A little scrappin’

I love to scrapbook and am usually very good about keeping up with the kids and the pictures so that I don’t get years behind in making  getting a scrapbook done for every year for my kids. Lately, however, I have just not had the motivation or the time due to a number of reasons.

It really has been a shame that I have not had the time to scrapbook considering that my Christmas present from my husband was the new Gypsy by Cricut. If you are not a scrapper then you can click here for a description of this fabulous little device. The Gypsy along with my  Cricut makes scrapping so much easier and enjoyable and a little less expensive because I really no longer need to buy things like stickers and die cuts.

I was finally able to take the time and actually had a few clever ideas for the pictures I had and with the help of my new toy came up with some pretty cute pages.

Everything on this Tree Monkey layout was cut using the Gypsy and Cricut machines. You might say I went a little overboard, but it is so nice to be able to design your titles and embellishments so easily.

The How Does Your Garden Grow layout didn’t come out as spectacularly as I thought it might due in large part to the second page. I spent all my energy making the little basket full of fruits and vegetables that I just wanted to get it done. A lot of the times I don’t really plan out the pages and tend to cut and glue as I go. I found out the hard way that this is usually how I ruin a spread, but still seem to fall back into the same pattern over and over.

You can see that all the little fruits and vegetables are separate pieces and are also made up of two layers as well. If I would have thought it out a little more, I would have made the basket bigger as well as the contents so I wouldn’t have to cut out as much as it is a very tedious job.

This Puddles layout was a little easier to do. Oddly enough, it was the frames that took me the longest because I cut out each one to size according to the picture. The rain drops are a part of the frame and then were cut out separately in a different color and glued on. I tried to get the caption box to look like a giant clump of rain drops, but I was not very pleased with the result. I think one giant rain drop might have been better.

This Baby Dragon layout I just completed today. I had the pictures laying out for awhile, but inspiration never hit me until earlier this evening. Jack loves dragons and it occurred to me that lizards are like a modern day dragon, just smaller. I used a template for the scale like background and sponged green ink on the green background to give it a little depth. The vine on either side of the layout is one of the Ellison die cuts. I have to admit that this is one of my favorite layouts I have done in a long time.

The little tag has writing on the back so you can pull it out when you want to read it, but I like the way the page stays clean with it tucked away.

The title I cut out with the Gypsy and Cricut and once again combined the lizard in with the title and then cut it out separately in a different color in order to make gluing it on the page easier.

It was so nice to be able to be a little creative again after such a long dry spell. I am still way behind on my pictures and really have no idea the dates or order that these pages need to go in, but at least it is a start.