Little Girl & Friends Berry71Bleu March Challenge

Today I'm posting a very late interpretation of Berry71Bleu's March challenge.  Even though the challenge took place a couple of months ago--I'll still describe what the requirements were.  The March challenge was hosted by Caroleanne & it was all about flowers!  The challenge was to simply use as many flowers as you want/can in your project.  A fairly simply challenge since we all know how much we love those flowers!

For my project, I decided to take a small trip down memory lane.  This would be me having some sort of executive meeting with all of my plush toys & dolls.  Not only am I breaking bread with them but I also seem to be multi-tasking since I'm feeding two of my 'friends' at the same time.  It seems that I've been good at multi-tasking ever since I was a child!  :-)

I kept the design of my layout fairly simple--just a bit of layering & embellished with several types of different flowers.

I've used two pieces of chipboard on my page which I've left in their natural state. Turns out that their natural color fit perfectly with the color scheme of my page.  They 'pop' just right on my page.  These chipboard pieces were generously provided to us by one of Berry71Bleu's frequent sponsors Scrapiniec.

I've stored my journaling on a tag that I've tucked inside a small kraft paper bag underneath my flower cluster.

The paper I've used is by 7 Dots Studio & is from their 'Soulmates' collection.  This collection is geared more towards love themed designs--but I was able to find papers from the collection that can also be used for 'girl' themed projects.

I didn't change the color of the chipboard but did decide to add a few rhinestones to the chandelier in order to dress it up a bit more.

I didn't add or change much to the background of my layout--I instead opted to just add a bit of splatter to it with a bit of black mist.

Supplies: Paper - 7 Dots Studio, Chipboard - Scrapiniec, Flowers - I Am Roses, Petaloo, Prima, The Kreative Korner, Mists - Heidi Swapp, Other - Mini Flocked Bear, Acrylic Flowers, Clear Rhinestones, Mini Bird's Nest, Mini Flocked Bird, Acrylic Frame, Paper Doily, Spiral Clips

Thanks for stopping by & as always, enjoy the rest of the week!

Forever & More Layout Berry71Bleu May Challenge

It's my turn to host the monthly challenge over at the Berry71Bleu blog!  For this month I felt that mom & the concept of motherhood needed a well deserved tribute. In several parts of the world, including the United States, May is the month where we celebrate Mother's Day. With this in mind--the challenge for May is: All About Mom - Pay tribute to your own mom or create a project based on your own thoughts & feelings about being a mom.

So here I am with my own little guy. He's my one & only & I can't even put into words how complete he made me once he came into this world. There's not one day that he doesn't make me smile or forget about my worries. All he has to do is hug me & all my stress is gone. I still find it amazing to see a little part of me running around--he's got my eyes, my sense of humor & my wit. He's a small version of me & he encourages me to stay young at heart & reminds me of the innocence of child hood on a daily basis.

Being a mom is a very fulfilling emotion mixed in with anticipation--since I wonder daily about the man he's going to grow up to be--joy, love & a pinch of fear since I worry daily if I'll be equipped to get him adequately prepared for all the obstacles, ups & downs he'll encounter along this long journey we call 'Life'.

The mood board was created with several thoughts & quotes on mom or motherhood along with photos that I felt represented the bond between a mother & child.

As is customary with several of my layouts--I utilized several layers as part of the design.  The layers are compromised of both designer papers & embellishments.

I kept the design of the page fairly simple.  I wanted to draw attention primarily to the photo of me & my son.

All the papers used are from Authentique's Classique: Beauty collection.  These papers are composed of primarily yellows, blacks & grays.  I added a pop of color by mixing bright red colored flowers & embellishments.

The butterflies are items from my Etsy shop.  I felt that the sentiment 'You are my sunshine' was befitting for this layout.

These square chipboard embellishments are by Um Wow Studio.  They are one of our sponsors for the month of May & are generously offering up a prize to one lucky winner! I kept the chipboard in it's raw state since it combined nicely with the color scheme of my layout.

Sometimes the paper itself make for the best sort of embellishments.  To add a bit of dimension to my page I rolled up several pieces of left over scraps & randomly adhered them to the background of my layout.

Supplies: Paper - Authentique, Flowers - I Am Roses, The Kreative Korner, Wild Orchid Crafts, Chipboard - Um Wow Studio, Wooden Embellishments - SA Crafts, Butterfly Embellishments - The Kreative Korner, Flair - Panda Eight Designs, Other - Red Rhinestones, Mini Flocked Teddy Bear, Red Tulle

Thanks for stopping by!  Make sure to head on over to the Berry71Bleu blog--the challenge is still going on.  Play with us for the chance to win some fabulous prizes.

Enjoy the rest of the week!

Stay Little Forever (Please) Layout

Today's page is one that I made a few months ago.  I've used one of Authentique's latest collections--'Playful'--for this page.  I found this colorful & bright collection to be perfect for documenting memories & events related to children.  With this in mind I created a page with a photo of me & my son taken last Fall.

The title of this page represents the feelings towards my son.  Call me selfish, but I want my little guy to stay...well, little forever!  Please...

Everyday he gets bigger & bigger & while I'm overwhelmed with happiness to see him learn a new word or discover something new about the world around him, I can't help but get sad at the fact that with every passing day he's growing more & more into the man he's going to be one day & in turn he's growing just a bit further away from me.  I'm going to have issues 'letting go'!  :-)  I'm predicting that very early on...

I found this fantastic sketch by The Nifty Pixel that coordinated perfectly with the collection.  The sketch is random & askew just like some of the papers in the 'Playful' collection--so it went along just right with the overall theme of my page.

To further decorate the background & give it more of a design--I did a bit of stamping.  The stamps consist of splatters, splats & stitched circles.

Behind all my layering & the photos, I've tucked in a small kraft paper bag containing a tag that holds my journaling.  I used one of the elements from the 'Playful' collection as my makeshift tag.

Supplies: Paper - Authentique, Flowers - Petaloo, The Kreative Korner, Flair Buttons - UmWow Studio, Panda Eight Designs, Stamps - Prima, Recollections, Paper Clip - Freckled Fawn, Other - Mini Flocked Teddy Bear, Doily, Kraft Bag

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

A Perfect Day Layout

This layout is one that has been done for some time now.  It was created with one of Authentique's most recent collections 'Durable'.  The earth tone colors of this collection along with the masculine elements make it an ideal choice for documenting photos of the boys in my life.

Late last year I was able to take several photos of my husband & son enjoying a crisp Autumn day by a lake.  Using 'Durable' to document this memory worked out perfectly since even the clothing they wore that day brought out some of the accent colors of the collection.

My page was based on a wonderful sketch created by The Nifty Pixel.

The embellishments used on the page were mostly burlap & felt based.  I've adhered most of the floral embellishments with pop dots to add some dimension to my page.

With the use of a couple different stamps, I further decorated the background by randomly stamping these images.  With black mist, I've added a bit of splatters to the background as well.

With a hot glue gun, I adhered a string of white twine along my page.  I adhered it based on how the layout 'flows' visually.  At least that was my intent.  :-)

The bright orange organza star flower seen here is an embellishment from my own stash.  I have these & several more organza star flowers available for sale in my Etsy shop.

Supplies: Paper - Authentique, Chipboard - Um Wow Studio, SA Crafters, Stamps - Prima Marketing, Sodalicious, Mists: Heidi Swapp, Flowers - The Kreative Korner, The Felt Shoppe, Other: Burlap Flower, Twine

Thanks for stopping by!

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!

My Little Angel Layout Berry71Bleu January Challenge

This month's Berry71Bleu challenge was an enjoyable one for me!  I finally had the opportunity to give my little guy a pair of angel wings.  This idea had been going around my head for quite some time now & I had also seen several other fellow scrappers do this to their own little angels.  So when the challenge for January was: Things With Wings--I took my queue & ran with it.

I kept the overall design of the page fairly simple since I wanted the focus to be on the photo.  Plus it didn't help that while I made this page I was home sick with bronchitis topped with a sinus infection. Meh.  I'm pleased with the end result & I love how the colors I chose pop against the solid black background.

My son was a little over a month old when this photo was taken--his facial features have changed a bit except for his big brown eyes--he still has those.

I tucked a small white glassine bag behind the photo that is being used to store my journaling tag.  I made the tag out of leftover white card stock scraps that I had in my stash & tied a bit of yellow tulle to the top.

Several items & embellishments were used to comply with this months challenge.  I've used Tim Holtz washi paper in the background that has images of butterflies.  In this photo you can see the different strips I used to create the background.  I included a mini mushroom bird embellishment & the most obvious element were the wings I gave my son.

These floral blue images were provided by one of our sponsors this month by Digital Paper. They were lovely pink images of flowers--but I needed blue to go with the theme of my page.  So I edited the images in Photoshop & changed their color.  This is the beauty of digital images--with just a little bit of photo editing knowledge you can manipulate the images to go with any theme you need.

Once I changed the color for the flowers, I printed them & fussy cut them out.

The angel wings is an image that I edited in Photoshop, printed & fussy cut out.  I did much fussy cutting for this page since I also fussy cut the photo of my son--I felt that cutting him out of the solid black background would make the wings more noticeable & give the effect that he actually has his very own set of wings.  :-)

Supplies: Black Cardstock - American Crafts, Washi Tape - Tim Holtz, Stencil - Crafters Workshop, Embellishments - SA Crafters,  Mists: Heidi Swapp, Flowers - I Am Roses, Other - Modeling Paste, Mini Mushroom Bird, Mini Bird's Nest, Card Stock Angel Wings, Tulle, White Gel Pen

Thanks for stopping by & enjoy the rest of the week!  Don't forget to stop by the Berry71Bleu blog to play along with this month's challenge & for the chance to win some fabulous prizes!