Weekend Life + Fancy Pants Down by the Shore

I'm just catching up from this past weekend. It's Thursday, I know! What can I say, the last week of school for Nico has been filled with PTO parties, activities and duties. But today we officially start summer vacation. I'm not sure who's more thrilled, me or Nico.

This weekend we celebrated with our annual Father's Day picnic at my Dad's. It's the one thing my Dad asks for every year, for us to gather and me to cook his favorite foods. So I start on Saturday shopping, prepping, cooking and on Sunday while the Dads rest and the kids swim, I man the BBQ. On Sunday night I fall into bed exhausted, but happy. Happy to have so many great Dads in my family.

 These three are growing up much too fast. If I could keep them this age, I would. They are just the right amount independent, innocent and opinionated. I love just talking with them. Their perspective makes me smile.

She is loving everything neon. Who would've thought THAT would come back? I told her that back in the day I wore fingerless neon gloves and gummy bracelets like Madonna. She asked "who the heck is Madonna?". Gasp.

Nico lost another tooth while snorkeling in the pool. He  comes out with blood dripping down his chin, hands me the tooth and then jumps right back in. Ahhhh...little boys.

Every once in a while I take a picture and really capture their personalities. In this one I got that plus their relationship. My nephew with his sad little eyes and my niece who is the epitome of bubbly and strong. She protects him fiercely even though he's older. They've been through a lot. I must scrap this one!

And this little pip hasn't changed all that much. He's still trying to conquer that shark (see below).

This is a monochromatic layout I made a while ago for 2Peas. I used navy, turquoise and light blue paper and embellishments from the Down the Shore line by Fancy Pants.

I started by laying down wide strips of patterned paper in a horizontal pattern. Next, came the two 4x6 photos. To offset all these horizontal lines, I layered the embellishments in a vertical line along the left side of the page. By alternating tags and envelopes I created punches of color and different shapes to the otherwise boxy page. The circle shapes in the buttons, flair and envelope enclosures are also an important design element - they add movement to the page. The monochromatic color scheme and staying with one collection pack, made this page quick and easy to put together.

And the photos from last year on the page and the one I took this year prove - the more things change, the more they stay the same. I have a feeling Nico will still be trying to wrestle that shark at 21.

From Summer to Fall...

It seems like we went from this...

to this...

Layout copyright twopeasinabucket.com.

in the blink of an eye. 

The pictures are from last year, but the layouts are new. The summer one is my last Bella Blvd assignment using the Sunshine & Happiness line. I did decide to step down from the team last month to free up some of my summer. Loved my time at Bella, they were a fantastic company to work for - not to mention they make super cute lines!

The school layout is from the twopeasinabucket.com gallery. It almost all Basic Grey Clippings with a bit of Crate thrown in. I'm so happy that I took some of these detailed shots of Nico's preschool backpack and sneakers. He has grown up so much since then. 

I take a lot of pictures. Like really a lot and sometimes I wonder if its overkill. But then when I look back at Nico's baby pictures, I only regret the ones that I didn't take. I guess the answer is that I'll continue to be that Mom - the one who brings her camera to the bus stop the Lego store and everywhere else life happens (with no regrets). 

Believe it or not, I'm still buried under a pile of laundry and knee-deep in packing away summer clothes. Football practice is in full swing and I'm finally getting back into the swing of making something every day. More to share soon.

A Final Goodbye

Usually by this time in September, I'm ready to pack up the flip flops and sink into some cozy sweaters. Although it's getting cooler and I can feel Fall in the air, I'm really going to miss summer. I've put away the shorts, but I'm still digging into my pile of summer photos + memories.

I love these pictures of my son and his cousins swimming, jumping and mugging for the camera. I knew I had to document their favorite place to hang out this summer.

This layout is copyright twopeasinabucket.com

I love the bright colors in the Splash line by Echo Park, especially on a white background. I think this is the first time I've used white cardstock as a background and I really like how it lets the photos really stand out.

My favorite detail is the metal circle I used to highlight the kids' current ages.

I placed the splash sticker and individual circle stickers on pop dots for dimension. I love the tiny alphas from Lily Bee and used them to create a border of words along the top and bottom of the page. I think they make a nice frame for the pictures and add to the journaling.

This layout is copyright twopeasinabucket.com

This Fourth of July layout just might be my last summer layout for a while. I wanted to document the story of the day (the picnic and sparklers) and some of my thoughts on being born American. These little ones are only second generation Americans and I want them to know how special that is and how many sacrifices were made so that could be possible. 

The layout is a mix of My Mind's Eye (paper), Bella Blvd and Pink Paislee embellishments with a touch of October Afternoon. My favorite part is the fabric trim (Mistables by Pink Paislee) that reminds me so much of bunting. 

For a complete list of products in the 4th of July layout, click here.

For a product list of the pool layout, click here.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Echo Park Splash & Slide

I am just starting to tackle the mountain of photos and stories from our cruise. From the moment I saw this Splash line from Echo Park, I knew it would be perfect for these slide photos.

This layout is copyright Two Peas in a Bucket. com

The minute Nico saw that slide, he started begging to go on it. He had a blast going up & down & up & down, he met lots of new friends and got into trouble on that slide (you mean 3 boys can't go down the slide at the same time repeatedly? Ha!). Here I thought that the Nickelodeon shows would be his favorite thing about the ship, but no - it was the slide.

My favorite paper is the yellow sunburst and I thought it matched the color & feel of the slide. I cut out a portion and used it to ground the title. I had so many pictures of Nico going in every direction on the slide, that it was tough to fit them all in. I kept 2 large photos (4x6 and 4x5) and then used a series of small pictures to tell my story. I used the chipboard circles to create movement over the 2-page spread and draw attention to the focus of the picture. Add some chipboard and fun patterned paper and you have one fun waterslide page.

For a complete list of the products that I used, visit my gallery here.
Have a great weekend!

Pink Paislee Hometown Summer

I've been working with this new Hometown Summer line by Pink Paislee this week and I can't even tell you how much it's making me long for summer. I love the bright colors and fun icons in this line. It was perfect for scrapping these pictures from last summer.

Click on the picture for a better view.

I remember that it was the first time that all 3 of the kids were brave enough to jump into the pool. And they did that over and over and over. It's amazing how they never get tired of it. Naturally, it comes with the screaming "look at me, look at me, take my picture." So I knew I had to get the story down on a page.

I was inspired by a home decor piece I spotted on kreyv.com that had a jumble of letters falling all over a frame. I used the same concept to make my title a little more interesting.

I like how the letters are literally “jumping in” to the page. I used white embroidery floss to add a bounce line and a place to ground the title. I placed the letter stickers on pop dots so that they would stand out from the busy red background.

I cut up the wave patterned paper to make a wide border for my page. I added several overlapping layers and inked the edges with a light brown stamp pad for dimension.

This was such a fun, bright page to make. Summertime memories and pages are my favorite things to scrap. I look forward to the coming season.

I just finished editing my first video and will be posting it on Monday. Hope you like it!

More Mosaics

As the end of summer nears, I'm rushing to get some of my favorite summer pictures onto layouts. This picture and memory is one of my favorites. Technically, the group shot is not a great photo because of the harsh lighting, but I love what it represents. Summer at my Dad's house (my son calls him Lelo, but that's another story for a later time). I love that my family gathers here and this summer it seems that almost every Sunday found us barbecuing by the pool.

I had to laugh when I saw the picture of my grandmother (bottom right) with her Life Alert securely around her neck. She doesn't go anywhere without it, yet she refused to press the button when she was having chest pains because the police would come to the house and what would the neighbors think? Ha. That's my grandmother. I'm glad that I have it in a photo.

This layout is a mixture of so many different manufacturers - Bazzill, Little Yellow Bicycle, Bo Bunny Press, Bella Boulevard, October Afternoon and Basic Grey. I love to do that. It's more work than using a coordinating line, but sometimes a challenge is good.

Here's a peek at another tile mosaic. One that was very cheap ($1) and simple (it came on a sheet). I love the look and it was so simple!

Have a great weekend! Let me see if I can go squeeze out a few more summer layouts before the season is over....

Tinkerbell Birthday

I won't lie, when I first got these pictures of my niece's party back, I cringed. Purple and green are so not my colors and they are very prominent in the pictures. But then I came across this Sun Kissed line by Bo Bunny Press. It's almost as if they had made it especially for these pictures. There's water (it was a pool party), bright purple (matches the pics) and green (for Tinkerbell. And so this is what I came up with...

I think I got incredibly lucky with the release of these products! This layout came together pretty quickly for me. It includes some of my favorite pictures of the kids, my cousin/brother and his kids and a picture of me (miraculous).

To further tie in the theme, I added a tiny Tinkerbell on top of the water sprinkler portion of the layered sticker and cut off the top of the hose. I can't wait to show this to my niece, I think she's going to love it.

Thanks for taking a peek. I'll be back towards the end of the week. We are having my niece and nephew sleep over for a few days just for fun. I wonder how I'll do as a temporary mom of 3 - this should be interesting!

Summer at Lelo's

I can't believe it's almost over! Summer always goes by so fast in the Northeast but this year even more so since the entire month of June was cold, rainy and dreary. Blah. I've been rushing around these past two weeks trying to go to all of our favorite summer haunts and get together with our cousins and friends for the last time. Honestly, I'm exhausted but Nico has had so much fun.

I love the super bright colors and patterns of this Snorkel line by Cosmo Cricket. The chipboard letters and accents were perfect for my title.

I paired it up with this great yellow scalloped paper by We'R Memory Keepers and a little bit of leaf dotted cardstock from Bazzill. Lots of patterns here but I think they work and are balanced out by the huge journaling block. I usually do not like to mix this many patterns and colors so this is really out of my comfort zone. I'll be honest, I cringe a little at the loudness of it all but there's something about it that I like too.

I love the big white dots in this chipboard wave. This was just begging for some layered accents. The red number three represents my three little fishies - Nico and his two cousins. The blue gems are called dew drops I believe and I love the dimension they add. They are super easy to use since they are completely flat on the back. Just a drop of E-6000 adhesive and they are stuck on there forever.

I went through three sheets of this yellow lined paper to get that journaling lined up just right. Ugh. I really should've just left it be, but it kept bothering me. I like linear designs with clean lines and the crooked journaling was k-i-l-l-i-n-g me. I really need to learn to let go!

I was lucky enough to go to a crop this past weekend with some of my favorite friends. I got three layouts started that I'm just putting the finishing touches on. I'll be back later this week to show you what I came up with!