Echo Park All About a Boy

All about a boy works I am partial to boy collections. Not just because I'm a boy mom, but because I love the shades of blue and orange and yellow that are typically used. This new collection by Echo Park is no exception. Add in some really fun spinners, number wheels and cogs and you have a really versatile collection.

These photos of Nico learning the logic of tic tac toe remind me so much of me at his age. I loved logic games. And I especially loved learning how to beat them. I used pencil and paper, while he uses an iPad - gotta love the technology.

The spinners and cogs in the line tied in the logic and fun of playing games. They were perfect for the theme of the photos. To create the spinner I layered chipboard, stickers, a brad and some foam pop dots for dimension.

The winner of the Echo Park Blog Hop is:

Andrea GarlandFebruary 19, 2013 at 9:05 PM

Aww Those pics are cute and go so well with the scoot Collection.

Congratulations! I will contact you very soon on how to collect your prize. Thanks so much for hopping along.

It's the March 2Peas Hop!

I love these little blurbs of a hop. More photos, less words is a good thing. So here we go, let's hop 2Peas style.

This is a peek of a very colorful page I made for the April Garden reveal. Can you guess our theme this month? Look for it in the Garden Girls Gallery on the first of the month.

This beautiful layout is by Melinda Spinks. I love how incredibly creative the hearts made of slips of paper is. I want to try this technique on all kinds of shapes. You can see more of Melinda's work in her Gallery at 2Peas. She's one of my favorite designers.

Just of the few of things I'm using on layouts right now.

1. Snippets Collection by Studio Calico. Bright + bold colors, great graphics.
2. Jewels Rhinestones from Glitz Design. Love the nautical theme and large size.
3. Flair from the Trendsetter Collection by Fancy Pants. Perfect combo of salmon + navy.
4. Chipboard camera from Studio Calico.
5. Chipboard stickers from the Lucky Charm collection by American Crafts.

And now for a giveaway. Leave a comment and tell me what you current favorite collection is. Don't forget your PeaName too! You'll be entered to win a $10 gift certificate to twopeasinabucket.com. The winner will be announced one week from today. Thanks for playing along!

Now hop on over to see what Garden Girl Marcy Penner has going on. And if you've missed a step, go back to GG Jana Werner or the Two Peas Blog.

Weekend Life

This weekend we spent some time by the shore in Atlantic City. It was chilly, but there is nothing like walking the boardwalk and smelling that sea air.

It was a weekend for us to be a couple, gamble some, dance a little, laugh a lot and spend time together.  I love weekend getaways like this.

The little guy spent some quality time with his grandparents. I think he might've been spoiled a bit more than we were. Although on the ride home, he did say 'it's good to have our family back together again." Love that boy.

He's Crafty

We celebrated 100 days of school a few weeks ago. The assignment - decorate a shirt with exactly 100 items. He insisted we go to Michael's. He picked out the foam shapes. Chose a matching shirt himself. And then insisted on laying out the entire design on his own.

He likes to make stuff. Wants to do it all on his own with no suggestions from the Mom peanut gallery. He told me 'Mom, I have this' a dozen times. I stepped away and he did his thing.

I think he did good, that little crafty boy of mine.

Dear Lizzy's Lucky Charm + Video

Scrap Your Stash

Every 4 weeks I dig into my stash and pull out something I've been sitting on for a while. You know those embellishments that keep piling up or that collection pack that gets buried under the new stuff.

It's a challenge coming up with new ways to use things up. I'm much better at hoarding them. That's why having a video assignment like this is good for me. It forces me to think out of the box (I try to anyway) and I make a dent in my collection. My stash of flair was up this week.

And this is the end result....

There's a process video so you can see how it came together...

And then a few of the other examples I worked on. This first one is a 'border of flair'. What I love most about it is the Lucky Charm collection with it's bold red and navy colors and beautiful patterns. You'd think the collection is more on the feminine side, but I've been using it a lot for layouts about Nico.

These are photos + stories about the first time he visited the Hershey Chocolate Factory in Pennsylvania. His little chocoholic self was loving it!

This next layout shows a cluster of flair, leading the eye around the page. The photos are old. Nico was right around four here and that was his cute BFF Abby. They were very sweet together and I'm glad I got this memory down in his book.

Still working on doing more videos for the blog. I enjoy it, just wish I had more time!

Playing Catch Up - Jillibean Soup

Do you ever have those moments when you look at a photo and it brings you back to the exact moment you took it? I have a crystal clear memory of taking these 4 years ago. We were in Disneyworld, sitting on Main Street watching a parade. I was busy taking pictures of the parade, when I turned and looked at Nico. He had flipped his Mickey shades over his eyes and was sitting back in his stroller paying close attention to every float that went by.  He was tired and it was hot, but he was totally relaxed.  I remember smiling at him really big, just being grateful for him and being happy. 

I wanted the layout to convey 'happy' and what better way to do it than with a dose of bright + sunny yellow. The title card provides some journaling and a pop of color. The hexagon paper is precut and should be coming soon from Jillibean. It was a quick and easy was to add texture and shape to the layout. I filled some of the spots with word strips and sun punch outs to emphasize the theme. Most of the papers here are from upcoming Jillibean lines (Chilled Cucumber Soup and Fresh Vegetable) that should be available in March. The play on words in the title add a little whimsy and fills up dead space in the photos. 

These are some cards that I did for Jillibean's booth at CHA this year. Sorry about the poor photos. Somehow I forgot to take pictures with my camera. These were shot with my iPad at the last minute. You can see some of my messy trays in the background there. 

All of these cards were created with Jillibean's brand new lines (Cucumber Soup, Fresh Vegetable and Irish Farmhouse) coming to 2Peas soon! 

Echo Park Hop and Scoot!

Welcome to the Echo Park Paper Design Team Blog Hop! Today the Echo Park Paper Design Team is showcasing projects from our latest collections. I made this bright, colorful page with the Scoot Collection. I love the all of the classic boy icons in this collection and it's perfect for scrapbooking the everyday moments in a boy's life.

This is a quick and easy page to make, just basic patterned paper, stickers and a few enamel dots is all it takes. I love how the fun photos really stand out against the bold color palette. The pops of sticker add fun and whimsy to the page.

Be sure to follow the blog hop list below as you hop from one blog to the next. Return to the Echo Park Paper blog at any time for the next blogger on the list in case you get lost! 

Echo Park Paper Company

Laurel Seabrook

Susan Stringfellow

Linda Auclair

Wendy Sue Anderson

Tamara Tripodi

Olga Vasilieva

Lowri McNabb

Kandis Smith <---visit here="" next="" span="">

One winner will be selected from each blog to receive an Echo Park Paper collection kit of their choosing. To qualify for the kit, comments will be due by midnight EST, Sunday, February 24th to qualify for the drawing. The winner will be announced on each blog Monday, February 25th  so be sure to check back to see if you've won.

Valentine's Inspiration

Come take a peek at 24+ new projects fresh from the Garden Girls at twopeasinabucket.com. See the one at the bottom left with the 'moments' tab? That's my small contribution. You can see the full reveal in the gallery. See you there!

Wrapping Up Some Winners

I've been sketching out a lot of one photo layouts lately, which is really pretty unusual for me. I like to tell a story with at least two photos, preferably three. But every once in a while I run across a favorite picture that tells the complete story. That's definitely the case with this one.

My husband and niece are very close. They share a special bond - it's called, she whines and he delivers. Ha!, kidding I think. There's something very special in her expression in this pic and I wanted to highlight that.

I created this layout for the Jillibean Soup blog mixing up a bunch of their different paper lines and embellishments. I like how their lines are really mix and match.

The layout is really clean + simple and lets the photo really stand out. The title was cut using the Silhouette and one of my favorite fonts, Lobster. I placed pop dots underneath so that it would stand out from the cream cardstock. While the title is huge and really sets the theme for the page, I think it's subtle enough to let the photo shine.

Now let's finish up with a few winners! I love giving stuff away, so it's a good day.  First up, the winner of a spot in Julie Campbell's Journey into Cardmaking over at 2Peas is....

julie e said...Thanks for the chance to win the spot in the class.

and the winner of a current collection pack from Echo Park is...

Liana S. said...Such a cute card. I always love everything you create. :)

Congrats ladies, I'll be emailing you today regarding your prizes. Thanks so much for playing along.

It's the 22nd! And that means a hop of Two Peas in a Bucket Garden Girls with news, sneak peeks and giveaways from my favorite scrapbooking place twopeasinabucket.com.

 A sneak peek at a project I have coming soon to the Garden. Our theme is Valentine's and I went with a non-traditional color palette + loads of hearts. 

This month I'm inspired by fellow Pea Sarahak. I love how she uses bold, clean lines and beautiful photos to tell her story. For more inspiration check out her gallery.

Some favorite products that I'm using on my projects right now:

1. Basic Grey True Love Collection
2. Jenni Bowlin Quilt Star Punch
3. Mama Elephant On Target Stamp
4. Photo Freedom Volume 1
5. Die cut flash cards by Fancy Pants

A now for the giveaway. Just leave a comment by 1/29/13 to win a spot in Julie Campbell's Journey into Card Making class. Good Luck!

"Become adventurous and explore some of the hottest trends in paper crafting! In this workshop, you’ll also learn how to incorporate colors in your projects & how to create cards in several unique styles. 

Included in this workshop are over 30 brand-new card samples from Julie and her contributors. The three chapters contain a printable PDF for a total of over 40 pages, and 80 minutes of coordinating video tutorials. Julie’s talented contributors include card makers Laura Bassen & Michelle Wooderson. "

And now hop on over to brand-new Garden Girl Lisa Dickinson's blog for more inspiration + giveaways!

Echo Park Blog Hop - Love Story

Welcome to the Echo Park Paper Design Team Blog Hop! Today the Echo Park Paper Design Team is showcasing projects from our latest collections. I made this simple Valentine's card with the Love Story Collection. I love the bunting sticker in this collection and it as a perfect place to add more flag stickers and brads to my design. A fancy brad and some flag stickers complete this quick and easy card.

Be sure to follow the blog hop list below as you hop from one blog to the next. Return to the Echo Park Paper blog at any time for the next blogger on the list in case you get lost! 

Echo Park Paper, Linda Auclair, Tamara Tripodi, Lowri McNabb, Wendy Sue Anderson,  Susan Stringfellow, Nancy Damiano (you are here), Kandis Smith.    

One winner will be selected from each blog to receive an Echo Park Paper collection kit of their choosing. To qualify for the kit, comments will be due by midnight EST, Sunday, January 27th to qualify for the drawing. The winner will be announced on each blog Monday, January 28th  so be sure to check back to see if you've won.

Project Life Photo Freedom Style

Taking a quick breather to post here. I missed blogging for a while. Holidays, deadlines, creating for CHA and videos have kept me busy. But it's all quieting down now and we're settling into our slow winter routines. Quiet days spent indoors = lots of crafting time for Mom.

I have a stack of Christmas layouts and project life Photo Freedom Projects to share.

Let's start with this simple Echo Park one. Created with the This n That Collection. Pretty straightforward and linear, I used alternate strips of paper and stickers. The skinny title was cut with a Silhouette.

This one was created using the by Winter Tortellini and Spinach Soup line by Jillibean Soup. Say that three times fast. Ha! The layout is divided into quadrants - 2 for photos and 2 for decorating. This left me a great space for layering some of my favorite patterned papers. This would be great to do with leftovers from a 6x6 paper pad.

This is the start of my project life project using the Photo Freedom products by Echo Park. I used one each of all the page protectors they make just to get a feel for the system. I've never done project life style scrapbooking, so this was a challenge. I really liked it! I began the project with this traditional 12x12 layout.

I used  the Horizontal 4x6 Photo Sleeves to create this layout. All stickers and paper are from the Dear Santa Photo Freedom line.

This is the 6x12 Photo Sleeve. I love how easy it was to combine an enlarged photo and then slivers of 3 different ones in one pocket. And if you're wondering about that oddly placed snowflake in 'Rockefeller', it's because I added an extra 'r' in there and the mistake was burning my eyes.

This is the 4x6 Vertical Sleeve. I can see using this one again and again. For some reason, I've gotten in the habit of turning my camera to crop out background stuff I don't want in the shot. This means I probably have 10x more vertical photos than horizontal.

This is the traditional project life photo sleeve. I tried to change it up a bit by cutting one enlarged photo (6x8) into three of the sleeves. It adds impact without taking away from the picture. In the bottom pocket, I filled it with punched circles, glittered chipboard and then a sprinkle or two of more glittered. I sewed it shut to make sure everything stays in place.

And a quick close up of the glittery pocket.

I have to say that working with the Photo Freedom project may have hooked me on this quirky & easy style of scrapbooking. There are a trip or two that I want to get into scrapbooks this way. I'm in the planning stages and hope to share a video soon of my progress.

2 Peas Hop

December 22nd, means another round of the Garden Girl hop!

 Two of my favorite layouts in the Garden right now....

This is by Garden Girl Amy Heller. I love the traditional Christmas red paired with the wood washi. This is such an interesting mix of textures and details, all wrapped up in design perfection.

This peek is from fellow Pea Jaimeelynn's December Daily. She's used a beautiful combination of red and gold. Her book is filled with beautiful details and memories. It's inspired me to give the December Daily another shot. I just may do one right after the holidays and fill it with some of my favorite memories from this season.

Some of the things I've added to my collection this week:

1.  Kelly Purkey's Bright Idea Stamp
2. The Love Story Collection by Echo Park Paper Co.
3. Wood Veneer Alphabet by Studio Calico
4. Studio Calico's version of enamel dots, Gems
5. Crate Paper's Fourteen Collection
6. Secret Crush Photo Tabs by Pink Paislee

And now for a fun prize. How about a $10 gift certificate to twopeasinabucket.com? Just leave a comment and tell me what your favorite Holiday Tradition is and you're entered. Don't forget to leave me your PeaName too.  I'll announce the winner right here in one week.

And now hop on over to Garden Girl Lynn Ghahary's blog for more inspiration + links.