Meet Curious George

Isn't this little guy the cutest? I have had this photo on my desk for quite a while with no ideas on what to do with it. 

Last Sunday I went to a crop and I packed a very, very old Studio Calico kit (Promise you won't judge if I tell you it was HandPicked from April 2008?). The colors worked great with the photo. I find I get a little more creative at a crop because I make myself use just what I packed. In that kit is this crazy Sassafras paper with a big deer on it. I just have never liked that paper. It turned out to be a perfect mat behind the photo. The doodly clouds add a whimsical touch to the page. The Jenni Bowlin gold rub-ons, despite being 5 years old, went on smooth and easy. Definitely want to use some more of those on some cards.

I had used up some of the Sassafras letter stickers that came with the kit so I couldn't spell out George. Luckily, my friend Lynne shared some of her Echo Park letter stickers. That was the finishing touch for my page. 

I'm linking this layout up with Use Your Stuff (critter challenge), TwoPeas Pokey Peas and Shimelle (sketch).

Supplies: Studio Calico Hand-Picked Kit (April 2008), Echo Park Little Boy stickers, brown Slick Writer, CTMH chocolate ink

Happiness Is...

Having funny, charming, loving, loyal and wonderful friends that you've known forever.
Watching those friends grow up and become amazing adults.
Spending a day with those great friends and their lovely spouses and their adorable, boisterous, beautiful children.

That's what happiness is.

I used a digital cutting file from Kerri Bradford for the title. If you have a Silhouette or Cricut, you must check out her store. She has the best designs. The punched border is also a Kerri Bradford design. Later this week, I'll share my printer's tray made from her This&That: Autumn kit.

For the photo collage I used Photo Clusters No. 10 from Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals. These are my new favorite way to get a lot of photos on one page. So super easy to use. 


Tell me, what's your Happiness Is?

SOWA Farmers Market

The SOWA Farmers Market is held in Boston every Sunday from May to October. There are lots of local farmers, vendors and artisans selling their wares along with - my new obsession - food trucks! We had a great day just poking around the different tables and enjoying the warm spring weather. I hope we can back there before they shut down later this month. 

I cut the title with my Sillhouette from brown cardstock. The photo frames are from Designer Digitals. These are my new favorite way to get a lot of photos onto a page. Paula Gilarde does this a lot and she inspired me to try using photo frames at a crop a few years ago. The patterned paper and journaling spots are Jillibean Soup. I used a metal wavy ruler from Creative Memories to make the torn border.

Supplies Used:

patterned paper: Jillibean Soup Cup of Yak, Meatballs and Brown Rice

journaling spots: Jillibean Soup

other: Creative Memories wavy ruler, Kaiser red pearls

Elves Wanted

This layout just makes me smile. The photos are a collection of Christmas cards of some of my favorite kidlets. I always save the photo cards and the handmade cards every year. So if you sent me one, it's safely tucked away.

To make this layout, I trimmed the four cards to fit onto a 9x9 square layout. That's the size of my Christmas album. I started with a base of Basic Grey patterned paper and Die Cuts With a View lime green cardstock.

The Paper Thrills Challenge #16 was to use stickers as your background. The catch? No alphabets allowed.
I dug deep into my stash for these 7 Gypsies 97% Complete Christmas stickers. I bought a ton when they first came out and still have a few sheets. I took the word strips and layered them on a strip of red cardstock. One larger quote sticker was also backed with cardstock and popped it up with foam squares.

It's not too soon to start thinking about Christmas. Pulling out my holiday stash made me want to start working on Christmas cards soon. Have you started thinking about Christmas yet? 

Love These Girls

Challenge #10 at Paper Thrills was to a "use your stash" challenge. If you are like me, you could scrap for months straight without buying a single supply. These challenges are a great way to use that stash up in new and creative ways.

We were challenged to not use patterned paper. That's an easy one for me because I love cardstock. The twist was to use stamps, paints, stamps, etc to create a background pattern. I'm not a very technique driven scrapper but I love how this layout turned out.

The background is embossed Core'dinations cardstock that I sanded to add some texture and color. I put a piece of KI lace cardstock over the cream photo mat and sprayed it with gold Smooch spritz to make the photo mat.

The journal spot is a Papertrey Ink stamp and die combo stamped in aqua pigment ink and backed with watermelon cardstock. I used the same watermelon cardstock in the upper left corner and stamped and embossed a leaf patter on top of the circle. Then I added some chipboard butterfly that were embellished with some pearls and twine. The die cut title and flower accent are super old My Mind's Eye that worked perfectly with the color scheme of this layout.

Journaling reads: Having lunch with Patrice was a delight. She is just as sweet in person. So glad we could spend the day with her.

Paper Thrills Sketch Challenge

The challenge this week over at Paper Thrills is a sketch.

I love sketches because they are a terrific jumping off point for a card or layout. Sometimes my layouts closely follow the sketch and sometimes they don't.

For this layout, I used Jenni Bowlin bracket shaped ledger paper for my background instead of a circle. I added some strips of Crate Paper patterned paper behind the three photos and finished with some journaling and a big, bold title in the upper right hand corner to balance the photos.

Journaling reads: It's one of our favorite date places. We have a lot of fun walking around checking out new decor ideas. IKEA also sparks childhood memories for Joel. I love hearing about his summer visits to his grandparents' in Sweden. The meatballs and lingonberry jelly rock too.
I hope you'll play along with this week's challenge at Paper Thrills. Link me up to your layouts!

For the Thrill of Paper

Have you checked out the Paper Thrills challenge blog yet?
It's a brand-new site with weekly challenges.
It's a great place to try new techniques, use up your stash and get scrapping!
I'm very excited to be part of this design team and hope you'll check it out.


I want to share my projects that were created for the Paper Thrills Design Team submission.

Color Palette Challenge: The warm rich colors in the inspiration photo were perfect for this photo from a trip to San Diego back in 2003.

Ad Challenge:

I really love ad challenges. I get so many great ideas this way. From this ad, I was inspired to put the photo on the right side of the page, turn die cut patterned paper into an oversized mat, and the grey background

.

Sketch Challenge: 

I mixed it up by using the sketch to create a birthday card. I interpreted the circles in the sketch with polka dot prints.

California Sunset

cardstock: Bazzill, patterned paper: Scenic Route (orange print), Pink Paislee (black brocade, blue houndstooth, purple brocade), Basic Grey (orange and black), punch: Fiskars (border), EK Success (circle), journaling tags: Pink Paislee, label: twogirlzstuff (Etsy.com), gems: My Minds Eye, pen: Micron, foam adhesive: Creative Memories
Vertigo
cardstock: Club Scrap (grey, cream), Bazzill (black); patterned paper: Pink Paislee (lime die cut), Luxe Designs (turquoise); letter stickers: Making Memories; pen: Micron
Happy Birthday

cardstock: Paper Source (grey), Bazzill (black), patterned paper: Pink Paislee (blue dot on cream), Luxe Designs (cream dot on turquoise), journaling tag: Pink Paislee, stamp: Papertrey Ink Communique Sentiments, ink: Versafine (onyx), ribbon: Wrights, stick pin: Pink Paislee