You at 9

This is a personal blog. All editorial content and projects are intellectual property of Taylor Stamped. Some links are affiliate links.
Last week I shared a layout with my youngest's annual photo, and today I'm sharing a similar one of my oldest child. This layout is all about who my son is at 9.

The trendy colors and simple but playful patterns from My Mind's Eye Jubilee Tangerine are perfect for scrapping this fun photo of my son. 

I like to keep the journaling close to the photo, as the journaling about who my son is and what he likes at this age is just as important to the layout as the photo. The, "you amaze me" flair was the perfect piece to finish off the journaling.

Honestly, I can't believe this kiddo is 9. I'm so glad I'll be able to jot down memories about him, so as he gets older and older I'll be able to remember all his favorites and see how much he's changed and how much he's stayed the same. 

You at 7 Layout

This is a personal blog. All editorial content and projects are intellectual property of Taylor Stamped. Some links are affiliate links. 
Every year I take photos of my kids. Every year I like to take one of my favorite photos from that session and scrap it with some notes about who they are at that age. Today I have a You at 7 layout from one of those sessions.

I usually like to wait for just the right paper to come along to scrap these types of photos, so I usually jot down some thoughts about their personality around their birthday, and then stash those notes with the photos until I find the right paper. 
 

My Mind's Eye Jubilee Tangerine has been out for a while, but I just stumbled across it a few weeks ago. I knew it would be perfect for scrapping by boys' most recent annual photos. It's a bold collection that has lots of whimsical prints mixed in.

The main focus of this layout is on the photo and the journaling, so I kept the embellishment groupings simple and close to the focal points. All of the paper layering, all of the embellishments, draw your eye in to the main pieces of the layout.

I love this snapshot of my youngest at seven. How do you capture milestones?

Black, White, and Silver Layout

This is a personal blog. All editorial content and projects are intellectual property of Taylor Stamped. I do receive financial compensation and material product from American Crafts and  A Walk Down Memory Lane to develop my craft posts, but all ideas and opinions are my own. Some links are affiliate links.

 I love using lots of color on my layouts, but once in a while it's fun to play around with the absence of color on a layout. Today, I have a black, white, and silver layout.

I started with a Bella Blvd Clear Cut. I loved the black arrows and adventure words for my travel layout. Since the paper is clear, I backed it with a piece of simple white card stock.

To bring in some interest, I matted each of my photos with shiny silver card stock. I carried more of the silver throughout the layout with the help of some silver Therm O Web Deco Foil and some Heidi Swapp Minc Insta Cards.

 Finally I added a few more touches of black, white, and silver with some We R Memory Keepers Clearly Posh Ephemera and We R Enamel Dots and Shapes.

 This black, white, and sliver layout is a nice break from my normal bright colors. It has a fun, modern and sophisticated feel, and successfully tells the story I wanted to tell! 

Belle Vie Layout

Hello! Tuesday I shared a layout from one of Photo Play Paper's new collections, Paper Dolls, but that's not the only great new collection designed by Julie Nutting. Today I'm sharing a layout created from Photo Play Paper's Belle Vie.

For this super feminine collection, I once again had to reach for a photo (taken by Candice Berman Photography) from my niece's 1 year photo shoot.

This lovely collection has a bit of upscale, Parisian feel to it, so it lent itself perfectly to a bit of gold. In the photo, my niece's shirt, bow, and birthday banner all have gold in them, so I mirrored that with a bit of gold textured card stock.

The Hello Beautiful journaling card was meant for this little girl's photo, and it served as the perfect title, too. This elegant collection just seems to call for clean lines and simple embellishing. 

Bella Vie is another knock out collection by Photo Play Paper and Julie Nutting!

Paper Dolls Layout

I was lucky enough to win a giveaway from Photo Play Paper, so I got my hands on their Paper Dolls and Belle Vie collections by Julie Nutting straight off the press. Needless to say, both of these collections are gorgeous, and I couldn't wait to create with them. I've been busy playing with both of them, and today I'm sharing a layout I created from the Paper Dolls collection.

My sister just gave me some of my niece's 1 year photos (taken by the talented Candice Berman Photography). When these new Photo Play Paper collections showed up, I knew I would be using them to scrap my niece's adorable and elegant photos.

Paper Dolls is such a soft and elegant collection. It has a touch of vintage, but pops of bright pink and shades of blue keep the collection feeling fresh.

Pretty layers of patterned paper help draw the eye to the photo and are a great way to use all the different patterns instead of having to just chose one! Since I usually scrap my boys, it's not too often that I get to dig into my stash of lace trim and Marion Smith vintage inspired gems and flowers. For this layout, however, all my pretty, girly embellishments were perfect! My style tends to lean towards clean and simple, so I just added a few clusters of the embellishments.

This Paper Dolls layout was so fun to create. The patterns coordinate so well that it makes the papers super easy to mix and match. Now I just need my sister to send me more photos so I have more reasons to scrap with Paper Dolls!

Getting Started Bible Journaling

This is a personal blog. All editorial content and projects are intellectual property of Taylor Stamped. I do receive financial compensation and material product from A Walk Down Memory Lane to develop my craft posts, but all ideas and opinions are my own. Some links are affiliate links.

As you probably know, Bible journaling is really popular. The moment I saw it, I fell in love with the idea of it...but here's the thing, I'm no artist. I'm a paper crafter, but I don't art journal, I can't draw, and I don't even have very good handwriting. I decided, though, that it doesn't matter. I want to journal in my Bible. There are some amazing Bible journaling artist out there, and my pages aren't going to look like theirs (not now, and maybe not ever), but that's okay. Today's post is just a bit of encouragement and a few things I've found helpful for getting started Bible journaling.

First of all, if you're already a  paper crafter, I'd encourage you to use what you have in your stash. Have lots of inks? Use those. Love Gelatos? Use those. Like to stamp? Then by all means, stamp in your Bible! Then start building on your stash as you find your groove and learn what you like to use. A few things I do suggest having are:
1. A journaling Bible or if you're want to start with something a little less permanent, a pretty journal, or a Bible Study Book (I love the ones from She Reads Truth, and they're great for journaling in).
2. Some good pens. I love the Illustrated Faith Pen (that I bought specifically for Bible Journaling), and I use a handful of colored American Crafts Precision Pens (that I already own for layout journaling).
3. Something to place behind the page you're working on to keep the ink/paint/whatever from bleeding into the rest of your Bible. I started by just using a thin piece of cardboard, but as soon as I could get my hands on an Illustrated Faith Bible Mat, I got that (you can see it peeking out from behind my pages in some of the photos below). It really helps to protect your Bible.

That's all I bought to begin. Everything else I have been using for the past 6 months or so has come from my craft stash. Now, I'll show you how I created the page above.

Since I'm not great with drawing, I love to add color and drama to my pages with inks and watercoloring. I thought I'd combine the two by doing some watercoloring with my Distress Inks. I just pressed my inks in Cracked Pistachio, Squeezed Lemonade, and Picked Raspberry directly onto my Sticky Thumb Splat Mat. Then I used a Water Brush to pick up the inks and paint then directly onto my Bible page.

Next, I used a Penny Black stencil to add some dots to my journaling space. I placed some washi tape on the stencil to block off the area of the stencil that I wanted to use. I sponged some Picked Raspberry ink directly onto the paper through the stencil. 

 I finished up by adding my journaling, some washi tape, and a few stickers.

My finished page isn't perfect, but it's my thoughts on this part of Genesis written down in a way that makes my creative heart happy.

 Have you tried out Bible journailing? What are some of your favorite techniques to use?

Scrapping a Large Piece of Memorabilia

This is a personal blog. All editorial content and projects are intellectual property of Taylor Stamped. I do receive financial compensation and material product from American Crafts and  A Walk Down Memory Lane to develop my craft posts, but all ideas and opinions are my own. Some links are affiliate links.

I've found that when we travel (whether it's a short weekend trip or something longer), I not only end up with lots of photos to scrap but lots of memorabilia like maps and tickets, too. Today, I'm sharing a layout that shows how I dealt with scrapping a large piece of memorabilia - a city map.

I decided to treat the map like I would a large photo. I let it take center stage on the left hand side of my 2 page layout. Since the map is such a big embellishment, I kept the rest of my embellishments on the page pretty simple. 

Because the map is black and white, I decided to go with some of the more colorful papers from Pink Paislee Atlas. Adding some pops of red, blue, and green helps brighten up the dullness of the map.

The right hand side of my page is also full of bright colors. Since the photos on this page are in color instead of black and white, I matted the photos with a bit of green paper to make them stand out and draw your eye. 

Since I had a little more space on the right hand side of the layout, I added a few more embellishments and a bit more layering. 

Scrapping a large piece of memorabilia definitely worked better for me when I treated the map like a large photo. Do you like to keep maps, tickets, and bits of non photo memories too?