Old Friends, but Good Friends!

Old friends don't trump your new friends nor is the opposite true, but it is ALWAYS good to see friends you haven't seen in a long time.  My husband and I lived in West Texas for three long years while he began and finished his Doctorate Degree.  We were so far from family and our "old friends" from Alabama we felt very alone for a little while until we made our "new friends" seen in this layout above.  Now, since we moved back to Alabama, we miss our "new friends" we made in Texas!  Well, about a year after we moved back to the state of Alabama, we had the opportunity to return to Texas for a long weekend.  My husband was asked to speak at a Gospel Lectureship that the congregation where we attended (Southside church of Christ, Lubbock, TX) in October of 2009.  We spent time with great friends, whom we will never forget, and got to visit around to my old workplace as well as the University campus.  These are only a few of the people that meant so much to us while in Texas and we hope to get back to visit again one day.  Hope you enjoy this quick, easy layout!  Have a great day scrapping a layout of "old friends" and remember the memories!  Remember, it is always homemade!

Petting Zoo

Yes, this is a VERY simple layout.  But, it captures the moments of that particular day and the amazement Harrison had on his face as he "petted" the animals.  We used to live in Lubbock, TX (for my husband to do his Doctorate) and about a year after we moved back to Alabama we had the oppurtunity to go back for him to preach at a Lectureship in the area.  We were so happy to have a chance to go back and see all of our friends that we missed so much!  So, we actually were there on a weekend when one of our friends' daughters had a birthday party at a well known petting zoo there in town.  So, we were able to spend time with all of our friends at the party as well as have fun with the birthday girl.  These pictures are from the petting zoo part.  Harrison, even still to this day, does not LOVE animals.  Maybe I shouldn't put it that way.....he likes them until they look in his direction.  If they come near him, he runs and screams.  It has gotten better in the last 6 months but he is still very nervous around animals of any kind.  So, these pictures remind me of that day when we wanted him to pet the animals and he wouldn't!  :)  Hope you enjoy and remember, it is always homemade.  Meet me back on Monday and I will have another sketch to share with you!  Have a great weekend.

Labor Day Layout

 

Here is the layout for this week.  It is a very simple layout and then embellished in the corners around the journaling box.  Just remember that your page doesn't have to be "overly embellished" to be a nice looking page.  I really do like the look of pages that have few pictures and lots of embellishments, but like I have said before, I am so behind, I do not have time to make every page like that.  Mentally, it is very hard for me to just use one or two pictures on a layout.  (Not that I have never done this, because I have from time to time)  I have always been a scrapper who puts lots of pictures on one layout.  I just can't get around that in my mind.  I don't know why.... Also, remember that everyone has their own style and I want you to scrap YOUR way, not anyone elses.  Okay, there is your encouragement for the week.  Scrap the way YOU want to....don't worry about how others scrap.   I watch a lot of YouTube videos on girls scrapping and some scrap the way I do and some do not but I still can use some of their ideas without going completely away from my own scrapping style.  Just remember to stay true to yourself.  Hope you have a great day of creating and remember, here at H.S. homemade, it is always homemade!

Driving....

Cute, simple layout today.  These are pictures of my son "driving" in the front seat of the car while I was cleaning it out.  As you can see he was very excited to be doing this!  He thought he was hot stuff!  I laid the pics out and then embellished a little bit and voila it was done!  Hope you all have a great weekend and remember, it is always homemade!

Five Things I Love

This is a hodge podge of pictures that just had no other place to go in our album and so they wound up on a page all together.  They were one time memories that I did not want to miss!  So, this is a way to save those memories that may just appear to be random pictures but that actually have a particular meaning to you.  Anyway....here is how I threw together these random photos and will still remember them one by one.  Have a great day and remember, it is always homemade.

Golfing Buddies

 

 

Here is the layout for the week.  These are just a few pictures that I took of my husband teaching our son some golfing tips (at a very young age).  Gotta teach them early, right?  I made the little golf balls off of a tip I saw on www.catherinepooler.com when she made a masculine card that included golf balls.  She added golf balls by punching out a small circle and then running it through a swiss dot embossing folder.  I inked mine up just a little bit to give it a little dimention.  I hope you have a great day of crafting.  My kids and I are headed to my in-law's house for the day which is two hours away.  It will be a long day but we are sure to have lots of fun! Have a great day and remember, it is always homemade!

 

This is a two page layout that will face each other in my album.  These are pics of family and friends that we saw while in town for my sister's wedding.  I know they do not technically match but i wanted them to flow a little bit so I added the same letter stickers onto each page.  Enjoy and remember, it is always homemade!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blue Run, Rainbow River, Florida

Again, while in Florida for my sister's wedding, we went out in the boat to a well-known river in the area.  The Rainbow River.  If you live in the Citrus County area and haven't been on the Rainbow River you haven't really lived.  It was a monthly (if not weekly) adventure for my family during the summer months.  We made so many memories on that river.  So, while we were all in town (my Aunt and two of her girls as well) for the wedding we all took a trip to Blue Run.  We have some friends who have a small house on the river and we went there to swim and have a day of fun.  My Aunt had a birthday (50th) that week and we celebrated that as well that day.  We had lots of fun celebrating her birthday as well as being together.  I really hope you had fun memories as children doing things as a family just like I did.  Now that you are older and have families of your own, make sure you make memories together!  Have a great day and remember it is always homemade!

Surfs Up Dude

 

This was Harrison's first trip to the beach!  Lots and lots of fun that day!  If we would have let him he would have walked into the ocean until he drowned.  He LOVED it.  While we were in Florida that year for my sister's wedding we visited some friends who live in the Cocoa Beach area.  They have a little boy (who is pictured in the middle of the layout in the red hat) who is one year older than Harrison.  We all had a great time enjoying the sun and the sand.  I lost my glasses that day in the waves and had to go get another pair that afternoon.  Fun Times!  The large letters in the title are from a pack I bought at Tuesday Morning a couple of weeks ago.  They are so cute with all kinds of different prints and stitching.  I bought two packs.  I think they were 1.99 a box.  A great find!  Hope you all have a great weekend and remember, it is always homemade!

My Sister's Wedding

 

My little sister got married in August of 2009.  She married the man of her dreams and was beautiful as she walked down the isle.  Here are a few snapshots of the lovely couple, the family and a few memorable moments.  When I purchased the Paper Doll Dress Up Cricut Cartridge a few years ago, one of the first things I made was this little bride.  I had my sister in mind and made the bouquet red because that is what her colors for her wedding were going to be.  Anyway, this little bride has been waiting on my bulletin board for two years or so to be used on this layout....how crazy is that? So, this is the layout I made to remember the day my sister was married.  Hope you enjoy and remember, it is always homemade!

Louisville Zoo

As promised, here is an extra scrapbook layout for the week.  I know I keep repeating myself the last few weeks but simple is best and the fastest way to get a lot of layouts done!  Place the pics and then embellish the journaling area.  That is my new motto!  I have not done as many layouts this week, as we have been extra busy with pre-school starting for my little boy, but I have still done several.  I hope to keep up this pace.  Snapfish is running a sale right now 100 prints for 99 cents.  Now, you still have to pay shipping, but this is still an AWESOME deal.  They have this sale a few times a year and each time I print hundreds of photos.  I am about to print all the way through 2010!  So, many layouts to come!  I have set a goal for myself next year (already) and I will let you know soon what that is going to be!  It has to do with scrapbooking layouts.  I am going to get caught up more next year than I am doing this year.  Anyway...hope you enjoy the extra layout and remember, it is always homemade!

Louisville Slugger

 

 

This is the layout for the week.  Our family (before I had our daughter) at the Louisville Slugger Museum.  My husband does contract work for a company based in Louisville and goes up there occasionally for business.  So, in 2009, we went along with him (just as we did this past July) and while he worked during the day, Harrison and I played!  One evening we went to tour the Louisville Slugger Museum.  We had a blast....I don't know who had more fun, our son or my husband, but it was a great evening out together.  We purchased a personalized baseball bat for our son and made many memories together that week.  Hope you enjoy the layout!  It was fun reminiscing!  Have a great day and remember, it is always homemade!

Boy Meets World

 

Okay, so since my desk was a mess (and I really have no idea how it got that way), I worked on my bedroom floor making this layout.  Even so, I think it turned out really cute.  I always so such simple layouts so, I decided to get some of the new things I have bought recently and some things that I haven't used much and I got to work on making a really cute page.  These were some snapshots that I took of our son in July of 2009.  Yes, that is how far behind I am still!  I just wanted to do a quick layout that focused on several snapshots all at once.  The elements on the bottom of the page  are from all kinds of little packs of embellishments that are laying around in my scrap area!  The letters are epoxy letters, the red bicycle card is from a 12x12 piece made by Crate Paper (The Toy Box Collection).  Something I picked up at Archiver's.  The blue piece underneath is a paint chip named "Little Boy Blue"....how appropriate!  The other little pieces scattered around are from a couple of different little embellishment sets that have been sitting in my drawers for too long. 

 

Hope you enjoy and have a great day of scrapping!  Remember, it is always homemade!

Scrapbook Layouts

I will admit, I have cheated a little this week. I have not done a new layout and here is the reason....I am potty training my little girl and simply have not had the time. I do the Three Day Method and you have to be by her side for three days. It is a long and exhausting three days but totally worth the end result. Yesterday was day one and she did great! By the end of the day, she was not having any major accidents. She was telling me when she needed to go...so, hopefully today will be a little less stressful and tomorrow will be a breeze.....HOPEFULLY! It worked like a charm with my son two years ago and so far it is going well with her. If you have a toddler, I highly recommend this technique!! Okay, that was my little plug in for potty training now on to the layouts!

The following layouts are a few of my favorites from my son's First Year Album. They are all simple but very cute. My favorite is the snapshot layout above and the Halloween layout below. Since Halloween is around the corner (I really need to start working on costumes so that it is not a mad dash the week before) I thought that this layout would help some of you in the coming months when it is time to scrap those Halloween photos. Side note: I have already been working on some Halloween projects. I can't wait to share them with you! Anyway, hope you enjoy the layouts! Have a wonderful day and remember it is always homemade!

Wall Streat Area

Here is a layout I did this week of our NYC trip.  These pictures were taken in Lower Manhatten.  They are of the Bowling Green Park, Charging Bull Statue, U.S. Custom Building and the view up Broadway.  It was nice getting back to scrapbooking after being out of town for four weeks.  This page seemed a little plain, but I just can't get used to working with an 8 1/2 x 11 page. 

On the other hand, I did make a cute journaling box!  :-)  The picture below the layout is the other 3 I made for future projects.  I made these out of graph paper index cards with embellishments of all kinds.  I saw this idea on the blog listed on the right side of this page labeled Mish Mash.  She has such cute ideas!  Very simple and very cute! 

Hope you all have a great day and remember, it is always homemade!

Ellis Island

Just like last week, this is another layout I did while out of town with a limited amount of scrapbook supplies.  The paper behind the pics on the right side is really pretty paper....it reminds me of vintage stamps.  I thought it would go well with the Ellis Island theme of the page.  The squares on the right side are an actual photograph of the floor in the main building on the island.  I wanted to incorporate that somehow and this is how I chose to use it.  Hope you enjoy and remember it is always homemade.

Statue of Liberty

So, while I was at my in-law's house for a week at the beginning of July, I brought a few things to scrapbook.  Obviously, I didn't take my whole scrapbook room with me but I took the normal go to tools.  So, this isn't the most glamourous page layout, but it works for what I had with me.  Hope you enjoy and remember, it is always homemade!

Shabby Chic Wedding Shower

This is a sign-in sheet I made for a shower last Sunday after church services.  This wedding decor is mason jars, candles, and burlap as was the shower decorations.  So, I went with the theme and started creating.  I did a quick video below to show you how I did the mason jars....SCAL program is awesome!  This could be easily made into a scrapbook page for canning or anything "southern".  Hope you have a great day and remember, it is always homemade.

Blue Sky

Call me crazy, but, yes, I took a pic of the sky in NYC! It was so rainy and cloudy almost the entire time we were there! We worked around it but some of our views were not the best (Empire Sate Building and the Rock) but we made the best of it. The only day we had sunny skies all day was the last day. That is when we did all of our outdoor activities! We had to change our days around a bit, but it was not really that big of a deal. Anyway, here is a quick page showing off the beautiful blue sky! The white dash marks really added to the definition to this page. I love the white gel pen! If you don't have one, it is such a cheap addition to your stash of supplies. They come two in a pack at Hobby Lobby for only a couple of dollars.....especially if you use your coupon! Have a great day of crafting and remember it is always homemade!

Envelope Album

LAST DAY TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY THIS WEEK!!!  I KNOW THERE ARE 100+ HITS A DAY ON THE BLOG....YOU HAVE TO COMMENT TO WIN!!!  HERE IS THE LINK:

GIVEAWAY

This is a type of album I have wanted to make since I made my Travel Smash Book/Junk Journal.  You can view this project HERE.  I actually used the same paper pack that I used on the Travel Book.  I really like it because it is very "antiquey" (I know I just made up a word) and also a very vintage feel.  I LOVE it!  So, I used it once again on this album.  I am going to use this album for pictures of my grandparents and my husband's grandparents and also our parent's pictures.  I have a few 4 generation pictures on my side of the family as well.  I think it will be a good little history album for my kids one day.  With the envelopes, I can also add memorabilla from their lives that will be neat for my kids to have someday.  Anyway...instead of taking lots of pictures of this album, I chose to make a quick video.  Enjoy and remember it is always homemade!  The sizes of the paper are below the video link.

Here are the sizes of my paper that I cut for each envelope face and also the flap.

Face:  5 1/2 x 4 1/4

Flap:  2 5/16 x 5 3/4