I wish I could say I was dreaming......

of Summer, but I'm not.  Living in the land of perpetual summer, I dream of a change of seasons.  Since the weather here allows us to be poolside or outdoors year round, this becomes the focus of most of my layouts.

I fell in love with the Simple Stories Summer Vibes line last summer and I bought at least 2 of every paper and embellishment.  I completed a mini album and several layouts and cards.  I'm down to the last bits and pieces of the line.

Flair buttons are all available in the A Flair For Buttons Etsy Shop!  My current favorite set is:

I've been super busy trying to fulfill my 2016 resolution which is to craft more.  I've been knee deep in Stamping' Up orders and making cards.  My next post will be all about my ink storage.

I'm also cleaning out the craft room again because there is just too much in here that I don't use.  I feel like I'm bogged down with extra supplies - you know the ones.  You had to have them, you hoarded them and now, years later I still can't use them.  I'm unloading the good stuff on Ebay.

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!

CHA #3

The final post about CHA.

My creative juices are flowing again so this was a good thing.  :)

Websters Pages - I'm really only a fan of Allison Kreft and what she's done with them.  I did get a chance to see the new planners and I do like them.  I don't like the fact that the guts of the planner are not interchangeable unless you buy two so you can switch them out.  I really like the aqua book but the guts of another color (A color I don't like).

 Some of Allison's new line.  Too much pink for me but there are enough other colors for me to purchase some of this line.

I saw these out of the corner of my eye.  I don't usually buy anything from Paper House but I thought these two things were super cool.

 Little 1x1 inch Instagram photo stickers.

 And cork embellishments.  A fun addition to the craft.  Scrapbook, Project Life etc.

 I'm sorry, but thats just cute!  I need these to finish off my Whale Watching mini album.

 Surfboard!!!

 The last booth we stopped at before leaving for the day was the Hero Arts booth.  I wanted to see Kelly Purkeys new stamps.  One of each please.

And that is CHA.  These blog posts used to go on for days.  I had so many photos from every booth that I had to do posts by manufacturer just to keep them all straight.  Not anymore.  Kind of sad but then again, it makes the hobby seem real again.  I think it go so inflated that there was just. so. much. stuff.  Your mind would explode after the first day and you couldn't remember which booth had what.

I've compiled my list on Pinterest and will resume shopping as these items are released.  If you have any questions about the products, let me know.  

Travel Layouts

One of the things I've been meaning to work on and always push to the side are layouts from our 2006 trip to the Baltic region.

I've collected papers and embellishments for years thinking 'this paper is perfect for that picture of....'.   You'd think with all this perfect material, I'd scrap something right?

Nah.  My focus has always been on the new.  As I go through everything I'm re-finding the stuff I purchased and its like new again.  I'm still putting stuff aside that I will never use.

Here are 3 quick layouts I did at the retreat to document some of my favorite stops on the cruise.

All over Denmark you find bikes.  They're on every corner.  I just found it fascinating that people can get around a city like this when everything is so far away where I live.  We're so used to cars and freeways.

 Studio Calico bike stamp.

 A Flair for Buttons bike flair and Studio Calico stamp.

 Nyhavn in Copenhagen.  My favorite place.  I liked to sit and people watch here.  All those colorful buildings are fun to look at too.  I pulled out those Heidi Swapp clear acetate letters too.

 More AFFB flair, stamp is from Cocoa Daisy.

 I tried to get a straight shot of this one but it just wouldn't work.  This is not my favorite layout but its done.   Papers are from Carta Bella.

 Flair from a Flair for Buttons Etsy shop.

Got a few more to share but I still need to photograph them.  And shocker of all shockers, I started working on my December Daily.  I have all the stuff to get it done but I lost that drive.  I printed the pictures last night so we'll see what all I can get done before I go back to work.

The Perfect Hello

Another old picture I grabbed from the stack.  This layout uses one of my Scraptastic Kits.

All of my favorite elements are on this one.....

 Flair.....

 Hand Stitching and enamel dots.....

 Glossy Accents on my stickers....