Baby Album Pics

I've received some emails requesting ideas for mini albums. This is a baby album I made a little over a year ago for my niece and it always makes me happy because I had so much fun making it for her.

It's chalk full of goodies from a number of companies, but the base is a Maya Road mini album, Kaisercraft patterned paper, Moxxie rub-ons, and Core'dinations cardstock. Some of the other companies featured arePrima, Making Memories, Basic Grey, Bazzill, American Crafts, and We R Memory Keepers.




Simply run a piece of cardstock through your paper crimper for a more dimensional look.




Feel free to doodle as I did on this pocket. Just grab a pen and add a simple border like I did here or a cute flourish. Don't be intimidated, I'm sure you had notebooks full of doodles in junior high, so we know you've got experience!




Make your own photo corners so the recipient knows where to place photos. This also gives you a bit of layering above the photos, which is hard to achieve when your not adding the photos as well. Another way to do this is to glue ribbon borders behind the photo mat and leave it un-adhered in the front. This way, they can slide their photo underneath.





Leave a standard border around the outside of your pages to minimize on rough edges. The chipboard on most albums is quite nice and adds an interesting texture to projects. I like the rough chipboard paired with these feminine colours.



Pockets are a great way to add extra journaling or photos to your mini albums without adding much bulk.



Hope you enjoyed!

Chasing Cheerios

Gracie turned 8 months old yesterday.We took her in to get weighed and she checks in at 18 pounds 5 and 3/4 ounces. What a little weed! She's growing like crazy.

Thought you might like this little video of her working on picking up Cheerios. Half the time she forgets to eat them, she just likes to chase them around her high chair tray and then celebrate when she gets one. Bailey is enjoying this as well.

Sebastien's 1st Birthday

We had such a great time at Sebastien's birthday on Saturday! It was a perfect day for a party by the lake. Great food, friends, sunshine, water and playground equipment - everything you need.

Our little party-goer:



And, I have never seen a birthday boy (or girl, for that matter) enjoy their cake as much as he did. Too cute!






Gracie had the perfect dress and hat to keep her out of the sunshine and was not much of a fan of the prickly grass or the hot sand, preferring her little blankie, where she could keep an eye on the other kids. Queen Gracie, residing over her subjects.





But, we managed to get her to the playground. All of those bright colours and laughing, running kids were just too much for her to miss out on.



Love those chubby, little thighs :)



And that adorable little face!

Playdates

We had a fun-filled week full of playdates, suppers with friends and a fantastic sun-soaked birthday party. Ahhh, summer. I've missed summer.

We had a few friends over for supper and got to meet Catriona, who is just a few months older than Gracie.

They usually played by themselves, but Gracie was watching Cat crawl around (moving forward) and was quite interested.





This one's my favourite. An action shot. I may not be able to crawl forward, but I can still attack!



One of Brad's coworkers was here from Ottawa instructing and he joined us for supper, too. He loved playing with Gracie (and Grampa's pie-that may be the actual reason he comes all the way to Alberta to teach).



On a side note, it's still burning hot here and lovely! We had strollercise this morning and it was +27 C when we were heading home at 11 am! Yikes! Got a little extra workout with that heat.

Hope you're enjoying it!

Hey Birdie!

Lots of companies are coming out with new lines at the moment and they are great! Great colours and patterns and textures..... I can't wait to get out there and see them in person!

One of my favourites is Kaisercraft's Hey Birdie line. It is really cute and versatile and it would go perfectly with all of my pictures of Gracie!

Check out their blog to see some great layouts and cards or check out the full line at their website.

Two page layouts

A few more layouts. These ones are all two pagers, which means I took so many photos of her in the span of a few seconds, I can't fit them on one 12 x 12 page.

I have a disease.










And, I may have created a monster....

Family Photo Attempts

We tried to take a good family photo on mother's day, but unfortunately, we're going to have to schedule another photo shoot... A few of them turned out okay, but we didn't really get anything fantastic.



Why is it that I look out of focus and Gracie's sticking her tongue out?



Why do we all have bare feet and why are my pants rolled up - in fact, why are our feet even in the photo?



At least, we had fun...

One day, we'll try again... maybe outside this time, with socks and shoes on...

Layouts

How long has it been? I've actually been pumping out layouts, lately, my creativity mojo is strong right now. I haven't posted many pictures, in awhile though, so here are a few of my recent layouts.






I'm nearly wrapping up Gracie's third album and I'm about two months behind at the moment! Can you believe that? I'm a stalker, paparazzi-esque mom with too much time on her hands, apparently. I'm guessing she'll have five, full albums covering her first year. Yikes! Let's hope that any subsequent children aren't too upset if I can't keep up that pace for them...

Still Loves Berries

I know I said that berries were probably a bad idea in Gracie's teething toy, but she really likes them....

So, we made a mess again.

How can you resist this face?

Another My Mind's Eye Challenge

I really like the sketches they put up for My Mind's Eye. This most recent one was fun. Cute photos, great paper and an inspiring sketch. Who needs more?

What a week!

What a great week we've had! My first mother's day was fantastic! I got completely spoiled and had a great day hanging out with Brad and Gracie. My parent's brought gifts when they came to visit too, so life is good for this first time mom. Flowers, planters full of herbs, flowers, spinach and tomatoes, a gift certificate to a spa, a new CD, and Gracie even wrote me a little note (she dictated and Brad typed apparently) which was quite nice. As Brad says, "It's like getting an extra birthday every year!"

I'm very blessed.

And the week hasn't slowed down, it started out good and it's staying good. Monday, G and I headed to strollercise and yesterday, Jacqueline came over to scrapbook with me for a few hours, which was great. Plus, she brought the most delicious muffins. mmmmmm...

Now, we have nothing planned today except possibly a grocery run and a ball game tonight (brad). Tomorrow, we've got company coming for supper, Friday I'm meeting a friend for some shopping, Saturday we have a birthday party and Sunday we're going to the mall to meet some other friends. Whew! Sometime, I will need to clean my house and do laundry as well....

Here are some pictures of my parents playing with Gracie on their last visit:





Gracie loves to walk everywhere now since they came to visit.



And my beautiful bouquet:

The Courtyard Hound

Interested in how the Dixie Chick's new band, Courtyard Hounds got their name?

It's from a quote in a book called The Courtyard Hound about using your talent, and I love it. I'm looking for the book now, because the quote is so interesting and inspires a sort of melodic imagery for me. It's such an interesting metaphor.....

"Talent must be a fanatical mistress. She's beautiful. When you're with her, people watch you, they notice, but she bangs on your door at odd hours and she disappears for long stretches and has no patience for the rest of your existence: your wife, your children, your friends.

She is the most thrilling evening of your week, but some day she'll leave you for good.

One night, after she's been gone for years, you will see her, on the arm of a younger man and she will pretend not to recognize you."

Use your talent folks!

Grams and Papa's Visit

We just had a fantastic, but too short visit from Grams and Papa! Even while fighting through teething, Gracie loved spending time with them. They make funny faces, feed her, play dog pile, listen to her stories, read her books, and take her walking. Who could ask for more?

Unfortunately, I haven't downloaded any pictures, yet, but I will. Until then, here's a few of Gracie's new favourite things (besides Grams and Papa):

Pear slices



Laundry baskets (maybe they're a little more fun when mom gives me rides in the basket, instead of jumping in with me...)

This girl can move!

We had to move the crib down tonight, because Gracie is on the move now. She loves to pull herself up on her exersaucer, in a laundry basket (which is her new favourite toy - mine toy, she's trapped!) or on Brad or I.

She can move pretty fast, too for not really crawling. She crawls, but she only goes backwards, a trait she apparently picked up from me. Between rolling, scooting and backwards crawling, she gets around!

The other day, I was getting ready and had her sitting in the middle of our bed playing. I pulled my shirt over my head and in that instant, she was laying on the edge of the bed, with her head hanging off. Yikes! Thank God I was leaning up against the bed and I didn't get my shirt caught on a ponytail or something!

Now, the baby proofing begins....

Here's a little glimpse of her trying to play with the toys on her exersaucer from the outside:




See how much strength this takes?



This is me trying to make her laugh, to see if she'll let go.... (kidding-but she wouldn't)


What a kid!

Music Love

I am thinking about buying tickets to see lilith fair this June...

They're coming to Edmonton and the line up is amazing, Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, Sugarland, Erykah Badu, Colbie Caillat and a bunch more. The tickets cost a small fortune, but it would be like going to ten concerts at once... hmmmm...... temptation.

And you know who else is going to be performing at Lilith? (unfortunately not in Edmonton or Calgary, but maybe they'll make a surprise appearance)

The Courtyard Hounds! Do you know who that is? It's two of the Dixie Chicks, Emily and Martie! Don't worry, the band hasn't broken up, Natalie just wanted to stay home with her kids a little longer :)

If you know me at all, you know I love the Dixie Chicks. They're doing a stadium tour with the Eagles this summer, but the closest they get is Toronto, so I doubt I'll make that one...

Sigh.

Anyhow, go listen to the Courtyard Hounds and let me know if you're going to Lilith Fair.

Teething Pains

Poor Gracie has been teething lately and she's chewing on everything in site. Her little tooth-and-a-half have been working on everything she can get her hands on. I gave her a slice of an under ripe pear to gnaw on and she loved that, too. She even bit my big toe the other night while I was playing with her on the floor.... To help numb her gums and ease the pain, we gave her one of these mesh soothers to chew on with frozen berries in it. She loved it. It was messy, as you can see, but it made her feel better and she loved the sweet taste.













I can hear you all now....Really? You picked red berries? You must like laundry.... I know. It's what I had on hand and she liked it.

National Scrapbooking Day

Did you know that yesterday was National Scrapbooking Day? That's right, we have a holiday! Since sleep has been elusive in our house lately, I didn't do much to celebrate other than visit my favourite local store to partake in their celebrations.

Treasured Memories is a fantastic store in Edmonton and they had 30% off everything yesterday and a goodie bag for the first 50 people through the doors. Also, thanks to Curtis, Brandi and Jada, I had a gift certificate! Yay! What better way to lure a person in? I actually didn't get much, but I really NEEDED a few things, so I had to add them to my stash. :)

Plus, I ran into a friend, Jacqueline and her son, Jake, that I've been meaning to call for months. If only I had gotten some sleep the night before, I may have had something interesting to say, unfortunately, basic communications were all I could muster. I will rectify it, though. This week, Jacqueline, we'll set a scrapbook date.

Otherwise, I spent NSD cleaning the house, playing with Miss Gracie, and visiting an old friend who stopped by.

Even though we haven't been getting much sleep here, can you think of a cuter reason to be up at night?? :)