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!