LOAD216 – Days 20 – 26 Roundup

Posted on February 27, 2016 by daydesigns

Another week of LOAD (LayOut A Day) is under my belt! Counting today, there are only three days left! I am kind of in awe that I have managed to keep up and have not only created a layout every day for the month of February, but also told some pretty fantastic stories! That’s what I think I love about LOAD the most. The prompts push me to scrap stories from a different view point than I would normally have thought of. Or, they prompt me to tell stories I never thought I had to tell!

This is Lain’s last LOAD but I know our new leader, Alice, is already drumming up some great ideas for LOAD516 this May. If you want in be sure to subscribe to my email list. I’ll let everyone know when sign up starts.

Okay, let’s get to this weeks layouts shall we? Continue reading →

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Scrapping Our Stash Blog Hop – In the Frame

Posted on February 25, 2016 by daydesigns

Scrapping Our Stash Blog Hop

Welcome to the February Edition of Scrapping Our Stash!

You may be arriving from Lynn’s site but if not don’t panic! I’ve got a full Blog Hop list for you at the end of this post.

Today I am trying – key word there – to put a dent into my stash of frames. For some reason I’ve been amassing cute little frame elements even though I hardly ever use them on a page. Weird, I know. That’s just the way I roll sometimes!

Here’s a look at most of my stash and what I made with some of it. Continue reading →

Posted in layout, LOAD, LOAD216, Practical Scrappers, Scrapbook, Videos | 12 Comments

Parenting, an Exercise in Letting go

Posted on February 24, 2016 by daydesigns

Words on Wednesday

A couple of years ago there was this little movie released by a small independent company. You may have heard of it …

Okay, clearly I’m kidding about the small movie!

It had a big impact in this house – three Princess wannabes and all – and the reverberations are still being felt. Not only do my littlest princesses break out in spontaneous renditions of ‘Let It Go’, their favourite Lego games involve Anna and Kristoff saving Elsa, and a stuffed Olaf is a regular bedtime companion for my youngest. It’s here to stay!

And the phrase “let it go” is now a part of our everyday vernacular.

Don’t like the clutter in your house? … Let it go!

Nose out of joint because little Johnny was picked for the team over your little Jimmy? … Let it go!

Your partner didn’t put his dirty breakfast dishes into the dishwasher (even though you’ve asked him to every day since you got married)? … Let it go!

It works for so many things. Even when it comes to parenting. Continue reading →

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Adventures In Die Cutting!

Posted on February 22, 2016 by daydesigns

Make it Monday - pink Welcome to another Make it Monday!

How was your weekend? We had our eldest daughter’s birthday party and  … I think I may need another few days to recover! You’d think half a dozen 11 and 12 year old girls would be manageable, right? Didn’t factor in the noise. Next time, ear plugs!

Today you may be arriving from Karen’s site where she is showing how to create and save your own embellishments to use over and over again in Forever Artisan. It’s just the two of us today – unless some other ladies join up at the last minute. If that happens I’ll add their links at the end of this post, otherwise enjoy the briefer than normal blog circle today! Guess it just means more time to create something, right?

I am currently participating in LOAD (LayOut A Day for anyone who doesn’t know the vernacular) and have been having fun using my stash and only my stash. Okay, I may have cheated a tiny bit one day by specifically purchasing one new supply for a challenge over at Shimelle’s site, but other than that, only stash items have been going on my layouts. Promise! One thing that I seem to still have a lot of are die cuts. Pre-made ones that come in a pack, and ones I’ve made myself with my Silhouette or Big Shot intending to use but somehow they ended up on the cutting room floor (so to speak). Today I share how I finally put them to use. Continue reading →

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LOAD216 – Days 13 – 19 Roundup

Posted on February 20, 2016 by daydesigns

Today is my soon-to-be twelve year old daughter’s birthday party. I am surprisingly relaxed I think! Usually on the night before (when I am writing this) I am in full panic mode. I’m also usually covered in glue as I’m still madly decorating goody bags. But this year my daughter requested that she do everything.

Um … OK! Don’t have to ask me twice!

sniff!

So she made her own invitations on the computer and handed them out. She rummaged through our “party box” looking for decorations. She wrote up a shopping list for food and supplies, figured out which games she wanted to play, and even put together her own goody bags. Who IS this child?! At first she said that twelve year olds were too old for goody bags, but when I killed her idea of having a bowl of loose candy for munching on during the party she acquiesced to small ones full of candy. Funny how that works! A quick trip to the dollar store for clear plastic goody bags, some cute owl stamps and we had a winner! Today my grand contribution to the party was to drive to the store, buy the food, stamp the owls, die cut them out and attached them to die cut tags. She cleaned and decorated and filled said goody bags.

I’m serious! If it weren’t for the raging hormones, I could totally support this whole “becoming a young lady” thing!

So now I am free to write up my LOAD Roundup post for you all. Not familiar with LOAD? It stands for LayOut A Day and the idea is to create a layout every day for the month of February. Our fearless leader Lain sends us a new prompt every day along with some ideas to get the juices flowing and then it’s up to us. You can see last weeks layouts here and the week before that here. Are you ready to see what I created this week? Continue reading →

Posted in layout, LOAD, LOAD216, Scrapbook | 2 Comments

Staying Present in a World Full of Distractions

Posted on February 17, 2016 by daydesigns

Words on Wednesday

Stop me if this sounds familiar.

You’re checking your email (okay, really you’re trolling Pinterest for cool ideas you’ll never make – we all do it) and your son/daughter/spouse/boss comes up to you and asks you a question. You give a noncommittal response and they go away happy. As soon as you look up from your phone you think “what did they ask?” and worse yet “what did I reply?” Before you know it, you find yourself driving five hyped up ten year old boys to play laser tag, or agreeing to be Mrs Claus at the company Christmas party, or agreeing to spend the next two weeks with your in-laws!

Smartphoneitis. It’s an epidemic of serious proportions!

Look it up. It’s a real thing, I swear!

Okay, it’s not a real thing but it should be!

How do I know this? Because I spent two hours last night “watching TV” with my husband while I played Candy Crush on my phone and he scrolled through yet another Chive gallery on his iPad. Sitting watching mind-numbing TV is now no longer enough, we need to be checking our Facebook feed every 30 seconds too.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Continue reading →

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Us Today – a Special Family Day Inspired Layout

Posted on February 15, 2016 by daydesigns

Make it Monday - pinkWelcome to Make It Monday for February 15, 2016!

Did you have a good Valentine’s Day? I know I did. Lot’s of chocolate! Yum!! And my kids each made cards for me and my husband that were so cute. Oh, and my eldest daughter’s afternoon soccer game was cancelled which meant more time for me to spend in my Craft Cave. All around a win win kind of day!

Today you may be coming here from Beth’s site where she is sharing an inperfect bible journaling tutorial. No, I didn’t spell that wrong. You’ll know what I mean if you’ve already read her post! [Edited to add] OR you may be coming from Connie’s site (she was up late last night getting her post finished – Go Connie!) Donut forget to be awesome and have fun planning with Connie! Mmm … donuts …

At the end of this post there will be another link so you can keep going and visit all the wonderful blogs full of inspiration to get your week going.

If you are in the USA then you most likely have the day off today for President’s Day and if you live in other parts of Canada besides BC, then you are probably celebrating Family Day today. We had our holiday last week but I thought it was still a good day to share a layout I made about my family. Continue reading →

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