Whew, it's finished!

I spent the last two weekends making a Baby Girl First Year album for my adorable new pipsqueak of a niece. Little Miss Sunshine "helped" by picking the colors for each page for her new cousin. She kept running into the room to check my progress, and screeching - "Look, Mama, it's my cousin!" Adorably, but really loudly.

I've never used a slideshow, so we'll see how this goes:

The first few pages are "done" from photos I took in the hospital, and then each month has room for one 4x6 photo. I tried to make the pages versatile - most can be rotated so the photo can be vertical or horizontal. The last (blank) page, I plan to make a 12 month collage for her.

I couldn't have done it without my Cricut and Sure Cuts Alot for some of the fancy frames, and the adorableness of the DCWV Nana's Nursery line made the assembly go a lot faster. Sorry for the iffy photos - it was a miserable cloudy day, and I couldn't wait for better light as I wanted to give it to my sister today. I tried to white balance them better, and they looked good on my computer at home, but I see they still look blue on my machine at work. Argh!

Product Credits:
Cardstock and Patterned Papers: DCWV Nana's Nursery,
Vellum: Paper Company
Chipboard, DCWV Nana's Nursery and EK Success
Ribbon: American Crafts
Stickers: Jolee's, EK Success, Making Memories, Pebbles, Inc.
Month Template: Cathy Zielske
Cricut: Plantin Schoolbook and Sure Cuts Alot (frames)
Font: Pagan Poetry

2009 No Buy List update

After today's shopping trip to Michael's and some Target clearance, I thought I should take a look at how I'm doing on my No Buy List "resolution" for 2009.

The original list is here:

I'm not doing quite as well as I'd hoped.

The Good News - I haven't bought ANY:
Chipboard
Alpha stickers
Rub ons
DCWV 8x8 PP stacks
Foam/Felt
QuicKutz - shapes
Mini Albums
Brads

The semi-good - things I gave myself permission to buy within reason:
Patterned Paper - only 3 paper collections (all clearance) and a few sheets of the new BG. But that will change when BG LIme Rickey, and Crate Lillian and Sprout become available.
Acrylic stamps - spent a ton of money at a CTMH party, but just 2 KI stamp sets on clearance.
Digital Kits - I've only bought 1 Songbird Ave charity kit.
QK alphas - I bought Metro skinnimini from another scrapper.

The UGLY:
Buttons /Lumpy - bought a ton - Sabrina, Chloe's Closet, Flower Patch, Mia, Prudence, Daily Grind, Bloom. At least half of it was on clearance.
Ribbon - Big Whoops! At least 30 rolls of AC ribbon, plus the MM Sabrina pack.
Prima flowers - bought MM and Kaiser Craft instead!
Cricut carts - exchanged Mini Mono (no receipt) for Wild Cards, but then I also bought Hello Kitty on total impulse. Wasn't even on my wish list until I saw the cute card sentiments.
Cardstock - I was doing so good, until I bought a DCWV 8x8 stack today for $3. But I did use up two 8x8 stacks on cards and my niece's baby album...

Things I forgot to add to the No Buy list:
Organization - The point is to USE my stash, not store it. But M's had the CH 9x9 paper holders on clearance. I need something to hold my 8x8 and scraps for cardmaking stash, but I was hoping to clear out more 12x12 stash first.
Tools - I really don't NEED anything. But I confess to buying 2 of the new EK Success border punches last week. They are designs too delicate to cut with SCAL, so I don't feel bad :)

Just a little reality check to get me back in gear....

Bree Night

Just a quick (for me) layout I did for a Challenge for the new Layout a Week group that grew out of the LOAD group. Just barely made it in time, but I spent the whole day paper scrapping a baby album for my newborn niece (I'll post pics when it's done - it's turning out great). I'm surprised I had any creative energy left for this one!



Credits:
Template: de Poupoune
Papers: de-lovely kit by Paislee Press (Songbird Ave Feb charity kit)
Alphas: Kim Christensen Designs

Stories 365 Jan 19-25

Just another one for the Project 365 album. And my first one for LOAW 2009. I figure if I don't stop after LOAD, I'll be more productive.



Credits:
Template: ScrapMuss Designs @ ScrapMatters
Papers: Shabby Princess, Fraisonette
Chipboard Date Strip: A Work in Progress - Designs by Vicki
President Obama portrait - Pete Souza

Stories 365 - Jan 12-18

Getting caught up on Project 365 today. Here is the one I started last weekend, but finished tonight.



Supply list:
Template: Kimmy's Keepsakes
Papers: Fei-Fei's Stuff (Blueish & Ray of Light)
Month Chipboard: Sweet Blossom Designs
Numbers: Shabby Princess (Vintage Florals)
Font: Century Gothic