#Challenge52Kits Central High - September 2012

Welcome to September 2012!

ABOUT CENTRAL HIGH | I wonder if I squealed with excitement when Central High was first previewed - all that Amy Tangerine goodness from her Ready Set Go collection! Loved those big numbers in the add-on kits and so this month I got 3 of the 4 add-ons!

Main kit leftover	Style Guide leftover
Capital Avenue leftover	Register leftover

A LAYOUT | For my layout, I was planning to find a nice school picture of Natalie, but ended up printing this one of her sitting on the four wheeler. Then I wanted to make this layout for my husband's album, so I decided to make 8.5x11 layout and used a sketch template from Simple Scrapper! It was so quick and easy with the template. I added a half border on two sides of the page because I wanted to include one more patterned paper and give it some contrast!

NEXT UP | Roller Rink from October 2012 - it will be very interesting what I come up with because I didn't buy very much that month plus I made a lot of layouts and cards with it after taking it to a retreat weekend with me. Actually, that was the last retreat I went to since I found out a few months later I was pregnant with Natalie and haven't been back since!

BOOM

ABOUT THE PHOTO:
Every year for the past few years, we've been able to light off some small fireworks for the 4th of July. Last summer's 4th of July was awesome since it landed on a Friday - it seemed like our whole town was lighting off their own fireworks, we just heard booms and crackles all night long! Chris finally lit off a couple of mortars - I had never experienced those at home before, and just loved them! They are like mini fireworks, not just a quick whistle and sparkle, but a real firework!

LAYOUT DESIGN:
Anyway, I had this photo of Chris printed out and sitting on my table I think since August ahhh! I finally decided to change things up a bit and scrap a July photo in February... oooh I'm a big risk taker you can tell! I knew I wanted to use the printed background paper from the Studio Calico kit Poet Society for this photo for awhile, but that all I had planned.

MY PROCESS/PRODUCTS USED:
I just reached for the big black letters again from this month's Cirque kit and tried to spell BOOM except didn't have enough O's. I thought, I will use a Q and cut it up or cover it up, but then I got the idea to cut my photo into an O too, so I just placed the O on top of my photo and traced, then cut it out! Next I used the leftover silver metallic paper to punch some pinking circles from, then found the last bit of that dark blue constellation paper also from the Poet Society kit. I thought I was done, but the other night I had spilled little red stars and sequins all over my floor from my December Daily/Christmas stash, which made me remember that I had them and figured they'd go perfectly scattered up top as well! Finished with a label from Hello Forever for my journaling and done!!

C&N

First of all, my apologies for not updating my blog recently! Since my last post I've made 2 more layouts, finished my December Daily album, and made 2 cards, plus I've worked on some art work for myself and others. I hope to share some more of that here soon, but until then please follow me on Instagram: @ScrapperEmily!

ABOUT THE PHOTO:
Anyway, today's photo is from a lovely (aka not so lovely) and cold Friday night last month, so Chris and I decided to have a coffee date at Wegmans, our local+fave grocery store. The coffee was excellent, and it was perfect just to get out of the house for a bit and also get some errands done.

LAYOUT DESIGN/MY PROCESS/PRODUCTS USED:
I used a Sketch Template from Simple Scrapper's Premium Membership, then changed it up a bit to work with my photo and papers. I used this month's Cirque kit from Studio Calico, which went perfectly with the "date night" theme of my layout haha!

The Premium Membership at Simple Scrapper provides skills and shortcuts to help you simplify and find more meaning in your memory keeping.

Just Like Her Dada

ABOUT THE STORY/PHOTO:
Part of my "scrappy resolution" or intention this year is to do more "story first" layouts, so I don't end up with a whole bunch of layouts that look nice but have no meaning. So when I didn't have any photos printed up yet, but wanted to work on a layout, I started by reading over the few stories I wanted to scrap and decided on this story about my daughter, who talks in her sleep just like her Dada! Since I didn't have a specific photo for this story, I found this recent one in my phone of her yawning and thought that would work! Now I could make a layout with a cute photo and have a story to go with it, perfect!

LAYOUT DESIGN:
I used a new Sketch Template from Simple Scrapper's Premium Membership and just loved it! It was 8.5x11, so I decided I would keep it 8.5x11 and add the page to Chris' ongoing album!

MY PROCESS/PRODUCTS USED:
I used some of the softer, pretty papers from the main Far Far Away scrapbook kit by Studio Calico - and it helped that I had the digital papers to first drop into the layered templates that are part of the monthly sketch templates from Simple Scrapper. I enjoy working with the layered templates first to get a general feel how my layout will look with the photos dropped in! I used of the thin wood veneer diamonds to fill the space next to the picture, and ended up liking how it sort of points to the picture. I used the rubber alpha from the Walden kit because I wanted a nice soft gray to go with the colors. Thanks for stopping by!

The Premium Membership at Simple Scrapper provides skills and shortcuts to help you simplify and find more meaning in your memory keeping.

A Night Out

ABOUT THE PHOTO:
This photo was taken at Chris' company holiday party, where we finally got a night out to ourselves, so it was also like a nice date! I decided to make the journaling a thank you letter format to Chris for working hard and allowing me to be a stay at home mom. I truly appreciate his willingness, support, and hard work!

LAYOUT DESIGN/PRODUCTS USED:
I used another Sketch Template and Story Starter from Simple Scrapper's Premium Membership for this one, and had the perfect papers from last month's Park Ave kit by Studio Calico!

MY PROCESS:
I also added a rubber banner from Ali Edwards' December Daily kit that balanced out the title and added a little something to it. The chipboard stars from the Waldorf Add-on kit were a nice bonus too.

The Premium Membership at Simple Scrapper provides skills and shortcuts to help you simplify and find more meaning in your memory keeping.

Nice Day

ABOUT THE PHOTO:
This photo was one of Chris' favorites, so I decided to make it 8.5x11 to go into his album - we took Natalie to the mall and forgot to pack her shoes, so we bought her a new pair of sneakers so she could practice walking around the mall!

LAYOUT DESIGN:
I scraplifted this layout by Magdalena!

MY PROCESS/PRODUCTS USED:
I used the paper from the Poet Society kit, then used neon acrylic stars that came in the Process class kit with Catherine Davis from Big Picture Classes. I stamped the border and used the letters also from the Poet Society kit, so quick and easy, I got this done yesterday morning before Natalie woke up for the day!

You + Me

ABOUT THE PHOTO:
Chris and Natalie on 4th of July, awww...

LAYOUT DESIGN:
After my long, unintentional hiatus from scrapbooking, I took the 30 minutes this evening while Chris took Natalie for a walk to speed scrap this layout, making today a 2 layout day, wow!! In order to do quick and easy, I basically copied this layout by Allison Waken for Studio Calico!

MY PROCESS/PRODUCTS USED:
I used the Brighton Pier collection for this 8.5x11 page because it will go across from the last page I made for Chris' album with the same collection by Studio Calico, and it was the collection that Allison used in her video! I used the XO stamp from Amy Tangerine's Plus One collection and stamped over the photo with Jet Black Staz On ink.

XO

ABOUT THE PHOTO(S):
I decided to put these "mismatched" photos together into one layout for Chris' album since they were all random moments from July of Chris and Natalie that I wanted to scrap but couldn't make out of a full 12x12 layout!

LAYOUT DESIGN:
I used a sketch template from the SimpleScrapper.com that was based on a 2 page layout by Jamie Leija! I thought the 8.5x11 format would work perfectly for these photos, and ended up printing them 3x3.66 (since I had 3 photos to fit in 11 inches of height).

MY PROCESS/PRODUCTS USED:
It was very hard to cut into that awesome piece of paper from the Brighton Pier collection, designed by Kal Barteski for Studio Calico! But if I like that paper so much I'm bound to like it even better on a layout, so I went to town! I added some wood veneer pieces from the same collection. The paper fringe by Crate Paper came in last month's Penny Arcade kit and the gray tag was the packaging for the Knot & Bow ribbon from this month's Sandlot kit by Studio Calico that had JUST arrived on my doorstep! So yes, it was very hard to not dig into that kit right away instead, but Brighton Pier is still so awesome it had to be used :)