Time to Explore Layout

This week's plant theme over at Lasting Memories is palms, so I pulled out a few pictures I had been saving from our visit to Balboa Park and got to work scrapping palms. There are palms on the photos and patterned papers, and I also included a palm die-cut. The challenge runs until the end of the month, so feel free to join in. My title was inspired by the fact that I took the kids to see the Dora movie on Friday, and she loves to explore, just like my kids!

Recipe:
Pack Your Bags, This Way 2 Paradise, You & Me stamp sets
Expedition papers
Garden Green, Olive, Saddle, Bamboo & Colonial White cardstock
Saddle, Olive & Chocolate ink
ShinHan Touch Twin markers
Olive frame, brackets & photo turn - old Connections Club reward
Mocha Opaques pearls
My Crush Wildwood Assortment
Autumn Terracotta striped grosgrain ribbon
3-D foam tape
Cricut Artbooking cartridge: title
Cricut You Are Here cartridge: palm tree, geometric shape
Pattern: EMS Sketch 25
Challenges: Heart 2 Heart Adventure Awaits (all products on here are from my old CTMH stash - who recognizes them? LOL!); Lasting Memories #460 - Palms; Splitcoast Stampers VSBN challenge #3 - 3 photos, 3 patterned papers, 3 word title, 3 embellishment clusters

Tobie 2014 Layout

I was invited to be a guest Designer at Stick It Down sketch blog this month, and the sketch is really fun (see below). I had the extra challenge of not layering anything over my top photo, since it flips up to reveal two other photos underneath it. This meant my title was hanging out in no-man’s land, so I added some circles to tie everything together and to add a fun pop of color. The sketch challenge is open until the end of August, so come play along!

Recipe:
Blue's Clues paw print paper & word stickers (Sandylion)
Pet Shop bones paper (KI Memories)
Kraft, Chocolate, Bamboo & Cranberry cardstock
Brown & Black markers (Zig)
ShinHan Touch Twin markers
Escape the Ordinary Thickers (American Crafts)
Color Kaleidoscope Thickers & sticker book (American Crafts)
Red enamel hearts
Cuttlebug Swiss Dot embossing folder
Cricut Chore Chart cartridge: dog
Cricut Simply Sweet cartridge: title
Cricut Accent Essentials cartridge: ringsPattern: Stick It Down August single page sketch

Challenges: Joy of Sets tic-tac-toe #8 (I chose square, animal, emboss)

Heritage Park Layout

Heritage Park in Cerritos is such a cool place to visit! It has a Revolutionary War vibe, with historic looking buildings and even a Paul Revere statue, and the kids can play on just about everything. I created a traditional layout plus a pocket page to hold extra photos and a pocket card I designed based on a sketch from Try Stampin' on Tuesday. I didn't end up stamping on my card, but I loved the design.

Here's the pocket card plus a few of my photos that go in the pocket page:

Recipe:
Design & Display kit "So Happy" papers
Brown marker (Zig)
Swiss Dot light pink grosgrain ribbon (Offray)
Celebrating Freedom Noteworthy ephemera (BoBunny)
Filed Notes Journaling ephemera (American Crafts)
Color Kaleidoscope stickers & sticker book (American Crafts)
Escape the Ordinary Thicker (American Crafts)
3-D foam tape
Pattern (for pocket card): Try Stampin' on Tuesday sketch #420 (rotated left)

Challenges: Double Trouble #35 3-2-1 recipe (3 colors = pink, green, tan + 2 patterned papers (green stripes and circles + 1 sentiment or image (I did way more than one but I love every one!) & Try Stampin' on Tuesday sketch; Use Your Stuff  #370- Summer Activity (playing at the park)

Calico Ghost Town Layout

When I found out that this week's Lasting Memories Plants challenge was all about cacti, I really had no idea what I would scrapbook. Despite living in Southern California, we seldom visit the desert except to drive through on the way somewhere else, so I don't have a lot of cactus pictures, if any, to scrapbook. I solved my problem by printing some photos from a trip to Calico Ghost Town, and even though there aren't any cacti in the photos, it still has a desert vibe that works for this challenge. This may be an easy challenge for you, but if not, I encourage you to think outside the box and play along. The result may surprise and please you!

Since we took about 50 pictures at Calico but I didn't want to do a bunch of layouts, I decided to create an overview layout and one other traditional layout and place the rest of our photos in pocket pages. Here are the journaling cards I included with the pocket page photos:

And to give you a taste of Calico, here are a few of the photos I put in the pocket pages:

Recipe:
Dakota papers
Sky, Desert Sand, Black, Colonial white, Pacifica, Chocolate, Saddle, Whisper, Cocoa, Fern & Saffron cardstock
Sky ink
Black marker
ShinHan Touch Twin markers
Let's Go Tidbits (Chic Tags)
Color Kaleidoscope stickers (American Crafts)
Our Adventure epoxy stickers (MAMBI)
Cricut You Are Here cartridge: saguaro cactus
Cricut Southwest cartridge: all other die cuts
Challenges: Lasting Memories #459 - Cactus

EMS Sketch Challenge 76 - Dog Days of Summer Layout

I'm a little late getting this month's sketch posted, but here it is at last. It's perfect for three 6" x 4" photos (slightly trimmed), and you could also rotate it to the left if you wanted to use it for vertical photos. I might even try that later in the month just to show how it would look. Enjoy, and don't forget to post a link to your completed layout in the comment section below!

The sketch:

My layout:

Recipe:
Paw Prints on my Heart stamp set
Felicity papers
Crystal Blue, Pacifica, Espresso & Desert Sand cardstock
Autumn Terracotta, Desert Sand & Black ink
Pure Brown marker (Zig)
Burlap ribbon
Autumn Terracotta ribbon
Pearl Opaques
Escape the Ordinary Thicker (American Crafts)
Cricut Design Studio: title using Cookie font
Cricut Artistry cartridge: hearts

Thankful Layout

For the second Lasting Memories plants challenge, we were asked to show off some flowers on our layouts. I had this lovely floral paper that I thought made a great complement to my photos, so I paired it with some stamped, colored, and fussy-cut flower images and a few paper flowers. Lasting Memories' August challenges are open until the end of the month, so feel free to pop on over and join in the fun!

Recipe:
Love This stamp set
Brushed papers
Pear & White Daisy cardstock
Canary, Creme Brulee, Pixie, Hollyhock, Juniper & Tuxedo Black ink
Black marker
ShinHan Touch Twin markers
Black tulle ribbon
Canary baker's twine
Thankful sticker (CM)
Field Notes Ephemera (American Crafts)
Color Kaleidoscope sticker book & Thickers
Paper flowers (American Crafts)
Flutter Just Blooms paper shapes
Cocoa & White Daisy brads
3-D foam tape
Pattern: Sketches in Thyme #383

Balboa Park Layout

As I was looking at these pictures of my family at Balboa Park, I noticed my oldest son had put his arm around my youngest son's waist in the leftmost photo and caused his shirt to ride up so you could see the big bandage around his middle. At first, I was bummed because it seemed like it ruined my "perfect" picture, but I got to thinking about it and it seemed like a great introduction to telling the story behind the bandage, something I haven't yet done in my scrapbooking. Since I was scrapbooking quite a few pictures, I decided to hide the journaling in a Flip-Flap under the horizontal photo, so it has actually become a metaphor of our lives that summer - pretty on the outside but with complicated stuff hidden underneath. This was the first summer of fostering my two youngest kids, and although everything worked out so we could adopt them, I think it's important to remember who they were when we first met them so we can be thankful for who they are now, even on the hard days of parenting!

And here's the journaling card with the story:

Click on the image if it's too small to read.

Recipe:
Newsprint Alphabet stamp set (SU)
Central Park papers
Clover Meadow, Honey & White Daisy cardstock
Clover Meadow & sunny Yellow ink
Escape the Ordinary Thickers (American Crafts)
Cricut Artbooking cartridge: sun, frame
CTMH Chevron embossing folder
Heart Punch (EK Success)
Challenges: Retro Rubber Challenge Blog #116 tic-tac-toe (I chose the middle column down for green, texture - the embossed chevrons - and nature) and I used a woodie stamp set from 2004 to do the title; Double Trouble #34 (Thing 1 - anything goes, Thing 2 - also played along with Retro Rubber challenges, Thing 3 - gave my impression of sunshine with the die-cut sun plus the sun rays paper).

Big Smiles Layout

We weren't sure exactly what this statue at Balboa Park was supposed to represent - possibly a dragon or sea serpent - but the kids enjoyed playing on it! To create the layout, I dug deep into my stash to pull out some really old CTMH papers and sparkles, combined them with equally old Magic Mesh, and finished it off with some newer American Crafts Thickers. How's that for eclectic? LOL!

Recipe:
Daydream papers
Sweet Leaf, Hollyhock & Creme Brulee cardstock
Sweet Leaf, Hollyhock, Blush & Creme Brulee ink
Black & Hollyhock markers
Escape the Ordinary & Color Kaleidoscope Thickers (American Crafts)
Sparkles
Magic Mesh (Creative Imaginations)
Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge: banners
Cricut Artbooking cartridge: frame, stars
Pattern: Sketch-n-Scrap #181

Challenges: The Paper Girls #180 Magical Monday (imaginary creature in the photos plus I used a Thicker with the word magical on it and added some Magic Mesh!); Heart 2 Heart On the Border (I added a border around one of my photos to help it stand out, and decorated it with stars, a hand drawn border line, and a phrase); The Studio Challenges stars and stripes; Bitten by the Bug banners challenge

Where the Wild Things Are Layout

For my other Natural History Museum layout, I tried to create a very earthy feel because my pictures were taken outside and showed lots of foliage, but I went in a completely different direction with this layout because the pictures were taken inside and focus on kids and animals. The dinosaur themed paper from CTMH's Something Fierce collection was a great background for these photos, and I had fun experimenting with the Illustrated Alphabet stamp set for my title. The stamp set includes the base letter in a block style, which can be stamped over with a pattern. I ended up using a combination of the included patterns (for W and D) and a couple of patterned stamps from another set (for I and L), and combined it with handwritten strips to complete the title.

Recipe:
Illustrated Alphabet & Chantilly stamp sets
Something Fierce papers & stickers
Raspberry & White Daisy cardstock
Bluebird, Caroline, Baby Pink, Lagoon, Whisper, Raspberry, Sunny Yellow & Clover Meadow ink
Black marker
Pattern: EMS Sketch Challenge 66
Challenges: The Studio Challenges Title & Journaling (used 2 fonts for the title and included journaling); Heart 2 Heart Into the Wild challenge

Wild and Free Layout

I was invited to be a guest designer for the Lasting Memories challenge blog for the next five weeks, and their first challenge is to include trees on your layout. I chose photos that were taken outside at the Natural History Museum and used a base of tree paper in addition to a few tree branch die-cuts. Lasting Memories challenges are open until August 31st, so feel free to come play along!

Recipe:
White Pines & Fresh Air papers
Chocolate, Canary & White Daisy cardstock
Brown Bag, New England Ivy & Saffron ink
ShinHan Touch Twin marker - Golden Yellow
Color Kaleidoscope & Escape the Ordinary Thickers (American Crafts)
Field Notes Journaling Ephemera (American Crafts)
Woodgrain washi tape
Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge: scalloped border, ring
Cricut Artbooking cartridge: branches
Challenges: Lasting Memories #457- trees