Monday, July 16, 2012

Valentines in July

 I have been away from blogging and scrapbooking for months now, and I didn't realize how much I missed it until today. I think there are lots of reasons for my hiatus, but the big two are that I have been overwhelmed at work and exhausted at home. We are expecting our second baby, and I have been coming home, cooking dinner, getting my son to bed, and crashing on the couch. I finally had a break recently when summer tutoring finally ended, and I've just now gotten into a bit of a routine at home.

I thought this would be a good way to start things up again. I made these cards back in February. They were probably my last real craft project other than my sister-in-laws shower favors and decorations. These were our Valentine's Day cards. I usually order something from tinyprints.com, but I was short on time, and so I decided to try my hand at something simple. I saw a lovely card on tinyprints, and I decided to use it as my inspiration.

Simple Valentine's Cards

Simple Valentine's Cards

These are made with Martha scrapbooking paper, stickers, and labels. I love this picture of Ben. We were getting ready for school that morning, and he was fighting it to be perfectly honest (my friend Terri was the only one who noticed he had tears in his eyes). But he looked so adorable in his argyle sweater and his jaunty little scarf, that I had to take his picture. Once I brought out the iPhone, he was much more interested in mommy.

Bo Bunny Paper, MS Scrapbooking mat pad stars, SC Ali Thickers, SC scraps border and K&Company mat pad flags

I loved this picture so much, I decided to make a full page of it. I was looking for new ideas, new paper, new supplies to try beyond the usual offerings at Michael's, so I tried a local scrapbooking and stamping store here in town. It turns out they only sell Bo Bunny. The brand is not at all my particular style, and I just can't take them seriously because they call themselves Bo Bunny. I mean, seriously? But I did like this one particular sheet, so I figured I would give it a shot. It sat on my craft table for months along with a kit from Studio Calico. I love their blog and their materials, but once everything was actually here in my hands, I froze. MS somehow makes sense to me. The patterns, the color palettes, the embellishments, they all seem to work. SC seems so much more advanced. I love the blog, but I always thought the designers were on a level that I couldn't match. 

But recently I started thinking about what a waste that was. I had all of this beautiful paper, and here was a whole gallery of women doing beautiful things with it. I loved April Foster's approach to the kit, and I decided to use some of her design elements on this page. I really like how it came out. 



...and then my husband noticed the date. I wrote January 2013 at the top! ... back to the drawing board...