A Soft, Harmonious Palette at CCG!

We have a new challenge up at Color Combos Galore with a beautiful palette and a fun Designer's Challenge.

I had the perfect pictures for this challenge. Our sponsor this month, Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker, sent us papers from her It's Raining, It's Pouring collection, so we used those papers for this challenge. The blue paper in the background and the plaid papers are from this collection.

I read aloud to my students every day--gather them on the carpet for a good story. I have a bearded dragon named Leo who lives in our classroom during the week, and I take her out during storytime. Well, one day, I look up from my book, and this is what I saw... Fortunately, I happened to have my camera in my purse that day!

Here are some close-ups. I covered a BasicGrey chipboard element with old Chatterbox paper, which was the only paper I could find in my stash that had the exact green of the palette. Love the subtle textures on those old papers. The buttons on the punched stars are old Making Memories buttons that I stitched on with baker's twine. Those silver circles on the title block are called "metallic dots," and I got them from Jo-Ann's in a bunch of different colors. The letter stickers are by Webster's Pages--love them because they're small. I tried to use elements on my page to support the "literary" theme, and I thought the Heidi Swapp ledger chipboard letters were perfect for this. I outlined them in pen to make them stand out.

I found some burlap in my stash which went with the taupe color in the palette, and I also thought it reminded me of the rough texture of my dragon. I tore a dictionary page that had literary words, added a spiral notebook punch, and used a typewriter font for my journaling--to further the literary theme. I found a trim in my stash that had a similar burlap-y texture.

Here's a shot that shows I adhered the stars for extra lift. I outlined all my elements with a fine-line pen to give them extra texture and dimension. That larger brad is an old MOD brad, and the smaller one is by BasicGrey. I used some old Heidi Swapp photo corners on here, too.

I thought a metal bookplate would be a perfect embellishment--you know, for the literary theme. I was going to leave it open and then thought of adding something dark to balance the black letters in my title. I found these ancient Making Memories brads in my stash. The patterned brad is by BasicGrey--love the edging on the new brads BasicGrey is making these days. The "U Make Me Smile" is a cut-out from one of the Nikki Sivils papers, and that thermometer accent is from Pink Paislee's Hometown collection. It's in the May Work in Progress kit, and this piece was sitting my desk leftover from a layout I was working on and the "Easy to Read" caught my eye and struck me as funny and the perfect addition to my page--you know, the lizard with all the words piled on her.

I thought this sticker, by Creative Imaginations, was hilarious for this page:

You should hop over to CCG and see what the rest of the team made with the Nikki Sivils papers--so fun to see all the different takes on this challenge. And be sure to play along to be eligible for the prizes provided by our sponsor, and you might be spotted and faved for our Gallery Faves!

Thank you for stopping by today and reading about my layout!

A Shiny, Happy Challenge at CCG!

Challenge 189 went live last night at Color Combos Galore. Such a beautiful Inspiration Board we have this week:

The colors are beautiful, but I had to look long and hard to find just the right picture to go with them. I came upon this picture of baby me, and it looked just perfect for the combo. As soon as I saw my shiny bum, I was reminded of the silly song my mom would sing to us when we were little (and naked).

I scrounged through my paper stash to find the colors and came up with some old and new stuff: My Mind's Eye Fine and Dandy, American Crafts Dear Lizzy, and some old Fancy Pants. I found some Peach Core'dinations that was perfect. I used the current sketch from Pencil Lines (sketch 234) as inspiration for my page design: 

Here are some close-ups. The journaling labels are by October Afternoon. I thought the little windows in the Dear Lizzy birdhouse needed something, so I added some Pearls (by BasicGrey). That gauzy rose is cut from a Webster's Pages Bloomers trim. For some reason, I forgot to get a detail shot of the other roses, but they're by Prima. At the last minute, I stuck those pins in--I think they're by Heidi Grace (not a hundred percent sure because they were floating in the bottom of my pin drawer--yeah, I have a drawer dedicated exclusively to pins).

I think I have a lifetime supply of Heidi Swapp letters, and I'm always so happy when I have enough vowels for the title I want to use! That little brad is an old Autumn Leaves MOD brad. You can see a little of the Core'dinations paper behind the title, which I sanded.

I love tucking little odds and ends between layers. These two piece are also VERY old. The soap one is a cut-out from Melissa Frances, and the Exhibit A bit is by Daisy D's.

  

A little detal shot from the bottom corner. I added a little Doodlebug sugared brad to the Bloomer rose to make it stay the way I wanted. The sparkly chipboard heart is Dear Lizzy.

  

The edges on that picture above look sort of muddy, but the edges are actually shimmery. Our Designer's Challenge was to add shimmer. I didn't want to cop out and just use the glittery accents, so I dug out the Twinkling H2O's that I bought eons ago when I saw them demonstrated at a stamping store. I distressed the edges of my papers with the Zutter Distrezz-It-All and then painted them with the Twinkling H2O's. So shimmery and pretty. Don't know why I never used them before. I think I tried to use them once but I didn't let the water soak into the pigment enough, so when I tried painting with them, it was too watery.

  

The reveal for the challenge is especially beautiful this week with these gorgeous colors. Head over and check out what the rest of the design team made. And I hope you'll play along. You might catch Janet's eye and be featured or even win a prize from our sponsor...

Thank you so much for visiting and reading about my layout!

Caught in a Bad Romance {CP4U #61}

Challenge #61 went live today at Creative Prompts for You. Such a lovely prompt, provided by Kaori Fujimoto:

I usually start with a photo and story, but this time I knew right away I wanted to mimic those bowls and use the pretty red, white, and pink color scheme.  So I went in search of a photo that would go with these colors. An unexpected photo landed in my hand, and I went with it. Here's what I made:

It's going into my book of silly family photos. Obviously. That's my husband and my mom's husband blowing each other a kiss! Never a dull moment at our family gatherings, I tell you!

So, I set about trying to recreate those bowls with paper. Not an easy task. I misted punched circles with water and molded them into bowl shapes. They didn't quite look like those shiny bowls, so I painted them with Crystal Effects, which gave them a nice glossy finish. Here's a close-up. I didn't have the brads at first, but when I lined them up, I felt like they needed a little something-something. The lace was inspired by the tablecloth in the inspiration piece. I used lots of old papers from my stash, including 7 Gypsies, Wild Asparagus, Anna Griffin, and some others that I'm not sure who made.

The next picture shows how glossy the circles look. I got a Slice for Christmas, and I finally tried it out. I still need to get the hang of it, but I used it for the green leaves. The label is by K&Co, and the rub-on letters are by Headline. Love those things. They come in a bunch of different sizes, from quarter-inch to an inch tall, and they are just perfect for adding to labels and small spots. You can find them in the fine art section of AC Moore.

The stone wall in the inspiration photo made me think of the old faux stone texture papers I bought eons ago. Never purged them from my stash. The red print is old Wild Asparagus paper, and of course the butterfly is Jenni Bowlin. The pink artisan label is My Mind's Eye, and I thought the 7 Gypsies "You are so beautiful" sticker would be hilarious on this page.

That stamped frame is by Glitz Designs, coated with red embossing powder. Right before I photographed my layout, I felt something was missing, and I added the Heidi Swapp chipboard hearts.

Loved how the other design team members interpreted this prompt. Head over and take a peek, and play along with us. Besides having a great time with this challenge, you could win a prize from our sponsor!

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog and reading about my layout!

Inspired {CP4U #59}

Last week, it was my turn to provide the challenge at Creative Prompts for You, and this is what I shared:

I decided to use the basic color scheme and grid design as inspiration for my page, as well as details from each of the images in the prompt. Here's what I came up with:

The stacked teacups in the first square inspired me to use the sweet birdie in a teacup, trimmed from a Webster's Pages paper. The flower is by Recollections, inspired by the pink flowers in pictures 5 and 7, and the brad is K&Co.

The ampersand from the second image inspired my title. I originally had another title in mind, but when I was trying to figure out how to use the ampersand on my page, this title came to mind. The chipboard ampersand is Heidi Swapp, and the letter stickers are by Webster's Pages. That polka dot paper is My Mind's Eye from the Lush collection.

The newspaper sailboat inspired my use of text paper for the background and also these leaves, made by Recollections. All the paper squares are cut from Webster's Pages papers except for the two pink ones.

The swan from picture 4 inspired this part of my page. This swan was cut from a Webster's Pages paper. Their papers have so many beautiful images to cut out for that special magical touch! I should've added some jewels to her crown. I think I'll go back and do that!

I had thought of sewing the squares onto my background, but I didn't want to flatten them out. I had used my Distrezz-It-All to rough up the edges. Instead, I drew an outline with black pen.

Picture 7 inspired my square with the clouds. I embossed them with my Cuttlebug. I outlined the little banner, which was trimmed from a Webster's Pages Paper, as were this frame and turtle-riding fairy.

My little flags were inspired by the picture 8. I'm not sure who made the stick pins.

Here is mini-me--an old school picture. Wish I had pictures of me eating and humming but Mom didn't think to do take a snapshot of that. I desaturated the picture because the colors would've clashed. That cream-colored element is by Pink Paislee.

The CP4U team did some awesome work with this prompt! Love to see everyone's interpretations on the prompts each week. Go check it out here.

Thank you for stopping by and reading about my page!



It's Raining, It's Pouring at CCG!

And it's a rainy Friday here in Maryland, too. Ugh. Gray. Dreary. Just blah. I'm so ready for spring break. We're celebrating the April Showers month at Color Combos Galore this week with a lively palette and a fun, wet challenge:

Our sponsor this month is Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker, and not only is she providing a prize to a player on our site, but she also provided the design team with her "It's Raining, It's Pouring" collection to work with. Here's the page I made:

Anyone who knows me knows I'm not a "technique" girl. Heat embossing and stitching are about as "technique-y" as I tend to get, so this challenge took me a little out of my comfort zone, but that's what challenges are all about, right?

Here are a few closeups and details from my page. When I saw the Nikki Sivils paper, I knew I wanted to scrap this memory. I was thinking of making my own rainbow, but then I remembered a recent Studio Calico kit had this cool rainbow paper made by Crate Paper, and I was crossing my fingers that the colors would match. There were other colors in the rainbow paper, but I lucked out to discover that the colors I needed were side-by-side and it was on a portion of the rainbow that would be small enough to fit on my 8 x 8 page. I jazzed it up by ading stitches and pearls, delighted that I had pearls in matching colors! I always pick up a pack or two of those colorful pearls when I see them.

For the Designer's Challenge of using wet mediums, I decided to add Glossy Accents to the polka dots on the rainboots.

I also added some Glossy Accents to the polkies on the umbrella and lifted the middle of the umbrella with pop dots to accommodate some of the pearls and also to give dimension to the umbrella. I added glossy accents to the frog's eyes, too.

Now, here's the part where I have to tell you that it almost killed me making this page. I was determined to use mist and try that splattery effect. Those splatters would just not go where I wanted them to go! But it's a challenge, right? and I didn't want to waste a perfectly good sheet of Bazzill by tossing it, so I just went with the flow and decided it sort of looked like rain and accepted the imperfection.

That yellow strip of October Afternoon paper was sitting on my desk leftover from a layout I did a couple of months ago (yeah, I really, REALLY need to clean my scrap room!), and I thought it would be the perfect addition. Love that old SEI "live groovy" button. Isn't that raindrop paper so cute? It's one of the Nikki Sivils papers that was sent to me, as are the red strip and phrase.

I wanted to place my title down where it is, but the red letters weren't quite showing up enough on the patterned paper, so I backed the middles of the letters with some old Ki Memories paper. Later, as I was looking at my page, the title still wasn't standing out, so I added some pen outlining. Just before I was getting ready to photograph my page, I was still not satisfied with my title, so I added Glossy Accents to make them look wet, and it was just what my title needed! Of course, I had to wait forever to dry before I could photograph my page!

One of the Nikki Sivils papers I got has these rows and rows of cute little rainboots. I so wanted to add a strip of those boots, but I couldn't quite get that to work, so instead, I trimmed a pair out and Glossy Accented the polka dots.

And here's the part where I should've left well enough alone. I was getting carried away with the wet mediums challenge, and I decided to add dots of puffy paint around some of the elements. It seemed like a good idea at the time. After I added them, I wished I hadn't. Sigh.

The red frame was actually a journaling spot with lines and some flowers, but I didn't want to have the flowers, so I trimmed the center of it and added my own journaling on cardstock.

It was so cool to see all the Color Combos Galore design team work with the same products. You'd think our pages would all have the same look. We were all working with the same two or three papers, but every single layout is so unique and reflects the designers' characteristic styles. Go check out the CCG reveal.

And I do hope you'll play with us. No, you don't need these papers--just use stuff from your own stash that has the colors in the palette and use the Designer's Challenge. You might wind up as our Gallery Fave, or you might catch our eye and become our next Featured Member, and you might even win a prize from our sponsor, Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker!

Thank you for stopping by my blog and reading about my page!

Toot! {Another WIP Layout}

So this really cool film strip die cut came in the April Work in Progress kit, and I just knew I needed to use it for a special page. It was too long for my 8 x 8 pages, so I cut it in half, and this is what I made. It's a true story...

That's my little sister, Dawn, and her husband was looking through her childhood photos and said she looked like she just tooted in all of the pictures! The Echo Park papers that came in this kit were perfect for this page, don't you think? Fun colors, cameras, those number tiles--just what I needed for this page.

Here are a couple of details... I outlined the letter stickers to give them definition. The letters--both the larger ones and the squares (which also came in white)--are from Echo Park's Playground collection and came on one sheet. The little banners are from one of the patterned papers. There's a whole sheet of them, so you can use the one sheet for multiple layouts.

These fun cameras are cut from a patterned paper--a whole sheet of them, so I have tons more to use for later layouts. I added brads to the buttons for add dimension.

These number tiles came on a sheet of paper, again, a whole sheet of them. I thought the numbers would be a fun accent to signify the numerous photos with Dawn's "tooty" look.  The tiny brads are by Queen & Company.

Thanks for stopping by and looking at my page!

WIP + HMITM = Fun!

So it was my turn last week to pose a challenge for How Much Is Too Much. We post the challenges for the design team way in advance, so I had no idea what was going to come in my April Work in Progress package, but as it turned out, it was the perfect match for my challenge, which is called "What's In a Name?" Here's my challenge:

This week, I want you to scrap about YOURSELF, specifically, journal about your name--do you like it, hate it, have nicknames, etc.? Anything about your name is fair game!

Write down the letters in your name, and use items on your page that begin with each of those letters (could be the generic name of the thing or a brand). For the date, use: 3 - three-word title, and 28 - items (at least) .

Here's the page I made:

I challenged myself to use my first and last name and came up with these items:

D - doily

E - Echo Park (which was perfect since the April Work in Progress kit featured Echo Park's new Playground collection)

B - brads
B - banner
I - ink
T - ticket
E - embossing powder
H - heart sticker
R - rhinestones
A - anchor and arrows (I couldn't decide, so I used both)
N - numbers
I - insects (I was scratching my head trying to think of a second thing for the i, and it came to me that I could use insects, for this thing that bugs me--get it?)

Some details... Most of the stuff on my page came from the WIP kit, but I added a few extras from my stash. The ladybugs are old Jolee's photo corners--I ripped the photo corner off and just used the bugs. The stamp is by Studio Calico. I used red embossing powder--it's really shiny in real life. I traced around the postage stamp shape on the journaling block with a fine line pen. Isn't that pom-pom trim cute? It came in the kit. I was scratching my head trying to figure out how I was going to adhere it, and then it came to me to use colorful staples.

Trish packed some cute, colorful doilies in the kit (she always tucks unique, interesting little extras into her kits). Love the shape of this bright yellow one! The frame and journaling cut-outs are all by Echo Park. I cut the center out of the frame to tuck behind some layers. That word sticker, I think by K&Co, is sparkly and fun. I used one of my favorite fonts, 2Peas Weathered Fence, for the journaling.

The 2's came from an Echo Park patterned paper that was filled with numbers. I cut out several 2's to further the message of my page. I used a piece of the frame that I cut from the bottom of the one above. Aren't those little banners so fun? Again, they're from one of the Echo Park papers that's full of them. The arrows are also from an Echo Park paper in this collection.

There are my little rhinestones for the letter R. The chipboard circle on my arrow was a leftover piece from the center of a letter I used on a previous layout. It was sitting on my scrap desk calling out to me to use it. The "This is not a drill" is from a set of magnets I got at the Target Dollar Spot a while back with a bunch of sayings from "The Office."

This little emoticon is from that same magnet set.

All the little bits below are by Echo Park. I outlined the letter stickers to give them some definition and stuck the heart on top of the i for my letter H. There's the ticket for the letter T. The little Polaroid frame is cut out from one of the border sheets.

Finally, I'm showing this picture because you can see the photo anchor I stuck in there for the letter A for the challenge, and to show you the outlining I did on the punched border.

So that's my second page from the WIP kit this month. You should go check out the awesome pages by the rest of the team in the WIP Gallery.

And you must go see the fun pages my teammates did with my challenge at HMITM. And please play along! You might just be chosen for our HAITA Hall of Fame and become a future guest designer!

Thank you for stopping by and reading about my page!