Easter Then & Now

I have a new Easter layout that posted over on 2Peas this morning to share with you. Up first is a blast from the past Easter - 2006 to be exact. It was our first Easter with Nico and we tried to do everything Easter related with an 8 month old baby. I have to laugh when I look at those egg coloring pics - although he does seem to be a little into it.

 I remember starting our tradition of the easter egg hunt that year even though the boys were only  8 months and 20 months old. Here's a photo of the entire layout. I apologize for the bad picture! It's so hard to take pictures of 2-page layouts.

Click on the layout for a closer view.

I created a scene at the top of the layout with the Neighborhood collection from Crate Paper. Lots of chipboard and patterned paper layers here although the end result is still clean lines. I would love to say that it was a simple layout to put together, but it definitely wasn't. I struggled with this one for quite a while until I got the look I wanted. Balancing the scene up at the top was tricky.

 

Fast forward 5 years and here are Nico & his cousins getting ready to hunt eggs this year.

What happens when 3 people try to take a picture at the same time? The kids don't know where to look! This happens every year. Sigh. But I still love the picture for being perfectly imperfect.  

We are recovering from a serious peep hangover today. There is nothing like having a house full of kids hyped up on sugar all day long. My niece and nephew are staying with us a few days this week, so I might be a little slower than usual getting stuff posted up here. Bear with me! There's a green army guy page coming up soon. 

Hope you had a great Easter!

Cricut Mini Album

I have a Cricut Circle project to share with you this morning. It's a little book of love notes to my favorite boy. I made this around Valentine's Day and used some old pictures that I had of Nico.

The cover is made from a series of welded letters and heart shapes that I designed on the Gypsy. I then inked it, dressed it up with brads, and put it up on some pop dots for dimension.

I placed this picture on a huge postage stamp die cut from the Sentimentals cartridge and added some fun elements.

 Next up is an envelope from the Wild Card cartridge that holds a little note from Mama to Nico.

Another sweet picture and monogrammed heart from the Simply Sweet cart.

A peek-a-boo page from the Paper Lace cartridge.

And then last up some closing shots of my silly little guy.

This was a fun way to showcase some of my favorite picture from way back when. The mini-album was bound with red rings from Bazzill and I added a chipboard back cover to make it sturdy. I hope this mini inspires you to create a little keepsake of love for your little one!

Imaginisce Animal Crackers & Boardwalks

I am still going through a huge pile of pictures from last summer. Why does it seem that 90% of the pictures I take are from May to September? And then in the summer I definitely scrap less because we are always out, which leads to this huge pile of unscrapped  photos and stories.

I decided to get a head start this year and start tackling that pile. First up, is this assignment for the 2Peas garden that I posted this morning.

I used Imaginisce's Animal Crackers line with it's bold colors and circus theme. It reminds me of theme parks and boardwalk photos, so I used it to tell the story of our time in Point Pleasant. We spent a fortune for the thrill of winning a cheap little stuffed animal. Oh wait, we didn't win - we all LOST! The sweetest thing was listening to Nico comfort his older cousin who was having a hissy fit because he didn't win. Surprising, since it's usually Nico who has to be reminded that there's always next time. Ha!

I like all of the border stickers that come with this line. These make tying 2-page layouts together easy.

And then there's this date strip from Bella Boulevard that I thought was great for a journaling spot and to add a splash of color. I made the flag from a toothpick and a re-purposed sticker. I keep seeing these flags everywhere and they are so easy to make.

For a complete supply list, visit this page.

I'll be back in a day or two with a little Cricut mini-album I've been holding on to.

Pink Paislee & Disney

My assignment this week for the Pink Paislee blog was to add designer details to a page. I had a lot of fun coming up with this Disney page using the Hometown Summer collection.

 

I used rows of stitched Mickey head punches to two squares on the page. Then added yellow brads for a pop of color. I think this adds an interesting little detail to the page.

 

Finally, on the last embellished square I added my journaling. I used a metal flag from the Soiree collection and die cuts from Hometown Summer to make a frame of sorts for the journaling spot. It draws the eye, adds decor and is functional all at the same time!

 Thanks for taking a peek at my blog. Be sure to check out the Two Peas Garden Girl blog tomorrow for my "In Review Challenge". I hope you get a chance to play along!

Beach Retreat

I spent this past weekend scrapping by the beach. Down at the Jersey shore if you will. Not that infamous Jersey shore (ha!), but Loveladies, NJ - a beautiful little Eastern seaboard town. This beach house is owned by a friend of a friend and he generously allows us to use it for our "once a year" girls' scrapping weekend.

Here's a peek at our weekend.  Our little retreat house...

My room with a view of the water.

 

The kitchen where we gather to eat some great meals. My friend Teri is an unbelievable cook and she spoils us all weekend long. Love that girl.

This is where we scrap. Right off the kitchen and with floor-to-ceiling views of the canal. It's just a beautiful space.

The nicest thing about having the house is that when you get tired of scrapping or need a break, there are plenty of places to escape to. I always make my way up to the rooftop patio just to look at the bay.

 And these are my scrappy friends. We became friends through a circle journal and we've been getting together once a month for dessert, pomegranate martinis and laughter for 7 years now. We've bonded over scrapbooking, life and the search for the perfect scrapbook store (we found it in Arizona). I am very lucky to have them!

Cricut Quilling

I posted a peek of this project way back in October and I just wanted to take a quick minute to get it back up here on my blog.  This was only the second project I ever made for the Cricut Circle and one of my favorites. I made it using the Cuttlebug daisy and chrysanthmum quilling kits.

This was a little tedious. I made all of the flowers over the course of 2 nights watching TV. They're  pretty easy to make. Gluing them onto the styrofoam sphere - that's another story!

I really like the way this turned out. I think I might make one for Spring. I think it would look cute at our Easter table.

I'm off to scrap this weekend with a few of my favorite girls. I'll be back Monday with a few pictures from our adventure. Have a good one!

Green Army Guy

What is it about little boys and these green army guys? Nico's loved them since he first set eyes on them years ago in the first Toy Story movie. He can sit and play with them for hours.

Once he realized that I was taking pictures, he wanted to pose for me. And so, he gave me a little of his natural bossiness.

And a bit of cheese never hurt...

It's so good to have this little guy in the house. He makes me smile every single day (and on some "special" days I wanna cry too). Ha! 

And now I just want to sit down and scrap these right now. Soon. Very soon.

Story.Sketch.Color. Video

Good Monday morning and welcome to the first installment of my Story.Sketch.Color. video series. I'm so excited to finally have this to share with you. It answers the question that I get the most around here - "how do you come up with your ideas and what's your process?" I've tried to answer that with this video blog post. Pull up a chair and join me for a little scrapbooking. Oh and excuse the audio at the very beginning. I promise my voice isn't that shrilly high in real life - it goes back to normal in a few seconds.

The Story:  

Documenting family traditions.

The story of how/why Nicolas got his name.

The Sketch:

Download a copy of the sketch here.
The Colors:

Navy, aqua, gold.

Stella and Rose by My Mind's Eye

Click below to watch the video. 

A close-up of the details.

The story.

 

And the finished page.

This was fun to do and I am already working on the next one. Let me know how you like it and if there's anything else you'd like to see in the future.

Thanks so much for watching!