for pictures with each and every one of them.


While we waited to go on Peter Pan's Flight, our last ride of the day, Evan hung out with Uncle Tom.


Grandpa, Grandma, and Evan.


Jack was so easy going during the whole trip. We spent more than 10 hours at Magic Kingdom, and he didn't cry or have a single melt down. He was exhausted by the time we reached our condo, but I couldn't have asked for an easier (almost) 2-year-old. He was happy, upbeat, and easy to please. Jack is used to going on rides and seemed to love them all.

Quick Photo Share

I am slowing going through all the photos I took on our trip, and this is one of my favorites. It's not very often my parents are cooperative enough to pose for me!


(Left to Right: Uncle Tom, Deanna, Abby, & Mike.)

Have a wonderful weekend!

xoxo,
Erin.