Happy Little Life & Friday Favorite

I love this phrase, happy little life, that is sprinkled throughout the Dear Lizzy 5th & Frolic collection.  I knew that I wanted to use it as the title for this layout, but couldn't find a piece from the collection that matched with what I was creating, or that I haven't already used :), so I simply recreated it with some rub-ons and one of the die cut tags from the collection.

Is she not adorable?!  Love this peanut, my best friend's new little bundle, and I LOVE Dear Lizzy products- this week's Friday Favorite!!!

I cannot wait to get my hands on the new lines released at CHA, but in the meantime, I'm happily creating away with what I have left of the older lines.  So many fabulous patterned papers, phrases, journaling cards, chipboard pieces, embellishments, and stickers.  Love. Them. All!  Not only am I using it on layouts, but you'll see a lot of these products in my Project Life work as well.

I apologize if the photos seem a little dim today, but the cool grey calm before the big blizzard, was not creating the best lighting for photography today!

It seems mother nature is trying to recreate the blizzard of '78 that I was born in 35 years ago.  Looks like I'll be spending my birthday scrapping away and sipping on cocoa under a few feet of snow. Ha!  Happy weekending!

Boy Crazy

 
Yes I am crazy for this little boy!  I'm also crazy for My Mind's Eye Boy Crazy collection!  I love anything and everything from My Mind's Eye and this collection is just perfect for scrapping my little guy right now.

This layout is newly created for the My Mind's Eye/Gossamer Blue guest designer contest with products almost entirely from the Boy Crazy collection.  I may need to buy these papers and embellishments in bulk.  Seriously.  It's perfect for capturing the essence of life as a 5 year old boy!

Just check out that robot, is he not the cutest??  I jazzed him up a little bit by stamping him onto the Seeing Stars paper and then paper piecing him together with some foam adhesive.  I also added a touch of glossy accents to his eyes and buttons.  The stamp set is lots of fun.  You can catch a few more glimpses of it on the layout with the rocket and gears stamped onto the background.  I can't wait to ink this set up again!

I used a few different patterned papers here to mat the photo, add a layered border at the top edge, and two little pieces to ground the robot.  I also dipped into the coordinating washi tape, such fun patterns, enamel dots, stickers, and decorative buttons.

Thanks so much to My Mind's Eye and Gossamer Blue for hosting this fun contest!

Hope you're enjoying your weekend!

Friday Favorite

TGIF!

Yes, oh yes, glad it's Friday!  So, I can hardly believe it but I created a double page layout!  Haven't done one of these in a while.  

It just so happened that I was getting items together to create a page of my little guy sitting in the cockpit of the plane, in the captain's seat!, and I was having a tough time narrowing down from the 45 photos I had of this momentous occasion, when I stumbled upon this inspiring post from Vivian Masket on the October Afternoon blog.  

Vivian created a spectacular double pager and encouraged readers, like me who tend to stick to single page layouts, to give it a try.  Perfect!  Just the solution to my problem.  Feeling quite inspired, I set to work and was able to use my four favorite photos that I had printed, without hiding too much of the world map patterned paper that I wanted to use as a background. 

Here's what I came up with-

 
Using products mostly from October Afternoon's Boarding Pass collection, everything flowed nicely as the papers, rub ons, and other embellishments were the perfect complement to my theme.  

To tie the two pages together, I worked in a few different things.  In addition to coordinating some of the patterned papers in the borders of each page, I also carried this cluster of stickers from one side to the other along the top.

Next, I used the title to help the focus flow from one set of photos to the other.  It begins on page 1...

and carries over to page 2 to complete the title work...

All in all, this was super fun to create and I'm happy to have showcased such a proud moment in his little journey.  Not to mention, my most important critic gave me that same thumbs up when he saw the spread :)

FRIDAY FAVORITE:  October Afternoon everything!!!

Wishing you a most beautiful weekend,

Project Life Week 2

Hello, hello.  Moving right along with Project Life, I have week 2 to share with you here today.  I am having so. much. FUN with PL!  What was I thinking all these past years not doing it?  If you're taking part, I'd love to see what you're working on so be sure to link me up in the comments section.

Ok, so here's week 2 in video form-

and here is the week 2 spread in photos-

Next up is a layout.  I'm happy to say that in no way is PL interfering with my ability to create regular scrapbook pages.  I like the idea of doing both because I can highlight specific memories on a grander scale when I dedicate an entire layout to them and at the same time, PL allows me to capture so much more than if I were trying to get everything into 12x12 scrapbook pages- would never happen.

Liam's 5th Birthday page was very fun to create.  I used a lot of Simple Stories here.  The edges are sewn together with the exception of the angle.  I used this area to create a pocket of sorts to hold a little glassine bag used for some hidden journaling.

The flair is from October Afternoon and the Good Life sticker from Jillibean.  The glassine bag is held snuggly in place with a Tim Holtz clip.  Here is what the bag looks like when pulled out-

and, here's the little birthday guy himself, mounted on a misted background created with a mask and Tim Holtz color wash in stream.

Phew, long post today.  Thanks for hanging in there with me!  Don't forget to link me up if you're working on PL and enjoy your day!

Friday Favorite

These two are peas in a pod for sure!  I love watching these cousins together because they glow.  It reminds me of being with my cousin when we were little, such a special kind of friendship.

I snapped this pic of them last week at the end of a very fun day together and in the middle of a pretty awesome Just Dance session.  When it came time to capturing this moment, I immediately reached for some Crate Paper and set to work.

FRIDAY FAVORITE... Crate Paper's Fourteen Collection!

If you've seen any of my recent posts, you already know I can't get enough of the Fourteen collection.  I also used a Maya Road stick pin and doily, American Crafts transparent letters (love these too!), some washi, mist, and sequins.

And, as mentioned in this video, I put the leftover heart die cuts to use in this next layout featuring lots more Crate.

I stitched them, with an old Jenni Bowlin ticket, right to the page on top of some painting and stamping.  I used a few background stamps from PTI's Background Basics Hearts set.

Other products used: AC thickers, Basic Grey alphas, Tim Holtz mini clip, Jillibean Soup sticker, a craft die cut from my stash, and of course, some washi.

Wishing you a very Happy Friday!  Thanks so much for coming by!

Quick & Easy

 Hi all!  I have a video to share today of a quick & easy Valentine.  While I love to get more elaborate with my projects, I do have a certain appreciation for the quick & easy variety.  

This little Valentine comes together very simply using some adorable stamps and dies from Papertrey Ink.  The patterned papers that I've used here are from Crate Paper's Fourteen collection... I'm obsessed.  I'll have a couple of layouts to share using this line coming soon.  In the meantime, here's the video for ya!

Also wanted to share how pleased I am with my most recent $10 thrift shop find for my scraproom...

It works very nicely to add a few more storage spaces and that makes me happy!

Thanks for coming by today!

Love, love, love

 
Happy Saturday friends!  Just poppin' in to share a quick card with you today.  

Valentine's Day is such a fun holiday to create for.  I mean, what's better than sending love notes?  I happen to be in love with Crate Paper's fourteen collection this season.  The adorable papers from the 6x6 collection pad seem to keep ending up on all of the cards I'm creating!

Along with the adorable paper, I used PTI's Heart to Heart stamp set and die, red & white bakers twine, and Neenah solar white cardstock as a base.

I'll certainly be back to share more soon, but for now I'm off to make the birthday party rounds with my littles!

Enjoy your weekend!

Project Life Week 1

 Hello!  I could not be more thrilled about finally giving Project Life a go... what in the world have I been waiting for??

I just adore everything about it.  I will certainly continue to create larger layouts for special memories or events that I want to record in that way, but this relieves the pressure that I put on myself, or the guilt, when I don't get all of the pictures I want into layouts.

Anyway, I know it's easy to be very enthusiastic about something in the beginning and that it can sort of dwindle as time goes on, so I'm planning to share a new spread once a week here, mostly through video, to keep that motivation going.  It'll give me a kick in the pants when needed!

So here's week one, a brief overview of my newly formulated process, title page, and week 1 spread.  Hope you enjoy!