Scrapping For Two - My New Approach to Scrapbooking

I haven't been doing a lot of traditional scrapbooking lately, since I've started documenting our day-to-day activities with Project Life, but there are some things that I still want to do traditional scrapbook pages about.  To streamline that process, now that I'm scrapping for two children, I've decided to try to make some of the  layouts for Drew and Maddie simultaneously.  I've done this twice lately, and I've been pleased with the results.

My first attempt was two layouts about our Christmas trip to South Carolina - one for Drew's book and one for Maddie's book.  I had some pictures that I wanted to include on both layouts, but I also had some photos that would be specific to each child.  I found a sketch that worked for the number of pictures I wanted to use, and I ordered pictures from Sam's (a 5x7 family photo for each layout and some 4x6 photos).  I had quite a bit of Christmas paper in my stash, so I picked some more traditional-looking Christmas papers for Drew's layout and some slightly more girly-looking Christmas papers for Maddie's layout.  I was able to make all of my cuts for both layouts at the same time - backgrounds, scalloped edges, cropped photos, photo mats, and die-cut shapes and titles.  Doing all the cuts at the same time for the two layouts saved me quite a bit of time.  All I had left to do was to write out the journaling, which was specific to each child.

 The two layouts aren't identical.  Drew's has an extra photo, and some of the photo dimensions are a bit different, but overall, they are very similar, but individualized for each child.  I was able to knock out two layouts in just a bit more time than it would have taken me to do a single layout.

 I used this method again recently to do an Easter layout for each child.  This time, I used the same sketch  for both layouts, and I used papers from the same paper line and mixed and matched them on the two layouts.  I was able to get all the patterned paper for both layouts from two two-sided pieces of patterned paper.

 I used many of the same photos on the two layouts, but a few different ones too.

I am enjoying this new way of scrapping, and I think it works especially well for holiday layouts like these, when I want a similar look with a bit of a personalized feel.  I plan to keep scrapping this way as much as I can, and I will share the future layouts here on my blog.

Project Life - Week 23

This week started, as usual, with Sunday at church.  I worked in Maddie's nursery that evening.

 She is so fearless!  She climbs on everything without any fear.  Her new trick this week was flipping her shopping cart on its side and standing on top of it.

 Drew finished up his first round of swimming lessons on Monday.

 I bought Drew a summer review workbook, and he's been working on it several mornings a week.  He enjoys it, and I like that he is keeping those skills fresh.

 My parents brought us a little chair that my siblings and I used to sit in when we were young.  Maddie loves it, and I find her sitting in it all the time.

 I had to have another thyroid biopsy on Wednesday morning.  It went just like the first one.  It was sore for the rest of the day, but not horrible.  We got the results back last week, and this time, they are saying that the nodule is abnormal.  I have been seeing an endocrinologist, and he had recommended, before the biopsy, that I go ahead and have surgery to remove at least part of my thyroid (just because of the size of the nodule).  Now that my biopsy results have come back as abnormal, he has told me that I should try to have the surgery this summer.  I am seeing my surgeon this week to get the surgery scheduled.

 Drew had some friends over to play on Friday afternoon.  Their mom is a good friend of mine, and she was struggling with high blood pressure during the final weeks of pregnancy.  I told her to bring the boys over for a few hours so she could rest or get some things done without them.  The boys played the Wii,

 played Balloon Lagoon,

 and played with the stomp rockets.

 It was National Donut Day that day, so after all the playing, we went to Krispy Kreme to get free donuts.

 Everyone enjoyed the donuts, and, yes, Maddie did eat that entire donut!

 This week I just did a simple page again - all 3x4 photos and one 4x6 collage.

I am linking up again with The Mom Creative.

Influenster Spring Fever VoxBox

I signed up for an Influenster account a few months ago, and I got my first VoxBox in May - the Spring Fever VoxBox.

 The box was full of fun stuff - an Osis+ Rough Rubber hair texturizing paste, a Tastykake S'mores bar kake, some Secret Outlast deodorant, a tube of NYC lip gloss, and a set of Broadway Impress nails.

Drew and I have both tried the hair rubber.  It has a very thick consistency, and I don't know that we used the right technique or amount, but it was just ok for us, not great.  Jim and Drew ate the Tastykake bar the night our box came, and they enjoyed it - they both love anything s'mores!  I have been using the deodorant for the past week, and I like it.  It is a gel, which is different from what I normally use, but it works well.  I am also really liking the lip gloss.  It has a nice corally red color, and it feels nice on my lips.  The nails are an extremely bright, neon pink that just isn't me, so I will probably be finding a friend who would enjoy them more than I would.  If they had been a more subtle color, I would have given them a try.

I really enjoyed receiving this box, and besides the nails, we have, at least somewhat, used and enjoyed all the products.  I received all the products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes, but the opinions I shared were mine.

Project Life - Week 22

This Sunday was a very special day for our family.  We had Maddie's baby dedication that morning during the service.  Our family went up on the stage, and our pastor explained that in dedicating Maddie, we were asking for the help and prayers of our church family as we seek to raise Maddie the way we believe that the Bible wants us to.  Our pastor also announced that Maddie is the new secretary of the nursery.  :)

 Monday was Memorial Day.  My dad and I finished our plant shopping that morning, and that afternoon, Dad and Drew planted the plants and finished up the garden bed.

 Drew has been very interested in the garden.

We went to our friends' house that evening for dinner.  There were several little boys there that night, and Drew loved playing with them.  The boys managed to overflow a toilet in the basement, so it was an exciting evening!

 My parents left to go home Tuesday morning, and we rushed off a little later for Maddie's 15 month well-visit.  Her doctor noticed that Maddie has a small heart murmur, and she wanted to take Maddie's blood pressure in both of her arms and legs.  Maddie hated having her blood pressure taken.  They tried several times and only got a decent reading for one of her arms before they gave up.  After the blood pressure fiasco, Maddie had to get three shots, so there was a whole lot of crying coming from our little room that morning!

 Drew had dog night in his Wednesday night church class.  The children were supposed to dress up like dogs, and they got to eat hot dogs at their class.

We made and delivered a dinner for Drew's teacher and her family on Thursday.  A big thunder/hail storm started while we were at her house, so we had to stay for a little while.  Drew enjoyed seeing his teacher and her new baby.

 Friday evening, we made one of our favorite summer dinners - grilled pizza!  Drew loves to put his own pepperonis on his pizza.

Of course, we had to make s'mores on the grill after dinner.

Here's what I did for Project Life this week.  I kept it very simple with one 4x6 photo and a bunch of 3x4 photos.  I used some paper from my stash for the title card and a Wellington journaling card.

I am linking up again with The Mom Creative.

Project Life - Week 21

Week 21 was a fun, busy week for us!  Jim and Drew made breakfast before church on Sunday morning.  They made one of their favorites - biscuits and chocolate gravy.  They made biscuits from a can and homemade chocolate gravy.

My parents came Tuesday evening from South Carolina.  We were excited to have them here for a week!  My sister has a cookie business, and her cookies are AMAZING!  She sent some with my parents for Drew to celebrate his kindergarten graduation.  He was so excited!

 She made some Lego Spiderman cookies and some Sonic the Hedgehog cookies.

 Drew a very happy boy!

 My parents got Maddie an American Girl Bitty Baby for her birthday, and they brought it for her when they came.  She was very interested in it before she even got it out of the box.

 She kept hugging her baby.

 She loved her!

 Drew's last day of kindergarten was Thursday.  He has gotten so big (and lost so many teeth) this year!  His kindergarten graduation was that evening.

We drove down to Ohio to see my grandma and my aunt and uncle on Friday.
My parents, my grandma, and my aunt and uncle.

 My parents, my grandma, and my children and me.  We ate lunch with my grandma at her nursing home.  It was good to see family!

 That evening when we got back home, we met up with Jim at a restaurant for dinner.  We had pizza and then walked over to a frozen custard shop for dessert.

 It was all delicious!

 Friday night was "Dude Night."  Jim and Drew stayed up late watching "Wipeout" and playing the Wii.  They spent the night in the living room.  This is how I found Drew the next morning!  He was pretty tired after his late night, but he loved it!

 We went to the Eastern Market in Detroit on Saturday morning.  We saw lots of pretty flowers, plants, and produce, and we ate lunch there.

 That afternoon, Jim and my dad built our raised garden bed.

Here's what I did for Project Life this week.
This is my main page for this week.  My pictures are all standard sizes except the Eastern Market photo collage.

 I also did an insert about Drew's graduation.

 Here is is with the insert flipped.

 This is the front of the insert,

 and this is the back.

I used some more of the Wellington Mini kit for my title and journaling cards, and I am linking up with The Mom Creative again this week.

Eastern Market

While my parents were here visiting, we spent a morning at the Eastern Market in Detroit.  Jim hadn't been there in years, and the rest of us had never been, so we were excited to experience the market!  We found it pretty easily and parked fairly close.  

As we walked toward the market, we heard some shouting and  drumming.  We happened to be there during a Monsanto March.  It didn't really disrupt anything, but we did see and hear it here and there throughout the morning. 

 We weren't really searching for anything in particular, except a catnip plant.  My parents' new cat loves catnip, and my dad had been having trouble finding a catnip plant for him.  We enjoyed wandering through the flowers.

 There were rows and rows of them!

 Drew wanted a balloon animal from the balloon lady.

 He ended up getting a blue "light saber."  We bought a few tomato plants for our raised bed and some avocados and mangoes from a produce stand.  We have discovered that Maddie is a big mango fan!  My dad found his catnip plant, so he was quite happy.  Our favorite find was some oatmeal sandwich cookies that some Mennonite women were selling.  They were SO good!

 We got sandwiches from a food truck for lunch.  The kids had grilled cheese, and the adults got gyros.

 The market went on and on, and in the couple of hours we were there, we saw only a little of it.

 Lots of people brought wagons and other wheeled carts to carry their purchases.

 As we headed back to our car, we saw a police man on horseback.

 Drew stopped to get a picture in an ear of corn.

We loved the Eastern Market and are looking forward to going back to explore it again soon!