Top Ten Blog Hop (and a giveaway!)

Hi everyone!  Welcome to the Top Ten blog hop!  This is my second year in a row participating in this hop.  Every year since I've had my blog, I've done a wrap-up of my year's favorite layouts.  I love the excuse to go back and look at everything I created...and I love seeing everyone else's favorite projects.

Before I share my projects, I want to let you know that I do have a giveaway.  One lucky person will win an embellishment assortment from me.  Just leave a comment on this post to be entered!

And without further ado, here are my favorite ten projects from 2017 (in no particular order):

If you happen to like my work and want to see more, make sure you follow me on Instagram.  I'm WAAAAY better about posting there! :)

And here is the whole hop list (lots of inspiration to check out!!):

Christine Meyer

Kathy Skou

Kathleen Graumüller

Teri Anderson

Susie Bentz

Janice Daquila-Pardo

Giorgia Rossini

Laurel Seabrook  

Aimee Kidd

Mary Ann Jenkins

Keren Tamir

Lee-Anne Thornton

Heather Leopard

Tifany DeGough  

Sue Eldred

Melissa Elsner

Laura Whitaker

Anita Mulcahey

Ashley Smith

Simone Schermann

Shelly Kurth

Monique Liedtke

Suzanna Lee

Marcia Dehn-Nix  

Laura Cox

Irit Shalom

Nicole Martel

Carolyn Johnson

Tenia Nelson

Samantha Taylor  

Rebecca Keppel

Judy Hayes

Isha Gupta

Traci Penrod

Tracy McLennon

Karen Hunter

Lyne Blodgett

Anna Sigga

Lisa Moen

Kat Benjamin (that's me!!)

Wendy Antenucci

Have a wonderful day and happy hopping! :)

Ho Ho Ho || Pretty Little Studio

Merry Christmas everyone!  I hope you have a wonderful, fabulous day!

I wanted to pop in and share a layout that I made recently for a Pretty Little Studio Instahop.  I combined the pretty Wonderland collection with a cute file from Just Nick Studio and really love how it turned out.  The colors of the collection are so pretty and are such a fresh take on a traditional holiday palette.

Love this photo of my girl holding a candy cane.  She wen through a stage where she looked totally surprised every time I tried to take her photo...made for some very cute pictures....even though we didn't capture a lot of smiles :)

Have a beautiful Christmas Day!

Cardstock: Bazzill; Cute File: Just Nick Studio; Mist: Heidi Swapp; Background Paper: Studio Calico; Date Stamp: Shimelle for American Crafts; Everything Else: Pretty Little Studio

Hello Twins || Pretty Little Studio

Good morning everyone!  I am popping in to share a layout that I recently made for Pretty Little Studio using the Dream Big collection.  I love the color combo included in this collection.  It's so pretty and unique.

I also decided to break out my embroidery floss for this layout.  I started by laying down squares of patterned paper in a random design and then filled in the empty spots with Xs made of embroidery floss.  I thought the final effect was kind of fun:

Once I had all the paper and embroidery floss completed, I finished off the layout by scattering around minimal embellishments.

I apologize for the lighting - my nice technology was broken at the time :)

Cocoa Daisy Guest Designer

Good morning, everyone!  I was so lucky to be the asked to be the guest designer for Cocoa Daisy this month!  I got to play with their 12x12 Memory Keeping Kit and the Pocket Pages Memory Keeping Kit.  The kits this month were travel-themed and oh-so-much fun!  Here are the projects I made:

This one is not my normal style, but when I saw the map paper, I knew I needed to do it:

I made Piper's monthly spread with this kit:

I scrapped the world's most adorable doggy:

And I finally scrapped a photo from our 2011 Paris trip!

Thanks so much for popping in!  Happy Wednesday!

I ♥ Us | Color Cast Designs

Good morning all!  We are getting closer and closer to Christmas and the new year, which just totally blows my mind!  This year sped by!

I wanted to pop in and share a recent layout that I made with one of the November releases from Color Cast Designs.  I combined this acrylic title with the lovely Gratitude Documented collection from Bella Blvd to create this layout:

And please notice that I used a bright, colorful background for this one!  Lol.

Thanks so much for stopping in...happy Friday and enjoy the weekend!

Cardstock: DCWV; Mist: Heidi Swapp; Acrylic Embellishment: Color Cast Designs; Date Stamp: American Crafts; Everything Else: Bella Blvd

November Jillibean Soup Projects

Hey everyone!  I just wanted to pop in and share my Jillibean Soup projects from last month:

This layout using one of their awesome cut files:

This headband for Piper made with their new felt flowers:

This card made using another one of their cut files:

And this layout made with the new collections, Shades of Color and Farmhouse Stew:

Have a great week!!

Hello Beautiful || Color Cast Designs

Hi everyone!  Happy December (WHAT?!?!)!  I totally forgot to share a layout that I made last month for Color Cast Designs.  

I had a lot of fun combining the awesome Bohemian Dream collection from Cocoa Vanilla Studio with a few different acrylic pieces from Color Cast Designs.  I used one of my old faithful designs to create this:

I love how it turned out!

Thanks so much for stopping in.  Have a lovely weekend!

Cardstock: Bazzill; Mist: Heidi Swapp; Acrylic Embellishments: Color Cast Designs, Date STamp: American Crafts; Everything Else: Cocoa Vanilla Studio

Together || Pretty Little Studio

Good morning everyone!  Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the U.S.  :)

I wanted to pop in and share a new layout that I created for Pretty Little Studio with the Feels like Fall collection.  I decided to create a layout that wasn't Fall-themed, but instead focused on the "togetherness" in the collection.

To begin, I picked out the blues/mints from the collection to create with.  I then created a simple design by laying out my elements in a horizontal line across my background.  I finished off with minimal embellishments and splatters.

Here it is:

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Enjoy your day!

Background Paper: Studio Calico; Mist: Heidi Swapp; Everything Else: Pretty Little Studio

2 Month Spread

Hi everyone!  I wanted to stop in and share the spread I made to document Piper's second month.  I used the Zoey kit from Felicity Jane to create this 2-page spread:

I love this kit!  And I love documenting my girl this way! :)

Cardstock: Bazzill; Date Labels: Pretty Little Studio; Mist: Heidi Swapp; Staples: Tim Holtz; Everything Else: Felicity Jane

25 Days of Christmas Tags

Good morning everyone!!  Every year the wonderful and talented Tracey McNeely hosts the 25 Days of Christmas Tags.  It's 25 days of inspiration from the teams from some of your favorite crafty companies.  Today is Jillibean Soup's day and I am so happy I get to participate for the second year in a row!

This year I am feeling very nontraditional about my Christmas color palette.  Which is why my tag for this year looks like this...

I used one of the new shaker tags from Jillibean Soup and watercolored the background.  Once that was dry, I used some Jillibean stamps to create a random star pattern over all the tag.  Then I colored the stars in with a sparkly purple pen.  I really like the way it turned out.

And since we're sharing tags today, here is another one that I shared on Instagram a few weeks ago for the Jillibean Soup shaker Instahop...I plan on using it for Christmas, as well...and it fits in with my nontraditional theme (but still star-studded!) :)

Thanks for popping in!

Scrapping for Fun!

YES!  You totally read that title correctly - I got some just-for-fun scrappy time in the other day!  My husband took Piper away from me and basically locked me in my scrap room.  He knew how much I missed it.  He's such a great guy.  In that 4-hour block I was able to create 3 layouts!!

The first one I'm going to share with you is a scraplift of an amazing layout by Corrie Jones.  I really wanted to scrap these photos of Piper and I thought my Bella Blvd stash of the Addison collection would complement the photos perfectly:

Gosh, that layout was fun to make!  :)

Have a nice day!

Cardstock: Bazzill; Mist: Heidi Swapp;  Date Stamp: American Crafts; Everything Else: Bella Blvd

Blessed || Pretty Little Studio

Have y'all seen the new Feels Like Fall collection designed by Heather Doolittle for Pretty Little Studio?  It's so much fun!  It's the perfect Fall collection, but I love that it's not too Fall-themed and can be used to scrap other topics as well.  I received this collection a few days ago and was so excited to play with it.  For today's project I decided to stick to a Fall theme and scrap a photo of my daughter and I at the park.  I also used one of my tried and true layout designs that features a smattering of hand-cut hearts across the page.

Love the pretty, bright color combo!  Here's the whole layout:

Thanks for popping in!

Cardstock: Bazzill; Mist: Heidi Swapp; Date Stamp: American Crafts; Everything Else: Pretty Little Studio

Spooky Scary Skeleton || Pretty Little Studio

Good morning, everyone!  Are you getting ready for Halloween?  I have never really cared about Halloween one way or another, but now that my daughter is here, I'm super excited about it even though she is still so young.  It also helps that the new Goosebumps collection from Pretty Little Studio is really cute and fun!  :)

I decided to use this collection for my most recent PLS assignment to create a layout about Piper in her skeleton jammies.  My husband did a little dance with her to the "Spooky, Scary Skeleton" song that was pretty much the cutest thing ever.

I created a big title with a cut file from The Cut Shoppe and filled it in with fun papers from the collection.  Then I added some minimal embellishments and splatters to finish off the page.  It came together very quickly and easily.

Thanks so much for stopping in!

October Jillibean Shares

Good morning everyone!  I am totally loving playing with Jillibean Soup's new lines, Shades of Color and Farmhouse Stew.  Here are my projects that were shared on the Jillibean Soup blog this month:

This card for World Cardmaking Day:

This card using Farmhouse Stew: 

This layout using Farmhouse Stew (and my trusty circle punch): 

This card using Shades of Color: 

And this layout using Shades of Color:

I can't believe it's almost November.  Where has the time gone?!

Hip Kit Club Sketch

Hello!!  I recently received my October kit from Hip Kit Club in the mail and I had to instantly play.  For some reason, I've really been wanting to scrap some Fall photos recently, which is weird, because Fall themed products don't usually appeal to me.  They're not bright enough for my style :)

However, I love this kit and I love the most recent sketch that they posted:

So, I took a swing at it and here's what I came up with:

Aren't my nieces and nephew adorable?!?!

Cardstock: American Crafts; Patterned Paper: Hip Kit Club, Pinkfresh Studio; Alphas: Hip Kit Club; Die Cuts, Chipboard: Pinkfresh Studio; Phrase Stickers: Pretty Little Studio; Mist: Heidi Swapp; Date Stamp: Shimelle for American Crafts; Washi Tape: Dear Lizzy for American Crafts

Thankful for You || Color Cast Designs

Hi, everyone!  I'm excited to pop in and share a layout that I made with a few of the September releases from Color Cast Designs.  All of the releases were very Autumnal in nature and I knew they would pair perfectly with the Bella Blvd/Illustrated Faith new Gratitude Documented line.  Here's a look:

Isn't that collection so pretty?  And I think it's complimented perfectly by the wood veneer confetti leaves and the confetti asterisks.

Thanks for popping in.  Make sure you stop by the Color Cast Designs website to order your Autumn embellishments before the sale out!

Cardstock: Coredinations; Patterned Paper, Die Cuts, Alphas, Stickers: Bella Blvd/Illustrated Faith; Wood Veneer/Acrylic Shapes: Color Cast Designs; Date Stamp: Shimelle for American Crafts

My First 2-Page Layout!

Good morning everyone!  Happy Friday!  I'm excited to share my most recent Pretty Little Studio layout with you.  I've been scrapbooking for 9 years and this is the first time I have ever created a double page layout!!  The whole idea of a 2-pager always kind of terrified me, but this one came together for me really easily.

As you know, my little girl, Piper, was born in August. I bought those fun monthly stickers so I can take pictures of her every month.  I decided that I would also make a monthly spread of some of my favorite photos from the month and re-use the monthly stickers on the layouts.  For the first month, I decided to use the super pretty Beautiful Day collection.  The colors and patterns are so pretty and really compliment the monthly sticker well.

Here is the whole layout:

And a closer look at each page:

Do you create 2-page layouts?

September Jillibean Soup Projects

Hey everyone!  HAPPY FRIDAY - the best day of the week, in my opinion!  I just wanted to stop in and quickly share my September projects for Jillibean Soup.  I made 2 cards and 2 layouts this month with their new collections - Farmhouse Stew and Shades of Color.  These collections are so much fun to work with!

 

Thanks for stopping in - happy, happy weekend!  :o)