Tooth Fairy Alert!

Yesterday I showed you how I made my son a Tooth Fairy pocket. Today I want to show you the cute page I made for the occasion!

This page is all digi so I bet you can guess where I got my products...do I even need to say her name?!? It's Crystal Wilkerson all the way!

Crystal's papers are so fun and vibrant! Just seemed like a perfect pairing for such a fun occasion!

I love that I not only got the story documented but also my son's first note to the tooth fairy. It was definitely a moment to remember!

Husbands in Training

One day over at ScrapHappy Lain Ehmann issued a challenge to use a window display as inspiration for a layout. I immediately knew which window I wanted to use.

I snapped these photos during Week in the Life. I love having everyday pics! And having photos of my boys doing laundry seemed like the perfect everyday photo to scrap about.

Design Inspiration: I saw this amazing display in NYC. I loved the colors and shape of this window display!

Color Inspiration: My color inspiration also came from this photo. The yellow of the floor, the bright colors of the balls, and the silver in the window.

I found lots of tone on tone patterns for the circles. To replicate the window I used this lovely transparency. I just love how it turned out!

What can I say, husbands in training just seemed like the perfect title for this page! I recently discovered these plastic letters in my stash. They were perfect for this layout. Finding stash you didn't remember you had is like finding money in your pocket!

More handwritten journaling! So perfect for quick and easy pages! Draw some lines, write your words and done!

What are some skills that you are bound and determined that your children will learn? Leave me a comment, I'd love to hear all about it!

I Love You Because...

I've been wanting to make a layout about my husband for awhile now.  And when I saw that Ella had posted a sketch challenge I knew this was the perfect opportunity!

 

This sketch and layout by Donna Jannuzzi were the jumping off points for my layout.

For my two page layout I used the sketch and the adapted layout as mirror images.  The photos of my husband laughing were so classically him that I just had to use them as the focal point of my layout.

Steve is so happy in these pictures and I wanted the colors to reflect that.  Using the design of patterned paper strips in the inspiration layout I was able to layer on some fun colors and papers.  I didn't want the layout to feel too girly so I brought in some mossy green at the bottom.  It also helped ground the layout.

For my title block I dug around in my scrap box.  I came across this paper strip of greens and yellows.  It sorta reminded me of a paint swatch.  I decided to use it as the base.  At first I just centered the metal tag on the paper strip.  But it seemed too boring.  So I found some red paper and matted the tag on it.  Then I put it off center and popped it up with pop dots.  But things still seemed to be floating.  So I made a bracket tag and added the date.  Then I took a gold gel pen and drew some doodles below the paper block.  Just that little doodle line helped the whole title area feel more solid.  This area is also the first point of my embellishment triangle.

In design, embellishments look better if put in a visual triangle.  Near the bottom right corner I added an embellie cluster.  Using the scraps from the paper strip along the top of my layout I cut out some circles and flowers.  To help balance the metal tag I added a brown metal brad to the center of this flower.  Notice that I also doodled here as well.  Sort of defining the line of my triangle.

On the left page I added another layered cluster of items.  This is the third point of my triangle.  Again I cut out some circle and flower shapes from the paper scraps.  And in the center of one circle I place the large polka dotted red brad.

I added a bit more doodling and three brown metal brads.  Again repeating the lines and color from the other points of my visual triangle.  Let's look at the whole layout again...

The embellishment clusters form a visual triangle around the page.  In addition to that I added 3 doodle lines within each embellishment cluster.  I also placed the brown metal color at each point of the visual triangle.  By repeating color, line, and placing them in a visual triangle it creates a balanced layout.

For me, no layout is complete until it has journaling.  For this layout I wrote about some of the reasons I love my husband.  I've never been much for journaling tags.  But recently I've found myself drawn to them.  So I purchased a few sets.  This was my first opportunity to use one, and I love it!  Perfect color and sentiment!  

Pre-School Graduation

I've been working on finishing up my 2010 pages.  So recently I pulled together a spread of my son's pre-school graduation.

I lifted this layout almost exactly from Double Page Design from Ella.  Can't show you the inspiration page but you can buy the book for yourself for just a few bucks!  Definitely worth it.

I love that all of the photos are 4x6!  So easy!  I had these blue border strips in my color bin and they worked perfectly on the page.

I don't usually include ephemera on my pages, but this tassel was a must!  I tapped in an orange brad and hung the tassel from that.  It works perfectly on the page.

To add a little bling I stuck on these three gold stars.  Loving that!

I thought that the box of crayons made the perfect accent to this page.  Just love how simple it all is!

I cut this speech bubble with my Cricut and then printed my journaling on it.  Such a great memory page!

Beautiful Babies

I am so in love with Ella's new book Double Page Design.  Today I blew through two layouts, scraplifted almost exactly but so what!  :)

This fall I took these photos of my niece, nephew, and sister.  I was looking for a way to scrap these adorable pics.

I can't show you the inspiration layout but you can buy the whole book for only a few bucks!  Pop over to Ella Publishing and check out their eBooks.  Especially Double Page Design written by the folks over at Write.Click.Scrapbook!

In the inspiration layout digital handwritten frames were used.  They were so cute but I didn't see why I couldn't just actually hand draw them.

I loved the idea of hanging these pics in a trio.  And adding a block of patterned paper gave the layout some additional interest.  I made each of these blocks 3 x 3 and the white mats 3.75 x 3.75.  I used a simple fine point sharpie to draw the frames.

For the title I just hand wrote the words and added a few swirls.  Simple, but perfect for the layout!

The larger photos were 4x6 and I made the frames 4.75 x 7.  The square photo and journal block were 4x4 with a 4.75 square mat.

I drew the strings and hooks with my trusty sharpie (just the way they were in the inspiration layout).  This is one instance where things didn't need to be perfect, and in fact were better if they weren't.

Even my journaling is similar to the inspiration layout.  I used the technique I talk about here to print my journaling on the patterned paper.

I'm so in love with this layout!  Thank you Ella and Write.Click.Scrapbook for your amazing inspiration!

Birthday Bash

For those that were reading my blog back in March you saw that we had a Mickey extravaganza for my boys birthdays.  I recently finished the layout and am just now getting around to blogging it.  :)

I had fun searching the Write.Click.Scrapbook galleries for layout inspiration.  I found several at the Oct '09 Eye on Design gallery.  My 2 page sketch was inspired from layouts by Ann Costen and Elizabeth Dillow.  Both used grids of pics and I thought that would be a fun way to use multiple pics from the big day.

To tie the two pages together I put a large piece of cardstock across both pages behind the pictures.  I also added a border strip along the bottom of the cardstock.  To balance the layout I used 2 larger pics on the right page.  And put the title there.

I love the bright colors on this layout.  The papers bring out that cheery happy feeling one gets from watching an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse without using the traditional primary colors you see on most Mickey items.

While I had many pics that I could have added to this layout, I decided to fill 3 blocks with paper.  Two with coordinating patterned paper and one with journaling.  I love the balance it provides to the layout.  And the three blocks that are different create a visual triangle, which is a pleasing design element.

I knew that for the larger photos I wanted to use the cake pics of my two birthday boys.  These two pics are some of my favorites from the day.  And they have a vintagey yellow feel that goes so well with the papers.

To compliment the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme I added some gears to the layout.  I placed them in a visual triangle that spanned across both pages.  Another popular character on the show is Toodles.  For our party I had made our own Toodles that brought the children various items they needed throughout the party.  I wanted to include that somehow without taking up space on the grid of photos.  So I printed up the picture I had taken of Toodles on plain paper and cut him out.  Then I was able to use Toodles as an embellishment.  Notice that I remembered to write in the date on one of the gears.  I really am trying hard to remember to do that!  :)

It was a great party and I think it made a great layout!

Circles Galore

While at a recent scrapbooking weekend the girls started challenging each other to try new things and stretch ourself out of our comfort zones.  I found a layout in a scrapbooking magazine...guess which one...  :) that used a circle photo.  That intrigued me and was something I had never tried before, so that was challenge number one.  My second challenge was to use yellow.  I tend to use lots of greens and blues since I am usually scrapping my boys, but I wanted to extend myself into bright yellow.

I found the strips of yellow patterned paper in my scraps box.  These strips were ALL I had so I had to find a way to make them work on the page.  I also had some strips of dark yellow cardstock border.  I again didn't have enough to do the same border in all areas so I had to mix it up.  I then used my cricut to cut the circle around the large photo and trimmed the picture to match.  Smart huh?  That is where my intelligence stopped on this particular layout.  I struggled to figure out how to fill the page and give it variety.  My friend Tara suggested using some more circles in red around the page.  Great idea!!  So I start trying to cut circles with a template and blade.  I wanted to make rings.  Oh those circles became my nemesis!!  Why didn't I cut them on my cricut you ask?  NO IDEA!!!  Never thought of it, even though I had already cut the large circle for the photo on the cricut..  Maybe it's because it was getting late on the 2nd day of scrapping and I was going on very little sleep.  Whatever the reason, or excuse :), I was trying to cut the circles by hand.  They did not turn out well.  After going through an entire page of 12x12 paper I found 2 circle punches.  One was slightly larger than the other.  So I punched with the larger circle and then punched again with the smaller circle.  I used the rings and circles alternately around the page.  After WAY to much cutting and stressing, this simple technique worked really well.

My third challenge came from my friend Tara who told me she wanted to see me journal by hand instead of typing.  I was going to skip journaling because I didn't know where to put it, and as I've mentioned before I don't like to write on my pages in case I mess up.  This time I took on the challenge and hand wrote my story.  As I wrote I was inspired by the circles and my memory of the occasion.  Here is what I wrote, "[my younger son]...wants so much to be like his brother.  Even though he can't manage the pedals he's perfectly happy to sit on his tricycle while [his brother] goes in circles around him."

 

I really enjoyed working with the challenges given to me by my friends.  It caused me to think in new ways.  Recently I have started looking for challenges online to keep me growing.  Thanks to my friends for getting me started on this new journey.