Kayaking Layout

One of the things my oldest really loves to do is go kayaking at his granparents' lake home. This summer was no exception. He couldn't wait to hop in and take off. I was quick enough to grab a few photos, so today I have a kayaking layout to share.

I based my whole layout off of SRM's Say it With Stickers Mini Kayaking sticker set. It's not easy to find anything kayaking themed, so I was pretty excited to get these from SRM!

I paired the stickers with Jillibean Soup's Fur Fusion. While I initially picked up Fur Fusion to scrap photos of our dog, I've found so many other uses for the collection. The colors are rich and bright, and there are a lot of really fun, non-pet themed papers in the collection. Just make sure to check both sides of the paper!

I love how happy kayaking makes this kid, and I'm so happy to have some fun stickers for this kayaking layout. What outdoor activity makes you happy?

Wedding Card

We have a wedding to attend this weekend, so I needed a card. Lately, I'm really enjoying the mix of black, white, and gold. I figured it would make a great color combo for a wedding card.

I started with DCWV's Modern Metallic Stack. The stack has a ton of beautiful black and white, black and gold, and solid gold papers in it. It's super yummy! The pops of shiny gold metallic make for a really elegant wedding card.

I wanted to keep it elegant but simple, so I grabbed a Mr. & Mrs. sticker and a Happily ever after sticker from SRM's Stickers By the Dozen Wedding sticker sheet to uses as sentiments. I thought they fit well with the overall modern feel of the card.

The final touch for this card is a handmade matching envelope. The little heart pattern is perfect for an envelope for a wedding card!

Video Game Birthday Party

Last month we celebrated my son's 10th birthday. He wanted to have a video game birthday party, so I got busy creating a few things for the party. Today I thought I'd share a few of the banners and things I made for his birthday and provide some free printables in case you're looking to throw your own video game birthday party.

Every year I make a birthday banner to hang over one of our windows. Instead of "happy birthday" I thought "Level 10" would fit the theme well.

I also do a name sign every year. I created both the Level 10 banner and the name sign with my Silhouette Cameo.

Now on to the free printables. You can download everything by clicking here.

Included in there is everything I used for the goodie bag above (Bonus Points treat topper, Power Up Medallion, Achievement Unlocked label, and Game Over labels).

You'll also find this Game On printable. It fits nicely in an 8x10 frame.

Besides paper crafting, my husband and I also always make our boy's birthday cakes. This year's looked like an Xbox controller. It turned out pretty cute! Now my oldest is 10, and I think we had a pretty successful video game birthday party!

SRM Blog Watercolor Printable

I'm over on the SRM blog today sharing a fun project that combines a free printable and some of SRM's watercolor twist pencils.

Head on over to the SRM blog to see all the details and pick up your free Back to School printable for yourself!

Camping Layout

My boys are never so happy as when we go camping. Until I had boys, camping wasn't something I did, but now I love it, because I get to see it through their eyes. Today I have a camping layout created with some of the photos from our last camping trip from before school started this year.

I was pretty proud of myself after this week of camping. I took my boys up for 3 days of camping all by ourselves before my husband joined us for the weekend. This is the first time I've braved camping by myself, and it was so worth it. We had a blast, swam a lot, explored even more, and stayed up waaaay too late watching the Olympics at night. It was pretty great to get some extra days in by going up early!

 Since we do more and more camping every year, I'm always on the look out for fun camping collections. Jillibean Soup Mushroom Medley totally fits the bill. It's playful and rustic. It has some great pops of color that keep it from being too dark.

Since I chose a bit of a darker color (the green paper) for the main part of my layout, I kept the photos bright by matting them in white. I also used plenty of bright blue, yellow, and orange embellishments to keep the overall feeling of the layout bright and playful. 

I love that I have this camping layout to remind me next year that I can totally brave camping for a few days by myself with my boys! Do you ever camp alone, or do you always make sure you have back up?

Amusement Park Layout

It's been a while since I've created a 2 page layout, so I'm fixing that today with a two page amusement park layout.

There's a great (and inexpensive!) amusement park near my parents' place in Wisconsin. We haven't made it there for a few years, so this summer it went on the "must do" list. We even got to meet up with my cousin and her sweet kids for a bit.

I mixed and matched a few different paper collections for this layout. I started with Echo Park's A Fair to Remember as the base for my layout. I love the blue, yellow, and reds in the collection. It's perfectly bright and cheery for an amusement park layout.

I still had some stickers and paper from an old Moxxie collection called Midway Madness. The colors went pretty well with the Echo Park paper, so I added in some items from that collection as embellishments and details for the layout.

 My youngest stuck to the tamer rides, but my oldest couldn't wait to go on some of the faster, spinnier, crazier rides. Since I love thrill rides, I'm pretty excited that he's now tall enough and daring enough to go on some of them with me!

I don't take too many pictures when we're out having fun, just enough to remember the day, so this 2 page amusement park layout was enough to get all my photos scrapped. What's your favorite thing to do at amusement parks?

Field Trip Layout

One of the best parts about school is going on field trips. I love going along with my kids and watching them interact with their friends. Today I'm sharing a field trip layout documenting the fun we had on my son's 3rd grade trip. 

I made sure to pick up a few of the Iowa papers from Echo Park's State Side collection. We actually live close to South Dakota, so many of my kids' field trips end up in South Dakota. We finally had a field trip that stayed in Iowa, so I didn't hesitate to use my Iowa state paper.

I wanted to use the state shape to frame my photo, so I made sure my photo collage fit inside the state shape. I also clustered my embellishments and journaling around the photo and corners of the layout in a way that wouldn't obstruct the state shape printed on the paper.

I love that this field trip layout gets to mix a bit of memory documenting and state pride. What state are you from?