art journaling on the road

On my birthday, my hubby and I packed up the mini van & the girls, a bunch of DVD's and started an unexpected road trip to Portland, OR. He was asked to go back to a job in Vancouver, B.C., and so he asked if I wanted him to drop off me and the girls with my family in Oregon before he headed up there! If he was going to get to the job in time, I had an hour to pack, take the fish to Deedee's house, and off we went. I brought some of my art supplies with me in the car, and the girls colored their own pictures in the back seat. Here's a picture of me art journaling on the road. This really has been the most relaxing road trip I've ever been on. The girls have been amazing, Adriaan and I have had lots of time to talk, and it's been refreshing and refueling. Now, the girls are playing with their cousins, and we've got about a week to hang out with family and friends. Whoohoo!!!

Is this much fun legal?

List of crazy fun:

1)  Here we are posing in front of the Narnia sign at the movies like teenage girls (after dropping off the kiddos!)

2)  Starbucks after sniffing candles at Yankees.

3)  Panera bagels - where we had a "true confessions" session - very theraputic.

4)  Spent our "movie" money at the scrapbook store.  We put lots of things in the basket, then put most of it back before leaving.  :-)

5)  Talked about our good intentions of tracking how much we spend, but deciding to focus on what we're really good at... SPENDING!!!

6)  Oh yeah, we're totally going to make a Narnia page together where we're two of the amazing characters on the Dawn Treader.  Gotta read that book 'cause we can't wait till December.

7)  Laughed so hard - would have totally embarressed the kiddos.  (We even clapped and did happy dances.)  FOR REAL.

Me and Kyle...my new page

The reason I love to make scrapbook pages, is that I'm able to say things with pictures that I don't have words for. This page is about a suprise visit from my brother Kyle last summer. No one told me he was coming, and I was super suprised. It was a wonderful visit.

Crazy Iowa weather...

This morning, there's been a number of tornado warnings. We've been down in the basement huddled at least three times. As my family is new to Iowa, we haven't yet experienced a tornado, but the weather is a lot more dramatic than we're used to. So, it was a perfect morning to flip through and read bits of my new favorite business book... I just love business books with beautiful, inspiring pictures. Seriously though, I read the entire Handmade Marketplace yesterday, and it's such a great book. It's especially handy, as Deedee and I are working on branding for Scrappage. We hope to post product on our etsy store by later next week, so we're busy designing our packaging. (You can see our new logo we designed earlier this week at the top of our blog!) Later this afternoon, we're taking the kids to Toy Story 3, as it's coming out today. My brave husband is going in with the kiddos, and Deedee and I think we'd rather spend our movie money at Archivers. It's the perfect remedy for weather like this. Hope you're either enjoying gorgeous weather where you are, or that you're tucking in with a good inspiring book.

Aeva drawing page

I'm just loving making scrapbook pages, where photography is the base of the design.  This is actually a digital collage.  I took a photo of Aeva drawing, and then another layer of an aerial photo of trees to give it more dimension.  When Emma saw the picture, she said, "Aeva draws just like you do!"  I had printed the collage and given it to Deedee.  Last night, Deedee asked me if I wanted to make a scrapbook page with her.  I didn't have any photos with me, but I saw the print out sitting on top of her scrapbook papers.  I asked her if I could replace her print, and use the collage on a page.  It was so much fun to take it out of it's original format, and make a scrapbook page around it.  The extra papers give it so much more dimension and tell a more whimsical story.  I always try new things with Deedee, and come home with a head full of ideas.  I love combining the clouds and the flowers.  This is one of the flowers I made the other day.  They're so much fun.

Zoo page

Check out this cool zoo page! I finished it at 2 a.m. the other morning. This is the best time to scrapbook because there are no interruptions. :-) I tweeked Angela's flowers and made my own design.

let your imagination soar...

Today, I got to play with my new Gingerbread die cuts by Quickutz, and my gorgeous new scrapbook paper - Que Sera Sera by K&Company.  It's double-sided and so rich in texture.  I found a few images in an old antiques magazine from 1964, and put those in.... plus the beautiful birds that Deedee cut out for me with from her Cricut - Heritage Cartridge - from the glossy paper with alcohol inks (you can see them in progress a few posts back.).  My oldest daughter worked on her own scrapbook, while I cut and played.  The twins played with their doll house and played lots of hide and seek.  It's been a rainy, thunder storm, crazy - stay inside if at all possible - kind of days.  Those are the perfect kind of days to let your imagination soar.