More ABout Creating Boy Pages --- Using What You've Got

So you say that papers, embellishments, etc. are more geared to the feminine than the masculine?  Well, perhaps.  Today I wanted to critique several of my older pages, looking for the things that represented a compromise in working with what I had at hand, rather than running out to look for, say stickers that fit the theme of the page(s).  

In the page just below, I found anything I grabbed that had a red and black print overpowered the photo.  It was way too dark.  So then I started looking about at silver, gray,  and metallics.  Better.  But all the papers I had available at the time that contained metallics seemed to be wedding related! Um, not going to work for a motorcycling page!   

What I did have in my stash was washi tape in gold and silver.  And I had them in various prints and widths!  Even better.  Using a distressed printed paper for the background, I lined up row after row of the tapes and used that as a resting place for the photo.  Tucking a couple of kraft colored tags behind the photo also added a bit more visual interest and depth.  

The next page, ECO racing, relied on a couple of medium blue printed papers. The grayed blue colors coordinated nicely with the "car", racing suit, and the denim blue of the boys jeans.  The black printed, tire tread looking tape was a vellum strip that was really just a herring bone kind of pattern.  Torn and lightly distressed, I thought they looked like tire tracks. 

The other pieces (reduce speed, restricted lane, and the red dotted piece) were all cut from a scrap of travel related paper.  The page was pretty full, since I hadn't cropped the photos a lot, so embellishing more would maybe have been over-kill. 

The next page uses next to nothing for embellishment, just papers and a small snippet of lace.  Yes, lace on a boy page--- it was the right color and used in such small pieces, doesn't really look much like lace. 

The blue papers were printed with the waves  and swirls... but to use the sheet as a whole  would have meant that blue would have fought with the blue of the sky.  Plus with scrapping multiple photos, they would have covered much of the wave pattern.  The solution?  Cut out the most prominent wave shapes and use those to accent the photo blocks. 

Repeating the water theme by cutting large water droplet shapes and adding white pen work highlighted both the water drop and wave shapes, as well as contained the photo and journaling blocks. 

Tip #1:  work with the patterns in your papers, cutting out shapes, patterns or text to use as embellishments.  Tip #2:  Take a good long look through your washi tape (or ribbon, or border strip stickers) to provide coordinating colors and patterns to use collectively as you would a sheet of paper.  Tip #3:  Tags, buttons, and yes, even snippets of fabric or lace can add just the right accent. 

The biggest lesson is to challenge yourself to look at the supplies you have right at hand and see if small modifications can make them work for you rather than against.  Fussy cutting, distressing, tearing, pen work are all small things that can make a large impact. 

Go forth...make a guy a page! 

best,
Cheryl 

More All About Boys -- Today

What do you do with all that brown?

Not all boy pages, but there seems to be a multitude of brown in boy type photos.  And let's face it, brown is not always all that fun to work with.  And this was my eldest grandson's birthday!  To make matters worse, I actually created my own problem--cuz I bought him the crazy how to pick up chicks t-shirt and it was--brown!  So much for Nana trying to be funny. 

This was a perfect opportunity to raid my stash and I did!  Used a partial sheet of an old, old old Basic Grey dotted paper, a leftover strips of the black and white print, a gray and white plus sign print (from a kit) and a piece from that older Heidi Swapp travel pad again for the herringbone background sheet.

Now, if you notice:  there are no true browns in any of these papers to coordinate with the brown in my photo, gasp!  I chose a print with neutral grays, khaki, grayish blue, black and tan.  Straight neutrals don't drag you into blah brown, but also doesn't fight with it either. 

The edge of the gray print pieces got distressed lightly (just used my finger nail) and I tore a strip of washi tape for a softer edge to create a border at the bottom of the page and at the top repeated the papers and just tucked the washi up under one edge of the dotted paper.  Since the black and white print strips were hanging out there on my desk--well what the heck---threw those on too. Why not, right?!

Once the papers were selected, the photo got layered using scraps that literally fell out of the travel pad from past layouts and a piece or two of whatever was out on my desk! Tucked a few tabs in and about the photo; two of those came from a pack of ephemera from a Christmas kit and the so happy thing was from a Simple Stories pad.  Then I just happened upon the golden colored today acrylic and while I did have to muck about finding the right home for it, I think it feels right lying across the bottom edge of the photo.  

The addition of a black arrow ephemera piece at the top of the page helps direct the eye and I really liked the look of the wood veneer arrow with it.  But once I used one piece of wood veneer, I wanted to repeat the wood veneer look in two other places (trying to work in threes).  A wood veneer heart to the right side of the photo and another arrow under the photo accomplished that. 

I wanted another pop of black and I didn't want the randomness of ink splatters, so I used a few black puffy dot stickers.  Those I can put exactly where I want them (well, unless they are awfully sticky and fall off my fingers, landing exactly where I did not want them--don't laugh, it's happened, but not today!)

 For the title, I just decided to go with "today" and that, as they say, was that.  

So for boy page Tip #1:  when working with a lot of brown in your photo(s) look for a print that is full of neutral colors that do not compete.   Look for a basic print pattern, i.e., stripes, dots, checks or simple plaids.  Tip #2:  Dig into your stash of wood veneer(s) to use for embellishment.  Wood is perfect for a more masculine look.  

All in all, I crashed my stash, broke through the brown barrier, and got my weird Nana's version of humor documented:  I'm good with it!

best to all!
Cheryl

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

Challenges of Creating Boy Pages -- A College Boy Layout

The first of my blathering(s) on creating pages for the guys... big and little guys!!  My grandson was off to his first year of college here.  (Nana cried---how could he possibly be old enough for college --- he was like just six yesterday, right?!  LOL) 

Taking color cues from his shirt, I added several colors of blue water colors in a somewhat vertical line, broadening the watercolor out toward the bottom of the page. Once that was dry, some black stamping ink was applied through a piece of mesh and then some splattering with black and blue paints were added.  The whole page got trimmed down and centered onto a piece of black cardstock. 

A torn piece of patterned paper and a piece of corrugated paper back the photo.

Acetate die cuts got tucked in at the bottom of the layered photo, as well as the ampersand at the left side and some gold acetate stars sprinkled down from the top of the page to help in directing the eye to the photo.  

And the last thing was to put the title in place at the right side of the photo, oh yeah.  (Well, almost the last thing---I did add journaling---after I had hurriedly taken photos of my page!!!  I always take photos of my pages outside for the light, but had to get this accomplished before it started raining here.) 

Only three pieces of paper (beside the watercolor paper and the black cardstock) were used on the actual layout.  It was watercolor and stamping ink used as layers, rather than layers of paper.  The embellishments taken individually could be construed as feminine due to the gold, but here added on top of color and texture, they take on a more masculine feel.

Using watercolors and texture----just one way to create that "guy" page.  Oh, yeah...

later all!
Cheryl

A Tip for Easier Stash Crashing!!!!

Just thought I'd yak about another way to choose papers and embellishments from your stash!

Think about creating a monochromatic layout.  That is, looking through your pile of papers and/or a stack of embellishments and pull out items following  the method of  1-2 neutrals plus 1 color choice.

Here's what I chose: 

1.  Wood grain background paper   (neutral---beige, gray, white, tan)
2.  Black small print for layering (neutral)
3.  Black cardstock to border page (neutral --- repeating the black in one of the layering papers)
4.  Solid gray and a gray/white small polka dot (neutral --- repeating colors of wood grain print)
5.  Scraps of aqua layering papers, both solid and prints, pulled more, but ended up using
     three different pieces of aqua papers (my one color)

6.  Aqua colored embellishments, stickers and alpha Thickers (repeating my one color choice)

7.  Black thread (repeating neutral)
8.  Black and tan banner (repeating neutrals)

9.  Wood veneer hearts (repeating neutral)

How did I choose aqua as my one color?  Really...it was just a scrap laying on my desk and when I placed it under the edge of the photo of my grandson, I thought it looked nice.  That's it!  There were no real color choices to be made or conflicts, because the photo was a close-up of his face and he was wearing his black tux jacket with just a bit of that and his white dress shirt showing. 

Once my selections were made, it was just a matter of layering up the photo so that small slivers of color or print peeked out here and there.  And then tucked in some sticker banners, the speech bubble and the "awesome" sticker.

The page looked a bit square and sharp to me at this point, so I went back with some wadded up black thread and tucked that under the top left and bottom right corners of the layered photo.  Now I need to point out that I don't really stick everything down till I am truly sure that's where it's going.  In this case I had trimmed out the awesome sticker and just laid it in place still on it's slick backing sheet. Once the thread was tucked into place, then I peeled the sticker off it's backing and plunked 'er down!

The final step was to glue down a couple of little wood veneer hearts and to place small pieces of dimensional adhesive dots under the edges of the banners and speech bubble (to keep the outside edge of the sticker level with the layered photo).

Done and...        More.   Stash.  Used.   Up!

best to all,
Crash Your Stash!
Cheryl

Sort Those Scraps - Happy Feet

Still on the subject of choosing and layering papers, still using my stash, but this time all the papers used (except for the white cardstock background sheet) are all scraps--all previously cut pieces and odd little leftovers. 

On the photo itself... Jackson was only one, sitting on the couch, watching a cartoon show, and I happened to see these little feet crossed at the ankle.  Something little that made me smile.  And I am finding that these photos are actually having more meaning for me and touch me more than the posed, everyone facing the camera, smile big type photos. 

It seems only fitting that something so little and inconsequential should be showcased using lots of little inconsequential pieces of paper then.  And what results?  It all adds up to something I love.  And so it goes, all those little fleeting moments adding up to something meaning much more.  Kind of cool.  And I think kind of like all the moments and days piling up, adding up to a life. 

ok, enough of the life analogies and philosophizing...this is what you get when I haven't had enough coffee!  Ha! 

 

Back to scrapping talk.  It was easy to find most of the papers since they were pretty much all together in one page planner; leftovers from a lot of the sports pages in eldest grandson's graduation albums.  As those pages were created, the scraps and pieces got placed into one page planner so I could continue to pull from it.  After his albums were completed, I just left that page planner together and put it into my tote when I packed to leave.  So when this photo pooped up again, it was easy to see it needed blues and neutrals to showcase it.  All I had to do was snatch up that page planner with all the little bits, strips, and pieces already sorted into just the colors needed!  

The white cardstock got a bit of inking in blues and tans, using a scrap of mesh as a stencil.  And I also added several wood veneer hearts (just cuz I liked the different shapes of the hearts and the look of the natural wood with the blues and browns in the photo and papers). 

The title is made up of two different alpha stickers, one is an old, old, OLD Little Yellow Bicycle set that I have used almost entirely.  The other, lower case alpha is from an old Webster's Pages alpha set.   Not a lot of journaling on the page...  Jackson's first Nikes, as mandated by his older brother Jacob.  Not really sure if all my blather about odd little moments adding up to something bigger will get journaled onto the backside of the page or not.  (I mean how crazy do I want future generations to think I am? LOL All right, I am so gonna go put these thoughts down on the back! hahaha)

off to create more odd little moments now,
Cheryl 

Scrapping with Limited Supplies, but Scrapping Just the Same

We are here, at Dad's till the house is up.  That means we have the bare minimum of clothing, tools, toiletries, and most importantly (LOL) scrapping supplies! 

I packed my rolling tote and shoulder bag as if I was going to an extended crop.  (Look for more on how I pack in a later post.)  Now that we are kind of settled, it was time to break out the scrapping supplies!  Makes me a MUCH happier person to scrap, and blog and facebook.... 

The only "mixed media" I brought in my tote was watercolors, so I am mostly gonna be working with paper.  And that's fine with me, I love paper! 

Still working from stash stuff.  This page used a mix of Heidi Swapp No Limits papers and Echo Park's For the Record 2.  Embellishments are both cut and punched from the papers, plus a few stickers from Crate Paper's Open Road, as well as For the Record 2 .  Splattered on a little blue watercolor and called it done. 

What I really want to talk about... are the choices of the papers.  When all you are working with is paper; not a lot of ready-made embellishments, not a lot of punches on hand, my Big Shot is packed, the Cricut is packed, and I did not bring along a bunch of mists, gesso, texture paste or stencils...  it makes the choice of papers that much more important. 

For me, it's all about color then.  I focused on the colors in my Jackson's shirt and that red on the soles of his sandals.  Then I think it's a fun technique to add a small doses of a third color NOT represented in the photo.  This grabs your attention and directs the eye.  In this case, I used a mustard-y yellow.  See it?  It's only in three places, but that's enough.  Any more and it will over power the page and that's all you would notice. 

Photos are of my Jackson boy enjoying a Dairy Queen treat one afternoon while his mommy was helping sort out our garden (before we put the house on the market last year).   No big story, just photos  I love. 

Glad top get back to scrapping (and blogging!). 

best!
Cheryl

Flat Layouts---the saga continues

And here we are again with another "flat" layout...and it has title placement issues to boot!  Poor baby.  And again, I remind myself (and others) that the story is told, it is not an ugly page, and the recipient loved it.  Mission accomplished! 

That being said.  Let's start with the title.  Once again, when I look at the page on the computer screen, I see that I would be happier if I had cut the title slightly smaller and placed it below the photo, right on the navy print layer.  Bah... live and learn.  Always learning! 

Then the flatness.... I have an ongoing battle with myself.  I love giving some dimension to a page, using pop dots and dimensional accents. But, in this case, my practical side won out.  I simply had to make some of the pages for this project flat.  I simply did not want to venture into a third album for this project. 

Papers for the page were from Authentique (the B side for that nice distressed background), old Creative Imaginations, Basic Grey, and more pieces from Authentique.  I cut the title using my Cricut and three different cartridges to make a wack-a-mo looking title for this crazy bunch of wack-a-mo boys.  Stickers were from Lily Bee, Simple Stories and Basic Grey. 

This was the last day of school, Junior year.  Some sort of dress-up day...not sure the look they were going for (Daisy Duke?), but they were funny! 

As for me..still have to be happy with a page that makes the recipient happy. 

and better yet, still learning
Cheryl 

Challenge: Layout #3 - One and Only Son

In keeping with the challenge, this layout is for my son.  I don't think I scrap about my kids probably enough---it seems like it's all about the grandkids.  So it's good timing for a challenge like this; it helped make me think about including more of the other folks (and animals) that I love. 

I did use a different background sheet for this page.  Did not look right on any of the collection papers and it didn't look quite right on plain cardstock either.  I happened on this sheet (the B side of an older My Mind's Eye paper) and the tone on tone brown worked out quite nicely. 

The other things from outside the Burlap and Bouquets collection were two buttons, the twine I used on the buttons, a doily, the blue sticker that says "Remember You Are Loved", and the little gold sequin stars. 

The photo is layered on several pieces of torn papers  and then onto the black corrugated cardstock that was in the package.  I wanted to build a somewhat vertical line, so I added the title at the top of the photo stack, tucked in the You Are Loved sticker at the bottom of the stack, along with a doily.  Then I added the buttons, flair badge and the mini sign, keeping everything tight and close so as not to ruin the vertical line of things.  I used another of the die cut cork words and kept that up close to the photo stack too.  Next was to add a few strips of the coordinating papers at the top and bottom of the page and build the small cluster at the top using part of the left over doily, a button and one of the little banner stickers.   Last I sprinkled on some gold sequin stars.  (I had tried some enamel dots, but they looked out of place--the tiny little stars worked out much better.)

More to come,
Cheryl

Title Town - (No Not Green Bay, WI)

OK so all that would come to mind when I thought about labeling this post was title town... so sorry if you were expecting a post about football.... cuz that ain't happening here. 

Nope this is more about the placement of the title on the page. 

You see, I do love this page...except for one thing.  That one thing?  It's where I have placed the title.  Now that the page has been photographed and I see it on the computer screen, that title is just silently screaming at me that it belonged closer to the photo.  (I said before, this blog thing has helped me so much to be able to see things I might otherwise miss.) 

There is NO right or wrong way to title a page.  There is what you like and what you don't.  There is what is pleasing to your eye and what isn't.  For me, I am learning that I really like titles tucked into the photo, nice and tight.  Not floating off by itself in la-la land.  It feels disconnected to me.  (I guess it would be easy enough to have pull the title stickers up and replace them where I want them---except that this page is part of Jacob's grad album---I don't have it anymore.  I had just quickly selected some pages, photographed them for blogging purposes before I gifted the albums to him.) 

I had held this and a couple of other pages back from blogging because there were things that bothered me about the page (that became apparent when I saw them on the computer screen).  Then I thought, well let's just talk about what bothers me and why. 

So there you have it.  I'm sure there are exceptions to my title placement preference(s), and I'll go with it when it comes up (or when I notice that has happened).  But it is kind of nice to pinpoint what it is that makes me not as happy with a page.  I've often had these conversations with other scrapping friends (either they or me) saying, "I like this page, but there just something that bothers me and I'm not sure what..."  

On the page itself... background paper is an old Basic Grey (I loved the distressed solid colors for backgrounds), the layers are Maggie Holmes (from that $5 pack purchased at Michaels like 7-8 months ago.  It was a holiday week of some sort and this was one of their super saver daily deal things).  Title alphas are an older Cloud 9 (remember them?).  Stickers are from My Mind's Eye and Jillibean Soup. 

And the title itself came to me because of a commercial that was running on tv when I did the page. And our boy does have a signature look...  love him and that sly little sideways look. 

 best,
Cheryl

Scrapping the Stash! - A Travel Layout

And now back to my regularly scheduled posts about scrapping from my stash... 

Not that I have been traveling, but my grandson has!  And I thought I better get his (few) photos committed to layouts before they are lost and stuck in a drawer. 

The No Limits pad (from Heidi Swapp) I found on clearance some months back has been wonderful for more masculine layouts and is proving to be equally great for travel pages.   Also using a travel themed packet (picked up at Michael's some time ago, but I think they still have it) made by Studio Calico. 

I used a map pattern and a grid pattern torn and overlapped for the background and edged the page with a very tiny sliver of an orange and off white embossed stripe.  I again went to a deconstructed style page design, placing the photos side by side and arranging elements around them. I started by picking up various strips and pieces of papers (the gold diagonal stripe, the orange polka dot, and the tan diagonal stripe) and then added a journaling box. 

Once the scraps of papers were in place, I cut apart the little calendar, the ticket stub and found the travel related stickers (from Basic Grey, Amy Tan, Heidi Swapp) and added  those in three clusters (forming the visual triangle at top right, left side and bottom right). 

The title letters were left from (you guessed it) the Sweater Weather kit, "explore" is from Heidi Swapp, the arrows punched from scrap. 

I seem to have an abundance of travel type stickers (left from other collections purchased long ago) because, like, I really haven't travelled!!!  ha, ha, Therefore, have lots of little things left in the old stash to do the grandson's travel pages without any additional expenditure!  Kind of excited about that. 

Is this living vicariously through one's grandchildren?  ok, I'll go with that. 

best,
Cheryl

Winner, Winner...Chicken Dinner!

OK, so this has nothing whatsoever to do with chicken for dinner...  Chicken I would have to make and clean up after... this is soooo much better!  I won the current Sweater Weather Scraptastic kit via a contest at Mercy Tiara's you tube channel.  (If you've never checked her videos out, I strongly encourage you to visit her --- I have her listed in my sidebar, under places to visit.)

Anyway.....Wow is all I can say.  I like n.e.v.e.r win anything, so I was totally blown away to see my name listed as the winner of this scrumptious kit.  And to top that off, the kit arrived only a couple of days later!   Now I could take a few photos of the kit--- but better that you hop over to the Scraptastic site to check them out and besides there are several folks on you tube that do a share of their kit contents. I am so excited to go up to my little room tonight to play with my winnings!  A public, big ole thank you to Mercy Tiara for my winnings! 

In the meantime, I am putting up a travel themed page from my grandson's trip last June to Australia (and New Zealand and Hawaii). 

The background paper is from a Studio Calico travel pack from Michael's, as are most of the layering papers.  The brown and black checked pieces are from Basic Grey (a pet line from several years ago). Stitched banners are from Crate Paper and the "today" and "truly awesome" stickers I think are from Amy Tangerine.  I softened the area under the photo layers using some gesso, did a little stamping (that weird branchy looking circle,  the chevrons and the "wow" on the sunburst wood veneer) then tucked in some miscellaneous tags and a couple more wood veneer pieces. 

So the story goes (that will also be included on one of these travel pages) is that my wonderful grandson was so very pleased with himself that he took 27 photos while on his trip.  Um, 27 photos of a trip to Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii?  Hello, have you met your grandmother?  Now to be fair this was a whirlwind trip, like three days in each place and it was a wrestling junket...but...   27 photos? 

Stay tuned to see what I can create from the Sweater Weather kit and I did take photos of the gift card holders that I mentioned a while ago. 

Now off to my room to play! 

best!
Cheryl

Too Tired for Complicated Pages

Ho, Ho, Ho, It's my "after Christmas I'm so tired I can't think straight" time of year. 

Time for an easy page layout.  It helps that the paper was so easy to work with.  Heidi Swapp's No Limits paper pack had this arrow border paper that needed little but to pile on some coordinating papers under my photo. 

I added a few things; stamped title, a (for real) Bingo card, some tags (Pink Paislee and Tim Holtz), several banner stickers (from Glitz) for who, what, when kind of journaling, a strip of paper and a length of washi tape for the photo to rest on.  After that, I fussy cut some of the circles from the circle patterned paper (I think that one was a scrap of old Cosmo Cricket), added some leftover pieces of border stickers, and  glued on some teeny gold star sequins.  But that's really about it. This was just stuff that was out on my desk and within easy reach.   Just what I needed right now, an easy, no brainer kind of page. 

I know I mentioned posting some of my gift card holders...the pictures I took were pretty awful.  My daughter did put them aside Christmas Day so I could take photos again and hopefully I do a better job this time and can get that post up in the next day or two.  (Cuz they really did turn out cute!) 

best,
Cheryl

Scrapping My Stash (again, or still)

More Christmas projects are forthcoming... but taking a break from the holiday foof-la for today, I am posting a scrap your stash sort of page. 

I think I may now have used all of the bluesy, greenie stack of scraps.  (Is it weird to get excited about using up stuff?  Cuz I kind of do...) 

I thought the colors went well with the water in  the photos and it was ok ... but it needed something a little bit more, so I outlined all the paper strips.  Still needed something more.  I used some white and green acrylic paint and applied it with two different size cardboard tubes.  TP and paper towel tubes--they were handy--it worked!  I used a torn piece of blue text patterned paper as a ledge to "sit" my photos on and added some washi tape.  Title alphas are Thickers.  The arrows and the Love Life sticker are all from Heidi Swapp, tickets and tags are from an Amy Tangerine sticker book, admit one and evidence labels are from 7 Gypsies.  The only other thing I added were some dippy-dots of Lime Stickles. 

Short blog post, I know.  But I have to get back to ornament making (and that is a page in the making, come to think of it!) 

best!
Cheryl

Updated Uses for Old Supplies

My bad.  Haven't blogged in a whole week.  Since Thanksgiving we've done the small town Christmas parade with the grandkids (and kids), had a house showing, spent another evening with the grandies because mommy had to travel for work (meaning Nana picked them up from their respective schools, fed them, checked school papers, and had Miss Isabella do her "homework"  -- loved this!).  So much busy-ness going on here. 

The kids here last night were "stamping" with some little Scooby and friends rubber stamps (I've had these since Jacob was little---they've more than paid for the $1.75 they cost me some 15 years ago!!!).  And it was how excited they got over this that made me think of the following page and the using old supplies thing. 

The papers were mostly older Cosmo Cricket and there is an overlay (old 7 Gypsies--from before photo overlays were all the rage).  New additions to update the page a bit was the use of washi tapes, the little cluster of tabs (punched, fussy cut and stickers) and the more updated use of two alphabet styles in the title.  Did a little outlining, added the chipboard star/circle piece (that was part of a pack purchased at Tuesday Morning for a whopping $.99 several months ago), and did my journaling using the lines of the background paper (since I cannot write in a straight line for love nor money!). 

Old supplies can sooooo be updated depending upon how they are used.  (And old supplies, or toys, are new again in new little hands.)  Jacob absolutely adored Scooby Doo and all the Scooby cartoons and movies and I'm glad to see that (old) Scooby is still well loved by my (new) youngest grandies.  I sense another Scooby layout sometime in my future! 

best,
Cheryl 

Two posts in one day?!  And the occasion?  Just cuz I did this layout one evening this past week and I just love it and had to post it.   (Usually I do up several layouts and then photograph 5 or 6 of them at one time...trying to have a backlog of layouts ready to post for when I don't have access to scrapping materials.)  But, I love this one so much...could. not. wait.  

Now I don't know if it's the layout I love so much, or if it's the photo... Jacob absolutely hates this series of photos.  Had them done with one of the photographers that brings a slew of old timey clothes and props and then prints them in sepia, and sometimes uses some hand coloring to tint sections of the photos.  He just hates these pictures.  But, sorry, kiddo, Nana loves them and they're gettin' scrapped! 

I was watching a video the other day and watched this gal take scraps of paper and a pile of embellishment ephemera and put a few together, then she stapled the packet.  She did several of these packets and then just slid them in and around her photo and plunked the whole thing down on a 12x12 paper, titled it and boom, was done.  Now my take on this did not go quite as quickly, since I am old school and always start with the photo and slide things in and under till I am happy, then I try and take great care to not alter the stacks while I glue everything into place.  But I have to say, even though I did not do this as quickly as I saw it done in the video, it did come together pretty darn fast (for me anyway). 

I used a couple of ephemera packs from Crate Paper (Maggie Holmes Party Day and DIY I think), an embellishment pack from Amy Tangerine (the stitched heart, "favorite," and the layered "best" sticker), and a piece from Crate Paper Close Knit stitched embellishments.  I also added some paint splatters, a wood veneer piece, and a few of my homemade enamel dots.   

Something I've noticed is that I am doing a lot of white cardstock backgrounds.  I like, never, I mean n.e.v.e.r. used plain white backgrounds a few years ago.  Everything was patterned paper and I would use a colored piece of cardstock as a base.  But I am really liking the white backgrounds more and more (still loving my pattern paper---just using it differently now). 

So today, I find myself in need of more white cardstock... oh darn that means a trip to Hobby Lobby I guess... gee that's a real shame... not. 

Now I am off and running... 
Cheryl
  

It's fall and all, but I think I better get these prom pages posted --- before the boy graduates from college.  Har--dee-har-har. 

Jacob was on prom court and the boys all went for tuxes together.  They picked out fairly traditional suits...except for their vests.  The vests were, um.... camo print.  Yep, camouflage print tuxedo vests.  They were then trying to talk the girls into wearing work boots -- yeah, not happening. 

What actually took the longest to do on this page was the title, getting it all lined up, nice and straight.    I didn't want a lot going on in the way of background, so I only used a small print to mat the three photos.  And then started arranging strips of washi tape horizontally as a base to lay the matted photos on.  Sticking with a monochromatic black, grey and white helped tone down the busy feeling that having so many people in a photo can create. 

The boys were really pretty good about getting their pictures taken, they posed again and again and were having a good time hamming it up for the camera(s).  And, yes, that would be my grandson in the middle photo being held up by his comrades in tuxes.  

It's Thursday already and I am looking forward to spending time with the little grandies this weekend.  We'll bake, maybe break out the watercolors, and there might be pumpkins involved. 

Happy Fall, Ya'all.
Cheryl

I didn't disappear...I've been under the weather and so, it appears,  has my laptop.  I left the poor infected baby with my daughter this past week who has been doing her best to rid it of a particularly stubborn malware.   Hopefully we'll have this situation licked soon. 

In the meantime, I thought I better use this small window of opportunity to get a layout posted... 

Another page of my eldest grandson's graduation album here.  Jacob and Jessica at the Powder Puff football game last year at homecoming.

I used some snips and left over pieces from the page I did of him ready to go to the dance (um, yeah I don't scrap in chronological order so... just happened to have the pieces laying about on my desk.)  Also used another piece of denim printed paper from Authentique, and several cuts from Basic Grey's Clippings line.  Added two wood veneer words (from Studio Calico), and a couple of stickers from the Clippings kit, a staple here and there and the title (which was also the alpha from the clippings kit).  The last thing I did was add the penwork  around the photo and paper layers and the journaling.

Even with his goofy buzz cut, he was still a pretty darn good lookin' kid (not that Nana is biased at all...)!    

ok, back to the Packer game, now...
Cheryl

Not really a football layout, in that none of these boys were playing.... Jacob and friends were in the eighth grade and had gone to the high school game and apparently thought they would show their team spirit by painting "R. A. M. S." on their tummies...  h-mmmm  kind of at a loss for words on this one. 

Anyhow, I decided to post this layout since we were at my daughters this past weekend for her birthday and Jacob and his dorm-mate, Colin came for dinner.  The young man sporting the "S" in the photo stopped by briefly... his last day home.  "Tofur" (his nickname) was leaving that same afternoon to begin his career with the Marines.  We wish him God speed and hope that he remains safe and sound wherever his life in the service takes him. 

I used a (Heidi Swapp) stencils and some gesso for a quick (and messy) background on a distressed blue background paper.  Trimmed it down a bit to center it on navy blue  tone on tone paper.  Then just layered the photo with several blue and taupe patterned papers, as well as a kraft colored tag.  I did adhere the papers together, but also used my Tim's Tiny Attacher to staple a few of the layers.  Added washi tape, some wood veneer chevrons, a couple of punched arrows, and some large silver star sequins. 

I wanted the title to fit in a box type formation and the navy blue letters were going to be too large if I used only those, so I mixed in another font in a lighter shade of blue.  Kind of like the look of using two slightly different shades of the same color.  Gonna have to try and remember to try this again.

all the best,
Cheryl

This morning I was standing in my kitchen crying like I'd lost my best friend.  We are moving our boy, Jacob into his college dorm today.  Nana and Boppa are really along for the use of the truck (an excuse to see our boy in his new dorm digs).   I was up early to bake his favorite chocolate chip cookies and was having so many conflicted feelings; so proud of the young man he has become, but at the same time really just wanting him to still be that little boy whose eyes lit up when he'd run into my house.

But there you go, they grow up, as they should.  (I am taking deep breathes now to get over the crying thing, so as not to embarrass him this morning...) 

This page was done for his graduation albums.  I have larger school photos, but those will be in my albums... I wanted not to use up so many pages for each of his school pictures, so I used the wallet size to be able to combine the high school years on one page. 

Used two papers from an old Basic Grey line (I think it was called Recess) and some pieces of Echo Park (A Boy's Life). Also used some black and white text printed gaffer's tape from 7 Gypsies, stickers from a high school pack I had picked up years ago, black diagonal striped washi tape, and a decorative square paper clip.  I placed the photos in a four square pattern (was a little concerned about the senior photo, since it is finished differently than the others, but at least I didn't cut off the top of his head placing the "senior" sticker on there!). 

I do hope he looks back on his high school years with fond memories and I hope he makes new memories at college.  (Just still kinda wish he was running in my door with that big goofy smile, yelling "Nana, I'm here to see you!")

All for today.
Cheryl