You Can Do Anything

Hi everyone!  I am here today with my official last post for The Memory Nest.  My 6 month term is up. It was a very difficult decision, one that I went back and forth on for a long time.  Because of her and her awesome challenges and blog I have scrapbooked more these past 6 months than I have in the last 3 years.  I forgot how much I loved it.  Leslie the owner is AMAZING. I love her to pieces. I will still be entering challenges and doing whatever I can to help her out.

One of the reasons I love scrapbooking so much is because it pushes me. It forces me to take a really hard look at what I want to tell my children. It's all about the story to me. It took me well over a week to do this layout...the picture made me so sad. It transported me back to a place I didn't really want to relive. After leaving it for a few days I realized it don't have to tell THAT story...I chose to focus on how far he has come. It's all in the journaling and this page is all about the journaling. I used the title and a quote to tie it all together.

The alphabet border stamp is from Hero Arts/Studio Calico, the title, stars & quote were cut from my Silhouette.  The sticker ( I promise) is from Glitz as is all the patterned paper.  Wood embellishments are from Recollections at Michaels.

As a scrapbooker we are storytellers. It is ok to tell sad, unhappy memories...life is not perfect. I want my children to understand that. I want their books to reflect their real lives.  This layout is to show him how far he has come in school and in life and how very proud I am of him. He read the journaling last night. He then looked at me and said "it's really cool mom...and just think...in 2 short days I will be a Junior. All that hard stuff is behind us & by the way...I don't think I am doing so good in Geometry" lol That's my boy!  Sneak that in while I am vulnerable!  lol

Have a great day. Please stop by The Memory Nest to see what the other girls have created.

cheers!
mmichelle

Then & Now

Today I am here with a sketch challenge from The Memory Nest.  I was really excited when I saw this sketch. I love this sketch. Then again, I love every sketch that Becky Fleck makes. Her and her Page Maps just rock!!!!

I had this single picture of my 3 youngest together from this past Easter. I really wanted to put it in my book and tell about their relationship. While I didn't add journaling to the front of the layout, I will add a pocket and a letter to the back expressing my feelings to them about how important each one will be the other as they grow older. I do this on a lot of layouts that are in their 8.5x11 books. Those books are more like "letters from mom", things I want to say to them, things I want them to know, things I feel are so important for guiding through this rough and tumble world.  I use their 12x12 books differently.

So because I was putting it in an 8.5x11 album I had to modify the sketch just a little bit. Because the actual sketch didn't call for a journaling spot I jumped at the chance to challenge myself into making it smaller.

Here is what I did with it:

 I stayed pretty true to the sketch. I had a lot of fun playing with Echo Park's new line Here & Now. I thought it worked great with what I wanted to do.

 I cut the large ampersand, arrows, artisan shapes and the notebook paper with my Silhouette Machine. I double layered the ampersand to give it some dimension. I also added some Hero Arts black pearls to it.

For the Arrows I just used the letter stickers to point to them then and them now.

I machine stitched it all together.  The honeycomb paper is from Basic Grey's Fact/Fiction line.

Thanks for stopping by. i hope you will stop by The Memory Nest blog to see what the other girls did and join us in the sketch challenge this month!

Michelle

The Funniest Story Ever

Hi everyone!  I am here today with a layout for the color challenge over at The Memory Nest. I was SUPER excited when I saw these colors. I knew instantly what I wanted to use for this challenge...Echo Parks "All About a Boy" designed by Lori Whitlock. It's no secret I am a HUGE fan of Lori's and these papers just make me swoon. I actually think I need to go buy another paper pack...and if you know me...I usually use a line once and get bored with it. Not this one! It's just too fun!

Here are the colors:

I had no idea what I was going to scrapbook and then Wednesday night the best and funniest thing happened while I was out for all of 30 minutes. My boys recounted the story to me and dh when we got in and I have been laughing about it ever since. I even used some quotes from the voice mails I received from my panic stricken son.

While I captured some of the story with the journaling quotes I still needed to tell the whole story. It's a long story and I didn't want to go to 2 pages. The easiest way to do this is to hide the journaling. I trick I learned a long time ago and utitilize it ofen.

That panel on the front with the subway word art is the perfect spot to hide journaling. it lets you get a lot in there. I have two 4x10 journaling spaces in there. I used some old hinges from Making Memories that I had to hold it all together.

The cover of the journaling needed decoration so I used this really cool patterned paper from the kit and cut the design out of my Silhouette. I cut it again out of gray and mounted them together using spray adhesive and then attached it to the front after everything was done.  The gray paper gives it nice dimension and a shadow effect.

 The title for the page was also cut out of some of the patterned paper. I created the title myself in my Silhouette software. I welded it together, cut it out and then edged it with a white gel pen. I also cut it out of gray like the subway art above.  Some of the letter stickers from the kit made a nice finish to the title. I love that hexagon shape.

A close up of that tag strip. the tags are from the Silhouette store. They too are by Echo Park. I just can't get enough of their stuff!  The hahaha is a print and cut from the Silhouette store also. I printed them on photo paper and I use Soft Gloss so they have a nice little sheen to them.

I used border stickers from the kit (starts), I die cut the notebook paper (Kerri Bradford) and used a Lori Whitlock tag that i added a gear sticker to the hole and added another print and cut to that.  The book mark is also cut from my Silhouette and I used a Technique Tuesday stamp with Colorbox White Frost on it. I kind of smeared it so I traced over it with my white gel pen. I like how it looks shadowed.

The date stamp here is from Studio Calico and the arrow is part of the sticker kit. I stamped a Hero Arts telephone on the tag that had the voice mail quote in Soft Stone.  The orange dot paper is Bo Bunny.

I pop dotted some of the tags but not all of them. I also layered each one on gray cardstock like I did all the lettering.

 journaling

journaling

Thanks for stopping by. Be sure to check out what the other girls did over at The Memory Nest. I hope you choose to play along. You don't have to scrapbook...you can make cards too. In fact, I am off to make some boy cards with this paper line.  Have fun!

Sisters

Hello. Today I am sharing a layout that I created for The Memory Nest's Sketch Challenge. The sketch comes from the uber talented Becky Fleck of Page Maps. I absolutely LOVE Page Maps and I am not ashamed to say that I use them almost every time I create a layout. I may not follow it exactly but usually if I see a photo size I like I make my pictures that size and use it as a starting point.

Here is the Sketch:


and here is my layout:


I opted for only one picture for this layout. I also let the paper just speak for itself without over embellishing. It was all about the story for me on this one. The paper line is Carta Bella, Beautiful Moments.

Please stop by The Memory Nest to see what the other DT members did.

On a personal note I would just like to add that being from Boston and living here my whole life I am deeply saddened by yesterday's events at the Marathon. I had a loved one there and thankfully she made it home safely. Please take a moment to think, pray or just hug a loved one. It's a very solemn day here. The roads are like a ghost town today. It's eerie.

May God Bless each and every one of you.

Best,
Michelle

Snow Fun...

Hey everyone, I am here today with another layout for The Memory Nest. This week we were asked to use We Are Memory Keepers Winter Frost paper and stickers. It's a gorgeous paper line with greens, browns, blues and cream. I really love the colors of this line. It also happens to have all the colors that are in the Color Challenge going on over on The Memory Nest Blog. It's perfect to get those winter pages scrapbooked before we all turn our attention to Spring.

*Note: My laptop crashed. I couldn't scan in my layout like normal and Windows 8 on my daughter's laptop won't take my scanner software. I photographed it right before we ran out of daylight. Sorry for the bad picture.



I created the background by cutting a bunch of different shaped and sized snowflakes out of my Silhouette. I lightly glued them down, added some Modge Podge to the top and then put a piece of tissue paper over it. I then used Picket Fence Distress stain over the top of it to give it a "snowy" look.

I also printed the Dr. Seuss quote on patterned paper and then cut it into banners. I added some really old snowflake eyelets that I had and a little snowman. :)

The stickers with this paper line were so cute I just had to build a little scene using them. I cut the igloo out with my Silhouette. I painted it with pearlescent watercolors. It has such a nice shimmer in person.


The title was part stickers and partly cut from my Silhouette. The snowmen are also stickers in the set. The sled, boots and mittens were also cut using my Silhouette and colored using my Copics :


Quick simple journaling brings it all together. I really do love the look of that wrinkly tissue paper.


If you are interested in this paper line or stickers just head over to The Memory Nest. She has it all in stock. Make sure to check out the other DT girls on the blog. They are sure to please!

Have a wonderful day. I will be in and out sporadically this week until my laptop is fixed.

Happy Tuesday!