Lucky Me - Scrapbook Circle March Cut Files

This was the last LO I made using the Scrapbook Circle March kit - Portobello Road.

I used lots of the digital cut files that are included in the kit, the four squares and the title.
I cut them out of watercolor paper, actually they are watercolor post cards
 that I use for my Silhouette too.  They are thick but still cut great and the paper
weight is heavy enough that intricate cut like the title won't bow from the the water.

I colored them in gradient greens to try to play off the printables and other green elements.

I colored the cut out shamrock by pressing it into a stamp pad, to get a rich, vibrant red like the heart sticker.

Tomorrow is the last day of March...cannot believe it!  

If you haven't seen all the projects from the Portobello Road kit that the DT did, check out the Idea Gallery!

And while you are at the Scrapbook Circle Blog, look at all the lovelies in the

new April kit, Bucket List!  It is going to be an awesome month of inspiration! 

Thanks for stopping by and happy Sunday!

Today was SWEET! - Scrapbook Circle March 'Portobello Road' Kit

A quick LO I did using the March Portobello Road kit from Scrapbook Circle.

This wasn't an assignment, just wanted to use this paper and a couple of the SBC cut files

to scrap these photos of Sam and I on our date night!

I punched some hearts out of vellum at the top to tie in with the patterned paper & misted a couple to match.

I cut the 'Love You' and the 'Today Was' frame from watercolor paper and used these pearlescent 

watercolors I was trying out on them...it is hard to tell, but it does give a really nice shine to it!

A couple stickers and some other bits for more layers and it was done!

Probably a 45 minute LO and the majority of that was letting paint dry!

Have a great Monday!

BOY TOY - Scrapbook Circle March DT Choice

I wanted to share a layout using the Portobello Road main kit and the Street Market add-on.  It is featured on the Scrapbook Circle Blog today and actually turned out to be one of my favorites from the March kit.  I love lots of layers, getting loose and artsy, but the Virgo in me sometimes craves a neat, orderly page design.

This months kit is full of pieces of the new "Boy's Rule" collection from Crate Paper,

so, of course I had to use some of the many photos I had of my son's legos, toys, etc.
The journaling cards in the kit from Crate Paper are such a great way to stretch your supplies and use in lots of different ways.  I didn’t use any on this LO for actual journaling.

I used them for the title and as patterned paper.  I trimmed them down and rounded all the corners.  I cut some of the other papers down to the same size as the journaling cards and used them as photo mats.  The tension on my sewing machine was off and it came out messier

than I would have liked, but in the end I decided, it is a boy page and liked the look...

Maybe that was my justification for accepting what happened and trying to make the best of it! ;)

The circular Element stickers from BasicGrey, part of the add-on, were perfect to highlight the photo and break up the grid.  I used dimensional adhesive to pop up random pieces, like the Scrapbook Circle stamp in the middle.

The main kit with these fantastic papers and the set of 20 journaling cards is still available! Check it out HERE and the other items included in the March kit.

Be sure to hop over to the Idea Gallery too and see all the DT member’s pages!

Thanks for stopping by today and have a great one!

FEELS like HOME

I am posting a special layout I did about our favorite restaurant...

I was inspired by a company called DogVacay.com that is a great service for pet owners

who can locate and find reviews for local people who 'host' your pet in their home!

They have a huge following and network of avid dog lovers and their challenge is to provide

your dog with a Home Away From Home!  Check our their FB page too,

if for nothing else than the awesome pics of puppies and cute dogs!

Although I consider myself and my husband somewhat adventurous, kids have changed that a bit...

especially concerning cuisine!  In fact, we went through a "phase," that lasted several years where 

we avoided a sit down dinner, if possible, since it wasn't very enjoyable trying to appease toddlers.

Now, those days are behind us!  Well, at least the avoiding going out to dinner part.  We still have one picky eater.

When my husband and I started dating, over 17 years ago, we began frequenting this Italian restaurant.

Owned & operated by a family, that it turned out was not only Sicilian, like my husband's grandparents,

but also knew my husbands family from their previous restaurant...

We ended up having out wedding rehearsal dinner there almost 13 years ago.

It was also the first place we took my daughter when she was a couple weeks old.

The Owner's family has been witness to our marriage, celebrating pregnancies and children,

anniversaries, Valentine's, birthdays and even a few post funeral dinners...happy times & some somber.

In other words, our real life.

Our children love it, we love it and it feels like coming home!

Hugs and kisses on arriving & leaving, consistently good food and lots of wine;

which pretty much describes a typical Sunday lunch with my husband's family...

 

I chose lots of embellishments, tags and stickers with lots of phrases and text.

One of the papers that looked like stacked receipts.  I wanted the layers to remind me of 

photos that were taped down, pieced together and lots of hand journaling.

I haven't decided which scrapbook this layout will be a part of, but one of the best things

about being at home in someone else's dining room, there are no dishes to wash!

Thanks so much for letting me share this page and a piece of our journey through the everyday...

Have a great weekend wherever your home is!

family = made with love ( & video )

I wanted to share a LO I did for a special scrapbook of mine that I call "You Should Know."
I like to think of my scrapbooking obsession as an extension of my father's obsession of photography,
that he applied to memory keeping, his version of scrapbooking.
This book is for my children mostly, so they can look at not only photographs of their ancestors,
but maybe read a bit about their heritage, personal stories, etc.

I made a start to finish video you can see on my YouTube channel HERE or by clicking
the link below, but as a little warning, it turned out to be more like family than I planned...
beautiful in the end, but a difficult process!

Some of the family included are people my children met, but don't remember, and
then there are some that they never got to meet.  I can't think of a better way for my love
of photographs and paper to be used for a future generation!

So...with that in mind, I wanted to create a page for this book of one of the photographs I have that
are from some of my mother's books of her parents. My grandmother, who would have turned 100 years
old this past September is already the subject of other pages in this scrapbook and will continue to be.

She was one of the most amazing people I knew, and more so the older I become and
more I know about her.  She embodied the selfless and loving soul that I aspire to become.

In my thinking of this page, I was inspired by some pattern paper and began to think about
family and the symbolism between family and a quilt, sewing pieces together to make
a bigger pattern.  A family quilt that is made by hand, not mechanically perfect, but lovingly
made and stands the test of time...ok, that may be a little sappy, but that was my thinking.

I used lots of subtle floral patterns and a few of my favorite patterns that I had been saving.
I also did LOTS of sewing and lots of fiddling to get things the way I wanted...

Thanks for stopping by and seeing my LO!
It was a labor of love, but like family, worth it in the end...

BIRDS of a Feather - kreative koncepts / Scrap Friends March Color Challenge

Hi everyone!

There is a new color challenge at Scrap Friends that is super awesome!!

Also, Scrap Friends has actually changed owners and is now called kreative kooncepts!

Still the same Scrapbooking DT and LOTS of new product in the store!

Check it out and the blog post HERE to read all about some upcoming exciting changes!

Now, onto the Challenge!  Seriously, the best colors!  Gold, pink, mint...oh my!

The photograph of my daughter and her bestie inspired the title and theme, they were playing super

secret agents and looked extremely sneaky!  I kept the photo b&w so that the colors really stood out!

I used my Silhouette to cut out these feathers in different sizes and arranged them to

look like they are falling.  Then I mounted stamped them and dipped half in gold glitter...

mounting them to the same paper they were cut out of.

I used lots of layers of vellum, to keep it light and a few washi tapes too.

I wrote my journaling on a tag and tucked it into a glassine bag amid the vellum layers.

Of course, I couldn't do a page with gold and not use the Color Shine!

I popped up the ends of each feather to give them some dimension and to 

show a bit of the mint woodgrain paper underneath.

That same POST that introduces the new owner also has all the DT projects,

Guest DT too, using these colors!

Thanks for popping in!  Have an amazing weekend!

daddy / daughter Dance

I missed my much needed Friday late night scrap therapy this past week,

so I got some in Monday night instead!  This was my 'just for me' layout,

so I got crazy and did some doodling and random writing.

I'm not sure if it was quite the look I was going for, but I had fun!

I wanted to scrap these photos and make it a clean LO (whoops!) but not cold with black, white & red.

I misted some Mint Green Color Shine on a couple pieces of ephemera from Heidi Swapp

and I think that helped warm it up.  I also thought the hand drawn chalkboard

pieces and my doodling made it fun and not too serious!  Of course, I had to add

some bling since my daughter was wearing that rhinestone belt.

I had lots of photos of Sofia with Shawn that I wanted to use,

but I had planned to make it really clean. I made a little flip up photo

with some washi and a couple polaroid frames.

I have been doing so many projects for different DT's, family stuff and

cards that it is so nice just to get creative and do what I want, just because...

Thanks for checking out my just because today!!

cherished. Scrapbook Circle March 'Lifting You'

This is the LO I came up with from one of my March assignments with the Scrapbook Circle Portobello Road kit.

The task was to lift one of the SBC subscriber's pages posted on the Scrapbook Circle Facebook page.

I loved this one so it was easily done!  You can see the inspiration project and the original post HERE.

An example of why I love having my phone always on my person...

I was walking behind the couch, turning on lamps and I saw Sam reach out for his Daddy's hand.

The photo was more of both of them, but I zoomed it in, to what means the most.

One of my favs in the kit this month is these large script foam words and phrases.
I used the 'cherish' and cut off the 'ed' from one of the other words.

The inspiration page was using a piece of bokeh page as the main patterned background.

I used a piece of cardstock from the cardstock Add-On kit and the Scrapbook Circle exclusive

stencil and made a little pattern of my own.  The stencil is a random pattern of tiny hexagons...very cool!

Thanks for popping in and check out the kit, if you haven't seen it yet!
It is so awesome, I am sure it going fast!
Also, share your projects on the Scrapbook Circle FB page and yours could be chosen for the next 'Lifted' LO!

Here we go...Scrapbook Circle March Sketch Challenge!

 I love a good sketch and Diana at Scrapbook Circle is a master!

I approached this one a bit different because I was so inspired by this awesome

paper that is part of the March kit - 'Portobello Road'

 

 

This is the sketch below & you can find the original post HERE with all the other DT takes on the sketch!

 

 

 

 

I had been playing with a new app on my phone and made these round mats around the photos before

this kit came out, but the circular mats, the concentric circles in the paper and the ice cream itself

all made me shift the sketch.  The awesome foam phrases from Amy Tan that I used for the

title made me use black cardstock to mat the photos on and I love the way it pops against the white.

 

 

This is one of those LO's that totally drove itself and I really did not like it when I finished.

I had planned to do another one, but after a couple days, I really started to like it, for all the

reasons that I never would have planned or chosen to combine!  One of the things I like most about creating...sometimes you never know where it will take you, if you let it!

 



The Sketch Challenge this month is thru midnight March 19th.  You can upload your project to the
Scrapbook Circle Facebook page HERE.  So, let's see whatcha got!

Thanks for popping in...have a great weekend!

Stash-A-Thon @ Scrap Our Stash!

Welcome to our Stash A Thon Birthday Celebration! 
Let's Get This Party Started!!!

My assignment is for the Stash A Thon #3 ~ March 7, 2014

And I have CANDLES - Anything that sparkles (bling, stickles, glitter, etc)

I have to admit this wasn't challenging for me unless you count trying hold back from
TOO much glitter!  I love gold and so this was scrapping serendipity! :) 

I loved this cloud paper and new I wanted to show as much of it as possible.

However, I really used several different medias and shades of gold.

I cut my title from Pow! Glitter paper, misted the wood veneer in gold Color Shine,

used some gold chipboard frames from Crate Paper ad miscellaneous gold glitter dots & sequins!

I also used some gold embossing paste onto a star stencil scattered among the stars.

I realize these aren't ruby slippers, but my daughter wore these for a Father/Daughter
dance recently and I LOVE The Wizard of Oz...hence the title and hot air balloon.

Make sure you visit the Scrap Our Stash Blog for the Challenge Guidelines,

but this is how it works:

• Starting Monday the 3rd we will post a new challenge on our blog every other day. That is a total of 14 Challenges for the month.   

• You will have until April 5th to link up as many completed challenges as you can on the side bar.

• Your layouts must be new as of the date of the challenge your are completing and cannot be combined with any other Stash A Thon Challenges.   However, you are allowed to combine with other challenges outside of Scrap Out Stash.  NO BACKLINKING!!!
• ONLY ONE entry per challenge!
• Digital entries are not allowed.
• You must be a follower of SOS!
• We will list and add the links to the challenges below as they are revealed to help you keep track

IMPORTANT - Make sure you add the name of the challenge next to your name when you link up your layout. (example: Jenni - CANDLES) This is how we will be able to determine the winners at the end of the Stash A Thon!!!

• We will also be giving out RAKS every Saturday to one randomly drawn person, chosen from all of the entries that have been linked up for any of the challenges that have been revealed. So make sure you link up your entries as you complete them.

• The weekly drawings are scheduled for March 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th. ALL entries that have been uploaded by NOON (PST) on these dates will be eligible for the drawing. 

Our March Sponsors will be providing a Grand Prize, 2nd Place and 3rd Place prizes!  
Winners will be chosen from the participants who complete the most challenges.
In case of a tie, we will conduct a drawing to determine the winner(s)

Click HERE for March Sponsors and Prize Information!!!!
Weekly Prize Information will be posted with the challenges!!!

Have a great day!!

Adorable - TWO Pages of Heidi Swapp & Crate Paper Love

I have had these photos sitting around for a mini album I was planning, but they aren't great photos.

They were taken with a digital camera that was one of our first, and not great quality.

But, I loved the light and thought they would look great with all this peach and gold from Heidi Swapp 

and Maggie Holmes.  And this was just about playing and having fun with lots of vellum, ink and paint!

I have had this die cut sitting around too, didn't use it for the LO I had planned and

thought it would look good with this confetti paper...

We have been picking paint for my daughter's room and have piles of paint chips lying around!

  

Thanks for stopping by today!