New Year's Eve + Silhouette Cameo + Bella Blvd

I got a Silhouette Cameo for Hanukkah. Seth coordinated the effort amongst family members and everyone contributed towards it. I couldn't be happier (translation: obsessed) with my gift. I keep trying new things and am so impressed with what this machine can do! 

Enter New Year's Eve. Seth and I decided rather last-minute to invite a couple of friends over for a New Year's Eve get-together. For him, it was an opportunity to try out recipes from his Hannukah gift: the Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook. For me, it was an opportunity to start madly cutting things out (and to taste things from the Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook). 

As I started to think about how to decorate for the party, I remembered we had an old multi-photo frame sitting around that we had never put to use. I dug the frame out of the closet and made a very simple project, filling two of the photo slots with patterned paper from Bella Blvd's Socialite line (this is an older line, from 2010) and the other two slots with words and numbers printed in colored ink on white cardstock. I cut a couple of patterned paper labels with the Cameo and added them to the text blocks before putting them in the frame. I thought it turned out kind of cute and festive:

 

However, when I put the frame on the sideboard it looked, well, lonely. So...I made a coordinating banner to hang on the mirror above it:

As I admired my handiwork and marveled at what I could do with my new toy, I realized that the frame was sort of low and so I clearly needed to add something with height to the sideboard. Enter the New Year's Eve bouquet (cardstock + Bella Blvd Socialite + Cameo + skewers + adhesive):

 

This was my first time using the offset feature in the Silhouette software. With one click you can create a background shape for the shape(s) you are cutting. We all know how much I love putting borders on layouts, and I'm so happy that I've discovered the Silhouette equivalent! I put the offset shapes in a separate document and cut out two copies using black cardstock. I glued the patterned paper shapes to the offset shapes, and then sandwiched two matching shapes together with a skewer in between, making the flowers double-sided (I put a different patterned paper on each side) and hiding the end of the skewer inside the flower. Then it was just a matter of filling my vase with pebbles and sticking the flowers and banners in to create the bouquet.

As if all of this creating and cutting wasn't enough, I decided that the cool gift-every-hour countdown project I'd seen on Pinterest and been planning on doing could also benefit from a little Cameo action:

 

We went to the dollar store and bought little gifts for the kids coming to the party (things like jewelry, stencils, candy, etc.) and filled each hour's bag with a different gift. So...at 7:00 the kids will gather to open the first bag and each of them will get one of the gifts inside the bag. At 8:00 they'll open the next bag, etc. I don't know how many will make it to midnight, but I did create bags for 7:00 to midnight since I am anticipating that the Momofuku Milk Bar desserts might create a lasting sugar high. :) 

Each bag has a slightly different topper and tag and I added baker's twine from The Twinery and Divine Twine in colors that coordinate with the Bella Blvd Socialite paper.

Want to see how the whole "holidayscape" comes together? Here you go:

If you have any questions about how I made anything in the photo above, please leave a comment here and I'll answer any questions tomorrow.

Remember that Monday is the start of the new-and-improved Right Side Up, so be sure to check back then to see what I have in store for 2012.

Best wishes to you and yours for a happy and healthy New Year!

Top Ten of 2011

Every year, I post my top ten layouts of the year at the end of December. Today's post is just that - ten layouts that I want to keep looking at and reading again and again. As always, they are in no particular order. There is one layout I'd have included here that's out for publication, so keep watching Scrapbooks, Etc. for that one. ;)

1. I'll start with a layout that I've never posted online before. I did this one for the September "Design Play" issue of Masterful Scrapbook Design. It features products from October Afternoon's Sidewalks line. I love this one because I love the photo, the emotion it evokes for me, and the pops of bright color against the black background.

2. Sticking with black and October Afternoon Sidewalks, here's a layout I did about our wedding, reflecting back fourteen years later. I love this one because of the photo and the journaling, but also because I adore the giant banner flags (this was the second layout I did that on - I like this one much better than the first one). Kitchen skewers + stickers + baker's twine = easy and fun embellishment.

3. Next up is another layout I haven't posted anywhere before. This one was so different for me, but I love how it turned out! I decided to create a layout that would dig into my stash, so dig I did! I kept adding and adding and adding things, so it's significantly more product-heavy than most of my layouts, but, hey, variety's a good thing, right? ;) Patterned papers are from Cosmo Cricket, My Mind's Eye, and October Afternoon; the stickers are from Studio Calico, My Mind's Eye, and October Afternoon; the badges are from Ormolu and October Afternoon, and the fabric tab and journaling card (digital - I printed it out) are also Ormolu.

4. Okay, okay, I get it, enough of the black backgrounds, already. Moving on to white...This layout was one of the four I sent in when I applied for the Bella Blvd design team. I love all the bright colors, and that this rockstar layout combines products from a Halloween line, a Christmas line, and a sports line. 

5. Sticking with a white background, and Sadie, here's a layout I did last week, my first layout using my brand-new Silhouette CAMEO (to which I am now addicted). The first thing I cut was a set of mustaches for Sadie to play with. She was hamming it up and trying them on so I snapped pics and then cut smaller mustaches for the layout as well as an airplane ticket. Bonus? The extra small mustaches were sized just right for American Girl dolls. :) All of the non-Silhouette products here are from October Afternoon's Boarding Pass line (except the telephone, which is October Afternoon Five & Dime), which I hadn't originally thought of as a spy-themed line, but it works, doesn't it? I think I need to move the mustaches on the toothpicks so that the left edge of each mustache is attached to the toothpick, rather than the center of the mustaches. Funny how you have to post something online sometimes to figure out what's wrong with it!

6. More Sadie and a white background next...this one I did for the Bella Blvd December newsletter. I went crazy with punches and it turned out really fun!

7. Family history next. This may be one of my all-time favorite layouts ever. I did this one with October Afternoon Boarding Pass. I love that I was able to resize scans of my grandfather's family passport and embarkation cards to include on this layout.

8. Here's another October Afternoon Boarding Pass layout - this one was for the booth at CHA last summer. I love how the background paper acts as an embellishment - I didn't have to do much else to finish out this layout.

 

9. Here's another "busting into my stash" layout. I have been hanging onto these cute animals from Cosmo Cricket for far too long. I combined them with some October Afternoon Farmhouse, Amy Tangerine Thickers from American Crafts, and a tiny heart sticker from Jillibean soup. Love the cute animals, love the cute kids, love how the new and old products combined so well!

10. Last, but not least, is a layout I made with a very special photo I scanned while visiting my parents. This one uses October Afternoon Farmhouse.

In looking back at my layouts from this year, I am sensing some trends:

• I still love white/black/kraft backgrounds.

• I have made a shift back towards computer-generated, rather than handwritten, journaling. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I do love seeing my writing on my layouts, but I've been doing more clean-lined layouts this year (I used to do a lot of torn edges), and the printed journaling seems to align better design-wise with that for me. I did just handwrite on a layout I did today, so I think I'm going to let this be and just go with whatever I feel the design calls for.

• I'm using a lot of embellishments on sticks. Skewers and toothpicks are always on my desk these days.

Okay, folks, there you have it: my ten favorite layouts of 2011 and my thoughts on how my style has both stayed the same and shifted a bit.

Stay tuned, as after years of being a horribly irregular blogger, I have cooked up a Monday through Friday schedule that makes sense to me and won't be too taxing for me to keep up with. 

I'll be back tomorrow to share my Silhouette CAMEO-cut New Year's decor, and then Monday will be the start of the new-and-improved Right Side Up.

I'd love to hear from any of you who are also posting your top ten (link me up in the comments here, please!) and from any of you who are doing some year-end reflecting on your style.

Going Places Today

Yup. You're going to have to do a little cyber-travel today. Check out my layout below and then click on over to the Write.Click.Scrapbook. blog and the October Afternoon blog. That's all I'm saying. Nothing like a good mystery, right? ;)

Happy December!