Male Patterned Paper

I've had these photos of Derick for a while, plus the page title, just waiting for inspiration. This week's sketch at Sketch Support gave me that inspiration. Here's the page:

I modified the sketch quite a bit, mainly because the star is incidental to the theme (he loves doing Star Wars role playing games). I used it to "fancy up" the replacement letter "e."

I had run out of "e's" from the wood letter set and almost got more, but my scrapping friend Janet stopped me from buying more wood letters, saying, "Use an 'e' from your supplies." That have me the idea for the embellishing. I punched a star from scrap paper, traced around it, punched holes every 1/4 inch, then stitched.

If you haven't gone to Sketch Support yet today, do so! There is a giveaway for two sketchbooks.

Fun, Family Stories, and a Ritual

I have been working hard at grading papers and scrapping for my BPC class Twelve. Here's three I just finished.

The first LO is a double page spread about our crazy baseball game from last summer. I blogged about it here, and I took the photos from my post and put them on this LO. Here's what I did (click on the images to see them larger):

 

 

 

I used a library pocket from Maya Road to hold the tickets, which I always try to save. The blue paper, which sort of looks like rolling clouds to me, I misted with Studio Calico Heirloom Blue to make the white pattern less bright.

 

For interest, I stitched frames around the photos on the right and housed the journaling strips in circles of patterned paper.

My next page is about my (mostly) lovely ritual of taking my dog for a ride. She likes to ride shotgun.

I mostly used scraps, plus some mist and stitches. Love this photo of her. I took it at a light. She always gives me this look when I stop petting her.

The next page is for fun:

 

I've had this quote knocking around forever waiting for  a page, so it found its way onto this one. I did lots of fun stuff on this one:

• misting with a template
• hand stitching
• machine stitching
• layering strips of paper
• using a favorite design
• using a quotation

Here's some details:

  

 

 

Thanks for looking at my pages--I enjoyed making and sharing them. I'll share some Sketch Support pages later this week.

Twelve

 One of my husband's birthday presents to me this year was a class called Twelve at Big Picture Classes. I'm so excited to be in this class. Here's a recent layout I made for it, under the category of "Me":

 

I used Studio Calico's December kit Brooklyn Flea for this LO. Lots of fun mixing papers.

I wanted some mixed textures on the title, so I wrote the second word, punched holes every 1/4", the stitched in turquoise.

One thing I like lately: when I punch a border, I curl the edges up. Nothing revolutionary, but it adds some nice texture to the LO.

More LOs (and more birthday!) to come.

Goofy and Happy

I wanted to share a page I made recently that I love.

First, I had some wonderful photos of our trip to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, a wonderful and free museum in the Twin Cities.  A docent marked up a map for us of all the boy friendly art, and we went on an adventure finding it all. The boys acted goofy the whole way. Here's the page:

I designed it a little differently. Normally on a two page LO, I box it into a mat or spread it across the page, but that design felt a bit staid to me, so I put the photos instead in three clusters across the spread. Underneath each cluster I misted, then laid some strips of my favorite GCD Studios paper from last year,  The World's Greatest. I also cut frames out of one side of the paper and housed images I punched from the MIA map we'd used.

 I was very happy to use some older Jenni Bowlin letter stickers on the layout. I actually used up the sheet--no more e's and a's, so out it went! I stitched over it in orange for interest, then added some cross stitches under the hand cut banner.

I stretched the journaling over the two pages to move the eye across the page.

This was a layout I smiled the whole time making. Most happily for me, my boys kept coming over and looking at the photos then the journaling, and they both asked when we could go again. We decided we'd go in February when Grandma D comes.

Another thing making me happy: looking forward to playing with this paper line:

GCD Studios is releasing Heidi Sonboul's first line, Oh Happy Day! Maybe because it finally started to feel (and look!) like winter here in Minnesota,  I can't wait to play with these happy, happy colors and patterns. One image of a girl, but don't let that turn you off if you have boys: the patterns are happy and playful, and boys are happy and playful too. Awesomeness!

New Year pages

I was lucky enough to spend January 2 at Archiver's, where I got a start on a few layouts. Here's three that I finished (all of these layouts I made using Studio Calico's December kit. I always try to use up my kits every month before I get the new one.):

I pulled a photo from this year after I asked Rowan what his earliest memory was, and he told me what I wrote on the page: "Meeting my brother for the first time." Wonderful. Lots of misting using Mister Huey Custard and maybe Pony, If I remember right. I also added a stitched border, which I like to do on a neutral background.

 I found the quotation on Pinterest, and since I'd taken this photo on Christmas (I know, it looks like fall outside) of my husband and me, I thought it would be a great sentiment for the page. I misted with the same colors on this page.

This might be my favorite. I do so many Lego pages, I'm running out of titles! Here he told me he wanted to work in the Lego store as a grown up, and I had to put that on a page. Fortunately I had the perfect photo, though I'm not sure what's under his eye? A cat hair, maybe. Our grey and white cat also left a hair on the first layout, I think.

I like the touches of green on this layout. I think it adds an unexpected touch to the color combo, making it more playful. Goodness knows, if a word describes my boy, it's "Playful."

Guest Artist

A few weeks ago I applied for the Pink Paislee design team. Since I first saw Office Lingo, I've loved their products, so I thought I would give it a go. This past weekend I saw this on the blog:

 

I'll be one of the Guest Artists this year! (Truthfully, I didn't post this until I was absolutely sure I was the Jennifer Larson they meant, LOL! Sometimes it's hard having a common name.)

Thanks for letting me share the news! Now off to finish the pages I started at Archiver's today.

Favorites of 2011

The year year is here, and I wanted to share some of my favorite layouts from last year.

Three I can't post because they were picked up for publication. One I'm not sure will be published--it was for the February CK, but that's out and it's not in? That happens sometimes. That LO used a sketch from Sketch Support and was called "A Year of Date Nights."

The other two were layouts that I knew would get picked up for publication after I made them. I don't get that feeling all the time, but this time I did. They are called "Open Sky" and "He's Got Goals," and they should be in the May Scrapbook Trends.

Here's the rest:

(ETA: Just noticed a number fell off, goshdarnit! The missing number is 6.)

Some things I noticed about these pages:

1. Most have stitching in some way.
2. Most also have color--paint or ink or mist.
3. Most have circles--within in the design or in the photos. Funny, because I'm still so linear!
4. Strips of patterned paper--I'm still a stripper, LOL!
5. Lots of patterned paper; also white space.
6. Most of the time, something overlaps a photo.
7. Border punches or fussy cut borders.

Thanks for looking at my favorites from last year--hoping everyone has a terrific new year!