We're Having a Good Time

Back today, having finally finished this layout that has sat on my table for a couple weeks because 1. I got really stuck after I had my papers picked out and the general idea of this page together, and 2. I've been trying to prepare my family for a Florida vacation, our first time traveling with our 10 month old baby... however we cancelled the trip the night before, after a large dose of reality hit us and now we are enjoying a Staycation instead! When I am on Staycation, I get to do some scrapbooking :)

Anyway, the idea for this layout came from Kelly Purkey's Sketchbook 2014 class I took at Studio Calico last month. I printed up my photos, I had just received the new June kit, Hello Hello, and even selected and cut my background paper - the blue swirls and green bottom with the bluish strip. That is where things came to a screeching halt! I was going to do a one-line title to the left of the photos, but other than that I had no idea what to do and realized I would want to fill in more of that space on the paper because it still seemed very lacking.

So yesterday Natalie finally returned to a better nap schedule (she hardly napped the previous 2 days that we would've been in FL, because she was teething - so it was a good thing we didn't go), and I was able to make some headway on this layout! I purchased this title cut file from the Silhouette Online store, and outlined it to make it stand out more. I cut the banners from a fun piece of paper in this month's kit and then finally I used Gillian Nelson's layout here as inspiration to make a small cluster in the upper left corner. That really helped me not have to think how to make the cluster since someone already did that for me!

My Family

A couple more photos from Mothers Day - we had both our families over for the lovely day! We took Natalie and her cousin for a ride in the wagon down the street and initially went to put Natalie on the "smaller" side of the wagon, but the seat belt wouldn't buckle around her belly, we had to switch the 2 kids and put her cousin, who is over a year older than her, on the smaller side so they could both fit haha!

I was inspired by one of the sketches from Kelly Purkey's Sketchbook class at Studio Calico (last month) and then put to use some of the cards and items that came in the class kit for the Stitched class the month before, so ended up doing a lot of stitching!

I like when I get to the point in a layout that I just need to add some hand stitching because I can bring that outside or at least upstairs and work on it while I hang out with Chris. Yesterday evening I got a chance to bring it outside with me and sit in the grass and work on the stitching with the baby monitor while Chris was at the store - it was so nice!

Another Walk

We definitely have a lot of pics of us taking a walk, hence the title! We went for a walk along the canal last month when it was finally starting to warm up around here!

I used a sketch from Kelly Purkey's Sketchbook class over at Studio Calico to make this! I ended up making a weaved shape with the paper after it started off with just the vertical strips, but it needed a little contrast and extra color so I added the horizontal yellow strips.

I used this month's Camelot kit and older letter thickers.

Hello.

Sometimes it's fun to get out the nice camera and change the angle of your photos... this was fun to do with Natalie, because her cheeks and double chins are so cute and emphasized with this angle!

I was planning to use the first sketch from Kelly Purkey's Sketchbook class going on right now at Studio Calico, so I printed my photo 5x7 and was going to center it more and add layers underneath it. But instead I got inspired by Maggie Massey's take on the sketch and moved my photo to the very edge (top) of the page.

From there I decided I really wanted to use that pretty pink tulle that came in this month's Camelot kit by Studio Calico, so I added some light adhesive and laid it down then sewed over it with gold thread. I added strips down the page and then embellished a little on top - super easy and this came together all during Natalie's morning nap, another 2 hour nap yay!