A Tribal Gathering

This time of year the travel collections for scrapbookers seem to be everywhere. And that's not a bad thing! They are beautiful, colorful, fun, and make me think about traveling...and then the fact that I don't, not really. Sigh. 

It's a short-lived disappointment as I go through my photos trying to find something that I can scrap with the beautiful papers of Crate Paper's Journey collection. The tribal designs got me thinking, "I have a tribe. My family!" And the following page was born:

When I serendipitously captured the boys from my "tribe" gathered around the coffee table, I had no idea what they were discussing. I doubt they even remember. But it's the strong sense of togetherness that I wanted to capture. Sons, nephews, uncles, boyfriends...all sharing in conversation. Looked to me like the Great Tribal Summit of 2014!

I continued with the Native American tribal theme by piecing and stitching an arrow:

A dreamcatcher and USA map were fussy-cut from the journaling card paper and embellished with enamel dots and an arrow, pointing to the "summit's" locale.

I borrowed and multiplied Susan Stringfellow's idea for patterned paper teepee's SEEN HERE, and strung a banner across them with stickers from Crate Paper's Craft Market collection. It's pretty cool how colors and color schemes seem to flow across a manufacturer's collections like that!

Supplies from the Scraptastic STORE: Patterned Paper-(Crate Paper Journey Collection-Wander Paper, Quest Paper, Let's Go Paper, Tribal Paper), Embellishments-(Craft Market Accent Sticker Sheet, Simple Stories Life Documented Enamel Dots), Alphabets-(Pebbles' Happy Day Woodland Chipboard Thickers, WeRMemory Keeper's Chipboard Thickers).

So, yeah, I may not be the world traveler I'd like to be, but that doesn't mean I can't find some pretty creative uses for the travel collections out there!

Isn't Life Grand?

Titling a layout isn't always the simplest feat. I'm so indecisive. Should I allow the title to wander all over my page, plump with descriptive words, or should I be simple and concise. What about restating the obvious? It's usually an easy out! But what can I do to make my title less ordinary? Hmmm...how about posing a question? That's what I did with the layout below:

The title is a rhetorical question. After listing a few of the wonderful attributes of a week at the beach, I ask for agreement, "Isn't Life Grand?" A mix of Thickers and WeRMemory Keepers letters make it fun:

There are so many beautiful embellishments in Scraptastic's Purple Rain kit and add-on. I love the decorative clips and chipboard hearts:

Baker's twine and an enamel heart give dimension to the popped up die-cut below:

Here's another one with the Purple Rain kit and add-on:

Again, I use a mix of lettering for my title:

This cluster is chock full of fun pieces from the kit (die-cut tag and heart, transparency pieces, enamel heart and an awesome acrylic bird-in-flight):

Vellum and acrylic words overlap beautifully:

Now, about those sesame seed cookies in the photo. Descendants of New Orleans' Italian immigrants have perpetuated elaborate St. Joseph Day altars, piled high with traditional dishes, breads, cookies, and more. My tradition on March 19 is on a much smaller scale, but just as delicious. ;)

Purple Rain-Main Kit Only

As the designated photographer of the family, it seems I'm always behind the camera, rarely in front. That means I'm usually missing from many of the scrapbook pages that I create. I'm remedying that situation today by scrapping a selfie, only the second selfie I've ever attempted. And let me tell you, it took several tries to get this one photo. It's not an easy feat!

The page I'm sharing today was created with papers and embellishments from the Purple Rain main kit from Scraptastic. I usually mix up my kit and add-on papers and embellishments immediately. But this time, I made it a point of keeping everything separate and working with only the main kit. Pretty, isn't it?

Just like it's namesake, the beautiful and haunting mega-hit by Prince, Scraptastic's Purple Rain kit is a show-stopper. Who knew teal and purple would be such a stunning combination? And, since this picture was taken at a Mardi Gras parade, it's quite apropos that the predominant colors of three of the papers approximate the traditional colors of New Orleans' carnival season:

Placing my photo half on and half off of the three long strips left the opposite side of the picture  bare and lonely. So I surrounded the left side of my photo with a plethora of die-cuts, tucking here, overlapping there, creating a nice and cozy cluster of prettiness:

Instead of adding a title elsewhere, I took on the words of the die-cut which hangs over the top of the picture, and titled this "Love Life":

Yes, I do, and I'm having fun celebrating it with this gorgeous kit.

Have a great day!

Christmas Card

I haven't scrapped a single Christmas photo from this year...until now. As usual, I didn't take very many...too busy! But I did happen to catch this one magical moment of my nephew engrossed in the card that came with one of his presents. Instead of tossing it aside, he holds it up and looks intently, as if he could read. So cute!

What spurred me to finally scrap this photo? It was the cute and colorful Christmas Cheer collection from Bella Blvd. Nevermind the fact that Christmas stuff is on sale this time of year. Bonus! 

But back to the collection at hand. Bella Blvd. always has the most delightful patterns, and my favorite paper from this set has to ever so useful Christmas Cheer Borders Paper. It was that one piece of paper that inspired the miniature cards on the layout below:

This assortment of little cards came together quickly and easily. A bit of fussy cutting was combined with strips of the varied patterns along with several cut-out words, all adhered to blank white folded card bases, in miniature of course.

I was thinking that these little cards would make great gift tags as well. They are just the right size to attach to a wrapped package or hang from the handle of a gift bag. Add "To:" and "From:" to the inside and you're done!

Finally, an all-in-one matt that includes photo, journaling, and title works to separate the elements at the bottom of the page from the busy background of colorful holiday words. It also helps to cover less and preserve more of that awesome playful background paper. I certainly didn't want to cover it all up!

With so much going on already, a simple title was just the thing for this page. I made it an extension of the journaling, one flowing into the other. 

Check out this collection and more great steals from Scraptastic Store in their Frugal Fridays section.