design each moment

patterned paper page: revisited

Remember this beautiful page by Tami Potter?
Well, for today's post, I took her layout and made it in different patterns and colors and added my own photos to show how versatile each Mosaic Moments layout can be!

I used patterned and solid paper by American Crafts, the free journaling PDF, the Clearly Calendar stamping set, 3 photos, 12 x 12 grid paper in Desert and the Mosaic Moments tools: metal ruler, craft knife, Dotto adhesive, Lil Chizler, and cutting mat. 

I am a HUGE fan of that free journaling PDF and it was so fun stamping the date in the lines.
You really should find a collection of coordinating patterned papers and go to town!

pink patterned portrait

The inspiration for this layout came from my mailbox: receiving my new 1 inch punch in the mail!  It is so fun to use, I had to make a page that would involve lots of 1 inch square punches. 

I had this adorable photo of just my daughter Gwyneth available and I thought it would make a great one-photo page.  I had other photos from the same spot/same time but this photo was much more powerful all by itself.
I framed it with two thick strips (2 1/8 inches x 10 9/8 inches), along the top and the bottom.
Then, I centered the matted photo (4 3/8 inches x 6 5/8 inches).
Next, I filled the remaining grid spaces with 1 inch square tiles of patterned paper in coordinating colors, but contrasting prints.  (This is a great time to use your square punch, if you have one, because the pattern can be random.) 
The checkerboard pattern keeps it interesting.  I purposefully used the lighter squares to help draw the eye to my subject.

I stamped the date on a piece of cardstock then cut it out using an oval template.  The curves help balance out all of those right angles and highlight Gwyneth's sweet cheeks!

Using the same shiny gold ink pad, I stamped several large flowers right on top of the other page elements.  The flower shape echoes the flowers in the patterned paper and the subject's dress and the shiny gold ink adds sparkle to the overall look.

Materials used: the fun one inch square punch, trusty Mosaic Moments tools: metal ruler, craft knife, Dotto adhesive, Lil Chizler, and cutting mat, plus 12 x 12 grid paper in Cocoa, pale pink cardstock, 3 different sheets of patterned paper, one photo, gold inkpad, flower stamp, and the Clearly Calendar stamp set available at SnapNCrop.

transportation

We were fortunate to spend Labor Day weekend this year in New York City!  We had so much fun.  I have so many fun pages to make with all my pictures! 

Today I am posting about the first stage of our trip--getting there.

We rode the Metro to downtown Washington DC, then took the Bolt Bus straight to Manhattan.  The kids loved traveling this way--big windows and no carseats!

For this page, I wanted to convey a feeling of movement to emphasize the subject: transportation.

Materials used: 12x12 grid paper in sunflower, patterned paper, light blue cardstock, and my Mosaic Moments tools: metal ruler, craft knife, Dotto adhesive, Lil Chizler, and cutting mat.

Three of the photos are cut into three pieces: one 3 2/8 inch square and two 3 2/8 by 1 inch strips.  This really keeps the eye moving.  And because I actually wanted a "busy" layout, I used 1 inch squares  of a busy patterned paper to create a border. 

However, as I filled in the border I realized that the page was getting a little too crazy, so I toned it down a bit with 1 inch squares cut from a solid color.  I added them along an imaginary diagonal line for added interest, and left a spot for journaling.So what do you think?  Does this page make you want to take a train somewhere exciting?

a kiss to build a dream on

I happened to sit down and start scrapbooking our recent trip to Manhattan, NY, on the same day as our wedding anniversary.  I guess I was in a romantic mood, because I came up with a very romantic layout!

Materials used: 8x8 grid paper in black, three photos, white cardstock, heart-shaped stamp and red ink, metal ruler, craft knife, Dotto adhesive, Lil Chizler, and cutting mat.

I used a smaller grid size, 8 x 8, to set off just the single favorite photo--a kiss on top of the Empire State Building!  I kept it really simple, surrounding the main shot with 1 inch squares of the gorgeous scenery. 

I ran into a little problem up at the top.  My digital prints are never exactly 6 inches long for some reason but I really wanted to keep the same color of smog sky up along the top of the page.  So I improvised, using another similar square behind it.  Hopefully it blends in enough to go unnoticed.

I added one little white square just below the happy couple (wink) and stamped a little red heart on it.

This little layout may just find its way to Mr. Moon's office!

Ava's Tea Party

One of my favorite blogs is by photographer/mother Sheye Rosemeyer.  She has a beautiful website and gorgeous photos.  She also happens to have a heartbreaking story, which you can read here.
This August, we participated in her worldwide celebration of her daughter, Ava's Tea Party.
Atticus and I baked cupcakes together and Gwyneth got a new cupcake dress made by her mama.

This special day was all about appreciating your children and I realized later, to my dismay, that I had only taken a couple of pictures!    I still wanted to scrapbook them, however, so my strategy was to use the patterned paper layout ideas from Tami Potter's book, Designing Photo Mosaics and More, page 78, and let the patterned paper fill in the extra space.

I was totally inspired by the colors in Gywneth's cupcake dress!  I gathered several coordinating pieces of patterned scrapbook paper and colorful cardstock, along with two pieces of 12x12 grid paper in white, and my Mosaic Moments tools: metal ruler, craft knife, Dotto adhesive, Lil Chizler, and cutting mat.   I also added a couple lengths of grosgrain ribbon for pattern and texture.

And here is the layout:

My goal was to convey the feeling of celebration and also show my children how much they are cherished.  We are looking forward to making Ava's Tea Party a family tradition!

Frying Pan Farm

For those of you who have children...will your kids look at the camera when you are at the zoo or farm? 
Atticus won't!  He's way too interested in all the animals around him.
That's why, as I looked through my photos from our day visiting a local farm, I decided to focus on the whole farm environment instead of Atticus for this layout.
With my photo editing software (Photoshop), I tinted a few photos using sepia tones to simplify and bring an old-fashioned feeling to the pictures.  Farms just seem to belong that way, don't they?

Using the Gestalt (the whole is greater than the sum of its parts) layout ideas on page 28 of Designing Photo Mosaics and more by Tami Potter, along with 12 x 12 cocoa grid paper and the other Mosaic Moments tools: metal ruler, craft knife, Dotto adhesive, Lil Chizler, and cutting mat, this is what I came up with:
Notice the three sets of three.  I took three of the photos and cut them into three sections, one 3 2/8 inch square and two 1 x 3 2/8 inch strips.  I also divided up the one photo of hens that I had into three little separate hen pictures.

I matted and journaled on my favorite shot of the day, a picture of the smokehouse.  I was grateful for the flexibility of the system here because the only piece of this light brown cardstock I had was just 1/8 inch too small!  But I just kept the other edges from making it too noticeable and I think it still  looks nice.

This page makes me want to take the kids back to the farm again soon!