Thursday, March 31, 2011

Hi!

My younger son is constantly hiding.  He loves being found behind chairs, under blankets or below tables.  I thought Jeanette Lynton's 'On with the Show' layout in her 'Magic' book would be a great way to show off my son's love of hiding.


When you pull the tab, a picture and journaling slide out on either side of the main picture.


I love the technique she explained in the book.  But I was very frustrated trying to follow the directions for the over all layout.  It just reinforces that I am not a sketch/scraplift type of person.  I plan to use more of her ideas in the future.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

more layouts

Here are more layouts I completed at the weekend crop.

Hugs.  Alex is a really good hugger and I'm his favorite person to share a hug with.  I used Stickles to outline the green and blue paper to help draw your attention to the picture.


Horse flip.  Alex also likes to play with toys in an unorthodox way. I used a friends wavy trimmer to cut the paper.  I stickled the brads too.


Badge to books.  Zach was using his work badge to check all the books one day.  I'm not sure what he was looking for, but he was very adamant about comparing them all. I decided to keep this layout simple so the pictures could tell the story.


ABC blocks.  Zach LOVES letters, especially his blocks.  I used ribbon and strips of paper with the alphabet on them.


Talking on phones.  The boys were both on the phone so I had to take the picture!  I was excited to use my American Crafts ribbon that had greetings in speech bubbles.


Playing with Little People.  The boys had fun playing and I had fun making the layout.  The top is ribbon and the other vehicle strips are different patterned papers from Hobby Lobby.


Sledding.  I have so many great pics of the boys playing in the snow.  This layout shows Zach helping his dad pull Alex in the sled.  I used an EK Success snowflake punch around the photo mats.  Then I used the 'left overs' from the punch to make the border around the entire layout.  Stickles are placed sporadically around the layout too.


Thanks for looking!

Friday, March 25, 2011

fire

This layout shows my dad teaching the boys how to build a fire.


I inked the edges of the paper.


I also used ribbon, brads and Thickers.

Friday, March 18, 2011

a 'pretty' layout

I LOVE how this layout turned out. I can't even tell you the last time I did a 'pretty' layout before this one.  I plan on getting a black frame and hanging it in the family room.


I hand drew some flourishes in one corner. Then I traced that shape into the other 3 corners. Next I applied the stickles and the bling. Even though it's a simpler layout, I love, love, love how it turned out.

The picture was taken by a hired photographer at my husband's x-mas work party.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

the result

I have finished my layout with the ugly papers and here is the result!


I used the pink sheet as the background and the orange one for the shadow/outlines on the letters and photo mats.

That day I was REALLY excited to see her dressed in pink when my boys came to play.  They always have such a good time.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Ugly Paper

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while, things have been a little hectic here.  I won't be able to add any new layouts until after the crop this weekend.

In the mean time, I participate in an 'ugly paper' challenge on scrapbook.com.  Everyone that signs up receives another person's address from the hostess.  We each mail out 2 ugly, outdated or mismatched papers that HAVE to be used on one layout.  You don't have to use the whole sheet and you can add anything you want to, but the ugly paper must be visible when you are done.  And they added an optional ugly embellishement too.

Here is what I am working with for March:





I HAVE to use the orange and pink papers.  The cat vellum and flower are optional.  With 2 boys, it will be tough to find pics that coordinate with these.  I hope the people at the crop can help me brain storm some ideas.  I'll post the layout as soon as I finish it.

Friday, March 4, 2011

Please?

Here is my son, really wanting to read a book.


I wanted to keep the focus on the picture so I did very little around it.  The background is Basic Grey Vagabond paper with 2 pieces of DCWV card stock as accents.  It's simple, but I love how it turned out.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Sharing


The boys smuggled MY water bottle out of my room.  But then they were sharing it.  How could I be mad?

I used some papers, ribbon, ink and stickles (that are really hard to see).

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Chill 'axin'

This layout is of my older son chilling and relaxing, sitting in his chair, drinking his juice, watching Elmo.


I was 'feeling the blues' yesterday as I scrapped these pictures.  Course then I was able to enter it in scrapbook.com's monochromatic challenge.  The main background paper is a navy blue, not black as it seems in the picture.  On the top and bottom, I used a dauber and lightly applied silver ink to soften the color a little.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Circles and ribbon

This is a layout of my younger son Alex and the alphabet puzzle pieces.  They all have Sesame Street characters and he gets realllllly excited when he finds ones with Elmo

The challenges on scrapbook.com have really helped rejuvenate my creative mojo. The 'excessive use of fibers' challenge asked that we use 3-7 feet of ribbon.  I was able to use 7 feet and a million circles.  For the circles I used the Fiskars 'swiss cheese' corner punch, the Martha Stewart Large Circle Cutter and the Fiskars Double Corner Rounder.


And after allll these years, I have FINALLY figured out how to take really good pics of my layouts.

I have to:
-use good natural light
-no flash
-set the camera to 'macro'
-stand directly above the layout
-take a few pics in case I moved
-use good editing software to crop out the floor.

It works.

Groovy blog

I shared my layout 'Snow fun' with the ladies at If Its Groovy blog.  Feel free to check it out here heart challenge.