Thursday, July 31, 2014

patterned paper bubbles

Good morning!

One warm morning about a month ago my kids thought it would be fun to play with bubbles in the backyard. They went out, armed with giant bubble wands and soap, and blew lots and lots of bubbles. They had so much fun that I decided to grab my camera and take some pictures. 

I decided to mimic the look of the bubbles by adding lots of circular elements to this page. 


I cut strips of patterned paper and then cut circles using a variety of circle paper punches. I used some of the leftover circles and popped them up randomly on my page. 


To continue the circle theme on my layout I also used a bunch of the My Mind's Eye brads included in the Sweet & Simple kit. 


Do you like to used shaped elements on your projects? 

We would love to see what you have created! 

I also wanted to remind you of this fun event coming soon: 


Come visit us in our Facebook group!




Wednesday, July 30, 2014

The First Day of Summer and a Burlap Pocket Mini


Today I am back to share with you my second two page layout with the July Sweet & Simple Daily Diary Kit. This layout is so soft and sweet! It features the first "real" week of summer and most of the photos are centered around the first day of summer and what we did to celebrate!

Week 25


I used the base colors of the alphabet sheet and the photos to choose my papers and cards. They all came together really easily and I found the colors to be perfect for highlighting the softness of my new baby girl, as well. 

left side


This was also the week my oldest son graduated 8th grade and although with a new baby in tow I did not get a photo I did make sure I took a little time to write my heart out to him and I know he will appreciate that later, picture or not. That is another thing I like about pocket scrapbooking.

right side


I used the alphabets in so many fun ways on this layout. It was so fun to have so many of them to play with! I also loved layering up some cards on this page!




Lastly, if you have so many fun leftovers you can continue on with more weekly or monthly spreads or you can create other projects with these Daily Diary kits, too! Here I also want to share a simple burlap pocket album I was able to create with pieces of the kit and little bits of this and that I found in my stash.


Burlap Pocket Mini



The largest pocket that came in the kit was a great size to hold all sorts of photos, memories and stories. I knew right away when I saw it I wanted to create a special mini album with it. This album can later be added directly into my project life album, either by punching holes directly into the envelope, or trimming and stitching a protector down to size, which is what I plan on doing. 



It has a fun eclectic style with each layer being unique and different from the next. They do share the  Simple Stories "Homespun" insta-squares on most of the pages, though, to bring unity and pull the album together nicely. They coordinated perfectly with the pockets, of course, being from the same line. I also used quite a few of the burlap stars from Curtsey Boutique to bring more burlap into the design. I liked the cuteness it added. The May Arts yellow cording was perfect for adding a little pop of color.


I hope you enjoyed a peek into how I used my packed full Daily Diary kit this month and I cannot wait to come back next month and share more layouts and projects with you! 

Did you buy one of these Daily kits? What have you created so far? I would love to see what you have been using these pocket scrapbooking kits for!




Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Oh Happy Day!

It definitely was an Oh Happy Day when I received my new kit, South Shore, this weekend. I was so excited to see all the super bright colors that go perfectly with all the summer pics I've been snapping. So I dove right in and started scrapping these fun photos of my kids at a local water park.



There was a LOT of hand-cutting with this one, as I cut all those hexagons, the triangles of the sun, and still layered the Elle's Studio tags and brads. I wanted the hexagons to mimic the motion of the slide and then the sun is the foundation for my journaling and title. Finally I had a lot of fun adding all the brads and flair to punch it up just a little bit and add just a bit more detail.

I hope you enjoy your kit too! Be sure to post your projects over on the Noel Mignon Members pages on Facebook. I'll be looking for ya! 

Have a great Tuesday!

Monday, July 28, 2014

summer mini


We've been doing a summer list at our house for the last several years. So this year I thought it'd be fun to actually make a little summer mini album of all the items we manage to do!

I decided to go with the We R Memory Keepers 4x4 D-ring album. They are so stinkin' small and cute that I was kind of itchin' for an excuse to buy one anyway :) Noel also has some acrylic albums in the shop that make super cute mini's, too! 

I was anxiously awaiting the arrival of my South Shore kit because I knew it would be perfect for this mini!

For the cover page I started with the divided page protector, added some of those Jenni Bowlin flowers (stitching the sleeve closed so they don't fall out!) & adding in some of the chipboard accents.
I love being able to see through to the next page in mini books like this!
To keep the sun brad in place I actually cut up one of the page protectors & attached my embellishments to that & then slipped inside the sleeve (learned that trick from Ali Edwards). That way I don't have the brad sticking out on the backside of my page.
On the next page I simply added a photo of our summer list that we put on our big chalkboard at home. At the end of the album I'll probably do a wrap up page of all the items we were able to accomplish this summer. So far we're just past halfway through summer vacation and we've done about 20 out of 37. Not too shabby!

Throughout the album I kept things pretty simple, adding a few embellishments here & there & most of the photos are from my iPhone. I didn't worry about doing much journaling because anything that's important enough will be in my Project Life or get put into a layout. This album is merely meant to be a fun little snapshot of our summer :)

And other than a couple sticker sheets from previous kits (alphas & labels), a date stamp (Project Life) & a roll of washi from my stash everything is from the South Shore kit. It's super easy to create a mini like this when you stick with one kit!

I'll probably tweak a few things as I go along. I'm thinking of adding the white felt flower from the kit to the spine. But after realizing I wouldn't be able to lay the album flat I decided to wait til I'm done working on it.
Looks cute there, doesn't it??!

The journaling on a few of the photos was done through A Beautiful Mess app. I didn't do a lot of photo editing for this album. I simply took photos from my phone/Instagram & printed them off. Easy peasy!

Friday, July 25, 2014

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Finishing Up and South Shore Reveal!

Here are the last couple of spreads for Baby Reed's fifth month in his album. This was such a fun kit to start back with Noel, and a great set of goodies to add to his album.

I like having different sizes of inserts in my albums so that you get a sneak of what's on the next spread, and these Becky Higgins journaling pages are definitely doing the trick. I journaled on the front side, and made a mini layout on this side. It had a journaling prompt, but I wasn't into it. So I figured I'd add this photo of the homemade baby food process. Because you know, it's never too early to start reminding them how many hours a day to slave away for them... ;)


 I just added a few strips on the bottom and those delicious gold Thickers to make my title, and stapled some of the ephemera pieces to the top. I forgot to include something to journal on, and it was like, 11:30, so I just scribbled right over the photo. And I'm kinda fine with that.





I kept this spread pretty simple - just a couple of easy filler cards using the pieces from the DD kit, some journaling, and just one "artsy" card from my stash. LOVE that stitched banner!


 For some reason, I like clustering different little pieces in groups of three...


 This is the last page of the spread. Another pretty simple one. I keep going back and forth about how I want to do my Project Life albums - artsy (bulky) or simple (kinda boring but quick and clean). I'm still deciding, mid-process...


 I used one of the gold cut files I made in my last post over on my blog to make the "remember" piece and just cut down the transparency to fit along the bottom of the photo.


 I love using the Collect App to print photos these days. I see so many people who use JUST this type of photo, and I always think how nice it looks, but then I go to print my photos, and can't help but vary my sizes and formats a little. Soon I'm going to just take the plunge and see how it turns out... What I do love it adding a bit of afterthought to the card in my own writing.


 Short and sweet. Flair=good.


So that's it for me this month! I get next week off, so I'll see you back here the first week of August for the Cruise Crop! Can't wait for that - gonna be lots of fun!

Oh, and one last thing! Here's a reveal video I made of the new main kit for August - South Shore. It is filled with lots of goodness - be sure to grab yours in the shop!



Wednesday, July 23, 2014

playing with buttons, butterflies and burlap

Hello again! It's Becky Williams with you here today to share a layout that I made with the Sweet & Simple main kit. 


I used the cute collage paper from October Afternoon for my background but wanted a more neutral base for my page so I cut a piece of the Crate Paper white brick paper from the kit (the one with the triangles on the other side) to soften my background. I also cut some strips of paper on an angle to add to the top of my page along with some gold polka dot washi by Queen and Company that I picked up in the Noel Mignon store. 


I love the little frames in the kit and decided to use them to add an extra layer to my page. I had those glued down and was adding buttons to my layout when I thought it might look cute to add some buttons to the little blue frame. LOVE how this turned out. It's the little things, right? The little star was cut from the October Afternoon background paper before I glued everything else down. 


I used a few of my Heidi Swapp Color Shine mists on some wooden butterflies to add some sparkle to my page. Everything needs a little sparkle, right? 

We sure hope you are enjoying the Sweet & Simple inspiration. 

Our new kit will be here soon!

Thanks for stopping by today!





Monday, July 21, 2014

Happy Camper

Hi there friends! Happy Monday! Today marks my girls halfway point in their summer camp experience. Their camp graciously posts pictures every day of the previous day's activities, so I've gotten to see what they've been up to. These pics could NOT have been more perfect for the Sweet & Simple kit. So I picked on of my favorites, my oldest and her cabin, and got to work. I LOVE that I've been able to scrap some of their pictures before their even home! This is such a great kit!! And it makes me so happy to capture her in the moment.  (She's the one in the blue t-shirt arms wide open, on her counselor's back.)

Anyway, for this layout I chose to marry the Fancy Pants burlap cardstock with the bold stripes of the My Mind's Eye paper in an attempt to get just the right touch of rustic and colorful. I think it worked.  And then of course the kit includes so many "happy" embellishments, and I went with the HAPPY theme, thus "Happy Camper."



 
 

I combine my Sweet & Simple DD kit with the main kit a little bit. This arrow flair is from the DD kit as well as the Memories wood veneer and the little yellow arrow.  They were just too perfect for the page, I couldn't resist combining the two kits. 

Have a great week!