A boy's life

As you know if you've browsed my scrapbooks or looked through my blog any number of times, I'm a huge fan of Echo Park. So, it should come as no surprise that I snatched up some of their latest collection, A Boy's Life.  Afterall, there are plenty of photos and stories about boys to be documented, in this household.  I loved the somewhat muted color palette, fun icons and clever word stickers that it included. 

The first page, features some cherished photos of my oldest son and one of his Dad around the same age, both riding in a car from my husband's childhood.  I love the fact that my in laws have saved so many toys from that time.  They provide my kids with great entertainment, of course, but also a glimpse into their Dad's life around similar ages as themselves.

Supplies used:  Echo Park A Boy's Life patterned papers:  Energetic, Hot Rod, Imagination, Magnetic, Charmer, Element and Alpha stickers

Here's a peek at the journaling:

I've seen (and pinned!) this circle idea several times and couldn't wait for the opportunity to try it on a scrapbook page.  The Boy's Life collection was perfect for this technique because there were so many great papers in this line that I wanted to use.  Using a multitude of small circles to incorporate all of these papers, was a fun way to highlight the collection, but still keep emphasis on the pictures and the story!

I put together a second page, as well.  This photo just makes me giggle!  I turned around one morning to find our youngest son staring back at me with this face exclaiming, "Look mommy, I have a moustache!".  Love that boy and his goofiness.  He really knows how to turn on the charm and make me smile (especially when he's up to no good!).

Supplies: all patterned paper and stickers, Echo Park A Boy's Life collection (Energetic, Imagination, Charmer, Elements stickers and Alpha stickers), Doodlebug boutique buttons and twine

I can't resist some fun little banner stickers, and thought the upper right corner of the page was calling for a little bit of decoration.

And a look at the journaling and title.  I really liked the font style of the letter stickers that went with this line.  They were great for a big, bold title.  I'm sure I'll find myself sneaking them into another project very soon.

That's all I've got for today.  I'll be back soon to share the progress I've made on my Project Life album.  I've been sticking with the monthly approach and I really love it!

Sometimes calm, always crazy

Never did I imagine that I would have so many little boys in my life.  I've got two of my own, of course, and am now up to four additional nephews!  Growing up with an older brother provided me with a good look of what was to come, with all of these boys, though!  And don't be fooled, despite my girly appearance, I love the chaos and craziness that comes along with all of these little guys (most of the time, anyways!). 

With that in mind, it's no surprise that I had these pictures on my mind, to scrapbook -- my boys with two of their cousins on Christmas day.  Love that they are smiley and perfectly posed in one, and conjuring up their silliest faces in the next.  That's a pretty accurate portrayal of them, if I don't say so myself!  I decided to use these pictures along with some of my favorite My Mind's Eye 'Lime Twist' collection items and the latest sketch, from the My Mind's Eye blog.  Here's a look at the sketch from Anam Stubbington (with the theme "YOU"):

And here is the page I put together:

Supplies used: MME Lime Twist, Fly a Kite "Spring" Zag paper (orange dot and chevron), MME Lime Twist, Fly a Kite "Everyday" Lines paper (blue/white star, diagonal stripe), Bazzill Cardstock, MME Lime Twist, Fly a Kite "Spring" and "Soar" Accessories sheet stickers, MME 12 days of Christmas trims (blue/white baker's twine), MME Lost and Found button collections - Rosy "Love" and Breeze "Boyish" buttons, Pink Paislee grid tape.

I really liked the photo and title placement from the sketch and used those as my starting off points.  I was particularly fond of the colors in the diagonal stripe paper and how well they seemed to scream "boy" and coordinate with the colors of the shirts they are all wearing.  I don't know if it's immediately obvious, but I designed each half of the page to coordinate with the mood of each picture.  Thus, the left hand side is linear, orderly and somewhat calm -- as are those sweet boys in the picture, while the right hand side of the page has lots of 'craziness' - skewed images, lots to look at and random little bits and pieces.

Here's a closer look at the title and journaling: 

And some of the sticker details in the top right corner:

 

This is certainly not your traditional Christmas page, but sometimes I think it's fun to highlight moments from an event on an entirely separate page.  Instead of having these darling photos get lost on a two page spread crammed with Christmas memories, I thought it would be fun to use them to document the relationship my boys have with their cousins. 

Thanks for taking a peek!

Fresh Goods

Just thought I'd pop on real quick and share a couple of pages I haven't had a chance to share on the blog, yet.  Both pages features the Fresh Goods line from Pebbles.  I absolutely LOVE the kraft color that is dominate in this collection.  Kraft is one of my favorite 'go-to' neutrals and I love how the colors of the patterned papers pop off of it.  The colorful chevron paper on this page, was definitely my favorite of the whole line!

Here's a closer peek at the journaling and those cute 'tape' looking stickers.  At first glance, I wondered how I would use these stickers, but I really had fun adding them here and there throughout the page.

Here's a look at the title and some misting I used on the background.  Those cute fabric brads are also part of the Fresh Goods line.

 

Below is the second page I created with this collection.  I used many of the same products from the first page, but flipped some of the papers to their 'B' sides.  Love the versatility of this collection and how easy it is to scrap with pictures of various different themes/subject matters.

I stamped the title with Technique Tuesday stamps from Ali Edwards - love those!  And added ribbon and sewn on buttons for interest.  Again, that darling floral fabric brad is part of the Fresh Goods line.

 

Again, just a quick one for tonight.  Thanks for stopping by!

Heart obsession

I think it's been confirmed, that when it comes to paper crafting I have a wee bit of an obsession with using hearts.  It seems that nearly every page (or project) I do, includes one here or there.  Because of this, I have a hard time passing up any heart shaped tool or themed scrapbook supply that I run across.  So, I am LOVING this new heart layering punch from EK Success that I just purchased at my local scrapbook store.

I mean, what is not to love?  With the flip of a switch you can punch all of those different size and style hearts, pictured above, with only one tool!  Not surprisingly, I've already given this punch quite a workout.  In fact, I really tested it's skills and worthiness on the following page! ;)

Supplies used: Bazzill brown cardstock, Doodlebug Sweet Cakes patterned paper (red heart, pink heart and pink ledger), Doodlebug sugar coated cardstock (blue with brown dots), Doodlebug petite print ('5'), Basic Grey chipboard number, Technique Tuesday Studion AE stamps, Jillibean Soup word stickers, Doodlebug baker's twine, EK Success heart layering punch.

The border I created on the right side of the page, was simply done using both the positive and negative shapes produced by the punch and layering in a couple of hearts punched with the Doodlebug pink ledger paper, for a pop of color throughout.  Notably, I included exactly five pink hearts -- to represent each of my family members! 

For the title element, I covered a Basic Grey chipboard number with Doodlebug petite print patterned paper, used a Studio AE stamp set for the circle frame and word 'family', and a Jillibean soup sticker to finish it all off.

Here's another look at the hearts along the right side of the page.  I like the look that layering a punched item over the same color background provides. It's subtle and almost looks as if it's embossed, but still adds some interest and texture to the page.

Oh wait, that wasn't enough hearts for you?  Well, good thing because I've got more! ;)  Here's a two page layout that I just finished up for a design team assignment.  For this project I used the We R Memory Keepers Lovestruck line.  While it's typically a valentine's themed collection, I couldn't resist using it as an excuse to scrapbook some pictures of baby girl (and her big brothers too, of course!).

Supplies used: We R Memory Keepers Lovestruck collections papers and bottlecaps, K&Co smash tape, Technique Tuesday Studio AE stamps, Doodlebug baker's twine in bubblegum, Hero Arts pearl hearts,  DMC white tags, Cricut 'Kate's ABC' cartridge for title letters.

A closer look at page one:

and page two:

I dressed up the right side of the second page with lots of fun details - machine stitching, stamping, pearl hearts, diecut and punched hearts, and some K&Co smash tape.

On page one, I included the journaling on a tag tied with baker's twine.

I created the title by cutting out letters on my cricut with one of the patterned papers from the Lovestrck collection.  I added some additional text with Technique Tuesday Studio AE stamps.  In addition, I traced and cut lots of different size hearts, to include many of the patterned papers from the collection.  The bottlecap embellishments also coordinate and accompany the paper line.

 

Is that heart overload, or what?!  Something tells me, you'll be seeing lots more where that came from!  As always, thanks for stopping by!

Another sketch

It seems I'm becoming a bit of a fan of sketches these days.  Not that I haven't used them in the past, but they seem to be at the top of my inspiration list at the moment.  It may have something to do with the fact that they provide such a quick starting point for a page.  I don't have to make 'tough' decisions on where to place my pictures, title and journaling when the sketch spells it all out for me!  Any way I can speed up my scrapbooking process these days is MUCH appreciated! ;) 

Here is the sketch that was recently posted on Little Yellow Bicycle's blog for their monthly sketch challenge.  I always seem to have a stash of LYB, so I thought I would play along.

Here's my page.  As you can see, it's a fairly literal translation of the sketch.  However, I had fun adding some extra details and embellishments on my page that were not included on the original.  I guess that's what I like best about starting with a sketch -- there's still lots of 'wiggle room' to make a project reflect your own style and preferences.

Here's a close up of the title that I cut with my cricut, using the 'B side' of one of the LYB Babysaurus papers, and backing it with a slightly offset shadow of the same letters cut in gray.

A closer peak at the journaling:

And some additional embellishments at the top of the page.  I LOVE that flag sticker banner from the Babysaurus line.  And I couldn't resist cutting out a few of the cute little dinosaurs as additional page accents!

That's it for today -- I'm off to cook dinner for the fam.  I'll be back soon with another page I've been working on.  Thanks for stopping by!

Sketchy inspiration

Sometimes just the littlest thing can spark inspiration for a new scrapbook page.  A few days back I stumbled upon this sketch on the My Mind's Eye blog, by Anam Stubbington: 

The colors in the sketch reminded me of MME's Love Me collection, which I had just recently purchased a few pieces from.  That was all the motivation I needed to pull out a sweet picture of baby girl and her daddy and get to work on this:







Here's a closer look at the journaling and grouping of flags.  I used lots of diecuts from the 'Love Me' accessory sheet and simply punched holes in them and strung them onto some bakers twine to create this fun little grouping. I even dug into the depths of my scrapbooking stash to unearth and use a few eyelets (gasp!) on the flags. 

 

It's hard to tell in the full size picture that I machine stitched large circles on the page background, to subtly mimic those in the sketch.  Here's a closer look at the one in the upper left corner:



For the title I dug into my chipboard stash for the 'love' word and grabbed some 'naked' American craft letter thickers for 'new'.  Since both started out as raw chipboard, I was able to paint them to properly coordinate with my page.  I finished off the title with a circle diecut from the 'Love Me' accessory sheet, to fill in the center of the 'O'.

I'm having so much fun scrapbooking with pink for a change.  Can you tell? ;)  As always, thanks for stopping by!







Little cupcake

Now that baby no. three is eight weeks old (how is that even possible?!?) and I'm slowly easing my way back into scrapbooking, I was beyond excited to put together the very first page for her book.  We have so many sweet pictures of our Emerson from those first sleepy days, but the one featured on this page is definitely one of my favorites!  Love those cheeks, sweet little lips and the sleeper she is wearing -- a favorite, that she is sadly already much too big for! sniff, sniff! :( 

As you can see, her cupcake outfit inspired me to use that cute little 'Doodlepop' cuppy cake sticker and further dig into my Doodlebug stash. In fact, there's not much on this page that isn't from Doodlebug!  I'm really enjoying the fact that Doodlebug now creates 2 sided papers. Would you believe that all of the papers I used here (minus the hot pink embossed cardstock, which is from Bazzill), were all leftovers from their recent holiday lines?  The blue design is actually the 'B side' from their recent Santa's workshop collection and the soft pink ledger paper is the from the 'Sweet Cakes' line.  The title consists of American Craft Thicker letters that I inked and further embellished with green Doodlebug glitter.  And then of course, there are a sprinkling of DB gems throughout the stitched hearts on the page.

I even dug deep into my scrapbook stash, to resurrect an orange DB flower, which I folded in half, added a button to, and attached with some DB twine.  I am also loving those Jillibean soup label stickers lately.  I can't seem to call a project complete unless I've tucked one on it here or there.  This page features three -- I've since added baby girl's name and the date on the bottom label shown.

This orange block of paper is another DB themed paper -- it's actually the 'B side' to one of their monster mania papers and the blue grid is from their line of basics.  Again, I added a DB button, gemstones and some more of their beautiful twines.

Who knew it was so much fun to scrapbook GIRL pages?!  I've already got an idea and pictures in mind for the next one -- now if I could carve out some time to complete it.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with a recent picture of our little girl.  It seems she's been taking notes from her two older brothers and recently discovered the joy of thumb sucking. :)