Happy 21st --- A Boy Page!

Oh Boy  (silly pun intended) I had been waiting for my March Gossamer Blue kit to get this photo scrapped.  My eldest grandson turned 21!  His mom and his uncle took a little road trip to his college town to take him out on the town on his special day!  (Thank you to Uncle Matthew for taking the photo!)  I just knew when I saw the sneaks that the papers in this kit were going to work out perfectly for my (one and only) photo of this most important occasion.   

After cutting the two larger printed panels, I used one of the branding strips and sliced another strip of the navy/white dotted paper and layered those at the left edge of the page and over the seam between the two larger panels.  Curling up the edges of the paper strips provides some needed texture, without adding yet more pattern. 

I used lots of layers under the photo, but only allowed teeny slivers of color to peek out. because I just felt that with all that pattern going on---well I didn't want it to get too busy.  The photo got popped way up (I stuck a thick slice of cardboard under it) and tucked in a couple few little stickers (one of which had my journaling on). 

Two little sunburst stickers were the perfect color and size for the lower right corner, leading into the journaling sticker. 

The kit contained a wonderful Thickers phrase set which supplied the happy and the stars---but I did use some additional letters from my stash for the 21st.  Loved how the white popped against the background! 

So, a "guys" type birthday page!  A fun, happy page to make which went together really quickly.  Gotta love that too. 

Tip #1; use large panels of large, bold prints rather than relying on embellishments and coordinate at least one of the colors in those prints to your focal point (in my case, it was the navy blue in grandson's shirt).  Tip #2; use starbursts or thought bubbles, bold type print, and bold embellishments sparingly (as in the use of several stars here and the happy 21st. 

Happy 21st Jacob!  Nana loves you! 

Do You Get the Birthday Page Blues? -- A Crash Your Stash Page!

Every year, there are birthdays.  Every year there are photos taken at birthday parties, gift opening, blowing out the candles, etc.  It can get a little repetitive...

When I first began scrapping I ended up having albums that seemed the same...started with New Years, then a few snow scene photos of winter, then a few birthday pages, then spring and Easter pages, then spring birthdays, then a few pages of summer activities, followed by autumn birthdays and activities, then right into Christmas then the whole thing started over again. 

I don't scrap that way anymore.  I look for the little everyday moments and try to focus on those.  But I still scrap some birthday pages, I just try to keep it interesting by way of the story.

This one was all about this first little photo and that face as she saw her cake for the first time.  That's it.  That's all I needed to tell the whole story, that very happy little face!  

I also do not purchase or use much in the way of themed "birthday" papers.  I still subscribe to my old tried and true, look to the photos for your color choices.

 Here the color that drove my choices was that pink sweater my Bella girl was wearing.  With that in mind, I chose some older Echo Park and Crate papers and the coral pink Thickers.

Because the papers are busy, I did not choose to use a lot in the way of embellishment, just the dialogue bubbles, one of which I used some Simple Stories stickers (Snap! and the camera sticker).  And rather than layer the photos on top of more and more color and pattern, I used one coordinating paper and then two layers of crumpled and flattened tracing paper. 

Letter stickers (foam Thickers) were chosen for their color, and again I did not want the old stand by, Happy Birthday title.  I mean it's fairly apparent it's a birthday page.  So I focused on the fact that it was her 3rd birthday and that's a pretty special one... no longer a baby, a big girl. 

Since there was so much color going on in the lower part of the page, I wanted to make sure there was some color at the top too.  A couple of paper strips (plus some fussy cutting along that ric rack edge) and a piece of washi tape took care of that. 

And there you have a birthday page, sans birthday themed papers. 

Don't get too concerned with themed papers for scrapping  your life events.  If the color works and the overall feeling of the papers' design fits the mood of your photos, go for it!

best to all,
Cheryl

Eat Cake - More Fussy Cutting!

From a bright and bold watercolor background back to simple white... (can you say fickle?) 

In keeping with the modest amount of supplies at hand, I again flipped over a patterned paper from one of the pads I brought along so as to make use of the white backside. 

Layered the photos on several loosely cut pieces of patterned paper (all from the Maggie Holmes Birthday Party pad from Crate Paper) and also several irregularly cut pieces of plain old white tissue paper (to add a bit more volume and softness around the edges).  Tucked in part of a doily at the bottom of the photo layers, as well as a starburst (fussy cut from a sheet of the Party paper).  More fussy cutting provided the "Eat Cake" banner, the "5" ticket stub, the Happy Birthday strips, and the zig zag edged pink and red striped piece.  Gotta love your scissors and keep them close at hand!!! (nobody better mess with momma's scissors around here)   

The balloons and the party hat are chipboard stickers from Maggie Holmes (picked up 40% off at Michaels some time back).  Although the balloons were originally "bent" going in the other direction and did not fit where and how I wanted them to, so a little disassembly came into play.  Re-tied the strings and bent them slightly in the other direction for the appropriate "bend" to fit my photo placement. 

Punched a bunch of pink and beige confetti and a few little hearts to mingle in amongst the confetti bits.  And, my own little-big new thing is to be able to use a sewing machine and add stitching on my layouts.  (Since I am staying at Dad's whilst the house is going up, my mom had two different sewing machines, so I am making use of one of them... yea!). 

Our Bella turned five.  Cannot believe how fast she is growing up.  She picked out her cake.. rainbows.   Thought for sure she would pick something with the Disney Frozen theme. But no, she went with a rainbow.  Always her own person, this one.  Happy Birthday Bella! 

Make use of what you got is my ongoing mantra.  If it doesn't work one way, turn it over, take it apart, cut it out. 

 now off to splotch some more watercolors about (fickle? yep!)
Cheryl

Happy New Year.  Happy January....  Mother Nature is having her way with us.  Bitter ugly cold outside and I've been sick with whatever this body aching, congestion, coughing, fever, chills, creeping crud thing is.  Yep, happy January...  (be happy when it is over). 

The only scrappy thing I've done is to pick up photos. 

But January is a big birthday month for us; it's about this only thing that gets me through... my dad's birthday, and both my grandsons' birthdays fall in January.

This was Jacob's 8th birthday and it was his first birthday shared with Nick's parents. 

Totally scrapping from my stash---some really old Kaliedescope papers from My Mind's Eye, a little Cosmo Cricket, a little Basic Grey, some wood veneer arrows, camera, and a flair badge.  Pretty simple, just a couple layers of paper and then the little tidbits tucked in here and there. 

Kind of an unusual birthday page, not really about the birthday but about beginnings... it went into his grad album(s) as a reminder of how things were. 

I am ever hopeful that I'll be scrapping this coming weekend.  But for tonight, a load of laundry is about all I am going to accomplish. 

stay warm, '
Cheryl