"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!

Layout of the Week - Me & My Peeps

I know that no matter how hard we try to "keep up" with our scrapbooking, there are so many things in life that "get in the way".  Actually, it's all the amazing things we strive to record that "get in the way".  I willingly admit that I am YEARS behind in scrapbooking, if keeping up is measured chronologically....  I'm not sure when this "being behind" started.  Over the years, I have gotten less and less concerned with "keeping up".  The very first time I remember realizing that being "current" with my scrapbooking is not important was reading about the scrapbooking philosophy of Cathy Zielske.  Cathy was a big part of Simple Scrapbooking magazine and has a great philosophy of keeping things simple and following your own path as far as scrapbooking is concerned.  Read some of Cathy's idea's in a blog post about "Taking the 'Crap' Out of Scrapbooking".  After you read it,  you'll see some of the reasons why I'm not concerned with "keeping up" any more.

I love creating and scrapbooking is a way for me to create and working in a scrapbook store, doing this blog, teaching classes and giving advice are all parts of the creative process for me.  So, if you have always stressed about "keeping up" with your scrapbooking, take this opportunity to think about what it might be like to let go and concentrate more on being creative and telling the important stories.

But, as a nod to my family who loves to browse through their photos, I've found a way to combine my simple, non-chronological style with a new-to-me way to create a very simple, chronological albums.  I plan to continue using Cathy's philosophy of telling my family's stories when I create layouts.  I love the idea of choosing which stories I create whole page layouts for.  As far as regular, everyday life and creating albums that my family can sit and flip through, I plan to create a 2013 album using the Project Life system by Becky Higgins when it arrives in our store.  I love the idea of sticking my photos into divided page protectors, journaling on a card and having that be it...unless I decide to get creative with it, which I'm sure I'll do from time to time.  I love how I can stick a layout or two in between the divided page protectors whenever I feel like it.  Using the idea of combining both types of scrapbooking, I can cater to my philosophy of creating whole page layouts whenever I choose and also, please my husband and kids by providing actual books of their photos for them to look through and share.  (Yes, my husband has been known to comment "If you spend so much time scrapbooking, where are the scrapbooks?  I'd like to SEE our photos!")

I'm really excited about creating an album that combines the philosophies of both Cathy & Becky!  I think this will be perfect for me and my family.  They will have something to look at filled with their memories and I  will be able to create a fun, story telling layout whenever I find the perfect paper or embellishment...or inspiration strikes!

As far as those of you who really are keeping up :), I thought I'd share a layout I created a couple of weeks ago.  It's an Easter layout, so it's perfect, since you'll be working with this most recent holiday now.... ;)  And for those of us who are not so caught up, feel free to be inspired to create a layout for any Easter you have photos for!  That's what I did.  I used photos from a couple of Easters ago, since that's when Delaney created her "Peep Army."  Seeing this cut on the Silhouette Online store inspired me on this one.  I remembered taking photos of Delaney dipping tons of Peeps in chocolate and lining them up on a plate.  We all know there are times when a product or memory inspires us to create a page.  So, when I have time to go back & create a Project Life album for 2011, I can slip this layout in the Easter section.  Until then, I'll happily slide it into my family's album of miscellaneous memories...after it comes down off the wall at the store, anyway!

Here's some Easter inspiration for you...

For this layout, I used a bright, "Spring-y" paper with a pattern for my background.  The glazed & glittered paper from Best Creations gave a pop to my simple layout and perfectly matched my Peeps die cut.  When I saw the "Me & My Peeps" cut in the Sihouette store, I knew just which photos I had to go with it.  I cut the title out of some deep dark chocolate paper from American Crafts and found some super bright, non-textured cardstock in my stash to match the colors of actual Peeps.  I added an outline to the cut in order to have a place to mount the peeps and cut it from non-textured white cardstock.  After cutting the cute little Peeps, I inked the entire surface of each one with Versamark watermark ink and embossed with an old jar of embossing powder that says "turquoise sparkle" on the label.  I'm not going to lie, embossing the entire surface of the little guys was a challenge...I ended up with a couple burned fingers...but the overall look was worth my pain...cute little sparkly, sugared Peeps!

With such a large embellishment and four large photos, I decided on a step by step sort of layout, I put the photos on my layout in a clockwise fashion after mounting them on white non-textured cardstock, to help them stand out.  At this point, I thought my layout needed a little extra something...so I used one of my favorite stamps right now, the arrow from Technique Tuesday's "Awesome" stamp set to help guide the eye through my sequence of photos.

I ended up with a little extra space on the right side and decided to add a turquoise vellum tag stamped with the date of my photos as a finishing touch.

So, whether this layout inspires you to create pages for Easter 2013 or another holiday entirely, remember that however you choose to scrapbook your memories is the "right" way!  Really, the choices are endless...chronological albums, albums for each member of your family, digital albums, photobooks, Project Life, mini albums for special events...they are all ways of recording our memories to share with others!!!

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 - Family with Graphic 45 Papers & A Special Annoucement!

This week, as the sun shines outside here in Oregon, I want to share my family with you.  Dave, my wonderful husband,  is a sports fanatic who loves to play with his kids.  He managed to combine those this week...he got Delaney to fill out an NCAA bracket and then had Jake do one too.  Dave used blocks with the first letter of each team and had Jake pick his favorite of the two.  Yes, it took quite a while and Jake's bracket is full of M-named teams (his current favorite letter).  Poor Jake didn't fare well with Montana last night, but he still has a chance to beat his Daddy.  I keep telling Dave that knowing about sports really has nothing to do with winning with these tourney brackets.  On to Delaney, my beautiful, talented, creative daughter, will be 9 on Sunday.  Delaney is so well-rounded, she loves participating in all sorts of sports (those talents come from Dad), creating original, eye-catching art pieces and she's a "bit" of a perfectionist (that, I'm sorry, comes from me!).  She is thoughtful and loving, especially to her little brother.  So that makes Jake last.  Mr. Jake is now two and FULL of ENERGY!  He loves the movie "Cars," any every character in it.  We're missing Sally right now and he asks for "Yaddy" every chance he gets...I'm sure she's around somewhere, probably in one of Delaney's shoes.  We all love to hang out together and are very excited that the weather's warming up here!

So that's a bit of our story!  On to my layout...this design idea came to me a bit backwards.  Usually I have a photo and then come up with a layout.  OK, sometimes I have a paper collection that I love and take photos to go with it.  This time, I was inspired by a pile of mismatched Graphic 45 papers laying all over my counter while I was creating projects for the Graphic 45 design team call.  Seeing these papers, most are the backsides, reminded me of a patchwork quilt.  I thought & thought about how to combine them and came up with using a brown background and my favorite sepia tone photos.  I didn't shoot a new photo for this page, I remembered that my mother-in-law shot some photos of us when she was visiting in early December.  This one was almost our Christmas card photo, but it didn't quite make the cut.  We were very excited at the time, being huge Duck fans and having just attended one of our most exciting games ever...the Civil War win over the dreaded Beavers!  So we decided to have a Duck theme Christmas card.  Even though we didn't use this photo, we found some even more fun Duck photos of all of us.  My trusty sepia tone came into play because dark green and almost neon yellow don't exactly match the Graphic 45 color scheme.

Since I had been thinking of this project as a patchwork quilt, I searched the internet for patchwork quotes.  I found a few that combined the quilt idea with the family idea.  I didn't find one that fit my thoughts exactly so I made up my own.  I didn't want a big wordy journal box or title on this one, so I used photoshop to print my quote right on top of my photo.

For the patches, I cut my papers to 2 1/2" square and then used a ruler to gently fold the edges in 1/4" on each side.  I tore upward along these folds so the white would show on the edges.  Next I inked the edges with brown ink.  I used one little Hermafix square on the back of each square and placed them on the brown background, leaving an area in the bottom right corner for the photo.

This was my very first attempt at machine stitching on a layout.  I'm pretty excited with the results.  I had been planning to give it a try.  Dave put a table in the laundry room for my sewing machine and I dug the poor thing out of one of the "holes" or storage closets in the bonus room.  It had been in there more than 5 years.  I was surprised it worked at all.  I searched the internet for ideas on machine stitching and found tons of them.  So I experimented with an extra sheet of my background paper and extra little squares.  I adjusted the tension, stitch width and lenght, writing each of the number combinations next to that particular stitch on my sample sheet.  When I found one I liked, I used it.  I chose ivory thread for this project.

After sewing around the page twice, I decided to create my own embellishment for my title.  I cut a piece of patterned paper twice as long as my photo, tore it leaving a white edge, inked it with the brown and folded it into pleats.  I used the same straight stitch I used on the whole page to stitch my pleats together.  I went over the pleats twice.  Next I stitched down my brown ball fringe ribbon.  For the title, I inked the edges of the Graphic 45 letters with black and adhered them with pop dots.  To attach my homemade embellishments, I used glue dots.

I was very happy with how this layout turned out.  I loved machine stitching and can't wait to use it again!  Next time you're together with your family, shot a photo and remember to create a layout to celebrate these special people!

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SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!

I want to share some exciting news with my readers!  I am now a featured writer on the Oregon Women's Report website.  I am writing a series of fun, anecdotal stories about scrapbooking.  I'd love it if you'd stop by over there and read my first one!  I'm planning to post each article here also.  I'll post one in both places every two weeks or so.  If you're from Oregon or just interested in all the cool women writers on the site, sign up to receive updates from OWR in your inbox.  Thanks! :)

Don't Forget!  Join me at Ann's tonight for Virtual Girl's Night Out!  Stop by to join in the fun, meet lot's of great women bloggers (and sometimes some male bloggers too!), hop around the internet leaving comments and getting some for yourself too!

Tips

Of course, use sepia tone or black & white to help your photos blend with your chosen papers.

If you're looking for a new way to include journaling in your layouts, give photoshop a try!

Look at the backsides of your papers, they might inspire a layout all by themselves.

Think about creating your own embellishments.

If you've got a sewing machine, try machine stitching!

Supplies

Graphic 45 papers...from all different collections, most are the backsides.

Graphic 45 alphabet letters

Bazzill brown ball fringe ribbon

Dark Brown Ink - Cat's Eye ink pad

Ivory thread for machine stitching

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!

JulieChats - Featured Craft Blogger @ Scrapaholic Studio

I have some exciting news!

I'm the Featured Craft Blogger on the Scrapaholic Studio blog by Mrs. Licky.  Along with the features, she shares her layouts, cards, and all sorts of things she creates with her Cricut in her posts.  Be sure to check out her other Featured Craft Bloggers, down in the "Interview with Crafty Bloggers" section.

It was a lot of fun thinking about all the questions and getting my answers together.  I had the chance to think about how I got into scrapbooking and crafting in general.  It was fun to chat about my favorite scrapbooking supplies and tools.  I also got a chance to revisit my goals in blogging and scrapbooking.

I am trying to remember my words for 2010, BELIEVE & ACHIEVE, each and every day.  I try to do a little work toward my goals each day.  And the honor of being featured on another blog is a big part of my goal of bringing my blog to more readers in the scrapbooking community!

Thank You, Mrs. Licky!!! :)

Layout of the Week - Valentine Card #2

Well, it's finally Friday!  It's sure been a busy week around my house...Jake's birthday last Sunday and our niece visiting for the weekend...Delaney out of school on Monday and lunch with my parents...Lot's of homework, housework, preparing for my Valentine card class on Sunday...And then last night two burglaries in our neighborhood.  I'm housesitting for my neighbors, who are on vacation this week, and someone broke down their door, but didn't end up stealing anything.  At least the alarm was set and seems to have stopped the guy at the door.  But just knowing that someone was next door to my house, breaking down the door is unnerving!  The police officer who responded last night and the detective I spoke with today said that both houses were dark with outside lights on.  So now I'll be sure to leave lights on inside my house whenever we are gone at night.  Sure hope they catch the guy soon.  I was asked recently if I thought of my neighborhood as safe and I said yes.  It sure seems safe to live in a nice neighborhood with nice houses and nice yards, close to a nice school.  But I guess I would have to answer differently the next time I'm asked....

OK, I'm going to force myself to think about something more fun right now!  I'm getting ready to teach my Valentine card class on Sunday at the Hillsboro Library.  If you're in the area, it's free and we'll take the first 15 people who come to make 3 cards, a gift tag and a gift box.

I hope you are all getting into the Valentine spirit, making Valentine's, helping your kids with theirs, or maybe picking out fun decorations for their Valentine boxes.  At Delaney's school, the kids make their boxes at home and bring them on Valentine's Day.  I'll have to share a photo of hers with you, once she's done with it!  If you're looking for Valentine ideas, there are some very cute ones that you can download, just check down the right column of my blog in the "Get Your Creative On" section for some of the latest Valentine blog posts.

I'm in the middle of a lot of great projects right now!  I can't wait to share them with all of you!  I should have some fun Layout of the Week features over the next few weeks.  I'll share some fun details with you, so you have something to look forward to...I'm making Delaney a Bo Bunny Chipboard album full of memories from her last birthday party...I'm creating 2 travel layouts with Reminisce's new Passport collection...I'm putting together a layout about me, yes ME, we really do need to have a photo or two of ourselves in our albums every so often...and for one last Valentine's Day surprise, I'm excited about a layout featuring photos of my two sweeties and Bo Bunny's Love Bandit Collection, one of the sweetest Valentine collections out there!

So if you're a scrapbooker or papercrafter, or if you know someone who is one, please sign up to follow my blog or subscribe to my feed to get my latest posts in your inbox!  I'm on a quest to get to 200 followers, and I'd appreciate any help you can give me!

In a trend I've seen on tons of other scrapbooking blogs, I've chosen 2 words to be my Theme for 2010.  I'll share them with you in my next post!  But part of choosing these 2 specific words, is that I have to put myself out there and ask for what I want.  One of my goals for 2010 is to become part of a design team and another is to find scrapbook related sponsors for my blog!  If you have any ideas to help me reach my goals, please leave me a comment!  And thanks for helping me attain my goals in 2010!

Card Supplies

Patterned Papers - 3 Bugs in a Rug, Smitten Collection

Cardstock - World Win, Bazzill

Sticker - 3 Bugs in a Rug, Smitten Collection

Cardstock Strip - Bazzill, Just the Edge

PS-If you're looking for a fun party tonight where you can hang out in your pj's & meet some other fun bloggers, join me at my friend Ann's Virtual Girls Night Out!  Ann is certainly the Hostess with the Mostest...and she needs a little company while she's home tending to a sick little one tonight!  As usual, she's sharing a yummy drink, some party music and a little game...just for fun and perfect for the chilly middle of our Oregon winters.

My Mighty 3

3 places I'd rather be right now:

1-Mexico....can't wait, I'm lucky enough to be spending a few days down there with some friends celebrating our 40 birthdays!!!!!! YEAH!  More on this later!

2-Sunriver, Oregon....the thought of a little snow and a toasty drink in the lodge...ahhhhhhh

3-Kauai....the Grand Hyatt, a lounge chair & the red dirt margarita, I'm drooling!

3 things I'll never drink again:

1-Boones Farm Wine....freshman year in college, YIKES!

2-Cream Soda

3-OK, this isn't a drink exactly, but never and I mean NEVER EVER consider trying a Cuban cigar when you've had too much rum or any other liquor for that matter...worst Jamaican memory!

3 people I'd like to have dinner with, not necessarily all at once:

1-Patrick Dempsey...you know why...

2-George Clooney...duh!

3-Rachel Ray...she'd be fun at a party and she could cook for me!

(I wasn't sure if the people had to be living or not, if they don't have to be, I'd put my Grandma Muriel at the top of the list.  I'd love to get a chance to ask her all about her life and being a mom!)

OK, now head on over to Ann's, join the party and let me know your Mighty 3!

Layout of the Week - Blazer Game

This layout celebrates Delaney's First Portland Trailblazer basketball game. A friend gave Dave his tickets for this game. Delaney had really been wanting to see a game in person, so this was perfect timing. The two of them had a great Daddy-Daughter night out. And we're only slightly worried that sitting in the club level section, with its endless free food, has spoiled Delaney for future games! We can't wait to answer, "Yes, those specks are the players!" and "No, you can't have all the candy you want, we have to PAY for it in these seats!"

But seriously, they both had a wonderful time and can't wait to do a Daddy-Daughter Blazer game again soon!

As for me, I had a great time with this layout. I started by cutting rectangles of varying sizes & laying them down in different ways until I was happy with the left side of the layout. Then I cut shapes to match for the right side. It helps if you write the sizes of your first pieces on their reverse sides for future reference.
I love symmetry, but wanted something a little different. So I laid out the right side exactly like the left and rotated it 180 degrees, ending up with the top right corner of my double page spread the same as the bottom left.

Next, I cropped my photos the same for each side and put them down in a semi-symmetrical design.
I inked the large rectangles and photo mats with red and black inks. My final touches on this layout were ribbon and a journal box stamped with the date of the game and an index card for journaling. Lastly, I added a trophy charm accented with ribbon to the box, adhered with a Glue Dot.
As far as journaling & titles go, sometimes it's nice to skip the large title and just go with a special memory of your event. Here's what I wrote in my box: Delaney's 1st Blazer game! In the long souvenir line...Delaney, "Dad Look!" Dad, "Yes, it's a nice Christmas tree..." Delaney, "No Dad! Look up there at the TV, the game just started, we'd better get back to our seats!" DADDY'S PROUDEST MOMENT!!!

Supply List

Red & Black Textured Cardstock
White Cardstock
Scrappin' Sports Custom Paper, Blazer Basketball from Whimzee's Scrapbook Studio
Misc. Red, Black & White Ribbons
Karen Foster Mini Charm - Talents (I used the #1 trophy)
Autumn Leaves Doodle Tagged Stamp Set, True Story
Date Stamp from Joann's
Colorbox Inks Black & Scarlet
Creative Memories 1 1/2" square punch

Layout of the Week - Tooth Fairy

This week's Layout of the Week is a special page for Delaney. She lost her first tooth on April 5th, a few weeks after she turned 8 years old. Yes, her first visit from the tooth fairy didn't come until she was 8 years old! After MUCH effort I managed to pull the darn thing out for her. She had been wiggling it for about 2 years.... By the time she was finally ready for it to come out, she wanted us to tie it to a door & slam it, which we did...about 5 times! Both her new front teeth were in by this time and she had what her dentist called "shark teeth". Two rows of bottom front teeth. After taking a look at this tooth, the dentist's mouth dropped open (out of Delaney's view of course) and he said, "you got this out?" The root on the poor tooth was longer than the tooth itself. After the tooth finally came out and Delaney had her $2 from the tooth fairy, she made us pay up too. We had promised her $25 if she could get the tooth out before the dentist wanted to pull it. We decided that it would be cheaper to bribe her with $25 than pay the dentist for an extraction. It worked with that tooth, but the dentist told her that she has until August to get that other lower front tooth out or he's going to pull it. After all the drama, screaming & crying & door slamming, I don't think she figures $25 is worth pulling the next one out herself. So I guess we'll have to wait & see, but she does have an extra little "center" tooth on the bottom as of this post!

As far as my layout is concerned, this is one of my more simple ones and I'm very happy with it. I used two sheets of Reminisce's Tooth Fairy paper, one side for the background and then a strip of the other side as a mat for my photo, edging it with the Redwood ink from last week's project. Next I used two small strips of the white glitter paper from last week's layout on either side of the strip. It's so nice when the supplies & papers you just used on a layout are right there on the table just waiting to be used again. Then I used a red pen to journal inside the title that is printed on this paper. This layout couldn't be simpler, in fact it took about 10 minutes from start to finish. The one photo tells the whole story, I tried to take a picture of the strangely shaped tooth, but it came out fuzzy. And besides, all of the ladies scrapping that night thought it would be gross to include a photo of the tooth in a layout. But I probably would have done it anyway, if it had been in focus.

Try the technique of using one large strip of paper with two smaller ones framing it in one of your layouts. It's a very quick way to finish a page!

Wish us luck with that next Tooth Fairy visit!

Layout of the Week - Happy 4th of July

I thought I'd try something festive for this week's Layout of the Week. So in the spirit of the 4th of July, I created a layout with my photos from last 4th of July. I love using large photos in my layouts, so I printed my photo of the kids all decked out for the neighborhood parade as a 5 x 7. I cropped the photo to a 5 x 5 square for the page, since the extra was just my garage in the background. For such a sparkly holiday, I used as much "blingy" scrapbook product as I could.



I love all the diecut paper in the stores now, but couldn't find anything for my 4th of July layout. So I started with Reminisce's Sparkly Stars paper and then thought that it would look great on a bright red background. Next I chose a diecut paper with the bracket shape. I traced the bracket shape onto a thin piece of cardboard and then cut along the lines and created my own stencil for the bracket shape. I traced half of this shape onto the Reminisce paper & cut it out to create a custom diecut for my page. Then I flipped the stencil over and traced half again, so I'd have a piece for each side of my page with the stars facing up.

I mounted my photos on red textured & white shimmery papers from American Crafts. I inked the edges of most of my mats to add a little something extra. Next I cut my titles with the Quickutz die cut system using two sizes (classic & mini) of their Eliza font. I used iridescent metallic paper for the letters. For the final touches on this layout a used a mixture of red, clear & blue rhinestones in star and circle shapes, along with some metallic ribbons.

Here's a list of supplies used on this page:

Red Textured papers from Prizm & American Crafts
Reminisce Silver Stars paper
White shimmery paper from American Crafts
Iridescent Metallic White paper
Dew Drop Brilliance Platinum Planet ink
Ancient Page Redwood & Cobalt ink
Metallic Twill Ribbon in Red, White & Blue
Felt Flowers
Kaisercraft Red & Blue Rhinestones
Queen & Co. Red, White & Blue Star Jewels
Quickutz Eliza Font in Classic & Mini

If you're looking for inspiration check out Sunday Scrappin'!

Layout of the Week - Home Sweet Home

When I first saw this paper from My Little Shoebox, my "I gotta have it!" alarm went off! I just knew that I needed to do a page with my house. Of all the photos I've taken in & around my house over the years, there still wasn't a page just showing the front of the house...where we live. The colors in these papers are just so cheery that I knew they'd be fine with any photo I could find of my gray house. The color of our house is something we laugh about a lot. This is the third home Dave & I have owned together. It's also our 3rd gray house! Being people who love color so much that we've painted two of our family rooms dark red. This whole gray thing is somewhat of a surprise for us. One of our friends even remarked that we have the "Skittles" house, when he saw how differently we've painted each room of this very traditional style home. But I guess the gray does point to our sense of looking past the book's cover when choosing such a large ticket item! We bought this house from a close friend, solely for the large backyard. It was just an extra perk that the floor plan works so well for our family. It certainly wasn't the traditional facade or gray color that drew us to our home of almost 5 years. If we could choose, we'd live in a Craftsman style home. But alas none were to be found with a huge yard and a view of all the geese & duck families floating on the pond out back...so traditional gray with black shutters was the way to go!

And having a layout of our home all covered with snow, will always bring us back to the freak snowstorm of December 2008! This photo was from the first day of that storm and the snow didn't stop falling or even melt for two more weeks! I'll have to do an "after the storm" page someday! Delaney was so excited, she struck a "Vanna White" pose in the driveway for this shot!

I love the diecut scalloped paper and used it to set my photo apart from the 2 Home Sweet Home patterned papers I used in the background. And my black shutters came in handy, helping me to spread the color black as an accent around my layout. I used the Cricut's Tear Drop font to cut my address numbers from a piece of Bo Bunny's black dot paper, the shadow is a pink on pink heart pattern which is the flip side of the Home Sweet Home strip paper I used at the bottom of the page (I inked the edges of the strip & scalloped diecut with black chalk.) Next, I mounted two square black buckles from 7 Gypsies on pink twill ribbon from Creative Cafe and a black chiffon flower on a sparkly white brad to complete the embellishing of my page.

The color scheme for this page is a bit out of the ordinary, which is why I love it. It will be lot's of fun to have such an unexpected page in my album! The next time you've got your camera out shooting photos of the kids, take a few minutes to get some shots of your home, yard, kitchen counters (yes, whether they're spotless or full of piles like mine!). Someday you'll love looking back & seeing where you lived at this moment in time! Maybe that pile on your counter will remind you of all those kids' school projects or that today you were making chocolate chip cookies. Whatever is there on the counter will bring back memories of today and that's what our photo albums are all about!

Check out My Little Shoebox's Blog to get some inspiration for your next project using all their cool products!

Layout of the Week - Our Pool!

Hi everyone! I think that our house is finally emerging from our latest round of sickness! YEAH! After missing out on so many things this last week, it feels good to be getting back to normal. I caught the bug after Delaney was finally getting better and then poor little Jakey caught it. He's coming out of it now and we're hoping that it missed Dave entirely! Thanks for all the 'Get Well' wishes this last week! :)


I do have a cool summer layout to get you inspired this week! I love the new summer collection from Cosmo Cricket, it's called Snorkel! I love all the bright colors and bold graphics. It also matched perfectly with all my photos from our backyard pool last summer. We put up a pool out there every summer and really enjoy being able to float around every chance we get. I wasn't sure how Jake would like the pool, it not being heated & all! But he LOVED it, just check out his expression!

In addition to three papers from the Cosmo's Snorkel collection, I used both bright & dark red textured cardstock from Prizm in this layout. For my titles, I used my trusty Diesel font from Quickutz. This time I chose the lower case, to give my layout a more laid back look. I didn't use any extra embellishments on this one, so it's a pretty economical layout. Instead, I followed the cool flowing designs of these papers and trimmed them with my scissors for some custom edging. Give trimming a try the next time you've got a design you love!

Don't forget to join me later, over at Ann's for our favorite Friday party, Virtual Girls' Night Out! Really, it's the only way most of us get to get out these days! :)

Layout of the Week

For this week's layout, I chose a variety of items from around the store, some brand new and some older. For my background, I used Class President from American Craft's Teen collection. This paper has a big, bold, colorful diamond pattern. I know many people shy away from this type of paper in their layouts. This is exactly why I wanted to use it. I think boldly patterned papers can bring a great pizazz to your layouts. I look at the bold pattern and choose my favorite colors to highlight in my layout. In this one, I chose the pink, black & white.

After making that decision, I walked around the store looking for papers & embellishments that were pink, black or white. I didn't make it far. In the same paper collection, I chose the white background, pink dot pattern of Pop Quiz, another of the papers from American Craft's Teen collection. I was in need of some black & white accents, so I chose the floral pattern Chick Flick from LUXE's Classic Black Collection. I used both sides of this double sided paper as accents behind the matting of my photo. One side is predominantly black and the other is white.

In addition to showing you how to showcase a bold pattern in your layouts, another goal of mine with this project was to use some embellishments left over from previous projects. I know that everyone is trying to save money right now, so I decided to use some of the THICKERS Vera Accents I had leftover from last week's project. The Vera Accents are vinyl die cut shapes. They are versatile and can be used in so many projects. I used my black accents left over from last week and also opened a pack of the Vera Accents in Taffy for this project. The flowers & flourishes from the Taffy pack help bring a little "girly" to this page. Another leftover on this layout are the letters. I opened this package last Fall, for a Halloween layout. These letters are also THICKERS, they are Daiquiri black vinyl letters. I love how THICKERS give my pages an added dimension, without making them overly thick in my books.

I haven't had a chance to get a print of the photo I'm planning to use on this page, but I wanted to share this layout right now anyway. With so many bright colors, I'm going to print my photo as a 5 x 7 in black & white. The photo is one of Delaney & two of her friends cuddled together in a restaurant booth, just before we headed out to the Hannah Montana movie on opening day. The girls are so excited, I just love the photo. With the bright colors that I often use, black & white photos are my savior. No matter what color people happen to be wearing or what colors are featured in the background of my photos, black & white always brings everything together. People's faces stand out with black & white and everything in the photo seems softer. In this particular photo, the girl's clothing matches my layout perfectly, but the background of a Red Robin restaurant just clashes with all I have going on...so black & white it is!

I only have one photo of Delaney and her friends, so I wanted to really set it off by using three mats behind it. For the mats, I have chosen Passion Fruit cardstock from World Win Papers' Caribbean Colors collection. This paper has no texture, but it appears it has one, the bright pink has a spotty surface, almost as if someone has dropped water on it. Behind the Passion Fruit, I used a Black & a White from World Win's regular selection of cardstock.

For a final touch on this layout, I used Kaisercraft Black Rhinestones. These rhinestones are a bargain at $1 for a pack of 60. I used 4 of the large ones to set off my photo and two smaller ones as the centers of my flowers.

I hope you enjoy this layout and my tips. Please let me know if there are certain techniques that you'd like to learn more about. I can feature them in a future edition of Layout of the Week.

I also plan to use the leftovers from my Taffy THICKERS and Kaisercraft Rhinestones in a future layout. I think it's very important to get your money's worth out of your scrapbooking supplies by using up those leftovers.

Layout of the Week Happy 1st Birthday Our Little Jakey

Wow, I really can't believe he turns ONE today! Such a cute boy. This photo was from last August. This year has really flown by. Now we're watching him, just waiting for him to take off walking. He took one step a couple days ago. He'll stand on his own and take just one step before getting down & crawling where he wants to go. So look out, any day, we'll be chasing him everywhere!

Happy Birthday Sweet Jake! Even though you should't be celebrating until late tonight....considering you were born at 11:37pm! I guess it's ok if you have your cake a little earlier in the day than that!

I'll be sure to take tons of messy cupcake photos, so check back soon!

Coming Soon on the WhimzeesGirlsOnline Blog

This is my latest project! I'm really excited about how it turned out! I've posted this photo on my other blog, http://www.whimzeesgirlsonline.blogspot.com . This weekend on my Thanksgiving trip to Medford, I'm going to write a step by step class to help everyone dive into their first acrylic album. So check that blog next week for all the details!

And have a great Thanksgiving!

Creative Cafe 4th of July Layout

I created this layout when the Creative Cafe collection first arrived in the store. It's still my favorite! The photos were taken on the 4th of July last year. I wanted to use a red, white & blue theme, but I also wanted to be subtle with it. Delaney was so proud that she & our neighbor girl had painted her nails red after the neighborhood parade. She jumped in the hammock to pose for me and to escape from the 105 degree sun that day.

I printed the photos in black & white, so the hammock stripes wouldn't compete with all the patterns in my paper. Mixing coordinating patterns is one of my favorite layout techniques, so I love black & white and sepia tone photos. Using neutral tone photos allows you to go wild with the colors on your page without worrying that your photos won't match with your layout. And since it's so easy to change photos to black & white or sepia on Costco's website, I take all my photos in color and change them later depending on which papers I choose. This photo has great color, I just didn't want to use it on this page. So next time you're printing out photos for a scrapbook layout, take a minute to consider the papers you'll be using on your page, a black & white photo may just make your "nice" page a "stunner"!

Basic Grey Ambrosia Pumpkin Patch Layout

After seeing my pumpkin patch pictures, I was really excited to create a layout for them. First, I thought about using some of Reminisce's sparkly Halloween paper. But when I put the pictures on it, I just wasn't inspired. Then I caught a glimpse of our new Basic Grey Ambrosia. I thought the oranges in my pictures just cried out for the variety of oranges showcased in the Ambrosia papers. I printed my photos in 5 x 7 and wallet size at Costco and used 8 different Ambrosia papers on this page. I cut simple rectangles and arranged them around my pictures. Then I used the Cricut at the store to cut the swirl design from one of the papers. And to finish off my page, I used black vinyl Thickers letters.

Now I've got to get to work on the other half of this double-page spread. I'll use the same background paper, Clementine, and I have about 8 more wallets that I plan to put on the page. For my layouts, I like to get everything together and then take some time to mull over all my ideas. This is probably why my projects take a while to materialize, but I enjoy the design process so much, I'm not bothered by it at all. I know that once I finish the layout, it will be something I love. I'll be sure to post the other half as soon as the inspiration for the design comes to me! :)

So Many Blogs, So Little Time...

Hi there! I'm sitting at gymnastics now, hoping to send out the Whimzee's newsletter before my battery runs out...we'll see! I just started the new blog for the store. Twila & I are so excited to get it started & hear what everyone has to say and what ideas they have to share. While I was working the other day, a very nice customer came in & shared a ton of blog addresses with me. It's so fun to check them all out. There's one drawback though, I just can't stop! The last few nights I've been up way too late watching the Olympics & surfing the net. I do want to share a couple blog's though. Ali Edwards's is the essential scrapbookers blog, don't miss it! http://aliedwards.typepad.com/ (Ali's got awesome ideas, writes great books & loves Twila's favorite adhesive...)

Also check out this one, Nichole Heady is the Designer & a co-owner of Papertrey Ink, her blog is full of ideas (for both scrapbooks & cards). In this entry, she uses the Adirondack Acrylic Paint Daubers we have in the store to create a mini-album. I was excited to see this one since I wasn't sure how to use the Daubers.

http://nicholeheady.typepad.com/capture_the_moment/2007/11/3.html


PS- I got kicked off the wifi at the gym, my battery was down to 14% & I was typing while holding a squirming Jake in one hand...so I figured these were all signs that I should finish this at home! :)

My Latest Experiment in Papercrafting

I wanted to share my latest project with you. I created this clock from a Colorbok kit I purchased a while ago at Tuesday Morning. I wasn't too excited about the papers that came with it. They were very old fashioned and not too colorful. So I looked through my huge collection of scrapbooking papers and came up with this Anna Griffin print. It looked nice and seemed perfect for my mom's sewing room. I gave the clock to her as a birthday present last weekend. She loved it! Instead of the one photo shown in the sample, I used two photos, one of my kids and one of my nephew. It will be nice for her to be able to look at it & see all of her grandchildren. The kit came with the clock and its parts and also the ribbon, rub ons and embellishments. I was especially happy with how the photos turned out. I am a beginner using Photoshop, but after a few hours I figured it out. I finally got the result I was looking for, aged, with a canvas like texture. Now I can't wait for another chance to try out what I learned on this project.

Just one more thing....Basic Grey Euphoria

Oh, and today when I was finishing the Whimzee's newsletter, I came across all these cool layouts in the Basic Grey Gallery. They use the Euphoria collection which recently arrived in the store. But what I really like about looking at layouts is that I can "scrap-lift" them to use with my photos & other papers. I do love Euphoria, especially the "Cool" paper, it looks like the designs I used to make as a kid with my spirograph! Basic Grey really does have some of the best paper designs out there, so check it out!

http://www.basicgrey.com/catalog/idea_gallery.php?cPath=88

Not a Blog Virgin Anymore...

I've always been a bit of a writer. I've been thinking of starting a blog for a while now. Between my jobs designing the Whimzee's newsletter and being a mom, I think I've got a lot to say. I love to check out all things new in the scrapbooking world and this will give me a place to share all I find with anyone who's interested. There isn't as much room in the newsletter as I'd like to include cool links to new projects I'd like to start. Of course, being a mom doesn't give me a lot of time for cool projects, but that's beside the point! It's kind of like shopping, it doesn't hurt (cost anything, take any time...) to look! And as far as being a mom, I sure don't run short on funny material in that department. Just try having the youngest baby (6 months) at your 20 year class reunion! And I don't know if anyone else might have accomplished that last feat with a 7 year split between kids! I'm sure there is someone else out there, who hears, "oh...a 6 month old and a 7 year old...and they're you're only two?" So if you're interested in scrapbooking and mom humor, check back....it's always a kick to laugh at other people's misery....it sure makes you feel better!