Monday, March 31, 2014

A few to share

I just brewed myself a fresh cup of coffee and I am relaxing a bit before the kids and my hubby get home. I feel like I have been doing laundry all day and in anticipation of putting  a walk in closet in our bedroom, I have been cleaning my room and going through clothes. I guess the Spring cleaning bug has bitten me. I figured that if I wanted to get a blog entry in this week I would have to make myself take a break. Plus, I have been dusting things I don't generally dust on a regular basis and my allergies are in high gear. Anyhoo..I rarely ever scrapbook layouts of my husband and I figured I would share my most recent one.  

I'm A Fan

 This picture was taken at Disneyland between the two parks. We were waiting for the rest of our party to show up and I snapped this quick pic of him relaxing. I am sure that he was bracing himself for the day ahead. He doesn't really enjoy Disneyland the way the rest of the family does. He has been know to get sick from some of the rides. He loves me though, so he puts up with everything like a trooper. We always try to stay close enough to the park so he can go back to the hotel and rest if he has had to much.


 I think that almost everything from this layout is Heidi Swapp except the enamel dots that are Recollections and the Love journaling tag is from Calico Studios. I have really been enjoying the fact that Heidi Swapp has a bunch of new stuff at Micheal's! I think that I have purchased almost everyone of her sprays in addition to almost half of her line. It doesn't hurt that it was 50% off last week. Gotta love that!

Next Adventure

 I just kept the Heidi Swapp out on the table for this next layout. I am almost done with the pictures from Bodie. It is rare to get a good shot of the whole group so I had to scrap these as well.


A close up of the tag with a few chipboard stars. I love the burst of yellow from the chipboard tag, it helps tie the three photos together and draws the eye right to the center. I do not have a fondness for yellow, but I love the cheery, bright feel of this tag.

Love Your Life Happy

 My last layout of the day is one of my favorites. I used paper and embellishments from DCWV vintage collection. I cut the frame out from the patterned paper and raised it just a bit. I also cut out the hexagons form the patterned paper to enhance the pattern of the patterned paper.


 A close up of the flower: the crocheted flower adds just a touch of sweetness topped with a brad from Prima.
Thanks for stopping by and have fun creating!

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Just Embelish it!

I found this picture of Sophia from last summer and I had to smile. I love the expression on her face. I only had the one photo from that day and while I generally prefer multi photo layouts, I couldn't resist scrapping this one.  I decided that I would try to use some of my older paper and just have some fun playing with different embellishments. 

 I decided that nothing was off limits and just had fun. I stayed with the same color palette to unify everything injecting different pops of color here and there. I love getting lost in a layout and just creating and experimenting. I have collected so many different types of scrapbooking products over the years, sometimes I don't even really know what to do with them. I don't consider myself a mixed media artist at all but it is fun trying new things. 

 My big thing lately has been mists. I love the subtle color that they give canvas, wood veneer and paper. They aren't to messy and add a nice pop of color. I sprayed the wood veneer butterfly and then sprinkled a little glitter while the little guy was still wet and then I let it dry before I adhered it to the page. A super easy way to add a little sparkle. 

 Love this paper from Crate Paper. I picked up the paper pad at Joannes on sale and then found the chipboard stickers that matched at one of my favorite scrapbook stores. 

 Added the brads to the tags to give them a little extra dimension. 

Added the twine to the balloons love the way the turned out. 
Thanks for stopping by and have fun creating!

Monday, March 17, 2014

Pretty Paper and things that Sparkle

I love pretty paper and things that sparkle. I love the process of capturing photos and pairing them with the right patterned paper and  embellishments that will enhance and help tell the story. From beginning to end: capturing the details, remembering the moments and celebrating the everyday.  Maybe it's recording the memories or possibly just recreating an emotion and telling  the story.  I adore the entire process as well as the the finished page.  I have scrapbooked for nearly 13 years and I still really enjoy the craft and creativity of it all. I also love that there is a community out there of fellow scrappers that get exactly what I am talking about because they get it too! 
 For the above layout I used mostly products from the Recollections brand that Micheals carries. I am loving the Heidi Swapp mists and was thrilled to find them 40% off. I grabbed a few more to add to my stash.  I find them a wonderful way to quickly add a bit of color to canvas shapes. I used Navy and Cherry to add some pops of color to an otherwise neutral canvas embellishment.
 This sticker is DCWV. I bought a pack of journaling stickers and they have been so versatile and useful.
 A close up of my embellishment cluster. I used a mixture of items and  love the way they turned out. Also, you get a better look at the canvas shapes. The Navy makes the canvas look like denim...an added bonus.
 Simple and sweet, that's what I think of the above layout. I love it when a layout practically puts itself together. The patterned paper Crate Paper, the chipboard stickers are MME, the crocheted flower is Recollections and the wood veneer is Calico Studio.
The last layout for the day is pretty straight forward as well. The chipboard stickers, brads  and chalk stickers are MME are , the chalk pastel pens are Zig, the patterned paper is Crate Paper and the journal spot is Cosmo Cricket.
Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Sunday, March 16, 2014

A fresh batch of inspiration

Last week my friend and I went on a little scrapbook shopping spree. We made a day of it and had so much fun.  The new stuff that I bought worked seamlessly with my stuff at home and I felt very inspired to create several new layouts. As a matter of fact, I had so much inspiration...I created 8 new layouts! I will share more tomorrow . Here are the first couple. I used a different technique to photograph them,not sure that I like the new method but I am always up for trying new things to try to get the truest picture of the layout. 
 I was so happy with these pics from last year. I used the patterned paper stack from DCWV "Vintage Collector"; the letters are American Craft; the Journal spots,chipboard and 3-d sticker is Cosmo Cricket and the Brads are Recollections.
 I used the patterned paper form DCWV again, the catdstock is Bazzill, the brads and chipboard is MME and  the canvas stickers are Recollections.

I used Heidi Swapp sprays to color the canvas stickers. I love that they have a surface that resists some of the color to make the design.  

Sunday, March 9, 2014

A solitary scrapper

I am a solitary scrapper. I create best when I have no outside distractions. While I have been known to talk to myself while crafting, conversations with other people tend to be to distracting.  I used to go to the occasional crop but I found that they tended to serve as more of a social exercise than a time to actually get any serious scrapping done . Fast forward to today and I generally scrap at night, in the wee hours of morning or when the kids are at school. I try to carve out an hour or two here and there to complete at least 2 or 3 layouts a week.  Gone are the days of completing a layout everyday and that's OK. I still love scrapbooking.
 This layout came together quickly for me especially since I used a sketch. I fiddled around with it a little but I stayed pretty true to the original Page Map.The patterned paper is Basic Grey and the rest of the paper is Bazzill.  I think that the stickers are Colorbok but I am not sure.
 Close up of the circles, they are embossed.
 I continued on my Basic Grey trend with this layout, patterned paper and stickers are BG and I  added enamel dots from MME.  I kept this pretty simple and enhanced the title so it would stand out a little more.

Close up of title. I really like those enamel dots. They add a nice amount of dimension without to much bulk. 
Thanks for swinging by. Happy scrapping!

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Happy Halloween?

Going through the pile of photos on my desk and  I found a few pictures from this most recent Halloween. I didn't take very many so I only had enough for two single layouts.  The first one is of me. I was Effie Trinket from Hunger Games  for Halloween. I generally try to be a character from a book and thankfully my cousin had the wig from her costume last year. 
 I went non traditional with this layout and tried to stay true to my Effie Trinket costume. I went bright, bold & fun.  I was able to use patterned paper from multiple companies and go a little wilder than I generally do.  It was a fun layout to create! Love all of the patterns and textures.
 The three pictures of the kids that I managed to get.  Went much more traditional with this layout.
 Used MME almost exclusively.  Got a great deal on everything at Micheal's after Halloween & found it all on clearance. Love getting a great deal on scrapbook supplies!
 This pics are not as clear as I would have hoped. It has been raining like crazy and it finally let up enough for me to get my layouts photographed.

Another close up, really love this product! I think that MME is rapidly becoming my new favorite  go to product line. 
Thanks for  stopping by. Have fun creating and remember the joy is in the journey.