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!

Paper Thrills Challenge #8

This week over on the Paper Thrills blog, the challenge is to use a print ad.
Like the ad, my page has a subtle print on the top third and a bolder print at the bottom.
I was inspired to use three photos and lots of blue on my layout as well. 

Journaling: Mom and I took Brendan to freshman orientation at UMass. We bought him lunch at Judie's (of course!) How did he grow up so fast?

Pop on over to Paper Thrills to see the ad. We'd love for you to join in!

Supplies Used:
cardstock: Club Scrap

patterned paper: Making Memories

embellishments: Making Memories

journal tag: Luxe Designs

ribbon: May Arts

letter stickers: American Crafts