Documenting #30DaysofThankful using Basic Grey Persimmon

Can you believe it is already Friday? Wow! Where has this week gone? I am finishing up this blog post this morning and boy is it freezing here. I realize this is all relative, depending upon where in the world you are as you read this blog post, but North Carolina is never this cold. Never. This. Cold. How cold is it? Well at 6:30 am it was 14 degrees. It's so cold that my dogs will not move off of their dog beds in the family room. They keep looking at the fireplace, back at me, at the fireplace, back at me, I think they might be trying to give me a hint or something.

Did any of you play along with the #30DaysofThankful hashtag? I did and I just love it, I love focusing on what we are thankful for. This is something I work on and pay attention to everyday, but in November, it is so great to see so many others doing this as well. This is the third year that I have documented something to be grateful for in the month of November with photographs, but this is the first time I found a good way to put it all together on a scrapbook page. I really like how it turned out, and I hope you do to.

I have a layout to share with you today. I challenged myself to come up with a different way to display all of the photos I took on my I-phone this past November. I did not want to make a mini book, but instead wanted to somehow come up with a layout that could hold all of these photos. I managed to fit 29 photos on this layout, a new personal record for me!

This layout went together very quickly once the photos were printed. I do not have a large format printer. So I printed them in two groups of images sized 6 inches by 6 inches using my small Epson printer and some help from Photoshop Elements.  Once the photos were printed, I just stuck them down on the left side my dark woodgrain background page using my trusty American Crafts dot runner adhesive. The photo collage (in it's entirety measures 6 inches wide by 12 inches tall, if you were wondering.) Next, I stuck down the Basic Grey Persimmon letter stickers. Then I added the Basic Grey Persimmon envelope, banner, and subtitle stickers. I decided I wanted some more stitching, so I hand-stitched the letter stickers down. I wanted to make sure to include a lot of journaling and to document all of the different things I am thankful for at this time in my life. I decided not to use the journaling card that came with this envelope because it was very cream in color, and the photos are so bright white that it just didn't jive, if you know what I mean. I will use it for journaling at a later date instead. My handmade journaling card is not very fancy, just a piece of scrap white card stock cut to fit and folded in half. It opens up like a book with writing on the front, inside, and back. Sorry I don't have a photo of it here on the blog. I think it got deleted somehow. My last steps were to use a date stamp at the top of the journaling card, a couple yellow enamel dots, a wood heart, and a little splash of Heidi Swapp Gold Lame Mist.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I appreciate you being here. I hope you are warm wherever you are located and that this Polar Vortex leaves and never comes back. I will be back next week with five blog posts with all kinds of goodness to share. I hope to see you back at life, scrapbook, repeat very soon. Have a safe and fabulous weekend ahead!

Happy Scrappin'

xoxox

Toni

Some Exciting News and a Layout Share "The Calm"

Happy Monday! Can you believe it is almost the New Year? We are still listening to Christmas music over here, but are starting to wean ourselves a little bit, but I still have no plans to take down Christmas decor until after the New Year. I am going to have it all down and put away before I go to bed on January 5th however. I work best with a deadline, and I don't want to get stuck looking at a dead tree on Valentine's Day. Might kind of ruin the whole romance of it and all. ;-)

I have some very exciting news to share with y'all, something I have been just dying to tell you, but have just received the go ahead to tell. Here is the news:

Yup, I am on the Paper Bakery Design Team. I am so excited to have been chosen and so very humbled to work with such talented ladies. I will be working with the Capture 365 kit, which is their version of a pocket pages/  daily scrapbooking kit. You know how much I love Project Life, so this is such a perfect fit for me! If you have never heard of Paper Bakery you can find a direct link to their blog HERE.

Onto other news…. I have a layout to share with you today to go along with a challenge over at Paper Issues. The issue this month is Shiny and New. I interpreted this challenge by using lots of shiny gold elements, paired with traditional Christmas colors of red and green found in the Basic Grey 25th and Pine collection. I am just loving gold this season and I do not see that ending anytime soon.  I am still in love with layering and splattering mist here and there. Of course sequins are a must for this layout, especially shiny gold star sequins. I love these so much! I also used my Silhouette on this layout to cut out a background mask with repeating hearts. I sprayed that with Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Gold Lame.

The Calm

I am so thankful that you stopped by today. I will be back later this week with all kinds of scrappy (and non- scrappy things to share.) Tomorrow (Tuesday) you can expect to see a Project Life blog post discussing what I did for Project Life 2013, and where I see Project Life heading for 2014 and beyond. I am gearing up to finish my third year of Project Life and getting really excited to be starting my album for 2014 very soon.  I also have made a video (yup, you heard me right,) doing a walk through of my third album for 2013. I will let you know as soon as that is available for watching on You Tube. I will also let you know where you can find me on You Tube, in case you wanted to watch it. :-)

Let's talk the new year…anyone else working on anything Shiny or New? Are you loving on Gold and sparkly embellishments? What about drippy mist? Sequins? Any fun plans for New Year's?

Happy Scrappin'

xoxox

Toni

Christmas Cards Using Crate Paper, Basic Grey, Webster's Pages, and Stamps by Ali Edwards

Today I am sharing my Christmas cards with all of you. These are very quick cards to put together, and the end result turned out very cute and unique. I hope this little tutorial might help some of you that still want to make homemade Christmas cards. This technique could also easily be applied to any kind of card really.

Being completely honest, I felt a lot of pressure this year with regards to putting together my Christmas cards. December had already begun, and my cards were not made yet. Normally I have the cards finished before December, so I felt like I needed to downgrade my emboss-everything on the cards plan and come up with something much simpler. Keep it simple should be my new model, because I seriously LOVE these quick and adorable cards.

To save some time and money, I decided that I would only use things I already had. I started by pulling together some supplies, mostly 6 x 6 Christmas paper pads, assorted buttons and small embellishments that coordinate, a stamp set, and also my veneer star stash and gold embossing powder. I had already decided to use Kraft cardstock and envelopes this year so I got those ready as well.

Basic Grey 25th and Pine

Alison Kreft It's Christmas for Webster's Pages

Crate Paper Bundled Up

 Crate Paper Sleigh Ride

Ali Edward's "Twinkle On" stamp set, sold through Technique Tuesday

I also used gold embossing powder on some of my wood veneer. *Make sure you have a lint roller nearby. This is my go-to tool for quick glitter or embossing powder clean up.*

1. I started with a basic A2 card trimmed down to 5 1/2" x 4 1/4 inches made out of Kraft cardstock. 
2. I then cut my 6 x 6 papers down to 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" and adhered them to the card front. *I only adhered the bottom half, so that I could add the embellishment and sentiment before the whole thing was glued down permanently.*
3. I cut out vellum into 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" and tore those freehand on all four sides. 
4. After all of the vellum was torn, I stamped one of two sentiments onto the vellum "Keep Calm and Twinkle On" or "Keep Calm and Be Merry" using Black StayzOn ink.
   
   
   
5. I gave the images all a chance to dry (probably an hour or so.) I didn't want to accidentally smear these adorable sentiments and risk having to redo them all.
6. I then began attaching the sentiment to the front of the cards along with a small embellishment using a staple. This worked very well to keep both the embellishment and the stamped vellum attached to the patterned paper.
   
   
   
7. Next you have to glue the top part of the patterned paper to the card front. *Make sure everything is adhered very well.*
   
   
   
8. Fill out the inside of your card to the lucky recipient
9. The last step is to address your card, put the card in the envelope (and family photo or Christmas letter if you are including one,) and of course you should embellish the back of your envelope. I like to use stamps and washi tape.

 I ended up with 56 cards in total. Most have a veneer embellishment adhered to the front, but I also used buttons and chipboard pieces that I had left over from these collections.

*For the buttons and chipboard pieces, I first tied twine through them and adhered them onto the front of the card using glue dots.*

I really like how all of the cards are similar, yet each is unique and special. In fact, every single card is different.  I could not pick a favorite and might have taken 10 pictures of the finished cards. I decided on two different group shots to post for you, and just placed cards in front that were in different color combinations.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I loved having you here at life, scrapbook, repeat. I hope this tutorial will be helpful to you. I will be back tomorrow with December Daily Part 6: December 10th and 11th. I hope to see you then. In the meantime, do you have all of your cards finished and mailed? Did you make homemade cards this year, or purchase cards? Are you doing an online greeting instead of just forgoing the whole tradition? I would love to hear your thoughts….to card or not to card?

Happy Thursday and Happy Scrappin'

xoxox

Toni

Holiday Layout using Basic Grey's Aspen Frost

Good Morning and happy Thursday. Today I have a scrapbook layout to share with you using the collection kit from Basic Grey's Aspen Frost. 

I purchased this collection last year, but never had the opportunity to get to play with it very much. We moved last December, so needless to say crafting was kind of off of the table (so to speak) for that month. I am more than making up for it this month and having a fabulous time.

This layout is a very sentimental layout for me and it has really been pulling at my heartstrings lately. This is our house in Washington State and unbeknowst to us at the time, this would be our last Christmas celebrating here. I am so thankful that I managed to get a picture of our house decorated with lights, and even more appreciative that it happened to be snowing on the day I took this. I love our house in North Carolina, but sometimes I do miss this place, and I miss how cute the lights looked on this house during the holidays. I miss having my family and friends a fifteen minute drive away, and giving my mom and best friend a hug whenever I felt like it. The holidays really help you remember what is important, and I would be lying if I said I did not miss them terribly today. Feeling a little verklempt as I type this actually, but today is still a great day. Any day I get to spend with my family and play with pretty paper turns out pretty fantastic!

Hello Washington house and van (may she rest in peace.)

Close up of my embellishment cluster

How did I make this?

1. I first used Freckled Fawn wash tape and a border strip sticker from the Basic Grey Aspen Frost collection pack as my base. 
2. I then added a Pink Paislee polka dot star and a few drops of mist (Heidi Swapp in Gold Lame and Sweet Cherry.)
3. For my last step, I punched out some snowflakes using my favorite Martha Stewart snowflake punch (I used white card stock, a striped card stock from my scrap bin, and also some American Crafts POW Glittered paper in Gold. All of my punched shapes were attached with either regular adhesive or pop dots. I love stacking small embellishments like this and giving each clustered grouping a little dimension. *I incorporated similar clustering groups in two other spots around my layout as well.* 

That is all I have to share today. If you have any questions about the layout or anything else just leave me a comment and I will be happy to help. Anyone else making anything Christmasy or holiday related? I would love to see…I would love to see anything crafty (doesn't have to be related to December at all.) 

I am posting on this blog every Monday-Friday all there way through Christmas so be sure to check back soon. Specifically, I will be back tomorrow with some more December Daily pages. I hope to see you then.

xoxox

Toni

Project Life 2013: Weeks 46-47, November 11th-24th

Happy Wednesday and Happy (early) Thanksgiving for all of my U.S Friends. I have a lot to be thankful for, and one of my many blessings is such amazing blog readers and followers. I appreciate so very much for being here, leaving comments, or questions, and for making this such a fun place for me to hang out and write about my passions. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Today I am sharing Project Life weeks 46 and 47 with you. I am completing Project Life in a weekly format overall, but I do combine weeks on occasion when I do not have many photos, or I am using many photos for another project. In case you are interested some other Project Life spreads I have blogged about that have combined weeks can be found HERE, HERE and HERE, and HERE.

Full Layout:

Left Side:

 Right Side:

Right Side Close-Up:

Supplies Used:

• Studio Calico Cuppa Project Life Kit (still available)

• Cuppa Scrapbook Kit (still available)

Cuppa Paper Pad (still available)

• Stamps: Pebbles date stamp, Lili Niclass stamp designed for Studio Calico (sold out) and Cuppa Scrapbook Kit stamp
• Stickers: Red Micro by Basic Grey for Studio Calico, sticker sheet from Basic Grey Persimmon collection.
• Flair: Exclusive Fall Flair from Two Peas in a Bucket
• Digital Elements: printable Cuppa Labels by Marcy Penner for Studio Calico *available through 
• Tools: Tim Holtz scissors, tiny attacher, Versafine Onyx Black Ink, Hero Arts Shadow Ink in Wet Cement, American Crafts Dot Roller Adhesive, and American Crafts Precision Pen .03 nib.

I wish everyone a long and relaxing week and weekend. I am spending Thanksgiving with my little family of four and a 16 pound turkey. It goes without saying, you know what we will be eating all weekend. 

xoxox

Toni

I Am Now the Parent of a Teenager

Today my sweet boy Elliot turned 13. At 1:22 am to be exact PST. He was brought into the world after over 22 hours of labor and 3.5 hours of pushing. 21 inches long and 8 pounds 4 ounces of the cutest baby boy ever. I am now the parent of a teenager. 13 years. 13 years. 13. Years. Gulp. Big Breath. 13. I just cannot believe it is already here, I cannot believe he is almost done with seventh grade, is now just barely beginning to get pimples, and is just eating, constantly eating. I think another growth spurt is coming on. 13. 13 Years Old. Sigh.

I wish I had all of my layouts photographed (that is something I just started doing in August of 2012, even though I started scrapbooking 17 years ago. My first few months of photographing layouts are not very good, I was learning and using only a camera phone. I am in the process of re-shooting about 60 layouts that I have already photographed now that i have a descent camera and photoshop, as well as slowly photographing many other layouts that have never been photographed. At this rate, it might take me a year to get it all done, but it will be someday. Probably more like 2-3 years with the amount of albums I have. It is nice to have a digital copy of all of it, just in case anyways. ;-)

Today I thought I would share some of my favorite layouts of my son at various ages, ( at least of the one's photographed) so let's take a walk down memory lane, shall we? I am also writing a letter to Elliot that I am sharing with you.

 The Early Years:

 Preschool:

Grade School:

Middle School:

My Dear Sweet Elliot,

I Love You. Thank you for being my son. You are the greatest kid in the world. To me you are perfect just as you are. Because of you, I have become a better person, an advocate for others, and I greatly admire your ability to live life without concerning yourself with what other's think . You are so smart, quirky, hysterically quick-witted,  and you are a momma's boy (in the very best sense.) You have an empathetic and kind heart and truly want to always believe the best in people. You always strive to do the right thing and have no problem admitting your wrong and saying you're sorry. You are a great friend and brother. Everyone that meets you becomes a better person just by knowing you. You are amazing. You inspire me each and everyday. You are fabulously different in the most amazing ways. You make me laugh harder, smile bigger, and learn not to take things so seriously sometimes. You have also reminded me the importance of deep breaths and slowing down before you react. Your love of books and knowledge astound me, you have a such a great memory for all kinds of details that most people forget. You have some of the best one-liners in the history of the world. I love how involved you get in the things that interest you. I love that you research things you want to know more about. You never stop asking questions. You always want to know more, understand more, be more. You are nothing short of my everything. I am so incredibly, monumentally, indescribably proud of you. There is not a day that goes by that I do not thank God for you.

Elliot, you rock!

Mom

Thanks for stopping by today. I will be back tomorrow with a Project Life share, plus lots of other goodies all week long.

Happy Scrappin'

xoxox

Toni

My first Noel Mignon kit: 4 layouts and Counting

I am in love with Noel Mignon scrapbook kits. Yes, absolutely in love. I received my first kit less than 2 weeks ago and I am loving every single bit of it. The May kit, Country Lane, is absolutely gorgeous. It has both hipster and romantic elements and includes 20 different patterned papers from companies, such as; Elle's Studio, Crate Paper, Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm, and Pink Paislee. It also includes a very wide variety of fun embellishments, 2 complete alphabets, and a gorgeous Elle's studio stamp set. By a ton of embellishments, I mean enough for every single piece of paper, (and that is a lot for someone that is very embellishment-happy like myself.)

As of this moment, I have completed 4 layouts and I am loving the kit even more with every layout I create. All of the layouts feel different and I constructed 2 boy and 2 girl layouts with this kit, plus I have probably 70% of it still left! I did not have to use very much from my stash and what I did use was largely leftover bits and pieces. Of course, I also used journaling pens, adhesive, scissors, and a paper trimmer.

Now onto the layouts:

Layout #1: "All This"

*For this layout I used the Serendipity Stamp Set by Elle's Studio

 Layout #2: "The Best of Buddies"

*This layout is largely Basic Grey Hipster

Layout #3: "Pure Joy With You Always"

*This layout uses these items by Elle's Studio: Chevron 
Serendipity paper and stamp set*

Layout #4:  "3 Friends"

*the only items not included in kit are Studio Calico wood veneer stars, 

1 My Mind's Eye brad, mist, and a small piece of Studio Calico vellum patterned paper.

I am very, VERY impressed with this kit. It is currently sold out, but later this month Noel will have another great kit for sale. The kits are pricer than a normal kit from other kit clubs in the $35-$40 range, but you also get 2 1/2 times the paper and probably 3 times the embellishments at least. I believe it is completely worth the price and I am so glad to be starting a 6 month subscription soon.

***I was in no way paid or given product to endorse this company. This post is just my honest opinion about a great scrapbook kit company that is out there that you may not have heard about yet***

What have you been creating lately? Anyone else trying to finish up all kinds of challenges for NSD last Saturday. I am almost done with most of the challenges at 2 Peas and I still have a few Studio Calico challenges left, and I still hope to complete the Paper Bakery Sketch. What can I say, I like the challenge.  Also, I have some exciting news, I found out a couple of days ago that I won the May kit from Scapbook Circle on their instagram contest. I was just chosen at random, along with the person I tagged. I can't wait to dive into that kit next week, and of course, blog about it later on.

I will be back on Saturday with a Project Life share and next week I will be blogging about Scrapbook Layouts, Project Life, Cards made with Lily Bee products, Scrapbook Organization Thursday, a review of Scrapbook Circle's May kit, and I hope another Project Life layout. Whew! That is a lot of happy in one long-winded sentence. 

Until next time, Happy Scrappin'

xoxox

Toni