Stand Out... My Last SFTIO Layout

I'm sharing my last page that I made with the October Scrapbooking from the Inside Out kit, "Belonging." I hope you bear with me through one last word-y post. I really enjoy sharing "me" through these pages.

Stand out.

What does that mean? You could stand out in a lot of different ways. For me, standing out is my life's motto. Haha. I don't know if you have noticed this before on my pages, but I wear skirts all the time. 

No, I'm not pentecostal. Just to get that out of the way. ;)

I have worn skirts all my life. I am comfortable in them. I remember one time someone at school dared me to wear pants. Haha. Not gonna happen. The only pants I ever wear are pj pants. No, I'm not Amish. Yes, I have electricity. Yes, I shave my legs. (To clarify, I had someone ask me that one time. WHAT?! Just because I wear skirts means that I don't shave my legs???) No, no one tells me what to do. I believe what the Bible says pertaining to modesty, and I believe modesty includes wearing skirts if you're a girl. 

So, in this way, I don't "belong" in society. I'm pretty sure you could find me in a crowd. There's that "girl who always wears skirts." Yup-- that's me! I stand out this way. And I'm TOTALLY ok with that. Sometimes I go shopping and see all the crazy stuff people wear and I remember I don't need to be ashamed. People stand out in ways that I would NOT want to. And I'm alright looking the way I do. 

By the way, my friend MarLeah took this photo of me. :) Check out her photography blog HERE. I'm sure she'd love it if you'd stop by!

Design of the page… well, this was the fastest page I made with this kit. I knew I wanted my photo in the center of this gorgeous star trail map pattern from Allison Kreft's Recorded line for Webster's Pages. I layered some patterns, along with some stickers from the MME Cut & Paste sticker skeet that came in the kit and some Elle's Studio tidbits. 

Oh-- and see that awesome heart stitched tag? That's from Amy Tangerine's Cut & Paste line. The tags come with little holes punched in them and all you have to do is sew it! The hand stitching adds so much "prettiness" to the page. ;) 

I used an Elle's Studio tabbed card to write my journaling on and I hid it by just slipping it down in between the layers. It's not really that the journaling is too personal, it's just that I thought it would mess up the eye flow of the cluster in the center of the page.

So there's the behind-the-scenes look at my last layout made with the awesome "Belonging" kit from SFTIO. Be sure to check out the kit HERE and the SFTIO blog HERE. 

Thanks for making it through another long post! I have enjoyed sharing my "inside world" with you. :)

Happy Early Halloween!

Halloween is this week, and so I have been making some fun holiday themed projects! I've even started making Christmas stuff. :P

I made some tags and a couple of cards for Halloween… the cards I have actually had made for about a year now. I think I made them to submit for publication and then just hung on them after I made them. I couldn't stand throwing them away! 

I used the fun "Trick or Treat" line from Pebbles for these treat tags. I only used a couple of papers and a sheet of stickers for these tags. 

I hope this inspires you to create some fun Halloween treats! It's so fun to make and give cute stuff. It's one of my favorite things to do! :)

-Heather

Dear Prince Charming

Hi! I'm back with another Scrapbooking from the Inside Out "Belonging" page! This page is a fun one. I don't know if I have a favorite layout that I've made with this kit, but I really like this page. Maybe just because it talks about boys. Haha.

BELONGING- Although I belong in my family, I can't wait to get married. I have no prospects (??) of getting married ANY time soon, but I still like to think about it. :) So, this page is about me wanting to belong to someone. To have the other "half" of me. To have a guy best friend. I wrote a little note to my Prince Charming, and every time I read it, it makes me smile. Someday my prince will come… I'm ready when he's ready! My dad says I'm just having to wait for him to grow up! LOL 

Symbolism- I used lots of hearts and "love" on this page, along with a little tape charm to "record" my moment on this page. And more anchors… looking for someone to anchor me. It's kinda like shifting anchors. Going from my family who I've grown up with all my life to being someone's soulmate and living with him for the REST of my life… kinda hard to think about! :P

Now, to the design aspect of this page! I loved the numerous Allison Kreft 3x4 journaling cards that are in this kit and I wanted to make a little grid with them on a page. Of course layering had to be included too. :) I actually redid part of this page. Originally, this is how this layout looked:

I hated it. Something just wasn't right. I finally figured out what was wrong. The background was plain card stock. I hardly ever do that. And my handwriting is atrocious. It's too big and spaced out. So, I took the main part of the layout off (it was really easy to take off, surprisingly). Then I flipped over the pink paper and started the background over. 

I was inspired with the new Dear Lizzy "Polka Dot Party" papers that have white misting on the colored paper. I liked that look! So, I misted with some white Mister Huey, adding a few droplets of my homemade pink mist to the page, also. I added a piece of that awesome Elle's Studio Penelope paper on the left side of the page, painted a little, and wa-la! A whole different look! I journaled much smaller this time and I like my handwriting here. So, in all, I'm sooooo glad I redid this page! It really didn't take much time either, since it was just the background. 

So, here's the final layout, again.

Thanks for sticking it out through another one of my word-y posts! Be sure to check out the October SFTIO kit, "Belonging" HERE.

*Selfie*

I have a fun new page to share with you today! I love participating in sketch challenges (if you haven't learned already), so I couldn't pass up this sketch from the Paper Bakery.

I am loving the look of the paper being wrapped around the edges of the page… the patterns running off the page look so eye-catching!

So, here's my page I made with the sketch. I rotated the design 90 degrees.

I am loving all of the new American Crafts lines lately, and the Dear Lizzy Polka Dot Party line is no exception! I only have the paper pad from this collection, but that alone has lots and lots of fun patterns to play with. I added in a piece of paper from the Studio Calico "Thataway" collection and a piece from the new Maggie Holmes "Flea Market" line, but the rest is all Dear Lizzy. 

I am a HUGE fan of papers that have "fussy-cut-able" papers, meaning you can cut designs out of the papers. Like, say, flowers! There is one piece in the Polka Dot Party paper pad that has lots of clusters of flowers on it… quite possibly one of my favorite designs ever! I will be able to get SO many cute flower embellishments out of that one paper. So, that being said, I used the flower paper that I was mentioning above for this page. Flowers are so pretty and fun! Even though it's fall time, I have no problem using lots and lots of flowers any time of the day. ;)

Lately I have been loving the trend of black and white. There are so many things out there in home decor, fashion, stationary, -and let's not forget scrapbooking- that focus on the trend of black and white. I switched my photos from color to b/w so they would pop off the page more. I added some black and white papers and some white mist circles. Plus some gold glitter on the circles and some other gold accents. 

As always, thanks for stopping by my blog. :)

-Heather

Hello Fall

I just love fall. The weather is finally getting cooler (I heard on the radio that it was suppoed to get below freezing this weekend! Whoa!) and the leaves are falling. Fall is so fun to take pictures of too. On Sunday, Laura asked if I wanted to take some pictures of her! Of course I did! I haven't had a photoshoot with her since she got her braces... and that was in March of this year. She is so much more confident now that she has braces and her teeth are straightening up. Like, usually, she'd smile most of the time without showing her teeth during a photoshoot. But now, it's all toothy smiles! :) So much more "Laura." I'm wanting to make a mini album of the photos I took of her, so I'll save them till then. So you won't be seeing the same photos over again. 

The photo I used on this page was just a fun one. I loved the perspective of it and I thought her RED shoes really popped with the colors in the Amy Tangerine "Cut & Paste" collection. 

P.S. I used this sketch from Chic Tags for this page. :)

Fun Chic Tags! 

I am using my new gesso every now and then! Just look at this awesome chicken wire pattern in the gesso! Super cool, if you ask me. I used a template from The Crafter's Workshop, I believe. The funny thing was I thought I hadn't bought that chicken wire mask and saw it at Hobby Lobby and got excited. Then later I was looking through my misting masks and found that I had one already! Good thing I didn't buy the one at HL! 

Loving pocket journaling lately...

I've been trying some different photography techniques lately, and I'm not so sure I like how these photos turned out. The woodgrain looks a but green-ish in the first photo. I took these outside so it was all natural light. Still trying to figure out a perfect solution for good photos.

Toodles for now! 

-Heather

A Card on Monday

Happy Monday! Did y'all have a great weekend? I did! :)

I made a card with this sketch from Pamela's World of Scrap. I thought this sketch was awesome.

I used the Finnley collection from Glitz Designs for this card. I LOVE the color combo in this line. I also love the black and white prints that scrapbook companies are coming out with. I knew I had to use the black and white polka dot paper from this line. The neutral patterns go so well with any color scheme. 

I didn't have any of the embellishments from the Finnley line to go with my paper except for the letter sticker sheet. I used two words from the sticker sheet to make my sentiment, and then I used a chipboard arrow from Cosmo Cricket and a bow from the Maggie Holmes "Flea Market" line to embellish my card. It's pretty simple this go around, but sometimes that's just what a card needs. Some clean simplicity.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today! :)

-Heather

A Little Friendly PSA

I have a fun challenge-filled layout to share with you today! First I'll tell you the challenges I'm entering this layout into with links to the challenges if you want to play along. Then I'll tell you a little about my page.

Paper Bakery Kits Sketch Challenge

Chic Tags Color Challenge

Whimsical Twist Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge

(I used the alpha stickers/wood veneer/spray mist combo.)

So here's my layout.

So, first I had the PBK sketch. This sketch was really challenging to me because I wasn't sure how to interpret the strips behind the photos. It kinda scared me. But, once I got going on the page, I decided that they didn't have to be just plain strips of paper. I notched the end of one of them like a banner and then one of the other strips I cut in an arrow pattern. Add a little layering, and it turned out alright!

Next I wanted to incorporate the color challenge from Chic Tags in with this layout. I had started with this AWESOME piece of paper from the Chic Tags "Happy Place" line. The paper is called Bookworm, if you're interested. When I got this paper, I was so happily surprised at the thickness of it. The weight of the new Chic Tags paper is very heavy… heavier than Webster's Pages, even. I LOVE thick paper, because you can add lots of "goodies" to the page and it will hold it all without wrinkling up. (paint, mist, gesso, etc.) 

I thought the piece of background paper already fit in with the color combo, so I took it from there, adding some circle tags from the Road Trip collection from Chic Tags and some bits and pieces from the new Amy Tangerine "Cut & Paste" collection. I used some mist to add a bit of navy found in the color combo, but really it just looks black on the page. :( I didn't really add the light lime green… I don't think I have anything in my stash that color! LOL But I feel like you can tell that I used the inspiration from the picture for my page. I normally don't like color challenges, but this one was fun! :)

Last, I wanted to use a combination off the tic-tac-toe board from Whimsical Twist on this page. I toyed with several options, then settled on using alpha stickers (Bella Blvd. alphas in this case)/spray mist (orange and navy)/wood veneer. 

I had lots of fun making this layout about Laura getting her permit! Woo hoo! Now if you value your life, you'll stay off the roads here in Alabama… Haha. I'm just kidding. She's actually a good driver. :)

Have a fabulous weekend, everyone!

-Heather

Good News + A New Layout

First of all, I have some great news to share! I got a job! I start tomorrow working at Bath & Body Works! :) So if you ever are in need of some fragrance advice, you know where to find me! LOL I am VERY excited about this! I have been praying about a job so much and I've been applying like crazy. I'm so thankful this has worked out! Now I just hope I like this job as much as I think I will!

Second, I have a new layout to share that I got to use the new Maggie Holmes "Flea Market" line on. Yay for new Maggie Holmes products! I love her style. Her lines fit me so well! Vintage-y and feminine. I love the bows in this collection. On a side note here, I found some cute little black bows in the clearance aisle of Wal-Mart for $1… talk about a fun find! I also am in loooove with the resin flowers. I almost talked myself out of buying them since there were only 12 in a pack for $4 or $5, but I am sure I will get some good mileage out of them. I love how relatively flat they are to be resin! Usually items made from resin are very bulky!

I made this layout for the Scrapbook Circle challenge to use 2 or more fonts on your layout. I LOVE mixing my Thicker fonts. Sometimes it's hard to find the right mix of curly letters, block letters, tall skinny letters, etc., but every once in a while it turns out perfect and you wonder why you don't do it more often. That's what happened here! I just love how the title stands out so much!

I used a piece of ombre blue paper from the Glitz Designs "Finnley" collection for the background. I LOVE the ombre designs in that line. And as you can see, they mix so well with other lines! I think the ombre adds so much interest to the background. Just think how plain it would have looked if it was just cardstock.I kinda wish I had an unending supply of ombre paper… :)

I came up with the design of the page partially on my own. I had seen a sketch on Pinterest (I've been using Pinterest a lot lately to find inspiration!) that I liked, and so I took a look at it, then started making my page. I didn't refer back to the sketch, so the way I interpreted the design on my page is just from what stood out to me at first glance. I added the little border of additional paper around the two sides. That paper is from the first Maggie Holmes line. Love how they mix together! I have seen this done in recent layouts from some of my favorite scrapbookers, and so I thought I've give it a whirl. 

Thanks for stopping by today! Love reading your comments! They really make my day!

Cards

I have been whipping out the cards lately… making them as I need them, but still that keeps me busy! Here are a few of my favorite cards that I've made lately.