Play Layout for Scrapbook Circle

Saturday, May 14, 2016

I'm guest designing for Scrapbook Circle with the May HERE & NOW kit (which features some Fancy Free, yay!) - here is the first of the two layouts I made:

PLAY by Paige Evans

DESCRIPTION: At CHA I offered to guest design with Scrapbook Circle with the kits featuring Fancy Free and yay that day came! It was so fun to open up the box and sort through all the fun contents, I couldn't wait to get started.

JOURNALING SAYS: I loved taking you guys to Disneyland Paris all by myself - we had so much fun!

HOW TO: To make this layout I started by cutting wedges from the lighter patterned papers in the May kit - so mostly a white background with colors on top. Then I distressed the edges and pieced them in a sunburst around a white cardstock background. To help the papers stay in place I stitched over them with a sewing machine. In the center I layered a photo over journaling cards and a tag and the gold striped bag some of the embellishments came in! Waste not want not :) After adding a few more embellishments and a die cut title, I journaled on the right side, dropped paint around, and then glued on a few sequins.

SUPPLIES: Kit: Here & Now by Scrapbook Circle; Sewing machine: Brother; Thread: Coats & Clark; Watercolors: Loew Cornell; Paint: Americana

DETAIL SHOTS:

I'll have another layout to share with these kits at the end of May!

Teaching at Scrobby in Holland!

I'm so excited to share that I'll be teaching a layout and Project Life® workshop at Scrobby in The Netherlands on Saturday July 9th 2016 from 10am-4pm!

For more details and to register visit Scrobby.nl or click on the button below:

Hope to see you there!!!

Fancy Free Pinterest Board

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

I've created a new Pinterest board and I'm having so much fun scouring blogs and galleries finding projects to pin that use Fancy Free!

Do you spy any of your projects?! Let me know where to find your creations so I can pin away!

Studio Calico Summer of Sketches Layout

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Summer of Sketches is now enrolling at Studio Calico! With 48 sketches, 36 layouts, 18 contributors, 12 start-to-finish videos, 3 months of weekly lessons, and 1 awesome teacher (Jamie Waters!) this class is sure to be amazing! Here is my contribution which I got the ok to share since it appears on the class homepage and I have a second layout in the class too, so be sure to sign up to check it out ;)

#TRUESTORY by Paige Evans

DESCRIPTION: I was sent a sketch and asked to make a layout based on it:

I took the sketch pretty literally which helped make this layout come together FAST! For the complete how to, check out the Summer of Sketches class!

JOURNALING SAYS: You poor thing! At the top of a very steep hill a bee flew by, scared you, so you took off running down the hill. When you crashed at the bottom you broke your collarbone :(

SUPPLIES: Kits: Studio Calico (Jolly Holiday); Watercolors: Loew Cornell; Sewing machine: Brother; Thread: Coats & Clark

DETAIL SHOT:

photo truestory detail 2 by Paige Evan.jpg

See you in the Summer of Sketches classroom!

Pottenstein, Germany

Monday, May 9, 2016

Two beautiful days in a row?! And it was Mother's Day AND our 9th anniversary! We hit the road running, no questions asked :)

We had never been to the nearby fun-filled town of Pottenstein so that was our destination. Located in Franconian Switzerland, Bavaria, it has all sorts of mountain fun, including an alpine slide and caves and paddling on a lake. Over here they call alpine slides "sommerrodelbahn".

Fox and Chris ready to have the time of their lives.

The Pottenstein alpine slide has two different types of tracks and we were excited to try them both.

Kids of all ages lined up ready to slide down the mountain.

Up!

And up!

And away we go!

The first track we rode was the rail one, like a rollercoaster. Chris got a video of about a third of the run. We rode the rail version twice then rode the steel track twice and the kids loved it. Well, Fox LOVED it and Jane tolerated it. She's a good sport.

After the slide we walked over to a free bouncy castle and let the kids have at it. Fox said, "I love this adventure!" I guess this is more up his alley than walking through churches and museums.

"Mom take a picture of me in front of the cactus!" As you wish!

Alpine slide, bouncy castle, and ice cream? Best. day. ever. Their words, not mine!

Then it was time to go explore the town of Pottenstein. High above the town is the 1,000 year old castle, or "burg".

Looking down on the town from the road above. So charming.

The town is nestled at the convergence of the Püttlach, Weihersbach, and Haselbrunn valleys.

Popcorn popping!

♡♡♡

Darling half-timbered buildings and the Catholic church.

These signs tho!

Bright colors everywhere.

SO CUTE!

Happy 9th anniversary to the love of my life!

I love him more than commissary cookies, and that's saying something.

A statue of Saint Elisabeth in the market square.

Looking up the main street.

Apparently Saint Elisabeth, the widow of Ludwig IV, was held hostage in this castle for a year back in 1228. According to legend, while she was being held, the food they gave her was transformed into beautiful roses.

Half-timbers are my fave.

In some of these smaller towns it is hard to find a magnet, but luckily enough we found a good one! And the kids found themselves some little toys.

Flower power.

Looking down the main drag and the market square.

We love Germany. We never want to leave!

Two fun-filled days in a row!

Bayreuth, Germany

Sunday, May 8, 2016

Saturday was the most beautiful day of the entire year so far!

It has been almost 6 months since we've had jacketless weather so there was no way we were going to let this day go to waste! We hopped in the car and headed to the nearby city of Bayreuth.

My squad. (Sans Chris who was paying for gas)

After a quick 45 min drive we parked and headed out to explore.

The town's roots date back to 1194 and today is is the capital of the Upper Franconia region of Bavaria and home to over 70,000 people.

Despite its size, the city remains quite tame most of the year until the Richard Wagner Festival, also called the Bayreuth Festival, comes for 30 days each summer. The festival is world famous and is host to performances of operas by...you guessed it! Wagner.

One of the most famous sights in the city is the Margravial Opera House. The structure was built in 1748 and designed by Giuseppe Galli Babiena. It was the largest opera house in Germany for over a century and is still one of the most ornate baroque opera houses in the world.

Check out that interior!

Unfortunately, that interior picture is from the internet since the opera house has been closed for complete renovations since we've been here and is scheduled to be closed til long after we're gone. Guess we'll have to come back :)

There were other beautiful sights to see in the city so we pressed on.

We enjoyed walking down Maximillianstraße.

Peeking down through the lane towards the Stadtkirche.

The town already had their Maypole up and there was a fun market going on, too.

I want a turret!

I spy our two little kids traipsing through the market.

As Chris said when he grammed this picture, "Germany is the wurst." And then my mom said, "I never sausage a thing!" Lol.

Flowers make me happy.

Lovely church fronting the square on Maximillianstraße.

We didn't really have any plans so we wandered wherever we felt like it! We saw this cute street so down it we went.

So much to love in one little photo: these silly kids of ours, the old teal door and matching shutters, shorts weather when just 2 weeks ago it was snowing, cheesy smiles, bribery ice cream cone...

Vines for days.

The twin towers of the Stadtkirche.

We walked in because we heard someone playing the organ. As soon as we entered it stopped.

We looked around a bit then left, and as soon as we did the guy started playing the organ again! Ha!

Quaint little square.

Peeking above the buildings you can see the tower of the Castle Church. It was built in 1758 and is the burial vault of Friedrich and Wilhelmine.

Oh, Jane.

Our family in Bayreuth, Germany on Saturday, May 7th, 2016.

In front of the Castle Church and Tower was this huge dinosaur. So random!

Then we went to see the Neues Schloss, the former home of Margrave Friedrich and his wife Wilhelmine. It was built in 1754 and designed in an Italian style.