A Sunny, Happy Palette at CCG

Challenge 185 is live at Color Combos Galore! And a sunshiny, happy, carefree challenge it is!

I always start my CCG layouts by choosing  a photo that will go with the palette--I place the color swatch on the computer screen and then lay photos over them to see if the combo will complement them. I think I found the perfect photo this time.

Next, I see if I can think of a story to go with my photo(s). That helps me to decide the angle of my page and what kinds of prints and embellishments I'll use. I print out the color swatch and pull out all the papers I can find in my stash that meet the mood of my page. I must say, that chartreuse threw me for a loop. Not quite green, not quite yellow, but I finally found the Crate Paper domino paper from the Restoration collection that was pretty close.

Here is my page. I'm quite happy with how it turned out. I had wanted to add the journaling to the front, but I couldn't find a way to fit it with the design I was going for, so I decided to add the story to the back of the page. (Scrapping 8 x 8 does have its drawbacks, lol).

Journaling on the back reads: Christian, you tell the silliest knock-kock jokes, ones that make absolutely no sense and usually include absurd bathroom humor, and then you crack yourself up. The jokes aren't really all that funny, but the fact that you think they're hilarious makes me laugh and laugh!

Here are some closeups. Janet directed us to use "funky" prints for the Designer's Challenge, and I couldn't think of a funkier pattern than the Monstrosity paper by Sassafras Lass. Just love those little monsters, and I picked out the ones that went with the colors. Love this one with the glasses. The oval frame is from the same print, and I trimmed the middle out of it.

I was originally planning to use just the brown BasicGrey letters, but I didn't have enough k's, so I started looking for different letters, and I discovered these multicolored Sassafras Lass letters that were just the perfect size to go with the brown ones! Love serendipitous stuff like that, and I love my title so much more than if it were just one color. At the last minute, I decided to add some of those monster faces inside the o's. I perched the little hat monster on pop dots. The circles are from the inside of the o's.

Studio Calico is sponsoring CCG this month, so I've been trying to use some of their kits for my pages this month. I couldn't find a kit that had all the colors, so I picked through different kits. I knew I wanted to use this little Maya Road chipboard house (for the knock-knock idea--you know, knocking on a door). I colored it brown with a stamp pad. The numbers are cut from an old Scenic Route paper that had just the perfect colors. I used chartreuse staples on them. The arrow paper is Sassafras Lass, the circles are from a Studio Calico print. I've been on a mission to include some really old stuff on my layouts, and I dug out the eyelets. Can't tell you how many of those I have--in every color under the sun! The brad is BasicGrey, the label is Scenic Route, the small letter stickers are Adornit.

The pointing finger directs you to the back, where I have my journaling. It's a stamp by Purple Onion Designs, mounted on pop dots. I also included a bit from a Cosmo Cricket tear strip to indicate that there's a story. Some of the other papers I used that you can see in this close-up are Jenni Bowlin, SEI, and Sassafras Lass.

Those carnival tickets are cut from a Kaiser Craft paper. Love adding word stickers to my pages to add to the story, and I found several in just the right colors.

So that's my page. Definitely funky! This was a really fun challenge, and the design team, featured member, and guest designers did a fabulous job! You'll have to go take a peek. And you definitely should play along. Maybe we'll see you in our Gallery Faves or on the front page as a Featured Member, and of course, there's always the prize from Studio Calico. Fun, fun, fun!

Thank you for stopping by and reading about my page!

All Things Lovely and Green

Well, darnit, I meant to post this on St. Patrick's Day because that's what our current challenge at How Much Is Too Much was celebrating. Our challenge is called "All Things Lovely and Green," and Elizabeth challenged us to use:

• at least 10 green things on your layout
• 3 sheer embellishments
• 5 label stickers or journaling spots
• 3 different stamps

Here's what I came up with. I was so happy to finally scrap this Polaroid of Farzad in Las Vegas with a guy dressed up as The Mask character. Such a garish green face--and so hard to scrap!

It was the perfect opportunity to use the fun Sassafras Lass monsters. The oval frame is cut from the same monster paper. I trimmed a monster out of the middle and used the frame, tied with some baker's twine.

The sheer elements in the back are really old Maya Road sheers. And I cut another little monster out and popped him up with a pop dot. The green dots are called metallic dots and they're by Colorbok. The labels are really old, too--by Creative Cafe, from their very first collection. The word stickers on my page are by K&Co., and the brad, which matches the monsters is, of course by Sassafras Lass. That grid stamp in the background came in a Studio Calico kit, and I used green embossing powder.

The chipboard letters are also really old, by Scenic Route. I don't usually use them because they're kind of large for my 8 x 8 pages, but overlapping them helped me to conserve space. The green labels are by Luxe Design. They're kind of ugly, but the green color went well with the letters, and I covered them up with my title and the monsters. I added some of that triangle paper that's behind one of the monsters inside of some of my letters. The scallop stamp is by Sassafras Lass--it's pretty old, too. Using old stash makes me happy! :)

The faq stamp, which I embossed with black powder is also by Studio Calico, and the fabric brad is a Sass one, too.

I trimmed the banner from a Sassafras Lass paper. I can't get enough of banners these days--they add such a touch of whimsy to a page, and this page screams whimsy, I think. I read somewhere some people complaining about all the banners they're seeing nowadays, saying something like they were pointless unless they were on a party page. But can't you say the same thing about flowers or stars or any other thing people use to embellish their pages? Unless we all start loading Jolee's theme stickers on our pages, banners are a sort of generic embllishment (not that there's anything wrong with Jolee's--please dont' flame me, LOL).

I am white-space-challenged, and whenever I have empty space on my page, I have this strange urge to fill it up, even though I really, really like how white space looks. I added a punched border in the same kraft paper as my background to give an illusion of empty space that wasn't really empty. Sick, I know.

At the last minute (and I mean last minute--right as I was picking up the layout to photograph it), I added the laser-cut frame, which I picked up at my local scrapbook store. It was a small piece leftover from another layout, and it was sitting there on my desk. It was just the finishing layer I needed, and I just tucked it into everything that was already stitched down. Love when serendipitous stuff like that happens!

Thanks for reading about my page!  I hope you'll come over to HMITM and see what the other team members made and that you'll play along in this fun challenge. We recently added a perk to our "How Awesome Is Too Awesome" winners--if selected for our HAITA gallery, you'll have a chance to be a future guest designer for an upcoming month.

A Dreamy Palette at CCG

Challenge 184 went live on Thursday at Color Combos Galore, and what a pretty palette and challenge we have this week!

Studio Calico is sponsoring us this month, so I decided I'd use one of their kits to make my layout this week. The colors are girly and sweet, so I thought it would be fun to document one of my random childhood memories.

Here are some details. The Baker's Dozen kit came with these Sassafras Lass candy felties, which were perfect for my story. I also added the little peeking Sass animals that came in the Who's Who kit. The white doily is by Martha Stewart, and the Scalloped circular paper is an old Making Memories journaling paper--from those spiral pads they had a while back. The pink polka dot background paper and the labels holding my title are Collage Press. The brown polka dot paper is Chatterbox. Those soft pink flowers are Making Memories blooms that I've had forever. I thought they were the perfect shade of pink for this challenge.

The journaling spot is a digital element I got from 2Peas called Swank Labels. I outlined it with a gold Krylon pen and then decided to outline other elements on my page with the same pen. The ice cream feltie had orange dots, so I pulled them off and replaced them with sparkly pink brads. That heart brad is an old K&Co brad I've had gathering dust in my stash for a while.

I cut out this flower border from a Sassafras Lass paper. It had green centers in the flowers, so I replaced them with SEI buttons. I have a gazillion word stickers in my stash. I always pick them up whenever I see them at scrapbook stores. I like how they can add a little something extra to my story, and I found some perfect ones with just the right colors and words.

When I started building my layout, I covered part of the gold Crate Paper paper with this sheer swiss dot fabric, but I wound up covering most of it with the elements of my layout, but you can see it here in this photo. I tucked one of the blooms beneath it to show off the sheerness. Love that "Random Memories" sticker that I got from Catslife Press. They made it at my suggestion, and even gave it to me for free!

Head over to CCG and check out the gorgeous work from the design team. I hope you'll play along. You might just be picked as a Gallery Fave or even win this month's prize from Studio Calico!

Thanks for reading about my page today!

More WIP Layouts

What a long week! I think I'm still recovering from the hour I lost last weekend, but I sure am loving the extra hour of daylight.

I just received my April Work in Progress Kit to play with this weekend, and goodness, I still haven't shared all my March layouts, so here they are.

I made this one for a challenge at How Much Is Too Much called A Case of the Mondays, and we had to use: BRIGHT cheerful colors, a photo that makes you happy, at least 5 lovely flowers, something sparkly, and a fun/happy phrase, saying, or quote that you love. I thought this kit was perfect for the challenge. The papers and stickers are Echo Park's "For the Record" collection. The quote is from Brian Andeas. I just love his Storypeople!

Woo-hoo! Look at me. I used eyelets. Man, I have so darn many of those leftover from years ago when they were all the rage!

Here are my sparkly elements from the challenge:

I made this page using a sketch from Inspired Blueprints. Farzad sends me roses on Valentine's Day, my birthday, and our anniversary. Last birthday, he sent me these crazy six-foot roses!

Love these cabochon flowers that are popular right now. Trish packed several in the kit, including this huge yellow one.

There was a sheet of journaling cards and a sheet of stickers in the kit, which I distressed and layered.

And here's my last layout. I haven't yet written the story, but I'm going to put it on the back. My nephew showed up for school in his uniform on "casual Friday," and totally freaked out. My sister had to run to Walmart to buy him some clothes to stop him from crying. He's a tender heart, just like his Aunt Debbi. I totally would've reacted the same way as he did.

And a few detail photos. Everything on this page is from the kit except the ruler transparency, which is by Teresa Collins. The white punched element at the bottom is a sentence strip, which was a fun addition Trish put in the kit and was perfect for a school layout.

Thank you for visiting my blog today and reading about my pages!

March Work in Progress Layouts

Well, March seems to be getting away from me! I've been so busy, and every day I promise I'm going to post my Work in Progress layouts, and the day escapes. But here we go! The March kit features Echo Park's new For the Record Collection. So fun and so versatile!

So here's my first page.

My journaling, which I tucked into that black envelope, reads:

Every so often, when I'm looking for pictures to scrap, I come across this old snapshot, and it gets me remembering. It was taken long ago, in the 80's, I think, in Williamsburg. It makes me remember how we used to go on day trips every weekend. We'd just hop in the car and drive somewhere new. We don't do that so much anymore, and it makes me long to start doing this again. I remember that coat. I loved it so much, but I outgrew it as I gained weight. My hair. It was so much redder, and I didn't have all this white hair that I have now. I remember going for perms every few months. Hamsa used to do my hair--I went to him for almost twenty years. I remember the very first time I got a perm. I was so nervous--afraid that it would turn out poodle-frizzy--but Hamsa took hours on it, and it came out beautiful. I look at this photo and remember how energetic we were in our youth. I didn't have bad knees back then and I hadn't gained so much weight. We still have fun, but it was a different kind of fun when we were younger. I'm not sure who took this picture, since we we'd usually go to Williamsburg just the two of us, but I remember we went there with Ana and Luis, and that makes me remember them and how we'd hang out and play spur-of-the moment daytrippers.  It's amazing how one simple snapshot can make you remember so much, so I finally decided to scrap this old picture. {Journaled 2.26.11}

And some details...Trish packed some cool 4x4 envelopes into the kit. I used a border punch on the flap and added the "take note" sticker to indicate that there was journaling inside. I stitched the envelop onto the polka dot paper on three sides and then stitched the text print paper over top of that, being careful not to stitch over the top of the envelope so I could slide in my journaling.

The design team had a little challenge going this month to use free-floating banners, so I added them to this page.

There were a whole bunch of awesome stamped tags in the kit, and I wanted to use the one that had this cool camera image, but there was also an orange frame stamped on the tag that wasn't working with my color scheme, so I cut out the stamped camera and adhered it to the back of another tag. Voila--problem solved!

I love these leaf stickpins that came in the kit and stuck them through some flowers from my stash. The red gingham ribbon and label also came in the kit.

So there's my first layout. Take a look at the awesome work my teammates did with this kit in the WIP gallery.

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

Playing Dress Up - A Unique, Vibrant Palette at CCG

Challenge 183 went live at Color Combos Galore last night, and it's a really fun one!

Someone please tell me where I can buy that dress! I have no idea where I'd ever wear it, but it's so awesome, and if I ever got to goal weight, I'd totally find an occasion!

I've had this photo of my sister's persnickety cat sitting in my photo pile forever, waiting for the perfect color combo to come along, and now was the time. I used Pencil Lines Sketch #227 as inspiration for my page.

I dug out some really old stuff for this page! Love that about this challenge--searching through my stash for the perfect colors!

Here are some details. The laser-cut frame is from a local scrapbook store. The flowers are ancient Doodlebug flowers. I got the butterflies off the internet, printed them on photo paper, and mounted them with pop dots.

The papers I used for my page are Hot Off the Press (black polka dot), really old Scrapworks (the orange dots), My Mind's Eye (Banner), and Crate Paper (the two teal papers). That distressed frame is also by My Mind's Eye. The font I used for my journaling is an old favorite, Willing Race.

I love the 7 Gypsies 97% Complete stickers. They always add that little "something extra" to the storyof a page. That giant polka dot circle is a really old Bazzill brad, and I added some pearls to the dots. I ran out of the teal brads, so I mixed in some gray. Those black and white leaves are cut out of a GCD paper. I roughed up the edges with my fingernail and scrunced them up a little to give them some dimension. The circle stem thingies are cut out of a Crate Paper print.

I was going for a bit of a whimsical feel for this page, with all the polka dots and funky flowers and sparkles. I really loved this color combo. The designers did fabulous work with these colors. Hop over to CCG and take a look, and I hope you'll play! Studio Calico is sponsoring us this month, so a great prize from them is up for grabs, and you might even be spotted as a Gallery Fave. Hope to see you there!

Fashion Month Kicks Off at CCG!

A new month brings a new theme at Color Combos Galore, and this month is going to be a fun one! It's Fashion Month at CCG, and here's a little song for your listening pleasure to go with this week's challenge:



Here's what we got to play with this week:

(A little side note on the color names: Janet and I were talking on the phone trying to come up with names for the colors, and we decided to go with fabrics. The first three came fairly easy. When we got to the fourth color, we were debating about what color it was. I thought it looked olive; Janet said it was gray. Janet was thinking of "Funky Flannel," but I said they still wouldn't know what color it was. We went back and forth, and I said it's sort of like "mystery meat," and that's when we both started cracking up and decided that would be the name of the fourth color. Ha-ha--a little double entendre.)

I was in a time crunch this week, so I combined this challenge with the challenge at Creative Prompts for You, where our prompt was Gustav Klimt's painting, "The Kiss." This painting inspired the topic and title of my layout.

A friend of ours took some beautiful photos of us during our wedding ceremony, but sadly, he didn't capture our "you may now kiss the bride" moment. Luckily, I have this snapshot that my sister took of us at the reception. It's really dark, but I wanted to document this moment in time from thirty years ago. I plan to journal on the back of the page.

Here are some closeups. I dug out lots of old papers and combined them with newer stuff. I added so many layers that you can only see a hint of the BasicGrey Capella paper and the Webster's Pages paper. The gray paper in the background is really old Mustard Moon paper, and the piece that ooks like a tile is Marah Johnson, by Creative Imaginations, also ancient. The little postage stamp looking bits are cut from an old K&Co. Life's Journey vellum sheet that I've had FOREVER. The Noteworthy card is from Echo Park's For the Record collection.

Like I said, I interpreted that fourth color as olive, so I dug out some peridot embossing powder and used this cool KaiserCraft stamp on vellum. I was worried the heat gun would melt the vellum, but it stood up nicely. The sparkly letters are Thickers, and the little birdcage, butterflies, and clock were cut out of some Webster's Pages papers.

Of course I had to add some flowers on a wedding page. The fabric rose is Bo Bunny, cut from some flower ribbon, and I added a jeweled brad. I got a ton of these from Jo'Ann's years ago, and they're so pretty--the brand is Creating Keepsakes. The other two flowers are Prima.

The pretty gray ruffled trim is Pink Paislee. I originally used the border punch beneath it on some patterned paper, but it looked too heavy with the delicate ruffles, so I decided to dig out some more vellum (I probably have 200 sheets of that stuff from way back when it was all the rage) and punched it. I ran my embossing ink over the edge and sprinkled it with the same peridot embossing powder.

I've got some doilies tucked in there, and it's hard to see, but I added some sheer swiss dot fabric between the bottom and the next layer--inspired by the fabric in the Inspiration Photo. The leafy stems are stamps by Melissa Frances.

Head on over to CCG and CP4U and see the awesome work everyone did, and you'll surely want to play along. There are, as always, prizes to be won. Check out both sites for details.

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