Little Black Dress Kit Club - July (part 5)

This was one of my favorite layouts from the kit. 

I love that mustard yellow chevron from MME and thought

it looked great with the grainy Instagram photos I can't

seem to get enough of!  Yellow + aqua + red = yummy.

This LO is based on the Ben Folds son called

"Still Fighting It" which is one of my favorites. 

 We love this song, and the lyrics start

"Good morning son, I am a bird..."

 We saw him in concert recently and

he was amazing...oozing talent!



Little Black Dress Kit Club - July (part 4)

This is the one layout that doesn't have any relation to music

or specific lyrics or anything...couldn't think of anything to work.

In early Spring, this year, the kids were really into taking their

lap desks outside to color or draw.  Sofia decided this day to

draw and color the irises.  Shawn documents the event from all angles

on his phone including the fact that usually Sam just wants

to watch his big sister...no matter what she is doing.  Eventually he

wants to participate but he loves just be next to her and watch.

Which works out good for everyone since she loves to be watched,

except when she doesn't, she is a fickle 8 year old after all.

The kit had so many great patterns and colors that in honor of the garden, I

decided to just throw a many on a page as possible and see what happened.

Not my favorite LO, but there is lots to look at!

Little Black Dress Kit - July (part 3)

Did I mention there going to be several of these posts?

I figured if I put all five LO's on one post that people would

have stopped reading LONG ago...

My husband suggested using the John Mayer song "Daughters"

for one of the pages after he heard the challenge.  This was from Easter

and one of the cardstocks from Heidi Swapp in the kit was the

exact color of Sofia's dress.  The layered scallops at the bottom are

also from Heidi Swapp Color Magic collection of file folders that

is so much fun to play with!  I cut mine up and used these scallops

as a border after misting them. 

I wanted to have a mix of  masculine and feminine on this LO so I 

alternated pieces of  these black & cream papers from Basic Grey

"Little Black Dress" collection.  I machine stitched the diagonals down

and had wanted it to look  like men's suiting, pinstripes next to polka dots? 

Not that I have seen any men's suiting out of polka dots...you get the picture.



Little Black Dress Kit Club - July (part 2)

So next up on the music inspired challenges was a LO

for my daughter's Christening.  I love the new Up & Away collection

from Basic Grey and this was absolutely the perfect place to use

that paper.  The song that inspired it was a song from Madonna's

"Ray of Light" cd...the song is called "Little Star" and I used to

sing it to Sofia when she was a baby...maybe why she took a long

time to fall asleep ;)  But once asleep, she stayed that way!

Could be she didn't want to hear anymore songs...ha!

The July kit also had some of the Pretty Party collection from Crate Paper.

This yellow lace sheet has a great aqua print on the back, but I cut around

the lace as a sort of homage to the Christening gown Sofia wore.

I wanted to keep the LO as light as possible to let the photo stand out. 

I cut the clouds out with my Silhouette and then layered them over another piece

of misted cardstock.  I machine stitched "rays" down from the clouds and wrote a

couple of the song lyrics in vellum so it wouldn't cover up too much and keep it airy...

I loved the little paper doll people I cut out at the bottom...

since there were now three of us and where we are connected, it forms a heart...sniff.

My Mother brought is back from Ireland where she and her 5 brothers and

sisters all wore it.  My cousin was the last one to wear it about 30 years ago.

It is gorgeous and since then, my son wore it and my two nieces.

My Mother also made a slip underneath it that has a hem made from

some tatting that my other Grandmother had made.  We monogrammed

everyone's initials who has wore it on the bottom of the slip.

Needless to say, it is a special, special dress...It was a beautiful day and Sofia

was an angel...until after her turn was finished...then she screamed her head off.

I think she was hot in all those gorgeous layers of lace...it was July after all.

Little Black Dress Kit Club - July (part 1)

Well, this is my first month on the DT for Little Black Dress Kit Club

and I wanted to share my projects created with the July kit. 

One reason I love their kit is because it has everything that is hot

and trendy yet some quirky things as well that challenged me to

think outside my little typical layered page. 

The DT had also decided to make a challenge for one layout

to be inspired by a song, or lyrics or song title, anything that struck

a chord (ha ha) with us or something we wanted to scrap.

I find music to be such an inspiration anyway because I usually have

it playing in the background or am listening to my kids beat on

Daddy's drums...ahem...

Anyway, this was an easy challenge and I actually made 4

layouts with specific songs in mind - part overachiever and

part-misunderstanding by my part...at any rate, here they are!

There is a song by the Talking Heads that reminds me of college

and that I just love...sadly, my husband hates it, which is weird

since it is what I used as inspiration about the fact that

wherever he is is "home"...oh well!

The song is "This Must Be the Place"



loving life.

Before our beach this year I bought Shawn a fedora...

I thought he could totally rock the retro vibe with his mirrored

motorcycle cop sunglasses!

Everyone took turns wearing it, it was pretty funny.

I'll have to do a layout of that next.

This page was based on a sketch from Elle's Studio for

their Thursday Sketch Challenge...It was a great sketch and

perfect for what I wanted to do!  Here is the link to their page...

http://ellesstudio.blogspot.com/2012/06/sketch-thursday_29.html

Anyway, I did this layout using almost all October Afternoon

collections...I love the "9 to 5" line because of that retro

feel and of course, I can't get enough of any woodgrain

papers right now...I have also been hoarding these wood veneer

hearts and arrows from Studio Calico waiting for the right time! 

( I have a problem with the hoarding...I admit it. )



As usual most of the pictures Shawn and I have is of Shawn holding the

camera and us looking up at it...but, at least we documented something!

It was a great vacation...a much needed break.



piggies in the s a n d...

I created this layout for the Echo Park "Sweet Day Challenge"...

Ironically, I started the project days ago and got hit with either a serious

tummy bug, or food poisoning and just now finished.

So, until today, things haven't been so sweet...but now, better...

Whew!  It takes feeling like poop for days to make

you appreciate how good feeling normal is! :)

Anyway, this was Sam's first trip to the beach, before Sofia

started school, so we could go in the fall...we went in October

and it was absolutely wonderful...great weather, not crowded,

like our own private beach off of the balcony.

I guess for a toddler the ocean must be an odd thing...

loud and completely different from anything.

Sam did NOT want to get in the water, but he loved the sand,

just not in his shoes.  Which is kinda hard to get around

when you are at the beach...Sand gets everywhere, between toes

is the least of your worries...oy.