Two Lori Whitlock Halloween Themed Digital Layouts

I hope you are all enjoying your Halloween so far.  I thought I would share a couple of digital Halloween layouts I created for my ongoing 8x8 Christmas album project this past weekend.  :)

I created these two layouts knowing that they would sit side by side in the bound album which presented a bit of a challenge.  I wanted to scrapbook them in such a way that they stood as individual layouts that complimented their specific photos, but also didn't completely clash with each other.  To achieve this I chose a unifying background color that would work for both layouts and used square mats of the same size.  I also tried to pick more neutral tone-on-tone prints and similar tones of green & orange colors that would compliment both digital collections.  To achieve this I had to play with the color tints a bit, but I've found that this ability is one of the little perks of working in digital.

For my pumpkin patch layout I used the following digital kits:

• Lori Whitlock Fall Fling Elements 
• Lori Whitlock Fall Fling Papers
• Lori Whitlock Happy Harvest Elements (polka-dot pumpkin)
• Lori Whitlock Happy Harvest Papers (solid orange)
• Lori Whitlock Masking Borders 1 (rick-rack)
• Lori Whitlock Embellishment Set Buttons

For my Halloween layout I used the following digital elements:

• Lori Whitlock "Vintage" Font
• Lori Whitlock Halloween Flair
• Lori Whitlock Basic Attachments
• Lori Whitlock Happy Halloween Elements
• Lori Whitlock Happy Halloween Paper
• Echo Park Apothecary Halloween Element Pack 2
• Echo Park Dots & Stripes Soda Fountain Paper Pack 2 (green dot)
• Miss Kate's Cuttables Halloween Borders Set (spiderweb)

Well, that's all I have for now.  I hope to be back soon with some paper projects soon.  Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you all have a happy and safe Halloween.  :)

Wax Paper Resist Birthday & Thank You Cards

Can you believe it's already the last week of October?!  It seems like time is evaporating before my very eyes!

Today I thought I would share a trio of cards that I created today using a fun wax paper resist technique that I learned a few years back.  It's seriously fun--Almost seems like a magic trick and yet it's so easy!

1. To do this technique you'll need white glossy cardstock, standard wax paper, an embossing folder, ink and an iron.  I started my cards by cutting my glossy paper in quarters (4.25 x 5.5) and then cutting the wax paper just slightly bigger than that.

2. I then ran the wax paper through my diecutting machine using the wax paper inside an embossing folder.

3. Next you sandwich the embossed wax paper between two pieces of glossy cardstock (glossy sides facing in towards the wax paper).

4.  Then on a low heat setting you iron the backside of the glossy paper.  I found that the heat transferred well to the bottom piece of cardstock and didn't require flipping it over to iron the other side of cardstock).

5. Here is where the magic trick happens! Rub your ink of choice (I used Tim Holtz Distress Inks applied directly to the surface swiping the ink to the glossy cardstock and then rubbed away the excess with a paper towel).  The areas where the wax melted onto your glossy paper will resist the ink.  It is super cool and best of all doesn't require any stamps, embossing powders or heat guns (especially nice if you're a newbie just starting out).  For my first card I used a couple different polka-dot embossing folders which created the look of distressed bubble wrap.

These last two cards were created using the same two sets of 4.25 x 5.5 cardstock pieces that formed my second sandwich. After I was done ironing, I cut the papers into diagonal strips, inked them in different colors and alternated between using the front and back sides (which creates a fun embossed/debossed look).  And because they were ironed at the same time they line up pretty well.  :)

On a side note, all of my sentiment stamps used on today's cards are by Papertrey ink with embossing folders by Lifestyle Crafts (polka-dots) and Cuttlebug. ;)

Well, there ya have it.  I hope you'll give this fun technique a try!   Thanks so much for stopping by.  :)

A Simple Stories Harvest Lane Pumpkin Patch Layout

How are you?  Have you been enjoying your fall?  We've had one of the driest (& warm) October's in over a decade which is saying a lot here in the Pacific Northwest!  I thought I would pop in to share a layout I made a few months back documenting last year's trip to the pumpkin patch (which I realized just now incorrectly has this year's date--big OOPS!)

I created this layout for another page challenge over at Craft Warehouse.  For this challenge they provided us with a 12x12 sheet of orange Bazzill cardstock, a 6x12 sheet of Fancy Pants' Swagger paper (called Dependable) and a furry mustache sticker.  I must admit, as a mother of two girls this combo didn't thrill me, but as soon as I saw the mustache I knew I could find a way to turn it in a pumpkin leaf!  :)

With that idea I was off and running.  Last year I bought the almost the entire Harvest Lane collection by Simple Stories and I was seriously giddy to finally cut into it.  Unfortunately the oranges weren't a perfect match, but with a little chalk ink and turning my Swagger paper to the brown side I was able to make it work.  Luckily the rules are you just have to use a little bit of everything no matter how big or small. ;)

I cut out the little house from one of the photo mat element sheets and mounted it on thin chipboard to create my embellishment.  I also gave a little extra weight to my banner title by mounting the fall stickers onto chipbard and cutting them out as well.

I'm hoping to find some more time to play with this awesome collection again soon.  Thanks so much for stopping by.  :)

A Despicable Me Minion Themed Birthday Party

Last week my youngest daughter celebrated a birthday and she settled on a Despicable Me "Minion" theme.  Thanks to Pinterest I had no shortage of great ideas for her party!  :)

For her invites I turned to this fabulous idea pinned HERE.  I made a few tweaks, but stayed fairly true to the original inspiration piece.  My main changes were shortening the overall card and hair so that it would fit in an A2 envelope and rounding the top corners to form my Minion head.   I also decided to play around with some basic circle and rounded square shapes on my Silhouette software and was able to replicate the "Gru" symbol with the help of same black vinyl.  If it's possible I just fell a little deeper in love with my Silhouette.  ;)

For our cupcakes I made the ever so popular minion cupcakes that are all over Pinterest.  My craftiness sort of stops in the kitchen.  I'm by no means a great cook or baker, but I found these pretty easy to execute.

I enjoyed the video found HERE.  While my daughter wasn't interested in using a banana flavored recipe I just used a standard yellow cake mix and a tub of blue Pillsbury frosting so I didn't even have to mess with dyeing it.  I was also pretty stoked to find pre-made eyes by Wilton at Michaels!  And while I'm rambling, can I just say how thankful I am for the comeback of Twinkies?!  None of the kids at the party knew what they are, but the parents were excited and they made the perfect minions.  :)

For my treat bags I was inspired by the treat bags pinned HERE and the cups pinned HERE.  I searched all over online for affordable yellow bags and finally settled on some from Oriental Trader, but I was not impressed.  They were quite small and had all sorts of quality issues.  Right after I placed my order I found some at Michaels that were larger, much nicer and would have been about the same price with a coupon.  :(

AND lastly I decided I would challenge myself to hurry and put together another digital layout (for my Christmas gift albums) to share with my post today. I kept it pretty simple with another awesome sketch by Allison Davis at Scrapbook Generation.  

As you can see from the party pictures we rounded out our minion theme with a pinata from Walmart.  The pinata was a pull-the-string variety and it seems like when we've done these in the past it breaks open with the first or second string pulled and several kids are always sad they didn't get a turn.  This year my sister had the bright idea of having everyone grab a string and pull together on the count of three.  They almost pulled her right off the bar stool she was kneeling on and the Minion lost his legs in the process, but I thought it was a clever idea.  :)

To create my layout I used the following kits available for purchase:

• Echo Park Summer Days Paper Pack
• Frosty Paper Pack by Lori Whitlock (for solid blue & blue polka-dot)
• Masking Borders 2 by Lori Whitlock
• Label Brushes Set A by Lori Whitlock
• Miss Kate's Yummy Ice Cream Cone (comes with both .png and .svg files).

Thanks for hanging with me!  Next up on my list are some quick thank you cards, but just between us I think I'm going to cheat and try my best to dress up some clip art.  ;)

A Silhouette Video Tutorial & Fall Reflections Card

Are you like me?  Do you have a growing collection of SVG files which you've acquired from outside the Silhouette store?  While it is fairly easy to import them into your Silhouette library, I found myself really missing the color thumbnails that come with the shapes purchased directly from the Silhouette store.

I'm happy to say that with a little creativity I was able to find a couple different ways around this which have solved this problem and made a huge difference for me when I'm searching for the perfect shape from within my personal library!  Today I thought I would share my little tricks with you... (make sure to click on the gear in the bottom right-hand corner and select 1080p to view the video at the highest resolution).



And no blog post seems complete without a project to share so I decided to create a card with the cutting files used in today's video.

This card was created with the beautiful Reflections: Fall collection which Lori designed for Echo Park.  For my pocket, I used Lori's folder cutting file by stitching down the sides and inserting a journaling card from the collection for a fun interactive element.

As a last minute addition, I've received a recent question about how I organize my library so I thought I would share my system.  I went ahead and took some screen shots to show you the categories I created for sorting.  While I frequently use the search bar to search for my cutting files, it's also super nice to have one big folder where all of my Christmas themed shapes are stored (or any other theme, season or holiday).

Several years ago I had an unlimited download subscription to the Silhouette store so I acquired a ton of files and it definitely took some time to organize, but it's a great thing to do while enjoying TV (or even catching up on episodes on the net at the same time).  One trick I've learned to speed up the process is scrolling through a long list of shapes and holding down the CTRL key while selecting the shapes for a specific category (and then hovering your cursor over to the folder and dropping them all in at once or in small groups). As another note, some of my folders that show a "+" sign have additional sub-folders within that are revealed when you click on the folder.  You can see by my number of "recent downloads" from the past 1-1/2 years that I haven't caught up on organizing my files for awhile.  Maybe it's time I catch up on this.  ;)

You can be notified of my future video tutorials by subscribing to my You-Tube channel or following me on my blog.  I hope you've found the tutorial helpful and I appreciate you stopping by.

A Carta Bella Paris Girl Digital Scrapbook Layout

I've been busy working on several layouts for my Shutterfly albums trying to get caught up in time for Christmas gifts so I thought I would share one of them with you today!   :)

A couple week's ago Jessica Spague had part of Carta Bella's Paris Girl Collection included in their One Buck Wednesday deals and when I saw it I just knew it would be perfect for my daughter's recent birthday (shared HERE).  I also used some faux stitching from the Shabby Princess Splendid kit and faux sequins, pearls and rhinestone brads from Sweetly Scrapped which are all available to download for FREE!  :)

I must confess... Digital layouts take me almost as long as traditional layouts, but I love the fact that with this format I can make unlimited copies.   In spite of this I know I will never be able to go 100% digital.  I just love playing with paper way to much.  In fact I think I will most likely scrapbook these pictures again for my traditional scrapbook albums so hopefully it won't feel too much like deja vu when I share those layouts in the future.  ;)

For my layout today I used a wonderful sketch by Scrapbook Generation.  I'm a huge fan of Allison Davis and her amazing sketches!  :)

Thanks for hanging with me today.  Hope you have an awesome weekend!

A Technique Tuesday School Themed Layout

I'm finally getting around to sharing another back-to-school layout that I created for Technique Tuesday using their super cool new Story Card dies (and fun papers from Doodlebug's Take Note collection)!

I must confess... I'm not particularly drawn to Project Life or pocket page scrapbooking, but I love these dies!  They have so much versatility for so many projects including traditional scrapbooking and cardmaking.  I had a lot of fun pairing together the different shapes and best of all the circles are made to mix and match with so many different Technique Tuesday stamp sets!

You know I love me some stitching so I thought it would be fun to stitch around the card perimeters in coordinating thread colors and was delighted to discover the bus from Travel With Flair by Ali Edwards looks just like a school bus!  Love all the versatile supporting shapes that come with each one too like basic tabs, photo corners and photo turns.  I know they will be something I turn to over and over again.

To go with my school theme I used lots of phrases from their stamp set called I Love School by Ali Edwards. For my title I masked off the word "school" from one of the stamped phrases and spelled out the word instead with red vinyl Thickers to add a little interest.

I hope you'll take a look.  I must say I want them all now!

Thanks for your sweet comments.  They always brighten my day.  ;)

Lori Whitlock's October Blog Hop with Fall Layout

Welcome To Lori Whitlock's October Blog Hop! You should be arriving here from Corri's blog, but if you're just joining us you can also start out at the beginning from Lori's Blog found HERE.

Today I have a layout to share using the Fall Reflections collection which she designed for Echo Park, in addition to lots of her great SVG cutting files.  :)

I've been holding onto these special baby pictures of my youngest daughter for almost 8 years now, waiting for the perfect papers to inspire me.  The Fall Reflections kit fit the bill perfectly!  

I chose to cut out a number of Lori's Flourish shapes in ivory to mimic the swirls in the title and then cut all of her wonderful leaf shapes from all of the great tone-on-tone prints from the collection.  The words "Autumn Leaves" were part of a beautiful longer phrase, but I was needing something a bit shorter to fit my space so I chose to isolate the two words.  Love how flexible cutting files can be!  :)

To create my layout I used the following cutting file available for purchase in Lori's shop (as well as in the Silhouette store).

• Autumn Leaves Title
• Bird Flourish Set
• Flourish Set 1
• Flourish Set 4
• Flourish Set 5
• Fall Leaves
• 3 Fall Leaves
• 4 Fall Leaves

As a little bonus, I thought I would share a second digital layout I created this past week.  It documents my husband and daughter's annual trip to Japan to visit their grandmother and feed the deer at Nara Park.  For those who are new to my blog, these deer are everywhere and they're not shy.  It's such a wonderful experience that it's a scheduled stop every time we visit.  We have lots of photos of the girls with the deer over the years so this year's pictures focused on Grandma and the new babies in the park. ;)

For my digital layout I turned to Lori's Sweet Memories collection (which is available as a set or individually as elements and papers) and a wonderful 2-page sketch by Allison Davis at Scrapbook Generation).

For my background I used Lori's Masking Templates Set 1 and for my yellow border I used her Masking Borders 2.  With this layout I am now officially halfway done with my digital albums for this Christmas.  Woo-hoo!

Are ya still with me?  ;)  In honor of the blog hop Lori is offering everyone 30% off through October 14th when you use the code "Boo" at checkout.  You can find her shop HERE.  :)

Make sure to check out all of the other inspiring fall projects created at my fellow teammate's blogs today.  They are constantly amazing me with their creativity!   Natalie is your next stop.  :)

Lori Whitlock

Brigit Mann 
Christine Ousley 
Corri Garza 
Mendi Yoshikawa (you are here)
Natalie Graham 
Traci Penrod

More Doodlebug Halloween Parade Layouts

I'm back today to share some layouts that were featured on the Doodlebug blog yesterday.

This first layout was the first project I created with the Halloween Parade collection so it was particularly fun creating with a fresh new box of untouched goodies!  I knew I wanted to find a way to use that darling haunted house neighborhood paper and in the end I tried to find the best section to squeeze onto my little border. 

My title was taken from Icon Cardstock Sticker sheet.  I thought it would be fun to dress it up a bit so I mounted the word "or" onto a metal rimmed office tag, pairing it with an old school Doodlebug eyelet and doodle twine.  The banner for my layout was created using the fancy frill stickers topped with the new doodle sprinkles (my new favorite).  ;)

For my journaling I used one of the 4x6 album inserts and dressed it up with some machine stitching to give the appearance of extra layers.  I love the haunted house doodlepop and thought it was the perfect embellishment to match my photos and journaling.

My second layout focused on photos of us carving pumpkins so I tried to use all the pumpkin images from the collection.  I started by selecting the pumpkin patterned paper and pulling all my colors for the page from it. 

I really struggled with my title and finding the perfect placement and combination of fonts.  After much trial and error I came across the darling "KG Strawberry Limeade" font which I cut on my Silhouette Cameo for the word "fall" (pairing with beetle black teensy type cardstock stickers for the word "favorite")

For my little pumpkin grouping I used stickers and doodlepops from several different sheets, popping up one of the pumpkins with foam tape to give different levels of dimension.  I though the cat fit in well with our kitty pumpkins.  Another favorite of mine are Doodlebug's super cute star jewels!

I once again journaled on one of the 4x6 album inserts.  The card came with a pumpkin printed on it, but I decided I liked the look of another doodlepop layered over the top instead.

Well, there ya have it.  I want to thank Doodlebug for this amazing opportunity.  I have idolized this amazing company for almost 13 years now so working with their products has been a dream come true.  :)

Doodlebug Halloween Parade Guest Designer Projects

I'm over-the-moon excited to have some of my projects featured on Doodlebug's blog today using their super cute Halloween Parade collection!!!

I created my first card at a crop with limited tools on hand.  I had left all my punches and dies at home so I was looking for a technique that would be eye-catching with straight lines.  I decided it would be fun to do the popular paper-pieced chevron stripes which only required the use of my paper trimmer.  For my focal point I used one of the darling mini pockets with a pull-out sentiment hiding inside. 

I think all the little costumed characters in this collection are so cute and decided if one was cute, five of them would be even cuter.  To finish off my card I threaded basic white buttons with different colors of doodle twine and popped up my sentiment "quote sticker" with foam tape.

I love the Be Witchy Doodlepop so I knew I wanted her to take center stage on a card.  I used papers from the 6x6 paper pad which are perfect for cards since the patterns have been reduced in size.  I layered her with clouds and a moon from the "icon cardstock stickers", a sentiment sticker from the "tag stickers" sheet and finished my card off with some of the yummy new Halloween Sprinkles. 

As a last minute addition, I created a 4th card this week using some scraps of paper from the 6x6 pad along with the totally adorable ghost sticker from the collection.  The tag die is by Papertrey Ink which I elongated and then hid the seam with the ribbon.

Finally, for my last project I made two quick and easy treat boxes using Lori Whitlock's Apple Favor Bag cutting file.  I substituted the apple with the cute pixie cutouts (using them as a label rather than a flag) and topping them with doodads and jewels.  A little doodle twine and some more pixie flags and they were complete.  Super fun and the perfect size to fill with treats to surprise my daughters with on Halloween morning.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I'll be back tomorrow to share two more layouts with some up close shots using more of this darling collection!  :)