steph's stuff

The best kind of weekend

Road trip!!!

Some people hate car trips with kids. But not us. We LOVE them! The girls take over the back of the van and call it "girl heaven." They have books, iPods, snacks, and a DVD screen. Andrew and the food get the middle row with his own DVD screen - see all the velcro attaching the screens to the back of the seats? We're old school like that. (If I went back to my Mainer roots, I would have used duct tape.) And then Tom and I in the front. Our kids travel sooooooo well - probably because they don't know any different - we've been road tripping since way before they were born and having babies didn't change any of that. 

We drove 8 hours to visit family for 4 hours and it was soooooo worth it! We had two graduations to celebrate and got to visit with new babies at the same time. 

On the way home, Andrew said, "Can we please do that every weekend?" LOL! It was a great weekend! 

And now today, we're back to the mundane and crazy schedule - Libby is home sick with a tummy ache and I'm hoping it clears up and I can get her to school in a couple of hours because I have no food in the house and a very busy calendar this week. 

I WILL work on Project Life this week, I promise!

I'm missing the interwebs

I've been missing the interwebs for the last couple of weeks. Between writing articles, doing layouts, keeping up with my kids' schedules, and rediscovering my love of my schoolgirl crush on Darren Criss - move over Matt Damon music, I haven't been on the interwebs much for a couple of weeks. 

But I'll be back soon, I promise! The girls have both finished some big year-long clubs-plays-lessons, etc...and my calendar is starting to look a bit less crowded. Which is good because I'm not a fan of craziness and no down-time. 

Some good news for today - Libby had a check-up with the neurologist - she's had a rough couple of months and needed a nice, thorough checking over. And I'm so happy to say that she's doing great!!! Our goal is still to go 24 months without a seizure or fainting episode (which are really small seizures) and we're 10 months into that countdown. She'll have to do another EEG and lab work next month but that's it. 

And, oh boy, the pre-teen years have hit. "MOM!!!! No pictures of me in the office!" 

"Well, okay, just my shoes."

"Mom, just post a photo of Darren. Not me. Gosh."

Oh, okay, sweetie. Your wish is my command. :)

Happy Thursday. :)

Inspiration is everywhere

I've had to put a lot of scrapbooking work on hold this week due to some photography committments and a secret sewing project. (Why do I always forget how much I love to quilt??) In the meantime, here's two layouts that I made for Scrapbook Update recently. These layouts were made for my Pinterest Inspiration series and I just adore writing these articles. Scrapbooking inspiration is everywhere. :) 

Designing on a Grid:

All supplies from Designer Digitals | Stitched Grid: Pocket Pages No. 02 Stitched Grids ONLY by Katie Pertiet. Patterned Papers: Striped Mix: Powder Mountain Paper Pack, Gingerbread Runaway Paper Pack,  Artistry de Azul Paper Pack, Star Spangled Mini Kit, and Damask Tonals: Autumn Ice Paper Pack by Katie Pertiet, Just Linens Paper Pack No. 22 and Stanleigh Paper Pack by Maplebrook Studios, and Ocean Solids Paper Pack by Andrea Victoria. Brushes: Flourished Clusters Brushes and Stamps No. 02, Grungy Ledger Grids Brushes and Stamps No. 02, Inked Flakes Brushes and Stamps No. 01, and Shimmer Clusters No. 2 by Katie Pertiet.

You can see the inspiration and article here. 

 

Designing with a Spring Theme:

All supplies from Designer Digitals | Template: Layer Works No. 100 by Studio Double D. Cardstock: Oiselet Rouge Solids Paper Pack by Katie Pertiet. Patterned Papers: Minst Melon Paper Pack and Solina Paper Pack by Maplebrook Studios.

You can see the article and inspiration here. 

Happy Tuesday!

It's going by so quickly

I am getting so darn sappy about Emily finishing 8th grade. I know she's not moving away or going to college yet, but I know how fast high school goes and it just keeps hitting me that I only have 4 more years with our family under the same roof.  All supplies from Designer Digitals: Finer Things No. 01 Paper Pack: Black Finer Things No. 01 Paper Pack: Red Autumnal Artistry Paper Pack Fading Words Brushes and Stamps No. 01 Labeled Journalers No. 05 Geometric Hints Brushes and Stamps No. 02 Memory Grunge Strips All Bent Up: Hearts No. 01

 

Thank goodness for Mondays

Our weekends just get busier and busier and I grow even more thankful for Mondays as we get closer to summer. Don't get me wrong - the weekend busy stuff is usually fun stuff! But I always end up wanting a weekend to recover from my weekend. This past weekend was seriously fun - we needed that, honestly. 

This weekend, Emily was Alice in Wonderland.

And then she had an Academic Super Bowl meet where she was captain/member of three different teams.

There was a wee bit of fun on Saturday night, too. ;)

As well as a busy Sunday that started off by working at the food pantry.

Today will be spent doing all of the chores that I didn't do over the weekend. And I'm really hoping to blog another week or two of Project Life!

Happy Monday!

 

Project Life - Week 14

I went radical this week on Project Life. I didn't round the corners. Yes, you heard that right. I left all the corners straight, square and unrounded. Deviating from a design style at this point in the game is not something I had planned to do. Those of us who get twitchy over these things will understand why I'm jokingly but not really making a big deal out of this. 

But it happened by accident and I'm too cheap to fix it. Here's what happened. 

In a fit of productivity over the weekend, I sat down in my big comfy chair with my laptop and printed off the whole week's worth of pictures. (I have a wireless connection to my photo printer.) And when I went in to look at the photos, I realized that I forgot to uncheck the border option in my printer settings on all but two of the photos. 

So, I had a couple of options. I could trim off the border on all of them but that would make them all a bit small for the openings. I could round the corners but that would cut off the border on the corners and would look funny. I could reprint them all but ink is expensive. Or I could just go with the flow and leave it. And that's what I did. And I kinda like it. :)

So, here's the two-week spread without inserts. This week was our spring break and Andrew's birthday so there are a lot of photos. 

And here's the two-page spread with the two inserts. I had to blur out a page because it has a digital layout out it that I can't show just yet. 

Here's page one up close. It includes photos of the Museum of Science & Industry, photos of Andrew reading and playing on the computer during spring break, a photo out my back window, sone of Emily's friends who came over, and one of the girls sneaking the dog up on the couch. I also included one of Ali Edwards' Journal Cards here and I will definitely be using these more - love them!

Page two includes all the movies we watched during break, a trip out for ice cream, a couple of birthday-related photos about Andrew and more snuggling photos. But my favorite part of the whole darn page is the journaling card that Andrew wrote on his birthday. LOVE it!!!

The first insert is messy but oh well. This is definitely a go-with-the-flow week for me. I meant to print the journaling much lower on the cardstock but messed it up. So, instead of reprinting, I threw on the digi layout I made about Andrew's birthday. Perfect fit on an 8.5 x 11 piece of cardstock.

The back of the journaling and layout were blank so I put our museum maps and tickets in there. 

The second insert is all of our museum pics in half of a Design F page protector. The top slot is the only 4 x 6 and to mimic the look of the other pockets yet still use 3 x 4 photos, I simply printed 2 3 x 4 photos on one sheet of paper with a thin border between them. I also cut up our admission tickets and stapled them on.

And that's it for Week 14!

WEEK 14 SUPPLIES:

InLinkz.com

Ahhhhhh.....

Today is the first day in over two weeks that I have to myself. Ahhhhhhhh......although "have to myself" really means do the laundry, clean up the downstairs, and organize some food for the masses. But I'll take it. It has been crazy nuts around here. So I'm shutting off the phones and probably even putting away the computer. Gasp. At least until the kids get home. 

Here's just a few celll phone photos of the last week or two. 

Libby got contacts.

Tom and I visited a local stable and OMG there was a 5-week-old foal. I could have stayed there with him for hours and hours just watching. 

The Darren Criss obsession continues.

We've had friends over.

We've had crazy hair day. Which - with our blond kids - involves gelling your hair and then spraying it black.

We've had dance parties and dinners out at warehouses and in a construction zone (one of the best parts of last week!)

We've had lilacs.

And grandparents in town.

We've had more crazy (beautiful) hair days.

And 100lb. lap dogs.

Some of us have been playing with sharp objects.

While others of us run away with the spoils.

And one of us has met about 11 deadlines. 

So today is going to be an ahhhhhhh.......day.

See you tomorrow!

Digital Journaling Questions

I've gotten a lot of questions about how I digitally add my journaling to Project Life photos like I did in this photo.

I've also gotten questions about how fast it is to add journaling on the photo rather than doing it all by hand. I will do a quick tutorial on it all the first of week, I promise!

In the meantime, I'm trying to work on weeks 14, 15 and 16. I went nuts on one week and did NOT round the corners. ACK!

And then I went all fan girl about Darren Criss on another week. Oh yeah. I went there. 

It's a good thing. ;)

Happy Week End!

A new series at Scrapbook Update

You may have noticed a new weekly series at Scrapbook Update. It's called Gallery Highlights and it's a really fun feature! Our goal is to find layouts and cards and other paper crafts in the various online galleries that are worthy of a special highlight - those that really jumped out at us when we looked through the gallery and made us want to take a closer look. It is soooooo much fun to do!!!

And I've gotten a few questions so I thought I'd post just a couple of points here:

• We find the layouts simply by having the oh-so-tedious* task of looking through various online scrapbook galleries. *please note the sarcasm - this is quickly becoming the best part of my week. :)
• Right now, I am the one choosing the layouts but I'm sure there will come a time when Nancy or someone else also chooses them.
• We are open to ALL kinds of scrapbooking and paper crafts - layouts, digi, cards, mini-albums, etc... I'm looking at all of them. 
• We will request your layout before we post them. If we don't hear back from you, we will not use your layout. So, please, please check your private messages at the various scrapbooking sites. ;) And saying, "Thanks but no thanks" is totally okay, too.
• We will ALWAYS link to your layout and give you credit!!! Our goal is to draw more attention to all the amazingly creative projects out there and to draw more attention to the designers' works. We want to give you the attention. :)
• So if you have a friend say,"What the heck is this message about a layout request???," send them here or to Scrapbook Update to learn more. :) 

You can find the first article here and the second one went live last night here. 

Happy Friday!

Elizabeth is learning Photoshop

I gave Libby her first lesson in Photoshop tonight. As I mentioned last week, we've all become obsessed with Darren Criss' music. Not that I have a massive schoolgirl crush on him or anything but that man is hotttttttt.

So she asked for a photo of Darren Criss and then asked how to resize the image, use the text tool, and add paper. So, I showed her. 

And this is what she came up with.

I am dying laughing!!!!!! Libby wants to be famous so badly and she thinks she's found a way. ;)

And she's right about one thing - Mom does think he's so pretty. ;) Not that I'm 19-years-older than him or anything.

Credits: Bound Paper Pack No. 02 by Katie Pertiet. Designer: Elizabeth Vetne, 11-years-old.

I'll bet this is one of the most original uses of Katie's paper yet. :)