The beginning of the Monsterous Books

I am almost done with the kids 2005 books!!! All that is left is the front and back pages. Almost time to celebrate. Today I finished up the front pages and hopefully by the end of the week I will get to the last.  My inspiration for these layouts come from Let’s Get Sketchy.  This is only my second layout inspired by them, but they are a defiant must and new go to.  I am working with this weeks sketch, November week 1 team A.  

I will start off with my girl take on this sketch. As soon as I saw this sketch, I knew it was perfect for the opening of 2005 for this little bug.  The only part I find unfortunate is my handwriting.  I just have to remind myself that it will be cherished one day, not matter how terrible it is.  

 I started out by selecting the main papers I was going to use.  I found a My Minds Eye  set of Mary Mary products. The patterned papers are Best Friends Quite Contrary from the Mary Mary line. I then found the blue main background in my stash. The glitter white cardstock backing the picture is from a DCWV glitter stack.  From there it’s just cutting, punching, layering, and gluing. I started with the vertical strip on the right hand side. 

The butterflies were cut out from scrap white cardstock and a Martha Stewart butterfly punch. I ran the butterflies through my Xyron sticker maker, lined them up and stuck them down. I then layered in the Doilies from The Paper Studio. I layered up the patterned paper, glitter cardstock, and photo.  

 I then layered the embellishments to the bottom right side of the photo.  The sassy sticker is from My Minds Eye Mary Mary Wonderful mini frames.  The fun times ahead ticket is from My Minds Eye Mary Mary Sweetie Pie Tickets. The journal spot is from My Minds Eye Mary Mary Beautiful journal card. The writing was done with a Marvy Opaque Stix in metallic blue. The rosette is from American Crafts. The flower stickers are from Doodle Bug Designs Strawberry Parfait. Finally, the butterfly is from Me&My Big Ideas mambo sticker. 
Next is is my boys sketch. 

Little Man fell asleep hanging out with his sis. Of course I couldn’t resist getting a picture of this “pose”.  I needed a way to make this picture work without going all pink, and still reflecting little man’s personality. The perfect match came from The Paper Studio’s Glasses, Stashes, and Ties paper stack, except for the denim paper.  I found the denim paper in my scraps.  

I used the Spellbinders nestablilities Inverted Scallopsand my Sizzix Big Shot to die cut the small and large inverted scallop circles out. Putting the layout together is basically the same as above, so I will go over the differences and products.  

The stars come from Studio Calico Mistables fabric stickers. The stars were colored with markers; theorange and blue were Sharpies and the green was a Galaxy Marker. The dream ticket comes from Tim Holtz Idea-ology Adage Tickets.  The journal spot is on chalk paper cardstock and was a scrap left in my stash.  The writing is with the same marker as my girl page. 

Now to figure out how I’m going to wrap up the year and move onto the next.