Two for Two

I am back this week with two layouts as promised. I worked with my Cricut Expression on both of these layouts. I needed to put this machine to use. You know! Its easy to get caught up in buying all the cool cartridges (And boy did I get my collection started with a vengeance). But I tend to forget to pull the Cricut out when scrapbooking. So I have challenged myself to use it in at least one out of every two layouts in some way or another. So far I am really liking the results of using this plotter.

My first layout this week is on some pictures I had in my stash of my DD. No sketches used on this layout. I mean, really, its just three pictures. I decided to stick to my usual style of Classic and Clean. The twist for me was in using my Cricut.  Here is a picture of the layout:

I used a few cartridges on this layout: for the clouds I used April Showers, then for the title (which I could have made larger) and the tree I used Just Because Cards, then finally for the top scallop border I used Martha Stewart's All Occasions Cake. I love this layout. It is so cute and so totally my daughter.

For the next layout, I worked on a page from Annie's Attic Scrapbooking with Cricut. When I saw this in the book, I just knew I had to make it for our recent trip to DC. I am still waiting on the pictures to come in the mail but I couldn't wait to get this page ready to go. Are you ready? Here it is:

OMG! I just love this one! I used Independence Day for the Capitol Bldg and Serenade for the cherry blossom trees as the book stated. As for the title the book used a couple of images from the Destinations cartridge but since I don't own that one, I had to improvise. Instead I used Martha Stewart's All Occasions Cake and her Elegant Cakes cartridges for the font. I welded the letters together  and then did it again with the shadow layer. The spread holds two 4x6 photos and two 4x4 photos.

I really like how this layout turned out. You really need to see it to appreciate it. The trees are popped up for added dimension as you can see here:

Isn't it a nice touch? That was not me, it was as the book instructed. I love it! There are a number of cute layouts in this book. I highly recommend it. I have quite a number of pages bookmarked for future use.

Well that's all for this week. I will see you next week with some more scrapbooking and other ramblings.

Have a great weekend!

Spread 'Em!

I finally got done with my two page spread for this week. It has been a crazy week of unscheduled meetings and appointments. My little one got sick and for the last three nights I haven't slept. Its been like having an infant in the house all over again. Boy, am I glad those days are over. But man, broken nights are hard to take after you've been out of that phase for a while.

So for this week's sketch I decided to work on sketch #9. 
Here is what it looked like.

This image only shows the sketch. When you download or buy the book @ Sketchsupport.com you will get details for all the elements on the page.
Here is my Layout:

And here are some close ups of each individual page.

I used Pebbles, Inc. Tree House paper line. Its so cute! I just love the colors. Its fun and playful. For the die cuts, I used my Cricut (gasp!) to cut the owl and the title from the Straight From the Nest cartridge. The little red bird by the journaling strips is from Pebbles Chips embellishment pack for the Tree House line. I doodled some not so straight lines around the edge of the background and where I messed up I made little zig zags to imitate stitching. I also used my Signo white gel pen (Thanks, Linda!) to "stitch" around the owl and doodle on the title.

Overall I am really pleased with working off these sketches. They are really worth it. It took me one afternoon (between laundry, kids and meals) to put this layout together. It usually takes me a whole week to put together a layout when I am left to my own devices. I hope to get 3-4 layouts done on a given week as this new way to scrap becomes more natural for me.

So how did your spread come out this week? Please post a comment and let me see it! I 'd love to see your work.

Well, that's all for now. Happy Spring Break!
See ya all next week =)