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.