Summer.....

I was hoping for a more relaxed summer this year but so far, its been hectic.  (Last year I traveled for most of the summer and it really screwed with my inner clock....)

I sneak in some time every week now to spark or at least move some stuff around in my scrap room.   I even had a friend over for a couple of hours one Friday and snuck in a 6 hour crop at a store last week.  The only reasoning I'm mentioning it, is because its kind of a big deal for me.  I'm sad over lost time.  I used to have plenty of it and no one to scrap with.  Now I have a group of people and any of them are ready and willing but I have no time.

Anyway, I threw together a bunch of layout bases and have slowly been adding to them.  A piece of flair here, some stitching there.  I have a stack of in progress projects - even a summer mini!!

Here are a couple of layouts that I actually finished this week and I love.

Using some older Echo Park line.  Some of their older stuff is timeless.  I love the patterns.  I've used bits and pieces of this line a couple of times. I'm starting to use up whats left.  

 I love these alpha stickers.  They're puffy stickers from Freckled Fawn.  So cute.  They come in a few colors but black is my go to color right now.  I'm embarrassed to say how many packs I bought.  It's not like I don't have a basket full of AC Thickers to use.

My little cluster of photos.  He was so cute.  My arrow flair (from A Flair for Buttons) points to my favorite one.  I'm not a football fan but this was too cute.  He picked that ball up and knew exactly what to do with it!

I miss this park, the little boy he was turning into, the days of being home with him.  I never wanted to be a Stay at Home mom.  I was forced into it at the time with layoffs so I embraced it.  It lasted until he was 5 and I'm so glad for that time.  I went back to work 3 years ago and now I regret that.  I miss the carefree days in the park and our big backyard.   

Again, an older line of paper from Carta Bella this time.  Usually I don't go with the distressed look but I liked this line.  Simple layout to showcase the photo itself and the memory behind it.  I too this while we sat on the beach in Princess Cays on one of our last big cruises before the kid came along.   I added some flair and the title.  The stamped title is a set from Studio Calico.  They sold a solid set of letters and then a pattern.  This was stamped twice but I *love* the look of it!

'PLAY' flair from A Flair for Buttons again.  I'm so lucky to design with her products!

If you ever want to purchase the set I used or see what she has in her shop, you can click the links and go directly to the set.  If its a generic style (like the arrow) I link you to all the arrow sets.  Happy shopping!

Most of the papers are a year or two old and the pictures are from 2004 and 2009.  Yikes!  I have a secret.  Whenever I go to a crop or retreat, I pack kits.  When I get home, I have leftover kits that I set aside thinking I'll get them done.  Hey, everything is ready to go right?  Nope.  Then something new rolls in and I have to use that.  During a cleaning frenzy, I find those kits and suddenly whats old is new again.  Thats what happened with both of these.  Older paper lines with photos I had ready to scrap.  The only thing new would be the lettering for the two titles.  Everything else is older. 

And last but not least...... coming next week!

I'm SO excited about this!  I love Simple Stories and pretty m much every line they put out.  Having Shelly design flair to go with this line???  Yes Please!

Check back next week for updates or bookmark the {a flair for buttons} blog so you don't miss a thing!

Just got home....

from a whirlwind 3 day retreat.  My friend runs a small retreat here in So Cal and 4-5 times a year, we all escape.  It really is the one true time I scrapbook anymore.

If you are local -or- want to join us, the next weekend away is in August.  Check out justcropretreats.com for more info and to register.

I didn't take much really, just some older Studio Calico, Cocoa Daisy and Scraptastic kits.  I didn't get through all of them but I did make a dent.  I used about half.  I resolved to make what I could with the kits and not try to use every. last. bit.  I start to really burn out on kits if I push myself.  On the other hand, I want to feel like I got what I paid out of them too.  But I end up with half used kits sitting on my shelf and they never get used.  I end up donating or selling off a flat rate box full of old kit contents.

My resolution this time was to use what I could from the kits and move on.  Hand the bits and pieces off to someone else.  I managed to get 3 really good layouts out of the 3 kits I did use so I'm very proud of that.  I feel like I used what I could and I'm in love with the final layouts.

Time to share!

This was an older Studio Calico kit.  I really love the star paper.  I wanted to watercolor some of them in but I like the stark contrast to the black and orange so I left it.  I have some scraps left of this so you may see some watercoloring in the future.

The wood veneer 'RAD' - yeah, I've been holding on to that for a while now.  Just use it right?  It can't be RAD if its hidden in a bag.

And the title.  I stamped that using an exclusive stamp set from Studio Calico.  Their alpha sets are by far my favorite.  These were no exception and I rushed during pre-sale to get these and the number set.  LOVE them.  I stamped them twice.  Once in a color and once in black, just offsetting them so you can see the detail.  

And the flair button.  You can find the biker set in the A Flair For Buttons Etsy store.  Again, something I've been hoarding for a while.  

I'm a huge Echo Park fan.  I buy 80% of their lines so when they released their new boy line - Jack and Jill - I had to have it.  These are my favorite boy colors and go with 90% of my sons closet.  As I rifled through the mile high stack of photos I want to scrap and saw these, they were perfect.

The 'Rad' tag (yes, there was a lot of RAD going on that weekend)is from Amy Tangerine.  The pack of pre-punched tags came in a kit.  I used them on several layouts because they were so versatile.  I will be punching my own tags in the future.  

 More flair from the a Flair for Buttons Etsy shop.  I'm addicted to the flair!

One last one today.  (I have a lot to share!)  Another Studio Calico kit.  I'm horrible about keeping track of the products I use but I believe this is the original kit those tags came in.  I added some items from my stash in like:

Chic Tags: tags, rubbing and stickers.

Amy Tangerine - sticker letters

A Flair For Buttons - Let's Eat flair

Jillibean Soup sticker words 

I'm so glad I got as much done as I did.  I made a dent in some of my supplies and that makes me a happy girl.  I also got to spend some time with friends and relax.  It was my Mother's Day present - a weekend away.  Today we celebrate the real Mother's Day and I'll be running around visiting family.

One + You & Me

My son turned 6 this summer and I'm on this kick to scrap his baby pictures.  I had these taken on his first birthday at JC Penney's.  I wasn't very happy with these at the time but they've grown on me.  They just seem so dark.  I was hoping for something brighter but they used that black velvet backdrop.  Nick was learning to walk so it wasn't easy for us to keep him in line while we did this.  I vaguely remember telling the girl to 'get it over with' because it was hot in that little studio.

Oh well, thank goodness for Echo Park and their awesome paper lines.  I hoarded this one for over a year (maybe longer....) and finally scrapped them.

And then I went back to killing an older Studio Calico kit.  I seriously need to work harder at this.  They are all over my room.  The crop bags just creep out of their storage space.

Photo strip is from the OC Fair.  I believe this is the February SC Kit - the one with the stupid 'to the moon and back' stamp that everyone just had to have making this kit a hard one to snag.  But I have it and after all these months, I finally pulled it out and used it.

This is also full of hand stitching.  The Ampersand is an Amy Tan rubon that I stitched over.  The rest is just picking out parts of the maze pattern on the paper and stitching over it in coordinating colors.  After going through my floss box.....

I didn't have the colors I really wanted to use.  That prompted a trip to Michaels to get the colors and I ended up with 30 new colors.

Fun summery colors.  This addition filled up the floss box and rounds out my collection.  I think I have every color I might ever use minus the pinks and other funky colors.  Something about the line of new colors on the table makes me happy.

Layouts with {Flair}....

layouts.  I've been busy.  End of summer, a few extra hours to myself kid-free.  Its been a good couple of days.

Using up yet another Studio Calico kit.  Just one of the layouts I complete.  Will be posting more as I get them finished up.  Heart flair is just one of the many heart designs in Shelley's shop.   Supplies are from the February 2013 Studio Calico kit.

 The hockey flair set.  The 'king' reference on this one is perfect for my Kings.  Supplies are from an older Studio Calico kit - I believe February 2013.  Star rubons are old SC retail rubons I've been hoarding.

And some arrow flair.  Papers are from Echo Park - an older line.