Our little guy is 2 years old

Hi friends. I'm breaking away from the scrappy shares to post some of my favorite pictures from my photo session with our little Mason. He turned two last Thursday and being that his mama is a photographer, it was just natural that he got his special photo shoot. I am actually beyond grateful that I have this skill and also that I did this on the morning of his birthday. His birthday gift was a trike and on Friday morning, he decided to ride it down a small flight of stairs and made some big damage with his face. (insert sad face here). Oh the joys of being a parent to a busy toddler!

Anyways, here are some of my faves....

 This boy loves to read so it was just natural to have some shots with his fave books.

 I love that he was excited in this shot. I'm not sure if it's pure excitement for his birthday or due to the fact that I was sugaring him up (giving him little jelly beans) throughout our session. If you have ever had a kid session with me, then you know that that's my secret weapon to connect with a child. ;)

I think I'll blow up this one. It's so him right now. That little happy smile with eyes sparkling as he discovers more about the world around him. I also love how in this photo, he was actually looking at me. That's a rarity these days.

So that's it from me today. Our little guy looks so grown up and my heart is aching a bit. How do you mamas take it all in and not let time pass you by? I feel like time is moving at a lightning speed with this guy.

Thanks for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace

"Pumpkin Wonderland"

When I first saw this sketch over at the Let's Get Sketchy challenge blog, I knew immediately that I can use the starburst design to create my own pattern paper background using some scraps. 

And that's exactly what I did on the following layout....

I turned the focal point to the left so that it will fit better with my photos. I also did that in order to have a better diagonal design with my embellishments (stickers and wood leaves).

Thank you for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace

"Family Time is a blessing" layout

Hi guys. Today we are switching it up a bit and I'm sharing a single page layout. I do both single and double pages. I love that with this strategy, I'm not limited by space when I have a ton of photos and at the same time, I don't have to necessarily create two page layout when I can just shrink my photos a little. What is your layout size preference?

The following page was inspired by the latest sketch challenge over at The ScrapRoom kit club blog. 

I love the three photo strip on the left and added another photo on the bottom right, just because I have another one from this event and I didn't want to leave it out. 

To make the title stand out a little bit more against the pattern paper strip, I added a piece of vellum between the alphabet letters and the paper.

I'm still in love with my latest word die set from Echo Park. I used two of them in this page.

I added a silver heart on the bottom to create a visual triangle between the other two silver word dies used in the page.

Thanks for stopping by my friend.

Till next time,
Grace

"It's great to be 8" layout

Happy Wednesday friends. Did your kids go back to school yet? Mine did this week and I'm feeling like a bird free to fly! Well at least when naptime for my littlest guy comes. :)

Today's layout share is another double page layout. It was based off of this single page sketch. This just shows you that you can be inspired to use single page sketches for your two page layouts. This particular sketch from from Scrapbook Challenges blog. 

I just repeated the design on both layouts to match the sketch. I moved my title and added a few things outside of the center block but other than that, I think that I was able to stay true to the sketch. 

I also created it with the latest Paper Issues Take 5 challenge. To learn more about that specific challenge, check out their Facebook Group.

Thank you so much for stopping by.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to leave them in the comment section below. Also I have recorded my process for this specific page and once I'm done editing the video, I will post that in my You Tube Channel. The link to that is on the sidebar of this blog.

Till next time,
Grace

"Wonderful Lake Isabelle" layout

Hello dear friends. Today I'm sharing a new two page layout. This one was made with the latest "progressive challenge" over at the Scrapbook Generation Facebook group. The pulling of materials for this page was spread within a whole week. One day we did papers, then photos, then journaling, then embellishments and the last day we chose our tools. At the end of the week, we used whatever we gathered to make the page. I really liked how this one turned out. 

I'm also entering this to the latest Clique Kits challenge which is another "anything goes". I love this challenge for the open ended way it can inspire you. 

All of the items in my page was from my stash. I love how I'm finding a new found love for all of the supplies that I've hoard for years.

I knew that my photos had some yellow flowers on them so I knew I would  add some flowers as my embellishment for this page. I pulled out two flower punches from Creative Memories and used the papers that I chose to make them. Fun way to add handmade embellishments to a page.

I'm still in love with my most recent word die purchase. This one is from Echo Park. I love the calligraphy style of the word "wonderful". I've been adding it to almost all of my layouts lately. Is it bad to have so many titles starting off with the word "Wonderful"? LOL

Thank you so much for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace

"Merry and Bright" layout

Happy Wednesday dear friends. Today's layout was inspired by the following sketch from Creative Scrappers blog...

I decided to turn the page 180 degrees and instead of just one 4x6, I squeezed in 5 3x4 photos. These papers are very old but I love hoarding Christmas stash as they are always useful, especially with Christmas pages. The colors and elements (for me) doesn't really go out of style. What do you think?

 I also used the papers to create my own embellishments.

I even layered some of them and tucked them here and there to create clusters of embellishments.

The page was busy but I did manage to add a few strips of journaling on the right side of the page. It can't be a page without journaling, right?

Thanks for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace

"Live in the Moment" layout

Hello again. Today's layout share was inspired by two challenges. The first one is from Rochelle Spear's blog...

The second one was from GrandDiva's Creative Corner's blog....

I love the layering in the sketch and I just happened to only have three photos for this specific moment so it was the perfect memory to scrap. I used some 6x6 papers and scraps for my layering. I cut out some of them to extend them on my page. I feel like with the layering look of the sketch, it let me "cheat" a bit on my papers. 

 For the washi challenge, I added one on the top but for the most of the tape, I made it into my very own pattern paper. If you look at the bottom of my photo strip, you'll notice the same woodgrain design. I added it onto a piece of white cardstock and treated it as a pattern paper. I loved the results and would definitely use that technique again. That's one of the reasons why I love challenges, it allows me to look at my products/stash in a different way.

I also used my Silhouette Cameo for my title. I added some white pen lines on the big word to create more emphasis on it. I also love how the bold black stands out within the page. It gives the title a big impact.

I added a few more details using more paper scraps, like the "remember" tab cut out using a steel die, a punched out fox image and the leaves are all cut out from paper.

Thank you so much for stopping by. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to leave a comment below.

Till next time,
Grace

"Christmas Lights" layout

Hello my dear friends and happy Monday. I'm back with a few layout shares. The first one was based off of the following sketch from My Creative Sketches blog. 

I love the center design but I didn't have just three vertical photos so I squeezed in my 6 3x4 photos instead. I love the circular background element too and I had this die cut created with the Silhouette Cameo and placed that to draw the attention towards the center. I also love how the white color of the design is a great way to break the dark colors of this page (photo and red background paper) 

Here are some more close ups....

 Thank you so much for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace