Another Weekend: Another 2 Layouts

I am pretty happy to say that this weekend I was able to get 2 layouts done. 1 each day. And being home with an active 3.5 year old, it honestly took me an entire day to get each layout done because of many interuptions.

2 Picture Layouts

Valentines Day 2009:

A precious time to capture. My son with his gal pal Catie on the day after Valentines Day having their own celebration with cupcakes.

I used some great supply on this layout. I received for Christmas a very large pack of handmade Velvet papers - GORGEOUS! I used the velvet paper as the back drop to this layout. I layered on top of that the Making Memories Artisan die-cut 12x12 paper and I used 3d-glue dots so it is raised.

I used my Cricut to create the entire title. I cut the hearts using my George Basic Shapes cart and used my Zooballoo cart to cut the letters. I highlighted the letters with Stickles in a coordinating color.

I was gifted during Valentines, a gift from a fellower myspace scrapper. Quick a few Valentines Day embellies which I was able to use on this layout. K&Company BW Sweet Talk banners and die-cuts. The die-cuts are not paper, they are a plastic like material, heavy duty and very pretty. On the banners I used an epoxy sticker for the first initials of the names and for the rest of the name I used rub-on letters that are 'mixed up' and it was fun putting that together.

I added a few heart brads here and there to finish it off. I am very happy the way this came out. I have done 2 other Valentine Day layouts when my son was a few months and I can actually say they are the worst layouts ever!

Easter 2008:

Easter of 2008 was the first Easter where my son could color his own eggs. He was 2.5 years old.

*first I want to say... I have an issue with photographing my layouts. unfortunately I don't know the proper way... the coloring is not great on this one. I didn't use the flash because when I did, it hit the center of one of the pictures causing the pictures to be all white. If anyone can give me a good tip, I'd really really appreciated it. **

The background paper on there is a gorgeous grass scence with Easter Eggs - simply gorgeous but also a bit overpowering to put pictures directly on it... at least in my opinion. I choose a yellow paper with little blue swirls on it and cut it down as the center of the layout. I added green chipboard corners, big and small for contrast. I cut out the title using my Cricut Zooballoo cartridge (I have a bunch of carts but I love the font on the Zooballoo). I used Sandylion Essential 'Easter Eggs' as the letter O in 'Coloring'.

The 'Happy Easter' sticker is from Soft Spoken. I also added light green and light yellow ribbon on the side, attached using my Making Memories mini stapler.

I hope you like them!

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!

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!

School Layouts

My son started Nursery school this past Fall and as any parent would say, it was a bitter sweet milestone.

3 Picture Layout:

I took tons of pictures of his first day of school but I only choose a few for the layout: getting ready to leave the house, he shows off his new CARS school bag, at school he waits outside of his classroom holding Papa's hand, and in class his desk with his name on it. He is on the Elephant team and shares his desk with two other classmates in the AM class.

I used this really cute 12x12 green paper that had chalk drawings in each corner but due to the amount of pictures I was using, I ended up covering 2 of the corners. The other 2 corners, I went over the chalk drawings with yellow stickles for some extra brightness. I used a scalloped piece of black paper in the center, almost like a chalkboard. I used my new Dymo Caption Maker to give some extra facts that I could not fit on the journal card. I used chipboard school embellies from K&Company and Soft Spoken. The yellow apple straight pin is something I found on Oriental Trading and I finally got to use it!

2 Picture Layout:

His first school photographer picture was a very exciting day! When I picked him up from school and asked him how his pictures went, he told me he said "CHEESE" with a huge grin on his face. I was so happy and anxious to get the pictures. About a month or so later, we received the pictures and I was surprised not to see the big Cheese grin he told me about!

I wanted to do a layout featuring his school picture as well as his class picture. It is something I am hoping to do every year. The background 12x12 paper is phrased with classroom sayings. I matted each picture on white and punched the corners out of the mat and picture to a scalloped corner. I also antiqued the edges of the mat in a silvery gray. I wanted to do something different with the journaling, so I literally ripped out a piece of paper from a mini notebook I have and I used a distressing tool to make the paper look worn. I antiqued the edges in a light blue. I took a piece of journal paper that looks like notebook paper and did the same, distressed and antiqued the edges. I stamped the apple on and used stickles to outline it. A pencil and crayon stickers were perfect for a little extra. I had an apple altered paper clip that was made by a fellow scrapper to make it look like it was holding the two notebook papers together. On the journaling I listed all the names of his teachers and classmates in the group photo. A nice memory for the future.

The other two chipboard embellies are from K&Company and Soft Spoken. The 'Nursery' title, I used a piece of white scrap that was leftover from the mats of the pictures and I used rub-on letters. And I have to say those rub-on letters are adorable and were a dollar store find!

I hope you like them!

The 1st for the New Year: 1 Picture Layout

So why wait to get started? Ok, well I did wait 4 days into the new year to do my first layout! lol...

This is what I did and I am really happy with it.

I finally got to use the Making Memories Noteworthy Collection Ava RicRac Ledger Paper that I got a few months back. I was hesitant to use it because it has pink details on it and scrapping for my son never requires any pink but this time I made it work. This was the perfect picture for this paper. So I ran with it... pinks, purples and a brick red to make it a little more masculine. The journal sheet is from the Making Memories Noteworthy Collection as well.

The chipboard letters in "Work" and "Play" are from K&Company Marcella's Anastasia's line and they are purples and browns, very pretty and they have been in my stash for quite sometime now and never knew how to work them into a layout - this was the perfect time! I put those down with 3D-dots. I cut out "All", "&" and "No" using my Jasmine Cricut Cartridge and used black stickles on them for a little sparkle.

Over the photo I have a clear frame that is from Miss Elizabeth's (a dollar store find) as well as the purple circles I scattered around.

The flowers are paper and I put little purple buttons in the middle of them... I like the way it looks :)

The picture is adorable... I took my son to work with me last year in April and he sat at my desk with my cell phone to his ear and "typing" on my computer! It was just too cute and too funny!

I hope you like it and I hope this layout will set the tone for the 74 to come.

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!

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: 2 pictures

Yes... I gave in and participated in another myspace sketch challenge.

This challenge required 2 pictures.

Original sketch provided by Larissa:

My version:

I used a bright green with dark green polka dots 12x12 paper as my background. A different shade of the same paper was used for the paper edge up top as well as the mats for my pictures. I made the journal circle on my own in MS Word. I have journaling stamps but the circle one is not that big and I wanted one to pop out. I used my Cats Eye inks to give it some color. The stars I made on my Cricut using my Celebrations cartridge and jazzed them up with Stickles and placed them on the layout with some foam adhesive to give it dimension. I did the same with the chipboard title.

I hope you like it!

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!