Spring, is that you?...

So the sun is shining this morning and it looks like we are finally going to get some spring like weather. I was looking back at last years temperatures for this time of year and it is absolutely depressing! We have had over 6 months of snow on the ground and we deserve a break I think! 

So I have been pretty busy the past couple of weeks, working on projects for the big scrappy garage sale that the SCRAPBOOK STUDIO is having this weekend and also for the big crop that is coming up at the beginning of May to celebrate National Scrapbooking Day! But I did manage to find some time to get my page done for the Scrapbook & Cards April Calendar sketch.

Here is what their sketch looks like...

And here is my layout...

I loved these pictures. My husband and I had gone to the mall for some reason or another. While we were there we noticed that the Dawg's store was having a huge sale, something like 75% off everything I think. So we went in to check it out and ended up buying Dawgs for my kids, ourselves and my nephews! 

Well my nephew Eliot absolutely loved his pair. We got them in the same color as my son's and Eliot thought that that was just the coolest thing!  I remember for weeks afterwards, he would come over and bring his shoes and make Sam put on his so they could be the same. It was adorable!

I picked the bright green background (BoBunny) because of the shoes and I threw in some grey polka dot pattern (Echo Park) to compliment the pictures. I chose the white rick rack (Doodle Bug) and the red ribbon (Bazzill) because of my nephew's shirt. 

The fancy green border strips (Bazzill) in the layout were given to me in a lootbag at a retailers event years ago. Now I am the kind of person that loves to get rid of stuff. I hate clutter and my motto is; If you haven't touched it in over a year, then your probably not ever going to use it. But these particular borders I just couldn't part with. I kept telling myself, "They are bright green! When are you seriously ever going to use them!" Well it's a good thing I kept them because they suit this page perfectly! :D

This layout is seriously just a bunch of bits and pieces from my scraps, with the exception of the background piece. The large, black letters are leftovers from a Cosmo Cricket chipboard alphabet set and the small black letters are Basic grey stickers. Then I just added some buttons from my stash to finish it off!

This next layout I did just the other day in hopes that it would give me hope that summer was just around the corner! :D

I like to think of myself as a simple page kind of scrapper. I like to get all I can out of pattern papers by cutting out bits and pieces and using 3-D foam adhesive to add more dimension. I don't normally put alot of "Fluff" (as I call it) on my page because I really want the photos to stand out. But I just really wanted to make this page a summer-y, girly kinda page! 

This picture of my daughter Danielle was once again taken by my friend Amanda Lepage last summer! Danielle had just started taking guitar lessons earlier that year and is a complete natural at it. So she really wanted to get some pics done with her guitar! I love them!!!!!

 The paper I used for the background is from the Prairie Chic line by BoBunny. I love the wood paneling! I tore a bit off the corner, placed a piece of ivory cardstock there and added my flowers and buttons.

Along the left side of the background was a printed lace trim but I wanted to add more texture to the layout, so I add a real crocheted trim along the edge. Again I added more flowers and made a cute banner flag using a sewing needle and some Tim Holtz Tissue Tape. After I had folded a piece of the tissue tape in half over the needle, I cut the end and colored it with Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink.

Well I am off to go make some cookies for my kidlets to sell at the garage sale this weekend and to see if I can go through some more of my stash and purge a little more of it! :D Stop by the store tomorrow between 10am-3pm and check out what myself and others are parting with! One person's junk is another's treasure, so you never know, you may get in on a great deal!

~ Cayla ~

Mamma-Razzi...

Good evening! 

I just wanted to share a couple of layouts quick before I head off to work. I had to give my head a shake today because I thought I had already done this post! But lo and behold when I went to go show someone the layouts I had created, they were not here! Geez! Sometimes I just don't have my head on right!

I created all three of these layouts using the Bo Bunny "Mamma-razzi2" line. The first time this line was released was a few years ago and I absolutely loved it! I am slightly disappointed with the second release, but only slightly! I wish they had kept the beautiful dark blues but I do love the teal!

 

I created the embellishments on the pages by cutting bits out of the pattern papers and used 3-D foam adhesive.

To make the circles on the background stand out more, I drew on some faux stitching using my fine-tip brown sharpie.

These layouts are really quite simple but I felt I didn't have to do much because the photos were amazing. My lovely friend Amanda Lepage took these pictures last summer and I loved them. I really wanted to do them justice! If you are ever looking for a great photographer, look this gal up! She did an amazing job! Click HERE and you will be directed to her website.

Well I have to head off to work now but I am going to do another post real soon to show you my layout for April's calendar sketch!

Have a great evening!

~ Cayla ~

Chevron...

Well I am super excited today! Tomorrow Lori & I are headed to Calgary for "Education Eh!", a retailer's event put on by our Calgary supplier. It is a day packed full of classes and we get to hang with some scrappy people from some of the top companies such as Bo Bunny, Sizzix, Graphic 45 and more!! I went to this event for the first time last year and I LOVED it!! The classes were fantastic, the company reps were lovely and the food at the Carriage House Inn (were we are staying and playing!) is AMAZING!! (They have their own in-house bakery which means lots of yummy treats!)

But I wanted to blog a quick post because I came across this great technique and I had to share it with you! I get emails regularly from Splitcoaststampers.com

 This is a fantastic site that has the best tutorials page for learning every type of technique imaginable! Click HERE to check it out!

The technique they emailed me this morning was how to make a chevron border. I have tried a couple of things but nothing was as quick and easy as this tutorial! I fell in love with it and if you click HERE, you can see for yourself!

Well of course I also had to try it myself! :D And so below is a picture of a card I created using this technique. 

This card literally took me only 15 minutes to make and everything but the base is just scraps! I can't wait to get some more time to do up a page and try this using different widths!

 But go give it a try for yourself and let me know what you think! 

I would love to see what you come up with so post a pic on my Facebook page!!

I'll be back next week with some goodies I bring back from Calgary!

~Cayla~