My Two Boys Layout Berry71Bleu February Challenge

I'm truly starting to enjoy creating a layout with a solid black background.  I really love how my embellishments & colors 'pop' on my page!  This is my interpreation for the February challenge going on over at Berry71Bleu.  This month's host is Dana & she picked a beautiful mood board to go along with this month's challenge which is: My Inspiration, My Loves - basically create a project about things or people that inspire you or that you love...simple as that.

My husband took this photo of me getting love from my two boys.  Even though my son doesn't look too happy here--he had just finished giving me a big hug.  Nothing warms my heart more or puts a smile on my face than getting love from my two boys.  My four legged eldest fur child always gives me his unconditional love & my son is at an age where he gives you hugs & kisses 'just because'.

This is when I ask Father Time to slow down a bit--during these wonderful moments...

Here's this months soft & creative mood board.  I love the colors & images used...

I used washi tape in my page again as part of my layering. I have several rolls of washi tape collecting dust in my stash.  I figured I'd clean off the 2 inches of dust & try using them into my work!  :-)

I used several digital images provided by one of our sponsors this month the CAT File Store on my page.  I primarily used thier printables as embellishments & layered them around my photo.

In Photoshop I was able to add one of their digital images 'the cutest' right onto my photo.  Since I don't have a Silhouette or any other compatible die cutting machine--I printed their digital images & used them to enhance my page as embellishments.

The contrast of the embellishments I added to my page against the solid black background adds a splash of color to my layout that I honestly really liked.

The gray tulle seen on my page is attached to a white tag that contains my journaling.  It's stored in a white glassine bag that I tucked behind my photos & most of the embellishments.

Supplies: Card Stock - American Crafts, Digitial Elements/Printables - CAT File Store, Prima Marketing, Tim Holtz, Flowers - Petaloo, Washi Tape - Tim Holtz, RubOns - Basic Grey, Chipboard - Um Wow Studio, Overlays: Hambly, Other - Silver Doily, Felt Hearts, Birds Washi Tape, Rhinestones, Fabric Flowers, Tulle

Don't forget to stop by the Berry71Bleu blog & play along with this month's challenge. There are still a few days left in the month--plus as always your entry will put you in the running to win goodies from this month's fabulous sponsors!

Thanks for stopping by & enjoy the rest of the week!

One Kiss & I Was Smitten Layout

Snow, snow, snow...can we get anymore snow!?  Needless to say we've been getting slammed here in the East Coast with lots of that cold white fluffy stuff.  I enjoy cold weather & the occasional snow storm actually--but this is getting just a bit out of hand.  Oh well, just another excuse to drink hot cocoa or hot chocolate or just plain 'ol coffee!

Today's layout is a page I made over a year ago & have simply never shared.  This was made with the use of Authentique's 'Smitten' collection which was their Valentine's Day release for last year.

The photo is of me & my now husband back in the day when we were dating.  This was our very first vacation together.  We went to the Bahamas & bought matching outfits that you can see in the photo.  Awwww how sickeningly sweet eh!? :-)  Ahhhh gotta love those dating years--it's when you can actually get your guy to do things like this!  It's OK...it all paid off in the end--I ended up marrying him didn't I?

For this page I played around with the paper itself.  Folding it in different ways, rolling it, distressing it, putting some rips n' tears in it etc...I also used many of the elements & card stock stickers that came with the collection to embellish the page.

The layering of the elements really made the page as well as the use of pop dots to give some of the stickers some dimension.

My journaling was stored in the form of a scroll seen here.  It was & still is one of my absolute favorite ways to store journaling on layouts.  I can store many thoughts & stories in a compact way & the scroll itself makes for a unique embellishment.

Supplies: Paper - Authentique, Dies: Cheery Lynn Designs, Embellishments - Authentique, Other - Fabric Flowers, Rhinestone Flowers, Glitter Foam Hearts, Transparency

Thanks for stopping by, enjoy the rest of the week & stay warm!