Paw Patrol

Hello crafty friends! I have a super fun layout to share with you today. If you have a toddler, chances are you know all about Paw Patrol...well a few weeks back, we went to the state fair and had a chance to do a little meet and greet with some of the characters. To say we had one excited little boy would definitely be an understatement.

I knew that I wanted to do bright, bold primary colors on this one...because Paw Patrol is bright, and also because said excited little boy also very much loves the color red.

How fun is this layout..I mean seriously, it just makes you smile! :) For the photo "mat", I did a few paper layers, but I really had fun using stencils and stamps behind that. I love all the added interest and texture that it adds, all the while drawing your eye into the photo.

Then for the title, I knew I wanted to do it in a bright bold red, and when I saw this Tall Type font from The Cut Shoppe, I knew it was perfect. I cut this out on white cardstock, with the intention of using watercolors...but I just couldn't get them to be bold enough, so I actually ended up coloring over my watercolor with a red copic. LOVE how bold this turned out, perfect for the look I wanted.

Then to finish it off, I went looking through my stash for anything bright, and fun. I kept embellishing pretty light, but these little bits were the perfect touches!

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

Multi Tasking Mamaw

Hello friends! Long time, I know. We have been so crazy with back to school/work, soccer, enjoying the little bit of free time that we have, you all know the drill! The good news is, I have been creating in the meantime, and we have finally get settled into the schedule, which means I will be posting on a more regular schedule again! Yay! :)

For my layout today, this is a random picture that I snapped of my son, mom, and nephew on a day out we were having. My mom loves to take my two girls, sister in law and myself out for pedicures everyone so often...we usually have the boys with us, and of course, they always want to be all over Mamaw! Good thing she loves it!

I pulled out some more goodies from my stash on this one, I am really making a dent in that stash! I loved this striped My Mind's Eye paper, and I used it to pull my color scheme together. 

I didn't go too heavy on embellishments on this one, I really liked the lines that I had going, and how great everything was flowing..so I kept it simple so that could shine through.

I love this color scheme, and how well it worked with the photo...these cork circles have been in my stash FOREVER! I was so excited to finally get them on a layout, and I think they were perfect for this one!

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

Super Duper Cool

Hello friends!! Happy Monday!! We are gearing up for back to school/work here...this summer has FLOWN by...not quite ready to head back, but will be nice to get back onto somewhat of a normal schedule.

Today I have a layout to share with you..I love the way this one came together. I started with a half sheet of the Pink Paislee circle paper, and just built from there, adding in with colors and patterns that coordinated, or just that I liked they way they looked together! lol

I really had no rhyme or reason with this one, I just put stuff down where I liked it...and I must say, I had so much fun creating this layout, and its probably one of my favorites out of my recent ones. Probably one of my favorite things is how well my journaling lined up on those diagonal lines, and then how the " this was amazing" stamp framed that in on the top perfectly! Love it.

Here I used a tag punch from Stampin Up to layer some tags in that same Pink Paislee paper, then I layered them under my paper layers, and added embellishments..both under the layers and on top...love the added dimension it gave!

Here are some more layers to build up the photo. Then I added my title right on to the photo, love the way everything seemed to fit so well in area, but isn't lined up perfectly. Oh, and the torn paper..I think it has been awhile since I have added torn paper onto a layout...but I have to say, I really liked it on here, I might have to use that look more often!

I'm also linking this layout up to Paper Issues and there new Monday issue " It's All About The Face" You can find all the detail, and link up your own project here!

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

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!

Puddle Jumpers

Hello friends!! Happy Saturday! Today I have a layout to share with you that was inspired by this layout by Jamie Waters, that I stumbled across while pursuing the Studio Calico gallery one day. I loved the squares and embellishment all lined up across the left side...I thought it was a fun layout, and it immediately made me think of this day that I had been dying to get in the scrapbook!

I found this raindrop paper in my stash, I have had it for quite awhile, I received it in a kit, as I would normally not buy that. The colors are gorgeous, but not something I would normally use...but I thought, how perfect that I had held on to it for this layout! Adding in just the squared helped me to go with the "theme" of the layout, but not get overwhelmed by that and the busier chevron pattern that I used!

Then for my title, I loved how these Crate Paper alphas went with the colors I was using, and they gave a fun translucent effect..kind of like a rain puddle! Then, I had these cute little raindrop puffy stickers...again, would never have used them, they were one of the few stickers left on that sheet from Pinkfresh..but perfect for this layout!!

I am linking this layout up to Paper Issue and their Chip off the Old Block issue!! Details here!!

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

Selfie time

Hello friends!! I have a layout to share with you today using some of the Simple Stories Life Documented collection.

 Let me start off with saying how much I love the colors in this collection! Lovely, saturated, navy, red, yellow, gorgeous! Now, with that being said, let me tell you how hard of a time I had with this paper when I originally got it. I was not a huge fan of the floral on the b side, but I really struggle with those sunburst patterns! I finally decided, to challenge myself, and just go with it, and see what happened.

I kept this layout fairly simple, I really wanted the challenge of using that paper as is, no cutting allowed! lol. It was a struggle for me though, so I chose to try and centralize everything into the wood grain circle in the middle. Light layers and embellishing.

The came the time to put a title on...I was lost at first as to where to put it. I knew that I wanted to use these fun Crate Paper alphas..I have had them forever, and NEVER used them! I really like the fun vibe they added to the layout!

Way different style for me...and honestly, I am undecided if I like it, but I LOVE the fact that I challenged myself to step out of my comfort zone, and use up some more of my stash!!


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

Hello 6

Hi friends!! I am back today with a fun layout to share with you. This past year, for our daughter's birthdays, instead of having a big ( and stressful) party..we took each of them out for a day that was just about them! They got to choose they activities, where we ate, what we did, everything...and it was just them, and mommy and daddy! We all loved getting to have that one on one time..and Mommy got to enjoy their birthdays with them stress free!! I am so hoping this will become a new tradition!

So...I have had this fun Confetti patterned paper from Crate Paper, almost since the collection became available...and I was so excited when I got to this photo of our middle daughter, and saw how perfect it went together!

I didn't want to embellish much along the left side...I wanted to let that awesome typography shine! I did however, find a few vellum shapes from some other Crate Paper collections, and I filled in all the spaces between the words with a shape. I thought this was a fun way to add a little more embellishment, without overpowering the layout.

Now, around my photo, I did lots of layering, but I kept everything in tight together as to again not detract from the title work. I wanted enough that it brought your eyes into the photo, but wasn't overpowering against everything else.

I am so in love with these colors!!! For the large wood veneer "6" on this layout, I wanted to color it to blend in more with this pallet.  I started by inking the whole number with a gold ink pad that I have, while that was gorgeous, it wasn't quite the look that I wanted. So, I went back in, right over the top of the gold, while it was still wet, with a Prima chalk ink in turquoise, and it gave me this gorgeous color. It is a little darker than the other elements on the page, but I like how that makes it stand out more against everything else.

Then To balance out everything at the top, I needed another small cluster at the bottom of my photo. This little party hat was adorable, and honestly, I don't use theme-y items very often, so it was fun to use as many of these as I could!

Then for that last finishing touch, I wanted to add in a little embellishment to that top corner. I kept everything very light, most of it is vellum pieces, so it wouldn't detract, or really draw your eyes up, but just so that there was a little more interest in that space.

I am linking this layout up to Clique Kits and there "Anything Goes" July challenge, I have been having fun playing along with them...you can get all the details here! :)

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

I love you

Hello friends!! On my mission to get "caught up" on some of my photos that have been sitting there waiting, I came across this older one and me and the little guy. It was just us this day, the girls were both at school, and we were just having a good time and being silly taking pictures. I happened to get lucky and snap this gem. It quickly turned into one of my favorites, and has stayed at the top of the list.

I really had fun with this one, pulling out some more loved, but unused/unopened goodies from my stash! For the circles behind my photo...I pulled out the embroidery hoop wood veneer from Crate Paper! They were the perfect shape and size for what I had in mind...a little color shine, and mister huey's, and they were the perfect color too!

Then for my title...I really wanted to use this large wood veneer "I love you" from Fancy Pants...adhered it my page, and went to put those finishing touched of mist splatters, and wouldn't you know I got mist all over it...instead of pulling it off, and trying to find something new, I embraced it. I covered up the area, as best I could, and began splattering right on my title. Love the look, and it added more of that green into the layout!

For this layout, I am using this fabulous sketch from Clique Kits:



I am also linking up to their fun Anything Goes July Challenge! Get all the details here!

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!

Givin' it a try

Hello friends!! We have been stuck in most of this week, so I have had a chance to get in a little crafty time! Yay!! :) Today I am going to share a layout that is a little out of the norm for me...I decided to give the mixed media craze a try! I was inspired by Ms. Ashley Horton and her fun new video series " Zoned Out" ( here is a link to her layout and video that inspired me!).
I didn't go too crazy with the techniques...I thought I'd gradually work my way up, but I did have a lot of fun with this, doing a few things I wouldn't normally do, and I really am happy with the finished layout.

I just noticed how horribly uneven that mat is around my layout! Oh well, lol..its close enough! For the background on this, I used the spray mist on the plastic technique, and then just dabbed it around on the layout. It was fun, and a different way to use the mists, I think I will go back to this again! Then I went in with some navy color shine, and did some sprinkles. After assembling the layout, I felt like it needed a little something else..so taking some navy ink and some fun geometric shapes, I did some uneven stamping. I really love the way that turned out!

This was a fun way to stretch out my creativity, and use some supplies in a different way! Its fun to try something new every once in awhile, and I just want to give another shout out and thanks to Ashley for the push in a new direction! Can't wait to see what she has in store for the next video in her series!!

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

Best Summer Ever

Hello friends! I have another Gossamer Blue layout to share with you today! For this layout, I wanted to focus on the more fun and bright colors and embellishments in the kit. The Pinkfresh Up in the Clouds items were perfect for this summer layout.

This photo holds a special place for me. This fall, I went back to work...first time I had been back full time since having our first daughter 8 years ago. I was feeling all kinds of emotions...I was excited, terrified, guilty, nervous...you name it, I was feeling it. So, the kiddos and I spent that last week spending as much time as we could together...and this day at the lake was one of my favorites from that week.

I snapped this photo as they were walking down to the water, and it just hit me how much was about to change for us...and how hard, but hopefully good it was going to be.

Now, the school year is almost over, and I am so looking forward to having the summer to spend everyday with these three sweeties, and have another summer just as good ( if not better) than the last one was! :)

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

Picture Perfect

Today I have a new layout to share with you using up some bits and pieces from my stash. I decided its past time to keep holding on to all those items I just "had to have" and start using them!

I wanted to keep this layout bright and fun, my daughter had been so excited about the camera she had got for Christmas, that she wanted to take a picture of me...taking a picture of her! lol.

For the background, I used this horizontal striped paper from Simple Stories, but I wanted to liven it up a bit, by layering a transparency from Crate Paper over it, I was able to bring in some more of that bright pink, but still let the stripes shine through. This layout started out all pink, black, and white, but I just wasn't feeling it, so I layered in that rainbow heart paper from Bella Blvb, and then was able to build off of those colors with some of my embellishments!

Hoping to have some more layouts to share soon, have many in the works! In the meantime, keep creating projects you love!! :)

Ignore the mess and a new layout

Hello friends! I don't know if you noticed all the chaos going on here on the blog, but I somehow lost all my photos. I am slowly working on getting everything straightened out, but in the meantime, bare with me! :)

To (hopefully) make up for it a little, I have a fun new layout to share with you today! I loved this Max collection from Bella Blvd, and knew it was perfect for these photos of my boy.

I wasn't sure about this background paper at first, but love the way everything pops off of the stark black and white. A few layers and embellishments help to all draw the focus in on the photos, loved the little studio calico clip to work as a holder for my journal card!

Check back in later this week for another layout...and hopefully a little cleaner of a blog!

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

Creative Scrappers REVEAL!!!

 Hi everyone!! Happy Sunday!! It's reveal day today at Creative Scrappers, and I am here to share my layout with you,

I used the fabulous Gather Together kit from Noel Mignon, along with some Fancy Pants and Studio Calico embellishments from my stash!

Make sure you head over to the Creative Scrappers blog to see inspiration from the rest of the design team, and play along for your chance to win and awesome prize pack from our December sponsor, The Twinery

Have a fabulous day, and take time to create something you love!





Create: Mini Albums

Hi all!! Happy Monday! I am so glad to be back on schedule after fall break, and a crazy birthday weekend for our little guy. Of course, now I am super behind on assignments, and will be scrapping my butt off late into the next couple of nights! lol...that's my favorite time to work though, so it's all good! :)

Today, I thought I would hop on and share a mini that I had published in the September edition of Create: Mini Albums. I absolutely love this album, and was so honored and excited that it was my first ever publication!

You can purchase the issue here, if you are interested. Lots of beautiful albums in there!

Thanks so much for hopping by today, hope you all have a great Monday, and take time to create something you love!!

Whimsical Twist layouts

Hi everyone! Happy Hump day! :)I'm hopping on today to share a layout that I had go live on the Whimsical Twist blog over the last few days.

This one from our trip to the pumpkin patch last year. It's using the yummy persimmon collection from Basic Grey, and was an inspiration piece for the new texture challenge over at WT! Head over here to read a little about this layout, and to enter for your chance at a $15 gift certificate to the shop!

 Thanks for stopping by today! Have a great week, and take time to create something you love!

***Linking to Paper Issues***

Creative Scrappers Reveal

Hi everyone!! It's time for the reveal of another new sketch over at Creative Scrappers!! Jenny designed this fabulous one, and I had a ton of fun creating with it!!

I really loved this sketch, and stayed very true to it. I used the new Cut & Paste line from My Mind's Eye, and love the way it turned out!

Here is my layout:

Make sure you head over to the Creative Scrappers blog to be inspired by the rest of the design team and make sure you link up your layout for a chance at a prize from this months sponsor!

Thanks for stopping by, and take time create something you love!



Scary Cute Ghouls

Hi all! Happy Hump Day! This is my hubby and girls favorite day of the week thanks to that camel commercial...they go around all evening with the whole " What day is it?" "Huuummmppp Day" lol.

Anyways, on to the project! I have a  Halloween layout to share today!

 I really wanted to give my messy weaving technique a try on a larger scale. I LOVE how it turned out! I will definitely be doing this again!

These layouts were so fun to make! Makes me excited for this years Halloween photos! :)

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



Creative Scrappers Reveal!

Hi everyone!! Happy Sunday! I'm excited to share the new sketch that went up at Creative Scrappers today, and my inspiration layout.

If you have been around here for any amount of time, then you know that circles are my scrappy nemesis. I am not sure what it is about them, that always gives me a struggle. So, I switched it up a little bit!

I had so much fun with this layout, and I think it is my new favorite! I spent a while fussy cutting all those frames out, but I think it was so worth it, the exact look I was hoping for! :)

Now, head over to the Creative Scrappers blog, and see all the inspiration from the design team, and get all the details for your chance at a awesome kit from Crazy Kit Mondays! You have until September 30  to comment, and link up your take on the sketch!!

Have a great day, and take time to make something you love!