All Around the Cathedral Layout

I finally got to work on some scrapbooking today after several weeks away, and these postcards from St. Paul's Cathedral were beckoning! I already had an intro page plus a pocket page with some journaling for St. Paul's, so I kept the writing on this one to a minimum. In keeping with my previous page, the title is inspired by the song "Feed the Birds" from Disney's Mary Poppins. The interior of the cathedral was as beautiful as the exterior, and we really enjoyed our tour, but since you couldn't take pictures inside, we had to purchase some postcards from the gift shop. I used my July sketch from Splitcoast Stampers for the design, and adapted it to create a row of arches with silhouettes from the life of Christ in them. I also created a pocket on the left hand page to hold the extra postcards. All the postcards are mounted using photo corners so that you can slide them out and see what's written on the back.

The sketch:

My layout:

Recipe:

Paper Fundamentals Basic Assortment patterned paper

Cashmere, Lagoon, Sapphire, Glacier & White Daisy cardstock

Lagoon & Glacier ink

Gold brads

Photo corners (Pioneer)

Cricut New Testament cartridge: life of Christ figures

Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge: title, arches

Pattern: Splitcoast Stampers Sketch17Jul

Challenges: Heart 2 Heart Oh the Places You'll Go challenge (we went to St. Paul's, of course!); The Studio Challenges No People (although there are statues and die-cuts of people, there are no living people on this layout, quite a change for me)

Feed the Birds Layout

When I think of Saint Paul's Cathedral in London, the song "Feed the Birds" from Disney's Mary Poppins movie is the first thing that comes to mind, so I made sure we took some pictures of the pigeons when we were visiting St. Paul's! This is my first St. Paul's layout, accompanied by a photo storage page, and features a few pictures of the exterior. For the bird die-cut next to the title, I actually used a quail cut, but I snipped off the plume on top of his head so he resembled a pigeon.

Here's my journaling card for the coordinating pocket storage page. I started with a sketch but changed the orientation to fit with my other photos. FYI: the dots on the ground are supposed to be bird seed, not bird poop! I realized after I added them that there could be some confusion there. . .

And these photos of the exterior of St. Pauls will also go in the pocket page.

Recipe:
Striped paper (MME)
Chocolate, Cashmere, Whisper, Sunset & Black cardstock
Chocolate ink
Brown and Black markers (Zig)
Tan ribbon (from my stash)
Cricut Noah's ABC Animals cartridge: title, bird
Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge: tags
Cricut Artiste cartridge: border
Pattern: Let's Scrap 6-15-17 sketch (left side only)
Journaling Card Pattern: Sketches in Thyme Project Life Style #75
Challenges: Bitten By the Bug 2 Birds of a Feather challenge

Gear Up Father's Day Card

I had to whip up a quick Father's Day card and decided to use stuff I already had on my desk. I had cut out a bunch of gears as decorations for vacation Bible school (Maker Fun Factory, anyone?), and thought gears went great with a masculine theme, so I used the left-overs and added some stamped gears and a sentiment. Easy peasy, but hopefully Dad will like it! I even stamped a coordinating envelope.

Recipe:
Gear Up, Holiday Tags & Marquee Uppercase stamp sets
Clover, Sunflower, Dutch Blue & White Daisy cardstock
Ruby, Desert Sand & Dutch Blue ink
Cricut Artiste cartridge: gears
Challenges: Bitten By the Bug 2 Father's Day theme; Fantabulous Cricut Challenge masculine/Father's Day theme

Exploring London on Foot Layout

My husband and I recently took a trip to London as a treat for surviving and enjoying 25 years of marriage, so I got a bunch of photos printed up and am going to try to scrapbook them all before I forget the details of our trip. Here's the first layout! We stayed at the Portobello Hotel, a cute boutique hotel in Notting Hill, and every day we would walk to the Notting Hill Gate tube station, about a ten minute walk. It wasn't quite as fun walking back to the hotel in the evening when we were tired, but we did get to know Kensington Park Road pretty well. For the layout, I tried to recreate the feel of the street where the hotel was located. The facing page will be a photo storage page with six photos of the area, so I will post them here so you can get a feel for our whole trip!

The weather was gorgeous so all the foliage was looking its best.

My hubby really loves trees so we took lots of pictures of the beautiful trees in London!

Recipe:
Around the Block stamp set
Sky, Garden Green, Goldrush, White Daisy, Slate & Black cardstock
Black, Garden Green, Goldrush, Whisper & Bamboo ink
White gel marker (Sakura)
Gold metallic marker
Black marker
Shin-Han Twin Touch markers
Cricut Artistry cartridge: house
Pattern: EMS Sketch 31

Up a Lazy River Layout

I'm back! It's been two months since I posted a layout, but hopefully the mojo will continue flowing and I will have lots to share this month. I'm starting scrapping my London vacation today, but first here's a Yosemite layout that I finished up this morning. The pictures aren't the best, but I had fun scraplifting this layout from Trish at Splitcoast Stampers. The way the frames were laid out really caught my eye, so I tried to duplicate that, along with the circle and the photo placement. Thanks for the inspiration, Trish!

Recipe:
Back Country Level 2 papers & My Stickease
Outdoor Denim, Barn Red & Whisper cardstock
Outdoor Denim & Olive ink
Outdoor Denim marker
Marine Blue Shin Han Twin Touch marker
Outdoor Denim & Olive craft buttons

Olive & White embroidery floss

Cricut Artistry cartridge: title

Challenges: The Studio Challenges recipe - I managed to include hand sewing, fussy cutting (the trees), frames, and buttons

I'm still here!

I've always been frustrated when a blog just stops posting and no explanation is given, so since I haven't posted in over a month, I thought I'd just pop in and let everyone know I haven't given up bloggin! April and May have been extremely busy months for me, with my daughter's birthday party and a two week trip to England to plan, and now I'm recovering from jet lag while catching up on all the things that happened on the home front while I was gone. Throw in my husband's and my birthdays and Mother's Day, plus starting up a new Bible study and joining the worship team at church, and you have the recipe for slight exhaustion. Scrapbooking is still on my mind (I have tons of pictures from London to scrap), but I'm not feeling very inspired at the moment. All that to say, I'm on a little break but will be back at the beginning of June with a new sketch for everyone! Enjoy the rest of May.

Glacier Point Layout

One highlight of our Yosemite visit was a trip to Glacier Point to check out the beautiful views. I scrapbooked a few favorite photos on this layout and then added twelve more photos to a photo storage page. I'm hosting the monthly scrapbook challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers, so I created this layout for my Stash Busters challenge to use 1 piece of ribbon, 2 colors of cardstock, 3 photos, 4  pieces of bling, and 5 patterned papers. Feel free to play along with us!

Recipe:
Skylark Level 2 papers
Colonial White & Kraft cardstock
Lagoon, Sweet Leaf & Desert Sand ink
Snapshot Complements
Hopscotch PML journaling card
Mocha Opaques pearls
Lagoon ribbon
Cricut Artiste cartridge: title

Exploring the Southwest Layout

For my new Splitcoast Stampers Sketch for April, I actually started with a layout and loved it so much, I decided to create a sketch so I could use the arrangement of the photos again! I know this is a picture-heavy sketch, but you can always delete a few photos if you don't need that many.

FYI: I'm also hosting a month-long scrapbooking challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers, so if you need some inspiration, please head on over and check out the fun!

The sketch:

My layout:

Recipe:
Diverse Backgrounds stamp set
Lucky Level 2 papers
Bamboo & Sky cardstock
Desert Sand, Sky, Outdoor Denim & Olive ink
Chocolate marker (Zig)
My Crush Wildwood Assortment "Documented" card & stickers
Enamel and Glitter Duos blue dots
Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge: heart
Cricut Alphabet: title

Cat Party Card

My daughter asked for a cat party for her birthday, so the first step was making her invitations. I started with a cute card sketch from Atlantic Hearts challenge blog but, since I wanted to go vertical on my card base, I tightened up the design by moving the circles together. The card went through several revisions and I ended up simplifying it a bit because I just couldn't face hand cutting glitter tape for 30 cards (can anyone relate?) but I'm pretty happy with the final result!

Recipe:
Fanfare, Welcome Baby & One Way Borders stamp sets
Laughing Lola Level 2 papers
Slate, Whisper, Crystal Blue & White Daisy cardstock
Crystal Blue, Thistle & Black ink
Black & Gold Metallic markers
Purple Glitter Gem
Cricut Artistry cartridge: banner
Cricut Chore Chart cartridge: cat
Challenges: Bitten By the Bug 2 banner or sign challenge

Taft Point Layout

Taft Point at Yosemite is a bit of a hike, but always offers amazing views that make me glad I went! I created the base layout at my scrapbook retreat, but it needed some extra pizzazz, so when I got home, I decided to play along with some challenges to add punched borders, chipboard, and baker's twine.

Recipe:
Everyday Celebration Level 2 papers
Chocolate, Sweet Leaf & Colonial White cardstock
Chocolate, Sweet Leaf & Dutch Blue ink
Dutch Blue marker
Chocolate baker's twine
Nutmeg Memories chipboard (MME Indie Chic)
Cricut Stone Script cartridge: title
Fiskars scalloped border punch
Pattern: EMS Sketch Challenge 2
Challenges: Scrappy Friends Bingo challenge (I chose the row with border punch, green, ink, chipboard shape & twine); Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge chipboard & something old from your stash (my old was the papers I've been hoarding for at least five years)