This is my last layout that I have to share using the March kit of MCS. I chose this picture of my daughter because I thought that the colors of the papers would work well with the photo. In hindsight I really wish that I had used a white cardstock background for this layout, but it doesn't bother me enough to redo the layout. I think that if I try and make every single layout my favorite then I would never get some of the photos scrapped and the stories told.
I love the little hearts in the title cluster. I punched those out of a journaling card that I knew I wouldn't use and love the touch of pink glitter.
The journaling talks about the saying "like a girl" and how people perceive that as not a good thing. I went on to say that I wanted Emily to be proud of who she was, and embrace the fact that she is athletic, strong, and still very much a girl. I have a process video if you are interested in taking a peek. I hope that you have a wonderful day!
This week Mari and I responded to a viewer request. Jennifer wanted to see us tackle a double page layout. Yikes! I usually make companion pages because I find that they are easier for me to make, but I decided to really challenge myself and make one with a lot of photos. My spread has a total of eight pictures, and while that may not seem like a lot to some people, it is a big accomplishment for me. I narrowed my pictures down to showcase the visit overall. I still have a bunch of pictures that I could scrap. Little Miss Emily is a character and she really got into posing with some of the figures.
I decided to start by trimming the bottom three photos on the right side to 4x4. At that point, I was quickly able to see that I needed to trim down a couple more in width unless I wanted them to span the entire width of the page. I chose two photos and trimmed them to 3x4 with the 4x4 in the middle of them to balance out that side. The photos on the top of the left page were then easy to figure out sizing. The one of Emily and JLo I trimmed to 3x4 as well. The horizontal photo I trimmed to 3.5x5 to add a bit of variety in to the layout. The left side was relatively easy. I trimmed the picture of Patrick to 3.5x5 and the picture of my husband and Elton John to 3.5x3.5. Again, I was going for a bit of symmetry to make the photo placement a bit easier.
I chose to add the title over part of the photo. I love that look and thought it helped to ground the title. The large arrow was perfect to draw attention to the title and to balance out the weight on the other side.
I used aqua and red embellishments around the page and I love how they pulled out colors in the photos. The chipboard circles and arrow are from Freckled Fawn, and the stars are from Twine and Ink.
The phrases on the chipboard circles were perfect for the photos so they dictated the colors of the embellishments that I used around the page. I stamped out the date and a few other things for some added interest.
The supplies that I used were from a previous Hip Kit. If you have any specific questions about them, let me know and I'll try to answer them for you. I do have a process video up on this layout. Be sure to check out Mari's video as well. If you have any ideas on challenges that you would like to see from us, please leave a comment either on the blog or the video.
I'm back today with my third layout using the March kit from My Creative Scrapbook kit club. Emily loved tea sets as a little girl, so on her fourth birthday my mother gave her this beautiful, porcelain tea set. I'll give you two guesses as to what happened to this tea set, but it would probably only take you one to figure it out. I have wanted to get this story told for a while, so when i saw this teapot chipboard piece from the kit I knew that it would be perfect. I converted the photos to black and white because the colors did not match or even coordinate.
I love the dainty floral of the paper and thought that it would be great as a vertical element to place my photos on. I chose to place yellow strips underneath to pull out the yellow flower on the teapot.
The ribbon was included in the kit but the blue was not quite the shade that I wanted. I spread it out in a box and took some spray mist and misted over the ribbon. I let it dry and then added it to the tag. The sheer ribbon adds a bit of whimsy to the layout.
I wanted to keep the layout as light as possible, so for the title I chose to stitch it with some embroidery floss that I found on clearance at Michael's. It is variegated with pinks, yellows and cream tones and I love the way that it turned out. I go into detail about how I did the title on my process video so hopefully that will answer any questions that you might have about that technique.
If you'd like to take a peek at my process, I've included a link to the video. As always, if you have a question or comment I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks and have a great day!
The mood board this week centered around St. Patrick's Day and since I have my very own Patrick...I decided that the layout would be about him. I chose to lift Missy Whidden's layout for The Cut Shoppe. I was in love with it the first moment that I saw it, and since I had already purchased these files it was meant to be :)
Here is my take on Missy's layout. I don't normally scraplift to this extent, however I chose to do so because I wanted to try Missy's techniques and make my own background. I think that working with mixed media can be a bit intimidating, especially in the beginning. I have found though that if you find something that you like, that it is fun to try and recreate it.
The gold thread behind the photo cluster and the sequins are my favorite little additions to this page. The addition of the thread is one of the things that I would say is a "signature" Missy touch to my layout. I love the bit of texture that it adds to the cluster. I will definitely be doing this again!
I don't think I could sew a perfect circle to save my soul. It's a good thing that I was going for a messy look :)
I have a process video if you'd like to take a peek on how this came together.
I have loved the I Am collection by Simple Stories from the moment that I saw it. I never bought it though, because let's face it. You can't get all the pretty things unless you have a sugar daddy or an endless bank account. Since I don't have either one, I just made myself be content with what I had. I do have a sweet scrappy friend, and she offered me up her collection to make a layout. REALLY!! Now she has made layouts with her collection, so I wasn't digging into something unused. I took her up on it since I have lusted after this collection for so long and I love the layout that I created.
I am a big fan of their brads that stick like enamel dots. I strongly dislike poking holes in my paper and hoping that I put the hole in just the right place for the brad. It can be difficult to cover up a hole in your layout that you don't want.
The I Am collection has some great word phrases, and I chose a few that were perfect for where I am in my journey. I decided to add a bit of machine stitching through them to give them a bit more texture. Everything on this layout is from the I Am collection with the exception of the doily and enamel dots.
I will tell you right now that I almost did not publish this video. It was a bit emotional for me as I was doing it, and at the end of the voiceover I noticed that I had broken out in a rash on my chest and neck. It's real life though, and I decided to throw caution to the wind and put it out there and hope that it would touch someone that needed it. Thanks for stopping by and I hope that you have a great day!
Today's layout is a page that I made for My Creative Scrapbook kit club using their March kit. There are just times that I love to be a "lazy" scrapbooker. For this page I not only used a sketch, but I used one of the journaling cards as my title journaling which made for a super quick page! I have a love-hate relationship with journaling on my layouts. I know it is important, and I want to make sure that I tell our stories. However, there are times that it is just nice to make a page where I don't need to worry about the journaling. This card that came in the main kit was perfect for one of these pages. The quote by Audrey Hepburn is perfect....what more could I possibly add to make it any better?
Here is the sketch that I used. I turned it on it's side since I had a horizontal photo. I love the versatility of sketches, and if I ever get stuck or lose my mojo, a sketch is one of the first things I use to get my creative juices flowing.
I let the journaling card dictate the predominant colors that I used in the layout. I knew that I wanted to make a layout using a picture of me and my mother. She's been having some health issues, and this quote is just a great reminder of the important things in life. As I was looking through my pictures, I stumbled across this one. It was perfect as far as colors and the quote...it was meant to be!
The floral die cut is beautiful and was the perfect embellishment to place under the photo. The kit included lace as well, and I used a bit of the lace to add another horizontal element that was in the sketch. I added some machine stitching on the paper layers to give it some added texture.
I have a process video if you'd like to take a peek. Thanks so much and I hope that you have a great day!
I wanted to create a companion page for My Sweet Baby Girl layout, and in doing so I wanted them to be similar without necessarily looking like a double page spread. I was going to use some of the same papers and alphas, but didn't know where to take it from there. So I started looking through the papers in the kits and found this sweet heart paper and decided immediately that I wanted to have this as a frame around the page. I gutted this heart paper because there was no way that I was going to waste one single bit of it.
I knew that I wanted to use a doily again behind the photo, so to change it up a bit, I cut it in half and framed it on both sides of the photo. I decided on a larger doily because I didn't want to overwhelm the photo with a lot of paper layers and wanted to give the photo some weight on the page. I also decided to sew around the edges of the white cardstock to finish off the layout.
These flowers were fussy cut as well. The kit had some cut aparts that came with it, and members get another sheet that included some more beautiful flowers. I am not a member of the kit club so I don't have access to the beautiful flowers :( I finished off the cluster with a Felicity Jane stamp on one of the labels and a few enamel dots and a bow.
I decided to use the pink vellum heart in the cluster in the upper left corner to bring the darker pink to that cluster. I added a glitter enamel heart to bring a tiny bit of gold up into this cluster as well. This page is not quite entirely a diagonal flow, nor is it centered, but I still think that it works.
I have a process video if you'd like to take a peek. Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope that you have a wonderful day!
Mari Clarke and I are having so much fun with these challenges, and we'd love for you to join us. This week our focus was on Project Life cards. I know that I am not the only one that has a bunch of these cards and doesn't do Project Life. I chose several from my Maggie Holmes collection, and then pulled some of her stickers and embellishments to use as well. Sometimes it is just easier to use the same designer when creating a page. I know that the colors will work well together and it cuts down on the prep work of gathering supplies. I decided to go with two horizontal rows of cards and leave the rest of the layout as white space. I chose this because I wanted to make a dent in my stash of cards...I used 9 for this layout, but I don't really think that constitutes making a dent. Oh well, I tried :)
This camera was the inspiration for the colors that I chose. I love the darker blue and teal and then decided to add pink as my third color. I did cut the tag from a PL card as well. I stitched above and below the cards in white thread to help "contain" the cards. I chose white thread because I didn't want the stitching to really stand out. I felt like there were enough colors on the page as it was.
I cut the cream label from another PL card and it made a great layering piece. I was determined to get one of these clips on the layout and finally made it work. It is almost embarrassing how long I struggled with it, but it was completely worth the trouble. I love the cluster.
I popped the bow up on foam dot packaging (being frugal is so good...it's more money to buy pretty things!)
I have a process video up if you'd like to take a closer peek. Be sure and check out Mari's layout as well!
This is the first layout that I am posting as a guest designer for My Creative Scrapbook kit club using the main kit. The kit was full of My Mind's Eye Hello Gorgeous line with a few other goodies tucked in the kit. The pictures that I chose to work with are of my daughter when she was four years old. She is a very expressive child and I love that I captured her pout and her sweet smile. I decided to use some Tim Holtz distress ink and the famous packaging technique to add a bit of color to the background. I then added some color from a Prima watercolor pencil set that I have and it added a bit more depth to the background color. Once that was dry I put some texture paste on a Hero Arts heart stencil. I have used that stencil quite a bit...it is definitely one of my favorites.
This line had some papers and embellishments that have this pretty glitter on them that does not rub off. I kept the paper layers pretty clean since I have a messy background. The chipboard sheet had the Smile script word that made for a great title. I love it when I can use embellishments as my title.
See the tiny heart on the tab? I used a journaling card that I knew I wouldn't use and cut some additional hearts out using my Lawn Fawn heart dies.
I chose to outline the letters spelling pout because I felt that they were getting a bit lost on the background.
I have a process video if you'd like to take a closer peek. If you have any questions or comments, please don't hesitate to ask. I'll get back to you as soon as I can.
I'm excited to share that I'm a guest designer for My Creative Scrapbook in the month of March. I was so excited when Pam asked me, and of course I jumped on the opportunity. This kit club has four different kits that you can subscribe to, and I'm going to be working with the main kit which is pictured below.
This is a picture of this month's Creative Kit.
Here is a picture of their Limited Edition kit. They have some amazing design team members that create works of art with this kit.
The kits vary in price and have they offer different subscription choices. I will be sharing some process videos during the month of the layouts that I have created with this kit. If you are looking to subscribe to a kit, check them out!
I love the outtake photos just as much as I love the actual "staged" photo that I try and get of the kids. These photos show a bit of their personalities and I just wanted to make a page showcasing their silliness. I used the February Hip Kit for this layout and love the colors that were selected along with the Shimmerz products. I NEED MORE...yes I said need and not want....I really do need them :)
I watered down the Dazzlerz with a small amount of water and then painted some yellow on the page where I knew that I was going to place the stencil. It worked extremely well and I love the look of the stenciled phrase.
I struggled a bit with the layout, but after walking away from it for a while, I decided that some messy black stitching was exactly what it needed. I love the look and felt like it gave the phrase somewhere to "sit" so it didn't look lost. It was also perfect for me to use the Heidi Swapp glitter alphas to add my title.
I didn't use a lot of embellishments because I felt like they weren't needed and I did not want to take away from the mixed media on the page. A few black Thicker hearts, some enamel dots and mist were all that I added to complete this page.
I have a process video if you'd like to take a closer peek at the process:
