scrapbook layout: Myrtle Beach 2016

What a week it’s been!  Virtual distance learning has officially started this week for my kiddos, and I’m spending a LOT of time working through that with them, but somehow I managed to put this page together in a few spare moments.

Part of the reason it was so easy to put this one together was because it was for lesson number one of Shimelle’s free class, “Timeless Layout Techniques” at scrapbook.com.  I watched the lesson with my kids at the beginning of last week (more on that later in the post), and I have been mulling over how I’d put together my layout ever since.

One evening, I only had a few minutes to myself, and I pulled out some photos I printed a while ago, and I selected single photos that would work for this design.

In another moment, I got out a few collection kits and kit club kits that I have stashed away…

…and in another moment, I matched up a photo with a kit of supplies…

And with the design already determined by the class lesson, it really went together very quickly after that.

Supplies:
patterned paper: BasicGrey “Highline”
alphas: Echo Park “Head Over Heels,” BasicGrey “Highline,” and some ancient foam American Crafts Thickers
stickers: BasicGrey “Highline,” Bella Blvd Little Bits
washi tape: Bella Blvd “Illustrated Faith,” Michaels
other embellishments: Heidi Swapp Gold ColorShine, Colorbok Metal Dots, tissue paper

Remember how I said that I had my kids watch the lesson, too?  Well, I thought this time at home might be a good opportunity to introduce them to design principles, especially as applied to scrapbook layouts.  They each have an 8″x8″ album in which to put scrapbook pages they make themselves, and when I submit photo orders, I’ll ask them what photos they’d like to have printed for their own albums.  I’m glad we had some on hand so that they could get going on this project!

With my five year old, I was a bit more hands-on, and he and I chose papers and embellishments together, I did some of the cutting, and I helped him compose his journaling.

My eight year old is a more “experienced” scrapbooker, so I let her design her page entirely on her own using her stash of scrapbook supplies.  (In fact, making this page got her so excited about scrapbooking that she went on to make two more layouts after she finished this one!)

It was really fun to work on this lesson together, and I’m hoping that we can do the next one, too!

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Disney pocket page: day 1 MK stories

Some of the stories that I want to include in my Disney 2016 album are not big enough for their own page, but I still want to tell them, and for that, pocket pages are perfect.  This page faces the Carousel layout and is on the front side of the pocket page that faces my Dumbo layout.

P.S. There will be one more tiny photo in the bottom lefthand pocket… I just need to place another photo order!

The thing I’ve discovered about myself is that it’s hard for me to use anything but “scraps” for pocket pages, especially when I’m making an album that also has full-page layouts.  So this was the perfect match for Crafty Jen Schow’s third challenge for this year’s Stashbusting Month: Use Leftovers!  I started with off-cuts of papers that I used in the Carousel layout, since these pages are facing each other.  The rest of the papers are scraps that I’ve saved from making other layouts in my album, and I also pulled out leftover journaling cards from past Project Life kits — I used one whole, but I cut up three others to include in the other pockets.  I even had Husband write one of the captions in his own handwriting!

The one “newer” thing that I dove into for this page is the Shimelle #stickerbook.  I found some perfect little embellishments to scatter around the pockets– they help keep everything cohesive.

Supplies:
patterned paper: Shimelle “Glitter Girl” (stars and cloud branding strip) and “Starshine” (stripes, green and blue chevrons, cut apart), Anna Griffin “Carmen” (yellow quatrefoil)
journaling cards: Project Life “Baby” and “Jade” Editions
embellishments: Shimelle “Starshine” diecut, Shimelle #stickerbook, Paper Studio enamel dots, Shimelle “Head in the Clouds” washi tape
other: aqua tissue paper

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Disney layout: Man. Baf.

As soon as I finished my “Hello, Ducks” layout, I started in on this one!  (It’s so nice to have crafty momentum…)

Last fall, when I was laid up after my ankle surgery, I received a goody box from Therm O Web (I won a giveaway through Scrapbook and Cards Today magazine) full of their Metallix gels and a Stencil Pal.  At the time, I wasn’t capable of standing for long enough to use the products right away, even though I was itching to try them out.  So I had plenty of time to daydream about how I would give the gels a shot– this is a medium I’ve been really hoping to try for a while!

For this layout, I cut a stencil with my Silhouette Cameo: it’s the Star Background from Paige Evans (I got it in her Facebook group).  I used black textured card stock, because in one of the early iterations of my plan for this page, the filmstrip was also cut from that same card stock, and this way, I could cut everything at once.  (as you can see, I changed my mind and cut a white filmstrip frame in the end.)

I got out my brand new jar of Aged Copper Metallix and my Stencil Pal and got to work!

It was so FUN!!  It was really quick, and it was so exciting to lift my stencil and see the textured stars left behind on my background paper.  I will definitely be using this technique again!  (I’m also hoping to use pieces of the gel-covered card stock stencil on the facing pocket page to this layout).

I let the gel dry overnight, because I didn’t have time to go farther with the layout that day…but the layout came together really quickly after that!

This was one of the layouts that I’d sketched out when I was planning the Epcot pages in my Disney 2016 album, so I had a solid idea where the photos would go.  I added some layers of tissue paper to soften the background under the photos so they wouldn’t get overwhelmed by the bold star pattern, and I added some navy patterned paper strips (Shimelle Starshine) to pull in the navy of my son’s coat.

With such a striking background, I didn’t need much else: just my wood veneers (Studio Calico) and gold glitter enamel dots to embellish.

I added my journaling on a Project Life (Jade Edition) card.

 

P.S. Since I used a new-to-me product and a new-to-me technique, I’m entering this into the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog “Something New” challenge.

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Disney layout: Hello, ducks

After a month of sewing projects (most notably, several Christmas gifts), I was excited to get back to paper scrapbooking– especially since I’m physically more able to stand at my craft studio island to work now that my ankle is healing!

The first scrapbook layout that I made in 2020 is…drumroll please….

 

This page features four photos of my cutie pie not-yet-two-year-old son, enjoying the ducks in Epcot almost as much as anything else we saw that day.

There isn’t a huge story to go with the photos, but his fascination with the ducks was a sweet memory from that day, and I wanted to make sure to highlight it on a full layout in my 2016 Disney trip album.

The papers that I used for this layout are almost all from Shimelle’s Starshine collection, except for the yellow “hello” print, which I had in my stash and was the perfect compliment to the Shimelle #stickerbook “hello” speech bubble that I used with the title.

 

As I’ve done on every layout for this album, I made sure to include some wood veneer pieces (the stars are from Lawn Fawn) and enamel dots… …and of course a “hidden” Mickey.

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Costume 2019: Lloyd details

We have continued an inadvertent “tradition” of having my son in a green costume each year!  He was Prince James, then Pascal, and then Peter Pan last year… and he’s the Green Ninja this year! (2019 costume overview post HERE)

Like the Nya costume, the base patterns for Lloyd’s pants and tunic were the Blank Slate Snuggle PJ pants and Citronille Emile bathrobe pattern, respectively.  The pants were a basic modification: leave off the cuffs and lengthen the legs to compensate.  The tunic top was a different story, haha!

Because I really, really love to copy every detail that I possibly can, I convinced Husband to help me to drastically modify the bathrobe pattern to capture that really handsome-looking triangular cross-over that Lloyd’s minifig wears.  I would have tried to do it myself, but I wasn’t able to stand up long enough to make large-scale changes to a pattern like that… so I am very thankful that Husband agreed to help me!  I think he did a great job.

We cut black trim on the bias so that it would easily go around the curved parts of the modified front (mostly the flap that crosses under), and I also added black trim at the cuffs and hem.  We added snaps at the corner of the triangle, the neckline, and one snap at the hem to keep the tunic hanging properly.

I wanted to make actual frog closures for Lloyd’s tunic, but when it came down to it, I didn’t have the right cord on hand.  Instead, I raided my button stash and found some decorative gold buttons that had been given to me, as well as a little scrap of metallic gold trim that was just right.  I attached one end simply by stitching the braid and the button to the tunic, and on the other end, I stitched the button to the braid and then stitched a snap to sandwich the braid.

We made the gold dragon designs the same way as for Nya’s costume–hand drawn, scanned, adjusted in Silhouette Studio, and then cut with my Cameo 3; I especially enjoyed getting the curled dragon on Lloyd’s back just right…but then we decided that it would be best to mirror it, so that it would connect more logically to the dragon head on the front.

Again, we changed out the not-really-a-real-character symbol printed on the minifig for Lloyd’s dragon symbol from an earlier incarnation of his outfit on the show.  It is also cut from gold vinyl and applied onto a circle we cut from a scrap of the same dark green fabric as his head tie and belt.

The belt and head tie were made from fabric left from his Prince James costume, but we didn’t have enough for the leg ties.  We had a scrap of an old dark green t-shirt that was a close match in color, so we used that for the leg ties instead.  We ended up cutting out his hood from a women’s t-shirt, because I couldn’t find any other knit that was a good match!  It was nice and soft, but was a bit more prone to stretching out.

Action shot!

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Costumes 2019: Lloyd and Nya (Ninjago)

As you may have guessed from my son’s birthday party posts this past summer, he and my daughter are Lego-crazy, and especially Ninjago-obsessed.  So this year, it was not a hard decision for them to choose Lloyd and Nya for their costumes!

And as usual, I went crazy with the details.  I love cosplay, and each year, these costumes are exactly the excuse I need to give it a try.  If you’re familiar with Ninjago, there have been at least nine seasons of the show, with different outfits for the ninja in each one– and then there are different Lego sets with different outfits for the ninja!  In order to limit ourselves, I decided to create costumes that are modeled after minifigs that my son owns: we chose to use the 2019 Legacy versions of Lloyd and Nya.  (It turned out that this was a very good idea, since I found it hard to find good images of the backs of minifigs online!). In future posts, I’ll show the minifigs with the costumes so you can see how we copied/adapted the details!

I am especially proud of these costumes this year, since I am recovering from ankle surgery, and I just started bearing weight on that leg last week (so I’m still on crutches).  It’s also because of that pesky surgery that Husband and I don’t have costumes this year… I love dressing up, but these costumes were almost more than I could handle, so I’m glad we made the decision not to even try for ours The vast majority of these costumes were completed within the past two weeks.  Husband and I worked together to create them– Husband was awesome at doing all of the cutting (since I couldn’t stand to do it), helping with the reengineering of the tunic for Lloyd (more about that in a later post), and on top of all of it, fetching and carrying for me so that I could work on them as much as possible.

we have aqua leg ties for Nya; I just forgot to put them on for this photo!

Another thing I’m proud of is how little we spent (at least in actual money– I don’t even want to consider the cost in hours!): the main fabrics (green and dark red cotton/poly wovens, and the dark red knit) for both costumes were approximately $15 total, and the rest of the fabrics were ones we had on hand (either scraps or fabrics that had been handed down to me in the past).  We bought vinyl for the dragon details, which was about $4, and I used a $3 green t-shirt to make Lloyd’s ninja hood.  I had all the right colors of thread on hand already (amazing!), as well as the snaps, hooks and eyes, etc.  So the total we spent on materials was around $20!  Husband also bought their light-up “energy blades” (yes, they are technically lightsabers, but for this costume, they’re energy blades, ok?) for safety after dark, but since they will play with them after Halloween, I’m not counting them 😉

I’m going to write a post for each of the costumes, showing them in more detail, but I wanted to include some basic information here:

pants pattern: slightly modified Blank Slate Snuggle PJs (I lengthened the legs and left off the cuffs.  I really love this pattern, it is a real TNT for me.)

jacket pattern: modified Citronille Emile (bathrobe) pattern (modifications will be covered in subsequent posts; they were extensive for Lloyd!)

hood pattern: DIY Balaclava freebie pattern/tutorial from Make It & Love It

dragon vinyl designs: I sketched them myself, adapting the images printed on the minifigs.  I scanned them as .jpgs and then used Silhouette Studio to turn them into cut files.  I did a LOT of point-editing work, and with the invaluable help of Husband, we created cut files that were useable on an actual human.

 

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Morning preparations check-off chart

To help my kids make sure they accomplish all of their morning preparations, I made a up a little check-off chart for them!  This chart was heavily influenced by THIS really cute one, but I ended up drawing my own, because I wanted to have a chart that reflected our particular tasks and look like the items in our own household.

I drew the pictures by hand and then scanned them in black and white.  I adjusted their sizes to make them consistent, spaced them out, and then added captions in Photoshop Elements.  The charts are slightly different for my son and daughter: I drew clothes that look like their favorite school-clothes styles, and my son doesn’t need to style his hair in the morning!

I bought very inexpensive frames with plexiglass, and we attached a ribbon to hang them from two Command Hooks (<-affiliate link) so that the hooks could become a holder for a washable dry erase marker (each kid picked a favorite color to use from a set I found in a craft store several years ago).  They are hung at kid-level in the hallway so that as they complete tasks, my kids cross off each picture.  We also added felt pads to the back of the frames so they don’t make marks on the walls when bumped.

During the day or in the evening, I simply wipe the frame clean, and we start over again in the morning!  We’re several weeks into school now, and the charts have been really helpful in motivating my kids to accomplish what they need to do before leaving for the bus stop!

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Easter 2015: pocket inserts

For this set of inserts in B’s album, I challenged myself to use a very old BasicGrey collection called Kioshi, which I got years ago in a class at a CK Convention!  I’d also acquired coordinating rub-ons in a bag of hand-me-down scrapbook supplies from a friend, and I particularly wanted to see how many of them I could use!

I started this layout at the very end of May, and due to a very busy June and a trip at the beginning of July, it took me until July 10 to finish this set of inserts!

the front of the first insert page

The inserts tell several stories: an egg hunt we attended, dyeing eggs at home, and our Easter celebration at home after church (a small egg hunt for each child).  I wanted everything to coordinate, but I also wanted to distinguish the stories, so I added titles using the letter stickers from the collection.  I used up almost all of the rub ons in the packet I had– I even cut apart a frame shape and pieced the sides together to create borders in a couple different places.

the back of the first insert page

The final page of the insert has a shaker pocket.  I used my Cameo to cut out tiny flowers from scraps of the pattern paper, and I also added some sequins, some rub-ons added back-to-back on a punched circle of white cardstock, and some green glitter.  I think I put in too much glitter, but there’s no going back now!

the front of the second insert page

the back of the second insert page

Finally, I created a coordinating card for the Easter pocket in the weekly spread– again, using a rub-on from the collection.  I simply added it to a yellow card from the Project Life Baby Edition.

 

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VBS 2019

Recently, we had a fun-filled week of VBS at our church!  We tried our best to deck ourselves out to coordinate with the theme of each evening.

Monday night, we went on safari!

We dug out a plastic pith helmet for B that had been part of a butterfly catcher costume for Husband in 2007 and 2011, and a tan bucket hat for V.  V chose a tropical print sundress to wear, while B and I layered button-up shirts with rolled up cuffs over our team color shirts.  B is wearing his Peter Pan shirt, made from the Blank Slate Bookworm pattern, and I’m wearing a cream-colored cotton Blank Slate Novelista!  I sewed my headband from my team bandana fabric using the tried-and-true mmmcrafts Kinder, Gentler Headband pattern that I’ve been using for years.

On Tuesday night, the theme was animals!

B’s class was known as the “Tiny Tangerine Tigers,” so that was our obvious inspiration for his costume.  Husband added stripes cut from electrical tape to the $1 orange t-shirt I’d purchased, and I quickly sewed up a tail and tiger ears from orange felt, adding more electrical tape stripes to complete the costume.

V was tickled to receive a super-cute hand-me-down bee costume from a family at church, and it worked perfectly with her class color (she was one of the “Golden Gazelles” this year)

I repurposed some fabric fish and shells from a previous year’s VBS costume and attached them to my headband to make myself into a coral reef.  I also dug out some big, wooden, fluorescent fish earrings from when I was in middle school or so to complete the look!  Haha!

Wednesday night was color night, so we did our best to infuse as much of our team hue onto ourselves as possible!  B and I added “hair mascara” to color our hair; we had neither lavender nor orange, so I mixed pink and blue for mine and yellow and red for his.  I think his hair looks a bit like flames!

I repurposed one of V’s dress-up princess dresses for her skirt: her Snow White costume had saggy elastic in the bodice, so I unpicked the stitching between it and the skirt, added a waistband made from a yellow t-shirt scrap and called it done!

The Thursday night tradition is pajama night!

I had a yellow sheet in my stash, so I whipped up a pair of yellow PJ pants for V, and then I found some $2/yd orange fabric to make a pair for B, too.  His have dino fabric at the cuff to coordinate with a pair of Daddy’s.  Both of their pairs were made from the Blank Slate Snuggle PJ pattern (I have made SO MANY pairs of PJs using that great pattern!!) .

After several years of being on the lavender staff team (snacks!), I decided to finally make a pair of lavender PJ pants– and I even incorporated my team bandana as trim above the cuffs.  I couldn’t resist re-using my moon-and-stars headband attachments again this year (previously used in 2017 and 2016!)

On Friday, it was “Mathletes and Athletes” night.

B proudly wore his tee ball shirt from the program he did this past spring, and V wore her ballet class gear.  I decided to take the opportunity to tackle a project that I’d been wanting to do for a while– make a shirt with heat transfer vinyl!  It was so very satisfying, and I’ll have a post about my first shirts soon.

But our outfits/costumes weren’t the only VBS crafts this week!  The weekend before VBS, the staff worked hard to transform our church with all sorts of decorations!  I mostly helped out with the snack area, called “Grizzly Gulch.”

We decided to make it look like a nighttime campsite in the Rocky Mountains(ish), so we cut out bear silhouettes from black paper and attached them to a starry background.  We assembled our artificial Christmas trees from home and made a little pine grove, and made the kitchen window look cabin-like with curtains that I made from the plaid-printed plastic tablecloth material.

I had fun making a sign and a campfire out of cardboard and paper scraps, too!

 

 

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Lego party: food

We had some tasty food for our Lego birthday party!

We set up the island in our kitchen to hold the main “feast,” where we tried to do a little bit of theming to go along with the party’s theme.  Husband made a napkin holder and a utensil holder from Duplos, and we had fruit kabobs skewered on sword toothpicks.

However, one of our favorite food ideas was these ninja cheeses–made from partially opened Babybels!  (We found this idea on Pinterest and LOVED it!) . The eyes are edible cake decorations.

The dessert table displayed some more Lego mold prowess on the part of Husband: we made a bunch of Lego Jello– some with basic brick molds (affiliate link), and some– and this is the really awesome part– from an awesome Jello kit that molds interlocking blocks (affiliate link)!  They actually work, and it was so cool!  (these blocks form the cars in the photo below).

We made cupcakes: B requested strawberry cake with chocolate frosting.  He also wanted the Ninjago golden weapons on them, which were going to be beyond my capabilities, especially that week… so we compromised and used edible gold stars from a cake dec mix.  Each cupcake was topped with a brick that we molded from another silicone mold–that makes smaller bricks– that I bought at Michaels.

The birthday boy’s cupcake was at the top of the cupcake stand, and his cupcake had 5 gold stars and a “5” candle, of course!

B really wanted to be involved in the party prep, and so he helped Husband do some of the candy melt molding!  Husband was amazing– he did so much molding (Jello, candy, and crayons) for this party, and he always worked out the best method.

 

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