Quick one

Just wanted to quickly share another LO, and need to go back to canning. It's not as much fun as scrapbooking, but needs to be done. So, for this page I exclusively used all the papers from one set. That is a Couture collection by SEI.

This collection is SO pretty! I love all the colors and light shades of papers. Here, check them out:

I could scrapbook out of it for a month! (Well, maybe not... I do like to go through my stash...)

Just the right amount of solids and prints that could be easily combined together...

So, the night before we left for out trip to Myrtle Beach I made this layout, while everyone was asleep... Oops... I just realized that I did add a strip of pink paper by Basic Grey underneath my title. Sorry. I guess I just couldn't do it. But that pack was sitting on my table, that's why it got onto the page.

Here is a close up, that shows the dimensional piece...

Trying to eat more vegetables. So we've been enjoying that salad again this week. This time with potato filled tortilla wraps. Delicious...

Всего доброго! До встречи!

Pinterest... and a boy LO

I've heard many times about it, but tried to ignore it. Then, Ali Edwards said she gave in... so I checked the site again and asked for invitation. My invitation came, but still didn't want to open an account there. I thought I have enough places I like or need to check online. And then there was Kelly Purkey sharing on her blog how much she loves Pinterest and that made me want to go back once again and... I'm hooked now!

I used to think, why would I want to go to there to save a picture of something i like, if I could save it right into my folder of favor it? But then, after browsing Pinterest a few times, I realized that it is such a great source of inspiration! There are SO many great ideas and links to different sites I would've never discovered otherwise. If you are looking for some inspiration - the Pinterest is the way to go. Any inspiration - home decor, flowers, cooking, reading, fashion - it's all there. You can find me HERE and start your own collection of inspiring ideas at Pinterest too.

This week I got a chance to use something I dreamed about for some time. My dearest friend let me use her Silhouette! It is an awesome tool! I just love it so much. The only negative side to it is that I might forget that I still have other work to do like cooking and cleaning...
I've cut a few items using Silhouette and am so impressed with the delicate job it does. . Here is one page I made using some elements cut with this tool (the word "bike", brackets and a bicycle icon were all cut with Silhouette):

I used Martha Steward glue pen to adhere these elements to the page. I know, one of the easiest way to glue these is by using spray adhesive, but I really don't like how it gets on your hands and you can't get it off. So, glue pen worked perfectly fine.

Sister you can have it now since it's about your boy.

I have another page that was missing a title for weeks, because I was too lazy to cut it out by hand. That is done now. I'm just trying to figure out if it really needs journaling and how to add it there if it does.

"My oldest came to me complaining how much she doesn't enjoy Social Studies class at school. I told her that History was always my least favorite subject in school. Than she found out that her daddy felt the same way about it too. Next day she comes over and says: "Since you both didn't like History, that makes me twice as much not liking it. So, if I don't get the best grade in that class, at least I have an excuse".

See you soon.

16-photo LO!

Sharing the last page I did for a friend. She knew I'll be making one about her niece, but this one was a surprise. I wanted her to have a piece with a lot of photos on a page that will remind her of her visit to US.

I tried to keep the LO fairly simple for three reasons: 1. It was already busy with so many pictures on it 2.Pictures were so pretty, I didn't have to dress it up with embellishments and 3. There wasn't that much free space left for them anyway.

I hand cut the USA letters, since I didn't have such big letters in my stash.

For the journaling, I wrote a little letter from America...

... and finished off with a few printed tags like the words year and "memories". I guess giving it to her unexpectedly made it all worth the effort of putting it together. And whether she really liked it or not I don't know, but she did have a tear in her eye when she looked at it... Hope she has the very best memories from visiting this country!

Lately I've been thinking...

I wish I was doing project life this year and recorded little everyday moments, especially when our youngest one is at such a fun age. Well, my problem is - I love to begin new things! But I'm not very good at keeping up with things. My vacation mini book is still not finished... I am better at finishing pages though. Anyway, I wanted to try to incorporate some of those little things into blogging. Little everyday moments from our life.

Why? Because I want to remember these little things and because there a whole lot more memories than I have time to ever scrapbook them all. Eventually, some of these will make into a scrapbooking LO. Others will remain here for us to go back and read them.

So, at the end of each post I'll write one of those moments. Just a tiny little bit. As much as it would've fit on one of Becky Higgins 3x4 journaling cards. And I'll write it in pink for now. Again, it may not work. I may not be able to keep up with this for too long, but it is worth trying. And now for

THAT MOMENT:

"We have this thing going on at our house between the oldest and the youngest one. Almost each time our phone rings, they try to guess who is calling. And among the guesses Liana makes, the most frequent one is - Ira! For some reason she thinks Ira has nothing else to do. She likes talking to Ira on the phone. When she was younger she used a remote control or a calculator to call Ira... Well, this was her latest invention. Seems like Ira was telling her something exciting..." Sweet moment.

Thank you for stopping by!

We are back!

This place really needs an update! We are back home and finally connected again. Yes, beach hotels don't have the best connection in the world. So, here is the reason for neglecting this blog for over a week: We were enjoying time together...

And taking a group shot so that everyone looks good is not hard. It is impossible! This is the best we can do. That's us. We may not be perfect, but we are fun!

Will be back soon!

The Best Thing I Ever Ate

Did you ever see that show where people talk about their favourite foods? Well, this cake really deserves to be talked about. I have been eyeing it for some time and finally decided to try it. Oh... it is... so... um... yes, just the best thing I ate this summer.

Well, I ate a whole more delicious deserts (way more then I was supposed to), and many of them were great, but for some reason this tops them all.

And now back to scrapbooking. This is the other LO I made for the same person. "Happy YOU":

That baby paper stack from SEI is a must have for anyone who has a girl in the family! All the papers are just so lovely in that collection. I used some of them here again. Actually, I could use them throughout entire baby album for unified look and never get tired of them.

I punched circled from the circle design paper and added pearls again.

Same with journaling - quote stamp, and finished it off with my signature - stitching.

See you later!

All about little girl...

This week I made three layouts. Two of them were for a little girl, which I want to share with you today. Three layouts in one day - that's a record for me. I kept design pretty simple and made them in smaller format. I didn't journal on these, since it's not related to me. That definitely saved some time too.

For me page without journaling doesn't look right anymore, so I used a quote stamp instead of journaling...

Added some stickers, Prima flowers and half-pearls...

Used mix of papers including some of my new papers from Sweet Nectar Collection by K&Company.

Well, now blogger decided not being nice and refuse to upload second layout... I guess I would have to come back with it later.

Do something creative today! You don't have to complete a whole page in one sitting. Pick a few photos or a subject and set it aside to work on it later... or grab a camera and take a picture of something you didn't photographed this summer yet. Here is one of my latest summer shots:

Enjoy this beautiful weather!

Published!

Hi! I'm so excited to announce that my first ever page was published in the magazine! It was Scrapbook Trends magazine, September Issue, page 25. I was waiting for this moment for so long and it is finally here:
I was pretty cool and exciting to see my name in the magazine, but then I paused for a moment and thought - nothing will ever be compared to the joy that will fill those hearts who will see their name in the eternal book of God! It will be beyond every imagination... And that's the book I want my name in!

I believe you can turn almost any everyday activity into a mini-vacation, if you put your mind to it. This past Labor Day we did just that. I wanted one of the bookcases for our kids room from Ikea, so we got up early in the morning and went on our mini trip.

We got there just a couple of minutes before store opening. Ikea restaurant serves FREE breakfast every Monday. How nice is that? That's where we started our "shopping":

And did some shopping. Kids loved checking all of their decorated rooms. I did too. My husband thought there's more interesting stuff in the world than this, but he was pretty patient with us.

For labor day weekend they also served FREE lunch for kids! So, we finished our shopping with a nice little lunch.

It turned out to be a very nice day spent together with our little family.

And for now, have a nice rainy day! Seems like there's enough for everyone!

Coffee break

Я заметила одну характерность. Вокруг съедобного сообщения на этом блоге, беседа всегда идёт легче чем вокруг любой другой темы. Я раньше думала, что это всё Аня О. начинает, но смотрю что даже в ее отсутсвии мы выглядим намного активней на посте с кухонной темой. Поэтому начнем с чего нибуть съедобного. Вот, например, свежее фото нашего кофейного перерыва:

Эти тортики просто объедение! В данном случае, они не смогут войти в мою, по вашему предложению, "будущую кулинарную книгу", потому что я понятия не имею как они готовятся. Но это и не так уж и плохо, иначе мы бы их часто делали а они, как известно, не такие уж и полезные... Это американские pecan pie cupcakes. Фото без крема:

А теперь поделюсь новенькой страничкой, которую сделала на этой неделе. Вообще первого сентября я планировала выставить еще одну школьную страницу, но по причине недостачи фотографий, пришлось ее отложить, а эта у меня получилась очень бысто.

Я люблю делать страницы по настроению. Вспомнила что едим в отпуск через две недели, достала фото с предыдущего отпуска и очень бысто сложила этот LO. Можете думать что маленький "tag" над фотографией с надписью "A day to remember ", там и должен был быть. А на самом деле он просто закрывает кляксу получившуюся от попытки сделать этот штамп на бумаге с записями.

I added my own designed tags. Отпечатала их на фото принтере и вырезала с помощью circle punches. Мне нравится что я могла выбрать цвет который мне нужен на странице а не подбирать из того что есть...

Голубой с розовым - это может быть немного не стандартное сочетание двух цветов, но решила подбирать бумагу под цвета встречающиеся на фотографиях.

Я носилась с этой станичкой, думая строчить на ней или нет. По теме - строчки не совсем подходят, а по привычке - все же хотелось прострочить. Решила слушаться внутреннего голоса и все же прострочить.

Ну, вот на сегодня и всё. Пошла я дальше красить мою некрасивую стенку. Я сначала пол дня к ней краску подбирала, а теперь пол дня крашу и до сих пор не нравится. Мне внутренний голос подсказывал, что краска не подходит, а я решила идти по вычислениям и теперь приходится расплачиваться...

Может быть, когда закончу, поделюсь с вами, а вы тогда мне точно подскажете как мне быть. А пока до новой встречи в мире блога!