My MInd's Eye - September Projects

We got sets of My Mind's Eye - Ooh La La line of paper for our projects this month. It comes with a page of die cuts. My goal was to try to use all of them... because, really, if you save them to use later they will just sit there collecting dust. I got one 1-page layout and five 2-page layouts plus 2 cards out of the kit... and I still have a few good-sized scraps left. Not bad!

I just LOVE the MME papers. I almost bought a set similar to this one in pinks and turquoises, but I resisted! Good for me! :) Here's are the pages I made... almost exactly in reverse order:





First off, here is my little sunshine! I recolored the flowers with several shades of Glimmer Mist. Green flowers got green and blue mist, gray flowers got khaki mist and yellow and rust flowers got yellow mist. In real life they have a nice subtle sparkle. I also misted the ribbon (from the packaging of a bulb forcing kit) and the Heidi Swapp title letters with the Simply Khaki Glimmer Mist. This is my favorite color. It just knocks down the brightness of items and makes them look a little bit aged... but still sparkly. Love it! The die cut brackets were from the kit, but the color was too blue-gray... so I ran them through the Xyron upside down, covered it with Martha's Aquamarine Glitter, and then a coat of Glossy Accents to prevent anything from moving. The bling here is the new Basic Gray Bling It On... they are a nice gray/platinum shade... but some of them did not want to release from the backer, ended up separating from the glue, and ended up in the trash. I have better luck with the Kaisercraft ones personally. Oh, and yes, the ribbon was a pain to hand baste... and pain to gather... and a really huge pain to glue down. But it looks nice, right?

The yellow wall at the Taca Cabana inspired this layout. I just *love* the happy shade of yellow... and the food too! :) I used one of the vinyl rubons from Scrapworks over a die cut tag for the small and demure "Family" title. I colored the tag with a Heidi Swapp colored pencil to help it stand out... although in this pic it's hard to tell... perhaps I should go over it one more time!

Here are my two crazies! ... or is it crazys? Either way, they sure are hams for the camera. I wanted to use this older set of thickers... but the black was too much. So I grabbed some black cardstock scraps and added the torn edge to one side and the straight edge to the other. Talk about stretching the paper to make the most of it! The little labels are some super inexpensive ones from 7 Gypsies that came in a little booklet. Of course I sprayed them with some of the Simply Khaki Glimmer Mist since they were too white. What will I do when that bottle runs out?! The shiny dots are just Glossy Accents applied over top of the patterned paper. Simple and eye-catching!

This one is my favorite this month! The dotted paper made me think of the paper on the inside covers of children's book... which made me look for photos of Adrianna reading... and I found Lyle. She didn't like the book that much... only a single read for this one... but the green croc on the cover inspired the page. I rumpled the notebook print paper and inked the edges green to help it stand out from the cream backed dot paper. I accidentally ripped the top edge... so I had to rip a little more to make it look right. Then it needed something else, so the hanging tags were born. I love the framed title and the stitching finishes it off.

Here's a simple romantic page. The title is hand drawn, cut from velvet paper and chalked a bit to help the colors match. I love the gray-blue accents here with the pop of yellow. Very striking to show off our little girl forcing a kiss on Papi at a wedding. I can't remember the date... but I do remember that this was the weekend before the lice episiode... and that was so traumatic that everything else was forgotten! (sorry if you're feeling itchy now!)

Last but not least, here was my first creation of the month. We have to make at least one 2-page layout... and it's always a struggle for me. This is the first time that I used my HP Photosmart D7560 (Yes, I do love it!) to print the photos just for scrapping. I used a few of the die cuts... the photo corner is really a half-frame ... and I love this green honeycomb paper. It is fresh, fun, and modern looking. I paired it with some of the Whitewash Co'ordinations paper. The title is a stamped die cut in a label holder paired with some really, really old Lil Davis chipboard letters. The square letters have sat in my stash forever waiting for the perfect colored layout and this was it. Really, it would be totally easy to recreate these... all you need is some scraps of chipboard, ink or paint, alphabet stamps, and glossy accents to seal it and give it that professional, store-bought look. The journaling is a quote from Laura Ingalls Wilder from a Mary Englebreit card I've been holding onto for 9 years. I knew it would come in handy! :)

much love,

erin