"Two Months Old" Layout

This is a "lift" challenge that I undertook- a little out of my comfort zone- trying to coordinate at least 3 different patterned papers. I tried flocking for the very first time on the letters and the flourishes- I just sprinkled the flocking over the wet paint (I painted the chipboard), then tapped off the excess and poured it back into the bottle. I used Martha Stewart's flocking- individual bottles at Michael's- I think I like that better than buying a pack of them with colors I'll never use. I hand stitched around the vellum squares since I don't have any vellum adhesive and my regular stuff will show through otherwise with vellum. I also handstitched around the white mat- inking the white paper slightly with pink ink, then distressed the pink double matting. I like how (to me at least) it kind of looks similar to the texture of the pink blanket. I used handstitching on the center of the flower too- stitching more on vellum. The little pink acrylic half-round I found at Craft Warehouse- a good size bag of them which I shared with some scrapbooking buddies of mine. The little felt hearts- I cut out of felt and stitched to mimic the arrow point- and I used a glass to trace little stitch lines to follow with more hand stitching. If you have the chance to try flocking- I recommend it, it's a lot of fun and adds more texture to anything you use it on. :)

"Brotherly Love" Layout

This a layout I made as a gift for one of my friends- I've been working on a mini album for her with pictures of her and her boys in it, and had extra pictures left over. I'm still working on the album, but I thought it would be fun to incorporate these "brother" pictures into a layout with the same papers. I hand stitched around the pictures (before I matted them), and then stitched around the papers of the layout. I really like the effect of the stitching- it's my newest "ooh I like this" technique. I painted brown on the chipboard and used crackling medium on it, then painted the top color of paint over it when the crackling medium was tacky. I added Aleene's Paper Glaze over the top of the chipboard when dry to add that glossy look, then used stick on pearls for a finishing touch. I can't believe I've gotten more than one layout done in less than 2 weeks, I'm usually pretty few and far between.

My weeklong layout...

A week ago, yes, a whole week.... I started this layout. No sketches or creative ideas other than playing around, it evolved quite a bit from where I first started with it. I even asked for help from the gals in Scrapping with Friends on Cafemom for suggestions... This was the first time I tried using the edge distresser that my best buddy Katherine gave me- it looks like a little pink Pac-man (that makes me old, because that was a very eighties reference there.. ). It was so much fun using the edge distresser, I probably went a bit overboard... but it does help a layout with a boy in it not look too girly. So here it is, finally, my son being a goofball (this is not a rare occurrence). When he asks me to spike his hair, he says "like a shark"- meaning: a dorsal fin.. My husband gets really annoyed when I allow him to go to school like this, but I think there's no harm in it, and he's a great kid, so it's not like he's "punking out" with attitude. The title of the layout was actually part of a piece of scrapbooking paper that said that, originally part of the layout that got scrapped (not literally :) ) but I loved the saying, so I used chipboard instead. I kind of wonder if it looks a bit too busy, but I'm as done as I'm going to be with this layout. I haven't scrapped a layout in months, so there was a lot of rust being shaken off. I just couldn't resist using these pictures, they really motivated me to scrap them :) I also made a tag to journal on that kind of blends in but allows me to talk more about what was behind the pictures.

"Love Notes"

I got the basic idea for these from the Michael's store website for ideas... Mine looks totally different from theirs, but I liked the form of them. They were fun and fast.. other than the decorating... but even that doesn't have to take long (unless you're an overthinker like me.. :) )

One of my favorite recent projects:

This is one of my favorite recent projects that I finished- I gave it as a gift to my best buddy who is the one who gave me the original box. I used crackling medium on it, with brown paint underneath and pink on the top, such a great combination! Other than that, I just added some chipboard that I painted and a few flowers and buttons. It was a lot of fun to try- I really want to make more!