A Great Adventure

After weathering Hurricane Sandy and going a week without power, shivering in my freezing apartment without heat or hot food, I really just wanted to think of something warm and fun. So I found a photo from a trip to Great Adventure I went on with my cousin, sister, and friends a few years ago that captured just what I was looking for.

I created the roller coaster just by drawing it with a ruler and cutting it out with a razor. Then I drew in the tracks with a red sharpie to match the colors in the rest of the layout. I made the cart with black card stock and a yellow striped tag that I had and drew in the people with a fine point black pen, which I also used to make the lines denoting movement. I had what I thought was a brilliant idea to use alphabet stamps to put in the "scream" but when I pressed them on I must have done it with a bit too much pressure because the corners of it got on the page and it looks much less pleasing than I was going for.

I hand drew the letters for "A Great Adventure" title using sharpie markers which I then used a razor to cut out. I tried three different types of drawn lettering before I finally decided to go with this. I made sure to stick with the red, yellow, and blue to keep a primary color color scheme in the layout. I didn't originally set out to do that but as the page progressed it had gone that way organically and at half way done I made the conscious decision to keep it going, something that I think paid off because even though the page has a lot going on it still feels cohesive to me.

I bought these animal stickers quite a while ago that I can't really seem to use ever. I put them here on this page to imitate the safari that I didn't get to go on, but even though they have a reason for being there I'm still not sure they really fit. Alas, they don't really seem to fit on any page I try to do with them but I suppose they could have looked worse because in fact they did. LOL Originally the larger animal stickers were all squared off so it looked really goofy, to mitigate this I cut them closely to the animal so that they would fit in a bit more.

Make A Funny Face

I created this layout for the Flying Unicorn September challenge "Embrace the Space." I didn't actually get to enter it because when I finally got around to posting it I hadn't yet joined the site and I wasn't approved yet on the day I was ready to load it up.

The requirements of the challenge were:

• Not a digital layout
• 1/2 of the space must not have an embellishment
• Must be a new design as of September 1st

So here it is. I've always been a proponent of the "funny face" photo. As a matter of fact it's probably harder to get a photo of me without a funny face. It doesn't matter where I am as long as I'm surrounded by the people who love me I will act a fool (this does not mean I'll be rude just that I'll be silly).

 For this layout I used a lot of paper piecing's that I created myself. The rainbow is different cardstock that I cut out in an arch and layered and attached to the cloud. For the cloud I had originally had a cloud that I stuck on top of the rainbow, however it didn't look quite right to me that way, so I cut the wavy line through the center of the cloud and inserted the end of the rainbow so it would look more like the rainbow was actually coming out of the clouds. 

I used my circle punch to cut circles out of the same cardstock I used for the rainbow and lined the bottom of my photo with it. I was originally going to layer the frames around the photo in all the different cardstock's as well but it was making the border too big and I would have definitely covered more than half of the page if I had done so, effectively kicking myself out of the competition I was unable to enter anyway LOL. Thus I chose the three primary colors to do my border in, for without red, yellow, and blue there would be no rainbow. The paint drips beneath the photo were made using my watercolor brush pens. I just held them in place for a really long time until the paint started to drip out, then I held the paper vertically so it would run down the page, finally I went back and added the splatters manually because the drip method didn't create any.

I used the Tooney Noodle font and colored the letters using sharpie markers. The silly faces I drew are also done with the sharpies and I had lots of fun making them. This was one of the most fun pages I've made in quite a while. The whole thing was silly and I really enjoyed it. I hope you liked looking at it as much as I liked making it. 

A Recipe for Cousins

These photos are from my cousin Tara's (she's the only blonde in the picture, not my only blonde cousin but the only one to be at the dinner) college graduation. Originally I was going to do a graduation themed layout but when I started trying to incorporate all of the photos from the day it got a bit overwhelming and started looking extremely busy. Since "busy" is one of the areas I'm trying to improve on I decided I didn't want to go there and these two photos were calling out to me.

I went back and forth between "sugar and spice" and "naughty or nice" for this. Ultimately "sugar and spice" won out because "naughty or nice" seemed more of an opportunity for a Christmas themed layout, an idea I am definitely considering using for some of my holiday photos, so don't be surprised if a "naughty or nice" layout shows up some time soon on this blog. With the decision to do sugar and spice my mind immediately went to the poem:

Sugar and spiceand everything nicethat's what little girls are made of
Sunshine and rainbowsand ribbons for hair bowsthat's what little girls are made of
Tea parties, lacesand baby doll facesthat's what little girls are made of 

From there I decided to make it into a recipe. I found some free downloadable recipe cards which I put in photoshop to alter slightly to go with my aesthetic and use a handwriting font to write up my cousin recipe.  

 I really like the color scheme for this layout, I actually started with just the solid pink and green but found it looked very plain and unappealing so I brought in the patterned papers but still found it lacking due to the matchy matchyness of it all and that's when I decided to bring in the periwinkle background which I fell in love with. The "sugar" and "spice" letters I used came in my "the Summer of '69" August kit from Studio Calico. Every month I'm excited to receive my new kit even if I stockpile everything in it and rarely create a layout that includes only things from it. LOL

These cupcakes were cut out using an exacto knife from a cardstock filled with cupcakes and candy. It was a time consuming endeavor but one that I think paid off as I really like the way they came out. I originally tried using scissors but the flexibility and maneuverability just wasn't there and I butchered a cupcake and a little pink frosted cake before I would admit it. The baked goods fit in with my recipe idea as well as the whole "sweet" thing so I was happy with them.

 I used star and heart shaped punches on the same patterned papers that I used in the rest of the layout to add sprinkles throughout the page. I chose and  cut several different words (friendship, kindness, lovely, happiness, sweet, etc.) from a cardstock that was just many different words on an off-white background to highlight the best things about me and my beautiful cousins' relationship.  It's hard to see here but the pink striped tab on top of the recipe card is from a Studio Calico kit, I hand wrote the recipe title onto the tab so it would seem more authentic.

 Here you can see more of the hearts and stars as well as one of the little pink cakes I cut out as well as a closeup of some of the recipe card  I created. The "happy" button is also from a Studio Calico kit, I'm not sure if it was the Summer of '69 kit or a different one but it did come in a kit.

This photo and the previous one both also show some of the paper layering I incorporated in this layout. I am becoming partial to the layering effect because it lets me use so many different papers in one layout without wasting all the paper. It also lets me save what wasn't used to incorporate into other layouts as well.

These butterflies are from some pre-punched paper punches I purchased off ebay. There are quite a bunch of different ones but some of the paper choices were strange or don't match anything I actually own, so with these butterflies I just flipped them over and used the white side rather than the orange and brown paper they were punched from. The little movements are stickers from different gem butterflies. The sticker butterflies didn't really look right on the page but I liked the movement dots so there they are.

This is the part of my layout that I'm not to happy with. I really need to do some work on my lettering placement. The way I've placed it you can't really tell if it's supposed to say "What are beautiful cousins made of?" or "What are cousins beautiful made of?" The problem was that I had glued down the first three words before I noticed how bad the rest of it looked. Well there is always room for improvement and that is a goal for the future.


I hope you liked this page as much as I do. I had a lot of fun creating it. Thanks for reading, drop me a line if you have any pointers or comments, I would love to hear from you.

Spa Day

My goal when I started this page was to use a lot of layering and keep the page simple, in keeping with the relaxation theme of a spa day, by using neutral colors and solid cardstock. As you can see, that didn't exactly happen and the page got away from me as it usually does. Now that it's completed I can see where I went wrong. It would have been fine to do paper layering, it even would have been fine to use all the different prints instead of solid colors; where I went wrong is all the different types of layering. I used circles, squares, strips, and even started a sunburst pattern, however I didn't stick with any of these. I went wild with all the different types and the page looks a mess. That being said, there are some positive points that stand out for me.

I really like how these footprints came out. I have a foot paper punch that I flipped over to get right and left footprints. The glitter on one foot was a happy accident, and even though you can still see the glue on the page I still like that it ties in with the pedicure pictures. Since the page is so busy these small little feet get lost in the shuffle, however I think it's a positive aspect of the page. If I can ever reign in my scrapbooking insanity I may finally get some quality pages.

While I was taking these photos my kitten, Ninja, decided to try walking all over it. That's how I wound up with this gem. She's just delightful, I'm going to have to let her inspire me to do a page all of her own.

These three buttons and the flag are also something I like. I don't usually use buttons in my layouts but I had these from my Studio Calico kit and I think they worked out well. 

Admittedly these flags don't work with the whole page, only adding to its business, but on an individual note they look good. I can appreciate how other people manage to use this embellishment to success, I however have let it get lost in the shuffle of my way too busy page. One day I will manage to create a page that I am proud of, it will be clean and simple; it will have an overarching theme, and every element on the page will have a purpose and stand out because of it.

Hooray! to being on my way to greatness.

My First Pages

I'm trying to figure out which blog site I want to use to do my blog. My original blog was www.ericascraps.wordpress.com but I found the site a little confusing to use so I'm giving this one a try. 

I started scrapbooking again about a year ago and I want to document the changes in how I do things and hopefully show how I've improved. I'm optimistic that through changes in my processes, more attention to detail, and more options in supplies my layouts will improve and I'll be less and less embarrassed that my work isn't as good as all the other scrapbook layouts I see out there,

As a frame of reference these are the first 3 pages I did when I started back up. I was making a scrapbook of myself, my sister (Sam), and my cousin (Jillian) so I put together a page for each of us that included all of our elementary and high school yearbook photos that I could find and were each done in our individual favorite colors’. They came out with varying degrees of success, with my page of course coming out the worst LOL.

My Page: This is the first one I did, it’s my own photos and of course it’s in blue, which you will notice from many of my other layouts, is my absolute favorite color.

This is of course; me. Ta da!

I’m not all that happy with the paper choices on this one, but in my defense this was very early in my scrapbooking career. At the time I was very limited in paper choice and even more limited in those in the blue spectrum. I didn’t measure anything before I cut it and I didn’t have plan on how I wanted it to look before I started sticking everything on the page. I like dragonflies so I randomly stuck some stickers haphazardly on there and mostly it looks like I had no idea what I'm doing. As you can see it’s pretty awful; on the positive side there is plenty of room for improvement.

Samantha: This is the second one I did and it’s for my sister who loves the color pink.

My little Sammy Girl

I like this one better. I actually did a basic sketch before I started this one. I still didn’t measure anything or even attempt to mark it off on the page where I wanted everything to go, however the use of the sketch definitely improved the final product. I chose a “circle” theme for this one, which I think may actually have come out better if I’d put some kind of outline around so they would be better defined. I’m not a fan of the baby picture stuck down on the bottom because it looks just haphazardly stuck on, which is pretty much the case because I didn’t spend much time figuring out where I wanted to put things on the page; in fact I hadn’t even counted the number of images I was going to include. This wouldn’t be such a big problem except that I actually started gluing images down before I’d even worked out the layout of the page. I created the name tag myself with a piece of cardstock, markers, and sticky jewels (as I post more pages you will notice my love of all things glittery and sparkly). I think this page is a definite improvement on the first.

Jillian: Cousin Jill loves green and I love her page.

Jumping Jilly Beans

I’m not sure if it was her color choice or just the fact that I chose a better theme but this one is my favorite of the three, and even still manages to be one of my favorite pages even though I have improved my process. Again I did a layout sketch for this one, the difference being that I learned my lesson about adhesion and on this one I laid everything out before I started gluing away. I also used paper-piecing patterns from ScrapbooksEtc. I got the tulips here and thebutterflies here. I used sticky jewels to map the butterflies flight path and while I think it gets the point across I think I should have used smaller sized jewels and put the pattern closer together to make it look more obvious. The bottom green piece is another place for improvement because again I didn’t measure out the piece to make sure it was straight across and when I discovered my error instead of cutting a new piece (which I didn’t do because I was unemployed at the time and didn’t want to waste the paper because I couldn’t afford much) I tried to disguise the crookedness by cutting waves into the paper. It sounds like I’m down on it but I’m not, like I said I love this page, imperfections and all.

Thanks for reading, I appreciate it more than you know!