Favorite - Pretty Little Studio

Hey crafty friends!

I am happy to be here with you today, on the Pretty Little Studio Blog, for the fact that this gorgeous Grateful Heart collection has so much purple in it that I can document all my favorite photos of my boy with the perfect color.  Who says this fall line can't be used for things that aren't even fall?

I started with a big rectangle large enough to sew around the edges and still fit my envelope filled with ephemera from the National Honor Society event.  It is kinda hidden until you see I opened the flap of the envelope in a later photo.  

I covered the front of the paper with photos and a 3x4 block, keeping things clumped in the center of my page.  I was sure to not add adhesive behind where the flap of my envelope would tuck under when closed.  We received an invitation to the event, a certificate for the program and a letter from his Kindergarten teacher that was even read out loud that night.  Some pretty spectacular things to save.  

You can see at the end of my layout, I added Nuvo Drops in the center of my flowers for dimension and scattered around to tie all the colors together.  

Cascading flowers around the center clump filled some of the white space and gave your eyes a place to wander around.  I really enjoy creating pockets and hidden journalling on my pages.  

Hope you will give it a try.

Mary-Ann

You & Me - Pretty Little Studio

Meet me over on the Pretty Little Studio Blog today!

You & Me, drinking coffee in the shape of hearts, on a beautiful purple background!

Wouldn't this be a cute "let's meet up for coffee soon" card for your best chum?

I started with a 5x5 card base.  Then I chose 2 perfectly matched purple Oxide inks and blended my background and added water droplets.   From the Grateful Hearts Collection, I used a frame from the My Favorite Die Cuts.  Tucked in a Tag cut from the Snapshots Cut Apart 12x12.   A few more ephemera pieces and lots of foam tape and my coffee invite was almost done.  

I wanted to emphasize the hearts in the coffee so I used Nuvo Drops to accent those.

I added little water droplet bling and that is it!  

LOVE - Pretty Little Studio

Good day friends!

Mary-Ann Maldonado here with a challenge for you.  Sometimes challenges arise when you don't really expect them too.  When I placed my order for the gorgeous Grateful Heart collection from Pretty Little Studio, I didn't order enough paper.  Ugh.  Well, that's ok because this Express Thanks paper gave me an idea! 

Other than a 1/4 of that paper, cardstock, ephemera pieces, foam tape and my sewing machine, it did not take much effort or cost to compete this layout.  

Go check it all out on the Pretty Little Studio Blog!

Love You - Pretty Little Studio

Hey there friends!

Mary-Ann Maldonado here with a quick, easy layout combining two different collections from Pretty Little Studio to get a great masculine layout completed!   

Head over to Pretty Little Studio to get all the details.

Hangin' With My Peeps - Paper Issues

Hey friends!

I am happy to be here today, showing you a layout I created with the Frosty Collection from Pretty Little Studio that has NOTHING to do with winter. Today, it is all about Easter over here.   I also used a FREE cut file from Paper Issues called Hangin' with my Peeps.  

Hello Summer Sun - Pretty Little Studio

 Hey friends.  

Today I am on the Pretty Little Studio blog with a simple yet impactful layout. 

 The background did most of the work for me!  

I'd love if you checked it out HERE.

LOVE LOVE LOVE - Pretty Little Studio

 Hey there.

Today I am over on the Pretty Little Studio Blog sharing a layout of my sister and our husbands at my Grandfathers 90th Surprise birthday party.  He was certainly surprised!  

Go check it out over there along with a bunch of closeups.  

Have a great day. 

Mary-Ann

Special Together - Pretty Little Studio

 Morning friends,

I am on the Pretty Little Studio Blog today.  

I was exhausting a collection and found another that was super fun.  Head over there for more details.....

Pretty Little Studio.

This is a photo of my favorite boys and I going to our favorite restaurant, Agave in Newburyport MA.  OMG If you are local and have never been, it is totally worth every expensive penny there is.  I highly recommend the Chorizo Fundido.  I do not work for them nor do I get commission.  Just go. I'll go with you!  hahaha

Prepping for December Daily - Pretty Little Studio

Hey there friends!

Today I am sharing a post for December Daily inspiration.

You can head over to the Pretty Little Studio Blog for more information.

Cookie Swap - Pretty Little Studio

Hey there friends!  Im over on the Pretty Little Studio Blog with this fun 

Christmas layout using Christmas Cheer.   

With Freya - Pretty Little Studio

I am totally smitten with my great niece and the Christmas Cheer by Pretty Little Studios.
I love the wreath style idea, Boughs of Holly, but didn't want to use it as it was. I decided I only wanted to use half of it and wasn't sure how that was going work until I tried playing around.  

Head on over to the Pretty Little Studio Blog.

Christmas - Pretty Little Studio

Have you seen the new Christmas Cheer collection? It is fabulous, colorful, loaded with patterns and super charming. I loved creating with this newest collection. The vintage vibe is right up my alley with all of the jolly Santas. Head over to the Pretty Little Studio Shop to grab it for yourself.

I started with a couple 6x6 colorful pattern papers. Added my photos the Santa. I knew I wanted to have the dog peeking over the photo, similar to what my pup is doing in my photos. You can barely see him. But you can see my boy snoozing on the ride.

The Stocking Stuffers Die Cuts were the perfect color pop that the neutral background needed. I did layer some and back others with foam for dimension. I'm thinking the teal is a new holiday favorite.

I used the banners with some of my moms thread to create a swirl at the bottom of my layout, mixing the colors and patterns to draw your eyes around even more. I then stapled a few stars and my layout was put together quite simply. Thats what happens when you start with inspiring product.

Time Together - Pretty Little Studio

Morning all!
I was shocked when I went to create this blog post over at Pretty Little Studio and saw Aimee's layout that was posted yesterday using the exact same title and paper collection - Indian Summer Collection by Kim Watson! What I love about that is, we can show you so many different ways to create with the same stuff! With fall fast approaching, this collection will get you in the mood to dig out the earth tone colors and maybe get you inspired to decorate your homes for fall too.

I created a sketch for Paper Issues and decided that it was going to me my inspiration for this fun layout today. Instead of fish, I brought in all the fall ephemera from the Indian Summer collection. You can find inspiration in so many places. Sketches, scrap lifts, magazines, color combos and so much more. Although this is sketch is beachy, it easily translated into a fall theme. I can see ornaments hanging like this in December too! That would be magical.

Falling leaves, flowers and gourds take up all the 'white space' on the bottom of my layout. I tacked down my ephemera with stitching, carefully lifted the edges to create dimension and sporadically placed sentiments from paper and journaling to finish off my layout.

I hope you are inspired to get ready for fall! It's getting brisk in the mornings and at night here in New England. I think I am ready for apple cider and hot cocoa. See you again soon!

Forever Fab - Pretty Little Studio

Hey friends! I'm on the Pretty Little Studio Blog today sharing a layout with the newer paper collection - Miss Sadie Rose! It is elegant, soft and full of gorgeous patterns. I instantly thought about my nieces wedding and my other nieces baby shower! To me, it can be very versatile!

This is my crazy sister.  She lost her shoe in the middle of walking down the isle with my great niece after she 'forced' herself into the wedding.  It was hilarious and you can bet, we have not let her live it down. 

Summer - Paper Issues

 

Nothing like vacation in the Dominican and swimming with Dolphins.  We had the best time last year.  We all want to go back so bad.  Maybe our next trip will be Jamaica.  It is in the planning stages.  Hope we can travel next summer.  

Anywho, we are playing Follow the Leader over at Paper Issues right now for the Summer Crop.  We started with a layout by Jennifer McMurtrey, it gets siphoned throughout about 10 people and I am the last one!  Right before me was Sindi Jeffers.  I'll show you their layouts below.  

I used Pretty Little Studios' Chasing The Sun collection. 

Here is the original layout by Jennifer.....

Here is the one by Sindi that was right before me....

It is pretty cool to see how they change so much as they go through people.  It is almost like the telephone game we played in Girl Scouts when we were kids!  Thanks for stopping by.

Awesome 48 - Pretty Little Studio

 Today is my first blog post over at Pretty Little Studio!  

I hope you'll go over and check out all the really fun collections Melissa has to offer.  If you like rainbows and vintage, you will love all of her graphics.  The collection I used today is Color Me Happy.  

I love a patterned background. The polka dots on this paper are what I needed to get inspired to document my birthday. The Northern Lights paper begged for me to cut it. I used faux stitching and layered a couple of the Journaling Blocks behind my photo strip along with a black piece of card stock for an anchor!