You Shine!

Today's post is all about thinking outside the box. For this layout, I was instantly drawn to the soft gray and white color palette which works perfectly with my daughter’s school photo. The gold dot vellum paper (Dear Lizzy 5th & Frolic) that came in the Citrus Twist kit is so pretty, but did not work with the photo. My daughter's dress is silver and has a gray background. Initially I thought a silver and gold layout might work, but decided against it. As I was playing around with the paper, I flipped it over and voilà - it was perfect! The backside of the gold dots is a matte silvery/gray tone that is perfect with the photo.

I slid a piece of silver cardstock behind the vellum and stitched around the edge to frame the photo.

I embossed the Thickers with Ranger Holographic Embossing Powder to give a shimmery finish. Just a few sequins scattered about from my stash and the layout was complete.

Fun with Citrus Twist Kits

Today I'm sharing a layout I created for Citrus Twist. I wanted the yellow to pop from the photo so I chose the Pebbles Walnut Grove (Eliza Jane) paper as my background. I selected a Silhouette phrase and only cut the word "sunshine" from a Pebbles journaling card, and backed it with a bright yellow card. I love how versatile journaling cards can be, they're not just for journaling, as you can see. :)

I adore the chevron printed kraft bag and when I put my title on it, I wanted to play off the direction of the chevron. I hand-stitched little arrows over the chevron to draw the eye to the photo. It's my favorite detail of the layout.

The kit came with one rosette and I knew I wanted to add more for balance so I picked a few of the Pebbles journaling cards and made rosettes with my scoring board. I also cut little banner strips from the journaling card and used the same twine to stitch over the banner.

Check out the adorable stitched vellum tag that was included in the kit. It is the perfect finishing touch to the layout. ♥

I have several more projects that I'll share with you over the next few days. If you're looking for a fabulous kit club, be sure to check out Citrus Twist. If you're new to my blog, please leave a comment, or feel free to follow me! Thank you for visiting!

I'm February Guest Designer for Citrus Twist!

I am so thrilled and honored to be Guest Designer this month! I received the main and the embellishment kits and they are fabulous. If you've ever received a Citrus Twist kit, you know how exciting it is to get the lovely package tied with twine. ♥

Here are some sneaks of the projects I created.

Be sure to stop by Citrus Twist and check out their fabulous kits! If you leave a comment on their blog today, you will have a chance to win a prize! Click here.

Home for the Holidays

I chose this simple sentiment for my December album cover page because we are actually staying home for Christmas this year. While I will miss our long-distance family members, I am truly excited about being home. Last night we sat around the campfire, drinking hot chocolate and roasting marshmallows. We played a fun game - "Christmas Box of Questions", and sang Christmas carols. We then watched, "It's a Wonderful Life" - the kids were a little freaked out by the black & white, but really enjoyed the movie. These are the kind of memories that I hope they will look back and cherish always.

For the cover page, I started out with a sheet of paper from a Simple Stories Snap album. The title was cut on my Cameo using two different fonts. The photo of our front porch was printed on vellum. I love the soft look it creates and the fact that you can still see the patterned paper underneath it. A couple of patterned papers under the words add some dimension and a playfulness to the page. The photo was stapled with a Tiny Attacher and a few stamps and embellishments were added to complete the page. One of the chipboard page dividers that came with the album was used to create the backing.

If you're creating a December album, leave a comment - I'd love to see what you're creating! Thanks for stopping by - Happy Holidays!

How I Scrap "Less Than Perfect" Photos

In August, my son started middle school; I won't get sidetracked with emotion, I'm here to talk about photos. :) The start time for middle school is very early and I couldn't get my camera to cooperate with the bad lighting. After all, it was 6:45 a.m. and my brain wasn't functioning properly at that point. So I took less than perfect photos and converted them to black and white and suddenly those same bad photos looked pretty good!

I sat the photos aside waiting for some inspiration. As I started looking through my stash, I found Citrus Twist's September kit and knew it was a perfect match.

The Thickers from the kit were the first thing that caught my eye because of the color and stitching. It reminds me of stitching on backpacks. I also loved the scalloped circles cut from book paper. I folded them in half to mimic clouds and stapled them to the page with my Tiny Attacher. The title needed to pop, so I used a torn out piece of paper from an old book and used my Fiskars punch to create the notebook paper embellishment. I love the little CT arrow stamp, so I took two colors of Zing embossing powder (white and charcoal) and made a pattern to highlight the journaling.

Sometimes bad photos happen, but rather than tossing the memory aside, embrace it, scrap it, and be happy that it's documented.

Fun Christmas Card

After celebrating a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family, we arrived home safely last night and I was in the mood to create!

I decided to make a Christmas card using Crate Paper's Sleigh Ride 6x6 paper pad from Cocoa Daisy's Christmas add-on kit. I love the look of square cards, so I trimmed a piece of cardstock to create a 5x5 square. I trimmed a piece of patterned paper to 4.75" and attached it to the card, adding machine stitching to the edge to frame it. I then took several pieces of patterned paper and cut little strips to create my tree. I began with a piece 2.75" for the bottom row of the tree. Reduce each row by 1/4" to create the graduated tree. To create the rolled piece, I simply wrapped the paper around a pencil and rolled it up. A little strip of adhesive on the edge holds the roll in place.

A small piece ribbon was used to create a tree skirt. I simply glued the little rolls down from largest to smallest and added some My Mind's Eye Winter Wonderland enamel dots to mimic ornaments. (I'm truly obsessed with these little dots!) I took a piece of raw chipboard and used VersaMark and Zing embossing powder to create the star for the top. The adorable "joy" stamp is from Citrus Twist's December Daily kit and I think it's the perfect little touch to complete the card.

Creating little paper rolls is a great way to use a mix of patterned papers (esp. scraps) and get lots of impact! This sweet card makes me smile, I'm not sure I'll be able to give it away! Thanks for stopping by, happy holiday crafting to you!

December Album 2012

One of my favorite things about the holiday season, is preparing my December album. There are so many "December Daily" kits offered, that choosing can be a little overwhelming. This year, I chose Citrus Twist's December Daily kit along with Cocoa Daisy's Christmas add-on because they complimented each other perfectly.

I have to share the lovely presentation with you from Trina at Citrus Twist. Even the Grinch couldn't resist digging into this treasure! I'm sure that tag will make it's way into my album! Be sure to click on the photos so you can see it up close. :)

Check out this fabulous stamp set that came in the kit...

Once I touched the pretties in the package, I couldn't resist the urge to get started on my album. This year I decided I wanted to add lots of bright colors to my album cover, this adorable Crate Paper was the perfect starting point. I decided it would be fun to make the album cover look like a gift, so I wrapped the patterned paper with washi tape. With just a few more touches, I ended up with a simple and festive album cover.

First Cameo Cut!

In case you've been living under a scrappy rock and have no clue what a Silhouette Cameo is, let me tell you... It is the most amazing cutting system for crafting, ever! I dug my heels in resisting the hype, after all, I already own QuicKutz, and a Cricut - why would I need one more cutting system? As fate would have it, Studio Calico offered a bundle package that was too good to resist, and to make it even more enticing, they have a class to teach me how to get the most out of my machine.

I watched a few videos and downloaded a few Kerri Bradford files in anticipation of my machine's arrival. Here is my first layout using the Cameo. I used Kerri Bradford's, Beautiful World files for the title and Citrus Twist's October kit. To highlight the individual letters, I used Zing Embossing Powder.

The thing I love about the Cameo is the fact that I can see everything on my computer screen before I make the first cut. I can't believe I took so long to come around to this technology. I'm so excited with all the possibilities it brings. If you've been on the fence about buying one, jump on over, you won't regret it, I promise! :)

Southern Comfort Savannah Style

A couple of years ago, on our way to Hilton Head Island, we stopped in beautiful Savannah, GA for a few hours. Since my kids have grown up with Food Network, they knew Paula Dean's restaurant is located there, so of course, we stopped by to have lunch. It was so crowded, the wait was several hours, so we opted out and did a little shopping in the gift shop. Fast forward two years and we're heading to HHI again, so I planned ahead and made reservations. What a fun and delicious way to spend an afternoon in Savannah. I just took a few Instagram photos with my phone to capture the moment. The following is a layout I created using the gorgeous Citrus Twist Kit and a few goodies from my stash.

I fussy cut some flowers from the Heidi Swapp Beautiful paper and even added some stitching and french knots for dimension. I simply adore the way this turned out, it may be one of my new favorites! (You may click on image to enlarge.)

For a quick and easy way to print Instagram pics, be sure to check here. Thanks for stopping by my blog - wishing you a relaxing Labor Day!