travel album {before}

Hey everyone! I'm planning a trip to Washington & wanted to have a fun journal/scrapbook/mini-album to take with me to document our trip. Now even though I've made a ton of mini books before, I felt I needed a fresh approach to this one so I took an online class by Ali Edwards and it really gave me some new ideas for this book.

I used bits & pieces from several kits including Jump & Jive, Very Virginia & Office Party (& there may have been another one in there!). I added a few bits from my own stash but the majority of goodies were from the kits. I just grabbed here & there to throw this one together. All of these photos are obviously the before pics. After my trip I'll share with you what the completed album looks like...hopefully with lots of fun tidbits from our travels :)

I started with a transparency for the cover with a white tag on the inside stamped with a fun airplane that I stitched around. Just a note - if you keep the bobbin the same color as your paper (in this case I used brown thread & white in the bobbin) you won't have the thread color showing through on the other side. Of course, if you're a sewer you already know this!

I also added some of that great twine to the white tag...can't get enough of it! Peeking behind that tag is a map that I scanned & printed out on white cardstock. Shhhh...don't tell!! I'm planning on getting another map to add to this book on my trip.

One of 2 Maya Road envelopes in this book. Love them. This envelope I'm planning on using to store extra Instax pics...my new favorite toy :)

Jillibean Soup shipping tag with some more shipping tags peeking out behind that backed with that wonderful Pink Paislee patterned paper that came in the Jump & Jive kit. Just perfect for this book!

You can also see I used some rub-ons from one of the kits (Office Party I think). I absolutely {love} the new Echo Park papers, especially this printed paper...and I love the fact that there's several sheets in the new kit!

Does everyone love that Jenni Bowlin stamp as much as I do??? For most of the pages that were patterned paper I actually cut the paper twice the width that I needed it, folded in half & adhered down to itself. I've found it makes the pages a bit more sturdier than simply cutting one piece of paper.

As soon as I pulled out the Echo Park paper with all of the tags on one side I immediately cut them apart & knew they would work great for this book. I added an October Afternoon travel sticker at the top (I used those stickers in several places in this book).

More of those great Echo Park tags from Jump & Jive along with Elle's Studio banners.

 

I used an envelope template to make that envelope from patterned paper. And that's it! Pretty simple...but it will look so different once filled with photos & memorabilia.

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 :)

Mini Me!

Good morning! Happy Sunday to you! I have a LO of my two guys today using the "Office Party" kit. My son is 13 and is a carbon copy of his dad. Thankfully I love the person my husband is.......so it's all good!

My title was cut using my Cricut Machine. I crystal lacquered my title and placed it on pop dots.

Have you seen the sneaks of the new November kit, Dear Diary? Check it out HERE! It goes up for pre-order on the 18th! : )

Have a great day!

Step Outside Your Box

Have you checked out today's new challenge yet? You should. It's a good one. It's all about using the name of a tv show for your layout. I mean, think of the possibilities, here! Happy Days? My So-Called Life? Growing Pains? Parenthood? Sons of Anarchy? Okay, well maybe not that one, but you get the picture.

Here's mine.



I decided on One Day at a Time because that has been my new motto for the last month or so. We moved into a fixer-upper that we had been trying to buy for about a year and a half. All of our waiting paid off, but in that year and a half of the house sitting empty, it really started to get sad. So we've been working every day, along with lots of family and friends to get it back into tip-top shape, and we're just now starting to see some real results. A KITCHEN!! No more camp stove and bathroom sink dish washing. We've got refinished white cabinets, Kashmir white granite, white subway tiles, brand spankin' new stainless steel appliances and I am one happy girl! A month without cooking sounds like a nice little break, but lemme tell you, I am ready to get my bake on!! I'm gonna crank out some serious food for the next few days to make up for all this time off!



I used pieces of the Sweet Sue (hurry, only 3 left!) and Office Party (sorry, sold out) kits
and man oh man do they work great together! I cut the Jenni Bowlin die cut paper in half and stitched it together, then used the circle journaling card to carry the look of the circle through for the title spot. It's pretty amazing what foam dots can do to some alpha stickers, huh? Just kinda pops em out there to grab your attention.

So make sure you head on over to the challenge blog and see what the other girls came up with, and be sure to show us what you create, too!

Happy scrappy Monday, everybody!

xoxo
Britt

2 LO's to Share today

So, I have been having a bunch of fun over the last week using my Office Party (sold out) and Sweet Sue (GRAB ONE!!) kits. These babies work perfectly together! I also have been browsing around the web for some sketches to draw inspiration from. That is really one of my favorite online tools, sketch sites! Two of my favorite are Sketch Inspiration and Inspired Blueprints, which is where I went for both of these layouts.
First up...here are my boys and their cousin this summer. I started out thinking I could knock this baby out in an hour...nope. I got into the detail work and it took me a good 4-5 hours, between the sewing, the cutting, the inking.
Anyway, I LOVE the BG paper doilies...LOVE them! I also had a sheet of Hambly overlays, which I trimmed and added to the right top, and I like how that looks IRL, the photo has a big ugly glare. I also have to say that the MME letters in the Sweet Sue kit are some of my favorite ever. I just love how weathered they are and the size on them is perfect. I also had to pull out my trusty MS butterfly punch and get busy with that. Whenever I don't know how to finish up a page I reach for my punches.





Here are my boys on the first day of school. Again...I'm loving my butterfly punch.



Hope you all have a beautiful day and are having some scrappy fun! :)

playing with shaped papers

Shaped papers are so much fun to play with. And it seems like just about every company is making them these days. Sometimes they can seem a bit challenging on what to do with them. Then again, sometimes they're so pretty you want to 'save' them for the perfect layout! C'mon, I can't be the only one that does that! 

So I thought I'd share a few different ideas on using those fun shaped papers. 
As a background

 Office Party kit (alphas from Seaside Cottage kit)

Of course, the easiest way to use those papers is by using as your background paper on your layout. I loved the red in this My Mind's Eye paper and it picked up the red in my son's shirt.

Using half of the page

Seaside Cottage kit

Sometimes it's fun to cut your shaped paper in half on your layout. In this one I used it on the bottom half and it 'grounds' all of my embellishments & photos on the page. And even better...you have the other half for another layout!

By the way, quick tip I did with my photos. I knew I wanted 2 for this layout because it just looked better but only had one. My answer - print one in color and one in black and white. Problem solved!
Take the middle out

 Sweet Sue kit (12 left!!)

For this layout I cut the middle out of the shaped paper and put the bottom & top half back together. This is also fun to do on a 2 page layout, splitting the halves between the 2 pages in your layout.

So what are you doing with those lovely shaped papers?? We'd love to see! And be sure to go check out the DT members' blogs. I'm sure you'll see lots of ideas on how to use those shaped papers!

Scraplift Inspiration

I loved this layout that Noel made with the Office Party kit. I thought that the "Wild West" feel of the layout fit *perfectly* with the products in that kit! So, I marked it to scraplift.
However, I was browsing through some of the fabulous layouts posted on our message board, and I came across this one by message board member Robyn (created with the Lemonade Stand kit), and I just new I had to lift it too!
I combined the inspiration I got from both layouts and came up with this:
(Created with the Office Party kit)

Using Your Stash

Let's just admit it...most of us probably have a huge stash of scrapbooking supplies. I know I have been "collecting" products for years!!!! :) One of the things I try to challenge myself to do each time I create is to use something - ANYTHING - from my stash.

Another great way to use up your stash and all those scraps laying around is to create cards. I created a set of masculine cards using the new "Office Party" kit and tried to incorporate just a few items from my stash into the cards.

For this first card, I made a quilt block using 1-1/2" squares of patterned paper. The ticket die-cut is from the kit. I grabbed a couple buttons, rub-ons and some twine from my stash.

On this card, I used a Martha Stewart starburst punch and cut the starbursts in half to make banners. The twine, rub-on and rhinestones are all from my stash. 

For this card, I used a label sticker, twine and rub-on from my stash. Everything else came from the kit. 

On this card, I used a button, twine and brad from my stash. 

Be sure and stop by the message board to participate in all the great crop challenges this week! My challenge today is to create two masculine cards and I would love to see what you create! :)

A Special Project with the Office Party Kit

Included in the Office Party Kit were these super COOL, Roma Book Covers by 7 Gypsies. They are amazing and I knew I wanted to do something special with them.



My husband's birthday is next month. We have gotten to the point in our marriage where we end up getting something for the house or yard for our birthdays (LOL!), but I always try to write him a long card so that he is reminded how much he means to me. :)

I decided this year it would be fun to make a notebook album of sorts and then over the next month or so, write in all the big and little ways he makes me love him more and more everyday. :) I think I'll even get the kids in on the action. Wouldn't that be fun to open and read? I think it would even make a special gift to give the grandparents for Grandparents' Day (coming up on September 12th).

Here is the cover of the book.



And a few inside pages.






I used the patterned papers from the kit to create the pages. Next I used my Crop-a-dile to punch holes through all the pages and the chipboard covers. And finally, I used all kinds of bits and goodies from the Office Party kit to accent the pages. I love the way it came together and I know my husband's going to love it even more after reading all that we will write in it. :)



Have you stopped into our FUN IN THE SUN crop on the message board yet?! We are having a week of inspiring challenges and fantastic prizes!

Today I posted my challenge, a sketch challenge.



Here is my sample page using the Office Party kit .





Tomorrow night I will be hostessing a rousing game of BINGO in the Chat Room.



Come on in and play along!
See ya!
Jana