... just Laura

2021 Reading Album: Books 21 - 30

I shared a bit more about my plans for this project in THIS POST. Since I'm following the same basic format, and using a lot of the same basic supplies, I won't be sharing too many details in these posts - so please refer back to that first post to find the main info on this album project :)

Book #21 || Charming Falls Apart by Angela Terry

Book #22 || The Last Goodbye by Fiona Lucas

Book #23 || The Flip Side by James Bailey

Book #24 || The Ever After by Sarah Pekkanen

Book #25 || Heart Bones by Colleen Hoover

Book #26 || Love Me Like A Love Song by Annmarie Boyle

Book #27 || For All She Knows by Jamie Beck

Book #28 || The Jake Ryan Complex by Bethany Crandell

Book #29 || It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey

Book #30 || Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover 

You can read previous posts on this project and see all of my reading pages RIGHT HERE.

2021 Reading Album: Books 11 - 20

I shared a bit more about my plans for this project in THIS POST. Since I'm following the same basic format, and using a lot of the same basic supplies, I won't be sharing too many details in these posts - so please refer back to that first post to find the main info on this album project :)

Book #11 || Roomies by Christina Lauren

Book #12 || Regretting You by Colleen Hoover

Book #13 || The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory

Book #14 || Just My Luck by Adele Parks

Book #15 || Twice Shy by Sarah Hogle

Book #16 || Straight Talking by Jane Green

Book #17 || Confess by Colleen Hoover

Book #18 || The Perfect Neighbors by Sarah Pekkanen

Book #19 || Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes

Book #20 || November 9 by Colleen Hoover

You can read previous posts on this project and see all of my reading pages RIGHT HERE.

2021 Reading Album: Books 1 - 10

Hey everyone! Some of you may remember the reading album that I created last year, which held all of the books that I read in 2020. I've been consistently keeping up with adding in my 2021 books this year, and have been totally up-to-date with adding in photos and journaling cards. I finally took the time this week to create my number cards and pick out filler cards. 

Since this is the first look at my 2021 reading album pages, I wanted to do a quick recap of how I'm approaching this album project and what, if anything, is changing with this year's album. Not much has changed from last year, and I'm fine with that. I was happy with how last year's pages turned out, and went with the same basic ideas for this year as well. 

I knew I wanted to create an on-going album to document the books I read - an album that I can easily add to as I finish new books. I brainstormed quite a bit on what format and album size I wanted to do. I figured a 6x8" album would be the best fit.

I decided to do a card to go along with each book that has the book number for the year. I used a label from Kerri Bradford Studio's Label kit, and a digital stamp from Studio Calico's On The Shelf stamp set, to create the "book" label for the upper corner of the number card. Once I had one label ready, size-wise, I copy and pasted it to fill an entire page, and then printed it out. I now have plenty of "book" labels on hand and ready to go. 

Last year, I used patterned filler cards for the number card, and this year I'm using white textured cardstock which I ran through an embossing folder to add a little texture. 

Last year, I stamped the numbers, using different colored inks to coordinate with the filler cards/number cards on the page. I then fussy cut the stamped numbers out and adhered them to the number card. This year, I decided to go a simpler route and I did cut my numbers from black textured cardstock using my Cameo and Kerri Bradford's Weathered Door Alphabet kit.

I will be adding a digital journaling card to go with each book, like the one above. I wish I had it in me to do an actual review of each book - but I'm really not that deep. Lol. So this journaling will most likely be short and sweet, and somehow related to how I enjoyed the book (or didn't), why I picked it, etc. 

For my journaling cards, I went with a single design. I did the same thing in my 2020 album. I have a ton of digital reading themed stamps and cards, but I found last year that I was having a harder time trying to use different designs on each card. So I came up with a single card that I'm using for each book this year. 

I ended up tweaking a journaling card from In A Creative Bubble's Read Journaling Card kit, deleting certain parts of the card and adding in a few different digital stamps - the row of books and the "pages read" at the bottom. I thought the "pages read" would be a fun addition, and it will be fun to see not only how many books I've read at the end of the year, but how many pages as well.

For the filler cards, I mostly just pull from the collection of cards I've had printed along with my photo orders each month. A huge majority of them are right from the Project Life app, but I also add in cards from other digital kits here and there. These filler cards are all printed on photo paper.

By keeping with a super simple, and repetitive, design, it's an album project that I can easily keep up with. One thing that's really helped me this year, is that I've been typing up my journaling cards right after I finish each book. Last year, I fell behind a little and found myself trying to remember what some of the books were about or what stood out to me about each one. 

I'll be back to share more pages from this album next week. Last year, I set a goal of 25 books for the year, and I finished the year reading 29 books. This year I have a goal of reading 50 books, and as of today, I've read 33 books. 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Isabella Framed Project

 

Hey everyone! I'm really late in sharing this project that I created for Kerri Bradford Studio. I created this almost two months ago, and Kerri shared it over a month ago. This was part of Kerri's iNSD celebration, which is always such a fun, and super inspiring, time of the year! When Kerri mentioned focusing on doing something creative with alphabet stamps, I knew exactly what I wanted to make. 

 

My niece is expecting her first baby next month (and seeing as how I typed this up almost two months ago, she has since delivered her baby girl several weeks ago) and I wanted to make her a little something to hang in the nursery highlighting the name they picked out for their little girl - Isabella. I went with a chunky black frame that has an 11x14" opening. Since I didn't have any cardstock larger than 12x12" in size, I lined up strips of white cardstock to complete my 11x14" background, and then spritzed on a little black misting spray.

 

 

I knew the nursery colors were light pink and grey, and that the bedding they picked out had soft roses/flowers on it, so I used that as the inspiration for my design. I started by creating the block that would go in the center of the frame, with the baby's name. I used Kerri's new Headline Upper Outline stamp set, pairing it up with the Headline Upper stamp set, to stamp out the name "Isabella" several times.

 

 

I intended to do an ombre look, using a few different pinks, but it turns out, I didn't even have two pink ink colors that worked nicely together. So I decided to go with grey letters in the center, and then a row of white and pink both above and below the row of grey. 

 

 

I stamped the Headline Upper alphabet stamps in both grey and pink, and then stamped the Headline Upper Outline stamps on top of each letter. For the white letters, I simply stamped the Headline Upper Outline alphabet stamps onto white cardstock. Once all of my letters were stamped, I fussy cut each letter out individually. I adhered each "Isabella" name in rows onto a piece of white textured cardstock, which I then matted onto pink patterned paper and black cardstock. 

 

 

I used Kerri's Roses kit to die-cut a ton of roses from grey patterned papers using my Silhouette Cameo. I adhered them around the edges of my 11x14" background, layering them over one another to fill the space. Once all of my roses were in place, I adhered my "Isabella" piece in the center using thin pop dots. I added a few pink enamel dots to the background to finish it off. 

 

 

I love that I have the ability to create customized wall art, using basic supplies that I have on hand - paper, stamps, and inks. You can never have too many alphabet stamps sets, if you ask me. It's always nice to have a variety of fonts and sizes, so you can find the perfect fit for whatever project you are looking to create!

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Starry Night

 

Hey everyone! I had a new project up at Kerri Bradford Studio a few days ago, and wanted to pop in and share it here as well. I decided to create a small album giving an updated look into some of the ways that we celebrate Christmas. I created a similar album way back in 2007, and it's so fun to look back and see what "traditions" have changed and which ones are the same. 

 

 

This little spread is decorating - when and how I start decorating for the Christmas holiday. And my journaling is so true. The part where I say it's not unusual for the trees to be up with just lights for a week or two before I put on the decorations. We have two Christmas trees, and while one has been decorated for two weeks - the other has sat without decorations up until today, and even as I type this, it only has about 10 decorations on it. Lol. I'll finish eventually ;)

 

 

I love using stars as embellishments, so I couldn't wait to use Kerri's new Starry Night kit.

 

 

I die cut two sets of the stars from white cardstock using my Cameo, and then arranged them on my 4" x 8.25" page. I'm a huge fan of white-on-white for backgrounds! I spritzed on a little silver misting spray and also added some fun silver star outline stickers that were in my Christmas stash from years and years ago. 

 

 

For my title, I used Kerri's Printers Block | Letters stamp set to stamp my title in black ink on white cardstock, trimming each letter individually and adhering vertically on the page, tucking the ends under the ribbon just a little bit. 

 

 

I printed the black and white "merry & bright" piece from Kerri's Christmas Cheer kit, and adhered it on the left page along with my journaling. I had a few die cut stars left over, so I adhered them on the red and white patterned paper on the bottom of the page. 

 

 

I'm hoping to create additional pages to add to my album over the next few weeks. The small page size, and the fact that I'm not worrying about including photos, should help make them doable. Quick little projects that I can fit in when I have a short amount of time.

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Very Merry Christmas

 

Hey everyone! I have a few new projects up at Kerri Bradford Studio today, as part of her 12 Days of Christmas event! Each of the 12 days, there is a new design that you can download for free - for that day only. If you happen to miss out on any of the free downloads, you can still purchase them for a very low price starting the following day ;)

 

 

Very Merry Christmas is the today's free design (Friday, December 4th only), and the first design that I picked to work with for our little event. I had full intentions of using the "Very Merry Christmas" phrase to create some holiday cards, but then came up with a new plan once I started die cutting the words.

 

 

I love to watch everyone document their Christmas holidays in projects like December Daily, but I have to admit that I am not one to create many holiday projects (other than a layout or two each Christmas).

 

 

One Christmas project that I did participate in, way back in 2007, was Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas. The album that I created didn't contain a single photo - just pretty paper and little stories to document the ways that we celebrate the holiday.

 

 

I thought it was about time to create an updated look at some of the same topics I included in that album, all those years ago. I decided on doing Travelers Notebook sized pages, which I'll add into a Life Crafted album from Citrus Twist. I used Kerri's Very Merry Christmas kit to create two spreads for this album - an intro spread and a spread about our holiday photo tradition. 

 

 

I die cut both words included in the kit - "Very Merry Christmas" and "Holiday Photo" - from black cardstock using my Cameo. I also die cut a circle background from white cardstock, using the Background Basics kit, so that I could create white-on-white background on which to adhere my die cut titles. 

 

 

My pages are 4" x 8.25" in size, and I dug deep into my Christmas supplies for patterned papers to add to the pages, along with my title pieces and my journaling blocks.

 

 

I have jars and jars of ribbons that I haven't used in years, and added a piece of ribbon to each spread, adding metal brads to the ends of the ribbons. 

 

 

I came across a die cut rose (from Kerri's Roses kit) on one of my cutting mats that I didn't end up using on an old project, and figured I would toss that onto my "Holiday Photo" spread.

 

 

I also printed a few elements from Kerri's Fa La La Labels kit and her Merry Little Words kit to help embellish the spreads. 

 

 

These little pages were so fun to put together, and by not worrying about including photos (although photos would be a great addition if I had them), they came together in no time.

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: 5 Long Months

 

Hey everyone! It's been a minute since I've popped in with a new project, but I finally have something new to share - a 6x8" spread that I created for Kerri Bradford Studio. 

 

I have always been a huge fan of large titles on my layouts. Most of my "layouts" these days are the smaller 6x8" pages, or pocket page style layouts, and Kerri's new Thick/Thin/Thick Outline + Number stamp line-up is perfect for creating large titles on smaller sized projects. I used a mix of the new stamps, as well as the new When stamp set, to create this fun little 6x8" spread about how long it's been since my last haircut.

 

 

I love that the Thick XL and Thick Etc XL stamps have the Thick Outline XL and Thick Etc Outline XL stamp sets as well, as they're just a fun way to make your alphas and numbers stand out. While I am a very clean and linear scrapper, who uses many, many rulers to always make sure things are straight and even - I love the perfectly imperfect look you can create with the outline stamps (although you can also line them up perfectly as well). 

 

 

I always have pages from Kerri's Label kit printed out and ready to grab for adding smaller stamped words/phrases, and I used them to stamp the month of my last hair appointment and the month of my next appointment using new When stamp set.  

 

 

I tucked little alpha stickers - oldies, but goodies, from Making Memories - above each of the labels for the "last appt" and "next appt". I was digging around for some sort of embellishment to add to my spread, knowing that it needed a little something, and I came across these old metal plaque embellishments from Making Memories and thought they'd be a fun addition.

 

 

My appointment is in less than two weeks and I'm not sure who's more excited - me or my hair! 

 

Update: I wasn't able to share this until today, and my appointment was scheduled for tomorrow (Wednesday). But as of a week ago, the hair salons here in my part of California were shut back down. So no appointment :( And now a lot of the facts on this layout will all be a lie. Lol. 

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Covid-19 Themed Pages

 

Hey everyone. We celebrated (inter)National Scrapbook Day all last week over at Kerri Bradford Studio last week. I meant to get on here last week and share my projects, but Typepad wasn't letting me upload any images.

 

 

 

We're focusing on Kerri's Lay It All Out: Travelers Notebook kit this week. The first sentence in the kit's description reads "These templates are designed to help you get your memories down even faster than before" - and that's exactly what they did for me. 

 

 

After die cutting several of the templates from white cardstock using my Silhouette Cameo, I simply laid the templates over white cardstock cut to TN size (I create individual pages that I slip into my Life Crafted album as opposed to using an actual travelers notebook) and drew in my lines with a fine tip black pen. 

 

 

Once those lines are drawn out, you end up with a great start to your page, as you know where the journaling will go and you have empty spaces for photos and any other embellishing and/or title work that you want to add in.

 

 

 

So much of the thinking and decision making is already done for you, which simplifies the process and really lets you focus on getting your stories and memories down.

 

 

 

I am not one to use my own handwriting on my layouts - never have been if I'm being honest. But. I decided to go for it on these pages.

 

 

 

I have been wanting to document this crazy Covid-19 time that we're all in right now, and this was the perfect way to get started on some of those stories. I didn't want to spend a ton of time on these little spreads, and using my own handwriting really simplified my process. 

 

 

 

I worked a few of Kerri's new stamp sets - Denali, Denali XL and Denali Etc XL - into my pages, along with stamps from five other recent sets.

 

 

 

I added in a little patterned paper and a few simple embellishments and in no time at all, I had four spreads completed.

 

 

I can't wait to use the Lay It All Out: Travelers Notebook kit to create more pages documenting this weird time that we're all going through. 

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Sarah + Dom

Hey everyone! I have a new layout up at Kerri Bradford Studio. Kerri's new Me & You stamp set is perfect for documenting love, and I thought it would be a great opportunity to create a layout about my youngest daughter, Sarah, and her boyfriend of almost 3 years, Dom. 

I started by gathering any photos that I had of the two of them together, and used a storyboard template from the Picture That kit to create a photo collage of 12 of my favorites. 

I created the base of my page by piecing together my printed collage, a few patterned papers (from Dear Lizzy), and part of a die cut circle background that I made using my Silhouette Cameo and Kerri's Background Basics kit.

I added a few die cuts that coordinated with my patterned papers, along with adding my journaling strips along the top right corner of the page. 

I love the new Thick + Thin alphabet stamp set and knew it would be perfect for creating my title. I cut small strips of white cardstock and stamped each letter onto one of these strips using a navy blue ink, after which I dragged the edges of each strip along a pink ink pad so that they would stand out against the white background. I adhered these vertically along the left side of the page, tucking the bottom of each letter strip under the blue scalloped edged border. 

I pulled out a few tags from my supplies, as well as the sheet of black labels that I printed using Kerri's Label kit (I keep these sheets printed, as I love to use them for "housing" my stamped phrases), and stamped several phrases from the Me & You stamp set onto each tag/label.

I adhered them along the left edge of the page, adding a few navy blue enamel hearts for my final embellishing. 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Christmas Day Trip

Happy New Year's everyone! I'm back with my first post of the year, sharing a project that I made for Kerri Bradford Studio. I've had these photos laying around for a little over a year now, taken on a little day trip that my family took the day after Christmas, back in 2018. 

While this wasn't technically a Christmas day trip, we took it the day after the holiday, while my sister was still in town - and the Christmas vibe was still found in the places we went. So I kept that Christmas theme going in my title and the patterned papers I picked out. 

I used one of my go-to page designs, arranging my 3x4 and 4x6 photos around the outside edges of the spread, and adding a white die cut background using Kerri's Background Basics kit across the center part of the spread.

I printed out a filler card to add alongside my journaling block, using the And So The Adventure Begins kit.

I'm loving Kerri's new stamps! Letters, numbers, days of the week, months, years - all of those little stamps are so versatile and I just love how you can arrange them together in different block configurations. Such a fun concept and the possibilities are endless!

I used the Printers Block | Letters stamp set for part of my title, stamping the letters onto cardstock and trimming each letter into an individual block. I then paired them up with my die cut "Christmas" word, taken from Kerri's December Twenty Five kit (no longer available). 

I then used the Block of Time stamp set to add the date to a white shipping tag, adding a piece of bakers twine to the top. 

I die cut a few stars from black cardstock (using the Christmas Calendar kit) to add some simple embellishing to the 3x4" pieces of patterned paper, adding a single button to the center of each star. 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Christmas Gift Giving

 

Hey everyone! We've been doing a little early Christmas and Thanksgiving celebrating over at Kerri Bradford Studio this week, and the festivities will continue throughout the month. We're focusing on gift giving, sharing creative ideas using Kerri's new stamps, along with her other fabulous products.

 

 

When I think of handmade gift packaging, I think of tiny little packages - gift boxes, little treat bags, and envelopes. We don't exchange too many gifts in my family, but I do find myself gifting gift cards to quite a few people, and these small packages make gifting gift cards so much more fun. 

 

 

Kerri has so many awesome cut files for boxes, bags, and envelopes. I started by picking out 3 designs to focus on - Envelope: Tabbed, The Paper Bag, and Gift Box [Square] - and used my Silhouette to die cut each design from patterned paper.

 

 

Before I assembled them, I used Kerri's Inked stamp set to add some black ink splatters to my envelope and paper bag. Next, I assembled my little trio of packages. These are all so easy to assemble - just a few folds and a little bit of adhesive. 

 

 

I have several sheets of labels that I've printed using the Label kit, so I pulled out the black labels and added the "to you from me" phrase to several labels using the Looks Like Christmas stamp set.

 

 

I also pulled out some older vellum metal rimmed tags from my stash, and added a stamped sentiment/image to three tags - using the Looks Like Christmas stamp set and the Peace On earth stamp set - picking out sizes that would work on my packages. 

 

 

I added a stamped vellum tag to each package, along with a stamped label. I found some older Christmas themed embellishments - metal tags and a velvety leaf - and used them to add a little something extra to each package. 

 

 

 

Make sure to stop by Kerri's blog, and check out her October stamp release. It's a good one! The design team, along with some talented special guests, are sharing projects this week and into the month - and you don't want to miss all of the gorgeous projects they've created ;)

 

Kerri Bradford Studio + Color Cast: My Story TN Album

 

Hey everyone! I was so excited to hear that the Kerri Bradford Studio design team would be teaming up with the Color Cast design team, and I couldn't wait to play with some of their awesome products. Both teams are sharing projects all week long, and my completed project was up on Kerri's blog yesterday.

 

One of the items that I picked out was the gorgeous wood veneer "My Story" album cover. I tossed around a few ideas for what kind of album I wanted to create, while browsing thru Kerri's Travelers Templates kits.

 

 

I knew I wanted to include a collection of little stories in this album, so I looked for templates that had room for lots of journaling. When I came across a template in the Travelers Templates: Holiday Style kit that had room for a single photo, a good space for journaling, and had the option to add the months along the top, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

 

 

It's been almost a year since we sold our house and moved into a smaller home, along with closing up my home daycare business and starting a new job outside the home. There's been a lot of emotions along the way, as we all adjust to these changes and how they trickle into big and little parts of our lives.

 

 

I wanted to focus on a few of those changes/emotions that I personally have dealt with over the last 12 months. I went thru my photos for each month, picking out a single photo for each month that could tell a story. 

 

 

I started by creating all of my photo/journaling pages, using the Travelers Templates: Holiday Style kit. I added my photos, selected the correlating month, and typed up my journaling before printing all of them out on photo paper. 

 

 

Next, I picked out a few patterned papers to pair up with white cardstock to create the second half of my pages. I die cut several rose clusters from white cardstock, using Kerri's Roses kit, as I thought they would tie in nicely with the wood veneer album cover. I adhered these die cut roses to several of the pages, tucking them under the top of the patterned papers.

 

 

I laid out all of my pages in order, so that I could work on embellishing them all at the same time. I've always been a fan of the acrylic pieces from Color Cast, and had picked out the "view from here" piece and the "this feeling" piece, and luckily, they worked within the theme of this album perfectly.

 

 

I started with those 2 pieces, as they went to specific photos/stories. I love the wood veneer frames, as they're super thin (and I love that they have adhesive on them!), and picked out which pages I wanted those on next.

 

 

The ginormous acrylic stars are awesome, and I added those to several pages, adhering them to white shipping tags. 

 

 

My last step was to add some stamped phrases to several of the pages, using Kerri's stamps - Gather Together, Thankful, One Fine Day, Long Story Short, Oh Yeah (no longer available). 

 

 

I gathered several of her stamp sets, and searched for words/phrases that tied in with my stories, adding them to the centers of the wood veneer frames, as well as stamping them onto the black labels that I printed out using Kerri's Label kit. 

 

 

The last step was to assemble the album. I adhered my photo pages to the backsides of the patterned paper/cardstock pages, making sure they all fell in the right order. I punched holes along the left edge of each page, to line up with the holes on the wood veneer album cover. I used metal rings to hold it all together - they're a little bigger than I need, but the only other ones I had on hand were too small. 

 

 

I love how this album came together, and love that I took the time to document some of the feelings and changes that I've gone thru over the last year. 

 

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. 

Christmas Movies: A Pocket Page Spread

Hey everyone. I don't know about you all, but I'm a huge fan of Christmas movies. Specifically, Hallmark Channel Christmas movies. They're a tradition of mine, and I watch them non-stop during the holidays. 

This past holiday season, Hallmark Channel came out with 22 brand new Christmas movies. They even came out with an app to keep track of them, and check them off as you watched them. Since this made it much easier to remember what movies I was watching (since admittedly, they do all sort of run together after a while), I thought it would be fun to document the movies that I watched for the 2018 holiday season. 

This 6x8 spread is specifically about the Hallmark Channel movies. I also watched a ton of new Christmas movies on Lifetime Channel, and I am planning on doing a second spread about those ;)

I turned to Google to search for images for all of the movies that I watched. I printed them all as 2x2" photos, and I also found some fun little quotes to go along with them, since I knew I would have a few empty pockets to fill. 

I have images for 19 of the movies, but I watched 20 out of the 22 new movies. There was one movie that, no matter how much searching I did, I could not find an image for. It actually looked like it was an older movie, that was being promoted as a new movie. I finally just gave up on that one. And there was one movie I totally missed - and one that just didn't look interesting to me, so I skipped it.

I created a 6x8 page, to go alongside the pocket page. I used a few cut files from Kerri Bradford Studio for my title, as well as a circle background for the top of the page.

I added in some incredibly old patterned papers from Making Memories that I had in my "Christmas" box of supplies, and added my typed journaling as well. 

I had saved the Countdown to Christmas movie schedule that the Hallmark Channel had put out, and printed it as a 6x8 photo to include as well. I guess I should go back and actually check off the movies that I watched, shouldn't I? 

It only slightly bothers me that some of these photos aren't a true 2x2" square. I had put 6 2x2" onto a 4x6" to have printed with my photo order, and of course, the pics don't always come back a true 4x6". So on some of these, you can see where the photo behind it is slightly larger. 

This layout should come in handy next year, when all of the Christmas movies start up. I can't tell you how many times I will sit and watch a movie, thinking that I have probably seen it - but I'll watch it anyways, just to be sure. Now I can just pull this out and cross reference what I've seen ;)

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. 

Movies: A Layout Share

Hey everyone! Last week I had a few days off work in a row, and got into some weird creative zone, where I was finishing up half done projects, while also working on new projects. When I get inspired like that, I tend to just go with it. Because it doesn't come all that easy at times. Or I get busy with work and life stuff, and don't have the same kind of interrupted time where I want to work on projects. 

Anyways. This is one of those half done projects that I worked on. I'm not even sure I could say it was half done. Let's just say it was partially started ;)

A few years ago, when Alyssa was about to start her second year of college, we switched the girls rooms at the old house. During the switching process, Alyssa had cleaned out a ton of stuff that she had collected over the years. She's good about giving me things that she thinks I would want to keep, as a scrapbooker and documenter. 

One of the things she gave me was a bag filled with movie ticket stubs that she had saved up over the years. My very first thought was that I wanted to make a layout with them. 

I started out by sorting the ticket stubs out by dates, making piles for each year that she had tickets for. There were a few duplicates in the mix, so I threw those away. I decided I would adhere them to a 12x12 sheet of white cardstock, layering them over each other here and there. I started on the left side of the page, and adhered a row from top to bottom. Then I started on the second row, then the third row, etc. 

I knew that I wanted to add my title along the right side of the page, and I ended up with plenty of room once all of the ticket stubs were adhered in place. 

I immediately thought of this fun "movies" cut file from Kerri Bradford Studio for my title. It is actually a part of Kerri's The History Project class, and is included in the massive amount of cut files that come with the class. I die cut it from black cardstock and adhered it along the right side of the page. 

The ticket stubs had touches of red and a little blue in them, so I added a strip of red patterned paper and a blue scalloped border sticker. I very randomly pulled out this plastic 12" border piece, which has circles going down the center. It was a part of a super, duper old monthly kit by Creating Keepsakes magazine.

Such an old, old, old product. But I love using older stuff. I've purged my supplies SO many times over the years, and if I'm still holding onto something that is THIS old, it's because I really did love it and can still see myself using it. So I'm glad I came across the bin of these plastic pieces (along with foam pieces!), because I may need to use them more often now ;)

I didn't really have a plan going into this for journaling, but I knew that I needed to include a little something somewhere on the page. I typed this up and printed it out, thinking I was going to adhere it on top of the ticket stubs. But then I decided to just adhere it sideways, on top of the plastic strip. I love when I stop overthinking things and just go with things. It took me no time at all to finish up this layout and that makes me happy!

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. 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Entertaining With Snapchat

Hey everyone. I've got a new layout up at Kerri Bradford Studio. So, I'm really not a fan of being in photos. And yet, I apparently seem to have no issues taking Snapchat selfies. Especially when I take them with adorable kiddos! Lol. I used to entertain the daycare kiddos with funny Snapchat filters at least once a day, so I've accumulated a lot of photos over the last few years. I decided to pull out some of my favorites and put together a two page spread. 

I printed 14 photos as 3x3" squares, and arranged them around the outside edges of my two page spread along with some 3x3" squares of patterned paper.

I printed my photos in black and white, since there were so many colors happening in them. I love that this allows me to use any paper colors that I want. 

I die cut a circle background from white cardstock, using Kerri's Background Basics kit, cut it in half lengthwise, and adhered the two pieces across the center of both pages. 

I didn't really have any patterned papers in mind when I started this. Not sure how it happened, but I turned towards my patterned papers, and immediately thought about the You Are Loved collection from Bella Blvd & Illustrated Faith, that my good friend Stephanie Buice designed. I never did take the time to use her gorgeous paper designs, and thought this was the perfect time to dig into them. 

I printed out Kerri's "Living Our Best Life" (from the Living Our Best Life kit) on white cardstock, as I wanted a 3x4" filler-type card to go side by side with my journaling card, which I also sized to 3x4". The metal rimmed tags are super old, both from American Crafts and Making Memories.

I had also printed the "Love This" (from the Click kit) circle on white cardstock, so I wanted to have a few additional circles to embellish the page. I arranged them on the left page of the spread, to fill in the empty space.  

This two page design is one that I use quite often. Arranging photos/papers around the outside edges, whether 3x3" in size or 3x4" in size, and then using the space in the center to add my title, journaling, etc. 

I love using the Weathered Door Alpha [All] kit for titles. It's a great choice for words that you may not be able to find specific cut files for, and I just love the chunky font with the option to die cut the outline of each letter as well. I pulled the "entertaining" from the Happy Stuff kit, and paired it with my die cut "snapchat" to complete my title. 

Well, I guess I also added some tiny alpha stickers for the "with" part of my title - so that completed my title ;)

I also added machine stitching around the outside edges of each 3x3" square of patterned paper. I did this before adhering them to my pages, and then machine stitched down the strips of striped patterned paper once the layout was assembled. 

These photos just make me smile. I realize the kiddos may not look all that thrilled in so many of the photos. But trust me, they loved doing them with me.

Seeing as how I actually started this layout last summer (all I had done was adhere my photos to white cardstock), I'm so glad I came across it and took the time to finish it.

Kerri Bradford Studio: Sleep Vibes

Happy New Year's my friends! I love the start of a new year. A clean slate. A fresh start. I've noticed over the last couple of years that I tend to get super creative at the beginning of the year. I'm not sure why exactly that is, but I find it best to just run with it ;) I've also noticed that January is when I tend to pull out those forgotten projects. The half-done layouts and/or albums that just need a little attention in order to move them to the "finished" pile. 

I started this layout a full five months ago, as it was going to be one of my layouts for Kerri last summer. I must have went in another direction, with another project, for that month, and kept pushing this layout off for another month, and then another month. I decided that January 2019 would be it's month! And yesterday, it was up on the Kerri Bradford Studio blog. 

When Kerri came out with her Summer Vibes kit, I brainstormed some ways to use the "vibes" word, and decided I could pair it up with photos of some of my daycare kiddos napping. I pulled some of my favorite photos of napping kiddos into one of Kerri's photo templates, using her Storyboard: Instagram Style kit, printed it out, and matted it with two different patterned papers. 

For my background, I used Kerri's Heart Background kit, die cutting the full hearts from a blue patterned paper and the heart outline from white cardstock. I misted the die cut heart background piece before I adhered it to my page. 

I picked out a few tags (along with a 2x2" PL card) to add along the top of the page, tucking them behind the photo collage. My patterned papers are a mix of different manufacturers. If I'm remembering right, I have some Dear Lizzy, Shimelle, Photo Play, and another one that has slipped my mind. I had them written down, but that all got lost in the move.

I die cut "vibes" from some solid brown patterned paper, and then die cut "sleep" (from the Oh Baby kit) from some red dotted patterned paper, to complete my title. Fun outline words were one of the first things that made me want a Silhouette all those years ago. I just love the look of those types of cut files. 

You know what's crazy? I had my title die cut, I had my papers picked out and trimmed down, I had my photo collage printed - I even had my journaling printed! Why it took me so long to assemble this page and finish it off is beyond me. Lol. 

To embellish the area to the left of my photo collage, I added some a few stickers and coordinating buttons. So glad to have this one finished and in the albums! 

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: 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: 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 :)