Celebrate one

I have been hoarding these "Life of the Party" papers by Basic Grey for a long time, thinking that they'd be perfect with these photos we had taken of our daughter just before her first birthday.  This week's sketch at BG offered the perfect inspiration to finally get going on this project! Here's the sketch:

I loved the horizontal line of photos and the drop-down space for journaling, and yet when my layout came together I can see that it actually looks quite a bit different from the sketch because I also added one focal point photo and therefore had to rearrange things to accommodate it.... but that's the beauty of a sketch, right?

In addition to the Life of the Party papers, I also added some stickers from the same collection as well as a yellow background piece from Out of Print and some orange background paper also, which is from Hello Luscious (I think), all by Basic Grey. My Silhouette helped me finish off the titling.

Halloween fun

One of the things I'm working on doing in the next season is catching up on some of the layouts from the past year that I have started, but not completed.  I printed the photos and selected the papers for the layout below in early November, but just recently found time to assemble them all into a cohesive whole.  

We had so many fun events during the days preceding halloween, and our daughter loved the costumes and kids visiting our home on the 31st, as well as the trip to the pumpkin patch.  This coordinating line of papers made the layout come together easily (along with a purple background paper from my stash as well as a bit of leftover yellow polka dot paper from MME that was left from a previous project).  The bats and pumpkins were handcut from the paper and the title was cut from the Silhouette.  Here is a better look at each of the pages:

Thanks for looking!

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.