A mini mini...

I am not much of a mini album maker, but when I got the "Party Animal" line by KaiserCraft from Your Scrapbook Stash store, I just had to cut out the animals to make a little album for Charlotte.

She knows her farm animals and other dometicated animals well, so I am glad this paper had things like a seal and a turtle.....she need to get to know them, too!  :)

The covers are two chipboard pieces that I covered with paper and then I bound the album with my Bind It All.

The format is very simple. I cut 14 4x4 pieces of patterned paper (there were 14 different animals on the paper).  Then in a Word document, I created a page that was 12x12 and made a whole bunch of 3.5x3.5" boxes and put the animals name in there.  I printed them out and traced each square with a black pen.  I also cut some plain squares of white CS 3.5x3.5" and added the cut out animal to each one.  I arranged them in alphabetical order and voila!

She LOVED looking through the pages!  :)

What I'm into right now....

I wanted to share a page that I did based on the June sketch at Sassafras Lass using the Sunshine Broadcast line that I got from Your Scrapbook Stash.  I pretty much stayed close to the sketch.

I have decided that I love ledge, text, and graph prints, and that they make great background papers! I am so into that...

There was a challenge at Scrapdango to NOT use pink on a girly page, and I think this does it!  I used a yellow and blue combo instead.

The blue flower on the top left was made from one of the border stickers, and the yellow one in the middle was made by pleating a border strip from the botttom of one of the pieces of SL paper.  The flower on the bottom I actually cut out from a "foldie" cause I only wanted one flower.

Another thing I have been doing lately is stamping on my layouts.  It is very subtle, but I have some circle and flower stamps that scatter the page.  I have a TON of stamps and I am glad that I am getting back into using them.

TFL!

A Yummy Pancake Breakfast!!!!

 While we were back in NY visiting a few weeks ago, we went to a pancake breakfast at a small church near my parents camp.  We all had such a fantastic time, and I am not much of a pancake fan, but they were SOOOOOOO good!!

I wanted to focus on the photo of the pancakes with the homemade blueberry sauce.  Then I had a photo of each of us from that morning (although hubby wasn't cooperating with the camera).

I used some older Jillibean Soup papers, that aren't really a "food" theme, but I like the way the bright colors work together.

I have seen some of the Maya Road Kraft doilies on some projects out there, and I decided to try and make some myself.  I have SCAL for my cricut, and lots of great svg files that I never use.

The doily behind the title took about 10-15 minutes to cut just that one, then I had to pop out a lot of the pieces that were stuck.  But I LOVE the way these all came out and I am going to use this file a lot more in the future! 

TFL today!

6.16 Sketchy Thursdays Reveal!

I really loved the sketch this week.  I have had these photos printed for a while, and to be honest, having the large 4x6 with the others was really throwing me off, design wise.  So when I saw this sketch, I played around with the arrangement for a while, and a, happy with the way it came out!

I used some of the fun anf bright papers and stickers and journaling spots from Jillibean Soup Watermelon Gazpacho line.

On the background, I drew a circle with a pencil and went over it with an Adirondack paint dauber in Aqua (one of m new favorite supplies!).   Then I hand stitched over my pencil lines with yellow thread.

I layered a whole bunch of journaling spots and some scalloped circles cut from the yellow paper.  I used this color combo because I love the contrast of the blue with the orange, and although it is hard to tell, Charlotte had yellow in her shirt, too.

I have been working on pages for SEI and Magpie Club for next month, so not a lot to share in the next few days, but I do have one or two others that I am working on that I hope I can share! Have a great weekend!

Some GREAT News, a scrappy weekend, and 3 pages to share...

I pre-planned for my Saturday crop at Archiver's and let me tell you I got a lot done (by my standards!).  I got 7 pages "done", and an 8th started.  "Done" to me means all laid out and I know where everything is going to go.  Sometimes I don't finish a page, though, because I want to add stitching or misting or painting, and I don't bring those things with me to crops....it's just too much to carry.  So when I get the page entirely laid out, I take a photo of it, jot down what else I want to add, and put it in a folder to bring it home to add the finishing touches.  So yesterday and today I have been putting the "touches" on my pages.

Here are 3 I want to share with you today! (Some of the others are for kit club or SEI reveals, and I can't post them yet....)

This first one was a lift of this month's Member Of The Month at Memorable Seasons.  And why am I doing this lift?  Because I JUST MADE THE NEW DESIGN TEAM FOR MEMORABLE SEASONS!  This store had THE.BEST.PRICES and sales.  You have to go check them out!

Here is my lift of Detta Owens page:

 These papers are from some of the new lines of patterned papers that Bazzill released this year (plus some older papers, too).

I did a lot of stamped elements on this page, and we are going to make it in my next class at Scrappn' Savvy on June 21.

For the twine at the bottom of the title, I just used some Fabric-Tact (which is THE best adhesive) and looped it where I wanted. 

This next page is based on this weeks challenge at My Scraps and More, which was a sketch.  I also used it for the Scrapdango Totally Rad 80's crop also going on, and the challenge there was to use green and banners.

This is one of my favorite photos recently.  I did this little photo shoot of Charlotte on her birthday (May 16th) with this bunch of balloons I bought her.  She had a plast with those balloons.  She doesn't say "Happy Birthday", but instead just "Happy Happy".  So that's what I titled this page.

The pink heart and the pink in the banner are from some Girl's Paperie packaging.  The papers are the new Kaiser Craft "Party Animal" line that I got in my kit this month from Your Scrapbook Stash.  And if you haven't visisted the YSS store, lately, you HAVE to go check out what is on sale...TONS of stuff!  :)

Lastly is a page based on this month's sketch challenge at the Jillbean Soup blog.  I am going to use the Watermelon Gazpacho line for my class at Scrappn' Savvy in July, so I did three pages with this line.  But I can only share this one for now cause the others are based on some other team reveals.  You will see one this Thursday, and the third on next Thursday.

The sketch was by Julie Bonner...her sketches are some of my favs!!!!

I loved the simplicity of this sketch, and added a few details here and there. 

While in NY, we took a golf cart ride down the road at my parent's camp (about 2 miles) and had a blast!  Charlotte just wanted to drive....

I have got so many projects to work on before July 1st...4 layouts for Magpie Club, 4 for Memorable Seasons, one more for my class at Scrappn' Savvy, a few more for Your Scrapbook Stash, and a Clip It Up project, too. Not to mention that I haven't even touched my Cocoa Daisy kit, which I can't wait to get into!

I think this month may end up being my most productive month in terms of # of layouts and projects!  :)

Once Upon a Sketch and My Scraps...

I saw a layout a few months ago in Scrapbooks Etc. documenting a childs "22 things" they could do at 22 months, so I decided to take that idea and do a page of 24 things for Charlotte at 24 months!  (2 things at 2 years was kinda lame, so I did the 24 instead....:)  )

I had this photo for a few weeks intending to use it for this page, and when I saw the challenge this month at Once Upon a Sketch, it totally got me inspired!

Here is the sketch from Once Upon a Sketch.  The journaling challenge was to journal about a female, and that wasn't hard for me to do!

The other thing that really got me inspired was the new stuff I got from Your Scrapbook Stash!  Erica sent me some of the new Sassafras Lass Sunshine Broadcast papers and I LOVE them! 

I got to use the "Foldies" for the first time and I have to admit they are quite fun!  I did have to add some pop dots behind them, though to make them stand a bit better.

I also played around with some misting, stamping, and stitching.  I really liked the geometric pattern of the background paper, so instead of covering it up in the middle, I just misted it with some blue mists.  Then I added some Sass Lass borders on the top and bottom.  I also used a Jenni Bowlin butterfly stamp in three place on the page, and some Maya Road kraft journaling spots. 

My sewing machine is about 20 years old, and I had these disks you can put in to make decorative stitches.  So I played around with some and LOVE how these stitches came out!  You will definetly see more decorative stitching on my upcoming pages! 

And I don't usually share my journaling (other than what you can see on a layout)  but here are Charlotte's 24 things:
You know most of your colors (except red)
You still LOVE Froggie n’ Dolly
You are sleeping great in a big girl bed
You like to sit on the potty, but haven’t really gone yet
You think every animal says “moo”
When you spill something, you say “oops” and grab a towel to clean it up
You call yourself “Sha-Sha”
You can sing and hum the tunes to many songs
You can count to 6, but sometimes skip 3
You love beads
Your new favorite show is Thomas the Tank Engine
You walk up and down the steps without holding the railings (sometimes)
You can swim across the pool with your arm floaties on
You try and put on your own clothes
You said a 5 words sentence “Momma, I want more grapes”
You love mommy’s perfume, necklaces, and shoes
When you don’t want to go somewhere, your legs become “noodles” and you sit on the floor
You don’t stop running when I tell you to stop
You say please and thank you
You bring your stool over to the sink to brush your teeth
You help me empty the dishwasher and know exactly where everything goes
You still take a 2-3 hour nap most days
You pull my hand and say “show” when you want me to see something
Your hair goes to the middle of your back


This next page I did both for a challenge at My Scraps and More and the Crate Paper color challenge this month.  There is a summer long contest going on at My Scraps called the "Got Talent" contest.  It is not an elimination contest....anyone can play.  You just earn points for things that you complete. 

Anyways, I used some of the Crate Paper Emma's Shoppe papers to do this Mother's Day page.

I have to say that I hate this photo of Charlotte and I, but my hubby has no patience behind the lens.  I probably would have take 20-30 shots of this scene, but he took 3 and said "that's good". 

I did some misting on the background with blue and black mists, and some random stitching here and there.  I totally screwed up the stitching on the bottom element, which I wanted to stich over, but it got caught under my machine foot and went around instead...oh well.

Thanks for stopping by today and I will have more posts over the weekend!!!!

Sketchy Thursdays reveal!

Another wonderful Thursday and another great sketch from Sketchy Thursdays!

When I arrived back from vaca on Monday, I had a ton of packages waiting for me, one of which was my "stash" from Your Scrapbook Stash.  Let me tell you....Erica sends a TON of stuff every month for us to work with and is so extremely generous!!  You could experience this yourself because YSS is having a Design Team Call!!!!  Check out all the details HERE.

Anyways, she sent me some of the new Kaiser Craft "Party Animal" line to play with.  Our favorite "animal" in this house (besides our dog and cat), is FROGGIE!!!!!

Charlotte doesn't go anywhere without Froggie.   He is quite the friend, so I did a little page about him...

The colors in these papers worked so so well with these photos. 

This line comes with a little tag book of journaling spots which are so adorable.  This one happened to have a monkey on it, but I covered it up with one of the chipboard pieces of a frog, of course! 

I also used some of the trims from Girl's Paperie, and letters from My Little Shoebox and American Crafts.

After being gone for a while, I REALLY need to get back into my scrap room!  I printed a ton of photos and have about 10 layouts planned...most of which I want to get done this weekend!  I am doing a crop all day on Saturday, so that should help!

I was just going through my file of all my pages so far this year, and I am at just about 100.  By the end of the month, I should be around 120, whjich puts me on track for 250 this year...although we have a baby coming soon, so that may put me a bit behind...:)

Magpie Club June reveal

Well I am a little late with posting my reveal for Magpie Club this week because I am enjoying my short summer vacation in NY.  It is my last trip since I wont be able to travel after 30 weeks! Already I can tell that this baby wants to come out!

Since I am traveling and scrapping, I had to pack very light.  I tried to preplan my pages in my notebook, which I brought with me.  While at home, I went through the kit, chose my photos, and sketched out my pages.  Then I just brought a very few items with me.  My scissors and adhesives, of course, including pop dots, glue dots, and my liquid glue.  A few inks to match the kit, one punch, my sew easy tool, and a few embroidery threads. I didn't even bring a paper trimmer!

This was definetly a challenge for me, but I kind of liked working with restricted supplies...it helped me be more creative with what I have!

So onto this fun fun kit...so different for me.  I loved the color combos of these papers!

I was first inspired by the ribbons in the kit.  Now if you know my style, you know that I dont use ribbons often.  But the light and dark blues of the ribbons reminded me of the colors of the Greek flag.  And we just so happened to have visitied the town of Tarpin Springs, Fla., last month, which is a huge Greek community that thrives on sponge diving.  So this photo I took of Charlotte and her cousin at the docks was perfect.

I wanted to focus on the white and colors, so I created a monochromatic page.  I hardly ever do this, but just love this page.

I didn't bring any other alphas with me, and the ones in the kit are red and white, so I decided to handwrite my title...I never have done this before!  But I liked it and Ii want to try practicing with doodling some different fonts.

For the next page, i wanted to focus on all the stars in the kit, so i used a photo of some starlets to match!

I did a lot of layering and added some more detail with some handstiched stars to match.

The navy and red colors seemed so masculine to me, so I chose a photo of hubby.  I used three different actions in photoshop to give slightly different looks to the same photo.  This is another technique that i dont often do: use the same photo more than once on a pag.  But i have seen this around a lot, and decided to do it.  I will l do it again.

The journaling area on this page is actually from some of the packaging of the embellies.  The red pleated ribbon was a bit too bright for the other reds on the page, so I soaked it in a bit of water and then inked it with some black ink to make it a bit darker.

Lastly, I fell in love with the Pink Paislee stickers in the kit.  There were these banner stickers that I loved but decided to put a twist on them by making them rays of sunshine!

This page was a bit tricky becauseIi didnt want to do another white background, but I didnt have an more whole sheets of patterned paper that matched for a background pattern.  So I pieced together some of the blue-ish papers for the background.

Again I didnt want red letters for my title, so I traced the stickers onto some patterned paper, inked them, and cut them out.

The journaling I added right to the pattern in the paper.

So, in a nutshell, I did a TON of new things for this kit:

*monochromatic page

*handwriteten title

*multiples of the same photo

*no paper trimmer!

Go check out the kit at Magpie Club and see what the other designers did, too! I am positive you will love everything you see!