Under the Open Sky.....oh my

This week's song at Scrap It With a Song is Lucky by Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat.  Such a fun song.  Remember you can take the song as a whole to let it inspire you or use a portion of the lyrics to inspire the title or journaling.  I used the lyrics, "under the open sky" to title a page about my kids flying a kite with my father.  As you'll notice this layout is missing one key element....PHOTOGRAPHS!!!  We had a tape mishap during the building of this layout that ruined the photos and with taking off this weekend for a road trip, I didn't get a chance to have a new set printed.  I have gone 10 years without having to reprint photos because I screwed them up and in the past month this is the FOURTH TIME....and I did the exact same thing each time!  Lesson learned??  I hope!  LOL. 

I used this sketch from our current DT member Liz as inspiration.  I replaced the third photo with extra jounaling, but otherwise it's pretty much an exact take on it.  I LOVE the banners, but have used them on so many layouts lately I tried to think of something else swoopy I could stick there and decided to stitch the tail of a kite.  LOVE IT! 

Our sponsor this week is our very own DT alumni, Angela!  Come along and play.......

Love Story mini album

I have been married to the most amazing man in the world for 12 years now.  I was still a teenager when we met and didn't know the first thing about life much less what I wanted out of it, but boy did I get lucky because he is nothing short of amazing.  Three kids and countless memories later we are still very much in loooovvvee!  :) :) :)

I found my very first scrapbook I made 12 years ago while we were dating that I've been wanting to redo.  My intention was to do a scrapbook of our meeting, dating, getting married and starting out.  It was the 'old way' of scrapping and the photos were waaay over cropped and glue-stick-stuck (**SHUDDER**) down on solid cardstock and then litering the page with stickers.  I absolutely hated looking at it.  That and the glue was no longer sticking and the cheap-o cardstock was fading in splotches.  I've refrained from redoing my son's early pages because I know it's good to document your creative growth, but considering we only have ONE photo of us together prior to getting married I really want it to be something I can cherish. 

Here is the cover of our album.  It has each of our Kindergarten photos.  No, we didn't know each other way back then, but they were on the front page of the original album so it had to be incorporated into the new book.  I also opted for a 6x6 mini because I just never ended up with enough memorabilia to make an huge album.  Though I did keep every ticket stub from our weekly movies. 

The letters 'L-O-V-E' are chipboard alphas sprayed with Glimmer Mist in starfish.  The papers are all from the DCWV rustic stack.  Even the diecuts are cut from it.  I'm not sure the maker of the ticket because it came in a kit I received and didn't have the maker on it.  The letter's 'it's a....story' are brown cardstock stickers by The Paper Studio.  The button is just from my stash.  I used the Cuttlekids flower set to cut out the leaves and the flower is a punch is by McGill.  I used the 'frayed burlap' Tim Holtz distress ink on absolutely every edge.  Stay tuned and this week I'll try to finish up the rest of the album to share. 

I'm sharing this with the distressing challenge at Frosted Designs.  I used the distress ink on all of the edging to give it the aged, distressed look.

A caardvark card to share

I actually got a layout AND a card this weekend.  Look at me being all productive ;)  LOL!  The layout will come later, but first up I want to share with you a vintage card I just finished.  Not sure how well I did at following the technique, but I do like the end result.  I have challenged myself this month to try things that I normally find very scary.  I scraplifted the layout of the card as well as most of the color scheme (though I went with a totally different theme and embellie choice) from Kelly as part of this week's Caardvarks scraplift challenge.

My PSA of the day :)

Most people know that we are 'falling back' this weekend in much of the US and saying goodbye to Daylight Savings Time. Because you should change the batteries to your smoke alarm twice a year at a minimum, this is a perfect time to remember to do that. They recommend you check the alarm is sounding monthly, but the batteries should be tossed after 6 months just to be safe.

Did you know that smoke alarms expire? They are only designed to last 7-10 years.  While you have the smoke alarm down, also check the date. When you press the button and it sounds the alarm that only indicates it's getting power not that the sensor is functioning properly. If there is a date printed on the back that is the MADE ON date...replace if it was 10 or more years ago. If there is only a printed serial number and no date, it is pre-1999 and needs replaced.

We replaced ours this morning.  Here in the US, basic units at Home Depot run less than $10.  We went with a carbon monoxide sensor/smoke detector alarm combo and those started at $30.  It's important that you have at least one on each level of your home and if you have a spread out floor plan on the level where your bedrooms are, it is a good idea to have one outside of each section that has a bedroom. 
Stay Safe :)