Baby....It's Graphic 45 again!

I think most of us fell in love with the Graphic 45 "Little Darlings" collection when it was released this spring.  All of those cherubic sweet faces...I could almost smell the baby powder and freshly bathed skin :)  A far cry from my sweaty hormonal teenagers!!


Of course, I had to design with these papers the minute I saw them...and so I created this double page layout, simply called "Baby", featuring my adorable DramaQueen, age 3 months.

The background is 2 pieces of G45's ABC Primer paper called "One Two Buckle your Shoe". 

Here are some close ups....some lovely fussy cut elements...

A cream eyelet curtain is over the window....

A war time technique....using the curtain fabric to make a skirt! lol.

This was a class I taught at Urban Scrapbook last month, and thanks to Lynette's advice, I offered it as either Boy or Girl.....and here is the Boy version (but with the same girl photos!)

I changed up the pink gingham paper with blue paper and switched the girl image cut outs with boy versions....the sleeping boy in the lattice window and the bugle boy at far right.  I also inked the block pieces with blue instead of pink.

The little heart is cut from "Beach" Bazzill cardstock using a Sizzix Embosslit die from Stampin Up.

Blue Bugle Boy beside blocks that are inked blue....yes, a stereotype, I know.

Most of you know how to make those spiral roses, but if not, I'll explain how on the Canadian Scrapbooker blog next week (Tuesday With The Team on May 1, 2012).



Here is a close up of the Little Darlings banner...lots of fussy cutting involved.

The butterflies are cut from the G45 patterned paper called "Heaven Sent."

The two elements that I designed as special techniques are the lattice window and the baby blocks title.  

I saw the lattice window first on a card over at Scrapbook.com....in Peggy's gallery.  She is an expert card maker and you can visit her blog HERE.

To make the window frame, cut into a 5x7" piece of chipboard, leaving a 1/2" frame around. Then I covered one side of the frame with my tape runner adhesive and wrapped a wide cream satin ribbon around and around the frame...taking care with the corners...

You actually don't have to bother covering the top of the frame with the ribbon because it is hidden under the curtain.

The finished ribbon wrapped window frame

For the lattice I cut 1/4" strips of cream cardstock and lay them on the yucky side of the ribbon frame.  TIP:  Adhere the longest strip (diagonal corner to corner) first.  Then you can adhere the other strips parallel and do the same crossing over them and weaving over and under the other way.

This will be the back of your ribbon frame...just decide which side you like least and adhere the strips to that side.

Lucky for me, my talented scrappy friend Michelle posted a wonderful tutorial on her blog about how to make a lattice card, which will give me an excuse NOT to type up a detailed explanation.  Instead, you can visit her blog and lattice tutorial HERE.   

Michelle's lovely series of lattice window cards

As well, Michelle used this same "Little Darlings" collection to make the most adorable mini album and storage tin...you can check it out with another awesome tutorial HERE.  Thanks Michelle! 

Michelle's Little Darlings accordion mini album

And the altered tin that holds the album

 Now back to the next technique on my layout. 

 The baby blocks are my favourite element on this layout....and are made by an easy paper piecing technique.

I started by sketching a block....I wanted a vintage baby block (the kind I used to play with...and yes, I know I described them as "vintage"). 

A peek into my private sketch book :)

 From this sketch I made a tracer for 4 pieces: top, side and  2 front square blocks (which measure 1.5" each side)

I used a Prima medium brown chalk ink along these paper piece edges.

Take one of the 1.5" square blocks and ink edges with pink or blue to make the front frame.

With a 1" square template,  trace a square for cutting out in the centre of your inked block.

Tracing is finished and the frame will measure 1/4" when complete....so use your craft knife...

...and your metal ruler to cut out the centre, leaving you with a pink block frame.

Now you have an inked frame to adhere to the top of your plain block front.

Adhere all your pieces together like a puzzle to a piece of kraft cardstock, or the patterned paper you made the blocks from, and cut around.

I cut the "BABY" alphabet letters with my Cricut, Storybook Cartridge, from the same patterned paper, and inked them.

Then I played with my blocks....I staggered them...

....and I stacked them!  Actually, I LOVE them stacked, but this didn't work with my layout design :(

You can try using kraft cardstock for the blocks, but I preferred the appearance of the patterned paper, which is actually from Graphic 45's "ABC Primer" collection, last fall, and the paper is called "Happy Go Lucky." 

A couple of other cute page elements are the tulle bow toppers and the Cricut journalling spot....

I fooled around with my Lacy Labels cartridge until I found the journalling spot that was just right...a scalloped oval.

This cartridge is fantastic....each label has a delicate top layer, which I cut out of pink Little Darlings paper (and blue for boy)

An oops on my behalf....I forgot to write in the journaling spot until after I took the photos.  It does say "Serena Jade, Age 3 months, March 1997."


The tulle bows running across the top of the layout are a pretty element that involves colouring white tulle with Distress Ink.  I experimented with the Distress Ink when I couldn't find the right colour of tulle to match the layout papers.

I dragged the Wild Honey Distress Ink pad across the length of tulle (about a yard)

Use a cloth to wipe the excess ink off the tulle...a lot will come off, but the tulle will still be coloured. TIP:  Do not use paper towel to wipe off the excess ink...there will be bits of paper towel stuck inside the fibres of the tulle (experience talking here)

Then you can spend about 3 hours trying to tie two bows into the ends of a foot long length of tulle.  Torture.

Am I making this tulle topper technique sound appealing?  Oh, and let's not leave out the yellow/orange hands you'll be left with...

Yikes.  Makes me look like a heavy smoker who has eaten a couple bags of Cheezies!!!

You might be seeing a few more layouts in the near future featuring DQ....because lately she expressed her displeasure about how many pages I make for BabyOfTheFamily and not her.  

This means you might also be reading a blog post about sibling rivalry in the near future as well :)

Now it's time for me to slip this layout into DQ's album....and fondly recall what a lovely baby she was, the easiest of the three by far :)
 

 

A Sporty April Sketchy Challenge

I am going to blame Spring Break and Easter for slowing me down this month.  But I shouldn't complain....we have had some wonderful family time with the kids.  

In search of a tan....in Phoenix.

I feel like I have been neglecting BoyGenius in my layouts, so this month he gets two pages in his album...kind of a birthday present from his mother because he turned 17 on Easter weekend.  Poor guy, his special day usually gets squished by Easter festivities.  So maybe a little motherly guilt inspired his layouts too :)

BG's first birthday!

Our baby boy turns 17!

 Without further delay, here is the April Sketchy Challenge designed by Jill Sarginson for Canadian Scrapbooker magazine....

I rotated this sketch 1/4 turn clockwise.

 And here is my layout of BoyGenius, the "Basketball Star." [We are cheering for #9 wearing the dark blue uniform.  I am very lucky a friend took this photo and emailed it to me.  Her son is #10 in white]

 All papers are from the FancyPants "Forever Fall" collection, except the dark brown paper used for the basketball, which is Lucky 7 Factory, a Canadian company.

These Harmonie Mosaic Tiles are bordering the title.

I cut the stars with a Sizzix die and my Big Shot.

I printed the journaling with the computer onto a piece of FancyPants paper from the collection.

Yes, BG is quite the basketball player.  He gave up hockey to play on the school volleyball and basketball teams in Junior High, and then this year quit volleyball so he could focus only on basketball.  Since his dad and I both played on our high school basketball teams, it is a sport near and dear to our hearts, so I think we were pretty excited when our son started to play a few years ago.

I wish I could post a photo of myself playing basketball in high school, with an afro "perm" and wearing shorts that looked like granny panties.  That perm made me a few inches taller than I actually was, which was why I might have made the team.  Let's just say I'm a crafty girl with a good shot, not a super athlete, and I quickly discovered that there were VERY aggressive teenage girls on the court that I wanted to avoid!  I also wanted to avoid running down the court so my thighs wouldn't jiggle.  Obviously, my head wasn't "in the game."  I played Defense for my high school soccer team too.  I know I made THAT team because my older brother was an excellent soccer player and athlete, so the coach was hopeful about me.  Once the coach put me on as a Forward.  That lasted 5 minutes, and he yelled at me, "Get back on D!  You can't RUN!"  I have what my husband refers to as an "eggbeater" style of running.  Not pretty.  Especially on a basketball court wearing emerald green granny panties. So naturally, I ended up on the Cheerleading team....

That's me in the middle with the A on my chest. We had no budget.  My mom and I sewed these uniforms.  Okay....my mom sewed them.  I cut and glued the felt A's together. I might be crafty, but I'm not a seamstress.

I was going to post a tutorial here about how I paper pieced that basketball in the background, and then thought maybe it was too simple.  Instead, I just took a couple of photos to show what I used to trace my basketball.

I first Googled basketball images and found a nice one to print out.  It was a good size, almost 8 1/2" in diameter, perfect for my design.

Then I cut two 8 1/2" circles from a dark brown piece of paper and an orange piece of paper.  

Next I placed my basketball printed image over the orange circle and cut out only the orange sections, not the black dividing lines.

I inked the edges of these orange sections to give them more dimension and then adhered them to my brown circle.  

It's that simple...and easy! 

And how did I choose this FancyPants "Forever Fall" paper collection for a basketball layout?  Well, I was looking for orange and dark brown, so I pulled out all my fall paper packs.  I always admire how other scrapbookers design with a seasonal collection for other themes, so I decided to think outside the box....umm, outside the circle!


I just might be paper piecing a volleyball next....because when DramaQueen (the volleyball player) sees this layout, well, you know what will happen :)


Actually, soccer season starts this month for both my daughters....I'd better get busy!!

BoBunny's Weekend Market

I was going to title this post "Monthly Sketch"....but hey, didn't I just post that a couple weeks ago?? Yikes.  What is going on with days, weeks, and months flying by!


Today I'm featuring my layout created with The Urban Scrapbook's April kit, which is comprised of the gorgeous, deeply coloured Bobunny collection "Weekend Market". 

Lynette designed another wonderful sketch that is included in this kit, which is for sale now in the store.  Jan is the talented artist at Urban who puts these kits together, and she included a number of products from this collection:  Jewels, Buttons and the Combo Stickers....

 The flavour of these papers seems to be travel, however, one sticker on the wonderful sticker sheet caught my attention, and thus my design was born.


Instead of travel, I decided to design a layout about reading.  I am an avid reader....and I'm happy to say that all of our children are as well.  The public library is our second home :)


But in the last couple of years, BoyGenius has spent more time with the XBox and computer than books.  Sigh.  This has been tough for me to watch, but I've been patient and am excited to report that during our Spring Break holiday last week, he finally decided to read a novel I gave him at Christmas.  (It has been collecting dust on his night table for 3 months.  Bigger sigh.)


The world is right again.  He is reading! I celebrated by designing this page....



"Reading is your ticket to travel the world."

Cardstock, corrugated paper and ribbon are also part of this awesome kit!

I attempted to create a bookshelf with the corrugated paper.  I took photos of the books then placed them in the "shelves" as cut-outs.

The tag is made with Coredinations paper, which looks great when you emboss it.  And this is the sticker that inspired my design.

The "ticket" journaling strip is mounted on a wooden ticket (but I forgot to source this element!)

Of course, I didn't run and get my camera when he picked up that book!  I knew that wouldn't help the situation.  This photo is from our summer RV trip (one and only) from 2 years ago.  We had no technology on our trip, so reading became our favourite past time.  Coincidentally, in this photo he is reading a book by the same author of his current book, a wonderful fantasy series called Eragon....about an amazing world of dragons, written by Christopher Paolini, who wrote the first edition when he was 16! 


 I am very fond of Fantasy novels as well, but have not read one in quite awhile.  Watching BG consume Paolini's most current book Inheritance is making me consider reading it myself. 

That might not be considered "cool," so I will leave it on the shelf for now.

In a few days I will post another layout of BoyGenius....this time using Canadian Scrapbooker magazine's April Sketchy Challenge.

Wishing all of you a lovely Easter....and hope you have time on the long weekend to make friends with a good book!

Good news...and Bad news

So, which do you want first?  The good news or the bad news?  I'm always curious about what people choose to hear first.  I'm a "tell me the good news first" type, so that's what I'll deliver...


Part of the good news is that I'm on a Spring Break holiday right now in sunny Phoenix with my family, which is why I haven't blogged in the past couple of weeks.  As far as I'm concerned, palm trees and cactus are ALWAYS good news :)


The bigger good news is....I've been invited to be a featured instructor at Scrapbook Your Heart Retreat!  This is an amazing scrapbooking event organized annually by Allison Orthner and Christy Riopel and Kandi where women come together to scrapbook and explore matters of the heart through creative expression.

The theme of the retreat is "Lessons from the Garden of Life."

Click HERE for more details...and hope you can join us for a fabulous scrapbooking experience!


And now the sad news....


The Graphic 45 2012 Design Team was announced, but I did not make it.  I'm glad I auditioned and want to thank everyone who encouraged me to go for it.  I'm still happy that I was chosen as one of the top 30 finalists, and it's been an exciting few weeks.  I also want to congratulate all the amazingly talented artists who did make the final cut....and can't wait to be inspired by their projects in the upcoming year!


Now, back to Spring Break!  I have 2 more days of hot weather to enjoy....and a couple of American craft stores to check out!