Intentional Design

I recently finished a class over at Scrapgirls.com called Intentional Design by Anna Mansfield.
The class was awesome; I would highly recommend it for anyone trying to take their scrapbooking to the next level. Or if you are impatient, lol, buy the book since I don't know when she'll offer the class next: Intention Design ebook I believe if you buy the book now, but later want to take the class for the interactive element (and comments/help from the teacher), they will subtract the cost of the book (as it is partly what Anna teaches from.) Anna comments on each and every homework assignment for everyone, and all class members can see everyone's comments...so not only do you learn from the comments on your own, but you can learn from the comments posted on other members' layouts as well.
The next four layouts are my homework from class:

The mood I am hoping to achieve is peacefulness. soft, cool colors, gentle curves, cursive font...
Journaling: I am so glad that at least you are so peaceful. Daddy was horribly sick with strep throat for your first week of life, Christopher was home from school a lot due to cancellations from the snow & bitter cold weather, and Christopher and Michael predictably fought. You, on the other hand, fussed only when hungry, slept reasonably well, and charmed us all. Grandma helped hold everything together with her tender loving care.
Anna Mansfield Intentional Design Class
Erica Hite Chic Embroidery and Chic Embroidery 2
Valerie Randall 2 Health
Brandy Murry Peaceful
Thao Cosgrove Haven
Thao Cosgrove Dynamic Brush Drawing 5701
Erica Hite Fabric 5401 Patterns (used to make the yellow paper look just like baby's blankie)
Keri Schueller Vintage Nursery Collection Biggie


Mood: This is one of those "everyday" type photos...no particular story attached, just a nice relationship/family photo. Perhaps contentment would be an actual mood to describe this?
Angie Briggs Dress Up
Angie Briggs His N Hers
The white paper was 12 x 12...I just didn't think it looked finished, so I clicked on the top layer, held shift down, and clicked on the bottom layer to highlight them all, then with the move tool, I held down shift AND alt (holding alt down while resizing makes the center of the object stay stationary) and dragged down just a little. Then I placed the super busy, otherwise overwhelming paper behind the white...POP:) I really liked the look; you can bet I'll be doing it more and more!


I had fun on the mats for this one...25 pixel inner stroke on the photos, created new layer with just the stroke on it, used Amanda Sok's icicle style on that and added a drop shadow.
Thao Cosgrove Having Hope (brackets and "SNOWMAN")
Amanda Sok Icicle 6401 Styles (photo mats and on the snowball circular element)
Amanda McGee Jolly Elf (snowman)
Keri Schueller Beautiful Winter (background paper)
Jan Hicks Coin Folder Chip Styles (on the brackets)
Amanda McGee Sketchy Outline font
Sarah Batdorf Basic Shadows styles
Katie Pertiet Winter Wonder Brushes (circular snowball fight)



I hope the silly and short-lived nickname on the page doesn't offend...I didn't think William was protected enough from the sun with just his hat, so used his enormous tea-towel burp cloth underneath his hat to shield his neck and sides of his face better. DH apparently thought he looked like an Arab, thus the name:) I've mentioned before, DH is much better at coming up with good SB page titles than me! ;)
Mood: I was going for "maternal care and concern"...though the nickname is silly, I didn't really want a goofy page for this one. William's eyes are so sparkly and blue in the picture that I wanted a little more of a serious look than I first thought of when contemplating the title. I hope it works...let me know what you think!
Journaling: Since we spent quite a lot of time hiking in South Dakota, Mommy had the creative idea to use your burp cloth to keep the sun off. Daddy came up with the funny nickname.
Valerie Randall Batik (wax alpha)
Melissa Renfro Inspired and AYO Inspired
Keri Schueller Zipper Flowers
Sarah Batdorf Basic Shadows

Long Time No See

Yikes it's been a long time here. Hope somebody still has me in their feed after all this time! Otherwise I'm posting to thin air. Well I hope this was worth the wait. I'm posting a bunch of paper pages (and 1 related digi page) that I've completed in the last few months. I really have been on a scrapping roll, and that means less posting here I guess.

Family news: Christopher (7) lost his first tooth 2 days ago, and his second tooth came out yesterday...yes, two days in a row! Poor busy Tooth Fairy! This week is Vacation Bible School and I am one of the tribe leaders. The theme is Jerusalem Marketplace and it's a lot of fun. Today among other things we washed real sheep's wool and tomorrow we actually get to meet the sheep! The boys were thrilled they got to make a wooden hammer (mallet) in the carpenter's shop, and tomorrow they make a flower box...with their hammer. They also used the hammer in the leather shop to make a bracelet with punched designs.

William is hanging out in the nursery this week. He is finally expanding his vocabulary and starting to grow a teeny bit more hair (cute little bald guy). His favorite words are still THIS and THAT and Dada (I am Dada as well as Jeff), but he is in fact capable of saying Mama too:) Today he said a 2-syllable something that could pass for thank you when a man gave him a sucker (lucky boy). Christopher got his hair cut and they ALL got suckers...great scam;) He loves to say CHOO CHOO whenever he sees or hears a train, and he said NANA when he got home (banana).

One of my favorite sets of photos with Daisy:)

Labor Day at our neighbors house. They are grandparents and have some rather cool toys our boys don't, so guess who LOVES to play at Kathy and Kevin's house?! Heehee. Here's Hulk Michael jumping on their trampoline, having a blast.

This one was done for an informal challenge at Scrapgirls to post a layout about how much we love their site...since I agree, and had the perfect photo, I posted this one. I'm posting it here to show I like Kathy and Kevin's place too, lol...yeppers, that's me jumping on their trampoline. I was quite the gymnast in my younger days, lol.
I am jumping for joy that I found Scrap Girls! A digiscrapper’s paradise!
Ariadna Wiczling Fleeting Moments
Ariadna Wiczling Herbal alpha
Ariadna Wiczling Freehand Coloring style
Theresa Kavouras Patch it Up paper templates
Valerie Randall Batik alpha
Sarah Batdorf Basic Shadows (color match)
LD Perpetual, papyrus, and the king and I fonts

This one is for my friend Amy. "Bigify" (tm Janet) it to read the sticker and the caption in the lower right. Her son Gray:)

I completed this one way back at our retreat in February. Gina had an awesome challenge where you had to put the entire alphabet and/or the numbers to 10 (I think I remember this correctly, but not swearing to it) on your page, and I think it added to the fun. I circled the ages of C & M and added the title, MUD, around the corners of the collage. I like how it turned out! They were FILTHY after playing in the mud pit, otherwise known as the swing set next door, after a hard rain.

A page of my dear friend Kris, who along with Jeff was my labor support person for both Michael and William's births. And curiously enough, as the journaling points out...Michael and William share a birthday with each other AND with Kris' dad. Kris and her brother have the same birthday. Things that make you go HMMMMMMmmmm....:)