Reece Layouts

We took a ton of photos of my niece when she visited us as a baby (her family came, too!), but I had a really hard time deciding which ones to scrapbook because they were all so cute. I ended up using almost all of them, so I did a double page spread with a photo storage page between. The base paper is quite old but by combining it with some brand new stickers, hopefully I was able to bring new life to it! After so many years of scrapping boys, pink is a challenge for me, but I managed to get these pages done, hopefully the first of many.

This is how the layouts will appear in my album, with a traditional page next to a pocket page.

To see my niece up close in all her cuteness, click on the layout to enlarge it!

Recipe:

Precious Alphabet stamp set
Sassy Simple Sets (SEI)
Hopscotch papers
Color Kaleidoscope papers (American Crafts)
Smoothie ink
Black marker

Mind Your Manners cardstock stickers (Bella Blvd)

Color Kaleidoscope sticker book (American Crafts)

Color Kaleidoscope Phrases and Icons Puffy stickers (American Crafts)

Hopscotch PML cards

Childhood PML card

# Life Card - Enjoy
Field Notes Journaling Ephemera (American Crafts)
Pattern: Sketches in Thyme #376 (right side of layout only)

Happy Together Layout

For this bunch of photos of the kids riding scooters and skating around our cul-de-sac, I decided to feature three photos on a traditional layout and put the rest in a pocket page. The design is actually a scraplift of Sandra's "Biker Dawls" layout from over on Scrapbook.com. Down the left side of her page, Sandra had a bunch of sayings she had cut out of a piece of pattered paper, but I chose to ink up my stamps and get to work stamping and cutting! I used the rainbow paper from my brand new "I Heart Us" paper pack from CTMH, and that gave me a whole rainbow of colors to chose from when stamping the little sentiments.

And here's the journaling card from the pocket page:

Recipe:
Boys at Play, Framework Alphabet, Friendship Word Puzzle, It's Your Day, Just for Boys, Kid Power, Later Sk8r, Take Note, This & That, Whooo's Your Valentine & You and Me stamp sets
I Heart Us papers & My Complements stickers
Canary, Bluebird & White Daisy cardstock
Canary, Pixie, Thistle, Key Lime, Lagoon, Sweet Leaf, Raspberry & Bluebird ink
ShinHan Touch Twin marker
Hopscotch PML card
Stargazer and Cats & Bats Dots
Thistle striped ribbon
Staple
Star punch (EK Success)
Challenges: Heart 2 Heart Happy Times challenge; Lasting Memories #444 alphabet stamps (used to stamp "happy" in my title); Double Trouble Something, Anything, Everything challenge (for Thing 1, I pulled out a bunch of stuff I have never used before - the I Hearts Us papers, Bluebird cardstock, Bluebird & Raspberry ink pads, and a roll of Thistle ribbon, then for Thing 2 I played along with Heart 2 Heart, and finally I used tons of word stamps for Thing 3).

#Old Spaghetti Factory Layout

I'm getting more into decorating some of the pockets when I do pocket pages (my usual M.O. is just stuffing photos into every pocket), but I have to say I admire scrappers who do it on a consistent basis. It's a lot of work to think up a design and embellishments for every pocket! On this layout series, I have a pocket page between two traditional pages, but I only embellished the first side of the pocket pages because I needed space for six photos on the back.

FYI: I'm not a Tweeter, so I may have gotten the use of the # in the title wrong, but one of the challenges over at Scrapbook.com included putting a hash tag on your layout, so I did my best!

Used a Sketches in Thyme sketch for the left side.

Used a EMS Sketch challenge for the right side.

Recipe:
Brothers papers & Stickers (Echo Park)
Kraft, Canary, Sunset & Outdoor Denim cardstock
Canary, Sunset & Outdoor Denim ink
Outdoor Denim marker
Outdoor Denim spiral clips
My Crush Best Day Ever Assortment sticker - "It's all good"
Sunset grosgrain ribbon
White ric-rac (Wrights)
3-D foam tape
Star punch (EK Success)
Cricut Artiste cartridge: title, arrow
Pattern: Sketches in Thyme #367 & SCS Sketch15Oct3
Challenges: The Studio SPRING Challenge
S - stickers, spiral clips, stars
P - plaid, polka dots
R - ric-rac
I - ink
N - number
G - grosgrain ribbon

Zoo Play Park Layouts

A few weeks ago, I created a layout with some fun photos of my kids at the zoo, but I never finished the companion pages. Since today is Blah Blah Blah Day, a time to complete unfinished projects, I made it my mission to have this layout done by today! There will be a pocket page in between the two sides of the layout, so I decided to post the pages as they will look in my album.

Here's the first side of the pocket page:

And a close up of the pocket card:

And here's the back side of the pocket page, along with the traditional scrapbook page:

And these are the pocket cards I made for this page. The top one was simple since it was a pre-printed card and all I had to do was journal and embellish a little. The bottom one was my own design, and I was inspired by a couple of challenges. Heart 2 Heart has a "Weather or Not" challenge going on, so I decided to add the sunshine, cloud, and Liquid Glass raindrops, plus I used a few lines from a poem about "the sunshine of your smile" as my journaling on the big page. Since Double Trouble was also asking for "showers," this gave me double inspiration!

Recipe:
Jeepers Creepers papers
Lagoon, Tangerine & White Daisy cardstock
Goldrush, Gypsy, Whisper & Black ink
Black marker
Jeepers Creepers washi tape
Purple glitter gems
Field Notes Journaling Ephemera (American Crafts)
Escape the Ordinary Thickers (American Crafts)
Color Kaleidoscope stickers (American Crafts)
Liquid Glass
Cricut Artiste cartridge: sun, clouds
Heart punch (EK Success)
Pattern (for traditional page): Sketch-n-Scrap #174

National Gallery Pocket Pages

Gotta confess, I love creating full size layouts, but when it comes to doing pocket cards for my pocket pages, it tends to feel more like a chore! Usually I put it off and end up with a bunch of empty spaces among the photos in my pocket pages, so I forced myself to create a few cards this week to fill in some blanks. The first set goes in the pocket page facing my National Gallery intro page, so I went with the same paper pack and even used the same letter stickers as on my main page. Originally, I was just going to throw all the paintings in the pockets and call it done, but I decided since this would probably be my only trip to England, I should really go the extra mile (kilometer?) and identify each one!

Want to see the labels? Click on the picture for an enlarged view!

Recipe:
Skylark papers
Kraft & Colonial White cardstock
Desert Sand, Flaxen & Lagoon ink
Cork Alphabet stickers
Love Letters rub-ons

The next card set was for the reverse side of same pocket page, but I needed to put cropped pictures on them, so I made them super simple. I had already emptied my spray pens of the matching ink for the facing page, so instead I used a stamp set and stamped random dots all over and then sponged the cards in Goldrush ink. Added a little lettering and everything was good to go.

Recipe:
Itty Bitty Backgrounds stamp set (SU)
White Daisy cardstock
Hollyhock, Crystal Blue & Goldrsuh ink
Black marker

Henry VIII's Kitchens Journaling Cards

Yesterday I shared the layout I had created featuring photos from Henry VIII's kitchen at Hampton Court. Of course, we took many more photos than those I included in the layout, so I'm adding a photos storage page between the two pages. I didn't have quite enough photos to fill one side of the page, so I added some journaling cards to fill in the extra spaces.

The first card used Sketch #89 from Sketches in Thyme PL Style. I changed up the shape at the top to go with the circles on the patterned paper.

The next card used Sketch #93, also from Sketches in Thyme PL Style, but I turned it upside down to fit the blank space in my photo. This was actually a horizontal photo, but I trimmed it to fit on the 4" x 6" cardstock.

The final card  didn't use a sketch, but I tried to stay with a similar style. After making three of these cards, my admiration for pocket scrapbookers has really increased. I found it much harder to get creative three times than just to scrapbook on one larger canvas. Pocket scrapbookers, you are the bomb!

And here's the completed pocket page with the journaling cards inserted.

Recipe:
Alphabet Solos C, I & Y, At the Aquarium & Tiny Typewriter stamp sets
Magic Moments level 2 papers
Saddle, Dutch Blue, Cocoa & Colonial White cardstock
Saddle, Dutch Blue, Cocoa & Tuxedo Black ink
Dutch Blue marker
Coffee marker (Zig)
ShinHan Touch Twin markers

Endeavour Layout

I got a few more photos scrapped this weekend, and I must confess I'm enjoying using my CTMH photo storage pages more than ever before. I've been combining traditional layouts which feature a couple of pictures with the photo storage pages that hold a bunch more photos plus PML style cards that I created myself. For my layout of the space shuttle Endeavour, I played along with this Liftapalooza challenge over at Scrapbook Challenges. I really loved how Ali made the old school torn edges look fresh, so I thought I'd try it myself! I also lifted the paper scraps idea and then scattered embellishments around the page.

For the companion page, I used this sketch from Sketches in Thyme PL Style in order to create the "Explore" card.

 The journaling card was a happy accident. I put down the striped paper scrap on the card, thinking I might cut a pennant out of it, and noticed the curved section reminded me of the curve of planet Earth, so I ran with that idea.

And here's the completed page with photos and cards.

Recipe:

Save the Date Stamp set

Zippidee Level 2 papers

Indian Corn Blue & Bamboo cardstock

Indian Corn Blue & Cranberry ink

Black & Cranberry markers

Red Shimmer trim

Stuck on You Puffies

Enamel stars

Americana Primitive Star brads (Creative Impressions)

Cricut Simply Sweet cartridge: titles

Rose Garden Pocket Cards

Yesterday I stumbled across Sketches In Thyme Challenges' sister site, for those who scrapbook using photo pocket pages. The site features sketches that can be used to create cards to fit in these pockets. I have used the Picture My Life cards from Close to My Heart to fill in a few spots here and there for my pocket pages, but I thought it would be fun to try to create my own cards. I used the current sketch and one from February to create my cards. It was interesting to create on such a small scale, but I enjoyed it and will definitely be trying this again!

Used February sketch.

Used current sketch

Here's the finished page. It's a companion to my Lovely Family layout that I posted yesterday.

Recipe:
Floral Happiness & Diverse Backgrounds stamp sets
Ivy Lane Level 2 papers
Ivy Lane Green, Ivy Lane Purple, Olive & White Daisy cardstock
Vineyard Berry, Blush & Fern ink
Pearl Opaques

Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge: frame, vine, scalloped borders