It's the Small Things

New Petaloo

Petaloo's Summer release is outstanding! I'm really so very excited about all of it. You can see some of the release on their scrapbook.com blog. 

On this page, I got to use the gorgeous Chantilly Velvet & Lace Mixed Blooms and Hydrangeas, which you can see on the above link. 

 

 

Aren't these just gorgeous? Can you see the glitter on the tips of the hydrangeas? It's such a subtle detail that packs a big punch. 

 

What is not listed on the blog link above are the new sunflowers. They are so gorgeous in person! I love them to pieces. 

 

The sunflowers are little sprays. I love the different leaves and the berries that are part of the spray. It makes them really fun and unique. 

I know they are going to have an awesome show next week! 

Have a wonderful weekend! 

Lori

Creative Imaginations

Have you been checking out the Creative Imaginations blog lately? They are posting their summer releases daily. They have so many wonderful new things coming out in the next few months. I made this layout with Renae Lindgren's Happy Camper line. It's a fun camping collection. I love the wood grain.

   

We went camping two years in a row and it was very fun. We skipped this year, but plan to go next year.  The boys really love going, although the youngest doesn't love sleeping in a tent. Hopefully, next year that will be different.

Creative Imaginations has a new Luminarte blog and facebook page. They are both worth checking out if you love shimmery, misty, painty-type stuff.

Have a great day!

Anatomy of a Page

I love looking at the little details on pages. I notice that mine are pretty consistent these days and that if I do not do them, my page just doesn't seem finished. I thought it would be fun to break down my process as I was making a page. Some of the little details weren't really obvious to me until I started thinking about what I like. 

I spent some time breaking down this page on the Lily Bee blog.  If you are interested, hop on over there. You will definitely want to drop over to their blog tomorrow. It's reveal day. The new collections are amazing and I'm looking forward to reading what all you of think about them! 

Have a wonderful day! 

Crate Paper Snow Day Release

How gorgeous is this? They have outdone themselves with an incredible set of collections. Snow Day is no exception. Head over the the blog to see the full collection and more amazing design team work. 

 

 
 

Crate Paper School Spirit

Their second release is up on the blog. It's so wonderfully perfect for school. 

 

I'm so in love with all the bits and pieces and especially the colors. I love the colors!!! I'm so impressed with all three Crate Paper ranges this show. This one made my heart flutter. I really needed some inspiration to finish up my son's school album. I'm about to have a second in school and I don't want to get behind. Check out the full collection and some amazing design team examples on the blog.

Crate Paper Restoration

Have you seen it, yet? It's stunning. This is one of those collections that makes you fall in love with the hobby all over again. It's so beautiful, it's hard to cut into. It's vintage, it's muted and bright, it's feminine and masculine. It's perfect. Head on over to the Crate Paper blog to see the full range and the gorgeous design team examples. 

 

A Little July 4th Spirit

We usually host a large party on the 4th of July. This year we had to cancel because of my ankle sprain, but we were still able to enjoy ourselves. We are really close with another family who have boys the same ages as ours. In fact, our two oldest have been best buddies since they were 6-months-old. We spent the day with them. The boys walked in our neighborhood parade complete with a vintage police car and a fire truck. The Mommies, well one worked out and one sat on her bottom waiting for the parade to arrive. Later in the day we regrouped and all but one Mommy went to enjoy our park festivities. When it became dark, we all gathered at our front porch to watch the fireworks. We're lucky they are so close and we can sit in chairs and see them from our front yard.

I did a layout about the neighborhood parade from last year. It's a mix of Creative Imaginations products, including Art Warehouse school, Helen Dardick Patriotic, the new Banana Leaf papers and the new Luminarte. It, also, uses the gorgeous white Celebrations flowers from Petaloo. 

 

Creative Imaginations has their July Card sketch challenge up, as well. You can win a killer prize. I made this card for the 4th of July, but I think it would wonderful to get up jump on school starting and make a card for a teacher.

Have a wonderful rest of the weekend!

Lori

Pardon My Dust

I am working on my blog look. I really love simple blogs that are easy to read, have categories, are organized and not too distracting. I, also, do not like large blog banners. I guess I'm lazy 'cause I don't like to have to scroll down the page just to get to the start of the content. I want to see it right away when I open the page. So, I'm taking some time to work on mine. There are some empty pages and most of my posts are not categorized, but I hope to have that done soon.

I was going through my photos and realized I'm terrible at updating them. What do you think? Should I remove the galleries or just clean them up? Do you ever look at blog galleries? I'm torn. 

This is one of those projects I've been wanting to do forever. It feels good to be doing it and it will feel terrific when it's all done.

Have a wonderful and safe 4th of July! 

Lori

Paper Bag Mini Book Tutorial

 

It took me 6 years to get up the courage to make this album. I am working on my other son's, right now, too. It was definitely a labor of love and feels wonderful to have. Here is what I wrote about the album:

In 2004 Vanessa Reyes won the Chatterbox Make it Meaningful contest with her "If For Any Reason" album. When I saw her album, I cried. I knew I needed to make an album like this for my son. The album consists of letters to a child for all of the major moments in life. Both Vanessa and her husband wrote letters to their daughter with words about these moments and tucked them lovingly into the album. The purpose of the book is that if for any reason one of them were no longer in their daughter's life, she would still have their words to read and cherish. It's taken me 6 years to finally sit down and make this album. My husband and I both spent hours crying while writing these letters. As emotionally difficult as it was to do, we are thrilled to have this for our son. The album is his to read whenever he wishes. The great thing about paper bag albums is that you can easily add to them. I have another 6 big moments I want to include in this book and it will be simple to do because of the format.

Have a wonderful Holiday weekend! 

Lori
 

Lovely White

Petaloo challenged us to use white this month. The first thing that came to mind was wedding, which I think is very common. I decided to scrap some pictures of myself on my wedding day nearly 10 years ago. Petaloo has an amazing Celebrations line with gorgeous flowers and butterflies that are shiny dimensional. I think having the background and embellishments all white really makes the photos become the focus of the layout.

I had this big white doily in my stash, so I took a piece of BasicGrey Basics in White and trimmed it a be about 1/2" larger than the doily, then I added lace trim to the edges to soften the paper look.This is what I ended up with.

 

 

Enjoy the rest of your day!

Lori