sketch support | easter

 

It’s one-page week at Sketch Support again. Head on over there to get a free copy of this week’s sketch & check out what the rest of the creative team came up with.

 

Supplies – patterned paper: Crate Paper, Jillibean Soup; embellishments: Jillibean Soup; ink: Tsukinenko

Variation #1: I changed the size of the 4x6 photo to so I could use my square Instagram photo.

Variation #2: I enlarged the journaling block area so I could include the bottom 3/4 of 3”x4” journaling tag from Jillibean Soup.

Variation #3: I didn’t use any hearts…I used a few different punch-outs from Jillibean layered with stickers to accent my photos.

sketch support | fun on the 4th

It’s one page week at Sketch Support. Head on over there to download a FREE copy of this great sketch & to see what the rest of the Creative Team did with it.

And here’s my take:

Supplies - patterned paper: Jillibean Soup (Watermelon Gazpacho & Blossom Soup); Banana Leaf paper: Creative Imaginations; stickers & alphabets: Jillibean Soup; pen: Slickwriter by American Crafts

Variation #1 - I swapped out the stars on the left for a bunch of labels & stickers. When I first saw this sketch, I thought, "cool, this will be perfect for my Fourth of July photo!". Then I went to the scrapbook store...So naturally I bought more than I needed, including a sheet of stickers from Jillibean Soup. I stepped WAY out of my comfort zone & had fun with lots of stickers here.

Variation #2 - I moved the title down onto the photo & to the right. I like the idea of the title on the top, but my papers were too busy, and I had a nice open spot on my photo asking for some word art.

Variation #3 - I skipped the journaling strips & used a label sticker instead. I had been contemplating this design change, and then I realized I didn't have anymore matching cardstock. Done. I like the label here :)

the perfect color

I got a bunch of fun pictures of my kids dyeing Easter eggs this year. They all got really into it. I told them to get good color that they needed to leave the eggs in the dye for a longer amount of time, so they kept checking on them until the color was just right :)

After we dyed them, we let them dry, and then we used a spin-art contraption to get them to look tie-dyed. I didn’t get any pictures of that because it was a bit messier & I didn’t want any more dye on me (or my camera!) than possible.

To scrap my photos I used this one-page sketch from Sketch Support. As soon as I saw the sketch I knew I wanted to use it right away, and I only had to wait to get a few fun photos to use for it.

The original sketch has a cloud & sun in this upper area where I have butterflies, etc. I had a couple of cloud die-cuts from my April GT kit, so I was hoping I could make something work…I think I did!

You can see I popped up my word stickers too. They wouldn’t stick well to the butterfly or the background, so this was my easy alternative, plus it gives a little more dimension to the cluster.

I used my scallop edge-punch for the border on the photos here. I’ve found that if you trim your paper to 3/4” then you can punch it & it becomes 1/2”.  The word stickers are from Jillibean Soup’s Blossom Soup line (along with the star background paper).

thanksgiving

I realized as I sat down to scrap this that although I took a decent amount of pictures, I took most of them of Abbie! Whoops! Fortunately there were a few of other people too
I used another Allison Davis sketch (volume 6) for this layout. I stayed pretty true to her original sketch, except I made the title block larger so I could fit my title into it. “Thanksgiving” is a L O N G word, so I stacked it to make it fit, and I left the dots off the “i" so I could squish it better! Oh well!

The chipboard accents are all Basic Grey Pyrus (like all the paper). It came with three “phrase” accents as well: So Happy, So Blessed, & So Thankful. I didn’t like how the pre-made ones looked (it needed a third “white paper” spot to balance out IMO), so I just wrote those words on paper instead.

And, for the first time ever, I drew my own journaling lines! I’ve seen it a ton. I lined my ruler up on the left hand side so I could space the lines sort of evenly: I started each line at 3/8” intervals & just drew. I have to say, I’m pretty pleased with the result!

Happy Thanksgiving

We have been blessed beyond measure.

(photo taken Thanksgiving 2009)

Happy Halloween!

We had such an awesome Halloween this year!

Abbie was a bumble bee

Olivia was an 80’s girl

And Brandon was “a killer”…I’m so proud! (insert sarcasm)

 

Our neighbors came over around three & we carved our pumpkins.

After we had dinner together, the dads took the kids trick or treating while Lori & I passed out our candy..and we were “the” stop: three house’s worth of candy at one place! We had a bonfire out front & spent the evening chit-chatting before the kids came back with their loot.

The only downside to the evening was that we couldn’t get the TV out front, so we had to come in to keep checking on the score (Giants 4, Rangers 0).

boo!

Okay, really it says "spooky," but it's my blog so I'll title how I want ;-)

Last year I got a great deal on Cosmo Cricket's Halloween line at Peachy Cheap. I got ribbons, blackboard, cardstock stickers, rub-ons, and stamps for like $15! I knew when I got it wanted to make something (not a scrapbook page), so I stashed it away (I got it in October).

Fast forward to this summer, and the Haunted papers were like 40% at Two Peas. So I bought a sheet of each pattern & again stashed it away, figuring I didn't need to stress until September. Then all of a sudden it was the END of September, I hadn't even thought of decoratings yet! So last weekend I grabbed Olivia & Abbie and ran over to Michaels to pick up some chipboard (oh, I'm sorry, they call it paper mache...whatever) letters. And they didn't have ANY! What?! Last year they did. Maybe I'm blind (my optometrist wouldn't disagree!). So rather than keep searching, I shoved the girls back in the car & ran over ot Joann's. Fortunately they still carry them...and they were on sale for a buck off! Woo-hoo!

The first thing I did was paint the sides & back of each letter black. Then I traced each letter on to the patterned paper I wanted. Really, I should've done the tracing first so I wouldn't have to stress about getting black on the paper, but oh well! The paint was dry, it was just me stressing :)

After the paper was cut out, I modge-podged the paper to the front of each letter. Sometimes my tracing/cutting wasn't super great, but that's okay! That's what sandpaper & black paint are for: See, once the modge-podge is dry, I sanded the edge of it down (if the paper overlapped). Then I took the black paint & ran it over the edges of the entire letter. No big deal.

I let each letter dry at this point (aka, I took a shower!). Then I came out & started playing with the embellisments. I knew I wanted to tie ribbon on the P (above), and I somehow wanted to use the bat blackboard (above as well). The black O was a bit blah, so I used a skeleton rub-on in the corner. I added other rub-ons to other letters as well. Then I applied one coat of modge podge on top of each letter (and rub-on) to seal the deal. This time I was smart too: I didn't put any on the bottom so it won't stick to my shelf! (Yes, this happened with my Christmas letters last year!)

After the modge podge was dry, I started playing with the blackboard cut-outs & leftover scraps of paper. I added a cat face rub-on to the bat, some distressed stickles to the black to add some bling, etc. I had a LOT of fun playing around! (And I made a haunted house too, I'll share it later.)

I'm so happy with how it turned out! The only disappointment is that the P won't stand on it's own. David offered to make some sort of stand, but I found that leaning them against the wall works too (there's glass on the top of this chest that is about 3/4" out from the wall, so there's a nice little spot for the letters to fit).

party in the usa

Not anything too fancy for my 4th of July layout this year, oh well...sometimes it's nice to have something simple :)

flashback friday...the fourth

My Fourth of July layout from 2006.

My friend Holly had everyone over to her house for a day in the pool, followed by fireworks in the cul de sac. Olivia was just over two months old; one of my favorite photos is the one on the top center of the right hand page (with my sister). The photo to the right of that was taken during the fireworks...and yes, Brandon is asleep! He was about 16 months old, and the guys were setting fireworks off about 20 feet from us!

All Aboard!

Last December we got to go on the Polar Express at the California Railroad Museum in Sacramento. My mom treated us (minus Abbie who was too young) to a fun evening. Brandon & Olivia were thrilled beyond words to get to take the train to the North Pole!



Now that it's summer I'm finally using my December kit from Green Tangerines! I was inspired by a layout I saw on the American Crafts blog back in December. I liked how she layered all the papers, and did the strip of photos. Perfect for this! Especially because I had about five more I could've easily used, but I didn't want a two-page layout.

I cut a 1/2" strip of the striped paper, and a 7/8" strip of the red floral/snowflake (I didn't want it to be fully 2x the height of the striped). The postage label is a sticker strip from Collage Press. All were in my kit.

I cut the snowflake for a glitter die-cut sheet of paper from K I Memories (which is why the ends of the snowflake are kind of wonky!). The center is a "period" from some red glitter Thickers I had from a previous kit. It adds just a little something to the center of each snowflake.

The red letter stickers are from Cosmo Cricket. I like how they're just a bit bigger than many of the other mini alpha stickers I have. I painted the white fabric thickers that came in my kit. It was so easy! I used some brown acrylic paint I had sitting around & did one quick coat. One of the "a" stickers is a bit darker because I tried to use a stamp pad to do it first...I don't recommend that. But I do recommend painting them! I knew it could be done on the foam letters so I though I'd give it a whirl.

Christmas...in June :)

I finally got around to scrapping my Christmas pictures last week. I used my December Green Tangerine's kit and a sketch from Allison Davis' sketch book volume 5.

I apologize for the not-so-great photo. For some reason I just can't get my white layouts to photograph nicely. They always seem to wash out (if I'm in the sun) or turn blue (in the shade, which is where I took this). I did some adjustments in Adobe Camera Raw that did warm it up a bit, but...oh well.

There are a few spots on her sketch that call for "circles" so I used some buttons from my stash. These are Making Memories buttons that I bought in just about every color I could...in 2002 :)  I tied them with some fun silver string from my kit.

Journaling strips, of course. I've found the trick (for me) is to pre-journal on a sheet of lined notepad. I draw a line down the edge to mark the width. Then I don't have to deal with erasing & having my original words show thru when I don't trace perfectly.

And lastly, all the different papers together. This seems to be my new "thing": using lots of patterned paper like this.

something to be thankful for!

It's been a while since I've posted a layout :)

Between my non-stop photo madness during the week in my life and life in general, scrapbooking sometimes gets put on the back burner. Fortunately, last Sunday I had some free moments, thanks to Beauty & the Beast :)  It just took a few days to share...I was being lazy & didn't feel like changing lenses on my camera so I used my point & shoot. Which is a GREAT camera, but I couldn't get enough light without the flash. At least I got a photo finally!

I completed this layout of Easter using a sketch from Allison Davis' sketch book #4. The paper & woolies are from Basic Grey's Kioshi line. I think it's a very soft & springy line. I got a few extra sheets to cover some paper mache' letters at some point too.

I love how there's just a touch of bling in the woolie dragonfly. I used some thickers I had in my stash from the December GT kit.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do for my journaling. The sketch does show strips of paper here, but I couldn't figure out what color to do. Then I remembered how Kristen has done a lot with tone on tone journaling strips, & it always looks great!

Countdown to Christmas, pt 2

I know it's over 11 months away :)

This is my first "Christmas" layout that I've done for 2009, and my first with my new December kit from Green Tangerines.

I knew how I wanted my layout to look before I even took my first picture. I didn't get a picture every day (some activities were just watching movies), but I tried. And I knew I wanted some patterened paper mixed in, so I didn't stress too much! Plus, I got more than one cute picture on some days.

thanksgiving day

Now that I've picked up my December kit club box, it's time to dig in & get to work on my Oct/Nov kit! Actually, I'd love to be playing with my December goodies, but I haven't printed those photos yet!

My layout is similar to Brenda's Thanksgiving; I knew I wanted orange cardstock for the background, and the deeper colored one worked better with the orange tops my kids had on. Originally I was going to use a fun light orange patterned paper for my accents, but it just wasn't working. And the gold made it "pop" more to me. I'd like to think that great minds think alike, even if I had seen her layout before I started!

Countdown to Christmas, pt 1

I've mentioned my Advent Calendar already. I'm trying to take a picture of what we're doing each day so I can scrap it later. I'm going to have to go back & take pics of some of the things I don't have a picture of.

I'd like to share what we've been up to for the first half of the month:

1: Find Elfie & tell her what you'd like for Christmas

2-Pick out a Christmas movie, snuggle under a blanket, & watch it together

(no picture yet; they watched Frosty the Snowman)

3-Read "Twas the Night before Christmas"

4-Look at the ornaments on the Christmas tree, then have some hot chocolate.

**Disclaimer: I hadn't actually decorated the tree yet at this point, so we changed what it said to "Put the ornaments on the tree". It's so nice to have children who can't read!

5-Make a yummy Christmas cake.

6-Sing some Christmas carols--loudly!

7-Let's make a gingerbread house!

8-Roast marshmallows in the fireplace. Yummy!

9-Drive around & look at Christmas lights in your pajamas--snuggle up with your favorite blanket.

10-Have some Christmas candy! Enjoy!

11-Watch "The Santa Clause" & laugh together. Have some popcorn too!

12-Make Christmas popcorn. (This was supposed to be popcorn balls. However, I ended a LOT busier than intended so we were going to put Christmas sprinkles in popcorn. But life happened & we couldn't. Hats off to my mom for doing it for us while babysitting!)

13-Read Christmas stories together. (Note to self: buy more Christmas books!)

14-Make some Christmas cookies.