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!

Favorite Layouts of 2011

Hello friends! I've had such a wonderful time since I became a member of the design team here but sadly, this will be my last post and inspiration on the layout blog. I'm so thankful to Noel for the opportunity to create with her beautiful kits each month and I certainly won't be a stranger around the message board. I'm a Noel Mignon kit club fan for life! :)

Towards the end of the year I always reflect back on the work I have created and decided that for my last post here I would share some of my favorite layouts I have created with Noel Mignon kits in 2011.

1) January's "Very Virginia" kit -

2) February's "Truly Scrumptious" kit -

3) March's "Delightfully Domestic" kit -

4) April's "Jump & Jive" kit -

5) May's "Mary Ellen" kit -

6) June's "The Bee's Knees" kit -

7) August's "Salt Water Taffy" kit -

8) September's "Study Hall" kit -

9) October's "Sleepy Hollow" kit -

10) November's "Dear Diary" kit -

I'm still working on my December Memories album with the "Mistletoe & Holly" kit so if you would like to see my pages, please keep an eye on my blog. Thanks so much for your friendship and mutual inspiration this past year!

All the best!
Jill

Scraps + Tool Card Challenge

So when I first read about this challenge, I thought to myself, "Oh dear." Cards are definitely not my forte, and tools? Considering that I debated on purchasing a Crop-A-Dile for a good year, you could say I'm not so much of a tool buyin' gal.

What do I do when I get out of my element? I go to my old crutches: horizontal strips, and my Silhouette machine. :)

This first card is made with a mixture of the Sonoma County and Dear Diary kits. I used a small artisan label shape from another design in my Silhouette downloads to make the nested spot for the sentiment to layer on top of.

And for this card (made with the Very Virginia kit), I did horizontal strips again, but got a little wild and crazy with making one strip shorter and cutting a notch out of the side. On top of that I adhered a cute little birdie on a branch I cut out with my Silhouette machine, and then inked & roughly traced around.

That's my trick when I get out of my box- go to some old stand-bys that help me not feel too overwhelmed, and incorporate it into the challenge so that it still looks like "me." :)

having fun at Animal Kingdom!

I believe I mentioned last week that our family took a trip to Disney at the beginning of this month so, needless to say, I have a lot of photos to scrap! Don't be surprised if you see many more Disney layouts from me in the coming weeks!

I had some pics of Animal Kingdom & thought Noel's fall kit 'Dear Diary' would work perfectly. All of the browns, yellows, blues & greens work great with nature pics!

I love shaped papers...they kind of take the work out of designing a page, don't they?! For the bottom scallop I used my Sizzix die but you could certainly achieve the same effect using a punch of punched circles. Quite honestly, that's how I usually do it and always forget that I have a die to do it for me!

The Best Gift

Remember the metal star I adhered paper to on my adhesives tips video? Well, I finished decorating it simply with one of the pre-made embellishments from the Bedford Falls kit.I also added some Lime Stickles around the sanded & inked edges to make it look finished. I'm bringing this with me tonight to an ornament swap with my church friends!

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For the latest challenge, I decided to pull out my "Deary Diary" kit because I didn't get to play with it as much as I would have liked to.


It made the perfect compliment to my layout about my engagement rings- especially that blingy frame from Making Memories. I realized after I took the pictures that I put that I was engaged of '09 instead of '99, so I went back and changed that. Woops! ;)

I made this heart border out of punched hearts, inking them, and then sewing them down.

Make sure to come join us for the newest challenge for your chance to win not one, but TWO "Bedford Falls" kits!

Gift It

I've been thinking a lot about what to get my family and friends for Christmas this year, and I'm sure you're all having these thoughts as well. Let's face it, we're all trying to be careful right now - maybe cutting back on the number of gifts your giving each receiver, or choosing names from a hat (our extended family has always done this) or maybe you want to give everybody just a little something with that kind of "specialness" you just can't get in a store.

I've decided to give a few people scrapbooks filled with semi-pre-made layouts all ready for the finishing touches to be made.

Here is an example of the kind of page I'm talking about using the Dear Diary kit. You'll notice I've borrowed a couple of cuties from Noel!



See how I've left some blank spots? That's where the receiver can do her own journaling or add any other additional photos or mementos. You could also just make up layouts without any photos at all. This is perfect for the busy mom or the sister-in-law who wants to scrapbook, but just never finds the time. This way you can share your creativity with your loved-ones and also help them out in the the nostalgia department!



You may be thinking, "Who has time for that!?" but I can promise you it goes so much faster than scrapping your own photos. Follow a sketch. Make a few of the exact same page for multiple people. Use the same sketch for every page, using different color themes.



This is also a great way of using up your scraps and leftover kit contents. If you've used those burlap alphas to death on your pages, you can still use them all up on a gift. You won't have to look at them anymore, but you won't have wasted them either (that's always my goal).

You can do a simple album with maybe 12 pages in it for each month of the year. Or do a calendar using the same principle. When the year is over, they can just cut down each page and make it into an album.

There are LOTS of gift ideas to keep your holiday craftiness fun, inexpensive, and always appreciated over at the message board. Come pay us a visit!

Happy scrapping!

xoxo
Britt

Simple Pleasures

Good morning and happy Sunday to you! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you shopped until you dropped! My lil family and I are headed to downtown Chicago today to see the Christmas lights. I lied last week when I said it was my last post.....I was a bit off on my dates I guess. So today is my last official post for Noel. It is bittersweet to say the least.

I have a LO of my son using the "Dear Diary" kit. I recently took a picture of him eating corn and loved how blue his eyes looked and those dimples.......ahhhh those dimples..... : ) I was lucky enough to find another picture of him when he was 16 months old eating corn. I love being able to use older pictures and newer pictures together!

The title and the ears of corn were cut using my Cricut machine.

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Halloween and Dear Diary!

Good morning and Happy Sunday to you! I am away at the moment on a scrappy weekend with girlfriends! There is nothing better than hanging out with my gals surrounded by a hobby I love!

Today I have a LO to share with you using the new Dear Diary kit (Only two left!!!). I adore the earthy colors of this kit! I used it to create a LO of my guys carving their pumpkins and a bit of Halloween baking too! I used sketch #59, from Inspired Blueprints which makes creating a LO so much faster! All the thinking is done for you!

I cut all of my circles with Spellbinder's dies. The journaling was done on the computer and cut into strips.

Lots of layering here..... : )

Thanks so much for stopping by! Be sure to check out sneaks of Noel's newest kit called, Bedford Falls, a FABULOUS Christmas kit!!!

Have a wonderful Sunday!!!

positive - just one!

I have a couple more pregnancy layouts to share this week. I promise, all of my layouts from now on will not be pregnancy related! But I know a few people had said on the message board that they liked seeing the 8 1/2 x 11 size so maybe you can take away a design idea or 2 from these layouts I'm sharing :)

This first one I used the Dear Diary kit. I loooove the Crate Paper in this kit. I've created a pretty simple layout but added some dimension with layers of the border stickers along with using my Martha Stewart border punch and some scalloped tissue paper (found at TJ Maxx).

I also added some butterflies going up the side of the page on top of buttons & corrugated buttons.

In this second layout I used the Office Party kit (sold out). Most of my layouts (for this scrapbook) will have 1-2 photos so I find that layering papers & fun borders along with playing with angles helps fill up the space and make the page look nice. I also find myself working on one corner of a layout when I have fewer photos. That always seem to be a nice design & works for me.

I love the little 'Admit One' ticket...fits just perfectly. And now, with the exception of just one layout, my pregnancy scrapbook is caught up...for now :)

Dear Diary Quick Tips

Hello my fellow crafters! Today I wanted to show you a couple of ideas on how to use a few of the items in the "Dear Diary" kit (hurry only 3 left!!!) First up...the infamous Jenni Bowlin paint dauber!

Tip #1: I know some of you mentioned on the boards that you would like a few ideas on how to use the paint dauber. I used mine as ink pad for my We R Memory Keepers stamps from the kit. It was super easy and not one bit messy. All you need to do is to gently dab the paint dauber on your stamp and then stamp it on paper. Neat huh? Check out the results...



Tip #2: When I opened the kit one of the first things that caught my eye was the honeycomb laser cut paper from BasicGrey. Although the patterned side of the paper is gorgeous, you might consider using the back side of the paper. You still get the nice honeycomb pattern and you can alter it to better fit your layout. Here I sprayed mine with one of my brown Maya Mists. Here is the result...



Be on the lookout for the full reveal of this layout on an upcoming Noel Mignon challenge. I hope these two tips sparked a few new creative ideas for you.


Happy Saturday everyone!

-Diana

tiny little heartbeat

Yesterday I got to hear our tiny little baby's heartbeat. So amazing :) I knew I wanted to scrap it right away and wouldn't you know it my Dear Diary kit was waiting on my doorstep when I got home!

By the way, there's only 5 left!! 

Now I know a lot of people might think this kit is just for fall pics but that is so not the case. The yellows, blues and browns can go with a multitude of photos...and not just fall ones!

I pulled out some of the gorgeous papers along with my favorite part - the embellishments! I also played with the Jenni Bowlin paint dauber a bit adding a little frame around my photo and also adding some color to the Jillibean Soup flower. Love how that paint looks on the corrugated cardboard!

I also used a white pen around the outside of the word 'heartbeat' to make it pop a bit against the brown tickets.

Now I'm off to create some more layouts with this fabulous kit!