Baby Love

Baby love, my baby love. I apologize in advance if that awesome song by The Supremes is stuck in your head all day.  Incidentally, it's not how the title came to me but now every time I see this page, I start singing that song.

I used the Gossamer Blue November Main Kit to create this layout.  I just love the large floral pattern from the Maggie Holmes collection by Crate Paper.  It's quite busy so I used the small polka dot paper to tone it down. Want to know a secret? I look at the page and love it but I feel like it's missing something. It's weird because in person, it looks great but in the photos, it looks bare. Does that ever happen to you? I might just have to go back and add some embellishments to the upper right corner.  Then again, I might not since I like it when I'm holding it in front of me.

I used the Gossamer Blue exclusive stamp to stamp the tags and then cut them out. The wood elements are from the Dear Lizzy Polka Dot Party collection. I just misted them to coordinate with the background paper and them backed them with contrasting colors to make the numbers pop.

My favorite part of this layout is the title. I misted the wood veneer with yellow and set it aside to dry. While drying, I used grey chalk ink to town down the brightness of the Thickers. They are a vibrant blue, which are beautiful but were just too bright for this particular layout. Thanks for letting me borrow your ink, Diana!

Once the "love" word was dry, I applied the rub-ons over it to give it a little something extra.

I hope you like the ideas I shared with you today. Now go on and get crafty!

Love This Family | We Are So Good Together + Kits for Sale

Hi there. I wanted to share this layout I created using the new Amy Tangerine Cut and Paste collection by American Crafts. I also created a kit to sell at a recent retreat I went to.  I sold out of them and later found a few more when I got home.  Stay tuned below if you are interested in one of them.

I love the striped background and I wanted to feature it but I also wanted to take a back seat to my photos. With that as my challenge, I found a cutting file online and sized it slightly smaller than my 12x12 page so I would have a border around it.

When I made the cuts, there were a few of the cuts that were left dangling. They popped out super easy but I decided to glue them back on the paper once I attached the overlay to the background. I like the randomness. Of course, you don't have to add them back. It's all a personal preference. Here it is without the filled in cuts (or the title).

Once I added all the bits, I added more dies, embellishments, layering and the photo. I topped it off with a title and sub-title.

Kits for Sale
This layout was a lot of fun to put together.  If you like it and are interested in buying one of the few kits I found when I returned home for $7 plus ship, please email me. Note that the kit includes everything except the alphas I used to create the "leopard family photos" title.

Thanks for stopping by today. Now go on and get crafty!

Best Dress Ever

I created this layout for a Creating Keepsakes call so I've been hiding here until it was pubbed last month.  My daughter had a favorite dress for about 1 1/2 years. We thought it was because it was a Dora dress and she loved Dora at the time. We found out a year-ish later after buying her some non themed twirly dresses that while Dora was instrumental, she really just loved the tutu skirts.

So, here's the layout that is dedicated to "The Best Dress in the History of Ever"

What's a girl to do when she's doing a 2-page layout? Whether I only have one of each sheet or not, I usually like to use coordinating pages instead of identical.

How cute is she in her whirly twirly dress? I pulled the colors in from the blue door, pink building, pink dress and the yellow in the crown.  I layered papers over one another on the left side so the photos would get lost on the colorful background.

I embellished all around the photo mats but what I love the most is the journaling I added to the photo before I printed it.  I also did some hand journaling to finish the story.

She would wear this dress all day and all night 24/7 if she could. As a matter of fact, we bought several of them in 2 sizes so that we'd always have a clean one. Yes, we spoiled her but those Target dress deals were too good to pass up.

Thanks for stopping by today. Now go on and get crafty!

Life is Better With You In It {Card}

Proof that I do make cards every now and again!  Here's another project I created for my 2nd term debut on the American Crafts blog. I created this card solely based on the resin bows from Amy Tangerine's Cut and Paste collection and Dear Lizzy's Polka Dot Party flowers.

See what I mean? I just couldn't resist making a couple's card. The bow as a bow tie and the flower as a brooch. I also trimmed her dress with ribbon from polka dot party.

I cut the files using American Crafts cutting files through the Silhouette store. I trimmed the top and bottom with coordinating colors, "just right" sentiments and little else soas not to distract from my "people". The card is a little bigger than normal because of the size of the bow but that's A-OK to me!

I hope you likey! Now go on and get crafty!

Spring Swing Step x Step Tutorial

This is one of my favorite layouts  I'm showing you today. I created it for my 2nd term debut on the American Crafts blog.  It was a labor of love, from designing the cutting file to testing the cuts to popping different patterns behind the cuts and so on and so forth.  I read all the love on the American Crafts blog and I enjoyed reading all the emails that were sent asking for tips on how to recreate it.  THANK YOU! That said, I thought I'd share a tutorial to help you make a similar layout, if you so choose.

To create this layout, I did the following:

1. I purchased 3 different flowers from the Silhouette store and then made them into different sizes.
2. I flipped and turned them and arranged them all so that they would fit in the upper 2/3 of my page and within the pre-printed border.  
3. Tip: I used the slicing tool on the flowers at the bottom and cut them each along a line so that I could add a border to cover the seam and not have holes cutting out under the border.
4. Next, I did a text cut on a scrap 12x12 sheet. 
5. Once I had everything where I wanted it, I made the final cut on the pre-printed 12x12 paper.
6. I added a border over the bottom of the flowers.
7. Next, here's three ideas to help you back the die cut flowers:
1. Use one sheet of paper and adhere it using pop dots.
2. You can do what I did. I made all the cuts in the top paper and then I used the cuts that I popped out from the paper and used them as a guide, cutting the background paper just slightly larger than the die cut. I then adhered some direct to the back of the paper using liquid adhesive and others were adhered to the back with pop dots.
3. Lastly, you could offset the cuts on your die cut machine and make them slightly bigger and cut the patterned background papers with your machine. You could then adhere some direct to the back of the paper using liquid adhesive and others were adhered to the back with pop dots.
8. Once all the flowers are backed, adhere a 12x12 scrap piece of paper to the back so that you can easily insert it in your page protector.
9. Lastly, embellish the flowers, add photos, title and journaling.

Thanks everyone for stopping by today. If you create a similar layout, I hope you'll share it with me here on my blog or send me an email with a link. I love to see different versions. It makes my heart happy!

Playground Fun

You may have seen this layout on the PageMaps blog but I wanted to share some details here.  I created this layout showing a typical day at the park for us, using the Lily Bee Design Sweet Shoppe collection. My girls are here, there and everywhere on the swings, slides, bridges and more.

How to: I trimmed my inside pattern papers just slightly smaller than the other so that I could distress the top layer and show the flowers under it.  I framed them with the green hello paper and then stitched it all together.

I tucked some sticker labels, under the stitched section prior to stitching and then topped it with chipboard and a brad.

I cut strips of pattern paper into banners and layered them over the new background paper, some extending from the right edge and some extending from the left edge but all showing through on each side of my photo, which I framed with the floral paper and softened with vellum. I added a simple title and a sub-title using labels, alphas and chipboard and plenty of embellishments to complete the story.

Thanks for stopping by today. Now go on a get crafty!

Life is Better with {my daughter and dad} In It!

I have committed scrap more photos of my kids with the important people in their lives instead of just them. I just don't want to take these times for granted.  So today, I'm showing you a page I created of my oldest daughter with her Big Daddy (grandfather). 

I just loved the blue diagonal striped vellum paper with the pre-stitched butterflies from the American Crafts My Girl collection! I just had to use it!

I simply layered it over the multi-striped paper from the same collection so that it covered 2/3 of the page. I added scalloped and striped borders to trim the seam.

I added a few fussy cut speech bubbles to help tell the story and embellished the lower 1/3 of the page.  Lastly, bits and pieces for layering. These two adore each other and now I have a layout to prove it. LOL.

Thanks for stopping by today. Now go on a get crafty, y'all!

YES!!! I Can Post to My Blog Again!

Oh my gosh! I have been locked out of my blog for 2 weeks (thanks Google) and I have been so sad (and frustrated) because I have so many projects sitting here that I want to share.  So be warned, be happy, be scared, whatever, but I'll be on a roll now.  Stay tuned and thanks for sticking with me!

And since it just feels wrong to post without a photo, how about this one of my littlest sweetie today.

She decided to dress up to take her big sister to the bus this morning. I call her Super Hero Fairy Lion Tamer Good Witch Glinda girl!

xoxo,
Heather

Overjoyed with Matchbox Twenty

This past January, my hubby treated me to one of the best birthday gifts evah! You may or may not know this but I am a HUGE fan of Rob Thomas and Matchbox Twenty. I may or may not travel cross-country to attend a concert and I may or may not look them up to see if they are in town while I'm on a business trip, which has worked out quite nicely a few times in the past. Well, after a brief, slightly risky encounter with Rob at a NYC airport a few years ago (yes, I walked up and started a conversation with him), I got to meet the entire band this year. I was excited and nervous and just so freakin’ OVERJOYED, which also happens to be the name of one of their songs from the new NORTH album.

OMG, how rad is that photo?!?!?

The Basic Grey Hipster collection was a perfect line for this rockin’ layout. To create the layout, I wrote out some of the lyrics to the song, Overjoyed. That word summed up my feelings about meeting them and attending the intimate little concert at The Majestic in San Antonio. I adhered the striped paper at an angle for added interest.

I laid the garland at the top of the layout and a #found20 in the corner. Lastly, I layered paper and embellishments under the photo. I was going for a cleaner edgy layout. I mean I was hanging with rock stars for goodness sake. It’s definitely a moment I’ll never forget.

If you've been living under a rock and haven't heard of them, check out the links to their websites, which I posted above.  If you ever have a chance to see them live, they are AMAZING in concert! The storytelling is so fun, Rob's voice is amazballs and the music is incredible! Here's a few music videos of just a few of my favorite songs:

Bright Lights

Back2Good

Smooth

And so many more like Shame, Unwell, 3 A.M. oh so many

Fave cover songs:

Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys (with Willie Nelson)

1979 - iTune Originals

Time after Time

R.E.M. The One I Love

Have you ever had a fun brush with fame or run into someone you've always wanted to meet? Leave me a comment telling me who you’d love to meet or have had a chance to meet. I’d love to know.

Thanks for stopping by today. Now go on and get crafty!

Introducing the Gossamer Blue December Memories Mini Album Kit

You may have seen the sneak peek of the Gossamer Blue December Memories mini album kit I posted to my Instagram feed yesterday. It was available yesterday for subscribers to purchase and I hear there are still a few left today for the general public to purchase.

It's seriously amazing and PACKED with an amazing amount of product. I'm loving the 8x8 album, tons of 12x12 papers, overlays, exclusive stamps, shaped clips, vellum, gold foil, chipboard, wood veneer bits, die cuts, lots of alphas, cute little bags/sacks, the list goes on and on.  Stop by the Gossamer Blue store to see additional photos and a full list of products.

DECEMBER MEMORIES CLASS
When you purchase the kit, you will also get access to the December Memories class, which I am contributing to! Instructors include special guests Stephanie Howell and Karen Grunberg along with Gossamer Blue team members Cindy Liebel, Naomi Atkins, Jill Cornell, Jina Jean, Adrienne Alvis, Michelle Wooderson, Katie Ehmann, Stephanie Bryan, Magda Mizera, Jessica Lohof, Kasia Przybyt, Traci Reed, Heather Leopard and Anabelle O'Malley.

Click HERE to learn more about the class.