Nicole Martel

August 21, 2017

Totally Cool

Hi everyone. I've been playing with my cut-aparts from the Ain't Life Grand collection. While I was going through my scraps and cut-aparts, I came across the mini-cut apart strip of labels and thought it would be fun to use it as a journaling strip so that's what I did!

I use a few scraps of patterned paper and scribbles stamps to decorate the back of the photos and cut-apart strip of labels.

I cut the camera from the 4x6 journaling card to use as a die cut for the layout. Then cut the xoxo square from the cut-aparts to tuck slightly behind the bottom photo.

I used a pen to journal inside the labels. I used the banner cut apart along with the "totally cool" cut-apart as the title for my layout. I used a foam square to pop the banner off the paper.

Pretty Little Studio Ain't Life Grand Papers/Love This, Over the Rainbow, Cut-Aparts/Life Labels, Always, Best Ever, Everyday, Journaling/Cloud 9

Thanks for visiting today!

Beautiful summer day

Last night, on my way home from the grocery store, I texted my friend Katie to see if she wanted to bring her boys down to my beach today and she laughed because she was about to text me. HAHA. We met down the beach a little after 11:00 this morning and we stayed down the beach until 7:30! Pete was nice enough to order pizza, fries, mozzarella sticks and coke from a local shop who delivers down the beach. I tipped him well! :)

It was a little hot, but it was absolutely beautiful outside! Seriously, I love that I live 5 blocks from the Severn. It's nice having a friend with kids! They play and we talk. I miss having a friend that can hang out with me and my kid... and we had so much fun!

The kids played so nicely together... seriously. No fights all day.

They decided to take a break from the water to build a bridge. :)

My cutie...

My friend Katie.

These two... they curled up in the tube together, enjoying the view. Melts my heart.

Priorities... Water, chairs, book, cellphone, Cheese Curls and frozen grapes.

Happy children... happy moms... LOL

It was hard getting the kids out of the water... I made Katie be the bad mom... get them out so we can go home, give these kids a bath and put them to bed so we can have a break. LOL

This guy was hanging around all day... One of the kids from the neighborhood kept catching fish to feed him. :)

Here's me and Katie! This girl Is fun. So glad we became friends!

And here's another fun photo... Me with Keith and Billy. I love my neighbors. LOL

Happy Days

Hello friends. I hope you're enjoying your weekend so far. Today, I am sharing a layout I created using the "Ain't Life Grand" collection. I love how bright and happy this collection is. In fact, I can't seem to stop scrapping layouts with it! I promise to use a different collection soon. :) The colors in this collection is perfect for scrapbooking those fun summer memories.

A few weeks ago, my family and I went to a pool party. We had such a great time and the best thing about the party besides the awesome pool with the giant floaties and good food was that they had a photo booth! HAHA, I love photo booths.

After I added the photos, die cuts and stickers to the center of the layout, I realized that I wanted a circle around the collage of embellishments and photos so I used Creative Memories' circle template from the custom cutting system to trace circles around the middle of the layout using a Sharpie pen. I've had this tool since I've started scrapbooking in January 2000 and I use them often on my projects.

I moved the template down about 1/4" from the top of the first circle to draw another circle. Then I used my Sharpie marker to add a few scribbles to add a faux stitching look to the circle since I do not own a sewing machine.

Once the circles were complete, I added a few die cut words at the bottom and top of the circle.

I used a sharpie and a ruler to hand-journal my journaling.

I cut a small piece of paper from the Live 7 Love paper and stapled it to the bottom of the layout. Then, I cut the "you make me smile" sentiment from the 4x6 journaling card to add above the strip.

Pretty Little Studio Ain't Life Grand Paper/ Live & Love, You & Me, Cut-Aparts/Always, Happy Life, Die-Cuts/Bloomin, Journaling/Cloud 9, Stickers/Snapshots, So to Speak, Vellum Tape

Thanks for visiting today!

Zumba

Pinterest Inspiration

Hi scrappers. I am so excited to share my layout inspired by the Pinterest image. I had such a fun time creating this layout. I decided to use my watercolor paints by Shimmerz Paints on this layout.

The first thing I did to prep the page was splash some blue, pink and yellow paint on to white cardstock.

Once the paint was dry, I used some Bamboo crisp dye ink by Altnew and a star stamp by Honey Bee stamps to stamp all over the page.

Here is how the background turned out.

I added some scribble circles by Precious Remembrance Stamps before I started applying my embellishments. I went with black, rather than a pink or green to make it stand out more against the bright colors.

For my title, I used Crate Paper's alpha stamps from the Oasis collection. I wanted to use stickers, but I didn't have any in my stash that were big enough. I wanted my title to be visible. :)

I hand cut the "memories made here" sentiment and flowers from the Live & Love paper. Also, I printed the photos small enough so that they fit inside the die cut frames! LOVE.

Pretty Little Studio Ain't Life Grand Paper/ Live & Love, Cloud 9, Cork/Whole Hearted, Die-Cuts/Framed, Sequins/Funky Pink, Stickers/Snapshots, So to Speak

Thanks so much for visiting today. I hope you have a great week!

Life is Good

Hi everyone. I have a summer layout to share with you. I love this photo of Edward. We were at the beach and he was perfectly content playing in the sand by himself. What you don't see is, Edward drawing a smiley face in the sand. He erased it too fast for me to snap a photo, but I love how his happiness shows... He is always drawing pictures of "happy" people or things. What can I say, he's a happy boy!

I love the cloud 9 papers and felt this was the perfect layout to use them with Edward at the beach and all.

I love the cut a-parts in this collection. I used the cut apart banner at the top of the photo just because it seemed like the perfect place to place it.

I wasn't sure where to add the tiny "photo love" sticker so I just stuck it at the bottom right-side of the photo.

Pretty Little Studio Ain't Life Grand Papers/Cloud 9, Feeling Funky, Tilted Teak, Stickers/Happy Hearts, Shutterbug, So to Speak, Cut-Aparts/Best Ever, Happy Life, Die Cuts/Happy Days, Love Life Words.

-Nicole

One Little Word: Playing Catchup!

Hi everyone. I must admit, I am not good with month-to-month prompts such as One Little Word by Ali Edwards. I signed up for this class in January to focus on improving myself and trying to be a better mom by not ruining a perfectly good moment with my son because I am simply tired, burnt out and just unhappy...

I've been doing really good this year even though I haven't been following the class lessons. LOL. I just do my own thing. The most important thing here is to follow through with my goals... the documenting doesn't always have to be right now...

So today, I was a few months behind. I had nothing for June and July so that's what I did this morning! I am feeling pretty positive and proud of myself for how far I've come. My son and I have both been so happy and we have soooo much fun now that I have started taking vitamins (my happy pills) and working out 5 days a week. It really helps my stress. Gosh, I had no idea how much exercising could change my life, but it totally works.

Also, finding time for ME is very important. It's tough finding that time since my husband is only home 2 days a week, but I manage.

Here are a few pages I've had from a few months that I didn't share yet... This was the from the Mood Board challenge. This was FUN! I got to play with stencils and mists.

Sharing a few precious moments with my darling son. I need to back and print a few more photos of the two of us and put them in the book. It's a work in progress.

And here are the pages I completed this morning. Initially I was trying to say within the same color palette, but it was driving me crazy... so my album totally does not match, but that's OK because it's sort of like a diary for me so it doesn't matter as long as I continue recording my progress. Right? Right!