My Little Shoebox

Guest Blogger: Heidi Sonboul

 

 

Hello my crafty My Little Shoebox friends, Heidi Sonboul here and I'm so jazzed to be guesting here today. I had such a great time using all of these My Little Shoebox beautiful papers and diecut embellishments that I created a few different things to share with you.

First, I loved the Destination collection and wanted to use the color schemes to create a holiday layout.

That is one big tree

Heidi's Tips:
Just look at these little cars. I know that they were taxies, but with a Christmas tree on top it's now a family car! I love themed papers like this because it allows you to use it in more way than one. So fun right?! I also add mini snowflakes to give a winter feel. Honestly it wasn't snowing that day, but that info won't stop me from using it on this themed layout ;)
 
I love to cluster items like my photos and tags. it almost become a fresh take on old embellishments, don't ya think?!
 
Other layout tips: I love basic shapes and turning them into something cool. I used this square stamp with curved corners again and again to create my look. I then added little flowers in between them to finish the look. I placed them all on a bright yellow to make them pop and shine.

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The Year of Gratitude 

Heidi's Tip: I started a challenge called "The year of Gratitude-365" and you can read all about it here at the link provided. I post every Thursday with more things I'm grateful for and for my Dec. 2. 2011 card I used this cute travel collection. I love the sherbet-y colors and the wonderful basic patterns.
 
Then can you link the Year of Gratitude to this post... to let me know what it is?
 
http://queenofpaper.blogspot.com/2011/12/year-of-gratitude-project-365.html

And finally, something fun with the Audrey collection.

Yes, I sure did hand cut and inked all of those squares one by one cause that's just how I roll. I used foam squares to make the pop!

 

Thanks to the MLS team for allowing me to visit with you all today. I hope you found something to inspire you to create with your My Little Shoebox paper. Happy Holidays!

Welcome Guest Blogger: Julie Bonner

Hello everyone!!  My name is Julie Bonner & I am super excited to be today's guest blogger :)  I have been an avid scrapper for the past 5 years and primarily spend my creative time scrapping my 2 sweet sons, Nicholas & Ryan.  In addition to enjoying my evenings playing with paper, I also have spent the last few years creating numerous layout sketches for online stores, manufacturers, and my own website.  I have a slight obsession with layout design & LOVE coming up with new ways to organize photos, paper, and embellishments on a page.  

Today I am going to share a layout I created featuring the charming & whimsical Playtime collection.  I recently took these pictures of my son Nicholas.  At just 8 months old, he is not quite ready to romp around with his older 4 year old brother Ryan :) While patiently watching and waiting to join in the fun, I snapped these photos of him.  For me, they just spoke of him wondering, "When is it my turn to play??".  I knew the bold colors & adorable graphics of the Playtime collection would be the perfect fit for these photos.  

I thought the Playtime cardstock stickers were so cute & used them to embellish both circle elements on the page.  In this close up you can see the both the sun & cloud stickers.  To add some texture, I decided to emboss the clouds using my Cuttlebug & the Swiss Dots embossing folder.  By adhering the sticker to some cardstock beforehand it ran through the Cuttlebug super easy!!

Although I love pre-made embellishments, it is always fun (and economical) to create your own.  In the close-up below I took one of the elements from the Playtime Daydream paper and cut it into a ribbon pennant shape.  Then I simply added a toothpick adhered with some glue dots behind & voila - instant embellishment!!  

I also created a sketch inspired from the layout for all of you . . . 

The My Little Shoebox team would love for you to create a layout based on my sketch and link yours up here via Mr. Linky (see below). You have until midnight October 31st, Pacific time to share your take to be entered to win a MLS collection of your choice! Winner will be chosen at Random from all the layouts linked via Mr. Linky and announced on November 1st!

 

A BIG THANKS to Shemaine & My Little Shoebox for having me as today's guest blogger.  I hope you all find some time to play along with the sketch.