Using Older Supplies / Cute & Fun

Hey there, and Happy Friday!  I'm back today to share another layout in my Using Older Supplies series I've been doing for a few months.  I dug into my random patterned paper stash as well as my ribbon and washi tape stash.  I didn't use a specific collection, and I only used a few strips from patterned papers.  This is something fun you could try if you have minimal supplies.  A little bit can go a long way, that's for sure!

I decided to create a grid design because I wanted to mimic the stripes in my daughter's shirt.  I needed the photo up top to be in that position because she's looking down and to the left.  These photos aren't even the same size, but they were still cute and scrapworthy, so I made them work :)  I recreated the stripes using the paper, washi tapes and ribbon.  I went over a lot of the area with white gesso and added lots of pretty Shimmerz Paints in coordinating colors.  This is another great tip if you don't have a lot of supplies...use watercolors or sprays to get your color down. 

I used a lot of random embellishments here.  I basically went through the bin on my desk and picked out things that matched in green, blue, purple and white.  I've got Simple Stories stickers & chipboard, Freckled Fawn puffy sticker and random buttons & rhinestones!  Talk about stash...I've had those for years!

Thread is another easy and affordable embellishment to use.  It not only gives you great pops of color, but you get awesome texture as well.  I added some striped washi tape to the side of each photo and added more doo dads.  That's some random blue cardstock behind the photo as well as some tissue paper.

Here's the other photo....same thing.  Washi, thread, cardstock, tissue paper and embellishments.  I did add foam under the photos to give them some dimension.

I was so excited to break into my old rick rack stash...oh my gosh!  I've had that stuff for so long.  It felt great to use some of it!

Check out my process video if you're interested in how I came up with this page.  It was a lot of fun to put together!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a great weekend!

Hello I Am So Sweet / Simple Stories

Hey friends!  Hope you are all doing well :)  I have another layout for Simple Stories to share today.  I used the Posh collection for this, and I used a lot of the washi tapes.  I didn't use any of the patterned papers.  This is a fun thing about washi tapes...you can create your own bits of pattern :)  I punched several sized circles from some scrap cardstock and then covered them all with the washi tapes.  I created a vertical design with them and then used one of the 3x4 Snap cards as the big focal element.  I layered my photo over that and added Fundamentals alpha stickers to finish the title.  I used some Prima Oil Pastels and some Shimmerz to create the smudges and watercolor look in between all the circles.

I really love how this turned out!  I machine stitched through most of the circles with coordinating colors of thread in a cross pattern.  I embellished with various stickers, brads and chipboard stickers.  I love how the smudges of color look on the background...it was fun mixing the mediums to get just the right colors.

Here's another angle of the circles.  I love this mix of navy blue here...it contrasts so nicely with the coral, teal and yellow.  In my previous layout with this collection, I didn't use any navy blue, so it was fun to bring that color in here.

I raised my photo up using foam and then fussy cut this floral tag piece from a Snap card.  I used my craft knife to slice around some of the flowers so they could overlap the edges of the photo.  I added some tangled thread and some shiny gold clear stickers.  I love how all these products create such fabulous texture and detail.

I decided to use this Snap card as my title area and just fill in the rest of it with stickers.  It made the design come along a lot quicker and it was easier to create my title.  I love using the Snap cards on my layouts because they really help come up with some great ideas that I wouldn't normally think of.  

Here's one more close-up of the title area.  More brads, circles, stitching...love it all!

Here's the process video for this page...I hope you enjoy and get some fun ideas to try on your next page!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful day!

Grandma Sandwich / Hip Kit Club

Hey there, friends!  Happy Sunday :)  Today I am sharing another layout for Hip Kit Club using the 2016 September Hip Kits.  This went up on the Hip Kit Facebook page last week.  My theme for this page was "Alpha Stickers," and I honestly struggled to use them in a unique way.  I tried creating a long title but it just didn't work.  I settled on mixing and matching the Pinkfresh Studio Indigo Hills alpha stickers with the scripty gold Maggie Holmes alphas and coming up with a creative title.  This photo is blurry because it's a still shot from a video.  My girls plopped down on top of my mom one night on the couch, and they were all laughing and giggling.  It was such a sweet moment, so I joined in and had to get a video of it.  I had to scrap it even though the quality isn't that good.  Sometimes it's the memory...not the clarity of the photo :)

I used some of the pink flamingo cardstock from the Cardstock Kit as my base and covered a lot of it in white gesso.  I used a mix of the Shimmerz Creameez Great Fruit from the Color Kit & the Prima Oil Pastels from the August Color Kit to create the background.  I decided to bring in a lot of die cuts & ephemera to layer in behind my photo.  Since my girls are wearing navy blue, I brought in pops of that.

I love this mix of product & color here.  I stitched through the Pinkfresh Studio alphas with gold thread.  I created a little cluster underneath the title using some of the Maggie Holmes chipboard and gold foil stickers & a Simple Stories Posh floral sticker & brad.  My journaling fit right under the title very nicely.  Behind the title I used a "LOVE" die cut that was from one of the cut file sets this month.  It's mainly just a small detail.

Here's a great shot of the background.  Those oil pastels are awesome, and they look fabulous when you smudge them with your finger.  I also added ink splatters using some other Shimmerz from my stash.  I used some Simple Stories paper behind my photo and then used foam to raise it up.

I fussy cut this ampersand from one of the Dear Lizzy papers and layered it on top of a Simple Stories tag and a fussy cut flower from Maggie Holmes.  I also fussy cut some of those cute foiled hearts from a Simple Stories patterned paper.  I love mixing and matching products like this...paper, chipboard, brads, enamel dots....you get some really fun detail & texture.

Here is the top of the photo.  I layered in one of the Pinkfresh Studio wood veneer pieces, some Crate Paper chipboard and more of the foil stickers.  I added in some teal tangled thread for extra pops of that color.

I fussy cut this "gather memories" piece from the Crate Paper die cut pack.  It's an acetate piece, and it tucked in very nicely right here.  I had to splatter some Heidi Swapp Gold Color Shine to finish it off.  We did get that in a Color Kit several months ago :)

Here's my process video if you'd like to check it out...

Thank you so much for stopping by today!  See you soon!

80s Hair Rock On / Bella Blvd Pinterest Inspired

Happy Friday, friends!  I am so happy to be able to post this morning because of the potential threat of Hurricane Matthew barreling up the coast of Florida.  Thankfully, my area of the state didn't get hit very hard at all...just rain and some wind.  Luckily, we never lost power.  I'm hoping those on the coast made it through okay!

I have a new layout for Bella Blvd to share today, and I used the new beautiful and colorful Illustrated Faith Bright & Brave collection.  I found this gorgeous image on Pinterest to use as inspiration.  I love the black & white vertical stripes mixed with all those bright florals.  This collection was perfect for this!

I used black & white Bible Journaling paper to create the stripes first, and then I used a lot of white gesso over it.  I used the new IF Watercolors (Shanna's Favorites) to create all that colorful watercolor on the background.  Instead of using flowers for this, I fussy cut a bunch of those cassette tapes from the Jesus is My Jam paper and layered them behind the photos.  I knew my photos were all about my daughter's big messy hair, so I decided to go with the music theme and make this an 80s Hair Band type of page...haha!

I fussy cut 80 from the Count the Ways paper and cut "hair" on my Cameo using an orange solid paper from the 6x8 Paper Pad.  I created "rock on" using the new IF Homespun Alpha Stamps.  I stamped them on patterned paper with music notes and then fussy cut them out.  Those stamps are amazing!!  I added several stickers, including some washi stickers.  I did lots of machine stitching and added tangled thread under the "Os" as well as pop dots.  I fussy cut the yellow & pink hearts from the Clear Cuts pack.

Here's another angle of the layout's details.  I used more IF stamps here...those cute music notes.  I also used one of the new Designer Clips.  They are so fun, and you can slide them onto paper or photos just like a paper clip.

This watercolor is amazing!  I love this new set.  I did a little bit of stamping over it here and added some more stickers and stitching.  I love fussy cutting images from patterned papers.  Always look at your papers and see what jumps out at you for cutting out.

Aren't those tapes just adorable?  I layered some patterned papers behind my photos and popped the left one up a little bit.  I love how the black & white photos pop against all those bright colors behind them.

Finally, for these arrows...I fussy cut them from the Clear Cuts pack and stitched them down.  The aqua one is a sticker, but the rest are clear.  I love how you can see through them!  Such a fun embellishment :)

Before I go, I also wanted to share the Bella card I made for last week's World Card Making Day.  I used the new Addison collection for this, and it's so fun and girly.  I used some of the "sweet" die cuts and did a little mixed media work on the background.

I used white gesso, gelatos and some Shimmerz to get that pretty blue smudged look on the background.  I combined alpha stickers from the Fundamentals sheet with Tiny Text alphas and a Tabby to create the sentiment.  Machine stitching and tangled thread finished it off.

Thank you so much for stopping by today....have a wonderful weekend!

Hello Beautiful / Simple Stories

Hey there!  I'm back today to share one of my monthly layouts for Simple Stories.  I absolutely LOVE the Posh collection!  I mean....just look at the colors and pretty florals!  For this layout, I challenged myself to not use any of the navy blue.  There is a lot of that color throughout the collection, but I wanted to focus on the light and airy colors for this page.  I began with a neutral patterned paper with corner flower clusters.  The middle is blank, so I could add whatever design I wanted there. 

I wanted to place my photo in the lower left hand corner since my daughter is looking up and to the right.  So by placing the photo there, it looks like she's looking up and across the page at all the flowers :)  I used my Cameo to cut the big XOXO in the middle of the paper, and I backed it with patterned papers.  I came over a lot of that area with white gesso and then used some aqua, pink and gold Shimmerz Paints to add the watercolor.  I fussy cut more flower clusters and layered a few of them around and under the photo, and I placed one in the upper right corner.

I fussy cut this big XO from a Snap 4x6 card and stitched through it.  I also stitched around the big XOXOs with gold thread.  That took some time and patience, but I LOVE how it turned out!  It just seems to make the letters' edges sharper.  I layered this pretty shiny gold "today" die cut here along with a few clear stickers and word label stickers.

These colors....and flowers....swoon!  I added some thread for an extra bit of color and "messy" factor, and I fussy cut the "Live simply" from a Snap card.  I love cutting those up and using them as embellishments!

I added some tissue paper behind my photo as well as some foam to pop it up.  This makes the flowers look more dimensional, too.  I actually began this whole layout with this one "hello beautiful" Snap card.  I knew right away I wanted to layer it like this under my photo and use it as a small title.  The rest of the layout and color scheme was based on it.

I layered these flowers onto the photo's edge here, and I love the contrast of the dark and the bright.  Always think about things like that when you take your photos or edit them.  (If you know you're going to scrap that photo later, try and think of interest angles or how you can leave some white space on the photo as you take it).

Here's one more close up of the upper right flower cluster.  Again, more thread, clear stickers and stickers from the 4x6 sheets.

I had such a blast putting this layout together.  It's one of my favorites, I think!  Here's the process video for it if you'd like to see how I put it all together.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Have a great Wednesday!

Love Her / Hip Kit Club

Happy Tuesday, everyone!  I'm back today to share another layout for Hip Kit Club using the 2016 September Kits.  I wanted to use a different color scheme for this page.  My last layout used a lot of royal blues & corals, so I went with bright yellows, pinks and teals for this one.  My theme for this page was to use the Project Life cards in a unique way.  I decided to punch circles out of all the teal colored cards.  I went with a vertical design since my photos were in a strip.  I used this gorgeous yellow Maggie Holmes Gather paper as my background and smudged a lot of white gesso over the right side.  I used some of the Prima Oil Pastels from last month's Color Kit and some of the Shimmerz Great Fruit Creameez from this month's Color Kit to create that beautiful pink watercolor look.

Since my photos have a lot of black in them, I added pops of black around the page as well.  There are also lots of shiny gold elements included.

I have been waiting for the perfect page to use these adorable Crate Paper Cute Girl chipboard balloons.  I added pop dots under them here to give them some dimension and added some tangled thread under it.  Here you can see some of the watercolor and background circles.  I did lots of machine stitching and added some pop dots.

Circles are always a great design element to go with.  I love all these shades of teal....so pretty!  Here I added a Pinkfresh Studio Indigo Hills wood veneer circle, a Crate Paper Gather wooden button and die cut sticker and a Simple Stories Posh die cut.  I love how all of these different elements look together, especially with the pretty pink in the background.

Yellow is so pretty....I just love it.  Here I combined more of the Crate Paper chipboard with some of the black foam Thickers.  I also mixed in lots of the Crate Paper shiny gold phrase stickers and an American Crafts wood veneer.  I embossed half of it with gold powder.  I love how the stitching turned out here.

Shiny gold....swoon!  That gold powder is the Recollections brand from Michael's and it works great.  Here I layered more circles and added a floral CP chipboard piece under the photos.  It was easy to slide under there because I raised the photos up with pop dots.

Here's one more close up.  That "Loved" piece is from the Crate Paper dimensional stickers, and it's the perfect yellow.  I'm so happy with how this turned out!

Here's my process video if you'd like to check it out!  I hope you are inspired by it in some way :)

Thank you so much for stopping by today!!

Sweet Moments / My Mind's Eye

Happy Sunday, friends!  I hope you're enjoying your weekend :)  I have a new layout for My Mind's Eye to share, and I used mostly the new Yes, Please collection.  It's all black, cream and gold if you haven't seen it...it's very bold and beautiful.  I decided to add lots of color to bits and pieces of it, so I pulled out some pink My Colors Cardstock to use as a background.  All of those gold outlined hearts are from the From The Heart patterned paper.  I used some watercolors to paint them.  I wanted to create two large clusters with my photos & the hearts, so I did that and left the center of the page open for my title.  I used lots of those same watercolors & some Shimmerz sprays to create all the background splatters.

These hearts were so fun to paint!  I painted them first and then fussy cut them out.  There is so much shiny gold in this collection, so if you're a gold fan, you need to check it out!  Once I had all the hearts arranged, I lightly taped them down with my ATG and then stitched through them...with gold, of course :)

Okay, these gorgeous gold acrylic shapes & words may be my favorite pieces in the whole collection.  I love the look of them and the font....so pretty!  I used this "Sweet" piece and combined it with some of the Sticker Sheet alphas.

I love the dimension of the acrylic pieces...so beautiful!  I used bits and pieces from the Hooray! collection to layer under my photos.  That collection is bursting with bright colors, so I pulled a few of the Journal Cards to used as layers here for little pops of color.  This little "Remember This Day" tab is from the Yes, Please Mixed Bag of die cuts.

I love how the watercolor turned out against the pink background!  So pretty and soft, yet it's still bright.  I layered in some tangled thread and more gold hearts from the Mixed Bag.  There are even more of those hearts on the Chipboard Elements sheet!

I hope this gives you some ideas on how you can incorporate some color into this collection.  It's very versatile and fun to play with :)  Thanks for stopping by today, and have a wonderful day!