You at 10 Layout

I have been taking annual photos of my kids for quite a few years now. One of my favorite things to is to scrap one of those photos and write up a bit of a summary about who my kid is at that age. Today I have my youngest son's You at 10 layout from his most recent annual photos.

These are some of my very favorite layouts to create, but the journaling is often the hardest. I love hitting on the highlights of who my kid is. Sometimes it can be tough to sum up their likes, ideas, and best things about them in a few sentences, but the end result is so worth it. These are the best layouts to go back and look at years later.

I'm continuing to work my way through my stash. This layout is created from a pile of Bella Blvd and Illustrated Faith paper. I literally plopped a pile of all my non-holiday Bella Blvd paper on my desk and just started pulling pieces that I liked with the photo. E's gray and red shirt made pulling gray and red paper a no brainer. They simple color combo lets the photo take center stage.

Since the journaling is a big part of this layout, I used my journaling cards as a big part of design of the layout as well. I've got to be honest, this You at 10 layout gets me right in the feels. I'm pretty sure my kids are growing up way too fast!

Gift Card Box

Today I wanted to share how I created a rectangle gift card box with my We R Memory Keepers 123 Punch Board. I created a Christmas gift card box, but this will work for any occasion, just switch out the paper. Do bear with me as there are a lot of photos in this post, but I promise, once you make one it's really easy.

For a 3 1/2" x 2 1/4" x 1/2" gift box all you'll need is the We R Memory Keepers 123 Punch Board, some adhesive (I love Glue Dots® Ultra Thin and Repositionable for this task), and a 5 5/8" x 5 5/8" piece of patterned paper (I used Bella Blvd Illustrated Faith Christmas).

The standard directions for making a box with the punch board will give you a square box, so to make a rectangle we need to change up the directions just a bit.

Step 1: Line up your paper to the 2" mark, punch, and score along Box Score Line A and Box Score line B.

Step 2: Without rotating your paper move it to the 2 3/4" mark, punch, and score along Box Score Line A and Box Score line B.

Step 3: Rotate your paper 90 degrees counterclockwise. Line your first score line up with the Box Score Line A line, punch, and score your paper along Box Score Line B.

Step 4: Without rotating your paper line up your second score line with the Box Score Line A line, punch, and score along Box Score Line B.

Now you're going to rotate your paper 90 degrees counterclockwise and repeat steps 1-4.

 When you've completed steps 1-4 twice, you'll be all set to assemble your box. Just follow the directions on the punch board for assembly.

I like to use a Repositionable Glue Dot® to hold my gift card snugly in the box.

You have 2 options for closing up the box. If you want it to lie flat, you'll have to skip the corner slitter punch, and your top will have a bit of an envelope look to it. Just use adhesive to hold it shut. 

I chose to use the corner slitter punch on my longer sides, and ended up with a gabled box top instead. 

To make the box a little more festive, I used the 123 Punch Board to create a bow (this is the XS bow size).

I give out a lot of gift cards, so I love having the option of making a quick gift card box now, too. If you're looking for a few more ideas for gift card giving, check out my festive Gift Card Envelopes or for a unique twist these Gift Card Coin Envelopes. If you have any questions about the creation of this gift card box, don't hesitate to leave me a comment or email me!

I wrote this post while participating on the Glue Dots® Design Team.

Masculine Christmas Tags

I'm over on the SRM blog with some masculine Christmas tags.

Head on over to the SRM Blog to see all the details on how I created these.

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?