Lets Talk Scrapbooking

I have put this off lately but its one of my biggest hobby’s. It has its own room in my house. And it needs it. If your into scrapbooking you know its an all in effort. And first you start in the I want to buy everything I see stage. So today I’m going to share a couple little tips and some older and still favorite pages! This is a long post so lets get started

1. Simplify.

You do not want to spend 3 days on one page. I like to think 2 hours is my limit. That’s what I can usually handle. And even that sounds super long when I type it. Your pages don’t have to be masterpieces every time. Sometimes its the really simple ones that are the favorites. And besides its all about the pictures anyways!

Here’s some examples

On this one I wanted it to be a fast and easy page so I added my three favorites stacked on some cute paper. With a sticker caption spot and an easy title it was fast easy and simple.

This one though it may seem not as simple is just the same. Add a picture a contrasting stripe and a few random embellishments, these are just a few different shapes cut out of scrap paper. And then a strip of transparency  makes this page pop!

2. Find inspiration everywhere.

Sometimes I walk through target (or any other store for that matter) and just look at artwork and staged designs. You can pull inspiration from a page from anything. Whether it be just the color combination or a way to make a cool title pop, or a whole page concept.

Example 1.

There was a beautiful wooden frame I saw at a store I could not afford to buy. It was wooden with a small indent cut into the middle to frame a picture. Then it had a quote painted around it. So I went home and made my own out of paper. I used pop dots to give it the dimension and that way my picture in the middle is just like the wooden one! I love this layout because now I have the frame I want but I made it. Plus you can use your own favorite quote and colors!

This one came from seeing a bulletin board of pictures and mementos on a friends wall. I thought how cute to just show a whole life of mismatched pictures to share a story. I popped some up, I stitched some down each one is special in its own way but is all connected.

3. If you cant find inspiration around you take it from a scrapbook.

That’s right I am telling you to copy. Everyone does it. I do too. Sometimes you hit a funk and just need a push. I’m not saying buy the paper take the same photo lay it out the exact same but sometimes idea’s are so great they are meant to be everywhere. And come on if your telling me you have an original scrapbook idea well then your probably Tim Holtz otherwise its been done before and it will be done again.

This came from a wedding layout in a magazine I saw. Strips of paper behind a square photo. Everything on theirs was black and white. I used colors to pop my color photo. Their titles was much smaller over a flower and I decided to stretch my title over my picture to give a bit more dimension.

This one also came from a magazine. They are the best inspiration. I loved the over sized accent, you can use any shape I’ve also done a similar layout with a giant & as the focus. In their layout it was a whole bunch of small photo’s I choose to use one 5×7 and one 4×6. Because their photo’s were small they had them higher on the page with not such a big pattern strip. I also added a strip on the bottom to pull it all together.

Lastly for this point I saw a page I loved as a single page layout. I decided to stretch it into a two page layout. And changed the text to an edging highlight rather than a text box. So stretch a single page into 2 or squish a two page layout you like into a single layout!

4. Last point would be to have fun!

Don’t follow scrapbook rules or whatever someone tells you too. Add stuff to pages someone normally wouldn’t add. Its your pages make them your own. I love to add non traditional embellishments or make titles out of something other than paper. You can even make mini albums out of non traditional fun objects. Like my spool album or a mini canvas album. Just remember these are your memories scrapbook them in a way that makes it special to you!

I love to read so I wanted to really make a page around that. So I grabbed an old book that was on its way out ripped out a few pages and layered them into the pictures. Added a clever title “Get Lost in a Book” And voila a unique page all about reading!

And lastly I wanted to make a page with a unique title so instead of using paper or stamps or stickers, so I decided to hand stitch my title across half of the page. Spending that extra time on it made me really love the page. Plus no one else has this exact look, because its all my handwriting. So its my own unique page!

So I hope that inspires you to be creative with something this week! Maybe I can actually finish some of my on the go projects I’ve been ignoring for the last 3 months! Good Luck everyone and of course as always if you make anything share it with me I love to see what you come up with!

A Different Kind of Birthday Cake

Isnt it funny how someone who bakes all the time only lives by family who doesn’t love cupcakes. ( it’s possible not to love cupcakes?!) So for my sister in law’s birthday instead I made some Chocolate chip cookies! Yum yum, I just finished the extra couple I had left over for breakfast!

Last Year I tried to mix the idea’s. I made a cookie cake. A chocolate cake that looked like a cookie. This year I made another cookie cake. But this was a mini cake made out of cookies. I don’t know which one is cuter! So Happy Birthday Jessica, wishing you another happy year with all your boys.

Happy Birthday Love

As some of you know this Sunday was a little special for us. Brandon is ringing in his 26th year! (what when did this happen?) When we met he was just 22 and we started dating a year later. And now he’s 26! Isn’t it weird how life can do that so fast.

Well its been an amazing year, and it was definitely a fun day together. We kicked it off with a baseball game. (In the freezing cold!) Even though they didn’t win it was still fun to watch him play again. We had a little traditional Birthday lunch at Chipotle. They even gave him a mini bag of chips to celebrate. And then Brandon did the unthinkable! He pulled the veto card on a no cake birthday! I had his cake all planned out (cant tell you because I still plan on making it) But it was his birthday so no cake. Even though he married the cake lady. But understandable as we were going out for a big dinner! We have a favorite little place, a small hole in the wall gem. Its a little Italian place and its “our” place. So we celebrated there with his sister and her husband. Great meal, great conversation, great night!

And he even let me sneak a couple pictures in! That was like a gift to me! Brandon hates pictures, so I loved that I got this cute one of us! It was a nice birthday for just the two of us. The last one of its kind! (wink wink)

So Happy Birthday to my favorite person. You make me laugh every day and that’s the greatest feeling in the world. I couldn’t imagine life without you. I hope we celebrate many more of these amazing days together. Love you so much!

Oreo Peanut butter!

O my good gosh. You know when you are reading a blog and just know you have to share it with the world. Well I was pursuing a favorite site blog. Modcloth.com Its my favorite place to go look and then feel guilty about looking at. They have the most amazing stuff there! Such cute retro styles and just fun stuff. I got these amazing converse sneaker socks for me and my little sister for Christmas. And a unique pocket watch scarf months ago. And most recently some really cute dresses during their big yearly sale.

Well not only do they have amazing stuff to look at they also have a cute blog to follow! Todays post, all about making your own oreo peanut butter! If anyone tried my oreo peanut butter bark recipe back in December, they will know why I am already dying to try this. Im not sure why I didnt already think of it. And it couldn’t be any easier!

10 whole Oreo cookies (I usually add double the amount of oreo’s to every recipe like this.)
2 cups creamy peanut butter
1 cup white chocolate chips
2 tablespoons peanut butter
1 mason jar, or, reuse peanut butter jar!

1. Crush the oreo’s and add to the peanut butter.

2. Melt the white chocolate and add to the gooey goodness concoction.

3. Stir it all together and store in a mason jar, and enjoy the amazingness!

So now you need to do three things, watch modcloth for all their new arrivals and returning favorites. Check out their blog for more fun stuff. And go make this right now to enjoy it with anything you want to pair it with or straight from the jar!

Did you wear green today?

Because I didn’t. I should have been pinched to death but no one in my family wore green so there was a truce. Normally I love making special days all about those little traditions. I was babysitting again today and their mom told them leprechauns had snuck into the house and turned their apple juice green. How cute is that. I love that stuff. But its just not as fun without kids. So one day!

Brandon’s birthday is coming up so you better believe there is going to be some cake coming up this weekend! I got my cupcake cake pop mold in the mail so that’s going to be my excuse to make them! Plus some other special cupcakes! Yummy.

I haven’t been on top of the blog this week because we’ve been enjoying the awesome weather. Walking the dogs, playing catch and even a little baseball, just the two of us. I’m sure it was entertaining for Brandon to watch me throw and attempt to hit the ball to him.  That’s what I am assuming he was laughing at as I spin in full circles. And that why I am dying on the couch right now. I didn’t know my back had that many muscles that could hurt the day after!

So I hope you all had a fantastic St. Patricks Day! And celebrated in which ever way you choose to!

Mini Pumpkin Pies!

Yum, I’m guessing that title enticed you to come over and read the rest of today’s post. Yes its true I found the perfect combination between cupcakes and pies. I started with a basic cake recipe and added a whole lot of pumpkin in a can. Toss in lots of pinches of spices and add some vanilla buttercream, and voila! Pumpkin pie cupcakes.

I think the best part was that they didn’t have a cake texture they really felt like you were eating mini pies. It was very dangerous to have them in the house for sure! Good thing most of them went out the next morning for a friends birthday. But I’d imagine these will be a staple dessert this November!

Hey also I had a friend and reader Message me a picture of her beautiful cards she made with the heart card tutorial! I love seeing stuff my readers make. So in the future or you see something from a past post you want to make message me the results. I would love to share the amazing work you guys do too! Here’s Rachelle’s “Just Because” Cards!

Wishing you guys a wonderful weekend!

Ive Been Busy

That’s a total lie? haha Ive been lazy is more like it. Sometimes my life just isn’t interesting enough to post a whole blog about. That sums up this week. I’m babysitting like mad. I’ll be with my pretend kids overnight all weekend. I like to think of it as parent boot camp. Just thrown into chaos. I’m going to bring Brandon since its overnight and I am still a big wuss and am afraid of the dark pretty much. And then after he wants to pull his hair out I’ll ask “so when do you want to make some of these crazy little monsters!” Haha Its a good thing I love those kids so much!

Highlights from this week: We played monopoly for the first time together and apparently for the first time ever for Brandon. He told me the only other time he had played was when he was still eating the money. Haha. It was another first time. First time Ive ever seen a game end. I am used to everyone just bailed three hours in. But it was always a favorite of mine, it reminds me of playing with my grandpa He made every move special. Especially the beauty contest card. So I crushed Brandon. I had no mercy for the first timer. He definitely put up a fight and Ive never seen someone go to jail quite that often. And then want to stay there so he didn’t have to hit my corner haha. We played another game later that night (two games of monopoly in one night unheard of in my family!) And Brandon learned too quickly and definitely was killing me when I bailed three hours in at midnight.

Our other highlight was buying a dog grooming kit. In the past Ive cut the dogs hair with scissors. Brutal is all I can say. And apparently they look worse than how I feel after doing it. So we broke down and bought one from target. Brandon was in charge since I was still afraid it was going to cut the puppy on every swipe. We did karma first since the second that thing turned on WallE disappeared instantly. We’ll catch him later this week. We’ll it was a lot easier and way faster. She looks pretty cute but wont pose for pictures. But it was a cute moment when we were giving Walter a bath and Karma sat patiently outside waiting for him. Like she was going to save him when we opened the sliding door. They are too cute together.

Other than that just babysitting. And Im baking pumpkin pie cupcakes as we speak! They are o so yummy! And with the buttercream frosting, well I might just eat them all tonight by myself!

My Little Cupcakes

So Im pretty excited. I just hit order online. At midnight? Why am I still up? O because I had to watch Jersey Shore when I got home. Guilty as charged. I just cant help watching and loving that train wreck. Anyways I had seen this on another blog I watch the other day. And fell in love instantly. How can you not?

This is “My little cupcake

A mold for cake balls. So you to can make the same beautiful treats the amazing Bakerella shines at. You can even make them with her non bake recipe with oreo’s and cream cheese. So easy she has her super cute kids do the tutorial for it. (I think thats what sold me, they are so cute!)

You pop them in and out of the mold and dip them in chocolate. Could I have just described heaven? All the reviews say its easy peasy and they clean up great. So I ordered two, I cant wait to play with them! I can see these becoming an addiction of mine. Of course when I get mine I’ll be sure to be sharing every yummy detail with you! Until then.

Thank you’s & Cupcakes

There was a couple people we know that went above and beyond for us today. So I set to making thank you cards right away. This is my standard go to pattern for a thank you card. I just love it, its easy and so so cute. I had some extra paper on hand. I don’t love the look of the colors in the end but I wanted to make some cards quick. So I’ll share them anyways.

Fold your paper to make a standard card. I used my cricut and the George and basic shapes cartridge to make a 3 1/2 inch silhouette heart. Then I glue the heart to the front of the card. Then I use an exacto knife to cut out the inside. I used pop dots to make the inside of the heart on the inside of the card stand out. Then you can write a little cute phrase. I liked Thank you on the front and “from the bottom of my heart” on the inside. Or “from our heart to yours.” Tada instant cute card.

And finally my Banana’s turned! Or so I thought. They were black all over. I peel them. They look brand new. They even feel great! What? I am convinced Banana’s know what you want to use them for and refuse to obey that thought. I want mine to go bad they stay fresh. Brandon wants his to last longer than 2 days they go over night! Its Banana’s! (TeeHee)

So I made Banana bread. I made a loaf and I made some cupcakes to give away. I have got to say Banana Bread baking is THE best smell in the world. In fact its still all I can smell in my house and that is both wonderful and dangerous. The even more dangerous part was when I stumbled on a happy accident. I had left over Nutella buttercream from Sunday and tested the thought. AMAZING. Yum I think I’m going to have to forever make Nutella Buttercream every time I make Banana Bread cupcakes. MMmm but my favorite is a couple slices from the fresh loaf that is slightly crispy from cooling, and lots of butter. Excuse me because my mouth is now watering and I need to go eat exactly that!