Morgan's layout

The most recent addition to my family is my beautiful niece Morgan. Her arrival also meant I needed to scrap a new page for my Mom's family scrapbook. Going along with the pink kick I seem to be on, I mainly used Authentique blissful for this layout.

Items used on this layout are:

• Authentique Blissful
• Icons
• Headlines
• Euphoria paper
• Distinct paper
• Happiness paper
• Authentique Uncommon "Original" paper
• Ranger Stickles
• My Mind's Eye So Sophie Clever "family ties" frame and "celebrate" journaling card
• My Mind's Eye Follow Your Heart twine

Wood Block Picture Frame

For Mother's Day I followed a tutorial I saw on Scrapbooksteals.com by Brie Pinales.  The project was so much that I made one for myself, my Mom and my MIL. I just finished mine today and love it! I used my current favorite collections For the Record by Echo Park.

I started off by going to Lowe's and having them cut an 10 foot long 2"x8" board into foot long pieces. When I got home I sanded the rough edges and then gently washed them with a wet rag. I bought spray paint by Rustoleum and sprayed all sides of the board. I think it took 2 solid coats with dry time to get the look I wanted. After letting them fully dry overnight, I started Mod Podging in the morning. I used Gorilla Glue to attach the painted knob on top and my hot glue gun to attach the flowers and magnet. For the ribbon on bottom I used a combo of spray adhesive and Aileen's tacky glue. I am not 100% satisfied with how the ribbon dried so I think I will try a different medium next time.

May (calendar)

I know that May is almost over, but Dave was teasing me about not having done a layout for the calendar this month. Since I had so much fun doing to the masculine layout with feminine papers and embellishments, I decided to do it again!

In this layout I used:

• Authentique Splendid "Majesty" and Journey "Voyage"
• American Crafts City Park "Heritage Park" paper, City Park "bits" tags, City Park "remarks" dimensional stickers, Thickers "By The Yard"
• Fancy Pants It's the Little Things "Spring Fever" paper
• Echo Park Playground alphabet stickers
• My Mind's Eye Follow Your Heart twine
• We R Memory Keepers Crop-a-dile, Sew Easy floss

Layout challenges

I will admit that I am slightly in love with layout challenges. With my boys who haven't let me sleep in over 2.5 years, I sometimes fall short in the creativity department. Challenges are good for me b/c there are usually fantastic layout samples plus I get to see (and get inspired by) the layouts that the other challenge participants submit. This blog post is mostly going to be a reference point for me to list the various layout challenges I have come across. I have not participated in all these challenges, but hope to start broadening my horizons. Since I am relatively new to the online scrapping community there are only a handful that I know of and here they are in no particular order.

• My Mind's Eye bimonthly challenge (two times/month)
• Scrapbooksteals.com Mid Week Mojo (every Wednesday)
• The Paper Girls Challenge Blog (first and third Monday of the month)
• Authentique Monthly challenge (first Saturday of the month)
• Lasting Memories Layout Challenges (Every Sunday)
• Basic Grey Weekly Challenge (looks like it is not every Friday but most)
• Crate Paper monthly color challenge (1st Friday of the month)
• Kaisercraft Saturday Sketch (every Saturday)

That's all I've got for now. 

My Mind's Eye May Challenge #2

This is my first time entering a layout for My Mind's Eye monthly challenges. I have MME paper and embellishments up the wazoo so I have no idea why I waited this long to enter one. I loved this challenge b/c it was to create a boy layout using seemingly feminine papers and embellishments or vice versa. Since I have two boys it seems like I am always reaching for the blues, green, and browns. This challenge got me reaching for the pinks which I rarely ever use. I chose one of my favorite photos of my handsome hubby and it was perfect b/c it is almost completely grey. The pinks look fantastic with the lack of color in the picture.

In this layout I used the following:

1. My Mind's Eye
   • Lost & Found Two papers from Blush, Rosy, and Breeze
   • Stella & Rose Trim
   • Stella & Rose journaling card
   • Stella & Rose frame
   • Lime Twist journaling card
   • So Sophie journaling card
   • So Sophie We Are Family Stickers
   • Follow Your Heart twine
   • Quite Contrary Journal Spots
2. Little Yellow Bicycle- Fresh Print Clothesline lace cut cardstock
3. Colorbox Chalk inkpad dark peony
4. Tim Holtz mini staples

June (calendar)

This year I bought a DIY calendar from Archiver's. In a perfect world I would have had all the months completed by now, however, my world is busy and messy and definitely not perfect. I really like the way this page turned out plus I found a use for the pink Thickers that have been collecting dust on my shelf!

For this page I used:

• Crate Paper- Lemongrass collection Citrus, Lime, and Orchard paper
• The Paper Studio - Oasis Floral paper
• American Crafts- Thickers
• Fancy Pants- Summer's End die cuts
• Ranger Stickles
• Echo Park - Playground alphabet stickers
• 
  

Turquoise #3

For this weeks mid week mojo, Scrapbooksteals.com has created yet another great sketch for me to play with.  I chose a picture that I have wanted to scrap for awhile now. When we were in Kyoto, Japan we were on our way to temple when we got caught in a torrential rainstorm. We hid out under an awning until the rain let up a bit and it felt great. Japan in August is hot and humid so the rain was a nice reprieve.

For this layout I used:

• Little Yellow Bicycle - Decorative edge cardstock, paper flowers, and chipboard stickers.
• Basic Grey - Pyrus die cut shapes, and brads
• Echo Park - Note to Self cardstock
• American Crafts - Campy Trails paper
• My Mind's Eye - Indie Chic garland
• Recollections floral embellishments
• Ranger diamond stickles
• Ditto Glimmer spray

Authentique May Challenge

The sketch for this month's Authentique challenge was relatively simple, but so much fun! I loved choosing the paper, the pictures, and the embellishments. There were really a lot of choices to make and I liked making seemingly uncoordinated papers work together. For this layout I used the following products by Authentique:

• Blissful- Prosperity paper
• Journey- Stroll paper
• Splendid- Majesty, Renown, & Brilliance paper, Noteables

I also used natural jute, MME twine, snake tape adhesive, and zip dry paper glue.

 

I included two photos of the same layout b/c the lighting is just so different. The lighting on the 2nd one is more true to the real colors, but the first one doesn't have the shadows. Anyway, here they are. 

The Paper Girls Challenge #7

The Paper Girls Challenge #7 was a beautiful layout with a lovely example. I was tempted to try and create something beautiful, flowy, and stunning too. Looking through my paper I came across my Echo Park A Boy's Life collection and the ideas started flowing. Stunning flew out the window and fun boy's layout came together. This was my first time twisting twine around a layout as well. I used Zip Dry paper glue, but wonder if there is a better way. For this layout I used:

• Echo Park A Boy's Life paper and stickers
• My Mind's Eye Abbey Road tag, Follow Your Heart twine, and Kraft Funday paper

Turquoise #2

This weeks Mid Week Mojo layout from Scrapbooksteals.com had be digging through photos from our 2006 trip to Japan. I love layouts that have a lot of pictures b/c it gives me an opportunity to scrap the times that I have taken 1000 pictures. We loved Japan and would love to go back one day with the kids.

The only paper I know of for sure that I used on this layout is from Fancy Pants Designs It's the Little Things collection. All the other paper came from my scraps. 

Turn Back Time challenge

Happy National Scrapbooking Day! This challenge from scrapbooksteals.com is about your past, pre-25 year old stuff. I went all way back to high school for this one! Senior year of high school I was in the play Once Upon a Mattress. Most of my good friends were in drama so we practice was always a good time., For this layout I used Crate Paper Mia collection, We R Memory Keepers Sew Easy, My Mind's Eye tags and frame, Basic Grey brads and Authentique stickers. I forget where the banner chipboard stickers and the banner sticker that I put "mattress" on top came from. 

Sassy Springtime challenge

In honor of National Scrapbooking Day (today!), scrapbooksteals.com is having 4 different challenges. I completed 3! This one required that you used springtime yellows, blues. and greens and the layout had to include flowers. I used paper from my current favorite collection, Echo Park For The Record. I also used twine from My Mind's Eye and sticker from My Little Yellow Bicycle. The picture is of me and my Dad on my wedding day. My Dad may not be the most expressive man, but he is strong, intelligent, hard working, and a lot of fun. I couldn't have asked for a better father.

Turquoise #1

Here is my first scrapbook layout post eye surgery. Things are still a bit blurry so this took me longer than it should have but it's nice to start crafting again. Scrapbooksteals.com has started its new series Turquoise and this is the first layout challenge. I turned this into a 2 page layout b/c I couldn't crop my pictures down anymore and I wanted to use them all. I think it translates pretty well. I forgot to keep a running tab on the papers I used but from memory I have Authentique Journey and Loyal, Echo Park This & That Charming, and My Mind's Eye Lost & Found Two collections in this layout.