Capture the Moment

I just recently learned to do some things to my photos in Photoshop Elements and I wanted to play with some photos from the Santa Monica Pier from a trip I took with my brother and sister. You know it's easy to do very cool things in Photoshop if you take the time to learn.

This layout is totally inspired by Nancy Damiano's Scrapbooking Family Vacations Workshop at 2Peas. I had so much fun taking the class and I had to pull out vacation photos and try some of the things Nancy suggested. I love her Subway art blocks so I gave it a go. It's such a great way to use alphas! I used the Everyday Eclectic collection by Echo Park. This chevron patterned wood background is fantastic and now I wish I had a few more sheets of it. Super cute for the Pier, a boardwalk or deck. Anyway, after putting my background together I wanted some little chevrons to form a bit of an arrow on the bottom right of my page so I cut part of the hexagon design and it makes such a nice chevron - I will attach a photo of that after the layout.

For the stitching I used some sparkly white Blending Filament Threads by Kreinik. I hope you can see the bit of tinsel it adds to your stitching in the close up. I thought it went so well with an amusement park type page. I also used some super cool Kreinik Metallics Medium (#16) Braid  in Lollipop Lemon that has a tiny thin wire in it so it will hold its shape. I used three strands of this to make a braid and because its wired, it holds that pattern nicely, but I did machine stitch it to my page to secure it. You will have to click on the images to see them close enough to see the threads.

Life is Pretty Amazing

This is my very adorable and clever niece out on an adventure. Her grandfather took these gorgeous photos. I need a week of photo classes with him. She is quite the trail blazer so I was going for an adventure page and ended up with just the cutest girly page. LOL!

 I used the sweet Echo Park "This and That -Graceful" collection with a bit of the "This and That -Charming" too. The little frog is from EK Success. The title block is Echo Park "This and That - Graceful" Chipboard and it sort of set the tone for my whole layout, right before it went all cute on me. I love cutting grassy fringe. First I used a large scalloped border punch and then just fringe cut it by hand and crumpled it.

Castaway Creek **Echo Park Paradise Beach**

I am totally in love with this Echo Park Paradise Beach collection of papers, can you tell? I just had to do a paradise looking page so my first thought was Castaway Creek at Typhoon Lagoon. If you have ever spent a week at Disney World and you do not take breaks so the days are from sun up to sometimes beyond midnight, you know how just raw your feet can get. Add in some super hot weather and you will understand why this very tropical lazy river with it's jungle sounds and music, mists and waterfalls, is my paradise. Your feet touch NOTHING. LOL!

I got a bit carried away with texture here but its really not very thick, the leaves and petals will flatten alot in the album so don't be afraid to give it a go. Its only about the thickness of foam squares once in the page protector. First I designed these tropical leafy and flowery shapes so that I could cut them out with my cricut. Then the trick is to make them look less die cutty by running a brown marker around the outside edge where the white core shows. Then use a sponge with brown ink to lightly shade the edges. Then just crumple and curl for texture.

The Paradise Beach paper is gorgeous but the stickers and things are cool too. I wanted to incorporate the waves border but in a more dimensional way so I put foam squares on the back. You still have a sticky sticker though so the best thing to do is to have a little bottle of baby powder handy with a soft brush like my makeup brush, and you just lightly powder the sticky part - now it's not sticky and it's smells nice too. Last I added the title cut from white cardstock.

Winner of the Scrapbooking Family Vacations Workshop!!!

First of all, a HUGE thank you to all of you who entered for a chance to win.

 I hope everyone will check out this class, because it's really pretty fun. My son just drew names from a silly hat that belongs to my husband, and he drew Judy Bagwell! 

 CONGRATS JUDY!!! I hope you will enjoy the class and be as inspired to create as I have been. :) **Judy - I sent you an email but if you didn't get it, just email me with your Pea Name so that we can make sure that you get signed up for the class. I'll see you in the class!


Here is all of the Info again with links so you guys can join the class with Judy and I :)
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 I finally get to share a little secret! The very talented Nancy Damiano asked me to contribute two new Disney layouts for her Scrapbooking Family Vacations Workshop at Two Peas! I was completely honored because I am a huge fan of Nancy's. I really had fun creating my layouts so I hope you guys will check it out. I only just had a moment to glance at the workshop but Nancy has outdone herself - so many great ideas and so many layouts that I will be "borrowing" ideas from :)

Relive the magical memories you’ve shared with loved ones as Garden Girl Nancy Damiano takes you on a creative journey documenting your family vacations. From America’s favorite theme parks, cruises, road trips to day trips – we’ve got you covered! (Note: This workshop covers domestic travel only – we’ll tackle Europe & the world in a future workshop.) So whether you’re still in the planning stages of this year’s vacation or sitting on stacks of old photos, Nancy’s got a plan for you! Join her as she guides you through a step-by-step process to divide, conquer and scrapbook those vacation photos. 

Included in the workshop are 50 brand-new scrapbook pages showcasing a variety of family destinations, helpful, printable PDF's and 5 brand new videos to walk you through the ins and outs of organizing and scrapbooking your vacation. Each video covers Nancy's approach to tackling vacation layouts, her perspective on using design in your pages and the creation of a layout from start to finish.

Birds in Paradise

Another layout using the gorgeous Echo Park Paradise Beach Collection. And after finishing this page, I have already started another. You guys may get sick of seeing the same papers. LOL!

I did something kind of backwards for this page. I wanted to cut out some tropical leaves for my other layout and I thought it would be fun to use the negative cut piece for this page. I thought about using it as a stencil for some misting but the paper is so nice that it had to be used as is. I just used some scraps for all the misc. shapes and the page was pretty much done. I raised the sticker border pieces with foam squares, cut out the "birds" part of the title using my cricut, and splattered a bit of black acrylic paint. My husband said that reminded him too much of bird poop - eww - that was not my plan!

Even Now

My boys are getting so big but you know they still look like kids to me. I used this totally fun Echo Park This and That Charming collection with lots of the stickers, journaling blocks and alpha blocks that look like scrabble tiles. This is one of those pages where you just start putting fun things on the page and stop when it looks finished. Give it a try!

I splattered some mist on the page by unscrewing the top of the mister and flinging the drops at my page. Of course I covered the photo and not my desk so there was a mess. It's what I do.