Heart Eyes

The page is titled "heart eyes" and I have heart eyes whenever I look at it! It's one of my favorites from this year! 

The page itself is based off of a sketch from the July 2016 issue of [Simple Scrapper]'s Spark Magazine--No. 313 for fellow members.

I knew I wanted to scrapbook these photos. And I decided to pull out the [Heart Story Stamp] from Ali Edwards. But it was only when I really looked at that set that I noticed the "heart eyes" phrase.

Because I knew I was going to use that stamp, I decided to pull out all of the fun [emoji products] I've been collecting. They made for such a fun and playful page!

cheers & besos,

Happiness is...

I have a tip for you, if you need to put something together quickly and easily, reach for your 3x4 journaling cards. I just bought the [Wander core kit] because I'm a big [Christine Herrin] fan, so I was excited to use them!

I used a [Simple Scrapper] sketch and story starter as the basis of the page. The sketch (No. 254) called for patterned paper blocks in the background. Instead, I substituted the journaling cards. So quick, so simple, so fun!

Seven of these bad boys, two 3x4 photos, some stitching and mist droplets + three heart embellishments and I was done in no time flat!

cheers & besos,

Seven

I'm not a parent. Well, not to any humans. But I do have a nephew! His name is [Urijah] and if you've been following me for any bit of time, you've seen him on this blog. I love him to death! He's the only little person I've had the privilege of seeing grow up. On April 20th of this year he turned 7. SEVEN!!! Egads, where has the time gone?! I'm sure every parent...and even aunts and uncles have wondered the same.

I made a very special page to celebrate his birthday, using a sketch from the latest crop of [Simple Scrapper] goodies. And it was really simple and really easy to make! All it took was collecting some ink and a date stamp (used 3 on this page but whatevs) and going to town on some cardstock. 

I pulled colors from the shirt he was wearing in the photo. It had all of these bright little creatures on it. And then using a different ink pad for each year, I date stamped in bands across the page.

I also couldn't not use my [mega date stamp] on this page so I stamped directly onto the photo using white ink. I purchased those fantastic Bella Blvd heart enamels in every color (not joking, spent a tiny fortune on them!) so I dotted them around the page.

Below are close ups of the date stamping, which again, was so simple and fun to do!

cheers & besos,

Lisa Frank Love

Oh Lisa Frank...how I loved your products! I had a collection of stickers, stationary, notepads, folders. The first two were completely hoarded, the later two I used at school. 

Lisa Frank was super popular doing the 80's and 90's, and this month's 80's theme at [Simple Scrapper] had me remembering all of that colorful goodness!

I went online and pulled images for this page. Each one was something I stared at nearly every day, because it was on a folder or a notebook or a binder. I vividly remember each of these! I also did some hunting around that day, for anything about Lisa Frank! But her website was and still is in development. Although, since then, I was so excited to see that she's now on instagram! [Lisa Frank Instagram]

For this layout, I wanted to include a nod to the 80's by using neon. I have these really old Studio Calico neon mini misters. So I sprayed some scrap white cardstock with each of the colors and layered them with the rest of my patterned paper strips.

I used more of the Amy Tangerine Sketchbook collection. Look at the circle flowers I cut out of one of the patterned papers! How did I now notice how awesome they were before??

I knew when I was making this page that it would face the previous [Skidamarink] layout, so I used a few of the same elements on both, to tie them together. Mainly that blue grid background and the teal with small x's. It's obviously not a double page layout, since the design isn't continuous. But in my mind they're really cohesive.

cheers & besos,

Skidamarink

Do you know this song? "[Skidamarink a-dink, a-dink, Skidamarink a-doo], I love you. I love you in the morning and in the afternoon. I love you in the evening and underneath the moon!" 

There may be nothing that transports me back to my childhood as quickly as this song. It was the theme for [The Elephant Show]. Something my brother and I watched religiously when we were little kids. I couldn't tell you anything about the show or what it had to do with elephants, but man is that song ingrained in my brain!

This month's [Simple Scrapper] theme is all about the 80's and one of the Story Starters sparked the idea for this page. I only have vague snippets of what my life was like in the 80's...in December 1989 I was only 5. So I made a page about the things I did remember: being baby sat by Great Aunt Lucy...taking trips to the "little store" for candy and treats...watching The Elephant Show on the big pillow...and loving craft and stationary supplies!

I really wanted to make the song the focal point, so I die cut it out of white cardstock and backed with this lovely watercolored patterned paper. It's big and bold and I like it!

I put together a small photo collage of images for each of the four things I had talked about in my journaling. And I used bright/bold colors in honor of the very colorful 80's! I think most everything is from Amy Tangerine's Sketchbook collection.

cheers & besos,

Elle's Studio Spring Sale

It's happening! Head over to Elle's Studio to shop the spring [sale]! There are grab bags and individual items on mega discount.

While I was at it, I thought I'd share a page I made using this month's Elle's Studio [sketch]. As I'm a huge fan of circles, I totally loved this sketch! I rotated the elements 90 degrees and so much fun layering my photos, acrylic words and stamped pieces.

I completely loved the "We are living our Adventure" journaling tag from the [April kit]. But couldn't make the 3x4 size work. So I just cut out the sentiment placed it along the bottom of my photo. Totally made it work!

I used the [Travelouge stamps] and the [Go, See, Do acrylic words] to embellish this page.

And I used the arrows from the [puffy stickers] pack to help guide your eye around the page. Hands down, puffy stickers have to be my favorite type of embellishment!

cheers & besos,

Weekends at No. 1152

I’m so excited to share this page! It’s one of my favorites from the year. I love the design and the color scheme (so not my usual). The moments that were captured (me helping Matt cook!). And all of the fun Elle’s Studio products I used (puffy stickers!!).

Can I just say that I love the dash of purple Elle included in the Little Moments collection. Dear manufacturers, more purple please! I think adding it in small doses helped make this mage so much more fun!

I started out by making the 12x12 layout, using a Simple Scrapper sketch (due out in May!). It was originally a double page layout. But I decided to shrink all of the elements down and overlap them a bit to make a single page.

One of my favorite parts is the bisected background. I love that angle! It isn’t very harsh, but definitely adds some visual interest. I die cut the title from the white cardstock and backed it with an ombre pattern from the Little Moments paper stack. 

This page is actually an update to one I did last year. It was called Saturdays at No. 1152. Back then we had a cat and no dog. Now we have a dog and no cat. I think it’s so important to document these kinds of things, because you never know how much can change in a years time!

Having the other layout in mind, I decided to print my photos to look like the instax photos I had used before. I stamped labels below each photo and then “Perfect Weekend” (a stamp from this month’s Elle’s Studio release) below each. Then I added a simple note describing each of our perfect weekends.

The embellishing was simple, a tag from the monthly kit, Sat and Sun acrylic pieces and three wee puffy stickers (swoon!). I dropped just a tiny bit of teal and purple mist to finish the page.

And I thought I was done. I thought what I’d made was enough. But then I started flipping through the stack of journaling cards in the monthly kit and I saw that “Notes from the Weekend” one and knew I needed to use it!

I decided to add a 6x12 divided page protector alongside my main layout. I started with the notes from the weekend card, this time I journaled about this specific weekend which happened to be Easter.

We didn’t do much in the way of celebrating. The only way we marked the occasion was by making and eating Matt’s Grandma’s wedding soup. The top photo is of the two of us rolling tiny meatballs for the soup.

I journaled on the “File this Under:” card and made my own 3x4 card using paper from the Little Moment’s paper stack and a few puffy stickers.

cheers & besos,

Awards Dinner

A new month means a new edition of Simple Scrapper’s Spark Magazine! And with it, monthly sketches + the design teams take on those sketches and 12 story starters + the design team’s take on those story starters. It’s a really great beginning of the month boost to get all of your creativity synapses firing!

I’m part of the design team, but believe me, this doesn’t diminish my excitement about Spark’s monthly release even a bit. I love looking through and see what everyone else came up with and reading Jennifer’s always helpful opening article. This month’s is about shopping and oh man, even though I’ve been doing this thing called scrapbooking for so long, I still learned something new. 

Here’s a page I put together featuring one of this month’s sketches. It’s actually a really simple page once you break it down. But since the event itself is formal, I dressed it up by doing two things:

1) I used black cardstock as the base. I think this might be the least used color in terms of layout backgrounds. It definitely changes the feel of the page. Since this event happens at night and is considered black tie, I thought it would be the perfect backdrop for these photos. The colors just pop off of it!

2) I added metallics. I kind of went crazy with them! Using my Silhouette, I cut out the stars from the black cardstock and backed them with this great silver glitter paper. I also dropped some Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Silver. Lastly, I used some funky shiny sequins left over from a Studio Calico kit, as accents.

Stars were a big part of this design, mainly because they feature in the room decor. You can kind of see them in the ’14 photo, behind my colleague’s head. Seeing them every year always makes me excited, so I wanted to replicate that by using stars on the background, in the patterned paper and with the embellishments.

This page, along with a recent favorite layout, are featured in the April edition of Spark Magazine. Head over to Simple Scrapper for more info. I’m super pumped because tomorrow is the beginning of one of our quarterly events, Refresh. I’m ready to sit down, figure out my plan for the next 3 months, organize, recharge and get crafty.

cheers & besos,