PaperHaus Blog Hop: Celebrating The Winter Issue

Hi everyone. Welcome! Have you seen the gorgeous new issue of PaperHaus magazine? It's a thing of beauty, I tell you. And it's free!  Here's the link: PaperHaus Magazine Winter Issue


Isn't the cover pretty? 

Inside you'll find a variety of winter and holiday projects in every style. 

The contributors have been celebrating the new issue with a blog hop each day, these first 12 days of December.  Here we are at Day 11.  Each day's hop is really short, about 4 blogs.  We'd love to have you join us!  Leave a comment on each blog to be eligible for prizes from our sponsors. You won't believe how generous they are! I'm delighted to contribute to this magazine. 

Today, I am sharing a holiday layout that documents that time-honored tradition: picking out the Christmas tree. Our family goes to to a nearby tree farm each year, we pick our tree, cut it down, haul it home and decorate. 

I primarily used Little Yellow Bicycle's Fern and Forest collection for this layout. It isn't a traditional holiday line but the colors were just right. 

On the left, I embellished the page. On the right, I arranged the photos down the side to tell the story: arriving, cutting, hauling and decorating. There's a tag under the main photo for journaling. 

If you're following along for the hop, you should have arrived here from Cassie's blog.  The next stop is Amazing Mold Putty.

If you want to check out the blog hop from the previous days, go to PaperHaus for all the scoop!

Thanks for stopping by. I'll be back on Friday with another holiday project. 

Chevron Tutorial: My Creative Scrapbook

Hello, everyone.  Today, I have a layout and a few tips and tricks using some "difficult" paper from the Feels Like Home collection from Little Yellow Bicycle. This collection was included in the cozy October kit at My Creative Scrapbook.

For my layout, I started with this piece of paper. (Note: the gingham is the print on the reverse side). 

I rotated the paper 90 degrees so that the banners were at the top, but I wasn't sure what to do about the image of the big blue chair. It was too ornate for the casual look of the photos I wanted to use. 

I loved the pretty patterns and colors of this chevron paper and thought it could work with my photos, but the paper was rather dark. 

To lighten the look of the chevron paper, I cut it apart.    

I arranged the chevrons to cover the chair, allowing some of the lighter background paper to peek through each row.  

I added a bit of stitching with white thread for a bit of texture and contrast. 

A few white journaling strips at the bottom bring more light to the page and help break up the strong chevron pattern. 

I added three photos, with bingo cards tucked under each to help draw the eyes around the page. At the top, I added a title and a few embellishments. A nice transformation, I think!

Thanks for much for stopping by. I hope you have a great week!

Life Is Wonder Fall: My Creative Scrapbook

Autumn photos are some of my favorites to scrap. I love working with the deep, warm colors and the pretty patterns of Fall collections.   

On this layout, I decided to bring in some denim blue to an otherwise gold, orange and rust palette. I really like the contrast.  

These patterns are from Little Yellow Bicycle's Feels Like Home collection, which was included in the October kit from My Creative Scrapbook.  Love this kit!

The chipboard branch was included in the kit. I added some punched leaves from patterned paper, stitching them down, and a little blue bird. 

I printed the journaling on paper included in the kit, ran it through the printer, then cut it in the shape of a tag. I added a punched leaf and a gingham tab. 

The photo is of my parents and my son. I'm so blessed that my parents live nearby and dote on my little one.  It's a joy to witness that relationship. It reminds me that life is indeed wonderful. 

My Creative Scrapbook Birthday Blog Hop

Hello everyone and welcome to the birthday blog hop for My Creative Scrapbook. We have lots of prizes to give away. Just follow along!  

I'm so delighted to be a designer for this kit club: happiness arrives on my doorstep every month!

This was the kit I received for October, the Creative Kit. It was cozy, warm and colorful: perfect for Fall.

This is one of the layouts I made with the kit. I love working with scene paper.  Half the work is already done! Here, I just added in a strip of patterned paper across the bottom, my photo and a few stickers and embellies. Easy peasy!

A closeup:

The next person on the hop is the talented Marilyn Rivera. You can find her blog here.

We are so excited about our kits and hope that you are, too.  For more information about any of the kits, or to reserve your kit, please visit http://www.mycreativescrapbook.com/kits.htm

Before you go, remember to leave a comment and follow my blog to be eligible for the prize drawings!   Prizes will be drawn from individual blogs on the hop as well as from comments left on the My Creative Scrapbook blog.   Comments will be open until the end of the day on Wednesday, Oct. 9.  Winners will be announced on Friday. Have a wonderful weekend!

My Creative Scrapbook: October Kit Sneak Peeks

Hello everyone and happy October!  Autumn is here!

I have some sneak peeks for you of a pretty new Fall kit from My Creative Scrapbook.

Last weekend, we took a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway in the North Carolina mountains. The tree colors weren't at their peak, but it was still lovely in every way.  We stopped at an apple orchard and had the most yummy sweet, crisp apples off the tree.  Life is good!

Layout tutorial: Little Yellow Bicycle

I'm back today with another layout using the July kit at My Creative Scrapbook.  This kit featured the Poppy collection from Little Yellow Bicycle and I loved how sunny and happy it is. 

I wanted to spotlight the pretty papers so I cut a few of my favorites in wide strips. I adhered them to white cardstock, leaving some room at the bottom for my title.  I cut the white cardstock approximately 11 x 11 inches, then placed it on another patterned paper for a framed look.  

To break up the strong horizontal lines, I added a curved banner and rounded some of the paper edges. A trio of butterflies helps give the page a sense of movement. 

I tucked a tag under the photo, after first running it through my printer. 

To print directly on the ledger paper from the kit, I cut out a small piece (a bit bigger then I would need for my tag) and adhered it to standard copy paper with washi tape. Then I ran the taped-on ledger paper through my printer.  I removed the washi tape and cut the tag to size, adding a flower at the top. 

Here's another look at the layout.  Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a great week. 

Sweet Love: Little Yellow Bicycle

When I was a baby, my Dad always called me his sweet love.  He still does sometimes. :)  It was only natural for me to use the same nickname for my son. A new baby is such a sweet love after all. None sweeter!

My son is now 4. He is still my sweet love but these days when we cuddle and I call him one of his baby nicknames, he will say, "Mom, I'm just your Cory." I wanted to capture that tender period when I could call him mushy names without correction. 

My friend took this photo of Cory and me in the backyard when he was 10 weeks old. I used the new July kit from My Creative Scrapbook to make this page. The Poppy collection from Little Yellow Bicycle gave the layout some pretty pops of color and a natural spot to add the journaling.

To ground the page, I added a patterned paper tab across the top, layered with a burlap flower on top. I added some stitching to the leaf to make it poof a bit. 

A little tip: if you like the look of stitched buttons but don't like to stitch them, a white signo marker will do the trick.  It works especially well on dark buttons. 

This is the July Creative kit I used. You can see more work with this - and other MCS kits - in the Design Team gallery.

Thanks for stopping by!

Card Pair: Little Yellow Bicycle Poppy

Cards are my favorite thing to make but I have somehow neglected them lately. So, I am rectifying that today with a card pair made from the new July kit at My Creative Scrapbook. The Creative Kit features the Poppy collection from Little Yellow Bicycle. It's a pretty floral line with a fun pop of orange. 

For these cards, I used canvas stickers from Little Yellow Bicycle as my sentiments. The stickers, which were included in the kit, give a nice texture without added weight or bulk. 

For the first card, I used a stamp to add the word "sending." The stamp said: Sending love your way and I masked the rest of the sentiment so that the card said: Sending sunshine. 

For my second card, I used the canvas word Smile with brackets on either side. 

Below is a photo of the kit. 

My Creative Scrapbook has several beautiful kits each month featuring all the best paper manufacturers. You can find the details here.

Thanks for stopping by. I'll be back next week with layouts! 

Sneak Peeks: My Creative Scrapbook July Kit

The summer is flying by!  Here it is July already and time for sneak peeks of the new creative kit at My Creative Scrapbook.

The full reveal is July 5.  Thanks for stopping by! 

Vintage Summer: Little Yellow Bicycle

I was so pleased this year to see many fun new collections with a patriotic theme:  perfect for summer.  One of my favorites is Little Yellow Bicycle's Vintage Summer, which mixes stars and stripes with softer colors and patterns. 

The collection has a great patchwork pattern in one of the papers and I used that as the backdrop of my card, adding zig zag stitches to each row and colum. 

 

To make the tag, I punched a star in the chambray striped paper, then backed the opening with red stars.  I stitched around the star several times for added dimension and a rustic feel. To finish the tag, I added a few stickers, chipboard and a stick pin. 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Vintage Summer: Little Yellow Bicycle

School's out and summer has officially arrived!  This is our favorite time of year. Everything seems a little more relaxed.  We're outside more and we take more photos. Which means I always have some fun summer pictures to scrapbook. 

I took this photo last summer of Cory eating a popsicle (frozen juice bar) on the deck. It was right after July 4th and the American flag was blowing in the breeze behind him. I've been on the lookout for a patriotic collection for the photo and Vintage Summer from Little Yellow Bicycle was perfect! 

I used a simple design, employing the 5 Things I Love About You pocket. LYB has pocket embellishments in each of its lines. Sometimes I use the pocket plain or use a specific insert as an element on a card or layout. But, here, I used the pocket as intended, with journaling on each note card. 

These journaling cards have a lot of room, so I gave each one a headline with letter stickers, then wrote about that topic. The cards took me longer to do than the layout itself, but I felt so satisfied getting this on paper. When I was done, I tucked all the notes back in the pocket. It was a great way to include a lot of journaling, but not take up too much space. 

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I hope your week is off to a great start!

Hello Beautiful: Little Yellow Bicycle

Hello and happy Friday!  I started the week with a fun girl card and wanted to wrap up the week with another. It's always a treat for me to play with colors, patterns and icons outside my norm of snips and snails and puppy dog tails. Such is the life of a mom and scrapbooker of a little boy. 

I made this card, Hello Beautiful, from the pretty Fern and Forest Girl collection from Little Yellow Bicycle.  It's the counterpoint to Fern and Forest Boy and shares some of the same patterns but in a different color palette.  I love that Little Yellow Bicycle is purposeful in catering to both genders. 

I chose a bright purple-y herringbone paper as the base of this card and added transparencies as photo corners.  The transparency was a small frame from the LYB Clear Cuts and I snipped off 2 corners rather than using the frame as intended.  It's always tricky to adhere transparencies so that the adhesive doesn't show. Here, I just stitched right over it. Perfect solution. 

I loved the colorful chipboard pieces in this collection and featured them on the card by building a frame, pop dotting some elements.  The swirl is another  Clear Cut and here I hid the adhesive by gluing it to the back of the fairy princess and under the "beautiful" banner.  

To finish the card, I added a stick pin as the fairy's wand and tied it with a bit of twine. 

If you have followed my work, you know I am a HUGE fan of Little Yellow Bicycle.  I'm so pleased to announce that I now have a new badge to add to my sidebar: Little Yellow Bicycle is officially sponsoring me.  I'm tickled pink!

Have a great weekend, everyone!