Maiden Voyage Crop Challenge!

 Hi everybody! It's Chief Steward Brittny! I hope you're enjoying the maiden voyage of the SS Mignon. I am here to share with you the second challenge of the day! Now, this one is a little different than the others, see, because all you have to do is scrap about a "first" in your life. Your daughter's first date, first fight with your husband, first grey hair, or in my case, my son's first trip to the zoo. This little layout is going into my son's baby album which is a Project Life style album. This happens to also be a maiden voyage for me in that I have never done a pocket page devoted to just one event - usually I just pick one or two photos or ephemera and include one little bit of journaling for an event. But since there were like, 97 good pictures to choose from, I couldn't resist! I see a pattern developing...

 

 I am using a mix of the Sweet & Simple kits and the South Shore big kit (sorry, already sold out!) for this layout. I must also confess that I am so not a "red" person - I usually don't use it in my layouts almost at all, but my mamala's red shirt kinda made it completely necessary, so red it is!! And it's a good thing both of these kits work so well for the green/red/mint/wood grain palette!

 Here I used one of the Elle's Studio cut-outs, with the '#goodtimes' stamp from the South Shore kit in grey, and the 'remember' stamp from the Sweet & Simple DD kit in black. I slid on both of the little plastic paperclips, and then I just hot glued that adorable chipboard tab and button from the Summer Bliss set in the South Shore kit. Gotta add a little twine from my stash to the button, too - how could you not?

 This is probably the least complicated filler card I've ever made. Cut down the paper, hot glued the chipboard camera to the card, hot glued the summer chipboard banner to the camera, then tucked the two pennant stickers on each side. Then of course I added a couple of enamel dots. Cause ya hafta.

For this card, I cut a piece of the Elle's Studio grid paper to 3x4. I cut out that yellow strip from the same sheet of paper, tacked it to the top, stuck down a piece of that super cute (even though it's red ;)lol) adhesive banner across the card, and stitched on the "This is right now" piece. After everything was stitched, I just added a couple of those Heidi Swapp puffy arrows, a brad from the Summer Bliss brad set in the South Shore kit, and the enamel dots from the Sweet & Simple DD kit.

And that's it. And I feel oddly good about it. Something totally different than my usual style about one of the sweetest firsts on our little guy's record!

I hope you have all had a great stay on the SS Mignon this week! Now remember to post all your challenge layouts in their corresponding album on the Facebook page, and to be entered to win THIS challenge, post your layout to the thread I've started on the Facebook page. The winner will receive this kit FULL 36 sheets of the newest Fancy Pants papers, two sticker sheets, and one sheet of alpas.

Good luck, and thanks for playing!

Finishing Up and South Shore Reveal!

Here are the last couple of spreads for Baby Reed's fifth month in his album. This was such a fun kit to start back with Noel, and a great set of goodies to add to his album.

I like having different sizes of inserts in my albums so that you get a sneak of what's on the next spread, and these Becky Higgins journaling pages are definitely doing the trick. I journaled on the front side, and made a mini layout on this side. It had a journaling prompt, but I wasn't into it. So I figured I'd add this photo of the homemade baby food process. Because you know, it's never too early to start reminding them how many hours a day to slave away for them... ;)

 I just added a few strips on the bottom and those delicious gold Thickers to make my title, and stapled some of the ephemera pieces to the top. I forgot to include something to journal on, and it was like, 11:30, so I just scribbled right over the photo. And I'm kinda fine with that.

I kept this spread pretty simple - just a couple of easy filler cards using the pieces from the DD kit, some journaling, and just one "artsy" card from my stash. LOVE that stitched banner!

 For some reason, I like clustering different little pieces in groups of three...

 This is the last page of the spread. Another pretty simple one. I keep going back and forth about how I want to do my Project Life albums - artsy (bulky) or simple (kinda boring but quick and clean). I'm still deciding, mid-process...

 I used one of the gold cut files I made in my last post over on my blog to make the "remember" piece and just cut down the transparency to fit along the bottom of the photo.

 I love using the Collect App to print photos these days. I see so many people who use JUST this type of photo, and I always think how nice it looks, but then I go to print my photos, and can't help but vary my sizes and formats a little. Soon I'm going to just take the plunge and see how it turns out... What I do love it adding a bit of afterthought to the card in my own writing.

 Short and sweet. Flair=good.

So that's it for me this month! I get next week off, so I'll see you back here the first week of August for the Cruise Crop! Can't wait for that - gonna be lots of fun!

Oh, and one last thing! Here's a reveal video I made of the new main kit for August - South Shore. It is filled with lots of goodness - be sure to grab yours in the shop!

Baby Reed's Album Continued...

So here's my desk today. Still working on Reed's spreads for month five.

I used more of both of the Sweet & Simple kits to fill up this pocket page, and then added in a journaling page from Becky Higgins - I love having tons of stories for Reed to go through later.

I kept it pretty simple - just added some stickers and cut out the stitched heart. Ran it through my sewing machine, and of course, added some enamel dots. Because that's mandatory, folks.

Here's a little zoomed view...

 I love this.

I had these two little Instagram shots that I wanted to include. The one on top is okay, but the one underneath is one of my less flattering photos. I just loved the honesty in it though - and I think Reed will like it later. So, I just slid that one into the sleeve, and fastened the good image on top of the sleeve, with a little strip of that adorable gold striped washi in the big kit.

 This card is simple enough - just a little sticker and washi, stitched on with some enamel dots. The gold foil "#lovethis!" is a Heidi Swapp stamp from the daily diary kit (sold out) that I made into a cut file, then stamped straight onto with Black StazOn ink. Seriously in love with the gold foil. For a little tutorial on how to make this cut file, just head over to my blog tomorrow to check it out!

So that's it for me today. I hope you're having a great week so far!

Mixing in Layouts

I knew when I decided to switch from traditional 12x12 and 8.5x11 scrapbooking to the Project Life format I would miss making a "normal" layout. So I made sure to keep some 8.5x11 sleeves to add in every now and then when I felt the "call" to sit and scrap a page.

Sunday night I saw a new sketch from Studio Calico and I just felt the Sweet & Simple kits call my name! Here's a layout I made using a combination of the two kits. I have to say, it felt good to sit and play with a bigger canvas than just the 3x4 cards I've been working with.

I loved the cute little 2"x2" ephemera in the Daily Diary kit, and they were perfect to create a grid to add a couple of Instagram snapshots to.

I love using up all the little scraps and bits on my desk. I used a few patterned paper scraps to make some squares to fill up the grid, cut a little banner, and stitched it over a little strip of the gold stripe washi in the big kit. I printed and stapled my journaling onto the top of the page.

I used the #ilovethis! stamp from the Heidi Swapp to stamp off onto the little arrow square - love the look of that! Then I popped up the main photo and turned it just to give it a little more emphasis.

The title is technically No1 Love, I suppose, though I really prefer not to have a title on my pages. I used the Insta chipboard frame in my Daily Diary kit to anchor the "title" onto the page, trimmed out the deer and tucked it in, and layered the flair and the My Mind's Eye epoxy dots and brads over a cut file that I am loving from Silhouette. And can we say gold foil? Yes, please!

So that's my "normal" layout for Baby Reed's five month spread. And now, it's back to finishing up the rest of the month!

Be sure to head over to the main site to get your Sweet & Simple kit - I think there are just a couple left!

Happy Hump Day!!

Hello there!

Hi everybody! This is my first official day back on the NoelMignon.com Design Team and I am so excited to be here! I was on the team a couple years ago, and loved it so much. Noel's kits are amazing, and it is seriously one of the brightest spots in my month to hear the mail truck honk, letting me know my kit is waiting for me on the doorstep. Happy sigh...

My husband and I just recently welcomed our first bouncing bundle home, and I have been working on a Project Life style baby album for him. So when Noel asked if I would be interested in coming back on the team I was like, "hmmmmm....ummm....geeee....YEEEESSSS!" The Sweet & Simple Daily Diary kit is going to be a great big chunk of his month five spread, as well as lots of goodies from the Sweet & Simple big kit.

This week, I wanted to show the first couple spreads I made using the two kits. Each month starts with this Design J pocket page by Becky Higgins, and has a 3x4 month card in the left center pocket where I journal a basic overview of the month. I love posting on Instagram, so this is a great page for some of those snapshots.

 

Here I stitched on the label tab and a little piece of that cute border sticker from the October Afternoon Public Library collection. And really, I can't get enough of those stinkin' enamel dots. NOMNOMNOM.

 I stacked an OA tag on top of the Crate Paper camera diecut, then an arrow from the Fancy Pants label sticker sheet. The flash bulb got a star sticker and a Queen & Co. Green Deco Dot. I stacked this onto a piece of polka dot paper and stitched around the edge.

I love the look of a little tag stitched at the top of pretty much anything! So I just cut down a scrap of grid paper, added the date using the OA Mini Market alpha stickers, stamped the Heidi Swapp "moment captured" from the DD kit and stitched the whole thing onto the photo. Then of course I added some enamel dots. Cuz ya hafta. ;)

Here is the second spread. I decided to add a Design F pocket page next. I usually try to stick to the same kind of prints on a spread - white margins, full bleed or polaroid style, but I broke my rule here. Because that's what happens when you're sleep deprived. And really, is he going to even notice?

I sort of fell in love with this mustard arrow paper from My Mind's Eye's Market Street collection in the big kit, so I used it at the top left and bottom right of the spread to draw your eye from beginning to end. I cut down a filler card from my stash, added an OA border sticker, cut down a paper tag, and put the Crate Paper stitched border over the top. And then, yes, more enamel dots. Also, I added a few little drops of the Studio Calico Leaf Green Mister Huey's mist.

 I used one of the Market Street journal cards to journal all about Reed's first try at rice cereal. The top had a brown strip on it that didn't quite match the rest of the layout, so I added a strip of patterned paper to the top of it to coordinate better with the rest of the layout. I added the date with the teal Fancy Pants alphas and stamped an arrow on each side with the Heidi Swapp stamps from the big kit.

 

 I included a 3x4 grid journal card where I recorded everything we did in one day. It has writing on both sides, so I stapled on part of a journaling tag so that it can be pulled out of the pocket easily.

 I love the little flair pieces in the DD kit! This one is my very favorite. I just layered it over a piece of the gold stripe washi tape from Queen & Co. and stitched around the edge to make a little filler card.

And nooooow I am off to work on making up some more filler cards with those cute little Heidi Swapp stamps. Because really, I am a little obsessed with them.

Happy Monday!

xoxo