The One with May 2011 American Crafts Layouts

I guess there are only a handful of things I blog about. My life. My baby. My scrapbooking creations. Occasionally I'll throw in a random story or bit. Welcome to my simple world!

Today I've got a couple more layouts to share that I made for my monthly American Crafts assignment. After making over 50 layouts this weekend for a client and work, I thought I'd be scrapped out to the max, but I found some mojo in a hidden corner deep within my bucket o' creativity. Or something like that :)

THE GREATS

Journaling says: Fox is so lucky to have three sets of living great-grandparents! And he's been able to meet all six of them before he was six months old. I'm so glad we have pictures of Fox with each one of them so he can always look back and see how much he was loved by all of his family. He's the Warner's 2nd, the Taylor's 1st, and the Evans's 4th great-grandchild.

Tips: I was inspired by a card that had fabric stitched over squares of felt so it created a cool quilt-looking background. That's exactly what I did here! I measured pieces of felt a little bit larger than my photos, adhered them in a 3 x 2 grid on my background patterned paper, then stitched a pretty piece of colorful floral fabric on top. I actually stacked two pieces of felt under each picture for more dimension. I pulled on the fabric edges to fray them more. Then I dripped/flicked the background with two colors of blue mist. Next I adhered the photos in place. Then I hand cut lots of hearts from patterned papers and adhered them diagonally across the page. I sprinkled a few pearls and jewels around the hearts. I love that I can still use jewels and pearls and even pink on Fox pages :) Finally, I added a Thickers title, letter stickers on each photo to say the great's name, then journaled around the visible fabric edges with a black pen.

Supplies: Patterned paper, chipboard letter stickers, paper letter stickers, pen, adhesive: American Crafts; Fabric: I don't know the brand, got it at Jo-Ann; Felt: The Kunin Group; Pearls: K & Company; Jewels: Doodlebug Design; Spray mist: Tattered Angels; Sewing machine: Brother; Thread: Coats & Clark; Paper cutter, scissors: Fiskars

For this next layout, I was completely, utterly, 100%, and totally inspired by the June CARDS cover card created by Valerie Mangan.

Ever since I laid eyes on this card when she submitted it for possible publication many months ago I became obsessed! Now I've finally been able to have a go at scraplifting it:

EVANS PARTY OF 3

Journaling says: Sometimes when we're playing with Fox we'll look at him and then look at each other and say, "I can't believe we have a baby!" And he's not really even a baby anymore - he's going on 8 months! It's crazy that he started out smaller than a 1/5 of the size of the period at the end of this sentence. Now he's sitting and eating and growing up right before our eyes. Pretty soon he'll be big and grown up. Chris likes to make the comparison, "We are to Fox what our parents are to us - weird!" But every day we feel so blessed to have Fox as our son. He brings us so much joy and he's starting to reciprocate those feelings with smiles and laughs and wiggles. We're a party of 3!

Tips: The TV was off while I made these layouts! Crazy talk! To create this layout first I cut a petal from a thick piece of chipboard and traced it onto dozens of patterned papers. I cut all the petals out then sewed around each edge. I placed the petals on my layout where I wanted them, took a picture with my camera to refer back to in case they got moved around, then I glued them onto my patterned paper background and lifted up the ends for dimension. I added one little photo to each of the three groupings of petals with foam squares. The title was made from Thickers, of course, and then I journaled at the top, right side, and bottom with a brown pen. This layout probably took the longest to make of any layout I've ever made in my life! But so worth it.

Supplies: Patterned paper: 7 Gypsies (vintage background), Scenic Route Paper Co. (graph, notebook lined), American Crafts (all others); Chipboard letter stickers and number, adhesive, pen: American Crafts; Sewing machine: Brother; Thread: Coats & Clark; Paper cutter, scissors: Fiskars

Now I'm off to put all my scrap crap away! What a mess!