You & Me

Today I'm sharing a layout with a photo of my husband and I, red-faced and sweaty after a long day at Walt Disney World. It is one of those pictures that was continuously relegated to the back of the pile, but the bright pinks of the Dear Lizzy Serendipity collection had me fishing it back out, and I'm glad I did. 

I kept to a limited palette of pinks, purple mint and navy, layering paper after patterned paper. I love these colors together and how they compliment my bright pink shirt!

Here are a couple of additional closeups:

I love those little conversation heart brads! They SO resemble the read edible ones, and add the cutest little details, as you can see above and below.

SUPPLIES: Patterned Paper-(Dear Lizzy Serendipity-Good Vibes, Little Things, Lucky Stars, One Fine Day, Smitten, and XOXO Papers); Brads-(Dear Lizzy Serendipity Resin Heart Brads), Tags-(Dear Lizzy Serendipity Layered Tags); Die-Cut (Maggie Holmes Open Book); Alphabet-(American Crafts Thickers), Flair.

Check out the Scraptastic Store for all the latest and greatest, including the beautiful Dear Lizzy Serendipity collection, and happy layering!

This Happened!

I'm always trying to take pictures at his swim meets...either of the kids hanging around waiting for their events, or in the water doing their thing. But two things prevent a good photo:

1. The lighting inside a gym or pool area is not the most advantageous for a decent well-lit shot. 
2. It's hard to get a decent shot while trying not to be obtrusive! (You know...teenagers and all.) 

This one day everything worked together. My son and his teammate even hammed it up a little, putting on their serious game faces! This is what I got:

I scrapped it with layers and layers of patterned paper from the American Crafts' Dear Lizzy Serendipity collection. The softer shades of pink, mint, and yellow are colors that were pulled directly from my photo. 

First, I haphazardly matted the photo and placed it on top a trio of banners. Below this are two more patterned papers, one forming a pocket for the journaling tag:

Two small clusters accent the photo: one above,

and one below,

everything working in synergy. LOVE when this happens! 

SUPPLIES from the Scraptastic Store: Patterned Paper-(Dear Lizzy Serendipity-Good Vibes, Liz Lemon, Summer Breeze, Very Vanilla, and With Love Papers); Die-Cuts-(Gossamer Blue On My Desk, Maggie Holmes Open Book); Flair-(Gossamer Blue On My Desk); Fabric Brad-(Maggie Holmes Open Book); Rub-ons-(Maggie Holmes Open Book), Alphabet-(American Crafts Thickers).

Oh well, I'm off again to another swim meet this afternoon. Wish me (and him) luck! ;)

Cut File Take Two

Last week I shared a page created with a fabulous cut file from Scraptastic's Counting Stars kit. While working on that page, I had to tweak the file and ended up with a couple of extra cuts. Surely I couldn't waste them! So here we go again...this time resulting in a very bold page of red, black, grey and white.

I added the Disney Star Wars character names to my page by combining Thickers from the Counting Stars kit with ones from my stash. 

Darth Goofy!

Stormtrooper Donald!

Transparency frames, enamel dots, and acrylic shapes (exclusive to the kit) decorate the page:

Isn't that cut file amazing!? I can certainly see it showing up again soon, especially since I have another one already cut out and waiting in the wings. ;)

Watercolored Resist Die-cuts

I got to make a little mess with this next layout. The page itself isn't messy, but my kitchen counter sure was after watercoloring the leaf cluster die-cuts and the resist die-cut heart and flower. I dabbed washes of color here and there, sloshed water around, wiped off some color, added more color, etc. Left behind were outlines of every die-cut in technicolor! But check out those flowers:

The soft colors of the papers and watercolored die-cuts are even more beautiful contrasting with the black and gold accents and lettering. Here are a few closeups: 

The papers naturally curled a bit when watercolored, but I really love the look! And no problem about the mess; watercolor washes off easily...with water. ;)

This page was created with Scraptastic's February Counting Stars kit and add-on. So pretty. 

Going Monochromatic!

The Thursday challenge on the Scraptastic blog this week is all about using color, specifically ONE color, on a layout. We're challenging you to go monochromatic, using a single color in all its shades. Neutrals such as the black and white that I used here, give the page its contrast, and keep it interesting. 

A favorite cut file from the Counting Stars kit was stretched to match up with the large polka dots on the patterned paper. Yep, it took a few tries before I got it right, but I love how they now work together in the background.

Stickers, flair, acrylic shapes, journal cards, strips of washi tape and digital printables were clustered around the photo. (Everything is from the Counting Stars kit, except the washi tapes.)

Another cluster resides at the bottom of the page. I altered a print file from the kit to say #summerswimming, and combined it with washi tape, a die cut, and patterned paper tear strip.

Adding the resist die-cut fan imparts a little whimsy to the title, whose letters were stamped with the Counting Stars stamp set (small) and printed in a similar font (large). 

I'm all about mixing colors, but every once in a while it's fun to do the monochromatic thing! For another take on this challenge, check out Erin Stewart's monochromatic layout in the yesterday's Scraptastic blog post. Try it yourself, and link your monochromatic layout to the blog post to be entered in February's drawing for a free Scraptastic kit!

A Little Bit of Everything

When I first began scrapbooking, I almost never bought a "collection". I'd pick and choose papers based on color and design, and then I'd mix them all together when creating a page. Back then they didn't even have the all-inclusive collections that they do today. There is something to be said for collections that include stickers, rub-ons, chipboard, alphas, flair, and more. It really does make it easy to coordinate a page! But every once in a while, I like to go back to those days of mixing it all up...and that's what I did with the page I'm sharing today.

It's got a little of everything: Authentique, Echo Park, Jillibean Soup, Simple Stories, Gossamer Blue, Amy Tangerine. And that's just the papers! I love to create pages like this!

A filmstrip overlay was made out of a digital cut file from Scraptastic, then I set to work adding little pieces of patterned paper behind each of the large openings.

Not wanting to cover up more of the background than necessary, I decided to make a pocket for my journaling, and tucked it behind the photo assemblage of ephemera, flair, wood veneer, brads, and stickers.

When in my album, the journaling tag can easily be removed through the top of the page protector, read, and replaced.

The wood veneer arrow points to the pocket.

The title was created with a new favorite of mine-the Amy Tangerine kraft chipboard Thickers! One of the chipboard word stickers becomes the main title, with a gold-dipped kraft tag dangling off of the "y", holding the subtitle.

All of the ingredients for this page can be found in the Scraptastic Store.                                                                                                                       

I'll have to remember how fun this is to do and do it more often!