Even the girls joined in the creative fun....

This week I've had the opportunity to get quite a bit of scrapbooking done. This is a favorite hobby of mine, and I'm really proud that I've stuck with it for 4 years now! I started my 1st album when Emma turned 1, and I haven't stopped since. I wanted to share a few of the layouts that I've completed this weekend, plus a few pics of the girls too! I'm very proud of the fact that all of the supplies I used were already in my stash, i.e. I didn't have to spend any more money to do them!

This layout is called "Little Mommy." One day last summer, I caught Ella feeding her baby doll in her booster seat. It was so cute, I had to take picutures! I thought they were made even more sweet by the fact that Ella had her paci in her mouth. When Ella saw this layout today, she went on and on about how her paci is lost, it's in the garbage, we need to get a new one. I can't believe she remembers it!

This is a layout of my girls with their cousins, taken last summer. What I love most about this layout is the fact that I got so many pictures on one spread! Count em, there's 13 on there! I simply adhered them to my pages, and then used scraps of some favorite patterned paper. Then I placed rub-ons on paper, cut them out, and placed them down (the flowers). The title is made of chipboard letters that I picked up on clearance last fall. I got a whole alphabet for $1! I just have to add....if you look closely, you can see that the paper on the left side, next to the word cousins, is a bit crinkled. That's because ELLA JUMPED ON IT while I was trying to take the picture. You've never heard such a shriek escaped my lips!

I'll admit, this layout was a bit tricky for me. I'm not even sure I am completely happy with how it turned out. But as a friend of mine says, "You can't love them all!" She's right. But at least I tried some new things, and used some things I wouldn't normally use. All of the flowers are actually on transparency. I picked them up a few weeks ago, specifically for this layout. I used stamps for the title, using an upside-down "j" for the exclamation point. I painted the edges with lime green paint for an added boost of color. These are some great pics of Ella, taken when my sister and I took the kids to visit the elementary school where we attended as children. She had such a great time on that slide.

I love the colors in this layout! I'd had this background paper for a long time, never really knowing quite what to do with it. I think it goes nicely with these photos! I stamped all the extras (flowers, swirls, etc.) and hand-cut them. Then I hand-glittered them all, as well as some of the swirls on the background paper. These photos were also taken last summer. Can you see a theme going here? That's about how caught-up I am, although I jumped ahead and already finished layouts from the fall. Because the fall is my favorite season, and I can't wait to scrapbook it!

My mom recently gave the girls some alphabet stickers. They had a fun time watching me take pictures of these layouts and then put them in Ella's book. Afterwards, I thought they'd enjoy putting their stickers on a scrap piece of paper and drawing a little too. Ella really loves stickers, although she still has a hard time peeling them off of the backing.

Here is Emma's finished piece. It says, "Umbrella. Emma 2008." No, she can't spell umbrella. She asked me how to spell it, and then found all of the letters herself.

Emma put some finishing touches on her umbrella picture.

Ella adds some color to her stickers.