Happy Anniversary, Baby (Got you on my mind....)

Now, I'm going to have that song stuck in my head all day!

Today's Farzad's and my 29th anniversary. Yes, that officially makes me an old lady.

So, when I first started scrapbooking, the first album I did was my wedding album. I know--huge mistake. Think deco scissors and shaped templates and sticker sneezes. I've wanted to re-do those pages forEVER, and I finally got the push to start.

Our prompt this at Creative Prompts for You (picked out by me) was this image:

And here's the layout I made (details about how I was inspired follow below the layout). After I had stitched everything down, I realized that I wished I had added one more sentence to my journaling: Dreams do come true.

The topic of the inspiration photo drove me to scrap one of my wedding photos. The flowers on my layout were obviously drawn from the decorations on the cake. The stacked layers of the cakes inspired the arrangement of my photo and journaling block, and the design in the upper left photo inspired my choice of background paper. The topper on the lower middle photo made me think of adding something to the top of my photo and journaling spot, so I added the punches. The pedestals holding some of the cakes inspired me to use the lamp post, as I thought it had a similar shape. The pewter-looking ribbon draping the cake on the lower right drew my eye, and I decided to add that color to accent my page--I found a metallic paper in my stash and used that for the outline of the shaped paper and the punched borders above my photo and journaling block. I added pewter embossing powder to the chipboard lamp post, the edges of my label and chipboard letters and around the border of my page. Finally, the dots on the lower middle cake made me think of adding pearls around my photo.


Here are a couple of close-up photos:
 

 
Thank you for looking at my page. I hope you'll come peek at what the rest of the CP4U team did with this prompt and play along!

Such Lovely Colors!

I say it every time, but gosh, what a lovely palette Janet put together for Color Combos Galore this week. And I want that skirt! If anyone knows where I can buy it, please let me know!

I love the Designer's Challenge, too. I love how sweet pleats look on a page. Such a simple technique, but it adds such texture and pretty-ness! I used crepe paper for my pleats. My flower covers up part of the journaling on my photo. It says, "Sleep with the angels" is what Mom used to say when she tucked us in at night.

Inspired by Creative Scrappers Sketch #111

Here are a couple of close-ups. I searched through my stash for something with angels and came up with this REALLY old paper (I'm talking old as in back when all you could find was 8.5 x 11 papers). I cut the angel image out and tried to make it like a tile. I adhered it to chipboard and added some glitter. I get a little thrill when I use really old stuff!

The angel wings and this crown are Melissa Fances rub-ons. I added them to transparencies, along with some gems. I also added some glitter around the chipboard frame. The polka dotted paper is sparkly.

My team made some beautiful layouts this week! I hope you'll come take a peek at what they did and play along with us!

Leaping Lizard! {How Much Is Too Much #138}

So, my sweet little beardie Stumpy just died a couple of weeks ago, and I bought another little guy last week. He's so tiny and adorable but SO skittish, and that got me remembering this old childhood memory about a lizard I once had. I scrapped about it for this week's challenge at How Much Is Too Much? Amanda made a challenge based on the word "Summer," and we had to use:

S - stamps (dig out those stamps that you never use!)
U - at least one photo of U! (ok, so I took a little liberty with this letter haha)
M - metal (brads, staples...use any kind of metal)
M - markers (yup...do some doodles or marker work)
E - embellishments (use lots and lots!)
R - ribbon (use at least 3 different ribbons)

This was a really fun challenge. Got me to dig out some stuff I haven't used in a while. Just about everything on this page is really old. Somehow I didn't get the "different" part of the 3 different ribbons until after I was nearly done with my page and was checking back at the challenge. I did use 3 pieces of ribbon, though. And I'm terrified of doodling (afraid I'll irreversibly mess things up), so I used my marker to outline the letter stamps and the deco-scissored edge of my circle. 

(A note: I was stuck where to start, and as I often do when I'm stuck, I pulled out my swatches from Color Combos Galore and chose an older color combo--#64.)

To read the sad tale of the leaping lizard, click on my layout for a larger view.

I love the Night Light papers by October Afternoon, especially the little monsters on the Louie print, and I love it when there's a perfect opportunity to use them! Ribbon always stumps me on these challenges, and at the last minute, I thought of adding a ribbon to the little lizard. With the ribbon, he sort of looks ready for take-off, doesn't he?

Word stickers are one of my favorite ways to embellish my pages, and I love finding just the perfect ones for my pages. I found three to go with this page: departure, lost and found, and secrets.

I think I earn points for breaking out my Poetry Dog Tags that were all the rage about 7 years ago and using them for the metal part of the challenge--they don't photograph well, so in case you can't read them, they say split, free, and dead.

I used Studio Calico letter stamps and mounted some of the letters on pop dots for a "leaping" effect. I had my letters all picked out and discvovered that this sheet of letter stickers didn't have any A's. How weird is that? But I was all set to use those letters, so I decided to turn a V upside down.

Come take a look at what the rest of the team did with this challenge, and I hope you'll play along with us. There will be a really fun RAK this month!

I love 7gypsies

I've always been a fan of 7gypsies, and I just can't wait to see what they have in store for us with the upcoming new releases! If this video is a clue about what's coming, I'll be in scrappy heaven!

Totally Tropical (and Really Refreshing) Combo at CCG!

I woke up to an earthquake this morning! So freaky. We never get earthquakes. It was only 3.6 in magnitude, but that's the biggest in this area that the USGS has ever recorded here. Farzad said he felt it when he was in the shower--thought something fell on the roof. It woke me up.

On to scrappy business. Challenge #151 is live at Color Combos Galore! And what a fantastic, summery, happy combo it is!

I instantly thought "tropical" when I saw this page, and then I saw that bowl of nuts on the table and that decided which photo I'd use. I made this page for my book called "Reasons." It's an album of random little reasons I love Farzad so.  I love that he's not one of those stuck-in-the-mud "macho" men who's too inscecure to have fun. That's my equally secure brother-in-law with him. I dug out some really old stash to make this page:

 

Part of the CCG challenge is the "Designer's Challenge," where we gather inspiration from the photo on the inspiration board. Here's how I gathered inspiration for my page:

• the bowl of nuts = two nuts wearing coconut bras
• the pom-pom flowers = flowers on my layout
• the glasses = the glassy surface on the decorative brads
• the table on which everything sits = the orange strip at the bottom
• celebration = birthday party pic
• white wall in background = white background in layout

Come check out what the rest of the team did with this combo, and play along with us! It's really, really fun!

It's Christmas in July!

At least it is over at Creative Prompts for You! Our prompt this week was this photo:

The warm, cozy feel of the photo reminded me of the BasicGrey holiday papers, so I used those. What called to me most from the photo was the sparkly decorated Christmas tree, so I wanted to emphasize that on my layout. I decorated my little cut-out trees with pearls and gems and glitter. I used sparkly embossing powder on the journaling stamp to add further sparkle to my page. I also drew inspiration from the fireplace--the arched shape of the fireplace and the brass on the screen led me to use the chipboard piece that held my title and the gold-rimmed pearl brads. The light colored stone inspired the mostly white paper behind my photograph, and the many vertical lines inspired the vertical stripes I used as a background. Finally, the horizontal mantle with all the decorations on top inspired the top strip of dark paper with all the little trees.

Here's a close-up of the trees:

And a close-up showing the journaling spot (by Fontwerks) which I embossed with glittery, sparkly embossing powder. (See, this is why I hate using my own handwriting...)

It's amazing how many details can be inspired by a photograph. Come check out what the rest of the team made for this prompt, and play along for a chance to win a gift certificate to Let's Capture Our Memories.

Happy Feet {Party Time at HMITM}

Tomorrow's Kat's birthday, and we are having a party over at How Much Is Too Much! Using her birthdate, Kat challenges us to use 1 flower, 3 photos, 7 pieces of ribbon 8 words (including title), and 1 journal spot.

I decided to go wild and wacky and document my latest trip to the nail salon. I always get pink on my toes, but I decided to go a little crazy this time, and got turquoise with polka dots! Now, it's really weird that I'm scrapping this because for years (actually almost two decades) I hid my feet and never even wore sandals because I just hated my Flintstone feet. I've come to accept them--and it's SO much cooler in the summer.

I broke out some really old stash for this. I have a TON of these Doodlebug flowers that were all the rage but then quickly fell out of fashion, but I just had to one because of the polka dot!

This was a really tough challenge for me. The ribbon was very tricky. But I'm glad Kat challenged us to use it because I have WAY too much ribbon that I never use. And of course the part with 3 photos was tricky because I scrap 8 x 8 (yeah, I know I cheated by using one photo 3 times). But the hardest part for me was limiting myself to the 8 words.

Once I got to going all wild and crazy with this page, I remembered the 3-D K & Co. stickers, so I added the rainbow for some more color and sparkle, and then some butterflies and the groovy mushroom.

Here's a close-up of my toes. I used Picnik to add some cool photo effects to my picture (I used the "Orton-Ish" effect).

I hope you'll come party with us. You might even make it to our "How Awesome Is Too Awesome?" gallery or even win a RAK!

Webspiration! {Creative Prompts for You}

Our prompt this week at Creative Prompts for You came from an image captured from Maria Filo's website. I have no idea who Maria Filo is or what she's selling (her website appears to be in Portuguese), but it's a nifty little place to browse around. Here is the image we were working from:

I drew inspiration from several things in the image. First, the color scheme. And obviously the palm trees. I thought it was cute how the palm trees were made out of semi-circles. I used the idea of the layers of grass to layer my green border punches. The clouds and sun were also inspired by the website. And finally, that sheer rectangle of text inspired me to dig out some vellum that I've had in my stash for years.

Speaking of stash... I recently re-organized my paper (I had to get a new paper cart because I was running out of space), and I discovered that I had WAY too much Chatterbox and Scenic Route paper (as well as many other brands), so I made a list of some of the papers I had an overabundance of and plan to draw from those as much as I can in the forseeable future. This layout was made entirely from old *stuff*.

Go check out what the rest of the team made--it's always so fun to see all the different ways people draw inspiration from the same prompt. And don't forget to play--you might even have a chance at winning a gift certificate (see the CP4U blog for details)!

I've loved being a part of Creative Prompts for You. My term is ending at the end of the month--it went SO fast! I've reapplied for the design team, and I'm crossing my fingers that I'll make it because it's becoming one of my very favorite challenges!

A Positively Patriotic Palette {at Color Combos Galore}

We've got a little twist to the traditional red, white, and blue color scheme over at Color Combos Galore this week.

A perfect opportunity to scrap pictures from last weekend's 4th of July celebration! My sister had set the table with these bandannas to use as napkins. We, of course, had other ideas!

I love this challenge for so many reasons. First, it gets me really digging through my stash to find papers that have the perfect shade of the colors. I always rediscover things I forgot I owned. Most of what I included on this layout is ANCIENT!

I also love the new twist on our Designer's Challenge. I took the suggested challenge of combining the gingham with the floral paper, and I also used the basic composition of the photo to design my page, and I used vintage images.

I hope you'll come to CCG and check out what the rest of the team created and play along with us!

Scrap Yourself: Childhood Memories

Our challenge this week at Scrap Yourself is to scrap childhood memories, and this challenge is right up my alley because I love to scrap about my childhood. I'm so fortunate that my Gram was a shutterbug when we were little, and she has this big box of photos, so I've been able to scan them for my scrapbook pages.

This is one of my all-time favorite pictures of me as a kid. My mom made that I Dream of Jeannie costume. I lost the photo and searched for it for a year. I was giving up hope that I would ever find it when I suddenly did. And I almost threw it away. It was the pocket of a pocket folder, and as I was about to throw the folder away, something told me to check inside the pockets, and there was my photograph!

I love BasicGrey's Sultry collection, and I hoard it like mad, but this was the perfect opportuity to use it! I desaturated the colors in the the background of the photo because my gram's drapes were yellow, and I didn't want the picture to clash with the papers.

Go check out what the rest of the team did with this challenge--they might just spark some childhood memories for you!

Georgia..on Georgia's Mind {How Much Is Too Much?}

We've got some exciting changes at How Much Is Too Much? First, we've welcomed six talented and creative ladies to our team: Amanda Torres, Anna-Karin Evaldsson, Debbie Fitzgerald, Georgia Keays, Janet Miller, and Kathleen Glossop.

Next, we've got a new look. Kathleen used her colorful, whimsical style to design a new banner for our blog, and we've added a new background that just screams fun, which is what our challenge is all about!

Our next exciting change is that we're going back to weekly challenges instead of every other week!

Finally, we're adding a new feature, which we are calling How Awesome Is Too Awesome? aka The Weekly Wow! Each week, the team will vote on our favorite layout shared by the players, and it will be posted on our blog and will go into a special gallery we are starting--a hall of fame, of sorts.

So this week, Georgia posed a clever challenge inspired by her name--it seems Georgia is the 4th of the 50 U.S. states, so she asked us to create a layout using a 4-word title, 5 (or more) colors, and 0 flowers--that includes patterned paper. Go take a peek at all the clever ways my teammates interpreted this challenge.

I had a lot of fun with this challenge! I was pretty literal with the challenge, and I counted the neutral cream as one of my five colors. The hardest part for me was figuring out a title with exactly four words. I've been using a lot of flowers on my pages lately, so it was fun to try to figure out other ways to embellish my page. I had this old photo of my brother-in-law and nephew sitting on my desk, wanting to scrap my own childhood memories of playing airplane, and this was the perfect opportunity to use the fun airplane paper from a recent Studio Calico kit. I was getting ready to cut the letters from the Jenni Bowlin Bingo Alpha Tiles, when I noticed how cute the outline of the card was, so I used a paper trimmer to cut out the inside and used the outside as a frame on my layout.

I'm not sure if you can tell from the photo, but I added Glossy Accents to the airplane window to make it look like glass.

Studio Calico makes the coolest stamps! I used the stamp included in the kit to add a little sun behind the clouds. I recently used a fancy stitch on another layout, and I really liked how it added texture and interest to the border, so I used this stitch again.

Since I scrap 8 x 8, it's a challenge to fit pictures and decorations AND story on that little space, so I often have to resort to hidden journaling. I used some of the fun tear strips from Cosmo Cricket papers to point the way to my journaling hidden on the back, which reads:

When we were little, we used to pretend we were airplanes too. Mom or Gram would lie on their backs on the floor, and we'd climb aboard their legs, wrap our little arms around their shins, and get ready for lift off. They'd sway their legs and make us go up and down and they'd make airplane sounds and we'd giggle and giggle and beg them to keep us flying when we came in for a landing.

I hope you'll join us at HMITM. It's such a fun challenge for using up stash!

Yummy-licious! at Color Combos Galore

We have a brand new challenge over at Color Combos Galore, and it is another yummy one! The Inspiration Photo is one I found, and I named the colors, too! If you're a CCG player, we have a fun new twist to the Designer's Challenge. You can find the details here.

Here is the page I made with these beautiful colors. (I have a personal letter written to my sister on the back of my layout.)

The pink Lush collection by My Mind's Eye had the perfect pink papers to go with this palette. The key lime color was a little harder to find, and I had to rifle through my stash before I found the perfect green in an old Die Cuts With a View paper stack. I found the perfect strawberry red cardstock, but couldn't find the right red for the title letters, so I added some more shades of red to my page.

I usually use a straight stitch on my sewing machine when I'm sewing on my pages, but I thought I'd try something fancier this time. When I started stitching, I didn't realize I had the needle in the wrong position, so the stitches ran off the edge of the page, but I ended up liking the result.

For the Designer's Challenge, I incorporated the circle design, the flowers, and the ruffled edge, to mimic the cupcake liners. I fancied up the clock on the Webster's Pages paper by adding some rhinestones. I learned how to make the ruffled edges from this tutorial by Gabrielle Polacco. Here are some close-up images.

I also added Stickles to the little stamped stems. Those stamps are by BasicGrey. The green rose looks a little too vibrant in this picture--it's actually the EXACT color of the Key Lime in the Inpiration Board.

I found these butterflies at Butterfly Utopia. I stitched them onto the page so their wings could lift up, and added glitter to the wings. I found a pen with the perfect shade of green to color in the letters on the Fontwerks stamp.

If you're reading this, I hope you'll come over to CCG and play with us. It's so much fun!

So Vibrant! So Summery! So Fun!

That's what I said when I opened my July Work in Progress kit (unfortunately, it's sold out--gotta snag these awesome kits early!). I'm so excited to show the layouts I made for my first month designing for Work in Progress. The kit features the new Echo Park Sweet Summertime papers and elements, along with a bunch of other goodies, including some Jenni Bowlin stuff. This kit is perfect for summer pictures!

When I saw that giant balloon sticker, I knew that I had to use it and scoured my brain thinking of the perfect photos to use with it, and I remembered these pictures from a trip to Maine about ten years ago and thought the baloon would be a perfect accent. I mounted the balloon on pop dots and embellished it with brads and a Doodlebug frill. I added a swirly image I found online, made it blue, and cut it out. With three pictures and that great big baloon, I didn't have a whole lot of space for my story, so I kept it short and sweet and made it into a border. I matted everything in black to make each element visually pop out of the page.

For my next page, I knew I wanted to use the cool sandcastles that Trish included in the kit. And it was perfect because I had to do a beach inspired layout over at Creative Prompts for You. I wished I had some sand to cover the castle, but I didn't want to drive 20 miles to the craft store, so instead, I heat embossed it with some bronze-colored powder. I so wanted to use that awesome Jenni Bowlin die-cut sun paper, but, alas, it was too big for my 8 x 8 pages, so I cut it in half and cut out the sun and added machine and hand stitches. I just love the little pinwheels in the Echo Park paper! Trish also packed some cool corrugated paper into the kit. I sanded it to give it a bit of a weathered look.

I found this fun picture in my stash and thought that colorful outfit my Gram was wearing would go well with the colorful papers. That tree is gigantic and so fun. I embellished it with circles punched out of one of the Echo Park papers and stitched on some tiny buttons.

Here's the fourth layout I made. I knew when I opened the box that I wanted to use this cute picture of my Gram sitting under an umbrella picnic table on my sister's deck. There was this cool burlap in the kit, and  the frayed edges reminded me a little of that fringe on the umbrella. The fun banner came on the sheet of Echo Park stickers, as did the sun. I wanted to use that sun and some more of the cloud paper, but I wanted to save some of the clouds, so instead of using a big piece of it, I tucked a small bit behind the top layer and folded back the edge and had the sun peeking out. That pretty yellow butterfly is from the kit, too--Jenni Bowlin butterfly banner (the yellow letter stickers are also in that set). The pinwheel patterned paper made me think of making a pinwheel accent, which looks fun with the double-sided paper.

For my last page, I wanted to show that you could get a whole different look than the vibrant summery ones I made. The green and yellow papers are both Echo Park, and I used some of the Jenni Bowlin paper (the red with the suns). I made the flowers with these cool fabric strips that Trish included in the kit. The brown background is Core'dinations paper, sanded, which I had bought from Work in Progress a while back.

This page was published in Scrapbook Trends.

I still have a TON of stuff leftover from this awesome kit, and I'm saving it for summery pictures I will take over the next two months!