Authentic Beauty September 2011 Kit Ideas

All You Need is Love & Grandma…that is so true! There are so many times in life when everything can be made right by a simple visit, a simple phone call, or even simply sitting back and flipping through your memories of your Grandma. It’s one of the beauties of scrapbooking. It can remind us what’s important, who is important and what we love about them.

Pick your favorite picture of your Grandma and put together a Love & Grandma 12×12 layout of your own. You’re welcome to gather inspiration and ideas from Valerie’s project design:

There’s so much to look at on this gorgeous 12×12 layout by Valerie that I don’t know where to start. The pink polka paper is lovely. The cut out birds creates a fantastic negative space that Valerie was clever enough to stand on its own at the bottom of the page. The subtle tag in the midst of the birds and the flowers provides the title of the layout, Valerie added white paint to the background as an additional matte layer for the photo. the origami style flowers are so fun with the buttons for centers, and the extra little focal point at the top left adds SO much flair to the page. It balances out what I wouldn’t have even guessed was an imbalance in the first place. \

Such gorgeous flowers! What kind of paper flowers are your favorite? We’re thinking about putting together a few video tutorials on how to make flowers. Which versions or types of flowers would you be interested in learning about?

And if you’d like to see more projects from Valerie…come back soon! We post designer projects here on the blog and on Facebook.

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine…you keep me happy when skies are gray! Don’t you just love people that can make you want to sing such a recognizable and lovely and happy song? We all need to have one or two people like that! And we should probably make sure to document any that we discover in our lives. We recommend scrapbooking: layouts, mini albums…or even…if you want to get crazy and let them know that you feel they are one of your “sunshines” you could make them a card.

Here’s a couple of Francine’s “sunshines!”

How happy does this particular project make you? Francine put it tougher  using the September Authentic Beauty kit. And it makes me smile. Smiling makes me happy. What an appropriate tribute to someone who acts as sunshine in your day to day life! Things I love LovE LoVE LOVE about this layout: the sweet pink background in combination with the neutral color of the second background, the “rays” of sunshine (both the varying patterns of paper and the stitching), the aded banner that accentuates the page title, the closer of stamps and pins held together by the date (one of the most important aspects of the page) and the pull out journaling. I love hidden elements! It makes the page interactive and fun.

I absolutely adore this 12×12 layout. I wasn’t exaggerating when I said that it makes me smile. And I believe that means success in the scrapbooking world.

Watch for more projects coming soon!

Awh…I love LovE LOvE LOVE babies. They were designed to make me smile and laugh. And there’s something wonderful about that. Someone once told me once that to laugh is to take a mini vacation and I immediately decided that they were right. My kids and I take spontaneous mini vacations all the time (don’t be startled by sudden bursts of unexplained laughter followed by assurances that it was a good one if you ever find yourself in our home). And all that fun and happy is SO much easier to accomplish when you have a little baby or a little PRESLEY on hand.

I bet Leslie was smiling when she put this 12×12 layout together using her Authentic Beauty kit from Little Black Dress Kit Club. In fact, I’m sure of it. You can’t come up with a finished product this happy-making unless you smiled at least a bit while you were working on it! We know…we collect them on our Ideas Page.

This is one of my favorite color combinations (red/brown/teal). It’s amazing on paper. It’s amazing in a room. And it’s amazing for a Friday night out with your favorite man or your favorite girls. But Leslie really worked it well here. And it’s only more yummy with the teeny pops of pink throughout. Things to notice in that came from the Authentic Beauty kit: trim (SO fun and SO pretty), flags, letter buttons, pink buttons, those fabulous paper combos, and…of course…those absolutely gorgeous and whimsical flowers.

Leslie, thanks for reminding me that even the teensiest little touches (like the flag, tiny date journaling, and button) that are evident in this close up can make an enormous difference.

“She Asked for Her Niece.” What a sweet addition to the page. And what a sweet little lady! Love those round baby cheeks! They remind me of my nephew that I don’t get to see nearly often enough. Elements to note in this closeup: one of our favorite papers (the perfect red covered in off white music notes), vintage stamp, pink button, flag.

Watch for more fun projects using the Authentic Beauty Kit coming soon!

I HEART you! We actually heart all our Little Black Dress Kit Club members. And just to show our love and appreciation…we’re going to share a secret with you. Scrapbooking is all about you! Take a moment and make a page that doesn’t look like your sister’s, your neighbor’s, your favorite designer’s or even your mom’s. Make a page that is all about you. Make it look like you. When people pick it up, they should think of you. That’s the scrapbook challenge we’re offering! Let’s see what you make of it. And as a little bit of yummy loveliness, check out Tina’s i HEART u 12×12 layout using the Little Black Dress Kit Club September Kit.

Awh. Love Tina! And love this layout! From my view of Tina…she “hearts” a lot. She seems to be a lady overflowing with good stuff to share with everyone around her. Love that about her and love that it always shows in her layouts.

Notice the fun accordion style flower with the golden rhinestone embellishment here. And love the heart cutout with all the 3D effects that you can see below.

Want to do a page with lots of “popped” elements, but not sure how well it will last? Take a note out of Tina’s notebook and use some stitching to secure it to the page while adding one more element pointing towards your focal point.

I love all the detail that Tina includes in her pages. This one is particularly fun because the extremely detailed pattern of her background paper makes for a fabulous basis for all the littles added here and there throughout.

The day our hearts fell…my first thought upon reading this layout title was that this was a love story, but that’s not the case. I love this scrapbook layout from LBD Designer Leslie Ashe because it shows us that scrapbooking is all about the “big” moments and they’re not all yummy and warm and fuzzy and feel good. Sometimes they’re just big. And those “big” moments that you might not feel comfortable talking about right away are some of the most important moments to remember. Do you have any that you’ve been avoiding that you’re ready to put down on paper?

Here’s one of Leslie’s BIG moments. We’re so glad she shared it with us!

Leslie put together The Day Our Hearts Fell 12×12 Layout using the September Kit, Authentic Beauty, from the Little Black Dress Kit Club:

The overall look of this page is so perfect. I love the color combinations. I love the simplicity of the photo. I love the use of basic shapes (hearts and circles in contrast to the basic square). But my favorite is using the photo as a pocket. I LOVE that kind of addition to a page. I think it adds so much character and it’s an added bonus that it’s functional.