Superbowl 2012 + Pinterest Love!

A super quick page for me. I went to Pinterest this afternoon and saw a page that I'd pinned the other day and did a quick scraplift. Love it! Have I ever said I love Pinterest?!

That reminds me ... I've got a new "gallery wall" in my newly redecorated family room. I included in my gallery wall an 11"x14" piece of family artwork that I created based on inspiration from something I pinned on Pinterest. I need to get a picture of that and post it here. Soon!

I'm so excited about my new gallery wall that was so largely inspired by Pinterest: I used my "gallery wall" board for ideas on how to lay it out, I used another board for ideas for my husband on how in the heck to get all those frames hung evenly, and I used another Pinterest board to create my piece of art. THANK YOU PINTEREST!

OK, back to Superbowl ...

You can see a list of credits for this page here.

A quick change-up on a page

I'm always quick to post a page the moment I finish it. I guess maybe I feel like it's done when I post it, and I want to move on to the next photos to be scrapped. I love it! Well I guess I was too quick on this one. After taking another look at the page I changed up the journaling a bit and chose a different journaling card and voila, here's my new, slightly better page ...

Friends - this makes me happy

I had a quiet evening tonight sitting at a coffee shop for a hour as I waited to pick up my daughter and her friends. I used that time to scrap a super quick page. What fun!

You can find the credits for this layout at my Jessica Sprague gallery here.

Celebrating Family

We were up north this weekend celebrating family birthdays - with birthdays ranging from 13 years old to 95 years old. How cool is that?

I wanted to commemorate this gathering of wonderful family with a couple of pages in my scrapbook. Check out the photos of Great Grandma - doesn't she look gorgeous! Who'd guess she was 95?!

It was such fun hanging out and celebrating!

Here's the 2 page spread:

Here's the left page:

Here's the right page:

FYI, I used Echo Park Hybrid's Times & Seasons kit for these pages. I loved the warm colors of the papers and elements! I also threw in the awesome Digital Distressing Kit brushes from Nancie Rowe Janitz (a seriously AWESOME set of paint, chalk, sanding, etc. brushes!). And last but certainly not least, the staples are from Splendid Fiins - I pretty much always grab at least a little something from her At the Office Supplies kit for my pages!

If you'd like to see a full listing of credits, click here for my page in the Jessica Sprague gallery.

Go jump in the lake!

We were up north celebrating a bunch of family birthdays this weekend. We were all sitting outside at the hotel enjoying the beautiful fall weather when my father-in-law dared my son to go jump in the lake with his clothes on for $20. (I think he assumed he wouldn't do it.) Without a moment's hesitation, my son IMMEDIATELY began walking to the dock to jump in. My father-in-law proceeded to try and talk him down on the money. Still, my son wanted cash and was going to do it. In the end my niece wanted to see him jump in so she paid him $5, my father-in-law paid him $10 and I paid him $5 (because I wanted to get some fun photos and because I wanted him to make the $20 he was originally offered).

It was quite fun and - as you can see - made for some fun photos! I love it! It was a fun time and my son got cash - a win-win situation!

You can find the credits for this layout here. {FYI, it's primarily product by Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals along with postage stamp frames from Pink Paislee at Jessica Sprague.}

Ready for Middle School!

We're ready for middle school!

FYI, this is a page using nearly 100% awesome digi product created by Splendid Fiins (who I got to meet this week at SpragueFest ... YAY!!!) You can find a list of credits at my JessicaSprague gallery here.

P365+1: Week 37: September 9 - September 15, 2012 + Family birthdays + Spraguefest!

Oh so many fun memories! First off, here's a recap of our "regular" week:

And a super quick recap of SpragueFest ... It was such fun to spend a couple of days with a great group of people I've been "chatting" with on-line for a couple of years. Hanging out with people who COMPLETELY understand my love for technology, photography and digiscrapping art was simply AWESOME!

And last but certainly not least (only posted at the end because it occurred later in the week! LOL!) ... a celebration of family birthdays!

My ATC card for SpragueFest 2012

I had such a fabulous time at SpragueFest the last couple of days. It was so fun to have an opportunity to meet so many of the people I've talked to and become friends with over the years at the JessicaSprague website.

Here's the ATC (artist trading card) I created to share at the event:

FYI, I used primarily Nancie Rowe Janitz supplies for my ATC.

... and here's a snapshot of our group at Open Book (an absolutely FANTASTIC place in Minneapolis).

I always want to remember ... my son's 15 year old sense of humor

My son cracks me up sometimes.  I want to remember what he finds particularly entertaining at times, and this page is going to help me. FYI, I took the AARP photo at the MofA last night and my husband took this photo of my son and me this morning.

FYI, all I used on this page was Photoshop and a couple of fonts and photos.

Father/Son bonding weekend in Colorado

This spring Scott and Don flew out to Denver and spent a weekend with Mark. Father/Son bonding time. No wives, no kids ... just the guys hanging out and having fun. How wonderful!

A 15 year old's Bucket List

My son spent a week in Chicago with a friend at the start of summer vacation. My husband had been in Chicago for the week as well and on Friday they met back up for the journey home. On their 7-1/2 hour car ride back home my son compiled this "Bucket List." I absolutely love it! I think it's a great glimpse into the mind of a (BORED) 15 year old boy!

By the way ... this entire page was created using a TON of products by the talented Splendid Fiins (including a "Hot Mess template" that will be coming to Jessica Sprague soon!).

By the way, you can find a full list of credits here.

P365+1: Week 36: September 2 - September 8, 2012

I can't believe summer is over already and the kids are back at school. Summer sure went by quickly. I'm going to miss summer vacation and having the kids at home but it is nice to be getting into a routine again. Although I can't believe how old my kiddos are getting. Seriously, my baby is really in middle school?!

The kids had a great first week back to school, unfortunately though I think the exposure to all the germs in school resulted in my daughter getting sick and coming down with a bug. She felt really pretty lousy when she got home from school on Friday. By Friday night she even had a fever of a little over 102. My poor baby. She was starting to feel a tiny bit better last night when she went to bed (and her fever was gone thankfully). I hope she'll be feeling TONS better when she wakes up this morning!

Hello fall!

P365+1: Week 36: September 2, 2012 - Relaxing at the Beach with Friends

What an awesome way to end the kids' summer vacation ... spending a day at the beach boating with friends, and then to top it off with a BBQ party at our house. Awesome!!

What a great day (and a great summer!)

Smile for the Camera! (Visiting Great Grandma)

We always enjoy visiting Great Grandma whenever we get to town. It's always fun to spend some time together and to visit. She always looks beautiful. Can you believe she's turning 95 in just a week. 95. I sure hope I look that good when I'm her age!

Now for some quick scrappy talk ... I used Pink Paislee's Caught on Camera kit again today. I just absolutely adore the colors! So perfect for a simple page like this!

You can find a full list of credits for this page here.

Ordinary Moments at Home

Pink Paislee is coming out with an awesome new kit called "Caught on Camera." The moment I saw it I loved it. The colors, the cameras, the word tags, all the fun elements --- it's just so fun I knew I had to scrap a page (or more!) with it! It'll be coming out soon at JessicaSprague.com if you want to check it out!!

I have these photos of the kids goofing off at home. The photos were taken a couple of days after my son came back from a 10 day sailing vacation with friends. The house was so quiet without him. I missed him. I loved when he was back home and we were back to normal again!

Aren't ordinary moments at home the absolute best?!

You can find a list of credits here.

Yes, actual date nights with my hubby!

Lets be real. Life is busy. Despite the fact that our kids are getting older and are absolutely thrilled to have evenings at home alone without us, Scott and I still don't seem to have opportunities to go out very often. There's always something going on.

Every summer though the kids look forward to spending some time alone with Grandma and Grandpa. Their big vacation with Gma & Gpa means that Scott and I also have some time to hang out together. It's always a treat (for all of us). This summer our "alone time" was shortened because the darn date for the golf invitational overlapped with the time the kids were away with Gma & Gpa so Scott had to go out of town mid-week. We still had a few days together though. We enjoyed a number of really nice dinners out and just having some time to hang out together. It was nice.

We got ONE photo of the two of us having dinner together (thanks to our waitress at Lola's Lakehouse), so I wanted to get that photo scrapped and in the scrapbook!

Happy Thursday everyone!

You can find the credits for this layout here.

Minnesota State Fair

What a great day at the Fair! I had so many pictures that I just couldn't limit myself to a 2 page spread ... I needed four pages to get a feel for the day. What a fun day!

Pages 1 and 2:

Pages 3 and 4:

And a closer look;

Page 1:

Page 2:

Page 3:

Page 4:

It was hard to decide what kits to use for these pages. In the end I used Pink Paislee's Hometown Summer and Design by Dani's Hometown Proud. Both super fun, colorful summer kits! You can find both of these kits at JessicaSprague.com!

You can find a list of credits here:

P365+1: Week 35: August 26 - September 1, 2012 (Project Life?)

It was another big week. Lot of time spent with family and friends. We are blessed to have so many wonderful people in our life!

P365+1 (Father/Son Golf Tournament & State Fair) (A busy August week)

What fun this week. Two big events that get their own pages in my photo-a-day book. Hmmm ... I guess we're fitting in as much fun at the end of summer vacation as possible!

Last weekend we were in Cloquet for the Father/Son Golf Tournament that Scott, Mark, Don and my son played in. Usually it's just my husband and father-in-law who play. This year my brother-in-law was in town AND they asked my son to play. The had a great time! (I even got to show up at the 18th hole on the last day to snap these pictures!) I sure hope this becomes a new family tradition for the four of them (or at least the three of them if Mark is not in town) to golf together!

And lastly, the State Fair. The four of us, my mother-in-law, my brother-in-law and three nieces and nephews spent an awesome day at the Fair on Thursday. A really great time!

P365+1: Week 34: August 19 - August 25, 2012

Another fun week! My initial thought was that not much really went on, but as I glance at the pictures I start thinking ... maybe it was a little busy after all. (Good stuff!)

Sunday's picture is at the resort. Holly moves off to college this week - yikes!
Monday we did a bunch of shopping and went out for dinner.
Tuesday is just a simple snapshot.
Wednesday we went up to the Johnsons and picked up Grant (who stayed at the resort with Mitchell after we all left on Sunday and hung out, did some projects ... and just plain had a good time at the lake),
Thursday Grant's friend Michael came over and ended up staying overnight and they played Minecraft and PS3 well into the wee hours of the morning.
Friday I sat in Lauren's room with her and we talked about school starting soon (middle school - yikes!) and then we got ready to head out of town again!
Saturday ... we were up in Cloquet and Marci and Lauren and I did some school clothes shopping the guys played golf.
What a fun week!

Father/Son Golf Tournament

How's this for timely? These are photos I took TODAY at the end of the Father/Son Golf Tournament that Scott, Grant, Mark and Don were playing in. I scrapped this page in the car on our way home from Gma & Gpa's house. I feel so productive when I scrap pages in the car! :)

What a fun weekend we had! Scott and Don have been playing in this tournament for years now. Mark generally isn't in town, but he was around this year so he played as well. Yay! Grant has never played - he's just learning how to play golf. The guys thought it would be great if Grant would join them in the father/son tournament - and make a new family tradition. Not knowing what he'd think about the idea they asked him and he said right off that he'd like to play. They were so glad! I was so glad. 

After all was said and done I was so happy that Grant enjoyed himself. He had a great time playing 18 holes of golf both Saturday and Sunday. They said his game kept improving as the days went on. I'd be SO HAPPY if Grant took up the game of golf and could play with Scott and Grandpa more regularly! Love it!

You can find a full list of credits for this page here.

Hanging at Grandma & Grandpa's

We were out of town this weekend and had a two and a half hour car ride to our destination (Grandma & Grandpa's). I used my car ride time productively. I scrapped this page on the way up on Friday. It's just a couple of photos from the previous visit to Grandma & Grandpa's over the 4th of July ... just an ordinary day - but fun memories that I'd like to remember (and that I'd like my kiddos to remember) nonetheless!

FYI, for those of you digi scrappers out there, I used a bunch of Splendid Fiins and LivE Designs products for this page. If you'd like to see a full list of credits, click here!

Random January Snapshots (in a Project Life style layout)

I seem to always have a bunch of photos every month that tell a story and that I really enjoy but that don't make it to their own scrapbook page. For every month I plan to put together a couple of pages for my yearly family album to highlight these photos. I used a different "random snapshots" format last year; this year I think I'll try a Project Life style format. I just want to do my best to make sure I'm telling as many of my family's stories as possible! It's always a work in progress!

FYI, I counted ... I used 36 (count 'em 36!!) photos for these pages. I LOVE that!!

FYI, for all these pages I used Becky Higgins' Project Life Cobalt Edition and Template Designs as well as Karla Dudley's Digi Essentials stitching.

And now for a little closer look ...

A lazy summer day ... a cancelled reunion at Bob & Mary's cabin

This day (July 7th) was to have been the 23rd annual Matel family picnic/reunion at Bob & Mary’s cabin. Unfortuntely the picnic was cancelled the day before because Mary was admitted to the hospital with Anaplasmosis (a serious tick borne illness). Since Aaron & Laura & their 12 kids and Lara & Dave & their two kids were still at the cabin, we were invited to come anyway. It’s sad the reunion was cancelled, but we still had a great time visiting with everyone and playing at the lake! (I should mention, Mary spent a few days in the hospital and probably a few weeks recovering, but she's doing fine!) ... It definitely needed to have a scrapbook page!!

Credits are here.

Maggie dearest

I've got to tell you, I love Pinterest! I was inspired by a page I saw in the galleries a while back and I pinned the layout. Then, when I was browsing my Digiscrap Inspiration board tonight - voila ... I've got some great inspiration for a page about our sweet dog. Again ... I love Pinterest!

Credits for this layout are here.