more Monthly Moments: January...

I have a quick layout to show you today made with the Monthly Moments: January products (Journal Card Collection and stamps). I thought it would be fun to try one larger photo that has meaning to me and add a few details over the top.

This photo was taken at my mom's house over the holiday, my first Christmas there in 14 years, and I wanted to journal about my happiness, why it was significant. Really wish I could have fit more journaling on the page now, but I can journal on the back, I suppose. Being there was surreal. Magical, almost! There's just something about being home and safe and secure with your parents. Even though I'm 43 years old, there's still that safe and loved feeling you get at home, you know? That familiarity still there after being gone for so many Christmases. My girls played in the snow with their aunt, uncle and cousins...squealing with laughter as they flew down the hill in their sleds, their faces lit up with rosy cheeks and big smiles. My dad pulled the kids around with the 4 wheeler, over the bumps they would hop up off the sled, giggling and screeching with delight! Made my heart so happy for them and for me, as well! It wasn't about the gifts or the holiday for me. Just time well spent with family and happy memories my girls won't forget.

The papers are from the Monthly Moments: January Journal Cards, and I punched large 2" circles from them, added some stamping and die cut a few Fancy Flakes to go with it. Nothing too fussy, just some quick embellishing and little bit of stamping.

More projects coming tomorrow with the next Gossomer Blue kit! Visit Ashley, Melissa and Heather for more Monthly Moments inspiration.

more Monthly Moments: November...

I'm back with one last Monthly Moments post for November using these products by Papertrey Ink! I decided to create an altered project with a photo of my girls from when they were little, an acrylic frame.

The acrylic frame was from Walmart many moons ago, but I decided to update this little frame with some newer products. I hung a couple of tags cut with the Monthly Moments: Journal Card 6 die and the Monthly Moments: November Journal cards.

Then in between the frame, I tucked an old transparency on one side and a photo of my girls when they were little on the other side, framed out with a checkered washi tape. Added some stamping from the Monthly Moments: November stamps and some of the gold-dipped leaves from this project.

Count Your Blessings:

(All supplies by Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.)

STAMPS: Monthly Moments: November

INK: Dark Chocolate

PAPER: Autumn Abundance patterned paper, transparency, Monthly Moments: November Journal Card Collection

DIES: Monthly Moments: November, Leaf Prints, Monthly Moments: Journal Card 6

OTHER: buttons, twine, gold embossing powder.

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For more Monthly Moments ideas, visit:

Ashley Cannon Newell and Melissa Phillips

Monthly Moments: November...

Today I'd like to share with you the newest Monthly Moments collection for November, which will be available on Nov. 15th at 10pm EST at Papertrey Ink. Evidently, I jumped the gun making a "thankful" mini album last time, because this month's kit was perfect for scrapping family, food, and thankfulness! So here is another one, just an album filled with photos from last Thanksgiving.

As I looked through the journal cards, stamps and dies, I knew immediately what I wanted to do with them. Last Thanksgiving, my side of the family and my grandmother came to visit, and it was our first Thanksgiving together in 13 years. We all got together and took some family photos up by Daniel's Park here in Colorado, so I put together a little book of photos to give to my mom when she comes this year. I used the new tag die, Monthly Moments: Journal Card 6 to trim the journal cards and some of the photos. I used the stamp set on some of these also before I started putting it all together. Also incorporated a few other dies by Papertrey Ink, which I'll list in the supplies.

Here is the first inside page, just a kraft tag stamped with the Monthly Moments: November stamps.

Another super quick page, stamped with the stamps again. I cut a cork heart from the Tremendous Tags dies.  I didn't add journaling to my book yet...wasn't sure if I wanted to write in it from my perspective, since I wanted to give it away to my mom.

Pic of my mom and dad... cut with the same tag die as above, trimmed from 4x6" photos.

This "Give Thanks" paper from the Journal Card Collection was so cute, had to use it. It's larger than some of the others I used (others were cut in half), but I think adding different sizes into the book makes it more interesting. I added washi tape, a felt heart cut with Tremendous Tags dies, little paper clip and a pearl.

Even though the pictures didn't exactly match the papers (with the pink in our scarves), I decided to use them in color anyway. I don't think anyone will mind when they look at these 10 years from now! It's fun to see them in color rather than black and white, don't you agree? Too often I see black and white pics being used. This is my mom and dad in the middle, my brother and his family on the left, and me and my family on the right.

The leaves were cut with Leave It Be with some burlap, cut the "November" with the Monthly Moments: November die and added some stamping and washi tape. The washi tapes are fabric ones from Michaels..so in love with them!

Picture of my mother and her mother... it was vest and scarf season. :)

Here is a picture of me, my hubby and 2 girls. Funny to see this now, as my girls have slimmed down a lot since last Thanksgiving!  I cut a Wonderful Words: Together die and stapled it onto the pic, added more washi tape and another cork heart.

"Gobble, gobble" stamped tag for journaling...

Photo of my girls...

Little bit of layering of journaling cards and tags, and another felt piece cut with Tremendous Tags.

There are more pics, but I will spare you! :) Anyway, you get the gist of the cute journal cards and stamps, I hope. I'll be back tomorrow with more projects!

Thankful, Family Traditions Mini Album:
(All supplies by Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.)
STAMPS: Monthly Moments: November
INK: Dark Chocolate, Classic Kraft inks
PAPER: Monthly Moments: November Journal Card Collection, Dark Chocolate and Canyon Clay cardstock, Dark Chocolate Pattern Pack
DIES: Monthly Moments: November, Monthly Moments: Journal Card 6 die, Rustic Wreath, Tremendous Tags, Wonderful Words: Together, Phrase Play #7, 
Polkadot Parade #6 (mini leaves on front cover)

OTHER: twine, seam binding, pearls, paper clips, 
Canyon Clay felt, kraft tags, washi tapes, cork, burlap, machine stitching.

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Visit the the PTI team to see more with these new products:

Ashley Cannon Newell
Betsy Veldman
Dawn McVey
Erin Lincoln
Laura Bassen
Lauri Willison
Maile Belles
Melissa Phillips
Nichole Heady

more Monthly Moments: September...

Hello! I'm back with one more project made with the Monthly Moments: September stamps, dies and Journal Card Collection by Papertrey Ink. If you'd like to see all of the products separately, you can see them here. With the cooler nights and all of the back-to-school events lately, I was in a mood to create a fall-ish thankful mini album. I haven't added photos yet, but photos will be easy to insert, just punch holes at the top and add them in between the pages on the binder ring!

Along with the Monthly Moments products, I've also used the Autumn Adornments stamps on the front cover, stamped and embossed it with gold embossing powder onto a Monthly Moments Journal card. I cut a Phrase Play #7 die from watercolor paper and then just painted some color right over the top and used the Monthly Moments: September stamps in the cut out ("falling leaves, harvest, hay rides"). The thankful was cut from gold paper.

The second page is another Monthly Moments: September Journal Card. I stamped "fall" with the stamp set and embossed it in gold again, trimmed it out and added a leaf die cut from the Doodlie-Do dies.

The third page is a little pocket cut with the Journal Pocket 3 die using vellum and is stamped/embossed with gold again ("Autumn"). You could add photos, journaling, etc. in the pocket.

Aren't these journaling cards cute? I love all the sayings on them.

On the fourth page, I made my own little pocket made with two of the Journal Cards and used some of the stamps on the front, also added a tag made from vellum to tuck inside.

The leftover leaf cut out from the "thankful" piece on the front cover works well here.

On this page, I used the Monthly Moments: September die to cut out the word, then glued the word back on over the top, offsetting it slightly. I like how you can see through the cut out word. "Autumn days" was stamped with Dark Chocolate ink.

Here I attached two journaling cards together to make one long page. This would be a good spot for journaling.

On the last page I'm going to show you, I cut an Apple Prints opening in the journal card and backed it with red dot washi tape and added another "thankful" die cut over the top cut with Phrase Play #7 die.

Would anyone like to give this little mini album a home? Please leave a comment if you are interested, and I'll choose a winner by the end of this week. So glad you stopped by!

Thankful Mini Album:
(All supplies by Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.)
STAMPS: Monthly Moments: September, Autumn Abundance
INK: Dark Chocolate, Pure Poppy, Classic Kraft, Versamark
PAPER: Monthly Moments: September Journal Card Collection, gold paper - Luxe Letterpress kit, white and Classic Kraft cardstock, Fine Linen Bitty Dot patterned paper
DIES: Journal Card 3 die, Doodlie-Do dies, Phrase Play #7, Apple Prints
OTHER: vellum, gold twine - Michaels, washi tape by MT, gold dot paper on front cover/gold stars- Heidi Swapp Project Life, watercolor paper, watercolors, corner rounder.
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To see more September projects with the Monthly Moments collection, visit: 

Ashley Cannon Newell, Heather Nichols,  and Melissa Phillips.

Monthly Moments: September...

This month, the Monthly Moments products are all about fall...back-to-school, harvest, leaves falling, hayrides, football and autumn days. I've done a scrapbook layout and a pocket page with the Monthly Moments: September products. Here are some sneaks of the stamps, dies and pretty papers available on Sept. 15th at 10pm EST at Papertrey Ink.

On this 8.5 x 11" page, I used some of the Monthly Moments: September Journal Cards in the background.

Then a pocket was die cut with the new Monthly Moments: Journal Pocket 3 die to hold photos of Kati on her first day back to school this year. I used the lined stamp in the Monthly Moments: September stamps to stamp lines for the journaling.

The cute little chalkboard shapes were made with a die and chalkboard paint! I cut some Tremendous Tags out of thin chipboard and painted them with Martha Stewart Chalkboard paint. Found the paint at Michaels for $1.99. They dry quick and are hard like little chalkboards! So fun to make!

Then the Monthly Moments: September stamps and Tag-Its #6 stamps were used on the little chalkboards - stamped with white ink and heat embossed with white embossing powder to really make the white stand out. To create the "chalk" look, I dipped my finger in white stamping ink and rubbed it over the embossed sayings.

The book saying was stamped with the new Book Club stamp set coming out this month also. Kati loves to read, and I thought it would be cute to add this saying onto a back-to-school page!

Back-To-School scrapbook layout:
STAMPS: Monthly Moments: September, Tag-Its #6, Book Club
INK: True Black, Fresh Snow by PTI; Soft Granite by Hero Arts\
PAPER: Monthly Moments: September Journal Card Collection, White/Sweet Blush/Pure Poppy cardstock, Fine Linen Bitty Dot Patterned Paper
DIES: Monthly Moments: September die, Monthly Moments: Journal Pocket 3, Tremendous Tags\
OTHER: twine, chipboard stars by Studio Calico, embossing powder - white, chalkboard paint, chipboard, hole punch, washi tape.
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The next one is a 2-pager/pocket style scrapbooking layout from our apple picking days when the girls were little. I used the Monthly Moments: September die and stamp set and the coordinating Journal Card Collection.

From the Journal Card Collection, I chose 3 of my favorite papers from the pack. They make it easy to do a quick page, just fill some of the pockets with these, some pockets with pictures, then embellish a bit if you want, and you're done!

Some of the little chalkboards were used on this layout too, using the same idea of stamping on them and embossing. The long, skinny photo was trimmed down to 2x7" from a 5x7" picture. The pocket was cut with Monthly Moments: Journal Pocket 3 to hold my journaling. I couldn't resist adding an apple and some sayings from Apple Prints ..."I love you to the core" and "I pick you" were perfect for this!

Washi tape always adds a little bit more pattern and interest to my pages. (I forgot to round the corners of the Fall card like the rest of the pages, will go back and do that.) Anyway, that's it! A quick and simple page.

Fall Into Fun pocket page:

STAMPS:  Monthly Moments: September, Apple Prints

INK: True Black, Fresh Snow, Canyon Clay by PTI; Soft Granite by Hero Arts

PAPER: Monthly Moments: September Journal Card Collection, Vintage Cream cardstock

DIES:  Monthly Moments: September, Tremendous Tags, Monthly Moments: Journal Pocket 3, Apple Prints

OTHER: washi tape, chalkboard paint, chipboard, twine.

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The rest of the Papertrey Ink team has more to share with you also:

Ashley Cannon Newell
Betsy Veldman
Dawn McVey
Erin Lincoln
Heather Nichols
Laura Bassen

Laurie Willison
Maile Belles
Melissa Phillips
Nichole Heady

more Monthly Moments: August...

I don't know why, but I've been designing many things on the diagonal lately. I'm loving it! My last project with Papertrey Ink's Monthly Moments: August collection is inspired by cards on the diagonal, like these by Maile and this one. I always love to use scrapbook ideas on cards, so I thought why can't I do the opposite and use a card idea on a scrapbook page? I love the cut out panel idea.

I'll share a little bit about how I made this...

First, I started with a large 11" x 11" piece of watercolor paper. (Since my watercolor pad is 11" x 15", I just trimmed it into a square). I cut a section of it out on the diagonal and backed it with Soft Stone cardstock, so the gray would show through the cut out. Then I watercolor painted the top and the bottom panels. I didn't adhere anything down yet. You can see the paper is a little warped from the water, but I want to be able to lay everything out first and decide where the items will go, so I'll attach it down completely later and flatten it out.

Next, I had an idea to fill the center cut out with large-scale flowers. Bold Bouquet came to mind. I also used a few of the Embellished Elegance die cut leafy stems. A few of the smaller bouquets were stamped and embossed onto vellum.

The ink colors I used were pulled from some of the colors in the Monthly Moments: August Journal Card collection. I also die cut a Monthly Moments: August die from white cardstock and a Monthly Moments: Spiral Notebook die from one of the Monthly Moments: August Journal cards.

Now I'm going to layer a couple of 2x2" pics that I printed out of my daughter Taylor from this month and layer them over the journal card. These are going to go in the open space on my layout. I stamped a "today" from the MM: August stamps and made some banners from the MM: August Journal Cards. I'll start adding in the flowers around the focal point, the photos. Notice how the black draws your eye to the pictures and creates contrast to the lighter colors.

You'll want to spread out the colored flowers and the white ones to make sure they are evenly distributed.

Adhere everything down when you are happy with the placement.

Next, the journaling. I am always afraid to write directly on my layouts after I went through all that work to make it pretty. So, I used a piece of vellum to write the journaling and placed it on the layout to see how it would look. I decided to keep it and stuck it on. "A day in the life" was stamped with the Monthly Moments: August stamps and "this is me" was stamped above the photos.

That's it! I know at first glance it looks like a difficult page to create, but I hope it helps to see the breakdown of the steps. Not hard at all. I love large scale stamps, they work great for scrapbook layouts. A few larger things look better to me on a page than a lot of smaller items. Look through your stamps to see which ones would work great as a background or to layer around your photos, and don't be afraid to mix and match them with the Monthly Moments line. Also, if you want to use stamps on your layouts but are afraid of stamping directly onto your page, stamp on die cuts...that way you can move them around on your page freely to decide where you want them go.

Visit Ashley, Melissa and Heather for more Monthly Moments inspiration.

August scrapbook layout:

(All supplies by Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.)

STAMPS: Monthly Moments: August

INK: Hibiscus Burst, Orange Zest, Aqua Mist, Tropical Teal, Sweet Blush, True Black; Versamark - craft supply; Soft Granite - Hero Arts

PAPER: Monthly Moments: August Journal Card Collection, Stampers Select White and Soft Stone cardstock, vellum

DIES: Monthly Moments: August die, Monthly Moments: Spiral Notebook die, Embellished Elegance dies, Bold Bouquet dies

OTHER: watercolor paints by Reeves, clothespin by Crate Paper (The Pier).

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Monthly Moments: June...

Papertrey Ink's Monthly Moments team is up today to share with you the FAB new products coming out this month! The June journaling cards are to die for, the colors are so fun. I hope you'll agree! I couldn't help but make another mini album, it just came together so effortlessly with these great things to work with.

The base of the album is made from the new Monthly Moments: June Journal Cards. On the front cover, I used the new Monthly Moments: June stamps and dies ("snapshots", the arrow, "lazy days" are all stamped).

On the first page, I couldn't help sharing this picture I took yesterday on my birthday at sunset. This photo captured so many things I love...being outdoors, sunshine, the sunset, the color red, flowers on my deck, summer. And behind the photo - one of my favorite papers EVER! That stripe!

Next, in my album I wanted to add some of our SUMMER bucket list items. We have a lot of them, so I made 2 pages with the new Journal Card 2 and Journal Card 3 dies!  I might actually add a couple more pages to this for more bucket list items.

Isn't it cute how you can check them off when completing them? (Page 2 of our summer bucket list.)

To dress up the ends of these die cut journal cards, I used the new Monthly Moments: Tabbed stamps and dies ("love this" and "makes me happy" tabs).

Next is a larger page with one of the 4x6" Journal Cards. Another use of the Monthly Moments: Tabbed stamp set to draw your eye to the cute photo of my Kati and her new friend Cassidy. Of course I had to document pool days. We'll be spending lots of days at the pool this summer.

(Tab up close.) Kati met a new friend at the end of the school year. She rode her bus, and we just found out she lives right around the corner and is also going into 4th grade!

Next, I added some photos of our recent trip to Grand Lake, CO last week. See the little striped end on my photo? This was cut with a new die called Journal Card Borders. (There are 4 different borders in this set.)

Under these 3 photos is the journaling that goes with it. I attached two small cards together to make it longer.

My in-laws were here visiting for the last 3 weeks from NY. We have been doing mini outings and took the 4-day trip to Grand Lake together. They just left yesterday. When we came back from the mountains, we took the girls to the Wildlife Museum to see the 3D movie The Arctic at the IMAX and out to lunch for the last day.

Last is just a fun page made with the Monthly Moments: Tabbed stamps. You could journal on the back if you wish.

I've taken over 900 pics this month. I wish I could put them ALL in my album! I'm sure I'll add more as the month goes on, or choose some more from our Grand Lake trip to add. We saw a gorgeous waterfall and went to the Rocky Mountains to see the tops of the mountains. Did you know it's considered tundra up there? Anyway...hope you enjoyed these ideas with the Monthly Moments: June products. You can grab them at www.papertreyink.com on June 15th at 10pm EST. 

Want to see more projects with the Monthly Moments: May items? Visit: Ashley Cannon Newell, Heather Nichols, Melissa Phillips, and Nichole Heady.

June mini album:

(All supplies by Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.)
STAMPS: Monthly Moments: June, Monthly Moments: Tabbed
INK: Enchanted Evening, Pure Poppy, Summer Sunrise, Spring Rain by PTI, Soft Granite by Hero Arts
PAPER:  Monthly Moments: June Journal Cards, white and Aqua Mist cardstock
DIES: Monthly Moments: June die, Monthly Moments: Tabbed dies, Journal Card 2 die, Journal Card 3 die
OTHER: Graphite mist by Tattered Angels, brads and buttons - On Trend by Crate Paper, clothespins - Pebbles, pearl - Melissa Frances.

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