Scrap Your Story - Grateful

Today brings yet another new challenge at Scrap Your Story! This week's challenge is to use CORK!! I was pretty baffled by this challenge until I found a lovely piece of paper by Crate Paper that looks like cork! I was so excited because I really had NOTHING else to use for this challenge!

I was too much of a wimp and totally could not get myself to use the cork paper for the entire background. Nope. Not Me. I put a lovely piece of Dear Lizzy paper over it and stitched the edges (as well as the adorable clouds). I thought that the cork paper worked well with my photos from the winery. There was a lot of browns in the photo that matched well.

I used some bits and pieces from the current Scrapbook Circle kit that is full of Dear Lizzy goodness. I have made a lot of layouts with that collection, but still have SO much left from it! 

A close up of one of my clusters. Dear Lizzy stickers as well as a Studio Calico arrow sticker. 

And my corner that I stitched the clouds on and added my own little phrase sticker to go with the rest. And as always.. enamel dots! They fit everywhere! :) There is also a challenge right now going on over at Paper issues to use CLOUDS on your project! :) 

Be sure to link up your cork layouts to Scrap Your Story!! I can't wait to see what you have to show! I am sure many will be more creative than me! 

Mexico 2011... Project Life style!

News Flash.... I am finished scrapping photos from our 2011 family trip to Mexico!! Yay!!!! I did about 10 12x12 full page layouts and the rest of the photos I scrapped using the Project Life format. It was SO much easier to get all of those photos scrapbooked. It would have just taken up too much time to do all 12x12 pages! I love this!

This was the title page I used to open up to the Mexico pages! I just have my Mexico pages in a book with the rest of the stuff in time around it!

I used my Cameo a lot on this page and added fun little bits here and there. 

We took quite a few of the "professional" pictures while we were in Mexico (where a photographer comes around and takes photos and you can buy them -- for a huge price). Turns out I bought some ..so it was nice to be able to put them in the protectors this way!

The photo of Ryan and I in the scuba gear was a very big photo.. almost 8x10 and I just cut it down to fit. 

This format made it SO EASY to get these pictures scrapped.. and I love how it looks! 

More large photos that was easy to put in these Stampin' Up page protectors. 

I have been using my Amy Tan stitching templates and I love them! :) I also found some free printables that I am really enjoying too! 

And the last page!

This was a lot of fun to do! I have my honeymoon photos to Cozumel all scrapped because I made a mini book, but I will totally do this in the future with other vacations, in addition to mini books. I also tend to add in 12x12 pages as well! Think about doing this sometime.. it is a time saver and fun! :) 

Scrap Your Story - This is Forever

Its Friday! Another reveal day at Scrap Your Story! The challenge this week is to use any sort of embossing on your layout! It can be dry or heat embossed.. just use embossing. To be honest.. it scared me! I have a Big Shot with some embossing folders and I have ink, a heat gun, and one little thing of embossing powder. Safe to say that I usually only use the embossing folders if I make cards (which isn't much) and I never use the embossing powder!

I stepped out of my comfort zone and decided to try out the embossing powder on a scratch piece of paper. It worked well! I have seen a lot of heat embossing in the scrapbook world lately and I would like to get more into it. I think I am going to order some of the American Crafts Zing embossing powders so that I have more fun colors to choose from! :)

The only powder I had was a silver which I thought would go well with this wedding photo of mine. I used February's Studio Calico kit to create this layout and I used an older studio calico heart arrow stamp to create the embossed arrows!

Here is a close up of the embossed arrows, as well as my layers and clusters.

I think that it turned out well! Be sure to play along with the challenge this week! 

Today Starts our Forever

As promised, another Scrapbook Circle layout! I sure was on roll yesterday and got three layouts done! I used another photo from our wedding and got this one done in about an hour. That is some kind of record for me! :)

This kit is full of the Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm collection and again I was able to use a lot of the kraft/gold,teal/blue/yellow color combination! I love that! I really like the "Love This" file folder that came with the kit. It is from the Alison Kreft Sweet Notes collection by Webster's Pages. I do need to get my hands on more of that collection! :) 

Once again I used the Amy Tan stitching template to create that arrow! I wish I would have had a darker blue floss, but this works I guess! 

And to finish it off with a date stamp and an enamel dot of course!! :) Thanks for stopping by and all of your super sweet comments on my layouts lately. I really do appreciate them all! Have a great week! 

a Scrapbook Circle kind of day!

It is true.. I spent the day working with the new March Scrapbook Circle kit, Charmed Life. It is adorable!! I am in love.. but I think I say that with every Scrapbook Circle kit! If you've never looked at their kits, you really should! They rock!

I made three layouts today, but I am going to share the two that I made for the current challenges going on right now at Scrapbook Circle. The first challenge is labeled "Lucky Charm." I chose to use a photo of my husband from my wedding as I was walking down the aisle. The photo says it all. He is my lucky charm and I am so lucky to have him. :)

I used lots of goodies from the kit including the fun Dear Lizzy heart die-cut piece and the exclusive "Lucky to have you" piece from the kit. I also used the Amy Tan stitching template to make the arrow. Cool huh? 

Here are some close-ups of the layers and other elements. The Thickers are Dear Lizzy from an older collection as well as the white and gold mini stickers. 

The next layout was made for the current sketch challenge at Scrapbook Circle. For some reason I always have trouble doing layouts where my photos are in a vertical orientation like this sketch, but I made it work for me! I had some great inspiration from Diana Fischer's layout. 

Aren't these photos of my niece too cute? Sorry, I am biased. :) I had to pull the letter stickers from my stash, but pretty much everything else on the layout is from the kit. 

I was in love with the way Diana used that adorable mini wood veneer polaroid frame, so I had to do the same! 

Thanks for checking out my layouts today and be sure to stop by Scrapbook Circle and check out their kits and inspiration! Stay tuned for another layout using this month's Scrapbook Circle kit! 

Happy, Smile, Love, Laugh

I am back today with a layout I created using the My Girl collection from American Crafts. I love this collection so much and I have used it on a few layouts, but for some reason I have been struggling while I've used it. I'm not sure if it is the colors or what, but on all the layouts I have used it on, I have been quite slow to get them finished!


I used some sweet photos of my niece Lainey and my silhouette to create the polaroid frames. As always, I like to add in lots of layers!

Here is two close ups of the layering and clusters. Thanks for checking out my blog! Have a great week! 

Scrap Your Story - Beauty

Hello Friday!! For some of us that means the weekend off.. sadly not for me though! :( But I do get a break! I took off Sunday since I am going to have a lot of green beer on Saturday night!

Another thing about Friday is it is reveal day over at Scrap Your Story! This week's challenge is a SKETCH challenge! I stayed pretty true to the original orientation of the sketch, but just added a few of my own little tweaks to it.

As you can see, instead of using a full rectangle of paper, I used varying sizes of patterned paper pennants to complete that background piece. I used the new collection My Girl by American Crafts and some photos of myself on my wedding day. 

Here are some close ups. 

Be sure to play along with the challenge this week at Scrap Your Story! 

Two Layouts to Share!

I have two layouts to share today! I finished these last weekend, but haven't gotten around to sharing them because we went on a quick trip from Monday to today to Wisconsin Dells. It was a wedding gift from my sister in law. Nothing exciting, just a little getaway.

This layout uses February's Scrapbook Circle kit and an adorable photo of one of my close friends and I. Don't ya just love that chevron roller stamp from Glitz? I also used the Amy Tan and Dear Lizzy phrase stamps to stamp multiple phrases down the right side of the page

A close up of the date stamp and the MME little word stickers 

The ampersand sticker is actually a Scrapbook Circle exclusive sticker that comes with the kit... as well as the You & Me flair on the layout. 

For this next layout I played along with Elizabeth Kartcher at 2peas and I used the white thickers on the background and paint/mists to create the ombre effect! I am not really a fan of this layout, but I guess it is okay! I used the new Amy Tan, Yes Please line for the first time. 

Thanks for looking! Be sure to check back Friday for a new reveal from Scrap Your Story! 

Scrap Your Story - You Are So Sweet

Here I am back again with another layout for this week's challenge at Scrap Your Story! The challenge this week has a theme of "Animals." This theme is very open for individual interpretation! It wasn't hard for me since I have SO many pictures of my adorable cat, Buttons!

I had just received the new American Crafts My Girl collection and I wanted to use it SO bad for this LO because of the adorable little kitties throughout the collection! My cat is a boy... but I don't think that matters! :)

I just love that background chalkboard type paper. It is actually Basic Grey from 2010 or 2011 from one of their love themed collections. I decided that it matched perfectly with the My Girl collection... and my cat for that matter! I had to take advantage of the adorable kitty on the puffy stickers, journaling cards, and branding strips. Adorable, huh?!

Here is a close-up of the layers. This layout just shows how versatile collections can be! This collection was probably made for "little girls" and I made use for it on a boy cat layout! :) 

Be sure to link up your animal themed layouts to the Link at Scrap Your Story to be entered for the prize at the end of the month! Thanks for checking out my blog! 

I Do It For You...

Thanks everyone for all of your wonderful comments on my new blog design and my layouts. I really appreciate it!

I did a fun layout today that I did following a challenge at Elle's Studio. I really love Elle's Studio and need to play along with their challenges more often. For this challenge, all I needed to do was scraplift one of the design team's layouts and use Elle's Studio product.

I used the new Glitz Madly in Love collection (can't get enough of it) and 4 Elle's Studio tags. Three of them are from their latest collection, You and Me and the "this moment" tag is one I've had in my stash for quite some time.

The photos are of my husband and I during our first dance. I love them. The title is based on our first dance song, which was "Everything I Do, I Do It For You" by Bryan Adams. When we got engaged I told Ryan that he could choose the song for our first dance and after a few days, this is what he told me he wanted. I giggled a little because it is kind of a cheesy love song, but it really meant a lot to me because he picked it out . :)

Here is a close up of two of the Elle's Studio tags as well as an American Crafts heart clip that I picked up at Target! 

Lately I have really enjoyed hand stitching on my layouts! I love how the big heart looks in the background. 

And of course.. I had to add some enamel dots! :) And here is the layout that I scraplifted from Elle's Studio design team member Sarah Webb. 

New Blog Design and a Layout!

Hello everybody! Does anything look different?! :) I figured it was time for a new design on my blog to be able to focus more on my layouts! I can't get over how adorable this blog design is! I just love it so much! It combines a few of my favorite things.. Purple, stars, and a super cute saying!

I noticed that Megan Klauer had revamped my friend Amanda's blog, so I got in contact with her to see what she could do with mine! I hardly had to tell her anything and she came up with this beautiful design! Thank you SO much Megan! Be sure to check out her blog Megan Klauer Design! She does amazing layouts and project life spreads and right now she is working on a fun challenge for March!

Here is a LO that I was able to finish the other day! I love how it turned out.. even more after seeing it a few days after I made it. My husband got a huge box full of remote control helicopters from my uncle one afternoon and was SO excited when he opened it! He said it was better than Christmas and was totally not expecting it!

I wanted to use some "boyish" colors so I used the fabulous line from Studio Calico, Snippets. The colors in that collection worked perfectly for this LO. I love the look of the outlining on this layout as well as the speech bubbles I cut out with my Cameo.

Here are a couple closeups. The "Today" and "True Story" are from the 6x6 Snippets pad and the arrow and geotag are Studio Calico as well. The "play" tab is a printable from Scrapbook Circle. 

Man, I sure LOVE enamel dots. I could hoard those forever. They work for everything! I am in love with that tiny "dude" sticker font from MME and I hardly have any vowels left that I can never use it.. BUT I was able to use it on this page so I was pretty excited!

Thanks for checking out my new blog and the wonderful comments! 

Best Friends

Need your day a little brightened?! Check out this super bright and colorful layout that I made with the Amy Tan Sketchbook collection!

I got my inspiration from Paige Evans and her Tutorial at Two Peas in a Bucket a little over a month ago. She had a wonderful idea for this "paper weaving." She used a lot of those super fun extra strips that come at the bottom of patterned papers where the manufacturer's label is. Be sure to check out Paige's Blog. She does some amazing work with patterned paper. I am amazed every time!

I also used many of the manufacturer's ends for these strips as well as cut a few from the patterned paper to get a wide variety of colors. This just shows how *much* of that collection I still have left! I love it so much, but it really is dwindling down.

I weaved the papers over and under just like in the tutorial. I used some of the die cuts and stickers from the collection for my clusters around the photos. Looking at my scrapbook.. I have noticed that all of my bachelorette party pages have used this collection! :)

A set of Thickers and arrows always does the trick! 

And a final close-up. I have to say that I am obsessed with the roller date and phrase stamps. They are so cool! And I don't even have as many as some people! I only have 5.. with one on the way ;) Thanks for stopping by and I hope you get to have a scrappy weekend... because I will be at work! 

Scrap Your Story - All We Need is Us

Here I am with my first post for the Scrap Your Story Challenge Blog!  There will be a new challenge posted every Friday and at the end of the month you will have a chance to win a prize for every layout that you submitted that month! One entry per week. 

This week the challenge was to use only one photo. Well, anyone who knows my style, knows that this was an easy challenge for me! I chose a photo of my husband and I on the beach in Playa Del Carmen back in December of 2011. I used the Nantucket collection from Pink Paislee and did a lot of layering behind the photo to bring focus to the photo. 

I also threw in some goodies from Studio Calico and Lilybee Design and added some mist in the upper left corner and lower right corner to draw your eye across the page. 

Here is a closeup where you can see the layers. I hope you are inspired by my layout and this week's challenge at Scrap Your Story! Be sure to play along to earn a chance at a great prize. I can't wait to see what you come up with!