Disney Dream Step by Step

(As seen on the My Creative Scrapbook blog)

This photo has been sitting on my desk for quite a while (cough, cough...six years), so it's about time that I scrapped it! The discordant colors of our shirts had me pushing it aside, thinking I'd never find the "right" papers to pull it all together. I was wrong, because the gorgeous array of bright papers in My Creative Scrapbooks Main kit for May were perfect. 

All of the papers, die-cuts, puffy stickers and frames are by Jillibean Soup (Bowl of Dreams collection) and part of the Main May kit. Also from the kit are the white Thickers from American Crafts. Cardstock is Bazzill. 

Although my layout is titled, Disney Dream, the design can be easily tweaked to fit your own photo(s) and "theme". 

Here we go:

1.) First, cut (6) 9 X 1 1/2 inch strips from the following patterned papers: Dream Big, Make Magic, Think With Purpose (cut twice, used both sides), Pie in the Sky, and Aim High, ink edges, arrange the strips rainbow-like, and adhere all to a sheet of white cardstock cut down to 11 x 11 inches. 

2.) Then adhere to the center of a 12 X 12 sheet of Pie in the Sky (floral) patterned paper:

3.) Next, prepared your photo and frames. (I used one frame for my photo, and a second as an accent.) Adhere photo to the backside of the "bloom" frame. Adhere Pie in the Sky (floral) paper to the backside of the green patterned frame.

4. ) Then, arrange prepared frames, staggering placement, as shown below:

(Another option is to use the second frame for another picture, but overlap only slightly so as not to obscure the focal point of the photo.)

5. ) Now, add puffy sticker and die-cuts (dream-catcher, feathers, flowers, and greenery): 

6. ) Punch small shapes (hearts, stars, flowers, etc.) to embellish above and/or below the row of patterned paper strips. (I used a Mickey head punch to coordinate with the theme of my page.)

7. ) Adhere punched shapes and title. For an eye-catching mixed title, use a combination of Thickers and die-cut words, and accent with a punched shape.

And there you have it! If you choose to use this page as a jumping off point, I'd love to see what you create and how you make it your own. ;)

Thanks for stopping by today.

Victoria Gardens

Today I'm sharing another Disney page created with the March Main kit from My Creative Scrapbooks. I chose a trio of pretty patterned papers to accent my photos of this colorful but peaceful landscape in Epcot.

Large overlapping banners were arranged vertically on gold-splattered white cardstock. I dressed up the purple print banner with lacy ribbon from the kit:

A fussy cut butterfly lands among a smattering of flowers that were punched from the same prints used to make the banners.  

It's been years since we visited Walt Disney World and I'm thinking it's time to go back!

Bella Notte

The Main kit from My Creative Scrapbooks has some of my favorite paper styles: florals, checks, and two very versatile book and sheet music prints. I managed to combine them all on the following page, along with a favorite photo from one of our Disney World vacations.

When we go to Walt Disney World, we always seem to go in May, and have the good fortune of catching the tail end of Epcot's International Flower and Garden Festival. On this particular visit, I captured charming Lady and the Tramp topiaries. 

Bella Notte, the Italian song that plays during the spaghetti scene, was a fitting title, especially as it was applied over the music note patterned paper.

A favorite vignette, a combination of clear stickers, die-cuts, and a phrase sticker is pictured below:

Here's a look at the Main kit from My Creative Scrapbooks, the one used to create this page:

It is full of Pebbles' Jen Hadfield Homemade collection (ephemera, clear stickers, phrase stickers, puffy stickers, and great patterned papers). I have three more pages completed with this kit and will share the next one soon. Ciao!

Hey Mickey

A clear vase sits on my scrap desk, ready to hold all those little "tear strips" that I cut off the ends of my patterned papers. It had become crammed full lately, bursting with colorful 12-inch strips. I needed to put some to use, so this is what I did:

As you can see, the vase is still quite full! But at least I've made a dent. 

After weaving about four dozen of those colorful pieces, I cut a Mickey shape from cardstock and backed it with my woven matt of tear strips. Pen stitching and real stitching were added on top, along with a double matted photo from our family's trip to see the mouse.

A smattering of mist,

a Thickers chipboard title,

and a cluster of embellishments (leftovers from past Scraptastic kits) finishes it off. 

I have a few more ideas that might help me pare down that vase of strips, and I can't wait to try some of them out! 

Do you save "tear strips"? If not, and you want to try out this technique, you can always cut your own strips from patterned papers. 

Just Plain Wonderful

Uh-oh, the pickings are getting slim. I'm almost out of photos to scrap from our 2011 trip to Walt Disney World. I've been scrapping them off and on for four years now! And it's going to be a few more years until we make it back there. Sigh!

Meanwhile, here's the latest, created mostly with Crate Paper's Journey collection:

In the journaling, I describe another drawback to the long wait for the Star Tours attraction. All that time moseying though the queue gives a person too much time for thought. Reading and re-reading the many caution signs had an unintended effect on my adult daughter. She chickened out before we made it to the front of the line!

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. ;)

3D Adventure

This page was shared on the Scraptastic blog yesterday afternoon, so I thought I'd share it here as well.

We were on our way to experiencing another ride at Walt Disney World and I just had to snap a picture of my oldest son in 3D glasses. What a hoot! Don't let that face fool you; he's having fun. Star Tours, our 3D Adventure:

This page mixes papers from the Scraptastic Store, Gossamer Blue's On My Desk and Get Happy collections. Both have bold black and white prints, which look stunning against the other papers' vivid colors. To maximize the effect, I turned up one corner of the Be Bright paper to show the bright red underneath, as well as the sentiment "Get Happy" from the Happy Holiday Paper, which I glued to the back. Love the contrast, and the sentiment!

Here are a few closeups:

A trio of banners is held together with a Happy flair badge and grounds the title. Wood veneer stars hint at our adventure. ;)

What to do when there's a spot of emptiness on a page??? Add buttons of course. I found several in coordinating colors and they finish things off nicely.

Journaling tags hold the story of our eldest son and his off-kilter (with the rest of us) schedule.

This WAS vacation so we let the older kids determine their own schedules while at Walt Disney World. On this particular day, Brendan arrived just as 3 of our crew were ready to head back to the hotel. No worries. I, along with my eldest daughter, would accompany him through the park. We were the die-hards!

SUPPLIES: Patterned Paper (Gossamer Blue's Get Happy Collection-Be Bright and Happy Holiday Papers, On My Desk Collection-List Maker, Screensaver, Multitasker, and Daydreamer Papers), Die Cuts (Gossamer Blue On My Desk Gold foil Die Cuts), Enamel Stars (Gossamer Blue On My Desk Enamel Stars), Flair (Gossamer Blue On My Desk Badges), Wood Veneer (Heidi Swapp September Skies Wood Veneer), Chipboard Alphabet, baker's twine, and buttons.

A French Garden

Today I'm sharing a layout featuring one of my favorite spots in Epcot at Walt Disney World!

Late afternoon was a gorgeous time of day for us to enjoy the scenery of the France Pavilion. The walkways, shops, and gardens, modeled after those of Paris, during La Belle Epoque (Beautiful Age) of France, were bathed in a gently fading sunlight. 

What a beautiful time, and Scraptastic's Heart It Races kits had the perfect papers and embellishments. I used gorgeous papers from Teresa Collins, Shimelle, and Chickaniddy Crafts, a pretty yellow doily, stickers, die-cuts, chipboard letters, and, of course, the piece de resistance---a fox wood veneer! 

Jack Spence described this period's garden technique in his blog article, Landscaping The World: 

Jardin à la française (French formal garden) is a style of landscaping based on balance and symmetry. The idea is to impose “order” into nature. This style of gardening reached its apex in the 17th century when landscape architect André Le Nôtre used his talents at Versailles. In the decades that followed, this style was widely copied by other courts of Europe. 

I believe the France pavilion, including this hedge maze, is one of the most picturesque areas on the World Showcase. It beckons one to stop, look around, sample some delicacies (crepes for me!), and imagine yourself in Paris during the late 1800s. 

Friends & Family

I have a cute Disney page to share with you today, one featuring everyone's favorite little donkey, Eeyore! Papers are all from Scraptastic's The Girl kit and add-on, NOT just for girls! ;)

In keeping with the playful nature of the page, I opted for a sort of wonky title, spelling "fRieNds" with a mix of upper and lower case letters (leftovers from a previous kit) and inverting the letter "s", an idea that I stole from the banner in my photo:

Then I created dimensional paper flowers by layering smaller flower centers over the larger bloom, both fussy cut from patterned paper in the main kit. Pop dots lift up the centers. I also added a few tiny flowers from the Shimelle rub-on transfer sheet.

If you hadn't noticed before, Eeyore always sports a bow on his tail...with a pink ribbon! This originally led me to believe he was a she...but it's not the case. Regardless, I HAD to find a spot for his tail on the page:

Those sweet dimensional bows from The Girl add-on were perfect for my silly little tail.

I wasn't ambitious enough to piece an entire donkey, but the tail I could handle. I love the bit of whimsy it adds to the page.

And now one more photo from Disney World 2011 has been scrapped! Yippee!

Hello Mickey

We haven't been to see the mouse since summer of 2011,  but I took SO MANY photos during our week at Disney World that I'm STILL working my way through scrapping the ones I love best! So every time I get a new kit or collection, I rummage through those photos and try to scrap at least one. Here's the latest. It was our first day there, and we managed to get an autograph and picture with Mickey himself!

Everything on this page, except the background paper, is from Scraptastic's Celebration kit from August. The colors and patterns can't be beat! Check out those carnival-inspired Thickers:

Also check out this great sketch by Susan Stringfellow. Created for Scraptastic's August sketch challenge, it was the inspiration for my layout.

You can find more sketch-inspired pages on Scraptastic's blog post for August 28.

Hello Mickey! I hope we get the chance to stop by and see you again, preferably before Kevin goes off to college! 

Runaway Mine Train

On the layout that I am sharing today, softer colors and lots of pink compliment the scenic photos of Walt Disney World's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.  Entitled Runaway Mine Train, my page features four photos, two large and two small. 

***The smaller two are actually two sections of one larger, very busy picture, each cropped and matted with a chipboard frame. I find that it's easier on the eyes this way! 

With little room left, additional embellishments are small and kept to a minimum: a few banner bits and tabs, 2 journaling cards, a floral die-cut, and flair. And I still get to tell my story on one of the journaling cards. (Note to self: Waiting in a long line after lunch is never a good idea!)

The red letter stickers and round chipboard Thickers (shown above) are from my stash, but everything else is from Scraptastic's The Story I Heard kit and add-on. 

I don't often use more than 2 photos on a page, but I really like how this turned out! I think the chipboard frames are what make it work.

Say What? We've Got A Winner!

The winner of the American Crafts' NSD Blog Hop giveaway on my blog is:

Lucky Number 24:

Congratulations Chelsea! Please email your address to me at madelinefox [at] cox [dot] net. And if anyone else knows how to contact Chelsea, please let her know that she is a winner!

Now on to a page I created with the most recent Scraptastic kit, The Story I Heard. It's a Disney page! I've scrapped so much of this Disney trip already, and yet I keep finding more pictures, more stories. But who's complaining? Not me!

The telephone theme of the kit couldn't be more perfect for this photo taken at the UK exhibit in Epcot. The bits of red in the papers and embellishments nicely highlight the bright red phone box.

Several banner pieces and a puffy heart (all from Pink Paislee's Switchboard collection) combine with Scraptastic's "Let's Talk" flair to dress up the "Hello" die-cut. 

A smaller supporting photo finds its home on a tag. A transparency tag peeks out from underneath the kraft tag framing the photo. Matting the picture on a tag keeps it from getting lost on the page.

Check back tomorrow, for another Disney layout is on the agenda!

Pretty Clever Camo

I've finally had a chance to play with Scraptastic's November "Home" kit, and wow...I've found another favorite paper...the golden leaf print you see below. It is simply gorgeous, so after cutting a strip for this page, I portioned out two more pieces for upcoming layouts. 

Cardstock challenged, I much prefer using subtle patterned paper for my backgrounds. However, by treating this creamy solid cardstock to gold and yellow mists, and then stamping a random crosshatch design (stamp from the "We Are Family" kit), I was able to make it a little more interesting.

Feathers and leaves are tucked behind an exclusive flair badge in a wonderful chestnut color:

I really love the houndstooth design printed on this Maya Road wooden heart. The little wood veneer bird (from my stash) was inked in a coffee brown.

Giraffes are such cool animals, and you have to agree, they camouflage themselves well in the dense brush of ...Walt Disney World! ;)

Magical Memories

It's finally done! It was one of those photos that kept getting relegated to the back of the pile. We're at Hollywood Studios in Walt Disney World, getting ready to experience a most amazing day of fun. It's a great photo. But somehow, I never had the papers, patterns, colors, etc. to inspire me. Uninspired, I didn't even want to try. So it remained in the pile...until I paired it with these papers from Dear Lizzy's Polka Dot Party. Now I'm not sure which part of the page is my favorite!

The first word of my title was stitched with the help of an Amy Tangerine stenciling kit:

I love this little cluster of fussy cut papers. (Some are remnants of older Dear Lizzy collections.)

And the "piece de resistance" are the beautifully patterned satin ribbons shimmering beneath the cut out moon and stars. 

 

Here it is, all put together:

  

I'm so glad to have finally scrapbooked this favorite photo!