The Paustenbaughs

May PageMaps

I have worked with PageMaps in the past and just love them so I was stoked when the Write.Click.Scrapbook team was asked to take part in this month's PageMaps sketches! The new sketches are all up now so head on over to take a look at the team's layouts!

This is the sketch I worked with:

I stuck pretty closely with the sketch and it came together pretty quickly!

I wasn't so sure about using the larger iPhone photo, but it ended up working.  I really wanted to document this change in my life recently because it was HUGE!  I've had horrible eyesight since I was 11 years old and was dependent on glasses and contacts to see anything beyond a foot in front of my face. 

I finally broke down in February and had Lasik surgery and it is the absolute best thing I could have done!  And like everyone I have talked to who also had it done, I'm kicking myself for not doing it sooner!  Love it and love waking up and not blindly feeling around for my glasses!

Thanks for stopping by!

Holiday Mini

I have a giveaway for this very kit if you scroll down to the bottom of the post!

This month at Write.Click.Scrapbook it's been mini month for all of March.  This week we are focusing on a Studio Calico kit.  Today is my turn and I made a mini about our recent (ish) trip to the Bahamas over our Christmas vacation.  I started with the smaller Studio Calico journaling kit/album and went from there!

I love these Pink Paislee mistables!  I was unsure at first, but they are so versatile with a little mist.  I've started hoarding some of them!

I'm so glad to finally get this mini album together!  It normally takes me a year to put one of these together, and I only wish I were kidding!

__________________________________________________________________________________________

And now for the best part?  I'm going to give away a Daydream Believer Kit to a lucky winner!  I subscribe to Studio Calico and thought I would need the extra to put this together and come to find out with my stash and small album I had plenty of leftovers!

Leave me a comment by Friday 4 pm and I'll draw a winner.  It will be mailed out Easter weekend.

Summer Mini Part Ni

Ah, yes, trying to do some Japanese cramming just 8 weeks before take off!  Here's hoping cramming college style works when you're nearly 40 too!

But quick before I get to the mini, there is one day left to Save 17% on up to 3 items at ellapublishing.com through March 19  so head on over before midnight for savings!

Tomorrow I'll be back with a fun Ella giveaway!! _______________________________________________________________________________________

I wanted to share a bit more of my mini album I made for the write.click.scrapbook gallery this month.

After our annual trip to Myrtle Beach, I headed off for a girls' weekend with my college friends and had the most fabulous time with those ladies! Man how I miss them and wish we weren't spread out so far apart.

I cut the "SC" from my Silhouette, then misted with a little bit of Mr. Huey to make it a bit more green.  Again, loving the lined journaling pages inserted  in this book for all the stories!

Next we headed off to what Terry refers to as "The Motherland" - Pennsylvania mountains.  We love it here and as the girls have gotten older they have come to love it more and more too.  No technology, just the family being together and enjoying some wildlife friends too.

Again, the Silhouette cut for the "PA" and just layered it over one of the American Crafts cards since these are perfect for our trip to the cabin!

I used another AC card on the right, but this time I cute out the center and used the outside as a frame for our biking photo-worked perfectly!

I used up the last bits of my Campy Trails from American Crafts and sprinkled in some Amy Tan for AC as well-the colors blended beautifully!

Still not done with this mini so I'll be back with more soon!

______________________________________________________________________________________-

If any of you remember me asking for prayers for my sister-in-law last summer we could use more prayers for her.  She has finished all her treatments for breast cancer and went in for a follow up MRI last week.  They found something else suspicious and did a biopsy on Thursday.  The results should be in any day and we are all on pins and needles hoping against hope that it is nothing. 

Thank you.

Spring Weaving

So today we are back to our regularly scheduled season-SPRING!  First, let me just say though that this week is actually looking more like the beginning of summer.  It's crazy!  But I'm certainly not complaining because there could be snow right now.

Onto Spring!

This week on the Pebbles Blog we are featuring spring projects, layouts and cards.  I chose to make a project because looking at our photos I didn't have a ton of spring specific and we don't have so many spring decor items so that solved that.

I started with a frame from Michael's for just a dollar (score!) since it was oval/egg shaped.

Then I decided to get a little crazy, well for me anyway, and ventured down the paper weaving road.  I cut strips of paper to 1/2" strips and simply started weaving and gluing down as I went.  After I was done I felt a little nervous about it staying together, so I stitched along some of the strips for extra security!

I trimmed it down to fit the frame and may or may not have gotten a little tipsy off some Mod Podge.It actually went together quite easily, which is normally not the way for me so I was super excited!

I then just put some simple embellishments on it to enhance it but not overpower it too.  I cut my favorite banner out from the Silhouette (it's a Pebbles design ;) and applied the sentiment to that.

So that's that.  Simple, quick, easy and I must say pretty too!

 

Summer Mini

This month at write.click.scrapbook our gallery features nothing but mini albums!  I absolutely love seeing what the other ladies came up with for their minis, and in my case, not so minis!

Today I'm going to share a few pages of mine.  If I shared it all it would be the world's longest blog post I fear, so we'll get to it in installments!  Plus, it's a light crafty week for me, so it gives me something to blog about later when I'm at a loss.

I started with a Fancy Pants Brag Book as a base for the album.  As soon as I saw these albums, I went and stocked up on a couple of them.  After using one I'm thinking I need to stock up on more!

I kept holding on to this older map paper from Studio Calico and nearly threw it away a couple of times, but so, so glad I didn't!  I wanted that to be the focus of the front since it's a travel album and went with a simple title/cover for the bottom part.  I stitched it all together, put a fabrip on for added color and called it done!

I made a very simple inside cover/first page to the album to list all the places we ventured off to during our crazy busy summer last year.  I wanted to keep the focus on the pages of our adventures.

We first headed off to our annual Myrtle Beach vacation with Grandma.  She is so extremely good to us and every year for the past 4 years has taken us down to their timeshare/condo in Myrtle Beach.  We always have an awesome time and come home with luggage that is a few pounds heavier with all the sand!

The lined pages for journaling are so fantastic in this book.  I really can't say enough about them.  I also covered several of them up with paper and photos for the book too!

Although I used a little bit of newer stuff, I tried to focus on using up some stash too and clearing out some bits and pieces I had left of Studio Calico kits.  Kind of invigorating to use up things that have just been sitting there for some time!

And those photo sleeves? Also an awesome touch with this book!  I didn't want it to be so thick you couldn't look through it, so these sleeves were great for those extra photos that didn't need another story to go with them.

Thanks for stopping by!  I'll be back with more later!

Natural Competitor

This one:

definitely got her dad's competitive spirit.  Maya and I are in it for the experience and if we win great, and if we don't, well better luck next time.  Terry and Ella are in it to win it for sure!!

We saw this first hand last summer during swim team.  Ella started in the "mini" Rays, where it was glorified swim lessons, but she was quickly moved up to the competitive team after one practice.  She wasn't so much into the daily practices, but boy her first meet rolled around and she had fire in her eyes!

We told her what to do and where to swim and she was on it!  We watched her as she took a breath, looked around at her competition and kicked it into high gear to get to the finish line.  She didn't come in first place, but she did place in several events.

She lived for Saturdays when she could get out and race again and was disappointed if she wasn't in a particular race.  I believe this summer we have a competitive swimmer on our hands!  Should be fun to watch her bloom.  And p.s.-her dad is ecstatic that she got that competitive spirit!

I have been hoarding this Custom Flair from Ormolu for a while now and decided I needed to get it out of the packaging and actually USE IT!!  I thought it was perfect for this layout with all the intense bright colors and it sort of pops.  The ribbon was perfect too from this Studio Calico kit to highlight a swim ribbon.

I took a chance and tried some rub ons on the fabric swatch too.  I was nervous that it wouldn't work and then my absolute favorite swatch would be ruined, but yay for experiments working out!  These are older rub ons too and they went on beautifully.  I highly recommend them.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Just a reminder that you can still save 20% on the new Ella Publishing Stamping Secrets eBook now through March 7th.  I can't say enough about this book-I'll be reading and re-reading it to help me in the stamping department!

Eight is Enough

I took the Ella Publishing challenge this week and made a layout using only 8 layouts.  I started off thinking it might be a little difficult, but not so bad.  Boy was I wrong!!  I realized how many little bits and pieces I use on my layouts that equals WAY more than 8 products. 

I chose to use 3 sheets of patterned paper because I knew that I could at least use punches to break down that paper.  I use twine on almost all my layouts so I knew I would definitely use that too.

That library card is downloaded from Shimelle, via 2 Peas In A Bucket.

And since there is a new Stamping eBook debuting this week, I dug out some stamps to use too!  Until March 7th the ebook is 29% off!!!

This book has some really great expert tips from some phenomenal stampers and includes video instruction too.  Seriously, for an amateur stamper like myself, it has some amazing tips and tricks in it!

Head on over to Ella, or you can link on over from the button to the left.

<<<------------

Ready For Adventure

Saturday's over at Write.Click.Scrapbook there is a different focus each week.  The 1st Saturday of the month is "write" and we focus on journaling.  Amy Sorenson puts together these 1st Saturdays posts and requested layouts about something you are looking forward to and of course music related layouts since that was the gallery theme for the month.  Luckily, I had some time to put something together and knew exactly what I would scrap about!

One thing we are definitely looking forward to once we get to our new home in Japan is all the traveling.  We've already started a list of places we want to visit and I plan on using our passports to their fullest!  I love to travel, especially internationally, and now that the girls are older and can pack and go much easier than babies and toddlers, then we will definitely set off on many an adventure!

Not only do we plan on seeing all there is to see in Okinawa, but will definitely be venturing off to other countries as well and I cannot wait!  There will be no excuse for 2 years, besides the excuse of "we're only here 2 years-LET'S GO!!" 

I nearly put this map paper in the donate pile because although I think it's gorgeous, I just could not figure out how to use it and where to use it.  So glad I hung on to it and found a place for it! Of course that only furthers my paper hoarding issue!

Happy Monday!

Heart Healthy (and some cards)

This week at Ella Publishing we are celebrating Heart Health Awareness Month.  Yesterday Rachel and other Ella Friends shared how heart conditions have affected them in their families.  I encourage you to go take a look and read these amazing stories of courage and faith. 

Today we are highlighting projects that promote a heart healthy lifestyle, specifically in women.  You have probably read the statistics and have seen the news stories related to the increase in heart related conditions in women and the steps we can take to combat this.  This is a subject I could contribute to and it was a layout I have been wanting to make for some time anyway, so Rachel gave me the kick in the hiney I needed to get it done!

Terry and I have been running for a quite a few years now.  He started way back when he joined the Marine Corps in 1995 and I started when I couldn't get those last pesky pounds off after having Maya in 2002.  Now, well, it has certainly become a way of life for us.  I always say I run to eat chocolate, when in actuality I run to stay healthy and combat those ailments lurking around.

We also run for those beautiful little people in our family.  We want to set an example and we want to be around for many, many years to come to torment them into adulthood!!  They both say they'll "do running" when they get bigger too and I couldn't be more proud to hear them say that.  We don't use the word "fat" or "skinny" in our house, but healthy.  As long as they are healthy, I am happy with that!

Tomorrow on the Ella Blog we'll be sharing heartfelt cards too and want everyone to know it's National Wear Red Day in honor of Heart Healthy Month.  So bust out that red to honor those you know affected by heart disease or just to bring awareness!

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yesterday I was up over at the Pebbles Blog too with some cards. I'm finally getting over my fear of cards-yay me!!  That's not to say that I'm totally comfortable with them, but it does mean I don't start immediately sweating when someone asks me to do one!! 

I made this one for a certain special someone who had a birthday last week!

I love making cards for them and they get so excited when they see one made.  Ella said "you made that for ME??!!"  Love that reaction!

I also made this one as well that she can use for all those many gifts she received from friends and family:

We are out enjoying this amazing freak weather we are having this week!  I know winter will return soon so for now I push the children outside and we all enjoy it while we can!!

Happy Thursday!

She Beats To Her Own Drum

Today is February 1st, which means that a new gallery is up at Write.Click.Scrapbook!!  This month our theme for the gallery is music.  Love this theme! 

We aren't exactly a musical family, but love music and love to dance.

However, I took a different approach to this month since not long ago I created a layout about Maya and her love of piano.  This one was still about Maya, but also about one of the many reasons I love and respect this little girl: she is different and embraces her differences.

She has always been quirky and likes what she likes and I love that about her.  She is self conscious, but not so much that it stops her from doing what she enjoys and what makes her happy.  She definitely beats to her own drum and I think she enjoys that music!

I keep these random photos around that I know I want to scrap, yet not sure how I want to use them and what direction I want to go and they were perfect for this layout.

I also created this layout for the Ormolu blog and took one of the Fact or Fiction Dots and Spots and trimmed it down to portray sun rays against the embossed sun rays behind it.  I just love her tags and the versatility they offer for layouts and cards.  I normally end up cutting them down or using them in a different way, not because I don't like them, but because there are so many possibilities with them!

So head over and take a look at the rest of the gallery from the collective! I always love seeing how everyone interprets the theme for the month!

**Also, head over to the Ormolu blog to take part in 2 different challenges from Melanie and Stephanie.  A gift certificate and 2 Day Hooray buttons are up for grabs!!!