the reveal...

So I finally got around to posting again and this time I am actually going to post some photos. I know some of you have been waiting to see these so here goes. I have to appologize right now for the bad photos because I did not take all of the layouts back out of their page protectors to photograph them. That would have taken an hour because I have a lot of layering on many of them and added embellishments. I also do not use a whole sheet of paper if a large portion is hidden behind other papers so I piece the pages together making it hard to get in and out of the protectors. I think I have these layouts in order from Jan. 1 and I do not have them all finished. I do however have Jan 1-Jan 10 all completed!! I apparently did not take a photo of the first page except for the two page spread so you don't get a close up of that one. You can tell that the layout is about my daughter.

The layout on the right and the one below are done completely with the cuttlebug. You should be able to see in the one below where I embossed each of the colored pieces and also used the embossing borders in the top and bottom of the black strip to emboss that as well. The projects and cards in this layout were made for my husband's step mother-in-law for Christmas. I thought it would be fun since the cards were made with the cuttlebug to tie that in the layout as well.

In the next layout my daughter has my glasses on. She loves wearing my glasses for some reason. She must be able to see with them on because one night she sat in the cart at a store for 5 minutes with them on. She also got sunglasses for Christmas that she loves to wear. If you go into Down Memory Lane you can see a layout there that I did with Jaidyn being silly with her sunglasses on.

Below I scrapbooked photos from the 19 hours of cropping I did at Down Memory Lane a couple weeks ago. I had a blast!!

As you can see, I am not completely up to date but did 4 layouts last night. I am having so much fun with this because all I have to worry about it one page and some of them only have one photo on them. It is giving me the opportunity to use a lot of layout sketches that I like and would never use in other albums since I normally do all 2-page layouts.

first layout of challenge 365!!

So as I said before, I was really excited about the whole Challenge 365 and I actually started it tonight! I was so excited when I got home from shopping that I went to my scrapbook room and began printing photos from Jan.1st. I actually started with today since Jaidyn turned 18 months today. I am only a few days behind so I hope to get those other 6 layouts done in the next couple days. Turning 18 months was somewhat exciting so I thought I would start with that and then move on to the less exciting topics like daddy and I coloring the other night. Oh it was such a sight...Nathan and I were both sitting on the couch coloring while watching the Bachelor. He came in the living room with Jaidyn's crayons and bent down to pick up her Handy Manny coloring book so I told him to get me one too. I will have to post the page of our coloring fun when I get that one done. It should be interesting!!

Here is the first layout that I did tonight. There are a few things I am not so happy with but overall, I can say I accompished something tonight...YAY!!

my personal challenge...

Ok so I know my goal is to post as much as possible and it rarely happens but today I was inspired by something. Now I don't know why I think I can do this when I can't even post three times in one week but I am going to try to at least start the 365 challenge. Check out this site - http://www.creatingkeepsakes.com/content/view/20171/ if you want to learn more. This is really sad but I don't even know how to make a link in my blog posts so hopefully that part works. Anyways, I looked on my camera and have found enough pictures since Jan. 1 so I thought that today would be a great time to start. I am so excited because sometimes I get so overwhelmed with what to scrapbook and this will give me something and I can then use some of the embellishments and papers that I have collected over time! I want to get started RIGHT NOW! I am ready to go down to my scrapbook room and shut the door. Unfortunately we have to go shopping first to get some dog food. My poor Squirt has been getting sick lately and we have come to the conclusion that it is probably her food. So off to shop for diapers and dog food and then I am hoping to be back to finish the one page layout that I started today at work and then begin my 365 photo-a-day challenge. Check out the DOWN MEMORY LANE blog soon to see the layout I am talking about...it is going to be a kit for sale at the store! Check back soon!