He Loves to Read + Winners

This just went up in the 2Peas gallery this week. It's about a boy and his love of books. I love it when I can catch him just "being" and he's so into what he's doing, he doesn't even notice me. Capturing a little slice of life.

I just added layers and layers of patterns and alphas and stuff. Keeping the linear look, but with interesting little details (I hope!). If you want to take a peek at my supply list, you can find that here.

First up, the winner of a spot in Amy Heller's Kaleidoscope class is...
Love Summer Fresh. Cannot wait to see what you create. 2peas name: senoritascrapper

And the winner of the Echo Park collection of her choice is: Such an adorable LO! Very cute! I would love to win Hello Summer! Ryann Salaman.


Congratulations winners, I'll be in touch with how to collect your prizes!

2Peas Garden Hop

It's that time again...the twopeasinabucket.com Garden Girls hop! Remember to stop by each and every blog for a peek into what's new and inspiring + fun giveaways.

A sneak of a layout I have coming soon to the Garden. I worked with a mix of patterns from different manufacturers to create a page about my son and his love of books.

This is my favorite part of the hop. I'm inspired by so many Peas, that it's hard to choose every month. I picked this layout by Pea mommy2tate because it's so bright, happy and reminds me that summer is oh, so close. She has an amazing linear and colorful style that I love. You can check out the rest of her gallery here.

I don't think I can narrow it down to just five products this month. There are entire collections that I just got and am in *love* with. So right now on top (and all around) my desk are:

Summer Fresh by Simple Stories. I'm using it for everything from Disney to preschool pages. Totally in love with this old-fashioned summer feel.

And because I've never met an office supply I didn't like, the 9 to 5 collection by October Afternoon was a must have.

Indie Chic by My Mind's Eye is perfect for all of my tropical vacation photos. I almost convinced myself that I 'needed' all 146 pieces of this collection, but I held back. A little.

This one I don't have yet, but it's in my bucket. Let Freedom Ring by Pebbles. Love this matching tape and the paper is just as beautiful. I'm going to use it for the Fourth, but also for some cruise pictures and baseball too.

Sweet Day by Echo Park is so pretty that I'm having a hard time using it. I keep taking it out of the package and then putting it back because I can't decide which combination of patterns I love the best. And it has this pretty fabric feel to it too.

For anyone who needs help with color in scrapbooking, I'd recommend Amy Heller's Through the Kaleidoscope class. It's top notch and I've got one spot to give away!

Click to sign up + for more information

The giveaway starts today! Just leave me a comment telling me what your favorite collection is right now and be entered to win. I'll draw a winner a week from today and announce it right here. If you've already signed up or are just about to, no worries. Your class fee will be refunded. Best of luck!

And now on to the hop...go to  Wendy Sue Anderson's blog  to see what she has for you! If you get lost, here's a list you can follow.

Shimelle Laine 

Jen Gallacher 

Amy Tan  

Jill Sprott

Lynn Ghahary 

Amy Heller 

Laura Craigie

Kimber McGray

Nancy Damiano (you are here)

Wendy Sue Anderson

Becky Novacek 

Wilna Furstenberg  

Shannon Tidwell
Kandis Smith

Two Peas Blog

Echo Park Hop

Welcome to the Echo Park Paper Design Team Blog Hop! Today the Echo Park Paper Design Team is showcasing projects from the "Hello, Summer" collection. I made this fun summer page by mixing patterns and stickers from the line.

You can see the entire collection here.

One of my favorite parts is this small chipboard frame filled with letter stickers. It has the names of DS and his cousins, the year and then the random word "sun". It reminds of the old-fashioned plastic word puzzles I played with as a kid. The pinwheel was layered with embossed vellum and placed on a thin wooden stick. This bright page came together quickly with the help of Hello Summer!

Be sure to follow the blog hop list below as you hop from one blog to the next. ONE winner will be selected from each blog to receive an Echo Park Paper collection kit of their choosing. To qualify for the kit, leave a comment with your email address and the kit you'd like to win. Comments are due by midnight EST 5/27/12 to qualify. The winner will be announced on each blog 5/28. Good luck!

Leslie Ashe: 

http://leslieashe.blogspot.com/

Linda Auclair: 

http://elendae.wordpress.com/

Nancy Damiano: 

http://www.thepaperorchard.blogspot.com/

Jennifer Gallacher: 

http://jengallacher.blogspot.com/

Lowri McNabb: 

http://www.papervinenz.com/

Kandis Smith: 

http://www.mycreativetreasury.blogspot.com/

Wendy Sue Anderson: 

http://www.wendysueanderson.blogspot.com/

Link back to Echo Park Paper: http://www.echoparkpaper.typepad.com/

My Boy

Oh this little one gives me a run for the money. Much too observant and sarcastic and daring for just six. And yet, my life without him + the challenge + love would be a boring shade of gray (kinda like my hair is getting). 

Happy belated Mom's Day to my readers. It's just been that kind of week. ;)

Bella Babies - Boy + Girl

I just realized that I haven't shared many of my Bella projects here lately. This first one is Nico @ 6 months old. I think I've had this 8x10 photo in my stash for almost 6 years. I guess waiting for a good baby line to come along and I wasn't quite sure how to work the single enlarged photo into a layout. Bella to the rescue!

click to see the  Bella Baby Boy Collection

The bold orange and blues complement the photo and I love how subtle the "baby" part of the layout is. I think it really lets the photo shine. I punched a 1-1/2 hole at the top of the photo where there was just "dead space" and add some flags and stickers. I think it adds a cute touch without overpowering the picture.

And then I was assigned the Baby Girl collection to work with...

click to see the Bella Baby Girl Collection

 Wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with it since 1. I have no baby girl and 2. I didn't take very many pictures of my niece as an infant. And then I noticed the monkeys and they reminded me of these two silly little kids that I know. I had the photos that told the story and now cute embellishments to go with it. I love when it's easy like that! I love this girl collection and I think that the non-themed sides of the paper are beautiful and go with just about anything.

I am buried, seriously buried in a huge project right now. I should take a sneak peek of the stack of layouts on my desk. Now let me go make another of the 40 (yup 40) layouts I need to finish up. Ack!

Studio Calico 35mm Kit & NSD!

Happy National Scrapbook Day everyone! I'm actually scrapping today which is really unusual on a Saturday. I had to get in on the fun over at 2Peas though and join my scrappy Peas today. There are hops, challenges, prizes and chatting going on if you want to check it out.

This is my finished layout made with the Studio Calico 35mm kit. I avoided the stamp and the spritzing thing (because I'm really bad at both!), but I tried to be as artsy as I could. While maintaining clean, linear lines and big photos since that's more my style. I like the bold contrasting colors and textures. This is definitely not a combination I would've put together myself, so the kit did the hard part. Love that.

Love the hexagon fabric tiles that were in the kit. I turned them over and covered them with washi tape for a different look. The "magic color" alphas by Heidi Swapp were pretty cool too. They remind me of the Mistables products by Pink Paislee that I've worked with in the past.

Okay, off to finish up my last NSD project and then on to enjoy the weekend! I hope you're having a great NSD in your part of the world.

Neapolitan + Winners

I've got so much to share, I'm not sure I can fit it all into this post. First, let me start out with some winners - that's always fun

The winner of the Two Peas in a Bucket Sassy Workshop with Shannon Tidwell is:
Thanks for all your great inspiration. I love classes, so would love to win.
My Pea name is thesnowwhite
and the winner of the Echo Park collection of her choice:
Liz said...

Your card is fab! As is all your work! I love the This & That collection along with this Note To Self! But my fav might be the all so versatile many Dots & Stripes collections!

Thank you everyone so much for commenting! I'll be sending an email to the winners in a minute on how to collect your prizes.

Copyright twopeasinabucket.com.
Here's a complete supply list in case you're curious.

I just made this layout for the 2Peas gallery using the Dear Lizzy Neapolitan line. I don't usually like pastel colors, but these are delicious. They remind me of a Creamsicle. I cut up the polaroid paper to add the border on the bottom, added some chipboard and washi tape to anchor it down. Add lots of layers of pattern for color and fun, with a touch of wood to texture it up. Now that I look at it, it's so much pinker than I usually gravitate to - but I like it!

This layout is why I love scrapping out of chronological order. Now if I were all caught up, I wouldn't be able to re-live Nico's First Easter. These days it's all about Legos, sword fights and Justin Bieber haircuts (don't ask). So it's good to go back in time when I could carry him and pinch those chubby cheeks.

And on my desk today...
It's my very first time working with a Studio Calico kit. I'm not really a stamper or a spritzer, but hopefully I can do this beautiful kit some justice. Look for my completed pages on their blog this Thursday. Wish me luck!