"See & Discover" layout

Happy Monday friends. I hope you all had a great and memorable Easter celebration. 

Today's first order of business is another layout share. I have been really productive in my scrapbooking this month. I plan on doing a review of all of the pages I created this month on my You Tube channel. If you haven't subscribed to it yet, make sure to click the link on the right side of this blog to take you directly to my channel. 

This layout was based off of the following sketch from Sketches in Thyme.

I tweaked the sketch a bit to fit my story and layout. First, I moved one of the banners (smaller one) to the top left of the page instead of under the longer banner. It just seemed to be too heavy on the bottom if I kept it like how it was in the sketch. Also, I did a collage of photos instead of the two pics in the sketch. 

I found this one paper in my scraps bin that already was made into banners, All I had to was cut out the triangles individually and then arranged them like a banner. I didn't really plan on the title when I started but once I moved the smaller banner on top, I knew that I had to do some kind of title that would connect the two banners.

I had made a few tags like this from my Cameo machine and used one of them on this page. I liked how I was able to dress it up a bit with some buttons and bling.

I decided to adhere my banners with some foam and adhesive to make to stand out a little bit more.

Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope you have a fun and creative week.

Till next time,
Grace

"Strong & Happy" layout

Happy Friday again. Today's second post is another layout based off of a sketch. This one is from Scrap Much? blog

Instead of doing two photos, I ended up using three but lines them up horizontally just like the sketch. I also added the title and journaling where they are on the sketch. 

This one was my third (or fourth) layout about this specific place as we've been here multiple times and I was running out of new ideas for the title. So I decided to focus on what I saw on my kids' faces in the pictures. Sometimes it's kinda nice to scrapbook an event after a while since it has happened cause then you just don't focus your journaling on the what, where, when, etc. You can focus your story telling on other aspects of the event such as the reaction on your family's faces.

I have to admit that this page is a bit busy for my taste but I was watching a movie while making it and really wasn't thinking too hard on what I was doing. If I were to do it again, I'd probably skip the heavy designed background paper and have stuck with a more neutral design in order for all the layered elements to pop better. Have you experienced this in your creative process? make something without much thought and then realized that you could've done things a little differently?

Thanks for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace

"It's All About the Chase" layout

Happy Friday. Kids go back to school on Monday and I'm heading into "Finals" week. Let me tell you, I will jump for joy when this semester is over. I have had many weeks where I have been wanting to spend more time creating and yet I have papers to write and books to read. Oh the life of a student!

This layout was based off of the sketch #106 over at Scrapbook Challenges blog. 

I think this page is so appropriate being that we are going into Easter weekend.

I have been purging some of my scrap paper stash and have been finding bits and pieces that I still love and want to use on a page. This sketch was perfect for me to incorporate a few of these scraps. The photo was a little too dark so I opted to pick bright and spring type colored papers to balance out the page. I also opted for a cardstock background to make the papers and photos stand out more. 

I made my own flair badge with some epoxy sticker and a circle printable from Heidi Swapp.

I finished off the page with some stickers, handcut accents from papers, and journaling.

Hope you all have a great weekend and advance Happy Easter.

Till next time,
Grace

"Happy Wolf" layout

Another double post for the day. This time, it's a page from a sketch over at Scrapbook challenges blog. 

I also created this with the latest Paper Issues online crop challenge in mind. The challenge was to keep 2/3 of the page empty and embrace the negative space. I'm not sure if I did the challenge justice as I'm not one to keep that much open space on a layout but I tried. What do you think?

As for the sketch, I really liked how the design was center focus. I rarely do my pictures vertically lined up so this was a good change for me.

I added some circle elements to break up the mostly right angle design of the layout. I used my scallop border punch as well as scallop and just regular circle punches.

I also incorporated this tag that I cut out from my Cameo. I backed it up with some green cardstock to make it stand out better from the layers of paper behind it.

Thank you for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace

"Sightseeing" layout

Here's another layout based off another sketch from the Sketch N Scrap blog

I turned the sketch to it's side to match my horizontal photos. I also added a few more smaller pics in the middle. You know me, I can never scrap a travel or holiday themed story with just one, two or even three photos. The more the merrier is my philosophy on those kinds of memory keeping. 

I created my big title on my Cameo machine. Another thing in my scrapbook room that I feel needs more of my attention. I cut it out on cardstock and then ran it through my Cuttlebug with the Swiss dot embossing folder to add more depth and dimension to the otherwise flat letters. I also inked the bumpy sides with some inkpad.

Because my page was already filled with a huge title and many photos, I opted to just add a few embellishments here and there, like buttons and chipboard accents.

Thank you for stopping by.

Make sure you stop by tomorrow for another layout.

Till next time,
Grace

"It's your birthday today" layout

Hello dear friends. Today I'm sharing another layout. It's kinda crazy how inspired I am this month. I'm getting a lot done and it feels good. I will take it till the mojo is gone. 

This latest one is from this sketch at Scrapbook Challenges blog. 

I used the 3x3 photo spot to hold my journaling and used the big photo spot for a photo collage. You know me, I try to incorporate as many photos as I can in a page. I was also trying to make a large impact with my title. Two of them are cut out from my die cut machine and the first two words of the title are stickers. 

I happened to have some flowers on my desk from a previous project and thought of incorporating them here as well. Flowers haven't really graced my pages in a while so it feels good using them in my current pages.

Thanks for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace

"Out & About" layout

Can you believe it's already Wednesday? Time sure flies fast. 

Today's layout was based off of the following sketch from Sketch N Scrap blog

Can you believe that all of the papers in this layout is from my scrap bin? Yes I have to admit that I have way too much scraps and it felt good to get them used up on a page. Most of the scraps were put into my photo mat where I created a somewhat quilt type effect with them. I first cut them into squares then cut those in half to turn into triangles and then added to a cardstock with some space in between. I love how it frames the photo collage really well. I kept the rest of the page simple so that the viewer's eye can focus on the photo in the center. 

I layered some stickers to create a ribbon type effect here.

Hope you are having a good week so far.

Till next time,
Grace

"Walking Around Main Street" layout

Hello again dear friends. Today's layout share was inspired by the following sketch from Stuck?! sketch blog

I liked the three photos on the center of the page. I didn't have quite the same amount of pics but because mine was smaller, I was still able to use the sketch for my page. 

I don't seem to use much of my flowers and brads lately so I used this sketch and challenge to dug into my stash and make the most of the supplies I had on hand. It felt great to add some layers of flowers on a page. It's been far too long.

I also added some stickers and some of them I even placed where I messed up on the pen lined stitches.

Thanks so much for stopping by and make sure you visit again soon.

Till next time,
Grace

"Olympic Center" layout

Happy Monday dear friends. This week is my kids' Spring break. I'm a bit envious of them as my break from school is not till two weeks from today and I'm getting a little burnt out that I catch myself counting down the days. I've never had that feeling before. Any advice, especially from those that have juggled school and family life?

This week I'm loading this blog with a layout share every day. I haven't done that in a while and I hope all or some of my pages will inspire you as other blogs do for me. 

This first one was based off of a sketch from Sketches in Thyme blog. 

As my 'one little word' for this year is SUFFICIENT, I wanted to dive into some of my scraps for the next few layouts. I feel that I have "enough" scraps to last me a lifetime (or two) and they need to be addressed. I loved how this sketch allowed me to add an array of various paper strips, in different widths, to the background. 

I even cut out my blocks for title and journaling from paper. To make my photos stand out, I matted them onto white cardstock.

I added just a few more embellishments to dress up the page. The background was already busy to I didn't do lots of layering like I do most of the time.

I thought the "geotag" symbol was appropriate for this travel themed page.

Thanks for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace

March *Stick it down challenge blog*

Hello friends. Today is the team reveal at Stick it down challenge blog. This month's double page spread sketch is this...

and here's my take on it...

I love double page sketches and the ability to add plenty of photos to my scrapbook page. This one was no exception. I tweaked the design a little bit because I had a few small photos to use but over all the design is pretty similar to the inspiration. 

I used some papers from the Memorandum link of Pink Paislee and some embellishments from Basic Grey. I also used some gold doilies that I got at Michael's during their Christmas clearance sale. 

The photos that I used are from 2012 at my son's 2nd grade party. I can't believe how long ago that was considering he is now in 7th grade. Anyone else working on photos from 5 years ago and older?

I used two different stickers for my title and love combining both script and serif fonts. The green letters were fairly old so I machine stitched it to ensure that it doesn't fall of my page later on.

I layered two 3x4 cards on here and used one to handwrite my journaling.

One of the papers had a bunch of clipboard images on it and I fuzzy cut them then arranged the on my layout adding my photos over them except for this one that was a fitting caption for my page.

Thank you for stopping by. Make sure you check out the rest of the team's pages here.

Till next time,
Grace