The games we play

 

The patterned paper I used for the background is a Carta Bella design.

 

I used a panel mask on this page.  After rubbing texture paste across the mask I sprayed those three panels with gold Maya mist. You can see more detail in the close-ups below.

 

The stickers (chipboard and paper) are Echo Park.

I've used the red border stickers under punched strips of gold vellum.  The border punch I used alternately embellishes and punches out snowflake shapes.  I've torn pieces of the musical washi tape and layered it on top of the gold vellum.

The poinsettia and leaves are Prima.

A close-up of the texture panel sprayed with gold mist.

Grandma's Kitchen ~ Echo Park Christmas

It's the middle of January and all those Christmas photos have been developed and are ready to scrapbook. I had some of my daughter and my niece decorating Grandma's gingerbread men before popping them in the oven.  It's one of our traditions.

Karen Foster (KF) has the perfect chipboard embellishment pack for these and similar photos.  Called Grandma's kitchen it comes with a frame, a title piece and a couple of circle embellishments.

I picked Echo Parks Christmas line because the paper and stickers matched the KF embellishments.  

Here are some close-ups...

 The Echo Park sticker sheet is 12 x 12 and included this 'Baked with much Love' piece that works perfectly on my layout.  I used some Prima blooms and lots of layers under my photos, including tissue paper and vellum.

I often use vellum as a matting layer on my layouts.  Here I also used it elsewhere on my layout.  It's a white vellum with hearts on it.  The hearts don't show up well on the scan but they are there and look very pretty!
I also used a circle of red bling cut in half and placed along the top of my page.

The ornament stickers came from the EP sheet.

The lace is by Harmonie.

Lots of mixing and matching on this page. 
Get creative with all the fun stuff Unforgettable Memories carries and have fun scrapbooking your Christmas photos.

3 kids ROAR

Aug 20 edited to add...
Double page layouts can be tricky sometimes. With this layout I loved the left page and I loved the right page, but once I put them together I felt like the layout was missing something. I was in Unforgettable Memories yesterday and I spotted some new stencils. Tim Holtz stencils. I had to pick up a few.  Three of them, to be exact.  I decided to use the 'clockworks' stencil to add some more design to the background.  Then I used the rest of my inked cheesecloth across the top of my page. 

I think it works much better as a double page layout now.

Love the clockwork stencil.  I used my felt pad and handle to pick up black ink off the stamp pad and patted over the stencil to show the design. 

Scrapfriends has an interesting colour combo challenge this month.  Yellow with different shades of black/grey.  Check it out on their blog...

The colours were perfect for the Halloween photos  had of my three scary monsters.

I had fun with the drips.  I was debating about doing the drips all the way across the top of the page, but the hubby put in his two cents with the opinion three drippy splotches were enough.

Here are some close-ups.

I sprayed the Maya Roads fabric flowers with 'soot' Glimmer Mist. The same colour was sprayed on the cheesecloth.  The stickers are Echo Park.

 

 

'ROAR' is made with alphabet masks and ink. Random stamping adds texture to the background. Strips of washi tape underline my title.  Maya Rds felt birds, Webster's porcelain flowers and cheesecloth embellish the page.

I sanded all sides of the photos and tore a couple edges. I matted with vellum, patterned paper, and some netted product.

 

Cheesecloth and drippy paints and inks are perfect accents on  Halloween layouts.

Blue Halloween

The November challenge at White with 1 is Blueberry. 
Here's my layout...

My background was a lot of fun to make.  I started with white cardstock and sprayed blue chalk mist over a 12 x 12 leaf mask.  Then I used texture paste with a 6 x 6 stencil I picked up at Unforgettable Memories last week.  I know I'll be using this zigzag stencil lots.  It creates great texture on a page.

 

I've also sprayed a darker blue Maya Mist and dribbled some blue ink around the edges.

 

I used a small lid and Making Memories blue paint to create some circles on the background.

 

The blue jewels are Bazzill buttons.

 Here are some close-ups...

 The Halloween stickers are Echo Park.

Washi tape, Kaiser jewels and Prima flowers are some of the embellishments I've used.

The title is made up of a My Little Yellow Bicycle rub-on (Devil) and small square alpha stickers.

I tucked some black feathers in amongst the flowers.

My journaling is on a little note page from My Little Yellow Bicycle.

Blue is not a traditional Halloween colour but it works with my photo. 

Haloween sketch challenge

There are loads of great scrapbook challenge blogs out there. Many of them are sketch challenges.  I love scrapbooking from a sketch.  Half the work is done for me so I can concentrate on the creative part.  I used the sketch at Sketchabilities this month. I hope you will give it a whirl.

My kids are teenagers now and so didn't go trick or treatin' this year.  In fact, I didn't even decorate apart from a couple of new purchases.  The Halloween boxes under the stairs stayed stored away. 

So I found some old photos I hadn't scrapped previously.  My soon to be 19 year old when he was in kindergarten. Love that look of concentration on his face as he works on class projects.

Here's my layout.

Unforgettable Memories has all their Halloween papers and embellishments in one spot.  I chose a couple of Carta Bella pattern papers. My background is the text patterned paper with a skeleton in one corner. Love it!

 

I used some yellow and green acrylic paint as well as some 'soot' Glimmer Mist to further colour the background.

 

The stickers are from an Echo Park Halloween pack.

Cheesecloth has a great texture and is perfect for Halloween pages.  I sprayed mine with the 'soot'  Glimmer Mist and used under and around my photos.  I also used some black Prima flowers as embellishments.  

There are lots of layers under my photo.

My title is Doodlebug alpha letters and a big red Bazzill brad heart.

 

Check out sketchabilities for some great sketches and play along.

One final October challenge

I completed a fifth and final October challenge.  I entered it just under the wire. Didn't have time to post it here during the week, so I'm taking time out of my house cleaning chores to do it now. Any excuse... LOL

 The Kraft It Up challenge.

October's challenge was to use blue, orange, white/cream and, of course, kraft.

I used my ray mask again.
The big flower is BoBunny.  I pulled up the center bling, popped in the small blue flower and glued the center bling back in.  I used my Kaiser stamp and 'pinecone' ink for the journaling columns. And I stamped some little stars in orange from a mini stamp that came with one of my mini alpha sets.

I used stickers and orange patterned paper from the Echo Park Halloween pack I got at last winters Unforgettable scrapbook retreat.  The stickers are the triangle pieces I used on my mini banner below. 

One of the Smash pockets is tucked under the photos on the right hand page to hold extra photos. I embellished my layout with printed kraft flowers by Graphic 45, some mini orange blooms and the wood veneer camera by Kaiser.

I used another of the clear frames by Harmonie to frame my little guys while they watched Papa chop wood for their bonfire.  Nice to know Papa didn't hand the ax to one of my little hooligans! I pop dotted the photo to bring it forward a little.

I also pop dotted the photo of Pysanka's big egg and wrapped twine around the bottom, embellished with a mini orange bloom.

Kraft It Up is a fun challenge blog. Novembers challenge is to use flairs, wood veneers or enamel dots on kraft.  I have wood veneers, though I think a shopping trip to Unforgettable Memories is in order to beef up my stash.

Left over Alphabet stickers

I've been wanting to try this alphabet sticker background for a while and last weekend I finally got around to playing with it.

 

Who has sheets of stickers with only a few letters left? I'm sure we all do!

 

To make my background I started off with grey Bazzill cardstock and a bottle of white Making Memories paint.  I used a credit card to apply the paint across my pages.  When it was dry I started laying down the stickers from an old sheet of white alphabets. Then I spritzed with turquoise Glimmer Mist and splattered brown ink across the page.  I have a Prima stamp that is about 2" x 3".  The image is the alphabet.  I stamped it randomly over my page. There is a closeup below.

And that was my background. 

 

 

I didn't use a whole lot of embellishments on my page as my background was quite busy enough with the paints and stickers and ink sprays.

 

Along each edge I adhered strips of patterned paper, washi tape and on the left border this woodcut branch of leaves.

 

You can see the alphabet stamp a little clearer here.  The image isn't sharp because I stamped over the stickers.  I love the messiness of it.

 

I love the 'Hello, my name is' journaling piece.  It came off an Echo Park sheet.  Leftovers from my Blueberry crop layouts. The 'Family' piece on the right page of my layout came from the same sheet.

 

I will be using these little wood cut cameras on many future layouts.  There is tonnes in a package. And they go with every layout!

 

 

I have another wood cut branch on the right page bordering my photo. The journaling is on an Echo Park journaling spot. A piece of washi tape to help hold it all down and add some interest.

 

I took a picture of the background before I built the layout on top of it, but, while it looked clear in the little viewer on my camera, when I put it on the computer it was blurry.  I will make sure I get a better photo of the next alpha background.  I'll be doing this again to use up more of my leftover alpha stickers.

Echo Park and Bo Bunny boy layouts

 Who had a great time at the Blueberry scrapbook crop last weekend.  I sure did.  I managed to get five double page layouts and a couple of single page layouts completed.  That was my goal for the weekend so I was happy.  I also managed to eat way too much good food.  It is always delicious and this year was no exception. 

No distractions; just eat, sleep and scrapbook. 

 

Can't wait for the next one!

 

This first layout I completed is built on white cardstock.  I misted with green Mr. Hueys mist over a letter diecut. Then I randomly splattered some brown walnut ink and rubbed green ink around the edges of my page. 

 

The tan coloured cardstock was also plain until I stamped a text stamp all over it.  The great thing about scrapping with a big group is anything you forgot ~ like a text stamp ~ you can always borrow.  Scrapbookers are friendly people.

 

I used lots of stickers and chipboard on this layout.  I even used the negative from the chipboard sheet on the right hand side.  It made perfect little spaces for embellishments, names and dates.

 

The next time you are in Unforgettable Memories be sure to check out the latest Echo Park line. It's called For the Record 2 and it is perfect for boy pages. I used loads of papers, stickers and chipboard from the line, on these pages. Great colours and designs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

A third boy layout from the weekend. I started with green cardstock and drew in brown lines to make it look a little rustic.  I didn't take a brown pen with me to the crop so I used the edge of my ink pad.  Love how it turned out.  Not as perfect and straight as it would be if I had used a pen.

I used my mask letters to create the title.  Green and brown ink were misted over the letters before they were removed.

 

 

The brown patterned paper is BoBunny 'apple cider' line.  I scrunched up a couple pieces of 7Gypsies tissue paper.  Used a couple of tags stamped with leaves and tied with brown jute. Layered some stickers and strips of paper along the left and right edges of my page.  There are lots of bits and pieces from my stash on this page. 

 

Now I need to scan the rest of my pages from the crop and get them down to the store. I can't wait to see what new product has come in over the last week.

So Happy to see you

I had a lot of fun creating the background paper on this layout.  I started out with a couple sheets of kraft cardstock.  Using a credit card I smeared white Making Memories paint on my page.  You can see some areas are thicker than others and it picks up a little of the texture of the paper.  Then I used an old plastic alphabet stencil and my pretty pink Maya Mist along the right edge of my pages. I hate to waste all that ink on the stencil so I flipped it over onto the center of my pages and blotted.  Next I splatted some walnut ink across the page.

I used the edge of a 'postage stamp' stamp along the top border, smearing it with a little Pinecone ink. I also used a 'print', a 'world globe' and an 'airmiles' stamp on various areas of my pages. 

I loved the idea of the vellum, with the cut out hole, on the photos. I've been saving that one in my 'to try' folder for a while. 

Papers I used are 'This & That' by Echo Park and an old Imaginisce design (arrows).

Now some closeups...

I stamped the print stamp with Pinecone ink.  The globe and airmiles stamp are used with a burgundy chalk ink.  I added a Maya Rd white rub-on on top of it all.

I added some bling to the felt marker scribbles on the vellum.

I used some scrapworks squares to frame my embellishments. Love the wood clocks by Prima.  The butterfly I punched from vellum with my new butterfly punch.  It's a 3 in 1 so I can get the lacy butterfly shown here, just the silhouetted butterfly and one in between.

A few kaiser jewels and layered all on a misted doily.  So pretty!

Love the sparkley Prima bird and the sprig of flowers.  I think the Prima aisle is my favourite aisle in Unforgettable Memories.