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!

Beautiful Day with Cake By The Ocean

A leisurely drive from the Florida beaches to home had my husband and I stopping along the Mobile Bay for a walk and an attempted selfie. Of course the photo came out wonky, but instead of trying to square it and position it right side up, I angled the picture on this layout that I created solely with the Cake By The Ocean main kit from Scraptastic Club.

The word "beautiful" in my title was made more dimensional by placing pop dots between the background sheet and die-cut word, from The Cut Shoppe's Girl Stuff cut file set. Enamel dots further highlight a few of the letters.

Yes, we were by the ocean, but no, we did not have cake. ;) We did however enjoy the beautiful day, combing the beach for shells, lounging in our chairs under the umbrella, and then driving home "the long way".

A favorite aspect of the Cake By The Ocean kit is the transparency of many of the die-cut embellishments. I had fun dressing up my layout, layering several of the die cuts at the top of the page and tucking others behind the photo. 

Wander, Happy, Love...just a few more words that describe the beautiful day we spent together. :)

Enjoy your day!

Lifeguard

When I saw the large LIFE print on this bold paper from Scraptastic's Cherry Pie kit, I immediately thought about a photo that I snapped after one of my son's lifeguard shifts last summer. It's become a sort of family tradition, as this is the fourth of my kids to work summers as a lifeguard, following their mom's footsteps of course. ;) It also blends well with his swimming passion, as he's always at the pool anyway, for swim team practice.

Colorful journal cards flank the photo, all of which are anchored by an equally colorful tear strip. 

Below, bright yellow letter stickers complete the title:

An assortment of clips embellish the upper right hand corner of the page, along with an exclusive flair from the Cherry Pie kit. Everything on the page is from the kit and/or add-on.

I remember my time as a lifeguard...for a new hotel in the area. I wore a bikini, checked chlorine levels, watched out for the safety of any guests which happened along, and basically worked on my tan. Perfect job for a 16 year old. Tee-hee. Lifeguarding...a job so hot, it's cool! 

Hangin' Poolside

Nowadays poolside photos usually depict my youngest, but back in the day, my middle son swam as well...for his middle school team. On my layout Hangin' Poolside, the kid are doing just that, waiting patiently for their team picture to be taken:

A clothesline pokes fun at my title, and becomes a design element on the page. Pen-stitching adds a bit of detail to the outfits:

The T-shirt and jeans (cut down to shorts) are from The Cut Shoppe's Boys Rule and Girl Stuff cut file collections, two sets chock full of cool designs (titles, accents and more).

Thanks for stopping by the blog today!

I guess I'll be taking more poolside pics this weekend. Swim meet, of course! ;)

Ice Cold Snowballs

For about 8 months now, this place with the bright orange paint has been taunting us, windows closed, umbrellas packed away. But when the flags started flying and the menu board was placed outside, it was time. Kevin and Julie got their first snowballs last week, but I recently scrapped a couple of pictures from last summer. The layout was shared on The Cut Shoppe blog:

I used the Abstract Angles cut file from The Cut Shoppe Etsy store to create my fun and colorful background:

There were two great photos that I wanted to include on the page. To fit them both, and not cover up too much of the cool background, I cropped and mounted one on a tag, placing it strategically over an empty spot in the larger photo:

I'm still addicted to banners, so of course I had to make one to mimic the one draped on front of the stand:

Cardstock letter stickers spell out the title:

I can't wait to try out this cut file again: monochromatic with shades of the same color or with a riotous mix of color, with all the openings filled in or with only some of them backed by patterned paper. There are so many options, I'll have a hard time deciding...kinda like choosing a snowball flavor! ;)

Happy Together

Because my firefighter son was on duty Christmas Day, I missed taking the annual family photo after dinner at my parents' house. When I realized all five kids were present for Easter this year, I didn't hesitate to round them up for that belated snap. A spring themed cut file was the obvious choice for my scrapbook page:

The wreath of flowers is part of the Spring Fling cut file set from The Cut Shoppe on Etsy. Backed with a pretty pink floral and leaf green print, then embellished with yellow enamel dots, it beautifully frames my photo and page title:

I loved that we were all dressed in fresh spring colors: lots of teal and blue, and a peck of pink. To bring all these colors to my background paper, I enlisted gelatos in pink and blue, and finished it off with white mist. I forgot how much fun it is to play with paint!