Bookworm

Hello friends!! Back today with you to share a new layout...this one is a little outside the box for me. I used a few different items/elements that I wouldn't normally use, but I am SO in love with this layout, I think I need to step out of that comfort zone more often!

First though, I want to give you a little back story on the layout. This was taken over summer break, and it was a normal sight all summer long. Our oldest daughter is a true lover of books...most times you can find her with her nose right in the middle of a book, and I LOVE this! I am a reader ( well, I was before I had children! lol), and the fact that she is embracing that same love ( and our middle daughter is following right along in those footsteps behind her!!) just makes me excited! I am loving sharing with her books that I loved at that age, and am so looking forward to the time when I can read some of my classic favorites with her, and know that she will fall in love with and appreciate that world as much as I do/did!

I so wanted to share all of this in the journaling on this layout, but for some reason in that moment, the words just would not come to paper. Does that ever happen to you??




When collecting supplies for this layout, I was rifling through my stash, looking for an old book that I knew I had somewhere..I found it, and by a happy accident, saw this along the spine, where I had tore pages out previously. I LOVED the look, and knew it would be perfect for this layout, not only in theme, but to add dimension and texture.

I had received the chipboard from the "I am" collection from Simple Stories in a Gossamer Blue kit, I had had it for quite awhile, and not used anything but the smaller elements. Again, this was the perfect layout to put some of those to use. I loved that there was a stack of books, and to me the globe just made sense. These are items that I would never normally use...I don't even buy chipboard often, but I really had fun incorporating these onto my layout.

I had this bookplate from the ephemera from a Maggie Holmes collection, and I thought it would be a fun embellishment, and I was able to fill it with some of that pink/red paper to bring that over to the left of the layout. Some simple, messy stamping, and a few ink splatters later, this one is done and in the books. LOVE the way it turned out, and that I was able to stretch my creativity and open up to using some unusual ( for me) items!



I am linking this layout up to Paper Issues and their new Fan-atics challenge, because this girl is one of the biggest book fans I have ever met...she might even give my old self a run for the money! ;)

Details for the linky part are here! :)

Feels like Home to me

Hello friends! Happy hump day! ;) I have another layout to share with you today using some more goodies from my stash. I have done so good this summer of really using what I have, and I am loving how it is making me really think and stretch my supplies!

For this one, I was inspired by a photo that popped up on Pinterest...and I can't find it now for the life of me. I was scrolling through and it was there, and I LOVED the idea of the little house so much, that I immediately went to create...and know I can't find the photo! 

I went really light with this one..and while it is not my norm..I really love how soft and light it is. This is mainly Crate Paper, with a little bit of the Simple Stories "I am" collection through in...love how they had the same tones and could be used together but weren't too matchy matchy.

These sentiments were just perfect for this page. I really just let all the word stickers and elements speak for themselves on this one...I didn't feel any journaling was necessary. I added in a little stamping for some interest, since so much of that background was kept plain and white.

This element was fussy cut from a Crate Paper...I think Confetti line. It had a 5, and it was close on colors, so it had to go on there. I added in some of those puffy gold stickers, for added dimension and fun.

Love how this one turned out..and just look at that photo...love my family! :)

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

New Layout and a WINNER

Hello friends! We are gearing up for the end of summer/back to school time here. So to help me get my mindset a little more around that, I decided to scrap this photo from our middle daughters preschool graduation...hard to believe that she will be starting first grade next week!! Where does the time go??

For this layout, I didn't want to do any traditional "school" colors, but I did want to use a few items that related back to the school theme. So..I used a fun number pattern, some lined paper, and apple wood veneer...again, using what I have, and trying to make my way through my stash.

I went for a messy/uneven grid design on this layout, I really just had fun with layering papers and embellishments, and didn't think too much about any type of design principals, I just did what I liked!

For the title, I knew two things...I wanted it to be Hello Kindergarten, and I wanted to use this Heidi Swapp wood veneer. The Hello lined up perfectly, and I loved the way it looked. I really struggled with fitting in the kindergarten...do I love this part of the finished layout, no, but it is what it is...I have realized on this journey through my stash that I need more of a variety of alphas..I have a pretty limited selection.

Now...on to the winner from the mini album blog hop! I truly appreciate everyone that too the time to follow along our hop, comment, and become followers! I hope that you were inspired along the way.

The randomly selected winner from my blog is......Heather Sweet

Heather, email me with your contact info and I will get your goodies out to you asap!

Enjoy the day, and take time to create something you love!

A little sweetness

Hello friends! As you all know, I am on a kill my stash quest, so today, I have another layout to share with you, using up some of that loved but unused product.

This layout all started with this paper, "Yellow Umbrella" from the BasicGrey Soleil collection. I LOVED this paper when it first came out, so much that I bought several sheets, which is not common for me, especially with BasicGrey..I usually find their collections harder to work with, but I loved this, so bought several, and they all have sat there ever since. So, I finally decided to pull it out, and use it up!

Deciding to use it was the easy part...making it work, was the hard part! I love a patterned paper background, but usually go for a more soft, tone on tone look...but I just could not bring my self to cut this up, so I started working on my layers, and figuring out where I wanted everything to lay out, then I went in with a little white acrylic paint, to soften up around my photo and embellishment area.

From there, everything just kind of fell into place. I pulled out coordinating supplies..some old, some new, and just went for it.

I added in some black stamping and splatters, since there was the black border, and some darker colors in my photo. I thought this helped to tie everything in together..and I like how it popped against the more pastel colors of the layout.

I found this fun wooden tags at Target, and I loved how well this one fit in. It made a perfect spot for the vellum ampersand! I have tried using that on my past 4 layouts!! Glad I could finally make it work! lol.

I am loving these challenges I have been giving myself...stretching my creativity, and using up some of those harder products I have! This is probably one of my new favorites!

Thanks for stopping in today...have a good one, and take time to create something you love!

Hello 6

Hi friends!! I am back today with a fun layout to share with you. This past year, for our daughter's birthdays, instead of having a big ( and stressful) party..we took each of them out for a day that was just about them! They got to choose they activities, where we ate, what we did, everything...and it was just them, and mommy and daddy! We all loved getting to have that one on one time..and Mommy got to enjoy their birthdays with them stress free!! I am so hoping this will become a new tradition!

So...I have had this fun Confetti patterned paper from Crate Paper, almost since the collection became available...and I was so excited when I got to this photo of our middle daughter, and saw how perfect it went together!

I didn't want to embellish much along the left side...I wanted to let that awesome typography shine! I did however, find a few vellum shapes from some other Crate Paper collections, and I filled in all the spaces between the words with a shape. I thought this was a fun way to add a little more embellishment, without overpowering the layout.

Now, around my photo, I did lots of layering, but I kept everything in tight together as to again not detract from the title work. I wanted enough that it brought your eyes into the photo, but wasn't overpowering against everything else.

I am so in love with these colors!!! For the large wood veneer "6" on this layout, I wanted to color it to blend in more with this pallet.  I started by inking the whole number with a gold ink pad that I have, while that was gorgeous, it wasn't quite the look that I wanted. So, I went back in, right over the top of the gold, while it was still wet, with a Prima chalk ink in turquoise, and it gave me this gorgeous color. It is a little darker than the other elements on the page, but I like how that makes it stand out more against everything else.

Then To balance out everything at the top, I needed another small cluster at the bottom of my photo. This little party hat was adorable, and honestly, I don't use theme-y items very often, so it was fun to use as many of these as I could!

Then for that last finishing touch, I wanted to add in a little embellishment to that top corner. I kept everything very light, most of it is vellum pieces, so it wouldn't detract, or really draw your eyes up, but just so that there was a little more interest in that space.

I am linking this layout up to Clique Kits and there "Anything Goes" July challenge, I have been having fun playing along with them...you can get all the details here! :)

Thanks for stopping in today...have a good one, and take time to create something you love!

I love you

Hello friends!! On my mission to get "caught up" on some of my photos that have been sitting there waiting, I came across this older one and me and the little guy. It was just us this day, the girls were both at school, and we were just having a good time and being silly taking pictures. I happened to get lucky and snap this gem. It quickly turned into one of my favorites, and has stayed at the top of the list.

I really had fun with this one, pulling out some more loved, but unused/unopened goodies from my stash! For the circles behind my photo...I pulled out the embroidery hoop wood veneer from Crate Paper! They were the perfect shape and size for what I had in mind...a little color shine, and mister huey's, and they were the perfect color too!

Then for my title...I really wanted to use this large wood veneer "I love you" from Fancy Pants...adhered it my page, and went to put those finishing touched of mist splatters, and wouldn't you know I got mist all over it...instead of pulling it off, and trying to find something new, I embraced it. I covered up the area, as best I could, and began splattering right on my title. Love the look, and it added more of that green into the layout!

For this layout, I am using this fabulous sketch from Clique Kits:



I am also linking up to their fun Anything Goes July Challenge! Get all the details here!

Take time to create something you love!!

11 years

Hello friends! This weekend, my husband and I will be celebrating our 12th anniversary. Hard to believe!
 Last year for our anniversary, we had a nice relaxing day spent mostly out exploring, and just enjoying each other. I didn't get many photos that day, but I did manage to get this one taken, selfie style.

I have held on to this paper from Jillibean Soup for awhile, I knew I wanted to use it with this photo, I just wasn't quite sure the direction I wanted it to take. Finally I just decided to go for it...I pulled out some papers and built from there. Love the way it turned out!

I always seem to struggle with where to place my journaling, so I decided to use one of the open spots to my advantage. Bring in some more embellishing and color, and make a perfect place for my journaling.

I tried to keep some symmetry with the color on this layout. I used the arrow paper as my starting point for the colors I wanted to bring in, then by picking a theme of hearts for my embellishments, I was able to easily go through my stash and find coordinating colored items to spread out.

Then, for this last cluster on the photo, I wanted to build more up on the sentiments, since I had kept my journaling so simple, and really just told about what we did. I found items in that same color scheme, that helped to convey my feelings both for that day, and for my husband, and layered them up for a kind of second journaling section.

Not a lot of paper layers on this layout...a little different for me...but I don't think that I could have made a more perfect layout to celebrate the memory of this day!

Thanks for stopping in today, have a good one, and take time to create something you love!

Creative Scrappers Reveal!

Hi everyone!! Happy Sunday! I'm excited to share the new sketch that went up at Creative Scrappers today, and my inspiration layout.

If you have been around here for any amount of time, then you know that circles are my scrappy nemesis. I am not sure what it is about them, that always gives me a struggle. So, I switched it up a little bit!

I had so much fun with this layout, and I think it is my new favorite! I spent a while fussy cutting all those frames out, but I think it was so worth it, the exact look I was hoping for! :)

Now, head over to the Creative Scrappers blog, and see all the inspiration from the design team, and get all the details for your chance at a awesome kit from Crazy Kit Mondays! You have until September 30  to comment, and link up your take on the sketch!!

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





Beautiful Gifts

Hi all!! I'm back to share another layout today. I am really loving the Gossamer Blue April kit, there were so many fabulous items, most which had been on my wish list, and I am knocking out the layouts with it!

Every month, on the GB blog, they host a Pinspired challenge, and as a Pinterest addict, I love this challenge. The challenge for this month was to use gold. So I got to work on a layout...I used some of Elizabeth Kartchner's recent twopeas layouts as inspiration...mainly this layout and this layout. I just put my own spin on the style...loved the elements all going up the side, and I am a sucker for the die cut titles! :)

Here is my layout:

 

I'm excited too that it isn't even May yet, and I already have 3 layouts done with the GB April kit! One more and I'll be half way to a free album...they have an awesome incentive program, which you can read about here. I highly recommend them to anyone looking for a kit club!! AND if you subscribe in April you receive a free goodie bag, valued at $25!  If you let them know I sent you, then I get one too! :) Definitely check them out!

 

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