Guesting at American Crafts

Today I'm guesting for one of my favorite companies - American Crafts! I love all of their signature designers and bold in-house designs. They do pattern and color really well and that's my favorite thing about this paper crafting thing.



I worked with their brand new Halloween line. It's full of fun patterned washi tapes, buttons, pins, die cuts and party supplies.


For more photos of the layouts, card and party decor, check the American Crafts blog. Hope to see you there!

SUPPLIES: Spiderwebs | Brads | Halloween Washi | Tags | Wood Buttons | Stitching Template

Process Video + Shimelle.com

I’ve been a longtime fan of Shimelle, both as a teacher and all around good bean. She’s passionate about this paper + story thing and I love that.

For my layout I was really inspired by Shimelle's Scrapbooking Colour Schemes with Pink layout. 
The first thing that caught my eye was the beautiful color scheme. I love bold pops of color and this layout delivers. I also like linear designs that feature repetition of a shape or element so that’s where I ran with this design.

I have a process video here that walks you through on how to dress up plain wood veneer and create a bold band of repeated shapes. Let me know what you think! I’d love to see what you create.

Pinkfresh + Enamel Accents

I love a good, bold statement piece. This veneer heart and enamel heart set by Pinkfresh reminds me of one of those bubble necklaces I could never wear. My neck may be too short to pull the look off, but maybe on paper I could pull it off.


The quadrant design is simple, but I think that the diagonal background keeps it from being too plain. The large wood heart embellishment is balanced out with two 4x4 photos from Disneyland.


A favorite quote from Walt Disney - "Laughter is timeless. Imagination has no age. And dreams are forever" is the journaling starter. I think it wraps up the magic behind the place in just a few short sentences and is the reason why behind the page. We want them to hold to on that part of childhood for as long as we have.

SUPPLIES | Amy Tangerine Paper | Wide Format Printer | White Linen Cardstock | Scraptastic Janglin' Kit

Project Life + Enamel Dots

I've been working on catching up on summer photos in my project life album. Why is it that we take three times the pictures in those short 100 days of summer?



The reason I stayed away from doing project life for so long is because I hate to have a project that I always feel behind on. So I let go of that and just do a monthly spread (or five) depending on how many photos I have and what I want to say. This is what works for me.


I had a handful of 3x3photos but no page protectors with a 3x3 pocket. Hello Fuse tool sealer! I added a row of giant, colorful enamel dots to the bottom of the pockets and then sealed them up with the tool. That created a perfect spot for my 3x3 photos straight in the center.

I like to make what I have on hand work. The Fuse has really helped me to stick with that. It's definitely been cheaper to buy the tool than to buy all different page protectors.


If you're wondering what I did with the other side of this page protector - this is it! You have to remember to plan out both sides when you seal up pockets. It was easy enough to repeat the same design on the opposite side - giant enamel dots back to back and all!


SUPPLIES | Giant Enamel Dots | Fuse Tool | Hooray Chipboard | Ombre Ink Pad | Scraptastic This Life Noted

Process Video + Crate Paper

This vacation photo reminds me of one thing. My son’s constant chatter pool side. At 7 years old, it was a chorus “hey mom, look at me, hey mom, look at this.” So while I really wanted to relax and get lost in a book, it wasn’t happening.


I think back to this vacation and remember two things: “hey mom” and the image of his little behind. This picture captures that story.

The words are definitely the focal point here and so the photo is surrounded by them. Oh, and the flamingos. I love those hard and had to find a way to use them! Take a look at this quick process video to see how it all came together:

Documenting words + photos is at the heart of scrapbooking design for me. This page and stage in my boy’s life is part of the story I want to tell.  And that “look at me” stage? - it has mostly passed just like I knew it would. 

SUPPLIES | Crate Paper Poolside | October Afternoon Labels | Crate Paper Enamel | Wide Format Printer | White Linen Cardstock |  Scraptastic Summertime Rolls Kit

Project Life + Kit

I've been doing more and more project life pages since switching over to the 9x12 size. I find the layouts coming together really easily and I love that I can include more photos and still have room for the colorful things.

Pink and with hints of yellow were the theme this time.  The color palette reminds me of the big coral building that make up the Atlantis Resort. That’s what inspired the design here.

I kept this one very simple with a mash up of iPhone photos. The story is about how much we enjoyed our fancy adult dinners. Bobby Flay was amazing!

I like highlighting the words that already come printed on the cards with some of my own. On the title card I added my chipboard title just underneath, some stamping and an enamel dot. So that very flat card became personalized with a few quick mods. I used the July Scraptastic This Life Noted kit to create this page.

SUPPLIES | Hooray Chipboard | Hero Arts Ombre Ink | Scraptastic July Kit