Just Because

Whew!  I am finally home after spending 3 weeks -  much longer than I would have ever imagined -  in the cold North!  And now that the crazy last minute grocery shopping and Thanksgiving Feast meal preparation activities have died down, I let out my belt a few notches and...scrapbooked.  Yep, I've got it bad.

With my brain just one calorie shy of going into food coma, I decided I would create a simple homage to my geekdom - no in-depth, insightful journaling needed.  To quote a wise (sailor) man, "I yam what I yam."  And that's all there is to it!

How did I make this layout, you ask?  Well...I started with this SKETCH by Fancy Pants. What can I say - it had a banner and I couldn't resist!  Due to my food-induced brain shutdown - I kept my layout simple and stayed very true to the sketch.  And, hey, that goofy smile on my face in the picture pretty much says it all...don't need much more embellishment than that, right?

Of course, I used my Fancy Pants papers from The Good Life Collection - it's one of my favorites, right now.  I made a few small circles with a circle punch and layered them with pop dots.  My stencil words were made with my Silhouette Cameo.

 

The tags for my banner were also made with my Silhouette Cameo (gosh, I LOVE my Cameo!).  I placed contrasting paper behind the arrow cutouts to make them stand out.

 

 

A little handwritten short-n-sweet journaling mixed with a few words in different font letter stickers = a nice long-ish title, don't you think?  Some paint splatter and a few machine-stitched accents, and my "just because" layout was completed!

 

 

And that's it for me.  What have you created - just because - lately?

Envelope Mini Album

I cannot believe my daughter (the original middle child) got married last weekend!  It seems like yesterday she was playing Barbies with her sister or I was driving her to a soccer game.  I took so many pictures on her wedding day and the day before that I am overwhelmed with choosing which ones to use first for a layout - they ALL seem to be jumping up and down, yelling, "pick me first!"  So, for now, I will settle with posting this mini album I created several months back using my Sweet Lou's engagement photos.  If I ever make it back home from Michigan (where I am working for the next few weeks and trying NOT to freeze my very Southern heinie off) I plan to do a video tutorial...so stay tuned.

This mini was made entirely with standard business envelopes that I simply glued together and covered with scrapbook papers.  The cover was made by hand by cutting up a Priority Mail box.

You KNOW how much I love pockets where I can tuck extra pictures and tiny treasures, so of course, envelopes were a perfect choice as the foundation to my mini.  I created flaps, which I added to the end, for visual interest.

I love that the design for this album allows for both small pockets to tuck tags into (on the left)...

 

...as well as large pockets in between each page. That's a LOT of pockets!!!

 

In addition to tags, I made a couple of little inserts to tuck into some of the larger envelope pockets between the pages.

 

An extra large flap closure is a great place to hide journaling or include a "surprise" picture.

 

When the flap to this page is opened, this is what is revealed...

 

And the last page...

 

 

That's it for today.  But, before I go - I HAVE to (have to have to have to) share one last pic taken by our wedding photographer REBECCA MCCOY - this one of the happy couple (who were married at the fantastic SERENGETI RESORT outside of San Antonio, Texas - it's billed as  African Wine Country - and was as unique and fantastic as my wonderful daughter and son-in-law)

 

Congrats Mr. and Mrs. Thompson - I love you both with all my heart!!!