Boys

This month's challenge was a tough one for me.  I'm not a fan of sewing, I'm just not good at it.  I tried so many different things, but it either didn't work, or looked terrible.  Finally I just did a very simple stitching on a piece of pattern paper and added it to the bottom of my page.  But after seeing the wonderful things the other girls did, I will try to do more stitching on my pages (but who am I kidding... I probably won't).

I used Chip Chatter Gellies for my title.  And of course, no page would be complete without some stickles. 

AE Yard Sale July 7th - all day!!

Do you have left over scrapbooking supplies that you just don't need anymore?

Do you want to purge your craft room of all of last year's items you just aren't going to use?

Do you want to get store credit for your unused scrapbooking items??

If you answer is 'yes' to any of these questions, now is your opportunity to get rid of your unwanted items and get store credit for this!! The Auntie Em's annual yard sale is fast approaching - Saturday July 7th all day you can shop for bargains galore!

If you plan on bringing items for the sale, please have them at the store no later than July 5th. You must call the store to obtain your unique identifier code and price your items with removable stickers with your identifier.

Here is a sneak peek of what Lorena is going to be selling - are you excited yet???

Wrigley Field

Sometimes time is an issue when it comes to scrapbooking but in the end the challenges push us to get them done. May was one of those months for me. I missed the Design Team meeting since I was away with my cadets at their drill team competition then once I picked up the challenge I was finishing up a bunch of jobs in order to allow me to take a few days off for my vacation to Chicago. Then there was the vacation itself which was amazing and just 4 days later the layout was due at Emma's. See it was a whirlwind!

So when I got back from Chicago I really wanted to get some Chicago pics scrapbooked right away. Looking at the paper and my pictures I decided that the wood background was the best to go with my Wrigley field pictures. I cropped and printed my pictures and started creating the layout inspired  by the June calendar sketch. The challenge this month wanted us to stitch and I HATE stitching not kidding I really don't stitch ever. But then a light bulb went off and I decided to make little baseballs and stitch the baseball stitches and guess what? I would have never done that if Emma didn't challenge us to do so but it turned out so cute and is by far my favorite part of the layout.

The thing I like about this layout is that it includes 5 pictures, 2 logos and the ticket from the game and somehow it doesn't even look crowded I love layouts that incorporate a lot into one. For the Cubs logo I found a svg cubs logo file online and cut the logo out of a white card stock then I used another piece of card stock behind the cutout and blinged up the C with some red gems and used a  red card stock from Emma's scrap pile in the store...If you ever need a little scrap ask Emma about the scrap pile it's an inexpensive way to complete a layout.

As for the title it was a last minute addition and it was my boyfriend's idea. He was looking at the page and telling me that the red Wrigley Field Sign was really important to him and it was only printed very little in a photo so he suggested we print it in big and use it as the title so I printed it on mat photo paper and cut it out and added it to the top and I think it finished the page off nicely.

Enjoy the beginning of  summer and don't let the scrapbooking pile up and take the time to do the challenge it's so worth it it will allow you to go above and beyond

Nancy

Page Maps - June featuring Echo Park - This & That


Wow, I loved this collection from Echo Park - This & That. I'm not one to usually fawn over Echo Park, but they have really come a long way in the last two years from their infancy stages, very impressed I was with this collection. I loved the colour collection of the browns, yellows and teal green. I loved the boy theme to it, and all the wood grain!

So, this is me at Casino Rama in Orillia Ontario - my friend got tickets to see Sheryl Crow and we decided to 'make a donation' at the casino afterwards - great times! The arms raised in the air was from a commercial that Casino Rama was re-running over and over - I guess you had to see it to understand.

The theme to this month was sewing - I've employed 3 different types of stitching - I used my machine to stitch down the middle, I hand sewed in a blanket stitch the pocket and I did some faux stitching on the arrow and again across the middle. I layered some Prima flowers and coloured the naked chipboard arrow with the new Spring Distress ink in Peacock Feather - love that colour!! I had alot of story to tell with this layout, so I decided to tuck a journaling card into the pocket.

Would you like to be part of the Page Maps challenge?  You can enter your take on the calendar sketch at Auntie Em's - you don't have to use the Echo Park paper, you can use anything that you have purchased at Auntie Ems.

~Lorena~



Swoosh

This month's design team challenged was to use stitching on a layout. My reply: YAY! I love to use faux-stitching and/or hand stitching on layouts. For more information about stitching and products, you can check my product review from April 2012.

Here is a picture of the layout I submitted for this month's challenge:

The paper line used is This & That Charming by Echo Park. It's no secret: I love Echo Park paper! I have a 3-year old, so their more juvenile themes are right up my alley. This layout features my little guy playing with his new basketball set in our newly finished basement.

I started off with a piece of cardstock and layered two different pattern papers from the collection, leaving about 3.5 inches of the cardstock showing at the bottom. At the seam of the two pattern papers, I used a piece of green rickrack ribbon. I added the velvet brown brads and the end of each side of the ribbon. I love these velvet covered brads!

I then used a third pattern paper to create a mat for my pictures. On the right side, I used a border punch to add detail. On the left side, I use the Sew Easy to create two lines that crisscross. I then hand stitched using brown floss from We R Memory Keepers. I slightly layered my pictures on top of each other and added the cute clothespins at the top of each one.

Next, I created a journalling box using one of the die cuts from the line. I also added a chipboard piece that I painted with Glimmer Glam. Glimmer Glam by Tattered Angels is one of my favourite products to use on chipboard.

I added another die cut from the line as another embellishment. I added the Tim Holtz pins, which I love because it's so hard to find embellishments that are more boyish.

Last but not least, I added the buttons at the bottom left of the page and the title at the top right. For the title, I used Basic Grey chipboard letter and I traced them using a brown pen. I again painted the chipboard brackets with Glimmer Glam.

As I said at the beginning of this post, I love Echo Park! I'm so happy that they continue to come out with great lines that I can use to scrapbook my little man. Check out the This & That Charming line at Auntie Em's!


Happy scrappin'!

Swoon

I love weddings! They are happy events filled with hope and love. There is something awe-inspirering about watching two people stand up in front of their family and friends and promise to love each other for the rest of their lives.

Last summer, I attended the wedding of my friends Glynis and Simon. This wedding was a long time in the making! The pair met in high school but didn't start dating until later on. I myself have known Simon for almost 25 years and Glynis for almost 18 years. It was a privilege to be invited and be a witness to this very happy day.

I had a few pictures to scrapbook from that day and when I saw the Swoon collection from Little Yellow Bicycle at Auntie Em's Scrapbooking and Beading, I thought it was perfect. This collection is absolutely stunning! Every single paper sheet is gorgeous and the embellishments are to die for! Because it's so neutral, it doesn't matter what the wedding colours were. The line goes with any colour in my opinion.

I'd like to share two layouts that I made of Glynis and Simon's wedding with the Swoon collection. 

The first page features the bride and groom walking down the aisle minutes after being pronounced husband and wife. The happy couple was all smiles and I managed to snap this picture myself from my seat in the church as they walked by.  



As a backdrop, I used the 'Always' paper, which has foil accents. My picture does not do this paper justice. It's simply beautiful! Because the foil accents were so beautiful, I didn't want to cover them up with multiple pictures. To me, this paper was meant to be used for a single picture layout.

I started by matting my pictures with the 'Black Tie Stripe' paper. I then placed it on the 'Always' paper as to not cover up the foil accents. I added a doily, the chipboard piece and the paper flower (that are available additions to the collection) to the top-left corner of the matted picture.

Next I added the horizontal border at the bottom of the picture. I layered silver ribbon, a Swoon chipboard piece and a string of pearls.

I then clustered paper flowers, chipboard pieces, stickers (all available with the collection) and pins on the bottom-right of the picture.

At the bottom-right of the 'Always' paper, there's a little foil accented box that I thought was perfect to write the date of the wedding using a silver pen. I also used bling (also available with the collection) to accent the 'Love'.

I went in a different direction for the second page I made with the Swoon collection. I wanted to create and layout using many pictures - in this case, six.

At the top of the paper, there are the words 'Wedding March'. I wanted to play this up so I added bling on each end.

The key to creating a layout with numerous pictures is to crop your pictures as much as possible. I selected pictures that were cropable (not a word, I know, but I'm taking creative license). After my pictures were glued in a kind of a grid, I added a ribbon with large white flowers as a horizontal border at the bottom. Believe it or not, the ribbon is from the Winter Joy collection by Bo Bunny from a few seasons ago. It just goes to show that you should aways go through your stash to see what you have!

Looking at the white space underneath the ribbon, it felt it was a little naked so I added the title 'Love' using the chipboard pieces available with the Swoon collection.

I then used a doily again and clustered paper flowers, chipboard pieces and a sticker on the top-right of the page.

After I was done that, I felt like the page was still missing something. So, I added a small string of pearls as a border between two pictures and capped it off with a chipboard butterfly. I added a few pieces of bling to the butterfly to make it stand out more. 

I hope you are now inspired to create your own wedding layouts, whether they be from pictures of your own wedding or the wedding of friends or family. Weddings are such important events. They deserve to be scrapbooked. Having collections like Swoon to work with doesn't hurt either!

Check out the Swoon collection at Auntie Em's.

Happy scrappin'!



June Page Maps - Your Design Team - Sew wonderful

Auntie Em's Design Team have outdone them selves this month with a theme of sewing or stitching on your layout based on the June sketch from the Scrapbook Today PageMaps calendar.


We used Echo Park's This & That collection for this challenge. As well as some Memo Pins from Tim Hotz, Chipboard pieces from Bazzill, and buttons from Bazzill Basics. 

You can get in on the challenge too by creating a layout based on the June sketch from the calender and make sure you use some sewing or stitching in your layout.  Bring it to Auntie Em's and you could win a prize!

Lorena's Take:   Fun and Games

I did machine stitching on the centre of the layout, a hand stitched blanket stitch on the journaling pocket and faux stitching is several spots, including the spot where my sewing machine decided to give me grief LOL!

Stephanie's Take: Boys

I'm not a big fan of sewing on my  pages.  Not because I don't like the look, I'm just not good at it.  I tried many different things, but nothing worked.  Finally I just did a very simple stitching on a piece of pattern paper and added it to the bottom of my page.  After seeing the wonderful things the other girls did, I will try to do more stitching on my pages.

Sarah's Take:  Swoosh


I used the Sew Easy system to add brown stitching as a vertical border. A little stitching can go a long way but I think it adds a really nice touch.

Nancy's Take:


I used the stitching to create my baseballs it gives them a really cute feel.