Completed San Diego album

This is a total scraplift from the Dec. 2009 Creating Keepsakes album.  They featured an article about how to complete an album quick!  Having almost 6 inches of pictures from a trip to San Diego in 2008, I had to do something!  This was a quick, easy and visually pleasing album.  Here is the "recipe:"  6 horizontal 4x6 photos, 2 vertical 6x4 photos, 1 2x8 inch cardstock strip, 3 strips of black cardstock, .75 inches x 12.  That's it!  I added the little doo-dad's to it to jazz it up, but I completed this album in two days!  (Long days, but days!)

Here is a few photos from the various pages!  (I won't bore you with the whole thing! ;) )

Here is the title page.  I mixed it up a tiny bit and made a large red block and put a picture of the great-grandparents who planned this trip, but then weren't able to go.  :(  But, they wanted us to still go, so we did!)  I used the cricut to cut the San Diego title. 

Here is the first "section" of the scrapbook.  I color coordinated each section in regards to the place we were.  So, the San Diego Zoo's logo features red, so the accent color on all the Zoo pages is red.  I purchased a "patch" at the zoo and used it for the title of the location on the left hand side.  All you do is affix 6 horizontal photos on one page and then run two of your thin black cardstock pieces.  One runs horizontally and the other vertically.  Where ever they cross, I put an accent piece.  Then on the right side I lined up the third thin black cardstock piece level with the other horizontal piece (on other page) and added the two vertical pictures and the red accent block.  I then added a small, matching accent to that side. 

(Here's another page of the same location!  The accent matches something in the photos, ie. there is a picture of a giraffe, so I had the cricut make a giraffe.)

Notice I am rotating the side of the paper with two photos.  (I alternate the left and right side being the side with two photos.)  This helps your eye move along and not become too predictable. 

Also notice here that I didn't have a 2nd vertical photo so I cut the brochure to the right size and used that as a "photo" filler!

Blue means Sea World!  Also notice how the vertical black strip moves from the top third to the bottom third.  (It mixes things up more!)

Light Yellow is a tour of the Midway Aircraft Carrier.  I used the cricut to cut a jet and then used a silver marker to outline the shape and then color in the front window.  It really made a difference.

Also notice here that I used the tickets as one of my vertical "photos."

Ahhh...Lego Land!  Bright green!  I used the George cartridge on the Cricut to cut different rectangles and then used a hole punch to punch little circles.  I created my own Lego accents.  A pain in the rear end, but REALLY cute!

The last page tells of a hysterical event while we were gone.  Austin lost his tooth on Easter Eve while we were in San Diego in the hotel. (It was about 10:30 p.m.!)  The next morning the kids awoke to these two sets of notes; one from the tooth fairy and one from the Easter Bunny.  Apparently the Easter Bunny and the tooth fairy collided outside the hotel and all the Easter eggs broke and the tooth fairy dropped all the Sacajawea coins that Austin normally receives.  In order to fix the problem, the Easter Bunny left chocolate eggs and the tooth fairy gave Austin $20 and told him to split it with his sister and they should spend it at Sea World the next day.  How do we know all this????  Both the Easter Bunny and the tooth fairy left notes, of course!  (Featured to the left!)

School Layouts

"Classy and Fabulous" Jan. 2008
This was my daughter's first day of Pre-Kindergarten and she was so excited.  She wanted to wear her Christmas dress for the first day, so I let her!  I used cream cardstock for the background with a dusty rose for the photo mats.  I used the great CoCo Chanel title "Classy and Fabulous" ( Just Dreamy 2 Dazzling Girls Only) at an angle to show a little playfulness!  I used a large pink/red flower, and two small, from the same manufacturer but different line (Delightful So Sweet Die Cut and accessory card.)  The accessory card also had the tag, "Sweet" and journaling block!  I added a bit of pink ribbon and voila!  Complete!

"Science Achievement Certificate"  March 2008
Austin and his friend completed the science fair together.  I used two tan pieces of cardstock and matted the photos in a dusty blue.  On the left hand piece of cardstock I adhered the certificate and then covered poorly done graphics with my own photos.  :)  On the right, I featured a picture of Austin with the science project and then placed two other photos along the bottom.  The stickers all came from the Karen Foster Science sticker set.  This is the second layout I have gotten out of the same set of stickers!

"Cookies"  March 2008
The background paper is a light blue with red and blue dots.  I matted the photos in white cardstock.  (Can you tell I love to put things at an angle?)  I found these great "Brad Buddies" at the CK Scrapbook Convention last Feb. and loved them!  (Hot Off the Press!)  The apron, cookie jar and measuring spoons are all die cut metal with brad accents.  The hearts on the apron are all little brads that came with it!  I cut a circle to feature the measuring spoons so they wouldn't get lost on the patterned paper and then used white cardstock to make a journaling block.  I used the cricut to cut the title and circle!  (George cartridge!) 

Past Christmas layouts (Is That Like Ghosts of Christmas' Past?)

I know, I'm behind!  But I'm catching up a little more each week!
Here's what I completed over the last few weeks!  I am really happy with some of them, and just so-so about others!

"Santa's Visit" December 2007                               I love this layout! :)  I matted all my photos on white carstock and trimmed a very skinny white mat.  I used two red, solid pieces of cardstock for the background and then used to vintage flower print papers to play off the color scheme without being too "Christmassy."  I then ran three types of ribbon down the right hand side of each page.  A thin red, "Happy Holidays" ribbon, a coordinating red ribbon with white flowers and then a fun leafy fiber.  (No manufacturer's known.)  I then cut a Christmas tree with my Cricut Expression from a dark green and used a black shadow.  Where the Cricut cut little "detail" lines, I popped them up with popdots to give the tree dimension, like branches.  I then took a gold pen and highlighted those "cut" marks to add a little detail.  I cut out a "Santa's Visit" with the Cricut also. Not my normal style, but love it!

"Zoo Lights" Dec. 2007

A quick and easy layout!  Two pieces of patterned paper, green background with small blue dots (SEI's Penelope's Potpourri Delightful Dots) and white cardstock.  The paper is reversible, so the blue with green dots under the title is just another piece of the same paper, just turned over!  The ribbon says Happy Holidays on white and it is from Michael's (I think) and was Santa's Workbench ribbon.  I ran the ribbon down and across on my collage page to add some visual interest.  I then added two cardstock stickers with green highlights to the pages.  One at the intersection of the ribbon and another above my title block.  (Stickers are Creative Imaginations Studio Basics 101, Jolly Elements).  I used the Cricut to cut the title and I was done!  A quick little layout!

"McCalley Clan" Dec. 2007                                   I love this REALLY simple layout!  I used two solid pieces of bright blue cardstock and then used some scraps of pattened paper to put on the far left top and to the side of each center picture.  I then used the Hannah Montana Cricut cartridge to cut out the title in two different fonts.  (The capital letters are one font, Rocker Girl? and the rest is a different font).  I cut it out of a basic cream cardstock.

"Sensitive Butterfly Habitat" Dec. 2007           Yuck.  Don't like this, but wanted to highlight the picture of my kids and their Nana looking at Monarch Butterflies. 

 Posed Christmas Photos Dec. 2007

Another quick and easy layout!  (See how I'm getting caught up???)  A solid black cardstock background, with Dark Autumn Color Mates cardstock to mat the photos with. The three ornaments were purchased on a single sheet of 12x12 cardstock that turned out to be stickers.  I got a great deal on it and now I know why!  None of the ornaments were cut, rather when you went to peel, the whole page came up as one, so I had to hand cut each ornament.  (Paper Elements Tinsel Town Stickers).  I used gold fiber to hang the ornaments from.

"Merry Christmas" 2007

The background cardstock is Tinsel town Bling and Mistletoe (2 different ones) from The Paper Element.  I added a strip of brown "cardboard" color to the left side and hand cut black photo corners for the large center group of photos.  I used the Cricut to cut the title, "Merry Christmas" using the Simply Sweet cartridge. I cut it from Color Master's Dark Berry Red and then added a black shadow.

Christmas Continued....Same as above!  Paper Elements Tinsel Town paper Cookie Cutter and Sugar Plum.  Brown cardstock accents.  What I should have done?  Matted the photos on black.  They get lost in the busyness of paper and photos.  Oh well!

"Surprise!" Jan. 2008

Quick background...my parents were out of town and not scheduled to be back for Christmas this year.  My brother and I got together with the rest of the family and guess who walks in???  My parents came all the way from Arizona to surprise us all! 

Background paper is a wonderful olive green and some photos were matted with yellow.  The rest of the photos were matted with Dark Berry Red from Papermates and all the corners were rounded.  The sled accent is hand cut out, from an ancient set of accents that were not cut out!  The Christmas Tree tag was snagged off of a present and red ribbon was added to the top.  I used the Cricut to cut the title "Surprise!" using Simply Sweet's "stitched" font.

"I (Heart) U"  Dec. 2007

I LOVE THIS PHOTO!  My two kids just spontaneously hugged and I happened to catch it on camera!  The paper is wonderful and comes double sided just as you see (minus the title).  I can't find who makes it!  I matted the one photo in a vintage dark pink/light red to match the accents on the paper.  Then I used the cricut to cut "I (Heart) U" out of the same red paper...BUT I wanted more!  I used my glitter from Michael's (tiny little tubs in the dollar bin!  Great deal!)  and glittered the title with a dark pink.  I love it!

Cooking Party Invitation

My daughter turns 7 yeas old in a few weeks and she really wants a cooking party!  I borrowed a friend's From My Kitchen cartridge and cut out the oven.  (Isn't it cute?)  I cut out the rounded corner square card from Celebrations.  I first cut the square card on white card stock at 8.5 inches.  I then cut the shadow of the oven and the shadow of the oven door in evergreen green cardstock.  I bought them in a package of 5 pieces of cardstock at a paper store without any manufacturer's info. I then cut the layer of the door and the extra accents in a muted red.  My favorite piece of all is the actual oven done in this really cool paisley paper.  It's actually wrapping paper! :)  (No manufacturer again!)  I cut all the oven pieces at 4 inches.  When I assembled this all together, I turned the card so that the seam is on the bottom and it opens from the top, just like an oven door!

Now, it looks cute, but I had to add some sparkles!  I used 5mm silver Nailheads (Metal Stickers from Mark Richards) for the knobs and silver Stickles for the oven door handle.  The Nailheads were a pain!  I had to trim around each of them with tiny scissors because the adhesive was laid down in a strip and then the nailheads were stuck on.  So when you pulled off a nailhead, off came extra adhesive that showed around the nailhead!  YUCK!  (This is something that should be addressed in manufacturing, IMO!)

Inside I adhered a little piece of white paper that says "Let's Cook Something Up For Maddie's 7th Birthday!"  I picked a red font color that matched the red accent in the oven.  It looks really cute.   Hope you like it!  If you have any questions, be sure to ask!

Where Have I Been?

Well, I've spent many hours working on a work related website, but I have managed to steal a few hours for scrapbooking here and there.  I actually finished my San Diego album of our trip to San Diego, Sea World, the Zoo, the Wild Animal Park, etc.  I will post a few pictures for you shortly!  I am now working on invitations for my daughter's "cooking" birthday!  I will post a picture when I'm done!

I DID IT!

I finished CK's Summer Camp in time to be entered in their prize drawings!  I would love a big pile of prizes!  ;)

Above are all the badges I earned!

Layouts Galore!

"Lost Lake" Fall 2007
We were invited on a hike with a family from church around Lost Lake.  It was the perfect fall weekend!  The background cardstock is khaki (unknown).  The photo blocks are matted on black.  I then took fall stickers and applied them to different layers of cardstock to make squares for the top border.  I added some vellum fall leaf stickers to complete the top border.  I hand cut a khaki tag and journaled on it, and then tied a natural fiber collection to the top.  I added a few more fall leaves to balance out the page.

"Apple Orchard" Fall 2007
After hiking around Lost Lake (above), we stopped at the apple orchard.  Unfortunately I finished this layout BEFORE I started recording papers, etc.  The papers have all those colors preprinted on them.  I just added the photos as they are except for the one with a torn yellow mat.  (Everything else but the tags were printed on the paper!)  I used photos of the apples and my tag maker to make the round apple tags.  I put some natural colored fibers at the top.

"Finally Retired" Fall 2007.  My Dad retired from First American Title after MANY years.  These are pictures from his family retirement dinner.  I used pinstriped paper to mimic a trendy dress shirt and then matted everything in light blue.  I cut out the title "Finally Retired," the arrow and "Time to Hit the Road" with my Silhouette die cut machine.  I pointed the arrow at my Dad to reinforce who was retiring.

"1st Grade" September 2007.  My son Austin started first grade this year (2007) and I wanted to showcase some of his work.  The nice thing about being so behind is you have all the stuff from the year to choose from! :)  The 1st grade paper is printed as is, with a white bottom where I adhered the class picture.  I then used a green "school themed" paper and mounted work, name tags and an award to it.  Very easy, but cute!

"Pump It Up Fun!" Nov. 2007

I used striped background cardstock and yellow and blue cardstock.  I grouped the photos and matted them in blue.  But when I cut them out, I tried to cut them in the shape of a bouncy house (left) and the slide (right).  I used the yellow paper for accents to the bouncy stuff.  I used blue letter stickers for the title "Pump It Up Fun" and "Whee."

"The Great Pumpkin Search" October 2007

I had only one piece of this great Halloween paper with black glitter owls on it (Martha Stewart?).  I cut it in half and then added black to the outside edges, to make two full 12x12 pages.  I ran a "film strip" of photos down each side and then matted photos on black for the middle.  I used black letter stickers for the title through the middle and the date at the bottom.

Halloween Trick Or Treating 2007

Once again, I had some old Halloween paper that I had never used so I decided to use it up!  (I was on a kick of using things up!)  I matted both kids individual costume pictures on yellow cardstock and placed them on the left page above the preprinted costume border.  I then matted three pictures on yellow and placed them diagonally down the right hand page.  I cut two yellow tags and journaled on each one.  The pirate themed tag represented all the stuff about my son's Pirate Halloween costume.  (Pirate stickers from Jollee's, I think).  I then did the same thing for my daughter (the bumblebee) and then die cut a bumblebee with my Silhouette die cutter.  I added fuzzy black fibers to the top of each tag.  I love this page, although it's really busy!