... just Laura

Kerri Bradford Studio: Halloween Angel

Hey everyone! I have a new layout up at Kerri Bradford Studio today. I came across these photos of Alyssa from Halloween 2002. I had actually started a two page layout that same year, but only had a few of the photos adhered to the pages, along with some patterned paper and one die cut frame (that gold one).

I knew I had a few additional photos in a box, along with some gold paper that I had wanted to include on the layout. I also had a vellum piece with a poem about an angel, which honestly had nothing to do with the photos. But it was something that was kind of trendy way back when. Lol. The fact that I had started this layout a full 13 years ago, and never got around to finishing it, doesn't actually surprise me. I have a lot of half-done layouts from my very early days of scrapping.

The main challenge for me, when using older photos from these half-done layouts, is that a lot of them had already been cropped to random sizes, or even into circles, ovals, or other shapes (that was a big trend way back then too). And since these photos are from my film days, it's not like I can just pull them up in Photoshop, edit them, and print them the specific sizes that I want.

I do have all of my negatives, and they're very organized so that I could get reprints made if needed. But I find that even reprints from old negatives don't always turn out that well these days. Scanning the photos is always an option too, but once again, I just don't get great results with that either. So I do the best I can with the photos I have, which is exactly what I did on this layout.

I rarely use standard Halloween colors when scrapping my Halloween photos. I let my photos, and the colors of the costumes, decide the colors I'll use. For these photos of my daughter, in an adorable angel costume, I went with gold, brown, and a shade of yellow that paired nicely with both the gold and brown. It just so happen that all of the patterned papers I picked out for this layout were from My Mind's Eye.

One of the first things I had pulled out for this layout was the gold Confetti Clear Cut transparencies from Bella Blvd. I don't own a lot of gold product, but this was one thing that I knew I had on hand. I added a large piece to the bottom of each page of the spread.

I used glue dots along the top and bottom of the transparency, knowing that I would be adding a strip of patterned paper along the edges (that would cover up those glue dots). Somewhere in creating this spread, I must have decided NOT to add the patterned paper strip along the bottoms of the pages. And I didn't even think about it until I was editing the photos, but you can see the glue dots, since I didn't cover them. You might not have noticed, but I love to point out the "mistakes" I make ;)

I was able to create my title to include the word "angel", as Kerri had that word in her Oh Baby kit. I paired it up with a handwritten "Halloween" word from the October Thirty-One kit.

I kept the gold die cut frame that was already adhered to one of my photos, since like I mentioned, I don't have a lot of gold products. And that gold paper that I had laying around in a box, with the photos, and have no clue where it's from or who made it? I used that for part of my title, and to die cut the stars. 

I embellished the page with some simple stars from Kerri's Thank My Lucky Stars kit, and added gold glittered and brown enamel dots added to the centers. And at the last minute, I decided that I needed a little something to the right of the photo up there on the second page. I didn't want to have to think too hard about it, and the first thing that popped into my head were these little tags from Creative Imaginations, from their Creative Café collection of embellishments. A really old product, but one that I can never seem to get rid of.

Bella Blvd: Family Photos 2015

It's "Spread It Out" day on the Bella Blvd blog today, so that means I have another two page layout to share with you. I had a few ideas for layouts rolling around in my head, and even started printing out photos for one of them. And then I totally gave up on those ideas, as time was slipping away from me.

My sister came out for a surprise visit about a month ago, and we managed to take some new family photos. She doesn't make it home that often, so we try and do the photo thing when she is here and we're all together. We didn't actually plan this time, as to what to wear, but I guess our color mix wasn't too bad.

I printed out most of my photos as 3x4", 4x4", a 4x6", and then added in a 5x5" photo just to add some height difference since I was lining all of these photos up across the page. We took these photos at the end of August, and here in my part of CA, we won't see anything resembling "fall" until late October, maybe even November. However, the Hello Autumn collection was the perfect match for our photos, as the colors we all wore were represented in the colors of the fall themed collection.

I knew that I wanted to use the beige triangle tone-on-tone patterned paper for the background of my layout. It's a subtle design, so the photos, title, and other products all stand out well against it. I lucked out, as I only had two sheets of that paper left. I added a thin navy blue woodgrain patterned paper strip along the tops and bottoms of both pages.

I happen to have plenty of sticker sheets to work with, so I was able to use two orange scalloped border stickers (one on each side of the spread). If I didn't have duplicates, I would have simply used a border punch on some patterned paper instead.

For my title, I used a mix of Blueberry Simply Simona chipboard alphas and a die cut word (from Kerri Bradford Studio) which I cut from a green leaf patterned paper. As I was looking for some embellishments, I came across these brown chipboard banner flags from a prior fall collection, and decided they would be perfect for adding the year. I used some cream number stickers to add the year.

I couldn't really find any embellishments to fill in that space on the right side of the spread, so I decided to die cut a tree, using my Silhouette and some patterned paper. I embellished the tree with some threaded buttons.

If you haven't already, stop by the Bella Blvd blog today and check out the two page layout from designer Heather Leopard. I really loved what she came up with, and it was so similar to what I was originally going to do. So it's a good thing I gave up on my previous idea ;)

 

 

Bella Blvd: Ninth Birthday Party

Hey everyone! I've got a new layout up over on the Bella Blvd blog today. I was brainstorming for a few new features on the Bella blog as I wrote up our August schedule, and I decided to start a new one called "Spread It Out", focusing on two page layouts. I knew I would pretty much freak out my layout designers, as I know a lot of designers do not enjoy creating two page layouts. Which is why I'm committing to creating a new layout for this feature each month, and then inviting/forcing (same thing, right?) one other designer to play along with me.

I love to embrace the two page layouts, as I actually enjoy making them. I think that's because I love to incorporate tons of photos onto them, and it's a great way to document all of those things that just can't fit on a single page layout. Like birthday parties, for example. Which is why I decided to scrap photos from Sarah's 9th birthday party for my first layout.

I mentioned this on Instagram a few days ago, but I'm so used to working with just ONE collection (and being told exactly what collection) when it comes to the majority of the layouts I create for Bella. Whether it's project sheet layouts, catalog layouts, booth work ... it's more limiting and you work within the assortment of papers in that one collection.

So when I do have a layout to make, where I can really work with whatever collections I want, I get stuck. It's like I don't even know where to start in picking out my patterned papers (which is how I start all of my layouts). I have a HUGE stash of Bella papers, and it's not like one or two collections were calling out to me. I finally just pulled out a few of my paper holders, very randomly, and within just a few minutes, pulled out about 6-7 patterned papers, all from different collections. I didn't overthink it, which helped speed up the process.

When it comes to the photos, I'm pretty sure you all know by now how much I love photo collages. I'm not one to make several layouts about the same event/moment, so I really try and incorporate as many photos as I can on my layout. And when it comes to working a huge amount of photos onto a layout, photo collages are just a smart way to go. It keeps the photos contained and organized.

I used templates from Kerri Bradford Studio of course, and created two separate collages with 8 photos in each. I also printed 3 photos individually, for a total of 19 photos on my two page spread. What I'm not showing here (mostly because it wasn't totally finished), is that I also printed 10 more photos that I slipped into a 6x12" divided page protector. I'll add that right in between these two pages in the album. So my total is actually 29 photos for this spread.

I pulled out my favorite white grid patterned paper to hold my title and journaling. The overall design of this page is one that I do quite often, so I knew the basic placement of all of the elements on this page. I knew I wanted to use the Blueberry Sienna chipboard alphas for my title, and then added a die cut word and some alpha stickers to complete my title. And as always, I lost the dot to my "i", so I simply added a tiny enamel dot in it's place.

I picked out patterned papers that coordinated with the colors in the photos, and that coordinated together as well. I did little debating over where to work in each paper, as it all just sort of fell together and balanced itself out. I didn't want the layout to be super patterned paper heavy, so I die cut a circle border from the yellow patterned paper to add to each side of the spread. Just a little way to break things up, and add a little "dimension", but in a flat way. If that even makes sense?

I think this layout fits in perfectly with how I prefer to scrap. Lots of photos, lots of patterned paper, some die cutting, a title mixing chipboard/stickers/die cut words, and simple embellishments. I knew I would probably add some chipboard elements to embellish the page, and I lucked out when I pulled out a package of Hearts & Stars chipboard pieces, and found five stars that perfectly matched the colors on the page. I added a coordinating enamel dot to the center of each star.

Head on over to the Bella Blvd blog to check out what our other designer created for this new feature. And continue to watch for it once a month, as it will usually fall on the third Thursday of the month.

Scrapbook & Cards Today: They Humor Me

Sooooo. Back in May, when National Scrapbook Day rolled around, I was searching for the layout I had created for NSD in 2014, and was baffled when I couldn't find it on my blog. I mean, it was definitely up on the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog (HERE) that year.

But I searched my blog high and low one day, and couldn't find it anywhere. It makes no sense that I never shared it, but maybe I really did overlook it. Or maybe I did share it and then the post vanished. Stranger things have happened. Anyways. I thought since I don't have anything else new to share right now, I would share it again. Or for the first time. Who knows at this point ;)

I go back and forth between two different styles when it comes to creating my layouts. Sometimes I’m all about the layers and texture and sometimes I work in a technique or two. I almost always add machine stitching and I love die cutting. I also love mixing and matching between manufactures and using a fun variety of products!

However, sometimes I'm looking to create simple and quick layouts, without all the fuss. Of course, I also still want them to look amazing and have plenty of interest. Luckily, there are so many products on the market that make "simple and quick" look "amazing and interesting". I created this two page layout with 10 photos, 6 3x4” cards, 6 thin strips of patterned paper, a few stickers, some alphas (chipboard and stickers), a few paper flowers, and a handful of buttons. And it really didn’t take me any time at all.

With the hugely popular Project Life elements showing up in so many manufacturer’s collections, it’s easy to find a wide variety of 3x4” and 4x6” cards to coordinate with your photos. I am not a Project Lifer (is that a term?), but I have a huge collection of Project Life cards and elements. They are easy for working into my everyday layouts and cards.

The 3x4” cards that were used on this spread came from a single sheet of 12x12” patterned paper, so I did have to trim them before using. I love that it gives the illusion that I dug into so many different patterned papers to create all of these different cards, when in fact, they all came from one sheet of paper.

I truly LOVE my die cut machine and my sewing machine, and I rarely make a project without using one, if not both, of them. However, with the way my scrap space is set up, I don’t have easy access to either one. If I want to die cut a title or shape, or if I want to machine stitch on my project, it involves clearing off enough room on my desk to put those machines. When I set out to do super quick projects, I forgo my die cut machine and head straight to my large collection of alpha stickers and chipboard for my titles and I skip the sewing machine all together.

By printing my photos 3x4”, the same size as my cards, I was able to create a collage of photos and paper across the two page spread. By lining everything up, and keeping things very clean and linear, I was able to get the “bones” of the page (cardstock, patterned paper and photos) put together very quickly.  

I added some simple embellishments to some of the 3x4” cards. By sticking to a few of my go-to embellishments … buttons, flowers, and stickers … I saved time by not having to dig through all of my supplies looking for little bits of things to add to the pages.

Remember, creating eye-catching layouts doesn’t mean you have to spend hours on every page, or put $20 worth of product onto your pages. A little really can go a long way!

Kerri Bradford Studio: Hello Pool

Hey everyone! I've been doing way less scrapbooking these days, so my blogging has suffered. But I do have a new layout up at Kerri Bradford Studio today. With the official start of summer right around the corner, I was itching to create a fun summer layout. So that's what I did.

I dug up some really old photos (taken back in 2007) of a family get together at my brother and sister-in-law's house. Our summer's usually consist of temperatures in the 100's, so most of our gatherings revolve around a swimming pool, to keep everyone cool. To be honest, I have scrapped these photos before. But this layout will definitely take the place of the other layout, since it's way more "me" than the previous one.

Since I had a lot of photos I wanted to include, I pulled up a template from Kerri's Storyboard #3 kit that I felt would work well with my photos. I used this same template twice, once for either side of my two page spread. I just flipped the template for the second page so that it would mirror the template on the first page.

I also printed a few main photos individually to add to the top section of the two pages. I still had a few additional photos that I would have loved to include, but getting 20 photos onto this layout pretty much told the story of the day. I even stuck the one photo of myself on there, even though I hate it.

I knew the top part of my pages would be white cardstock, but I wanted to add something so that it wasn't so plain looking. I decided to use the sun from the This & That: Summertime [just shapes] kit, and cut three different sizes of suns, multiple times.

I layered the suns on the top half of each page, adding adhesive only to the centers of the suns. This added some easy dimension and texture to the page, as they weren't adhered totally flat. I then misted over the top half of each page, using pink, green, and aqua misting sprays.

All of my patterned papers on this spread are from My Mind's Eye. I came across the floral patterned paper, and thought it would work well, so I went searching for a few tone-on-tone papers in pink and aqua to match. I honestly believed that the papers matched well when I started this layout. I was matching that pinkish paper to the small amount of pink you can see in the floral paper (and also matching it to the girls swimsuits). In the end, I think my colors were a little off, but it still works.

For my title, I choose the words "hello" and "pool" from Kerri's Summer Lovin' kit. I knew I wanted a large title along the top of the page, so I sized each word fairly large. I cut each word from patterned paper, as well as black cardstock, and layered them together.

I had every intention of adding a subtitle, "you know we love you", and then completely forgot about it until I was editing the photos of the layout. Opps. At least I worked that thought into my journaling ;)

When it comes to buttons, I always thread them. But very rarely do I take the time to hand stitch them to the page anymore. I usually thread them, and then add a glue dot to the back and stick in place. But since I was using clear buttons on a white background, I decided to take the extra time to hand stitch them all in place. Really not that time consuming, but it did take me longer than glue dotting them.

Speaking of 100 degree days of summer, we had one of those earlier this week. And we were all miserable. The air conditioning can't keep up when it gets that hot, so it's just constantly turning on and off, on and off, over and over. At one point, I realized it was 82 degrees in the house, when I had it set at 78. So I turned off the air and gave it a break, knowing it was 102+ degrees outside.

I left to go get a haircut after all the daycare kids left, and when I got home a few hours later, the family informed me that they were dying and it was 87 degrees in the house. No one had even thought to turn the AC back on and cool things back down. Lol. We're looking at 100 degree temps again this weekend, so wish us luck and hope we survive!

Scrapbook & Cards Today: Adventure On The Green

I had mentioned in my post last Saturday that there was a big National Scrapbook Day celebration going on over at the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog. Did you check out the 12 posts that went up that day? There were tons of giveaways going on, in each of those 12 posts, and there's still time to get in on them, if you haven't already. You have until Saturday, May 9th, to leave a comment for any and all giveaways.

I wanted to share the layout I created for the celebration, which you can also see HERE. I didn’t realize until I was halfway done with this layout that I had created a two page layout, using lots of 3x4” photos and accent cards, for my NSD project last year. It’s how I love to scrap, so I guess it makes sense that you would see this type of design a lot from me.

If I make a two page layout, you can bet there is going to be a TON of photos on it. I love putting the focus on the photos, telling the entire story with those photos, and if I can get these pages done quickly, than that’s just an extra bonus. 

I wanted to scrap these photos of a little golfing adventure we took with the girls several years ago (or 8 years!), and printed out twelve 3x4” photos and one 3x3” photo. I lined up all of my 3x4” photos, along with a few 3x4” project life style cards, along the top and bottom of my two page spread. I’m a huge fan of collages and linear pages, so lining up photos and papers is my favorite way to start my pages. 

Across the center of the two pages, I added in 4” strips of a more neutral patterned paper, knowing that I would want my title to stand out against it. I love good text patterned papers, and this one just happen to have a summer theme to it, which worked perfectly for this page. The patterned papers and cards on this spread are all from Simple Stories.

For about half a minute, I thought about die cutting a golf bag that I found in my Silhouette library. But it involved lots of different pieces, that I would assume look best cut from different colors/papers, and then pieced together. I ended up going with this cute little golf cart (even though we didn't use one that day), since it was simple and all one piece.

I love die cutting my titles, using my Silhouette Cameo, as it allows me the freedom to make my title as big, or as little, as I want. And I also love that it lets me use additional patterned papers, getting more color and patterns onto the page. 

I used a few cut files from Kerri Bradford for my title. I pulled the "adventure" from the Something To Say kit, and "green" from the A Beautiful World kit, and cut them both from patterned papers from Simple Stories. Some older Jillibean Soup alpha stickers helped complete my title.

The majority of the time, I will also die cut my title pieces from either black or brown cardstock, as well as cutting the pieces from my patterned papers. I like to layer the pieces together, slightly offsetting them, so that it adds a little dimension to my title. 

I had two 3x4" spaces left to add my journaling to. I typed it up in two different text boxes, so that I knew it would fit the space, and printed my journaling onto white grid patterned paper. I matted them both on brown cardstock and adhered them in place.

While I do love my embellishments, I often finish layouts and realize that I didn’t even use any actual embellishments on my page. This entire two page layout is made up of photos and patterned paper (and a few alpha stickers), and I love it!

Kerri Bradford Studio: Content & Happy

I have a new layout up over at Kerri Bradford Studio today. I can count the number of 8.5x11 layouts I've created in my 20+ years of scrapbooking on one hand. Ok, maybe on two hands. But I'm pretty sure I have not created more than 10 of them over the years. When I saw the "this is going to be fantastic" cut file in Kerri's About Town kit, it inspired me to switch things up from my normal 12x12 layouts and create an 8.5x11 spread. 

I'm not going to lie. I struggled with this layout for days. Add in the handful of days that my Cameo wasn't cutting right, and it was almost two weeks before I actually got this done. At one point, I almost turned all of this into a one page 12x12 layout. But I pushed thru my creative block and got it done.

I was very random when it came to picking out patterned papers for this layout. I knew I wanted some green, since there's green in the photos, so I found an older green paper from Basic Grey. I then came across a navy blue star patterned paper (different from the one I actually used), and for some reason, just had to use it. I did end up switching to a star paper from Bella Blvd, since the other one didn't show as well once cut down (knowing I was going to cut my title from it). And the aqua paper from Studio Calico just sort of happened too, after browsing thru some 6x6" paper pads.

I die cut a whole bunch of flowers, using Kerri's This Everything kit, from white cardstock. I adhered them around the edge of a sheet of white cardstock and trimmed off any excess that hung off the edges. I then spritzed the entire page with green and aqua misting spray and machine stitched around the edges.

Turns out, a 6x6" piece of patterned paper was just the perfect size to back this cut out phrase with. I adhered the aqua patterned paper behind my large die cut piece, and then matted the entire thing onto a piece of navy blue star patterned paper.

I took these photos of Alyssa while she was home on winter break after her first semester of college. I love hearing her talk about college life and how much she loves it there. This was the page that I struggled with for days. It turned out nothing like I had imagined it when I started. I had an entirely different idea going, and it was leaving me no room for journaling. I'm glad I ended up changing everything about this page, since it left me a ton of room for my journaling.

"Happy" is the word I would use to describe her feelings about college, so I die cut the word "happy" from Kerri's Just Because kit, from both white cardstock and the same blue star patterned paper I used on the second page. I used some tiny aqua alpha stickers at the last minute to add the "content and" to complete my title.

I wrote my journaling based off a lot of what Alyssa has told me about her college experience so far (one semester in) and the transition from living at home to living in the dorms. I think the "this is going to be fantastic" sums up her feelings for the rest of her college days.

Tackling Christmases Past: Holly Jolly Christmas & Merry Christmas

I'm back with a few more Christmas layouts, from my "Tackling Christmases Past" project. I shared my first two completed layouts HERE, and finally finished up a few more, after taking a small break for some fall themed projects. This first layout documents our family get-together, with my side of the family, from Christmas 2008.

I used the same collage template for both sides of the spread, but just flipped the template for the second page to mirror the template on the first page. This template is from Kerri Bradford's Storyboard #6 kit, and it's one that I have used many, many times.

I'm not one that feels locked into using typical holiday colors when it comes to scrapping holiday photos. Which is a good thing, since my family doesn't always dress in typical holiday colors. I let the colors in my photos guide me and ended up with a navy blue, red, an aqua color scheme.

My patterned papers are all from My Mind's Eye, both old and new. I've been pulling out my two favorite border punches quite a bit lately, one a basic scalloped border punch from Stampin Up, and one a fun scalloped border punch (seen here) from Fiskars. I punched my border strips on this layout from the same patterned paper as I was adhereing them to, which added a small subtle touch of interest.

I die cut my title using my Silhouette Cameo again, along with a few stars to add some simple embellishing to the pages. I actually went searching for some buttons or brads to add to the die cut stars, but the enamel dots were sitting there and were so quick and easy to add, so I used those.

An embellishment that I have a HUGE supply of, but don't use hardly at all lately is ribbon. Not sure why I never turn to it, but I decided to pull some out for this layout. It's just two simple pieces of navy blue polka dotted ribbon, but on a layout that is pretty much all photos and paper, it adds a little texture.

I really need to go back and add the years to these layouts, since I didn't do that on the first three. I stuck a post it note on this one, so I would know what album to put it in when I get around to putting layouts away in albums.

And here we have a layout documenting our family get-together, with my side of the family, from Christmas 2009. We almost always celebrate my side of the family at my parents house. However, they have a dog and Alyssa is highly allergic to dogs. So whenever we're over there, she usually feels pretty miserable. This was the one year that we celebrated at our house. I hardly took any photos, mostly because we were all so crowded in our small family room.

I used two different collage templates from Kerri Bradford's Picture That [Go Long] kit for this layout. They were both the same size, which made them easy to line up side by side, on the two pages of the spread.

All of the patterned papers, including the red glittered die cut paper, are from Little Yellow Bicycle. I was doing a purge of my patterned papers recently, and I almost got rid of these papers. I'm glad I didn't, since a lot of the ones I was going to get rid of, I've been using.

I die cut my title, along with a Christmas tree, using my Silhouette Cameo. And I pulled out my scalloped border punch, adding border strips to break up the photos and patterned paper on the pages.

I picked out a photo of each of the girls, and printed them as 3"x5" photos, so I could tuck them above the photo collage on the second page.

So, looking back at my original post on this project, I had photos and collages printed to complete 6 two page layouts and 3 single page layouts. I now have 4 of those two page layouts done, so I'm doing good so far.

I almost got hung on these layouts, when I realized how similiar to the first two layouts they looked. Paper strips on the bottom and sides, photo collages going across the two pages, title on top, etc. But then I remembered what I said about how I'm totally fine with these layouts looking similiar in design. That's the beauty of not feeling like I have to re-invent the wheel on all of these Christmas layouts. The entire point was to take something that I don't necessarily enjoy scrapping, and get-it-done. And that's exactly what I'm doing.

Tackling Christmases Past: Hello Christmas and Christmas Love & Joy

I'm back to talk more about tackling Christmases past. If you haven't yet read my post from Monday, you might want to read that first, since it explains the why, what, and how about how this project started. You can check it out HERE.

I worked on my first two double page layouts last weekend, to share for my feature on the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog today.

On this first layout, from our 2013 Christmas get-together with my side of the family, I got a total of 18 photos on my two page layout. I mentioned this in my previous post, but I really do aim to get the majority of my photos on the page. And I did just that here. I still had some photos left over that I didn't use, but most were duplicates or photos that looked very similiar.

When I have lots of photos to include, I will often create a 12x12” photo collage for one side of the two page spread. I then create a smaller collage to include on the opposite page of the spread, which still gives me room to include a bit of patterned paper, my title, journaling (if I feel it’s necessary), and a few simple embellishments. 

***When I first started thinking about tackling this project, I had THIS layout in mind, as I just loved the overall design.

Knowing that I wasn’t going to have room to add a ton of product really helped narrow down my choices as far as what I wanted to include. I stuck to 3-4 patterned papers for each layout. I have picked up some Christmas papers here and there, and have some olders ones in my stash as well. I looked thru all of those first, and then if needed, will find everyday papers to fill in the gaps.

I picked out three patterned papers from Simple Stories for this layout, and you can see that they're really not themed papers, but more simple patterns. You'll also noticed that I hardly used any patterned paper at all. I only needed a few strips of patterned paper to add to the page, and then I did use the same patterned papers to die cut my title as well.

My first choice for my titles was to die cut them with my Silhouette Cameo. These layouts end up being pretty "flat", especially since one side of the spread is just a large photo collage. So the die cut title keeps with the look. Also, I just really, really love die cut titles! Although I am open to mixing in some stickers or chipboard alphas if I decide I need them.

When it came to embellishing, I knew I would keep it simple by using brads, buttons, and a few basic punches. I also have a small stash of Christmas themed embellishments, both old and new, that I may pull from if they coordinate. These tags are a great example. They're from My Mind's Eye, and I've had them for about two years. They matched the Simple Stories papers so well, it's like they were meant to be used together. Those came jus as you see them too. The layered tags, with the brads already there.

I pulled the 4x4" "Be Merry and Bright" die cut card from the Simple Stories collection as well, as it matched the cream/yellowish patterned paper that I used for my title. It also helped fill up the space on the left side of the page, since I wasn't going to add any journaling.

Journaling. I guess that's something I should mention. I almost always journal on my layouts, even if it's something short and sweet. But I don't necessarily feel like I need to journal on these Christmas layouts. Maybe I'm wrong, and maybe I should be writing something down. When you get down to it, our family Christmas get-togethers are a lot alike. We're usually at my parents house, it's the same family members (every few years, we get a few extra family members that visit from out of state), we do the same gift exchange game, and eat a lot of the same foods. I feel like if I were to journal on these pages, it would be the same thing every year.

Both of the photo templates that I used on this layout are from Kerri Bradford's Storyboard #7 kit. This smaller template isn't too tall in size, so that I still had plenty of room to groove at the top of the page. I did combine a few of the openings in the template, since it was originally set up for 8 photos, and I only used 6 photos.

This was mainly because of the orientation of my photos, and not being able to crop them all down small enough to fit the smaller openings. So I just combined two openings, in several different places, in order to fit a wider photo. I actually did a video tutorial on this a few years ago, which you can view HERE.

This is by far my favorite photo template to use when I want a full page collage. Like I said, it's from Kerri Bradford's Storyboard #7 kit. That kit has another full page template as well, but this one just seems to work really well for my photos, while not making all of the photos too teeny tiny.

I always adhere these full page photo collages to a sheet of cardstock, just to make them a bit more stable. I know they get slipped into an album, so it's not that they necessarily need the extra stability. But it definately helps when I'm trying to photograph them.

My second layout is from our 2012 Christmas get-together with my side of the family. I used the same 12x12” photo template as I used in the first layout, but I used a slightly different template for the smaller collage on the first page. I then added two individual 3x4" photos right above the smaller photo collage, for a total of 20 photos on this spread.

But that wasn’t enough, as I still had leftover photos that I wanted to include. Some years I take more photos than others. This was one of those years.

So I also created two 6x12” photo collages, using Kerri Bradford's Picture That: Go Long kit, which I am including in a 6x12” page protector that will be inserted between these two pages in my album, for a grand total of 29 photos. Kind of hard to see here, as the photos all blend together, but it's there.

I feel like the photo of my brother in the orange cone hat really clashes with the rest of the page. Lol. There's a story behind that. And it's not even a hat. It's been traveling around our family for years, and is sort of an inside joke :)

I used a mix of die cut words, using my Cameo, and chipboard alphas for the title on this layout. See that word "love" there? It's such a skinny little outline word, but I love it. I was running it thru my Xyron sticker maker thing, and it totally ate it up. It was a jumbled mess. But I really didn't want to re-cut it, since I had already put my Cameo away and really didn't want to set it all back up again, dragging my laptop back into my scraproom.

So I did the best I could to un-jumble the word and re-shape it, as most of the backside did end up with adhesive on it. It doesn't look perfect, but it's good enough for me. And I even told myself that "no one will ever know, except for when you tell them all about it on your blog". Lol.

The silver chipboard alphas were from the dollar section at Target last year. I’m pretty sure I bought about 14 packs of them, because silver was all the rage at the time, and because I loved the font. And because they were only a dollar. I know, I know. By buying so many packs, they soon became a $14 purchase, but you know you need several packs in order to spell out anything when you only get one of each letter in the pack. Lol. It felt nice to actually use a few of them! 

Instead of adding a simple strip of the black text patterned paper along the top of the page, I used a scalloped edged banner punch to create the fun row of flags across the top of the page. I also wanted a bit more silver to tie in with the chipboard letters, so I used my scalloped border punch on a sheet of silver glittered paper to create a thin border strip to add along the side of the page.

Personally, I have no problem with having layouts that look very similar in my albums. Usually, these layouts don’t end up next to each other, so it’s not going to be super obvious that I used the same basic page design. This is especially true with Christmas layouts, since they’re a full year apart in the albums. 

I figure if using the same basic design, some of the same elements, and even the same photo templates helps me tackle something that I’ve been avoiding, then it’s all good. I would rather create quick and easy pages and “get it done” … then to keep pushing these photos and memories aside, all because they’re subjects or themes that I either don’t enjoy doing, or am too overwhelmed to dig into.

I'm hoping to have a few more of these to share next week, if all goes as planned. Stay tuned.

Simple Stories & Kerri Bradford: Designer Team Up

All this week, the designers at both Simple Stories and Kerri Bradford Studio have been teaming up to bring you projects showcasing the fabulous Simple Stories collections mixed in with Kerri's amazing cut files. Today's my turn to share what I created for our week long feature.

When I sit down to create my layouts for Kerri, I usually get so caught up in incorporating her amazing cut files into my page design that I oftentimes don't end up including many embellishments or "extras" on my pages. I've mentioned a few times that I honestly think I could get by with just cardstock, patterned paper, my Cameo, and a few basic embellishments. I don't always need the other "stuff".

Then again, it can be fun to use lots of other "stuff" on my pages. The Simple Stories collections have so many fun embellishments, chipboard, stickers, project life style cards, and even die cut cards that coordinate with their collections. So I went about this layout a bit differently, since I found so many different elements that I wanted to include on my two page spread. I only used three cut files from Kerri, and then focused a lot on using the extra products and embellishments.

I was sent the new Good Day Sunshine collection to work with. I didn't have any plans as to what I was going to make, or what photos I would use. I just knew that I would make a summer layout, since summer is one season that we do really well here in California.

Somewhere along the line, I remembered these photos we had taken a few years back (actually, 5 years ago, now that I did the math) on a day trip to the Alameda County Fair. I have tried numerous times to scrap these photos, but I just never found the right papers or products to go with them. This was also partially because the colors on the photos were a little "off". Turns out, I've picked up some new editing tricks over the last five years, so I was able to fix some of the color issues, which made them easier to work with. And this collection ended up working perfectly with the photos.

I started by cutting two large sunbursts, using Kerri's This & That Freedom: Just Shapes kit, from white cardstock. I lightly spritzed them both with yellow misting spray, and then adhered them to my white cardstock background pages. I love the white-on-white backgrounds for building my pages on.

I loved the die cut cards that came with the collection, and was immediately drawn to the larger aqua polka dotted card and the smaller white text diagonal striped card. These are shapes that I could also re-create with Kerri's cut files, but being able to pull them right out of the package and have them ready to use it kind of nice.

I pop dotted several of my photos and cards to add a little dimension to the page. I also bent the corners of all of my photos and cards up a bit. It's such a small thing, and yet I liked the way it looked. Once I had all of my photos and cards adhered across the spread, I started adding in some stickers and chipboard elements here and there.

I printed several photos in 3x3" and 3x4" sizes, and adhered them across the two pages, mixing in 3x3" and 3x4" cards from the Good Day Sunshine collection. I did intend to use more of the fun patterned papers in the collection, and in the end I only used two small strips of the yellow dotted pattern, two small strips of the pink dotted pattern, and the aqua dotted pattern to cut out part of my title.

When you love working with the white cardstock background pages like I do, and there are so many great project-life type cards to chose from, you can easily get away without using that much patterned paper.  

I did have more photos that I wanted to include, but I just ran out of room as I was assembling this spread. My plan now is to add in a smaller divided page protector between the two pages of the spread, and then add in my extra photos and maybe a few more of the 3x3" and 3x4" cards. If I had my act together, I would have that done as well, to show you here. But truth be told, I do NOT have my act together right now. Lol.

I combined the woodgrain "Summer" chipboard letters from the collection with the die cut "sunshine" that I pulled from Kerri's Summer Lovin' kit to create my title. 

Make sure and stop by both Kerri Bradford's blog and the Simple Stories blog to see the other projects that have been shared this week.

Kerri Bradford Studio: But First Let's Take A Selfie

After Alyssa's high school graduation, I was so excited that I had gotten some great photos of her and her friends after the ceremony. But I was even more excited when she showed me all of the selfies they had taken BEFORE the ceremony. I love that my girls can capture the moments when I'm not around with my camera (or when they don't want me around!), and with the quality of camera phones these days, they really do get some great quality photos that I can incorporate into my layouts. And I couldn't wait to get this layout put together for my next project that's up over at Kerri Bradford Studio today!

I wanted to incorporate the majority of the photos that Alyssa took that evening, and ended up with 31 photos that I printed as either 3" x 3" or 3" x 4" photos. I created a two page spread that can stand on it's own. But I took it a step further, and included two divided page protectors to hold even more photos. All of the 3" x 4" photos went on the actual layout pages, and the 3" x 3" photos all went into the divided page protectors. *** Alyssa would want me to mention that there are 2 photos in here that were taken by someone else. The other 29 were all taken by her.

I dug around in my patterned paper collection, looking for dark green, yellow, black, and grey papers. Our school colors are green and white, and black is usually mixed in when needed. I added in the yellow to tie in with the CSF cords and drapes that many of the students were wearing with their gowns. I now know that I need to stock up on papers in the right shade of green to go with our school colors. It was super hard to find any papers to match.

I went straight to Kerri after seeing these photos, and put in a request for a "but first let's take a selfie" cut, knowing it would be perfect for this project. Turns out, she'd been meaning to put a kit together with some other popular words/terms that teens use these days, which you can now find in her Urban Dictionary kit.

This particular phrase comes two different ways. You can either cut the words out individually, or you can have them all connected. I chose to cut them all individually, since my phrase on the second page contained individual words as well.

I used several background cuts, on a variety of patterned papers, to create the borders on the sides of my base pages. I chose the circle and petal 3" x 4" backgrounds from the Life Additions: Backgrounds kit. I like that these were meant to cut in smaller sizes, and the 3" width was perfect for adding along the edge of my page.

I thought the "And Now Let's Do This" would make a great sort of "ending" phrase for this spread. Now that the selfies were taken and the pre-graduation excitement was captured, they were ready to get out there and graduate!

I combined a few cuts, from different kits, to create this phrase. The "Let's Do" is from a freebie Kerri offered that read "Let's Just Do Today". And I used the "This" from "This Place", found in the Well Traveled kit. Always keep in mind you can mix and match words as needed from so many of Kerri's kits! Alyssa gets so annoyed at missing apostrophe's, so it bugged her that I didn't have one for "let's" on this page. I'm also missing the dot on the i in "this". I lost track of them and just forgot to replace them.

The "together" and "here & now" tabs are from the Love: Every Little Thing kit. There were only two of these tabs in the kit, and luckily, they both fit the theme of my layout. This entire spread contains very limited embellishments. Other than paper and some stickers, the only other things I added were a few buttons and some enamal dots and pearl dots.

Here you can see how the layout looks if you were to see it in person. This shows the two divided page protectors added right in between the base pages of my layout. It's very simliar to THIS layout I did last year.

I have a huge selection of divided page protectors from Becky Higgins and WeRMemoryKeepers. But I really love the October Afternoon 12" x 12" divided page protector. It's the only brand I've seen that has a full sheet of 3" x 3" squares, and it's actually the only 12" x 12" protector they have (unless I'm really missing something).

Just like the previous layout I mentioned, I chose to trim off one row of the 3" squares on the page protector. I like the idea of being able to see parts of the actual layout pages while looking at the inserts.

The "Love It" arrow piece is from the Need Directions kit. It's actually meant to be a paperclip, which I realized after I cut it. Of course, Kerri has a note on it that says exactly how it's going to cut, but I obviously didn't pay that much attention. It doesn't actually cut the arrow out, so I just slipped a piece of white cardstock in there (the green arrow is now behind the white cardstock).

I do realize that if I had left the divided page protector fully intact, and filled just about every pocket, I could have fit all of these photos into just one protector. But I like breaking up the photos, and adding in some patterned papers to some of the pockets. I also could have easily created 2 large photo collages, and fit all 31 photos on the actual two page layout. But it's fun to use the divided page protectors and mix it up a bit every now and then.

The patterned papers I ended up using are from October Afternoon, Pink Paislee, Echo Park, Little Yellow Bicycle, Fancy Pants, and Bo Bunny. I think that's everyone. I even dug around in my stash of Project Life cards (I own a ton, even though I'm not a Project Lifer) looking for some cards that might work, but I only found two that I ended up adding in.

The circle background came from the More Background Basics kit. You all know how much I love my circle backgrounds, right! I had even more little 3" x 3" pieces I was working on cutting, but my Cameo started having some cutting issues. At which point, I had this thought that maybe I needed to finally update my software. After I updated, I had no clue how to use the software, since it was very, very different from what I was used too. So I gave up at that point, and just went with what I had already cut.

I mentioned earlier that I kept my embellishments super simple. One reason being that I didn't have anything specific to go with the "high school graduation" theme of the page. And while I could dig around in my stash, looking for different types of things that could be mixed in, to make the pocket inserts a little more interesting, I'm totally fine with the simpler style and design that I ended up with.

I also used several of the square frames from the Sliders kit. I did spend more time than I cared to admit on whether I should round the corners of my photos and papers. The Slider frames had a slight rounded corner on them, while the "Love It" frames had a larger rounded corner on them, and the circle backgrounds weren't rounded at all. After rounding some corners of papers/photos, and then not liking how it looked (and having to reprint a few photos and re-cut some papers), I decided to not even worry about the fact that there's a variety of corner looks going on.

I also added in a few extra details on some of the patterned paper squares using a variety of alpha stickers. At some point, I'll see if Alyssa wants to add any more info to the pages. I really don't think she'll be forgetting anyone's name, but we can always add names in there.

If you're wondering, our school mascot is the Buffalo. We're the Manteca Buffalo's, which I couldn't fit with my alpha stickers. We're also known as the Manteca Buff's, for short, so I went with that.

Next up, I'm looking forward to doing some fun layouts with her graduation photos. And I should probably finish up the mini album I started with all of her band photos from the last 4 years. And while I'm at it, I should probably update both the girl's school album.

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Hello UOP ... You Make My Heart Sing

My oldest daughter, Alyssa, is graduating from high school in less than three short weeks. I still can't wrap my head around that, let alone the fact that she'll be headed off to college in a few short months. College. It's such a huge process, especially when it's your first child and you're learning the ropes as you go. Every family and every student approaches this process differently, but we picked up some good tips from fellow parents of seniors and I now feel that I can even pass along some good tips to future parents of seniors.

The entire college process was a big part of Alyssa's senior year, and even with the big decision made, there's still a lot of steps that need to be checked off the list in the next few months. While choosing a college was a hard process at times, in the end it came down to an easy decision for her. I wanted to document her college choice and how she came to decide on the amazing college that she will be spending her next 4 years at. And where exactly will that be?

Alyssa is beyond excited to be attending the University of the Pacific this coming fall. UOP has been her dream college, and at the very top of her college list since the beginning. She fell in love with the school, the programs, the campus, and just about everything it has to offer. And we, her parents, loved it just as much as she did. UOP is a small, private college, just about 20 minutes from us. With everything we learned about the college, we knew it was a perfect fit for our girl. And it doesn't hurt that she'll be staying pretty close to home :)

Once the college decision was made, I knew that I wanted to document it. When I sat down to create my next layout for Kerri Bradford Studio, it was the perfect opportunity to do just that, as Alyssa had just confirmed her registration. My layout is up on her blog today, and I'm excited to share it here too.

About a month ago, Alyssa and I attented UOP's Profile Day. It's a day dedicated to all admitted students, where you could go visit the campus (for some, their first time, for us, our third or fourth time), attend a welcome assembly, hear from students and alumni, attend workshops on financial aid, housing, sit in on a Q&A session for your students department/major, and so much more. It was such an informative day, and we ended it with Alyssa stopping for a photo with the school mascot, Powercat.

I spent more time than I care to admit trying to come up with a title for this layout. Oftentimes, I will do my title work towards the end of the layout design process. But for this layout, it was one of the first things I did. In fact, I was originally going to have my title filling up the entire left side of the first page. It took me a while to realize that I wouldn't have enough room for my journaling, and it made more sense for my title to span across the tops of the two pages.

I played with a mix of words from a variety of Kerri's kits, trying to come up with a fun title that "announced" her college choice. I looked at a ton of Kerri's brush script hand-written words, as I'm loving the look of them. I loved the idea of using the large "hello", from Kerri's Let's Go kit, and then adding her college choice directly after it.

I used the Weathered Door Alpha kit for the name of the college. The University of the Pacific is simply known as UOP to most, which is definitely easier to fit on a layout. Lol. I had dug out a wide variety of orange patterned papers to chose from, and ended up using a smaller 6x6 diagonal striped paper from Echo Park for the "UOP", as well as the arrow on the second page.

It finally dawned on me that the "you make my heart sing", from Kerri's Happy Stuff kit, was the perfect subtitle to use, as Alyssa is attending college as a music major.

I un-grouped the words, so that I could arrange them all going across the top of the right page. Once I had them sized to fit, I cut them out of black cardstock. I then decided to go back and cut out the words three more times. I adhered all four of each word together to thicken them up, mimicing chipboard.

I also wanted to include some photos of the college, but didn't have any of my own to pull from. So I did a Google search for images, and used those to create a collage using a template from Kerri's Storyboard #6 kit. Tell me that's not a gorgeous campus, right! It's actually ranked the 31st most "amazing" colleges in the country, and rightly so.

I can't remember the last time I journaled this much on a layout. I knew I had a lot to say, but I didn't have much wiggle room with a 5x7" photo and a 9x7" photo collage. It took me a while to condense what I had to say, into the space I had to say it in, and still make sure I got the most important details in there. I think I did fairly well.

Now wish us luck getting through these last 3 weeks of school. We have so many end-of-the-year award ceremonies, final band concert, and all of the senior/graduation activities that lead up to the actual graduation event. It's all happening so fast, with so much going on, that I haven't had much time to let the reality of it all set in. It's going to hit me like a ton of bricks before I know it!

Special 14th Birthday Party

A little over seven months ago, I had shared a birthday party layout that I had created for Kerri Bradford Studio. It was a two page layout, with one of those pages being a full 12x12" photo collage. I had actually created some photo collages for another birthday party layout at the same time, with the intention of scrapping it to share shortly after the first one. But life happened, and I never got around to it. And then it got pushed to the side and forgotten about.

Well, I dug out those photo collages a few weeks ago, and set about scrapping them. These photos are from Alyssa's 14th birthday party, which was about three and a half years ago. She had her party at Boomers, which is a local fun and games spot that has miniature golf, go-karts, rock climbing, water boats, and an arcade. All of these photos were taken by Alyssa's dad, while I did all the editing. I love that they're so bright and colorful!

Quite a while ago, I had received some Echo Park collection paper packs, and one of them was the Happy Days collection. At first glance, it might not have been something that I would get much use out of. But I specifically set it aside, with these photos in mind. And I'm glad I did, because it ended up working out perfectly.

I ended up creating two photo collages for this two page spread. I did a full 12x12" photo collage, which has fourteen photos on it. I then created a smaller photo collage, which has eight photos on it. So on this one two page spread, I was able to include 22 photos!! Both photo collages were created using template from Kerri Bradford's Storyboard #7 kit.

I was originally going to die cut some little banner pieces from the patterned papers in the collection kit. However, the sticker sheet that came with it had an entire row of these fun little banner stickers, which tied all of the colors in from the striped patterned paper strips that I added above and below the photos. I embellished a few of them by adding coordinating enamel dots.

Once again, I choose a chunky font word and a cursive font word to combine for my title. I cut both of them from black cardstock, and then from my aqua and red patterned papers. I adhered them all together, slightly offsetting the black cardstock cuts to help the patterned paper cut stand out. I don't always remember to do this, but when I do, I really like how much it can add to my titles.

I used a few additional stickers to round out my title. The "special" arrow came from the Echo Park sticker sheet, and then I dug around my stash for the small number and letter stickers to match. I added a few more enamel dots for good measure.

Random tidbit: I recently came into a huge assortment of enamel dots, using some product credit I had for recent published work. So I had joked to a few friends that I would be adding enamel dots to EVERYTHING I create :)

This is the exact same template that I used on that original birthday party layout, which was one of Sarah's many swimming parties. I like that it has a good mix of vertical and horizontal openings, with both small and larger openings. When I create larger photo collages, I have them printed at Costco. It's super convenient for me, since it's only about 2 miles from my house. 

There were some fun tab style stickers on the sticker sheet and I thought I would add them here and there to my photo collages. It was a really simple way to embellish the collage, which is really one of the two "pages" in this layout spread. I also adhere these 12x12" layouts to a sheet of cardstock, just to make them a little more sturdy.

These types of layouts are some of my favorites to scrap. I know sometimes it's overwhelming to scrap events or moments that have a TON of photos. But I also LOVE that I can take an event with a ton of photos, use a ton of those photos, and document it on a simple two page spread. It always feels really good to get these types of layouts done and in the books.

Scrapbook & Cards Today: My Diva

Happy 2014 everyone! Hope you all had a safe and happy New Years. With CHA just days away, I will soon start sharing lots of Bella Blvd goodies here on my blog. Before that all starts, I thought it might be nice to share this layout that I've had sitting in a blog "draft" for quite a while now. Not sure why I haven't gotten around to writing a little something about it and hitting the "publish" button. I just like to drag things out sometimes.

I created this layout for the Scrapbook & Cards Today Fall Issue (that link doesn't show the Fall issue, but it should be there somewhere). I was asked to incorporate feathers into my design, with the theme of my page focusing on the diva personality of my daughter. Luckily, I did have these few photos that show a slight "diva" side of Sarah. Because honestly, I don't really think of my girls as divas.

If you saw this layout in the magazine, you might remember the feathers being a lot smaller in size. I was asked to make some changes along the way, but I never did take good photos of my final layout. And I haven't been able to track down my layout to take new photos of it. Most likely because this is a two page 8.5x11 page, and I never scrap that size. I most likely stuck them somewhere until I could track down some page protectors to get them into my album.

I chose my feathers based off my patterned paper choices, which were based off the photos. The black text paper to match her sunglasses (or my sunglasses, since I'm pretty sure she put mine on for the photos) and the skulls on her shirt, the aqua to match her scarf, the green to match the ivy in the background of the photos, and pink just for fun.

I came across this old rhinestone peace sign sticker from Making Memories and knew I had to use it on my page, as she's giving me the peace sign in one of the photos. It seemed like a good way to "anchor" the feathers to the page, since I like to tuck them under or into something to give them a little purpose. Instead of feathers randomly floating on the page. I adhere the sticker to a black metal rimmed tag (also an old Making Memories product) before adhering it to the page.

I cut thin strips of the black text paper to create a border around the entire two page layout. Then I started cutting strips of varying widths to layer together across the center of the spread.

I picked out the green glitter paper to add a bit more texture to the page, and also a bit more sparkle. You can't have too much sparkle on a diva layout, right? I also used a chevron embossing folder on the aqua patterned paper, giving it some nice texture as well. I used to be so addicted to my embossing folders, and this reminded me that I should make a point to use them more often. Although, I did create this layout in April of 2013, and I'm not sure I've really used my embossing folder too much since then. Lol.

That rhinestone star is also an older sticker from Making Memories. I used some of those fabulous tiny alpha stickers from Lily Bee to add the "super star" to the rhinestone star.

The pink fabric frame is from Maggie Holmes first collection thru Crate Paper. I'm 99% sure the frame came with the little date tag adhered to it. But once again, I created this layout so long ago, that I honestly don't remember for sure. Those tiny alpha stickers came in handy again to add the date, as well as Sarah's name to the black metal rimmed tag.

Hope you all have a great weekend! I shipped off my CHA projects today, so I will be spending lots of time this weekend setting up blog posts, both for the Bella blog, as well as my own. Hope to see you back here next week, as I'll be posting every day! Making up for my absence lately ;)

Bella Blvd & Kerri Bradford Studio Team Up: Harvest Party

I hope you've all been checking out the projects for our Kerri Bradford & Bella Blvd team up! Tons of great stuff being shared. Wednesday, I shared a layout I created for Kerri's side of the team up, and today I have a few projects I created for Bella's side of the team up. 

I wasn't really sure what I was going to create for layout. I'm not sure if it had anything to do with me pulling up those super old photos of Sarah from 1st grade (for the layout I shared Wednesday), but for whatever reason, I thought about these photos of her from kindergarten. It's not often I have great "fall" looking photos, so I knew these would be perfect for pairing up with Bella's Thankful collection and our older Finally Fall collection.

These photos were all on a layout already. One that I made years and years ago. The photo placement was really close to what you see here, with just one additional photo mixed in. Because these were taken in my non-digital days, and I had no desire to dig out my negatives and have reprints made, I simply pulled them off the old layout to use. I didn't do any trimming or anything. Just used them in the same sizes they already were.

After arranging the photos across the two pages, I went about picking out shapes to work with. I came across the fence, from Kerri's This & That: Autumn kit, and knew that I wanted to work that in across the bottom of the pages. Since I had that extra space next to the photos on the first page, I decided to use the fun tree shape, from Kerri's This & That: Graditute kit, to help fill up that side of the page.

I actually got so busy filling up my pages with die cuts, that I almost forgot about adding in some fun Bella embellishments. I knew I needed to add something in the top part of the tree brances, and this cute little owl seemed perfect to perch up there. I adhered the owl, along with the chipboard cloud, using pop dots.

Since the kids all had on these adorable feather headbands (not sure they're "headbands", but I'm not sure what to call them), I thought it would be fun to add some feathers to the page. Kerri has a feather kit, so I cut small feathers from several patterned papers and mixed them in with some of Bella's real feathers.

I cut the top half off a few feathers, and then used the bottom half of a few to create more feathers. If I'm being honest, I'm not a fan of trimming up the feathers too much. I like when they retain their natural shape, and I know that when I trim them (and maybe others do a better job at this), they lose their fluffyness and end up too shaped. If that even makes sense. But at the same time, I didn't want to cut up too many of my feathers, so making small feathers out of the bottoms just made good sense

For my title, I used one of Kerri's handwritten words from the Giving Thanks kit, along with the Weathered Door alphabet kit for the word "party". I cut all the die cuts for this layout from patterned papers. I've always been a huge fan of Bella's tone-on-one patterns, and the make die cutting really easy, as the patterns aren't too bold or busy.

After cutting out the handwritten "harvest", I realized it was too thin and just wasn't standing out enough. Not a problem. Did you know that you can make her handwritten words thicker? Kerri did a little tutorial a while back on how to thicken up her words, which you can see HERE. I thickened up the word and then cut it again from the same paper. Since I had the thinner word cut already, I decided to adhere it right on top of the thicker word. I think it gave it a fun look.

I also used Kerri's Family Banner kit to cut the fun banner pieces at the top of the page. I added the little cut out heart (that comes in the kit) to each piece, and cut a bunch of pieces from several different patterned papers.

I mixed in some of Bella's chipboard banner pieces as well, taken from the Finally Fall collection. The die cut banner pieces have a preforated fold at the top, so I folded them over some twine, and then added a tiny staple to hold the fold down.

I adhered all of the banner pieces down with pop dots for extra dimension.

When I cut basic shapes, I like to cut several extras at the same time. They're nice to have on hand for quick cards. I whipped up these two cards in no time at all. I already had the fall collections out, and I had lots of scraps of patterned paper. The only extra product I dug out were the flags.

I adhered the "happy fall ya'll" sticker to cardstock, and then adhered it to the card with pop dots. I used a few of the banner pieces below the sticker, adhering them with pop dots as well. I tucked a few flags in and just like that, my card was done.

I used the same basic design to start this card. A piece of my favorite grid patterned paper, misted with tan spray mist. I used a few of the extra die cut feathers for this card.

You can check out my layout over on the Bella Blvd blog today, along with even more fall themed projects, and then make sure to visit tomorrow as well, as we share the last batch of projects. Also, head over to Kerri's blog, where Nichol Magouirk is sharing her work. There are giveaways happening on both blogs as well, so make sure and watch for those!

Speaking of giveaways, I have a few giveaways of my own today. As some of you know, I taught a Bella Blvd sponsored class, all about designer tapes, at the CKU events this year. I ended up with some leftover tapes, and have been given the go-ahead to do a few giveaways. I have four sets of the 7 designer tapes you see pictured here. They are all full rolls, just taken out of the packaging for class prep.

Leave me a comment here, on this post, for a chance at winning a set of these fun tapes. I will randomly choose four winners, who will each receive a set, and will be announcing the winners by Sunday evening. 

October Afternoon: September Guest Designer Part 2

I am up on the October Afternoon blog again today, with my second project as the September guest designer. I have been having lots of fun using the new Daily Flash collection, and today I'm focusing on the All Boy mini collection. I was immediately drawn to it when I pulled all of the goodies out of my box. I love a good boy collection, even though I have two daughters. Luckily, as a daycare provider, I have plenty of boy photos to scrap!

While I knew I wanted to use the divided page protectors, I also knew that my plan was to use one as an insert page in between a traditional two page spread. As I was working on this project, I did all of my planning knowing that the divided page protector would be in between the 2 pages of the spread. In the end, I realized that if I simply removed the divided page protector, my two page spread actually looked pretty cohesive on it's own. That was pure luck, since the only time I placed these two pages together was when I added my journaling.

Here's a look at the spread, with the divided page protector mixed in. This is how I had it laid out as I was working. You'll notice that instead of having a full 12x12 divided page protector, mine is a bit smaller. I wanted it to be obvious that there were 2 pages to the spread, with the divided page protector in the middle, so I choose to trim one row off the page protector. So instead of four rows of four 3x3" pockets, I ended up with four rows of three 3x3" pockets.

I LOVE the woodgrain pattern on the No Girls Allowed patterned paper. It's gorgeous! But I knew I wanted to create a die cut background from it, so it was a little less overwhelming on my layout. I used my Cameo to die cut the circle background from the full 12x12" sheet, cut it half to make two pieces, and then adhered a piece to each page of my two page spread. I love a good circle background, as those little openings are really fun to fill up with embellishments.

I added the 3x3" and 2x2" square cards to the top corner of the first page. I knew I had to use the "dude" piece, as I call all of my daycare kids "dude". And I teach them to say "dude" when they're really young!  

I had such fun digging thru my files to find some favorite photos of three of my absolute favorite daycare boys. I knew I had photos of each of them in Mr Potato Head glasses, or random sparkly glasses meant for the girls ;)

The Words & Arrows washi tape was perfect for adding a touch of that darker green to my page. And if you're looking to read my journaling here, and it's not making much sense, it's because I ended up extending the top two lines onto the second page. I needed more room to say what I wanted to say.

I printed out 3x3" photos to add to the pockets in the divided page protector, and filled in the remaining pockets with the 3x3" cards. I added some journaling strips to a few of the cards, but pretty much left them all as-is, without any extra embellishing.

Here's a look at the second part of the spread, after you flip over the divided page protector. I love having the die cut woodgrain paper on the outer edges of each page of the spread, as you still see the darker brown no matter which way the divided page protector is flipped.

This is the backside of the divided page protector. Just like the front side, I filled the pockets with either 3x3" photos or 3x3" cards. I ended up with four photos of each of the three boys, ranging from when they were just little babies, up until they were little boys.

On the first page of the layout spread, I choose photos of the boys in the silly glasses. For the second page, I dug up photos of the boys and myself. Most of the photos I end up capturing just show a child hanging on me or climbing on me. But I still love them!

The Tin Pins and Snap Caps made for perfect little embellishments to add randomly to the circles of the die cut woodgrain paper. And I know I mentioned before how much I love the October Afternoon buttons. And these circles are perfect for adding some buttons too. So I think it's really odd that I never even thought about adding some buttons to this spread. I might need to go back and add some :)

You can check out my project over on the October Afternoon blog as well, as I know they love the visitors. And check back next Friday, when I'll be sharing my last project! I think I might just have to break out this fun mini album. Wish me luck, since I can't remember the last time I've worked on a mini album!

Scrapbook & Cards Today: One Fine Day

Have you had a chance to check out the Summer issue of Scrapbook and Cards Today yet? If you haven't, make sure and check it out, as it's full of inspiration. And the best part is that you can download and view it totally and completely FREE. You can't pass up "free", right :)

I thought I would share one of the two layouts I created for this issue. This layout was for the 3-Designer Challenge, where three designers were given the same exact set of products to work with. We had the Down By The Shore paper collection by Fancy Pants, a fun die-cut placemat from Jillibean Soup, a stamp/die set from Sizzix, small striped accents by Queen & Co, Thickers from American Crafts, and textured cardstock from Bazzill.

This is my take on the challenge. You can check out Emily Pitt's layout and Lisa Dickenson's layout inside the summer issue.

I knew right away that I would likely keep most of the die-cut placemat in one piece on one page of my two page spread, so I figured I would make a photo collage to include lots of photos for the other page. I used a storyboard template from Kerri Bradford to create my collage.

I hand cut some flowers from one of the floral patterned papers and adhered them here and there on the placemat. I'm not a huge fan of fussy cutting, but every now and then you just have to do it. And usually, it's worth it.

I honestly hemmed and hawwed over how I wanted to use the die-cut placemat for days. I was scared to cut it, unless I was completely sure about how I was going to use it, since I only had one of them to work with. I wasn't sure about using it all in one piece. The only thing I knew for sure was that I wanted to leave it white. I finally decided to cut off a few inches from one side to use on the second page, and kept the larger piece for the first page.

I used a lot of the solid sides of the patterned papers for pops of color, along with the cardstock. I cut different sized circles to randomly fill in the holes in the die-cut placemat. Some of them I adhered under the placemat and some of them I added over the holes. I ran some of the circles thru my Cuttlebug, using the bubbles embossing folder, for extra texture. Kind of goes with the pool/water theme of the layout.

Since the white foam Thickers were a smaller font, I used them in some of the larger circles to add a few descriptive words and the year the photos were taken. I added a few of the striped flower accents, and used the stamp and die for my title piece.

Kerri Bradford Studio: Pool Party

I didn't realize my layout was up at Kerri Bradford Studio yesterday, or I would have shared this in my previous post. Although, on the other hand, this up's my chances of posting every day this week, right ;)

Since this is Kerri's birthday celebration week, it only made sense in my mind that I would create a birthday layout. I have plenty of birthday's that I have yet to scrap. I think a lot of times, I put off doing them because there are just so many photos to sort through and narrow down. And I always look to get as many photos onto these birthday party layouts as possible. I have always kept my birthday party layouts more on the simple side. Lots of photos, just a little bit of journaling, and minimal embellishing.

I started this layout by enlarging the group shot of the birthday girl, Sarah, and her friends. I had this printed as an 8x12" photo for the first page of the spread.

I really love mixing a chunky font along with a cursive font for my titles. I am loving using Kerri's Weathered Door alphabet kit for half of my title. Then I sift through Kerri's many kits that feature words and phrases in her own handwriting, and find the perfect cursive word for the other half of my title.

I used Kerri's Enjoy The Sunshine shape (just 99 cents!) to create the sun. I just used part of the shape, and then turned it upside down so that it rests at the top of the page.

And then there is the second page of the spread, which is ALL photos. I used a 12x12" template from Kerri's Storyboard #7, which held fourteen photos. I was originally going to create another collage, using this same template, to add to the backside of this page. But I'm now thinking that I might use a smaller divided page protector (maybe a 6x12 that would hold twelve 3x4' photos) and just slip it between the two page of the spread. I just know that I have a few more photos that I want to include, but I just ran out of time to get them printed for this.

If you haven't seen yesterday's post, make sure and check it out and get yourself entered in the giveaway!

My Week Facebook Style: A Creating Keepsakes Layout

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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