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!

OLW ~ June Catch Up

So it's mid-July and I'm just now getting around to completing my June assignment for One Little Word.  June was all about getting in touch with your inner artist.  We were to create 9 mini canvases that represented our word in some way.

Here are all my canvases together.  Bright and cheery right!  Each canvas is baseball card sized.  So they are small, but that made them less intimidating to create!

When I was making my NYC mini album cover I accidentally cut the people too small.  So I just cut them again.  I saved the too small figures for another project.  And this gal was a perfect size for this project.  Love that!  I simply glued the grunge board figure on the cardstock and painted it green.

For this canvas I used an orange chalk stamp pad.  I purposely made the stamping uneven with some white peeking through.  I cut some arrows out of tissue paper and glued them on.  They are just a subtle layer.  I stamped the phrase "be present" but messed it up.  It was stamped double.  So to cover my mistake I added a strip of glitter.  Which I ended up really liking.  I then added the brass rose.  It reminded me of the saying, "take time to stop and smell the roses."

Again I used the chalk stamp pad to color the yellow on the inside of the canvas.  Then I painted the edges green. I found these old pebble word stickers and loved how they looked on the canvas.

I painted this canvas green.  Then I edged it with an orange chalk stamp pad.  After that I splashed some pearl and orange paint all around.  Another pebble word sticker.  And I love the message!  "To live remains an art.  Art is the chance to live!"

I mixed a bit of green paint with the pearl paint.  It gave the canvas a light sheen.  So pretty.  Then I stamped an orange flower using a chalk stamp pad again.  I continued to stamp unti the ink ran out.  Then I added some glitter to one of the flowers and traced around it with black sharpie to make it stand out.

I started by glueing (Mod Podge) a layer of tissue paper on the canvas (the one with the dots).  Once it dried I added the wrinkly green layer of tissue paper.  I put a bit of orange paint on one of the circles and some Glossy Accents on the green circles.  Then I put on the arrows and added the words, "all the time in the world."  This one reminds me to slow down and have fun!

This canvas started with peral paint.  I used rough brush strokes to give it texture.  Then I added a bit of green on top.  I edged it with orange ink and added a strip of transparency vertically.  Then I placed the cherish tag near the bottom of the canvas.

This canvas started with a pearl background.  Then I roughly edged it with orange paint and smeared some green paint through the middle.  I added some square pebble stickers for dimension!

For the last canvas I started with orange paint.  Then I stamped my initial all around.  I used versa-mark ink (clear) on this canvas intending for it to be a subtle tone on tone look.  Then I went to add glitter to the main M and found out that glitter sticks to versa-mark ink...oops.  :)  To make the main M stick out I added Glossy Accents on top.  It doesn't look how I'd intended but it works.

And just to save your poor fingers from having to scroll back to the top I thought I'd show you the full project one more time.

Just looking at these canvases makes me happy!
























Have you painted anything lately?  What colors make you happy?  I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Baby Belly

I was so excited to scrap these maternity photos I took of my sister.  Unfortunately moving got in the way.  I sketched my idea prior to the move and started the layout about a week after we moved in.  Unfortunately several of my ideas required my Cricut and the power cord was MIA.  This weekend I finally found the cord I needed at Radio Shack.  The holiday weekend seemed like the perfect opportunity to finish the layout.

I knew I wanted to use this idea around the main photo.  I had many baby stickers and couldn't wait to use them.

Because of the size of the photo I needed smaller stickers.  Rather than using words from lots of different sets I decided to stick with ones from the same set.  My set of stickers were clear so I matted the photo with white cardstock.  That allowed the color of the stickers to show through.

They were still a variety of colors and font styles which gives some interest.  I loved how they pulled the colors from Beth's sock.  Which is a feature of this photo I love, but most wouldn't even notice.  My sis always has on crazy socks.  So I wanted to highlight that in these photos.  For a tutorial on how to do this check out this post.

On the facing page I wanted to use a few of my favorite photos from the shoot.  I also wanted some color, but did not want to mat the photos in a traditional sense.  So I took some scraps of paper in colors that coordinated with the stickers and set them behind the photos.  I also used a variety of fonts on the journaling strips.  Each strip of text is associated with the photo next to it.

I have been dying to try out 3D flowers for awhile now.  As a Mama of boys I don't get to do flowers very often.  But pics of my beautiful blooming sister seemed the perfect opportunity.

For all the flowers I cut 3 sizes of the flower shape.  The top and bottom flower are out of the same paper, and the middle flower is a coordinating piece.  On the large flower I chose to accent the center with beads.

For the remaining flowers I used glitter to accent.  For the top two I folded up the petals.  With the yellow flower I wadded up the paper to give it more dimensions.

It truly was an honor to photograph my sister during her pregnancy.  And even more fun to scrap the photos.  I love that I can look back on these days and the beauty of my sister with her BLOOMING BABY BELLY!

FRIENDS

It's week 3 of the TV inspired scrapbooking challenge over at the Ella blog.  The challenge this week was to make a page about a show you have seen over and over.  No contest here, that would be Friends.  I own all 10 seasons on DVD and watch them all the time.  I like to have a TV going when I am working around the house, or scrapbooking, or working in my classroom at school (when the kids aren't there of course).  I knew that my page had to be inspired by Friends for this challenge.

As I was reflecting on the page I decided to focus on my own friends, and all they have done for me while my husband has been deployed.  Since I don't have photos of the many friends my journaling referred to I decided to use one large picture from the TV show.

I decided to frame my journaling with the frame seen on the back of Monica's door on the show. I found an image of the frame online and used my SCAL program to trace the image, then cut it with my Cricut.  I sketched the swirl detail on the frame with glue and added yellow glitter.  I was very pleased with how it turned out.  I then printed my journaling on vellum and added it into the frame.  I focused my journaling on characteristics of each of the Friends characters in relationship to the support I have gotten from my friends during the last few months.

Once again I used SCAL to trace the Friends logo for the title.  Instead of the small dots used in the logo I chose to use buttons.  That will allow me to enter this spread in the designer showcase over at the Ideas for Scrapbookers blog.  I love double dipping!

I added a touch of bling to the lower left corner of the page.  Using a few gems and a blue marker I created some swirls for a bit of added effect.

I'm so intrigued by scrapbooking things that relate to me.  Until now, my scrapbooks have been almost all about my kids.  If I show up at all, it is usually with my children.  This page is about me and reflects on the people in my life that have definitely been there for me "when the rain starts to fall."  Thank goodness for FRIENDS!

Easter Embellies

With Easter coming up I thought it was time to post a recent Easter page.

I found my inspirations at Scrapbooks Etc. with this layout.

I liked the box with the rounded edges, and the small photos along the top.  I thought it would be a fun way to add in some easter egg hunting pics with our family photos.

In my scraplift I used a strip with rounded edges at the top on the left page and at the bottom of the right.  In essence I stretched the layout across two pages.  I loved the Happy Easter paper so I didn't feel a need for a title.  All the papers came in a pack so I had fun mixing the patterns.

For the embellishments I cut out two bunnies from another page in the set.  They were cute bunnies but did not really stand out against the page.  So I put glitter on in the same colors as the paper.  I waited 24 hrs for the glue to dry and then added Glossy Accents to the top.  I was really excited to create my own embellishments!  Saves tons of money and gives me some creative freedom.  Yay!