Tangerine Tango

It's the Pantone color of the year for 2012. Tangerine Tango is bold and energetic. It was a part of my first assignment at Get it Scrapped. Along with my fellow creative team members, we shared a variety of pages in various hues of orange. To get the most of this vivacious color, check out the article over at Get It scrapped.

Supplies: cardstock: Colorbok; patterned paper: Echo Park and Basic Grey; mist: Maya Road; buttons: My Mind's Eye; other: Pencil, stencil, canvas, Kraft paper accents

I often choose orange when I scrap pool photos. The turquoise water pairs naturally with the orange to form a complementary color scheme.Since this color combo was already so energetic, I chose orange and neutral embellishments.

LOAD 512 Progress report

  At this point, we are nearing the halfway mark for LOAD. My husband paid me a compliment about it today. He told me that he was amazed that I had managed to keep up with the housework, homeschool my son, work on submissions for SNR magazine and make a page a day. Honestly, I am still not sure how I am doing this. I guess the creative juices are flowing and I am taking advantage while I can. I will say this...when you are doing LOAD some things do get sacrificed. LOAD pages are not always the ones with the deepest of stories. They are not always the pages with the most intricate details. Nor are they always the ones with the best photographs to upload to the gallery. Often times, they look a tad blurry. That's all ok though. At the end of the day, you are supporting a good creative habit and the rewards will benefit you so much more down the line. LOAD pages done now translate to more pages done on a daily basis each month. Once the creativity starts flowing, it's good to let it keep on growing.

 On a side note: I'm noticing quite a trend in my pages lately. My cats seems to be making an appearance on almost each and every page I have been making in the past week or so. Can you tell our pets are a huge part of our lives?!?! I took a ton of photos of both Boo and Ju Ju Bee over the past few months. Having a new kitten in the house certainly calls for many photo ops.

cardstock: Colorbok; patterned papers: Echo park and My Little Shoebox
Alphas: My Little Showbox; ribbon: Making Memories
flower: Jillibean Soup; brad: Karen Foster
title sticker: Momenta; Die cut: Echo park

  I'm off to create some more. I know I made my page for today, but I want to keep on going. I hope you do to. Oh...and if you want to see another pet themed page, head on over to the SNR blog. This week's color palette features a page with my itty bitty kitty.

Project Life, January 2012

  Since the theme this month at Scrap Our Stash is all about taking a leap( and this is a Leap Year), I thought I would share something that I just ventured into. I never thought I would try Project Life. It seemed like a daunting task to add it to my long list of photos that I want to scrap. During the past month, I have been reading various designer blogs and admiring all of the neat little pockets and pages filled with  journal cards,photos, mementos and memories. I finally decided to take the leap and try out Project Life sometime in mid-January. I am not using it in place of my scrapbook pages, but rather, as a way to introduce and supplement each month. So the plan is to make the PL pages for each month, then later on, print out the best photos for the month so I can scrapbook those stories in more detail.
  So now that I had decided to begin project life, I was faced with the decision of what products I would use. Buying a project life kit was not an option for my budget. I can see how it would have made things a whole lot easier for me, but well...maybe next year. I was happy to find that I had a whole set of  those divided page protectors in one of my albums. I had always struggled to use them with my regular pages. So now, I am happy they will get some use. I decided that, for the cards, I would cut my own from my stash. Each month, I will make a kit from my stash of supplies. It might take me a little more time than reaching for an item from a pre-made kit, but it will sure be fun.

papers- My Mind's Eye
Pink paislee ticket, stickers, border and alphas by Echo park
Jenni Bowlin journal spot
MME chipboard journal spot, star, tag
MME border
Maya road sheer calendars and trim
October Afternoon buttons
Twinery twine in cappucino
Crate paper photo croners
Sassafrass alphas

   Though I may have gotten a late start, I am not too far behind. I have my title page and the first page for January. My PL pages will be more about monthly happenings rather than weekly ones. So I think it will be easy to complete each month.  I always like to make an introductory page for each album. However, finding the right photo for those can be a struggle. The PL pages will be a nice substitute and an easy way to divide up my albums in a way that makes sense. Hopefully, this will translate to more pages and more stories to be shared in my albums.

First Gondola Ride

 I started off with just one page. I ended up with two! The page on the left is a  scraplift for the Pagerize this Challenge #15. Tamara's page was easy to work with and I was inspired enough to stretch over to a second page.

MME Stella and Rose papers, ribbon, chipboard button and sticker
Prima Jewels
MM chipboard alphas
Echo Park mini alphas
Paperframe designs acrylic snowflake
unknown twine
sei inke blue ink
Glimmer mist in elctric blue and black magic
DMC floss

On a trip we took this spring, my son rode on a ski gondola for the first time. I loved his facial expressions every time the lift took off from the station. Tamara's page allowed me to highlight this moment perfectly.
   Now it's your turn! Do you have a moment to highlight? Pagerize Tamara's LO and share it at Scrap Our Stash!

Without a Doubt

Without a Doubt...life has been busy. First a hurricane, followed by a move,starting back to homeschooling then a sinus infection coupled with muscle spasms. Despite it all I have had a little time to scrap. So today's post will be short and sweet. I made it for September's Mother LOAD. The prompt was to scrap about an emotion. Going back to the title( which is for the blog post and the page itself)...it's a lyric from Scrappin the Music's current challenge. Without a Doubt, I can always count on my husband to act silly and get my son laughing...so much so, that my son's infectious laughter will get me to laugh. Then, full circle, all of us will be laughing and joining in on the silliness. My husband's since of humour always gets me through everything.
I think this page is a nice way to end the month.

Materials: Echo park For the record
 papers,stickers, borders
Sassafrass flower
Artsylicious brads
Maya Road Sheer Calendar
Basic Grey paper clip
DMC floss
Sketch Support 2 page sketch

Round and Round

 Have you ever had one of those scrapbook moments. You know...the one in which you are snapping photos and thinking " I am so using that new paper with these shots!" That definitely happened with the photos on this next page. My husband took us to a little amusement park. As we were riding the Ferris Wheel, I kept thinking about how I was going to use Echo park's summer days kit to scrapbook the pictures. After all, there was this perfect ferris wheel sticker right in the kit!

Sketch support #18
Scrapfit WWU #12-use scallops
Glimmer mist: meadow, electric blue and viva pink
Echo park papers, brad, chipboard and stickers
unknown die cut letters

With sketch 18 from sketch support, the right papers and a little glimmer mist...this page was done in a snap. Which is what I really need right now. Our moving day is imminent. Most of of things ( except for what we are using) are packed and ready. So...sorry to keep this short, but I want to pack in as much scrap time as possible before our move.

Legos and Acrylic Paint

   My son is not very happy with me. The other morning, I borrowed some of his legos so I could use them on a page. I could not ask him if it was ok because he was still sleeping. So, I snuck into his room and got some. You may be wondering what I did them with. Well, I stamped with them and some acrylic paint to create a background for a Lego themed page. I had a lot of fun doing it, but I must admit, the page is busier than I normally prefer. Either way, it another page completed.

Artastic challenge- August Inspiration challenge
Echo park papers
acrylic paint
legos fussy cut from unkown papers
photogenix laser cuts-title

  My son was part of a homeschool Lego club. I wanted to make sure we took photos of some of the projects he made. After all, they are legos and are meant to build and rebuild with over and over again. 

page maps sketch
echo park papers, stickers and die cut
legos and number stickers unknown

  So now, the Legos are back in their proper place. I have made a promise to my son that I will wait to ask him before using his toys with paint supplies( no matter how much my creative juices are flowing). The world is right again and I have two more pages for my album. 

Raising Polliwogs

Last summer, we had a unique experience. We found some tadpole eggs in a local pond and were lucky enough to watch them hatch. We have raised tadpoles before, but they had always been caught just after hatching. This time, we had found the eggs, conveniently sitting on a lilly pad close to the water's edge. I scooped them up in an empty water bottle and we set up a habitat for them in our kitchen. Little did I know, our kitchen was the perfect environment for the polliwogs. Shortly after they came home, my son noticed the eggs wiggling and jiggling. Almost every egg hatched totalling about 30 of the tiny creatures! Of the thirty, most of them survived and were released back into the pond from which they had come.
  Now here is is a year later, and I am just getting to scrap those photos. Technically, I picked out the papers in this kit for my counterfeit kit challenge carnival kit. Yet when I saw this green print paper from echo park, it reminded me so much of frog eggs that I decided to use it right away.

 Echo Park paper with white acrylic paint, Making Memories Chloe's closet leather frame cut into part, Webster' spages green satin pleated trim, K and CO. Transparency frame, DMC floss, KI Memories alpha stamps, Inkadinkadoo circles and dots stamps, Colorbox olive ink, Autumn leaves red ink
Submitted at Frosted Designs for the Fabulous Friday Animal challenge

I stuck with a sort of green theme, mixing and matching some of the textures that seemed to feel right for the page. Since I had many photos of this event, I used many of the same materials over the next few pages.

Sketch Inspiration #232, white acrylic paint, green water color crayon, Meadow green glimmer mist, echo park papers, colorbox ink: olive and chestnut roan, Autumn leaves ink:red, KI memories alpha stamps, inkadinkadoo circles and dots stamps, Fancy pants grid paper,Making Memories leather frame by Chloe's closet, webster's pages ruffles

My favourite part of both pages are the hand made alphas. I followed the tutorial at the counterfeit kit challenge to copy the design behind some Fancy pants alpha stickers. It's such a simple thing to do, however, it's one of those things that I never would have though of on my own. I love how they look and have a good feeling about using up my stash.
  Speaking of stash, the original intent of these kits for August were to scrap some very specific photos. I am glad I was inspired to get these frog photos done, however, I guess I really need to figure out where my honeymoon photos are. Off to look for those and hopefully scrap a bit more...

My August 2011 Counterfeit Kit

  I must confess that for this month's Counterfeit Kit challenge, I sort of just did a grab and go type of thing. I am in the middle of packing for a move. We are not moving far, but far enough. ;) Anyway, my hopes are to still be able to play with my stash while we await for our moving day. So I am trying to pack my supplies in such a way that I can still use them. Since I have been busy packing, I really did not have a lot of time to dedicate to making kits. I chose to grab some of my pre-packaged kits to which I then went overboard adding embellishments. I think I have enough variety in them to work with plenty of photos in various themes.

  I decided that it might be a good idea to work some more on my wedding album. I started it last year. I hate to admit it, but it's been a little over 13 years since I was married. I really didn't start scrapbooking until my son was born. His birth and the invention of the affordable digital camera really pushed my scrapbooking career( along with my husband's encouragement). Last year, I had gotten Basic Grey's periphery collection pack. Many of it's papers will be perfect for my main kit and for scrapping my special day.

Main Kit contents:
Basic Grey Periphery collection pack
pink paislee  Parisian anthology trims
crochet doily- from a thrift store
unknown ribbons
Pink Paislee Queen bee flip notes
My Mind's Eye clock die cut
American crafts chipboard shapes thickers
Studio Calico Journal card
Prima say it in crystals
beads- from the craft store
K And Co. Elizabeth Brownd metal art frame
maya road chipboard album
sassafrass vintage brooch

And while I am at it, I might as well have a go at my honeymoon photos. I have not yet touched my Treasure Box Club kit from last month. It has the Basic Grey Out of Print line in it. I figure that it's whimsical patterned papers might be a fun way to scrap our trip to New Orleans. I did add a few items to the kit. I can't help but add stuff sometimes. ;)

Limited Edition kit contents:
Basic grey's out of print papers: 2nd edition, daily news, reprint
publication, bits n pieces, special feature, batik and giclee
Amer. crafts mini jewle brads
Fancy pants die cut- damask Floral
7 gypsies metal tags
Amer. crafts pink check ribbon
Amer. crafts thickers- by the yard fabric letters
music fabric
Prima Flowers
7 gypsies Numero tissue paper
K and Co. chipboard frames
Making Memories Sabrina frame-pink
7 gypsies foldover stickers in classic black
7 gypsies train tickets
Studio Calico journal card
Prima say it in pearls
Pink paislee bayberry cottage cork buttons
Twinery twine in carribbean
Making Memories simply stated alphas
Glitz designs metallic rub on- damask
Webster's pages fabric flowers

For the album kit, I decided to just use last month's Fourth of July kit. I loved the kit I had made and I still have a few photos I did not get to scrap with it. I could have made a birthday kit similar to what was shown, but  the Fourth is America's Birthday...right? So to save time and scrap the photos I am motivated to work with, that's what I chose to do.

Album kit content:
Sassafrass papers and cardstock stickers from the cherry delicious line,
also from anthem and Life is Beautiful
October afternoon paper- from modern homemaker and road map
Cosmo cricket garden variety paper-sunshine
Basic Grey sticker trims-basics
Webster's pages flowers
Jenni Bowlin bingo card
prima flowers
K and Co. transparencies
Unknown ribbons
twist ties-recycled from my husband's dry cleaning
My Mind's Eye lost and found die cut
Simple Stories die cuts

Since life right now is going to involve a new home and also because I still have Easter photos to scrap, I chose Crate paper's neighborhood collection for my Creative kit. I felt it gave me a nice variety of papers for various topics. Finding embellishments to match it also came quite readily for me.

Creative kit contents:
Crate Paper's Neighbourhood collection pack
unknown die cut
Making memories Paperie greenhouse felt clips
Webster's pages princess petals
Craft Affair brads
Webster's Pages Designer threads
Making memories Chloe's closet frames
Making memories Spring pebble clips-butterflies
Maya Road felt badges-birds of a feather

When I saw the Theme park/fair add on kit, I knew exactly the one to use...my new echo park Summer days kit! I have some photos I have been wanting to scrap about us at a small fun park. I can't wait to see what the challenge will be for this kit!

Theme park kit contents:
echo park Summer days kit pack, chipboard and rub ons
doily- from Ikea curtain section
making memories Chloe's closet stick pins
sassafrass felties
Sassafrass in stiches clossoms in: kelly green, orange and kraft

Last month, I managed to make 7 layouts with my kits.I had so many ideas for more pages, but life had other ideas for me. I have managed to add past kits and past kit items to my August selection of supplies. I hope I can use up some partial packages and add to my page count for this month.

So Much Energy

  I wish I had it. My son and his friends all seem to have it. Energy, that is. Kids seem to have it in overwhelming abundance. So it seemed fit to scrap these photo of my husband pushing my son and his friends on a tire swing with some bright energetic colours. The title sort of found me via the Scrap it With A Song challenge spot.

All papers and embellishments are from Echo park except:
notebook paper-Basic grey
brads-Basic grey
white CS-colorbok
blue cs-coredinations

Oh and speaking of energy... I hope you have enough to participate in a hop going on through scrapbook challenges. You can start at Brynn's blog. Brynn even came up with the sketch I used for this page. I love the fun banners which were perfect for this upbeat page. It's always fun to see how different people interpret a sketch. So if you'd like to see some other variations, check out the links found here.
 Sorry for the short post, but life is hectic right now. I am pleased to have found a little time to scrap. I am less pleased with myself for not reading all of my challenge list properly. By that, I am referring to the notepad I keep listing all the challenges I want to participate in. I had several I wanted to do for Sketches for all. I thought I was completing one of the challenges with the above LO only to find I was just supposed to use 1 flower and not three.Oh well! Back to the drawing board. I at least have another page done that I like. Happy scrapping everyone!!!

Echo Park's Fresh Face Campaign

   Recently, I realized that I have a big love of Echo Park's paper lines. Each kit is so easy to use and most of them are very unisex. I love that a quick change of embellishments can make the paper have a masculine or feminine feel. Papers from one kit easily interchange and mix with other kits. Of all the paper kits I have, I find theirs to be the most versatile.Since I have such a big crush on everything Echo park, I figured I would give their new fresh face campaign a shot. How awesome would it be to be featured on their blog?!?! So wish me luck, sit back and enjoy some layouts I have created using some fabulous Echo Park papers!
   This first layout is one of my new favourites. I love the bold, bright feel and overall tone of the page. Every time I see " Swing Like a Demolition Ball", I immediately smile. I love how the rich colour and layered details  highlight these wonderful photos of my husband as he pushes my son and his friends on a tire swing. I hand cut all of the elements on this page.Inking the patterned papers and using the Bic Mark It's added subtle detail to the page. Lately, I have really been favouring my pens and stamp inks as an inexpensive way to add a more finished look. I used an EK Success punch along the notebook style paper. I wanted it to look as though it was really torn from a notebook, so I bent and ripped the tabs a little to provide that effect. Rolling the paper at the edges also gave it a more worn feel, adding another subtle detail.

Scraplift of Little Stingray by Amy Peterman for Club CK Scraplift challenge
Card stock: white- Colorbok,
 blue-Coredinations sanded slightly to show the core
Patterned papers: notebook paper-Basic Grey
all other papers from Echo Parks' Summer Days,Sweet Summer time and Playground collections
Ek Success notebook border punch
Alpah stickers- Echo park - green alphas from Echo Park's Playground collection
all other alphas from the Echo Park's Summer days collection
Arrow and yellow photo corner from Echo park's Summer days collection
Bic mark it's: Rambunctious red,Sunset orange,tuxedo black and Blue Skies Blue
SEI ink blue ink on patterned papers
Studio G orange ink on the sun's papers
DMC floss-white

  If you are wondering about the title...it came from some song lyrics. I love using song titles or lyrics on my pages. They provide some very interesting titles that jump from the page and capture your attention. This particular set of lyrics comes from " Write a Song" by the Dave Matthews Band. It's part of challenge#173 over at Scrappin' the Music.
  When you think of the colour pink, you don't immediately think of boys or fish. So this next page may surprise you a little. I chose pink as the base card stock, not because of it's feminine quality, but rather for how it reminds me of the Caribbean. It ended up being a nice compliment to these photos of my son feeding stingrays at the Atlantis resort on Paradise Island, Bahamas. The bright shade of pink with this fun combination of  Echo Park Papers screams out "summer fun". Papers cut into round shapes give the hint of bubbles floating on the page. I used a black pen to add a bit more detail and to refine the idea of a bubble. Hand cut fish also lend to the theme.

Scrapbook Challenges Sketch #240
White Acrylic paint
Card stock-DCWV
Bic Mark it-tuxedo black
papers,border sticker and Alphas from Echo Park's Sweet Summertime collection

   Since the title of this page is feeding frenzy, I chose fun alphas over a layer of white acrylic paint. The messy paint and splatters of glimmer mist add to the feeling of chaos amidst a feeding frenzy. If you are now wondering whether or not to ever participate in a stingray feeding, have no worries. The stingrays are really quite gentle and are more like excited puppies wanting a treat when they see you holding that metal bucket full of fish.
   The last page I will share with you tonight is one you may remember is you have been following my blog. It features the only other female in my household, my cat Sweetpea. This page is the perfect example of how a few embellishments can make a page more feminine. For " A Pair of Roguish Eyes", I wanted a fun,yet girly page. I chose pink and yellow papers paired with prima flowers to achieve that effect. the use of an orange pen adds to the fun feel of the page and provides the added detail it needs without adding bulk.

Scrapbook challenges sketch#252
plum pudding spritz
martha stewart border punch on vellum
prima flowers
making memories jewels
chipboard stamped with a studio g stamp in colorbox white ink
K and co, wood alphas
making memories tiny type alphas
bread tags
Echo Park Sweet Summertime Papers
Bic Mark it in Sunset Orange

My husband captured this photo of Sweetpea peering out of the bathroom sink. It's one of her favourite places. She loves to lay init when she's warm. She also loves playing with the water out of the faucet. She is quite the little imp, hence the title of the page.
   I hope you have enjoyed these pages featuring some of Echo Park's paper collections. Now it's time for me to cross my fingers and hope that just maybe you will get to see some of my pages featured on Echo Park's blog.

Gingerbread Houses in May

  I'm not up to date on all of my latest photos. Then again, what Scrapper is? Part of my problem is more than likely due to my need to take a gazillion photos of every family event that occurs. This is one problem, however, that I refuse to curb. I love all of the wonderful photos of my family. I often wonder if my son will not let me take as many pictures of him when he's a teen as he does now. Either way, here I am in the month of May scrapping Christmas photos.
  Every year we make a gingerbread something or other. Some years, it has been a gingerbread Christmas tree made from star shaped cookies. Other years, we have attempted to make a gingerbread house( despite the fact that I am the only soul in the house who will eat gingerbread!). Despite the wonderful house cookie cutter shapes we have, the house always ends in ruins. It just won't hold together. So this past year, I chose to go a simpler route...the pre-made gingerbread house kit.
   At first, I almost opted to make yet another standard Christmas page. After all, I have a HUGE collection of holiday papers in my stash. Something else came to mind though. I have this Echo Park paper with little house on it. It matched wonderfully with the Pink Paislee striped candy looking paper I had. Kraft paper simulated a gingerbread base while white Acrylic paint played the role of icing. I fussy cut some candy pieces from an unkown paper then topped them with glossy accents. This made them look more like a real piece of candy.

Punky Scraps Challenge 16 Sketch 5-13-11

   I wanted a fun title, so I chose to use a variety of alphabet stickers from Echo Park and Pink Paislee. Embellishments such as the chipboard key from Crate Paper and the Echo park house sticker made interesting substitutions for words in the title. Faux stitching and Making Memories chipboard pieces embellished with stickles completed the page.

Scrap lift for May Flaum's " May with May" BPS class

  I chose to journal as a set of directions versus just telling the story. It added a fun twist and with the page elements I chose, these pages stand out as just a little bit different from the usual holiday pages I create.

Day 2 of NSD!!!

First off...Happy Mother's Day!!!

It's been nice having so much time to relax and scrap this weekend. I have two more pages to share with you. Also, if you haven't checked it out,Scrapbook Challenges is having an NSD blog hop. You can start the hop here with Brynn's blog. The cool thing is that you too can participate in the hop by completing a Scrapbook Challenges sketch and then linking your blog to the hop. For my sketch, I chose a more current one.

Sketch 252 Scrapbook Challenges

Some items are from my Couterfeit kit for May
Echo park papers
prima flowers
making memories jewels
bread tags-recycled from pantry
recycled note pad cover, cut into circle then stamped with a studoi G stamp
colorbox white and chestnut roan inks
Plum pudding shimmerz spritz
making memories tiny type alphas
K and Co. wood veneer alphas
marth stewart opaque punch on vellum
Orange Bic mark it-faux stitching

I wanted to enter a current challenge while still getting a page completed. I love combining things. I get a lot of challenges done by combing them with others. It can be a challenge in and of itself, but it makes things a bit more fun.Which is why you may see this page at a few spots around the web like BPS, Frosted and Sketches for You. (hint: it will be part of an upcoming challenge over hosted by yours truly at Sketches for You). Since the word roguish means michievous, I wanted fun, playful colours. I paired them with pink and flowers for a feminine tone. My husband snapped this picture of our cat, Sweetpea hiding in the sink. She is always full of mischief but very girly...so I think the page suits her well.
  My second page features our other cat, Boo. He is one of those long slinky cats. I call him the contortionist, because he looks folded up when he sleeps. To capture the theme, I used bright colours and circus style papers. The paint and stars remind me of circus paint and clowns.

Sketchy Thursday 5-5-11
Sassafrass papers and borders
white paint
star punch
yellow stickles
My Mind's Eye chipboard frame centers
Colorbok die cuts-arrow and star

I chose to use some leftovers from some My Mind's eye chipboard frames. I wrapped them with thread and used them to frame the circles for a fun pattern.
  There is still a little more time to get in on the NSD fun. Don't forget about being part of the Scrapbook challenges blog hop. I am off to try to get a few more pages done...

May's Counterfeit Kit

  Here we are in May...already! Boy this year is flying past. This will be my 3rd counterfeit kit. I am very happy to be participating in this challenge. I am definitely enjoying shopping my stash, trying new ways to make my own embellishments and just making pages with my monthly kit. May's Counterfeit  kit was an easy one for me to make up. I think it's going to be easy for me to use a lot more from it as well. This month, the kit is a fun, summer kit with a  playful childlike tone from Work in Progress. So without further ado, here is my version:

papers: Fancy pants- It's your day(stripe)
Cosmo Cricket-Chaplain ( large black page with number)
My Mind's Eye- red polka dot
Basic Grey- life of the party-confetti cake polka dot
Basic grey- life of the party- how you' ve grown-rulers
basic grey- life of the party- noise makers-green with plaid dots
Sassafrass-anthem
Sassafrass anthem-translate

Alphas;  Basic Grey life of the party
Cosmo Cricket- flour sack

MISC: Basic Grey life of the party brads
Sassafrass paper whimsies cards
Fancy pants yellow ric rac
Lil' davis designs castaway rub ons
Maya road chipboard stars
Sassafrass cardstock stickers

Of course, as many of you know, I simply can not resist a good add on. Really, there is no excuse not to since I am shopping my stash. So I jumped in with both feet when it came to making up a boy inspired kit. For whatever reason this month, the number theme seems to really be a big thing for me. I used a lot of papers and embellishments with numbers of various shapes and sizes. It will be interesting to see how these gets used on pages throughout the month.

Paper: Crate Paper-Toy Box-playdate
Crate Paper Emma's Shoppe- playhouse
Crate paper Toyr box-build
Echo Park Sweet Summertime- raspberry delight
Echo Park Sweet Summertime sunny spots
All other papers-Sassafrass

Alphas- K and Co. Brenda Walton chip box
Sassafrass pocket full of rosies
Sassafrass Woodland Whimsy

Misc: Crate Paper toy box borders
Crate paper toy Box chipboard
Studio Calico numbers card
Sassafrass Paper whimsies-flowers
ribbon and trims-unknown
Maya road wood bongo numbers
Fancy pants it's your day buttons
Sassafrass in stitch blossoms-deep blue
Sassafrass brads-vintage gems
Crate Papers restoration collection brads
Sassafrass felties-June bug
Basic Grey woolies-wonder
K and. Co ticket border remnant
K and Co. frame

You might recognize a few things from previous kits. I decided to challenge myself yo use things I put into past kits but never used. So let's see how I do. I am off to play...

The Cat in the Hat...a Pagerize this challenge from Scrap Our Stash

  When I saw Joni's page at Scrap Our Stash, I really loved the hand sewn grids and the diagonal layout of her design. As I perused my photos, I decided this photo of my husband and son in front of the Cat in the Hat ride at Islands of Adventure would be perfect for such a fun page. I also immediately grabbed my Echo Park summertime papers. I thought the fun, bright colors were a perfect match for a page about the Cat in the Hat. 

As I worked on the page, I realized that I was not digging a grid design with this photo. I wanted it to be a little less structured, so I substituted the hand stitched, streamer like lines.  I dusted off some white tags and stars. The chipboard star and the die cut red and yellow stars are so old I don't know who makes them. I think I bought the die cuts when my son was 2 years old! Eight years hidden in my stash! That is way too long to not be used! 

  Theme park photos sometimes mean that strangers get into your shot...no matter how hard you try! I hid the extra people with some strategically placed journal strips.

Now it's your turn...Pagerize Joni's page and share it here. Try dusting off a technique or a few supplies while you are at it! we can't wait to see what your project!

Our First Home

  I have had these photos for years. I guess they have been waiting for the perfect paper to scrap them with. At first, I was saving my Echo Park " Life is Good" papers for scrapbooking our current home. However, I reminded myself that new papers will come along shortly and I will inevitably want those...so therefore, use what I have now. Especially if what I have now inspires me.

  I have been working on a family album for my son( and for future generations). Documenting the view from our first home seemed a perfect fit for this album. I think it will be fun to compare these photos, taken around the time we moved in, to photo of the day we moved out. When I saw Gemiel's page, I knew it's layout was a perfect fit for these photos showing the view from our front yard.

Echo Park Life is Good papers and alphabet
glimmer mist in electric blue and viva pink
My Mind's Eye chipboard journal spots

I also shared the story of how we bought this house. Would you believe our down payment was just $10? The market was pretty hot at the time. If you saw a house, you made an offer. This house was the third home we had looked at on our first day out. We knew it was a good investment. It had been a model home and the builder wanted to sell quickly so they could move on to a new community. I did not have the checkbook with me and the agent needed some sort of down payment to hold the home. So we gave her my husband's lunch money. It was the only cash we had on hand, but it did the trick!

Now it's your turn! Share your stories and Pagerize this at Scrap Our Stash! OH...and if you are curious, here is our front yard:

The paper covers our address. Sometimes privacy is a good thing.;)