... just Laura

happy new year's

just wanted to stop in and with everyone a very happy new year's! and to also thank all of you. for coming here and visiting my little blog. for all your comments and sweet emails. i have made some amazing friends through the world of blogging, and i appreciate each one of you. so thanks.

this is what i'm working on tonight. catching up my project 365 album, for 2009. this photo is from last february. so it's much fuller than that. and i'm actually surprised that i don't have as much to finish as i thought i did. other than that, just a quiet day and quiet night. alyssa is at her dad's house still. joe has been working all week, and is on his way to work again tonight. he'll be ringing in the new year at the store (in 1 hour, and 40 minutes). so it's me and sarah, hanging out and watching the disney channel countdown celebrations.

also got my project life kit today. perfect timing. i already have it out and am starting to assemble it. still deciding what i'm going to do with it. lots of options with this new kit.

so long 2009. it's been a crazy and good year. but we're ready for a new one. so bring it on 2010 :)

blogging and scrapping by the numbers

i'm not going to lie. numbers make me feel good. it's proof of what i have done, and what i have accomplished. and sometimes, proof of what i havn't done enough of. lol! i make guesses all the time. not necessarily educated guesses. just pulling random numbers that sound about right, out of my head. so it's nice sometimes to actually go and check the numbers.

when i check in on my blog each day, i check my stats page. i can see how many views i have on a daily basis, and where they're coming from. it even has a graph line. when that line dips low (usually on the weekends), i wonder why no one is reading my blog that day. when that line goes up high, i wonder what i've done that is making people read my blog that day (and hope that it was something good, and not some drama. lol!). it shouldn't matter to me how many people check my blog. i know that. but i like to know that people like what i'm sharing, enough to keep coming back. therefore, making me want to blog more. makes sense, right?

so of course, i had to check how many times i've blogged this year. and i was impressed with myself. this is my 235th post of the year. out of 365 days, that's not bad at all. and here is my goal for the next few months, or at least next year. is to get the last two years of my blog printed through blurb into my little 7x7 hardcover books. i love that set of books shown above, that equal 2.5 years of blogging. but i've slacked on doing them since then. so i have 2008 and 2009 to get done.

i don't use these post bound albums anymore. but i still like the photo (taken of all the daycare kids albums as of 2 years ago), and it represents all the layouts i do, just for this story-telling post. i remember at the end of last year, i was looking at what i had scrapped that year. and i realized that i had scrapped more layouts of the daycare kids and friends, than i had scrapped my girls and our own family. that didn't seem right to me. i love the daycare kids more than anything, and also love to scrap friends of the family. it gives me variety, and lots of cute faces to choose from when i'm scrapping. from looking through my blog and my laptop, i counted 29 daycare/friends layouts for this year. and another 2 that i can't share yet. so 31 layouts is still pretty good.

but when you get right down to it, i should be focusing on my own family more and getting our memories down. so that's exactly what i set out to do this year. i still scrapped the other kids and friends of ours. but i made a big effort to put more focus on my girls and my family. i made a big point to scrap a lot of random things, that maybe i wouldn't have scrapped before. i always looked for family photos to use first and foremost, when it came time to work on projects and assignments. and it shows. from looking through my blog and my laptop, i counted 82 family layouts, and another 19 that i can't share yet. HELLO. that's 101 layouts in the last year!!! just for my own family. that's huge.

on top of all that, i had a ton of projects i did for assignments. oddles of cards, altered items, smaller sample layouts, and even pillowcases and tshirts. i'm not going to count those. i know they're all there. and i know it was a lot. but there are some big personal projects that i feel are worth mentioning and patting myself on the back for.

i took on project 365 this past year, from becky higgins. the concept of taking a photo a day, and putting it into one meaningful album that really shows a look at your year. i LOVE the concept more than anything. to me, i wanted it to be a way to get all the little things captured. things around the house, places we go, things we do. just random little tidbits that make up our life. i have 5 months of this album completely and totally done. i shared most of those pages during the first few months of the year. then i got a little behind. i have a lot of photos in there for the other months. just a matter of filling in the empty spots and catching up my journaling cards. but it's still do-able, and i'm determined to finish it. becky has another kit for this coming year, called project life. i ordered one and it's on it's way to me. not totally sure how i'm going to use it, but i'll keep you informed on what i do.

another big project that i did this year, was putting together the girls school albums. i had the school KOTM's from becky higgins, that i had stashed away for quite a while. finally took them out and spend about two weeks organzing and assembling my albums. this photo shows 4 albums (2 for alyssa, 2 for sarah), but i ended up with 6 albums total (3 for alyssa, and 3 for sarah). you can see more of my albums HERE. i'm so glad i took the time to get these put together. i still have some work to do within the albums, for each year. but they hold all the papers, projects, report cards, class photos, id cards, awards, etc. and everytime i get one of these things, it goes directly into the album. so it's already making my life easier, just having the system set up.

another project i worked on this year, was my "things we do" albums. i hesitate to call these "vacation albums", since we don't really go on actual vacations. lol! but there are some trips in there, and a lot of day trip type stuff. this took me a few weeks, and i have most of our trips from the last 5 years in three albums total. you can see more about these HERE. and i even re-did an entire 40+ page disney album, into just 7 pages, that i added to my "things we do" album. you can see that HERE. 

and this photo isn't really related to this post. but i'm not about to go take a photo at this hour. i came across this one while digging out all the other photos, and i thought i looked so happy here. and knowing that i accomplished so much scrapping this past year makes me feel this happy. i also look pretty much just like this right now. i'm wearing the same hoodie, the same glasses, sitting in the same chair, with the same hairstyle. so that's convenient. i also just happen to have been listening to the soundtrack of this same movie, the entire time i was typing up this post. you all know it's my favorite and at the top of my ipod list! no lie there. you want proof that i'm the biggest "high school musical" fan?

i created that layout over a year ago. love it! not sure how this worked it's way into my post. rofl! the randomness that is my mind. it's a funny thing somtimes ;)

my cousins and their weddings

i'm switching from christmas mode for this post. i havn't even looked through the handful of photos i took this weekend. but i was going through my blog tonight and all the layouts i've created this past year, putting together a blog post that i'll share tomorrow. in the process, i realized i've never shared these layouts. just so happens, that i've had two of my cousins get married in the last few years. which comes in handy, when i needed to create wedding layouts with the making memories wedding collection ;)

this layout was featured in the june issue of scrapbook trends magazine. the white cardstock is the background of this layout (i just took the photo of it on a black bookshelf). i took this photo of my cousin brad, and his wife, raiza, on their wedding day. i took a small amount of photos that day, as they were posing for the professional photographers. i didn't want to get in anyone's way, so i took this from way off on the side, using my zoom lens. it just so happened that they loved this shot, and have it enlarged in their house. love that. after this layout was published, i gave it to them and they have it framed. and i'm sending out a huge "congrats" to them both. they just delivered their first baby on christmas eve, an adorable boy named zachery john. finally, someone else has a kid in this family. lol!

these next two layouts are of my cousin rachael, and her husband, ryan on their wedding day. we weren't able to make it to the wedding, but she had these photos to share with me. gorgeous photos of them, and they're such a cute couple.

these two layouts were created using the wedding page kit. and they just happen to be on the back of the packaging, that is hanging on the shelves right now at target. so cool! although i just now, at this very second, realized i spelled rachael's name wrong. lol! she was telling me yesterday, at our family get-together, that they go check it out every time they're in target. i'm glad i'm not the only one. i go down that aisle and look at it every time. which for me is about 2-3 times a week, because i can't remember to get what we need in just one trip. lol!

nikolas's framed collage

stopping by super quick to share nikolas's finished photo collage. the colors look a little wonky in this shot i took. but i have way too much glaring sunlight to get a decent picture right now. will retake it tomorrow if i have time.

everyone at once. awwwwwww! seriously, how cute are these photos of nikolas? i was digging around for some of my favorites over the last 2 years or so. and they were all so cute. he had such a massive amount of hair when he was little, and it was the cutest thing. i was constantly smiling and laughing as i pulled up these photos :) 

just added a strip of ribbon (making memories), a "N" foam letter sticker (american crafts), and a few cute stickers (imaginisce).

and here's a shot of the photoshopped collage that i had printed. gives a better feel for the colors. i have 3 collages left to frame downstairs. all the rest are done and ready to hand out. i even have one displayed in my kitchen right now, and it looks so cool!

and i always love when to see when other's are inspired to try one of my ideas. a blog reader shared her take on the photo collage idea, and i it made me smile to see it. check it out HERE. and let me know if you give it a try too :)

the finished collage

yesterday i showed you the basic sketch i was using for my framed photo collages, and today i'm sharing one of the finished ones with you. and i'm sort of crossing my fingers that haley's mom doesn't see this on my blog. i know she reads it, but i'm not sure how often. it's all for the sake of the blog readers ;) lol!

 

i love how this turned out (click on it to see it a little bigger). i went through all the photos i've taken of haley over the last 3 years, and choose some of my favorites. i love that it shows her over the years, starting when she was just about 3 months old. shows how much she's changed, and yet how much she's stayed the same. i'm so grateful that we've been a part of it all :)

now, for how i got this result. 

the first thing i did was create my canvas at 10.5 x 13.5 inches. this is everything that will show in the opening of my frame. and then when i was totally done, i placed this on an 11x14 canvas to have printed. if you're going to try this, make sure and double check your frame opening. just in case it's different then mine. then i simply pulled up 16 of my favorite photos. a few of these were horizontal, but i was able to crop what i wanted just fine. but most of them were vertical shots. i cropped each one to 2.1 x 2.7 inches, and then copy and pasted them onto my blank canvas. i used the "move" tool to move them around, into a pattern i liked. those four extra spots are going to be for pattern paper, but could easily be filled with more photos. or you could add in some vertical photos that are 4.2 x 2.7 inches (taking up two spots). HERE is a post i did about making photo collages in photoshop.

i knew i wanted to do the photos in black and white. i love color photos, and i'm totally ok with all the color going on in the above collage. but i wanted to keep this simple and clean, since it's going to be hanging on a wall. i could have changed each photo to black and white individually, but i'm all about taking short cuts when i can. i've learned that i can arrange all the photos, flatten the layers, and then turn the entire collage to black and white in one step. genious, i know! i use an action in photoshop cs2 that i got ages ago for all my black and white photos. so i really can't explain how to do that. i simply press my one action button and it's magically done for me. sorry, that was sort of like sticking my tonque out at you, wasn't it? lol!

this shows the digital papers and brush that i added. the black line around the edge is just there to make it stand out on the blog, so that doesn't actually print on the actual photo. keep in mind, i'm not a digital scrapper. so this is super basic. and i'm ok with that. the papers are from jen allyson (who is the digital spotlight artist right now and her stuff is 25% off), the digikit - urban chic boutique solid papers. i'm not very knowledgable about digital products or digital scrapbooking. i think i just happen to see this paper kit on a 2peas newsletter or something. it caught my eye, so i got it. the "looking through the lens" is from the photography hand drawn brushes from ali edwards.

that is the final collage. i flattened all my layers and saved it. then i copied and pasted it onto an 11x14 canvas, placing it right in the middle. i uploaded that to costco to order, and picked it up an hour later.

then i took that printed collage, and added a few real life embellishments to it.

a few flowers (making memories and hero arts). a few rhinestones and pearl accents (michaels, and hero arts). a foam letter sticker (american crafts). a sticker (making memories). some ribbon (adornit). wasn't thought out, but just whatever caught my eye first.

and now that i've made this one for haley, i better get to work on one for nikolas ;)

chance to win some of my favorite products

the making memories blog is giving away some of the designer's favorite products this month. today, you can check out my favorite products HERE. make sure and leave a comment over there (not here, but there), for your chance to win some for yourself. they will draw the winner on friday.

this is a really old layout. but it does have my two favorite products on there. actually, it has a lot of my favorites. but i'm thinking of two in particular. lol! this was a photo i had taken of nikolas's sister, vanesa. wanted to use these making memories papers, and it matched :)

a family adornit layout and some SNOW

i recently received a few of the new collections from adornit, and got a chance to play with them. they are doing an online product release, so check out the adornit blog for more inspiration. here is what i created with the family heritage collection.

love the colors of these papers. i knew i wanted to us our recent family photos on here. so i changed it to black and white, so that i didn't have to worry about any colors clashing.

i really like their cardstock stickers. i usually like to adhere them to white cardstock, cut them out, and adhere them with pop dots. and that ribbon? it's embossed. super cute!

also had to get this down on the blog, so that i don't forget. our weather here has been super cold this week. we actually had snow on monday. yes, you read that right. i'm not even making that up. the last time i can remember snow out our way, was back when i was 5 years old. do the math, and that was 34 years ago. it just doesn't happen out in this part of california. but monday morning, it snowed. a little off and on in the earlier morning. and then for about a half hour straight, around 7:00. none of it stuck to the ground. but it was snow! that was super cool for the girls to see. this is my really lame attempt at getting a photo of the snow. taken out my front window, at 7:00 in the morning. when i was barely even awake. see, nothing sticking the ground. but i was pretty impressed with the amount of snow coming down. although, being that we don't have snow here, i guess i'm easily impressed ;)

the outside actually looked more like snow on tuesday morning. all the lawns and the rooftops were white. but it was just the frost from the extremely cold temperatures we had the night before. i think it was 27 degrees when we woke up. i can't say without a doubt that these temps aren't normal for us. because honestly, i'm not sure what is average for this time of year. but that does seem super low for us. it was unbelievably cold out there.

our puddles of water out on the patio in the backyard were frozen. our birds that usually hang out there weren't happy about that when they stopped by. lol! 

jillibean soup christmas layouts

have had some projects up on the jillibean soup blog last week, that i didn't get around to sharing. i decided to stick with all christmas projects for my projects this month. since it's christmas time and all ;)

i have saved all the christmas cards that we receive from family and friends for the last few years. always wanted to do something cool with them, ever since seeing nichol turn her's into layouts for her albums (she just posted her newest one, and you might see my girls on there!). i decided to use one of these 12x12 file folders that came in a KOTM from last year (sorry, it's not available anymore). on the front of the file folder, i scrapped our christmas card from last year. it's a 5x7 photo card that i had created myself. i remember being so frustrated, because i had no clue how to change the color of the tree from black to a pretty color. lol! kept this fairly simple.

this is the inside of the file folder, when you open it up. some of these were photos that were just inside the christmas cards. most of them were photo cards. so i trimmed the photos straight from the photo cards, and just kept trimming until they fit into a decent collage. added a few pieces of pattern paper, just to fill the empty spaces. i still want to go back and make notes of who all these kids are, and who they belong too. i know now, but i might forget down the road. lol! sorry, that sounded all wrong. like i'd forget about my friends. but i'm sure you know what i meant. lol! anyways, will probably put that info along the top, or down in that bottom corner.

and a christmas layout. i'll be honest. i'm not a huge christmas scrapper. no idea why not. i have so much fun christmas product that i really want to use. i think it's because there are always SO many photos. or maybe i'm just lazy. lol! i knew these papers would go with our christmas morning photos from last year, since the girls had some pink going on in their jammies. i can't remember how big these photos are (and am too lazy to go dig it out of the album to check), but i think they're 3x3 in size. i printed them all out, and then arranged them on a sheet of white cardstock to make my collage. i cut some circles from different papers, and added two of them to some metal rimmed glitter tags. i keep feeling like i should journal this. but it's pretty self explanitory. christmas morning and gifts :)

scrapbook trends *slice* giveaway

can you take another giveaway? today's is brought to you by scrapbook trends magazine. head over to their BLOG, where you can leave a comment for a change to win a pink slice! and speaking of the slice, i wanted to share this layout i created yesterday.

this was a really quick layout. a smaller one, 9x9 in size. just pulled out a recent 4x6 photo, and built around it with a few products. and i didn't have to dig around for letter stickers or chipboard alphas in the perfect color. i just pulled out my slice and made a simple title. these words and phrases are by far my favorite thing to slice. and this font is my favorite too! 

then, if you happen to have a slice or are getting one soon, you might want to check out my good friend wendy bretz's blog. she's doing a giveaway for the big kids slice design card. i just got this one, and it's super cute!

and since you're in a comment-leaving kind of mood, why not leave one on my blog too. i don't have a slice or a design card to give away. but i will put together a little package of making memories goodies to send to one lucky blog reader. i will randomly draw a winner on sunday afternoon, along with the winner of yesterday's giveaway :)

edited to add: comments now closed. thanks to everyone for playing along.

journal my christmas, take two

i'm going to cheat a little on todays post. so if you're reading this and it sounds or looks a little familiar, you're not having a deja'vu kind of moment. i really did blog this same post exactly one year ago. lol! but figured it was worth sharing again. there are a few new thoughts mixed in there too :)

today is december 1st. not even sure how that happened. lol! but that means that it's the first day of journal your christmas, and i'm totally up for this again this year. 

definately check out this class if you havn't already. i had heard of it before. but it wasn't until two years ago that i actually signed up for it. and i can totally thank nichol for inspiring me to do it. i had watched her album from the previous year ... and loved seeing what she did last year too. she has her albums linked on her blog. and here is some of my album from two years ago. and the nice thing, is that once you take the class, you get it free every year after. so it's something you can do every christmas if you want.

this year, i'm all about making this simple. which was my thought last year, when i put this entire album together. but last year, i just never got around to journaling in this, or taking photos. i had taken my 4 day trip to utah at the beginning of december last year, and just never caught up. lol! and this year i sort of feel the same. just very overwhelmed, with everything going on in life. i knew that if i wanted to keep up with this journal, i would have to keep it simple. so i came up with this idea, using a regular 2-up photo album. these are the papers i picked out. a ton of making memories pattern papers (from about 6 different collections) and background papers from scenic route. i cut them all down to 4x6, and already have them all arranged in the album.

this is basically what each day will look like. this is NOT the prompt for december 12th necessarily. i was just tossing one in there to get a feel for how i was going to do it. this was my planning page, to see how it turned out. but it gives you the idea of what i'm doing. each day will have the 4 spots. one for the date, one for my journaling prompt, one for a photo, and one for the journaling.

i have all the tags in the album, along with the "december". i just have to finish adding the numbers, which i'm creating using the slice with the falala design card. i have all the daily prompts typed up, and printed on transparencies. then i just added kraft cardstock strips with a scalloped punched edge, and tied on some string. super simple.

then i'll add a photo pertaining to that day's prompt. i didn't use a single photo last year in my album. so this year, i want to include the photos too. for this one, i just printed 2 photos (3x4 each) together on a 4x6 size photo. for the journaling, i'm just going to use my own handwriting. it's quick and easy, so i know it won't take much to get it done. each spot also has a half circle cut from cardstock, and i'll add a stamped image, diecut, rubon, or whatever i happen to have on hand.

so i probably won't be sharing these every day, since they're all going to look very similiar. lol! but i'll share them in groups maybe once a week, and will start an album on the sidebar. i have to admit, that it felt good to pull this album out last night. it's 90% done. so it really shouldn't be that hard to snap a photo each day, write a few sentences, and maybe add a few embellishments as i go. we'll see how it goes ;)

thankful album page peek

managed to put together a few pages from my thankful album to share with you. just to give you an idea where i'm going with this. and in case you like the idea and want to make one for your own family. i know, i'm a little late on this idea. since thanksgiving is tomorrow. lol! but that's sort of how i roll, very last minute most of the time.

my album of choice is 9x9 in size. an older making memories album, that is brown leather with a scalloped edge and a ribbon to tie it shut. it's one i had laying around, and i loved the chocolate brown color for this project. and i do love my 9x9 layouts. but this could be done in any size album in all honesty. even a 6x6 would be cute. i'm starting with white cardstock for the bases of all my pages. i really have a hard time cutting that many full sheets of my textured white cardstock into 9x9, only to cover most of it up with my pattern paper and photos. so i use just your basic white cardstock. i get a pack of 25 sheets at michaels for just a few bucks when it's on sale.

each family member will have their own page in the album. i'm using everyday photos for my own family, since i have those handy and have choices. for the rest of the family, i will have to pin them down at thanksgiving tomorrow and snap a photo of them. which will actually be fun, so that i can give them all a current headshot. everyone needs a current headshot on file, right? lol! maybe i should call it a portrait instead. then i will give each person a journaling notebook page to write down what they're thankful for. i don't have a link for the exact ones i'm using, but they look just like THESE. there are a ton of sheets in there, i think 30 of them. so i'll have extras in case anyone messes up too. lol! then i'll take that journaling page, and will print off their photo (all in black and white to keep it cohesive), and then assemble the pages.

i'm using papers and embellishments from the autumn splendor collection from making memories. sorry, i cannot find a link for it. but it was available through michaels. not sure if it's still out there or not. and i'm trying to use my slice to die cut most of the names. doesn't my sister's page look better than mine, where her name is? i realized i didn't have that much room left on my page for my name. so i went with some chipboard letters. just figuring it out as i go along. i might add a few simple embellishments here and there, not totally sure. and i'll have a title page. will share more when i get that part done.

in other news. my back feels so much better today. which is good, since this is day five of my back issues. i'm not totally back to normal, but definately feeling a lot better. thanks to all of you for your well wishes. and thanks for laughing along with me at my last post. i want everyone to know that there is definately some seriousness to what i say. but it's mostly said in funnyness (yes, that's a word!), and being able to laugh about the odd things that happen around me. if you could hear me say my famous "seriously?!?!", you would hear my sense of humor in my voice. lol!

drive by layout share

just stopping by super quick to plop something cute on here for you to look at until i can come up with a more thought out post. was that a huge run on sentence, or what? lol! anyways. just got back from a two day trip out to utah, and it will take me a day or two to get caught up.

this was up on the jillibean soup blog today. thought it was kind of funny that i pulled out the purple paper. since purple has always been my least favorite color to use on my scrapbook pages. but i had these really old photos out, and they just called out for purple paper. lol! these photos are from 7 years ago. you can see the house two doors down from us wasn't even totally built yet. i remember when we were the lone house on this street. and check out how tiny the girls are. so stinkin cute!

adornit blog hop

time for another adornit blog hop. this is part of the make it merry blog party, which is all about christmas projects. if you're just finding out about this, be sure to go back HERE to get to the start. click on the first blog, and then just hop from one to the next to see what everyone came up with for this.

i've been really short on time and energy this week. and i think that is natural for this time of year. even though my busyness (is that a word?) has nothing to do with the holidays, it's just everything else in my life. but it makes me think about the holidays and how we run out of time for certain things. like making cards for our friends and family. here's the thing. there is no rule that says we have to spend an hour on every card we make.

i made these four little 4x4 cards in about 15 minutes today. i had 3 sheets of pattern paper, 2 sticker sheets, and some scraps of cardstock. and i have plenty left for more cards. i put the stickers on scraps of white cardstock, and then cut them out so that i could adhere them to the cards with pop dots for some dimension. but other than that, i just cut a few squares of cardstock and pattern paper and layered them together. so simple. but they're still cute. 

next stop on the blog hop is may flaum. have fun hopping around and hope you find some great ideas you can incorporate into your christmas creations :)

a thankful layout

each wednesday this month, the making memories blog is sharing layouts by the design team about something we're thankful for. this week is my turn. here's a peek. but you have to click HERE to see the entire layout and see what i'm thankful for :)

 

just chillin giveaway

making memories is such an awesome manufacturer to work for. and i think it's so cool that three of their designers were chosen for the 2010 creating keepsakes dream team (maggie, wendy, and i). i'm so excited that we all get to experience these two great adventures together. making memories is generously donating each of our favorite collections to give away to one of our lucky blog readers. of course i had to pick the just chillin collection for my favorite. and i figured this layout goes perfectly with this giveaway.

copyright creating keepsakes. posted with prior permission from the publisher.

i've been wanting to share this layout for a while. it was featured in the october 2009 issue of creating keepsakes, in the becky higgins sketch column. when i saw her sketch posted, i knew that it would be perfect for this layout idea. the sketch had room for 16 photos. so i was able to include 15 of my most recent daycare kids, along with a photo of myself. although as soon as my girls saw this, they asked "where is so-and-so" for a bunch of the other kids that have been here over the past 8 years. i told them i could only do the kids that were here during my digital years. lol!

now if you saw this layout in the october issue, you might have noticed a different photo of me on there. i did change that out before sending it out (but forgot to take a picture), since this photo of me has been previously used for something in the magazine. i admit, i like this photo better. and i did change it back when i got the layout back. lol! then i found my favorite photos of 15 kids. took me a while to dig around the external hard drive, since these were all taken over the last 4-5 years or so. i've had some cute kids, haven't i ;)

i went with the mix of color photos and black and white photos for one main reason. all the boys photos looked great in color. but i had a little too much color going on. i loved all the colors in the girls photos, and knew that i wanted to use the just chillin girls collection on this. so i made the boys all black and white. i think it actually looks pretty cool. all the photos are 3x4 in size. such a great way to get a ton of photos on there.

so, what do you need to do? just leave me a comment. i know a lot of you already congratulated me on my other post, so don't feel like you have to do it all over again. lol! just a simple comment is all that's required, to get your name in there. then make sure to go over to maggie's blog and wendy's blog, and leave them some congrats too. we're each doing separate drawings for different collections. then monday, we'll randomly pick the winners, who will be announced on the making memories blog :) 

comments now closed. look for the winner to be announced on the making memories blog later this morning.

a "me today" layout

i did one of these types of layouts earlier this year. and i thought it would be fun to do another one. a "me today" layout. no photos needed. just some random things that were going on during one particular day in my life. this went up on the jillibean soup blog today, along with some other great layouts from the other designers.

 

except this isn't really me TODAY. it was me on october 24th, a sunday. but wait, you're telling me that sunday was actually the 25th of october? i know this now. but that sunday, i really did think it was the 24th. i was living the wrong dates for an entire week and didn't even realize it. came SO close to turning in some assignments late because of it. lol! i know all this backstory talk isn't even important in the grand scheme of this layout. but i had to share it anyways :)

i started with just simple squares of pattern paper (all 2.75x2.75), and arranged them on my white cardstock background. originally, this layout was going to be something entirely different, and was going to have small photo squares too. but i liked how all those squares looked filling up the page, so i decided to do this layout instead. i took two squares out, so that i could add my title. loving those corrugated alphas!

then i just added some journaling strips for my random thoughts. i layered some journaling sprouts, with some paper flowers and brads, and adhered them with pop dots. then some clear buttons to finish it off.

supplies:
olive sugar soup staples paper by jillibean soup
orange sugar soup staples paper by jillibean soup
chives grandma's christmas soup paper by jillibean soup
orange/white circle journaling sprouts by jillibean soup
corrugated alphas by jillibean soup
clear buttons by autumn leaves
paper flowers by making memories
brads by bazzill

also wanted to say a huge "thanks" for all your comments on my news yesterday. i loved reading them all, and truely do appreciate each and every one of them. i'm so excited about this opportunity, and it's nice knowing that others are too.

and i also wanted to point you in the direction of a few other fun scrapbooking things, for some good friends of mine.

you have to check wendy sue anderson's blog for her amazing new project that is finally out. i know how much work she put into this, and am so excited for her!

you also should check out erin terrell clarkson's blog, for a super fun mini album she's been working on. she's planning ahead, and making this birthday album for her daughter now. so that she can simply add photos and stuff after the big day. loving seeing her process, and how the pages are coming together. just check her posts from over the week or two.

my new friend, cindy liebel (that i met at the slice infomercial taping), is the guest designer for the month on the making memories blog. she's got some adorable cards up today, and you can see them HERE.

wilna furstenberg and kayla aimee terrell have put together a fun new online workshop, called a DIY holiday. looks like a lot of fun, and they always seem to create such fun projects. so check out all their info on their blogs and the site.  

2010 CK Dream Team

today is the day. the the 2010 Creating Keepsakes Magazine Dream Team has been announced! check out this list of the new team members:

Cindy Tobey
Deena Wuest
Jen Jockisch
Kim Watson
Laura Vegas
Maggie Holmes
Sara Winnick
Susan Weinroth
Suzy Plantamura
Wendy Sue Anderson

did you see the 5th name on that list? that's me! i'm still in total shock that i got asked to join this amazing team. when i got the email a few months ago, i actually forced myself not to respond too quickly. lol! it took a while for it to sink in. and then it was really hard to keep it a secret. one of the hardest secrets i've had to keep. although that 10th name on the list is one of my best friends. and in some round about way, we figured out each other's secret. without coming out and ever saying what exactly it was. i am so honored to be included with this group of talented designers, and am looking forward to getting to know them all better. which you can do a little bit now, by checking out our little Q&A's HERE. i am also looking forward to working with the amazing people behind creating keepsakes magazine. it's going to be a fun year :)

CK sent each of the Dream Team members a welcome gift provided by these wonderful sponsors:

Adornit – Carolee’s Creations, Advantus, American Art Clay Company, American Crafts, Anna Griffin, BasicGrey, Bazzill Basics Paper, Bella Blvd, Bisous, Bo-Bunny Press, Buttons Galore, C.R. Gibson, Clearsnap, Close To My Heart, Colorbök, Core’dinations, Cornish Heritage Farms, Cosmo Cricket, The Crafter’s Workshop, Creative Memories, Die Cuts With a View, Dimensions, Doodlebug Design, Dyno Merchandise, EK Success, Elmer’s, Eyelet Outlet, Fancy Pants Designs, Fiskars Americas, GlueArts, Glue Dots International, Graphic 45, Hambly Screen Prints, Helmar Adhesives, Hero Arts, iLoveToCreate, a Duncan Enterprises Company, Imaginisce, Inkadinkado , It Takes Two, Jenni Bowlin Studio, Jillibean Soup, K&Company, Karen Foster Design, Krylon, Little Yellow Bicycle, Maya Road, McGill, Mimi Collections, Pebbles Inc., Piggy Tales, Pink Paislee, Prima, QuicKutz, River City Rubber Works, Sakura, Sandylion, Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L, ScrapGirls, Scrapper’s Guide, SEI, Singer, Sounds Easy, Spellbinders, Stampendous!, Stampin’ Up!, Technique Tuesday, Therm O Web, Unibind, We R Memory Keepers, Zva Creative

all these manufacturers were so generous. i happen to get all my boxes on the same day, and i'm sure the neighbors were curious as to who was moving in. a lot of huge boxes. so much great product. i'm actually still working on going through it all, and they came a few weeks ago.

 

 

a huge congrats to the other team members. and a huge "thank you" to CK for giving me this great opportunity :)

scrapbook bakery november kit

the scrapbook bakery monthly kit is back this month. heather has put together a super fun kit for november, called best friends forever. in case you missed it, heather has invited 4 designers to be a part of her dream team. so i'll be working with some kits over the next year, along with the talented wendy sue anderson, erin terrell clarkson, and jenn biederman. i was first up this month, and here's what i came up with using the kit.

i paniced a little when i saw all the purple. lol! i have always said that purple is my least favorite color to scrap. i love to wear it, and actually can be seen in it at least 2-3 times a week. just not scrap with it. but these papers are such a gorgeous shade of purple. and paired with the green, i actually really like it! and turns out, i have photos to go with purple. first up, were these photos of alyssa on the first day of school.

 

have you ever noticed that when i work on a monthly kit, i tend to handjournal all my layouts? i noticed that last time i did a kit. because at the time i looked at the previous kits i had done, and those had hand journaling too. so i thought it was funny that i handjournaled on all these layouts too. because, i normally hate my handwriting. just a funny thing that i noticed.

next up was haley. i'm not always one to be super matchy matchy. but i do tend to pick out my paper colors, by first going with whatever the person in my photos are wearing. so these ones of her in a purple shirt immediately came to mind. plus, i just love that main photo of her.

i tore out one of the pages from the notebook to use on here. i always love a fun grid pattern. then i just started adding on the die cuts and stickers in layers. added a few of the gems, and a few dots of the pearl accents here and there. and i was so excited when i saw the "happy" sticker, and tossed in on the layout. thought it was the perfect touch for the photo of haley and her "happy" dog. then i realized that that is "katie" she's holding, and not happy. lol! she carries happy around all day, every day. and it looks nothing like this stuffed doggie. no idea how i could get them confused.
 

the other photos that came to mind were these ones of the girls from the summer, playing with their bratz dolls. these photos printed a little darker than what they should be. but just a fun simple layout to remember something they liked to do.

i wasn't totally sure about adding the liquid pearls to the pattern paper. i wanted too. and it seemed like a fun idea, to just trace some of the circles with it. then i finally just went for it. and then i got crooked on a lot of them. and then i couldn't stop and didn't know how to say "when". but i think it adds a fun touch.

i really thought all the "best friends" stickers were so cute. i thought they would be really fun to use on some cards. these are all 3.5x3.5 inch cards, that i rounded the edges of. nice and small. and perfect for the girls to give to their friends, just for fun. and all it took was a few scrap pieces of the pattern papers, and a few stickers. added a little ribbon, some gems, and some staples. i made all 8 of these in about 15 minutes.

 

i still have plans for the super cute notebook that is in the kit. it would make a great sketch idea book, to jot down layout ides and sketches. the papers are lined on one side, and have the graph design on the other side of the paper. and those glitter letter stickers in the kit are going with it. so i'll share that in a few days. 

preschool graduation layout

i feel like this blog has been short on scrapbooking shares. there have been a few projects sprinkled in here and there. but i've been scrapping non-stop, so i feel like i should have more to show you for it. lol! i checked my files tonight, because sticking some numbers out there always makes me feel more accomplished. in the last 2 months, i have created 31 layouts, 16 cards/projects, and 1 mini album. i didn't even realize it was that many. those numbers surprised me. and makes me feel sort of tired, to be honest. lol! here is a layout i can share with you today :)

this went up on the jillibean soup blog today. a while ago, they were asking on their blog what readers wanted to see more of. and something that caught my eye, was that people wanted more double page layouts. so i figured i would toss one in there. i was really wanting to use the alphabet soup collection, so i dug around in old school photos of the girls. 

these photos from sarah's preschool graduation caught my eye. i had scrapped the one close up shot of her on a layout forever ago, but had never done anything with the other photos. i started by doing what i do on all my layouts that involve a lot of photos. i trimmed a little off this photo, and a little of that photo, and then a little off the other photo. i just trim away, until they all fit together the way i want them too. love the collaged layouts like this. once the photos are on there, i just build around them with my patteren papers and stuff to fill it up.

look how cute and tiny sarah was! this was over 5 years ago. just graduating from preschool. she only went for a year, and it was just 2 mornings a week. she loved it. she was so quiet of course. i always think it's funny that sarah's teachers think she never talks and is so quiet and calm. becuase she's actually the exact opposite. although, i've been told i was the same way as a kid. lol! 
 
supplies:
ground round alphabet soup paper by jillibean soup
beef bouillon alphabet soup paper by jillibean soup
vegetable juice alphabet soup paper by jillibean soup
olive sugar soup staples paper by jillibean soup
black sugar soup staples paper by jillibean soup
white/red circle journaling sprouts by jillibean soup
corrugated kraft alphabets by jillibean soup
black alphabean stickers by jillibean soup
5 color polka ribbon by jillibean soup
corduroy brads by bazzill basics
scallop punch by stampin up

i got to play along for this super cute project

have you heard or seen the tuesday tutorial's over ali edwards blog every week? well, one of my fellow making memories design team girls is lucky enough to be hosting this: 

wilna furstenberg has such an artsy, cute style that has always intriqued me. so when she asked for a few volunteers to do a test run of her tutorial for her, i was totally up for it. i had no clue what it was about until i said "yes". then i saw "starbucks" and was excited. this was a new twist to the starbucks album idea, since she had created another super cute version a while back. go check out all the info and downloads HERE.  

this album was made using a tall starbucks coffee cup. isn't it the cutest thing? this is a great little album to document your love of starbucks and the people you like to enjoy your starbucks with. i usually drink mine alone, at the house, while working. although i do have my starbucks addict friends, that i talk about starbucks and how happy it makes us. lol!

i followed wilna's tutorial for just about every part of this album. there were a few things i didn't do. like the stitching. that would be super cute on there, but i'm not a stitcher. and the binding part. i didn't have the adhesive that she mentioned, so i just sort of winged putting this all together. my spine of the album isn't perfect, but it's all good. i used elastic cording to hold the pages in place, and then tied ribbons along the edge. for my photos, i just used a few shots of myself. and my starbucks. not a lot of deep journaling. just a few fun notes. and i also added a few of my old gift cards in, just because i've been holding onto them forever. and then added some random embellishments here and there. here's the inside pages.

 

it's such an artsy little album, that sits up on the top of my scrap shelf now. just for fun and i love it. wilna put a ton of work into this, and i think she did a fabulous job. so please go check it out and give it a try. all the info is HERE on ali's blog. and then go check out wilna's blog HERE, to see the other designers that she asked to play along, find the link to the flickr gallery to see our projects, and to also leave her a sweet comment to be entered in a drawing for some making memories goodies! 

jillibean soup - grow

this went up on the jillibean soup blog today, along with some other cute layouts by my fellow design team girls. this was one of my projects for september. the rest of my projects are coming up in the next 2 weeks.

i'm fairly certain i have scrapped this photo before. but it was the first one i thought of when i saw the new lentil soup collection. pretty standard "laura" layout. piece together photo and pattern paper in a very linear design, onto a white cardstock background. adhere some ribbon to add texture, added staples at the ends. jouranling strips. and gotta have some brads of some sort. the things that come naturaly to me ;)

supplies:
bazzill mini scallop edged cardstock
ground coriander lentil soup paper by jillibean soup
kosher salt lentil soup paper by jillibean soup
ground grains of paradise lentil soup paper by jillibean soup
pink/green ribbon by jillibean soup
5 color polka dot ribbon by jillibean soup
corrugated alphas from jillibean soup
silver circle mini brads from making memories

october guest designer for scrapmuse

i got an email a while back asking me if i wanted to be a guest designer for scrapmuse kit club. i'm always up for things like that and am always flattered to be asked. i got the october kit, which was called flight school. tons of fun stuff in it, and here is what i used it for.  

there was some claudine hellmuth sticky back canvas in the kit, and i wasn't actually sure what to do with it. i had visions of painting it somehow. but i was too scared to try and figured i would mess it up. so i just tore a strip off. i like how the edges look all worn when you tear it. so i went with the look, and even crumbled up my strip of pattern paper to distress it a little. can't remember the last time i've done that sort of thing. that lined chipboard journaling block is the packaging from the sassafras lass flowers. it was too cute to throw away, so i figured i'd use it on here.

these yellow handmade flowers were so pretty, and i thought they matched this photo of sarah perfectly. i took this photo one day while she was browsing around my scrap stuff. she's just like me with crafty type stuff. takes out way more than she needs, makes a huge mess, and starts too many projects at once. the only difference is that she never picks anything up, and i clean everything up. lol! this page is fairly simple, and i like that about it. and that stitching? that's not real, just me drawing the stitches on with a pen ;)

i was digging around for photos to match the papers, and found this oldie of the girls from 3 years ago. it was the last day of school, and i took this photo at the school as they were saying goodbye to their friends. alyssa had just finished 4th grade, and sarah has finished 1st grade. i cut the "TTYL" with my making memories slice, using the just chillin card. i thought it was kind of cute, like saying "talk to you later" to all their friends, as they walked off the school grounds. although we were year-round schooling at the time. so they really only had two weeks off, before they were back at school and with their friends again. lol!

i'm sort of torn on this last layout. i'm thinking i should have added something else to the title. maybe i'll go back and do that later. lol! i know i did a layout already with one of these photos, and i think the title was "10 years old". but i wanted to use more of the pics i took, and her fingers showing her age. the tickets are from tim holtz, and there were a ton of them in the kit. those brads are from chatterbox, and they're like little wood pieces that are engraved. and those buttons are the new glitter buttons from american crafts. fun stuff.

thanks to scrapmuse for inviting me to play along this month!

a halloween mini album

this halloween mini album went up on the making memories blog the other day, and i thought i'd share it here too. and check out THIS post also. some super cute party ideas, made by another one of the designers. one more to check out is wendy sue anderson, she's got a really cute halloween banner up today on her blog.

this entire album was made using the spook alley 6x9 mini book kit. i didn't add anything else. of course, there is more than enough stuff in the kit to make an entire album. i had plenty left over. these were just the main pages that i had to turn in. i really didn't have many great halloween photos, i'm so bad about taking pics on halloween. the first person i thought of was my awesome photographer friend, megan cristello. so i asked her if i could borrow a few photos for this project. i changed them to black and white, so that they'd blend in with the products better. then i felt really bad, since the colors on her photos are always gorgeous. so i decided to make her a few layouts as a "thank you". i had shared those a while back, one is HERE and the other one ended up HERE. which was way cool. so these photos of megan's were definately a hit. anyways, back to the album. here's the inside pages.

 

kept it nice and simple, which is usually my plan for any mini album i do. this would be a great album to put together, so that you just had to add a photo of each child from every year. so you'd have photos of them over the years, in their costumes. or you could even do an entire album for just one halloween. either way, it's a really cute album kit.

 

this halloween themed week wasn't something i planned. but it's working out nicely, isn't it? i have a few cards to share tomorrow. and then i'm not sure about friday. i may have run out of things. that means i'll dig into old stuff. or time permitting, make something new! stay tuned. 

a layout about her curls

finally, i have something scrappy to share. this layout went up on the jillibean soup blog today. this was my last official layout that i made in my old scrap space. now i'm scrapping in the new space. i know, i know. i need to quit talking about my scrap space. lol! although i will be sharing some photos of all that in the next few days.

i had taken these photos of alyssa back in june and hadn't done anything with them yet. sometimes i think i hold off on the photos i love, because i'm not sure i can do them justice when i scrap them. lol! i actually used the new grandma's christmas soup papers on this layout. i just love that green and that pink paper. certainly not just for christmas.

no crazy, creative techniques going on here. just a cute close up shot, because i like to do that. and because it's my blog ;)

and a close up of the journaling. i stared with an entirely different title, and was journaling about something else. but it sort of sounded like a lot of my other layouts. then i typed something about how we had curled her hair. and i ended up switching gears, and the title while i was at it. i forget to get these little moments down sometimes, so i'm glad i did this one.

supplies -
White Pea Pod Soup Staples On Kraft Paper by Jillibean Soup
Pinch Of Christmas Cheer Grandma's Christmas Crab Soup Paper by Jillibean Soup
Chives Grandmas Christmas Crab Soup Paper by Jillibean Soup
Black Alphabeans by Jillibean Soup
White/Black Circle Journaling Sprouts by Jillibean Soup
5 Color Polka Dot Ribbon by Jillibean Soup
flower - making memories
brads - bazzill (black polka dot), making memories (pink glitter)
punch - stampin up

my twilight girl

have i mentioned that i still don't have my laptop back? it's been over 3 weeks, and it might be another week. they thought it was fixed and gave it back to me. turns out it wasn't fixed and i sent it back. now they're waiting on a new screen. just stinks. so much harder to do things efficiently when you're not on your own computer, with your own programs, and your own bookmarks. anyways, i dug out the external hard drive so that i could share this.

this layout went up on the jillibean soup blog today. this layout started out a lot different in my head. somewhere along the line, i decided to lift myself. THIS has always been a favorite layout of mine. i had other plans to embellish this. and then my laptop went down. and for some reason, this threw me off my scrappin game. i couldn't even print the journaling for a few days. but it's a layout, and i still love it.

alyssa loves "twilight", and i wanted to get that down on a layout somewhere. she had borrowed the first book from the library, quite a while after this all started becoming so popular. then she blazed through the first book, borrowed the second book, and then we bought her the third and forth books. of course, she has all 4 books of her own now. she has read them all two times through. she wears her twilight shirts at least once or twice a week. she has collectors books and trading cards (thanks to her dad, who gets them for her without her even asking!). i can't even tell you how many times she's seen the movie, and she's waiting so patiently for "new moon" to come out. she also has posters in her room on the walls and her closet. and haley naps in there. every time i go to lay her down, she tells me "i don't like that man". she's referring to the big poster of jacob. i guess i can see how that might be scary to have a vampire dude staring at you while you're sleeping. lol! he's a vampire, right? sorry, i know nothing about this stuff. thank you wendy and sasha - jacob is a werewolf, NOT a vampire. lol! i knew that didn't sound right when i typed it. so i take it off the wall (it hangs on a cord). and every night, alyssa hangs it back up. lol! 

supplies -
pattern paper - jillibean soup
ribbon - creative imaginations
letter stickers - jillibean soup
journaling sprout - jillibean soup
chipboard accent - september 08 KOTM
stamp - stampin up

got sketch #90

i was asked to contribute to another sketch for the got sketch blog this past week. if you're into 2-page sketches, valerie just announced a super fun online class. check the blog for all the details. here is my take on sketch #90. be sure to check out the other contributors and the great layouts they came up with.

 

a pretty simple layout. which i love doing from time to time. although the girls must not get "simple". alyssa kept asking me if i was going to add more stuff. and sarah asked if i was going to finish it. lol! i'm not even sure how i came up with these photos. but these are some that i took of my brother and sister-in-law, and my sister, back at christmas. guess they deserve to be in our scrapbook albums too ;)

supplies -
pattern paper - my mind's eye
transparent tree - my mind's eye
chipboard letters - american crafts
gems - michaels, my mind's eye, creative cafe
ink - colorbox

you might have seen this

i cannot tell you how excited i was to see this come out over the weekend.

 

those aren't my kids. but that IS my layout! some of you might remember this layout i did for megan, using her super cute halloween photos of her youngest two kiddos. i was thrilled when i got an email from creating keepsakes about featuring it on the cover of the october issue. i was totally honored to be asked. i also have another layout inside, for the becky higgins sketch. it's one that i just love, that managed to get 16 of the daycare kids i've had onto a 2 page layout. it means a lot to me, and i'll share it here another day. in the meantime, make sure to pick up this issue if you don't have it yet. it's packed with great ideas and awesome layouts. one of the best issues this year. and i'm not just saying that because they put me on the cover ;)

got sketch #89

i was asked to contribute to the got sketch blog again this week. i have been really loving the idea of the sketches recently. alyssa was just asking me whether i liked working with them. and i said "yes, because it does some of the thinking for me". so true. so here is my take on sketch #89. make sure to check out the blog for more great layouts from the other contributors.

 

first off, recognize this little one? that's our sarah bear, over 9 years ago! i want to squeeze those cheeks. wait a minute, i think i actually did today. lol! i'm not sure what even made me dig through photos from this far back. but i actually pulled out a few sets of photos for this sketch, and started a few different layouts. this one was working the best for me, so i went with it. secondly. if any colors look funky on this, please cut me some slack. i have some major computer issues right now and am doing the best i can. kind of hard when you can't actually see anything on your screen. more on that in my next post. but know that this should be blue, green, and yellow ;)

so i decided to turn the sketch on it's side for once. i know people do this all the time. but i'm usually a pretty straight forward thinker. just take what is given me, and follow it. but most of the photos i wanted to use were all horizontal. the girls thought i was breaking some rules and were convinced i was doing it all wrong. lol!

 

i choose a few jillibean soup papers from the new collections. the title took me forever, although i have no idea why. i was stuck on the embellishments, but found these metal rim tags and grommets that were simple and in the right colors. and i just happen to see these label stickers, and decided to toss them on there for my journaling. this layout just sort of happened. i can't explain it, but it just kind of fell together. guess it's a good thing i had a basic sketch to work off. lol!

supplies -
pattern paper - jillibean soup
foam letter stickers - american crafts
ribbon - making memories
grommets - making memories
metal rim tags - making memories
brads - making memories
label stickers - jenni bowlin

posters and magazines

this was a layout i started a few weeks back, just for fun. the whole reason this layout came together was because i wanted to use these ki memories alphabet soup letters. i have a jar of them in different colors. but they used to be deemed "too special" to actually use. until now. i have 4 layouts started right now, just to use the letters.

 

i was just trying to figure out some titles i could spell out. and finding photos that matched the colors i had out. i am so product driven in my scrapping. more often than not, my layouts begin with me simply wanting to use a certain product. these photos were just some snapshots i had taken of the girls at the beginning of the year, while they were looking through their magazines in their rooms. not ones i would have pulled out to scrap, necessarily. but now i'm glad i did.

 

i know you can totally see the mini glue dots on these letters. lol! i have my ki memories gloo, which is meant for these acrylic pieces. and i use it all the time, especially on chipboard. but sometimes i find that it warps my cardstock. maybe i use too much, i have no idea. but i'm a big glue dot person. and i'm not one to stress over whether my adhesive shows that much. lol!

supplies -
pattern paper - ki memories
acrylic letters - ki memories
letter sticker - doodlebug, american crafts
clear heart sticker - making memories
brads - making memories
ribbon - american crafts
diecut border - creative cafe
punch - fiskars, stampin up

easy vacation layout

thought i'd start sharing some of my projects that i've been hiding away for a while. since the stuff i'm doing now is stuff that can't be shown for a while. i think i'm actually losing track of what i have where, and where i have what ;)

 

this has got to be one of my easiest layouts ever. and it has 16 photos on it! these were photos from our trip up to my aunt and uncle's cabin last summer. which if you were dying to know more about, you could read it all HERE. so i just took a bunch of the photos, and printed them as 2x3 photos. i did this in photoshop, and put 4 of them together on a 4x6 photo. which was then printed at costco. you can read a little explanation of how i do this HERE.

i could have printed them myself, but just seemed easier to order them through costco. and if you had them all arranged right, or didn't really care what order they were in, you could totally just adhere your 4 4x6 photos to the layout. but i cut up each 2x3 photo and then arranged them and adhered them. a little extra step, mainly because i didn't plan all that when i printed them.

then just added some of the new great escape collection from making memories. a little strip of pattern paper, a journaling notebook page, some wooden letters, and a clip and a brad. so simple.