"Say Cheese" Disney Carsland Layout - Layout of the Week

A few months ago, I was asked to create some layouts by Plus Corp. for the Winter 2014 CHA show.  I was really excited to have a chance to work with Plus Corp's brand new Decorative Roller Stamps and Decorative Tapes.  The stamps I used were so new, I had one of the only sets in the US to play with!  Fun Fun!  With 12 roller stamps and 12 decorative tapes to choose from, I just had to grab some recent photos and use my imagination to create some super fun projects.  My very favorite project is this layout featuring a photo of our family with Lightning McQueen.  Our August trip to Disneyland and California Adventure was AMAZING!  And I was SO happy that I purchased the Disney Photo Pass CD full of our trip photos.  Knowing ahead of time that I would probably want to buy the CD, I was sure to have our photo taken by the Disney photographers every chance we got!  I love the CD and all of our photos, but I do wish that there were more photographers and photographers with every character we met.  It was strange that our photos with Mickey & Minnie in Toon Town had to be taken on our cameras.  It would have been nice to have professional ones with these characters.  But, all in all, I was very impressed with the quality of the photos and excited at the opportunity to reprint my photos many times, in any size I want!

This photo is from our very first day in the theme parks.  My little guy, Jake, has always been obsessed with the Cars movies and their characters, so of course, Lightning McQueen was at the top of his list of characters to meet.  To this day, he still tells everyone who will listen that Lightning McQueen lives in Disneyland and that he met him!  Such a fun memory!  We had just about every photo shot with our whole family and then again with just the kids.  I wanted as much versatility as I could get for my projects later.

For this layout, I looked to the photo for my color palette.  Bright red, electric yellow and black are classic Disney colors and help me show off Lightning too!  Putting them on a white background helps them jump off the page!  Textured white cardstock from American Crafts is my go-to white paper, it's a perfectly bright white and cuts like butter on my Silhouette Cameo.  To give my white background a more custom look, I used a paint brush to splatter acrylic paint onto the paper.  The black & yellow paints are regular acrylic from Kaisercraft, but the red is DecoArt Ultra Gloss Acrylic Enamel (usually used for painting glass).  I love how the red splotches are SO shiny!  I looked through my stash and the local scrapbook store where I work to come up with supplies for my layout.  Polka dots always make me think of Minnie and Disney, so I choose some polka dot elements in my color palette and grabbed my Mickey outline punch and Disney castle punch (I bought those years ago in Disneyland).

I arranged my elements on the page and balanced them out with another little cluster down in the bottom right corner with a little tag & some washi and a castle.

The new black honeycomb roller stamp from Plus Corp. was the perfect thing to mimic tire treads going across my page.  I used colored pencil to few in a few hexagons here & there.

For my title, I used the brand new "Say Cheese" stamp set from Technique Tuesday.  I stamped "cheese" with Versamark ink and embossed it in glossy red.  I used a couple of the hashtag word stamps from the set around my page, stamping them onto tags I cut on my Silhouette Cameo.  I inked the top tag in red before stamping it to help it stand out from my page.

This is one of my favorite layouts ever!  It was fun working with the new roller stamps from Plus Corp., along with the 2014 "Say Cheese" stamp set from Technique Tuesday too!  Stay tuned to this blog next when I share another Plus Corp. CHA sample!

Teacher Appreciation Layouts - Layout of the Week

This week is a very important week in schools all across America!  It's Teacher Appreciation Week!  This week was a huge deal in my daughter's elementary school.  And it still is!  Even though she's moved on to  middle school and her brother doesn't start elementary school until next year, I was asked to pitch in during this special week.  I'm sure it doesn't hurt that I work our local scrapbook store.  Those volunteers know just who to ask when these projects come up!

One of the mom's at the school came up with the idea of having each child in the school (about 600) create a scrapbook layout for his or her teacher.  Some kids also created layouts for the "specials" teachers: music, library and technology.  In an effort to include the office staff in this fun project, a mom contacted me and asked me to design pages for the principal and the three ladies who work in the office.  Of course, I was delighted to help.  These ladies were part of my and my daughter's life for six years and will be a part of my son's life for the next six years!

When I thought about what types of layouts to create, I was looking for something simple & graphic, that I could reproduce pretty easily for four people.  I think that the teachers will be receiving albums full of pages from their students.  I'm not sure exactly how my layouts will be presented to the office ladies, but I think they would be perfect in frames to hang on the wall.

I am really excited that our store will be getting the retail version of Project Life very soon and so I thought I'd create a PL style layout for these projects.  I also have a few fun ideas that I'm going to start designing soon to sell in the store and on etsy.  I'll be back with details, once the products are ready for sale.  So I had some ideas floating around in my head that I wanted to try out.

Our store (Whimzee's Scrapbook Studio in Beaverton, Oregon) sells tons of custom paper for local schools.  We order our paper from Scrappin' Sports, and of course, my elementary school is one that we order.  Check with your local scrapbook store if you'd like to create a project like this at your school.  I'm sure they have a vendor who can create custom paper for them.

Our school colors are red and black, so I stuck with a red, black & white theme for the layouts.  I used American Crafts textured white paper and World Win non-textured black paper, along with stamps by Technique Tuesday and ink from Tim Holtz & Ranger.  The cute black chevron washi is from Glitz.  I used my Silhouette Cameo to create custom PL style cards for the pages too!

A parent provided me with the photos.  Most were horizontal, so for three layouts, the horizontal layout worked perfectly.  For the fourth layout, I used two vertical photos and turned the layout 90 degrees, printing and cutting my rectangles vertically.

These layouts were a lot of fun to create!  I think I'm going to use this idea as a Teacher Appreciation gift in the future!  Create a layout and grab a white or black square frame & you're set.  I even created cards for a 5th layout, so I can make one for my daughter with a couple special photos from her last day of 5th grade!

Check out my fun idea and TONS of other amazing ideas over at the link party on Today's Creative Blog!  Tuesday is 'Get Your Craft On' day!  You'll find SO many cool ideas there every week, you'll wonder why you hadn't found it before!  Oh, be sure to tell Kim (Creator & Diva of TCB) HI and that Julie from JulieChats sent you!

Layout of the Week - My Happy Place

Most of my layouts come straight out of my own mind.  I usually get inspired by my photos or new papers & supplies at the store.  But from time to time, I see a layout I just have to "scraplift"!  There are just some layouts that appeal to me so much, I have to honor them by recreating them, with a little Julie-spin.  Lately, I've been getting a lot of inspiration from Instagram.  I stumbled across the Chic Tags blog just this way.  After seeing the fun creations from Chic Tags on Instagram, I've been checking their blog for inspiration.  And a couple of weeks ago, I found a layout that begged me to recreate it!  Created by Kasia, who lives in Turkey, the "Today was Awesome!" layout had me smitten!

I love everything about this layout!  Now, someday, I really do plan to recreate this layout in the colors that Kasia used.  But, in this case, I had already chosen papers & photos and just needed to use this layout for its design...as more of a sketch or plan.

Being obsessed with color, I chose to add my Julie-spin by creating a layout full of bright colors, letting Kasia's overall page design guide the placement of my elements.

To start, I hand trimmed my dotted paper and used my sewing machine to stitch it to one of my very favorite colors of cardstock, Ruby from the Vintage Collection of Core'dinations.  I liked the idea of continuing the dot theme, so I searched the Silhouette Online Store until I found the Linked Welded Rings cut that I could duplicate, rotate and weld to create a background similar to Kasia's.

I cut it in a dark teal, Stargaze from American Crafts.  Then I went back and deleted out the center of all my circles and cut that in white to create a background.  I love using the Luminarte Mists from Splash of Color (previously Creative Imaginations), so I used a paint brush and water to wet the white background and then dripped four colors of the mist onto the paper.  I let the white pieces dry before adhering them to the circle pieces.

Next I gathered some tags & other embellishments, some old, some new to give my page a graphic look similar to Kasia's. I chose some stickers from the Fancy Pants kit, along with a couple Technique Tuesday stamps and my SMASH date stamp.

I love how my page turned out, with tons of color and lots of layers & textures.  If you're having trouble layering your embellishments, just remember to lay everything down and move it around a lot until you like the result.  THEN start from the bottom adhering the back pieces first.  Adding pop dots to a few of your embellishments gives some depth to your creation, just be sure to pick only a few.  Everything doesn't need to be "popped up"!

I hope this "scrap-lift" shows you how you can use your inspiration layout as a sketch and think of its design elements in your own way to create something original that shows a little bit of you!

Check out my fun idea and TONS of other amazing ideas over at the link party on Today's Creative Blog!  Tuesday is 'Get Your Craft On' day!  You'll find SO many cool ideas there every week, you'll wonder why you hadn't found it before!  Oh, be sure to tell Kim (Creator & Diva of TCB) HI and that Julie from JulieChats sent you!

Supplies:

Paper:

Core'dinations Vintage Collection Ruby

Fancy Pants Down by the Shore: Colorful Days

American Crafts Textured Cardstock: Stargaze

Colormates Non-Textured Cardstock: Light Heritage White

Stickers:

Fancy Pants Down by the Shore: Sticker Fundamentals

Tags:

Peterson Arne: White & Yellow Mulberry

Creative Cafe: Together

Stamps:

Technique Tuesday: Awesome and Studio AE: My Life

K & Company: SMASH Date Stamp

Ink:

Versamark Watermark

Tim Holtz Distress Ink: Walnut Stain

Splash of Color Luminarte Radiant Rain Mists:

      Bashful Blue

      Ginger Peach

      Key Lime

      Sunburst

Embossing Powder:

Ranger: Rich Red

American Crafts: Zing in Cricket

Misc.:

Scrapbook Adhesives: 3D Foam Squares

Yellow Thread

Layout of the Week - Punky Posh Mini Album with Punky Sprouts & Chatterbox Part 2

I thought I'd share a few detail shots of the album I featured last week.  I'm still in love with this album.  I have some more ideas for creating a totally different look with this same album.  I did make another of Punky Sprouts's albums last week.  And after I return from my relaxing vacation to Mexico, I'll share it with you.  I'm in Mexico as you're reading this, hopefully laying in the sun sipping a margarita celebrating 40th birthdays with a couple of my closest friends.  I don't have my 40th for a few months, but we're all going to celebrate all year...there's no law against that...is there?

I like to embellish these little mini albums with all sorts of things.  For this one, I added some tags, ribbon & twine.

I liked the burlap page I made so much, I added a little scrap to the cover.  It was fun piling things on the cover over the dry brush painting I had completed earlier.  I think the date tag is a great idea, it's always fun to remember the exact date of an occasion.  The felt birdie was a fun last minute addition when I thought the empty space was a little too much.

For Delaney's page, I created a girly look...sparkly glitter paper, velvet flocked paper with a scalloped edge, pom pom fringe, ribbon and a butterfly.

I created my own page to add to this album, trimming burlap and using a zutter hole punch to create the holes.  I thought the rough texture suited a rambunctious little boy!  I added the bit of ribbon on the right at the last minute, just pulling on the burlap's twine pieces to create a space to weave the ribbon.

This was my quickest page of this album, just a square of lime paint to frame my photo.

This page probably took the longest to create.  I wanted a brown canvas page, so I got some at my local sewing shop and cut two pieces the same size as the album's other pages.  I used my sewing machine and ivory thread to add the details.  I'm not very experienced with the sewing machine, so I tried out the scallop stitch on this project.  It's so nice that when we use machine stitching on papercrafts people don't expect or want perfectly straight lines.  This would drive my mother nuts, she's such a great seamstress and tried for years to teach me to sew.  But she was forever pulling out my mistakes and I finally gave up.  I'm excited I finally found a use for that sewing machine that was stuck away in a closet!  And thank goodness, I still have my mom to do the "real" sewing! :)

Oh, and I love the felt embellishments that Chatterbox made to match these collections, so cute and self adhesive too!

On the back of my canvas page, I stuck with little circle embellishments and a tag to create a boyish look.

This was another quick page.  Delaney is our artist, she loves all things creative.  So I just grabbed a foam brush, dipped it into the paints I was using on this project and randomly added touches of color to this ivory canvas page.  For a final touch, I added a little tag & some fun embellishments from my packs.

After the last busy page, I wanted to calm things down a bit.  I used the self adhesive felt embellishments on this one.

I love acrylic, especially when it's mixed with other types of pages.  For the acrylic, I painted the Tropical Water paint around the edges with a small, dry regular paint brush.  When you try this type of technique, don't be too perfect, the messy look is in! :)  I used a Crop A Dile tool to punch two holes in the right edge and then tied a couple ribbon knots as accents.

I like how the acrylic page looks when it's turned & placed over the photo on the left too!

This page is on the right behind the acrylic.  I used a patterned paper to cover this page and then placed a smaller torn, inked piece of foiled paper on the left.  Next I inked around the whole page and added a little garden twine on the left, as a fun contrast to the foil paper.

For a fun Jake page, I chose a checked paper and some star & button embellishments.

For my last Delaney page, I used acrylic stamps and my lime & tropical water paints to stamp some flowers onto the canvas.  It was fun adding a little tag & butterfly as a finishing touch.

Again I used the stamps and my two paint colors for this page.  For my little journaling, I used a letter stamp that creates an old fashioned typewriter still look.  I stamped, "At Home Together, Our Favorite Place," in brown ink.

This acrylic page was my biggest stretch yet....  I used a large Technique Tuesday stamp in Versamark ink and then added lime embossing powder and heated it with my heat gun.  Just let me tell you, this technique is not for the faint of heart or perfectionists out there.  The acrylic folded up all funny while I was heating the powder.  I was doing this page while I worked a crop at the store and boy everyone was nervous about how it might turn out.  I'm pretty sure they all thought I'd ruined the page.  But I grabbed two pieces of white paper and used them to help me flatten the acrylic back to its shape.   I think it turned out great!  It definitely isn't perfect though.  There are a few little spots of embossing powder that didn't get blown off the ink and created little green spots.  And the acrylic isn't as flat as I would like it to be.  But I love the look and don't really mind the bumpy-ness of the page.  What project is really PERFECT in the end anyway.  How would you know it's homemade if it's perfect!!!?

Here's the stamped, embossed acrylic page laying over the page to its left.

For my final page, I used the teal blue flocked paper, a bit of ribbon and a little monogram tag.

As you probably noticed, I used sepia tone photos again on this project.  If you've never tried them, you definitely should.  It's impossible for me to imagine how busy this album would be with color photos.  And of course the perfectionist in me loves when color schemes are in harmony in my projects.

You should also know that it's OK to just shoot some photos around  your house or yard and use them in a family album.  This wasn't a photo shoot, we were just hanging out outside in the yard on one of the few warm spring days here in Oregon.  I did get my mom to shoot the family photo, but the rest are just candids my husband & I shot with my point & shoot.  So don't worry about everyone matching and setting an appointment, just get together & take some photos.  Depending on your chosen papers, sepia tone or black & white can cover a million color matching mistakes!

I decided to skip photos on the back cover.  Just a little paint & a dry brush...the ribbon is tied around the whole page.

Supplies

Brown Cardstock - American Crafts

Patterned Papers - artsy.licious, Fabulous and Together by Chatterbox

Embellishments - Tags, Buttons, Journal Boxes, Ribbon

Kaisercraft - Acrylic Paint: Lime & Tropical Water

Ink - Brown Pigment Brush Pad by Color Box and Versamark Pad

Stamps - Technique Tuesday and Provo Craft

Embossing Powder - Zing by American Crafts

Ribbon - Various Manufacturers

Garden Twine - Unknown Manufacturer

Sewing Supplies - Burlap, Brown Canvas and Ivory Thread from Local Sewing Shop

A little note from Julie...I hope you're all having wonderful weeks!  I am in Mexico this week to help my friends celebrate their 40th birthdays (well, I'm celebrating mine too, albeit a bit early!).  I can't wait to see what I can find on my vacation to inspire my next project!  Have a wonderful weekend! :)

Layout of the Week - Spring Mini Album Project & a Punky Sprouts Sneak Peek

I've been a little busy lately to finish any actual layouts to feature as my "Layout of the Week," so I'm sharing what I have been working on.  This Saturday I'm teaching a class at the scrapbook store where I work, Whimzee's Scrapbook Studio in Beaverton, Oregon....in case you're in the area & want to sign up!  I taught this class at Christmas and a few people asked me to do it again.  I thought a Spring theme would be fun for the little mini album.  You could use it for a great Mother's Day gift or maybe for a special friend's birthday.

This project takes 3 pieces of cardstock, up to 14 different patterned papers, a couple feet of ribbon, lot's of adhesive and TONS of patience.  In just a couple hours you too can have a fun little album with lot's of little doors to hide all your photos & journaling.

I hope you're in the area so you can sign up for my class!  It really is much easier to make the album with a little help from someone who's done it before.  The instructions are kind of confusing, but if you're handy, you can probably make one up from my photos.  Give it a try when you have a couple hours & want to try something new.

I've got to get back to my projects for this week, two Punky Sprouts albums.  I've been very excited about Punky Sprouts for a few weeks now.  I had the chance to crop with one of the owners, Doralisa, and we had so much fun that I left pumped to give one of her albums a try.  It's so fun to be able to share a local Portland area scrapbook manufacturer with all of you.  Keep reading for links to the Punky Sprouts site & Facebook page, so you can ask your local scrapbook store to carry these awesome albums!

Here are a couple sneak peeks at my first project, using Chatterbox papers & embellishments, along with some great Kaisercraft paint colors!

Here's a quick look at the pages included in the Punky Posh album....

I'll share my take on this great album concept next week!

Head on over to the Punky Sprouts site to check out all their great albums!  I'm working on Punky Posh and Prim & Punky right now.  Punky Sprouts is on Facebook too & looking for a few more fans, tell them Julie sent you!

Just a little reminder to join me over at my fellow Portlander, Ann's, Virtual Girls' Night Out.  Join the party, every Friday night!  Ann's got a great music video, a yummy drink recipe and lot's of fun bloggers to hang with!  Get & Give tons of comments and find more followers for your blog!  Of course, you can visit Ann anytime...it doesn't have to be a Friday for you to get a laugh out of her adventures!

I also hang out every Tuesday at Today's Creative's Get Your Craft On party.  Head on over to another of my Pacific Northwest peeps' blog to find a huge list of links to other creative blogs.  Kim features a new creative blogger almost everyday and the huge Get Your Craft On blog hopping party every Tuesday.



Hey all you Mom Bloggers!!!!  Don't forget to head on over & check out all the fun, prizes & friends at 5 Minutes for Mom's Ultimate Blog Party 2010!



Join me & enter to win! I'm hoping to win #6 The Double Stacked a lot of Love Necklace, #11 $100 Gift Certificate to Restaurant.com and #17 The Books Found Art and Real Women Scrap!!!! Wish me luck!!!!!!!!!!!

Layout of the Week - Believe Achieve (my words for 2010)

I just have to say, I love this layout.  It isn't very often as scrapbookers that we create layouts about themselves.  At the beginning of this year, I read a lot of different blog posts about finding a word for yourself for the year.  The word would be your theme word, giving you something to focus on throughout the year.  I started to think about myself and all the things I've done in my life and the things I'd like to do in the future.  Being the mom of a two year old, it has been a while since I've thought about my own goals or even thought much about myself at all.  I was just starting to get back to thinking about me when Delaney turned 6 and was at the end of her year of 1/2 day kindergarten.  It was nice to look ahead at the things I could start to do for me once she started school full time in September of 2007.  And then suddenly my world was turned upside down.  I found out I was pregnant with Jake in June of 2007, just a week before Delaney was done with kindergarten.  It was quite a shock after about 5 years trying to conceive and then coming to terms with our being a 3 person family.  I still can picture the look on Dave's face when Delaney & I told him we'd be having a baby.  I'll tell you more of this story another time, but suffice it to say, shock doesn't even come close.  So my thoughts took an about face, away from what I wanted to do with the "rest of my life" and toward raising another little one.

As I was reading these "word of the year" blog posts in January, I thought maybe I should think about me a little sooner this time and not wait until Jake was going to be in first grade...for goodness sake, I'll be 43 by then.  Here's my first Believe Achieve blog post.  And the thought of turning 40 this year also added to my eagerness to make plans that were mine alone.  For years, I've been involved in scrapbooking in some way, working on albums at home, helping my friend with projects, working at Whimzee's, writing my blog.  I also began another of my efforts at being healthier and losing weight this year.

Being someone who isn't short on words, I couldn't narrow my choices down to just one.  For my 2010 words of the year, I chose Believe and Achieve.  I chose them even before I walked into Jake's room to get him up from his nap and saw those exact words stenciled on a plaque on the wall in his room.  Dave chose it at a baby boutique when we were shopping for bedding & decorations for his room.  It hangs over his crib and someday we'll explain to him what they mean...right now, he just enjoys pointing out that there is an "A" on the sign.

These words are important for me to remember this year, because I have a few goals for myself.  I want to expand my blog and find a sponsor or two (if anyone has any suggestions, bring 'em on!) and I hope to be chosen for a Design Team of some sort in 2010.  I also want to continue with my efforts to work out, eat healthier and by doing those things, lose some weight.  One more important goal, for the whole family really, is to make smart money choices.

I think that I am moving toward all these goals, but I do have to remind myself everyday, that I have to Believe in myself and make efforts in order to Achieve them this year.  I created this layout to highlight my words and remind myself everyday of what I am working toward.  I challenge you to find a theme word or two, even three or four, who's counting.

In creating a layout that highlights my words, I wanted to use some of my favorite products.  The papers are from Lily Bee and the embellishments are from all sorts of places.  I wanted to show contrast in this layout.  Not only am I a mom and wife, I also have personal and professional goals outside of my family.  These goals will benefit my family in many ways, but they are my goals.  I chose to create contrast in my layout by placing the rhinestone "BELIEVE" on a distressed piece of corrogated cardboard.  The rhinestone title also contrasts nicely with the slick orange "ACHIEVE."  I created depth by using a cardboard circle covered with word filled paper.  I used pop dots to raise my photo above the background.  Again highlighting my words, I used Photoshop to print them on my photo.

I love this photo of me.  I asked my friend, Pandra, to shoot a photo of me to send in with a design team application.  I was planning on changing & doing my hair first, but she just got out her camera one night when we were hanging out with friends.  They started telling jokes & I couldn't keep a straight face.  It just all went downhill from the very beginning....  This first photo was the best of the bunch!  Thanks P! :)

Tips

Think of a theme word for the year & remind yourself of it everyday!

Create a layout or project highlighting your word and place it somewhere you will see it everyday!

Don't be afraid to create contrast with by using totally different embellishments in your layouts.  Rhinestone & cardboard...glitter & slick plastic.

Have a friend shoot some photos of you and create a layout that shows your personality or how you felt that day!

Supplies

Patterned Paper - Lily Bee
Rhinestone Title - Kaisercraft
ACHIEVE & 2010 - THICKERS by American Crafts
Paint - a variety of craft paints

This post shared on Today's Creative!  Be sure to check them out for links to all things creative and the best features of creative blogs on the internet!

Meet my 200th Follower! And the Layout of the Week - Friends

WOO - HOO!

200 followers!

YEAH!

OK, you can tell I'm SO excited to have my 200th follower!  And since 200 is a pretty big milestone, I want to share my 200th follower with you.

Meet Adrienne from Kitschalicious!  She has one of the cutest blogs I've seen, all covered with polka dots, little cherries and a splash of glitter.  But that's not the only reason why I love it....the craft ideas & projects are wonderful!  If you've got tons of little Happy Meal toys underfoot, just check this out....a Happy Meal Toy Wreath!  Boy I wish I hadn't give ours all to Goodwill after they didn't sell in the quarter box at the garage sale!  So click on over to Kitschalicious, be sure to leave a comment to say HI, sign up to follow Miss Adrienne's adventures & tell her Julie sent you! :)

I met Adrienne on a great blog hop adventure sponsored by Today's Creative.  I've been participating for a few weeks now and I've met so many awesome bloggers.  I'm pretty sure that Today's Creative is now responsible for my last 20 or so followers!  ThAnKs! :)

Every week there are between 100 and 300 crafty blog posts listed for you to check out.  I have tons of awesome ideas for my scrapbooking, decor and organizing, so many that I'll never have time to get to all of them, but still, so much fun to hop around & see who's over there.  So click on over to Today's Creative to see the "Get Your Craft On" post.  And be sure to see whose crafty blog is being featured today.  Kim created Today's Creative & she's also got a personal blog loaded with funny stories & crafty ideas, so skip on over to Scrap to My Lu!

to see what's up with Kim.

OK, now on to this week's Layout of the Week!

This is one of my favorites that I've made in the last few months!  I really LOVE Lily Bee, who made this cool paper!  Their die cuts are to DIE for...is that a pun??? :)  I knew I'd save this paper for something special and this photo of me & two of my bestfriends is just the thing.  That's me, Amy & Julie.  We've been friends since freshman year in college, wow, 22 years, say it isn't so!  We've been through all sorts of things together good, bad & ugly, but we're still together, well, Amy lives all the way out in Denver, but as together as you can be across a few states.  Julie & I really are together, I bought her house and when she moved a few blocks away, that's pretty together for two almost 40 year olds!  Every time we are lucky enough to be together, we take a self portrait.  Now, we've been doing this since college and even with the introduction of digital cameras into our lives, we still do it the old fashioned way...no, not with real film, but without anyone standing there looking at the screen to see if we're really in the photo!  It's a tradition, even the order we stand in is always the same.  There have been many special occasions when Julie & I (yes, we're the 2 Julie's) have taken a self portrait, just the two of us with a space in the middle, to let poor Amy know she's missed!  This photo was taken last fall when Amy came out to visit for a Duck football game...we're all University of Oregon Alumni and fanatically proud of our school & just about everything related to it.  It's Oregon, afterall, no NFL here!  So GO DUCKS!

I knew I'd have to print this one in my old standby sepia tone if it was going to work with the cream/brown/pink color scheme.  There's no way dark green and neon yellow would match with this subdued color scheme.  I kept the photo 4 x 6 so I'd have plenty of space for lot's of fun embellishments.  I added some cute ball fringe ribbon and a couple other pink & brown ribbons.  I love the Mark Richards Mosaic Tiles, cute little pink squares.  This was my first layout using them & I just can't stop!  For a some more bling, I added a little field of pink & brown Prima flowers.  For the centers of the flowers, I looked for tiny bronze brads.  Not finding any in my HUGE stash up in my studio, I settled for some copper ones.  Then I dipped them into some G Studio glitter glue and then my favorite brown Pink Paislee glitter.  I think they turned out great!  I also used the G Studio glitter glue & brown glitter to add a little flourish to the brown birdie paper near the top of the layout, a little difficult to see in the photo, sorry!

I used brown ink on the edges of my papers in this layout, I love the added texture it gives.  For my title, I chose some brown THICKERS.  I painted "3" & "us" with pink G Studio glitter glue and sanded the letters for "of".  I like the juxtaposition of the soft pink glitter and the roughed up word in between.  Hey, aren't we all soft & glittery sometimes and just a little rough around the edges other times!

I did enter this layout in Lily Bee's Design Team contest this week, so wish me luck!

Hopefully I'll see you Friday, over at Ann's, for her Virtual Girls' Night Out!  Such a great place to meet other cool bloggers, get & leave a few comments and see what's going on in the blogging world! :)

Tips

Of course, print your photos in sepia if it will help them blend better with your papers.

Don't be afraid to use one 4 x 6 on a layout, it will give you lot's of room for embellishments!

Ink the edges of your papers & embellishments for a little added texture and it's free to boot!

Chipboard letters, dress them up with glitter glue or down by sanding them.

If you're brads don't match your layout, dip them in glue & coat with opaque glitter, no one will ever know what color they really are!

Supplies

Patterned papers & die cuts - Lily Bee

Mosaic Tiles - Mark Richards

Glitter Glue - G Studio

Glitter - Pink Paislee

Ribbon - Creative Imaginations, American Crafts

Flowers - Prima

Brads - Making Memories

Ink - Creative Cafe

Alphabet - THICKERS by American Crafts

Layout of the Week - Valentine Card

For my Layout of the Week this week, I'm sharing a card I created for a class I'm teaching soon.  We'll be making 4 cards and a gift box for the class, so I'll have more fun Valentine things to share soon!  I wanted to keep this card simple and quick.  And as you can tell from some of my past Layout of the Week projects, I love using paper strips as a quick way to get a layout started.  I found the idea for this card in an old issue of Card Trends magazine.  The original card had a Spring theme and felt flowers backing the buttons.  I thought it would be fun to add the die cut heart to the design, afterall it is a Valentine...can there ever be too many hearts on Valentine's Day?  I love the idea of using the corner rounder on just the top of the card!  Can't wait to use this idea in a scrapbook layout!

If you've been thinking about making your own Valentine's this year, it's time to drag out those supplies and get started!  Valentine's are the perfect way to use up those scraps you've been saving.  Just dig through your piles...yes, I know you keep your scraps in piles...doesn't everyone?  Find all those fun Valentine colors, add in whatever you can find in there that sparkles, grab some odds & ends of ribbons & buttons and you're ready to go.  Quick cards just take a little measuring & cutting of your scraps!  Add a ribbon & a button or two and you're done!  If you're feeling especially creative, add a rub on quote or saying to one of the paper strips or even to your ribbon.  The special Valentines in your life will love your handmade cards and you'll even save a little money using up those scraps, so buy yourself a truffle the next time you're near a Moonstruck store!  OK, maybe that's my plan, but it will work for you too!

Have a great weekend!

Supplies

Cardstock:  American Crafts, WorldWin

Patterned Paper:  Bloom & Sweetheart from the Smitten Collection by 3 Bugs in a Rug

Twill Ribbon:  Creative Cafe

Buttons:  Creative Cafe, Boxer

Floss:  DMC

Die Cut:  Quickutz

Corner Rounder:  EK Success