Trinity - You are my sunshine...

What a crazy life I lead. I have to tell you all that you have my apologies for not keeping you posted on my creative journey as I have said I would. Life is pretty crazy around here. First off it is summer and the kids are home with me from school, we are house hunting, I have been working my little booty off for Scrapbook News and Review, teaching myself PSE7 (thank God for Youtube tutorials) and taking photo editing classes. I have been creating a lot for them but I like to post my creations after they are published so that takes a good 45-60 days before I can show you all.

Here is one of those that was published in the May issue. I really love this layout. I have to admit that it was for a kit club review and I truly disliked that orange floral patterned paper. However this just goes to show you that with a well coordinated kit club, the right photo and accessories you can make anything look good. I love this now!

The scrapbooking kit was part of a new article series we are doing over at Scrapbook News and Review. I love this idea. We get to review different kit clubs and let you see all the wonderful things about them. "I Am a Scrapaholic" was the kit club I had the honor to review. I have to say really loved the kit and all the goodies that came with it.

This is a picture of my darling daughter Trinity. It was taken this spring when we were attempting to get our family photos done. I snapped this one of her at the top of a slide. Though she had just started her way down it and moved out of the shot before my camera and it's slow shutter speed could snap the picture. The cropping is how I took it and the golden glow is from the yellow slide she was at the top of. I hated this pic on the screen of my camera but for what ever reason I did not delete it at that time. Once I got it up on my computer screen I saw it's true beauty and fell in love with this shot.

Lets get down to the nitty gritty shall we?

Background: I started off with the orange floral paper and layered on top of it with a blue cardstock then a white cardstock. This was a nice compliment to the blue leaves in the back ground paper. Using a edge punch from Martha Stewart I edged the white cardstock and added little red dots with my maker in every other small scallop. Adding little fancy cut cherries from scraps of another patterned paper from Jenni Bowlin (I think, see the list below from the kit contents) in the corners.

Next I used a Tim Holtz mask and some yellow, orange and red inks to create the anchor line of the layout and the background for the title. Gently blending these inks over the mask.

Paper mats and layers: Then layering a square block of a larger cherry pattern paper, the pendent shape red cardstock boarder and the orange butterfly ribbon (which I was not very fond of either) to create the completed anchor line. This gave it extreme visual texture and colors to counter the starkness from the white cardstock background. Having this anchor line to rest the photo on was key. After placing the photo in the correct place I chose to create more interest in the upper right section of the layout.

TIP- I never adhere any thing together until I am done layout out my page because of what I did here. Instead of cutting into a new piece of cardstock and paper... I took the background paper and the blue background cardstock and cut out these circles behind the upper right corner of the photo. I cut the blue with a scalloped edge scissors, HAHA yes those decorative scissors from the 90's... I still have them and use them frequently. I then added a doodle dot inside each scallop this time. I inked the edge of the pattern paper circle and layered them together. Yet it still did not seem like enough. I added in some long red stitches with DMC floss. I then took my gold pen and doodled a little circle at the hole where the floss enters the white cardstock... looks like a mini eyelet.

I mounted my photo onto a red piece of cardstock.

Journaling: "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are grey. You'll never know dear how much I love you. " This was all done on a journal box (something I don't use very often) from Jenni Bowlin.

Embellishments: The butterflies are die cuts that the kit club provided. They were fun to use and added movement and splashes of color to the page. The flowers were also included and I have never really found a use for white flowers but I really love how they turned out. I also like the centers that are from Jenni Bowlin again... hehe.

This I am a Scrapaholic kit products include:

6 sheets of 12x12 Jenni Bowlin Farmers Wife Collection:

4 Sheets Bazzill Cardstock: [2 each] Red Devil, Navy

American Crafts Black Rainboot Thickers

Jenni Bowlin Milk Cap Chipboard Buttons

Jenni Bowlin Maraschino Pearl Flowers

Jenni Bowlin Red Labels

Bazzill Kisses Just the Edges

Prima Marketing Taffy Daisy Dreams

Prima Marketing Wildflowers

Jenni Bowlin Blueberry Pearl Flowers

Maya Road Brown & Cream Sheer Journaling Tags

Prima Marketing Embroidered Canvas Tags

Maya Road Brown & Cream Sheer Journaling Tags

Making Memories Butterfly Twill Ribbon

I have to admit I sat there looking at all my scraps from the other two layouts (one seen to the left, you can read more about it by clicking on the picture to get to the post about this layout, and another layout to be posted soon) I did with this kit and was asking myself what to do with these... umm... well ugly papers and embellishments. The first two layouts I used everything I liked from the kit. The photo was the key and this truly is a sign of a great kit club. The I am a Scrapaholic club knows what they are doing if they can put together kits that are so well coordinated that even when people think their choices are not the prettiest they can still create with them and make something very beautiful. I have to say this is my favorite layout from these three and has been for some time. One I am definitely very proud of.

Thanks so much for sharing my creative journey once again. My questions for you are...

Have you ever used a paper you really don't like? If so was it for a challenge or from a kit club or just leftovers? Why did you use it and did you like the results?