Masterpiece Monday {page 5}

So I am LOVING this weekly motivator to get me scrapping. Not just because I'm making progress on the many memories I want to preserve with pictures, journaling & make pretty with paper & embellishments. But taking the time for myself at least once a week to do something I enjoy is fantastic. To me scrapbooking is more than just fun, it's relaxing and therapeutic in a way. Looking back at photos, capturing moments I'll never get back. I just love it. This week I didn't scrap while the kids were napping. Between playgroup, my sinuses and keeping up with housework it just didn't happen. And then Friday came & I didn't want to do a.single.thing. Yesterday while the kids were napping I was feeling much better and was inspired. So while hubby was browsing the net for music and we had our own little limewire party I scrapped. The limewire thing was a lot of fun, we were totally rocking out to the 80's - "We've got to hold on to what we've got 'Cause it doesn't make a difference If we make it or not We've got each other and that's a lot For love - we'll give it a shot" Anyone else love ♥ this song? Considering my age this may sound odd but this song holds a special sentiment to me. I even have a shirt with the lyrics and band's name on it. And I'm wearing it in the pictures on my last page. Today I took advantage of nap time again and made another page. I really like how it turned out. Anyways - onto the scrappy stuff! Thanks for looking & to see more Masterpiece Monday participators or join in on the fun click on the button above.

I love love love these sleeping photos of Lydia. I have some of Michael in the same profile pose with arms spread out. {I'm sure most moms do as it is a common sleeping position for babies} These layouts are very simple but I love them. I inked the Bazzil {textured cardstock}, matted my photos and stamped out the lyrics to an entire lullaby I found in PeaSoup by searching for 'sleeping baby', I wanted some inspiration for a quote or poem. It didn't list the author who wrote the song but you can read the full lyrics here, along with the back story. I just loved it. My favorite verses are the first & last. I was so glad to fit it all onto my pages, though I'd have preferred to keep it in it's original format. The stamp set I used had the star stamps and I thought it was fitting with the whole sleeping photos, though I'm sure these pictures were taken while she was napping during the day - that's beside the point. I hand cut the brackets and called it done.

This may be one of my most favorite pages ever. I've often been inspired by various techniques that digital scrappers use but don't have the software or full desire to venture into digital scrapbooking. When I was looking through my patterned papers and found one with pretty, large flowers on it I instantly saw the page. When I was through tediously silhouetting {fancy for cutting out} the flowers I wanted with way too big of scissors I realized how much space the flowers would take up and didn't want to cover them after all the time spent. So instead I layered them with my photos, without covering the focal point. I had a few ideas for a title "Mother of two", "Mom/Mommy to two" but then I thought mother sounded a little older than I wanted it to and Michael rarely calls me mommy. I'm momma {Shawn is daddy} and that's what Lydia can say {for now} as well. So there came my title. The photos are simply matted, I used two colors on the one because I didn't have a wide enough piece of either color but like how it looks. For the journaling I wrote on three of the flowers {two around the edges} and one of the leaves. This is what I wrote:

on the top two flowers
"Sometimes being a mom is hard. You get tired & frustrated but then...they give you a sweet smile, snuggle up or give you a kiss for no other reason than they love you. Once in a while you even hear "thank you" or "good job momma" & that is when your ♥ melts!"

on the bottom flower
"When you see them loving others you know you are doing something right and it keeps you going."

on the leaf in the middle
"love, teach, guide, protect"

♥