Eat, Drink & Be Scary Halloween Scrapbooking Layout

Hello everyone.  It’s almost Halloween time here in the U.S. and you know what that means??? It means chaos and fun at Target. Yep, every year we are “that family”. You know the ones you see trying on the most absurd costumes right there in the costume aisle? That’s us. We’re not loud or obnoxious and we don’t walk around the store in them but we do have a little fun. Oh and by the way, we ended up buying the milk carton that night and my daughter’s best friend went back to get a cookie costume so they could Trick or Treat together as cookies and milk.

I wanted to try to create a layout that mixed a lot of the Spooky Boo collection and several years ago I created a woven heart and I loved the look. That’s what inspired me to create this layout. Only instead of a heart I went with an “X” because it reminded me of the symbols you see around this time of year cautioning you not to drink the poison.

The first step, which is not featured here but is in my process video coming soon, was to add clear gesso to the white background and apply lime green paint / mist.

To weave this together, I cut 1/4″ x 12″ strips of paper. I believe I used about 8 different patterned papers so it would have lots of variety but you could use one if you want a more cohesive look. That’s all up to you.

Next, it was time for the photos.  I struggled with this a bit here because no matter what I tried, the photos just kept blending into the background.  I ended up going with a dark paper immediately behind the photo and then a whitish and orange to help it pop. I also used foam to pop the photo of them eating the taco and drinking the milk and milkshake. Then I drew attention to them with the sticker embellishments around the photos.

I also knew that the title would help draw attention to the photos. The alphas I used are a really cool black glitter but the foam is orange so it’s really eye catching.  I chose a title appropriate for the photo – Eat (the taco), drink (the milk and milkshake) and be scary (always).

Lastly, I added journaling to the bottom right with a cute little spider to catch your attention.  I also added other small embellishments in that area as well as at the top left.

So that’s my Eat, Drink & Be Scary Halloween Scrapbooking Layout. Check back soon for the process video for this layout.

xoxo, Heather

Field Day Scrapbooking Pocket Pages Layout

Hi everyone. I'm challenging myself to create more pocket pages. I just love creating these since each piece is like a mini blank canvas. Plus, they’re great for inserting these into albums when you have lots of photos you want to use to tell a story. This particular spread is all about field day at my daughter’s school.
 

 
Supplies | September 2018 Kit, Go Team Journaling Tags, Celebrate Journaling Tags, Little Photo Flag Stickers, Here and Now Stickers, Hazel Alphabet Stickers — White, Jane Alphabet Stickers — Navy, Go Team Wood Veneer, Wood Veneer Phrases, ABC Wood Veneer, White Puffy Alphabet Stickers, Black Puffy Alphabet Stickers, Hello Happy Puffy Words, Puffy Heart Stickers — Spring Mix, Puffy Heart Stickers — Summer Mix, Story Acrylic, Hazel Alphabet Stamp, Family Fun Puffy Stickers, Family Fun — 6 x 6 Paper Stack
 
I chose to use four 4″x6″ photos and four 2″x3″ photos.  To get started with this double pocket page, I placed my photos around the page to see what I was working with and then grounded it by opening the page with a blue 4″x6″ tag from the September 2018 Kit and ending with another blue 4″x6″ tag that I created with a pattern from the Family Fun 6″ x 6″ Paper Stack. Once that was set, I was off to work on page one.
 

 
Our field days are split into some partner activities and commences with team activities.  I chose to create the spread as such. For this page, I chose to focus on photos that told more of the story of my daughter and how much she loved the experience. This is all about the story of field day and the Story Acrylic made for a perfect title along with some White Puffy Alphabet Stickers and Jane Alphabet Stickers in navy.  I added bits from the September 2018 Kit die cuts and the Wood Veneer Phrases to add a bit of extra character to the tag.
 

 
I added the word FUN using the Family Fun Puffy Stickers. The Hazel Alphabet Stamp was calling to be used, so I stamped words that made sense to follow “Fun”—fun day, fun times, fun friends!  The Hazel stamps stamp so nice and clean, but I chose to use distress ink to give it a grungy look, since we were playing outside in the dirt and water most of the day!
 

 
Next, I pulled in the pink and darker pink diagonal card from the September 2018 Kit. It’s pre-printed with “TODAY IS” and then there’s a great spot to write, type or stamp in an open space, but I chose to use the Hazel Alphabet Stickers to say “today is awesome.” Lastly on this page, I chose the colorful, dotted 4″x6″ tag from the September 2018 Kit and using the Hello Happy Puffy Words, I added “you are,” above the label and then added what I think about this photo of her pouring water on herself on this very hot—way too cute!  I used the navy Jane Alphabet Stickers again, which were a perfect fit in the label.
 

 
Moving to the next page, I chose to focus the photos on all the teamwork part of field day. These are the highlights of her class and how hard they worked for their victory.
 

 
The banner tag from the Celebrate Journaling Tags I used here was perfect for this spread!  They resembled sports pennants, so I added her teacher’s name below using Black Puffy Alphabet Stickers, and their team name along with a die cut banner from the September 2018 Kit .  For the tag below, I chose the “game on” tag from the Go Team Journaling Tags and popped up a banner die cut below, leaving room for journaling.
 

 
Next, I hard a nice open space in the field part of the photo of my daughter practicing. I added Hazel Alphabet Stickers to fill in that open space, reading “practice makes perfect.” Then to coordinate with the colorful polka dot tag on the other page, I included another one on this side with a slightly different design.  This could easily serve as another journaling spot, but I chose to embellish with the Go Team Wood Veneer, Little Photo Flag Stickers, Here and Now Phrase Stickers and a few puffy embellishments that coordinated with the colors of the card.
 
Thanks so much for joining me today.  I hope you have an amazing day!

Goals and Dreams Bullet Journal

Today I’m sharing a goals and dreams bullet journal I created for my daughter who begins her first day of high school Monday.  My idea for this was to create a way for her to document ideas about what she hopes her future holds.  I may even add a few of my own thoughts for her future.  I think it would be fun to include this in a time capsule with other things from her childhood.

I thought the llama paper was not only fun but I often say, “save the drama for your llama” and we all know high school can be full of drama.  Perhaps this will turn into a way for her to journal that right out of her system. Ha!

So the first thing I did was cover a Traveler’s Notebook with the adorable little llamas from the My Bright Life collection.  I think they’re so adorable striking their poses with the flowers in their hair. Soo cute. To cover this, I applied Sticky Thumb tape runner to the cover of the notebook and then laid it down on the back of the paper. Then I applied adhesive to the spine and the back cover and folded the paper over leaving paper hanging slightly over on the front and a bit more on the back. Same for the top and bottom.  I did this because if you trim the paper to what you think the measurements are for the notebook, odds are you’ll be just a bit off.  It’s much easier to do it this way and then trim around the edges with scissors. Trust me on that one.

I knew what I wanted for the main theme of the journal to be but we’ll get to that in a moment.  I also wanted to add some inspiring words and the 2″ x 3″ cut apart cards in the 6″ x 6″ paper pad had exactly what I wanted. I just needed to choose which one I loved the most.

“You Can Totally Do This” was it so I cut that one out and adhered it with some foam adhesive over a dark contrasting patterned paper.  I used the same colors and flowers as the llama and her pretty little flowers.

Now it’s time to go back to my main theme, “MAKE IT HAPPEN”. I love that you are in charge of your destiny and it’s all up to you to make it happen. I used gold foam Thickers and placed them over the flowers. Then I decided we needed more gold so I added a layer of gold plaid patterned paper.

It’s time to put it all together. I used tape runner adhesive again and left enough room on the edges to hang over just slightly and then just trimmed it up with scissors again.

So there you have it.  I also sprinkled additional 2″ x 2″ and 2″ x 3″ notecards, die cuts and small puffy stickers to some of the inside pages.  I’ll make sure to include more embellishments and papers in the package when I give this goals and dreams bullet journal to her so she can decorate the inside pages.

xoxo, Heather
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Supplies:

My Bright Life Lovely Llamas Patterned Paper 733874My Bright Life Flower Pop Patterned Paper 733868
My Bright Life 6×6 Paper Pad 733892My Bright Life Ephemera Die-cuts with Gold Foil 733884
My Bright Life Puffy Stickers Icons 733886American Crafts Thickers with Gold Foil- Bryn 733888Sticky Thumb Marathon Runner and Refill 342038

School Lunch Notes

Hi everyone. With the first day of school just 3 weeks away, I’m getting a jump start on school lunch prep.  No, I’m not prepping the actual meals because that would be just gross; I’m talking about school lunch notes.  I don’t care how old your kids are, including a little note in their lunch kit will make their day!

I don’t care how old your kids are, including a little note in their lunch kit will make their day! Shoot, maybe I’ll make my own lunch notes. Just kidding, kind of.

I knew that I was going to use the 2″ x 3″ cards so I downloaded a Silhouette file and sized it so that the notes would perfectly fit in them.  I was able to cut multiple of these at a time which sped up the process.  You could also make these without a machine pretty easily.  Just apply a bit of adhesive to the edges, fold over and you’ve got your pocket.

There’s also this little flap that you can fold down. You can tuck these in or out depending on your mood.  I folded most of mine out like you see pictured above and look how the flowers align so well.

Next, add a simply embellishment to the front of the card.  You could also add a sentiment but then again, the sentiment is in the lunch note, right?

The cards I chose were from the 6″ x 6″ paper pad, which was great because the backs were white. That’s perfect for adding a personal note to each of them. I also added a small puffy sticker or two to each note. It just needed a little pop of something.

Once the personal note is written, just insert the card in the pocket and stash them away so you have them ready to go when you pack their lunches.  I think I’ll make or alter a cute little box to store these in…

So there you have it. School Lunch Notes ready to go.  Super fun and super easy!

xoxo, Heather
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Supplies:
My Bright Life Lemons Patterned Paper 733860My Bright Life Flower Rows Patterned Paper 733862
My Bright Life Daisy Quilt Patterned Paper 733863My Bright Life My Tweets Patterned Paper 733864
My Bright Life 6×6 Paper Pad 733892My Bright Life Ephemera Die-cuts with Gold Foil 733884
My Bright Life Puffy Stickers Icons 733886Precision Pen .03 Point 62311Sticky Thumb Marathon Runner and Refill 342038

Embroidered Scrapbooking Layout | Challenge Yourself

Hi everyone, this week over on the Pebbles blog is all about challenging ourselves. I went about tackling this by doing something relatively new to me – Mixed Media – and something I LOVE to do but never make the time to do – Hand Stitching.  Take a look at this embroidered scrapbooking layout and then keep reading to see how it all came together.

As you can see, I did not shy away from this challenge. I just fell in love with the floral patterned paper and absolutely HAD to create an embroidered scrapbooking layout.

To get started, I trimmed the upper right and lower left triangles of my layout. If I had been machine stitching a pattern, I would normally have stitched the entire thing but I knew I didn’t want to embroider something that I would have to cut apart. I added a small cluster of die cut flowers and a wood embellishment to the top portion of the layout.  Just a little since the embroidered patterned paper was quite busy enough.

This is the lower half. As you can see, I spent way too many hours poking holes and threading the needle doing what I refer to as a regular stitch and french knots. If you are thinking about doing this, I suggest finding a comfy spot of the couch and binge watching your favorite show. Or if you have a road trip (and your the passenger) or a long flight.

I added two photos to the layout. I was originally going to tuck them both under the pretty embroidered patterned paper so I wouldn’t have to cover any of it up but it didn’t look right so I tucked one under and another over. That’s when it felt right!  I also added some layers of patterned paper and vellum and die cuts, 3D stickers and regular stickers.

Oh, the mixed media…I added white gesso to the yellow patterned paper background and then applied watered down mist to the gesso. I just needed to soften up the background slightly and add a few pops of color. All I need to do now is add my journaling – private words to my daughters will be written on those lines above!

There you have it – my labor of love, literally and figuratively!  I hope you have enjoyed seeing how I challenged myself this month and hope you will try something just a bit outside of your comfort zone very soon!

xoxo, Heather
YouTube | Blog  |  Instagram  |  Pinterest

Supplies:
My Bright Life Bright Life Patterned Paper 733858My Bright Life Stitched Flowers Patterned Paper 733859
My Bright Life Fresh Picked Patterned Paper 733859My Bright Life 6×6 Paper Pad 733892My Bright Life Ephemera Die-cuts with Gold Foil 733884
My Bright Life Cardstock Stickers 733882My Bright Life Dimensional Stickers with Gold Foil Accents 733883