2015 Favorites

It's fun to look back at all the scrapbook pages I've created over the past year. These 13, in no particular order, are a few of my favorites:

And a little lagniappe:

And another, to celebrate the many creative obsessions I've had, past and present! ;)

Here's to a new year full of fun artistic adventures!

My Favorite Foxes

Photobooths...tee-hee, I LOVE them...even though they do produce some of the worst photos ever. 

You're never ready. The flash goes off when you least suspect it. You're always looking in the wrong place. It's just too fun! It's also a good opportunity to get my kids together for a picture, no matter how silly.

I created the following page with a fun strip of pictures and Scraptastic's Feels Like Home kit and add-on:

Embellishments were punched, fussy-cut and digitally cut from the patterned paper:

Yes, these are my favorite Foxes!

Maybe one day we'll actually book a session with a professional photographer. Meanwhile, there's always the photobooth!

Home For The Holidays

The Cut Shoppe and Pinkfresh Studio have teamed up this week for a product swap. On each blog there are inspiring projects that combine the beautiful Christmas Wishes collection from Pinkfresh Studio with cut files from The Cut Shoppe Etsy store.

I put together a page with a new favorite, the Home for Christmas background cut file, the perfect accompaniment for a Home For The Holidays layout. The layout features a photo of all 14 of my parents' grandchildren, plus one great-grandchild. It's truly a feat gathering everyone from near and far for a photo!

Two rows of houses from the Home for Christmas cut file, their roofs sparkling with snow, were popped up from the misted page beneath them. Patterned paper was used to "light" the windows of several of the homes, while others were left in shadows:

Die-cuts, puffy stickers, and a holiday red alphabet complete the scene:

The light and trendy Christmas Wishes collection and digital cut files from The Cut Shoppe are a great pair!

Love All

Tomorrow my family and I will sit down to an awesome array of favorite foods, and give thanks for our many blessings. We are thankful for our home, for good health, family and friends. Not everyone is so fortunate. The scrapbook page below is about a favorite church ministry activity, serving a Saturday lunch to the poor and homeless at St. Jude Community Center.

A stencil from the Feels Like Home kit was used to create the cut file for the row of hearts. To give the hearts dimension, the intact inner edges of each heart half were scored and bent upwards, displaying the patterned paper beneath:

A pretty cluster of embellishments sits at the bottom of the page:

Scraptastic's Feels Like Home kit, add-on and stamp set were used, as well as the place setting stamp from the November 2015 Foodie stamp set.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Home At Last

Whew! We have been lucky this year. It's almost the end of hurricane season, and I'm so thankful that we have not had to evacuate for a scary storm. A few years ago, however, a storm named Gustav had me and my family heading north to Jackson, MS. 

This layout is about what we found when we returned home from our evacuation. There was no great damage or flooding in our area, but there had evidently been quite a lot of wind. The streets were so littered with leaves they were green!

Three fabulous cut files help to tell the story, two from The Cut Shoppe store:

and a freebie from the The Cut Shoppe newsletter:

Here are closeups of my page:

Yep, we couldn't wait to get home. As soon as they opened up the interstate going south, we were on it...along with all the Entergy bucket trucks that were heading down to help.

Home at Last!

Always & Forever

If you know me, and you know my scrapbook pages, you'll also know that I love my patterned paper. So it might come as a surprise when you notice that the layout below uses absolutely NO patterned paper at all! That's right...none, zilch, zero, nada. 

Instead, I've filled the ink-splattered center of this minimalist page with die-cut embellishments from the Pebbles DIY Home ephemera pack from Scraptastic's Feels Like Home kit:

Painted chipboard, washi tape, and a stamped sentiment courtesy of Scraptastic's Sentiment Series V.9 stamp set complete the page. 

I can't remember the last time I created a scrapbook page without patterned paper. In fact, if I have, it must have been a challenge...or a dare. ;)

I *heart* Swimming (and why a swimming mile isn't a mile)!

Kevin swims...a lot. Back and forth, back and forth. Laps for practice. Laps during warm ups. Laps at swim meets. 

A few weeks ago he completed the longest distance event he's ever entered, the 1650 freestyle. And he's going to do it again this weekend! In case you're not familiar, 1650 refers to the number of yards swum. 1650 yards is equal to 66 laps in a 50 yard pool. In the swim world, the 1650 is sometimes called the "mile", although a true mile is 1760 yards. (For the full scoop on this distance discrepancy, read Swim-Swam's "How Many Yards In a Swim Mile?")

Regardless, 1650 yards, 66 laps, is a LOT of swimming. Going that distance at a good pace, during a race, is quite an accomplishment. Congratulations Kevin!

The page below takes a favorite cut file and pairs it with a favorite photo of him swimming. Back and forth. Back and forth. ;)

The Any Which Way from The Cut Shoppe, had me pulling out ALL of my blue and aqua scraps:

Add a shiny title, matted photo, and swim-related brads; this page is done! Aren't those arrows perfect?! Back and forth, back and forth. ;)

The Big SIX-Oh!

I love using my digital cutter to enhance my scrapbooking. Today I'm sharing a page whose background was created using the All Heart cut file from The Cut Shoppe. The subtle, neutral background was certainly a great foundation on which to build this colorful, celebratory page. My husband and his twin were celebrating the birthday, and a big one at that! 

Supplies: Patterned paper, journal cards, chipboard stickers, buttons, flair and tag-Fancy Pants, mist-Mr. Huey's, cardstock-Bazzill, Alphabet-Jillibean Soup, enamel dots, and the following cut file :

As you can see from the completed page, I only cut the outer two rows of hearts. Before beginning the cut, I opened up the original All Heart cut file in my digital cutting program and eliminated the inner rows which were not going to be visible anyway. It saved time and wear and tear on my blade by paring down the necessary cuts.

The big SIX-Oh! I think we're going to start counting backwards now. ;)

The Cut Shoppe Blog Hop-Tabasco Pumpkin

Welcome to the Paper Gumbo edition of The Cut Shoppe Halloween blog hop, where you will find all sorts of spooky, silly, and fun creations from the design team, and opportunities to win some of our favorite cut files. One lucky winner will receive a $25 GC to The Cut Shoppe store! All winners, chosen randomly, will be announced November 6th on The Cut Shoppe blog.

Leave a comment on this post by November 2nd to be entered into a drawing for the Fall Finds cut file.

I don't know about you, but I LOVE carving a pumpkin for my porch at Halloween. Some years I spend hours creating a masterpiece. Other times it's a pared down effort: 2 eyes, a nose and a mouth. The cool pumpkin below was one I spied at the Avery Island Tabasco gift shop last year.

The little "pumpkin patch" underneath my photo was created with the cut file seen above.

For a more casual look, reminiscent of a pumpkin patch, I cut apart a couple of the pumpkins and staggered them beneath the upper row. Individual pumpkins were backed with orange papers in various shades and patterns.

At the top of the page is a smallish banner cluster, mimicking the larger banners in the center of the page:

and a title above the photo:

How about the pumpkin in my picture? Impressive! That's some mad carving skills! I just might be inspired to attempt some fancy carving myself this year. Guess I'd better start looking for that perfect pumpkin. ;)

Remember to leave a comment on this post by November 2nd to be entered into a drawing for the Fall Finds cut file from The Cut Shoppe store. For more fabulous project and chances to win, visit each of the blogs below:

The Cut Shoppe

Katrina Hunt

Jennifer Haggerty

Madeline Fox (You are HERE!)

Laura Mooney

Aimee Maddern

Candace Perkins

Missy Whidden

Michelle Wedertz

The Cut Shoppe

GOOD LUCK!

Hello Summer

I just LOVE to scrap summer memories. Our yearly summer beach vacation is a week filled with photo ops. Blue water, white sand, and colorful swim suits make for awesome photos. These two cousins oblige with silly antics. Like I state in my journaling, "There's always a ready audience...and/or a willing accomplice"!

This beach-themed page was created with a couple of cut files from The Cut Shoppe. A freebie for newsletter subscribers, Hello Summer, was used along with the cute sun design from the Make A Splash set:

Here are a couple of closeups:

Supplies: Patterned paper-Bella Blvd., Echo Park. Envelope-Fancy Pants. Chipboard-Crate Paper. Enamel dots-My Mind's Eye. Mist-Heidi Swapp.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Today...and Every Tuesday

Just about every week during the school year I join a group of moms at my son's high school, where we paint their mascot, "Jayson", on yard signs representing the various sports and activities at the school. There are Soccer, Football, Baseball, Basketball, Lacrosse, Golf, Ultimate Frisbee, Swimming, Wrestling, Philelectic Club, ROTC, Cheerleader, and Band signs, as well as the mascot in a graduation cap, holding a diploma. It's a fundraiser for the school and a great way for parents and grandparents to show school spirit and celebrate the kids' accomplishments. 

The Riptide kit from Scraptastic was a perfect choice for the page below. I pulled out several of the bright colorful papers, many with an emphasis on blue, very appropriate considering the subject of the layout. After all, Jayson is a BLUE Jay. ;) 

A button and scissors die-cut were added to the cluster of transparency tags below, as we also craft school and sport-themed jewelry, home decor, and an annual one-of-a-kind Christmas ornament. 

I wrote my journaling at the bottom of the page, freeing up the journaling card to become a base for several fun embellishments:

Today and Every Tuesday...it's what I do!

You Are Here

Surprise, surprise! After assembling the bright, colorful, beachy page which I shared a few days ago, there were a several cut-into papers sitting on my desk. Turning them over, I discovered a muted aqua print on one, with a matching stripe on the other. Pairing them with my seagull photo resulted in the soft, monochromatic page below:

I purposely cut the top two papers on a bit of a diagonal and assembled them leaving plenty of white space at the bottom of the page. It was quite accidental however, that the photograph also had a similarly tilted "line", the slightly sloping sand dunes in the out-of-focus background of my picture. A nice coincidence!

Cuts from October's This Life Noted digital files were lifted off the papers with pop dots, leaving soft shadows underneath. 

It's nice to keep it simple every once in a while, and I really love this look with my photo. Tomorrow though, I'll be back with another page showing off the more vivid papers and embellishments of Scraptastic's Riptide kit. Stay tuned...