Flashback Friday-using up my stash

Hello! I haven't done a flashback in a while, even though I'm always trying to use up what I have before buying anything new.  I recently went shopping for supplies and was so proud that I only bought adhesive, cutting blades, and some xyron sticker refills!  Not saying this will happen next time, but it did this time!

My two pages aren't connected; actually they're for two different albums.  The first is for my oldest one's album.  She transferred school last year and we helped her move.  She is doing so well and we are so proud of her!  The background is all one page.  It came blocked off like this and I've had it for quite a while trying to figure out what to do with it...  A little trimming of photos, cutting letters, and punching flowers and that was it!

This page is part of the goal album for DD2.  The page is actually one I made at a class years ago. Long, long ago!  I finally dug the container out that held all of my ready to go pages and decided to use this one.  Since it was finished, I just needed to add the photo and journaling.

I can't remember everything from the second page, but I think the DSP is Lap of Luxury. Most of the supplies are listed in the labels section.

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Musical Overload

 Hello! I managed to find some time Sunday to take pictures of my pages. I'm going to warn you that this is one photo heavy post!!

I'm still on a mission to finish 2019 before DD2's graduation in May.  I've been making pretty good progress so far, but I know spring will be busy and I'll have less time to create. I'm trying to block out a few hours each week and keeping the pages pretty clean and simple to help me get the memories and stories recorded.

Today's pages feature DD's spring musical pictures.  The director is great about letting me crash rehearsals to take pictures, and I managed to get a few pics from their last run through.  Some had poor lighting and aren't the greatest pictures, but they still capture the memories and friends on stage.

I used a clear sleeve to create a pocket for the playbill

I still need to add some journaling to this page, but 

wanted DD's input before writing

I love the blurry, eerie effect on these pics.  It is 

a dream scene, so the not so great photos actually

work well on this page!

The pics are less than perfect, but they do capture

the different moves in the bottle dance. This was DD's

favorite scene she was in!

I don't have another long weekend for a while, but I'm still excited and hopeful of getting a lot of pages finished this year! Wish me luck!

Thanks so much for visiting and have a wonderful day!

Scrapbook Saturday

Just a quick pop in today to share a snowy page. Still no real snow here...

This was a quick page to put together-cricut letters, a few punched snowflakes and done!

I managed to get quite a few pages done over the week, but haven't photographed them yet. Hopefully, I'll get to that before the weekend is over!  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Snug as a Bug

Hello! I'm back with another page and a fun way to play with paper! I belong to a Facebook group that often offers challenges and one day we were challenged to do a diagonal design.  I have to be honest, I haven't thought about this technique for ages!

I dug into some older winter pattern paper and even though I will not run out of paper any time soon, the frugal side of me got creative to make the most of the paper.  I punched the white snowflakes from the base before covering it with the patterned paper and punched the blue flakes before gluing that part down & covering it with the photos.I also cut the letters from a piece of that area.

I need to sort my latest order of photos so I can get busy again!  I have the day off tomorrow and plan to spend the day in my crafty room.  I even bought extra adhesive so I can create to my heart's content!

Thanks so much for visiting and I hope you have a wonderful day!

Scrapbook Saturday- Bring on the Bling!

Hello! I'm so glad you stopped by!  Today I have three pages to share and as the title says, they're a little bit blingy!  I really need to have a better setup for my scrapbook page photos.  When it is overcast or dark outside, the lighting in my room is not great... The colors are a bit off and the shimmer and shine on these pages aren't nearly as impressive as they are in person.  The papers are actually silver and a soft aqua green and the photo mats are a glittery aqua.  The second photo's pattern paper is actually silver embossed and quite shiny, and you can barely see the 'homecoming' title that is quite visible in real life.  Maybe my next photo shoot will happen on a nice sunny day!

The paper is actually a winter line from KaiserCraft, but the 

aqua and glitter matched DD2's homecoming dress perfectly!

The silver embossed piece is also from the same collection, 

paired with an aqua cardstock base (sorry, forgot name)

This page is super photo heavy, but there's a peek of the aqua 

cardstock in the center.  I will add the names of friends

in that space.

I recently placed another photo printing order and will be ready to do a lot more pages soon!  I still have pictures to work with, but they are older and kind of random.  I would really love to see 2019's album finished before May... Wish me luck!

Thanks so much for visiting and have a terrific day!

The last of the NYC pages!

Hi! I'm so excited to share the last of our NYC trip!  I've been working on some other pages in my free time and will share those with you soon! But for now, here are the final 11 pages (sorry...)!

Day 3 started with a ferry ride to the Statue of Liberty. It was

a bit chilly, but still a great morning out in the harbor!  We made a stop 

at Ellis Island, but didn't tour (a little bummed by that...) so I only

have outdoor photos.

Some birds decided to hitch a ride on the ferry as well!

Our tour of Lady Liberty included A LOT of steps leading to the pedestal

which offered a different perspective of her and some fantastic

views of the harbor!

The top left photo is actually a glimpse into the insides

of the statue. The shattered spot on the glass was from a

tool being dropped while they were doing maintenance.

Views of the harbor from the pedestal and ferry

After we were back on land, we walked through the city 

to reach the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.  We saw

the Wall Street bull and a beautiful flower sculpture on

the way.

This was such a special and somber place. I can't say

we 'enjoyed' it, but I'm so honored that we were able

to  visit.  Both sections were created with amazing

thoughtfulness and respect.

The only page I didn't share was the final page; an 8x10 photo of the group which I simply matted and placed on a base.

My completed album is now sitting on a shelf with other finished albums.  I would love to say my pile of unfinished albums is getting smaller, but every year adds a new album to the pile. Instead, I'll relish in the increasing amount of completed albums! Life is all about perspective!

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Scrappy Sunday-More NYC

Hello! I'm back again with, you guessed it, more NYC pages!! Are you sick of this trip yet?  I feel like the couple who invites people to a party only to hold them hostage to a slide show of their most recent vacation... I'm hoping this isn't the case!

Today's pages are wrapping up day 2 of our trip.

Our tour guide had a great sense of humor and we all

walked right into his biggest joke of the trip.  He was sharing

history of the park and the different buildings and rock

formations.  We all climbed on one of the formations as he

talked to us about this specific rock called schist.  As he finished, 

he slyly added, "you are are standing on a big piece of schist".

group photos in front of the fountain

The choir sang Yesterday in the Strawberry Fields section 

of the park.  It was a beautiful moment and the musicians 

in that area asked them to join them in singing. It was a great

tribute to John Lennon.

The evening wrapped up with a dine and dance cruise on

the Spirit of New York.  We enjoyed the views from the

deck and the kids danced the night away.

My DDs always tell me I have a stranger beacon that

attracts complete strangers to join in conversations with

me.  I can't deny this, but it has been a great way to 

learn new things.  One of the ship's crew noticed me taking

photos of the bridges and came over to chat.  I knew the 

Brooklyn, but wasn't sure about the other two.  He told 

us to remember BMW, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Washington. 

How cool is that?!

I will have one more post wrapping up this album and then will move on to other crafty endeavors! Thanks so much for visiting and have a great day!

Scrapbook Saturday-Guided tour of NYC

Hello and I'm starting off with a warning. This is a super photo heavy post! Lots of pages to share and I didn't even share all that are finished!!  I'm actually all but finished with the album now, but didn't want to completely bombard my blog with pictures!

Today I'm sharing the end of Day 1 and part of our guided tour of NYC. Day 2 was actually guided by a NY native (an actor who also moonlights as a tour guide).  It was educational and quite entertaining, and we saw a lot of this amazing city.

After a long day of exploring, we walked to the Chophouse

for a seemingly never ending dinner, followed by the 

Broadway musical Waitress.

I used a plastic sleeve to create a pocket for the playbill and 

a subway embellishment made a great ticket pocket.

Day 2 started with the arrival of our personal tour guide

and a ride on the subway to Little Italy and China Town.  I

took pictures of Grand Central Terminal, but didn't get a 

single picture of the two destinations... We had our first 

authentic canollis at an Italian bakery and walked past

several restaurants that were just getting started for the day. 

Our next stop was via bus. We had a block of time to

explore Greenwich Village and eat lunch.  It was such a

beautiful day and we really enjoyed eating outdoors. You

can also see a rare photo of me on this page!

The next stop was at a beautiful Episcopalian Cathedral. We

were able to explore several areas of the cathedral and viewed

some amazing religious art pieces.

My husband posed for a picture with the statue of Michael

the Archangel defeating Satan.  There were so many wonderful

sculptures and art pieces outdoors as well.

This page features some random places of interest we saw

on the bus tour of the city.  

I hope I didn't scare you off with all of the pictures!  Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful day!

Throwback Thursday- Snow Day

Hi! I'm so glad you popped in today!  I took a little break from the NYC pages to make a couple of snow day pages.  We've yet to have a decent snow this winter, so it was a little odd to create wintry pages, but now I have two more pages in my 2018 album! Slowly getting things accomplished!

I honestly can't remember when I bought this winter paper pack, but it had a Wal-Mart label on it.  I know I haven't bought paper from Wal-Mart in ages...  I pulled out an older snowflake punch and a Recollections alphabet die set, and got busy.

This layout was part of a challenge/prompt from a Facebook

group I belong to.  We were to use a diagonal cut somewhere 

on our page.

This page was made with some of the scraps from the first page.

On a personal note, I have almost reached the end of my first week back to work and I can't believe how exhausted I am at the end of each school day.  Guess I messed up my schedule just enough during break to make things difficult.  I really would love to spend some time in my craft room on weeknights and not just the weekends!  I'll have to work on that!

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Enjoying 5th Avenue

Hello! I am so glad you have stopped by!  I have more NYC pages to share with you today.  I've almost finished the pages from the first day of our trip.  It is crazy how I can put together an album FULL of photos and think "why didn't I take a picture of .....", but I have been doing this on several pages.  Like photos of our sandwiches, the gentleman we met at the Lego Store, and GASP! a family picture from Top of the Rock...

As much as I dislike that these moments aren't being preserved in time, I am taking this as an indicator that I was enjoying the moment and simply forgot about the camera.

We started in Rockefeller Center and had a morning/afternoon of

exploring 5th Avenue.  We did a lot of window shopping, but didn't 

buy anything... although a sterling silver telephone dialer from

Tiffany's would have been fabulous!

Lunch was amazing at this NY deli. Huge sandwiches and 

fresh fruit hit the spot after a morning of window shopping

We actually met the gentleman who created the fabulous 

floral pieces in the top right photo.  He and his wife were

so kind as he shared his love of Legos and being inspired by 

weeds in his back yard.

This was one of the girls favorite stops! They even stood in line

for a turn on the floor piano!  It is such an impressive toy

store and the employees were so friendly!

Our last stop of the afternoon was a trip to the top of the

Rockefeller Center.  There were amazing views of the city

and we saw Central Park in it's entirety surrounded by the

urban landscape. I tucked the ticket stub behind the top right

photo, and the middle embellie of the Empire State building

pulls out to reveal a journaling tab.

I am feeling quite accomplished with my progress on this album and hope to have it completed soon!  Thanks so much for visiting and have a great day!