Scrap Layering

Another "Supplies on Hand" layout. This one is a spin off of Shimelle's scrap layering technique. I also used my favorite jellyfish stamp to make some patterned paper. And just to mix and match techniques even more, I used up a bunch of untouched letter J's to make a border.The picture itself is blurry, but I just loved the look of the lit up jellyfish and how excited my daughter was.

Supplies on Hand - Alphabets

I am taking May Flaum's new class called Supplies on Hand!I love classes like this because I don't have to spend any money on supplies -- it is all about learning new ways to use up my existing stash. The first day's lesson was all about Alphabets. If you are an Alpha hoarder like me, I highly suggest signing up for this class! I have already learned so many new tricks for what to do with those random X's and K's!

For this layout, I did something pretty simple. I didn't have enough of the same font stickers for the title so I used two different fonts in two shades of pink.

 My little peanut discovered the markers in my scraproom and her favorite thing to do is take the caps on and off. Oh, and draw all over my white Ikea chair!! That is going to be a page in itself. What can you do - the girl got my crafty gene!

She also has this other adorable thing she does. Whenever someone goes into a room and closes the door (usually the bathroom) she gets down on the floor and tries to peek under the door! It is hysterical to watch and so super cute.

Five a month... more or less

One of my goals for 2014 was to make sure that I was posting at least 5 projects a month. I felt like that was a reasonable amount without putting too much pressure on myself. Some months have been easier than others. Since tomorrow is National Scrapbooking Day I feel like I should make May a very productive month.

To kick of the month, here is a layout I did comparing my daughter at 6 months vs. 18 months. Both sets of photos were taken on our Florida vacation and they all involve her sleeping! This is the first time I've done a past/present layout. It is awesome to see the differences. The blue star paper is one of my all time favorite pieces of paper. I think it was from DCWV Garden Stack.

Baby Girl Scrapbook

For the past few months, I have been working on a top secret surprise for one of my best friends. She is expecting a baby girl in April and I wanted to do something very special for her. She is an amazing photographer, but she doesn't scrap. My goal was to create a baby book that she could just tape in the pictures, journal and be done. The first few pages are for months 1-12, but the final few pages are personalized for her munchkin.

Passport to the World

What to do with those leftover passport photos? Scrap them of course. Since this was baby girl's first pass port photo shoot, I wanted to capture the memory. My style tends to lean more towards simple pages with lots of white space. Simplicity = beauty for me. I had such a blast sorting through all my travel embellies trying to find just the right things.

Fun in the Snow

With the weather forecast looking the way it does, I think there are going to be a lot of snowy layouts in my future. My daughter loves to be outside, no matter how cold. She loves the snow too! Here few pictures from our first snow of the season. Pink and blue might be my new favorite color combo.

NYC Mini Album

I've been working on a mini album of a work trip to NYC for quite some time now. The goal was to have 20 pages, but I ended up with 14. This is an example of where I did not have the best pictures in the world and was still able to make them look pretty and tell the story. Here are a few examples.

 This was taken out of the backseat of my car as we navigated through the snowstorm trying to make it to the train station on time. I used a vintage train schedule paper and a transparent overlay with clocks. We ended up missing the train.

 Love Tom Colicchio. Loved Craft. So delicious.

 

Scenes from NYC

Amazing January sunsets every night.

8x8: Fishing

There is something mystical about the early morning fog on the Lake. Unfortunately, it does not mean you are going to catch anything. I snapped this picture of a hopeful fisherman pulling up a whole lot of seaweed.

The highlight of this page is the paint sample card - the first paint name reads "Quietude" which sums up this scene perfectly. 

8x8: The River Cone

You know those pieces of patterned paper that have strips of almost every pattern in the pack? I never know what to do with those. When I saw this photo, I decided to cut the paper up and use the strips that matched the cone. Then I topped it off with some pearl bling and a fun embellishment.

8X8 Page: the Border

Crossing the border from the USA into Canada is one of the coolest parts about heading to the lake. This photo was taken through the front window of the car so please forgive the black shadows. I love how it captures the remoteness of the area. Used up lots of scraps on this page.

8x8 Pages

I find one of the easiest ways to get back into scrapping is to start with smaller pages. There's less pressure and they are usually clean and simple so you build up some confidence getting a few done quickly. I'm perpetually working on an album documenting our summer traditions at the Lake. I interviewed family members to see what things they loved and wanted to see captured in the book. I am going to spend the next week highlighting some of these pages.

The first one is one of my favorites.

I had this skull and cross bone paper that I honestly thought I would never use. I didn't want it to overwhelm the page so I layered over it and did some inking.

Dusting off the scraps

After a long summer off, there is only one way to jump back into a huge pile of scrap paper - go on a retreat! My first ever! A friend of mine has gone to several Scrap-a-way-Retreats and I decided spur of the moment to try it out. In one word...it was AWESOME! The women attending were all really friendly and funny. The owner, Rosanne, puts so much thought into the themes, the games, the prizes and treats. I went Saturday am to Sunday pm and next time I am going to start the trip on a Friday because I didn't want to leave.  Here is a pic of my favorite layout from the weekend.

 

The circle stamp is actually the top of my marker!

I highly recommend you check out a scrap retreat if you need to find some new creative energy. Meals were included so all you had to do was scrap! Amazing!

Textuality: Mitered Frame Assignment

The new class I am taking at Big Pictures Classes just started. Textuality. It is a very different style class for me and already I find myself challenged in ways I could not imagine. The first assignment was to write 450 words about a photo. I know I have never written that much on a layout before. Journaling is the last step for me and I don't write a lot. This forced me to write first and focus on the story I wanted to tell. Usually I let the pictures do the talking.

Creating the mitered frame was a lot more time consuming than I thought it would be. It does take practice to get your printer paper positioning correctly. And then the cutting and trimming. Mine doesn't line up perfectly, but it was close enough for me to keep moving on.

Keeping with my Boston theme of late, here is my layout:

This is a picture of the Prudential Tower lit up to support the Red Sox in 2004 as they competed in the World Series. I used to work in the building and sit inside the "O" so I got to be part of something pretty cool. I added a pocked under the photo mat to include the full 2004 Red Sox schedule card. I wanted to a add a ticket from the season, but there just was not enough room.

Top Chef Boston

Top Chef and Boston! Two things I love brought together. A few years ago, the Top Chef Tour came to Boston and I had the chance to attend. It was amazing. (I have to find those pictures..) But then last year, they came back! It was an even better experience because rather than a cooking demo, they had the chefs do a head-to-head competition using a local ingredient that was selected via a Facebook poll. I stood in line after the event to have pictures taken and get autographed photos. I never scrap 8x10 pictures - mostly because I don't really have any. So this was a fun experiment.

Boston Public Gardens

As part of cleaning and purging my scraproom, I am taking my favorite photos out of frames and creating layouts so I can get rid of the bulky frames that are cluttering up my room. In addition, with everything that has happened in Boston (my home city), I am inspired to scrap some of my Beantown pics as a way of celebrating a place that is very near and dear to my heart. #Bostonstrong

This picture was taken on a warm spring evening in the Boston Public Gardens. These were some of the most beautiful flowers I have ever seen. They city does an amazing job with these grounds. I am continuing to practice my layering techniques while trying to use up scraps.

Daddy's Girl

Now that I have discovered Glitter Girl I am completely addicted. I have never been able to layer in my layouts. But the way that she breaks things down it makes it super easy to figure out to add little bits and pieces and cluster etc. This is another scraplift from her video "To theme or not to theme".
I learned some really awesome tips. 1. When using three 4x6 photos you can add patterned paper under the middle one to break it up a bit. 2. Using similar embellies on each side of the page to bring more cohesion. I found a sticker in my stash that says "Birds of a Feather" and I built around that finding several sheets of paper with birds on them. These are 3 of my favorite pictures of daddy & baby girl.

Scraps - Our little lady

I was listening to Paperclipping Roundtable a couple weeks ago - "Torn by Patterned Paper" - and it was absolutely one on my most favorite episodes. I am in the process of reorganizing and purging my scraproom and there was just something about this episode that helped me use my paper more freely and not be afraid to cut into those papers that I have been hoarding.

As a result of this show, I discovered the Glitter Girl series at Two Peas in a Bucket. How have I not heard about her before? I was completely inspired to start using up my scraps. I loved one of the layout examples so this is my scraplift version.

Day 2: 12 Days of Christmas

I'm still catching up from the holidays and trying to complete my 12 Days of Christmas class. I'm not going to give up even if it means I finish in July.

Here is Day 2! The challenge was to highlight your Christmas tree. I tend to always use the same font for titles, but one way to jazz up a layout is to mix and match. I need to remember this more often!

Day 1: 12 Days of Christmas

I am in the process of finishing up 12 Christmas layouts using the fabulous handouts from the latest Big Picture Class I am taking - the 12 Days of Christmas. So I am a few days behind.... I am inspired to finish it up soon because my scraproom is a Christmas explosion and you can't even walk into it. You will find me sitting on the floor in the hallways scrapping!

Day 1 was to take a family photo.

Here is my finished layout.