My Dad Vintage Layouts

I have been working on a 8.5x11 Album

about my dad.

My mom died a little over a year ago, 

and over the last year my sisters, dad, and I have

been cleaning out lots of things

from their home.

Dad has been taking all the photos

and scanning them into his computer.

I have been waiting for him to get most of them

scanned, which he has now done,

and the sorting began going through

all the photos of 84 years of life and family.

Each of my siblings received a little box

full of photos that had them in it.

I asked dad if I could take his and mom's photos

home with me and make some scrapbook albums

about them.  

Of course, he said yes.

Years ago, mom made a book about herself

while she was young growing up in Germany.

She stopped in her book about the time she

came to the United States, so after

that all pictures have been in the old sticky

albums used years ago for photo storage.

She was pretty faithful in getting all the

photos in those binders.

What a chore to take them apart.  

I even used a hair dryer to heat up the 

glue on the back and pull the photos off without

harming them.

So here are a few pages of my dad.

More will follow this month,

with these very old and precious to our family,

photos.

I have kept the book fairly simple.

Each page only has a few photos, 

and I have tried not to put anything on the

photo itself.

Here is dad before he joined the

Air Force in the 40's.

I used the Men's Plaid CS

Here is a very precious photo,

as there are about only 8 photos of with my

dad in them for all of his years up to 10.

And not very many more of him through to the age of 20.

Here he is with 2 of this brothers, 

dad is in the middle,

he is one of 11 children in his family.

I used Red and Green plaid (back side)

Bright Green Mini Dew Drops.

Everything else is retired Robin's Nest

My dad was basically kicked out of High School

for being wild.  He had his own

Motorcycle, and until I did these photos,

I didn't even know there was a photo

of him and his cycle.  It is pretty cool.

I took the original photo and scanned it in and

printed out a close up of him on his

motorcycle.  It isn't clear at all

 but it does give us the jest of what that famous

motorcycle looked like.

I used

Glitter Wind Flame CS

Flame Sticker

Men's Plaid

Black 6mm Dew Drops.

Well this is all for today.

I have not journaled on these pages

only dated them.  Dad has written a story

about himself that he printed out 

for me and I have inserted pages of his story

along with the pages I have created for his book.

There are many pages that I have left him a

section to journal in about himself.

I have also added a few notes of things that I have 

observed in the photos, so he can tell about them

to the family.

(He had a broken arm in the picture of him holding me

as a 3 month old baby, how did he break his arm?)

Have a great day.

Robin's Nest papers have been great to

work with on old pictures, I have been very

excited to use them with 

black and white photos.

Ciao,

Robin

My Parents Wedding Vintage Layouts

Hi again,

Robin here.

I am still sharing the photos

from my dad's book I have been working on.

After working on these photos

I decided to make a book of just the photos of

mom and dad together.  So these

are the beginning pages of them at their wedding

Unlike weddings today,

there are only a few photos of my 

parents on their wedding day.

They are quite precious photos.

They were married in December 1950

I decided to do all the wedding photo's in Black and white papers

with gold and silver paper for the accents.  I know mom would love

the gold, and dad would love the silver.

So I incorporated both colors, and the pages have 

turned out awesome.

I look at them all the time,

what a treasure trove of photos for our family.

This 8x10 photo is the only large photo

they had made.  I wanted to use product on top of

the photo but not stick anything to the photo.

So I used a sheet protector and cut it apart,

so I have 2 sheets, at 8.5x11 of clear sheets, I then glued the

embellishments on the clear sheet protector.  You 

can do this with a transparency sheet too,

I just didn't have access to any and used 

the sheet protector.

I used:

Glitter gold dot CS

Robin's Nest Wedding Sticker (retired)

Glitter Gold chipboard die cut

White glitter Classic Swirl CS.

Here is an introduction to a new paper.

Wedding Writing.

I framed this photo which I enlarged from a very small

photo, framed it 

on white and then on the Wedding Writing CS.

Silver Glitter Dot CS is background, with Gold 

Glitter Dot Cs as corner frames.

Glitter True Love is Robin's Nest Retired Vellum

Now why there is a photo of the groom by himself

and not the bride, I don't know.

It usually isn't the case, I also enlarged this photo 

from a small photo.

In all the photos of our family, there are lots of photos of mom,

but not so many of dad.  Dad was usually the

person behind the camera.

I used 

Silver stripe CS  (Retired)

Black Marble CS (Retired)

Wedding Writing CS  NEW

Every Girl saying (Retired)

Black 6mm Dew Drops

Some of these photos I didn't even know existed!

I love this one with them kissing!

I used:

Gold Glitter Dot CS

New Wedding Writing CS

Pearl Mini Dew Drops

The Sign at top is from the

back side of New Wedding Writing CS

Wedding Sticker (Retired)

Isn't this so sweet!

They were married by the Justice of the Peace

 with only their friends with them.

Just the 4 of them.

I used:

Glitter White on White Classic Swirl

Pearl Dew Drops

Wedding Sticker (Retired)

This is the original photo of the big one I had 

previously.

This page will go in my Dad's book,

I am doing a book of them together as well.

But I decided, I had to show in his book that

they did get married.

I used:

Glitter Silver Dot CS

Wedding Writing CS New

LOVE Word comes from the

back side of the Wedding Writing CS

Black Marble CS (Retired)

Pearl Mini Dew Drops

Well there it is,

the wedding of my parents 

in 1950.

Not a lot of photos,

but enough none the less to have some

great memories of this special

occasion.

When mom died they were married 62 years!

So Wonderful!

Ciao,

Robin

Vintage Layouts of my Dad

Hi Everyone,

Robin here today,

There are still lots of 

photos of my dad that I am working through.

Here are some more of his photos

that I have been working on 

for a 8.5x11 book for him.

Each of us has that one thing that made 

us so extremely happy.

My Dad's was this little MG

that he would drive to work everyday.

I was about 5 during this time in his life.

As I was working on the photos

I wondered, what happened to that MG.

Why did he get rid of it?

As I went through more and more papers sorting 

and reading, I found a paper that showed a

primitive drawing of the MG and a big

diesel truck smashing the back of the MG.  I

found out that it was quite a smash and a miracle

that dad came home that day.

But Alas, no more MG.
So here is a page for him to remember that dream car: The MG

Robin's Nest Products I used:

Nautical Stripe paper

Clouds paper

Canada Stripe CS

Lodge cut out

Gina's Designs cut outs 

Blue Mini Dew Drops

Of course family came along the way,

and here are some of the few family pictures we have,

also in those days, not many pictures of 

Mom and Dad together.

So these are pretty fun for us.

I used Robin's Nest Black Herringbone CS

Black Dew Drops

Same year this picture was taken, all of us 

wearing something different,

but Mom and Dad look the same!

Robin's Nest Paper:  Embrace Life Linen CS/front and back.

You can find these papers on our

website

www.robinsnest-scrap.com

Have a wonderful week!

See you next Wednesday.

Ciao,

Robin

Watermelon Summer Mini Book

Hello Robin's Nest Friends!

We are still in Africa working on projects!

Such a fun way to spend our retirement!

SOOO,

I am sharing a watermelon book that I made

sometime back. 

Enjoy.

Today I decided to share with you a watermelon mini book that I created. This book is made out of all Robin's Nest Products. The first picture is the cover of the book. To create the book, I used a dinner plate as my pattern and traced it on a 12x12 sheet of Robin's Nest cardstock. So each page is the circle cut in half. The cover below is my watermelon half.

I originally made this book for one of my grand daughters whos father had been in Afghanistan. The cover said "The SUMMER my dad came home safe. So the book included a journaling page for her to write her feelings of her dad, then a page with a big happy face, this is the page with the yellow center, and around the edge has I am so Happy. Then the rest of the book was filled with pictures of her, her sisters, and her dad, his soldier pics, and then when he came home pics of all of them together on their adventures after he was home. This book can be used for so many different uses, It is just a great summer book in general.

I used Glitter red sorbet cardstock, and green fleur linen cardstock. I cut the circle out traced from the dinner plate, and I used the same circle pattern on the green, then just cut out the inside edge of the circle to make the green rind. I then tore the inside edge of the rind to create the white edge. I could only get 3 rinds from one 12x12 sheet.

Then I added black tear drops around the edge of the rind on the glitter red sorbet creating my watermelon.

The finished cover above has the word Summer cut from our own green glitter chipboard. Then a "bite" at the top was created from a Spellbinders die, just used a third of the die, I then added die cut swirl with leaf in honeycomb fleur linen cardstock (sizzix die) and a bee sticker.

This is the journaling page I was talking about. It is created with our Ivy trim Cardstock, then I drew lines in with a ruler, I then added a Spellbinders shape cut between the two pages, cut from French Vanilla Fleur glitter linen cardstock. Then a few bee stickers. This is a great journaling page!

This page is made just like the cover of the book. Pictures can be added to the top of the watermelon, and journaling on the tag. The Robin's Nest has these wonderful journaling shapes with lines in them and the edge is glittered in different colors. The journaling shapes come 5 different shapes to a page, and there are 2 sheets of 10 different shapes in the package. This journaling tag is in green. There are 6 different colors in these journaling tags, I think anyways there are 6. I absolutely love these journaling tags. They just open the door for so many projects, and a very easy way to add journaling to your page or book. They are FABULOUS! You will see more of these in the other books I am creating this year. The background red print is Cindy Lou dot cardstock, the green edge is again the green fleur linen cardstock, I added a bee and black tear drops for seeds.

This page is the back of the Ivy Trim Cardstock, so it just flips up into this cute stripe. I added a bright yellow circle in yellow paper, 5 punched scalloped squares using a McGill punch, a green journaling tag and 2 bee stickers. In my grand daughters book, I just made a big happy face on the yellow circle, and then around the edge of the circle I wrote mulitple times, "I am so Happy".

This page is again made like the front cover, to keep the watermelon theme throughout the book. I added 3 squares for pictures, punched again from a McGill punch, I added a sun sticker, and bee sticker, the background paper is Christmas Presents border cardstock, and the top corner is Cindy Lou dot cardstock. Again I added the black tear drops for the watermelon seeds. I used Christmas paper on some of the page of this book because simply, a watermelon is red and green. It just worked out so cute.

Here is the finished book. I bound it with 2 silver rings, and tied to the rings are red ribbon.

This book is offered as a kit on our website- Watermelon Mini Book. You can make your own or you can simply just order the kit. It has more pages than I have shown here in the blog.

I have to say, I LOVE mini books. I love to create them in lots of different shapes. You will see more books as the year goes on. It is one of my passions with scrapbooking paper, and I can create fun memories about a trip, an activity, or just journal my feelings on these fun books. Have a happy summer for sure. Tell me what you think of my watermelon book! I love to read your comments!

Enjoy!

Ciao,

Robin

A Tribute to our Sons Part 2

Hello on this fine July Wednesday.

Robin here posting today and every Wednesday.

I am sharing my box book of our Army sons,

the inside pages of the book.

If you missed it last week I shared the outside of the book.

Here it is.

A Box!

The inside pages are about our sons.

Cover Page

This book is about a 10x10 size.

So only a few pictures can be placed on each page,

a few more if the pictures are small.

I have some pretty awesome sons.

They have been serving in our family for quite a while

the oldest for 14 years now.

This was the first time in many, many years that we were able

to even have them all in the same place together.

much less get a photo of them together.

They are in their dress blues.

Here they are with their father, my closest friend and partner.

This picture I printed off Facebook, where Josh made a tribute to his 

brothers and father.

I have copied this and it is below so you can read it.

Every time I read it, tears come to my eyes, I have a 

real hard time reading it out loud to friends when I want to share.

It is written so beautifully.

This page is just about Joshua.

He has been in the Army the longest in Infantry Division.

So he has seen much on the battle field, and in Baghdad, and many

other places in the Middle East. 

He has one tour to Iraq and 2 tours to Afghanistan.

He is married with 3 children. 

Such a great example to his family.

This is Jeremiah, 

who isn't far behind Josh in service of years

in the Army. He has 2 tours to Afghanistan.

He has married while in the service,

he is a step father to 2, and a father to 3 with one child on the way.

He too is such a great example!

This is our youngest son and child Jacob.

He is married and a father of 4.

He has one tour to Afghanistan,

and is such a good father to his children.

No soldier could have a family without wonderful supportive wives.

These are the O'Crowley Army Wives.

Who have had 4 children on their own while

husbands have been deployed. 

I love these 3 women very much!

They are the cream of the crop, and I salute them for their service

and dedication to our country. Without them our sons

could not be the soldiers that they are.  They too have sacrificed much.

We for some reason forget that these soldiers have families, 

and forget the sacrifice that these families give to our country so we

can have freedom and be safe.

We also have no idea how they come home,

the things that scare them, the dreams they have every night,

the Post Traumatic Stress (PTSD) that haunts them 

every single day.  The things they give up, on our nations holidays

because it sounds like they are under fire. The things that we

want to see and celebrate.

I salute you and your wives.

Of course, every soldier has parents

who also pray for them and their safety every day.

A mother who gave them life, and 

a father who helped them become who they

are, and taught them to love country, God, and family.

No parents could be more proud.

Yes, these sons are brothers,

an O'Crowley Band of brothers.

Bound by love, blood, and sacrifice.

My tribute to you.

Joshua, Jeremiah, and Jacob.

I am proud of you,

who you have become, who you

serve, and who you love.

May freedom always have a meaning to you!

Ciao,

Robin

Products come from

The Robin's Nest

www.robinsnest-scrap.com 

Nautical Stripe Paper

Furling Flag Paper

Glitter Star Border CS

Lady Liberty Paper

Blue Glitter Stars Paper

Red Glitter Stars Paper

White Glitter Stars Paper Retired

USA Sticker

A Tribute to our Sons

Hi to all,

Robin here, for another fun Wednesday

Post.  I have been making a book about our sons

who serve in the Military.

I have been thinking about this box for a long time.

Saved it from years ago when we had a retail store, it was

a box that a frame came in, but didn't get used.

Here is the original box.

I looks pretty cute just the way it is,

but I wanted  to put my own twist to the box

and specialize it to represent our sons

who serve in the Army.

 Here is my new box.

I wanted to show our love of Country 

on the box, and still represent our sons.

I covered the box in Coffee on Creame Classic Glitter Swirl CS.

Then I added lots of elements to the box to represent the USA,

the Army, our Name, and what we believe.

I so love the Statue of Liberty paper, because you can

use it in so many different ways.  Here I have made one of the

rectangles into a tag, then added other elements on top.

Red Stars die cut from Red Glitter Chipboard.

Red mini dew drops.

Glitter Fireworks Die cuts

The small flag is a pin that I found in my mother's jewelry box.

The Silver Star is from one of our son's uniforms, 

The name embroidered O'Crowley is what is actually on each

of their uniforms they wear everyday.

The mini flag, just an old cloth flag from many years ago.

The words from the Declaration of Independence (retired Robin's Nest)

I used the brown and beige colors because they are

the colors they wear everyday to work. 

Star made from Blue diamond drops.

Here the box is open with 

the first page sitting on top inside the box.

These are our sons,

all serving in the Military as I write.

Next week, I will share with you

the pages inside my box.

and

My Tribute to our sons.

Watch for part 2 next week!

May all of you as we celebrate our Nations

birth find peace and joy and happiness.

We are able to celebrate the 4th because of 

soldiers like our sons, who served our Nation many

years ago, and today we are able to celebrate

because of the thousands of men who serve our country

every day.

A mother could not be more proud.

Happy Independence Day!

Ciao,

Robin

10 Reasons You Make Me Happy Mini Book

Happy Summer!

We are back from Africa, 3 weeks total

we were gone, and we visited South Africa

and Madagascar!

Great work going on there for Humanitarian needs.

Loved the people so much! 

I have been on the hunt for something different to 

share with you.  So I started working on 

this little mini about my husband, Dana, who is

the love of my life.

This little mini is made from our Glitter Journaling Tags.

One sheet of Glitter Pink and one sheet of Glitter Teal Journaling tags.

Here is a close up of the top page of my mini.

I just cut out the shapes, then added a home made flower,

it is made with just white paper and distressed with pink ink.

I then added my number 10,  and a U then wrote in my title.

I also used Kiwi Sorbet cardstock for the green leaves

and swirl behind the flower, 

Brown glitter chipboard for the bird, and pink 6mm dew drops on top.

This is a sheet of Journaling tags. in Glitter Green.

Minus one tag, but they are pretty easy to work with, and 

leaves you plenty of space to write a note or two on.

I used green and teal pens to journal.

Each page is the opposite color,

 pink then green then pink.

On each page I stapled a shape cut from 

Glitter chipboard.

Teal, green, pink, or yellow.

A punched pink flower with a

pink dew drop in the center, a punched stamp shape

from Glitter Kiwi Sorbet Cardstock

and a number.  

I purposely used distressed the numbers.

They are from the Red Glitter Letter sheet.

Each page is journaled with one of the

things that really make me happy about Dana.

I also used various bright colors

to make the book feel Happy!

The last page I glued a picture of us on it

so when it is read, the reader knows who wrote 

it and who it is about!  US!

I then used a green ring and tied a

blue and green and pink colored ribbon to

the ring.

So, really a very simple mini.

What are the 10 reasons your 

hunny makes you happy?

Have a great Summer Day!

Find these products on

www.robinsnest-scrap.com 

Ciao,

Robin

Baby Silas Mini Book

Hello,

Robin's Post Day!

Wednesday!

Today I am sharing with you another blue project!

My last for a while.

Sylas is Rachel's grandson,

and my first great grandson.

So I decided to make a book about Sylas.

I like so many other projects, started this book ages ago,

knowing that I would create this book for him.

Pulled it out this week, and Sylas' pictures that I have and created

this book.  I came down from the mountain one

afternoon to finish the book.  I was a nice drive down

the mountain and the rain had created fog, and driving 

through the fog helped clear my mind, 

and this is what I created after the drive.

This book is an 8x8 size.

I made the cover many months ago,

it is now time for the rest of the book.

Here Sylas is on his birthday.

His first day on this earth.

I used the back side of Belgian Chocolate.

Special Delivery Paper

Belgian Chocolate

Red and Blue Glitter Letters

Blue 6mm and 4mm dew drops

Baby Boy Sticker

Rocking Horse Specialty Paper

Sylas is a few weeks old here.

Chelsea came to let me kiss on him as she says.

And she continues to bring him over to visit us at least once a month.

We so love to have him and share our love with him.

Special Delivery Paper both sides

Glitter Boy Swirl

Baby Boy Sticker (retired)

6mm and 4mm dew drops

Sylas' Cute Baby Parts

Hands, ears, feet, toes.

I found this cute poem to go with these baby parts.

Also the blue baby feet on the poem come from a retired RN Sticker.

These feet came off the birth certificate from the hospital of

Rachel's Twin sister.  She passed away at two months 

from crib death.  Every once in a while, I want to use them.

Here they are, for a special boy.

Belgian Chocolate CS non glittered

front and back

Glitter blue Classic Swirl CS

6mm and 4mm blue dew drops

Red Glitter Stickers

Baby Boy Sticker

 Well, here I am! With Sylas.

Rocking Horse Specialty Paper

Baby Boy Sticker

Large dew drops

Blue glitter chipboard

Red Glitter Letters

Blue 4mm dew drops

Glitter Blue Classic Swirl

 Here is Sylas at 4 months old.

Isn't he cute!

Airplane Cardstock

Glitter Blue Classic Swirl

Baby Boy Sticker

6mm and 4mm Blue dew drops

Again Sylas is 4 months here.

That huge spider is scary!

Glitter Spiderweb CS

Green 6mm dew drops

Rocking Horse specialty paper back side

Not often are you able to have 5 generations alive.

We had these pictures taken at Christmas

with my dad Sylas' Great Great Grandfather.

Me, Rachel, Chelsea, and Sylas on my dad's lap.

We cherish these photos.

When I brought dad his own copy

he choked up and could hardly talk.

So Special!

Boys Plaid

Blue Glitter letters

And this is my joy CS

Belgian Chocolate CS

Grey CS

Blue Glitter Journaling tags

Here are a few random shots of the book.

All these products can be purchased on our web site

www.robinsnest-scrap.com

Have a great wednesday!

Ciao,

Robin