Blog Hop Winner and a couple of simple layouts...

First things first.  The Let's Scrap Blog Hop has come to a very successful end.  I am so glad I was able to participate as a host.  Thanks to all of you for visiting and playing along, there were over a thousand cards made by LS members during the month.  Pretty impressive!  Now without further adieu, the randomly chosen is winner of my RAK is Drue Peters!  Drue, get me your address and I will get your goodies out to you ASAP.

Now for some layouts... I have been thinking a lot about why I scrap and what I really what to come out of it lately.  I love playing with paper and glue and creating pretty pages but, I feel a real desire and need to tell the stories of our lives.  As a result, I think I need to simplify and get more pages done with less fuss and pressure to create a masterpiece each time.  I have long admired Cathy Zielske's classic and graphic style but wasn't sure how to make it work for me.  Recently I took her class Ten tips for Type at Big Picture Classes and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I learned some great tips for making my typography more professional and readable.  If you aren't familiar with her check out her blog here, you will be blown away!  So I thought I would share the layout I made for the class assignment.

The layout is a hybrid, the white background and journaling are one piece created in Photoshop, the title strip was also created in Photoshop and added with the photos and patterned paper.  I am really pleased with the result.  Now that I have overcome the learning curve of figuring out how to make the tips work for me, I will definitely do more layouts like this one.  I love the classic clean lines and the ability to add as much journaling as I want.  I believe that BPC may be offering her class again and I would highly recommend it.

Before I go, I will share one more simple layout.  This was created for a sketch challenge on Lily Bee's blog.  I have wanted to scrap this photo of my son but, hesitated because I really didn't have a story to go with it.  I came across this sweet poem and thought it would be perfect.  I love all the white space on this one especially since I adore the wood grain paper.

The poem reads:
With little rosy cheeks, and a cold pink nose, he's all dressed up in his warm winter clothes.
As I watch him laugh and play in the snow outside my door, I thank my God above for this child that I adore.
A blessing from the Father, complete with heaven's glow, I'll always cherish the memories of my angel in the snow.
Kim Heineman

I will be back soon with another simple layout using Cathy's great tips.