Encre, papier, ciseaux

Back-to-School Time

Inspiration: July 2023 Page Maps Sketch

I paired some back to school pictures with the School Life collection (2021) from Simple Stories. I had printed my pictures in 2½" x 3½" format, so they fit perfectly in two of the chipboard frames from the collection. In lieu of the third picture, I included a tag from the cut-apart sheet. I used chipboard alpha stickers and Thickers to create my title, over a die-cut circle, and I used a 4" x 6" cut-apart to create a rolodex card just like on the sketch (using a Heidi Swapp punch.

 

 

 

Supplies
 Patterned Papers, Chipboard Frames, Puffy Stickers, Cardstock Stickers, Decorative Brads,
Enamel Dots: School Life (Simple Stories)
Punch: Rolodex (Heidi Swapp)
Dies: Cross-Stitched Circle Stackables (Lawn Fawn)
Accessories: White Baker's Twine, Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!); 
Courtyard Thickers (American Crafts); Holiday Magic Cardstock Alpha Stickers (Pinkfresh Studio)

 

Baseball: The Greatest Game in the World

Inspiration: January 2024 Page Maps Sketch + Lasting Memory Challenge #705 (Favorite Tool = Sewing Machine)

My sister brought baseball tickets for her spouse's birthday and they sent me this picture of them enjoying the game. I knew it would be perfect to go with the Home Run collection from Carta Bella. I always love Steven Duncan's design style, even though I do find it hard to design with his patterned papers sometimes, as they tend to all have patterns that are the same scale and pretty busy. 

I picked a navy page from the Solids Paper Pack and I added my favorite paper for the main block: the pile of baseballs. I picked the red stripes for the side panel and included another favorite, the pattern with all of the typed quotes, to do a punched border. I decided then that I would like to ink some of the edges with Antique Linen Distress ink. I did not like the stark edge between the two, so I added navy washi tape there.

The next pieces I added were fussy cut from patterned paper. I added three blocks at the top to mimic the banners from the sketch, and I included the vintage ticket next to the picture because I thought it was really cool. I matted the picture with the green solid cardstock. 

I went to my sewing machine and, using navy thread, I ran a few lines of stitching on three sides of the large panel, following the sketch. I was not sure if I wanted to keep the hanging thread or not, but decided it went well with the grungy look of the line. I found this really cool Baseball sticker on the cardstock sticker sheet and really liked the like over the top of my picture, so I slid a piece of navy patterned paper underneath, added the large ball from the sticker sheet and popped up the sentiment on foam adhesive, and I decided this would serve as my title. 

I did need to find a place to add my journaling, though, so I decided to type it in red on manilla paper. I did try to use paper from the line but Carta Bella's cardstock is so thick, it just would not roll around the barrel of the typewriter, so i changed plans and went to my scrap bin and found something from another line that fit perfectly. (It's an old paper from My Mind's Eye and the colour is a perfect match). 

On a side note, I recently someone show how she decided to trim her leftover papers and cardstock to size and place them in a bin that she would place on her desk to pick from when she is designing projects. I liked the idea and I also happened to find a YouCopia divided bin on sale at Michaels recently and it works perfectly for this since I'm able to slide the dividers in the bin where I want them and have my different colours separated. It definitely came in handy here since I looked in the neutrals section and found exactly what I needed in a flash.

I was missing the date, so I went to my smaller alphabet stickers and found a red sticker set from Stampin' Up! that used to be part of their early pocket page kit collections. I used the numbers to write the date and added some enamel dots between the month and year. I'm pretty sure those enamel dots used to be white and they certainly cannot be called that anymore, but the yellowing made it perfect for this page. I also used Stampin' Up!'s resin stars, as their colours fit this line perfectly.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Patterned Papers, Solids Paper Pack, Cardstock Stickers: Home Run (Steven Duncan for Carta Bella)
Ink: Antique Linen Distress (Ranger)
Accessories: Round Binding Edge Border Punch (EK Tools); Sewing Machine;
Resin Star Embellishments, Stampin' Dimensionals, Designer Elements, Playing with Patterns Resin Dots,
Santa's Workshop Enamel Dots (Stampin' Up!); Mini Blending Tool (Studio Light);
Typewriter (We R Memory Makers); Washi Tape (Me and My Big Ideas)

 

Every Summer Has a Story

This scrapbook page came together so quickly. I was putting together cards using Carta Bella's Beach Day collection and I was hesitant to cut into some of the 12" x 12" pages because I knew they would make good background if I was to make a scrapbook page. When I spotted the words "Every summer has a story" on the cut-apart sheet, I thought this would make a really interesting title as well, so it inspired me to pull out my expired calendars and look for summer pictures that could work. I love reusing the pictures from the calendars on scrapbook pages, and in recent years, my sister has started using pictures grids, so this allowed me to have a three-picture block without having to do any fiddle-faddling myself.

A lot of the embellishments are images I fussy cut from the patterned papers, but I did use a few stickers from the sticker sheet as well. I particularly love the Summer Mix cassette tape, so I slid this underneath the title block. I borrowed the glasses from one image and added them to the popsicle. It has a little banner on it, but it was not standing out as much as I would have liked, so popping another one with foam tape over it gave it dimension and looked better. I used the number stickers from the sticker sheet to add my date at an angle above. The little banners were also stickers, and I added Candy Dots in matching colours over them. I picked two metal elements from the Word Tags pack, tied baker's twine around the top and popped them on foam adhesive to add to the page - it reads Happy Story. I used one of the cut-apart borders at the bottom of the page and lined it up with washi tape, and I added a few gems around the page.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Patterned Papers, Cardstock Stickers: Beach Day (Carta Bella)
Accessories: Word Tags (Tim Holtz for Idea-ology); Washi Tape (Recollections);
Stampin' Dimensionals, Candy Dots, Pool Party Baker's Twine (Stampin' Up!);
August Crystals (Studio Katia); Sparkle & Shine Ombré Glitter Drops (Pinkfresh Studio);
Glossy Accents (Ranger)

 

Under the Sea

Inspiration: March 2024 Page Maps sketch

I decided my next layout would combine the pictures taken in line and riding Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid and the Simple Vintage Vintage Seas collection from Simple Stories. I had multiple pictures, so I picked a two-page layout sketch and I particularly liked that the sketch had a large circle on the left page, perfect to use the porthole chipboard frame. The title was included in this circle on the sketch, but I used mine to add one more picture and I glued my title around the porthole instead, also filling the space out a little more, as I was initially finding the pages a little bare.

Most of what you see on those pages comes from the collection. I did add white rickrack, that I sewed in place with my sewing machine, braided burlap trim, a wooden arrow and some epoxy hardware embellishments. To add interest, I matted the centre picture on the right page with the paper from the Basics kit (using both the white and the red sides), and I drew a border using a marker to fill in some of the white. 

 

 

 

Supplies
Patterned Papers, Basics Kit, Cardstock Stickers, Sticker Book, Foam Stickers, Bits & Pieces,
Decorative Brads: Simple Vintage Vintage Seas (Simple Stories)
Accessories: Wooden Arrow (Simple Stories); White Rickrack (Unknown);
Vintage Artistry Essential Hardware Epoxy Stickers (49 & Market); Brads, 
Stampin' Dimensionals, Mysterious Mist Stampin' Write Marker, Perfect Layers Tool (Stampin' Up!)

 

Do You Want to Build a Snowman?

I absolutely love this year's winter collection from Doodlebug, Snow Much Fun. The sweet colours, the adorable little icons... A big chunk of the collection made its way back home with me, and I finally had the chance to start creating with it. I found an older picture of my niece standing proudly next to her snowman. This picture cracks me up because we usually get boatloads of snow during winter around here, so to have a picture where we see the street and the lawn through a very fine layer of snow is making me think that this picture was probably taken very early in the season and that my sister and brother-in-law were very eager to make my niece's very first snowman with her - as illustrated by the fact that they went all out with the scarf and the carrot nose as well! 

For the background, I used a piece of 12" x 12" cardstock from my stash and layered a paper from the Petite Print paper pack. I based my design off of a Page Maps sketch and used some of the cut-aparts and some of the Odds & Ends images. I love when Doodlebug does houses, they are always adorable and I'm drawn to them, so I used the blue one along with a couple of trees and clouds. I added the falling snowflakes image underneath the larger cloud, and I topped both with velvet brads.

Instead of the two little pictures from the sketch, I thought I could do two tags, but I wanted to show the image of the little boy with his snowman and if I was placing the tag high enough to show the image, the top was too high on the page and it was throwing the balance off, so I tore the top of the tag off, and I ended up placing it underneath on the side as an embellishment instead. I added a second piece of torn blue paper at the top, and a layer of sparkly purple washi tape. I glued a mini white pompom as the snowball in the kid's hand, and added snowflake sprinkles and sequins.

I had purchased the snowman Shaker-Pop and made sure to include it at the bottom of the pager. The picture was matted with the diagonal stripe paper and I added a blue mat to divide the stripes and the gingham. On the cut-apart sheet, I found the words "Do you want to build a snowman?," which I was able to include on the layout to serve as the title. I added sewing around the page and the journaling block, and I added a snowflake wax seal I had sitting on my desk. (This is one of my favorites that I've done when I sent out my Holiday cards - i used pearlized white and aqua beads and used my silver foil marker on the snowflake.) I also made sure to include some of the puffy stickers on the layout. Doodlebug makes some of the best puffy stickers on the market - they are super adorable, have no white borders , have no wrinkles (it's a thing - unfortunately, Simple Stories puffy stickers are often wrinkly..) and the quantity is really great for the price point.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: Brocade Blue (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers, Odds & Ends, Puffy Stickers, Shaker-Pops, Petite Print Paper
Pack: Snow Much Fun (Doodlebug Design)
Accessories: Blue Jean Crushed Velvet Brads (Doodlebug Design); Snowflake Wax Seal and Wax Beads (Honey Bee);
Blue Ribbon, Eyelets, 1/8" Metallic Ribbon, Purple Glitter Washi Tape, Rhinestone Basic Jewels,
Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!); Marvy Silver Foil Marker (Urchida);
Star Dust Stickles (Ranger); Sewing Machine; Large Eyelet (We R Memory Makers)

 

Christmas Highlights

Inspiration: Lasting Memory Layout Challenge #686

When I saw the latest sketch, I was not necessarily thinking of making a Christmas-theme layout, but I had pulled out the Merry & Bright collection from Simple Stories (2018) for the 52 Christmas Throwdown challenge and as I was going through the paper, I realized the one with the flower on wood would work great as the background of the sketch, so I started looking through my Christmas pictures to see what I could make a page about. I found pictures of my nieces with their "Christmas highlights" - some colorful and sparkly clip-ons that my mom had given them. I don't think they wore them for very long, but at least I go the chance to snap a picture before they took them off.

I liked the angled sketch, it makes for a unique and dynamic layout, but it takes a little bit of planning. To make my job easier, I cut a piece of inexpensive paper to 11¼" x 11¼" and I pieced my layout on it. There were two reasons:

1) I took out the middle part of the paper to reuse that patterned paper elsewhere  and that also allowed me to cut the paper to size without losing part of the flowers (as I cut the extra at left on the bottom part and at right on the top part). 

2) To get a long enough plaid strip in the middle, I would have had to cut the center part of patterned paper and that seemed very wasteful. Instead, I cut a regular strip off the top of the page, which then was not long enough to reach the edges once put at an angle, but the picture block was going to hide the middle, so I simply cut the strip in half and reached the edges that way. That is where the extra paper helped me know where to cut the extra paper off to have everything line up properly.

I picked Forest Green Color Vibe cardstock to mat my page, and I used the polka dot side. 

The challenge was calling for washi tape, so I picked a deep red tape with polka dots of various sizes, which went well with the flowers from the background paper. I also wanted to add sewing just like on the sketch and now that I have my sewing machine handy, I switched the thread for black and added zigzag stitching on both seams. I had also used the 4" x 6" cut-apart sheet to add the images and journaling block as shown on the sketch and to add definition, I did a straight stitch around the candy cane image and the journaling block.

I created my title with three different sticker alphabet sets. I like the red sparkly one, it ties in with the sparkly highlights. I wanted to create three clusters as on the sketch, but I did not want the third one to be at the bottom so as not to hide the flowers. I moved it to the lower right corner of the pictures. I also added a cluster next to the first part of the title. I had some pearlescent doilies that did not fit with the colours of the collection, but suspected that I had the right colour of acrylic paint to match the soft green from the collection. For the third cluster, I die-cut the Mistletoe Tree Farm circle from the cut-apart sheet and I added one of the tree stickers with foam adhesive over it. I also added one of the layered banners sticker as well. I initially tried it at the top of the page but it was overhanging too much, so I placed it there instead.

I was liking the snowflake stickers, so I placed three in a visual triangle on the page, and topped each with a gem. I found some Candy Cane Lane foliage from Prima which worked nicely with the collection. I was struggling to find a way to work it in with the three leaves, but once I cut one of the leaves off, it looked much better, so I decided to top the candy cane image with it, and I snuck the third leave underneath the little holiday drink.

At the last minute, I realized I could include the black faceted dots I had leftover on a pack that was almost empty, so I placed them on the bottom rose and finally finished the pack, which felt really good! #2024Goals #UseThatStash

I am now hoping to go back to making Christmas cards with this collection and see if I can whittle it down. Let's  go revisit that sewing Christmas card challenge...

 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: Forest Green Color Vibe (Simple Stories)
Patterned Papers, Cardstock Stickers: Merry & Bright (Simple Stories)
Dies: Layering Circle (Tonic)
Accessories: Green Tea Acrylic Paint (Sizzix); Pearlescent Doilies, Stampin' Dimensionals, 
Faceted Dots (Stampin' Up!); Candy Cane Lane Foliage, My Sweet Say It with Crystals (Prima Marketing); 
Red Washi Tape (Unknown Source); Green Meadow and Essential Black & White Enamel Dots (Altenew);
 Button Nose Tile ABC Stickers (Pretty Little Studio); Land of Wonder and Warm & Cozy Thickers (American Crafts);
Split Pea Alphabet Stickers (SEI); Seafoam and Moss Green Pearls (Studio Katia); 
Glossy Berry Mix Pearls (Little Things from Lucy's Cards); Sewing Machine, Black Thread

 

Always in my Heart

Inspiration: Lasting Memory Layout Challenge #685

I pulled out the Heart collection from Simple Stories (2019). I instantly fell in love with the beautiful muted colours of this line when I saw it, but I only realized once I opened the paper pack and started looking at the stickers and cut-aparts that this collection was designed around lost loved ones. Which explains why it stayed sitting untouched for this whole time. I knew I could work around the theme if I avoided some of the wording and used the patterned papers, which are very generic. The sketch inspired me to pull it out because it had a lot of hearts and so does the collection.

I started with the patterned paper with confetti polka dot at the bottom for my page base. I matted it with dark navy cardstock. I picked the cool paper with large stripes to place behind the picture, and I matted my picture with gold foil cardstock. To recreate the row of hearts at the top of the page, i pulled out a couple of heart punches, various heart die sets and the Lucky Love Impresslits, which I die-cut out of gold foil paper and topped with a sticker from the cardstock sticker sheet.

I finally have a sewing machine (my parents brought over my aunt's old sewing machine) so I was able to add navy stitching over the row of hearts. And as you can see, I did not stop there: I sewed the edge of the heart cut-apart, the outside of the circle and the outside of the page. I'm pretty pleased with myself - considering I'm just starting out, the result is fairly straight. I was particularly worried about how the circle would go, but I'm pretty pleased with the end result. Having added hand stitching to my layouts in the past, the difference in time needed to hand stitch versus machine stitch is astounding. The only sad thing is that I don't have a specific spot where I can leave the machine out so that it is always available, so that will mean pulling it out when I want to use it (which I can assume will mean that I will sometimes be too lazy to do so and just forgo this step). 

The tag, the "So Special" words and the flowers were both cut-out from the patterned papers. I picked cardstock stickers to embellish the page, and I added three more die-cut hearts next to the journaling. I decided this layout needed buttons, so I grabbed some aqua ones and topped my hearts with them. I snuck a few pearls, gems and crystals in there as well.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: Navy (Bazzill); A6 Rich Gold Mirri Mats (Hunkydory)
Patterned Papers, Cardstock Stickers: Heart (Simple Stories)
Dies: Sassy & Sweet (Stampin' Up!); Folk Hearts (Ellen Hutson);
Lacy Heart Stackables (Lawn Fawn)
Accessories: Stampin' Dimensionals, Wonderful Gems (Stampin' Up!);
My Sweet Say It in Crystals (Prima Marketing); Buttons (Foof-a-La);
Fashion Gold Embellishments (Spellbinders); Sewing Machine

 

Birthday Dinner

Inspiration: Lasting Memory Layout Challenge #684 

Pulling pictures from our meal at Ask Italian in London gave me the chance to also use the What's Cookin'? collection from Simple Stories. I had three pictures, two of which were 4" x 6", so I had to get creative on how to use the sketch. I couldn't fit the pictures on the tags, but I did like the notion of splitting the page between a top and bottom patterned paper, and then creating a border and placing three tags underneath it. Even though the page evolved to fit the other elements on it, you can see that I created a border with the tag border sticker from the collection and at the top, I used one tag from the cut-apart sheet, one very large tag cut with the Nested Tags dies and a journaling block from the cut-apart sheet. 

The amount of journaling I wanted to add would not have fit on the journaling block in my handwriting, so I used word processing to have it printed on the block, in red ink. I was also liking the words that were on the measuring spoons tag I had picked but they were hidden underneath the border when I placed the tag where I wanted it - plus, it was reading "You are loved beyond measure" and I preferred just keeping the last part - "loved beyond measure" - so cutting the bottom of the tag off and the extra words worked out well and allowed me to create a tab, which incorporated the green a second time on the page, and then a third time when I matted my photo in green as well (using Color Vibe cardstock to match).

The large "Let's Eat" ticket was fussy cut from cut-aparts, and so was the C block with the cookbook image. The wax seal was sitting on my desk, a leftover from my Christmas seal-making session. The gift works well for a birthday theme, and the mix of green and pink wax beads was fitting with the collection. I also have this cool ruler ribbon in my stash, so I stapled a piece at the top of the green tag and topped it with a decorative brad. I die-cut a doily out of Robin's Egg Color Vibe cardstock to slip underneath. My third picture was die-cut with a stitched circle die to keep the restaurant's banner, matted with Robin's Egg and I added a Starburst underneath, die-cut out of copper metallic kraft-stock, popping the layers with a bit of foam adhesive for added dimension.

I forgot to cut the hole in the large gingham tag as I was die-cutting it, but I thought I could use a deco brad anyway. I created a "hole reinforcer" with one of the circles from the sticker book and as I was looking through my eyelets, I found those old very large copper brown brads and decided to use one underneath the collection's decorative brad. The layering effect looks pretty cool. I added flowers from the chipboard stickers pack as well, and a tab and tag from the sticker book, on which I stamped my date with a date stamp.

I had some Prima Marketing flowers nearby on my desk that happened to fit the colors of the page nicely, so I snuck two in there, next to the Gather rolling pin chipboard piece. I created my title with the Adventure Thickers and the Simple Vintage Essentials Foam Stickers Type Keys (the cream ones). I added a few chipboard hearts, topped with matching enamel dots, and a chipboard spoon between the two pictures.

 

 

Supplies
Stamp: Date Stamp (Office Supplies)
Cardstock: Pink (Unknown); Robin's Egg, Olive Color Vibe (Simple Stories);
 Metallic 2 Kraft-stock (Tim Holtz for Idea-ology)
Patterned Papers, Chipboard Stickers, Sticker Book, Decorative Brads, Enamel Dots: What's Cookin'? (Simple Stories)
Ink: Bermuda Bay (Stampin' Up!)
Dies: Doily (Recollections); Nested Tags (Scrapbook.com); Starburst (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Large Metal Brads (American Crafts); Gift Wax Seal, Wax Beads (Honey Bee);
Ruler Ribbon (Unknown); Mini Stapler, Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!);
Adventure Thickers (American Crafts); Flowers (Prima Marketing);
Simple Vintage Essentials Foam Stickers Type Keys (Simple Stories)

 

Royal Menagerie

Inspiration: Lasting Memory Layout Challenge #682

This is another sketch that got adapted to include 4" x 6" pictures on it. I have pictures taken at the Tower of London showing wild animals to illustrate the times when wild animals were kept at the tower, having been received as royal gifts. I remember having been quite surprised to hear that wild animals were considered gifts and kept at the tower - did not seem like a safe place to do so, as was evidenced by the stories of some of the guests or guards getting injured. The sculptures are very cool - they are made out of a metal mesh and have a lot of details and textures. My favorite was probably the polar bear, simply chained by one ankle...

I went back to the Into the Wild collection from Simple Stories, which I had so far been using to scrapbooking my Animal Kingdom pictures. I thought it would be nice to use it for another scrapbook album for a change. My parents also bought my aunt's old sewing machine, so I was finally able to try my hand at sewing on paper projects. There was a little bit of fuss with figuring out the bobbins (turns out some of the plastic bobbins that were kept in the sewing kit don't fit into the bobbin holder - wish I had known that before watching ten different YouTube videos trying to figure out what I was doing wrong...) I tested my hand on a few different tags first, and then I added straight stitching around the background paper and zigzag stitch around the middle one. This made me very happy once it finally worked! 

I decided to do hidden journaling, not because I want to keep the text secret, but because I was running out of room on the page and decided I could stick to the layout that I liked if I placed a pull-out card behind the bear picture. I used the "Roar" journaling block to create the pull-out tag, and I placed adhesive foam to form a cavity slightly larger than the tag underneath the picture. I printed my journaling from Word onto one of the Journaling Bits from the collection.

For the embellishments, I reached for animals that used to be kept at the tower - a little puffy sticker monkey on the top tag, a tiger on the bottom tag, elephants on the circle patterned paper and a lion from the chipboard stickers. I found a safari hat in the Bits & Pieces that fit the lion's head, so I decided to add it. I also used the Wild & Free die-cut and the banner image as well. I decorated each pennant with an enamel dot or puffy sticker. I used the little direction signs at the right of my bottom picture. The last sign said zebras, which I don't believe the tower had, so I looked at the words on the cardstock sticker sheet and placed "furry friends" over it. I added a flower die-cut at the bottom to ground the post. I stamped the date on a circle journaling tag, and added an enamel dot and a puffy sticker on it.

I used two alphabet sticker sets for the title: Heidi for the white letters and Elle's Studio puffy alphabet stickers in orange for the last part. 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamp: Date Stamp (Office Supplies); Mois de l'année Courier (Lime Citron)
Cardstock: Brown (Bazzill)
Patterned Papers, Puffy Stickers, Chipboard Stickers, Cardstock Stickers, Enamel Dots, 
Bits & Pieces, Journaling Bits: Into the Wild (Simple Stories)
Ink: Cajun Craze (Stampin' Up!)
Dies: Cross-Stitched Circle Stackables (Lawn Fawn)
Accessories: White Baker's Twine, Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!);
Heidi Thickers (American Crafts); Orange Puffy Alphabet Stickers (Elle's Studio);
Sewing Machine
Font: Century

 

Yeoman Warders

Inspiration: Page Maps August 2023 Sketch + Simon Says stamp Wednesday (Anything Goes) 

I revisited my London trip travel and paired them with the Travelogue collection from Photoplay. I love the colours from this collection. I picked a picture that was taken with Yeoman Warders while we were visiting the Tower of London. I was really impressed with their uniforms and by the fact that they were actually smiling (unlike a lot of guards when they are on duty). I also had a big flashback to the logo on the Beefeater gin bottles my parents used to mix drinks when we were entertaining company when I was younger. 

This page is quite simple. I replaced the second pictures from the sketch with a cut-apart card, on which I handwrote my journaling. I made my own ticket using the Travelogue cardstock pack and the Ticket Booth stamp set and dies from Tim Holtz. The title was created with two different puffy alphabet sets from PinkFresh (Happy Heart - gold - and the best day - navy). The picture was also matted with another cardstock from the Travelogue cardstock pack. (Word to the wise: those cardstock packs are not exact matches to the Photoplay paper, they are just selected My Colors cardstock that closely match the papers. I've stuck to the colors that matched the closest for this page, but I'm afraid that the golden yellow from the cardstock paper is going to look a little too bright next to the muted curry shade of the papers.)

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Ticket Booth (Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous); Project Life Date Stamp (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock, Patterned Papers, Cardstock Stickers: Travelogue (Photoplay)
Ink: Sahara Sand, Misty Moonlight (Stampin' Up!)
Dies: Cross-Stitched Circle Stackables (Lawn Fawn); Circle Layering Set (Tonic);
Ticket Booth (Tim Holtz for Sizzix)
Accessories: Happy Hearts and The Best Day Puffy Alphabet Stickers (PinkFresh Studio);
Enamel Dots (Unknown Source); Vintage Artistry Essential Hardware Epoxy Stickers (49 & Market);
Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!); Mini Blender Tool (Studio Light);
Blue Black Hi-tecpoint Pen (Pilot)

 

Tower of London

Inspiration: Jenny Heaslip (Celebr8) Tutorial - Scrapbooking Fun Summit + Lasting Memory Layout #675 (use at least three die-cuts or punched shapes)

One of the presentations from the Scrapbooking Fun Summit really caught my eye because it was showing how to make a double-page layout with opening panels, to create a layout that houses a large number of pictures. I had been trying to scrapbook my trip to London and was struggling with the amount of pictures from certain places, particularly the Tower of London, so it seemed like a good option to test out.

This double-page layout took way longer to complete than I anticipated, particularly since I had all of the cutting instructions. The cutting and assembling was not that time-consuming, but figuring out how to add my own pictures was. That is where I stopped following the instructions as is and simply worked out how to include the pictures that I had and the size I wanted to cut them to. Most of what I used came directly from the Safe Travels collection from Simple Stories (2021). It helped me use up quite a bit of the papers, stickers and ephemera pieces. One of the tricky parts is that you have to think of directional patterns when you prepare the pieces that will fold over. I redid one of the pieces once I realized the design would be upside down on the front page, but I did decide to live with one pattern that was upside down on the back and one that was sideways, knowing that most of it would be hidden once I added my pictures. 

The Sticker Book has three types of alphabet stickers, so I put that to good use to create my title. I didn't want two matchbook panels on the right page, so I only did the one, and I narrowed it a little bit to give more breathing room on the page, and I did a 4" x 4" cut-apart at the bottom instead to decorate. I will admit that about mid-way through the project, I was struggling to make all of the patterns come together and to figure out how to place my pictures and for a minute there, I wonder if this project had been a good idea. Putting it aside and coming back to it later helped me feel more creative when I revisited it and once I was able to find a pleasing arrangement on the first page, it gave me the second wind I needed to get going on the second page as well. Overall, I think it took three evenings to complete - this is almost a mini-album project, really! But I'm glad I found a way to document a big bunch of my pictures without having to make ten layouts about the Tower of London. The pictures speak for themselves, but there was not a whole bunch of journaling to go with it, aside than to say that I was surprised by how much I enjoyed our visit there and that it was my favorite historical place that we visited while in England.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Color Vibe Cardstock: Mustard, Navy, Peacock, Sky, Olive, Pumpkin, Apricot, Blush (Simple Stories)
Patterned Papers, Cardstock Stickers, Sticker Book, Bits & Pieces, Chipboard Stickers: Safe Travels (Simple Stories)
Accessories: Mini Clip, Stampin' Dimensionals, Ribbons (Stampin' Up!); Buttons (Foof-A-La)

 

Summer Faves

Inspiration: Lasting Memory Layout #669 (One-word title starting with F, M or S, and use at least three different patterned papers) + Simon Says Stamp (Food and/or Drink)

I looked through my paper collections and had a looked at the ones that had chipboard and foam stickers to see if I could find a large title starting with one of the letters of the challenge. I found the word Summer in the Retro Summer collection and since I had not had the chance to use that one yet, I dug out the picture of us eating frozen treats at Dairy Queen during a past summer trip. 

The title comes from the chipboard stickers, but for fun, I also picked other embellishments that started with S to keep with the theme: the Sno Cones cut-apart, the Sunshine and Strawberry word cardstock stickers, the So Hot brad, the So Much Fun chipboard banner, the Summer Faves marquee image that I fussy cut... The pink was fading in the background, so I looked at the die-cuts to see if I could layer and I found a yellow die-cut in the Journaling Bits that was perfect to make the marquee stand out more. I also used the Hot Days banner from the Journaling Bits underneath my Sno Cones image. 

The Sno Cone carts come from the cardstock stickers and the ice cream sandwich from the sticker book. I drew lines and handwrote my journaling using a Cinnamon Cider Stampin' Write marker. I added silver foil pearls to the marquee to look like little lights.

 

 

 

Supplies
Patterned Papers, Journaling Bits, Decorative Brads, Chipboard Stickers, Cardstock Stickers,
Sticker Book: Retro Summer (Simple Stories)
Accessories: Silver Foil Pearls (Studio Katia); Cinnamon Cider Stampin' Write Marker, 
Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!); Star Dust Stickles (Ranger);
Corner Chomper (We R Memory Keepers)

 

Nine Light Years

Inspiration: May 2023 Page Maps Sketch + Lasting Memory Layout #671 (Color palette that represents a season - Fall) + Time Out #249 (Vintage)

This layout turned out into a way more involved project that I initially anticipated, but I like that I got to use a variety of techniques and supplies on it. The starting point was the Simple Vintage October 31st collection from Simple Stories. It had been on my mind to pull it out so I looked for pictures to go with it. I found pictures of my niece dressed as Princess Leia for her birthday party. I am not much of a Star Wars fan, so I had to dig deep to find inspiration for her gift packaging. I always do a little something hand-made and she always take notice, so I made the extra effort to find something that could tie in with the theme of her party. I found a simplified image of Grogu online, so I used punches and dies to paper piece him. I covered the bag with black cardstock and I stenciled gold stars on it. 

And then I got this idea to use Word to see if I could print text at an angle in yellow font, to mimic the iconic start of the trilogy movies. I lucked out, as there is a feature that lets you tilt a text box so I was able to get the right angle. I wrote something about a little girl celebrating her birthday in a galaxy far, far away... The bag was a big hit, with the party girl and the guests.

So back to the page, I used the cool double chipboard frame from the collection to frame my pictures and I got the idea to add Tim Holtz's Shattered Windows over the pictures. I flipped it to make sure the shattered part was not over her face, but the result is really cool! 

The other product I recently acquired and was eager to try is the Rosettes stencils and dies combo from PinkFresh Studio. I did the stenciling in orange and black and then used the dies. This is really quick and really easy to use - lining both images up is super simple and the result was perfect on the first try. I can't wait to try Christmas rosettes next...  So I had three sizes, and I topped the largest one with a large decorative brad from the collection, then I tucked the smallest two underneath the picture frame.

I got lucky as this paper collection had a long and narrow journaling block on one of the cut-apart pages, which fit the sketch perfectly. I matted it with black spiderweb paper, and I then I picked the stars on black paper for the background - figured that I should include stars to go with the Star Wars theme.

Speaking of which, I picked the lightest grey for the base paper and even though it has some nice tone-on-tone designs on it, I still added stenciled stars, using a very light touch to keep them subtle. As I was adding a black rub-on to the journaling block, I spotted the "For Skills and Amusement Only" sentiment and thought it could work well, but I didn't want black on the background, so I remembered I had this same sentiment as a stamp, so I pulled the Eccentric set out and stamped it in Basic Grey ink underneath the picture. 

Since I was pulling Tim Holtz elements out, I thought I could use this Candy Corn Confections on the little clipboard I had added to the picture frame. And as I was looking through my box of embellishments, I started pulling out other options that could pair well with the collection and I ended up grabbing quite a lot.

The first thing I realized was that the fringe came in both black (Halloween) and cream (Christmas) so I combined them together to create a really cute border underneath the doubly-matted picture frame. Then I pulled out a word band to add at the top of the pictures. It appears that my Distress crayons have grown legs and gone into hiding so after looking for a bit and not finding them, I switched gears: I grabbed the Marigold stencil butter, spread some over the word with a small palette knife and wiped the excess with a tissue. It worked really well. The other item I grabbed was the Ornate Gates. I placed them on both sides of the layout and I was really liking the look. You might notice I ended up using only one... That's because I inadvertently ended up shifting the papers to the right as I started gluing things in place and I could tell that I would not be able to lift the papers up without tearing the background, so I left things where they were and went for the one gate. Half the price and now I have a gate left for another future project.

I was wondering what to call my layout. While looking through stencils, I had seen the Freight stencil set and so I decided to do a big nine at the top. I was trying to decide what ink or paste to use and since I had Tim's Live on in the background while I was crafting, I got inspired by his demo of glitter and decided to use transparent gloss texture paste and cover it with Nightfall Distress glitter. Speaking of glitter, I also decided to add some to the candy corn, using glaze and fine clear glitter.

After the paste dried, I added the words "light years" using the Alphanumeric Cutout Lower dies and the Type Keys foam stickers from Simple Stories. (Love those!)

I looked through the Bits & Pieces set to fill in the space in the top right corner. I found a cute tag, which I topped with gingham ribbon and a chipboard pumpkin from the Chipboard Clusters kit. The top was too empty, so I cut a cardstock sentiment sticker in two, layered the words and I added a bat sticker as well. I also found a cute cat on pumpkins image that worked well placed over the metal gate on the opposite side of the page.

I created a date strip using my Dymo label maker and I placed it underneath the last word of the title. This was initially created to put over the pumpkin on the tag, but it was too large, so I found a new place for it instead.

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Eccentric (Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous)
Cardstock: Black Mirror (Tonic)
Patterned Papers, Chipboard Clusters, Cardstock Stickers, Decorative Brads,
Basics Kit: October 31st (Simple Stories)
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Smoky Slate, Basic Grey (Stampin' Up!); Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Stencils: Rosettes (PinkFresh Studio); Freight (Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous);
Stars (Stampin' Up!)
Dies: Rosettes (PinkFresh Studio); Alphanumeric Cutout Lower (Tim Holtz for Sizzix)
Accessories: Type Keys Foam Stickers (Simple Stories); Christmas and Halloween Fringe,
Ornate Gates, Eccentric Rub-Ons, Candy Corn Confections, Word Bands (Tim Holtz for Idea-ology);
Transparent Gloss Texture Paste (Ranger); Label Maker (Dymo); Black and White Gingham Ribbon,
Stampin' Dimensionals, Black/Grey Baker's Twine, Distressing Tool (Stampin' Up!); 
Nightfall Distress Glitter (Tim Holtz for Ranger); Blender Brushes (Waffle Flower);
Crystal Fine Glitter (Martha Stewart for EK Success); Black Floss (DMC);
Marigold Stencil Butter (The Crafter's Workshop)

 

Rawr is I Love You in Dinosaur

Inspiration: Page Maps September 2021 Sketch + Simon Says Stamp Monday (Architecture/Building = The Dino Institute)

I love the Dino-Mite collection from Echo Park. I'm a fan of soft sky blue, navy blue, green and orange together (Stampin' Up! had a Simply Scrappin' kit in those colours ages ago and I used that kit down to the last bit) and the dinosaurs are just adorable. I had not scrapbooked our pictures taken at the Dinosaur ride in Animal Kingdom yet, so I purchased the 12" x 12" paper collection with that in mind.

My design is loosely based on a September 2021 Page Maps sketch, which I tweaked to work with the size of the pictures I had printed. The ones with the dinosaur bones couldn't be cropped so I moved the little image to the bottom instead of the top of the page, but I kept the title block and the little tags in the same spots on the left side. One of the cut-aparts had a speech bubble, so I cut the inside out with a kraft knife, glued it on white cardstock and fussy cut the outside. I was fully planning on creating my own title inside with Thickers, but I reverted to using the original text. I did take the opportunity to fussy cut it and pop it on dimensional adhesive, since it was already cut out. 

I remembered I had little bones from Tim Holtz so I went to dug them out (pun intended) and I also found some rub-ons and Halloween metal pieces that had the words "bone" on them. The smaller "bone" tag went on one of the paper flags I placed on a large paper clip, and the "bone collector" one went over the fossil picture. I used Jack-o-Lantern Distress Crayon to fill in the words with colour. It was not the first time I used this trick, but I still find the result pretty cool.

I added a tiny bit of printed journaling at the top, but this page is quite simple, with most of the work being done with using the patterned papers and the cardstock stickers. Oh, and I will point out a little detail: as if often the case, the sticker border was not a full 12" x 12" (Doodlebug seems to be the only company that manufactures its border to make sure it runs the full length of the 12" x 12" sticker sheet). I figured I would have to cut the border in the center and use the title block to hide it, but then I got the idea to use pinking edge scissors to cut the band instead of regular scissors. Which is a good thing, because I ended up having to place the title block higher so as to not hide the dinosaur image in the corner, and so the place where the sticker is cut is showing, but the decorative edge makes it feel like a design choice rather than a too-short sticker.

 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: In the Navy (Gina K Design); Whisper White (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers, Cardstock Stickers: Dino-Mite (Echo Park)
Accessories: Fashion Silver Embellishments (Spellbinders);
Cool Summer Brads (Carta Bella); Boneyard, Halloween Words Adornments,
Eccentric Remnant Rubs (Tim Holtz for Idea-ology); Distressing Tool (Tim Holtz for Tonic);
Jack-o-Lantern Distress Crayon (Tim Holtz for Ranger); Silver Jumbo Clip (Dollar Store);
Embroidery Floss (DMC); Banner Pick-a-Punch, Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!);
Box of Crayons Enamel Shapes (Shimmelle for American Crafts)
Font: Californian FB

 

Success!

Inspiration: June 2019 Page Maps Sketch + Lasting Memory Layout Challenge #651 (patterned paper + 1 picture + doily)

The Gingham Garden collection from My Mind's Eye has been in my stash untouched for quite a while now and as I was picking new pictures to scrapbook, I realized they might work well with a picture taken after we successfully solved the Piccadilly Cabaret escape room. The flowery patterns and soft colours worked well with the pictures so that was the inspiration for the page.

I picked which patterns I wanted where and started assembling the base. What I struggled with the most was where to put my title. I placed the letters I wanted to use on acetate pieces and moved the words around until I finally found a way to work the words into the design that was pleasing with the overall design. I have to say that I am shocked that I managed to use the Tinsel Town Thickers twice in a week with other papers than the collection this set was released with. I'm always wary of colorful alphabets as the colours might not all work with another collection and you might not have all of the letters you need in a selected colour. Here, all four colours totally worked with the papers, even the reddish foam peeking from the sides. I have been doing a lot of combined alphabets on all the pages I've put together this month. It does give me an additional point for the Calvinball challenge, but aside from that, I like how much personality carefully selected fonts gives a layout.

Inspired by the sketch, I glued the picture using three lengths of foam tape, creating a pocket to slide an oversize tag in. This in turn allowed me to include longer journaling without having to squeeze it somewhere on the page. I used the larger die of the Framed Tags set from Tim Holtz. It was my first time inking the edges before die-cutting. I first tried out with grey Archival ink, doing direct to metal. The result was disastrous. I cleaned the die and tried again, adding Shabby Shutters Distress Oxide ink with a brayer. This worked really well. I was not planning on doing the inking all that often because it looked like too much trouble, but this went pretty well, so I might reconsider and use that technique more often. I added a hole reinforcer made out of glimmer paper and thicker baker's twine.

I made a banner as per the sketch, but I found a leftover punched chevron on my desk, so placed it inside the dovetail and added an enamel dot. When I last pulled my wax seal tools out, I had made an extra seal to test my Peach wax beads and the colour was perfect to work into this design. I highlighted the design with a gold foil pen and I overlapped the swallow die-cut image over it.

The die-cut pack offered a lot of inspiration. At the bottom, I placed a flower punch, a leaf and a bee (extra point!), then added a date label, on which I stamped the date the picture was taken. I took the two houses and the "find joy in the journey" banner to place where the small photos would have been on the sketch. I added a star eyelet to the banner, and enamel dots in matching colours to the houses.

I die-cut a doily out of vellum, to represent the circle from the sketch and I slid a little heart die-cut over it. For the picture mat, I had die-cut a tab using My Favorite Things dies, but I found tabs in the die-cut set, so I glued two in place, and added little words to it using the Planner Stickers. While looking at the Calvinball list, I remember about the clear stickers, so I pulled the ones I have nearby from a Maggie Holmes pack and I added a few black elements around the page. This is where I see the value of the Calvinball challenge - it pushes me to "shop my stash" and get out items that are generally overlooked. I have been using those little clear stickers all month so they are finally getting used! (And the sheet was brand-new when this challenge started...)

 

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: White Smoke (My Mind's Eye); Vellum, Glimmer Paper (Stampin' Up!);
Sparkle Classic Kraft-stock (Tim Holtz for Idea-ology)
Ink: Shabby Shutters Distress Oxide (Ranger)
Patterned Papers, Planner Stickers, Mixed Bag, Enamel Dots: Gingham Garden (My Mind's Eye)
Thickers: Tinsel Town, Courtyard (American Crafts)
Dies: Darling Doily (Stampin' Up!); Framed Tags (Tim Holtz for Sizzix); Lacy Borders (Lawn Fawn)
Accessories: Chevron Border Punch, Stampin' DImensionals, Calypso Coral Glimmer Ribbon,
1/8" Gold Ribbon, Thick Baker's Twine (Stampin' Up!);
Peach Wax Beads (DIY & Cie); Mail Wax Seal (Honey Bee);
Gold DecoColor Marker (Marvy); Corner Chomper, Star Eyelet (We R Memory Keepers);
Clear Stickers (Maggie Holmes for American Crafts)

 

Love You to the Moon and Back

Inspiration: June 2019 Page Maps Sketch + Just Add Ink #653 (Pastels + Baby)

I like how the Boho Baby collection from Simple Stories breaks out from the usual baby line mould. The use of mustard yellow and browns is definitely a departure from the usual look, and I like that it has that Crate paper look that Simple Stories has put out for a couple of years now.

For this one, I fussy cut a large "Love You to the Moon and Back" image from the 4" x 6" cut-apart page, popped it on dimensional adhesive and used it as my title. I double-matted the picture with navy cardstock and the pink floral paper, which edge I distressed. I love this sweet picture of my oldest niece, curiously looking at herself in the mirror. Look at those chubby cheeks! 

I had previously done a bunch of buttons with my button press, so I pulled out the one I had done with the lion face from a piece of patterned paper and added it to the corner of the picture. I handwrote my journaling on one of the pieces from the Journal Bits. From the chipboard stickers, I picked a camera, the teepee tent and the word Sweet. From the Bits & Pieces, I pulled out the hanging clothes and I die-cut a piece of ric rac from the navy patterned paper. I added a few decorative brads around the page, a few foam stickers and enamel dots. To finish embellishing, I added sequins and a gold puffy sticker, plus a couple of clear stickers and iridescent rhinestones.

 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: In the Navy (Gina K)
Patterned Papers, Foam Stickers, Sticker Book, Chipboard Stickers, Enamel Dots,
Decorative Brads, Bits & Pieces, Journaling Pieces: Boho Baby (Simple Stories
Dies: Stitched Ric Rac (My Favorite Things)
Accessories: Distressing Tool, Stampin' Dimensionals, Iridescent Rhinestone Basic Jewels.
Perfect Layers (Stampin' Up!); Pastel Dreams Sequin Mix (Buttons Galore & More);
Clear Stickers (Maggie Holmes for American Crafts); Button Press (We R Memory Keepers);
Gold Heart and Star Puffy Stickers (Elle's Studio)

 

Giant Etch A Sketch

Inspiration: March 2023 Page Maps Sketch + Tic Tac Toe #209 (Patterned Paper + Free + Anything but a Card)

Seaside Summer is one of my favorite collections that Doodlebug has come out with in recent years. I have been sitting on it for a while and finally pulled out some pictures from our trip to Wasaga Beach to pair with it. My niece had seen us write Wasaga Beach in the sand and she wanted to to that herself as well. She was going on 5 at the time and starting to learn how to spell and write, so we see her mom in the pictures spelling the word to her and showing her how to trace the letters. 

It took me a long time to finish that page. I got the page set up following the sketch and then the result felt a little boring (and it was getting late), so I had to put it aside and revisit it later. I think I finally landed in a place where I'm happy with the design. Adding sticker tabs to the folder piece at the top helped give it more colour and interest, and I also layered a torn paper piece underneath the main picture for a bit of texture.

I wasn't sure where to place the second part of my title and I tried a green banner, which I kept moving around. Once I realized the palm tree enamel shape was just the right height to put on its left side, I liked how it hid the seam and I was able to fit the whole word using Elle's Studio puffy stickers. The first word was die-cut out of yellow sparkly textured cardstock using the Tall Skinny alphabet dies from Scrapbook.com. I love this alphabet, as the tall letters fill in the space on a 12" x 12" page, but the fact that they are narrow still allows space to fit a longer word, like we can see here with the 11 letters total.

The chipboard umbrella is actually from the Crate Paper pack I pulled apart recently, and so is the coral banner at the top. The colours were matching nicely, so I jumped on the opportunity to put those pieces to good use. I added a little lifesaver from the enamel shapes over it to dress it up. Underneath, we have a pocket that was done with a Elizabeth Crafts die out of patterned paper.

I auditioned different elements from the die-cut pack and the stickers for the bottom of the page, but I was really drawn to the little beach houses and the die-cut ones were too big, so I used the Icon stickers ones instead.

For the journaling, I could have put a tag in the pocket and added my journaling there, but I wanted the journaling to be visible when the page would be in the protector, so I drew lines with a grey pen and handwrite my text with a teal gel pen. I had found some coral sticker letters from a Simple Stories collection that matched nicely, so I used the numbers to add the date, squeezed in the center of the journaling and I added the little "summer" cardstock stickers from the collection pack. I added a little enamel dot from the Shape Sprinkles.

 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: Bermuda Bay, Lemon Lime Twist (Stampin' Up!); Seaside Summer Cardstock Pack (Doodlebug Design);
Fruit Punch, Aquarium and Buttercup (Martha Stewart)
Patterned Papers, Icon Stickers, Puffy Stickers, Cardstock Stickers: Seaside Summer (Doodlebug Design)
Patterned Papers: Basics Kit - Woods (Simple Stories)
Dies: Tall Skinny Alphabet (Scrapbook.com); Curved Library Pocket, Sidekick Essentials 16, General File Folder
Set 2 (Elizabeth Craft Designs); Banners (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Summer Assortment Sprinkles, Seaside Summer Shape Sprinkles (Doodlebug Design);
Grey LePen (Marvy); Teal Sarasa Gel Pen (Zebra); Coral Puffy Alphabet Stickers (Elle's Studio);
Chipboard Pieces (Crate Paper)

 

 

Cool as Can Be

Inspiration: Scrap Our Stash May Sketch

I have been wanting to use the cool May sketch from Scrap Our Stash and I finally paired it with a cute picture of my niece wearing her sunglasses in the house. Even though I just acquired the new Retro Summer collection, I still went back to last year's Summer Lovin' because I felt the colours would work well with my picture.

The title is based on a French song title. It kept popping back into my head every time I looked at this picture, so I decided to go for it, even though I knew that fitting a longer title on my page would require some planning. I lucked out and was able to find smaller alpha stickers in matching colours to Thickers collections that also went with the papers. After each larger word, I added a puffy sticker in the matching colour.

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Project Life Une date (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers, Puffy Stickers, Decorative Brads, Chipboard Stickers, 
Sticker Book, Enamel Dots, Basics Kit: Summer Lovin' (Simple Stories)
Ink: Misty Moonlight (Stampin' Up!)
Dies: Cross Stitched Circle Stackables (Lawn Fawn)
Accessories: Orange Twine (Lawn Fawn); Sparkle City Enamel Stickers (Shimelle for American Crafts);
Diamond Stickles (Ranger); Treasure Thickers (American Crafts);
Newberg Navy Alphabeans (Jillibean Soup); Teal and Red Little Letters Stickers (Queen & Co);
Holiday Magic Chipboard Alpha, The Best Day Puffy Alphabet (Pinkfresh Studio)

 

Little Santa Claus

Inspiration: June 2019 Page Maps Sketch + Lasting Memory challenge #650 (Stitching + Brads + Chipboard)

I found this older picture of my niece taken on her first Christmas Eve. We were opening gifts and we place the Santa pants and Santa bucket on her to dress her as a little Santa. I was looking through my Christmas collections and I decided to pick out Holly Days because the pink and red fit the colours of the picture, and so did the whimsical style.

I started my design with a chipboard frame and picked papers that would complement it. I fussy cut a gift image from the 4" x 6" cut apart page to continue the packages from the frame. Then I tucked two tags behing it - one with a Santa image to go with the theme and another one to add my handwritten journaling on.

I couldn't help myself and stacked tickets from the Ticket Essentials boxes from 49 and Market once again. I got quite those boxes in quite a few colours when they first came out and I've been loving using them on various projects. I stapled them in place, for ease and to get a Calvinball point for staples.

The title was created with three different alphabet collections, and I think the scale and colours work pretty well. I handstitched with red floss around the striped circle to define the edge a bit.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Patterned Papers, Sticker Book, Decorative Brads, Puffy Stickers, Enamel Dots,
Chipboard Frames: Holly Days (Simple Stories)
Alphabet Stickers: White Banners (Elle's Studio); Warm & Cozy Thickers (American Crafts);
Holiday Magic Chipboard Alpha (PinkFresh)
Accessories: Iridescent Rhinestone Basic Jewels, Stampin' Dimensionals, Mini Stapler,
Garden Green Ribbon, Glitter Washi Tape (Stampin' Up!);
Eucalyptus, Blossom and Fern Ticket Essentials (49 and Market); Needlepoint Floss (DMC);
Red Baker's Twine (Recollections); Stickers (Maggie Holmes for American Crafts)

 

10 Reasons

Inspiration: November 2021 Page Maps Sketch

A few years ago, my oldest niece was going through a difficult patch so I put together a mini-album in which I stated 10 reasons why I loved her. I gave her the album and told her than when she was feeling down, she could pull it out and remember that she was loved. I had used the French Kiss collection from Doodlebug as she especially loves this company's products, and so I pulled out the same collection to make this layout here.

This was the last creation I had time to squeeze in before the Calvinball challenge came to an end and I made sure to include as many elements from the list as possible. The stickers themselves had quite a few elements that were part of the list: food/drink, dog, key and lock, bird, and scalloped border. And I fussy cut an airplane and clouds from the patterned papers. The sketch I drew inspiration from was 8½ x 11, but I stretched it to a 12" x 12" layout.

This collection is arguably one of my favorites from Doodlebug. I love the red, pink and aqua against the navy and I find that the patterned papers are a little less busy than Doodlebug's usual patterns, which helps me design with it more easily. The fact that it includes French words only adds to my love for it.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: This & That Date Stamp (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Night of Navy (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Sparkle Classic Kraft-stock (Tim Holtz for Idea-ology)
Patterned Papers, Mini Icon Stickers, Cardstock Stickers: French Kiss (Doodlebug Design)
Dies: Lacy Borders (Lawn Fawn)
Accessories: Land of Wonder and Fernwood Thickers (American Crafts);
White Distress Paint, Twinkle Stickles (Ranger);
Puffy Stickers (Dear Lizzy for American Crafts); Stampin' Dimensionals, Wood Elements,
Sparkly Brads, Gems, Antique Tags, Mini Stapler, Rub-Ons, Mini-Buttons (Stampin' Up!);
Mini-Heart Enamel Stickers, Baker's Twine (Doodlebug Design);
Metal Clock (Unknown); Markers (Copic); White Roughly Sewn Rub-Ons (49 and Market)
Font: Typewriter Rustic RNH

 

Mickey's Magical Friendship Faire

Inspiration: March 2023 Page Maps Sketch + Tic Tac Toe #206 (Flowers + Yellow + Gems)

I wanted to scrapbook today and I went back to the Disney pictures I had put aside. I picked the ones from the show we caught as we walked by the castle on our way to a ride. We stopped to watch, thinking the kids might enjoy seeing their favorite characters in their medieval costumes.

To highlight the colorful costumes, I picked Simple Stories' Little Princess collection. I used the Basics kit to create my base and I added stars to it using Tim Holtz's Sparkle layering stencil. I used Pearfection Glitz Glitter Gel, and Fuchsia and Turquoise Stencil Butter. The yellow felt a little flat, so I spritzed the page with Pearl Glimmer Mist. The mediums made the paper warp, so I cut the top and bottom off and layered the paper on teal cardstock to make the base sturdier and add a bit of colour. I turned the strips to the other side and glued them in place to add pink strips for added colour.

In the center, I worked with the leftover papers I had to create blocks, and I used the scalloped border from the cardstock stickers on the left. One of the cut-apart pages had an oval on it, which I die-cut and used as my journaling block. I added lines with a grey pen before handwriting my text to help me write straighter. To keep with the medieval theme, I picked the knight and princess images from the sticker sheet and popped them around the journaling with dimensional adhesive. I also popped the castle on dimensional adhesive and added it to the lower left corner. I added a little enamel heart to the door.

I recently cleaned and organized my craft room and I pulled the remaining chipboard pieces from a 12" x 12" sheet off to organize by colour, so I was inspired to pick the aqua flower from it and add it to the layout. I like how this balanced out the cutesy style of the other elements a bit.

For my title, I used four different alphabet sets. I die-cut a piece of teal paper as a banner to fit with the theme, and I picked alphabets that had the right size and colours. I knew the title would be too long to fit on the pennant, but I made do in the space I had available. I also used the Little Letters from Queen & Co to add my date at the bottom of the page.

To finish off, I sprinkled sentiment strips around the page and little gems stickers as well. I also added a tab and topped it with a yellow Dottie, and I added enamel shapes to my images.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: Bazzill
Patterned Papers, Basics Kit, Cardstock Stickers: Little Princess (Simple Stories)
Accessories: Pearfection Glitz Glitter Gel (Simon Says Stamp and Deco Foil);
Turquoise and Fuchsia Stencil Butter (The Crafter's Workshop); 
Sparkle Layering Stencil (Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous);
Yellow Dotties, Purple LIttle Letters Stickers (Queen & Co);
Stampin' Dimensionals, Banners Framelits, Layering Ovals Dies (Stampin' Up!);
Enamel Dots (Violet Studio); Enamel Dots (Your Next Stamp);
Halloween Mix Matte Enamels (Bella Blvd.); Mini Hearts - Cotton Candy Glossies (Pure & Simple)

 

Beautiful Moments Captured

Inspiration: July 2022 Page Maps Sketch + Lasting Memory Layout Challenge #643 (Use at least one outdoor picture on your LO)

I had heard that Simple Stories was changing designer for their Simple Vintage collections and I was curious to see if a change in style would be obvious when the first collection from the new designer would be launched. This was Simple Vintage Life in Bloom and I'll admit I didn't know what to think when I first saw it. I was not immediately convinced, probably because the collection has a lot of floral details. But once I started seeing samples online, it grew on me. This is the first project I've put together with the collection and I had such a fun time using it!

This two-page layout came together very easily. I was able to use the title from the Page Pieces kit, which helped simplify the process. Those pictures were taken while we were riding the Kilimanjaro Safari at Animal Kingdom in Walt Disney World. I love the picture of Arielle and her dad sitting quietly together. It captures a nice father-daughter moment. The pictures with her struggling to keep her hair out of her face also crack me up. She's never liked having her hair tied up and would immediately pull out any kind of elastic or barrette with tried putting in it, so I guess this was the price to pay for it that day! 

Most of what was used for this layout came directly from the Simple Stories collection. I snuck in a doily, a few buttons, stitching rub-ons, washi tape, ticket essentials, metallic thread, cotton twine, an eyelet and sparkle kraft-stock. I think the colours are just yummy, This reminds of the early Bo Bunny years.

I was able to get a longer banner by pairing the die-cut one from the Page Pieces kit with the one from the cardstock stickers sheet. I added button in matching colours to the pennants. I used a tab sticker from the sticker book and got the idea to add a stitched star rub-on over it. I have to admit this became one of my favorite part of the pages. Another cool detail is that I had this empty space at the right of my left-page pictures. It was too narrow to put much there, but the gap was drawing the eye there. I found this half wreath in the chipboard clusters that was the perfect filler. That's another favorite part of the layout. I also used sparkly gems to create a little Mickey head on the tag, as I'm trying to add Hidden Mickeys to my Disney layouts whenever I remember to do it.

 

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: This & That Date Stamp (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Highland Heather (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers, Cardstock Stickers, Sticker Book, Chipboard Clusters, Glitter Enamel Dots,
Page Pieces: Simple Vintage Life in Bloom (Simple Stories)
Accessories: Eucalyptus Ticket Essentials, Black Roughly Sewn Rub-Ons (49 and Market); 
Pastel Dreams Sequins Mix (28 Lilac Lane/Buttons Galore & More);
Beautiful Things Doilies (Bo Bunny); Eyelets (We R Memory Makers); 
Stampin' Dimensionals, Mini Stapler, Cotton Twine, Rose Metallic Thread (Stampin' Up!); Buttons (Foof-a-La);
Sparkle Classic Kraft-Stock (Idea-ology); Clear Art Pebbles (Prima Marketing)

 

Joyful

Inspiration: October 2019 Page Maps Sketch

This picture was taken at an office party a few years ago. The chalet theme worked really well with the Simple Vintage Christmas Lodge collection from Simple Stories, which I was looking forward to using. It was not hard to come up with something pretty as this collection has a lot of choose from. 

The sketch I was working with was a Halloween one and had a spiderweb in the top right corner. I replaced it with the doily from the chipboard clusters (I am loving this new addition to the Simple Vintage elements). I picked one of the beautiful woodgrain foam sentiments to create my title. For the patterned paper on the left side, I used one of the papers that already has a cluster printed on it. I cut the top and bottom at 3½" all the way to the image and then I fussy cut the rest of the overlapping image. I really liked the plaid patterned paper but it was clashing with the buffalo plaid from the main picture when I was using it as a paper on the right side of the page. To split the difference, I ended up creating a scalloped border to slide underneath my Santa paper. I added green sparkly washi tape along the edge, and I added 49 and Market Hardware stickers to both ends. I secured it in place with black brads.

The main image was matted in grey with paper from the Basics kit. I roughed the edges up with the blade of my scissors. I had a piece of white cardstock that was embossed with the Ski Lodge embossing folder on my desk. I inked it up with Lost Shadow Distress ink and slid it under the black patterned paper to add another layer. Since I was using a larger picture and my left-hand border was a tad larger than the original sketch, I moved the tag from the right of the picture to the bottom. I looked at my tag dies and picked the Square Tag from Graphic 45, which gave me plenty of room for journaling. I used word editing software to print my text on green paper (also from the Basics kit). This die has quite the large hole, so I used a few stickers from the sticker book and a button I had previously made with my button press. This die set also includes a clock and I realized this would get me three extra points if I die-cut a clock out of gold foil paper.

Total points for this page: 36 points

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: Metallic Kraft-stock (Tim Holtz for Idea-ology)
Ink: Lost Shadow Distress (Ranger)
Patterned Papers, Chipboard Clusters, Sticker Book, Foam Stickers, Cardstock Stickers,
Decorative Brads, Enamel Dots: Simple Vintage Christmas Lodge (Simple Stories)
Dies: Square Tag & Clock (49 and Market)
Accessories: Pastel Dreams Sequin Mix (28 Lilac Lane/Buttons Galore & More);
Button Press (We R Memory Makers); Black Roughly Sewn Rub-Ons (49 and Market);
Stampin' Dimensionals, Green Glimmer Washi Tape, Black Brads, Rhinestone Basic Jewels (Stampin' Up!);
Blending Brushes (iCrafter); Ski Lodge Embossing Folder (Spellbinders)
Font: Harrington

 

Wow Presentation

Inspiration: August 2019 Page Maps Sketch + Just Add Ink #645 (No Stamping)

As I was digging through paper collections, I got inspired to use Simple Vintage Lemon Twist. I love the bright colours of this collection, but I don't necessarily find it easy to match with pictures. As I was going through my printed pictures box, I found those really old pictures that date back to 2010, where we see me present on stage at a stamping event. What caught my attention was the colour of the sweater I'm wearing, as the teal matched the papers nicely.

I found a sketch with multiple pictures to base my design on. I changed the left page a bit and only included one picture, since the sketch had portrait pictures and all of mine were landscape (and couldn't be trimmed without losing details). To give visual weight to the single picture, I used one of the chipboard frames (one of my favorite element from the Simple Stories collections). 

For my pages' background, I picked the lighter yellow pages from the Basics kit. Since the Calvinball list has stencil on it, I pulled out my Transparent Gloss Texture Paste and a Stamperia stencil. I really love this paste - when it dries, it gives a beautiful clear raised surface, similar to having embossed with thick embossing powder. I used the font in the top left corner and the "Alchemy" word with flourish at the top, and it added so much flair to the page.

In the center, I followed the sketch and layered two papers. I picked based on colours, but I realized that the bee paper was giving me an additional point as bee is on the list. I also realized later while I added my title with Thickers that the space between the punched border and the black glitter washi was just the right size for the letters I wanted to use. I love when things work out like that by sheer dumb luck.

Behind the framed picture, I layered various elements inspired by the list: gold-foiled acetate, gold-foiled vellum that I tore for an extra point, an embossed piece of paper, punched hexagons and a bow made out of black tulle recycled from a previous project. I added a circle just like on the sketch and used polka dot paper for an extra point. The list had "banner" on it and I had purchased the Banner Stickers, so I was able to pick from that to fill in the space at the bottom. I included the second word of the title in the tag frame (which I filled with sparkle kraft-stock. I picked typewriter chipboard letters from Stamperia. I added a decorative brads at the bottom, as brads are part of the list as well.

On a side note, I purchased Tim Holtz's new  Sparkle Classic kraft-stock in my last order and I am AMAZED by this new product. It sparkled so much and I love that the gold is actually more of a champagne shade, which I find easier to use and less obnoxious than the yellow-gold papers. I also couldn't believe that the paper is perfectly smooth and has absolutely no texture. Tim mentioned that this is printed paper, but I have a hard time wrapping my mind around that. How do you print glitter? Not sure, but what I do know if that I feel that you're getting a really good value for the price versus quantity and that without the texture, this paper will be really easy to work with. My only disappointment with Tim's paper is that he never offers 12" x 12" and so when I scrapbook, I can't make a full-size piece since his papers are 6" x 9".

On the right page, I added a decorative flourish using Opaque Crackle Paste this time. It made my paper curl pretty obviously, so I ended up gluing both yellow papers on white cardstock to stabilize the pages. I found a long journaling block on the cut-apart page, so I handwrote (one point) my journaling on it. I added a strip of patterned paper with the decorative edge. I liked that it had a doily in the image, which was another point. I cut my pictures to a slightly smaller size and stacked them on the left edge. I was not sure I liked the look of the pictures floating on the page, but the second I found the photo corners on my sticker page and added them, it immediately grounded the pictures.

I added embellishments to the page. I placed another hexagon so I'd have three. I added a heart sticker (one point), a sentiment banner (one point) and a chipboard tag (another point). I threaded twine in the tag (one more point) and added a cute yellow flower to it (point for bling). I added my date (one point) using the same Thickers. As I scanned the Calvinball list for inspiration, I decided to add buttons as well, so I placed three (yellow and black) around the two pages. I also added enamel dots around. And then I saw clear stickers and I remembered I had black clear stickers from Maggie Holmes so I pulled them out to see if they would fit the look of the page. They had a doodled look to them, so a bit different from the vintage look, but I decided to make it work. I added a doodled heart around my floral heart cardstock sticker. I added little stars around the date. I added Let's Have Fun at the bottom of the page and Always be Brave on the left page. I tucked little stems around my left-page cluster. And finally, I also wanted to do rub-ons, so I plucked "This Moment" from the Simple Vintage Life in Bloom rub-ons pack. The black was working well with this layout, and the typewriter font gave me an additional point.

I also got the idea to use my new Teal wax beads since the colour was matching so nicely. I happened to have a Honey Bee seal that has a rainbow on it, so that gave me one more point. I added tickets to the corner of the frame for an additional point as well.

I had two leftover pictures that I had not been able to fit on the page, so I got the idea to use one of those mini pockets that can be inserted in the album's rings. The only one I had left was 5" x 7" so I grabbed a piece of patterned paper, matted my pictures in white and added them to both sides of the paper. I realized this gave me another chance to embellish with items I had not marked points for yet, so I added wood veneer, arrow, fussy cutting, sequins, branding strip, ribbon, burlap, chevrons and puffy stickers to my tally. I was surprised to get all of those extra points from that very small insert.  

This double-page layout totals 69 points. (This is my highest-scoring layout so far.)

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Patterned Papers, Basics Kit, Chipboard Frames, Decorative Brads, Banner Stickers,
Cardstock Stickers: Simple Vintage Lemon Twist (Simple Stories)
Cardstock: Sparkle Classic Kraft-Stock (Tim Holtz for Idea-ology);
Gold-foiled Vellum, Golden Garden Designer Specialty Acetate (Stampin' Up!)
Dies: Circle Layering Set (Tonic)
Accessories: Transparent Gloss Texture Paste, Opaque Distress Crackle Paint (Ranger);
Say It in Crystals (Prima Marketing); Clear Stickers (Maggie Holmes for American Crafts);
Stampin' Dimensionals, Black Glimmer Washi Tape, Grey/Black Baker's Twine, Eyelet, Finial Presse
Embossing Folder, Plenty of Patterns Stencil, Scalloped Border and Eyelet Border Punches (Stampin' Up!);
Enamel Dots, Simple Vintage Life in Bloom Rub-Ons (Simple Stories); Buttons (Foof-a-La);
Alchemy Stencil (Stamperia); Romantic Christmas Adhesive Chipboard Alphabet (Stamperia);
Garden Party Thickers (American Crafts); Black Tulle (Recollections);
Teal Wax Beads (Spellbinders); Rainbow Wax Seal (Honey Bee)

 

Let's Cruise

Inspiration: July 2022 Page Maps Sketch + Lasting Memories Layout Challenge #642 (Make a LO about something that makes me happy - Going to Walt Disney World and riding the Jungle Cruise makes me happy!)

This is the second page I made using the Say Cheese Adventure at the Park collection from Simple Stories. I really wanted to use the Jungle Cruise images, but I realized I had not taken any pictures while we were on the ride. (We rode it after dinner and it was already dark, so I think the pictures would not have shown much.) I picked a cute picture of my niece and let the embellishments set the theme instead.

The starting point of the design was the torn paper I had leftover from my previous project. I liked how the white edge looked like seafoam on top of the waves, and I had a larger scale boat in the Page Elements pack. To create the sky, I used a piece of Robin's Egg Color Vibe cardstock. I made sure to use the polka dot side to get a point, and I ran it through the Stitched Cloud Backdrop: Portrait die from Lawn Fawn. Adding cloud also produced a point, but it was nice way to create the scene as well. I played around with the vine from the Page Elements and ended up hanging it at the top, dividing the scene and the picture on the side. I didn't like the top part leading to nowhere, so I added a flower cluster foam sticker.

I created my title using a cardstock sticker that reads, "Let's Cruise." From this same sheet, I pulled the music notes, as if people on the boat are singing. I had quite a bit of journaling to include, so I use a word processing software to type it out and I used the Typewriter Rustic RNH font to get a typewriter font extra point. I printed it directly on patterned paper to create my lower right panel. I had room at the top, so I wrapped a piece of tiki pattern washi tape.

The day we visited Magic Kingdom, after dinner, we had limited time to try and squeeze in additional rides before we went to see the firework show. We had to decide between Pirates of the Caribbean and Jungle Cruise. My sister and brother-in-law voted for the former; my oldest niece and I voted for the latter. My sister said, "It's too bad Arielle is too young to vote as she would have been the tie-breaker." She was two at the time and LOVED animals. She kept making animal sounds all the time, so when I pointed out to my sister that should Arielle vote, she would most likely be more interested by animals, we ended up going to queue for Jungle Cruise. That being said, the discussion ended up being a moot point as the lines were under 20 minutes each and we ended up being able to ride both!

This page was surprisingly quick and easy to put together, despite the result being fairly embellished. There's a lot of stickers and die-cut layering involved. Because of that, I didn't think it would score me that many points for the Calvinball challenge, but it turned out to be the second-highest scoring project I've made so far! There are a few elements that I auditioned and decided not to add to the page even though it could have scored me a few extra points. In the end, I aim at ending up with layouts that I really love, so I will take pleasing design over additional points.

Total points: 37 points

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: Robin's Egg and Lime Color Vibe (Simple Stories); Foil Sheets (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers, Cardstock Stickers, Foam Stickers, Sticker Book, Enamel Dots,
Page Elements: Say Cheese Adventure at the Park (Simple Stories)
Dies: Stitched Cloud Backdrop - Portrait (Lawn Fawn); Curves Ahead (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Lagoon Vintage Bits Filmstrips, Sunbeam Ticket Essentials (49 and Market);
Stampin' Dimensionals, Tropical Elements, Crushed Curry Baker's Twine,
In Color Printed Designer Brads (Stampin' Up!); Clear Art Pebbles (Prima Marketing);
Into the Wild Puffy Stickers (Simple Stories); Clear Stickers (Maggie Homes for American Crafts)
Font: Typewriter Rustic RNH

 

Bewitched

Inspiration: May 2022 Page Maps Sketch + TGIF #412 (Magical)

This is my latest project done for the Calvinball challenge. The picture was taken 3 years ago. My niece has started to love the Harry Potter movies and her mom had gotten her this cute HP outfit. I snapped a picture of her as she was playing around with a wand.

I used the Witches & Wizards No. 2 collection from Echo Park. I followed a Page Maps sketch to get my page started. The sketch has multiple pictures, so I substituted cut-apart images to fill in the space. I looked at the Calvinball list for ideas of additional embellishments I could add to the page. I combined Books and Fussy cutting to create a book stack ornament. I also remembered I had purchased doilies in Stampin' Up!'s clearance rack, so I picked a blue one to put underneath the books. One of the cut-apart was a tag, so that covered another item. I had also started inking the edges of my paper after I put the newspaper print over the star pattern to help it stand out more, and Inking was another item on the list. I remembered I had purchased the Wizard Wear dies from Echo Park, so I die-cut a wand and s broom and added them to the page. Since Metal Ornament was on the list, I looked at my Tim Holtz embellishments and I found a Word Plaque that says "Season of Magic." This is technically a Christmas plaque, but it tied very nicely to my page, and I was able to score an additional point by stitching the plaque onto the page. I used Pewter tickets and saw that one of them had arrows on it, so I made sure to incorporate it to get a point for Arrows.

I added a Wood button from Cocoa Vanilla with a star on it. As I was getting the buttons out, I found the Garden Party heart resin stickers, so that gave me a point for Heart. I added washi tape and enamel dots and I sprinkled a few of Tim Holtz's Mirrored Stars around the page. The title was created with Midnight Thickers and red Tiny Type stickers from Cosmo Cricket (those date back to 2010!), so I got a point for using two different fonts for the title. I got a point for Label by fussy-cutting a label from the Cut-apart page and writing my journaling on it (that was a point for Handwriting as well). The label was put on foam tape, so I got a point for Dimensional Adhesive as well.

I used Stencil set 38 from Tim Holtz and gold pigment ink to add stars to the top of the newsletter paper, using a stencil brush. I cut a rub-on image from the Eccentric remnant rubs and added it to the corner of my picture. I added a red pearl to the wand to get a point for Bling, and I added two pieces of washi tape to the tag. I stamped the date the picture was taken with a date stamp on the tag in black ink. I sprinkled enamel dots around the page to get a point for Enamel Dots.

I ended up with a total of 28 points for this layout. My goal is to see if I can beat my own score from last year's Calvinball (which was 506 points. I think it will mostly depend on how much time I can free up to create until the end of March (and how tired I am, as tiredness seems to be my creativity's biggest enemy).

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: This & That Date Stamp (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); Antique Linen and Walnut Stain Distress (Ranger)
Cardstock: Bravo Burgundy (Stampin' Up!); Metallic Kraft-stock (Tim Holtz for Idea-ology)
Patterned Papers: Witches & Wizards No. 2 (Echo Park)
Dies: Wizard Wear (Echo Park)
Accessories: Red Tiny Type Alphabet Stickers (Cosmo Cricket); Midnight Thickers (American Crafts);
Eccentric Remnant Rubs, Mirrored Stars, Christmas Word Plaques (Tim Holtz for Idea-ology);
Garden Party Resin Stickers (Maggie Holmes for American Crafts); 
Set 38 Mini Stencils (Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous); Distress Stencil Brushes (Tim Holtz for Ranger);
Pewter Ticket Essentials (49 and Market); Glossy Berry Pearls Mix (Little Things from Lucy's Cards);
No Limits Wood Buttons (Cocoa Vanilla); Stars Halloween Mix Epoxy (Bella Blvd.);
Holly Jolly Enamel Dots (Simple Stories: Gumdrops (Your Next Stamp); Oh What Fun! Enamel Dots (PinkFresh);
Stampin' Dimensionals, Sponge Daubers, Midnight Mist Stampin' Write Marker,
Heart & Home Doilies, Green Baker's Twine (Stampin' Up!)

 

Training Required

Inspiration: September 2022 Page Maps Sketch + Festive Friday #130 (Children + Squares + Patterned Paper)

Those pictures were taken during our day at Animal Kingdom. My sister had purchased Mickey binoculars for the girls and even though we kept insisting they were looking in them the wrong way in, they were refusing to turn them around! 

I pulled out the Say Cheese Adventure at the Park collection from Simple Stories. It's arguably my favorite of the Say Cheese collections they released last year, because the colours look really good together and the tiki images are really cute. I've noticed that their Say Cheese collections are inspired by Disneyland as they include the Indiana Jones images, the whale image from the Storybook ride, the submarine, and the collections are based on the different lands, which are not the same in Disney World. For example, I used the Frontier at the Park collection to scrapbook my pictures from Pirates of the Caribbean, but in WDW, this ride is in Adventureland. So I went about it the other way around: I pulled the collection, looked at the sticker images, and decided which pictures from the trip could go with it. When I spotted the binoculars, I decided to pull pictures from our day at Animal Kingdom, where we see the girls playing with their souvenir toy.

I had a lot of pictures to choose from, so I pulled a two-page layout sketch that included 5 pictures. In order to stretch my patterned papers, I added Color Vibe cardstock in matching colours for the base page and the central block. I also cut out the center of the green patterned paper so that I had some leftover for other projects (since part of it was going to be hidden underneath the Coral cardstock.

I started by cutting the main papers to size and putting them in place with the pictures. Then I immediately went to the Calvinball list and started pulling out elements based on the list so I could work my design around them. I will tell you, it made a huge different on how many elements I was able to fit on my page, rather than doing that step when I was ready to start embellishing. For example, the list had "cut-apart cards" so I cut three of the little square images, then I snipped the bottom of the definition one as a banner (because that was also on the list), and I fussy cut the map from the page as well since fussy-cutting was on the list. So rather than put a die-cut on the bottom right circle, I selected my hand-cut image instead. I also slipped an arrow under it as I had since it on the list.

I like that Calvinball made me pull out some older supplies (chipboard and wood veneers) and also mix and match items from other collections. The chipboard flowers are from a My Mind's Eye collection that is not the same colour scheme, but I was able to pull out the aqua flowers an the green leaves, which did match the collection. I also used my travel-theme rub-ons from 49 and Market and go the idea to add them to an acetate (which was on the list), which I then cut underneath the photo frame die-cut. And I was inspired to use this die because I was looking for a camera die and found one in the same die set. Which happened to have a heart in the center so I was able to top it with a heart enamel shape and check that off the list as well.

I found a chip frame in a P13 set and saw that one actually was a vine, so that went with my theme very well. The wood veneer set had chevrons, so I made sure to pull those out. I was debating leaving the wood bare or not, but I got curious to know how Distress Glaze would look on it, so I pulled out Peeled Paint to try it out. I thought since the glaze is sheer that we would see the wood underneath. The first layer turned out very uneven. I let the pieces cool, and I pressed them in my VersaMark pad again and added a second coat of glaze. The result got a bit more even, but it did not end up like I hoped it would. It was good enough to keep on the page, but I might favour embossing powder over glaze next time.

The foam stickers for this collection have some really cool images in it. I realized that contrary to most of Simple Stories' foam stickers pack, which include large words meant for page titles, this set contains a large selection of images and a few words that are smaller and therefore usable as accents. I wish their foam stickers sets were always done that way - they'd definitely work better for my scrapbooking. So I used the binoculars, the safari shirt and the "welcome to the jungle" sentiment. Because I love that collection so much, I did get the matching washi, which has really cute patterns. I cut my branding strip with pinking shear decorative scissors and wanted to add washi at the top. I usually would have picked one of the thematic patterns, but I realized that the brown tape had a woodgrain pattern, which allowed me to score a point for that as well. That strip also became the grounding point for the first part of my title, which I did in two different fonts for an additional point. Last time I ordered from Elle's Studio, they were offering an alphabet grab bag, which included a white cardstock alphabet. I don't know why it never occurred to me when I ordered to get white cardstock alphabets, but it suddenly dawned on me after looking through my sets and not finding the colour I was looking for that I could pull my alcohol markers out and make my own yellow letters. 

I scored a total of 53 points for this double-page layout.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: This & That Date Stamp (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Always Artichoke (Stampin' Up!); VersaMark
Cardstock: Espresso, Lime, Coral and Dandelion Color Vibe (Simple Stories);
Acetate (Lawn Fawn); Foil Sheets (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers, Bits & Pieces, Washi Tape, Foam Stickers, Cardstock Stickers, 
Enamel Dots: Say Cheese Adventure at the Park (Simple Stories)
Dies: Planner Essentials 37 Letters & Numbers, Planner Essentials 4, Sidekick Essentials 11 (Elizabeth Craft Designs);
Cross Stitched Circles (Lawn Fawn); Curves Ahead Sizzlits (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: White Jane Alphabet Stickers (Elle's Studio); Chasing Adventures
Puffy Stickers (Jen Hadfield for American Crafts)
Frames Light Chipboard Embellishments (P13); Yellow Say It in Crystals (Prima Marketing);
Vintage Artistry Travel Anywhere Rub-On Transfers, Eucalyptus Ticket Essentials (49 and Market);
Light Mango Melody Stampin' Blends Marker, Mini Stampin' Dimensionals, Jute Ribbon, Mini Stapler,
Butterfly Punch, Essentials Wooden Elements, LIbrary Clips, Tropical Elements, Mini Vintage Tags (Stampin' Up!);
Star-fetti Shape Sprinkles, Heart-fetti Shape Sprinkles (Doodlebug Design); Peeled Paint Distress Glaze (Ranger);
Happy Days Chipboard Elements (My Mind's Eye); Disney Mickey Icons Punch (Ek Success)

 

Low Prices

Inspiration: June 2018 Page Maps Sketch + Time Out Challenge #234

This picture was snapped during quarantine. This is the cheapest I've ever paid for full since I own a car. It goes without saying that at that time, fuel was half its current cost because there was nowhere to go to with that full tank anyway.

This gave me the chance to pull out the Quarantined collection from Simple Stories. I kept the design pretty simple. I cut my picture to 3" x 4" and matted it with Blush Color Vibe cardstock. I used a cut-apart image in lieu of the second picture from the sketch and matted it with Olive Color Vibe cardstock. I used a puffy heart sticker to frame the red heart that was already on the earth image.

I used the aqua patterned paper as my background strip as the design was subtle enough to print my journaling on. I cut the strip in half so I would be able to run it through my printer. I made sure to select a typewriter font to get a point for that in the Calvinball grid.

For the title, I found that the pink and red letters from the Tinsel Town set fit with the Simple Stories collection, so I used those for the main word and gold letters from the Courtyard Thickers set for the rest. I added my date with navy puffy letters from Elle's Studio.

 

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: Calypso Coral (Stampin' Up!);
Blush and Olive Color Vibe (Simple Stories)
Patterned Papers, Cardstock Stickers: Quarantined (Simple Stories)
Dies: Sentiment Labels (Spellbinders); Foundation 4 (Queen & Co)
Accessories: Mini Library Clips, Stampin' Dimensionals, Brads, Min Buttons (Stampin' Up!);
Enamel Dots (Simple Stories); Aqua Enamel Dots (Hero Arts);
 Tinsel Town and Courtyard Thickers (American Crafts); Sugar Brads (Doodlebug Design);
Navy Jane Alphabet Puffy Stickers, Gold Heart and Star Puffy Stickers (Elle's Studio)
Font: Elegant Typewriter

 

Rocking Chairs

Inspiration: December 2022 Page Maps Sketch + Lasting Memory Layout challenge #641 (Plant a Flower Day)

I was excited to see the new collections that would be released by Simple Stories this Spring. The second I saw a preview of their Wildflower collection, I thought the style was reminiscent of My Mind's Eye. Turns out I was right, as it says on the packaging it is a collaboration. While I am not usually big on florals, there is something very soothing about the colours and patterns of that line.

I was eager to put it to good use and I ended up pairing it with a very old picture that dates back to 2011, when I visited Nashville to attend a Leadership convention. I was really surprised to find out the Nashville airport had rocking chairs! There is something about the chaos and fast-moving rhythm of an airport that does not quite fit with the cozy, laid-back nature of a rocking chair. The dichotomy of those two elements together really stood out to me and kind of gave the tone of the week that was waiting ahead for me.

I'm still playing in the Calvinball challenge, so this is another layout that's shock-full of elements. The one I'm most happy about is the canvas tag I used to back my journaling tag with. It's from Pink Paislee, and it says on the packaging this was released in 2009. So if you do the math, this has been sitting in my stash for 14 years. I'm happy to finally have found a use for it. It made me very happy when I found out that 49 and Market was releasing boxes of stamps and tickets in a myriad of colours, and I've found out with their last two releases that they keep adding colours to their offering. I purchases Blossom (pink) and Eucalyptus (soft aqua) earlier this Spring and you can see both colours here peeking from underneath the tag. Those boxes of tickets are making me very happy, as it's one of my favorite elements to add to projects.

The metal paperclip is another embellishment I've had in my stash for a long time. The pink was fitting nicely, and I topped it with a cardstock sticker. I noticed that the patterned paper are printed with inked edges, so to keep the look once papers were cut down to size, I pulled out my Distress Lost Shadow ink and inked the edges with a dauber. I have the full Distress Oxide ink collection, but for this new colour, I decided to get the regular Distress ink pad instead. I've tried a few grey inks in the past and they were never as pale as I hoped they would be, so I think this one fills the gap and I knew I'd use it more as a dye ink rather than a pigment one. It was the perfect option to shade my papers without overpowering the soft colours.

For my journaling, I used a tag from the cut-apart sheet, and I specifically selected this one as I remembered that Chevron was an element on the Calvinball list.

Calvinball Points

• Die-Cut
• Striped Paper
• Use a stamp
• Add a date
• Clean your desk between projects
• Heart
• Handwriting
• Titles with 2+ fonts
• Circle
• Butterfly
• Torn Paper
• Bling/rhinestones
• Label
• Ribbon
• Use 3 patterned papers
• Inking
• Enamel Dots
• Green
• Use a punch
• Metal Embellishment
• Use a sketch
• Floral patterned paper
• Chevron
• Pink
• Ticket
• Dimensional Adhesive
• Tag
• Multi-challenge project (with scrapbook floral theme challenge)
• Chipboard

With the points allowed for posting online, this is totalling 32 points.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Date Stamp (Office Supplies)
Ink: Lost Lagoon (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Burnished Rose Mirror (Tonic)
Patterned Papers, Cardstock Stickers, Sticker Book, Chipboard Stickers,
Enamel Dots, Foam Stickers, Floral Bits: Wildflower (Simple Stories)
Dies: #9 Borders (Photoplay); Mixed Media Motifs (Sizzix)
Accessories: Cecily Thickers (American Crafts); Pink Jane Tile Alphabet Stickers (Elle's Studio);
Blossom and Eucalyptus Ticket Essentials (49 and Market); 
Strawberry Milkshake Say It in Crystals (Prima Marketing); 
Pink Metal Clip (Making Memories); Amber Road Canvas Tag Patches (Pink Paislee);
Stampin' Dimensionals, Soft Succulent Organza Ribbon, Sponge Daubers,
Misty Moonlight Stampin' Write Marker (Stampin' Up!); Eyelets (We R Memory Keepers); 
Round Binding Edge Punch (EK Tools)

 

Mini-Cindy

I got really excited when I saw the reminder in my calendar that Calvinball was right around the corner! This month-long creative challenge pushed me to create a lot of layouts last year, so I was eager to draw inspiration from it again this year.

This layout was easy to make since the beautiful 49 and Market paper did most of the work for me. The most time-consuming part was the tone-on-tone hand stitching I added to each section using matching colored floss. I added washi tape to a couple of sections before adding the stitching, and also a piece of white sparkly washi at the bottom of the page.

Once that was done, I picked a few die-cuts from the Spectrum Sherbet laser-cut elements and Mix & Match packs to mat the image with. I create three clusters around the picture using additional die-cuts and I included layered circles to the center of the stitched sections. I also slid a filmstrip under the picture, as it was one of the temporary bonus points and I had the Lagoon film strips from 49 and market. (And that is why I find the Calvinball challenge both fun and useful - it makes you pull out a variety of elements from your stash, inspiring you to dig out older elements as well.)

I wanted to make my titles with two alphabets in matching tones. I ended up using the Adventure Thickers, which has a wood pattern that matched the dusty yellow nicely, and since I didn't have anything in the right green, I went to the Fernwood Thickers. Those are nice because they are black and white and meant to be colored in. So I pulled out the Stampin' Blends markers and colored them in a matching shade of green.

I also added jumbo eyelets in matching colours on each of the paper's sections. I handwrote my journaling with a matching pen in the dark teal section. To finish up, I saw that the list had punch and vellum on it, so I punched small stars and I stapled them in place for additional texture.

Calvinball elements:

• Stitching 
• Metal embellishment (staples)
• Vellum
• Filmstrip
• Chipboard
• Use a punch
• Green
• Circle
• Title with 2+ font
• Handwriting
• Gold
• Washi
• Heart
• Use a frame
• Clean my desk between projects
• Add a date
• Use a stamp
• Die-cut
• Star

For a total of 20 points. 

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: This & That Date Stamp (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Lost Lagoon (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Vellum (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Paper: Painted Foundations - Kaleidoscope - Spectrum Sherbet collection (49 and Market)
Embellishments: Lagoon Essentials Filmstrips, Tidal Wave Ephemera Bits, Sherbet Essential
Laser-Cut Elements, Sherbet Remnants, Eucalyptus Ticket Essentials (49 and Market);
Mini Stapler, Stampin' Dimensionals, Washi Tape, Mini Star Punch, Pretty Peacock
Stampin' Write Marker (Stampin' Up!); Gold Puffy Heart & Star Stickers (Elle's Studio);
Large Eyelets (We R Memory Keepers); Fernwood and Adventure Thickers (American Crafts);
Needlepoint Floss (DMC)