Selfie Mini Album

I wanted to make a quick mini album of all the photos that my husband and I are in together from our trip to Ireland. After all, the whole reason for the trip was to celebrate 10 years of being together. Today I have that selfie mini album.

I thought it would be fun to use the Tim Holtz Idea-ology Flip Frame to bind/display my album. What makes this frame so fun, is that I can put a page on display for a little while, and then after a few days flip to the next page to enjoy that one for a little while.

I kept the pages simple by using larger photos and embellishing over the photos. I also chose one 6x6 paper pad, and used that for the whole album. I grabbed DoCrafts True Blue paper pad since the colors were fairly neutral. 

For embellishments, I used a lot of Heidi Swapp's Minc Stickers covered in Therm O Web Deco Foil and Simple Stories DIY Insta Stickers.

Per my usual problem with mini albums, this album is not so mini. I think there are something like 20 pages to it, but the frame is definitely large enough to hold them all.

It might be a little while until I get all of my photos from our Ireland trip scrapped, but at least I have this to enjoy for now. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Garden Layout

This is a bit of a different type of garden layout. When we were in Blarney, we checked out the fun poison garden, so of course I took some photos, and of course I had to scrap them.

Because I normally scrap my boys, I don't usually get to use a lot of floral prints. For a garden layout, however, the floral prints from Pebbles From Me to You were perfect!

I love the photo frames in this collection. I've used them from everything from mini albums to framing design elements. As you can see, here I used one for a journaling tag.

I added an extra chipboard flower sticker, and an enamel dot to make it pop even more.  

The right hand side of the layout are photos from the dungeon and caves below Blarney Castle. While not exactly garden photos, they went well enough with my Poison Garden photos from the other half of the page.

Thanks for stopping by!

Camping Memories

Now that we own a camper, we do a decent amount of camping in the summer. It's a lot of (exhausting) fun together as a family. Today I have some camping memories from our first outing this camping season.

I was super excited when Bella Blvd released its new camping collection, Camp Out. It's bright and fun, and I couldn't wait to scrap some photos with it. Most of the time I don't take my nice camera with me when we go camping. Camping is messy and dirty, and I want to live in the moment with my kids and not worry about what I did with my camera. I'm not, however, opposed to pulling out my phone and snapping a group photo or two.

We took these silly family photos at the top of a tall lookout tower that we like to ride our bikes or hike to when we're camping. As you can see from my youngest son's face in the photo above, he doesn't love heights, but he loves to climb anyways.

Have you been out camping yet this season? What's your favorite way to capture memories when roughing it?

Liberty Banner

I love creating patriotic decor. I usually put it up for Labor Day and leave it up through the 4th of July. I've been wanting to create this Liberty Banner since I put my decorations up, but I finally just got around to it. 

I started with paper from Pebbles Americana collection and the awesome new We R Memory Keepers Banner Punch Board. Truth be told, you can make this banner without the punch board. However, if you make more than one banner in your lifetime, this tool is absolutely worth owning. It's sooooo easy and so much fun to use. I've made a lot of banners before, but with the Banner Punch Board it took me half the time. The biggest decision was deciding what shape of banner to make.

You can actually make 3 different types of banners with the punch board. They can be triangle, fishtail, or crest. I decided it would be fun to mix 2 of the types of banner ends; triangle and fishtail (if you'd like to see the crest end in action, check out this WRMK blog post where Aly creates a pocket with a crest banner).

I thought this banner could use a bit of sparkle, so I used some white glitter Thickers to spell out LIBERTY. The rest of the embellishments came from the Americana die cut shapes pack and the Americana Dimensional Glitter Stars.

The last step is to string the banner. The Banner Punch Board has a hole punch right on it, so all of your holes are perfectly lined up! I used some American Crafts Baker's Twine to string the banner. I decided to string it so that the twine would come across the front of the banner instead of being hidden behind...no rhyme or reason why, I just liked how it looked.
Do you like making banners? I'd love to see some of your favorite creations!

Explore

I'm fitting in a little blogging and scrapping between swimming lessons and baseball and all that summer fun time! Today, I have another Ireland layout. I'm mixing and matching a bit of paper with this one, playing around with some chipboard frames, journaling on vellum, and using my favorite new stuff: Therm O Web's Deco Foil. Here's Explore:

This is one of those layouts that's so much better in person. It has lots of texture and depth due to the chipboard frames, vellum, and foiled embellishments.

The patterned papers that I used for this layout are from Crate Paper's Notes & Things collection. The soft colors in this collection help set the mood for this layout. Since I used so many textures on this layout, the soft colors also help keep the layout from feeling busy.

I've been using a lot of stickers from American Crafts Shimelle Sticker Book for my Ireland layouts, and this layout was no exception. 

I used some gold Therm O Web foil over the word Explore from the Heidi Swapp Minc Jumbo Words Die Cuts for my title.

I love chipboard frames, but rarely use them to actually frame photos. For this page I used some Simple Stories I Am chipboard frames to frame some gold patterned vellum. 

Finally, I had to add some journaling, so I printed it out on vellum to keep with the soft vibe of the Explore layout. 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Using Frame Paper

It feels like it's been a while since I've share a 1 page layout, so today I have one of those. It's been fun scrapping our Ireland trip because I've been using lots of different paper. Some of it's new, and some, like today, is older paper that I get to use in a whole new and different way. Today I got to use frame paper that I would normally cut apart, but instead am using frame paper as the main background paper.

 The paper and embellishments are Pebbles From Me to You. It's a bit of an older collection that I have in my stash still. To use the frame paper as the main paper, I covered the sayings that didn't work with photos and journaling. Then I played up the frames that were left by adding enamel hearts over printed hearts and popped up flower stickers over printed flowers.

This layout was a great way to scrap a bunch of different sized photos and use some of my stash all on the same page.

 Thanks for stopping by. 

Father's Day Cards

I can't believe it's June already, but that means it's time to start thinking about Father's Day. I've got my gifts, so now it's time for some Father's Day cards.

I wish you could see these in person. Therm O Web's Deco Foil is so pretty, and it just doesn't come across right in photos. For these cards I used the ocean blue foil. It's really striking in person, and looks great on those big, bold stripes.

I chose Avery Elle's The Man stamp set for both cards. It has lots of fun options for Father's Day cards for both outside and inside the card.

I used blue foil on both cards, but decided to mix up the accent colors. I went with red for the card on the left and orange for the card on the right. It's a little different than my standard blue and green combo for man cards.

I kept my embellishments pretty clean and simple so the foiled paper could really shine (pun totally intended!).

Have you made you Father's Day cards yet? I'd love to see them.
Thanks for stopping by!

Gift Card Greeting Card

I give a lot of gift cards for gifts. I always like to try and personalize the gift cards by giving them in a pretty card or gift card container. Today I'm sharing a gift card greeting card.

The paper and embellishments for this card come from Pebbles Inc Garden Party collection. It's floral, spring-y feel is great for this time of year. I also chose to use it, because I thought the Garden Party Pockets would make a fun place to stash a gift card to my favorite paper crafting store.

I like to create matching envelopes when I can, too. So for this one I used my new We R Memory Keepers 1-2-3 Punch Board. If you haven't gotten your hands on the 1-2-3 Punch Board yet, you could also use the WRMK Envelope Punch Board.

I always like adding a washi wrap to my envelopes. This one was being hand delivered, so I didn't need to add an address...but they're just a fun touch no matter what.
How do you like to dress up your gift cards for gifting?