Up Front

I love large circles!  I'm not really sure why?  I find them a great way to add a little background interest to my layouts.  Usually I take a kitchen plate and trace it onto a sheet of 12x12 patterned paper and then cut it out with my scissors.  Simple and easy!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: SEI - Mayberry Collection; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers; Embellishments: SEI - Mayberry Die Cuts and Sassafras Flowers; Ink: ColorBox Chalk Ink.

The Joys of Camping in the Rain

We love camping in our tent trailer. It's out home away from home. The biggest drawback to a tent trailer though is always having to air it out after a weekend of camping in the rain. As if camping in the rain wasn't a pain enough. Steve snapped this photo of the trailer drying out in the garage after one of our rainy weekend camping trips. It's great that he captures these little things that I always seem to forget!  I'm very much the trips over and the camera goes away with the gear kind of girl!

The die cut paper was so cute with that little deer!  The way my layout was working out my photo and mats were covering the head of this little cutie and that was a problem.  So I broke out my exacto knife and carefully cut around his head so that I could slide my photo and mats underneath it.  Problem solved!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Kaiser Kraft - Tiny Woods Collection and Paper Scraps from my Stash; Cardstock: Bazzills; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers, Cosmo Cricket Tiny Types, and Jolee Woodgrain Letters.

Truly Madly Deeply

Having a great background paper sometimes means you have a real simple layout on your hands.  Because I didn't want to cover the pretty background paper I simply double matted the photo, added a bit of washi tape, a pretty chipboard heart covered with washi tape, and my title.  Simple, pretty, and quick .... can't get much better than that!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Making Memories Travel Collection; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers; Embellishments: Chipboard Heart, Washi Tape, and Jillibean Sayings.

Sold

This layout is made using an 8x8 paper pad from October Afternoon.  I love October Afternoon and wish they made their paper pads in 12x12 size because I find the 8x8 size difficult to work with!  I guess I am so used to have the flexibility a 12x12 sheet gives.  I always seem to like to do a strip of patterned paper all the way across (side to side or top to bottom) on almost all my layouts and doing that with an 8x8 piece of paper was a challenge.  Lucky for me I figured out that if I piece two smaller piece together on this layout and hide the seam behind the other patterned paper,   no one would know that it isn't one continuous piece!  I love it when I have a light bulb moment like that!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: October Afternoon - Road Map Collection; Cardstock: Bazzills; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers; Embellishments: Jillibean Die Cut, washi Tape, October Afternoon - Road Map Journalling Spot; Tools: Creative Memories Corner Rounder and Dymo Label Maker.

Eleven Years

Last year was our Eleventh Wedding Anniversary and my darling honey always gets me the sweetest, heartfelt cards.  I love his cards.  He obviously spends some time reading each to find the perfect one and I always hate throwing them out.  I think I still have the very first card he gave me when we started dating sixteen years ago somewhere.  Normally they sit in a postcard box I have in our spare room closet but then it dawned on me that these little gems that peak a look into my honey's heart are just as deserving as any photo in my scrapbook.  So I think from this point on my cards (and I might even go back and pull out some older ones too) will have a place in my scrap books.  How awesome will it to be when we are old an grey to look back on these or for our future kids to see?

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Authentique - Journey Collection; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers; Embellishments: Authentique - Journey Die Cuts; Tools: Fiskars Circle Squeeze Punch.

Tech Support

We all get jokes emails from people we know.  Most of them make me chuckle but this one had me laughing so hard I just had to print it to hang in my office.  It is so fitting when it comes to the perceptions about my job that I thought I should scrapbook it!  And seeing as today is Programmer Appreciation Day, I thought it would be fitting to post it today!

When I saw this line by October Afternoon I thought it was perfect for the rand pics I take at work so I bought the whole collection.  I know it was silly but it just spoke to me, do you ever find a line does that?  I just loved all of the little bits and pieces that came with it, like the tabs with the days of the week and the die cut rotary telephone!  It sure made pulling this layout together super easy.

Supplies: Patterned Paper: October Afternoon - 9 to 5 Collection; Cardstock: Bazzills; Alphabet Stickers: October Afternoon - Alpha Stickers; Embellishments: October Afternoon - 9 to 5 Die Cut Stickers.

Hey Bert

So this picture is kind of an inside joke that goes back many years!  You see Steve has a laugh that sounds just like Ernie's laugh and he can also do an awesome rendition of Rubber Ducky, so when we noticed our Resort had Sesame Street characters roaming the resort, we kept our eyes peeled for Ernie.  Unfortunately, we never saw Ernie but we did find his good buddy Bert so I had to make Steve pose with him for this photo.  And because I wanted the photo and story to be the focal point of my layout I kept the rest of the layout pretty simple.

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Echo Park - Splash Collection; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers and old Large Chipboard Letters; Embellishments: Echo Park - Splash Paper Diecuts and Borders, Echo Park Chipboard Elelment, and Journalling Spot.

Oh So Sleepy

My dog makes me laugh!  But then I think most dogs are amusing to their owners otherwise why would we keep them! I really think Angus thinks he human.  What ever Steve and I are doing he wants to be part of it. Sitting on the couch ... he has to wedge himself between us.  Driving in the car ... he stand on the arm rest between us. Sleeping in bed ... he sprawls out between us.  It's so funny!  But what's even funnier (and what this layout is about) is that when you get up in the morning (or the middle of the night for that matter) he's quick to just in your spot.  Every single time!  And have you ever tried to move a sleeping dog?  It's next to impossible! He only weighs about 18 lbs but when he's sleeping I struggle, and I mean struggle, to move him!  It's such a rough life he has!  Good thing we love him so!

In keeping with the circles from the background paper I made sure my journalling spot was round too.  I then added some black doodling to it to make it pop.  I continued the round theme with the button and the round camera die cut.  Sometimes things just come together so easily!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Unknown; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers and Scenic Route Die Cut Letters; Embellishments: Washi Tape, Journalling Spot, Button, and Cosmo Cricket Joyride Sticker.

And the Thunder Rolls

Every once in awhile you find a piece of patterned paper that does all the work for you. This background paper went perfectly with my photo. So I created a couple of mats for my photo and then using my exacto knife I cut a bit of the umbrella out of the background paper to slide the mat under so as not to loose any of the umbrella and then added my title and journalling and I was done! Might of been record time for me too - 10 minutes to assemble!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Unknown; Cardstock: Bazzills; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers, Basic Grey Alphs, and Making Memories Tiny Types; Tools: EK Success Edger Border Punch.

Best Overall Female

Last year for my work Christmas Party, we went to Shanks Sports Bar.  When you book a corporate party with them, they put on what they call the Mini Olympics.  You break off into teams and work your way through various courses.  We played Virtual Golf, Mini Golf, Pool, and Motor-cross Racing (which is a video game ... not the real thing) and then the staff came up with awards for various categories.  And guess what!  I won Best Overall Female!  Yippee!  I have never won anything like this so for me I was super stoked!  Thanks goodness hubby was there with his iPhone to capture my excitement!

When I saw this Jillibean Soup Labels that had the saying Shut the Front Door, I knew I had to have it!  It is so me!  I love it that manufacturers are starting to come out with lines that are a little more sassy like this!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Jillibean - Cabbage Soup and Pasta Fagioli Collections; Cardstock: Bazzills; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts - Thickers; Embellishments: Jillibean Journalling Spot, Jillibean Soup Labels,  and Basic Grey - PB&J Pins and Tags ; Tools: Zig Marker.

Opposites Attract

It really is true what they say, opposites do attract.  Although we have tons in common, it still amazes me how many things my hubby and I are complete opposites on.  And when I say opposites, I mean vampires avoiding sunlight type opposites.  Take coffee for instance.  We both love coffee, to the point of being self professed addicts.  But bring me a Timmies coffee and I can guarantee you I try to chock it down while you watch out of courtesy but when you are not looking I will be dumping it down the drain ... no disrespect intended.  Although, my hubby isn't as extreme as I am, I always hear him sigh when we pull up to Starbucks and watch his eyes roll while I spit out in one breath Venti Decaf Skinny Vanilla Latter Extra Foam Please and then pay $5 for it.  It's all in good fun though.  That's why when hubby snapped this photo of out two mugs (His Timmies Mug and My Starbucks Mug) in the microwave side by side we both chuckled a little bit ... and of course I had to scrap it!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Pebbles - May Bouquet Collection; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers; Embellishments: 7 Gypsies - 95% Complete Stickers, american Crafts Thicker Shapes, Washi Tape, and Journalling Spot.

Rush Hour

I love this layout!  Love, love, love it!  Why you ask?  Washi Tape!  There are three kinds of it on here.  One bordering my patterned paper, a piece randomly tucked behind the patterened paper in the top left corner, and another piece as the mat to my December tag.  It makes adding edging or pops of color super easy.  I can easily see myself ending up with several rolls of this stuff.  Currently my collection sits at 5 rolls, let's see if I can not let this turn into the obession I had with Stickles several years ago where I bought every color I could find!

I really like the Title/Journalling area.  It came together perfectly and I think that mainly has to de with the journalling block I used as a base for my Title.  It really seems to ground it and gave me the opportunity to stuff the little die cut clock and car at the bottom of it.  Don't look too closely at my journalling though.  I forgot to erase my pencil trial run after commiting it in pen.  Opps!  It's fun how I don't notice some of these things until I edit my photos for this blog!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: SEI - Mayberry Collection; Cardstock: Bazzills; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers and Making Memories Alphas; Embellishments: ; Inks: Washi Tape, SEI - Mayberry Die Cuts, October Afternoon - 9 to 5 Die Cuts, Glass Bead, and Journalling Spot.

Comp TIA Certification

I love it when I buy a collection that goes so well together that I can throw a layout like this together in short amount of time.  I'm talking 20-30 minutes here people!  All of the hard work is done for me.  I simply have to decide on a layout and then I get to play around with all the matching and co-ordinating die cuts, stickers and buttons!  It is so easy!  Although, I do admit that it feels a bit like cheating, but then a layout is done.  Do you think it is cheating?

Supplies: Patterned Paper: October Afternoon - 9 to 5 Collection; Cardstock: Bazzills; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers and Doodlebug Alphas; Embellishments: October Afternoon - 9 to 5 Die Cuts, Stickers, and Buttons, Bakers Twine; Tools: Dymo Label Maker, Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher, and EK Success Edger Punch .

New Do

Woohoo! A layout done entirely with scraps! I had all this scraps leftover from a layout I did awhile ago and because they all co-ordinated and were decent sizes I kept them.  I sure am happy I did as they worked perfectly for this layout!

I didn't want to mat this photo in a traditional manner so I took our some tissue paper I had leftover from a gift I had wrapped and folded a bunch of layered sheets to act as a mat.  I then nested in some doilies and and some die cut flowers and tada!  Looks pretty good if I do say so myself!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: American Crafts - Dear Lizzy Enchanted Collection; Cardstock: Bazzills; Alphabet Stickers: American Craft Thickers and Large Chipboard Letters; Embellishments: American Crafts - Dear Lizzy Enchanted Layer Flowers and Ticket Stub, Doilies, Tissue Paper and Smashbook Post-it Note.

It Down To The Wire

It makes me laugh to post this layout now. I did this layout awhile ago and I just read my journaling again. Man was I naive. Optimistic but naive. Rollout day and I did managed to rollout as planned but it was only after putting over 160 hrs of overtime! Sometime I laugh at my rosey outlook, as I always have it, because I always seem to get burned by it. I guess that is why favorite saying is "If at first you don't succeed, don't be surprised"!

I bought this paper a long time ago with the plan of using it for me hubby and his fascination with computers but instead thought it worked great for this layout.  Because the paper had just a large graphic I kept the rest of the embellishments pretty minimal.

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Die Cuts With a View - Paper Pad; Cardstock: Bazzills; Alphabet Stickers: Doodlebug Alphas, American Crafts Thickers, and Making Memories Chipboard Alphas; Embellishments: Fussy cut geek saying from a co-ordinating paper, Jillibean Stickers.

My Garden

Well Hello! I know I have been a little hit and miss lately but life has definitely been hectic!  Between work and spring cleanup/cleanout I am finiding myself with little time these days.  Don't get me wrong, I still find some time to scrapbook but the time I used to spend photographing my layouts and doing posts seems to have disappeared.  But never fear, I sent some time side last night to do all my photographing and I have a slew of fun layouts coming your way.

This layout is about the one and only tomato I managed to grow last summer.  I have determined that I have not inherited my Grandmother's ability to grow fabulous tomatos (could be because I live in a different climate) but I was quite proud of the single tomato I did manage to grow.  Isn't it pretty?!  It sure was tastey too! There is nothing fancy about this layout; I used Comso Crickets Garden Variety Collection which I had in my stash and it came together really quickly.  I love it when I can do that!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Cosmo Cricket - Garden Variety Collection; Embellishments: Cosmo Cricket - Garden Variety Chipboard Pieces, My Mind's Eye Journaling Spot, and Drywall Tape.

Do I Have To?

And here it is. The last page of my Jamaica 2011 album.   What a pouty face I have.  It was a horrible and blurry photo but I decided I would use it anyway!  This was the first vacation I was truly sad to see end, hence the pout from the bus window.  I was not ready to go home.  Both the hubby and I were sick on this trip so we really only had the day we got there and the day before we left together where we both weren't sick.  It seemed like such a shame to have to go home.  I think if you are that sick that you can't leave the room for three days, your trip should be extended three days.  It's like sick days for your holidays!  Who do I have to talk to in order to get the ball rolling on that one?!

Ok how funny is it that the big sticker in the top right corner says AND?  The whole time I had it I would of swore it said SAND.  Even when I stuck it down I thought it said SAND.  And now that I see it on here I see that it says AND.  That is hillarious, so much so I had to make fun of myself!

I love sticker borders but I have a huge pet peeve that they do not reach edge to edge on a 12 x 12 sheet piece of paper.  Come on Manufacturers ... let's make stickers that go the distance!  To make mine stretch I actually cut them underneath where I have my glass bead (top border) and my date spot (bottom border) so that there was a small gap so that the ends reached the edges of my sheet.

I got this pretty acryllic butterfly from a dear scrappy friend for my birthday (Thanks Dana!) and I thought it worked perfectly on this layout.  I folded up the wings so that they would pop up and then just adhered the butterfly's body to layout.  I'm sure once this puppy makes it into an album he will be squished back down but until then it looks like he just landed there.

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Basic Grey - Indian Summer Collection; Cardstock:Bazzills ; Alphabet Stickers: Doodlebug Alphas; Embellishments: Glass Beads, Jillibean Border Stickers, Jamaica Stickers and Scenic Route - Beach Chipboards.

Jamaica 2011

I am almost done my 2011 trip to Jamaica pictures, just one more post after this one! I tend to take enough pictures on all my trips that I am known to fill a whole album per trip (the record is four albums for one trip but that was a trip of a lifetime on the other side of the world ... that's my excuse and I am sticking to it!). With every trip album comes a title page and this is my one for Jamaica.

My sweetheart husband found this map of the Caribbean showing Jamaica for me at the airport before we left the island. He is such a dear, keeping his eye out for neat items I can throw in my albums. I love this map and thought it would be so cute to put a heart around the island. Originally I was going to stamp and emboss a heart but my luck with embossing is not the best and seeing as I only had one map I didn't want to mess it up so I decided on stitching the heart instead. Isn't it cute!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: My Minds Eye - Stella Rose Collection; Cardstock:Kraft Cardstock; Embellishments: Embroidery Thread, Prima Flowers, and Travel Book Plates; Tools: EK Success Scalloped Edger Punch and Black Zip Pen.

Paradise Found

Don't know what it is about going somewhere new but I always have several photos of my destination from the plane. Is it just my excitement about the new adventure that awaits or is it that I have an itchy trigger finger that I can't hold back any longer?  I don't normally scrapbook them and if I do they are part of many photos and never the sole focus of a layout.  But when I was going through my photos to print I came across this photo and I really liked it!  The sun is peaking through the clouds spotlighting this beautiful island and I just thought it was beautiful.  So I printed it in 8x10 and did a whole layout about it.

I originally placed the title on the picture itself but found it got lost so I pulled our my trusty drywall tape and ran a piece across the bottom to place my title and embellishments on.  It seems to pull it all together perfectly.  If you don't have drywall tape head to your local hardware store or home depot and get some!  You will not regret it!  I love this stuff!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: My Minds Eye - Good Day Sunshine Collection; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts - Thickers; Embellishments: Basic Grey - Wander Fabric Flowers, Basic Grey - Wander Tabs, Brads, Drywall Tape and Prima Flowers - Flowers Sculpture Reflections Resin.