Jubilation - June SOTM Blog Hop

Welcome to the June Stamp of the Month blog hop!  This month we have over 50 consultants participating to give you lots of great ideas with this versatile stamp set.  If you've arrived here from Annette's Creative Journey, you're in the right place.  When you're done here, you'll hop along to Fancy Melissa and check out what she made this month.

The 24 stamps in this month's set are so awesome!  I am picturing all kinds of uses for them, but I have to admit that my first thought when I saw this set was Mayberry.  I really really wanted to combine these stamps with the Mayberry papers!  And this is the result:

"Golden Section" pattern, pp 80-81 in Cherish - blank spot for journaling

I just love the way this layout turned out!  It's hard to believe that the not-yet-2yo in those pictures is now TEN.  But I think it's really paid off that I wait until I feel I have just the perfect things to use with my pictures instead of just slapping them on whatever paper I like at the time.  It's hard to tell here, but everything coordinates so well with her clothes in these pictures... I'm a little anal retentive about things like that!

Here's a little tool tip for today:   After stamping the flowers and cutting them out, I flipped them over on top of the back side of my Versamat.  I used the Embossing Stylus to round all of the flower petals, then flipped the flowers back right side up.  Then I pressed the embossing stylus into the center of the flower to push it back down while leaving the petals rounded.

Stamped flower petals rounded with embossing stylus on left; canvas badge button on right

In addition to the stamp of the month and the Mayberry papers, I used the following supplies:

• Exclusive inks in Smoothie and Cocoa
• Canvas Badge Buttons
• Designer Ribbon, Pink Collection
• Sparkles in Red, Pink, & Purple
• Opaques Pearls
• Micro-Tip Scissors
• Bohemian Alphabet
• Chocolate Alphabet Large
• Medium Embossing Stylus
• Cherish

Now make sure you head over to Fancy Melissa's for the next project!

Blog Candy Week Winners!

Today I have the winners from Blog Candy Week!  Since I have multiple prizes, they will be awarded in the order chosen by random.org.  All winners need to contact me within 24 hours or winners will bump up the list and I will choose an alternate.

Please email me with your top 3 prize choices, or if you're not interested in the Cricut prizes just let me know that.  Prize choices include a Green Scrap'n Tote, a Pink Scrap'n Tote; a Tags, Bags, Boxes, & More cartridge (used but NOT linked to a Gypsy), and "other".

1. Isabel Z.- I do not have an email for you, so please contact me ASAP
2. Manhattan Mandie
3. pt8597
4. Sheri
5. Laura aka scrapaddict
6. CRAZY4CHRIST

Mod Podge to the Rescue!

Most of you probably don't know that I am a "garbage picker" - I have rescued chairs from a neighbor's garbage and, with hubby's assistance, refinished them and reupholstered them.  So, I thought nothing of jumping at an old dresser on my local Freecycle group.  We REALLY needed some storage in our living/dining room to get some kid games and some puzzles out of sight and out of my china cabinet.

I wish I had taken some "before" pictures, but I just plain forgot in my excitement to get to it.  Just imagine your average real wood dresser, probably from the 50's, that had been in someone's garage for a while.  A little dusty, a little musty, but overall in decent shape.  We removed a mirror from it that we don't need or have room for, and I started stripping.  I happen to have a short attention span, and hubby is a procrastinator, so while I started things, he wound up finishing.  He used a black Minwax stain on it, which turned out pretty well as it matches the chairs I rescued from the neighbor's garbage.

Originally, I had wanted to cover the drawer fronts with old maps (or paper that looks like a map) because this big room has a kind of France/travel theme.  (I'm convinced that if I expose hubby to it daily that eventually he'll take me there!)  I couldn't find anything near what I envisioned, but I happened upon some travel paper on clearance at my local Michael's that I thought was pretty cool.  It's a K&Co paper called On The Road Luggage Labels.  It has the vintage travel feel I was going for, and the colors worked.  So, here's how it turned out:

The bonus to the paper design is that it's difficult to see the seams, so I just left them straight, no messing with  overlapping cuts, etc.  I just brushed on my Mod Podge, laid on the papers, smoothed them out, then topped with more Mod Podge.  Quick & Easy!

Here's a closeup, so I can show you what I did with the knobs:

I picked up these knobs a while back from the $1 bins at Michael's.  Because they were glossy bright white, they didn't really match the vintage feel of the dresser and paper design.  So, I whipped out a sponge and some Staz-on ink in Timber Brown and "dirtied " them up a little bit.

We've already got those drawers loaded with games & puzzles, and things are looking considerable neater.  If you've got an old piece of furniture you're looking to rescue, I highly recommend the "Mod Podge method" - it can cover up all manner of imperfections!

Girls Night

Welcome to the final day of Blog Candy Week!  I will leave all comments open until Midnight Central Time on Sunday.  Winners will be announced on Tuesday.

Today I have another sketch-based two-page layout to share, along with a few tips. 

I apologize for the poor photo - if the light is better in the morning I'll replace it! Update: New photo is in place.  I can tell I don't use pastels much anymore, because this was h-a-r-d to get a decent picture of!  Be sure to click on the pic to enlarge it.

This is another Sketch Support sketch, which I followed almost exactly.  Just a few tips on how I added some easy texture & dimension to this.  First, I replaced a cardstock strip with the pink crocheted ribbon at the bottom.  Ribbon is a quick & easy way to add texture.  The best way to adhere an uneven surface like crochet is to use Scor-Tape; the 1/8" width was perfect for the top edge of this one.

Second, the sketch called for some stitching around the main square (the alpha paper).  To keep the feel without taking the time to actually stitch, I just poked holes with my paper piercer.  I could also add pen stitching between the holes, but I opted to leave it plain for this layout.

Third, I popped up my cardstock stickers on pop dots.  To prevent them from sticking where they shouldn't, you simply place the pop dot(s) on the back without removing the top paper, then cover the remaining adhesive on the sticker with baby powder (or use an embossing buddy).   Finally, to help tie in the stickers with the rhinestone flourish, I added some rhinestones as flower centers/buds in each embellishment group.

Oh, one last note: did you notice that (following the sketch) there are three groups of embellishments on the layout, arranged in a triangle?  As was repeated in every art class I took in college, there are certain things that make a design pleasing to the eye.  Odd numbers are more pleasing than even, especially threes.  Also, arranging items in a triangular shape across a design like this helps your eye flow through the layout rather than getting "stuck".  And repetition is very pleasing: same shape and/or same color, etc. are enjoyable to look at.

I hope you've had fun here this week!  I am totally looking forward to drawing names of winners!  Hope to see you back here soon.

Moxie Fab Chevron Card

 Wow!  It's already day #6 of Blog Candy Week!  I hope you're enjoying the projects so far; I'm really looking forward to announcing the winners.  If this is your first visit here this week, be sure you go visit this post and find out how to enter for some big prizes.

So, the current challenge at Moxie Fab World is Chevron Chic.  Chevrons, or zigzag stripes, are all over the place right now and they're lots of fun.  So, for this challenge, I opted for a quickie card and let the chevrons take center stage.

I used cardstock from Close To My Heart in Black, Sunflower, and Cotton Candy.  The chevrons were cut using Make The Cut software and the Basic Borders SVG set from Lettering Delights, and adhered using my Xyron.  The image is from the Be Yourself stamp set from Close To My Heart.  The image is stamped in white pigment ink on black CS and heat embossed.  I then trimmed around the image and adhered it to the card front.  Finally, I added some paper flowers with brad centers.  These paper flowers from Close To My Heart are discontinued, but there are some similar ones in the While Supplies Last discounted section of the online store.

The Chevron Chic Challenge in the Moxie Fab World is open until midnight on Monday, May 30 so you still have time to play!  The winners will be announed June 1, and there are prizes to be won.

Be sure to come back tomorrow for the final day of Blog Candy Week.  I plan to have another 2-page layout to share with you as well.  I'll be leaving all of the comments open until Sunday night at midnight Central time (May 29), and winners will be announced here on Tuesday May 31.

Magical Knight

Welcome all to day #5 of Blog Candy Week here at Saving My...  I can't wait to give away all of the fun goodies I have stashed away!  If this is your first visit, be sure to go back to this post and find out how you can win.  Now, on to today's project:

Every princess should have her knight in shining armor, and when you're young there's no one better for that role than Daddy.  This is the second time I've scrapped pictures from this event; I did a layout for my older daughter's scrapbook previously.  Our younger daughter has such a loving and playful personality that I thought lots of hearts would be perfect for her pages.

I started with a sketch from Sketch Support for this layout, sticking pretty close to the original other than changing the stars to hearts and eliminating some stitching and strip journaling.  I also replaced one of the indicated small photos with an additional, larger, heart.

I chose to use papers from BasicGrey's Bittersweet line for most of my patterns, so I started with a base of Blush cardstock from Close To My Heart.  Since I only had single sheets of the Bittersweet papers, I opted to replace the large background of pattern paper in the sketch with a lacy cutwork paper, a K&Co Silhouette, in a darker pink.  I added the BG pattern strips, cutting scallops for the bottom strip using my Cricut.  I decided to add some interest in my grouping of hearts by using various textures, including vellum and some American Crafts glitter cardstock, all cut with the Cricut.  I added some heart brads to the vellum to attach them to the page, then adhered the remaining hearts using pop dots for dimension.  For balance, I also popped up the larger heart on the opposite page, and added a heart stick pin (K&CO) to my journaling area.  My title is cut using my Cricut and the Stone Script and Opposites Attract cartridges.  Finally, I added a few final touches using my i-rock and pink gems.

I hope I gave you a few ideas to use in your layouts today!  Sketches are really my go-to for getting things done - it's so much easier to change a few things to make them my own rather than starting from scratch every time.  I hope you'll take the time to enter for this week's prizes, and hope to see you back tomorrow!

Disney Keepsake Frame

Welcome to day #4 of Blog Candy Week!  Be sure to check this blog post to find out how you can win big!

So, frugal ol' me found these great embellishment sets at Tuesday Morning a while back.  They are from Making Memories, and match that travel line they had out a while back.  The best part, aside from the price, was that they came in these great paperboard "suitcases" with a window on one side.  According to Tuesday Morning's price tag, original retail on these babies was $12, but I paid the exorbitant price of $1.99 each.  Since they've probably been around for a while, they were a little worse for wear; the windows were falling in on all of them.

Anyway, after I took out the goodies and cleaned the dust off the plastic "window", I got out my Scor-Tape and reassembled things.  I decided that one of these babies would make a great little decor piece for a vacation photo, with room to store some bits and bobs inside the box.  So, I immediately made a display for a Disney picture.  It will be a great place to stash some of the little Disney goodies that are spread here & there around the house.

I decided to go with a general Cinderella's Castle theme:

I tried to keep it simple so I won't block anything important in whatever picture I decide to put in there.  Also, since the opening is a bit of an odd size, I thought it easiest if I backed it with cardstock.  I again used my Scor-Tape, on three sides, leaving the bottom open to insert the picture.  (Can't insert it from the top because of the side of the suitcase being in the way.)

For this particular frame, I decided to use my Make The Cut software along with some SVG files from Lettering Delights.  I used the Provencial Princess set for the castle, Basic Borders for the diamond borders, and Weather Girl for the sun & clouds.  FYI, Lettering Delights has a home decor contest going on right now, and they also have graphics, digital papers, and fonts as well, so you don't have to use SVGs to enter!  (I've seen some great subway art in their gallery.)

Well, this little project was pretty fun & easy.  I think I might have to make some more, go a little more "fancy" and put some up in my empty etsy store finally!  I have some Hawaiian-type papers that I'd love to doll one of these up with - and since I don't see Hawaii in MY future anytime soon... well, it would be fun to make for SOMEONE!

Hope to see you back tomorrow, when I'll have an actual scrapbook layout to share with you... seems like it's been a while!

Tutorial Tuesday Preview - Faux Metal

Welcome to Day #3 of Blog Candy Week!  If this is your first day here, be sure to visit this post for rules & ways to enter to win.

Next week,  I am once again hosting Tutorial Tuesday over at Cutters Creek, but I just couldn't wait to share all of the results!  This month's focus is on embossing folders, so I am sharing one of my all-time  favorite embossing techniques: faux metal!  If you think you can make do with metallic cardstock or other ready-to-use products, think again.  This has the look of real metal, combined with the ease of use of cardstock; it's a win-win!

You can visit the Cutters Creek blog next Tuesday for the full tutorial, but I got crazy and made three cards so I'm sharing the extra two here!

First, here's this techy/manly gem using some silver Diamond Plate:

This card is based on card sketch #5 from Sketch Support.  The card base is textured cardstock from my stash, all papers are from Cosmo Cricket's Cogsmo line, stamps & inks are from Close To My Heart, and Glam Rocks for the i-Rock from Imaginisce.  My borders were punched with a Martha Stewart punch.

Next up, a classy & manly card:

This card design is based on card sketch #3 from Sketch Support (I change the squares to circles).  My gold metal sheet is made using the Cuttlebug Clockworks embossing folder.  The card base is Desert Sand cardstock (CTMH) sprayed with Glimmer Mist.  Cardstock, stamps, & inks are from Close To My Heart; pattern papers are from Cosmo Cricket's Lil' Man line; gold brads are from my stash; phrase is from Making Memories; and all other metal embellishments are from Tim Holtz.

I hope you enjoyed today's ideas - don't forget to see the full tutorial on the Cutters Creek blog next Tuesday!  And remember to stop back here the rest of this week for Blog Candy Week.

Five

Don't forget Blog Candy Week is in progress!  You can see the rules in this post.

Today's project is a layout of my daughter's 5th birthday party, showing that you don't always need to use a "traditional" title.

 

Instead of the same old lame "Holly's Birthday" I'm likely to use when I get in a jam, I used this fun word weld of fives from the Graphically Speaking Cricut cartridge.  You can also pretty easily create these yourself using your Make The Cut software, or using your Gypsy and whatever font cartridges you have.  It does take some time, but it doesn't have to be difficult.  Of course, the easier the better, as far as I'm concerned, and all of these number word welds were the main reason I bought Graphically Speaking way back when.

The strawberries were cut from the Paisley Cricut cartridge, to coordinate with her Strawberry Shortcake theme.  The papers and journaling spot are all form the Sophia line from Close To My Heart, as are the sketch book pattern and the stamping inks I used for dimension.

Thanks for stopping by today!  Be sure to join me tomorrow when I'm hosting another Tutorial Tuesday for Cutters Creek.  The technique is a surprise, but I have THREE cards to share with you all using the same technique in different colors!

Birthday Challenge

Welcome to day #1 of Blog Candy Week here at Saving My...  Be sure to see the previous post for details and rules.  You could win big!

Today is the beginning of the Birthday challenge over at Scrappy Frog's Challenge Blog!  There is a new challenge every three weeks, and there are prizes.  Here is my DT entry for this theme:

I made this card for my mother's birthday a couple of weeks ago, and have been waiting to share it with you today for the challenge.  My card is based on a sketch from Sketch Support - I stuck pretty closely to the sketch for this one, only changing one paper to a ribbon.

The card base is from DCWV; the ribbon is from my stash; cardstock, ink, and stamps from Close To My Heart; and pattern papers and pins are from the Making Memories Chloe's Closet line.  I think the pins make great candle wicks/flames!  I simply pierced them through at the top of the candles, taped them down on the backside, then covered the entire inside top of the card with another piece of cardstock to hide all of the pin ends.

Now, be sure to head over to Scrappy Frog's and see what the other DT members have to inspire you!

Welcome to Blog Candy Week!

 

This week I have a special treat in store!  I am running a week-long blog candy event.  Rather than giving away a different prize each day, I am going to run this all week and give away all of the prizes at once (limit one prize per person).  Prizes include a green Scrap'n Tote; a pink Scrap'n Tote; a Bags, Tags, Boxes & More Cricut cartridge (used), some American Crafts ribbon assortments, and more.  The more followers I have at the end, the more prizes there will be - with a minimum of 5 prizes!  Here are the rules:

• contest is open until midnight Central Time on Saturday night, 5/28/11
• you must be a follower to win
• one easy-entry by simply commenting on a post - one comment per post per person (not including this post)
• gain an extra entry each day by adding the blog candy badge above to your blog sidebar and linking it to http://savingmine.blogspot.com - then comment on that day's post with your blog address to let me know
• gain an extra entry by blogging about the contest and linking back to http://savingmine.blogspot.com - then comment with a direct link to your post to let me know

At the end of the contest, I will draw the winners using random.org and give the winners, in the order drawn, their choice of prizes.  Because of this method, I will need to allow only 24 hours for winners to respond before drawing alternates.  Please be sure I have a way to contact you - if your email or a blog link is not in your profile, please be sure to include a way for me to contact you in your comment.

Good luck to everyone!  I can't to wait to choose my winners!

Stamps in Motion

I don't know about you, but it seems to me that my kids are constantly in motion.  A lot of my pictures these days seem to involve sports or running around, and it just doesn't feel right to have them on a static/stagnant layout.  So, for this layout of my daughter's first experience at soccer "camp", I stuck with a simple layout design and added a soccer ball "moving"across the page.

Now, if you know me, you may be shocked to see all of that WHITE cardstock in my layout.  I like me some white space, but very rarely do I actually use white cardstock as my base like this.  (In fact, if I were doing this again I would probably switch it to light green, but I do like the way this turned out.)  FYI, the patterned papers are from a new Teresa Collins kit I picked up called Sports Edition II.  I love the red, white, blue, & black color scheme - a little different than most of the sports stuff I already have, so that's an added bonus!

Now, on to the moving stamps!

This has got to be the easiest stamping ever!  Just ink up your stamp, nice and dark, and stamp your image.  Without reinking, stamp the image again slightly offset from the first.  Continue in a line until you run out of ink or run out of room.  That's it!  And leaving a slight gap between the ball(s) & grass like this also helps with the appearance of movement.

Other info: title is from the Mickey Font Cricut cartridge and the silver stars are brads.

Altered Umbrella Stand and BIG News

Sorry for the lack of posts this week. Ever since the problems with Blogger I just haven't had time to get posts written. But to make up for it, next week is going to be full of prizes! Be sure to check back starting on Sunday for a week-long blog candy extravaganza. There will be BIG prizes!

Now, for today's project: an altered umbrella stand! Michael's had this awesome sale last week and I picked up a metal container I've been eying for a LONG time. With three kids, our entry always seems to be a mess, and kid umbrellas are one of the problems. Of course our living/dining room is right at the front of the house, with a fancy paint job & all, so I needed the container to match the color scheme, while still being a little playful. Hello, vinyl! This is what I came up with:

 

I used my Make The Cut software for this, and my SVGs are from Lettering Delights.  The umbrella is from the Weather Girl set, and the border is from Basic Borders.  As luck would have it, Lettering Delights is having a home decor contest right now too, so I made sure to upload this to the gallery there!  They always have some kind of free files available, including printables, so anyone can enter.  Even if you don't use MTC or SCAL, the printables and fonts are super easy to use to create awesome projects!  Make sure you head over to LD, and you can get lots of free items just for creating an account.

Don't forget to come back starting Sunday to find out the cool prizes you could win next week!

Faux Leather for a Country Girl

Today is Tutorial Tuesday over at the Cutters Creek DT Blog, and it's once again my turn to share an easy technique that looks fabulous!  I'm doing something a little different this week, and splitting my posts.  The faux leather technique is easy, but I was rather photo heavy so I am posting the actual card and details here and the tutorial on the CCDT blog.  (Be sure to head over there and check out the tutorial!)  Here is my completed card:

I'm using my faux leather center stage as a base for my cute little country girl.    Since my card is 5x7 and my embossing folder was only A2 size, I pieced two strips together, joining them behind my matted image.  Once I had the strips cut, it reminded me of a belt, so I decided to go all out and give it details like a belt.

Using my Tim Holtz design ruler and a Micron pen, I marked dots on the back of my strips every 1/2", starting at the 1/4" mark.  Using my Crop-a-dile, I punched holes at every dot and set antiqued silver eyelets in each one.  I decided to take it one step further, and I used a product called Waxy Flax to thread through the eyelets like thin leather strips.  I layered a little eyelet border underneath the bottom edge for girly factor.

The pattern paper is from my stash.  The cardstock is white core from CTMH, sanded and inked.  My matted image is popped up using foam adhesive squares.

My country girl image is Cheeky Howdy from The Greeting Farm.  I stamped her on Parchment cardstock to avoid coloring skin again, colored her lips and eyes using gel pens, and everything else using markers from CTMH.  I finished her off by blinging her cherries with Xmas Red Stickles.

Thanks for stopping by today!  I would love for you to become a follower if you're not already.  I do have a fun little blog candy giveaway comping up soon - I just picked up a fun little goody earlier today!  Now don't forget to head over to the CCDT blog if you haven't already been there.  I promise the technique is easy, and I tell you exactly what you need!

Scrappin' With The Greeting Farm

I didn't get to participate in any NSD events yesterday, so I was insistent that I was going to participate in The Greeting Farm's NSD challenge.  (No worries, I WILL be scrapping next Saturday instead!)  So, the only rule for this challenge was to only use stamps from The Greeting Farm; any papers & embellishments were OK.  After a little thought & searching, I found just the pictures I wanted to scrap and this is the result:

That cute image from The Greeting Farm is called Cheeky Rockabilly - isn't she great?  I thought her fashionable attire was the perfect antithesis to Sarah's lack of fashion savvy at the age of 2 1/2!  My patterned papers are from My Mind's Eye , and my cardstock, ink, and adhesive gems are from Close To My Heart.  The little metal stars are iron-on studs I adhered using my i-Rock tool.  I used my Cricut to cut my title (Opposites Attract) and stars (George and Basic Shapes).  Taking my lead from the patterned paper, I used Making Memories white paint on the edges of my papers and photos.  Finally, the whole page is based on a sketch from sketchsupport.blogspot.com  - I just changed the orientation of some of the photos and used striped paper instead of cutting strips of several different papers.  I stuck with the star shapes used in the sketch for my embellishments because they seemed to fit the theme so well.  I actually thought about using hearts first to be different, but "fashion" just screams stars at me so I left it!

My Cheeky Rockabilly was stamped on some Parchment CS so I wouldn't have to color skin, lol, and I paper pieced her clothes using the MME paper.  I added color to her eyes & lips with gel pens, and colored her hair & shoes using CTMH markers.  The eyelashes were done with a Micron pen.  I also added itty bitty adhesive gems for earrings.  (You MAY be able to see them if you click on the photo to enlarge it.)

That's it for today!  Be sure to come back on Tuesday for an awesome (if I do say so myself) card featuring another TGF stamp, and a tutorial on embossed faux leather.

Friday Freebies on Saturday

I seem to be a little off this week!  One thing or another has had me hopping all week and I've been neglecting blog happenings.  Anywho, I wanted to pass along some great freebies to you today.  This is customer appreciation month at Lettering Delights, and they are offering a great bundle of freebies - including fonts, alphabets, doodlebats, SVGs, and graphics!  Check this out:

I personally can't wait to use the New York SVGs and Big Apple graphics for this Summer's VBS pictures (we just got the letter the other day telling us the theme).  And there are so many goodies to use for Independence Day scrapbooking, I might even be able to catch up on my backlog of Summer photos!  It's a good thing I stocked up on the CTMH Fanfare papers!  They'll go great with these freebies!

If you've never been to Lettering Delights before, make sure you create an account.  You can get all kinds of freebies when you do!  Also, when you sign up for their newsletter you'll occasionally get notice of free items like the ones above.  Lastly, be sure to go "Like" LD on Facebook, where they periodically announce even MORE freebies, like yesterday's Friday Freebie for Mother's Day...

Speaking of which, I hope you have a great Mother's Day weekend!  I'm off to work soon for 6 hours, then tomorrow should be a great free day.  I'm hoping for a trip to the nursery for tomato plants and getting our garden in, but we'll have to see if the weather cooperates!  Until next time...

New Design Team! And a Winner!

I'm happy to announce that I am a new DT member for the Scrappy Frog's Challenge Blog! This is a fun little challenge blog with prizes, so be sure to check it out and become a follower.  Most challenges are things you are probably going to do anyway, so it's a great opportunity to share your creations and maybe win a prize.

The challenge for May1 is Anything Goes (yay!) - the perfect challenge for me to jump in with.  I decided to share a layout I created recently using a sketch pattern.  As usual, my journaling is not in place yet, but it will go over the blue striped area on the far left.

 

I can't believe I made a layout with NO embellishments!  I only used paper.  I just didn't want to overwhelm the pictures and that cute paper, so I kept it simple.  The sketch design for this layout came from the Cherish book by Jeanette Lynton. The nice thing about this type of sketch is that she includes measurements if you want to follow along exactly, as I did here. OR, you can change things  up, like make the circles stars or hearts, change the sizes of things to fit your pictures, etc.  It just takes a little more work on your part!

My title and circles were all cut with the Cricut, except the animal circles.  I wanted to "fussy cut" them so I had an entire animal in each one, so I took the additional time and used a 2" circle punch.  My paper happens to be discontinued, but there are a lot of similar styles out there if you're looking for something like it.

I would like to point out that the baby in these pictures is now 6 years old.  Because I have SO many pictures to scrap, I live by my sketches!  They really speed things up considerably.  If you're looking for some awesome sketch books, my 2 favorite series are those from Jeanette Lynton (Close To My Heart) and the books from Scrapbook Generation (check out their books & free sketches at Sketch Support and let Allison know I sent you!).

Those of you looking for the blog candy winner from my Royal Wedding post are in luck!  I've had random.org choose a number, and the winner is Debican!  Debi, you have 48 hours to contact me, or I will have to pick an alternate winner - I'm off to try and contact you now.  Thanks for playing everyone!