Life is good with Sophie

I'm still here!  I've been spending a lot of my crafty time lately doing pocket page scrapbooking.  Unfortunately, due to my career, it's important for me to keep a lot of my private life private, so I can't really share those pages here.  Instead, here's a cute picture of Sophie and a scrapbook page I made using some Simple Stories cards, a flair and paw from (I think) Queen and Co, a sticker from...somewhere...and a button from BasicGrey.

I like the simplicity of this page both in the design and the colors.  It wasn't really a page about a story I wanted to tell, just a picture I liked and wanted to capture.

A Sophie scrapbook page

Hi friends!  You know those weeks when your car decides it's going to roll the dice to decide whether or not it's going to start, so in addition to your planned errands/work/cleaning and cooking to prepare for guests over the next few days you suddenly have to find the time to also go to car dealerships and try to find a new car?

I do!

In all seriousness, I realized that there's very little chance I'm going to spend any significant time in the craft room over the next few days, and if I do there's even less chance I'll be able to photograph whatever I make and blog about it, so I thought I'd just treat you to a recent Sophie layout, so you know I didn't forget about you.  Isn't it stinky when life gets in the way of crafting?  At least I'll probably get a new car out of the whole deal.  ;)

I really enjoyed making this layout.  It's artsy-er than I usually do.  First, I cut this Studio Calico paper to 8x8 and matted it on some leftover cardstock for sturdiness.  Then I used white acrylic paint to paint over it.  After that dried, I layered some scraps that I had that went together, and put the photo on top with the little Smash clip.

I made the title with some tile stickers that I had in my stash (I'm really bad at cutting apart letter stickers and then forgetting who made them.  It's either Simple Stories or Fancy Pants) and some of my very favorite Thickers ever.  I added the wood veneer arrows, and then the little washi tape/sticker combo at the bottom.

Bonus points if you "get" the title of the layout.  Sophie doesn't like to play fetch outside for some reason, despite me throwing the ball for her, and I thought it was hilarious that she looked so exasperated, like "give it up already!"

Sophie Sunday- Christmas edition!

Last week was Halloween, this week it's Christmas!  Also, this is the last week of the batch of scrapbook pages I made when I started Sophie Sundays, so I'll have to decide whether I want to continue it or not.  This layout focuses around a photo I took of Sophie on Christmas morning with her only present (spoiler alert: it was a box of dog treats).

As I often do, I based this layout on a piece of plain cardstock.  I layered a piece of blue polkadot paper from DCWV along one side, then layered a big circle that I'd cut from an embellishment page and a Jenni Bowlin Bingo card.  

Over the bingo card I adhered the word "dog" in vellum- just cause I thought it was funny to have a title about being a good dog but have journaling about what a naughty stinker she must have been to only get one present.

I added a sticker along the bottom from a Paper Studio sticker sheet.

Sophie Sunday- Halloween Edition

Halloween?  In March?  Well, today's page is a photo of me and Sophie in our matching bumblebee costumes from Halloween 2013, so yes.

Since I had this super fun yellow pawprint paper from the Dog Days kit, I decided to use it as a background.  Usually, Sophie's pages end up having browns as the neutral, but for this page I decided to go full on bumblebee and pulled out every black embellishment I had.

I liked the title on the vellum piece because really- what's LESS bad to the bone than a lady and her dog dressed up like bumblebees to hand out candy for their first Halloween in a neighborhood?  I adhered it with Queen and Co washi tape, one of my favorite tricks for vellum.  Since I had this super cute Project Life 3x4 card, I decided to round the corners on the vellum and the picture too. 

Next I added the little sticker in the bottom corner.  I'm sure it's something similar to what my husband was thinking when he saw me coming down the stairs with my homemade bee antennas. 

For the last touch, I felt like there needed to be something breaking up the darkness between the photo and the Project Life card, so I cut out a yellow dog tag from an embellishment page and tucked it right in there.

Sophie Sunday

Today's scrapbook page is one of the most hated by dogs- a trip to the groomer!  I tried out various groomers when we moved up here, and one of the ones I tried texted me these pictures to make sure Sophie's length was right.  How cute is she up on that little grooming table?

I used some plain cream cardstock for the background- one of my favorite backgrounds because it gives me so much freedom- and layered on some patterned paper from I believe the Imaginisce Good Dog line.  The orange title block and the orange journaling block are from the same line.

The green polka dot paper is from DCWV, and green sticker is from Reminisce, and the enamel dots are probably MME.  The little felt bone at the bottom is from Queen and Co, I think. The problem with picking up any dog themed scrapbook supplies you find is that you tend to forget who made them!

Sophie Sunday

Today's scrapbook layout was a fun one for me to make.  It wasn't so fun for Sophie to experience, I don't think...so I guess that's the day I became one of those scrapbooking moms whose kid (or furkid) is in distress and stops to take a picture before helping.  Sophie had managed to sneak behind the gate and into our bedroom while I was gone, but then couldn't get back out and ended up trapped in there for a few hours until I got home.

I started with a simple piece of blue cardstock.  Since I had the really cute Bella Blvd chipboard that said "trouble maker,"  I decided to use that to dictate my color scheme.  I found this ribbon border in my stash and ran it along the top and bottom of the page.  I also found a project life card that was perfect for the colors, so I added that next to the photo.  I don't do regular project life pages about Sophie too often, so I like to be able to use these cards on her traditional pages too.

I had the little sticker about forgiveness that I added directly on some dead space on the photo, and after I added my journaling at the bottom I still felt like something was missing, so I added this little guy from Imaginisce's Good Dog collection on foam dots.

Sophie Sunday

Happy Sunday!  Today I have a fun layout about Sophie riding in the car.  I was feeling kind of minimalist the day I made this layout, but I still think it came out well.

I used a simple piece of DCWV paper for the background, and then cut the pictures down so there would be a border around them.  I also cut two pieces of blue paper from the Deja Views Dog Days scrapbook kit for the other two squares.  I embellished each of the pictures with some stickers from my stash, and called them done. 

On the top blue square I used a piece of vellum from the Dog Days kit with some Queen and Co washi tape holding it in place.  Then on the bottom square, I did my journaling and then used another piece of the washi tape for balance.  I added a little circle I punched from green paper and put an epoxy circle over as my embellishment in that square.

Sophie Sunday

Today's scrapbook layout is one of my favorite pictures.  My husband says it makes Sophie look too mean, with her teeth out and her talon-like toenails holding on to her rawhide, but I still like it.

I used a piece of paper from my very first dog themed scrapbook supplies- the DCWV dog kit.  I layered a simple piece of blue cardstock over it for some vertical balance.  Along the bottom,  I tucked in a polaroid from Dear Lizzy's Neapolitan collection. The heart next to it is a wood veneer by Studio Calico, which I colored red and then covered with red stickles.  Since I used that heart, I wanted to make sure every embellishment area had some red in it.

The journaling circle is from Imaginisce's Good Dog line, and the little red paw print below it is a die cut from Paper Smooches.  I used a sticker from a Paper Studio sticker set and a felt hydrant from Queen and Co at the top.

Sophie Sunday

Today's Sophie layout is one that actually was not made during my recent batch scrapbooking, but was inspired by this month's sketch over at My Creative Sketches!

Last fall, Sophie took a faceplant off of our deck and onto our concrete patio, which resulted in a nasty gash on her chin and panic in her poor mom (aka me).  But, being the scrapbooker that I am, once I had stopped the bleeding I managed to get a picture of it, and that's how this page was born.

Anyway, for this layout I used some border strips by Doodlebug, some cork arrows from Studio Calico, some background paper by DCWV, a "Dog Days" tag from Echo Park, a couple of pieces from my dog themed bins, and thickers that I picked up from Archivers before they closed.  They look and feel like leather. 

Sophie Sunday!

As I mentioned last time I posted a Sophie scrapbook layout, I've been spending a good chunk of my time scrapbooking lately.  Those pages don't tend to end up on my blog as often as cards do, because cards get entered into contests and pages generally don't.  So I thought I'd start sharing my Sophie pages on Sundays, when I generally don't have any cards posting.  That's how Sophie Sundays were born!  Since I batch scrapbook Sophie's pictures (I have two whole drawers full of dog scrapbook supplies, so when I spread them all out I don't want to clean them up right away)  I have quite a few weeks worth of pages to show.  After this batch is over, we'll see how I feel.  :)

So a few months back, I won a blog contest that resulted in me getting, among other things, an 8x8 hallmark premade album.  It was wedding themed, but I already have a 12x12 of our wedding so I took the pages apart and altered them to go in Sophie's scrapbook, since she's what I generally scrapbook in 8x8.  The base of this page- the cardstock as well as the grey and brown stripes- are one of those pages. 

I layered on a Project Life dog card, some plaid paper from a DCWV stack, and some various embellishments from my dog embellishment drawer.   I know that the "woof" banner is from Echo Park and the circle sticker is from Paper Studio.

The picture I took is super blurry, but I love how it shows Sophie zooming around our back yard.  It's hard to catch a picture of her in action!

Sophie scrapbook pages

Hi friends!  I've been in a real scrapbooking kind of mood lately.  I tend to cycle between being really inspired to scrapbook and not as much card making, and then switching gears to having a ton of card inspiration but not feeling the scrapbooking.  I was working on a really huge project of scrapbooking my childhood photos that started as "I'll just make a childhood album" and now spans 3 volumes, but today's pages are more of the furry variety.  As a reminder, Sophie's scrapbooks are all 8x8.

The first page I'm sharing I titled "My Trusty Companion."  The title is from the Deja Views Dog Days stack, as is the green and red paper.  The blue cardstock was just extra 8x8 paper that I'd had lying around and decided to use as backings for Sophie's pages.  In fact, all 3 of these layouts are on cardstock from that same package.  The ribbon under my journaling is some $.99 ribbon I picked up at Joann's.

The picture is of Sophie "guarding" my Cheez-its while I went into another room, although I think she was secretly trying to decide if she could steal them without me knowing.  They're her favorite "people food" snack.  That's why I put the angel and devil dog stickers at the top from the It's a Dog's Life collection by Reminisce.  I thought it was what was going on in her little doggy head.  I think the paper behind them is from the same collection.  The v is from Simple Stories.  

Next, I have a layout with two pictures of Sophie enjoying her dog blanket that my sister got for her for Christmas last year.  She loves to snuggle up with it.  I used some blue dot paper from the Deja Views Dog Days stackbehind the pictures and in the top corner.  The "a new love" chipboard is by Bella Blvd, the brown paw is by Queen and Co, and the circle with the paw in it is by Echo park.  The other embellishments...I don't know.  I have two drawers completely dedicated to my dog scrapbook supplies- one for paper and one for embellishment, and since it's all mixed in together sometimes I forget.  

Last but not least is a page about me and Sophie.  I used some paper from the Imaginisce Good Dog line.  I loved the polka dots, so I went with kind of a circle theme in the embellishments and picked a circle journal block from October Afternoon, a flair badge by Paper Bakery, and some enamel dots.  At the top I used another piece of the chipboard from Bella Blvd and I accented it with a dog bone shaped paper clip.  I got the paperclip as a gift with purchase once when I made an online order, but I'm pretty sure I've seen them on Amazon in case anyone wants them.

So there's a little peek into what's been happening in my crafting world lately.  I've been keeping an obsessive eye on the sneak peeks for CHA, and I've already spotted to dog themed mini lines coming out so I'm excited to add to my ever growing stash of supplies.  I just love dog scrapbook pages!

Yet more Sophie scrapbook pages

Here are two more pages I made about Sophie!  Hopefully soon I'll have everything organized and can get back to actually creating!

 The first page is actually on cream cardstock, even though in the picture came out white. I put a piece of orange chevron paper from Reminisce's "It's a Dog's Life" line along the side of the page.  I cut the picture down and put it behind a polaroid frame by Recollections.  The journaling block is cut from paper by Imaginisce's "Good Dog" line and the green tag is from Deja Views Dog Days stack.

The line to the right of the chevron paper is the branding strip from the same piece of paper, and the blue border sticker to the right of that is from Echo Park's "Woof."  The orange Dog sticker and the sticker that I put on the polaroid frame are from It's a Dog's Life sticker sheets.  

The title was cut from my Cricut.  The words "Bad" and "Bone" were cut from George and the words "to" and "the" were cut from Plantin Schoolbook.   

My dark green page was really fun and came together kind of quickly.  The white grid paper is from It's a Dog's Life.  The ribbon on the bottom right is something I picked up for $1 at Joann's.  The big star, which is on foam squares on two sides, is cut from the Snap 6x6 pad.  (Funny story about why it's a star: We were using a star die and the Big Shot in a class I took at Archivers that used the Snap pad, and I accidentally cut the brown instead of the grey that I needed.  Once I realized it, I was left with an extra brown star.  I told my friend Kim I'd find a place for it on one of Sophie's pages, and I did!)

The blue polka dotted paper and all three word strips are from "Woof" by Echo Park, as is the paw that's inside a circle.  The other paw, which is on foam squares, is from an embellishment set I had in my stash.

Sophie scrapbook pages

Time for another installment of "Sophie's Scrapbook!"  Remember, all of my Sophie pages are 8x8.

This first page is a layout about Sophie discovering a love of fast food (like mommy, like puppy!)  I cut the photo down a little and matted it on paper from the DCWV Pet Stack.  I put a sticker from Reminisce's "It's a Dog's Life" sticker sheet on (the one that says "lucky") and next to it put a dog bowl that I had in my stash.  In the bottom right corner are two embellishments from the Imaginisce "Good Dog" collection.  All three bowls on the page have Cinnamon Stickles over the food.

For the title, I cut the words "are these" and the question mark from Lyrical Letters.  The "Dog Treats" sticker is from a Paper Studio sticker sheet, I think.

This second page uses an Instagram photo, so it's square.  The light blue paper with bones is actually a piece of backing from some of the packaging from the Imaginisce Good Dog line.  I like to repurpose.  :)  The title is from the die cuts from the same line, and the orange paw is from one of the chipboard sticker sets.  I used a chipboard word sticker from a Paper Studio set in the bottom left corner and the green pieces of cardstock are also from Paper Studio.  The green paper that I used as a journal block has been punched around the edge with an EK Success punch.  I finished it off with a heart from the Deja Views Dog Days stack.

There you go, two more pages of Sophie's memories!

Video scrapbooking!

Ready for another challenge at Pause, Dream, Enjoy Challenges?  Our challenge this time is to create a layout.  You already know my favorite subject for layouts- my yorkie, Sophie!

See that pixelated area in the middle?  It's a QR code that links to a YouTube video I posted of Sophie playing.  I pixelated it on this photo to protect Sophie's privacy. (ok, actually because I didn't feel right posting a public video online of a house we don't own anymore, so the video is only accessible on YouTube if you have the direct link). I found a free QR generator online and just printed it out and used it as a part of my journaling.  Now all you have to do is scan the QR code with your phone, and it pulls up the video! I love that I can include movement and sound memories in my scrapbooks now.  I can't remember where I first heard of this idea (I didn't come up with it on my own, I'm sure), but I love it!

Ok, now on to the products!  I had an extra sheet of grey 8x8 paper, which I used for the background.  Then I used a scrap from the Deja Views Dog Days stack and then layered the photo on top of that.  The yellow behind the QR code is from the same Dog Days stack, as is the big yellow paw and the green flower.  The "Wanna Play" Sticker is from "It's a Dog's Life" by Reminisce and the flag is from Bella Blvd.  The title is just some extra thickers.  I was out of o's, so I cut apart some d's.  :)

Do you have some layouts that you've been meaning to get to?  No better time than the present!  Link up your project to Pause, Dream, Enjoy Challenges and play along with us!

Sophie in the snow

I hope you were able to have a fun National Scrapbook Day last Saturday!  I was able to devote the whole day to scrapbooking, and it was a really fun day for me!  I realized as I was scrapping that I am just so much more comfortable scrapping in 8x8 than any other size I've tried.  Both Sophie's book and the book I'm working on about my childhood right now are in 8x8, and I find myself enjoying it so much more than I do when I scrap in 12x12.  I think it's because I'm kind of a minimalist in terms of embellishments, and 8x8 is just the right size for the amount of embellishing I like.  When I have 12x12, I feel like I need to fill up the whole page and it stresses me out a little.

Anyway, here's a layout I made on NSD about Sophie at our old house, coming in from playing in the snow and how she always had snow all over her face and legs.  I used mostly Echo Park's "Woof" mini collection for the paper and embellishments and a dark blue piece of cardstock for the background.  I also used a Jenni Bowlin bingo card, some dog bone brads I picked up on clearance at Hobby Lobby, a tag from Max and Whiskers by BasicGrey, and the "adorable" chipboard piece from Bella Blvd.  There's not really much of a story to tell beyond the picture, so I decided not to journal this time.  I like having a mix of some pages without journaling and some with journaling in my albums.

This layout is being entered in the "use 4x6 photos" challenge at Shimelle.com.

Two Sophie Layouts

(This accidentally got posted back in February, but I deleted it and scheduled it to post today, when it was supposed to.  Sorry if you're reading it twice!) When I make layouts for Sophie's scrapbook, I tend to do many at a time.  I print out 8 or so pictures, get out one of our folding tables to spread out my gigantic stash of dog craft supplies, and just do a page or two a day until they're done.  I'll try to share them a couple at a time here, so that there aren't 8 posts in a row, but also so that they don't get lost in one post.  All of Sophie's layouts are 8x8.

The first layout on this post is on a dark blue piece of cardstock.  I layered on some patterned paper from the Good Dog line by Imaginisce and put Sophie's picture on top of it.  It was printed 4x6, but I cut off some of the edges that were just extra space and it came out pretty much a square picture.

The title letters are from an old pack of letter stickers I picked up in the Target dollar bin and the journal tag is from my stash, as is the bone behind it and the slip of red paper in the top corner.  Each of the three areas of embellishment has some washi tape by Queen & Co and a stamp from the Furry Friends stamp set by Pink by Design.  The "Unleashed" sticker in the top corner is from Reminisce.

The second layout for this post is on green cardstock.  I cut the picture down by just a quarter of an inch and then matted it on a piece of 6x6 paper from the Snap collection.  The black washi tape with paw prints is from Queen and Co.  In the top corner, I layered a phrase sticker from Paper Studio, a pawprint from Echo Park's "Woof" and a bone from the Deja Views Dog Days stack.  In the bottom corner I used a vellum title from DCWV and some brackets and a blue embellishment from the Deja Views Dog Days stack. I finished it off with some journaling on a journal block from We R Memory Keepers.

So there you have it: Two of Sophie's layouts!  I like the blue one better than the green.  It seems like something is missing, but I can't really figure out what.  The great thing about scrapbooking is that if I figure it out some day, I can just slip it out of the page protector and add it on!  

...and I started a third scrapbook for my dog

Here's the title page for Sophie's third scrapbook.  Yes, it's my dog's third in her series of scrapbooks.  The photo was an Instagram photo I took of Sophie sleeping in my scrapbook room while I worked one day.  I used some cardstock for the background and a piece from the DCWV Pet Stack for the paw print paper.  The three diecuts are from Deja Views Dog Days pack.  

In the bottom corner, I used an embellishment from Little Yellow Bicycle.  It originally said "10 things I love about My Life."  I loved the colors, and so I got it and so I made a new black pennant to cover up the words "My Life" and then cut the words "My Dog" out in white cardstock using Doodletype.  Then I wrote 10 reasons why I love Sophie on the tabs!

Pawprints on my Heart

Today I have a layout to share.  You might remember, I scrapbook Sophie's albums in 8x8.  I've decided to expand the color scheme on her books now that I'm on the third book, in part because I was running out of the original "dog" stack that I had, and in part because there were some awesome dog lines that came out after CHA 2013 and I wanted them.  All.  :)  So here we go:

The background paper is just a piece of cardstock I got in a stack at Hobby Lobby.  Then I put a piece of brown paper and a piece of blue paper from the Deja Views Dog Days stack.  I liked how the brown paper had that big paw print peeking out.  So are the strips of red and blue with green polka dots on each corner.  They're actually a strip of red with some blue/green on top, and I cut the one on the top into the shape of a banner.

Next, I cut the journal block and the yellow heart with the paw print out of a sheet of cuttables I had gotten.  I've already cut away part of the branding strip, but what I still have says "Craft N' Craftin."  I tried to google them and couldn't find anything, but I got it at Archivers if that helps anyone who might like it.  The date block is from Basic Grey's Max & Whiskers. 

Finally, the title is part of the bits from Imaginisce's "Good Dog" line.  So, there it is. 

This layout is being entered into the "The Notebook" challenge at Red Carpet Studios Challenges

Some scrapbook pages

This past weekend, I finished Sophie's second 8x8 scrapbook.  Don't worry, I have two more empty 8x8 albums waiting for her!  I decided to try scanning the pages instead of photographing them, so we'll see which I like better.  The first one came out kind of crooked, but I already turned off the printer so I'm not going to re-scan it...it's a learning curve.  I'm a pretty simple scrapbooker, usually I don't put a lot of embellishment on a page.  It shocked me when I started writing down all of the different companies and products that I used per page.

Here's the first one. It's the one that I scanned crooked.  It's an Instagram picture that I took of my husband and Sophie both passed out on a Sunday afternoon after we'd gone for a walk in the park.  All of my background cardstock is Bazzill.  I bought it in 8.5x11 and cut it down to 8x8.  I use the leftovers as embellishments on other pages.  The green patterned paper, vellum, and diecuts are from Deja Views Dog Days pack.  The journalling card and date card are from Max and Whiskers by Basic Grey.   Along the bottom, you might spot my Ek Success paw print border punch being used on a piece of kraft cardstock!

My second page is about a day when I came into my scrapbook room and caught Sophie gnawing on some scraps of cardstock that I had left on the floor.   This page is full of different companies!  The photo mat is from DCWV Pets mat stack.  The die cut that I used as a title is from a garage sale, so I don't know what company it is.  The bone that says Yum was cut from cardstock with my Cricut and Paper Pups.  Down in the bottom corner are two diecuts from the Dog Days pack and the little dog is from that Max and Whiskers set.  The brad that is the middle of the two flowers is from WRMK.  The strip of paper that I used along the bottom is from the old DCWV Scrapbook kit in a stack- Dog.  

This is the page that faces the previous one.  I always use the same color of cardstock on facing pages in Sophie's scrapbook, even if they are a one page layout.  It's just something I chose to do and have followed up on.  Here I used a chipboard die cut as the title again.  I can't remember the brand, because I got it at Hobby Lobby before I cared about brands and took it out of the packaging.  The same with the 3D bone at the bottom of the page.  The washi tape strips on the top and the bottom are from the Target brand washi tape.  I took that little design tip from my very favorite scrapbooking superhero, Glitter Girl.  :)  I again used some of the die cuts from the Dog Days stack here and there.  I also used a strip of paper that had been embossed with the Crafts Too "Bone and Paw Print" embossing folder.

Here's the last page in Sophie's second scrapbook.  It's another Instagram sized photo.  I took pictures of her in the morning before she went to the groomer and then again in the afternoon when I got her home from the groomer.  I used an app on my phone to do a photogrid of the pictures.  I used some patterned paper from the same DCWV stack as above and the strip of blue paper is a scrap from making another page into an 8x8.  The title was cut with Plantin Schoolbook and Baby Steps and used a couple of parentheses from the Dog Days stack.  I also used a piece of vellum from the Dog days stack at the bottom.  There's a strip of ribbon along the page that I got from Joann's and a little dog from Paper Pups in the bottom corner.  I thought the cute dog with the bow fit on a page about being groomed.  See the journaling right on the page?  That's another Glitter Girl influence.  It was scary, but I did it anyway.

Scrapbook pages

You know how people have their first kid and they take a zillion pictures, and then the second kid feels left out because by the time they're born the parents are tired of taking pictures all of the time?  Sophie is my first kid.  I take pictures of her playing, pictures of her sleeping, and pictures of her sitting around.  I get so much inspiration from her for scrapbook pages! 

This first page is of Sophie reading the Yorkie issues of Dog Fancy.  The patterned paper for Sophie's scrapbook is from DCWV Dog Scrapbook kit in a stack.  I can't remember where the bones embellishment came from.  I had to take the foam backing off, because it made the page too puffy.  The title is from Sugar and Spice.  Yes, I buy baby themed cartridges and use them for layouts for my dog. 

This next layout is of Sophie laying on the stairs with her favorite toy, her unstuffed racoon.  I used some stickers from the scrapbook stack at the bottom, and the title is made with the fonts from Birthday Bash and Baby Steps.  I like having two different fonts, and mixing them is something I want to keep working on.

Finally, we have Wet nose, Warm heart.  I'm not really sure what Sophie was doing in this picture, I just liked it.  I used the title from Four Legged Friends, but only cut it in two colors instead of four.  Then I made the dog charm from Paper Pups.  I thought they went together, because the dog in the charm is holding a heart.