Shadow Play

While waiting for the bus my son had lots of fun making shadow pictures. And I had a lot of fun playing with my iPhone!

I just knew I had a page in the making. One of the everyday pages that I'm having so much fun with lately!

Design Inspiration: This adorable layout was one of my Pinterest finds originally from here.

Color Inspiration: I wanted my layout to feel like shadows so I used a very neutral palette.

But I wanted a little bit of color so I edged the photos in green.  It's subtle but adds that little bit of pop I wanted.

I wanted to stamp some words on these label stickers. I used Staz On ink since the labels have a slick surface. Be sure to let them really dry before you touch them. The ink will smear.

To add the shadow effect I stamped the same word multiple times within the grid.

This thread is one of my favorite finds. I love how the color varies!

See how the shade transitions as it moves across the page. love, Love, LOVE!

The same sticker page the labels came from had these letter stickers spelling out "Hello My Friend." By stamping the words My Shadow I was able to adapt the title to fit my page. Love the pops of color in this title block!

And then I added another sticker for the date. Once again handwriting my journaling made the page quick and easy. The whole thing was complete in under an hour. Perfect fit for scrapping during my son's nap! :)

Free Fall Subway Art

UPDATE: Scraplifters Anonymous has moved and changed names. You can find this same post at http://scrapinspired.com/2011/09/free-fall-subway-art/, along with lots more scrappy fun stuff on my new blog ScrapInspired.com.

I've shared with you my addiction to subway art before.  I especially love the stuff by the girls at eighteen25!  (you saw the Halloween one in my Halloween Mini Album post)  So I decided to try my hand at making my own.

I have this odd size frame (10x20) that was just dying to fill with subway art.  Rather than making one for each holiday I chose to make this one seasonal.  That way I can keep it up longer.  :)

But it didn't seem right to make one just for me! So I made an 8x10 version just for all of you lovely readers.  Yep, I'm giving you your very own copy!  How about that for a happy Friday?!?  You can download it here.

Who do you love?

Some Nana Love

One of the recent challenges in the Mother LOAD class was to scrap a more thoughtful page.  Last week I showed you this page about how much I love my Mama so this week I decided to document the relationship between my boys and their Nana.

My Mom hates to have her picture taken.  But recently I've decided she can just get over it!  :)  Cause we want pictures of her, even if she doesn't!  So this summer I snapped the bottom pic of my boys with Nana.  And you can just feel the love, can't you?!?  Perfect pic for documenting their relationship.

Design Inspiration: I found this page over at Scrapbooks Etc and promptly pinned it to my Favorite Layouts board on Pinterest. (You can read all about my love affair with Pinterest here)

Color Inspiration: I used a kraft background as in the inspiration layout.  The rest of the colors came from the adorable banner by Crystal Wilkerson.

I simply printed out the digi banner and fussy cut it out.  Perfect thing to do while sitting at soccer practice!

I found this tag in my stash and knew it was perfect for my title!  I love the mix of sticker fonts in my title.  I just added a bit of twine and some pop dots to finish it off.

The texture of the background paper makes it a bit difficult to photograph the journaling, but I assure you it is very readable in real life!  I forgot to include a picture of the little shipping tag just above the journaling.  I used it to simply record the dates of the two photos at the top.

Love that I have this page to document the relationship between my boys and their Nana!  My People We Love album is finally starting to fill up!

Have someone special in your life that hates to have their picture taken?  Any tips of tricks to share for getting good shots anyway?  I think I may have to start using the shooting from the hip trick with my Mom too!  :)  Leave me a comment, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

10 Years of Wedded Bliss

Today is the 10 year anniversary of my wedding day!  As I hinted in an earlier post my husband and I celebrated by taking a trip for two to New York City!  Next week I'll show you the travel album I created especially for that trip.  But for today I wanted to share a layout I made in remembrance of our special day.

This layout started as just the left page.  I made it for LOAD and tried really hard to leave it as a single page layout.  But I couldn't do it.  :)  So the next day I added page two.

I used some simple elements with tone on tone colors.  I thought the neutral colors played off of the colors in the sunset.  I truly love the simplicity of this page.

For the right page I paired some of my favorite pics from our special day with the stories I wanted to remember.  Honestly I had a hard time fitting it all on one page!  :)  I covered the proposal, the wedding, and I added in our vows.  I'm so glad I have this layout to document the pieces of the day that I always want to remember.

Have you gone back and documented an important event years later?  Share your experience or your page with us by linking up in the comments!

Forgive me for a moment of mushiness...

To my amazing husband, I am still so grateful to be married to you.  You are a wonderful father and a loving husband.  Every year our life just gets better and better.  Thank you for the last 10 years and I look forward to many many more!

Comfort Food

As I've worked on my All About Me album I started reflecting on what I wanted to say about my Grandmother.  I mentioned a bit about her here on my Educated Women page.  And I know I have more of her story to tell.  But it occurred to me that all of my favorite foods tie back to her.  So I decided to create a page honoring that connection.

I wanted the layout to exude comfort so I used warm colors.  Forgive the missing picture!  :)  I knew what I wanted to go there but hadn't taken the pic yet.  I have taken it now, but not printed it or added it to the page.  I'll show it to you later.

My inspiration came from Ann Costen over at Write.Click.Scrapbook.  I just love their monthly galleries! So much inspiration over there!!!

So I made myself a little sketch turning Ann's 12x12 page into two 8.5x11 pages.

I thought it would be fun to include some hearts in the photos of this food I love.  So in both the egg salad and the popcorn pics I created hearts.  I wanted to show the love for my grandma and the food that has a special place in my heart.

I just love the combo of popcorn and cheese.  Mmmmmm...

On the left page I used one of the photo blocks for the title.  And by using some lined paper I was able to create a space for my journaling.  I also got to use some floral papers on this page.  Love making pages about me so that I can use some girly products!  :)

I wanted the title to use two types of letter stickers...check.  And I wanted the word Comfort to stand out...check.  I also wanted the title to form a block and have the edges line up...che...oh well, you can't win them all.  :)

To continue with the warm feel I chose a red Sharpie for my journaling. More handwriting...what is my world coming too?

Have you ever made a page about some of your favorite foods?  Link us up so we can see!

Fun on the Farm

This spring both of my boys went on field trips to the farm.  Seemed like the perfect opportunity to throw a layout together with a photo collage!

This was one of those super fast, super simple layouts.  I got the idea from a fellow LOADster.  You can see her version here.

I made an 8.5x22 canvas in Photoshop Elements and filled it with images and digi papers.  I used the process I posted about here and here.  Then when I printed I cropped down to 8.5x11 on the left side, printed, went back up to edit/undo crop and then followed the same process on the right side.

I placed all the pics of my younger son on the left page and all the pics of my older son on the right.  Even though the trip is to the same place they were not on the same day.  I like separating them trips while still keeping them on the same layout.

For a bit of farmy fun I added this adorable pig from the Cuddly Animals Set over at SVGCuts.com.  Do you like the mud smudges I added on him.  :)  That's my favorite part.

So here's the deal with the title...I ran out of t and e in my sticker set.  So I had to improvise.  But "Down on da Farm" totally works for me!  :)

The digi paper fill spots were from a 4th of July set.  But all the denim seemed a perfect fit for a farm page, don't ya think?

Here's my pigs best bud the cow.  Also from the Cuddly Animals set!  And then while digging around in my brown color bin I found this bit of rope.  Loved the touch it gave to the page!

Hand written journaling was a must for this quick and simple page.  I had fun playing with comparing the two trips.  For every comparison I started with my youngest and followed it with a comment about my oldest.  Just like how the page has my youngest first (on the left) and moves to my oldest.

The journaling reads, "Two farm field trips full of fun!  One was wet and cold.  One was sunny and warm.  One with Mama.  One with Daddy.  One never made it past the playground.  One saw all the animals.  One with a small class.  One with many friends.  One with silly smiles.  One in a cowboy hat.  One afraid to feed the animals.  One ready to try.  Two boys having tons of fun on a field trip to Deanna Rose Farm."

We actually went back to the farm this last week (did I mention it's free!!!).  Here are a couple of my favorite shots from our recent trip.

Have you had two children go on the same field trip?  Try making a comparison page and link us up so we can see!

Sticky Treats

I've spent this week talking a lot about my Dad.  So it seemed fitting to share a layout telling one of his favorite stories from my childhood.

One year in elementary school, on my birthday, I wanted to share a rice crispy treat with my principal.  My Dad was there that day and watched me switch the treat from hand to hand licking the stickiness off each time.  It became a story he told time and again over the years.

I decided to make this page after making a pan of rice crispy treats.  I thought of the story and decided it was time to document the story.  So I grabbed a camera and snapped a shot of me holding a rice crispy treat.  Who says you can't recreate a photo to tell a story!  :)

I used a fun bright border and ribbon to accent each of the photos.  The colors remind me of candy, but also of the 80s, which is when the story takes place.

I dug through my photos and found this one of me with my principal at 6th grade graduation.  It was fun to include a picture like this on a layout all about Mr. Miller.  :)

  

I made these color blocks in Photoshop Elements and printed them out.  All are from Crystal Wilkerson's Spring/Summer line.  Love her stuff!

The pink pen was a fun way for all this journaling.  Hand written again!  :)  It may be hard to see, but I tell the whole story and reflect on what I learned when I became a teacher myself.  I bet you can guess my lesson!  :)

Do you have a funny story from your childhood?  One your family tells time and again?  Have you scrapbooked about it?  Leave us a link in the comments so everyone can see!