Happy Days

I am totally in love with the Happy Days collection by Echo Park! I love the bright colors, the vintage kind of feel, the patterns, really just everything about it! So when they posted their Facebook Challenge, I knew I had to play along. I had alot of fun with this layout, I couldn't stop adding to it!! I'm not sure what is with me lately on that front, but I am definitely changing up my style! Here is the layout I made for the challenge.

Sorry for the somewhat blurry photo...I am fighting a horrible sinus infection..and apparently I was swaying on my feet a little there.

I am really happy with this layout..its something different for me....and while the colors don't necessarily "match" my photo, I think that together they all work really well together and play off of each other.

September is going to be a busy month for me! My LSS was in need of help, so I am going to start working there part time, I haven't worked in over 4 years, so very nervous about starting that back up, and how the girls are going to do. So far they are perfectly fine, but those of you with kiddos know how quickly that can change. Also I start my term on the design team at Scrap-Friendzy in September, and I will be hosting my first challenge later in the month!
We are doing something extra fun for September! For every challenge you complete by Sunday of the week it was posted, you are entered for a RAK! That is FOUR chances at some scrappy goodies...along with the chance at a prize from your Friendz points. You all should definitely come by and check it out here!!
I am also considering applying for a couple other design teams, so fingers crossed there!

What are you all up to as we head back into the school year, into fall??

Hope you all have a blessed week!!

Exciting News!!!

Happy Friday Everyone!! :) I am just popping in real quick to share some very exciting news!! I have been asked to be on the design team over at Scrap-Friendzy!

Its a great forum and kit club...they host weekly challenges and the atmosphere is fantastic!! I hope some of you will stop by and check it and play along!!

Have a blessed week!! :)

WINNER WINNER!!!!!

First off I would like to tell you all thank you so much for stopping by and taking the time to comment during the Blog Hop. I loved reading each and every comment. :)

Now on to the good stuff! :) The winner of my giveaway is:

True Random Number Generator Min: Max: Result: 21 Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Comment # 21 which was CAROLEB!!!

Congrats Carol!! :) If you will email me your info I will get your prize out to you asap! :)

Again thank you all for hopping my way, and there is still plenty of time to play along in the sketch challenge yourself! All you have to do is create a layout based on the sketch given, and once you are done head over to Amanda's blog lovejoypaper.com and add it to Mr. Linky!

Have a blessed week! Hopefully will be back to share some more projects this week! :)

Thanks for Hoppin by!! :)

Hello Hoppers!! Welcome to my humble little blog, if you didn't come here from Kathy's blog, please return to Amanda's blog so that you can hop along in order.

If you follow along with me, you know I love sketches! I find they take some of the harder aspects, photo placement is a BIG one for me, out of the design process, and let you focus more on telling your story and getting exactly the look you want.

Amanda gave us this fun sketch to work with:

I played around with it some, but I still think that you can very much see the sketch in my layout.

I really wanted to use the pictures that a friend had taken of my youngest and myself, so I switched up the orientation a bit, and made it work for what I needed. That's what I love about sketches, and this one has so many possibilities, I know I will use it again!

Thanks again for hopping my way this weekend, I have a giveaway! :) Sorry no picture, but its a good one, trust me!! :) So if you would like to be entered please become a follower and leave me a comment letting me know you did...if you are already a follower, leave me a comment letting me know that too!! :) I will be out of town all weekend, so my giveaway will be open until Monday morning!! :)

Please go to Laura's blog to continue!!

If you would like to be entered for the prize for the entire hop, then make a layout of your own based on the sketch, and once you have finished, return to Amanda's blog and add your link!

Thanks again for hopping by! Have a blessed weekend!!

~Amanda

The Most Wonderful Story

A few months back, a friend of mine who was just starting out with her photography business asked to take some pics of our little family. Of course I said yes, any excuse to get Derek and the girls together for some pictures I just on. It had been quite awhile since we had had our family pictures taken, so I was determined to get some good ones. The day wasn't going well for that at all, it was sprinkling off and on, it was very chilly, and the girls were not having any part of it, I think because they knew we were going to the pumpkin patch once we finished.
So Derek, being the amazing husband and father that he is, was trying so hard to keep the girls happy so that we could get our pictures....and me being the frustrated mommy and wife that I am was getting so aggravated at him and the girls because all they wanted to do was play. I left upset and disappointed sure that their were going to be no good pictures.
Then she brings me the pictures and this is what I get:

Talk about amazing ( at least in my opinion) photos! These are so true to my daughter and husband. Tickles, kisses, and spinning...they do all of these all the time. I love these photos and the story behind them ( hence the title) :)

I did my journaling in yellow, cause while I wanted to tell the story behind these pictures, I still wanted the main focus to be on the pictures, and I felt that any other color would compete too much with the softer background and elements.

I also kept the majority of the layout very simple, since I had such a large cluster of embellishments in the top right corner. The inspiration behind that came from this beauty here:



I love the inspiration at Polkadot Door Design, I am usually just a silent follower, but this inspired me so much that I had to play along this time. They extended their deadline until the 25th, so if this photo inspires you , head over and get all the info and play along! :)

Just a few quick notes:

Blog Hop tomorrow!! Be here!! :)

Be on the lookout next week for a fun new blog design!! Melissa Elsner from The Profound Brunette is busily working on my new design this weekend! I have loved all the little peeks, can't wait to see it all put together!

Last, but certainly not least Leeanne over at Artful Delight Kit Club is just a few people away from having 400 followers!! When she hits that number she is going to have a giveaway! Trust me you want to head over there and check it out! Her kits are AMAZING!! :)

Wedding this weekend, so I will be out of blogging land, but I hope you all enjoy this post, and the blog hop this weekend. I will select a winner from the hope Monday when we get back to town.

Thanks so much for stopping by and looking at my work, you all are such a blessing and I love reading your comments!

Have a blessed weekend!!

~Amanda

Imagination

My girls have the best imaginations, I don't remember playing and pretending and just enjoying life when I was younger as they do. I feel alot of this comes from their absolute love for books. These girls love reading and looking at pictures in any and every book they can find. AND I LOVE IT!!! :) I am so thankful that they have this desire to learn and grow and imagine. I hope they keep it forever! :)

When they posted the Guest Design Team challenge over at Sketchy Thursdays and I saw the sketch, and that the theme needed to have something to do with reading, I knew exactly what I wanted the layout to be about, our messy book shelves and random piles of books throughout the house. My mom would die if she saw my house sometimes, lol, but I don't care. I love walking down the hallway and seeing the girls laying there with a pile of books "reading" them to each other. Anyways, lol, I used those pics for my layout...the piles and the mess, and I put them together with some Cosmo Cricket and Basic Grey, and came up with this beauty, that I must say I am pretty proud of...it's really pretty simple, but the colors and patterns are so far out there for me that I feel like I accomplished something major. LOL!

I have some stamping, some embossing, some misting, die cutting, I went a little crazy on this one, but I love it! :)

You have til Saturday to enter the GDT challenge! Go check it out...also check out the design team call they are having...I'm seriously debating!! :)

Remember, blog hop this weekend!!! :)

Have a blessed day!!

~ Amanda

Scrappy Happy Day!! :)

Today was a very productive day for me!! I finished 3, yes 3, layouts!! :) The girls were having so much fun playing with their new zuzu pet babies, that they weren't interested in me at all. That doesn't happen very often, lol, so I took advantage of it! :)

I loved the Sketchy Thursdays sketch this week, so I had to play along there. I changed it up a little bit, and only used one photo instead of the three they had...I am so happy with the way this one turned out!

I also wanted to play along with the sketch challenge over at Artful Delight. I switched this sketch up a little bit also. I had lots of fun on this one playing with my new Happy Days collection by Echo Park!! :)

Sorry the picture quality on these two isn't that great. Its a cloudy day here, and I couldn't get a good picture for anything by the window. So took them outside, and then I couldn't get them to line up straight, and the colors are still a tad off, but you get the idea. :)

Hope everyone has a blessed week! We are off to the park to enjoy a little more freedom before Miss E heads back to preschool! :)

Don't forget the blog hop is this weekend!! :) Hope you can all hop on by! ;)

~ Amanda

My Little Princess

In December, both of my girls celebrate their birthdays, this year they wanted to have one big party together. After lots of discussing, cause this is serious business you know, lol, they decided to have a Princess Tea Party. It was alot of fun for both of them and their little friends. Everyone came dressed as a princess, we made crowns, sat down and drank out of our tea cups, we even had tea pot cakes..they loved it! I was exhausted! LOL!
 Of course I have gobs of pictures that I love, but I picked out some of my absolute favorites and put them into this fun little mini album. I die cut all the little tea cups on Silhouette (love that thing!) and then just went to town with trims, gems, banners, anything fun girly and sparkly! :)

This is very picture heavy, but I really wanted to share a photo of every page! :) ( You can click on the photos to make them larger :))

I used mainly Pebbles, Inc. and American Crafts on this. The stamps are Lawn Fawn, and there are some trims and stickers through in there from various manufacturers.

This album is for Miss E...she loves it! :) I am asked daily, though, where Katlyn's is, so I better get busy on that! :)

This mini is one of the featured albums over at Practical Scrappers today. Make sure you head over and check out all of the other amazing albums! I know I now have some super cute ideas!! :)

What makes a bad day better...

A little bit of scrappy time, of course. :) I have had one of those days today, the ones where there aren't really any "big" things going wrong, but the ones where there are so many little ones and each and every one just rubs you the wrong way. Please tell me I am not the only one that has these days!

Thankfully I had two beautiful little ladies that just make it all better. :) So after a little cuddle time with them, they laid down for a nap, and I decided that the house could be cleaned tomorrow. :)

On the fourth, we took a little day trip to a local mill and spent the day, just walking around enjoying. I happened to snap this lovely little shot of my husband and Miss E.

I kept this one pretty simple, I wanted the focus on that photo. This is so them. She is daddy's little girl. :)

I used the most recent sketch from Sketchy Thursdays.

I don't know what I would do without them! lol! It seems like the only scrapping I get done any more is my weekly layout for them. :) I am also going to link this up for Amy Heller's "Scrap Your Scraps Summer Challenge" :)
Hope everyone is having a great week! I am off to a pool party, hopefully the day keeps going up from here! :)

Be blessed!!

~Amanda

Christmas in...August??

I was going through the pics on my computer yesterday, seeing what needed to be moved where, and I came across the ones of my oldest at her preschool Christmas party. The quality is absolutely horrible, but I don't even notice, all I can focus on is that smile. Pure happiness!! She was so excited that Santa was coming, and it was the first party she had had a school. So I decided that it was time to get them on a page.

I tried to kinda step out of my comfort zone on this one. I thought these Jenni Bowlin papers were fun for this page. Even though they aren't Christmas themes, I thought the red and black went nicely with the photos. I threw in a little Crate Paper, Girl's Paperie...which I think all coordinates nicely together. I am actually really happy with the way this layout turned out...its kinda busy, which isn't my norm at all, but I love it. :)

I used the 7.28 sketch from Sketchy Thursdays and I am also entering this in the workout at ScrapFit "Put a Banner on it"

I would also like to share this layout I did awhile page using a PageMaps sketch. I can't seem to find the sketch that I used, but I got it off of the SCT Blog.

I just noticed that this is crooked...hmm...hopefully its just the photo and not the actual layout! LOL!

I am so in love with the color combo right now!

The papers are all from MME, alphas Studio Calico.

Hope everybody has a very blessed Wednesday!

~Amanda



SC Giveaway!!

Hi all!! Hope you are having a terrific Tuesday! ;) Just wanted to pop on real quick and share that Kim Watson is giving away a Studio Calico Boardwalk kit!! Head on over to her blog and check it out!! Also make sure you check out the SC gallery for this kit...Kim is the guest designer and she ROCKED it! Along with the whole SC team!

~Amanda

YourScrapbookStash Scraplift!

YourScrapbookStash.com is having a scraplift contest this week. We were to choose one layout from a member of the DT's July gallery. This store has some serious talent on their DT!! I had a really hard time deciding which layout to lift!! Until I stumbled across Jennie McGarvey's layout, which you can see here, I knew it was the one! It was perfect for these photos I had laying around of Miss E from her first "real" haircut.

Here is my take on Jennie's layout. I didn't really change anything, I love it the way it was. :)

Lots of MME on here...I love that Fine & Dandy collection! Also mixed in a little Echo Park and Nikki Sivils.

I really love the design of this layout....I can see myself definitely using this one again!

If you want to play along with the challenge, they have extended the deadline to this Friday, August 5th! You can get the details here.

Oh! AND I made it to 50 friends!! I said I would have a giveaway when I hit that mark...I am thinking I might mix it up a little bit and make it a challenge though....hmmmm...more to come on that later this week!! ;)

Hope everyone has a blessed week!!

~Amanda