Blueberry Blues at HMITM

Anna-Karin posed an interesting and fun challenge at How Much Is Too Much this week. We had to use:

1 photo
7 blue things (can be anything, as long as it is blue)
4 circles
5 pieces of chipboard or grungeboard

I went a little crazy with the blue and decided to go monochromatic. I always love how monochromatic layouts look and usually forget to do them.

I don't know why that chipboard telephone photographed so dark. I used the same blue embossing powder that I used with the doily stamp. The chipboard piece is by Dusty Attic. I was lucky to snag a few pieces, but they're really hard to find in the U.S. If you know of a source that sells them here, please let me know!

Studio Calico always tucks little cards with advertisments into their kits, and they have the most interesting images. I cut out the butterfly from one of those cards and added it to my page with pop dots.

They also seal the kit bags with fun labels, and I always save them, hoping to use them on a layout. I used one of their older labels to hold my journaling. When I printed it out, I noticed the ink wasn't drying, no matter how long I was waiting, so I decided to add embossing powder and heat it up, and it was the perfect solution. Nice, raised, shiny letters.

I'm a little late posting this, but you still have today to play in the challenge. Go take a peek at what the rest of the team did with this fun challenge. Don't forget--we have a RAK of a 2Peas gift certificate to a monthl winner!

Making the Grade {HMITM #142}

And my grade is an F.

So, Cindy posed a fun challenge for us at How Much Is Too Much? this week. Create a layout using the following:
A. Use your favorite "School" themed papers.
B. Incorporate a real pencil on your page as an embellishment (can also be a coloring pencil, etc)
C. 1-3 photos that is school related (college, pics w/ Teachers, graduation, college football, etc.)
D. Use something you would find on a school supply list (paper clips, staples, post-it notes, rulers, etc.).
E. Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic: Include journaling & numbers on your page. I'm looking forward to seeing what all of you create!

I had an idea in my head and set off to find some good school pictures. After all, I've been teaching for twenty years, so I was sure to find a couple of decent pictures out of the batch. Well, I searched high and low for my favorite school pictures, and the only three I could find are hideous. So that's where I decided to focus my journaling. I used the Office Party kit by Noel Mignon for this page, plus a couple of things from my stash.

I just bought this Jillibean Report Card paper, which was perfect for my hidden journaling, which reads:

20 years of school photos.

20 years of cringing when I open the envelope and see those photos.

20 years of students that see this image of a fat me in their yearbooks.
I no longer want to cringe when I open those envelopes.
I no longer want to be memorialized as the fat teacher in the yearbooks.
I'm hoping this year I will smile with pride when I open my envelope!
Goodbye to those 20 years.

(Side note: I've lost 57 pounds in the last year and a half.)

Trying to figure out how to adhere a pencil was tricky, so I decided to tie it onto my page with baker's twine. I was looking for some phrase stickers to jazz up my page, and came across this one, which I thought was hilarious and so perfect for this page!

I just bought this cool stuff called Enamel Accents by Ranger that's sort of like puffy paint, but it makes  cool, shiny raised dots. The polka dot trim is Pink Paislee artisan tape that I ruffled.

How fun are those canvas flowers by Jillibean Soup? The numbers surrounding the button are rub-ons by BasicGrey.

 Here's another close-up, with some more rub-ons by BasicGrey. Love the patterned cardstock that Core'dinations is making these days. I sanded it to make the pattern come out.

Come take a look at what the HMITM team made, and I hope you'll play along. Awesome RAK to be had for the monthly winner--a 2Peas gift certificate.

Color Combos Galore + Pencil Lines = Fabulous Fun!

Pencil Lines is celebrating their 200th anniversary, and they've invited Color Combos Galore to the party! Two hundred sketches--what an amazing accomplishment! Congratulations, Pencil Lines! We have partnered up with Pencil Lines for the rest of the month to celebrate their impressive milestone, with Color Combos Galore contributing the palette and Pencil Lines providing the sketch--a match made in scrappy heaven! Here's what's we got to work with this week:

And here is the page I made. I really dug through my stash to get just the right colors and found some oldies but goodies--Wild Asparagus, Ki Memories, and K&Co--and mixed them with newer papers--Webster's Pages. The frame in the background is actually a 6 x 6 paper from Webster's Pages. I trimmed out the center, cut it in half, and expanded it by placing the cut part behind the strip in the the middle.

Here I used a variety of flowers, from Petaloo, Prima, and Recollections. 

The occasion of my special birthday dinner was the perfect opportunity to use this chandelier cut from a Webster's Pages paper. I used Stickles on the candlesticks and added some pretty blue pearls to fancy it up. I used my favorite border punch--Iron Gate by Martha Stewart. 

I've become addicted to embossing powder, and the powder blue Zing was the perfect color for the leaves in my flower clusters. That stamp is by Autumn Leaves. It has a bunch of branches with leaves, and I cut it apart. 

I added a Hambly rub-on to a transparency to hold my title. Those letters are velvet and are made by Prima. The brads, which I have been hoarding are by Creating Keepsakes. I don't think they sell them anymore. I got them at Jo-Anns a few years ago. I think they're so pretty--especially the metal part holding the gem. 

Head over to Pencil Lines to see what the Pencil Lines and Color Combos Galore teams did with this sketch and color combo. I'm always fascinated by how each person interprets the same sources of inspiration in so many different ways. And I hope you'll join us for the fun and make a page, too! Be sure to share your creation at Pencil Lines and on this thread at Color Combos Galore.

Time Crunch

I've had a busy week--a fun one, but busy, and I had to make two layouts but didn't have the time to do both, so I decided to combine the challenges, and they worked together perfectly! For Color Combos Galore, we had another fabulous palette to work with, and the Designer's Challenge was to use a grid design:

And for Creative Prompts for You, this was our prompt...

And here is my page that resulted from these two challenges. I used the Studio Calico kit called Continental to make my page, plus a few other odds and ends. This page is for my book called "Reasons," where I list all the random little reasons I love Farzad so much. I chose some unscrapworthy photos from a couple of trips to use for this page because I knew I'd be cropping them pretty small.

I was originally planning to place the blocks on a black background, so I sanded all the edges. Then, I decided the photographs were too dark against the black, so I changed to a white background and inked the edges of the blocks.

I love that little airplane on the Studio Calico paper and decided to have it carry part of the title, like those airplanes you see at the beach trailing signs.

I got these pebble brads really cheap at Target, and it was perfect for the O in my title. I think they're made by Colorbok. I love, love, love the BasicGrey microchip letters, and whenever I see them, I buy them. They're the perfect size for my 8 x 8 pages. I wish they'd make them in more colors. These have a cool stained look to them.

And my favorite stamp company, Catslife Press, who made the "Reason No." stamps at my request.

I hope you'll come and see what the rest of the teams did at Color Combos Galore and Creative Prompts for You and play along!

How Much Is Too Much? Challenge #141

We have a new challenge at How Much Is Too Much. It's a fun and easy one:

Use 3 different colors of letters
Use 5 patterned papers

I had fun with the 3 different colors of letters part because I tend to use just one color when I make titles. The patterned paper part was fun because I just love paper!!!

I made this page for my album called "Reasons," which is a book of all the little random reasons I love my husband. I love the way monochromatic pages look, and I always forget to do them.

I've been on a mission again to get some older stuff onto my pages. I used these chipboard buttons from Rebecca Sower's Attic Collection. I have a whole drawer full of that stuff because when it came out I just HAD to have it all! And there it sits. I also used some ancient Mustard Moon paper and some vintage 7 Gypsies paper--the dictionary print is a classic that will never go out of style, in my humble opinion. Wish I had more of that.

And I used on of my "Reasons" stamps from one of my favorite stamp companies, Catslife Press. They actually made the Reasons stamps at my request, and you can now find them in their store. The "Random Memories" stamps were also my idea. I just love that they take customer suggestions!

I just love the ornate frames that are showing up on patterned papers. These are by Teresa Collins. I trimed out the centers and mounted some of them on pop dots.

Thank you for stopping by and looking at my layout! I hope you'll come play along with us at HMITM. We now have a "How Awesome Is Too Awesome" gallery on our blog featuring our favorite layouts of the week, and we are also having an awesome RAK--a gift certificate to Two Peas!

I Am a Creative Scrapper Today!

I Love Creative Scrappers! The sketches at Creative Scrappers seriously rock, so I was very excited when Kristine asked me to be the guest designer for this week's sketch, designed by Nicole Nowosad. And what a cool sketch it is--very different from the way I usually build my pages:

I loved all those circles floating around the page, and I immediately thought of the Webster's Pages ballon paper. And then I went looking for a photo, and when I saw this one of my nephew and me with him looking so tall (or maybe I'm shrinking), I had the perfect theme for my page. 

I was thrilled to find that large clock in my stash to hold my title. I added some dots to give it more texture with puffy paint.

I love combining old and new stuff. I've had these 7 Gypsies papers in my stash FOREVER. I thought they look pretty updated with the Webster's Pages balloons. I added some gold puffy paint around the frames to give them a little dimension.

I love these rhinestone brads by CK that I bought at Jo-Ann's years ago--I love the outer edge of them. The trim tucked under the striped paper is actually the backing from some K&Co. paper lace.

The design team at Creative Scrappers is awesome, so you should definitely go check out what they made with this fabulous sketch!

How Much Is Too Much? - Flower Power

Our challenge this week at How Much Is Too Much is called Flower Power, and because it was is the week of 8/02/10 we had to use 8 different flowers, 2 ribbons for the month, and 10 buttons or brads for the year.

I love this photo of my mom and my sister's mother-in-law. My nephews are so lucky to have these two wonderful ladies for their grandmas.

Am I the only one with a serious problem of hoarding kits? I've been on a mission since the beginning of the year to try to use up some of my old kits, so I dug out an old Studio Calico kit to make this page and added some flowers and brads from my stash.

It's hard to tell from the photograph of my layout, but the stamped leaves are embossed with a cool metallic green.

There's still time to play before the next challenge gets posted on Monday. Go over and take a peek what the rest of the team made, and I hope you'll play with us!

Double the Fun at Color Combos Galore!

Challenge 154 is live at Color Combos Galore, and what a gorgeous palette we have this week:

I was so inspired by these colors I made two layouts this week! 

And I never expected to find this fun suprise when I logged into Two Peas today! (They changed the featured layout already, but I have proof that mine was up there, lol! I'm glad I logged in when I did, or I would've missed the fun!)

Come see what the rest of the team did at CCG, and I hope you'll find time to play. It's such a fun challenge, plus there's a chance to win a prize!

More Work in Progress Layouts

Here are my other two layouts from the August Work in Progress kit. This month's kit has a travel spin to it, but I thought it was so versatile and lent itself to scrapping a great variety of topics. I loved the giant "Enjoy Life" die cut that Trish included in the kit, but it was too big for my 8 x 8 pages, so I cut it into two words. Now I have the other part for another layout!

I made this layout to document some things that are making me happy this summer.

I had this picture of me that had only partly printed out and it showed just the top part of my face. I'm not sure why I saved it--I guess it was waiting for me to make this layout!

As I was building this page, i originally didn't have the ruffled strip and that bottom strip, but it was looking kind of plain so I added those bits of patterned paper. Once I had added those, I thought the page looked sort of like a window, with the ledger paper resembling blinds and the ruffle at the top seeming like a valance, so I added a piece of twine to look like the cord that pulls the blinds.

And here's a travel-themed page I made with the kit. I really wanted to use that map paper, but I didn't want to cover it up too much, so I decided to go with hidden journaling and a silhouetted picture of me.

Hidden journaling reads: Sure, I have a very long list of exotic, faraway destinations I'd love to visit some day, but what I really want to see is the U.S.A. I dream of going to Hawaii and Alaska. I want to visit the north- west coast. I long to see natural wonders like Sedona, Yosemite, and Yellowstone Parks and the Everglades of Florida. But I'd also like to stroll through the city streets of Savannah, New Orleans, Seattle, and San Antonio. And I'd love to revisit favorite places I've already been, like the Pacific Coast Highway, Boston, Charleston, San Francisco, Maine, San Diego, New York, Chicago, and Tennessee. How fun it would be to rent an RV someday and drive across the United States with Farzad, visiting the most interesting spots in each and every state. Or I'd like to stay in Bed and Breakfasts and visit quaint little tucked away towns. And once I've seen all the well- known spots, I'd buy those "Weird" travel guides and see all those states with brand-new eyes. Yes, I'd love to travel abroad, but I'd much prefer to see all the beauty of my own country first.

These corrugated letters are so fun. I inked them lightly with brown ink. The little "Pack Your Bags" is from the tear strip on the patterned paper.

Love the Little Yellow Bicycle ticket book that came with the add-on. It has a whole variety of tickets with neat glossy, raised images.

How cool is that wood-grained fabric strip? Love that Trish includes these unique finds in her kits!

I loved working with this kit, and I still have TONS of stuff leftover that I'm looking forward to playing with!

Work in Progress - August Kit

I made four more layouts with the Work in Progress August kit in addition to the one I posted last time. The kit is still avilable for purchase here. I love that Trish puts together kits that coordinate so well but also have varied elements that allow me to do really different kinds of pages, too. I'll share a couple more pages today.

Here is the first page I made. I usually write stories on my pages, but this one is for my album of favorite photos, and for those often don't have stories--the photo speaks for itself.

I thought the Little Yellow Bicycle sand dollar paper was perfect for this picture. I love that it's printed on kraft paper, and it goes so well with red.

Really cool mix of letters in the kit and add-ons this month! The red Pink Paislee letters have the perfect weathered feel for a beach layout, and the kraft corrugated Making Memories letters add wonderful texture. I wanted a lot of texture on my page, so I used some textured and handmade papers. I dug out a seahorse charm from my stash and tied it onto one of the letters with some twine. I cut one of the sand dollars from the paper to use as an O and adhered it with pop dots.

I love, love, love the My Mind's Eye tickets, and five came in the kit so I still have plenty more to play with. I added the date with numbers that came in the Pink Paislee letters from the kit.

Echo Park has burst right onto the scrappy scene, and lucky for me, Trish grabbed them right away! Love how colorful and whimsical their prints and stickers and journaling cards are, and they were perfect for this layout about a quirky childhood memory.

Don't you just love those little duck stickers? So adorable. I mounted a little parade of them on pop dots.

I'll share my last two layouts I made with this awesome kit tomorrow. Have a terrific Tuesday!