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! :)

I Wanna Hold Your Hand

Does the title of this post make you wanna sing a little.  It does me!  For as long as my youngest has been able to talk he has said to me daily, "I wanna hold your hand."  And every time I start to sing...I wanna hold your ha-a-a-a-and, I wanna ho-old yo-our hand.  During LOAD this year I decided to create a layout all about it.

I saw this template by Crystal Wilkerson over at Write.Click.Scrapbook one day and knew I would need to use it!  Since the photos I wanted to use were from many different occasions I made them black and white.  Which made this layout a perfect fit for Crystal's template.  I love all the color!

When using the layered version of the template you can clip your own papers to the border.  I love how bright and cheery it looks!

I still used papers from Crystals Spring/Summer line but I had fun playing around with what went where.

I love the paper strips across the bottom.  I don't often make subtitles but this was the perfect place for one.  This is a staged picture but it is a perfect representation of how often my little guy reaches for my hand.  (cue the awwwws)

For the left page I used another of Crystal's templates.  I did add the stitching to make it match the right side.  For the pics I scrolled back through iPhoto and found several pics of my son and I holding hands.  Just more evidence of his obsession.  :)

I've been working lately on telling everyday stories.  This layout is definitely an example of that.  Which makes me love it even more!

Have you ever scrapped about a song that has a special meaning for someone in your family?  Link us up so we can see!

35 things I love at 35

Sometimes when you are attempting to do a layout a day you've gotta take things easy.  This layout was made on one of those days for me.

 One of the LOAD challenges was to create an all black and white layout.  And I did it!   Well, almost.  :)

I was looking for a white paper to use as a mat when I came across this lovely paper.  It has a subtle green pattern.  Which is where my "almost" comes in.  :)

My journaling consists of a simple list of 35 things I love at 35.  Hence the catchy title.  ;)

Have you ever made a page listing things you love?  Leave a link in the comments so we can all see!

I Hope You Dance

Do you ever start to feel like you just need to create something but you aren't sure what? That has been me all week.  Not interested in house work (but when am I ever?), feeling kinda tired and lazy, and having a hard time getting motivated to start something.  Then the other night I was sitting on the couch and thought, "maybe I could start a digi layout...then I won't have to move out of this spot!"  And that is exactly what I did.  :)  I pulled up my scrapbook to do list and chose an idea for my All About Me album.  I spent most of my life as a dancer and I decided that I was ready to tell that story.

I always start a layout by looking for design inspiration and I typically scraplift...must be why I named my blog what I did!  ;)  But starting a digi layout is so much more difficult for me.  With paper I start playing around with things and moving them around on my table.  With digi I have to search through my files to find something I want and I can't lay them next to each other to see if they will work.  I'm much more likely to make a carbon copy scraplift when I'm going digital.

So I was pretty lucky that Ella had just posted the second sketch for their Stretch Your Sketches challenge!

This sketch and page are both 12x12 and I was doing an 8.5x11 two page spread.  Donna Jannuzzi did make an 8.5x11 sketch as well but I liked this one better.  My photos ended up being 4x3 instead of 4x4 so that they would fit.

 For this layout I chose pictures of myself throughout my childhood.  I studied dance from the age of 3 to 16 and yet I could not find a single dance picture above about age 10.  Not sure if we didn't take any or if they just got lost somewhere along the way.  So I just used two pics of me at a much younger age.  They are pretty cute (if I do say so myself) so I didn't mind that much.

For the title I used a popular song title.  I clipped some distressed yellow paper to a favorite font and placed it right on the pic.  I started with the title "So You Think You Can Dance" and while I liked it, it gave the layout a more playful feel.  This title gives the layout the more emotional feel I was going for.  It shows the love I have for dance.

To divide the pictures from the main section of patterned paper I added a strip of orange paper.  I felt that it needed a bit more decoration so I used two rows of stitching.  I think it makes the strip of paper look more like a ribbon.

On this layout I did something else I rarely do, all the products were from the same kit.  All papers, tape, and stitching came from Crystal Wilkerson.  I got the products here and here.  I'm so excited because everything Crystal creates during the spring and summer will be from the same color palette (which I LOVE by the way) so it will all coordinate!  Yay!  And there are so many more papers I want!  But I must pace myself.  :)

I love the look of these tape strips!  Not only do they bring some of the color to the top of the page, they also help the layout have a more cohesive feel.  Since the pics are from many different time periods and have lots of different colors the tape seems to help tie them together.

Even though I am a total introvert I have always been a performer.  Through dance, music, and theater I have always felt the call of the stage.  Even to this day, after years away, I miss dancing and theater (I still sing here and there).  I'm not convinced that this is all I have to say about the effect dance had on my life.  If I decide I need more I'll either go in and extend the tape strips to allow for more journaling or I'll add some hidden journaling behind the layout.  We'll see.  But since it's digital, and I haven't printed it yet, I can make that decision later.

Do you have an activity you participated in all through childhood?  Have you created a layout about it?  Leave us a link in the comments so we can all see!

Kids Live Here

Awhile ago (like back in May!) I posted some pictures I took of my boys playing outside at our new house along with a Photoshop tutorial on recomposing an image.  This weekend I FINALLY got around to scrapping those photos.

Once again I have a photo of my inspiration page but can't find the original post.  I do know that it was done by Autumn Baldwin over at Write.Click.Scrapbook.  Wish I could link you up to the actual post, but since I can't find it I'll just link you to the website.  So totally love that place!

The original layout was done in 8.5x11 and I wanted to use 12x12.  So I just stretched the sketch.  I actually used the same size photos (4x6 and 2x3), just added one more and had more space around the mat.  That allowed more of my cute little stars to show through.  This is also a digital layout, but totally easy to translate into paper!

The green block I used to mat all my photos was too large to fit through my printer.  Since I really liked the look of the type on the background paper I used a scrap of the green paper and ran that through my printer.  You can still obviously see that it is a separate piece of paper, but I like how it blends in with the background.

To coordinate with the stars on the paper I did a bit of stitching.  I chose to attach the star to the paper and then stitch.  Which worked ok, but did get a little bit tricky when needing to turn the paper.  In hindsight I probably would stitch the star first and then attach to the paper.

Because I maintained the photo sizes from the inspiration layout I had a lot more extra space for a title.  I originally intended to just use the title directly on the patterned paper, similar to the original design.  When I put it on the paper I discovered that the background had such a large design on it, the title got lost.  So I decided to back it with a blue square.

I cut the title on my Cricut using SCAL (Sure Cuts A Lot).  Once I added the blue paper I wanted to give it more oomph.  So I pulled out my new bracket punch.  I liked the negative space left by the punch but wanted something more.  So I inked the brackets and layered them onto the frame.

To give some added depth I popped the bracket up.  Whenever I use pop dots I keep the sheet they come on and  use it for things like this.  I cut some small strips from the edge of the pop dots paper and used those.  The dots themselves would have been too big.

I love that my boys now have a fun place to play outside, and I love that we have this layout to remember our first month in the new house!

Life Right Now

Recently I saw a post on WriteClickScrapbook.com about occasionally doing a layout about your life right now.  I liked that idea, but hadn't gotten around to scrapping it.  Then today At the Big Idea Festival over at BigPictureScrapbooking.com the challenge by Karen Grunberg was to make a layout about life right now.  Hmmmm, seems like maybe this is something I should do.  :)

The inspiration layout was one page and used much smaller pics.  Since I was using 2 pages I decided to do 2x3 pics.  There are a lot of them on this layout...can you tell?  :)

I cut 1 inch strips of patterned paper and punched them with my border punch (I've got to get some more of those).

I made a list about things that have been going on in our lives over the past few months.  I decided to write my journaling on a scrap of vellum.  I put a piece of notebook paper behind the vellum as I was writing my journaling.  I chose to highlight certain words by changing the font color.

I used a butterfly punch and layered two butterflies on top of one another for depth.  I then put a dot of glue to stick them down before stitching them on.

I have never stitched on a page before.  I had a lot of fun using different stitches on the layout.

Rather than using one color of thread for the whole layout I decided to use tone on tone.  Each of the strips of patterned paper has stitching on it.  I really went all out.

It's hard to see the title in this picture, but I love it in person.  Some of the words are in silver, the us is acrylic, and the now is chipboard.

"This is Us Right Now"

I love the idea of scrapping about everyday things.  And the opportunity to use pics that I like, but probably wouldn't scrap otherwise is always fun.

Try making your LRN (Life Right Now) layout.  If you do, link it up for me so I can see!