Blog Hop Weekend #1

It is Blog Hop Weekend and I threw this post together really fast but wanted to be able to provide you all with some new layouts that I have been working on this week, actually I worked for 5 hours yesterday on most of these.  The majority of these spreads are put together with Studio Calico's May Project Life kit, Planetarium.  I pulled together a few pieces of Studio Calico's Atlantic also, since it all matches and really worked beautifully with my photos too.

I have 9+ spreads so far for May, it was a busy month between our daily life and Mother's Day, my little brother was swarn into the Army, graduated from high school and had an open house too. I had lots of photos and for protection of my brother, have chosen to not post the Army photos although I feel like those are some of my better spreads.

So, this was the beginning of our month and just a few photos.  That middle card that has the Freckled Fawn star bits on it, actually pulls out to be a Jade folded card, first one I have ever used.  I need to get a picture of that tomorrow.
EDIT:  Here are a few photos of the pull our journal card.

Mother's day here.  Loved all these colors.  I will likely play around with my placement on this still.  This was a really fun day for our family.

 So here, the kids and I have been working on some garden pots.  Isaiah planted a pickle seed a month ago and woke up disappointed multiple days in a row when he discovered that nothing grew.  So, Keaton and I went and bought a cucumber plant one day and planted it while he was still at school.  He was so excited once he came home and saw it.  I don't expect it to grow too much since it needs to vine and it is in a pot.  It was really an important even this month in my house for Isaiah.

 This was mostly all about soccer.  These are MAMBI cards.  I needed to journal about how difficult soccer has been for Isaiah.  The month of May was very difficult on him.  Isaiah has ADHD and high functioning Autism and his meds were tweaked a bit and this caused mass chaos this month.  If you are an autism mom and deal with this sorta thing then you know JUST what I am talking about.

 Scrapbooker problems.  When you have alpha stickers stuck to your feet and you keep finding them for a few days.

This was a mess up.  Well, my kid cut the other side of this plastic trying to get the sequins out, HA!  So I figured it would be perfect for this spread with these few photos.  The other side is an awesome Army spread but for privacy reasons I am keeping it private.

 There was a lot of detail here that I wanted to catch, that was really difficult in the lighting with the velum here.  I really loved the photos here.  My kids, whom will be 6 and 7 years old next week, have never been fishing, shame on me, had their first fishing experience.  Isaiah caught his first fish, but was scared of it so Keaton, being my little clown, had to pose with it.  Plus this was super special because we never spend much time with my dad, so it was a lot of fun for my boys.

This page is not finished yet, but I wanted to put it out there still.

Monthly wrap up page.

 This might be one of my favorite spreads I have done.  The corals and mints are some of my favorite colors.  This was my kiddo's last day of school.  I spent my day working on my 2012 PL album and was able to get those awesome shots of them getting off the bus, the same way I got shots of them getting on the bus on their first day of school this past year.

And lastly, I have something I am pretty excited about.  It is a free eight week summer storytelling workshop called Find Your Voice.  I am really thrilled to learn more and see what Kristin has to offer us.  You and find out more about her workshop on her blog here.

February PL and Mother's Day

Spending my Monday morning getting all my layout photos in order to share.  Here we go!

This was my first Design F page.  The kids many Valentine's Day cards from their class parties.  It took me awhile before I really loved this and figured out that I can love it more now that I fill the 3x4 pockets with the Instagram Polaroids.

Blue & Gold Banquet.  My little Bobcat has almost earned his Tiger Badge!

The photos above and below really need to be reprinted by Persnickety, however, I deleted the photos from my phone already.

 My favorite below!  I love the MAMBI cards, they were perfect for this month.  And the SC Smile card.  This page makes ME smile.

I have decided that I am going to start printing my entire 2012 Instagram feed and buy a ton of these plastics so I can start 2012.  I have no problem at all keeping up with 2013 since I am going monthly, so it only makes sense to work backwards on 2012.  And along the way I can throw in special pages for birthdays and holidays!

And now on to yesterday, Mother's Day.  I wanted to make a post last night but was beat!

I spent Saturday doing this with my kids.  Painting flower pots and watching the kids draw pictures on them.  Planting Geraniums  working on homemade cards and wrapping gifts.  The boys had loads of fun.  

Then yesterday we headed to my mom's house for a little cookout and some time to run around in her back yard.  She is lucky enough to own a home built in the mid 50's that sits on about an acre, so she has a huge yard, the entire neighborhood is like that.  So the kids love to go play on my old swing set from when I was a kid and try to dig up the dirt and kick around ash in the first pit.  But my brother who is an 18 year old senior and graduating from high school in less than a month, I am a proud sister, was on mulch duty.  And he had a few side kicks.

 These two kept getting mad at eachother because the wagon was filled with mulch and then they wanted to sit on it and be pulled to the back yard by my brother who also was using a wheel barrel.

So with it being Mother's Day, well the day after, I want to say Happy Mother's Day to a handful of people.  My Momma, no explanation needed there.  My Gramma who went to heaven when I was 16 years old.  I miss her so much and know my mom does too.  And lastly, my son's step mom, whom I have a great relationship with.  

I hope everyone had a great weekend and celebrated their mothers!  Happy Monday everyone!  See you tomorrow for something new!

Project Life : January 2013

I feel like I do not take enough photos to work on my Project Life weekly.  Plus with this being my first year doing a PL album, I wanted to not stress myself out by trying to play catch up all year long.  I produced 9 single page front and back pages this month.  I did not include all of them, since I had a few that included photos of my son's Cub Scout pack.

So I present to you my monthly, chronological ordered PL layouts for the month of January 2013.

 

My main Becky Higgins core kit this year is Seafoam Edition.  I have bits of Studio Calico cards, washi tape, flair and cardstock stickers by Echo Park's Everyday Eclectic line.  BH design A

Besides Seafoam, I have MAMBI cards here, not sure what pack.  BH design A

I threw a touch of Olive Edition in this with my above mentioned as well as some Amy Tan Remakes stickers that I found for $2.00 at Big Lots.  BH design B

Seafoam, Cobalt, Turquoise and Simple Stories cards.  This is by far one of my favorite.  The 100th day of school is a big deal in first grade.  100 wiggly eyes.  I want to mention my love for Persnickety Prints here.  I didn't start ordering prints from them other than my 3x4 Instagram polaroids till March, so I want to show you this layout.  The bottom two photos are from CVS, 99% of my photos are taken on my Samsung Galaxy and just uploaded online to wherever.  All three photos were taken the same day, but the quality and color of the Instagram photo is MUCH better. And yes, there was a filter, but still that is on CARDSTOCK.  All of my January and Febuary photos are getting reprinted as long as I can still find the photo on Facebook, since I deleted it from my phone.  BH design D

Okay, carrying on, :) 

Yes, my cat lives in my 31 Large Utility Tote.  If you need one for your cat I am pretty positive you can find ten 31 consultants in your neighborhood.  What a huge company with amazing bags!  Here I have mixed tons of products, SC, Blush and Seafoam editions.  BH design D

And my new found love here!  Becky Higgins design F pages.  It took me FOUR months to decide what in the world I was going to do with the pack of a 10 3x4 pockets.  And then two weeks ago it hit me.  A monthly recap of the Instagram Polaroids that I didn't use.  I keep it super simple.  Just a few 3x4 filler cards, here I used Studio Calico.

And a close up!

So, I use a few different pens.  I have been using ZIG Memory System Millennium pens for over 5 years.  I prefer the 05 ones.  My new favorite pens are the fine Sharpie Pens.  They still tend to bleed through but I love the way they write.  And Sharpie makes ever color under the sun.  

I use the Studio G tape runners.  I bought a ton of them for $1 each last week and I use Glue Dots for my flair.