Monday, May 25, 2015

Red, White, & Blue Pages

Paper Issues blog is hosting a link up for pages focusing on Red, White, and Blue. These pages were documenting the Fourth of July last summer.
These Simple Stories papers and stickers were fun to cut apart and layer.
Crazy stitching is fun to do to add a touch of imperfection to a page of circles.
Let's Celebrate was a fast way to add several Instagram pictures.
Sometimes you need a fast scrap photo collage page! The stickers help to move your eyes to each of the photos. Boom! 4th of July documented in a few pages with one collection.

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Taking Time to Gather & Celebrate

Turning 40 has given us reason to celebrate with family and friends.  The word gather for the title was created by using Ali Edwards kit acrylic word "gather" as a mask for the watercoloring.
The other elements for the page are mainly found in Studio Calico's Carolina Moon May kit.
Celebrating a birthday is the perfect topic to link up to Paper Issues current issue.

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Love Today

Paper Issues had another fun Scraplift Sunday which prompted me to use the sketch to create this fun grid.
A fun day at the beach during Spring Break! Ryan was loving the water and was so brave! He loved running back and forth.
I love adding wood veneer and trying out new stamps. The gold sticker from Seven Paper was a bit flimsy and hard to peel/stick. I love to cut my stamps apart and did that trick with Let's Go! It had been horizontal and I needed it to fit in the square, so I chopped it. Done. And done!
Hope your day is fabulous.

Love You Two

This was for Big Picture Classes Rainbow class. I adjusted Jen Chapin's pretty 8.5x11 page to a 12x12. I stamped the Kelly Purkey Sketchbook stamps for the kids names. 
I went with bold black Thickers to draw your eye into the photos. 
I added dimension to some elements and added tone on tone stamps as well as flair. Hope your day is bright and full of color!

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

My Happy Place


I have been loving all of the bold layouts on social media from Felicity Jane monthly kits, so when I saw Jeana was offering a box of several parts of her kits from the past few months, I ordered one.  The black and white striped box alone was beautiful on my doorstep!
I watercolored the left side of the paper and sewed a stripe of the neon yellow-green color from another FJ kit paper to match my daughter's swimsuit.
 I added a piece of Studio Calico plus signs to balance the busy left side. I layered one of the photos on vellum.
I love the plastic title piece, flair, hearts, pink gem, and tags included with the Felicity Jane kit. It made this page come together fast.  The tag was written in chalk ink and I linked it up to the current Paper Issues Link Party  "Chalk One Up!"
grab our badge
Hope you have time to be in your happy place today, too!

Monday, May 11, 2015

Happy

Ryan loves to ask if we are happy and gets concerned if we have to raise our voices or sound even the slightest bit upset.  He wants to be sure we are happy and smiling.  This page reminds us of his quest to ensure happiness!

Common questions and things he tells us at age three.  
Papers from Gossamer Blue Get Happy Collection.
Cut files:
Love the Word Art cut file from The Cut Shoppe.
Happy cursive word from 17 Turtles blog  
Large open cut file happy is from Kim Watson for Fancy Pants Designs.

Hope your day is full of Happy! 

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Always & Forever: You and Me

For Mother's Day, I found this shadow picture of my youngest and I walking this past Fall.  I love how ordinary the moment is, yet how special it is to see how little he is still and us holding hands.
I loved the sketchy circles cut files that you can find free on Scrapbook and Cards Today.  The white center cut file with heart is a free file from 17 Turtles blog.  
The chalkboard wood veneer are from Basic Grey- Highline.  Pinkfresh Studio paper brings the pop of color.  Additional stickers are from Freckled Fawn to tie in the colors.  The ampersand cut file is free from Jillibean Soup for NSD 2015.
The title cut files are from Studio Calico.  This LO was based on a sketch from a LO for Fancy Pants Design by Nicole Nowosad and the Sketchy Saturday by Paper Issues.  I linked up this layout from Instagram.


Saturday, May 9, 2015

Make It Happen

As it was Teacher Appreciation Week at school, I wanted to create a page to document my love of what I do!  I have been a teacher since 1997 and love my career choice to work with kids!  I started teaching third grade in California and when we moved back to Minnesota in 2010, I changed to teaching special education.  I have enjoyed the challenges to push myself professionally and continued my education with a working on a master's degree in special education. But, my heart has been calling me back to third grade, so here I go!
I loved adding the heart target cut file from Paper Issues store to tuck the cards and circles into.  My school picture is framed by a chalkboard free printable also found at Paper Issues. It was a fun way to tie in concept of this page which is the heart of the matter: getting back to third grade!
Our school did a cool anti-bullying campaign in the fall to "chalk up positive messages" so that picture also added meaning to my page. The third grade card was from a MAMBI school pocket pages kit.
I included more green elements and found these round stickers from Evalicious and cut out the green circle "Make it Happen" from Amy Tangerine's Rise and Shine collection.  

This page is linking up to Paper Issues Chalk It Up issue on the Paper Issues blog.

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Blowing Kisses

Loved the colors in this photo and played along online with Hip Kit Club's NSD challenges. This one is using two acrylic paint colors. I went with gold and blue. I recycled a paper towel tube for the circle stamping on the background.
 I watercolored the cut file XOXO from NSD on Hip Kit Club's Facebook group site created by The Cut Shoppe.  I used several Crate Paper papers that are from Maggie Holmes' collections.  I wanted to mimic the boards on the building and the floor by stacking the paper strips and lifting up the edges for dimension.  I layered the photo on vellum to soften the edges.  I added rub ons from CP and stamped the date and a few SC roller phrases.  Also, check out the link up at Paper Issues, Chalk It Up! Done and done.

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

You're So Sweet

Krispy Kreme donuts are a family favorite and special treat when we are on vacation.  On our FL Spring break trip, we brought them back to the condo to enjoy. I captured Ryan enjoying a chocolate covered one!
I loved playing with Dear Lizzy Serendipity for this one. This also uses Paper Issues Scraplift Sunday a layout by Christine (ListGirl). Check out Paper Issues Fans and Friends on Facebook for the deets.
I added the Super Love This tape from a Studio Calico kit. The Ryan on the title are from stamps included in the Sketchbook class by Kelly Purkey for Studio Calico.

The pie heart cut file is from The Cut Shoppe.