Scrapbooking Thanksgiving: Grateful

Hello everyone!

It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is just a week away. I love the Fall season, but it always seems to slip by so quickly and the next thing you know, Christmas carols are playing. 

Before we turn on the holiday music at our house, I wanted to pause for a moment and honor Thanksgiving. I have so much for which to be grateful and I took a few minutes to jot that down on this layout. 

I made this page with the November kit from My Creative Scrapbook. It featured a mix of lines from Echo Park Paper and Doodlebug Design. 

I included a few lines of journaling right under the photo, which I took of the table setting last year. 

Wishing you and yours a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. 

The Cutest Pumpkin in the Patch

Good morning, everyone!

I have another Fall layout today from the November kit at My Creative Scrapbook. 

I frequently scrapbook holidays and events a year after they happen, e.g. I 'll scrap Christmas 2014 in December 2015. I like to scrapbook in the same season as the event, but since it takes me a bit to upload and edit photos and I work with designer deadlines, the holiday is often well past. So, I just hold the photos for next year. Thus, I made a layout of last year's pumpkin patch visit just last month, which you may remember. 

In a break with tradition, I'm scrapbooking this year's pumpkin patch visit this year! The colors and icons in the November MCS kit worked perfectly for a pumpkin patch, so I got her done. 

Here's a close-up of the page:

I have a simple style. I most often use a strong 4x6 photo as my focal point. I try to include a bit of journaling on my layouts too, but I didn't here. I handwrote the date (2015) and the title tells where we were. We go to this particular farm each year and other layouts about our visit to Hodges Farm tell a little more of the tradition. 

This November kit featured a mix of Echo Park Paper and Doodlebug Designs. I used primarily Echo Park here. 

This is the kit I used: 

You can find out more about My Creative Scrapbook on its website.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Beautiful Highland Haven: MCS Kit Reveal

Hello everyone. It's the 5th of the month and reveal day for My Creative Scrapbook Kit Club. 

Here, I used the kit to document a trip we took in late September to the Virginia Highlands. My parents bought a little piece of property there and it is a sweet spot! It's a great place to watch for deer or pick apples or just relax and soak in the views. 

The November Creative Kit is a fun Fall-themed kit, featuring Echo Park Paper and Doodlebug Designs. 


Here's a photo of the kit I used: 

You can find all the kits here.

Thanks for stopping by!

A Trip To Chimney Rock

Good morning! I'm back today with a vacation layout. 

Chimney Rock is one of the most iconic sites in North Carolina, offering sweeping views of the mountains and gorge. So when my parents bought a new RV this year and wanted to take a trip, the first place we went was to Chimney Rock State Park. 

I took this photo of Cory and my parents at the base of the park in the shade of the trees. 

I used my October kit from My Creative Scrapbook to make this layout. The kit's theme was family and that was perfect for this photo. I don't worry too much about the papers being matchy matchy with my photo. Mom is wearing a pink floral summer shirt and I just ignored that! I used the papers instead to bring out the Fall colors from the photo. 

I wanted to add a bit of strip journaling to the page. I typed a couple of short sentences on the computer, printed them out, then took a small piece of aqua paper from the kit and placed it over the journaling. I used washi to temporarily hold the aqua paper in place, then ran the paper through my printer again. 

I used a paper trimmer to cut the journaling strips then placed them on my layout. 

The bottom third of my layout are just strips of border paper from the kit. Easy peasy. This is from the cute Family Frenzy line from Bella Blvd. 

The border strips give the layout a fun pop of color. 

Here's a photo of the kit I used from My Creative Scrapbook: 

Here's one more look at the layout: 

Thank you for stopping by. Have a great week!

Hodges Farm Pumpkin Patch

Hello again. I am back today with a layout documenting our annual trip to Hodges Farm to pick a pumpkin.  

Hodges Farm is my favorite pumpkin patch. I think it might be the sunflowers groves that sealed the deal. 

I used the October kit from My Creative Scrapbook for my layout. I looked through the papers, then looked for photos that coordinated. I confess: the fastest place to look for photos is my Facebook feed! I found this cute photo below of Cory with his chosen pumpkin from last year's outing and it worked perfectly. 

I love this blue graph paper from Echo Park. The cluster of flowers in the bottom corner was a great place to anchor my photo. I added a dark blue header and footer to frame the layout, added a few stickers and journaling strips and was done. I am partial to a simple layout. 

Here's one more look at the whole page. 

Thank you for stopping by. Have a great week!

My Creative Scrapbook Reveal: iPad Fans

Hello everyone. Happy October!

Today, I have a layout documenting my young son's iPad love. He was just 3 years old here and no matter how many toys he had, he loved the iPad best!

I made this layout using the new October kit from My Creative Scrapbook. The kit was family-themed, combining the Family Frenzy collection from Bella Blvd and The Story of our Family from Echo Park Paper. 

I made the base of this layout using the front and back of one sheet of paper called "Around the Block" from Bella Blvd.  The houses are the front and the yellow pattern is the back. 

I used my trimmer to carefully cut out a large square of yellow and used kraft cardstock to hide the cut marks. 

Once I had my base, I layered other papers from the kit and created a colorful mat for my photos. 

Below is a photo of the kit I used: 

Here's one more look at the layout: 

You can find all the kits from My Creative Scrapbook on its website.

Thanks for stopping by!

Beautiful Spring

Good morning. I have something a little different for me today. My scrapbook layouts are almost always about my little boy, so I don't often use pink. 

But every once in awhile, I get a picture or two of Cory with a little girl. In this case, it was with his cousin Piper and her brother on Easter Sunday. Yay for pink!

I love the combo of pink and yellow together. I really need to look for more excuses to use it. 

I made this layout with the May Creative kit My Creative Scrapbook. You can see all the monthly kits on their website. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. I'll be back later this week with a mini-album. 

Puddle Jumper & Wave Rider: Summer Layout

We're fortunate to live fairly close to the beach, about a 4-hour drive, and when Spring fever strikes, it's hard to resist the pull of the shore. 

The ocean water was pretty chilly this April day, but it didn't stop my 6-year-old from jumping in. He was particularly anxious to try skimboarding. After a few tips from a fellow boarder, he was on his way. 

The water themed papers and icons from the May Creative Kit at My Creative Scrapbook were perfect for this layout. I used a sheet of blue patterned paper as my backdrop and created waves on top with kraft paper. 

I handcut the waves. Nothing fancy, then stitched them down, creating a pocket in the bottom wave for my photos. 

I tucked a series of photos in the wave pocket and stitched them in place. Then I added a a title and a few embellishments to the bottom wave. 

At the top of the layout, I created a cluster of stickers on a journaling card to balance the page. On the left, I added a shipping tag with a bit of strip journaling. 

Here'a another look at the full layout: 

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. I'll be back on Monday with one more layout from this kit. 

Giggles and Goggles: Using A Kraft Paper Background

Good morning.  I am back today with a sunny, happy layout, as promised. 

I love using kraft paper as my background. It is one of my favorite scrapbooking trends. Kraft paper is like khaki pants. It goes with everything! Kraft paper lends itself particularly well to layouts about boys, I think. It has sort of a rough and tumble look all on its own. Plus, bright colors really pop against kraft. 

I've been holding on to these photos for awhile. I took them at a July 4th party when my son was 4. These photos went perfectly with the new May kit from My Creative Scrapbook.  The kit features Echo Park Paper. 

I printed the series of photos small (2 x 2 inches) and cut 8 circles (1.25 inches each) from the colorful paper with a circle punch.  

Below the photos is the title. I put my son's age on the sailboat using little alphas from the kit. It was a way to dress up the sailboat and add a little demographic data at the same time. 

As you can see, I had a lot of design on the right side of the page. I could have stopped there and cut my page to 8.5 x 11. I am kind of digging smaller canvases these days. But in the end, I decided to keep the page 12 x 12. Since the left side was empty, I added a few elements to balance things out: strip journaling, a line of banners and a 3 x 4 card with decorative elements. 

Here's another look at the whole layout. 

Thanks for stopping by.  I'll be back tomorrow with another layout from this kit. 

Singing In The Rain: My Creative Scrapbook Reveal

Good morning!  

Today is reveal day at My Creative Scrapbook. The new May kit is sunny and happy and, well, a little bit rainy. Yep.  I played on that latter theme for my first layout. 

The May Creative kit featured Echo Park Paper's Sunny Days Ahead collection, which includes images of the sun, of course, but also clouds, umbrellas and rain boots. 

My first layout was inspired by this paper in the kit: 

The front side is adorable, but a little too girly for my scrapbooking my son. The B side, however, was perfect.  It has the text Singing in the Rain repeated over and over. 

The paper made me think of these photos I took last year of my son playing in the sprinklers, fully dressed, at our local botanical gardens. 

The photos aren't perfect. It is hard to capture crisp, sharp photos of an active child. Plus, there was the issue of not wanting to get my camera wet in the spray.  But the photos captured the joy of a child and that's what I wanted to scrapbook. 

I chose a series of three photos from that day and used the Singing In The Rain paper as my background with large yellow circles for a pop of color. 

In the bottom corner, I used a journaling card to anchor my page. 

We actually were at the gardens in late October last year for a Halloween event. So, I wasn't even thinking that my 5-year-old would run through the water spray. It was October!  But, as my journaling says: you can't keep a kid out of sprinkler. 

Here's one more look at the whole layout. 

This is the kit I used to create the layout: 

My Creative Scrapbook offers a main kit, creative kit, limited edition kit and an album kit each month. You can find all the details on their website. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. I'll be back tomorrow with another layout from this kit. A sunny one, I promise!

My Creative Scrapbook Birthday Blog Hop

Welcome to the Blog Hop for My Creative Scrapbook. It’s our October Kit Reveal and our 9^th birthday! 

We’re celebrating all month long with great giveaways. The grand prize winner will receive the October Main Kit featuring Echo Park and Carta Bella!  It’s perfect for your Fall projects.

Echo Park and Carta Bella are partying along with us and they have donated terrific prizes!  Three blog hoppers will win this prize below:

If you are following the hop, you should have arrived here from Kris Berc’s blog.  

My Creative Scrapbook releases four kits each month. I designed with the October Creative Kit, pictured below.

   

This is a layout I made with the Creative Kit, which features a cute Fall line from Doodlebug. 

In this layout, I used journaling spots for both function and design. I used a large die-cup leaf to add a pop of color. 

The next stop on the blog hop is Marilyn Rivera: http://marilynrivera.blogspot.com/

The blog hop ends October 8 at 11:59 pm Eastern time. Winners will be chosen from comments on participating blogs and will be announced on the My Creative Scrapbook blog October 13.

You can find all the details for the hop on the My Creative Scrapbook blog. Subscription information for the monthly kits can be found here.

Thank you for stopping by and for your support of My Creative Scrapbook. We would love it if you would follow us on Facebook.

Top 13 Projects of 2013: Year In Review

Hello everyone. I can't believe a new year is dawning!  As 2014 approaches, I wanted to look back at my creative projects from 2013 and post a few of my favorites.  I love seeing these types of posts on your blogs and wanted to follow suit. 

Below are 13 of my favorites in the order that they appeared on my blog this year. The blue titles hyperlink back to the original posts and tutorials. 

At The Sea - Pebbles Inc. 

I'm All Ears - October Afternoon

Welcome Little One - Echo Park Paper

Lollipop Tents - Echo Park Paper

Delight - Little Yellow Bicycle

Sailboat Tag - Pebbles Inc.

Silly Amazing Handsome You - My Mind's Eye

The Race - My Mind's Eye

I Fell In Love - Fancy Pants Designs

Tuesdays With Cory Mini Album - Fancy Pants Designs

One Fine Day - Fancy Pants Designs

Toilet Roll Reindeer - Fancy Pants Designs

Shaker Card - Crate Paper

Do you have a favorite among these?

As it turned out, 2013 was the Year of the Pub for me. I had 38 projects in print publications this year including work in Paper Crafts Magazine, Creating Keepsakes, Better Homes and Gardens (specialty issue Make It Yourself), Scrapbook and Cards Today, Scrapbooking & Beyond, CARDS, Scrapbook Trends, Create and Simply Handmade.  Sadly, most of these magazines have either ceased publication or will publish only (or primarily) in digital form in 2014. 

I hope 2013 was a wonderful year for you. If you've written a list of favorite projects from the past year, I'd love to see your post. Please link it in the comments. 

Happy New Year!