#Staycation2014

ABOUT THE PHOTO(S):
We cancelled our planned trip to Florida last minute in June and ended up on a Staycation instead! It ended up being a good break for our family, even though Natalie was teething the first half of it!

LAYOUT DESIGN:
I basically copied this layout by Paige Evans, because... well look at how awesome it is!!

MY PROCESS/PRODUCTS USED:
First I cut the world map using my Silhouette Cameo with this world map shape I purchased in the Silhouette online store! I used the paper and wood veneer numbers from this month's Penny Arcade kit from Studio Calico, but then used a combination of the Printables by In A Creative Bubble by Geralyn Sy and the free printables by Hello Forever by Marcy Penner that went with the Brighton Pier collection this month to layer around the photos! I just love how the photos are us staying home and the page shows a map of the world and that "Jetsetter" embellishment :)

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!

Sprinkle

Last month, my friend had a surprise sprinkle shower for her sister-in-law and our other friend, for her 4th baby! She was so surprised, she cried and then made everyone else cry and it was so beyond sweet! The whole shower was so lovely, especially because everyone pitched in to help do something for it! My friend who hosted it, made an awesome cake with a little "Baby" banner, a clothesline decor with onesies, and mason jars with name tags! She decorated in soft colors - "shabby chic" and then someone else made a diaper cake, I made a "Baby Girl" banner, someone brought a bouquet of roses made from strawberries, another bouquet of real flowers, lots of desserts and treats, and well - I printed up a lot of pictures for this one, to show how "Pinterest-y" the party was!

I used a cut file by Paige Evans for Studio Calico to cut the frames. First I cut just the outer edges from that woodgrain paper, then I cut all the frames from the yellow polkadot paper. I had sized down my photos in Photoshop Elements and placed them generally where I thought they would go - luckily able to open the cut file as .png in PSE. Then I printed them all on a 8.5x11 page so I wouldn't waste photo paper. After that I placed the yellow polkadot paper frame over each photo, and cut basically around it without having to be too fussy because I would just place the whole thing underneath the woodgrain paper. I actually finished the entire page (not including printing the photos) in under 3 hours yesterday, in 3 increments during Natalie's naps!

I just love how this page turned out! My husband, of course used his basketball analogy, and said this page is a triple-double! Thank goodness I didn't get the "even Michael Jordan didn't shoot a triple-double every game" speech :)

Caught!

OK, I seriously caught my husband being bad by being on his iPad after I told him to play and engage with our 7 month old daughter, and my daughter was being bad by not playing with her learning toys and instead, choosing her silly, noneducational bath toy! Haha!

I used an older sketch from SimpleScrapper.com which is awesome that as a member we are given access to older sketch templates! It was for an 8.5x11 sketch, which I used here for a 12x12 page and a photo printed at 11x7.

I also used some ideas from the Stitched class with Paige Evans at Studio Calico, and stitched some journaling lines right onto the tag on top of the photo. Love this one!

Hello Friends

A lovely family photo of our friends who were visiting us mid-moving across the planet! Originally, I was also going to include a square photo of our family that we got too, which is why the background paper doesn't seem to match very well - it matched our photo more, but ended up putting that photo in the pocket.

This is definitely an amalgamation of supplies - I used papers from the Office Hours kit, the ampersand card from the Stitched class over at Studio Calico with Paige Evans, the envelope and cork asterisks from the Pip Embellishment kit by Studio Calico and the arrow stamp from Kelly Purkey's latest Sketchbook class that hasn't started yet! Oh and not to mention I used another sketch from SimpleScrapper.com!!

I loved the sketch, but when I got stuck, it really helped having the Spark magazine (included with the Simple Scrapper membership) to draw further inspiration from with the sketch. Also, I was able to hand stitch the ampersand in my living room instead of my scrap area in the basement, which was a nice break since the weather was nice out yesterday and I had the windows open! Maybe I will need to add more stitching on my layouts now!