Beep Beep

ABOUT THE PHOTO: From Mothers Day again, Natalie really loved that little wagon car, and "driving" but also couldn't resist taste testing the horn haha!

LAYOUT DESIGN: I finally used one of June's sketch template from the SimpleScrapper.com (Jennifer Wilson), which got derailed so far this month because I'm working on finishing my Day In The Life album from May, had to make lots of cards this month, and ended up on a Staycation that didn't allow for much scrap time in the end.

PRODUCTS: This is only my second layout using June's Hello, Hello kit from Studio Calico. I'm hoping to get a couple more done before the next kit gets here! The "Let's Go" globe is part of a free cut file offered at Studio Calico (CLICK HERE) from the Wanderlust collection! The letter thickers were from the Front Row kit in February of 2013!

PROCESS: I mounted all the paper onto a cheap white piece of card stock so I could cut out the middles of the dark blue and teal background papers to save for later. I didn't have a full 12x12 sheet of that teal paper left, anyway, so I trimmed it to 8.5x11 and love how it sort of draws the eye to the photo. I splattered the white grid paper with Mister Huey's spray mist and cut out the words from another piece of paper.

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!

Easter Dress

OK so as a Christ-follower, it seems silly to make this layout about a silly dress! Easter is the celebration of Christ's resurrection from the dead, and the forgiveness of all our sins so we can one day be in God's holy presence and spend eternity with Him! But I digress... the title was going to be "Happy Easter" except the way my letter stickers happened to work out... oh well!

I didn't know what to do with this layout and now that I've been using so many sketches and sketch templates, I have become accustomed to having instant inspiration and just digging right in instead of humming and hawing over what I should do and where I should begin. So for this one I decided just to print my one photo and then search for possibly an older sketch template at SimpleScrapper.com to match what I had - 1 vertical 4x6 photo. I didn't have to go far because of the way Simple Scrapper is arranged - you can sort by number of photos or sizes of photos etc. I found a template from March 2013 (even though I've only been a member for a couple months, you get access to the archives). So I went to work!

The older sketch template came with a separate pdf of inspiration layouts based on the sketch - and what I loved about Jennifer Wilson's layout was her tip to use pop dots to add dimension to the paper layers! I used a mix of papers from this month's Camelot kit by Studio Calico, and last month's Bluegrass Farm kit! I found a 3x4 stitched card from the Printshop collection by Shanna Noel for Studio Calico that matched perfectly and used Amy Tangerine thickers for the title, and BasicGrey for the smaller part of the title. It was another mix of elements, loving this way of making layouts!

Take Note

Here are a couple more pictures right before Natalie turned 8 months old and since I didn't have any good pics from the actual day, I decided to make this layout her official list of things she can do at 8 months old!

I used a sketch template from this month at SimpleScrapper.com to print my photos at 3x3 and 4x3 and complete this layout! I specifically really enjoyed Kim Kalil's layout as inpsiration from p. 24 of Spark Magazine from the Simple Scrapper as well!

I used papers from this month's Camelot kit by Studio Calico, but the wood veneer and the patch are from their Bluegrass Farm kit from last month. I also used some older fabric washi tape I think I purchased from TwoPeasInABucket.com or maybe directly from Freckled Fawn? I cut the little mason jars from one of the patterned papers this month and the journal card came with the Process class kit with Catherine Davis over at BigPictureClasses... phew! Now that I am a stay at home mom and really need to cut back on what I am spending on scrapbooking supplies, you will notice I am trying more at mixing in my stash and older products or mixing up items from different kits! It has been really nice actually to do this, BUT sometimes takes up more time! Because I have SO much paper, I am going to try to stick with the same kit for papers and then pull embellishments from wherever.

I am really enjoying my membership at the Simple Scrapper! It has helped me be thoughtful of how I am spending my time and really trying to utilize it better overall. For example, today I posted to the Facebook community page, a photo of my twine all entangled in knots when all I needed was that small piece for the wood veneer. Instead of spending 20 minutes right then detangling the knots like I really wanted to do, I decided I could do that later and should spend my time while I had it (while my DD was napping this morning) to work on my layout and maybe I can detangle while she is awake later or something! It helped a lot and today during her second nap I finished up this layout and now am finishing up this blog post - yay!!

True Story

Daddy had to take over and provide Daddy Daycare for Winter Storm Vulcan back in March. Natalie enjoyed it!

I used another sketch from this month from the SimpleScrapper.com, and mostly the printables provided by Studio Calico by In A Creative Bubble!

I used an Amy Tangerine heart stamp to stamp on the RAD title! This one was fun and easy to put together with the help of the sketch!

Cousins

Oh Natalie was still unsure about being away from Mama too long last month when these photos were taken of Natalie and her cousin - haha love that first photo... that face is too funny!

I used a sketch template from SimpleScrapper.com and didn't see that they provided a link for the free circles cut file, so I made my own! I took the layer of the template with the circles in Photoshop Elements and duplicated it into a new project. Then I filled it in with black and exported as a .jpg that I imported into the Silhouette software, traced it, and boom - new cut file!

I also used the template to add my photos to and see how they looked, size them and print them as circles so I wouldn't have to crop them myself. I mostly used the Office Hours kit by Studio Calico, but found that I had only 3 of those plastic butterflies left from the Sugar Rush kit so actually got to finish a full package of embellishments and throw away the packaging - that felt so good!

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!

Picture Perfect

Our friends stopped over with their little one on my birthday - which was our first time meeting her! Since she was a little over 5 months old and Natalie was not quite 7 months old, they didn't interact too much but it was still so nice to get together!

Before I printed my pictures, I started with a sketch for this month, from SimpleScrapper.com! It was cool because the sketches also come as templates, so I opened the sketch/template with Photoshop Elements, sized my photos and placed them on the layout digitally first. I got to see how they might look and decided to go with the sketch! That also helped me know what size to print the photos (4x3).

For the middle photo of Natalie, which I wanted to use there since she was looking to that side anyways, I grayed out the background and used a stamp brush to stamp the sentiment onto the photo. I really liked doing that!

I mostly used the Office Hours kit by Studio Calico for this layout, with the exception of the gold doily, puffy heart stickers, washi tapes on the journal card, and 2014 stamp/ink.

That Face

Just a very simple layout of Natalie's face... I just love that face!!

I used the below sketch from Studio Calico as my starting point, but ended up simplifying it even more, since I just wanted to incorporate a (sappy) letter to my daughter. Hopefully she will read this one day and know how much she is loved!

Thank You

Yes, I reused the circle idea on this page... but this page is for my husband, so it will go in a different album than the last layout and only YOU, attentive blog reader, will know that I recycled this idea, ha!

I started with this sketch that was on the Studio Calico blog here! The sketch made this layout come together SO quick and easy - I just started cutting up papers right away!

I just added some embellishments from the Copper Mountain kit above the picture, but really didn't want to do too much up there because the paper was so graphic.

So I kept it pretty simple otherwise, and the focus of my page was writing this sort of thank you letter to Chris, because he really is an amazing husband and helps me SO MUCH, I can't even write it all down! He makes life so much easier and better, and way more interesting and funny!

Thanks for stopping by!

Yum!

A public market staple is having breakfast at Juan & Maria's Empanada Stop! I always get the veggie breakfast empanada. We keep saying we wish they'd sell their Spanish ketchup though, it is sooo good! Maybe Natalie will like an empanada someday with her parents!

I scraplifted this layout by Geralyn Sy from this week's Sunday Sketch at Studio Calico:

I used the Cuppa kit and for the squares at the bottom, I just used a piece of the 6x6 paper pad that had those squares already on it.

OK, gotta run, baby's calling!! :)

Congrats Card

This is a card I made for a girlfriend who moved into her own apartment!! I just wanted to make something simple to say congrats and how cool it is for her :)

I used this card sketch from this month's sketch challenge over at Studio Calico that was based on some cards made by Stephanie Dagan!

I used my Silhouette to personalize the card and cut the main portion plus the word "awesome" by Ali Edwards.

I stamped with a stamp from the Sock Hop kit by Studio Calico and grabbed a wood veneer circle frame also by Studio Calico to use on top. The papers were from last year's Boardwalk kit!