Gingerbread Houses Layout

I loved the creativity that went into planning a gingerbread house-making event to which my kids were invited, so I tried to get just as creative on the layout. First, I chose two single page sketches and combined them to create a double page spread. Then I dug through my sash of Christmas papers to find the right match for the photos, especially that violently bright green tablecloth! Then I kept adding bits and pieces to tie the two sides of the layout together, since they don't overlap in any way. This layout was lots of fun to put together, so hopefully you like the end result!

Recipe:
Neighborhood & Canvas Art Workshop stamp sets
Jolly Dot & Jolly Elements papers (Creative Imaginations)
Kraft, Tulip, Willow & White Daisy cardstock
Tulip, Chocolate, Desert Sand & Clover Meadow ink
Brown marker (Zig)
Chocolate brad
Red Glitter Gems
Cork Heart stickers (American Crafts)
Jolly Elements stickers (creative Imaginations)
CTMH Chevron embossing folder
Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge: title, rings, banners
Pattern: Sketches in Thyme #351 for the left page . . .

Sketch-n-Scrap #167 for the right page.

Christmas Lights Layout

One of the best Christmas light displays I've ever seen is in the Thoroughbred Lane neighborhood, so we enjoyed introducing our kids to this amazing experience. I used some old KI Memories papers and stickers to scrap these photos, and I loved adding the tag with the strings of lights. I cut it out with my Cricut and colored it using my ShinHan markers.

Recipe:
Traditional Christmas paper and stickers (KI Memories)
Pomegranate &White Daisy cardstock
Pomegranate & Sweet Leaf ink
Antique Burgundy marker (Zig)
ShinHan Touch Twin markers
Green Epoxy Bubbles
Sweet Leaf ribbon
Cricut Artistry cartridge: tag
Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge: scalloped border
Challenges: Bitten by the Bug holiday tags (mine went on a layout, not a gift, but it certainly celebrates a fun aspect of the Christmas holiday!); Heart 2 Heart season's greeting (I have "merry" on the top of the layout and "Christmas" near the title, so it adds up to Merry Christmas!); Lasting Memories 3+ patterned papers (just in case you can't figure out #3, the green pieces of paper have an outlined pattern on it)

{Christmas) Party Layout

There were so many fun scrapbooking challenges for winter and Christmas that I wanted to play along with, so I picked out some December photos and got to work! I used a sketch from Let's Scrap for this set of photos, but I didn't have quite the right sized photos, so I adapted it to work with what I had. Many years ago, a friend gave me a cartridge named Speaking of Winter, and since we live in sunny Southern California, I hadn't ever used it since winter is very similar to summer here. These pictures were taken at a kids' Christmas party, complete with fake snow, so I pulled the cartridge out and created the title to go with the snowy theme.

Here's a close-up of the title:

Recipe:
Jingle papers
Juniper, Tulip, Ponderosa Pine, Chocolate, Sunset & White Daisy cardstock
Juniper & Tulip ink
ShinHan Touch Twin markers
Cricut Speaking of Winter cartridge: title, snowflakes
Pattern: Let's Scrap 12-15-18

Challenges: Scrap Our Stash December Golden Globe challenge

[Not So Tiny] Bubbles Layout

Bubblefest at the Discovery Cube is always a hit with little kids, and I found making this layout almost as fun as the kids found making giant bubbles! Scrap Our Stash has a monthly sketch challenge that I have been wanting to try, but I never could make it work until this month. Basically, you blend elements from two different sketches to come up with your own look. Here are the sketches we were blending:

I chose the photo placement from the right hand sketch, plus the rings and journaling location, and then combined them with the large rectangle, tag, and title treatment from the left hand sketch. My 3 of the same kind of embellishment were the word stickers, which fittingly enough were called word bubbles!

The title is a play on the song Tiny Bubbles!

Recipe:

Central Park papers

Pacifica, Willow & White Daisy cardstock

Pacifica & Canary ink

Clover Meadow marker

Canary washi tape

#Life Cards

Primary Word Bubbles (JoAnn Scrap Essentials)

Cricut Accent Essentials cartridge: rings

Cricut Simply Sweet cartridge: title

Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge: tag

Pattern: Scrap Our Stash December Blend-a-sketch challenge

Challenges: Scrap With Stacy song inspiration: It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year (I used the phrase "the most wonderful time" as part of my journaling)

Fly Me to the Moon layout

Trying to catch up a little on photos from 2014, so here's one from April when we took our kids plus a neighbor to the Discovery Cube. Lots of fun things to see, especially the simulated rocket launch!

Recipe:
Outta This World stamp set
Stargazer papers
Sapphire, Ruby, Poppy & White Daisy cardstock
Vellum
Canary, Pacifica, Sapphire, Ruby & Whisper ink
Black marker
ShinHan Touch Twin markers
Honey triangles washi tape
Silver star brads (Creative Impressions)
Cricut Artiste cartridge: rocket
Pattern: Sketches in Thyme #353

Challenges: Heart 2 Heart Wish Upon a Star (lots of stars in the background paper, plus the stamped sentiment on the rocket and the silver brad stars); Double Trouble Challenge #17: for Thing 1's 3-2-1- recipe challenge, my 3 embellishments = stars, 2 colors = red and blue, with a  few other accent colors, and 1 image = stamped rocket. For Thing 2's Double Dare, I chose a bold and bright color scheme, which is also Color My Heart's challenge #322.

Gamer Graduation Card

My nephew just graduated with his Bachelor of Science in Visual and Game Programming, so I decided it would be fun to make a card that reflects his chosen career! I combined a sketch from Try Stamping on Tuesday (my first entry for this newly discovered blog) with the Proplayer papers and a Cricut cut from the You Are Here cartridge to create a gamer-friendly card. As soon as he opened it, my nephew started pretending to play with the game controller, so I think it's safe to say it was a hit!

Recipe:
Proplayer papers
White Daisy cardstock
Black & Ruby ink
Durable round studs - pewter
Cricut You Are Here cartridge: game controller

Buckingham Palace "Love This" Layout

I pulled together the remainder of my Buckingham Palace photos using some London themed paper my aunt gave me, which inspired me to pull out some papers and embellishments in kraft, black, and red. In addition to the single page layout, I used a smaller version of a photo storage page with three horizontal pockets to hold two photos and a journal card.

Recipe:
This & That, This Way to Paradise stamp sets
London patterned paper (from Aunt Carol - thanks!)
Blue Ribbon paper
Kraft cardstock
Black ink
Black marker
PML Tabbed journaling card
Black gingham ribbon
Illustrated Faith Family die-cuts (Bella Blvd)

Star Wars Christmas Card

The youth pastor at our church is a little quirky, so I thought he and his wife would appreciate a card that's not my normal "sweetly pretty" style. I had purchased the "Force Is With You" digital cartridge from Cricut a few months ago, so I decided to use the Leia image and dress her in an ugly Christmas sweater. It was super simple to make (except for trimming the paper for the sweater), but hopefully they will get a giggle out of it!

And the sentiment inside . . .

Recipe:
Snowhaven papers
White Daisy, Black, & Cranberry cardstock
Font: Berlin Sans FB Demi
Challenges: Bitten By the Bug Christmas cards

EMS Sketch Challenge 70 - Buckingham Palace Layout

It's December and my Christmas gift to all my fellow scrappers is a new sketch! Special thanks to Sapphire1968 over at Splitcoast Stampers for inspiring me. I loved her Chalk Art layout and thought it would make a great sketch! Enjoy, and don't forget to post a link to your completed layout using the link-up below.

The Studio challenge blog wanted us to use gold on our layouts, which seemed a perfect fit for these photos of Buckingham Palace. I added lots of gold accents (embossed hearts, crown and dots, gold marker line, gold ribbon); my favorite was the title, which I cut out of white cardstock using Cricut Design Space, and then covered with Versamark ink and gold embossing powder. It was a challenge to heat emboss it without toasting my fingers, but I love the result!

Recipe:
Lollydoodle, Spot On Backgrounds & Save the Date stamp sets
Star Spangled Blue, Chocolate & Kraft cardstock
Versamark ink
Star Spangled Blue, Chocolate & Gold Metallic markers
Gold embossing powder
DE Album Pages chipboard
Irresistibles You & Me chipboard
Gold ribbon (from my stash)

EMS SKETCH CHALLENGE 70 - Link up your completed layouts here.
An InLinkz Link-up