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!

Blueberry Pancakes

My favorite thing to scrapbook are the everyday moments that make life so fun!  To me it's like taking a beautiful moment and shining a spotlight on it or bookmarking it so you never forget!  Family breakfasts are quite important to my family; when my husband and I first met it was banana pancakes and the song of that title by Jack Johnson.  Grace loves her Daddy's pancakes too, and this time it just so happened to be blueberry pancakes!

My idea for this layout came from another layout I pinned on Pinterest.  However, since I can't find the original source I can't include that layout.  But if you look me up on Pinterest you'll find that and literally thousands of other ideas!  What I like most about this layout was the stitching.  I don't do nearly enough sewing on my layouts!  All you need as far as supplies are the basics: embroidery floss and thread in basic colors.  I just always forget to pull these items out!  But I love the homespun look.

Rather than matting my photos, I punched out some photo corners, inked the edges with white pigment ink, and used blue thread to close the "frame."  The human eye naturally completes the rectangle shape, but the stitching adds interest and texture.

After I added my banners to the right side of my layout, I ran one line of stitching in the same blue thread along the edge.

My title is done in blue ink and clear embossing powder.  The stickers in the center are from a MAMBI sheet meant for baking layouts.

The journaling block is the other part I loved about this layout.  The shape is just so interesting and it allowed some longer journaling.  I was going to erase my pencil lines in the block, but I though it added a "shopping list" feel to my layout about breakfast!  The green in the two stickers draws your eye to the journaling because that color is only found here on the page; however it is such a small amount of green that it doesn't throw off the blueberry groove!


And that is it!  This layout is on display in my kitchen for the time being (I can't stand to "lock away" my favorite layouts in an album!) and it brings a smile to my face every time I see it!  


Now I did say yesterday I'd have some exciting news!  Well here it is: I launched my Facebook small business sight yesterday at www.facebook.com/KristysScrapsOfLife.  I hope to turn my passion into an opportunity by selling custom made layouts and home decor items.  Stop by and Like my page.  When I hit 50 likes I am going to draw two winners for a great prize!  I also got some surprise news: I am one step closer to a scrapbooking instructor position I was hoping for.  More on that later!


Well I will be back tomorrow with another fun layout.  Thanks for stopping by!  

Simple and Sophisticated

So my birthday just passed, and although I was not overjoyed to turn 32 I was happy to celebrate my first birthday as a mom!  I have the most wonderful husband in the world, and when I decided I wanted to take some spur-of-the-moment family portraits for my birthday he was all for it.  And I was so pleased with the pictures that I just had to scrap them right away!

I love black and white photos.  They just feel timeless and dramatic to me.  And they always hide a less than perfect color combo in your photo subjects!  I converted the focal photo to B & W in Picasa, the free Google photo editing program.  Because I had to crop it so specifically (more on that in a minute) I had to print it in the dimensions given so it is not your traditional 5 x 7.  I also cropped 2 other photos from out session and put a museum matte border around them in Picasa.  I printed these in color because I wanted to add some color to the layout.


I chose gray as my background color because I like the look of B & W matted on gray.  It is also a textured sheet of paper to add a look of softness.  I trimmed the gray down to 11 1/2 x 11 1/2  and matted it on pink to make it pop.  The remainder of my elements are all done with scraps from my scrap box and dies on my Sizzix as well as a thin piece of sheer ribbon.  


This layout started out as a sketch by Becky Fleck,

but took on a mind of its own.  I was chatting with some friends while I put it together and just kept trying out different things until I was happy with the results.  The only thing that remained of the sketch were the hearts!  But sometimes your inspiration is just a starting point.

 I frequently do photos in my house rather than going out to a studio to get them done.  In this case, all I did was drape a dark gray sheet over the back of my loveseat and position the camera so the sun was behind it.  This floods the room with natural sunlight but doesn't cause the photos to look washed out.  

Because the whole family was in the portrait (we even got one with the cat!) we used the self timer.  This was my first time using the timer...usually I am behind the camera!  So the result was a large amount of background clutter.  The key is to crop out all of that background.  However, I will keep practicing at this so the camera zooms in on us without cutting off heads!  But as you can see, photo editing makes a world of difference!


And there you have it...a simple yet sophisticated tribute to my fantastic family.  A layout like this would make a great Mother's Day gift, birthday gift, or simply a home decor item.  Mine hangs in my living room now and makes me smile every time I look at it!


Well, back tomorrow with another layout and some exciting news!

First Words

Watching your baby grow up is the most amazing thing I could ever hope to witness.  Ever!  And although I sometimes miss that tiny little bundle that I used to rock and coo to, the time between 6 months and now has been so much fun.  It seems my daughter learns something new every day and I can't scrapbook her cuteness fast enough!  


Now she is starting to talk and communicate in ways other than crying (YAY!)  I have been keeping a running mental tally of the words she is able to say, but I wanted to record where she is now, because before I know it she won't be there anymore either!  So I put together a fun layout highlighting Grace's first words.

The idea to turn the photo itself into a speech bubble came from a layout I saw on the Scrapbooks Etc. website.  I was originally going to use some speech bubble stamps I have to contain her first words, but I saw this and knew it would be cute:

http://www.scrapbooksetc.com/theme/holidays/fathers-day/dad-scrapbook-layout-ideas/?page=4

I chose a photo for this layout before I knew how I was going to scrap the idea.  I decided to use this picture of my daughter at the dinner table because her moth is wide open like she's yelling.  And I think it is really funny that if you look very closely you can see a spot of guacamole on her face, which is why I snapped the picture.  

The only issue I had was that my picture was a portrait and the example layout had a landscape.  Easy fix!  Instead of matting a square containing the photo and title on the background paper like the original, I matted a tall rectangle.  This made everything proportional.

The green and blue papers I chose were from a recent purchase that I was just itching to use!  They are both from the Die Cuts with a View Cotton Bloom Stack.  I was so happy with how well they coordinated with her shirt!  The letter paper is Pink Paislee, and if you look closely you will see that it is a word find of sorts!

I was going for a very clean, graphic look without many embellishments so the focus stays on the photo.  But I did use a trio of embellishments, just like the sample layout.  This is an important technique to help draw your eye around the page.  I used rosettes on mine with the same DCWV papers and a photo in the center of one.  I inked the edges to help them all stand out against the background.

That left my title, which I used Echo Park County Drive letter stickers for, and my journaling which was done around the outer edge in white gel pen.

And that is it!  I hope you enjoyed this fun, cheery layout as much as I did.  I'll be back tomorrow with my birthday layout done in a sophisticated pink and grey combo.  Thanks for stopping by!

Finding Inspiration

I took the weekend off from posting because I had some fantastic family time!  Saturday we took my daughter to her first Easter Egg Hunt (can't way to scrap it!) and Sunday was a relaxing birthday at home!


But now I am back some more fun! 


Today I am sharing two layouts to show how one piece of inspiration can take you indifferent directions.  I used the same layout as inspiration to complete both of these projects, which each turned out quite differently!  That is why I love, love, LOVE to look at the work of other scrapbookers and learn from their talent.

Both of these layouts were inspired by the same sketch by Kelly Purkey, who is quite talented!  Here is her original:

http://kellypurkey.typepad.com/its_
me_kp/2011/08/glee-club.html
What totally inspired me about this layout was the tags and I just had to try it myself!  I also liked the bright, vibrant chevron pattern she used and how it made the black and white photo pop!  So those are the things I made sure to get on my first layout.


On this layout, which I rotated to fit my pictures, I inked the two white tags to make them pop off the background and to match the color scheme.  I added buttons, letter stickers for Grace and Mommy, flocked butterflies, and paper punched flowers that I made by wetting and scrunching some die cut flowers.

The paper I used here is from my favorite collection right now.  It is Echo Park Country Drive.  I used Color Splash Studio, an app for my Mac, to convert the photo to black and white then add back selected colors.  Then I added the word Shine using Microsoft Word.

The second layout was perfect with the tags on top, so I kept the original.  This time I added different ribbons to the tags to draw attention to the birds that my daughter loves to watch in the feeder.

Neither of my layouts have one photo like the original.  You will rarely find a layout by me with one photo; it is too hard for me to choose just one!  But by making my photos smaller I am usually able to fit more on a layout.

I hope you have been inspired by my inspired layouts!  Next time you don't know what you want to do on a particular layout stop by Pinterest and before you know it you'll have too many ideas!  Thanks for stopping by!