Watching the 4th of July Parade Layout

July 4th photos aren't usually my favorite to scrapbook, not because they aren't fun pictures, but because I struggle with the red, white, and blue combo for some mysterious reason. This time, I pulled out some old DCWV papers that featured more muted tones of those colors, and it seemed a little easier to create my pages.

Here's the left side:

And the facing pocket page:

And both pages together:

Recipe:
July Word Puzzle & 10 Things stamp sets
The Summer Stack papers (DCWV)
White cardstock
Outdoor Denim, Cranberry & Bamboo ink
Outdoor Denim marker
White enamel stars
Color Kaleidoscope sticker book, puffy stickers & Thickers
Petticoats & Pinstrips ephemera (Echo Park)
Pattern: Let's Scrap 6-1-19 sketch (with the right side as a pocket page). The diamond shapes didn't work with my layout, so I used circles instead.

Challenges: Use Your Stuff #361 - Summer Fun (and what says summer fun like watching a July 4th parade for the first time?); The Paper Girls #177 Top Five (I chose "5 Things that make today great")

Celebrate America Layout

It's been a busy week and I'm getting ready to head off to a scrapbook retreat tomorrow, but I wanted to share a layout I finished this week. Everyone seems to be working on St. Patrick's day pictures this week, so there are a lot of challenges featuring green, but I happened to be scrapping July 4th pictures. I did manage to play along with the green themed mood board challenge at Creating with Paper and More. I loved the row of hearts dangling from string, so that idea inspired me to hang some of the stars on my layout. Click on the link above to play along with this fun challenge!

Recipe:
American Celebration & July Word puzzle stamp sets
Superhero & Typeset Level 2 papers
Indian Corn Blue & White Daisy cardstock
Indian Corn Blue, Moonstruck, Cranberry & Black ink
Black marker
Dimensional Elements chipboard: Quotes
White baker's twine
Silver Star & Americana Primitive Star brads (Creative Impressions)
Pattern: Splitcoast Stampers Sketch16Jan3

4th of July Parade Layout

Challenge #13 for (Inter)National Scrapbook Month at Let's Scrap, "Where in the world do you live?", asked us to create a layout celebrating our town, city or country. I started with the July 4th parade pictures I took at our local celebration last year, and combined them with a Let's Scrap sketch, plus the cute Fanfare papers from CTMH. I fussy cut some stars out of the paper and stamped the title, subtitle, and American flag. I added a Flip-Flap that contains an extra photo and my journaling about how we loved our first 4th of July parade in our new hometown.

Recipe:
American Celebration & July Word Puzzle stamp sets
Fanfare Level 2 papers
White Daisy, Cranberry & Sunny Yellow cardstock
Cranberry, Sunny Yellow, Pacifica & Creme Brulee ink
Pacifica marker
Cranberry grosgrain ribbon
Cricut AP cartridge: star tag
Pattern: Let's Scrap sketch 2-23-11

Mom's Mini Calendar, Part 2

I just finished my mom's mini calendar, and I'm happy to announce that I cleaned up my scrapbooking desk, too. Woohoo! Now I have a clean surface to use for my next project: wrapping Christmas presents. Here are the pictures of the last 6 months' pages. A couple were inspired by Anne Chek's samples, while I found inspiration for others from cards and layouts in the CTMH catalog. Thanks to CTMH for inspiring me, too. On a sad note, all the Word Puzzle stamp sets (the ones I used for the names of the months in this project) are retiring on December 31st, so if you love them but haven't bought them all, this is your last chance. They will no longer be available after this month. CTMH will have a new collection of monthly stamps, but they will not have as many images as these, so don't miss out on getting the Word Puzzles!













Recipe:
July Word Puzzle, August Word Puzzle, September Word Puzzle, October Word Puzzle, November Word Puzzle, December Word Puzzle, Moments in Time, Spot On Backgrounds, Felicity & Just for the Holidays stamp sets
White Daisy, Moonstruck, Tulip, Desert Sand & Dutch Blue cardstock
Moonstruck, Dutch Blue, Tulip, Clover Meadow, Sunflower, Desert Sand & Versamark ink
Tulip & Sunflower markers
White Gel pen
White embossing powder
Sunflower buttons
Sunflower & White organdy ribbon
Scalloped scissors (CM)

July 4th Pool Party Layout

What a busy weekend I've had. My older son played 2 soccer games, and he's now finished for the season (secret sigh of relief). I held my cardmaking and scrapbooking workshops, and they were received with delight. It was so exciting to hear the ladies ooh and aah as I pulled out each new card we were going to create. It all took longer than I had planned, but the ladies had fun, so that's what's important, right? Here's a layout I meant to share last Wednesday in honor of Veteran's Day, but time got away from me and I never got it posted. Oh well, better late than never. I usually struggle with patriotic layouts (the red-white-blue color scheme is hard for me to work with), so this time I went with a totally different color scheme and used stars to support the theme. I love how it came out, and I hope it inspires you, too. The pattern is Memoirs Complete from Imagine, and I combined My Stickease with stamping to create the title and embellishments.



Recipe:
July Word Puzzle stamp set
Good Times Level 2 papers
Good Times My Stickease
Sweet Leaf, Buttercup & Colonial White cardstock
Chocolate & Twilight ink
White Daisy Dazzling Die Cuts
Chocolate brad
Chocolate marker

Punchbowl Layouts

I didn't quite meet my goal of scrapping the remaining two layouts for my Hawaii album this weekend. I did finish one layout on Saturday night, and I had laid out the papers for a second one, but then on Sunday I got lazy and just read a good book after church. Ever feel like that? Today I woke up with my creative juices flowing, so I buckled down and finished the last layout. I totally changed the papers I had set out on Friday night, but I like the result much better this way. For the first layout, I created masks for certain portions of my layout, attached them temporarily to my background cardstock, and brayered over the cardstock using Dutch Blue ink. I was able to achieve a much lighter background shade than if I had used plain Dutch Blue cardstock, plus I got the look of patterned papers. I removed the masks and used the Simple Stitches stamp set to create the journaling lines, the borders around two of the pictures, and the large stars. For the second layout, I had made up my own sketch, but I kept moving things around until I got the look I wanted. In case you're wondering why I listed all those Word Puzzle stamps, I used portions of them to spell out the word "price" so it would match the font for "remember." I love how the twill ribbon I used to attach my tag is formed into a V for victory, an unintentional result that really fits the theme of the layout: the cost of freedom. I've always found the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (Punchbowl) to be pretty impressive. Seeing all the graves and realizing that the people buried under them gave their lives to preserve our liberty is a sobering thought. I only showed a small portion of them, but the memorial contains mosaics depicting battles (mostly naval) of WWII and the Korean War. Definitely worth seeing if you are visiting Oahu.


Recipe:
Simple Stitches, July Word Puzzle, Charm Upper Alphabet, Charm Lowercase Alphabet & Classmate Alphabet stamp sets
Colonial White cardstock
Dutch Blue, Desert Sand & Outdoor Denim ink
Desert Sand marker
Foam squares
Brayer



Recipe:
Friendship Alphabet Small, Tiny Typewriter Alphabet, January Word Puzzle, July Word Puzzle, August Word Puzzle & September Word Puzzle stamp sets
Free Spirit Level 2 papers
Cocoa, Indian Corn Blue & Colonial White cardstock
Cocoa & Indian Corn Blue ink
Twill & Cocoa grosgrain ribbon
Photo hanger
Pewter brads

Father's Day Layout

I didn't get much scrapping done this weekend since I attended the Women of Faith Conference in Anaheim (Woohoo!), but I eked out this layout on Sunday after church. It's another of Helen Onulak's challenges, this time using the Imagine pattern, Sweet Symphony. I featured these sweet pictures of my sons with their daddy this past Father's Day, and the Stardust paper was an excellent accompaniment, as well as giving me the idea for a title. While creating this layout, I discovered that, even thought I have tons of stamps and supplies, I tend to reach for a few of my favorites most of the time. I love the versatility of the Hodge Podge Alphabet stamp set, and Star Struck has such cute arrows, stars, and circles that it goes with many layouts. Another favorite item is the Basic Craft buttons. These just debuted this month in the Fall/Winter CTMH catalog, but I have already used them on several layouts. The neutral colors make them so easy to work with. If you don't already have these three items, they are "must buys." Put them on your list - you won't regret it. I only have 4 more Hawaii layouts to scrapbook, so I'm going to go sit at my desk right now and see how many I can crank out. I really want to finish these by the end of the week so that I can move on to others subjects, like catching up on Adrian's school album and our current family photos. Wish me luck!



Recipe:
Hodge Podge Alphabet, Headline Alphabet, July Word Puzzle & Star Struck stamp sets
Stardust Level 2 papers
Lilac Mist, Chocolate & Bamboo cardstock
Bamboo, Desert Sand, Moonstruck & Versamark ink
Basic Craft Buttons
Embroidery floss
Chocolate & Moonstruck markers
Embossing powder
Liquid Glass
Connections Club Clear Shapes
Star punch (unknown source)

Teacher Thank You Cards

This has been another card-oriented week. My oldest son finished first grade on Friday, and I made cards for his teacher and full-time teacher's aide. Both cards were inspired by CTMH consultants. The card with the "A" on it uses one of my favorite products: White Daisy textured cardstock. I had already used the large A on my Dimensional Elements Monogram A (see page 96 in the current catalog if you have no idea what that is!), so I used the negative space as a stencil, traced it onto my cardstock, and cut it out. I then brushed Outdoor Denim ink onto it directly from the pad (you could also use a brayer to do this). I love how you can still see traces of the white cardstock, thus making the most of the fact the paper is textured. I have to share a funny story regarding the delivery of these cards. I finished them on Thursday night and placed them in my son's homework folder in his backpack. I figured the teacher would get them since she usually checks the folder in the morning. My husband got my son ready for school Friday, and made no mention to him about the cards. So when my son came home from school and I looked in his folder, the cards were still there! EEK! I made a mad dash back to the school and fortunately his teacher was still there, so I was able to give her the cards. We ended up having a nice talk, but I was a little stressed out by this, to say the least! The funniest part of it was the conversation I had with Adrian about it.

Me: Did the other kids in your class give teacher cards or gifts?
Adrian: Yes
Me: So didn't you think to check your backpack for your card for teacher?
Adrian: Umm . . . no.

Kids!



Recipe:
Thanks, Classmate Alphabet, July Word Puzzle & September Word Puzzle stamp sets
Animal Cookies paper pack
Clover Meadow, Outdoor Denim, Honey & Cranberry inks
Outdoor Denim, Honey, Cranberry & White Daisy cardstock
White Daisy textured cardstock
Outdoor Denim & Chocolate markers
Foam Squares



Recipe:
Thanks & Tiny Typewriter stamp sets
Watermelon B&Ts paper (retired)
Sweet Leaf & White Daisy cardstock
Chocolate ink
Foam Squares

NSD Layouts

Today was a busy day, with a soccer game (Adrian's team won 5 -1) and a friend's retirement party to attend, so this is the first chance I have had to sit down at the computer. As promised, here is the first of several layouts I completed on National Scrapbook Day. I am a big fan of Jeanette Lynton's pattern books, so for this layout I used a pattern from Cherish called Silver Screen. I frequently tweak the patterns to fit my pictures, but this time I pretty much left it alone. My favorite part of the layout is the patterned paper I created using White Daisy cardstock and a stamp from the Jingle Borders stamp set. I stamped the background pattern using Indian Corn Blue ink, and then filled in parts of it with Cranberry and Honey markers.

  

 

Recipe:

Jingle Borders, Priceless Love Word Puzzle, July Word Puzzle & Friendship Word Puzzle stamp sets

Blue Ribbon patterned papers

White Daisy, Outdoor Denim, Indian Corn Blue, & Honey cardstock

Outdoor Denim, Indian Corn Blue, Cranberry & Honey ink

Outdoor Denim, Cranberry & Honey markers