The Final Pages of the Marine Corps Scrapbook

Well here they are, the final pages to my husband's marine corps scrapbook! I just want to say thank you to all of you who have been commenting and rooting me on as I go along. You definately helped me stay motivated to get it finished. I had a lot of fun doing these and coming up with new designs.

They even were mentioned in an article in Leatherneck Magazine!

This is his "shaved head" for the deployment, he's not normally bald. haha.

Reunited-- Marine Corps Scrapbook

Ok one more for today and then I'm takin a break. These are the photos from the day my husband returned home from the 6 month boat deployment. (Before we had our son).

I dug through the archives to find a sketch that would work for my LO and this one is from 52 Sketches, 52 Weeks.

Honey & Pilots -- Marine Corps Scrapbook

My husband's job in the marines was to load ordnance (aka. bombs) onto Harrier Jets. He loved his job and he really enjoyed getting to know the pilots. He took this photo of a couple of his pilot buddies getting ready to take off. I couldn't think of a theme for this page, so I thought it would be funny to put "Always tip your Pilot" on there. The torn notebook page at the bottom is an svg file, you can get it here.



This was the sketch this week at Color Me Daisy. I am also participating in Frosted Design's challenge this week which is paper tearing/distressing.



Now I know you're probably wondering what this page has to do with the Marines, right? Well, my hubby and I dated long before he joined, so shortly after bootcamp, while stationed at Pensacola Beach, FL. I went down to visit for Valentine's Day. Well, this photo was taken just after he'd proposed to me on the beach. It was the day after Valentine's Day and it was very COLD! But nonetheless, it was romantic!

This is the sketch for this week at 52 Sketches, 52 Weeks. Only 1 week left before they shut down. :(

Daddy Is Home & On the Boat -- Marine Corps Scrapbook

I got a couple more pages squeezed in yesterday. My husband was busy assembling some christmas toys, that way my son didn't have to wait for them to be put together after opening them. So while he was occupied, I was too!

This page was made using this week's sketch at Sketch Inspiration (a new site!). They are trying to reach 200 members by Christmas, so go join in the fun! The little newspaper article at the bottom was about a missle narrowly missing my husband's ship while at port in Jordan. It was pretty scary. One soldier was killed and it made CNN headline news back in June of 2005.

This one was made using last week's sketch from 52 Sketches, 52 Weeks. The font in the title is called "Captain Howdy" I love it! It cut really well at about 1" high.

Christmas at Scrap & Stamp

This week's challenge at Scrap & Stamp is Christmas of course! I found this photo of my son when he was just 1 year old sitting on Santa's lap. He had no clue what was going on. the photo didn't turn out perfect (santa's a little blurry),but I still love it. He was the most authentic Santa I'd ever seen!

Anyways, this week at Scrap & Stamp, the DT members were challenged to use bits and pieces from a digital card making kit called "Funky Christmas" from Making Handmade Cards. So I printed out the "Jack Frost Nipping at your Nose" paper and the 3 Trees that you see at the bottom. It thought they matched this patterned paper that I already had perfectly. I got the paper at Dollar Tree a long time ago.

The Tour -- Marine Corps Scrapbook

Here I am with yet another layout. I've discovered a few new (well, new to me) scrapbooking challenge blogs. I have been scrapping so much lately that I ran out of challenges and sketches. So I went hunting for fresh blood. haha. This sketch is from Magpie Club. It is designed by Julie Bonner (also designer and owner of 52 sketches). I just love her sketches. They are so easy to follow.

This page has several pictures of the tour that my hubby gave me and our family of his squadron. A couple of these pics are kinda comical to me, so I added speech bubbles to give suggestion to what we were thinking. hehe.

Well I'm almost finished with the album, only 13 LO's to go! This album is really big. I think it probably holds about 30-40 pages. And seeing as how I only started it about a month or so ago, I'm having to cram them all in quickly.

Initiation -- Marine Corps Scrapbook

Let me tell you, this was a fun layout to make!!! I made my own paint splatter paper! It was so easy too (but messy). First I put a little bit of black paint on a paper plate, added tiny bit of water to thin it out, then I got a paint brush and swirled it in the paint really well. Then I just shook it above the cardstock. If that didn't work well enough, I'd hold the paint brush in one hand and tap it with the other. It was a blast! I am definately going to be doing this again! It didn't take long for the paper to dry either since the paint was watered down, it soaked up quickly.

The skull die cut was one that I cut out a long time ago. I used to have it in my store for sale, but today I'm giving it away for free! You can download it here.
The font for the title is Jacob's handwriting (from Twilight). It is called Almagro.


I got the inspiration for the entire layout from the Sketchy Thursday's challenge this week.

Happy Holidays from LSS!

It's Thursday! Time for another Lindsay project! I had fun with this one! I love sparkles and I got to play with glitter! So I used the swirly paper design from the Winter Printables Set. It's just $4.00 folks! However, the swirly paper in the set is red, that's what I love about digital paper, I have the freedom to make it whatever color I want! So using Paint.net (a free program you can download online), I altered the "hue" to green to perfectly match my ornament! The cute little ornament is a digital stamp from Lindsay's Christmas Potpourri Set.

After I colored my ornament with my Bic Mark Its (Just $10 at Wal-Mart for a set of 20), I used my Zig 2-Way glue pen to color over the parts that I wanted to add glitter (each color separately of course). The just sprinkle on the glitter (that's the fun part!).

Don't forget to stop by Lindsay's blog for your weekly freebie and don't forget that this week Lindsay is offering a bargain in her store! Buy 2 Stamp sets, get one free!!

Now for your Thursday Freebie! This week I have not only been busy scrapbooking, but I've also made a couple more freezer t-shirts. If you're not familiar how to do this, refer back to this earlier post. My cousin saw the Vampire Baseball shirt that I made for myself to wear at Halloween (although I'll wear it year-round) and she wanted me to make one for her niece for Christmas. So I came up with several designs, which I gave as freebies a few weeks ago. If you'd like them, go here.

Finally I decided to go with this one. If you're not familiar with the Twilight books, I'll explain. La Push is the name of the Quilleute Indian Reservation where Jacob (aka the werewolf) lives. After Edward leaves Bella, she is looking for an adrenaline rush and decides to go cliffdiving, but nearly drowns in the process. Hence the t-shirt design.....

Another thing I should mention, I wanted these to have a vintage look, so I used a sponge to paint with instead of a paint brush and I purposely tried to not get it covered as well in some places so it would look faded. You can see this better in the first shirt below.

This is the one I made for my cousin.

And of course I had to make one for myself. (It's more vintage looking in person, the flash on my camera doesn't show it well).

La Push Cliff Diving SVG (don't forget to flip it backwards before cutting!)

Saying Goodbye -- Marine Corps Scrapbook

Horraaaay! This is my second page today! I used the sketch at Sketch Inspiration for this week. If you haven't checked this site out yet, you should! they are up to 100 members.

Anyways, this photo is the final one taken just before I had to kiss my hubby bye so he could leave for Iraq. My son was only 4 months old at the time. He's not very happy in this photo, although, who could blame him? I was putting on a brave face for the both of them. I can sigh with relief now though, as he's back home and out of the Corps. Even though he's joined the Guard. No deployments yet...keeping my fingers crossed.

Brothers -- Marine Corps Scrapbook

If you didn't know already, Twilight Tuesday is beginning a bi-weekly scrapbooking challenge that is inspired by different aspects of the books. This week's challenge was inspired by the "wolf pack" and the brotherhood that exsists between the boys. As you already know, I've been trying to complete my husband's Marine Corps scrapbook. I've had this photo sitting in my stash since I started and I have had a hard time deciding what to do with it, but when I saw this challenge, the inspiration hit. So I got started!



The cool sketch came from this week's challenge at Sketchy Thursdays.

Zig-Zaggin Across the Pond -- Marine Corps Scrapbook

Well my husband is out working in the yard, so I snuck in another opportunity to scrap! Here it is! I used another great sketch from Sketch Inspiration (the new site I was telling you about earlier). Right now, you can play along for fun, but in January they'll have prizes!

26th MEU -- Marine Corps Scrapbook

Well my husband dozed off early on the couch tonight, so I was able to squeeze another layout in. Since Christmas is fast approaching, I have to seize every moment I can to work on this.


thanks to another great sketch from Crafts by Rowena, this one was quick and simple. I did it in under 30 minutes flat! And I was stopping to watch SNL (Taylor Lautner was on!) in between. So I guess you could say I did this one between commercials. haha. I got the cool Bingo card from Lindsay. I just altered it in inkscape to make it say 26th MEU instead of bingo. the brackets I cut with my cricut. If you'd like the file, they are here.

The Desert -- Marine Corps Scrapbook

I snuck in my craft room to complete another layout today. My husband was at home but outside cleaning out the gutters, so I had to be sneaky to get this one done. It's pretty simple, but I love it anyways. These pictures were taken while my hubby was on the 26th MEU over in Saudi Arabia. He went on a desert safari while he was there.


Of course, the fabulous sketch came from Crafts by Rowena. I just loved the little journalling tear out. So I created one just like it to cut with my cricut. If you'd like the file, it's free. You can download it here. If you're wondering how I got the journalling printed directly on it, I printed it on white copy paper first, then I used double stick tape to line it up over the one printed on copy paper. I taped it down, and ran it though the printer again. The cute little ticket was a part of the kit that I won from 52 sketches.

Scrap & Stamp Saturday-- Family Gatherings

It's that time again! Time for a new challenge from Scrap and Sketch. This week's challenge is to scrap a "family gathering". I chose to scrapbook these photos of my family at my grandfather's Father's Day gathering. He's a big UK basketball fan in case you couldn't tell.

This layout will be going in an album that I'm making for my uncle who is overseas working for a government contract in Afghanistan. I know he gets homesick over there, so when he comes home for a Christmas visit, I'm going to give him an album full of family photos to remember us by.

Those cute little "tickets" came from a scrapbooking kit by Sassafrass and Cosmo Cricket. I won this kit by participating in the 52 Sketches, 52 weeks challenge! Yee-Haw! I love free stuff! Thank You Julie!


I used this week's sketch from Scrapsketch. I just sized it down to an 8x8.

A Quick Thank You Card

Nope still not pregnant yet. haha. I just decided to make these quick and easy baby shower thank you cards to put in my booth for sale. I got these cute simple (and cheap) note cards from Big Lots (12 for $1.50) and I decided to spruce them up. I used Lindsay's baby rattle digi from the Babies & Bows Collection. However I didn't feel like coloring 12 of these tiny rattles (not to mention I'm not so great at staying in the lines when they are that small). So I imported my digi into a free program called Paint.net and colored it digitally. I was able to pick colors that matched the note cards perfectly. Then all I had to do was print and cut them into tiny circles. I also printed the words Thank You on a larger circle layered them w/pop dots.

That's right folks! Buy 2 stamp sets, get one free! If you're shoping in her Shophandmade Store, just purchase the 2 sets you want and when Lindsay emails your order to you, she'll ask you which set you'd like for free! So easy! Not to mention, for every $5 you spend, you get a free stamp! Merry Christmas to you!

And don't forget to stop by Lindsay's blog for your weekly freebie!

Now it's time for your Thursday freebie! Here is a useful little svg for your thank you cards. I've cut it as small as 1.5" and it cuts wonderfully!

Flowery Thank You SVG

An Alligator Christmas Card?

This week I had a former Ebay customer contact me asking me to make him a Christmas card for his wife. Apparently she loves alligators. I found this cute little image using google and he loved it. so I made him a card. I don't really get it, but it's still cute!

I used this week's sketch from Friday Sketchers. I'm also participating in the following challenges this week:

Stamp Something -- Glitzy Somethings (Snowflakes are sparkly and added gems)

The Pink Elephant -- Fav. Christmas color combo (red & green of course)

Whimsy Stamps challenges -- Die cuts (circles, scalloped circles, squares)

Scrap & Stamp Saturday-- All About Me!

Hello everyone! It's Saturday! So it's time for another layout for the Scrap and Stamp challenge. This week's challenge is going to be "All About You". I think this challenge is a great one, because we oftentimes neglect scrapping pictures of ourselves so that we can finish layouts of others. It was a challenge to find photos of myself to scrap, because I'm always the one taking the photos. However I have plenty of pics of myself when I was pregnant. This was one time when I was asking people to take my picture because I didn't want to forget any moment of it. You see.... I was one of those pregnant chicks who was blissfully happy. No morning sickness! I can't wait to get pregnant again. It was one of the most wonderful times in my life. Even though I look like a whale in these pictures. haha.

If you haven't participated in Scrap and Stamp challenges yet, now is the time to do so! We have prizes every week and so far we've only had an average of 8 or 10 participants. So if you join in the fun, you've got a good chance of winning!

Golfin' in Dubai --- Marine Corps Scrapbook

I'm back with another one. While my husband was on a boat deployment in the mediterranian, he was able to stop in Dubai, Saudi Arabia for a little R&R. So he decided to participate in a little golf tourney with some of his fellow Marines. He got to play at the world famous golf resort there. He was in heaven. Here is the group shot.

I created the title and golf balls using inkscape and cut them using SCAL on my cricut. I just found a picture of a golf ball that I liked on google, then I created one very similar to it. If you'd like the files, they're free. Golf Ball & Tee.



For this layout, I used the sketch from Sketch Inspiration. It is a new scrapbooking sketch site that is just getting started. This week is their first sketch. They are going to have prizes from sponsors starting in January, so go sign up! Everyone is so friendly and nice!

Handmade Christmas Ornaments

Here are some handmade ornaments that I finished last night. I got the ornaments themselves from HL for about .50 cents each on sale. They are made of corragated cardboard and are hollow. I started by painting each one with red acrylic paint. It dries quickly and only requires one coat on these. Then I printed my images and colored them with my Bic Mark Its. I cut them out and then applied "Triple Thick" (Diamond Glaze) to the back of the image then pressed it firmly down onto the ornament. Then I applied a generous top coat of glaze over the entire ornament to give it a shine. Very easy to do and fun! The first one is a cube that has various snowman images from Dustin Pike on it. I'll be hanging this one on my tree.

This one is a disk shaped ornament. I used one of Dustin's santa images on it. It will be hanging in the center of a wreath that is going on my grandfather's door at the nursing home he lives in.

24 Hours on Duty - Marine Corps Scrapbook

Yet another page for my hubby's Marine Corps scrapbook. I took these pics of him one night when I went up to his squadron to visit. He was having to work a 24 hour duty shift. He was exhausted, so I went to keep him company for a while. He worked several of these, one a month I think, but this is the only time I every photographed him on duty. So this one page is a tribute to all of those times he had to stand post on his own.

Here is the sketch that I used from Crafts by Rowena.