"Hello Garden Harvest" layout

Happy Thursday friends. Today's layout was inspired by the latest sketch from Sketchabilities blog. 

I flipped the sketch and placed the elements onto the right instead of the left. I wanted to use some tags that I got in the clearance aisle of Michael's craft store and the holes goes into the left so I it dictated where everything else on my page fell. 

I wanted to use up some of my latest purchases so I put together a homemade scrapbook kit and this is my first layout made from that pile. It has some papers from Recollections and We R Memory Keepers, plus stickers and frames from Heidi Swapp.

I also added a chevron party bag behind my photo, just because it was cute. I made sure though to mat my photo with pattern paper so that if ever that pocket/bag is not acid free, my pictures are still protected from it.

I finished off the page with misting using some Color Shine from Heidi Swapp.

I haven't used my typewriter in a while so I decided to bust that out for my journaling. I missed having a garden, sadly there's some rabbits and other little creatures roaming around my garden this year that most of my plants got eaten up before they sprouted any flowers. :(
Hopefully next year we will figure out a better system cause I really miss harvesting fresh veggies from my backyard.

Thanks for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace

First Day of School layout + process video

Hi guys. Today I'm sharing my last process video using my June/July homemade scrapbook kit. I have been very productive with this kit and if you want to see the many pages I created with it, please follow this link. 

I thought this page was timely as my kids will go back to school in a matter of weeks.

You can click on this video to see how I made the page from start to finish...

and here are some more close ups...

Thank you so much for stopping by. I am always inspired by my crafty friends.

Till next time,
Grace

Lately....in the Tolman home

Hi guys. I know that this blog has been pretty much for crafting shares lately and I have had all the good intentions of updating our family and friends about what's going on around here, but with summer rolling around plus vacations and birthdays to tackle, time to update was not on the top of the list. I have been so behind that I'm not even going to attempt to catch up. Do you feel that way sometimes?
But I still want to blog about my family as I use it for future journaling prompts in my layouts as well. So we'll call this post, CURRENTLY and just talk about what each member of the family is currently into...

Mitch- He is still working hard as a medical assistant. He has been beefing up his preparations for his annual hunting trip in the fall and he's taken the family on a few hikes. I have to admit some are harder than the others but time with the family is always good.

Grace- I am on a break from school (thank goodness for summer break) and although it's a short six weeks, I am committed to do everything that I wanted to do that is outside of the school/studying realm. I have been scrapbooking more and also doing some much needed cleaning in the house. I have also been addicted to making pocket letters lately. This is a type of "pen pal" system where you find someone to swap products and little cute stuff with through slipping items in a trading card type sheet protector. I have even got Maddie to join me. So far she's made three pocket letters to girls her age. Oh and I had a birthday in July. Always fun to celebrate that.

Marcus- He turned 12 in July. It's a milestone for him as he officially moved up to the Youth program of our church and received the priesthood. One of the things he gets to do now is to pass the sacrament through our congregation on Sundays. His big gift for his birthday as a 3DS and he has been obsessed with that since he got it. I have to pry it out of his hands once in a while so he can read or do other productive things. He'll be a 7th grader this coming school year. Oh and he chose pie for his birthday treat. I love watching this boy get to know what he wants in life and is able to slowly articulate that.

Maddie- She had a blast during our California trip and didn't want to leave. None of us did really. Right now she is having fun playing with her friends and also on the computer. Her favorite game right now is Roblux and she has been willing to do extra chores (ie watch Mason for mommy) so she can have more computer time. She has also been reading a lot since she has received a lot of book rewards from doing good at school plus the ones that she had borrowed from the library. She is still very much obsessed with make up and would always stand by my bathroom door when I'm getting ready for church. Her M.O would be to stand there and watch if I'm focused on putting my make up on and quietly grab stuff from my bag when I'm not looking and before I know it, she's right beside me putting mascara on or lipstick. That girl!

Mason- He is a growing 11 month old boy. He has figured out how to climb down the stars by turning himself backwards and scooting his bum and feet down. That means there's no stopping this boy. He is very mobile and strong. He also loved to eat with his hands. I always have to give him something to hold and feed himself with during meal time. Most of the food he eats on his own are cheerios, raisins, little pieces of bread and meat and veggies. He loves sweets too which we give him on occasions *wink* He refuses his car seats now which makes putting him in it a task. Changing diapers have also been a challenge and sometimes it takes three of us to get the job done. Like I said, he is pretty mobile and is always on the go, but everyone in the family is still very much inlove with him so we put up with whatever shenanigans he has.

That's it for me. If you've come to this point and is not sick and tired of reading about our family, I say thank you. Your love and support is what makes me take the time to put these kinds of posts together. We love our family and friends, near and far.

Till next time,
Grace

"You Are Loved From the Start" layout

Happy Monday friends. I have been really excited about scrapbooking again lately. I'm not sure if it's because school is out for me (for six weeks) and I have more time to devote to making pages, or it is because I have been inspired by magazines and You Tube videos recently. Whatever it is, I'm glad that I have the time and "mojo" cause the memories are piling up and I need to turn them into scrapbook pages. 

Today's page is based off of two challenges, a sketch one from Stick It Down challenge blog and a product challenge from Scrap Our Stash. 

This page is going to be included in Mason's baby album. They are pictures of the family the day after he was born. This was the first time the older kids saw him. I'm running out of pictures to scrapbook for him so I will have to spend sometime culling through our pictures and get them printed. 

For the product challenge I use the following:

P- Project life card (the one used for my title)

A- Arrows

P- Punch (star)

E- Echo park stickers

R- Rhinestones

I got to be honest, I wasn't sure how I can use the sketch for my page since I really wanted to use three pictures instead of the two in the sketch. Thankfully I was able to make it work. I actually really liked the result of the page, which is another reason I always go back to sketches, it stretches me in ways I would have never thought about in the first place.

I used some vellum and scraps of yellow pattern paper to make my starburst design. I just punched them out with a star punch and then layered them on top of each other, overlapping the points of the stars slightly and then adding a staple in the center.

The sketch called for only the bottom right corner to have an accent but I felt that I needed to balance it out so I added a few things on the top left as well.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a fantastic day.

Till next time,
Grace

Happy Birthday layout + Process Video

Happy Hump day everyone. 

Today's layout share is about my birthday from three years ago. I wanted to incorporate a ton of photos from that day so I got them printed off in a 2x3 size. I also got to make my own shaker type title accent and use up more scraps and bits of items from my homemade kit. 

Here's a video sharing how I created my page....

And here are the close ups....

Thank you so much for joining me today. I hope you have a fantastic day.

Till next time,
Grace

It's All Good layout + Process video

I can' believe how many pages I've managed to create with my homemade scrapbook kit. If you want to see the items that I had put together in this kit, you may watch my video here. 

This one helped me use up more of those fun mason jar cut outs from a dear Lizzy paper. I was also able to play with my new Gesso. 

Watch me create this page from start to finish here...

And here are some close ups of the project...

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you have a fantastic Monday.

Till next time,
Grace

A Very Sweet Excursion + Process video

Happy Saturday dear friends. Today I'm sharing a layout based off of this sketch from Scrap our stash. It was the perfect foundation for my page about a little trip the kids and I took to a Krispy Kreme store in Denver. It makes me want to have a donut right about now. 

And here's a process video sharing the page from start to finish...

I had a blast making this page. Here are a few more detailed shots of the layout...

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you have a fantastic weekend.

Till next time,
Grace

Exploring Texas scrapbook page

Two posts in one day, can you believe that? Well this one is another layout that I'm submitting for a couple of challenges. 

I love doing the Scrap Our Stash challenges. It helps me incorporate different products from my stash in my layouts. 

For this month's stash challenge I used the following:

P- Polaroid frame

H- Heidi Swapp Mist

O- October Afternoon stickers

T- Tags

O- One chipboard bird

S- Studio Calico stamp (chevron on background) 

I was also inspired by this sketch from Sketch N Scrap, which I turned it upside down to use on my layout. I also replaced the star accent with mist instead. 

 This layout is about our trip to Texas in 2012. We had to walk from the parking lot to a little trail to go to a fun water fall. It was humid at that time and I had initially wanted to make my title say something about the humidity but decided that I should just write that in the journaling. I didn't want my title to sound negative.

Thanks for stopping by. I'm hoping to start some process videos next week.

Till next time,
Grace

Our Good Friends layout

Hi there friends. It's been a while. I took a much needed (and hopefully well deserved) vacation with my family to California from June 27-July 7 and we've had birthday celebrations all of this week so as you can just imagine, my scrapbooking have been put on hold. But thankfully, in the middle of the chaosness of getting back into the swing of things, I got pockets of time here and there to work on some pages that I'm submitting to a few challenges. 

This layout was inspired by the color challenge in ScrapMuch?

I used all the colors except purple. But if you count the color of my daughter's clothes in the picture, I got all five of them *wink*

This page was also inspired by the sketch on top from Stick it down challenge blog. 

So I'm still using my Belle kit from last month and I used some scraps of paper for layering. I cut out the flowers on the right edge of the paper from an Elle Studio paper. I added the bottom one with foam adhesive to give it more dimension.
Can you tell my mistake here? When I photographed my page, I didn't realize that I had lost the "i" in the word friend. I will have to look for it in my scrap space, which with it's current state right now might be a little too difficult.

My stickers and embellishments from the handmade kit are a bit disorganized right now so I only had a few to add to this page.
I guess organization and cleaning up will be on the top of my to do list this coming week.

Thank you for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace

My Home Away From Home + process video

Happy Monday everyone. My last layout of the month (because I'm enjoying some vacation time right now) will be based on this sketch from Stick it Down blog...

This layout is another one made from my massive homemade scrapbook kit for the summer. I loved how the geo type paper in the background created a perfect backdrop for this travel themed layout. Instead of using two photos, I used one and then layered some pattern papers behind it to add more accents in that part of the layout.

Here's a video sharing how I created this page from start to finish..

Here's some close ups too...

Thank you so much for stopping by.

Have a great week.

Till next time,
Grace