Ben & Cocoa Take An Elfie

Happy New Year, my scrappy friends! I hope your Christmas was full of love, laughter, and wonderful memories. We were very fortunate to have our entire family home for the holidays this year! A rare treat, and we enjoyed every moment together. Christmas is extra special when you have a family member who still believes in Santa. It makes every day special and Christmas Eve and Christmas Day magical! Our youngest Grandson still believes in Santa Claus and the magic of his Elf on a Shelf, Cocoa. This year, my daughter took a cute picture of the two just before Christmas. Ben was so excited to count down the days as Christmas approached.

I dug deep into my patterned paper stash to find this background paper from 3bugsinarug, entitled Reindeer Games. Peartree Cutfiles had the perfect cut file to document this special picture. The Take An Elfie cut file contains two cut files: the title and the elf with a camera. I chose to back the elf and the camera with multiple coloured cardstock pieces, used vellum for the camera lens, and the Holographic 2.0 paper from Lawn Fawn for the camera’s flash. I find working with small paper pieces like the eyes in the elf quite tedious, so I opted to use Concord & 9th’s black enamel dots instead. Next, I backed the Take An Elfie title with patterned paper from BoBunny entitled Mistletoe. This patterned paper has also been in my Christmas collection for several years.

To complete the layout, I adhered the two cut files on either side of the picture. The elf and the camera were adhered using double-sided adhesive foam tape. I did not adhere the foam tape to the back of the vellum lens. I used Doodlebug Designs Black Alphabet Soup Puffy Stickers to add the names and date to the layout. And finally, I added some gold accents to the page using Vicki Boutin’s Thickers from her Print Shop and Warm Wishes collections.

And that’s a wrap on my first Christmas layout for 2025. Thanks for popping in today. Until next time, stay safe, stay well, and Happy Scrapping!

Happy Halloween!

It’s time to get spooky, my friends! This Fall, I participated in an ATC (Artist Trading Card) swap with my VIP friends through Creative Scrapbooking Magazine. ATCs are out of my comfort zone, and this is only my second swap. But I was really inspired by the Halloween swap and had a blast designing these cute little cards. For those who haven’t made an ATC before, each miniature card measures 2 & 1/2″ by 3 & 1/2 inches. Such a small canvas to create on!

Here’s how they came together. I started by fussy-cutting four Halloween images from the Mintay Papers Halloween Book. It is full of whimsical images for creating cards, scrapbook pages, and many other creative projects. Each image was inked around the edges to add a distressed look. I wanted something different for the cards’ backgrounds and searched the Silhouette Design Store for an alternative. I decided that tombstones would be the perfect backdrop. I chose four separate designs for this purpose. Three of the backdrops came from Jillibean Soup – Halloween Tombstone (1 Design ID #384738, 2 Design ID #384737 & 3 Design ID #384739), and the last came from Lilium Pixel SVG – Days Til Halloween Tombstone (Design ID #386333). I resized each cut file to fit the ATC size requirements and cut them twice from BoBunny’s Fright Delight collection (12″ Fright Delight Spiders), and Doubledot Designs (12″ Licorice Journal). I trimmed the black tombstones away from the base of the cut file to mimic a stone foundation for each tombstone. Each stone base was adhered to the bottom of its respective tombstone.

Before assembling my cards, I splattered some black paint on the tombstones to further the distressed look. Once these backgrounds were dry, each image was adhered to a tombstone using Scrapbook Adhesives 3D Foam Squares.

I placed a Halloween phrase at the bottom of each tombstone using Simple Stories Ephemera Bits and Pieces from their Simple Vintage October 31st set. For additional texture and Halloween fun, I added a bat from this same collection of ephemera, and glossy spiders from Doodlebug Designs Shape Sprinkles (Spooky Spiders). To complete the cards I added Glossy Accents to the eyes of each fussy cut image.

And there you have it, friends, my sweet and spooky Halloween post. To all those Trick-or-Treaters, may your baskets be full of your favourite treats and no tricks tonight. Wishing you all a safe and fun Halloween! Until next time, stay safe, stay well, and Happy Scrapping!

Roarsome

In late June, we travelled out west for our son’s wedding. My daughter and her family planned a few side trips while we were there, and Drumheller was their first destination. Drumheller, Alberta, is located northeast of Calgary. It is known as the dinosaur capital of the world, and it was a huge hit with our grandchildren!

I chose the Roarsome title from Peartree Cutfiles to showcase a picture from their trip. I loved the addition of the dinosaur on top and wanted to make it a bit whimsical as I designed the layout. The patterned papers in the title come from an older Carta Bella Paper Co collection aptly entitled Dinosaurs.

While I backed the words in the title, I chose to lift the pieces of the dinosaur by securing a piece of black fun foam underneath each piece to create dimension and the illusion of flight. I added green googly eyes to the dinosaur to enhance the whimsical feel of the layout. Once the title was complete, both the picture and title adhered to the fun background paper 12″ Life in Color Bricks. This background page also belongs to an older BoBunny collection called Life in Color.

The final elements of the layout came together quite quickly. The “vacay” puffy phrase and accent stickers came from a Vicki Boutin collection of Thickers called Loving This. The date and location of the picture were documented with Doodlebug Design Inc.’s teensy-type stickers.

And there you have it, a simple and whimsical page that focuses the attention on the picture and title. Thanks for stopping by today, and until next time, stay safe, stay well and Happy Scrapping!