First Day of First Grade

I've been trying to work in a little more scrapbooking time lately. I tend to craft in short increments of time, usually 15 minutes to an hour. The nice thing about the way my craft room is set up is that I have two working surfaces. On my counter, I can leave out an ongoing project like a scrapbook layout (I'm a very slow scrapper), which leaves my table free for stamping and cardmaking.

Here is a layout that I worked on throughout the past week. It documents her first day of first grade this past fall.


I cut out individual leaves from the patterned paper and popped them up on foam adhesive dots to make accents for the title and journaling box.

I made the journaling box wider by stamping the image on the right, then flipping the stamp over and stamping it again on the left.

I hope you all are staying warm, dry, and safe! Here in Western PA, we are expecting another 4" to 8" inches of snow in the next 24 hours. I think I'll make French toast and sausage for dinner, grab some blankies, and have an early pajama night with the kiddos.

Shannon Shows Off!

My first papercrafting love is scrapbooking. Telling stories with words and photos, preserving our family history and those special, fleeting moments in time, and all the while playing with fun supplies? It's heavenly!

This is a simple layout I just completed for this week's Crafty Secrets challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers for which Lori asked us to show her our spots.

There is so much going on in these photos in terms of background, but I didn't want to crop any of them because I wanted to preserve as many details of Shannon's classroom as I could. My mil took these photos at Shannon's school on Grandparents' Day. So, I kept the background paper and embellishments muted and simple to avoid competing with the busy photos.


I chose the two main colors because I knew they would complement the School Time sticker set from Crafty Secrets. If you're not familiar with this set, make sure you go to the link to get a closer look - they are so adorable! CS's cardstock stickers are sophisticated and every bit as detailed as their stamps, truly a joy to use.

Next I adapted a simple layout design from Becky Higgins' Sketches 2 book, adhered my photos, added a title and some embellies created on the Cricut, and finished it off with journaling I did on the computer. Oh, I also added some spots on the journaling blocks with some Versamark ink and a circle stamp, but the camera didn't pick those up.

Details:
Patterned paper: Stampin' Up!
Cardstock: Stampin' Up!
Stickers: Crafty Secrets - School Time
Title & Flourishes: Cricut, Storybook Cartridge

Thanks for taking the time to stop by today! Have a great Thursday!

Marcy