Tropical Paradise Layout

After making three layouts using the CTMH Postcard Perfect papers, I still had enough for two more.  I also had more of my son's vacation photos taken in Florida and on the way to The Grand Bahamas. I made one using the June Stick It Down two page layout and Cricut-cut title and  embellishments.

I'm sharing this layout with the following challenges:

Bimini Moose Scrapbook June Challenge - layouts/optional - summer
Bitten by the Bug 2 - Tropical Vacation or Flowers
Cut It Up Challenge #150 - anything but a card - with die cuts
Stick It Down June challenge - double page layout

Jeremiah 49:11 (WEB)Leave your fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; 
and let your widows trust in me. 

365 Promises of God - Promise #174:
I will protect the fatherless, and widows can trust in Me.

Grand Canyon Adventure Layout

Last month my hubby left on a photo and graduation trip to the picturesque Southwest. Lizzy was graduating from Grand Canyon University with her doctorate in psychology. I was there in spirit. (Long auto trips and camping are too hard on my now.) We've taken decades of wonderful trips rich with memories for me. Now I get the pleasure of scrapbooking his photos. This layout is about hubby's camping in the Grand Canyon so he can get to the rim before sunrise for the best photos. He posted some of his favorites with technical details on his blog, Light through my Lens. Each time I've stood at the rim looking across layers and layers of canyons it was like standing in a great cathedral in nature and worshiping the amazing Creator of such wonders!

I was inspired to use the double page sketch from Stick It Down.

Here are close-ups.

In order to know what size I should cut my Cricut embellishments, I tried something new. I set up two 12 x 12 pages in Cricut Design Space and added photo sizes and pieces to be cut. I wondered why I hadn't tried this before?  This is what that planning file looked like:

When it was time to cut, I hid all of the rectangle/square pieces which didn't need to be cut with the Cricut. Feel free to use my cut file if it would help you.  I used papers from an old set of Fundamentals which had a shiny clear embossed pattern on one side. I thought the shine reminded me of sunrise. The green is from the Fresh Air paper pack. The mountains were cut from Nutmeg and Kraft cardstock. They were images from You Are Here, Flower Market, Artistry, and Camp Out cartridges. The other embellishments are my leftovers from the Fresh Air Complements in the workshop kit and an extra set of the wood Fresh Air Shapes. I also added some New England Ivy Burlap Ribbon under the mountains. The copperfoil trees, star and word banners are showing up as almost black, but here's a close-up showing all the textures:

Thanks for visiting! May you be blessed with sweet memories of your own adventures!

I'm sharing this layout with the following challenges:
Card Mania Challenge #104 - anything but a card
Heart 2 Heart Challenge - Scrapbooking

Lasting Memories Layout Challenge- photo layout with one or more hexagons
Not Just Cards - anything goes
Pause Dream Enjoy - Scrapbook layouts
Stick It Down - May Double Page Sketch

Psalm 30:5 (WEB)
For his anger is but for a moment. His favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may stay for the night, but joy comes in the morning.

365 Promises - Promise #144: My displeasure may last for a moment, but My favor is yours for life.

Life in Pictures Layout

My daughter, her hubby, and three teen and tween boys came to our rural home today to help pick up sticks, clear the fence line, and mow. There is always a LOT of work that needs to be done and the only good thing about the ailments of old age is that family realizes you can't do it all alone and comes to visit more often to help.

I showed my 40 year-old daughter these photos of her 20 year-old self and she laughed that she still has that dress and it still fits her size 2 self after 5 pregnancies including 2 sets of full-term, full-sized twins. I'd always loved the photos but hadn't scrapbooked them because I wanted subtle, neutral background papers. After they left I paired the photos with some papers on the table by my desk. The soft colors of  some Charlotte papers worked perfectly with the challenge at 613 Avenue Create - use neutral colors (with black or light pink for accents).  There is a subtle rose pattern on the white background. I used a couple of accents from the Charlotte complements and the black patterned background paper is from La Vie en Rose.

All of the stamps are from CTMH Life in Pictures. My hubby is such a camera buff these are perfect for our family. I know he took the photos above with one of his medium format cameras because of their size, but I didn't include the stamped image of one on this layout.  The two smaller cameras are darker because I used black embossing powder when I stamped them.  I have quite a few more planned with these stamps. I thought they went well with the Cricut Artbooking title I gave this layout. (The circle was cut at 8.5" using Cricut Artiste.)

Thank you for visiting.

I'm sharing this layout with the following challenges;

613 Avenue Create #170 - neutral colors.
Craft for the Craic - April anything but a card
Crafty Calendar April Challenge - anything goes
Jo's Scrap Shack Funday Friday#133 - anything goes
PDE Linky Party #118 - anything goes
Simply Papercraft #27 - anything goes

My 3 Amigos Sombrero Layout

When I saw the Fiesta challenge at Bitten By the Bug2 on Monday I had two old photos from 1963 sitting on my desk. I had no idea what I'd do with them, but they reminded me of my sisters and the time my grandfather encouraged me to learn to speak Spanish. I didn't think I had any Cricut cuts that might go with the theme of Fiesta, but thanks to "Destinations" and "Graphically Speaking" I came up with a couple.

I had already cut up four pieces of Basic Grey "June Bug" that I hadn't used, but could pass as a Mexican fiesta design, so here's the result:

I used the Graphically speaking hat and words as my title and combined it with cactus from the other cartridge. I'm guessing from my brief introduction to Spanish in 4th, 5th and 6th grades that maybe "amigos" is masculine, but it didn't worry me since I think it was a play on words from a movie or show. I added stickers to make the word "my."

The Destinations cartridge had the cactus and the adobe Spanish mission church with the words New Mexico, but it was easy enough to cut out the word "New" since my grandparents had just brought back the sombreros from Mexico.

Here's my cut file in case you use the Cricut Explore.  I used CTMH papers: New England Ivy, Lagoon, Poppy, and some retired scraps of beach paper and dotted gray.

I'm not sure if my grandfather would have been as proud of me becoming proficient in French instead of Spanish, but I wish I could have told him what an influence he had on me guiding me to higher education and to enjoy people from different cultures all over the world.

I'm also sharing this project with the following challenges:

Bitten By The Bug 2 - Fiesta theme
Crafty Boots Challenge - no stamps allowed
Crafty Girls Creations #15 - anything goes
PDE Linky Party #112 - anything goes

Sangria Thanksgiving Layouts

A few years ago I decided to stop putting duplicate holiday layouts in the albums of each of my eight grandchildren. Instead I started specific holiday albums. I take the albums to our family dinners for everyone to enjoy. My hope is that they will continue to get together over the years, even after I'm gone, and can enjoy looking back at their holiday celebrations. In this album I want each family member to be thankful for blessings God has given us, for our special times together, and to celebrate each family member and the love we share.

I made four layouts using the Sangria paper pack in the Workshops on the Go. Here are two of the quick layouts I made up myself using 4" x 6" photos and clusters of the Sangria complements. Because the complement pieces are small, I lay different groupings of them in strategic places on the layout, usually in a visual triangle. When I find a grouping I like, I adhere some and overlap and pop dot others.

The title mat was cut using the negative spaces of the alphabet on the new Cricut Artistry cartridge and the Explore, which allowed me to move it over to the right so I'd have room for the complements. Here's a closer look at the way I clustered the complements:

I'm never caught up scrapbooking (I take too many photos!) but I'm working on previous Thanksgiving photos right now so I can take our album to our Thanksgiving dinner next week. I've started adding flip flaps over the tops of page protectors so I can add many more photos to one layout. The page protectors and flip flaps tend to produce glare so these photos of the pages were taken before I slippped them into protectors.

Here is the other Sangria Thanksgiving layout.  I cut the title in two colors, using Cricut Artbooking. They were cut the same size then slightly overlapped off-center.

Thanks for visiting. I hope this will give you some ideas for making your own layout or album. If you're interested in using flip flaps to add more photos to your layouts, you can find them here.


I'm sharing these layouts with the following challenges:
All Sorts #337 - Anything but a card
Craft Your Passion #288 - anything goes
Fantabulous Cricut #264 - anything goes
Fussy and Fancy #152 - Thankful
Lasting Memories #268 - Thankful inspiration photo
Not Just Cards #26 - anything goes
Shopping our Stash #228 - Thank you or Thanksgiving

Here are the other two layouts that I made using the CTMH Sangria Workshop on the Go. The first is our vacation with family last year to Colorado. The second is my milestone birthday (65!???) celebrating with family at Overland Park Arboretum. Since I didn't make up these layouts, I'm not entering these in the challenges.

Savor Autumn Layout with Nevermore

When I saw the Nevermore paper pack, I didn't see Halloween screaming back at me. I saw more fall layouts. I really need a lot because my hubby and I love to take autumn photo trips.  This one below is what my scrapbook club will be doing on Saturday. I'm thankful for the beauty God has given us in the trees and flowers of autumn. We even captured a monarch butterfly probably refueling on its trip to Mexico. Having an arboretum in the Kansas City area makes fall photography especially enjoyable.

The Whisper gray paper has gears among other building symbols. I applied the gears idea to the idea of time and included a clock. 

 Here are close-up photos of the two stamped sentiments on the second page that are hard to see above. You can also see that I used marker to color the word "savor" on the cricut cut-out and the Cricut Artiste leaf that I colored with tiny drops of 3 reinkers spritzed with water on a large acrylic block. I pressed the leaf onto the blended ink and dried with my heat gun, which lightly curled the edges.

I will repeat the above sentiment from a CTMH Hostess stamp set: May the Lord bless you!

I;m sharing this layout with the following challenges:

Come and Get It - Happy Fall Y'all 

Crafting from the Heart #81 - anything goes 

Crafts 4 Eternity #247 - Tic Tock

Craft Your Passion #283 - anything goes

Fantabulous Cricut Challenge #262 - Autumn

Not Just Cards #25 - October - anything goes

Robyn's Fetish #285 - use lots of orange

12" x 12" two-Page Layout Recipe:

Papers - CTMH "Nevermore" paper pack; Slate and Colonial White Cardstock

Stamps - CTMH Blessings of Autumn (available only for hostesses)

Inks - Slate, Whisper, Sunset; Re-inkers: pear, goldrush, Autumn Terracotta

Cricut Artiste (leaves, clock), Artbooking ("Autumn," fall frame), Artistry ("happy" frame, "Savor")

If you have these cartridges and would like to use my file, you can find it here.

Other accessories: Cricut Explore; 4" x 5" acrylic block and mister/water spray and heat gun for coloring leaves

Use It Up - Tinkerin' Card and Birthday Layout

My dear hubby has been remodeling our house for months ever since he retired. His biggest project has been building a craft/family room. The last two weeks he removed all of our kitchen cabinets to repaint and put in that room. I"m thrilled it will give me lots of stamp and paper storage. It's been difficult having my kitchen packed in boxes while he put in new cabinets. In the meantime, I'm slowly moving paper, stamps, and tools to a huge storage room he built on one side of the craft/family room. So I'm rediscovering tons of materials that have been buried in drawers and boxes. There is WAY TOO MUCH, especially of the ancient sort!

This weekend I decided to make layouts and cards using a CTMH Summer 2009 paper pack called Tinkerin' because it has great colors for grandsons.The paper on the bottom is from Tinkerin' and the top yellow stripe is another old one I can't remember. The green striped paper is recently retired CTMH Adventure collection of Paper Fundamentals. The stamp set and green shimmer trim are new. I added bitty tan and blue sparkles on each of the bigger heart "bubbles." My hubby is a retired chemist so I plan to surprise him with this card:

Here's the sketch from Sketch Saturday that I used to make this card:

I'm sharing this layout with the following challenges:
4 Crafty Chicks #265 - Sparkle & Shine
Come and Get It - Clear It Out, use stash item (yellow striped and blue circle gear papers circa 2009)
Eclectic Ellapu September Challenge, Purple Team - use something from stash more than 6 months old (How about 6 year old paper pack?!)
Sketch Saturday #380 - card sketch

The only fairly new paper I used on this layout is the Pacifica Blue Paper Fundamentals with the shiny side showing.
I'm sharing this layout with the fun challenge at:
Scrappy Hands #48 - Letters - on layout

Zoe Scrapbook Layouts

Saturday I had a lovely time with the ladies in our scrapbook club. Here are the layouts in case you need help knowing where you can put photos. Because we are in the middle of a huge remodeling project at our house, only one of my layouts has photos.You'll also notice that I kept these two layouts fairly simple, using most of your Zoe paper pack.
Amazingly, I was organizing and putting away some photos when I noticed those photos seemed to match the Zoe paper. I usually print my photos at home in the sizes I need for specific layouts. These had been printed in different sizes but forgotten so I don't even know for which layout they were intended. So I moved them around until they landed in a pleasing fashion. This is the way some of you add photos later.
These were taken in the Tetons in Wyoming about a week after I retired, on our way home from the CTMH Convention in Salt Lake City.

Here are closer pictures so you can see more details.  I scored the edges of the Kraft paper 1/4" from the edge and added marker doodled "stitches at the edge. In the Zoe Complements there are so many stickers and Kraft and vellum  shapes that you can choose some to match your own photos or theme. Here you can see how I clustered the combinations that I chose.

Here's the other layout that uses the Zoe Complements. There are enough in the package that you can choose the ones that fit your own photo themes! Here are the ones I chose:

Here are the two layouts from the Zoe Workshop on the Go guide that we did with stamping. (These are the CTMH photos, not mine.)Your packet has pieces that I cut using the new Cricut Artistry so we did this version of the first layout:

In addition to using the Zoe Workshop on the Go kit and Complements, I added several pieces of White Daisy and Kraft cardstock for backgrounds and mats  I hope this helps you make your workshop layouts.

Thanks for checking on our workshop layouts. May God bless you as you encourage family and leave a positive legacy for others with your scrapbooking.

 

Nevermore Stampers with an Attitude Blog Hop

Welcome to the "Nevermore" Blog Hop by Close To My Heart  consultants in the Stampers with an Attitude Team.  You may have come here from Melissa's blog.

Today I'm highlighting projects I made using the new paper pack called Nevermore in the New Holiday Expressions book. I was amazed when I saw these papers! I envisioned layouts from the Southwest and fall and masculine cards. Most of the people in my scrapbook club and card club don't make Halloween projects, so I'm showing you non-Halloween layouts and cards. The colors inspired me to scrapbook some of our vacation photos taken in Arizona this year.

The Cricut embellishments were cut using the new Artistry cartridge.  The papers were from the Nevermore  collection with the addition of some New England Ivy cardstock.  Here are two close-ups:

 I couldn't resist making some masculine cards with these colors and patterns:

Card 1 (stamped with National Stamping Month "Hello, Life" set of stamps. Black stars from Paper Fundamentals Assortment.)

Card 2 (with addition of Enchantment Paper Fundamentals - Saffron and Eggplant. I cut the Eggplant Spider paper so that the design doesn't look like spiders! The Whisper stamped background of shield and leaves stamped with Stamp of the Month, Paper Garden.)

Card 3 ( with addition of Eggplant Paper Fundamentals, Saffron and Fern cardstock. Leaves were cut with Cricut Artistry.)

Additional supplies for each project are listed below. You can find any of them on my website, www.vickieodell.ctmh.com.

The next stop on our hop is Wendy's blog to see what creative project she has ready to show you! Thank you for stopping by!


CTMH Supply List:


Papers: CTMH Nevermore collection, New England Ivy cardstock, Saffron and Eggplant paper from the Enchantment Paper Fundamentals collection


Stamps: Arizona, Jennifer's Hand Alphabet, September Stamp of the Month "Paper Garden" (leaf, card #2), Sending Love (card#2), Happy to Be Friends (Card #3)
Ink: Black, Whisper, Eggplant, Sunset, Saffron, New England Ivy
Tools: Cricut Artistry, Diamond and Scallop embossing folders, Corner Rounder, Round Sponge for inking edges of layout
Embellishments: Durables Triangle Studs, Black & Gray Glitter Paper (silver Artistry star), Black Glitter punch-out stars from Black Fundamental Assortment; Whisper Thick Twine, Gold Sequins,  Fern Thick Twine, Bling Gems God Assortment,