Some Work in Progress Peeks

The October Work in Progress kit and add-ons are up for sale, and Trish has put together some awesome stuff, as always! Some new BasicGrey Wander, Crate Paper School Spirit, some Jenni Bowlin, a little Teresa Collins, and so much more! Perfect for autumn photos, but also for all kinds of topics.  I think this is my favorite kit yet!and the gallery will go live at the end of the week.  Here's a little peek at what I've made:

I'll be back later in the week when the gallery has been revealed...

Purple Lovers of the World, Unite! {Color Combos Galore 160}

Okay, that's an inside joke. Janet--along with most of the design team--hates purple. But purple's what's on the menu this week at Color Combos Galore! And not just one purple, but three! Which is amazing, when you think of it, because our inspiration photo had plenty of other colors to play with. But I love purple, so I'm a happy scrapper. Here's this week's inspiration board:

 

As soon as I saw the palette, I knew just what photo I'd be scrapping. I'd had this picture printed out since last winter, waiting for a combo that had purple. Here's the page I made:

I knew I wouldn't have space on my layout to tell the whole story, so I put just a peek of my journaling at the top.

The journaling on the back of the page reads: It happened like this. Michele had to run out for a bit to somewhere for some reason I now don't recall and asked me to watch Monica. I think she was about five at the time. She was always an independent little thing. I was in the den watching TV and Monica was in her room playing. Or so I thought. Every once in a while I'd call out, "Monica, what are you doing?" and she'd reply that she was playing. This went on for the duration Michele was out.

Well, when Michele came home, Monica came running out to show off what she had done. And what she had done was chop off a bunch of her hair. Her bangs were gone and there were big chunks of hair cut out that left virtual bald patches. My reaction? I was mortified. And embarrassed. And filled with shame that let my best friend down. Michele's reaction? She cracked up. And told me it was okay. Because that's just the kind of person my best friend is.

I always try to get my colors as close to the CCG palette as I can, and sometimes that's a tricky feat. BasicGrey always comes through when I'm looking for just the right colors for my letters. I have a ton of these letters in my stash--a sheet for every collection ever made. Another old standby I've discovered that helps me with the colors Janet picks is the old Chatterbox room collection papers. I think I have every one of those papers, too! They're double-sided, and the back has a sold color with a nice linen texture, and the colors always save me with these combos. I also dug out some old BasicGrey chipboard to hold my title. And don't you love paper doilies? They're such a pretty way to show off a title.

I was wondering how to embellish this page. I knew I wanted the purples to be the main colors and that I would accent with the dark blue. Only problem was, I didn't have a lot of dark blue stuff in my embellishment collection. That's when I found these butterflies on a GCD Artsy Urban paper and knew they'd be the perfect addition. I lifted their wings with pop dots.
 

 
Part of the CCG challenge is the Designer's Challenge, and this week was a fun one--to use dangly or suspended items on our layout. Right away, I remembered this silver scissor charm, which I knew would be perfect for the challenge. I fiddled around for hours trying to figure out where I was going to hang this charm. I finally gave up and attached it to my page with a ribbon, using it in place of the letter i in my title.
 

As a final touch to my layout, I framed my photo with dots using Ranger Enamel Accents, which I recently bought on a whim at The Queen's Ink, a stamping store about an hour from me. This stuff is really cool! Sort of like puffy paint, but it dries to a glossy finish and really does look like enamel.

 
This was a tricky combo, trying to find just the right purples and blue, but a really fun one, and, like I said, I LOVE purple! Come take a look at what the rest of the team (aka the purple haters) made, and I hope you'll play along!

Blush!!! {How Much Is Too Much #152}

We have a new challenge up at How Much Is Too Much, and what a fun and creative challenge posed by Debbie Fitz. She calls her challenge "America's Top 40," and it's a take-off of Casey Kasem's old countdown. Here's the challenge:

Use music note type patterned paper somewhere on your page. Use a song title or lyrics in your title or journaling. Use a number or numbers somewhere on your page. And for the kicker - embellish your page with at least 40 items (you can include your titlework into this count).

I struggled all week trying to think of what I was going to make for this challenge.

Then, I had my birthday celebration, and it came to me:

My best friend had a party for me on Saturday, and she somehow talked her son-in-law into stripping down into his boxers and coming out on the deck to dance for us. Oh. My. Goodness! I was so surprised because he came out of nowhere and the next thing I knew, his bony butt was shaking right in front of me. I never laughed so hard in all my life. If you are one of my facebook friends, you must go to my page and check out the video because these pictures do not do it justice. In fact, I couldn't for the life of me get a decent picture. One, because I was laughing so hard. And two, because he kept skipping and prancing around. I managed to get one halfway decent photo. The photo that has me in it was from a screen shot of the video when I paused it.

I was on my way to another birthday celebration on Sunday when I made this page, so I only had a couple of hours to throw it together. Not my best work, but definitely one of the best birthday memories, I must say!

Come over to the HMITM blog to see what the rest of the team did with this fun challenge, and I hope you'll play along!

We Must Never Forget

Just sitting here remembering that tragic day nine years ago. I made this layout a few years ago.

My thoughts are with everyone who lost family and friends that day.

Back to School with Color Combos Galore

Challenge 159 is live at Color Combos Galore. Our inspiration images for September all center around school. Here's our current Color Combo:

I just recently made a layout with some school portraits, so I wanted to use something different. This picture was taken on Halloween at school last year. I swear that "Goodbye Blue" looks black to me. I guess I goofed on this one!

I used the Joyland kit by Studio Calico for this page, plus some stuff from my stash. I added a stamped transparency to the frame to make it look like windows, as inspired by the school bus windows.

The BasicGrey chipboard bees were a natural accent for this page, since my teammate was dressed as a bumblebee.

I printed my journaling and that ribbon shape on my printer using the RGB codes on the palette, but I didn't like the way it looked, so I scuffed it up a bit with sandpaper. The chipboard letters were off-white, and I wanted them to be yellow, so I stamped with distress ink and added clear embossing powder.

The black circular element is a label that seals the Studio Calico bags. I always save them because they're so pretty. I was happy to finally use one. And I always save the fun advertising cards and the "packed by" cards that come in the kit. I used one on this page (the little vintage boy image).

I hope you'll play along and come see what the rest of the team did with this combo (they all realized it was blue, LOL).

Some More Work In Progress layouts

I loved the variety of stuff in the September Work in Progress kit! Trish has such a knack for combining extremely varied elements that complement each other. I didn't plan it this way, but after I was done with my September pages, I discovered almost all of them were about childhood memories.

Here's my first page. I've had this photograph printed out, waiting to be scrapped forever, but couldn't decide just how I wanted to scrap it--there are so many stories in that picture. As I was leafing through my pictures, I thought the colors in this photo would work well with the papers in the kit. I stared and stared at the photo, trying to think of a story to tell. And I kept coming back to Mom's face and posture. And the story came. I just love the Kaiser Craft chipboard accents and envelopes that came with the kit.

This next page is a makeover of an older page I made. Every once in a while, I like to re-do older pages. I know that sounds weird, but really, sometimes I just HATE my older pages.

I always love the unique little extras that Trish packs into her kits. I never would think of buying burlap, so I loved receiving that in the kit. That cute little felt bicycle just begged to be used, and I decided to perch a little bird cut out of the Cosmo Cricket paper. His bowtie is from the kitestring paper. The twine holding the sign is actually a bit of the burlap that frayed off. The buttons are from the Kaiser Craft chipboard elements in the kit.

I made my next page for Color Combos Galore. Here is the palette I was working with:

We were asked to work with this sketch, from Scrapbooks Etc.:

And here's what I came up with. I've also had this picture on my desk for a long time. The colors are so weird, but I think this palette was perfect for it.

Here's another page featuring a random childhood memory.

I had a long title and a lot of journaling and a lot of other elements on here, so I decided to use the tiny letter stickers, but they were sort of getting lost on my layout, so I decided to hang them on a banner.

That little bunny on the chipboard piece looked so sad and perfect for the story on my page, so I decided to use him for the "random memory No." that I always like to put on my pages. I printed out the Random Memory No. 173 on my inkjet printer, but the ink wasn't drying, so I went over the letters with a pen.

I love how Cosmo Cricket always has interesting things printed on their barcode strips, and the "Making Plans" title of the paper was perfect for my story.

This really is a wonderful kit, packed with cool papers and elements, and I think there are a still few left!

Tag Sale {CCG & HMITM}

Our challenges are live at Color Combos Galore and How Much Is Too Much.

Here's the beautiful color palette Janet came up with:

And we had a guest challenger, Jane Howden, at How Much Is Too Much. She posed the following creative challenge:

My challenge is all about shapes - circles, squares, hearts, etc. These can be punched, chipboard, stickers, whatever you have. Choose your shape and use it at least 10 times on your layout. I’d then like to see you use the name of your shape in your title - for example “You are in my heart” or “Singing star”.

With a busy back-to-school week, I needed to combine the challenges and came up with this layout:

I really started with the colors and thought these photos would work with the palette. Then it came to me that I could use the tag as my shape for HMITM. I have a ton of office store tags that I bought when they were all the rage. I knew I'd use a tag to hold my title.

Then came the challenge of using TEN tags. I scratched my head on that one. I thought of hanging tags from different elements on my page, but discarded that idea when I reminded myself that I'm working on an 8 x 8 page--it would look too cluttery on an already cluttered page. That's when I thought of using smaller tags as a border, so I staggered them and tucked them behind the edge of the paper. I added  a punched border for more interest.

 I used Noel Mignon's Sweet Sue kit on this page, plus a few odds and ends from my stash. The little envelopes and tags in the kit were perfect for some hidden journaling because with two photos I didn't have a whole lot of space for my journaling. Here's what I wrote:

An afternoon junque-ing with Dawn at a cool place called Chartreuse, which is only open every third weekend. We bought a beautiful shabby chic cabinet and just had a ball browsing all the nifty vintage stuff. Leave it to Farzad to find the booby door. Yes, a door plastered with pictures of naked ladies.

I've been dying to use this fun dress form stamp from The Girl's Paperie, and this was the perfect opportunity. I used green embossing powder, which really matches the green in the paper, even though the photo doesn't show.

I hope you'll come play in these challenges and check out what the rest of the teams did at CCG and HMITM. Both of these challenges offer RAK's, so besides the fun of the challenges, it could pay off!

Round Robin Reading {Color Combos Galore + Pencil Lines

A couple of weeks ago, I shared a layout I made for the 200th Anniversary of Pencil Lines. Pencil Lines invited Color Combos Galore to partner up with them for the celebration, and the party didn't end with Sketch 200--we finished out the month of August with them. I had the opportunity to play with another sketch and color combo, and here's what I got to work with:

And here's the layout I made:

Here are a few close-ups. I love those Jillibean Soup birdhouses. I punched out the little doorways to let the background peek through. And how cool that one of the houses had "Dick and Jane" text on it!

I used lots of stamping with embossing powder. Love how that looks!

Come see what the Pencil Lines and Color Combos Galore teams did with these two pieces of inspiration! I'd love to see what you make with these, so please share a link if you play along!

Work in Progress + Creative Prompts for You = A Really Nifty Page

The September Gallery went up today at Work in Progress, so I can start sharing the layouts I made. There are still some kits left, and as always, the kits and add-ons are full of really cool stuff--some new Cosmo Cricket Togetherness, some of the awesome new Kaiser Craft with the balloon images, Echo Park's latest collection, and just too many other goodies that you'll have to go check it out for yourself.

Today I want to share a layout I made with the WIP kit for Creative Prompts for You. I got to choose the prompt this week, and I shared a really cool image by Tabitha Emma I found online:

Here's my take on this piece:

I had wanted to use "Apartment Life" for the title, but I was running short on letters. After staring at the letters and coming up totally blank, I turned to A2ZWordFinder, a nifty word generator designed for Scrabble fans. What's great about this site is there's no limit to the number of letters you can input. So I put in my letters and out came scads of words. It turned out Boxy was the perfect title and geared my journaling in an unexpected direction. I decided to substitute the O with one of the Kaiser Craft buttons in the kit, as inspired by the Tabitha Emma piece.

I just love the little houses on the Echo Park paper. I cut out the ones that reminded me of apartment houses and popped them up with pop dots. I really like that they had a grunged-up, weathered look that went perfectly with the feel I was going for on my page.

I've been realling into heat embossing lately, and I used the cool stamp from the add-on as a design element rather than as a journaling spot. I love how the copper colored embossing looks with the pink paper.

Thank you for taking the time to read about my layout. I will share some details about the rest of my September WIP pages over the next few days. In the meantime, head over to WIP to see what the rest of the girls did with this awsome kit and check out what the team did with my prompt at CP4U.