New Layout and a WINNER

Hello friends! We are gearing up for the end of summer/back to school time here. So to help me get my mindset a little more around that, I decided to scrap this photo from our middle daughters preschool graduation...hard to believe that she will be starting first grade next week!! Where does the time go??

For this layout, I didn't want to do any traditional "school" colors, but I did want to use a few items that related back to the school theme. So..I used a fun number pattern, some lined paper, and apple wood veneer...again, using what I have, and trying to make my way through my stash.

I went for a messy/uneven grid design on this layout, I really just had fun with layering papers and embellishments, and didn't think too much about any type of design principals, I just did what I liked!

For the title, I knew two things...I wanted it to be Hello Kindergarten, and I wanted to use this Heidi Swapp wood veneer. The Hello lined up perfectly, and I loved the way it looked. I really struggled with fitting in the kindergarten...do I love this part of the finished layout, no, but it is what it is...I have realized on this journey through my stash that I need more of a variety of alphas..I have a pretty limited selection.

Now...on to the winner from the mini album blog hop! I truly appreciate everyone that too the time to follow along our hop, comment, and become followers! I hope that you were inspired along the way.

The randomly selected winner from my blog is......Heather Sweet

Heather, email me with your contact info and I will get your goodies out to you asap!

Enjoy the day, and take time to create something you love!

Mischievous Little Leprechan

Hello friends! I have another fun layout to share with you today. Around St. Paddy's day, my mom found all these fun little green beards and mustaches for the kiddos. I managed to snap this cute little shot of the boy. I had a little trouble with this one...I really wanted to play off of the green/orange combo from the photo..but I didn't have much in my stash, so this made for a more simple layout, but I must say, I really love the way the photo pops against that white background!

I really wanted to do a fun layered title. Different fonts, colors, etc. I love the way the "little" fits in there so perfectly, and the pop of orange it gave. With the differing words though, I was left with some awkward spaces..I added in a little stamping, and a few more small paper layers to fill those spots, and bring more interest to my page.

I loved these strips going up the side, but hindsight, I wish I would have made the orange one a little smaller; to try and fill in some of that space, I layered in a few tags. I used two blank orange ones from Chic Tags, and some of my Simple Stories clear stickers to customize them for this layout...seriously, how perfect is that mustache!

I am still loving these challenges of using what I have...though, I am DYING to go shopping!! All of these sneak peeks aren't helping either! lol.

Thanks for hopping in today, have a good one, and take time to create something you love!

My People

Hello friends!! I have a fun layout to share with you today!! My littlest has had this lovely toddler obsession with some figurines that came with some books we bought him awhile back. These little "people" as he calls them, have been a constant fixture at his side for months now, so of course, I had to snap a fun picture one day when we were playing with them in the sand box...not kidding, they go EVERYWHERE, lol.

Not often, do I have a title in mind before I start the layout..usually that is the last thing I do, and its usually quite a struggle for me, but I knew exactly they title for this one..and the photo gave me this fabulous bright color pallet to work off of...really love how this layout turned out!

I found this Dear Lizzy striped paper in my stash, honestly not sure what collection it is from, but it was perfect for what I wanted...then I knew I needed to add in some of this "you are awesome" paper from Pebbles...again an oldy from my stash. I really wanted these papers to stand out on this layout, so instead of using these papers as layers..I left the strips larger, and just stacked them on this fun background paper from Gossamer Blue. I didn't worry about them being straight on the same size, I just cut, and glued!

Then, I pulled out all the coordinating pieces in my stash, and began weeding out those that I didn't want to use...when I found this Elle's Studio card, I knew it was perfect to layer beside my photo.

Then I wanted to bring down some more embellishment by my title to balance out the heaviness of the top...with my photo, cluster, and journaling all being up there...but I didn't want everything to compete for attention...so I tried to make everything staggered. So that nothing lined up perfectly, that way it would force your eye to travel around the full page. I added in a little stamping, and a clear sticker from Mambi to add in some more black, and light embellishing.

This layout turned out even better ( to me) than I envisioned it..and I used up a lot of supplies that I have had for quite awhile...I am really loving this challenge of using what I have, and trying to downsize some of my stash!

You still have time to enter my mini album blog hop giveaway. You can find that post here!

Thanks for stopping in today, have a good one, and take time to create something you love!

Be Inspired

Hello friends!! Hope you all had a great holiday weekend! Today, I have a layout to share with you, using up some more of my stash. I had an idea with this layout to do it all on the diagonal. I have seen a few layouts here and there lately using this style, and I thought it would be something fun and different to try out!

This is an older picture of our oldest daughter. We were all outside one day, just sitting and playing, enjoying the beautiful day...when she all of the sudden runs inside, and comes back out with her journal and some other scrappy supplies. She plops down beside me and gets busy..I ask her what she is doing, and she says, being outside gives her inspiration..so she wanted to scrapbook. Of course, I had to document this moment!

I wanted to use some fun and colorful pattern on this since her clothes were so colorful..they aren't exact matches, but I really thing that the tones work well together, and it makes the photo pop...I didn't want the patterns to overwhelm the page though, so I cut some triangles, and just went through and placed them in a way pleasing to my eye. Then I wanted some type of border, so I grabbed one of the papers I had used for the triangles, and fussy cut out the full strips to have my top and bottom border.

Then, I just began to fill in spots with embellishment. I tried to stick to the color scheme, and also added in some wooden elements to go with the outdoors type of photo, and meaning.

I layered embellishments across the triangle, to add some cohesion and to bring everything together. I hadn't' measured the spaces when placing my triangles, and with all the white space around them, they really needed something to ground them, and make everything flow together a little more. You can see this here, where I had elements going across and "uniting" several of the triangles.

Thanks for stopping in today, take time to enjoy and create something you love!

Epiphany Crafts & Chic Tags

Hi everyone!!! I'm here today to share a layout with you that I made for the Chic Tags and Epiphany Crafts team up. I was so super excited when I found out we were doing a team up, and I was even MORE excited when I saw that I had gotten the Happy Place collection to play with. It had been one of my favorites, and I just hadn't had a chance to pick any up yet.

I knew instantly what photo I wanted to use, and how I wanted my layout to come together. Lots of fun colors and layers!

Since I was using so many layers, patterns, and colors I converted my photo to black and white. This was so it wouldn't be in competition with all of the color, but it would still stand out center stage.

I used the text patterned paper to create some custom brads that highlighted a few words that described this photo perfectly!

I wanted to use the "My Everything" clear embellishment for my title, but I wanted to dress it up a bit. So using my shape studio pennant 25 tool, I created a few little banners to "hang" from the bottom of the title. It gave it just enough interest, without taking away from the photo.

Make sure you stop by the Epiphany Crafts and Chic Tags blogs all week to be inspired and to enter for your chance at a couple of great giveaways!!


Have a great week, and take time to create something you love!!

Home is Where You Are

Hi all!! Finally settling back down around here after a busy weekend, of cookouts and sleepovers. It flew by, but we all had a blast!

Today I have a project to share with you. I ordered this collage 12x12 photo from Persnickety Prints. Originally the plan was just to put it in the altered frame, but when it came, one of the photos in the collage was not blending well at all with the others. Most of these were Instagram photos, and I must have used a different filter on that one, cause it stuck out like an eye sore. So I decided to alter the print a little and see if I could make it work.

 

I layered up some different pattern papers from Glitz and Studio Calico, along with tags and washi. The "love lives here" die cut is from Studio Calico, I simply used my Cameo and die cut it from vellum and then layered it over some wood grain paper from Basic Grey. Adding in some other stickers, stick pins, veneer, and buttons and brads, I think finished it off nicely. The frame was a plain wood frame I picked up at my LSS. I simply cut this Amy Tangerine paper to fit the frame, adhered it, then used gesso over the top to give it a white washed look.

 

This will go great in my scrap room, which is finally coming together. My hubby built me an AMAZING desk this weekend! Will share pics soon! :)

 

Hope you all have a fabulous week, and take time to create something you love! :)