What Our Summer Looks Like - SWAT Design Team

This week's challenge over at SWAT was to scrap about our summer. This layout definitely pinpoints what most of my summer was about. The girls and their friends! They spent their whole vacation together. Our place. Their place. Our pool. Their jungle gym. Makeup. Dress up. Playing Mommy. They sure had a great time!

Make sure you link up with SWAT if you take on this challenge. We'd love to see what you come up with!

I used a sketch from My Scraps & More. thanks for the inspiration!

Papers: Studio Calico (South of Market), Echo Park (Capture Life)
 Printable: The Cut Shoppe
Letters: Echo Park (Capture Life) and Lily Bee
Sticker: Echo Park (Capture Life)

Castle

Good afternoon everybody! 

Today, I'm sharing this layout with you. The picture is from last year. The girls were so proud of this castle they collaborated on!

I started with the July sketch from The Memory Nest. Leslie from TMN has been a loyal commentor on my blog and I appreciate every single one of her comments! I'm glad to finally be participating in one of her challenges!

I also joined in the "Let's Go Shopping" challenge over at Scrap Our Stash. They offered a list of scrap items from which I had to choose 5+ and use them on my layout. Here is what I chose: 

-washi tape (I especially love how it looks on the wood veneer embellishment)

-striped paper (all papers here are Imaginisce)

-buttons

-dimentional sticker

-wood veneer

-die-cut (sunshine, matted and pop dotted)

-rub-on (butterflies)

It was nice to make a small dent in my stash!

28 Weeks, You Say?

Good morning everyone! For my layout today, I used pictures from years ago when I was pregnant with Zoey. The one of Kira makes me chuckle every time, I had to get it on paper.

I used an old Rouge de Garance paper as my background. The lines and turquoise colour were already there; the rest are rub-ons and stamps. 

I liked the challenge over at Once Upon a Sketch. There was a sketch as well as a journaling theme: numbers. Simple enough- choose a number and center your journaling around that. Here's the end result:

Go on, take a selfie! (SWAT Drill #33)

I hate having my picture taken. I despise it. I'm always criticizing the way my hair looks, or how my teeth are crooked, or how fat I think I look. So I used to avoid being in pictures if I could. Then, a few years ago, I read an article that changed the way I see things. It talked about leaving pictures of you for your kids. When you are gone, do you want your kids to flip through entire scrapbooks without a single picture of you?

They won't care if you hair was flat or frizzy. They won't care about your teeth, or the extra pounds you are carrying around. They'll just be thrilled to have pictures of YOU. That article really resonated with me. Then I got my smartphone and it made it super easy to take selfies. So now I regularly appear in pictures. And it turns out, it's not so bad!

This week over at SWAT, our drill was to create a layout with a selfie. I took this picture of Kira and myself last month and I knew it was the perfect one! Make sure you share your own version of this challenge over at SWAT for a chance to win a 20$ GC to Creative Embellishments!

I used the May kit from Scrapbook Circle, High Five. My favorite part is from their exclusive tag set. See the yellowy-green tag on the left? It says "May 2014" all over it. How perfect is that?! I'm also really happy with how the title turned out.

I also used a sketch by Liz Chidester for this month's challenge over at My Creative Sketches. Thanks for the inspiration!

Funny Girl

Good afternoon everyone! I'm here to share a layout based on a sketch by Laura Whitaker for Stuck?! Sketches.

Papers are American Crafts, Chap collection.

Kiddie Pool - American Crafts (#summer)

I fell in love with this collection by American Crafts, #summer. The colours are awesome and they inspired me to finally scrap these adorable pictures of Kira from 2010!  I used the Stuck?! Sketch May 1st Challenge as a starting point for this.

Thanks for stopping by!

Life is not a race. Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.♥

Scrapping Our Stash - The Practical Scrappers Blog Hop

Welcome to the Practical Scrappers Blog Hop 

where we are Scrapping our Stash.

I dug in my stash to find a little bit of everything that tends to get forgotten. Old Chatterbox, old chipboard shapes, not-super-old-but-not-recent stickers. It was fun! 

Supplies
Papers: Chatterbox Decorative Cardstock, My Mind's Eye (Lime Twist), Sassafras (Nerdy Bird)
Chipboard stars: Lil' Davis, Scrapworks
Stickers: Little Yellow Bicycle
Enamel dots: My Mind's Eye

We are not doing a giveaway on the main blog this month - but lots of our designers are - so make sure to check out each blog!   We have a smaller list this month so it shouldn't be hard to check out all the fun!

Practical Scrappers Blog Hop List

Practical Scrappers: You Are Here

Wendi Robinson
Marcia Dehn Nix
Christine Meyer
YOU ARE HERE --- Claude Campeau
Heather Sweet

Patty Selah
Majken Pullin
Jennifer Haggerty
Erin Morehouse
Lee-Anne Thornton

Bobbi Smith

Kelly Jean
Lisa Peeples

Nicole Laha

Alison Day

Have Fun Hopping!  

I made this layout for the Captured Candid challenge on Scrapbook Circle using a Laura Whitaker sketch from Let's Get Sketchy March Week 2 challenge.

Life is not a race. Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.♥

S.W.A.T. Drill #26 - Love

 
If you are here for Practical Scrappers' February Blog Hop, please click here.

Good morning everyone! I'm here today to share my take on S.W.A.T.'s drill #26. The theme? LOVE, of course!

I took this picture of Kira and me before I had a front facing camera on my phone. Basically, I was shooting blind. This was the best shot of both of us. Kira always complains that her face is cut in half, but I just love this picture. We look so happy!!

I'm so glad my friend Erin and I bought this Crate Paper paper pack to split. It's absolutely gorgeous! And that chipboard polaroid frame from Creative Embellishments is great, I love the size of it.

Supplies:
Papers: Crate Paper (Love Notes)
Chipboard frame: Creative Embellishments
Flair: Paper Bakery
Washi: Bella Blvd and unknown
Circle die-cuts: Elle's Studio and Chic tags
Circle embellishments: Making Memories (I know, right?!?!)
Chipboard heart: American Crafts
Letters: American Crafts and October Afternoon

Life is not a race. Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.♥

She Is Beautiful

Just like you, I'm sure, I have an insane stash of papers and embellishments. I've been trying to organize my scrap corner and found these awesome papers from Fancy Pants that I got last year. Then I found an ephemera pack from Pink Paislee and they worked perfectly together. I love when that happens!

I am entering this in the February sketch challenge for Life. Paper. Scrapbook.

Supplies:

Papers and stickers: Fancy pants (Park Bench)

Die-cuts and other stickers: Pink Paislee (Portfolio)

Polaroid frame: Jillibean Soup

Letters: American Crafts and Simple Stories

Enamel dots: My Mind's Eye

Wooden hearts: Studio Calico

Life is not a race. Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.♥

The Hats

Here's another layout I created for a sketch challenge. This one is #64 for My Scraps & More. I deviated from he sketch about a quarter through, but the inspiration is definitely there. I love this Simple Stories collection, Daily Grind.

All products are from Simple Stories (Daily Grind) except for the camera, which you can download for free at U Printables. Buttons are from my stash.

Life is not a race. Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.♥

Practical Scrappers - Sunshine

Hello everyone, how about a post full of sunshine for you today?  The Practical Scrappers On Trend team is celebrating summer by sharing projects inspired by the sun!  This is my take:
 

I finally used this picture of Kira from last August. She had just conquered her fear of jumping in the water and we could not stop her!  I used a My Mind's Eye sun-shaped die-cut (the big one with the quote), a half-sun sticker (bottom of the photo) and fussy cut around a shape from a patterned paper.

Supplies:
MyMind's Eye patterned paper, stickers and die-cut (collectable collection, Remarkable color scheme)
Jillibean Soup alphabet
Bella blvd, Lawn Fawn and Queen and Co washi tape.

Visit Practical Scrappers to see more sunny inspiration! And don't forget the Chevron blog-hop from the Specialty Team! There are some great prizes to win :)

Life is not a race. Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.♥

S.W.A.T. Drill #11: Neon

Have you noticed that neon is back? Yes, 80's neon! It everywhere in clothing stores, and it's even spreading to scrapbooking. Today at S.W.A.T. we are giving you some inspiration to help you use some of those bright colours in your next project! Check it out at this link. Make sure you link up your own neon project at the SWAT blog for a chance to win a Boys Rule kit!

This is my layout:

I decided that less was more in this case. Before I even started, I knew there would be a lot of white space in my layout; I didn't want the colours to be overwhelming. I picked a couple of Dylusions sprays, punched stars, washi tape and strips of brightly-coloured paper and Voilà! I really like the neon with that picture of Kira and Ethan, my friend Erin's son (the pic is from 2010, the layout is new!)

Supplies:
Cardstock: American Crafts
Papers: Doodlebug Designs
Sprays: Dylusions (Fresh Lime and Squeezed Orange)
Letters: American Crafts
Paper frill: Doodlebug Designs
Punches: EK Success
Washi tape: unknown

Life is not a race. Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.♥

First Day

With the school-year-end only a month away, it's about time I shared the layout I made about their first day of school. It was back in August, when Sean started third grade and Kira started kindergarten.  She was so happy to finally go to school like her brother!

I took my corner rounder and used the "left-overs" as arrows. I also used some washi tape on a piece of scrap paper before punching out butterflies. Easy embellishments!

I just had a total brain-freeze and can't remember the manufacturer for the two papers with pink on them. Any help would be appreciated!

Supplies:
Papers: Studio Calico and ??
Label stickers: Fancy Pants (Trend Setter)
Stickers: Glitz
Letters: American Crafts
Washi tape: Love My Tapes
Spray: Dylusions
Punches: Fiskars and Martha Stewart


Life is not a race. Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.♥

Laundry Day

Good morning, how are things going for you? I have been scrapping up a storm recently, but I haven't been very good at sharing my work with you.  I'm here to remedy to that.

 A lot of the layouts I have been creating have been for display at Scrapbook Centrale. Have you noticed that they have a new weekend feature called Weekend Scrappin'? It feature layouts exclusively, some of them from yours truly.

 I made this layout using the Studio Calico line Here & There. I love the colours in here. It made me want to play with my Dylusions sprays. I used several of them on my background.

You might recognize my pal Erin's oldest son, Ethan. These pictures were taken back in 2010 when he and Kira were only 3 years old! That was the time before we had 10 gazillion kids and play dates were still possible, lol! If only we lived closer to each other :(

Products:
Papers, stickers, small letters, flair, brads, and chipboard: Studio Calico (Here & There)
Dylusions Sprays in Squeezed Orange, Vibrant Turquoise, Dirty Martini
Foam letters and pen: American Crafts


Life is not a race. Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.♥

You Are My Heart

We went to have a photoshoot of the kids (since I can't seem to get a good shot of the three in one time!) and this is one of the pictures we got.  I love it, and I couldn't wait to scrap it!

Papers are from Pink Paislee (Indigo Bleu collection)

Life is not a race. Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.♥

At Play

Hello everyone, how are you doing? It's a new year, here's a new layout for you! Well, actually, I made this about a month ago, but it's new-to-you :)

This all started with me wanting to use my Dylusion mists and the cloud stencil I had in my stash.  Cut them out, used some old-but-still-gorgeous American Crafts papers, and then I just had to embellish!

Supplies:
Bazzill cardstock
American Crafts patterned paper
TWC stencil
Rangers Dylusion mist
Simple Stories stickers
My Mind's Eye stickers
American Crafts letters
Kaiser Craft letters
Pop dots
Buttons

Thanks for dropping by!

Meeting Santa

Here is a layout I made using last year's Santa picture.  About time I scrapped it, right?!  I made it using a sketch from Practical Scrappers. Come and see what the other designers did with the same sketch :)

Thanks for dropping by!

Life is not a race. Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.♥

Fish Food & Pearls

Hello everyone!  Here's a layout about an awesome quote by Kira :)

Quote reads: "What do fish eat? Oh yeah, fish food! What do clams eat? Oh yeah, pearls!"

I used Lily Bee's Memorandum collection and twine from The Twinery.  And how did I ever scrap without my Dylusions sprays?!

Life is not a race. Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.♥

It Makes It Better Somehow

Good morning everyone!  Time to share another layout with you.  I made this one a few months ago when American Crafts was having a DT call.  I try out every year even though I know I have no chance in hell of making it on that team, lol!

This was a hard story for me to put down on paper.  Breastfeeding with Zoey was one of the hardest things I have done her entire first year.  She was tongue-tied and by the time it was fixed, she had picked up "bad habits".  But it was important to me and we worked really hard at it.  I did have to resort to a bottle a few times, and it tore me apart every time.  This is what this layout is about, I'm glad I got it all down.  Now she is 19 months old and she's still breastfeeding (without any problems!)

Click to enlarge if you want to read the journaling.

Thank you so much for dropping by again today, I really appreciate it :)

Life is not a race. Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.♥

Treat

I've been having so much fun scrapbooking lately!  It's back to being on my mind all the time, and it's an amazing feeling!  I've been having fun with my supplies, using this and that, a bit at random.  It's so fun when things are not so "rigid", kwim?

Here's one I made using pictures of Sean and Kira from 2010. I remember that day, I am amazed that 2 years have passed!

Supplies:

Patterned paper: WRMK
Cardstock: American Crafts
Tags: Elle's Studio
Washi tapes: K&Co, Bella Blvd, Cosmo Cricket
Punch: Fiskars
Mist: Tattered Angels
Letters: American Crafts
Felt embellishment: BasicGrey (lemonade)
Distress Stain: ranger
Twine:Doodlebug
Pem: Staedtler

Life is not a race. Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.♥