Happy, happy Friday everyone! So excited to be posting this week...work has been H-E-C-T-I-C and I'm ready for my 3-day weekend! But...I'm sad for the reason we have this weekend so I plan on explaining to our 5-year-old why our American flag will be in the front yard Monday, and we'll have a moment of silence to honor our fallen brave men and women. I'm making some cards to share with current military via Operation Hugs, too, so I'll share those when they are complete!
Today I'm sharing a layout I created about my mom and her new horse. Since my dad passed away, my mom decided that she'd fulfill a lifelong dream she had of owning a horse. It took awhile to find the right one, but she's had Holly now almost a year, and since this horse makes my mom smile, she makes *me* smile. :) Presley and I got to meet Holly in December.
I saw this color challenge on Color Me Scrappy and immediately thought of these photos! Since the rules say you can add a little of another color, I brought in a little of the red that matches Holly's bridle.
And then I saw this challenge at Scrap & Play and put them together.
For this layout, I pulled out an Echo Park collection called "Note to Self" since the colors really fit nicely with the challenge.
I turned the sketch sideways for my rendition, and used the brown as my base layer. Then I took the tan grid paper and used my Cameo to cut three identical rectangles out. I inked the edges of the rectangles, and then layered three different papers in each rectangle. You can see a close up of the blue polka dot paper below.
I matted the photos using the blue polka dot paper and with the top one I sewed to create a pocket to put a pull-out journal tab on, which I used for some private journaling. I cut a tab out, inked the edges, and then used letters from the collection to spell "pull", which I then sewed over in gray thread. I adhered the tab to my journal piece and tucked it behind the photo.
I created the title area on the lower left following my turned sketch. I had a gray pocket page piece with "Everything here is wonderful" that I trimmed to use for the title. I layered it over several of the Note to Self pieces, including a piece with a negative star that I cut for the bottom right of the layout. And then I sewed over this section as well.
Finally I created a journal area to put my "public" journaling on. To finish, I stapled several stars that I cut using my Cameo and Fiskars punches (inked in orange-red to help them pop). I love the Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher...I even created some chevrons using the staples in the top right of my page! A couple of bronze star stickers complete the layout.
I hope you enjoyed my layout today, and I hope you are inspired to create something in earth tones, too. If you do, share with me!
Happy, chocolate-filled Friday, y'all!
Majken
It's Throwback Thursday, y'all! I'm starting a new feature on my blog. Every other Thursday I will share either an older layout or a new rendition of an older layout (I have a lot of pages that were done in the late 90s that I'm itching to re-do!). I hope you enjoy this new feature.
Today's layout is only going back about 18 months to my son's fourth birthday. I love this layout because a) it uses a My Mind's Eye collection (Boy Crazy), 2) it's simple yet polished, and c) it is a My Mind's Eye collection (oh, did I already say that??). Here's the 2-page layout:
I knew the photos were colorful, so I opted to use the grid paper for my background, and I double-stitched around the grid using a non-straight stitch with a zig-zag stitch in some places. I crossed the corners to stitch to the ends of the papers -- I think the effect is cool.
I layered the star papers and some of the Studio Calico Darling Dear chevron vellum as the mat for the photos. I distressed the blue star paper for more dimension and used my Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher for stapling the vellum to the page. I fussycut some chevrons from the chevron papers to stitch in the top left and bottom right of my layout.
I cut stars and adhered flat to the page, and I also cut some of the papers to make chipboard stars. Some punched bursts, a tab for journaling, a stamped "celebrate", and enamel dots finish the layout.
I hope you enjoyed our short journey back in time! Come back in two weeks to see a TBT layout that's seen a much-needed "take 2"!
Have a wonderful day,
Majken
Hello everyone!
I'm back for two in a row - woohoo! I recently completed a layout of my son's visit to the park using a sketch #75 from My Scraps & More. As soon as I saw Bella Blvd's Max collection, I HAD to have it for my son. It has camouflage, sharks, skulls and crossbones, and more. And my son adores his camouflage shorts. Like, seriously. The other thing he adores? His cowboy boots that recently *fell apart* because he wore them so much. Here's my Amazing-Wild-Rad boy:
It's based off this MSAM sketch:
The grid is so cool! As soon as I saw the sketch and looked through the Max papers, I knew the black paper with the words was going to be part of the grid and my title. I cut out the Amazing Wild Rad section and paired it with a camouflage strip to be the other part of my grid divider. After trimming to create arrows, I stitched along the middle in orange thread.
I had three photos, so I trimmed them and left the bottom left square as an embellishment using the star patterned paper. I inked the square in Sunset ink and doodled along the inside edge. I covered a chipboard star in the speech bubble paper to give more dimension. I stamped "a good day" in Olive ink underneath and adhered some stars to the bottom left side of the square.
The top left of the grid uses the striped paper that I cut a frame from. I inked along the inside edge of the frame to help define the photo and adhered a green star from the Max sticker sheet on the bump of the frame. I included a black button with orange twine in the center of the star. Next, I stamped arrows in Olive ink to the left of the photo. I cut a square from the speech bubble paper and cut diagonally in half to use as a corner, then stitched the edge.
The photo in the top right section of the grid was inked with black Stazon along the edges for definition and layered on the orange guitar paper. I glued a wooden arrow, the "i do love you" tab, the phrase sticker, and two stars to embellish this section.
The photo in the final section, the bottom right grid, was also outlined in black Stazon ink and matted with the blue chevron paper. I inked the edges of the "#AWESOME" sticker and put that above arrows stamped with Sunset ink. My journaling is below this photo.
Simple yet detailed is how I'd describe this sketch and layout. I had so much fun creating it, and I can't wait to use more MSAM sketches! They put out a few each month, so don't forget to check them out, use them, and link them up yourself!
Have a super weekend everyone!
Majken
Happy fall everyone! Today I wanted to share a layout of my son. He just started his first team sport with i9 sports. We gave him a choice of soccer or baseball, and he said emphatically "football!". So, football it was. His team ended up winning the championship. The boys were so cute doing their runs...from trying to remember which direction to run in to remembering to try and pull the flags when the other team had the ball. :)
I started the layout before his team won the championship, but i9 is all about participation and team, so the boys were all stars in my eyes...Paxton especially. So I knew stars would be the main part of my theme. Enter CTMH's Fanfare collection (now retired -- I have *got* to use up my older paper, y'all!). I liked the striped paper for my background, but to soften it, I cut two squares of white cardstock to about 10x10 and used my Cameo to cut a few stars out from the right edge of one of the pieces (this machine is so versatile, and I love to make these negative masks!). I then put the two white pieces to the seam in the middle. I spread a not-quite 10x12 piece of the light blue patterned paper with the stars and then sewed twice around the rectangle using red thread. I then sprinkled a few drops of Cranberry and Pacifica reinker to further soften the white and light blue background.
Using my Cricut Imagine and the CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge, I cut out one large and one smaller star from the red paper. I faux stitched the two red stars with my white pen to bring them out from the background more. After positioning the main photos, I also stamped the Dr. Seuss phrase from a CTMH set that was part of a special campaign.
I had a few photos that were smaller in size and I couldn't figure out where to place them, so I created a little banner with some smaller red stars. I loved the effect!
After adding additional stars in various sizes across the pages, some gems, and the title, the layout was complete.
I hope you enjoyed the layout with these effects, and I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with yummy food, and of course, chocolate.
Chocolate hugs,
Majken
