Winter Blues?!?

Wow!  Sorry it has been so long since I posted here.  Life has kind of gotten away from me.  Since I last checked in, my hubby left the Air Force which sparked a lot of changes in our lives.  All for the best, I promise you.  One thing that helped keep my sanity is my crafting.  I have been trying to make at least a page or card a week.  So far, so good!

As I started looking through my pictures, I realized my go to color for January was aqua.  I think I like it so much because I can use it for pages for my daughter and my son.  So no, I don't have the winter blues.  It is just a really pretty color!  :-)  Here are some of my "Blue Period" works.

I am part of a Cricut Card making group.  For January, we were asked to make a birthday card.  Every girl wanted to be treated like a queen, so I thought this would be a fun card for a birthday girl.

Next up, my Christmas morning picture of my kids.  I loved this picture.  And thanks to www.scrapbooksteals.com's Garnet 7 sketch, I found a fun way to scrap it.  There were so many colors in the actual picture, that I wanted to keep the papers and embellishments simple.  We R Memory Keeper's Merry January paper seemed perfect for this to me.

In October, I had the chance to go to the Scrapbook Steals Retreat in Salt Lake City, UT.  It was an amazing trip, and I met a lot of WONDERFUL girls.  Of course, I had to make a page about it.  This picture was taken outside their warehouse after our tour.  Scrapbook Steals is truly my "Not So Guilty Pleasure".  Again, I used one of SS's wonderful sketches.  This one is Garnet 2.  There are 48 little brads throughout this page.  Let me tell you, my fingers hurt after setting all these!





Last but not least is a page about me and my kids.  This picture was taken on my 35th birthday.  I am usually the one behind the lens, so it is a rare treat to get a picture of me and my kids.  The pink vines running down the side of the page are actually the cut outs from the doilley on the layout above that I sprayed with Glimmer mist to add a little color and definition.  I like being able to take advantage of "scraps".  The brown background is actually a piece of kraft paper crinkled, sprayed with rubbing alcohol and then spread out to dry.  I remember doing this as a kid, so it was fun to incorporate it into my "grown up" work.

And now some of my biggest news.  I have joined up with 8 other incredibly talented girls to start The Paper Girls Challenge.  Starting Monday, Feb. 6, one of us will post a sketch, inspriation, or challenge for you to play along with.  Every other Monday there will be a new post.  I hope you join us. 

Cheers!