New layouts to share!

Hello there crafty friends!  I was surfing through my blog today and I realized that I haven't shared any of my new scrapbook layouts with you lately...more like, since before Christmas! So I am going to start sharing these layouts over the next few days...hopefully it will inspire someone to keep scrapping and get creative!

I love this layout for so many reasons! It chronicles my first reading of my favorite Harry Potter book ever...book 7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Love it! If you haven't read it, go do so (after reading all the other books in the series of course!).  But I also love this layout artistically because it uses the fabulous Eerie line from Basic Grey (one of my fave companies ever!).

I also was able to play with crackle paint on here which is another one of my favorite new techniques to play with. The title letters and all the stars were first painted with acryllic paint and then once they were dry I added a fairly thick layer of the Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint over the top and let it dry overnight. A word of caution: DO NOT use a heat gun on Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint - it will bubble and look yucky. Trust me on this one...I personally experienced it with this layout. Then rub over the top of each of the letters and stars with Black Soot Distress ink and work it into the cracks to give it a  more grungy look.  I also used Black Soot Distress Crackle Paint on the chipboard circle and dried it with a heat gun after letting it set for 5 minutes. All this works together to make this one fabulously fun and goulish page!

This page showcases one of my absolute most favorite pictures of my sister and her husband that photographer Kris Gay captured during their engagement photo shoot. I never would have paired brown and pink with this layout but this paper from SEI's Chocolat line just jumped out at me and I love the result. I created the journaling list box in Adobe Photoshop Elements and I have left it blank to let my sister write in the box. :)

This layout is based on a sketch from Janna Wilson and her challenge 52 Weeks of Stress-Free Scrapping. Every week Janna puts up a new layout/sketch and a challenge to get other scrappers motivated to scrap and have fun and not stress about scrapping. I haven't completed all the weeks yet but I am hoping to get caught up with some of them this weekend! Check out Janna's challenge here.

A few years ago I discovered the beauty of Celtic Woman. I absolutely love their music and it is beautiful to listen to. When I found out that they were coming to our city for a concert the day before my birthday, I knew I had to go. So my mom and I headed out to the concert and it was one of the most beautiful and breath-taking things I have ever seen.  I bought a program at the concert and found this beautiful paper by BoBunny called Delilah that perfectly matched the photo of my mom and I. To tell my story, I added pages from the program that I got at the concert to my layout. The small photos on the left, the list of songs that were played, and the large group photo all came from the program and really added to the page.

This is a sweet simple layout that I made with some leftover pieces from my December Scarlet Lime kit. I also added a lot of doggie themed embellies from my stash to help tell my story about my sweet puppy Bailey and her rope.

And finally I want to share a simple sweet page I did about our adventures one day in the fall of 2007. I used this fabulous paper by KI Memories and diecuts from my Cricut to help me tell my story of this beautiful November day. The leaves were cut out using my Cricut and Doodlecharms cartridge. I inked the edges of each of the leaves and used 1/16 and 1/8 inch pop dots to attache the leaves and acorns to the page in various layers to give the page some dimension.

Well I am off to finish up another layout, but I will be back tomorrow to share more of my favorite layouts from 2010 so far. :)

Saturday Scrappin'

Well, its Saturday and as usual I can be found down in my scrap room and the paper is flying! :) I finished a new layout and I thought I would post it along with some of my other scrappy creations this week.

I had a lot of fun creating with this bright and funky travel line from American Crafts. The elements were perfect for these photos at the beginning of our little road trip in Florida. :)

These are just the miscellaneous photos from our days spent at the beach. I really like the fun bright colors that are in these papers from Making Memories and I used a technique called masking and some glimmer mist to create the hibiscus flower and date on the page.  :)

These are photos of Emily and I on the OceanWalk at Daytona Beach. I love this page for so many reasons: the photos are really bright and fun and I was able to find the perfect patterned paper to match my layout. I also had a lot of fun playing with my Cricut and new Life Is a Beach and Don Juan cartridges to create a lot of the page elements.

A Busy and Productive Labor Day Weekend

This weekend was filled with lots of fun, laughter, creativity, relaxation, friends, and family. :)

On Saturday, I helped my dad get landscaping bricks for our house.  I then spent the rest of the evening down in the basement creating, cleaning, and organizing. The basement is definately starting to look much better. Now I just need to go through my stuff and get rid of some of the things I know I will never use. That's the difficult part because I don't like to get rid of stuff...

Sunday was just a bit crazy. It started with church at Pathway, which was great and I got to see lots of my friends. Then that afternoon we headed to my aunt and uncle's for a cookout, but I left before they actually ate. I did get to see my cousins Holly and Mike and their sweet little one, Kayla. :)  I then headed to my friends' Mike and Bethaney's anniversary party. It was a blast even though it did rain. And Emily and I went around and took some great photos with cool old farm backdrops...I swear it is one of the best places to take portraits...cool backgrounds to give visual interest.

Monday was creativity central. Emily and Angela came over and we spent almost all day creating in scrappy goodness.  I finished 3 layouts just that day! Woo-hoo! Gotta love being creative. :)

When the afternoon storms ended, Emily and I headed down to the beach. It was amazing to see the difference there after the storms moved through. There were really deep spots near the shore and further out it was only ankle deep. In the photo, Emily is standing about 25 feet from shore and it is still that shallow. Also there were shells everywhere!

Pictures from our hotel in Daytona Beach. I created this for a sketch challenge over at Scrapbook.com and I had a lot of fun creating this.  I love this line from KI Memories and it was perfect for these photos.

Just a cute photo of Emily and I at the beach. I used lots of fun accents on here. I colored the Heidi Swapp ghost flower with Alcohol inks and then rubbed stickles on the back of it to give it shimmer. :)

Picture that my friend took of me just looking out at the ocean. It totally wasn't planned so I was surprised and happy when I got home and uploaded my photos. I used a poem for my journaling called "Ocean Breeze" frim Patrick A. Whistler.

"I love to feel the ocean's breeze as it gently touches my face
To feel the water's warm caress as it moves from place to place
To watch the sunrise, to feel it's warmth
As night turns into day, to see the wonder of it all, the miracle of God's way
To feel the sand beneath my feet as I walk and contemplate
And know the footprints left by me will soon be washed away
So soothing is the ocean's call, so gentle, yet so strong
To feel deep down inside my soul that this is where I belong
To know that I, just like the waves, will move from day to day
And yet return without a doubt, another time, another way
The song the ocean to me mere words cannot describe
But in my heart I know the truth, it's steady as the tide
So I will come to walk the sand and spend my time in peace
Understanding all the while the gift God gave to me."
I totally love what the poem speaks of and it truly reflects who I am and what I was thinking about at that time. :)