When it Rains

So I'm still rocking the Mother LOAD.  I can't believe I've kept up with a layout a day for all of September so far.  Every day Lain gives us a challenge that we can choose to use or not.  One of the challenges was to use a less than your best photo.  My cell phone has not been "smart" and I only recently figured out how to get photos off it without internet access on the phone.  (although those of you following me on facebook know I'm now totally in love with my new iPhone and instagram)  I knew these photos accompanied a story that needed to be told.

This page focuses on a day that was full of struggles but finishes with how friends and family bring sunlight into your gray rainy days.

Notice the photo collage on the bottom 4x6?  Wanna know how I did it?  Check out the tutorial here!

Design Inspiration: I always get so many ideas from the Write.Click.Scrapbook monthly galleries.  I pinned this layout awhile ago and while scrolling through my Pinterest board I knew that this design would leave plenty of room for the LONG story I wanted to tell.


Color Inspiration:  My story set the tones for my page.  Gray background for the gray skies and yellow for the sunshine.

I cut these little clouds out of a piece of pattern paper.  Just to make them stand out a bit I inked the edges with blue and popped up one with pop dots.

I debated making my own sunshine but in the end decided to use this FREE digi one by Crystal Wilkerson.  To top it off I added a little yellow brad.  And added a little cloud.  Love this part of the page!

I gotta say, this is quite a story.  Hope you can read it, cause it's much too long to retype.  :)  Just to add some interest in the long text I altered the color of certain lines to make them stand out.

I am so glad this crazy story is documented!  And I truly love how the page turned out.





























How do you use your iPhone pics?  Have you ever scrapped about a gray skies kinda day in your life?  Or do you have a story about a day that just seemed like a comedy of errors?  Leave me a comment, I'd love to hear all about it!

So Like Your Mother

"You are SOOOO like your Mother"  My husband says this to me often.  And I take that as a compliment.  And truth be told, that's how he means it too!  I felt like it was time to honor my awesome Mama with a layout!

When my Dad had his stroke back in December I decided I'm not taking no for an answer when it comes to snapping pics.  I refuse to let my wedding photos be the last ones I have of my parents.  So I've started snapping photos of everyone more often.  Recently I grabbed this one of the two of us together and knew I wanted to use it.

 

During preparation for Mother Load Lain challenged us to make 4 "snack packs."  We were to put together a handful of embellishments and journal block that we liked and that coordinated.  At the time I put the "snack packs" together I had no idea what I would use the for.

Color Inspiration: When I pulled out the first snack pack and saw the pink I knew it would probably be a layout about me.  The embellishments and journal spot inspired my color choices.

Layout Inspiration: My layout design was inspired by a sketch over at ScrapHappy.  But once I chose the paper, the pattern inspired the placement of my layout elements.

When I saw the colors of my embellishments I knew that this paper would be a perfect match.  I didn't want my photo to cover up this lovely little butterfly so I did some fussy cutting to allow the corner of the photo to tuck behind the butterfly.

I clustered my "snack pack" embellishments around the corner of the photo.  I love the depth they add to this lovely paper.

This little butterfly seemed to be screaming for some bling.  So I added Diamond Stickles to the body and the center of each little flower.  Then I stamped the word cherish to finish it off.

To bring the bling across the page I also added it to the bottom of the journaling block.

I screwed up the title.
:(  And I was so mad to have messed up on this pretty paper.


So I had to figure out what to do to fix it.  I loved the white letter stickers on the white background.  And I wanted the sub title to be small and delicate.  But the first time I tried I started WAY to far over and used black.  It looked awful!  So I cut a strip of white paper to cover it up.  But it just looked like I stuck white paper on to fix a problem.  :)  So I used a gray pen to write the sub title and put a strip of gems along the rest of it.   To make it look more purposeful I brought the edge of the journal block up to the edge of the paper strip.  Not perfect, but fixed...and I still like it!  :)

What can I say, I just love my Mama!




























Have you ever messed up a title?  What were your creative ways to fix it?  Which of your parents do you take after?  Leave me a comment!  I'd love to hear all about it!

You're a Jewel

I'm not much of a card maker, unless it's birthday invitations.  But recently, while we were in NYC, my cousin and his wife watched our boys for a couple of days.  I wanted to thank her so I made her a card.

Not being much of a card person I needed something quick and easy.  And since I was making it for a girl I actually got to use girly colors.  Yay!

I used SCAL to cut a crown.  Since there were cut outs in the crown I also cut a blackout version in white to layer behind.  I thought I'd show you this shot of my computer because it lets you see how easy it is to figure out exactly how much paper you need for each cut.  Love that!

Here you can see the two papers I used to cut my crown.  The first time i saw someone lay out a Cricut mat like this (with multiple colors of paper) it was like a light bulb went off.  So I just had to share it with you too.

At some point I got two packs of these cards with my initial on it.  I don't use them much so I thought I'd just alter one for this card.

The crown was almost big enough to cover the M, but not quite.  So I took a pink sharpie and colored in the areas that might show.

And placed my crown on the card.  It is hard to see here, but the white shape was layered under the gold.  It peeks out a bit from behind the jewels.  And what kinda crown doesn't have jewels?  I had fun using some nice big bling on this one!

Ok, this here is my new favorite trick! Are you ready for this one?!?!  When I am making a title out of stickers I use my ruler to help me.  I stick just the bottom of the stickers onto the edge of the ruler and get them all lined up how I want them.

Then I stick the top part of the letters onto the card or layout.  Finally, I gently pull the ruler off the bottom while holding the top with my fingers. It's not perfect, but it makes it so much easier to get everything lined up just right.  I learned this trick from Noell Hyman over at Paperclipping.  She has so many awesome tips on her site!

And here is one last peek at the card I made for a jewel of a friend.



















Are you a card maker?  Have any fun card sentiments to share?  Someone done something extra nice for you lately?  I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Family Tree

As I told you yesterday I have begun a book about me.

I knew I wanted to include a layout about my family.  A family tree seemed the perfect way to begin my album.

On the left page I matted a large photo of myself since the book is about me after all.  :)  To get the images of my family I had to scan in old photos.  That not only allowed me to do some color correction in Photoshop but I also now have digital copies of some of my favorite images.

I put one of my parents in the middle and used brackets to highlight them.  Then I put a photo of each of their families on either side.  The brackets also look a bit like arrows pointing to their families.

I used SCAL to make the title and added a branch to the end of the T.  I made some small green leaves and then added some green gems as well.  Branching Out seemed a perfect title for a family tree layout.

The right page features a large family tree.  For the purpose of posting on the internet I blurred out last names.  Sorry about that.  :)

I did a google search for a family tree image thinking to use SCAL to make an SVG.  But what I found was so much more awesome!  You can download your own copy of this image here.  In Photoshop I added in my family names.  LOVE IT!

I have a very memorable family tree experience from 5th grade grandparents day.  I chose to tell that story for my journaling on this layout.

I even found this picture of me with my grandparents at one such grandparents day.  Maybe not THE grandparents day of the story, but it very well could be!

After printing the family tree I went back into Photoshop and cut out one of the tags.  I printed it out and added it on for my step grandpa.  I popped it up with dots to make it stand out.  Which again connects back to the story.

I love that I have a way to share a special story with my children when the day comes that they want to know more about me.  And for now I feel like I've documented some important information about my family history.

Boom! Bang! Ka-Pow!

This year both my boys wanted to be "super."  Maybe not the superheros most would imagine, but that's ok.  We had Buzz Lightyear and Super Why.

I wanted a comic book style layout so I did a search online and found one that looks a bit like this.  It is no longer online so I can't link you to the original.

On the left page I put pictures of each of my boys decked out in costume.  I found a nice green pattern paper to put behind the photos.

To make the title I used my Cricut and one of my new favorite products...the Mini Sharpie holder made by Amy Chomas.   You take out the blade on your cricut, insert the sharpie holder with your choice of sharpie and anywhere the cricut would cut, it draws instead.  The blue outline on the word was done with the Sharpie holder (the yellow I added in by hand).  On my SCAL screen I had the text and the pow speech balloon.  When I was drawing the text I hid the balloon.  When I wanted to cut the balloon I hid the text.  Then I inked the edges.  Fun!

I used the same technique on the stars.  Drew with Cricut and red sharpie then cut.  Loved how they turned out (I made the star drawings off center on purpose).

An orange strip of paper to tie the two pages together.  I love that the design mimics the eyes of a mask.

Once again I used the sharpie with my Cricut.  Unfortunately I forgot to hide the text when it came time to cut.  Oops!  SO I found some paper that matched the tones of the layout and backed my balloon with it.  In the end I actually like this better!  :)

A little mask embellishment tops it all off!  :)  I love finding ways to add gems to boy pages.

For the journaling block I cut the zigzags free hand.  I was sure I was going to mess it all up, but in the end I love it.

My boys sure are super, and this layout was the perfect way to show that off!

A Comparison

Every year I start a new scrapbook.  So during my recent weekend crop I began my 2011 scrapbook.  As many of you know I usually scrap 2 page layouts so the beginning of a new book is the one time I scrap a single page.  I use this as the time to scrap my boys' school pictures.  This year, in that regard, was no different.  And yet on my page I tried several new things.  Yay!

One difference is that this year my boys no longer attend the same school so I did not have a picture of my boys together As I have in the past.

And I'm back to loving on Ella Publishing!  :)  I got my layout inspiration along with this excellent quiz from their eBook "Essential Guide to Scrapbooking Boys."  I decided to divide my page in half and do one quiz for each child comparing their characteristics.

In the inspiration layout they had a little journal box for the top of the quiz.  I recreated that in photoshop.  I started with a square canvas and then drew in the lines.  I then added the type for the headings of each box.  Next I chose the large font for the words and found a digi paper to "clip" to it.

Yes I admit it, I made sure my boys shirts matched for their school pictures cause I knew that I would be scrapping them together.  I'm just that crazy!  :)  I used gray lettering on my youngest page with green matting.  And I used green lettering with gray matting on my oldest.

Add a little bit of bling in the corners and they layout is done.  Love that!

Check out some of my other starter pages.  You can see 2007 in the post From Then to Now.

Not sure why I didn't do 2008 but 2009 is at Birthday Love.

Then 2010 is at Let it Shine.


It's so fun to open each album and see how the boys have grown.  I love these starter pages!