Sep 29, 2011

The Back to School Adventure

Red and Aqua may be one of my absolute favorite color combinations ever. There is something so fresh and vibrant about it. My favorite thing about this combination is how it can be used on layouts about boys and girls. Since I have one of each, I struggle with finding fun fresh color combos that are not too girly and not too grungy. This one fits the bill:
Add a nice warm grey and you are thinking of Fall and Back to School time!
I pulled out some school themed papers from the GCD Studios Elementary My Dear line. I love the die cut apple sheet! Truth be told, sometimes I don't know the best way to use die cut sheets, but since I knew I wanted the apple image to represent the red from my color combination I thought layering it over a blue patterned paper and thinking of the two as one whole patterned paper made it a lot easier to use in my design. A strip of pencils as a border was a no brainer for a back to school page so I was really just looking for some grey to incorporate into my layout. I found it in a grid "B" side from The Great Outdoors collection. From the same collection I grabbed the big chipboard "Adventure" to make my title pop:
Add some stitching for that homespun feel:
and some typewritten journaling:
and you have a Back to School layout for boys, girls or both!
Supplies Used:
GCD Studios Elementary My Dear (stars, apple die cut, pencils)
GCD Studios The Great Outdoors (grid patterned paper, Adventure Chipboard)
American Crafts Alphas and apple sticker
Elle's Studio Journaling Tag

Sep 26, 2011

Winner!!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Ours was pretty hot. Both kids had soccer games on saturday and we all about melted. The toughest part is walking ALL the way out to the field from the parking lot carrying chairs, coolers, gear etc. The kids are exhausted before the game even starts! Sunday we all just relaxed, watched some football, baked cupcakes, went in the pool. Definitely a much needed respite from the craziness of the week. So....I owe you all a winner for the fabulous September Scrapbook Circle kit. I used Random Org to pick a number for me...

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:
9
Timestamp: 2011-09-26 17:01:41 UTC

Which makes KateB the winner!Congratulations, Kate-- I already emailed you for your address! Before I go I want to share a couple more layouts I made with the kit (while I am already playing with the October Scrapbook Circle kit and will only tell you--it is JUST as awesome!).
This one I did with literally SCRAPS left lol.
I sewed a grid, splattered some mist and then punched sunbursts from the tiniest scraps of patterned paper that were left after completing 7 layouts. We didnt get to go anywhere this year, so I tried to do lots of fun things with the kids right here. I think one of their favorites is swimming in the pool.
I really love the Amy Tangerine die cuts from the Add On. I figured even though we didnt travel some of the phrases work for our Staycation:
Next is one of my all time favorite layouts ever.
Sorry if you now have The Sound of Music stuck in your head ;) I cropped my photos into squares and left enough room between them when I printed so I could cut them into Polaroid shapes. The whole layout with the larger white border on the bottom is supposed to look like a Polaroid too, but I probably should have left a larger white border. The faux Polaroids are strung with bakers twine that I got from the Scrapbook Circle shop. 
I will be back soon, maybe with some sneaks of the October kit, so stay tuned!!
♥ Rebecca

Sep 22, 2011

BIG BIG BIG Giveaway!

You know how I have been RAVING about the Scrapbook Circle September kit The Good Life? Well Scrapbook Circle owner, Lisa, recently celebrated her birthday and she is letting me give one of you one of those kits!! Don't you love when people give you gifts for their birthday lol! Seriously though, this kit is A--MAZ--ING and you do not want to miss out on the chance to win one! All you have to do is comment on this post by Sunday September 25 and I will enter you to win. If you'd like another entry you can follow my blog and leave a second comment indicating you are now following (or that you already follow). (Oh and if your blogger profile doesnt have a link to your email address please include that too!!)
Before I go, let me share yet another layout I made with this fabulous kit (I think my total is 8 this month!!)
I can't get over how little she looks--this was just last year for crying out loud! 
I tied some thin strips of denim through the canvas Maya Road buttons...
and around the journaling tag:
to go along with the denim look of the Crate Paper Random stickers.
 Isn't it amazing how much kids learn in kindergarten? They go in babies and come out school kids. We are in full school kid mode with homework every night, lots of reading, spelling tests, and now soccer practices. Both kids have their first games on Saturday--wish us luck!
And I will wish you luck on winning the kit!
Have a wonderful night.
♥ Rebecca


Sep 20, 2011

Give the Husband Some Air Time

I don't know about you, but I've noticed that husbands tend to be absent from both pictures and scrapbook pages, don't they? Besides getting myself into more photos and layouts, I want to do the same for Scott. To that end, here are two layouts that will go into his sadly slim album ;) Both were made with the Scrapbook Circle September Kit, The Good Life. The first is a lift of a Scrapbook Circle member, Kelly. You can see the original layout and a lift by fellow DT member Elizabeth HERE. And here is my layout:
Everything is from the Scrapbook Circle September kit except the Amy Tangerine Bits which are available as an add on. Oh and I added some mist in splatters on the page and to color the Maya Road flower.
and a little bit of bakers twine to "hang" the journaling card from.
I didn't use any 3d adhesive under the butterlies, I just use some Therm O Web Medium Zots. I put a Zot in the middle of each butterfly so the wings were not adhered down and could be folded up for the 3D effect.
And then there is this one:
I hand cut the giant heart, added the little word stickers by Authentique and stitched around the entire thing:
I added some Bits from the Amy Tangerine Add On and included some of the Fancy Pants mini alphas on the little banner: 
And while we are talking about Scrapbook Circle, don't forget about the Design Team Call going on. The information is HERE
And not to SELF, Husbands do and say funny things too, just like the kids lol. There are jokes that we have that I want to remember too. Remember to get those things down on paper before I forget them.
♥ Rebecca

Sep 13, 2011

All about me...

I got a layout about me in the August issue of Scrapbook Trends. A layout about ME! No kids are present in this layout lol. Sometimes I forget how much fun it is to scrap about myself.

I did another layout about me recently using the Scrapbook Circle September kit. For this layout I was tasked with using the Authentique Diction word stickers. I punched stars from the sticker sheet and sewed them onto my layout:
I did the same thing over here:
and stitched along the chevron pattern that I had cut along the zig zag. And some more stitched along this paper strip:
I love that "Hello" sticker by Crate Paper too (hmmm, I may need another sheet of those just for that one lol!
Love the Amy Tangerine Bits that are available as an ADD ON.
And finally, even after cryptic journaling and all, I do feel better getting it out. There is something so therapeutic about telling one of YOUR own stories.
Before I go, I want to mention that Scrapbook Circle is having a design team call. I cannot say enough about how much I love designing for Scrapbook Circle. The kits are amazing. Always a perfect mix of product and always all the latest and greatest. The other design team members this term were so wonderfully  inspiring and creative and Lisa, the owner is simply the best. Here is all the information for the call:


Who are we looking for?
* People who love working with monthly scrapbook kits
* People who are good communicators and emailers
* People who maintain an active blog
* People who enjoy sharing ideas in the scrapbook community
* People who able to meet deadlines
How do you apply?
Email the following to lisa@scrapbookcircle.com.
* 5 images of your favorite layouts (keep images below 600kb)
* Links to your blog and online galleries/communities where you actively participate
* Short bio including why you would be a good fit on our design team
* List of other current design teams you participate on (if any)
All submissions are due by Friday, September 30.
The design team term will be from November 2011 – April 2012.
International submissions are welcome.
Seriously, get your applications in now! You will have a blast.
♥ Rebecca

Sep 10, 2011

Handprints and GCD Studios

Apparently, when my first child was born I had a lot of time on my hands. I impressed her tiny hand into clay for a frame, I painted it and used her hand print to make a turkey on a Thanksgiving plate and I made hand prints for the grandparents. When my son came along, my daughter was still only 21 months and suddenly all that extra time evaporated. Fast forward four years and the poor little guy has no keepsake of his hand prints! There are tons of ideas on how to use hand prints in art work and design. Browse the internet, Etsy and Pinterest and you are sure to find lots of fun ideas like these:


I thought it was about time to remedy my son's lack of hand print memories and figured a layout was the perfect way to do so. Lucky for me, I had the perfect story to tell about a book called The Kissing Hand that his teacher read to him on the first day of school.
I painted his hand with non toxic washable paint and gently pressed it onto white cardstock. I made about four impressions on a 12x12 piece of white cardstock so I could choose the best one! The story is actually about raccoons, but I thought the elephant with heart and little turtle (from the die cut sheet from the Animal Crackers for Boys collection) were too cute not to include.

and I left plenty of room to journal about the story and our connection to it:
I hope this gives you some ideas of how to include those little hand prints on your next project so we can always remember how small they were!

Supplies Used:
GCD Studios Animal Crackers for Boys patterned paper and Metal Rimmed Glass Brads
American Crafts Alphas
Papertrey Inc. White Cardstock

Sep 8, 2011

Lots of Winners!

Sorry this week got away from me! We had a nice long weekend with some slightly lower temps and then back to school/work on Tuesday and the record temps were back. I feel like my brain is melting. Lots of fun news though....
Tessa posted the winners drawn from the Precocious Paper blog hop winners HERE. Go see if you won!
Also Best Creation announced some winners from the Stitched creations Blog Hop, you can see if you are a winner HERE.
And finally, I used Random.org to pick a winner from my blog for the Best Creation blog hop and it chose number 3...
That makes Ange my winner:


Blogger Ange said...




I'm a new follower. :)
August 30, 2011 9:26 AM


Please email me your address and I will get some goodies out to you!

And last, but not least, stop by the Scrapbook Circle blog tomorrow. I will have this layout up and be talking about list journaling:
Have a great night and even better Friday!
♥ Rebecca

Sep 3, 2011

The Good Life

I can't help myself, I really like the song and video:
The September Scrapbook Circle kit is called The Good Life and man, oh man, it is one amazing kit. I know everyone is trying to get their hands on the American Crafts Amy Tangerine line and there are several papers and goodies from that line in this kit, as well as new Maya Road, Authentique, Crate Paper (from the Random collection) and Fancy Pants. It is seriously one versatile kit and I love every bit of it. I may say this every month, but I am definitely going to use this one down to the bare bones. Here is one layout I did:
The cardstock and American Crafts Thickers are from my stash, but everything else is from the kit. The die cuts (like the file o fax card and star) are from the Amy Tangerine bits which are available as an add on HERE
I made the little flag by wrapping one of the Fancy Pants banner stickers around a toothpick.
and the journaling card was from the free printable. I printed it on cardstock, cut it out and used my typewriter for the journaling:
Pick up your kit HERE, your Amy Tangerine Add On HERE and stay tuned for LOTS more layouts from this amazing kit!
♥ Rebecca
P.S. Dont forget you have until Monday to send in your Fall words for the Best Creation blog hop.
P.S.S. I too will announce my winner of some Back to School goodies on Monday September 5th
P.S.S.S. Keep checking HERE for the winners of the Perfectly Precocious blog hop--they will be announced soon!