All About Boys!! -- One Fish Two Fish

This photo has been in my to-do pile for y-e-a-r-s!!!  I either just did not find any papers that motivated me to use it, or the themed papers were all the wrong shades of blue... But today, today, my friends, I think I got it!!!  Don't ya just love it, when you wait and wait for something to  work and it finally does!! 

The thing is... none of these papers is new.  Not one of 'em.  I used an old Basic Grey stone washed blue background sheet and pulled other papers from an older Heidi Swapp travel related pad.  I think it was called No Limits. 

First things, first.  Cropped my 4x6 photo to a 4x4 size and layered it with various pieces of paper from the No Limits pad -- oh, yeah, I also used an old BINGO card between some of the layers!  Then cut a longer rectangular piece of notebook-y looking paper and tore one edge to place across the page under the layered photo.  Leaving more of this longer rectangle visible on one side made a perfect place for my title.  It would also make a nice place for an embellishment cluster, if you were so inclined. 

After the photo got layered up and was placed atop the crosswise paper rectangle, the top and bottom edges of the blue background sheet got chopped a bit, distressed and then red grid paper strips (the same red grid paper that appears under the photo) were tucked under the distressed edges and glued into place. 

I punched a few pieces from the remaining scrap of red paper and used those to aid in directing the eye to the photo and for another touch of red.  I also wanted a little black for some additional pop and crispness, so out came the washi tape! 

Still felt that the photo area needed some more definition, so I started drawing non-structured rectangles or boxes around it and while my pen was out, I added some more lines at the sides and at the top and did my journaling. 

I wound up some black thread (kind of thought it might look appropriate --- like a tangled fishing line, maybe) and added a couple light blue/gray printed hearts, tucked in a tab and a printed  arrow embellishment.   The title (a Pink Paislee puffy alpha) was placed on the longer side of that notebook paper looking rectangle  (the title came about because it was Dr. Suess' birthday this past week and it was just way cuter than "gone fishing").  Finally splattered some black ink and added a few puffy sticker dots and plus signs to finish it off. 

Now for boy pages...Tip #1:  Yes, you can use hearts on boy pages, just keep the colors of the page in mind and when in doubt go for a more muted color.  Tip #2:  Use angular lines and shapes. Here I  used penned line work and punches to create angular embellishments, like this large photo corner punch. 

I don't always love my pages... some I think ok, it's done, it's alright, some I think oh, I'm in love!, and some I am just plain happy with.  This is one of those, just plain happy types! 

have a happy, scrappy day!
Cheryl

Playing with Citrus Twist -- Kit Club Research Continues!

I just cannot believe it is October already!  September here in Kentucky was so summer like; we had a trip to Wisconsin right in the middle of the month visiting kids and grandkids, so the month flew by!

This page about my granddaughter heading off to school (from last year!) had me digging into my newest kit from Citrus Twist.  I used a bit of watercolor directly on the patterned paper (which did leave it slightly buckled---I'll have to pile some books on top to try and flatten it out).   

Even though this kit is embellishment heavy and I did try to include more of the embellishments; I promptly removed most of them because to my eyes, it was way too distracting, I lost track of the photos amidst all the froo-ha-ha (technical term---froo-ha-ha, much like my use of the term fruj-en-glajen, meaning pretty stuff  LOL!). 

I did use one of the little stamps from the set that was included in the kit.  Loved the saying and thought it was so appropriate for a 1st day of school.  Ink, stamp and stamp again...repeat. 

Under the photos, I used a mix of tags, embellishment pieces and cut-a-parts from the "B" side of one of the papers.  Most pieces were trimmed so that I could tuck them in here and there.  And, I really only wanted one of the photos layered up, the other photo was matted on one piece of paper, cropped a bit more closely and placed at the corner of the more heavily layered photo.  I think using heavy layering on both photos would have (again) been too distracting.

Added my title, did a bit of outlining and penned my journaling...done!  

I do like the paper(s), love the stamps, and truthfully am a bit overwhelmed by the quantity of embellishment ephemera included.  Personally I would prefer to see enamel dots, a few pieces of flair, some cute paper clips.  And there are pieces of these sort of embellishments that can be had by purchasing one of the add-ons.  But I am working with main kits only for my little study.   And a reminder:  this is just me and my typical usage of smaller embellishment items speaking here.  I see many pages where scrappers have included lots of embellishments without the page(s) seeming too busy.  Something for me to work on! 


And I look forward to doing just that!  I do love learning something new and that's another great thing about this hobby; there is always a new technique, new materials, and new perspectives for us to infuse our pages with.   And this is also what experimenting with various kit clubs gives you; the chance to try something new!  Gotta love that.   

happy day all!
Cheryl 

Caution! Baby Cuteness Ahead!

Working with Scrapbook Circle September kit has so far provided me with a boy page, a more girl-y page, and a travel-ish page, and now a baby page.  I thinks that's a pretty nice variety of subject matter that I am getting from this month's kit! (And, I have another boy layout coming...so happy about this!)  But, when I saw this pretty pastel paper, I knew (for me) it had to be a baby page!  Luckily I still had one of these sweet photos of our Bella from her very first days with us.

Under the photo I added several layers of the pretty pastel patterns included in the kit and roughed up the edges a bit just to soften them.  I tucked in pieces of punched lacy goodness and part of a doily, stuck in/on a pastel pink tab or two (with that yummy gold trim, I couldn't resist those!!) and that pretty paper tassel.  More golden goodness!  This created the perfect place to add in baby Bella's name.

I added some cut pieces of doily, as well as some lacy punched pieces down the left side of the page to add texture and detail under a strip of the pastel stripe-y paper.

I just could not for the life of me decide on a title, so I made use of the gold "Love This Moment" sticker and made that my title.  Love when this happens!  All that was left was to just sprinkle on a few of the little hearts I had previously punched from the pastel stripe paper and a couple of the little gold heart stickers.  

Baby Bella cuteness in all it's pastel prettieness!  

TFL!

Cheryl

Does Your Kit Club Make Quick and Easy Pages?

I love me a quick and easy page to put together!  I am equally happy to get messy with paints and gesso and texture paste...but I really do love to be able to trim up some papers, glue them down, add a title and move on.  There's something about adding another page to the "done" stack that is so satisfying! 

And this latest kit from Scrapbook Circle is so feeding that urge of mine to pile up the "done" pages!  They've made it so darn easy to do this month!  Everything looks so cute together all I truly did was use two strips of patterned papers down the right side of the page and layer up some cut pieces of patterned papers behind the photo.  OK, I did tuck in a few extra little things.  

Like the punched hearts, the banner (cut from a border on one of the papers and trimmed into a banner) and the pink and yellow floral sticker peeking out the left side of the photo layers.  And even though I hate the white halo around stickers, by placing this floral sticker directly against the white cardstock background, the white halo disappears.

I also found a place for one of the three bow paperclips (aren't they just too sweet?) and one of the tab stickers. Along the edge of the page where the patterned paper strips are, I also added several punched strips, just to add some texture and some more detail.  Punching the pieces from white cardstock kept the extra pieces from being too busy and distracting yet added some needed detail. 

The hearts are all punched out of another strip of that pretty pastel stripe; used some on this page and even though I am not much of a sticker person...I do have a penchant for word stickers and this "Hello" sticker was perfect for, well can you say easy - peasy titles?!  I can!  I am always on the look out for a way to make titles quick and easy, plus I love that look of using two different fonts. 

I was also able to get the floral tabbed paper clip put to good use on this page and, AND, the pink enamel dots were the perfect finishing touch!

Ahhhhh, I am so loving this. 

I trimmed down the page and placed it on a yellow-gold pattern paper, added my journaling  and put 'er on the done pile!

An easy-peasy page is always a good thing.  Does your kit club give you this?  Every page does not necessarily need to be this easy, but it sure is nice to get a quick scrappy fix now and again!

best!
Cheryl