Photo album scrapbooking ideas

I posted on Two Peas that I would put a couple photos on my blog that are examples of photo album scrapbooking. I took a great class by Vanessa Hudson that showed me how to take two 4 x 6 spaces and turn them into an ADORABLE title page. I loved that idea.

I am also posting a few pages of a SIMPLE album I did for my Father-in-Law last August. He was only in town 4 days and I sent him home with over 400 photos in two albums by scrapping them this way. This album was from Target and it had two 4 x 6 places, one 5 x 7 and one small journaling space per page - I LOVED THIS TYPE of album. When they went on clearance I went and bought 11 of them and I have loved giving them as gifts!! Hope you like these simple samples. Sorry I do not know how to post on 2 peas!!

One Summer Class makes my heart feel happy

I am so far into this project and I LOVE IT! I really do. I hope those of you who picked up the kit are enjoying it, and USING it and LOVING it. I am really pleased with how it has come out. I have attached a few photos for you to see how it looks as it fills up with our summer memories....

If you are in the class and have not received the 2nd handout yet, please email me. It think as of today, I have emailed it to anyone who has ordered their class kit as of this week. You can still pick up this kit because Marty has a few left in the store. Go here to get your kit, and I will email you the handouts so you can begin this awesome project. I love it. I love just knowing that the girls will never forget this ONE SUMMER.

Hope you all have a day filled with sunshine.

KLSB

Blessings in a cardboard box...

What an exciting package we received in the mail today!! I accidentally left my phone charger in the room at CHA and Danelle mailed it back to me. Well, I came home from work today to a box much bigger than my cell phone charger! I opened it and found an AWESOME assortment of shoes and almost all of them fit Kaya RIGHT NOW. It is amazing timing.... Kaya only has one pair of shoes that really fit her, and I dreaded having to find the money to go get her a few more pairs. Kalli is hard on shoes - REALLY HARD - so they never really last for Kaya. And I work in construction, and new home building is SUPER SLOW in Indiana, so there is no extra money right now. None at all. Like magic today, this box arrived as if I willed it here. Danelle is a true believer in thinking good thoughts.... bringing about good actions. Well, I think she just might be right. Kaya was so excited about the new shoes... she made all the little friends we have over come into my office to see them all - then, she hunched over them and protected them like a lion protecting her cubs so they would not think about touching her new prized possessions!! There are two pairs of boots that will be PERFECT this winter. Ohhhhhh, it just made me so happy. I love it when friends take care of friends like that. I am so grateful for this very happy package. I am actually happy I left my phone charger behind! :)

Did You Make Something On Monday?

I did... I am a little late on posting.... but I finally added photos to an awesome clock I got at Target over a year ago. My dad came over and hung up a bunch of stuff on our walls, so I had him hang the clock - EVEN with the Target photos that came with the clock. Everyone made fun of me. All the time. Well, it took me year, but I used this Monday to put the real photos of MY FAMILY in that clock. And I love it. I really do. I hope you guys made something. Anything at all.

Grateful for a wonderful day

We were blessed to have 6 Chinese College students come to our home today for a peek into life of an American family (not sure we were the best choice for that... but my brother was in charge of their group, and we only live 90 minutes from Purdue University... so we were the best choice he had I guess!!). Kalli worked all morning on hand making them each a sign with their name on it. She was so cute about it. Today was just amazing. We had a nice cook out and they loved playing games in the basement my dad finished when he lived with us. They LOVED my girls and my girls LOVED all the attention. I took photos all day long and ran into my office and printed them as we went along, so when they left, I handed them each a Cropper Hopper 4 x 6 photo holders (I totally love these) full of about 30 photos from the day. YEAH for my Epson printer - ran through an entire ink pack, and LOVED letting them walk out of our home with photos they will have forever.

After they left, my family swam and Kal swam up to me and told me that between these kids and the two Australian Group Study Exchange girls we had with us earlier this summer - "This has totally been the best summer of my whole life." Cannot really ask for more than that. I am so grateful they have gotten to meet people from other parts of the world. When I think back, I think until I left for College, I might never have met someone who actually lived in another country. Amazing opportunity for us to have these guests today. And, they were such good, sweet students.

At the end of the night - we always ask the girls "What was your favorite part of the day?" And Kalli said "I had such a great day, I cannot even really pick - but I guess it was making 6 new friends from China. Even though we will never see them again, they will always be our friends, right??" And I told her yes, they will. What an amazing day for our family.
I hope your weekend is full of fun memories, too.

Happy for a BIG reason!!

THANK YOU to one of my very special blog readers for the amazing surprise that showed up on my porch today... the book I was obsessing over the book "Happy for no Reason". I was totally stunned to open the Amazon box and read her kind hearted note! It was a super part of a rather stressful day. I cannot wait to get the kids down (they have not been well behaved today, and they are totally getting on my nerves) and get things straightened up so I can snuggle into my bed and start this amazing gift. Never underestimate the power of a kind gesture. That one reader totally rocked my world today and I am so grateful.

Happy 60th Birthday Mom

I am not sure why, but I wanted to post that birthday wish to my Mom. I wish I was putting the finishing touches on a surprise party that would have made her mad at me. But my Mom is not here. She will never turn 60 and I will never see her grow old. I hate that. It is part of our lives every single day, but days like today make it just feel raw all over again. (I know I was incredibly lucky to have her as my mom for 34 years, but selfishly, I still wish I had her for a lot longer than that!)

My Mom was perfectly healthy one day celebrating Christmas surrounded by her family that loved her, and the next she was gone forever due to a freak carbon monoxide leak in her home. We almost lost my Dad at the same time. Everything changed in one single moment in time. I am not saying that to depress anyone - I am saying it because things like that happen and you have no way to see it coming.

I thought I had so many years to have her write letters to my kids, to sort photos and go through old memories. You just never know. That is exactly why I became slightly obsessed with filling in all the lines in the album I just made with Mellie and why I am trying to get people to create a simple album project like ONE SUMMER and 25 things we love about summer. Little projects that you can begin and end.... might mean the world to someone you love someday. So, no matter how busy you are, no matter how much you might really want to go back 20 years and start then and make it all perfectly designed and well organized..... promise yourself to make SOMETHING this week. Something simple, maybe just a letter you write on notebook paper and put in an envelope. Do not make this process harder than it needs to be, do not feel pressure to make it perfect. Just tell someone something that they just might need to hear if anything should ever happen to you. Please. You will never be sorry.

HAPPY 60th Birthday Mom. I love you MORE still every single day. Thank you for teaching me in your death to enjoy the moments a little more, and to make sure I live my life capturing little memories for my family.

Since she died, I really got over my need to make it chronilogical and perfect.... now I just try hard to make it matter. I would give a lot for one little notebook full of random thoughts from my Mom about anytime in her life. I would honestly probably read it a little every single day. You have a huge power to impact your family and I pray you make a choice to do it. Step by step, little by little, just do SOMETHING. Anything at all really.

KLSB

Happy for no reason....

Have you ever gotten lost in the internet? I mean, really lost.... you had plenty of things to do, pages to make, dishes to put away, clothes to fold, but you sat mindlessly clicking away??? I mean, if you are reading this blog, I bet you know what I am talking about! :) I try not to get lost.... I try to do what I need to do, read something on CNN (so I have SOME clue what is going on in the world) and check a few blogs (thanks to bloglines, this task is WAY more efficient because I only look at blogs I love that have been updated).... and then logout and get on with my night. Tonight, I was tired.... too tired to go get a glass of water (what the heck is my problem anyway??) and I was clicking away. I love how amazon tells me books I would enjoy (man, they are so smart because they are usually right). Well, I clicked on one tonight and ended up watching a video promo and going to the site direct Happy for No Reason - I have NO CLUE why I went there, but I fell in love with a quote I found.... I wanted to share it with anyone who might be reading this.....

May you be safe

May you be happy

May you be healthy

May you live with ease

I am not sure when, but I am totally going to make this into a page for the girls. It was so well said - so much about exactly what I wish for them. I wish all those things for them every day. I loved the idea of them "living with ease". Ahhhh, I wish kids would carry that ease of living with them forever that they have now. I have no clue how to give them that gift, but I am sure going to try. And, next time we have a little extra in the budget, I am totally buying this book! :)

And, since my good friend Shannon says a post without a photo is icky.... I included a shot of the WISHES page in my new Mellie journal that I just wrote this quote on (in case I never actually get off the internet to make that page I am dreaming about....) I figured why wait - put it into something for them TODAY! Enjoy your day and may you live with ease.... (I totally LOVE that concept)

Awesome Album from Melodee Langworthy!

This is what I worked on over the weekend, and I am working on it more today, too. I LOVE THIS ALBUM. If you have not taken a class from Melodee Langworthy, you should! She is amazing, and she made me fall BACK in love with stamping. I was a major stamper years ago… with all the embossing powder and things like that…. (back when I loved making things harder then they needed to be) Well, I had forgotten how much I love stamps. And Mellie reminded me this week. She took her spare time to help me stamp and assemble her AMAZING pieces of me project she gave me a long time ago (But I was terrified to take apart the journal by myself). She spent her time in-between events at CHA helping me stamp and re-assemble this journal project. I LOVED IT! I stamped my heart out and really found peace at the process. Once I got home, I immediately started adding in photos and journaling notes to my project! She also showed me how to add photos into the spine once it was already reassembled! I love this project – and it is an amazing gift to my girls. This project makes my heart feel happy. And, I LOVED stamping simply with Danelle’s newer stamps! Ahhhhh, projects like this just really matter and I am grateful Mellie gave me this gift AND helped me assemble it, too! I loved making this project this rainy old Monday..... did you make anything??? I really hope you did.

(edited to note - little Kaya took those photos of me I printed for the cover. They always made me laugh, never had a way to use them. Thought this cover was the perfect reason to finally print them.)

I do love getting things organized....

I know this might seem extreme to some, and it really has NOTHING to do with scrapbooking, but this is what Kalli (my 6 year old) and I did today! I wish I had taken before photos. Her room is always pretty organized, but she had way too many clothes that had gotten too small, and her larger dresser was too deep, and it had become a mess. We took EVERYTHING out of her closet and dresser today – every single thing – and started over. It took a long time, but MAN, it felt great. She was so excited. We ran to the store for Drawer Dividers (these are totally the best invention EVER!) and also picked up some cheetah fabric covered bins (totally her choice, not mine, but they do look adorable). Ahhhhhh, I could just keep looking at it. :) So could she. My husband was not nearly as impressed with us as we were! I thought some of you out there might like to see what totally rocks my world at 36 years old. Surprising, isn’t it! The sheer peace and joy I found today at accomplishing this large task! It will make every day this fall easier on both Kalli and I as she gets ready for school. And, she is my kid that loves order. It was actually fun and she LOVED using the label baby to create all the labels. We are labeling the cheetah baskets tomorrow – she made me promise to wait for her.

And, CHA was cool. I actually left before the show started! :) After 12 years of being on the show floor setting up a booth and working the booth all day, it felt AWESOME to just come in and do a presentation, help Danelle a little the next day, and see some old friends. I spent a lot of time sitting on the floor stamping an amazing project from Melodee Langworthy – she rocks and she made me fall back in love with STAMPING!! I love love love Danelle's new Art Warehouse stamps, and I used some older ones, too, and they made my heart race I loved them so much!! I hope to add photos and get those two projects posted tomorrow….. today, it was all about Kalli! Hope you are having a productive weekend. Get yourself a task or project in mind for Make Something Monday…. having a plan will really help you accomplish at least one little thing each week.

I love sticking things RIGHT to photos.....

Who knew?? All these years I avoided doing that, and now I love it. I am working on pages for my ONE SUMMER class, and I just stuck phrase stickers, rub-ons, cut out stamped pieces, and epoxy stickers right onto the photos! Man, it made me happy. I love this project. It is raw and real and just about our lives this summer. I feel peaceful that we will have this to look at when we are freezing here in the middle of winter. Summer rocks, and my girls enjoy it every day.

We do still have some ONE SUMMER kits left.... we will keep them in the cart until they are gone. If you pick up the kit now, I will forward you the handouts. These kits include FOUR full sheets of Creative Cafe Spirit stickers that you can stick right onto your photos!! :) Remember, you can start this project anytime. Headed to CHA Summer in Chicago (I am driving). Will talk to you when I get back. Have fun and take (and print) lots of photos!