Published!

It always takes me by surprise when I'm leafing through my latest scrappy magazine and I find one of my pages in there. I send them months and months in advance and as time passes I sort of forget that I had sent my layouts. I was surprised three times this month!

I'm in here:

with this page. It's for the Challenge column called "Who Inspires You?" They asked people to submit layouts that were inspired by another scrapper's style. I submitted this page, which was not inspired by another scrapper but by a graphic designer. I used a Work in Progress kit. 

I'm in here:

with this page, another one I made with a Work in Progress kit. It was for a Vintage call.

And I'm in here:

This page was the most surprising. Jen Lessinger commissioned me to make a heritage page using non-traditional (browns, etc.) for a column addressing reader questions, and here was the question:

I have a stash of photos of my great-grandparents, but I have no idea how to scrapbook them. I want the layouts to be as special as the photos. The problem is that I don’t have much information about the photos. Do you have any ideas?

My idea was to just look at the photo and write down your thoughts and questions.

Jen e-mailed me a few weeks after I had sent in my layout and said that column was being canceled by SBE, but that they might be able to find a way to include my layout elsewhere.

Well, months passed. Then a year. Then another year. I was wondering why they never sent my layout back if they weren't going to publish it--and I was just certain that they'd never publish it after all this time. After all, styles change so fast in scrapbooking, and my page would just seem like "old news" by now.

Well, imagine my surprise when I was leafing through my latest issue of Scrapbooks, Etc. and found this:

And I'll just throw this one out there because I never posted it on my blog. I was in here:

With this page. Jen Gallacher saw it at the 2Peas Gallery and peamailed me to ask if she could publish it in her "Stories to Tell" column about making layouts "shine." Nothing shiny on my layout, lol, but of course I said yes! It's another page using a Work in Progress kit. I've had good luck with those kits!

I've been lucky to have had my work published quite a few times, but I still feel a huge thrill seeing my pages in print! And it certainly makes it more fun when I happen upon my pages by surprise!

Thank you for stopping by my blog today and reading about my pages!

Previews

I always love looking at other people's sneaks, so I thought I'd post some of my own. The Work in Progress gallery will go live at the beginning of July, but here's what I've been working on...

I played with the main kit and project kit this month. These kits featured Lily Bee and My Mind's Eye Lime Twist papers, along with some other papers and lots of unique goodies. The project kit has already sold out, but the Main kit and another add-on are still available.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog and taking a peek at my sneaks. I will share my layouts after the gallery has been revealed on the first.

We're Having a Design Team Call!

Want to be part of the most awesomely fun challenge? Color Combos Galore is having a design team call! Take a look at the details below...

Applications are open to the public, worldwide.

Color Combos Galore is looking for both card and layout designers who have a love for color and a keen eye for design. Active participation in the Forums and Gallery is required. If selected, Design Team members are expected to create at least 2 projects a month during their term. The term is for 6 months, with the option to extend. This term will run July-December. The deadline for submission is June 29, 2011. Selected designers will be announced on Thursday, June 30.

Since 2007, Color Combos Galore has successfully helped thousands of participants explore color with our challenges. Recently, through the addition of an accompanying Designer's Challenge, we have stretched the creativity of others through inspiration photos and prompts. It's where color coincides with creativity, seeing and reading inspiration through new eyes, allowing you to open new doors to creativity, where color and imagination meet inspiration. This original, distinctive and unique approach to color and challenges makes each week exciting and fun and most of all, a great place to be!!

If interested:

• Submit a layout (minimum 8x8) or card.
• Your submission must include both the Color Combo and Designer's Challenge as described in the Inspiration Board above.
• Kraft, White and Black is allowed as a base or additional colors.
• Projects are to be sent to Janet via ColorCombosGalore@hotmail.com.
• Use keyword 2011DTCALL in the subject line.
• The deadline is midnight Wednesday, June 29 USA Eastern Time.

Along with your entry:

• State whether you are a page or card designer --- or both!!! :D
• Provide a link to your Color Combos Galore profile page.
• Provide a link to your blog.
• Provide a link to an online public gallery, no registrations required please, so that Janet can see more of your creative style.
• Supply a list of current and past design teams, if any. (Designing for, or under the administration of, similar color challenge sites is not permitted. There are many, so if you have questions, let Janet know. It may not fall under this rule.)

This is the most fun challenge I have ever been a part of. I hope you'll give it a whirl. Good luck to all who apply!

So Sad...A Fond Farewell to CP4U

Creative Prompts for You is closing its doors, and I'm so sad about that. I've so enjoyed being on the team. It's such a fun challenge that really stretched my thinking, and I've made pages I never would've thought of making without that challenge. For our last hurrah, we did a combination challenge, and here were our prompts:

Nicole - use tape
Debbi - include a transportation image accent(s) (i.e., hot-air balloons, cars, planes, etc.)
Solange - use a childhood photo
Kaori - use metal embellishments
 
Here's the page I made. I printed my picture on the Bazzill, along with my journaling. Not sure why there's a streak across my face in the photo here--it's not on the actual page. I used the Studio Calico kit Partly Sunny, plus a few things from my stash.
 

 
And a couple of details... For the metal part of my prompt, I used an old Making Memories word washer, along with some brads.
 

 
And here's what I used for the tape:
 

I never shared my page from the last prompt, which was this image that I contributed, when it was my turn:

 

And here's my page. That's my Weight Watchers buddy, Dayna. We work together at the same school, and we happened to have bought the same shirt and jeans, so we thought it would be fun to wear them on the same day! I used the Noel Mignon Sonoma County kit. The photo above obviously inspired my color scheme.

 

 

And some details. Love these canvas flowers by Prima! I layered two and then trimmed a flower from a Crate Paper print and added a brad.

 

Those little circles are also trimmed from a Crate Paper paper. I added them at the last minute, giving them a little lift with pop dots.

What most caught my eye in the inspiration piece was the Japanese text print. I thought I had some patterned paper with Asian writing in my stash, but I couldn't find it, so I turned to the internet and found this table with Japanese characters.

And the tape in the inspiration photo led me to dig out this old 7 Gypsies gaffer tape, which I thought was a good one to use to symbolize that we are losing inches together on Weight Watchers.

 

You should go check out what the CP4U team made. If you haven't played before, now is the time! This is the very last challenge, and if you share your page by June 30, you could win a cool prize. This month's winner will receive a $30.00 custom designer stamp of their choice from JustRite Stampers.

 

Thank you for stopping by my blog and reading about my pages.

 

Sunny Flowers {HMITM #174}

Happy Summer!! Today is the longest day of the year and officially marks the summer solstice, and what a perfect time for our challenge at How Much Is Too Much. Anna-Karin posed this challenge:

Midsummer is celebrated in a traditional way in Sweden in June, and includes dancing around a maypole and eating traditional food, and always strawberries. A lot of people wear flower wreaths/crowns on their heads. There is also a myth that if young people pick 7 different kinds of wildflowers, jump over 7 fences, and place the flowers under their pillow on this night, they will dream of the man/woman they will marry. This year Midsummer’s Eve falls on Friday 24 June. Make a layout:

• Using mainly light colours, and it must include at least a bit of yellow (for the summer solstice)
• 1 circle (for the sun)
• 7 different types of flowers (if you want to, try making one or more handmade flowers)
• 7 rub-ons or stamped images
• 24 other items

Here's the page I made. I thought the light colors would be perfect for this photo I had of my nephews sitting on my scrap desk. Such weird, freaky-looking bunnies! I dug into lots of old stash for this page, which is what How Much Is Too Much is all about!

And a few closeups. For my seven flowers, I used four different Prima flowers, two types of flowers cut from the BasicGrey papers, and a flower brad.

I used my Distrezz-It-All gadget to rough up the edges of my page. I added stitching around my circle. In this picture you can see one of the rub-ons--an old BasicGrey swirly, which I outlined with a fine-tip pen. The rub-ons were a welcome challenge. I always forget to use them and I have SO many!

Here you can see some more of the rub-ons. The blue one at the top and the pink dots above the picture are old American Crafts Remarks. The brown flourishy frame is by October Afternoon.

 The note paper is from an old Making Memories spiral notebook--I bought a ton of those when they came out and still have a bunch. I always like to add word stickers when something seems "missing." They fill in spots with a bit of color and also help to tell the story. That little embossed piece at the bottom is a sticker from a K&Co word sticker pack.

Take a peek at the fantastic interpretations of this challenge by the HMITM team here. I hope you'll play with us--you might be picked to go into our How Awesome Is Too Awesome Hall of Fame and become a future guest designer. Thank you for stopping by and reading about my page!

That's my layout!

Holy cow! I logged into the Two Peas gallery and never expected to find this surprise:

...especially since I only got one comment! Such a happy surprise to put a smile on my face this afternoon! (If you want to see the whole page, it's in the post below this one here.)

More layouts from the June WIP Kit

I've been so busy with school ending that June is getting away from me, and I haven't shared all my Work in Progress layouts. Trish just put the July kit up for sale, but there are still a few more June kits left--such a colorful, happy, summery kit, featuring Echo Park Summer Days and a bunch of other fun, colorful goodies!

Here's a page I made for my book about Farzad's [many] quirks. I randomly number the quirks in this book, and the playing card paper that came in the kit was perfect for this. "Besalamati" means "cheers" in Farci, and Farzad always says it when he's about to drink something, even non-alcoholic drinks.

And a couple of closeups... That little umbrella drink sticker was the perfect thing for my page. I outlined it with a fine tip pen and added the layered punched circles, mounting everything with pop dots. I added some sparkles above the drink to make fizzy bubbles.

I love the woodgrain and cloud papers that came with this kit. I used pop dots to lift up one of the clouds. Again, I outlined the clouds with a fine tip pen, as I did with the other stickers.

Here's another page I made with this kit. When I saw this big ferris wheel sticker in the kit, I was immediately reminded of trips to amusement parks when I was a kid. I'm pretty sure we went every summer, but I only have this one picture of my sister on a giant slide as evidence that we went.

Journaling on the back reads: Sure, we went to Bolivia three times, but with the exception of one trip to Florida and a couple of beach day trips, we never went on any kind of real vacation. I do remember piling in the car once or twice a summer to drive to Kings Dominion or Hersheypark. I remember the thrill of seeing those sky-high roller coasters and the Kings Dominion Eiffel Tower as we approached the park. We'd always go on the weekend because my parents worked and the wait was so long as we snaked through the queue, but the thrill of zooming down the roller coasters was worth the wait. My favorite ride at Kings Dominion was the Rebel Yell, a giant white wood roller coaster. You could ride it forward or backward. Oh, and the Time Shaft, a mind-blowing ride circular room where you'd stand against the wall and the room started to spin. All of a sudden, the floor would drop and there you'd be hanging on the wall! At Busch Gardens, I loved the Big Bad Wolf, a suspended roller coaster, and the Shockwave, a stand-up roller coaster that went in a loop. Love, love, love those loops and the exhilarating sensation of curling upside down. My favorite ride at Hershey Park was the Toboggan, a little car that went straight up a tunnel, so that you were lying on your back, and when it emerged at the top, you'd go down a spiral track that surrounded the tunnel.

Sure, we never went to Disneyworld or the Grand Canyon or any of the other adventurous places other kids we knew went, but to us, these amusement park day trips were pretty exciting!

(This picture was taken in the mid 70's at Kings Dominion , and I think I can spot Dawn on the right.)
 
Here are a couple of detail shots... I added tiny Queen & Company brads to the feis wheel buckets. Man, what a pain that was, I tell you! After I started, I was wishing I hadn't thought of doing this. It was so hard poking the brads into the sticker, and the little prongs on the back were all stuck together. I mounted the giant sticker on pop dots. I outlined some of the elements with a black fine-tip pen.
 

This journaling spot was fun with the little roller coaster. I added some more of those brads to the wheels. I outlined the cars and the card with a fine-tip pen.

Those stripes at the bottom were fun and colorful, but I felt they were missing something, so I added brads in the same colors as the stripes. Yeah, I'm a glutton for punishment!

Thank you for stopping by and reading about my pages!

It's Official! It's Summer!

I just got home from closing my classroom. It's official--I'm on summer break! Yay!

Speaking of summer, our next challenge is up at Color Combos Galore, and we're continuing our theme with a delightful palette and Inspiration Board.

But first, here's some music to get you in the summery mood--we're playing it over at the CCG reveal...



So here's the challenge:

And here's my page. I dug out a ton of older stash for this layout. The ledger paper in the background is pretty old Collage Press paper, and the big cream on pink polka dot paper is by K&Co.

And here are some closeups. The rolled papers are my attempt at making birthday candles. I used some ancient Chatterbox paper (stripes), some October Afternoon (black polka dot) and Die Cuts With a View (red polka dot). I used pearl-topped stickpins for the candle flames. That red gingham ribbon was sitting my desk, leftover from a recent layout. The pearl brad is by Recollections from Michael's.

I used some other stuff that happened to be sitting on my desk--the Prima flower, which I layered over an old black cork flower. The fabric brad is by SEI. That scrolly bit holding my title was also sitting on my desk, a reject from a previous layout. The red cut-out designs are from a Pink Paislee paper. I added a snippet of red mesh behind all of this.

These pink elements are cut out of an American Crafts Letterbox paper. For the Designer's Challenge, I found some digital frame stamps at Designer Digitals. I just pasted them on top of my picture and changed them to white.

That strip of circles is by BasicGrey and also happened to be sitting on my desk leftover from the last layout I made. All these bits and pieces were easy to collect together because they were just sitting there staring at me (good thing I don't always clean my desk after finishing a page!). The journaling tag is also by Collage Press. As always, I added some word stickers. They always seem to do the trick when something seems "missing" when I look at my page the next day.

I hope you'll come play with us at CCG! You should definitely go take a peek at the fantastic pages by our design team, guest designer, and featured member. It's always so fun to see all the different takes on the same challenge!

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

Yippee!

Yay! I'm on the Creative Scrappers creative team! I absolutely love their sketches, and I'm so excited Kristine picked me for the team.

My term runs from July to October. Can't wait to get started!