My Girls - Homecoming 2012

My girls looked beautiful for Homecoming this year and I just love the pictures I took of them.  It was raining so we were not able to go on location anywhere so I just did a mini studio session of them at home.

Sonja is 15 and a sophomore this year and I just cannot get over how beautiful and grown up she looks now.

 I'm so proud of my beautiful babies!

Alexis is now 18 and a senior this year, I really cannot believe she is about to graduate high school!

Alexis and her boyfriend Justin....

Wordless Wednesday - Thanks Studio Calico for my surprise gift!

Now & Then - Layout Share

I recently made really big ampersand with my cameo and I kept the negative part and knew I wanted to use it some how.  I used the negative part as a stencil and added modeling clay to the background page.  I love the dimension it gave to the page. 

So here it is, a layout using the September kit from Studio Calico and my big modeling paste ampersand. My kit this month had an extra set of die cuts so I was really happy I was able to have two striped thought bubbles for this layout.  

Weekend Recap - iPhone Version

I had a pretty busy weekend, I got some work done but I also got some much needed family things done as well and I really really need to concentrate on more family time, more hubby time too.  I just feel like there are not enough hours in the day sometimes.

Friday - The commute home was bad I got stuck at work until 4:45pm and then I hit a wee bit of traffic because it was about to storm.  We went to my daughter's volleyball game and then took our boys to watch a high school football game (and it was a sea of umbrellas) and then went for dinner afterwards.

Saturday - I got up early and drove out to the Houston Premium Outlets so my daughter could pick out her birthday present, I promised her another coach purse for her 18th.  We took a few minutes to play around in claire's with some of the funky glasses, lol.  I also picked Donovan up some new Nike slides since I was at the outlets and he needed new ones. After that I rushed back to our side of town to watch my son's football game. Despite the rain the night before it was a hot day and afterwards I wanted to just go home and relax.  I did get a little bit of scrapbooking done, that's my way of relaxing. lol

Sunday - We got up and had a small family gathering for brunch to celebrate the 18th birthday of Alexis that was on the 13th and Donovan's 13th birthday that was on the 9th.  Afterwards Sonja and I spent the rest of the day shopping. Sonja needed shoes and accessories for her homecoming next weekend and my  mom wanted to take her to get them.  Notice how tall my daughter is?  My mom is 5'7" in flip flops my daughter with heels on towers over her.  She is so tall and the shoes really showed it.  My mom also ended up getting her a necklace, earrings and ring to match her heels.  When we got home I had her put her dress and everything on for a little dress rehearsal.  She looks amazing and so grown, believe it or not she is only 15 and not close to sixteen at all.  I ended the evening by helping her friend with her mum, she brought all the stuff over but had no idea what our how to do it.

Like I said the weekend was non stop and very busy!

My Own Paradise - Layout Share

This is one of the very first pictures I took of myself on our family vacation this past June.  I loved sitting on the beach and just relaxing...it really was my own personal paradise.

Oh Hello - Layout Share

I was going through my old pictures and I came across this picture, it really cracks me up.  This is a picture of my daughter, who is now 15, back when she was just over a year old.  She was always getting as close as she could for me to take pictures and this one she literally was too close. 

Since the picture is only half of her face I figured instead of taking a bad photo and not doing anything with it I would emphasis the issue, hence why have it purposely on the very edge of the background page.  Just a little something different and to add a little interest. Why not, right?

Some Texting Fools - Studio Calico Sunday Sketch Challenge

This is my first time participating in a Sunday Sketch Challenge over at Studio Calico, I usually don't follow sketches but this one stood out to me because I have these two pictures (well actually I have several different pictures) of my girls with their noses in their phones texting away.  But luckily for them, they have unlimited texting, I've seen their monthly texts and they can range anywhere from 4k to as far as 8k. I text but nothing like that. lol

Here is the sketch and you can see it over on the Studio Calico Blog it's based off of Sasha's Saturday Story layout in her design team gallery for the September kit Central Park.

And here is my page based off of the sketch and you can find it in My Studio Calico Gallery.

The background page is a woodgrain from Crate Paper called Playhouse from the Emma's Shoppe Collection, the multi chevron has the denim on the opposite side and it's from  My Mind's Eye's On The Bright Side collection.  The floral print has the red and white pokadots on the opposite page and it's from Crate Paper's Emma's Shoppe as well and it's called Dresses.  I stamped the instagram camera using the Stamps I got form Beary Sweet Dreams. The word "texting" was cut with my cameo using the Instagram font called Billabong.  I used my dymo label maker for the "some" and "fools".  The red arrow is one of Studio Calico's wood veneers that I just painted red and the blue rhinestones came from a variety pack from Hobby Lobby.

Thanks for looking....

Dream Big & Daydream Often - Layout Share

This picture my daughter took of herself at the end of last school year, I'm sure it was during down time and not during the actual class, at least I hope so, lol. I love this picture, it's just a fun and simple picture but it really shows her character, she is such a beautiful girl and I am so proud she will be graduating this year and going straight off college then following fall to work on a degree in nursing.

All the papers are from the Everyday Eclectic collection. I used modge podge with the paper on to a chipboard ampersand, the embellishments are a combinations of My Minds Eye, Studio Calico and the talking bubble paperclips, the washi tape are from target.

Speeding up my Project Life Process & A New Tool

So first let me tell you how I am managing to catch up on my Project Life album.  I take a lot of pictures with my iPhone, it's just so much more accessible and light weight.  I hate to carry my 7d or even my 40d around. I always have my phone with me so the majority of my PL pictures are from my iPhone, nothing new there.  But I found that I take several pictures in day, so I always have more than enough for a week's spread.

Now here is where the catch up part comes into play, I am only on week 25, yep that's right, I have so many pictures I cannot even count them right now.  I needed a fast way to catch up, so I created a .PSD file where I can put 12 - 2x2 inch pictures on.  I just open the template and drop the pictures in, then print the page, then drop more in and then print that page...lol you get the idea.   Then once I get the pages off the printer I use my jumbo 2 inch punch and punch them all out.  It's so fast, so I am really starting to catch up.

This is what it looks like....

And this is the punch that I got from Michael's, it says it's a 3 inch but really the 3 inches is diagonally and it's really 2 1/8 x 2 1/8, here is what the punch looks like....

And as you can see in the picture below the printed and punched picture fits perfectly on a 3x4 journal card. I even put two on a 4x6 and still have room to embellish or journal.

Okay now for some enabling...

I love flairs but I just don't have a collection yet, mainly because I want so many different styles and I cannot decide what I want to buy first.  Well a while back I was in Michael's and I saw this little punch and these epoxy bubble caps and I bought them on a whim.  Got home put them in my stash and forgot about them.  Well yesterday I came across it thought I would try it out with the cameo geotag shape and it worked like a charm.  I mean it's not a flair by any means but it's close. It's a 1 inch circle and it's not as thick as flair.  

The way it works basically is your print or stamp something on to paper, you slide your paper into the little round punch and then open the top window, eyeball and center the design then peel off one of the epoxy bubbles and put it right on top of your shape.  It fits perfectly in the opening, then you close the top and press down and viola you have a cute perfectly cut shape with a bubble epoxy top. It was really easy and I love that I can completely customize it.

Here is a look at the tool, and example of what I did and the package of epoxy bubbles you buy separately.

Heisman Pose - Layout Share

I'm really happy that I am actually using my stamps instead of hoarding them. I've been getting them for a while now but I seem to never incorporate them into my layouts.  Project Life, yes, but I never can seem to "fit" them into a layout.  I'm working on it though and I am happy with my progress.

The Looking Good and funky arrow stamps are from the dollar bin at Michael's.  The Go, See, Do is from the Studio Calico exclusive PL set from Two Peas.  The title is stamped using the Roxie set from American Craft Shoreline Collection. The bottom label stamp is from the August main kit at Studio Calico.

As you can see I'm still using up some remaining items from the August kits from Studio Calico.

Pretty Princess - Layout Share

It's only fair that I show Solae our other American Pitbull....She is the Pretty Princess....well not so much. She doesn't have the etiquette to go along with being a princess.  She has gas a lot, she snorts and snores really loud so this page is more for laughs.  

I just had fun with it, the crown on her head is totally random and just well just plain for fun.  lol

I really wanted to use the "I MUSTACHE YOU..." stamp from studio calico and being that she is really far from a princess and does a lot of things you would expect from a man, I figured this fit the circumstances.  I used the pink and gray colors to over emphasis the princess aspect and added the rhinestones as an over the top glitzy appeal.

Don't Judge..... - Layout Share

This layout means a lot to me, my dogs are constantly judge because of their breed.  Yes, we have two beautiful American Pitbulls.  They are a  BIG part of our family....

This is my Kaos....he's 5 years old and I have had him since he was 5 weeks old. He means the world to me, he is the sweetest most affectionate dog I hate that he is judged before he is even had a chance to wiggle his silly self into your heart.

I really liked playing with the modeling paste and the paint...I added in some colored string, sequence and and some wood veneer hearts and stars.

Wordless Wednesday - Cutie in heels....