Scrapbooking Thanksgiving: Grateful

Hello everyone!

It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is just a week away. I love the Fall season, but it always seems to slip by so quickly and the next thing you know, Christmas carols are playing. 

Before we turn on the holiday music at our house, I wanted to pause for a moment and honor Thanksgiving. I have so much for which to be grateful and I took a few minutes to jot that down on this layout. 

I made this page with the November kit from My Creative Scrapbook. It featured a mix of lines from Echo Park Paper and Doodlebug Design. 

I included a few lines of journaling right under the photo, which I took of the table setting last year. 

Wishing you and yours a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. 

The Cutest Pumpkin in the Patch

Good morning, everyone!

I have another Fall layout today from the November kit at My Creative Scrapbook. 

I frequently scrapbook holidays and events a year after they happen, e.g. I 'll scrap Christmas 2014 in December 2015. I like to scrapbook in the same season as the event, but since it takes me a bit to upload and edit photos and I work with designer deadlines, the holiday is often well past. So, I just hold the photos for next year. Thus, I made a layout of last year's pumpkin patch visit just last month, which you may remember. 

In a break with tradition, I'm scrapbooking this year's pumpkin patch visit this year! The colors and icons in the November MCS kit worked perfectly for a pumpkin patch, so I got her done. 

Here's a close-up of the page:

I have a simple style. I most often use a strong 4x6 photo as my focal point. I try to include a bit of journaling on my layouts too, but I didn't here. I handwrote the date (2015) and the title tells where we were. We go to this particular farm each year and other layouts about our visit to Hodges Farm tell a little more of the tradition. 

This November kit featured a mix of Echo Park Paper and Doodlebug Designs. I used primarily Echo Park here. 

This is the kit I used: 

You can find out more about My Creative Scrapbook on its website.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Beautiful Highland Haven: MCS Kit Reveal

Hello everyone. It's the 5th of the month and reveal day for My Creative Scrapbook Kit Club. 

Here, I used the kit to document a trip we took in late September to the Virginia Highlands. My parents bought a little piece of property there and it is a sweet spot! It's a great place to watch for deer or pick apples or just relax and soak in the views. 

The November Creative Kit is a fun Fall-themed kit, featuring Echo Park Paper and Doodlebug Designs. 


Here's a photo of the kit I used: 

You can find all the kits here.

Thanks for stopping by!

A Trip To Chimney Rock

Good morning! I'm back today with a vacation layout. 

Chimney Rock is one of the most iconic sites in North Carolina, offering sweeping views of the mountains and gorge. So when my parents bought a new RV this year and wanted to take a trip, the first place we went was to Chimney Rock State Park. 

I took this photo of Cory and my parents at the base of the park in the shade of the trees. 

I used my October kit from My Creative Scrapbook to make this layout. The kit's theme was family and that was perfect for this photo. I don't worry too much about the papers being matchy matchy with my photo. Mom is wearing a pink floral summer shirt and I just ignored that! I used the papers instead to bring out the Fall colors from the photo. 

I wanted to add a bit of strip journaling to the page. I typed a couple of short sentences on the computer, printed them out, then took a small piece of aqua paper from the kit and placed it over the journaling. I used washi to temporarily hold the aqua paper in place, then ran the paper through my printer again. 

I used a paper trimmer to cut the journaling strips then placed them on my layout. 

The bottom third of my layout are just strips of border paper from the kit. Easy peasy. This is from the cute Family Frenzy line from Bella Blvd. 

The border strips give the layout a fun pop of color. 

Here's a photo of the kit I used from My Creative Scrapbook: 

Here's one more look at the layout: 

Thank you for stopping by. Have a great week!

Fall At The Farm: Pebbles Inc.

Good morning!  We're having beautiful Fall weather here in the Carolinas and today, I'm showing a seasonal layout I made with the new kit at My Creative Scrapbook.

We went to a Fall festival in October at Longshot Farms and had the best day. I took this quick snap of my son while we were waiting for a hayride. 

The kit featured the Home + Made collection from Pebbles including this cute paper. I loved it and used it on nearly every project I made with the kit. 

The "best day ever" card was perfectly sized to pair with a vertical 4x6 photo. I made a little pocket under the card for a hidden journaling tag.

To balance the page, I added a shipping tag at the top, layered with stickers, as well as a dark, bold title and a few colorful banners.

Here's another look at the full layout: 

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I hope you have a great week!

Anatomy Of A Layout: November Kit

Hi everyone. Today, I have the reveal of the new kits at My Creative Scrapbook and a tutorial on how I used the kit to make a Fall layout. 

The kit featured the versatile Home + Made collection from Pebbles Inc. While the collection isn't specifically Autumn-themed, the colors and icons worked perfectly for my photo of the kids at our local pumpkin farm. 

I started the layout my piecing together the background on white cardstock, then I stitched the whole background onto a 12 x 12 sheet of kraft paper. 

The mask in the kit was perfect for creating a journaling spot. 

The kit included some cute script word stickers. I used the sticker that said "friends," inking it to make it pop against the background paper. 

I loved the sheet of Crate Memo paper in the kit and cut apart several elements from that sheet, including the arrows. It was perfect for adding little touches to complete the layout. 

I cut the phrase "Life Captured" from the Crate sheet as well. Here's another look at the completed layout.

Below is a photo of the November kit I used to make the layout. You can see more details of monthly kits at My Creative Scrapbook here.

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

70 Letter Surprise: Using A Photo Collage

Good morning, everyone. Today, I have a simple layout made with a photo collage, a journaling card I ran through the printer, and the October kit from My Creative Scrapbook. 

We had a big party for my Mom for her 70th birthday and I had several photos I wanted to use.  I used PicMonkey to make the collage, then printed it out as an 8 x 10 photo with a large white border. I trimmed down the white border to make the collage fit better on my 12 x 12 layout. 

I wanted to add some journaling to this layout, but there was no room on the page itself. The kit contained a white cute die-cut card that I thought would work perfectly as a journaling spot. 

I backed the die cut with orange patterned paper for a pop of color, used washi tape to adhere the card temporarily to regular printer paper then ran it through my printer. The photo trio below shows the steps I used and the finished journaling card. 

After the journaling card was ready, I made a little pocket for it under my photo collage then slipped the card into the pocket. The card pulls out to reveal the hidden journaling. 

Though this kit is Fall-themed not birthday themed, it worked out great by using the more neutral papers and palette. A cute and versatile kit!  Paper and embellishments are from Doodlebug Design. 

If you participated in the blog hop last week, pop over to My Creative Scrapbook blog to see if you were one of the lucky winners!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Can't Mask My Feelings: Doodlebug Design

Hello and happy Friday!  We're starting to gear up for Halloween around here, which made me think about last year's costume when Cory was a Ninja Turtle. 

I made him a simple mask with craft foam and fabric ties and he loved wearing it. I snapped this photo of him last year, in his pjs, with his mask. 

I printed the photo as a 4x6 on my layout, using the October kit at My Creative Scrapbook. The playful nature of the pattern papers from Doodlebug Design worked well with the photo. I cut the papers into strips then stitched them on cardstock with a zigzag stitch. 

I happened to have a stamp in my stash that said: I can't mask my feelings for you.  It was perfect with the photo and cute raccoon journaling card. I added a punched leaf and a striped photo corner for a pop of color. 

Have a great weekend!

Together Again: Anatomy of a Layout

If you are looking for the My Creative Scrapbook blog hop, please see this post. 

Hi everyone. I'm back today with another project from My Creative Scrapbook's October kit. This cute kit featured the Friendly Forest collection from Doodlbug Design. 

I loved the patterned paper with the words about Fall and wanted to feature it so I made it the base of my design. I layered a few other papers in the collection to make a horizontal photo mat near the bottom of the page. 

The die cut card is from Jillibean Soup. It was white and a bit too stark for my layout, so I darken the card a bit with mist and sewed on a colorful ribbon. I backed the card with purple patterned paper from the kit to make it pop against the orange background. Then I added a couple stickers on top. 

To the right of the large orange photo mat, I added a doily under the photo, a tab sticker and layered a flower on top of a large die cut leaf.

The layout was coming along but I needed a space for my title and I wanted to balance out the heaviness at the bottom on the page.  So I added a shipping tag to the top, colored it with mist then added some stickers, die cuts and my title. 

Here's another look at the completed layout: 

If you haven't joined the My Creative Scrapbook blog hop, stop by for your chance to win some terrific prizes. Entries are open until 11:59 pm eastern standard time on Oct. 8. Details about the blog hop are in the post beneath this one. 

October Sneak Peeks: My Creative Scrapbook

I'm baaaaaak!  Hi everyone.  My apologies for the long absence. I have a doctor's excuse, but sheesh, it's been no fun. But I'm all done now. Treatment is over and I'm back to crafting and creating. Yay!  I have missed it so.

Before I left, I had been on the Design Team for the monthly scrapbook kit, My Creative Scrapbook. The owner was so sweet to hold my spot and welcome me back.  The full reveal of the October kit is not until Oct. 5, but I'm going to give you a few sneak peeks today.

Aw, Fall. Love it. Hay rides, pumpkin patches, falling leaves and candy. Lots of Halloween candy. How can you not love that?1

October is our birthday month at My Creative Scrapbook and we'll have a blog hop with terrific prizes from your favorite manufacturers. The hop starts Oct. 5.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Nature Walk: Fancy Pants Designs

I'm up on the Fancy Pants Designs blog today with a two-pager. Yup!  It was so fun to do and I fit in seven photos with still lots of room for embellishments. Here's a sneak peek of the left side. 

Not sure why I don't do more two-pagers. Maybe because they are hard to photograph.....that's true. With single pages, I always use 12 x 12 paper as my base. But for this project I used two 8.5 x 11 inch papers. The two-pager just seemed to flow better that size and made me think maybe I should try some one pagers that are 8.5 x 11. 

How about you? Do you mix up your layout sizes? 

If you'd like to see the whole layout, just pop over to Fancy Pants blog.  I used the new Happy Go Lucky collection, perfect for Fall. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you have a great weekend!

Chevron Tutorial: My Creative Scrapbook

Hello, everyone.  Today, I have a layout and a few tips and tricks using some "difficult" paper from the Feels Like Home collection from Little Yellow Bicycle. This collection was included in the cozy October kit at My Creative Scrapbook.

For my layout, I started with this piece of paper. (Note: the gingham is the print on the reverse side). 

I rotated the paper 90 degrees so that the banners were at the top, but I wasn't sure what to do about the image of the big blue chair. It was too ornate for the casual look of the photos I wanted to use. 

I loved the pretty patterns and colors of this chevron paper and thought it could work with my photos, but the paper was rather dark. 

To lighten the look of the chevron paper, I cut it apart.    

I arranged the chevrons to cover the chair, allowing some of the lighter background paper to peek through each row.  

I added a bit of stitching with white thread for a bit of texture and contrast. 

A few white journaling strips at the bottom bring more light to the page and help break up the strong chevron pattern. 

I added three photos, with bingo cards tucked under each to help draw the eyes around the page. At the top, I added a title and a few embellishments. A nice transformation, I think!

Thanks for much for stopping by. I hope you have a great week!