Avoiding the Sharks: A Surfing Layout

My family just got back from the North Carolina coast, and, yikes, it was a little scary for this Mom whose young son loves his boogie board. The sharks are circling and two teens lost limbs to shark bites at a neighboring beach. 

I didn't want to make my son afraid of the ocean, so I didn't say much to him. Just tried to keep him as safe as I could: swimming in groups, avoiding the pier area and only going out in mid-afternoon (with lots of sunscreen). 

Success. No sign of sharks and, best of all, I had a cute photo from last summer of Cory with his boogie board. 

This is one of the layouts I made using the July kit from My Creative Scrapbook. I used a simple design with a long vertical strip down one side, very similar to the design I used last month for a different beach photo. 

I loved how bright and sunny this kit was. You can see all the MCS kits here.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend! 

Sweet Summer: My Creative Scrapbook Reveal

Good morning. I hope you had a great Fourth of July holiday. It's always nice to kick back, have a cookout, see old friends, light a few sparklers and raise a toast to our founding fathers. 

The new monthly kits are out for My Creative Scrapbook and they are perfect for documenting the Fourth of July or any other summer gathering. Like this one: 

I designed with the Creative Kit which has a colorful mix of summer lines from Pebbles and Doodlebug.

I'm trying to be a little more purposeful about including visible journaling on my layouts. I sometimes journal on a tag I slip under the photo (I also like that method) but then I have to remove the layout from the protector to read it. 

I took a card from the kit and ran it through my printer to add my journaling. I left a little room at the bottom for my title. I love these fun little cards that are featured in so many collections these days. 

Here's a photo of the cute kit I worked with:

You can see all the kits offered by My Creative Scrapbook on its website.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Go Wild: Charlotte Nature Museum

Hello everyone!  Today I'm sharing a simple layout about a recent visit to our local nature museum. 

We went to the museum for its Teddy Bear Pajama party, which is why Cory is in his pjs.  The highlight of the event for Cory was petting a gecko. 

I added a yellow arrow in this close-up to draw your eye to the gekko. 

I used bits of memorabilia from the museum brochure under the journaling, to the left of the photo and at the top of the page. This placement formed an invisible triangle, one of my favorite design principles. 

 

I also liked the way the dark green of the brochure helped ground the page. 

I don't typically use a lot of floral paper in my layouts but I thought this one went well with the theme of the nature museum. These pretty papers are from Pebbles' Happy Day collection, which were included in the January kit at My Creative Scrapbook. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Little Reader

Hello everyone. I'm back today with a layout that celebrates my son's love of reading.

As soon as I saw the patterned paper with the news article, "Cozy Up To A Good Book," I knew it would be the perfect backdrop for my layout. 

I liked the fun polka dot pattern on the reverse side too, so I cut the paper in half to use both sides. 

This paper is from Pebble's Happy Day collection. A fun feature of Pebbles' paper: each sheet includes a little strip of coordinating pattern at the bottom.

The strip on the bottom of this sheet was gray graph paper. I cut it off and used it to divide my page. 

I hung playful banners below then anchored my layout with a tag and title. 

Here's another look at the whole page: 

I made this layout with the January kit at My Creative Scrapbook. I had such fun with it this month. 

Thanks for stopping by. Have a wonderful weekend!

Favorite: My Creative Scrapbook

Hi everyone. Our unseasonably warm temperatures have left us and here we are today in the cold and rain. The only thing good about that?  A perfect excuse for a cup of hot chocolate!

Hot chocolate is my son's go-to drink. Mine too. It's good to document the ordinary. I really need to do it more. 

Here's a closeup:

The patterns in the January kit at My Creative Scrapbook were just what I needed for this layout. The colors were a great match for my son's hat. I love when that happens. I love the coffee cup icons in this cute kit too. The kit featured the Happy Day collection from Pebbles Inc. 

Thanks for stopping by. Wishing you a warm, dry day and if not, then cocoa at the ready!  

December Daily 2014: Days 13 - 17

Hi, I'm back today with more pages from my December Daily.  I have really enjoyed this project and hope to get it all wrapped up this weekend. 

Here are days 13 - 17. 

Day 13:  The Nutcracker Ballet, a holiday staple. 

Day 14: The Teddy Bear Pajama Party at our local Nature Museum.

Day 15: My mom and her sisters at our family gathering

Day 16:  The Gingerbread House competition at a local resort. 

Day 17: Simple handmade ornaments

You can see my December Daily posts here. 

Thank you for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Stay warm!

No Training Wheels: My Creative Scrapbook

Good morning everyone and happy new year. I hope you had a great holiday. School started back for us this week and we are still trying to get into the swing of things!

We've enjoyed some lovely, warm, sunny weather of late. A real treat for winter and perfect for playing outside. Cory got a new bicycle for Christmas and took it out for a spin. My dad had taught him how to ride without training wheels this summer on his small first bike. It was time for an upgrade. Santa knows!

I made this layout with the January kit from My Creative Scrapbook. It featured Happy Day from Pebbles Inc. 

I didn't have a specific spot for my journaling, so I just ran a card from the kit through my printer and added the words "new bicycle" and the date. I needed a little something else to fill the space in my grid, so I added two left-facing blue banners to break up the blocks. 

At the top of the layout, I added a few right facing banners to balance things out.

Here's another look at the full layout: 

I'm quite partial to grid layouts. They appeal to my natural linear style.

Here's a look at the January kit I used: 

My Creative Scrapbook puts together several kits each month. They are all really cute. You can see them here.

Thank you for stopping by. I'll be back tomorrow with posts from my December Daily. Yup, still catching up!

Top 10 Projects of 2014

I love seeing everyone's round-up of their favorite projects of the year.  Here are mine for 2014 in the order that they appeared on my blog:

Snowman Tag:

First Winter Snow:

I'm Yours:

Valentine Frame:

People We Love, Places We Go, Things We Do:

Another Day, Another Round of Candy Land: 

Fueling Up:

December Daily: Joy

My Elf:

Merry and Bright:

You can see last year's favorites on this blog post. If you did a post on your favorites, I love to see yours. Please link it in the comments. 

I'll be back tomorrow with my first layout of 2015. Thanks so much for stopping by. 

December Daily 2014 - Days 1 and 2

The holidays are here! This year, I am documenting them with a December Daily, a mini scrapbook on how my family celebrates the holidays.

I am following the general idea of December documentation popularized by Ali Edwards and am going to try to keep it simple. I am using a 6 x 8 inch "Daily Flash" album from October Afternoon with a mix of 6 x 8 pages and pocket pages. 

This is Day 1:

Here's Day 2:

As you can see, the first 2 pages are simply embellished 6 x 8 pages. Day 3 will be a pocket page and will include a journaling card. 

I am purposely documenting 25 days of December but not specific dates. In other words, a particular day, such as Day 2, may or may not represent what happened on Dec. 2.  Each day represents a December tradition or a part of our daily lives that month. 

I have done this project only once before - in December 2011 - with a more elaborate approach. That year, I made a double-page spread for each day and I documented what really happened on that specific day.  For me, being bound to a particular date made creating the album more difficult as I could not plan pages in advance. 

Making a double-page spread for each date also doubled the work. 

So far, I am really liking this new, streamlined approach!

Another Day, Another Round of Candy Land

Hi everyone! Today I have a rarity for me: a layout about every day life. Somehow, I don't seem to do enough of these type of layouts.  So, I am especially happy to have documented this story of my young son's abiding love for the board game Candy Land. I couldn't even venture a guess of how many times we have played it. A lot. 

I took these particular photos last year on Thanksgiving Day. We had a card table set up for puzzles. But Cory insisted on a few rounds of Candy Land first!

I've been holding on to these pictures. I wasn't sure how to scrapbook them, but as soon as I saw these colorful hexagons in this cute paper from Pebbles Inc., I immediately recalled the Candy Land photos. 

This paper line, Home + Made, included this card "let's stay home." It was really just perfect. I added the house icon (pop-dotted a sticker), journaling strips and a tab with his age.  Done!

Everything on this layout was part of the November Creative Kit from My Creative Scrapbook. I really did love this line and this kit. You can find all the kits, including a new Documenting December kit, from My Creative Scrapbook on their website. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Fall At The Farm: Pebbles Inc.

Good morning!  We're having beautiful Fall weather here in the Carolinas and today, I'm showing a seasonal layout I made with the new kit at My Creative Scrapbook.

We went to a Fall festival in October at Longshot Farms and had the best day. I took this quick snap of my son while we were waiting for a hayride. 

The kit featured the Home + Made collection from Pebbles including this cute paper. I loved it and used it on nearly every project I made with the kit. 

The "best day ever" card was perfectly sized to pair with a vertical 4x6 photo. I made a little pocket under the card for a hidden journaling tag.

To balance the page, I added a shipping tag at the top, layered with stickers, as well as a dark, bold title and a few colorful banners.

Here's another look at the full layout: 

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

Stitched Web: Spiderman Layout

Good morning!  Today I have a layout with a stitched spiderweb that I made from the new My Creative Scrapbook kit. It was a fun layout to make!

I started by adhering the striped paper to the background, then stitched a large spiderweb in the upper left corner. 

I stitched the web freehand. It's a little messy, but I solved that in part by adding some stickers on top. I used a Stampin' Up punch to make the bat. 

Next, I created a multi-layered photo mat, using a mix of papers from the kit. The papers are from the Home + Made collection from Pebbles Inc. 

I added a 6-inch white doily on top of the photo mat. I colored the doily with Night Sky mist from October Afternoon then stitched it down for a little extra texture. 

I added my photo and a few pop-dotted stickers. To complete the page, I added journaling strips, a title and a couple stickers in the corners for balance. 

I think it turned out pretty cute! This November kit from My Creative Scrapbook is so versatile. It's not Halloween themed at all, but it worked just perfectly with this photo. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. Have a great weekend!