Labor Day Weekend *Mini Album*

I am swamped with summer photos, and on Labor Day weekend we had a fantastic fun weekend, and of course I upped my photo count even more!  Then I saw that there was a "Labor Day" challenge on the My Mind's Eye blog, so I decided that I wanted to do a mini album, which I haven't done in a while.

I LOVE doing minis and I love looking at other ones out there, so I spent some time on Pinterest!  :)  But after all that time, I just ended  up doing my own thing anyways....

So I started by digging out my MME stash and picking out some blue, yellow, and coral/red papers. I used a ton of MME lines including Stella & Rose, Indie Chic, Collectable, even Alphabet Soup. As I mentioned in a previous post, blue and yellow have been my go-to summer colors this year!  I used my Cricut to cut some pages out of different sizes, and then for other pages I just cut out some rectangles and punched the edges with border punches or left them plain.

I have a few busy patterns on some of the papers, so I did a gesso white wash over all of the pages, front and back.  I just bought a new set of Gelattos, so I chose a bright yellow and did a few swipes of it on each page and watered it down.

Still a bit too bright, so a stencil and some white paint brought them all together.  Then I splattered some navy mist.  I outlined each page border with a black pen.

After spending what seemed like forever putting the pages in the right order, I took some more papers from my stash and did simple photo mats for each photo and added some other strips of papers here and there.  Then each photo got finished with some washi tape, and I completed the page with enamel dots, brads, sentiment stickers, and a few chipboard pieces here and there.

For the cover, I started with this awesome yellow chevron paper and cut a size that I liked.  Then I cut some chipboard covers and glued the paper to them.  It is hard to tell, but on the yellow part of the paper, I added some gold Gelattos, which gives it a bit of sheen.  I stitched around one of the chevron designs and the outside edge of the covers with blue thread.

I did the same treatment to the covers as I did the pages: stencil with white paint, navy and bright blue mists, enamel dots, chipboard and stickers.

On the outside, I bound the album with plain twine, which I love to use.  I used a group of 3 strands and where it ties, I braided the strands together.  Isn't it convenient that Paper Issues theme this week is twine?  :)  I'm linkin' up!

Here are my pages:

I journaled a bit on each page, but on the inside back cover, I told the story of the weekend.

I just love this little book and I got so many photos scrapped!!!  I feel like doing another mini, so you may see another one soon!

Thanks for stopping by and stay scrappy my friends!

Hey There Flower Girls!

A few weeks ago Charlotte was in my cousins wedding as a Flower Girl.  The other flower girl was my cousins daughter.  Good thing they had each other to keep entertained!

I created this page for a challenge I issued at My Scraps & More for the Got Talent contest.  My challenge was to use a black background and bright colors.  These My Mind's Eye papers were perfect!

I started my designed based on this large doily border chipboard piece.  I covered the centers with other patterned papers and some brads and other elements.  On the background of my page, I swiped some white paint with a card.  You can see here that I actually used that white base as a spot for my journaling.

Under the doilies, I layered some banner pieces and stickers.

Behind the photos, I layered some patterned papers (one of which looks like a lot of papers layered, but it is actually just one piece of paper.  Then there is some stitching, enamel dots, brads, and other small chipboard pieces!

This was really a challenge for me because I mostly use white or light colored backgrounds, but I love the way it came out!  And you KNOW I have a ton of wedding photos to scrap, so you'll be seeing those up soon!  :)

Stay scrappy my friends!

37...how did I get here already????

Wow...I can't believe I am this old already.  I feel like I just had my 21st birthday yesterday!  :)

I played with some new MME that I got a few weeks ago, and when I saw the color palette at ScrapFriends this month, I thought of this collection immediately!   I also used this weeks sketch from Skissedilla.  I started this page right after I had done a page in my art journal, so I was feeling kind "artsy".

Since the color palette had a "raspberry" color in it, but the papers didn't, I mixed up some mist colors to get the shade I wanted and then dripped them on the page.   Then I wanted to add a bit of a peachy pink, so I mixed some pink and yellow paint and mists and use a stencil on the background.

For my journaling, I decided to do a little pull out card to write some things on so that it wouldn't take up any space on the page.

I had laid everything out and felt like something was missing, so I went back and stitched the black circle on background.  I wanted a bit of girliness, so I used the chipboard floral bunch and a few other floral pieces here and there.  Some stamping, enamel dots, and flags, and I'm done!  :)

sketch at Skissedilla

color palette at ScrapFriends:

Stay Scrappy my Friends!

Mother's Day and Reelin'

I lost my mojo these past few weeks.  I have been so busy with other things around the house, and even outside the house now that the weather is nice!  So I  just let my slump take it course until I felt the urge to scrap again.  And there's nothin' better to get me out of a rut then a few great challenges!

First, as a huge fan of Diana's sketches, I tackled the sketch for Scrapbook Circle and Lily Bee this month!  I dug into my April and May Scrapbook Circle kits, and mixed them up a bit to scrap these photos that have been laying in my "to do" pile for almost a year!  Charlotte is going to be quite the fisherwoman....she gets it from her grandma and me!  :)

I started by giving a whitewash on the background with gesso, then using a splatter stencil and some blue mist.  The blue came out a bit too dark, so I went over again with some white gesso and I like the way it turned out!   I stuck pretty closely to the sketch, but added one more large circle on the bottom right to balance out my page.  The circles are stitched with yellow thread.

The tulle ribbon in the kit reminded me a bit of fit netting, so I used a bit of it under my photo and held it down with the Maggie Holmes washi paper.  The title alphas are some AC mistables ones from my stash that I misted in navy to match the papers.

And the sketch by Diana:

A few weeks ago I won the new "Find Your Wings and Fly" collection from MME on their blog during their release announcement.  They are VERY generous with their prizes.  While on their blog recently, I came across the sketch challenge for May with a sketch by Ronda Pallizari.  I LOVE this sketch!

These photos of Mother's Day were on my to do list, and I thought the floral prints of the papers were perfect for the theme!

We actually had Charlotte's birthday party on Mother's Day.  I had been in such a tizzy trying to get everything ready for the party, that I forgot it was even Mother's Day.  When my mom arrived, she looked at me and said "Happy Mother's Day!  But I feel so bad...I didn't get you anything!".  I said, "I MUST be your daughter, because I didn't get you anything, either!".  But she did teach me to be a great mom, and I gave her an awesome granddaughter, so we're even!

I love the grid design of the sketch, but I wanted to use two photos, so I changed it up a bit to accommodate my photos and a journaling area.

I had fun using lots of bits of paper, washi tape, chipboard elements, buttons, and enamel dots!  I added a few splatters of white paint in the background, too.

And the sketch from Ronda:

SOOO glad my mojo is back!!  I have a ton of projects to share that I haven't posted over the last month, so this blog is going to get busy the end of this month!

Stay scrappy my friends!

My Little Snow Man! and *WINNERS*

We had so much fun playing in the snow....back in December.  Now I am sick of it!  :)
This was the first time Kyler got to play in the snow.  It was up over his knees and he could hardly move.  He fell down a few times and his gloves came off once or twice, but overall, I'd say he liked it!  I mean, just look at this face:

I used a sketch created by Diana Fisher exclusively for the Sketch-A-Thon this month at My Scraps & More.  You can visit the forums HERE to see the sketch!

On the background, I first added a layer of gesso, and then drew some circles with my Versamark Pen.  I added some gold embossing powder and heat embossed.  The photo doesn't give the glitter justice!!  It has such a great shimmer in person.

I also used a stamp set from the MME Collectable line and stamped these "flowery" shapes which I used as snowflakes.  I heat embossed them with white powder and fussy cut them out (can you tell I have been on a heat embossing kick lately?!)  Then I added an epoxy sticker to the center of each and scattered them on the page.

Other than that, I just layered some papers, die cuts, chipboard, and washi tape and stitched a little here and there!


OK, now I owe you some WINNERS!

First, the winner of the Glitz Designs Color Me Happy Blog hop RAK from my blog is:  SHERRI

And the winner of the Paper Haus blog hop (winning the Scrapbook Circle Kit) is: PAMELA ROMERO

Ladies please contact me at my email (in the contact info above) with your full name and addy and I will send your stuff out next week!


Thank you everyone who took the time to comment!  I really appreciate your kind words!

I will be having another giveaway next week!!!

Stay Scrappy My Friends!

Ribbon, Lace, Flowers, and a KISS...Valentine's inspired pages! :)

Hello everyone!  We are smack dab in the middle of the "Love is in the Air" Valentine's Crop at My Scraps & More.  I wanted to share a few pages that I created for the crop.


A few weeks ago, we went to the mall and they had free Carousel rides for the day!!  What a happy surprise.  We went on about 3 or 4 times, and this time, Kyler wasn't nearly as afraid!!!  He actually laughed a bit!

I LOVE working with this Crate Paper "Fourteen" collection, and I haven't even used it for a valentine's page, yet!

This challenge for this first page was to use lace and ribbon in a creative way.  I took some old ribbon from my stash and made a little "bow" of sorts.  I wrapped it around a piece of scrap paper and cut the ends, then glued a larger piece of ribbon in the middle.

I love the yellow accents in this collection, and I used the chipboard tag for my journaling.

A few peeks of lace here and there under the photos, too, and some more layered chipboard and papers.

My next challenge is called "A Dozen Roses", and you simply had to use 12 flowers on your page!  :)  I LOVE LOVE this page, and have really been into this Soho Garden collection from AC.  I think it didn't get enough love...it is a great collection!

This is my night time cuddle buddy, although sometime he gets annoying because he won't get off, even if I push him away.

This is a bit more simple page for me.  I just used a paint "splat" stencil and some charcoal ink, and then machine stitched a yellow circle behind my photos.  Then some fussy cut flowers and layers of colorful chipboard stickers.

I had to add the feathers because Boo Boo has caught a few birds in his day...

And last but not least, a "KISS" challenge (Keep It Simple, Scrappers)...which is kinda hard for me to do!  This page had only 2 pieces of patterned paper, one photo, one background paper, and three other types of embellies.  Oh, plus all the ink and paint you want! :)

Whenever I ask Charlotte to look at the camera, she looks for just a second, then distorts her face and starts doing goofy things.  This is the split second between the times she looks and right before she goes all goof-ball.

I cut a bunch of the chevron pieces apart and stapled them together.  Then I fussy cut the flowers and scattered them on the page with some colored epoxy dot stickers.

On my background, I used a stencil and some pink ink to create a subtle hexagon pattern.  It was a bit too bright, so I went over the page in some places with a bit of gesso.

You still have plenty of time to join us at the crop!  Come check out the message board!

Stay scrappy my friends!