party planning {anniversary}

four weeks from now, matt & i will be hosting a party at our home (in conjunction with matt's brother & his wife) to celebrate my in-law's 60th wedding anniversary. 60 years! isn't that crazy?? anyway, i have officially started the planning and thought i'd share some of what i've accomplished this weekend. (his parents don't even own a computer so i'm not worried about spoiling any surprises).

since my home will already be decorated for fall, i am using an autumn-inspired color scheme of golden yellow, burgundy, green and brown. i began with a digital template i had downloaded a while ago. i will probably put this in a frame on display somewhere.

from there, i created the invitation using a variety of embellishments and word art (that i already had). in creating these things, i'm trying to keep his mother's style in mind, as opposed to what i would choose for me.
i think the invitation might be *too busy* and i may tweak it.

with each invitation, i plan to include a decorative 4x6 card, asking folks to write a memory, story, etc. and bring it to the party. i will have extra blank ones there for those that forget. after the party, i will pair these with photos and created a keepsake album for them.

everything was created in photoshop elements 7.0. all elements and papers were freebies that i've collected online and i'm not sure of the designers' names. i take no credit for the design of the papers or embellishments.

digi layout {what if?}

tonight, as coleman and i rocked in his nursery, i once again began pondering the "what ifs" and how close i came to not trying to have a baby. as i sat there, holding the most precious being i can ever imagine, i scripted the journaling below. granted, it wasn't scripted as a scrapbook page, but after my mind had wandered for a bit, i realized that i wanted to capture those thoughts and emotions. and that i needed to do it immediately. so, instead of watching yet another episode of prison break, i did something a bit more meaningful with my time. hopefully, one day, these words will let coleman know that even though i was unsure of whether i wanted to be a mother, he is loved unconditionally and it was the most perfect decision we've ever made.

journaling: what if we had never talked about it? what if i hadn’t heard my biological clock ticking? what if everyone had stopped asking? what if i had no faith in myself? what if we hadn’t taken the choice away from ourselves & science and put it in more worthy hands? what if we had not trusted Him to know the right answer? what if we hadn’t been blessed so easily? what if you weren’t placed in our family? so many times i look at you and think to myself...how could i have ever even considered not growing our family? these thoughts often crowd my mind. but i push them aside, unable to bear the thought of life without you. i am so grateful that after all the “what ifs”, you are here with us. photo taken feb 2010; journaling sept 2010

supplies: photo was taken by lindsay alexander photography; journaling font - ck invitation; title font - porcelain; template by katie pertiet; papers & elements by jessica sprague

digi layout {5th grade friends}

i created this digital layout while on vacation, using a quickpage from jessica sprague. i added a few additional elements as well. i asked spencer to do the journaling about his three best friends this year. it reads:
jc: nice, funny, athletic, cool, smart, calm
heath: cool, smart, funny, nice, fast, energetic, adventurous
ryan: calm, smart, fast, can be energetic, funny, athletic, knowledgable

it makes me happy that he listed "smart" as a quality for each of them and that it's a trait he obviously considers important. of course, fast & athletic apparently are too :)

digi layout {5th grade graduation}

yesterday, i created two digital layouts using quick pages from a blog hop that Jessica Sprague had recently. she provided download of kit components, as well as a ton of quick pages. the look and feel of the kit and pages are perfect for doing pages of spencer!!!

on the page below, i pretty much used it "as is" with no additions. i used three photos from spencer's fifth grade graduation last month. then i added journaling about the things that made him so "awesome" in elementary school.

the second page is waiting for some journaling that i want spencer to do, so i will post it when its complete.

{the picture}

so, you know how sometimes you get *that picture*? the one that makes the other 200 that week totally worth it? ok, maybe you don't. i honestly have no clue whether the average person feels these things in relation to photographs (like how i cried when i saw our family portraits last year), but for the sake of this blog post, i'm just going to pretend i'm normal.

so, i take a ton of pictures - sometimes of expected events, sometimes of totally random things, sometimes of just hanging and doing what we do. this was one of those. it was after work, just hanging out in the yard. i took some pictures of coleman playing with his big orange ball, sliding on his slide, and playing with the neighbors' rocks.

i think it can *hit* you when you get one of these at different times. it's possible (though rare, i believe) that you realize it as you take it. it's quite likely that you might see it when you first load them to your computer and see them on the bigger screen. and sometimes it takes time. when i saw this photo, i liked it. a lot. but it took going through my photo process (meaning, i probably "touched" the photo several times), before the intensity of it stuck with me.

and the crazy thing about getting "the" picture is that it probably only means that much to you. maybe your family or some friends or something. but i guarantee that most of you will look at the picture below and just see a photo of the top of a kid's head that is sitting on some rocks. but when i look at it, i see everything that my 16-month-old baby toddler boy is right now.

so, this is it. the picture. i plan on printing this large (probably 8x10 or 8.5x11) and letting it serves as it's own layout. cuz it rocks (pun fully intended).

digi layout {still scrappin'}

it's a long story of how i got motivated to pull together this digital layout tonight (but i will say, randomly enough, that it all started with kirk cameron). so, anyway... this was actually very quick to pull together. i used a template (as always) and patterned papers from a confectionary kit. the photos are from scrapping throughout 2009 and the journaling is about trying to crop as a mommy. click the layout to view it larger.

digi layout {moments}

earlier this week, while watching idol, i created a digital layout. this is another story i've been itching to get on paper so i'm very pleased to have it done. i typically don't scrap the same photo more than once (though i know many people that do this often). however, the left photo was already scrapped in my pregnancy album. but when i captured the other photo, i knew i had to do a layout featuring both of them. i was trying to find the first layout on my blog and apparently, i never shared it...so i will share both.

this is the original. it's a paper layout (11" x 8.5") including in my pregnancy album. you can probably read the journaling if you click on the photo to see it larger. the basic idea is about how spencer reacted throughout my pregnancy to the news of being a big brother.

this is the new one that i just did. it's digital, 12"x12". the journaling here basically just says how great of a relationship spencer and coleman have.

Sorry, but I can't give proper credit to any of the templates/products used. It is a very random combination of stuff (probably all free downloads). Just know that I don't take credit for any of it :)

digi layout {they named me coleman...}

Tonight, when I should've been doing laundry, cleaning, and balancing the checkbook...I made this digital layout instead. But ya know what? I needed to do it. It's good for the soul to just say it's *ok* to let some things slide.

So, the idea for this layout has been in my head for many, many months. It felt good to "get it on paper". One day I just thought "it's funny how many things we call him that aren't his name." It's also an easy way to capture some cute, random photos.

All papers/embellishments are from a free kit: "Just for You" by Christy Skaggs at GoDigitalScrapbooking.com; Used a free template (source unknown)

digi layout {field day}

I created this digital layout last night. It was a one-page Jessica Sprague template, which I mirrored, to create a two page layout. The photos are from Field Day at Spencer's school. It's incredibly simple, but I had a ton of photos so I wanted to leave the focus there. One of the things I enjoy about digital scrapbooking is how easy it is to switch out "papers" to see what works and doesn't. In this case, I put in all the photos first and then pulled in various papers, sampling them to find the best colors. I have also found that I tend to waste a ton of time picking the "perfect" font - what's up with that?

digi layout {safety patrol}

A perk of digital scrapbooking? Good activity when you're sick and don't feel like doing much...
Put together this one of Spencer doing Safety Patrol this past school year. I chose 8.5x11 because his school album is that size.

Disclaimer: I do not keep up with the designers of my digital goodies. But I take no credit for the design of the above layout, or the various papers & elements used within it.

computer wallpaper {august}

This is what I am using as my computer's wallpaper this month. It was a free template at Designer Digitals. They had one for July that I used too, so I'm hoping they do it every month. What fun. If I keep using them for a while, it might be cute to print out a little "mini book" of them :) The photos are all from our walk at Kings Mountain. I reduced the saturation of them to fit the feel of the design.

The free template is HERE. They always have great freebies.

{photo edit}

my friend tara and i were discussing how cool it would be to be able to do this "selective recoloring" to photos. this was just a couple of lessons into the class and i wasn't sure if we'd learn to do it or not. so, since we DID, i decided to do a picture of her son for her. i think it came out nifty!

i also made this for her. i downloaded a free digital quick page (note: i take no credit for this) and it immediately reminded me of her house because she has a lot of americana stuff. once i got this family picture of them, i knew i had to do something for her. it was a 12x12 page, so i just cut it down so i could print it in 5x7. hope she likes it.

Photo Editing Class {lesson 13}

Lesson 13 was to create a 9-photo collage and add some brushes along the edge. I chose these gamecock football photos only to realize all the brushes I have are very feminine. So, I skipped the brush thing and decided to add some journaling and just make it a full digital layout. Simple, but captures lots of photos and journaling. The font I used is Ali's Writing (as in Ali Edwards) and I love it. It's one of my favorite fonts right now. Another is "Digs My Heart" (they are very similar, actually).

digi layout {new year}

I created this quick layout tonight (when I should've been packing for my trip). This was an Ali Edwards free template that I downloaded a while back (based on the theme, I'd guesstimate it was around the beginning of the year...smart, aren't I?).

digi layout {sights of our home}

i found this template online tonight. it's actually 5x7 for a christmas card, but i immediately thought it'd be a cute way to capture decorations from the holidays. the photos are from 2006. if i print it at 11" tall, i can add a strip of patterned paper to make it fit into an 8.5x11 page protector (which is the size of my christmas album). it's not my favorite, but i still think it's OK.

digi layout {28}

turns out that digital scrapbooking is a nice, low energy activity for an exhausted pregnant chick.
i can't take much credit for this at all - the layout was already complete...colors and all. i just added my photos and journaling. pictures are from 2006.

digi layout {mom's birthday}

here's another one i just did...more old pictures (mom's birthday in 2005). i'm kind of proud of this one just because i actually figured out how to add a few things to the template :)

digi layout {football}

in my extreme laziness today, i've sat in matt's recliner, watched dvr'd shows and goofed around with some digital templates. here is a layout i just created with very old photos - football game from 2005.

digi layout {halloween 2006}

I just happened to have one template and some halloween papers saved to my hard drive, so I decided to see if I could whip together another page based on what I learned. So, here are the results - pretty cool. Please note I can't take much credit for these creations, see below.

Template is by Patti Knox. Papers are by Cherie Mask.

digi layout {i create}

The free Jessica Sprague class is almost over. Today she offered a tutorial on how to create a digital layout using templates in Photoshop. So, basically she made this layout. I just followed her instructions on how to drop everything into place. It was a very helpful video for me, as I have little knowledge of Photoshop and no knowledge of digital scrapbooking. Though it's not why I took the class, I still played along and enjoyed throwing together this little page. Without a lot, I learned a lot in a short period of time!