He Fishes, I Scrap

My husband enjoys fishing and I enjoy scrapbooking.  Luckily, I have an awesome girlfriend, Jen, who loves to scrap with me, and her wonderful husband, Dan, loves to fish.  The four of us together have had some wonderful times.  In February we spent a week up in the Northwoods.  Bob and Dan went ice fishing, and Jen and I scrapped...all week!  It truly was the highlight of my winter! 

This layout features the Great Outdoors collection by Reminisce. The collection offers six, double-sided papers and three different sticker sheets.  It's a great collection for those hiking, camping or general outdoors pictures. 

Scrapbooking In Black and White? I need help!

While I love the look of a black and white photo, I don't quite seem to get how to make them look really good.  I'm not sure how to introduce colors, and using white, gray and black matting just seems drab. 

I need your help!  How do you scrap your black and white photos?  How to you get them to pop without adding color, or can you even accomplish that?  Are there colors that coordinate nicely with black?  If anyone out there has any ideas I would love seeing or hearing about them.  Feel free to post your photos on our Facebook page by clicking here.

More Sunkissed Collection

Here is another layout from Fourth of July weekend featuring the Sunkissed Collection from BoBunny.  I tried to catch the action as Shania was running for the Slip -n- Slide.  She is not afraid of anything and had a ball running and sliding most of one afternoon.  Ooh to be young again....

The Sunkissed Collection by BoBunny features a myriad of papers and embellishments including chipboard, stickers, flowers, colored rhinestones and more.  It even has a cool journal book that you can rip out and journal on while still coordinating with the collection.

Scrapbooking old photos

While I am a huge fan of scrapbooking old photos, I don't have any of my own to do so I occasionally help out my friend, Anita, who has bunches of old photos.  She has about six or seven generations of her family in photos and I just love when she lets me scrapbook some of them. 

Here's a layout I did using an antiquing method.  I matted the picture and created the journal box from Core'dinations paper so I could sand it, rip it and give it that antique look.  I then used my Tim Holtz distress ink to put a little brown on the edges.  Fortunately, I was able to find a Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist that matched the matte paper, so I made a few of my own flowers using the Petaloo Color Me Crazy plain flowers.  The final touches came from the Dazzles Vintage Treasures Collection by Hot Off The Press.  I just love the borders and shapes they offer and they are super easy to work with! 

It Sure Was Hot! Hot! Hot!

We can always count on Fourth of July weekend to be hot and this year we were not let down.  It was a beautiful weekend with lots of water and fun! 

This layout features a collection called Hot! Hot! Hot! by Elements.  This collection features three, double-sided papers along with a sticker sheet.  The colors are bold and fun! 

My Guys

Here's another layout featuring the Fancy Pants Beach Babe collection.  I used a couple
special effects on this layout:  1)  after I cut the My Guys letters, I ran then through the embosser with an embossing folder that just has lines.  I wanted to bring the lined paper together with the header, and 2) I used the "crinkle" method with the Core'dinations Color Core paper to give it a weathered look (crinkle the paper by hand before sanding it).  Again, this was to match it with the weathered look on the paper.  I also thought it helped tone down the pink. 

By the way, these truly are my guys.  My son is on the left and my husband on the right.  They are a lot alike when it comes to relaxing!   

Fun In The Sun

My husband and I had the opportunity to spend a weekend with my sister's granddaughters.  Since we don't have grandchildren of our own yet, this is the closest we get to being around young children.  We decided to have a balloon fight, and since Shania was too short to get Bob on the head, he decided he'd bend over and let her squeeze one on him.  She thought that was great (as you can see by the smile on her face)!

This layout features the Sunkissed Collection from Bo Bunny.  I love the bright colors in this collection, and this particular paper is a collage of sorts from the entire collection. 

Love Your Smile

My sister's granddaughter wears her emotions on her face.  Whether she's happy, sad, mad or embarrassed you will know it by looking at her. Can you tell how she's feeling in this picture?

In this layout I used the Fancy Pants Collection, Beach Babe.  The colors are stunning and they accent her beautiful smile.
 

It's A Zoo Around Here

I'm not sure what happened to yesterday, but apparently I missed the whole day.  I was busy entering new product into the computer system and getting things organized and when I looked up it was 12:45 am.  Now that's what I call a productive day!

This layout features the It's A Zoo Collection by Helen Dardik of Creative Imaginations.  It's one of the new collections we just received, and I couldn't help but do a quick layout.  The collection features three double-sided papers and a 12 x 12 cardstock sticker sheet.  The best part is that it's ON SALE right now!

It's a Ruff Life...

In my next life I want to come back as a dog.  Not just any dog, but MY dog.  Nitro, our Golden Retriever, has been the beneficiary of our family's love for over 8 years now.  From homemade peanut butter cookies to belly rubs every morning, this dog is spoiled!  He, in turn, gives us great pleasure by snuggling with us when we're cold, barking when strangers come too close and amusing us with his endless silly tricks.

This layout features the Top Dog Collection from Masterpiece Studios.  It features six dog-themed papers along with chipboard embellishments, brads, epoxy clips, printed tape and rub-ons. 

Cards, Cards & More Cards!

I've been in the mood to work on cards lately.  I am hoping to have my Christmas cards done in a few weeks.  Here are a few I've come up with.  These were made using the Wishes & Wonders collection from Little Yellow Bicycle.  
 

My Little Lounge Lizard

If there's anything that makes me smile it's pictures of my daughter in the pool.  Somehow, just lounging with her water wings and floatie make me smile and laugh to myself.  Seriously, how do you not?  The girl should have been born a mermaid!

This layout was super fun to create!  I used the Fun In The Sun page kit from Karen Foster Design as the base paper, then added some self-adhesive cork to be used as the sand.  I cut most of the images from the Life Is A Beach cartridge by Cricut, then sprayed the waves with some Glimmer Mist from Tattered Angels to make them look more realistic, and did some shading on the cork to give it a more natural look as well. I also embossed and sanded the umbrella.  Of course, no animal is complete without googly eyes! 

Come On A Safari With Me

My daughter and I took a trip to Brookfield Zoo early in the summer.  It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed the animals as much as we did the exercise.  Sadly, the zoo does not currently have any elephants (one of our favorite animals), but they had enough giraffes to make up for it.  There's something about watching a giraffe gallop around that just exudes freedom (I'm totally jealous!). 

Some of our favorite animals are in the layout below.  I used the Zoofari collection by Moxxie for this layout.  The collection features seven double-sided papers and a 12 x 12 sticker sheet.  It's bright, colorful and fun!    

Say It Isn't So

I don't want to believe it, but I know that summer is almost over.  I have no idea where all those days went, but I sure am going to miss them.  If we had a choice, we would likely live somewhere tropical.  These photos were taken in Belize as we relaxed on a beach.  Unfortunately, you don't get paid to relax....and that's when reality takes over! 

This layout, designed and packaged by Quick Quotes, is unique because it is actually mounted on 12 x 12 canvas which can be hung on a wall.  The advantage to this is that you can add some serious dimension because you're not constrained by a book.  In this case, they used real flip flops and large flowers as embellishments.  Quick Quotes has a monthly kit like this.  If you're interested in experimenting with an altered art project, this is a great way to give it a try.  The kit for this layout is available here.

For the Love of Football

As I watched the Chicago Bears play against the Cleveland Browns last night, I couldn't help but laugh to myself about the climate we live in here in Illinois.  The heat index was over 100 degrees yesterday and yet in three months we will likely be talking about a wind chill factor!  I found it rather amusing that the coaches, sports announcers and spectators were all sweating, too!

So, to kick-off what will be the start of football season, I did a layout using Moxxie's Grid Iron football collection.  It's not an extensive collection, but it gets to the heart of football!

More Christmas Cards

I finally got busy making some Christmas cards, so I'm going to share a few more.  I found a great little 6 x 6 scrap pad from Kaisercraft that is perfect for Christmas cards, Christmas Carnival.  This pad has 24 papers along with 4 pages of embellishments, borders, etc.  It also features some non-traditional colors that are fun.  I used Kaisercraft's Christmas rub-ons as well.