Top 10 Layouts of 2012

So, it's that time of year again. A time to reflect and when it comes to the scrapbooking part of my life, it's the time to look back at all my creations from this year and feel proud of the memories I've preserved for years to come. It was very hard for me to narrow down this year's layouts to a handful a favorites, and most of that difficulty I attribute to many of my layouts being of Liam - and of course I love all of those. But, after much deliberation, here is my final list...

Apple Of My Eye. I love the dark background with the layers of bright colored paper, the stitched circle and the fussy-cut apples surrounded by the colored pearls. If memory serves me right, this one was based on a Creative Scrappers sketch.

Baby Shower Joy. This design is one I have used several times when I've wanted to include lots of photos on a layout. So I pulled it out again for this layout documenting my baby shower. I wanted to have a Winter/Christmas look since it was a December shower but didn't want it to be too themey because it was a shower. This old Pink Paislee Christmas line of papers was perfect because it picked up the colors in the invitation and the patterns weren't overly Christmas or Winter-based. I love how the lollipop flowers turned out too!

Fall At The Farm. This layout is based on a sketch from Scrapbook Generation. I also used a very old Treasured Scrapbooking kit I found in my stash. I love that the 7 Gypsies, Pink Paislee and Bo Bunny papers are fall-colored but not really fall-themed. This allowed me to use some fall accents without making it all too over the top. I added some super old embellishments from my stash as well. I love using up old supplies!

February Snapshots. What I love most about this layout is the colors. I am a big fan of turquoise and cherry red together. And I really love it combined with the chocolate brown and kraft on this layout. I also love the clean grid design and the title treatment here. This is one of the twelve monthly layouts I am doing for Liam's first year album. I wanted to have a system for including all the fun miscellaneous photos I have and this was the solution. This design is based off of an Inspired To Scrap sketch.

Home Is Wherever I'm With You. This layout is based on a scraplift from the fabulous and uber-talented Colette Bate. The color palette is based on one found at Design Seeds. I am totally in love with this layout. First, this is a five-year-old photo of Andrew and I that I never got around to scrapping before. The title is lyrics from the song "Home" by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. I saw Kinsey Wilson use it once on one of her Studio Calico layouts and being a big Edward Sharpe fan, knew I had to use it on a layout as well. I actually have never used bubble wrap and paint to stamp on a layout but love the look achieved with the technique. I again used a super old Treasured Scrapbooking kit from my stash for this layout and also pulled in some oldies from my stash like the Hambly transparency and My Little Shoebox house accent. And the chevrons are actually old chipboard photo corners that I painted and Stickled!

It's A Good Day. This has to be my favorite Liam layout to date. These photos are of the first time Andrew got to hold Liam. This was truly a special moment as we were not able to hold Liam until a week after his birth; we had to wait for his head ultrasound to be completed first. I love all the texture on this layout - the burlap-looking Core'dinations cardstock, the swiss dot embossed rimmed hearts, the stitching and the twine. Also, Note To Self is by far my favorite Echo Park release from this past year and one of the few new collections I purchased. This layout is based on a sketch from Feeling Scrappy.

Liam David. Of course I wanted to treat Liam's birth announcement layout extra special. I found this old scrap of Dream Street paper with the cute reindeer on it and thought it matched the little reindeer on the announcement perfectly. That is where the layout started. I then decided to use the light blue, red and pink colors in that paper to pick out the rest of the papers and all the embellishments. I totally love how it turned out!!

No One Else. I was super lucky this year in winning scrapbooking supplies - winning a total of five different collections and a few gift certificates. And Fancy Pants Childish Things was one of those collections I won. I used it to first create this super special layout of Liam and I. This was the first time I got to hold Liam. As I stated in the layout where Andrew is holding Liam for the first time, this was a truly special layout since we had to wait a week to hold him. I love the vellum pocket filled with confetti, the button heart and the super long title that doubles as the journaling. I got the quote off of Shimelle's website and also used a Becky Fleck sketch for this one.

Our Valentine. This layout was hands-down my favorite I made for Alexis' first year album. I loved this old Pink Paislee valentine line and just had some scraps of it left. So that's how the banners came to be. I really wanted to make the banners fun and dimensional since they were pretty much the only detail on the page. I also love how the misting turned out on this one. Thanks to Creative Scrappers for the awesome sketch that inspired this layout!

Soaring. I don't scrap super large photos often, but this is one of the few I have done. I am first really proud of these particular photos. I am happy that I was able to completely focus this layout on the main focal photo but then also include the smaller detail photos - I actually added the small photos to the large one in Photoshop and then printed it all as one photo. I used an old Dixie Pieces kit for this layout and the papers and colors were just perfect for these photos. I have to admit I hyperventilated a bit cutting into the Hambly transparency but am so glad I used it! I used another Inspired To Scrap sketch for this one.