Scrapping My Little Man :)

I took some time a few weeks ago to create a few layouts of my little man. I will keep this post short and sweet, just wanted to share the pics. I used all Echo Park papers on these. They are my favorite line to scrap with for Weston. The first layout was done based on a sketch by Ashley Horton.



I hope you all have a great weekend and a Happy Easter!

Working Through My Stash and Tales of De-cluttering….

Good afternoon! In December we decided it was time to turn our office/my craft space into a bedroom for Weston. This was great for him, not so great for us in some ways. We had to find a place outside of our home to office (we’ve officed out of the home for 10 years now!) and I had to give up having a dedicated craft space. In order to do this, I had to really go through and purge a lot of stuff and get back to the basics. That means having 2 closets that contain two Ikea Expedit 16 cube shelving units. I had to be able to close those doors and have everything crafty contained in there. Plus, I had to move my beloved stainless steel top desk out to the garage 😦 So now I work in his room in the corner on a folding table, which I have pretty much ruined with paints and ink already. OK, not ruined in my opinion, but maybe in someone else’s 🙂 This would also explain the fact that I rarely use my Silhouette Cameo I got for Christmas. For some reason it’s in my bedroom on the other side of the house. It wouldn’t fit in the closet.

The reason I tell you all this, is that I need to publicly acknowledge that I may have a hoarding problem. 🙂 I have kits going back almost 2 years full of cute papers, neat-o embellishments, stamps, stickers…you name it. Tons of really cute stuff that I just put in a box fully intending to use, but never got around to it. I did an honest evaluation of my stash and determined first of all that all of those paper stacks (you know…the K&Co, DCWV, etc. stuff you get at Hobby Lobby and Michael’s) needed to go. There was no way I was ever going to get through them all. Plus, I once had hours on end to mix and match and coordinate different products and manufacturers. I have since learned the beauty of buying stuff that is already pre-coordinated for me. It takes the guesswork out of having a really well designed and cohesive page.

So that brings me to the point of this post. I have recently purchased some new goodies like the Maggie Holmes stuff from my last post, but I am seriously working on getting layouts done using those old kits. I have picked through some of them, so I may have to mix in a few new goodies. 🙂

That said, please don’t judge when you see (gasp!) paper lines from 2010, 2011, and early 2012. 🙂 I think that good design can trump the use of older products, or at least that’s what I’m telling myself!!

Here are a few pages I have been working on. I continue to struggle with 2 page layouts, but sometimes they just have to be done.

So go ahead and dig through that stash, who knows what you’ll find!! Have a great week!

Crate Paper + Maggie Holmes = Cute Mini!

Last week I made the 52 minute drive to Archiver’s and picked up several new items from the Maggie Holmes’ Crate Paper line. As I was browsing, I noticed her adorable clipboard style mini, already preloaded with some cute base papers. So I grabbed a 6 x 6 coordinating paper pack and lots of embellishments and brought them home. I’ve really been into my art journaling lately and my scrapping has been on the back burner, but this line really inspired me to create. 

Here is a shot of my haul:

Once I got rolling on this project it really came together quickly. That is the beauty of using pre-coordinated projects. It didn’t hurt that these products are just too darn cute too! I embellished some of the die cut tags and inserted them between the pages, and finished it all off with some pink tulle and aqua rickrak from my stash. 

I hope you enjoyed the mini and have a wonderful weekend!

Edited with BlogPad Pro

Well, well, well….

Guess who finally was inspired to get scrappy? 🙂 After a long drought, I finally found some time and scrapping mojo. I think with the pressure of no design teams I am feeling a lot more inclined to create. That combined with the LifeBook class that I am taking has really got me feeling inspired. For the past 2 weeks I’ve been knocking out some layouts. I can’t believe how fast some of them came together. Although like any other scrapper, I know that I will never really be caught up, I feel like I’m making some good progress. This is going to be kind of a picture heavy post, but this way I can share with you what I’ve been doing and get caught up on my blogging all at once. I have many friends’ blogs to visit and catch up with as well 🙂










The Pumpkin Patch and The Day You Were Born layouts were based on sketches from Creating Keepsakes Fast 4 x 6 pages
I hope you enjoyed the layouts are maybe found a little inspiration here as well 🙂
Take Care!

Frosted Designs Fabulous Friday 11.16

Hi everyone! This week over at Frosted Designs we were given a color challenge. Here is the inspiration photo:



Since Graphic 45 is this week’s sponsor, I used their papers exclusively for my layout. I thought these particular papers seemed “fallish”, even though they are from the Renaissance Faire line. This is a layout for my book again, documenting our time with baby Weston at the pumpkin patch 2 weeks ago. It’s so rare for me to get into the photos so I wanted to make sure I scrapped these.



Be sure to create your project based on the inspiration photo and link it up to Frosted Designs for the chance to win 2 paper collections from Graphic 45!

Challenge Me Happy 11.15

Hello everyone! This week’s challenge at Challenge Me Happy is a sketch challenge. Y’all know how much I love sketches :). This one was done by Annelie:



Below is my take on the sketch. I am using this for my personal album. I’m trying to occasionally scrap for myself instead of the kids, since one day I will give them their books and will be left with just the pics!



The winner of this challenge will win a brand spanking new December kit from Crazy Monday Kits, a new funky kit club from New Zealand! To win, simply enter a project that is made EXCLUSIVELY for this challenge. If you don’t, your entry will not be considered for the prize. Upload the link to your blog post or gallery post with your creation before midnight 1 December NZ time (GMT + 13 hours)

Frosted Designs Fabulous Friday 10.26

Good morning all! This week our challenge at Frosted Designs is to use Paints, Mists or Inks on a card, layout or off the page project! How fun it that?! I LOVE using spray inks in everything from scrapbooking to mixed media projects.

In honor of this Halloween season, I created these little 8 x 8 canvases featuring these cute little trick or treaters! I used a lot of acrylic paints, spray inks, stencils, masks, and other bits and pieces of Halloween goodness that were lurking in my stash. This was such a fun project to do. I’ve been taking Christy Tomlinson’s Pumpkins and Cider Workshop, which is full of neat fall projects. She is so inspiring to me!!
Here are my canvases:

I call this one my Frankengirl 🙂



And my Pumpkin Spice Girl 🙂



I also created this cute haunted house scene that I featured on my Art Journaling blog, but figured I would share here as well. I think this may be my favorite thing I’ve created so far! I bought this plaster piece at Goodwill and revamped it into a scene for Halloween. I thought it looked kind of looked like a tombstone.



So have fun creating a project using paint and/or spray inks and be sure to link it up at Frosted Designs for the chance to win a super cute Halloween mini album kit from The Paper Trail!

Challenge Me Happy 10.15…and other news

Hi everyone! This week’s assignment for Challenge Me Happy is a photo challenge. This was our inspiration photo:



I got my inspiration from the colors of the photo. Here is my layout:



Be sure to link up your new project using this photo as inspiration at Challenge Me Happy for a chance to win a Nikki Sivils paper pack.

Also this week I had two more layouts featured at Club Creating Keepsakes.

You can view them here.

Sorry for making this so brief, but I am battling a cold right now and not feeling at the top of my game 😦

Guest Designer!

Good morning everyone! I was invited by my very talented friend Ashley as Guest Designer for her monthly Sketch It Out challenge over at Club CK. Ashley creates some really fun sketches and I always enjoy her challenges with the twist every month. This was the sketch that she sent me to work with:


And this was my take on the sketch:


Supplies used: Patterned paper, stickers, alphas, journaling card-Echo Park; Ink: Ranger; Tag: The Paper Studio; twine-unknown; Washi Tape: SEI; Tape: 7 Gypsies; Pen: American Crafts

Here is Ashley’s layout:



As you can see, a sketch can be interpreted in completely different ways! Thanks for stopping by 🙂

Challenge Me Happy 10.1.12

Hi everyone! The weather here has turned somewhat fall and I’ve been busy today getting out my fall decor 🙂 I love this time of year, especially since we have such hot summers…the cooler weather is such a welcome change.

At Challenge Me Happy, our challenge was “Anything Goes!”. This is an opportunity to show off your personal best. Here is my DT layout, with my two little munchkins 🙂


Supplies used-Patterned paper: My Mind’s Eye (Follow Your Heart collection), Echo Park, unknown from stash; hexagon mask: Studio Calico; Spray mist: Tattered Angels; Banner: Heidi Swapp; Alphas: American Crafts; Pen: American Crafts

Link up your best work at Challenge Me Happy for a chance to win a box of goodies from My Little Shoebox!