Design: Death by Chocolate

The Officers' Spouses' Club social for October is a murder mystery. This year's theme is Death by Chocolate. This is going to be amazing! Of course, I was tasked with creating the flier.

Fonts used
Vladimir Script
Castellar
Quicksand

Design: Football Bunco

Part of the Officers' Spouses' Club are side groups like Bunco. The side groups meet each month. This month's Bunco is football themed and I was asked to create a flyer to promote it. It was so tempting to use my favorite team's color as the theme, but I knew that wouldn't be fair to everyone. I found this cute, neutral image through a Google search and used it as my starting off point.

Fonts used
Quicksand
Marcelle Script
Modern No. 20

Design: Thrift Shop Hours

Our base Thrift Shop is adding some hours in October and I was asked to create a flyer to promote it. Since the new hours are starting in October, I decided to go with a fall theme for the flyer. I saw something kind of similar during a Google search and thought it would be fun to create something like it.

Fonts used
Adorable
Quicksand

Design: Family Feud Social

The next social I was asked to create a flyer for was a Family Feud Game Night. My design centered around the logo. Mostly it was helpful in coming up with the colors to use in the rest of the flyer. It should be a fun evening! I'm a little bummed that I will miss it. We'll be traveling to Michigan for my Grandpa's memorial service.

Fonts Used
Quicksand
MeganHand

Design: Open House

I was recently asked to make an Open House flyer for my base's Cinderella's Closet. Cinderella's Closet is a dress-borrowing service which is fantastic for those ladies attending the Air Force Ball that is coming up in September.

Fonts Used
Cursif
Perpetua Titling MT
Century
Quicksand

Design: Luau

I am loving being the Publicity chair for my base's Officers' Spouses' Club! It gives me a chance to use my creativity and passion for creating flyers. The first social of the club's calendar year is coming up and it is a luau! I enjoyed creating this one because it reminded me of my trip to Hawaii earlier this year.

When creating a flyer for a luau there are so many beautiful colors you can use. I searched for fun graphics to use and base my color choices off of. I was lucky to find the hibiscus image with all the colors I love. Pink is my all-time favorite color, but I also love yellow, green and aqua. 

Fonts used
Quicksand
Hawaiian Punk

Design: Thrift Shop

Our Officers' Spouses' Club operates the thrift shop on base. For the month of July the shop was closed so volunteers could work on making some improvements. They are continually doing projects to make the shop better and better. I was asked to create a flyer to promote the reopening of the shop.

Sometimes it is hard to find a background graphic that does not have a watermark on it. I probably saw a whole bunch that I would have loved to use, but I didn't want to pay to use them without the mark on them. I found this one and it works great! It also provided me with a fun, bright, cheery color scheme that would catch some attention.

Fonts used
Little Lord Fontleroy
Quicksand

Design: Cinderella's Closet

The base we are currently stationed at has an awesome resource called Cinderella's Closet. I have not had a reason to use it yet, but they have an amazing collection of formal dresses that folks can borrow for FREE!  Most of the dresses were donated by a Blue Star Families group in New York. There are dresses in every color and every size.

I recently had an opportunity to create an updated flyer for the Cinderella's Closet. Our base's Air Force Ball is coming up and the lady in charge of the Closet wanted to get the word out about the free dresses.

Fonts Used
Cursif
Century
Quicksand

Easy Scrapbooking: Columbus Marathon

Charles' second marathon was the Columbus Marathon. I had completed the page a while ago, but after looking back over it I knew it needed a little something extra. I decided to recreate his racing bib for the "title." It was a really easy bib to recreate because it was not too detailed. I found the logo on Google and the rest was a snap to do in Publisher.

Easy Scrapbooking: Gilmore Girls Birthday

As you all know, my 30th birthday party was a Gilmore Girls theme.

For the scrapbook spread I used a yellow patterned paper that reminded me of Luke's Diner. The umbrella paper was another one that I have been holding on to for years. I bought it because it was very cute, but I did not have an intended purpose for it. It works great for a Gilmore Girls theme. One of the most iconic or popular episodes of Gilmore Girls is when Rory discovers the Life & Death Brigade and jumps off a tower while holding an umbrella (also harnessed, by the way).

In keeping with the Life & Death Brigade, I used their motto and a quote from that episode in lieu of a title.

Easy Scrapbooking: Apple picking

Charles and I visited Apple Hill and picked a bunch of apples. It was so much fun to decide what apples to pick. We left with a big box full of apples and lots of ideas of what to make with them.

The page is simple, of course. It took me some time to decide what to do for the "title." I finally ended up with the list of types of apples. It is appropriate for our apple picking excursion because we came across many of these varieties. You wouldn't believe how many different types there are! During apple season we always find a new variety when we visit the grocery store.

Easy Scrapbooking: Europe

Several years ago, Charles and I took a trip to Europe. We flew into Belgium and visited Brugge, Amsterdam, Dublin, Cologne and Stuttgart. For my scrapbook spread of the trip I was trying to think of something to tie all the pages together. I found a cute cut out on Silhouette of train tracks. They had several different ones and they were perfect! European travel often includes the train.

When we first arrived in Belgium, we had to get on a train to Brugge. We boarded the train and rode. It eventually stopped, but not at our final destination. It stopped and just stayed there for what felt like forever. We had no idea what city we were stopped at except that it wasn't Brugge. We weren't sure what to do and there were absolutely no other people around. Eventually the train started back up and headed back the way we had come from. We realized we had to get off at the stop in-between to change trains to get to Brugge. 


This is just the Amsterdam two-page spread, but it gives you an idea of what I did. Each city had a coordinating color scheme and each utilized a train track.

Whenever I scrapbook trips that use up more than two pages I like to have something that ties them together. I will either use the exact same patterned or colored paper for all the pages or do a similar accent. 

Easy Scrapbooking: Skip-bo

Back when we lived in Rock Hill (before Charles joined the Air Force), my friends Cheryl, Morganne and I would hang out at least once a month. We would often play Skip-bo. Cheryl was struggling to come away from a game with a win until finally one night she did it! I had to immortalize it in my scrapbook.

With only one picture, I knew I would have a lot of room to fill. I decided to scan some Skip-bo cards and print them out on card stock. I love how it turned out. It was really easy to do and a fun way to remember Cheryl's victory. 

Design: Smoothie Sale

I recently had the opportunity to create a flyer for a booster club smoothie sale. I whipped (or should I say blended?) it up in no time, but I like how it turned out. The colors all remind me of smoothies. And who doesn't love a nice, refreshing smoothie on a hot summer day?

Charles and I were talking about reducing our intake of sugars the other day. We were only talking about it because I know some people who have cut out sugar or are in the process of cutting out sugar. I have no interest in limiting sugars in my life. What can I say? I am a sugar addict. Every morning (pretty much) I drink a Bolthouse Farms Protein Smoothie drink. They taste so delicious, but are loaded with added sugar. Maybe I should drink more homemade fruit smoothies instead... There would still be sugar from the fruit, but that's much better than added sugars.

Fonts used:
Keep Calm Med
Barkants

Easy Scrapbooking: Girls Weekend

I was looking back through my old scrapbooks to make sure everything was completed. I realized there were some pages that still needed a few extra details. While going through the old books, it was fun to see what patterned paper and colors I used for various events.

One page that I love is from a girls weekend. If I remember correctly, the shoe patterned paper was purchased before I even had a plan for it. Sometimes you see some paper and know that at some point in the future you will want to use it. And if you don't buy it now you'll never see it ever again.

I used my Silhouette to cut out a high heel shoe for the title.

It's a very simple page, but it represents an amazing weekend with some of my favorite ladies.

Easy Scrapbooking: Trail Race

I totally did not mean to only share scrapbook pages from races. Oops! My scrapbook is actually filled with more travel related subjects than running, but I guess these pages just turned out to be more interesting. I will definitely share others in the near future.

This page is from a trail race called Love on the Rocks. It is slightly more complicated since I made my own snow-capped mountain range by hand. I am proud of this page because it's a little more creative than a lot of mine. You could use this type of design for other things as well...skiing, mountain climbing, etc.

Easy Scrapbooking: Color Run Page

The next scrapbook page I would like to share with you is from a Color Run. (I don't run that much, I swear!) Color Runs are, well, colorful. So this page had to be that, as well.

I love the color splotches I found (on Google) and imported into my Silhouette software. I wasn't sure exactly how I wanted them on the page, so I cut out several in a few sizes. I really like how it turned out.

Easy Scrapbooking: Race Day Page

I love scrapbooking! I enjoy looking back through all my scrapbooks and remembering all the fun times and people I have chosen to include. But I think scrapbooking is intimidating to a lot of people. First you have to sort through all your photos, figure out which ones to have printed and then have all the right supplies. Once you get all those things sorted out, scrapbooking can be very easy and relaxing. I have a simple approach when it comes to immortalizing my memories. I do not include a lot of embellishments; I like my pages to focus on the photos.

The first page I would like to share with you is a race day page. It's probably one of my more modest layouts. I love the patterned paper on this page. It's a colorful chevron print. I used the same paper for the running man and title. I do not even remember where I bought it. I love Hobby Lobby and Michael's, but I like local scrapbook stores even better. There was an amazing one in Dayton, but I only discovered it right before we moved. I haven't found one near me in California.

To make both the running man and title, I used my Silhouette. I love, love, love it! Even though I've had it for many years now, I am still figuring it out. I finally learned how to take any image found on Google and make it into a Silhouette shape. This is saving me a lot of money because I am not limited to the shapes in the Silhouette Design Store that cost about $1 each. Thank goodness for Pinterest!

Design: Travel Printable

I have been scrapbooking up a storm the past week. I am so far behind! There were several pages that I had almost completed, but I was missing the title or some finishing touches. I finally knocked out a bunch today and I am feeling somewhat accomplished.

One page that I needed to finish up was from our Alaskan cruise. Yes, that was almost two years ago. I know to some it might seem normal to be that far behind. But for me and my passion for scrapbooking, this is a huge deal! I was looking for something to summarize the page and trip. Originally I was thinking about doing something like the Alaska state outline and a title mentioning Charles' 30th birthday. Then I had an idea to incorporate a quote related to traveling. There are so many amazing quotes out there. I am truly inspired when I read them. It was hard to choose the best one for this trip, but I ended up using a Jack Kerouac quote that I found on Pinterest.

This printable could be customized with any state or country. Interested in your own custom version? Let me know and I'll be happy to assist!

Fonts used:
KG Hard Candy Solid
Keep Calm Med

Design: Book Club

When we first moved to this base, a new book club was started. I have been going since the first meeting where we read Mr. Penumbra's 24- Hour Bookstore. About a year ago I became the admin for the group which allows me to maintain the Facebook page and make sure the group keeps running smoothly. It is a lot of fun and, since we are so casual, it is not a lot of work.

Our base recently had a festival and they invited several base interest groups to have tables to promote themselves. The book club was asked to join and I was happy to do it. Since I have been in charge of the group I have not really promoted the group except in a base spouse Facebook page. But this would be a fun way to reach out to more people.

My friend, Emily, and I hung out at the table and we met some really nice folks. I was surprised that even some guys came up and chatted with us. So far our group has only been females. But having a male member would add a different perspective and maybe open us open to books we might not pick otherwise. 

For the table, I created a sign, a signup sheet and a little take-away flyer. I started my design process by searching other book club flyers on Google and found a really cute one that I could pretty easily replicate. I'm really happy with how it turned out!

Fonts I used:
Modern No. 20
Gardenia (one of my favorite fonts right now)
Segoe Script