Family: Other Things May Change Us...

Family: Other Things May Change Us But We Start and End With Family

CSI: Case 28 Submission
Family: Other Things May Change Us But We Start and End with Family -Anthony Brandt

I used a painting technique on this page that I had never tried before and I am very happy with the results.  After cutting the circle for behind the photo, I found a bowl that was about an inch bigger and I placed it centered on the page.  I dipped a dry brush in some paint and painted the paper around the bowl to create another layer to the layout.  I used a dry brush so that the paper behind would not get too wet, and so that the print from the paper behind could still shine through.

This layout was inspired by Case File #28 over at CSI:Colorstoriesinspiration

My layout includes the following evidence: Circles and repetition with the brads, which are a metal object, and the last bit of my repeated Quote for a title is upside down under the picture.

The testimony included is the journaling in a circle. I apologize that the journaling is difficult to see.  In person, it  is darker and says:This family picture was taken the month before we added Miss Avery to our family.  We were celebrating My Mom-Mom's 80th birthday and we hired a photographer for the occasion.  We took the opportunity to have our family pictures taken too.  My sweet girls are growing up so fast! I want them to always remember the value of family.

The journaling is tough to see in the scan...

My title begins with the printed chipboard letters seen here and continues hand written around the page. It repeats 2 times.  This layout it quite a bit more simple than most of my pages but after adding the few details with the brads and the painting, I could not bring myself to add anything else.  I think this layout shines in it's simplicity.
Come play along at

Jolly Lollies: A Sweet Summer Treat!

Jolly Lollies: A Sweet Summer Treat!

What a fun and easy way to make a sweet summer treat!
If you love Jolly Ranchers, what could be better than a lollipop you made yourself with all your favorite Jolly Rancher Flavors!?!
This is an idea that I came across in my endless internet browsing but lost it's origin.  This is where I would usually give credit where it is due, but I do not who to give the credit to....
Grab a bag of Jolly Ranchers, aluminum  foil, parchment paper and some sticks (I used trimmed bamboo skewers), and preheat the oven to 275.

Prepare your pan by lining it with aluminum foil, then parchment paper.

Place the Jolly Ranchers as shown below.  They should be touching and there should be enough space around each to place your stick quickly after removal from the oven.  Notice how they are staggered?  Set the timer for 5 minutes.

At this point, this is how they should look.  Continue to watch them melt,

Remove them from the oven when they are evenly melted into puddles like shown below.

QUICKLY, place the sticks and twist them slightly to cover them

Let them cool.  Them remove them from the tray.

 
Watch your little one's eyes light up when they see these great candy treats!!

My kiddos loved them, I hope your's do too!

You can make these and wrap them for party favors, classroom treats, office treats.  Make a candy bouquet......
Super Simple and Yummy, Yummy!

My Best Gifts Call Me Mom

OMG!!! So tired of the scans making my layouts look like junk!  Making it look crooked and have lines though it! AHHH!   I have had not luck using a camera to photograph them either...Why can they not make a scanner that is 1 inch wider and then I would only have to deal with it stitching 2 photos instead of 4!!!  Thinking of scrapping 11"X11" just to make this easier!!  Ok, I am done ranting!

The challenge over at Lasting Memories this week was "Diggin for Gold":  to use gold in a layout.  Gold is definitely not my favorite but that is the idea of a challenge right? Go out of your comfort zone? Well, I included gold in my photo mat as well as in the crossed gift ribbon on the layout.  The gold string is tied in a bow around the initial pins.

I placed my journaling sideways and secured with a pretty fabric covered brad!

Goodnight Avery Layout

Goodnight Avery Layout

This layout is inspired by the wonderful Children's classic book: Goodnight Moon By: Margaret Wise Brown
The title, green color and the placement of the fireplace were inspirations for my final product.   

I am playing along at Child's Play Challenges again!  The title and the Click the picture of the book to play along too!

As you can see, Miss Avery got all tuckered out helping me bake at Christmas time!  She was only about 2 months old and conked right out on the kitchen counter!  I used lots of fun little embellishments to accent this adorable picture I was lucky enough to catch!

I used glitter letters for her name and added some rub ons behind it to dress it up a bit.

This corner was achieved pretty simply by cutting the corner off of the green paper and adhering the pink paper behind it!  The corner was inspired by the fireplace on the cover of the book.    

Just a Girl? Such a Girl! Child's Play Layout

Just a Girl? Such a Girl! Child's Play Layout

The inspiration for this layout is a good old fashioned Snoopy SnoCone maker!  I had one of these as a kid and loved to play with it in the super hot summer months!

My layout was inspired by the colors of this great little toy.  The page is about what a girly Girl my Ella Grace is!  She would wear a dress EVERY single day if I let her!  She starts school soon, I am sure we will be battling it out many a morning!
My journaling is on kraft paper because I felt it coordinated best with the other elements on the page.  When I do journaling on each page, I try to tell about more than just the picture, but about "who" the person in the picture is when the photo was taken.  I want to be able to look back and know "who" she was at that moment in time.

The whole title for this page is: Just a Girl? Such a Girl! Some of it got lost under the flower petal in the scan!  Each of the flowers are layered variations of red flowers, stacked and joined to the page with different brads.  Some vellum, some paper, and even one fabric flower were used. I added some paint around the photo mats and the journaling spot to add some interest.  My ribbon and rick rack accents completed the page.  I am very happy with how it came together.

This layout is being submitted to

Wish me luck!

CSI: Case 27 Layout Challenge

CSI: Case 27 Layout Challenge

This color palette ended up being one of my favorites to work with so far on the CSI:ColorStoriesInspiration Challenges.  It did not begin that way!  I saw it and was less than inspired.  They release a new challenge each Friday and my layouts for this challenge are usually done before the weekend is over.  Not this time.  I put it off because I just was not sure about these colors!  It ended up being pretty and cheerful and it makes me happy just to look at it!  Yay again CSI for challenging me to think outside the box and try colors together that I would not have even thought about!
I was so lucky to capture this moment of pure joy with my camera!  Just looking at this picture puts a smile on my face every single time!  The color of her shirt made this picture perfect to tie in with this color scheme.

I decided to keep the title simple for this layout because I really wanted to keep the focus on the photograph.  "True Wonder Revealed in the Eyes of a Child" really expresses what you see in the picture.  I did not want the title to distract the eye from the photo itself.

The page accents I used were pretty subtle too.  I found some great embellishments to compliment the color palette but I did not use a Ton of stuff as I wanted the photo to stand out!

Check out CSI for a great weekly challenge and play along with us!

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The Beach Layouts!

Challenges:

 I have started entering all kinds of layout challenges to get my work out there and to bring people to CraftPicks and I am really having fun with it.  This time I added an element to the two challenges I entered below.  I have been scrapping layouts with only one picture for any of the challenges I had entered so far.  This time I wanted to challenge myself to include more than one picture.  I have so many wonderful pictures and many events with stacks of pictures that I will never get them all scrapped if I stick with one to a page, and I feel like it is more important to get the stories on the pages to share, than to limit the pages to one photo.

The double layout I am showcasing today is actually for 2 different challenges this week.  One was a challenge to scrap some animal pictures from Lasting Memories:

And the other challenge was to use a given color palette from The Studio Challenges:

 When I saw the beautiful color palette @ The Studio I could not resist using it for this layout as it matched the girl's clothes so well!

The animal Challenge at Lasting Memories is called "Dancing with the Paws"...Well, the animals in my layout do not have any paws, but  my kiddos sure were dancing while feeding the birds at the beach!

I have really been enjoying entering all of the scrapbook layout challenges I am discovering.  There are so many different challenges available there is something to get everyone's creative juices flowing!  I found I was having a bit of a hard time getting any scrapping done but now that I am challenged to complete several layouts in a week, I have been scrapping more now than I had in months!

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