Baby's First Easter- Maddie's Baby Album

Here is a layout I did for Madeline's baby album.

This was created using a kit that my friend, Tami, created. Other kits she creates can be found here. I had to tweak the design for this one, because I didn't realize I bought photos to fit another layout she designed and I had already had used it. 

The kit originally had a grid of butterflies on the left of the vertical 4x6 photo. Since I had another photo to find a place for, I replaced the grid for a photo. It then gave me a place for my title. 

The papers are from Cosmo Cricket.

The baby's in the title was from the cut apart sheet included in the kit and I fussy cut the letters out. The orange letters are from Amy Tangerine. The white letters are a set of Thickers that I have been loving and beginning to run out of enough letters to be able to spell anything.

Used a few iridescent sequins from my friends stash were the perfect finishing touch with the die cut butterflies that were included in the kit.

The second page is pretty photo heavy with a creative use of a cut a part sheet. There was a blank card and the edges of another that were combined to make this one. The kit was designed to have the journaling block created this way, so I can't take the credit for it. 

I used some more of the butterflies in the kit to embellish this side of the layout with a few more sequins and this one was done. 

Love how this one turned out even when I had to modify the original design to fit the photos.

Thanks for stopping by!

Madeline's Baptism - Baby album

As I began to work down the list of baby album pages to complete, I started by figuring out which photos I was going to need to print. 

Since some of the pages for this album were predesigned kits, I knew I needed specific sizes and number of photos. 

I didn't have a predesigned kit for Maddie's baptism, so I began with a Scrapbook Generation sketch, from their travel sketch collection. 

Here is my page next to the sketch that I used.

 

Originally I was pulling supplies to kit this up for the crop that I attended, but to see if the products were going to work, I wound up having half of it put together and decided to just finish it at home.

I don't create a lot of two page layouts these days, unless there is a specific reason to, like I am scrap-lifting a page made in a class, or the number of photos I have to tell the story are just too many to fit on one layout. I created a handful of two pagers for this album, for consistency. I had already created some two page layouts for other events in this album.

This layout uses a Maggie Homes Bloom 12x12 paper pad. (One of the many that I snagged at Tuesday Morning.) 

With the Bloom papers, I found some baptism stickers in my stash that were leftover from the layout I did of my son's baptism. I found the stickers that were a good color match.

I also layered a doily from my stash to soften the look as well as help with any trapped space the sticker and title may have created.

I used some Thickers that I am loving right now and determined to use up. There aren't enough s stickers in this set, so I got creative cutting another letter to create a scripty looking s.

Madeline was made using some Basic Grey sticker set, that I am also loving.

I used some glitter paper that I had found in the Target Hot Spot. It is nice in that it doesn't shed any glitter.

I found the bird in a Maggie Holmes Confetti die cut pack and layered with a doily, and sticker tag with twine.

One of the tweaks I made to this sketch was to trade the 4x4 journaling block for a photo and the vertical 4x6 photo with a journaling block.

Printed journaling from my computer and cut into strips to adhere to the card.

Love how quickly this layout came together once the sketch and photos were chosen! 

Thanks for stopping by!

First Christmas- Maddie's Baby Album

I went to a day crop last month and completed the layout I am about to show you, minus the journaling. (I struggle journaling at crops, and didn't pre-plan the journaling for this one before I left.)

I feel more accomplished and organized if there are a few layouts in my crop bag that are predesigned. Ones that don't require me to think a whole lot of where things are going to go, what I am going to use, and photo placement. 

For a year or so, I used to subscribe to the Scrapbook Generation Super Sketch Club. I had a love/hate relationship with the kits. I love the price, the products used, the sketches provided, and designs. What I didn't like was that sometimes the kits were too themed and I am still waiting for the photos to use on them.  More than anything though,  I hated having to force my photos in their design. 

Since I have been doing December Daily since 2012, I haven't made a 12x12 Christmas layout since before then. But when I was going through of layouts I wanted to add to my daughter's baby album, and saw "first Christmas layout", I knew I had a perfect Christmas kit in my stash. 

I always tend to change up the Scrapbook Generation kits a little. Usually they are a bit flat for me, only using papers. For this layout, I thought the left page was too embellishment heavy and wanted to balance it with a few more 2x2 inch photos as well as a title.

I liked the trees stacked up on the page, it took a bit of time to figure out the measurements and the logistics of cutting them up. (They gave height and width and said to find the midpoint on the top)

One thing I also learned about these kits early on is they will use every bit of a piece of paper, branding strip off cuts, etc. You have to be really careful to cut the papers correctly, or it can affect  the layout and sometimes 2 others using the same papers. Some instructions were better than others.

I used the first stamp from Ali Edwards' Story Stamp- Firsts for the title. Found I had my favorite style of Thicker also in red, which was perfect for this one.

To add some dimension, I added some red sequins to the trees, so it didn't feel so flat.

For the journaling for this layout, I created a list of details from her first Christmas. I used an Ali Edwards/Technique Tuesday stamp set for the "the details" label to start the list. 

The kit said to cut out some stars to embellish, but I either lost the template, or didn't ever have one. I was lucky that at the crop I was at, they had the set of star punches from Creative Memories which were easy to layer.

Used a red sequin for each of the details.

Glad to have a cute page with minimum prep so I could bring and create easily to a crop. 

Thanks for checking it out!

Exploring Santa Barbara Zoo

I have had a layout in my in-progress pile for a really long time. Two Peas inspired old. 

I had kitted a bunch of zoo supplies, for a photo collage I had created using a Kerri Bradford layered template. 

I had been inspired by Nichol Magouirk, a then Garden Girl at Two Peas in a Bucket.

For this layout I used a kit/collection from SEI. It came with a ton of specialty papers, die cuts, and sticker sheet. 

Because the die cuts were so cute, I decide to layer them together on the layout, then to balance them on the left, I cut the elephant from patterned paper and cut the giraffe of a journaling spot.

I opted for some circles to brake up all of the straight lines in the photo collages and the overall page design.

The striped strip down the middle of the page was one of the specialty papers. It had an epoxy shine to it on the colored bits. I cut a label in half and placed it on both ends of the strip of paper on the layout and added a brad in it, something Nichol would always do.

I used some Thickers from my stash for the title as well as some alpha tiles from Simple Stories.

On the photo collage, I used some zoo themed rub-ons from my stash, that to my luck still worked!

I used a flocked bracket die cut from the collection to frame in the photos and at the very end, decided to use the long label stickers to add my journaling. Just ran them through my printer and added them to the page with a bit of twine.

I hand cut the zoo out of some paper that had the epoxy shine to create the stripes for the title and added some fussy cut birds from one of the papers.

I repeated the same elements as the first page in the spread.

I don't know if you can tell from this photo, but there are flocked accents on the animal die cuts. The elephants ears, the spots on the kangaroo's back. The little roo was super cute as he came separate and tucked in the momma's pouch.

I added more journaling on a similar tag, mirroring the first page.

So happy to get this layout completed! I like how it turned out, but know that I may have done it a little different if I would have started more recently.

Glad to have this story told, and got the supplies back in my stash and out of this page kit.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look!

Cards using Lawn Fawn Pizza My Heart set

I recently won a gift card from a friend's YouTube channel, and used it to buy some Lawn Fawn stamps that have been on my wish list.

Pizza My Heart has been on my list for a couple of reasons. My younger sister is getting married this November and her fiancé works in a pizza shop. They met working at a pizza shop. I thought it would be perfect for wedding cards for them.

After pinning projects that use it, watching YouTube videos using it, I finally got it out to play around with it.

First off I made this card fro my nephew's high school graduation card.

I need to purchase some new waterproof black ink, so I used colored pencils to color this in. Love how it turned out!

Here is the cute sentiment inside.

This one I made since I stamped it multiple times, knowing it is better to have back-ups than to get everything out to stamp again. 

Here is another that I created. I gave this one to my Dad for Father's Day. I feel like we order pizza at his place every time we visit, so it seemed appropriate.

So this set gives me the itch to try other Lawn Fawn sets! They are so much fun! My eye is on the new claw machine one!

My 9-11 Story

The layout I have to share today is one that I have had the journaling done for some time, but struggled on how to get it on paper.

I was inspired to tell this story after listening to a Paperclipping Round Table podcast. After looking at the Ali Edwards Story Stamps for Tough, I knew I would use them for this.

Creating a layout for something like this is not easy. There aren't a lot of pages that aren't happy, I looked for them.  I knew I couldn't use bright and cheerful colors for this and knew my embellishment would wind up being minimal. 

My layout design was inspired by a layout that Glitter Girl did recently and had two columns of patterned paper. Crazy enough, one was rain drops. I found the rain cloud and rain drop paper in a 6x6 paper pad by Basic Grey and Kelly Purkey. I wanted the strips to be reminiscent of the two towers.

This also met the challenge for Shimelle's The 20 Project Class, Embrace white card stock, since I used white card stock as the base of this layout.

The photos I used were stock photos from the internet and had them printed at 2.5x 3.5.

The journaling, I knew was long and I wasn't sure where to put it, so I printed it on velum. 

Using the Tough Story Stamp set, I heat embossed this sentiment in white and embellished with an enamel dot as well as stamped directly on the background with another stamp. That one came from the Review Story Stamp.

I found a craft tag from my stash from Ormolu that had "story" cut already from it. I added some glitter Thickers as well as some white alphas from Basic Grey.

At the bottom of the layout I repeated the heat embossing with "remember" to ground the layout a bit.

Also stamped the months of the year on the side and circled Sep. Both stamps came from the Review Story Stamp set.

Glad to have this story told. Glad to share one that is tough to scrap to help others when they have a tough story to tell!

Better Together

Here is another layout inspired by the Bond theme for my Story Stamps from Ali Edwards.

For this layout, I wrote the journaling when I received the class content. I then found a photo from my 30 Days of Thankful feed on Instagram. I am totally for photographing and journaling and making the page when you get to it!

I have a confession to make. Recently I purchased 7 paper pads from Tuesday Morning. They were all American Crafts, and older, but were all lovely, I knew if I didn't get them then, they weren't going to be there when I got back. They were Maggie Holmes Bloom, Paige Evans Fancy Free, Maggie Homes first collection (that one has velum too!) Shimelles first collection as well as Go Now Go and a Dear Lizzy Documentary and an Amy Tangerine collection.  

I don't tend to buy the collection pads. I like to buy the pieces I know I will use. But at that price it was cheaper and easier to pick up the pad. Especially since I didn't buy the individual ones when they were new and probably can't find them any more.

I have been challenging myself to get some use out of them! The background paper for this layout is from Fancy Free. 

The love paper and the black hearts are from an Amy Tangerine Hot Buys 8.5x11 pack from Michaels.

I found a journaling card from the Project Life Teen mini card kit and tucked it behind with a bit of washi and a piece from an Amy Tangerine ephemera pack (not sure which collection).

The puffy heart came from a December Daily kit from Ali Edwards.

Layered more die cut pieces from Amy Tangerine as well as the washi. The tapes didn't really go with the journaling, since I didn't talk about music, but I liked the sentiment titles on them and it made me think of the mixed tapes/CDs my husband made me back in the day when we were dating.

I found another Teen card for my journaling. I liked the color, grid, and arrow, but it had glasses, which didn't fit so I covered it with the my stamped sentiment from my Story Stamp- Bond stamp set. layered it with some washi and another heart and puffy sticker.

Added a bit of Heidi Swapp Color Shine mist in the three areas of embellishment and called this one done.

Special Bond

I have created today's layout that was inspired by the Story Stamps from Ali Edwards for the theme bond.

After watching the class content that comes with the stamps, I came up with four things I wanted to make layouts about.  I then went to my private blog and wrote the journaling for those layout ideas. The next step was to cull the photos for those pages, or take photos to go with the layout.

This page was one that I took the photos for this story. 

Next I went into my stash to make a "kit" of supplies for this page. I knew I was going to be attending a day crop and wanted to have some pages ready to go for this event.

When shopping my stash, I knew I wanted to use the green and yellow colors in her blanket. I found some papers from a American Crafts/Studio Calico line as well as some papers from SEI. I also found a journaling card that had plus sign pattern during my "Plus One" layout hunt. See the layout prior to this one.

I also wished for this layout I had a Cameo to cut one of the circle cut file background layers like this one. But I know I won't use a Cameo any more than the Cricut I already own, so I opted to use a JilliBean Soup Placemat that I had in my stash and cut sections of it to layer in the background. Don't look too close, where I cut isn't perfect :)

I layered pieces of the patterned paper behind the hexagons. The SEI papers are all specialty and have a bit of shimmer. The pink triangle paper is one from CTMH  Sugar Rush collection that my friend delivered to me at the crop. 

Stamped the title using Ali Edwards Story Stamps -Bond in Ali's black ink. I LOVE her inks! They cover so nicely. Can't wait for more colors!

I stamped "bond" on a piece of patterned paper and cut it out but stamped "special directly on the background. 

I also stamped a sentiment from the stamp set in one of the hexagons. It says "This bond is awesome"

I used some puffy sticker butterflies from SEI that coordinated with papers I had selected as well as some enamel dots and stars from my stash.

I sprinkled some Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Seamist, I believe. This is a technique I definitely need to practice. I was glad it was a tone on tone attempt!

On the bottom of the page, I added another puffy butterfly and enamel dot and star, as well as stamped "<<the best>>" and "Love this special connection right here." The best was from the Story Stamp set for Little Things while the other was Bond.

Finally getting use out of my Story Stamp subscription! I have been a subscriber from the beginning. Since I was a StudioAE subscriber and loved the Hello Story class, I knew I would love the stamps and the class content. Life has just been in the way of sitting down and doing it. I have been using the stamps here or there, just not as intended to be a story spark.

Now I put on my priority list to sit and journal about these topics and hope to share many more layouts soon!

Plus One

I have a layout to share with you today that was inspired by Ali Edwards Hello Story class.

I have had a wish list of layouts that I have been wanting to do for this class. After going back over the content and my list again, I came up with yet another idea from the story structure, Mathematics. 

This is a very photo heavy layout, but I love how it turned out! I loved going through my photo library and finding all of the photos with Ally and my other two kids over the past year and a half. I found quite a few treasured photos that I am happy at least have a home on this layout.

Every photo has as bit of journaling with a punched heart.

I also new that plus signs has been showing up on a lot of products over the past few years, and I knew I had quite a few in my stash. Hunting for them was a bit fun as well. 

My title block uses paper from Maggie Holmes Bloom collection. Loved the washi tape inspired plus signs on this paper! Used some old leather Thickers that I actually had enough letters to spell this!

The plus pattern on this block was from Pink Paislee Memorandum. The strip of green paper and the plus is from a journaling card from Amy Tangerine.  I punched a heart from the left overs of the journaling card I had used part of on the next page.

I used a stamp from Ali Edwards Story Stamp set for Bond to embellish. The black strip is from the same paper as the title block.

For the second page in this layout, I used the same papers as well as a journaling card cut to fit the space.

For the first square on this page, I found this journaling card in my stash (Amy Tangerine?) that had a strip of plus signs on the side. I used some strips from other pieces and a heart punch layered to embellish. I stamped with a few more stamps from the Story Stamps for Bond.

For this square, I found a 3x4 journaling card with this camera and punched it out. In Amy Tangerine's Plus One 6x6 paper pad, I found a grid paper with "plus one" as a header, so I but that out. Used a * from the leather Thickers. Hand journaled the date range of photos.

For the last square, I created a plus one with the Thickers. I had to use two dashes to create.

Happy to have this one done. A big thanks to Ali for the Bond content as well as the Mathematics content in Hello Story! Love it!

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