Happy Tuesday y'all

Good morning and happy Tuesday!
Rereading my post from last week and I realize what a downer it was and I apologize for that! Today is a new day and this morning while on my morning bus route, I had an epiphany. And that epiphany was this--I became too complacent with my place in life over the last months and when the inevitable ripples came I was thrown off balance. Life happens, people, and that is just the way things are. So our family is in the process of going through some changes but life is still good and although it's going to be a rather large adjustment, life goes on and let me say again life is good!

And now that we have that out of the way, how about those scrapbook layouts I promised you all? :)

A couple of these, you'll notice, are rather simple and maybe even "plain". But I really am pleased with each of them in their own right.

First, I'm going to share the first layout I've ever done sans photo. After all, scrapbooking IS all about the preservation of memories and this particular memory is a very special one to me and one that I remember frequently throughout the entire year, not only at Christmastime.

SO much love for Ranger's diamond Stickles!!
What a difference they made to the Jillibean die cuts!
I filled in Santa's beard twice to make sure it was extra full and sparkly :)

I used Stampendous Fran'tage scarlet embossing powder
for my title. I cut the letters on my Expression and then
embossed them individually before adhering them to the
white cardstock and using scissors to cut around each letter.
If you love embossing powder and you have not tried this brand
then let me assure you that you will *love* this stuff. It's amazing
and gives such a wonderful color and texture to your projects.
And YES the gold is already mixed into the powder to get this incredible
effect. 

Got the old sewing machine out for some sewing on this one :)

popdots and Stickles :)

Here is simple layout about when my son, Garrett, had mono. Not the most pleasant of topics but a memory deserving of preservation. Nothing fancy here...just photos, a few stickers placed on popdots and a uniball pen.

I have always loved this photo of my son, Chris. Those blue eyes and a smattering of freckles--ahhh, be still my heart <3
Nothing too fancy here either. I used a glass jar dipped in acrylic paint for the circle effect.
The title was one I fell in love with on a layout posted at Scrapbook.com and the creator of the layout was gracious enough to share where she got it. Turns out, it was a design from the Silhouette Design Studio. I absolutely love it.

Buttons, filmstrip washi tape (Paper Studio), acrylic paint

There's those eyes and freckles I mentioned :)

I like this layout because it's bright and happy :)
I used a couple of punches, stickles, gold leafing, texture paste
rub-ons, stickers, my Expression,...all kinds of yumminess here!

Ribbon that I've had forEVER, flowers made with a couple of punches,
The felt "time for love" is something I've had for ages and I
have been racking my brain trying to remember where it came from
but the memory eludes me.

Here you can see the effects of the texture paste using the Tim Holtz
burlap stencil. Once the texture paste was dry I used a sponge
and dotted the glue on in random spots and then applied the
gold leafing. I really love the way it turned out and I will probably use
this technique again before too long.

Another title from The Silhouette Design Studio. I used diamone
Stickles to make the title POP a little more.

I hope you enjoyed the layouts I shared today and will come back again. The holiday season is here and I have several projects to get started and finished in the coming weeks and of course I'll be sharing them here with you all.

Have a great day and I'll see you soon!

Rhonda