Dancing in the Street (Happy Family Together)

I want to share this fun little layout that I completed this past weekend at a crop I was at with the amazingly talented HEATHER LEOPARD.  She inspired me to play along with Lily Bee's "Tag You're It" Series that began with a fabulous sketch (also created by Heather), which can be found HERE!  The "Tag, You're It" week may be over, but the sketch looked like so much fun, I had to give it a try!

I know everyone is focused on Christmas right now, but these two pics of my youngest child and my oldest child (aka, the Hubster) were so adorable I could not wait to scrap them.  Seriously?  How often do you get to scrap people you know dancing down the sidewalk - and in perfect sync no less?  Right?!!  Besides, LILY BEE'S Motto is "Everyday Loveliness" and that is EXACTLY what this is - everyday loveliness!

I love the We R Family Collection; however, my local scrapbook store was out of almost everything I wanted to use.  But - I am a lemonade out of lemons kind of girl, so I reached into my stash and pulled out my papers from the Pinwheel Collection, which just happened to coordinate beautifully with the We R Family double deck cards.  See?

To give my layout a little extra dimension, I added pop dots behind these 3x4 cards.  I also made a journaling pocket out of the first card and stuck a little tag made with paper from the Pinwheel Collection into it.  I love it when different collections play so well together, don't you?

I think this will be my motto for 2014 - Happy Family Together.

Seriously, I was able to fussy cut to my little heart's content with the 3x4 cards and papers...

I loved making this layout and hope I have inspired you - inspired you to use bright colors, to mix your patterns and collections, to take pictures of the silliness and everyday moments, to make lemonade from lemons, and most of all to enjoy your happy family together.  

Merry Christmas Eve, y'all!

Getting Fussy with my Scissors (Practical Scrappers)

 

Today at PRACTICAL SCRAPPERS, our On Trend team is showing everyone how we get fussy.  No, we aren't having a rant over there, we are showing off our layouts and cards in which we used a technique called "fussy cutting."  What exactly IS fussy cutting?  I think the best, easiest way to describe it is how diecuts are made without a diecutting machine - like a Silhouette Cameo.  You see an image or shape you like on a piece of paper and you cut it out to add to your layout or project.  It's that simple!

Often, when crafters think about fussy cutting, we think of projects using what I call "image rich" papers (yes, I just now coined that term - feel free to quote me!) - Graphic 45 and Websters are two of the big names who design these types of papers.  But fussy cutting isn't only limited to cutting out elaborate, detailed images; it can be as simple as cutting out chevrons from a patterned paper you like to make and accent your embellishments, like I did in this layout using a combination of AMERICAN CRAFTS papers from the Yes, Please and Lucky Charm collections.  I took this paper:

...and I cut right outside the outline of several chevrons to create my arrows.  I then cut out individual chevrons and layered them on top of matching ones on my arrows by machine stitching them along the center line so that I ended up with this:

And, as you can see, because I loved my chevron arrows so much, I also used them as accents to draw attention to several of the individual photos - quick and easy embellishments that only required scissors and paper!

Of course, I did use my Silhouette, too, to make this adorable bicycle (which I embellished with buttons, a fabric heart sticker, and my bicycle flag made from twine and a hand made pennant).

...and to make this frame.  It was originally a polaroid frame that I elongated to fit my 4x6 photo.  I adhered different scraps of my AC papers behind each of my letters to make it extra-colorful.

Before I go, I wanted to leave a few tips for fussy cutting:

1.  Sharp scissors are an absolute MUST.  If your scissors aren't sharp, you will often end up with a frayed edge that looks a little "chewed up" by your scissors.  Fraying and distressing are good but NOT when you are fussy cutting!

 

2.  Maybe it's because I have small hands, but smaller scissors generally work better for fussy cutting.  They allow you to maneuver your scissors more easily when cutting out a shape, especially more intricate shapes.

 

3.  To keep your fingers from cramping and feeling like you will never be able to fully straighten them out again (especially if you are cutting out an intricate shape or lots of shapes), I highly recommend getting spring-loaded scissors, such as these, which can be found in most craft and sewing stores. 

 

 

That's it for me today.  But you know I'll be back - I've got some Pretty Little Studio and a blog hop in the works, so stay tuned!

Christmas Day the Instagram Way

Hello everyone!I hope you had a joyful Christmas, full of good memories-in-the-making.  We had a very hectic-busy-crazy-actionpacked pre-Christmas weekend - with children coming home to roost for the Christmas holiday.  Lou and her guy came breezing through our front door first, all tanned and relaxed from their honeymoon cruise.  Then all the other his, mine, and ours slowly trickled in until we had children and pets and noise and activity filling every single nook and cranny of Casa de Chaos.  That picture at the top of this blog?  It's missing two working sons, some crazy yapping doggies, a couple psycho cats - and a partridge in a pear tree.  I baked, and last minute shopped, and wrapped gifts, and sang Christmas carols, and even sang in the church choir on Christmas Eve. 

 

Why am I telling you all this?  Because I want you to see how someone who LIVES for scrapbooking and photographing those special moments could have been so sleep deprived (and maybe a teeny-tiny bit high on sugar from all the "test bites" I had to take) that I forgot to check my camera battery - on the main camera, on the good point-and-shoot camera, and on the back-up point-and-shoot.  And guess which camera had a completely dead battery Christmas morning?  If you guessed not just one but all three, you would be correct!

But, hey, it was Christmas morning - and I was happy and all of my family was happy.  So rather than stress about it - or attempt to make everyone hold off on opening gifts until a battery charged ('cuz you know that wasn't going to happen) - I whipped out my phone and Instagrammed all the highlights. And that was okay. 

I got the new son-in-law happily modeling his new boots...

 

...while wearing the "very manly" pajama pants (with images of doggies wearing antlers) that just happened to match his father-in-law's and brother-in-law's pajama pants (courtesy of the BEST mom in the world a/k/a ME!)

 

 

Don't worry, the hubster wasn't upset in the least about wearing matching pajama pants (because, hey, they were "manly" pajama pants, after all).  But I think he was a very teeny little bit put out that now he has two people in the family who are taller than he is.  See?  Look at his feet.  He is standing on his tippy-toes because he wants so badly to be the tallest!!!

Then there was Jesse - who has the best sense of humor.  And, apparently, a thing for my Kalliebeth's sparkly, glittery hat.

 

He r-e-a-l-l-y likes to include himself in pictures.  Not a shy bone in that boy's body.  Can you tell?

 

This was the first year that the Childe got more clothes than toys for Christmas.  Considering the fact that she was trying to wear everything all at once, I don't think she minded too much.  What do you think?

 

Like her big sister, she likes sparkly things, too.  Fortunately, Jesse drew the line at trying on her sparkly skirt - but I suspect it was only because the skirt was too small to fit him properly!

 

Even my big girls let me get a pic of them in their matching pajamas without grumbling One.Single.Time.  It was truly a day of Christmas miracles - ha!

 

 

After a few hours of festivities and feasting Christmas morning, many of the adult kids had to start heading back to their homes or off to see other relatives.  Of course, I made sure that I snapped "just one more pic" before each of them left.

 

 

Until finally, finally, only the youngest two birdies who haven't yet flown the nest were left.  They were in their rooms, quietly playing with their new loot.  I turned around and the hubster was clearly "resting his eyes" for a minute. (Notice the little ball of fur squinched down next to him - apparently one of our doggies needed to rest her eyes, too!)

 

 

...and with that, I finally sat down, took a deep breath for the first time in days, and closed my own eyes for a minute or two.

 

I will be back with new projects in a few days, so stay tuned!  Until then, hoping your Christmas was all that you dreamed and wishing you a Happy New Year - full of peace, love, and crafting!