Live, roam, Love / Stash scrap

Well its Thursday, so close to the weekend! 

This week has gone by way faster than I expected, but I believe that has more to do with one of my little ones getting sick and then me getting right after! He's better and back at school but it seems that I just cant bounce back as fast as he can, this getting older stuff stinks!

Well I've been feeling a bit better and have been jonsing to scrap, so I got in my scrappy room last night and decided to make a page. It took way longer then it should have, thats for sure lol.

I went in and grabbed my Dear Lizzy, Documentary collection, it made it way easier since I had it all grouped together lol less work for me! I already had photos pulled that I was wanting to scrap so I grabbed this one of my youngest daughter. This was her first visit to the zoo and OMG did she love it!!

She loved seeing all the animals, getting to feed some, whooping along with the monkeys, it was so much fun!

I didn't actually have this picture pulled to scrap with this collection and I'm kinda glad I was sick and I ended up pulling this line, because I didn't even notice in the beginning how these colors went perfectly with this picture. The pretty purple matches perfectly with her shades and shirt and the blues and greens and the pattern were awesome with the water in the background! 

I did a go to design for me, the paper strips down one side and a bit of the same on the other side for some balance. Then I added my picture to the heavier side and started embellishing, adding bits and pieces to the opposite side as well. Something like this usually takes me 30 minutes, something I do when my mojo is low, but this tool me almost 1 & 1/2 hours.

Im ok with that though, I like how it turned out so its all good. I'm really hoping that I'm back up and ready for Halloween this weekend! My kiddos are all looking forward to it so much!

Happy weekend all!

Full of happiness today! / Hip Kit CT

Good morning everyone!!

 I am here to share a layout with you that I made for the Hip Kit club Creative Team using the amazing Hip Kit Clubs October kits! I used a sketch for the inspiration of this layout, Ashley Horton created the sketch and the cut file you see on my layout. 

When I saw the sketch I knew that I wanted to do a sewn circle, because one its on the sketch and I loved it and two because I love sewing on my layouts :) Well to do everything else on my layout I had to first choose a starting point, my starting point was the background and I chose this lovely Amy Tangerine paper from her finders keepers line. As I've said before, Im a fan of patterns, polka dots, stripes, florals, plaids....lol pretty much anything thats got a pretty pattern!

After I used the cut file, I added a a strip of the American crafts Fountain cardstock from the cardstock kit. I love the combo of the orangey/coral color mixed with the aqua/teal color.  I had pulled some of my fall pictures and decided I wanted to scrap these photos from our 1st "camping trip" last summer. All the kids were phsyced to do this, but I wanted to do a dry run and see how it was going to be since we had a one year old that had never been, so we grabbed all of our camping stuff and camped in the back yard, lol. It ended up being a really great night! All of the kids had a blast, including the youngest.

Here is the sketch created by Ashley Horton

If youd like to play along with us, please feel free to! You can go join the Hip Kit club facebook page and see the weekly challenges.

Now to embellish this layout I grabbed a bunch of the Pink Paislee, Cedar Lane embellishment in these kits! I grabbed some from the embellishment kit, Project life kit and the the Main kit

The Pink Paislee ephemera pack is beautiful with all of the cardstock pieces along with the acetate and gold foil pieces! ooohh! Love! And all the pretties went great with my layout! I tucked different pieces under the edges of my photos and around my title. And I cant get enough of those cute puffy stickers, I became a BIG fan of those fast! And I'm really happy that the shaped paper clips are back! All of these different things make great embellishment and make the pages pop!

Well thanks so much for coming by and checking out my layout and I hope that you head over to the Hip Kit Clubs facebook group and participate in the fun weekly challenges. And if you havent already, head over to the shop and check out the great kits, Novembers has so many amazing exclusive products that your sure to love! And stop by Hip Kits blog too and check out what all the other ladies have to share with you!

Popey & Olive Oyl / Hip Kit

Hello everyone, Happy Friday!!

I've been playing with my October Hip Kits this week, loving all the pretty colors an patterns in them. The beautiful florals, polk a dots and stripes!! Love them, I'm a big pattern fan. :) But I also like my white space.

And I like the white space in this layout. I love sewing on my layouts and I didn't want the back ground to be to busy but I didn't want just a plain white sheet of cardstock either, I do that a lot. Theirs nothing wrong with it, but I just wanted a bit of a change up, so I used the cardstock that I backed my picture with and cut it into 1 inch strips and laid them across the page and sewed them down. I ran my fingers under the edges after sewing them down so it can be seen that their there and not stuck down.

After that I added a pice of Pebbles wood grain paper from the Jen Hadfield DIY home line, I also used the opposite side and added a little bit of the pretty floral to the page with cut ends. I remembered I had the beautiful Project life cards, made by Kim Watson. So I grabbed the one that said remember this and placed it behind the photo. 

I wasnt there, this is actually my grandparents. My moms parents. They were so young and so cute together. They were only dating in this picture, but were together so long! I always told them that they reminded me of Popey and Olive Oyl. She was tall and skinny and he was a military man and in good shape, not cartoon Popey shape but in good shape. I just always love this picture of them, caught off guard when someone someone called out to them and they looked back. It just makes me smile.

I added a few bits here and there, a little man and woman from the Simple Stories, We are family wood veneers that were in the kit, a glittery heart and little banner that says love you more from the Pink Paislee, Cedar lane ephemera pack from the Project like kit. And then I used the Elaliciouse navy alphas from the project life kit and titled my page, with an ampersand from the DIY home printed chipboard shapes.
I added a little splash of Heidi Swapp color shine, gold lame, and that was about it.

I was really happy that I found this picture, I love that I can put them in my albums the way I want them to be looked at but can still be kept for my family to look at and ask questions about. My kids never got the chance to meet there great grandpa, he passed away before they were ever born. So to me this and the other photos I have of them are something I always want them to see and ask as many questions as possible, not only that, I want to write down as much as I can remember of all the things we use to do together and the kind of people they were, so that in some way they will know them in some way. That is definitely one of the things I love about this craft!

Ok, lol, Sorry for getting so sentimental, but that's how I get when I scrapbook my grandpa, my grandma is still around, but don't get to see her near enough, but I love that my kids can get to know some about the great man there great grandpa was when her was alive.
Well thanks for reading and checking out my blog. I'll have more this next week with my October Hip Kits, so I hope you come back by to see!! And if you haven't already, head over the the shop and check out the kits and check out the blog too! Tons of great inspiration there!! Have a great and safe weekend everyone!!

Changing your Brads...

I have a Technique post up on the Birds of a Feather blog, helping you use up some of your stash hopefully!! This thought actually came about threw the Victoria Marie no buy facebook page. There are a lot of us out there that are on a scrappy freeze right now, no buying any scrappy goodies. The main idea is to use your stash. 

So I'm here to share a little technique that might help you use up some of your stash of brads. Now I don't know about you, but I have a tone of these, in all different sizes. My problem is that there all in gold, black, white and silver. Now with some of my layouts I would like to be able to use some pretty colors that are harder to find or cost a bunch for a small pack. And I don't always want to pay for that, so here are two really easy ways for you to make the brads work for you.

So the things I gathered to do this are:

My heat gun

A pair of tweezers

Brads

Embossing Powder

Nail Polish

Ok so I'll started with the embossing powder. What you'll need to do is have the embossing powder open and set out of the way, now if your a Klutz like me this might worry you, so I sat my lid upside down on it so I had it covered but easy access. You will also need to hold the brad by the end with the tweezers and use your heat gun to heat the top of the brad.

Once the brad is nice and hot, turn off the heat gun and dip the top of the brad into the embossing powder.

If its not quite hot enough when you dip it you might have to hit it with the heat gun again to get it there all the way and if you use glitter embossing powder it will have to be hit with the heat gun again. But its a fast way to change to color.

Now with nail polish, you have soooo many options!! So what I do is grab my brads and an old nesquik container I have and poke the brads threw the lid. This way for me they have somewhere to sit while they dry.

I paint them the colors that I want. Now I have used to many kinds of nail polish, some of the 60 second dry, glitter and metallic. The 60 second nail polish I usually let thay dry for about an hour, but the rest I set aside for the night, just to make sure there all the way dry.

I love all the options and I hope this helps you use up some of your stash, or helps you match your brads to a collection your wanting to use!

#So Many Blessings / Hip Kit CT

Good morning everyone!! Its Tuesday, so were past Monday!! whoo! The weekend is slowly getting closer! lol

Well I'm here today to share with you a layout I made for the Hip Kit Club Creative team, with the October 2015 Kits and some of the cutfiles that exclusive the the Hip Kit club. Some of the files are available if you are just a registered member but we do have some that are only available to subscribers too.

I used a cutfile from Nicole Nowosad along with a piece of paper from Pebbles, Jen Hadfield, DIY Home collection. I cut out six rectangles and made then slightly smaller then a 4x6 do that there would be a bit of white between each of them, I added some washi paper from Jens DIY Home line under a few of the cut outs and then sewed a few lines threw each card. After that it came together pretty easy. I did a little layering behind the photo with bits and pieces from the DIY Home line along with a card that says Hello from the printed chipboard shapes from the same collection as well. I also used an exclusive Project Life card created by Kim Watson, who also created the fall wreath behind my photos in the black and white paper from the DIY Home line.

After I got all of my cut files adhered down I started adding pieces from Pink Paislees Cedar Lane collection. That pretty feather paper clip, just so cute! The gorgeous acetate tag with gold foiling! And the pretty glittered gold hearts! Swoon!!

This picture was actually taken the first official day of fall this year, its still quite warm here, but not so hot that your dying from heat, but still nice enough to enjoy a nice cool Popsicle from the ice cream truck,lol

Well I hope you come join in on the fun over on Facebook page, there are weekly challenges that are so fun! And swing by the shop and check out the awesome kits!! The November kit is already up to look at!! Lots of exclusives in that kit!!

Happy Memories, Hello Happy- BOAF DT

Hello everyone on this fantastic Saturday!! It's beautiful outside and actually feels like fall!! I hope it stays this time!!

Well I am here to share 2 layouts that I made for the Birds of a Feather DT. I was using the October kit that had a bunch of the Pink Paislee Cedar lane papers in it, so I decided I would use those! I love these papers and they we so fun to play with!

This layout design is something I will do quite often, one of my go tos. I will grab some of a busier print from the collection that I love and cut a strip to either go across the top or bottom, in this case the top. That paper is just so pretty!! Then I grabbed that fantastic, bright blue and cut a strip for the top and bottom. I did like it with both pieces being cut straight, so I grabbed my scalloped punch and went to town,lol. I thought about it for the bottom, but decided against it and I'm glad I did. I matter my photo on some american crafts white cardstock, places a doily to the left side of my photo because I knew I was going to use that card that says Happy Memories and I didn't want to much white on one side. Then I added the little pop of color with the pink ombre paper, I also decided to but a piece of that with my scallop punch and add that to the bottom, this way it wasn't the really bold color down there.

I did add a few pieces of wood grain washi from my stash, it just went so well! I started doing the little embellishment clusters with fussy cut flowers from another paper from the Cedar lane collection. I used a gold camera and heart from Septembers kit, and punched a few circles out with my 1in punch and placed little words on some and a flower on another and used an epoxy sticker over them to make some of my own embellishments, I love those and I got that idea from Adele of Inkie Quille. She has a youtube channel, check her out!!

Now this layout is more plain, but it turned out just how I wanted!! Its so bright and airy. This was on official 1st day of fall this year. We went to the park and had a blast. This is 3 out of 4 or our kids playing football. We had so much fun that day, because we weren't dying from the heat! We played frisbee, basketball, football and on all of the playground equipment. It was just a blast! I cut the pretty doily from a Cedar lane paper from the kit on my Silhouette cameo, placed a few paper strips under the photo, I used the branding strips for the 2 pieces that the Love wood veneer is setting on along with the Happy under the picture, Like I said I love these paper, have to use it all!! The bottom wood gran is actually the branding strip from on the polkadot paper. I liked the look of it so I just cut the 1/2 inch off the top to keep it :) I did a bit of sewing and then punched small little circles out of the paper scraps I had to make the confetti on the page. I also added 2 of those gorgeous, gold feather by Little B with a bit of messy thread behind them. Added the Hello, which is from the September kit 

And that was pretty much the end of it, I loved they way it looked and I could have definitely kept going but I was happy with it. I hope you enjoyed my layouts and I hope you would head over to the Birds of a Feathers new blog and check it out along with the store and look at the kits and extras that are there! 

Hes a thinker / Stash scrapping

Hello everyone, its Friday!!! Anyone else excited?? I'm looking forward to this weekend, were suppose to have a cold from come threw and I'm happy about that, this 99 degrees every afternoon is to hot for fall!

Well, over on Victoria Maries no buy group on facebook there are all kinds of challenges for us participating this month and they main thing is, NO BUYING anything new. Using your stash and what you've been hoarding.

So I grabbed a 6x6 paper pad out of my stash and started playing with it. I had chose my photo 1st this time and then chose the papers. I started by matting the photo on some white cardstock and then layering Basic Grey patterned papers behind the photo. To be honest I chose this line because it has some of my sons favorite colors in it. I kept the photo black and white, even though in color it would have went with everything still,lol. But I think b&w went more with my mood for the photo. And no you wont see any journaling on this page, its on the back for him when he gets older. I rarely journal on the front of layouts because when I journal its usually personal, sometimes I dont mind sharing, but when I have a lot of journaling I do that on the back as well.

Well Happy Friday everyone!! I'm going to go for now, hope to have more to share this weekend! If you need inspiration or want a great group of women to talk to about scrappy stuff go check out the Victoria Marie no buy group and get your stash used up!

Future Pres & Senator/ Hip K

Hello everyone, Happy Hump Day!! 

Today has been a long one. My youngest didn't sleep well last night, she has an ear infection :( poor baby.  So that means I didn't sleep well either! Just part of being a mom. I did love the reading of books in the middle of the night though, she just loves books! We read till she fell back to sleep. Then my hubby came home from work sick too, he seems to feel a bit better, but that's after a bit of napping, tylonal and a hot shower and more laying on the couch with blankets.

Well on another note, I still had a bit of my September Hip Kit left and decided I was going to use it. Im usually pretty good at killing a kit, so I'm going to do the same here. I'm also going to challenge myself to make some cards from the scraps that are left.

Ive posted other layouts with pictures from this trip that we took and I still have a few more to do, possibly a mini album....

I started out with my pictures in the middle of the layout, I started the layering, but not adhering anything to the background. I matted my photos with American crafts white cardstock and then matted them together on Elle's Studio, Thankful, Sweater paper. I loved the blue next to the picture because my oldest was wearing a bright blue shirt,lol. I love using my scraps but there not always quite big enough, so I cut my scrap of  Dear Lizzy, Bear Hug, with the triangles cut out of it in to two pieces and taped a piece to both sides. One way to make it stretch! I layered bits and pieces from Amy Tangerines Finders keepers line, Elle's Studio Thankful like and the magenta-ish strip from Dear Lizzys Documentary line, and yes I was happy with myself for getting pink in on this layout even if it was just a tiny bit! lol, but I layered them behind the photo and then started adding bits to the left right across from the photo/ paper cluster. I liked the way it looked, but I hadn't put the title on the page yet or my little stickers and splatters. I love using reinforcement labels for embellishments on pages, sometimes I'll ink them or just out line them like I did here, and sometimes I don't do anything to them but stick them down. But I love them!! 

Well I started to add the title and everything looked smushed so I pulled the photo cluster over and was a lot happier with it, so I started adhering everything down. And finished it off with Dylusions ink platters and a bit of little B yellow washi.

Now more about the picture.....We were at the Clinton Museum and my oldest wanted to sit in the presidents chair, this was all ok they were allowed to, then his brother sat in the senators chair. They were acting goofy and talking about when they run the country one day and stuff like that. It was even funnier because the chairs were so heavy they could hardly move them! It was just a great trip all in all, we had lots of fun!

Dream Big Baby/ Hip Kit

Good morning everyone!! Monday is over so thats a plus right??

Well I'm here to share a layout I made using the beautiful October Hip Kits! And it also makes me happy to say this is my 1st layout being apart of Hip Kits Creative Team!! Squeal! lol Yes I am still excited :)

Ok so I love this picture of my oldest daughter. We were on a road trip back from the Grandparents house and she passed out. I couldn't help but take the picture and she may hate it when she older but I loved it :)

Now for the actual layout, I started with a sheet of  American Crafts white cardstock from the cardstock add on. I saw the stencils and water color pencils from the color kit add on and decided I wanted to play with those. So I grabbed the plus sign stencil made by Kim Watson and the pretty Prima water color pencils and started out lining some of the plus sings and then coloring some in, then went back with a damp paint brush and activated the water color pencils. 

It was so hard to decided what to actually use with this being my 1st layout with the kits and all, but I jumped in and grabbed some of the beautiful pattern papers from the main kit by Jen Hadfield and one by Dear Lizzy and started my paper strips down the right side and then the layering behind my photo. I added bits of the papers to the upper left side as well to have an anchor for another cluster, because I love making clusters! 

I love the Pink Paislee Cedar Lane ephemera pack thats in the project life kit. There are so many pieces!! Cardstock, acetate and gold foil pieces!! There all so amazing for clusters. I grabbed a few little label stickers from the Pink Paislee Memorandum stickers that are in the project life kit too. I added a piece of gold polka-doted washi paper from the Jen Hadfield DIY Home collection, from the embellishment kit. And then those gold letters!! Swoon! I need so many packs of those!! Those are from the main kit and are beautiful thickers by Dear Lizzy. To finish it off I used some Heidi Swapp color shine, that was from my stash, sorry.

I really enjoyed making this layout and have more to share, so I hope you come back to see what is to come and I hope that you'd head over to the Hip Kit club and check out these beautiful kits, maybe even subscribe, join in on the group over on facebook and share what you make with the kits! 

Real Life/ Happy fall BOAF DT

Hello everyone, hope your Sunday is going good!

I'm here today with a few layouts for the Birds of a feather kits club design team.

I'm using my October kit and it is beautiful!

Now this 1st layout is of me and my youngest daughter.I wasn't planning on taking any pictures or anything, but she was playing with this hat that her grandma had made for her. She had it pulled down low over her eyes and was just acting goofy, they she started to hug me and give me kisses, So I thought I'd take some pictures and I'm glad I did.

I did a little fussy cutting with the flowers from some of the Pink Paislee, Cedar Lane collection, they were just to pretty not to! I did a little layering, I actually was playing along with a sketch from a group on facebook. Victoria Marie facebook group, its awesome over in that group!!

I did use a cut file from my Silhouette as well and a bit of vellum from my stash. I also used the Fundamentals wood veneers and covered it with the peacock feather mini distress ink that came in the kit. 

Now In this kit there we also some Simple Stories, Pumpkin Spice papers. They all go well together but I thought I would make a more boyish layout and I think it came out pretty good! lol

The kit had these cute little acorns, that at 1st I wasnt sure I would honestly use, but I'm so happy they were in there, they make such cute little embellishments!!

I pulled what I had left of the Queen&Co orange droplets from Augusts kit and used them, they just went well with it, a little more texture. I also used my silhouette and cut a few leaves out and a few circles and layered them behind the picture.I pulled a few little stickers from my collection along with the droplets from August and was really happy with the way these came out!!

Head over to the BOAF Store and check out the kits and come join in in the forums. Hope to see you there!!

Whats in there??

Its Friday!!!! Happy start of the weekend!!

 This weekend is special weekend for me. Its sad and happy for me. The happy part for me is that I get to see one of my brothers that I haven't seen in years, we get to hang out for a few day and he gets to meet one of my daughters that hes never met before. Now sad as well because hes here to help my parents finish packing there stuff and help drive the trucks to Florida.I am going to take so many stinking pictures this weekend its going to be crazy!

But I did want to share a layout I made with my September Hip Kit before we headed out to go to my parents.

This summer we had a blast going on some of our own field trips. And this was one of them! We took a drive with the kiddos and took them to see a dinosaur exhibit. It was so much fun, some of the dinos moved and made noise. I thought my youngest would freak out but, nope not her! lol As you see in the picture, she wanted to jump right in and see everything!!

I actually made my first ever process video for this layout, but no you wont find it anywhere, my daughter deleted it!! I had just finished it and hadn't saved yet and she decided to high five my key board and then it was gone :( I will just have to make another one in the near future! 

But either way I love how this layout turned out! I mean this kit had a bit of everything in it!! I loved being able to mix the pinks in with the blues, black and greys. I made a little epoxy embellishment to add some dimension to the side and I added some of the Dear Lizzy washi from the August kit, just for a bit more of the pink. I've seen so many people working in grids or squares on there layouts, so I decided that I'd give it a try too, I usually do more layering and stuff, but with this I really didn't have too. I mean, yeah I'm still me and added a little lol, but I really don't think it needed a lot.

Well I hope you liked my layout and I hope you come back next week to see what else I've made.  Head over to the Hip Kit blog and check out what all the amazing ladies over there have created, because there's always something awesome up on the blog! And you can check them out on Instagram too!

Now I'm off to possibly break my phone with the amount of photos I'm going to take!! Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Totally Zoned out!

Happy Hump day!!
Its the middle of the week, half way over!! Its finally getting cooler here and I am soooo looking forward to this weekend!!

I'm finishing up my September Hip Kit, I really don't have much left of it at all. But I think I can get a few more layouts out of it. I've just been enjoying how all the colors flow together and how they kits has worked for my pictures!

I think this picture is funny. This was last year, right around Christmas, hens the tree in the back there,lol I was doing stuff around the house, cleaning and stuff like normal, getting ready to settle down and watch TV with everyone. I was asking if anyone wanted a snack while I was up, no one answered. I turned and looked and these two were totally and completely zoned out!! I asked them again while I was looking at them, nothing. So I grabbed my phone and snapped a shot before I really got there attention lol

The mix of cork, wood grain and the bold colors are great and to me they make some eye popping layouts. Head over to the Hip Kit store and check out all the awesome kits that are available. And when your a subscriber you get special cut files too!! There really great!

Awww Mom.../Lets Get Sketchy DT

Good morning!! Hope your Monday is going good!

I'm here to share a layout I made for the Lets Get Sketchy design team, made with this great sketch made by Laura Whitaker.

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Here was my take on the sketch. I played with my papers from Crate papers Journey collection. I just love this collection! I love the bright bursts of color and then the bold black and white patterns.

Im a total good when it comes to taking pictures with my kids! I love to take selfies with them. This picture is actually a few years old and my son was already thinking he was to old for his mom to be doing this with him, especially in public, lol! I still do it though!

I love getting inspiration from a sketch, sometimes I just get stuck and have no idea what to do, I get in a funk, and I was like that when I made this layout. So happy I had LGS to go to and get my crafty mojo going again!! Sounds cheesy I know, but this layout came together so fast once I had a direction. These papers made it really easy too! lol

Head on over to the Lets Get sketchy Blog and join in, link your pages and possibly win this months prize!!

Today was good

Good morning everyone!! Happy Sunday! 

 I'm still playing with my September Hip Kit and I have to say that I'm getting some really good use out of it!! I love all the bright papers and it still surprises me how well the collections always come together. Kimberly does a fantastic job pulling from different collections and making everything work together so well!

Now back to my layout... This is again my youngest daughter playing in a kiddy pool in our yard last summer. She was having so much fun playing with the hose and I remember pretty well, her spraying me and giggling a lot about it!! lol

I used a bit of all the collections in the kit. I cut a cut file out of the Amy Tan paper, I love that brilliant blue! Im glad that someone is bringing it back!! Thank you Amy!! lol I did pull a few pieces that I had left over from past kits. I mixed in a few enamel dots from Julys kit, along with a piece or two from the Crate paper poolside chipboard sheet that was in the July Kit as well. 

This layout came together really easily, as have most of them. I have a few more layouts to share made with my September kit, hope you come back to check them out!!

Doing a Happy Dance!!!

I am doing a happy dance this morning!!! *squeals* I'm finally able to share the exciting news that I've made the team over at Hip Kit Club!!!

I'm am so excited and grateful to be on the team with all these amazing woman!! I hope that you will come by and check out the Hip Kit blog, shop and everyones blogs! Here are there links!!

Kim Watson, Adrienne Alvis, Raquel Bowman, Wendy Antenucci, Nancy Damiano, Christin Gronnslett, Ashley Horton, Amelie Mordret, Nicole Nowosad, Missy Whidden, Michelle Whorwood, Marie-pierre Capistan, Aimee Dow, Brenda Smith, Marienette Lesne, And last but certainly not least Terhi Koskinen