You & Me

ABOUT THE PHOTO(S):
I finally got around to scrapping these photos from December! I had printed them out but ended up blowing up the one of me and Natalie to use in a single layout, so didn't have a place for these. I decided these will go in Chris' album instead, which is why I haven't worked on them till now - because I usually try to stay up to date on Natalie's album as my priority (sorry Chris)!

LAYOUT DESIGN:
Anyway, I finally got a chance to participate in a @Society52 challenge on Instagram! It is run by Sarah Bargo and Maggie Massey (a Studio Calico Creative Team member) - they post 1 challenge every Monday and a new spin on it every Thursday! This week's challenge was to use NO patterned paper, aaahhh!! And the spin was to add some black to it!

MY PROCESS/PRODUCTS USED:
I sort of cheated since I didn't start the layout till today during Natalie's nap time. I started and finished this layout across 2 of her naps, so it took me about an hour and 15 minutes - super fast! But I had already decided I wanted to do a grid and use the Printshop collection by Shanna Noel at Studio Calico, so I had a good head start. I did a very quick splash of Mister Huey's spray mist in Passport, dabbed dry, then I sewed in some lines an inch apart and filled the spaces. Originally I was going to place a title above the square photo, but went outside my comfort zone to make the "You & Me" vellum piece work as my title!

Love

ABOUT THE PHOTO:
Natalie and her little buddy from church who is 3 weeks older than her just really seem to get along great whenever we have a play date! They are so cute together!

LAYOUT DESIGN:
For this layout I used an older sketch template from January 2012 from the SimpleScrapper.com (the premium membership gives you access to all the past archives)!

MY PROCESS/PRODUCTS USED:
I dug right into the newest collection from Studio Calico, Brighton Pier! I just love those papers! I also mixed in a few items from the Penny Arcade SC kit this month. I kept it simple, so I will probably add the date and some journaling to the back before it goes into Natalie's 2nd completed album!

Love Your Little Coolie!

ABOUT THE PHOTO(S):
This was Natalie's first time in the pool... I couldn't get her shirt to stay down or pull her bottoms to fully cover her little coolie! She was so darn cute!

LAYOUT DESIGN:
I participated in a challenge to scraplift the person who commented on a forum post before you, so I scraplifted Studio Calico user @goldenblind221 and used this layout as my inspiration and starting point!

MY PROCESS/PRODUCTS USED:
I thought about hitting up my stash of Boardwalk papers (from Studio Calico's August 2011 kit) that I still have a ton of, since that's what her layout used, but I decided to make use of a 6x6 pad of paper, which made me decide to go with the Printshop collection by Shanna Noel for Studio Calico - one of my all-time favorite collections! I started with the piece in the top left corner and sort of went from there - it took awhile because I couldn't just hand cut them, so I drew lines and cut with my trimmer... I love how it turned out though!

Baptism & Picnic

ABOUT THE PHOTO(S):
Got some random pics from our church's baptism & picnic last month, but of course a couple of Natalie in there!

LAYOUT DESIGN:
I used a sketch template from this month from the Simple Scrapper membership and loved how unique this layout turned out with the long skinny photos (I think they are about 1.75"x5").

MY PROCESS/PRODUCTS USED: I used papers from this month's Studio Calico kit, Penny Arcade but got stuck when I went to do the title. I had taken out about 5 different sets of alphas to potentially use, none that looked quite right, until my delivery came today of SC's latest collection, Brighton Pier! I used the silver alphas and the silver star rub-ons to finish the page!

CCW Babies

ABOUT THE PHOTO(S):
This is what 4 babies on a hot day looks like when they are each ready for a nap and not feeling like smiling for a picture haha!

LAYOUT DESIGN:
Originally I had something else in mind completely, but when I started picking out papers to use, I came across this happy cloud paper from the most recent Studio Calico kit, Penny Arcade and I just thought it looked so funny in contrast to the picture of 4 miserable babies, none of whom are smiling haha! So I couldn't resist using it!

MY PROCESS/PRODUCTS USED:
I didn't want to cover too much of that paper, so I cut out the cloud using this cut file by Geralyn Sy, on my Silhouette Cameo. I went around the edge of it with a black pen to stand out, and backed it with pink paper and actually I cut out a piece of the cardboard backing from the 4x6 pad of paper I bought with this month's kit! I sewed the lines with a light silver colored thread and added the metallic stars from an older kit.

Funny Girl

ABOUT THE PHOTOS:
Just some quick snapshots I took of me and Natalie playing (the same day as the last layout at 9 months old)... she was being funny sticking her tongue out whenever I did and just being her silly self (when she's not hungry or ready for a nap of course)!

LAYOUT DESIGN:
I used a sketch template from this month from the Simple Scrapper. If you are a premium member of SimpleScrapper.com, you get 5 new sketch templates each month plus access to download all the archived ones! I am definitely getting my money's worth from the membership - I save lots of time trying to plan out my layouts and can get right to work and lately I've been able to start and finish a layout in under 2 hours!

MY PROCESS/PRODUCTS USED:
I dug a little more into the latest Studio Calico kit, Penny Arcade, except for the background piece of paper was a lighter blue from a previous kit. I used the 4x6 add-on pad of paper to get the pieces for layering so I didn't have to cut into my 12x12 sheets yet. This definitely helped me go for this layout without hesitation. Sometimes if a layout I want to do needs lots of smaller pieces of paper, I will wait towards "the end" of the kit, but this let me not worry about that! This isn't my favorite layout, but I really like the way it looks next to my previous layout in my album.

9 Months

ABOUT THE PHOTOS:
This was Natalie at 9 months old, almost 2 months ago! I should've mentioned in the journaling that she is wearing her buddy's shirt because the night before she screamed all the way to church and puked all over herself and I stupidly didn't pack an extra set of clothes for her in the diaper bag. Luckily her friend let her borrow that shirt and the next day I took some pics before she got her much-needed bath.

LAYOUT DESIGN:
Anyway, I basically did almost a straight up scraplift/copy of this layout by Gillian Nelson! I loved her layout, especially how simple it was, but so uniquely her, that I decided to try to make it uniquely mine haha!

MY PROCESS:/PRODUCTS USED:
I used this cut file by Paige Evans for Studio Calico and basically just cut the 6x8 background file into a square - about 6x6, then cut it out of white card stock. I used the latest SC kit, Penny Arcade that arrived at my doorstep on July 3rd! Perfect for some holiday weekend scrapping!

My New Ride

ABOUT THE PHOTOS:
Natalie's grandma brought over this riding toy zebra, so Chris put it in the front lawn where we were sitting. The first thing she did was climb up and stand on it with her feet on the seat haha!

LAYOUT DESIGN:
I used another older sketch template from the Simple Scrapper, because I had already printed my photos 4x6 and 2 at 3x4 and was sort of stuck on how to lay them out till I saw this one from the archives!

MY PROCESS/PRODUCTS USED:
I used the Hello Hello kit from Studio Calico, except for the background piece of paper which was a piece from Amy Tan's original collection Amy Tangerine by American Crafts - I went to my stash because I wanted a neutral grayish piece, but didn't want a plain card stock.

Love Us

ABOUT THE PHOTO:
I love this photo because having my 91 year old grandma over to help celebrate my first Mothers Day was so special! Another pic of 4 generations all together :)

LAYOUT DESIGN:
I used an older sketch template from March 2013 by the Simple Scrapper Jennifer Wilson. For this one I had printed my photo 4x6 first, then looked for a sketch to use, so looking through the Simple Scrapper archives that come with the membership proved valuable once again!

MY PROCESS/PRODUCTS USED:
I used Studio Calico's June kit, Hello Hello but knew I wanted to use a neutral background. I selected a piece of Kraft card stock and added some mist to help it not look so flat. I used Mister Huey's in Clay and White to keep it subtle, and also used a couple of older butterfly misting masks. I haven't pulled out those masks in awhile! I kept the embellishing to a minimal as well and just added some cut out birds from one of the pieces of paper. I started and finished this layout in an hour and a half, woohoo!