Just one more picture?

This week, my super talented scrappy friend Chloe Salerno, provided the sketch and inspiration layout for Scrapbook Steals.  Chloe used three photos and three blocks of patterned paper.  But, since I had 6 photos I wanted to include, I skipped the patterned paper and just made a grid of photos.

After marking out my grid with pencil, I machine stitched over the grid, to "frame" my photos somewhat.  I added a large title, just like Chloe did, and added stickers and stamps and various "photo" themed embellishments.  It's fun to do a silly page like this every once in a while.  It goes to show that all of our photos don't have to be perfect to make it into our albums.  In fact, the crazy photos are my favorite ones of all the photos I took on this particular camping trip.

Caleb{age8}

This week's sketch challenge at Scrapbook Steals came together quickly.  I pulled out some photos of my little dude and let him fill in the blanks on my journaling tag.  It's a fun way to capture his personality and preserve his handwriting at this stage in his life. 

These papers are all by Simple Stories, from the Take a Hike collection.  It is my favorite collection to use with photos of our outdoor adventures! 

The boys of summer

After a week long crafty hiatus, I'm glad to say I'm back on the scrappin' wagon.  I really look forward to the weekly challenge at Scrapbook Steals, but just ran out of time last week and didn't play along for the first time in over two years :(  But this week, I was determined to get 'er done, and I just barely squeaked this layout out.  Here's what I came up with for the Rose #2 sketch:

Since we're still in the midst of a never ending winter and buried in snow, I dug out some pictures from last summer that make me long for the warmer days ahead.  This layout features papers from Echo Park's That's My Boy collection, along with a few stickers and embellishments from some of the older EP lines.  It was quick and simple and didn't have as many "layers" as I like, but it's finished in time!

Impressively Iolite

I've come to the end of another 10 week sketch series at Scrapbook Steals.  I love playing along with their mid-week mojo challenges and have gained many friends, good deals, and much inspiration!  They are generously giving away a gift card to Scrapbook Steals, which I could definitely put to good use!  Here are my 10 layouts from the "Iolite" series:

 

turning 9

This week I turned the Scrapbook Steals sketch into a two page layout because, as usual, I had way too many photos for just one page.  I finally got around to scrapping my youngest son's birthday from four months ago.

These patterned papers are from the Happy Day collection by Simple Stories.  I loved the journaling prompt, with a list of 9 "birthday favorites"-just perfect for my 9 year old's birthday layout!  Thanks for stopping by!

Adventure time

Yikes! I almost ran out of time to play along with this week's sketch challenge for Scrapbook Steals, but luckily I managed to squeeze it in between a few loads of laundry. 

This layout features papers from the Awesome collection by Simple Stories.  I think I've completed more boy layouts with Awesome than any other collection, simply because the style and patterns match so many of my masculine photos.  I've been hoarding a few scraps for quite a while now and decided it was time to use them up.  I'm so glad I did, because this layout came together effortlessly! 

Snow Day Challenge

Since I was lucky enough to get a paid day off work due to loads of snow and crazy low temperatures, I decided to spend some time in my scrappy space while my boys were happily playing.  Without a sketch or specific project in mind, I set out to challenge myself.  Die cut papers and pre-printed backgrounds always intimidate me, so I decided to tackle some "challenging" papers.

The first paper, Red Rover by Pink Paislee, has open cut outs as part of the pre-printed page.  It's hard to see in this photo, because the "b side" of the paper beneath shows through.  There were 3 open circles, two open stars, and a row of cut out stars at the top of the page that had nothing behind them.





 

Pages designed like this could be time savers, but they are almost impossible for me to use.  I struggled with finding photos and papers to put behind the "open" spaces and then cut out some circle shaped photos to fill in some of the other circles.  Finally, I added some washi, spray ink, star die cuts, a flag, a button, and some "faux stitching".  I even threw in a few sequins in honor of my sequin lovin' friend Melissa! Here's what I came up with:

 

My second "challenge" paper was the "b side" of this page from Simple Stories' 24/seven collection:

I love the randomness of the background paper, but haven't been able to make it work with any of my earlier layouts because I feel the need to "incorporate" the background prints.  After way too much analysis, I finally came up with this page featuring my oldest son.  The embellishments and papers are all from the 24/seven collection and the title was die cut using my Cameo.

 There was a journaling card with a phrase that I wanted to include, but I couldn't work the card into my layout in a pleasing way, so I cut apart the journaling card and put the words directly on my photo.

I love the way it turned out and I'm so glad I challenged myself to use these papers today.  Hope you're all warm and cozy and finding time to be crafty!  Thanks for stopping by!