International Scrapbooking Day Layouts for Pinkfresh (2)

Hey all, sorry for the second post, but I ended up having to break up the post for linking purposes.  

This next layout is my favorite of the three.  It's for the Monochromatic and Grid challenges.  I love the expressions on Carina's face in this set of photos, she was so serious and focused as she tried out her new scooter (6 years! ago). 

That background paper is from the Let Your Heart Decide collection, and was perfect for the monochromatic challenge.  That paper really did the majority of the work for me, defining the angle of the photos.

The ephemera pieces are from the In the Mix collection.  It's a little hard to see in the photos, but I added words at the bottom of each of the photos: focus, concentration, determination.  I usually try not to put anything on top of my photos, but this just seemed right.

That's all for me today.  I'm off to link these up over at Pinkfresh, and then it's back to vacation photos.  Hope you are having a wonderful weekend!

International Scrapbooking Day Layouts for Pinkfresh (1)

Last Saturday was International Scrapbooking Day.  I've been very focused on getting vacation scrapbooks completed, so I wasn't planning to play along with any challenges, but this weekend I couldn't resist.  I figured I would at least take a look at the pictures I had printed at home and see if any of them sparked inspiration.  I'm really glad that I did.  All of the pages I completed feature photos that are at least four years old, but they are great memories/moments that I want to remember.

This first one I'm submitting for the 3 or more photos challenge and the grid challenge.  It's documenting Ellie's Mites on Ice night.  Most of the NHL teams do this - they invite youth teams to come play a scrimmage between periods.  It's a ton of fun and so exciting for the kids.  

I used papers from the Escape the Ordinary collection.  It's a pretty basic grid style layout, but I added some extra interest by fussy cutting chevron shapes from one of the prints, adhering them above my title, and then adding some stitching.  

This next layout is for the Use a Patterned Paper Background and the Add a Title with Two Fonts challenges.  My college roommate has kids that are the age of my girls, and she lives 15 minutes from my little sister.  When we go up to visit my sister, we end up staying with Chrissy because my nieces are younger and go to bed pretty early.  This way we don't disturb their routine, and we get to hang with our buddies.

I chose a tone on tone pattern from the Boys Fort collection for the background.  The bold word strips were actually cut from another of the patterned papers in the collection.  The title was create with two different fonts as well as a couple pieces from the Boys Fort ephemera packet.  

The 'friends' piece was actually lighter and brighter, but stood out a little too much.  I blended some gray ink over it to give it a darker, duller shade, and popped it up with foam tape.  Finally, I added one of the cloth banner flags, another embellishment from the Boys Fort collection.

2016 in Books

One of the NSD challenges from Studio Calico was to scrap what you were reading, so I thought it was the perfect time to get this layout done.  This is the fourth year I've done a Year in Books layout (2015, 2014, 2013), and the third year I'm using October Afternoon's Public Library collection.  What can I say, it's the perfect collection to use, and I still have plenty, so you might see it again next year.

Anyway, I went with a grid style layout this year.  My book list is much larger than it's been in years past, 129, which is impressive, but over a quarter of those are juvenile fiction which is a much faster read than a regular book.



I have the full list of books (computer print out) in the envelope, and used the tags to document my favorites as well as the roll up of genres.

The tag I used is my Classic Tag 1 die from Neat & Tangled.  I love this size tag!  I accented the top row of tags with a stamp from an old Studio Calico documenter kit which I colored with Copics.



The alphas are Bella Blvd.  Once I had the tags in place, I accented the layout with some stickers from the Public Library Collection.  Oh how I miss OA!



That's all for me today, do you document what you read each year?  If so, please link me up below.  I'd love to see how you do it!

Also, just a reminder that the sale at Ellen Hutson goes through today, 20% off all in-stock items using code momsday17.  I broke down and put in an order for 'practical' stuff.  I needed a Copic refill, and added a few colors (in the orange category) that I'm missing as well.  It's an extra good deal on Copics since they are 25% off normally at Ellen, but with the extra 20% off the markers are now $4.80.  I also got some storage items and one splurge item (affiliate links):

Essentials by Ellen Storage Envelopes, Small 25pk

Altenew Stencils, Floral Drape

Essentials by Ellen Magnetic Die Storage, Extra Small 25pk

COPIC Various Ink Refill C1, Cool Gray No. 1

COPIC Sketch Marker YR02, Light Orange

COPIC Sketch Marker YR07, Cadmium Orange

COPIC Sketch Marker YR21, Cream

COPIC Sketch Marker YR24, Pale Sepia

COPIC Sketch Marker YR31, Light Reddish Yellow

COPIC Sketch Marker YR27, Tuscan Orange

COPIC Sketch Marker Y17, Golden Yellow

Happy Together

Hey everyone!  I'm back with another NSD layout.  I'm entering it into several challenges, but the impetus was a challenge at Big Picture Classes to somehow include a color wheel in your layout.

I'm adapting a technique I used for a card several years ago.  I love it because it is fast and easy, but packs a punch.  Basically, you lay down a scrap piece of cardstock, and spray some mist on your base, kind of over top of the scrap piece so you get a defined line.  Then you move the scrap piece to uncover some 'virgin' territory on your base and spray again, and repeat all the way around.  This allows the colors to do some blending and overlapping while still maintaining definition between colors.

I trimmed the sprayed piece of cardstock down, mounted it to some black cardstock, stitching it down for some extra texture and adhesion since the sprayed pieces was a bit warped.  A little bit of black splatter finished the background off.



Since the background is so bold and kind of the star of the show, I kept everything else pretty simple.  The photo is layered over a couple pieces of patterned paper.  The photo and top piece of paper were adhered together and popped up over the black and white piece in order to create a channel for an Elle's Studio tag that contains the journaling.  I added another tag from Elle's Studio at the bottom for a bit of balance, and the title in Black Thickers.

Bright and fun and fast, my kind of scrapbooking!

(Grand) Mother's Day Dinner

I scrapbooked!  Actually it's not that bad, I've been scrapbooking semi-regularly of late.  I'm trying to finish up our vacation scrapbook from last year.  My goal is to have it done before we leave for vacation this summer.  I should be able to do it.  I'm about halfway through the trip right now.

Anyway, Saturday was National Scrapbook Day.  I love NSD because although I don't normally get to do a ton of scrapbooking on the actual day due to running kids all over the place, there are always lots of challenges and inspiration (and giveaways) to enter.  The good news is that several of the challenges give you a week or so to enter which is often a great jump-start for my scrapping.

This year I won't be able to get as many challenges done because I'm forcing myself to work in a vacation layout between challenge layouts, but here is my first challenge layout.

For this layout I pulled out a bunch of my Neat & Tangled dies.  The background was created using the largest of the dies from the Triangle Pattern Builder set.  I cut the triangles from white cardstock as well as a seriously old Teresa Collins print.  The patterned paper has a bit of texture to it which adds some extra dimension.  The triangles were arranged in a quilt pattern with some of the triangle pieces missing/blank.



Once the background was complete, I added the photos/mats.  The title was created using my Journaling Alpha and Number dies and adhesive foam.  I popped the title piece up so I could slip the tag (Classic Tag 1 from Neat & Tangled) which was cut from another piece of that Teresa Collins (Tell Your Story) collection behind it.

I'm linking this up with challenges at Studio Calico, Big Picture Classes and Scrapbook.com.  Hoping to get a few more done before the challenges all close. Thanks for stopping by!

Ready for Summer

I'm still working my way through my photo backlog.  Until we got back from vacation, I hadn't printed photos in over a year because there are so many sitting around waiting to be scrapped (so I gotta keep moving with these so that I can get to the vacation photos with a clean conscience).  

Anyway, whereas Ellie just finished third grade, these photos are from her first grade end of year party.

I pulled out an old Studio Calico kit, aside from the white cardstock, all the papers are from that kit.




My all time favorite Thickers of which I only have this difficult to use green version happily worked perfectly with the colors in the layout.  And if you're keeping track, I'm now out of Rs and Ss, but still have a few vowels, so they live to grace another layout!

Thanks for stopping by, have a great day!

Birthday Catch Up

We're in the birthday party negotiation/planning stage for this year.  The girls birthdays are in August and September, so we have some time, but I generally like to get the girls locked into a theme around now so I have time to plan at a more leisurely pace.

Ellie wants to do something at home that involves mini ice cream sundaes (who wants a mini sundae?  I'm all about maxi sundaes) and Carina stated that she wanted a pig party???!!!

Anyway, I've been trying to get my act together scrapbooking birthdays and finally finished up their Frozen party (from two years ago) over the weekend.

I actually made a lot of layouts for this event, partly because my older sister was in town for the party which meant I got a lot of photos, but it was a big party, the first one at our house and likely the last joint birthday party we'll have.

If you want to read about the party, that post is here, and I did one layout over a year ago here.

I saved one of the signs I made for the party and documented some of the decorations/set up in this one, really simple, just a sheet of patterned paper and some journaling:



A few layouts of the party activities:

 The cake:

And one layout just to kind of tie it together/wrap it up.  I created my own Thickers using my Journaling Alphas dies for Neat & Tangled.

As you can see I tried to keep the layouts pretty simple, nothing too crazy/complicated.  Since there are so many layouts for this even, I needed to balance getting it done with slaving over a layout.  This is also all stuff in the stash.  I mixed 12x12 papers with 6x6 pads (Antler Toss and Birthday Girls layouts) and even used Journaling cards as mats for the Cleaning Up Snow layout.

It feels great to cross off a big event from my list of things to scrapbook, and definitely feels like I'm getting into the groove!  Hoping to get lots more done this summer!

Neat & Tangled meets We R Memory Keepers

All this week we're featuring projects using We R Memory Keepers DIY Party supplies on the Neat & Tangled blog.

I received one of the new Alphabet Boards as well as some of the paper packs that are specifically sized for the Alphabet Boards.  I have a couple of the WRMK boards, and I have to say this is my favorite one.  It's going to get a ton of work at our house, perfect for party banners and school projects.



For the collaboration I wanted to create a layout.  I made the title the star of the show spelling out rainbow with the Alphabet Board.  I used a black marker to define the edges of the letters.  It's hard to tell, but I think it does give it a crisper look.

The photos are placed so that you can see Ellie in the spaces in and between the letters.

For the top row of letters, I didn't adhere them fully.  I added some flaps of white paper so that they flip up, the journaling was then written underneath, and this allows you to see the top two pictures in total.
The first part of the sentiment was created using adhesive foam and my Journaling Alpha dies.

I also created a card, here's a little sneak peek.  Stop by the Neat & Tangled blog to get all the details!



Thanks for visiting!

*Affiliate Links Below

Neat & Tangled Dies, Journaling Alphas

Neat & Tangled Clear Stamps, Itty Bitty Welcoming Committee

Neat & Tangled Die, Itty Bitty Welcoming Committee

Memento Ink Pad, Tuxedo Black

My Sweet Petunia MISTI Stamping Tool

COPIC Sketch Marker, 0 Colorless Blender

COPIC Sketch Marker C1, Cool Gray No. 1

COPIC Sketch Marker C3, Cool Gray No. 3

COPIC Sketch Marker C5, Cool Gray No. 5

COPIC Sketch Marker R00, Pinkish White

COPIC Sketch Marker W1, Warm Gray No. 1

COPIC Sketch Marker W3, Warm Gray No. 3

COPIC Sketch Marker W5, Warm Gray No. 5

COPIC Sketch Marker B00, Frost Blue

COPIC Sketch Marker B12, Ice Blue

COPIC Sketch Marker B14, Light Blue

COPIC Sketch Marker G43, Pistachio

COPIC Sketch Marker G40, Dim Green

Scotch Double-Sided Foam Mounting Tape