LBD: Hometown Girl

Happy Friday! I have a winner for you guys. (And sorry about the delay on this!!) Random.org picked comment #2. That's you Rhonda! If you could e-mail your address to paperheart[dot]project[at]gmail[dot]com I'll have the RAK out to you ASAP!

Sorry it's been crickets around here guys, I've been so busy with work. But I wanted to share another Little Black Dress Kit layout with ya. It's a quick and simple page I put together about my hometown.

Did you know I'm from San Antonio originally? I never really appreciated that city until I left it. There is so much rich culture there. And some good history. Which for the US, I think is quite special.

I went old school & did some tearing on this layout! It was fun but also nerve wracking. That pink Dear Lizzy paper is one of my all time favorites. It feels like I used it on nearly all of my layouts this month.

The bones of this layout are quite simple. Torn paper strips on one side, photos in a line, hand journaling, a die cut and some distress ink, finished off with some letter stickers and I was done.

I was happy to have discovered that Mission die cut in the Silhouette store. Even though I'll probably never use it again, it was too perfect to pass up.

These photos were taken at Mission San Jose, on MT's first visit to Texas. I was proud to show him my home town and its heritage. Just like I'm always happy to admit I'm from San Antone. Which is where I'll be this weekend! Celebrating Urijah's 4th birthday and dropping in on Fiesta while I can.

Non-kit supplies used: Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Vintage Photo, Silhouette Cameo, Martha Stewart Alpha punch, Kraft cardstock

cheers & besos,

Pop-up Giveaway!

Happy Friday all! I'm off today and in the midst of final PMP exam studying. Nearly there! But I interrupt my own studying (ahem procrastinating) to share a quick giveaway.

I've recently received some fun extra goodies that I'd like to give away to a good scrappy home. One item is a 6x6 paper pad from Simple Stories that Two Peas was kind enough to send my way as part of their buy something get a free product promo. It's cute but I have no need so I'd like to send it to one of you! Also up for grabs is an exclusive Studio Calico stamp set. If you ordered last year's December Daily you also received this stamp set. I mistakingly received two and wanted to give the second away. It's theme-y but not too theme-y. Most of it can be used time & again!

To enter, leave a comment below and I'll pick one winner. International entries are welcome, as long as you promise to send me a postcard ;) Giveaway is open until Sunday, 14 April at 11:59pm. I'll announce the winner Monday and get it sent off to you straight away!

cheers & besos,

LBD: Urijah Pages

Morning yall! I'm soooo tired! I've been running on all cylinders for what seems like quite awhile now. Busiest time at work right now and I'm still studying for that huge exam. Needless to say, I'm beat. But this exam is nearly over so I'll have my weekends back after this one. Wah hoo!!

But this morning I wanted to share a few more Little Black Dress kit pages. 

Sound good? 

Ok!

I managed some Christmas layouts with the "Don't Worry Be Happy" kit! Well they're Christmas layouts of sorts. Christmas adjacent if you will. The photos were taken during Christmas but you can't actually see the Christmas tree right next to the chair. So instead of focusing on the fact that these are holiday photos, I decided to  de-Christmas-fy them and just use my pretty kit :)

These pages are 8 1/2 x 11 (obvs) because Urijah's 2-3 year scrapbook is that size. I wanted a challenge! And it has been interesting working everything to this size. But for his 4-5 year scrapbook, I think I'll go back to good old 12x12. 

Anyway, on to the pages...

This was my take on the black cardstock challenge. I wanted just the slightest black edge to help define this page. And then I had fun playing around with a primary color scheme, especially since the photos are fairly neutral in color.

I used my Silhouette (this month's LBD) to cut the title (Fonts: Deftone Stylus & Arial Black) and after that just added some flags and my journaling. This came together so quickly and I love that I got to share this story.

This page is the last kit layout I put together. It came together so unexpectedly well too! I knew I wanted to have the photos tilt across the page like that. I knew I wanted there to be strips of patterned paper above and below. But the checker board came to me on the day and I think it makes the whole page!

I also want to point out the title! I die cut it out of black cardstock (Font: Bebas Neue) and then painted an ombre effect on it. I just free handed it with gray and the white paint. It added the perfect touch to distinguish the letters from the background.

Oh and the background is the B side to the My Mind’s Eye Lost & Found 3 “Ruby” Red Floral Paper. It's cream with a red design and then I smothered it in red mist. You can subtly see the design in real life but not so much in this photo.

And the pictures! I nearly forgot to mention them. I'm getting better at this whole Photoshop Elements thing guys! Well really, I'm getting better at goggling for and watching videos about how to do cool new things. I had fun converting these photos to black and white and then bringing Urijah and his bike back in color. The backgrounds were just too distracting and I'm happy to have de-emphasized them.

Ok, that's enough writing for 6am. Time to start my work day. Catch yall later!

cheers & besos,

LBD: 2013 Fashion

I think....I think this is my favorite layout from this month's batch of Little Black Dress Kit layouts. I think. It's hard to tell, I was so inspired by this kit! 

When I first got the kit and started to think up page ideas for it, I knew I wanted to use scraps of patterned papers around the edges of a page. Simply because there is so much great color in this month's kit! I wasn't sure what photos to use with this design, but I knew I wanted to make a page like this.

Then I synched my iPhone and had a crop of new photos to scrapbook. This guy is an instagram I took a few weeks back of my cute work look. At the time I thought, "oh I should do a 2013 fashion page" but didn't remember until I had them all up on my computer. I thought it'd be perfect to pair with the idea for my design.

I had it in my head right from the beginning that I would include "journaling" on the photo. So I included the bullet points (so to speak) of what my fashion consists of. I wanted the photo to be big so I printed it at 8x8. It's a littler grainy but I'm not at all bothered. I also printed out a few more tiny instagrams highlighting the other fashion I mentioned.

Instead of adding a paper border, I decided to use gesso to tone down and differentiate my photo from the background paper. I definitely learned some things in Wilna's Art Class if anyone is interested in learning more about different mediums, such as gesso. From there it was just about adding scraps of patterned paper around the edges and adding dimension with a bit of wood veneer.

Oh and I also want to talk about my title. I cut it out of a really thick cream cardstock (Papertrey Ink) and painted it with Martha Stewart Glitter paint. That stuff is the best!

Non-kit supplies used: Martha Stewart Glitter Paint, cream cardstock, gesso, Silhouette, Font: Arial, Arial Narrow, Arial Black

cheers & besos,

LBD: Fairytale

[Sigh] I just adored the dreamy quality to this fabulous sheet of Crate Paper that came in this month's Little Black Dress Kit. It has such a lovely ethereal feel to it. I initially wasn't sure how I wanted to use it so I set it aside and let it marinate in my brain. Then the one day I was sick (and didn't fall asleep until 7am!) I started to day (again it was night time & I couldn't fall asleep!!!) dream about what my fairytale wedding would be. I've talked about it with my besties before, but thought this paper would make the perfect background for a page about my dream/fairytale wedding.

I channeled my inner Wilna for this romantic page. I didn't actually lift any of her pages. But really just thought about her style and how she might have approached this page. Its probably an amalgamation of a lot of her pages really.

I started by playing around with my photos in RadLab. I wanted them to have a faded dream like quality to them, similar to the background paper. The colors went perfectly with the paper IMO! They're images from a trip I took to Sintra in Portugal. This tiny city was one of the most amazing places I've ever visited. They are literally storybook castles on top of mountains!!


Sintra really is a place out of a fairytale. If ever you're in that part of the world. I 150% recommend you should visit =) But anyway back to the page.

I started by adding drops of Heidi Swapp color shine in Primrose and Tropicana Teal. Then I went to town with my punches and used that fabulous pink ombre from Dear Lizzy to get a crop of different colored butterflies. I also used it for my title. Thanks again trusty Silhouette!

I fussy cut a few flowers out of a sheet of patterned paper and then also punched a few birds and hearts out of different cardstock to fill in the gaps.  There's a great birthday patterned paper in the kit with music notes and a song that says "It's your special day we want to celebrate". Too perfect for a wedding inspired page, no?! I cut it like a banner and used it to back my title.

Non-kit supplies used: Heidi Swapp Color Shine, pink cardstock, bird punch, heart punch, butterfly punches, Silhouette Cameo.

cheers & besos,

LBD: Berlin Bear

This was the first page I made with the April LBD Don't Worry Be Happy Kit. I initially started to centralize everything in the middle with a few items above and below the photos that extended to the edges of the page. But I didn't like it at all. So I centralized the entire design in this page about my second favorite metro. 

I love me some Berlin! That bear had so many great colors in it, I intentionally picked it because I knew how great it would be with this kit. 

That's a bit of a secret to my scrapbooking. When I use a kit, I find photos that work with the kit. I don't try to make the kit work with my photos. It's one benefit to having a huge back log of photos to scrap! 

Also, I have a secret about this layout. Since I knew I was covering so much of the middle, I cut out a square directly in the center and used this great blue polka in a few of my other pages. I don't like wasting paper!

And from there it was easy to add little flags and bits of ribbon to the back of a sheet of white cardstock. I initially thought I'd fill it in all the way around but later decided that i liked having the spaces in between.

It may be a bit hard to tell, the white cardstock is pop dotted (not a "real" word) off the page. I wanted to give it just a bit of dimension.

The final touches were the wood veneer and the Glitz Design "happy" banner. It's pre-stitched and oh so cute!

For my journaling, I covered up the title pre-printed on the flags with a bit of cardstock and ran each through my printer. All done!

Non-kit supplies used: White cardstock, yellow & orange paper scraps, black pen, white pen, Silhouette Cameo. Font: AL Modern Type

cheers & besos,

LBD: April Layouts 12x12

Finally!! I get to share my Little Black Dress Kit layouts! It feels like I've been waiting for weeks. But I think it might have something to do with that fact that I was so excited to share these projects with you all =)

Last month's kit focused on neutrals. This month's was all about rainbows! And I totally embraced the rainbow with all of my pages this month.

Introducing, my Don't Worry Be Happy kit 12x 12 pages:

I used patterned paper backgrounds for all of these pages. There's just so much in the kit! You can't help but want to play with it. Also in this month's kit was some great Freckled Fawn wood veneer and some fun paper flags.

And this month's LBD is a new LBD for me. It's my Silhouette! Lately I've been turning to my Cameo for just about every page I've been making. All of the titles here were created using my machine. I love how custom they are!

There's so much I want to say about each of these pages, that I think I'll do a separate blog post for each. They'll be up on the blog throughout today.

And I'll be sharing the rest of my projects throughout the week.

[Sigh] I loved getting crafty with this kit. So far, it's been my favorite! Check out how the other design team members worked their magic with this kit:

Valerie O'Neal
Stephanie Bryan
Alyssa McGrew
Brittany McLead

cheers & besos,

Safety First/First Mutt

Are you April Fools-ing today? I do NOT take part in this "holiday". I was the victim of a very terrible April Fools joke when I was younger and am still scared! (Got a tearful/hysterical call at 9pm at night saying someone was in the hospital. They weren't. It was a not at all pleasant experience.)

But cest le vie. I want to show you something cute instead. I've finished up my LBD assignment for the month, so now I'm just playing with paper and photos. 

I ordered some of the new(ish) Glitz Design Unchartered Waters line so I could scrapbook these photos of silly Cadie. I'm loving the nautical theme. I'm always on the hunt for it with all of the beach going my parents (and sometimes I) get to do. And of course I used nothing with the color blue...or green for that matter! 

I used a Shimelle.com sketch as the basis for this page. I'm determined to use them all this year! I'm 5/10 so halfway there =)

Instead of one photo, I pulled three and backed each of them with a journaling card. They made for the perfect border for this tinier photo size!

I also had fun creating custom die cuts with the help of my Silhouette. I used a few Studio Calico digital brushes and cut them out of Papertrey Ink cardstock (it's a heavy weight cardstock).

Then I colored each of them differently. The gold one is spray misted. The black is painted with chalkboard ink. And the pink I inked with chalk ink.

I also mixed up the title with glitter Thickers, letter stickers and circle stickers. I couldn't decide between First Mutt & Safety First so I ended up using them both!

cheers & besos,