Kiddos.

I love that my scrap stash is dwindling; this month- I've took off the ground running with all these challenges from Paper Issues. I know, I know- I've told you a thousand times but I still have to show you all the pages because I simply love them!

For this challenge, we had to pick 5 from the list of items that were provided for us. I'm not sure if it's just that I love pink/teal a lot or I literally have a ton of that color left in my scraps but they have been showing up in a lot of my pages lately. To tell you the truth- I'm completely okay with it. I also was able to use some random embellishments I've been hoarding that aren't from any collection in particular. I think they all ended up working really well together! 

I love these photos of the kiddos I watch. We were playing in the backyard where they were showing me every trick up their little sleeves but once one kid got in the tree, they all had to be in the tree! So I spent a lot of the afternoon lifting children up in to a tree and I felt it in every muscle the next day! But it made for perfect pictures. Too bad the littlest one was on the tree swing, so she didn't make it in to the pictures but the older ones were so goofy- I couldn't put my camera down. 

I hope you enjoy this page of adventure! If only I had their carefree sense of wonder! 

xo. Renee

Scrap Our Stash September Sketch.

Today is an exciting day, not only do I get to share my Scrap Our Stash page but it's also my 30th birthday!! So I did a great twist on the challenge, and combined the two events! 

Scrap Our Stash is a site/group that inspires you to use your stash and supplies. They do 2 challenges a month - one is a stash challenge (1st of the month) and one is a sketch challenge with a stash prompt (15th of the month).  The Design Team examples are shown everyday to inspire you to put together a great page!  To learn more you'll have to check out their site at http://scrapourstash.blogspot.com/

For this sketch and pick 3, I picked Azure, Buttons and Crate Paper. 

So like I said earlier, today is my birthday! I was super excited right when I became a member of SOS and find out my reveal would be on the 24th of every month. I was sneaky and knew that would fall right on my birthday! Right when they presented the challenge, I went right to work on making this a page that would be throwback to my 29th birthday! I also love this challenge because one of the options was Crate Paper- I automatically knew that would be the one I'd choose off the list! I have a ton of Crate Paper scraps - especially in the pink color that's in my shirt!  This page turned out just fabulous and I love how everything worked out perfectly! 

I hope you all come join us at Scrap Our Stash- connect your page to our challenges and have a chance to win the prize as well as be featured on our site!  Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some celebrating to do!!! 

xo. Renee

Young and Brave.

Seriously, I'm not sure what it is but I have found my scrappy mojo! I've been on a roll knocking one challenge at a time from the Paper Issues' September Album on their Facebook page.  I just love the inspiration they provide there as well as the friendships I've formed.  This page I made was for one of their Sunday Scraplift - every Sunday they take a different layout from the group/Design Team and put the group to the test to scraplift it however they see fit! 

I decided I need to do a page on this sweet boy. My best friend has been having fertility problems for nearly 10 years - finally with the grace of God and great doctors - she was able to have this sweet little boy! I think everyone has been waiting for him for so long, and that's probably an understatement. I got to meet him at the hospital but the pictures I got of him there weren't the ones I wanted to document, its when I finally got to hold the sweetie.  Yes, I'm the nerd that takes pictures of the baby, while holding the baby. 

I used the Cool Kid collection by Crate Paper- which I think they absolutely knocked out of the ballpark. I've already made a few pages using this collection ad I cant get enough. It's perfect for the adventurous little boys out there. Seems that so many times, scrapbook companies focus on the girls but how could you not scrap those silly boys? This collection makes it literally so easy. 

Hope you enjoy my take on their challenge! You should check out their Facebook page as well as her store! Paper Issues is a one woman show who literally has the fastest service I've ever came across!  Okay, maybe being like less than 6 hours away helps but I wouldn't go anywhere else! 

Xo. Renee 

Fall Adventures.

Don't get me wrong, I love summer. The heat, the water, - the delicious foods. But I can't get over everything of the fall. I may be a little bias because the greatest thing about the fall is my birthday :) Fall definitely came a little bit early for me in my project life.  Maybe because everything pumpkin has magically appeared everywhere! Yes, I am that basic girl that gets excited about pumpkin.

I documented my first Leinie's Harvest Shandy of the season- I love them- I may have gotten a little excited when I saw them in the store. The plus/con of working in a grocery store- when you see new items come in- you have to buy like, yesterday. I really am not sure why I get a paycheck, a good chunk of it just goes right back to them.  I also had my first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season, oh how tasty. I tried it iced for the first time; and it wasn't so bad! It was like in the 80's that day- I couldn't say no but I wasn't in the mood for a hot drink. 

Then of course, I had to document my favorite little (not-so-little) kiddos go to school! They are getting so big it's so crazy! Addison also got glasses, makes her look so much older!! QUIT IT!  For this spread, I used various cards from Studio Calico as well as MAMBI pocket page cards. I also did some stamping which I haven't really done so it was fun to see how I could throw that in to my embellishing.  

I hope to take more adventures this fall - I want to soak up everything I can. Also, my birthday is coming up! I can't wait to document that! There's so many ideas in my head!! 

xo. Renee

In A Tree.

A few years ago I used to be a nanny to this wonderful family and every so often I still get the privilege to babysit them. Each time it always takes them a few moments to warm back up to me and then it's a crazy adventure just as before.  

I had to scrap book this adventure. They have this amazing playset in their yard and we spent forever outside as they showed me every trick they had up their little sleeves.  Including all of them all in a tree! They're so crazy and goofy!

I included a few close ups of the clusters of embellishments I had on the pictures. I used most up last month's messy box which had an adventure theme. I loved it with this page! 

My favorite parts were the cork embellishments I used! I hardly use cork but I thought it went perfect with the outdoorsy theme. 

If you haven't noticed my other vice with project life is using staples! I am not sure what it is but I can't get enough! I was hoping though that the letters were more opaque but it is what it is and once it was on- no go peeling off. 

 I hope you enjoyed my page! I loved watching the kiddos and they make me so happy. I know back then I was frustrated often which made times with them hard to enjoy. Now I just love feeling like a child with them and enjoying their personalities.  Glad I get to make these memories with them again. 

Xo. Renee

Fly Fishing Vacation.

I told you I would be back to show you what I had up my sleeve for this month's Paper Issues challenges! So I'm going to show you what I threw together for the Sketchy Saturday. 

I don't know about you but I absolutely fell in love with Carta Bella's collection "Great Outdoors."  I know, I'm not a huge outdoors person. I always give it a good try when I can but I really don't have a lot of opportunities to do anything too exciting anymore!  But I couldn't turn this collection down when I had the chance to have it. It's so bold and colorful, and very vintage.

So this is where I had to think of where I was going to go with this, I know- I actually didn't have to think too hard. But was I at the point where I couldn't scrap these type of memories as we're no longer together? I just thought - even though we aren't together- and haven't been for a year ( again, if you've been following, you'd already know this.) that these were still great memories of one of my favorite vacations.   I had other paper I thought at one point I would use for this photo ( yes, it was already printed but I put it aside for obvious reasons ) but I couldn't pass up the perfect collision of the two.

I took the sketch as it was, didn't really do much of my own interpretation on it.  Used papers from the collection as well as a few from my stash to build the layers. I did have the stickers for this collection so between the cut apart paper and stickers, I built the embellishment clusters on both sides of the picture. 

I'm so excited that I got to use this collection and had the perfect picture for it! Sometimes it's hard to scrap pictures of the past but just have to remember, that they are still memories and even though it may be sore right now- it may be something great to look back on in the future when it's not so tender. 

xo. Renee

Puppy Swim

I absolutely love how this page turned out and I'm sorry I took a while to show you! 

I was scrolling around my favorite facebook group- Paper Issues (Friends and Fans) and came across this sketch challenge! I couldn't resist taking a shot at it. Love the diagonal aspect of the sketch- makes for something unique and different! 

Being I had a 3x3 picture of Sienna and I from this year's puppy swim printed out already, it was a perfect way to use this sketch. I did some digging in my stash, found some last pieces of Crate Paper's Poolside collection as well as odd and ends that matched the colors. I love that I was able to use a lot up of my stash with all the clusters of embellishments and layers! Always makes me feel proud of myself, HAHA! But it turned out bright and colorful, makes my heart so happy! Especially knowing I was able to capture this moment with my Sienna. The puppy swims are the highlight of her summer and she can't stop wagging her tail the entire time. 

I know this is from last month's Paper Issues challenges but join in on their Facebook page for this month's challenges. I've already took a shot at a few of them that I can't wait to show you soon! 

Scrap Our Stash September Stash.

Scrap Our Stash is a site/group that inspires you to use your stash and supplies. They do 2 challenges a month - one is a stash challenge (1st of the month) and one is a sketch challenge with a stash prompt (15th of the month).  The Design Team examples are shown everyday to inspire you to put together a great page!  To learn more you'll have to check out their site at http://scrapourstash.blogspot.com/

Here I am at the beginning of the month with my example of the first challenge!! 

At this time of the year, this was the perfect inspiration! Everyone is heading back to school and all the craziness is usually captured on film in some form. Being I don't have kids, and no- I don't want to scrap my crazy past school photos. ( No one wants to see that! )  So - I waited til my favorite two little kiddos went to school! My niece and nephew live on the east coast ( as I always tell you! ) but my sister always keeps us in the loop- so I knew this would be a jackpot shot I needed for this challenge! 

I used Dear Lizzy's Saturday collection which has an adventurous theme. I fussy cut one of her sheets of paper that had the buildings on it using it as a bottom boarder. Then building on top of that with the photo and embellishments. How perfect that it had backpacks, glasses, and apples!  Okay, that stuff reminds me of school! They live in a big town, granted  they don't take the taxi to school; but how could I not add that to the bottom of the page.  I also added some embellishments that were on a ledger/number paper to meet that detail of the challenge to my cluster on the one side of the picture. 

I can't wait to see your guys' take on this first challenge of the month!!  I also encourage everyone to join us at Scrap Our Stash (link @ top) - top picks could win a prize and a badge for your blog! 

xo. Renee

Dog Days of Summer.

I am here with another peek at my Project Life.

The July Messy Box ( a pocket scrabook subscription kit) was perfect for this spread's photos! 

I wanted to capture the memories of the puppy swim at our local pool - they always have the last night that it's open for the dogs and Sienna can't get enough of it every year she goes. I swear its the highlight of her summer! 

I also love swimming laps during the summer at the pool during Adult Hour - then lounge in the best chair before all the children come running loose. A great way to get my tan on and my laps in! 

Now if I could only manage to use my roller stamps better, if you guys have tips for that- let me know... that hot mess is driving me bananas!!!

xo. Renee

Here comes September!

It's September!! Bust out everything Pumpkin 🎃. Okay- maybe not quite yet but it is a brand new month! Which means I want to show you the monthly spread at the beginning. 

Oh did I mention my birthday is this month?? I absolutely love gold and pink. So I was ecstatic to see in the MAMBI new season sticker book- which is jammed packed with amazing stickers for all year to jazz up your planners- that the stickers for birthdays were all sorts of pink and gold. I didn't hesitate to plaster the whole month with every sticker. 

I also took one of the list pad sheets and decorated it a little with the birthday stickers. I wanted a place I could write down all the present emails I would receive so I'd remember to use them all! Give me all the free foods! 😝 ( please tell me I'm not the only one who gets excited about these things! ) 

Did I mention I'm turning 30? Let the craziness begin! September will be a crazy month!! 

Xo. Renee