Awesome Friends Layout

For my oldest son's eighth birthday, we took a group of his friends swimming and then out to the local pizza place for supper. My husband and I walked away from that evening amazed with the wonderful kids my son has decided to surround himself with and call friends. Seriously, there wasn't one kid there who wasn't polite and fun and sweet. Today I'm sharing my Awesome Friends Layout.

 The background of the layout is made from Bella Blvd's Lucky Starz Bell Pepper and Lucky Starz Pickle. What can I say? I love a good word print, and Pickle is certainly that. Combining it with Bell Pepper added a nice pop of color.

I backed all the photos in Lucky Starz Surf N Turf.

 I used card from Bella Blvd's Max Candid Cards pack for journaling and a bit of embellishing. I also added a little Doodle Pop Present to add to the birthday feel of the layout. 

 Thanks for stopping by!

Celebrate Card

Sometimes a piece of paper is sitting on your desk, and an idea hits you. That's definitely what happened with the Celebrate Card that I'm sharing today. I had some Bella Blvd paper on my desk that I using for some birthday layouts, and I just had a card idea hit me that I had to stop and make.

The striped paper is what started the card. It's the back side of one of the Bella Blvd Max Candid Cards. I thought it would be fun to cut part of the stripes out of the center and pop the striped paper up over the negative, cut out space.

The star paper in the negative space is part of another Candid Card, and so is that sweet little fox. I layered everything up on a larger piece of  Bella Blvd blue star paper called Lucky Starz Surf N Turf. The colors make this card perfect for a masculine birthday card.

Now, I'm going to get back to scrapping those birthday layouts.

 Thanks for stopping by!

To the Moon and Back

I thought I'd scrap some more with Pebbles Inc's We Go Together collection. I had so much fun using it on this layout that I knew I had to make a few more projects with it. Today, I have my To the Moon and Back layout to share.

I thought it would be fun to use the paper airplane paper with a photo from my youngest son's Kindergarten Graduation. I love this photo so very much. It really sums up my kiddos' personalities in one photo. While my oldest can be silly, he's usually the one who's more serious and tends to follow the rules. My younger one tends to be the one who's a bit crazy, and does his own thing.

I added some chipboard frames from Simple Stories I Am and layered them up with a few stickers. 

I also added a little bit of machine stitching on the layout. I don't sew on my layouts a lot, but my machine was calling to me on this layout. It just needed a zig zag stitch.

 Thanks for stopping by!

You & Me

I neglected my blog a bit the past week. Life got the better of my, but I'm back now! Ok, for today I have a layout with a picture I'm actually in! Here's You & Me.

First, I just have to say that I'm madly in love with this guy. I have the most amazing husband, and I get to wake up every day and live my happily ever after. Second, we have very few photos together (seriously, we went out for Valentine's Day for the first time in forever, and we forgot to take a picture...and I call myself a scrapbooker!), so I've decided to make sure I take the time to scrap every photo we take together. We're in this crazy, wonderful life together and we remind each other daily that it's "you & me" in this together, some day it will be nice to have the photos, too.

This photo was actually taken at Christmas, but I wanted to focus more on us than on when the photo was taken. I love the sweet themes of Pebbles We Go Together collection and decided to use that. I got a little cutesy with the "you light up my life" and "we go together like..." cards, but I just couldn't resist. To make the photo the focal point of the layout, I framed it with a chipboard frame from Simple Stories I Am collection.

We Go Together is a fun Valentine's Day collection, but as you can see, it has uses outside of just Valentine projects. The little epoxy hearts are some of my very favorite embellishments, and you'll be seeing them in lots of future layouts too.

This collection just makes me happy, and I can't wait to find more uses for it.
Thanks for stopping by!

Quick Valentine's Day Gifts

Need a few last minute quick Valentine's Day gifts? Chocolate's always a good bet, and if you wrap it up pretty, it's even better! 

I used Pebble's Inc's Yours Truly on both projects. 

For the nugget tin, I wrapped each nugget with a piece of patterned paper. I trimmed down a few of the phrase stickers and added them randomly to some of the chocolates as well.

I kept decorating the tin simple by adding a few strips of patterned paper, another phrase sticker, and a few candy dots. 

For my candy bar wrapper, I started by wrapping the entire bar in patterned paper. Then I added a strip of card stock that I punched with a border punch on both sides. I die cut a small label and stamped my greeting in white ink on it. Taylored Expressions has this adorably pun-y Valentines Day stamp set with matching dies that I just couldn't pass up. I finished up by cutting the deer that matched my greeting.

Now I have some cute and quick candy gifts to give!

Thanks for stopping by.

Moxxie Love Blog Hop

Welcome to Moxxie's February Blog Hop! This month it's all about the love. I decided to show just how easy it is to use Moxxie's Tiny Dancer for love and Valentine's themed projects for the Moxxie Love Blog Hop.

 This collection is just perfect for scrapping my sweet little niece's newborn pictures. 

I started by cutting my pink polka dot paper at an angle.When I start to feel stuck, or feel like my layouts are starting to be the same, I start turning papers at an angle.  It's a great way to get the creativity flowing and add something a little unexpected to a layout.

I am in LOVE with the new gray alphas from Moxxie.  Gray is hands down my favorite neutral, so these are now a staple in my craft room. 

I finished up the layout by adding some sequins and glitter tape, because every little girl layout can use a little sparkle.

Now check out the rest of the blogs and don't forget to comment along the way to be entered for a chance at this month's prize.

Samantha Taylor (you are here)

Jennifer Taylor

Amelia Harris

Julie McGowan

Leslie Mitchell

Wendi Robinson

Renee Robbins

Joan Liddle

Daniella Hayes

Amy Allred

Rebecca Price

Ange Weisbeck

Moxxie

 To be eligible to WIN 

(Of course there's a PRIZE!)

 all you have to do is comment on the Moxxie blog.
(US addresses only please) 

Extra chances to win include:
  Comment- on any (or all) of the designers blogs
  Facebook- share the blog hop post or one of the challenge posts (let us know by leaving a link on the Moxxie blog)
  Pinterest- pin any (or all) of these wonderful projects (leave a link for each pin on the Moxxie blog)
  Challenge- Enter your paper-made take on our LOVE challenge using the link up below. 3 extra entries if you use MOXXIE product! Link directly to your project or project post.

Commenting and Challenge end Feb. 28th
Winner announced Mon. March 2nd.

Moxxie Bible Camp Layout

I'm sharing another layout using Moxxie's new releases over on the Moxxie blog today. This just might be my favorite collection of all the new releases.  You're going to fall in love with the colors and beautiful patterns, too! Head on over to the blog to see all the details and find out how I created it.

Cousins Layout

My kids have grown up with lots of cousins on my husband's side of the family. They are wonderful cousins who we get to see and play with often, but until just a few months ago they didn't have any cousins from my side of the family.  At Christmas we finally got to meet our newest niece and cousin (as they live quite far away from us). We only got one opportunity to photograph all 3 kiddos together, so naturally I had to make a cousins layout. 

I loved the heart paper from American Crafts Shimelle, so I decided to use that collection to build my layout.  Shimelle has such a pretty combination of grays, blues, salmon pinks and gold. It's a nice mix of masculine and feminine for these 2 boys and that sweet girl.

 I played up the gold in the collection in the embellishments. Using gold embellishments is a way to pull in some gold without going over the top.

 I also added a photo overlay from Pebbles Special Delivery. I love a good photo overlay, and the Special Delivery pack is one of my go to overlay packs.

I'm looking forward to capturing more memories with these 3.

Thanks for stopping by.