70 Letter Surprise: Using A Photo Collage

Good morning, everyone. Today, I have a simple layout made with a photo collage, a journaling card I ran through the printer, and the October kit from My Creative Scrapbook. 

We had a big party for my Mom for her 70th birthday and I had several photos I wanted to use.  I used PicMonkey to make the collage, then printed it out as an 8 x 10 photo with a large white border. I trimmed down the white border to make the collage fit better on my 12 x 12 layout. 

I wanted to add some journaling to this layout, but there was no room on the page itself. The kit contained a white cute die-cut card that I thought would work perfectly as a journaling spot. 

I backed the die cut with orange patterned paper for a pop of color, used washi tape to adhere the card temporarily to regular printer paper then ran it through my printer. The photo trio below shows the steps I used and the finished journaling card. 

After the journaling card was ready, I made a little pocket for it under my photo collage then slipped the card into the pocket. The card pulls out to reveal the hidden journaling. 

Though this kit is Fall-themed not birthday themed, it worked out great by using the more neutral papers and palette. A cute and versatile kit!  Paper and embellishments are from Doodlebug Design. 

If you participated in the blog hop last week, pop over to My Creative Scrapbook blog to see if you were one of the lucky winners!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Animal Cards: Bella Blvd

I'm sharing a couple cards today made with Bella Blvd that were published in recent issues of CARDS magazine. 

First up is a sweet baby card:

This is a shaped card connected at the top of the trunk and the top of the elephant's back.  I don't often make shaped cards, but this one was fun to do. 

I made the elephant's tail using a piece of twill ribbon from May Arts and used some floral paper and pom pom trim to make a blanket. 

Second is a birthday or celebration card:

The frog and gift are chipboard icons from separate collections.  To have the frog holding the gift, I added little frog hands cut from patterned paper. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. 

Project Life: Baby's First Birthday

I have been watching Project Life from the sidelines for awhile now.  I am not quite ready to dip my toe into a weekly chronicle of our every day lives, but I love the overall concept.  I also love the page protectors and photo pockets made for Project Life and have been hoarding them. 

Today, I am using Fancy Pants Designs to put my own spin on Project Life. I think PL is perfect for any occasion when I have a lot of photos, too many for a scrapbook layout, or when I want to add extra journaling.  Like my son's first birthday.

Here's a sneak peek of a two-page PL spread I made:

My son has a March birthday and we had a St. Patrick's Day themed party when he turned 1.  For my Project Life spread, I used two 12 x 12 page protectors with 4 x 6 pockets.  To turn the top pocket above into two (faux) 2 x 3 slots, I mounted the cupcake photo and the journaling card on a 4 x 6 piece of white cardstock. Instant 2 x 3 slots!

Here's another sneak peek: 

Fancy Pants Designs makes Brag Pads for each of its collection. They are a collection of 4 x 6 papers with various designs, quotes and patterns. They are perfect for Project Life because they fit right into 4 x 6 slots.  I used the Brag Pads in all the slots shown above. 

The great thing about Project Life is you can use any scrapbook supplies you have on hand. Just cut them down to fit the Project Life page protectors. 

I have the complete spread of my son's first birthday, Project Life style, on the Fancy Pants Designs blog today.  I hope you'll stop by!

Pirate Birthday Party: My Creative Scrapbook

When we went to the beach last year, we saw a pirate show at the Dollywood Theater.  Ever since, my little boy has been obsessed with all things pirate.  For his birthday this year, of course, we did a pirate theme.

I've been on the lookout for pirate icons in scrapbooking supplies and so far, I haven't found a collection that features them. Maybe there is still hope for a future Halloween line.  In the meantime, I decided to scrap my son's birthday party photos with the fun, happy Surprise! collection from Bo Bunny.  I was so excited to find this line featured in the new April kit from My Creative Scrapbook.

I used Jolly Roger cupcake toppers, which I got from Michael's. I did intend to make my own, but convinced myself that store-bought was perfectly fine for 4-year-olds. Hee! I saved one of the toppers and used it as an embellishment on my page. 

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

Birthday Party Invitation with "Trendy" Balloons

To enter the drawing for the My Creative Scrapbook prizes, please see the blog hop here.

I love the trend of using twine in papercrafting. It's so fun and versatile.  Twine is great for packaging, of course, but I also love to incorporate it into cards and layouts.

Here, I used Trendy Twine's Chocolate Sprinkles as balloon strings on a child's birthday invitation.

Patterned paper and embellishments are from October Afternoon, mostly the Cakewalk line.

Here's a closeup of the balloons. I used a punch, pop-dotted the balloons on the card, then added twine.

Trendy Twine has a challenge this month to use twine on a boy-themed project.  The project can feature boys or it can be something for a boy. There's a great prize for the winner! You can find all the details here. For more projects from the Trendy Twine design team, please visit the Trendy Twine blog.

World Card Making Day

I love making cards and how perfect that there is a holiday just for people like me. World Card Making Day is the first Saturday in October.

I made a card to send to a friend whose birthday I missed.  Oops!  Hopefully, he'll forgive me once he gets this.

The outside of the card says: Blast it!

 The inside sentiment is: Can't believe I forgot your birthday!

I used October Afternoon's Rocket Age collection. Love this cute collection of space-themed papers and embellies. 

Freehand Scraps kit club is having a World Card Making Day challenge to make a card with a travel theme. You can find details on their blog here.