Christmas Card '08: 1 Picture Layout

I am calling this a 1 picture layout even though they are actually 2 pictures. The 1 picture is our Christmas Card from this past Christmas and the card itself has 2 pictures.

I thought it would be nice idea to scrap our annual Christmas Card so I started with the most recent and will work my way back to the other 3 I have.

I didn't use traditional Christmas colors on this layout just because the card itself wasn't. I stayed in the same color scheme.

The 12x12 paper is something I found in my stash (not sure the brand) and has the Merry Christmas already on it and I just went over it with silver Stickles. I put the card on a blue 8x8 paper that looks like the night sky and I tore the edge with my Fiskars paper edger (geez, is that even the name for it?).

The sled and snowman are Jolee's and I thought were cute to use since the card includes my son with both of those items.

I typed up my journal on the computer, glued it down (glue dots) and smeared the silver Stickles all over it for a nice shimmer. I placed 2 brads on it as well. The poinsettia's on the upper corner are Making Memories flowers with brads. And the ones in the lower corner are stickers by Reflections (I believe that is a Michael's brand).

I hope you like it!

Shop'g: 2 Picture Layout

Another layout done this weekend... feels good to get another one done.

These were pictures from almost 2 years ago.... in 2007. And yes I even take my camera food shopping! You never know when there will be a Kodak moment :)

I had purchased that adorable shopping cart embellishment a long while ago. It is from Jolee's and I knew I would be able to use it at some point and it worked perfectly in this layout. I have gotten a lot of compliments on it, but let's thank Jolee's for it! Oh and that little brown shopping bag with the loaf of bread is also a Jolee's but an older item I had in my stash.

I liked the color combination on this. I hardly ever use yellow and I was happy this worked out. I did my journaling with my Dymo Caption maker. I still haven't gotten used to the placement of the little stickers but in time I am sure I will. I used my Fiskars Side Circle Punch for the date and I used a sticker by Remarks which was clear. And a little ribbon and colored staples finished it off nicely.

I hope you like it!

Christmas Layout: 3 Pictures

aCheck. Another one off my to do list!

So there is about a week left to this year and I only got 1 more layout done! So it is officially that I will not make my goal. I tried....

This weekend I put together this layout "Cookies for Who?". These pictures were from Christmas 2006, my son was just 1 years old and when he came out of his bedroom Christmas morning, instead of being in awe of what Santa left him, he was too busy eating Santa's left over cookies! It was the cutest thing ever!

I used my Cricut to cut out the letters using the Zoobaloo cart. I antiqued the edges of the letters with green Cat's Eye ink. I placed the letters on circle cuts out that I made with my Fiskars Side Punch. And I was so happy to find in my "food" sticker stash, the big chocolate chip cookies that I used as the O's in Cookies.

The Cookies and Milk sticker set is from Jolee's and it was something I bought I believe last year to use for these pictures. Yes, I know it took me this long to get to it!

I typed my journaling and printed it from the computer and attached it to the layout using Candy Cane brads.

I like the way this came out, I hope you do too!

And in case I am not back before Christmas, which is less than 3 days away...

Merry Christmas!

Halloween Layout: 3 Pictures

aCheck one off my to-do list.

I sat last night and said I have to get at least one layout done tonight. I pulled out this years Halloween pictures and just did it.

It's not GREAT but it is pretty decent. I tried something different with showing what year it was. I put orange number stickers in the vellum circle tags by Making Memories. I put black and orange fiber through the tag hole and affixed the circle to the layout using mini glue dots, which thankfully you can't see through the vellum. It is a little hard to see the numbers from this picture but it does look pretty cool in person.

The Trick or Treat title at the top and the little embellishments toward the far right of the bottom photo are from Jolee's. The little ghost and candy corn stickers are from Refllections, a Michaels brand, which are very cute and fun to work with and oh very cheap :)

I hope you like it!

Fall Layout: 2 Pictures

A few months back I was at a typical trip to Michaels and came across this free booklet. I usually don't take the booklets because I feel they are out of my league but this one caught my eye.

I ended up buying the entire Me & My Big Ideas Cornucopia line, except for the felt leaves which I could not find. At home I knew I had tons of smaller felt leaves that I could possibly make work.

I finally took 2 pictures of my son near some leaves... we never got to actually play in them but for the sake of this layout I got 2 pictures :)

I altered this layout to make it my own. I followed the guidelines in the sample picture but I changed it by using 2 pictures instead of 1 and used a "FALL" title instead of "Thankful". I figured I can save the Thankful idea for a Thanksgiving layout.

I didn't use my felt leaves, instead I found very large package of these die-cut leaves by K&Company. I scattered them on the layout, some with and without 3d-dots. I used Stickles on some and also used some jewels on some.

I found the cutest little owl by Jolee's by You and was able to add it to this layout, it fit the theme perfectly.

All of the other items on this layout, besides the leaves are "Me & My Big Ideas". The background 12x12 paper is green and velvet embossed. The die-cut 12x12 is also velvet embossed and I laid that onto the green 12x12 using 3d-dots. I worked on the entire layout on the die-cut 12x12 and when I was done placed it on the green background.

I hope you like it as much as I do... I think this has taken the spot of my favorite layout!

Sketch Challenge: 2 Pictures

I joined yet another sketch challenge on myspace. I hadn't done one in awhile and this one was fairly simple. This was my second sketch challenge hosted by Denise.

This was her original sketch:

And this is my version of it.
I went with the neutral brown theme and had these 2 pictures of my son putting cookie dough on a cookie sheet. I titled it "Made with Love" and that sticker, the brackets and the tab are from Flair Designs Keep on Cooking collection.

I used my Fiskars paper edger to get the ripped effect on the 2nd toned paper.

I antiqued the edges on the matts with my Color Box Cats Eye inks.

The 3 embellishments are by Jolee's by You (cookie tray, milk carton, cookie jar) and I used 3D-Dots on those. For the journlaing I used one of my Remarks journal sticker books. I wished I would have thought to mat the journaling square and have it raised, I think it would have looked better.

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.

Aquarium Layout

I took my son to the New York Aquarium in Coney Island for the first time last year... he was 2 years old. We have visited the aquarium a few more times since and I may or may not scrap those pictures. Only time will tell.

I have been holding onto this 1 picture... I took many but this one stood out the most. After exactly 1 year it finally dawned on me.

This is the layout I came up with. It is pretty simple but it says a lot.

I had purchased the 12x12 "Our Trip to Aquarium" paper for this trip and held onto it with the picture. The dic-cut shark is a Paper House product that I found on ebay. It was a set of 3 but I used just the one and saved the other 2 for future projects.

I used 3 different matts behind the picture and the largest one, I used 3D dots to raise it. I also raised the shark as well as my circle journal. It is hard to tell but you can see the shadows from the 3D effect and it looks pretty cool.

Thankfully I saved our ticket stubs as well as the map and I was able to incorporate them in the layout. I placed the map on the layout just so you can still open it and see the inside. I attached the tickets with a binder clip that I received in a scrapbook swap (actually a package with a few different colors and the opposite side, not shown, has words on it - I believe vacation themed).

The "New York Aquarium" epoxy sticker was from a sticker set I purchased for my son that trip. He used up all the fish stickers and put them in his sticker books and I stashed that one for me! He never missed it :)

One of my favorite parts of this is the seaweed and glittery fish. These are from Jolee's By You. When I opened the package, I thought the seaweed would be a one piece sticker but it was not. Each piece of seaweed was separate but it worked out pretty well because I used the 3D dots on those as well and each one is layered on top of one another and it looks so regal. And the fish add the color that the layout would have been missing.

I hope you like it just as much as I do.

Halloween Layouts

Since Halloween is quickly approaching, I thought it would be a great time to catch up on my Halloween layouts.

My son is now 3 years old and I have never scrapped any of his Halloween pictures. I have done fall layouts just not Halloween. So these past few weeks I was able to do 3 layouts for the past 3 years.

I am hoping that this years layout won't be as late as these. Maybe I will make a goal to scrap them quickly - maybe in the month of November. Let's see if I can do it.

All of his Halloween costumes have been cute - nothing scary so far :) This year he will either be a spider or a turtle (he wants to be a monkey, so we are still tossing the idea), but I am sure which ever he is will be cute, not scary.

His 1st Halloween 2005 - ROOSTER:

Here I used a traditional Orange and Black color scheme. I used double mats behind the 2 pictures and rounded the corners of the mats as well as the pictures. I love my corner punches! I cut out the title using my Cricut and layered it.

The number 1 and the H in Halloween have a raised dimension by using some foam dots. I was once again able to use Stickles in yet another layout - I love that stuff! I created my journal in MS Word and added a clip-art image to it and then ink'd the edges for the antique look. Other embellies are store bought.

His 2nd Halloween 2006 - SHARK:

Here I used a black background with orange, green, white and purple dots. I matted the pictures in orange and rounded the corners on both the pictures and matts.

Using foam adhesive squares, I raised the 'Happy Halloween' tag, the journal square and the year.

I used a variety of embellishments from Jolee's jack-o-lantern filled with treats, to felt leaves.

His 3rd Halloween 2007 - LION:
Here I used a solid orange background paper and matted the pictures with a carmel color brown paper. I added a patterned harvest paper to the background for a something little extra. I added brads, buttons and embellies by Jolee's and Pebbles. In the center is a great fabric adhesive in a pumpkin design that I got at Oriental Trading - another fabulous spot for great deals.


This years layout to follow in November.

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!

I Made it!

Step 1 - get crafty a
Step 2 - start scrapbooking a
Step 3 - start making invitations!!!! aa


I am very very proud of myself for attempting home-made invitations this year for my son's 3rd Birthday Party. I wanted to do something different and wow everyone.


I started just with an idea and had no idea if and how I would implement it.


The Theme: Cowboy/Western


I started with the supplies (all purchased at Michaels):

• white/blank cards with envelopes
• vellum paper
• 3 kinds of patterned paper
• Jolee's stickers
• Brads
• glue stick
• glue dots
• ColorBox Cat's Eye Ink

I sat there looking at the white cards and said to myself "how am I am going to 'un-whiten' them".



I took a piece of the bandanna print patterned paper and cut it down to size and glued it to the inside of the card (cover all the white space). So far so good...




I then took the tanned cowboy print patterned paper and did the same to the front of the card.


I printed the invitation information onto the vellum paper using MS Word and added a cowboy silhouette clip art. I cut the vellum down to size (I was able to print 2 invitations on 1 piece of 8.5" x11" vellum paper) and attached it to the inside of the card using 2 western themed brads (lucky find on eBay!) on the top 2 corners.


The inside verse was:

Howdy Partner!

I'm asking you

to saddle up

and come chow down!

Thomas' 3rd Birthday Party

Date

Time

RSVP

Here is a closer look at the brads - aren't they the coolest?

Back to the front....

I used another color of the bandanna patterned paper and cut out "You're Invited" on my Cricut using the Beyond Birthdays cartridge. I attached the cut out using Glue Dots to the center of the front.

I used decorative scissors and cut the bottom edge of the front of the card to give the illusion that the card was ripped or even burned. I used my ColorBox Cat's Eye ink and distressed all the edges in a dark brown to give it the burned/antiqued look. Looked PERFECT!!!

To add the final touch to the front, I placed Jolee's cowboy themed stickers to the front. The package can with a few different stickers, so I was able to have 4 variations of the front.

The final product:

These are the 4 variations of the front: the inside:

I am so proud of how these came out and was so happy to send them out to everyone. I received tons of compliments and the "you should start your own invitation making business" suggestion but I don't know about that :)

I then made my own return labels and stamped the front of the envelope with a horse stamp that I was lucky to find on sale at A.C. Moore.

The party came and went and it was a success.