The Paustenbaughs

Just 5 Products

This month's theme at Write.Click.Scrapbook is using just 5 products on a page.  Now, I'm not the most complicated scrapper, but I do love me some bits and pieces on my pages and my supply lists usually grow pretty quickly!  So this was more difficult than usual, but I digress...

So I may or may not have "cheated" a bit by lumping things together in themes.  Patterned paper counted as one, letter stickers, etc. I had some trouble people. Lots of trouble.

But I adore this photo, so I still love this layout.  Ella has always been a Grandpa's girl since she was born. She ADORES them. She loves her grandmas too, but has a very special place in her heart for the men in her life!

Christmas At Sea

First, the winner of the Ormolu gift certificate from the Write.Click.Scrapbook birthday blog hop never claimed her prize so onto the next winner!

Holly Saveur said...

They are all so great but my fav is Sweet Sadie.

Congrats Holly!  Email me at tcpaustenbaugh (at) gmail (dot) com

And if I don't hear from Holly then I'll just be picking someone that I know comes back to read and will claim their prize!

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I realized after the blog hop that I never shared my full layout for this month's gallery

We did something out of the ordinary for Christmas last year so I took an out of the ordinary approach to this holiday layout.  We went to the Bahamas and I thought this paper had a great tropical feel to it and worked perfectly for me.

I've also been wanting to use the Jillibean Soup packaging for some time as well and found a use for it in my journaling spot.  I think they would make a great backing for a mini album as well-if only I had a few more on me right now!

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Continuing to speak of Write.Click.Scrapbook, did you know we are having our first ever in history creative team call?!?!  That's right, you can throw your hat and creativity in the ring to join our team.  This is one of those rare teams where it's not just about the creativity and "shop" talk, but a great comraderie of women that work and click really well together (possible pun intended!).  You can find all the details here to find out how to submit your work.  I highly recommend it!!

Have a great Monday!

WCS Birthday Blog Hop

It's a birthday celebration!!

That's right, Write.Click.Scrapbook is turning 3 this month!! So to celebrate we're having a blog hop to celebrate current members, new members and our fearless leader, Marnie.

You should have come here via Celeste Smith's blog, brought to you by the letter "I".  And now, you're here, brought to you by the letter:

I have been with the team for a little over a year now and I can't tell you how thrilled I am to be on this team of women with wonderful spirits and not to mention are beyond talented.  We don't just create together each month, but chat about life in general, the highs, the lows and everything in between.  I feel blessed to know them and I'm pretty sure they'll have to push me out the door if they want me gone! 

A huge shout out to our fearless leader, Marnie Flores, who keeps us up to date, motivates us all and in general is the brains behind this operation!  No way would we be this unified without her!

This month's gallery is one of my favorites.  We were each paired with another team member and used one of their past layouts as inspiration.  I love what everyone came up with this month, and of course there was lots of inspiration to choose from!

I was paired with Celeste and chose this layout as my inspiration piece:

And a wee peek at my layout from her beautiful layout:

And for stopping by today I have a wee prize up for grabs for someone!  I have no supplies with me since they are still being shipped, but I do have access to a gift certificate!

Leave me a comment telling me your favorite layout from the gallery this month (no, it doesn't have to be mine ;) and you'll be entered to win an Ormolu $10 gift certificate.  I'll draw a winner Sunday morning.

Now, you need to head on over to one of our newest team members' blogs, the very talented Deb Duty and see what she has in store and to collect your next letter along the way!

 

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!

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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.

Final Mini

I wanted to share the final pages of my mini album I made for the gallery this month at write.click.scrapbook  I have another one I'll be sharing later this week.  Much shorter, but was still fun to put together!

After our trip to the mountains, we almost always stop by for a day of fun at Hershey Park.  The girls love that place and again we had a great time despite it feeling like 200 degrees while we were there!

I thought this roller coaster paper from Studio Calico was perfect for this trip.  I punched out little cars from a Creative Memories punch to use as the coaster cars.

When Maya and Ella were visiting my parents we had to pay homage to Pittsburgh and Heinz Field on our way back to Virginia.  It was an absolute great getaway before Terry started his new job away from us and of course he was in his element at his "roots"!

The last stop on our summer tour was traveling down to Williasmburg to see Terry and save him a trip all the way back home for at least one weekend.  The girls and I entertained ourselves at Jamestown for a day and absolutely loved it!

And a trip to Williamsburg isn't complete without a day at Busch Gardens.  We can never pass this up, especially when it's free for us to go!

Thank you so much for stopping by and letting me share my album!  I want to put one more section of our fun at home then I'll be able to call it complete!

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!

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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.

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!

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!

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!!!