Gameday Saturdays:Jillibean Soup

It's Saturday!  For me, Saturdays during the fall would not be complete without the opportunity to cheer on my beloved Ohio State Buckeye football team.  I grew up in Columbus, Ohio - home to the Buckeyes, so to say I 'bleed' scarlet and grey, is an understatement!  Today will be a busy one, and I don't know that I'll get to tune into the actual game, but I'll be keeping tabs on the score one way or another! 

 

To celebrate my favorite fall Saturdays, I thought I'd share with you a page on the subject.  We have loads of photos decked out in our Buckeye gear and/or cheering on the team from the stands.  I thought it would be fun, to combine some of those pictures from over the years onto one page.

Supplies used: Jillibean Soup - patterned paper, stickers, diecuts; American Crafts - cardstock; Studio Calico - wood veneer; Michaels - vellum; Pebbles - patterned paper; Other - washi tape, Veteran Typewriter font, Pacifico font, machine stitching.

I love my silhouette for making fun, layered titles like this one.  The 'gameday' portion of the title was cut twice.  Once from patterned paper and a second time from white cardstock.  By layering the two together, but slightly offsetting the white under layer, a shadow is created.  The shadow helps that portion of the title to stand apart from the background patterned paper that it sits upon.  I used one of my favorite cursive fonts - Pacifico, to cut the remainder of the title out of vellum. 

I've had this Brutus Buckeye paper for a long time, and unfortunately can't remember who it's manufactured by.  It's the perfect compliment to this page, alongside the Jillibean football helmet sticker.

 

That's all I've got for today.  I've got soccer games to attend and a football game to keep tabs on! ;) Wishing you all a crafting weekend!  Go Bucks!

Fall issue of Scrapbook and Cards Today

Hi blog friends!  Today is a happy day!  Nope, not just because it's Friday (that's a pretty valid reason too!), but mainly because the newest issue of Scrapbook and Cards Today magazine is available!

Did you know you can view this magazine for free, in it's entirety?  Just click here to check it out.  If you're like me, though, and still like a hard copy version - don't fret because a subscription is an option too! 

I got my copy in the mail on Monday and it is truly awesome!  I don't know how they do it, but each issue keeps getting better and better!  The fall issue features a new article from Cathy Zielskie, and as always a really great read from Ali Edwards!

I, myself, might just have a little something featured in the reader's gallery!  Here's a little sneak.....

 

You'll have to pop on over to the free download to see the rest of it, though! ;)  This issue is sure to inspire some creativity in you this weekend!  I know I'll be scrapping!

Two-page Tuesday #1

Good morning!  I thought I'd pop in today and start a new feature I'm hopping to share regularly on the blog - Two-page Tuesdays! 

A lot of the inspiration we see in the scrapbooking world comes in the form of single page layouts.  I'll admit when it comes to making layouts I often default to the one page layout, as well.  Sometimes it's an issue of timing.  I'm a slow scrapper, so I'll go for a single 12x12 page because that, in itself, will take me several hours.  With that said, oftentimes a two pager is necessary to include all of the pictures of an event/memory.  It's fun for me to mix it up and I like the mix of pages in my albums.

Today's page features pictures of my son's baseball season and lots of Elle's Studio goodies.



Supplies used: Elle's Studio - patterned paper and diecut pieces; American Crafts - cardstock, baseball flair, and thicker chipboard letters; My Mind's Eye - enamel dots; Other - Veteran Typewriter font, machine stitching.

I typically like to work on the pages independent of one another.  Oftentimes, I will pick a focal point photo and make it the 'star' of one of the pages, as I did here.  I love this shot I captured of my boy looking back at me from the bench.  Using this single photo allowed me to included a lengthier title and lots of paper and diecut pieces. 

 

 

I'm all about layering, and I love the way the papers and pieces look all stacked together.  I ran several of the diecut  pieces through my printer to add journaling and spread it across both pages. Washi tape, machine stitching, foam adhesive, enamel dots and folding down the corners of some the of the pieces add lots of texture and interest - all ultimately leading your eye to the focal point photo.

 



Since I used a single photo on the first page, I sized down the rest of my photos on page two.  This allows for me to include more, of course, and tell the complete story.  The photos were all sized to 2x3's then I manually cropped them and arranged them until they formed a pleasing design.

More layers of diecut pieces, text, stitching and embellishment tie complete this side of the spread and tie it back to page one.

 

I hope this has given you a little peek into my design thought process, and ultimately provided you a little inspiration to put together your own two page layout!

Weekend inspiration

Happy Friday, friends!  Do you have any plans to sneak in some crafting this weekend?  It's definitely on my list of to-do's for the next several days - if I can eek out some time between soccer games, kids birthday parties and a date night with my hubby!

In the meantime, I wanted to pop in quickly to share a couple of projects I've had up over on the Love My Tapes blog.  As I mentioned in my last post, our household is fully immersed in the back to school routine, so I couldn't resist creating a few projects with that theme in mind. The first was a set of lunch box notes, with a simple washi tape background.



Supplies used: Studio G - kraft notecards; Love My Tapes - washi tape; Fiskars - star punch; Heidi Swapp - sentiment stamps; KI Memories - smiley stamp; Hero Arts - black ink; Other: scrap cardstock/paper

Click here for more details on this project and a closer look at each of these sweet mini notes!

Another project I shared, would be perfect for the new or even seasoned little readers in your house - washi adorned bookmarks.



Supplies used: Love My Tapes - washi tape; Stampin Up - bookworm stamp, punch; Studio G - cupcake stamp; American Crafts - cardstock, colored pencils; Hero Arts - black ink; Other - gamsol

You can click here for a closer look at these bookmarks and easy instructions to create your own!

And today on the LMT blog I'm sharing a recent scrapbook page, that wouldn't be complete without the added texture and dimension of some pretty lace tape borders.




Supplies used: American Crafts - patterned paper, diecuts, wood & epoxy embelishments; Jillibean Soup - kraft diecut title; Love My Tapes - lace tape; Stampin Up - scallop border punch; Other - machine stitching, crochet thread, circle punch

So, now that you've got a few ideas, I hope you'll make it a priority to get crafty this weekend.  If you do, I hope you'll come back and share with me what you've made. 

Back to school and a schedule

It's back to school time for my littlest.  She has been watching her older brothers, backpack-clad and sleepy-eyed, trek off to the bus stop for nearly a month now!  She couldn't have been more excited for her turn yesterday,  It wasn't her official first day, but instead a shortened class where mommy would stay and she would meet her classmates and teacher.  She adamantly told me as we pulled into the parking lot though, "You stay here.  I'm going in my OWNself!  You're too big!".  LOL!  I guess I'll have no problems dropping her off next week?!

In celebration of all things back to school, I thought I'd share a couple of first day of school pages that I created last fall and never got around to sharing.  

I'm a huge Simple Stories fan and their school themed collections are always at the top of my list of favorites.  With a few simple sheets of patterned paper - including border prints, 4x6 and 3x4 cards, I was able to put two separate school pages for my boys.  They are similar in design (obviously!), but by changing the background cardstock and patterned paper pieces used, I was able to create a customized look for each of my boys.




Supplies used: Simple Stories - patterned paper; American Crafts - cardstock, thickers and twine; Fiskars - star punch; Technique Tuesday - date and phrase stamps; Hero Arts - ink; DCWV - cork paper; Other: veteran typewriter font, machine stitching.



 

With lots of pictures and cute page elements to fit onto a one page spread, I had to get a bit creative with my journaling.  Placing it vertically on the page adds a bit of interest and allowed me to squeeze in quite a bit of text.

 

 

 

This page follows the same formula as above, with a few minor alterations, based on the pieces I had remaining.  I love how it has a similar, clean look to it but lends to more of a 'preschool' feel with the Doctor Suess quote and apples!



Supplies used: Simple Stories - patterned paper; American Crafts - cardstock, embossing powder and twine; Fiskars - star punch; Technique Tuesday - phrase stamp; 7 Gypsies - number stamps; Hero Arts - ink (black); Tsukineko - versamark ink; DCWV - cork paper; Other: veteran typewriter font, machine stitching, foam adhesive.

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by today!  I'm hoping to be back sharing with you more regularly now that we're all back to school and have returned to a schedule.  Fingers crossed!!!!

Bella of the Ball

Happy Thursday, readers!  It's been a busy week for me, despite the fact that my boys are spending the first part of their days at Vacation Bible School.  Someone please tell me how that works?!  I think I'm still catching up from the weekend's illness and add to the fact that I thought it would be a good time to start potty-training my littlest.... Never a dull moment! 

I thought I'd take a break from the chaos to stop in and share with you a little something I've been working on 'behind the scenes'.  If you haven't yet checked out the Bella blog today, then you might not know that the June Newsletter was released. I was honored to contribute to this issue as the 'Bella of the Ball'.  Here's a little sneaky peeky...

If that doesn't peek your interest (and with all that color - how could it not?!), I hope you'll still hop on over to at least read the list of 10 random facts about me.  You might learn something you never knew about me! ;)  Here is a direct link to the June newsletter, as well.

Thanks for stopping by and for all of your support!

LMT layout: patterned paper covered washi

Happy Saturday!  Hope you're weekend is starting off better than mine!  We had a boatload of plans for the day, but it looks like the stomach bug had other ideas. 

Fortunately, I've yet to be hit (knock on wood!) so in the meantime, I'm going to hide in my craftroom and scrap!  But before I do that, just wanted to pop on here and share my latest project for Love My Tapes.



Supplies used: Patterned Paper - Bella Blvd, Jillibean Soup, Making Memories; Washi Tape - Love My Tapes; Title: Silhouette store download file; Embellishements - Studio Calico wood veneers; Other: machine stitching, Veteran Typewriter font.

Here's a closer look at some of the pretty patterns going on, between both the papers and washi tapes I've used.

 

For more details on this page including all of the different ways in which I've included tape, head on over to this post on the Love My Tapes blog.

 

Hope to be back to share more soon (and with better news next time, too!) ;)