Top 14 of 2014

Happy New Year's Eve!  I hope 2015 brings you happiness and peace.  And, of course, more time for scrapbooking!  I decided to compile my 14 favorite layouts for the end of the year.  This is a lot harder than I thought it would be.  I have a lot of favorites.  I managed to narrow it down, though, and here they are in no particular order.

This one was created for My Mind's Eye, with a focus on brads.  I didn't know where it would go, but once I added in that circle die cut, it just fell into place.  Plus I love the photo of my daughter.

I created this as a Guest Desinger for The Cut Shoppe back in September.  I love how the background cut file looks over the watercolor.  And I love how the color scheme turned out.

This one was part of the My Scraps & More Pinspirational Crop a few months ago.  It was inspired by an abstract art piece, and I just had so much fun making it.  All you need is paper and a square punch.

This was made for a Throwback Thursday challenge at My Scraps.  I love how the watercolor turned out and how it blended together.  Love the bold colors and this EP collection.

I just love all the glasses going on in this one.  I love how the design turned out.  This was also for a weekly challenge at My Scraps.

This is a recent page created from a sketch at the My Scraps Sketch Blog.  It's Elle's Studio, and I love the colors and patterns.  I love how the background turned out...especially the stars.

Another Pinspirational Crop layout for My Scraps.  I used heart cut files from The Cut Shoppe and backed them with Crate Paper.  Love the simplicity of this one....and the watercolor background.  Oh, and the picture of my sweet husband and me :)

Love the die cut backing on this one.  This was made for Creative Scrappers using Crate Paper.  I just love the design and all the color going on.

Another Creative Scrappers layout using Echo Park Creative Agenda.  The bold colors are my favorite, and I love how the stitching turned out.  Plus the fun stickers are just awesome.

One more Creative Scrappers page.  That's a 17 Turtles cut file and Crate Paper.  Love the circle photos and the pops of gold.  I just love how it all came together.

One of my favorite layouts for The Cut Shoppe.  Lots of mixed media going on and fun frames as a background element.  I can't get enough of cut files!

Another page for The Cut Shoppe.  This was for a team up with Paper Camellia.  I just adore the cloud paper and the cloud cut file...they were meant for each other.  The soft touches of gold are just pretty.

This is a layout for Chickaniddy Crafts, using the Scrumptious line.  Love how all the messy circles came together and that denim background is my favorite.

And one more layout for My Mind's Eye...more pie charts!  That had to be my favorite die cut of this year.  I love this photo and how the whole thing came together.

And there you have it....now that I see all of these layouts together I can tell that I use die cuts a lot.  I use watercolors a lot.  I use stencils a lot.  I love bright colors and black & white photos.  Things you don't realize until you really pay attention...haha :)

Thanks so much for stopping by, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

You / My Scraps & More

Hey there, friends!  Only a few days left of 2014...I can't believe it.  This year truly seemed like a whirlwind to me.  It went by crazy fast!  Too bad we can't pause time, right?!  Oh well...what can you do except enjoy the time we have.  Speaking of enjoy...I have a layout to share :)

Have you gotten to play with the Stitched collection from Amy Tan yet?  It is SO fun and SO pretty!  I love the mix of teals, yellows, reds mixed with grey and black.  And the patterns are gorgeous.  

I created this layout for a Friday Favorite challenge over on our boards.  I chose a layout from one of our members, Jenessa, to lift.  She used several strips of paper in the background, added in some watercolor and backed her title stickers onto cardstock and then cut it out.  I mimicked that as well as the coffee rings she added onto her page.  You can see her layout HERE.

I did add a bit of modeling paste to my background using an old stencil I've had for years.  It has journaling lines on it, but I use it for interest.  I used red, teal and grey watercolors and a few mists to create the messy background and then finished it off with Mister Huey's mist splatters in Passport.  I also added some black stitching over the paper strips.  Finally, I added in a few Crate Paper rub ons. I also used the corrugated paper from Fancy Pants again on this layout.  Have you tried it yet?  It gives amazing texture and it's easy to tear, paint and sew on.  Check it out in the store HERE.

I used a Tim Holtz stencil and distress ink to create these messy coffee rings over my paper layers.  I also used some acrylic paint to give that wood veneer a matching color.

I've been obsessed with adding texture to my pages for some time now...especially using thread.  It's fun and easy and I just love the way it looks.  I also added in some of the corrugated paper here.  

The corrugated paper gives GREAT texture and interest!  And it's easy to stitch through and layers really easily.  I highly recommend it for any project.

I hope this inspires you to create something fun!  And when you're out of inspiration, browse our gallery and find a layout to lift.  I get lots of my inspiration from there, and I know you will, too.  

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day!

Reindeer Games / My Mind's Eye

Hey there!  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!  I can't believe it's already over.  Only a few more days left in 2014...onto another year!

I have another Christmas layout to share with you all today.  This was up on the My Mind's Eye blog on Christmas Eve.  I absolutely love how this layout turned out!  If you know me, you know I usually use super bright colors.  The Sleigh Bells Ring collection is full on Christmas colors with some awesome black and woodgrain mixed in.  I surprised myself...I was worried that I wouldn't like anything I came up with, but I must say that I LOVE this line.  Printing my photos in black and white really made it work nicely.

I had a "happy accident" on this page.  I grabbed a stencil and some gesso to jazz up the background.  I'm not one to hurry up and wash my stencils when I'm done....and I didn't pay attention and notice the green ink on the stencil.  As you can see, the white gesso rubbed off green.  Well, I wound up loving that and I didn't even do it on purpose.  I smudge more gesso around the page with my finger and built my layers on that.  I used various patterned papers, a small treat bag and a chipboard frame.

Here you can see the treat bag and the frame.  Pop dots are definitely the way to go for adding dimension...it makes it so much easier to add tid bits underneath the photo.

I hand cut this deer from one of the papers in the 6x6 pad and gave him a red enamel dot nose.  Those vellum circles were already cut from a previous project.  I LOVE the reindeer names decorative tape!  Perfect for this page :)  A little bit of gold glitter tape and gold stitching finished it off.

I combined a Cameo cut and some black Thickers for my title and then stitched through it.  I love how all the colors just go so well here...I think it's the wood grain paper that makes it all so awesome.

You definitely must check out this collection...it's really fun and there are lots of fun things in it...bags, frames....even bows!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day!

Christmas Goodies / The Cut Shoppe

Merry Christmas, scrappy friends!  I'm up and waiting for my girls to wake up...I can't believe they're still sleeping!  I wanted to pop on really quick and share a Christmas layout I created for The Cut Shoppe a few days ago.  It's really bright and festive and features two awesome cut files.  I used the Christmas Captured and Season's Greetings, which are so fun and verstaile :)

Christmas morning photos are always so full of color, and it's hard to find papers and embellishments that match all those busy colors.  And I never want to change these types of photos to black and white.  So I just decided to get creative with the cut files and create my own background color scheme.

I used those adorable frames and cut several of them out in various patterned papers.  I took my square acrylic block that I adhere my clear stamps to and dabbed various ink colors on it.  I spritzed it with a little bit of water and used it as a stamp all over the white cardstock.  It creates a messy square watercolor look.  It's a great way to get a controlled look, if that makes any sense.

I layered all those frames and then used some light blue thread to stitch them down.  The papers I used are from the Chickaniddy Crafts Jolly Good line.  The cute number circles and enamel stars are from the same line.  These frames are so fun to use in different ways than just framing a photo.

I just love these Christmas trees! I cut them in white cardstock and then took a green chalk ink and a light green gelato and smudged it all over the tree part.  I used a brownish/gold gelato for the trunk and a yellow one for the star on top.

One more close up of the die cuts, messy background and fun layers.

I hope this inspires you to use some of these fun die cuts in a different way than they were intended.  Who says a frame has to actually frame a photo?  You can do just about anything with these.  

Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful Christmas, friends!

My Scraps Sketch #96

Happy Tuesday, friends!  Have you checked out the newest sketch over on the My Scraps Sketch Blog?  It was created by the awesomely talented Diana Fisher!  I just love her sketches...and this one is so fun!

Here's what I came up with.  I wound up not using the tag idea from the sketch.  My layout just sort of took on a life of its own and this is the final product!  Has that ever happened to you?  Where you have one idea in mind and then it turns out completely different?

I loved the pink and orange in these photos, and I knew they'd be difficult to scrap.  But, hey...I like a challenge...haha :D  So I went through all of my products and kind of did a mix & match thing.  I pulled a few sheets from the Brighton Pier line from Studio Calico, and the background and teal papers are from a $5 Hot Buy Crate Paper pack I bought at Michael's months ago.

I added lots of gesso to the background and then pulled out four different stencils and my Tim Holtz distress inks.  I used the small round blending tool to go over all the stencils with coordinating inks to create the small triangles, circles, lines and coffee stain circles.  I also splattered some matching Color Shine around the page.  I don't know why I added in the teal color....it's not in the photo.  It just seemed right....maybe it's because there are little pink hearts on the teal paper...I don't know.  I like the color combo, though :)  I did add a bit of watercolor to the background, and a little bit of stamping and stitching as well.

I've had these fun wooden veneer titles just waiting for the right layout, and this one was perfect for Just Go.  Because when Paige gets onto someone's shoulders, you do Just Go....or else you'll get kicked and she'll squeeze your head...haha!  I got a wild hair to stitch through the holes....very fun and great effect :)  Here you can see the stamping and stitching really well.  I also ran some orange thread through my smaller title up top because they just weren't sticking on their own very well.

Another fun wood piece here...I inked it orange.  The background frames are Jillibean Soup, and I backed them with coordinating papers.  I stitched over this one for a pop of pink.

One more close up here.  I love how the paint and inks layered over each other.  I just love making messy backgrounds :)

Here is the prize you could win for playing along with the sketch!  A little kit made up of Dear Lizzy, Crate Paper, Pink Paislee and Pebbles!  Upload your layouts HERE on the sketch blog by December 31st midnight EST for your chance to win!  We'd love for you to upload your projects to our Flickr gallery, as well!  Check it out!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day!

December Snapshots / Chickaniddy Crafts

********Go HERE for The Cut Shoppe & Paper Camellia Blog Hop!********

Hey there!  Are you ready for Christmas yet?  There is just so much to get done before Thursday!  I need an extra week in there somewhere...

Today I'm sharing my December project for Chickaniddy Crafts.  It's a fun and festive Christmas layout, and I love the bright colors in this line!  This was up on the blog HERE last week.

I love getting into the Christmas spirit, and working with the beautiful and bright Jolly Good collection puts me in the holiday mood.  I love that this line is fun and whimsical, and these pictures of my sweet little girl in her pink Santa shirt coordinated perfectly!

Have you seen the FREE printable tags from the Jolly Good line yet?  I used four of them that I printed onto white cardstock.  They are super easy to print and use!  You can find them HERE.

I used two in my top right cluster and I layered two to the right of my photos.

Supplies Used: Jolly Good Printable Tags, JG140S04 Sweater Weather, JG140S09 Snow Play, JG104S08 Holiday, JG140S07 Making Spirits Bright, JG14EB05 Banners, JG14EB06 Tags, JG14EB03 Journal Tags, JG14EB01 Sticker Sheet, JG14EB08 Mini Brads, JG14EB07 Sentiments, JG14ST01 Clear Stamps, Liquitex Gesso, Artist's Loft Watercolors, Faber Castell Gelatos, Crafter's Workshop Stencil, Colorbox Ink, Tim Holtz Distress Ink, Craft Smart Ink, Prima Chalk Ink, Brother Sewing Machine, Coats Thread, Recollections Washi Tape, cord, cardstock, Silhouette Cameo, Black Sharpie Pen.

Here's how I went about creating this layout:

1.  I started with the Sweater Weather patterned paper.  I used the back side because it was pretty neutral.  I coated it with clear gesso.  I used a Crafter's Workshop stencil and a blue gelato to create the blue circles.  I also used watercolors and a few other gelatos to create the colorful background.

2.  I sorted through the patterned papers and chose a few based on color.  I cut them into long strips to give my photos a base.  I added a few layers behind my photos for some separation and then adhered them.

3.  Here, you can see how I next layered in the two printable tags and a few stickers from the 12x12 Sticker Sheet.  I added some stitching around the edges of the tags.  I decided to use the coordinating stamps as part of my title.  Using chalk inks, I stamped "December," and then hand cut it out.  I popped it up to give it some dimension.

Here's another angle of the layers.

4.  I couldn't resist using these adorable little diamond stickers from the Banners Mini Sticker Sheet.

I lightly inked up the edges and scattered them above and below my photos.  I also used the adorable little star stamp here and there.

5.  I wanted to add something to my upper right corner, so I used two more of the printable tags layered on top of a few label stickers.  I added a little banner sticker and a pink brad.

These cute printable tags are really fun and easy to use.  They add fun pops of color to your layout, and they make great layering pieces.  There are lots more to choose from, too!

I hope this inspires you to give them a try on your Christmas projects!  Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day!

Paper Camellia & The Cut Shoppe Blog Hop!

Hey there, friends!  Welcome to the Paper Camellia & The Cut Shoppe Blog Hop.  Thanks so much for playing along and stopping by!  You should have arrived here from Danielle de Konink's blog.  If this is your first stop, then make sure you visit the Paper Camellia Blog to go through the full Hop.

Ladies from both teams worked with the December Paper Camellia Kit and coordinating Cut Files from The Cut Shoppe.  There is a lot of amazing work that you'll get to see!  You don't want to miss the Giveaway from Paper Camellia, and you can find out more about the Giveaway from The Cut Shoppe at the end of my post :)

Before that, I want to share the coordinating Cut Files with you and the pages I created using them and gorgeous Paper Camellia Kit.

Aren't these just adorable?  They really do match up perfectly to the papers in the kit.

I created this layout using only the embellishments in the kit....rub-ons, die cuts, tags, wood veneer and Thickers.  I used one of the Bitty Borders cut file in this.  I added in a bit of my own watercolor, but not much.

I used the positive and negatives from the cut file and traced around them with a black pen.  I did lots of layering with the die cuts and added some machine stitching.

I painted this wood veneer piece with a gold metallic paint.  Love how it turned out!

I just had to use the Happy Little Clouds for this one....and on top of the cloud paper!  I backed a few of the clouds with the gold dotted vellum and added in gold stitching....I also splattered some gold Color Shine around the page.

This kit contains some gold glitter tape.....it is just gorgeous and works so nicely with all the other gold elements!

More gold tape accents....woo hoo!  I did a bit of watercoloring to some of the die cut hearts that are part of the clouds.  Backing the open parts of die cuts is so much fun...especially with vellum.

That LOVE circle is a rub-on that I adhered to cardstock and then cut out.  I utilized the word HAPPY as my title since it was already on the cut file....just perfect!

And one more layout :)  I did a bit of mixed media work on this background with gesso and watercolors and a bit of gelatos.  I used the adorable frames (Put a Frame on it) on this one to frame my photos.  I added some machine stitching around the edges for more detail.  That big heart is from the Because I'm Happy file...I just enlarged it.  Finally, I used the hearts & circles from Bitty Borders.  I cut them separately and scattered them around the page.

Gold gold gold....need I say more?

I love this Thicker font...nice and slender so making longer titles is easier.  I love the bold of the black against the softer colors.

I used some gold powder to heat emboss the wooden Hello and used the gold glitter tape to back a few of the heart cuts.  I really love this kit!

Now it's time for a GIVEAWAY!! Two random winners will win all five Cut Files that coordinate with the Paper Camellia Kit!  Just comment on the blogs throughout the Hop and winners will be chosen from the participating blogs.  Comments will remain open through Tuesday, December 23rd, for the chance to win!

And don't forget that through December 31st you can get a big discount at The Cut Shoppe!  Use the discount code MERRY25 to save 25% off your purchase.  You can use it more than once.

Here is a list of all the participating blogs for the Hop:

Paper Camellia
Danielle de Konink
Missy Whidden (You are here)
Laurie Danielle
Stephanie Strader
Jennifer Haggerty
Mary-Ann Maldonado
Amy Coose
The Cut Shoppe