My First Traveler's Notebook Spread...

Yes, I swore to myself that I did not need to get on the Traveler's Notebook train....but I did it anyway and am so glad that I took the plunge! Creating the spread was definitely a challenge due to the smaller surface area, but I love the end result and will be creating more pages in the near future.

This spread was created after the Las Vegas massacre. My heart was broken for all of the families and I needed to get something down on paper. Since the world is in need of more love, I chose that as my title. 

In creating this spread I used the gorgeous October Citrus Twist kits. Unfortunately the kit is now sold out but you can sign up to begin a subscription with November's kit.

The exclusive stamp Life is Good is still available in the shop as of this moment. One of my favorite phrases on the stamp is "yes. this.", and it was perfect for this spread. I stamped it several times on the labels and love the way that it turned out.

As a Christian I look for comfort in the Bible. There is always a verse that speaks to my heart and gives me comfort, and I wanted to include it on this spread. I'm thinking that this insert of my TN will be dedicated to Bible verses, devotions, or other forms of worship. 

I don't play with SnapChat often, but the heart filter was perfect for the selfie that I sent to my husband to let him know how much I missed him when he was out of town. It became the perfect photo for this spread. Paige included some really great phrases in her new collection, and this die cut spoke to me...it is what I have to believe. Good things are coming.

Here's a link to my process video if you'd like to take a closer peek. Thanks so much for joining me today and I hope that you have a wonderful day!

It's a Little Late....

This post is a bit late, but I still wanted to get it up. We had some crazy thunderstorms roll through last Thursday night. They were so bad that numerous trees blew over, power lines were down and exposed lines on the roads, and in my county 80% of us were without power. However, there were blessings in all of this mess. We did not sustain any major damage, and the weather cooperated with us. It was unseasonably cool which allowed us to open the windows and have a cool breeze. The kids did great without the power...I thought that my son might go into withdrawals but he surprised me :)

Anyway, Mari and I posted another challenge video and our challenge was to use the inspiration paper from our stash kit and to lift one another. Here is the layout that I chose to lift from Mari. I had several of the flower clusters that I knew that I could fussy cut and wanted to make a border similar to the one that she made. I also decided to make a layout about one of our daughter's nicknames.

This is my end result using her layout as inspiration. 

I did not use a bunch of products from my stash kit to use as embellishments. I felt like the flowers made a bold statement on the page and I did not want to take away from them. I did cut the gold circles in half to use as a scallop border on top and underneath the photo. 

The puffy stickers, cor heart and washi tape are from my stash but they are both by the same Pink Paislee line as the papers (C'est La Vie). Mari and I decided that we would allow ourselves the option to choose things outside of our stash kit...after all the goal is to use our stash. The kit just makes it easier to get started.

The last challenge I had die cut a few doilies from tissue paper. I kept them on my desk and was able to use one on this page.

I added a bit of gold stitching under the journaling for another touch of gold. The gold Heidi Shine is absolutely beautiful in person.

Here's a link to the process video. I hope that you have a great day!

Maggie Homes Shine....

I love all of her collections, and I keep saying that each one is my favorite. I have quite a stash of her papers and embellishments so when I saw her new line Bloom I decided that I must take action. I want to make a few layouts using her older collections before ordering any of her new collection. Y'all this is killing me, but the only thing that is saving me now from buying it is that no online site has everything that I want in stock. As I was going through the Shine papers I realized that I had the perfect photo to go with the yellow and cream ombre paper, so I set out to make this page.

The photo is one I took in a local park and used it for our Christmas card. I knew that I just wanted to make this layout because I loved the photo and love her products. There really isn't any journaling that I felt I needed to add so there was a certain bit of freedom that came with designing the page.

I love birds, and in our back yard we have several feeders, birdbaths and homes for our birds. I am slowly but surely making our yard into a bird and butterfly sanctuary. I love a beautiful garden and while mine is not yet worthy of a magazine, one day it will be. So when I see birds in a collection, I have to get them and her birds are so sweet. I love them all and would get a chipboard sheet full of birds if she ever were to come out with one. 

The gold Thickers that came with this collection are beautiful. Actually I don't think that I've seen a gold glitter Thicker that I don't like.

I ultimately decided on a monochromatic look to the page and I love the end result. Everything on the layout is by Maggie Holmes, although I have no idea which collection the fabric tape is from. Of course a layout wouldn't be complete without a few sprinkles of Heidi Swapp's gold color shine. I love that mist and have a spare bottle in the event of a mist emergency.

I have a process video up and would love for you to take a peek. 

Free Flow Wednesday on the Crafty Maven Channel

Hey friends! I hope this week has been treating you well.  Today I am up on the Crafty Maven channel with a layout that I created using my stash, specifically items from previous Hip Kits that I hadn't used. When I break down kits (I can't kill them...I've tried), I put the contents into an iris container containing odds and ends from previous kits that I would like to use up. If I get tired of looking at it in the iris container, it then goes into my stash or purge pile. I was thrilled when I successfully used everything for this layout from the iris container...I think that was a first for me!

The mood board this week is a beautiful board filled with bright aquas and citron greens. It felt a bit contemporary to me, which is not my usual style, but I challenged myself to stay true to the board while staying true to myself. I decided to pull the colors from the board, the flower. the bow, and the layers underneath the clock.

I decided to use white cardstock as my base and then have the pops of color as my paper layers. The papers are all from Chickaniddy, and I don't know the names of the patterns since these were scraps and 6x6 sheets. I did pop the photo up on craft foam and placed a doily underneath the photo. I decided on using the white doily to keep the layout looking bright and airy. I very lightly distressed the edges of the papers to give them a bit more texture and interest. It always helps to do this before adhering the layers together...ask me how I know this :)

For the pop of yellow I decided on a Dear Lizzy tag that has been in that container for a very long time...I am not sure what collection it is from, but I am happy that it made it onto a page. The glitter bow is from Heidi Swapp, the enamel dots are from Doodlebug and MME, and the ephemera and gold hearts are from Pink Paislee Citrus Bliss line.

I had not planned on backing this layout onto another piece of cardstock, but I had to when I placed my layout directly on the Heidi Swapp mist that I had laying on my desk. To be fair, I was cleaning up, however one should always clean up liquid things first! Lesson learned.  I quickly pulled up the bottom layers and then trimmed off an inch of the left side of the layout. At this time, my phone was charging because the battery was low. I decided to finish the layout while I had the time. I found this cardstock which was a perfect match. The border was a bit too much for my tastes, so I decided on backing the layout onto a piece of vellum to soften the edges. I gutted the vellum because there is no way that I was going to waste any more than I had to underneath the layout.  I did sew the layers down with simple white stitching around the edges.

I plan on journaling on this layout, but haven't decided if I am going to do it by hand or typed strips underneath the photo. Juliet (kitty) has slept in Emily's room for as long as I can remember. Throughout the night she manages to get on Emily's pillow and Emily is lucky if she has a little bit to rest her head on. My goal is to continue to document the little things like this...for these are the things that I would like to remember in my childhood.

Other supplies used were Heidi Swapp Citron Color Shine and the word dream is also from one of her lines. Thanks so much for stopping by today! I have a link to the Process Video if you'd like to take a peek. 

I'm on the Crafty Maven channel...

I had the pleasure of being on the Crafty Maven channel again and the mood board for this week was amazing!  I loved every little detail about it, however I had this one big problem.  I don't have purple collections nor are there many available. I also knew exactly what I wanted to do with my layout, so I searched for a photo that was going to be worthy of my efforts. I hit the jackpot!  It pays to be behind in making your pages.  In fact I rather like it because some stories only surface with time.

Here is the mood board for this week. I fell in love with the girl in the dress.  I grew up learning to cross stitch and now I love to knit, so I knew immediately what I wanted to do for my layout. I did a Pinterest search (love Pinterest!) and found several patterns that were perfect for my idea.

Here is my layout.  Is it wrong to be totally in love with how it turned out? The pictures don't quite do it justice.  It's really hard to photograph silver.

I've included a close up of the tree.  It really was super easy although it was time consuming.  It also took just over one full floss, so if you tackle a project this big make sure you have enough before starting...ask me how I know this.

In my search for purple patterned papers I found in my stash some 6x8 paper pads from Heidi Swapp and a Hot Buy Heidi Swapp 12x12 paper pad from Michaels that had some purples and pinks. They were perfect for this page. Right now my local Michaels has this glitter script font for sale. Please don't judge me on my boring title. I am officially diagnosed as title impaired :)

I was short of embellishments for this page so I made my own using my Silhouette.  This cut file from Basic Grey was absolutely perfect.  I didn't want any of my embellishments to take away from my tree so I kept them pretty simple.

 

I'm having some technical difficulties so here is a direct link to the video:  Chrismas Love

Supplies:

Heidi Swapp - Hello Beautiful - Memory Planner 6x8 pad

Heidi Swapp - Wanderlust 12x12 paper pad

Heidi Swapp - Hello Beautiful - Photo Frames

Heidi Swapp Pink Glitter Alphas

Freckled Fawn Silver Stars

                                  Studio Calico Pink Alphas

Heidi Swapp Washi

American Crafts Silver POW paper

Tim Holtz Mirrored Stars

Silhouette Cut File - Basic Grey Ornament