It's all in the flaps...

~The Marriage of Rubal and Shelly~

It was very cool to be a part of a colleagues traditional Indian wedding. 

I had 8 photos that I needed to get onto this LO, which required a flap (see the third photo). This Basic Grey paper was perfect for these amazing photos of Shelly's wedding - elegant and bold. 

I couldn't resist also posting the photo o Shelly dressed in her traditional Indian wedding dress - gorgeous!

HeyDay Line by Studio Calico

~Shampoo Mohawks~

Dara staywed with me for a weekend while my sisters was out of town. During bathtime I couldn't resist the Shampoo Mohawk! I love this little one! She's going to be three in just under 2 weeks - she's getting so big!

 

Crazy For Mists

~Crazy Nikki~

When we first adopted or mini doxie Nikki she had a terrible time calming down and going to sleep. She didn't want to be in the crate, on her dog bed or in our bed. She was nervous and skittish and she cried and whined and tried to jump from our very tall bed. We discovered if we put her Hug-A-Dog harness on her she'd roll over and go to sleep spread out on her back. Now lovingly referred to as the doggie swaddle in our house; we haven't had to use this method in many months, as now Nikki likes to curl up under to blankies with us!

You should be VERY impressed with my misting in this layout. :)

 

 

Warning: So Adorable it'll Kill Ya!

~Baby Doxie~

Olivia finally made it into the pages of my albums! I ADORE this photo of her asleep on her back in Anson's arms the day we brought her home. She was 3 lbs of gushing cuteness and squishy puppy and she has had me wrapped around her Doxie paw ever since...!

I used QuicKutz Abigail Grand for my title along with some letter stickers that coordinated with the patterned paper. Created for the 7/16 Studio Calico Weekly Challenge.

Childhood Photos

~Gone Fishin'~

Awhile back my mom sent me a HUGE box of photos from my childhood. I went through all the photos and picked my favorites to use on layouts, since most of them will have to be single page layouts. My plan is to fill in the missing front and back pages of all my albums with these layouts from my early childhood.

This was a layout inspired by yet another Studio Calico sketch. 

A photo of my grandfather and I fishing at Oxbow Reservoir in 1991.

Bright Colors for Me Please

~Shelly's Mehndi~

I attended several ceremonies for a colleague's traditional Indian marriage. This was the Mehndi, or henna ceremony. I LOVE how colorful everything was - especially since I got to use BRIGHT scrapbook paper and embellishments from my stash! 

Also, count 'em - 7! SEVEN photos. See? I'm not totally committed to the single photo layouts :) I love when I can figure out a way to get a ton of photos on one page because I get that much farther ahead with my scrapbooking to-do list!

 

 P.S. I think these particular Thickers may be my absolute favorite. I may have to go buy several packs in every color they came in!! Hoarder.....

Elmwood Park Kit from Studio Calico

I got to break out my July Kit, Elmwood Park, from Studio Calico and do some cropping this week already. I love how my layouts from the Studio Calico kits come together so easily, especuially when I am doing a challenge. I pulled elements from Elmwook Park main kit as well as the Four Square and Capture the Flag add-ons and I was inspired by the weekly challenge to use flags, banners and buttons.

I just love this picture of Anson, Olivia and Nikki napping on the couch on a lazy day at home.

I have a new found love for washi tape, pictured here at the bottom is the October Afternoon washi tape from the 9 to 5 Line (green chevrons with the Date), that I stamped with the Amy Tangerine date stamp. As you can see, my washi tape collections is growing rapidly...

More Vegas...

I wanted to get a lot of photos on my "main" Vegas layout but I still wanted to use my fun patterned papers; love the Tenn American Crafts line with their bright colors and fun prints! 

 I added a larger tag for my and journaling and I also did some doodling around the solid colored tags to add some dimension.

 MORE thickers - love this fun sparkly pink photo that I placed right over my photos in the middle of the layout.

 A close up o the journaling and the doodling. I also love the American Crafts pebble stickers that came out pictured in the sparkly black her. They also have matte and pearl; don't worry, I bought them in all colors and textures ;)

Now that I have used some of this for a few layouts, I want to make Lily a mini album as she goes into 5th grade so that she can journal and add photos of her and her friends throughout the year - what a perfect paper line for a 10 year old girl!

The Old Me...

In case you became alarmed by my new found love of one-photo layouts featuring Instagram photos; this post is for you! Eight photos on this bad boy...breath a sigh of relief!!

More Vegas shenanigans...

 THICKERS...how I love thee!!

Note the misting onto the background cardstock, stamping AND and journaling directly onto the page. Brazen!

Studio Calico Obsession

I wasn't able to get my larger layouts photographed or posted this week, as it turned into quite a crazy first part of the week and now I am off to Catalina for a sisters weekend. I did want to post SOMETHING though, and I had these already photographed for Challenge entries; I hope you enjoy two more quick one pagers!

This is the ONE AND ONLY layout I have done with Anson in it (I'm that far behind!), so he was quite excited! This is a layout about our first date (and kiss) at Bistro 33. Journaling Reads: "Anson and I had our first date (and kiss) at Bistro 33 on October 29, 2010. We couldn't even stop talking long enough to order food. Our love story is my favorite story."

Lily has been quite into the old school curlers lately and I snapped a few photos of her silly look a few weeks ago when she wanted curly hair for our family photos! This was another layout I did for a Studio Calico Challenge. This style is sooooo out of my box, but it actually came together quickly and I love how it turned out.

Both of these pages use Studio Calico's Heyday Line and embellishments plus the Studio Calico wood veneers.

Have a great weekend!

Style: Out of the Box

I was getting a little bit overwhelmed and, quite frankly, bored with my scrapbook style. While I'm known for getting MULTIPLE 4x6 photos on a page, I was becoming a little stagnant and less creative in my layouts which bothered me. Recently I've tried my hand at some smaller, quicker projects to try and fire up the creative juices. By no means am I giving up my multi-photo layout style, but as you know I go in order by date with my photos and each of my layouts can take awhile to design and piece together and I really, really wanted to dig my hands into some more recent photos - especially those that I have been hoarding on my iPhone and my Instagram feed.

So with a LOT of inspiration from the StudioCalico.com blog, their monthly kits and weekly challenges, I tried my hand at some smaller ONE PAGE, ONE PHOTO layouts. These are just moments in time where I snapped 1-2 photos and I don't have enough photos for a full-blown layout, but I still wanted to capture these moments in my albums!

I had a lot of fun throwing together these one pagers, especially when I dug out some of the photos from my childhood!

Don't worry, next post, 6+ photos!!

P.S. I have put together EIGHT layouts in the last two weeks, so I'll be posting a lot in the net few days!

My "Little Helper" layout was inspired by a Studio Calico Challenge. I love how the Pinwheels came out and I'm loving wood grain papers wright now! Also, I jumped on the Washi Tape bandwagon finally! LOVE how easy the tape is to use and how it adds that "umph" to a page! Notice that I stamped ON MY LAYOUT! So brazen!!

I just HAD to put together a layout of my youngest niece, sweet Honi girl! When I snapped this photo during a recent visit with my sister and nieces, I just fell in love with her surprised and awed expression - and how PERFECT was this little felt owl embellishment that I had stashed away from an Etsy find awhile back?? Obviously the page was designed around the owl embellishment. Don't you just love how the owl and Honi have the same expression! Again, this layout was inspired by a different Studio Calico challenge!

I'm definitely on an inspiration overload right now and I'm cranking out page!

More to come tomorrow...