Brian and Janelle's Wedding

I took literally hundreds of photos at a wedding this past summer in which my daughter was the flower girl, and so I had to narrow the field by leaps and bounds to select photos to create one layout of the event.  It was a challenge for me, and because I included 13 photos, I wanted to keep the embellishments to a minimum to let the pictures take center stage.

A couple detail photos:

My supplies were very basic and included some Bazzil cardstock, Prima flowers, Hero Arts pearls and gems, a Fiskars border punch, a vine cutout made with my Silhouette, and some leftover scraps from previous projects.  It was a wonderful day and a great celebration, and I'm so glad to preserve the memories here before they fade.

Loving life at 24 months

My time away from my blog has been much longer than I intended... but when I look at all that this month has entailed, I can understand why that has been the case.  One of this month's events was my daughter's second birthday.  I wanted to capture this time in her life in a festive, colorful way-- and this sketch by Leeann Pearce posted on the BasicGrey blog seemed to be just right for that task:

My version stays pretty close to the sketch and includes photos of my daughter just a few days before her second birthday.

One of the things I loved about the sketch was the way that it had built-it allowance for some fun little details and embellishments:

I had a great time decorating with buttons, punches, brads, pearls, stickers, and gems-- all very fitting for a little girl who is definitely quite feminine in her style and preferences. :)

And, I also was glad to see that the sketch allowed some space for journaling, which I try to incorporate into my pages as often as I can so that I can record the memories through words as well as images:

Most of the supplies used in this sketch (papers, cardstock stickers, brads) are from Doodlebug, although the background pink paper is by Making Memories.  The layout also uses several Fiskars punches, acrylic stamps from Studio AE by Technique Tuesday ("celebrate") and October Afternoon ("2 cute"), as well as Lily Bee stickers and a few Silhouette cutouts ("2" and "loving life").   For a little girl who really loves life and who makes us love our lives even more, this festive layout seemed to capture the emotion of this season.

Go Explore Hong Kong

Many of the layouts in my album are two-pagers, as I love the space they provide for lots of photos, journaling, and adding pops of color.  I created this layout a few months ago about a special trip that my husband and I took, but had not posted the layout online and I thought it would be a good time to share it.

A better look at some of the details:

The globe and the black arrow were raised from the layout using pop dots. I used papers from two of BasicGrey's collections on this layout because they worked with the theme and the colors in my photos: Wander (in both 6x6 and 12x12 sizes), and Urban Prairie. I added a bit of Distress Ink to the edges for interest.  The chipboard "go" and the letters for "explore" are also from BasicGrey.  The "travel" stamp that I used for a journaling block is from Hero Arts and the globe in the title is from Jillibean Soup. The cityscape was cut using my Silhouette machine and I then pieced the windows back in: 

I also got a bit of mileage out of some of my StudioAE travel stamps on this layout, as I used them to create some mini flags ("travel" and "sightsee") and collage elements ("destination"-- visible in full layout above).

 

I loved recalling this very special trip and assembling this layout.  Thanks for looking!

Handmade for you with love

I made this layout about a week ago, but have been slow to get it posted here--- sometimes the craziness of life just takes over! This layout tells the story of a handmade quilt that my daughter received and has really, really loved. She has amazed us with her avid and ongoing interest in the quilt's details like the stitching, the texture, and the colors.  For that reason, I wanted to create a colorful, textured layout to remember this quilt, even if I thought the page might be a bit visually overwhelming.  :)  It was also a great way to use up some leftover papers and letter stickers from other projects.

Although it's perhaps a bit difficult to see in the photo, I added texture to the quilt squares by running my paper through my Cuttlebug with a mini Sizzix embossing plate that looked like small stitched squares. I then traced over the raised parts of the paper with a white Signo pen to highlight the "stitching" effect. 

The papers used on the layout were all leftovers from other pages, so they're a mix of BasicGrey, Doodlebug, K & Co., and others. 

19 inches long and loved beyond measure

One of my goals this year has been to preserve memories with intentionality and regularity, and so I have found that participating in some of the online sketch challenges has been a great way to realize that goal.  When I saw this week's sketch on the BasicGrey blog, I knew I wanted to play along, and initially I had decided on a layout that would use three photos like the sketch shows:

I had started work on another layout and then thought about a photo I have of my daughter that is particularly beloved to me and that I haven't yet placed in her book.  It is a photo that was taken just after she arrived home from the hospital, and it is one of my favorites. So I decided to recalibrate my plan and go for a layout with that, adjusting the sketch because I wanted the photo to be the only one on the page. 

A few detail shots:

I used elements from a few BasicGrey collections in constructing the layout, some of which I purchased years before I was a mom, hoping that I would someday have the occasion to use them. :)


The rulers are cut out from the "Life of the Party" line, the Pink Background paper is taken from "Fusion" (Pink Flamingo) and the remainder of the papers on the page are from "Oh Baby! Girl" (Macy and Sarah).  I wanted a smaller scale of the OB!G line, but this line was manufactured long before BasicGrey was selling papers in 6x6 pads, so I used some leftover remnants from their Oh Baby Girl! Matchbook kit to cover their plain chipboard letters and for some of the other elements on the page that I wanted to be in smaller scale print.  The letters are BG "Basics" mini mono stickers and the dark colored rub-ons are from October Afternoon. 


I am so thankful to have this photo preserved in my daughter's album, and constructing the layout brought back so many memories of the first few days after she was born.

Blue Eyes-- BasicGrey Sketch challenge

BasicGrey's new blog is seriously rocking my world.  New sketches every week along with samples from their design team, challenges-- with prizes!, and tons of inspiration. I played along with their most recent challenge, which was to create a scrapbook page based on the following sketch:

And here's my completed version, which documents my daughter's 10-month stint as a blue-eyed baby before her dad's brown-eyed gene kicked in.  :) 

I used this as an opportunity to use some of the scraps I had on hand from previous projects and to integrate them with some new products.  This layout uses all BasicGrey papers, but they are taken from several lines-- one of my favorite ways to scrap!  This layout combines elements from Pheobe, Indie Bloom, Urban Prairie, and Scarlet's Letter, as well as some letters from the Oxford collection, which I recolored with a Copic marker to fit the colors of the layout.  

I loved the shape of some of the tags from the Lauderdale collection, but the colors were not a match for this project, so I traced the shape from those tags onto papers I was using for this layout (the brown flower-like elements), and added some white Signo pen to help them stand out. It was fun to challenge myself to use up some of my older items (the BasicGrey opaline pearls are years old, as are the Pheobe papers), and I love how a given manufacturer's lines can work so well together, even across time.

And so it begins...

The October challenge at My Mind's Eye is to use the following sketch as well as a "fall" theme to create a layout.

I had tons of photos from a fall outing with my daughter and so I decided to modify the layout sketch slightly so that I could include more than three photos, so here's what I came up with:

I had so much fun playing with MME papers from several collections and trying to meld them together into a cohesive whole.  This layout uses elements from My Mind's Eye collections Alphabet Soup, Fine and Dandy, Stella and Rose, and Lime Twist.  
All of the papers, chipboard, and stickers on this layout are from My Mind's Eye, but I modified some from their original form to fit the layout. I love making products work for me! For example, I loved the fun blue border on the paper from the Stella and Rose collection, but it wasn't the shape I wanted and the inside pattern didn't fit with the layout. So, I cut apart the 12 x 12 scalloped blue border paper, pieced it together to form a rectangle, and covered the inner section with a scrap of yellow MME paper.  Problem solved! :) I also covered the orange scallop chipboard piece with blue MME paper to create a journaling spot and cut some of their letter stickers into smaller sizes for the word "fall" in the title.  Some detail photos follow:

Other products used include Distress Ink in Wild Honey to color the torn edges of the wood paper as well as a Hero Arts branch stamp to house the little chipboard owl. I popped up some of the stars on the right border with pop dots for dimension.

Well hello, 21st century!

My technology know-how can be summarized in two words: "NO!" and "How???!?" Simply put, in the world of technology, I'm beyond lost and I have no idea where to ask for directions. Packing up my family and relocating to a far-flung area of the globe has seemed like a more feasible option to me than moving into the blogosphere.

But, miraculously, here I am. Stumbling and bumbling and bound to make mistakes...one of which I fear could be inadvertently erasing this whole blog as I'm trying to construct it.  Seriously.    :)

Yet I'm determined to press beyond the comfortable and into the 21st century. Because life isn't about comfort; it's about growing, learning, and trying something new. Sometimes the challenge is just to carve out a space in one's life-- a little arena-- for growth. So here is mine.

My idea is to have a place to house a bit of my papercrafting art, to connect with others who have similar interests and passions, and to journey together.  

So I'm moving forward and trying not to look back. (Gulp!...) And, wheeeeeeee! A new blog is born.