Birthday Girl

Grace, my pride and joy and my reason for waking up with a smile every morning, will be 1 year old on Saturday.  I can't believe how quickly the time flew by!  Part of me is sad that I'll never get those tiny-baby-cuddle moments back.  But mostly I am blown away by the spunky personality my girl has developed and can't wait to see who she grows into!  I always knew that I would love being a mom.  But I had no idea how much!  I am in awe of her at every moment, and miss her when I am away from her for an hour!


For this reason, we are going all out for her first birthday!  No pony rides or anything, but we feel like this day is a pretty big deal!  I made her invitations and everything else, including her dress the banner and the cake, are coordinated to match!  My husband (the food crafter in the house!) is making her cake and I am making a cake topper using my Cricut as well as a banner.


Today I am sharing with you the invites that I made.

I made these before I owned a Cricut, so everything is hand cut using a template printed from the Internet.  To make the owl I just traced the outline, then cut away the outside of my template and traced the abdomen, then cut out one eye and traced that, and so on. The flourish that he is standing on was cut with my Sizzix, though.  It is a bit time consuming to hand-cut the pieces, but once I get a sample made up I turn it into an assembly line process and get my hubby to help!  The polka dot papers are all Bo Bunny, which are some of my favorites!


Well, that is it for today.  Now to finish the preparations for the big day!  I will be back Monday with some pictures of the banner as well as all the fun!  Have a great weekend!

Soft and Fuzzy Friends

Grace is obsessed with stuffed animals!  She loves to dive, head first, into a pile of them.  She loves to chuck them one by one from their perch on her rocker so that they litter her entire play rug and then she jumps on the pile.  And she calls every stuffed animal she owns Bear Bear Bear.  So when we saw a giant stuffed pig at Target my husband and I knew it had to become part of the family.  As soon as we put it on the floor she was jumping on it for a cuddle, and it has been dubbed Pig Pig Pig!

As I mentioned yesterday, this layout is based on the same simple sketch that inspired yesterday's post.  It is just rotated 90 degrees clockwise.  The simple photo grid here features a 4 x 6 portrait while yesterday's 4 x 6 was landscape.  This very versatile sketch works with both!

Pig Pig Pig was packaged with a round tag and had a fleece ribbon tied around him.  I wanted to use both items on the page.  The tag is simply held on by a small white button brad.  The fleece ribbon was pleated and attached with liquid adhesive.  Because the ribbon is not flat, I put double foam dots on 3 of the 4 corners of the photo mat to even it out.

For my title I used the Playground Font on my Sizzix.  I journaled using a white gel pen.

For the finishing touches I added two buttons that looked like pig snouts. 

And that is it!  I will be back tomorrow with a mini book I am making for Grace that I should be able to finish tonight.  Thanks for stopping by!

That's Me!

My daughter can all of a sudden recognize herself in photos and in the mirror.  She just thinks it's the coolest thing ever to hold a picture of herself in her hands.  And of course as a scrapbooker, my house is filled with pictures of her!  So every time I turn around she is pointing to a photo, then to her chest as if to say "That's Me!"  I know that some day the novelty will wear off, so I needed to scrapbook this exciting event right away, before we move on to something else.

I used a sketch I found in an old scrapbooking magazine for this layout.  Tomorrow's post will be using the same sketch as well.  I love how versatile it is and I am going to challenge myself to use it in different ways.

I arranged my photos on Microsoft Word before printing them to ensure they would fit on the mat properly.  I also printed my journaling using Microsoft Word.  I don't have a 12 x 12 printer though, so I cut the blue card stock in half and used Word's Page Setup feature to create a 6 x 12 document to print on.  Then I adhered both pieces of blue onto another piece of card stock and hid the seam behind the heart patterned paper.


My title is done with small Jillibean Soup letter stickers and my Cricut.  I inked the "m" and the "e" to make them stand out.

I didn't think the story was complete unless the viewer could see what Grace is looking at.  So I included a small photo of her with the photo of herself.  I matted it on a journaling tag that lists the days of the week to show that this has become a daily occurrence with us!  The journaling tag was a Pinterest find; here is the link where you can find it yourself http://splendidmissm.blogspot.com/2012/01/project-life.html.

Well, I will be back tomorrow with another layout based on this same sketch!  And in the works is a mini book for my baby girl.  Thanks for stopping by!

First Teeth!

Every first is an occasion to celebrate with a baby.  But those first teeth finally breaking through the surface are especially worth celebrating; it means an end to the pain and the middle-of-the-night waking!  This layout shows the progression of my daughter's INCREDIBLY SLOW GROWING teeth that took 2 months to arrive!

I chose to do a grid so the photos would easily show progression.  I marked them with the numbers 1 through 4 and coordinated those numbers with the dates.  I rounded and inked the outer corners of the photos, the solid card stock mat and the patterned paper to give them depth.

After I put the layout together my husband said it reminded him of a dentist office.  That was not my intention, but it's pretty cool that the patterns do in fact look like wallpaper you might see in a dentist office!

I kept it simple to keep the focus on the photos and the title.  I included a piece of packaging from some letter stamps to show the theme of growing.  The stamps were called "foot longs" and included a printed ruler.  Perfect!  Think twice before throwing your packaging away; you never know what you might end up using!


The title is my favorite part of this layout!  I used tiny letter stickers for the first part because I thought they looked a bit like Jack-o-Lantern teeth.  For the word Teeth I cut 5 banners, added die-cut letters, then covered the pieces with Glossy Accents.  When it dried it had a hard, shiny coating...like tooth enamel!

Now my daughter is working on teeth three through six, all at the same time!  Not as exciting the second time around!  But at least we know what to expect.


Well, be back tomorrow!  Thanks for stopping by.

My Flower Child

I LOVE spring!  It is like seeing the Earth wake up after a really long nap.  And it always amazes me that the buds on the trees and the flowers in the ground just know.  Like they whisper to one another, "It's time guys!"  Spring has always been my favorite season and I want Grace to experience all of the joys!  So on a beautiful 70 degree day we went outside, sat in the grass, and looked at the wildflowers growing in my side yard.

Now this child DOES NOT sit still.  But she was so entranced by the flowers that she sat there patting them until I brought her in so she wouldn't get sunburn.  And she picked a flower and gave it to me.  My first flower from my baby!  I took a picture, of course, and on the layout used rhinestones to draw your attention to the flower.  (I also put the flower in a cup of water on my counter until it wilted!)

I wanted to use this great striped paper I picked up at AC Moore for the page, but the rest of the page needed to be subtle so I picked a tone on tone pattern.  I used some yellow velvet ric rac to separate the two.  The doily was cut on my Cricut and I used the Night and Day font to make my letters on the Sizzix.  I in led the doily and the letters with a pen to help them stand out.

This page is currently a home decor item in my living room, where it will remain until I make a page I like better!

Have a great weekend everyone!  I will be back on Monday!  Thanks for stopping by!

It's a Colorful Life

I do not love laundry.  Therefore, it piles up until I am missing more items of clothing than I have left and I need to stay home just because I have nothing to wear.  That is when it is time to do wash!  Well anyone with children knows that when the family gets sick the laundry seems to multiply.  But here in the Mutchler house, even a pile of laundry can become a plaything for my baby girl!

These photos show a game of peek-a-boo we played with the giant pile.  I decided to embrace the crazy miss-mash of colors in the photos to show that real life can be messy but is ALWAYS colorful!  So I punched circles from a bunch of different scraps I had and arranged them and the photos in a grid.  I matted the whole piece on some Bella Blvd striped paper.  I drew some stitching around the photos with a pen to make them stand out despite the loud colors.

I hand-cut some triangles from some of the less intense patterned paper and stamped the title on them.  Then I put them up on pop dots to give them some dimension.

I hand cut some clouds from patterned paper and stamped a fence and tree that I had just bought to create a little scene that reminded me of an outdoor clothesline.  I then completed my title and added my journaling by hand.

This page was lots of fun to create and makes me laugh every time I remember!  Every day life is my favorite scrapbooking subject!

Thanks for stopping by.

Spring is Swingin'

I have mentioned before my obsession with my daughter's cute little bum.  Well I also have an obsession with her tiny little feet (really all of her tiny parts!) so I frequently take photos that contain just her feet.  My husband thinks it's strange.  I think it's art!  In this case I just thought her little feet hanging so far off the ground from a little bucket swing looked so cute!  Of course I figured I should add a photo of the whole Grace as well!

This layout was one that came together quite easily (rare for me!) and as an added bonus used mostly scraps!  I wanted to base my colors on the shirt my daughter is wearing, and the peach plaid paper I actually found in my fall stash as I was doing some Scrapbooking Spring Cleaning!  The cloud paper, which I had just a half sheet of, is a recent purchase. The rest of the patterned papers are scraps left over from a fun project I posted on March 29 called Hooray Chevrons.

I added some borders to the photos in Microsoft Word to save time on matting.  I left space in the middle for my title which was cut out on my Sizzix with the Night and Day font and arranged in a back and forth way to show movement.

I fussy cut a few of the clouds, inked the edges with black ink to give a shadow effect, and put them on pop dots.  I purposely made some overlap the photos to unify the design.

I cut four long and four short banners, inked the edges of them, and put the short banners on pop dots to make them stand out.


And that is it!  Thanks for stopping by!  Leave me a comment to let me know what you think!  Be Back Tomorrow!

Springtime Cheer!

Here in Cape Cod the weather was beautiful, sunny and in the 70's for 2 days.  The flowers are blooming and I saw my first butterfly of the season.  Butterflies and bright colors just say "happy" to me, so I made a very happy layout that I'd like to share.

I saw these photos and was blown away that my baby has landed right smack in the midst of toddlerhood!  She just looked so big to me and I had to scrap them.  The best part about the photos is that as they move from left to right she appears to get bigger.  This was how the photos were taken with the camera, but it would be possible to achieve with photo editing as well.

The colors here were chosen based on my daughter's booster seat as well as the pink butterflies on her shirt.  There was no getting around the LOUD booster seat colors, so I embraced them in all their springy glory.  I used the pink to bring out the color of the butterflies because  I wanted the viewer to connect the butterflies on her shirt to the ones on the layout and the theme of growth and change.

To make the butterflies, I used a Martha Stewart butterfly punch and folded the wings up so they'd look perched.  Then I used my glue pen to draw an outline around the wings then shook on some glitter in coordinating colors.  I wanted the butterflies to remain mostly white so they would stand out from the background and also tie in with the title letters, which were made on my Sizzix with the Night and Day font.

And that's about it!  A simple layout, but one that makes me smile every time I walk by it on display in the kitchen.  I'll be back tomorrow with more springtime fun!

Short and Simple

It seems I will never get "caught up" on my scrapbooking plans.  And every time I get closer, I take a ton more pictures and my to-scrap list gets longer.  It's a good thing that I actually enjoy the process right?!  So the more pictures I have in my backlog, the more fun I can have!


So sometimes a quick and simple page is necessary to give me a sense of completing something.  Not every page has to be ornate and ultra detailed!

This page could be done in no time!  The photos here are square, about 3 x 3.  They are matted on the yellow which I scalloped both edges of.  Then I just places 4 more scalloped strips on either side.

For the title I chose 2 different fonts and created Word Art for each.  I printed them on transparency and cut around them.  I used a little liquid glue behind the letters and adhered them under the Thickers vinyl ampersand.

For the final touch I added 3 flowers with button brads in the centers.  To make the flowers I just punched out 3 different sized circles, wet the paper, and scrunched it around the brad.  Once the paper dried I flattened it out a bit.


So that is a simple, quick way to scrap some pictures and feel like you've completed something!  In fact, I think I'll scrap lift myself right now...

An Oldie but a Goodie

I had a friend over the other night night and she was flipping through my scrapbooks, allowing me to relive my daughter's first year (and I got a little misty!)  As she flipped I got to see some of my forgotten favorites, including this one!

These pictures were taken nearly 6 months ago!  They were my first attempt at a "photo shoot."  Not the most successful.  Note to self: it is not possible to "snap some pictures real quick before breakfast" when dealing with a 6 month old.  But I LOVE LOVE LOVE all the silly faces I captured on film, especially since those are the real Grace, so I made sure to include the less perfect shots on the layout along with the best.  My favorite is the one in the top right where she is trying to see what the terrible thing is I put on her head!

Most of the time I choose the colors for my layout based on the colors of the clothing in the photos.  In this case the pink is obvious, but I chose a baby blue rather than a navy blue to coordinate with the dress because it had a more happy, cheerful vibe to it.


The photos remain the focus of the layout, but the flowers are an important element as well.  They look very natural there paired with the flower on Grace's head and the one on her dress.  I made them using a small flower punch, outlining each flower with a glitter marker, then putting a button in the center.  

 Then I hand drew and hand embroidered the stems to look like the photo block was part of the bouquet.  Then I hand cut some leaves and colored them with glitter pen to add some shine.  I hand stitched the curvy (yes pink!) stems using ordinary embroidery floss.  It took FOR-EV-ER but I think it was totally worth it!  Now I have a lasting pice of art to forever remind me of my daughter turning 6 months old!






As a final touch to the layout I drew some pen stitching to the journaling block that was die cut using a friend's Cuttlebug.  For my title I used pink glittery Thickers.


And now I am going to run to give my baby girl a hug before she grows up any more!  Back tomorrow with more fun.  Thanks for stopping by!

Grace's Battle with the Spoon!

All children must, at some point, learn to use something besides their hands to eat.  I always just took for granted that little fact.  I mean, I know how to use a fork and spoon so I must have learned somehow.  Not until you are a mom of an almost-toddler do you REALLY think about such a thing.  Not until you have to clean yogurt off the cat do you question HOW that learning process happens.  But if you are a scrapbooker (or crazy I guess) you don't care about the mess as long as you get it on film!  The day my daughter took the spoon out of the bowl to feed herself was a proud (albeit messy!) moment and I HAD to run for the camera.

This layout gave me a TON of trouble from beginning to end.  I did not plan on taking photos that day (as you often don't when it comes to those everyday photo opportunities) and didn't think about color coordination or anything.  As a result Grace is wearing a brown flower jumper, baby blue bib and eating from a bright purple bowl!  When I laid the pictures out to scrapbook them I cringed.  I actually had to put them away for a couple of days and come back to them!  I could have converted them to black and white but I had already printed them according to the sketch I planned on using and hate to waste ink.

This is the sketch I was working off of.  These girls, so talented, publish several books of sketches like these and can be found at http://www.sketchsupport.com/

I had been wanting to do a layout with a large circle in the center, so I chose this one.  But I just could not find a combination of papers that suited these photos.  However, a trip to Michael's was all I needed.  There I got the vintage looking patterned paper, the purple paper, the purple flowers and the brass brads.  From there the page came together easily!


The paper was vintage looking, so the rest of the page followed.  However, it is vintage in a "Kristy" kind of way with a bright purple heart and flower patterned circle!  To follow the vintage look, I hand cut my title letters and sprayed them with some bronze spray ink.  I then outlined them in brown marker so they'd stand out.  The little letter stickers just complete the look!  The title itself was my husband's idea because it looked like Grace was in battle with the spoon!

The light brown card stock strips that run along the length of the layout were punched with my doily-looking edge punch (EK Success) to add to the old-world look.  I also rounded some edges of it and my photos with my corner rounder (X-Acto).   I used VersaMark ink to stamp some flowers onto the strips for a subtle look.  It also adds a bit of shine to the card stock.

The flowers (my new favorite toy!) are Recollections brand and come in several vibrant colors.  You also get a huge amount for a mere $6.99.  Very nice!  I put some brass brads in the center to coordinate with the number patterned paper.

And that is it!  Once I got the materials gathered the page came together nicely.  Proof that you CAN scrap those hideously un-matched photos of meaningful everyday moments in the lives of your children.  I'll be back tomorrow with another layout, this one more whimsical and bright!  Please take a moment and stop by my Facebook page and "Like" it for a chance to win a prize when I hit 50 Likes!  http://www.facebook.com/KristysScrapsOfLife
Thanks for stopping by!

Vintage Jasmine

Jasmine is my cat.  We got her a few weeks ago because we wanted Grace to grow up having a pet to love and because we missed having a cat slinking around the house meowing and wrapping itself around our legs.  And I cannot lie...when we brought her home, I was excited that I would have someone else to scrapbook!  She just has the most beautiful colors and the softest fur.  She has the sweetest personality and loves to give us love!

I challenged myself in two ways with this layout.  1.  It usually takes me FOR-EV-ER to make a decision about what patterned paper to use, where the embellishments should go, whether to use stickers or stamp the title, etc.  I get all hung up on the details and take two days on one page!  So this time I didn't second guess any decisions and just started adhering stuff to the page!  2.  I don't usually dabble in the vintage-inspired style that has become very popular these days BUT I wanted to try it.  So I did with my colors, the lace look and my distressed background paper.  It was fun, too!  I guess I will go vintage again.


So this layout is so simple.  I didn't want to clutter it up with stuff because I wanted the photos to shine.  I started by choosing 2 pieces of Colorbok card stock that matched Jasmine's fur.  I really liked how the darker color brought out the tiny dark spot on Jazz's nose so I used more of that.  I used some VersaMark and clear embossing powder to stamp some flourishes on the card stock before matting the photo.

The flowers I attached on the layout, 3 to form a visual triangle, were all cut from DieNamics dies on my Sizzix machine.  The rose is a roll-up flower and the others are stacked.

The letters are also die cut and the font, which comes in Sizzix Sizzlits, is called Night and Day.


And that is my first layout about my new little Jazz!  Thanks for stopping by.  Back tomorrow with another vintage-inspired layout!

An Egg-stra Special Day

Happy Monday!  I hope you had a fantastic Easter and got to spend the day with people you love!  We visited a local garden to take some pictures of my daughter in her Easter dress and I am looking forward to creating a mini-book about them.  However, I have a long backlog of projects I want to get done first!  It seems I don't have enough time to keep up with the constant flow of creative ideas!  Especially with a daughter verging on toddlerhood!  I am planning on going away for a Scrapbooking Weekend in May and maybe I'll catch up then!


So today's project IS Easter related.  A few weeks back we took my daughter to her first Easter Egg Hunt.  It was at a beautiful resort on the Cape.  First we had breakfast in their mansion (ooh!) met the Easter bunny (uh?!) and then hunted for eggs in the cold drizzle (yup, hard core scrapbooker!)  Despite the poor weather we had a fantastic time and the photos turned out rather nice so I felt the event deserved special treatment.

This is a case where the products make all the difference!  The adorable carrot patterned paper and the green striped papers are both Bo Bunny.  The burlap paper is from Michaels' Recollections brand.  The green letters in the title are Pink Paislee.  This layout was easy to put together once I figured out what I wanted.  I started with a sketch from http://letsscrap.ning.com/:

I stayed pretty close to the sketch.  However, I printed out 4 x 6 and 4 x 4 photos which turned out to be to big and I had to trim them down to make them fit.  


I always use Microsoft Word when I scrapbook to make photo collages because you can use the Page Setup feature to make your document any size you want and resize the photos to fit as needed.  Then when I print and change the page size back to whatever paper I happen to be printing on.  For this page I created two 4 x 10 strips of photos and matted each on a slightly larger scalloped mat.  I also inked the scallops to make the collage stand out from the rest of the page.

I used the same green striped paper, but with the stripes going vertically to create my grass borders which I punched using a Fiskars edge punch.  I also hid some eggs in the grass in different pastel colors.

All my pictures were printed in color except for the one of my daughter and I in front of the mansion.  This got special treatment using an app called Color Splash Studio.  I converted the photo to black and white then added back only certain colors.  I did this to show that although the day may have been gray and dreary, we brought color to it!   


I journaled in strips of the burlap paper which I first inked the edges of.  I did this to let the carrot patterned paper show through because I love it!  It also adds interest to the journaling and draws the eye to the story.

The title letters were die cut using my Sizzix and a DieNamics letter die.  I then inked the edges of the letters (a VERY tedious process but so worth it) using a makeup applicator and brown dye ink.  The Pink Paislee paper I chose had a pretty lacy pattern on it and the letters came out looking like decorated Easter eggs.

My final touches were 3 fussy-cut eggs lying in a patch of grass.  I placed eggs in three places on the page, creating a visual triangle that draws the eyes around the page.  The little grass patches are actually the "throwaways" from when I punched my grass strips.  They were the perfect size!


And that is my baby girl's first Easter Egg Hunt!  This layout was so much fun to create!  Tomorrow I'll be back with my first vintage-inspired layout (I'm usually more whimsical) which I am putting the finishing touches on now.  Thanks for stopping by!