Christmas 2011 Layout

My favorite pictures from this year's Christmas.  I used a bunch of snapshots on the right, and stacked them to balance out the single photo on the left.  I used mostly CTMH's Elemental and Typeset papers, and a variety of stamps.  Nothing is over-the-top Christmas, but by this time every year, I'm pretty much over red and green.

This picture of Jess & Neal was my favorite, so I highlighted it on a page by itself.  All the pictures and papers are lightly distressed with brown ink.

This collage is definitely top heavy, but I it balances with the first page.  I wouldn't use this layout for a single-page layout.  Also, carrying the stamped leaf/flower image over the two pages brings them together.

Chicago Layout with Elemental and Typeset

This layout was so fun to make and I'm really pleased with how it turned out.  (The sound you hear is me blowing my own horn.).  The idea was copied straight from my current favorite creative inspirational book, Playing with Paper by Angelia Wigginton.  (I plan to do a post later today dedicated to how great this book is.)

I needed lots of patterns of paper that would compliment each other.  Elemental and Typeset, both new from Close to My Heart, work GREAT together.  Elemental papers are shown in the pic toward the left, and Typeset are in the upper center.

What really makes this layout representative of Chicago, is the shape of this building.  It definitely looks like the Sears Tower with its two big antenna things.  Technically, it's called the Willis Tower now (I had to look that up, because I couldn't remember the new name and probably never will).  And, technically, it's the John Hancock Building that is shaped like the building in my layout with the sloping sides, but oh well, it looks like Chicago.

I made this Sears/Willis/John Hancock Tower/Building by adhering many 3-inch wide pieces of different patterned papers together.  Once I had a long enough piece of paper, I used my paper trimmer to make the base of the building three inches wide and tapered the sides to two inches wide at the top.

Also, the background paper I used, the Lagoon grid from the Typeset paper pack, really helped me keep my buildings and title straight on the page.  I didn't plan it that way, but it really made it easier.  I cut it 11x11, so there would be 1/2 inch of the black base showing around the edge.

When I finished the skyline, I almost didn't want to add anything else.  I was so proud of myself, and I was afraid I'd ruin it somehow.  I think I'm going to try some more skylines.  Maybe a French Quarter feel for New Orleans, and a Des Moines one with the State Capitol Dome (yes, I'm in Iowa).  San Francisco, New York, and St. Louis would be fun cities to try too.  If I make this a two-page layout, I think I would try to come up with some kind of Wrigleyville theme, with maybe the Ferris wheel from Navy Pier. 

All the elements of the page are sparingly edged with CTMH Cranberry ink.  I think it helps tie all the competing patterns together.

The bottom border is from this punch for EK Success.  It's CTMH Pacifica cs, which is in some of the Elemental cs and also brings out the Cubbie blue in my daughter's sweatshirt.  It represents Lake Michigan, or the Chicago River, or both.  The "2008" shown in this picture is from the retired CTMH stamp set "Save the Date."  I used Colonial White ink on black cs.

I didn't want a huge title drawing too much attention to itself, so I used CTMH's "Vintage Type" stamp set for the letters and punched them out with a 1/2-inch punch (edged in Cranberry ink.)

The completed page again.  The black mat is flat on the page, and then the white mat with photo (all edged in Cranberry ink) are raised with dimensional adhesive.  

Typeset Birthday Card

I really like the new Typeset paper from CTMH.  This time I used it for an old fashioned looking birthday card.  I paired it with the All You Need Is Love stamp set.  The outside sentiment is a little hard to read in the picture.  It says, "Just living is not enough..."

The inside says, "one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower. --Hans Christian Andersen"

"Happy Birthday" is from the stamp set Card Chatter-Birthday.  The stamps were all colored with copic markers, but everything else is CTMH.

First Day of School with Typeset

I finally had time to create something with some of my products from the new CTMH catalog.  These papers are from the new paperpack, Typeset.  I think they work great for a first day of school layout.  The layout is based, loosely, on a layout in the book Playing with Paper by Angelia Wigginton titled "Circular Logic."  This started out as a mirror image layout, but the two pages took on their own personalities.

Nick's page has lots of buttons and uses the new CTMH stamp set Vintage Type for both the typewriter-look letters and the little stamped tag under the buttons at the bottom center.  "Day" is made from CTMH's Posterboard alphabet, stamped on another Typeset B&T paper.  The banner to the left, SEP (for Southeast Polk--Nick's high school), is made with Pennant alphabet.  All the embellishments are CTMH.

Jess's page uses some stamps from CTMH's Friendship, Delightful Things, and Delightful Alphabet stamps.  "School" is stamped with Token alphabet, then punched, and attached with dimensional tape.  Both layouts have touches of gold/yellow accents because Nick's high school and Jess's college (Univ. of Iowa) both use the colors black and gold.