October PageMaps & a Tip for Scrapping Random Snapshots

It’s my favorite month of the year! Yay! for October! It’s also my favorite time of the month where I get to play with the new PageMaps sketches. Here is the page I created for this month.

SCOUTS

When my son was 8 years old he LOVED going to scouts. He loved it so much that he would set out his uniform the night before every single time. Cute, right?! Of course I wanted to remember this and had snapped a quick picture of his clothes with my cell phone.

The cell phone snapshot is not a stellar image that would make a great focal point on a scrapbook page, so what I did was add in a cute photo of my son taken around the same time. I then used themed scrapbook products to help support the story of the page.

The Simple Stories Cabin Fever collection with it’s outdoorsy vibe was perfect for this page topic. I had just a few scraps left, so I combined them with a few other patterned papers hanging out in my stash.

I fussy-cut several elements from the 4×6 Vertical Elements paper, 3×4 Journaling Card Elements paper, and 4×4 Elements paper to use as embellishments around the page.

I then added in a few dimensional accents, like the white twine, gold button, and flair badge. The chipboard frames around the photos and the torn paper at the bottom add in more texture.

If you have a random snapshot that illustrates a sentimental story, but won’t exactly look hold it’s own on a scrapbook page, try adding in a photo of the person the story is about. It will add context to the story and snapshot and make the story that much more memorable.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Simple Stories: Boys Rule

It’s rare that you find a collection for boys that can span all the way from when they are toddlers to teens and the Simple Stories Lil’ Dude collection does just that! Today I have a birthday layout to share with you using this darling new collection.

The 4×4 Elements paper played a big role in this design. I not only used one of the squares for my title …

… but also as page elements scattered below the title. Here you can see where I fussy-cut the speech bubbles from another one of the 4×4 Elements, as well as how I punched out the circle journaling block.

I also punched the “It’s a Boys World” from the 3×4 Elements paper to use as a page accent.

At the top of the page, I used a smaller circle punch to punch the “So Rad” circle from the 2×2 Elements paper.

After I placed the larger pieces, I came back in with the die cuts from the Bits & PIeces pack and the puffy stickers to fill in the spaces.

I love how this design grabs your attention at the top of the page with the title and the photos and then leads your eye down the “waterfall” of page elements through the journaling and then finally ending on the photo at the bottom of the layout.

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Thanks for joining me today! I hope you felt inspired to create a scrapbook page of your own.

See you next time!

Echo Park Paper: Once Upon a Time Prince collection

I pulled out my Echo Park Paper Once Upon a Time Prince collection to scrapbook a few pages the other day. This collection was released about a year ago, but is still available in stores. It was the perfect choice for the two photos I will be working with today!

PRINCE IN TRAINING

I wish I could take credit for the title on this page, but I pulled that clever phrase off of one of the elements in the collection. It was too cute NOT to use with this photo of my son attempting to dislodge the sword in the stone at Disneyland. 😀

If you are stumped as to what to do for your title, give it a try! Look through the elements in the collection for a phrase that would coordinate with YOUR photos. The designers of these collections spend a lot of time and effort coming up with the phrases, so you may as well take advantage of their hard work! 🙂

My other tip is to try using a sketch to jump start your page design. For this page, I used one of Becky Fleck’s May 2018 sketches from PageMaps.com … however, I switched it up a bit by turning the sketch on it’s side and mirroring it (I used the sketch in the lower left corner of the PDF print out, if you’d like to see the original). Doing this allowed me to stretch outside of my comfort zone and put elements together in a way that is new to me!

I could have just stuck these arrows to the page … but somehow that little bit of stitching makes them feel “special.”

I had a lot of fun building the title for this page. I first began with the “PRINCE” word and then decided to add the flags above and below it. The flags are all stickers and die cuts from the collection. I did add other elements (chipboard pieces, letter stickers, and stickers) and strips of paper on top of several of them to make them more intreresting.

The curtain rod-looking element along the top row is from the Hero Banner Die Set. It wasn’t quite long enough, so I die cut two rods and then pieced them together behind one of the flags.

In the lower right corner of the photo, I placed a cute castle sticker, popped up with foam squares. I wanted a forest on either side of the castle, so I cut the tree sticker in half, placing one half tucked behind each side of the castle. You would never know that the tree sticker doesn’t run the full width of the castle!

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The Once Upon a Time Prince collection was also perfect for this page of my daughter all dressed up to go to a Medieval Themed party several years ago.

MEDIEVAL PARTY

I created the banner across the top of the page using pennant punches by American Crafts and papers from the Once Upon a Time Prince 6×6 Paper Pad. I stitched them across the top using my sewing machine and then added a few glossy, pennant pieces from the Enamel Shapes.

I cut the scroll from the 4×6 Journaling Cards paper to accent the left side of the photo, and then built a little cluster of elements below it from the 6×13 Chipboard Set.

Another cluster of chipboard elements (the castle, phrase, stars, and coat of arms) accents the bottom right corner of the photo.

At the bottom of the page, I layered together several strips of patterned paper to anchor the design. The bottom strip is punched with a postage stamp patterned border punch by Fiskars.

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Thank you for coming by today!

PageMaps Sketch: You Are My Guitar Hero

The beginning of a new month means more new sketches from PageMaps! I love the surge of inspiration I feel each month when I see what the designers have created with Becky’s sketches. Here is the page I created for April.

YOU ARE MY GUITAR HERO

For this page, I pulled out some papers from the Photo Play Fresh Picked collection that I purchased last year and mixed them with some items from my stash. (A few of the papers are still available at Scrapbook.com. You will find links to them at the bottom of this post, if you are interested.)

I used the wood plank Farm Fresh paper as the background because it repeated the wood door that is behind my son in the photos.

I then used white cardstock matted with the Fresh Flowers plaid paper.

I anchored my title on a Project Life transparency card with a blue speech bubble on it. Unfortunately, I do not remember which collection this is from, but if you like this look, you can always recreate it with a swash of paint … or try printing your own transparency using some clip art.

As you know, I love fussy-cutting florals … they are becoming a “must-have” on almost any page I do lately! Even though this page is about my son, they still work!

I wanted to add some dimensional accents to this page, and decided to go with wood veneer because they matched the color of my son’s guitar in the photos. I have so much wood veneer in my stash! I really need to put it to use more often!

I’m not sure who the manufacturer of the wood letters are, but the arrows and hearts are by Studio Calico. The wood buttons are oldies-but-goodies by BasicGrey.

The “tag” peeking out from behind the journaling block actually isn’t a tag at all! It is actually a label sticker. I simply punched a hole in it and added a silver eyelet using my WRMK Cropadile. (Yes … I still like using eyelets! *wink*)

I love creating with Becky’s sketches each month. Which one will you choose to create with during April?

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