Painting

I've been using a lot of paint in my latest scrapbooking and my canvas is a little bigger then 12x12 and I'm not enjoying it as much as traditional scrapbooking...



Yeah, you don't realize how big your ceiling is until the day you have to paint it. And who said you should only use weights for exercise or weight training? Doesn't matter what you do around the house, as long as you get sweat running down your back - it all counts. At least I think so.



Why do I even complain when I have such a great help? These little hands get into everything and volunteer to add just a little bit more work anytime! My other daughter says - maybe she is the next famous designer.


Besides those little hands I do have some real help from other two pair of hands where the first ones reassembled entire chandelier after its being cleaned and the other ones captured all these memories on camera.

Million Red Roses

Hi. I came across this video on you tube and wanted to share it with you. This was one of the most popular songs in the history of our country. "Million red roses" performed by one of the most talented singers - Alla Pugacheva. I have this song on my MP3 player and listen to it when I go for a walk.

The other day Liana was listening to it, and when this song ended she totally refused to listen to other song and ordered more "millions".

If you never heard it before, I hope you will like it.

FIVE

Hello. I heard Stacy Jullian talk about this book on one of the Roundtable episodes and now I want to read this book. Very inspiring. I'm thinking about getting it next time I stop at Borders. Hope you will like this video too.

12x12 Layout

Hello friends! I didn't feel like working with my own pictures today, that's why I made a layout for my sister-in-law. We went on vacation together this year and I was the one to take these pictures for them. Cute couple with even cuter baby. I loved their matching outfits in white and blue and chose my colors for the page in the same color scheme.

Here is how it turned out:

And here is a close up look of a hand cut title. Yes, I'm dreaming about one of those machines that can cut titles for you, but for now it's all being done with hands and a pair of scissors...


I love Nic Howard's overlapping titles, so mine was pretty much inspired by hers.

I didn't know what to write here, and didn't want lo leave the page without jour5naling, so I just used journaling from one of my pages about a vacation, just changed it a bit for them.

Thanks for stopping by, and I'll see you soon!

Another pink

Very simple and quick page with pictures that waited their turn at least two years. Machine stitching is my new favorite technique. I start a page without any intention to do stitching and when I'm done I search for a spot to add at least a tiny little stitch or I stitch everything possible like it happened here on this page.

I don't think I'll ever get tired of pink. How can I with three girls in a house?

I love pages with standout titles but here again I don't have a definite title for the page - it's a part of embellishments.

My pick of the week

I love those roundtable episodes on Paperclipping.com. That is so much fun. Like different topics they talk about, people they have on the show, and information they provide. Oh, and Noel is so sweet. Anyway, each time they make their Pick of the Week, I think what would I have chosen? And the first thing that comes to my mind is the item I use every time I create, and I really apreciate it.

My pick of the week is Tombow adhesive tape runner. It is great. Don't know how I used to scrap without it. I heard that dots are better, but my craft stores don't have it. So, for me this is the best. My favorite tool right now.

I have a couple of layouts done, but no camera to take a picture of them. This week I get to experience what life is without a camera... Hopefully there will be another one pretty soon...

Ordinary day...

Today was a perfect, busy, ordinary day. And I really enjoyed it. Even though I still had remnants of cold, and our baby didn't have the best sleep at night, I still enjoyed it. It was the day when whole family was home. It was busy and noisy around here, but I felt blessed. It was beautiful windy spring day that felt a little like fall, and I love fall.

Today I had a privilege to listen to live music, performed by my oldest daughter, Yelena. Today I appreciated Suzanna's patience when her baby sister was messing up her hair. Today I enjoyed hearing Liana's baby talk, when she was pointing at a picture in a book and telling me what she sees. Today I felt lucky to have my husband work on house improvements. Today I was thankful for cool weather which was perfect for taking a walk. Today I was grateful that my children offered help while I was working on these Russian cookies (it seems like this family can not survive without sweets).


There wasn't a celebration here today, nothing special happened, but I felt blessed. Blessed to have a family. Blessed to enjoy another day that the Lord has made.

Count your blessings!

Week in the Life update

I really enjoy this journey called "A Week in a Life". Wanted to share just a few pictures that make up our life. Pictures that otherwise would've not happened if it wasn't for this project.

Pretty much every morning starts with this cup for me. Contents in it vary.

Kids leaving for school:

Bus stop in the morning.

This table is always occupied by something or someone, no matter how hard we try to keep it free of clutter.

This is what I found on a camera after my kids left for school. My daughter was so proud that she was able to take that cool picture like mom likes to do (with blurry background):

Laundry. This is a picture after laundry was done. (didn't want to document before):

Cousins watching their favorite Russian movie "Ny pogodi":

"Count every moment together as a gift" - just heard that phrase on the radio. And this is so true.

Camera problems

Could there be a "better" week to have your flash go dead then the week you are trying to capture your everyday life? Great.

No, I didn't give up, even though it makes things so much more complicated. I literally could not take any pictures inside of the house for three evenings, and not much came out today since it wasn't very bright outside. I didn't want to take camera back it to get fixed, because then I would be left without camera at all. Arrr...

On the brighter side, I have to agree with Ali, that during this time when we make ourselves grab a camera and take just another picture we might get across something like this:

...the connection between these two is incredible. Liana (the baby) will choose her older sister over me any time. This is one of those moments that I wanted to scrapbook about but didn't have picture. Now I do.

New layout

I did this one few weeks ago. Gathered images of our hometown from different sited, since I did'nt have any of my own and made collage. Turned them all black and white (originally was planning on mixing with my old photos of us...) I had this nostalgia about Krivoy Rog, school, childhood... for a while. And working on this layout helped a little. I do have another one on my desk almost done also childhood related. Will be back to share more.

Week in the Life

I am so excited to participate in project called "A week in the Life". I've read all the links referring that subject on Alis' blog. Today I was working on basic design and other little details for it. So far I have decided on:

- making it a 5.5 x 8.5 in size (made December Daily in a similar size and loved working with that canvas size)

- choosing blue as an accent color

- having a transparency for each day instead of devided page protectors (will adhere pictures on both sides, which will have simmilar effect)

-geting it bound at an office store, instead of rings this time (A.C Moore doesn't sell them anymore... made me mad.)

For my design inspiration I used one of the pages from Ali Edwards photo book on Shutterfly and worked it out so that my project will look similar. It was my favorite page in her book. By the way, I'm working on one of those photo albums to give it to my parents as a gift.

I want to keep it very simple. Would love to work with white pages for a change. Hope to share a little bit more soon. Can't wait to get started.

Just a card.

This is a card I did a while ago. Just thought I would share it here. I had to cover wedding gift in scrapbooking paper (I know!) to match the card.

Wedding colors were also pink and brown.

Page makeover

I have more pictures and memories to scrapbook then I'll ever have time to do it, and yet I go ahead and redo a page a did long ago. It was a 12x12 two page spread with lots of dark blue colors.

Here I tried to use more lighter and happier colors to reflect happy kids at their favorite place in the world. All the papers are from Scenic Route.

I used a sketch for this page and got it done pretty quickly since it didn't require a lot of thinking on design. Ahh, I just realize it's still missing a title.

Liliya's visit

Back with another page. I wanted to make a layout about my best friend of school years for a while. I found a couple of pictures from back then and a few more recent ones... Then I decided to make two pages and give one copy to her.

Last week I invited Lilya for a cup of tea and a walk around our neighbourhood, and I gave this LO to her. Now I have to finish mine. Will probably keep picture arrangement the same (since pictures are all prepared in that size, and ready to be printed), would only change papers and colors.


Love my circle punches. It's probably one of my favorite tools right now. This is the fourth page where I used these punched rings. I hope I don't overdue it here... :)

See you soon!

I'm back...

Hi, I'm back. I know I was missing for a while, but that doesn't mean I wasn't scrapping. In fact, there have been some new layouts done and yesterday we had a crop night with my kids and nieces. In one hour everyone made a LO (even though it felt like I did four in one hour).

One layout I wanted to share with you today. When I was making this page I had a camera on my desk, and just for fun I was snapping some pictures along the way. Thought it would be fun to watch how page evolves.

Starting with background papers...


Adding a circle - to have sun effect behind a photo...

First - main picture...

Two more little ones to support a big one...

Adding hand cut title to match colors...

and journal strips around pictures.

And here is a finished page.

I shared this layout at TwoPeas on Monday. Their gallery was overflowing with great pages that day! Wow! So many talented ladies.

Have a great day!