Playing With Paper!!

Missing summer...

My family & I had a lovely summer: 2 trips to the Cape, a membership to a local pool and loads of little adventures.  A highlight for the boys was a trip with their dad to the Little League World Series.  My boys had a blast!!  My husbands brother is a cameraman so they got to eat with the crew from ESPN and sit in the broadcasting space.   They even got VIP passes and seats - they were beyond thrilled.  When I was scrapping the pictures I wanted to keep the layout playful.  I used patterned paper from Me and My Big Ideas-it's bright and happy.  I used a piece of notebook paper to journal on - I just felt like it fit.  And because I love circles and I think they can be playful - I used them as my borders.

Cute layout...makes me smile.  And I am so happy that my boys had the chance to see the LLWS-they are still talking about how much fun they had!!!

The sun is out...it's a beautiful Monday!

I hope you had a lovely weekend.  It rained here all weekend but it turned out to be good thing.  Almost all of our games and activities got cancelled so suddenly my weekend was open.  It has been a long time since we had a weekend with nothing to do.  My husband & I cleaned the house Saturday and yesterday my sister came - we shopped!  And we laughed...and I needed that.  I have had several layouts to share but not the time to do it so this morning I am determined to post.  Right now, many of my layouts are focused on baseball & my boys-here is one of my youngest:
 
The pictures are from open day of the baseball season.  I was inspired by a layout from Becky Fleck's 1st Pagemaps book - the layout is on page 87.  The patterned paper is from Colorbok (I bought a paper pack at Marshalls for about 3.00 bucks & I have used almost all of it!  One of my most favorite bargains!!).  The cardstock is Bazzill, tiltle Thickers and I can't remember who made the little metal circles???  Cute, simple layout for a sweet boy on an exciting day!

Where have I been...

Honestly, I haven't really felt compelled to blog.  I'm not really sure why.  I have many layouts to share but I just haven't been inspired to update lately.  I keep a blog for pretty selfish reasons - so I can keep track of my projects.  I love to go back and look at my older work.  I know I have my layouts in my scrapbooks but I also enjoy being able to access my work online.  For whatever reason I felt like taking a break but now I miss updating my blog so here I am.

 
I just finished this layout recently and I love it.  My youngest being himself.  I love watching him do things because he is so innocent and free.  He has enjoyed playing baseball this spring-loves his team & coach; loved hitting off of a pitcher and the feeling of being a really big kid.  The patterned paper is from Chatterbox (oldie but goodie); cardstock Bazzill; I bought the baseball stickers from AC Moore along  with the title word "baseball" and I used Thickers for the word "star".

Off to brave the heat!!!

Not what I had intended...

I don't know how it works for you but when I start to create a layout, I get a picture of it in my mind - of how I want to see the completed layout.  The layout below is not how I intended it to be and I am ok with that.

 
The photos are from the 1st game at the new Giants stadium (the money man has season tickets and someone took pictures that he then gave to me).  Honestly, I wasn't sure I was going to scrap these pictures (I love football but I don't even know who some of the people are in these pictures).   But then I got an idea and I thought I'd do something  with the pictures.  Initially, for the title, I was going to create a banner that would be layed out in a half circle on that side of the page.  But the layout sat on my desk and I kept looking at it - and it wasn't getting completed.  So, I took the easy way out and just cut out a big circle and put the title down.  I still like the idea of the banner and I will find a layout for it.  For now, I am just glad this one is off the desk and in an album!

Can you handle another soccer layout?

The layout below is a soccer layout for my youngest son:
 
I used paper from Bazzill and Thickers for the title.  And I cut out the soccer  balls with my Cricut (I love making soccer balls on my Cricut - think they are so cute?!).  The name of his team was Crew hence the title.  I love that my boys love soccer but I am so glad these are the last of the soccer pictures for this season - I need to move on to another topic!  So, until next fall...there will be no more soccer layouts!  Oh, but my next page is for football - I think I need to take my girls shopping, snap some photos and to a girly layout!!!

A layout to share...

 
I don't know why by I LOVE cutting out soccer balls with my Cricut - weird huh?  I just love how simple it is and it looks so great on the page.  This layout is for one of my boys during his first soccer practice.  He was super excited to play soccer and he got the nicest coach (it didn't hurt that the team went undefeated).  I used some of my new Smooch spray to cover the chipboard letters.  You can't really tell in the picture but the letters have a little glittery effect.

So, I talked to the money man yesterday (aka my husband) and he is on board to get some new furniture for my office.  I am so excited to redesign my space.  I found this basket yesterday and thought it would be perfect for something:

 
As I was looking at it, I thought it had potential as a new home for my Thickers.  This is how I am currently storing them:

 
This worked fine when I had a few Thickers but my collection has outgrown my storage so I need a new home for them.  I will keep you updated on how I merge basket and Thickers - my weekend project!

TGIF!!

 

 Sharing 2 for 1 today - card and a layout.  I created the above card a few weeks ago.  Simple and elegent (I think) and I love the little "bubbles".  Pretty much everything is from Stampin' Up! except the ribbon - I bought that at Michaels.

 
This layout I created for my son's soccer season using the Cricut Cartridge Sports Mania.  Everytime I pull that cartridge out I am so glad I bought it.  At the time I wasn't sure I needed it or would use it much but I love it.  Love how the soccer emblishments turned out - especially the soccer ball in the corner.  I used cardstock from Bazzil and the chipboard letters are from a kit I got from Creating Keepsakes forever ago.

Here's hoping I get some time to scrap this weekend ...and I hope you get to too!! Thanks for stopping by.

 

 

Soccer Star!

 
Love this layout.  Simple and cute.  I used Bazzill cardstock (purple to match Patrick's team shirt), soccer embellishments from Making Memories and the cricut cartridge Sports Mania to create the title.  I love this layout - tons of pictures but it doesn't feel crowded!!  And Patrick's album is up-to-date - what an achievement!!

 

Run, boy run.

I had so much fun getting pictures of my son Richard last August during football camp.  He was always on the go and I couldn't wait to scrapbook these photos.  I used patterned paper from a paper pad called "school life" by Colorbok (I found it a Marshalls for $2.99); the cardstock is Bazzill; the ribbon was bought at Scraptasia (it's really cool-it feels like suede) and the paper I journaled on is from Making Memories.  Richie learned a lot at camp and worked very hard - but he had a great time too.