More baby Allie layouts!

...aaaaaand the final two layouts I've completed since Friday.  I really wish I could remember what brand the paper line.  I NEED to get better about that!  It's all from the same line.  The base paper, the 2 paper blocks and even the trees and dragon fly are cut out of a sparkly piece of cardstock that came from the same line.  The letters are Thickers.  I also stitched a pattern with brown embroidery floss to help anchor the trees to some sort of 'ground'.  It's my very favorite picture of my little Allie-Gator on her first birthday.  I loved it so much, I made it a layout all it's own rather than adding it to the 1st birthday layouts.  I am adding this to the challenge this week at These are a Few of My Favorite things blog, because it is most definitely my favorite picture of her sweet little happy face!

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The other challenges I worked on were Just Us Girls color challenge to use rainbow colors and the Scrap that Baby! prompt of 'Baby's Day Out'.  These were pictures were taken during our trip to Washington DC over Spring Break.  We rolled Allie in her stroller onto the metro subway and she was super excited.  UNTIL it took of down the track and she realized she was most certainly NOT strapped securely into her car seat and she grabbed a hold in panic!  HAHA!  All of the paper and embellies (even the buttons!) are Joy Ride by Cosmo Cricket.  There was actually enough of this kit to make all 6 layouts about our trip with plenty to spare.  YAY!

A few layouts before we lose power....

We are getting severe thunderstorms tonight and the power is flickering on and off, so hopefully it doesn't kick off.  I don't do well with severe weather...especially when I have no meteorologist on TV to tell me exactly what's happening.  So before it clunks out on me, I want to share a few more layouts from my weekend/today.

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These photos on the first layout just absolutely crack me up.  My almost toddler tried to take her Grandpa out with a plastic fork and then when he got stern with her, she acted like she was an innocent victim.  Only to get THE most mischievous grin when he turned his back.  Little stinker!!!  The patterned paper is 'Who Me?' by Creative Imaginations.  I created a ribbon tab photo matte on the photo I wanted to draw attention to.  Hope it makes it stand out.  This layout follows Crafty Creations Challenge #119.  To use a flower, patterned paper and ribbon!

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The challenge at My Time to Craft this week is use a diecut on your project.  I cut this heart from a Sizzix die.  I'm not sure of the brand of the paper because I had already removed any trace of a barcode or name, but it's all the same line and the chipboard letters are from a Hobby Lobby brand set that I purchased for super cheap.  It came with a sheet of letters in just about every color imaginable all in one set! 

Scrappy Retreat!

I was starting to think I had lost my scrappy mojo for good.  Having the baby learn so many new things each day  makes for some awesome photo opps of cours, but it also means less time to document it all!  Gone are the days of her quietly snoozing in her swing next to my scrappy space.  It's been replaced by a toddler crawling around the house at lightning speed leaving a path of destruction in her wake!  HA!

This past weekend some of my scrappy friends and I got together for a weekend at the lake to do nothing but scrap in our PJs for four days straight.  It was such a blast!!!!  With the exception of the last 24 hours of the trip.  We were just east of Joplin, MO so the storm that passed over leaving a path of destruction in it's wake passed over us about an hour later.  Thank goodness there were no touchdowns AT the lake, but it did knock out cell service which scared our families back home quite a bit.  The next morning on my drive home I drove through a terrible rain/hail storm and watched a tornado drop less than 100 feet out of my passenger window and take out several structures throwing debri into the roadway.  I'm not entirely sure which was scarier, the tornado itself or driving down the highway at 115mph dodging debri.  Certainly NOT the highlight of my trip!!!!!

Now that I'm home and safe and sound with my hubby and babies (although more severe storms are forcasted for tonight...I really am regretting our move to tornado alley about now!), I am looking over my layouts looking for a few of my favorites to share.  I'll also share a few more shortly that are challenge layouts :)  Thanks for looking!

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Ms. Allie finally learned to pull herself up to standing (she only waited until she was 14 months old!!!!) and then promptly started screaming bloody murder when she realized she didn't know how to get down.  LOL.  It took her another month to attempt it a second time!

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This is one of my very favorite photos.  It's so hard to get my bigger two kiddos to sit still long enough to take a picture, much less acting like they like each other!  The patterned papers are all Kelly Panacci.  This set is so awesome because there are just so many coordinating papers...brown, pink and blue.  The strip of pink paper was run through my Fiskars crimper that is one of my very favorite tools.  The flowers are prima and the chipboard, buttons and misc embellies are all from my stash.

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Here is the baby with my mother-in-law so I wanted to go with a REALLY girly layout.  The patterned paper is My Mind's Eye-Penny Lane.  The flowers are all prima.  The gems are by Recollections.  The title is from a Paper Studio sticker sheet called 'Grandma'.  

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Not sure about the patterned papers.  I got them in a Halloween page kit from the now out of business Paper Poppy Kit Co, but can't remember the paper brand.  The butterfly is cut from the Hannah Montana cricut cartridge and the journaling is from my new favorite tool...my embossing label maker!!!