Throw-back Thursday: A Year in Review {2011}

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As I've said in previous posts, before I got pregnant with Jackson, I used to scrapbook all the time. This blog actually started out as a scrapbooking blog. Then once I got pregnant and then had Jackson, my time for scrapbooking diminished greatly. 

I've started Project Life for 2012 and 2013, but didn't scrapbook anything for 2011, other than the pregnancy album I made through shutterfly.com. So when I saw Rebecca's (Simple as That Blog) Monthly Memories pages, I really wanted to try making monthly pages to have something to look back on for 2011. I thought this would be an easy and quick way to get my 2011 pictures organized and in an album of some sort.

So I spent some time this week going through my pictures for 2011 and making monthly pages using Rebecca's monthly pages as a guideline. I used picmonkey to make my pages using their collage templates. I tweaked a template to fit the amount of pictures I wanted on a page. I'm not sure if I'll print these out, (Rebecca uses Costco to print hers and then puts them into a 12x12 binder) or have them printed in a book using mixbook.com or shutterfly.com.

I would really recommend this method for anyone that wants a nice, easy and quick way to organize a years worth of pictures into an album you can look back on one day.

Here are all 12 of my pages for 2011. It was so fun making them and going through all my 2011 photos. :-)

Now it's your turn. Link up your Throw-back Thursday posts below.

Scrapbook Page "Pinspiration"

I'm linking up today with Oh, How Pinteresting Wednesday and I decided to do a scrapbook page idea theme. A group of us ladies from church are going to be scrapbooking June 1st and 2nd. I haven't scrapbooked in over a year, so I need some new ideas for sure. I went to Hobby Lobby on Monday and got some new paper and ribbon. I plan on starting Jackson's album that weekend. I'm excited to finally get started on it. 

So here are some page ideas that I've found on Pinterest that I might print and take with me for some "pinspiration"!

I love the paper fringe below the picture on this page. I hope to try this on one of my pages.

I like this page and the idea behind it. Jackson loves when we sing "You are my Sunshine." It almost always calms him down and has since he was a newborn.

I love the pieces of paper along the side of this picture much like the first page I posted.

I like the whole idea of this page and the similar pictures used with one black and white photo in the middle. This is great for using several similar pictures of Jackson.

Though I won't be scrapbooking any Christmas pictures next weekend, I really liked the layout of this page and may try to use it with pictures of Jackson from the hospital and use some baby cut-outs in the upper right hand corner and a baby themed border like the ginger bread men.

I love the owls on this page and the title. I may do something like this with pictures of Jackson.

Love everything about this page.

This page is so cute! I thought I could just use random pictures of Jackson in his first week at home with us and instead of doing "a year of you", doing "a week of you".

I love the bunting on this page and really want to do something like this on a page.

This page is cute, clean and seems fairly simple. Which is great because I have so many pictures and will need some more simple ideas to help me get more done.

I love the patchwork behind the pictures and the bunting in the top left. So cute.

Again, I love the bunting and I like the idea and layout of this page.

This page is so cute! I just love everything about it. I thought I could do something like this with some pictures of Jackson from the hospital, but instead of using pink paper, use blue!

I really like the pieces of paper along the edge of the picture and the ribbon tied in a bow in the middle of the page. :-)

So I'm hoping to get at least all of the pictures we took at the hospital, scrapbooked next weekend. I'm hoping with some cute paper and ideas, I can at least get that part done. I'll post my pages here for you guys to see that next week. 

Are any of you scrapbooking in the near future? What are you working on?

Practical Scrappers Stamp Challenge

Our Challenge for this week was to use stamps. I found this cute birthday themed digital stamp online and used it to make birthday cards for my 2 nieces that just turned 10. I also used my cricut and Don Juan Cartridge to cut out the "10". Thanks for looking.

Practical Scrappers Buttons Challenge

This week our challenge was to use Buttons. So I created this Fun in the Sun layout using buttons to make a sun! For the past 2 years we've had a summer fundraiser at our church. Last year it was actually at a little water park, but this year we rented this blow up water slide and we swam in the pool at our Pastor's house (which happens to be right next door to the church). We had a great time.

I used buttons from Michaels for the sun, my Life's a Beach cart. for the title, Paper Doll Dress up for the grass and George for the tag. Thanks for looking!! Also be sure to hop on over to Practical Scrappers to check out all the fun we're having with buttons this week. :-)

White/Color Core Cardstock Challenge at Practical Scrappers

This week at Practical Scrappers, our challenge was to use white or color core cardstock. I used some white core cardstock on this little fishing themed birthday card. We are also featuring some digital stamps this month from Robyn's Nest Digital Stamps. This one is called Dad's Fishing Hole. I actually used it on a layout of my nephew and his friend fishing. Here are both the card and layout. Thanks for looking.

Practical Scrappers White Pen Challenge

This weeks challenge for Practical Scrappers was to use a white pen. I used my white Sakura Gelly Roll Pen to doodle on this layout. Here in St. Louis, we have an outdoor theater called the Muny. They have 7 shows a season during the summer. We went to 5 out of the 7 this year. This layout is of the last show we saw this season, Footloose. I used my MTC software and cricut for the title and boots. Thanks for looking!!

Crop this past weekend at Church.

Once a month, we have a crop at my church. The crop for the month of Aug. was this past weekend. I didn't get nearly as much done as I would have liked, but I had fun, so thats whats most important. :-) Here are just a few layouts that I finished up. A couple I finished are for Practical Scrappers Challenges, and you'll be able to see those in the next couple weeks. Here are the few I can show you now. Enjoy, and thanks for looking.

This is a double layout of our Smith Family Picnic. I used the Everyday Paper Dolls Cartridge for the little BBQ grills, my MTC software for the title and I used some black brads to make the little ants. I cut the little hotdogs out for the grills by hand. :-)

A close up of page 1

Close up of page 2

This is a layout of my nephew playing with some bubble wrap that my husband brought him from work. We go to my parent's house most every Friday night for dinner. So my husband, who works for a packing supply company, brought some samples of bubble wrap over for my nephew Landon to play with. He had a lot of fun with it.

This is a layout I made using pictures from Fathers Day 2010 at our house. They are of my Papa Reg, my Dad and my nephew Landon sleeping/watching t.v. and my two uncles.

Practical Scrappers Lace Cardstock Challenge

For this weeks Lace Cardstock Challenge I used my Cricut and Storybook cartridge for the green leaf background. I used my Wedding Cartridge for the flowers and the Pagoda cartridge for the hummingbird. For the title I used the MTC software and the font is called Brody. Its one of my favorite fonts. These pictures were taken in my backyard at my hummingbird feeder. They are of the same hummingbird. He stayed there for a long time, drinking the sugar water. I was able to get pretty close and take these pictures.

Thanks for looking!!

Practical Scrappers Sketch for Aug. 13th

Once a week a new sketch is posted on Practical Scrappers website. I used this weeks sketch to create this layout of my nephew Landon, using some recent pictures I've taken of him. I cut out the stars and title using my cricut and Make the Cut software. Thanks for looking.

Practical Scrappers Summer Theme Challenge

Our challenge for this week was to use summer themed products. I used my Life's a Beach cricut cartridge and some summer themed paper to make this layout!! I hope you will all head over to Practical Scrappers and join in the fun.

A close-up of page 1.

A close-up of page 2.

Beautiful Bonnets

Well as promised, I did scrapbook those two pictures of my mom and I, each wearing bonnets. I am sooo happy with the way it turned out. I used my Cricut and Make the Cut software to cut out the green and pink backgrounds and the title. I used the Storybook cricut cartridge to cut out the butterflies. I used some pink stickles and some little stick on pearls I got from Michaels. The ribbon I got from Michaels as well. Thanks for looking! :-)

A close up of the ribbon and stick pins.

A close-up of one of the butterflies.

Wicked - Practical Scrappers Anniversary Challenge

After a little break, I'm back on the Practical Scrappers Design Team!!! I'm very happy to be back. Since its Practical Scrappers 1 year anniversary, my challenge for this week was to use one embellishment on a project. For this layout, my one embellishment is the witch border I created using my cricut and Make the Cut Software. I also used my cricut and MTC to cut out the Wicked title at the top. This was a very fun layout to make and I'm really happy with the way it turned out. Thanks for looking!

A few scrapbook layouts I finished this past weekend.

Over this past weekend, we had a Friday night/Saturday crop at my church. Here are a few layouts I was able to get done.

More Layouts for my Cousin Tyler's 16th Birthday Album

My mom, sister and I have been working on an album for my cousin's 16th b-day. We started about 3 weeks ago and have about 2 weeks to get it finished. Here are some more layouts that we worked on this weekend and last weekend. Thanks for looking.