Saturday, March 29, 2014

Doing My Own Challenge


Not doing any challenges today, except my own that is.  A co-worker, Terry, asked me to do a scrapbook for her of pictures from her son's wedding.  We're swapping craft skills - she is working on sewing some cushions for me.  Nothing like a good barter.

There aren't many pictures and they are all 4x6.  Terry had already purchased some scrap booking items from Michael's including the album and some green paper.  She also had some memorabilia from the wedding (invitation, seating cards, etc.) that I can incorporate into the album.

The challenge for me?  Terry leans towards simple, I love to bling it up!  The other issue is that since they're aren't a lot of photos, I would have to try to "stretch" out the album, so to speak, and use only one or two pics on most of the layouts, I'm not a big fan of that.

But I think I'm making it happen!  My first layout is a bit more my style, but I figured I could get it away with it since it is the opening layout and there is a page for the bridge and the groom.   I went simple on the next layout, I still feel like it is missing something, but I want her to make is personal so I will leave titles and journaling up to her which will help fill in some of the spots.




Two two-page layouts down, a few more to go.  Now I'm going to go work on a super loaded mini album to keep my creativity flowing!





Sunday, March 9, 2014

Alpha Wars

I've got tons of letters, tons.  Even though I tell myself I don't need more letters or numbers, I still find myself buying them, especially if there is a good sale or clearance going on.  As many letters as I have, I often find when it comes time to do a project that I still don't have just the right type (not true, because I always find something that works - but it continues to drive my letter obsession), so I was ready to jump on the challenge from Lasting Memories, the challenge from the Challenge Hostess, Claire, is to use at least two types (pun intended) on the layout.  Besides the fact that this challenge site is about layouts only - no cards (yay!), this site is also awesome because you have all month long to enter all of the weekly challenges - no pressure is awesome.  I really "need" that prize pack Claire!


Easy.  I use this technique often so it was a no-brainer.   The subject of this page was the first snow of the season. I started with a BasicGrey doily in as the background, the flourishes reminded me of snow.  I then used a few sheets from Crate Paper's Random collection, another one of my favorite collections.  I know I say that every blog post, clearly there is a paper obsession as well as a letter obsession - but seriously, I do love the Random collection.

The word "SNOW" was created using some seriously glittery chipboard letters from K & Co.  There is glitter every where now but I'm cool with that.  See how I used a chipboard snowflake for the "o" - cute right?  "Days" was created using some vinyl Thickers.  Throw some "ice" around the page and we're done.  Yeah, it is simple, but sometimes simple is good.



Early Spring with Lasting Memories

Another 2-page layout done thanks to the Lasting Memories scrapbook challenge blog - all layouts all the time!  



The theme - Early Spring.  The challenge: use a flower.  My theme isn't exactly springy - the colors may be, but the pics are from the holidays.  Since I don't do traditional green and red for my holiday decor these colors worked great.


This is a layout using Basic Grey's Sweet Threads (I think, maybe it is the Hello Luscious collection - I love both lines).  It was part of a class I took from Shelby of Embellish It! at a CKC convention a few years ago (finally finished it!).  She always does two-pagers, and like me she is a firm believer in the more than one pic per page philosophy.  I always enjoy Shelby's classes, if CKC comes to your area, do yourself a favor and take one of her classes.  She is positive and funny.  

The flowers I used are canvas fabric from the same BasicGrey line, I frayed the edges by just pulling on them a bit with my fingers nails, and then inked them.  I layered them with some paper flowers and buttons.  The layout is finished off with some bling; some blue felt Making Memories letters and green Thickers numbers make the title.