Inspired by Photos and the "Happy Days" Classic Kit

It's Meridy here, and this week the design team's goal is to tell you where we got the inspiration for our layouts.  I'm using the "Happy Days" Classic Kit today, and there are a few more of these kits in the store if you haven't got one yet.  

The layout I'm sharing was inspired by the photos my 6 year old took of me and his new baby brother.  I am nursing the baby in the photos, and since that's what I'm doing multiple times a day, it's not a surprise that my oldest son wanted to take pictures of me feeding his baby brother.  When I looked at the photos, I knew that I wanted to briefly tell about excited I am that we overcame some major hurdles in getting him to be able to nurse.  Nursing was not always easy for him, and after a 2 week NICU stay and 3 more weeks of his weight loss, I was overjoyed to be able to follow up with some happy scrapbook layouts!

I started out with 6 photos (2-4x6 and 4-3x4), so I knew I wanted to make a double page layout.  I really liked the XOXOXO patterned paper by Amy Tangerine, so I used that as the base all the way across both sides of the layout.  I added a few more strips of patterned paper and then started piling up the matted photos and scraps of patterned papers to build up the design.  

The thick yellow ribbon worked very well with the color scheme in the layout, so I added a bit on the upper left and some more on the lower right hand side of the layout.  I added my sticker title directly on top of the photo and a journaling card to house my story. 

Finally, I choose embellishments such as some yellow buttons, clips, hand painted wood veneers, and rubber pieces to dress up the photos.  I still felt that I needed a few finishing touches, so I used a notebook paper border punch to punch a few strips of paper and placed those under the embellishment clusters. I finished off the entire layout with Heidi Swapp and October Afternoon mist splatters. 

I'm so glad that my son took these pictures of the baby and I and I'm so glad that I was able to tell the follow up story of the baby's rough start.

Thank you for joining me today, stop back every day this week to see how the rest of the Design Team was inspired!

Choosing Photos to Match my Noel Mignon Kits

I LOVE the huge variety of papers and embellishments in the Noel Mignon kits so much---today I want to share with you how I organize and match my printed photographs to the kits...

Each month after I stalk the mailman waiting for him to deliver my NM kit...I tear right into that box!  

First, I pull everything out and study every piece of paper and embellishment---oohing and aahing over every last bit.  

Next I face each paper so my favorite side is facing up. 

Then I start dividing up the papers into 2-3 "mini kits".  I divide them according to smaller color schemes and include 5-10 papers and some of the embellishments.  I realize that everything in the NM kit coordinates---but I force myself to create smaller "kits" so that I can match pictures up easier.  For example, this is the entire January 2016 "Sweet Charlotte" Classic Kit...

and here are the 3 "mini kits" I created...

I also have the following embellishments left over that I feel can go with all 3 of the "mini kits"...

Next I choose photographs that best match the color schemes of each of the "mini kits"

Mini Kit #1:

These are 6 sets of photos that I felt matched the colors in this mini kit...

 Mini Kit #2:

 These are the 3 sets of photos I thought matched these papers the best...

Mini Kit #3:

And here is a set of photographs that I feel matches the color scheme of these papers...

I will add my own solid cardstock to use as the base paper for each layout, I choose that cardstock as I create each individual layout.  I may decide to pull papers, scraps, and embellishments from one mini kit to use in another.  This initial breakdown just helps me get started so I'm not overwhelmed with 25+ pieces of paper to match photos to. 

As you can see, I have enough sets of photographs to create 10 layouts using this month's kit.  I know I will have lots of leftovers.  Depending on how productive I am this month, I may go back through my prints and pull some more coordinating photos.  It really depends on whether or not I scrap all 10 of these layouts within the next month.

Here is the first layout that I created with the "Sweet Charlotte" Classic Kit...

I like the way the title came out using the random fonts and one of the tags from the kit.  The "&" sign is something I had to pull from my stash.  To pull the random fonts together for a cohesive look, I backed the Q and the U with the same color coral paper (from another tag in the kit) and cut them out.

I fussy cut the little bouquet of flowers from one of the papers in the kit and added a floral sticker to create this little embellishment cluster...

 
Just a few embellishments pulled together here, a sticker, chipboard, and a crate paper medallion created a cluster with dimension and texture on the layout.

Thank you for joining me today!  Check back here every day this week to see some of the other "organization" tips that our design team is sharing!!!