I Have been MIA!!!

I clearly have been missing in action. Life has been busy and hectic. I have been sneaking some scrapping in here and there and still working on that friends pregnancy album - it is taking me forever and I am loosing interest :-/

I also have 2 layouts that I started but haven't finished yet. I know exactly what I want to do with them but haven't had the energy to actually do it - I guess I am in a funk. But I did a few layouts last month that I have not posted here yet and will now. Enjoy!

2 Picture Layouts:

Coloring Easter Eggs:

Here I found the cutest Easter 12x12 paper but instead of placing my pictures directly onto that (I thought it would have been 'too much')) I centered a bright yellow card stock to bring out the yellow Easter Eggs and them matted the pictures with green cardstock that matches the green grass in the 12x12 paper.

I added green chipboard corners in different sizes for a little 'extra' effect. The Happy Easter stickers is from Soft Spoken and I used eggs stickers as letters in the word coloring in my title. I think it came out fantastic. And these photos are from Easter 2008.

The Outdoors:

I found this great line at Michaels called Friendly Forest Friends. The cutest line ever! I bought a bunch of the embellishment sets as we all the paper pack. It seems more Fall oriented but I was able to use it now.

As I finshed this layout I kept looking at it because I knew and still know it is missing something but can't put my finger on what. But I am the type of person, once I say I am finished with a layout, there is no going back.

The only exciting thing about this layout, well for me anyway, is the tree. It was a stamp part of this collection and I embossed it.

My first double page layout:

I have always been aprehensive about doing a 2 page layout. The thought of it always frightens me and I am not sure why. This time I did, a guess you would call it a modified 2 page layout? The 2 pages are the same theme and event but I didn't not combine them and have them bleed together - does that make sense?

I am really happy on how these came out. They are really colorful and show how much fun we had at the Circus this year.

The paper I used is from the "All About Boys" Stack by DCWV. There are really great papers in this stack - can't wait to get to use more of them!

I saved our tickets stubs and added them to page 1. I like adding that because all the details are there and I don't have to do too much journaling.

I had saved my popcorn box from the show and cut out with my Fiskars Circle punch, the Ringlin Bros and Barnum and Bailey Circus logo. You can see that on page 1. I put adhered it with 3d dots.

And on page 2, I also cut out the Circus name as well as the logo again.

Page 1

Page 2

1 Picture Layout:

His Gal Pal

I was told by a friend that this layout was too busy. It might be but I like it and I like how I coordinated all of it. But I am disappointed on how I placed my journaling circles on the layout. Once I got it down, I couldn't get it back up without ripping the paper.

Almost everyone one the below layout are from Fancy Pants Designs "All About a Boy". The transparancy is my favorite part. I have owned that piece for a long time but never knew how to use it and I think it looks perfect here :)

2 New Layouts

I was able to get 2 layouts done this past weekend. A nice lazy Sunday home with my son.... he played on the computer and did his own arts & crafts and I scrapped.

4 Picture Layout:

Surprisingly enough, I was able to get 4 pictures on this layout and still make it work without making it look cluttered. All the pictures were 4"x6"... I trimmed a few down, but barely.

I love the snowflake paper on the background and was able to pull out the different blues by the matts and the words. I added some photo corners to 2 of the pictures... I didn't want to over-do the photo corners.

The word SNOW is make of really thick chipboard... I am going to even say they are wood! I got them last year at Oriental Trading. I added Stickles dots to the corners and I think it looks really pretty. I cut out the words much fun using my Cricut and used the Design Studio as well to weld the words together. I used Pebbles chalk on them for some contrast and even outlined them with Stickles.

I didn't go overboard with embellishments, instead I just placed 3 brad buddies scattered.... pretty blue and white snowflakes.

The color scheme worked out really well with the supply I had on hand.

2 Picture Layout:

I had bought a Curious George paper back from Oriental Trading almost 2 years ago and never got the opportunity to use it until now.

I mean this is not the best layout I ever did... it's pretty simple.

I used 2 different papers.... one I used as a back drop to the pictures and matts. I finally learned how to use one of my Martha Stewart edge punches.... yes I couldn't figure out how to keep the punch straight and connected! I watched a video on scrapbook.com and it really helped me out, as you can see :)

I hope you enjoy these!

To End the Weekend

This was a very production weekend. I finished 5 layouts and that is a record for me in such a short time frame. I posted already about the first 4. Here is the last one I did this weekend:

4 Picture Layout:


Pumpkin Picking 2008. I had many pictures to choose from and I typically try to stay away from doing a 4 picture layout, I always think they look sloppy but I wanted to use these pictures and I am pretty satisfied with the way this one came out.


I used an orange/yellow 12x12 background paper that has a leaf pattern. I matted my pictures with a brown cardstock. I had this great Pumpkin Patch set from Soft Spoken and it worked perfectly in this layout. I added brown/white ribbon to the edge and stapled them down with decorative staples.

Hope you like it!

Busy Little Bee...

I was a busy little bee today.... It rained all day, my brakes were being replaced on my truck so I was home all day with no car. Thomasino behaved and I was able to get some scrapping done! I am glad that the numbers on my Goal Ticker is going down! But I still have a lot more to go.

Enjoy!

1 Picture Layout:

I finally got to use some of my new Making Memories Note Worthy Collection! The 12x12 paper and the journal card is from the collection. I had fun with this one, it was more for me and a little bit girly.

The Smile title was naked chipboard and I used my Pebbles chalks to color them and then inked the edges with my Cat's Eye inks. I used the Queen & Co felt flourish and brightened it up by adding blue and purple jeweled felt flowers, a bulk purchase from Oriental Trading.



2 Picture Layout:

Another trip to the NYC Aquarium and pictures of my son his his gal pal Catie hanging out and watching the Penguin feeding.

I used Making Memories foam letters in the title. I finally got to use a penguin laser die cut that has been sitting in my stash for quite sometime now. The die cut got 'lost' on the gray paper so I backed it with white card stock and cut it to fit. I added my favorite 3d-dots to that for a layer effect. I used my new Martha Stewart border punch and I have to say, I should have practiced first - not sure if you can notice my mistakes :)



1 Picture Layout:

A cute picture of my son from this past summer. In my friend Teba's father's garage, my son was eyeing his Harley and was soo happy to get to sit on it. He looks a little scared in this picture, I think because he didn't want to wear the helmet.

I liked what I did with this one. I used my Fiskars paper edger for a taring effect and then I realized I had all this empty black space at the bottom so decided to add the rest of the paper that was ripped off - that piece was in my garbage stash! I added a journal square to the center and used 3d-dots on that for some pop! I added a vellum quote, attached by 4 black square brads. And the motorcycle embellies are from the Sandylion Essentials line.

4 Picture Layout:

I have to be quite honest... the pieces to this layout have been in a folder for over a year now and I had no inspiration to do it. I finally just broke down and did it today... it is not fancy nor does it have the wow factor... I am just happy to get it done and over with.

My Favorites

I have done a few layouts this year and here are some of my favorites from earlier this year which I have not yet blogged about:

1st Snow

This picture did not come out as great as I would have liked but... it is a great layout! The background paper is blue with white and silve snowflakes. The word snow that is on an angle is chipboard and the 'O' in snow is a cleaver little snowflake. Some of the snowflakes that are on the corners of the journaling and photos were made for me by a fellow scrapper and have blue glitter in them - so perfect for this layout! At the bottom is a Jolee's winter title. There wasn't any better way I could have captured this moment for my son!

Cheers!

What a great picture. My son and my father in law, toasting to a great dinner. My father in law with his glass of 'vino' and my son with his cup of water. Priceless.

I went with a green and brown theme on this layout. It went well with the colors in the pictures. There are lots of great touches here. Riboons, swirls, pop-up words, etc. The title came out great. When I created this layout, I had just purchased by Fiskars circle side punch and I cut out the circle to matt the letters which I cut using my Cricut. I used a lot of antiqueing on this to give it the old feel.

Cool Guys

This is another great one! I had the perfect paper, which is very masculine and did a lot of layering behind the picture, all in different shades of blue.

The brackets around the 2 and the word guys are all raised using my favorite product, 3D-dots.

I added ribbon to the mat of the picture by stapling it down with blue staples. A nice little touch, if I do say so myself!

I framed the light blue mat with my Daisy D Zig Zag tape runner. I made a mistake in the lower right hand corner but I easily disguised it with a chipboard flourish - no one could be the wiser!

All of the letters in the title I cut out using my Cricut and antiqued the edges with my ColorBox Cat's Eye inks.

Play Time

This is a nice and bright layout. Primary colors normally seen and used amongst kids.

I used a piece of green string on the top and put it down with yellow mini brads and strung metal letters, "Play Time". I thought that was a unique way to display the title. I am not sure how I just thought of it, but I did!

The other embellies are a Soft Spoken set. And I made the paper clip by gluing down a foam ball sticker to it.

Christmas 2007

I did this layout in July. I was part of a Christmas in July swap on myspace where we traded all Christmas items and after doing that, I was put in the Christmas mood!

I think this might be the first time I used 4 pictures in a layout.

There are a lot of cute Christmas items on the layout: ribbon, buttons, gifts, etc.

I punched the corners out with an ornate corner adorner - a little fancy for the holidays. The red paper behind the matted picture has a border of Christmas phrases and song lyrics. Not sure how I got that paper but it was a nice addition.

And of course how could I go wrong by adding pictures of my Christmas tree and my son opening his gifts Christmas morning.

Sketch Challenge: 4 Pictures

Since my 1st sketch challenge came our fairly well, I thought I'd give another one a try. This time my myspace scrap friend, Angela hosted this challenge.





This was the original sketch:












This was my version of it:


I had decided to use pictures from our recent trip to The Bronx Zoo. I used for the first time in this layout, Stickles glitter glue. I have seen others use it and have been very anxious to get my hand on some so I recently got about 6 different colors. As you can see I outlined the leaf stickers as well as some of the leaves that are on the patterned paper. I also outlined all the pictures on the mats.



I was excited to finally get to use the Jolee's Zebra and Giraffe stickers that I had - I think they are the cutest!