She Brings Her Own Sunshine

I had an amazing month guesting over on the October Afternoon blog!!! Thanks so much to Suz for inviting me to share over there.  Before I say goodbye, I have a fun layout and process video to share using the Saturday Mornings collection.


Most of you know that I have a fondness for creating visual backgrounds for my base pages. I had some scraps of paper and 3x4 journal cards and just kind of cut away at them to create the background. Then I created some fun designs in small, medium and large circles along the horizontal and vertical axises of the background.


I share a tip in the video below for cutting a photo into a perfect circle when you don't have a punch or die that fits perfectly. I used it for the hexagon photo in the blog post immediately before this one and explained "hot to" in the video as I cut the circle photo for this layout.

This little girl definitely sparkles and shines wherever she goes so I thought it only fitting to title this "She brings her own Sunshine". I chose to focus only on the gorgeous blues and yellows (with a small bit of brown) from the Saturday Mornings collection help accentuate the story.

So there you have it, my final layout as guest designer.  Please head over to the October Afternoon blog to say hi and then you can watch the video over there.  Or here, whatever strikes your fancy.

The layout came together, relatively fast and easy.  Oh and I'd love to connect with you on Instagram @heatherleopard!


Thanks again to October Afternoon for having me this month!

Breakfast for Dinner | October Afternoon Guest Designer

I'm so excited to be featured on the October Afternoon blog today.   I thought I'd share a layout I made that embraces my love for patterns using the Saturday Mornings collection.

So who's with me and agrees that breakfast for dinner is one of the most fun dinners to have, especially for the kiddos?!?! We don't do it very often but when we do, my girls get a kick out of it every. single. time. And it's even better when someone else is cooking!


As you may or may not know, I am obsessed with patterns. I love to mix and match them to create visual backgrounds and designs to help tell the story of my photos. Today is no exception.

Visit my Instagram (@heatherleopard) today to see a Flipogram of how this layout came together.



This look can be easily achieved with a triangle punch or by hand cutting the triangles. Just make sure to include 6 even sides so they line up properly. BUT, if you have a Silhouette, you are in luck.  I created a cut file. If you want to re-create this layout for yourself, you can DOWNLOAD THE FREE CUT FILE.



To create this layout, I cut each of the triangles and octagons and then pieced them together.  I chose to leave some of the octagons empty so I could add octagon shaped photos in those spots.



For the title I played with the font colors so that it could read at least 3 different ways - "Breakfast for dinner" 'cause that's what it was, "Break for dinner" 'cause I was catching a break by not having to cook dinner and "Fast dinner" 'cause it came out speedy quick.

Many thanks again to October Afternoon for having me guest today. Stop by next Friday to see my process for creating backgrounds. 

My Hair Had a Party Last Night | October Afternoon Guest Designer

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I am SUPER DUPER EXCITED to be guest designing for October Afternoon again!  This time, I'm playing with the Saturday Mornings collection and today I'm talking on their blog about layering.

I have a question for you...do you suffer from bed head or know someone who does?  My littlest suffers from it in the worst way.  She goes to bed a beauty queen and when she wakes up it's as if her hair got in a terrible fight. I snapped this photo of her the other morning, with her hair in a more mild state but still a mess.

With her hair a tangled mess, I thought it only fitting to include lots of layers on this layout.  Care to know how I created this layout?  I walked through the process and did a little step x step how-to tutorial for creating it on the October Afternoon blog today.

Layers and layers on Saturday Morning goodness and a funny song title.

She definitely saves her drama for her mama!

I'll be back on the October Afternoon blog every Friday in March so please STAY TUNED and check back often!

My Precious Girl | Continued from 2.7.15

Remember that layout I showed you Saturday?  If you missed it, check it out HERE and then come back and read this.  The two are tied together for a fun "1 idea, used 2 ways" kind of thing.

Okay, so I cut those fun triangle squares out of the journal cards paper and had a really great shell of a page leftover. It looked fun but I almost tossed it because I didn't really line up the cuts when I cut it because I had no intention of reusing it.  So some of the cuts were aligned top while others were aligned bottom, some left, others right.  The I decided I kind of sort of liked it and gave it a whirl at using it for another layout.  Here's the result.

If you look real close, you can see they aren't aligned but I am embracing it as perfectly imperfect! And if you don't want that philosophy, just align yours more perfectly when you first cut it.

How to:

• If you used my file from Saturday, grab that leftover sheet of paper....or if you don't, just cut another sheet and cut it. You can download my free cut file HERE. 
• Find photos to fit the squares or triangles.
• Attach papers to the back sides of the remaining sections
• Add title, journaling and embellishments.

This is what my sheet looked like.  I placed photos and moved papers around until I liked their placement.

Supplies: Gossamer Blue February Main kit, Main Add-on, Main Add-on 2 and Life Pages Main kit

Snapshots of My Girl

Howdy friends!  I'm here today with a new Play on Patterns.  I LOVE creating unique backgrounds by piecing different papers together.  I put a little twist on it this month, incorporating photos as part of the design.

How to:

• Download the Silhouette cut file I created HERE. 
• Place your favorite papers or Life Pages cards on your Silhouette and cut as many triangle squares you need.  I used one sheet October Afternoon Saturday Mornings Journal Cards pattern paper from the Main Add-on.  I simply cut 3 down and 4 across. Then I filled the rest of the spaces with photos.

• Grab a piece of cardstock and place your photos around the page where you want them. Do not adhere them to the cardstock yet.
• Mix and match the triangles in the spaces around your photos. Adhere those down lightly.
• Remove your photos and stitch the triangles to the cardstock base.
• Add your photos back to the layout.

• Add your title, embellishments and journaling. I treated each triangle square as it's own element, embellishing each one differently.

I hope this inspires you to try something different with your photos this month by incorporating them into the background as part of the design.

Supplies: Gossamer Blue February Main kit, Main Add-on, Main Add-on 2 and Life Pages Main kit

Thanks for stopping by today!  Before you go, I'd love to know what you'd like to see me tackle in future Pattern Play features.  Just leave a comment to let me know.

And come back Monday to see how I used the Journal Cards paper that I cut the triangle squares from to create another fun layout.

The More You Know | Blinks of Life Guest Designer

I was incredibly delighted when I opened my email and saw the sweetest note from Natalia of Blinks of Life, inviting me to guest design for her new kit company. I was flattered and shocked and immediately said YES! And she put together an amazing team of talented designers this month that I am proud to be a part of.

I showed a sneak of my projects last week. You can see them all in the Blinks of Life gallery but I'm planning to highlight them here this week and give the how to details.

I saw the October Afternoon Public Library paper and I just knew I had to feature this photo!

How cute are they?!?! They fight like siblings but they also love like siblings. My super talented friend who is a scrapper and photographer extraordinaire, Krissy McKee, is launching her photography business so I asked her to shoot some back to school photos of my girls last month.  She captured some amazing photos and this is one of them.

The Dr. Seuss quote was a no brainer, seeing as how she is "reading" one of his books and all. I was running low on big alphas and I don't like things to be all uniform so I mixed and matched.

Layers and stitching and mixing patterns. That's me. I hope you enjoyed this project today.

Kid Fabulous

There's something I just love about the title for this layout.  I switched the words to be opposite how you would normally say it and it really defines this new little super hero princess KID Fabuloussssssssssss!

Anyway, here today bringing you a different spin on my Pattern Play feature that I do over on the Gossamer Blue blog. I usually like to show you how I add a GAZILLION different patterns to a layout while still keeping a nice, cohesive look.

Well, today, I'm gonna show you how I chose to tone down a busy page overlay with a gazillion pre-printed patterns so that I could ensure my photos didn't get lost on the page.

Supplies: Gossamer Blue January Main Kit, Main Addon 2, Life Pages Kit, Life Pages Addon, Life Pages Themes Addon

I started this layout knowing that I wanted to use the Pink Paislee Hey Kid paper overlay for these fantastic photos of my little girl. No, these are not Halloween photos. She would dress this way every day if she could. The thing is, when I placed the photos on the paper, they just got lost. The thing I love about this paper is that every circle has some sort of graphic treatment. That was also the thing that caused my photo to get lost. I placed the overlay over several light colored, small pattern papers but that just made it busier. I finally decided to use white for the background.

Next, I decided to hand cut the colored graphic patterns out of some of the circles. Realizing how long that would take for the amount that I wanted to cut out, I quickly decided to cut 1 3/4" white cardstock circles on my CAMEO and then placed them over the patterns. This worked out great because I could move them around.

I ended up covering 10 pattern-filled circles with 10 white textured cardstock circles. Then I started working on the layers for my photo. I used various patterns, mixing together Gossamer Blue exclusive paper and wood veneer with a Crate overlay, October Afternoon and Pink Paislee papers and embellishments. It sounds like a hodge podge but I like how they all worked together.

Lastly, I started to fill in some of the white circles. I chose to leave 3 or 4 of them white but if you know me, I like to embellish. I used vellum embellishments, wood veneer, 3D chipboard stickers, die cuts and more. I even cut a few more sentiment circles and popped them up on the page. My favorite might be the little cluster of embellishments I used in the upper right corner. Or maybe it's the bow tie heart. No, it's the #4 signifying her age. Or maybe...

I really love how this page came together and how I toned down some of the more graphic patterns just to build it back up again with my own patterns. Thanks for stopping by today.

I'd love it if you'd stop over to the Gossamer Blue blog and let me know what you think of my project over there. Did you know that you can post your layouts to our Member Gallery and they don't even have to be Gossamer Blue kit projects.

Spring Creek Mining | October Afternoon Guest Designer

I am so excited to be back up on the October Afternoon blog today. I’ve been having so much fun creating with the Daily Flash collections. I used the bits and pieces of the summertime collection to create a 12x12 layout which you can see HERE. This week I created some life spreads using the photo sleeves and the new Snapshots collection.

I have to admit that I got a little carried away with the various picture and card options and ended up created 2 complete page spreads for one event but, that’s what’s so nice about this. I was able to scrap all my favorite photos of my daughter’s first gem mining moment.

When I’m documenting a moment in time, I usually only use between 1 - 3 photo on a spread and that is what gets scrapped. With Daily Flash, I can scrap those main photos and also include the others that help tell the story.

I started by choosing two photos that would end up getting scrapped on their own page, one each side of the paper and then matched up the right cards to the various sleeves and printed the photos to the sleeve size.

I scrapped this page like I would any other, knowing that the 1st coordinating page could hold my title and journaling. I had fun layering papers, cards blurbs and snap caps. I create a sort of mini title using the

Daily Flash roller stamp.

I still had a lot of photos that help show the progression from sifting the pebbles and sand through the water to finding the gems so I created a 2nd spread.

I snapped this photo of my perfect little gem showing off her perfect little gems and added it over more layers of papers, cards and blurbs. I did all my stitching on this page and the other side before I actually adhered it to the layout so that the stitching wouldn’t show through on the other side of the paper.

Finally, I added additional journaling cards and card sentiments that when read together almost form another title on their own. I outlined some of the cards with washi tape, as I did on the title card in the 1st spread.

I added final touches by hand-stitching over a few speech bubble cards and added my journaling.

Thanks for joining me again this week. I'd love to have you visit me over on the October Afternoon blog today as well. Head on over there and let them know what you think!

Smile, I'm Guesting at October Afternoon!

I was soo excited when I got an email from the October Afternoon team asking me to guest design and I was even more thrilled when I found out I'd be playing with their new Daily Flash collections.

I've created one layout already, which I posted last Friday HERE and I'm sitting here at my scrap desk looking at two completed Daily Flash spreads that will be up on the blog this coming Friday. In the meantime, make sure to visit the October Afternoon blog, where I did some Q&A and first debuted this card that I whipped up real quick for my Q&A post, using the Travel Girl collection.

I just love the colors in this collection and all the coordinating die-cuts, stickers and embellishments. I decided to pair the cute smiling gal with something that reminded me of green grass and sky rays. I cut them all to different sizes, extending some past the edge of the card and others short than the card. I then stitched them on.

Thanks for stopping by. I'll be sharing 2 spreads from the Daily Flash Snapshots collection, which was so fun to create with! Take a stop by the October Afternoon blog and pay me a visit over there! Now go on and get crafty!

A Day In The Sun | October Afternoon Guest Designer

Hi there everyone! I am just over-the-moon excited to be guest designing for October Afternoon this month. I mean Hello, I've been a fan for years and years so I jumped at the chance!!! So, I'll be hogging their blog every Friday in August. I would soo LOVE it if you'd visit me over there too!

They sent me an fabulous package of Daily Flash goodies to create with and immediately got to work planning out projects. Everything from layouts to Project Life-style pages to an altered item or two - I was ready to go! I thought I'd kick this off by showing how versatile the Daily Flash collection can be by creating a 12x12 layout.

Supplies: Daily Flash Summertime collection - PP-1169 - Sunshine 12x12 paper, PP-1167 - Blue Skies 12x12 paper, DC-1172 - Memory Cards, PP-1165 - 6x8 Paper Pack, DC-1170 - Snap Caps, DC-1171 - Flash Blurbs, EM-1133 - Tin Pins

Something kept pulling me back to the Summertime collection, specifically the Sunshine paper. I started with that as my initial inspiration and everything fell into place to create this layout about my youngest daughter posing by the art on the Galveston Seawall after a day at the beach. I just couldn't resist accentuating the gorgeous sun rays with a few stitches here and there. I purposely trimmed the Sunshine paper down and adhered it to the white background. I then chose white stitching so that I could extend the rays subtly onto the white background.

After placing my photo on the page, the Memory Cards and Flash Blurbs were calling out to be used. I shuffled them around a bit until they fell into just the right places. I added a bit of layering, a splash of embellishments and voila!, the layout really started coming together. I made a little pocket for the "Summertime" Snap Caps card to peek out and added some hidden journaling. I purposely didn't add a title because I think the various cards do an excellent job on their own. It could be anything from Best Summer Ever, Dog Days of Summer, A Day In The Sun or any other fantastic summertime sentiments you see on the page.

I posted more information about my design thought process and photos over on the October Afternoon blog. Stop by and say "hi". I'll be back again next Friday with more Daily Flash goodness. Now go on and get crafty!

Epic Discoveries Await

So here's a little fun fact you may or may not know about me...I absolutely LOVE to scuba dive! Hubby and I are pretty adventurous people and have been on some pretty amazing dives.  Of course, we wouldn't intentionally do anything to risk our lives cause we have little munchkins and well, we hope to live full lives with them. But we do have our advanced certifications and have been luck enough to dive in exotic places like Belize.

When I got the Gossamer Blue August Main kit and saw all of the travel and adventure goodies, I knew that I had to start documenting more of our travels.  This one just happens to be all about me diving the Blue Hole with my hubby, Bryan, for a 2nd time.

How amazing is this ombre chevron paper??? It reminded me of the differing colors of the ocean and it was a perfect match for this photo of me jumping off the boat into the Blue Hole. I gotta tell ya, it starts out nice and clear at the surface and gets super dark when you're 130 ft. below.

Yep, that's me up there doing what I love.  It's so peaceful underwater when all you have are you, your thoughts and whatever sea life is around you. And speaking of sea life, you don't actually see much of it in the Blue Hole. We were lucky to be the first boat out that morning so not much was stirred up and you could see pretty far and that also meant that the sharks were still resting below. You see, the nurse sharks like to swim up from deep below to about halfway up our dive so many times, they are coming up with you. Yikes. I'm told they are the more docile sharks and are also used to the divers there.  Hmmmm. In case you're wondering, yes, we did see run across a couple.

I saw the little tickets above and I knew I had to find a way to squeeze the little alphas included in the kit onto them. I really like how it turned out.

Alright now, make sure to check out the August kits shown below and visit the site. Lori has some amazing things planned for Gossamer Blue.

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

A Bit of This & That - Scrappin' Savvy Blog Hop

Hello, hello! I don't think I've blogged in about a week but I certainly have been busy creating projects that I just haven't been able to share just yet.  That's why I'm excited to show you these layouts and also let you know about a little blog hop we are doing with my LSS, Scrapp'n Savvy, which I teach at. These layouts are a little sampler of some of the things you'll be creating if you attend one of my classes. 

First let me tell you about the blog hop and then stay tuned to hear about my classes. If you're not local, I hope these projects inspire you. 

Welcome to the Scrapp'n Savvy Blog Hop! During this hop, you will learn about each teachers classes at the store and be eligible to win FREE class sessions. To enter, you must leave a comment on EACH teachers' blog and then return to the Scrapp'n Savvy blog and leave a comment that you have completed the hop. We will also be sharing with you information about our classes and techniques and tips that we used to create our "HOME" banners!

My class is called A Little Bit of This & That. I call it that because it's like a box of chocolates - you never know what you're gonna get. That being said, it usually consists of a couple of layouts plus maybe a mini album or perhaps a card.

For April's class, we will be playing with My Mind's Eye Follow Your Heart "Be Amazing" collection and a bit of October Afternoon Farmhouse. We'll be doing one 1-page layout, one 2-page layout and a DIY (do-it-yourself) smash-like mini album. Here are the 1-page and 2-page layouts. The mini is still a secret but I think you'll love it.

Supplies are from my Scrapbook Circle Remember This kit, which is sold out but these items can be purchased at Scrappin' Savvy as well.  Supplies: My Mind's Eye Follow Your Heart Be Amazing collection: Societe, 6 x6 Designer Paper Pad, 12x12 chipboard, brads, Zig Marker in black.

The 1-page layout focuses on layering, fussy cutting to create handmade elements, stitching, dimension and more.

Here's a sneak at the 2-page layout. The actual layout will be at the Sampler event on Saturday. Techniques will include, distressing, misting, stitching (I used the new Sew Stamper tool) and will include a bit of layering. Are you starting to see a pattern? Yep, I'd say pretty much all of my layouts include a bit of each of those elements.

Not pictured from my April class is the DIY mini album.

For May, we'll be designing with Echo Park's Thise & That Charming collection. Similar to April's class, we'll be creating the 1-page and 2-page layout below plus a notepad booklet (great gift idea). The booklet is not pictured. Note: if you were here before I only posted a sneak because I had to hold it back for the Paper Issues blog hop but now I can post the full reveal.

Full page was revealed on April 1 so I updated this post to see the entire layout because there was soo much more to it that I couldn't show you!

So what do you see? Maybe a bit of mist, distressing, stitching and layered elements? You'll get to play with the Imaginisce i-top tool and the new Sew Stamper to make your faux stitches. The notepad booklet will be made from the same collection and if you like the style of the layout above, you won't be disappointed.

GIVEAWAY

This is for locals only (sorry). I'm giving away a spot in my April class. All you have to do is follow my blog and leave me a comment. I will do a random drawing on April 5. Either way, I hope to see you in my classes!
 
If you are attending the Sampler on Friday and Saturday you'll be making a fantastic "HOME" decor item. I will share my ideas for decorating it as soon as I get to create with mine.
 
Thanks for stopping by my blog today. Be sure to visit and comment on each of the blogs listed below for your chance to some scrappy goodies from Scrappin's Savvy, in addition to the free class I am giving away!


Scrappn’ Savvy Blog- http://www.razzilldazzilltime.blogspot.com/
Millie Jones- http://generationswithmillie.blogspot.com/
Audrey Yeager- http://www.audreysreflection.blogspot.com/
Heather Leopard- YOU ARE HERE!
Terri Burnette- http://thepaperassylum.blogspot.com/
Leslie Parlette- http://designsdessertdisasters.blogspot.com/

Thanks for stopping by today!