A minor scrappy obsession.  Really, just a tiny thing,.... I can't seem to just glue buttons onto pages without tying thread or floss through the button holes. 

I've tried!  I got some cute buttons in a package that already had adhesive on the back and didn't I have to peel off the adhesive so I could put floss through the button holes?  Well, of course I did. 

Which brings me to my page.... Still using scraps on this one.  Added some vellum tape strips (on clearance for a whopping $1.07 a pack at Hobby Lobby).  I added strips of the same papers and little pieces of the vellum strips for the cluster at the side of the page.  Sprinkled on some wood veneer stars.  Cut the title with my Cricut.  It cracked me up to watch Jackson falling asleep when he was tiny... going, going, gone....

Things were moving along fine and then I went to splatter my Heidi Swapp Citron mist and it kind of blurched out, not splattered.  Love that color... but the splots were a bit larger (a LOT larger) than I had intended.  So I added buttons over top of the largest paint blurches.  And put floss through all the button holes before adhering them to the page.   

Some things are just not worth fighting yourself over. 

best to all,
Cheryl

No scrappy phobia to report on today, but I was still working on the pics of the grandies that were taken on that phony beach backdrop.  For Jackson's photo I chose to pretty much ignore the background and concentrate on just the color scheme and the funny little expression on his face.  He just looks so like "you want me to do what?

Again papers from the scrap bin (although I am STARTING to run out of print papers in the bin---yeah!).  I did add wooden arrows (from a clearance pack I got at M's) The little camera sticker,  xoxo sticker, and banner(s) are from an Amy Tangerine sticker pack, the potty person and clouds are from a Jillibean Soup die cut pack and I cut the title from my Cricut.  Went back in and did some outlining (a la Mercy Tiara--she's the one that got me started outlining stuff!). 

On little miss Bella's page, I concentrated on orange and some peachy pinks.

 And kind of like the Door County page that used only tags to back the photos, I cut out tickets from one of the papers in the $5 Maggie Holmes/Dear Lizzy papers I grabbed a couple of weeks ago (also at M's).  The orange and navy papers at the top and bottom edges of the page were still from the scrap bin. The orange arrow sticker is from a Heidi Swapp pack, cut the camera out of the backside of an Echo Park paper (from the This and That collection---and yes it was in my scrap bin!).  Punched a bunch of little circles using my hand punches to scatter about, cut the title using my Cricut again and used up a couple of orange flower stickers (only one or two left on those packs, double yeah!).   

Journaling on this page is about Miss Bella's rather "adventurous" nature.  Like getting up pre-dawn, unwrapping a box full of gifts my daughter was getting ready to mail.  She was found at the dining room table, not a stitch of clothing on, but she had bracelets and scarves and necklaces on (after all, it is important to accessorize...) or again getting up super early in the a.m. and chopping chunks from her almost waist length hair.  Yep, she is worth the price of admission, that one! 

Gotta run.  Got a long week in front of me. 

best to all,
Cheryl

Trying out my gelatos this week.  I don't think I quite have the hang of it---yet.  I do like them.  Liked playing with them.  In fact, I just kept playing till I had filled up the whole sheet with color and that's where I think the technique of s.t.o.p.p.i.n.g. needed to be applied!

 Plus, these are not my favorite photos of my grandies.  Don't know why exactly.  Maybe because I'm not fond of overly posed pictures or the phony backdrop of beach... come on, we live in Wisconsin.  Not too many beaches here with starfish and seashells and  such.  Uh, like none.  But I wanted them scrapped anyway, so I forged ahead. 

And if it is a fakey, fake backdrop, then why not call it what it is?! So I did!  But I do think I would be happier with my background had I left some white showing through or more variations in depth of color.  Ah, another lesson, but I will definitely continue working with the gelatos. 

I used watercolor paper for the background, but went to the scrap bin for the layering papers.  Still felt I needed some more definition around the photo area, so I added some tone-on-tone stamping using a Tim Holtz flourish stamp and punched a couple of hearts in aqua so they would stay with the tone-on-tone thing.  The title letters are cut with my Cricut, but they seemed a bit flat--so I cut a duplicate set in aqua and intended to use them as a shadow, slightly offset from the peachy orange.  That didn't look right either.  I ended up gluing the two sets together to give them just a bit more thickness and that did the trick.  Added some Heidi Swapp stickers (and arrows), a button and some washi tape.  The watercolor paper is a bit smaller than 12x12, so I centered it on an orange piece of cardstock.

On a personal aside, we are still in major clean out and purge mode at my house.  But I cannot seem to get DH to go through his many (and I mean MANY) boxes of photos (of cars--not people, not family, c.a.r.s., really?).  Or the car parts all over the basement---or to clean out the garage.  I mean he has painted and dutifully hauled the stuff to Goodwill I have asked him to and he has put in a new tub surround and is now mudding that before he can paint---but he has this block about really cleaning and purging...  is this a scrap-able moment?  h-m-m-m-m.  Have to think on that one. 

Thanks for stopping by! 
Cheryl 

A tag background as a base for photos, not a scrappy phobia, just a little self-induced challenge. 

 I know I saw this idea somewhere and for the life of me, I could not find it again.  It wasn't on any of my pinned pages. But I know I saw it done somewhere.  It really was fun little challenge to use only the tags instead of layers of papers behind my photos. 
 

The tags were cut-aparts from two different sheets, one was a Crate paper and the other was an Echo Park paper.  Since there was a hint of red  and yellow in the photos (on my boys' ties) I wanted to use those colors for sure and the rest I chose for their neutral colors.  The hardest part was gluing everything together, once I found it's best home!  But, lifting one corner at a time, you just kind of work your way around the bundle until everything is secure and then adhere the whole bundle to the page!  I did outline the tags for a little more emphasis and added the "seems like yesterday" sticker, plus the little wood veneer hearts (love those things!)

Journaling went around the perimeter of the page, since I really wanted a clean uncluttered look, plus it gives the appearance of a border around the page.  I had left the date at the top tag for Jacob's mom to fill in the date---I know it was the last weekend in October---but the actual date escapes me.  The title stickers are from Lily Bee and that was it. 

Well off to get ready for work (hooray, it's Friday!!!!)

Go forth and make some memories this weekend!   
Cheryl

Facing another scrapbooking phobia...  It's #3 I am up to (for whomever is counting).  Scrapping on brightly patterned paper.  Yeah, I admit it.  Me, who loves pattern and color and layering... I have an issue scrapping using a brightly colored and patterned background paper. 

I like it when I see it on other peoples pages... but not so much when I've used a bright colored pattern paper as the base for my page. 

But I am facing this and working through it.  It's just not something I will ever be totally comfortable doing.  I think we all have color combinations that we like more than others and patterns and such--- and a bright background is just not something I am probably going to reach for a whole lot. 

So here it is, my take on using a brightly colored background paper.  It's my Isabella girl from last summer.... her and her sidewalk chalk.  These photos seemed strong enough to hold up to brighter colors and I also found it was more appealing to my eye to group the photos tightly together making them bolder than the papers. 

 

The background paper is from the Little Girl collection from Echo Park.  The layering papers were from a couple of bargain packs I got (of all places) at  Michaels.  They had some sort of super duper deal of the day ($5) on some 8-1/2 x 11 pattern paper packs (one was Dear Lizzy and the other from Maggie Holmes so they are fairly recent and are actually cardstock weight!) 

I placed the photos as a block on a small floral pattern (it's a pattern I am not likely to use all on its own--but the navy color was good behind the pictures).  And I cut up a sheet that had strips of patterns on it so that I could use just the strips I wanted.  Placed all the pink and navy patterned strips above and below the photos.  Cut a couple of banners from another pink patterned paper from the bargain packs, colored a "hello" wood veneer with a pink and then a red ink pad to get it to be a bold pink.  The journaling piece was a cut-apart from the same Little Girl collection.  "Cuteness" is a sticker from Heidi Swapp, as is the hello arrow.  The flowers are from a really old pack of Sandy Lion flower stickers--I did peel off a green layer on a couple of them to keep to my hot pink and navy color theme.  Punched a few little hearts from a scrap of navy cardstock and that was it.  I did not add paint splatters or such--was really afraid it would be just too, too much. 

The journaling really isn't about Bella; the photo of  her squatting down to color on the sidewalk reminded me of my mom and how tickled she would get to see the little ones playing like this.  She always used to say it looked as though they were sitting on an imaginary little stool.  I want Bella to know some of these funny little things about her great-grandma.  And how better, than to include these anecdotes on some scrapbook pages!

It's early evening, so I think I will try to sneak off to my little room and do some scrapping. 

Cheryl

Continuing to work through my scrappy phobias and my pile of scraps!

Once upon a time paper companies produced a line of papers, some (usually very themed) accompanying stickers and there you were.  The papers were mostly one-sided.  If you didn't like a particular pattern, you could buy sheet-by-sheet.  But now, since most of the smaller scrapbook stores have all bit the dust, we are left with ordering papers on-line, joining a kit club, or purchasing pads or collections as a whole package via a big box store. 

I've never been a big proponent of pads of paper.  The few times I had purchased them, I found I only used a select few and the rest sat unused.  But last year, left with fewer purchasing choices, I bought a pad of Authentique paper (I think Loyal was the collection name).  The colors were perfect for use in Jacob's albums since his school colors were a royal blue and white and the papers were all denim blue pattern, navy blue, some antique-y looking gold color and distressed whites.  PLUS, the pad was two-sided paper!  Lots of solid, distressed back sides to use as the base for pages.  I used darn near that whole pad.  So, in other words, I have gotten over scrapbooking phobia #2, which was purchasing or using pads of paper.  (Scrapbooking phobia #1 was two page layouts versus one page---ummmm, think I've conquered that one...) 

On to the layout (which prompted my thoughts on using pads of paper)  The base for the page was the backside of one of those Authentique papers (f.r.o.m.   a    p.a.d.).  I really like using a distressed solid, a grid, tone-on-tone, or ledger print as the base for pages---it's a pattern, but subtle. 

Jacob's mom snapped this photo (with her phone I think) from a moving bike---and obviously the bike that Jacob was riding on was moving as well.  Pretty cool shootin' there!  This was taken during Jacob's "I don't want to pose for a picture period", hence the stuck out tongue and the title!  This, by the way is Jacob's other grandma.... she rides a Harley.

I had wanted to do a layout without layers of paper, but using multiple strips of washi instead. These metallic washi tapes I purchased on clearance after Christmas were perfect for this.  Mounted the photo on an off red and another taupe-y tan paper, bent and tore the edges a bit and before it found its home on the washi background.   Added some black and metallic gold paint splats, a couple of tags, buttons and some phrase stickers from My Mind's Eye (gotta get some more of those).  The title alphas are Thickers.   Done and Done! 

If you've come back to check on the blog after my hiatus or just recently found me, thanks for stopping in! 

Have a wonderful day! 
Cheryl

aaaaannnnnd    I'm back with a layout of Jacob.  No big surprise there, huh? 

Well, what was a surprise for me is that I totally scraplifted this layout .  Now there is absolutely nothing wrong with scraplifting ideas (as long as you are not submitting them for publication or that sort of thing).  But I have a confession to make.  I usually cannot scraplift a page or a card.  Oh I start out ok, but somewhere along the line, my design takes a U-turn and just goes it's own merry way.  And even this is ok... I mean so what if the page or card ended up being my jumping off place or inspiration.  But I soooo saw this page and the photos practically jumped off my desk into my hands. 

So here's my page. 

and I think (hope) this is the link to Carol Monson's page for Chic Tags that I scraplifted.  http://blog.chictags.com/search?updated-max=2014-02-04T05:00:00-08:00&max-results=7&start=111&by-date=false

My paper strips are a bit wider I think than in the original page and she sewed her strips down (I drew in stitch marks because I don't have a working sewing machine right now).  Anyway, I loved Carol's page, and these photos (in my mind) were just perfect. 

I did hit the scrap bin again, although just using strips of papers did not use up a whole bunch!  Letter stickers are from Basic Grey (Ambrosia collection), brads are from a My Mind's Eye, miscellaneous stickers are from Bella Blvd--a summer collection from several years ago and a pet collection (believe it or not---hey they were the right color, what can I say!  After that I just added a few aqua gemstones and that was it. 

Have a happy day. 
Cheryl

One thing that has occurred to me while on my "use up the scraps" mission, has been the overall change in my own scrapping style.  I do love my patterned paper and I love mixing up patterns and piling it on.  But, like styles change in everything else, I guess my own personal style has evolved such that I am using less patterned paper or maybe just smaller pieces of patterned paper.  I still love my patterns and love putting a mix of patterned paper together.  I just no longer feel the need to have three whole pieces of a pattern I love.  The other thing that I've noticed is that I am using a lot more white cardstock as a base for my pages.  That rarely happened in the past.  I almost always reached for a colored piece of cardstock as the base. 

And as styles change over time, I'm sure this will evolve to the next "thing" in the future.  What's neat about this, is that since I do not scrap chronologically, there is a nice mix of various styles throughout my albums.

The Dancing with Mom page is Jacob and his mom at a wedding she stood up in years ago.  And there is that white cardstock base page, but plenty of patterns in the layers under the photo and in the cluster at the right side of the page. 

Most of these came from the scrap bin and from a stack of papers I "found" when I did my last paper purge.  I wanted a softer edge on the layers, so I tore the layering pieces using my ruler to keep the edges somewhat even.  Added a doily, some black and white washi tapes, a few red "raindots" (remember raindots?--I didn't have any more red enamel dots, so the raindots worked!).  Pulled out the old Cricut for the title and highlighted them using my glitter gel pen, glued on a few wood veneer hearts and doodled around the edge of the page. 

I'm not totally in love with the letters in the title, but this worked better than anything else in my stash.  The red Thickers I had were too big and bulky or too glittery.  So there you have it!  Another page done with older supplies, but more in keeping with my "today's" style. 

Off to get ready for work.  Have a great sunny, scrappy day! 

Cheryl
 

Hey!  I'm on a roll...  Another layout...not about Jacob!  Equal time for my other little grandie, Miss Isabella. 

I snapped this photo last summer when her mommy, daddy and uncle were installing their play-gym thing-y.   My daughter got it from a daycare that closed---it's this huge Little Tykes looking thing with stairs and slides.  Gotta give that girl kudos, it took one day to dismantle the thing and haul it home and another whole day to put it back together again.  Anyway, Nana here was watching the kids whilst the three of them were doing the some (lots) of assembly required. 

While I was cleaning out and purging a lots of stuff in my scrap room, I came across some specialty papers I forgot I even had.  One was this red mesh and I knew just the page for it!  So fun to come across something you didn't even know you had---Like getting things brand new!    The red diagonal stripe is from Echo Park's It's a Boy's Life (out of my scrap bin--yeah!), the red mesh type print and the polka dot triangles are from Basic Grey (ummmmm, can't remember the collection name--again from the scrap pile and if anyone is out there is reading this and wants to know I can probably dig up the name).  The yellow check pieces are from Lily Bee (from the scrap pile). 

Added a doily, the yellow Thickers, a couple of punched hearts, red enamel dots, a red button and baker's twine.  Then colored the veneer butterflies with a Distress ink pad (although I may not do that again--left them to dry overnight, uh, but they didn't, wiped them off with a towel to take off excess ink AND still had to use my heat gun on them.  I do like how they turned out though.  Oh, and the flower sticker is A.N.C.I.E.N.T.--might be Cloud 9. 

Have a great scrappy weekend!  I'm off to my room now to play. 

Cheryl

Happy Monday!  I don't know why, but Monday's have almost always been my favorite day of the week.  It holds such promise for everything that I want to get done.  This week that means another load of stuff to Goodwill, to unbury the kitchen table from all the stuff that seems to accumulate there, a job interview on Friday (for a job I'm not r-e-a-l-l-y sure I want, but not sure I have a choice at this point; it's not the job, but the logistics) and the arrival of my Stampin' Up order, not to mention the pages and cards that are started, but not yet finished! 

I was having a difficult time finding the right tone of blue to scrapbook this page of Jacob with his Great Grandma Elaine (everything I looked at had an aqua cast to it and didn't look quite right), when I happened to spot my box full of handmade and specialty papers.  These were all purchased years ago for collage and mixed media projects.  But it was the blue paper that was calling out to me---here I am; I'm the right color blue---see me?! 

After I loosely cut a hunk of it for use on the layout, I started layering papers under the photo and yes, I even took out the old sewing machine (not really working quite right, the poor old thing).  But it did behave long enough to sew through a couple of the layers. I wanted the photo on straight, but the layers to be on a little wonky and crooked.  Besides the blue handmade, I used a white waffle textured handmade and a couple of pieces of Basic Grey and My Mind's Eye for layering and two doilies.  The alphabet strip sticker is off an older Creative Imagination's sheet.  Flowers are Prima.  I didn't want to use gems or buttons for flower centers on the medium size flowers you see, so I scrunched up smaller flowers and glued them to the centers.  I like the dimension it gives them.  Some light blue buttons also found their way onto the page

The challenges with this page were not over yet, though!  The letter "L" in the woodgrain look Thickers set that I liked so much, didn't look like an "l" when I laid it down.  It looked like a capital "C", so I chopped part of it off.  And I stuck on a few of the little asterisks (they kind of look like flowers) to bring a bit of brown into the flower-y areas. 

Apparently, challenge was the name of the game with this page---because although the blue Primas are perfect in color in reality---they photographed with this slight peachy tinge to them---I'm guessing it was my flash (it was pretty overcast the day I took the photo of the page) -- but by this point, I wasn't going to haul it back outside and re-photograph. 

Whew, done.  So there, she says, triumphantly sticking her tongue out at all those little challenges trying to get in her way! 

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's the cutest little super hero ever!  Well to me he is. 

This was from Jacob's first real Halloween at age two.   Looks like he didn't quite know what to make of the party and costumes at daycare.  I think this may be one of those pages that go into Nana's album---they can fight me for it! 

I was inspired from watching a video on Prima's You Tube channel.  Drew Scott was making a lovely, very layered page and he did it by cutting up one 12x12 sheet of journaling boxes into different size boxes and rearranging them under the photo.  So, although my page looks n-o-t-h-i-n-g like his very vintage page, it is the jumping off place that got me started. 
  
Papers and journaling boxes are from Echo Park's Little Boy collection.  I also tucked in just the corners or edges from a few stray scraps and stickers that were out on my desk at the time.  The little clouds with the lightening bolts were on the opposite side of a piece of the Echo Park paper and all I had left was a scrap... but it was just enough to cut out three of them.  And, as long as I was cutting stuff out, I cut out some stars and added those with pop dots.  To balance the red from the top left corner, I added the Remember This sticker (from Jillibean Soup) in the opposite corner.  Liked the extra touch of red so much, I added the red pearls.  Last was to draw in all the stitch lines and do my journaling. 

And, oh yeah, this little wonder boy is so going to be added to Nana's album. 

Today's page was originally made as a page kit sample (without photo or title) for an event at the store I worked for.  I always liked it but filed it away---until I pulled out Jackson's birth photo to scrap.  I guess today, new mommies bring outfits to the hospital for birth photos now and Kim had Jackson in this little brown outfit.  Cute, but not a good fit for the usual soft colors you think of for new baby layouts. 

Then I remembered this page and pulled it out to put it into use.  I added the little punched hearts to pick up on the heart on his shirt and the title (chipboard alpha from Basic Grey when they had those "chocolate" alphas in white, dark and milk chocolate---loved those!).  I wrote in the particulars of date of birth, weight---but that was it.  And yes, if you are looking closely at the writing, this little guy was not so little, 9 lbs. 11 oz.  He is a bit of a pork chop, this one! 

The printed papers are all from Bella Blvd., I think it was called a Guy's Life.  I'm not sure anymore.  But it was (and still is) my all time favorite Bella paper collection.  I adored the browns and soft blue. 

So I guess if there is a take away thought for today, it's that if you've made pages (without photos) as part of a class or as a make & take, pull them out.  You might find a nice surprise in a ready made page, just right for a photo needing a home. 

Just a quick post this morning--have to get going and get ready for work.  This was one of those stray photos that didn't belong to any particular event, there was only one like this, so a one-pager about the Jacob-expressions was born. 

Journaling is about one morning when Boppa was a bit grumpy and Jacob leaned around his shoulder, raised one eyebrow and asked, "How's your day?"  Cracked Boppa up...end of grumpieness. 

I finally broke into my pack of Echo Park's Times and Seasons for this one.  Since the photo is black and white, I could have used any color combo really, but wanted to keep to kind of a monochromatic, black and white (off-white kind of) and added just spots of color in the layers under the photo. 

Large alphas are Thickers and the tiny alphas are from Making Memories.  Ruled tape is from 7 Gypsies, diagonal striped washi is from Bella Blvd., and the green dot is a generic one from who knows where.   Spattered some paint---and added a few brads, both plain black and gray ones amongst the paint spatters and a few sculptured bronz-ish square ones (old Making Memories set).  The couple of chipboard stars are from a Bella Blvd. chipboard sheet, and the ticket stubs and banners were cut from a sheet of the Times and Seasons paper.

And that's it--I'm off ! 

Just a little more girly goodness.  I'm not sure why I had this one stray photo of Miss Izzy, whether it was one I got from Kim or the only one snapped this particular afternoon or what, but since there was only one and I have no idea what was going on that day, I made the layout about her clothes.  Her mommy takes great care to dress her so very cute. 

She had on these bright striped leggings to go with her flippy little skirt and flowered shirt and I just have to laugh when I see her bounce down the hallway with that little skirt shwishing back and forth.  That's my journaling. 

The layout is much the same as the Jacob and the bunny layout posted a week or so ago.  But looks very different because of the photo size and different colors.

Papers and letter stickers were pretty much all from Echo Park's Life is Good and Little Girl collections, even the banners were cut from these papers.  The piece that was different was the small piece of purple that I matted the photo onto--that was way old, Fusion from Basic Grey (I never get rid of my Basic Grey papers) and tucked in a clip from Making Memories Take Note embellishment pack.  Then sprinkled some paint in opposite corners, punched a few hearts to scatter in there amidst the paint sprinkles, and added a bit of Stickles glitter too.    Still needed a little something, something--so I added a very decorated fabric brad from  K&Co.

Hope your day is full and fun today!  I have off all day and will be spending it in my little scrap room (well after I get the dogs out, the dishes done, and the floor vacumned---oh yeah, I think the garbage needs to go out too...  well I'll spend almost all day in there, sigh). 
  

I have to say I am having just the best time digging through my piles of papers and putting together photos with a selection of papers and other goodies and packing them up in my page planners.  And then, I sit and work up a bunch of pages and get all excited at how many page planners I am emptying out!  Can you say, easily amused.... 

I found just a couple of Halloween photos taken from the year that Kim and Nick got married.  Jacob was all weirded out about this wedding to begin with and then he was a little worried about making it home in time for Trick or Treat, would his Mom and Nick get home in time to see him off, etc. etc.  And he wanted to be scary, not cute.  s-c-a-r-y   And he wanted a lab coat--which was kind of impossible to find for a slight-built 9 year old boy. 

I wound up using a white dress shirt in a small men's size and altering it by cutting the cuffs and shirt tails off, then hand hemming it in the car on the way home.   The "blood" accents were created a la Jacob, the mad scientist.  The s-c-a-r-y mad scientist.  Anyway this is what my journaling is about that is hidden away in the little brown paper bag at the left side of the layout. 

Cobweb-y paper and black and white dotted papers are old Making Memories, the cut out pumpkin and s-c-a-r-y guy are from an old Rusty Pickle paper, the green dot is Life of the Party from Basic Grey.  Green foam Thickers make up the title.  I added a little border strip sticker, the green felt rick rack, a bit of a ticket stub and spattered a little beige paint.  Oh, yeah. and I also punched some circle prints for new eyeballs for the pumpkin and scary guy.  They had button look eyes before, and I was going to add real buttons on top, but I liked the colors in the punched circles better. 

And another one of the page planners is empty...  giggle, giggle. 

 

I've been a baaaaad blogger, haven't I?  I've been busy with a boat-load of personal business to attend to, spending time with that grandbaby girl and behind the scenes scoping out papers and embellishments for pages and cards. 

I did NOT get my room finished :(    But, I DID make another mess in there, and made a page :)  Yea!  Gettin' my groove back.  That feels pretty darn good.  And there is nothing like some new papers and scrapping goodies for getting ya back in the mood! 

She is sooo serious in this photo.  She gets this serious look when there is someone new around her (the photographer in this case).  Boy oh boy, does she ever size someone new up.  Really gives them the stare down. 

I have to figure out a representational photo of our newest game.  Nana runs around the dining room table with Miss Isabel in hot pursuit, whereby Nana abruptly turns around (mostly because otherwise Nana would get dizzy) and "runs into" Miss Isabel, who then bursts into a fit of squeals and giggles.  Apparently, this is hilarious good fun because it must be repeated for at least 20 minutes straight.  Have not figured out how to photograph this whilst running abou the dining room table, turning about suddenly, and keeping myself upright and on both feet.  We'll have to work out these minor details and sneak a photo or so in there. 

Anyway, back to the layout above.  I got my first order of  new My Mind's Eye papers and embellishments from Happy N Scrappin.  I have to say, I ordered on Monday and received my order on Friday so they were quick!  The papers and embellishments were from both their older Lost and Found collection and their new Lost and Found 2 collection, the Sunshine line.  And since the little miss has been wearing a lot of yellow this summer, I think I will be geting some more of this. 

Very simple layout.  I just cut the striped piece to a 10-1/2 inch square and distressed the edges.  Then I added two layered partial borders at the top and bottom of the layout (just pile two coordinating piece on top of each other and add a couple of little punched border pieces), as well as the chipboard banners, a button and a couple of layered brads.  This type of layout works really well with portrait type photos like this one.  So quick and fun to make! 

Quick post this morning.  And a fairly quick page too! 

I love the "oooooh" mouth my little Izzie makes.  Luckily the photographer caught it.  (Nana hasn't been able to catch this expression via the camera. Yet.  So thank you  ms. photographer lady!)  She makes this little mouth pucker so quickly and then just as quickly, it's gone.  But I love it---it reminds me of that face that Shirley Temple would make in those old movies when she would say "ooooooooh my gooodness"  Cracks me up everytime when Izzie dos it! 

I used papers and stickers from Basic Grey's Hello Luscious line...didn't even use a punch.  OK, I did stray a little from Basic Grey.  I used some of Cosmo's Tiny Type alpha's for the journaling....  I like that they work for titles, journaling or on greeting cards---gotta have multiple uses for things these days, huh?! 

Have a wonderful day all!

Happy after the 4th!  I hope everyone had a great holiday!  I did!  Spent  time with family, had a brat and some red ripe watermelon, and splashed with Izzie in her little pool!  What's a hot day without some water to splash in and a great Americana tankini!   Can't wait to scrap this. 

Love the red, white and blue tankini!  She rocks it!  She even rocks her first major owie--that was also her first trip to the emrgency room last week.  Hopefully she doesn't have too many of those. 

I even got to sneak off to my scrap room for a while and was just tidying up when I came across this school layout of grandson.  I have to clarify here and state right up front--I do not scrap chronologically--I scrap whatever trips my trigger at the moment and stack the layouts up in a big box.  When the box is getting full, I go through and sort pages into their respective albums---more on that in another post as it is a whole project all by itself!  So this is definately an older layout, and older papers. 

The papers and chipoard embellishments were from The Paper Co. and I used an 8x8 die cut paper for the scalloped edges, and a zig zag Sizzix die (both the positive and negative  pieces).  This is one of the few layouts I've done with a printed paper as the base.  I usually cut up all the printed papers and put them back together on a solid cardstock base, but this worked. 

Later! 

Boy, you wanna talk o.l.d.    papers I mean!  I cannot remember the name of the collection, but I know it's Basic Grey, I think it was from their Phresh Hang Ten line.  (Thank you Tammy for the correct name!) I had cut off the bar code (why? I don't know), so don't really have a reference point.  I am slowly working my way through the packed page planners I've had put together for quite some time, yea!  Chose these papers then because of the blues, soft beige and ocean-y feel and even though I went through newer papers, nothing newer worked better. 

The photo is my neice at surf camp from when my sister and her family first moved back to California.  (Can you tell I have California on my mind lately?) 

I also used a handful of those teeny tiny little flowers that Prima first came out with (all those Got Flowers bottles?).  What good are they doing sitting on the shelf? (besides just looking cute in the jars I have them in).  I figure, use 'em!  I think the alpha paper at the side is from Rusty Pickle (miss them), there is a piece of the Basic Grey's Recess line too and the title is a chipboard sticker from Creative Imaginations (also from days gone by).

Have a California dreamin' kind of day all!

My daughter, the daughter of a scrapbooker;  she forgot her camera when they went to California on vacation!  Say  w-h-a-t-!  Then again the apple does not fall too far from the tree---when Jacob was little, she and I and little he went out to California a couple of times on vacation.  The first trip, we did Disney and the Wild Animal Park... lots of pictures from that trip.  The next time we went out,  guess who forgot her camera?  Yep.  Me.

She did get a few photos from their trip that were taken via cell phone.  (Can you imagine if you told someone, say 40 years ago, that one day you would be able to take photos with a portable phone; what the reaction would be?  Could you just see the expression on their face? They'd be thinkin' you were a wack-a-doo!) 

I'm so glad for that silly camera in the cell phone!  Cuz to me, even if the quality is not quite there, these pictures of my grandson on the beach just mean the world to me.  I adore the ocean,  Could sit there for hours, just letting it fill up my senses.  No matter the season, no trip to Cali is complete without walk on the beach. 

The papers are from Fancy Pants, the snippets of lace from Prima and the alpha is old Heidi Swapp chipboard.  The only other thing added were the lines and dots drawn on with my trusty white Uniball pen!  I will have to grab another sheet of the brown to do the next page, so for now it's a one-pager.