back to school

Happy Monday!  It's that back to school time and that's our challenge theme for the week at BBTB2! My high schoolers started last Wednesday and my college guy starts this week, although he's already moved back to the dorm last week, as he's going to be one of the RAs this year for the dorms.  I always take first day of school pictures (since kindergarten!), so I snapped a few Wednesday and made this layout for them using the Locker Talk cartridge for all my cricut cuts.  Hope you will join us for a project this week and you can link up over at BBTB2!

Cricut:
Locker Talk-all cuts
Paper-Little Yellow Bicycle prints, CTMH solids
brown chalk ink

Carefree Energy layout (for PDE challenges)

It's an anything goes challenge at Pause Dream Enjoy!  I've made a layout for some pics of my boys playing outside, using Graphically Speaking for the titles and Locker Talk for the play equipment.  The fun print paper is from the My Mind's Eye Boy Crazy collection (which is awesome-if you check out my Programmed to Play post from 6/21, there is another layout with it).

Cricut:
Graphically Speaking-titles
Locker Talk-play equipment
Paper-My Mind's Eye Boy Crazy collection prints, solids-CTMH
brown chalk ink

Here are the challenge details:

Pause Dream Enjoy (PDE) Ch# 13 Anything Goes

Begins: Monday, Jun 24

Ends: Sunday, Jul 7

Sponsor: The Robin's Nest http://robinsnest-scrap.com/

Prize: $15 Gift Certificate

2nd Sponsor: My Craft Spot http://craftspotbykimberly.blogspot.com/

Prize: 1 Metal Dies Set or 1 Stamp Set (winner's choice) MUST HAVE USA ADDRESS

This will be my last project for Pause Dream Enjoy. Janis has recently become an SU consultant and is changing up Pause Dream Enjoy Challenges to reflect SU products (for the design team, anyway). So if you need any SU supplies, she will have a place for you to shop! While I have quite a few SU stamps, I don't have any current products, so I am stepping down from the DT. It has been a blast!

24/7 mini album (for BBTB2) warning-pic heavy!

There is such a fun challenge for you this week at BBTB2-it's called Pass It On-Celebrate the Joy of Giving.  You can use ANY cricut cut to make something new to "pass on" to someone else to spread some joy.  The design team has some wonderful projects to inspire you over at BBTB2 and I hope you'll make something and link up to share with us.

I've had such fun making a little mini album with overlapping pocket pages (each has a pull out for more pics) of the kid's school year to give them, to remind them of all the good times this year.  I was trying to make it have a bulletin board feel (inspired by the cork board paper) and I wanted the photos to feel kind of like an Instagram or Polaroid- they are a 2x3 size.   I used my cricut to do most of the titles and added some embellishments.

I made my mini using a tutorial from Ginger of My Sister's Scrapper.  It's available on YouTube:

Part 1

Part 2

Ginger's Finished Album

I used some recycled chipboard (cereal boxes!) for my covers and the paper/stickers are from the Simple Stories 24/7 collection. Each of the 6 pockets holds a pull out with both sides available for pictures, so this mini holds LOTS of pics!  It has a magnet closure for the front and on the little back pocket.   I will admit this took me several nights to make and put together, but it was enormously fun!  My kids LOVED it and asked me to make more!  Now on to the pictures of the album (warning-there are a lot and I think I got them slightly out of order).

the cover (there is a hidden magnet closure under the flap)

Here's the first page with the front covers opened up (the yellow zigzag paper is page 2).  There are 3 pages attached on each side:  Page 1 is attached on the left, Page 2 on the right, etc. and they overlap.  Each page has an insert in the pocket with 2 sides for more pics. 

 I squeezed a LOT of pics into this little 6 page album!  They are in the following pics.

Page 6 insert-ready for some May pictures

Bottom of album with magnet flap closed for more pics

Flap opened-spot for more pics on the polka dot mat

Cricut:
Plaintain Schoolbook-font
Locker Talk-apple
Doodlecharms-spider, Christmas tree
Sports Mania-football
CM Cheerful Seasons-friends
Mickey and Friends-Mickey head

Paper-Simple Stories 24/7 collection
brown chalk ink
Stampin Up scallop border punch
Tim Holtz metal corners
magnets

Whew!  Lot of pics, I know!  It's much easier to see how it all goes together on a video, which is why I included the link to Ginger's video showing her finished album.  It was a SUPER fun little project!   This challenge is the perfect excuse to make that card or mini or little set of notes for someone, so jump in and join us with a project at BBTB2.

I'm also going to link this to the Cut It Up challenge this week to make a mini!

September Calendar Page

I've been making a calendar page each month and using it as a wall decoration for the month, then it goes in the scrapbook to start that month's pictures.  I'm finding Designer's Calendar makes it easy and my trusty Doodlecharms cart always seems to have just the right thing for decoration.  I'm also entering this in the Fantabulous Cricut challenge this week to use leaves in some way on the project. 

Cricut:
Designer's Calendar-for the grid, numbers, month and week
Doodlecharms-backpack, apple, and leaves
Graphically Speaking-learn
Lockertalk-lunchbag
brown chalk ink
I tried to ink my leaves and use some marker to give them some dimension.

Back to School

The back to school pics-always fun to scrap!  I used my cool new Imaginescence Geek is Chic paper, which I was so excited to find.

Cricut:
Mickey Font
Doodlecharms-backpack
Lockertalk-school supplies (love the paperclip), lunch bag, and milk
Accent Essentials-top note shape
Plaintain Schoolbook-star
brown chalk ink, buttons, twine, ribbon from my stash