Island Sun Mini Album

I love doing mini albums for events like Christmas and vacations so I was super excited to find out The Paper Loft had chipboard albums! The heavy weight chipboard is easy to work with and makes a great foundation for a mini album.
Since we took tons of pictures on our vacation to Hawaii, the newest Paper Loft line, Island Sun, was just perfect for this album!

The cover, to which I added a cut out embellishment, flowers with button centers, and fussy cut starfish from the same paper.

The cover of my album was inspired by this month's sketch at The Paper Loft:

The wonderful cut out embellishments were great additions to the pages with the beach theme!

I love the starfish papers that is the same as the cover and the cute coordinating title piece, "a walk along the beach".

The pages are large enough to add 4X6 photos and on this spread I cut them down a bit and fit multiple photos!

The realistic shell and sand paper were perfect for the Hawaii pictures!

The plaids coordinated perfectly with the patterns!

I added bunches of fun ribbon to the binder rings!

Thanks for looking! Now don't miss out on your chance to be a guest designer for The Paper Loft and win some fabulous product! Visit the blog for The Paper Loft or check out The Paper Loft Facebook page for details!

Black and White and Add Some Color

I love black and white with one other color and this month, About a Boy Scrapbook Challenges blog and About a Girl Scrapbook Challenges blog each hosted a challenge to use black and white and one other color.
For About a Boy, I used a sketch from Sketch N Scrap...

And for About A Girl I used a sketch from My Scraps & More...

Jet Setter

This month, the first challenge over at Scrap Our Stash was to create a travel themed layout using a premade travel embellishment as well as travel signage. This was perfect timing since I'm busy scrapping pictures from our trip to Hawaii!
I created this layout, Jet Setter, using fun photos from Simple Stories.

Plane Fun

For the month of August, Rochelle Spears blog challenge was to create a travel themed page. I used some great shots of Jack at the airport watching planes from the airport window.

This was combined with GrandDiva's Creative Corner sketch challenge using the following sketch:

...as well as Kristi B's recipe challenge using stripes, wood, and mixed alphas.

Night Photos

This past Four of July we played with the camera to get some fun pictures with sparklers! We each stood very still while slowly (or if you're a kid, quickly) drawing pictures with the sparklers while the lens was open on the camera. We loved how some of the pictures  came out!

I used Sketch N Scrap sketch #38 for inspiration for my layout...

Making A Scene

We took so many fun photos at the ballet recital this year and the girls are just goofy enough to get some great candids!
I used the pretty Carta Bella papers which coordinated so perfectly with their pink gingham costumes.

This worked out perfectly for the challenge over at About a Girl Scrapbook Challenge Blog, where the challenge for August is to create a layout using one color, and that color must also be in your photos.
I used this fun sketch from PageMaps for my inspiration...

Printing Instagram

I have played around with printing off Instagram photos in the past on 4X6 formats but have never been able to have them come out quite right. This month, I got a coupon from Walgreens for 25% off Instagram prints and discovered they print them in 4X4 format!
I printed so many and love how they turned out!
I used them on this sketch from Sketch N Scrap which featured square photos...

The photos I printed were black & white which worked well with these pretty papers from Authentique.

Ice Cream Treats

With a little less than a month left of summer vacation, it was fun to look back at our vacation and all the places we went. The theme throughout seems to be beach and sweet treats and I love all the ice cream pictures we took along the way!
To recap our summer, and as part of the August My Mind's Eye Challenge, I used these cute papers by My Mind's Eye and the little ice cream truck title, Ice Cream Treats.

I also used the sketch from Paper Secrets with the twist to use a word embellishment for which I used the ice cream truck title.

And I also entered this as part of Scrap Our Stash's Challenge #6, creating a summertime layout with 3 or more premade die cuts.

A New Year's Tradition

It's always fun to dig through pictures from the past winter when the weather is getting hot and humid!
This month over at About a Girl Scrapbook Challenges the challenge is to scrap a page using the word "new". I immediately thought of New Year's Day and our tradition of going to the American Girl Store for the Doll of the Year Reveal and waiting outside in the freezing cold.

I used a sketch from PageMaps June sketch contest for inspiration:

Red, White, and Blue

With July kicking off with the Independence Day holiday, I had a great time digging into my stash of Fourth of July papers!
I used Paper Secrets Sketch with a Twist Challenge as inspiration for my layout:

I used My Mind's Eye paper as part of their July blog challenge, using red, white, and blue.

 I also entered this in About A Boy Scrapbook Challenge using red, white, and blue.
Also using red, white, and blue this month is S.W.A.T. for their Red White, and Blue Blog Hop!
And also over at Scrap It Girl, the July challenge also featured the patriotic red, white, and blue theme!
And don't forget to check out Scrap Our Stash's challenge using red, white, and blue and some premade stars like the chipboard ones I used.

The Paper Girls Challenge

With tons of pictures from Hannah's ballet recital, I was finally able to use some of the ballet paper I had been hoarding this year.
I really liked Echo Park's mini kit with elegant designs and fresh colors.

I used the June sketch challenge at The Paper Girls Challenge Blog for inspiration.

And here is what I came up with.

I traced a template on the striped paper to create the scallop design and with only a scrap of this pretty blue crocheted ribbon left, I split it and hid the gap with some oversized flowers. I stapled bits of ribbon to the top edge of the photo to tie in with the bold black letters and some bling to create depth and movement.

My Scraps & More Sketch Number Four

The last sketch for June over at My Scraps & More featured lots of layers...

I used hexagons punched using my newest tool, the Fiskars hex punch, to embellish the layout design where the stars are featured.

Our Ballerina

As an avid scrapper knows, sometimes an outfit is just perfect for the paper you have!
When I saw Hannah's ballet costume for this year, I immediately said (yes, out loud) "It goes with my Bo Bunny Isabella paper!

The pretty pinks and of course, the elegant ballet feel, was just perfect!

I added metal butterflies to add to the printed ones. I glimmer misted a doily in a deep gray and added gray and black flowers and some black bling flourishes.
The layout inspiration comes from My Creative Sketches June sketch:

Playing with Scraps

I love all the beautiful paper designs and because of that, hold on to all the scraps.

I had some great end pieces from these cute papers from Cosmo Cricket. I love how using scraps created a page with lots of white space, which I added a walnut stain circle to, to frame the photo. I added wood butterflies in the same stain to bring a color variance to the layout.
The sketch inspiration comes from Scrap Much? and their Sketch-y Friday sketch:

And another layout from my scraps from this collection:

I used Scrap Our Stash's sketch using only scraps, a premade tag, and twine.

My Mind's Eye June Sketch Challenge

I loved Hannah's vintage cowgirl costume for her ballet recital and I printed some of the photos in sepia to give it a vintage touch.
My Mind's Eye Miss Caroline collection had the perfect feel with the woodgrain and pretty flowers and doilies.

I used the June sketch on their blog for inspiration for my layout.

I also used Scrapbook Challenge's Get Messy Challenge for inspiration. I misted the background with glimmer mist, then painted the wood butterflies in coordinating dye. My fingers are green like kermit but I love how they turned out.

Signs of a Scrapaholic

I love playing along with scrap challenges and a clue I might be addicted? This month's challenge over at Challenge Me Happy involved using sequins. Since I amazingly did not have any in my stash, I went and dug through my ten year old daughter's closet, which just happens to be full of shiny, sparkly, sequiny things! When I found some gloves (yes winter gloves with sequins) that looked like their life was short, I snipped and ta-da! sequins on my layout!
Also included in their challenge recipe was more than one photo, sewing, 2+ patterned papers, washi tape, and an anchor. A varied mix but it worked out nicely for this layout of a ferry trip to downtown.

I also used inspiration from My Scraps & More Sketch Challenge #32...

which worked out well for the Challenge over at It's All About the Boys, using circles. I added buttons to add to the circle effect!
And the color inspiration came from Scrap Much with a color combo that had a very nautical feel to it.

Ombre with Ink

I love to follow the challenges over at My Scraps & More and the June 21st challenge was to create an ombre effect on your layout.
Using some phone pics, yes, I actually print my phone pics which document day to day life, I did a layout of my favorite addiction...coffee. Since I don't sleep much (I think this is due to my scrapping habit) coffee and I are good friends!
It was perfect to use ombre to create the coffee stained look on my background of this layout which is titled, Sleep Is Highly Overrated.

I added bunches of buttons as part of Sketch n Scrap's birthday challenge using buttons.
I also used My Scraps & More Sketch #33 for the June Challenges.