Hello Butterflies

I'm up again on the Pebbles blog today, for the weekly 'Free for all Friday' post.  I took the opportunity to pull out more of the darling Sunnyside collection and create a page about our latest annual trek to the local Butterfly show.  This exhibit has become a yearly tradition for our little family, and one that each and every member truly looks forward to attending.  I knew from the minute I saw these sweet, three dimensional, stitched butterflies that they would be just the right accessory to these pictures and memories.



Supplies used: Pebbles Sunnyside collection papers - Tickled Pink (751276), Happiness (751278), Blissful (751280), Dots (751286),  Bouncy (75126),  Sunnyside Border Stickers (732116), Accent & Phrase Stickers (732115), Mini ABC Stickers (732114), Dimensional Butterflies (747186), American Crafts Coordinating Cardstock Surf (71508)

 Don't you just love those clouds?  They were the starting point for the sky scene I created on the top third of the page.  I cut the yellow chevron paper into a sun and rays and stitched along the edges for added dimension.  The patterned clouds and aforementioned butterflies complete the cute scene.

The 'hello' word was taken directly from the Sunnyside sticker sheet, and I completed my title with the coordinating mini ABC stickers.

Check out the masking tape stickers here.  They are so realistic and are even raised where the tape appears to be wrinkled/folded.  Super cute!  I love how they look layered over each other.

Thanks for visiting today.  I hope you'll stop on over to the Pebbles blog, as well to see what other fun projects are being featured!

I also wanted to say thanks so much for all of the sweet words on my latest little announcement!  I am so overwhelmed at the creative opportunities that have recently come my way and am so thankful to be able to share that news with my crafty friends - both new and old!

A fun little annoucement and a whole lot of Bella Blvd!

Soooo... I was mindlessly checking my email one night late last week.  I siphoned through the spam and latest online deals, and I just happened to run across a little ole' message from Laura Vegas!  Yep, that would be THE Laura Vegas, of Bella Blvd fame, writing ME to congratulate ME on being chosen as a new member of the 2012-2013 Bella Blvd Design Team! I am so so excited!  If you know Bella Blvd, you know that Stephanie's products are  cute, colorful and so much fun to create with!  I am looking forward to an amazing year of creativity with Bella Blvd!  I hope you'll stop by their blog today, to see the announcement and the names of the rest of the talented ladies I will be designing alongside!

In honor of my little announcement, I thought it would be fun to share a couple of the layouts I submitted for my design team application.  The first is a two page layout documenting Miss Emerson's third month of life.  As you can imagine, as soon as I found out that Bella announced a baby girl and boy line back in the winter, I snatched up as much as I could of both.  The colors in the girl line are so sweet and made it easy to put together this page with photos throughout Emme's third month!



Supplies used: Bella Blvd Baby Girl patterned papers, flags, miniature stickers and designer tape. Buttons - Doodlebug Design and Crate Paper, Rubons - KI Memories, Stamps - Technique Tuesday by Ali Edwards, Punches - Stampin Up (scallop border) and EK Success (heart), Other - machine stitching, black ink, computer font

Since it's a bit hard to get a good view of a two page layout, when photographed side by side, here is a look at the pages separately, as well.

At the time that these baby lines were introduced, Bella also introduced an entire line of these sweet little flags to coordinate with many of their current and past collections.  Aren't they sweet?  And that little monkey with the flower on her head -- I just couldn't resist!  I love how they look tucked back behind that bow.

And of course, a page of mine would not be complete without journaling, and (usually) LOTS of it!  I'm a little wordy, I admit.  But this page documents all of the things I want to remember from Emme's third month, that I would have already forgotten had I not written them down.  The sticker 'words from mom' was the perfect compliment to my journaling block!  Notice that cute little yellow and white chevron strip above the word sticker?  That is some of Bella's darling Designer Tapes - I love them!!!

The sweet, colorful circles on this patterned paper, were just begging for some additional embellishment.  I used more of Bella's Baby Girl coordinating stickers, alongside some buttons, stamps and punches to dress them up a bit.

It goes without saying that I have the perfect excuse for wanting/using/hoarding Bella's Baby Girl line, but I was quick to find an excuse to own some of the Baby Boy line, as well!  After all, I do have two sweet boys of my own, of which I haven't yet scrapped ALL of their baby pictures.  But at the time that I purchased this collection, I also had a new little nephew on the way.  Coincidentally, the shower I threw for my sister and nephew-to-be, just so happened to coordinate perfectly, in theme and colors, with Bella's Baby Boy collection.  Take a look...



Supplies used: Bella Blvd Baby Boy patterned papers, chipboard shapes and designer tape. Fiskars - punches (circle and border), A Muse - small star gems, Other - machine stitching, computer font, foam adhesive, printable transparency.

Here's a closer look at page one.  Isn't my sister just the cutest little pregnant girl?

And page two...

Some more of my 'wordy' journaling - ha!  I had already glued down the background paper when I decided I wanted to designate the journaling to this spot.  So, I simply printed it out on a transparency and attached it underneath the pictures, to hide the adhesive.  This little trick still gives the same look that it's actually been printed directly on the background patterned paper.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I look forward to sharing lots more Bella goodness with you!

LCTS sketch #149

Happy Monday, everyone!  Hope you had a wonderful weekend.  We had the most beautiful weather here in Ohio, so I spent most of the weekend soaking up the sunny days with the fam and away from my craft desk.  I did however, squeak out a page for the latest Let's Capture These Sketches, sketch #149, that was revealed on Friday.  Here's the sketch...

 

I bet you'd never guess that that amount of white space, in the sketch, scared me a bit (wink!).  It's so very different from my own personal scrapping style -  I like to fill up my page with pictures, product and journaling!  But that is definitely part of the fun of working with sketches since it presents a bit of a challenge and jump start to your creativity!  So, to make the sketch work for me, I flipped it on it's side to accommodate my vertical photo and made a LARGE matting for said picture.

Supplies used: Echo Park Be Mine collection patterned papers, letter and phrase stickers, Tattered Angels - glimmer mist, Technique Tuesday stamps by Ali Edwards, Doodlebug doodletwine and brads, Making Memories flowers, Stampin Up - decorative label punch, Fiskars - circle punch, MAMBI - heart shaped gem, Other: machine stitching, computer font (2peas Chestnuts), buttons, embroidery floss, ribbon.


My journaling was printed out on a plain white tag.  I dressed it up with an Ali Edwards phrase, some twine and tucked it under the photo and large folded flower embellishment.

A few buttons, brads and a little bit of bling finished off the page.

 

Thanks for stopping by to check out my interpretation of the sketch.  I hope you'll pop on over the the LCTS blog to check out the work from the rest of the girls!

 

Pebbles 'Debut'

I am so excited to have my very first project featured on the Pebbles blog today!  I am making my official 'debut' alongside my fellow team member, Renee Zwirek.  I hope you'll pop on over and visit us over there - Renee put together a darling little mini album that you'll definitely want to see. 

As for me, I used my first design team assignment to showcase some favorite photos of my baby girl and her sweet, little, NEW toothy smile!  I loved all of the pinks and girly elements featured in Pebbles Sunnyside collection and knew that they would be the perfect backdrop to document this milestone in my daughter's first year of life.



Pebbles supplies used: Sunnyside Tickled Pink (751276) Sunnyside Happiness (751278) Sunnyside Blossoms (751275) Sunnyside Accent & Phrase Stickers (732115) Sunnyside Mini ABC Stickers (732114) Sunnyside Dimensional Butterflies (747186) Sunnyside Clothes Pins (747185) Sunnyside Clear Acrylic Stamps (747183) Coordinating Cardstock Lollipop (71500) Other supplies used: Cardstock (American Crafts) Foam Adhesive (American Crafts) Baker's Twine (Doodlebug Designs) Border Punch (Stampin' Up) Gemstones and Pearls (Doodlebug Designs) Mini Staples (Tim Holtz)

 Notice anything different on this next picture of the layout?  No, you're not seeing double - I actually debated for quite some time if I should include that additional heart and butterfly accent on my finished page or not.  Ultimately, I decided it took away from the title a bit and opted to leave it off.  What do you think?  I would love to know which version of the page you prefer!  Lord knows, I asked the opinion of anyone around willing to listen - but neither my dog, baby girl nor the hubs had much of an opinion on the matter! (wink!).

Aren't those corrugated alphabets fun?  I love the font and added texture they provide, and couldn't resist layering the 'smile' sticker over top for a fun title effect.

I dressed up the journaling block with lots of additional goodies from the Sunnyside collection.  The 'smile' banners were stamped, cut out and attached to the page with one of the darling Pebbles clothespins. 

And here are a few more of the coordinating stickers that I further embellished with mini staples, gems, pearls and foam adhesive.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  If you are new to my blog and have arrived from the Pebbles blog - WELCOME!  I can't wait to share lots more Pebbles goodness with you in the coming months!

Birthday Cards

One of my favorite scrapbooking brands is celebrating four years in the industry.  Happy Birthday, Jillibean Soup!  In conjunction with their birthday festivities, they issued a challenge to their fans to create and submit Birthday cards for a chance to win some really fun prizes.  A fitting challenge, wouldn't you agree?  Since I just so happened to still have plenty of Jillibean scraps laying out on my workspace from my last little project (see the post here, if you missed it), I couldn't help but play along.  

With all of the guys in my life (both little and big), it can never hurt to add a few more masculine birthday greetings to my stash.  Therefore, I quickly settled on using up some of my Game Day Chili scraps for each of these three cards.



Birthday All Star  Supplies used: Patterned paper and cardstock stickers - Jillibean Soup, Game Day Chili collection Jillibean Soup- Soup Labels, Embellishments - A Muse Creative Candy Twinkle star stickers, Pebbles Inc. ribbon, Jillibean Soup button and Tim Holtz mini attacher staples, Stamps - Jillibean Soup (birthday) Other -  foam adhesive,  toothpicks.



 Image Removed -

for Publication!



 Hope it is an All Star Year  Supplies used: Patterned paper - Jillibean Soup, Game Day Chili collection Bite Size Bits and Borders,  Embellishments - A Muse Creative Candy Twinkle star stickers, Stamps - Jillibean Soup (numbers) Other - white embossing powder, machine stitching, foam adhesive, computer font.



Birthday All Star Memories Supplies used: Patterned paper - Jillibean Soup, Game Day Chili collection, Embellishments - Jillibean Soup wood grain button and Tim Holtz mini attacher staples, Stamps - Jillibean Soup, Other - machine stitching, foam adhesive,  toothpick, embossing folder, brown ink pad

 I think each of these cards provide a great alternative to many of the 'cutesy' cards I have made for my boys to give to their little buddies, in the past.  What boy doesn't like sports?

Thanks for stopping by!  I'll be back soon with some Pebbles stuff to share!

More LCTS fun with Jillibean

Good morning!  Just wanted to pop on here and share the latest sketch reveal over at Let's Capture These Sketches, that will go live today.  Here's a peek at sketch #147 designed by Natalie Roy:

If you've visited my blog at all in the past, you know that I'm a fan of clean lines, multiple photos and often a bold title.  So, as you can assume, I had no trouble at all pulling together a page based on this sketch.  I pulled out my stash of Jillibean's Game Day Chili collection, some older photos of TJ's first tball season and went to work.



Supplies used: Patterned paper - Jillibean Soup, Game Day Chili collection (Bite Size Bits, Italian Sausage, Sweet Onions, Kidney Beans) and Crate Paper Toy Box collection paper (Play Date - text background), Stickers - Jillibean Soup Game Day Chili cardstock stickers and Soup Labels, Embellishments - A Muse Creative Candy Twinkle star stickers, Doodlebug Doodletwine, Other - machine stitching, foam adhesive, black ink, computer font, toothpicks.



The 'Bite Size Bits' provided the perfect space necessary to sneak in my journaling on the page.  I accented that area with a couple of three dimensional pennant flags that I cut from the border paper and adhered to an ordinary old toothpick to mimic a stick!

It can't hurt to add some foam dots and starry bling to emphasize the theme of 'all star', can it? ;)

That's not all I've got for today's post.  I realized while pulling my images and creating my supply list for this page, that I somehow missed posting sketch #143 to the blog.  Better late than never, huh?  This one was by JJ.  Again, another fun linear design with the option for quite a few photos.

I pulled from my Jillibean stash again for this page.  I had been hanging onto this darling strawberry paper from the Coconut Lime Soup collection, and after our summer adventures going berry picking, I knew I had the perfect match!



Supplies used: Cardstock - Bazzill, Patterned Paper - Jillibean Soup Coconut Lime Soup collection (Kaffir Lime Leaves - both sides, Chile Paste and Bite Size Bits), Stickers - Jillibean Soup, Soup Labels and Lily Bee letter stickers (small black type), Martha Stewart office labels, Embellishments - Making Memories flowers, Jillibean Soup corrugated kraft letters, My Mind's Eye baker's twine, Little Yellow Bicycle rick rack, Other - stamping ink, mini copper brads, toothpicks, foam adhesive, machine stitching, computer font



The title features Jillibean's kraft corrugated alphabets, which I distressed with brown and white pigment ink pads.  I couldn't resist the addition of a couple more 'toothpick' banners on this page as well.  Are you noticing a theme?  When I like something, I LIKE something!



I used a label from Martha Stewart's office supply line, that I found at Staples, to add some additional text/journaling, and softened it up with a sweet little flower.

I hope after you are done here, you stop over at the LCTS blog, check out the other designers amazing work on the current sketch and play along!

LCTS sketch #145 reveal



It's reveal day over at the Let's Capture These Sketches blog,  Here's a look at the sketch #145 by Natalie Roy:

I will fully admit that the free form design and overlapping pictures, had me a bit stumped at first.  However, once I settled on using just one photo, and substituting banner/tag elements in place of the others, the rest of the page fell together pretty easily.  It goes without saying that my layout is much more linear than the sketch, but what can I say - I like my straight lines! ;)



Supplies used - Patterned Paper: Little Yellow Bicycle Saturdays Collection, Meet Me in the Meadow (floral) and Blue Reverie (blue/white medallions and grid); Diecuts/Tags: Little Yellow Bicycle Saturdays Collection tear-out ticket and journaling card book; Embellishements: Jolee's Boutique (small grey flowers), American Crafts thickers (title) and brad (Amy Tangerine), Bella Blvd (yellow/white chevron tape), Colorbok (stick pin), My Mind's Eye Lost and Found (label stickers); Stamps: Jillibean Soup ('anniversary' and numbers); Other: October Afternoon sprinklers, machine stitching, button, Autumn Leaves ink



I love that the title stickers provide a tone on tone feel to the layout, but also have their own presence and pattern to make them stand out against the background paper.  I have seen these particular Thickers used all over the scrapbooking world as of late, and finally scored some of my own!

From the next two close up shots, you'll see that I spent lots of time dressing up the beautiful tags/tickets/banners that coordinated with this particular Little Yellow Bicycle paper collection. I love the collage-y feel of all of these elements and layers.

I hope you stop by the Let's Capture These Sketches blog, to check out the other amazing designer's pages and play along with this month's sketch!  Leave me a note and let me know if you do!