Favourite Dudes - Stuck?!

Hey guys.
I am back again, currently sitting outside in the amazing sunshine typing while my kiddos play happily. This is why I hold onto my uni life and always buy laptops!
I have today a layout of Jayce with a photo bomb from a not so familiar face, daddy. I really should start scrapping more photos of him with the kids but he is not a fan of being in front of the lens and some how manages to take a horrible shot 95% of the time...

Favourite Dudes

To create the page I have used only Bella Blvds Max collection. I love this collection! It was not love at first sight though. Originally I did not think I would get much use out of it but brought it anyway out of customer loyalty. Now four layouts later I still intend to use it again.

The design for this page is based on the September 1st sketch at Stuck?! sketches which is currently celebrate its 1 year birthday. Ha-Ha-Happy Birthday!
As is my style, I have kept very true to the sketch. However I did tweak it a little:
Switching paint drops for fussy cut speech bubbles...

stitched circles for stars...

and moving the journalling over because I ran out of room.

Thanks for checking it out. Hoping to be back again tomorrow with another share. Fingers crossed for double nap time. (Toes crossed too)
XoXoX Nicole

Crazy Hair Days - Stuck?!

Another layout completed in the month of July. I think I might be verging on a monthly record!
Todays page features my daughter Chloe on an interesting hair day or two. The poor bub. Her Mum got the date wrong and sent her to day care with crazy hair a week early, woops, so she got to celebrate twice.

Crazy Hair Days

The design of the page is courtesy of the current July 1st sketch at Stuck?! This sketch instantly caught my attention. I had to play along and have been planning this layout all month!! I even linked my last page up at Stuck?! by accident, it has been on my mind that much!

I kept very true to the sketch, its perfect as is. Only needing to split the title next to both the photos as it was a bit too long for just the one.

Triangles are a serious trend at the moment so I decided to embrace them in the sketch design adding a few extras which gave more attention to the non-triangle elements such as the photos, flair and the &.

Recently I read a tutorial by the amazing scrapbooker Stephanie Buice on Sewing on your Layouts for My Creative Scrapbook. You can also find it and other awesome pages on her blog My Bits Of Sunshine.
It answered one question I had since my aunty Mandy let me borrow her sewing machine "How do you make the starts/finishing of your sewing look neat?" The answer was so simple poke it back through a hole. Derrrrrr. So I went a little sewing crazy and went all around the edge and around each background triangle. The corner below is the start/stop point, can you tell?
I used the gab created between the sewing and paper edge to do my journalling which fitted perfectly right around.

I have again gone Simple Stories exclusive this time using the DIY Boutique collection. An absolutely amazing collection full of colour, cool black/white patterns and lots of fun stickers! Including some clear stickers of fabulous words just perfect for adding onto the photos themselves.

Part of the reason I chose this collection was for the ampersand paper to help emphasis that it was crazy hair dayS! My bad.
Think I might start using black cardstock more often. Hope you like the page. See you again soon.
XoXoX Nicole

Water Slide - Stuck?!

Yet another page to share, say what!?! Which takes my January total to 5, think I can make it to 6...?
This layout is about Chloe having a ball on a water slide in the backyard, I think Brenden had just as much fun and we all had to have a go!

Water Slide

The design for this layout was also from a sketch challenge over at Stuck?! When I saw the sketch it was kinda an obvious choice which photos to scrap with it.

I was pleasantly surprised when I looked back at the photos I took and noticed I had managed to catch a snap of Chloes face soo happy while sliding down, I had to emphasis it! I did so my printing it zoomed, in a different shape, backing it with white on some foam dots and sticking fun words around it.

More often then not my journalling is usually just your basic who, what, where and when. Lately I have realised that my photos usually tell more of a story and I am endeavoring to get more of it onto my pages. 'causes lets face it, otherwise I'll just forget. So with these photos I have also dived into a little bit about Chloes rocking relationship with water.

So do any of the design features of this page look familiar? Think you have seen them before? You should have!
Yep, folks. That's right. This page is part of a double page layout, only my second ever. I shared the first part with you yesterday. The total layout looks a lil like this:

Did you notice any of the halved embellishments yesterday? How do you think I did? I am very out of my depths working with two pages but love that I can comfortably put on lots of photos. All the photos are from the same afternoon of fun in the backyard.
Thanks for dropping by.
XoXoX Nicole

Materials.
Kraft Cardstock
Bella Blvd - Sophisticates - Sparkles & Lace Plum
Bella Blvd - Sunshine & Happiness - Cute Cuts
Bella Blvd - Sunshine & Happiness - Happy Clouds
Bella Blvd - Sand & Surf - Boarders
Bella Blvd - Spring Flings & Easter Things - Cute Cuts
Bella Blvd - Winter Wonder - Icy
Bella Blvd - Winter Wonder - Ski Slopes
Bella Blvd - Baby Boy - Cute Cuts
Bella Blvd - Sunshine & Happiness - Alpha + Bits
Bella Blvd - Spring Flings & Easter Things - Miniatures
Bella Blvd - Flags - Floral
Bella Blvd - Sophisticates - Ciao Chip Pickle Juice

Chloe from the Block

Well hello, how are we all?
I've stopped by to share a scrap page with a favorite photo of lil bubba girl.
I started the page with an exact picture in my mind of what I wanted it to look like and it was nothing like this:

The inspiration came from the 1st September sketch over at Stuck?! which can be found here and looks alot like this:

I stayed extremely close to the sketch. Taking it very literal. Stars where there is stars and chevrons where there's chevrons. Two photos, two circles and some paper strips.

I did struggle with the chevrons for quite awhile. The We R paper I have used in the circle is very imposing and didn't give me much room to move in terms of colours and patterns. Everything I put there either completely took away from the photos or could barely be seen hence looked pointless and silly. Eventually I just stuck em all down. I also struggle with the same issue for all the other paper bits and considered backing everything in black, got lazy and just inked all the edges. But it does make a huge difference!

I have started to trust myself with inks lately. I like the way they kinda break up the backing paper a bit and make it more personalised. This time I've taken it a step further and used a technique I picked up from an Australian scrapbooking show called Scrapit TV. I've stamped the image with versa mark embossing ink and then rubbed chalk over the top. The chalk sticks more to the ink then the paper and gives a great effect! I used grey chalk this time and found myself wishing it was a bit darker so I went back and just stamped the image in black as well.

I think Chloe looks a lil bit like a gangster with the hat to the side. I was just going to call the page 'that hat' but the my mum actually came up with 'Chloe from the Block' after a song. At the time I was visiting in Victoria and had access to a cricut cutting machine =D (oh did I have fun with it! More on that another time) and quickly cut out the word block in block looking font. To make it look more realistic I have put foam dots under part of the letter and stuck the edge directly to black cardstock so that it does look like a 3D block.

The rock on hand is another cricut cut out that I just couldn't resist doing. I again have to say a big thank you to my mum who is the extremely patient person that glued the lil teeny tiny fingers down and also some other very fiddly bits that I cut out (included the stars layered stars in the corner of the photos).
Thanks mum and thank you for popping by.
XoXoX Nicole.

Materials:
Crate Paper - Maggie Holmes - Click
We R Memory Keepers - Love 2 Craft - Poplin
Sassafras - Indie Girl - Affection
My Minds Eye - Lime Twist - Happy Go Lucky 'Hello' Bubbles
Cardstock - Black and Purple
Cricut - Printing Press and Rock Princess cartiage
Kaisercraft - Clear Stamp - Retro
Versamark - Embossing Ink
Momento Ink -  Tuxedo Black
Chalk

Nice 2 meet You!

So considering Chloe just celebrated her first birthday, I thought I should get my butt in gear and finally scrap photos from her literal 'birth' day.
This page is about Chloe meeting her two grandmothers and great aunt still in the delivery room just hours after her birth.

I began the page using a sketch over on the Stuck?! blog which looks like this:

It ended up a little bit different to the sketch, but I think it is still there.

This page was made from only Bella Blvd products. I love there stuff, its all so fun! Most is from the first (and still only) paper pack I ever purchased, Bella Blvd Baby Girl. I have had it in my stash since I started scrapping but it collected dust because I was kinda scared to use it incase I ruined it. Silly I know.

Each photo spot is only attached by the hand stitching so that they can hinge open. I plan to ask each of the lovely ladies to write a little something about meeting Chloe for the first time and I'll put it under their respective photo.

I used some 'baby pink' paint and added some hearts plus a baby nappy pin, there were a lot more but the photos ended up covering them..

Still have many more pages of Chloes early life to do and I've already completed over 40 pages. This is going to be one very documented little girl.
Nicole
XoXoX