Fancy Pants summer line

Fancy Pants has some great designs for holiday photos.

I love the statues on this paper.  There are chipboard statues as well.  They were perfect for the pictures of my sister and her two boys in front of these massive pillars at their resort in Mexico. And the massive bottle my nephew is hugging.  I bet his Dad set him up for that photo op.

This layout has been on my desk for a couple weeks. I've been putting bits on and taking bits off. I've decided it's finished.  Here are some closeups...

 The ruler is from Crate Paper's school line.  'My little one' is a My Minds Eye chipboard piece. The photo op tag is from an old Making Memories travel sheet. I love the big, turquoise, metal flowers.  They come two to a package and I used both on this layout.

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My nephews look tiny in this photo with the pillar tower above them.  To make sure they didn't get lost I clustered some embellishments beside them.  Prima flowers, a stick pin and October Afternoon washi tape. Last time I was in Unforgettable Memories there was loads of different designs of washi tape scattered all around the store. I picked up quite a few.  Not quite all of the designs, but most of them...

 

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 I haven't done too many layouts without banners on them lately.  This mini banner is made with 3 chipboard pieces and a length of jute.  Easy as 1 2 3.

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This October Afternoon washi tape I picked out has the days of the week on it.  I know it will be a popular one on future layouts.

Christmas Break!

Did December 26 or 27th feel strange to you? All of the sudden... there isn't anything pressing to do, as my friend Trina said. And what is a girl to do when she doesn't have so much to do? Well, scrapbook, of course. You would think I would have some Christmas layouts to share, but we scrapbookers know that we are "never caught up" (well, except for Crystal, but that's a whole different post altogether) :)
A few random bits to share with you:

A fun and quick one for this school year. The paper is library cards. I just took photos of all the boys on the first day, and got them all to sign their name for memories sake. LOVE the wood veneers from Studio Calico that Lynette has at the store. All kinds of shapes and designs.

I had this photo of my son that captures what he is like. This was a kit from Echo Park that I have completely used up, which I never do. A super quick way to get a layout done, using the stickers that came in the kit. A few embellishments and a story and you're done!

Using an 8 x 12 enlargement. It really shows how front-and-center Lego is in our house :)

And a Christmas layout, albeit from 2007. I'm not even kidding. Using the fun and fabulous washi tape that is trendy at the moment, and hard not to stick on every layout I do right now. Also got the heat gun out and did a bit of EMBOSSING. I'm not even kidding. Christmas just calls for sparkly silver or gold embossing, don't you think??

Tim Holtz Edge Distresser

 

Check out the texture!

Have you seen this tool in the store before, and not had a clue what it does?  This handy little tool gives you beautiful texture on the edges of your paper/photos.  I don't use it all the time, but I like to pull it out when my embellishments are flat because it helps to add some dimension.  You could, of course, use a serrated bread knife, but I don't recommend it.  (Trust me!)  The blades are hidden inside so even the smallest, most curious fingers can't cut themselves.  Make sure you are working over a garbage can, because it can get a little messy.   I do believe all 4 design team members have one, so you'll see a lot of inspiration around the store for this tool.  (Check out Heather's layouts especially).  If you are reading this from far away, or it's just plain too cold to go outside, here is a close up of a layout I just completed to show you the look.  This look is so subtle, it will work on pretty much any layout, card, or minibook. 

Stop by the store - you'll find this tool on the far wall with the scissors and other essentials!

Coffee time

Have you seen the wonderful coffee themed kraft papers in the store?  I cut the coffee banner directly from the paper, for my title.  I love the strip with the little coffee cups on it. One of our Whistler traditions is to walk down to Starbucks every morning at 7:3 gr frappacino. No sleeping in when we're on holidays with Grandma :)

The background is red bazzill sprayed with brown mists, splattered with black paint and dabbed with white dauber.

Here are some closeups...

The big Bazzill buttons are great for flower centers.  I use them a lot.
The  chipboard jar is wrapped with bakers twine and I added a butterfly just because.

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 I used some brown jute to hang my banner with Prima flowers at either end.

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The lightbulb strip is some washi tape.  Unforgettable Memories has a great selection of tape scattered throughout the store. I want one of each.

 

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Some more tape, chipboard and layered beneath it all is 7Gypsies tissue paper, cardstock and vellum.

 

My photos are all 2x3 size.    Unforgettable Memories developes in all sizes. Big and little.

CASE it!

Here are a couple more layouts from the Blueberry crop.  After scrapping Friday night and all day Saturday, by late Saturday I was running out of ideas.  My mojo was gone. So I picked up one of Crystal's magazines;  it was the latest Scrapbook & Cards, and flipped through it.
The layout I chose to CASE (copy and steal everything) is nothing like my usual style, but it caught my eye immediately.

The original layout had a narrow punched border across the page under the photo.  Lynette had this great big chipboard scallop in her stash and she let me have it.  I sprayed it with pink Glimmer Mist.  It really pops on the diamond patterned paper.

My title is a funky Thickers alpha and some tiny pink alphas.  I put some polkadot tape(Smash line) under the pink alphas to make them pop.

Love the chipboard camera. This page was really quick and easy once I found all the pieces I wanted to use with my photo.  And my mojo was back.

 

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All the Design Team got this photo and most of us has scrapped it in our own particular style. I used a BoBunny polkadot paper.  The colours are perfect with the photo.

I layered some coordinating patterned paper, vellum and word strips under and around my photo.  The green vines, yellow alpha and yellow flowers are Prima.  The peach flowers are BoBunny. Those adorable owls are Jolee's and are on a few of my layouts.  I've used almost the entire sticker sheet of owls.  Will have to pick up some more.  They are just too cute.

Two quick one page layouts. 
Sometimes it's fun to switch it up and do a one photo, one page layout instead of my normal multi photo, double page layout.

Back to School

I often find school themed collections to be a bit much.  But I do love to mix and match lines.  By mixing a couple of similar lines together creates layouts that are theme based but not too busy and that take away from the photos.

 

 I created the star in the layout above by cutting 5 triangles and then placing them behind the photo in star shape.  The triangles were actually some scraps that needed just a little tweeking. 

Fun with pattern

 

 Adayn is the Queen of Pattern and these layouts are rocking the pattern!  I am always looking for inspiration.  One day while walking I just happened to notice at how many different patterns Adalyn was wearing.  So I thought if she can pull it off in an outfit I should be able to do the same in a layout. Here is my take on using mixed patterns.  The  key when mixing patterns is to watch the weight of each pattern.  Usually I look for a strip, dot and then a large pattern of a different kind.  In this layout I used the strip, pink cheetah and the floral.  The cheetah would be my dot and the floral would be my larger pattern. 

Again to mix pattern in this layout, I used the small blue dot, the large floral and then the pink is slightly textured.  I try to keep all design elements such as pattern to groups of three or five.