Hello Card

When I first saw CHA releases this year, I was totally in LOVE with Paige Evans' Oh My Heart collection. Seriously, I love her designs. I will say that Fancy Free, her first collection, is my favorite so far, but this new one she released with Pink Paislee last month is so different! To me, it feels like there's a lot of jewel tones in this line, which is so unique for scrapbooking lines. There's a strong "mom life" vibe to this collection, which I'm, of course, not a fan of since I'm not a mom, but still. This is a very pretty collection! 

The easiest projects for me to make when I want to try out new products are cards. I love the small space and the fact that you can send them to someone else for them to enjoy! 

"Hello" cards are always ones I can use, so that's just what I made with the Oh My Heart collection. 

I mixed in some random embellishments from my stash because I wanted to vary the texture on this card. These foam alphabet stickers are my new faves-- they're from the Maggie Holmes Chasing Dreams collection and they're actually hot pink on the sides (so basically they're pink foam thickers with glitter on the top). 

I've also been loving adding vellum on top of patterns to add either texture or to soften the pattern. Here, I just wanted to add another layer to the card. I think it's perfect! Do you use vellum a lot?

Thanks for stopping by!!

Sneak Peak: New Series Coming in March

So doing that Wedding Wednesday series was super fun (and I only missed posting ONCE! yay!), so I decided to do another series-- only this time it's a scrapbooking series! 

I was super creative on our recent trip home, and I made several layouts with some refound favorites in my stash! By rebound favorites, I mean that I sorted through my stash, purged some stuff, and then rediscovered those collections that are- and will always be- my favorites. Those collections where you only have scraps left and a few embellishments but you can't bear to part with any of it because you LOVE it so much.

Here's a peek at my layouts that I'll be sharing starting on the first Monday in March, which isn't too terribly far away! I hope you'll join me! 

Wedding Wednesday: K&H + Recap

Looking back over the Wedding Wednesday posts, I have come to realize that I haven't shared our couple's portraits! Whaaaa??

So here ya go-- here are some of my favorites. 

And then here are a couple more of my faves that I don't think I've shared. I just loved the flowers. It sorta makes me sad that after the wedding, the bride and groom go on their honeymoon and don't get to enjoy the flowers more! LOL 

And I will leave with possibly my FAVORITE wedding photo. 

I have thoroughly enjoyed sharing some of our beautiful wedding photos, and I hope you liked seeing them along with some of the behind-the-scenes stories. If you are in the Birmingham, Alabama area, I would highly recommend our photographers: Katie & Alec Photography. They were super easy to work with and I just love our wedding photos. :)

Also-- here's direct links to the other Wedding Wednesday posts in case you missed them.

Overview | Details | Outfits | Ceremony | Reception + Exit

Smile

If you're like me, you have a TON of rolls of washi tape in your scrapbooking stash. I love using washi tape (those washi tape books that American Crafts makes are one of my favorite products!!) and I'm always looking for more ways to use washi. The thing about washi tape is that it will last forever. I was looking through my stash the other day and it's crazy to think how long I've had some of those rolls! It is always so satisfying to use up a roll of washi tape. I equate it to using up a stick of chapstick-- another one of the best feelings ever! Haha! 

Last week I was watching a video from Claudia Van R and LOVED the way she used washi! Click HERE if you want to see her video-- her layout is gorgeous! 

I decided to scraplift her layout using bits and pieces from my stash. This page is literally just a mix of everything. Which I love! I love using up stuff! Plus, can you tell what colors I LOVE using? Pink and blue, with pops of black, white and gold! Yep, those are my faves! 

I've had this Heidi Swapp "smile" wood veneer in my stash for who knows how long, so it was nice to finally use it! 

Do you have any ways you like to use up the washi in your stash? Let me know in the comments! 

Wedding Wednesday: Reception + Exit

Oops-- I'm late a day! I didn't have this post scheduled, so I didn't get it up in time for Wedding Wednesday yesterday. Sooooo you just get to see it on Thursday!

This photo of K. How cute, right? That smile. He's just so handsome. Ok, sorry. I'll stop. lol

I love Laura. I love this photo of us. We hugged and I tried hard not to cry because all I could think about is how I'm going to MISS HER. And I do. I miss her bunches. 

I really LOVE that our photographers took pictures of our receiving line. I really love seeing photos of the people who came. 

Our reception seemed rather short... probably because most of the post-wedding time was spent taking photos. BUT, we did get to actually eat the meal that was served after the wedding, and it was sooooo good. My mom had spent so much time on preparing the food and making sure everything was going to turn out perfectly. For our meal, we made this chicken recipe (grilled and marinated. SO good.). Then for sides, we had Kevin's family's recipe for swiss green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, salad, and hot rolls. It turned out wonderful. I seriously wish I had a photo of the food. It was amazing. Just ask anyone who was at the wedding. And I'm not just saying that. 

The cake tasted SO good, too. I super love the way our cakes turned out and I also super love that KEVIN DIDN'T SMEAR CAKE IN MY FACE when he fed me. My dad would have probably tackled Kevin if he would have done that. My parents/ grandparents feel very strongly about the whole don't-smear-cake-on-your-new-spouse's-face thing. And I totally agree. I had told Kevin before the wedding that I didn't want him doing that, and thankfully he listened! Whew!

Confetti!!!!! I totally loved our confetti exit. This is another cute photo from that moment. 

One of the huge "fun" items on our wedding day was getting to drive off from the reception in this beauty! It's a 2016 Corvette! Kevin was so excited!

In case you didn't know, my dad is a Chevrolet mechanic (He's a GOOD one, not one of those that puts a bunch of parts on and it still doesn't fix your car. He's very talented.). So my did has connections with "cool" cars. The man that owns this corvette owns lots of sports cars and dad works for him from time to time. He had told dad that either it would be a red 2006 (or 2008, I can't remember) corvette or a brand new 2016 corvette. Ended up he brought the new one and BOY was that amazing!!!! Kevin looks back now and says, "why didn't we drive that car further?" (We met up with mom and dad down the road so we could switch to Kevin's car to go to the airport with.) And Kevin was good and didn't do a burn out when we were leaving-- the guy who brought the car was staying around, so we didn't want to make him mad by burning up his new car's tires! 

And that was the end of our wedding day! [sigh] It was a wonderful day. I love looking back on the photos and reminiscing because everything was so awesome. I'll be back next week (yes, I'll make sure it's on time this time) for one last recap of our special day. Stay tuned! :)

All photos taken by Katie & Alec Photography.

Happy (early) Valentine's Day!

It's my favorite holiday of the year! And this year I actually have a sweetheart to spend it with! 

How awesome is that?! 

I made some valentines for my girlfriends this year. I LOVE sending little love notes like this, and like I've said before, it doesn't seem as weird sending "love ya" notes at this time of the year since it's already a lovey dovey holiday. Yay! 

(Plus I had just bought some new valentine products and needed to justify to myself that I bought them for a reason. lol) 

I designed parts of these while in the hotel room (heehee), but then ya know... you can't really finish them till you add stitching to them at home. So I finished them when I was home last time and now they're ready to send out! 

To make these, I was totally inspired by Lisa Spangler's post on the Studio Calico blog where she watercolored the backgrounds of her cards and then embellished them with the Heart Day sticker sheet from Crate Paper. For my cards, I used mostly the Heart Day sticker sheet and also the diecut pack. I am usually a sucker for paper, but man-- embellishments are super fun to play with! 

I think the machine stitching adds the perfect amount of texture to the card. These are flat cards, so on the ones that I stitched on, I glued a piece of pink cardstock to the back. I tried to keep these cards textured, but relatively flat since I would be mailing them in envelopes. I'm always scared when I send off a really dimensional card because I don't want it to get caught in the machines at the post office. So that's why I wanted to keep these thin. 

This background is probably my fave. All the colors blobbed together is just so pretty, in my opinion. 

Which one is your fave? I like all of them for different reasons, so it'd be hard to pick just one. ;) 

Happy (early) Valentine's Day!  

Lucky

I love my man. :) 

This layout is all about the story, really. So here's the journaling:

"We were in Cracker Barrel the other day and K saw a sign that said, 'Sometimes I look at you and think how did I get so darn lucky' and he pointed to it and then nodded at me. Talk about making me feel special! It was so sweet. I love Kevin." 

When I found that Amy Tangerine "Lucky" thicker in my stash, I immediately thought of this story (especially since I made this layout soon after this happened). I'm not one to use the work "lucky" a lot, but I certainly am lucky to have my wonderful husband. He's just the best. :) And when he says sweet things like this, it always makes my little heart swell with happiness. 

I used the Picnic Tags from my Summer Vibes collection for the basis of the design for this page. I am challenging myself to use more of my own collections on my projects this year! I love how the bold patterns are the focal point of this page. 

I kept this layout pretty simple because, well, I'm really drawn to the minimalist look lately. Probably just a phase. Haha.

See ya next time with another paper project! 

Wedding Wednesday: Ceremony

Back again!

Today I'm sharing some pictures and details about the wedding ceremony. Enjoy! :)

Our wedding day went fabulously. Seriously. It was SO worried about the flow of everything and how it would all turn out. I asked Rhonda, my now sister-in-law, to be in charge of the ceremony and she did a fabulous job. Everything went so smoothly.

Promptly at 11:00am (or maybe a couple of minutes after... who knows... I don't! lol) on November 12, 2016, our wedding began.  

Dad walking me down the aisle. We were both so nervous that we would cry, so we tried not to look at each other too much. We both managed to avoid that during the ceremony (whew!). My dad's the sweetest. 

Wanna know someone who was crazy nervous? KEVIN! Afterwards he told me that he was afraid he was going to pass out because he was so nervous. :O Uhh.... glad I didn't know that till later because that would have made ME nervous! He loosened up a little bit once I got there and everyone wasn't just staring him down. He doesn't like being in front of people. ;)

My nervousness struck me the night before. When we were on our way home from rehearsal. I could have thrown up. Just thinking about it all and how I wanted everything to turn out "perfect" just made me nauseous. But I made it and on the wedding day, we were really just too busy for my nerves to take control of me (that goodness!).

I think this "first look" photo on the left is precious. And my "last look" if you want to call it that with my dad was so sweet. I couldn't think of him giving me away or I would have cried because I knew HE was about to cry! But we made it! 

Kevin's cousin preached the ceremony. It was very comfortable, short, and sweet. He did a really good job on it, if you ask me. About 30 minutes later, we were husband and wife! 

These next two photos are some my faves-- I love that the photographers captured both my mom and Kevin's dad recording our special moment.

Look at Kevin's face! Awwwwww! And by the looks of Clint's, who knows what he just said! 

We did traditional vows AND personal vows during the ceremony. And during mine, I started crying. And crying. I tried hard to stop, but I couldn't. Granted, no I wasn't straight-out bawling, but MAN! I didn't want to cry!!! Kevin had told me that if I cried, that he would wipe my tears. So here, he's doing just that. :) I guess it just added to the effect because people told me afterwards that they started to tear up too! 

I loved our church that we got married in... [sigh] Look how pretty it is! 

"Mr. & Mrs. Kevin Doolittle"

The kiss! And also Kevin carried me out of the ceremony! He picked me up while we were still on the little stage area, and so he had to step down while carrying me-- I was a little nervous! I thought he was going to pick me up when we went to the aisle! But it all worked out. 

All photos taken by Katie & Alec Photography. 

I think I have maybe one or two more Wedding Wednesday posts. I know the next one will be of the reception, and I'm not sure if I want to do a recap at the end. We'll see! Hope you enjoyed today's post!