Anniversary Blog Hop

It's hard to believe that Scrapbook Circle is celebrating it's 9th anniversary this month. That means we've created over 100 main monthly kits plus many more add-ons and project kits. Good thing I love memory keeping!

Today we are celebrating the anniversary with a blog hop around to the Scrapbook Circle team members' blogs where they are showcasing projects created with the Hello Sunshine Kit. 

Want to take a look at my page? I drew inspiration from my layout from the Pink Paislee Insta Kit that is in the Scrapbook Circle Kit. It included a bunch of frames that perfectly fit together to cover the 12X12 page.

The frames made a great base for adding photos, journaling and few embellishments.

The hop starts at the Scrapbook Circle blog and I'm the last stop along the hop. If you just arrived here, be sure to stop by the Scrapbook Circle blog to start hopping. Comment along your way while visiting our team members' blogs. Each comment will be one entry in a random drawing where we will be giving away FIVE May Hello Sunshine Kits.

I hope you feel inspired today!

Comments close at midnight PST on May 21. We will post the winners on the Scrapbook Circle blog on May 22.

After seeing all of the great layouts, do you feel like you need a May Kit?!?

Scrapbook Circle is offering a FREE past kit with all new May subscriptions this month, so now is a perfect time to try out their kits. With only 2 months commitment to get the discounted kits, you don't have to promise to get many kits. You can find all of the free kit details here.

Let's Do This!

I'm just loving the name of Scrapbook Circle's April Kit, Let's Do This. I've been doing a lot of spring cleaning and reorganizing around here the past couple of weeks and I feel like "Let's Do This" is going to be a perfect theme for the month. I'll have to post some pictures of some projects I've been working on around my house. It's mostly involved hanging things on our bare walls. It's so much fun adding some color and personality to our home.

Today I want to share one of my layouts using the Let's Do This April Kit. I had a creative burst last week and created five pages with the kit and I'll be sharing them all here soon.

It was so much fun to put this page together. The word paper in the background is one of my favorites and I wanted to have as much of it show without taking away from the photos and stories. Using some white cardstock in the center seemed like the perfect way to frame my photo and journaling while still letting a lot of the background paper show. Finishing off the page with a sprinkling of sequins added just the right playful touch I was looking for on the page.

This was one of my favorite photos from our recent trip to NYC and I'm happy to have it printed and on a page along with some journaling telling more about our trip.

All of the photos on my NYC trip were taken with my iPhone. I would have loved to have photos from my big camera, but it didn't seem worth it to carry that weight around the city with me. What do you think? Should a big camera go along on vacations or do the phone photos work for you?

Layout Supplies /// Let's Do This Kit /// NYC alphas from my stash (Pink Paislee Bella Rouge)

So Much Fun with Friends

I was excited to upload pictures from my camera and find photos from a photoshoot my girls and their friends had done. I printed off a few of my favorites and had to use them on a layout.

The photos were so playful and fun and I decided to carry that playful feel through the page by hand cutting some letters for the title of the page.

To finish off the page, I added little word stickers around the page to create a frame. Simple and fun!

Layout Supplies: Scrapbook Circle's March Here's the Story Kit /// Tell Me Add-on

You + Me >>> Happy Days

A few nights ago I was half awake during the night and a sketch for a layout came to me. It seemed a little strange since that pretty much never happens. The next morning it was still in my head, so I took that as a sign that I should scrapbook using that idea. The sketch included a couple of photos along the right side of the page with most of the left side filled with journaling and an embellishment cluster. I'm pretty happy with how the page actually turned out!

I decided to print off a couple of favorite photos of Ward and I take last fall and use them on the page along with thought about us in the journaling. I mixed in little stickers as part of the journaling just for fun and layered a cluster of sheer embellishments off to the side. 

 The Scrapbook Circle March is kit titled Here's the Story and it's inspiring me to focus on telling all sorts of stories that I want to record and remember.

Layout supplies /// Here's the Story Kit /// On My Way Add-on ///  Tell Me Add-on

Scrapbook Circle Free Kit Weekend!

Scrapbook Circle is offering a sweet deal this weekend! Start a new subscription with the February Today is Beautiful Kit and choose any past kit to ship along for free. Yes! I really love free stuff.

So if you've been wanting to try out Scrapbook Circle kits (or you've been missing them and need them again!) this is the perfect weekend to pick up two kits for the price of one. Plus, I must say that the March kit is going to be fabulously stuffed with new goodies ordered at CHA plus some cool exclusives. 

Just for fun, I decided to put the six layouts plus eight tags that I created with the Today is Beautiful February Kit into a collage so you can get a feel for the kit. You can see that there are definitely some love elements in the kit, but it is certainly not just for Valentine's Day. 

Stop by the Scrapbook Circle site to check out the February Today is Beautiful Kit and take advantage of a cool weekend deal.  How you have a lovely weekend!

Love Our Life

There have been many times when I've printed off an Instagram photos and used it on a page. For a fun twist on that idea, I decided to take a screenshot of a photo my husband had shared on an Instagram private message and use that on a layout.

I love how the screenshot not only captures a fun moment with our kids riding bikes in Newport Beach, but it also shows photo comments and little photos of who the picture was shared with. This helps tell more of the story without me actually having to write or say anything. I'm sure over time the interface for Instagram will change is this preserves a little piece of our history.

I kept this layout pretty simple with the focus on the photo, a few embellishments and a bit of journaling. Sometimes I just need a quick and simple page to help me tell the story I want to record. No frills on this one and that works just fine for me.

Layout Supplies /// Today is Beautiful Kit

Watch the Sunset

One our our favorite things to do at the beach is watch the sunset. It seems like right at the last minute clouds like to roll in, but when we were at the beach at the beginning of this year, we scored and saw a beautiful sunset. The photos didn't really do it justice, but I'm okay with that. We still got a family photo with everyone looking at the camera - that's a win for sure.

These fill in tags are one of my favorite things in the February Scrapbook Circle Kit. I love how they give a great starting point for a page concept and at the very least are a jump start for journaling.

On this page, I freehand cut all of the papers except for the polka background. I love freehand cutting paper because it takes away the structured and blocked feel that can sometimes happen when all of the lines are perfectly straight.

With a couple touches of sewing, this layout was finished!

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

Hello Love

Hello Monday! Hope you had a great weekend.

A few months ago I printed out a stack of photos and they've been neatly stacked on my desk ever since. Today I started a layout with one photo and then decided the design wasn't matching the photos, so I swapped the photo for a few wedding photos from my sister's wedding last summer. I love having a few photos printed and ready to go so that when I'm ready to create I'm not spending a ton of time digging for photos.

The design for this layout was inspired by a few paper strips that were out on my desk. This is the 6th layout I've made with the same kit, so I'm starting to get down to having a bunch of paper scraps. It started out with just a few strips under the photo as a mat, but then I decided to play around with stacking paper to fill the whole page.

I love how this incorporates so many different pattens and colors! Sticking with the stacking in the design of the paper, the photos were also stacked on each other. I like how the stacking reminds me of the layers on a wedding cake!

I'm thinking this small paper strip stacking idea might be cool to try covering the entire background of a layout. Might be seeing that idea soon!

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

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

@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

Sit Back and Relax

It seems that time and activities are coming at us at a record pace lately, so it was amazing last month to get away on a cruise and take some time to sit back and relax. One of the best things about a cruise is that you can really unplug and just enjoy time alone and with family and friends. No texting, very limited internet and a lounge chair by the pool forced me to slow down and I loved it.

One of my favorite pictures that I took was while I was in a hammock on the Disney private island, Castaway Cay, on the quiet adult only beach. My friend, Jennie, and I had gone to the beach to take a yoga class, but when we arrived, the class wasn't happening. We decided to each sit back in a hammock to wait and see if the yoga class was going to ever start. The class never started, but it turned out just fine. It was a perfect opportunity to just sit back and relax.

This layout was really fun to put together. I started out knowing that I wanted to use the picture plus the "grateful for" card on this page. Then I started trying out different 6 X6 papers to see what looked best. I just stacked them on each other to try out the patterns and then bumped the paper and the papers all fanned out a bit and had lots of pieces of patterns showing. I loved the look of all of the different patterns on the page, so I stuck them all down and had a finished page.

Layout Supplies /// November Scrapbook Circle Little Moments Kit /// Sweetness Add-on /// Home Sweet Home Add-on

Happy Together

A couple of months ago, our girls sang in the spring Chandler Children's Choir concert at the Chandler Center for the Arts. After concerts, I always attempt to get a few pictures of the girls with their friends. This year Hannah and her friends were extra silly for me and I took a bunch of photos while capturing their giggles and silliness.

I thought it would be fun to print them out in strips like photo booth pictures since the series reminded me of something they would do in a photo booth. 

It seems like it's been quite a while since I've used a banner on a layout, but it felt like just the right girly and playful touch to add to this page. After a few splatters of mist and little heart stickers sprinkled onto the page, it had just the right girly, playful feel to it.

Looking at this page makes me happy! I love that Hannah had such great friends. 

Layout Supplies /// Hello There Scrapbook Circle Kit /// Take Note Add-on

@ the Chop Shop

Is summer speeding past you like it is around here? I though we'd have nice relaxing days at home, but that has yet to happen. My sister is getting married this weekend, so I'm sure time will continue to fly by at record speeds for now. By next week, hopefully our pool will be finished and I'll spend a lazy day by the pool eating popsicles.  It's good to have a dream, right?

Between summer camps, summer school, wedding plans, pool building supervision and much more this month, there has been very little time for scrapbooking. I was able to put a couple of pages together a couple of weeks ago and I just now had time to edit pictures of them.

This layout has a selfie (is it a selfie it it has more than one person in it?!) taken while our family was trying out a new restaurant in downtown Chandler. The restaurant had great sandwiches and salads and Ward says great lemonade too.

This was a quick page to put together and it felt really good to be playing with paper. I love using a few label stickers together for a quick journaling spot!

Layout Supplies /// Hello There Scrapbook Circle Kit

iPhone!

Through a lucky series of events (non-smart phone breaking, dad's old iPhone having a button break), Audrey became the proud owner of a new iPhone 5s. This was not our plan, but when the Apple store was trading in an old iPhone plus giving us an $80 credit to the store and a new iPhone, how could we refuse?

Of course, I had to document this. Audrey also somehow scored a free $40 case from the AT&T store after she and Ward spent a crazy amount of time there getting her account set up. I think the worker was trying to make up for the frustrating time in the store. The free case did help ease the pain.

So now Audrey has a pretty cool phone and I'm excited for her!

This layout is based on the June Scrapbook Circle sketch that was designed by Diana Fisher. I loved the single photo option for this page plus all of the layering with tags.  If you want more info on the sketch and to find out how to play along for your chance to win a cool prize, stop by the Scrapbook Circle blog for details.

Layout Supplies /// Hello There June Kit /// Sweet Treats Add-on

Making Jam

One of my kids' favorite sweet treats for breakfast is homemade strawberry jam. We hadn't made any for at least a year, so when strawberries were on sale last month, I decided that it was time to make jam again. Max and Hannah were both really excited to help. They stuck with me through all of the slicing, mashing and stirring.

For some odd reason, I only have pictures of Max making the jam, but Hannah was there too. We tried out the lower sugar recipe found on the Sure-Jell Pectin that we used to make the jam.  It used half the sugar of the regular recipe and we couldn't even tell a difference because the jam was still perfectly sweet.

We are finishing up our last week of school around here. The kids are getting antsy and I'm not so sure about how they are going to keep busy all summer. We are just hoping our swimming pool will be finished sometime this summer so we can enjoy it!

Layout Supplies /// Scrapbook Circle High Five Kit

Dream Big

A couple of months ago Audrey got to sing the National Anthem at a Cubs/Giants spring training game with three other girls from the Chandler Children's Choir. Even though spring training is big here in Phoenix, I'd never been to a game. I was happy to have a reason to go to one!

I took a few pictures of the girls, but I really liked the one that was posted on the Chandler Children's Choir Instagram account better than my pictures. So I thought it would be fun to take a screenshot of the Insta photo and print it out to use on this page. 

The Instagram photo is a fun way to document the event plus record what our social media screens currently look like.

The journaling card on this page is from the Scrapbook Circle High Five printable that comes with the kit. I think I'm going to need a few more of those. Love this simple way to journal on a page!

Layout Supplies /// Scrapbook Circle High Five Kit /// Sweet Treats Add-on

Super Fab Egg Dyeing

One of my favorite Easter traditions is coloring eggs with my kids. This year Max and Hannah each had a friend over on one of their days off from school during an April/Easter break and I decided it would be a great time to color eggs. (Audrey had school and didn't color with us.)

The kids spent about an hour each coloring a dozen eggs. It was great to see them all really get into it and try out cool things with the dye. They are at a great age where dyes aren't spilling all over and we don't have tears over super silly things. Enjoying this stage in life.

No one in our family is a very big fan of hard boiled eggs, so when the kids wanted to do egg/spoon races and egg tosses with their eggs after color, I was all for it. They had a great time racing and tossing for quiet a while. Loved this creative activity follow up by more creative play.

Layout Supplies /// High Five Kit /// Sweet Treats Add-on /// My Fave Add-on

High Five!

Have you seen the new May Scrapbook Circle Kit, High Five? I'm in love with the bright and cheerful colors in the kit! It's always interesting to have a final kit come together. The planning starts months ahead of time, but it seems that there are always final touches and changes right up until we pack the kits. This kit really came together just how I'd hoped!

So far, I've created to finished layouts and have another one in the works. This layout I want to share today is the first 8.5 X 11 pages I've put together in years. I must say that the smaller page size felt more relaxed with less space to consider and it was a fun process to put it together.

It's a pretty simple page, but the white space balanced with the bright pops of color just felt right.

This was a random picture I took while we were driving to a choir concert for both of our girls. I love that this picture helped me tell the story of the concert in the journaling without even including an actual picture of the concert.

Jumping on the Waffle Truck Bandwagon

Around here, waffle trucks have become super popular. There are two different waffle truck companies  in town and we've only made it to one of them so far. That isn't because we haven't tried! Last weekend we scouted out a waffle truck and found that there was a super long line. We decided to wait it out, but after a few minutes, the workers came out saying that they were sold out. We'll have to try again another time.

The waffle trucks post on Instagram where they are going to be each night. If you are in the Phoenix area and want to join in on the fun, you can follow My Waffle Crush and Waffle Love so you can track down a waffle.

I wasn't convinced that waiting in line for a waffle is a very smart thing to do. After a little research on the type of waffles they serve, I've found a Liege Waffle recipe. After looking up a recipe, I'm thinking it's well worth paying someone else to make one for me because of all of the steps involved and the special waffle iron needed to cook them properly.  The waffles are rolled in cinnamon and sugar and then topped with your choice of toppings. Nutella, strawberries and cream, anyone?

We went to the waffle truck at night and sadly, my waffle pictures turned out terribly. So if nothing else, I need to return to a waffle truck (preferably with daylight) and snap a few pictures of the deliciousness.

Waffles can count as dinner, right?