Animal Kingdom

 Photo Op in The Boneyard

This is a super simple one-page, one-photo layout from Dinoland USA's Boneyard in Animal Kingdom. The pictures of both kids together postng were kind of rare, and this is one of my favorites.  The background paper and the "Discover" sticker were leftovers from a long-ago Disney World vacation. I added the accounting worksheet paper, used Thickers for the title, and hand wrote the journaling. The paper was kind of bright, so adding the worksheet really made the layout match the photo better.

Hakuna Matata,

--Ms. Molly

You Can Never Have Too Much Beach Time

Another Carta Bella Beach Layout

I love this layout of my grandkids in the Gulf of Mexico. Neither one was very fond of getting much more than their feet wet after they felt the tug of the waves, but they sure enjoyed the beach time.

This layout uses the Carta Bella "Summer Splash" collection, and I added the Recollections flowers, Nuvo Drops, and a starfish from Jolee's Boutique. The background paper is from Bazzill.

I can't say enough about how much I love the Summer Splash Line. My last four layouts were made with it.  Click back to my last three posts to view the other layouts.

Family Beach Layout

My daughter's family at the beach

This layout is of my daughter Jess's family at the Gulf Coast last fall. This was Finn & Shae's first trip to a beach, and it was a success, despite Hurricane Gordon coming on land while we were there.

As I did on my other recent layouts, I used Carta Bella's "Summer Splash" collection for the papers and a lot of the embellishments. The background cardstock is from Bazzill, which makes great, sturdy papers for scrapping or cardmaking.

I added the little flowers from Recollections, the tag, sequins from CTMH, and the Nuvo Drops.

Thanks for looking!

Shae by the Sea

12 x 12 Scrapbook Layout

Sweet Shae loved her first beach trip, even if the waves were a little overwhelming. This layout of Shae at the Gulf Coast is simple, but I wanted to focus mostly on the pictures and her expressions. All the papers are from the line "Summer Splash" by Carta Bella, as well as several of the embellishments including the "Beachy" sign. I absolutely love Summer Splash, and have created several beach layouts using it.

To add a little more interest, I added the white to the background paper to look like waves breaking, using Tim Holtz's Distress Crayon "picket fence."

The starfish is from Jolee's Boutique from my large stash of everything beachy.

I added lines of Nuvo Drop dots above and below the main strip and randomly within the starfish paper print.

I LOVE this picture:

Thanks for stopping by! More beach layouts are on the way......

Winter One-Derland Layout

Shae's First Birthday Party

Shae is two now, but I'm trying to catch up on her baby book. Her Winter 1-derland or One-derland (or O-NEEDerland if you like the movie That Thing You Do) was so special. Her birthday is just after Christmas, so her mom and I found a lot of white decorations on sale, and tried to stay with a white, cream, grey, and blue scheme.  

She looked like a winter princess in a ridiculous tulle-skirted dress with a fur jacket. I took all these pictures at night, so the shades of white and cream aren't contrasting too well in the photos.  I really like the ripped edges on the white paper with the cream color peeking through. The small amount of patterned paper is one sheet from a stack by DCVW called Collage Art. 

Both layouts have a lot of miscellaneous embellishments and silver and gold Nuvo drops. All the decorations were easy--we grabbed all the white dishes and decorations we had sitting around. The treats included a hot chocolate bar with some added liquor for the adults. I LOVE a themed party, and my grandkids are giving me a lot of opportunities to help with craft projects. They've started enjoying making crafts with me, and I hope they continue to enjoy being creative.

Easy Hawaii Layout

Paradise Found

In my quest to try to update my scrapbooks, I'm jumping around and just making pages of anything I want. The other day I felt like using beach paper, and I ended up with this layout for our Ohau trip three years ago.

The pictures are from various sites around the island. I used a paperpad called "Utopia" from Authentique for the papers. I used four: the op half of the layout, the bottom half, the strip through the middle, and the punched flowers.

I added Nuvo drops to the flowers I made, and to the centers of the flowers already on the paper in the bottom right. I used my own handwriting for the journaling.

Thanks for taking your time to look at my layout. Hopefully, lots more to come this year!

Shae's Summer

Actually Scrapbooking from THIS Year...

I found a version of this layout in the book Time to Scrap by Kathy Fesmire.

This book is from 2009, and it just shows that you can update older layouts for newer pages. The paperclips and the small photos drew me to the design. Except for the picture in the upper right, I used 2x3 sticky backed photos from my HP sprocket printer--how easy! I'll definitely be looking for more ways to use these small photos to make layouts.

The close-up photo shows the journaling. I used premade Tim Holtz ideology sayings on strips of paper and added Nuvo drops to make the strips match the paper in the layout. "SUMMER" is made with CTMH "Posterboard Alphabet," to which I added Nuvo drops as well. 

Poor little Shae's book is far behind her older brother's, so I'm trying to catch her up. Thanks for looking, and leave a comment if you like it!

Family Vacation Layout No, 4: The Arcade

Wisconsin Dells

This is the fourth in a series of layouts, to see the first three click on one of these links: Layout One; Layout Two; or Layout Three.

I don't know how many arcades our resort had, but we definitely hit all the big ones. Finn loved that he could play some of the games, and all the lights and machines were very exciting for him. And since we're all kids at heart, we all got into the spirit and played along too. Who doesn't enjoy skee ball or a good crane game where you win a ball the size of a beach ball?

 

Here's my layout for the arcade:

As you can tell, I wanted it to reflect the super busy, overstimulating atmosphere of the arcade.

Here's the left page up close:

 

 

The papers for these pages are all, I'm pretty sure, discontinued.  All from CTMH, they are from most recent to oldest, Adventure "Fundamentals," "Confetti Wishes," and "Hooligans." I was so happy to find a use for the old "Hooligans" paper that actually has a video game theme!

I stamped the title banner with one of my all-time favorite alphabets: CTMH's "Pennant Alphabet." It wasn't shiny enough alone, so I added Ranger's Glossy Accents.

 

 The embellishments are an assortment of CTMH and other stuff from my stash, none of it new. This was a great layout to use up some old items. Here's a close-up of some of them, along with that "Hooligan" video game paper. The little white words on black backgrounds are from Tim Holtz's Ideology collection "Big Chat."--probably the only current product on the layout!

 

 

Here's a closer look at the right layout.

 

 

It's more busy-ness in paper and embellishments. The "Be Happy love life" are cut from a B&T paper in the Fundamentals "Adventure" pack. 

 

 

 You can kind of see in this close-up that I used Rangers Glossy Accents again over the letters to give them a shine. And here's a last look at the whole layout:

 

 

 

A great vacation! I can't believe I've already finished the scrapbook pages for it. That's definitely something I haven't been very good at keeping up on in the last several years.

 

 I'm ready for another one! Next up, the Parrotheads go to Pensacola for a long weekend, and I'm ready! Will it get scrapbooked in a timely manner? Probably not, but It's good t have goals. 

 

Family Vacation Layout No. 3

Wisconsin Dells

This is the third in a series of layouts, to see the first two click on one of these links: Layout One or  Layout Two.


The Dells are all about waterparks. Our resort alone had something like three outdoor waterparks and three indoor waterparks, including huge slides, wave pools, and anything else you can think of. 
We spent much of our time in the kiddie areas with the grandkids.  Here's the layout memorializing those times:

 

I really like this two-page spread. The papers are from CTMH's "No Worries"

Workshops Your Way. The pink and yellow cs are also CTMH. The left page is devoted to Shae, our water baby, and the second to Finn the wild child.

 

On Shae's side, I matched the cs with the pink in her super-cute sun wear. She hadn't been sitting up alone for long, and it was adorable seeing her sit up by herself in a couple inches of water.

The "Brave & Strong" sticker was from the CTMH "Jack" Workshops Your Way stickers.

The button on the top is from Dear Lizzy.  I added doodling around the striped piece and silver Stickles dots to match the title.  Here's a close-up:

 

 

When I start to run out of a set of letters, I like to mix them together, and that came together well here. The letters were from three old sets. The net is from a CTMH stamp, and I doodled the white splashes with a white pen.

 

 

Finn's side used yellow cs to match the waterslide and the yellow in his trunks. He had an absolute ball going doing the slides and playing in the water.  The title letters are from the "Jack" CTMH Workshops Your Way.

 



"Together under the Sun" is from CTMH's "No Worries."  I used up a bunch of aqua Dots from CTMH around the sticker and at the top right to resemble water. Again, I doodled the splash above the title to make it coordinate with the other page.

 

The bright, fun look of this simple two-page layout really captures the joy the kids had in the water. The two pages use a lot of different colors and elements, but they have enough like components that they really compliment each other. Here's a look at the whole layout again:

 

 

Family Vacation Layout No. 2

Wisconsin Dells

This is the second in a series of layouts, to see the first layout, click here: Layout One 

 

This second layout from our Dells vacation is about where we stayed, The Wilderness Resort. Like the first layout, I used papers and embellishments from the CTMH "Jack" workshop on the go.

 

Here's a close up of the first page:

 

 

I doodled the title. I'm super into doodling lately, and you'll see it in a lot of my projects going forward.  The bears were lighter in color than I wanted, so I used a Copic marker to darken them both. You can also see I doodled around the bears and tree & star stickers, and added some extra lines, dots, and scribbles.  The small typewriter-like sayings are from Tim Holtz's idea-ology collection called "Small Talk."

I feel bad Shae's beautiful face has a glare on it, so here's a close up of her--so cute.

 

Second Page:

I used some more sticker embellishments from "Jack" and added more doodling. Again, I darkened some of the stickers with my Copic marker. Whenever something is messy or we argue, or just to be stupid, we refer to our family as the Gallaghers (from the Showtime show "Shameless"), so that's why it says that.

 

Thanks for looking! More layouts soon!

 

 

Family Vacation Layout

Wisconsin Dells

I actually finished the layouts for our family vacation to the Wisconsin Dells. This is the second year in a row we've driven to the Dells, and I think last year's trip has maybe one layout done, so don't be too impressed.  My last post was also a Wisconsin Dells vacation page, but it was solely for Shae's baby book because it was her first vacation. (Poor Shae--her baby book is so empty. That's also on my to-do list: more layouts for Shae's book.)

Here's the first layout for the trip. I like to start like sections of layouts with a one-page layout, kind of a title page for either the whole scrapbook if it's a large number of layouts or if it's a section of layouts within a book of various layouts, then it signals the beginning of a new section.

 

The Dells is approximately 5 hours away from where we live in Iowa, so we road trip there. I know not everyone does, but I love a road trip. We always have some great laughs and memories from the road. The top left photo is a selfie of us in our rented minivan. Shae isn't visible because she's in a rear-facing car seat in the way back. The other pics are Shae in her "Vacay All Day" shirt and Finn in his vacation shirt that we bought him in Hawaii last year. His quote (on the page) cracks me up: "This is my vacation shirt. It's really orange."

 

Everything but the title is from CTMH's "|Jack" workshop on the go. It includes coordinated papers and embellishments.  The title is a die cut I picked up at my LSS, Memory Bound in Ankeny, Iowa.  I wrote the dates of the vacation with a white uni-ball pen.

Shae's First Vacation

Scrapbook Layout!

We took our second family trip to the Wisconsin Dells this summer, and it was Shae's first trip. The ride in the car seat, facing backward, was a little long for her, but she was a trooper.  This picture of her in swimsuit, sun shirt, and hat while siting in maybe 2 inches of water deserved a layout of its own.

The papers are from BoBunny and DCWV. The large round embellishments are from Dear Lizzy. I distressed some of the edges to match the already-distressed look of some of the papers. The journaling pieces are from BoBunny, and I hand wrote the text in a sloppy doodle style.

 



Wisconsin Dells Layout

Catching Up on Some Scrapbook Pages

Another post! This is becoming a habit!  This layout is from our trip last summer, Finn's first vacation with our family, to the Wisconsin Dells.

 

What started out as a single page layout (the left side), evolved into a two-page spread because I simply couldn't fit the "Wisconsin" and "Dells" banners on to the one page without scrunching them up too much. It works okay as a two-page layout, but I can definitely tell it was a mid-design change. Hopefully, it worked out.

 

\

The first page (all products on both pages are CTMH) highlights a paid-for photo from the boat cruise we took. We bought the photo because it was laughable of all of us--we're weird that way. Especially funny was how poor little Finn had to just peek out between the fake rails. He's not looking very happy, and that turned out to be a theme for the whole cruise. There were many tearful incidents, and before it was over, he sat right in some nacho cheese. It was a memorable excursion.

 

 

This page shows how good Finn was for the trip to The Dells (about a five-hour car ride). Wearing his vacation shirt we bought him in Hawaii, he looked like his grandpa before a Jimmy Buffett road trip as he helped pull the cooler to the car. He posed for a picture before getting buckled in, and in the top right-hand photo he couldn't have been better behaved when we stopped for lunch. For most of the long weekend he was SO good. More layouts to follow I hope!

Parrotheads in New Orleans

Parrotheads on the Road Again:

Twelve best friends plus Halloween in New Orleans equals fun plus lots of shenanigans!   The picture on this layout was from during the day while we were all behaving somewhat.  We always try to get at least one group photo. This one is from the river levy looking back toward Jackson Square and St. Louis Cathedral--a standard NOLA photo op spot. 

 

I used CTMH's Nevermore paper pack after creating the background with Dylusions black paint and brick stamp. I used lots of scribbling and doodling. The lettering is all handwritten/drawn.  The three fleur de lis are punches. 

In the background you can also see in three spots where I used a date stamp repeatedly and not particularly neatly:

It makes the background have more depth, plus adds the month and year of the trip. 

Key West Scrapbooking Done!

Here's the whole Key West trip, in the order I'm putting the layouts in my scrapbook.

I've included links to the original posts.

 

Parrotheads

 

The Title Pages

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tom & Molly

 

 

 

 

The Best Wave of Your Life is Still Out There

 

 What a trip!!! Next stop for this bunch?  Jimmy Buffett concert at Alpine Valley, Wisconsin. After that? Halloween in New Orleans (that should be interesting with this group!). After that? Maybe the Florida Gulf Coast...we're planning trip after trip after trip.



Margaritaville Beach Hotel Layout

We had an amazing time at the Margaritaville Beach Hotel at Pensacola Beach, so I did a layout on the hotel itself.  The colors I chose go well with the sunset, the water, and even my shirt.  :) 

 

I used papers from CTMH's "Dream Pop" special kit and CTMH's "Footloose" paper pack.

 

Left page:

 

If you click on this picture of the left page, you can see it better.  The letters in "Margaritaville Beach Hotel" are from CTMH's "Keyboard" stamp set--a new favorite.  I stamped them with Lagoon ink to match the water-like paper from the "Footloose" papers.

 

 

The "Paradise" stamp is also in Lagoon ink and is from the "Footloose" WOTG stamp set.  Both pictures of Tom and me and Jess and Neal were taken from the balcony of our rooms.  The upper left picture is of our room.  What a view!  The bottom middle pic is Neal looking out the balcony window.  The bottom right picture is Jess looking out the hotel lobby window.  Everywhere you went, the view was spectacular!  Besides the papers, I added colorful paper flowers and a little bling.  Very quick and easy, but I love the colorful, summery, tropical feel of the layout.  It makes me want to go back!