A mid week layout

Just finished up this layout tonight and thought I would share! I was totally inspired by a layout by Amy Lemaniak.

Credits:

Atomic Cupcake curled action

Brushes by Brandie Valenzuela (Grungelle) and Angie Briggs (New Foliage)

Embellishment templates by Keri Schueller (Expressive Frames), Amanda McGee (Ties and Tags) and Theresa Kavouras (Photo Folds 2)

Paper template by Keri Schueller (Afterglow)

Paper texture by Ariadna Wiczling

Layouts from this weekend!

I didn't have a ton of time to scrap this weekend but I did manage to get 2 layouts done.

The first is digital - credits

Atomic Cupcake's embroidery action

From ScrapGirls:

DEB_SSEmb_FabricArts (threads in lower right hand corner)

BMU_SS_EMBTmplt_ThreadBareShapes (stitches and flowers)

AMC_SSEmb_TiesTags (wrap, tag and bow)

DEB_SSPaper_FabricArts (frayed fabric paper and one of the base papers)

TCS_SSPaper_BeautifulDistress (the other base paper)

SBA_SSActions_StackedPhotos_6501_PSE (photo stacking action)

CBA_SSTools_Styles_StitchingAndHoles_4101 (stitching and holes layer styles)

BVA_Grungelle_BrushSet (brushed over tag text_

BVA_BrushSet_WornThreads (used as eraser on top base paper layer so bottom shows through)

And here's a paper layout of my favorite quotes for my Book of Me:

A short whine

I travel a little bit for my job (about 1 trip a month, on average), much less than I did at my last job. Tomorrow, I'm going to St. Louis on a day trip - connecting through Atlanta. I'm going to be on a plane longer than I'm actually going to be in St. Louis. Plus, I'm sick. Yuck. Whine.

Recommendations and a Few Layouts

Before I share a few layouts I've done over the last week, I wanted to give you some recommendations!
1. The Sketchapalooza class at Feeling Scrappy. I took this class last time it was offered and will be taking it again (new sketches this time!) when it starts on October 27th. This is super fun class and it prompted me to get a billion layouts done last time. Lots of prizes and encouragement are offered!
2. I'm again going to say how much I love Yin's lifted photo templates on her blog at Simply Yin. And - her layouts are just GORGEOUS!!!
3. I get all my 12x12 digital prints done at Scrapping Simply. You can't beat the price - $1.99 each if you order more than 15, and the quality and customer service are fantastic!

And here are a few layouts!

This first layout is based on one side of a Becky Higgins sketch and uses papers and elements from the Funky Fresh kit at Kiss This Designs. I also used Atomic Cupcake's chipboard action, a ribbon wrap by Amanda Sok and a crystal flower by Digital Chaos.


This layout was prompted by a challenge at Feeling Scrappy to take 5 photographs of your favorite color. Favorite COLOR - singular???? Background paper by Sheri Johnson.


A complete scraplift!!!! This layout is pretty much copied exactly from a layout by Syndee Nuckles and uses her paper and embellishment templates, flowers by Creative Chaos, paper tearing action by Melissa Renfro, acrylic action by Atomic Cupcake, and date brush stamp by Ariadna Wiczling.

A couple layouts from this weekend

We had a super busy productive weekend - lots of work to do around the house, football watching on Sunday (go Bills!) - and I had to bake a from scratch apple pie to complete one of the layouts!! We had Alexa's class pets (hermit crabs) home for the weekend, which was lots of fun.

Credits - all from ScrapGirls:
MRE_SSEmbTemp_LiftedPhoto (Melissa Renfro)
SNU_OnEdge (Syndee Nuckles)
KSC_Falling_Biggie (Keri Schueller)
DEB_SS_Paper_Studio1 (Durin Eberhart)
BVA_Grungelle_BrushSet (Brandie Valenzuela)
BVA_SSLayer_RecipeCard2 (Brandie Valenzuela)


Credits:
Sketch by Jayne Jones
All papers and elements from the Limeade kit by Summer Driggs


Credits:
Atomic Cupcake chipboard and distressed edge actions
Papers created using templates by Amanda Sok, Keri Scheuller, and Tricia Yochum
Ribbon from an embellishment template by Shalae Tippetts
Sketch by Candace Duffy

Friday Feast #596

So, I'm going to do some scrapbooking this weekend and I'll post some more layouts, but I came across last week's Friday Feast questions on Shirley's blog and went to check out today's questions. Here they are!

Appetizer
When was the last time you had your hair cut/trimmed? Four weeks ago. I am pretty religious about getting it cut every six weeks!

Soup
Name one thing you miss about being a child. Summers that seemed to go on forever.

Salad
Pick one: butter, margarine, olive oil. Olive oil. Yum!

Main Course
If you could learn another language, which one would you pick, and why? Russian, because it's the language of my daughter's birth country.

Dessert
Finish this sentence: In 5 years I expect to be…a stay at home mom!

Quick adoption update

For those of you not following the story - we have had a referral for the adoption of a baby boy in Russia since February. We were originally supposed to travel to meet him in April (trip 1 - Russia requires at least 2 trips, with about 8 weeks in between - the adoption is "final" on the second trip) and due to a combination of issues with our agency (outside their control), the US government, and the Russian government, we still have not been on trip 1. At the earliest, trip 1 will be in October, but no one is feeling very optimistic, least of all me.

We're so conflicted about this. Our family feels very complete with Alexa, but I so much want her to grow up with siblings. There is a baby boy who is waiting in Russia for us. He's already older than we had hoped - Alexa came home at 13 months, our referral is already 15 months, so at BEST he would be 18 months old when he came home. The older he gets, the less comfortable we feel due to issues that become more common with children the longer they are institutionalized in orphanages. We signed our application to adopt in early 2007, when circumstances in our life (and Alexa's age) made another adoption perfect - and we had the (perhaps overly confident) expectation that it would take about the same time as Alexa's - 10 months start to finish.

Adam and I keep saying that if we were in a blind adoption region and had no referral information, we would at this point make the decision to stop pursuing the adoption. But it makes me so sad that we feel we already know this little boy just a little, and we were so looking forward to having him become part of our family.

Ugh.