52 Week Project - September Photos

Can you believe that the year is 3/4 over? I am 9 months into the 52 Week Project and I'm still having a good time taking these photos! As a matter of fact, I think week 36 is my all time favorite.

Week 35/52 - taken 9.5.11 Happy Labor Day!! I am in no way a grill queen, but I know enough to make it happen. I *heart* grilled food! (took this week's photo a little late)

Week 36/52 - taken 9.9.11 Of the 43 pictures that I snapped for week 36, I liked this one best because of my smile. Played around with some lighting.

Week 37/52 - taken 9.11.11 It has been 10 years later, since the attack on the towers, but the memory of that day will stay with me for the rest of my life.

Original photo of the NY skyline was taken July 1999.

Look in the upper right hand corner...see the cross? That's not on the actual picture. Apparently the flash caught on the photo and formed a cross in the sky...eerie right?

Week 38/52 - taken 9.24.11 A jeans and sneakers type of day... heading out to visit my mother-in-law 2 days after her mother passed away.

Week 39/52 taken 9.25.11 I caught a reflection of myself in my front storm door, making one of those faces that I wish I didn't make, but I can't help it! LOL!! Not the best photo, but the face is priceless!

Thanks so much for stopping by!!

Finding Inspiration: Self Scraplift

One day one of my facebook/scrappy friends asked me how I managed to stay inspired. Her question instantly made me think of all the frustrating times when I pushed around elements, cut up papers that ended up going un-used, changed complete concepts, and searched endlessly for ideas. I told her that I wish I stayed inspired but when my mojo is at a low, I usually scraplift myself. I have found that by recreating a new layout from and older one, I can get over my creative hurdle and add a fresh new look to my project.

This layout, State Fair, is my most recently scraplifted project. The great thing about scraplifting is that you can recreate the entire project as is, by treating it like a sketch or simply extracting certain elements.

I love the "grunginess" of State Fair, the title and photo placement, the vertical line of tickets that lead the viewer's eye across the page, the outer mat, and the Hambly transparency (little circles). I took those elements and created This Girl. I maintained the "grunginess", but added some femininity to the page by using neutral kraft and pink elements. As in the first layout, I used luminarte to paint the lip of a cup to stamp circles and added splatters to the background.

I replaced the row of tickets with 2 velvet berry picks in brown from Petaloo's Chantilly collection to anchor the row of mixed blooms in cream and brown. I love these colors because they go really nicely with my skin tone and add a level of maturity to the layout. Placing the flowers in a horizontal line is one of my favorite ways to add flowers to my layouts. Not only is this a great way to mix and match my favorite flowers but it helps maintain space for other elements.

I kept the outer matting, title and photo placement the same and added the same style of transparency, in a coordinating color (this has to be one of my all time fave Hambly transparencies).

Journaling: has become a yogini and a zumba addict; rarely wears one shirt at a time; has nursed 2 babies; loves to smile and make others smile; is a student again; is passionate about scrapbooking and photography; has been with the same man for 17 years; is kind of clumsy; is flirtatious; has developed a new sense of sexy
photos taken 9.9.11
52 Week Project - Week 36/52

I replaced the gears with a layered velvet butterfly and scalloped envelop flaps that I tied with twine for a little extra texture and detail. The flaps actually open; this is also a great way to add hidden journaling to a project.

In the original project, I swiped paint around the edge of the layout. I used that same concept on my journaling strips in the new layout. I haphazardly swiped luminarte along the bottom of each strip and then adhere them to the layout, creating a visual triangle.


I used a couple of directional wooden elements from Pink Paislee to create additional horizontal lines and bring attention to the 2 photos where the subject (in this case, me) looked smaller than in the other 3 photos.

I added a touch of color to the flowers using the paint that was left over on my brush.

I had the concept of This Girl in my head for a while...just not the actual title. I had already created layouts titled I Am..., Many Things To Smile About, 15 Random Facts, 10 Things I Love About Me, Things I Love To Do...etc so I didn't want to revisit those. Then one of my good scrappy friends created a blog post with the title "This Girl", and I decided that it was perfect for my project!!

I hope this post has given you a few ideas for digging in your layout archives and revisiting a project that you loved creating!!

Have a great week!!

Caught On "Film"

One of my fellow OEM volunteers captured this photo of Donovan, Xander, and I just before the Rolling Thunder ride last Sunday. When I look at this photo, there are so many details that jump out at me. Donovan, who is growing so fast, is in between sizes, so his new clothes are a little big. He loves skulls and hoodies. Xander also loves hoodies, but can be coerced to leave the house with his 2nd choice, his denim jacket. He always has a toy in his hand or pocket. In this case, he's holding a diecast car of Finn McMissile, his favorite character from Cars 2. I was captured wearing 3 hats: volunteer, mother, and photographer.

Photo credit: Ed Velez

Thanks for taking a little peek into my world! Have a great week!

Smile...it's Monday!

Hey everyone!! I created a couple of happy projects using Cheery Lynn Designs dies.

I mixed a few new and previously released dies and created a faux embossed look with the Lattice 1 die by cutting it out of the same color paper as the background that I adhered it to.

Here's a close-up of the details.


Dies used:
Luggage Tag
Darling Daisies
Stacker Flower 2
Leaf
Victorian Romance Flourish
Lattice 1

Cheery Lynn Designs recently released a ton of amazing new die designs. I created these tags to
showcase a the dies that I received. For more ideas, check out what the rest of the DT created.


products used:
Leaf
Stacker Flower 2
Large Lace Faerie Queen w/ Angel Wing
Tiffany Border
Eccentric Circles Embossing Plate

detail shots



Thanks for stopping by the blog today. Until next post...have a scrappy day!!

Creating Embellishments IOD Devotion Cards

Good day blog readers!! Today, I have 2 adorable cards created with Creative Imaginations' IOD Devotion collection. This line has a wonderful vintage feel, loaded with incredible images. I just love the way the black makes everything pop.

I added a little sparkle to the "Believe" tag by painting the polka dots and sentiment with oyster luminarte paint.

I used the backside of one of the IOD butterfly die cuts as the wings on the dress form. I painted the wings with egyptian gold luminarte and the spritzed them with lime green lunimarte.

Here's a close-up of the wings...

...and the bottom of the dress.

Thanks so much for stopping by the blog today!

A Swingin' Summer

Summer is my favorite season. I anticipate its arrival and am sad to see it depart. One of the fun activities that I planned this Summer was to visit different parks and playgrounds with the boys. As always, the swings were a big hit!! Both boys made HUGE strides on the swings.

For one, Donovan finally learned to swing without a push. This is big for both of us because he was getting too heavy to push...my boy weighs 88 lbs! I had to really plant my feet and prep my wrists to push him. He credits his newly found swinging skills to his cousin Jaden who told him to lean back and spread his legs in a "v". Somehow this worked better that the way I tried to show him...LOL.

photo taken at Echo Lake Park

Mr. Xander has grown bolder on the swings. No matter how high I pushed him, he wanted to go higher! He just giggles and screams "higher, mommy, push me higher"!

photo taken at Palisades Park, Ross Dock Picnic Area

I love that such simple things make them happy!! Hopefully the cold weather stays away a little longer so we can enjoy more days at the park.

Enjoy your day!

Full of Bella Blvd

Just pictures today...





Later,

Back To School Layout

Happy Monday blog readers!! I am here with my first 2011-2012 school year layout. I used some more Simple Stories papers and quite a few Cheery Lynn Designs dies to bring to life the photos of my newly crowned second grader's first day of school.

I started by die cutting the largest of the XL French Flair Nesting Stackers and "stretching" it. You can see how I did that in this post. I used Arrow #2 and a portion of the Dutch Scallop Square Frame to create horizontal lines to direct the viewer's eye across the page.

I just love all of the detail and dimension that Cheery Lynn Designs dies add to each die cut!


I created my own owl embellishment by using foam adhesive to layer circles cut from the XL Scalloped Circles Nesting Dies and the Little Stackers Circle Nesting Dies. I cut the owl from patterned paper and then adhered to the layered circles using foam adhesive.

I die cut stars from the Dimensional button 2 set to use as embellishments and completed the title with letters cut from the Varsity Font set.

Thanks so much for stopping by the blog today!!

I'll Never Forget That Day

It has been 10 years later, since the attack on the towers, but the memory of that day will stay with me for the rest of my life.

Original photo of the NY skyline was taken July 1999.

Look in the upper right hand corner...see the cross? That's not on the actual picture. Apparently the flash caught on the photo and formed a cross in the sky...eerie right?

On A Roll...

Every year I wait eagerly for Scrapbook Expo to come to New Jersey for several reasons. 1. Duh, it's a scrapbook expo...wall to wall paper and embellishments, need I say more 2. There are lots of people who share my passion rummaging about 3. I always happen to come across something amazing, that I just can't leave the expo without!! This particular time, that "thing" happened to be papers from Simple Stories. Oh.my.goodness!! I wanted to buy every single paper, but I was down to the last few dollars that I had budgeted for the expo (yes, I stuck very closely to my budget this year...yup, shocked myself). I had enough to buy one of most of the papers from the Elementary and 100 Days of Summer lines.

These papers have my name written all over them!! They are full of different patterns and colors but have that distressed/vintage look. You're probably going to see lots of layouts featuring this company here. Here are 2 layouts that I created this week using the Elementary line.

This one features my "Sad Grad", Donovan on the day of his Kindergarten graduation. I love that I was able to incorporate a lot of different patterns, but still keep the focus on the photos and the journaling.

journaling: I have no one but myself to blame for that sad look on your face. After we arrived home from your kindergarten graduation, I asked you to come outside so I could take your picture. I instructed you to bring your balloons, a star and a diamond in your school colors. You didn’t want to, but I made you. As you were about to take your position by the tree in front of our house, a big gust of wind blew in and nearly took your cap off. You reached up to grab your cap to stop it from blowing off and at the same time let go of your balloons. They blew away so quickly and you were devastated!! You cried so hard that it made my eyes well up. All I could do was hug and kiss you and promise to take you to the store where I purchased those balloons and buy you more. You stopped crying, but you were still really upset. Of course, as luck would have it, the store was completely sold out of those same exact balloons. I bought you 2 more balloons, but it just wasn’t the same. Photo: 6/2009 Journalled: 9/2011

I also created this layout using the Elementary line. It features my precocious little 3 year old, Xander. The same with the previous layout, I was able to use lots of different patterns, but keep the focus on the journaling.

Xander, it tickles me to hear you, a 3 year old, ask this question on a nearly daily basis. The even funnier part is that it’s not the question you really want to know. You want to know whether or not it’s Friday so you can take a toy to preschool for Show and Tell. Friday has become the day you look forward to the most! I can’t blame you; I mean who doesn’t love Show and Tell?

Whenever I tell you the day of the week, I am always sure to let you know how many more days you have until Friday, otherwise a really sad look will creep up on your face.
You don’t know this now, but you’re going to be counting down to Friday for many, many years!
Photo taken Summer 2010 age 2
Journalled: September 7, 2011


Thanks so much for taking time out to visit my blog! Have a scrappy day!

Mini Post

I recently started creating store samples for The Crop Shop (Rockland, MA). This adorable mini album is just one of 3 projects that I have on display there this month. It features Echo Park For The Record and my super cutie pie, 3 year old Xander.

Inside pages


That's all for now...have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Creating Just To Be Creative

I love those moments when I don't have any projects due and I can just dig in my stash and create just for the hell of it. Having the freedom to use any product that I want and scrap whatever moves me is quite liberating...and fun and I think it even lit a spark under my mojo!

I started going through my Basic Grey stash. Seeing their recent DT call reminded me of how much I love their papers and that I haven't used them in a while. I came across the Archaic line which I had been hoarding for quite some time a knew that it was finally time to dust it off.

This past Earth Day, I took the boys to the Earth Day Party at our local zoo. While searching for the bear exhibit, I happened to see the "Please Do Not Feed The Bears" sign. Of course, I just HAD to get a picture of them by the sign...as a scrapper, my mind was reeling with ideas as soon as I saw it.

This layout about my hungry boys is the result of the marriage between that photo and those papers!

journaling: Don't let those sweet faces fool you, these two boys can eat! They are always hungry! The big one more than the little one. It's funny though, they never seem to be as hungry for broccoli as they are for sugary snacks!

It's been about 10 months since I last created a 2 page layout and it feels like it's long overdue!! I really had fun with this one! I used a hodge podge of basic grey papers (oliver, periphery, perhaps, lime rickey, two scoops, and marrakech) then mixed in some stickers from BG, pink paislee, sassafras, and bella blvd to highlight some of my favorite photos that I took of Donovan during his first (and so far only) soccer season.

journaling: I was really surprised when Donovan said he didn't want to play soccer after his first season. He had a great time with his teammates and learned a lot and we had fun cheering him on. When asked why he didn't want to play anymore, he said he just doesn't want to play and he likes basketball better. Since he's into basketball and karate, we don't press the issue. As long as he's getting exercise and enjoying himself, that's all that matters to us!

Here's a closer look at the 1st page...

...and a closer look at the 2nd page...

I think I need to do 2-pagers more often...uh, but don't quote me on that! LOL!

Thanks for stopping by today!!