Simple Scrapper

I have an important (and fun!) announcement to make. 

I'm one of the new Creative Team members over at Simple Scrapper!! 

I could not be more thrilled. I have loved being a part of the SS community these past 11 months. I've made so many pages and had so much fun doing it. AND, I'm so excited to be working with the incomparable Jennifer Wilson. She is so fabulous and wonderful at helping scrapbookers hone down what they love to do and helping them find time to do it!

I'll not extoll to verbosely on how I'm behind blogging (as per usual), but I put this video together over the summer in the hopes of doing a round up of all the things I had created as part the Simple Scrapper community. This was just one example of a page made with one of the sketches/templates you get as part of the membership.

Click here to see the variety of projects I've made as part of the membership this year. 32 to be exact (I'm a nerd, I have a spreadsheet…)

And Jennifer throws some really great events. We're gearing up for Holiday Focus just now. It's a free event that it's meant to act a holiday scraping support group, helping you focus and complete whatever type of project you're hoping to make this holiday season!

If you're even slightly curious about SS. I'd suggest signing up for Holiday Focus. It's totally free and a nice warm introduction into the group.

Simple Scrapper has become one of my little homes on the web. I have loved sharing with this group of ladies over the year. I'm beyond excited to be working as part of the team!

cheers & besos,

Birth Day

She's almost here! Lauren is going to be born today. Her Mama is scheduled to be induced, so we'll get to meet the newest member of our group this afternoon.

I didn't want to show up to the hospital empty handed, so I made a birth day card and some onesies.

Dear Lizzy's lines make making gifts for little girls so easy. I used several of her papers for this card (which is a semi-lift of a Danielle Flanders card) and thought the "celebrate sunshine" sentiment was perfect for the birth of a little girl, especially one born in the summer.

And I've not been neglecting the insides of my cards. I decorated this one with some mist, tape and a variety of lovely date stamps.

And onto the onesies...

I accidently bought muscle tees!!! For a baby! And of course I didn't realize this until I ripped open the package. But I had to make the most of it. I hope they don't mind too much.

Remember Laverne's (of Laverne & Shirley) famous signature "L" sweaters and shirts? That's the inspiration for this onesie.

I did something a bit different with the next one. It's one part reverse applique and one part straight stitching (my first attempt!) I liked the variety of the cursive and the block letters. Plus, it's yellow!

And finally, the signature design I created for little Ms. LC. I had to include the heart in the "C".

Oh, and I have to talk about this tutu. I've had it stowed away in my gift box since January, when I picked it up from Target at a steal. It's soooo tiny and perfect and cute! I'm happy to pass it along to an actual little being who will wear it and if possible, enhance its cuteness!

Can't wait to meet this little girl!

cheers & besos,

Onesies

MT's best friends just had a baby. Little Anna was born last month and Uncle Tombo just got to meet her. She's so tiny! I'm assured she smells lovely, just like a new baby.

As a birthday present, I made her some onesies a la Amy Tangerine's reverse applique method. They were teeny and cute and a set of three.

And I also threw in the card I made many many months ago. I even made the onesies to match!

cheers & besos,

Baby Gifts

My sweet friend Susie is having a baby soon! Here name is Lauren and everyone is very excited for her to come :) We had a baby shower yesterday, so I made some hand made handicrafts as part of her gift.

First, is the baby shower card. It's very simple & sweet. I love my new Jenni Bowlin birdie punch and this was the first time I used it. I cut 4 little birds and glued a highlighting color to the back of each to give them a bit more dimension. I also pop-dotted them off the card. It helped balance the dimension of the Thickers.

And then as a gift, I used an embroidery hoop as a frame for my decoration. It was so hard to find a wood one, let me tell you! I wanted an oval but had to settle for a circle.

I dug into my stock of the original American Crafts Dear Lizzy line and had to purchase nothing but the hoop for this project. That line is perfect for a little girls room & luckily Lauren's colors are pink with touches of green. 

The pink polka dot base is some of the fabulous fabric paper. I hand stitched her name with green embroidery floss and decorated with some chipboard shapes, felt flowers, glitter buttons, crochet flowers, badges, brads, ribbons! Galore!

Ok Lauren, now hurry up and get here! But don't pop out before 11 July. Your Mommy promised!

cheers & besos,

Vintage Photos

My nickname as a baby (and actually still to this day) was Chubby. I had rolls up my arms and legs, chipmunk cheeks and a double chin. But man was I a cute kid. You'll see, just scroll down.

I had fun going through my baby photos the other day, as I was looking to take part in a Glitter Girl Adventure. This week, she challenged us to use our vintage photos.

I specifically went hunting around for photos of myself and my dad. He's been on my brain a lot lately. You see, he's turn 50 this week! My big sweet Papa is officially leaving his 40's behind. And so, I wanted to make a page about us and our relationship, featuring some of our great vintage photos.

The journaling is about us and how similar we are to each other. How in the hospital on the day I was born, he noticed I had a small birthmark on my chin. And that, as he tells is, is how he knew I didn't get switched in the hospital. Despite this guarantee, there has never been any doubt that I'm his daughter. We're so insanely alike in character it isn't even funny. We're both quiet and reserved, we think before we speak, we love to travel and he's where I get my art gene. We also don't get along so great sometimes, because we're so much alike. We're both stubborn & hard headed. But despite that, he's the best Papa I could have ever asked for. He's so supportive and always full of love.

I dug into my stash and used the Tap Dance add on from my Studio Calico Singin' in the Rain kit. There was a lot of Crate Paper goodness in there and they are really great about using creams, as Shimelle Glitter Girl suggests for older photos.

The main kit came with those so great buttons and I wanted to use them, so taking a page out of Jill Sprout's scrapbook, I linked them all with twine.

It ended up being a very girl page. But I'm sure he won't mind. That's another great thing about my Papa, he never minded going to see stupid girly movies with me & my mom. He'd never say no to any of my suggestions, like when I wanted to go see Wicked (the Wizard in Oz themed musical) last time we were in NYC. He wasn't even a bad sport when I drug him all around Soho looking for the perfect graduation dress. He was just happy to be spending time with me =)

I think from the get go I had him wrapped around my little finger. I mean just look at this chubby cheeked baby. Could you ever say no to her?

See, I wasn't kidding about those chubby cheeks. Do you think I could give Lucy Claire Howell a run for her money? :) I used another older Studio Calico kit, Lawn Party & the Rope Swing add on, which also featured some fabulous Crate Paper products.

The page is about how I was born with hazel eyes and how they stayed hazel for several months before they eventually turned brown. My parents weren't that great about taking photos, so I'm so happy they captured at least this one photo of me and my hazel eyes.

I had fun going through my box of vintage photos and picking out some to share a bit of family history. I'll never be able to scrapbook all of them, but it's great to be able to share some of our stories. I know I focus so much on present day events and everyday life stuff, but I think it's important to share where it was that we came from as well.

Have you scrapped any vintage photos lately? I'd love to see what you did with them. Link them up in the comments & I'll stop by to take a look!

cheers & besos,

Sketchbook Day 7

I loved Day's 7 Sketch so much, I made 2 layouts!! I was especially inspired by April and Kelly's take's on the sketch.

April's layout was very simple and sweet and I think mine might be even simpler and none the less sweeter. The photos did all of the work in this one, the color choices one better.

There is literally nothing to this page but a strip of patterned paper, a strip of tape, letter stickers and a few mailing tags.

The title is a play on "Monkey See, Monkey Do" and "Now U see it, Now you don't" because Urijah was so confused about where his monkey backpack had gone!

And then we come to the requisite yearly Chucky E Cheese page. But again to be punny, I played with the title and came up with the Big Cheese.

Urijah looks so cute riding on Gpa's shoulders. And yes my Papa is big and Urijah very tiny, but there's no question of who's boss when the lil guy is around.

I also had the chance to play with this lovely Cosmo Cricket line. I think it's called Togetherness. What a perfect line for a page about family.

Oh, and a side note there's a lot of significance with the kite strings on this one :) I like to use them in my projects because I'm told the word "leija" is Finnish for kite (verified by Finn no less!) Hence my blog banner!

xxbesos

Swing!

One more of UJ!

It's a 100% scraplift from Mou Saha as featured in an old Creating Keepsake.

I love the yellow and the blue together. And all the clean white space.

But most of all I just love that handsome dimpled man :)

xxbesos

Sketchbook Day 2 & 3

Back with more KP Sketchbook Sketches!! :)

This first one is my favorite that I've done in awhile...and it's really very simple!

It was just a matter of some lines, a few photos, and the thought bubbles! And yeah, I took a few liberties calling it a convo but I'm not bothered. They're what literally popped into my head when I started thinking about these photos and the page.

This is hands down my favorite photo of my boyfriend and my nephew. He just looks so little next to him! And then the look he's giving him, it just makes me laugh!

The title letters are a foam Thicker and were originally an aqua color. But I altered them with some blue chalk in because I thought a darker title would work better on here.

So this next page...well, I like it.

But I'm not really in love with it.

It's one of those forced layouts where I should have just called it a day, but instead plowed forward on it anyhow.

It isn't half bad or anything, I actually like the silly puns. And of course my sweet boy is adorable!
I probably should have slept on it ;)

xxbesos

Family Christmas

I just have to say kiddos + footie pjs + Chrismas = magic!

I think my nephew is adorable on any given day, but stick him in a pair of footie pjs...swoon! He's so cute I could eat him up!

I created this quick and simple page with the help of Shimelle's 4x6 Photo Love class, the March edition.

Christmas is my favorite! And I have a whole box full of Christmas supplies so it was only a matter of grabbing the box, picking some favorites, and following along with Shimelle's prompt.

There isn't a lot of technique on this one, other than using distress ink on the tags and the title. But there is a lot of layering.

I layered the letter stickers over the die cut.

And layered the glittery trees over the distress inked dies.

Then I layered a die cut border strip on top of a piece of plaid (gorgeous) Basic Grey paper and added some brads to give it dimension.

Now this is the first, of I'm sure many Urijah pages, you will be seeing over the coming month.

Because April is his birthday month! See, my lil guy is turning 2 on the 20th! (aahhh! I can hardly even believe it!) And I have this very simple goal when it comes to scrapping him: finish all of that age's scrapbook pages, before his next birthday. And I have largely succeeded in doing that. Maaainly because he's only turning 2 and I eeked in a years worth of pages at the final hour.

Want to know my secret?

Here it is: Sketchbook

It just so happened that at the beginning of April, Kelly Purkey launched her first online class. And it just so happened that I won a spot in said class, thanks to Lisa T!

And it also happens that I was unemployed and without much to do at the time.

So in that one 12 day class, I created 15 layouts for Urijah's Newborn book. I never would have done it without that extra push!

At the beginning of the year, I realized how far behind I was on Urijah pages. So I asked Ms. P about the possibility of another April class. Now, I'm not going to claim that it was all my idea but I definitely feel like I was an influencer of this one :) No need to thank me ;)

So if you haven't already, sign up.

(I think you still can)

You probably won't regret

(Although there are no guarantees)

And that's my 2¢

xxbesos

P.S. Whatever happened to the ¢ symbol?! I had to wikihow how to type it!

U Make Me Happy

A quick and simple page of my favorite little man. He just couldn't be any more adorable. He was seriously hamming it up for me this day.

I've had these photos for awhile. So the other day when I went into Archivers and saw these amazing American Crafts papers, I knew immediately that I wanted to use them and that I wanted the theme to be the other half of the "You are my sunshine" song. I think it's the underrated part of that song, but still so good!

95% of the page is using American Crafts products (they're too awesome!) and the stamps are Studio Calico. Just have to point out that I'll probably never regret buying SC letter stamps. They're just so versatile! And also that cloud paper featured in the middle. It's the cutest cloud pattern I've seen! And believe me, there's a plenty of cloud patterns out there.

Oh also, I'm not sure that the picture conveys this, but I pop dotted just the two photos of Urijah. I love that he pops off the page :)

Thanks for stopping by!

xxbesos