Florida Trip

I have these great photos of my Great-Grandma, Leah Gerber.  In the photo on the left, she is standing outside one of her daughters' houses, with her packed suitcase, saying good-bye before traveling to Florida on a bus to see relatives.  

The photo on the right has her handwriting on the back of it and it says "that is a banana tree I standing under."  She is holding a little boy in the photo and we haven't been able to figure out who it would be.  I asked my mother and my cousin Sharon to help with anything they knew about the photos or her travels to Florida, and that is all they came up with.  We're not even sure who she would have been visiting.

I used one of my all time favorite Studio Calico kits, Glee Club, for the layout.  I added lots of other embellishments from my stash including my new favorite - mini-clothespins - and a vintage flower from my mom's stash.  I wanted to create a little more layering and texture than I normally do, so I had this idea to take vellum, wrinkle it, and use it as a matting behind a photo.  I took out the vellum, crinkled it, and it basically just broke and teared.  Silly idea.  But then I tried wetting the paper first, crinkling it, and then letting it dry.  It worked exactly like I hoped.  It is under the photo on the right.  I used foam dots to give a little dimension.

I also created a hidden journaling card, which I have been loving lately.  The Slice has a perfect little tab design and I cut that out of the Studio Calico advertising cards that come in kits.  I used more of the advertising card on the bottom.

Have a great week everyone!

Read, Write, Learn

I mentioned on a message board at Studio Calico that while the May 2011 kit, Lawn Party was one of my favorite kits, I hadn't touched it!  My sister saw my comment and challenged me to get out the kit and create something with it.  I had a handwritten note that had been sitting on the counter from my niece who lives in France.  Her father (my husband's brother) had visited us in MA recently and she sent the note with him for us.  I have a hard time getting rid of personal notes and cards like that, so I decided to use it as part of a scrapbook page.
The note that she wrote made me think about the last time we saw her and how she had the most beautiful penmanship and how she loved reading aloud to her Uncle Craig.  I had taken photos of her reading, and I used one of them on the layout, as well as her note to us.

This kit was perfect for this fun layout!  "Read, Learn, Grow" came from the Silhouette library and I thought it was the perfect tittle for this layout.

Are there any Studio Calico kits that you love, but haven't used yet?  I challenge you to create a layout with it!

Have a great week everyone!

Happy Valentine's Day!

For Valentine's Day, I thought I'd share a layout that I created over the weekend with the February 2012 Studio Calico kit, Daydream Believer.  Such a great kit!  The layout is a really old photo of my grandparents, Art and Ruth.  I'll have to ask my mom about when she thinks the photo was taken - I'm not sure, but it could maybe be around 1920? 

My mother gave me my grandma Ruth's wedding ring and wedding band several years ago and I have been wearing them ever since.  I could tell that the band was inscribed, but I couldn't make out what it said.  When I was at my parent's house over Christmas, I asked my dad for a magnifying glass (because dads have those kinds of things!) so that I could try to read the inscription.  We were in the living room and as I could make out each letter, I read them aloud:  A L - R G Apr 19.  Those were my grandparent's initials and their wedding date.

My mother instantly teared up.  I'm not sure what she was thinking about or remembering, but seeing the inscription made me think about my grandparents long before they were grandparents.  It made me think about them being young and in love and excited about getting married and spending the rest of their lives together.  I don't think we really think about our grandparents that way too often. 

Here is a close up of the journaling card that I created:

I hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

January 2012 Studio Calico - County Fair

This month I thought that it would be fun to share all of the projects that I completed with the January 2012 Studio Calico kit before the February kit arrived.  My February kit came last night, so - time's up!  I ended up finishing four layouts and one card.  That is really good for me (which may be why I want to share!)  I also thought that it would be fun to see the projects all together to see how different or similar they were.

I only bought the main kit this month, County Fair.

Perfect Baby

My absolute most favorite layout!  I added some October Afternoon from the Farmhouse Collection that I had in my stash and those cute little clothespins from Canvas Corp.  That brown paper with the letters is from the packaging from the wood veneer letters from the month's kit.

4-H

The colors in this kit were perfect for this photo from my 4-H days.  I created the 4-H symbol with my Silhouette Cameo.

Ho Ho Ho

I saw some other people at SC using this wood plank paper on Christmas pages and loved the idea.  The reds and greens in the kit were perfect colors for a traditional Christmas page.

How Berry Sweet of You

Just a quick little card.  I couldn't see using the ribbon on a layout, so I created this card using some string, and letter stickers from my stash.

XOXO

Or maybe this is my favorite layout of the month.  I can't decide.  I think I love this one because of the amount of work that went into it and because it is a layout celebrating our 20th anniversary that we celebrated this week.  It is also the first wedding photo that I have ever scrapbooked!

I'm sad to put this kit away, I had a lot of fun with it!  But February's kit is sitting here on my desk, ready for me to create with!

I'd love to do this feature once a month, we'll see!  There are months when I get absolutely nothing done the entire month!

Enjoy the rest of your week!

XOXO

I was starting on my fifth project with the January 2012 Studio Calico kit, County Fair, and I hadn't even touched the BG wooden buttons or the Jenni Bowlin doily flowers.  I liked them, I thought they were super cute, I just couldn't figure out how to make them work on a layout.  I was at work one day and an idea popped into my head that used both of them (shhhh, don't tell anyone I think about scrapbooking while I'm reviewing tax returns!)  I sketched out the idea on the paper pad next to me so that I wouldn't forget it.  This layout is the result.

The 20th anniversary of the day me and my husband met was this last Wednesday.  He was in California on business for the entire week, so I didn't even get to give him a kiss or hug!  I decided to make a layout about how I was feeling that day.  I wrote the journaling on our anniversary and worked on the layout the rest of the week.  The photo is from our wedding eight+ years ago.  

I came up with the title 'XOXO' when I was looking at the remaining SC wood veneer letters that I had. So many X's and Q's!  I realized that the Q's and O's were exactly the same except for the little tails on the Q's.  I broke them off, filed them down, and used them as O's.  (disclaimer - I used the Q's turned O's on a different layout - I wanted to make sure this layout was perfect!)  I traced the flowers onto the AC dandelion cardstock and used that as a backing for the flowers.  I sketched out stems for the flowers and hand-stitched them.  I used the wooden buttons with a bow to 'gather' the stems of the flowers.

Have a great week everyone!

Brenda