I know that it is actually winter and Christmas is soon to come...once the turkeys stop wobbling! But I'm going to post this Easter layout anyway! Because at holidays there are always so many pictures to lay down and it's hard to send any of them to the reject pile! This layout uses lots of photos and just a few embellishments to add to the theme. You could easily make this for Christmas, Halloween, Birthdays...whatever you need it to be!
OK, not posies! Actually a pocket for your memorabilia! Whenever we go on vacation we tend to accumulate lots of brochures, receipts, and postcards that I later want to incorporate into a layout. Here's one such layout with my solution:
I used a clear envelope (normally used for 4.25 x 5.5 greeting cards) lined with a piece of cardstock. I adhered it to the layout over a photo mat. Now we can reach into the page protector and pull out the ski map and remember all the great runs we had that day! You can make similar pockets with baseball card holders, pre-made pocket scrapbook pages, or cardstock cut and folded into a pocket.
I like this one for lots of reasons: the people in it, the colors of the paper (BG Granola), and the funky letter stickers (AC Thickers). I cut the large flower from patterned paper and embellished the tiny flowers with some blue brads. The rub-ons are by Hambly Studios. I love all the shades of blue sky in the pics, too!
The layout is basically (3) 4x6 photos portrait style, and (2) 6x4 photos landscape style (trimmed so they are only 6" tall combined). Add in layers of patterned paper and your title with a couple embellishments, and you're done!
Here's another with mainly 4x6 photos. I used BoBunny papers, Reuse gift set by QuicKutz, the 4x4 branch die by QK, and a Prima stamp (owl).
One last linear layout for you! Here I have two rows of 4" tall pics with space left open for my crackle-painted cars. The title is created with Scenic Route chipboard letters (I will miss SR!). The patterned paper is Little Yellow Bicycle's Traveler and the chipboard shapes are by Maya Road. So now that you have some inspiration for fast pages...go make some for your own albums!
I decided to make a layout with all of my friends who have December birthdays (since I'm one of them, too!). I used Kelly Purkey's sketch from 2 Peas Super Sketches class as my inspiration. I like the tone on tone in the top margin (that's something I don't usually do!) and I love how simple the layout is.
I used Cosmopolitan alphabet die set by QuicKutz, as well as the scalloped border die and the circle journaling spot die. The rub-ons are by Basic Grey. The little sub-title in the bottom right corner is actually circles punched with a hole punch and then letters are written in with a white journal pen. I did a little bit of machine stitching along the bottom edge of the green margin using purple thread to match the rest of the layout!
I never did post a picture of my Masquerade mask! So here it is...I made it with circles punched from Fancy Pants Trick or Treat paper. The gems are by Prima. The feathers are just generic. Well, I guess you can't see the full extent of the feathers, but they stick up and curl over to the side. The little paper flowers are attached with Glossy Accents. The mask held up pretty well for 3 different nights of wearing!
How about a fun layout that uses a minimal amount of product? I made this one using just a few thin strips of patterned paper, some matching embellishments, and some leftover fancy letters. The idea for the letters was featured in Creating Keepsakes a couple of months ago: trim the tops and bottoms of some super-fancy die cut letters and use them as borders!
I hardly even trimmed the photos! Here's a close up of the border made from letter tops:
This year we did something different for Youth service at church: we had a Masquerade Ball! The Wednesday before Halloween we let the kids come in masquerade costumes. They could be fancy and elaborate, or just jeans and a T-shirt. They had to wear an eye mask though. Some were plain, some were highly decorated! It was fun to see everyone's creativity in action!
We still had service as usual, but we did costume prizes instead of a game. The sermon revolved around letting down the masks we wear every day so we can be our true selves and let God mold us into His plan and purpose. I thought it was kind of funny when Heather refused to where her mask during praise and worship. She said it didn't seem very "worship-like" to sing praises looking like a peacock! Maybe you had to be there...but she did look like a bird with the mask on!
Pop on over to the QuicKutz Blog to check out all my tips for livening up your chipboard die cuts! I'm sure you have even more ideas than the one listed. Leave a comment and share your creative ideas!
I have a class coming up November 19th at Scrapbooks from the Heart in Oklahoma City. It's called December Countdown on the shop's calendar. In the class you'll get to make an 8" x 8" mini album that can be just that: a mini album. OR...you can tune into my blog every day in December as I count down the days to Christmas and I'll give you journal prompts and photo ideas to fill up your album and turn it into a December Daily Mini Book. The book starts with a Fancy Pants Mixed Media album and we embellish it with Jolly by Golly papers by Cosmo Cricket. There's a tiny bit of hand stitching on the 2 felt pages, but strong glue works as well if you really detest sewing. I'm posting a couple of the inner pages here in case you can't see it in person at the store. I think she can accommodate any requests for kits by mail order, too! The class is only $24 (a bargain if you add up all the materials included)!
See, just a couple teeny little stitches to make the photo mat more secure on the felt!
I have included envelope pages for tucking away memorabilia. I love this page with the pattern grid - easy to repeat throughout the book if you wanted to make it a countdown album! The cover and 2 other pages are acrylic. Love the way acrylic pages offer a "peekaboo" effect!
The Cosmo Cricket papers are such fun! The graphics are classic and versatile! Can't wait to get recital and Christmas program pics in with the music note patterns!
Sorry I haven't blogged too much lately! I have been a busy, busy girl! I have a couple projects coming up though...the December Daily album and a Christmas Card Class! I'm also working on some blog posts to submit to QuicKutz. Oh, and there's that Nursing job that takes up part of each day! Ha!
OK, on to the quick pic! My son is taking photography at high school this semester and he had to do an assignment of 4 pics with his teddy bear (that bear has a story behind it too, more of that in a sec!). I thought this one was quite funny so I did a few Jessica Sprague effects to it. I can think of several fun captions for this one!
Now...the teddy bear story. When my dad passed away January 25, 2002 the funeral director suggested Papa Bears for all the grandkids. At the visitation there was a bear like this sitting with him in the coffin and at the funeral he presented an identical bear to each grandkid with the explanation that when they needed a hug from PaPa they could hug the bear instead and he would be hugging the one just like it where he was. The kids all love their bears still to this day. Zakk was 6 when his PaPa (and his best buddy!) left us. Now he's 15 and he still keeps that bear safe on his desk. So I thought it was cool he chose his bear to include in his photography assignment!
