... just Laura

So Fast - A Creating Keepsakes Layout

I'll be honest. National Scrapbook Day came and went, and I didn't do a single thing related to scrapping. In fact, I havn't scrapped a thing in almost two weeks. I wanted to throw something new up on the blog, so I figured I would share my other layout from the Simple Scrapbooks special issue from Creating Keepsakes.

As seen in the Simple Scrapbooks Special Issue, from Creating Keepsakes magazine. Copyright Creative Crafts Group. Posted with prior permission from the publisher.

There are a few articles in this special issue called "Keeping Scrapbooking Simple", and they are broken down to how many supplies you used. I created this layout for the "7-9 Supplies" article, and was asked to use just 7 products total for my page. The catch was that each patterned paper counted as 1 product. I love my patterned paper, so right away, I knew that at least 3 of my products would be patterned paper.

I started out with the die cut paper from Studio Calico. I just loved the cut out circles, and thought it would add lots of interest to what would end up being a "simpler" layout. I layered it over a neutral graph paper, so it wasn't solid white peeking out of those circles. Then for my third patterned paper, I choose a bright blue paper from Pebbles, to pick up the blue in Sarah's shirt. My fourth product was the green ribbon, used to seperate the patterned papers on the page.

My fifth product was the corrugated alphas I choose for my title. I choose red alphas, because I knew I would be using the dimensional butterflies, and a few of them were red. The butterflies were my sixth product. They are layered, with 3 different colors/patterns/papers, and come with the rhinestone brads already in the centers. I wanted to add a few matching rhinestone brads to my ribbon, to mimic the butterflies. So those three brads in the ribbon were my seventh product.

If you see this layout in the Simple Scrapbooks special issue, it will look a bit different. You won't see the computer printed journaling, and instead will see hand written journaling strips. Turns out, my computer font was a "product", and I had to switch it out. Bummer, I know. LOL. I know our handwriting is important to see in our albums, but I also feel like my own handwriting ruins the clean and linear look of my layouts. This is still the version that I love, so it's the version I'm sharing :)

Supplies Used:

CK Club: NSD Countdown Kitchen Challenge

This week, on both the Creating Keepsakes Blog and the CK Club Blog, we are celebrating the week leading up to National Scrapbook Day with the theme "scrapbooking around the house". Each day this week, we are focusing on one room of the house. There are activities, tips, challenges, and prizes, on both blogs. Today, we are visiting the Kitchen, and I volunteered to do the Recipe Challenge over on the CK Club blog.

If you've never done a recipe challenge before, you're in for a special scrapbooking treat! Sometimes it's really easy to get stuck when you have a scraproom full of beautiful papers and accents. Forcing yourself to use a few specific items on your scrapbook page is a great way to switch your creative gears! Today, we are giving our challenge a little bit of a kitchen twist! Think of your supplies as ingredients. Pull out a little bit of this, and a little bit of that, just like the recipe calls for. Then follow that recipe, as you assemble and mix your ingredients together, to create a perfect layout!

The Five Ingredients:
1. 3 patterned papers - measure out 1/3 of each paper, to use on layout
2. 1 all purpose title - letter stickers or die cut title
3. 1 perfect photo
4. 1 baker's dozen journaling strips/blocks/tags
5. 3 sprinkles of embellishments - button and/or brads

The Recipe:
Step 1: Start with 3 patterned papers. Measure out 1/3 of each paper, to use on your layout.
Step 2: Add 1 all purpose title, using letter stickers or a die cut title.
Step 3: Find 1 perfect photo, and combine with the layout.
Step 4: Computer print or hand journal 1 baker's dozen journaling strips/blocks/tags.
Step 5: Sprinkle on 3 clusters of embellishments, such as buttons and/or brads.

All you need to do for this challenge is to create a scrapbook layout using the five ingredients, and keeping to the basic recipe. Upload a picture of your layout to the Club CK idea galleries and you could win some scrapping goodies! For all of the details and cut off dates, go HERE.

Supplies Used:

CK's Simple Scrapbooks Special Issue + Giveaway

Creating Keepsakes has a new special issue that just came out, called Simple Scrapbooks.

I'm sure a lot of you remember Simple Scrapbooks magazine, which came to an end a few years back. This special issue is filled with tons of ideas for simplifying our scrapbooking process.

As seen in the Simple Scrapbooks Special Issue, from Creating Keepsakes magazine. Copyright Creative Crafts Group. Posted with prior permission from the publisher.

My layout was created for an article about scraplifting. I was given a layout from a previous issue to lift, and I choose the flowers as my main focus of the scrap lift. I'm sure this would make more sense, if you had the issue and could read the article. LOL. Trust me, I lifted the flowers. The original layout also had lots of layered pattern papers along one side. I got the same look, by using a large piece of a pattern paper that was all borders. One piece of paper, versus combining lots of strips of paper. Same look, less time.

The pre-made flower embellishments, from Basic Grey, made this layout super quick and easy to create. The flowers are all 3-D, and have lots of dimension and layers, and even tiny rhinestones on them. I just took them out of the package and stuck them down. Easy peasy.

I just randomly came across these number die cuts, from Pink Paislee, while digging for the flowers. It was a very random decision to use these, and I choose a totally random number to use.

I used those number die cuts, to come up with my title. "Reason No. 714 Why I Love You". And then I came up with my journaling, based off of the title.

Supplies Used:

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You can check out some additional online extras (free printables, downloads, sketches, etc) RIGHT HERE. We also have a sneek peek for you, at the inside of this issue:

We're giving you even more chances to win a copy of this new special issue. Below, you will find three names of fellow participants, who are also each doing giveaways. Head over to each of the following blogs, check out what inspiration they're sharing, and then leave a comment to be entered in their drawings. You might even find new names on some blogs, for even more chances to win.

Joey Manwarren

Kim Watson

Piradee Talvanna

And for a chance to win a free copy, here on my blog, simply leave me a comment on this post. I will randomly choose a winner on Friday. Good luck! 

creating keepsakes may/june 2012 *GIVEAWAY*

have you gotten your hands on the new creating keepsakes may/june 2012 issue yet?

it's got a gorgeous layout by stacy cohen on the cover. you can also find some additional online extras HERE, such as contests, downloads (you must download the sketches!), and additional techniques that are found in this issue.

As seen in the May/June 2012 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. Copyright Creative Crafts Group. Posted with prior permission from the publisher.

speaking of wedding layouts and sketches, i have a wedding layout in this issue. and it was created for the sketch column, which you can find on page 27. i scrapped some gorgeous wedding photos of my cousin rachael and her new husband ryan, taken by heidi-o-photo.

all of the papers i used, including the lace paper, are from basic grey. i loved the rich colors of the burgundy and green's that they used in their wedding decor. so pretty together. then i added in some silver and pearls, to help give the layout an elegant look.

i wanted another silver flower on the second page, to match the netted one on the first page. so i took some satiny trim, by pink paislee, and created my own little flower. just a little trick i picked up teaching some flowers classes at CKC 2 years ago ;)

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we're giving you even more chances to win a copy of the may/june issue with a little blog hop today! below, you will find three names of fellow blog hop participants, who are also each doing giveaways. head over to each of the following blogs, check out what inspiration they're sharing, and then leave a comment to be entered in their drawings. on each of our blogs, you will find new names to visit as well. and those blogs will lead you to even more blogs. have fun with it!

Joey Manwarren

Piradee Talvanna

Adele Beck

and for a chance to win a copy of this new issue here on my blog, just leave me a comment. i will randomly draw a winner and announce it on friday. good luck!

Creating Keepsakes March/April 2012 *GIVEAWAY*

Have you seen the new Creating Keepsakes March/April 2012 issue yet?

You can also find some additional online extras HERE, such as contests, downloads (you must download the sketches!), and additional techniques that are found in this issue.

We're giving you even more chances to win a copy of the March/April issue now. I want to share 5 more blogs that you can visit, who are also each doing giveaways. Head over to each of the following blogs, browse around a bit, and then leave a comment to be entered in their drawings.

Paper Crafts Magazine 

Erika Hayes

Piradee Talvanna

Joey Manwarren

Stacy Cohen

And for a chance to win a copy of this new issue here on my blog, just leave me a comment. I will randomly draw a winner and announce it on Friday. Good luck!

fun & games - a creating keepsakes layout

i have a layout share today from scrapbooking ides for every season, a special issue from creating keepsakes.

As seen in the Scrapbooking Ideas For Every Season special issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. Copyright Creative Crafts Group. Posted with prior permission from the publisher.

for this assignment, i was asked to create a layout with a gameboard inspired background. and it was supposed to be winter themed. this threw me a bit. after all, we don't have "winter" here where we live in california. so we certainly don't have many winter themed moments. then there was the "gameboard inspired background". what could i do with that?

after much thinking, i came up the perfect board game to use as inspiration for my layout. scene it! it's one of our favorite games to play, here in this house. we have a wide variety of scene it games. a few disney channel versions, disney movie version, nickelodeon channel version, twilight versions, etc.

i started by taking out one of the game boards, to use as a template for my layout. i knew i was doing a two page spread. and it turned out, that the game board was the PERFECT fit! i set two sheets of blue cardstock side by side, lined up the board on top, and then traced the board onto my cardstock. i cut those out, and then adhered them to my pages.

i used a white grid pattern paper for the base of my pages. i wanted a clean background, to let everything else stand out. the grid just adds a bit more interest, than plan white cardstock. i also added a few strips of black/white pattern paper, and a embossed red cardstock, along the tops and bottoms of my pages.

then i got to work finding photos to add to my "gameboard". since the girls (and admittedly, both joe and i as well) are huge disney channel and nickelodeon channels fans, i set out to find our favorite shows and stars. google images was my friend for this. i typed in what i was looking for, and then searched for the best photo i could find, in a size that would copy well for printing. for our favorite tv shows, i looked for great cast photos whenever i could.

i then pulled up each photo in photoshop, and resized them all to 1 inch x 1 inch. when i placed each photo onto my full sheet to print, i copied each one several times. i think i printed each photo 4-5 times, just to be sure i would have enough photos to go around the gameboard. after they printed out, i used a 1 inch square punch to punch out each photo.

i then set out to arrange the photos around the board. i spent forever on this part, trying to get them all lined up perfectly. i adhered each and every piece, using pop dots, for extra dimension. my "fun & games" title was cut with my silhouette, from black cardstock. i simply centered it across the two pages, and cut it where the pages meet, before adhering it.

i also cut some circles from a few different shades of blue cardstock, using a circle cutter. those mimic the circles on the actual scene it gameboard. the arrows were cut from the same red embossed cardstock that i used across the top and bottom of the pages. i simply dug up an old chipboard arrow, and traced it on the backside of the red cardstock, and then cut them out.

two things i have to point out about this layout, just because i thought they were kind of funny. this was supposed to be a "winter themed" layout. i was told that playing boardgames could be a winter activity that we do, which still makes this a winter themed layout. except that, after i had send this in, it dawned on me that the girls are wearing tank tops/tshirts in their photos. kind of a giveaway that i took these photos during the summer.

and when i sent this layout in, i was asked if i would be able to provide photo releases for all of the people in my photos. i had to laugh when i emailed back and said that they were all actors and actresses, and that i found all of their photos on google. i did NOT laugh when i was asked to provide links to all of the places where i had found these photos, which led me to google search them all over again. lol! i think it's also a great way to tell who has kids and can name all of these stars and shows, and who does not have kids (or your kids aren't quite old enough yet for some of these) and has no clue who the people in these photos are :)

scrapbook ideas for every season *GIVEAWAY*

creating keepsakes has a new special issue that came out today. this one is called scrapbooking ideas for every season.

Showcasing hundreds of scrapbooking ideas to inspire you throughout the seasons, this new special issue from Creating Keepsakes is a must-have resource for your year-round scrapbooking. With plenty of 2-page layout ideas to help you scrapbook more photos in less time, color combinations and patterns to refresh your creativity, season-specifictips for better photo taking, and more, you'll reach for Scrapbooking Ideas for Every Season again and again.

 

i have a free copy of this special issue to give away to one lucky blog reader. to be entered in the random drawing, just leave me a comment and tell me the season you love to scrap the most. for me, it would have to be spring. or summer. where i live, spring and summer just sort of merge into one long season.

i'll leave the comments open until thursday evening, and will announce a winner on friday!

yearly intro pages - a creating keepsakes layout

happy new year's, everyone! i was such a bad blogger last week. and then i had every intention of blogging before the year ended. i sat here on new year's eve, with a blank post pulled up, just waiting for me to write something. i was at a loss for words. i didn't have any photos or layouts to share. nothing. plus, i was sick all of new year's, with a terrible head cold. so i just decided to let it go, and come back in the new year. to hopefully do better at blogging, taking more photos, and scrapping more layouts. 

As seen in the January/February 2012 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. Copyright Creative Crafts Group. Posted with prior permission from the publisher.

i created this layout for an article about using calendar products on our scrapbook layouts. when these diecut calendar papers came out, from ki memories, i stocked up a bunch of them. but i hadn't gotten around to using any of them. so i knew right away that i would use a few of these for my assignment. i took on the task of creating title pages/divider pages for our albums.

i organize our albums chronologically. the girls each have albums, with any pages about just them. and then i have family albums, which hold all the layouts that feature both the girls, or our family as a whole. i have large envelope protectors inbetween each year, so that i can keep them easily seperated. and so that i can slip in any memorabilia from the year, until i figure out what to do with it. but i like the idea of creating an intro page for each year. i have done something a little similiar in the past (see HERE), but this is a simpler version of the idea.

i choose this month border shape, and cut it out with my silhouette. since this is an into page to the entire year's worth of layouts, i liked the idea of having the months go all the way down the side of the layout. i added a wide ribbon next to the border, and embellished with a few buttons. i searched through my photos for the year, and choose a favorite photo of each of us. four simple photos.

when it came time to add the year, i knew i wanted to use something cut with my silhouette. i couldn't find the year i wanted, so i emailed the fabulous kerri bradford, who so kindly whipped up this "twenty eight" for me. she also created the "two thousand nine" that is seen on the following page. i cut these shapes twice, from two different colors of cardstock, and offset them just a bit when adhering them to the page. then i typed up some of the high-lights from the year, and added the journaling strips to the intro page.

i had created two layouts, to show another take on the same general idea. but they only ended up using one of the layouts in the magazine.

i'm really hoping to get some new layouts to share soon. but it's also CHA time, so i'll be creating up a storm for that, and won't be able to share my projects until the end of the month. i am swamped with work for bella blvd right now, and getting the design team all set up with assignments for booth projects, using the adorable new products that will be debuting at winter CHA. i think you're all going to love them!

halloween pretties - a creating keepsakes layout

i figured i would share my other layout from the scrapbooking with fabric & notions special issue, from creating keepsakes. this is technically my last layout share from the 2011 CK issues.

as seen in the Scrapbooking with Fabric & Notions Special Issue, from Creating Keepsakes magazine. copyright creative crafts group. posted with prior permission from the publisher.

i was asked to use satin material on a layout. when i think of "satin", i think of something dressy or fancy looking. i was picturing cream or white satin fabric, and i'm so NOT a fan of cream. i headed to joann's, in search of satin, and was pleasantly surprised to find lots of gorgeous, bright colors to choose from. i had NO clue what photos i wanted to use for my layout, so i just choose some colors that stood out to me. i went with the aqua, green, and brown. so pretty!

later, i remembered the girl's halloween photos from 2 years ago. both their costumes had a lot of aqua in them, and sarah's had a touch of brown. i figured the green could pick up the little bit of greenery in the background of the photos. when it comes to scrapping halloween photos, i'm not really about using your typical halloween colors. so i knew this would make a fun, colorful layout.

i searched for quite a while to find some pattern paper for this layout. i didn't want anything too overpowering, and this trees paper from studio calico just kept calling me. no matter how many other papers i tried out, i kept coming back to it. so i just went with it. for my title, i used some chunky brown glittered chipboard letters from making memories, along with my favorite loopy alpha stickers from doodlebug.

edited to add: i just noticed i have white loopy alpha stickers on my two page spread photo, and brown loopy alpha stickers on the other photos. i guess that gives away the one change i had to make to this layout, before it was sent to the magazine. lol! the white looked good in person, but the brown definately stands out more in photos and in print. i really should have re-photographed the entire spread.

when it came time to use the satin, i knew i would keep it fairly simple. i have done some work with fabric before, but have never really used satin material before. it wasn't the easiest thing to work with. i did my best to cut fairly straight strips of each color, and then did zig zag stitches across the edges. i embraced the imperfection, and tried to make it fun looking.  

i also found that the satin fabric was tricky to adhere. i used glue dots on the bottom piece (the green). but since the brown was overlapping the green, it wasn't really adhereing. so i started the brown pieces again, and stitched them to some scrap strips of cardstock. it was much easier to adhere that way.

i also machine stitched around my journaling tags, and tied some small strips of the satin fabric to the tops.

i had the shiny satin fabric and the glittered chipboard letters. to add just one more little "bling" to my layout, i sprinkled on some of these colored sequins. i happen to have some in aqua and green, so i used mini glue dots to adhere them. 

birthday pool party - a creating keepsakes layout

i just wanted to say "thanks" for everyone's comments on my last post. it's nice to know that i'm not the only one that occasionally just has to shut down, and ignore the world for a few days. well, not really the world. just the things that i didn't want to think or worry about anymore ;)

as seen in the Scrapbooking Holiday's and Celebrations Special Issue, from Creating Keepsakes magazine. copyright creative crafts group. posted with prior permission from the publisher.

when i was asked to create a summer birthday layout, i was all over it. my birthday is in june, sarah's is in june, joe's is in july, and alyssa's is in september (which is still summer around here). and the majority of my family and joe's family all have summer birthday's as well. most of our parties end up being pool parties. so i dug around and found a birthday/party that i hadn't scrapped yet.  

what i came up with was sarah's 8th birthday. i knew i wanted a lot of photos on my layout. i always end up with tons of photos, and i do my best to get at least one photo of each guest. i don't think everyone ended up on this layout, but all of her closest friends did. i always try and include a few photos of the birthday girl opening gifts, and at least one photo with the cake. i printed 9 of my photos at 3x4's, and 3 of them at 3x3's.

for my title, i used a favorite mix of alphas. chipboard alphas, which in this case, i used bella blvd. and my favorite alpha stickers by doodlebug.

i'm not even going to admit how long i spend arranging these three stickers. i tried so many different configurations, as if it was a major life decision. lol!

i choose pattern papers from the beach babe collection from fancy pants for my layout. the colors worked perfectly with all the girl's swimsuits. and i thought the fishies were so cute, because we have always said that sarah is truely a fish in disquise. that girl can swim the entire day, and never get tired. i thought the little "bikini brigade" border strip was really fun too.

i printed my journaling on the backside of one of the pattern papers, that had a distressed solid yellow on it. it was easier then trying to find yellow cardstock that matched perfectly.

to add a little "birthday" feel to the "summer" feel of the papers, i added some fun birthday stickers from making memories and carolee's creations.

now that i finished sharing a summer layout, i really need to get on the christmas wagon here. lol! my pre-lit tree only has about half the lights working. and we don't have the patience once again to try and figure it out. so i'm stringing a few strands of lights on it, to fill in the gaps. which reminds me why i have a pre-lit tree to begin with. because i detest stringing lights ;) i need to get one more strand, and then maybe i can decorate it. it's been set up for 5 full days, and still doesn't have ornaments on it. hopefully, i can work that in this weekend. in between 3 soccer games, and a christmas parade.

CK Club - Pinterest Challenge

Today, I have the opportunity to host the November Pinterest Challenge over on the CK Club website. I really do hope you guys join in on the fun and would love to see how the various images had inspired you.

I choose four images for this challenge. I intended to just use this first image (source), for the inspiration for my layout. I loved the taller, narrower prints. And the black and white prints, since I don't scrap black and white photos much anymore. 

Somewhere along the line, I decided to use this second image (source) as part of my inspiration as well. I didn't incorporate all the colors, but I think my layout has a lot of the same colors mixed in.

I printed up these old photos of Alyssa, and made them 3.5 x 7.5 inches. It was a bit of a challenge to find images that could be cropped in this taller, narrower size. Especially, since I tend to crop in so much when actually taking my photos. But I found these three photos that worked.

Since I printed my photos in black and white, I was able to choose any colors and papers that I wanted to use. I decided to go with the Summer's End collection from Fancy Pants. I like that it picked up a lot of the colors from the second Pinterest image that I had chosen.

I cut a bunch of strips of the pattern papers, ranging from 1 inch wide to 2 inches wide. I cut them in varying lengths, and trimmed the ends to mimic flags. I distressed the edges, and then adhered them across the page, overlapping them just slightly. I adhered a strip of ribbon, to cover up where the photos and the pattern paper strips meet.

For my simple title, I used some text printed chipboard alphas from Bella Blvd. While I do usually journal on the majority of my layouts, every now and then, a layout doesn't really need any extra words on it. I felt that "spunky" summed up these photos nicely. I threaded some buttons and glue dotted them to the ends of the ribbon to finish off the page.

To see the rest of the images from Pinterest that are included in the Challenge, and get all the details on how you can join in the challenge, click HERE. You have until November 24th to play along with us.

the news is out

i was excited to see this up on the creating keepsakes blog today:

i have loved being a part of this team of talented designers, and am super happy that i was asked back for another year on the CK dream team! we've already been hard at work on the first part of 2012 stuff, and i can't wait to see what the rest of the year has in store for us! you can see the announcement HERE.

p.s. you might notice the blog looks a little different. not saying it'll stay like this. just feeling like i need to freshen it up with a new look. it's a work in progress. way too many choices, and it takes me forever to make decisions on things like colors and fonts ;)

photos on the farm - a creating keepsakes layout

i have two layouts to share with you, and i was going back and forth between which to share first. i decided to share the one that is featured in the new scrapbooking with fabric & notions special issue, by creating keepsakes, first. then tomorrow, i will share the second layout, and you'll see why they sort of belong together.

as seen in the Scrapbooking with Fabrics & Notions Special Issue, from Creating Keepsakes magazine. copyright creative crafts group. posted with prior permission from the publisher.

i was asked to do a layout that featured stamping on canvas. i came across a full 12x12 sheet of canvas, and i knew i would use that somehow for my title. the canvas reminded me of these photos of the girls, along with my friend deneen's girls, that we took about a year and a half ago. deneen had a co-worker that lives on a small farm here in town, and she let us come and take photos of our girls on her property. i had yet to scrap any of these photos, and figured this was the perfect opportunity.

i had fun pulling the colors for this layout from my photos. i pulled the pink from sarah's shirt, and the aqua from alyssa's shirt. i pulled the green from the tractor and added in the yellow just for fun. the green paper is actually from the mistables - resist collection from pink paislee. there are shiny parts of the papers, that act as a sort of "resist", so that the papers are perfect for misting and inking. for these strips of paper, i rubbed some green distressed ink all over them. the rest of my papers are all from my mind's eye. i love mixing up colors and patterns into fun combinations.

i decided to cut my canvas into flag banner shapes, which are so popular these days. i dug out some super old foam stamps, from making memories, and stamped my title onto the canvas pieces using brown acrylic paint. with the chunkier font, the paint worked perfectly. once they were dry, i did a little machine stitching around the edges of each flag.

for the scalloped border strips, i used one of my favorite stamps from hero arts. it's a shorter stamp, at about 6 inches wide. so i just stamped it four times, and then pieced two strips together on each page of the spread. with the photos and embellishments overlapping the stamped border, you really can't see that they're two seperate pieces. i stamped the border onto white textured cardstock using versarmark ink, and then heat embossed with a brown distressed embossing powder. this gave lots of texture to the strips.

i layered together a few flowers and bottons for my embellishments. the large paper flowers are older ones from making memories, and the canvas printed flowers are from jillibean soup. i had the aqua paper flower, and used that on the second page to pick up the aqua pattern paper on the first page. however, i didn't have a yellow flower for the first page, to pick up the yellow pattern  paper from the second page. so i took a white paper flower, and misted it to match.

check back tomorrow, to see the second layout ;)

CK's scrapbooking holidays & celebrations: GIVEAWAY

not only did the scrapbooking with fabric & notions special issue come out this past week. but we have another special issue, by creating keepsakes, that hit stands. this next one is called scrapbooking holidays & celebrations.

Whether your holidays and celebrations are casual get-together or formal events, this special issue from Creating Keepsakes magazine is sure to be a trusted source of scrapbooking inspiration! The gallery of 50 outstanding ideas is a quick source of scrapliftable layouts, and you'll also discover ways to make your relationships shine on your scrapbook pages, photo-taking tips to catch meaningful moments and details of your celebrations, and journaling ideas to capture the points of view of your loved ones. Learn ways to create easy holiday accents and even ideas for storing your holiday-themed supplies. Pick up this issue today for non-stop scrapbooking inspiration for all your celebrations during the upcoming year!

here's a peek at one of my layouts in this issue. actually, it's my only layout in there. lol! when i was asked to do a summer birthday party layout, i was all over it. with the girl's having june and september birthday's, the majority of our birthday parties have been pool parties. i'll share more about this layout soon.

i have a free copy of this special issue to give away to one of my lucky blog readers. just leave me a comment, and i will randomly draw a winner on friday morning.

CK's scrapbooking with fabric & notions - GIVEAWAY

creating keepsakes has a new special issue out, scrapbooking with fabric & notions, and it's starting to hit stores this week.

Discover how to enhance your scrapbook layouts using buttons, fabric, thread, and other materials from the sewing world. From using quick, pre-made accent options to creating beautifully sewn backgrounds, we'll help you learn the ins and outs of adding homespun textures to your layouts with patterns, step-by-step instructions, and more. You won't want to miss this "sew" special issue from Creating Keepsakes.

here's a sneek peek at one of my layouts in this special issue, where i incorporated silk fabric into my page design. my other layout involved canvas. it was interesting to go from working with such a delicate fabric, to a heavy duty piece of canvas. i'll share more about both of these layouts one of these days.

i have a free copy of this special issue to give away to one of my lucky blog readers. just leave me a comment, and i will randomly draw a winner on friday morning.

she is always ready - a creating keepsakes layout

i'm making this short and sweet today. it's been a long, draining week, and i don't have it in me for a big post about anything. but i wanted to at least stick something cute up here.

as seen in the Budget Friendly Scrapbooking Special Issue, from Creating Keepsakes magazine. copyright creative crafts group. posted with prior permission from the publisher.

i can make this short and sweet, because there's not much to tell about this layout. it's 8.5x11, which isn't a normal size for me. i can count on one hand the number of times i've created in that size. i had a very strict sketch to follow for this. down to the paper sizes and everything. which made creating this layout pretty straight forward.

i wanted to use the happy go lucky collection, from pebbles. at the time, this was a brand new collection, and i just loved the colors and patterns in it. mixed with some favorites photos of alyssa from years and years ago. which oddly, i'm not sure i have ever scrapped before. 

hoping this weekend turns out better then this week has gone. i'm trying out a new girl for a haircut today. it's one of alyssa's soccer coaches. cross your fingers and toes for me. here's a funny thing. i was out doing one of my taxi-mom routes the other day, and i checked to see where this salon was located. turns out, it's in this building where they used to have oral surgery. odd, right? i know this, because i have been in that building twice in the last 5 years or so, to be put to sleep and have teeth pulled out. so i don't exactly have fond memories of the place. lol! let's hope this trip there is better.

then we have 5 soccer games this weekend. it's end of season tournament time for sarah. so 4 games for her, and 1 last game for alyssa. then alyssa has tournament time next weekend, with 4 games. busy, busy. and joe just got transfered to a new store. so new, it's not even open yet. we're not happy about it at all. it's a longer commute than he was already doing, and more money in the gas tank, which was already obscenely high. and in preparation for the store opening, he has to work a late day shift until they open. which is hugely different than the night crew hours he's worked for 8 years. it's weird that he's not here all day and all evening. and the girls haven't seen him since monday night. weird change, that we didn't ask for. but we're dealing with it.

ok, that wasn't short and sweet. lol! hope you all have a great weekend. i'll be back next week with some christmasey shares. and i'm pretty sure i have a giveaway going up on monday ;)

the deals that make a home - a CK layout

it's been a while, since i have shared a layout from one of the recent issues of creating keepsakes. i have a few piled up, that are all ready for sharing. and a few that should be coming out any day now, and then will be ready for sharing. 

as seen in the October 2011 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. copyright creative crafts group. posted with prior permission from the publisher.

for this layout, i was asked to "try a new angle" for my story. i was given the example of, instead of scrapping all about a cruise you took, to scrap about the food you ate on that cruise. i really thought and thought about what i was going to do for my layout. i'm not actually sure how i came up with the idea for this page. but i decided to scrap about my home. but not my entire home. just the deals that make up my home.

instead of taking photos of our home, and a few of the rooms, i took some photos of decor items around the house. actually, these were all things from downstairs, in the family room and kitchen mostly. i'm not convinced that our home really looks all that put together. i tend to collect things here and there, and then just kind of plop them somewhere, until i eventually find a home for it.

i love looking for deals on things, when i'm out shopping. when i find something that's super cheap, or on some fabulous clearance rack, i feel like i won the lottery. even if i have no clue what i'll do with it, i will usually purchase the item, knowing that at some point, i'll find the perfect spot in the house for it. this means that i usually have little corners, with random decor items all piled up. they might sit there for a few weeks, or even a few months, before i get some cleaning/decorating bug, and move things around.

i love that text paper from october afternoon. seriously love it. and i'm running very low on it, which is so sad. i used a mix of alphas for my title, in different colors, fonts, and textures. the red corrugated alphas from jillibean soup, the brown ledger alpha stickers from making memories, and the aqua tiny letter stickers from bella blvd. the house diecut and tree die cut are from october afternoon as well, and i added the corrugated tree branch piece from jillibean soup, which fit perfectly.

i added some digital frames to my photos, before printing them out. i choose the curled photo frames by mary ann wise. these would probably look better on a digital layout, with a colored paper background. that way you could really see the curled edges of the photos. to cut these out, and still keep the look of the curl, i had to leave a pretty good sized white border around the photos. but still fun to do a little hybrid scrapping.

i used lots of journaling spots from jillibean soup, so that i could write where the item was from, and approximately how much i paid for it. yes, i do remember stuff like how much something cost. the woodgrain paper is also from october afternoon, and the red and aqua papers are from bella blvd.

the main thing that i remember about this layout, is that i only had a few hours to make it. i'm sure i had at least a week's notice, for this assignment. but this was right smack during the time i was traveling to colorado, to film some DVD segments for the magazine. i put in sooooooo much time preparing for the filming, and the huge amount of projects that i had to create for that, that i just didn't have time to get this done before i left.

so by the time my flight landed and i made the drive back home, it was really late. like midnight-late. and i still had to make this layout, and have it turned in by the morning. those 8:00am deadlines always kill me, with the time change, since it means 6:00 or 7:00am for me. lol! so i powered through and stayed up until like 3:00am to create this layout. i think i turned it in, not totally done, and just told them my intentions for what was left.

guess it worked itself out though, since it got sent off, and looked cute in the october issue ;)

creating keepsakes nov/dec cover

have you received your creating keepsakes november/december 2012 issue yet?

i know this isn't the look/colors you'd expect for a december issue. you're probably thinking chrismas, right? well, don't forget it's a november issue as well. and i just love that CK decided to go with a fall color scheme and a thanksgiving/baking themed layout. i have to admit, i'm more partial to fall colors, than i am christmas colors.

and i also love that they asked me to design the cover layout! i was given such a cute photo to work with, and personally, i love how it turned out. this issue is full of ideas and inspiration for thanksgiving, christmas, and winter layouts. you won't want to miss it!

old fashion rivalry - a creating keepsakes layout

today, i'm finally able to share this fun layout that was in the september issue of creating keepsakes. i cut it super close on the deadline to submit this, and apparently only took one photo of it. and i never took more pics, before i mailed it in. then it got held up coming back to me. it finally found it's way home last week, and i was able to get more photos of it.

 

here's the september 2011 sketch. i love working with sketches, and figured i would give it a try. i think i've said this before, but i tend to follow sketches, exactly as they're shown. recently, i have tried to mix it up and alter sketches, just slightly. but this is one i worked on AGES ago (beauty of the magazine world. lol!), and i think you'll see that i used this sketch as-is.

 
as seen in the September 2011 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. copyright creative crafts group. posted with prior permission from the publisher.

since this sketch had lots of 4x6 photos, i knew i had to find something to scrap about, that had lots of pics to choose from. i remembered this photos of joe and alyssa, that i had taken a while back. joe is a die hard LA dodger fan, and alyssa is a huge SF giants fan. actually, i'll let my journaling tell you what the photos are about :)

 

 

the sketch had this fun scalloped border across the bottom of the pages. i decided to use my silhouette to cut these, from some blue tone-on-tone pattern paper. even though i had had my silhouette for about four months, i still hadn't used it. working on this layout, was the first time that i actually took it out of the box and tried it out. i also cut those sketchy stars, from the same blue pattern paper.

 

back on the original sketch, months ago, there weren't any sizes on the photos. so i really did some quess work, trimming a bit here and there, and layering the photos all together. i kept going, until it all fit together nicely, and looked like the sketch.

 

i love these skinny fabric thickers, from american crafts. and on my buttons, i added mini brads to two of the buttons holes. i love doing that, instead of threading them all the time.

 

these two smaller photos of alyssa look so dramatic, don't they? lol! after all these years, she knows how to turn it on to the camera. but her and joe really were watching the game, through the window, while i took photos of them. when the dodgers happen to score, this was her "reaction" for the camera.

speaking of alyssa, today is her birthday! i can't believe that she's turning FIFTEEN YEARS OLD today!

never going to happen: a creating keepsakes layout

i have a layout share today, from the september issue of creating keepsakes.

 
as seen in the September 2011 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. copyright creative crafts group. posted with prior permission from the publisher.

for this assignment, i was asked to use a themed collection, to do a non-themed layout. i'm really big on this idea. that just because a collection is geared towards a particular theme, doesn't mean you can't use it for everyday layouts. i decided to use bella blvd's cute pet collection for my layout. now, we don't have pets. you could say, that pets are the reason we don't have pets. alyssa is allergic to them, so it's not something we'll ever have to consider. 

 

when i first created this layout, i debated putting an "X" over the cute little doggie. like saying "no dogs allowed". i'm glad i didn't keep that, since he's too cute to cover up :) 

 

did i ever mention that i bought stock in these doodlebug loopy letter stickers? love them! not usually on their own. but paired with chipboard letters, they're so fun!

i'm desperately trying to get back on track, after coming home from CKC last weekend. i had such a great time, and i'll have to blog about it later. usually, i can swing a day off, when i get back, to sort of re-adjust myself. that didn't work out this time. which means i worked the 2 days before i left for texas, then spent 5 days traveling, teaching, and working my tush off, and then i worked 3 straight days after that. let's just say i arrived home at 10:30pm, on sunday night. and i had daycare kids here by 7:30am on monday morning. including a 5 month old, and a 20 month old that isn't feeling well. i'm SOOOO looking forward to having tomorrow off from the day job :)

CK keepsake kits: party time kit

i got something fun in the mail a few days ago, and it came with a little something extra to share with one of you! creating keepsakes has a lot of new keepsake kits in their store right now. there are some really fun mini album kits, lots of card kits, and then some layout kits. one of them looks a little something like this:

 

this is the party time kit, which came out just a few weeks ago. back at the beginning of the year, i was asked to put together a birthday kit. from start to finish. i had a few quidelines, as far as how many papers, and what types of embellishments to include. but then i got to just run with it, and see what i came up with. 

 

and this is what i came up with. this is the photo that i took of my "kit", when i sent it in to get approval. i didn't have the buttons on hand that i wanted to use, so that's the one thing that's different in the actual kit. i loved the fun, brightly colored papers. i wanted this to be able to work for girl or boy themed pages.

 

here's a full shot of one of my sample layouts. in the kit, you get the full instructions, to re-create my three sample layouts. all completed with just the contents of the kit, and no special tools or supplies. or take the kit, and run with your own ideas, to create fun party layouts. OR. you could get even crazier and use this kit for something entirely different, and not have a party theme at all.

creating keepsakes was generous enough to send me an extra kit, to give away to one of my lucky blog readers. just leave me a comment, and you'll be entered in the random drawing. i'll leave the comment open until saturday night, and will announce a winner on sunday.

hawaii - a creating keepsakes layout

i have a layout to share today, from CK's scrapbooking tips & tricks: summer fun & travel issue.

 

as seen in the Scrapbooking Tips & Tricks: Summer Fun & Travel issue, from Creating Keepsakes magazine. copyright creative crafts group. posted with prior permission from the publisher.

i was given the assignment to create a summer/travel themed, using the colors red, orange, and yellow. a "fire" color scheme. and i also was to incorporate glitter paper. i admit, i stressed over this assignment quite a bit. lol! i tend to stress when i think i don't have photos that will work with what i need to do. it wasn't until the day before this layout was due, that i realized i had photos of alyssa from her trip to hawaii with her dad and grandparents four years ago.

 

i knew i would be using my glittered cardstock, by american crafts. i choose not to use the orange, only because the shade was all wrong, when matched up with my patterned papers. i also knew that i wanted to make a sunset, with my papers, across the top of the layout. i used some scrap paper, to sketch out the sunset design. i made a mark, where i wanted the center of the rays to hit. and then i drew lines to the edge of the paper, to create my rays. i cut each one out, and traced it onto my cardstock, and then cut those out.  

 

then i re-assembled all the pieces, and adhered them all down to the base of my pages. then i machine stitched along each ray. if this sounds confusing and time consuming, you'd be right to think that. lol! it did seem to take me forever to get that part of the layout done. my pattern papers are from fancy pants and making memories. the fun "summertime" circle accent was hand cut from a sheet of the fancy pants paper, and placed on a sun that i diecut with my slice machine.

 

the majority of my embellishments are all from little yellow bicycle. the canvas border, the canvas stickers, journaling blocks, puffy sticker. the flowers are from making memories, and the buttons are from fancy pants.

 

i just noticed i must have taken this photo before i journaled my layout. lol! i wanted to add some more color to the edge of the second page, so i cut some circles from the red, orange, and yellow papers. it's an easy way to add splashes of color, and also gives you a nice spot to cluster embellishments.

CK budget-friendly scrapbooking + GIVEAWAY

creating keepsakes has a brand new special issue hitting stands this week, called budget-friendly scrapbooking.

 

"Prepare to make your stickers, papers, die cuts, and more go further than you ever imagined possible. With the tips and tricks in this special issue from Creating Keepsakes, you'll learn how to create beautiful scrapbook layouts using your scrapbooking leftovers and minimal supplies. Whether you're a new scrapbooker or have been creating for years, we'll show you how to stretch your scrapbooking budget to its fullest."

 

here's a sneak peek at one of my layouts featured in this special issue. the idea was to use a themed collection, to create a non-themed layout.

 

and here's another insider look into the issue, which you can purchase HERE.

i have a free copy to give away to one of my lucky blog readers! just leave me a comment, to be entered in the random drawing. i will leave comments open until thursday night, and announce a winner on friday.

CK - 100 photos in a night

the creating keepsakes september 2011 issue, has an article called "scrapbooking 100 photos in an evening", written by deena wuest. i remember when they asked us for some brainstorming ideas, on taking on the idea of scrapping 100 photos in one evening. is it do-able? i didn't even have to think about it. YES, it's totally do-able! so when i was asked to contribute to the article, i already had a plan of what i wanted to do, design wise. 

 
as seen in the September 2011 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. copyright creative crafts group. posted with prior permission from the publisher.

now, what would the theme of my pages be? i wanted to do some sort of "year in review" type album. but not the normal month-by-month set-up. i thought it would be fun, to break down the year, into themes. 10 photos on a layout (2 page spread). 10 layouts total. that equals 100 photos. easy.  

my first theme was "favorite school moments". instead of doing individual layouts, for different types of school moments (band, projects, friends, graduation), why not combine some of your favorite moments onto one layout? it's a great way to sum up the entire school year, and touch on all the highlights of the year.

 

my design plan, was to choose 10 photos for each spread. one of those photos would be my focal photo. a favorite photo from the bunch, or one that was special for a particular reason. for my "favorite school moments" layout, i choose this photo of alyssa, from her 8th grade graduation. it was a very big night for her, and a very proud moment for us, as her parents. along with the one larger photo, i would include my journaling, a title block, and the rest of the page would be made up of patterned paper.

 

my plan for the other 9 photos, was to create a digital template in photoshop, and print them all as one 12x12 collage. i went with a simple grid, 3 across and 3 up and down, for my first template.

 

and then i used that template to create the second  page of my spread. i pulled up all 9 of my photos, and dropped them into the collage, cropping each photo to fit the space. once i was done, i uploaded my finished collage to costco, and had it printed as a 12x12 photo. that's all this page is. 9 photos, just like that!

 

i used my silhouette to cut out my title. i LOVE the "moments" title piece, and how it has the thin outlined piece that goes on top of the regular title piece. since my themes, for the 10 layouts, all revolve around moments, i could easily cut "moments" over and over. it's not like using letter stickers, where eventually, you're going to run out of letters. and if you're planning ahead, you could even cut out "moments" ten times at once, to save some time. i also cut out "school" with my silhouette, and added the "2010 favorite" with tiny alpha stickers.

 

i knew i would need a lot of room for my journaling, since i was summing up the entire school year's highlights. once i knew how much space i had for my journaling, i made a text box in my word processing program, and typed up my journaling to fit the space. i printed it out onto some white graph patterned paper, and added it to the page.

 
as seen in the September 2011 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. copyright creative crafts group. posted with prior permission from the publisher.

i also created a summer themed layout. "favorite family fun moments". a little inside secret, is that my title was originally "summer moments". i think someone else had a title similar to that, so i was asked to change it. that's how "family fun moments" came to be. 

 

for this layout, i choose a favorite photo of alyssa and sarah, in the swimming pool. this was at my brother's house, at a family get-together. i went with fun, bright colors for my papers. this time, i printed my photo as a 5x7, and went with a horizontal photo. just like on the first layout, i decided where i wanted my photo and my journaling, and then built the title piece and patterned papers to fill up the page.

 

i created a second photo collage in photoshop, for this layout. i still went with a grid design, but i varied the sizes of the photos, to add some interest.

 

and here's how my other 9 photos for the layout looked in the collage. printed as a single 12x12 photo, which completes the second page of the spread.

 

keeping the design simple, and minimizing the thought that goes into being original on every page, i cut my title once again with my silhouette. i originally had "summer" cut with the silhouette, but when i changed it to "family fun", i choose to just use some letter stickers.

 

i did add a very simple embellishment to this layout. i used a template to create a whimsical sun, from my coordinating pattern papers. and i added three pre-threaded buttons to the center.

 

journaling printed on yellow pattern paper. we didn't do a whole lot during the summer of 2010. so i choose to journal about some of the girls favorite things to do during the summer, which goes along with the photos i choose.

some of the other ideas i had for this type of themed "year in review", were favorite sports moments, favorite work moments, favorite birthday moments, favorite holiday moments, and favorite everyday moments. i actually had my list of 10 themes, that would make up 100 photos, and now i can't remember what else was on my list.

and for your scrapping convenience, the two digital templates that i created are available on the creating keepsakes website, for you to download. you can find them HERE. how easy would that be, to take these 2 templates, and print up 10 collages. with 9 photos on each, you'd have 90 photos printed in a matter of minutes. half the work would be done :)

a few of my fellow CK dream teamers have shared their takes on this article in the past few days. visit nichol harper's blog to see her mini album sized "year in review album". i love the 8x8 size that she choose to use. and visit piradee talvanna's blog to see her super fun CHA photos, that she scrapped using divided page protectors. you might even see me on a few of her photos ;)

what i am doing - a creating keepsakes layout

i wanted to share a layout that i did for july/august issue of creating keepsakes, about 10 months ago (i seriously had to do the math on this. that seems like forever ago). i was asked to create a layout for the "peekaboo, i see you" article, written by mou saha. a few of the layouts, along with mine, ended up in the online section of this article, which can be seen HERE.

 
as seen in an online article for the July/August 2011 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. copyright creative crafts group. posted with prior permission from the publisher.

i was asked to create an accordian style element on my layout, that would allow you to include lots of photos, but not overwhelm the layout. when i got this assignment, zachary was about 10 months old. he had this one week period, where he started to do a lot of things at once. crawling and standing up, being the biggest things. i had taken a ton of photos of him one day, and i thought they'd be perfect for this idea.

 

so this layout is about what he was doing. right then and there. at 10 months old. i used some of my favorite foam letter stickers from american crafts for my title, and then added some smaller letter stickers from making memories to finish off the title. if you see this in the online article, you'll see the green letter stickers outlined with a thin brown marker. they wanted them to stand out more. i used a fun mix of star embellishments (lots of old product) to embellish that upper corner.

 

the papers and stickers are all from pebbles. this was an older boy collection, that i had always loved, and was glad i had the perfect chance to use it. i'm a huge fan of blue, green, orange, and brown for boy layouts.

 

i decided to print out my focal photo as a 4x6, and then print all my other photos in the 2x3 size. i wanted to make my accordian style book to go the entire 12 inch height of the layout. the actual width of the book is 2.5 inches, so it doesn't take up a lot of room.

 

i started with a sheet of 12x12 green pattern paper. and then i scored it (top to bottom) every 2.5 inches. that allowed me to have a nice, clean fold. i would fold it over one way, and then the opposite way on the next fold. like when we used to make paper fans as kids ;)

i did end up wanting an extra fold in there. with the extra half inch on all my folds, the paper wasn't quite wide enough to get as many folds as i wanted. so i just took an extra sheet of paper, and adhered it to the last fold, to extend it out. not sure that makes sense. but i'm not sure how to explain it. lol! i basically just added paper, to make it the size i needed.

 

then i adhered the backside of my last fold, to where i wanted it on my layout. i have a total of 12 photos on this accordian booklet. 3 on the front. and then 3 photos, in each of the 3 folds. i adhered the 3 photos, top to bottom of the paper, adding in a block of 2x3 pattern paper.

 

and then i added some letter stickers, to describe what zachary was doing. playing. standing. crawling. i also added a few stickers. i kept all flat papers and stickers, since the accordian book already adds some bulk to the layout.

 

i forgot to add, that before i adhered my accordian booklet to the layout, i figured out where i wanted my ribbon to go on the book. i used a few glue dots to adhere it to the back of the book, and then adhered the book to the layout. when i had the book all completed, with photos and stickers, i tied the ribbon on the front to keep it closed. i also added a small metal clip up at the top of the book, and dangled a cute little felt star from it with a beaded metal chain.

hard to believe i created this a full 10 months ago. now, this same little boy, is running in circles all over this house. it's hard to picture a time when he just stood next to the table, holding on for dear life ;)

scrapbooking tips & tricks: summer fun & travel issue + GIVEAWAY

creating keepsakes has a new special issue, that just hit the stores this past week. scrapbooking tips & tricks: summer fun and travel issue, is the newest issue in the tips & tricks series.

 

Summer is the perfect time for adventure, fun, and travel. In Scrapbooking Tips & Tricks: Summer Fun & Travel you'll learn the best ways to capture all those memories in your scrapbooks. You'll see ways to take and use scenic photos, learn colorful ways to enhance your summer and vacation layouts, and discover money-saving ideas for using found objects, maps, and travel memorabilia on your layouts. In addition, you'll be inspired by a gallery filled with 94 ideas for scrapbooking your summertime adventures. Make the most of your summer by checking out this issue today!

 

here's a peek at one of my layouts in this issue. i'll share more about it in the next few weeks.

you can also find lots of downloads, tips, and ideas from this issue in the online content for this issue, found HERE.

if you'd like to purchase a copy for yourself, you can use coupon code CKFUN10, which is good for free shipping (in the US) on all orders of $25 or more. coupon expires august 8th, 2011. 

creating keepsakes is letting me give away a copy of this issue, to one of my lucky blog readers. to be entered, just leave me a comment and tell me what summer photos you are looking forward to scrapping and getting in your albums. i will leave the comments open until thursday evening, and will announce a winner on friday!

the making of soccer stars - a creating keepsakes layout

guess what time it is around here? soccer time! we got our first call about fall soccer a few days ago, and should get our second call any day now. it's always exciting for the girls to hear what team they're going to be on, what color jersey they get, who their coach is, and if any of their friends are on their team. and it reminded me that i've been wanting to share this layout. 

 
as seen in the July/August 2011 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. copyright creative crafts group. posted with prior permission from the publisher.

creating keepsakes had a call out, earlier this year, looking for layouts based around the theme of "through the years". i knew right away, what layout i wanted to make for this call. and luckily,  they liked what i created enough to want to publish it in the magazine.

 

there's a little story behind this layout. i had the idea a few years ago, to do a layout showing the girls progressing from year to year, in soccer. in fact, i actually started it. see these two rows of photos on the first page of the layout? the five photos of alyssa and the five photos of sarah? i had put those together years ago. it had to be over 3 years ago, since the photos went until 2007. i had the photos cut out to size, and adhered them to white cardstock to make my photo strips.

and then i never did anything with them. so, when this call came up, i already had a start on this layout. i just pulled out these two strips of photos, and used those as my starting point.

 

of course, the girls had added three more years of soccer to their resume. so i printed out three more photos of alyssa and three more of sarah, and turned it into a two page layout.

we have had a wide range of colors through the years. actually, now that i look at it, i guess it's not that wide a range. a lot of red, blue, grey, and black. with a little green, bright pink, and light pink (the least favorite by far) mixed in. btw, rumor has it that we'll have one girl in red this season, and one in black. again. since there was so much color in the photos, i kept the papers pretty neutral. i used a tan sort of colored, swiss dotted cardstock for my background pages, along with a strip of black & white polka dot patterened paper.

 

these soccer stickers are super old. i really liked how they were arranged on the sheet, all collaged together. but it wasn't quite big enough to stretch 12 inches tall on my page. so i adhered each of the stickers to white cardstock, and then cut them out. that way, they weren't sticky, since i wanted to use pop dots on some of them. i just collaged them together, on a strip of white cardstock, leaving little spaces between each of the stickers. i used pop dots on some of the stickers, to add some extra dimension. then i adhered the entire piece to my layout.

 

these soccer ball buttons are super old too. it's interesting what i hold onto sometimes.

journaling reads: alyssa and sarah started playing soccer 8 years ago. alyssa was 7 years old, and sarah was just 4 years old. it is just crazy, how much a part of our life, soccer has become. between the 2 of them, they have now played on 21 teams total, 4 of those indoor soccer teams. joe and i have drive them to at least 550 practices. we have watched close to 240 games. they both play forward, and have scored dozens and dozens of goals over the years. they have collected 18 trophies, and 4 medals. they have both gained so much experience and knowledge of the game. their skills and abilities have improved more than we could have expected, making them valuable soccer players. we absolutely love watching them play, year after year. it's amazing to think back to when they first started playing the game, and compare it to where they are now. we are so proud of the soccer stars they have grown into!

right after making this layout, i had taken photos of each of the photos on the layout. half of these were before the digital days, so i couldn't just pull up the images. plus, i wanted to be able to see the year that each photo was from. i think i had meant to blog the photos at one point, knowing that it would be months before the layout came out in the magazine. since i have these, i figured i'd toss up their cute faces, through the years :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

since making this layout, we can add 2 more teams to their list. sarah's all-star team from this past season, and alyssa's first year playing for high school. maybe i need to do a layout about joe's years of coaching, and my years of being team mom too ;)

friend for life - a creating keepsakes layout

i have another layout to share today, from the tips & tricks: fabulous flowers issue from creating keepsakes.

 
as seen in the Scrapbooking Tips & Tricks: Fabulous Flowers issue, from Creating Keepsakes magazine. copyright creative crafts group. posted with prior permission from the publisher.

this is another layout, where i went digging through older photos, looking for some to re-scrap. i found these 3 photos, along with an additional one, on a plain blue cardstock layout. and it had a vellum title, saying something about friends. that was it. seriously? so i tore off these three photos, and decided to scrap them. this it the girls, with 2 of my past daycare kids.

but more importantly, riana and amanda are friends of my girls. these photos were taken over 8 years ago, when the girls had both been with me for at least 2 years already. and 8 years later, they're still friends, hang out at school, go to each other's birthday parties, and occasionally share the same class.

 

this layout was part of an article on creating your own unique flowers, by mixing and combining flowers of all different types. to create my flowers, i used a mix of felt flowers, clear plastic flowers, paper flowers, and metal flower grommets. the different textures add lots of dimension to my flowers. and the colors all play off the papers and the photos. i used a few die cut borders for my flower stems.

 

the pink dot paper is from bobunny, and the rest of the pattern papers are all from bella blvd. it's kind of hard to see in that top photo, but i added tiny alpha stickers to a few of the clouds in the yellow pattern paper, for each of the girls names. the red letter stickers are from jenni bowlin. i love the "school" feel to those stickers.

edge of the water - a creating keepsakes layout

a full month ago, i did a post about the new scrapbooking tips & tricks: fabulous flowers issue from creating keepsakes. and i showed a peek at this layout of mine, and said "i'll share more about it next week". let me repeat. a full month ago. lol!  better late than never, right ;)

 
as seen in the Scrapbooking Tips & Tricks: Fabulous Flowers issue, from Creating Keepsakes magazine. copyright creative crafts group. posted with prior permission from the publisher.

i really love how this layout turned out. i created this layout months and months ago. it happened to be around the time when i was using white cardstock backgrounds a LOT. and i was doing very linear designs, with the photos all lined up in rows. i wanted to mix it up a little.

and it all started when i was choosing my pattern papers. i had these two bella blvd papers picked out, and side by side, to visualize my spread. instead of using just pieces of the papers, and adding cardstock or more pattern paper, i decided i liked the look of these together.

 

the photos are from a trip to my uncle's cabin, back in 2005. i grew up, going to the cabin with my family every summer. we've managed to get there a few years with the girls. this family shot of us, is a favorite of mine, from our trips. i have had it printed as a 5x7 for years. glad i finally got around to scrapping it.

 

this is a fun technique that i have used before. i used a circle cutter, to cut a few circles from my sheet of pattern paper. i knew where i wanted my photo and title to go. so i just eyeballed where the circles would look the best, and cut them out. i then adhered the entire sheet of pattern paper to a full sheet of white cardstock, using lots and lots and lots of pop dots.

this creates a "window" of sorts. and you can then fill up this window, with whatever kind of embellishments you want. since this was the "fabulous flowers" issue, i went with flowers. i have a fun mix of paper flowers, felt flowers, plastic flowers, acrylic flowers, button flowers, and flower brads. i tucked some of the flowers under the edges of the circles, so that they were peeking out. and i added some coordinating rhinestones to some of the flowers as well.

 

the embossed sun sticker is from little yellow bicycle. i adhered it to some white cardstock, and then cut around the edges with my scissors. i do this a lot with stickers, so that i can then pop dot them up. i added a few brads to the sun, before adhering it with pop dots to my page. i also added a few strips of additional pattern paper from bella blvd.

 

i knew i was adding my journaling to a text based pattern paper. so i decided to go with white text, on brown. to do this, i created a text box in word and typed my journaling inside the box. i then changed my font to white, and changed the color of the text box to a dark brown. when i printed this out, there was a brown box on my paper, with the white journaling lines. much easier then trying to print on brown cardstock.

 

my photos on the second page of the spread still have the collaged look. but i didn't line them all up perfectly in rows, which is something i was doing a ton at the time. i arranged them in a way, that i could fit another cut out circle and this fun lace cut wave die cut from little yellow bicycle. 

i was originally only going to use the wave on the left side of the spread. so i had cut off the part of the wave that extended off the page, and i threw it away. then i realized that the first page needed a little something else along the bottom. so i dug that piece back out of the trash, and added it to the first page. i'm very glad i did, since i think it pulls the two sides of the spread together.

 

i used some brown foam thickers, and my favorite doodlebug loopy letters, for my title. the checklist die cut is also from little yellow bicycle. there were little check boxes in front of the items on the list. so i added a few mini brads to those boxes.

 

the second page of the spread was done the same way as the first page. i cut out my circle, once i knew where i wanted it to go. then i pop dotted this entire sheet of pattern paper, onto a sheet of white cardstock, using lots and lots and lots of pop dots.

these are the days - a creating keepsakes layout

do you remember THESE senior photos i took of my niece, jovaughnna? well, she graduated from high school last week. in fact, the first project on THIS post, was actually her graduation gift. i thought it was a good time to share this layout i created for the tips & tricks: fabulous flowers issue that recently came out.

 
as seen in an online article for the Tips & Tricks: Fabulous Flowers issue, from Creating Keepsakes magazine. copyright creative crafts group. posted with prior permission from the publisher.

i created this layout for an article on how to alter your premade flowers. the article ended up getting moved to an online article for members only, on the CK Club site. so it didn't quite make it into the actual magazine. luckily, you can still see my layout here ;)

 

i almost always start my layouts, by choosing papers. i used the colors in jovaughnna's shirt to determine what papers i would use. i really love the penmanship paper, by studio calico, and figured it sort of fit with the senior/school theme i was going for. from there, i choose the ruled paper from studio calico, and the red wood paper by october afternoon, to use as well. 

 

the chipboard title piece, and the chipboard border piece (2nd page), are both from the mix it up kit, an older CK kit of the month club. i can't believe they still have some of those kits left. so many amazingly fun pieces in that kit. both of these pieces were raw chipboard. i heat embossed the title piece, using silver metallic embossing powder. and i really love those black letter stickers from jenni bowlin, and was glad i could work them into my title.

 

since my assignment was to alter flowers, i choose these older white flowers from making memories. i know white is kind of basic, but they really went with my layout. i used an embossing folder, and ran them through my cuttlebug, to add the embossed circles. then i used a glue pen to draw around the outside edges of the flower, and then sprinkled silver glitter over the edges. i layered some additional flowers, and secured them all with a denim fabric brad, and tucked two maya road pins under the flower. and that green piece, is a leather like trim, from bo bunny.

these flowers actually went through quite a few changes, before my layout finally got sent in. i guess i shouldn't have picked white flowers. turns out, they don't photograph very well. lol! i don't have a picture of the final version, for some reason. but i ended up adding some stickles to the embossed dots, and then added some silver chalk to them as well.

 

hmmm. got some glare going on this photo of the second page. i really wanted to use a good selection of jovaughnna's photos on this layout, and i wanted them to really show. which is why i used five 4x6's, and one 5x7 photo.

i love this chipboard border strip. i sat and punched out the small chipboard circles, so you could see through the strip. i decided to adhere some white cardstock behind the chipboard piece, so that it showed through the dots. i heat embossed the border piece with a distressed red embossing powder. it gave it a a rough and gritty texture to it, as opposed to the shiny and smooth texture on the heat embossed title piece.

 

another circle and flower cluster on the second page, just like the first page. i love using my circle cutter and circle punches, to make different sized circles to fill in the empty spaces on layouts. and for my journaling, i wanted to print with white text, on black paper. there's different ways of doin this. i just created a text box, and changed the background color to black. then i typed my journaling, and changed the text to white.