The Simple Life

love mini book kits...

just in time for valentine's day...a cute little mini book for you to assemble!

here's a little sneak peek...

check out my shop on etsy and visit http://thepolkadotbarn.com!

i hope to have more items listed by monday...

new {scrapbook} projects...

i actually scrapbooked this past week! even though i almost forgot how...i had everything set out and realized i didn't have any adhesives! kind of hard when all my scrapbooking is still packed in boxes.

anyway...i enjoyed scrapbooking again...it's been so long.

this is what i created with the february moments kit from express the moment.

 

these next couple of pages, i *scraplifted* from amanda, because i just loved them sooo much! you can see her layouts here.

i made a coordinating page for this one...

 

can't wait for some new photos to print and complete these pages!

Father's Day mini album...

made a quick, simple mini album for Levi for Father's Day...this Sunday. Turned out cute! And it's g r e e n !!! {and it matches my giant pear!}

If you haven't figured out what to give your father/husband for Father's Day, make him a mini album! You still have time! It is small, simple and quick, he will appreciate it much more than just another tie to add to his collection!

It took me a bit longer to make, between my kids fighting and me being distracted from all the messes they make! But you have my photos to scraplift or go off of! I say you can make it in an hour! Go for it!

 
 
 Okay let's get started...

Gather your supplies...this is what I used from the June 2011 Moments Scrapbook Kit from Express the Moment. Cardstock, Dad stickers, ribbon, fabric strip, 7gypsies tags...I picked the ones that would work for Father's Day. {transparencies, and a few scraps of paper are from my personal stash.}

 
 
Gather your photos, I printed wallet sized photos at home. {Here's my quick tutorial HERE.} You could use a mixture of wallets and 4x6 photos, or just 4x6 whatever your preference! Then assemble your book!

 
 
 
 
Cut word stickers up, stack them, add a cute mini staple, and that's it! See- s i m p l e!
 
 
Instead of taking off each number sticker, I just cut the whole strip and adhered it to my page, added a couple staples...this way, I got to include the green behind the stickers.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Mini Book + layout...

I made this little mini book/journal using the April Moment's scrapbook kit from Express the Moment...

 
 
 
 
 

Visit the ETM blog to see the rest!

A few of my favorite things...

This was the album I made a couple weeks ago...I love the colors...feels like spring going into summer.

Actually today was HOT! It felt more like summer! No April foolin' here!

I also gave my blog a new look...guess I better update pictures on my current scrapbook room as well, I will add that to my project list! Guess it's already been a year since we've been here! I remember unpacking my stuff like it was yesterday.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

valentine mini book...

nothing new to share today, but this book that i made back months ago {using this kit from House of 3}...just sharing it now!

hopefully i will have this baby this weekend!?

 
 
 
 

december daily album...

yesterday, i started my cover for this...

 
 i know a bit early, but i want to have it all put together, so that i can enjoy each day in december! and have a finished album at the end of the month! i have had all this stuff picked out from my scrapbook stash and sitting in a bag for 2 years now! i was going to start this in december of 2008, but it never happened...then i said the next year for sure, and then we moved... so now here is another year, and i'm gettin' r done :)

the december daily album is a concept that Ali Edwards started several years ago...i've been excited about it ever since! you can view her albums from each year on her blog, i love them all!

these are all the papers i picked out to use in this album, a mix of old and new, vintage and my favorite celery/olive green color.

 
 this is my cover...i'm using Teresa Collins bracket cover, it already comes red! the inside pages will be a mix of different sizes, no bigger than 8x8. i still can't decide if i am going to bind it now, or at the end?  i'm working on each page now, so that when december comes i can just add my pictures and journaling for each day. i plan on using Ali's december frames as well as a few other digital things of hers...

it's already making me excited for the Christmas season!

we love dad...

 

i finally got this done on Tuesday night! a little late, but he liked it. it just brings back so many memories and things you forget when you look at pictures! our girls are getting so big...already, not fair.

i started this book last Thursday i think? and stayed up late to get it done, so that i could get pictures printed at Costco Friday morning...but that didn't happen. I did laundry and got our things packed so that we could go camping for the weekend...

anyway here are the pictures! i used this kit from house of 3!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 another finished project :)
  

what i've been working on...

 

 
this is my latest mini book project i've been putting together...from one of Heidi's classes that she taught at my store!

 

i have it all ready to go, just need some fun pictures from this summer! and here is a peak at the inside...

 

i may have to switch from scrapbooking to sewing...

and finish my bronco blanket...so that we can put it to use this summer!

my 4th of july book...

i've been feeling real sick the last couple of days...i had 'morning sickness' lol! not from being pregnant but from staying up way too late in the 'morning' ha ha get it? thursday night i was up till 2 am, and last night till almost 4 am! so thankful that i actually don't get sick...because if that is what it feels like, ugh! i was seriously feeling like i was going to throw up!

anyway...this is what i have been working on! and i'm proud to say that i completly finished a project in 2 nights! we should celebrate! lol!

 
i used the 4th of July Kit from House of 3, and with a bit of scraplifting from Heidi on her book here. The book is 6x9, and i bound it with my lovely bind it all!

 
i used the elements from the kit and made the pages, then printed them on white bazzill cardstock. all the polka.dot papers are from the birthday background kit! and the red is from scenic route, from my paper stash. i also used some papers from the french oo la la kit too.

then i just used star embellishments and ribbon from my stuff! gather a bit of everything that works with the book so that you don't have to get up and search for it every 5 minutes! i used to do that and would waste so much time :) i used mostly heidi swapp & making memories embellishments.

 
 here is the front cover! i also used my favorite distress inks! a must have in scrapbooking! 'Fired Brick  and Broken China' matches perfectly!

 
and this is what my table looked like this morning...the aftermath of a finished project :)

 
  and here are the inside pages! 16 in all!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
for the back cover i just mixed 2 different colors of red paint to match...and then used the 4th of july banner from hof3 and one of heidi's brushes! just wish my handwriting was like hers :)

 
seriously so fun! this is why i scrapbook, to be C R E A T I V E !! and i actually cleaned up my table! first time ever! i am so ready for my next project :) 

for more close.ups of my pages you can view them HERE in my mini book album:)

Memorial Day weekend...

 
We enjoyed our quiet weekend together at home. Levi got the garage cleaned out and his stuff organized, I cleaned the house {and now it's messy again} the girls played outside and even took a couple naps! Levi made my favorite pasta salad for lunch, and I made the dessert :) We hung our flag outside, and Anthony stopped by for a quick visit before he headed back to the Marine base in California. I am thankful for his service as well as my Grandpa who served in the Navy, and my uncle Mark who was in the Marines too, and of course all the others out there! So grateful that Anthony made it home safe from fighting in Afghanistan, he almost didn't.

I remember as a child...Memorial Day weekend was always spent with family and we usually went to the park for a picnic! We never visited any grave sites, I think because no one was dead, well that and if we knew of any relatives and where they were buried? I don't know. The same with Levi...when he was younger. Of course now we have a couple grandparents who have passed, and if we lived closer we would definitely pay a visit :) I think the first time I have even visited a grave site on Memorial Day was my grandma's, which was in 2006, and I miss her so much. I think about her every day and wish she was still here. 

Since Levi and I have been together Memorial Day weekend usually marked the first camping & boating trip of the year...usually at Palisades, and we would get rained on every year! It's seems that you can always predict crappy Idaho weather for that weekend every single time. A couple of those years we stayed home and I scrapbooked with Claudia and my sisters. Now that we have our little girls, I think we will carry on the picnic tradition :)

This was a book that I made 3 years ago for a good friend. And I just remembered that I started a Marine book for my brother that same year...I better finish that!

  
more photos of my Memorial Day book that I made here:)

Yet another {project}...

So once again I have started on something, another mini book project. Actually I have started on about 10 projects this past couple of weeks: more curtains, magnet board-which I actually finished in an hour, more kits for Scrapalicious, stained the coffee table, but I was lazy and didn't condition the wood first, so now Levi is pissed, rearranged the living room furniture, -almost done, I need to be home...and starting my new addiction of making hair bows.

Boy have I been inspired these last weeks, must be spring! Sunday afternoon we were outside, got my first sunburn of the year...then on Monday Gulianna and I were outside most of the day, and boy did I get fried. It is nice to be outside in the sunshine, but then after wards you have to deal with being uncomfortably burnt! And then I get allergies from being outside, which they got really bad, and turned into a cold. So now I am sunburned and sick, why me!? At least my sore throat is gone, I believe I got it from sneezing so much. lol.

And onto my project...

I was inspired to start this book when I saw the Teresa Collins- Journal It Girl paper, specifically the one with the mini calendars, so it went perfectly with my challenge. As of April 1st I proposed a challenge to myself to start exercising. Something that I never have done. Because when you grow up skinny you don't have to worry about it, until one day you get married, and suddenly the weight comes with it. I believe it has to do with growing up, being comfortable with who you are, and then bamn....you are suddenly not who you used to be. {that's my case anyways} I have always been able to eat whatever I want, and as much of it, and not gain any weight. As a kid, I always remember my mom exercising, which she still does, and I remember her saying to me, your lucky you won't have too. So it was her, I got jinxed, lol. Just kidding. Excuses excuses. Not that I haven't been uncomfortable gaining weight, it certainly isn't appealing to me. I just want to be healthy, okay let me rephrase that, I just want to be a healthy weight. Because I don't eat vegetables, with the exception of lettuce, tomato, carrots (raw), onion...okay there is a few more, but I am very picky. And Levi loves to make cookies and good food, all the time, hey, it's his fault. Because I don't cook. And I could never be a vegetarian or vegan. I like my steaks and cheeseburgers. No I have not seen those sick videos about animals and such, but I'm sure it wouldn't change my mind. I even watched that movie "Super Size Me" or something like that, the McDonald's one, and it just made me want to go eat there! Sick I know. Lmao.

Anyway this mini book is a perfect journal for me, and for what I want to accomplish for the rest of the year! Plus it's pink & black, ♥ it!

 

I used the calendars on each page, with extra inserts and room to journal about my progress. I pretty much just stuck with Teresa Collins and Heidi Swapp, they work perfect together! So there you have it, and I'm not one to share my personal crap either, but I was proud on putting this book together in 2 hours, started at 11pm last night!

A Few Projects...

Just finished a cute little mini book for a good friend...Clyde Ricks~anyone? He is such a character, and a good man. With a memory better than mine, {x a million} he remembers exact birthdates, important dates, the time of when they happened, what the weather was like that day, right down to to like {"it was a cold chilly day, 22 degrees etc }...everything, it's quite amazing! I am laughing right now...I was just reminiscing of when Rene, Slade and I were working in the potatoes with Clyde and it was way late into the night, Clyde was busy telling us stories, and then we had the nerve to ask him if he knew who Lloyd Christmas was.... it was so funny at the time, but now I just think well, no who am I kidding it was hilarious! I sure hope he doesn't remember that one. Lots of great memories with Clyde! Anyway last week Clyde showed up at Scrapalicious with a few of his favorite pictures that he always carries around to show everyone, so compiled them in a book for him. {using up the Noteworthy, take that!}

That last picture didn't turn out...and the book is missing a book ring...oops!

A layout that I made for my mom a couple of weeks ago...just now posting! So hard when you have oh, a mere 700 pictures on your camera, and they are from like a 2-3 week period. I lOvE to take pictures...