Adorn-It Blog Hop

Oh NO! I had a crazy night last night and thought that I needed to get this post up today, not last night...so I am a little behind. I am playing catch-up and hope the blog hop goes smoothly for everyone else. oops.

So, welcome to the Adorn-It Blog Hop!!!

If you haven't already, you can start the blog hop at the Adorn-It blog http://www.adornitscrapbook.com/bloghop and follow along as you go through everyone's blogs.
If you are new to my blog you don't know that I am the mother of three girls, all under the age of 5. Is that crazy or what? They definitely keep me going and there is no room for boredom in our house. No way. You absolutely would not believe some of the things we've been through with the kids this year. They are wild and silly and fun and sweet, they make me laugh, sometimes make me cry and other times make me want to pull my hair out but they are also a tremendous blessing in my life and the inspiration for most of my scrapbooking.

Are you having a fabulous summer so far? It is hard to believe that it will soon be coming to an end but we have some fun things coming in our family's future including our oldest starting kindergarden. Time passes so very quickly, doesn't it?

We wanted to share some summer favorites today so I have a couple of pages to share with you. Some of my girls' favorite things are swimming and swinging. They simply cannot get enough- I have lost count of how many trips we've taken to the park this summer but if it keeps the kids happy and gives me an opportunity to take pictures I'm all for it!!

I absolutely love love love journal spots and doodling on my alphas lately. It's quite a simple thing but adds a little handmade extra to a page or card. This paper was originally 12x12 but I cut it down to make the page you see here. Don't be afraid to cut into your papers and try something new. I kept this page simpler than my typical style to keep the focus on the pictures and to show that you don't have to do lots of techniques and throw on lots of product for a page to look cute.

Oh, I just thought to tell you that I pulled out some of my old scallop edge scissors to use on the left side of the strip of wallet photos. It's very subtle but a fun/cute thing to do with pictures.

Something else I like to do on my pages and cards is paper pleating. You can see that here on my "Swim Fun" page above. Pleating has become quite the trendy thing to do and looks like it might be hard to do but it really isn't. Simply cut a strip of paper the length you want, crumple it up really well taking care to not rip it too much (a few little tears are okay if you like the distressed look). Ink the edges if you want to or leave them plain. It looks cute either way! Then all you need to do is randomly pleat the paper and glue in place. Don't worry about measuring and being real accurate- I think it looks best when I make the folds completely random. You can stitch over this, use staples, use a lace or other trim on one edge, it's up to you. But, isn't it cute?! And ever-so-easy. Really.

Thank you for visiting my blog today. I hope you have fun visiting all of the other blogs. I'll have to go take a peek and see what everyone else is up to as well.

Make sure and leave a comment here by midnight tonight EST and I will do a drawing for a fun prize package.

Happy blog-hopping!!

Your next stop will be Lisa Manderachia's blog at http://risalenee.blogspot.com/

Have a wonderful day!!!