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,

Family Everyday

I made this page back in August, but am only just now getting around to sharing it with you!! It was one of the 5 pages I did in the morning before Lauren's birthday party (see the rest of them here).

We did a potluck for friend's Christmas last year and I got to snap photos of everyone. These were absolutely some of my favorites. The lighting was perfect, the subjects were cute, their clothes were fun colors. Sigh…yes everything just jelled. To highlight the series, I made a quick photo collage in PSE.

The embellishing ended up being super simple. Just a banner across, cut with my Papertrey Ink banner builder dies, some twine, a die cut and some Thickers. Viola!

cheers & besos,

Simple Scrapper Sketches

Every year for Lauren's birthday, I give her scrapbook pages for her album. This year I didn't have much time to put them together, only the morning before the party! So I pulled some photos, grabbed my Simple Scrapper Spark Mag and its sketches and went to work.

If this first page looks familiar, it's because Jennifer used one of my pages as the basis for the sketch! I used a lot of Crate Paper's Open Road for this one.

I had fun manipulating this photo in Photoshop Elements. I converted it to black and white and colored the family back in. I like doing this for photos with busy backgrounds. It's so easy too! This is my go to tutorial, because I forget all of the steps every time!

I used odds and ends from the Scrapbook Circle August kit for this. Including the printables!

And this was my big hand cutting title page that I shared a few weeks back. The Simple Scrapper sketch called for a big title. Well I made one!

In one morning and part of an afternoon I was able to crank out 4 pages (+1 other) using Simple Scrapper sketches. It's what I love so much about being a member. I don't have to run around finding inspiration. It's just there for me in one neat little monthly package. The perfect starting point for many a project :)

cheers & besos,

Birthday Brunch

I made layouts! Oh man have I missed making layouts! Like I mentioned before, the whole Project Life thing has been taking up a lot of my creative time. So last weekend I was determined to make some good old fashioned layouts. 

Since it had been awhile, I was a bit stuck, creatively that is. So I turned to my Simple Scrappers monthly mag and just started playing around with the sketches.

I was really influenced by Jennifer's take on the sketch. I added in a doily and that vellum die cut because of her :)

I took my color inspiration from our clothes, choosing papers that coordinated with each of our outfits. It made for a wacky color combo. Both those always end up being my favorites!

I also got to use some of my new Studio Calico goodies. I NEED more of these oh so fabulous gold letter stickers.

The finishing on this was so simple. A few enamel dots, date stamp and just a tiny smattering of gold mist.

It's such a clean page and because of that, the photo really stands out. Love that!

cheers & besos,

Lauren's Pages

A special little lady turned one last week. For her birthday, I contributed a few pages to her scrapbook. I spent a happy Saturday making these for her. It was fun to just play with my stash, no rhyme or reason, no challenges or assignments.

Find more Lauren pages here =)

cheers & besos,

Hello Today

Morning yall! Wow, I never expected this much of response for the giveaway! Thank you all for commenting. It's going on until Sunday, so if you haven't already comment while you have the chance.

This morning, I just wanted to do a quick share of a fun page I made over the weekend. It's not for any challenges, I didn't use any kits, I just grabbed some stuff from my "new goodies" drawer and played.

I'm loving the look of stacked photos these days. And thankfully, these photos had enough "dead" spaces for me to layer them on top of each other. And I got to cover up our messy brunch table.

I used more goodies from The Pier collection by Crate Paper. I love it so much!!

I loved how the photos looked on this neutral background color. It made them pop AND meant I could add color with my embellishments. I had fun clustering these around the page.

Just a sprinkling of gold Color Shine and I was done with my page.

Thanks for stopping by! Happy Monday everyone =)

cheers & besos,

LBD: Brunch with Lauren

Happy Friday yall!! Oh geez...that was a too much enthusiasm. After last night's escapades I kinda can't believe I had the energy to muster even that!! =)

But I digress....

Today I wanted to share another Little Black Dress Kit layout with yall!

I used a sketch from my old Bright Ideas class for this layout. I had a lot of photos I wanted to share on one page. So lining them all up along the edges was the best way to go.

I left a few of the "boxes" open and added some patterned paper and die cuts for embellishing. The tea cup is in reference to Ms. Lauren's favorite song. She howls with laughter whenever we sing "I'm a little tea pot short and stout..." and move her arms to the words in the song. It's the cutest thing!

I added some of the great fringe for more texture. In pink of course, since we're all girls :)

I created and die cut my title using the Silhouette and added some glittery Thickers atop for dimension.

And with just the littlest bit of stamping, I was done!

cheers & besos,

LBD June Sneaks

Little Black Dress Kit Club sneaks for your viewing pleasure today! So excited to share my layouts this month, but I can't until the 7th. Until then, here's a few sneaks for your viewing pleasure.

And guys, those gold Thickers are some of the best (scrapbook) things EVER!

cheers & besos,

First Video

My first video! I did it! And it was fun =) Not easy but still fun. Bear with me guys, this was my first ever video. I was having to learn iMovie this morning as I went along. But luckily it's pretty straight forward. And as I say in the video, apologies for the shaky cam! I'll work on it for next time.

Here's the Shimelle sketch I based my page off of:

...and some close-ups of the finished layout! 

Let me know what you think!

cheers & besos,

LBD March Layouts

Hey there! I'm so excited to share my first pages for the Little Black Dress Kit club, using the A Chance for Luck kit. I've just shared all the bits and pieces you get from this kit and now I want to show you my layouts!

I loved the monochromatic look of the papers so I used a bunch on this page about me. I shared 5 things about life right now in March 2013.

1. I am a new member to the Little Black Dress Kit club! (I should probably have added design team member in there. But as I was doing this at 1am I wasn't actually thinking straight!)
2. Wishing I could sleep more. This year has already been a whirlwind. Off to San Antonio for work this week. (Ha! See item one)
3. So loving anything metallic right now & am wearing my latest favorite dress in this pic.
4. Losing weight! Down 10 lbs since the new year & hoping to lose much more.
5. Planning my holidays for the year. I want to make it to Australia but will definitely by visiting the Pacific Northwest with MT this summer.

I used my Silhouette to cut out these tear drop shapes. They're fairly similar to the silver pattern on my dress. But these I backed with all the great grays & neutrals. I dappled some gold Heidi Swapp Color Shine (which btw I absolutely adore. I bought all the colors!!) And added title on top of a piece of wood veneer.

This is for my monthly black cardstock challenge. I don't use this rich hue enough in my scrapbooking. So I'm hoping to share a monthly page using this overlooked neutral.

The next page features one of my favorite families. My friends Susie & Gus welcomed baby Lauren last August and they are the absolute cutest. I love this photo of the three of them. I snapped it at Kim & Eric's wedding last month.

I had fun with the background paper and did some painting with pink mist. Then I outlined the hearts and added in a few of my own. There's so much love in this little family love had to be the theme.

I used that kraft butterfly I was talking about, instead of hoarding it like I wanted to. And I used some wood veneer, a Silhouette cut and a little kraft envelope to anchor the photo and create a title.

This last page is just fun. I loved the Studio Calico patterned paper, with it's neutral gray color and its diagonal stripes. They were just begging to be filled in with pops of color and a bit of texture.

I used some patterned paper strips and a few of the great trims. I like all the color on here since we're all wearing different colored clothes in the photos. I added just a bit more dimension with the gorgeous gold buttons and the red brads that came in the kit.

Next, I'm sharing the two cards I made. Check back in just a few for them =)

cheers & besos,