"But It's So Pretty" Video/Blog Hop

Happy Monday!!! Today I am participating in a video/blog hop called "But...it's so pretty". The theme of this hop is to pull an item or items that you have been hoarding because they are just too pretty to use and actually use them on a layout.

Oh, I'm amazed at how many things I do have like that! Embarrassed to say but I think we all have a few.  The first things I pulled out are some beautiful papers that I have had for years! These papers were all designed by Karen Russell...yes, the Karen Russell who has the awesome photography classes now. Some of you may remember her when she was in the scrapbooking industry. She designed these gorgeous papers with beautiful edges. I had to have them! However, they have been hoarded by me and never used because...well, they were just too pretty! So, I made myself pull them out and use them for a layout.

I also pulled out the Heidi Swapp Project Life kit with all the gorgeous gold, white and turquoise elements! Swoon worthy! So pretty!

I decided to use this cream color patterned paper with the swiss dot edging. It's beautiful paper and I thought it would be perfect to use for these photos. I opted to go with a softer feel than my usual bright colored layouts. I wanted this to be girly and feminine. I love these three photos! They are of my nieces who are all sisters. They live across the country from me and I miss them so! They are beautiful girls and so sweet. I'm so proud of them.

You know me and cut files....I love them! I used a few from The Cut Shoppe. These are from the Funky Florals set in the shop.

Here you can see all the Heidi Swapp embellishments from the Project Life kit.  The arrows are from The Cut Shoppe set called Target Practice. I love them! I've used these on so many projects. They are perfect for my Project Life layouts too! For this layout, I misted them with Heidi Swapp's gold lame mist.

And more of the Heidi Swapp embellishments. I love how the layout turned out! I think its the perfect amount of feminine for my lovely nieces!

There are many stops on this video/blog hop that you won't want to miss! Many great designers and some really great prizes too!

Here is my video from the hop. For the complete video/blog hop list and how to win some great prizes, check out the information box on my video.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you've enjoyed seeing some things from my hoarded stash! ;)

"Cookies for Santa" Layout ~ November Hip Kit

Happy January! Hopefully you are like me and getting settled back into a routine somewhat. Things have calmed down a bit after the holidays and the aftermath is underway. Taking the decorations down, packing everything away for another year and if you're like me, a major cleanout as I welcome the clean open spaces in my home again!

I'm back today to share a layout with you that I completed using the November Hip Kit Club kit. I am loving this kit but trying to work my way through it before my January kit arrives. I still have December I haven't started yet. I fell behind during the month of November and do not want to have my kits piling up! I'm trying to get November completed so I can at least be on December before my next kit arrives. I am loving these kits though. They are so packed full of product and are so well put together.

I completed this layout pretty quickly. I have a process video for you but I'll share some photos first.

This is, of course, a layout of my grandson on Christmas Eve. The kids like to spend the night at our house on Christmas Eve so we can enjoy Christmas morning as a family. Needless to say, that makes me so happy because I love spending the morning with them and watching Audio enjoy his Santa gifts and stockings. (Secretly, I think its because when my daughter and son-in-law spend the night here, they know Santa fills their stocking and brings them Santa gifts. I think they're afraid if they don't stay here, Santa won't leave anything for them! Heehee)

On Christmas Eve, Travis and Ashley were helping Audio put out cookies and milk for Santa. Well Audio was so fascinated by the cookies that he kept trying to grab them and eat them. He also wanted to drink Santa's milk! I don't think he quite understood why we were just leaving them sitting there but I'm glad I captured the photo of him reaching for the cookies!

The "Santa" cut out was from the Silhouette store. I downloaded it and cut it out on my Silhouette using the red cardstock. I thought it added a fun addition to the title with the Santa hat.

Are those gold puffy stickers from Evalicious just so yummy! I love them!

As I said, I do have a process video that I'll leave you with. I hope you enjoy it!

New Hip Kit Club Layout

Hello again! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I know I did. My month was so busy with all the festivities and fun activities of Christmas and I enjoyed it all! I took my usually insane amount of photos and kept memorabilia so that I can work on my December Daily at a later time. I enjoyed the month as I always do.

Because of the craziness of the holiday, I haven't been able to do much scrapbooking until lately. Which left me with my November Hip Kit as well as the December kit. With January's kit shipping shortly, I thought I better get started on killing the past two months. They are gorgeous kits and I definitely want to put them to good use.

I created this layout using a photo of my grandson from this past Christmas Eve. He is at the age now where he is so much fun and he learned quickly what to do with those gifts!

I created a process video for you as well. The background was cut on my Silhouette just using the Impact font in large bold letters. I had the idea of doing this and it turned out perfectly!

I'll leave you with the photos and the process video. Hope you enjoy!

Happy New Years!

"Happy" Layout ~ Hip Kit Challenge

Recently, I participated in several challenges issued by the Hip Kit Club in their Facebook group. I have found it to be such a help in jumpstarting me into creating layouts again. Sometimes when you're stuck or haven't done something for a while, you need just that little bit of inspiration or push to get you going again.

This layout was from a challenge issued by one of the design team members, Marinette. Her challenge was to create a layout using a recipe of specific items. Here is the list of items:

4 patterned paper

1photo

5 buttons

1 Alpha for the title

1 Chipboard

1 tag

and one secret ingredient,

handwritten journaling

I took it on and created a layout using this photo of my niece, Brooklin. She was so proud of her medal she earned recently in track and I had to do a layout about it. It gave me the opportunity to add some journaling that I wanted to add and it just so happened, that was in the recipe! The journaling can be found on the pullout tag.

 I used some chipboard pieces from Pebbles and buttons...I haven't used buttons on a layout in so long! I have plenty of them in my stash so this gave me the opportunity to use them up!

I do have a process video of this layout and talk more about it. You can view it here if you'd like:

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day!

December Daily Share

Can you believe we are already well into November? As I'm typing this, I'm listening to Christmas carols singing, "Soon it will be Christmas Day" and "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas". Yes it is.

This is the time of year for one of my favorite projects! Yes, that would be my December Daily albums. December Daily is a project conceived by Ali Edwards. This will be my 5th year creating a December album and I have no plans of stopping.

I've seen a lot of comments recently on forums and some of the Facebook groups I'm apart of with some people not even knowing what a December Daily album is or maybe some overwhelmed with the idea of it.

I thought it would be fun to just chat a bit about the December albums. Hopefully to take some of the pressure, fear and overwhelming feeling from it. 

I filmed a video sharing my previous December Daily albums with you, which you will find at the bottom of this post. I thought it would be fun to see the different styles, sizes and layouts that you can do for your album. There are many kits out there to choose from if that takes away some of the overwhelming feeling for you. It is nice to get a kit with everything you need, all you add is pictures! However, if you already have a ton of supplies, there's no need to spend more! Just pick an album and use what you have on hand. I've done both!

Before I get into the video, a few have asked me to share my specific process on how I gather and compile my pictures and getting ready to do my album. I'll do my best to keep it as brief as possible!

1.  I assemble my album AFTER December.

I do not complete my album in December! There are just way too many activities and its way to busy for me to try and do that. Many people do but for me, I would not enjoy it as much. I am usually putting my album together sometime after the first of the year. I enjoy the process much more this way and it frees me from the stress of adding something else to an already busy month. This is not what I do for a job so trying to keep up with those who are doing it in December totally stresses me out and I don't want that. (Trust me! I've tried it!)

2.  Don't be pressured to create base pages ahead of time.

I usually DO NOT create my page layouts ahead of time. When I'm assembling my album, I usually just do page by page when I'm putting my photos in. The reason why is I don't know necessarily what picture or size I'm going to want on a particular page ahead of time. So if that page is assembled and there's space for a 3x3 photo, what happens if I want a full page photo or if its a landscape oriented photo? Won't work. So for me, I prefer to assemble my pages as I'm putting my photos in, one page at a time. That's just what works for me.

1. Use a timeframe that works for YOU!
Many people do only 25 days in their albums. Starting with Dec 1 and going to Christmas Day.
For me, I wanted more. For our family, our festivities go well after Christmas through New Years. We have out of state family and many times, Christmas involves longer visits and usually include the week between Christmas and New Years. I wanted all of that included in my album since that is our holiday season.

I begin my album on December 1st and go through New Years Day. After doing this for several years, I have found this is what I love for my albums. I love going through the New Year!

Choose a timeframe that works for your album. Whether or not you want it to end on December 25th or after the New Year is up to you. There is no right or wrong.

2.  Structure by date or not
I personally structure my album by the specific dates. In other words, my album starts on Dec 1 and goes through Jan 1 which is exactly how my pages are ordered. My pages will be numbered 1, 2, 3, etc for that particular day. I always usually include a date stamp or something that notes the specific date as well.

If a particular event or activity took place, I do use that photo and/or ephemera on that specific date. Sometimes though, I may not have anything specific that took place or maybe I didn't even get a photo of a specific day. For those days in my album, I will pull in what I call my "filler" photos and document those.

Filler photos in my album are the things that are not date specific. Such as a favorite ornament, favorite family recipe. Sometimes it may not even have a photo. I may just document a favorite childhood memory of the holiday. I love doing that! Each day does not necessarily need a photo!

Again, there is no right or wrong. I know some albums are just pages of fun activities, or the goings on of the month but not necessarily in date order. It's up to you!

1.  Photos, of course!
I take my pictures all through the month just as I normally would. I am careful to remember to take photos of the little details of Christmas such as special decorations, closeups of baked goods or the leftover remnants of unwrapped packages. All the little details that I want to remember but may not normally be in photos.

2.  Tickets, Christmas programs, and other ephemera
I love the season because of all the fun activities that it brings. I love attending my nieces and nephews school programs. I save the printed programs that are handed out and include those. I also save any tickets of any events we attended like movies, shows or any other event that I have a ticket for.

I've also started including some of my favorite giftwrap for that season. I simply cover a chipboard page with the paper and add a ribbon. Or even just cut a piece of the giftwrap and use it as a background on a page but specifically note that it was our favorite or new giftwrap for that year.

3.  Favorite recipes for the holidays
This one is a favorite of mine! I love sharing photos of the completed recipe and then adding the recipe to a page. We have some family favorites and I love sharing one of those each year in my album.







As I state in the video, you do not need a kit for this project. Many of us have leftover product and a stash that would more than take care of completing this album. Personally, I love getting a kit! It is full of the latest product and its already put together for me.

I have tried purchasing and pulling together a kit on my own and ended up spending more than what a kit would cost.

So I thought I'd share a few places where you can find a kit, if you are interested.

My choice of kit this year is from Hip Kit Club which you will find here:
Hip Kit December Documented kit 

You will also find kits here:
Ali Edwards December Daily kit
Scraptastic Stocking Stuffer Kit
Gossamer Blue December Memories Kit
Citrus Twist Christmas Daily kit

I hope this helps with your decision of whether or not to complete a December album and hopefully has given you some ideas. The important thing to remember is this is YOUR album so make it how you want. There is no right or wrong. There is no time frame to get it completed by and whether you choose a kit or not, it will be beautiful and full of your family's memories!

Here is the video of my sharing of three years of my albums. I hope you enjoy!

Love Layout and Process video

Hello! I hope you're having an awesome Tuesday! I am. The sunny morning is quickly turning into an overcast day with rain in the forecast for the afternoon! Makes for a perfect day to be snuggly inside with my coffee and hopefully some scrapping will be involved. Although, I am watching my grandson right now sooo we'll see how long he naps! Have I mentioned how much I love being a Grandma??? Yes I'm sure I have a time or two!

Anyway, I have a new layout today using the Hip Kit Club October kit.  This was for a challenge to use mostly ephemera and/or die cuts on the layout. I think I met the challenge! I used more than I usually do on a layout!  See what you think!

 All of the die cuts are from the Maggie Holmes Open Book collection that came with our October kit. Let me tell you...there were so many in that package!

Here's a few closeups for you.

I also have a process video up for this layout. To view larger, click on the You Tube button at the bottom of the video screen and it will view larger for you.

Thanks again for stopping by! Please let me know if you have anything you'd like to see covered on future videos!

"Lil Diva" Layout (Hip Kit Club kit)

Hi everyone. I have another layout to share with you. This again was created for the Hip Kit Club crop last weekend. I had the chance to participate and was able to get 8 layouts/projects done! A record for me lately.

This challenge was based on a sketch provided by Ashley Horton who is one of the design team members for the Hip Kit Club. They have some amazing talent on that team and she is no exception. Here is the sketch for the challenge:

I love good sketches and I love this one Ashley provided. The triangles and the embellishments around the photo.

Here is my completed layout.

 For the triangles, instead of layering paper, I chose to make flaps and let the patterned paper peek out from behind. You can see this on my process video for this layout.

 I do love the Maggie Holmes Open Book collection! Every single piece is just perfect!

If you'd like to see more, you can check out my process video on You Tube. Here it is! If you enjoy, please sub to my channel so you don't miss a posting...and just because it would make me feel good! ;)

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you had an awesome weekend!

Hey there You Tube!

I promised a bit of a surprise yesterday. I am excited to share that I have now started a You Tube channel. I don't know about you but I am a You Tube process video junkie! I love videos watching others create and sharing ideas and even just thought processes behind what they are doing. So I thought I'd give it a try myself.

Its something I've been wanting to try for a while and finally took the plunge. My first video is up. Its not perfect but I've already made changes and am working on improvements. I'll be sharing this layout that I created for the Hip Kit Club online crop over the weekend. The challenge was issued by one of my favorite You Tubers, Irit. She is also on the design team for Hip Kit Club. Her challenge was to use mixed media on a layout.

Here's my layout I created. It's a layout of my grandson who is always on the go! I love mixed media and wanted a bright background for the layout.

If you want to see the process video for this layout, here it is. To subscribe to my channel, you can go here: https://www.youtube.com/user/AuntREcReates/videos and just hit the subscribe button.

Or you can watch it here and click the You Tube link and sub from there. I'll be posting more along the way.

Thanks! Have a great weekend!

So Happy 2gether *Video

Ok, I promised yesterday that it would be here today, otherwise I might not have shared it!  Yes, it's a video.  I don't know about you but I love videos. I love process videos and tutorials. Just seeing how other people work and process their layouts is fascinating to me. I have picked up some great tips and ideas and just love watching them.  So I thought I'd give it a try myself.

I've been wanting to try these for some time now.  This first one took me hours, and I'm not even exaggerating!  Just the editing, narration overlay, photos, etc. Lots of time.....but part of that was just learning the video program and figuring out how to make it do what I wanted it to do. Not to mention computer problems which slowed my video down. So I had to transfer it all to the laptop.  That alone made the process much quicker.

So, here it is....my first process video.  I welcome any feedback!  Some of it I probably already know....looking at it myself, I see things I need to work on. I know the music volume is louder than the narration.... tried adjusting that and couldn't get it to work out so will have to work on that some more. But really any feedback would be appreciated.

And here's a few close-ups of the layout.

(Supplies Used:  Gossamer Blue Sept Main Kit, Studio Calico wood veneer hearts, asterisks, arrows; doilies)

I hope you enjoyed this post! Please let me know your comments on the video!

More Elle's Studio Fun,...

Happy Tuesday! We're just trying to survive the extreme heat we're having here in middle Tennessee. We're missing those thunderstorms, haven't had enough of them this summer! But the best way, is to just stay inside and scrap! Right? I think so...

Just a reminder, the Elle's Studio Journaling Class begins this Sunday, August 8th. It's a three week online journaling class. Elle has some amazing guests lined up so you don't want to miss it.

Also Elle's Studio is having a giveaway just for spreading the word about the class. By putting the blinkie on your blog or sharing on Facebook, you could win $25 worth of Elle's Studio product! So go over and check that out here.

Speaking of Elle's Studio, one of my blog readers, Sophie, created her own Summer 2010 Documented Mini. I took a look at it and it's fabulous!

Way to go Sophie! You can check out the rest of her mini by going to her blog.

And since we're on the subject of Elle's Studio today, I wanted to give you some up close peeks of her brand new product just released.....you'll want it! Trust me! Enjoy!

Elles Studio from Sheri Twing on Vimeo.

I hope you enjoyed getting an upclose look at Elle's new product. You can go over to get yours now at ShopEllesStudio.com.

Also, today is tutorial day at Scrap Tiffany! I love tutorials! Kristi (who by the way, just happens to be my sister!) has an awesome one for you today. It's making a gift bag out of an envelope! Yeah, can you believe it? Go to the Scrap Tiffany blog and check it out. You've gotta see it....very cute!

Have a great Tuesday and stay cool! I mean that literally! LOL

Bringing brads back....

This week's challenge for Scrap Tiffany is to pull out all those old brads and eyelets that you haven't used in forever! You know the ones....hiding in the back of your embellishment drawer or box....the ones you still can't part with....

I decided to do a canvas project using some old antique brads from Making Memories. I used to love these brads and used them a lot. I actually still like the looks of them although I never use them!

Supplies Used:
Gesso: Golden
Stamps: Woman Collage/Passport (Hampton Art), Faded Text Background (Stampabilities)
Mist: Tattered Angels in Golden Terracotta, Haunted Shadow, Sunflower, Tattered Leather
Inks: Distress Ink in Vintage Photo, Liquitex Acrylic Ink
Flower & Leaves: Prima
Metal Tag, Glitter Leaf, Antique Copper Brads: Making Memories
Tag: Moment to Remember Tags by Elles Studio
Other: feathers, hot glue.

This little canvas started as a bright yellow canvas with a white pattern on it. I found it in the dollar bins at Michaels. I grabbed a few because I knew I could use them for something!

I recorded a video of my creation process putting this together. There are no words, just music because I was working on it while my family was home....I usually have to record when they are gone! But there is some music for you to enjoy and I added captions showing the steps in my process. It's about 16 minutes long, just to warn you....I tried to capture the entire process. Watch all or even just part of it if you choose! I hope you enjoy it!

Canvas from Sheri Twing on Vimeo.

Go over to Scrap Tiffany and take a look at the other designers layouts and projects. Then create your project or layout and email it to Tiffany! We want to see how you bring brads back!

Have a great day!