Can't Stop This Cutie Layout

This layout for my son's school album was inspired partly by the stop sign (I had to use octagons for a challenge over at A Cherry on Top), and partly by how cute he managed to be, whether he was dressed up or had dyed his hair red!

Recipe:
Swirl Stroke Caps Alphabet stamp sets
Pet Shoppe Cat paper (Simple Stories)
Good Day Sunshine paper (Echo Park)
Stardust paper
Cranberry & White Daisy cardstock
Cranberry & Outdoor Denim ink
Outdoor Denim marker
Childhood PML card
Candy Apple, Lagoon & yellow ribbon
Falling for You Shape Sprinkles (Doodlebug Designs)
Cricut Artbooking cartridge: stop sign, octagons
Pattern: Sketches in Thyme #677 (from Facebook)

Imagination Station Layout

I always take a bunch of photos at Vacation Bible School (or my hubby does), and then I have to decide which ones to put on a layout, always a challenge. I'm so grateful for pocket pages so I can slip a bunch more photos in between the two sides of my double page spread and don't have to worry about creating yet another layout for them! While creating this layout, I wanted to use a funky font stamp set for the title, but the "i" had a curly tail and looked more like a "j" so I did something I have never done before - I cut my stamp! I love the result, but it was a weird feeling to do surgery on a stamp. Has anyone ever done that? Am I strange to feel weird about it? LOL!

Recipe:
Swirl Stroke Caps and Lowercase stamp sets
Hip Hip Hooray paper
Field Trip papers (American Crafts)
Carolina, Sundance, Fern & White Daisy cardstock
Carolina, Sundance, Bluebird & Fern ink
Star Spangled Blue marker
Candy Apple Shimmer Trim
Cricut Accent Essentials: gears
Cricut Artiste cartridge: puzzle pieces
Pattern: scraplift from Splitcoast Stampers
Challenges: Double Trouble #166 Stash and Trash (Thing 1 - used papers from 2 paper packs); Colorful Options (I started out using the Royal Blue option, but ended up adding too many other colors, so I switched to the rainbow option)

EMS Sketch Challenge 99 + Flag-Waving American Layout

I took a couple of weeks off scrapbooking because my family was on vacation, but now I'm back with a new sketch and a sample layout. Although this is a single page sketch with four uncropped 4" x 6" photos, I made it into a double pager by rotating it 90 degrees to the left for the first page.

The sketch:

My layout:

Recipe:
Pen Pal Alphabet, Swirl Stroke Caps and Lowercase & Vintage Type stamp sets
Celebrating Freedom papers & Ephemera (BoBunny)
Cranberry, Dutch Blue & White Daisy cardstock
Sapphire, Cranberry & Dutch Blue ink
Moonstruck marker
White Pearls
Cranberry grosgrain ribbon
Outdoor Denim baker's twine
Dark blue washi tape
3-D foam tape
Small circle punch (CM)
Star punch (EK Success)
Starry Night stencil (Simple Stories)
Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge: photo corners, large circles
Challenges: Challenge YOUrself #88 - Alphabet Soup (my letter was P for patterned paper, Pen Pal alphabet stamps, punches, photo corners, and pearls); Tic Tac Toe Challenges #108 (I used the diagonal with patterned paper, free, and embellishments plus the bottom row with patterned paper, any shape die, and stencil)

Ben Franklin House Layout

I'm hosting the Hooray for Hollywood Virtual Scrapbook Night over at Splitcoast Stampers this weekend, so I wanted to share a few of the challenges over the next week and invite everyone to play along. The challenges will all be posted this weekend, but you have until the end of October to complete them. Here's my layout for the Celebrity Homes Tour Challenge.

I didn't have a Hollywood home to scrapbook, but I figured Benjamin Franklin is a pretty huge celebrity in American history, so here are some photos from the home he lived in for 16 years in London. I included a fun fact we learned on the tour (click on the photo to see a close-up view of the journaling), and I have some hidden journaling about the strange looking object in the photos on the right page. It's a replica of the original glass armonica invented by Franklin. (If you're not sure what an armonica is, check out this video). We were able to try it out to see if we could make it work!

Recipe:
Swirl Strokes Caps & Lowercase Alphabet, Take Note & Connections stamp sets
Emporium papers & My Stickease
Barn Red, Buttercup & Colonial White cardstock
Barn Red, Sweet Leaf, Cocoa, Creme Brulee & Crystal Blue ink
Colonial White ric-rac
Sweet Leaf ribbon
Cricut Artbooking cartridge: journal page
Cricut Artistry cartridge: house
Pattern: EMS Sketch 57

Partying with Some Angry Birds Layout

For my son's 7th birthday, I made Angry Bird invitations, and I've been saving the leftover invites in a baggie for the last two years until I finally got around to scrapping this event. Even though the large Angry Bird doesn't seem to be the same shade of red as the patterned paper I chose, hopefully it still works on the layout. If you're interested in directions for making the Angry Bird invitation, check out my original post.

Recipe:
Swirl Stroke Caps & A Typeface stamp sets
Elemental & Superhero Level 2 papers
Kraft, White Daisy, Cranberry & Moonstruck cardstock
Black, Moonstruck & Bamboo ink
Black marker
Black ribbon
3-D foam tape
Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge: title block, arrow, eggs
Cricut Artiste cartridge: stop sign
Pattern: Let's Scrap 3-31-10
Challenges: Heart 2 Heart Take 5 challenge (I used 5 die-cut eggs on my layout for my 5 of the same thing)

Stash Busters May Week 1 - Hello Mother Nature

Another Stash Busters Challenge coming your way! Click on the link below to play!

Stash14May1
This month, I am challenging you to use up certain items from your stash and then link your completed layout at Splitcoast Stampers so we can all get excited over it! I'll post a new list the first four Thursday of the month, and you have until May 31st to scrap your layout using the products. If you complete all four layouts, you will get an honorable mention for the month!

Please use:
• 1 patterned paper
• 2 wooden shapes
• 3 buttons
• 4 pieces of embroidery floss

For my layout, I only used one patterned paper for the background but I stamped two more papers to create patterned papers. Except the cardstock, all the materials for this layout were retired items from my stash!

Recipe:
Hello Friend, Noted Backgrounds, Swirl Stroke Caps & A Typeface stamp sets
Topstitch Level 2 papers
Sky & Cashmere cardstock
Olive, Chocolate, Cashmere, Desert Sand & Slate ink
Chocolate marker
Chocolate embroidery floss
Blue & Green craft buttons
Timberline Assortment wooden shapes
Pattern: Let's Scrap 4-30-14
Challenges: Scrap It Girl Mothers or Mother Nature; Scrapbook.com May Stamping challenge with a twist: stamp your background (I didn't stamp the whole background but I stamped the animal paper and the grid paper)

EMS Sketch Challenge 46 - Wave Dancers

It's time for another sketch challenge! Who wants to play? You have the whole month to complete a layout based on the sketch, then post your layout online and link your post to this post. On the 5th of next month, I will post the "winner" of this month's sketch, and that layout will be featured on my blog. Can't wait to see what all you creative people do with the sketch!

The sketch:

My layout:

Recipe:
Swirl Stroke Caps, Swirl Stroke Lowercase & Surf's Up WOTG  stamp sets
Surf's Up Level 2 Papers & Assortment
Crystal Blue cardstock
Ponderosa Pine, Crystal Blue & Saddle ink
Ponderosa Pine marker
Sorbet ribbon

Please link your completed layout here by 7/31/13 at 11:59 pm PST!

Chinese New Year

My youngest son, Elliot, celebrated Chinese New Year with his pre-school class this year. Unfortunately, there was no parade with dragons or fireworks, but the kids got to eat a lot, which they seemed to enjoy. I didn't have any papers or stamps that co-ordinated with this theme, so I created some background paper using the random stamping technique. I used the January Word Puzzle to stamp Happy New Year! on the Holiday Red cardstock, then used the same stamp but added the word Chinese to create my title. Using the clear stamps made this really easy, since I could see exactly where I was stamping. No crooked words or botched stamping - yay! I also included a dragon that Elliot had colored in, but I sprayed it with Archival Mist first to be sure it was safe to use in my scrapbook.



Recipe (all items CTMH):
January Word Puzzle, Swirl Stroke Caps, Atomic Caps, Tiny Typewriter Alphabet stamp sets
Stardust paper pack
Holiday Red, Dutch Blue, Sunny Yellow cardstock
Holiday Red, Dutch Blue ink