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!

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: 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!

My 1st Scrap-Lift

I am not one to literally copy something that someone does. Try to get ideas, yes, but copy no. I have come to learn that 'scrap lifting' is something that is usually welcomed in the scrapbooking community.

I subscribe to the magazine Scrapbooks Etc. and they had a layout with a sketch and templates for it, basically inviting you to scrap lift.

This was the article in the magazine:

And this was my version of the layout:

I started with a 12x12 sheet of blue paper, and cut down a green sheet of 12x12 for a pop of color. I added corner embellies to the green paper for a little extra touch. I matted my pictures with a bright yellow card stock from one of my "Designer Matt Pads" by K&Company and added anchors and brads to the top corners.

I didn't use the exact colors of the original - I wanted to make it my own.

I liked the idea of the little white tags to add the journaling, so I grabbed that idea right away!

I used my Cricut to cut out the clouds and title "My Pot of Gold". I also ink'd the edges of the title and white tags.

I like the idea of adding the colored buttons to the clouds but for some reason my version doesn't have that scattered look like the original does.

I hope to do more scrap lifting soon!

Layouts in 2007

I started scrappin' in the Spring of 2007 and I think I did plenty layouts in about 6 months.





All of these layouts are part of my son's "1st Year" album.

Now keep in mind, I was a beginner :) I already posted my 1sts.... these are the rest:


The layouts without matts behind the photos are ones I did earlier, not knowing matting brings out the photo :)





*These are not necessarily the order I did them*

my 1st attempt at journaling:

I tried using stencils on this one... that was the last time I ever used them!

I love this one... my friend Joey cut out the watermelon for me!

These are 2 Valentine layouts and the 2nd one is not a favorite at all... has to be one of my worse



You can see that at this point they are starting to improve a bit.

I love how this one came out.... one of my best that early on (at least I think)

This pool layout was my time ever using my Cricut!

Sorry for the photo dump.... but now I will be able to show you my 2008 layouts in more detail!

Thanks for lookin'!