Playing Catch up

It has clearly been crazy here, between the pregnancy, the end of the school year, and also we have been house hunting to move out of our rental in a few months. This poor blog has been a tad bit neglected. I wanted to share some super fun layouts I have made for Scrapbook Challenges this past month or so.
I created this one for sketch 443. I loved breaking out some newer and older Heidi Swapp lines to create this page. I wanted to make a fun background by mixing punched circles.

The next layout I created for the fun Gold Foil Trend Challenge. Between gold foiled paper and rub-ons, this layout has quite the good amount gold foil. I wanted to play with my photos by doubling them up for a fun look.

And lastly today I wanted to share this fun layout  I made for sketch 440. I was pleasantly surprised to find I had one last months kit from Scrapbook Circle. I wanted to really play with the paper, and cut strips into a type of mosaic pattern. I snapped this fun pic one day of my headphones with the wire wrapped like a heart. Music is a big part of my soul and I loved creating a page to document some of my all time favorite songs( which is unbearably difficult to narrow down into a small list that fit in this journaling space.)

 As you can tell, I have been LOVING playing with my paper lately in strips, circles, fun shapes!
Thanks for sticking with me through my tiny blog hiatus and thanks for peeking in!!!
                                                               Brianna

Paint stick play

I was recently invited to participate in a fun art swap, at the genius thought process of the very talented Tina Walker. I mostly share scrapbook pages on this blog, and as most of you know, I am not big on adding a lot of art supplies and paint on my pages, but surprisingly I LOVE to draw and paint, I just don't mix the two. I loved the idea of pushing myself to create something to share outside of my normal go to "scrapbook pages".

 

 

After grabbing some paint sticks from Lowes, I went strait to pinterest for inspiration. I sat on these sticks for far too long, creating at the last minute as I always do! I found great ideas, I have been loving folk art, but nothing felt right. I thought to create a mural on all three sticks that could work split up, but again, nothing felt right. In the end I chose to go with a typical painting style of mine mixed with a typical layout embellishment I use on every page.

When painting without reason, I tend to create floating crosses in many colors. I love the movement it creates, and the fun colors it can add. If you look closely at my layout details, I ALWAYS use my bubble punch to create patterned paper dots in multi size, floating them around for added movement. When creating these sticks, it just felt natural to add these two elements together. I chose to add a few more painted orange dots and bright pink glitter confetti for visual interest.

I chose to use some music note washi tape to stamp my words on, and upon stamping, found the dark notes clashed too much with the black ink, so I chose to white wash them with white paint, and than a hint of orange paint for interest.
I searched and racked my brain for the right phrase to use on the sticks, when it just clicked that this is a swap of one anothers creativity, why not create a saying about creativity, and settled on
"Creative is a way of life". I know for me it is, as is music!!!

I was happy the way this project took me and am so glad to have gone with my instinct to join in!!!
We each created and sent out 3 sticks to other members in the group, making for some great art to collect and display! You can view the other amazingly creative sticks by checking out the other participant blogs below!!!
                                                                       Tina Walker  
                                                                   Michele Kosciolek       
                                                                     Susan M. Brown

                                                               Melissa McRay Johnson

                                                                       Sara Vukson

                                                                      DeeDee Catron

 

 

My loves

This month at My Scraps and More is all about spring. Spring to me is one big celebration of life by the beauty of nature, inspiring me to create a very festive page.

I wanted to create banners and LOVED all the of the fun and festive papers from the new American Crafts Fine and Dandy line. I just LOVED the gold vellum paper mixed with the bold black and white striped and polka dot papers.

I grabbed this quick photo of the girls one day, and chose to break it up and spread it out on the page. All grandma wanted for Mothers Day was a nice pick of her grand babies, but they were less than enthused to cooperate,( my have been the excitement of their new trampoline)

I suppose I cannot complain, atleast I got them all together! I LOVE the gold embellishments from Heidi Swapp and loved trailing them with other goodies below my photos. Just the right amount of fun to complete the page!
                                                                     Brianna

And then there were 6!

Clearly I have been neglecting this poor blog as it has been nearly tow months since posting, but all is within good reasoning. As tried for an planned, just a week before Easter we found we were expecting baby #4!!!!

It has been a tiring and sickly few weeks. I have the honor in pregnancy to never get sick, but rather stay nauseated 24/7 waiting for the sickness with no relief, it makes for little desire to do more than basic functions!
Just when I reach the second trimester, the golden thresh hold of less nausea, I have been hit like a brick wall with extreme exhaustion, sleeping nearly 12 ours this weekend and most days doing little more than laying on the couch. I remain greatly optimistic that the next few weeks will bring more energy and well being. Until then I was excited to share our wonderful news, and I hope to play blog catch up!!!
                                                                             Brianna

I AM my mother's daughter

I am a woman of many titles; mother to my amazing three girls, wife to my highschool sweetheart, caretaker of one slobbery mut. But no matter where life takes me, one thing I will always believe; every part of my past made me who I am in my present. I am my mother's daughter. I am the woman she raised me to be, and that will forever be my basis of being.

I wanted to keep the focus of this page centered near my photo, and chose to luster some embellishments within the chipboard frames of the super awesome I AM line by Simple Stories.

Looking at the fun cut squiggles, floating circles and embellishment clusters just makes me happy!

                                                                                Brianna

simply me

Happy Wednesday friends! I hope everyone had a fun day yesterday. I personally do not go out of my way for making a presence of little green men in the house this holiday, I blame it on a burn out of 25 days of making a presence from one little Elf all December month!
I do have another personal celebration to share today , however. This coming Friday little L and little A chose to participate in their school talent show. Coming from a family with a background of singing on stage ( myself and my mother), its always fun to see the girls overcoming  shyness to sing on stage. The amazement of a child through a parents eyes never stops surprising me.

I want my girls to always see themselves as my husband and I see them! They are sweet, smart, beautiful, and greatly loved! I would be lying if I didn't admit that they seem to be growing far too quickly for my heart to accept, but I wouldn't trade it for all the world.
This layout was created for this weeks challenge over at Scrapbook Challenges. It was a fun recipe challenge, and I had fun adding a hint of paint to my page.

 

I have been loving purple tones lately, and chose to paint small circles to back my paper dots trailing on my page!

I came across the sweetest quote on Pinterest to use on this page for little L.

 

How stunning is that coral colored frame from the Simple Stories, I am collection!! you can find a lot of the collection HERE in the My Scraps and More store!

I do believe I shall turn this saying into a canvas on her wall, may she always see it, read it, and deeply believe it!
You can join in this fun challenge and link up your take on it! You can view all the other fun layouts the team created HERE!!
                                                            Brianna

Summer & you

Happy Wednesday friends!!! Its another week which means a new sketch up at Scrapbook Challenges! I rarely work with large photos, but Had this large photo from uncle Ken6y's visit last April on hand. Making it work for me, I chose to rotate the sketch and use a large circle rather than a second photo!

Uncle's first request when flying to the west coast for the first time, and being from the east coast, was to visit and set foot in the Pacific Ocean!!

Little L and Uncle had great fun playing in the waves, and I wanted to create a playful movement that mimicked the fun nature of this photo. Punching all my little dots out, and armed with my sequins and tiny chipboard pieces, I created this fun bubble trail right over my photo!

The girls and us had so much fun that day, soaking up the sun and making sand angels at the beach! We will never forget this amazing week with Uncle before our move out of California.

We would love to have you play along with this weeks sketch and link up for a chance at this months prize. You can view the rest of the teams take on this fun sketch HERE. Thanks for peeking in and I hope yall are having warmer weather than the past few weeks as we are here!
                                                          Brianna