Summer may be over but....

I'm still documenting it. I've got hundreds of photos printed and waiting to make their way into my summer not-so-mini album.  Like many, I chose to use the Simple Stories Summer Vibes line.  I love pretty  much every line they come out with and this was no exception.

I started with some inspiration from Layle Koncar - her kits are fabulous.  I own the entire line though so there was a lot of room for my own ideas.

Products are all from Simple Stories.  Flair is available from the A Flair For Buttons Easy shop.

 This line of flair was designed specifically for this line of paper.  Available only in the AFFB Etsy shop.

 I also used some flair from other sets  - like this one.  Its from a set about the weather.  Since our summer started off cold and grey, this one totally fit the mood.  We were under blankets trying to keep warm.

 Trying to document our summer activities like Lego building and making fabric wreaths for the doors.

 We spent a lot of time at the water park this summer.  We have a little water park right around the corner from our house thats part of our community.

 Lots of birthday invites from friends too.

 Layle is a genius.  I'm not a doily person but she made this one very easy.

 One of the newer products from Simple Stories are the clear stickers.  They look like digital stamps when added to photos.

 More of the matching flair for this line.

 Layle sent several of these pockets with the kit we received.  I ended up buying several packets of them because I love the idea of adding pockets to the pages.  Sometimes, you need a little more space than what you have.  These are perfect little add-ons.

 Yep, someone pooped in the water one day.  They sent everyone home and took 48 hours to clean it.  We were back the next weekend enjoying a completely clean pool!  My husband can't believe I added this to the book but it was part of our summer!

 The last day of school.  My son got out so late in June that it seemed the rest of the world was already on vacation.  These were his best friends for the year and his teacher.

 More summer activities.  My son recently asked to play games.  He's not one to sit for very long so we never played an actual game.  This summer he wanted to learn how to play Battleship.

 Our little dates.  His dad works weekends so I get to plan fun little activities for us to do - like go see movies!  We're addicted to the Cineopolis theaters.  Since they're a little more than the regular theater, we only go 3-4 times a year.

 I love the many different kinds of pocket pages you can get for the 6x8 albums.  So many choices.

 My parents took my son on a quick trip to Santa Cruz the day school let out.  I missed the little guy and we cuddled for almost an entire day when he got back.

 And then it was time for summer to officially begin.  We celebrated Canada Day with a BBQ and some maple bacon cupcakes.

 I found some really cute ideas on Pinterest for printables and recipes.  The flair is from the Canada set in the AFFB shop.  I have some other things in progress using this set.  Can't wait to share!!

 July 3rd was somewhat slow at work and my son was off school.  I brought him to work with me and he played my 'secretary' that day.  I let him make the notes for the team, write on my erasable calendar.  He likes being the 'boss'.

 We spent the 4th of July by the pool.  It was crazy hot that day but we had a nice shady spot under an umbrella.  I scrapbooked in the shade while he played in the water.

 These flip pages were perfect for documenting the fun we had that day.  I layered them with stickers and chipboard from the line.

 Later that day, we had cupcakes before heading back out to see the local fireworks.  Our community has everything so we really never have to leave.  I always joke that if they put a Target in here, I'd have everything to survive and would never leave.

 Bike riding - essential summer activity.

 I even indulged my husbands craving for In and Out.  I'm *not* a fan of their food and only eat there as a last resort.  This stems from a bad experience as a child.  I can't stand the sauce.  Yuck.  Eww.  And I don't like undercooked burgers.  That combination soured me on that place for life. I will eat the fries and malts though.

 My son goes to the school YMCA during the summer and has a blast.  They have a water slide, Kona Ice truck and all kinds of activities.  I managed to get off early one day and surprised him at school.  He was upset because I showed up before he got his Kona Ice.

 New shades and braces!  The paper clip words are from Freckled Fawn.

 Someone turned 8 and got enough money in cash and gift cards to buy the Kwik E Mart from the Simpsons.  He doesn't even know who the Simpsons are (thankfully) but he thought the building was really cool.  We also said goodbye to the rest of his Thomas the Train stuff.  We passed the last few train sets on to his cousin and donated the bedding.  I hope some other kid has a chance to love Thomas like Nick did.

 Another Saturday without dad.  We went down to San Juan Capistrano and rode the trolley around town.  We had lunch together on a train and hit the antique fair......

 where we found train stuff like spikes and a conductor hat!

 The pocket design for this page was in Layle's instructions but she didn't really do much.  I added photos to the pockets documenting our puddle jumping on a rainy summer day.

 More matching flair.

 Oh look!  We're at the waterpark again!

 You asked for the Queen Mary on your birthday so I treated you to a day on the boat.  We had lunch and explored.

 Another mini book from Simple Stories giving me more room to document the fun we had that day!

 I made a pocket with this 4x6 card and a photo.  I only glued the sides together leaving peace for something.  Since I still had photos left over from the Queen Mary, I added them to a pocket journaling card and inserted that into the larger pocket.

 Another fun summer day.  We went out on a friends boat - Nick even got to steer!

 Our final summer activity was the hockey camp.  This was Nick's main birthday present.  I gave him a hockey came with the LA Kings.  We rented a house from AirBNB up in Hermosa Beach so we could be close and spent the week up there.  This is as far as I've documented up until now.   I have a few more photos to add and I'll share them as soon as I'm done.

I adore this book.  All the memories in here are saved for a rainy day this winter where we can look back on the fun we had and start planning for next summer!

Stampin' Up Weekly Deals

Every Monday, Stamping' Up posts some deep discounts on items that you can get your hands on!

Each week, the deals change.  You never know what you'll find each week.  Check out my site to shop and save!

Stampin' With Erica!

NYC Mini

I finally got around to printing off pictures from the NYC trip we took in March this year.  I've been carefully collecting products to use in this book and I'm digging each page right now.  I need to take more photos of some of the pages but here is a quick preview:

 The cover is a work in progress.  This is a Studio Calico album.  Love the geotag!

 Inside cover and first page.  I found this quote on Pinterest and added it to a shot of the city.

 Hand stitched the flight path from LA to NYC.  Card is from Me and My Big ideas Project Life set I found.

 Airport/plane shenanigans!

 We took a red eye and tried to sleep.  Someone was a bit of a wiggle worm so I ended up taking selfies of him.  :)  (Another card from MAMBI).  I was awake for most of the night so I took some shots out the plane window and of the flight tracker on the tv.

 First stop after we landed was Tim Hortons.  I can't get that in CA so when I heard they were in the JFK airport, I made sure I found them.  The sign was on the long hallway from the terminal to baggage claim.  I had spent months telling Nick about all the cool food we could get in NYC so this *had* to go in the book.  Wood veneer is from Freckled Fawn and the flair is from A Flair for Buttons Etsy shop.  This is part of the NYC set.  (more of those to show up later in the book!)

 Y'all save your donut hole boxes right?  This is from the box of TimBits so its extra special.

 One of my must-haves for NYC.  The Subway/bus map.  I had all of our trips mapped out.  I knew which train to take and where to get off.  Such a handy little thing.  I added it to the book just so we could look at it down the road and see what the system looked like.

 Another print I found on Pinterest.  I loved the black and white linen texture.  Sadly, I covered most of it up with a shot of another map.  I added geotags to this to show that we took the train from Jamaica to Penn.  Another flair button from the travel collection.  if you travel a lot, Shelly has a *ton* of travel related buttons in the shop.

 This page is totally boring but I love it.  I used some packing tape I found online.  Its about 3 inches wide and has the NYC subway printed on it!  I lined it up on the back of the card stock and then layered photos over it of us on the subway.

 Since I have a ton of photos to add to this book and I don't want it to get too thick, I stuck with the 3x4 size and used the 4 up pockets.  I can document a lot that way.  PL Card is from my massive collection.  I stamped an *old* Studio Calico stamp (Go, See Do) lightly over the map of NYC.

 I had to skip ahead a little.  My photos came out horrible for the pages in between.  I need to retake them this weekend when there's more light.  Another random PL card - I think this one is from Studio Calico.  We lucked out and a freak spring snow storm hit the east the day before we got there.  It actually snowed most of the night and stopped right as we landed.  Central Park was loaded with fresh snow.  There's something magical about the city anyway, but add snow to it?  I could spend all day appreciating it.

Because this part of the book was special and I didn't want tiny photos, I printed them 4x6 and added a mini album to the mini album.  This is a set of folders from Jellybean Soup.  I cut patterned paper just smaller than the 6x8 and layered that on.  The stamp sets are all from Studio Calico.  Quotes were all found on Pinterest.

This is my most favorite page right now.  I see all these typographical pages and I've always wanted to try.  I had plans to stamp it all out and measure but then I just said go for it!  Its not perfect and the spacing could be a little better but it is what it is.

I have a few more pages done but the photos are horrible.  I want to retake them and share next week.  I also have more pages in the works so I want to add those in too.  I'm using the NYC flair from the shop throughout the book.  If you want to pick up a set, check out the store!

Eek! I joined Stampin' Up!

I don't normally do things like this but after several catalog flip throughs, I did it.

I really like their products and their ink pads are killer.  No really.  I finally found an ink pad I *want* to use.  No more streaky images.  No more bleeding.

So I did it.  I signed up under someone I met at a retreat that I kind of co-host here in the southland.  I started off slow but I'm gearing up now.  I've hit my groove and I'm ready to inspire.  Its also helped me creatively.  I don't always have time for the layouts and mini's but I can stamp a quick something when I have a few minutes.

I've started selling all of my other ink pads on Ebay because I just don't use them.  I have this habit of buying every color of an ink pad because I like the color on the lid.  I don't however, like the finished image.  So all of my Jenni Bowlin and Studio Calico pads are for sale.  So are some of my SC Stamps from old kits.  Seller name is rascal1004 on Ebay if you're interested.

I've been having a blast with the Stamping' Up! products though.  There are ideas everywhere and its fun to try new things before branching out.  I've used some of their items to make things for the retreat goers and they love them!  So much fun to hear them talk about the idea and want to know how it was done.

My personal site is:

Stampin' With Erica

I'll be posting weekly updates here on the blog as I create things, sales or specials come up etc.  They usually post Weekly Deals which are marked down items that you can get at a discounted price.  I picked up a few of the Halloween Wreath kits from last season for less than $11!

Grab your kit here.

The annual holiday catalog is already out and can be viewed on my site as well.  LOTS of fun ideas posted in there.  These items are limited so you don't want to wait for those.

I'll be posting some ideas from this catalog next Monday so look for that!

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!