Seriously.

Check it out . . .

[ Shapes | Sliders (frames) / Need Directions? (arrows) / Design Team Picks ('seriously' title) ]

Love the colors she chose and how she used the frames! And just how cute is that baby!

seriously. :)

Here’s what Laura has to say:

I’ve been wanting to use the cute little polaroid frame from Kerri’s new Sliders kit, and thought they would work nicely with these photos of one of my daycare kiddos. I chose the “Seriously?” title (a Design Team Pick), because I am constantly saying “Seriously Devon?” to him. If he’s not in my arms, or I am not within two feet of him, he screams and cries. I’ve been watching the little dude for over six months now, and it hasn’t changed. So it deserves a “Seriously???” at this point. Lol. While I usually love to have lots of dimension and texture on my layouts and love to mix in embellishments, every now and then it’s kind of nice to do a simple paper layout without all of the bulk.

Love it Laura!

[ Shapes | Weathered Door Alphabet [All] / Decade: 2000 / twentyTEN / twentyELEVEN / twentyTWELVE / twentyTHIRTEEN / A Beautiful World / Touchdown / The Ol’ Ballgame / School Years: Add-Ons / Graduation ]

Here’s what Laura has to say:

I was recently asked to put together an album for a graduating senior as a gift from her parents. There were a few reasons that I couldn’t say “no” to taking on this big project. This senior went to the same high school that my daughter Alyssa goes too. Alyssa and this senior played on the varsity soccer team together this year. And this senior’s dad had saved all of the newspaper clippings from her high school sports years and wanted to do something special with them, and I think that is pretty cool! This album is almost all newspaper clippings, with the exception of a few photos from “Senior Night” at the last soccer game of the year. This album is also ALL cardstock and patterned paper. No embellishments or bulky items of any kind.

I started this album by organizing all of the clippings by year and putting them in order date wise, and then adhering them to my background papers. I then went through all of Kerri’s kits, as well as my Silhouette library, pulling out any shapes, words, and phrases that I thought would fit in with the sports theme. Kerri’s new Weathered Door Alphabet kit came at just the right time, as I was short on sports words and had planned on creating my own. I just love the chunkier font and slightly distressed look of the Weathered Door Alphas, and they have just the right look for the sports pages. After collecting an assortment of shapes, I went page by page and choose words and phrases that fit in the space I had on that particular page. I filled in the rest of the empty spots with cut soccer balls, volleyballs, and a variety of stars. I don’t think I have ever cut this many pieces for any project and I truly gave my Cameo a workout. But once this graduating senior and her parents saw the completed album, I knew it was all worth it.

 [ Shapes | More Background Basics ]

That’s just totally amazing! Fabulous Miss Laura, just fabulous!
You are my decorating hero!

Here’s what Laura has to say…c’mon….tell us all about this project!

A while back, I was watching the Rachael Ray show and they were doing a segment on “quick fixes” for the home that would normally cost a lot of money. One of the areas they mentioned was tile counters and backsplashes. They showed these vinyl squares that you could purchase online and place directly over your existing tiles. I loved the idea, seeing that I am not a fan of my tile backsplash in the kitchen and have become quite bored with it over the years. I looked around online and the choices out there were limited and not at all my style. It dawned on me that I could cut my own designs using my Silhouette and some vinyl. And after months and months of thinking about it, I finally got around to doing it.

I looked through Kerri’s background shapes and decided on the circle pattern for my design. I happen to have a ton of black 12″ x 12″ vinyl sheets from Making Memories (which worked perfectly fine in my Cameo) from when I designed for them, so that’s what I used. If I was purchasing vinyl for this project from the Silhouette site, I probably would have still went with the black, although there’s lots of fun colors to choose from. My tiles are 6″ squares, so I sized my circle background shape to 5.8″ x 5.8″ and arranged four on the cutting mat. I ended up needing roughly 120 squares to cover my backsplash, which used 30 sheets of the 12″ x 12″ vinyl sheets. There were some tiles here and there that were smaller (the rounded edges by the window and the turns in the corner of the counter), so I simply used my trimmer to cut the pieces to fit. They were super easy to adhere to the tiles, taking only seconds to line it up and stick each one down. I love the huge impact it made in my kitchen and that I can easily change it down the road if desired. While I used vinyl that I had on hand already, if I had purchased the Silhouette Premium Vinyl for this project, the cost would have only been $50 total. And don’t forget, I know have thirty sheets of the negative part of the design left over. This means I have ONE THOUSAND polka dots that I can use for something. I’ll let you know if I figure out what to do with them!

And I am dying to know what you’re gonna do with all those dots Laura! ;)

Oh, oh…did you say freebie?
Okay. Here ya go!

To download it for free, click on the image or click HERE.
It’s only free through Saturday–National Scrapbook Day, so you’ll wanna be sure to get it now.

This is no longer available as a freebie, but you can get it in the store.

And now….let’s announce the three winners of the $25 gift cards!

They are:

GWEN LORDS – MAY 2, 2013 – 9:27 AM
I don’t really have any plans. I will probably work on some mother’s day projects. Would love to win, I love your stuff. Have all of your silhouette classes and have learned so much!!! Thank you!

DIANE – MAY 2, 2013 – 12:53 PM
Diane here. I will be leading demos at a make n take at a local scrapbook store on NSD. As an employee we can’t take advantage of sale prices there so would really love to win your giveaway.

TERESA BEG – MAY 2, 2013 – 4:03 PM
I have been saving a scrapbook kit. Hopefully I will get it all done!!!

Congratulations! Email me at kerri@kerribradford.com and I will get you all squared away!

And we can’t forget about what’s on sale today!

Yep. All backgrounds and titles…the foundations for all your pages…are on sale for 20% off today!
Just take a gander through the store and look for the Sale tags. (Excludes the most recent Say What 4.) 

Oh, but wait, there’s one more thing!

It’s a brand new kit!

I’ve always been a fan of negatives and polaroids. In fact, not too long ago, the kids brought home a metal tin full of slides from their grandfather from the 40s. They were soooo cool! And when little Miss Nichol said she needed some new KBS frames? It was kismet…and this was born.

Lots of fun things to use here. You can use them with or without the heart/chevrons/photo or you can even mix it up and put them on a different frame or add your own accent to it.

Lot’s of possibilities . . . . Oooh, and the square ones would be so fun for Instagram=-style photos!

Whew! What a day!

But there’s gonna be something you won’t want to miss tomorrow too!

I got a smart phone–okay, it’s an iPhone 5–a few months ago. I am in love over the fact that I have a great camera at my finger tips (finally) without having to lug my big boy around. I love that I have a phone, camera, calendar, music/movie player, etc.,  all wrapped up all into one neat little white and silver package.

And I really love that I can take a great photo and capture every moment when I need to.

Which leads me to today’s page from our sweet Laura. I love Laura’s story about her daughter capturing her many faces. Okay, so she used her mom’s big camera, but the principal is still the same. How many of your kids take photos of themselves with their own phone? And how many photos do they take during school and hanging with friends? I love that they are capturing every moment.

[ Shapes | Storyboard #1 (template), This & That: Love (filmstrip), 'Snapshots' title ]

 
I love how Laura cut filmstrips from different patterns to use as accents on her page–carrying on the ‘snapshot’ theme. It’s awesome! Love it.

Here’s what Laura has to say: 

My youngest daughter, Sarah, had taken these photos of herself, using the remote control for my camera, which was set up in my scrapbook room on a tripod. I didn’t know she took these until I was downloading photos from my memory card a few days later. It’s totally her to ham it up for the camera and take crazy photos of herself. I used one of Kerri’s storyboard templates to arrange my favorite photos and print them out in a collage. The “Snapshots: Capturing Every Moment” title is one of Kerri’s freebie shapes, and fit the theme of my page perfectly. I also cut a few filmstrip frames from the This & That: Love kit from several patterned papers, and tucked them under the top of my photo collage.

I just have to add, Sunday night I was sitting in the back of a large…large gathering of family and friends who’d come to see seven young men receive their Eagle for Boy Scouts. The parents of those boys had commissioned Tracy Aviary to bring an eagle to the Court of Honor. As they brought the eagle out, I was amazed at the amount of cameras popping up from the sea of people to take a photo. I love….love that we are at a place in our society where so many people visually record their lives–that so many people have a way to capture that moment of history.

We live in an amazing time.

 love it.

 [ Shapes | Feathers / More Background Basics (circle background) / XOXO (heart) / This & That: Love ("Love") ]

I do believe those feathers are becoming quite the trend lately, don’t ya think?
Love how she used them for this card!
And I love how she used the circle background for  it too!

sigh . . . 

Here’s what Laura has to say:

I wanted to whip up a few quick Valentine’s Day/Love themed cards, and thought it would be fun to include Kerri’s new feather shapes. I started by cutting a circle background piece for both cards. By cutting these pieces from a cream patterned paper, and adhering them to my white cardstock card base, it creates a very subtle background to build the rest of the card on. I then added a red polka dotted heart, a few feathers, and my sentiment to each card. I had intentions of embellishing the cards a bit, but decided that I liked the more simple look to them, without any extra bulk. This makes them easy to mail as well, if needed.

[ Shapes | inFORMS (Report Card, Score Sheet, Library Card) / Need Directions (quirky arrow) / Say What: 1 ("relax") / Say What: 3 ("Today" arrow, "Insane" title) / Life Additions: 2 ("routine") / Life Additions Weeklies: 2 (days of the week) / A Beautiful World ("green grass") ]

I feel like I am the last person in the scrapbooking world that is NOT doing Project Life. At least, not yet. However, I have a large stash of the divided page protectors and never think to use them. I decided to challenge myself to use one when sitting down to work on my project for Kerri this month. My 16 year old, Alyssa, has been extremely busy these last few weeks with all of her school activities, soccer (two teams), band rehearsals and concerts, and normal, everyday life stuff. I thought I would create a page documenting one of her busy weeks and got busy digging through Kerri’s kits to find a variety of shapes to use. I started with the days of the week … an obvious choice, right? I choose a few arrows, along with a few different words/phrases that caught my eye (“routine” for that everyday stuff, “relax” for that one day she had a few minutes of downtime, “green grass” for soccer). When I saw the “2 Words. In. Sane.” shape, I knew it was perfect for my title, since her week’s schedule was truly insane. I used a few of Alyssa’s photos from her iPod. Since the quality wasn’t that great, I printed them on the cards from the inFORMS kit. Since the photos printed BEHIND the forms, it helped hide the fact that the photos weren’t crystal clear or in focus.

Even if you’re not doing Project Life, I think this is fabulous way to document a week of life! Or anything, for that matter. And I love how she printed designs from inFORMS over the top of the photos! Such a cool effect! And if you don’t want to print over it, try printing it onto a transparency and slide it over your pocket items.

I so need to make a page like this!

Thanks Laura! Love it!

Welcome to day 8 of our little 12 Days of Christmas fun!

It’s been snowing here off and on and it’s sure been finally feeling like Christmas. I’m just hoping that we will actually have snow on the ground Christmas day. Seems like it rarely happens anymore. And *gasp* dare I even wish for it to actually snow during that festive time? One could only hope.:) I’ve just opened my window so I could see the big pine trees out my window with their clumps of fluffy white snow that found a new hone during the night last night. It’s s beautiful site!

I have gotten several requests to turn the ’12 Days’ logo into a free shape.
And you know what I like to say:

Your wish is my command!

Although, I did tweak it so that it would be a little more universal than using ’12 Days’, ya know?

To download it for free–today only–click HERE.

Next item up for today?

Today’s page comes from the loveliness that is Laura Vegas.

[ Shapes | This+That: Winter (snowflake) / December Twenty Five (christmas) / Decade 2000 (twenty seven) / Storyboard #1 ]

I tell ya . . . photo templates are an awesome way to get so many of those precious memories on one page! What a lovely page Laura!

Here’s what Laura has to say:

I came across some Christmas photos from a family get-together, taken back in 2007, that I had never gotten around to scrapping. I had quite a few photos, and wanted to get them all onto a layout, so I picked out one of Kerri’s Storyboard templates to create two quick photo collages. I knew the collages would go side by side, on the two pages, so that it created one large collage across the two-page spread. So I simply turned the template upside down, so that the template design was flip flopped on the second page. I never use snowflakes, being as we live in California, where we just don’t have true “winters” or see any snow. But since the majority of the family was wearing a lot of blues, browns, reds, and lighter colors, I thought it would be a nice opportunity to go with a more “winterey” color scheme and use the snowflakes instead of Christmas trees, presents, or other typical Christmas themed shapes. I didn’t add any journaling to this layout, which isn’t normally something I skip. But I’m not that worried about it, since this is really just a collection of photos from Christmas day, which we know involved family, good food, gifts, and spending time together. 

I love that Laura took some time to scrap some photos from five years ago. I think that often times we scrap what’s current–and that’s great–I think we should. But if we have a moment to go back farther? Do it before those detailed memories start to fade. You think you’ll remember something forever . . .

So, to help you do the same and reach back into the first decade of the 2000 millennium (remember when Y2K was a big deal??), this is the kit on sale today.

Instead of $10, it’s on sale for just $5 for today only.
Click HERE to go to it in the store.

 And HERE are some examples on using it in action.

And I love the twist that Laura did here. Let’s check it out . . .

[ Shapes | Giving Thanks (words) / Signed.Sealed.Delieverd (envelope) / This+That: Autumn (leaves) ]

Getting little ‘grateful’ notes from everyone is a wonderful idea! It’s something you can keep as a momento forever . . . a little piece of time all tucked into an envelope. Great idea! And I love those colorful leaves too!

Here’s what Laura has to say:

A few years back, on Thanksgiving day, I had asked each member of our family to write down what they were thankful for. I also took a photo of each person. My plan was to create a mini album that had each persons photo and their handwritten paper next to it, and it could be something that we take out each year on Thanksgiving. I have started and stopped working on this little album several times over the last few years (this was from back in 2009), and have just never been able to finish it. I decided that instead of the mini album, I would simply make a two page layout to hold everything. I chose an envelope from Kerri’s Signed.Sealed.Delivered kit, and cut it from two different patterned papers, which I used to hold all of the handwritten papers where everyone wrote what they were thankful for. I love the cursive, handwritten titles in Kerri’s new Giving Thanks kit, and used a few words to create my title and embellish the envelope. I added some simple leaves, from the This And That: Autumn kit to embellish the spread. I cut all of my words and leaves from white cardstock, in addition to the patterned paper and brown cardstock, and layered them together.

And now, how’s about we take a look at another flashback idea from last year. With this gift-giving idea, Laura made a bunch of little cards and put them in a jar to give as a gift. This is a fabulous gift idea!

 ( For more information on this idea, click HERE.)

[ Shapes | Here Kitty Kitty ]

 
How perfect is that title for that sweet little boy?!

Here’s what Laura has to say:

When Kerri first sent me her new Here Kitty Kitty kit, I honestly didn’t rush to check it out since I don’t have a cat. Lol. But just like her A Dog’s Life kit, there are titles in these kits that can be used for layouts that have nothing to do with pets. In fact, the “I’d really rather not be bothered, thank you” title would go great on a layout about myself and how I love my “me” time ;) When I first saw the title “Yes, I really am that adorable”, I immediately thought of my little daycare boy, Mateo. He’s super cute and we are constantly telling him “you are sooooooo adorable”, all day long. I knew I had to use it on a layout about him, using some of my favorite pictures of him.

FABulous Laura, just fabulous!

Check out these awesome paper mache decorations! 

[ Shapes | This & That: Halloween (tree) / Foundations: Trick Or Treat (diamond background) / This & That: All Hallows Eve (bats) ]

I love that these aren’t traditional ‘orange and black.’ I think it’s important to add a little bit of variety in your decor. Of course, when I look at my Halloween decor, it’s pretty much orange and black with a splash of green.

Oh well. :)

Fabulous job Laura!

Here’s what Laura has to say:

I have a confession. I don’t go all out every Halloween and decorate my house top to bottom. I see photos everywhere I look of spooky, but really cute, Halloween decorations filling up every nook and cranny of homes, and I wish I could learn to incorporate it into my house in the same way. But I can’t, so I limit my Halloween decor to the one small table by my front door. Which means I keep my decor items nice and simple, just like these paper mache “BOO” letters.

I used a mixture of thin washi tape, black acrylic paint, white misting spray, and Mod Podge to cover each paper mache letter. I used the diamond background shape from the Foundations: Trick or Treat kit to cut 3 seperate pieces of patterned paper large enough to cover the front of each letter, trimming off any of the excess from the edges and the insides of each letter. I then resized the tree from the This & That: Halloween [Just Shapes] kit to the same height as my letters (8 inches), and cut it from black cardstock, along with some bats from the new This & That: All Hallows Eve kit.

And don’t forget all this ‘madness’ going on too!