Hit 'N Run -- A Layout

Ok - here is my first layout in FOREVER.  I used my Photo Art Letters for the title "Hit 'N Run" -- which is exactly what Skyler loves to do.  She has taken great pride in being one of the top hitters on her softball teams for years now.  Go check out Megan Klauer's blog where she is kind enough to be offering a prize challenge to anyone who does a layout using my Photo Art Letters I have for sale HERE.  Megan will be doing a drawing for a prize from her "paper stash" choosing randomly from those who participate in the challenge.  The challenge ends on July 10 -- GOOD LUCK!

1750 Family

I actually did this layout one snowy cold day this winter but forgot to post it. For the top trim piece, I used some of the material that was leftover after I made Skyler's dress which she is wearing in the picture.

This is a part of our lives that we seem to have less and less time for -- reenacting the Pre-Revolutionary War days -- but it will always be a part of what defines us and made us who we are. We have learned to appreciate all of the luxuries that are a part of people's lives these days and how much more difficult life was back then even though society has romanticized "the old days." Would I want to live back then? A part of me truly would. However, the early deaths because of war, disease and dangers we never even have to think of is something that makes me glad I am living now instead of then. But the simplicities and hard work of a time long gone are something I wish were more a part of today's society -- and so where we can -- we try to incorporate those things into our lives now. Because of this we carry and hunt with our flintlocks and that will never change. Hunting with a flintlock means we have one shot and one shot only to make an ethical kill -- so we spend a great deal of time practicing regularly in order to make that one shot count. Also, in keeping with this lifestyle, other than when we go out to eat (which is also very rare) we eat almost exclusively wild game. It is a VERY rare occasion when we stray from this. We also have, for the past 2 years, cut, split and stacked the wood that solely heated our home. This is something that we almost always do as a family. We each have our chore. Paul runs the chainsaw and I haul the wood to the truck. Skyler helps by making the wood stack in the back of the truck nice and tight so we can haul as much as possible. We then unload the truck at home and Paul splits wood as I stack. The manual labor is something that both Paul and I love and we have a warm home to show for it. So although we have the luxury of a truck instead of a team of horses and a chainsaw instead of handsaws -- we are doing our part to keep alive an era that has unfortunately become too far gone for many people to grasp.

Today - Tomorrow - Forever, My Friend

Today Paul and I are celebrating our 15 year wedding anniversary. I decided to do a page about it. The design of this layout is inspired by some of Megan Klauer's recent layouts. I love how she has used so many different patterns of paper on one layout - - so I gave it a shot.

We celebrated our anniversary by doing what we do best, spending time as a family - - outside. We didn't do what most people do to celebrate an anniversary. We didn't go out to eat or to the movies or spend money on unneeded gifts. We went. . .froggin'. We took Skyler and two of her friends on a frog hunt and had the time of our lives!! We haven't laughed that hard in quite a while. A lot of mud and laughs later we walked home and hosed off. I have some pretty good pictures I will have to scrap some time later.

Supplies used: AC (American Crafts) Thickers (letters and numbers), AC cardstock, Maya Road ribbon, We R Memory Keepers and Basic Grey (papers), vintage buttons.

Whoo's Your Daddy?

Since Paul got to help coach Skyler's team I have a few pages in mind I want to get scrapped. This is the first one - was super simple and quick - but get's the job done.

You Grow It - - We Mow It

The other day when Paul and I were doing our weekly in-town mowings, Skyler took the camera from my purse and snapped some pics. Paul and I used to mow at least 3-4 nights a week from the time we got home from work until dark. Now that we are in our mid-30's, we have decided to cut back so we only mow one day a week for a couple hours. But when people ask how I got the muscles in my arms and stay in shape even though I eat a lot, I guess this is one of the reasons.

Materials used: Megan Klauer Felties (mushroom and center of sun), Cosmo Crickett papers, My Mind's Eye papers, Thickers, metal letters, Maya Road ribbon, notebook paper.

Love is Like a Ghost

I saw that Cathy Cullis had some awesome stitch art and I immediately fell in love with it!! That is what inspired this page (even though this in NO way compares to her detail or artistry). . .I see a lot more of this type of stitchery in my future. It was so much fun!! I would love to explore this area further.

Hooked

I am submitting this to the Scrappin The Outdoors blog by Megan Klauer.

We got a piece of mail the other day and I knew immediately I had to use it for some of the TONS of fish pics I have of Skyler. So a few stickers and thickers later and I got an EASY and very QUICK page done.

My Turkey Layout

I am submitting this to the Scrappin The Outdoors blog by Megan Klauer.

Went a little crazy on these pages, apparently that is what I get for scrappin at midnight. . .but I don't do things twice, so this is it.

I used the following: Chipboard Tree I designed, 2 Megan Klauer Felties, Paper from My Minds Eye, Thickers (gotta get my moneys worth. . .), tags and stickers from Stampin' Up, glass stones for the cloud and a little gun sticker and letter stickers from Karen Foster Design.

Now I'm gonna go hang my head in shame for putting SOOO much on one layout =)

Homeless in Maryland Layout

I am submitting this layout to the Scrapping Out Loud blog challenge for this week where they ask you to use a rub-on directly on a picture.

Ok - I haven't been into doing layouts too much lately, but I have had this one in my mind since the end of April. . .so finally got a few minutes to pull it together. I used up some of my new Thickers, the main paper is from My Mind's Eye, used buttons for the H, printed the "list" onto vellum, used scrabble pieces for April as well as a scrabble piece I embellished with paper and liquid diamonds ( think that is what it is called. . .) as a square just before the word April.

The journaling reads:

State forests really do suck; Never trust a map ahead of your instincts; Sometimes the shortest route doesn’t end up being the quickest or best route; Yep, ATV trails really are for ATV’s; Motel rooms are very germy, but sometimes are actually better than the alternative; Complimentary breakfast doesn‘t always mean tasty breakfast; Taxi drivers who drive an unmarked van are not necessarily serial murderers; You really can survive on two changes of clothes for five days; An 8-year-old really can eat more than a grown stressed adult; Being with your family, no matter the situation, really is the most important thing; There are many people worse off than us; Kindness really does go a long way; Home really is a beautiful place.

Books may be the only true Magic

Skyler and I had so much fun last night - we drew pictures together, we went to the library (again) and checked out the equivalent of a garbage bag full of books, we came home and began organizing her room (phew, a lot left to do there) then we read together for a while before bedtime.

THEN, I got the scrappin bug. I was workin on this page until almost midnight. . .Skyler loves to read and I love that she loves to read =D Then I was up until about 1:30 reading Twilight - yep, I'm hooked. Good thing I got to sleep in cuz even 6:00 came way too early this morning!

And now for the layout. . .

Here is the layout. I used some old sheet music which I burned the edges on for my paper, burlap for the Turkeys tag, bobby pins, cloth measuring tape, misc. tag, Turkey Lingo and "1st" embellishment from a magazine, embroidery floss and a Megan feltie circle.

Bad Hair Day

This is a pincurl expiriment gone bad. Skyler and I were cracking up so hard that morning when I took out the pincurls and her hair just kept getting bigger and bigger. :-) Thank you to Lisa!! I had never heard of this Wordle before and I had a blast making up papers with it!! Also - thanks to all of you as I copied a little bit of ideas I have seen on your pages - specifically I know Megan and Christina have outlined their words - - I lifted your

ideas for that. I also made a little ladybug - just used a pen and cut him out of craft paper. Thanks for getting me motivated to do my first page in a long time - even though I am not officially in the April challenge.

Also - for those of you who may be wondering - Skyler did not have to go to school this way - we fixed it before booting her out the door. . .I am not that cruel.

Homeless in Maryland

Just a quick note - we are back home from our trip to Maryland - Phew!! We left Thursday morning at 6:30 a.m. and were scheduled to be home Sunday afternoon so we are only officially one day late getting home. We had major car problems and were homeless in Maryland from Saturday morning until Monday at about 11:30 a.m. (their time, 10:30 a.m. our time). I won't go into the details of our "car problems" but suffice it to say we have quite a story.

Here is a pic I took of Paul and Skyler as we were walking around town with just about everything we owned. Kinda funny now :-) The sad part is we fit right in. . .one of the days when we were walking with our possessions we walked by a person pushing a cart - - that is a mighty good idea when you got an armload, however Paul wasn't goin for that one.

I Hope You Dance

Megan Klauer's lo of Chase "Dream big" got me motivated to do this page. I have always wanted to do some sort of page along this line - however, the perfect picture I wanted to use I of course couldn't find. . .but I was almost possessed to get this page done this a.m. so I used this pic instead which I really like too - it shows off Skyler's big blue eyes. If you can't read the words it is just basically the lyrics to I Hope You Dance by LeeAnn Womack.

Here is a page I recently did. Not much to it - but we are on the hunt for our ancestors again and we have quite a few photos from different relatives that cannot be appreciated much when they are in stacks and piles. . .so we'll see how many pages I get done. This is a page of Paul's Great Grandpa Charlie who I had the privilege of getting to know rather well before he passed. Memories are a wonderful thing.

My Hubby

I decided to do 2 different pages for this - one Dad page and one Hubby page. Paul will probably kill me for posting the "muscle" pic. . .but that's ok. :-) I was still trying to just use up papers and embellishments I already had and am starting to get bored with the same old stuff. . .Off to Scrapaganza I went for my "Wood" layout.

Megan's Challenge - Week Three

I was planning on doing a Paul & I then and now for these two pages but our "then" pics were so painfully awful or as Skyler would say - ugly - that I couldn't do it. Wow, the early 90's weren't very good to us - especially me, of course. Anywa - this is a pic of me when I was Ginger Hawk.

Here is the only pic in like the last 3 years that was taken of me that I don't mind - and Skyler took it - she posed me and everything - it is from our vacation to Virginia - this was taken in Gettysburg.

Week 2 - Scrap Where You Live

Week 2 - Show Me Your Space

Here is my "Show Me Your Space" layout for week 2 of Megan's challenge.
My scrappin space also happens to be my basket makin' place, my sewin' place and my just about anything I try to do that might be considered crafty space.

Megan's Challenge - Week One

Ok - here is one of my first scrapbook pages. I basically started scrapbooking shortly after having Skyler cuz I wanted to do something other than just sticking photos in an album. . .


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Ok - nice hat - looks like my head is about 2 feet tall. . .I know, but it was cold!! Here is "my style today" and it actually is today cuz I just got this one done today. Scrappin our huntin pages is about the only scrappin I have done in the past year.