NOT JUST ABOUT THE SNOW

I don't know about you, but i'm a big Glitter Girl fan! And i was super inspired by one of her recent project. Maybe because it was all about using your favorite supplies (yay to alphas). Or maybe because it had a square design. Anyway, here's the layout I ended up with. And seriously love.

I recently bought a 6x6 paper pad. My very first one. I'm not a huge fan yet. But since the design of this layout called for 4 6x6 squares, that was kind of perfect. I took 4 I really liked and would match the photos (there were some lovely blues in the pack but that would have been way too much so close to the very blue pictures. But I still wanted some more blue somewhere. And then I saw this gorgeous paper from the new Amy Tan collection. Perfect. At this point there wasn't much more to do. Added my title, playing with some new and not so new thickers and alpha stickers. Oh and because i'm still not over the arrow trend, i added a few here and there.

A quick word about papers and waste. I usually don't show it on the photos (because it's not super pretty), but i hate wasting pretty papers. So when i know only a very tiny part of my background paper will actually be visible (like this blue one), i just cut the middle, so i can use it on another project. But because it tends to make the layout a lot more fragile, i'll add a white cardstock as a base. I do this super often, mostly because i very rarely buy two sheet of the same paper, and want to use it as much as i can. Do you do the same thing? No one really talks about it.

LADY LIBERTY

Remember that layout about Staten Island? Well that new layout is gonna be next to it in the album. It's not a double page layout (i'm really not a big fan of those) but i still wanted them to look a bit alike, so i used that same Pink Paper and also those hot pink thickers. But that's pretty much it.

Here's a quick step by step of how this layout came together:

My starting point. simpler would be difficult

More papers, a picture and some doodles. don't ask me why, i have no idea. just felt like it.

add your title and the base for your embellishments: washi to ground everything and wood veneer because i love them

Keep on embellishing. And finally some journaling and the date. and a couple phrase stamps.


This layout was really fun to create. I love how the simplicity of the sketch is balanced by a lot of embellishing with tiny bits and pieces: papers, stickers, dots, veneers...

Note: the sketch was inspired by this layout from These Boots were meant for blogging. I love her style!

GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL

Starting point - Episode 2.

When cutting that hot pink piece, i knew i would use it to frame my photo with the title underneath. That worked out pretty well. i don't use grey, or cardstock, very often, so it was the perfect time to use one of the black & white pictures i had (out of 300, i'd say less than 15 are B&W). Only a couple were made for a single photo layout and were horizontal, so picking was pretty easy.

I should maybe mention that i never take pictures directly in black & white, i add it after, using my Radlab actions to find the perfect shade of B&W (yes, there is a lot of different B&W). But that's an entirely different subject (and post?).

Funny story about the title. For those of you who have been to New York or just know this place, you might call it Grand Central Station, or Grand Central Terminal. Apparently, both names are ok, but i just felt like a 3 word title didn't work, because it took things too much to the right. And since it was already pretty busy on the right with the embellishment clusters from the center and the bottom, i decided to go with grand central.

Talking of embellishments, i created the cluster using some tags (from Sleigh Ride, even though this layout is neither about xmas or winter), some bits and pieces using the color scheme of the floral paper, a flair, some enamel dots and a few stamps (i'm really liking it more and more, especially little stamps put together)

Added some journaling about how this place mainly reminds me of Gossip Girl (yep, i watched Gossip Girl), added a nice XOXO stamp just perfect for the occasion and that was it.

ON THE FERRY

First layout made with my February starting points. When i create my starting points, i usually don't have a picture in mind, so i just go with papers i really want to use (like this dark woodgrain) or a color combo i really like (pink, yellow and teal, what's not to love). So when i actually start to scrap these layouts, i first have to find a picture that will match. I'm not too worried about finding the perfect one since i currently have hundreds waiting to be scrapped. Instead of looking at them one by one, i tend to use the photo index i get when i order them, and quickly look at all of the little vignettes. 

In this case, 5 photos (over 300, that's pretty good narrowing right?) looked like they might work. I grabbed those 5 and put them next to the layout. 3 didn't work that great and 2 were perfect. The reason i picked this one? The very simple and central design of the starting point made it great for a "transition" layout (layout where i introduce a new place in the album, in this case our arrival at Tadoussac). This process took me about 10 minutes.

Time to scrap then! I wanted a bit more yellow on the layout, and really like the idea of arrow to make the design even more "central". I first tried with triangle wood veneers, yellow paint... and finally decided to cut them out of the same yellow paper i used for the border. Added some stitches (while watching The Middle, i'm a multitasker ;)). I had little yellow triangles from my first attempt, so i decided to use them on top of the layout. Added some more stitches, and a few bits and pieces.

I had the title in mind for a while, but could not find the perfect pink alpha for the title. Ended up discovering this purple one at the bottom of my stash (it's a very old Basic Grey alpha), then wrote the rest of the title with my wood veneer alpha (told you i'm obsessed.

And i decided to stop there. Lots of white space (not so white in this case) can be good sometimes.

FEBRUARY STARTING POINTS

When i started to scrapbook again, the first steps were the hardest for me. Picking up papers that matched together (and with my photos) and assembling them to create a nice "background" to create on. It usually took me hours and by the time i had done it, i wasn't even in the mood to start embellishing, adding the title... Then i started following Shimelle's blog and discovered the AWESOMENESS of starting points. They made creating easy and fun again.

I don't use them all the time but they make a great base and are perfect is you don't have too much time during the week days but want to have some quick fun scrapbooking from 10pm to 11pm. During the weekend, i'll take all my current fave papers and my stash of scraps and i'll create a few starting points, ready to be scrapped during the week. Works great for me and my schedule. 

Above are the three starting points i made for February. I'll be back soon to share the layouts i'll make with them. Feel free to use them! I'd love to see how similar/different our layouts would be!

THE PERFECT COLLECTION

I finally did it! I picked a collection and cut it all! And let me tell you, i'm so glad i did it!

It all began a few weeks ago when i heard about Shimelle's class: The Perfect collection. The first steps of making a layout are always the hardest for me and not the most pleasant one either. I look at all my pretty papers and have no idea where to start, to afraid to make a cut and ruin it all. That can last for a very long time... Once i have my pieces, another nightmare begin: what to do with them? When i look at all the pretty pages on pinterest, blogs and forums, i always feel like my pages lack a certain unity that would make them complete. The perfect collection is exactly what i needed to solve both of these issues.

A few days ago, i took the 16 papers i had from the Sketchbook collection by Amy Tangerine, followed Shimelle's instructions, and before i knew it, i had in front of me 12 pages, or starting points to be exact, ready to be scrapped. I feel like every of this pages is very much my style and it's oh so simple to just have fun adding embellishments, title and of course my pictures! I've already completed 4 of the layouts, but that's another story ;) For now, here are all of my starting points:

Off to my next layout!

LOULOU

Hi there!

Today we're getting back at scrapbooking with a lovely picture of my nephew and the just as lovely Dear Lizzy collection from American Crafts.

I've used this week Starting Point from Shimelle (it's right here if you want to give it a try) then got stuck on the title, asked for help over at Two Peas (thanks so much girls!) and after one long night of sleep finally ended up with a complete layout!

I mostly used products from the Dear Lizzy collection, including this awesome chevron paper that I would need a pack of, the aqua paper and pink sticker border are from Crate Paper and then i added a few extra to make it pop! As for the title, I finally went with a french version that sounded a lot better than any other title so I just went with it.

Here's a close up on the details:

Have a lovely day,

WANDERING IN WONDER

Hi there!

Just popping by to share a new layout, and the starting point I used to do it!

A pretty simple base, as always. and here's how it turned out to be:

Funny fact: the background paper is a gorgeous sheet from My Mind's eyes which A side is filled with butterflies (here) that I intended to use but somehow this lovely B side of a light black and cream just worked very well with my photo so... bye bye butterflies!

Have a lovely day,

ONE LAST ROME LAYOUT

Hi there, hope your week is going great!

I'm on holiday this week so I have plenty of time to scrapbook and reorganize my craft space (I'll probably share a few pictures later this week). I just received a bunch of photos + some gorgeous new papers from My Mind's Eye and the Dear Lizzy collection, they're lovely ♥

This week-end I started an online class taught by Shimelle Laine (by now you know how much she inspires me)called The Hitchhiker's Guide to scrapbooking (it's on Two Peas in a Bucket) and it is all about inspiration, how to find it and in the middle of that, how to find your own style. I'm lovin' it so far, I've been through the pdf and videos like crazy (it's just like buying a new magazine, I need to read it all right now) but i need to go back to each one, take on the challenges and all. 

One of the great tips in the class is to use starting points to scrapbook, I find it a great alternative to sketches (I just can't follow a sketch, I feel way to limited with this process), but using starting points just gives me the kick I need to start and then it's all up to me to make the layout mine.

Here's the starting point I use for my last layout (it's actually a direct scraplift of one of Shimelle's LO in the class)

Sorry the picture is a bit blurry, my camera is down so my phone got to do it for now. So the base of the layout is 3 squares, one 12x12, then 10x10 and 8x8. I used two different shades of blue cardstock and one yellow polka dot pp. Then I added one horizontal strip to link it all, with one border on top and below. From there it was all up to me, and here's the final result:

In my album, this LO will go directly next to the When in Rome Lo (you can see it here) so I needed some harmony between the 2, but I ran out of all the papers I used on the first LO, so I used the embellishment as a common link (the washi tapes with a circle and a butterfly on top are similar in the 2 layouts). 

So that was the last layout of my trip to Rome, and I'm pretty proud that I used only old supplies to make this one, the temptation is always HUGE to go & play with the beautiful new one but I have just so much papers and letters I never used...