Musik Express

I LOVE these photos taken last spring at an amusement park near Kevin's school. On this particular day, the boys from Christian Brothers were invited to enter and ride for free, providing backdrop while they were filming a commercial for the park. It was a beautiful day, so after school he quickly changed out of his uniform and enjoyed the most thrilling rides. This was his favorite...the Musik Express. The boys tried so hard to stay in their places, but it's impossible. As the ride spins faster and faster, everyone slides towards the outside of the circle, providing more and more laughs as they squeeze together. Then, it finally slows down and stops...for just a second...as it prepares to spin backwards! With music blaring, they have a rocking good time.

Papers and supplies are mainly October Afternoon's Midway collection, with a little Jillibean Soup, Basic Grey, Studio Calico, American Craft and Echo Park. I even managed to use a little bit of my washi tape collection! I do love a colorful page!

Flag Football

With the Super Bowl behind us, I can finally turn the the TV channel to something OTHER than football on Monday night, Thursday night, and all day Sunday. Thank goodness; this season seemed to drag on interminably! It can be exciting when your team is doing well, but this year it was not the case for our Saints. 

Kevin's intramural team was also an underdog this fall, but I really enjoyed watching them on the field. There's something about watching kids playing a fun innoculous game of flag football that makes it so much more appealing than men who make millions practically killing each other over a pigskin.

The Panthers may not have won any games (several were close), but those kids had heart! It was especially fun watching Kevin block kids who were a full foot taller. He had spunk, and did his best to protect their quarterback. Fun times.

And how cool that this layout meets the Seeing Stars Challenge over at Simon Says Stamps!

Enjoy The Ride

Sometimes I spend hours on a page, sometimes days. There are times when an unfinished layout sits and stews for a week while I decide what to do next! The page below was one of my quicker creations. I had just completed three pages with Scraptastic's Days of Our Lives kit, and most of the papers had already been dissected. After that first cut is made, subsequent ones are a breeze, so I went ahead and cut six strips from what remained of my kit papers, arranged them haphazardly, added a title, journaling, and a couple of embellishments and called it done.

This was such a quick and adaptable design, that I thought it would make a great challenge for the Scraptastic blog. The challenge is to adapt a 6-strip strategy for your next scrapbook page. The 6 strips can be arranged either vertical or horizontal, depending on the size and orientation of your photo, but they must be cut from 6 different papers. Find a photo and pick some papers that bring out the colors in your picture. Cut strips of various lengths and widths, then play with them to find a pleasing arrangement. Once you have those six strips, the rest is up to you. Either go minimalist like the page above, or go all out embellishing. Whatever you do, enjoy the process!

If you'd like to play along you have until February 6th at midnight to submit your entry for the challenge HERE. This month's prize winner, drawn randomly from all January challenge entries, will receive $20.00 to spend in the Scraptastic Club Store.

Frame It!

Scraptastics Days of Our Lives Kit Add-on included the most wonderful pack of die cut chipboard, including several frame designs in different colors and sizes. The following two layouts use three of those frames. The first, Pooh & Friends uses a smaller frame in a more unexpected way...not to frame a photo but to create an appealing accent instead. I had this rather empty spot at the bottom right side of my page, and the frame, embellished with a chipboard heart button, filled it in nicely. 

With so much red in the photo itself, I had to limit the red accents to small pops of color here and there: a homemade flower, a few small title letters, ink splatters, and the heart button.

The three little bees were inspired by an old Cosmo Cricket journaling card from my stash. I hand drew the bee bodies on the yellow dot paper, cut them out, and adhered them to my page. Once attached, I drew their antennae, wings, and "flight paths". They look adorable paired with Scraptastic's exclusive honeycomb stamp.

I thought about using the Liquid Pearls to write part of my title directly on the page, but then thought better about it. (OMGosh, I would die if I messed up all the work I'd already completed!) Instead, I found a skinny script font, die cut it from the grey cardstock, and covered it in Liquid Pearls. Once dry, it was adhered to the page. Whew...that was a much safer alternative!

And here's a closeup of my frame and button:

On my second layout, two of the frames are used to accentuate two different photos of my swimmer. A smattering of wood veneer stars hints at his school team's success.

I loved this phrase sticker and found it quite appropriate. "Do what you love and do it often." Good advice for anyone!

As you can see below, the Jenni Bowlin "Read This" tag  was placed alongside the photo of my son pouring over the heat sheet for the Championship Swim Meet...psyching himself out!

Now to see if these two pages will fit any of the CHA Challenges on Two Peas!

A Scraptastic Gallery Lift

January's theme for the Scraptastic Design Team was for each of us to find one project from the gallery to scraplift. Perusing the Scraptastic gallery is so very inspiring and it was extremely difficult to choose just a single page! However, I proceeded to sketch out several and ultimately chose this layout by ChristinG.

Christin's "First Day in Kindergarten" page captured me with her off-center photo, and all the little bits and pieces tucked in around it. I also loved the cluster hugging the opposite edge of the page, and, as you will see, copied placement of that narrow striped strip almost exactly.

The banner bits were cut from the patterned papers and sewn together before placing on my page, a little trick I learned from working with last month's Sew Easy banners from October Afternoon! 

Everything was toned down with distress ink, papers, tags, and chipboard included, with a single lollipop flower added, an old watch face as its center. The background sheet and watch face came from my stash, but everything else came from Scraptastic's January Days of Our Lives kit and add-on. 

Thank you Christin for some great inspiration! Check out ChristinG's gallery for more examples of her layered up style.

Chi Omega Mini-Album

I don't make Christmas cards. I don't make gifts. But I DID make an exception this year...and created this awesome mini-album for my niece. Emily has always been interested in my scrapbooking projects, and is very artistic herself, so I knew she would appreciate something handmade. This cute little booklet for her Chi Omega memories was just the thing. Her sorority's colors are cardinal and straw as you will gather from their heavy use on these pages. ;)

 

 

And now my collection of scrapbook papers is completely void of all things red and yellow! LOL! I enjoyed making this album, and I hope my niece also has fun filling it with a few special photos and memories of her days as a Chi-O.

Bumper Cars

As soon as I saw Scraptastic's All The Lights kit, I knew what I wanted to scrap! I had several colorful photos from our evening spent at an amusement park last spring, and I knew they would be perfect. The paper with all the colorful circles reminded me of the bokeh you get when taking a picture at night with lights in the distance. 

You'll notice below that one of my photos was particularly blurry. We were both moving around so fast, I in one of the bumper cars and my son in another, but I love how the movement adds to the story. Believe it or not, it was my first time in a bumper car, and at first I didn't know how to make it move. I even hopped out of one and into another, thinking the first was broken! Finally I figured it out and had a blast.

Aqua and pink enamel dots give added dimension to the colorful paper below:

The title is made from a mix of lettering: large letter stickers (main kit), small letter tiles and Heidi Swapp Buzz word (add-on):

I love the amusement park feel that this banner gives to the page. My favorite flags are those at either end, the ticket stub and yellow duck. Too cute!

I've used an October Afternoon banner on every layout created with this Scraptastic kit so far. They definitely are my favorite element!

A Baker's Dozen

I proceeded to pick my top twelve for 2012, but it turned into 13, so there you go...a baker's dozen. In no particular order, here are 13 of my favorite layouts of 2012:

Sand & Sun

Prom 09

Sunkist Cousins

The Waiting Game

Waiting 2 Ride

Hello Summer

Oh The Places You'll Go

Rainbow

First Specs

Studio Backlot Tour

A Day In The Life

Delta Sigma Phi House

Tickled Pink

Pick your top twelve (or thirteen) and share. I'd love to see your favorites from the past year.

Funny how each of my three kids and my husband are in the photos. Never the same one mind you, but all six are there. That's nice...but we are a family of seven. Uh-oh, where am I? That's something I'll have to work on for 2013.