Cool Dude

This was for a challenge to use one of everything on your layout but you could use as many supplies as you liked.  It was pretty neat to push myself this way.

Supplies:  all are completely random - pp, Thickers, CTMH star stamp, Jillibean Soup star embellie, flower, brad, washi tape, ribbon, Stickles, twine, gems

So here's what I had one of:  

• one photo
• one patterned paper
• one stamp
• one vellum word sheet
• one piece of washi tape
• one flower
• one brad
• one piece of baker's twine
• one set of alphas (I cheated here)
• one button
• one ribbon
• one embellie circle
• used Stickles one time
• stitched one time

I was going to just have one gem by the photo but it just didn't look right.  So, I cheated and put three:

Dr. Buhler and You

This layout was also done for a challenge over at SNC.  We were to use a pie on our layout - it was such a fun technique to try!  I had a blast with this layout and I really like the fun look I achieved with it.

Supplies:  PP - Animal Crackers (I think)

Alphas - Recollections

Twinery baker's twine

Smooch Spritz in red

Random ribbon and button

So Happy Together

I love these photos of K and A together - they show their relationship perfectly.  Most of the time, they love each other soooo much and play together well but once in a while, not so much!  lol  This layout was also done for a challenge at SNC - to use threes on your layout and to include x's and o's.

Supplies: Fancy Pants "My Family"

Making Memories brads

Flowers - not sure of the manufacturer

Daddy & A

I did this layout as a challenge at SNC to use a monogram and do list journalling.  I love how it turned out.

I love chipboard because of the dimension and how I can recolour it.  And that's exactly what I did with the "a".  I also used old, old, old alphas for the title and painted them.

I like doing journalling from different perspectives and I felt that this one was a perfect way to talk about DH's relationship with A.

This Boy

This layout was from layout tag in November at SNC - lots of fun!

I love, love, love this line from Fancy Pants!  The designs, the colours, the embellies all have me swooning.  I know it's not super new but it doesn't matter - I still love it!

Supplies:  Fancy Pants Rough and Tough

Basic Grey Buttons

Twinery Baker's Twine

I wanted to keep the stars but not have them hanging over A's face so I cut them out and then repositioned them where I wanted them to go.

Pre-K

At SNC, Kirsten challenged us to scrapbook some school pictures.  So, I pulled out K's school pic from Pre-K and got at it.  And I'm so happy with how it turned out!

Supplies:  I'm very dodgy on the specifics of these supplies as they've been in my stash for a while.

The patterned paper is from a DCWV stack.  The doily embellie is from an Etsy shop.

The alphas are chipboard Thickers.  The owl is from Recollections.  

The gems and washi tape - I don't know.  Ooops!

The little stickpin is one I made - I have to tell you - I'm loving making those things!

Isn't this pretty?  I just love it!  I won it as a RAK from Amanda - she gave me a gift certificate to her friend's store on Etsy and I have to say, it was really hard to choose!

I decided to do the class picture too on the facing page.  I kept it very simple but pretty.  

Silly Boy

I did this LO for the first round of Layout Tag over at Skrap 'n Chat in October.  The sketch was just too cute!

Supplies:  Patterned paper, border, tag, buttons, heart, flower - Fancy Pants "My Family"

Foam Thickers inked brown

Washi tape from various sources

Inking foam Thickers isn't easy but I kept at it and got them the colour I wanted without smudging:

A little embellishment cluster:

Winner of the Blog Hop!!!

Thanks for all your comments!!!

And the winner, chosen by random.org, is...

Jen Foster!!!

Photos Blog Hop

Welcome to the Photos Blog Hop!  If you've arrived from Steffanie's blog, then you're on the right path.  If not, please go to Amanda's blog to start from the beginning.  There is a lot of inspiration along the way so you don't want to miss it!

I love doing layouts using different numbers of photos.  At first, I wasn't very comfortable only using one or two photos on a page but the more I scrapped, the easier it became.  See, I have problems with a lot of white space.  I'm almost scared of it.  I often think there's something missing and I spend a lot of time trying to fill it up.  I am getting better at embracing the "emptiness" though.  :D

However, my true love is doing double-page spreads using multiple photos.  Maybe it's because I always take a ton of photos, no matter if it is a special event or an everyday happening.  Or maybe because multiple photos fill up a lot of white space, which is more in line with my style.  Getting a good design is challenging when using several photos but it's definitely possible.  I am a huge fan of Allison Davis - her style suits mine to a T and I love her sketches.  I've used them many times and I think that she's starting to rub off on me; I can now put together a two-page spread much quicker because I've used her design principles and they're more natural for me.

For the blog hop, I signed up for 5 or 6 photos.  As I leafed through my photos, I found these ones of my little guy.  It was his first fall and he'd never really played in a pile of leaves before.  I wanted some photos with the kiddos in the beautiful colours.  Since we're in the middle of autumn, I figured these would be good photos to play with.

As always, I start with my photos and then choose my paper.  I dug through my stash and found these papers that I think fit perfectly with the colours in the photos.  I love it when I can use up older products and make them work.  I don't use a whole lot of paper with words on it as I sometimes find it distracting but for some reason, this worked for me in this layout.

I decided to try Steffanie's idea of using wine corks as buttons on my page - love it!

Not sure that I love this flower on this layout but I do like the flower:

Here's a pic of the other cork button, along with a close-up of the the transparency overlay on the vertical photo on the right.

And my journalling:

I hope you enjoyed your stop here.  If you'd like to be entered for a small RAK, please leave a comment and become a follower.  :)

Please hop over to Laura's blog for the last stop on our hop.

This Boy

Stacy's challenge for August at SNC is "Digging Through the Toybox".  I decided to do a layout about one of A's favourite toys as a baby - his Cozy Coupe police car.  K had it first, loved it, and then A fell in love with it too.  Both of them played in that car every time they went outside!

I used one of my favourite lines ever, "Rough and Tough" by Fancy Pants Designs.  I just love the patterns, the colours and the elements of the whole line!  I used a 7-photo sketch from Scrapbook Generations "Sketches for Scrapbooking", volume 7.

Supplies used:  "Rough and Tough" by lili (Fancy Pants Designs" - all papers, journal spot, transparencies

Star stamps - Close To My Heart

I haven't used transparencies a whole lot in my scrapbooking - I just never picked them up when I'd buy paper.  But there were a few that came with this kit so I decided to try them out.  I love them!  The title is so fun - I love the font they used and the addition of orange glittery letters adds enough bling for this mama to be happy without overdoing the sparkle for a boy page.  ;)  The star border is also a transparency.

Then I cut out some circles, added a button and cut out some of the stars from the transparency border and made up more embellie clusters.  It's not one of my fortes but I think I'm getting better at it.

Another part of the challenge was to use a toy to make the layout.  So, I took one of A's John Deere toy tractors and ran it through white VersaMark ink for the red border strip and then through green paint to add to the blue photo block.  I should have practiced more with the green paint but oh well, it's authentic, right?  :D

I also pulled out one of my stamp sets from CTMH.  I love these star stamps - they just are so cute!  I don't have a ton of stamps but I do really like the ones that I have.

Adventure

Another challenge over at SNC was from Karen and she asked us to stack not only our photos but also our embellies.  Since I usually use more than one photo on a page, it wasn't too hard to figure out how to stack the photos.  But I'm still working on embellie clusters so that part was more of a challenge.  :)

These photos were of our trip down to the Argentinean Patagonia back in January/February of 2009.  A was only 7 months old when he took his first horseback ride.  He wasn't sure at all what to think of it!  But we're firm believers in instilling a sense of adventure from an early age.  Our kids have been exploring since birth with parents like us!  lol

Supplies used:  Patterned paper "Marjolaine" line from Basic Grey

Alphas from Recollections, Stickles

Buttons, gems, ribbon, brads, cardstock - unknown manufacturer

I did some inking on the background page.  I'm still working on blending but I did an OK job here using blue and green inks.  Then I added my stack of embellies.  I wanted to use ribbon because I have some that goes really well with the patterned paper I used.  I decided to alternate strips of ribbon (and one strip of washi tape) with some buttons and a  few gems.  Definitely a different look for me but I like it.

These alpha colours were perfect for the patterned paper and I added some "stacked" Stickles dots.

A few brads around the journalling finished off the layout.

West Side

Another challenge for August over at SNC is Janet's "Wedded Bliss".  She challenged us to use something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue.  How fun!  I love these photos:  A's full little tummy and then Daddy doing the West Side.  Too funny.

My something borrowed is this layout done by Kirsten over at SNC.  Isn't it adorable?  I had to scraplift it!

My something new is the washi tape.  

My something old is the patterned paper.

Another new is the stick pin that I made for the layout.  These stick pins are my new addiction:

The Beach

Another challenge over at SNC was from Emily.  She challenged us to do a layout based on "The Paperbag Princess".  So, we had to use kraft cardstock somewhere on the layout, distress something, have some bling and use multiple photos.

As I was going through some of my older stuff, I found this title block kind of thing.  Now, this was the style long ago, not so much now.  However, I thought I'd still try to use it and make it work.  I'm glad that I'm finding ways to use up this older stuff!

I really don't like using kraft cardstock as my background.  I really find it drowns out my photos.  So, decided to use it underneath my photos and I misted it to help take away from it.  I don't know what it is with me, but I don't like using kraft cardstock as my base unless it really suits the photos.  Yet, others love it and it works for them.  Hmmm...

I did quite a bit of distressing on this layout - misting, lots of inking on the title block, I tore the kraft cardstock and the journal block and I sanded the edges of my photos.

To add some bling, I added a border of Stickles around the journalling.