Mini Album!

And here is the post that was really supposed to be for today!!

This mini album was made using the Tommy paper packet and embellishments from CTMH and the Artiste Cricut cart also from CTMH.  The album pages were cut @ 4 1/2" using the Artiste cartridge.

I cut the coordinating stickers to create the "My" in my title.  The embelli cluster was made using some cuts from the cartridge that were just too small, but I didn't want to throw them away, along with some coordinating stickers and the coordinating assortment collection.  The pattern papers were cut down 1/4" and inked with outdoor denim.

Pages 1 thru 4 are decorated with a few of the coordinating stickers.

Page 5 was decorated using a folder cut from the Artiste cartridge @ 3" along with a few coordinating stickers and papers.  There is also a tag tucked behind the flap of the folder with a star sticker attached to the top for a pull. (sorry for the blurry pic...I took these using my iPhone and have no clue what happened to this one, it looked just fine on the computer till I uploaded it to here)

These are a few more of the coordinating stickers...

The red bracket at the top of page 9 is a cut from the Artiste cart @ 1.5".  Oh and look!  More stickers!

Surprise!  Stickers!

And of course stickers were used to decorate the last pages.  The back page has an envelope cut @ 4" from the Artiste cartridge with a tag inside also cut @ 4" with a star attached to the top for a pull.  I still don't think I used all the stickers...I'll have to work on that.

I hope you liked my mini album.  Thank you for stopping by!

Album for Melis!

Good morning Everyone!

Today I wanted to share an album with you that I had made last year of one of my good friends' vacation to Arkansas.  I had so much fun designing these layouts.  All of the layout sketches came from Close to my Hearts' idea/sketch books: Cherish, Imagine & Magic.  All of the paper embellishments came from MULTIPLE Cricut cartridges.  I had used my Gypsy to weld & reshape some of the cuts.  The papers used were the Veranda & Olivia paper packets which are from Close to my Heart along with all the ribbons, pearls & various metal embellies.  I had used stickles randomly throughout the album as well.  

The cartridges used for this layout were CM's Reminisce Accents & Robotz for the font.

The cartridges used Home Decor, CTMH's Art Philosophy and Home Accents (welded together) & Robotz for the font.  I had also used a scalloped punch from Stampin' Up! around the large photo mat.

The carts used for this layout were Boys will be Boys and CM's Traveler.   I used foam dimensionals under the tips of the arrows to give them a feel of movement and add some dimension to the page.

I used Wall Decor & More and Robotz for the font on this layout.

The large flourishes are from CM's Reminisce Accents, the  journaling spot is from Lacy Labels along with all the other flowers throughout the pages.  The font was a mix between Robotz and Opposites Attract.

These journaling spots were made with the Gypsy using an image from the Elegant Edges cart.   The borders are from CM's Reminisce Accents (I used the negatives as well as the positive images).  The leaves are from CM's Traveler cart.

This was one of my favorite weld jobs: the oval and flourish are from CTMH's Art Philosophy and they were welded with a scene from Campin' Critters.  The sign is also from Campin' Critters and the font is from Robotz.

The carts used for this layout were Lacy Labels and Opposites Attract for the fonts.

CM's Reminisce Accents and Traveler were used for the flourishes, title and "Photo Op" saying & Elegant Edges for the journaling spot.

The Lacy Labels cart was used for the journaling spot and I honestly cannot remember which carts I used for the border or the title (I thought they were cake carts, but I couldn't find the exact images).

Most of the images used on this layout were from the Ornamental Iron cart.  I welded a shadow to the middle of the gate and added the wording in the center; then used the hide/contour feature to create a blackout for the title gate.  The journaling spot was created using the shadow feature of the title gate and another fence.  The tombstone labels were created using an image from the Elegant edges cart and Lyrical Letters for the font.

I hope you enjoyed these layouts as much as I enjoyed creating them!  Thanks for stopping by!

Editors note:  I went to create a new post today and realized that this post had not been published yet!!  The writer of this blog should be fired!

Girly Layout

Good Morning Everyone!!

This morning I'd like to share a layout for my daughter's album that I had made a few years ago.  I had chosen a sketch from one of Close To My Heart's idea books (Cherish, I think).  Anyways, I was able to create this layout using only 3 sheets of 12x12 paper (plus 2 for the base pages).  I thought it was pretty clever... I thought it was even more clever that I had taken these photos to remind myself how I did it!

The writing says : Cut cardstock down to 10x10.  Cut out center leaving 1 1/2" border all the way around.

Cut remaining cardstock down to 6x6.  Cut center out leaving 1/2" border all the way around.  Then cut center out of remaining cardstock leaving 1/2" border all the way around.  Cut the center of that down to 3x3.  Using the 2" leftover strips, cut  a 2x2 piece.

Cut cardstock down to 9x9.Then cut out center leaving 1" border all around.

Cut cardstock down to 6x6.  Cut center out leaving a 1" border.  Cut a 3x3 & a 2x2 from the leftover strips.

Cut out center of patterned paper leaving 1 1/2" border all the way around.

Cut 3" off remaining patterned paper.  Cut that into one 3x3 piece and one 3x6 piece.

The end result!

This layout was so simple and quick to make that I had to make one for my son's album as well!!

Thank you for stopping by!

Two in 1 Day!

I am trying my hardest to catch up with this blog that I fear I'm going to be posting quite a bit today.  Truthfully, I wasn't sure if I should just post everything or have several posts in one day.  So I opted to do several in one day.

I'd like to share with you the pages that I had made for our trip to Kah-Nee-Kah.  Which is in Warm Springs, OR.  We had so much fun, that we didn't even notice we forgot to pack some vital camping gear. :)

 

This is the night/afternoon we arrived.  Kora was so impressed with the size of tee-pee, she couldn't wait for me to pull out the camera.  Kora is at that age where she isn't too big on wanting her picture taken, so when she is anxious, then so am I!!

For our first day, we had a whole day of horseback riding scheduled.  The kids were so excited, we arrived at the stables before it even opened.

Once the stables opened, it was feeding time for most of the horses.  Since the kids were there super early, the stable-hands let the kids help feed.

Kora getting saddled up.  She was wanting cowboy boots after her ride.

Gabe wasn't big enough to ride by himself.  So he was able to help the stable-hands saddle up the horses.  Once they put saddles on, to make sure they don't fall off, they walk the horses around a bit and then cinch up the saddles a bit more.  The gal that was letting Gabe ride the horses, enjoyed his enthusiasm so much, she eventually found him a cowboy hat so he could feel like one of the "boys".

Our second, and last day :( was full of recreational agendas.  Mini golfing, swimming in the hot springs, manicures & massages and watching a movie on this really awesome blow-up screen.  I didn't get any pics of us swimming in the hot springs cause we all wanted to go for a dip and there really wasn't any place for me to store the camera.  And, by the time we were done swimming, the movie was about to start.  We had just enough time to get our jammies on, get some popcorn, grab our blankets and go enjoy the film. The kids LOVED it!  Better than the theatres.

To make it easier on the wonderful staff, they ask that we keep our tee-pees clean.  Well, the kids had NO problem doing just that.  While we packed the truck, Kora and Gabe went to town cleaning.  How neat!

When it was finally time to leave, we tried to get a family photo.  Unfortunately, when Gabe is done having his picture taken, it's time to put the camera away.  Mom isn't going to get anywhere.

I had to tease him a bit to see if he would give me one last photo op.  He just kept telling me "Let's just go!"

I hope you liked my LOs.  I had a blast making them.  I used Scrapbook Generations Sketchbooks for all the layout ideas.  The papers are all from Close To My Heart.  Most of the die-cuts are from several Cricut cartridges, however I did manage to sneak in a few Spellbinder dies.  Now all I have to do is the journaling and they will be complete :)

Where Have I Been?

Hello?  Is anyone there?  Looks like I need to dust my blog off and get to it.  I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize for my absence.  My life got a little crazy.  I'm hoping by this summer it will be calmed down enough that I can make the commitments that I had for this blog.

I would like to start this post off by showing you some of the pages that I was able to complete (just never posted) of my Halloween 365.  Before my life went upside-down, I was having a blast with this personal challenge and to be honest, these are only a few of the layouts that I did.

This first LO uses a sketch from Scrapbook Generations.  The papers are from Close To My Heart except for the large die-cut paper which I think came from Doodlebug Designs (correct me if I'm wrong), The sticker embellishments are from Softly Spoken (which I can't remember who's product line that is or if that is their name - any help would be nice) I also used the Martha Stewart Gooey border punch.

This 2nd LO was a kit that I had picked up from a Scrapbook Store in Utah (Heartland Papers Co.) several years ago that I thought now would be a good time to put it together.  I did change it up a bit from the original design and added some stickers that I found at Joanns.

This LO was one that I had made for my October Scrapbook Class.  I used a sketch from one of the many books that Scrapbook Generations has available (I love them!!).  The papers are from Close To My Heart along with all the chipboard embellishments. Because some of my girls aren't real big into the Halloween-thing, I wanted to keep the "theme" toned down.

That's all I've found so far.  As soon as I fine the rest of my LOs, I will share them with you.  I promise!!  Until then, I have a few more posts that I would like to share to try and get me caught up.

MMEs' 2nd August Challenge

Good afternoon, Everyone!

I realize that it has been a really long time since I wrote my first post.  My life got a little crazy, busy.

 

Anyways,  thanks to MME's 2nd August Challenge , I have been inspired to use up all my holiday papers.  To be more specific, all my Halloween papers.  And let me tell you how much that is!  Ok, I won't because there just isn't enough time in the day.  I have decided to do a Halloween 365 challenge for myself.  Since My Mind's Eyes' challenge was so inspiring, I figured I would start with that.  This is probably my second or third (maybe even fourth) layout that I have created without using a sketch that I have borrowed from someone.  I've always needed some sort of inspiration to get me going, whether it be a sketch or an already made layout using shapes or colors that just scream at me.

 

Well, here is how I started with this challenge.  I began by choosing the papers that I wanted to use.  I had three Halloween collections from MME.  Really?  How many does a girl need?  Don't answer that, please.  Out of the three, I chose the Blackbird collection.

 

 

Out of the collection, these were the papers and embellishments I picked to use.  I also added two Juniper cardstock papers from Close to my Heart.

 

 

So the cardstock matched the Blackbird papers, I sanded both pieces.  Then, I took one of the patterns from the collection to use as my main background piece; giving it the right touch by adding a border with some Martha Stewart punches.

 

 

After deciding how I wanted my layout to look, I inked all the edges with Close to my Hearts' new mini ink.  Very juicy stuff, perfect for inking edges!

 

 

Once everything was glued down, the layout was missing a title.  So I went to my trusty Cricut, and using the leftover papers from the layout (plus a few more random scraps), put together a title.

 

 

I'm pretty pleased with the way this layout turned out.  Recently I've been very impressed with Allison Davis' sketches from the Scrapbook Generation sketch support site.  This layout is very similar to the types of layouts she and her mother, Debbie Sanders, create for their published sketchbooks as well as their online store and in-store classes that they teach in Missouri.  I love the simplicity of all the layouts that I have seen done by them, so I started incorporating their style of scrapbooking into some of my own layouts.

 

 

Thank you so much for stopping by and taking the time to check out my layout.  Come back tomorrow to see day 2 of my Halloween 365 projects that I am challenging myself to create.  TTFN!