Using a Layout Sketch

Hello again! Sorry it's been so long.

Got a little bit of scrapbooking done this weekend, including this single page layout for Allison and Stephen's wedding album. I wanted to try going from a pre-designed sketch (never done that before; usually I just make it up myself as I go along). So I did some Google searching, and found the My Little Sketch Blook website, where Liz has created dozens of layout ideas to give some inspiration.

I had two horizontal 4x6's to work with, so that narrowed down my choices of sketches. In the end I chose this one for my inspirational starting point.

And here is what I came up with (sorry about the weird glare above Allison's head)

I left out some of the frills (including the butterflies. Wasn't a fan of those), but I did want to do some kind of flower in the bottom left corner. I used a Martha Stewart flower punch for that, and whatever yellow and beige paper scraps I had lying around. I added ribbon to the top, because it matched the paper perfectly so I couldn't resist. For the journaling circle, I punched out holes using a nail (I know, super scrapbook-y equipment, right?) and then used embroidery floss for the stitching (I have pretty much every color of the rainbow, from my old cross stitching days). For the title, once again I used my Cricut and Sure Cuts a Lot software. I'm just now figuring out all the cool things I can do with that program. 

I really enjoyed having a sketch to start from, so I'll be looking for some more sketch inspiration for other pages. Usually I try to fit so much more than 2 pictures to a page, and most sketches don't do that. But for Allison and Stephen's album I have plenty of room for pages so I'm not worried about squeezing all of them in. 

Later this week I'll show some of the cards I've made using Target brand washi tape! 

Mother's Day Cards

I can now reveal the cards I made for Mother's Day! I had some leftover hydrangeas from doing this project, so I used some of the remaining flowers for these cards. I'm still searching for the best adhesive for pressed flowers. Right now my laminating machine does a great job, especially for large groupings of flowers like this. Not sure if I like it so much for individual flowers, though.

Anyway, these were pretty simple to put together (except for the yellow one, which I did as a window card. That one was a little more complicated). A fun trick for printing on scraps of paper like I did in these cards, is to first print your title/sentiment/whatever on a regular piece of paper, then cut your separate piece of cardstock to whatever size you need, and then lightly tape that cardstock directly onto the words you just printed on the regular paper. (Make sure everything fits and is lined up the way you want it.) Then put that same paper through the printer again (printing the same document as before). This is a nice trick to avoid having to hand write anything! (Good to know for people with sloppy handwriting like me.)

It was also my in-laws wedding anniversary last week, so I made them this card as well:

This one was super easy and fun to put together: starting with a fun blank card, I added a border with flower punches and brads, and a small sentiment that I adhered using 3 dimensional sticky squares to give it some depth. 

Spring Layout

I am THIS close to finishing a super cool new layout, but sadly I didn't have it done in time for this post. It will be cool though, and I tried a new technique (successfully!) that I've been wanting to do for ages.

So instead of posting that one, I'm posting an old one from two (or three?) years ago. This one shows how easy scrapbooking can be, even if you don't have a lot of supplies. It's another one of those layouts that includes random photos that didn't warrant their own page. So I just put them all together under the heading "Spring Fun." I used colorful background paper, some coordinating solid green and yellow paper, stickers for the title, and some brads and ribbon scraps. The yellow paper under the words "Spring Fun" I stamped with green ink to give it an interesting background (I like that it looks like patterned paper, but nope it's just a stamp!).

One thing I really miss about living in Georgia is the spring bulbs--crocuses and tulips especially!

Oh! I must share a wonderful new tool I discovered the other day. You may have noticed how I like to pack (as much as possible) my pages with lots and lots of pictures (to me, the pictures are the point of the scrapbook). Well, I usually run into a problem since the majority of my pictures are 4x6, and you can only crop 4x6 pictures so much (and since I zoom so much in my pictures, cropping is usually very minor). I've always wanted to be able to print some of my pictures at a 2x3 or 3x4 size, which I know I can manage with photoshop, but wow is that a pain.

Photosheet solves that! It lets you put multiple pictures in a 4x6 sheet, then you can print it at any photo place for the normal price of a regular 4x6. Genius! (This would also be great way to save money on wallet prints, if you are needing those). This way I can print out tons more photos, some in smaller sizes, and still fit them all in my album. Plus it breaks up the 4x6 monotony! So if you have tons of adorable baby pictures, or maybe a million vacation pictures, this would be a great way to include them all without sacrificing too much space (or money).

I've got one to two super crummy layouts that I want to re-do. I think I'm going to use Photosheet reprint the pictures and include even more in the new layout.

Sneak Peek

Good morning!

Last night I finished a layout for Stephen and Allison's wedding album, so I thought I'd share it as a little sneak peek of the fun I've been having.

Every week I get fresh flowers on my desk at work--the leftovers from the flower arrangement on Sunday. Usually they are pretty dead and nasty by the time Friday comes around, but earlier this year we had a bunch of blue hydrangeas that still looked beautiful at the end of the week. (Probably because they had been in the senior pastor's office all week, and it's basically as cold as a refrigerator in there.)

I was so excited when I saw the flowers, since blue hydrangeas were part of Allison's bouquet. So I cut them up, pressed them in a book, 3 months later zipped them through my laminating machine, and voila--a beautiful embellishment to these even more beautiful pictures!