Family Traditions Hop with Glue Dots

I'm so excited to be back!!!

I took a crazy long hiatus from blogging because so many things were changing around the Deeply Rooted house that I needed to spend some dedicated family time. I changed jobs, which, ironically for the hiatus, gives me a lot more time at home and a lot less travel. Both kids started back to school, the youngest for the first time, and the hubs began working at the kids school - his first step back into the 'working outside of the home' world since our oldest was born 6 years ago!
I've been dedicating a lot of time to the kids, which has been great for our family. I've also made the decision to put myself first in several areas of my life, including my physical well being! I've thoroughly enjoyed the process of regaining health.I can hardly wait to keep talking about that aspect of my life, but I'm also super excited to tell you about my continuing adventure as a DOTTESS!!

I've been with the Glue Dots® Design Team since 2011, and I'm super, super, SUPER excited to be joining them again this year! With all of the craziness that life can bring, being a Dottess keeps me grounded in crafting, which in turn keeps me grounded in my passion. I love that this year I'm going to be getting back to some of the basics with some good ol' 12x12's and 4x6's, as well as pushing my creative boundaries at times and exploring new artsy ventures.

To kick off the 2014-2015 Dottess year, we're celebrating Thankfulness and family traditions with a fun blog hop through the team. More than ever, I'm incredibly thankful, first and foremost, to God for blessing me with much more than I've ever dreamed to deserve. He's blessed me with an amazing life full of love, laughter, and some hilariously funny kids, who always make great photo subjects!

Through the years, you two have always loved playing outside in Fall.
I pray that you'll never grow tired of jumping in the leaves and exploring the world together.

 Without fail, every Fall the kids love to escape into nature to play. Swings flying through the crisp air filled with squeals of delight, little bodies shooting down the slide into a pile of crunchy leaves, and my hubs and I unashamedly playing along with an unexplainable joy. While I'm afraid there will come a day they'll not think that running through the leaves and swinging on a tire horse with their mom and dad isn't cool anymore, I pray that their playful sense of abandonment will take over and this tradition will continue for generations to come.


Materials:
* Cardstock
  -12x12 - Crate Paper
  - 6x6 - My Minds Eye - All Spice
  - 4x6 journaling card - We R Memory Keepers
* Cardstock and canvas stickers - Little Yellow Bicycle
* Die Cut Cardstock - Jillibean Soup
* Photos


Tools
* Ultra Thin Glue Dots®
* Mini Glue Dots® 
* Sewing machine
* Typewriter
* Black pen

Directions: 1. Use Ultra Thin Glue Dots® to adhere 6x6 cardstock to 12x12 cardstock base.
2. Type journaling onto card using typewriter (or print from computer), adhere with Ultra Thin Glue Dots®.
3. Reinforce cardstock and canvas stickers using Mini Glue Dots®, adhere to layout.
4. Using sewing machine, add stitching to layout using several types of stitches.
5. Add handwritten journaling.



Here are a few tips I always like to follow:
-When using materials that are purchased already adhesive backed, always reinforce the adhesive with the appropriate sized Glue Dot®. You'll thank yourself years in the future when you don't have to go back through your albums and reattach your pages!
-Always include your handwriting on a layout. While you might not appreciate your handwriting, I promise that your child and grandchildren will! If you're not the best at penmanship, use a computer or typewriter to accomplish the majority of your text, and then add personalization where you can.

The other talented Dottesses have great projects for you to check out, as well! Head on to Grace's blog to check out her amazing work!

Dawn 

Donna

Erin (you are here!)

Grace (head here next!)

Glue Dots Blog

I'm so excited to share all the new things that are in store around here...next time! 

Keep yourself DeeplyRooted! 

Crib to Toddler Bed Layout

Merry Christmas from the Deeply Rooted house!!!

Uh...ehm...what??

That's right, folks! We're busy getting the house re-decorated for Christmas! Our youngest kiddo's 4th birthday party is tomorrow, and she wanted a Christmas party!! I am IN LOVE with this idea! Not only can we recycle so many things from last Christmas, but we scored everything extra we needed to decorate during the after Christmas sales! SCORE!!

I was taking a mom-minute and reminiscing over the last 4 years of this hilariously exuberant kid, remembering all of her 'firsts' so far, and started thinking about how much she's grown!! I saw this page in her scrapbook when she transitioned from her crib to it's toddler bed form.

Close up of before

Close up of after (not the best picture...oh well!)

Journaling card

I can't wait to celebrate my little cutie's birthday tomorrow!!! I'm sure pictures will be coming soon!

Mom + Me = Love

Here's another page that I did on my scrapbooking weekend last October. Like I said in yesterday's post, I was trying to get a bunch of older pictures finished and onto pages, including these from my daughter's birth.
I came across a sketch from Creating Keepsakes that I followed for this layout. I love the two completely different patterned papers working together here. I've said it [a million] times before, and I'll probably say it [a million times] more: using paper that comes from the same paper pack takes the guesswork out of figuring out what 'goes'. Too matchy-matchy isn't my style, but getting unique papers to coordinate makes a page work!

 Here's a close up of that fabric flower. I love it!! My mother, who totally knows my style, bought a ribbon of these fabric flowers (joined by a mesh-type backing) from Stampin' Up!. I LOVE THEM! I used the Stampin' Write markers and colored it with the brush tip. Completely customizable and pretty!

I've been on a doily kick for quite some time now, stealing them from under cups at restaurants (classy, I know! LOL!), buying any and every style I can get my hands on! I used them on this page for not only visual interest, but journaling spots, as well. I didn't want my journaling to be too bold on the page, so I used a soft colored marker to write in my text.


Whew! Two days of blogging in a row! Someone call a doctor...I might have a fever!!

I'm alive. I promise!

Wow.

A two month hiatus.

Seriously?!
Whew!


The holidays around here went quick and were super busy, but we had a great time visiting family out of state and close by, as well. The kids had a great time all month with their special elf friend, Chippy (Elf on the Shelf).

Back in the middle of October (sheesh...that was a long time ago!!) I went to a scrapbooking retreat with my great friend, Kasey, and my mom, Marty. It was just us, a big house with ample space, and our crafty supplies for three whole days! We had a ton of fun, and I'm really excited to be able to set something up again soon!

While I was there, I got a TON of layouts done. I went back to when my daughter was born (she's almost four now...lol!) and got a bunch of those hospital pictures done. Feels good to get things finished!! Over the next few days, I'll be posting about random pages I got done while I was there. I didn't take the time to write down paper packs and designers, so I hope no one minds!

I played with a million different layouts to fit all 11 pictures, a title and journaling on the page. I love how it turned out!

This is a page that had no kids on it...I think that's a first! Before we moved states, we tried to have pretty regular game nights with our friends Scott and Jennifer. It was always a hilarious time with lots of food, laughs, and usually at least one of us making a food of ourselves. The night of these pictures, we were playing a game called Quelf, which lends to our crazy antics with the very nature of the game.

The title is a mixture of three different Thicker styles.

Here's to hoping for more regular posts!!
Happy New Year!