Love These Layouts!

It's February and love is in the air...and on my craft table! Today I want to share two recent layouts that I really love.
First up: "Me & You."  Even thought this photo of my husband and me is out of focus, I love the candid nature of it and that we are both smiling and looking happy.  Sometimes those imperfect photos make great layouts! This one uses some of the new Fancy Pants "Be Loved" collection.  I really was drawn to the water color feel and soft palette.  So many little elements are available with this collection, too.  I altered my background sheet by drawing a large heart, sewing the outline with pink American Crafts twine, and then adding some paint and pink chalk to the inside.  I also added twine in other places - the tags and several cross stitches on the left side.  The "me & you" sentiment was cut with my Cricut - Graphically Speaking is an old cartridge, but still one of my faves.  The pink glitter border strip is from Teresa Collins.

I picked up some new My Minds Eye yesterday at Scrapdoodles and had a little fun.  I also recently added a couple of new cartridges to my collection, so wanted to use them right away, too.  The beautiful background sheet is from MME's Now & Then, "Dorothy" collection.  The heart doily (LOVE) was cut with my new Edge to Edge Cricut cartridge.  The title is also from a new cart - Small Talk Frames and Tags.  The rest of the elements are MME.  I'm really loving the phrases and mini letters available with this collection.

Thanks for visiting! I hope you have a LOVE-ly day!

Birthday and Anniversary Cards

July is a busy month for our family.  We have several birthdays and anniversaries to note, so that means cards to give or send out.  Here's a few of the cards I made for this month.

DCWV's Vintage Collector Stack, SRM Sticker, We R Washi, American Crafts Twine

DCWV's sunday Afternoon Stack, SRM Sticker, American Crafts Twine

DCWV's sunday Afternoon Stack, Airplane cut from Cricut B is for Boy cartridge

Lillibee Design paper, My Mind's Eye tickets, SRM stickers, American Crafts twine

DCWV Vintage Collector Stack, silhouette cut from Cricut Sweetheart Cartridge

Scrapdoodles Design Team - Happy Papers!

These papers and projects just make me happy!  I'm loving these bright colors from My Mind's Eye.  This collection is called "My Girl" and it will make you smile.  It's a great collection for spring and summer and lots of girly pages.  Don't have a girl?  Never fear!  MME thought of you, too, when they released the companion line "Boy Crazy."  The colors are a little toned down, but still have great icons and patterns perfect for a variety of scrapbooking pages and projects.  Both of these collections are currently available at Scrapdoodles.

For my first project with this collection, I created a fun wall or door hanging.  I started with an old frame that I spray painted a bright aqua color (I used Rustoleum American Accents in Aqua).  Using just the papers in the "My Girl" collection and inspired by the fun vibe, I cut "hello" with my die cut machine and placed it in a thought bubble outlined in grey pen dots.  The scooter (adorable!) is one of the coordinating stickers, which I backed with cardstock.  The "balloon-flower-bouquet" is also made with a combination of stickers, papers and buttons stuck to lightweight floral wire and tied with 3 colors of We R Memory Keepers twine.  The butterflies are cut from one of the papers and attached with glue dots.  I just love how it turned out and it makes me happy to see it hanging!

My next project is a quick layout.  I started with white cardstock and added a few bits of the patterned paper behind my photos and as a journaling spot.  The washi tape strips and large stickers are also part of the MME collection.  I added a few of the small stickers as well and cut out small bits from the patterned papers and added them to the page.  Some of these I topped with Diamond Glaze.  I also tried a new product - a Viva Decor Pearl Pen in red.  I LOVE this product!  It left a wonderfully round, dimensional red pearl on my page (much like the popular enamal dots).  I was very pleased and my have to add more colors to my collection soon.

Halloween Layout and Tags

It's that fun time of the month when I get to highlight some wonderful products available at Scrapdoodles in Fredericksburg.  I love going into this store!  Super friendly ladies and tons of scrapbook paper :0  Makes me happy. 
This trip, I focused on their Halloween selection - so much to choose from.  I was inspired by the orange/blue color combo and vintage feel of October Afternoon's "Witch Hazel" line.  (You can check out the whole line HERE)  It made me want to dig up some old childhood photos.  Luckily, I knew just where to look and put together this layout.  Can you see my mom making a goofy face in the door window? He he - Fun times.  For this layout, I broke up the heavy patterns by just using blocks or strips on top of a more neutral cardstock background.  I tore some of the paper edges, distressed others, and inked around the background sheet.  I also used Washi Tape from a My Mind's Eye collection and a few stickers off my Authentique Halloween collection.  I cut the title with my Cricut (Happy Hauntings).

This line isn't just for your "vintage" photos, though.  I thought the blue would be a great complement to these pics of our daughter as Cinderella from last year.  With some creative placement of my photos, I was able to highlight the black paper titles, instead of creating a new one.  Trying to keep a softer touch, I created these Washi Tape flowers (My Mind's Eye tape and enamel dots, and stickers).  I used about an 8 inch piece of tape and gathered it around the middle.  I placed an enamel dot in each center.  I did add an extra glue dot or two to get them to lay right on my page.
Here are a few tags I created with some of the scraps.  I thought they would be fun to place on a card or use to embellish treat bags this Halloween.  Tags are also a fun way to experiment with new products or techniques.  I used my Washi tape to alter some of the strong paper patterns - the moon and the chevron backgrounds on the first and last tags below, for example.  It was a fun way to get more out of the papers and highlight some of the cute images and patterns.

October Afternoon recently hosted a "Witch Hazel" blog hop on their blogs, if you need more inspiration!