GIS Scrapbooking Ideas: Making a nautical motif modern with color

Hello Sunshines!

Up on the GIS blog today is one of my favorite motifs: Modern Nautical. For my page, I used two of my favorite beach photos of my kiddo when he was small. It was his first introduction to surf and sand shortly after we moved here. I've scrapped the bigger photo before, but not the little one. I used Pixlr-o-matic to process the photos- one warm, one cold to match my page.

Credits: Just Jaimee: Ice Cream Papers; Kaye Wienecki: A Little Message Elements; Allison Pennington: Seize Papers,  Rain Rain Elements; One Little Bird: Lemon Drop Elements; Valorie Wibbens: Swoon Elements, Sprinkles v. 22; HGD by Laurie Anne: Shine Basics; Amy Martin: Blanc Stitches v. 2; Fonts: Jane Austen, Albertsthal Typewriter, Slim Pickins

I am not a huge fan of a traditional nautical motif. It reminds me of surf & turf in the late '80s. But I live near the ocean, so nautical is always in this time of year. I have no lack of inspiration for an updated, trendy nautical look. What I notice in the shops and magazines lately is softened or muted color tones mixed with punchy colors, dark navy and black, with linen and raw material type neutrals. I brought that influence to my page for a fresh take on an old motif. Using modern colors is an easy way to freshen up trends we feel are dated.  

There you have it. Now go read the article for more ideas!  

Vintage Bingo Cards & Coffee & Scrapbooking Ideas

I am thrilled to announce that I'm now part of the Jenni Bowlin Studio Digital creative team!! I fell in love with JBS paper products after getting to know the paper design team. The products are just so unique and innovative. The opportunity to work with that digitally was simply irresistible.

I couldn't believe that I was able to get this photo of heart shaped snow. I always admire nature-made heart photos, but have never captured one until now. This page came together easily.

Since the bingo card is such a strong element, I kept the embellishing simple and added the bulk of my texture and dimension with pattern paper instead. The blacks establish a diagonal flow and the red pulls you to the photos and title. I use the blues in varying tints to pull the blue out of the roof tile and it softens the blacks. The pink edge fills out the block without detracting from the reds purpose. I cut the word 'HEART' out of the letters on bingo card toppers.


The Vintage Bingo Cards & Gold Crowns are on sale today. The rest of things on the page are all JBS Digital, with the exception of the fonts.



Up on the GIS blog today is a great article about coffee and tea stories,. I really love this kit by Just Jaimee and Amanda Yi Designs. I also really love coffee. Perfect fit for this page and the article.

I really, really wanted to use the clothespins on my page. At first I thought I'd make a hanging on a clothesline sorta composition. Turns out I couldn't make it work, but it's a good thing. The story is about morning coffee, coming down the stairs being led by that wonderful aroma. This funky block conveys movement better than a faux hanging clothesline. And I was still able to work in the clothespins.



Coffee plays such a big role in my daily life and I have plenty of pages that pay homage to it. None of them tell this particular story. Combined, I'm sure my coffee pages give insight into who I am and what my life is like. You can read more about my approach, like why I used the colors and embellishments I did, HERE along with more ideas and tips for scrapping about coffee and tea.

Scrapbooking Ideas

Hello Everyone!

This week I find myself with a bit more downtime, which is perfect for some non-creative-team-free-scrapping. Since I've been doing the Photo a Day challenge, I have lots and lots of photos to choose from, which mean I really needed a little help picking which story to tell. I hopped on over to the Scrapbooking Ideas section of Get It Scrapped in hopes of finding a starting point.

I was immediately drawn to the title section. In it, I found an article about long titles and instantly knew what page I needed to make:

Supplies: Just Jaimee: Storyteller Collection- September 2013: Fonts: Varsity Playbook, Sketch College, TrashButterfly,1942 report, 28 Days Later, Sketch Serif, Advert, Colleged, appleberry, Pea Melody Shay

The title of this page tells most of the story. Ever since I beat him at Mortal Kombat ten years ago, my hubby gets seriously focused on winning whenever we play a game together. He, apparently, doesn't like losing to a girl. The good news for him is that I am terrible at board games, but he isn't exactly a good sport. When we play an analog game together, I always joke that he should either be pulling my ponytail to express his affection or he's  just a cocky jerk.

For the title I used a mix of different stampy, chalky and sketchy looking fonts in varying sizes, but still large (I think the smallest is around 48 pts). I alternated between serif and sans serif fonts- so there's an AB pattern of words. To make the title block feel like one piece and because those ascenders and descenders kinda force pesky gaps between lines, the title also became an embellishment cluster. Pretty sneak, eh?

Also, I'm still swooning over Jaimee's kit (and not just because I'm on her CT). I love the ombre papers and wanted to use more. The ombre paper here really helps reinforce the title with contrast and flow. It's needed since embellishments are sparse. To finish the page off I added some small staples. If you're gonna pull off minimal embellishments, affixers like tape, staples, stitching or brads really make a page feel finished.

That's my creation from the inspo in a nutshell! Check out Scrapbooking Ideas for more great ideas, tips and tricks.

♥ Carrie