You & Me

When my mother-in-law passed away a couple of months ago, I was happy to find this photo of her with Kevin, at Grandparents Day 2012. It's such a great photo of the two of them!

Just about everything on this page is from one Crate Paper collection or another.

It all began with a pack of Project Life cards, never opened, collecting dust. Opening it up, I found so many pretty pieces, and used these as layering bits around the picture.

Stickers, tags, flair, and chipboard pieces from other Crate Paper collections accentuate the page. It was nice to use so many hearts and flowers for once!

Photos like this are priceless; I'm glad I was able to preserve it in my scrapbooks. :)

Best Ever

It may at first seem a little ridiculous to even think that I'd ever use a scrapbook paper collection called "Snow and Cocoa". Snow is such a rarity in the deep south. But these papers and patterns are just SO PRETTY! Here I scrapped a Christmas cousins photo from 2015. As you can see, everyone is in short sleeves. Hahaha!

I decided to cut one of the colorful papers into a large heart shape for my page. But I couldn't just let it be. The heart was begging to be fringed. It then made a beautiful backdrop for my photo, a sewn banner, a couple of acrylic snowflakes, "snow globe", flair, and title.

We never know what weather will greet us Christmas morn. Will this year be long sleeves, boots and sweaters...or short sleeves with the A/C blasting? We'll see!

Hello Destin

Since I had already cut into the patterned papers from Simple Stories' You Are Here collection for the scrapbook page shared on the blog yesterday, it was a snap to create a second, coordinating page. The scraps were fit and layered to completely cover my cardstock background, their size and shape dictating the basic look of the page.

I particularly like the "hello" letters from the You Are Here sticker sheet. Cool that they have the same pretty landscape print from the card above them. This IS our happy place!

Several bits and pieces from my stash, including some (very) old S.E.I. alphabet stickers, were used to accent the page. I rooted through my box of "summer" scrapbook stuff for similarly colored pieces. I spy a postcard from an older Simple Stories collection, flags from Fancy Pants, and a checkered brad from who-knows-where.

As you can see, the brad was missing from this first pass in front of the camera, proving that if a page sits long enough on my easel, I'll surely find something else to add! Nothing's safe. ;)

Sunshine & Happiness

Scrapping summer never gets old. Even though we travel but a few states over...and visit the same vacation spot year after year, I enjoy documenting it every single time. Here are several from our crew, enjoying the beach and each other's company:

I love all the color that comes with every beach and travel collection. The papers on this layout are from the tropically-inspired You Are Here collection by Simple Stories.

After sprinkling and smooshing mist on the white cardstock background, the softly colored papers were layered to frame my photo. I then made good use of the hibiscus flowers and flamingo accents off the sticker sheet, clustering them in two opposite corners of my page. The tag cut from one of the patterned papers serves to anchor several of the embellishments.

Such sweet summer memories!

Lunch at George's

Well, I finally photographed this layout. It's been hanging out on my scrapbook page easel for a while, a bittersweet reminder of my years of working with the beautifully coordinated Scraptastic kits. They still put out fabulous kits for those who do Project Life type scrapbooking and planners. But, as I do neither, I said my goodbyes with their last traditional scrapbooking kit.

Here I am with my sisters after a day exploring the shops in beach towns along 30A, and having "Lunch at George's":

I have to say, this was one of my favorite kits! It had so much color, fun embellishments, and little exclusives found no where else. That background paper is to-die-for:

It's been fun Scraptastic! I miss the camaraderie, inspiration, challenges, etc. And now...after the new year...I'm hoping to find another good fit design team. Crossing fingers!

Shine

I had yet to go through my camera photos of Kevin and his date when he came home with the photographer package from his school dance...so I decided to go with it, and created the page below:

It is really a pretty fun photo, with the Superdome in the background. We had noticed the dome was lit blue on the night of Jesuit's homecoming dance. Blue was the order of the day: school colors, Maddie's dress, Kevin's tie. I knew it was prudent to save all those scraps of blue, REAL blue!

On this page, I used two files from The Cut Shoppe: the Tiny Triangles background cut file, and Flocked and Feathered, for my (blue jay) feather accents.

Many of the papers and the star pin are from Crate Paper, the camera transparency is from a Shimelle line, and the cityscape flair hails from an old Scraptastic kit, all pulling together for this pretty special page.

Make Your Mark

In 7th grade, Kevin took the ACT as part of the Duke Talent Identification Program. In 10th, he took it again, to reacquaint himself with the test, get an idea of where he stands, and figure out which subjects or subtests need more work. This spring or summer, we'll try to fit in a prep class...to nudge that score even higher. Whew...funny that it all comes down to a single test. It's time to Make Your Mark:

A bunch of bright and colorful Bella Blvd. paper scraps were pieced together for this page. I knew that this was also a good opportunity to use that fill-in-the-oval paper, along with a couple of school-themed stickers and chipboard.

Coincidentally, PSAT scores came out yesterday, and he's pretty happy. Gigantic leaps from last year's practice PSAT; I think he surprised himself! He also took another ACT recently, but it will be a while until he gets those scores...an agonizingly long wait. Meanwhile, he wants to sign up for the February test. Geesh, I just think he needs to chill. ;)

"MY" Kevin

My niece's oldest boy is so cute! As there is no one close to his age in our extended family, he goes hunting for the next best thing when it's time to find a playmate. Of course he looks up to the teens in the family, and Kevin is one of his favorites. In fact, he's become quite possessive, referring to him as "MY" Kevin, in other words, my friend. :)

Here they are playing in the sand at the beach:

I can't even begin to say where all the "stuff" on this page came from. I just pulled out bits and pieces from here and there and joined them all together. It was great fun.

The mint and pink papers are echoed by a scattering of enamel dots, and the woodgrain-look Thickers match up with the wood veneer nautical pieces. Speaking of which, those boats and anchors must be multiplying. I've certainly used them on several pages over the past few years...and yet, I still have more. Sailing anyone?

Fire Fighter

It's hard to believe, but my oldest son has already been a firefighter for three years. (And this photo has been hanging around my scrap desk for just about as long!) Finally, I decided to put pedal to the metal and get this one done. Here he is at his graduation ceremony:

With his blue shirt and a flag in the background of my photo, it seemed natural to go with a red, white, and blue color scheme, adding to it a smattering of gold (ampersand sticker, decorative clip, star vellum, and chipboard letters). A combination of Thickers forms my title. The chipboard letters JPFD are a favorite with their gold-dipped bottoms.

Buttons are always a good idea! As are tags. ;)

And finally, a couple of pieces of wood veneer from an old Scraptastic kit are layered beneath my photo. Ta-Da! That celebratory exclamation could apply to both his graduation AND the completion of this page. Yay!

Let's DO This!

 After layering up an assortment of colorful papers for this swim team photo, I knew that I wanted to add in a bunch of fun embellishments to highlight their black swimsuits. (They also happened to be a part of the Black team at their springtime Blue-Black Instrasquad swim meet.) I found quite a few embellishments in my "Bella Blvd. Box", and chose chipboard pieces and stickers to add on top of my patterned papers.

Some of my favorite funky alpha stickers begin and end the title, with larger brighter letters emphasizing the word "DO"!

A bright red mini file folder slipped behind my photo is the perfect "landing pad" for several of my embellishments, which would otherwise be lost on the colorful melange of papers beneath:

I again raided my stash for an assortment of brads. How did I accumulate so many?! =o

When journaling around the page, I called my son over to help me out with a couple of names. I told him that this was important, because one day, when he's around 90 or so, he might need a little help remembering them himself! ;)

Chill Out

Don't you LOVE this blue plaid patterned paper from We R Memory Keepers?! It just may be the reason that I picked up a few pieces from their new High Five collection, and scrapped a favorite picture from our beach vacation:

Another favorite paper from the bunch gave me the following cluster of icons. One was hand cut, another punched and a third mounted onto a chipboard round:

After adding two cards from the High Five collection, one for journaling, another for the sentiment, I raided my stash for a few bits and pieces: a chipboard pineapple, flair, brad, stamp, and buttons.

It's always inspiring to have a new set of papers, but it's also quite satisfying when I'm able add a few "vintage" pieces to the mix. ;)

Sharks!

Does anyone recall the shark graphic on the old Jaws movie poster? Let me refresh your memory. It depicts a gigantic great white, rising up from the ocean, huge mouth open, baring a set of sharp, pointy teeth. Hmmm...kinda like the paper-pieced shark on the scrapbook page below!

So many of my swim-related scrapbook pages feature photos of my son, my current swimmer. This page, however, features two of his coaches, one of whom happens to be my daughter. These photos were taken at our team's summertime "away" meet. Go Sharks!

I pulled out some older papers and paper scraps for this page, and kept to a near-monochromatic color scheme of blue, white, and black.

Patterned papers in various designs were layered along the bottom of the page, with the shark rising above them. A dictionary-print paper was perfect for the main attraction! A simple banner of baker's twine and triangular flags was strung across the top of the page with my title. The same black and white baker's twine was tied onto the tag that was tucked behind the upper photo.

~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~

When Laura ended her long swimming career after a short stint swimming for LSU, I never expected to see her on this side of the blocks! It's great to see her enthusiasm as she shares her love of the sport with the kids that she coaches. In fact, she'll often come home from a swim meet hoarse, after a day of cheering for her team. :)

That was SO cool!

These two!

Cousins.

For hours on end.

They would kick out past the surf and wait, 

and wait, 

and wait, 

and wait,

patiently waiting for that perfect wave.

And then this.

The surf was relatively calm all week during our time at the beach this year, but they found a few waves to carry them in on their boogie boards. 

I remember this one time, many years ago, when they were just learning how to ride their boards, that these two caught the "perfect" wave. Uncle Chris was out past the surf, helping them get situated, telling them when to go for it. And they did. Eventually they rode a nice one all the way into the beach, the two of them, at the same time! All smiles, Jake turns to Kevin as if to say, "That was SO cool!"

It was also pretty cool that I happened to have my camera ready that day. Here's the layout that I created with two photos from their epic ride:

Our Unique City

The page below is one of my last as part of the Scraptastic Club design team, as they are no longer offering a scrapbooking kit, but will instead focus on This Life Noted (sorta like Project Life) and their planner kits. It's a sad day for me, as I have been with the kit club for over 4 1/2 years! But here's to whatever the future brings!

On this layout, I've "fussy cut" practically everything: the letters spelling "unique", the popped up cityscape, several "hello" nametags, and a cluster of hearts, making the most of my favorite papers in the Me, Myself, and I kit. 

 Pop-dots were used to lift the buildings of the colorful cityscape.

A multicolored border of "Hello" nametags frames my photostrip of Mardi Gras pictures: 

The vivid colors couldn't be more perfect for my photos of Fat Tuesday!

It's been a great run Scraptastic!

Swim Cap Tricks

Yes, I have a swimmer. And because so many of our activities revolve around his swimming, I take TONS of photos around swimming pools. This in turn leads me to the never-ending search for blue scrapbook papers. Many times an aqua or pastel blue will do, but a true blue is the one I most relish. Both of Kevin's swim teams (USS and High School) have royal blue in their logo, so caps, T-shirts, swim suits and other paraphernalia often bring this color to my pictures.

The June Wipeout kit from Scraptastic Club just so happened to have a couple of fabulous royal blue papers, and I couldn't wait to use them on the layout below: 

This was a really easy page to assemble. I quadruple-matted the photo, added journaling, then used three different shades of blue for the title. 

The story behind the photo is this. Before every event, he warms up. After every event, he cools down. This one particular day, all of his events were over, and it was time to hit the road. I waited...and waited...and waited. Finally, I went to see what was going on and found him with two of his teammates playing around in the warm down pool, performing silly swim cap tricks. Of course I had to snap a picture before shooing them out of the water!

Yep, I love how the royal blue papers compliment the swim caps in my photo!

Circle of Friends

Here's another page created with Scraptastic's Wipeout scrapbook kit. The Cut Shoppe's "Fresh Squeezed" cut file creates the perfect backdrop for this photo of Kevin and his swim team friends as they hang out between events at their summertime "away" meet.

Circles of pastel color, most from a single floral patterned paper in the Wipeout add-on, fill in the "citrus slices" of the large cut file background, but on the left side only. The right is left white on white, better for my layered embellishments and a stand-out title:

Gosh, I've created four swim team layouts and one beach vacation page with this kit, fast becoming one of my favorites. 'Til next time...happy scrapping!

Beach Days

A few weeks ago I used Scraptastic Club's Wipeout kit to create two bold layouts for the "Scraplift a Subscriber" challenge. These pages used patterned papers in primary colors: orange, blue, red, yellow, and green. Now I'm shifting gears, and have created a page that focuses on the softer colors in the kit. 

Beach Days sticks to a sun and sea color palette of orange, yellow, aqua and white:

After layering patterned papers on a plain white background, I used a die-cut frame to highlight my photo. More die-cuts and fun stickers line up vertically on the edges of the frame. 

I love the vellum hibiscus die-cut! It's quite beachy isn't it? 

Check back tomorrow, when I'll be sharing another page from the Wipeout kit, along with a cut file from The Cut Shoppe.

Biloxi Lighthouse

According to Wikipedia, the Biloxi lighthouse was erected in 1858 and has the distinction of being tended by female lightkeepers for more years than any other lighthouse in the U. S. One such keeper assumed the role after her husband died, tending the light for 53 years! Having survived scores of hurricanes, this lighthouse today is a Mississippi landmark and tourist attraction. 

I created the layout below  with a photo of the historic lighthouse and an awesome digitally cut lighthouse from The Cut Shoppe. Their Land Ho cut file set also includes an anchor as well as a few jolly good phrases.

Cut from a grey print paper, my lighthouse was inked for dimension: black ink for shadows, white for highlights. A washi tape banner picks up the yellow, red, and navy of my papers:

Layers of patterned paper, an anchor-print string envelope, postcard journal card, anchor pin, and coordinating enamel dots complete the page.

Who can resist anchors? Not me, that's for sure! ;)

Catching Waves & Rays

It's Throwback Thursday! The photo on the layout below was taken several summers ago, and I can't believe how much those three have changed. The two on the right passed me up in height quite a while ago. The one on the left is getting ready to head off to college! But on this day, the three cousins were getting ready for a day on the water, "Catching Waves & Rays".

Patterned papers are from October Afternoon's Summertime collection.

I'd love to have the three cousins recreate this photo one day. In fact, I'm going to put it on my to-do list for next time we all go to the beach!

Birthday Cards from Kit Scraps

Today I'm sharing a couple of simple birthday cards created from kit scraps. The first uses cardstock, patterned papers, vellum balloons, and a sticker from Scraptastic Club's Cherry Pie kit. The little yellow bag is from my stash.

The next card uses an older Scraptastic cut file heart. I backed it with patterned papers from their Cake By The Ocean main kit, and topped it off with a transparency die-cut.

Now I'm ready for the next birthday. Good thing, because they're going to come fast and furious now. It's birthday season in my family!

Go Catch A Wave

I love the action photo I captured on the page below! The three cousins were going out to ride their boards on the first day of our beach vacation, jumping up over the swells as they head out in search of even bigger waves.

The beautifully vivid patterned papers are solely from the Carta Bella Beach Day collection.

Banners are still a favorite embellishment, and on the layout below I created an oversized one, cutting out flags, phrases, sunglasses and a swimsuit from Beach Day papers.

The large acrylic word, GO, is an exclusive from a Scraptastic kit. I completed the title with colorfully printed Thickers chipboard letters.

They caught many a wave that day, the day after, and the day after that. What fun it was!

From The Dog House To The White House

No matter which "side" you're on, I think you'll appreciate the tongue-in-cheek humor of the page I'm sharing today, using papers from Pebbles' America The Beautiful collection.

The title of my page was this year's theme for the Krewe of Barkus, a Mardi Gras pet parade in New Orleans. Pretty funny! 

Politics has definitely gone to the dogs! ;)

Scraplift Challenge

What better way to jumpstart some summer scrapbooking than with a scraplift!? Given this challenge for a Scraptastic blog post, I headed on over to the Scraptastic Members Facebook Group and perused all the awesome pages that were uploaded to the group. There were so many gorgeous layouts that I couldn't just choose one. I chose two, and came out with two wonderful pages of my own.

 The first piece of beautiful inspiration was created by Aimee Dow:

Here's my take, albeit with two photos and an extra strip of stripe on the left:

I love how this photo came out sort of silhouette-like, just before his event, the 1500 meter freestyle (a mile!). Of course I had to mimic the pool flags with a little banner of my own. ;)

I created a second page based on this fabulous layout by Paige Sterling Fox. Grid designs are a favorite!

As you can see, I switched around the placement of my photo and the little squares, but still kept true to the basic design. 

This was my son's first time swimming in the State Championship Meet, so stars, splatters, and appropriate phrases abound:

It was quite nice to have these wonderful Scraptastic Subscriber pages on hand to direct my own, as it sure shaves time! Thanks for the inspiration ladies!