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.  

Adorable

Back for CK's summer camp, one of the challenges was to use found items on a layout.  I did a layout for the challenge with some souvenirs from our life in Chile (some pieces of I.D. from there).  But I had found this sun off some packaging and thought it would be great for a summery layout.  So I found these pictures of A and his little pal at the playground.

This is the sun I fussy cut out:

I added some glittery brads:

And a little rub-on star:

Happy Halloween

I went through some of my old stuff and I found a few layouts that I had done at crops long ago but didn't have pictures on them.  So, I figured why don't I use it?  What a concept, eh?  lol

This is when vellum became super popular and here was a way to use it.  Make ghosts with it...

A cloud-like title block...

And a new little embellie:

Is it new and trendy?  Not at all.  But do I like it?  You bet.

Gotta Love 'Em

I have so many pictures like this of baby A that I have to try to find different ways to scrap them.  What better way to do a new kind of layout than do a challenge for it?  So, I decided to do Tash's challenge for August over at SNC.  She challenged us to use birds or wings on our layout as well as using something from our stash or bits and pieces or scraps.

I pulled out my little birdie stamp and my watercolour pencils for this layout.

And the stickers, epoxy letter titles and the patterned paper are from a baby boy kit I got a few years ago.

I dressed up some stickers with Stickles and Glossy Accents.  It's amazing how much of a difference these can make.

Yo en Chile

Another challenge for Summer Camp at Club CK was to use found items on a layout and do a Smash book kind of layout.  Now, I'm not one for using stuff that I find around the house, at least not much.  But I had saved some of our pieces of I.D. from when we lived in Chile.  So I decided it was time to scrap it.  I pulled out this paper from Cosmo Cricket that I got in a grab bag from Scenic Route.  It's the Fleuriste line - Primrose.

Now, if you know me, you know that Cosmo Cricket isn't really my style at all.  However, I don't like to waste paper so I put it into my stash and challenged myself to use it.  It really isn't the style for doing baby boy pages and most of what I've been scrapping has been A's baby album.  So, when I decided to scrap me, I figured it would be good.

I have to admit, it's not my favourite layout.  I don't know, it just doesn't make me excited.  However, I'm happy that I scrapped those pieces of memorabilia, that I used up some paper that I wasn't sure how to use and that I painted on the layout (the mats are brown paint topped with glittery purple paint to give it a shimmer).

He Loves His Bath

I did this layout at while ago for Club CK's summer camp.  On this layout, we were to alter stickers we have.  I added some Stickles to the little duckie sticker and I added Glossy Accents to the three button stickers.  It's pretty neat how a little bit of altering can change the look of embellies.

Look Out World!

I decided I better get scrapping again because the summer is almost over and I need to take advantage of no obligations!  :)  So, I decided to jump on some challenges at my two favourite scrappy hangouts.

I also remember a tutorial that my friend, Adele, made with her sister to teach us how to make our own stick pins.  I love the stick pin crazy but I don't have many in my stash because, let's face it, they're pretty pricey.  So, I ordered a bunch of different beads from Jo's online and my friend, Laurie, mailed them to me a while ago.  Yesterday was the day that I decided to give it a go.  And I have to say that I'm pretty happy with the results.  Here they are:

This is the layout that I made the red pin for.  This was for a challenge at SNC for April.  We were to use grey as our base with a pop of red and some distressing.

A close-up of the buttons and the stick pin.  I see I need to get more glue off.  *blush*

I also inked the cardstock underneath the vellum title block as well as the edges of the vellum:

Big Helper

This layout is the follow-up to the other layout I did about A helping me with laundry.  I used a new-for-me collection and it was so fun to work with it.  I am forcing myself to use up my PPs in my stash but will "allow" myself to play with the coordinated collections I've bought once in a while.  I just love how easy it is to make everything work when you work with lines.  Once I've got all that uncoordinated paper used up, I'm going with collections.

 Supplies:  "Alphabet Soup" by My Mind's Eye, baker's twine, Thickers, old letter stickers

I love the look of mixed-font titles but rarely think to use them.  So, I was quite proud of myself for doing so here!  I took some old stickers for the "big" and painted them brown so they'd coordinate and stand out better.

I used some die-cuts from the collection for embellies.

Rarely do I use ready-made journalling spots, but this one fit so well that I had to use it:

My Babies

I was working on this layout when Club CK's Summer Camp started last week.  Camp was all based on using mixed media on your layouts.  Definitely not one of my fortes but I decided to give it a try.  This challenge wasn't tough - download the colouring sheet and use one of the elements on a page.  I decided to use the banner they had.

Supplies used: Kit - "Finished in a Flash Baby Boy" from Hot Off the Press

download from Creating Keepsakes, stamps from Close to My Heart, 

watercolours, crocheted flowers from Recollections, 

brads, washi tape, border punch, gems, ric rac 

I can't run cardstock through our printer so I traced it on to cardstock and it worked just fine.  Then I stamped the title and then coloured in the banner with watercolours.

I bought these crocheted flowers at Michael's and thought they were cute but didn't know how I'd use them.  Well, I figured out a way!  :D

#1

Yes, I'm still doing Christmas layouts!  I know it seems odd in July but hey, when you're on a roll, you're on a roll.  ;)

I used Mou Saha's "Legoland, Florida" layout (p. 77, Simple Scrapbooks) as inspiration for my layout. I liked the clean lines and the circles that she used.

This layout is about our first gift opening in Santiago, before we travelled to Canada.  Why the title?  Because it was A's first go-round with gift opening.  :)  I used foam Thickers and painted them to get the right colour.  I also had to piece together that number sign.

 Supplies used:  DCWV Christmas stack, buttons, washi tape

I added a few buttons to the layout, just for some visual interest.  Instead of my usual ribbon, I used some washi tape instead.  I love having this as an option for borders!

Huh?

Since I had pulled out the Christmas photos for Laura's challenge, I figured I'd kept working on them.  This layout is based off Kelly Purkey's "29" layout on p. 44 of CK's Simple Scrapbooks special issue.  I wanted to highlight the fact that we were in the outdoor pool during the Christmas season while living in Chile, very different to our Canadian Christmases.  :)

Supplies:  DCWV Christmas stack, baker's twine, Smooch Spray, washi tape

I did lots of fussy cutting for the embellies for this layout:

I wanted to draw some attention to the title so I decided to use twine:

I used paper strips, washi tape and a little strip of twine to this part of the layout:

Oh Christmas Tree

Last week's challenge at Club CK was to do a Christmas layout.  I have many, many Christmas photos that have not yet been scrapped so it was a good challenge for me.  Since I've been on a paper scrapping kick lately, I stayed with it.  I chose some pictures from A's first Christmas and started thinking.  We had two Christmas celebrations, one in Chile and then one in Canada when we went home to visit.  This one is from our Chilean celebration.

I hadn't done the pennants/banners before so I thought I'd give it a shot.  I didn't want to pop them off the page with foam dots so I decided to ink the edges to help them stand out.  Thank goodness for Fantastix to help me get into those tricky spots!

Supplies:  DCWV Christmas stack, scallop border punch from EK Success, 

ribbon, gems 

I added some gems to bring some interest to the title.

 And some more gems to the bottom right of the photos.

Family

This is another layout based on one of my Thanks Living statements.  We spent the first few days of July with my husband's family and it was wonderful, particularly after having lost his little cousin to leukemia at the end of June.  Having gone through that experience, we all realize how important family is.  I just wanted to highlight some of the fun times we had over the Canada Day weekend with that side of our family.

Supplies:  "Summerfun" kit by Just So Scrappy

Border by Splendid Fiins

Oh Canada!

For the July Thanks Living challenge, Erika talked to us about the principles of grounding and anchoring.  I guess it's something that I do much more naturally now but I never took the time to think about it.  So, while doing this layout, I let it come together as I wanted it to but then I checked to make sure that there were both aspects. 

The Thanks Living Statement that I chose to scrap was about my appreciation for the country I live in.  It's serious journalling for a "cutesy" layout but I planned it that way; I wanted to "offset" the seriousness with some playfulness.

So, how did I incorporate grounding and anchoring?  I grounded my layout with the three paper blocks underneath my photo, along with the mist on the background.  I also grounded my title onto the photo and paper blocks so it wasn't floating alone on the background.  I used my embellies, the ribbon and the journal spot to anchor the block to the background.

Supplies used:  digital kit "Canada Eh" from Peppermint Creative, scalloped border from Splendid Fiins, 

white ribbon from "Busy Little Boys" by Heather Roselli, 

digital mist by Gennifer Bursett and the dashed line by Cathy Zielske

Proud

When A was little, he loved flinging clothes out of the laundry basket and scattering them around the room.  I have a few pictures of this little escapade and decided to scrap them.  I have enough pictures to do a 2-page and a 1-page layout so this is the single one.

I used Ashley's July sketch for the "Sketch It Out" challenge over at Club CK.  Here is her sketch:

And here is my layout:

I stayed quite true to the sketch, though I did add one more strip of ribbon on the RH side and I used two smaller photos rather than three.

I also did this layout for Jenn's July challenge at Skrap 'n Chat.  She challenged us to use some of our collections that we have.  Anyone who scrapbooks knows what this means.  *blush*  I have so many different collections that it was hard to narrow it down.  So, rather than narrow it down, I embraced the challenge and used a lot of my collections!  In fact, I used three different kinds of ribbon, three flowers, three buttons, seven brads, two different mists and some washi tape.  Yep, all on one layout.  And it was surprisingly easy once I pulled everything down.  I just started laying things all around and seeing what would work together and voilà, this is what I came up with.

I cut the title out with my Cricut - I am so glad that I got SCAL when I did.  If I weren't able to use SCAL with the Cricut, that machine would pretty much be useless for me.  I don't use a ton of die cuts on my pages but I do use it for my titles - love it for that!

I decided to incorporate a little bit of deep red to pull that colour out of the one patterned paper that I used.

I layered three flowers and topped them off with a mini brad.  I also layered some washi tape onto cardstock and then punched out a border: