Small settings change and some more scrapbooking

I was hoping not to have to do this, but I have had to stop allowing anonymous comments. Sorry! I know that there were some genuine people using that feature to ask me questions about certain projects without creating an account (especially people who found me on Pinterest). On my last post I think I got about a dozen SPAM comments, all from anonymous users. And they're sneaky, too. They almost sound like they could be real comments, but then they say "Check out my blog" at the bottom and the links go to different scam sites. Ugh! Too much work! 

In other news, I have started packing! Not enough packing, mind you, but I have started. 

I have also, somewhat stupidly, invited people over for Easter. So I need to decorate. While packing. My husband made me feel better about this by telling me that we have two small children (and one not-so-small) and I really had to decorate anyway. Hmmm...I guess so.

Kit is Bella Gypsy's Besties with added freebies (no longer available) and staple. 

The owners over at the Cover to Cover Facebook Group posted a few old Speed Scraps for us to use. I followed one to make this page for my 2011 book that I am working on. I actually was cooking last night during the Sunday Speed Scrap, so I didn't participate. Then, when I got on my computer later, I saw a note that they would be doing prizes. I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little annoyed, I mean prizes on the one night in forever I don't participate?! Mostly I was sitting there staring at my husband and children saying, "Why do you have to eat?" Hahaha! 

Kit is On the Road by Kristin Aagard also used here. 

I also put together this page for my 2011 book. My poor boy was in such a state at that party, but I have to remember that I had his sister less than two weeks before his birthday. That's a lot to put on a four year old boy! My husband pointed out to me that my traffic light is upside down, so I will have to change that before I have this page printed. 

Kristin Aagard designed the kit I used for Gabe's page, and I am completely crushing on her Moving Day kit right now! I'd much rather scrap about packing than do the actual packing! Who's with me? 

What I'm doing when I should be packing

Some Megan Turnidge, some Bella Gypsy and some Just Jaimee. 

I participated in the Speed Scrap on the My Memories Facebook page on Sunday. Probably shouldn't have, but I am trying to maintain some kind of schedule with regards to my 2011 and 2013 scrapbooks. These are photos of Caroline's part of the bedroom she shares with her brother. I find it a little ironic that I'm scrapping these now, as I'm getting ready to put all of this stuff in place in our new home. 

Kit is Forest Friends by Mye De Leon, alpha is Bella Gypsy. 

Here is another page from my 2011 book. I had scrapped this photo already, but I felt the page was really lacking. I wanted to tell the story of why this iPhone photo is the first photo ever taken of Caroline. This version is much better, I think. I had originally planned on (and tried) scrapping this picture with a much different kit with a deer in it, but I felt the dark recovery room picture needed a kit that was a little darker too, so thankfully I had another cute little deer in my stash. (Funny, I always seem to scrap this kit with circles. What is it about these papers?)

Some Little Pillows & Some Big News

Let's just start this off by saying I am not pregnant. I think any time a married woman in her 30's has big news that's where we all jump to, but seriously...not me! I won't say never again, because the last time I was "done" having children God laughed at me and gave me Caroline less than a month after I made that decision. 

I made these little pillows from a clearance shower curtain I found at Target. Roughly four yards of adorable, kid friendly, stain resistant decorator weight cotton fabric for $9.98? Yes, please! 

I did a simple envelope back on the pillows so that they would be easy to take off and clean. It also really simplified my sewing as I was able to use the existing hem on the bottom of the shower curtain for the top part of the envelope. 

So, why am I making these cute little pillows (12 X 12 and 12 X 16)? We're moving! One of the things we were looking for in a new house was a playroom for the kids, and I'm happy to say that our new house allows for that. However, the layout of the house is such that the kids' playroom will be the first thing anyone sees when they come in our front door. Yuck! 

Trying to plan cute, functional decor for a kids' space that will make the first impression of my entire home? Um...hard! If anyone has any tips on that, I'm all ears! 

More Digiscrap Pages & Some Tips

I may have mentioned once or twice (or maybe even a dozen times) that I am participating in the 2013 Cover to Cover challenge with My Memories. The goal is two pages per month for 2013, and I set an additional goal for myself to finish scrapping 2011 at the same rate. 

I'm really pleased that I have completed five pages for each of these books! Since a few of these haven't been shown on the blog, I thought I'd post them up here and to my ever-growing gallery on Pinterest. 

Kit is Ice Ice Baby by Connie Prince

First up, is a page I scrapped in early February. I had been wanting to play around with QR codes for awhile, and decided to finally bite the bullet. I found this QR code generator online that is free and lets you customize the color of your code. How perfect for scrapbook pages is that? I turned this one a deep blue/purple and it coordinates wonderfully! Definitely a site you should bookmark if you'd like to try this on your pages. 

Layout, except for microphone, made with Bella Gypsy's Besties and coordinating freebies that are no longer available. 

Next up is the result of a Speed Scrap and some small scale photos I took at a school fundraiser. I thought the colors in this kit were perfect for a group of tween girls and as a bonus they coordinated awesomely with the microphone from a Connie Prince kit I had on hand. (Connie's just getting tons of love from me today!)

And lastly, we have the page that gave me fits! I kept trying, and trying to create this page, but nothing seemed to work. I couldn't make my boarding passes large enough to read while keeping my scan of my 4 X 6 photo large enough to see and have room for the journaling that I felt was really necessary since I only had one real photo (all that was allowed) of the exhibit we attended. 

Someone in the Cover to Cover Facebook group suggested to me that I ignore the warning the program gave me about how my photo could pixelate and use it as my background. She said she had done it several times and never actually had a photo come out bad. So I got brave and tried it. I layered the photo over top of this great weathered damask paper, made it sepia toned and adjusted the opacity enough to let some of the texture from the background show through. It kind of reminds me of the look of a lot of the papers that were salvaged from the Titanic wreckage, and if it pixelated, I can't tell! Maybe the weathered background hides it? 

Since you can see a lot of the detail in the large background photo, I didn't feel bad about putting a very small original in there, which finally left me enough room for my boarding passes and the journaling I wanted. I threw together a bunch of elements in nautical colors to add a little 

punch to the page and bring out the red of the White Star Line logo. I'm so glad to have the group at my finger tips to help me along with these pages! 

Modern Infinity Scarf

I mentioned yesterday that I had an infinity scarf on my sewing machine, and I finished up the hand stitching on it this morning. I love it. It is going to be hard to give this one away, really hard. 

I made this for my youngest sister's birthday using the "heart" part of my Infinity Scarf Tutorial. She is going to be 18 (and hopefully isn't a blog reader) and when I asked about what color she might wear I got, "I don't know, black?" I kind of wanted to bang my head into the wall. I mean seven black fabrics? I must have walked around my local quilt shop for a half hour at least! 

In the end I had two tone on tone black prints, a solid black, a solid gray, the dark gray (stone) Huevos, the ring dot and the single seriously bright print. I am so in love with that print, but also nervous that it will be the deciding factor in whether or not she wears this. I will be crossing my fingers and tossing this into a box, quickly, because I think if it sits here too much longer it will end up around my neck! 

Monday Moments: Retro Edition

This was my Speed Scrap from the My Memories Facebook page last night. I am trying to finish scrapping 2011, so I looked hard down my list to find an event where I had a whopping eight photos for this challenge page! I decided on Easter, picked out the papers and then realized I had six photos. Oops! I snagged one off of Facebook that somehow got deleted from my computer and then split the see-saw picture into two in order to participate. I like the way it turned out! 

The kit is one of the new ones pre-loaded into My Memories Suite Version 4. I added the ric-rac from my All the Pretty Ponies kit (which I use so much! Love those girly brights and pastels, it's really versatile if you can get over not using the cute ponies in every layout) and a Bella Gypsy freebie alpha (no longer available, sorry!). 

I'm in the mood for spring! Anyone else? Of course, as I say that and think about Easter plans for this year, I've got another infinity scarf on my sewing machine that needs to be attended to. More stuff to show you soon...