I was just surfing blogs and screeched to a halt at Dannie's. She has some serious blog candy up for grabs, lots of cute Valentine stuff--yum, yum. The link is to the right--go check it out!

More Pages

Here's my Thansgiving page in Bella's album. I had already finished a Christmas page and a two-page layout of her welcome home party and her very first pics from the hospital, all ready to just pop in the photos.

The turkey was a paper piecing I received in a PIF, but it had primary colors. To match the colors of my paper, I removed each "feather" and traced them onto coordinating cardstock, so it fit on the page very well.

P.S. That's my gram with my son, otherwise referred to as Daddy and Great-great-grandma!!

More First Year pages

I remember our camera was on the fritz in January and I deleted more than half the photos I had taken of Bella. So my stock was low, which forced me to do what I still have a difficult time doing--putting very few pics on one page. At least it gave me plenty of room to journal.
You won't find much more "white space" than what this page offers. I truly have a problem with leaving a page with any open spaces.










Here's my lovebug in February, starting to show off her personality!
I've often cut my photos with a "frame" around it, using part of the white photo paper to frame it. But I still like to mat it with another layer of cardstock.

My plans for the weekend got cancelled. I was supposed to have another family over for dinner to celebrate the New Year, but she cancelled for the second time. That just means more time for me to scrap and craft!!

I finished this layout with another five pages, making my New Year's goal of making 365 new things in 2009 even closer. 14 down, 351 to go. I'm in a few swaps, so that will help me reach my goal, too.

Here are another three pages from my granddaughter's First Year album. I bought a pack of "month" papers at a crop a few months back and finally found a use for them. I love the way Bella is "tasting" her Daddy in the middle shot.


















This page was easier becuase April didn't have many photos. My fave photo on this page is how my daughter and her gorlfriends are hovering over the baby like three fairy godmothers.

Now her smiles are coming in fast and furious. I loved her cute dress with the headband.

everything LifeHouse the video

If you haven't seen this, you're in for a surprise. Click to stop the music from my PlayList before you start the video. This one's for you, Sandi!

2009 Crafting Resolution Well on its Way

I was supposed to go to an all day crop on Saturday but got stuck at home dealing with family issues. So I dug my feet in and planted myself in my craft room on Sunday to make up for lost time.
It was hard not to buy new paper and

embellishments for my pages, but it was easy in a way not to by being surrounded by the mounds of STUFF I already had! The only purchase made was photo paper, and boy did I land a deal--Staples was actually clearancing out the large packages of Gloss Premium Photo paper (their
own brand) and I got 4 boxes of 100 sheets each for almost the same price as one box of 50!!

Anyway, my goal was to scrap my granddaughter, since she is 14 months and I didn't have to go that far back.

WRONG!! I have about a bazillion photos of her in her short 14 months, and it took me as long to pickand choose and print as it did to actually scrap them!

Blogger is really acting weird tonight so I'm only going to post these three pages. Altogether I scrapped NINE pages, not including the pages I had done and ready to pop in the photos.

Volume I is finished and takes Bella through her first year on earth. Next time I can scrap, I've got the photos to start up Volume II with her First Birthday party through New Year's Eve.

These are actually the last three pages in her album. I used card candy I had made last year, journaling blocks I received from my Bella Sistah and my secret Mrs. Claus, I even received adhesive in the LuckyBug Sweetheart Swap!

I cleaned out my alpha drawer and now my alphas are stored by color--it was so easy to place titles on my page and not spend precious minutes looking for the right letters and colors!!

How would you like to start the New Year with this scrumptious tidbit? That's my granddaughter Bella, the love of my life. She spent the night here while Mommy went out to ring in the new Year at Navy Pier downtown Chicago. She must have known something was special, that girl did NOT want to go to sleep last night!
But now she's rested and ready for a new year. Her fave Christmsa present was the fold-out Disney Princess Couch/Bed. She runs to it and sits and lies in it. I must say it is the coolest thing I've seen in a while!
I'm ready to get to Michael's today--20% off coupon in hand. I have no more adhesive left in the house except a couple tubes of Glue Sticks. So I'm in a sticky situation (har har). Enjoy all the blessings that come your way this year!!