Good Morning - Two Page Good Friday Scrapbook Layout

 Well 2020, was one of the strangest (and more memorable) years in my history. Our company was shut down (like most of the country) during Easter. I work for Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Company. We insure churches and related ministries across the company. Many of us are Christians. The company decided to hold a "drive-in" Good Friday service in the parking lot! We thought this was one of the coolest experiences ever (but also strange).

Of course, most of us rolled down our windows and we were able to hear the message given by one of our fellow employees, along with some great Easter music. It was a pretty day (but also cold and windy). What a great morning, though!!

What a creative way to see each other's faces (through the windshields) and celebrate Christ's resurrection together (but not too close together). I think we were directed to leave an empty space between cars (vehicle social distancing 😀). It's kind of funny when I think back, but none of us knew what we were dealing with, so the company was playing it safe. 

The paper and all the embellishments came from a pack of paper from Echo Park. You may think it is strange that I scrapped these Covid memories. I try to capture all the memories (the good, bad, and strange).

Enjoy your week!

Easter Basket - Two Page Scrapbook Layout

 Easter comes early this year? What a celebration it will be.

Thought I should break from my Hawaii album in order to share a few Easter layouts with you. This one features my most favorite little people. 😍 How can these cuties be two years older already? 

I used several different spring patterned papers and various stickers from Echo Park "Sweet Girl".

The birds and title were cut with my Cricut and placed around the page. 

I love to mix patterned papers. Do you like the look? This layout was super simple and probably not one of my favorite, to be honest. Mostly because I'm not a huge fan of stickers since I got my Cricut. However, they do make for a quick page where everything matches and falls into a theme. So I use them on occasion and typically mix them in with cut images of my own.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!!

Egg Masters - Two Page Easter Layout

We went to the most wonderful Good Friday service this morning. Believe it or not, it was a drive in style service at my place of employment! Great music and an absolutely wonderful message given by one of our employees. There was lots of whooping and honking when it was over. What a great way to start our day, focused on how Christ loved us so much that he gave his life for each of us! There were some dark days before he rose from the dead! But, now we can rejoice knowing that Easter is coming!!

Here's an Easter layout from 2017. This is my son and daughter-in-law coloring eggs in the kitchen at our old house.

 These two get super creative with their egg decorating. It's fun to watch them. I got a little creative with my paper choices for this page!! There is a lot going on here...lol. As I look back at this, I might have changed a few things, but that's okay. I'm not going to change it. It's done and the memory is preserved. The mission was still accomplished.

 I love the two little scalloped flower clips on the title. It doesn't lay very flat in the album, but it will continue to flatten out over the years.😆 The red rick-rack is like masking tape and is so quick and easy to put down on a page. It's very forgiving and pulls up easy if you need to adjust it.

I hope that you have a very meaningful Good Friday, even though you may not be able to celebrate the way you have in the past. It will be different, but I know that God is working all things for our good and His glory. Stay strong and stay safe! If you have a chance come back for another Easter post on Sunday.

Two Page Scrapbook Layout - "Easter Fun"

Today, I have another Easter layout to share. I believe this one is from 2016, but I failed to put the date on it.

 The patterned paper is from StampinUp! Perfect Easter colors that complimented my photos with my sweet grandbabies.

 I love how Scarlet is carrying her bag up on her shoulder like her Mama carries her purse. So precious!

Hope you enjoy this simple layout, even though we're a couple days beyond Easter now. I took loads of pictures yesterday, so now I have more Easter photos to scrap!! 😍 Hope your Easter celebration was blessed!

Two Page Scrapbook Layout - "Easter Blessings"

I'm not sure how I've had this Easter layout for 4 whole years and not shared it until now! I try to post my layouts during the appropriate season of the year and apparently I forget to post at Easter time.

 Some of my most favorite people are in these photos, but for some reason I'm not a big fan of how the layout turned out. Of course, I had to share it anyway because of my cute little grand bunnies on the page!

 They're all spiffed up for church! Don't they look precious? The long piece along the bottom is folded randomly to give it some texture and depth. The banners in the top corners are from leftover scraps. I try to hang on to scraps that are at least 4 x 4 so that I can use them for things like this. It's amazing to find so many random pieces that work well together on a page.

We are blessed to have our two boys living so close to us. Both are within 15 minutes of our home! We all typically have dinner together every Sunday evening. Sometimes it's a little crazy and chaotic, but that's what family is sometimes and we love EVERY minute we have. You just never know when life can change drastically. We will all be together tomorrow (including my youngest and his wife) for Easter dinner. I just finished making our traditional Italian Crème Cake. I pretty much destroyed it, but it's amazing what a lot of yummy cream cheese frosting will do to patch a messy cake back together. :) I'm sure it will taste amazing and nobody will even know what a nightmare it was trying to get it out of the pan. Ugh!

If you celebrate Easter, I pray yours will be full of blessings, family, and sweet memories! I thank God for being my LIVING Savior. He is so good!

Two Page Scrapbook Layout - "Adorable"

Look at these two lovebirds! This is my youngest and his then girlfriend. Now, they are engaged and planning to tie the knot in October. I'm very proud of these two and happy they've found each other.

This layout is from Easter 2015.  It was a beautiful day for photos!

 I believe the title and bunnies are from Kate's ABC's. The little white cotton tail ball fringe was perfect for Easter.

 I'm a bit obsessed with the blue and green color combo! So fresh and springy!!

A little bit of Washi helped to Anchor it at the bottom. One of many more layouts to come with these two cuties! It's been fun to watch their relationship grow.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!!

Two Page Scrapbook Layout - "EGGstra Sweet"

Way past time for an update! Spring is definitely here. The grass is greening up and the flowering trees are starting to bud. Even though the winter was fairly easy, I'm so ready for more sunshine, flowers, and the newness of Spring.

This brings me to an Easter layout that I'd like to share today. Wow, how our grandbabies have grown in the past two years.

 Sawyer was a little young for hunting eggs, but big Sis had no problems filling in for him and sharing later.

 That face! Sometimes I wonder what is going through her head. 💓

I think my favorite part of this layout (aside from her sweet face) is the zipper ribbon and the felt flowers. So perfectly girly.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!!

Bird project

For some reason, I don't have very many Easter decorations. As mentioned before, I'm kind of an owl freak, but I recently added this little birdy to the mix.

Here is the story of this little birdy. I bought him really "cheep" at the craft store. I think it was his cute little wire legs that attracted me.



Once I got him home, I grabbd the Mod Podge, a paint brush, and an old book. Mine is actually an old Hymnal that I rescued. The pages work great for all kinds of projects and it's a great way to give these old Hymns new life in a prominent place in my home.

Tear the pages into strips of different sizes. (Yikes...I know it's hard to tear something out of a book.) Brush ModPodge just over the area where you will be applying the next strip of paper. This gives you a place to hang on without getting your hands all gluey.  Once you have it covered all the way around on both sides and the edges, you can add a little color by smearing ink all over it.

I like a vintage look, so the ink is random. I used leftover strips of paper to smear on the ink. The next step is more ModPodge over the entire bird. Put on a thick layer and let it dry over night.

I used a black Sharpie marker to color two large rhinestones for eyes (see top picture). My pretty yellow birdy has made friends with the other feathered friends on my table. Have a wonderful Easter. 

Isaiah 53:3-6
  ³ He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

⁴ Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

"Celebrate Easter" layout

Here is a layout of  Easter 2011! How's that for scrapping the current? The left side is inspired by a sketch from the Practical Scrappers site. I loved the inspiration for the long stemmed flowers. I actually stitched these stems by hand. I first pierced the cardstock with the Sew Easy tool (zig zag wheel). That was the easy part! LOL! Actually the sewing was easy, it just took awhile. I used my scallop circle punch and cut each punch in half to use as a vertical border along my pictures. I cut the title with my Cricut, using a phrase from one cart and the font from another for a unique look.

You may be wondering about these handmade flowers. I call them my Easter trash to treasure flowers! Here's the tutorial from a previous post here on my blog showing you how to make the flowers from Easter candy wrappers! The leaves in the bottom right corner were created the same way (cutting them freehand) and running them through a crimper.

 

Easter layouts are so fun because I can use bright fun colors, that I might not normally use on a layout. I hope this will inspire you to try making some handmade trash to treasure flowers, or at least experimentng with some bright fun colors!

Remember the candy wrapper flowers?

I realize we're well past Easter, but you can't scrap it until it's over, right? And..I don't get to scrap every day, so try to cut me some slack. Thanks! =)

Here is a layout using pictures that the three of us took together on our patio in the back yard. It was a lovely spring day and the flowers were made for this layout.
Here are some close ups of the butterflies.
You will notice Joel is missing and my journalling speaks to that....Becoming Three...After church he was off to an event with his fiance's family. Guess this will take some getting used to, just as it did when it was just Mark and I getting used to the idea of adding baby Joel to the family. Now he's all grown up. Big sigh...OK enough sap for one post. Thank goodness for Jacob filling in the gaps with sillyness. Silly boys! I've been blessed with two of them.

Thanks for looking and have a lovely Friday tomorrow!

Titling Technique

Sorry for the delay again in posting. I'm very thankful for my paying job, but it does cut into my scrapbooking and blogging time a little. LOL! But, thankfully it does pay the bills and I enjoy it.

Now...on to the scrappy topic of creative titling. I was recently scrapping this Easter page and couldn't decide what color of paper to use for my title. I felt there were already some bold colors with the red and green apple (matting). My BSBFF (best scrap book friend forever) suggested making a rainbow/tie-dye effect. Based on her suggestion, here's what I came up with for my "Egg-stra Fun" layout.
I used the same green apple paper as the matting and cut it to a size large enough for all of the letters to eventually cut in my Cricut. I chose several pastel cat eye inkpads to match the layout (green, yellow, orange, pink). I randomly dabbed each color over the sheet of paper to get the tie-dye effect that I wanted. Once the ink was dry, I cut the letters from it with my Cricut. I love the way it turned out!

Here is a closeup of my little nest of eggs. To make this, I used a crimper and formed it into the shape of a little bowl. I cut the eggs in groups from one of my extra photos and used adhesive foam in between the layers so they look 3D. I may try the nest again later with a brown fuzzy ribbon to get more of a random circular shape. This one here looks a little squarish because my cardstock was really heavy. I do LOVE the crimping tool! Almost everything looks better crimped...I may have to try using the crimper on a title soon!

Thanks for looking!

Easter---Trash to Treasure

I got a crazy little idea a few days ago while I was eating a Nesltes mini chocolate egg. I thought the wrappers were kind of pretty and springy looking. Why not make some flowers out of these for my Easter layouts? I have never made my own flower embellishments before. I hope you like my idea!Here's what you need: colorful candy wrappers which have been gently unwrapped and flattened(eat the chocolate!), tiny little plastic gem flowers to use for the flower middles, adhesive sheets (sticky on both sides), white cardstock, scissors, Mod Podge, flower stamps (optional)
Take the white paper off of the double stick adhesive sheets.
Lay the flattened candy wrappers on the adhesive sheet where you just removed the white paper. Rub your hands over the entire surface of the wrapper to make sure it is well adheared. It's okay if there are a lot of wrinkles in the wrapper because it adds a great textured look to your flower.
Carefully remove the brown (back side) of the adhesive paper.It will now be sticky on the bottom and the foil will be on the top side.
Then lay the sticky side of the project down on white card stock.
Use your scissors to cut the wrappers apart from each other.
I cut my flowers free-hand, but if you want them more unifom, turn the rectangle foil side down and stamp the flower image on the the backside of the cardstock, then cut around your image. In order to shape the flower you will need to cut into the center a little between each petal, then gently fold up all of the petals around the center.
Then gently form each petal by round the edges down. Add your gem to the center.
Lay them out on wax paper and brush heavily with Mod Podge. Let them dry for an hour. The Mod Podge will dry clear and harden each flower up so they are not so fragile. Save them in a non-crushable container and use them in a scrapbook or make a fun card! Enjoy! Thanks for looking! Please let me know if you try it.