Mother's Day and Week 16 ultrasound

It has been a while since I have taken the time to scrapbook. I am not just 3 weeks and 2 days away from my due date so I believe that my goal of having the pregnancy album completely up to date is very unrealistic at this point in time.

Here is the layout that threw off my pattern because the Mother's Day side was just one page instead of two pages.

I am not as happy with these pages as with the previous ones but I will blame my almost two month absence for difference.

The left side layout is done in the Bottom Border - Photo Focus layout from the Reflections book. The right side is Reflect Sidebar - Photo Focus. I do not have the name of the papers as I pulled them from their original container and stored them in clear paper savers. I used Close to My Heart Bamboo ink to distress the two cream colored strips of paper. The wording on the left page is a Mother's Day card from my husband that I cut and used. I used stickers for the lettering on the right page and both pages have small brass circle brads on them.

Week 16 & 18 bump pictures

Because the Mother's Day layout (coming soon) only needs one side, it threw off my pattern a bit with having the bump pictures alongside the ultrasound. I guess it works out because I started at some point doing the bump pictures every 4 weeks but the ultrasounds moved to the in-between weeks.

Here is the layout for the bump for week 16 and week 18 (when we were in Jamaica).

The left page layout is the Title Topper-Subtle design and the right page is Main Frame-Tied Together, both from Reflections by Jeannette Lynton. The patterned papers were pulled out one a book but I don't have the name of the book anymore now that I store them in plastic protectors. The blue solid paper was scrap paper that I had. The two quotes are from Vellum Quote Stacks. The pewter flower brads used to adhere one set of vellum on each page and the pewter small round brad used to attach the flowers are both from Making Memories. The hemp on the left page is from Close to My Heart. The flowers (and vase, stem, & leaves on the right page) were Close to My Heart "With Love" clear acrylic stamps. Black Dye based ink was used for the stamping.

First Day of Football Gift

This post isn't a part of the Baby C album. Today is the first day of football and every year since we got married I've done something to celebrate. One year it was a football cake, another year just a football card, and we've had a few years of little gifts like a book or the car decal. This year I couldn't come up with anything until late last night when I was struggling to sleep since I didn't find what I was looking for when I was home in July. I made a book using some smaller versions of the ultrasounds and some scrapbooking materials. For some reason I couldn't get the camera to focus on the pages so the pictures are a bit out of focus but I didn't have any more patience to get it to work!

Week 18 Visit

Here is the layout for the unexpected visit that we had in week 18.

The layout is Front and Center-In the Middle from Reflections by Jeanette Lynton. I just flipped it for the right page. The paper was all scrap from my leftovers. The orange heart on the left page is from Reminisce Live Out Loud. I also used orange and turquoise ribbon that I got on sale at Michaels. The letters were done using Autumn Leaves Typewriter Hand Drawn by Amy Grendell (a clear stamp set) and Delta Dye Brand Orange ink with iridescent embossing power over the top. I had to use a heat tool to set the embossing powder but it gives a nice shimmer of color to the letters which isn't really captured in the picture.

Week 11

Here is the layout for the week 11 visit and baby bump.

The patterned paper is from Ki Memories Funky Paper. I was excited because I got to use some of my solid color scrap paper.  The layout is from Imagine by Jeanette Lynton.

Week 20 & 21 Baby Bumps

Here is the layout for the week 20 and week 21 baby bumps.

The layout designs were from Reflections by Jeanette Lynton. The one on the right was Title Topper-Pieced Together although I decided it would provide more uniformity if I did a solid strip at the top instead of a broken one. The one on the left was Bottom Border - Overlap. Each of the patterned papers was from Ki Memories Funky Paper pack. I did use a solid color purple to mat the pictures and silver and black paper I had in my scratch pile to make the lettering. To add extra shine to the patterned paper, I glued on silver sequins.

Baby C Album Title Page

This page took me some time. First of all, I did the calendar for March and November using "inque: Clear Your Calendar" clear stamps and Delta Dye Based Orange Ink. It took a lot of time of matching things up. I was lucky that March and November this year are exactly the same except for the number of days in the month. It meant that I could get everything lined up for one month and then just stamp the other month too. You can see that when I started, I had some excess ink that I had to deal with. I decided to not redo it as it added some "flavor" to November. I got better at not stamping the excess as I went.

The next thing I did were the title letters. I knew that I wanted three layers of color (pink patterned paper-don't know name, brown, and textured white) to help the letters pop more against the patterned background. I wanted to save paper so I didn't print the letters directly onto the patterned paper but instead printed them on scratch. That meant that I had to cut them out and then use them as stencils. I was tired of cutting letters by the end but I think the title turned out really cute!

Here is the complete page:

The stickers all come from the Ellen Krans: Labor of Love pack. The heart brads are Creative Impressions Pewter Embellishments. The patterned papers were in a big pack of papers but I'd pulled them all out and separated them by colors so I don't have the name of that pack.

Father's Day Layout

Here is the second layout that I finished for the Baby C album. It obviously is a bit later in the scrapbook but I had this layout as well from another one of the crops I described before so I wanted to make use of it.

This layout uses the Close to My Heart "Lazy Days of Summer" paper. At that particular crop we made the layout designs that are in the Summer 2008 Idea Book. We bought all the stickers and whatnot but I didn't really feel like it fit with the page. Because I had a horizontal 8x10 picture I turned the left layout so that it would work. It looks a bit awkward to me because of the orientation but I think it still works.

For the lettering I used Inkadinkado's Gem Stone Alphabet with Close to My Heart Crystal Blue ink.

Update on first ultrasound layout

I looked up what materials were used for the first ultrasound layout that I talked about in the previous post. It was the Close to My Heart "Tickled Pink" scrapbooking kit. It is the "I am" layout but I did different picture sizes for the layout and therefore had to move some of the embellishment around.

First Ultrasound Appointment Layout

I tend to not put my scrapbooks together in any order. When I first have a set of pictures, I will go through and identify all the different layouts that I want to make with them and the general order for those layouts. I make those notes on a legal pad along with any initial thoughts I have about the embellishments and format for the layouts.

Then I pick something that jumps out and inspires me and start there. Because I generally (one current exception which I'll discuss later) use top loading, post bound scrapbooking albums, I can rearrange if needed to put the layouts in a different order.

Here is my first layout from the Baby C album. It is from our first ultrasound appointment.

The layout comes from a crop I went to with a lady who sells Close to My Heart (http://www.closetomyheart.com/). I usually build layouts around the pictures that are going into the layout but she builds the layout first and then picks the pictures later. It means that I have a bunch of layouts that I created with her that I am just waiting for the perfect pictures to pop up. I don't like to do it that way but it was a lot of fun getting together with other ladies who enjoy scrapbooking and I will eventually find a use for all the layouts that I created.

Since it was a Close to My Heart crop, all of the materials are Close to My Heart. I know that I need to get better at paying attention to all of the materials that I use on a layout if I am going to blog about it so I will work on that.  I also need to figure out how to get better shots of the layouts so that they have better color to them and you can see all the structural elements. I will work on that as well!