Globe Theater Layout

Still working on my London album, and I am hoping by the end of the month I will have finished scrapping the photos we took on April 29, 2017. Almost there! Anyway, these photos are from the reconstructed Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, which was built based on any available evidence of what the original building looked like, although they did have to make a few changes because of modern safety requirements. They were performing Romeo and Juliet that evening, but since it looked like it was going to be a modern production and we really would have loved to see Shakespearean costumes in this theatre, we decided not to go. But the tour was fun, at least.

The layout actually has lots of shimmer and shine from the gold leaf paper on top to the shimmer trim and the brown sparkles, but it's hard to see in the scan, so hopefully this photo will give you a better idea of that:

And here is a close-up of the embossing, since I am not sure you can even see it in the scan!

Recipe:
Love Life stamp set
Bonnie Belle Wedding paper (MAMBI)
Drama School paper (Scrapbook Customs)
Cashmere, Black & Espresso cardstock
Black ink
Mars Black fineliner pen (iBayam)
Yesterday & Today PML card
Reasons to Smile washi tape (American Crafts)
Gold shimmer trim
Brown sparkles
CTMH Sunbeam embossing folder
Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge: title, scalloped border, banner
Pattern: scraplift from Scrapbook.com
Challenges: Cut It Up #361 Emboss It - I included multiple die-cuts and embossed the black paper on the right; Can You Handle the Pressure? Use an embossing folder; Retro Rubber Challenges #277 - I used a flourish stamp from 2013 and went with the top line of the board.

EMS Sketch Challenge #127 + B-Day Breakfast Layout

I hadn't created a new sketch yet this year, but Sharon over at Splitcoast Stampers asked for one for the virtual crop (VSBN) they are having this month over there, so here's what I came up with. After I finished it, I realized it features 4 vertical photos just like my last sketch, but hopefully the simplicity will  appeal to those who didn't want to add all the banners next to the photos! Feel free to rotate it, flip it, use different sized photos, or just use it as is, but be sure to share your layout in the comments below. And we would love to have you play along with the crop at Splitcoast; it's easy and free to sign up for an account, and there are 7 love-inspired challenges to help you get some scrapping done.

Here's the sketch:

And here's my layout:

Recipe:
Noted Backgrounds, Hodgepodge Alphabet, You & Me, Love Life & Whooo's Your Valentine stamp sets
Field Trip papers (American Crafts)
Pet Shoppe Cat paper (Simple Stories)
Candy Apple, Toffee & White Daisy cardstock
Candy Apple, Capri, Outdoor Denim & Honey ink
Prussian Blue fineliner pen (iBayam)
Monograms 2 Chippies (Mintay Papers)
My Happy Place Shape Sprinkles (Doodlebug Designs)
Cool Summer Night enamel dots (Altenew)
Red Dot Essentials washi tape (Echo Park)
Seagull decorative scissors (Fiskars)
Cricut Artiste cartridge: hearts
Challenges: Heart’s Quest Challenge Blog #82 Red and/or gold hearts; Crafter’s Café #326 Anything goes with optional twist: one for the boys; The Outlawz Anything But a Card Anything goes.

Tis the Season Layout

My friend Diane hosted a Christmas tea in 2018, and for some reason I only took two photos. I am usually an avid photo taker at events like this, so I was pretty surprised at this small number of photos. However, there is a possibility this was the year I led the ladies in singing Christmas carols on guitar for the first time, so that would explain why I was so preoccupied and didn't take many photos. Hopefully Diane remembers, but in the meantime, there is no journaling on my layout because I can't remember all the facts!

The washi tape and spatters didn't show up well in my scan, so here is a close-up photo I took.

Recipe:
Love Life stamp set
Traditional Christmas Papers (KI Memories)
Woodgrain papers
Garden Green cardstock
New England Ivy, Pomegranate & Cocoa ink
Winter Reflections Accent Pack (CM)
The Holiday Life chipboard stickers (Simple Stories)
Jingle All the Way chipboard stickers (Simple Stories)
Reasons to Smile washi tape (American Crafts)
Fairy Crystals (Memory Box)
Peeled Paint Distress Spritz (Ranger)
Pattern: Splitcoast Stampers Sketch15Aug1

Challenges: Holly & Ivy Challenge #192 Anything Christmas Goes; Peace On Earth #96 Christmas; Time Out Challenges #298 Word Inspiration - I used spatter + season (perfect for my title!) + Metallic (the gold washi tape)

Women's Retreat 2025 Bookmarks

Our church's women's retreat is coming up this weekend, and since I had some free time on my hands, I volunteered to make bookmarks for each lady attending. I had done this before at my old church, but we usually only had about 25 ladies, so I didn't consider how much work would be involved in making 70 bookmarks! My printer doesn't like thick paper, so I ended up printing the Bible verse on colored printer paper, stamping the designs, and then adhering it to the patterned paper before laminating it and hole punching it to add the ribbon. I made the first 25 but was already getting tired of the design, so I decided to make three iterations. Here's the first set:

And the second (2 variations since I ran out of plaid ribbon):

And the third:

And in case you, are wondering what 70 bookmarks looks like, here they all are together!

Design 1 recipe:
Love Life & Save the Date stamp sets
Meg Paisley paper (Making Memories)
Amethyst, Spring Iris, Ocean & Black ink
Lavender gingham ribbon (Michaels)

Design 2 recipe:
Tickled Pink, Bugs & Hugs, Love Life & Grown with Love stamp sets
Brown Paisley (DCWV)
Brown Bag, Mocha, Sunflower & Capri ink
Pure Brown marker (Zig)
Plaid ribbon (Berwick)

Design 3 recipe:
May Word Puzzle, Love Life & Find Your Style stamp sets
Floral paper (from my stash, source unknown)
Raspberry, Pixie & Pear ink
Plaid ribbon (Berwick)

Challenges: Paper Rocks Scissors #7 - I cut each length of ribbon in addition to trimming individual bookmarks that were a little wonky!; The Outlawz Anything Goes in a Card Free Zone - I usually submit scrapbook layouts, so I though this would be a nice change of pace.

Tower of London Layout

My hubby and I went to London in 2017 and took over three thousand photos, so every once in a while I pull out some photos and try to get some layouts scrapped. On this particular day, we visited the Tower of London, so here are the photos of the exterior walls, the drained moat, and the entrance at the Middle Tower. Hopefully I can get on a roll and finish scrapping our Tower photos this month, but we took a lot of pictures so no guarantees!

This layout also includes a Flip-Flap that opens up to reveal another photo and my journaling card. Here's the other photo:

And here's the journaling card:

Recipe:
Love Life, You & Me, Cherish the Day & Vintage Type stamp sets
Sage & White Daisy cardstock
Sage, Honey, Pewter & Black ink
Black marker
Silhouette & Zippidee My Complements cardstock stickers
Storybook PML cards
Happiest Place Acrylic shapes
Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge: ticket
Pattern: EMS Sketch Challenge 3 (The bottom two photos on the left were a panorama but not quite perfectly lined up, so I decided to ditch the straight lines of the sketch and stagger everything slightly, plus I added a bunch of PML cards to the background.)

Challenges: Park Hopping My Happy Place (inspired by Cinderella's Castle at Disneyland); The Outlawz Anything Goes in a Card Free Zone with optional twist of travel (our trip to London); Time Out Challenges #268 On Vacation (to London!)

Let's Party Layout

To complement the Star Wars theme for Angel's 6th birthday, I made a lightsaber out of cupcakes for the kids. It was well received!

Recipe:
Love Life, Artiste Birthday, Fanfare, Just a Number, Crafted With Love & Stronger Together stamp sets
Stitched Journaling Panels stamp set (Autumn Leaves)
Fanfare papers
Canary, Pacifica & White Daisy cardstock
Cranberry, Sky, Pacifica & Black ink
Black marker
ShinHan Touch Twin markers
Versamarker
Clear embossing powder
Cranberry grosgrain ribbon
Cranberry craft buttons
Sunkiss Yellow embroidery floss
Cabana Great Lengths stick (CM)
Magic Mesh (Creative Imaginations)
Cricut Artist cartridge: cupcake
Pattern: Rebecca Ludens 2010 Sketch

Challenges: Use Your Stuff #440 Embossing (I haven't done any heat embossing for a while, so I pulled out my Versamark pen and clear embossing powder to add some shine to the candle fame and the spots on the cupcake)

National Gallery 1500s Layout

I ran out of pictures from 2014 to scrapbook, so while I'm waiting for my order to arrive, I turned my attention back to my London photos from 2017. Since we took a little over 3000 photos and I'm currently on Day 5 of a 14 day trip, I have a feeling I will be scrapping these photos on and off for the next five years! Anyway, for these photos from the National Gallery, featuring some of our favorite paintings from the 1500s, I decided to scrapbook just a few and place some more in a pocket page. Not including the white, there are only two colors on this layout: Barn Red and 3 shades of grey. I did this for a challenge I'm hosting over at Scrapbook.com, and let me tell you, it requires a lot of self-discipline not to add more colors - LOL!

Recipe:
Picture Perfect, All the Details, Alphabet Solo "R" & Love Life stamp sets
Paper Fundamentals Basic Assortment
Barn Red, Linen, Whisper & Grey Wool cardstock
Barn Red, Slate, Whisper & Grey Wool ink
Steel Gray marker (Zig)
PML Tabbed journaling cards
Grey  Wool baker's twine
Magic Mesh
CTMH Stripe embossing folder
Cricut Artiste cartridge: title banner
Pattern: Sketch-n-Scrap #146

Challenges: Lasting Memories #447 Sentiment stamps (picture perfect, all the details, love this, remember); Heart 2 Heart Scrapbook Layouts (I could have chosen many of my layouts for this challenge, but I felt pretty proud of what I managed to do with some discontinued product, so here's my entry!)

Horse Guards Layout

I'm hosting the Hooray for Hollywood Virtual Scrapbook Night over at Splitcoast Stampers this month, so I wanted to share a few of the challenges over the next week and invite everyone to play along. You have until the end of October to complete the challenges, and all you need is a free Splitcoast Stampers account in order to post your layouts in the gallery. Here's my layout for the
Celebrity Stash Busters challenge. We needed to use stash items (nothing new) that start with the letters in CELEBS. Here's my list!

C - chipboard, chevron washi tape
E - embossing (Lagoon strip using chevron embossing folder)
L - Lagoon cardstock, ink, and washi tape; Love Life stamp set
E - Enamel hearts
B - Baker's twine
S - Sparkle & Shine patterned papers, Stickles

I also used the new sketch from Let's Sketch.

And here's my layout:

Recipe:
Vintage Type & Love Life stamp sets
Sparkle & Shine papers
Black, Lagoon, Slate, Whisper & White Daisy cardstock
Ruby, Slate, Black & Lagoon ink
Ruby & silver baker's twine
Black grosgrain ribbon
Silver ribbon
Enamel hearts
Ruby chevron and Lagoon herringbone washi tape
You & Me Irresistibles chipboard
Xmas Red Stickles (Ranger)
Chevron embossing folder
Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge: tags, scalloped border
Cricut Noah's ABS Animals Cartridge: horse, title

Love These Moments Layout

In the days when we didn't have a reliable babysitter, it was usually easier for my hubby and I to take the kids with us when we went out. This layout demonstrates a funny case-in-point when we ended up having Valentine's dinner with our kids.

Recipe:
Love Life stamp set
Heartstrings Level 2 papers and My Complements stickers
Cranberry, Blush & Whisper cardstock
Cranberry, Blush & Whisper ink
Black marker
Slate washi tape
Blush brads
Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge: scalloped border, hearts
Pattern: Heart 2 Heart Sketch 7
Challenges: 1-2-3- Get Scrappy June tic-tac-toe board (I chose scalloped edge, washi tape, metallic element); Lasting Memories happiness theme (it inspired me to add the "happiness lives here" sentiment to express how happy my hubby and kids make me)

Always & Forever Layout

Isn't  Laughing Lola the perfect paper to highlight photos of my neighbor's wedding? I've been trying to figure out an "unusual embellishment" ever since Lasting Memories posted their challenge a couple of weeks ago, and I finally decided to use black pipe cleaners to form a heart and the letter S (our neighbor's new last initial) on my layout. I saved a space for journaling in the lower right hand corner of the layout but didn't write out any yet since I want to add complete names, dates, and location but don't want to publish them for the world to see.

Recipe:
Love Life stamp set
Laughing Lola Level 2 papers
Gypsy Laughing Lola Gold & Amethyst cardstock
Black & Gypsy ink
Purple Glitter Gems
Lavender ribbon (Offray)
Heart punch (EK Success)
Black pipe cleaners (from my kid's art box)
Cricut Artbooking cartridge: title, silhouette
Pattern: EMS Sketch 44
Challenges: Stampin' Royalty Wedding challenge (okay, this was a no-brainer!); Child's Play Scooby Doo challenge (I was inspired by the two purple tones of Daphne's dress and the green/gold of her scarf); Lasting Memories Unusual Embellishments (pipe cleaners)

Timberline Rocket Card

A card for my Timberline card workshop. Sometimes I struggle to put cards together for my workshops, and sometimes they fly together like magic; I'm pleased that this time, my mojo is going strong and the cards keep coming! Stay tuned for more cards tomorrow.

Recipe:
Outta This World, Love Life & Celebrate the Everyday stamp sets
Timberline Level 2 papers
Colonial White cardstock
Ponderosa Pine, Lagoon, Goldrush & Slate ink
Lagoon & Goldrush markers
Bronze Shimmer Trim
Aqua Dots
Cricut Artiste cartridge: rocket
Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge: star
Pattern: Heart 2 Heart 3/31/14 sketch challenge

Huntington Think of You Card

I'm getting ready for a card workshop featuring the Huntington Level 2 papers, so here is my first card. Although I love the fall theme of these papers, my card workshop gals wanted all-occasion cards, so I'm kicking things off with a Thinking of You card that utilizes a fun sketch from Retro Sketches. Hope you like!

Recipe:
Noted Backgrounds, Take Note, A Typeface, Love Life & Card Chatter - Sympathy stamp sets
Huntington Level 2 papers
Barn Red, Cashmere & Colonial White cardstock
Barn Red, Olive, Slate & Versamark ink
Olive craft button & baker's twine
White embossing powder
Cricut Artbooking cartridge: note paper
Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge: heart, banner

ProPlayer Thanks Card

For this card using the ProPlayer papers, I thought I'd switch things up and try for a more sophisticated color palette, so I omitted the Pacifica and added Desert Sand. The top flower is sponged (I tried cutting in out in Ruby but it just blended into the background), and I embossed and sanded swirls onto the Black cardstock.

Recipe:
Love Life & For Every Occasion stamp sets
ProPlayer Level 2 papers
Black, Ruby, Desert Sand & Colonial White cardstock
Black, Ruby & Slate ink
Colonial White craft button
Black embroidery floss
Colonial White grosgrain ribbon
Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge: flower, tab
Cuttlebug embossing folder: D'vine Swirls
Pattern: Gallery from Wishes
Challenges: Twist of Faith buttons challenge (another new challenge site I found this week - I'm on a roll!)

SCS Variety Challenge 191 - 21 Laps

Time for another stimulating variety challenge for Splitcoast Stampers, so come join in the fun and play along using the link below!

SBVC191 - Ombre
One of the hot new trends in scrapbooking is called ombre. The dictionary defines ombre as "having colors or tones that shade into each other — used especially of fabrics in which the color is graduated from light to dark." This week's challenge is to create a layout that uses the ombre technique. You can do it using strips of paper, stamps,markers, even digital effects.  Have fun and let us see what you can do!

For my layout, I used strips of progressively darker yellow patterned paper to create the background piece on the right hand page. I also did a little bit of ombre with the blue strips on each page.

Recipe:
Authentic, Kudos, Love Life, Make It Count & My Game stamp sets
Chantilly, Dotty for You, Grace, Clementine, Key to My Heart, Animal Cookies, Magic Moments & Free Spirit Level 2 papers
Goldrush, Sky, Indian Corn Blue, Outdoor Denim & White Daisy cardstock
Buttercup, Creme Brulee, Sunflower, Honey, Goldrush, Sky, Indian Corn Blue & Outdoor Denim ink
Outdoor Denim craft buttons
Creme Brulee baker's twine
3-D foam tape
Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge: title, stars
Pattern: EMS Sketch 44
Challenges: 2 Broke Girls "A Pinch of This and That" stash challenge

Sew Thoughtful Card

I'm plugging away at getting the cards for my upcoming card workshop designed before I leave for a camping vacation during which no paper crafting is allowed! Here's another one, this time using the  Puns of Praise stamp set. I picked the following sketch from Annabelle Stamps for the design, but of course I had to change it up a little!

 

Recipe:
Puns of Praise, Boutique Borders & Love Life stamp sets
Dream Pop Level 2 papers
White Daisy cardstock
Slate & Cotton Candy ink
Black Pigment ink
Clear embossing powder
Cotton Candy & Silver Metallics markers
Grey Wool baker's Twine
Pewter brad
Challenges: Annabelle Stamps Choose Your Favorite Sketch

For Always Birthday Card

Here's the last card for my For Always card workshop. The gals are coming over tonight and we are going to have fun! Anyone else got fun scrappy or crafty plans tonight?

Recipe:
Joyful Birthday & Love Life stamp sets
For ALways Level 2 papers
Smokey Plum, Juniper, Slate &White Daisy cardstock
Smokey Plum, Juniper & Black ink
Slate Satin Polka-Dot ribbon
3-D foam tape
Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge: stars, frame
Challenges I'm entering: Frosted Designs Chevron Challenge, Heart 2 Heart CAS Challenge