Covent Garden Layout

This month, my goal is to scrapbook at least 5 layouts from our 2017 trip to London, so here is one from April 29th, when we visit Covent Garden (among other places). I was really expecting something quite different, as you can tell from my journaling below, so we only spend enough time there to grab some lunch before heading off to another venue. However, I decided to scrapbook the photos as if it still was a flower market, which gave me a chance to use the flower shop and flower cart stickers that I had previously wondered if I would ever use. I also created the title using the Harrington font on my Cricut as a nod to Eliza's line, "In Hartford, Hereford, and Hampshire, hurricanes hardly happen," from The Rain in Spain. Harrington wasn't mentioned, but it sounds like it should have been!

Recipe:
Watercolor paper (Recollections)
Life Is Beautiful papers (Echo Park)
Sage, Canary & Cinnamon cardstock
Blush & Sage ink
Juniper marker
Everyday Moments pocket card (Scrapbook.com)
Life is Beautiful stickers (Echo Park)
Heavenly blue organdy ribbon
Cricut Design Space: vine, circles, title
Pattern: Sketches in Thyme #716 (on Facebook)

Challenges: A Cut Above Anything goes with a die-cut; One More Page Any scrapbook layout; Paper Rocks Scissors #18 Used scissors to cut the ribbon ends; Inkspirational Challenges #371 - I was inspired by the flowers on the vine, the colors, and the lemons (used circles to stand in for the lemons)

Greystone Mansion Layout

The Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills, CA, is a lovely place to visit, although you can only tour the gardens and peek in through the windows, but it has a pretty tragic past include an unsolved murder that was pretty high profile at the time. We took a bunch of photos of the garden and a couple of the interior (as much as we could glimpse of it), so I decided to scrapbook these 7 photos and put the rest in a photo storage page. I wanted to do a cloudy sky background but none of my cloud papers looked right, so I ended up creating my own sky using white cardstock, a brayer, blue ink, and a couple of die-cut clouds that I temporarily adhered using washi tape, then removed once I was done playing - so fun!

Recipe:
Life Is Beautiful papers (Echo Park)
Desert Rose, Sage & White cardstock
Desert Rose, Sage, Carolina & Grey Wool ink
Juniper marker
Emporium stickers
Field Notes ephemera (Idea-ology)
Brayer
Cricut Artiste cartridge: clouds
Cricut Design Space: title using Thick font
Pattern: EMS Sketch Challenge #79

Challenges: Cut It Up #360 Create your own background and include a die-cut (the title was die-cut on Cricut Design Space, plus I used 2die-cut clouds as negative space when I created my sky background; The Outlawz Anything But a Card Anything Goes except a card; Triple B Anything Goes with a bird, a bloom, and/or a butterfly.

Dog Walk Layout for LM #807

This month at Lasting Memories, Lisa is challenging us to be inspired by the mood boards she created. This week's was difficult for me since I don't have any beachy photos to scrap right now, but I decided to go with the color palette after finding some pictures of my kids walking the dogs. My kids are wearing blue, and the dogs have lots of the tan shades, so I figured I could make it work. Hopefully you agree! The design team would love to have you join us this month over at Lasting Memories. Please check out the challenges and show off your layouts inspired by Lisa's mood boards!

Here's my layout: 

The layout doesn't have a brown border IRL but I added one digitally so it wouldn't blend into my blog background.

And here's the mood board:

Recipe:

Pet Shop papers (KI Memories)

Ice Blue Ribbon Plaid paper (Making Memories)

Toffee, Mocha & Almond cardstock

Almond, Mocha & Carolina ink

Burnt Sienna fineliner pen (iBayam)

DE Monograms - chipboard alphas

Teal stars

My Crush Best Day Ever sticker

Geometric washi tape (Recollections)

Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge: circles, scalloped border

Pattern: EMS Sketch Challenge #80

Challenges: As You Like It Favorite non-Card project (mine is scrapbook layouts) and why (because I love preserving family memories); A Cut Above Anything Goes including a die-cut; Let’s Craft and Create #233 Anything goes with optional twist: Fun in the Sun.

Swoosh! Crack! Thud! Whack! Layout

When you have been scrapping for a while, it sometimes gets hard to find a creative new title for similar events, so I was very happy when I saw a challenge over at A Cherry on Top to use onomatopoeia in your title. In case you don't know, onomatopoeia is a figure of speech where a word phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the natural sound that it describes. I searched online for suggestions for baseball related examples, and came up with the four I used in my title, so much more satisfying than using "take me out to the ball game" again!

Recipe:
Little Boy paper (CM)
Pear & White cardstock
Pear, Carolina & Canary ink
Mars Black fineliner pen (iBayam)
Active Nation Baseball stickers (C.R. Gibson)
Green Fields enamel dots (Altenew)
Jeepers Creepers washi tape
Diamond stencil (from Amazon)
Cricut Design Space: title using Madina Script, Cricut Sans, BFS Foxy & DTC Spring Break fonts
Challenges: Allsorts Challenges #853 Stencils; Neglected Stuff Challenge - my neglected stuff is the CM base page (so old it's from their 11.5" wide days) and the baseball stickers; One More Page - anything goes as long as it’s a scrapbook page; Stencil Fun - includes optional twist of patterns.

Tasty Layout

There are usually too many photos of life events for me to scrap just one photo, but when I have a single photo, I love creating a really special layout for it. For this photo of me enjoying breakfast at our Air BnB before hitting the road to do some exploring, I chose to use a Rochelle Spears sketch along with a color challenge, plus I threw in a few other challenges just for fun! Here's my layout:

And here's the Color Dare challenge. I used shades of the green, purple, and blue, plus some greys and white for my neutrals. How did I do?

Recipe:
Watercolor paper (Recollections)
Color Kaleidoscope papers (American Crafts)
Blue & green patterned papers (from my stash, source unknown)
Pear, Mink & Gypsy cardstock
White Daisy textured cardstock
Hydrangea, Gypsy, Sweet Leaf, Lagoon & Mink ink
ShinHan Touch Twin markers
Bold + Bright puffy stickers (American Crafts)
Faded Memory Lane rub-on transfers (49 and Market)
Tim Holtz Tiny Text Remnant Rubs (Idea-ology)
Spring Blossom Just Blooms
White paper flowers (Recollections)
Hydrangea craft button
Hydrangea embroidery floss
Lace & gingham ribbon (Michaels)
Magic Mesh (Creative Imaginations)
Purple Glitter gems
Grand Gothic Window metal die (Poppy Stamps)
Cricut Artistry cartridge: vine
Pattern: Rochelle Spears July 2026 sketch (rotated right)

Challenges: NBUS Challenge #88 - My never before used stuff was the Gothic Window metal die and the 49 and Market butterfly rub-ons; Paper Rocks Scissors #318 - used scissors to cut the ribbon and lace; Scrap With Stacy July 2026 Tic Tac Toe Board - used the middle column with rhinestone + 4 or more patterned papers + rub-ons)

4th Grade {Elliot} Class Picture Layout

I completed the companion page for this layout last May, but as I mentioned previously, I don't really enjoy scrapping class photos. They are so big and usually feature annoying color combos that don't match my kids' clothes at all, so it's a challenge to figure out how to scrap them. I solved that puzzle this time by just using almost all the same supplies as I did for my son's 4th grade portrait, so at least the pages will mostly match. I actually had the leftover papers in a bag because I kept thinking I would scrapbook this photo, so why put them away? It took over a year, but it's done and this marks the final page of my son's elementary school album - woohoo!

I realized after I scanned it that it is really hard to see the embossing on the grey cardstock, so here is a close-up of it:

Recipe:
Vicki Boutin Mixed Media Collection (American Crafts)
Fundamentals papers
Eggplant, Sapphire & Whisper cardstock
Eggplant & Sapphire ink
Fineliner pen (iBayam)
School Is Cool ephemera icons (Bella Blvd)
Craft buttons (from my stash, source unkown)
Blue Enamel & Glitter Duos dots
Extraordinary embossing folder (Uniquely Creative)
Challenges: Alphabet Challenge Blog E is for embossing (dry embossed a pattern into the grey cardstock); Can You Handle the Pressure? Use an embossing folder. Optional twist:  purple; Triple B Challenge Anything with a bird, bloom, or butterfly goes (I added the cute little owl to go with the school's mascot).

Happy Soul Layout

The end of the month is nearing, so I am trying to finish up just a couple more layouts to increase my total, although I know I can't surpass May at this point. Anyway, here is another one of our cat Sif when she was a kitten in 2019. She was so adorable!

UPDATE: This layout was featured at Little Red Wagon!

I created journaling to put in the little envelope, so here that is:

And here's a close-up of the heart inchies. Sorry, the gems are hard to see.

Recipe:
True Happiness papers & brads (Lisa Bearnson June 2007 Kit of the Month)
Chloe papers & sticker (Bella Blvd)
Sweet Leaf cardstock
Pear & Sweet Leaf ink
Sagebrush marker (Zig)
Old Soul ephemera (American Crafts)
Birdsong Ephemera Bits (49 and Market)
My Crush Wildwood Assortment
Green Fields enamel dots & star (Altenew)
Slice of Life mini puffy stickers (American Crafts)
Metal Charm
Pink Glitter Gems
Green Sparkles
Cricut Artbooking cartrdige: sun, notebook edge
Pattern: Sketch-n-Scrap #192 (an old sketch but still a good one)

Challenges: Cut It Up #359 Critter and must include a die-cut; Little Red Wagon #864 Fur, Feather, and Fin (any animal).

Baby Mine Layout for LM #805

It's Sunday and time for a new Lasting Memories challenge. This is the last one for June and it ends on Saturday, so if you want to play along with any of the challenges for this month, you need to hurry! I've been hosting the challenges inspired by June, and this week was a word play challenge: use a technique or product for every letter in the word JUNE. June has some super hard letters, but I managed to find something for them all with the help of my A-Z of Scrapbooking tab at the top of my blog. Here's my list:

J - Jolee's Boutique daisy stickers
U - unicorn ribbon
N - notebook edge
E - enamel dots and heart

And here's my layout:

Love these moody photos of my daughter. She probably wasn't going to cry, but the pics make me want to hug and hold her.

Recipe:
Oh So Moody cardstock (Heidi Grace Designs)
Brown Bag, Chocolate, Goldrush & Colonial White cardstock
Goldrush & Sky ink
Raw Sienna fineliner pen (iBayam)
White Daisy stickers (Jolee's Boutique)
Unicorn ribbon (American Crafts)
Chocolate brad
Coffee Break enamel dots (Altenew)
Cricut Artbooking cartridge: notebook edge
Cricut Design Space: title using Thick & Cricut Sans fonts
Pattern: EMS Sketch Challenge #11 (I created this sketch in 2010, and as far I I can tell, I never reused it, so I thought it was time)

Challenges: Let’s Craft and Create #232 Anything goes with optional twist: Penny for your thoughts (I used the song from Dumbo to reflect my thoughts about these photos); One More Page Any scrapbook page; Paper Rocks Scissors #17 - used scissors to cut the unicorn ribbon.

Let's Go Layout

I am a sucker for a double page sketch, so I was very excited to see a double pager on the Sketches in Thyme Facebook group this month. Although I had 9 photos, far more than the sketch called for, I made it work by using Flip-Flaps to hold 4 additional vertical photos. The vertical photo and the card with the bicycle on it both lift up to reveal more 3 photos. Score! The sketch also inspired me to fire up Cricut Design Space to create the slightly off-center ring, and I think it makes a great focal point for the layout.

Recipe:
Chantilly & Harmonious Patterns stamp sets
Central Park papers
Glacier, Topiary, Pacifica, Ballerina, Poppy & Black cardstock
Topiary, Pacifica, Ballerina, Poopy & Canary ink
Mars Black fineliner pan (iBayam)
Love This & My Happy Place Shape Sprinkles (Doodlebug Designs)
Petticoats & Pinstripes enamel dot (Echo Park)
DE Signage Chipboard shapes
Cricut Design Space: rings, triangles
Cricut You Are Here cartridge: Let's Go
Pattern: Sketches In thyme #714 from Facebook

Challenges: A Cut Above Anything Goes with a die-cut: Heart's Quest Challenge Blog #86 Anything goes with hearts; The Outlawz Anything But a Card; Inkspirational Challenges #370 Leftovers - the patterned papers and all of the cardstock except the base pages and the one I cut the largest ring from were scraps - a great way to use up some leftovers)!

I'm Ready for My Close-Up Layout

I love taking pictures of our cats, and they are especially adorable when they are young, so be prepared to see several layouts of our cat Sif when she was a kitten. Just in case you're wondering, we named her Sif because we already had a cat named Thor, and Sif was the wife of Thor in Norse mythology. So now you know! She had a short tail, though we don't know if it was a birth defect or an accident, which is why I mentioned it when pretending to journal from her perspective. The title is lifted from Gloria Swanson's famous line in the movie Sunset Boulevard.

Recipe:
Tiny Typewriter stamp set
Newsprint Alphabet stamp set (SU)
Scrapbook Walls Scarlet Posie & Mini Powder Curtain papers (Chatterbox)
Brown Squares paper (Rusty Pickle)
You Rock papers
Blush, Olive, Black & White cardstock
Blush, Barn Red, Pear, Olive & Black ink
Mars Black fineliner pen (iBayam)
Vicki Boutin Old Soul elphemera (American Crafts)
Reasons to Smile mini puffy stickers (American Crafts)
New England Ivy burlap ribbon
Olive brads
Flower embossing folder (Cuttlebug)
Cricut Artbooking cartridge: notebook edge
Cricut Artiste cartridge: filmstrip
Cricut Art philosophy cartridge: tag
Pattern: Rochelle Spears June Sketch (I left off the banner in the corner as it didn't look quite right on my layout)

Challenges: Can You Handle the Pressure? Used a flower embossing folder; The Crafter's Cafe - Anything goes with optional theme: blooms; Inspire Create Challenge #218 Animals; NBUS #87 - my never before used stuff is the foam butterfly stickers that I bought back in April and was saving for just the right project; Paper Rocks Scissors #17 - used my scissors to trim the ribbon; Unicorn Challenge Blog #121 Flowers; Scrap With Stacy Tic-Tac-Toe - used the left column with Ribbon + Stamping + Puffy stickers (the tiny stars near the top butterfly)