"How Wonderful Life Is ..

When You're in the World"

This week at Lasting Memories our challenge is Anything Goes and I wanted to showcase another page for my Aunt's wedding album. Here she and her hubby are with her 3 boys and their wives. I love these photos and love this page - of course, yours truly was the photographer :)

Thanks for stopping by!

LM #208 - Add Leaves

Another challenge at Lasting Memories this week and it's all about "adding leaves" to your layouts. I'm showcasing another page for my Aunt's wedding album where I used a punch with flowers/leaves. Something different. It does NOT have to be fall - check out the inspiration from the rest of the Designers! Thanks for stopping by today!

Celebrate!

Good morning! Guess what! I'm a little late, but we're "Celebrating" at Lasting Memories this week! I chose to showcase a page for my Aunt's wedding album that I made. I just love this photo and how it all ties together. Can't complain about the photography either (since it was me!)

If you have time, be sure to check out the inspiration and join us if you can! Our challenges last all month long so you have time to get them all done! Have a great day!

Celebration Hop!

Hello and thanks for stopping by! We're hopping with celebration and excitement this week :) Yep, we're having a blog hop in celebration of our 200th post Lasting Memories! Our challenge? BUTTONS! We are looking for buttons, buttons everywhere on those layouts this week! Along the way, you'll see that some of us are offering a little candy on our blogs but you have to visit us to see who! We've also gotten a little creative with our buttons so we hope you'll be inspired! You should have arrived here from Kimberly's blog and if this is your first stop, please be sure to hop back to Lasting Memories to start the hop so you don't miss a thing! Each of us has a letter for you to collect that will spell out a 2 worded scrapbook theme, so don't forget to jot down my letter which you'll see below. Once you've completed the hop, leave your answer in the comment section back at Lasting Memories. Comments will be moderated so there's no peeking! Then you have to enter your LO and guess what?! Our grand prize winner will receive a $25 gift certificate from A2Z Scrapbooking Store! Awesome right?? Oh!! And one MORE thing! I'm also offering up some candy .. a $10 gift certificate to any online craft store of your choice! 

For a chance to win, please answer this question by leaving a comment below

"What is your favorite scrapbooking tool AND why?"

This Hop is live till August 1st!! Get your answer and that layout in for a chance to win the $25 gift certificate from A2Z Scrapbooking Store!!!

Now time to reveal my layout!

Your next stop is Karen B's blog!! And don't forget to jot down my letter which is actually the tricky one since it's a symbol! There is a symbol then 2 words .. 

HEART

 Have fun and happy hopping!

HOP LINE UP

Lasting Memories Claire Jane Kimberly Karen W Karen B Denise Michele Elizabeth Darcy Jackie Toni Lasting Memories

LM # 161 - Use a black background

Hi everyone!! Happy Thankgiving to my Canadian friends. We celebrated on Saturday .. lots of food and satisfied tummies!

This weeks challenge at Lasting Memories is to "Use a black background" and here's what I came up with .. 

click to enlarge

I'm showing a 2 pg layout together. I cut the large designer paper up the middle to get this affect. Come on over and join the fun, we'll see ya there!

The Worth Of Memories

Hi there!! Naptime at the Wilson household which means .. yep, you guess it! Scrapbook time! Ok, so digital, but I am really getting caught up on some old photo's! Here's some more photo's I took from a family wedding. Ashleigh was 3 and Andrew 7. He would let me get his picture then. Now, forget it. The dress was handmade for Ashleigh and she looked darling in it.

Supplies:

• MyMemories Digital Software

Challenges I am Entering:

• FBW #171 - Open as long as you have a butterfly, fairy or angel
• CRAFT Challenge #119 - Children

Invitations are DONE!

Well, hello!!! Yes, I have been super busy trying to finish these invitations. I didn't realize it would be so tedious! Alot of cutting, adhering..alot of WORK!! But, they are DONE and I am happy with them! Kenny and Kristy are super happy with them as well. Here's a little idea of the work involved (note the word LITTLE as there was a lot more! LOL!) and then the finished product. There's 80 of these, so take into the account - 2 scrolls, 3 pearls, 1 bow, 1 locket and 2 punched edges PER invite! A lot of work, but so worth it when you see them all done. Would love to hear what you think!

Another Wedding Sample

Good morning! It's a gorgeous sunny day here but it is still cold out there. Where oh where is spring???They're calling for a lot of rain this wknd, so it'll wash away the snow, but NOT looking fwd to what's UNDER that snow with 2 big dogs! One of our dogs LOVES to go through the woodpile and pull out all the wood and he runs all over with it. There's more wood out there than you can shake a stick at (pun intended..lol)

So, we had a very proud day yesterday, which you can read about here and last night I was able to get some crafting done too! If you remember, I'm making our friends wedding invites for them. So I did 3 samples and they loved one, but wanted me to add a little scallop pocket from another. So, I did that last night by adjusting the original one they wanted and then ended up coming up with a whole new invite! I LOVE this one! So, they will have samples in hand by tonight and hopefully can let me know soon and I'll keep you posted!

This is the one they chose...

And this is the pocket they want added...

And this is the NEW invite I came up with last night! Sorry, the pics aren't that good, but it was late and I had a hard time with lighting.

Wedding Invite - Sample #3 - My Fav!!

As promised, here is the last sample invite I've put together and this is my favorite of the bunch. I love this one. I got the template idea from my CTMH Originals book and then just adjusted the size to what I needed and the corner scrolls and hearts are from Cricut "Sweetheart" cart. I found that stamp set (RSVP, Menu, Directions) at Michaels! How perfect is that?? I'll be sending these in with Keith tmw to give to the groom and I'll keep you posted as to which they choose. Keith and I have decided that we will do the invitations free in lieu of a wedding gift and this way, they can put money they had set aside for invites into their honeymoon!

I've decided to enter this in a couple challenges:

• PaperPlay Challenges: Week 4 - Layer It Up!
• Stamptacular Sunday #96 - Whateva!
• Simply Create #36 - Give Your Heart Away (fitting for this card, don't you think??)

Wedding Invite - Sample #2

As promised, here's sample #2 for my wedding invites. If you missed sample #1, click here. For this one, it opens "up" instead of like a book. I used my Martha Stewart heart border punch and I used "Sweethearts" cricut cart for the heart and scrolls. The invite is printed on vellum and will be attached on the top half and the pocket will hold all the other info needed. I'm hoping to get more done tonight so I can send in to give them to look at over the wknd, then we can make a decision and go from there. I'll have to get better ribbon as this one was to thick and of course, once you cut it, it frays!!

Wedding Invitation, Sample 1

Friends of ours are getting married in August of this year and they've asked me to do their invitations. I'm really excited and honored to be asked. I thought I would do a couple samples for them to choose from and then we can go from there. I'm keeping mailing in mind as well...one thing I've learned with cards, the thicker they are, the more expensive and since there's about 70 of these going out, I'm trying to keep that in mind. So, for sample #1, I started with a 6x12" piece of CS and scored it at 1.5, 5.5 and 9" then I cut my CS for the invite to 3.5x5.5 and the pocket CS (cream) is 3x5.5. The pocket will hold all the extra information. The bow is cut from "Sweetheart" cricut cart at 1 1/4 and the corner scroll is cut at 2 1/4. I did their wedding invite on velum. Stay tuned for next samples to follow!

(for some reason, the whole invite wouldn't show right side up, so I've just added the close up of the front)

Wedding Thank You Cards

As some of you know, my Aunt recently got married and we had fun making her invitations from a kit and then I was asked to make some place card markers for the kid's plates and I also made their Wedding Guest Book. So, when my Aunt recently talked to me about Thank You's, I looked into having them made and then asked if I could see what I could come up with on my own. My daughter and I went to Michaels last night and matched everything up to the invitations and this is what I came up with today. I really like them. They're simple yet classy. The flower is from the reception as well. We had them on the tables in place of confetti, so it was fun to bring those into the thank you cards. I have to say, I really loved putting all this together! My sister, cousin Nancy and I just finished an online wedding album for them as well and it's beautiful. Can't wait till we get it back so we can all get together and give it to them.

I just talked to my hubby he informed me that friends of ours, one of which is his co-worker, all have H1N1. They've been tested and diagnosed with it. His wife and 3 kids have it, so he's likely next, poor guys! Unfortunately, it's likely going to go through work now as well. I have had a sore throat the last couple days, but more irritating than anything. Today as the day progressed, it's gotten worse. Thank goodness we already have a dr's appt for a follow up for Ashleigh. Fingers crossed that I'm not getting sick :(

EDIT: WELL, GOOD NEWS IS THAT MY THROAT IS IRRITATED, BUT NO NEED FOR MEDS JUST YET, WAIT AND SEE! GREAT NEWS IS THAT OUR GIRL IS 100% BETTER! YAY! THAT FLU KICKS THE ENERGY RIGHT OUT OF YOU!

One last thing, I want to send a big birthday shout out to my friend Christine today!

Also, one more thing..today on Danni's Dreams, some very sad news was posted and I just want everyone to go and give their little one's a hug tonight. If you do pop over to Danni's blog, there's a special tree that's waiting to be planted and all the details can be found here.

Wedding Card

Today is my Aunt's wedding and this is the card I made her. I used all CTMH materials on this one.

• Silouette paper pack
• "Wishes" Book for the pattern
• Foundry Plates
• "Key To My Heart" stamp set
• Gold embossing powder

Only thing not by CTMH is the "swiss dots" embossing folder.

Love Always...

This is a wedding guest book that I put together for my Aunt Linda and Bill's upcoming wedding. It was actually alot of fun to do and not that hard. A HUGE thank you to Jennifer of Jennifer's Sweet Designs for this idea and for helping me with instructions.

I'm also going to enter this in the OCC Challenge this week, which is "Monochromatic Mania" My guestbook has different shades of green in it.

STAMPS: CTMH "Love Always" and "Key To My Heart"

INK: CTMH "Garden Green" and archival ink

EMBELLISHMENTS: CTMH pearls

Place Card Markers - SASSC34 Challenge

Good morning! As some of you know, we have a family wedding coming up on Thanksgiving wknd. I'm amazed at how well everything has come together so quickly. We're even having a turkey dinner! It's going to be perfect. So, for the dinner, the children are all having 'half' portions and of course, my nephew is having chicken nuggets and fries (lol), his favourite. So, my Aunt asked me to come up with something to distinguish which children get which plates, so the servers can clearly see and don't have to ask. I got this idea from Ann at Raindrop Echo Designs. You should also pop over and see her work. She's very talented! Unfortuntely, I didn't have any place cards to work with, but I did have the sleeve from the invitation, (the place cards are the same as the invitation) so I matched my CS to the green in the invites and these little guys will just click onto the top. I cut a slit in the top so it sits right. I did all the girl's in the scalloped circle and my nephew's is the scalloped square. Let me know what you think! I'm also entering this into last week's Fresh Batch challenge.

This is actually the one I had started with...funny how you wake up the next day and think, wow, that is NOT what I was trying to create!!

Celebrate!

This is my entry for this week's Stamping Bella challenge. This week was another sketch and I find them so inspiring!! We have a bridal shower coming up in June, so I was inspired by Nicky's sketch to complete Angie's card. I think she'll love it! I do!

Supplies:

• Stamping Bella's 'Sposabella'
• CTMH prisma glitter
• CTMH gemstones
• Stamping Bella ribbon
• Paper Pack from WalMart
• CTMH 'Say It In Style' stamp for the sentiment