... just Laura

Bella Blvd: Step-By-Step Monthly Project Sheet - Sand & Surf

Our new monthly project sheet went up on the Bella Blvd blog yesterday.

For my April layout, I focused on the new Sand & Surf collection. Except that instead of using it for a beach or travel layout, I set out to use it for a regular summer layout. These photos were all taken at one of Sarah's birthday parties, a few years back. I wanted to pull out some of the photos of Joe's family from that day for this layout, since the majority of the photos of Sarah, her friends, and the actual party are already scrapped on other layouts.

You might notice that my two O's in "Pooside" are a little on the small side. I decided to use the inside's of the chipboard O's for two reasons. One being that I tend to run out of O's very quickly. I have plenty more packages that I could have opened, but figured I would save those for later. My second reason was that if I had used the actual O's in the package, my title wouldn't have fit. 

I try and do a fun technique of some kind on every project sheet layout that I create, and this month I decided to make a paper pieced sun element for the page. I used my trusty old circle cutter from Creative Memories to cut a large circle in the corner of my yellow patterned paper. Cutting it from the corner left me with two straight edges to line up on the aqua paper.

I also cut several strips of the yellow patterned paper, all about 3/4" wide. I misted all of the yellow pieces with water, scrunched them up into balls, flattened them back out and set them out to dry. This adds a ton of texture to your paper. You can see above that it almost looks like I adhered the large circle with pop dots. But I didn't. That's just how much texture I gained with the spritzing and scrunching.

After adhering the main part of the sun in the corner of the aqua wave patterned paper, I started adhering the sun rays. I tucked one end under the center of the sun, and then trimmed the other end to fit the design.

I had printed out a handful of 2"x3" photos to use on the page, before I really knew what the page was even going to look like. I didn't end up using all of them, but picked out five photos that summed up the afternoon. I adhered them all using pop dots, to add even more dimension to the page.

I sprinkled in a few threaded buttons, and added some stickers and chipboard pieces here and there.

You can download/print the project sheet, which has a complete supply list and full instructions, right HERE.

Scrapbook & Cards Today: Happy 7th Birthday Celebration

I'm a little late sharing this, but last week over on the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog, we were having a birthday celebration for their 7th birthday! A handful of the designers created projects to share throughout the week, and here's the cards that I contributed to the celebration.

I am constantly in need of birthday cards and yet they are the one type of card that I never seem to have on hand. I have used this same "award ribbon" style design for many other cards, such as baby cards, thinking of you cards, and even some coach's cards. I thought it would be the perfect design for birthday cards as well. I die cut the award ribbon pieces and "Happy Birthday" sentiment circle using my Silhouette Cameo.

Using a die cutting machine makes it really easy to cut duplicate pieces at once, which then makes it easy to mass produce a whole bunch of birthday cards at once. I added just a touch of machine stitching, and a simple star embellishment to the center of my sentiment. If you were wanting to mail your cards, I would suggest leaving off the star embellishment for easy mailing. 

There have also been some fabulous giveaways going on over on the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog, and you won't want to miss out on getting yourself entered for a chance to win. You have until April 4th to leave a comment on any of the birthday celebration giveaway posts, so you still have time to get entered.

Projects I'm Working On

I keep thinking I should pop on here and share something with you all, but I realized that I really don't have anything to share right now. Bummer. The least I can do is give you a peek at two projects I'm finishing up, that I should be able to share soon. 

I am mad at myself for taking sooooooo long to finish this one. I started this project almost a month ago. Had the photos printed and they're all assembled where I want them. Then got busy and didn't get around to it for a while. Finally got some extra things cut on my Cameo for it, and it's been finished for a week. Just haven't figured out how to photograph it yet.

And this one. This is something that I have thought about doing for months using my Cameo and some vinyl. For some reason, I got inspired to try it out over the weekend, and I've been working on it here and there for the last 3 days. What you see in this photo is actually the negative pieces. The pieces that I'm NOT using. Circles, circles, and more circles. I can't wait to show you all what I'm doing. I honestly don't think that anyone could guess what I'm doing. And for the three friends that I've actually told about this, no spilling the beans or else ;)

Keeping this short. It's a busy week here. The girls are out of school for spring break. Which is kind of nice, since that means I have helpers here during the day. I took on a new little daycare baby last week. For those of you keeping track, that's 4 kids under the age of 17 months (two almost 9 month olds, a 15 month old, and a 17 month old, in addition to a 3 year old). To say things are hectic and crazy here is an understatement!

Scrapbook & Cards Today: Spring Issue Has Arrived

Today is the day! The Spring 2013 issue of Scrapbook & Cards Today is available to view and download. You can head over to the Scrapbook & Cards Today website to download it. For FREE! You can't beat that.

I am really loving the look of this cover. It's bright and colorful and spring-ey, with the flowers peeking out from behind the layout and the sidewalk chalk laying next to it. I think we're all about ready for spring right about now, right?

And I also am loving this cover because that happens to be my layout on the cover! I was so excited to be asked to create a layout for the cover of the spring issue, using this gorgeous photo of Vicki Boutin's adorable daughter, Devyn.

Choosing papers for this layout was easy. I happen to have three of these patterned papers from Pebbles sitting on my desk when I received this photo. They were left over from a card I had just made for CardMaps Vol 3 (also launching today), and it was almost as if they were made to go with this photo. I pulled out a few more patterned papers and textured cardstock to mix in, to pick up more of the colors in the floral paper.

The pink chipboard alphas from Bella Blvd were the perfect shade and a great size for the title. It fit on there just right. I pulled out these older crochet flowers from American Crafts and topped each one with a coordinating button (from Fancy Pants and Basic Grey).

Make sure and stop by the Scrapbook & Cards Today website to view and/or download your FREE copy of the Spring issue. It's full of amazing layouts and cards, and has tons of inspiration from so many talented designers.

Kerri Bradford Studio: Snapshot

I had a new layout up at Kerri Bradford Studio earlier this week.

Sarah had taken these photos of herself, using the remote control for my camera, which was set up in my scrapbook room on a tripod. I didn't know she took these until I was downloading photos from my memory card a few days later. It's totally "her" to ham it up for the camera and take crazy photos of herself.

I used one of Kerri's Storyboard #1 templates to arrange my favorite photos and print them out in a collage. I had actually printed out this same collage in black and white ages ago, with the intention of scrapping them with some particular papers I had been wanting to use. That never really worked out, and I think it's because I knew the photos looked better in color. Luckiy, I had saved it, so I printed it out again, but this time in color.

The "Snapshots: Capturing Every Moment" title is one of Kerri's freebie shapes, and fit the theme of my page perfectly. All of my patterned papers are from Elizabeth Kartchner's Lucky Charm collection.

I also cut a few filmstrip frames from the This & That: Love [Just Shapes] kit from several patterned papers, and tucked them under the top of my photo collage.

I don't plan my layouts out most of the time. Which is why sometimes, I end up with empty spaces that need to be filled. That upper left corner was one of them. I came across some flair badges with the camera theme to them, and figured I'd use them.

Then I came across these very old chipboard circles from American Crafts and realized that they matched the colors of the Lucky Charm collection perfectly. I love when happy coincidences make my scrapping decisions easier.

I have another project that I'm finishing up for Kerri and hope to be sharing soon. The majority of it is done, so I'm not sure why it's taking me so long to finish. It's a larger framed project that I can't wait to hang up on the wall for all of us to enjoy and reminisce about.

Bella Blvd: American

Last Friday we revealed our new All American collection on the Bella Blvd blog, and this week we are sharing All American projects from our design team all week long. Five full days, with a new project from every single designer on the team. My layout was included on today's post.

This collection was perfect for scrapping some of the photos I took on Memorial Day last year. I did use a few of these photos before on a project sheet layout, but I really wanted to create a layout using more photos from the day to give a better view of the day. I used a storyboard template from Kerri Bradford Studio to create my photo collage, allowing me to get 9 photos on this one page. I also love that when I use a photo collage, I'm really just trimming one large photo, rather than trimming and adhering 9 individual photos.

I wanted to use the blue star patterned paper, but I didn't want it to overwhelm the page. So I used my Cameo to die cut this circle border to go along the left side of the page. I like that you can still see plenty of the star pattern on the blue paper, but it still allows bits of the white cardstock background to show through. I think it helps to balance out the white on the other areas of the page.

I wanted to add a little embellishing to the page, since it was mostly paper, stickers, and a few chipboard pieces, so I added some simple metal star brads along my circle border.

I used the "American" chipboard letters from the Chipboard Icons package for my title, dotting the "i" with a silver star brad. Since I was adding my journaling strips directly to the white cardstock background page, I lightly inked the edges of my strips with a navy blue ink pad to help them stand out. I had also lightly misted my white cardstock background with a light blueish misting spray.

Check out the Bella Blvd blog all week to see a wide variety of cards, layouts, and altered projects featuring this new collection (which begins shipping April 1st). There's a good mix of patriotic themed and everyday projects as well, showing how versitle the collection is.

Bella Blvd: All American Collection

We have some exciting stuff going on at the Bella Blvd blog today. We are revealing our first ever spring mid-release! The new All American collection is filled with red, white & blue, in fun and colorful patterns and designs. There is a new chipboard alpha set to coordinate, along with new stick pin flags and new designer tapes.

You can view and download the All American supplement catalog HERE.

I have decided that the American Pride patterned paper is my favorite of the bunch. I love the fun little hearts and the more random pattern of the different colored hearts together.

And the other side of this paper is a great tone-on-tone patterned that will get lots of use!

The All American collection starts shipping April 1st, which is just around the corner.

Head over to the Bella Blvd blog to see the entire collection, piece by piece. We are also doing a giveaway, to win-it-before-you-can-buy-it, which you won't want to miss out on. And watch the blog next week, as we will be sharing projects featuring this new collection ALL WEEK long!

Bella Blvd: District Honor Band

I have a quick layout share today that went up on the Bella Blvd blog over the weekend. Twice a month we have designers do their own takes on a sketch from Becky Fleck, and last week it was my turn.

It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do with this sketch.The one thing that I really liked was how the photo and small blocks of paper formed a long row from one side of the page to the other. It actually reminded me of a recent photo that I thought would work perfectly for this layout.

Alyssa loves band more than anything. She's been playing the clarinet since the 5th grade, I believe. She loves being a part of the high school band. It's become such a huge part of her life, and the majority of her friends are all fellow band members. Yesterday, while trying to persuade Sarah to join band next year as she had to turn in her class picks for freshman year (Eek. I'll have a freshmen and a senior next year!), she said that "all of us in the band are like one big family". She also said today that "Sometimes I want to ask people NOT in band what they do with their life". I love that she loves it that much!

Alyssa is in Honor Band at school, and was also selected to be a part of the District Honor Band and the County Honor Band this year (same as last year). This photo was taken at the District Honor Band concert which took place back in February. Since it was such a long group of band members, I knew that I could crop out a lot of the excess space above them and end up with a long, narrow photo. I think I ended up printing this at 11 inches long and only 4 inches tall.

I knew I wanted to use the aqua tone-on-tone music note patterned paper from the Birthday Boy collection, and that I wanted to mix it with lots of black and white, since band members wear concert black and white for their preformances. I really, really wanted to mix in another color, but no matter what I tried, it didn't work. So I kept with the aqua, black, and white color scheme. I pulled some scraps of patterned paper from lots of different collections to layer behind the large photo.

I am pretty sure that I meant to add a few of the black text buttons to the "D" and the "R" text chipboard alphas. I must have forgotten after I got done adding the clear star buttons to the black chipboard alphas.

You can see more takes on this same sketch, from a few of Bella's other designers, HERE.

Bella Blvd: Step-By-Step Monthly Project Sheet - Feathers & Crochet Hearts

We have our new March step-by-step monthly project sheet up on the Bella Blvd blog today.

This month, I was asked to focus on the new feathers and crochet hearts for my project sheet layout. I started with the polka dot patterned paper from the Sand & Surf collection, and chose some feathers and crochet hearts in coordinating colors. I then pulled out a few patterned papers from each of the three new collections, since I really wanted to mix and match for this layout.

But by the time I got done with the layout, all of my papers had come from the Sand & Surf collection. Not sure how that happened, since I had great papers pulled out from the engagment and wedding collections.

I love that the crochet hearts perfectly match so many of the feathers. Such gorgeous colors!

You can download/print the project sheet, which has a complete supply list and full instructions, right HERE.

CardMaps Today Vol 3: Giveaway *WINNER*

I'm a bit late announcing the winner of the CardMaps Today Vol. 3 giveway. It was our first weekend in forever where we didn't have soccer games. Which means we finally had time to accomplish so many of the things that we haven't had time to get too. Felt really good to cross things off the list for once. Anyways. Let's pick a winner!

Congrats Jen! Send me a quick email with your mailing address and I will get your info over to the Scrapbook & Cards Today office so they can get your copy sent out to you!

Jenni Bowlin: Guest Blogger Card Shares

Last week I shared a few layouts that I had created for Jenni Bowlin Studio, and today I am sharing a handful of cards that I created that were up on their blog yesterday. They were all made with their December 2012 Papercrafting Kit and Artisan Add-on, both of which are currently 25% off. They are having a 25-50% off sale on all of their 2012 kits, and you check them all out HERE!

I loved all of the great embellishments in the Artisan Add-on kit. Such a great mix to play with, and I have TONS left over. This kit comes with two sheets of patterned paper, so I did pull in some scraps from the papercrafting kit as well. I knew I wanted to get a few birthday cards in, since I always need them. In fact, we've already given this card away.

I love those glittered chipboard alphas. I'm not a fan of messy glitter that I find stuck to me for 3 weeks after coming within 7 feet of it. So I always love when a pre-glittered product doesn't make a huge mess and stays where it's supposed too.

I wanted to use the little fabric tab on this card, so I chose the "You & Me" sentiment to coordinate with the "Let's stick together" saying on the tab. I was addicted to using the aqua patterned paper on most of my projects, so I scraped up any little scraps I could find.

I took this little strip of the aqua paper and freehand cut it into small little squares, overlapping them across the card. Added a nice little bit of interest, as opposed to just adhering down a strip of paper.

I used another one of the stencil cards on this card. I painted it white this time, and used the exclusive stamp in the Papercrafting kit to lightly stamp over the stencil with some aqua ink. Just a very suble touch. I then backed the stencil with some reddish patterned paper.

I had this fun kraft typography number set, and choose the 24 and 7 to make it a "24/7 Love" card. I used most of the suede leaf trim on my layout, but had a few leafs left over. I tucked them under the numbers, which I adhered with pop dots.

I knew I wanted to creatively use a bunch of the kraft typography numbers on a birthday card, and this is what I came up with. I created a frame around the card with a piece of the yellow gingham pattered paper. I added the little scraps of the reddish patterned paper as an afterthought. Which is why I went with small pieces that I could tuck in, since everything else was already adhered.

I want to thank Jenni Bowlin Studio for having me along to play with some of their kits. It's not often I create with kits, but I like the challenge of working out of a bag of coordinating product that's all been assembled for me!

CardMaps Today Vol 3: Giveaway

CardMaps Today Vol. 3 is brimming with inspiration, techniques and creative ideas for your next cardmaking adventure. It features over 70 gorgeous cards from some of today’s top designers, more than 40 card sketches from PageMaps, step-by-step instructions for every card, and eight photo technique how-to’s! All this in a high quality, beautifully photographed resource book you’ll keep for years to come!

You can go HERE to read more info about the issue and see the list of contributors. This is a limited edition issue, so if you want to guarantee yourself a copy, I would get your order placed sooner rather than later.

CardMaps Today Vol 3 will begin shipping out on March 14th. I am giving one of my lucky blog readers a chance to win a free copy right here on my blog. Just leave me a comment to be entered in the random drawing. I will leave comments open until Friday evening, and will announce a winner on Saturday.

Everyday Storyteller Vol 2

I am so excited to announce that I was asked to contribute to Everyday Storyteller Vol 2, put together by Jennifer Wilson of the Simple Scrapper blog.

You’re invited to take a behind-the-scenes journey into real world, practical scrapbooking. With inspiring contributions from across the scrapbooking industry, Everyday Storyteller idea books are essential resources for the modern memory keeper. Find out how your favorite scrapbookers document their stories, create amazing pages and still have time to make memories.

Everyday Storyteller: 33 Practical Ideas from Real World Scrapbookers is an 81 page idea book from the owner of Simple Scrapper, Jennifer Wilson. It was released in 2012 and is available in digital download and print versions. Everyday Storyteller 2: 33 More Practical Ideas from Real World Scrapbookers will be released this May.

I am so excited to be a part of this upcoming idea book. It's a huge honor to be included alongside these amazingly talented contributors.

Right now, you will want to head over and get yourself signed up for the free VIP list. You'll receive a special invite to the virtual launch party, happening on Friday, May 3rd, where you will also be entered in special VIP-only giveaways. And you will also receive first notice that the book has been released and a special VIP discount.  

Jenni Bowlin: Guest Blogger Layout Shares

I am excited to be sharing projects over at Jenni Bowlin Studio this week and next. I was sent a few of their older 2012 kits as they are having a big sale on them right now. I have two layouts to share with you today and next week I'll share my cards.

I used the December Papercrafting Kit for this first layout. The more muted colors of the patterned papers reminded me of these photos of the girls and one of their best friends, Amanda, from years ago. The colors in the photos worked perfectly with this kit.

I started out with a few larger trimmed pieces of patterned papers that I knew I wanted to layer up against the right edge of the background paper. I distressed the edges of all of the papers to add some texture and had every intention of going back in and adding machine stitching along the edges. But it never happened. I did end up taking smaller pieces of some of the patterned papers and tucking them in here and there, adding even more layers to the mix.

I wanted my photos to stand out a bit more, so I rubbed some acrylic paint along the edges with my finger. In digging out my paints, I realized that the majority of my Making Memories paints are getting really dried up. But they still worked great for this. I loved that aqua burlap rose and debated whether to use it on the layout or on a card. The layout won.

I chose this "Friends" title card, made by Fancy Pants. These are manilla colored and are easy to alter to fit your needs. I painted the piece with some pink acrylic paint, trimmed off a little bit from the bottom, and distressed the edges. I then took the stamp that comes in the kit and stamped it onto the piece using some sort of ink. I wish I could remember what kind it was. It gave sort of a subtle glossy look, with a little touch of glitter.

You can find the December Papercrafting Kit on sale HERE.

I used the August Papercrafting Kit for this second layout. Since I had been digging around in older photos to find the ones on the layout above, I decided to keep looking to find more photos from back in the day. These photos of Sarah and Amanda are hilarious to me. There are even more crazy ones of them making all sorts of faces and being goofy. Not sure why I have never scrapped them before.

I stared with the graph paper which had a fun border of mixed patterns. So what you see going up and down the left side of the page is all one piece of paper, including the little tab up top. I wanted to adhere the green patterned paper piece right up against the edge of the border piece, but wanted to keep the tab intact. So I used my dreaded exacto knife (it's not a bad tool. I just really detest using one!) and cut a slit under the tab, so that I could actually slip my green patterned paper under it.

Once I added the green patterned paper, the black striped border sticker, the cream patterned paper, and the orange diagonal striped border sticker, I ended up covering up the entire graph pattern on the background paper. If I'd have planned things better, I would have just trimmed off the border strip so I could make good use of the graph paper. Hindsight, right?

I created my title using my Silhouette Cameo and one of the yellow patterned papers in the kit. I also wanted to use the fun stamp that came in the kit, with all the circles and dots. I picked out a navy blue ink pad, since there were touches of blue in the border paper, and stamped the image a few times onto a scrap of the same cream patterned paper that my title is adhered too. Then I used a circle punch to punch out lots of circles, and adhered them going up the edge of the page, slightly overlapping them as I went.

You can find the August Papercrafting Kit on sale HERE.

I created quite a few cards using these two kits, and one more additional kit. I will share those sometime next week.

Scrapbook & Cards Today: CardMaps Today Volume 3

Back by popular demand, Scrapbook & Cards Today is excited to present 2013 Spring CardMaps Today 3! This beautiful special issue is brimming with inspiration, techniques and creative ideas for your next cardmaking adventure. It features over 70 gorgeous cards, more than 40 card sketches, step-by-step instructions for every card, and eight photo technique how-to’s! There are limited quantities availalbe, so you won't want to miss out. You can pre-order your copy HERE!

Bella Blvd: Epiphany Team Up

All this week, over on the Bella Blvd blog, we have been teaming up with Epiphany Crafts for a week full of inspiration. A handful of our Bella designers were each sent one of Epiphany's punch tools and accessories to use along with our favorite Bella products. I was sent the Shape Studio Pennant Tool, along with the coordinating epoxy shapes.

I've had this photo collage of Sarah printed forever now. I never did use it for what I had originally printed it for, and was determined to finally get it scrapped. I went through my Bella stash to find some patterned papers that would match. The little hoodie she's wearing in the photo is green, with red cherries on it. So it seemed natural to pull some browns, blues, reds, and greens in.

I had a totally different idea in my head for the banner pieces. I was going to drape them, in a more curved way, above the title. The title which was originally "Sweet", an then got changed to "Sweetness" when I changed my mind on the banner pieces and ended up with an empty spot.

So in the end, I used the epoxy banner pieces as simple embellishments on the top and the bottom of the page. I kept wanting to add more to this page, but finally decided that I was happy with it the way it was.

I think I've mentioned before that birthday cards are the one type of card that I need the most, yet I never seem to have any on hand. I figured the banner shape seemed like a natural fit for birthdays, so I might as well make a few birthday cards.

I pulled out scraps of paper from the Birthday Boy collection to create this cute little row of epoxy covered banner pieces under the sentiment sticker.

And for my birthday girl card, I had to use the "You are the frosting to my cupcake" card from the Cute Cuts patterned paper. I adhered it to a brown patterned paper from the Birthday Boy collection and adhered it to the center of the card using pop dots.

Then I pulled out all the tiny scrap pieces of Birthday Girl patterned paper that I had, and went to town punching banner pieces. I decided to skip the epoxy shapes on this one, and just used the tool as a punch. I then started layering the pieces along the outside edge of the sentiment card for a playful look.

Stop by both the Bella Blvd blog and the Epiphany Crafts blog to see what the rest of the designers have created for you this week. You will also want to check out today's post on the Bella blog, as we are doing a BIG giveaway and you will want to leave a comment for a chance to win!

Bella Blvd: She Is My Entire Heart

Hey everyone! I've got two things to share with you today. First off, I have the second half of my guest blogger post up on the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog today. On Monday, I had shared a layout inspired by a Pinterest image, and that layout included feathers. Today, I am sharing lots of tips and tricks to working with and adhering real feathers to your papercrafting projects. You can read more HERE!

And speaking of feathers, I realized that I never got around to sharing my last Winter CHA layout from Bella Blvd. Which is kind of strange, since it was actually the first layout I made of the bunch. It includes feathers, so it ties in well with what else I've been sharing this week.

I created this layout for the catalog, and I was asked to make a "awesome layout with as much of the new product as possibe". I love a good challenge! I started with these photos that I had taken of Holly, my good friend Deneen's daughter (one of four daughters). I knew they would be neutral enough with the colors to go with any product I picked out.

Then I started picking out patterned papers. I set out to pick at least one patterned paper from each of the four new collections. The green dot paper is from the Sand & Surf collection, the aqua chevron paper is from the Freestyle Sophisticates collection, the pink hearts paper and the black ruled paper are from the Love And Marriage collection, and the striped paper is from the Engaged At Last collection.

I cut strips of varying sizes from each patterned paper and pieced them together on a sheet of white cardstock. I added a strip of the new black chevron designer tape across the top of the page, and also used some torn strips of pink and aqua designer tapes on other areas of the layout. We didn't release any new buttons, but I knew I had to include a few of the fun black text buttons to help embellish the page.

I choose three of the new feathers to include on the page: black, green and aqua. I also picked out some of the new crochet hearts to use. I had only gotten a few color packs for my CHA work, so I decided to stick with all pink hearts, since they matched the best.

I layered the feathers together and stapled them in place. I used my tiny attacher on the ends of the feathers, since I knew I wanted those staples to show. I actually added some staples further up on the feathers to help secure them better, knowing that I was going to add this "I love you. The end" sticker (from the Love & Marriage collection) on top of the staples to cover them up. I adhered the sticker to a scrap of cardstock first and cut around it, which made it much easier to adhere the sticker with pop dots over the feathers.

For my title, I used a mix of the new green Sienna chipboard alphas, the new black alpha stickers from the Engaged At Last collection, and some new aqua High Five alpha stickers.

Oh, and I also snuck on a few of the new flags from the Engaged At Last collection. Almost forgot about those. I think I did a pretty good job at representing each of the new collections as well as each of the new embellishments.

Scrapbook & Cards Today: Pinterest Inspiration

I'm excited to be guest blogging over on the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog this week. I have a post up today, and then I'll be back on Wednesday with another share related to the layout I'm sharing today.

{Pinterest Image}

I'm doing a Pinterest inspiration post. I think inspiraton images are great for challenging ourselves to try new things, for sparking our creativity when we are in a rut, or when we are just running low on ideas when it comes to our scrapping.

Here's a little peek at the layout I created, based off of that inspiration piece. You can see the entire layout and read more about how I was inspired HERE.

Scrapbook & Cards Today: February Colour Suite

Happy Valentine's Day! I have a new layout to share today. Summer Fullerton puts together a fun colour challenge each month for Scrapbook & Cards Today, and the February installment went up on the blog today.

Summer invited me to play along with her and I couldn't pass it up. I love a good color challenge, and when I saw the colors she picked out, I was excited to dive into my stash and see what I could come up with. 

Purple, two pinks, yellow, and white. Such a lovely color combination that I most likely would have never put together on my own. I started out digging through my patterned papers, putting together a mix of papers in the chosen colors that might work. I ended up with papers from Pebbles, Jillibean Soup, and Bo Bunny. One thing I learned? I don't have a wide selecion of purple patterned papers.

The next thing I did was go searching for photos. I really didn't have any particular ones in mind, so I just browsed through my external hard drives. Nothing was grabbing my attention or calling out to be scrapped. I'm not sure what made me think of this photo of Alyssa. I just suddenly thought about it, which worked well, since it was already printed.

My next step was cutting the circle background piece with my Cameo. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to cut this from a full sheet of patterned paper and adhere it to a sheet of white cardstock. Since I had my Cameo out and plugged in, I went digging for a possible title to use.

I usually just type in key words in the search box, since it's easier than browsing through my entire library. I believe this popped up when I had typed in the word "beautiful". It is a print and cut file, an it just so happened that the colors matched perfectly! Love when stuff like that happens. I printed it on white textured cardstock and trimmed around the edges.

I cut two large pieces of the two pink patterned papers to layer behind my photo, and tucked the title piece on the side. I wanted to add a bit more purple, so I used a large circle border punch along my tone-on-tone purple dot paper and tucked them under the top and bottom of my title piece.

I added some buttons and ribbon pieces to embellish my title piece. I won't lie. It was hard to find some purple buttons. Which is strange, because I own a gigantic amount of buttons.

And this trim from Webster's Pages. Pure yumminess! Such a gorgeous shade of yellow. I helped secure it on the ends with a few pink and purple-ish brads. I used the title piece to help guide my journaling. And a small secret? I have no clue how close that date is to the actual date that this photo was taken. Lol. This photo was take at a modeling session Alyssa attended when she was about 4 years old. I have scrapped other photos from this day, but I apparently never dated any of those layouts. Yes, I do guesstimate dates from time to time ;)

To see this challenge in it's entirety or to see Summer's past challenges, make sure to stop by and visit the Scrapbook and Cards Today site.

Kerri Bradford Studio: Love Cards

Just in time for Valentine's Day, I created a few cards that went up over at Kerri Bradford Studio earlier this week.

I started out with a few sheet of patterned paper from Authentique that I had picked up at a not-quite-so-local scrapbook store a few weeks ago. We were away at soccer games, and it turned out I was just a few blocks from a LSS. Figured I might as well stop, since I NEVER go to stores. My mom happened to be with me, and she commented about the roughly 11 sheets of patterned paper in my hand "don't you have enough paper???". The first clue that she's not a scrapbooker. Lol. Paper is one of the cheapest things you can buy, and it's always nice to have a variety on hand to choose from. While at first glance, one would assume I was drowning in paper, I'm honestly not. I have quite a bit of paper, but I also have quite a bit of duplicates, triplicates, quadruplicates (are these words?) of most of those papers. I came home and put this new paper right to work.

Long paper story that probably wasn't necessary ;)

I used two of Kerri's circle background cuts from the More Basics Background kits to create the base of my cards (the square for this card, and the rectangle for the next card). I cut them from a text patterned paper, adhering it to a white cardstock card base that I very lightly misted with some tan misting spray.

The heart is from Kerri's XOXO kit, and it's one that I use quite often. My go-to heart, I guess you can say. I cut the hearts from the red polkadot patterned paper. One thing I didn't know, or maybe I knew and just didn't remember, is that the Authentique papers have a great texture to them. I love a good textured patterned paper.

Kerri's new Feathers kit is such a fun one, and at just 99 cents for 4 different feathers, you can't beat it! I originally cut these larger feathers for my square card, but then decided they just weren't fitting with the heart like I wanted. So I cut some extra pieces to make a regular, standard card (4.25 x 5.5). That way, I was able to use the larger feathers here, and I simply cut a few smaller ones for the square card above.

And lastly, the "Love" cut is from the This & That: Love kit. These cards are quite simple in design. My plan was to embellish them in some way after getting my pieces adhered. Or adding some machine stitching. But I actually liked them just as they were, and decided that "simple" was good for me this time.

And speaking of Kerri, she is celebrating her 25th wedding anniversary this week! And in honor of that, along with it being the week of love, she has put a selection of her love themed kits on sale for 25% off through the end of the week. Check HERE for the details and to see which kits are on sale.

Bella Blvd: Step-By-Step Monthly Project Sheet - Kiss Me

We put up our February project sheet over on the Bella Blvd blog yesterday, just in time for Valentines Day.

{Photo by Krista Lund Photography}

I used the Kiss Me collection for this month's project sheet layout. I knew I wanted to do a fun border along the side of the page using lots and lots of hearts. I used my Cameo to cut out the hearts, but you could easily use any die cut machine or a few punches. I cut two hearts for every one you see on the layout, since I was doubling them up.

I adhered the first set of hearts with regular adhesive. For the second set of hearts, I lightly folder the hearts in half so there was a crease top to bottom, and then adhered them by putting adhesive only down the center. This allowed the sides of the hearts to lift up for some extra dimension.

You can download/print the project sheet, which has a complete supply list and full instructions, right HERE.

My Week Facebook Style: A Creating Keepsakes Layout

Once again, my week got away from me. I'm pretty sure the month of January got away from me, just like the month of December did. Lol. The last two months have been a crazy blur. Between work, scrapbook work, the holidays, winter break, school, soccer, band, etc, we never seem to know if we're coming or going. Luckily we are finishing a few things up that will free up a bit more time in our days. Give us a little breathing room. We're all playing catch up and getting things back on track. As best we can. 

As seen in the January/February 2013 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. Copyright Creative Crafts Group. Posted with prior permission from the publisher.

I realized I hadn't gotten around to sharing this Creating Keepsakes layout yet. I was asked to create a two page layout, incorporating Facebook status posts into my journaling. What seems like ages ago, I used to occasionally do these "Facebook Style Randomness" posts on my blog, where I would round up a bunch of my status updates and put them all together in one post. It was a way to catch up on little odds and ends in my life, for those of you that aren't on Facebook.

So when I got this assignment, it was easy enough to pull up just those posts, and find one that would work on a layout. I looked for a post where I had a decent number of status updates to pull from. I also made sure that I would have photos to support several of the status updates.

 

I was working on this layout right after Summer CHA, so I picked out several of the Bella Blvd patterned papers that we were coming out with at that time. I choose papers from the birthday collections and the fall collection, along with some of the new buttons.

I chose to print all of my journaling (or my Facebook status updates, I should say) and my photos in squares, since I was going with a grid design on my two page spread. I created text boxes in my word document and copied my updates into the boxes, formatting them to fit.

I had a few of these photos in my blog post to go with the updates, and some of the updates I had to find photos for.

I also added digital frames around the text squares. Don't ask me what frame, because I honestly don't remember. I made this layout forever ago.

See that little wood grain Facebook logo? By the time I had all of my status updates printed out and my photos printed out, I ended up with one empty spot on my grid. So I thought a Facebook logo would be nice to add in there. But the usual dark blue one you see wasn't going to work. I just googled "brown facebook logo" and ended up with tons of them to chose from.

I guess it is true. If you can't google it, it doesn't exist!

Bella Blvd: We Said I Do

Still powering through the week. It's Friday, which is a good thing. I love my Friday's now, since I only have one daycare kiddo. He's my one full-timer, and at 15 months old, he's a pure ball of energy and fun to be around. After the craziness of four very busy days, he gets me all to himself on Fridays!

I'm back with another layout that was up on the Bella Blvd blog earlier this week. This was my second layout using the new Love And Marriage collection.

I have borrowed photos of my cousin's wedding a few times over the years for other projects I've done. I don't think I've used these particular photos though. As I was browsing through the photos, I knew I wanted something to go with the "Going to the chapel" die cut card from the Cute Cuts paper, and these photos were perfect.

I love the softer colors in this collection, and used the green and aqua patterned papers for the base of my page. Sidenote: I just noticed the date and realized their wedding was almost exactly four years ago. And they are expecting their first baby in the next few months. A new little second cousin in the family.

I added a few of the lighter pink feathers to the page, and tucked them under the die cut "Going to the chapel" card, which I adhered using pop dots. I also added the chipboard chapel piece directly over the chapel that was printed on the card. It fit perfectly.

I used some of the Sienna chipboard alphas, along with a chipboard "i do" heart, to create my title. With a little "Bride & Groom" stick pin flag tucked in for fun.

You can see more projects featuring the Love And Marriage collection HERE, and check out THIS post for some gorgeous altered projects using this collection!

Bella Blvd: Step-By-Step Monthly Project Sheet - Winter Wonder

We snuck in our step-by-step monthly project sheet for January just in the knick of time. How is today the last day of January already?!?! 

For this months project sheet, I was working with the Winter Wonder collection. I've used pieces of this collection before, but not really for winter layouts, seeing as we don't experience any sort of actual "winter" here in my part of California. But I was able to scrounge up the one and only set of snow pictures that we have, from a trip Alyssa took to the snow with her dad, aunt, and grandparents. Forever ago.

You can download/print the project sheet, which has a complete supply list and full instructions, right HERE.

Bella Blvd: April's Bachelorette Party

I don't know about you all, but the past two months have been a huge blue to me. No matter how hard I try, I cannot catch up on anything these days. Life, the house, scrapbooking deadlines and work, the day job, the laundry. I'm behind on all of it. I'd give anything to be able to take a few vacation days and work like crazy to get myself back on track. Not sure I see that happening any time soon though.

Anyways, I still have a few last CHA layouts for Bella Blvd to share with you. I feel like I've shared a ton of them this past month, but I only created 11 of them for the booth. I'm down to my last 3 that I haven't shared yet. This one was up on the Bella Blvd blog on Monday.

Once again, I borrowed photos for this layout from my good friend Krista. I'm so glad she was able to help out with photos, because I wasn't sure how I was going to use the Engaged At Last collecion based off my own photos. I got married forever ago, and never had any engagement photos, and we never had bachelor or bachelorette parties. I've only been to two weddings in the last ten or so years, and those family members didn't have any photos to fit either. Thankfully, Krista had lots of photos to fit.

I think the text patterned paper is really cute, with lots of fun bachelor and bachelorette party phrases. I like to use paper like that in small amounts, so I cut a large circle out of it to use in the upper corner.

The chipboard frame is so cute, but I didn't have a photo that would work in it. So I used it to hold the "Bachelorette" chipboard piece that was part of my title. I added some threaded black text buttons to the bottom of the frame.

I used a piece of the new Freestyle Sophisticates hand drawn grid patterned paper, in grey, on the top part of my layout. I think we all know that I love to use the regular grid patterned paper from Bella on a lot of my layouts. It's just a great neutral paper for backgrounds. This new hand drawn grid, in a variety of colors, will be a great basic as well.

I added a few of the new feathers, in black and yellow. Love the punches of black in this collection. I stapled them to the layout, and then adhered a crochet heart over the stapes. I tucked in a stick pin flag, and added a few more threaded buttons to embellish.

You can see more projects using the new Engaged At Last collection on the Bella Blvd blog right HERE, and if you want to see some gorgeous altered project ideas using this collection, click HERE.

Bella Blvd: Just Like Them

A few days ago, we shared some projects using the Kiss Me collection over on the Bella Blvd blog. While Kiss Me isn't a brand new collection, it was new enough to be shown and featured in the booth at CHA, which meant we needed some new projects showing it off.

I started this layout with the colorful chevron patterned paper, and pulled all of my colors from there. Navy blue is a favorite color of mine (especially to wear), even though I don't use it often on my layouts. I love the navy blue feathers, and decided to add in a sheet of the blue Sophisticates patterned paper to match, knowing I'd also be using the navy blue chipboard alphas.

I used some pink, yellow, and aqua designer tapes on the edges of my photos, so I used embellishments and stickers in those same colors.

I was trying to come up with a title for this page, and had a few colors of the chipboard alphas out. I was very limited with the green alphas, since I had only received one package for CHA work and had used quite a few of the letters. Took me a while, but I finally came up with a fun title, adding in some tiny alphas from the High Five stickers to add my subtitle. I cut the "I'll tell you a secret" sticker in half, to hold the entire subtitle.

Stop by the Bella Blvd blog to see lots more Kiss Me projects. We've also been sharing altered projects, featuring the new collections, and there are some gorgeous projects! You won't want to miss them.

Kerri Bradford Studio: 2 Words. In. Sane.

I had a new layout go up for Kerri Bradford Studio yesterday. I hadn't used my Silhouette since the last time I did a project for Kerri, which was at the beginning of December. I never use my Silhouette on my CHA projects for Bella Blvd, and that has been the only other projects I've done in the last month and a half. So it was really nice to get my machine out again.

I wasn't really sure at first what I wanted to scrap. I was actually going to do a soccer layout, using some divided page protectors. I was in the middle of printing photos, and had all of my shapes picked out that I wanted to cut. And then I realized that there was no way I would be able to finish it in time, since it was going to end up being two double page spreads. So I switched gears a bit, but stuck with the idea of using some divided page protectors. And this is what I came up with.

We have all been crazy busy around here lately. But Alyssa has had an extremely busy month, with school, winter league soccer, conditioning for high school soccer, County Honor Band, District Honor Band, homework, and every day life stuff. I thought it would be fun to document one of her busy weeks, and get her schedule down in a fun way.

I decided to use one of the Design F pocket page protectors from Becky Higgins. I like that it has room for one 4x6, perfect for the title, and then lots of 2x3 spots. I started out by digging through all of Kerri's kits to see what shapes I wanted to use. I came across the inFORMS kit, which I haven't used yet, and printed out the library card on white cardstock for my title piece.

I spritzed a bit of green misting spray on the card and went about finding a title. When I came across the "2 Words. In. Sane." phrase from the Say What 3 kit, I knew it would be perfect for the title. I first cut the entire title from black cardstock, and then cut a few of the pieces from green and red ruled patterned paper from Bo Bunny.

I picked out the days of the week from the Life Additions: Weeklies #2 kit, and cut them all from black cardstock. In the back of my mind, I thought I might go and cut them from colored cardstock to layer on top. But in the end, I just stuck with the black.

I should add that I actually picked out all of the shapes that I wanted to use, and cut them all from black cardstock at once. I copied and pasted the arrows a few times, so I could print more than one. I wasn't totally sure of my plan going into this, but figured I would have a good selection to start out with and could add or subtract as I went along. I like to layer two cuts together to create a shadow effect, and find that black cardstock works great for that bottom layer.

I also picked out a few phrases that I thought I could maybe incorporate into the page, knowing what my theme was. The "green grass" from the A Beautiful World kit stood out to me, since Alyssa had a ton of soccer stuff going on that week.

For the pockets without a photo, I trimmed 2x3" pieces of patterned paper. I used a few creamish tone-on-tone patterns from Bo Bunny and also some super old white grid papers from Scenic Route. For the creamish papers, I added a block of white cardstock that I machine stitched before adhering down.

I had borrowed a few photos from Alyssa's Instagram account ("steal", "borrow". same thing, right?) that I wanted to include that summed up what her week was about. Since these were all photos taken with her iPod Touch, they weren't the best quality. Also, because I took them from Instagram, they were square photos. So I couldn't print them as 2x3" photos.

I thought I would print out a few more of the cards from the inFORMS kit. When I pulled up this Score Sheet card and went to put my photo on top, I realized I could actually layer the photo under the form, for a sort of see-thru look. I thought this one looked really cool. You could also achieve the same look by printing the form on a transparency and layering it over your photo (thanks for that idea, Kerri!).

Once I had my three photos printed out and inserted, I started putting together the cards for the days of the week. I added my day, cut from the black cardstock, to each card, and the white cardstock squares. For the white grid cards, I simply misted them with the green spray mist.

I added a few arrows (from the Say What 3 kit and the Need Directions? kit) here and there, cutting them from the same green and red patterned paper that I used on my title cut.

I printed out my journaling, which is really just a list of her schedule and activities for the week. It was fairly simple, since I could copy and paste the things that happened more than once. Like "7.5 hours of school", which I needed four of (she missed school one day to attend a 7.5 hour band rehearsal). I adhered all those tiny journaling strips to the appropiate days.

I added a little washi tape here and there, in greens, reds, and blacks.

I used this group shot from the County Honor Band concert (Honor Choir too, but she's not a part of that). It was a fantastic 2.5 hour performance that just leaves you in awe of the musical abilities of these teens. It's the best of the best from the county, and Alyssa was one of twelve band members chosen from their school to go. I printed it behind the library card, and I meant to add some letter stickers to the top saying "County Honor Band". I am just now noticing that I didn't do that. Oops.

I also added some tiny number stickers to each card for the date. I started to put the entire date for the week on the title card, but it wasn't looking right. So I put the "January 2013" on the title card, and added the number for each day to the appropiate card.

And yes, I am pretty sure that she DID find a little bit of time to relax on Sunday!

I won't lie. This page took me FOREVER. And I am pretty sure that this is the most cuts I have ever made with the Silhoutte for one single page. I am planning on something similiar for the soccer page I mentioned earlier, so hopefully I will find some time for that soon.

Bella Blvd: Love For Life

I ran out of time last night to get this post scheduled and am not trying to toss it up super quick before the daycare kid realize I've snuck away for a minute. They don't like when I try and be productive during the day ;)

Today, we are sharing layouts on the Bella Blvd blog that use the new Freestyle Sophisticates patterned papers. I love the Sophisticates patterned papers, as they are great "basics" that an be mixed and matched with any other given collection. For this layout, I only used two small strips of patterned paper from the Kiss Me collection, and then picked out four different colors of the Freestyle patterned papers to match.

When Stephanie first showed me these designs, I loved the hand drawn chevron design. But I also commented on how the fact that they weren't totally straight and even was going to drive me a bit crazy, seeing as how I love things perfectly straight. Once I had them in my hands and started cutting, I realized that if you trimmed off two rows of the chevron arrows at once, they made a straight piece. If that even make sense.

And then, after all that worrying about things being straight and even, I went and adhered them down on my page in uneven rows. A bit wonky, if you will. I might have even used a ruler to make sure my uneven rows were still somehow even by the time they were stacked up.

I added a few feathers for fun, along with a few threaded buttons. If you look closely here, you can see where I hand stitched this feather in two places using some coordinating green thread. Just to be sure the feather stayed where I wanted it.

Stop by the Bella Blvd blog to see more projects using these new papers! I will be back late tonight with a new layout share for Kerri Bradford Studio.

Bella Blvd: This Smile

We are back at it on the Bella Blvd blog this week, sharing more and more of our Winter CHA booth projects using the new collections and embellishments. Today we're sharing projects that showcased the new crochet hearts.

Since we have limited amounts of the new products to work with for CHA projects, we don't always get all of the new stuff, but a mixed sampling of the new stuff. I only received a handful of colors of the crochet hearts to work with. I had the red, aqua, and grey hearts out and I thought about this old photo of Sarah. It's one of my all time favorite photos of her. I love her adorable pigtails, her big brown eyes, and that little grin that usually means she's up to no good!

I decided to make a wide border going down the side of the page. I picked out coordinating colors of the new Freestyle Sophisticates patterned paper, using the hand drawn chevron side of the paper. I cut small squares from the papers an machine stitched around each square before adhering them to the page.

After adhering down all of the squares, I adhered either a coordinating crochet heart or a threaded button to the center of each paper.

I used a sheet of black ruled patterned paper from the Engaged At Last collection as the background paper on this layout. I love how the other colors really stand out against the black. I also picked out some coordinating feathers to add to the page, above my photo.

I've mentioned it before, but a great way to adhere the feathers is to staple them to the page, making sure the staples will be hidden. I adhered my photo using pop dots, so it was easy to "tuck" my feathers behind the photo.

Stop by the Bella Blvd blog to see more projects featuring the new crochet hearts. And stay tuned, as I have even more layouts to share this week.

Bella Blvd: Aptos Beach

Today, on the Bella Blvd blog, we are sharing some of our CHA layouts and cards using the new Sand & Surf collection. This is such a fun summer collection, and it might have been my favorite to work with.

You might recognize these two adorable little girls from THIS layout. When my friend Krista was sending me photos to choose from, I had a hard time deciding which beach photos to use for this layout. I'm glad I was able to use both sets of pics that grabbed my scrapbooking eye.

I got a lot of use out of the Borders and Cute Cuts patterned paper on this layout. I used four different border strips, adding machine stitching along all of the edges.

The arrow, cloud, and sun along the top of my layout are all pieces that I cut from the Cute Cuts patterned paper. I love the Sienna chipboard alphas, and am excited that we have a few new colors coming out. Pickle Juice green is a color I will use over and over.

I printed out four photos in 3x3" squares. I choose to crop them leaving a bit of white space in at least one corner of the photo. I thought it would be fun to add some of the word/phrase stickers from the Alpha+Bits and Miniatures sticker sheets.

I also added a stick pin flag to one of the photos. I glue dotted the actual paper flag part, and added a few small torn pieces of designer tape to the pin part of the flag. I adhered all of the photos using lots of pop dots, and added the chipboard wave in between the photos.

I wanted to use the tall ruled journaling sticker, knowing I would print out my computer printed journaling (or Krista's journaling, I should say) and add the strips to the sticker. I ended up cutting off part of the journaling sticker to make it fit the space, so I still have a piece of it left for another project.

I used a small piece of the sandcastle border strip in this lower corner of the page, and added some scalloped punched strips of white cardstock to the top and bottom. I wanted to get some designer tape on the layout and decided to use a variety of pieces to create a little banner border. I cut a notch in one end of each piece, and layered them together.

Stop by the Bella Blvd blog to see lots more projects using the Sand & Surf collection. And stay tuned, as we have a ton more projects to share next week.