Fun with Echo Park's Bundle of Joy.



When I set out to make my niece's 1st year album, I found the selection of baby-themed products to be bleak. Luckily, I happened upon Echo Park's Bundle of Joy girl collection and fell in love. The colours were perfect and it coordinated nicely with the collection I used for my nephew's album the year before, just in case I wanted to mix the two together for a brothers and sister page.

This first picture is a tag I made for Scott's cousin's baby shower. I actually hated it until it got tied to the present.

The next one is a layout that went into my niece's album. It's for pictures of her with her big brothers....minus any product from the baby boy collection that I previously mentioned. I totally forgot about the plan to mix up the collections! Oh well....

This next layout was my favourite of the whole album. It was a last-minute add-on, a filler to help finish the album and meant to show off some cute, random candids.

The title was designed using Cricut Craft Room, including the backdrop of hearts. The lamb is a sticker from Bundle of Joy and the butterfly is a Martha Stewart punch. I'd used that punch throughout my nephew's album too.

Some more sticker work here, where I perched an owl on the branch and then added another butterfly punch.

And now, my work with this album is complete. All my sister has to do is add the pictures and journaling!

Challenge Accepted!

 





Thanks to Paula, I've been lurking the Craft Hoarders Anonymous blog for some time now.  They've got some really fun challenges that have appealed to me, one previous one that I even completed....too late to enter the challenge, but completed just the same!

Here's one that actually got done, and on time to boot! It's the final page of my niece's baby album:



This layout is inspired by prompts from both Challenge 6 (expired before I saw it....sigh) and 7. I used the sketch and the mix of new products (all the paper) and old products (rubons and ribbon), as required for Challenge 6. The ribbon (pink ric rac and teal bottom border) is also needed for Challenge 7, which I'm actually on time for and able to enter!
The title, including the background, was designed in my Cricut Craft Room and embellished using old Basic Grey rubon flowers and a Martha Stewart butterfly punch. Underneath the title, you can see a bit of the texture and design in the teal ribbon used at the bottom of the page.

I added some more coordinating rubons to the journaling card. Beneath that, you can see some of the dainty pink ric rac used at the edge of the brown cardstock.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope to have some more layouts from my niece's album posted soon.

Pick a Stamp, Any Stamp!

Paula has been singing the praises of the Craft Hoarders Anonymous blog for a while now. I've been following them, but it took this challenge to push me into actually participating.

Unfortunately, with the due date being Easter weekend and all of the things that entailed, I did not get it posted in time to actually enter my submission. I've decided to share it regardless!

When I started this challenge, I didn't know what I was going to do. Then I saw these stamps, which reminded me of a friend who recently finished a grueling 4-year construction engineering program and the project just blossomed from there. It still needs a sentiment to be added inside, along with a liquor store gift card or a bottle of something to help her celebrate. She's been so busy with school and family lately, I have no idea what she drinks anymore!

There were 4 stamps used on this card. The first is a rose vine background stamp that I Versamarked and  clear embossed onto the purple paper. It's hard to see in this picture, but I then inked and blended the purple paper with a number of colours to create a marbling effect. The 3 pieces on top were stamped using Vintage Photo Distress Ink and cut out. Practically all of the paper was then distressed and inked.

This was an awesome challenge that helped me get messy and inked-up. I forgot how much I enjoy getting messy and inked-up working on a project. Thanks, Paula, for introducing me to this challenge site!



One Final Look at Disney 2013

 Here's my final post of layouts from our Disney 2013 trip. I could easily share the entire album (although it would be more for the stories than the layouts), but I think it's time to finish up and move on to other events and layouts before I bore everyone to tears!
The first layout showcases our last day in Magic Kingdom, which was also our last full day at Disney. It's our favourite of all the Disney parks with the majority of our favourite rides.
See that Mickey paper, used as a matte for my journaling card and as a strip across both pages? That's some leftover paper from our Disney 2008 album. I saved all the leftovers, in their own Disney folder, for when we would return. I can't remember who made it.....Sandylion? E.K. Success? The rest is new stuff from Simple Stories, varied collections. I don't think enough of the Simple Stories stuff survived to bother saving it for the next trip....

The left side of this layout was inspired by this sketch I found on pinterest. I kept my interpretation on the simple side:

On this day, we met up with some pretty amazing characters. First up is Alice. I had fun designing this one. Fitting, since Alice was one of the most fun characters we met!

 

 

Next up, Ariel. I had fun making this page too, but the results were not as satisfying as the Alice page was. I either make or break a page when Stickles are involved and sadly, I think I broke this one! Oh well, the story is still cute:



The final layout I will share is the final page in the album. I just couldn't resist squeezing in a couple more Mickey silhouettes while they were still relevant to the layout:



I had a lot of fun making this album. Thanks for stopping by and helping me relive this awesome trip just a little bit longer!

Layouts With Disney Ephemera

 

During our trip, we collected a whole lot of Disney ephemera. Park maps, confetti, menus, buttons, Halloween party wristbands, receipts.....some of it got used up in our album, so much more of it did not. I've already shared a few layouts that used some ephemera, namely "Our Keys to the World" and "Disney's Magical Express" but I thought I'd share a few more layouts that utilized our cheap or free souvenirs.

First up, our lunch with Winnie the Pooh and friends at Crystal Palace. We scooped up some of the confetti they spread out on our table in celebration of our anniversary. I used it throughout this layout:

 

I used some more of that confetti, along with some larger confetti from a parade in this next layout. It's the title page of our Disney album. In the bottom left corner is another bit of ephemera, a Mickey eyes flair badge that Kelsey gave to me. She bought a bunch as souvenirs for her friends and this was a leftover. You can see where I got the inspiration to cut out the pie chart/100% fun journaling block here.  Just scroll down to the photos at the bottom. The title and Mickey ears are all thanks to my Mickey Font cartridge:

I used one of the buttons Scott and I were given to celebrate our anniversary in this next layout, showcasing our actual anniversary dinner. It's a simple layout, mainly consisting of pictures, embellished with the button, a few stickers and a matted picture placed over a pre-designed page block:

In this last layout, I used the menu from the Hoop Dee-Doo dinner show as a title:

And that's it for ephemera-embellished Disney layouts. Stay tuned for my final Disney 2013-inspired post!

Disney: Hotel and Magic Kingdom, Day 1

 

It's been 6 months since our Disney trip and I'm just one page away from completing the layouts for the album! There's still lots of journaling to do, but the pages are nearly all done! Kind of sad, really, considering in that time, almost all of my scrappy efforts have been dedicated to Disney in order to get it completed.

The first page isn't much in the design department. There really wasn't any room or need, considering how many pictures I used. This was our "Disney home," located in Port Orleans Riverside. 

Next, is our first visit to Magic Kingdom. It was our first day at Disney, after a super-early morning. We had dinner reservations at Liberty Tree Tavern and the park wasn't scheduled to close until 1a.m. I'd planned on us staying until the bitter end. It was a foolish plan. We barely made it through our 7p.m. dinner.

The title was created by cutting up a transparency to layer the word "MAGIC" and the star garland, then further layering it with letter, star and mouse-ear stickers.

And that's it for now. I'll share more as I get the journaling done and layouts photographed.

Disney's Hollywood Studios

 

So, y'all sick of Disney layouts yet? I hope not, because I've got a few more to share! These are all from our first day at Hollywood Studios, which was also our first full day in Disney.

The first one is about a photo op we took advantage of just outside the park gates. Mike Wazowski's appearance in the bottom right photo was a pleasant surprise when we saw these pictures for the first time!

 

Here's a recap of our day. The top left photo of the Rock'n Rollercoaster entrance is a stock photo, beside which is Cole and me on the ride. Don't I look thrilled? Guess 0-60 in mere seconds isn't such a good look on me! My eyes stayed firmly shut for the first half of that ride. Cole, however, looks totally unaffected.....what gives?

And here we are meeting Goofy under the big sorcerer's hat. The title was done with my newest Cricut cartridge, Mickey Font, layered over a journaling card. Goofy's signature on the bottom right photo was a stamp feature I included from the Photopass software.

And a close up of the journaling:

And finally, a layout about our evening. All of these photos, except for the top right, are stock photos. Thank goodness for stock photos!  The title is another product of the Mickey Font cartridge. I used the end caps feature to cut out the title within the ticket.

A close-up of the journaling:

Look What Arrived Christmas Eve!

 

Merry Christmas to me! 

 

I took a lot of time debating whether I wanted this cartridge. First it was a question of economics and usefulness. It turned into a question of ethics, both mine and Provo Craft's. I bought the digital cartridge; they took a week to think about it and then took it away. Their customer service/public relations throughout the entire ordeal was lacklustre at best.
In the end, I decided that since I've been "not giving Cricut money" for years now, it would be more beneficial and satisfying for me to get what I wanted. I found someone who was willing to sell and ship to a Canadian address for the same money I would have paid Cricut to ship me the physical cartridge on sale. Yes, in the end they got my money but I'm still claiming a win.
It's mine, all mine......and it's wonderful!