More Bushkill Falls Layouts

I'm not going to bore you with a thousand pictures of waterfalls...don't worry.  Here are the last of the layouts from our trip. 

My little peanut had already had enough of my picture snapping and we weren't even half way through the trail!!  This larger picture was one of the bigger falls there and it was beautiful.  The water had already frozen some so there wasn't a ton of water flowing.

Just some more scenery.

It was really fun putting these together and making them match.

We have a tropical storm heading our way in a few hours so I doubt that fall weather will be here in the next few days...wish us luck!!

Is It Really Fall??

I don't know about you, but it sure doesn't feel like fall around here.  October is just a few days away and it is still really warm and muggy.  Don't get me wrong...summer is by far my favorite season, but I'm ready for the cool crisp air, changing leaves, hiking in the woods, pumpkin pie...you get the picture. 

A few years ago I went to Bushkill Falls in PA with Abbie during the fall.  They call it the Niagra Falls of PA...not even close!!  Bushkill Falls was really pretty and we walked the longest trail and saw all the falls. 

I took way too many pictures that day and had a had time narrowing down the ones I wanted to scrap.  I decided I was going to do all 2 page layouts that matched.  I had never done that before.  I think I ended up with 10 or 12 sets of 2 page layouts.  TONS of pictures.  So I'm going to share some of them with you over the next few days in hopes of willing fall to come sooner.

Summer may be my favorite season to experience, but fall is my favorite to scrap.  Not sure why, but it is.

Blog Birthday Winner

Well, Tina...you're the winner!!  Congrats and I hope you like your little birthday gift.  Email me your address at cggomes@comcast.net

Here are some birthday layouts from Abbie's 6th birthday:

Who doesn't love opening gifts??  She has the cutest expressions and is so very happy to get even the smallest gift.

Hope everyone has a great day.



Water Park Pics

Of course, one of the main things that attracted us to this conference in Ohio was the huge indoor waterpark.  Because, why else would anyone go to Ohio in February?  Not exactly a high profile vacation spot.  The waterpark was absolutely amazing!!  We spent just about every free minute we had at the waterpark.  Here are some of the layouts of the waterpark:

I had these great pictures of Abbie going across the hippo heads and lily pads and wanted to show the progression, from start to finish.  She was so proud of herself...she didn't fall in the water once.

I used the Origins paper pack from Basic Grey and used Ranger Stickles on the letters to help make them pop since they were fading into the background a bit.

You're Running Out of Time...

I'm going to be calling the winner of my Blog Birthday on Tuesday, September 28...but so far only one of you commented (Thanks Tina!!).  I can't use the Random.org thingy for only one comment LOL!!  So jump on in there and leave me a comment either on this post or the original Blog Birthday post for a chance to win a little birthday scrappin' embellishment pack.

Now on to some more layouts:

These are some of the attractions at Kalahari.  Way too much fun.  I don't really have any water themed paper so I just went with some random teal and blue papers and added some red for color.  These are out of my stash so I have no idea what they are.  I just know that the sticker is from Soft Spoken and I used some Fiskars punches.

I love taking pictures of people who are taking pictures.  Or of people (Abbie) taking pictures of themselves.  I must have a thousand of her self portraits.  She takes the greatest shots of herself.

The papers are Infuse from Basic Grey, the punch is from Fiskars and the stamp in the upper right corner is from one of my Scarlet Lime kits.  I love the colors of this paper pack.

Finally Unpacked

I put off unpacking from last weekend because my scrap room was such a disasterous mess.  I spent all day Friday cleaning and reorganizing so I could put everything away.  My room is so nice and clean I don't even want to go in there and mess it up with scrappin!!!

Such a nice clean desk!!  I have some of my favorite pictures on the wall under the cabinets.  Abbie keeps a smile on my face with all her artwork too.  Very inspiring spot for me.

I mentioned that I won a bunch of prizes at the crop so here is what I won:

Jeni asked everyone to bring box tops and Campbell's soup labels for her kids' school.  I won a rolling a tote for bringing the most...120!!  (Thanks to everyone who helped me collect them!!)

The procedes of the crop went to the Humane Society this time.  We were asked to bring animal food, treats and toys for the animal shelter.  I got to pick off the prize table for bringing the most cat food...60 cans.  So since I love using flowers, I picked these great Prima Flowers.

I got up at 6am on Thursday before we left and baked 3 dozen pudding filled cupcakes for my fellow croppers.  My cupcakes were voted best snack at the crop so I got to pick off the prize table again!!  I love to add sparkle to my pages so I grabbed this great set of glitter glue.

These were one of the raffle prizes I won on Sunday.  How doesn't love Prima Flowers??

Of all the raffle prizes I put tickets in for, this is the one I really wanted...a 3 ring binder type album from American Craft.  I just hate trying to work those post bound albums.  These are my new favorite!!  And I wasted no time filling it with completed pages.

This bad boy holds a TON of pages!!  Love it!!  I went to AC Moore with Tom and Abbie this weekend and got 2 more with my 50% off coupons.  I love a bargain.

Here are some more of the layouts I made last weekend:

I bought this paper while at the crop and love how the teal matches the picture.  I have a very similar picture of Abbie at the Children's Museum 5 years earlier in almost the same pose.  I don't know where the time went or how she grew so fast, but here she is. 

The paper is from So Sophie, the bling is from ZVA, the stickers are from K&Company and the lace is from Kaiser Craft.

More pics from our trip to the unschoolers conference in Ohio.  They set up a bunch of tables in one of the conference rooms for a kid's Market Place.  The kids were all invited to sell anything they made.  There were so many talented kids with such great crafts.

The papers are from Echo Park, the letters are Teeny Alphas by Glitz and the brown border is from Basic Grey.

Here are some layouts

I waited until the last minute to print pictures to bring with me to the crop.  They hadn't arrived by the time the car was packed so I had to go with plan B.  I went through all the pictures I had printed and pulled out the older pictures I have been avoiding for months or even some for years and vowed to get through as many as possible.

With as much paper as I have, how is that I can't find the "right" papers to scrap a certain set of pictures?  I have had these pictures of Abbie with her new Crayola Crayon maker sitting on my desk for months and I just couldn't put the right papers with them.  While at the crop last weekend, I asked Shannon and Holly for their opinion and here is what they helped me pick out:

It doesn't seem like it, but I spent more than hour trying to put this together.  Not because it is the most awesome layout ever, but because I just didn't know what to do with the pictures.  I can't say that I "love" the way it turned out, but I am happy that I don't have these sitting on my desk anymore.

The patterned paper is from Jilli Bean Soup and Scenic Route, the red letters and black rub ons are from Pink Paislee, the photo anchors are from CTMH and I used Ranger Stickles on the black letters.

Here is another set of pictures I struggled with:

These were just random left over pictures that I really liked but wasn't sure what to do with.  There wasn't much journaling to go with them either.  I like this one better than the first one though.

The background paper is Bazzill, the letters are Thickers, The circle stickers are from K & company and the rest of the stuff was from my scrap stash so I'm not really sure where it came from.

I can't believe how little Abbie is in these pictures!!  We took a field trip to the Jackson Police Department.  This was 6 years ago!! 

I hadn't been inspired by these pictures either.  Maybe it was because I REALLY wanted to scrap all the awesome pictures from this past summer instead.  Oh well, at least they are done and now I can move onto some newer more current pictures.  I still need to journal on here but it was really late I didn't want to misspell anything.

So what do you do when you're not inspired by your photos?  Do you have a "go to" place for inspiration?  Do you use sketches?  Do you leave the pictures for another day?  I really want to know so leave me a comment with your answer.

Tomorrow I'll show some of the layouts I made that I liked and some of the new stuff that I bought!!

Happy Birthday!!!

Hooray!!  My blog made it to one month!!  I know, not a huge accomplishment in the grand scheme of things, but I'm excited.  So what better way to celebrate than to have a party...with presents...Birthday Presents!!  So I have a present to give to one lucky blogger:

How about some birthday stickers, clear birthday stamps, felt flowers, cork brads, letters and ribbon!!  If you want a chance to grab this fun little birthday pack, leave me a comment on this post and become a follower of my blog.  On September 28th, I'll use that fun little random.org thingy to pick one lucky winner.

I can't wait...this is going to be so much fun!!

Well, I finally fixed my camera and got the pictures of my layouts onto my computer and I even cropped them this time.  Hopefully the pictures will look better now that I know how to crop them.  Here is one of the layouts I made this past weekend:

I had so fun making this one.  I used some of my favorite things too:  Jeni Bowlin butterflies, Pink Paislee   rub-ons, bling and lots of papers.  The edges were cut off already so I don't know where they came from.

When we went to Ohio, we had a room with a kitchen in it and ate all our meals in the room.  But we planned to have a nice dinner out together on our final night.  It was a really good dinner and the restaurant looked out onto the waterpark. It was fun to watch everyone enjoying themselves.

Alright, that's all for tonight and remember...become a follower and leave me a comment so you can be entered in my Blog Birthday Party!!

I'm Back!!!

I am back from my 4 day long crop and have so much to share with you!!  We arrived at 6pm on Thursday evening and left at 4pm on Sunday.  I had 3 goals for myself last weekend:

Complete more than 13 layouts.
Win the photo scavenger hunt.
Win a prize off the prize table.

I am happy to say I met 2 of my 3 goals.  I finished 16 layouts...an all time high for me and I won 2 prizes off the prize table AND a rolling tote!!  We didn't win the photo scavenger hunt and came in 2nd place again.  I was pretty bummed!!  But there is always next year.

Here are some of the highlights:

That's me!!  I earned quite a few raffle tickets this time and was so excited.  There were some awesome raffle prizes that I really wanted to win and with all those tickets I had a real shot at it.  I ended up winning 2 of the raffle prizes too.  I'll post those pics of all my prizes later.

A few days before we left for the crop, we found out Holly was able to leave school for weekend and come with us.  It was her first crop with us and was she in for a fun weekend!!  This is one of our photo scavenger hunt pictures...us in our cabin.

That's me again!!  That's the basket I won at the quarter auction.  It had some biscotti mix, jars of jam and coffee in it.  Can't wait to bake it all up!!

Thanks Jeni for another AWESOME crop and for all the hard work you put into it.  It was great to see our all our scrappy friends again too!!  (Tina, Cole and Jen...you guys are way too much fun!!)

I am having some technical issues with my camera and can't get the pictures of my layouts to download at the moment so those will have to wait until I can figure this out. 

So good night for now and I'll catch up with ya'll later.

Even More CRC Crop Layouts

Ok, here are two more layouts before I leave for a weekend of some serious scrappin'.  I used one of my Scarlet Lime Kits (shocker!!) for this layout as well as some other stuff I had laying around my scrap room.  I was really excited to play with the Artisan tape (it's at the bottom of the page with the red design).  It was pretty cool.  Not sure what I expected, but it was just printed tape.  Maybe if I try using it different ways.  I have a whole role of it to play with so I'll let you know.

This was such a pretty piece of paper, I didn't want to cover it.  It has flocked snow flakes on it.  I kept it simple because I didn't want to draw away from the paper.  Not too fancy but gets the job done.

I'll post tons of layouts (hopefully!!) when I get back.

Caroline

All Packed Up...Or Moving Out??

I am always surprised by how much "stuff" I have when I pack for a crop.  It doesn't seem like it when everything is put away in it's place.  I have been paring down my scrapping supplies over the last several months...but you wouldn't know it from these pictures:

That's me...all packed up!!  I tried making page kits one time, but got so excited with the way the layouts were going to look that I just ended up finishing!!  Now I have to finish the laundry so my clothes will be all ready to go by Wednesday night!!

As I checked my favorite blogs during the week, there were two challenges I wanted to try before leaving.  One was a sketch from Sketchy Thursdays and the other was a color challenge from Scrap Whispers.  The challenge was to make a layout completely blue.  That is a HUGE challenge for me since we are very girly in this house.  As I was looking for pictures that I could scrap in blue, I found these two older pics of Abbie from when she was about 2 or so.  Her jammies had a little blue in them so I thought I would use those.  And I decided to use the sketch too since it called for 2 pics and that's all I had.  Here is the sketch:

And here is the layout I made:

I used Bazzill cardstock for the background.  The patterned papers are from Fancy Pants Designs and Crate Paper.  The letters are Thickers and I covered them in Ranger Stickles.  The silver rub-ons on the left side of the page are from Pink Paislee.  I used a Fiskars punch for the striped paper and a Martha Stewart punch for the long border on the right side. 

Well, there you have it.  Enjoy!!

More Layouts from February's CRC Crop

I think I got 13 layouts done during the 3 days we were there in February.  We are getting there a few hours earlier so I hope to get more done next weekend. 

More layouts from our trip to Ohio in February.  There was a Carnival with tons of fun games for the kids...and some adults.

I can't remember what the name of the paper is, but it was pretty and girly and that fits right in with us.

Caroline

Getting Ready for a 3 Day Crop

I starting to pack up my never ending supply of scrapping "stuff" for the CRC crop in PA.  I'll be going with Shannon.  This is our 3rd time going and we not only get a ton of scrapping done but we have a blast too.

Here are some layouts I made while I was there in February.

Not sure if you can see it in the photo, but I used a black felt border on the bottom of the page.  These a real pain in the butt to peel and keep from sticking to itself.  But the end result was pretty neat.  I also put some random brads on the green squares to spice them up a bit.

I used mostly Basic Grey on these layouts.  There's some border stamping on the left and Stickles on the brown Bazzill cardstock.

More Basic Grey and some Prima flowers.  I used Tim Holtz grundge letters for the word "fun".  This was the first time I used rhinestone swirls on a layout and you can see that they didn't really come out the great.  Love the look but can't seem to get it on the page without it getting tangled.

Caroline

Sandcastles and Layouts

So a few weekends ago we were at the beach and saw the most amazing sandcastle.  A gentleman had just finished making it and was admiring his work along with several other people.  The following day, the same guy was building another, even more amazing sandcastle.  It was late in the day and he didn't have a crowd so we decided to ask a few questions.  He explained his techniques and showed us his tools of the trade while Tom took mental notes.  For the next few weeks, Tom gathered the necessary supplies and made his way to the beach.  This was his and Abbie's second attempt at sandcastle building:

Didn't they do an AMAZING job??  I was so proud of them!!  We'll be heading out to the beach again this weekend so I'll keep posted...

Now on to scrappin'...I was able to sneak in a quick layout this week among all the craziness that is life.  Here it is:

It's a bit cloudy out today so I didn't have very good light for the picture.  But this is Abbie putting on a My Little Pony show quite a few years ago. 

The paper is Fancy Pants, My Mind's Eye and some random cardstock I had in the scrap drawer.  The letters are Thickers.  The brown border stickers are from Basic Grey and the red ribbon came in a kit so I don't where it came from but it's really cute!!

I was trying to keep it to one page so there aren't too many embellishments as the pics took up most of the room.  I love trying to get a bunch pics on one page. 

That's all for now!!  Later!!

The Seasonal Scrapper

I am very much a seasonal scrapper.  We live at the shore so our summers revolve around going to the beach.  The only time I scrap in the summer is on a rainy day.  And luckily we've only had two rainy weekends this season.  I finally sat at my disorganized desk and let the creative juices flow.  This is the end result.

These pics were taken at the Children's Museum in Pittsburgh. We stopped there on our long way home from Ohio in February.  I had taken Abbie there when she was younger but Tom had never been.  It's a fun place for the kids as well as us kids at heart.

Caroline

My First Layout Using a Scarlet Lime Kit

I love getting my Scarlet Lime monthly kits in the mail.  I was so excited to play with all the papers and embellishments and this is what I came up with.  I love the not-so-matchy feel of the papers and buttons and letters and tags.

I truly have a wonderful life.

Caroline

One of My Favorite Layouts

I like the way this layout came out, but that's not what makes it my favorite.  Abbie is just the greatest little peanut and she knows just how to put a smile on my face.

This was our last day in Ohio and I had to stop packing to take these awesome pics.

The papers and embellishments came from one of my Scarlet Lime kits.  The letters are Thickers and unfortunately that's all I can remember.

Caroline

Sketch Layout

I found this really great sketch last night at Nuts About Sketches.  Here is the sketch:

And here is the layout I made:

The patterned papers are from S.E.I.  The orange butterfly is fromJenni Bowlin.  The stripe paper under the smaller pics is from Teresa Collins.  I used some rub-ons and ink too.  Let me know what you think!!