Air Show Page Layout

Woohoo! This is my 5th post of January! Sometimes it's hard to keep up, especially when I'm trying to provide a better variety of posts and two of these were 2-page 12x12 layouts! ::pat on back:: OK so let's get started - I have lots of pics to scrap from the Blue Angels air show last summer!

This left-side page layout idea came from p.82 of the July issue of Scrapbook Trends magazine, from a layout called "The Stars Shine in Your Eyes" by Lydia Jackson. Maybe that's how I first thought of the stars too... but then I got the idea for the Echo Park letter stickers on punched stars from p.105 of the September issue of Scrapbook Trends, from a layout called "Navy Girl" by Lynn Warner! I'm not creative, I don't think of all this stuff myself. I steal ideas lots and mash them together :)

The right-side of the layout sort of just followed suit - I guess usually one side of my layout is well thought out and the other is just pieced together using the same materials I used for the "good" side haha.

By the way - the day we went to the airshow was HOT!! Anyone who went either that Saturday or Sunday would remember that it was a scorcher. I had to just keep dumping water on my head and later found a shady spot next to a truck to sit while Chris walked around alone haha, I hardly last when it's hot out!

HOW-TO:

• The papers used were from the "American Made" collection by My Mind's Eye
• I used the Embossed Star punch from Creative Memories with letter stickers from the "For the Record" collection by Echo Park Paper Co.
• The left side border is a punch from EK Success
• After the layout was complete, I went back and added rub-ons from the "Boarding Pass" collection by October Afternoon
• I journaled on a tag from Ormolu and added the perfect brad from American Crafts Elements, medium jewel brads

Lotsa Birthday cards

We had a family get together where 4 of our family members have January birthdays... luckily two of them are my parents, so I know they don't mind if I give them a combined card, hence you see 3 cards :)

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This first card was for my niece, and at first I made it using the watercolor technique I had used in the past but without the right watercolor paper, it was annoying me how it curled up and didn't blend that great... ok so scrapped that and just used your typical dry technique - using a Tim Holtz inker with blending foam. It was nice to use the butterfly misting masks while I inked so it left those spots blank, then later embossed some butterfly stamps there.

HOW-TO:

• Used regular drawing paper to ink on, so it would blend well
• Tim Holtz inks: peeled paint, broken china and faded jeans with blending foam
• Studio Calico butterfly misting masks, butterfly stamps and sentiment stamps
• Embossing powder by American Crafts in: Aqua, Wave and Leaf

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For the second card, I wanted to make it look like a book because we were giving my stepsister a gift card for Amazon for her Kindle. I loved how it turned out and I used my Zig embossing pen to write her name in cursive and emboss it with gold powder.

HOW-TO:

• The reddish-orange paper for the "binding" was by DCWV, which I cut to 2 inch width, then wrapped around the edge of the Kraft paper, so the back side had some showing too and looked like binding rather than a cut strip of paper
• The middle embellishment was cut on my Cricut Imagine using the Reminisce Accents cartridge by Creative Memories and Provo Craft
• The letter stickers are by My Mind's Eye
• I used the Zig embossing pen to write her name and embossed with gold embossing powder from Martha Stewart Crafts

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The last card was for my parents, and basically just did the easy way of making this flower embellishment again.

HOW-TO:

• The hard and easy tutorial for making the large embellishment is in this earlier blog entry of mine
• I embossed around the embellishment with the Zig embossing pen and the sentiment stamp from Recollections with Copper embossing powder from Martha Stewart Crafts
• The button is from the Lost & Found collection by My Mind's Eye
• The twine is from Jillibean Soup

First 12x12 layout of 2012!

It has been a couple months since I've completed a 12x12 layout, so I was determined to get one done this weekend! This was a second layout of the pics I had from the family day at my husband's company this past summer.

I don't have a specific reference for my inspiration, however I've seen a few layouts recently by Nancy Damiano using the same Boarding Pass collection by October Afternoon. The colors of the collection worked perfectly with these bright pictures! I love the layouts she does, because they are full and look complete but do not distract your attention from the pictures. Plus, her style leans towards using straight lines instead of random placement, and I'm not good at making randomness look nice. Here is a link to her blog.

I asked my husband for a good, short title for the layout and he came up with Logistics since that's basically what's in the pictures on that side, the logistical part of coordinating the shipments of their main product, Sno-pushers (big yellow commercial size snow plows). Anyway, he was happy to give his input as his contribution to our scrapbooks!

I guess you can't see the picture very well, but the top left pic on the right side of the page shows the Blue Angels flying over the company! They were out practicing that day for their shows over the weekend (which we went to the next day). It was so cool to watch them practice!

LOGISTICS:

• If you can muster the courage to cut up 12x12 sheets of paper, I cut 2 sheets of paper mounted on Kraft cardstock (The right side was cut at 8.5" and the left side inner piece was cut at 6" with that remaining strip being the 3.5" strip leftover from the right side)
• The chipboard embellishments, letter stickers and paper were all part of the Boarding Pass collection by October Afternoon
• The manila tag came as part of the Field Guide kit by Studio Calico

Anniversary card

This card is a combination of a few ideas I've been wanting to "get down on paper" hehe :) Mainly, the hearts floating out of an envelope... except I can't re-locate which issue of Scrapbook Trends I saw that on, but it was in one of the issues, by someone a lot more talented and creative than me!

The second idea was using the brads as a "brad-scrunchie" for the ribbon. It was harder than it looked to make it look perfectly scrunchie, but a fun way to add ribbon and give it a little something extra. I got this idea from this blog for Scrapbook & Cards Today.

The cool thing about making the envelope was that I got to use my new Martha Stewart Score Board which made it super easy! I used the guide to score the #1 sized envelope from Kraft paper.

HOW-TO SUPPLY LIST:

• Background and hearts paper, brads: "Daily News" from the Out of Print collection by BasicGrey
• Punches: Mini heart Maker and I-forget-the-name-of-it, heart dust maker? both by Creative Memories
• Stamped sentiment: Sentiments by Studio Calico embossed with Apricot Zing embossing powder by American Crafts
• Ribbon: From the Amy Tangerine collection by American Crafts

Simple 8x8 Holiday Layout

For being a "simple" layout, as I titled this post, it sure sat on my scrapbook table for a heck of a long time! Over a month... since I printed out these pictures the day I took them (November 26th) and began this layout right away! Oh well, I finally got it done, and the weather outside looks no different than it did that weekend after Thanksgiving!

So the left side might've been a bit "wishful" when I made that snow-covered "ground" with vellum paper! I didn't mind the non-white Christmas at all, but my husband was disappointed the bushes weren't buried in the snow with the lights dimly peeking through. He was more disappointed because the ground wasn't frozen enough to take his 4wheeler out very much so far this winter. Oh and also he's in the snow removal business... guess "bad" weather isn't so bad for everyone!

Since I added all my journaling to the left side of this layout (using just my regular printer till I get my own typewriter), I just wanted a big embellishment to fill up the right side of the layout. So I got the idea for the embellishment from the layout "Be Mine" by Paige Evans, published in the September 2011 issue of Scrapbook Trends magazine.

I am crazy though and couldn't make mine look as random and carefree as hers, so I made mine a little more calculated by:

• Cut 8 1.25" squares and score in half from one corner to another
• Fold in two opposite sides, aligned at the score
• Cut one more 1.25" square (from scrap paper) and score in half 4 ways so you are left with 8 folds that come from the center of the square
• Add sticky tape to one side of the square and place each of the folded 8 pieces of paper to each section
• Side note: I created a few of these same embellishments and got varying sizes. If I start with 1.75" squares, I ended up with a 5" width embellishment. 1.25" squares used here produced a 3.5" embellishment. 1" squares will produce approximately 2.875" embellishment (that's 1/8" less than 3").

HOW-TO:

• Both sides of the layout use paper from the "Holiday Style" collection by October Afternoon
• I used the old wavy cutting tool from Creative Memories to cut the vellum paper, also from Creative Memories
• The tree chipboard piece is from the OA collection as well, which I inked a little with Peeled Paint Tim Holtz Distress Ink and spread stickles on with my finger so it wouldn't be too much sparkle
• The button on the big embellishment is from the Lost and Found collection by My Mind's Eye and the red and white twine is from Jillibean Soup
• Side twine note: The twine from Jillibean Soup is my FAVORITE twine to use - it's super thin and doesn't "fray" like some of the other brands' do!