Another Layout!

Hello! 

Today I wanted to share another layout that I made the other week.  It's a double layout all about my adorable nephew, Aidan's, 3rd Cowboy birthday.

I used October Afternoon's Campfire paper along with Fly A Kite.  I saw the sketch for this layout in Creating Keepsakes January Magazine.

I made the brackets with an AccuCut die at Collective Journeys - it's actually a book page but I figured it would work just as well on a layout!  I also used a bracket edge punch on my star patterned paper to keep the same design through the layout.

For the title I used a Jillibean Kraft Tag, different stickers from the Campfire line, Thickers, and the pin from Campfire.

I love the way the banner came out!  This is probably my favorite part of the layout, besides the cute boys in the pictures!  I wanted to make sure that the layout stayed masculine, so I used bakers twine, the red/white gingham, buttons and word stickers from the Campfire sticker set.  I started off with 1 string of bakers twine but it just looked dinky, so I added a second line and it really made a difference!

That's it for this layout!  I hope that you're having a great start to 2012 and getting some scrapbooking in!
See you soon!
Andrea

An Un-Planned Break...

But I'm back now!  Sorry about that, my sinus infection caused my head to explode daily!  I felt better for New Years (Fortunately) and we had to much fun!

Yup, a little bit of bowling fun!  Then we had a game night with some friends and family and Adam actually stayed up till 11 pm!  Holy Moly!  And then he slept in till 8 am!  What!?  I know, a-ma-zing!

On Friday, December 30th, I celebrated my birthday at Collective Journey's with my Mom, Sis-in-Laws, Aunt, Cousin and friends... my husband, Bro-in-Law and Mom-in-law even joined us for dinner!  It was exactly what I needed after a busy Christmas!  I was able to get a few page layout's done while I was there... I would've gotten more done but we had cupcakes and cake and cupcakes and cake and cupcakes...  I was too busy eating to be a diligent scrapbooker!!

Here's one of my pre-cupcake/cake layouts!

Here's a 12x12 layout that I made using different types of October Afternoon paper's and flair.  I think that I used Farmhouse, Cherry Hill and Seaside.  I used stickers from Seaside and misc buttons. 

I used a PageMap from the January issue of Creating Keepsakes, AC Thicker's for my title along with some hand writing.  I popped up different elements too to add interest to the page.

I normally spend FOREVER trying to find a sketch or inspiration but I told myself that I was just going to flip to a page and that was it!  I had a Tim Gunn "Make it Work" moment!

If I can ever decide what to do with my old sewing machine (It's broke broke BROKE), I might go back and stitch on the page but we'll see.

That's it for today!  I've been working on a variety of things, some are mine and some are for work, but I'll be sharing more from now on! 

Christmas Page Maps

Hello!

Yesterday I spent the day at Page's with fabulous ladies getting in the Holiday spirit!  I must say, I am very cheerful and ready to decorate the house for Christmas today and have only been held back by my reasonable husband... however, I am going to share my absolute most favorite Christmas movie with Adam after nap...

And, since I'm in the Holiday mood, I'm also going to share my November Page Maps samples with you!

I am doing a 2 page layout for Christmas with a sketch that I found in November's Scrapbook Etc.

Everyone will get an entire sheet of WeR's dimensional stickers and we'll be using WeR's paper, along with fun punches and bakers twine (of course!).

We'll also be making a 2 page layout using Fancy Pants paperline that is intended to showcase your fall or Thanksgiving paper.  I'll share that layout later this week!

I will be teaching these layouts at Page's From the Heart next Saturday, call to sign up and I hope to see you there!

Hope you do something cheerful today!
Andrea

More Layouts

Hello!  Good morning!

I'm not sure what the weather is where you are, but it's cold and damp here and I'm loving it!  It feels like fall, finally, and I cannot wait till we can go to Oak Glen and pick some apples and go to a local farm and pick pumpkins... the best time to take a photo is when it's overcast, so I shouldn't have any excuses now!  The only thing holding us back from all of the fun fall activities that we have planned is... we're sick.  Again.  Both Adam and I.  Again.  Preschool germs are the worst! 

Anyways - I wanted to share another "almost" layout today and a few other things that I've been working on.

This layout is missing it's title, but I think that's it.  I don't plan to journal on it because it's one of 3 consecutive layouts and the other layouts will have journaling.  I used October Afternoon and Cosmo Cricket for this layout, I love the soft and bright colors mixed for this spring time layout. 

All of the flowers are done by hand with either scraps or circle punches, nothing fancy here!  My grass is cut with the Martha Stewart Fringe Scissors. 

It's a super cute, springy layout... which doesn't really fit in with my weather report, but that's okay!  We'll take flowers rain or shine!

Here's another project that I finished last week for the Sew Funky Vintage and Handmade Market, which is this Saturday, October 8th from 9:30-4 pm at the Downtown Riverside Marriot.  Come and see all the great Holiday flair for sale!

I painted this trick or treat subway art with autumn orange and a glitter black - super boo-tiful! 

Hope you're enjoying the weather wherever you are!
Andrea

Another almost complete layout!

Hopefully you're not feeling underwhelmed by my almost done layouts!  I feel good sharing them, even if they're not quite right yet!

Here's my second favorite layout!

I used Crate Paper's Toy Box line, which is still one of my all time favorites!  I loved the different journal tags and hand cut a lot of embellishments from the paper itself. 

I love wood grain paper - I want to use it all the time on so many different projects... a good wood grain is a beautiful thing!

And, since I had some left overs that I didn't use on my layout, here's a card that I created strictly from my left-overs!

I've shared this card before, but I still love it and I love that it's created from not used layout items!  See how much you can get from your supplies?  And I've found that my scraps get used more if I use them fresh off a project! 

Well, that's the almost complete layout of the day! 
See you soon!
Andrea

A-L-M-O-S-T done... but I'm sharing anyways!!!

I made a few layouts 7-8 months ago... I set them aside to add journaling and titles at a later date... and they're still sitting there waiting.  So, instead of keeping them on my desk waiting - sighing - wishing I would share them, I'm just going to share them in their present state!  I'll share a layout a day until I run out of layouts to share!  Okay, let's start off with my favorite!

This 2 page layout (I know, my photography skills are seriously lacking with 2 page spreads) is made from Echo Park's Playgound paper which is super fun and colorful and bright and I love them with my sons bunny pictures!

The banners are hand cut from the paper, the clouds are stickers from their element sheet.

The sun is a great use of scraps.  I punched the circle and cut strips of paper and tore them at different lengths for the rays.

My other favorite part of this layout is that there really isn't that much paper used!  This is a great scrap paper layout!  Lots of strips, different sized circles and embellishments... not much else!  Some day I'll add a title and journaling - something about a sunny bunny boy or something... I'm not sure!  But, someday I will know and it'll be done and the pages will go into his book!  Until then, at least I shared my almost done page from when Adam was 1 year old!  2.5 years ago!

And, onto a different project!  I have a friend, Naomi, who uses/loves LifeStyle Crafts (formerly QK) and she creates amazing projects using her dies... I can think a card that I've loved for years and it has a fence with birds on the fence and a tree.. or maybe the birds are in the tree... anyways, I love it and I love this project that she's sharing with all of us today!

Okay, now, once I got over the sheer amount of times she had to twist the knob to die cut a gazillion lace circles, I focused on "how did she make it stand?" and I wondered "Pop-dots?  A pencil?" so I asked and she answered!

Naomi - "I actually used a chopstick (it's the Asian in me) but I think a dowel will work.  I traced the inside of the largest die on some cardboard and cut that out to use as the base.  I used some old Stampin Up! Christmas paper and cut a few pieces of all the shapes of the Nesting Lace Circle dies.  I think I needed to cut some more of each shape to make the tree look fuller, so I just called that tree my prototype!  I punched the center of each die cut with the crop-o-dile and then started layering the circles.  I glued the die cut to the dowel/chopstick so the piece wouldn't shift, but again, I think if I had cut out more pieces this would have prevented the shifting problem.  I cut out the star and attached it to the top of the stick and used some shimmer spray on the tree and stickles on the star."

Isn't that tree great?  I LOVE it!  I want to make one, but I'm going to have to trick someone into cutting all of the different layers for me!  Thanks, Naomi, for letting me share your great project on the blog!

I hope you all find some inspiration today!
Andrea

It's now September...

so I don't feel awkward about sharing a Halloween layout!

I used WeR's Halloween line - I like it, the colors are fun, the images are retro but the colors make it current.  I really enjoyed using the dimensional stickers... and one of the pages had a bunch of journaling squares that you could cut out from the page... super cool.

For the stitching, I used Bazzill's In Stitch'z along with black embroidery thread.  It took a little bit of time, but it was well worth it.  I also used Glimmer Mist in Raven on my solid cardstock, it was looking a little too bright without it.

 Is there anything not to like about gingham ribbon?  I love it!  I used a layout sketch from PageMaps for this page.  I love how versatile the sketch's are - some of them I change so much that it's hard to see the beginning sketch, other's I use exactly as they are displayed, it mostly depends on my photos as to how I manipulate the sketch!

I will be teaching this page and 3 others at Page's from the Heart - call Kathy and sign up for the September PageMaps with Andi class.  You'll receive a full sheet of dimensional stickers in the class put a ton of ribbon!  We'll even be using floral wire on one of the pages!

I hope that everyone enjoys your 3 (or 4) day weekend!  We have an Angel game on the schedule, along with a ton of sewing and papercrafting!!!
Andrea

Pages to share!

Hello again!  I have a few layout's to share that I completed for my PageMaps sketch class at Pages from the Heart.  Take a look!

I used My Minds Eye Hooray line, which was very fun to use and I think, if you were particular with the paper selection, that it would be gender neutral.  I made my pages a little more feminine because I don't get to create feminine pages very often!  So I took my chance!  Here's a few close-ups.



Button Balloons



Pocket for extra photos

And here's the other layout.  I used the same paper, but created a fun little cupcake journaling or hidden picture spot!

Cupcake hidden space



Cupcake pulled out of pocket



Title space - circle created with bakers twine

  

Well, that's it!  This class is coming up this Saturday at Pages, so call Kathy to sign up!

Hope you have a great day!

Andrea

I can't believe it's June!

June means summer, June means hot, June means we're that much closer to Christmas!  Yikes! 

June also means ice cream, bar-be-ques, vacations, beach trips... so since we're talking about the stuff we enjoy about June, take a look at my ENJOY card.  Very simple, I love it!

The envelope is a diecut from Stamp'in Up - it's sweet, isn't it?  The ice cream cone is a little rectangle I cut out of the Nikki Sivil's paper and then ran it through my xyron machine and sprinkled glass glitter all over it.  I stitched around the edges of my patterned paper, scallop circle and to underline the "Enjoy" phrase.  the ribbon is just to add a little extra pop! 

Hope you're all enjoying your week!  And I hope it was full of ice cream and treats!

I have my craft fair this weekend, so I don't plan to blog until next Monday! 
- A

Another Sketch Support inspired layout!

Hello!

Happy Tuesday - we had a very fun day!  Adam, Aidan and I played trash trucks... a lot... took naps (my favorite part, but was told naps are not fun!), made up numerous trash truck songs before nap and wiped a lot of runny noses.  Poor little guys!  Spring colds are no fun!  I took their temperatures after lunch, before nap, and what do you know but they both had matching fevers!  Not high, but it was just kind of funny that they were exactly the same! 

Anyways, onto my point!  I saw a sketch on the Sketch Support blog that I used for a layout that I created of our trip on the MetroLink back in February - here's the sketch

And here's my Layout:

I used some MM Lime Twist, some Basic Grey Wanderer, some Sassafras Felties...  I plan to journal on the computer and cut them into strips to go across the bottom right hand vehicle paper... the "at play" is an OA flashcard that I cut down.

It's a little hard to see, but I sewed along all of my edges and the space between the strips of paper because I wanted to keep the train track feel and I sewed down the center of the black solid piece like a street line.  I also used Glossy Accents on my "signs" that I hand cut from the Basic Grey paper.

I'm all about the sketches lately!  I love how I can use them and change them to fit my theme, I don't get stuck on the way a picture of a layout looks, or the paper that the person used or the embellishments... it's very freeing once you get the hang of sketches!

Here's a few sketch websites that you can check out!
www.sketchsupport.com
www.pagemaps.com
http://www.sketchabilities.blogspot.com/

I hope to post again tomorrow but it depends on my sickie!
Andrea

A few pages to share

Here's a few page layouts that created using a PageMaps pdf from 2010 - these are for my Page's from the Heart Page Map class.  Take a look - I used JilliBean paper with a smidge of WeR - I really like the way these pages came out -

Contact Pages if you'd like to take the class!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Andrea