Titles on Tags

I always end up with tons and tons of pictures for a soccer season - and I never can narrow it down to just one layout.  For Nicholas's sophomore album, I got it down to 5 layouts for the high school summer soccer program.

When I do those layouts, I try to use common papers and elements on all the layouts so that they look cohesive within the album.  For these layouts, I came up with the idea of putting the titles on tags for these five layouts.  I combined a tag shape and a triangle to cut them out of paper with a grid pattern using my cricut.  Then I dug up some old rub-on letters that had been my fathers to add the titles.  Because the rub-ons were so old, the lettering ended up with a distressed look.   

I love the way they turned out and can't wait to use them on my layouts.  I'm also thinking about all the other ways I could use the tags and letters (together or separately) in my albums. 

Mini Me

I have two sons (19 and 17) and couldn't love them more.  They are smart and handsome and kind.  But 12 and a half years ago, God surprised us with a daughter.  As she's grown, I've come to realize that a mother-daughter relationship is very different than a mother-son relationship. So when Once Upon A Sketch published their May sketch challenge asking for layouts with the theme "Mum," I was inspired to try to capture the special relationship I have with Elisabeth.

As I thought about our relationship, I realized that one of the things that made it special was that we enjoy many things that her father and brothers do not - or even think are "dumb."  So I put together this layout titled "Mini Me."

I experimented with a misting - the butterflies, the hearts and the muslin ribbon are all colored with mists and used lots of vellum - both embossed and plain.  My journaling is a list of things we both like:

Fun, fuzzy socks - baking cookies - gooey chocolate ice cream when we're sad - picking strawberries - The Bachelor - a good book - patterned paper - laying in the hammock - Glee - sappy Disney movies - a 12 hour crop - paint chips - scrambled eggs

This list could have gone on and on - what about nail polish, eyeshadow, shopping, shoes and a good sale?  I love all my children and couldn't imagine life without them, but I am truly grateful that I have a daughter.

Wallet Size

I don't know about you, but every year I end up with a stack of wallet size pictures from the school pictures - and nothing to do with them.  So I file them with the year's memorabilia in the basement and there they sit. 

I'm starting a new album for Nicholas's sophomore year and was looking for inspiration for the title page.  It seems like they always have a 5 x 7 school picture, a title and some embellishments.  They might all be starting to look alike.  When I came across this sketch from Lets Capture These Sketches, I got a really different (for me) idea for this title page. 

I used the May grab bag from My Scrapbook Nook which included great Echo Park papers and stickers.  This is what I came up with.

I really like the mix of colors and the way the wallet size pictures give the look of a strip of pictures right from the picture package.  The picture is really fuzzy, so I am going to share the sentiments on the page.  The large tickets were cut from the primer paper and say "remember," "dream'" and "favorite" (which is an ongoing joke at home).  the chipboard tags say "amazing," "so smart, "excellent" and "handsome."  I love that the simple embellishments allowed me to say so much about my son with so little fuss. 

The New Year's Fairy

http://scrapafrica.blogspot.com/

When I was young, my mother started a unique holiday tradition.  Each year, on New Year's Eve, the New Year's Fairy came and filled our stocking.  When we got up on January 1st, we had presents to unwrap.  These might be things Santa forgot or small gifts to help start the new year off right.

I've never met anyone else who celebrates quite like this, but I have passed the tradition on to my husband and children.  And because it is a unique family tradition, it is always an important part of the scrapbooks I put together for Stephen, Nicholas and Elisabeth.

This time I used this sketch from Scrap Africa.  I converted it into the two page layout below.  I am entering the layout in this month's challenge.

Since there are never new year's fairy themed embellishments and I don't want the layout to look like Christmas, I always stretch to put something different together.  For this layout, I used a combination of winter paper with some funky polka dot paper.  I used my scallop tearing tool to create the strips of green polka dot paper and for the title.  I cut the title using my cricut and sure cuts a lot in a fun font and added some sparkly snowflake stickers.  One of my favorite parts is the blue ribbon that runs across the layout.  Because the edges are solid and the middle is transparent, I created extra texture and pattern where the snowflake paper shows through. 

Purple Pumpkin Sketch Challenge

I had big plans for getting lots of scrapping done when I took a few days off last week.  In reality, I didn't scrap much at all.  But I did go to a crop Friday night and did a few layouts I'll share over the next few days.  This one, which features pictures from our last Christmas celebration last year, is based on the sketch challenge at Purple Pumpkin.  Here's the sketch:
 
I had lots of pictures (even more than I used), so I needed to come up with a two page interpretation.  I used a combination of Basic Grey and Making Memories paper, some Basic Grey Stickers, and some really fun red masking tape with polka dots I found at Creative Chaos in Circleville.  Here's my layout:

I know you can't see the pictures very well, but when I look at the layout, I think it captured Nicholas's relationship with his much younger cousins and how much he always enjoys his time in St. Henry with extended family.

Time For Me

As the end of the school year approaches, Nicholas and Elisabeth are talking more and more about summer vacation -- and how great it will be to be out of school and hanging out at home.  And I get it - it sounds pretty good to me too! 

But sometimes I like to be home alone - to just play in my scrap room, read, nap . . . . . .Summer vacation means I almost certainly won't be home alone again for a whole day til school starts in August.  So years ago, I began taking a pre-summer vacation vacation.  I take a few days off just before school's out and give myself permission to do as little or as much as I feel like for the whole time. 

Yesterday was the first day of this year's pre-vacation.  I did some errands and some laundry, but I also read a trashy romance novel, took a nap and finished this layout.

Its a fun mix of creative memories, making memories, and jillibean soup (among other products).  I'm submitting it for the current got sketch challenge too.

Today I have an appointment for a mani/pedi and am visiting a relatively new local scrapbook store - Creative Chaos in Circleville, Ohio.  They had a table at a benefit crop I went to in March and had great stuff and were showing great ideas, so I'm really excited to check it out.

Santa Delivers

I've been really unproductive this week and just finished my first layout since the Nook NSD crop ended.  It was based on the April sketch challenge on the Nook forum.  Here is the sketch that I started with.

I wanted to make a two page layout from the sketch since I needed to get back to work on Nicholas's high school albums.  The layout I put together is from Christmas morning.  Nicholas got the IPhone 4 he had identified as his most wanted item and seemed pretty surprised by the gift.  Since he doesn't ask for much "stuff" (unlike his siblings), it was really fun to see him get something he really wanted and be so excited by it. 

Here's the layout I came up with.

 I layered washi tape on the top and in the bottom corner - its one of my new most favorite things to use.  Its so easy to use and comes in so many colors and patterns - its really addictive! I also used a paper edger around the light blue whitewash coredinations paper.  It added tons of depth and texture to the layout (though it doesn't really show in the photograph.

Enjoy your Mother's Day weekend.  Stehen came home from college for the weekend, so all my babies will be around.  I think we're going to have a quiet laid back celebration - maybe with lots of time for me to play with paper.

Ready To Go . . . . Again

Last weekend I actively participated in the NSD Crop -- 17 challenges over the course of the weekend.  It was a great experience -- it forced me to remember that every layout didn't need to take 3 days to complete, I tried things I wouldn't have tried otherwise, and I had lots of fun.  But at the end, I was totally sleep deprived and had a huge mess.

So I've spent a couple of days cleaning up my scrap space and catching up on my sleep (around work, fids, etc.).  I even cleaned out the expandable file on my work table where I keep my scraps.  So I'm ready to go again.  Here's what my work space looks like now - before I start.

Better that table doesn't stay that clean for long!

Supporting Cast

One of the challenges at My Scrapbook Nook was to do a layout about the person who holds you up and keeps you going.  He takes care of me and our children.  He has watched patiently while my scrapbook supplies and work area have gradually taken over his "office."  He doesn't complain (much) when I am on the computer all evening or on the weekend, leaving him without an opportunity.  And when I'm up scrapping til after 2 in the morning, he doesn't say "I told you so" when I'm tired the next day.  I'm lucky to have him.

My layout features Crate Paper.   The embellishments represent the "stuff" of everyday life.

Red

One of the challenges I worked on for NSD was a challenge that required me to use red as the primary color in my layout.  This was a tough one for me because I don't especially like red most of the time, and I don't have much red in my stash.

I put it off all day, but eventually I looked to an area that I am really comfortable with it - soccer layouts.  So here's my "red" layout.

Countdown

I'm still working on the various challenges at My Scrapbook Nook (and they keep posting more).  This one was a sketch challenge.  Here's the sketch.

Now I'm not always good at following directions, and this late in the day it seems tough to keep everything so straight.  So I turned the layout and randomly angled all the different elements in the sketch. 

Here's what I came up with:

Tags

I seem to do 12 x 12 layouts exclusively, so I used an online challenge to push myself to do something different today.  Unfortunately, the colors haven't photographed well, but I'm really pleased with how the tags turned out.  What do you think?

Summer Camp

Wow - what a fabulous opportunity this would be!


GET A CHANCE TO WIN A FREE SPOT ON OUR SUMMER CAMP ONLINE CLASS!





http://thegreenfrogstudio.typepad.com/the_green_frog_studio/2012/05/happy-national-scrapbook-day-win-a-free-spot-in-our-summer-camp-2012-class.html

Quiet Summer Days

I got my first washi tape today and couldn't wait to play with it.  I couldn't believe how fast and easy it was to play with.  I suspect I will quickly be as addicted as so many others are.  I am already thinking about what colors/patterns I want to get next.

For the layout, I first misted a piece of craft paper with shades of blue and green.  Some of them had a sparkle and some didn't.  The paper looked really great, but I don't think the photograph caught the shimmer.  Here's what the paper looked like before I started my layout.

For my layout I turned the paper so the green was at the bottom and the blue was at the top.  Then I divided a heidi swapp pennant border into two pieces to layer in the top quarter.  I randomly added strips of washi tape down the side and used some old basic grey letters for the title.  I mounted the photo on layered paper and doilies (I love the square ones!).  A Basic Grey metal flower at the top and some Creative Memories tags and a random chipboard piece finished it off.  Its much brighter than my layouts are usually, but I think its really fun!

My dad

This layout was done for a challenge where you needed to use at least two types of fabric on your layout.  I was stumped at first, but then went to look at my ribbon stash.  I used a canvas pennant border from LYB to start and used sticker letters to make it a title banner.  Then I added twill ribbon and velvet rick-rack.  Finally, I finished off the layout with fabric leaves in the bottom corner.  I was at 4 fabrics in no time!.

Just Beachy

The next challenge at the Nook was to draw elements from three different layouts they provided.  I took my color scheme from one, the buttons from one and the doily and paper strips from one.  The layouts also used a lot of layering of embellishments, which I captured by using trim on top of my paper strips. 

Hollywood Diva

The third challenge at the Nook NSD crop is a layout with Hollywood Diva in the title.  For me it came down to a choice between my daughter (adiva in training for sure) and our cat, Taffy.  Cats are natural divas, so Taffy won hands down.

I used chevrons in shades of gray and yellow in both a vertical and a horizontal pattern to frame the photo.  After adding some paper flowers, and the photo mats, I misted the entire page with bronze glimmer mist to add some shimmer. 

The Envelope Please

The second challenge in the May Movie Madness crop at the Nook was to use an envelope in a layout.  This one stumped me, but Dave and nicholas both got into the spirit and helped me brainstorm.  I came up with this layout about Stephen and starting "real life" after high school.

I started with a kraft envelope which I embossed.  I ran a red stamp pad over the embossing to make it pop.  But my favorite part of the layout are the embellishments (mostly scattered at the top of the page).  They are old stamps featuring men who might be role models or potential areas of study in preparation for a career.

A Fairy Tale

My Scrapbook Nook is having a blog forNSD and the challneges have started.  The one posted yesterday was to choose a genre.  I was stumped til a box came from My Scraps and More.  I was lucky enough to win one of the Monday giveaways, and my prize was here!  It was a whole selection of paper from the "On the Go" collection.  It was bright and fun and brought lots of inspiration. 

So I dug this picture of my son (who was 18 at the time) riding a tricycle at his grandparents.  And this layout - a fairy tale - was born. 

Fairy Godmother, please make it a car

I love the way it came out - even the doily (which is now blue and green.)

The Stockings Were Hung. . . . .

I said I was going to post some of the layouts I've done at the NSD crops I've attended so far, and I will.  But today I want to share a layout I did Monday night.  I had looked at my pictures and pulled some paper on Sunday afternoon, but I didn't have even the beginning of an idea.  I was completely stuck!

So by Monday evening, I was totally frustrated. So I did what any stuck scrapbooker would do.  I went into the family room and watched The Voice.  Then my son got his ACT scores, he did very well so we had to celebrate, and finally around 11 I made it back to my scrap space.  By midnight I had this layout done.

 

It turned out to be one of my favorite layouts in a while.  I was dying to try washi tape and found this Christmas version buried with my paper ribbon, the design was different from anything I'd done in a while, and I used a bronze glimmer mist on the letters to add a little sparkle.  What do you think?

Creating From the Heart Giveaway

Blog candy is one of my weaknesses (and I guess it is better than the sugary kind).  Melissa is giving away a great prize at Creating From the Heart.  Here's the link.

http://keepsakesbymelissa.blogspot.com/2012/04/spring-giveaway.html
http://keepsakesbymelissa.blogspot.com/2012/04/spring-giveaway.html

And pictures of some of the goodies.  You really should check out all the great prizes.