Finishing Layouts

See this photo? I took it during Stash Bash as Simple Scrapper that I participated in in 2014. If I would have taken a photo of that same paper tray before this year's Stash Bash, it would have pretty much looked the same. Sure, my craft area is no longer in this space, since I had to move down in the basement of my home, giving this room up for the baby I had in 2015. I also no longer store it on my work space. But the number of layouts on this hasn't really changed since then. There may have been some pages on there completed, but I am sure I have added to it as well.

During October at Simple Scrapper's Refresh, it was all about finishing. I had quite a few pages that needed finishing. This pile has been there for way too long and I was finally ready to address it.

Most of these layouts needed journaling. A handful, just the date. Some needed to be reworked a bit, in need of a title or finishing touches. 

I came to realize, most of these pages I made at a crop. I have since learned to have my journaling written before I create pages at a crop, or they will wind up in a big pile, needing to be finished. For the past few years, I have been starting with the story so the journaling is the first thing I do, so I don't have as many pages left in progress. 

My style has changed a bit as well as I stopped receiving as many predesigned kits to start from. The layouts I am sharing in this post came from my mom's scrapbook kit business at www.justkitting.citymax.com

Most of her kits are theme based and have paper piecing on them. That is her niche and she comes out with 20 original designs every other month!

I found that I was moving away from two-pages and themes, and with limited time to scrap 2 children, plus the 2 more I have had since, I wanted to scrap my way and do the creating myself with the products I love using techniques I love.  

She still creates amazing kits, especially Disney themed pages, so check her out if you like what you see.

When I saw this layout kit, I swore my mom designed it with these photos of mine in mind. Once I got the journaling completed and added to the tags, I stamped the date and called this one done.

For this layout, I modified it to have the circle cut out on the first page. My son had made and invitation to the show and they handed out programs that I wanted to include. I am usually horrible about including memoriablia, so this was a win for me!

Here is the view from the back of the layout.

I also modified the title which was drummer boy as well as the paper piecing to fit my story. I also added a few finishing touches with an Ali Edwards banner stamp on the journaling block as well as some Elle's Studio circle dies.

Glad to have this one in the books as well!

I have more Just Kitting layouts that have just a few more finishing touches and can share soon as well as some other layouts I have finished that were in that big "pages in progress" pile.

Thanks for looking!

One Day at a Time

This layout has been sitting on my desk in need of journaling for way too long!

The conception of this layout came from Ali Edwards' Hello Story class using the story structure of time. I knew I wanted to document going past due with my third pregnancy and how I had to take it "one day at a time".

My daughter is now four. It took me forever to get the photos printed, find the time to scrap them make the selection of products and then figure out how to get the words on the page. Relieved that it is finally complete.

I used product from a Dear Lizzy paper pad as well as a chipboard frame from my stash for the majority of this layout. The journaling card was from a Kelly Purkey kit I had in my stash that I was thrilled to be finally using.

I used a brush included in the Hello Story class on my main photo. I also used some clear stickers from Dear Lizzy's sticker book that I first mounted on white cardstock and fussy cut out.

I used some white glitter enamel dots as a finishing touch.

I really struggled with my journaling on this layout. I actually had twice as much, I had an added journaling card, under the frame, but hated how there was way too much text everywhere with the text pattern paper and words on the photo. I went back and edited the story down and shrunk the font a bit so all of it would fit on the 3x4 card. Even though it doesn't have as much detail, the gist of the story is still there.

Glad to have this layout complete and the story told. I am pretty happy on how it turned out. 

Soon I should have a steady stream of layouts to share here. If you look back at my old blog posts, you will see the infamous pages in progress pile. I have officially started to tackle this in earnest! I have lists and goals in place to get it down to a stack, if not gone by the end of the year. So far, I have tackled 8 layout projects from this pile! I have at least 20 more to address. 

Stop by to see more of those soon!

I am creative.

I am back with another layout. This layout came together from two challenges from Simple Scrapper's refresh. The journaling came from January's refresh to take a selfie and list 3 creative things about me. This isn't the photo I took for this challenge, but I had printed for another layout and didn't use it and thought it appropriate for the topic.

The second challenge was to create a layout using a sketch within the Simple Scrapper membership selected by a random number generator. I got #301, which threw me in a loop from the beginning. I was happy it happened to be a one photo layout using a 4x6 horizontal orientation, but when I saw the photo and journaling all at an angle, I cringed a bit.

I have been subscribed to SCT Samplers since their inception. I love getting a taste of new things, but not having to buy whole collections. I like seeing what I actually use and feel true to me. I also like the price tag. Very little money for a treat every month. There is a challenge with this subscription. All the paper comes 6x6. For a 12x12 gal, I have to be intentional about how I use my papers from the kits.

The quadrant background was not part of the sketch, but I thought the papers were too perfect to pass up for the topic of this layout.

For my birthday this year, since it was my 40th, my mom surprised me with 40 things to open. Half of them were mini pizza boxes of crafty goodness. Inside were lots 3D stickers, tags, metal embellishments, decorative paperclips, die cuts and more. The sketch showed layered tags and things under the photo, so I raided my new goodies on this page. 

Along with the 6x6 paper from Simple Stories I am collection, my kit came with a few pocket cut-aparts, and a 4x6 sticker sheet. I used bits of all of it to embellish this layout.

There were bits of rose gold used in this collection, like in the paper above, highlighting the "I am creative." sentiment. I also used some rose gold stickers from an American Crafts sticker book, (Dear Lizzy's?) for added touches. The stickers from the kits created my title. 

I hand wrote my journaling on the ledger paper, I selected for the purpose, which also meant I deviated from the sketch in that regard.

Love how this turned out and glad to finish up a couple of challenges as well as use up some of my sampler kit stash in the process. 

Thanks for looking!