In the Church Garden

I'm loving the look of Doillies right now.  I picked up a couple of different sized ones at the local dollar store.  It's amazing what you kind find in there when you have 45 minutes to kill while waiting for an appointment!  I took one of the dollies and cut off the left side and tucked it under the photo on the right and then used it to put some word stickers one ... very pretty!  I then took the piece I cut off and placed it under the under the phtoo on the left so that it was just peaking out.  It kind of adds that girlie touch to the layout don't you think?

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Echo Park - For the Record Collection; Cardstock: Bazzills; Alphabet Stickers: Echo Park - For the Record Alphs, American Crafts Thickers, and Cosmo Cricket - Tiny Type; Embellishments: ;Echo Park - For the Record Element Stickers, Doillie, and  American Crafts Journalling Spot.

Star Struck

Honeycombs appear to be this years hot trend. Many manufacturers have added honeycomb accents to their new collections. I found this doosie of a background paper in my existing stash and would you look at that ... honeycombs! I love it when I can find a trend in my existing stash!  I took out my trusty little scissors and fussy cut around the honeycombs to create my own background paper!

Like my little star fish on my title?  I love them!  I found them at Michaels in the fake flower / seashell section.  It is amazing where you will find the cutest embellishments!  What's the oddest place you have found an embellishment?  I am always curious where other people find embellishments.  Me?  The wierdest place I have found an embellishment is probably the hardware store ... see my last post about Drywall Tape!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Basic Grey - Lemonade Collection, My Minds Eye - Bloom and Grow Collection; Cardstock: Bazzills; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts - Thickers; Embellishments: Shells, Brads, Ribbon, Tattered Angels Beach Journal Card; Inks: Colorbox Chalk Ink.

1 Week Later

Its been a couple of long weeks for me at work lately which means that I haven't had many opportunities to scrap. I have missed it! Last night a couple of us girls got together for a crop and it was long over due. I didn't get much done. In fact, I don't think I got anything done! I got two double page layouts half way done but I just wasn't feeling the mojo to finish them. I figure it was mainly because it had been a while since I called on the mojo and apparently I was getting a busy signal!

I wanted a big number 1 on the layout but I did not have one.  So I cut my own out of cardstock and then used my Cuttlebug and the Swiss Dots Embossing folder to add some dimension to it.  I then took some ink and lightly brushed the raised parts and edges to make it it really pop.

Supplies: Patterned Paper: My Mind's Eye - Alphabet Soup Collection; Cardstock: Bazzills; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers; Embellishments: Basic Grey Dollie Ribbon, American Crafts Just Write Journalling Card, Jillibean Journalling Spot, Pink Paislee House of Three Soiree Stickers; Inks: Colorbox; Tools: Cuttlebug and Swiss Dots Embossing Folder.

Camp Visitor

We love to camp because we feel like it's our chance to get back to nature. It's not very often that we come face to face with nature! This little guy wondered right into our site and didn't care if we were there or not. Perfect for a picture snapper like me!

I chose this paper line by October Afternoon just because of the chipboard deer that came with the collection and the background paper. Do you ever do that?

Supplies: Patterned Paper: October Afternoon - Campfire Collection, Basic Grey - Life of the Party Collection; Alphabet Stickers: American Crefts Thickers; Embellishments: October Afternoon - Campfire Chipboard Elements and My Mind's Eye - Stella Rose Label Stickers; Inks: Colorbox Inks; Sketch: ; Tools: .

Happy Hello

On a recent camping trip with friends, a fellow camper who came with friends of ours had a miniature schnauzer who looked almost identical to Angus except that she was girl. We kept joking that after 8 years of hard searching Angus finally found himself a girlfriend of the same breed ... and younger to boot!   The story behind this layout was about how she had a fit every time Angus had his cone (from his surgery) on.  She had never saw one before and apparently thought it was hurting him! 

I had originally cut this piece of twine to wrap around a photo but as it sat waiting in a little pile for me to use it, I found that it worked perfectly as the jumbled mess.  After all, the two dogs just kept going around in circles "saying hello" to each other, I thought it was perfect!  I just stuck my stickers right over top of it, which holds it in place and tada! I love it when things come together like that!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: October Afternoon - Campfire Collection and Basic Grey - Life of the Party Collection; Cardstock: Bazzills; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers; Embellishments: Twine, Brads, Basic Grey - Life of the Party Decorative Clips, Authentique - Blissful Noteables; Tools: Creative Memories - Corner Rounder.

Fireban

Club CK had their annual Summer Camp this past week and there was all kinds of neat activities and challenges going on. Unfortunately, I did not finish the challenges in time to submit for the prizes but I finished them non the less! This layout I did is actually for two challenges ... I love it when I can multitask!

On of the challenges was to use spray inks or paint.  Spray Ink and me do not get along!  I'm not sure why?  It's not like I don't try but for some reason they don't like to co-operate.  It could be too that I am too much of a perfectionist for spray inks and I to get along.  Paint on the other hand is more controllable, hence why we get along!  I found that my embellishments were lost in all the patterned paper so I used the paint to create backdrop for them and hence draw more attention to them.

The second challenge was to use woodgrains on a layout.  I used them in 3 places!  Can you see them?  First one is the matting for my photos, the second is the title, and third is the woodgrain sticky back canvas ribbon.  Pretty sneaky eh! 

Supplies: Patterned Paper: GCD Studios - The Great Outdoors Collection; Alphabet Stickers: Jolees; Embellishments: GCD Studios - The Great Outdoors Chipboard Elements, Buttons, Twine, Studio Callico - Sticky Back Canvas, and Glass Beads; Inks: Colorbox Chalk Ink, Distress Crackle Paint; Sketch: Sketches for Scrapbooking volume 5; Tools: Typewriter.

Now Known As Gopher Mountain

This layout is based on a sketch from one of my Sketches for Scrapbooking books. It originally was a two page sketch that I manipulated into a one page layout. Two page sketches, if you look at it, can actually be used as a single page design as well. You can play with the scale a bit and fit both pages on one page or you can do what I did and pick one page of a two page layout to use as a single page layout.

Mixed lettering is a great trend that allows you to use up more of your left over letter stickers and gives a great graphic look to the title. I also used some white stitching rub-ons underneath the title which I think ties it all together perfectly!

And isn't that Chipmunk from the Cricut Create a Critter cartridge the absolute cutest!  I was so excited that I finally got to use this cartridge.  I've had it for a little while but hadn't found a layout I wanted to use it on until this one.  I might have to find more layouts to do with little critters so I can play more!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: GCD Studios - The Great Outdoors Collection; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers, October Afternoon Mini Market Stickers, and Basic Grey Alpha Stickers ; Embellishments: Stitching Rub-0ns, Reminisce Camping Stickers, Paper Leaf ; Sketch: Sketches for Scrapbooking Volume 4 ; Tools: Cricut and Create a Critter Cartridge.

Fountain of Fun

First off sorry about the crummy pictures. We've been socked in by rain for the last week so trying to find good lighting in my house is imposible. 

I'll admit that I am not loving this layout right now.  This collection from Crate Paper is so pretty and the border strip paper was perfect.  I fussy cut a couple of the borders out and then layered them on left.  I pop dotted the top one for some demension.  I think the reason I don't like it, is it has to do with the title block ... to me it just looks out of place.  How would you change it?

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Crate Paper - Restoration Collection; Cardstock: Bazzils; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers and Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type; Embellishments: Crate Paper - Restoration Border Strip paper, Chipboard Pieces from my Stash, and Flower Soft.

The Groom's Dudes

Have you ever used a Dymo Embossing Label Maker to do your journalling on your layouts?  If not, you have to try it!  I got mine at Michael's and I absolutely love it!  You can get the labels in several different colors and it makes journalling a snap.  I especially love it on guy layouts like this one.  Doesn't it give a more maculine look.  My pretty pinting sure doesn't!  Go ahead and give it a try ... I'm sure you will love it too!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Crate Paper - Restoration ; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers; Embellishments: K & Company Borders, Glossy Accents ;  Tools: Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher, Dymo Embossing Label Maker.

Just Us Girls

I can proudly say that everything used on this layout was from my stash!  I am trying really hard to use up some up my stash I have been hoarding for years.  There's a lot ... honestly!  When I buy a new paper that I love I always keep it for the perfect project, but then that perfect project doesn't happen and my stash continues to grow.  Sure it's nice when you are working on a layout to have lots of choices but when it takes you more time to pick your supplies than it does to do the layout ... there is a problem!  So my mid New Years resolution is to try to use what I have.  We'll see how well I do!

Supplies: Basic Grey - Lemonade; Embellishments: Me & My Big Ideas - Just Us Girls Title, Ribbon, Embroidery Floss and Buttons.

Friends

This is a layout about my favorite Aunt and my husband.  They always seem to have a great time every time they get together and my brother's wedding was no exception!

I was so excited when I was planning this layout because my Aunt's dress matched Dear Lizzy Enchanted papers perfectly and I was dying to use them on a layout for quite some time. Not very often do I get to use purple on a layout but when I do, I go for broke!

Father & Son

This is another layout I did at my last crop.  In fact, it was the first layout I did.  At the crop we got a few goodies and in those goodies was a stip of fabric flower ribbon.  I was so inpsired by this ribbon and that is why this layout came together so quickly for me.  I cut one of the flowers off the ribbon and then adhered it to the left of my layout.  It works perfectly!  I think using the whole strip would of been way to much for this layout about my Dad and Brother but I think one flower is ok!

2 Page Sketch Day

For all the details on these two projects, please go to Sketch Support where you will see lots of photos and all the necessary info to recreate them. Please feel free to leave me a comment as I love reading what you have to say and if you like my work why not follow me too! Have a great weekend!

The Great Outdoors

Angus loves camping in the winter because when no one else is in the campground he can go off leash. It's like heaven to him!

I used Rub-ons on this layout.  I haven't used Rub-ons in a quite awhile.  Guess it's like style ... one minute you are all over a new style and the next minute you are onto the next.  I find scrapbooking is a lot like that.  Rub-ons were huge a little while back and I was big into them.  Now not so much but I still have a lot in my stash and I have been trying to use up my stash.  I wanted more dimension to the Rub-ons, so I added some glitter glue and glass beads to snow flake Rub-ons.  Seems to bring them a little more into "style".  How do you refresh some of your old products?

Capitolio

I struggled a bit with this layout because the letters I wanted to use for the title  were missing the T.  I tried to find something else but I kept coming back to this set that I really wanted to use.  After a while I decided to go with some thing else so I packed up this letters and as I was putting them away, I noticed I could make the T out of another letter.  Because I was holding the package upside down, J looked like it could easily be altered to look like a T.  I was so happy about it!  Can you tell the T used to be a J?

Photogs

The nicest thing about travelling in a large group is that there ends up being more photos of me because there is always someone else there taking pictures too! It's so nice. I guess that just means that I need to hand off my camera more often when it's just me and Steve!

I love the film strip ribbon from Tim Holtz! It's so cool and works great on so many different layouts. I got the bright idea that I wanted the film strip to be rolled up on one end but it didn't want to cooperate for me. Because the ribbon is plastic it didn't want to stay put with out me holding it in place while the adhesive dried. So even thought it didn't quite work out the way I want (I had to cave and use a brad to hold the end of it) I still really like the look.

Playing In The Mud

I think one of my favorite things I did in Cuba was take a Jeep tour. It was so much fun and we got to see much of the Matanzas countryside and how the locals live. I would recommend it to anyone who goes to Cuba to take this tour!

I really wanted to create mud puddles on may page as most of the photos were of us driving through the mud so I used Tim Holtz' crackle paint and created a bunch of really think blobs so that I would get maximum crackage!  Looks like real mud, I think.

I also created this really cool rugged flower, which was almost easy to make.  I say almost because I used the wrong type of adhesive and struggled a lot with getting it to stay together.  I am going to attempt another one tonight with a different type of adhesive so check back tomorrow and I might have a tutorial on how to make it!

Scuba Lunch Break

If there is one thing I hate more than blurry photos is dark photos.  I tried everything in my photoshop trick bag to get these photos to brighten up and they did improve drastically but as you can see they are still kind of dark.  I guess this is what you get when you allow some else to take the photos, as I was not there!  At something is better than nothing and I decided to scrapbook them anyway.

Festive

Tradition is a big thing in my family, especially when it comes to Christmas. I wanted to document that. Every year we go over to my parents place to help them decorate their Christmas tree for Christmas. To me this always signals the start of the Christmas season for me.

Dog Gone Christmas

I love the curve on this layout, so much so that I had to emphasize it.  I did some stitching along the one edge and then wrote my journalling over top of it.