Family

This layout came together pretty quickly because I had new inspiration from the Sketchbook 4 online class I'm taking from Kelly Purkey with Studio Calico! So I decided just to continue with the next picture in my set of pictures I'm scrapping now - and decided this photo of my new cousins (from my husband's side of the family), my mother-in-law, my sister-in-law and me deserved it's own page!

I decided to finally put to use February's Daydream Believer kit from Studio Calico for this one, plus a few extra of the Dear Lizzy Neapolitan line by American Crafts! Hoping to keep up this momentum from the class this month!

HOW-TO:

• The "backest" background paper is Hazy Horizon from the Dear Lizzy Neapolitan collection by American Crafts, as is that greenish square behind the photo - that is the exact piece I cut out of the back after I decided I would be covering such a huge space in the middle anyway!
• The brown woodgrain paper with hearts is Love Letter from Studio Calico, as is the paper used to punch out the hearts - that is the other side! I really got full use out of the few papers I did use!
• The grayish paper with white polka dots is Sea Breeze, also from the Dear Lizzy collection - I cut that to about 3.5"x11"
• I punched out the hearts with the Sweetheart maker from Creative Memories
• Those foam thickers that I can't get enough of, the "cheerful day" rub-on, and the cut out images from paper are all also from the Dear Lizzy Neapolitan collection by American Crafts!
• The washi tape is from the Amy Tangerine collection by American Crafts

Side note: I owe a bit of thanks to my husband, for patiently answering my 500 questions for this layout - should I use these stickers? How should I arrange this? Does this look complete to you? and so on... I am just a terrible decision maker! Oh and it was during the NCAA basketball championship game that I completed this layout, so it was extra nice of him to answer my questions while I interrupted his game-watching :)

A Day at Sea... or Creek

I finally got a chance to do my own scrapbooking this past weekend! Even if it was just one page layout, it felt great! Here we have a kayaking scrapbook layout from a sunny summer afternoon earlier this year. It was so much fun!

My husband Chris is def the type to go his own way, whereas I'm more of a rules follower... so I was a little shocked to turn around and find him following his own shortcut through the reeds. I assumed we'd get stuck or capsize, but I guess we were ok!

The best part was the other couple that passed by us, heading back to the paddle center asking us how far we had come out because they had been lost for a few hours and looks so tired! Chris and I had a chuckle about that after they passed... and shortly thereafter, we decided to turn around before we became them and also got lost!

HOW-TO:

• The main paper was the Aldrin paper from Studio Calico that was in their June kit Paper Moon, the colors just matched perfectly!
• For the left side, I cut the American Crafts black paper to 10"x10" and the American Crafts leaf (green) paper to 9.5"x9.5" on top of the black
• The letter stickers are Peacock Lovely Thickers from the Amy Tangerine line by American Crafts (they are molded foam rubber stickers)
• The buttons are from the Boarding Pass collection by October Afternoon and looped a bit of twine in one of them from part of the Daily Junque collection by House of Three/PinkPaislee
• The camera stamp and sentiment are from Studio Calico, and I cut the circles using the cutting system from Creative Memories
• By the way, since I used 2 12x12 sheets of that main Aldrin paper, and only had 2 sheets of it, where did I get that extra bit to make that circle? I'm glad you asked! Because I did not want to waste that good paper and since most of it on the left side would be covered by the middle square, I used my trimmer to cut a large square out of the middle before mounting the black and green squares on top of it! I did the same for the black paper on the right side. No need to waste the entire 12x12 if you can help it!
• For the right side, I misted an Inkessentials #5 size manila tag with Applejack Mister Huey's spray mist
• The circle part of the tag, I colored in with the Zig Embossing Pen and embossed it with Leaf Zing embossing powder by American Crafts before using the same twine color to tie around the end
• The sticker is from the Amy Tangerine by American Crafts sticker book

The Other Side

Stayed up super late last night to get the other side of this page layout completed before I changed my mind for the millionth time on how to do this side of the page!

The idea was lifted from this layout called "Wing it!" by Sarah Webb. Not only did I get the layout idea from her, but the title really pushed me to just do it and get it done!

HOW-TO:

• Using papers from the Good Day Sunshine collection by My Mind's Eye I cut one piece to 10"x4" (for the top part, even though a little less than 4" is showing) and another piece to 11"x7", plus a strip for the bottom 10"x3/4"
• Decorated an Inkessentials Craft tag with a title from the Good Day Sunshine punch outs that also came with the collection
• The rest of the punch-outs were from the same collection except the tree I bought separately, but it is also from My Mind's Eye so it matched pretty well
• The dome studs are from 7gypsies and came in the July kit "Mind the Gap" by Studio Calico

Good Day Bike Ride

Here's a scrapbook layout from back in March, when Chris and I finally got out for our first bike ride of the season! Of course, these pics were taken right before we both got new bikes, so I guess I'll be re-doing a similar layout soon!

I lifted the page layout idea from p.32 of the July issue of Scrapbook Trends, a layout called "Ticket 2 Ride" By Jamie Harder. Hers was themed around a carousel ride, so mine is obviously themed around a bike ride. The only problem now is... what do I do for the other side of this layout!? Oh well, guess I'll figure that one out later.

HOW-TO:

• Using paper (and bicycle embellishment) from the My Mind's Eye Good Day Sunshine collection, I cut a piece to 11x11 and mounted on Kraft cardstock, with the bottom 4.5" flipped around to show the other side of the sheet
• The tickets are from Tim Holtz and popped up
• I cut the letters by hand from a sheet of paper from the same collection to use for the "Ride" part of the title
• The toothpick flags are from Pebbles and the puffy, white letter stickers are from K&Company's Animal Tales

4 Wheelin'

OK, I take that back about that Jurassic Park layout being my favorite... this 4 wheelin' scrapbook layout is my newest favorite! I got the inspiration and start for my layout from this layout: A Cowtown Birthday by Emily Pitts.

After I found the inspiration, the paper and pictures sat out on my table for the past few days as I contemplated and re-contemplated how much of the layout I would lift (<-"lift" is the scrapbooker's softer way to say, "copy" hehe). Finally, tonight I just decided if I didn't just start cutting up some paper, I would NEVER get started! I guess it is scary for me to get right in there and start cutting up beautiful paper, so I just had to do it!

This left side came together fairly quickly once I got the black strips cut properly (I am left with quite a few practice strips that weren't straight enough so they now reside in the garbage).

I also lifted from my own last layout, and after I couldn't figure out how to incorporate one more picture to get that closeup one of the four wheeler, I took out my Exacto knife again, cut around it, and popped it up for another 3D picture embellishment - this might end up being a signature strategy I will employ more often...

Lastly I knew that I wanted to add those little sprockets from Tim Holtz! I've been dying to use those for awhile now, so used those with some old school punched circles... wow I've been scrapping for awhile now to be using the term "old school" for a scrapbook technique haha!

HOW-TO:

• Pretty much everything except the sprockets and letter stickers are from the July kit, "Mind the Gap" by Studio Calico
• The main patterned paper is "London Calling" and the brown circle pattern paper is from American Crafts with the orangish-blue border being part of the same paper, but was at the bottom that you tear off, so I used it since I cannot possibly let that go to waste!
• The punched strip of yellowish paper was another bottom tear off strip on a piece of Sassafras paper
• This time I remembered not to adhere all the paper before deciding if there were things I was going to want to add... so the Bazzill Kraft cardstock was distressed using Tim Holtz Vintage Photo distress ink first, which is a LOT easier than waiting till it's already adhered down!
• I cut the black Bazzill paper using the Postage Stamp blade from Creative Memories
• Like I said, the sprockets were from Tim Holtz and since I'm only left with one, I will need to re-stock (and also force my husband to go four wheeling again, this time in like the summer or something haha)!
• The circles were punched with the circle and mini circle makers by Creative Memories and the letter stickers were the Swirly alphabet also from CM

Welcome to Jurassic Park!

OK, this might be my best scrapbook layout I've ever done... at least in recent memory, but I can't really take credit for it, since probably 45% I can contribute to scraplifting the idea, and 45% is due to just having some great supplies delivered to my house today... therefore I will take 100% credit for 10% of this layout!

I started with the left side this time, after having stumbled across a digital scrapbook layout here called "Walking With Dinosaurs" by Jennifer Wight (here's a picture of just the page layout by itself). Since I didn't have the ability to move or crop images so perfectly the way that is done there, I had to whip out my Exacto knife and try to crop them myself!

The picture of the T-Rex on the right side was an actual picture I took while at the museum, and using said knife, cropped that myself as well! Wow, such primitive scrapbooking methods... The wood frames were part of the order I received and just matched so well, I had to use them right away!

OK, so the bamboo was an afterthought, so that took a bit longer to add, since I couldn't rip up the map to get it behind there, I had to cut again by hand. Unfortunately, a lot of times there are things I see that I would've liked to do differently or add only AFTER I've already adhered/cut everything no matter how much I try to draw out and plan a layout... oh well, I'm still very happy with this one!

HOW-TO:

• Main patterned paper used is Run-of-the-Mill by Studio Calico (from this month's kit: Mind the Gap)
• Cut the map from the Life's a Party Cricut Cartridge at 10.5" using Creative Memories French Vanilla paper and distressed using Tim Holtz Vintage Photo distress ink and popped it up
• Wood frames are also from Studio Calico
• Popped up the cut out picture of the T-Rex, and it really looks 3-D
• Jurassic Park letters were cut at 1.8" off the Life is a Beach Cricut cartridge on Bazzill paper, but in hindsight I wish I had chosen more of dark wood-looking paper to match the overall jungle-like theme
• Bamboo was cut from the Life is a Beach Cricut cartridge at 10.5"

Winter Park

Last night I got a chance to finish up one more scrapbook page layout after an awesome nighttime bike ride around the neighborhood to check out everyone's fireworks! So I had a very productive 4th of July!

I think I'm just anxious to finally get to some spring/summer photos to scrapbook because all the magazines and papers that are out right now, are for that - and who wants to reminisce about last winter when summer's just getting started! Well this was a fun day we had going to Durand Eastman park earlier this year.

I was planning to add more to this simple layout, but decided I liked the way it turned out and just plan to leave it as is. I got the basic idea for the right side of the layout from p.33 in the July issue of Scrapbook Trends, a layout called "Be Here" by Jamie Long. So this right side came together before the left side (backwards for me).

HOW-TO:

• For the left side, and the first thing I always do is pick out the main background paper, I chose BoBunny Beautiful Life Collage paper
• Backed the bottom photo with plain white paper cut at 6.5x4.5"
• Used my, apparently go-to tool, the Fiskars notebook page punch punched a border onto Bazzill Kraft cardstock, then cut it at 5x4" and used for a journal block
• The upper right I cut part of an extra strip of paper I had made for the right side of the layout, and backed with more Kraft cardstock to match
• For the right side, I used a piece of Bazzill Bank Roll cardstock, then cut a piece of the same BoBunny paper at 11x8.5"
• I used a scrap piece of Kraft cardstock to punch the circles with an EKSuccess border punch
• The easiest way I've found to make a thin strip of paper interesting, is to add some personalized words, so I just run some cardstock through my printer and print sideways using Editor font at 9pt. then cut 1/4" strips - I usually cut several of these, to make up for any mistakes, or if I want to use it on the other side as well (which I did here)

A Scrapbook Layout!

Happy 4th of July, happy birthday USA!!

OK, I've had like 2 seconds in the past 5 days to throw together a scrapbook page layout before I went insane from not scrapbooking with all the time off from work! So I finally started a new album for 2011, kicking off the scrapbook with pics from our trip to Syracuse, NY to see the Orangemen play on New Years Day! We are hoping to start a tradition and go see them every New Years!

Most of this layout came together with the Primary Basketball Additions from Creative Memories, so it was quick and easy and while it's not my most labor-intensive layout, I'm happy with how it came out.

HOW-TO:

• The main 2 pieces of paper, title sticker and basketball hoop sticker were all from the Basketball Additions from Creative Memories
• For the left side, I tried to use the Fiskars notebook punch to create a notebook looking page and border
• The stars were made using the Creative Memories Embossed Star punch
• For right side, I used Inkessentials Craft Tags to create ticket-like tags
• The basketball dude was cut at 5" using the Sports Mania Cricut cartridge

I didn't leave much room for journaling, so a couple things I will just add here:
* I love foam fingers and food, so I got one and a ton, respectively
* My husband Chris, will probably want to kill me for showing that close-up pic of his face, but I love it
* Along with seeing familiar players from last season up close (Scoop Jardine, Kris Joseph, Rick Jackson...), it was really cool to see Jim Boeheim!