I love, Love, LOVE

my family!  I grew up with incredible role model parents who gave me a strong foundation of what makes a marriage HAPPY and for that I am so lucky!  They may have only known each other for 2 months before they got married but they are still going strong after 40+ years.  My hubby and I are definately in love and I hope we can provide that same foundation for our kids as we all grow.  I wanted to share a few photos of my adorable little family with you all.  The photos were taken by Allison Schnurr of Allison Avenue Photography, a Texas based photog.  Allison is a FABULOUS photographer and her work is AMAZING.  Her pricing is great and she even gives copyright release to the photo images you buy.  Check her site out and you'll see my oldest girl on the main page.  She was 5 then; she's now 6.  http://allisonavenue.net/

So, here we are ... The Leopard Gang. My oldest daughter, hubby, me, baby and step-son.  These kids are gorgeous, if I do say so myself. 

A Preview

of what's to come.  OMG I have so many pics to take of the layouts of my pics!  Here's a couple of my favorites from this past year.  I will post more as I complete new ones and have time to go back through my albums.

This first double layout features pink background paper I distressed, chipboard letters that I stained with ink using a rubber brayer to match the layout. I made handmade flowers, crumpled them and then inked all the raised ridges.  I then used epoxy brads, buttons, more brads, spirals, tiny heart buttons and more for the flower centers. I really love how this turned out.

This 2nd page is features a pink and green plain cardstock that I handstamped to add a slight pattern. I then added a scalloped pocket to hold a personalized note, made from a corner rounder, added rhinestones, tied it with a ribbon.  I covered the #3 chipboard with matching paper and more rhinestones.  I then doodled, colored the hearts in with a blending pen and added a few more rhinestones to tie it all together.

Stay tuned for more to come.

To be more AWESOME this year

I need to concentrate more on what makes me happy.  I put everything I have into my family and I do a great job capturing those moments.  What I don't do a good job of in transitioning those events into a story.  I have so many incomplete albums and so many years that I jump back n forth to.  Not only that, most of my layouts are missing key elements, like titles or the actual photos ... HELLO! I am going to challenge myself to complete one layout per child each month.  Doesn't sound like a lot does it?  Well trust me, it is for this mommy who works full time managing multi-million dollar marketing campaigns. I wish I was the type to just throw a layout together, slap pics on them and go but I'm not.  I treat each one like a piece of art and put everything I can into them; therefore, I spend hours upon hours on them. 

So just how will I do it?  Free time = scrap time. I'm going to spend at least 2 nights every week after the kids go to bed organizing photos, planning layouts, sketching, printing, journaling, etc.  I'm hoping to exceed my goal but I figure I better test the waters first. I'm starting this month and even though it's half over I WILL make my goal this month. Follow my blog and leave a comment telling me how you make time in your busy schedule for your hobby. I'll randomly draw a winner for a free Close To My Heart stamp set (shown below).

Check back soon to see my progress.

My New Year Resolution ...

was to be more awesome in 2010 than I was in 2009.  Seems impossible, right?  Not quite.  You see, my favorite comedy right now is How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM).  It's laugh out loud ... wait for it .... funny.  I love the Barney-ism, so much so that I follow his fictitious character on Twitter.  Anywho, he's always talking about how AWESOME he is so I'm mixing that posititve vibe with positive thinking to make every day an awesome day, no matter what comes my way. I figure it's all a learning experience to make me better, whether it's good or bad.  I've been chronicaling my awesomeness on my Facebook status but you will soon see it on my Twitter feeds, posted here and I will expand on some of them via this blog.  I only hope to inspire all of the people who are {not} following me.

Holiday Stampaganza 2009

Stamp lovers rejoice! I'm so excited about this promotion!!!  This usually happens early in the year so when those months came & went with no Stamapanza campaign I wondered how I'd stock up on my favorite stamps this year.  And even worse, I knew you guys had been looking forward to it as well.  So for the first time (we've never done a promotion like this so close to the holidays) and this month only, buy two CTMH stamp sets, get one FREE. What a great way to stock up on your favorite stamps or better yet, make gift giving more affordable. This is a great way to help Santa mark someone's favorite stamps off their wish list (yours included)!

Get more details at http://leopard.myctmh.com/

We're Off To See The Wizard

the wonderful Wizard of Oz because, because, because, because, because ...
I always loved Halloween as a child but I never truly LOVED it until I was able to experience it with my own kids.  It's just been recently that we've really made dressing up a family affair.  It's all been driven by our oldest daughter's choice of costumes.  Last year she chose to be Alice in Wonderland, even though she had never seen the movie.  So daddy was the Madd Hatter and I chose to be the Queen of Hearts.  Baby R was born 3 weeks early and 4 days before Halloween.  The day after I got home from the hospital I made her a rabbit costume.  I must have been delirious from lack of sleep because not only did I pull off a rabbit costume for a small newborn but I also still had to make my costume.  Look how cute we were (and excuse my 3 day post baby belly, booty and ankles).

So fast forward to Halloween 2009, our daughter informs us that she wants to be Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.  Again, another movie she had never seen.  I still can't figure out how she chooses these characters but I love it.  So we buy the costume, and the movie.  Can you believe my shy 6 year old little girl was not scared of it and cried at the end?  It was so sweet and it was the first time she really empathized with a character.  It only made sense for the rest of us to complete the cast.  Baby R was the Cowardly Lion, I was the Tin Man and daddy was the scarecrow.  We had a wonderful time singing and skipping down the Yellow Brick Road.

I love that we are building lasting family memories for our children and can't wait to scrapbook this!

My Baby Is One!!!

Time flies when you're havin' fun, right?  It's hard to believe that 1 year ago today I saw my sweet baby girl R for the first time.  For 8 1/2 months, I wondered whether or not she'd look like her big sister. I could only imagine what her personality would be like.  Would she have brown or blue eyes?  The list goes on and each day I would start to learn more and more about her.

I promised myself that I wouldn't do what everyone says they do with their 2nd child and not take as many pictures.  I've done my best this first year but I do have to agree that it's hard with all the activity, and hustle & bustle of a multi-child household and full time working mom.

I hoped to have 75% of her 1st year scrapbooked and preserved by now.  I'm a far cry from that.  Not only am I so far from that goal but now I'm even more behind on Rheagan's book.  I think I need to get away for a weekend scrapbooking retreat with my girlfriends and SOON!  In the meantime, I'm going to print contact sheets so I can figure out pics, make my sketches and take a few days off and just devote it to playing a little catch-up. Maybe I'll start with Baby R's 1st birthday party pics and work backwards.  Then again, maybe not. 

Speaking of Baby R's 1st birthday, we celebrated a few days early this past weekend.  Great food, awesome family, fun times and TONS of pictures to scrapbook!

Everyday Celebration Cards

OMG, these cards are so cute! I can't take credit for designing them but I did make these. As part of National Stamping Month, CTMH (Close To My Heart) came out with this oh so cute card kit. It included everything needed to create 16 cards, including the stamp set, inks, paper, ribbon and metal embellishments (case bases and envies too). It is what inspired me to take a stab at making hand-made Christmas cards this year for friends and family (photos coming soon)! Take a look at the cards below. Wait 'til you see what else I have in store this holiday season.

Reinvention

I've got my priorities in order and with that I am feeling so inspired! I've been so good at dedicating time for my family. We've done some FABULOUS things together this year and I've captured photographic memories of them. What I haven't done is preserve them through my passion for scrapbooking. I've also got a history of being the "QUEEN OF UNFINISHED PROJECTS" when it comes to scrapbooking. I've got the layouts but no title, or I have the layout but need to print the photos, or the layouts are missing the embellishments that tie it all together ... you get the picture. Well guess what??? I am reinventing my scrapbooking, I'm embracing social media and I'm going to make Close To My Heart a crucial part of making sure I fulfill this promise to myself and my customers are going to benefit!

Coming soon ... new layouts, sketch challenges, giveaways, card making, gift ideas and more. Stay tuned for pics of a recent card kit I made. The cards are TDF cute! I'll also post upcoming workshops and crop nights!

Happy Fall, Y'all!

Project 365

Is a great way to visualize capture all that 2009 has in store for us. My photography friends let me onto this project and then I read about it in Creating Keepsakes. I'm gonna jump on board and participate. Now I just need to think of a creative way to scrap this challenge; perhaps I will check out Becky Higgins' blog for ideas or make up my own, that I'm not sure of but what I will try to do is post the pics here.

I've been busy this past week thinking of ways to make my crop events exciting for my gals. I've put together some awesome make-n-takes and am developing monthly sketch challenges. I cannot wait to reveal them at the crop this weekend.

I've really enjoyed my maternity leave. Obviously spending quality time with my girls is the best but I'm at the point where, although I'm still tired from waking up for feedings, Reese doesn't have me up quite as much. So I've hit the gym to work off these baby pounds (and there's a lot to work off) but the fun part is that I am scrapping while she is sleeping during the day instead of napping. With all this extra time to scrap I am finding my creativity is flowing again. It's been a while since I've had the mental freedom for this. Between work and children it seemed like that projects I was doing last year were good but not FABULOUS and many were scraplifted. I was under a lot of stress. So I am enjoying the changes I've experienced now that my mind is less cluttered. I am going to make a promise to myself to not slip back into the rut. I have January's sketch in my head. I will post it once I draw it.

I'm signing off to go take my picture of the day.