
I swear it must be the warm weather..if fifty degrees is considered warm I suppose. In Minnesota, after four months of zero degree weather, fifty degrees feels like a sweltering ninety!! I'm being totally serious here..if you're not in the midwest or having to endure cold Winters every year, then fifty degrees probably isn't your taste, but for the rest of us folks, it's what we re anticipate every March. Finally, the snow is almost gone and we've rays of sunshine ahead - I'm stoked!
Even though the flu plagued me this weekend, I still squeezed in a layout...it's about time, don't you think? Just when you thought I'd about retire from the layout thing. Laugh. Never!! This latest one is definitely a new direction for me..again, it's blazingly alive with color! It's also on the minimalist side, though it still encapsulates ample detail and loads of layers. Can't go without.
Color has really been speaking to me lately. Bright Bold Color. We're not talking the kind of friendly color you run into on a daily basis here..think school born highlighters and 1970's fabrics! Seriously bright and to pair it off, a deep neutral or natural woodgrain that tends to tone it down some. I wish and pray that we see more of these kinds of colors next release {Summer CHA}. They're already sprinkled throughout magazines and fashionable online websites, so I imagine it's only a matter of time before they show their way through into the scrap industry. How do you feel about bright colors? Love'em ? Don't care for'em? Do share...


Pinterest is my sole inspiration thus far. The idea of layered circles came from a pillow spotted on Pinterest a few weeks ago. I logged it onto one of my boards and then pulled it up on Friday when I started scrapbooking the layout. Laptops are extra convenient that way :) Just set it on the desk and it's ready to go!
The circles were punched from both 1" and 1.25" circle punches. I created them sort of randomly from twenty or so different patterned papers and cardstock. I chose the papers prior to starting the layout, so I had a predisposed color palette ready to go before beginning the circles.
In producing the circles, I sanded them with a wide nail file and curled up their edges. I then carefully adhered them together in a uniform order on top a 12" x 12" sheet of Vanilla cardstock.

After setting up the circles, I took a long rectangular sheet of transparency {an actual die-cut transparency page from Fancy Pants}, sprayed it with a thin coat of White Chalkboard Mist and then layered it over a thin strip of Hambly Turquoise transparency and a Vanilla floral border. To keep the transparency in place, I stapled it in three separate places. I also tucked in some other things beneath it, including a large floral sticker {American Crafts} and journaling card {Pink Paislee}.
Transparency is kind of a fun, unique material in that it consists of a whole 'nother level of opportunity. You can throw stuff beneath it and on stop of it, which gives you two layers to play with at the same time! The overall appearance is 3-D like as it's difficult to tell the top and bottom apart from each other. I love that and it's probably why I'm attuned to using transparency frequently.

I clearly recall when Sassfras put out their very first chipboard elements a couple years ago. This chipboard frame came from one of their very first sets - still have quite a few at my disposal. This particular frame is backed with a smidgen of woodgrain pattern paper {Basic Grey : Life of the Party}, a wanna-be vintage die-cut {K & Company : Life's Journey} and an "Everyday Art" rub-on {Hambly}.


Believe it or not, this is nearly a five layer butterfly! Who ever said there was a limit to the number of layers one could use for creating hypnotically cool butterflies? This butterfly series is a rather simple set-up actually - it's just a matter of finding enough butterflies to pull it off! The bottom most butterfly here is obvious - ol' Heidi Swapp! Not sure it's even in production anymore, though you might be able to find some at a local discount store. The pink felt butterfly is also Heidi's and beneath it is a medium size butterfly from American Crafts. The top two pieces comprise a misc. small size heart and mini felt flower {Making Memories : Flutter}.

Never forget the small additions! A small pretty flower accented with a sticker helps draw the eye upward to create a sort of balance between the top and bottom of my layout. If I hadn't of placed it there, the bottom would of probably felt pretty heavy and the top, empty. The lil' guy goes a long ways in helping me out here!
Again, tell me what you think of the colors you guys! I'm interested in finding out if anyone else out there is thinken' "Bold" right now in preparation for Summer...

So, I begged Ethan to smile for mommy, but this was about as close as I got to getting a smile out of him. He has my camera habit down pat and will look upon me annoyingly the minute he sees it. You could say that my timing isn't always that great either..so I'm partly to blame. Laugh. After uploading these latest images of Ethan though, I couldn't believe what I saw - A Grown Boy!! His personality is following suit too..he's acting all grown up and independent these days!! I'm a super proud momma!! This Summer we're thinking about signing him up for his first round of sports; soccer. Not sure if he'll enjoy partaking in a field sport at this point, but hey, it's worth a shot, right?! Plus, it's healthy for him to be active and with the amount of energy he's been containing all Winter long, Soccer will be a great release! It'll be an excuse for him to run around and make new friends too! :)
Wowza! This was a vastly large update!! Thank's for sticking with me if you made it this far...and if you didn't, I'll assume you at least hearted the photos before leaving :) Have a lovely day y'all!
