Papa's Princess

This layout was so fun to do while I reminisced about that day! My dad, Hailey named him "Papa", found this huge Cinderella Castle one day and brought it home without telling anyone. Just before Christmas he showed it to me and told me he wanted to give it to her for her birthday, as if I was not going to let him?! So, the day of her birthday, after doing her cupcake, we told Hailey to cover her eyes and Papa carried in this castle and sat it on the table in front of her! It was nearly as tall as her! Once she opened her eyes, she squealed and couldn't quit smiling! Neither could Papa, it was so cute to watch him watch her! This castle has become a main fixture right in the middle of her room and all the toys play house there, even the big stuffed animals :o)



This castle is a whole story in itself, and really requires a whole post with instructions... so I will come back at another time with all the details and for now leave it at telling you that it started out as the Bare Elements Reyna Castle Book #1. Since that was waayyy too big, I used it as a template to trace, cut, and re-piece the smaller elements I liked most. The castle folds open to reveal the story of Papa's Castle.



PP: Autumn Leaves Adorable, Heidi Grace Reagan's Closet
CS: Close To My Heart Hollyhock, Heavenly Blue, White Daisy Textured
Quickutz: Maddie Anne Classic, Scallop 12" Border
Other: CTMH Hollyhock Brads, retired CTMH Daisy Sequins, Lace, Sewing Machine, White Thread, Zig Pen

"4" at Build a Bear Workshop

I have really gotten into my eyelets again lately. Maybe it is due to my new purchase, a PiNK Crop-a-Dile II... too cute! I am not totally sold on its eyelet setting abilities though. The hole punching works great, but the eyelet setter is not working AT ALL! I resorted back to my good ole' hammer and metal setter for all 51 eyelets. Ugh! I think I am going to call We R Memory Keepers and see what they have to say?!


This side of the layout is loosely based on an olde PageMaps Mini Sketch that I just resized and tweaked a little. Turned out cute, but not as cute as I had envisioned.

PP: Scenic Route
CS: CTMH Cranberry
Scallop Edge is cut from Granny's Accu-Cut.
Stitching with DMC floss.
Buttons & Eyelets are from my old stash :o)


No sketch for this one, just kept re-arranging the photos until I liked them. I toyed around with doodling on this one all around the edge of the layout and on the letters, cute. BABW stands for Build A Bear Workshop. I cut the letters out of Grannys new Sizzix Font with chipboard and the cardstock. The circle pp on the far right is a journaling block that pulls out.


PP: Scenic Route
CS: CTMH Cranberry, Honey, Garden Green, and Dutch Blue
Buttons, ribbons, and big brads are from Granny, and her rack of buttons in glass jars, so jealous!

Oh yeah, I really in need of some girl time... so girls call me, lets scrap!

Ice, Ice, Baby!

I couldn't help myself with the title... a little blast from the past! :o) It was the first thing that popped into my head when I started thinking of titles for this layout, and now I can't get the song out of my head! It was dd's second time on the ice, but the first time she actually enjoyed it! At first she used a stack of 5-gallon buckets to lean on, then once she got the hang of it, she held onto the wall, and finally she got really brave and started skating on her own out in the middle. All I can say is, its a good thing it was mostly kids that were skating that day because there was no rhyme or reason to anyone's direction! LOL!

A quickie little layout and all my own sketch, just started laying the pictures in order, and voila! The paper is all scraps from last years Cmas layouts, chipboard pieces are all CTMH Dimensional Elements, snowflake eyelets are really old from my stash, then I machine sewed around the photos and some random flourish shapes and topped that with some stickles!


Journaling tag pulls out from behind the far right top photo, where you see the ribbon. Date and place are framed with the CTMH Slide Frame (retired).

Cotton fields and Pinwheel PopUp Flowers

This layout was a scraplift of my dear friend Tara's, and she scrap-lifted it from the Feb 2008 PageMaps... thanks for the inspiration girl! I really like this close-up because you can see how I popped the flower with some foam tape, then used a brad to adhere through the background so that it pulls the center of the flower down and the petals lift up, espically on the layered ones! Cool, huh?
I love these pictures, the cotton fields were so beautiful and unexpected. We were driving through Alabama on our way to a conference and stumbled upon a handful of these fields... I finally decided to stop and check them out... stunning! I had never seen this in person and we all really enjoyed getting out to stretch our legs.


Patterned Paper: Three Bugs in a Rug "Happy Bird-Day"
Quickutz: Stardust Grand, Pinwheel Flowers (various sizes)
Cardstock, Brads, Bigger Brads, and Buttons: CTMH Juniper and Vineyard Berry
Floss and Ribbon: from my stash

Here is Tara's layout that I scraplifted, thanks for letting me post :O)


CS and Inking: CTMH Autumn Terracotta and Orchid Bouquet (retired)
Quickutz: Moxie Classic, Uptown Girl Classic, 2x2 layered Pumpkin
Heidi Swapp Orange Bling Rectangles
American Crafts Ribbon
PP: Unknown

The Fair

I got these fun little baubles at M's awhile back, I think they were Making Memories, but they came in a set with this lime green, red, clear, teal, and maybe one other color. At the time, I thought I would use them as dew on a flower, but they seemed like a fun little touch on this layout.
Shortly after moving to tallahassee, we got to go to the North Florida Fair, thanks to my new neighbor who had some comp tickets :o) It was very laid back, had a great area with the smaller kids rides... all in all a nice way to spend our Sunday afternoon and most of the evening, too. After work, Daddy even joined us for a couple hours, some fair dinner, and a few last rides.

On to the layout details, the left side was a lift from the PageMaps book, and the right was just me making the rest of the pics fit. I also lifted the sewing idea from one of Granny's layouts last week. And that's about it!

PP: Basic Grey "Color Me Silly"
CS: CTMH Keylime, White Textured, Bazzill fuschia?
Embellies: Buttons, Ribbons, and Baubles from stash
Quickutz: Mary Jane Grand Uppercase, Rev Arrows

Girls Weekend Success!

Okay this is a very photo heavy post, sorry to all those with slow connections, but... I just got home from a long Girls Weekend with my Mom and two best friends! And we got to spend the whole time in Granny's ScrapRoom with her Accucut, Quickutz, BigShot, Sizzix, you name it... we had it! It was so nice to take my time on my layouts, use new fonts that I don't own, try out some new embellies, and of course spend some time with the girls on the beach!

So, here come my layouts for the week! First up is a scraplift of my friends layout using some new papers I picked up at The Scrapbook Shoppe in Tampa, FL. I wanted to document my love affair with my daughters wardrobe from Gymboree, don't we all have a certain kids line we love? I even used the tag from her outfit for the title. Patterned Paper and DieCut sheet are Bloom & Grow by My Minds Eye. The background cardstock is Juniper from CTMH. Ribbon is Summer 2 Collection from American Crafts.



The Butterfly Rainforest layout was so fun to do because I used the Accucut 11.5" Antique Die to cut chipboard and my pp. No sketch, just started layering and ended up with this... I thinked it turned out nice. I used Quickutz Nutmeg and Uptown Girl for the title, a little Heidi Swapp Bling to higlight the butterfly in my hubby's lap. Everything else is CTMH. Blush and Topiary Cardstock, Craft Buttons, Inking, Discover Paper pack, and retired Blush Ribbon Rounds.





"Ummm, NO" is what my dd said when I asked her to help me carve the pumpkin last halloween, too funny! Patterned Papers are all scraps, solids are retired CTMH B&T. Cocoa, Goldrush, and Topiary Cardstocks, Inks and Buttons. I used the Quickutz 2x2 Pumpkin, Revolution Vine and Flourishes to create the pumpkin patch and 4x8 Dragonfly for the title with CTMH Dimensional Elements Solos. The ribbon I picked up from Griffins in Ocala, FL. The left page is from the PageMaps book.




The Strike layout actually turned out better than I was expecting... even my hand cut bowling pins!!! I used the Accucut Star Dies to cut out chipboard and painted them with Making Memories Paints, then embellished them with some Heidi Swapp bling and CTMH craft buttons and floss. Pattern paper is Bowl-o-Rama by Moxxie with a touch of retired CTMH b&t, inked up with CTMH Cocoa, Garden Green, and Goldrush. The title was cut with out of chipboard with a Sizzix font on the Bigshot machine and painted black. I finished it all up with a few ribbon scraps, machine sewing in black, and lots of pen work on the diecuts using my trusty Zig. The sketch I stole from somewhere, sorry I can't remember ;o)

And finally, my little Madame Butterfly was another layout that I got to play around with the big Accucut Dies, this one is the 11.5" Ribbon Circle cut out of Hydrangea CTMH cardstock then I cut an 11 " circle out of retired CTMH b&t then decided to use my old Magic Matter to mat that layer in Ocean CTMH CS. The pattern paper is CTMH Whoops-a-Daisy with Hydrangea, Ocean, and Watermelon cardstock, inking, buttons, brads, and ribbon. The title is Quickutz Dragonfly 4x8 and Blossom Grand. The scattered flowers are a mix of Quickutz 4x4's and Sizzix accented with some white pen work. I also used a couple of Heidi Swapp Ghost Butterflies with touches of white paint and adhered with watermelon brads.


I hope you all have a great week and get lots of scrapping time this weekend! I will be hard at work trying to use up the rest of my kits I have put together! :o)

Sand & Surf

For some reason, I never got around to posting this layout last week... but here it is from Inspired Blueprints #1 Sketch. Can't remember who the pp is from, but the big "&" sign and "{brackets}" are Tim Holtz Grungeboard (which I really did NOT like working with!), Quickutz Moxie Classic, everything else is CTMH. Just a fun and quick layout finishing up my Cruise Album, the first pic lifts up to reveal more beautiful landscapes of the sand and surf of Mexico! Again, using the CTMH 6-pocket page protectors cut down, folded under, and attached using CTMH Bigger Brads.


Oh, and my favorite part was making my own scalloped paper using my old trusty Fiskars Shape Cutter and the Oval Template (which has the large scallop around the outer edge)... just happened to align perfectly with the polka dots of the pp! (FYI: The Circle template has a smaller scalloped edge, too!)

Snokeling on the Reef

Couldn't find a good pp for this one, so I made my own using CTMH stamps and inks. I used different little rings from C1232 Groovy Celebration, B1229 Solo E, and D1264 Angel Whispers. Inks and Cardstock are Cranberry, Honey, Breeze, and Ocean. The first page uses Inspired Blueprints Sketch #2 and page 2 I made up to go with it.


The title area uses Quickutz Abigail, CTMH brackets from the Dimensional Elements Simple Lowercase, CTMH Cranberry Bigger Brads, a hand-cut sunshine, and a Signo white pen for the accents. The scalloped edges I made using my EK corner rounder by taking off the cutting guide. This layout was fun to do despite the cold weather today!

Tallahassee Moms Like Me

So, shortly after moving to Tallahassee, I found this great website for local events, info, chat, and bulletin boards. I finally got around to making a group on the site to share ideas and info, and to help coordinate crop nights. If you are a tallahasse mom (or dad) that likes to scrapbook, stamp, or craft feel free to visit our group, join in, and come to one of our crop nights!

http://tallahassee.momslikeme.com/members/groupabout.aspx?g=615376