My Pet Dinosaur

Another sketch and another page done in two hours. Hooray! This great sketch is by the very talented Jana Eubanks and was posted over on A Million Little Thing's blog. One of my favorite scrappers and my favorite store - thanks!

The small pictures are from our recent visit to Disney World this past fall. I wanted to capture the story of Nico's first visit to the T-Rex restaurant and the making of his first Build-A-Dino. I didn't have a good pic of him with Spike, so I posed him after we got home. The restaurant was fab, but the lighting was horrible for taking pics.

The paper, dino and tags are all from My Mind's Eye (which I'm in love with). The green letters are Bo-Bunny and the cork alpha and numbers are from Making Memories.

Thanks for looking and for bearing with me during this busy season!

Baby Essential Part Deux

This disappeared from a post entry that I made a couple of weeks ago. Blogger's acting up and I can't get it to post under the appropriate date so I think I'll just stick it here!

This Halloween Sketch

This is my entry to My Mind's Eye Blog Challenge #5. This was the first time I was actually able to use a sketch successfully! I love the idea of sketches, but it's rare that I find a design that works with the size pictures I have or the products I want to use. The only rules were that you had to use 80% My Mind's Eye products and stick somewhat close to the original sketch design. Using MME isn't a problem, since I love almost all of their lines. I added a row of extra small pictures, but I pretty much stuck to the original sketch. This page took me just under ONE HOUR to finish! I think that's the fastest I've ever churned out a page. So a great big thanks to MME for their great products and excellent sketch artist!

The Circus

I was putting away a bunch of layouts when this circus layout caught my eye. I wasn't that crazy about it when I first created it but now many months later, I really like the way all of the photo "tiles" fit inside the circle. I like the bold dark red color. And I love how all of the not-so-great pictures look way better cropped into smaller sizes. Isn't it funny how sometimes when you take a second look at a layout, you see things you never noticed before.

I think I might copy this sketch for a layout that I'm struggling with right now. Maybe expand it into a 2-pager. Now if I could just get my hands on another of those huge circles by Technique Tuesday.

Now on to the supply list. All of the paper is by We'R. The chipboard letters, circus sign and flowers are old K&Co. And the brown scalloped paper is by Crate Paper. I just cut out the middle and lined it up with the circle as a faux border.

Spring & Candyland

This is my son in his Spring Show last year. I can't believe how little he looks in these pictures. He has lost that baby face recently and I miss it.
I love the bright colors and whimsy of Doodlebug Designs and I usually find myself buying entire collections of their releases. This is all from their recent Key Lime line. I love the bold blue and green and I thought that they really screamed "spring."

Love the Doodlebug firefly brad and I decided to highlight it inside of a chipboard circle. I painted the circle with metallic green paint to give it some sparkle. It looks much better in person, but it's hard to photograph!

And this layout is to document the 289 games of Candyland that my husband and I have played in the last year. Nico loves this game and asks to play it over and over and over. Oh, and he's not happy if both Mami and Papa don't play. I have a feeling Santa will be bringing him lots and lots of new board games this year - for variety.
The stripe paper is from Bella Boulevard and it matches the colors in Doodlebug's candy/cupcake lines (border & gumball sticker) . I used the dark chocolate brown and aqua to tone down the pictures a little. The gumball sticker and 2 photos are mounted on chipboard squares by Bazzill Basics. One of the photos is tied up with a bit of bakery string from Martha Stewart. The letter stickers are American Crafts and the journal spot is from My Mind's Eye.
Have a great weekend!

I Had P-neumonia

So after a not-so-brief bout of pneumonia, I'm back! It feels so good to be back in my studio going through old pictures and playing with paper. I'm not a chronological scrapper by any means, so I still have plenty of baby pages to do. I keep a journal so I don't forget the stories behind the pictures and this frees me to scrap what I want when I want.

I had fun reminiscing about my son's babyhood with this layout. I wanted to remember the three most important things that got me through that first year. I took the pictures way back then and wrote out the story. Fast forward 3-1/2 years later and the layout is done!

This "Essentials" layout is a mish-mosh of paper by Crate, envelope by Creating Keepsakes KOTM, stickers from Cosmo Cricket and the animal border by K&Co. They all had the same color tones and I thought they mixed well together.

Peter Pan's Flight

I've started on the Disney scrapbooking marathon and this is my very first page. Nicolas' favorite ride was Peter Pan and we rode it 4 times in 2 days. I wanted to remember this because by the time we go again (2011), I bet his favorite ride will be something along the lines of Tower of Terror.

I had fun with this one. I love the whimsical stripe paper from Bella Boulevard and the glitter alpha from Making Memories. I even dug out an old Jolee's Boutique Peter Pan and threw it on there. A couple of gems scattered about and it's all good.


Two of my favorite things about this layout are the cloud diecut border paper (Crate Paper) and the journaling on the clouds. The chipboard "clouds" are actually from Maya Road's cupcake box. Who knew that cupcakes tops and clouds could be interchangeable! I thought it went nicely with the paper.

Nico asked me if I could hang this layout in his playroom. It's his favorite. This little boy knows how to charm his mom!

The Happiest Place on Earth

I've been away visiting the Happiest Place on Earth! Here a few of my favorite pictures from our trip.....

Nico was transformed into a real pirate on Captain Jack Sparrow's ship. His new pirate name is Roger Daggerskull. He absolutely loved this!

One of Disney's best parties and parade....

Nico insisted on dressing up as his hero, Peter Pan. We didn't run into Peter but Nico had a blast meeting his archenemy.

Our brave boy insisted on going in the Haunted Mansion (twice). He was scared to death...shaking knees and all, but I think he loves the thrill. He wouldn't not take his eyes off the ghosts and look at the camera for anything in the world. LOL.


Meeting some of his favorite movie characters...

It was a great trip and we had such a good time. Now I need a vacation from my vacation because I am exhausted. I came home with a million pictures that I need to start scrapping since the memories are still fresh in my old mind.

I should have some new layouts up this weekend!

Surfer Dude

Hello everyone! Here's a two-page layout I did this week for a challenge. I shot so many photos of my son learning how to boogie board, that I had a really hard time paring them down. I like how quick and to the point 1-page layouts are but I like to mix it up sometimes.

All of the paper and most of the embellishments are from My Mind's Eye Breaking Free line. I love the muted colors and they are perfect for the lovely olive-colored water we have in Jersey. The film strip is a cool overlay from Little Yellow Bicycle's travel line.

This is one of my favorite parts of the layout. I cut up some solid paper to mimic the wave in the Cowabunga die cut. I think that the pearls and jewels add interest and detail to the "swoosh".

Have a great weekend!

He's Torturing Us

This is another page that I did at a crop a couple of weeks ago. It's simple and came together quickly using coordinating papers from Bo Bunny Press and chipboard from Cosmo Cricket's Early Bird line. I love the feminine feel of it without it being overwhelmingly "girlish". It's really a page about me and how I will not miss eating dinner with a cranky, willful 3-year-old stinker. He's usually such a good little guy, but he does not like long drawn-out restaurant meals one bit, even if they are overlooking the Inner Harbor.

The upper left hand corner of this photo looked empty to me. I was at a crop, so printing a better one was not an option. I grabbed some brown floss and my needle and sewed a cross-stitch pattern to add texture and hide that washed out spot.

I loved the colors in this flower chipboard circle but it was a little small for the spot. I outlined it with some colored brads from Bazzill adding a little interest and weight to it.

I have a few more layouts that I really need to take pictures of. Hopefully the rain will hold out, I can get that done this week. Thanks for looking!

A Fear of Dinos

Ah yes, it's Fall in the northeast and it's one of my favorite times of the year. The mornings are crisp and Nico goes back to his regular preschool schedule. This means one full day of scrapping a week for Mama. Life is good!

The moment I saw this dinosaur line by My Mind'e Eye, I had five different pages in mind. Nico loves dinosaurs and has so many books, toys and even T-Rex shoes that I knew I would need all of it. This page is about how Nico has recently developed fears of the very things that he loves the most (dinosaurs, slides, spooky houses). The journaling goes on to describe the who/what/when of his fears and how I feel about it. I thought it was important to mark this milestone in my (usually) brave little guy's life.

This is one of those pages that took me forever to do. As a matter of fact, this is the second version of it. I had it all done and left it on my work table. When I took a look at it the next morning, I hated it and started all over. I don't do this very often, but I also know when a layout is not working for me.

All of the paper, brads and chipboard is from MME's Abby Road Collection. The big green letters are Bo Bunny Press. The grass border is from K&Co's AtoZ line that I got at Michaels. And last but not least is the canvas ribbon from Lil Davis, a company I sorely miss.

Have a great Labor Day weekend everyone!

Batting Practice

This has been a busy week in the Damiano household. I've been running around like a madwoman with Nico in tow, meeting all our friends & family for the last playdates of summer. I had one short day of downtime this week so all I got done was this one layout. It seems that I've really slowed down with scrapping this summer. I miss it!

Here's another simple, clean layout using mostly Cosmo Cricket paper and chipboard. I love the color combination in the stripe paper and based the layout on this scheme. The cloud paper is October Afternoon and I thought it was a great way to break up all of the solids.

Those huge black letters are rub-ons by Autumn Leaves and they are at least a couple of years old. Love that! They are also top-notch as far as rub-ons go, they go on smoothly and with very little rubbing. I couldn't believe they were in such great shape after sitting in a drawer for 3+ years.

I haven't done a 2-pager in a while and I really enjoyed working in the larger format. I have a feeling that you will see alot more like this in the next two weeks!

Philadelphia Zoo

Here's a really quick one that I did this past weekend at a crop. I usually do very simple pages when I'm out because I just can't stand to pack that much stuff for a crop. I try to bring as little as possible so my pages usually come out super simple and streamlined. I always end up adding a little something when I get home.

I love these zoo stickers by Doodlebug. They are very cutesy, but sometimes I like that. The tree is from Maya Road and I covered it with some green Crate Paper I had on hand. The rest of the paper is Doodlebug. The huge chipboard brackets are from an old Fancy Pants sheet that I've had laying around here forever. It feels good to use "old" stuff like that and goodness know I have alot of "old" stuff around here!

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!

Scrapbooks Etc.

This first layout is one of my all time favorite Magic Kingdom layouts. I was so unbelievably happy when Erikia Ghumm of Scrapbooks Etc. asked to publish it in her travel article for their Aug/Sep 2009 issue. It's so freaking cool to see it in print! This was my very first time being published by Scrapbooks Etc. and I am so excited.

This layout I posted for my very good scrappy friend, Teri. This one was buried in a pile of Disney layouts that still have to be put in albums. When Teri reminded me of it recently, I dug it out. I love this polka dot diecut paper from Creative Imaginations. I layered a darker sheet of teal cardstock behind it for contrast. I wish I had bought more of it! Not sure why we look so orange in these pictures. It's a bad scan I guess. Seriously, we don't look like oompa loompas in real life!

This last layout I did recently for a challenge over at the Scrapbooks Etc. blog. It's my take of a sketch by Lisa Storms . I love the clean lines and whimsical accents across the top. Thanks Lisa for the inspiration!

On Hiatus

Wow! I can't believe it's been almost a whole month since I blogged. Sorry folks! Life just got so busy in July with birthdays and vacations. It seems that more than half of my family members, including me, have summer birthdays. It makes for lots of fun celebrations and a very busy time of the year.

I'm getting back into the swing of things and I've been scrapping again this week. Actually, I finally finished the Baltimore album I had posted a sneak peek of. The bad news is, I can't post it yet. The good (great!) news is that you will be able to see the entire mini album very soon over at my favorite online store, http://www.amillionlittlethings.typepad.com/. This is where I do most of my shopping and the owner Jill is as sweet as can be. I'll be sure to post when it's featured on the AMLT blog.

So here are two of my favorite projects right now. The Green Eggs layout was so much fun to create. I'm loving the Cosmo Cricket's spinner cards but sometimes using them is difficult because they are so darn big! I tucked half of it behind my focal point photo and voila, it's the perfect size.

This second layout, "Mr. Tom Turkey", features an older October Afternoon line that I love. Actually, I love pretty much anything OA puts out. The vintage colors and patterns are so easy to work with. My son actually helped me season the bird this year and I want to remember what a good little helper he was at just 3 year old. The funniest part was when he waved goodbye to Tom and closed the oven door with a slam.

I'll be back tomorrow with a few more projects!

A Pirate's Bath for Me!

I'm still hard at work finishing up the Baltimore album but yesterday I decided to take a little break and start a new project. I love how these pictures of my son in the bathtub turned out. I had to stand on the edge of the tub to take the shot from above. Luckily, I didn't slip and kill myself (or the boy).

I knew that I wanted to tell the story about how he loves taking a bath and runs upstairs when my husband says "bath time". Nico's favorite part is playing with this huge assortment of pirate bath toys that I picked up at Target last year.

I used a really bold color palette with a touch of black to frame it all out. I am loving all shades of aqua lately and have been using it like mad. I think that my favorite part of the layout is the pirate hat emblem that I made using Maya Road chipboard circles (painted black) and these silver stick-on metal studs from Me & My Big Ideas. They are flat and sticky on the back making them a snap to put on. I can think of a thousand uses for these.

So there it is - Nico's bath story, metal studs, bold colors, and no one got hurt! (this time).