It has been a while. Some times life just happens and you don't have time to scrapbook it. But I'm getting back into my crafting stride, so it is time for some challenges - which means blog opportunity!
One of my favorite challenge sites is Color Me Scrappy. They always have challenges that motivate, and I really enjoy the color schemes they come up. The colors this month were fall inspired: blues, burgundy, golds.
Nice right? I had the perfect paper collection in mind (you know I'm paper obsessed and I love how collections make it so easy to quickly put it all together) - Echo Park's "Times & Seasons." The colors were perfect, and the heritage/family theme made me think of Thanksgiving. Score.
So... yeah, then the twist - use feathers. Of course, out of all the hoards of scrapbook stuff that I have - was there one feather? Oh well, what a great reason for a trip to Hobby Lobby! And after checking the clearance rack, I found the perfect multi-pack of feathers for only 60 cents! Awesome!!! (in my high-pitched singing voice). How did I still manage to spend $30? That is for another post...
Anyway, I was actually very pleased with the feather. It gave my project that little extra somethin' somethin'. Some crocheted flowers, few buttons, pins, clips and we've got ourselves a nice cover. Totally going to use feathers again.
Getting back into scrapping, I've started small - this is a cute little 3x3 chipboard mini album from Close to My Heart (I got 5 of them on ebay for about $5 - nice!). Perfect size for a quick project to get your juices flowing.
So thanks Color Me Scrappy, hopefully I'll win that mystery grab bag!
Finished another Color Me Scrappy blog challenge today! I really enjoy their challenges, this is my second time submitting. The colors this time around were right up my alley and made me think of spring (come on spring!). The twist was to include a tag and/or stitching. (And wouldn't you know it, but the challenge at BasicGrey Challenges was for a spring project - so hello, it is a two-fer.)
BasicGrey's "Green At Heart" collection was perfect for this challenge. Nice and springy! And so are the pictures of the kids decorating eggs and cupcakes to celebrate spring and Easter. You love my title don't ya? Hehehehe... me too! I thought it was clever. I used a big glitter chipboard letter "e" and some of my Thickers stash for that. Of course, it is a two-pager.
There is a little round butterfly chipboard tag, which I ran some ribbon through and some even littler chipboard circles dispersed throughout the layout. The scrap of paper under the title has two lines of stitching with some green glitter thread, using the We R Memory Keeper's "Sew Easy" tool. (Which brings me to my bonus content.)
I really love it when I see layouts with stitching, so when the Sew Easy came out, I immediately bought one, a dozen heads, 6 packs of thread, storage case, the big mat - you know the deal. And so far, I've used it, what? Two, maybe three times? I'm still trying to get the hang of it. It never comes out as cute as I imagine it (hate that!) and there has got to be a way to keep the line straight when I'm rolling the poker-thingy on top of my paper.
None of that, however, stopped me from buying the circle tool that goes with the darn thing when I was attending a rubber-stamping show this weekend. Clearly, I haven't given up, and seeing as how I cannot sew a lick (seriously, not even a hem), I am determined to make it work. Anyone out there have any tips on using it? Let me know.
I was dragged to the show by my scrapping buddy, La-Vie. She forces me to stamp, I force her to attend mini-album classes. The night before the show, the event sponsors hosted a "Make & Take" event. We did six 15-minute projects. Most of them came out pretty good. It would've been a good idea to take some pics of my projects to show you, but I gave most of them to La-Vie to include with her cards for troops thing. I'm not a big stamper or card maker, but it was a lot of fun hanging with her and some fellow crafters: Vicky, Ellen & Becky.
This was my second time crafting with Vicky, as she is a friend of La-Vie. Ellen was a FB crafting buddy of La-Vie's as well, but this was their first F2F encounter. Becky was a loner, and like all good scrapbookers - we welcomed her into our circle (today she is probably telling her husband, "and then I made the mistake of sitting at this table full of crazy women, and they wouldn't let me get away").
These crafty-chicks put me to shame with the stamping. They're all like, "You have 7 people following your blog -- how sweet, I have 1,593." "Oh yeah, I'm Copic certified. Yes, I knit. And make jewelry. I've got 5 quilt projects going. I make my own yarn, right off the rabbit." Seriously, that last one was real.
It's cool ladies, it's cool. But for real, it was a lot of fun and I cannot wait to hook up with them again!
Besides the circle tool, I also managed to buy a few sheets of Mosaic Moments grid paper, this thing that is supposed to let me create perfect bows, and some Smash book embellishments. Technically, this is a clear violation of my resolution not to purchase anymore stuff until CKC, but since it was a show, and I stayed under my $40 budget, I'm calling it a success! Under $40!
I cannot afford another hobby, so I'm sticking with scrapbooking and hopefully I can create a project with the Sew Easy that I'm happy with. Stitched circles here I come!
It is Wednesday and I'm blogging?! The big snow storm never quite materialized... downer... But I got to go home early from work - so bonus! Which means time for a hump-day layout and another challenge submission. The folks at Scrap Our Stash have a great challenge going on this month - Kraft It Up. (Then, the folks at Scrap Our Stash hooked me up with another challenge that my layout would work for - Back Porch Memories! Thanks Brenda. And Hello Back Porch Memories. Love those kits, I'm intrigued!)
What I love most about this challenge is the prize. They are giving away a Heidi Swap Sugar Chic collection pack! Hello! I love that collection (see previous posting), and have had issues restocking my supplies of it, hard to come by. So I really need to win! Hello people at Scrap Our Stash - take note!
Anyway, the challenge required that we create a layout using at least 50% Kraft paper and embellishments. Additionally, we had to include at least three metal elements on the layout. A few months ago, I bought a nice stack of Paper Studio's Kraft Paper from Hobby Lobby with a 50% off coupon and haven't used it yet, so this was a great opportunity to break into it.
I wanted to girlie-fy the zoo pics, so I highlighted the pink from the coat in the photos by using some pink glitter ribbon, pink bling & pink flowers. I also inked all my edges with pink. For the metal elements, I used some Making Memories metal charms, as well as some metal sticker letters and a metal book plate from my stash. The plastic tickets are from Maya Road.
I usually prefer working with multi-colored collections, but what I love about the Kraft paper is that you can make any color the accent so it could work with any pictures. I can imagine some more Kraft layouts in my future featuring turquoise, or lime green, or red! Oooohhhh... can't wait!
A layout isn't a layout if it only as one picture on it in my book, so of course, I did my usual two-spage spread. I think it came out pretty cute. Nice and simple, but still awesome. Now give me that Sugar Chic!
Another new challenge blog, Dream Valley. Dream Valley is a ribbon emporium - which is great because I use ribbon on my projects all the time and am always on the look out for creative new uses for it. This challenge required that we use ribbon and bling - two of my favorite embellishments. Such an easy way to make your page just a bit more fabulous - add some bling, some ribbon - maybe a ribbon with a bling ribbon slide? Perfection.
In this project, I used a 7 Gypsies printer tray, Crate Paper's "Random" collection and my personal stock of assorted ribbon, bling & buttons. Ribbon is used in two places: on the handle I used some light blue dotted ribbon; and in the bottom left of the tray I stuffed some pink rose ribbon into one of the slots. I just love how it came out.
Bling is used is one or two slots on the tray, along with some buttons and metal embellishments. I enjoyed scrapping outside of the box with this project. These trays are a great way display scrapping without the album.
An anything goes BasicGrey challenge? Hello! I am a HUGE BG fan, HUGE! (Look at my previous post!) I have a problem for real. And I hoard it. I love it but then hate it when I've used it all. I still have some collections from years ago - can you say Urban Couture? Romani? Figgy Pudding? Obscure? Still have them all, although they are getting low. And I adore the relatively new ones too - What's Up, Wander, Kioshi, Sweet Threads... there are some super new ones out but I vowed to not buy any more paper until CKC Lancaster, so this is a good opportunity to use some of my BG stock and make space for shopping in July!
I am thrilled to have stumbled across this awesome challenge site, BasicGrey Challenges! The winner receives a $25 Gift Certificate to Simon Says Stamp! All the challenges use BasicGrey - got that! This challenge was anything goes - love it! I created this chipboard mini album using BasicGrey's "Wander" collection. The deep, rich tones are great for travel photos, I've used it so many times. And each time my supplies get low, I re-stock them (thank goodness for clearance!), so I still have a good amount of it.
The album is from Maya Road. I traced each page, hand cut, applied with some 3M paper glue (my favorite adhesive when using chipboard), sanded my edges and painted with green paint, and tied some twine through the rings for a finishing touch without being too girly. The inside is packed full of pockets and flip-ups so there is space for lots of photos.
The chipboard stickers and embellishments in this collection are just so fun! Look at that 3-d bus! When I travel, I love taking the subway, bus, etc to get around and see the sights. We've had some adventures on public transportation in foreign lands!
See the little tabs with eyelets and twine? I made those with scraps to create tabs so that you can flip the page up. Awesome!
The thing I love about this collection (and why I love working with collections in general) is that it doesn't matter what I do, it really can't be wrong! Mixing patterns is effortless and it always looks so good. It doesn't hurt that all the brads, chipboard and clips are hard to resist.
Thanks for the chance to play, I'll be back BasicGrey Challenges!
Noticed a lot of chevrons lately? Me too... From dishes and towels at Target to fashion to scrapbook paper. Yay! I created this project to enter Frosted Designs newest challenge which required the use of chevrons. The other great thing about this challenge, besides chevrons, is that I could use what ever products I wanted! I immediately knew which paper collection I would use - Basic Grey's "What's Up." Basic Grey is one of my Top 5 paper companies - nice and thick, great designs, lots of color. I get inspired by paper. I'm A Paper Ho and proud of it. Don't judge.
Thanks to my other obsession, Pinterest, a layout sketch caught my eye - so I was all set. The winner for this challenge gets a $20 Gift Certificate to The Paper Trail, which is right up my alley, wish me luck! I used chevrons on a previous post as well.
One pic-per-page layouts don't do it for me, I have too many pictures for that. So I did my usual two-page spread. This blogging thing is really helping me get some work done. Sometimes you just need a push in the right direction. I like having a kick-off point to spark the creativity.
I love the expression on the girls' faces. When I visit them we usually make a trip to Cosi and this time we ordered some s'mores, Sydney was thrilled about it! The person that came up with table top s'mores idea is a genius. S'mores are one of the great things about camping, and I'm not a big camper - at all.
I pretty much followed the sketch exactly. I love sketches because they are no-brainers. I added the scallop border because I felt like that side needed a little something-something. Then I threw some black mini round gems on top. Now I feel like I made the sketch my own.
Thanks Frosted Designs, I look forward to the next challenge!
I've been on a scrapbook blog challenge roll this weekend people! Three posts in one weekend, pretty impressive, huh? You don't get many productive weekends like this, so you've got to brag about 'em when you can!
Looking at all the challenges out there has really motivated me. For this particular challenge - Color Me Scrappy's theme was "Baked Hues." The winner receives a $20 gift card to The Beary Scrap! I had never heard of them, but now that I've checked out the site, they are getting bookmarked! Some great sale prices.
I really appreciate the deep tones of this color palette and my thoughts went immediately to some pics taken during a day at Longwood Gardens with some of my favorite folks. It was a September afternoon, the weather was crisp, the flowers were beautiful and we had a great time.
I used Crate Paper's "Acorn Avenue" collection as my paper motivation for this layout. I absolutely adore this collection that I picked up from The Paper Crown in Oklahoma City. I don't know about you, but when I go out of town, I always try to find a local scrapbook store (that, and a Diners Drive-Ins and Dives location). The Paper Crown is a great little scrapbook boutique, they carried tons of awesome stuff the chains don't have, and the owner was great. I did at least three laps of the store.
The rules of the challenge encouraged layers, so I used some corners that were attached with the WRMK Crop-A-Dile III, some bling, and some old school BasicGrey chipboard monograms letters. I've made a challenge to myself not to buy any more supplies until CKC Lancaster 2013, so it feel good having used these monograms that I've had for at least 4 years. I'm also so proud of myself for using Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist on them. I always buy it when I see it used in other projects, but am never thrilled with how it comes out on my layouts (don't you hate that?). In this case, worked pretty well. I also attached "one fine" with Making Memories metal alpha eyelets onto the letters for more layering.
Not being a big fan of the one pic per pay styles, I had to make this into a two-page spread. On the corresponding page I did a simple grid layout (always a great "go-to") and layered some of the elements and photos on this page as well.
I'm really getting into this challenge thing! Wish me luck!
Since I couldn't enter my last creation as a challenge, I worked all weekend on creating a project that would work with the challenge I came across on Challenge Me Happy - A Scrapbooking Challenge Site That Will Inspire You!... and it worked, I was inspired.
This is my first time posting to their blog, but after perusing their previous postings, I quickly signed up. I liked the fact that you post using a theme, and not necessarily a brand. So when I saw typography, I knew this would work! If you're like me, you have a lot of letters... of different sizes, colors and mediums. You purchase multiple Cricut and/or Slice cartridges of various fonts, you've got letter brads, you've got Thickers, you had the old-school Sizzix font dies. A great title can make the page or a cover - and I love using titles, quotes and captions to kick off the theme of the project.
I used three different types of letters:
- Making Memories metal letter charms
- American Crafts Dear Lizzy chipboard letters
- Echo Park This & That alpha letters
The album is a long one, around 10 inches, and about 4 inches tall. All of the pages are tag shaped. I used Echo Park's "This & That" collection for the entire album, along with flowers, bling, ribbons, buttons, brads, eyelets, chipboard, etc. from various manufacturers. All of my pages and edges were inked and I pull ribbon through most of the tags. "MOST" is put on a scrap piece and raised with some foam squares. I enjoyed stuffing this baby full of fun stuff.
I went to pinterest for some inspiration on my cover quote, and after wasting 25 minutes also staring at food, closets, cats and martinis, settled on "What Matters Most."
This album will be great for just about any photos - family, heritage, love, holidays... decisions, decisions.
Challenge #1 - check!
So, I have to be honest. The following project was created as an entry in a challenge for the create blog challenge: make something using Teresa Collins products. I THOUGHT I had the perfect thing in mind - a mini album I had started but still needed finishing touches. I set about completing it. Pretty excited about it too. The rules for the challenge indicated I was to either video or take pics of the process... well, I kind of slacked on that (I forgot to stop in between and snap photos!... I was on a roll people!)... Anyway, that however, is not why I could not, repeat not, enter said challenge - the paper I was using was not Teresa Collins, but Heidi Swapp. Oh snap! So yeah, no, not entering that challenge. I did a quick google search to see if there were any Heidi Swapp challenges out there - cause I'm ready! And since I created this blog because my so-called scrapping buddy, La-Vie, refused to post any more of my challenge entries on her blog, I had to go ahead and post the damn thing. Let me know if you are aware of a Heidi Swapp challenge going on!
I used Heidi Swapp's "Sugar Chic" collection which I adore because it is modern fancy, fun, and fabulous with animal prints, flowers, and chevron stripes. My album is mixed media: chipboard, acrylic, and some felt I bought at CKC Lancaster 2012 for like, $1 - bargain, hello! I then used a various assortment of doo-dads, ribbon and other accoutrements. Sorry, my pics aren't the best, but I think my white t-shirt was a good substitute for a light box... well, maybe not. One thing I'm not happy with is the rings. I think I need bigger rings, and I was doing that multi-ring with misc. page size thing, which in theory, is awesome, but if you can't measure real great, can be a bit problematic. It is okay though, I'm going to try to some larger rings and make it work. Think of any mistakes as personalizing! I mean, if it looks like it is perfect, why not just buy one of those generic pre-made albums?
I love the random sizes and random media of the pages. I also kind of love the fact that it is a bit too much, but not too much - if I do say so myself. I tried to remember to ink all my edges, and to leave some space for pictures and journalizing (yes, this is scrapbook lingo)! I love the over done pages I see all over the web, but I need some blank space to actually put some pictures down people! And I'm not a big fan of the whole one pic per page thing, I mean, I've done it, I do it, but not a lot. There are too many pictures out there for that mess, not to mention sometimes the page is so awesome it takes away from the picture.
Enjoy and thanks for checking it out!
