A Simple Birthday Layout

This layout practically fell together. All of the paper, save the kraft background, was from my scrap bin. There was so little cutting required, it was almost as if the scraps were made for this layout.  Even the title was a quickie design off a Cricut cartridge. Best of all, Scott loves how it turned out!

Out of This World

I think I had as much fun creating this layout as my guys did creating their Lego UFO! It started off with a trip to the LSS. I debated between an outer space line by BoBunny and A Boy's Life by Echo Park. I would have loved to mix the two together, but the greens clashed and the BoBunny line had space monkeys throughout it that I just wasn't happy with. I also preferred the versatility of the Echo Park line, knowing I'd get more bang for my buck with the scraps.

Because I wanted to use the negative space for my title, I made it with my Cricut Design Studio to get the spacing and alignment just right. I pop-dotted it onto the layout for some added dimension.

All of the other die cuts are from my Accent Essentials cartridge. I sanded around some of the elements throughout the layout for more depth, interest and because I bought the Core'dinations cardstock for BOTH colours!

And finally, the journaling. I'm getting back into the habit of journaling and labeling more. After all, one of my favourite parts of scrapbooking is telling the story!

Double Inspiration for Double Trouble.

I quite fancy this layout of mine. Maybe it's the subject matter, maybe it's all the wonderful product, maybe I'm just so happy I got this picture and captured this story. Then again, maybe it's all three!

Ok, a little info about the product first. I love, love, love Bo Bunny's Double Dot line! This is the second or third layout where I've used it as the background paper. The colours are yummy and the patterns are perfectly neutral (or maybe it's more understated and distressed) for backgrounds, matting or diecutting/paper piecing.
Then there's My Mind's Eye Stella and Rose. I've been drooling over this line for a while and finally broke down on my last shopping trip and grabbed my favourites, two of which I used on this layout.
And the matte for my title? That's from the Simple Stories line, which just started showing up at my LSS's and I'm assuming is a new company. This matte was from a sheet of flash cards. So far, I'm really liking their stuff!
Now, you can see Double Trouble in the picture; that would be Scott and Cole. But the double inspiration I'll have to explain a little. See, this layout has inspiration from two different sources. First off, I used this Pagemaps sketch from waaaaayyyy back in November of 2009 to get started:

I've used my sketch book a bit more lately, as I've been having troubles getting started on some recent layouts. My Pagemaps archives have been particularily helpful!

The second bit of inspiration would be in the title. Last month, Lora did a blog post on using her Dymo label maker and mine has been on my mind ever since. This just seemed like the perfect place to add a little Dymo magic!

Oh, and something that is just all me: "finger painted" inking in the background of the title block.

Supplies I Can Recall: Paper - BoBunny, My Mind's Eye, American Crafts, Simple Stories. Stamps - BoBunny and unknown stars. Twine and Paperclip - Making Memories. Button - Basic Grey. Ink - Ranger/Tim Holtz Distress inks. Fonts - Cricut and Dymo. Ricrac ribbon - superdooper thrift store find.

Practice

This is Kelsey's first season of softball. Scott is very excited about this. He loves that the kids have both taken an interest in one of his passions, something he can teach them a thing or two about. I snapped these pics while watching them from the porch.
Admittedly, baseball isn't one of my passions, but that didn't stop me from having fun creating this layout! I put some scrap cardstock through a crimper, grazed it over my Versamark pad and embossed it for a rough, corrugated cardboard look and then tore along the edges. The title is chipboard letters that I inked.

The scrap paper I used while inking the letters ended up looking really cool, so I just had to use it for a journaling block!

Products I Can Recall: Patterned paper: Echo Park. Cardstock: American Crafts. Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Barn Door. Chipboard letters: Making Memories. Embossing powder: Zing.