Category: Layouts

Stitching!

So I managed to sit down and create this weekend! It did feel good to get some things done. I haven’t really worked on much in a couple of weeks. I have some things to share with you over the next few days (and some things I won’t be sharing since I plan on submitting them!). What I found myself working on yesterday was LOTS of stitching. I had the sewing machine going for almost every project I made. The funniest thing about that is years ago I swore I’d never sew on a layout. I guess the old saying “never say never” is a good one!

So I have got the happy sewing going on here. But you know what else makes me happy with this page? Those alphabets! I am so in love with the tiny type alphabet from Cosmo Cricket and the smokey gray alphabet from American Crafts. The Cosmo Cricket letters come with a full row of each letter. Yes that means you will have a million z’s left over but it also means you’ll have plenty of e’s and t’s to spell out whole messages. I can’t get enough of them. I think I am going to have to restock soon because I am using them up too fast.

Speaking of using things up to fast, want to know another secret about me? I used to buy product and then not be able to use it because then it would be ALL GONE. So it would just sit in my stash and I would admire it. You know, I think I like admiring it much better when it is ON projects! So I don’t feel bad about using it all up. Besides I know where to buy more 🙂

Recipe:

CS, PP: Stampin’ Up
punches: EK Success
marker: Marvy
alpha: Cosmo Cricket (tiny type), American Crafts

More stitching layouts to come…

New Kit Club

Super quick post for you today. I listened to an interview with Kim Garner on The PaperLife a while back and she talked about Scrapbook Chicks. This company started out making scrapbooking T-shirts and has moved on to carrying other scrapbooking products. The thing that I got excited about is that they are offering smaller subscription kits. I just bought one and want to review it for you. I’ll have to get to the review part later as I am helping a friend out today. But here is a sneak of what I have done with the kit (and a couple extras).

Recipe:

Scrapbook Chicks kit: Buttons, flours, butterfly rhinestone, alpha stickers, Journal Card & Pattern Paper (October Afternoon).
Extras: Glitter spray (Clearsnap), Tree mask (Cricut), punch (Stampin’ Up)

Playing with leftovers

I started an elements scrap drawer a while back. In this drawer I put pre-cut/punched items. I can just go to this drawer and grab items when I need a little something for my page. I have found that I really like this system. I am adding more layers to my projects, which is something I like when I see other people’s work. I am also mixing and matching patterns and colors that I would not normally think of putting together. Plus this drawer makes good use of the last scraps of my paper. I will punch flowers, hearts, squares and other shapes from the scraps that are too small to save, yet too big for me to just recycle.

The background paper and the floral stripe running through the middle were new elements. Most the other elements, the marquee die cut, the scallop die cut, the scallop border pieces and the butterflies were all leftovers. Even the jumbo pieced flower was an element that I had gotten in a kit that I just never used. All these things had no use at the time. But here they all are playing nice together.

So, go ahead, start an element scrap drawer (or bag or envelope). You may be surprise by what you can do with these little bits of goodness later!

Cricut Lite Meow

I’m excited about the new Cricut Lite cartridges. I like having a sampling of images rather than a large cartridge full of images that I will probably never use. The only catch is that I usually pay $25-40 on ebay for a full cartridge and the new lites retail for $39.99 at WalMart. In the end I am getting fewer cuts for the same or higher price than I am used to paying. And I have to shop at WalMart, my least favorite store. Regardless, I like several of the new releases and will buy them. I already bought Meow and would like to share my thoughts and projects on this cartridge.

I found some of the small detailed cuts, such as tiny noses, hard to work with. When I used a nice sticky mat and a lower speed and pressure the cuts came out much better. Prior to making those changes I kept shifting and tearing my paper. Even with the troubles I think the cuts are so fun that I am willing to work with any troubles. See what I made…

Recipe:
pattern papers: Scenic Route
cardstock, ribbon, chalk: Stampin’ Up
Cricut cartridges: Meow (Lite), Opposites Attract
markers: Marvey
alpha stickers: from stash

One of the reasons I loved this cartridge is that we adopted two kittens back in April. These kittens were introduced into our lives after a very bad experience of being dog owners. The cats are such a joy compared to the troubles with the dog! I never thought I would be a scrapper of fur babies but these sweeties have converted me to a sappy pet-scrapper. The title was cut with the purr+cat image from the Meow cartridge then I used the Opposites Attract cartridge to finish the letter for the title. The paw prints and the two kittens also came from Meow.

Recipe:
pattern papers: Scenic Route, Bella Blvd., Piggy Tales
cardstock: Stampin’ Up, Bazill
punch: Fiskars
Cricut Cartridge: Meow (lite)

And the images on this cartridges are just so fun that I had to make a card. Don’t know how I’ll use this card yet, but I love, love, love it!

And if those were enough reasons to buy this cartridge, my girls love to play with the cricut with me. It is good time crafting together. My 8 year old made this project. It is a layout with pockets on it to hold her family of cats. Each family comes in each of the 4 colors. Cut the cats & embellish with markers. How fun!

Final LOAD posts

Okay, after a very busy weekend and then the stomach flu, I am finally feeling up to getting the last of my LOAD layouts posted. I’ve got all digital layouts for you this post.  Four of the 5 are duplicate layouts in a series and are easily reproducible in paper form. Hope you get some inspiration. Enjoy.

Day 27, 28, 29, 30. A series from our unschooling conference. It was four days of joy, thoughtfulness, activity, exhaustion, connections, energy, learning and so much more. It really is an emotional ride that extends beyond a learning philosophy and into a living philosophy.

Day 31: And at the end of the weekend this was how I felt.

LOAD Day 24 to 26

I’ve got a very busy weekend ahead of me. Our family is going to our annual unschooling conference. It is an exhilarating and exhausting 5 days! I thought I would post the last few days LOAD project before all the activity gets under way for us tomorrow.

Day 24: Our homeschool science fair. This was the first one and we hope to make it an annual event.

Day 25: A camping trip from last fall. I made my own photo collage template and fit 34 photos on my layout!

Day 26: I’ve had these duck stickers for a long time and finally had a chance to use them. I used the cricut with center point function turned on to cut circles out of my photos and matted with circles 1/4″ larger. I paired some more elegant paper with the cuter duck stickers. I think the balanced worked well.

LOAD Day 19 to 23

I think I’m in the home stretch now. I have a weekend event this last weekend of LOAD, so I am a bit worried about getting the last few days in on time. I’m hoping to plan some of my own digital templates by Thursday so that I can just throw in my photos from the weekend event and get them posted. We’ll see how it goes! And now for the last few days’ layouts…

Day 19: I was hoping with LOAD to get a slew of older project ideas completed. Alas, I’ve found myself immersed in the present. I did manage for day 19 to get an old Christmas story told. I’m hoping these last couple of days will bring more older stories.

Day 20: Digital layout. (Recipe: stitching: Michelle Coleman (Bohemian Summer); bow: Carrie Stephens (Gypsy Dancer); metal circles: Misty Murphy (I’ll post them to the freebies section later)). I used some scans of my baby stuff that my parents sent me for my birthday. I’m so very happy to have these things.

Day 21: I just love the angle of this photo. It pretty much speaks for itself. I didn’t have to do too much extra to this page.

Day 22: Digital (Recipe: fonts: Stampin Up (Girly Girl), Desdemona; ribbon, pattern papers: Atomic Cupcake; flower: Dani Mogstad; photo frames: Misty Murphy (I’ll post these to the freebies section as well)).

Day 23: And today’s layout… This layout was bombing big time when I started it. I had stamped the squares around the edges and meant to evenly space them to fit all 25 on the border. Didn’t work. Then my advent title was small and very blue all by itself. When I was sorting through my stash I dropped some photo corners and a light bulb when on. I could use those corners as arrows to spruce up my title block. That lead to more arrows through the page and I pulled in the blue from the title to carry it through the layout better. Then threw in some other embellishments to support the theme a little more. I was pleased it ended up looking like a game board, say a version of Candy Land. And I saved a layout from what could have been a tragic end.

LOAD layouts Day 10 to 18

I thought I would get these posted sooner, but again no such luck. Just getting in a layout everyday is proving challenging!

LOAD Day 9: Worked on the Week In The Life project put on by Ali Edwards.

LOAD Day 10

LOAD Day 11

LOAD Day 12

LOAD Day 13

LOAD Day 14: I worked on both Day 6 and Day 7 on this day and only uploaded Day 7 for LOAD.

LOAD Day 15

LOAD Day 16: A challenge — to do something you never do. For this page I did the things I never normally do, like…

  • printing photos straight from my printer without being edited and cropped
  • use bold color schemes
  • use tons of embellishments

LOAD Day 18: Reflecting on becoming one year older and what it means to be a “grown up.”

NSD recap

So I had a great time celebrating NSD with a couple of friends. We chatted, listened to music, snacked and learned things from each other. It was a good day. I’m looking forward to working on more projects here in a few minutes. Today I am going to focus on challenges put out by blogs and community sites that I follow. I am also going to work on my layout for LOAD. More about that next post. For now here are the things I completed for NSD.

This one you saw as my last challenge post yesterday. While I completed all the other NSD challenges before hand. This one I did day of. It was also my Day 1 entry for LOAD.

A no photo layout using saved items.

And Pages from the class I am taking at Big Picture Scrapbooking called Everyday Adventures. I posted about this class in an earlier post as well. The first layout was to create a page about things you buy, the second page was to explore type and the final was to think about the things you throw away. My daughter played along with that one and her interpretation is on the right of the photo.