Life Is Good Today

Several months ago, I subscribed to a monthly scrapbook kit club.  After much browsing and contemplation, I decided to go with Little Red Scrapbook.  I have yet to be disappointed with the coordinated goodies that arrive on my doorstep each month.  It's been especially fun getting a sampling of many latest and greatest products, of which I do not have access to in my neck of the woods.

This weekend, I broke into April's kit and produced several projects.  Here's a layout of a kiddo I care for deeply.  He's such a handsome young man, with the greatest sense of humor and the biggest dimples I've ever seen!  Enjoy!!

~ Jessica in Kansas

Sweet Boy

~ Here's another simple baby layout featuring pictures of my mom (1st-time grandma) and brother doing the hand-off of Landon in the hospital. I want to share this one with you because I'm proud of the paper-pieced Standing Baby Bear. I cut the pieces from a file designed by myscrapchick.com, and then worked with inks, chalks, a fine black pen, a white gel pen, and some punches to bring it to life. At first I was quite unsatisfied with how it turned out, but after putting it away for a few weeks, I'm excited about how cute he is!!!

The layout also features some patterned pieces by Creative Memories and various alphabet stickers by CM and K&Company.
~ Babies = Joy,
Jessica in Kansas

NEW WHEELS!!!

~ This layout features my precious nephew and his "new wheels"!! Does it get any cuter than an adventurous 1 year-old trying to reach the pedals on his new Radio Flyer tricycle??!!

The New Wheels title and trike were cut from a file designed by Chris Durnan of Visual Designs by Chris. I embellished them some with my favorite staple: Stickles.

The epitome of cute, huh?!?!
Jessica in Kansas

friendship renewed

~ The layout below features me with one of my greatest pals. It also features a fabulous Swirly Spring Tree cut from my Klic-N-Kut and designed by Jan Bryson of Sam & Hailey Designs. This file is part of her Membership Club this quarter, and I just fell in love with the elegant swirls!! I was even able to multi-purpose the swirly trunk and use it to embellish various parts of these pages.
Here's a close-up of the cut design! I added some crystal dots by Prima and some silk flowers layered with silver punched petals & brads. The swirly trunks used throughout the pages were sprayed with Suede Glimmer Mist by Tattered Angels. The layout also includes foil-trimmed chipboard alphas by Cloud9 Designs, additional silk pink flowers, and green textured Prima flowers.
Hope you are enjoying spring!!!
Jessica in Kansas

B is for 'Baby'

~ Plan to see several baby boy layouts in the near future! I've finally gotten most of my nephew's first days scrapped, and I hope to share some of the layouts with you. This one is fairly simple and features my handsome brothers and me holding the most precious little guy...who is now over 19 months old!!!

The background paper is from Creative Memories; other cardstock & patterned papers are from various sources. The layout also features a stamped and colored giraffe (Studio G), a journaling box rub-on, some baby stickers from a Scrap Pad, and a little bit of ink distressing. Here's a closer look at the 2nd page:

~ Babies: sure help keep life in perspective!!

Jessica in Kansas

p.s. If you pay attention, you can tell when I'm spending my weeks out of town for work. Without much else to do in a hotel room, I get to catch up on blogging during the evenings!

home SWEET home

~ Here's a layout I created using lots of moving-in photos taken after buying our first house a few years ago. I wanted to apply lots of photos to these pages, so I followed a sketch that encouraged the tiling effect. It worked out pretty well. I also used a package of coordinating cardstock stickers, and a large key die cut. For as quickly as it went together, I was quite impressed with how this spread turned out!

There truly is NO place like home!!
Jessica in Kansas

fAMILY fOTOS - a muted layout

~ I have realized that I spend time blogging my papercrafts of all kinds, but never the layouts I create in an effort to capture and preserve memories. Therefore, I plan to begin throwing some of my album pages in the mix! I usually scrap 12X12, two-page spreads. I like the options that the size allows me, and the availability of fitting several pictures into one spread. I also tend to scrapbook one event or theme on each spread, as I prefer to have my pages coordinate. The exception to my 12X12 preference is my vacation albums, which I scrap in 8X8" size.


This is a 12X12 layout which features some family portraits. I love the soft browns and pinks, and they way they compliment the muted tones of the photos.
~ Enjoy,
Jessica in Kansas

Giraffe, Baby, & Cuteness, Oh My!!!

~ A few months ago, I completed this layout. I've had it hanging on my wall to enjoy since then because I just love it bunches!!! The fabulous giraffe paper piecing was cut from a design by myscrapchick.com. Is it cute, or what??!!! The title is made of glittery chipboard letters, and I used glitter around mats, some magic mesh, and the oval cutter to finish it off. The soft colors, wonderful pix, and no blue make this one of my favorite baby boy layouts ever!!

The pictures don't do it justice. The colors are soft oranges on white.

On a blogging role tonight!!!
Jessica in Kansas

Tweet Girl Birthday Layout

~ Below is a project I completed quite a while ago that's been patiently waiting to be shared with the world! This Tweet Girl is a paper-piecing pattern designed by my friends of myscrapchick.com. Isn't she adorable? And how fun are the Girly Girl Titles used throughout the layout?!?!!! They were created by one of my favorite designers, Carrie of Carrie's Creations. These two elements fit together perfectly and provided the "cuteness" I needed for these birthday party pictures of some of my favorite kiddos in the world!!

Have a 'tweet nite!!!
Jessica in Kansas

Little Fishy ~ a layout

~ This project has been a work in progress, and I finally finished it up this morning!! It's a layout about the fish and frog pond that we inherited with the purchase of our house. I love, love, love the pond and cannot wait to enjoy it with kiddos! When we moved in over the summer of '07, there were frogs (parents and babies) and goldfish calling the pond their home. Unfortunately the fish did not make it over the winter because our pump broke and the pond froze.

This summer, we purchased more goldfish and a few coy. One (or possibly more) of the fish had babies shortly after we bought them, so I enjoyed watching the fish multiply and grow over the summer. As my journaling strips illustrate, one of the highlights of my days has been to feed them. They were easily trained to feed in one spot of the pond. So much fun to watch...
This layout loosely followed Sketch #68 on Sketches! {by Tamara}'s blog. The banner, title, and adorable fish paper piecings were cut with my KNK and used Sam & Hailey Design's Itty Bitty Little Fishy file, found on Paperthreads.com. I also used some patterned paper by Sunburn Two Cool, a border ruler, and Aqua Stickles. This was my first time to use journaling strips, and it may be one of my new favorite ways to journal.

Enjoy,

Jessica in Kansas

Thankful ~

~ I'm feeling the holiday spirit!! I designed this layout for a page kit swap. It's quite metallic and shimmery, inspired in part by the "Make it Glitter & Shimmer" Holiday Contest through CutCardstock.com. The shimmery leaves are actually confetti, but I thought they were the perfect accent for the journaling strips and the large leaves, which were cut with my Klic-N-Kut (Maple Leaf & Acorn file, designed by Carrie's Creations). I added some shimmery bronze colored ribbon and used a leaf corner punch (EK Success) on the photo mats. The background cardstock is DCWV, the light and dark orange leafs are cut from Sunburn paper, and the shimmery bronze & tan papers are from CutCardstock.com. The layout design was inspired by Sketches! {by tamara}'s Layout Sketch #69. Thanks for letting me share!!!

With lots for which to be thankful,

Jessica in Kansas

Color My World...

~ I completed this layout over the weekend and submitted it for a challenge on a designer's blog: Carrie's Creations. She designs paper-piecing cutting files which I use with my KNK, and I love the uniqueness, quality, and ease of cutting her files. This particular layout uses the die cuts in one of her files called Color My World. I just LOVED the pieces, and it was the perfect file to use for these remodeling pix of our basement, which my husband has called a "crayon box" and an "Easter egg"!! He was not fond of the color choices, but you can see that I got my way!!! That's what he gets for sending me after paint!!

The green room will be our first child's room...when that time comes. The yellow is a spare bedroom, in which my mom stays when she's here from Oklahoma. And turquoise is the color I chose for my new scrap-room, which has white cabinets installed!! We're just waiting on the countertop to be finished and delivered!! I've been very patient, but I am super ready to "move in" to my new papercrafting haven!! Of course, I'll have to post pix when that day comes!! *******My page was one of two entries submitted for the challenge, and there's a poll on Carrie's blog. If you feel so inclined, follow this link and click on "Jessica" on the poll (top, right side of blog). The prize is amazing, and I'd love to get my hands on it!!!! Thanks for letting me share!!

p.s. What do you think of the colors I chose??!!!!

"Colorful" hugs to you,

Jessica in Kansas

Trick or Treat: a layout

~ Wow, I just finished this 2-page layout, and it was the most fun to create!!! I wanted to use some of the best new Halloween cutting files I had seen this fall, so I decided to incorporate them into a 12X12" Halloween layout. I don't have pictures to place on the mats yet, but that will come.Don't you just love the paper piecings on this page?!! The cutting files were created by Carrie Schwartz of Carrie's Creations. Witchy Poo Had A Boo-Boo is my favorite...she didn't see the tree up ahead!! The haunted house is actually meant to be an album cover, but I chose to use it this way!!! That's the beauty of cutting files...I get to use and manipulate them any way I choose!! So much fun...

The strip at the bottom is simply black and yellow cardstock with the patterned ribbon attached. The trick or treat embellishment on the bottom of the 2nd page is a Dress It Up element, and the title at the top is simply created with stickers. Let me know what you think!!

Halloween hugs to you,

Jessica in Kansas

Color My World...

~ I participate in a monthly Designer Page Kit swap, and this month, I appropriately chose fall as the theme. I design a 6X6 2-page layout, and send all of the finished pieces packaged together with a picture of my finished layout. The hostess then sorts them out, and I receive 6 different page kits in return each month. It's so much fun!! Here is what I came up with for September (sorry it's crooked...I'm still not good at all of this editing stuff): I was happy with the end product, complete with a title, embellishments, a photo mount, and a space designated for journaling. I used some cutting files for the title and leaves. Jan Bryson of Sam & Hailey Designs created the large leaf (Autumn Leaves file...which you can currenty find for FREE at the Paperthreads online store) and the scalloped photo mat, which was actually intended to be a page in an adorable scalloped mini album (Scalloped Mini Albums file). The title and small leaves were designed by KreationsbyKatie (Color My World file).

The layout was adapted from this week's Layout Sketch #62 on Sketches! {by Tamara}'s blog. The supplies I used were also inspired by Tamara. This week's recipe challenge #15 called for the use of scalloped edges, brads, and a monochromatic color scheme...thus the brown tones! Great inspiration!!! I hope the ladies in my swap appreciate it!

We're having lots of wonderful sunshine today, but it sure felt like fall last weekend!

Hugs to you,

Jessica in Kansas

Birthday Girl - new layout

~ I am so excited about the layout I just finished...and yes, you guessed it...I was inspired by challenges for this one, too!!! The layout design loosely follows the sketch chosen for the Creative Impressions Yahoo Group September 8 Sketch Challenge. Here is what it looks like:
I'm also a member of the Scrapbooking_Friends Yahoo Group, which has weekly challenges. This week's called for the use of 2 paperclips on a layout with a coordinating photo mat. That's what inspired the "paper" clippies, which came from a fabulous cutting file designed by Carrie Schwartz of Carrie's Creations.

Besides the adorable birthday themed "paper" clippies, other cutting files of Carrie's I used for this layout include the cupcake with the #1 candle and the playful frills banner. All of her files can be found at Paperthreads, a wonderful place to check out if you use a cutting machine.

The color scheme was inspired by this week's challenge posted on the Sisterhood of Scrap blog. The goal was to create a layout (of any theme) using the colors of fall: red, orange, yellow, green. I think I accomplished that...with a hint of black to balance it out.

Other products I used on this layout include:
- eyelets (unknown source), yellow and orange Stickles, chipboard letters & tags by Provo Craft, and ribbon by Offray.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!!!

Happy scrappin'

Jessica in Kansas