Home at Last

Hi all!! Happy Tuesday!!! I have another Gossamer Blue layout to share today! I have to tell you, I absolutely love all the fun bright colors in this kit!! So fun!!

Every month, there is a fun member scraplift challenge on the GB blog. I decided to play along this month! I chose this fun layout by Valerie. I loved all the banners layered under the photo.

Here is my take:

 

Had some fun with the splatters on this one. The large buttons were actually cover ups, looking at it now I'm not loving them, but its done and I never go back and change layouts. I used to and it drove me crazy, lol, so no more!

 

This is my 3rd layout with the May kit and I still have so much left!! Hoping I get the chance to knock a few more out with it soon, that way I am ready for the June kit....which looks AMAZING from the sneaks! Very excited to see the full reveal from the special team up with Lily Bee, sure to be fab!!

 

Off now to take advantage of a sleeping baby and do some laundry! Fun, fun, right! lol.

 

Hope you all have a fabulous day, and take time to create something you love!!

Squeeze Hard

Hi all!! Back again, and with another layout! Can you believe it?? :)

I am totally in love with all of the fun, bright colors in this month's kit from Gossamer Blue. I used the current sketch challenge that is up on the blog...thought I'm not sure you can tell anymore! lol.  I was looking for pictures that would go along with those fun colors and I found this hilarious one of Katlyn.

 

LOL!! I love it!! Here is what the journaling says:

 

You loved going around from booth to booth at the state fair this year. Your favorite place was the booth where they had they "stress brains" You squeezed and squeezed with all your might, and you kept asking us where all the stress went!

 

 

Thought I would also share how I did the background on this page. The orange started out as one of the solid patterns that Echo Park always has with their collections. If you follow me at all, then you know I rarely, if ever use cardstock as a background. All the other patterns were too busy for a background, though, and I loved the orange with this photo. So I grabbed a mask and some Mister Huey's sherbet, and went to work. I just started in one corner with the mask, I over lapped the edges with some scraps, to make the transitions more seamless, and just sprayed. When that one was finished I layered the mask over the edge, covered the sides with scraps, and just kept going until the paper was covered. I LOVE the way it turned out!! I don't normally use masks to this scale, and I was worried I would ruin the paper, not like the outcome, but I am so glad I took the plunge!! Will definitely be trying this more!!

 

I am off now to and end of the year kindergarten party! Can't believe school is already over! Swear this year has flown!!

 

Hope you all have a great weekend, and take time to create something you love!!! :)

Daily Craft TV

Hi all!! I wanted to hop on today and share a little something with you! :)

I was recently contacted by Eric from Daily Craft TV. Which is a start up, online, craft  webinar that has different classes hosted by some of the more well know crafters in the industry. They have videos for scrapbooking, knitting, sewing, and many more.

Eric asked if I would like to watch a video and then come on and give a little review, since I love my crafty videos, I of course said yes. :)

I chose the video "Ideas and Inspiration for Customized Scrapbooking" which is a video that was broken up into 6 different chapters. The material covered ranged from photography to mixed media:

1. Designer Hints: Showcasing Traditions & Relationships
2. Techniques Revealed: Creating a Distressed Look
3. Design Workshop: Designing Mini Albums with Ease
4. Everyday Inspiration: Paper Crafting with Photos
5. Techniques Revealed: Adding Art Mediums to Create Dimension
6. The Idea Center: Adding Dimension with Pop Dots

On this particular video, I felt it was geared more towards beginners. They were very specific in many of there explanations on both product and techniques. There were still many items, however, that I took note of.

I really loved in Chpt. 1 how they stressed focusing on the story or reason FOR the layout, and not so much on the layout itself. They also gave some awesome journaling tips and prompts that I know I will use in the future.

For me, Chpts. 2 and 5 kind of went hand in hand. In chpt. 2, you were shown some very quick and easy or beginner methods for using mixed media type mediums on your layouts. Then in chpt. 5 they went into much more detail, using lots of mediums, some that I had never even heard of...I am telling you, the projects they showed in that video were AMAZING, true works of art.

Chpt. 3 was all about the mini album. They gave tips for making simple mini albums, and good subject and topics for those albums, also how to make them flow and be cohesive.

Chpt. 4 was really good about giving some photography tips, and ways to use the many photos in cards, home decor, gifts. Definitely going to be using some of those ideas for gifts for the grandparents! :)

Then Chpt. 6 was a very quick and basic lesson about different ways to use pop dots.

This video was less process oriented, and more just giving you the basics and the how-to's of items. There were many ideas and prompts, some that have been around for awhile, and we all know and love, and others that are new ( at least they were to me) :) I definitely feel that I will refer back to this video again, especially for the ideas and prompts in Chapter 1, and all the fun mixed media ideas in Chapter 6.

I also will be looking into some of the other video lessons they have to offer, both in scrapbooking and some of the other mediums. I feel these videos are very informative and great for beginners and for a refresher.

You can check out all they have to off here, at Daily Craft TV.

Thanks to Eric for letting me review and share this with all of you, and I really hope you head over and look into a lesson or 2 :)

Have a great day, and take time to create something you love!

Time to Relax

Hi all!! Happy Wednesday!! Its been awhile since I've posted, have been caught up in all the end of year hustle. Thankfully tomorrow is the last day of school, so hopefully things will be SLOWING down around here, I am more than ready for a nice, calm, relaxing summer.

Speaking of relaxing, I have a layout to share with you today! I am taking the Pop off the Page 2 class at Studio Calico, and this is a layout I made for one of the challenges.

The challenge was to be inspired by a layout for our first pdf, I chose this fabulous layout by Marcy Penner. I love her style, but it is very different from mine, so I thought it would be fun to really try and step out of my comfort zone and tackle her prompts.

I had more trouble with this layout than I thought I would, its hard to sit down and try and scrap totally opposite from normal. I even sewed on this layout, one of the first ones I have done that on. I love how it turned out in some places, other spots was horrible and I had to cover it up! lol. Any tips of sewing on layouts?? Please share if so! :)

Anyways, lol, when the layout was finally finished, I loved it. I think I managed to balance the prompts/style of Marcy and finally figure out how to keep "me" in the style.

So, here is my layout, using the FABULOUS May kit from Gossamer Blue.

 

I did journal inside that pocket, just forgot to get a picture of it. Its just talking about how extremely busy the day at the hospital had been with visitors in and out. Finally, we were able to relax. Daddy and baby got some cuddle time, and Mommy got a much needed nap. :)

 

 

Hard to believe that little guy will be 7 months old of Friday! Seriously, where does the time go??

 

Hope you all enjoy this holiday weekend, and take time to create something you love! 

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Project 12: April

Hi all!! It has been busy, busy around here lately. Finishing up all our activities, getting ready for the end of school, and summer! We decided to finally have a summer free of running to this and that, never being home, or able to relax. We just built a huge deck on our house, and we want to enjoy it! So we are having an extracurricular free summer! I'm excited! :) Seems like life gets so crazy running to this and that, we are just going to let the kiddos enjoy the summer and actually get to just play and relax! :)

So with all the business that comes with finishing out the year, I have had very little time for creating, and even pretty limited picture taking! Its seriously been super crazy! I did, however, get a chance to put together my Project 12 spread for April. I used mainly Simple Stories "24/7" on this, along with some silhouette cuts from Studio Calico's Pop off the Page 2 class! Which I am loving, just wish I had time to play along!

Here is my full 2 page spread:

Left side:

 

Right side:

 

I have to say, I am still really loving this way of scrapping. I still don't think I would be able to do it weekly, but I love it monthly. Its so nice to have those 2 review pages, pages I would necessarily put in the album, and it also challenges me to get myself in there more! Lovin' it! :)

 

Busy weekend for us the week, today my hubby turns the big 3-0, and we have Matthew 5:16 day tomorrow, its a great community service project that we do here, and finally Mother's Day on Sunday. I have been promised a stress free, family fun day! :) Can't wait!

 

Hope you all have a great weekend, and Happy Mother's Day all you Mamas out there!

 

Take time to create something you love! :)



Bubble Smile

Hi all! Happy Wednesday! Today I have a layout to share based on this weeks sketch from Elle's Studio. It was another fabulous sketch, and I was so glad I found the time to play along!

I really was loving this aqua/yellow/gray scheme for this layout. Had so much fun mixing in lots of different tags and elements from Elle's.

 

My little bubba, he is quite the drooler, has been pretty much since birth. lol. My middle daughter very early on coined the phrase "bubble smile" for whenever he flashed this, and I knew I had to get it on a page. The sketch was perfect!

 

Here is the sketch, if you want to play along, still time! :)

 

 

I'm also linking this layout up over at Paper Issues for there "Serendipity" issue!

 

Have a great day, and take time to create something you love!