Let's Wander-Create A Cluster

Here's my page for the Paper Issues Create-A-Cluster March challenge. But can you really call it a challenge, when it's so easy and such a fun thing to do?! For this page I created two clusters: 

The first is a cluster that embellishes my title, a simple die-cut from the Vicki Boutin 

Let's Wander collection: 

The second is a small embellishment cluster anchoring the map ephemera on the bottom left:

I love to add circular elements to my clusters; enamel dots and decorative brads are some of my favorite. What do you like to use in your embellishment groupings?

I have many more pages in the works with this beautiful Vicki Boutin collection.
Here’s a peek at one of them:

Find these papers and more in the Paper Issues Store.
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Scraplift Sunday-Right Now

It's that time again, Scraplift Sunday, and Paper Issues has a really fun page to lift. It inspired me in so many ways: from the bright and lively colors to the randomly placed strips of patterned paper.

My colors are those of Mardi Gras: purple, green, and gold, a look that goes with the themed attire worn by my son's swim team at their conference banquet.

Like Kat on her original, I got out my border punches and went to work dressing up the strips before adhering them to the page.

The pink/purple title, heart, and "good stuff" banner are from the
Truly Grateful collection by Pink Paislee:

Here's Kat's original:

So cute!

Feels Like Summer

You know that song by Weezer; well, it's in my head a lot now...and I couldn't be happier with these warm summer-feeling temperatures! Summer is my season. ;)

Here is a colorful page documenting Kevin's summer of 2016, a summer filled with lifeguarding, swimming, video games, swimming, Driver's Ed, swimming, watching Big Brother (an addiction I tell ya!), a week at the beach and swimming. Ahhh...soon he'll be at it again, minus the Driver's Ed.



The next layout was published in the summer 2017 issue of Scrapbook and Cards Today. It features a fun assortment of patterned papers, a melange of die-cuts, washi tape banner, and a title of colorful chipboard letters.



Summer days...bring it on!

Epic Success Step-by-Step

The following tutorial was recently shared on My Creative's Scrapbook blog. It's an easy step-by-step for my page, Epic Success, created with My Creative Scrapbooks' Main kit for June.

As you can see, I drew inspiration for my page from the patterned paper below, one of the kit papers from the Fancy Pants' Family And Co. collection:

I loved those color-blocked stars and decided to make a similar star the focal point of my design. Using a piece of 12x12 paper, I sketched a five-pointed star to use as my template. Then, to make assembling the star easier, I numbered each segment and the corresponding side of the center section. 

After cutting apart the star, I traced each section on various patterned papers from the kit.

Here are my colorful star pieces, placed upon a grid-design background paper from my stash.

Next, I have a photo and a frame but, uh-oh, my picture was cropped too small!

That wasn't a problem for long...as I backed the frame with patterned paper, 

and placed my photo askew on top! It actually sets off the photo better than if it fit perfectly. ;)

Did you notice what has changed?! Before adhering the papers, I switched around two of the star's rays, so that a more solid pattern was on top. This strategic move was intended help my title stand out better when it is added to the upper portion of the layout.

Meanwhile, I added a few die-cuts around the photo frame and at the bottom of the star,

and placed several puffy banner stickers along a hand-drawn "clothesline" of sorts:

Finally, a long title was added using a Fancy Pants chipboard sticker, Jillibean Soup tiny letter stickers, and Fancy Pants chipboard alphabet, all three a part of the June Main kit. Pretty epic!

A bit of journaling, and a couple more stickers, finishes it off. Sweet!

I love when patterned papers and/or kit accessories spark an idea for me! What inspires your page designs? 

Going Monochromatic

After creating two pages with the colorful papers of My Creative Scrapbook's Main kit, I decided to go a different direction with the one below. After misting and splattering teal/aqua on a sheet of white cardstock, I stuck with the same color while assembling the rest of the page. 

I also used photo frames in an unexpected way, adhering them haphazardly behind my photo, instead of framing the photo in a more exact manner. I think it gives the page a more playful feel!

Die-cuts and stickers are layered with the frames, drawing the eye towards those boys in the picture.

An abundance of letter stickers on Jillibean Soup's Bowl of Dreams sticker sheet helped me to create a little crossword of sorts, using words to describe their relay and the strokes that were swum.

Although I LOVE colorful pages, it's good to mix it up a little. And going monochromatic is an easy option!

Coach Laura

Swimming was such a big part of Laura's life, so it's pretty cool that she has been able to share her love of the sport with the younger set. 

Coach Laura is such an enthusiastic supporter of her kids. Here she's motivating her group before the Shark's annual intra-squad meet. 

The layers of scallops at the bottom of the page were inspired by all those little swimmers and their caps.

I liked the lower border so much that I created a top one to match. A colorful "fish cap" stands out in each grouping!

Coincidentally, this weekend is the 12 and under Louisiana State Championship Swim Meet. It starts this evening, and I pretty much expect Laura to lose her voice completely by Sunday! Go Sharks!

Breast Stroke Is The Best Stroke

A couple of weeks ago, I was inspired to join in the Sunday Scraplift Challenge at Paper Issues. I loved the tilt of the original layout, and positioned two photos one on top the other, to resemble a filmstrip. The photos are actually the same, one more closeup than the other. That's Kevin, swimming his favorite stroke in the summer league Meet of Champs. He looked awesome, and came away with second place:

Oh I do love blue! Even the smallest scraps of favorite blue patterned papers are saved, and ultimately used again...and again, in smaller...and smaller increments. Some of these scallops were cut from pretty small pieces of paper.



Lettering for the title is courtesy of five sticker packs. It's fun and eye-catching to mix it up like this:

A few words of journaling describe how breaststroke is a family favorite!

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! ;)

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. :)

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!

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!