Layout Catch-Up!

I'm back!! Hahahaha. So I have been mulling around in my brain, should I keep this blog and instagram going...pros and cons, pros and cons, rolling around in my brain for the past few weeks. And I have realized I am REALLY passionate about scrapbooking/memory keeping. I guess I should explain why.

This is probably the ONLY picture I have of my mom and I. And even then it's a family picture that I just cropped. She died from Breast Cancer when I was 4 years old. She is one of the bravest, most beautiful people I know. I wish I had more information about who she was. Her thoughts and feelings, especially about me. Maybe that is selfish, but being the youngest of 5 and so young when she died, I just feel like I'm missing out. Anyway! Not wanting to get way too "sob story" on you. This is a BIG reason why I am so passionate about scrapbooking and memory keeping. I'm terrible at keeping a journal...but I'm AWESOME at keeping a scrapbook. So it kind of takes the place of my journal. But if anything were to happen to me, I want to make sure my son has plenty of pictures and memories and journaling to read.
So. Back to the layouts. I'm just going to show you what I have been working on. No detailed pictures or anything but PLEASE...if you have ANY questions, feel free to comment! I'm more then happy to help or answer any questions!

I love how this page turned out. I have been dying to use these cut aparts from Bella Blvd's Tiny Tots line. I knew they would go perfect on a Zoo page! I think the title is so cute too!

I saw this idea on Pinterest. I ran across only a couple of pages that did this fold back thing. In hindsight, I wish I had used a smooth piece of black paper so the journaling would have been easier to write and easier to see, but you live and learn. And I'm happy with how it turned out since I have never done anything like that.

After taking a picture of this page and looking at it more, I think I need to add more journaling somewhere on here. But I think this page is one of my favorites that I have done. It's just so simplistic, but so festive and summery! I also tried a bit of mixed media on this one, which is hard to see behind the photo.

I watched a YouTube video of Kristina Werner doing this type of thing on a card. And I thought...I could totally adapt that for a layout! So I did! This is my kitty Angel. She was my baby for the longest time. The cat stamp set is from My Favorite Things.

And this is the last layout that I have done. I scraplifted this idea from Paige Evans. Which, if you haven't seen her stuff you are so missing out! She is super inspiring, does amazing things with paper, and is helping me get rid of my giant stash of scraps. Hahaha! The word currently recently came in a Studio Calico kit.

So that is what I have been up to since not blogging! Of course these and enjoying time with family! I have a few things up my sleeve for this week, more then likely there will be a post everyday this week. And pretty soon I will be having a GIVEAWAY! So please share my blog, share my instagram, follow my blog here so you don't miss out! And as I mentioned earlier, feel free to ask questions, or even give suggestions! Happy Scrapping!!

My Boys!

I'm back with another layout to share with you! I have been dying to try either embossing paste or texture paste on a layout, and really over all! So while I was at Joann's yesterday they were having a huge sale and I got some stencils and Teresa Collins modeling paste (it was all I could find that was similar) for a steal! So I tried it out yesterday with a couple of pictures of my husband and my son. So here is the layout!

I have decided that I might start just using 4x4 prints. They are 10 cents more, but I like the size on my layouts. It's hard for me to use more then one 4x6 pictures on a layout, I just have a hard time fitting it on the page in a way I like. As you can see I used the embossing paste in the upper left, and lower right hand corner. I love how it adds texture to the page, but its not overwhelming. I will post a close up of the stars so you can see them a bit better. 

So there is a better view of the stars. They are a little see through. I could have added a thicker layer of the modeling paste, but I was happy with how it turned out for my first try. As usual I inked the edges of most everything with my Distress brown ink. The majority of the paper is from Carta Bella's Boy oh Boy line. It has been sitting in my stash for awhile, and I thought it worked out perfectly for this layout. 

Don't mind the mess in the picture. I am a very messy scrapbooker! I spend half as much time cleaning as I do scrapping I swear! I used a wood veener piece and colored it with my Distress inks to match the coloring in the layout. I have been having trouble on some of my pages trying to figure out where to put the journaling. I feel like the story is really the most important part because it gets your thoughts out there. I used one of these rubber (?) pieces from October Afternoon's Rocket Age on here, just thought it was cute and boyish. Added the date. 

And lastly here is the title. The Boys is from a sticker sheet from OA's Rocket Age. In person it actually looks cool, the way they printed it makes it look 3D! I tied the twine around the left side to try to even out the journaling piece on the other side, it just looked a bit lopsided. 

I hope you enjoyed this layout! I really had fun trying a new technique! I'm sure I will being adding it to pages more often. It is subtle but adds so much texture and dimension for just a few steps! I hope you will all take a minute and subscribe to my blog and follow me on instagram! Until next time! :)

We Just Blinked!

Hello scrappin' friends! Back here with another layout to share with you. This layout was HARD. It started out completely different then it is now, and even then I struggled with it. I actually started it over two days ago, but had to keep leaving it because I was getting SO frustrated with it! Anyway, here is the layout! 

In the end I really do like how it ended up! I think I have learned that for me, sketches don't work to follow. I think that was my first mistake. I do like to use them as a guide, maybe for picture placement or what not, but, it makes me feel too limited honestly. I used to do Project Life and I came back to 12x12 scrapbooking because I felt like it was limiting my creativity by only giving me small little boxes to fill. So allowing my creativity plenty of space is important to me! I am still learning to accept my "style" and what I like as ok. I compare sometimes to other people, and that is just a big no no! There is NO wrong way to scrapbook. That is what is SO great about it! So on to some close ups of the layout.

This is the top cluster. I should add I am using a 5x7 photo on this layout, which may have been why I struggled a bit more! I really wanted to add the number 3 just to have a way to represent his age. I love the hash tag that you can fill in with whatever you want. The fox is a wood veneer that I colored with Ripe Persimmon distress ink, my stash is severally lacking in the orange color! I just picked up some color with my finger and rubbed it on. I felt like I had more control over how much ink was laid down that way. The behind paper is an older Amy Tangerine line. I think it's called Round the Clock.

Here is a close up of the journaling. It is easier to read in person, done in an orange gelly roll pen. Nothing spectacular!

Close up of the title. The word blinked is some chipboard alpha stickers I got with my Project Life Studio Calico kit a few months back. The We Just is My Mind's Eye. The little pie chart I am pretty sure comes from the ephemera pack of Amy Tangerine's that matches the background paper. I wanted to kind of show what my son is up to these days. I wish now I had done it differently, since it's not "pretty" lol but I only had one, so it is what it is! (I swear I say that on my blog a lot!) I didn't want to do a typical "Growing Up" title, just wanted something more original that grabs your attention.

Here is my paper in the process of doing splatters. I have a love/hate relationship with mists/splatters. I probably shouldn't have gone all the way around the page like that, but it's one of the first pages I have used splatters, so I'm still trying to figure it out. I actually made my own splatters, since I don't currently own any mists or anything.

Here is a picture of how I made them. I took a distress ink and smeared it on my acrylic block, added several sprays of water, and sucked it up with this syringe thing I just had laying around. I don't even remember WHY I bought it, but it sure came in handy today! Distress inks are probably one of my FAVORITE things I have in my collection. Because you can do so much with them! They are SO versatile, and a worth while investment if you are like me and on a small crafting budget! 

Be sure to comment and follow on my blog, and follow me on Instagram! I have a giveaway up my sleeve in the near future, so keep your eye out for it! Happy Scrapping! 

Read me a Story

Hello blogging world! I haven't done somewhat consist blogging since I documented my journey through 7 years of infertility! But I am wanting to get more involved in the scrapbooking world, because it truly is something I love. I have been scrapbooking since I was around 12 years old. My sister started me doing it when she had a class with Creative Memories WAY back in the day! I haven't always been consist with it, but it has been a part of my life basically ever since. One day I will show you some of my earlier scrapbooking pages just for fun.
Today I am sharing a scrapbook page with you that I recently made of my son and my dad reading a book together. I, so far, haven't been using sketches at all really. Some of my pages I do start out with some inspiration, and if I do, I will be sure to link to it (most likely through pinterest) and show you where I got the inspiration for a page.

So back to this page! I knew I wanted the page to be somewhat dark so the black and white color would stand out nicely from the back. So I picked a woodgrain patterned paper from Echo Park's All About a Boy. I have a TON of this paper because when my son was born it seemed like no one had little boy type papers! So I bought 2 packages of it! Now I am over flowing with boy themed papers, so I have banned myself from buying that style for awhile! The three pages in the back, the Chevron and the Jean looking pattern and the brown chevron are from the same collection. I ripped all but the brown which I just cut with my paper trimmer and added distress ink in brown to all the edges.

Here is a close up of one of the clusters. I'm going to apologize in advance that I don't know where each piece came from in most cases. I have all my ephemera sorted by color, this is just what works best for me. I can try to tell you if I do know. If you look behind all these layers you can see I added some corrugated strips here and in the other corner I will show you. I felt like this gave it much needed texture. Every piece has brown distress inks on it to keep it consistent. I used this paper doll cut out because I felt it conveyed a sense of "family" which is really the feeling I wanted to get on this page. Fave I know is from October afternoon, and I'm pretty sure you and me is too. The tag behind is Jilly Bean Soup and just tied with some baker's twine and I know the clothes pin is Amy Tangerine.

Here is a close up of the title. Read and Story are both thickers. I went around the letters of story with my distress ink again. The words me and a are from the sticker sheet that came in the collection. Under that is a Studio Calico sentiment strip which I felt really went along with the picture, and I ran my distress ink around it too.

Here is the second cluster. Photo Love is from October afternoon as is the orange star. I wish the orange was brighter around the star, but it is what it is! The orange triangle and tag are Jilly Bean Soup. The arrow is Heidi Swapp. I'm not sure where the little house is from, it was just in my stash. And again I ran my distress ink around each of these.

And finally I wanted share the words at the bottom. They are from My Mind's Eye. You can also see on the right edge a bit of my journaling, which was done with a White Gelly Roll pen. You will see a lot of handwritten journaling on my pages, there is a personal reason behind that, which I will get in to in another post, but I can guarantee you it isn't because I love my handwriting! I actually hate it! LOL But again I will write another blog post about that later!
I hope you enjoyed this layout, I really love the end result. As I am just getting started doing this, I appreciate any feedback and any sharing of my blog! If you have any questions about what I did somewhere, or any questions about how I scrapbook, please feel free to ask! Until next time! :)