... just Laura

Jillibean Soup: Hello Card

Hello! I apparently took a two week break from blogging without really realizing it. That happens sometimes I suppose. Lol. I was on such a good roll with my Project Life album, and so close to finishing up 2018 - and then I got totally side tracked with a new album project, and threw myself into that for a good week. 

I did jump back into my PL album late last week and finished up another four weekly spreads, so I'm going to share those this week. And I know I've said this before, but my goal is to finish up the last five weeks by the end of this week. I'm so ready to have 2018 done, and start on my 2019 album. Ya know, before June starts ;) 

As for the card. I've shared this on Instagram, but I realized I never shared it here on the blog. It was one of the last cards that I created for Jillibean Soup and I love the simplicity of it. I'm a sucker for easy peasy cards :)

Jillibean Soup: Wooden Spoon Survivor

Happy Monday! It's been so fun designing for Jillibean Soup this past year, and today I'm sharing my last official design team layout that I created for them. I do still have one more Jillibean card to share, and will share that later this week. 

When I first joined the Jillibean design team, I was browsing their Silhouette store and came across this fun cut file - "Wooden Spoon Survivor" - and I just knew that I had to use it on a layout. After all, I am totally a wooden spoon survivor, having grown up in the 70's, when that sort of thing was super common.

I even went so far as to plan out the page in the Silhouette software. That was almost a year ago, and I just never got around to actually making the layout. So I made sure to fit it into my last set of layouts for them. 

I actually didn't have a specific photo in mind for this story until I finally sat down to make it. I was originally going to do a photo-less layout in fact. But since the main part of the story that I wanted to tell had to do with something that happened at school, when I was in the first grade - I thought my first grade school photo would be a great choice. 

Shhhhhh. This is actually my second grade school photo. I didn't have an extra copy of my first grade photo, but I did have one of my second grade photo. Close enough, right ;)

I went thru my Jillibean patterned papers and picked out a handful that coordinated with the colors in my photo. I was wearing a Holly Hobby dress that my mom had made me, and I thought it would be fun to mimic the patchwork design on my dress in the design of the page. So I used small pieces of each patterned paper and arranged them around the border of the page. 

I adhered a piece of white cardstock in the center of the page, large enough to hold my photo and title, with room to add my journaling across the bottom. 

"My name is Laura and I’m a wooden spoon survivor. I’m also a wooden paddle survivor. Yep, you read that right. Here’s the thing. I grew up in the 70’s, and I’m pretty sure that having your parents take a wooden spoon to your behind every now and then was pretty normal. I’d like to think I was a fairly good kid, but I still had my fair share of “swats” with the wooden spoon from the kitchen. Once, the spoon even broke on my tush! Lol. But I’m not sure how normal it was to receive a swat at school. I went to a private, Christian school, for all thirteen years of my education. And it just so happens that this school allowed for “paddling”, when deemed necessary by the school. Now, I was an extremely shy child growing up. I didn’t talk to anyone, with the exception of my friends. I was quiet as a mouse, didn’t talk in class, and sometimes, I wouldn’t even talk when spoken to by my teachers.

When I was in the first grade, my class was going on a field trip, but I forgot my permission slip. So I was sent to the office, where they asked me for my parent’s phone number. Except I didn’t talk to people, so I wasn’t about to speak up and tell them my phone number. I’d like to think, that in my mind, they had to know my phone number, since it had to be in my file. Why did they need to hear it from me? Next thing I knew, I was being sent to the principal’s office, where I also refused to give out my phone number. That’s when he decided that I deserved a swat, with the wooden paddle that hung on his wall. I can still remember having to tell my parents about it that night, and having them sign the paper I brought home saying I had received a swat. I mean, look at my sweet, innocent little first grade face. I guess it was different times that I grew up in, that they thought they needed to punish a little child for simply not talking."

And with that, I finally have my first grade, swat with a paddle story in the books. Lol. It's one of the few school memories that has stuck with me all these years, so it was nice to get it down on paper.

Jillibean Soup: Love Me Some Cookbooks

Hey everyone! I had a new layout go up at Jillibean Soup a week or so ago, and wanted to share it with you all here today. I had taken photos of two new cookbooks recently, thinking I would share them on Instagram at some point or something. When I was brainstorming ideas for my layouts last month, I realized I could do a layout about my latest favorite cookbooks. 

I had actually started designing a layout idea within my Silhouette software a while back, using a Jillibean Soup poloroid cut file (Typepad is telling me I'm spelling "poloriod" wrong, but that's how it's spelled on their cut file ;)). I had sized six poloriods, in two rows of three, so that I could frame six photos. I never did create the layout that the original idea was for, but knew that it would work great for this layout. 

I printed my photos so that they would fit behind the cut out window in the die cut poloriod. However, I had the photos laying on top of the die cut frames as I was figuring things out and moving things around, and at some point, I realized I like how the photos looked with the white borders showing. So I ended up adhering them on top of the opening. So it actually just looks like I adhered the photos to pieces of patterned paper, which wouldn't have involved my Silhouette at all. Lol.

For my title, I used one of Jillibean's alphabet cut files to die cut the word "cookbooks" from a navy blue patterned paper. I also die cut the fun "love" cut file from a reddish patterned paper, and used it, along with some tiny alpha stickers, to complete my title. 

I used a mix of patterned papers from several different collections, as I was coordinating my colors with the colors in the photos. 

Since I had five photos, I used the sixth frame to hold my journaling. Which is super short and sweet. Lol. I thought the book die cut went nicely with the theme of the layout, so I added that as well. 

I wanted to keep the majority of my background white, but didn't want it solid white cardstock. So I went with my favorite white-on-white technique, by die cutting a heart background from white cardstock and adhering it to my white cardstock background. 

To embellish my page, I added some coordinating flower die cuts, stickers, die cut words, and enamel dots to the individual frames. Definitely on the simpler side, but totally my kind of embellishing. 

Jillibean Soup: Happy Freaking Birthday Card

Hey everyone! I've got a quick card share today, with a birthday card that I created for Jillibean Soup. This card came together without much effort at all, which is totally my kind of card! 

I had just finished creating a layout, and I had several squares of patterned paper that were left over from some frames I had die cut with my Silhouette machine. I would normally just toss them back in with my patterned papers, since I save decent sized scraps. But since they were out, I figured I would build a card around them. 

I picked three of the squares to use and added some machine stitching around the edges. I adhered a neutral patterned paper onto my card base, and then layered the squares across the center of the card, trimming off the excess from the two sides. 

I adhered the "happy" die cut, which came from one of the Pea Pod Parts die cut packs, and completed my sentiment using some tiny alpha stickers. A few die cut stars and some enamel dots were all that was needed to finish this card. 

And the timing was perfect, since Sarah's boyfriend just celebrated his birthday last week :)

Jillibean Soup: Hello Job Hunt

Hey all. I've got a new layout to share that was up on the Jillibean Soup blog earlier this month, using the Garden Harvest collection. I was feeling the need to do a photo collage. I'm not sure if I've used many collages lately (I'd have to go back and check), but with as much as I love them, I should use them more often. So I started by coming up with something to create a collage about.

I wanted to document my recent job search in some way, so I pulled together some photos that I had taken during the process that I thought could help tell a little bit of the story. Job hunting was harder than I thought it would be - and yet at the same time, I knew it wouldn't be all that easy, having been self employed for 17 years. 

A few of the photos were simple Snapchat photos that I had sent to the girls. And while there are two Starbucks related photos on there, there are actually job hunting stories that go with them. So they are relevant ;) I used a Storyboard template from Kerri Bradford to create my collage, and started building my layout around it.

For my title, I used one of Jillibean Soup's alphabet cut files to die cut my "job hunt" from patterned paper, and then added a black foam sticker "hello" above it. I also used one of their background cut files on the top part of my layout, to create my favorite white-on-white look.

I really wanted to use the purple patterned paper in the Garden Harvest collection, and paired it with the navy blue based floral patterned paper along the sides of the page.

I fussy cut a ton of flowers from one of the floral patterned papers (that I've also been sharing on a few cards), and arranged several flowers in the upper left corner and bottom right corner of the page. 

I have more than I'd love to document about my job search at some point. More of the details that didn't quite make it into this smaller amount of journaling. Lol. But it feels good to get a little bit of the story down and in my album. 

Jillibean Soup: Be The Sunshine Card

Hey all. I've got a new card to share that was up on the Jillibean Soup blog last week. It's a fairly simple card, as are most of mine ;) I incorporated five different patterned papers, from two different collections, into this little card. I pulled the "Be The Sunshine" card from one of the Bite Size Bits patterned paper for my sentiment. 

I shared a few other Jillibean Soup cards that I created last week, and mentioned that I fussy cut a ton of these gorgeous flowers from one of the sheets of patterned paper - and then used them on the majority of my projects for the month. I arranged a few in the bottom right corner, and I love the way they look. A few quick tiny staples were the only embellishing I added to this card. Easy peasy!

Jillibean Soup: Smile & Be Awesome

Hey all. I've got a new layout to share that was up on the Jillibean Soup blog last week. I've been meaning to scrap these funny photos of Sarah for years. In fact, I even printed out this photo collage about 7 months ago, as I was going to use it for one of my Jillibean layouts at the time. But then I ended up going in a different direction. 

Which in a way, was a good thing. Since the patterned papers I used on this layout fit SO much better than the ones I had originally pulled out. 

Even when I started this layout, using the new set of patterned papers I picked out, I struggled to come up with a design that I loved. I finally realized that I was trying to use TOO much patterned paper. There are times when I can let my entire background be about patterned paper, but more often then not, I need a place for the eye to rest - I need that white space that I love so much. 

So I started over, and re-worked the patterned paper placements, so that I could have plenty of white cardstock showing. I'm not one to go with a plain white cardstock background, so I die cut one of my favorite background cut files from white cardstock and layered it over the top of the page. 

I searched thru my Jillibean Soup cut files, looking for something that I could use for my title. I love this tall and skinny "awesome", and knew that I could turn it into a title, by adding a few additional words. 

I pulled out the "smile" die cut from one of the Pea Pod Parts packages, and added a few small alpha stickers to complete my title. 

I wanted my journaling strips to stand out a bit more against the dotted patterned paper, and for whatever reason, vellum popped into my head. I remembered that I had these pieces of vellum (that I had run thru a dotted embossing folder) left over from doing the girl's high school graduation announcements. So I pulled out three of them, and arranged them across the page, adding a little machine stitching here and there. 

Jillibean Soup: Hello & You Rock Cards

Hey all. I've got a few new cards to share that were up on the Jillibean Soup blog last week. I tend to keep my cards pretty simple, and while I think these two cards are on the simple side, I love that they're full of layers and texture. 

I fussy cut a ton of these gorgeous flowers from one of the patterned papers in the Garden Harvest collection, as I also used them on one of my layouts (I'll be sharing it soon) for the month. I ended up using them on not only my layout, but four cards - that's how much I love them! 

I am definitely putting my Silhouette to good use lately, after not using it for several months. I used a few cut files from Jillibean Soup for these cards - the circle background, and the sentiments.  

I die cut the circle background from white cardstock, and adhered it to my white card base. Love some good white-on-white. I spritzed on a little misting ink, and then started planning out my flower placement. Once I was happy with the arrangement, I adhered them in place, trimming any excess off the edges of the cards.

I picked out two sentiments, and die cut them from patterned paper. I sized them pretty big, so they would fill the front of the card. To add some simple and quick embellishments to the cards, I added a few grey adhesive sequins to the centers of the smaller flowers. 

Jillibean Soup: Some Card Shares

Hello my friends! I have a few Jillibean Soup cards that I've been meaning to share. I created these for their booth at Creativation. Just like the layout I recently shared, I was asked to focus on their 6x8" All About Dots and All About Plaids paper pads, along with their Alphabean alpha stickers. 

It's probably evident that I'm more a fan of polka dots than I am of plaids, by the looks of these projects. I did sneak in one of the plaid patterned papers for the base of this first card, adding an embossed piece of white cardstock on top. 

I originally had little squares of the orange and blue dotted papers going down the side of my card, but they asked me to change them to another shape. My punch supply is limited, so I ended up doing some simple flowers. I crinkled them up a bit to add some texture and added a navy blue enamel dot to the centers of the orange flowers. 

I combined the grey Alphabean stickers with a stamped "hello" for my sentiment. The stamp is from the Garden Harvest clear stamp set. 

While I had to stick to only the two paper pads for my patterned papers, I was allowed to use some of the embellishments from the latest collections for these projects. I pulled out this cute house die cut from the You Make Miso Happy collection to start this card. 

I used some green cardstock for my card base, and then added a grey dotted patterned paper on top. I adhered the house die cut with pop dots to a strip of white cardstock, adding little strips of dotted patterned paper along the top and bottom. 

I was able to fit the Alphabean letter stickers to spell out "congrats" across the card for my sentiment, and added the "feels like home" sticker along the top of the card, along with two heart enamels. I also added a torn piece of washi sticker to each side of the white cardstock, which mimics patterned paper to me. 

For my third card, I pulled out the floral cluster die cut to create my card around. I wanted to arrange my Alphabean sticker sentiment, "thanks", so that the colored half of the stickers fell along the top of my green strip of cardstock. I stuck the white half of the stickers down on the green cardstock to start, and then cut down the other patterned papers and white cardstock to my liking. 

I tied some white string around the card, creating a small little notch on each side of the card to keep the string in place. I pop dotted my floral die cut in place, adding a few small colored flower enamels to the centers of the flowers on the die cut. 

Jillibean Soup: Happy Moments

Hey everyone! I'm sure you all know that the big Creativation trade show was this past weekend. I created a few projects for the Jillibean Soup booth, and today I want to share one of those with you. I was asked to create a 8x11" layout (this size worked better for the board than an 8.5x11"), focusing on their 6x8 paper pads and their Alphabean stickers. And this is what I came up with.

Jillibean has two 6x8" paper pads - All About Plaids and All About Dots. Anyone that knows me knows that I LOVE polka dots! But I will admit that working with just the paper pads, and not being able to add in any other patterned papers from the collection was tough. But it did get me to dig out some colored cardstock, which I rarely touch. 

I had the idea to create a sunburst pattern on the page, with all of the papers leading to my photo. I cut a piece of printer paper to 8x11", placed a circular object where my photo was going to go (I don't remember what I used, but anything will work), and then used my ruler to draw lines for each sunburst. I cut those apart and then used them as a template to cut each of my patterned paper and cardstock pieces. 

I assembled them on a sheet of white cardstock, adhered them down, and machine stitched along the edges of all my papers. I adhered my photo using pop dots, tucking a few floral die cuts under the top and bottom of the photo. 

The Alphabeans are half white and half colored, so I thought it would be fun to use them in a monocramatic way on my page. I added a few words to my sunbursts, using the same color stickers as the paper they were going on. 

I kept this same idea when adding a few embellishments to the page, adding coordinating enamel dots and die cut flowers to fill any empty spots that just needed a little something. 

I hope to get a few more projects shared this week, so hope to see you back here soon :)

Jillibean Soup: Love and Shenanigans

Happy Monday everyone! I've got another Jillibean Soup layout to share with you. I created three layouts last month, and two of them were home related. Made sense, since that's what was going on in our lives at the time. 

I got the idea for this layout from the cut apart card "this home is built on love and shenanigans", found on the Bite Sized Bits patterned paper. The floral strip and the butterfly strip could have been cut apart as well, but I decided to leave them all as once piece. Kind of like working a few more pieces of patterned paper into the layout, but without the extra work.

While our new house isn't quite "built on love and shenanigans" just yet, I knew my journaling could focus on the fact that it would be "built on love and shenanigans" - once we were moved in and settled. So I pulled together some photos that could tell the story of moving day (or maybe I should say moving weekend ;)). 

I created a photo collage using a template from Kerri Bradford Studio (using her Travelers Templates: Holiday Style kit), adding the date we moved into the new house. While these templates are the perfect size for travelers notebooks, they can easily be sized up or down, to make them whatever size you need. I 

I used patterned papers from the Garden Harvest collection, as well as Jillibean's new 6x8" All About Dots paper pad. The die cut house is actually from the You Make Miso Happy collection. I wanted to use an embossing folder on the white cardstock in the upper corner of the page, and I thought this circle one was a fun one to try out. It was the first time I used it, and it added a TON of texture. I had to add a lot of adhesive to the back to get it all to stick down. 

I added a few torn pieces of the washi stickers to the top and the bottom of my photo collage. I thought it went with the "moving" theme of the page, since there's a whole lot of tape involved in packing up hundreds of boxes. Lol. 

It's been almost six full months since I shared any Project Life pages, because - well, because that's the last time I actually worked on my album. Lol. I've been working on playing catch up, so I hope to have some of those weekly spreads to share soon. 

Jillibean Soup: Christmas Decor

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a very merry Christmas! I meant to get this layout up a few days ago, and then got busy with lots of family stuff and work. This was one of my other Jillibean Soup layouts for the month, and it was up on their blog a week or so ago. 

When they suggested Christmas layouts for one theme they were looking for this month, I wasn't sure what I would create. I'm not one that does tons of Christmas layouts each year. My way of scrapbooking Christmas is to create one layout with any and all photos from the family get-together. That's usually it. Unless I create a layout with our family photo or something. 

But in looking thru photos on my external hard drive, I realized I had quite a few photos of decor-related things for the holiday. I printed my photos as 3x3" square photos, and arranged them around the outer edges of my page, along with some 3x3" squares of patterned paper. 

In the center of the page, I added a 6x6" piece of white cardstock, which would hold my title and journaling. I used my favorite scalloped border punch on some grey cardstock, and added a thin border on each side of my white cardstock, before machine stitching around the edges. 

For my title, I used some older red corrugated alphas, along with some tiny alpha stickers. Since Jillibean Soup doesn't have a specific Christmas collection, I tried to find some embellishments that would work with the theme of the page, and in the end, I decided to just die cut some stars from white cardstock, using one of Jillibean's cut files and my Silhouette. I added a green sequin to the center of each star. 

I don't decorate a ton around our house. Usually it's just our Christmas tree, the mantel, and a little something near the front door. But I thought the photos that I did have could be used to tell the story of how those few decorations come to be. It's a drawn out system that I seem to have, and I think it will be interesting to look back years from now and see if I'm still going about decorating for the holidays in the same way. 

Jillibean Soup: Christmas Joy

Hey all! Just popping in with a quick card share today. I created this simple card for Jillibean Soup. While they don't have an actual Christmas collection, it's easy enough to pull patterned paper and other elements out of their collections that will work for holiday themed cards. 

I like to keep my cards fairly flat and simple, so they're easy to mail. I added a few die cut stars, cut from white cardstock with my Silhouette, and a few enamel dots. Easy peasy. 

Which is exactly what I need during the busy holiday season ;)

Jillibean Soup: Good Home

Hey everyone! I had a new layout go up at Jillibean Soup last week, and I wanted to share it here with all of you. The layouts that I created for Jillibean last month were the first projects I created in my new scrapbook room. While I'm moved in, and everything is fairly organized and in their places - I also realized I need to really get in there and fine-tune things, so that I know exactly where things actually are. Basically, it meant that I kept things fairly simple again ;)

I'm a fan of "lifting" my own designs from time to time, and that's exactly what I did on this layout. I used a design that I love, after coming across THIS layout that I created several years ago. I printed out two photos that I had snapped of our old house, the day we officially moved out, and started picking out patterned papers to match.

I used the new You Make Miso Happy collection, as I just love the colors and patterns. I was so happy to see some navy blue in this collection, as that's one color that I'm always wanting to use, but often have a hard time finding when it comes to some manufacturers. 

I'm a huge B-side scrapper. I love to pick one of the busier patterned papers to use on a layout, and then fill in the rest of the page with lots of the tone-on-tone patterns that can usually be found on the B side of the papers in each collection.

I started with the floral patterned paper from our You Make Miso Happy collection, and then used an additional five patterns, in colors that coordinate with the floral paper. By using lots of the tone-on-tone papers, using so many patterns/colors on one page doesn’t feel overwhelming at all.

I used one of the new foam stickers, along with some older corrugated alphas, to create my title. I had good intentions of adding "it was a" with tiny alpha stickers, to make a longer title, but decided to keep it simpler in the end. I added the cute house card from the Bite Size Bits patterned paper, and a few enamel flowers to embellish the page. 

Jillibean Soup: You Make Me Smile

Hey everyone. I somehow missed sharing this layout that was up on the Jillibean Soup blog last month. This was the last of three layouts that I created while in-between homes. Meaning I created this at my brother and sister-in-law's dining room table, and my only "tools" were a paper trimmer and scissors. I feel like my style is very simple when you get right down to it, and I love that having minimal supplies meant that I didn't feel any pressure to NOT go with my simple style. If that makes sense. 

I was also without a photo printer during this time, so I had to order my photos. I wanted to include several photos of the girls, taken last year on Christmas day, so I ended up arranging them on a larger canvas (most likely a 12x12" if I'm remembering right, since I had additional photos as well that I trimmed apart). I ended up with two 3x12" strips, each having three photos. So much easier to have two larger "photos" to adhere, and build the layout around, then six smaller, individual photos. 

For my title, I used one of Jillibean's new foam stickers, as well as some small alpha stickers. I'm sure you all know that I like to keep my embellishments simple, and enamel dots are always a favorite. I didn't have my favorite scalloped border punch on hand, so I freehand cut that scalloped border. It's not perfect, but it's close enough.

I cut apart one of the 3x4" cards from the Bite Size Bits patterned paper, and matted it with a navy blue patterned paper. Most of the papers and elements I used for this layout are from the new You Make Miso Happy collection. 

I know I hadn't been blogging as much the past few months, but I hope to be back on track soon. I have some more Jillibean Soup projects to share, but I won't be able to share them for a bit. Will share when I can :)

Jillibean Soup: Beautiful Reasons To Be Happy

Soooo. If you happen to miss this little tidbit of info (I shared a bit about it on both Instagram and Facebook), with the sale of our house, I also made the decision to close my daycare as well. Here's what I shared about a month and a half ago: 

17 years ago, after moving here, I opened up my own daycare business in our home. I love and adore kids, and I knew it would also be a way for me to be home with my girls while they were growing up. Each and every child that came into our home was special and so very loved. Not just by me, but by my girls and Joe as well. Sure, some were more special than others (I can’t lie - it happens). But each and every one will hold a special place in my heart forever. Over those 17 years, I was lucky enough to spend my days with 54 precious kiddos. Babies, toddlers, and school aged children. Some were with me a short time, and some were with me for 4-5 years. I am so thankful that I got to play a small part in all of their little lives, and for their parents trusting me with their babies.

With this move, I knew that it was time to make a change. The decision to close up my daycare was so very hard to make, especially since it meant letting go of the 4 special kiddos that made up my last “squad”. But I’ve felt ready for a change for a while, so I knew the timing was right. Don’t ask me what I’ll be doing next, because I don’t know yet. I’ve been job hunting, since I do have to work. Just one more change that’s happening in our family right now. We’re deep in a transition phase and doing the best we can. But I sure do miss my little friends, as it’s been a really quiet week since we all parted ways ❤

Along with those words above, I also shared several collages of photos that I had put together. These collages were made up of 45 of the amazing kids that have meant so much to our family. There were 9 more kiddos, but they were during my film years, so I couldn’t easily track down their photos at the time I was creating the photo collages. 

I knew that I needed to work those 45 photos, of 45 adorable faces, into a layout. So that's just what I did for one of my Jillibean Soup layouts last month. To start, I used a photo template from Kerri Bradford's Travelers Templates, which held 15 photos, and I created three collages. I knew I would make this a two page spread, so I sized them to fit one on the first page, and two of them on the second page. 

I mentioned in my post yesterday that I created my layouts for last month using very limited supplies, as I was in-between homes for a few weeks and I didn't have access to all of my scrap stuff. I lucked out, in that I had this circle background already die cut and mixed in with my Jillibean Soup papers, since it was created with a Jillibean cut file. I had actually die cut it a few years ago, and didn't end up using it. I think if I had had my Silhouette handy, I most likely would have die cut that circle background from white cardstock, for a white-on-white look. But I love how the kraft looks mixed with the patterned papers and the white cardstock. 

I used patterned papers from the new You Make Miso Happy collection for this spread. This 3x4" card, from the Bite Size Bits patterned paper worked perfectly for my title. I matted it on a piece of black patterned paper, to help it stand out a bit more. I love these floral die cuts, from the Pea Pod Parts pack, and have been using them quite a bit on my projects. 

I've also been using lots of these die cut houses. Without really thinking about it, I used it on a layout this weekend that I created for next month's projects. I added some journaling strips along the bottom of the two pages, but I also added a little journaling block in this empty space on the first page, as I had a bit more to say.

I used that old school paper tearing technique again, just like I did on the layout I shared yesterday, as I didn't have any border punches or special tools - but I didn't want a straight edge, so the tearing adds some texture and interest. 

I've created a few layouts over the years, where I've included a photo of every kiddo that I've taken care of. You can see a few HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE. It's fun to see how the number of faces grew over the years. I won't lie - I miss seeing those little faces greet me each morning. It's been a good change, but a weird change too. I'm so thankful that I still keep in touch with the majority of these kiddos and their families, and I can continue to see cute photos of them, hear cute stories, and watch them grow up. 

Jillibean Soup: Together

Hey everyone! I know I sort of fell off the face of the earth for the last month or so. If you don't follow me on Instagram, which is the only real place I share everyday life happenings, we recently sold our house and downsized to a new place. It happened rather quickly, and we were actually in-between homes for several weeks. 

I haven't done too much creating the last 2 months or so, what with packing up an entire house, and storing it all - both in a storage unit, as well as my parent's and my brother's garage. Most of my scrapbooking supplies and such went into storage, but I did keep out my Jillibean Soup products, as I knew I would need to create a few layouts during those weeks in-between homes. 

I created three layouts, sitting at my brother and sister-in-law's dining room table. And I went pretty old school, as the only tools I had were my trimmer, my edge distresser, and my scissors. I didn't keep out my Silhouette machine or my sewing machine - although I did luck out, as I had a few die cut background that I had saved from previous projects, where they didn't get used or portions of them didn't get used. I had a single row of a circle background, and it was all that I needed for this layout, as you can see above. 

Jillibean Soup came out with some foam stickers with their two newest collections, and they ended up being just what I needed to create the titles for a couple of my layouts. I usually use my Silhouette to create parts of my titles, and fill in with alpha stickers when needed. These larger foam sticker words worked great for my titles on their own.

I used lots of patterned papers from the new Garden Harvest collection for this layout. When I was thinking of photos that I could use with it, this family photo from Mother's Day 2017 came to mind. We had gone out to visit Joe's mom, along with his brother and our niece, and I'm so glad we thought to get a photo together before we left. The colors in the photo worked perfectly with this collection. 

To add a little interest to the yellow patterned paper strip - rather than having a straight edge - I tore the paper lengthwise, which is a super simple technique that was popular years ago. Overall, this is a really simple layout. But there was something sort of refreshing about limiting what I had to work with. 

Jillibean Soup: Hello High School

Hey everyone! I have a new layout to share that was up on the Jillibean Soup blog last month. They had tossed out the idea of school layouts, and even though my girls are done with school (not counting college, which Sarah is still in), I had an idea that I thought would fit the request.  

I have created "first day of school" layouts for both of the girls - maybe not for every year, but for a lot of them. But I thought it would be cool to make a layout showing their "first day" photos for their high school years. I mainly thought of the idea after seeing new cut files for the high school years in the Jillibean Soup Silhouette store. 

I divided my page up into four rows, one for each year of high school. This allowed me to print my photos as 2x3" pics, and still gave me plenty of room to add patterned papers, my cut files, etc. I sized each of the year's cut files to fit within the rows, and cut each one from black cardstock. 

I gathered up Alyssa's first day pics and Sarah's first day pics, and printed them side by side, so that they were essentially one photo. This gave me one photo that was 4" wide and 3" tall, for each year. 

I staggered the photo placement in each row, so that the photos weren't all lined up in the same spot on the page. I then cut 2-3 pieces of patterned paper to fill the rest of the row, adding my die cut year to the larger piece of patterned paper. 

I wanted to add a title as well, since the die cut years didn't really make up a "title" in my mind. I ended up pulling out some crazy old Jillibean Soup alpha stickers, as I was looking for red stickers. These alphas were from way back when I was on their design team like 8+ years ago. 

It turns out, I missed taking a first day of school photo for both Alyssa and Sarah, their junior year. Funny, since they were totally different years. I only missed 3 years of "first day" pics, during their 13 years of school. And I guess it just sort of worked out that one of those was Junior year for both of them. 

It still seems like just yesterday that they were in high school. Except it wasn't just yesterday, and now I have one that's graduated from college and one that's in her second year of college. Times flies, that's for sure! 

 

I pulled out some puffy stickers, hearts and butterflies, and color coordinated them to the patterned papers. I love how they're subtle, when paired up with the same colored papers. 

Jillibean Soup: Gather Round The Table

Hey everyone! I have a new layout to share that was up on the Jillibean Soup blog a while back. I think you all know by now that I love to work with pocket pages. They're not just for Project Life albums, as they can easily be used for your every day scrapping as well. I had the idea for this layout a few months ago, and I'm so glad I finally took the time to execute my idea. 

We have this old coffee table in our family room. We've had it for well over 18 years, and it's been a well loved table. By our little family for sure. But mostly by 17 years worth of daycare kids. It's always been one of their favorite places to play, and it shows, if you were to see this table in person. It's taken one for the team, that's fur sure. It's completely beat up and covered in dents. I guess you could say it has a "distressed" look ;)

I have taken so many photos of kids playing around this table over the years, and I knew they would make a great layout. I had gone thru my external hard drive a while back and pulled out any photos that I thought would work for this layout idea, and finally took the time to sit down and figure out what I wanted to do with them. 

I love creating photo collages, so that was one option. So was printing out the photos and adhering them to my pages in a collage like fashion. But I was really itching to create a pocket page spread, and I knew all of the photos would work great as little 3x3" photos, since I take so many of my photos on my phone as squares. 

I knew that I had a 12x12" pocket page protector that had all 3x3" pockets, and that I wanted to use that for one side of my two page spread. For the other page, I came across a pocket page protector that had a large 6x12" pocket in the center and two rows of smaller 3x3" pockets - one row at the top and one row at the bottom. 

The larger 6x12" pocket across the center was the perfect spot to house my title, journaling, and a few simple embellishments. For my title, I used one of Jillibean Soup's cut files to die cut "gather" from my favorite woodgrain patterned paper. I pulled out some older red corrugated alphas to complete my title, along with a few green alpha stickers. 

I printed out my journaling and created a tag shape, matting it on a piece of green patterned paper. I added a floral puffy sticker to the bottom of the tag shape, rather than using string or ribbon. 

I decided to print all of my photos in black and white, since they had a lot of different colors going on, as they were all taken over the course of a few years. Some of the older photos had been taken with my much older cell phones, which didn't give me great quality photos. So turning them all to black and white helped make those photos look a little better. 

Working with black and white photos also allowed me to use whichever patterned papers I wanted to use, since I wasn't trying to coordinate my papers to my photos. I came across the "love my tribe" 3x4" card, taken from one of the Bite Size Bits patterned paper, and was able to trim it down into a 3x3" card to slip into a pocket on the first page of the spread. I pulled the colors for the rest of my patterned paper choices from that one card. 

I left four pockets empty on the second page of the spread, as well as one extra pocket on the first page, so that I could add in a few filler cards. I added a fun letter board saying to each pocket, which were all hand cut out of the Goodness Gracious paper from the Farmhouse Stew collection. I matted each one onto a piece of patterned paper, and added a few quick staples to the top of the letter board saying. 

I just love seeing all of these cute photos of the cute kiddos, playing and having fun around my well loved table. Individually, they're fun photos. But when you pull together a wide variety of photos like this, they can tell such an amazing story that just can't be told with a single photo. 

As beat up as this table is, we never gave any thought into replacing it. Seeing as how the kids would just take a beating to any new table we got as well. Lol.

I should also mention the "food basket", as that goes hand in hand with the table. The basket at the end of the table holds all of the play food and dishes. I have always kept that basket at the end of the table. Even going back years and years, that basket has always been there. And I'm pretty sure I have a photo of just about every kiddo I've watched sitting IN the basket. The kids always loved to sit in the basket, and there were times I'd even find two kids in the basket at once. Lol. 

Jillibean Soup: Sunday Groceries

Hey everyone! If you haven't heard the news, Jillibean Soup is celebrating their 10th birthday, and they're having a 10 day long celebration that you should definitely check out. Stop by the Jillibean Soup blog to join in on the festivities, as well as get in on the giveaways ;)

I wanted to share a new layout that was up on their blog earlier this month. I think I've mentioned (although I could be wrong) that often times, I will browse my cut files, looking for titles that inspire a layout idea. I came across a cut file that had "groceries" in it several months ago, and I finally got around to creating the layout that I knew it would be perfect for.  

Sunday is my grocery shopping day. It's part of my weekly routine, and I rarely change it up. Once I'm up and ready, I figure out what we need, try and plan what I'm making for the week, and go thru my grocery store ad and app to make sure I know the sales and deals. It might seem like a weird thing to make a layout about, but it's a part of my everyday life, so I love that I took the time to document it. 

I ended up combing two different cut files, pulling one word from each, to create my over-sized title. I love how "groceries" looks, die cut from the brown woodgrain patterned paper. I sized my title to fit across the top of my photo collage, as I love a great, large title. 

I knew I had a variety of photos to use for this page, so I picked five of them to use to create a photo collage using a template from Kerri Bradford. I printed out my journaling to fit below the photo collage, and added a few strips of patterned paper between the collage and the journaling. 

I needed a little something in the upper left corner, so I added a coordinating kraft banner tag. The cute little puffy coffee cup sticker seemed like a good choice to add to the tag, since part of my regular routine is to also grab a frappacino from Starbucks on my way out the door. 

I had some empty space in the middle of the page as well, where I had a gab between my title and the photo collage. I found a few tab stickers and phrase stickers in coordinating colors and added those to finish off the page. 

Jillibean Soup: Adventure Is Always Worthwhile

Hey everyone! I've got a new layout to share that was up on the Jillibean Soup blog a while back. I've lost all track of time, but I think it was up at the end of August. Since I was asked to focus on summer themed layouts, I had to do some digging for photos to use. My goal was to find photos that I hadn't scrapped yet, and to avoid re-scrapping photos that are already on layouts within my albums. 

I came across these photos from a family trip to my uncle's cabin, way back in 2001 I believe (I had it written down, but failed to add the date to the layout, and now I can't find the info). These were film photos, since this was years before I went digital (was digital even a thing in 2001?). And to make things even trickier, I had already trimmed down some of the photos to random sizes. 

Not having digital images to work with can make things a little limiting, but I knew I could work with what I had to create a great layout. Back in the day when I would use film photos, I would simply start trimming little bits here and there off each photo, working them into a collage as best I could. The photos always ended up being totally different sizes, but they would eventually fit into a grid-like fashion on the page. 

Once I had my photos trimmed down, and arranged across the center of a two page spread, I then knew how much space I would have left to work with. I die cut a circle background from white cardstock for each side of the two page spread, using a cut file from Jillibean's Silhouette store, and adhered those to my white cardstock page bases. 

I kept the patterned paper minimal for this layout, adding thin strips of a floral patterned paper across the top and bottom of each page. I knew I would work some additional patterned paper into my die cut title and some circle accents that I added at the end. 

I also added in this 3x4" card from one of the Bite Size Bits patterned papers that said "the details documented" across the bottom. The orange worked well with my color scheme, and it helped fill in a gap within my photo "collage". I added a small corrugated frame to the card, which I backed with a scrap of white cardstock and added a sticker to the center. 

I knew I wanted to add in some additional patterned papers, and backing some of the circle cut outs in the die cut background seemed like a great spot to add those in. I used the floral patterned paper as my starting point, and picked out a few other papers that tied in with the colors on the floral paper. 

Since I finally got my new sewing machine up and running (which I'm pretty sure only took me about 2 minutes to do), I added my usual machine stitching here and there on the pages as well. On my July layouts, I didn't add any machine stitching and my layouts felt like they were missing an important piece.

For my title, I picked out a cut file from Jillibean's Silhouette store, and die cut it from a green patterned paper. I believe it actually said "Adventure is worthwhile", and I got rid of the "is" part. I can't remember for sure, but I know that I didn't use part of the cut file. 

I used some small letter stickers to complete my title, adding the "is always" to the second half of my title. 

I actually have about 8 more photos that I plan on adding to this spread. Well, not to these two pages, per se. I must have had an idea for these photos years and years ago, since so many of the photos were trimmed down into random sizes, and then some of them were trimmed into circles and ovals. Yes, you read that right. Which means is was forever ago, since the only time I cut my photos into ovals was back when I was only using Creative Memories products. I've done circles here and there, but I definitely got away from ovals.

My plan is to create a 6x12" insert, that will get added into the album, in the middle of these two pages. I already know I can fit those 8 circle and oval shaped photos onto two pieces of 6x12" cardstock. I will most likely keep it super simple, die cutting another circle background from white cardstock and adhering those to white cardstock page bases. And then I'll add the photos to those and call it a day. I meant to get that done before I shared this spread, but life happened and I just didn't get to it. When I do get around to it, I'll have to come back and share ;)

Jillibean Soup: San Diego Zoo

Hey everyone! I've got a new layout to share that was up on the Jillibean Soup blog a while ago. I was asked to create summer themed layouts when I set out to make my projects back in July. I didn't really have any recent photos that needed scrapping, but I did remember that I had these photos of Alyssa that I printed out over a year ago that I had never got around to using. 

The photos were from a trip she took to the San Diego Zoo with her dad and her grandparents, way back in the summer of 2002. It's actually a miracle that I even had digital images to work with for these. While I didn't go digital until around 2006, Alyssa's dad had gone digital several years earlier than that. 

For my title, I wanted to use some of the large, chunky alpha die cuts, along with some smaller alpha stickers. I wasn't able to find two O's in the colors I needed, so I simply traced an O onto a scrap of aqua patterned paper. You can tell which one I hand cut, because I didn't do the cleanest job cutting out the inside of the O. Lol. 

I had picked out several sheets of patterned papers in aquas and reds, but didn't really have any navy blue options that would work. I ended up going with a white background, so that it wasn't so patterned paper heavy. And since I love to add white die cut backgrounds to my white layout bases, I picked out a star background cut file from Jillibean Soup's collection in the Silhouette store. 

I had a pack of these little shaped/colored paper clips that I thought would be fun to use on this page. They just so happen to be the perfect colors, and I ended up adding one to each of my three photos. 

I still have four new Jillibean Soup layouts to share, but I seem to be short on time to actually sit down and type up some blog posts. I'll see if I can get another one up before the end of this week :)

Jillibean Soup: Every Summer Has A Story

Hey everyone! Has it really been almost a month since I've blogged anything? Oh my. I feel like I had a ton to share at the beginning of August, all at once. And it just so happen that all of the layouts I created for Jillibean Soup for August ended up being scheduled at the end of the month. So I'm just now able to share them. And oddly enough, all of the layouts I created for September are scheduled for this week, so I'll be sharing lots of Jillibean Soup layouts over the next week or so ;)

Anyways, I've got a new layout to share that was up on the Jillibean Soup blog last week, so let's get to it.

A while back, my mom gave me a few old albums filled with my childhood photos. I was looking for a photo for a layout idea I had, and came across this photo of myself back when I was eleven years old. It gave me an idea for a totally different layout, and I printed out the other two photos right away.

And then the photos got pushed to the side, and I never got around to making that layout. But since I was asked to make a few summer themed layouts last month, it seemed like a good time to finally get these photos scrapped.

It took me a while to decide on a title. I usually start by looking to see if any of Jillibean's cut files catch my eye. Whether they work as a full title on their own, or if maybe a portion of the title/phrase will work - whether on it's own, or mixed with some die cut alphas or alpha stickers. 

For this layout, I thought the "every summer has a story" phrase would work well. I knew I could work my journaling, and what I wanted to say about these photos, off of that title. I die cut the title from patterned paper and cardstock.

Since the top part of my layout was white cardstock, I wanted to add a little texture and interest. I usually do this by adding a die cut background, cut from white cardstock as well. But I just happen to have a ton of white cardstock circles from one of my other layouts (they were the negative pieces from a circle background that I had cut), so I decided to use a bunch of those along the top of the page. 

I used an embossing folder, and ran them all thru my Cuttlebug. I don't always think to use my embossing folders as often as I should. I love the easy texture they add, with very little effort. 

I thought it would be cool to find photos of the girls, similar to the photo of myself - and taken around the same age that I was in my photo. I was eleven in my photo, and Sarah is eleven in her photo. Alyssa is actually ten in the photo I found of her, but it's close enough. 

I printed the photos as 3x3" pics, and arranged them across the page, adding small pieces of patterned paper below each photo as well. I was looking around for something to embellish those patterned paper pieces, and thought it would be fun to add the two digit year that each photo was taken. I probably should have added an apostrophe after the number, so that you know it's the year. And not just random numbers. Lol. 

Since the photos had different looks to them, and the photo of myself was a much older photo (that I scanned using my printer), I ended up changing the photos to black and white. This also allows you more freedom when it comes to picking out products, as you can use any colors you'd like. 

I actually started by picking out this 3x4" card from one of the Bite Size Bits patterned papers, and then picked out all of my other patterned papers based off the colors in the card. I also added a little puffy "love" sticker to the center of the larger flower on the card. I usually keep my embellishments pretty simple, so that little circle, and a few additional stickers at the top of the page were all I felt the layout needed. 

I'll try and get another layout posted on Thursday or Friday. Hope you're all having a great week!

Jillibean Soup: Sassy Pants

Hey all! I have a new Jillibean Soup layout to share with you today. I created this one way back in June, but it didn't go up on the Jillibean Soup blog until late July, and then I sort of forgot all about it. I guess it's ok that I waited to share this, since I can't share my last set of Jillibean projects until the first week in September. This is why I forget about stuff ;)

I've pulled out these photos of Sarah and I a few times over the last year or so, but always end up sticking them back in the box to scrap later. But when I sat down to figure out what I was going to make for my June layouts for Jillibean, I came across a cut file in their Silhouette store and knew it would pair up nicely with these photos. 

The original title was "fancy pants", but I knew that I would drop the "fancy" part and just work with the "pants" part of that cut file. 

"Sassy" seemed like the perfect word to describe my girl, as we do often call her Sassy Sarah ;) I ended up using some corrugated alphas for the first half of my title, and die cut "pants" from some navy blue cardstock. 

Once I figured out my plan for the page, I ended up having some empty space along the top of the page where I would be adding my title. I'm sure you all know that I'm not always a fan of plain white cardstock. I love to create a simple white-on-white look with a background cut file, and I happen to have a leftover piece of a woodgrain background from THIS layout, so I added that along the top of the page. 

My photos were all 3x4's, so I decided to create four 3" columns across the page. I added a photo to each column, staggering the placement, and then picked out a patterned paper for each column as well. The patterned paper in the column where my journaling is was the first paper I picked out and where I pulled the other colors from for the rest of the page. 

I also found several 2x2" cards, cut from one of the Bite Size Bits patterned papers, and added one to each of three columns that had photos in them. 

I then picked out a few flowers from a Pea Pod Parts package that coordinated with my papers, and added a flower along with each 2x2" card. 

Lastly, I added a tab die cut or sticker to each photo. I often debate over adding additional embellishments to my pages, as I'm not one to force anything onto a page just for the sake of adding product. I don't even think it crossed my mind to add anything else to this layout. I have more layouts these days that are made up of paper, photos, and die cuts, and I'm totally fine with that :)

Jillibean Soup: Everything Is Going To Be Ok Card

Hey all! I have a new Jillibean Soup card to quickly share with you today. And I say "quickly", because I feel like I'm drowning in scrapbooking projects/assignments these last few weeks and I'm having a hard time keeping up with things. Luckily, my cards are pretty straight forwards, so they don't need much explanation ;)

There's a patterned paper in the Farmhouse Stew collection that has all these fun quotes and saying on "letterboards". I knew right away that I would be cutting into that patterned paper to use these individually. They'll work great on layouts, but my first plan was to use one on a card. 

I picked out two coordinating patterned papers to create the base of my card, and matted the cut out quote on a piece of brown cardstock. I stamped some flowers, using the Bowl Of Dreams clear stamp set, and arranged those behind the cut out quote. Easy peasy. 

Now back to juggling all of the stuff that landed on my plate this week ;)

Jillibean Soup: Broken

Hey all! I have a new Jillibean Soup layout to share with you today. I was wanting to use the Shades of Color collection for a layout, trying to keep with the "crafty" theme of the collection. 

When I saw the "life is about using the whole box of crayons" card, from the Bite Size Bits patterned paper, it reminded me a story worth documenting. 

 

This here little girlie, Emelyn, is such a funny girl. She's full of spunk and sass, and I just love her. She's not a regular here at my little daycare anymore, as she moved on to part-time preschool - but I'm fortunate to have her baby brother here, so I still get to see her all the time. 

Her mom had shared a cute little story on an Instagram photo a while back, about how Emelyn told her to throw away the white crayon because "it's broken". Meaning white crayons don't work on white paper, right ;) She's such a smart girl! 

A few weeks later, she was here with me for the day, and wanted to color. I was in the other room, and she walked past me, right to the garbage. Where she proceeded to toss not only my white crayons away, but my peach ones as well. Lol. And she told me "Laura, I'm throwing these away because they're broken". Well, alrighty. The funny thing was that a few weeks later, I had a few of the older girls here, and they were coloring. And then I heard "do you have a white crayon?". I had to break it to them that Emelyn had thrown them away. 

To create my title, I started with the word "broken", using the die cut alphas from the Shades of Color collection. I then used a mix of colored alpha stickers to create the rest of my title. 

I wanted to use the patterned paper that has all of the color samples on it (sort of like paint chips), but it took me quite a while to figure out how to incorporate them into my page design. I kept playing around with a full strip of them, trying to use it as a border somewhere on the page. 

I finally cut them up into individual pieces, and used them to embellish a few empty areas on my page. I created this after my sewing machine died, and before I had gotten my new one up and running. Otherwise, I would have added machine stitching to finish off the page. 

Jillibean Soup: Thanks & Hugs Cards

Hey all! I have two new Jillibean Soup cards to share with you today. And yes, I do realize that I've made quite a few cards lately ;)

So, I started these cards with a totally different idea of what they would look like. See that paper along the top of the card, with the three colors? That's half of a 3x4" card that I cut out of the Bite Size Bits patterned paper in the Shades of Color collection. The other half of the card has the three colors on my second card. 

My thinking was to have that 3x4" card in the center of my card, and all around the card I would have these stamped and fussy cut flowers from patterned papers that matched the colors on the card. I picked out all of the patterned papers that I wanted to create my flowers with, pulling papers from several different collections, and used the Flower-Bloom stamp set to stamp a flower on each paper. 

But after fussing cutting out all of my flowers, and playing around with my original idea, I realized it wasn't going to work the way that I wanted. Which turned out to be totally fine, since I like the new idea I came up with much better. 

I decided to cut the 3x4" card in half, and use three colors for one card and create a second card with the other three colors. I always like when I can create two cards at once, so that was a happy bonus. 

I adhered the halved card to the top of each of my cards, after spritzing on a little bit of black ink to the white card base. I then adhered my flowers along the bottom of the halved card. 

I decided to add a little easy texture to my flowers before I adhered them. I simply crumbled them up and then flattened them back out. Not all the way out, but enough that I could adhere them with a few glue dots on the back of each flower. I also added a small wood veneer flower to the center of each. 

For my sentiments, I combined a script word sticker ("thanks" and "hugs") with a stamped "from me to you" (using the Souper Celebration stamp set). 

Jillibean Soup: Hello College

Hey everyone! I had a new layout up on the Jillibean Soup blog last week and wanted to share it with you all today. When I sit down to create my layouts each month, I try and look for any photos that are an easy match - whether to the theme of the collections/papers, or to the colors. These photos of Sarah, visiting the college she would later decide to attend, were a match in both ways. 

I pulled a few of my patterned paper from other collections, but most of what's on this layout is from the 2 Cool For School collection. At first glance, this collection is boy themed, but it can most definitely work for girl layouts as well. 

I was originally going to fussy cut a few of the banner flags out of a sheet of patterned paper, until I realized there were a few in the Pea Pod Parts die cut package. I had some small scraps of the brown woodgrain patterned paper, so I used a few thin strips to go along with the banner flags.

Anyone that knows me knows that I love to use die cut backgrounds, and I love to create that white-on-white effect when using them. I have a few of Jillibean's backgrounds cut from white cardstock already, so that I can cut off pieces as needed for layouts and/or cards.

I cut out the "best ever" circle off of one of the 3x4" journaling card on the Bite Size Bits patterned paper and adhered it in the upper corner, trimming off the excess that hung over the edges of the page.

I used one of Jillibean's alphabet cut files, found in the Silhouette store, to die cut the word "college" from both patterned paper and navy blue cardstock. I used some corrugated alphas for the other half of my title, using a smiling emoji in place of the "o" in "hello". 

I used the computer monitor stamp, from the Computer stamp & die set (intended for use with their shaker cards), and stamped it with black ink onto a scrap of aqua dotted patterned paper before die cutting it. I backed it with a scrap of ruled patterned paper and added the "class of 2021" with tiny alpha and number stickers. 

This page design is one that I've used often, and is perfect for those times when you have several 4-5 photos that you want to include. I love to add three 3x4's or 4x4's down the left side of the page, and then add another photo or two across the page. Then I just add strips of patterned paper and journaling above and/or below those photos in the center, adding my title along the top of the page. Easy peasy.

Jillibean Soup: Congrats On Your Special Day Card

Hey everyone! I've got a new card up on the Jillibean Soup blog today. I'm sure you've seen all of the super fun shaker cards that Jillibean has to offer. A wide variety of card bases, shaker inserts, stamps, dies, and fillers. I had every intention of trying my hand at one of these shaker cards when I started creating my projects for this month, but time got away from me with SOOOOO much going on in May. 

So I decided to keep things a little simpler for this card. I used one of the shaker card bases, but not in the way it was meant for. I realized that the card with the large circle cut-out was perfect for using along with their felt flowers from the Mix The Media collection. 

These felt flowers are just gorgeous. While this may be too bulky for mailing out to someone special, it works just fine if you're seeing that loved one in person. Which I was, as I created this for one Amanda - who was one of my very first daycare kiddos forever and ever ago, and who graduated from high school a few weeks ago.

I added a piece of patterned paper from the 2 Cool For School collection to the front of the card, after cutting a circle out to match up with the cut out circle on the front of the card. I then used the Flower Bloom stamp and die set to create my sentiment and stapled it under the cut out circle. 

The card base is more of a cream color, and I had stamped my sentiment on white cardstock. To make the inside of the card match with that, I simply adhered a piece of white cardstock to the inside of the card. I then picked out one of the yellow felt flowers and adhered it to the inside, positioning it so that it peeks out from the circle cut out on the front of the card. 

Jillibean Soup: 2 Cool For School Cards

Happy Monday! I had two new cards up on the Jillibean Soup blog last week. One thing that I have been doing when I set out to make a card, is to look thru the Pea Pod Parts package and see if I can find a die cut or two that would be a good starting point for a card. These two corgi's, from the 2 Cool For School collection, were too cute to pass by. Personally, I can't see myself using these adorable corgi's on a layout, but they work perfectly for cards. 

I picked out a few patterned papers to coordinate with the cute corgi's. I created 2 layouts and 3 cards for Jillibean Soup for this month, and somehow I used the same main colors/papers on most of them. It wasn't planned, but just sort of happened. Two of the patterned papers here are from from the 2 Cool For School collection, and the woodgrain patterned paper is from the Farmhouse Stew collection. 

For this first card, I wanted to incorporate a stamp, and the "Hello" stamp from the 2 Cool For School stamp set seemed like a good choice. I stamped it with navy blue ink next to the corgi die cut, and then added tiny little alpha stickers below to complete my sentiment. A few puffy star stickers finished off the card. 

Since there were two die cut corgi's in the Pea Pod Parts package, I figured I might as well create two cards at once. If you've got all of the coordinating supplies out, why not knock out two cards (or more) in one sitting. 

There were several little phrase/word die cuts in the Pea Pod Parts package as well, and this aqua "good times" one was the one that matched so well with the corgi's bow tie. I played with this card, over and over, trying to decide if I should add a different sentiment, or maybe stamp another sentiment below the "good times" die cut. But I kept coming back to what I have here - it's simple and I like it. I added a few adhesive sequins to finish off the card.