Welcome Precious Baby of Mine

Colors are a little off in this photo -- damn you rush jobs!

Yeah, yeah, more Dear Lizzy Neapolitan.  I'm totally like a day late and a dollar short with that line, but holy mother of pretty paper, I'm into it hard core.  And it seems like I have a never ending supply, so hot dog let's use it until all that's left are the papercuts of me frantically trying to find more scraps in the bottom of my scrap bin.

Anyway, this is a layout for Orli's baby book and not my 2013 book, which is why we have a repeated photo from my Warhol inspired page.  Not that repeated photographs would bother me...

I used some pieces of a very twee sort of baby sticker set I got when AC Moore was going out of business in my neighborhood (sigh) and I think I took away some of the preciousness of them while making them fit my layout.  Add a tag, a stamp, some stamping, a little twine -- wow, I used a lot of stuff on this considering that I scrap in frantic five minute increments right now.  I'm impressing myself -- oh, I think maybe I did this one when my mother in law was in town helping watch Orli.  Well, there goes that pride.  (And yes, I post about layouts in no particular order).  

Anyone scrapped anything good lately?  Anything you're proud of?  Me, I'm just proud of quasi-keeping up with my baby's first year book.

Beautiful Little Lady

Okay, I'll admit it, I'm pretty much in love with this layout.  Yeah, the addition of the journaling card sorta ruins the triangle of focus, but I'm just going to consider it a square of attention that surrounds the photo of my sweet little bird.  I've used more Dear Lizzy Neapolitan (I'll run out soon, I swear, and move to something different!) and a super cute title card from My Mind's Eye.  And a weird sequined daisy thing from the ultra clearance rack at Michaels (I got a whole slew of weird sequined things for 10 cents a piece, so you just wait, it's going to be a sequin-thing-palooza up in here shortly!)

Sequin thing: awesome or super awesome?

I'm a little in love with the title cut out thing, too.  I got a few on a whim and I've got about half of them used already (oh yeah, be on the look out for those soon, too).  Going to add that to my to-buy list, and maybe save some cash on Thickers, hahahah.  Just kidding, THICKERS FOREVER!!!11!!!eleventyeleven!!  But I do like the cards -- it's different for me.

Something New (on many levels).

I am always at a loss for how to use papers with large patterns or full borders so this was my go at using some Dear Lizzy paper with the full border.  I chose a HYSTERICAL photo of Orli looking shocked as she sits in her Bumbo chair.  She looks shocked probably 25% of the time, but this was a particularly funny picture, and I wanted to celebrate it.

I decided to keep it simple and just use a little scrap of orange polka dot paper and some strips of washi tape.  Probably not the most creative solution to the bordered paper issue, but it was a good first solution on my quest to master that type of paper.

I also learned that if you're gong to do some mist splatters, you should probably mask your photo so you don't splatter it too.  Oh well!  It gives it charm!

So that's that.  Certainly a different sort of look for my albums, and that's a good thing.

Welcome Sweet Baby!

I like to think of myself as a little bit Warhol.

Well, you can tell whats going on in my life by recent layouts, can't you?  Really, baby is life -- those are the only stories I have to tell right now.  I'm not complaining though - the days are long but the weeks are short and she changes so quickly that I'm glad to document things while they're fresh in my mind.

Here is baby Orli just a week or so old as seen in four shrunken versions of her birth announcement.  Because I'm a nerd, several different colorways of the announcement were mailed out and I wanted a way to highlight them all.  Again, we have Dear Lizzy Neapolitan paper and banner (which UHHHG photographed like a parabola instead of a nice swooping banner!) and a little bit of machine sewing.    This was, I think, the first layout I made after Orli came home so I was getting my sea-legs back.  WHERE ARE YOU SEA LEGS? I KNOW I PUT YOU AROUND HERE SOMEWHERE.

Mega Baby!

Biggest baby in the Mother/Baby wing, no joke.

Baby girl was majority bloated after her birth, and i loved all the photos of her fat little face.  We called her the "Mega Baby" in the hospital because she dwarfed all the other newborns, so this was an ode to my little giant.  I used Dear Lizzy Neapolitan (which you will see me using a lot of)  and again kept it really simple out of necessity.  The colors are a little funky in this photo -- sorry about that.  Mommy's opportunities to take photos of layouts are fast and fleeting.  Love those little wooden buttons; picked those up in the Valentine's section of Michaels and think they're an American Crafts rebranding.  Super cute - I wish I had gotten two packs, because I'm actually close to running out.  I guess I'll just have to find something else to love!  Darn, I guess that means shopping.

Happy weekend, everyone!  Hope you're having nice Spring weather!

Being Born

When not enforcing naps, my lovely husband took over many baby duties, allowing me some blocks of time to sit down and play.

It was challenging, though, because these are such epic, important photos that I didn't want to jack them up with too much playing in the layout, or too trendy a paper -- I wanted something clean, timeless, but still fun and still "me".  So I pulled out some absolutely beautiful but understated paper from Webster's Pages Color & Composition line and went to town.  Add in some date stamping, Thickers, a flag I found on clearance at Target, and some glitter ribbon -- and I think it's sassy enough to be a "Laurie" page but classic enough that it will age pretty well in the book as years go by and I won't be horribly embarrassed when I look at it.  (And don't tell me you don't have older pages that you're embarrassed by in your books!  Somethings don't stand the test of time.  CIRCLE CUT PHOTOS I'M LOOKING AT YOU.)

Back! (With Baby!)

Well, it has been awhile, but I'm back from maternity hiatus.  I've got a baby asleep on me right now (I'm the NAP ENFORCER!) but that won't stop me from typing very slowly and updating this blog!

I'll admit, I'm not at my scrappy best right now since I get to scrap in very brief fits and starts since, you know, baby and all -- but I'm creating and it feels great!  Plus its fun to see my books start to fill up again.  In honor of mother's day I thought I'd share a little page about being a mom to my wonderful baby girl.

I'm using Vintage Bliss from Simple Stories (OMG I LOVE THIS LINE) for this one, plus a sticker set from Michaels (Soft Spoken, I think), and some Dear Lizzy Thickers.  Gotta keep it simple if it's getting done!

Happy Mother's Day everyone!