M & MMM

Another camping season has come and gone and that means another round of camping layouts for your viewing pleasure.

I thought I was being quite sneaky with my title!  Both of my friend's cute kiddos names start with M, so M & M seemed appropriate but by adding a couple more Ms on the second one it made the appropriate S'mores noise MMMMM!  Pretty sneaky no?!  I added Glossy Accents to the letters to make them pop better.

Like my border strip?  EK Success makes these border punches that make 3D flowers that are really cool.  When I was looking for a border punch to use on this layout I looked at this punch and thought it would look cool as flames!  Sometimes you just have to look at something in a different light to see a different use.

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Bo Bunny - Camp-A-Lot Collection; Cardstock: Bazzills; Alphabet Stickers: Basic Grey - Alphs; Embellishments: Bo Bunny - Camp-A-Lot Charms, GCD Studios - Camping, 7 Gypsies 97% Complete; Tools: EK Success 3D Flower Punch.

Now That's One Sweet Birthday Gift

This is the best series of birthday photos I have ever seen!  My brother bought his wife a new Jeep for her birthday and we got to be there when he surprised her with it!  It was the best reaction I have ever seen!  I won't lie, there was colourful language and maybe some tears but all in all she was so excited!

Coordinating die cuts make pulling a completed look together super easy!  Simply layering them in clusters gives it a finished look.  Plus it saves me from hunting through my stash of mismatched stuff to find items to embellish with.  Although I will admit that I still do that ... case in point the Happy Life, Happy Wife sticker ... it was just too perfect for this layout not to use!

I couldn't resist adding Steph's most popular saying of the day to the layout too!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Basic Grey - What's Up Collection; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers and October Afternoon Mini Market Alphas; Embellishments: Basic Grey - What's Up Die Cuts, My Minds Eye Journalling Spot, Jillibean Sayings, and Washi Tape.

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.

January

First off, I apologize for the graininess of the photo, with fall in full swing and winter quick on it's heels finding great light is a hard thing to do in my house. I keep using this as an excuse with the hubby to buy a new camera but so far he's not buying it!

This layout is the first page in our second Jamaica album.  I always like to do title pages because a) it gives overall details of the trip and b) most of my travel layouts tend to be two pagers cause I take so many photos!  This time I used a calendar in the background to show the dates we were in Jamaica which I thought was a neat idea.  I also added a postcard that had a map of the island with an arrow pointing to where we stayed.  And for the first time I did a trip summary with the Moments to Remember journalling spot.  I thought this was pretty cool and might star doing it on more of my title pages!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Scrap Pieces of Paper; Cardstock: Bazzills; Alphabet Stickers: Basic Grey Alphas; Embellishments: Creative Memories Calendar Kit Elelments, October Afternoon Seaside Hexagons, and Washi Tape.

A Pintrest Vacation

This year I had planned a week off in July but then Steve got a new job so he couldn't join me.  So instead of cancelling my vacation, I decided to spend my week doing some Pintrest projects I had planned on doing for some time!  I was so excited!  I visited a local thrift shop and picked up some goodies to help me out and then hit up Home Depot to buy loads of spray paint (caution:  buying spray paint may lead to finding items all over the house you can paint!).

My first project was a rusty old rake that I removed the handle off of, spray painted, and hung upside down in my closet to act as a necklace/scarf/belt rack. Cost = $2 for the rake and the medallion was from my scrapbook stash. Next project was my cake stand which was a candle stick, platter, and string of beads all glued together and then spray painted ... cute non? Cost = $4 for the patter, candle stick and beads. After that was my key rack! An old frame I spray painted with scrapbook paper behind it and some hooks screwed in and it now hangs in my laundry room. Cost = $1.50 for frame and hooks, the paper I already had in my stash.

And as I cautioned above, once I started spray painting I couldn't stop.  My scrapbook room had a tiered basket system that was black and an old gum ball machine that was green that now co-ordinate beautifully!  These two projects cost me nothing as I already had the spray paint.

And finally, the piece de resistance ... my gallery wall.  I have wanted to do this for years and finally found the time needed to do it.  I bought a whole bunch of mix and matched frames at the thrift store and then spray painted one of three colours (off white, blue, and yellow).  I backed some of the frames with a favorite scrapbook paper collection from Echo Park.  It was so much fun picking which photos I wanted to use and where to place them (I still have one frame to fill cause they printed the photo in the wrong orientation).  You will notice a couple of frames have different items it.  One has our family initial, another our first house key, and another with our lucky number.  I also used two frames to try and disguise the thermostat and doorbell!  So far everyone who has seen it loves it and I can't wait to start switching out photos when some new ones come along.  This project cost me about $74 for all the frames, scrapbook paper, and photos. Not bad if I do say so myself.

So all in all I spent $108.57 on all my projects and the spray paint to do them.  Not bad really!  Originally I priced out the gallery wall using all Ikea frames it was going to cast almost $300!  So I figured I saved myself almost $200, got to do several more projects because of my thriftiness and also got to have a lot of fun!  I am already trying find a way to take another week off work so that I can do some more projects!