Top Ten Layouts of 2014

I am a bit behind in the scraping world. Keeping my blog updated, Project Life, my December Daily and keeping up with my traditional layouts. A cross-country move, selling a house, buying a house, getting my son placed into a preschool and set with an IEP through the local school district and being pregnant with Baby Boy #2 are what took up most of my 2014.

But, even amidst the chaos, I did manage to complete 66 traditional layouts, 24 Project Life spreads, 32 December Daily pages (from both 2013 and 2014 albums') and 15 cards. Not too shabby. I would have liked to have completed more, so hopefully I can meet my 2015 goals of finishing my 2013 and 2014 Project Life albums, keeping up with my 2015 Project Life album, finishing my 2014 December Daily, starting Liam and Baby #2's baby books (doing these Project Life style) and scrapping some traditional layouts as well.

So, with my scrappy goals for 2015 laid out, I'd like to take a moment and review my top ten favorite traditional layouts I created in 2014. Here they are in no particular order...

Dreamer

Growing Our Garden

Love By The Moon

Love You To Bits

Miles Apart

My Boys

Never Lose Your Sense Of Wonder

Smile

This Is Life

You Put The Spring In My Step

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.

Top 10 of 2011

So, I realize this post is two months late. Apparently, I've been a tiny bit preoccupied with something else. Anyways, I still wanted to get on here and post my favorite layouts of 2011. Unfortunately, I didn't get as much scrap time in 2011 as I would have liked. But, despite my lack of scrapping, I did find some that I consider some of my best yet. So without further ado, here they are in no particular order...

Time for a Stroll. This is one of many layouts I did for my cousin-in-law's daughter's first year album. You'll see a lot of Alexis in this post since her album was one of my big projects last year. I really like this particular layout because it's the first time I feel I was truly successful with the paint splatter technique. I also used solely scraps for this one as well - love that! Thanks to Sketchy Thursdays for the sketch I used to create this layout. Although Sketchy Thursdays is no more, you can still visit the blog and check out their past sketches if you need some inspiration.

Shave Ice Paradise. So, this layout is very special because I made this one for the April 2011 PageMaps newsletter. I cannot tell you how excited I was when I got that email from Becky Fleck. When she sent me the sketch to use, the wheels immediately started turning. I really wanted to do something bright, cheery and springy and felt these photos from our Kauai vacation were perfect!

My Adidas. Another Alexis layout! I totally love these photos of her and her brother Jack. Alexis' parents have so much fun staging cool photo shoots with the kids. This tribute to Run DMC was no different. I love this layout because of the layers, the cascade of stars and all the eyelets I used up. I still love eyelets - an old school favorite for sure. I again used up scraps on this layout - whoo-hoo! I also used an awesome sketch from Sketchabilities for this one.

Laura & Ed. I am totally in love with this layout. I created this one with one of my Crop Addict kits. I love all the layers and embellishing. This is also the first time I created my own paper roses. I also love that the background is patterned paper, yet it is so subtle.

Happy Birthday! Yet another layout for Alexis. I created this layout for an "It's All In The Details" challenge over at Memorable Seasons. I really tried to focus on lots of the details for the challenge. Some of the details include a stitched page border, an over-the-top embellished paper-pieced cupake, outlined elements, a layered banner and fussy-cut owls. I also used an old kit for this (one of many kits I still have yet to use).

Don't Sweat The Small Stuff. This was my New Year's Resolution layout I did for 2011. I love all the negative space on this layout and the fact that I used another old kit I had in my stash - actually a couple of old kits combined. This photo is also a favorite self-portrait I took on the beach in Kauai.

Born in the U.S.A. Yet another layout for Alexis' album which I love. I did this layout for a color challenge over at Memorable Seasons. I dug deep into my stash for the papers on this one and I think they worked perfectly for these photos and of course the Fourth of July theme.

2010: A Good Year. This was my 2010 recap layout. I had so much fun with all the 1.5" square photos and love the whole look of this page. I again used a fabulous Crop Addict kit to create this one. Can you tell I like to stitch borders on my pages?

Feb 11. This was obviously my February 2011 recap layout for Project 12. I still have a few months to do to finish off 2011 but this has been my favorite of all of them so far. I love the color combo which worked really well with all the different colors in my photos. I also liked how the vellum journaling block turned out - I really wanted the striped paper to show through.

From This Day Forward. One of my massive projects this past year was putting together my best friend Katie's wedding album. I chose to use white cardstock for the background of each page and Basic Grey's Wisteria collection throughout. This is one of my favorite layouts from her book. I love how the green teardrops highlight some of the leaves on the patterned paper, the fussy-cut dragonflies and leaves and the clusters of flowers.

Top 10 of 2010

It's that time of year again. To reflect of the past year and look forward to what the future year brings. As I reflect back on my 2010 year in scrapbooking, I successfully preserved many fond memories and enjoyed the creative outlet in the process. I even completed two gift albums - an 88-page 2-volume scrapbook for my baby cousin Cece (which I began in April 2008) and my cousin Peter's high school sports album. Below are ten of my favorite layouts I created in the past year. They should all look familiar!

Top 9 of 2009!

So, starting last year I posted a list of my favorite layouts from the past year. So without further ado, here is my personal top 9 of 2009...

Top 8 of 2008

2008 was a fabulous scrappy year for me. I got 2 layouts and 1 mini-album published, was fortunate to serve as a Designer for a few of my favorite scrappy sites and developed as a scrapper. To celebrate my year of scrapping, I chose my favorite 8 layouts I created in 2008 to showcase here and explain why they are favorites.

"Unique" is a favorite because it showcases my all-time favorite photo of my childhood friend, Laurel. This was also the first layout I created using Glitz Design products, which has now become a favorite manufacturer of mine. This layout also won second place in the Glitz Designs contest at Scrap 4 Life!

"PDX BFFS" highlights our newfound friendship with Ashley & Justin. The photos are real photo booth shots we took one random night out in downtown Portland. I created this layout using the first sketch featured during Feeling Scrappy's Sketchapalooza 2. It also features KI Memories Pop Culture paper (one of my favorite lines from this year), one of my new favorite techniques-stitching and trim that came from the Treasured Scrapbooking trim swap!

"Me from A2Z" was this year's birthday layout. Each September I create a new BOM layout about my favorites at that moment in time. I used the letters of the alphabet as prompts and stuck to a very simple, graphic design to keep the focus on the photo and journaling. I also let the gorgeous paper from the Basic Grey Perhaps line be the star embellishment. I created this layout using the Crop Addict September kit while I was a Guest Designer.

"I am a Canon kind of gal" is a layout I have been wanting to do for my BOM for awhile. Sketchabilities was a new sketch site developed this year (which unfortunately has gone by the wayside due to the creator's hectic life changes) and I created this layout as my submission for their design team. And I got the position which thrilled me, even though it only lasted a couple months. I absolutely love the Fancy Pants transparency on this layout - it worked perfectly!

"Happy Jack" got me far this year. It was a submission for several design team applications but was originally created for the Design Team call at Sketch This! Part of the charm of this layout is definitely the adorable photo which I can take zero credit for - the baby is Andrew's cousin's baby and he took the photo. But I do love how the layout turned out. I took the Sketch This! sketch and angled it adding an interesting perspective. I also really like how the Love Elsie Riley line added to the playfulness of the layout.

"Forever In My Heart" is the first heritage layout I created for the heritage album I am working on for my father's side of the family. This is a tribute layout to my grandmother whom passed away in 2002. It shows my favorite photo of her which was taken the night of her wedding as her and my grandfather drove off from the reception. The Basic Grey Scarlet's Letter line was perfect for this layout. I originally created this layout for the Scrap 4 Life design team call and our challenge was to feature transparent items - so I used a Heidi Swapp ghost heart, a Hambly overlay and created my own flower embellishment using an office transparency, alcohol inks and my heat gun.

"Be the best" is a layout I created for my personal album. It features my favorite senior photo of my baby brother, Kevin. This photo is fantastic and the black and white lent itself perfectly to a monochromatic layout! Most of the products are Die Cuts With A View and Creative Imaginations - all which have a very masculine feel. I created this layout to serve double duty - it was to complete the Word Challenge at Feeling Scrappy (you had to use the word "Best" in the title) and as an entry in the NoelMignon.com Sports page contest.

As a first birthday gift to my baby cousin Cece, I am creating a scrapbook documenting the first year of her life. This is my favorite layout to date for her album. It features adorable photos from her 3-month portrait session. I also love that I got out a very old EK Success heart punch and used it and some pop dots and ink to create the heart border. I also created this layout using the Crop Addict September kit while I was a Guest Designer.