I am a lazy scrapper

Yep, it's the truth. I am a lazy scrapbooker! I have everything close by and once I get started on a project I try to remain seated until the project is complete. In fact, after I clean up my space a bit I plan on taking pictures from my chair so you get a 360 degree view.  I even have my chair on wheels so I can glide effortlessly on my hardwood floor. Ah, it's the little things. Knowing how you scrap is half the battle and I realized a long time ago that I need to have all of my go to products within arms length.  I just hate getting up mid project, the interruptions put a damper on the creative flow.

 So here it is, one of the layouts that prompted my blog title for today.  I basically left this paper pad out on my desk from my last layout and decided to use it again  (and again and again!) As is turns out, I do not have very many boyish or manly patterned papers.  I guess I know what I will be on the lookout for next time I am at the scrapbook store! I do love this paper though and it worked well with the photos.

 Here's a close up: I think that I have used those canvas hearts from LYB on every layout since I opened the package, the wooden buttons are Prima, the dragonfly is Recollections, the brads are MME  and the bingo cards and star circle are just cut out from the patterned paper (Awesome Boy by Recollections)

 Ok, it should come as no surprise that I used Awesome Boy and another canvas heart.  For the title, I cut out the Sutter's Fort sign and added pop dots.

A closer look: the solid colored brads are MME & the other are Prima, the 3D sticker is K&Co, and the brass label is MM.
Thanks for stopping by & have a great week!

Feels like Spring

Everything is blooming and the kids are having fun playing outdoors.  We have a very small window when it comes to Spring so we all like to take advantage of it! One of the things that we really love about our house is this little patch of land that we own. Almost 2 acres of trees, grass and even a little creek.  The kids love exploring and I love the fact that it is fenced in. Even though the kids feel like they are conquering  the great unknown, they are safely corralled. 

 Took these pics a couple weeks ago and they went perfectly with this paper pad from Recollections: "Fabulous" I also added some of my "go to"enamel brads from MME.  I am truly in love with those things!

 Used my new favorite butterfly punch from Martha Stewart and I love the little touch that this washi tape adds!

 More butterflies, a strip of ric rac  and a little bling. It's the little touches that sometimes make the biggest impact.

 My sweet niece Elli.  These pics are from when they visited last summer. Kept out my paper pad and punched some butterflies out of the floral pp.  Sprayed a hint of color with Heidi Swapp's color shine in teal. (I really need to get some in more colors! LOL)

 Love the something extra that these wood flowers from Studio Calico add.  I also adhered  pop dots to give the butterfly the illusion of flight.

This layout came together rather quickly, just added things here and there.  I even pulled out some of my stickers from Three Bugs In a Rug. 
Have a great weekend!

One and I'm done!

I am not a marathon scrapper.  I generally scrap one  layout at a sitting.  Partly due to time constraints but also because creatively, one  layout is what I can muster! Every once in a while I  will  complete two layouts but that is very rare.  It always interests me to hear how others scrapbook.  My dear friend Cindy is a marathon scrapper.  She will complete an entire album in a night.  Still others love the social aspect of a crop and that's where get their best work done. I guess for me, scrapping is therapy and I love getting lost in a layout.  When I am scrapping I fully emerge myself in a layout...I try to close everything else out.  That is why I scrap in the wee hours, not as many interruptions. 

 The above is a layout of Evan and Jarod.  I was thrilled to use up the rest of my black web (remember that?) I am not even sure that is what it's called.  I also cut up and used a frame that I had ordered from QVC way back when. It is the rusty paper behind the brads as well as the Friend definition (also from QVC).  The canvas heart is Little Yellow Bicycle.

 Bought this Colorbok  patterned paper stack at Walmart on clearance for 2.50.  I couldn't pass it up!

 Still loving the butterfly punch from MS, canvas hearts & wood flower LYB, and the brads are MME. 

Close up of one of the brads, I added the you are my sunshine from another pack of MME brads and the little heart clip is MM.
Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day!

Bling It On

I went really girly with this layout! All of the paper that I used is Heidi Swapp's Sugar Chic collection. All of these pictures are from a women's retreat from a couple years ago.  I had nearly forgotten about these shots and they had been living on my computer till just last week.  I felt like I had uncovered buried treasure! I love these gals and it was so fun looking back on the weekend and remembering all of the giggles and silliness! 

 I know that there are a lot of colors going on here, but I just wanted to play around and capture the energy of the weekend.

 My mom and I (not sure what I was thinking with my hair).  I love the wood veneer flowers from Calico Studios, I added a little bling to make 'em sparkle.

 The flowers are Prima & Recollections plus I sprayed a wood flower with color shine (my new fav!)

For the banner I added a little faux stitching and a few little sparklers.  The title Grace refers to my church.  Grace Baptist.  I am not thrilled with the sticker letters, they are not very sticky so I may have to go back through with a spot of glue for each. 
Lately I have  really been enjoying just playing around and trying new things when it comes to my scrapbooking.  I pray that I never get caught up and always have enough pictures to play around with.  Maybe I am rare, but the pressure to get all of my pictures scrapped just is not there.  I want to enjoy my family and capture their memories so we can look back fondly and smile.  I have enough pressures and stress in my life scrapbooking is pure enjoyment and a stress reliever!

A Boy Layout

I am going to be honest, sometimes it's just easier for me to do a layout for a girlier page.  There are so many more embelishment options out there for girls and sometimes the boys get a raw deal.  For this layout of Evan I played around with a few different embelishments, I even included sparkly letters!

 Forgive me for the quality of this pic.  Today is a little overcast and I didn't quite have enough sun to capture the layout.  The layout is much more vibrant in real life.

 I love these Thickers because they remind me of a penny.  I also am still digging this cork, nothing says little boy like cork right? lol.  I  added a couple brads to help give it a little extra dimension and the buttons for a little extra interest.

  The three embelishment clusters create a visual triangle and  I inked the circle stickers to unify them.  The other day I brought home some Color Shine in teal by Heidi Swapp....so much fun.  It's difficult to tell from these pics but I added a couple sprays to this layout.  I love the subtle blast of color!  I am not sure why I hadn't bought any sooner.  I am going to have to buy more.

A fresh batch of photos!

I have to admit that I had fallen down in the photo department as of late.  Not the taking of the pictures mind you, rather the editing and development of them.  Needless to say I had a rather daunting task ahead of me of editing and deciding which photos to print.  We are talking several years worth.  Various field trips and other misc.outings  that had been hiding from me.  I had managed to print the big ones (Disneyland trips, pumpkin patch, Halloween etc.) but there were so many more that I had nearly forgotten about.  After that dreaded task was behind me I was able to pick up a fresh patch of nearly 300 new photos! I truly love the promise that a new batch of photos hold.

 The above layout and various pics were from this Christmas.  I had a Polar Express story time at work and I roped my family into helping out.  My dear hubby was Santa and the kiddos were elves.  Do I have an awesome family or what?!

 Our family really doesn't do the whole Santa thing anymore so I was happy to be able to use my Santa paper.  It is from Recollections "Joyful Christmas" , the wooden button is BG, the brads are MME and the stickers and flowers are MM.

 I inked the BG chipboard ornament and added some Zazz from AC to give it a little sparkle.

 I love the option of these prints form Wallmart.  I take pictures of my decorating to remind myself what my house looks like when it's clean. LOL I also use them as reference for the next time that I decorate for a particular holiday. 

 This tape from Glitz is awesome and looks like wood.  I love it! The scalloped edge you see peeking from behind is adhesive paper ribbon from K&Co.

A closer look at the grouping of embelishments.  Love this butterfly punch form Martha Stewart.  I predict that I will be using it on many future layouts.  The leaves are MM, brads BG & MM.

photo orientation

I mostly scrap with 4x6 photos thus limiting the amount of photo orientation to only so many combinations.  For instance, I have almost identical photo placement for both of these layouts. Thankfully that fact  doesn't bug me too much. I can handle photos in the same place, the embelishments are where I really get to play around and create!

 I found both of these layouts partially completed in a bag that I had taken to a crop 2 years ago! Most of the groundwork had been done which left me no other choice but to add some embelishments to really bring them to life. 

 I added a few brads to the already adhered flowers to help them sing and make more of a statement but not take away from the pictures.  I also added the journaling tag to help tell more of the story.

 For the second layout I added the bugs, the ribbon, some brads, a black flourish and the word cherish. 

 I had already adhered the phrases with pop dots but the layout still seemed to be missing something.  I played around with the bug theme and also added the cork for a little extra texture.  I love the canvas bugs from Little Yellow Bicycle, I was able to use color pencils to give them a little color!

The word cherish seemed very white so I inked it a bit to help it blend in a little more with the rest of the layout.  While I creating a layout in a 2 year time frame isn't my preferred method, I still had fun and it was a great exercise in creativity!
Have a wonderful day!

stil inspired by my stash

As I was going through my paper pads and deciding which should stay or go, I rediscovered Retro from WRMK.  Almost everything on the layout is from that pad except a few of the brads and the lace.  Even the cb letters and letter stickers are from WRMK.  I knew there was a reason that I bought that pad...plus the price 6.99  at Ross. I have already mentioned my weakness for patterned paper pads!

 I inked the edges of the layout and to create the border I cut the patterned paper.  I haven't used hexagons on any of my layouts yet so this was a great way to try them out. 

 The lace was on clearance from M's, Recollection's  lace on a roll with adhesive only .79 cents. Score! The brads are MMe (my new favorite and not so secret crush)

 For Snow Play I used Fancy Pants as the base and various other pps.  I mixed up old and new using my new BG wooden buttons..love these! The CB letters are Heidi Grace.

 A closer look at the border: snowflakes are MM, brads MME and the wooden buttons are BG.  I am not sure who made the felt snowflake border.

I love this journaling tag from BG, to  help bring out the red in the layout I colored the tag red with my favorite colored pencils and then I inked the edges.  As I always say "When  in doubt, ink it out!"

Everything old is new again!

After cleaning out my scrapbook room the other day I discovered many forgotten treasures.  I decided to challenge myself to make the following layouts with items and pp scraps from my Christmas/winter drawer.  For the layout base I used Bazzil but almost everything else is older product that time had forgotten.  A few of these things might look familiar!

 Aside from the Bazzill cardstock all of the pp were scraps so I am not sure of any manufacturers .  I vaguely remember some of it being BG & MME, the tradition sticker is MM, the brads are Recollections, the letters are Thickers and  the felt snowflakes are Doodlebug (I think) remember those?!

 A closer look at  the snowflakes.  I don't remember the manufacturer of the 3D snowflakes. 

 For this layout I used a few definition stickers by MM, the ornament border is Anna Griffin, the sparkly letters are MM and the other stickers are Stampin up (I think)  and I think that the pp might be October Afternoon but I really don't remember. I added a little bling to the ornaments to give it a little more interest.

Here's a close up of the stickers.I love finding new life in older products! We can adapt almost anything to update the look of a product...a little inking here, add some bling there and presto chango, an older product has new life! Love that!

A Closer Look

I spent Monday organizing in my scrapbook room.  Every once in awhile ya just gotta go through everything: sort, purge and rediscover! My scrapbook room is ever evolving and I am always looking for a better way to sort and store my goodies.  I am always reorganizing and rethinking my creative process to see what works best.  Part of the problem that I have is that once I put it away...I sometimes forget about it.  I rediscovered some gems!

 I love these drawers but I have a tendency to just shove stuff in them despite the fact that I had most of the drawers clearly labeled.  Now, this is one of my least favorite things to organize because it can be time consuming.  I too all 20 drawers out into the living room and set to work purging.  I rethought my current organization and reevaluated my scrapbook process to see what made the most sense.  I decided to create the following categories:
Brads
Borders
stickers
Quotes, phrases and words
frames, tags & punches
Ocean/beach
Christmas/winter
Chipboard Letters
Thickers
letters (sticker etc)
3D stickers & rub ons
journal spots
Flowers
Fall
Chipboard shapes (2 drawers worth)
felt, fabric etc.
misc. embellishments
So far so good. 

 I absolutely love this piece.  It was once a spice rack but I painted it black and re-purposed it.  I keep it within arms reach over my desk so I can easily reach all of my treasures!

A rare glimpse inside the white cabinet.  I actually went through my paper and got rid of a few hundred sheets of paper (mostly older paper pads).  I haven't even gone through my cropper hoppers of single sheets yet. I still have some organizing to do but I am off to a good start!
Have a great day!

A Different Approach

Sophia had been playing around in my scrap supplies and I noticed that she had left this orange piece of Basic Grey out on my  desk.  After she assured me that she wasn't using it I decided to have a little fun, just play and create. The piece of paper already had the photo spots pre-printed so I was kind of stuck with photo placement.  I figured that I would just create around the photo spots and add the pictures last (something I never do). I didn't even know what pictures I was going to use, I figured I had to have some that would work .  I decided that I would just use product that I could easily grab from where I was sitting.  I turned up the music and just let my mind wander. 

 I played around with layering and different textures utilizing everything from flowers, to ribbons to epoxy.  Nothing was off limits, I even flicked a little blue paint to give it a little extra interest.  Like many scrapbookers, I have amassed a rather large stockpile of scarp supplies and I set out to start making a dent in said pile!

In this little cluster of scrappy goodness you can find: prima flowers, pearl drops by Recollections, Prima brads, K&Co bird and nest sticker, colorbok epoxy, Tim Holtz Grungeboard, American Crafts Thickers and various other goodies.
As far as the two lovely ladies that are highlighted in the layout, they are my Sisters in Song...they make me sound good! Kathy plays the piano and Michelle is the soprano to my alto, together we are a team and I love these ladies like they are my sisters!