Category Archives: Crafty Layout

Oct14

one pile of pictures – two ways…

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one pile of pictures – two ways…

We have a ritual that is a year old now.  On the first day of school, pics in front of the tree in the yard, pics of the backpack on the way to the car, and pics at school.  Yup.  I am that mom…

With having 2 boys and not enough time most days, I wanted to make sure to document these moments in our family album, but also wanted to start their school albums as well.  The decision I came to was that the one for “my” book would be more my style and the one for theirs would be less embarrassingly girly and more simplified and straightforward.

The best find I have made was thanks to my dear scrappy pal Joey Otlo, who happens to work for Bazzill.  They make this amazing Lickety Slip album – it has 12×12 pages and then pages with 4×6 slots for quick and easier scrapping.  When you are doing multiple renditions of the same photos, it is fun to have different ways to get your brain thinking about using those pics.

Here is my layout for the family album…

For this one, I had a lot of fun with some absolutely amazing papers fromJillibean Soupand fun making my own embellies with my little button maker from Epiphany Crafts.

Here is the album for Jacob…

I think it is a ton of fun to do this and the kids love that they have their books.  It makes them feel great to have something that is all their own and look at their books over and over again. 

That is what it is all about, anyway, right?

Happy Scrappin’!

Oct12

the cove

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the cove

Over the summer, one of our favorite things to do was go to the gym.  Now, I know what you are thinking – Seriously?  The gym in summer?!?!

Well, we are blessed to have a gym that also has an outdoor waterpark with three slides, a lazy river, a smaller kids pool, and lots more (including a snack bar and an adult beverage bar…) So, while it sounded great to say I am heading to the gym, we were really heading to the waterpark for some fun in the sun.

The boys loved it and so did we, spending a lot of time there with Matt before he started his new job and time after daycare and on the weekends before summer came to a close. 

This was by far one of the best investments we made this year and we have lots of fun memories to prove it.

To create this layout’s fun water feel, I grabbed some great papers and embellies from Colorbok and my fun summery punches from Fiskars and got to work!

I loved capturing one of our days there… I only took pics one day.  We had so much fun there, but it was a place I left the camera at home for so that we could just “be”.  These are actually pics from my phone that I printed and used for the layout! 

Hope you had fun this summer…  I know we sure did!

Jul12

oldies but goodies

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oldies but goodies

Last week I had fun going through some old gallery posts over at the Fiskateer site…  I found some old layouts that I really love and thought that I might pull them up and share them with all of you.

So, this might be a repeat, but here are some faves from the past…

I just love these and it is fun to see how much the boys have changed in just a few short years!

Happy Monday everyone!!!

Apr3

emhe

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emhe

Last fall, I was blessed to have the opportunity to go to an Extreme Makeover build in Lena, IL.  I was even more blessed to have the opportunity to take Matt and the boys along as well.  They had a blast and so did I.  I feel so lucky to work somewhere that allowed me the chance to go down and drop off the items, as well as actually see the site. 

Owen and Jacob had the amazing moment of meeting Paul from the show and we saw Ed drive by a few times on the golf cart.  Overall, it is a day that I don’t think they will forget soon.  I, however, took several months to actually get it scrapped!!!  LOL!!!  You know how it goes…  too many pictures, not enough time, right?

Anyway, here is the fun little layout I did to celebrate our weekend adventure. 

Apr2

a layout…

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a layout…

with the same pictures I used to create my grandpa’s gift box…  When the three of them – Owen, Jacob, and my grandpa – get together laughter and hilarity often ensue…

Just wanted to share an actual layout that I completed last weekend!  I got several done, so there are a few more to come!

Mar5

remember…

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remember…

that I told you I was blogging at ella publishing this week?  Well my post is now up…  Yippee!!!

I feel so grateful to have been asked and had a total blast doing it.  I suggest ya’ll head over there now and check it out.

And, if you leave a comment over there by then end of the day Sunday (3/7/10), I will draw a winner on Monday for some My Mind’s Eye goodies (since it is their stuff I used in my project!) to share with a lucky reader!!!!

Here is peek at the project I did that inspired my snowman layout as well…  Anyway…  Super smiley now…

Mar2

a snowman kinda day…

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a snowman kinda day…

That’s what Sunday was.  The sun was shining.  It was actually nice out - 35 or so.  The wind was barely blowing and the kids could venture outside to play for more than 5 minutes without freezing to death!

So, we bundled them up and sent them out.  And they made their first snowman by themselves.  It was short and a little off shaped, but by golly they did it alone.  I felt so much pride as I watched them from the deck.  They even went over to our neighbor’s house and made them a little one, too.  Their grandkids live far enough away that they love it when the boys chat with them and do stuff like that.  Needless to say, it was a ton of fun to watch and take pictures of.

Last night I did some midweek crafting which I am trying to do more of.  (I am actually guest blogging on this topic and finding inspiration later this week at ella…  be sure to check it out!)  I created a similar layout to this one last week (again – at ella later this week) and liked it so much that I used the basis of it to create this one.  For me, going with really white paper and a minimalistic feel is hard.  It is much easier for me to put a bunch of buttons, mix several papers together, etc… than it is to go very simplistic.  And yet, when I do, I love the look.  I am just not as good at it as I could be.  (Maybe some more midweek crafting breaks will help - don’t you think!?!?!?)

Anyway…  Here is the layout…

(Paper is My Mind’s Eye, flowers from Prima, fluffy stuff is Heidi Grace, and bling is Colorbok and Making Memories.)

Happy National Craft Month!

Feb28

so excited…

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so excited…

I was lucky enough to have been asked by the wonderful Lain Ehmann to create a project using my stash for her amazing Layout a Day (LOAD) project for this month…  I did a video tutorial on how to use your felt stash to create custom embellishments for your layouts.

Here is the layout that I created for it…

Thanks, Lain, for the chance to play with everyone over at LOAD!

Feb25

a pajama party creation

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a pajama party creation

Last night I had a blast hanging with the gang from Inspired at Home Radio at their weekly Pajama Party!  While there, I was on and off camera for the hour, creating a layout, and talking about mixing and using patterned papers in a layout.

This is the layout I created while there:

 

 

 

 

What I wanted to show last night was that you CAN mix different patterns – checks, dots, argyle, etc…  if the colors work together, they can easily go together. 

For the beginning pattern mixer, this is an easy way to try it.  Create little strips, then punch and ink the edges to create the layers.  Then you can add in some punched pieces that all coordinate but are different.  They all work well together without clashing!

The other thing we learned, after the show stopped taping, is to make sure, before stamping on a photo with stayz-on, that if you are the one who labeled your stamp that you did not put the stamp on the block upside down…  note all the buttons?  That actually says “happiness” upside down under there.

Remember – there are no mistakes, just alterations!

Thanks again for letting me hang out last night gang – it was fun!!!