Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Hip Kit Club: Lovely

Working with the April's Kits from the Hip Kit Club has been a complete joy. The kits are a reflection of all the wonderful feelings that Spring brings-sunshine, warmth, happiness, new beginnings, green grass, and flowers....and all of these have influenced my projects, including this next layout, Lovely.

Lovely 5

When deciding upon my approach to document this happy and candid moment I knew that I wanted my finished project to reflect the simple delight that playing in the water on a warm day is. One way of doing this is through color and I chose to focus on the yellow, pink, and minty greens found in April's Kits.

Lovely 2

The design of this layout is basically a grid. A large and not so obvious grid, but still a grid. I find that for me, this type of design works really well when you are working with a larger sized photo on a smaller canvas. Here my photo is a little less than 4x6 and my page size is 8.5x11.

Lovely 3

My larger photo size also influenced the amount of embellishing that I did.  Rather then competing with the picture, I chose to embellish minimally, keeping the design soft and simple to let this photo of my oldest daughter playing in the muddy puddles shine. The Webster's Pages' grid paper from the April Embellishment Kit worked really well to bring in more interest without overwhelming the overall design.
In the end, I have a layout that I love and a memory captured.

Wishing you a great week!

Michelle

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Hip Kit Club: Super Hero

My oldest daughter has been a big fan of princess dresses since she could wear them, so you can imagine my suprise when given the the opportunity to dress up for her preschool's "Princess and Super Hero Day," she chose to go as a super hero! Luckily, we were able to come up with a costume and this next layout made for the Hip Kit Club using the April Kits, documents this.
 
Super Hero
 
Doesn't she make an amazing Super Hero??  I think so :). I went with the lots of of neutral and muted tones in this layout so as not to contrast too much with the purplish pink in the photo.
 
Super Hero 2
 
I cut out a square from the Webster's Pages patterned paper with a sentiment that I thought went really well with the subject of the layout and made sure to feature that in the design.
 
Super Hero 3
 
I wanted just a bit of pink in my layout, so I layered a piece of patterned paper from the 6x6 Amy Tangerine Paper Pad from the April Project Life Kit underneath the photo. (By the way, I love the variety and options that a small paper pad brings!) Thanks for stopping by this morning and wishing you all a super day!
 
Michelle

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Guest Designing for The Cut Shoppe

Yesterday I was up on the blog for The Cut Shoppe as a Guest Designer for Ashley Horton's online Etsy shop which specializes in digital cut files. Before I share my project here, I want to share a little about The Cut Shoppe:

At The Cut Shoppe you can find fun digital Cut Files for download, to use on your paper projects, including layouts and cards! All cut files are available in PNG & SVG formats and are original designs. And we now offer Printables in PNG and PDF formats! You can follow the Blog at www.thecutshoppe.blogspot.com and connect with us on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.
 
 
Since Ashely opened up her shop last year, I have been turning to her for new and fun cutfiles to use in my scrapbooking such as in these layouts here. So when she contacted me about possibly doing a layout for her, of course I was like "Heck yes!" It was a no brainer :). I absolutely adore her products and my enthusiasm for the opportunity was a 100% genuine. And last week, when I finally got to work on the project, I had a blast!
 
 
Using the La La La Love You Cut File, this is what I made:
 
 

La La Love You
 
La La Love You 2
 
La La Love You 3
 
 
Silly photos from daughter + La La La Love You + a really cool silver elephant = a great time :).
 
Please stop by The Cut Shoppe and check out both the store and blog-you won't be disappointed!
 
Michelle
 


Monday, April 20, 2015

Park and Sweet Life

I will tell you, when I see big alphas I cringe. Full body cringe with a little bit of a shudder. You know, just a typical response to something outside my comfort zone ;). Yet despite my intial response, working outside the comfort zone usually results in something good, so I rolled with the giant alphas in Studio Calico's April kit and made some layouts that I ended up totally loving!

Park
 
Park was my first layout I made using those monster sized alphas and I chose to take the basic approach of using a grid. Basically I was sticking to something that I know while incorporating something new.
 
Park 2
 
For my second layout, I used a Studio Calico sketch which features the alphas (you can see it here.) This is my way of making myself comfortable with something new. Trying out another's idea so that I can get the feel of things. By already having the placement of my letters determined I was able to play around with the rest of the design and embellishments instead of freezing up.
 
Sweet Life
 
As you can above, I stapled all of my letters to the cardstock as a way of anchoring them, which is unusual for me, but I was too scared to sew through them instead. In retrospect, I think they would have held up just fine and I should have probably just did a test run with the letter Z :).
 
Sweet Life 2
 
Do you have any types of product that makes you want to run and hide from? Or am I possibly the one who lets a gargantua sized alpha scare them?  LOL.
 
Thanks for stopping by.
 
Michelle
 

Saturday, April 18, 2015

Hip Kit Club & NSD

The Hip Kit Club is celebrating National Scrapbook Day with a 3-Day Online Crop! Yay! Here are the details:

NSD Crop Schedule

MAY 1ST - 3RD, 2015
8AM - 11PM EST DAILY
Challenges & Chats hosted by our talented HKC Design Team Members.
Prizes awarded for every challenge!!!
We've got freebies too!

WHERE:  HIP KIT CLUB MEMBER FORUM ON FACEBOOK.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1517288525193552/

*IF YOU AREN'T ALREADY A MEMBER OF OUR COMMUNITY, JUST VISIT OUR HIP KIT CLUB MEMBER FORUM AND CLICK TO JOIN.  IT IS OPEN TO EVERYONE!!!

Hope to see you there!

Michelle

Friday, April 17, 2015

Hip Kit Club May Reveal

Happy Friday everyone! Last night the Hip Kit Club May Kits were revealed and today I want to share those with you.


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Wow, right?? I can't even begin to narrow down my favorites this month. First off, the color scheme is amazing and fresh. The blue just really sticks out to me, but the green is right behind it. And the embellishments--looks just like my scrappy wish list! The mix of manufactors is great too--Pink Paislee, Dear Lizzy, Chickaniddy, Pebbles, Evalicious.....and did you notice the bit of Crate Paper's Poolside in the Embellishment Add-on??  Wow, just wow.
 
Well there you have it, I have professed my love for these kits and hope a little bit of it has rubbed off on you :). I have linked up all the kits to make it super easy for you to see a detailed list of contents. All kits are available for order now and will start shipping the first of May!
 
Michelle

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Hip Kit Club: April

I have had so much fun playing with April's kits from Hip Kit Club, so much fun in fact, that I have two layouts to share with you! First up is For Sale, a layout I made to document my little girl's budding entrepreneurship.

For Sale

I was super happy to find the grid paper from Elle's Studio in the April Main Kit (and in the Paper Kit too!) because it serves as a really great background for all the colorful products in this month's kits.

For Sale 2

For Sale 3

The photo in this next layout really gives you a picture of what my cameral roll looks like on my phone right now--lots of green and bright, happy colors. Lucky for me, April's kits really compliments them.

Good Times

I chose to go with a basic grid design here so that I could work in several elements such as the awesome white and silver camera from the Amy Tangerine Epherema Pack in the April Main Kit.

Good Times 3

Aren't the new gold phrase Thickers just gorgeous?

Good Times 2

Well there you have it, two new projects using all the awesome goodies in April's Kits from the Hip Kit Club! Looking forward to sharing a new project with you next week.