Layout Share - Vacation in June 2018

Yesterday, I shared some layouts that I worked on at crops over the past few weeks and completed at home with journaling and finishing touches.

Here are a few more, these from our June vacation to Florida last year:

Unexpected Star Wars Parade

I created this layout with leftovers from a Star Wars kit Daniel bought me awhile back, a few enamel dots, a little patterned paper from a pad I bought online, some letter stickers, and a little bit of my own doodly pen work. I love this story, and I like how this modified grid page turned out.

All Aboard

My favorite thing about this page, other than the great photos, especially of me and Daniel, and the one of DJ, is the train embellishments with punched-out Mickeys in the cars. Having a Mickey punch, which I got for a good price from Joann, makes embellishing pages about our Disney World moments a lot easier.

Ghostly Attraction

Problem: too many cute Hallowe'en supplies I will never, ever use to document Hallowe'en. Solution: use all the cuteness on a page about the Haunted Mansion at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom! I absolutely love this page and had a lot of fun creating it. Most of the supplies came from an Echo Park Paper kit called Bewitched, which I had to have the moment I saw it, even though I had no stories to tell with it at the time. I added a Thickers title word, along with a few other embellishments, and it worked out perfectly.

Saying Goodbye

And finally, this page about saying goodbye to DJ, with supplies from Shimelle, along with some Tinkerbell stickers, enamel dots, and a few puffy stars. I don't normally like dark backgrounds, but I think this patterned paper worked really well, and I like this page.

Layout Share - Stories of 2018

The past several weeks have been busy with moving, but I've been fortunate to spend some of my Saturdays cropping at my local scrapbook store. Last week, I completed some layouts I began at crops that only needed journaling and finishing touches.

Here are the ones I did that go in my 2018 yearbook:

At Zola Bistro

I love this patterned paper from Pinkfresh Studio, from their Indigo Hills 2 collection, and I think it pairs well with this photo of me enjoying some cooler weather last August. I used a few other things from the collection, along with some stamping, some Thickers, and some enamel dots to tell an ordinary life story.

You and Me Together

In May, when I was walking around the sales floor at Mega Meet, I caught sight of a collection by Cocoa Vanilla, a company based in Australia, and I used that collection to make this page about Daniel and I going for a walk at our favorite local park. I added stamping, enamel dots, a Thickers word, and some splashes of Heidi Swapp's Color Shine in gold. I have to admit, this page just makes me happy.

Michigan Love

For this page about a visit I made to a cafe in East Lansing, I used several things from Shimelle's Sparkle City collection, along with a title word from Jilliebean Soup's Spoonful of Soul collection, and I put some stamps to work. I always like to include memorabilia on my pages, like the sleeve from the coffee cup I had that day.

Beautiful Day in Nature

This page was a bit of a challenge for me, supply-wise. I was at a crop when I created it, and while I had a whole store-full of supplies at my disposal, I couldn't find anything I thought worked with these photos. Instead, I chose to work with a kit I'd brought with me, and I think the end result is great. I especially like that I used the little squares as journaling block. A simple layout, but I kinda like those.

Coming Soon - Celebrate October 2019

In less than two months, my favorite month of the year begins, and I can hardly wait.

This year, I'm creating a prompt-driven project for myself and anyone else who wants to participate, called Celebrate October, hosted right here on this blog.

More details will follow soon.

Favorite Photos - July 2019

1. Rain

As July began with some substantial rain, we were still living in our apartment, getting ready to move to our house.


2. Flowers

County Farm Park has so many flowers throughout the summer. I love hydrangeas and whatever these happy purple flowers are.


3. Daniel at the Park

I adore that smile. Enough said. :)

4. Bubbles

We went to a 4th of July parade, and there were bubbles!


5. Moving the Frog

That little frog has moved with us since I bought him the year we got married. This was the day it was time to move Froggie from the patio in front of our apartment to the porch at our new home.

6. Our Paver Patio

And on the patio of our new home, these little tiny plants crawling up through the crevices.

7. Mermaid Hair

In the middle of the chaos of moving, I took time out to get my hair done.

8. Hydrangeas

I. Love. These. Flowers!

9. Happy Birthday to Mom

The last cleaning day at the apartment was the same day as my Mom's birthday, which I honored with my favorite Starbucks drink.

Awesome Ladies Live - 2019

For the third year in a row, I attended the Awesome Ladies Project retreat, called Awesome Ladies Live, in East Lansing, Michigan. This year, it was July 19-21st, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Day 1

On Friday evening, things kicked off with a meet-and-greet dinner at our hosts' home with food and laughter and sharing of our scrapbooks. I brought two, one a mini-book about the names I'm called, and a 12 x 12 volume of our Disney vacation in the summer of 2018. It was such a blast to  be together with other scrapbookers and see how they tell their stories.


Day 2

Saturday morning, coffee was a necessity. (Isn't it always?) I treated myself to room service because I woke up earlier than I expected and needed the caffeine kickstart.

Several of us had agreed the night before to meet in the hotel lobby and make a Starbucks run because...coffee! Thankfully the Starbucks in downtown East Lansing is just a block or so away from the hotel.

On the way back, I snapped a shot of our home away from home for the weekend, the Mariott.

Our day of workshops began at 10:00, and we jumped into creating in these adorable little notebooks.

Page one, completed.

And there's page 2, completed. I loved playing with some die cuts, a selfie and some stamps, and I want to bring these daily pages into my regular paper-crafting routine.

For lunch, we all ate together at Hop Cat, also not a long walk from the hotel, which was good because it was blistering hot in Michigan that day. I tried an artisan beer called Foster the Bananas that was spectaclar.

Selfie inside the restaurant.

A sign outside Blue Owl Coffee on the way back to the hotel after lunch.

I couldn't resist, especially when I found out they had cold brew ice cream floats. That's one good way of beating the heat. SO yummy!

One of our afternoon workshops included these supplies to create a mini book.

Dinner time meant Buffalo Wild Wings and a nice, tall Bell's Oberon.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel for some more crafting and visiting and taking selfies before it was time to wrap up the day of workshops. Later, after this stunning sunset, the view from my room window, a group of us gathered in the lobby to play my friend Tracey's game, Scraps Incite Calamity. We laughed and laughed, and it was so much fun, we stayed up really, really late. We didn't want the day to end.


Day 3

Sunday morning, the plan was to do a photo walk around the Michigan State campus, but the weather prevented that adventure, so we went on another one: the grocery and garden store called Horrocks. Free coffee? I was all in! We all wandered around and took photos, and some of us bought stuff.

I wanted to take these beauties home with me, but it just wasn't feasible.

Many of us took selfies with the lovely plants and flowers as the perfect backdrop.

So many pretty flowers!

Last on our agenda was a trip to the MSU Dairy for ice cream and the last 45 minutes or so of our time together. With group pictures, more selfies, and lots of hugs, we started to go our separate ways, already planning to see each other again next year.