Thanksgiving page

Love the papers from Studio Calico for this page.

The majority of the embellishments are from Bella Blvd

and Doodlebug. Really old stash.

 But the colors work really well together.

 Love the addition of the doily that grounds everything

and then I felt it needed a border but I wasn't

keen on a doodley one so I cut strips

from the Bazzill cardstock I used for the photo mats.

We were a small family gathering this year and

it was a lovely time hosted by my sister and brother in law.

Way too much delicious food as always.

Not quite the autumn look I was going for

Another page that was giving me fits this week.

I really wanted to use some pretty autumn looking papers

BUT

somehow a different direction was dictated.

This is one of the background pages I made for the previous page 

this week that was giving me fits.

 So I am on a design roll too as I seem

to be going with the design down the middle -

and that's okay.

The same yet different 😏

 The watercolors just seemed to work.

So I added the moose for that autumn woodsy look. 

LOL.

I'd really like to know what's cracking them up.

So this is Bazzil, Bella Blvd, Studio Calico and Pink Fresh.

Since I can't do a cutfile

But I love the results, I try to "create" my own.

These are nesting dies/cookie cutter from Quikutz

and I rearranged them in the background for

 a faux "cutfile."

 Is that own not adorable?

Picked them up at WM for 97 cents.

 Love how it made a fun background, and

I tend to do something similar

with circles.

 Very fun photo and the kidlets are always going for the ears.

LOL.

All Pink Fresh except for the hearts-bella blvd, owl-WM and tassel.

A bit of background texture

Starting with some Tim Holtz and Jenni Bowlin stencils.

And of course mists.

I love the paper and the small blue pattern,

 it just needed a little something something more

and I finally got to use my spilled coffee stencil.

It's really a versatile stencil.

It's not just for coffee.

And those bows. 

When I have no mojo and lots of

2 sided scraps in the box,  I roll it through the diecut 

and just sit and make bows.

It's amazing how randomly making them and find they actually match.

 This combo was a "tag" I made ahead of time 

and it totally worked perfect with this page.
I watched an Inky Quill vid where she just pulls stuff out
and makes tags that can be used whenever.
So I made three - I didn't want to be an over achiever LOL.
So there are 2 left but I can only find one.
Maybe I used it already. hmm....

 I love those bows - they make me swoon and

of course those glitter hearts and

itty bitty enamel dots just set them off and really what more
is needed. Those itty bitty dots are Nuvo crystals that I
happened to pick up at my LSS and bought 4
colors, black was a given, and I also have the pink and gold (shown here too)
and some green, so I played around with different
sizes of all the colors on some wax paper and let them dry overnight
BUT before they dried the wind blew and ruffled some
stuff on my desk and some of the colors
got a bit mixed and squashed.
Anyhoo, I love them, so far.

The entire page needed something to bring it all together

and I used my cutter to cut these really really thin

pieces of cardstock to outline frame the page as 

I didn't want something overwhelming and these are perfect.

 The title is made from some word die cuts I got from Hobby Lobby
and I have used them previously as accents like word stickers.

Love this photo of Miss Amelia, she is so adorable and wild.

She needs to be a model.

Studio Calico & Bella Blvd papers.

Another page with scraps

 Since I had more scraps and I really like the process

I through some on white this time.

I hand cut those little faux tags out and stuck the

little faux tags in the faux pocked.

 Got another cluster going on here and

used the doily to bring it all together.

 A simple cluster at the bottom highlights 

a gold 4.

The papers are a mix of studio calico, bella blvd

and maybe some basic grey tossed in.

The embellies are a mix of my mind's eye.

These are last year's photos of Annie going from 0-4

and they are perfect for this mix of papers.

I'm thinking I did another page like this for the parents.

So I get to keep this one.

or Vice Versa. LOL.

Sewing around the edges

This page of brothers just needed that

something extra to bring it all together.

If you'll notice that tag - you saw that same tag top

on yesterday's page.

Funny story that.

I tucked it into the envelope to see if it would fit.

and when I glued everything down

it appears that the glue bled through and

it stuck to the envelop.

I therefore, cut the top off because I wanted to

journal on that card and made 

another tag to tuck in there.

 Kept everything to a minimum

because the photo is fun.

Tucked some vellum in there because it looked cool.

And the title is from that packet I got from M's.

Those titles have really come in handy.

Studio Calico, Bella Blvd. Unknown envelope and button.

Anyone else having trouble with white mists?

I really love having white mists on a page

and if you look at those grayish looking ones - that's

Heidi Swapp's white mist that I shook shook shook - 

I also have a recollections white mist - same result -

so when I tried a different tack - when

I altered the color on the title I tossed some white paint around.

That's the look I was going for.

 So that adorable little owl looked more red under my light.

hmmmm...he's on there now........

 And how about those glasses on the PL card - 

goes perfectly with momma's glasses.

And finally used that flower from Basic Grey.

How cool is that title...from M's $1.50 bin.

It had some pale yellow and tan hombre going on

that didn't fit with the rest - so I painted it white

to stand out more.

Although now looking at it, it may have worked

in its natural state.

Studio Calico, Bella Blvd (owl), Basic Grey (flower).

OH and I used the Martha Stewart heart confetti punch for

with the gold paper and oooooooo some are itty bitty but oh so

adorable.

Its all about the hearts

 And Miss Amelia has mine for sure.

Love the photos I get from her mama - they

tend to bring out the inner artist in me.

So I whipped out the QK nesting hearts and whacked

them in different Bella Blvd. papers.

I fixed the hearts so I could use the outline and then

also separated them to make hearts.

And found out that the majority of those die cut hearts were too big.

So I broke out the punch and some different colored

patterned paper because the Bella Blvd. all looked the same.

 It also looked a bit to white so I used some watercolors in

gold, teal and pink. Of which the pink you can hardly see.

And because I could I used a gold marker I doodled around the edge

and made some really sloppy hearts.

And those pearls - don't they make you swoon.

I also broke out the QK square nesting die cuts and

anchored them around because I just

felt more was needed.

Of course a girly page wouldn't be complete without gold

hearts and butterflies.

I love the photo and her hairdo and her pose and smile kind of 

remind me of Audrey Hepburn.

To be that poised at 5.

I was a messy little tomboy with a pixie 'do LOL.

All of which resulted in me finally getting to use the "classy" title
from Studio Calico.

Celebrating Five!

A milestone birthday to be sure.

Going to real school - kindergarten!

Miss Annie seemed to rock all the parties.

There were several.

So lets start out with the fact that her birthday is in July.

Did I think of using "July" paper.

Not until now LOL.

And there you have it.

However, I do love the papers I picked out.

 Used a couple of PL cards by cutting out the

necessary sentiments - 

 Then there's that ticket with the 5 on it.

I picked that ticket up a bazillion times when I didn't need it

and could I find it when I needed it for this page?

NO.

I dumped the entire die cut box out to search - which turned out

to be a win-win because I culled through and

tossed a bunch out - 

mostly bent, broken or partials were picked out

and there were a bunch.

This is also the page in which I uncapped the Mr. Huey's garden mist

to toss about on the page and ended up spilling

the mist all over my desk and on 

papers and embellies that I just unboxed from

Studio Calico July kit.

There's gonna be some creative scrapping going on to save them.

I'm totally open to suggestions LOL.

Blatant page lift

I love doing lifts and learning different styles, don't you?
The best way to do that is lifting either in bits
and pieces or doing the whole darn thing.
Well.........
This page is a blatant lift of Eyoung Lee.

She has a beautiful, clean style and I happened upon

her on Google+ and started following.

My page isn't "pretty" or "romantic" like hers (the original) but I like how 

mine turned out all the same. It's fun.

Love these strips and I've been slowly working my

way through them - almost gone. 

 This transparency is fun and the last one

from the Studio Calico kit - Love that I'm using all the supplies.

Do you find that you save some embellishments and paper for "good". LOL.

("For good" is a saying for back in the day when you

dressed in your best for special occasions - that dress or

shoes you keep in the closet for only then.)
And didn't I just date myself there.

I seriously have a need to work through that.

 My elements didn't exactly work the same

on the page as hers but I still like the design.

Mixed into this page is "shades of Soaphousemama" and

the Embellishment DIY Class I took from her.

(upside down houses - a whimsical twist).

I like that.

Ashli has a very unique style as well and she's alot of fun to follow.

I used the glassine packages to mat the photo-

love the packaging and neeeeed more.

Everything Studio Calico except the heart
which is Bella Blvd.

6th kit from the crop

So this was Halloween kit had one photo in it which I changed out - and then added several more photos of all the grandkis because a). well the paper was adorable b). I had it forever, and c). it was time to use it up. If you want to see the kitted kit go here.

Of course I went back to my favorite Halloween stamps to add as embellishments. And I used the card that came in the Studio Calico kit because it just worked so well. Basic grey came through with Halloween colors from the Kelly Purkey line. Total win-win.

Annie and Owen looking totally adorable. In hindsight I wish I had not tossed the mist about because I feel it ruins the "crispness" of the page which I was digging. Sometimes that one more thing should be thought about a bit more.

Next up since the paper was getting low I went with a piece of white cardstock for the next set of grandkidlets looking adorable. I did some fussy cutting on the owls and those buildings were perfect.

The spider is another favorite stamp - and Basic Grey comes in handy again to fill in the blanks. I did the swirly mist thing again because it really is fun and festive and since this page wasn't about being spooky - it just works.

Started with kraft paper on this and got to use my new skull stamp that is totally adorable from Stampin' up, along with the bats that were basically fillers and a new arrow stamp that mostly got covered up. I tried to be creative with the watercolors and ended up gessoing most of it. I really need to work on that.

Basic Grey came through again.

It was fun trick or treating with this bunch and Amelia was totally adorable - in a sing-song voice her "happy trick or treat" and "thank you" got her alot of extra treats. She also outlasted her older brothers which I found totally amusing.

So are you as shocked as I that I made three pages from this kit.

I'm really glad I waited and did the kit at home

because of that reason.

I was on the fire yesterday and did five pages.

I KNOW....

So now I need to get a move on to fill in the rest of the week.

Changing course when you're not feeling the love

I love this sassy photo of Ms. Annie-girl and of course it was for

Memorial Day that just happened to be a pretty day in the

northern tundra.

I chose those papers and just wasn't feeling it.

Red, white and blue - don't get me wrong - I love the colors, I love

our flag and I'm as patriotic as the next.

But it was just too much.

And remember these papers were chosen for another project here that 

was kitted for a crop I attended and it didn't feel right then either.

I'm really really sure they'll get used someday. However,

that paper is gonna get its feelings hurt soon. LOL.

Rejected once again.

I decided to take matters in my own hands and

 make my own background paper starting with

some white bazzil cardstock.

I misted with red Heidi Swapp and then decided that it needed a bit more dimension

 which required a trip to Hobby Lobby because I did not

have a star stencil.

Starstencil Starstencil Starstencil (say that 3x's fast)

And of course they didn't have THE star stencil I wanted, however,

I found this Jenni Bowlin stencil that assured me it was a star BURST.

I could work with that.

And I needed navy blue ink of course.

Then I found the most adorable film strip stamp for under $2.

(that wasn't used here-but coming soon).

 I also ordered from Paper Issues - those adorable stars and arrows -

a cupid collection - that works soooooo well.

 And my homemade enamel dots - I know you'll be surprised

that I'm running out of some colors.
I'm debating as to whether I want to bake up more or just buy some.

Another Lawn Fawn badge purchase made it to the page and

I used up some old Authentique stickers by placing them around
in key places saying awesome things.

Of course I did dither around with the title
and you know how well I do titles.

I didn't want it to be real obvious and then decided

why not??

Bella Blvd stash was perfect along with some navy Jillybean

Soup alphas I purchased forever ago and never used.

Bought those adorable striped envelopes in different colors from HL

and it seriously worked very well with the doily.

Alot of new and old stash getting used.

Gotta love that.

I'm really quite happy that I changed directions because using that

other paper when I wasn't "feeling" it would've made

me crazy.

Short trip I know - but this is supposed

to be fun and how much more fun can it be doing it from scratch

getting all inky and misty

and then getting a Hobby Lobby run out of it to boot :D