Scrappy Time

OMG, a post not including a Midweek Mojo! So weird...

Tonight I finished my "fall-ish" ATC's for a swap with some other Canadian/US scrappy friends. I must have changed my mind about a million times. Here is what I finally ended up with:

The chevron background and the fussy cut images are all from a stack of Teresa Collins paper I recently found on a visit to Winners. This is also my first time using twine (American Crafts) on something (yes, I am so late on getting on this bandwagon). The twine was a find at Winners as well (I am finding more and more scrappy stuff there...I even found a Cricut cartridge for $19.99 the other day!).

I also got a layout done tonight. The only paper line used was Bo Bunny's Alora (including the stickers and rub-ons).

These are pictures for Alexis' scrapbook so that she sees later on who we shared our cabin with for Labor Day weekend. This was a simple layout (as was intended) as I just wanted a simple collage of the overall weekend. Mission accomplished!

Go Big!

The Paper Girls Challenge Blog put up a challenge called "Go Big" which was about scrapping any picture sized at 5x7 or more. I chose to look through some of the 8x10 pictures from my wedding nearly 5 years ago (will I ever get that album done?). I used several different papers from different companies and like how it all came together:

The background paper was Quick Quotes paper (cherry truffle). I then used some American Crafts POW! glitter paper in caramel to outline the top and bottom of the picture. The 2 sayings were from Bo Bunny's Apple Cider line and Simple Stories Documented line. They all worked so cohesively that I am extremely pleased with the final result. The title was done using Making Memories glitter alphas in red. This picture is a personal favorite of mine because it captured my husband kissing my forehead which is pretty much something he does on a daily basis. I love it!

I continued being productive tonight as I got 2 more layouts done. They are both from Labor Day weekend. The first one is of Erica learning to roll down a hill (which she absolutely loved doing which you can tell by her expression). I used Moxxie paper (Easter green/orange) for the background, Thickers for the title and Bo Bunny Hello Sunshine for the journaling corner. The other layout is with the bench and butterfly wings again, but this time with me in the pictures with Erica (I am so rarely in pictures because I am the one usually taking them). I used the DCWV Glam Gal stack again so that I could pair this page with the previous one I did (see here).

I also worked on my ATCs tonight (8 of the 16 are done). I will post a picture as soon as they are all completed. Time to get some sleep as it was a BUSY day today (did I mention that the grand opening of Michaels in our area was today? I stood in line for an hour with Alexis to get some stuff...phew!).

I Am Perfectly Pearl!

I was able to get 2 layouts done this evening. The first one was for the tenth sketch in the pearl series for Scrapbook Steals. Here is what I came up with, based on Pearl #10:

I love working with a black background and for this one I had some B&W pictures just waiting to be scrapped. I added an additional photo to the layout, but kept with most of the style set by the sketch. I am not a fan of round elements, so I used my 1" square punch and gave the round part some more angles (much more my esthetic). I really like how the black allowed all the color from my papers to pop. The paper squares and strips are all from Doodlebug's Hello Spring line and the flower and butterflies are once again from the DCWV Glam Gal papers. I also used Thickers for the title and find they filled the "white" space well and kept the black from being too dark. My littlest girl has only been crawling for a few weeks now. These are pictures from when it was still relatively new for her to get around. She just loves motoring everywhere!

My second layout of the night is of my oldest girl. The paper and all the embellishments are from My Mind's Eye (Indie Chic - nutmeg and ginger). In fact, the embellishments and journaling card were all things I won for one of the previous Mojos by Scrapbook Steals. I have come full circle!

This was such a fun day. She was all smiles! Face-painting, a fairy wreath and ice cream? What more could a little girl ask for?!

Now, I have to mention that I was having a conversation with one of my scrappy friends about something she saw on tv last night for the 9-11 stories. She had seen a story about a family where the mother was one of the ones lost on that awful day and the father was left to care for two 18 month-old girls. The story was about how he explained that he used to make fun of his wife for always taking pictures of EVERYTHING. She was a fan of the day-to-day stuff and documented her entire pregnancy as well as all the daily things the babies did once they were born. She had even been taking pictures of their messy faces at breakfast on that final day of her life. It turns out that the father decided to take up where she left off...This is why I scrap...I want my girls to have lots of memories documented for when they are older and I am not around to tell the stories (or can't remember the details any longer). I want them to see that even on a regular day, they were happy and loved. It's not about all the "special occasions"...those are easy to focus on...it's the days when my oldest got her first pedicure, my youngest was having fun crawling around and then managed to get stuck...it's the messy faces while trying to eat on their own for the first time...it's the quiet moments when I wonder what they are thinking...it's the emotions, the faces and the crazy expressions on their faces that make them who they are as individuals. It's all of those things. It's their story and it's where they came from and who they are and will be...I love this hobby!

Pearl #9 and a bonus...

Last night was my regular Friday night out with my Scrappy Sistas and we were celebrating the birthday of one of our own. All in all, a good night with lots of laughs. I managed to get 2 layouts done which was quite a feat what with all the chit-chatting, dinner running a bit late and just carrying on. One of the layouts was for the Mojo this week at Scrapbook Steals (Pearl #9b, as there were 2 sketches this week). I love the pictures I used on this one and totally played up the vibrant colors of Alexis' surroundings. Here is my take on the sketch (turned sideways and changed a little bit):

Unfortunately this week I did not take note of the papers I used (and some have been in my stash for some time). I can tell you that the 2 papers used to mat the pictures were from the Mango Frost papers by DCWV, but that's about all I can name. I love how bright and happy this turned out. A great sketch to work with!

Here is another layout I did from Labor Day Weekend when we were in the Lake George area in NY. My older daughter, Erica, loves the water and proceeded to "catch rocks" while in it. She made me laugh when I asked her if she was catching them and she said, "Yeah!". She brings a smile to my lips on a daily basis with her enthusiasm. 

For this layout I used papers from Kaisercraft (the Rock Pool collection). I love the more muted colors...they just have a warm natural feel to them. Plus, there are lots of great little cards with sayings that add nice embellishment to the pages. The background papers are from My Mind's Eye (Kraft Funday line) which were the perfect backdrop.

I am very current with these layouts because the pictures are from this past week. Although...I should probably get back to some of the baby pictures for Erica from a few years ago....no pressure!

My Little Butterfly...

Here is a layout I did last night that I am quite proud of. For the long weekend we went to the Lake George area in NY and I ended up with lots of great pics, but there was just something about this one of my oldest daughter standing on a bench with a big butterfly piece on it. She has a huge grin on her face and the butterfly is in her favorite color: purple! I happened to stumble upon a great find the night before. I bought several stacks of patterned paper at Winners. The papers used for this layout were from the DCWV stack Glam Gal. I love the background paper with the hearts and words on it. It was the perfect backdrop for my picture. I decided to cut the picture so that anything distracting was removed and allowed the butterfly piece to really be the focal point. I matted the picture with another sheet from the same stack as well as the long vertical purple piece. All the butterflies were from another page as well and I did some "fussy cutting" and layering to give them some dimension. Of course, I needed to use my metallic pen to add the "flying marks" for the butterflies (I love that effect...so simple, but a nice detail). So here is my finished product:

Can I just say I LOVE this layout?! The colors, the subject...it's just a nice marriage of everything (and trust me, I am not always a fan of my own work). Now I need to find a way that will allow the dimension of the butterflies to show...