Echo Park - Little Boy collection - layout "Siblings"

Another layout for Auntie Em's Scrapbooking and Beading. 

Again using the Echo Park - Little Boy collection.  I combined some Bo Bunny Double Dot as well.  The background is Basic Grey - The Basics - I love that paper for backgrounds!  I simply did a basket weave of several pieces of the patterned papers.  I Glimmer Misted the corner of the page.  I tried something new, cork!  I'd never worked with cork before, but when I had been rummaging around in my Mother's basement last time I was home, I came across a stash of several sheets of cork in varying thicknesses that my Father had acquired probably 30 years ago!  My title took me the longest to do on this, I first cut the letters out of both paper and chipboard.  I stamped a floral image onto the paper letters in a Stampin' Up ink - Cherry Cobbler.  Then I ran the paper letters through my Big Shot with the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder.  Then I distressed the letters in Antique Photo ink by T!m Holtz which brought the swiss dots to life!

The journaling is a poem that I came across; untitled and anonymous, so I can't take credit for this piece of creativity; it reads:

"Two little eyes, discovering what's new, two little hands, touching everything in view, a sweet little voice, asking you why, a mischievous smile, a whimpering cry, two little feet, jumping on the floor, a toddler's mission is to explore."

I hope you enjoyed this layout!  Of course this one too can be viewed in person at Auntie Em's Scrapbooking in Cornwall.

New Design Team Member for Auntie Em's Scrapbooking ...

I was over the moon when Emma asked me to be a part of her new Design Team for Auntie Em's Scrapbooking in Cornwall.  Honored and anxious all in one big ball of excitedness!  The Design Team had our first meeting today, and I got the opportunity to meet Mellisa Ross, the other DT member. 

I've already done a few layouts for Emma and I will reveal them here, as well as they will be hung in the store for viewing.

Emma gave me Echo Park's Little Boy line to work with.  And if you are a follower of my blog (or just a rouge lurker who reads my posts) you will know that EP is not one of my favorite lines to work with.  I find it too bright and cheery for my style.  So, it was a challenge right off the start for me.  So, here is what I came up with.

I call my first layout;  Mama's Little Boy

I loved the grid pattern for this background, that was almost a given for me.  I wanted to pull in the yellow in my son's shirt, but this line didn't have any yellow in it (in a solid colour, there was lots of it in polka dots and buttons etc.) So I used a piece from the Fly A Kite collection from EP as well.  I did a cut a heart on my Cricut with the George font and shadowed it in that horrible red stripe, man that was hard to look at, mesmerizing!  I tied some Baker's Twine around it and a button. A half dozen brads from Basic Grey and some T!m Holtz distress ink, a couple of stamps here and there, and there you go ... it was quite a quick layout.  But then again, Echo Park usually is for me, I can't seem to get too detailed with that company's papers.

My second Layout I'm calling - All Boy

I really like the look of those little banners that seem to be all the rage right now, and my friend Candace did a layout with ribbons tied between the banners and it looked so great I thought I would scraplift that idea.  I got the basis for this layout from the Lets Scrap website and just did the left side of that particular layout. I cut the letters and the tag with the Plantain Schoolbook cartridge on my Cricut.  The wire flowers are simply wire that I looped several times to make the floral shape.  I used the over-embossing technique to give them a shine. The journaling reads

"You sure are a happy boy Nigel. And so tough! Summer 2010"

I hope you enjoy these layouts... there will be many more to come.  Stay tuned for challenges between the two designers - we have plans to utilize the Page Maps calendar from Becky Fleck.  You can participate too - drop into Auntie Em's Scrapbooking for details.

Thanks for looking!