Homecoming with Beautiful You

My daughter just celebrated Homecoming this past weekend. In our small town we have only one beautiful golf course that makes the perfect back drop for photographs. She invited her group of friends and their dates for a photo session before the dance. I am entering my pocket pages in the Heart 2 Heart Home Is..... Challenge, because for my daughter right now home is enjoying all the High School events, celebrations and sports games. That's what you do as a teenager in a small town!

With the long three day weekend I had extra time to actually get the pictures in my scrapbook! One of my earlier purchases from the new Idea Book was the Beautiful You Picture My Life collection. I knew that these cards were going to be perfect for my daughter and her Homecoming event was the best fit! The black & white cards are neutral enough to blend with anything, but it just so happened that the Homecoming theme was Burton's Bash...as in Tim Burton movies. {Beetle Juice, Alice in Wonderland, Corpse Bride and Nightmare Before Christmas} The gold foil finish of the cards blended beautifully with a couple of the dresses and gentleman's vest. Lastly, the bits of floral complemented my daughter's dress.

I filled a total of 3 pages. The first page is an introduction to the event with some hand written journaling from my daughter. Then you open to pages 2 &3 that contain more couple pictures and some group pictures that were just for fun!

I love that I was able to talk my daughter into doing the journaling. It's like injecting her personality directly into these pages. I would never think to write the year like her, 2K15!!

These group photo's are my favorite. The upper left is what the kids call a squad pic! The lower right photo was an on the spot idea seeing that one of the dates was actually on crutches. That's a memory they will never forget!

Some of my favorite cards in the pages and collection. I love the script, colors and design. You can see more of these cards online.

This is why I scrapbook...she is making memories and I am recording them for us! I will forever enjoy looking back at these times and she's so busy living right now, that when she finally slows down she will enjoy looking back also.

Thank you for stopping by. If your interested in the pocket scrapbooking style and not sure where to start I can help you! Contact me if you would like more information or to attend a workshop.

Clean Slate

Hello! Happy 2014! I'm preparing for some new crafting projects and this first project is the perfect start....or should I say finish!? I am playing with The Paper Players this week. Their challenge titled "clean slate" is to create a project with the chalkboard technique. The title really got me thinking though??? Make a clean slate or to start a new meant that I should at least finish other projects I have already started, being my 2013 scrapbook. I always finish my album with a "pocket" page to store and display those awesome holiday photo cards we receive at Christmas. So that is where I started my "clean slate"!

 

This year I made my own family photo card through Shutterfly. That was my jumping off point for my pocket page. It had a black background that was perfect to play with the chalkboard technique. The black was the base page and then I added a 6x12 piece of white card stock to the front. {the pocket} I dressed up the edges with some Washi tape. I also attached my photo card with some Washi tape so that I could peel it back to reveal the back of my card that has a picture of our pooch and greeting. I dressed it up with faux chalk pen stitching, stamping in white daisy pigment ink, some banner pieces and an area for some journaling. 

Then I fill the page with all those cool photo cards from friends and family. I love doing this page in every album! Have you tried the chalkboard technique? See lots of ideas on the Paper Players Blog!

Where's My Art?

I'm so excited! My artwork has been featured on Close To My Heart Founder, Jeanette Lynton's Blog today!! I submitted this Family Pocket Page a few weeks back. I wanted to share a little piece of my own personal scrapbook page. For the last 7 or so years I have been concluding my scrapbooks with a pocket page to hold all those precious photo's and handmade cards I receive over the Holiday's from family and friends. I know that they took time to make such wonderful cards and I want to cherish them forever. {you may recognize some of them!}


I also wanted to feature a fun technique that anyone can do. While the My Stickease makes embellishing your pages super easy, you can touch them up a bit with heat embossing. For this frame I simply removed it from the carrier sheet and place it on another blank carrier sheet. I stamped the family sentiment with Versa Mark Ink and sprinkled it with Olive Embossing Powder. I then carefully heated it to a shiny finish. It removes cleanly from the carrier sheet and retains its adhesive backing so you can easily adhere it to your project.

While most pages are two-sided in your album, you will have a single front page and single back page. So since my back page holds photo's and cards, what will my front page be? I like to make it an introduction page to what the album is all about. Because, my books are done for each year, I will usually do this cover page at the end of the year. Sounds strange right? The reason I do that is because I like to choose my favorite family photo or memory from the entire year and make it the cover page. Example: The year we moved to a new town, I made the cover page a picture of the family standing outside of our new home!

I've also made the beginning and ending pages relate to one another by using the same Florentine papers and My Stickease. The design of this page was also inspired by the cover of the Spring/Summer 2012 Idea Book!

I'm thrilled that Jeanette and her team liked my idea and were inspired by my art. I hope that this is an idea that others will try in their own scrapbooks!

Pockets on my Pages

I am so close to completing my 2009 family scrapbook. Here are just a few last pages I created for it. What makes them unique is that they have "pockets"! Creating pockets on your pages are a great way for storing unusual items or memorabilia.

For this first page I was making a layout for my daughter's Christmas play. She played the part of Mrs. Claus and I thought it would be cool to hold on to the script and sheet music. There are a couple pages stapled together that she can pull from the pocket and read again to bring back memories. My page here is not complete, however I will include photo's from the event along with a list of the cast members featured in the play.

This next page is something that I started a few years back. The very last page in my scrapbooks are a "pocket page" made purposely for all of those post cards and photo's we receive from family and friends every year. These are the latest pictures of friends, cousins, nieces and nephews and I would hate to lose them. By creating a pocket page I can easily look back every year and see their smiling faces!

Here is a top view so you can see that the pocket was hidden behind all of the cute houses. I used a strip of cardstock as an example of an insert, but believe me, once I fill in the post cards and photos this pocket will be bursting at the seams!

Supplies: (all CTMH) Jingle Paper Level 2; cardstock and ink in the following colors: black, white daisy, juniper, creme brulee, tulip and olive; Stamps: Heartfelt Christmas, Felicity Alphabet, Around the Block; Embellishments: Creme Brulee ribbon, twinkle brads