Swing Life Away

Good morning, scrappers! I am having hand surgery today, so today will be my last post for at least a week.

I've been working on finishing up my family's 2014 album. Our big family vacation last year was a trip to Florida to visit our extended family. One of those days, we took our son to the park. He LOVES the swings! I have a lot of pictures from that park trip, but they are all pretty much the same. So, I decided to do a single page layout, and combine it with another single page layout.

For this completely original design, I busted out my sacred stash of Later Sk8r paper, and used some of the Later Sk8r Picture My Life Cards to title and embellish the page. I love using PML cards for embellishments, because they coordinate perfectly with our paper packs and give a great graphic feel. I especially love that they can now be purchased without the page protectors!!!

For the top of the page, I chose three pictures that show the motions of the swings, and then staggered them to mimic the swing. I actually popped up the middle picture to give the page some dimension.

The "happy" stamp is from the Here We Go Stamp set. I added an eyelet with some retired twine. The "warning" stamp is part of the Later Sk8r WOTG. The sunburst behind the middle picture is cut from Artbooking.

I'm kind of obsessed with creating little banners as embellishments. This one was cut from Art Philosophy and then stamped using both the retired Babycakes WOTG and the current All the Details stamp sets. I used the same retired twine to string the banner.

Ingredients:

Happy Scrapping, My Artsy Friends!

Pinspiration: Simply the Cutest

Good morning, friends! Today is my last day to craft before I have my second hand surgery tomorrow! It seems fitting that I actually ran out of adhesive finishing my last layout for a few weeks. I should be back in the swing of things much faster than my first surgery, because they are operating on my non-dominant hand.

Anyway, it is time for another PINSPIRATION! This week's Heart 2 Heart Challenge is "How Cute". The theme is open to interpretation, but to me there is nothing cuter than watching my husband and son play together. So, I decided to create this layout from Halloween where they were protecting our neighborhood as Heroes. I used an idea from my Scrapbook Page Ideas board on Pinterest.

For the B&T paper on this page, I went to my stash and used the retired Doodlebug Patriotic Parade paper pack. Everything else on the spread is CTMH.

My favorite thing about the original layout was the circle design of embellishments going around the photo. I used the Stuck on You Puffies (retiring this month!) to create a fun little design. For the stitching, I pulled a bowl out of my cupboard and traced around it with pencil. I used the piercing tool, and sort of eyeballed the placement of the stitching.

To embellish I used the January Stamp of the Month and a retired brad set that seemed to work with the color scheme.

For the right page, I continued the B&T design to create an original layout with three additional pictures.

To embellish this page, I used the Geek is Chic stamp set (a personal favorite), and a cut and stamp from the Artbooking kit. I added the circle stitching to emulate the left page.

Finally, I stamped Heroes with a retired CTMH stamp set called Poster Letters. I wish I owned this stamp set, but sadly I don't. I borrowed it from a friend to create this page, because it gave a real impact to the title.

The finished layout is whimsical and very, very cute!

For more information about Heart 2 Heart Challenges, visit them here.

Ingredients (click the picture to order yours):

Happy Scrapping, My Artsy Friends!

Seeing Green

Happy St. Patrick's Day! This month's color challenge for my upline's team is to use at least two of the CTMH's greens. This pairs perfectly with this week's Heart 2 Heart Challenge: Green with Envy.

When I was in high school, I played softball. My high school colors were green, white, and gray. So, I decided this was the perfect challenge to scrap my senior year team. The greens I used were Topiary, New England Ivy, and Sweet Leaf (retired Skylark paper).

For the left page, I used an overlay from the Artbooking cartridge. Instead of setting the size to 11in, as normal, I set it to 9in.

To mat to picture, I dry embossed topiary using a honeycomb folder, which I filed to reveal more white. And, then I filed the edges of New England Ivy, as well.

I kept the right page simple by creating a plain overlay using Topiary.

To embellish, I created a small cluster using cuts from the Boys will be Boys Cricut cartridge and some stamping.

For more info on Heart to Heart visit them here.

Happy Scrapping, My Artsy Friends!

What's in a Name

My upline tasked our team with creating a page specifically about our names for our monthly challenge. I am not a fan of my name, so I was a little intimidated by this task. As it turns out, the meaning of April is New Beginnings, which is very appropriate to my life. I decided to create a layout that would show some of those beginnings, and here is what I came up with.

I used the Ruby paper from Paper Fundamentals to create the four strips. Each strip is 2.75x10in, and features a 2.25x3in photo from four different points in my life: baby, wedding, birth of my son, and today.

I cut my name out using the Storybook font Cricut cartridge. And, put a little blurb about my name along the bottom. I added a little swirly bling, as well, just to give it a little flair.

Ingredients (Click the photo to order):

Happy Scrapping, My Artsy Friends!

Using Flip Flaps to Layer Pages

Good morning, scrappers! This week's Heart 2 Heart Challenge is to use your favorite sketch. CTMH has a variety of sketch books for both cards and scrapbooking. When I first became a consultant, these books were my go-to whenever I went to create a layout. Not to mention, the Workshops on the Go, which can really elevate your artwork to the next level. Even though, I have begun using other means for inspiration (like Pinterest), I still find myself coming back to these books regularly.

For our family trip to Florida last year, I had so many pictures!!! I was really struggling narrowing them down. This is often a problem for me. So, I decided to create a full layout using flip-flaps. I used a pattern from the Cherish (Silver Screen, pgs. 20-21) to create the base layout, and then I replicated that layout with the Wanderful WOTG kit an additional two times to fill the flip flaps.

Let's start with the left page. So, the Silver Screen pattern is designed so that the top portion is 8in, and the bottom portion is 4in. The large set of flip flaps contains both of these sizes in it. The top layer of the left side features three pictures, but when you open it up, there is so much more!

You can see that I basically did the same pattern for the 12x12 middle piece, but I switch up the order for the top 8x12 piece. The blank space on the main piece will be for journaling, instead of the original design, which had it where I placed the 3.5x5in photos.

The right page featured five pictures. I did resize these, because I wanted larger vertical pictures. Again, this side was divided into two parts, which I recreated with the flip flaps.

I didn't change anything else about this layout, deciding instead to keep the same layered look all the way down. However, I did do each layer in its very own paper design. Basically, if I really wanted to, I could take these flip flaps apart and put the pages together with their other half.

My biggest tip for those of you who would like to try this is to choose a pattern that has clear boundaries, be it 6x6 or 8x4. You really need an easy place to divide the flip flaps. The Cherish guidebook has several examples of layouts created like this. They can be boxy, but when you add the flaps it isn't noticeable. 

For more information about Heart 2 Heart Challenges visit them here.

Ingredients (click the photo to order your own):

Happy Scrapping, My Artsy Friends!

Title Page: Mixing Papers

Good morning, scrappers! Over the weekend, some friends and I got together for a weekend long scrapbooking retreat, kid and husband free. It was awesome! I got so much accomplished! For today's post, I bring you another Pinspiration. This one was another single page layout, which I decided to use for the title page for my family's 2014 album. All of my Pinspiration layouts can be found on my Scrapbook Page Ideas Board.

I liked the use of scraps to create a simple banner with a lot of spunk. 

I mixed several paper packs to recreate this banner, including Hopscotch (retiring soon), Seaside, Pathfinding, and Paper Fundamentals. The buttons are from Hobby Lobby, but matched kind of perfectly.

Although I really liked the circle going behind the photo, I decided instead to use a Hopscotch Picture My Life card (retiring soon) to not only title the page, but sum up the scrapbook as a whole. I added an adorable little bow cut from the Artiste Cricut cartridge to add another dimension. 

Ingredients (Click the photo to order yours)---

Happy Scrapping, My Artsy Friends!

Opposites Attract: Monochromatic Sympathy Card

This week's Heart 2 Heart Challenge is Opposites Attract. At first, I struggled with this theme, because it is so vague that you could really create anything. Should I do a layout about my left-brained husband and me, his right-brained wife? Should I create a card using the negatives of an overlay? Then it hit me. When I think of opposites, I think of Black and White. So, I borrowed some inspiration from a recent CTMH blog challenge called Color Crush to create a Black and White monochromatic sympathy card.

Sympathy cards are tough for me. I never want them to seem too drab, because the goal should be to show support and uplift the grieving. Using the Brushstrokes stamp set and the decrease in color from Black to Slate to Whisper, I have kept the card Clean and Simple, but still beautiful and elegant. 

I used the Sincere Expressions stamp set to add the "With Sympathy" sentiment. And, that was it. I chose to forego embellishments altogether. The card is probably most suited for an adult who has lost someone. This is a design I think I will use again, because it makes an impact with minimal effort. 

For more information about Heart 2 Heart Challenges please visit their blog here.

Ingredients (Click the photo to purchase your own):

Happy Scrapping, My Artsy Friends!

Halloween Pinspiration

Welcome to another Pinspiration! For this layout, I used a girly layered layout to create an adorable Trick-or-Treat layout using the Scaredy Cat paper pack! All of my Pinspiration layouts are available on my Scrapbook Page Ideas Board.

So, for the left page, I created the layout using my Pinspiration. I really like the busy background 10x10 mat using the Scaredy Cat paper. When I cut the paper, I made sure to cut it, so that certain phrases would be showing. For this one, I really wanted, "Trick-or-Treat. Smell my Feet." to show. Also, I decided to use the chevron border punch to add another graphic element to this layout.

The original design had a "ribbon" crossing into the picture, but I decided to layer two ribbons and had a "bat" hang from them. The bat is actually an owl from the August Stamp of the Month, but I added some teeth and bat wings to Halloween it up. I also colored the bat using blending markers.

For the right side, I wanted to continue to showcase the paper. I made sure to show the phrase, "I'm just here for the candy," on my mat.

 I used 2x2 squares of the paper to really make the few pictures I had pop. Unfortunately, on Halloween we had a lot of rain, so we only went to one house (our neighbor). This limited my picture options, so using the paper as filler space really helped.

For my title, I used the Scaredy Cat Complements. I'm not normally a sticker person, but the CTMH complements are really awesome! They are thicker than other sticker brands, so they look more like paper embellishments than actual stickers. I like them so much that I buy them with every paper pack I own!

Here is the completed project!

Ingredients (Click the photo to buy your own!):

Happy Scrapping, My Artsy Friends!