Sketchbook Day 3: Diaper/Hangin'

Diaper Kind of Day

The Story:

These were photos of a lazy summer day last August. I guess we'd come to visit just after his bath because his mama rarely leaves him in only a diaper. I mean why would she considering he has tons of cute baby clothes for her dress him in! But I digress...He was so calm and relaxed. Just content to hang out in his bouncy chair aka the recliner for bebes!

And this was when his hair was so long and Urijah like! His trademark, back in the days before the dreaded haircut. It use to grow like weeds but not so much anymore.

It's crazy how time flies. He's not a baby anymore [insert sad face here] and with his first birthday just around the corner, its getting harder to remember his cute little chubby self. I'm so thankful that my hobby helps me to forever memorialize those fleeting days!

Hangin'

The Pages:

Who'd of thunk I'd get to incorporate the Fresh Prince of Bel Air into my scrapbooking!! But there it is, the theme song scrawled out in my kindergarten teacher handwriting. It was literally the first thing that came to mind when I was looking at this photos. It was what he was doing!

I used Day 3's prompt from my favorite (and only) Kelly Purkey class for the first page and tweaked Day 1's prompt for the second.

And c'mon, can we take a minute to ooh and ahh over that adorable little mousey diaper pin?! Is that not the cutest thing?! Fancy having just purchased these last week and then finding an older photo of Urijah in his diaper (like I said before, a rare occurrence).

The pin and the stars are all from Making Memories new Pitter Patter line. LOVE the colors in their boy line! I found them at Archivers and promptly marched to the cardstock aisle to match colors. It's really all there is to this layout, a few embellishments and a lot of different colored cardstock.

Oh, and the Slice elements, can't forget to talk about those. I cut the letters for "diaper" using the Just Chillin' Design Card and some orange cardstock. I was having trouble thinking of something to put at the top of the second page and by chance decided to look at the pre-designed words on the same design card. Just my luck that "hangin'" was an option (although oddly, "chillin" wasn't).

The smaller letters used for "kind of day" were punched using the mammoth Martha Stewart alpha set. I love them but those littler buggers are sooo small! And hard to glue I might add. Consider this before purchasing (small sacrifice really).

So there you have my latest and greatest for Urijah's 1st year album brought to you with the help of the Sketchbook class! Thanks for stopping by!

xxbesos

j.leija

Sketchbook Day 2: Baby Chucky

Baby Chucky

The Story:

At the beginning of February, I got to play with Urijah at Chucky Cheese. I hadn't seen him in a few months and he looked even cuter to my nephew starved eyes, in his baby jeans and backwards cap! That cap made his cheeks look even bigger! I only took a few photos because I was too busy playing with my favorite little man. He's so active and all over the place. Oh the joys of little boys!

Oh, and why "Chucky" you might ask? Well my brother's nickname has been Chucky ever since he was a baby, even though his name is John. I think my dad just started calling him Chucky Ducky one day and it stuck. It's been a nice way to distinguish the two (our papa's name is John as well). Since Urijah is Johnny's mini-me, he's now Baby Johnny, Baby Chucky, and Baby Ducky to me!

The Page:

I loved that the photos had some strong primary colors and knew I had my color palette. By chance, I stumbled upon that gorgeous plaid ribbon at Scrapbook 911, my favorite LSS. It made the whole page! Kelly's Day 2 prompt was equally as inspiring as yesterday and thus, this only took me about an hour to complete. I matted my photos with black cardstock, for a change and I think it made the letter stickers really pop!

xxbesos

j.leija

Sketchbook Day 1: Sapito

Sapito

The Story

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to win a spot in Kelly Purkey's Sketchbook Class via Studio Calico (Thank You Lisa T!!). Needless to say, I was so excited! I love Studio Calico and only wish I could afford their kits! I also love Kelly Purkey and her amazing style. It's already inspired me so much! Perfect timing too, considering Urijah's birthday is just around the corner and that I'd really like to have as much of his first year scrapped. This is the latest for his baby album.

The Page

I love the Spanish word for "frog" which is "sapo" and knew I wanted to use it on a page about Urijah. Since he loves his bath so much, and since I have so many pics of his sink bathing, I figured I'd combine the two. I scavenged my local Archivers for froggy goodness and found these adorable braddies from Doodlebug. Matched them to a double sided sheet of Basic Grey's Origins line (which is so gorgeous) and went to town with my new Martha Stewart border punch. Tre royale!

Kelly's class really brought this layout together and the amazing examples totally inspired me. I love my lil sapo page!

xxbesos

j.leija

Etc: Stash

Etc.

The Story:

Ok, I'll be the first to admit it, I am addicted to purchasing new scrapbook supplies. It's a problem really and truly. I have enough stuff to scrap every picture I've ever taken and probably every one of yours as well. That being said, I'm so happy that Handmade Love has a Stash Challenge component. This week, the ladies prompted a good mix of materials and upped the ante by challenging us to create a layout along with a matching card. This is one of the greatest tips I can offer fellow scrappers, with your leftover scraps create a card! You'll have a ready stash of handmade cards for any occasion.

The Page:

I'm back to scrapping my favorite place in the world, London! This was a random grouping of photos that probably wouldn't have had a place in my scrapbook otherwise, so I'm happy I figured out a page for them. Want to know how this particular grouping came together? I promise it has to do with scrapping.

Here it is: I'm a stickler for matching the colors in my photos to the paper and embellishments I use. And I really wanted to use that gorgeous blue floral Sassafras paper! So I literally went trolling through my iPhoto to find pics that would work. I was wearing blue dresses (didn't realize how many of those I had until I did this page) in 2 of the photos so in my head, that made the blue floral workable for this page. I pared it with an equally lovely graphic pattern, also from Sassafras.

The circles were cut using my trusty lil Slice and the Vintage Findings design card. I choose a fancy circle outline and got 2 die cuts in one, handy little trick I figured out, and a fun way to utilize both sheets of patterned paper. And luckily for me, these were both double sided so when I made the matching card, I had 4 patterns to play with. The paper really did all of the work in this pair. Loving the new Sassafras!

xxbesos

j.leija

Portrait of Asia

Wanderer

Ah, the self portrait, the most basic of all photos. It's wandering (no pun intended) and illusive. For me at least. I'm not one to turn the camera on myself when I'm by myself so they rarely come about. But here are a few chance photos, I've recently felt compelled to scrap.

The Story:

I was walking the streets of Hong Kong, up and down the mighty hills, drenched in sweat and ready for a break when I passed this random metal column. It was huge, oversize and most importantly, reflective. I loved all of the scuff marks on it, and how they've made my photo looked distressed. It's a glimpse of what was going on around me during that particular time on that particular day and that's what I love about it.

The Page:

For this layout, I used a sketch from the Studio Calico blog and some new Jenni Bowlin product. Then rounded it out with some gold Maya Mist, a lovely Kraft envelope and one of those too cute chipboard butterflies.

Self Portrait

The Story:

These photos, this trip, that country, all have such a special place in my heart. China was the first place I ever travelled to on my own and thankfully I felt totally embraced by the country and its people. Even getting stopped by locals who, I think, didn't realize I wasn't Chinese. And I was totally blown away by the city of Beijing. The Forbidden Palace was such an amazing place to visit. And so huge! I didn't spend too much time in any one area and it still took me almost 3 hours to make it from one end to the other. Time definitely well spent.

The Page:

For this layout, I used an older sketch from Sketchy Thursday and some older Basic Grey product. I LOVE the grey/orange color scheme. It's one of my faves but I don't get to use it very often. And I've had those fabulous wood grain alphas in my stash for awhile, they blended in so perfectly with the rest of the layout and are now my favorite part!

Beaten Path

The Story:

If you're ever planning to travel through Southeast Asia, you have to stop off in Cambodia. Not only does it house a marvelous archeological gem at Angkor Wat, it's also just an all around laid back country. I'll never forget the trip from Bangkok to Siem Riep. It was a whole day on a bus and then a cab. Sounds horrible, yeah? But we actually sort of enjoyed it. It was interesting to see how people's days ended when the sun went down, how there are still places without electricity and paved roads. That isn't all of Cambodia by any means, and we stayed in a very lovely hostel by the river, but it does make you appreciate life in the West so much more. Another interesting tidbit about the country, they operate on US Dollar. After 16 months living outside of the US, it was so surreal to walk up to an ATM in Cambodia and see $dollars spit out.

The Page:

This is an all out scraplift from a newly discovered Pea, walesk. I loved the minimalist look of her Early Spring layout and the bright colors she used. I really wanted to emphasize all of the colors in the photo and I think I achieved it with the mix of Dear Lizzy, Sassafras, and Studio Calico paper. Added the buttons for a bit of dimension on an otherwise flat layout. It's one of my latest faves!

xxbesos

j.leija

Delicious

Craft Gossip featured my Regent's Park layout in their Inspiration du Jour Column. Let's just say it makes me deliciously happy! Check it out here: Inspiration du Jour: Regent's Park

xxbesos

j.leija

23rd Birthday: Scraplift

Twenty-third Birthday

Some 2 1/2 years later, and I've finally got around to scrapping the most fabulous birthday of my life. Thank you Handmade Love and Shannon for prompting a scraplift and for providing some great inspiration.

The Story:

When I turned 23, I had only been in London a month, had just barely gotten settled, and was in need of a big to do. Talking amongst my girls, we discovered that Nayeli and I were birthday twinnies. She's exactly a year older than me so of course we decided to have a joint party. Someone along the way had the idea to do a booze cruise and spending a night cruising the Thames sounded like the perfect way to celebrate our birthday. We had a really great turn out, 40 some Mountbattens came. And surprisingly, with all of the boozing and cruising, everyone was super chill and no drama occurred. The perfect kind of night out for me! I was also pumped to get to wear the reject graduation dress I'd picked up on my last trip to New York. Loved it! It was the launching point for the design of these layouts.

Birthday Cruise

The Page:

Since my dress had some pops of yellow, I wanted to highlight it in these pages. The scalloped patterned paper from Studio Calico inspired the addition of the turquoise and it turned out that faux wood patterned paper became a theme. The first page features a favorite photo of me and Sarah. I think she was teasing me with a cigarette. I wasn't biting...or rather smoking. The background is an old Basic Grey sheet. It has a lot of pink tones which did not go with my color scheme at all so I took Shannon's inspiration layout and moved all of the page elements up, in order to hide it. Using a tutorial from Studio Calico, I handmade the brown swirly/circular paper flower. Finished with strips of the scallops I cut from the patterned paper, added a ribbon trim and some Thickers. Viola!

The second page was all about balance and that amazing bright yellow wood grain. I wanted to highlight yellow in this design and the sheet from Studio Calico's Home Front line was too inspiring not to use. Strategically placed the photos and the patterned paper and added my journaling. I feel like it really offset these dark night time photos, gave them a new energy. Which is what they needed because I wanted to emphasize what a blast I had that night. I also wanted to add as many photos as possible but even the 10 featured here aren't nearly enough to do the whole night justice, nor showcase half the friends who came. I really could waste another 1000 words on the fun to be had that night, but this isn't the platform nor the place ;) Let's just say it was a too fun party that I'll remember for the rest of my life!

Thanks for sharing in my ride down birthday way. I'd love to hear about your favorite birthday! Leave me a comment :)

xxbesos

j.leija

Walk to Regent's Park

A Walk to Regent's Park

Balance was the name of the game in this layout. It took me for-EV-er to get it to look how I wanted! Something very close to Wilna's layout, where I took my inspiration. I must have played with the photo placement and those butterflies for two straight hours! Sometimes it takes a little tenacity to make it just right. I play around until I'm forced to fall in love with it. Otherwise, it just isn't done.

Slowly but surely, I've been collecting all of the Winter CHA goodies, my inky little hands can get ahold of. This beautiful Jenni Bowlin green scalloped pink polka dotted paper is one such hoard. It's the perfect backdrop for these gorgeous (if I do say so myself) spring photos. In all honesty, I really didn't do much but push the button on my camera. This beyond beautiful London day did the rest.

Adding the blue made for an unusual color combo for me but I was really excited to play! The butterflies came next and I turned to my trusty Slice and Martha Stewart punches to create those. {Side bar: if you haven't purchased the Martha Stewart butterfly punch you cannot call yourself a scrapper! (Not really, just being dramatic) But if there's one punch I'd recommend for your collection, that one would be it!} Then the balancing of those suckers nearly did me in but once I figured out I needed to have all of the butterflies on one side of the photos in order to 1) make them more legible and 2) achieve that balance I was looking for, it was nearly complete! I channelled Wilna's handwriting for my journaling and went to town remembering this beautiful day. Oh to be back in London! (I feel like I'm starting to sound like a broken record!!)

But it's true, I left a big part of my heart in London. Maybe one day I'll move back. If nothing else, I can't wait to visit!

xxbesos

j.leija

Shady Lady

Shady Lady

The above "Shady Lady" is my friend, the lovely Leigh. I met Ms Leigh on the Young Scrappers thread over at 2Ps. She's this awesome Colorado babe who's one of my biggest champions. She's totally encouraging and so supportive of this crazy lil habit of mine.

A few weeks ago, we found this too fun event over at Write.Click.Scrapbook called BiScrapathon. In honor of the Olympics, the ladies at WCS suggested we team up, trade photos and go to town. So Leigh and I exchanged photos and had some fun!

Pink was my inspiration and then Leigh's awesome shades were the jumping off point for the layout I did for her. "Shady lady" came next and then the umbrella idea. I was originally going to hand cut umbrellas out of patterned paper when inspiration suddenly hit. Cocktail umbrellas!! How had I not thought of these before? And knowing Leigh's obsession with Hello Kitty and Japanese Kitsch (help me out with the terminology Leigh dear) I knew she'd love 'em.

It was so fun to create a page for a fellow scrapbooker, someone who totally understands what went into it, you know? I was pumped to do it. So much so I forgot that on the other end, Leigh was making a too fantastic layout for me! This is what I got in the mail one happy day :) She oh-so-perfectly matched a floral paper with my favorite dress, added some amazing flower embellishments and left me with a so sweet message. It's truly a cherished layout!

xxbesos

j.leija

Austin City Limits: Music

Austin City Limits

This week's challenge at my blog away from home, Handmade Love is to draw inspiration from a video by Mutemath. Now, if you know me, you know how absolutely musically inept I am. So these challenges are definitely going to be that, a challenge. I got my inspiration for this layout from the blue drum kit and the three screens/radiators in the background. Even though this was a color filled music video, the black background in contrast with the white screens/radiators is what stood out to me more. Check out Handmade Love to see what my lovelies did using post-it notes and paint splotches. So inspirational!

xxbesos

j.leija

Lady Cards

Lady Cards

Since yesterday was spent creating man cards, I decided to spend today restoring the balance with a few lady cards. I went for a Spring theme and since there's no other line that evokes Spring more than American Crafts Dear Lizzy line, I had to indulge!

My grandma's going through a bit of hard time right now. My uncle, who passed away last September, would have been 50 tomorrow. I know she thinks about him so much everyday, and especially these last few. I just wanted to give her something sweet and Spring-ish, since it's reminiscent of new beginnings. I love her so much. Keep her in your thoughts and prayers if you get the chance.

I mimicked Dear Lizzy's line by hand-cutting a tree and this heart banner out of scraps for a card for Matt's Grandma Rose. She's been asking for his new address down here in Texas so I figured I'd make her something cute and Springy for him to send.

This last one is for my Aunt Lucy. I found a picture of her and my cousin Rudy from a few Christmas' ago and framed it for her just because. And since I'm a card maker, I couldn't not include a card with it! Love love love that adorable bicycle!

xxbesos

j.leija

Man Cards

Man Cards

We all love the men in our life, and although they may not "get" what all of this scrapping and stamping and cardmaking is about, I've found that they still do appreciate it. March is a month of birthday's in our family. First my dad's, then my uncle's, then their father and lastly a cousin, all boys. I don't know about you, but I struggle with the fine line that is over the top/just enough when it comes to "masculine" cards. While I could have gone overboard with glitz and glamour, I opted for a few simple and straight forward designs.

I created these three cards using a single sheet of patterned paper, 3 plain kraft cards and a few scrap sheets of cardstock. My, oh so trusty Slice did most of the work for me. The Vintage Findings design card can be attributed to the "postage stamps", "pennants", "numbers", and "graphic designs". I guess they can also be considered "hybrid" due to my font work in Word.

The "girliest" part of these designs is that plaid blue and green patterned paper but these cards needed a bit of pizzaz to liven them up. I think it's toned down enough with the brown, blue and green cardstock.

I'd love to see your take on a masculine approach to cardmaking. Please share if you have the chance!

xxbesos

j.leija

Ohio to Texas

Ohio to Texas

The Story:

Ah, the infamous Road Trip of 2010 aka The Advent of Matt to Texas. 5 States, 24 hours and 1,483 miles of driving is what it took. We laughed as hard as we've ever laughed before and fought just as viciously too but managed to survive this road trip, relationship in tact. I knew it was going to be an important milestone for us and I'm thankful that I had the time to go. It was a definitive ending to our loooong distance relationship and a hopeful beginning to a new shorter distance one, a neat bookend.

The Page:

The page itself is fairly straight forward and also entirely scrap-lifted from the genius Vivian Masket. Funnily enough, her layout was about Texas too! I loved the simple design, the white space and the "off" photo placement. Used my Slice and Basics Design Card to cut out the stars and "2". And is that tiny license plate not the cutest? It's Karen Foster and I picked it up from Scrapbook Junkie this weekend.

xxbesos

j.leija

Notting Hill Carnival: Sketch

Notting Hill Carnival

Ah, the Dear Lizzy line. I swoon. I drool. I love! This was my first time playing with this fabulous new line from American Crafts. I literally went looking for photos so I could use it! Then the Handmade Love girls posted this week's challenge sketch and I was excited to put all these gorgeous papers in one layout. Bliss! And a pendant banner...{sigh} Pure Joy!

But enough about the scrapping part, I'm just happy to have scrapped these photos of my first weekend in London. Back in the days when I barely knew my roommates, when I was still hopelessly lost getting around the city, and so blissfully unaware that I'd started the most amazing time of my life.

The fun to be had that first weekend was definitely an indication of the year to come. As fate would have it, Notting Hill Carnival was in full swing. If we wanted an introduction into the culture of the city, we definitely got it. You basically just walked the streets of Notting Hill drink and b-b-q in hand, beads around your neck. Britt, Bex and I didn't really partake. But we stumbled upon Tallini in full celebration mode (That's my girl!) and got the only photo of the four of us ever taken. Seriously, the odds of that happening are slim to none if you see the massive crowds that were milling the streets.

Oh how I miss London. Even worse, I miss Miss MISS those girls!

xxbesos

j.leija

Epiphanie

Wonderful sentiment is it not?! I just discovered, thanks to Ms. Monica Blain, the site called Epiphanie. It's a gorgeous upscale camera bag company that, guess what, is located here in Texas! Just up the highway from me in fact. The bags themselves are gorgeous and definitely on my wish list for when I (finally) get a job. Not only are their products wonderful, but the ladies of Epiphanie are also extremely generous. They're giving away either a Canan 5D Mark or a $2,500 gift certificate for Southwest Airlines! Here is all of the info on the chance to win and be sure to check out their online shop for a truly amazing camera bag!

xxbesos

j.leija

Gift Bag Book: Random Prompt

Here's my contribution to this weeks challenge at my favorite little challenge blog, Handmade Love! As hostesses, Monica and I get to offer random prompts to our challenge-ees and the first one we came up with is to use non-traditional scrapbooking materials. This type of challenge, is one after my own heart. I'm constantly seeing potential in all of the objects around me, especially office materials! I love wondering the aisles of my local Office Max/Depot, to discover hidden gems. I've even got Matt doing it too. He surprised me with some heart shaped binder clips from his last trip. [I heart him]

The majority of this book consists of things you can find at the office supply store or from your cupboard, and the base of it is an actual gift bag I purchased. Isn't it gorgeous?! A few weeks ago I took another of the ever inspiring Debby Schuh classes, her Anthropologie Bag Album. She taught us the basics of turning our favorite gift bags into wonderful one of a kind albums. I was so inspired, I dragged Matt out the very next day to get my supplies.

As you can see, there are a variety of non-traditional items used as pages. I added a few index cards, a piece of cork paper, a clasp envelope, a manila folder and a highly decorated brown paper bag. I wanted to include every inch of that gorgeous gift bag and added some of the trim to finish off a page or two. I also stapled on some embellishments and used reinforces to really get into the office supply feel.
The whole thing came together so quickly! If it weren't for the embossed butterflies on that brown paper bag, I would have completed it in under an hour. It's totally do-able :) So my challenge to you, my fellow scrapbooker, is to look around your house and find some truly great stuff to include in your next page. And check out Handmade Love for the design team's take on this too fun challenge. And if you're not inspired enough already, the winner of this weeks challenge will receive this mini as a prize (aka RAK!). So get to scavenging and show me what you find!

xxbesos

j.leija