This Makes Me Smile

Yes! I'm on a roll using my Today is Beautiful February Kit. Love that!  Today I want to share another layout I've put together using that kit. This one is about a little adventure close to home during spring break last year. Hannah and I went ice skating with friends and of course, we had to snap a few pictures while trying to stay up on our feet/skates.

My favorite accent on this page is the giant "ice" hand cut from some patterned paper. It was a last minute addition and I think it gives the right pop to the page. It's a super simple way to jazz up a title and I need to remember to experiment with different variations on this idea soon.

My second favorite accent on the page is the fill in the blank "This Makes Me..." card in the center of the page. I sketched out the idea for this card for the Scrapbook Circle kit and had our designer finish it up. Then the file was off to the printers and delivered a few days later. I love getting to dream up things to use on layouts and then have them become an actual product that is used on layouts. So cool.

Layout Supplies /// Today is Beautiful Kit /// Dream Big Add-on

Cousins @ Atlantic Beach

Last week I decided to take pictures during the process of putting a layout together. I had no idea or plan for page, but thought it would be fun to take pictures along the way. I used the Beatuful Mess PartyParty app to put this together. Here's a look at the process:

I started out thinking that I'd cut hearts out of the 6 X 6 papers and then thought it would be cool to use the outline of each too. It was something different and I'm happy with how it turned out.

This page is about a trip we took to North Carolina to visit my sister and her family for spring break almost three years ago. It seems like a usually scrapbook more recent pictures and it was fun to do some older photos and see how the kids have all changed so much.

When I put this together, I treated each little 6 X 6 section as it's own little page and added just a few embellishments and the photos. I figured the page was already busy with all of the patterned paper combinations, so I didn't want to overdo things.

Now I'm thinking that I want to take this idea of cutting a shape from paper and using the frame with some other shapes. Thinking about the possibilities!

Layout Supplies /// Today is Beautiful Kit /// Dream Big Add-on

Love Life Love You

I've been having so much fun the last couple of weeks carving out time to scrapbook. It s something that I'm making a priority because it really is important to me.

The February Scrapbook Circle Kit, Today is Beautiful, went live today and so I wanted to share my favorite layout I've made with the kit so far. I still have this stack of goods from the kit to use, so I'm hoping there will be a few more layouts to come.

This layout came together with a bit of inspiration from my friend Jennie. She was working on a wedding video for her sister in law and said how many selfies they had taken over the past couple of years. I decided to look through my photos and see how many I could find from 2014 of Ward and I. We had about 20 decent photos of us together. Is this a lot? A little? I have no idea, but it was the perfect amount to put on this layout.

This paint chip paper from Crate Paper just called out to have lots of the little spaces filled with photos and embellishments. I loved printing out lots of small photos and then pairing them with bits and pieces from the February Kit.

I've noticed that Ward and I tend to mainly take photos together when we are on trips or at special occasions, so I'm going to work on taking more photos together during more regular daily moments this year.

Thanks for stopping by today! Hope you have a terrific Tuesday!

Craftsy Class Giveaway!

Happy Friday! Hope your day is fun filled and productive. I'm working though my do to list and almost have everything marked off. Maybe there will even be a little time for some scrapbooking this afternoon.

I was just looking back through some photos and thought about how I seriously had so much fun in the fall creating all of the class content for my Creative Titles and Journaling Class for Craftsy. I feel like I haven't done a very good job sharing that with you, so I thought I should offer a class giveaway today on Instagram.

Over on the Scrapbook Circle Instagram feed (scrapbook_circle) we are giving away two spots in my class. You just tag your friends and then you and your friend and entered to and to take the class together. I thought it would be more exciting to have a friend along for the fun.

I guess I haven't mentioned a lot about the class because I definitely don't want to feel like I'm selling you something! But, I really do love everything that I created for the class - it really pushed me creatively and I'm so excited to have an outlet for helping people tell their stories.

Hope you'll stop by and enter the giveaway! You can check out the class HERE. The link will give you $15 off of the class if you are interested in signing up. We create a lot of layouts in the class with a focus on how the titles and journaling can help you tell your most important stories.

Please let me know if you have any questions about the class or the giveaway! Enjoy your weekend.

@Telegraph Pass

It feels so good to have created three layouts in the past week. I guess there were a lot of layouts created in the last few months of last year for Craftsy, but I can't share them here, so it didn't quite feel properly documented. So it feels good to be back blogging and sharing my pages.

My layout share today is about a family hike we did over Christmas break with my brother, sister and nieces and nephews. I really love winter here in AZ. Lots of cool air and sunshine. Perfect hiking weather. We did a fairly easy hike that was about 2.5 miles. I will admit that I could feel all of the fudge, cookies and brownies that I had eaten in December weighing me down. Not cool. Thankfully, the delicious temptations are no longer around and I'm back to exercising and eating better.

The center photo on the page is one of my favorites from the day. Hannah spotted a heart shaped cactus and wanted me to take a picture. I love that she was paying attention to the cool details in nature!

Hope you enjoy MLK Day! I'm looking forward to relaxing and finding something fun to do with our kids.

Layout Supplies /// SC All You Need is Love Kit ///  SC Hello Love Add-on /// SC Shine Bright Add-on

Disney Love

This year for Christmas we decided to focus (there's my One Little Word!) more on experience gifts and less on adding more stuff to our house. My sister Kristen and I cooked up a plan to surprise our kids with a trip to Disneyland over New Years. One thing that made it extra special was that my sister's kids had never been there before. I was so excited to share one of our favorite places with them.

On New Years Eve we packed everyone up and drove six hours over to Anaheim. We arrived in time for dinner and decided to wander around Downtown Disney to find something to eat. After dinner we explored the Logo store and the World of Disney store for quite a while. Disneyland did a huge fireworks show at 9:00 p.m. and we found a great spot in Downtown Disney to watch. Perfect way to bring in the new year!

We were in bed by 10:30 pm which I think is a first for me on New Year's Eve, but we had an early morning ahead, so we wanted as much sleep as possible. We spent the first day at Disneyland. The morning crowds were low and we were able to get on a bunch of rides. Indiana Jones broke while we were on it and we sat for about 30 minutes before they had us walk off of the ride. The good news was that they gave us passes good to get on three different rides without waiting. Sweet. 

We had lunch reservations in New Orleans square where we shared a few Monte Cristo Sandwiches and garlic fries. It's been a tradition to eat there, but I must say that the sandwich is a little too much fried dough and I'm probably finished with it. I'll just stick with Mickey shaped beignets for my fried food while at Disneyland!

We loved going on all of the main rides and really packed so much in that day. We had dinner reservations at Big Thunder BBQ which was one of the highlights of the day and we plan to do that every time we go to Disneyland. The food was really good, it was all you can eat and it even included drinks. We all orderer hot chocolate to attempt to warm up while we ate at watched a musical show.

After 15+ hours in the park, we called it a day and walked back to our hotel.

We spent day two at California Adventure where we had another fun filled day. We headed straight to the Carsland ride and while our group was in line, I grabbed Fast Passes to use later that day. Fast Passes and one of the best ideas ever and really help make the whole experience more enjoyable. The only down side of the day was when we scared a few of the kids on Tower of Terror, but they all survived. 

I'm so thankful that our family got to have this fun adventure!

One Little Word: Focus

It's taken me a while to discover what my One Little Word for this year will be. I've made lists and thought about how I want to grow and improve this year. Over the past few months I feel like I've been so busy and pulled in so many different directions that I've barely had time to think. Please tell me I'm not the only one who sometimes feels like this.

Yesterday while driving away from the post office, my word came to me. FOCUS.

I need to focus on what is most important in my life and let some things go. Focus on family. Focus on nurturing friendships. Focus on creativity. Focus on fun. Focus on service. That may seems like a lot of different things to focus on, but I do feel that with careful thought and intention my time and energy will be spent in positive ways in all of these areas.

So there you have it, my One Little Word for 2015. I'm excited to see how this word will influence my choices as it encourages me to focus and be more intentional in my life.

Successful Weekend at CHA

On Sunday, I returned from another successful trip to the annual crafting industry trade show. I traveled with Diana and Jennie from our team and met up with Tessa and Heather in Anaheim.

After flying in, our first stop was lunch at Mama D's in Newport Beach. It was super delicious although I think a local Gilbert Italian restaurant, La Calabria, is slightly better. We decided to explore some shops in Newport Beach and scouted out some hippo sugar cookies at Dad's Donut and Bakery Shop which came is bright colors and were quite delicious.

That night we were off to Disneyland! We had a twilight pass that were good from 4:00 - 11:00pm and we spent every minute of that in the part. We made great use of fast passes and ever took some time out at Jolly Holiday for some grilled cheese and tomato soup. My favorites were Indiana Jones and Thunder Mountain Railroad.  We stopped for a snack break in New Orleans for some Mickey shaped beignets. So much fun!

We had a packed two days scouting our the best new products to add to our upcoming Scrapbook Circle kits. We loved getting to try out new products and techniques.

That night we took a much needed break and enjoyed dinner at Sambroso! A few of us even had cactus on our dinner plates.

Then it was back to the hotel where we pored through catalogs and samples for hours and figured out products for the next few kits. I love doing this!

The next day we finished filling out order forms and headed back to the show.

Once again, I'm so grateful for our amazing Scrapbook Circle team and the time we got to spend together. We are all very excited about what we have planned and can't wait to share soon.

Want to take a look at a few of my past CHA trips? 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 This was my 9th or 10th trip to CHA, but looks like I haven't blogged about each trip.

Hello 2015 @ Newport Beach

Our family plus my sister Kristen's family kicked off the new year with two days at Disneyland followed by some time at Newport Beach. It was the perfect way to start 2015. My sister's kids had never been to Disneyland, so it was fun to watch it through first timers' eyes. I just hope we didn't scar them forever by taking them on Tower of Terror. They seemed to enjoy everything else, so I think it was a big success.

Happily, I've been able to carve out a little bit of time yesterday and today to work on a page with some favorite photos from our time at the beach.

We had just planned to stop of maybe an hour at the beach, but one hour turned into three or more. The kids had a great time and didn't seem to mind the freezing water!

We had the best ever apple fritters from Seaside Bakery while sitting on the beach from a doughnut shop that was right along the beach. We used Yelp to find a lunch spot and and discovered Sancho's Tacos a short walk away. Their fish tacos and homemade tortilla chips were so good. This is definitely on my list next time we get to go to Newport Beach.

I hope your new year is off to a great start! Since this trip to Newport Beach, I've already made a return trip to California for CHA. I plan on posting about that fun adventure tomorrow.

Layout supplies /// SBC All You Need is Love Kit /// SBC Hello Love Add-on /// SBC Shine Bright Add-on