Just Horsing Around

The challenge:
Use a tree on your layout

I think the tree stamps, die cuts, paper out today are stinkin' cute!  I love the odd retro shapes they have.  I got this Cricut cartridge for Christmas that not only has this adorable tree on it, but awesome owls!  They just make me happy.

I decided to use some photos Kayla's friend sent me of them going for a horseback ride for Kayla's birthday.  They look like they had a ton of fun and I thought this tree and owl would go really good with the photos.  I also wanted a barn so I just looked at some photos online and cut one out myself.  Turned out better than in my mind's eye too.  That is always a good thing, since most things look better in my mind, lol.  I also got the chicken wire stamp for my birthday and thought it lent a real farm feel too.

The layout

Date

When I saw the colors for this week's challenge at CSI, I knew I wanted to do a layout with minimal additions.  I went with a plain grey background, no misting or stamping, a couple of small photos and just a few embellishments.  I am trying to play around with using empty space as a design feature.  In doing this, you need to pick elements that carry the meaning you are trying to get across.  Circle were one of the evidence choices and one that I picked because they represent fun and carefree.  I also used the hearts because, well, I love this man and the time I get to spend with him.  The lace was chosen to ground the photos and title as well as add some romance.  The gems help to reinforce the romantic theme.  I did my journaling around those doodled circles.

The layout is telling the story of an unexpected afternoon together that ended up being a wonderful date.  We did some errands and ended up at a nice, small, shopping center where we tried a new restaurant and had the best burgers ever!  It is a gorgeous center with a beautiful courtyard, which I stopped to take a photo of. We will be sure to go back often!

The layout

The case file

Visit To The ER

The Challenge:
Wrap twine around something on your layout

We had a scare recently.  Bry passed out at work and they decided to transport him to the ER.  I got there soon after he did and by the time I got to his room, he was doing pretty well.  He was a bit confused and didn't know what had happened, but he was in pretty high spirits and laughing about it.  He made sure I took photos and pointed out the things he wanted to keep "for the scrapbook page" like his bracelet and monitor sensors.  They ran some tests and didn't find anything out of the ordinary, so they sent us home.

Now one thing you need to know is that he does not handle anything medical very well!  He passed out when he gets shots, gory stories make him quiet queasy, and we have not been able to even say, "IV", so when I found him there, hooked up to monitors and an IV in his arm, I had to wonder how he took it all.  He looked at me and said, "I have an IV.....and I'm ok with that..."  Good, maybe he can get over some of his aversions.

My first thought for the challenge was to, somehow, wrap the twine around the sensor knobs, but I didn't really like that, so I just wrapped it around that cute journaling strip.  It kind of makes me think of tying off a boo boo.  I think it worked.  I found the Take Note collection by Echo Park actually had a bunch of embellishments that worked well with a hospital machine layout.  I got a big thumbs up from the patient and he is doing quite well.

The layout

Q Is For Queen

The colors this week at CSI were so fun and pretty!  And to add icing to my cake, the Stampin' Up fairy left a delivery on my doorstep this morning, including some of the new watercolor crayons!  I decided to use the crayons to make a blended, colorful background for my layout.  I just colored, layering colors on top of one another, and then used a wet paint brush to blend it all in.

After I had a good base I stamped some texture on the green section and used a pen to draw grass blades.  For the pink section I stamped yellow dots using paint on my stamp.  For the sky I used white paint for the 3 main clouds, yellow paint for the sun, and used white stamp ink, lightly, for the background, texture clouds.After all my paint was dry, I used a pink marker to draw over the yellow dots to resemble flowers.

I layered the book page, cute embellishment from the CSI Coordinates, journaling, and a stamped stamp over the photo.  Of course, every queen needs a crown so I added one on top of the sombrero.  The Thickers letters were just the perfect ones for this title too!  Finally I finished off by adding some Stickles to gem up several elements and added a few gems.

The layout



The case file

ZZZZ...

Welcome to another Thoughtful Thursday at Thinking*Through*Design!

Today's thought is all about fussy cutting.  Fussy cutting is just cutting out a design on the paper or around a stamped image.  It's a great way to custom make embellishments for your layout without having to spend a lot of extra money.

This is the layout I did for this thought; be sure to visit TTD to see more in depth ideas about fussy cutting as well as two photo tutorials. I did some stamping of really cute clouds and an adorable sleeping owl that really reinforced the theme of my layout.  I also added the pretty little flower in the bottom corner.  Another thing I did was to cut out along the printed designs on the page so I could tuck my photo matte underneath, giving it another layer of dimension.

The layout

Birthday Bonanza Bash!

The Challenge:
Use tabs on your layout or project

I have been wanting to do a tabbed mini album for a couple of years now.  I got the Fabulous Finds cartridge for my Cricut a couple of years ago and these tabby folders are one of the cuts on the cart.  I thought they would make a fun mini, but put it on back burner.  Last week my friend, Erika, issued a challenge to use tabs on your layout or project and I knew instantly that it was time to make the tabby mini!

I just spent the weekend of my birthday in Portland, with my dad and step mom, visiting gardens and zoos to have fun and take lots of photos.  Boy, did I take lots of photos! On the way home we stopped at a craft store and they had me pick out a few things.  I have had my eye on Take Note by Echo Park and it fit perfectly with my idea of a tabbed mini.  It was just the best weekend and it was capped off by returning home to find my son and his friends planned a surprise luau party for me.  Complete with dinner and a dark chocolate mousse cake!  They really are such great kids.

One of the sayings that came in this paper kit was, "The best things in life are not things".  That saying pretty much explains how I felt about the whole weekend.  The time spent with my dad and step mom is priceless to me as is the fact that my son and friends went out of their way to surprise me.  My pages are about 5.5" wide and 3.5" tall.  Since it is a cut file, you can make them any size you want!  Almost all the photos are wallet sized.  I cut the tabbed pages out of cardboard and covered in paper while the insides are just cardstock with the tabs trimmed off.  Some of the pages are doubled to make a pocket to insert my journaling in.  I also used a couple of envelopes that I made to stick another photo in.

I am definitely going to be making more of these little albums!

The mini - grande mini more like it

Royalty

This month at CSI we are celebrating the Queen's birthday and her 60 years on the throne.  This week's colors are the patriotic colors of England, but happen to be our own too.  I took some photos on my birthday weekend of a pair of eagles and thought they are the closest thing to royalty we have here in the US and that is what I did my layout on.  One of the embellishment prompts was to use a crown.  Doesn't he just rock the crown?!?  I also used wet mediums, corrugation, fibers, and patterned trim.  I love the wavy pattern that I gesso painted.  I painted over the template and then flipped it and used the painted up backside.  Gave it some cool texture.

The layout

The case

Stop And Smell The Roses

The Challenge:
Stitch your title

I love to hand stitch, but I have never stitched the title before.  I've often admired it, but never done it.  Sometime you just need a kick in the pants to cross that thing off your list of things to try.  For this title I first printed it out on my Word program, using Lucida Handwriting, trimmed the paper down to fit into the space, and pierced right through the copy paper and my layout, then I stitched.  I really love how it turned out and will be doing this again!  There are so many cool fonts out there and lots of thread colors.

I also used Ashley Horton's June Sketch It Out sketch.  I did one of her favorite things; turn a single into a double.  This sketch was the perfect one to do this.  It was easy to keep all the elements as designed, but just stretch it out.  Ha ha!  For this month's Sketch It Out I just Stretched It Out ;)

I also will be linking up to the current Thinking*Through*Designs challenge.  Be sure to link up you work of he{art}! http://thinkingthroughdesign.typepad.com/thinkingthroughdesign/

Asheley's sketch

Visit To Fairyland

It was another great challenge over at CSI this week!  Such pretty colors to work with.  As soon as I took these photos I knew I would be using them for this challenge.

On a photo shoot trip over the weekend we went to a rhododendron garden. The flowers were on their way out and starting to die off. But this meant that the ground was just littered with fallen petals, making it seem like a fairyland.  I found such an area full of colorful petals that had the prettiest little flowers growing.  My dad took my photo there to remember my visit to Fairyland.

For my evidence I used: flowers, pins, frosted paper, stripes, and layers.  For my testimony I journaled on the perspectives of the sadness of the death of the flowers, but it also brought great beauty.

I used a sketch from Creative Scrappers.  It's a great sketch, I love it!

The Layout

Some more photos

The case file

The sketch