My last Kiwi Project - Mini School Album

It's hard to believe but my time with Kiwi Lane has come to an end! Todays a bitter sweet day for me as I share with you my final project as a design team member. I had a blast creating todays Weekend Whimsy project using the adorable Smarty Pants collection by Simple Stories. I had the privilege of seeing this collection at CHA in July and I knew this was a collection I couldn't wait to get my hands on! I love creating mini albums and for todays Weekend Whimsy project that's what I did! I wanted to create a mini I could add various school photos throughout the year too. I also wanted to create something fun to store the mini in as well.

I love seeing before and after pictures of projects no matter if it's craft related or home decor.
So I thought I'd share the before of what I used to create my mini and what I used for the storage case.
I have several pieces of mini's from various manufactures I've collected over the years, so of course I picked out some chipboard, acetate, and felt pages to create my school mini with. While on a recent shopping trip I came across a decorative hat box that was under $3 so of course I picked it up not knowing what I'd use it for, but I knew I could make something with it!

*Before

So now that I have the platform for my mini and a way of storing my mini I needed to create a template for the mini to fit inside the hat box. I used the shape of the hat box and created a template using white card stock.

Now on to my favorite part!  Creating the mini album!

Here's a peek of the "After" showing my final project completed!

For the title of my mini I used Bracket 4T to create the shape out of one of the 6x12 sheets from the Smarty Pants collection.

I also used some of the remaining parts of the 6x12 Smarty Pants sheet to help embellish the cover along with some coordinating chipboard stickers from the collection.

I kept this mini really simple, so to dress up a few of the pages I created some fun pockets using Sunnybrook Lane 2B.  Creating pockets allows me to insert the cut out journaling blocks from Simple Stories and more photos.

Here's another look at my finished storage box and the mini inside.

Templates used 

*Brackets 2T, 4T

*Scallops 1B

*Sunnybrook Lane 1A, 2B

I've had a blast being apart of such a wonderful team and creating projects for Kiwi Lane. I hope I have inspired you to create outside the box and to look at your Kiwi templates in a new light. Thank you to the Kiwi owners and crew for welcoming me with open arms! Thanks to all of you Kiwi fans for your sweet comments and support! I look forward to being inspired by the new group of talented design team members and I know you will too!

Happy Scrapping!

Leslie 

Gorguss Girl card using IAR flowers

Today I feel blessed, the sun is out and the rain here in Colorado has finally stopped! If you have been watching the news, you've heard of the mass devastation caused from all the rain we have been getting. Our family feels very lucky to have a dry home which sits on high ground! Now that our power has been restored, I'm finally able to share my September dt project for IAR with you.

This month I created a 6x6 card using a Gorguss Girl image I colored using watercolor pencils. This was my first time ever coloring a Gorguss Girl and I love the way she turned out. I used a fun paper from DCWV, called the Burlap paper stack as my background to give it some texture along with some MME vintage floral/wood grain paper. I just love the look and feel of this card. For my finishing touches I used some of my favorite I Am Roses flowers! 

The IAR flowers I used included:

  R21

                   R19 "new item"

                   LY1 "new item"

Be sure to stop by the I Am Roses shop to check out all the beautiful flowers IAR has to offer. Don't forget each month IAR hosts a challenge over on the blog. We love seeing what you create and how you interrupt the monthly challenges!

Thanks for stopping by and 

happy scrapping!

Sept. KLD Blog Hop

Welcome crafty friends!

I'm excited to have you joining me on this super fun Kiwi Lane Designs Blog Hop! If you are hopping along the way you just arrived her from the talented Claire's blog.

Todays blog hop is bitter sweet for me as this is my last KLD blog hop as a design team member. I've had the honor of being apart of the first design team for Kiwi Lane Designs and it's been an amazing experience! I'm excited to share my hop projects with you today and if you like what you see, I'd love for you to follow me on my blog as I continue to share my passion for scrapbooking!

 If you ended up here by chance be sure to go back and finish up the hop from the Kiwi Lane Blog.

Wanna win some amazing products from our Sept. sponsor,

Simple Stories?

 Of course you do! What a silly question!!! One random winner from one of 12 blogs including the Kiwi Lane blog will win. *You must be a US / Canada resident in order to receive the paper prize. If you are the winner and you live outside the Us / Canada  you will receive a $25 dollar certificate to the Kiwi Lane Shop! To enter to win you must leave comments on all 12 blogs to be entered. The winner will be announced on the Kiwi blog Sept.12th.

Being apart of the Kiwi Lane Design team has been a blast!!! I have loved every minute of it!!! Just like I am in love with all their Designer templates! If you haven't tried any of the templates be sure to pick yourself up a set or two and give them a try. I promise you won't be disappointed!  I can't imagine not having them as a part of my arsenal of scrapbook supplies! 

For todays hop I wanted to show how you can take the same group of templates and create totally different scrapbook layouts with a different look and feel.

The templates I decided to use include:

* Celebrate 1, 5

* Wacky 2T

* Abbie Road Mini 1A

* (2) 4x6 Photo

* Adorn 3A

* Sunnybrook Lane 1B

First step before I start cutting into my designer papers is to frame out each layout. I love this step! I think of the Framing process as a movable sketch! Framing gives me a jumping off point, it also gives me an idea of what my layout might look like when it's completed. Don't worry, you don't have to keep the framing the same if you feel you need to move a template, move a template.

I created "2" different layouts with all of the above templates.

I'll be sharing the framing process before pictures and the final after layout pictures.

Layout #1

*don't mind the little white squares, I had to cover the photos for privacy*

Layout #2

I love that I was able to get 2 layouts done using the same templates! It was so fast putting both these  together and I love how different they look! I hope I have inspired you to challenge yourself and give this a try.

Thanks for joining me, next stop on the hop is the talented Melissa.

Just incase you hopped out of order, here is the hop line up.

1. Kiwi Lane

2. Staci

3. Tammy

4. Erin

5. Deborah

6. Kristy 

7. Madge

8. Claire

9. Leslie *thats me

10. Melissa

11. Charissa

12. Roselyn

Sept. IAR Color Challenge

Today I'm sharing a fun altered picture frame I created for iamroses.com. Be sure to stop by the iamroses blog to join in on this months color challenge. 

My daughter just turned 12 in August and I happen to snap what I think is an amazing picture of her on her birthday.  Being the theme for this months color challenge is birthday and yellow I knew I wanted to showcase her turning 12. 

I'm so thrilled with the way this altered frame turned out! I just love the punch of yellow and how happy it makes me feel when I look at it!

The iamroses flowers I used on my altered frame include,

LY1 - 210

R60

Just look at how beautiful the new Lilies are!!! WOW! I love them!

 For all the details on the IAR blog challenge be sure to stop by the

iamroses blog.

Happy Scrapping!

IAR - Altered Balsa Box

Thanks for stopping by! Today I'm sharing a dt project I created for I Am Roses.

For today's project I altered a small wooden balsa box. I went for more of a shabby look, which isn't my usual style. Sometimes I like to shake it up a bit plus is gives me the opportunity to use up some of my supplies I don't usually get a chance to play with.

I covered my balsa box with papers from Webster's Pages, not sure which collections as I got them in a warehouse box about a year ago. I loved the soft floral look of the papers I chose along with a pink/cream check for the accent pattern. I cut images from the paper and used them as embellishments on my box. I love getting double duty out of my papers that way!

I Am Roses flowers I used include:

Cherry Blossoms 

Gardenias

Skeleton Leaves

R2 Small Roses

Don't forget to stop by iamroses.com to find all the beautiful flowers I used on my altered box along with many more flowers to choose from.
Be sure to check out the iamroses blog for monthly challenges, a new challenge is posted at the beginning of each month. A prize of flowers is always reward to the challenge winner.

Happy Scrapping!

KLD Weekend Whimsy - Altered Bird Houses

Thanks for stopping by and checking out today's Weekend Whimsy! I had so much fun using my Kiwi Lane templates and the adorable paper collection "Sweet Tart" by Jinger Adams! I love the fun bright colors Sweet Tart has to offer that I've already creating various scrapbook layouts with this collection. For todays Weekend Whimsy I altered 3 wooden bird houses. 

I started out painting the bird houses with a few coats of Vintage White acrylic paint. I then decided on which Kiwi Lane templates and Sweet Tart papers I wanted to use on each of the bird houses.

Here's a look at the painted bird houses.

Here's a look at all 3 completed bird houses using Kiwi Lane templates and the Sweet Tart paper collection. 

I'm so thrilled with the way all 3 bird houses turned out! The Sweet Tart paper collection was perfect for altering these bird houses!!! I can't wait to display them around my house!

Kiwi Lane templates used to decorate these birdhouses include: Rings 1, Rings 2, 

Wildflower 1T,2T, 3T, Spook Alley 1A,  and Tiny Tags 1T

I wanted to create a fun ruffled skirt on the tall bird house so I used Spook Alley 1A  and I accordion folded and glued each fold to create a ruffle skirt.

I also created some fun rolled flowers as embellishments on the base of the tall bird house using Rings 2.

Look at how adorable this bird house looks with the fun ruffled skirt and the colorful rolled flowers!

To add a bit of whimsy to the smaller bird houses I used Wildflower 3T and Wildflower 1T to create the decorative panels on the roof of the bird houses.

To dress up all 3 of the bird houses I used some of the Sweet Tart Glitter Die-Cut Icons to add that bit of whimsy and sparkle. 

I had so much fun creating these colorful bird houses and I hope I have inspired you today to think out the box and to alter something fun and colorful for your home.

Happy Scrapping!

Leslie

19 Years and he...

...still gives me butterflies!

Today I celebrate 19 years with the most amazing man! I can't imagine my life with anyone else! He's my rock, my best friend, and the best dad ever! I love you and can't wait to spend many more years of creating memories with you! -Happy Anniversary Ty, Love you forever

Then

Now