Conquer - One Little Word Mini

I kept hearing everyone talking about their "One Little Word" and I was intrigued. What were they all talking about? So I googled it (as usual) and I was inspired to say the least. If you haven't already, please stop by Ali Edwards's blog and check it out! Once I read her post, I was so inspired that I couldn't stop myself from planning a mini album. After much debate (and even changing my word), here is my mini!

DCWV - Tradewinds Collection Stack, Ranger - Tim Holtz's - Distress Ink - Antique Linen, Sizzix - Tim Holtz - Alterations - Vintage Market, We R Memory Keepers - Crop-a-Dile II, Tim Holtz - Distress Ink - Chipped Saphire, Dymo - Label Buddy

I hope everyone enjoyed this mini album as much as I did! I'm really interested in what your word for 2012 will be. Please, please, please, leave me a comment with your word! I'm so curious. Will you choose a strong word? A soft word? A funny word? Good Luck choosing!

The Liebster Award

I logged into my email just to check up on things when I read a surprising email. A sweet woman named Heidi has  nominated me for a Liebster award. (Make sure to stop by her blog and say a big hello! Happenings By Heidi). Needless to say, I'm sooooo happy right now. I'm literally grinning from ear to ear (and it's starting to hurt a little). I can't believe that someone would consider my little blog one of their favs and I am so humbled and happy!

Liebster is German and means 'dearest' or 'beloved' but it can also mean 'favorite'. The idea of the Liebster award is to bring attention to blogs with less than 200 followers. So, in the spirit of good fun I am passing this award on to five other bloggers. Please stop by and visit them.

The Rules are:

1. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.

2. Reveal your five picks for the award and let them know.

3. Post the award on your blog.

4. Bask in the love from the most supportive people on the blogshare-other bloggers.

5. Finally and the best rule of all..........have fun and spread the love!

Now here's my 5 picks! 

A Dog's Life

Creative Authority

Oh Shih-tzu!

Veridiana Fromm

Jazme Scrapping

Bedtime Hug - Webster's Pages & Hot off the Press

Chloe has been a part of our family for about three months now but I haven't scrapped a single page of her yet. I've left some of her pictures on my desk hoping to get a little inspiration, but I've been constantly stuck. (I guess all the wedding stuff has become my prime focus.) So, I was looking around the internet and came across two separate sources of inspiration: 1.) Color Combos Galore #215  2.) Lynn Ghahary - Country Boys. I loved the soft colors and feminine texture of the CCG challenge and the soft hearts on Lynn's page. So here's my attempt to merge the two!

Hot Off the Press - Color Me Flowers, Webster's Pages - Lullaby Lane - The Arrival, Ranger - Tim Holtz - Distress Ink - Spun Sugar,  Ranger - Tim Holtz - Distress Ink - Vintage Photo, American Crafts - Thickers - Maple - Black, Fiskars Border Punch - Flowers

The background paper was so much fun to work with because it was an ink resist paper. I started out rubbing it with Spun Sugar but it seemed too pink. So I opened up the ink drawer and looked for a neutral. I finally decided on Vintage Photo to tone it down with. I'm pleasantly surprised with the exact hue I finished with. My only words of wisdom with these kinds of paper is to start out with your lightest ink first. It's easy to add color to darken, but it's a lot harder to lighten once you've made a mistake. Try testing a small corner or an area that you plan on covering up.

I've really been into the texture that border punches give. So I decided to stack a couple of them on top of each other. I liked the look that I got, but they just seemed to blend in together too well. So, on every other edge I rubbed some more Vintage Photo ink. I really gives it a little more depth. Some machine stitching also made an appearance on this layout. It's just such an easy way to make a layout look more finished. I stitched a border around my entire layout as well as around my photo. The stitching also appeared on those sweet little hearts. Speaking of those hearts....

here's those adorable little hearts from Lynn's page. I just loved the sweet feel it brought to the page as well as the texture that it brought from the right to the left. I always try to balance out my page. I had a heavy texture on the right, so I needed texture on the left. I did the same with the title. My little puppies are black and white so it's always hard to work black in somehow. I know that it would probably make more sense to use the brown letters, but they just seemed to fade into the background. By using the black letters, I brought the black from the photo over to the left side of the layout.

I had fun on this layout. It was the first time I've ever used an ink resist paper but I've concurred my fear. I actually want to do more with these diverse products. Hope you'll join me for the next time!

Butterflies - Webster's Pages & Echo Park

I've had so much fun planning and scrapping wedding stuff, so of course I had to scrap that beautiful ring! I've always loved the look of Webster's pages, but I've never had anything that I could use them on. Now, I broke them all out! The color on "Lullaby Lane - The Arrival" is just the perfect shade of blue. It's especially perfect because that's the exact color for my entire wedding! I knew I had to use it.

Webster's Pages - Lullaby Lane - The Arrival, Echo Park Paper - Victoria Gardens - Rose Garden, 3D foam dots,  Inkssentials - Craft tags #5, Ranger - Tim Holtz - Distress Ink - Iced Spruce, twine, pearl string from Hobby Lobby, Ranger - Acrylic Dabber - Snowcap, Fiskar's Border Punch - flowers,

The journaling reads "I still can't believe that we are actually engaged! I've waited for this for a long time and now that it's here, I've got butterflies!" I absolutely loved all of the texture that the pages had. I tried to keep the overall layout simple, but luscious. I used a fiskar edge punch around the edges to give texture without fluff. The tag was lightened a little bit by rubbing on an acrylic dabber in Snowcap. Then I used my sewing machine to go around the edges.

I had a duplicate of the background so I used as much of the backside as possible. It had such pretty flower groupings and textured cream paper. I used an exacto knife to cut them out and some 3D dots to really draw attention to them.

I had a lot of fun with this page and it's one of my favorites. It was so much fun trying a different style and look. I think it really paid off for this special page. I hope you all enjoyed this and I look forward to hearing from you!

Asking Permission - Echo Park & Webster's

Last month seemed to fly by in a second. I barely had enough time to get all my Christmas shopping done. Between doing some wedding DIY, family dinners, and working, I managed to get this layout done; but I had to wait until it was sunny enough outside to take pictures. I always set my layouts next to a window and use the natural sunlight to get my pictures. (I wish I had enough money to get a light setup for my photos.)

Echo Park Paper - Victoria Gardens - Rose Garden, Webster's Pages - Country Estate - Serenity, Tim Holtz - Distress Ink - Antique Linen, Tim Holtz - Distress Ink - Forest Moss,  Prima Marketing - Textured Alphabet Stickers - White

This layout is about my fiancé asking my father for permission and is one of the very few layouts I have that doesn't include photos. I almost always have a photo, but this time I wasn't present for the conversation and therefore couldn't bring my camera. However, I think it just adds to the topic. The papers I used were so intricate and I knew they would quickly overwhelm my page. So, I decided to cut them up in strips instead and post them on white cardstock.

To help the give more definition to the strips of paper, I broke out the sewing machine and did a couple of cute stitches in a brown color. I loved the look of it so much that I also decided to stitch a border (or two) as well. The brown stitching also allowed me to bring in some Kraft paper as a solid. Solid papers are a necessity when working with bold patterns. Your eye needs a calm place to rest. Otherwise, it will start looking really busy.

I bought these alphabet stickers a couple of years ago and I love them. They're white fabric so I'm able to color them with whatever inks I want to match my layout. I was able to spritz them with some water and rub them with Tim Holtz's Forest Moss distress ink. The color was just perfect. But I had a happy accident when I was gluing them down. Apparently my letter 'S' was not yet fully dry and when I dropped it on my page it left a small green smear. So I had to do some damage control. I pulled some more kraft paper out and cut out a flourish with my Sizzix. It wasn't what I had originally planned, but I actually like it better that way.

Hopefully I'll have enough time to have another layout up soon. I'm just having so much fun right now and I want to savor it as much as possible. I want to say a huge thank you to all the wonderful comments I've received since my last post. You guys are just so wonderful. If you haven't started following my blog yet, now's a great time! Just click the little button to the right that says "Join this Site". I promise that you won't receive any spam mail from it. Thanks!