2014 Layout Recap and January 2015

Sharing a few of my favorite layouts from 2014!  The editing isn't stellar on some pics, but you get the general idea.

And finally there's this one, created with the Gossamer Blue January kits which went on sale for subscribers TODAY!

Happy New Year Friends!  Wishing you all the best in 2015.

Together is a Wonderful Place to Be

Hello!  I'm up on the A Walk Down Memory Lane blog sharing this colorful layout featuring Simple Stories, Amy Tangerine and Sew Easy products.  Click HERE to read the how-to for creating this layout on A Walk Down Memory Lane's blog.

I created this as a reminder of just how wonderful my girlfriends are.  We have 20+ years as friends and I love them more now than I ever have!  And now there's 3 mini's running around, with #4 (belonging to my friend A) making his appearance in 2015.  My heart is smiling.

Do you have forever friends too?  The end of the year always makes me a little nostalgic for our crazy days...  But there's so much to look forward to in 2015, I'll be sharing more thoughts and my GO manifesto soon.

Vintage Vibe Layout

In the hustle and bustle of Christmas preparations I completely forgot to post this layout made for A Walk Down Memory Lane blog!

I used a few different Jillibean Soup collections to put this together, along with some floss and needles from Sew Easy.

How was your Christmas?  Miss Q had a blast and received lots of presents!  We've celebrated Christmas twice so far, with one Christmas left on New Year's Day.

Gossamer Blue Me! Layout

I created this layout using the December Main Kit  (<----- click words to go to the kit) from Gossamer Blue.  I LOVED the Makers Gonna Make exclusive cork piece and I thought it fitting for a layout about me and my right now.  I used two other exclusive cork pieces from the kit and a bunch of Amy Tangerine die cuts.  A few gold ink splatters and it was done.  The Main Kit is still available, how about treating yourself to a little Christmas present?

Gossamer Blue Gramercy Road Collection

My hubs and I took an overnight trip to Denver for our anniversary this past October.  We were in downtown Denver to visit his favorite record store, Wax Trax, and I snapped this photo intending to capture the street sign, but instead got the beautiful blue October sky.  It was such a gorgeous morning.

The Gramercy Road collection by Gossamer Blue really captured the feeling of the photo, soft Fall colors in a combo that I really love.  I started by using the Autumn stamp and Mama Elephant ink in Hazel, stamping a few random circles on the background paper.  Then I cut strips of the papers, layering as I went until I had the photo mat I was going for.  Adding the Tim Holtz mini clips gives some small embellishments that don't detract from the layout.  I added the cork circles in a visual triangle on the layout and last came the leaves.  I just glued them at random to give the soft, floaty feeling of falling leaves.  The metallic stickers in the collection give the layout a bit of shine and I was done.

December Memories Week Two

I have another week done and in the book!  Woo-hoo!  Have I mentioned how much I love Gossamer Blue December Memories???  This is Year 3 for me on this project, and I believe this is the best one yet :)

Day 7

The photo prompt was Giving (I'm using Rebekah's December Captures List HERE).  The bottom pocket will probably stay like that because who doesn't love Fa La La La La in red and pink???

Days 8-9.  The photo prompt was Star but I haven't found a photo I want to use yet.  I'll go back and fill it in later.  Miss Q received a fun box of Merry Mail from her Nana and Grampy.  The prompt for day 9 is Believe, so I had to share the pic of Baby C, because we definitely believe in the magic of chubby babies!  The ampersand is stapled to a piece of transparency slipped into the pocket.  I heat embossed the back side of it.

Another Baby C pic plus Miss Q & friends at her Little Tykes class.

Day 10:  Quiet.  My bestie Shannon snapped this pic of the kids actually being quiet.  It lasted approximately 1 minute.

Day 11:  We took an All Girls Road Trip to a small town about 30 miles away.  They have a Christmas Wonderland Village.  We took a short train ride, saw about a million Christmas ornaments and Miss Q actually took her first photo with Santa!

For supper that night Quinn had candy canes, chocolate and graham crackers.  Oh well, it's Christmas!  The bottom right pocket is filled with sequins and the acrylic word Joy.

The last of our Christmas Wonderland photos and then on to Day 12.  I cut a strip of the stripe paper and used the Get Happy puffy stickers to spell Family, the prompt for that day.  I like that you can see thru the top of the 6x8 pocket to the next page.

The back of our Christmas card and a few photos for Day 13.

I finished the album cover and spine too:

Hope your December is magical so far!

December Memories Album Cover

Just a quick note to share my Gossamer Blue December Memories album cover. I really liked the look of the album when it arrived, so I knew I wasn't going to cover it or paint it. That left me with embellishing it. Embellishing covers is over-whelming to me (I have no idea why) so I went with a technique I've been doing a lot of lately:  Heat embossing!  I used Ranger gold glitter on the stag head and did two layers of embossing powder, starting with Versamark ink, then the powder, and while the first layer powder was still hot I dipped it in the powder again and heated it a second time. I glued the stag to a white doily using Multi -medium matte then decided to use a Gossamer Blue sticker from the December Memories kit. The words Be Merry Be Bright were one long sticker that I cut in half and adhered to a small tag from my stash. Another layer of Multi-medium on the back of the doily and it was done!

One Little Word

Most people who scrapbook and are memory keepers are familiar with Ali Edwards One Little Word.  I won't go through the ins and outs of it, you can definitely read Ali's thoughts in several places on her blog HERE, but I was just soaking in a delicious hot bath and it hit me that I need a word for 2015.

I've had a lot of personal changes in 2014; nothing major, just new things in my life as Mama, Scrapper, Friend and all the other position titles I currently hold.  I was asked to be on my dream design team by my Fairy Godmother Lori at Gossamer Blue.  Then I found a design team call for A Walk Down Memory Lane and decided to apply, landing an amazing spot with the kind, sweet and just all-around awesome Lisa.

I thought about the wonderful women I can now call my girlfriends, soul sisters that I will cherish today, tomorrow and always.  These are the kind of girlfriends you don't lose touch with, the kind who nourish you in so many ways:  creatively, intellectually, laughing-joking-smiling kinds of ways that you just need.

To wrap up these thoughts in a neat little One Little Word kind of way, these 2014 changes have inspired me to GO.

More on how I plan to GO soon.

Miss Q.  She decided to GO for that candy cane :)

December Memories Album: Week 1

I have been working away like a good little Elf on my Gossamer Blue December Memories Album!

This is the cover page.  I love that GB offered up a title page that could be left as-is or embellished.  I chose to add a few sequins and plaid enamel dots.

I added a wood veneer and puffy plaid "K" on the back side of the cover page.  For Day 1 I included a 4x6 card pre-printed with "december" and the arrival of Elfie.

Day 2 consisted of a "warmth" photo (I'm using Rebekah's December Captures List for photo prompts, read about it HERE), and Miss Q having some playtime with a new friend.  I did a few see-thru pockets, one with sequins and the other with a wood veneer.

Days 3-4 share a spread, for the "festive" photo prompt I thought the pic of Barbie's legs sticking out from under the couch was kinda fun:  Barbie got a little too festive!  ha!  The "bright" prompt was of our colored Christmas lights.

Day 5 was painting ornaments with our MOMS Club friends.  The photo prompt for that day was "glitter."  Ummmm, still haven't taken that photo yet!  But that's fine, I just keep moving forward with the album and will go back and fill in as necessary.

Day 5-6.  I needed to add a photo of Q from the ornament painting, along with Elfie hanging on top of the tree.

And this is Day 6-7.  I wanted to get the photo prompt pic in the book, which for Day 6 is "quiet."  I was having some me time before bed in front of the tree.  It was so peaceful.  

That's my progress so far, I'll share my next week starting with Day 7 very soon!  I hope your December Memories album is coming together quickly, I feel like my simple embellishing approach is making it go so quick, plus the fact that I had my base pages started.

Kinda Cloudy

Happy Monday!

I created this layout for Gossamer Blue using the lovely, dreamy December Kits.

This layout came out totally different from my intentions, but it captured a moment in our life that is totally real.  Anyone who knows a 2.5-3 year old knows about the ups and downs, the curve balls, the general moodiness of life with kiddos that age.  My Q is all that plus a little extra on the side.  The Amy Tangerine sticker says, "meet me in the sunshine," and some days I wish I could say that and we would instantly be back to those sweet 9 month old times.  Instead we're in the kinda cloudy days where my girly is wanting so badly to be big and do it all herself, but not ready to deal with the outcomes of growing up.

I feel in love with stitching on pages all over again with the Amy Tangerine set in the Bits & Pieces kit this month.  The gray thread came in the kit and I used some white I already had.  A perfect example of the rough days we have sometimes as well as the gorgeous puffy white cloud kind of days too.

The layout was embellished with Teresa Collins buttons and chipboard and a few more Amy Tangerine stickers.  I'm so proud of this one, it really reflects us.

Thanks for reading and hope your week is off to a great start!

Gossamer Blue December Rewind

The December rewind was inspired by the colors in the photo of my sweet girl: purples, yellows and oranges. The Gossamer Blue December kits have beautiful neutrals (I believe these are my favorite kits in the history of GB!) and I wanted to keep the layout soft, so I decided to mix in the Gossamer Blue exclusives from the November kits. I printed the designs by Traci Reed on vellum and used some of the November acrylic and wood veneer pieces as well.

I started by making a mat for my photo using December kit papers. I stapled the papers to my background paper, then punched/fussy cut the November Life Pages and Main Kit printables that went with my color scheme. Printing on vellum gives a whole new look to those GB exclusives! I layered the punched pieces around the picture, also adding one at the top left of my layout on a Heidi Swapp tag from the November kits. The wood veneer pieces were painted white (I dabbed some paint on and spread it with my finger—who needs a paintbrush?). A few of the November Heidi Swapp ephemera pieces rounded out my embellishing.

This layout was one of my quicker ones to complete; I think limiting my embellishments to just a few different things helped the decision making go much faster.

I'll be looking for your projects in the gallery!

AWDML 12 Days of Christmas Day 2

Day 2 and another fabulous sale at A Walk Down Memory Lane!  Check it out HERE!

AWDML: Miss Q's Amazing First Christmas

Hi there!  I'm up on the A Walk Down Memory Lane Blog sharing a non-traditional Christmas layout featuring Bo Bunny and Crate Paper products.  Click HERE to read the full post.

AWDML 12 Days of Christmas: Day 1

Hello Everyone!

A Walk Down Memory Lane celebrates Christmas with 12 Days of amazing sales each year!  Today starts the sale with 60% off all Jillibean Soup products!  Read the sale info HERE to be sure and get the $10.00 flat-rate shipping throughout the 12 Days sale.

Happy Shopping!

Gossamer Blue December Memories Blog Hop

Welcome to the Gossamer Blue December Memories Blog Hop!  I am so thrilled to be doing my third GB December Memories album, and to share it with all of you.

I have two sweet friends who are doing their December Memories album along with me, so I have opted to put my kit in a tote bag to make getting together and scrapping super easy.

Every single tool + the entire kit contents fit perfectly!  I grabbed coordinating inks, embossing powders, twine, stamp blocks and cutting tools from my stash.

My dear friend Rebekah from Life of B created a photo prompt list that I'm using this year (click HERE to print her list or add it to your google calendar!), so my album will consist of a photo prompt pic and a daily pic, unless the two get combined for that day.  For my foundation pages, and because this is the way my brain works, I find it easiest to use sticky notes on the completed pages as reminders for where the photos go and what the photos will consist of (hopefully!).

As you can see, I'm doing some see-thru pockets this year (I also did a few last year); I really like how the next page peeks through the see-thru pocket.  I'm also mixing up the page protectors; I've done this every year and I just like changing up my photo sizes throughout the album.

To place the ampersand in the pocket I cut down a 3x4 pocket page.  I trimmed the edges of the page off until I had just the front of one 3x4 pocket, then attached the die cut and slipped the whole thing into my 3x4 pocket page.  Knowing you could see the back of the ampersand, I heat embossed the back of it using gold powder.  A bit of the powder got on the front as well, but it turned out great!  Happy accident :)

Doilies are making a strong statement in my pages, I think the gold ones included in the kit are so pretty!  I also really like the small bags in a pocket in place of a card.  As December progresses I hope our daily activities provide me some small ephemera or other goodies to place in the pockets.  If that doesn't work out I'll add in sequins or confetti!

I do anticipate having more than 1-2 photos on some days, so I'll use the extra pocket pages as inserts when needed.  I may cut down a 3x4 pocket page to just two pockets, or possibly stitch a 6x8 page down the middle and trim off the excess for a 3x8 page.  My process is to complete the foundation pages by the 3rd or 4th of December and then totally finish the pages with photos and additional embellishing every 1-2 days, as my schedule allows.  I absolutely do not get any further than 3 days behind, ever.  It's my one personal rule for this project!

Thanks so much for checking out my December Memories process!  This project is one of my all-time favorites each year, and one that I plan to continue into the future.  

Keep hopping along to the fabulous Jina Jean!

In case you get lost here's a master list for the blog hop, or you can go back to the Gossamer Blue blog to start over.

Anabelle O'Malley

Beshka Kueser
Brenda Weaver
Cindy Liebel
Diane Payne
Erin Taylor
Ewa Kujawska
Eyoung Lee
Heather Leopard
Jessica Lohof
Jill Cornell
Jill Keller   <------THAT'S ME!
Jina Jean  <------GO HERE NEXT!
Kasia Przbyt
Katie Ehmann
Keisha Campbell
Laura Rahel Crosby
Magda Mizera
Maria Lacuesta
Melanie Blackburn
Naomi Atkins
Michelle Wooderson
Pam Garrison
Rebecca Luminarias
Tara Anderson
Vanessa Perry
Yana Smakula