Little Scraps of Magic

Where Did You Go? {CSI Case File No. 4}

2012-01-27T17:05:00.000-08:00

CSI Case File No. 4 is Live! And we have a very beautiful Case for you to solve:

I was looking through photos to scrap and came across this photo of my Gram, and the pants she was wearing were the exact color of the last teal in the palette, so I went with that.

As I stared at that picture, I started thinking about how sad it is that my Gram is getting old and changing from the spunky, lively Gram I've known all my life into a very different person, so that's where I went with this layout.

The clues I used:
Evidence: frame, striped butterfly, rhinestones, something shiny (the epoxy brad)
Testimony: unexpected text, get curious and ask questions, my reflections, journaled in a frame, and inspiration word: change.

I remember this photo well. Gram and Nom went on vacation to Maine with us. We were on top of Cadillac Mountain, and it was very windy, and I started throwing my arms out and saying, "I'm flying," and soon everyone was doing it. I decided to have my Gram flying out of the frame and right off the page. I wanted my story to be the focus of my page. I photographed my page so that you could see the distressed edge and where the picture comes off the page a bit. In retrospect, I wish I had place it even a little more off the page.

In case you can't read the journaling on my photo, here it is:

What happened to this energetic, lively person? Is it possible to pinpoint a specific location in time when you became the person you are today? That person who is dependent on others. That person who no longer can drive. That person who gets out of breath when she walks to the mailbox. That someone who spends her days in a chair watching TV. There are times when that old you makes an appearance. The someone who still gets her hair and nails fixed. The person who loves to have her family visit. The person who still loves to give advice because she knows what's best. I'm thankful there's still a shadow of the old you left, but I just want to know, where did you go?

Here are a few details. I went to my Crate Paper folder to look for my papers and was pleased to find most of the colors I needed in there. All the paper I used is by Crate Paper, from various collections, including Orbit and Restoration. The felt flower is by Maya Road. The gold was a little tricky to match. The epoxy brad is a cheapy one I found at the Target Dollar spot a couple of years ago and matched that first blue almost perfectly.

Remember when Thickers first came out and it was so awesome because there were so many more varieties than Heidi Swapp letters? I remember AC Moore had a super-duper sale on these felt black Thickers and I bought a ton of packs of them. They're a little big for my 8 x 8 pages, so I don't use them a lot. The smaller letter stickers actually match that last teal, even though this photo doesn't show it. The gold butterfly is Pink Paislee, and the striped (and other cardstock butterflies) are by Making Memories.

The frame is by My Mind's Eye. Love those things and I wish they made them a little smaller too. I left the threads hanging on the butterflies after I stitched them on because I thought they sort of looked like butterfly trails.

Some more closeups of the Making Memories butterflies and a fuzzy Sassafras Lass brad.

You should definitely go check out what the rest of the team made with this Case File--all so different and all so beautiful! And make sure you play along this week if you haven't yet had the chance to crack the case--Dusty Attic is our sponsor, and you just may win a fantastic prize from them!

Snap 101 - CSI Case File No. 3 Is Live!

2012-01-21T06:06:00.000-08:00

I'm so happy about the positive feedback we've received at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration! So many have joined and jumped right in to solving our Case Files. I can't believe we're already on Case File No. 3. We revealed it last night:

When I make up these colors, I have NO idea what I'm going to do for my layout or if I even have the colors in my stash. I can tell you, I was cursing myself as I set about making a layout, but once I got rolling, I ended up loving the colors. Here's what I made. It's going into my album called "Pursuit of Scrappiness," which documents my scrapbook-related adventures and memories. I'm struggling with finding a good place to photograph my layouts in my new home. I had found the perfect spot in the backyard of my old house. Anyway, I was trying to take a picture of my layout and it kept blowing over, and the next thing you know, I look up and my husband and his niece are laughing at me and taking pictures of this whole episode!

Here are some details. I've challenged myself to try to use the more challenging journaling prompts from the Testimony when I'm creating my layouts for CSI. I thought directions would be a fun way to approach my journaling for this page, and as I was looking for papers, I came across this filmstrip print on a Kaiser Craft paper and wondered if I could put my journaling inside each frame. It was 12 inches long, too big for my 8 x 8 page, so I cut it apart and attached it with a brad to allow one piece to swing open so you can read all the journaling that's hidden. Here's what my journaling says:

Step 1: Find decent light and set layout on little chair.

Step 2: Aim camera looking straight on so your photo doesn't wind up crooked.

Step 3: Watch the wind carry your layout off the little chair. Curse the wind.

Step 4: Chase after your layout. Dust off dirt. Repeat steps 1 and 2.

Step 5: Repeat Step 3.

Step 6: Repeat Step 4. Curse.

Step 7: Use one hand to hold layout steady and the other to snap the picture.

Step 8: Make a wish that layout won't be blurry from one- handed snapping.

Step 9: Edit photo. Praise steady hand. Curse that all the shots were crooked.

The lavender paper in the punched border is BasicGrey Oh Baby Girl. That corduroy brad is by Pink Paislee, and I used a bit of sheer ribbon and tags, from the Evidence part of the challenge.

I was delighted to rescue these old lavendar Heidi Swapp Schizophrenic letters from my stash. They appear a little brighter than they really are; in reality they are a PERFECT match to the lilac in the palette. (I had to photograph my layout in my classroom because I kept getting home late and it was dark.) The cut out flowers are from the BasicGrey Curio collection, as is the circle behind the photos. Those pink flowers, which also are showing up a little too vibrant, are cheapie silk flowers from Michaels.

Those cool circles are cut from a BasicGrey Porcelain collection, and I used gold American Crafts brads for the centers. The brown background paper I used from the B side of a Crate Paper Paper Doll piece.

I had originally wanted to call my page "How to Photograph a Layout," but it turned out to be WAY too big for my 8 x 8 page, so I came up with Snap 101, which turned out to be a far more interesting title, in my opinion, and I managed to get my original title in there as a subtitle on the tag. The "endless" sticker is cut from a VERY old Pebbles definition sticker from way back in the day when the vintage look was in style. Not sure you can tell, but I used gold staples as part of the gold metallic element part of the Evidence. The camera image was cut out of a Studio Calico paper and mounted on pop dots. I snuck a Martha Stewart doily in there. (Sorry for the glare on the photograph.)

The team and guest designers did an amazing job with this Case File. You must go check it out! And if you haven't yet played, you will want to because The Dusty Attic is our January sponsor.

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

Top Secret Preview of Tomorrow's CSI Challenge

2012-01-19T03:58:00.000-08:00

Can't wait to show you our new Case File! Here's a top-secret preview:

I hope you'll come join us at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration tomorrow evening for the reveal!

Good Advice - CSI Case File No. 2 Is Live!

2012-01-14T07:51:00.000-08:00

What a fantastic launch we had at CSI! We already have over 300 members in just a week! And I'm so excited to see so many jump right in and "solve" our first Case! If you haven't had time to play with our first Case File, you still have time to play. I've set the challenges so that they run for a week plus an extra weekend, so the deadline for Case File No. 1 is Sunday, January 15 at 11:59 pm EST. You'll definitely want to play in January because we have The Dusty Attic sponsoring us!

Well, the week flew by and before I knew it, we were ready to reveal Case File No. 2 last night. Here it is (you can find more details about the clues at CSI -- just scroll down to the bottom):

And here is the page I made. (It photographed a little lopsided--still gotta master that--and I had to do some creative cropping since I wanted to pull out my hidden journaling a little.)

Here are some details. The "advice" part of the journaling prompts comes from this Alice in Wonderland quote, which I included on the yellow Webster's Pages journaling card:

"Good advice. If I listened earlier, I wouldn't be here. But that's just the trouble with me. I give myself very good advice, but I very seldom follow it." --Alice

My page is for my weight-loss album. I've been really struggling with my weight-loss journey for the past year, and I really fell down the past 6 months since we started the whole process of selling our home and buying a new one. I used a picture from a little over a year ago when I was well on my way, having lost 60 pounds. I've gained half that back. :(

Anyway, the rest of my journaling is stream-of-consciousness (another bit of the CSI Case File Testimony) and just contains good advice and messages I was telling myself when I was being "good," and they're now going to serve as reminders for me now that I'm getting back on track:

This is the last time I will do this. I will not let little slip-ups derail me. Tracking is the solution. I can do this. I can exercise a little each day. Keep a journal and set little goals. I can get through this one meal. This one day. I can do this. (On the "Remember When You Said" My Mind's Eye journaling card.)

I will treat Weight Watchers like a class with assignments... cook the recipe in the little weekly book, do the assignment on the back. I'll look at the scrapbook I'm making. Look at this picture where I was well on my way. I can do this. (On the third card.)

Reading my friend Wendy Mitchell's story on her blog prompted me to get my butt back in gear, so you could say she inspired this page.

I used some old stash on this page, including the clip, which is from that old Rebecca Sowers Attic Collection, the striped paper is by Daisy D's, and the red torn bits of paper are old Christine Adolph papers by Creative Imaginations. The polka dot paper is by My Mind's Eye (Bloom & Grow).

When I was looking for the lavendar color, I came across this ANCIENT mulberry paper and knew I had to use it. So happy to finally rescue that from my stash! The blue papers on the picture below are both by Fancy Pants, also pretty old. The brad is by K&Co. from the Wild Saffron collection.

I think that yellow flower is by Prima and the red one is by Petaloo. The lavendar flower was from a cheapie bunch of silk flowers I bought at Michael's. The leaves are from an old Scenic Route paper, and I'll be sad when they're all gone. I scored them in the center and bent them up a little for dimension. I also love the Webster's paper lanterns cut out of one of their papers, and I'll be sad when I use them all up too. That's another K&Co. fabric brad. I added some swirls that were part of the Case File Evidence, as were the flowers.

I was happy to use this Dusty Attic gate as part of my Evidence. I coated it with embossing ink and sprinkled on a blue embossing powder that was lighter on paper. Note to self: Next time I want to use embossing ink on chipboard, try it out on a sample first instead of just going by the sample I have on the white cardstock. The butterflies are cut from a DCWV paper.

And here's an experiment gone bad, but once I set my mind to something, I don't give up. I found these lavendar letter stickers that I've probably had in my stash for close to 10 years, and I was determined to use them. I stamped them with a texture stamp and embossed them with clear embossing powder to give them a different sort of look. Well, it didn't show up really, so then I got the idea of coating them with Glossy Accents and after they dried, I bent them back and forth to give them a cracked look. Didn't quite work out the way I had imagined, but I went ahead and added them to my page because I had put so much effort into them, LOL. I added those yellow "metallic dots" topped with lavender rhinestones to cover up some of that darker purple.

These colors were tricky but I love how pretty and happy they are, and I had great fun digging through my stash to find the right blues. I hope you'll come play with us and go take a look at the amazing work our team and guest designers made!

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

CSI Case File No. 1 Is Live!!!

2012-01-06T16:31:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited that we finally officially launched CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration tonight! I am so excited to have The Dusty Attic as our first sponsor, and we have their design team as guest designers. Nadia Cannizzo has joined us this month as a special guest designer, too!

Here is our very first Case File:

And here is my layout. I promise you that I didn't plan these pictures or the Case File to go with each other. Susan Stringfellow sent me her layout, which is also about Christmas, and that got me to thinking, of course--these colors are just perfect for Christmas pictures! I hadn't realized it when I created the Case File. So when I set out to look for Christmas pictures, I was too lazy to get my camera from upstairs, which had this year's Christmas pictures, so I thought I'd scrap some from last year (because I hadn't scrapped much from that Christmas anyway). And when I came across these pictures--it hit me--Mad Hatters! I just love it when an idea comes together like that!

Yes, I do realize my page is very, very busy, but I really wanted to get all 9 pictures on there. I write free verse poetry all the time with my students; however, I'm terrible at rhyming. But I wanted to challenge myself. I said to myself, I can't expect my members to venture into the more difficult journaling prompts if I'm not willing to give them a try myself. So there you go! I'd like to thank Shaunery for helping me with my very last line.

I've been really trying to use my kits, so I started with a Noel Mignon kit, Bedford Falls, which had some We R Memory Keepers (the green and the multi-colored piece) and Pink Paislee (the circles), and then started adding from my stash.

I used some BasicGrey Figgy Pudding (the yellow solid and the red-and-white stripe). The We R Memory Keepers paper has nice raised snowflakes on it. The holly is cut from a K&Co border sticker.

That greenish gray was very tricky, but I found a BasicGrey solid in just the right color, and then I inked some gray foam Thickers with some old Hero Arts sage green ink, and it matched the color pretty well.

You must go check out the reveal of Case File No. 1 and see what the design team and guest designers made! I do hope you will play along! I would love for you to join my site. You will have so much fun!

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

Two more days...

2012-01-04T17:23:00.000-08:00

It's almost time! If you haven't signed up, we'd love you to join us over at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration! Our first challenge will be revealed on Friday evening (around 6:00 pm EST). Just wait until you see the beautiful work from our Detectives and our guest designers, and I can't wait for you to see who our January sponsor is! We are going to have FUN!

Below, I leave you with the top-secret sneak preview of Case File No. 1...

A peek at my first layout for CSI

2012-01-02T09:03:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited! It's very near! We launch CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration in four short days! Our design team members, aka the CSI Detectives, have been busy posting sneaks of their pages on their blogs, so I thought it was about time that I shared a peek of mine too:

The site is still under construction, but it's almost ready. If you haven't had a chance to visit, please drop by, register as a member, and take a look around. This challenge is going to be fun, fun, fun! It's a color challenge, but so much more. There's a fun journaling element (journalphobes, don't be scared--there's a range of options from easy to more challenging) and an inspiration element that will get you digging through your stash.

We have the most amazing sponsor for our launch, so you will definitely want to play once we reveal our first Case File. Here's a little tiny peek of that Case File:

And by the way, we will be having a design team call in a bit once we get rolling, so come join the fun and get a head start!

11 Faves (Okay, a Dozen) of 2011

2011-12-31T17:52:00.000-08:00

Last year, I posted my top ten layouts from 2010, and I thought I'd do it again because I had so much fun looking through my work to see what I had made over the course of a year.

Here are my 11 favorites from 2011, in no particular order:

Knock-Knock: Love this one because of the funny story and how I managed to cram so many fun things on one 8 x 8 page and leave a little white space. Not to mention I completely ADORE the Sass monsters and I'm going to be extremely sad when I run out of them!

Wisteria: I love the colors (one of the many palettes I created for CCG) and used one of my favorite Webster's Pages papers (the lantern). I also used a lot of really old stash, which always makes me happy. And I'm feeling a little wistful thinking about my old backyard--I'm so happy we took these pictures in the backyard that day to have this memory of my old house that we lived in for the past 20 years.

You're a Jerk: This was my first page on the Creative Scrappers design team, and I thought the sketch was tricky because of the multiple photos (8 x 8, remember...), the ink and the grid stamped in the background (direct stamping and mist spray terrify me), but I think I pulled it off well.

Fearless: Don't know why this one tickles me so much. Maybe that I've got a little white space on here (I'm totally white space challenged). I like the way I used the curvy designs on the paper, and I finally scrapped a picture that had been in my stash for nearly a decade.

-esque: I love how this one turned out. I love the unusual colors (another palette I designed for CCG). I love the marriage between REALLY old stash and semi-new. And I love the story. It marks the beginning of my skype friendships that have become a big part of my life.

I Love Words: I love the topic. I love that almost everything on here came from a kit (Noel Mignon Office Party)--I always find that a challenge to limit myself, and everyone knows I love a challenge.

Recipe for a Statue: This picture makes me smile. I like my appraoch for journaling. I just like the combination of *stuff* I included on here, again, using some really old stuff along with a few newer things. I also opened a tub of gesso for the first time to soften the color of the star paper.

Pieces of Me: I love how this page turned out. It kind of evolved as I was building it, and I love those little Sass party animals peeking out. I thought my topic was interesting. I journaled about the bits and pieces of my body--the good, bad, ugly, as my subtitle says. I had fun using a Studio Calico kit for this one, so that made me happy (I tend to hoard my kits).

Literary Lizard: I absolutely LOVE that I had my camera the day this happened. This page will forever make me smile when I see it. And Leo is getting old and isn't doing well this week. :( I love the textures I used on this.

Rainbow Puddles: I have to admit that I didn't think I was going to be able to use these papers when Nikki Sivils was sponsoring us at CCG. I don't do "cutesy" very well. But I absolutely love how this turned out. I love that I remembered this circle paper that came in a Studio Calico kit and I turned it into a rainbow. I love that I thought of adding those pearls, and I love how I added Glossy Accents to the dots to give them that rain-glossed feel.

Just Visiting: I love this one because--well, the Sass monsters, of course. And that I scrapped a picture of my mom (she's unbelievably camera shy). And that I made a page for my Book of Silly, which I haven't done too many of lately. Gotta get on that because Lord knows I have enough silly pictures!

Sweet Freedom: I just love the colors (I made this palette up too), and this is one of my favorite pictures of me. I used all really old paper, including one of my old faves (that Making Memories branchy one), but I think I did a good job of making my page not feel dated. I love the wispy threads I left on.

It's always fun to look back at the past year's work. I had a long hiatus during my move when I couldn't scrap, so I'm just now getting back into it after a few months, and I'm looking forward to another year of scrapping. I'm especially excited about my new challenge site, CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration. I hope you'll check it out and sign on as a member. :) We're launching in less than a week. It promises to be so much fun!

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

Soon...

2011-12-25T03:43:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas, everyone! Wow, I can't believe how fast the new year is approaching! And with 2012, I have an exciting new scrappy adventure. In case you haven't heard, I'm starting up a new challenge site called CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration. It's a color challenge with a couple of twists, one of which is near and dear to my heart--a journaling component (that's where the "stories" part comes in). I know a lot of people shy away from journaling, but I think you'll like what I have planned for this element of the challenge.

I am so lucky to have a talented and dedicated group of friends joining me for this scrappy adventure. We are calling the design team "The Detectives." Here is our team:

(Me)

Keandra Perkins-Willis

I'll be having a design team call at some point after we get rolling, so I hope you'll sign up and play along. We will launch our challenges with our first Case File on Friday, January 6 and we have an amazing sponsor lined up for January! Here's a sneak preview of our first Case File:

I hope to see you there on January 6!

A Fond Farewell to HMITM

2011-12-19T09:30:00.000-08:00

It is with sadness that I'm announcing that we are posing the final HMITM challenge this week. I have played at this challenge for years, long before I was invited to join the design team. HMITM is one of the longest running scrapbook challenges out there, so it was an extremely hard decision to retire it. In the past year or so, participation in the challenge has dwindled, and so we decided it was time to put HMITM to bed. (I'm refusing to say that we're retiring it completely because I'm secretly hoping that some day we might resurrect it.)

Anna-Karin's challenge this week is a perfect complement to this week's challenge over at The Color Room. She named her challenge "Frosty the Snowman," and she asked us to:

Do a winter or Christmas themed layout
Depict snow on your layout (here are a few examples: snowflakes, torn white paper hills, dry embossing, organza, paint, vellum etc.)
Use glitter
Use at least three shades of blue (but you can use other colors too)
Use something shiny or transparent

Here's The Color Room challenge:

And here's the page I made. I used Lydell's sketch as well as the palette as my jumping off point. (Yikes, I see that my colors are way off now that they're posted right near each other! I had the challenge up on my computer screen and I could've sworn that I was using the right colors!)

Here are some detail shots. I used some REALLY, REALLY old stuff on this page. The snowflake papers are by Debbie Mumm, Rhonna Farrer, and Sandylion (2005 is the date on that paper). I also used vellum that's been in my stash for nearly a decade. The beaded snowflakes are old Jolee's stickers. I love those and bought a whole bunch of packages so I won't run out! I initially was going to go the lazy route and use glittery Thickers for the glitter part of the challenge but in the end, I felt like a cheat, so I broke out the Stickles and added some glitter to my punched vellum border.

I've had these kraft word stickers by Making Memories in my stash forever and never used them before. I wanted to include journaling but really didn't have anything much to say about these silly photos, and I found some words that worked in this package.

These snowflakes were cut out of an old Rhonna Farrer patterned paper. There are some more sparkles on that "Limited Edition" sticker.

The snowmen are cut from a My Mind's Eye paper that came in a giant paper pad I got a couple of years ago from Michael's. They have sparkly scarves. I was giving my layout a last glance before photographing it and decided it needed a little something else. That something else came in the form of these sparkly domes that I thought looked just like snowballs.

I'm having second thoughts about saying goodbye to HMITM as I'm typing this blog post. :( It really does make me so sad, but I've witnessed it dying a slow death and it just pains me to see the interest continue to dwindle. Thank you for letting me share my sad goodbye. And thank you for stopping by my blog and reading about my layout!

Coming Soon...

2011-12-11T08:06:00.001-08:00

I'm so excited!

I have a new adventure beginning with the upcoming new year...

I've gathered an amazing team of designers, and we are going to have some FUN! I will be introducing the designers to you in the upcoming days.

We will launch our first challenge on January 6. The site is still in a rough-draft stage, but if you want to take a peek, come see us here and please sign up. I'm exicted to announce that Dusty Attic is going to be our first sponsor, so you will definitely want to come and play in our beginning challenges!

I would like to say a special thank you to Lydell Quin, founder of The Color Room, an awesome, inspiring site, for helping me with this fantastic blinkie. Lydell is helping me out with the look at the CSI site, and it's going to be fabulous once she gets done with it!

Celebrate Wacky December {at HMITM}

2011-12-08T02:55:00.001-08:00

It was my turn this week to post a challenge at How Much Is Too Much. I have a source for wacky holidays that I share with my students, and I consulted my wacky holiday calendar for December and found out:

December is Bingo's Birthday Month.
It's also Rising Star Month.
And it's National Tie Month.
The first week of December is Cookie Cutter Week.
December 5 is Bathtub Party Day!

So...I challenge you to use:
* A bingo card (if you don't have these in your stash, just google "bingo card" under Google Images, and you'll find a gazillion).
* Use something that you can tie--ribbons, twine, raffia, etc.
* Use at least 5 stars.
* Use punches or cutters or a shape templates.
* Use your imagination and whatever product you want to create "bubbles" on your page.

(It's a good thing I didn't choose National Gazpacho Day!)

I used the sketch and palette from the current challenge at The Color Room to make my page.

When I saw this color combination, I immediately thought of Dawson, one the original collections by BasicGrey. My husband loves the cheesy touristy photo ops, and I'm doing a whole album about that called Poser. This page is going into that book. I'm still trying to find a good place in my new home to photograph my layouts.

Here are a few closeups. To make my "bubbles" for the challenge. I punched circles out of one of the Dawson papers and added glossy accents to give them dimension and mounted them on the stars with pop dots.

I found a Jenni Bowlin Bingo card that had the orange and blue to match the colors in the palette. There were other colored numbers on the card, so overlapped to hide them. I used my Zutter Distrezz-it-All to rough up the edges on my page.

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog and taking a look at my page today!

It Feels Good to Scrap Again!

2011-11-27T17:31:00.001-08:00

It's been about two months since I've scrapped, and I've missed it so! This weekend, I had the perfect opportunity to scrap. My friend Tracee celebrated her birthday this weekend, and we had a virtual birthday party through Skype. Fi, Tracee, and I all made party hats. They made quite elaborate hats. Mine was cheesy, but festive and fun.

So part of the festivities involved scrapping, and Fi had set up some challenges for us. One was to use the current sketch up at Sketchabilities but to use black and white with one extra color, transparencies, and a stamp. Here's the sketch we used:

I was kind of grumpy because I thought the sketch was going to be so difficult to fit six pictures onto an 8 x 8 page and I wasn't happy being limited in my colors. I like colorful pages. But as it turned out, I was happy with the way the black and white looked with one color and I managed to find a set of pictures that I was able to crop into squares from a trip to Rhode Island many years ago. I had a little trouble photographing my page at night in my basement scrap room, but here it is:

Here are a few details. For Fi's transparency part of the challenge, I used these clocks from Teresa Collins. The brads and rub-ons, as well as the background paper, are by BasicGrey.

The flourishy designs were cut from an old Foofala paper. The leaf stamp is by Autumn Leaves--it's also pretty old--and I used Zing embossing powder. The other black and white papers are My Mind's Eye Lush. I thought they sort of looked like lattice, perfect for a garden page.

Here's another reason for my grumpiness. When I moved, something killed my printer, so I didn't have it to print photos or journaling. I hate the way my handwriting looks on my pages, and I almost didn't journal, but then I'd feel like something was missing, so I just went for it, and I didn't end up hating it this time. There are some more of the Teresa Collins clocks, which I used for the circles in the sketch. The butterfly was something I had printed off a while back. I got the image from the internet.

Happy Birthday, Tracee! So happy that I got to scrap with you this weekend. It sure felt good to scrap again.

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

Scrap-It-Lah

2011-11-09T14:45:00.000-08:00

Holy cow! Has it been a whole month since I've blogged? It's been over a month since I've scrapped, and believe me, I've been going through major withdrawals!

But I'm all moved into my new house, and I finally have internet (I tell you, two weeks without the internet made me a very grouchy girl), and my scrap room is almost set up, so hopefully I'll be getting in there real soon to make something.

In the meantime, I'd like to share a layout I made a couple of months ago when Helen Tilbury, a scrappy friend from CCG, asked me to be the November guest designer for Scrap-It-Lah, Malaysia's first non-profit challenge blog. The girls over at that challenge are so creative and sweet, so if you haven't had a chance to play, you must go take a peek at their blog. Not to mention their challenges are fun and they have a wonderful RAK up for grabs this month--a Studio Calico kit.

Here are the details of the challenge I had to follow:

All layouts must please incorporate the following

{thereafter any extras may be added}

1. Layers - at least 6

2. Stamping and/or embossing

3. Tags or journaling cards incorporated into your design

(not necessarily used to journal on but can be if you choose)
And here's what I made:

Lately, I've been on a mission to use up some of my older stash, and that's only been intensified as I realized how dang much I truly had when it went from drawers and paper carts and baskets into boxes as I was packing. The layers part of the challenge was perfect for using a bunch of older stash. I've had that Narratives die-cut paper in my stash forever. I had to trim it down for my 8 x 8 page. The red paper between the blue and yellow is the B side of an old Fancy Pants paper. All the flowery paper is cut out of some K&Co paper I snagged on sale a while back. The yellow damask is Echo Park, and the red polka dot paper is by The Girls Paperie.

I decided to try one of The Color Room's palettes for this page, and since I knew it wouldn't be shared for a couple of months, I went with an older palette. I added green, from the leaves, but I loved the pink and red along with the blue and yellow.

My camera was having issues, so I only got a couple of close-ups that weren't blurry. I'd take more pictures, but my layout is packed somewhere and hiding. How I love those K&Co. fabric brads. I hoard them! You can see one of my layers is an old My Mind's Eye transparent frame. The bees are Pink Paislee stamps. I used embossing powder to make them nice and bold, and I mounted them with pop dots.

There's my favorite Cats Life Press stamp (Random Memories), which was made at my request. Such a great company! I used some old "vintage" Primas and a super-old sticker (#1 Mom washer word). I think the journaling spots are by Elle's Studio.

I'd like to thank Helen and the Scrap-It-Lah ladies for having me join them this month. Such a fun challenge and a great excuse to pile on the layers and pull out the stamps! I hope you'll take a look at what the design team made and join in the fun!

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

The View {CS No. 177}

2011-10-13T03:10:00.000-07:00

We have a terrific sketch to play with at Creative Scrappers:

We're a week away from moving to our new house. I've been documenting the move for my scrapbooks. Here's a picture I took from my backyard. We have a tiny little yard, but a beautiful view, with a treeline and a farm byond that.

I went with BasicGrey's Origins collection to make my page. I love the quadrant design of the sketch, and I had contemplated using four different papers, but in the end went with a signle print for the four rectangles.

Here are a few closeups. I cut flowers from one of the patterns to use in place of the stars in the sketch and popped on some pearls.

I wanted to give my page a bit of an untamed look to mimic the backyard, so I distressed the edges of my papers and flowers and bunched up the journaling strips.

Here is my last addition to my page the next day after I was getting ready to photograph it. The upper right rectangle seemed too plain, so I cut out some leaves from another paper and added some swirly pearls.

You'll have to go take a peek at what the rest of the team did. Plus, my friend Fi Kenward is the guest designer this week, and her page is amazing!

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

Apple a Day {HMITM + WIP}

2011-10-08T08:33:00.000-07:00

Making my page for our current challenge at How Much is Too Much coincided with work on my October Work in Progress kit, and when I opened the box, I discovered that the kit would be perfect for Janet's Johnny Appleseed challenge:

Our challenge this time is going to do a layout using apples in it. So it can be a recipe page, layout about fall or anything that uses apples. Since apples come in three colors I want the colors of the layout to have red, yellow and green in them.
3 apples
3 red,
3 yellow, and
3 green embellishments - ( buttons, brads, twine)

I'm a teacher, so I get a school portrait taken every year, and I never know what to do with them. I decided this challenge was the perfect opportunity to document my apple-a-day ritual, which I plan to add to my weight-loss album.

My hidden journaling reads: During the school year, I eat an apple a day. Every day, I bring an apple in my lunch. My favorite is apple is the honeycrisp. My apple-a-day habit started when I began Weight Watchers. I bring a knife and cut my apple into small slices so I can take a long time eating it. I usually bring a frozen Weight Watchers Smart One or a Lean Cuisine, which gets eaten pretty fast, and then I cut my apple and enjoy it for the rest of my lunch time. (School portrait - Fall 2011)

Here are a few details. I cut the flower and punched the apple image out of some Crate Paper papers from the kit. The little typewriter was from a Jillibean Soup paper. I added that green apple from an old October Afternoon paper.

I used the space in between the apple images on that pattern above to cut out the banner shapes. The border sticker came in the kit. It's also by Crate Paper.

Here's a coseup of my hidden jouranling card. I added a border sticker and a paper clip for some of my red accents to meet the challenge.

These nifty fruit labels came from a Crate Paper paper--there's a whole sheet of them, and I just love this ruler paper, also by Crate Paper.

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

Pose - WIP October Kit

2011-10-05T14:58:00.000-07:00

Last month, we went to a family reunion, and on the way out of my cousin's garden, my 92-year-old Gram stopped at a hibiscus tree and asked us to take a picture of her. Gram loves gardens and even more than flowers, she loves to pose for pictures! We have a huge batch of pictures of Gram over the years posing in all sorts of sassy poses. It makes me smile to see that she hasn't lost her desire to be in front of the camera!

She pulled that giant hibiscus flower down near her ear and smiled for the camera. I thought the picture was perfect to use with some of the pretty papers that came in the October Work in Progress kit, which featured some papers from Crate Paper's Farmhouse collection and Jillibean Soup's Sweet & Sour Soup collection.

Here are a few closeups. I cut those flowers from a Crate Paper print and added Stickles to give them some pizzazz and popped on some pearls for dimension.

The frame was the perimeter of a Jillibean Soup paper. I cut the center out. That green frame beneath the photo is a journaling card.

The title letters are from that paper I cut the above frame out of, and the "sweet clover honey" is cut from a sheet of similar labels on a Crate Paper patterned paper.

Thank you for stopping by my blog to read about my layout today!

Chit-Chat

2011-09-30T03:52:00.000-07:00

I was trying to clean up my files and found a layout I made last year that I never posted here. I apparently made it for Creative Prompts for You, but I don't even remember what the prompt was now.

That's my sister reading some conversation cards at a family gathering. We sat on the deck and shared our ideas to thought-provoking and silly questions.

Most everything on the page came from the Joyland kit by Studio Calico. I added the word strips, which are those ancient K&Co. "Words to Go." Remember those? They came in a Chinese carry-out box. I have a gazillion of those things. I need to remember to use them more often--there seems to be a phrase for everything under the sun in that box.

Thanks for stopping by for a look today!

Sweet Marnie {CS 175}

2011-09-28T16:16:00.000-07:00

Our sketch at Creative Scrappers this week is a very interesting and fun one! I just love playing with sketches (especially Creative Scrappers sketches) because it gets me trying out new designs that I wouldn't have thought of. The vertical design, broken up by the horizontal strips, is something I haven't tried before.

Our team did a fundraiser for our field trip last spring where we scooped ice cream for Marble Slab Creamery, and one of my teammates and I stayed after for an ice cream and I took some pictures. I thought these pictures would be fun for the sketch since it called for two photos. I journaled on the back some of the fun memories about why I love working with Marnie.

I used the Saltwater Taffy kit from Noel Mignon to make this page. I thought the colors were perfectly ice-creamy. I couldn't for the life of me get a good picture. It's been raining for almost a solid month here, so I had to take a picture in my kitchen. Grrr...

Here are a few details. I discovered the little Lily Bee banner stickers looked sort of like ice cream cones after I had them stuck down and and added some of the flowers. I hate when those revelations happen after the fact! The cute little birds were cut out of an Echo Park paper. I added outlines with a pen.

The Thickers are so sparkly and fun! I broke out some old Primas. Gosh, I only have 3 of those little milk bottles, but I still have loads of those flowers!

Go check out what the rest of the team made with this fun sketch, and play along! You have until Friday to play along for the September prize (see details on the Creative Scrappers blog).

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

Bright {Creative Scrappers Sketch 173}

2011-09-13T04:04:00.000-07:00

We have a new sketch up at Creative Scrappers!

Elin made such an interesting sketch--so fun to work with! I flipped the sketch horizontally to accommodate the orientation of my photo. I used a Studio Calico kit (Metropolitan), along with a few things from my stash, to make my page. We've been having rain-rain-rain, so I had to take my picture indoors, and it's not the best picture in the world. That's my nephew in the picture.

I haven't journaled yet, but I plan to write some stories on the back about how ever since he was an itty-bitty guy he was so smart.

Here are a few details. I always save the label that comes on the paper bag from Studio Calico because they're so cute, and that's what I used in place of the rectangle at the top in the sketch. I've been on a mission to incorporate old stash on my pages. Those 3 words that I stitched over "Studio Calico" in the center are "Words to Go." Remember those? By K&Co? They came in a Chinese take-out container and there were about 5,000 words and phrases in there! The "workbook" and "schoolhouse" bits came off of the tearstrip of an October Afternoon paper that was in the kit.

That tab at the top is also really old. It's an old stencil definition tab by Autumn Leaves. I still have a whole bunch of them. I didn't have room or the whol thing, so cut it in pieces and tucked part of it here and part on the side.

Those Maya Road kraft doilies are so cool! They came in that Studio Calico kit. And how fun are the BasicGrey brads? "The rest of the story" was from a Cosmo Cricket tear strip.

Love the "pi radius squared" brad! When I was almost finished with my page, I felt I needed something yellow on the ticket to fill in the space and go with the yellow polka dot Crate Paper print, and I found these little Heidi Grace metallic dots in my stash.

You should go see what the rest of the team did with this fun sketch--awesome work over there! I hope you'll play along. You'll have lots of fun, and you may just win a prize from Vicky Alberto's Etsy Shop, our September sponsor.

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

Home Sweet Home {HMITM No. 180}

2011-09-11T18:16:00.000-07:00

We have a new challenge up at How Much Is Too Much, and it was my turn to create the challenge. We're in the process of buying a new house (our street address will be 4936), so for this challenge, I challenged everyone to make a layout using...

topic: your home (could be your whole house, a specific room, your yard, etc.)
a house embellishment (could be prefabricated or handmade)
choose a room in your house and use the colors as the basis for your layout
4 rub-ons
9 buttons and/or brads
3 labels or tags
6 patterned papers

For my colors, I chose my dining room (actually, these colors show up throughout my house):

I used mostly green, cream, and yellow, with a little red, which shoes up in my china cabinet if you look closely. It's been raining for days, and I can't seem to get a decent picture inside my house these days, but here it is. I tend to use a straight stitch on my pages, but I wanted to do a more decorative stitch around the edge of my page because originally when I started designing my page I had a lot more white space. I've said it before, though--I'm white-space challenged. Probably because I'm working on an 8 x 8 canvas. At least that's my excuse. And I'm sticking to it, LOL!

The journaling is a little hard to read in my photo, so here it is: It's what I shouted when I saw it. We had been driving by our lot every weekend since we had signed the contract, and it sat unchanged. Just an empty plot of land. Dirt, grass, a few trees, and the promise of something wonderful. Then all of a sudden, all that changed, and we had a hole in the ground. Our dream home was becoming a reality.

Here are some details. I've been on a mission use some of my old stash into my pages. Most of the stuff on here is pretty old. The green background paper is really old Fancy Pants. The yellow sparkly daisies are cut from an old--and I mean ancient--K&Co paper. The leaves are by Scenic Route (I'll be so sad when I run out of that paper). For my house part of the challenge, I cut out the little birdhouses from an old paper I've had from when I started scrapping over a decade ago! It pays to hoard, does't it?! We had to use 3 labels on our page (I'm not counting hte "Stop! I need a picture) for one of those). The two square labels in the photo below are actually one label cut in half and layered.

The labels are pretty old--from Fontwerks (are they even still around?). And how I love those K&Co. fabric brads. So pretty with all the little jewels. I hoard them, too! The butterflies are from the internet, printed on photo paper and then cut out. That little green circular thing is also VERY old--it's by K&Co. Remember when washers were popular years ago? K&Co. made some word washer stickers--and yeah, I bought them--and they pretty much have sat in my stash for many years--but I am little by little trying to use these things on my page--just tucking them into a cluster of embellishments sort of disguises their old-ness, I hope! You can also see two of the other papers I used in the photo below--Cosmo Cricket (red) and Jillibean Soup (yellow). And you can see that my Heidi Swapp chipboard letters are brown and ot black the way they appear above.

On this next picture, you can see my two "fresh eye" additions. (In case you don't know what I mean by that--a while back, I discovered that it helps to wait a day to photograph my layout because I always find a way to add something to improve my page). I added the home definition sticker (by Making Memories) and the second birdhouse--I felt I needed some red on the left.

I hope you'll play along this week. It's a really fun challenge, and a good excuse to document your own sweet home!

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

Never Forget

2011-09-11T05:52:00.000-07:00

My sister had this on her facebook page.

I can't believe it's been ten years since September 11. It makes me so sad thinking about that day. I made this layout five years ago. I chose the BasicGrey because of the distressing and the circle that looked like a setting sun.

If you click on the second page below, you can read the text better.

We need to never forget what happened that day.

Best.Class.Ever. {Another WIP Layout}

2011-09-10T07:13:00.000-07:00

Well, school started a couple of weeks ago. I have a really nice class, and I just know I'll grow to love them to bits, but last year's class was one of the best classes I've ever had in the twenty-one years I've been teaching.

When I was looking for pictures to scrap with the September Work in Progress kit, I came across this picture of one of my students and me at the Fifth Grade Farewell, back in June, and I thought the photo was just perfect to go with the flowery paper I wanted to use. I put a little mask over my student's face since I wasn't able to get permission to post her picture online.

I used the pretty Kaiser Kraft tags that came in the kit to document some of the reasons I so loved my class, including how they were just plain nice to each other, how we spent so many days laughing, and how they just loved to sing!

I love these great big BasicGrey flowers I cut out of one of their Out of Print papers. I used red buttons topped with pearls to coordinate with the red tag I had used for journaling. I popped up one of the flowers with pop dots to give it some fun dimension.

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

Awesome! {Work in Progress}

2011-09-03T05:31:00.000-07:00

Our gallery went live yesterday at Work in Progress Kits! Here's my first layout I made with the awesome September kit:

A little history on this page. Not too long ago, I was browsing Amazon.com to create a wishlist for my upcoming birthday, and I came across a book called The Book of Awesome, which has a sequel called The Book of Even More Awesome. There was this little video at Amazon advertising this book:

Needless to say, I put both of those books on my wishlist! I love the concept of this book, and I thought, wouldn't this be a cool idea for a scrapbook? So many happy little things happen every day, and wouldn't it be fun to document them and make a whole book of them so that when you're having a bad day, you could just open your own book of awesome? So this is my first page.

There's an alpaca farm on Route 85, which is a road we often drive (and a road I will be driving daily when we move to our new house), and a lot of times the alpacas are in their barn, but I get so happy when they are out on the lawn, and Farzad always pulls over so I can say hi!

Here are a couple of details from my page. I always wanted to try a corrugated cardboard background for my page. I just used an old box and tore it so it would fit on my page and peeled away the top layer. Those punched flowers came in the kit. Trish always includes little extras like die cuts and punchies in her kit.

Good old BasicGrey letters. I have just about every set to go with every collection, and I can always find just the right color I need. This one matched that blue floral tag. The scallopy design peeking out beneath the cardboard was a paisley-shaped BasicGrey Out of Print sticker that I cut in pieces and just hid the cuts behind the coardboard.

Another oldie-but goodie--K&Co. fabric brads. I love them so much and bought several packages because I was afraid once I used them up I wouldn't be able to find them. They always add a pretty touch. The pretty satin yellow ribbon came in the kit. I really love how ribbon looks, and I just don't use it enough!

The pretty tags are by KaiserCraft. I had a devil of a time figuring out how to fit those two tags on my page in just the right way (I wanted the pretty blue roses to show up on the light blue tag)--sometimes 8 x 8 pages are so tricky that way--until it dawned on me to turn one upside down, and that worked out just perfect!

Thank you for stopping by my blog and reading about my page! I will share some more of my work with this kit another day.

The Girl's Got Personality {CS #171}

2011-08-28T05:08:00.000-07:00

It's Sunday, which means we've got a new sketch up at Creative Scrappers this morning!

I love circles--they always add a bit of fun and interest to a page design. Here's the page I made. I made this for Emily's August Challenge over at Sassafras Lass. Emily's challenge is to use a mix of at least 3 different letters.

That's my best friend's daughter, Monica. She's a trip, and I thought the Sassafras Lass products were perfect to show off her fun personality!

Here are a few details. How I love those little monsters from the Monstrosity collection. I will be so sad when I run out of this paper! The fuzzy brad is by Sassafrass Lass, as are all the papers on my page.

Here's my mix of letters. I love these little Sassafras Lass letter stickers--they're the perfect size for my 8 x 8 pages. I also dug out some old Heidi Swapp rub-on letters. The black dots are Enamel Accents by Ranger. I outlined the monsters with a fineline pen and added Glossy Accents to their eyes. I also outlined the photos, letters, banner, and papers in pen. That brad is also from Sassafras Lass.

Some more of the little monsters. I tucked them inside a frame I cut out of the same paper. I roughed up the edges of my papers with my Distrezz-It-All. Such a nifty gadget!

Go check out what the rest of the team made with this sketch--awesome work there! And if you haven't yet played with any of the August sketches, there's still time. You have until August 31 to play with any of them for a chance at a prize from our sponsor, Crop Chocolate.

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

A Divine Palette {at CCG}

2011-08-19T04:02:00.000-07:00

Challenge 205 is live at Color Combos Galore. Isn't this a beautiful Inspiration Board?

Here is the page I created. The picture was taken with my new webcam. I've been chatting with friends on Skype for the past week, and for some reason whenever I'm looking at a light computer screen, my face gets all whited out and my friends have this joke, which is what my hidden journaling is all about. (It's an inside joke, so I won't be sharing the journaling.)

I used an odd assortment of papers for this page. The colors were tricky to get an exact match, but I found several that were pretty close to the palette. The teal paper in the background is by Heidi Grace and it has some pretty embossed dandelions, most of which unfortunately got covered up as I started adding to my page.

Here are some details. That big pink flower came from a K&Co pad of paper (Handmade collection). And the lanterns are from Webster's Pages, of course. Love those!

The floruishy teal paper is by Foofala. An oldie but goodie. Speaking of oldies but goodies, I still love my old Heidi Swapp letters. So classic. I don't think they'll ever go out of style--which is a good thing since I have a million packages of them! The little words are cut out of a Cosmo Cricket Odds & Ends paper. There's some of my mesh under the title for the Designer's Challenge. The silvery dots are Liquid Pearls. They always turn out pointy for me. Gotta experiment with them to figure out how to make them more like pearls and less like microscopic Hershey's kisses.

Thanks to my friend Tracee who suggested adding the rhinestones to these flowers when I was saying my layout needed more bling. The flower branch was cut out of an old Prima paper. I glazed them with Stickles. I also added that photo corner at the last minute. The alphabet paper is also from an Odds & Ends paper, and the "Document" journaling spot and harlequin pattern paper are by Teresa Collins. They were just the right shade of red. I found that the red in Jenni Bowlin's papers are pretty close to the red in the palette.

I added Glossy Accents to the little circles in the centers of these pink flowers. I also outlined the flowers with a fine pen.

Come on over and check out the beautiful work from the rest of the team, and play along with us! You may just become our next featured member!

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

3 Can Be a Lonely Number {CS Sketch 169}

2011-08-18T10:02:00.000-07:00

This week's sketch at Creative Scrappers was so much fun to play with:

I used Studio Calico's Paper Moon kit, along with a few odds and ends from my stash to make my page.

This is a makeover of this layout I made about 5 years ago. Call me crazy, but I like to re-do pages that I hate. Here's the journaling that's on the back (I just took a screen shot of the journaling on the old page):

Here are some details. How cool is that paper that looks like old computer punch cards? It's by October Afternoon from their Rocket Age collection--the specific paper is called Docking Maneuver. The bit that says "Travel Nightmare" is from a Smash pad (the travel one, obviously).

The border stickers (the red triangle, the train, and the circle numbers at the top) are by Crate Paper, from their Toy Box collection. That bit that says "Seriously" is an old woven tab by Making Memories--remember those? I've been making a conscious effort lately to include some of my "oldies-but-goodies" on my pages.

Here's another bit of old stash--a brass concho. I was trying to highlight the number 3 on my page. As you can see, I framed the 3 on that border sticker with the concho, and I cut out the 3's on the Studio Calico number paper. If you look back, you can see that I adhered some of the 3's that I punched out of the October Afternoon to the photograph.

The rest of the DT made some gorgeous stuff, so you'll have to pop over and see what they did. And I hope you'll play along--you may just win a prize from our sponsor, Crop Chocolate. You can read details about the requirements on the Creative Scrappers blog.

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

Take a Chill Pill

2011-08-15T10:23:00.000-07:00

...'Cause it's Relaxation Day! True story. And we're celebrating Relaxation Day with our newest challenge at How Much Is Too Much. Anna-Karin came up with a clever challenge:

- About something that you find relaxing.
- Close your eyes and dig into your stash of scrap patterned papers and randomly pick out at 6 or more pieces of papers and use those on your layout. No peeking!
- Do the same thing and pick 10 or more random buttons, ribbons or pearls.
- Use 3 bits and pieces lying around on your desk (not patterned papers). If you have a clean desk, use 3 left-overs from your last project.
- 1 recycled item

I used this sketch from Creative Scrappers as a starting point (ever since I got on the Creative Scrappers design team, I set a scrappy goal to make a layout for each of their sketches):

Here's the page I came up with:

I have to confess that I do not really love my page, but I did have lots of fun making it.

I scratched my head when I read the second two requirements. I have all my scraps organized by manufacturer in files with the whole sheets, and my embellishments are also very organized, so trying to just reach in and grab wasn't going to be an option.

Here's what I decided I'd do: I run a challenge at 2Peas called The Stash Challenge, so I have lists of manufacturers and types of embellishments on my computer that I use to draw from when I post the challenges. I used Random.org to pick random numbers, and then I counted down the lists. Here's what I came up with for paper manufacturers: Luxe Designs, Sassafras Lass, SEI, Paper Salon, Scenic Route, and American Crafts. My embellishments were lace, baker's twine, weather accents, charms, bird, decorative brads, flowers, swirls, epoxy stickers, stamp.

Fi Kenward, Tracee Provis, and I were video-chatting on Skype as we were picking our embellishments, so we could check up on each other and make sure we wouldn't cheat! What I did, once I had my lists was go to my manufacturer folders and randomly pull scraps. Such an odd assortment of papers! Similarly, with the embellishments, I went to the particular drawer holding that type of embellishment, closed my eyes, and pulled. When I got to the "weather related" accent, I realized I didn't have those housed together, so I asked Tracee to pick a number between 1 and 130 (the number of little drawers of embellishments I have), and she said 75. My 75th drawer had metal rimmed tags.

Here are a few details. That button was in the same drawer with my epoxy stickers, and that's what I randomly drew out of that drawer. Here's a shot of some of the papers. The woodgrain is Luxe Designs; the yellow polka dot is Sassafras Lass; the turqouise is SEI; and pink and brown circles were punched out of a Paper Salon paper, and the black and white rings came from a Scenic Route Halloween paper. The red leaves were leftover from the last layout and counted for the 3 bits and pieces lying around on my desk (oops--I just read that those weren't supposed to be patterned papers--does it count as cheating if you didn't mean to cheat?).

The rub-ons are old BasicGrey ones. The pearls were on my desk from my last layout. I always wanted to get a picture of me in front of the computer because I do spend a lot of time there, and I just got a web cam last weekend, so that's where my picture came from. I was so frustrated because my printer was acting up and I couldn't get a proper print, but in the end, I decided it was okay, since it was for Relaxation Day.

The little heart is my item that came from my charm drawer--it's actually a button. And here you can see that I drew a pink metal-rimmed tag. And the punched birds came from my drawer of bird accents. The striped paper is the B side of the teal paper.

This picture shows my bit of lace that I drew out of my lace jar. My recycled item is also in this picture--the blac-and-white scalloped bit is from a package of Chatterbox stickers that was sitting on my desk. And the MOD brad was the one I drew from one of my decorative brad drawers.

So there you have my page for Relaxation Day. I assure you that even if this sounds stressful (as it did to me when I first realized I was going to give up control over what was going on my page), it turned out to be GREAT fun! I always love a good challenge--and this one was definitely a challenge! I hope you'll give it a whirl! Come see the awesome stuff my teammates made!

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

A Beachy-Keen Palette {at CCG}

2011-08-12T06:29:00.000-07:00

Challenge 204 is live at Color Combos Galore!

For the Designer's Challenge we had to use a grid design. I had recently made a layout using a traditional grid, so I wanted to do something a little different, and I remembered a sketch I had seen at Studio Calico that reminded me a little of a grid:

Here is the page I made. I used square blocks of patterned paper, overlapping and staggering, for a sort of modified grid design. That's one of about a thousand pictures of my nephews posing with a toad they found in their back yard. I've written stories before about the toads, but really there was no special story for this page, just a cute picture. I used a bunch of older papers for this page, including Making Memories (the die-cut paper in the background and the blue polka dots), K&Co (the green), DCWV (the blue and white and the brown polka dots), and Chatterbox (plaid).

Here are a few details. The leaves were cut out of an old Scenic Route paper. I scored the center of the leaves and folded them up for a little dimension. The tabs tucked behind the photo are ancient--they're woven ribbony tabs by Scrapworks. I have a ton of them. Don't know why I thought of dusting them off for this page, but I'm glad I did.

There's another tab by scrapworks--has more of a canvas texture. That frog was cut from a birthday card and I put him on a punched circle. The border punch is by Martha Stewart, and the chipboard letters are by BasicGrey. I added the pom-pom trim at the last minute, just before I was going to photograph my page.

That arrow is an old Foofala rub-on, which I put on that same yellow paper (which was trimmed from the edge of a patterned paper, by the way--I thought it was the perfect shade of yellow). I outlined the arrow with bue pen and added the pearls. The word stickers are all by K&Co.

This little 3D flower sticker is by Chatterbox.

The reveal is just gorgeous this week, as always! Go take a peek. And I hope you'll play along with us--the challenges are so fun!

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

A Serene, Harmonious Palette {at CCG}

2011-08-06T05:28:00.000-07:00

Challenge 203 is up at Color Combos Galore, and what a lovely Inspiration Board we have this week:

And I just happened to have this picture of me looking for seaglass and Farzad patiently indulging me, so this page was born. It's going into my book called "Reasons," where I document all the little reasons I love my husband so much!

I got a little carried away adding stuff to my page. (And believe me, there's a pile of stuff on my scrap desk that I wanted to add but didn't fit). Most of the stuff on my page is pretty old. I was so happy to use some of the probably hundreds of sheets of vellum in my stash.

Here are some details. The vellum clocks came from a sheet of Rebecca Sowers Attic Collection patterned vellum (that shows you how old that is!). That little "Simple Stories" bit was cut form the tear strip of a patterned paper. That brown textured paper is also really old. I bought it at an art store years and years ago. My letter stickers are by BasicGrey and Webster's Pages. The colors matched the palette pretty closely. I did some scribbly pen work on the BasicGrey letters.

I love those white stem-looking patterns from an old Making Memories paper. I'm going to be sad when I run out of that paper. The seahorse was trimmed from a Webster's Pages paper. The netting tucked in between the layers is from a Webster's Pages bloomers trim. I added that charm to the stamped frame at the last minute, as well as the real starfish and sand dollar. The frame stamp is by Glitz Designs.

Those shell images come from a Creative Imaginations paper. The border stamp is by Kaiser Craft.

The patterned papers I used are from a Die Cuts With a View pad. Here you can see I added some water droplets by using Glossy Accents. I think I might add some more. You can also see that the aqua vellum is patterned--it has a watery pattern on it that was perfect for this challenge.

HEre you can see the silver charm a little better. That "Seaside Avenue" bit is from a Making Memories patterned paper.

Go take a look at the gorgeous work the rest of the team made, and I do hope you'll play along with us! If you've never tried our challenge, you must give it a whirl! It's so fun!

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

August Work in Progress

2011-08-04T04:03:00.000-07:00

I can finally share the pages I made for Work in Progress kits. Here is the kit I got to play with (sorry--sold out. Gotta snag it early!):

Here is my first page I made. I love watching the sun rise whenever we go to the beach, and Farzad and I always get up early to see it. We took pictures one summer of us watching. The butterfly shadow is covering me up, but I'm in that picture I'm sitting in a chair watching it. I was trying to figure out a title for my page, and I decided "Rise" was the perfect title for it's double meaning.

I used Creative Scrappers Sketch 164 to make this page. Ever since I've been on the CS design team, I made it a secret goal to try to do all of their sketches. Might take me forever, but it's a fun goal. I love setting scrappy goals. Keeps my scrappy routine interesting!

And here are some details. The yellow paper in the background with the numbers is by Simple Stories. And the flowers and yellow and orange polka dot circles are from the opposite side of the same paper. That journaling spot is by Jillibean Soup. The BasicGrey fabric brad is from my stash.

I didn't originally have the gold dots on my title and around the circles, but when I looked upon my page with fresh eyes the next day, I realized I neded a little something-something on my page. I made the dots with Scribbles 3D paint, which you can pick up at Michael's for about a dollar. The colorful striped element is by Jillibean Soup.

The wave punched border is another "fresh eye" addition," along with the sticker and brads. It gave my page a visual triangle that I felt was missing. Plus I always love how word stickers can add to a story.

So that's my first page with this fun, summery kit. I'll share the others in the coming days. Thank you so much for stopping by my blog and reading about my page today!

Oh My! {Creative Scrappers Sketch 167}

2011-08-02T05:45:00.000-07:00

Another fabulous sketch went up at Creative Scrappers on Sunday!

And here's the page I made. I used Studio Calico's On the Easel kit, plus a couple of things from my stash. I've been wanting to scrap this story forever and it feels especially urgent now that we'll be moving away from our house. This sketch was the perfect vehicle for using these three photos, which aren't of the best quality--it's hard to capture good pictures of wildlife thorough my dining room window at night.

Here are some details. I wanted to use a filmstrip to frame the pictures, but the ones I had in my stash didn't work well with the page design, so I went online to see if I could find something, and I did! Gotta love Google! I've been trying to add old stash to my pages, and that little star clip fit the bill.

I love how white letters look on white cardstock.

I thought the Maya Road chipboard window was a perfect accent, since it reminded me of the French doors that look out onto these critters. After I added these brads, I sort of wished I had done something else. Not sure what. I thought that adding them made it look less like a window. I painted the border of the window black and added Glossy Accents, so it's really shiny. Oh, and those brads are ancient, too--from back when the only brads you could find were in the office supply store. I still have a handful left, but using nine here put a dent in that stash.

Go take a peek at what the rest of the team made, and I hope you'll play along--Crop Chocolate is our sponsor this month, so you might just win something fun!

Thank you for visiting my blog and reading about my page!

CCG + HMITM = One Fun Page!

2011-08-01T04:23:00.000-07:00

I've had an extremely busy couple of weeks between my scrappy life and my home life. We're buying a house and have been cleaning, cleaning, cleaning to get our house ready to list. So I last week I had to choose between doing a page for Color Combos Galore or doing a page for How Much Is Too Much. In the end, I decided I couldn't decide, so I combined the challenges. Here's the Inspiration Board I had to work with:

Our challenge at HMITM is called Clowning Around (It's International Clown Week), and we had to use:

8 buttons
1 flower
11 different patterned papers
1 red circle
mist or paint

From this prompt, I immediately thought of making a page for my Book of Silly (yes, I have an album of silly family photos--actually several volumes). Debbie had provided a picture of a clown to use as inspiration, and as I was going through my photos, I came upon this picture of my nephew with his hair dyed bright red for school spirit week, and I knew it was the perfect photo for both of my challenges. Here's the page I came up with (for the life of me, I couldn't get a straight photo of this page--sorry!):

I used sketch 166 from Creative Scrappers as inspiration for my page. (Ever since I got on the CS design team, I set a goal to go back and do all of the sketches--which will take me a long time since there are so many!)

Here are a few details. I love Brian Andreas. I have all of his Storypeople books, and I use a lot of his stories for my Book of Silly. I thought this quote would be fun to use with this picture. I made the journaling label by using the RGB codes to get the perfect colors and then printed it out on photo paper.

That electron thingy with the pearl in the center is a BasicGrey rub-on, rubbed onto a transparency.

Eleven patterned papers are a LOT for an 8 x 8 page, so I decided to use bits and pieces cut from papers. The background woodgrain is Hambly. They gray is by American Crafts. The red polka dots and the eye charts are by Jillibean Soup. The periodic elements paper is Reminisce. Those green circles with the off-white bubbles in them are cut from a Crate Paper pattern, and the circle numbers are cut from a My Mind's Eye paper.

Here you can see more patterned papers I used. The red circle with the star is from an old Scenic Route Christmas paper. The leaves are cut from a Luxe Designs Paper. They wre bright lime green, so to tone them down, I added an olive colored chalk. They were still too bright, so I brushed gesso over them, and that gave me almost the perfect shade of green for the palette. I got that electron image from the Internet and printed it on photo paper. The part of the HMITM challenge that was trickiest for me was the flower. I didn't want a girly page, so I hunted through my stash to find something that would meet the flower requirement and found this little brad. I found a bunch of gray buttons in my stash to meet the 8 button requirement.

You'll have to go check out the awesome work the CCG and HMITM teams did with these challenges, and I hope you'll play along. Both challenges are immensely fun!

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

Scrappy Pins

2011-07-26T06:05:00.000-07:00

Today is my turn to blog over at Work in Progress, and I thought it would be fun to post it here on my blog, too, since it's scrap related...

I thought I'd share some of my pins from Pinterest today. I have lots of categories, but I thought I'd share my board called "Scrappy." These are images that I thought could someday be used on a scrapbook page.

Here they are, in no particular order...

I thought this was a clever twist on the ever popular banner:

I love the sentiment and the lettering on this one:

How fun are these hearts. They seem like they'd be easy to do:

I love how they put the date inside the wheel:

These handmade flowers are so beautiful. There's a tutorial on how to make them here.

Magnets made from maps--but how cool would it be to use maps for chipboard buttons?

I thought this quote would make a good title page for an album.

Thanks for letting me share some of my pins. And let me know if you use any of these ideas on a scrapbook page! I'm going to make an effort to use one of these ideas with my August WIP pages.

CCG Blog Hop Winner of My RAK

2011-07-25T05:31:00.000-07:00

A huge thank you to everyone who visited my blog for CCG's blog hop. I had fun reading every single comment. Thanks for all the sweet words. You all made my day!

I used random.org's Random Number Generator and got the number 10

The tenth person who posted on my blog was Kathy:

Kathy said...

Gorgeous page, Debbi, and I loved your tips....so practical, but I hadn't thought of them before! Wonderful embossing on that sweet doily!

Yay, Kathy! I'll need your mailing address to send your RAK. If you are a CCG member, you can send me a message through there.

A Dreamy, Creamy Palette at CCG

2011-07-22T05:07:00.000-07:00

Challenge 201 is live at Color Combos Galore and the colors this week are absolutely dreamy! Our Designer's Challenge this week is a new focus--a recipe of sorts. So fun!

As I always do, I pulled the color swatch onto my computer screen and looked for pictures to use, and I came up with these pictures of my gram and sister with Farzad, and immediately, I thought, "Everybody loves Farzad" and I knew I wanted hearts on my page. I instantly thought of the Object of My Affection kit by Noel Mignon, and to my delight, the colors were perfect. The main papers I used were from Pink Paislee's Cupid collection, which had the pink, aqua, and brown. I used an embossed swiss dot paper by Bazill as my backdrop for the white and the polka dot part of the Designer's Challenge. I used Creative Scrappers Sketch 151 as inspiration for my page design.

Here's my page. In case you're wondering why the two blocks of blue hearts are a little different, it's because they came from two different sheets. I had two sheets of this paper, and the first one better matched up with the palette so I used that, and when I went to cut the smaller piece, I accidentally used the different sheet. And then I went and accidentally stitched it on sideways. I wondered why I was having a hard time fitting my title on there when I had planned it all out--and then I realized I had stitched the darn thing on sideways. Oh well, no turning back when you've stitched something down!

This page is going into my book called "Reasons" (reasons I love Farzad so much). I was going to add white journaling strips with pink writing in the white space at the top, but then I decided I didn't want to cover up the pretty embossed Swiss dots, so I went with journaling on the back of the page, which reads: Everybody loves Farzad. It was love at first sight when my family met him, even though they were apprehensive, considering I was 17 and he was 28. But his warm smile, charm, generosity, and sense of humor instantly won them over. Everyone he meets falls in love with him. He just has this way about him that puts people at ease.He's always positive and cheerful, rarely gets mad. He's outgoing and easy-going and just that all-around nice guy that everyone likes to be around. Yes, everybody loves Farzad. Especially me.

Here are some details. The center of this flower was a greenish-yellow, which didn't go with the palette, so I grabbed some pink paint and brushed over it. Part of the Designer's Challenge was to use fabric, and as luck would have it, there was some pink fabric in the kit I was using. Another ingredient of the Designer's Challenge "recipe" was to use leaves, and again, my luck was running high because one of the papers in the kit had these dark brown leafy shapes.

Here's a closeup of my title. I had to really squeeze it on there because of my dumb mistake of sewing on that piece sideways. I plopped that big pink bling heart over the O and then decided I didn't like it, but the darn thing wouldn't come off, so there it stays! My foam adhesive squares were the perfect size for these tiny letter stickers.

I had used lots of brads for the metal part of the Designer's Challenge, but then I decided that was a cop-out because I always use brads on my layout, so I looked for some "real" metal to use, and I remembered these old Making Memories clips in my stash, and I was delighted to find a pink one with a heart. That striped paper had some bold red stripes in it, and I almost didn't use it because there was no red in the palette, but instead, I trimmed the spots where there was red and pieced the strip back together, overlapping another color on top of the red. Problem solved!

I noticed one of the tear strips said "coordinating pattern on the back" and thought I should use the "on the back" part to indicate my hidden journaling, and this little die-cut tag in the kit was the perfect size to hold that. For the three circle part of the Designer's Challenge, I decided to mount some of the cut-out flowers on a punched brown circle, but I didn't have quite the right size circle to go with the flowers--there was all this extra space, so I added some glitter around the edges. Doesn't show up as pretty in the pictures.

I added some rub-ons to my page. I have TONS of rub-ons, and I always forget to use them, so lately, I've been making a conscious effort to use them more. I love this pink crown that came on a Pink Paislee sheet in the kit. All the rub-ons on this page are from that same sheet.

The reveal this week is especially gorgeous, so you should go check out what the rest of the team made. And I hope you'll play along with us! These challenges are so fun!

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

Merry Christmas! - Christmas in July at HMITM

2011-07-21T03:45:00.000-07:00

We have a fun challenge up at How Much Is Too Much! Fi gave us a "Christmas in July" challenge, and we had to use:

2 + photos [at least 2]
1 x Christmas tree image, any size
5 x patterned papers, i.e., Christmas patterns,
5 x metal embellishments, and any other embellishment in increments of 5

Scrapping Christmas pictures always presents a challenge for me. I always enjoy making the pages--trimming them with pretty decorations--but since I like the focus to be on storytelling, I don't always have stories to tell for the multitude of Christmas pictures we take. So I hemmed and hawed over what to do, and just decided to go for it and scrap these fun pictures of my mom and Gram with their "loot piles."

I used the current sketch at Once Upon a Sketch as inspiration for my page design. My pages always look different from the sketch since I scrap 8 x 8, and sometimes it's hard to shrink things down. I used the Bedford Falls kit from Noel Mignon, along with a couple of odds and ends from my stash.

I almost always put titles on my pages, but I just couldn't think of a good one (since I didn't have a story--my titles are usually drawn from the stories) and I didn't have a lot of space to work with (one of the problems of scrapping 8 x 8!), so I just decided it was okay to not have a title.

Here are some details. I cut the circles of the Santas out of one of the patterned papers in the kit--here's Santa holding a Christmas tree (to meet the Christmas tree part of the challenge). The rub-ons I used are pretty old, by K&Co.

The banner die-cuts were so pretty, and I prettied them up further with these gigantic pearls that I had in my stash.

This medallion design was on the edge of one the Pink Paislee papers, and I cut it out and tucked it behind the photos so you couldn't see the missing parts.

So, while this was, in some ways, a tricky challenge for me, I had a lot of fun using the Bedford Falls kit, which I just got on sale from Noel Mignon half price, and I'm happy that I finally scrapped these two pictures from Christmas before last. Go take a peek at what the rest of the team made for this challenge, and I hope you'll play along--you could end up in our How Awesome Is Too Awesome Hall of Fame and become our next Guest Designer!

Thank you for visiting my blog and reading about my page!

You're a Jerk - Creative Scrappers Sketch

2011-07-18T03:38:00.000-07:00

A while back, my nephew was really into jerking, and I snapped some pictures of him doing this crazy dance. In case you've never heard of this dance, here's the song that sparked it all:

I thought our current sketch at Creative Scrappers was perfect for these pictures:

Here's my page. I used Studio Calico's "Mind the Gap" kit to make my page, along with a couple of stickers and rub-ons from my stash.

The grid stamp is from another Studio Calico kit. I used clear embossing powder on it. I added Glossy Accents to the letter stickers to give them a little more dimension. I love those little metal studs that came in this kit. They're by 7 Gypsies. That gray paper is byAmerican Crafts. It's glossy and embossed.

These cool metal buttons also came in that kit. The word stickers are from my stash. The circles were made with a regular hole punch. They are my next day additions when I gave my page a second look.

I tend not to use mists because of the lack of control. The splatters just seem to go wherever they want, which happened to be the case on this layout. I didn't intend for those big splats to be at the edge of the page, but in the end, I decided they looked okay. I outlined the splats with a fine pen. Those number rub-ons are by 7 Gypsies. That circular wood-grain bit is a label that sealed the bag my Studio Calico kit came in. I always cut them out and save them (because I am such a packrat), and it came in handy for this page. I punched one of my stars out of the bottom that's hidden by the pictures.

This was such a fun sketch to work with. You should go check out what the rest of the team made, and I hope you'll play along. You just might win a prize from our July sponsor Pretty Little Studio.

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

CCG 200th "Anniversary" Blog Hop!

2011-07-17T07:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Color Combos Galore 200th "Anniversary" Blog Hop! We hope by visiting the CCG Design Team members' blogs, you will be able to pick up some fun tips and techniques. Many of the team members will be offering prizes, so you will want to visit all of the blogs to increase your chances of winning some fun scrappy stuff. We are also offering a chance at a Guest Designer spot for the month of August if you visit all of the blogs in our Blog Hop and participate in Challenge 200 by uploading your project to the CCG Gallery. It's so fun to get the colors before everyone else! Plus, who doesn't love to see their name in lights! The deadline for the chance to win these prizes is one week from today, Sunday, July 24, EST.

If this is your first stop at our Blog Hop, you'll want to start at Bente Fagerberg's blog, and follow the hop in order so you don't miss anyone. If you've been hopping in order, your next stop is Eva Pizarro.

Once you have visited all the blogs and uploaded a project to the CCG Gallery using Challenge 200, please make sure you check in at the Blog Hop discussion in the Special Announcements Forum at CCG. We will choose our August Guest Designer from that thread. Individual DT members will be choosing winners for the prizes they are offering. Good luck, and we hope you'll enjoy our blog hop!

CCG has a very talented team of designers, and they will be sharing some amazing techniques. I don't consider myself much of a "technique" scrapper but rather a storyteller, so instead, I thought I'd share some of my favorite tips--ones that I use a lot that help me on virtually every page I made, including this page I made for Challenge 200:

Favorite Tip #1 - You may not know that I scrap 8 x 8, which means I have to really plan my layouts carefully so that everything fits. One thing that helps me is wax paper! I use wax paper to see if my title fits where I want it to. I just adhere my title letters on the wax paper, and I can move my title (or other sticky elements) around my page until I get it just where I want it.

Favorite Tip #2 - I just recently figured this one out. I used to photograph my layouts as soon as I was finished with them, but I recently realized that waiting until the next day allows me to see my page through "fresh eyes" and I almost always add something to it that makes it feel more "complete." On this particular layout, what I added were the Ranger Enamel Accents to the letter stickers and the Ranger Perfect Pearls to the scallops on the envelope, and believe it or not, I didn't originally have that doily stamp on the envelope. I sort of knew I needed something there, but it didn't come to me until the next day when I had another look. I can't imagine my page without that detail.

Favorite Tip #3 - Before you toss the edge of the patterned paper away, look closely at it. You know, the part that has the manufacturer’s name, logo, paper line, and bar code? Sometimes, this disposable bit of paper might be just the perfect thing for your layout. That "Haute Cuisine" on the side came from the tear strip on a Teresa Collins paper. Pay attention to the names of the papers or collection names, which might help you tell our story. My very favorite tear strips are on Cosmo Cricket's papers--you know, the ones that say "flip for fun" or "but wait, there's more," and so forth. I use those a lot for when I use hidden journaling (and I have to do that a lot because sometimes there's just not enough room on an 8 x 8 page for my story).

Favorite Tip #4 - Tell a story. It doesn't have to be long and drawn out, though it's nice to write a detailed narrative sometimes. But it's important to get all the little bits and pieces of your life down on paper. Think about it: Some day we're going to look back on all these hundreds--or thousands--of pages we've made, and it's the stories that are going to make us smile more than the beautiful products we used on our pages. As I've evolved over the ten years I've been scrapping, the "artistic" side of scrapping has become more important and interesting and fun to me (not to mention, the array of wonderful products has become so irresistible to use), and sometimes the design I have in mind doesn't allow for the lengthy journaling I enjoy to fit on my small canvas, so in those cases, I'll hide my journaling--in a pocket or on the back of my page. It might seem odd that I scrapped pictures of my mom's ugly meatloaf (she wouldn't let me photograph her holding the pan because she didn't have on makeup), but it's a little piece of my life I wanted to document, and some day when I'm old and maybe my mom won't be around anymore, I can look at this page and remember how she used to make meatloaf for me. And I'll smile.

Okay, so I lied. I do have two little techniques to share, and these are more for newbies:

Technique #1 - About the distressed edges (and I'm almost embarrassed to share this because so many on the CCG team are masters at distressing--and I can't wait to read their blog entries in hopes they'll share their secrets), I used a Zutter Distrezz-It-All. It's a handy little electric contraption that allows you to run your paper across it and it does the distressing for you, easy-peasy!

Technique #2 - Heat embossing. If you're chicken to try it, don't be. I know I was for a long time, and the first time I tried it, it worked perfectly and I was so surprised and so irritated that I hadn't tried it before! All you need is a stamp, an embossing stamp pad, embossing powder, and an embossing gun. Just ink your stamp with the embossing ink and stamp your image--it'll be clear. Then sprinkle the embossing powder over your stamped image and tap off the excess (I do it on a sheet of paper so I can easily dump it back into the container). Then heat it with your embossing gun, and the image magically turns into the wonderful raised, shiny embossed image! Couldn't be easier!

Thank you for hopping onto my blog today. I hope you picked up a little something from reading what I shared. Please leave a comment for a chance to win a little surprise of scrappy goodies from my stash. Your next stop is Eva's blog...

A Cool, Smooth Palette at CCG

2011-07-15T06:26:00.000-07:00

Challenge 200 is live at Color Combos Galore. Two hundred color combos--that's quite a milestone, and we're going to be celebrating this week! Here's our Inspiration Board:

I didn't realize when I made the palette how difficult it was to find true blue paper, but after digging through my entire stash I finally found a true blue in a DCWV stack. The orange, which has a bit of a yellow tint to it was a little tricky too, but I found an OLD Scenic Route paper that was perfect, too. Actually, I had immediately thought of BasicGrey Dawson, which does indeed perfectly match the blues and also has some orange, but those papers didn't go with the feel of my page I had in mind...

The drippy-melty Designer's Challenge was a stretch for me. I've tried the drippy thing before because I always admire it on others' pages, but when I try it, it always comes out looking, well...drippy. And messy. And as much as I long break out of my "clean" box and get messy and drippy, I'm always afraid of messing up. So I opted for going melty. Specifically melting embossing powder.

Here are some details. I had originally planned to work off of a sketch and printed out my pictures larger, but once I got going, I decided I wanted to put Mom's recipe on my page, and went with the pretty Maya Road envelope, so I tossed the sketch and made the envelope an integral part of my page. Which is tricky since I scrap 8 x 8 and the envelope took up half of my page. So I reprinted the pictures smaller and designed my page around the envelope. I needed to do lots of overlapping. Once I'd assembled most of the page, I felt the pretty flap was still not pretty enough and felt too much like a blank, open space (and everyone knows I'm white-space challenged, lol), so I added this pretty My Mind's Eye doily stamp.

I had received this BoBunny Kitchen Spice stamp set when I was working for SNR and we were doing a Bo Bunny manufacturer feature, and it was perfect for my page. I had already planned to use this Martha Stewart doily, and to my surprise and delight, it fit perfectly inside theis stamp. Do I get "messy" points for stamping directly on my background paper? I'm always so afraid of messing up with stamps that I usually stamp on cardstock and cut out. That's a Prima flower, and underneath it is an ancient die-cut flower from Urban Lily. I'm such a hoarder, but I'm glad I kept that ugly thing to add another layer here, and it was the perfect shade of orange.

Here are some more stamps from that Bo Bunny set. And yes, I realize I should have a picture of my mom holding the meatloaf instead of just the ugly loaf by itself, but my mom's extremely camera shy, and when we go over for dinner, she's usually not dressed up or made up, so she forbade me to take a picture. I do hope she'll get over this soon. I need to have a serious talk with her about this lack of Mom pictures in my albums.

I used my very favorite chipboard letters--BasicGrey. They're small and cute and perfect for my 8 x 8 pages. I sure wish they'd make more colors! The blue letter stickers are old K&Co. that I dressed up with Ranger Enamel Accents. Love that stuff!

The reveal is fantastic again this week, so you should go take a peek at what the team did, and you'll definitely want to play along this week, as well as participate in our blog hop, which starts this Sunday, because there's going to be lots of prizes from the design team, as well as a culminating prize of a guest designer spot for the month of August! We'll be posting more details about that on Sunday.

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

A Quirky Memory with the July WIP Kit

2011-07-14T06:11:00.000-07:00

Here is my second page using the elements from the July Work in Progress main kit and project kit (the project kit is sold out, but the main kit is still available). The colors were so fun in this kit that I had to make a playful childhood memory page. And this one is quirky! I had a kind of long story to tell, which is a challenge to squeeze onto an 8 x 8 page, but I didn't want my journaling to be hidden for this one because it's the story that's the star of this page. I chose a random picture of mini-me to be in a supporting role.

Here are some details. How fantastic are these butterflies! Love the dimension and that they're translucent and vivid at the same time. Plus they're just the right size--not too big for my 8 x 8 pages. They're made by Recollections. I must get some more of these.

These fun clouds and kites were cut out of one of the My Mind's Eye Lime Twist papers. I outlined them with black pen to add a little extra interest to them and then added a button and two periods from the chipboard letter set I used to the kit centers.

My "extra" that I added the next day when I gave my page a second glance before photographing was the Magic Mesh. I still have a whole drawer of that stuff. I wonder if you can still buy it? I'll be sad when I run out if it's no longer available!

Those orange pearls that came in the kit were just the perfect size to fit inside the green polka dot paper.

Trish included these cool number tags in the kit. They were originally kraft, but I wanted mine to be a different color to tie in with the bright papers I was using, so I painted it with some Making Memories paint. For my random childhood memory pages, I always like to include a "Random No." and this tag was the perfect thing for this! The tag was actually much longer, so I chopped it in half to fit on my small page and then disguised the cut with some of the zig-zag paper. How fun is that orange hemp cord. It also came in the kit on a card with four different colors.

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog to read about my layout!

A Lively, Cheerful Palette at CCG

2011-07-08T11:27:00.000-07:00

Challenge 199 is live at Color Combos Galore! Did you know July is National Ice Cream Month? Well, ice cream's our theme this month, and what a yummy, cheerful palette we got to play with this week! But before I share the Inspiration Board, how about a song to go with the colors...

And here's the challenge...

I started out with an Easter photo from my childhood, and then I remembered this picture that was waiting for the perfect combo--and this was just the palette it was waiting for! Talk about luck! If I had passed this up, I would've had to wait for a long, long time for just the right color scheme!

The girls are my students from this past school year. I didn't have permission to post pictures of them, so I covered their eyes to disguise them to protect them from internet crazies. Teaching is such a big part of my life, and it just dawned on me recently when I made a page about something that happened with my beardie in my class (this page), that I really need to start documenting all the interesting little bits taht happen at school, so here's the page I made:

The journaling on the back reads: When I went to school that day, it was a seemingly ordinary school day, only it turned out to be anything but. It happened to be the day of Prince William and Kate Middleton's royal wedding, and a couple of my girls decided they needed a celebration fit for royalty, so they set out to make proper crowns from construction paper. Like all good ideas, this one spread like wildfire up and down our hall, and by lunch time, all the fifth grade girls were sporting their regal headwear! {April 29, 2011}

Here are some details. I dug deep into my stash for this page! I've been reorganizing/cleaning my scrap room, and rediscovered these fun Rhonna Farrer French Twist rub-ons. I had two packages of them that I think I got as a RAK from Jennifer McGuire several years ago. I trimmed the edge off of some *vintage* Narratives paper and added some green pearls. The yellow chipboard letters weren't standing out the way I wanted, so I outlined them in pen, but it wanted to smear, so I sprinkled it with clear embossing powder and heated it.

I dug through my stash to see what else I could find, and came up with these 3D stickers from American Crafts (the flower and the heart). I was happy to use the Heidi Sapp bling crowns. I used two on this page, and now I just have one left. The chipboard piece is by Sassafras Lass, and the brad is My Mind's Eye. I tucked another little French Twist rub-on owl in there, too.

The Designer's Challenge was to use staggered lettering, like on the ice cream bowls in the Inspiration Photo. I found the perfect staggery font called SFBeaverton.

Here's another chipboard piece from the same Sassafrass Lass set. Those green leaves are also French Twist rub-ons. I thought they looked sort of like a royal jester's hat when I put them together. The flowers I used are silk flowers from Michael's that I bought eons ago, and that cute flower brad is also pretty old, by Prima. The other flowers tucked in there are by K&Co.

The white butterfly came about because that ink on the chipboard got on my hand and smeared onto my white paper, so I covered it up. I really didn't want to put anything there, and I tried a bunch of different things, but I figured if I painted it white, it wouldn't be too blantant an addition.

Here's a shot of the border with the French Twist rub-ons. Fortunately I had two packages of them to extend the length of the green paper and also some to use on the top of my page. The colors were a little different in the two packs. Oh, well, I'll never be able to claim any kind of perfection on my pages. Imperfection is okay by me! I was just thrilled to make this page out of mostly really old stuff! I had run out of the green pearls I used on the top border, so I used pink ones on the bottom.

If you haven't seen what the rest of the team made, you'll have to pop over to CCG--really gorgeous reveal this week (I know--I say that every week!). I hope you'll play along. These colors were SO much fun to work with!

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

Work in Progress - July

2011-07-07T06:25:00.000-07:00

The July Work in Progress kit is so pretty and cozy and summery:

Here is the first page I made. Each summer, I've been making a page about things on my mind, and this is big-time on my mind this summer:

That's the house we're buying. It hasn't been built yet, so I grabbed a photo from the website. My journaling on the back reads:

Summer 2011 will go down in history as the summer I spent getting ready for our new house. Decluttering. HOW do two people accumulate so much junk in two decades? Cleaning. Moving things that haven't been moved in eons reveals gigantic dust bunnies (dust elephants?). Dumping. Yeah, the guys at the dump now know Farzad on a first-name basis. Packing. Thank goodness for all those McDonald's French fry boxes. Storing. Our attempt at making our little house seem roomier. Improving. Putting more floors in, redoing the walkway, planting, mulching, overall making our house shine and sparkle. Dreaming. Yes, all this hard work will be worth it when we finally get to move into our dream house.

Here are some details. Love the butterflies that came in the project kit. I used a flower from my stash.

The little typewriter and clock images came from a Pink Paislee paper in the kit. I thought they were perfect for this page. I roughed them up with my Zutter Distrezz-It-All.

Love these calendar tickets. I had used the August one on another page, darn-it! I trimmed the cut-off strip from a paper that said "coordinating pattern on back" and used it to indicate that I had hidden journaling. Love those Lily Bee letter stickers. They're small and perfect for adding subtitles.

The July kit is still avilable. The papers and embellishments in this kit are perfect for summer but are also so versatile. If you've been wanting some of the new Lily Bee stuff, this is the kit for you!

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

Happy Independence Day!

2011-07-04T03:42:00.000-07:00

Our new challenge is up at How Much Is Too Much, and it's my turn to host the challenge. I called my challenge "Stars and Stripes" forever, and I'm asking players to use:

** elements that include STARS (embellishments, patterned paper, etc.) and STRIPES (ribbon, patterned paper, etc.)
** a flag or banner accent
** and to play off the date we're celebrating, July 4, 1776, use:

7 - brads
4 - four-word title
1 - photo
7 - labels
7 - seven-sentence journaling
6 - patterned papers

I also used this week's Color Combos Galore challenge:

I had this cheesy photo of my husband from last year's 4th of July printed and never scrapped it, so I thought this was a good chance to scrap it. I dug deep into my stash for some of the papers. That gray background paper is by Sweetwater (are they even still in business?). I've got some old Scenic Route paper on there, and the red stripe and tape measure print are also really old, from back when vintage was all the rage. Funny how styles come back--just like fashion (good thing I'm a packrat! That Hardware ticket behind my picture is also really old.

I wanted to use this My Mind's Eye star paper, but it was too vibrant for the CCG palette, so I thought of brushing white paint on it, and at the last minute, I spied the tub of gesso that I bought a year ago and wondered if that would do the trick, and it did! The turquoise paper turned into "Back in Time Blue!"

Here are some details... That kraft journaling spot is by Making Memories and is pretty old. I mounted it with pop dots so I could add the flags behind it. The die-cut accents in front of the journaling spot are by October Afternoon. The CCG Inspiration Board led me to add the "road trip" sign, but I thought it was fitting here because my husband is a trip, lol!

Here are a couple of the 7 requisite brads. That heart-shaped one is by Making Memories. It was from a Valentine set, but I thought it was perfect for this page. The small letter stickers are by Lily Bee.

You can see the brush strokes in this shot. The number paper at the top is by October Afternoon. I tucked a little 7 Gypsies sticker in between the layers. I got those pins from Michaels--a pretty big batch for just a couple of dollars. They were in the floral section and were called flower pins or something like that--I have no idea what their intended use was, but I thought they would be fun for my scrapbooks.

The "5&Dime" strip is a cut-off strip from the October Afternoon paper I used at the top of my page. I was needing a little somethingbeneath the picture, and that did the trick. The "Circus Peanuts" name of the paper seemed fitting for the picture, lol. There was a gap between the two phrases, so I was able to use some of the brads I needed to include for the challenge.

I've said this before, but I just recently started waiting a day before photographing my page to see if I my page feels "complete," and I'm often finding that I need to add just one or two more things to make it feel finished. I added the "76" (cut out of a Glitz Designs paper) and the asterisk sticker (from a really old Bookworks sticker sheet). If you scroll up and look at my page and try to imagine my page without these two addtions, you will see why my page didn't feel complete.

I hope you'll hop over to HMITM and see what the rest of the team did and play along with us and also visit CCG and see the new design team's beautiful creations.

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

Creative Scrappers - Sketch 163

2011-07-03T05:16:00.000-07:00

A new sketch is up at Creative Scrappers--and it's my first reveal as a member of the design team! Here's the cool sketch we got to work with:

I went pretty literal with the sketch, only I flipped it to accomodate the orientation of my photo. I originally had the squares lined up, but then decided to place them off-kilter, which I thought was perfect for this quirky memory. I used Studio Calico's Lawn Party kit for my page, plus a few odds and ends from my stash.

Here are a few details. I love those fabric Thickers. They add such interesting texture. I printed my text on a journaling spot that had a somewhat slick surface, and I find that sometimes when I do this, the ink smears, so I've learned to sprinkle my printed journaling with clear embossing powder and heat it up. Solves the problem lickety-split!

How cute are those Pebbles flags that came in the kit? I always like to add "random memory no." to my random childhood memories, and the flags were perfect for that. The little circles with animals were punched from an October Afternoon paper. I dug out an old My Mind's Eye transparent frame to add an extra layer to my page. I added the pearls the next day, just before I photographed my layout.

I used my Zutter Distrezz-It-All to rough up the edges and then added rows and rows of stitching to the grid for more texture.

Love, love, love the flower cabochon brads by Pebbles that were in this kit. They're glittery. I need to find some more of these! The butterfly was trimmed from a Studio Calico paper.

Head over to Creative Scrappers to see the beautiful inspiration from the rest of the designers, and I hope you'll play along. Not only are the sketches awesome, but if you share your page on the CS site by July 31, you could win a prize from our sponsor this month, Pretty Little Studio.

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

A Sentimental Post

2011-07-01T07:55:00.000-07:00

So today, Creative Prompts for You has officially closed its doors. I'm a bit sentimental about it because, well, I'm a sentimental kind of girl. Here's a song for your listening enjoyment while you indulge me in my reminiscences, lol.

I remember back in the day when Creating Keepsakes used to have a column called Inspiration Station, I think it was, by Faye Morrow Bell, and I just loved that column and how she'd use an everyday object--might be a fashion accessory or a home decor item--as inspiration for her scrapbook pages. CP4U was like that, and I was so excited to become a part of that team! Here's a layout I made for one of the prompts, and I'm so glad I documented this part of my scrappy history. It's going into an evolving album called "Pursuit of Scrappiness."

I counted today and found out that I made 35 pages during my tenure at CP4U, and I put them all together:

(Couldn't figure out how to get that bottom image the same size as the others. Ugh.)

I just removed my badge from my sidebar, but I wanted to keep it on my blog, so I'm putting it in this post.

Yeah, I'm a sentimental lady. But all kidding aside, I want to thank Ally and Nicole for having me on their team. It's been a wonderful ride!

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today!

Published!

2011-06-30T06:43:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-28T14:01:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-06-25T03:07:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-23T04:09:00.000-07:00

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}

2011-06-21T05:33:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-06-20T10:50:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-19T17:40:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-06-17T13:58:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-06-11T06:29:00.000-07:00

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!

Summer Lovin' - Or should I say, "Lovin' Summer"

2011-06-10T15:51:00.000-07:00

Summer break is a week away for me, but we've got a SWEET summery challenge up at Color Combos Galore! But before I share this week's Inspiration Board, here's a tune to go with this week's challenge...

I can't tell you how many times I saw that movie back in the 70's and how I practically wore the grooves out on that record! So here's Challenge 196:

My layout was inspired by Sketch 156 from Creative Scrappers:

and my page...

I realized when making this page that I need to start getting more photos of myself. I used this photo on another layout, but I like this picture because I look relaxed and happy, which is just what this layout is all about.

Here are some close-ups. I dug out a lot of old papers for this page. The photo on the Inspiration Board led me to tear the paper strips--trying to get a seafoam feel. I left the ends of the threads uncut--I was going for a seabreeze sort of look. You can see the threads on the left side of my page, but when I cropped the photo, the ones on the right didn't show up so you can see them in this photo. Papers I used, from top to bottom are 7 Gypsies, Hambly, Fancy Pants, another 7 Gypsies, Crate Paper, Making Memories, yet another 7 Gypsies, one more Fancy Pants, and Die Cuts With a View. The branchy thing is cut out from an old Making Memories paper that I just love. The burlap was sitting on my scrap desk from a layout I made a while back, and I thought it would add some nice texture to the layers. (Lucky thing I don't clean my scrap desk too often, lol!)

This flower is cut out of a rose ribbon trim by BoBunny (it's sort of like the Webster's Pages Bloomers), and I tucked a black rhinestone brad (Recollections) in there. I got that butterfly years ago in a Scarlet Lime kit, I think. I stapled his body to the page and put pop dots under the wings.

The little chipboard butterflies are by Dusty Attic, and I left them raw because they matched the palette. I have a huge collection of rhinestones in every color imaginable, and I found the perfect blue for this page.

The letter stickers are BasicGrey, of course. Love those things. Such a classic look. The rub-on letters ("sweet") are by Headline. I don't like where I placed them, but I was afraid of messing up the whole page once they were rubbed on, so I left them.

The design team and our featured member and guest designers made some beautiful projects, so you should head over there and take a peek. And please play along--you could win a prize from our sponsor or you might be spotted as a Gallery Fave. And you might even be asked to be a Featured Member. If you haven't tried the challenges, you should really give it a whirl--they're really, really fun!

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

WIP + CP4U = Fun + Happy!

2011-06-07T14:32:00.000-07:00

The June Work in Progress kit is chock-full of colorful happiness, and it was perfect for challenge 67 at Creative Prompts for You:

Take a look at all the colorful goodies in the Work in Progress kit that I had to choose from for this page:

I used primarily Echo Park Summer Days for my page, but the kit has all kinds of other goodies in there. I scrapped some recent photos of my best friend's birthday. I was obviously drawn to to the bright colors in the inspiration photo, but also was inspired by the airplane, striped rug, and banner.

Here are a few close-ups. I got that airplane image from The Graphics Fairy. The clouds came from one of the Echo Park papers in the kit, as did the star stickers. I adhered all these on pop dots to give them extra dimension. I outlined the clouds with a fine tip pen.

The letter stickers that came with this kit are also by Echo Park and are so fun and whimsical. I turned a corner of the paper over to show the colorful side and added a piece of the same striped paper in the corner that I used at the bottom and secured it with a really old brad. It's from when I first started scrapping and you could only find brads at the office supply store! I still have a handful that I'm tring to use up.

I rolled over a couple of pieces of the striped paper to show the back, which has the large scallops on a grid. I finished my layout off by adding dots of Ranger's Enamel Accents, which is really easy to use--just squeeze onto your layout and perfect puffy shiny circles come out.

Thank you for taking a peek at my first June Work in Progress page. I will be posting the others I made in the coming days.

A Happy, Vibrant Summer Palette

2011-06-03T15:22:00.000-07:00

Challenge 195 is live at Color Combos Galore! We're kicking of June with the theme of summer and have a happy palette and Designer's Challenge...

Here's the page I made. I have several papers with balloon images and even a balloon stamp, but I had a hard time fitting those with the page I made. I found some balloon images through Google instead. That's my husband in the middle and my best friend's daughter and brother-in-law rocking out.

I had picked out these pictures to go with the colors, and I was trying and trying to think of an angle for my page and then it came to me--air band--balloons, clouds... air--get it? I usually like to add a story to my page, but I in this case, I think the title says it all!

My page was inspired by Creative Scrappers Sketch 117. My pages don't always resemble the sketch because they're 8 x 8 and it's sometimes hard squeezing everything I want onto a page, but I used the basic design of the sketch as inspiration.

Here are some closeups of the balloons. The blue balloon was a black-and-white image I found--I recolored it with my photo-editing software. I lifted them up with pop dots and added some pearls for fun. I found I didn't have a lot of "true" blue papers in my stash, but this one by SEI was pretty close to the blue in the palette. The green paper is really old Scenic Route.

One of my favorite papers--the Sassafras Lass monsters. I originally didn't have them on there, but I've been leaving my layouts for a day before photographing them, and my page didn't feel humorous or whimsical enough to go with the pictures, and I remembered the monsters had blue and red in them. I outlined them with a fine-tip pen and did the same with the Webster's Pages letter stickers, which I have grown to love for their small size, perfect for my 8 x 8 pages!

The cloud paper came from my Work in Progress kit this month. I cut them out and inked the edges with dark blue (the edges were more aqua) and outlined them with pen and then ran them through the Cuttlebug with an embossing folder.

I used a Tim Holtz mask with acrylic paint and a stencil brush and just brushed the paint outwards which gave it a fun starburst-y effect. I long admired how Emma Trout outlines her stenciled images, so I tried this out, and I like how it looks. I see that I missed a spot (gotta fix that). I added the "Rockstar" sticker at the last minute to form a visual triangle with the green papers.

I found some old Magic Mesh in my stash and put some snippets here and there on my page. The star stickers are Jenni Bowlin, and I added some black rhinestone brads, by Recollections. I tucked another Sass monster into this cluster. I dug out some old 7 Gypsies rub-ons (the "Check it out"). The metallic circle word "live" is old K&Co. Life's Journey. I thought it was perfect for this page if read live as in "live from New York..." rather than the way I think they intended to use it (i.e., live as if there's no tomorrow...). And I'm always picking up packs of word stickers when I see new ones I don't have because you just never know when you'll need them. I felt lucky to find the "jam" in blue for this page!

Not sure how I like this painty detail at the bottom, but the red masked image at the top made my page feel top-heavy, so I added some strokes down here and then added the scrolly rub-on (another oldie from my stash--BasicGrey). I wished I hadn't added that after I did--it felt really off-center, so I added some more bits from a rub-on border. I have a million of those tiny 7 Gypsies labels and always forget to use them, but I wanted to add a date and found this to be the perfect thing.

The CCG design team and our Featured Member made some awesome pages with this Combo, so hop over and check out what they made, and I hope you'll play with the combo this week--it was so fun to work with!

Thank you for stopping by and reading about my page!

Embrace Your Inner Geek!

2011-05-28T11:15:00.000-07:00

I'm way late posting this, but there's still time to play in our current challenge at How Much Is Too Much, which is called Inner Geek (the challenge runs until June 5). Amanda's clever challenge, to celebrate National Geek Pride Day, asks us to show in a layout something that's a little geeky about you (or a loved one)! We used prime numbers on our layout:

2 photos
3 word title
5 different patterned papers
7 stickers
11 metal items
13 buttons

I proudly proclaim that I am a geek! I decided to document my passion for words, and I immediately thought of the Noel Mignon Office Party kit. Here's the page I made. The picture shows me playing Bananagrams (I almost always win!):

I used Creative Scrappers Sketch #113 as inspiration for my page design:

Here are a few close-ups. The patterned papers are by My Mind's Eye. I thought the letter paper was perfect for my story, as were the Core'dinations and BasicGrey text prints. For some of my metal, I used the Tim Holtz clip pin to hold part of my title and staples to adhere the main part of my title. The 13 buttons were tricky for me, and I layered a couple for the O on my title.

I added some brads to the buttons to finish out my 11 metal items: The EK Success notebook border punch is one of my favorites, and I always love it when the topic of my layout fits in with it. I outlined everything in pen to make it stand out, including the punched edge. The Dymo-tape-looking stickers are really old K&Co. Life's Journey.

I love BasicGrey's Basics line. The labels on my page and this tab is from that collection. I used Headline rub-ons (found in the fine arts section at AC Moore) on the little tab--small and perfect for little spots.

I cut out these flourishy damask patterns from a My Mind's Eye paper to give my page some more color. These itty-bitty buttons from Michael's that I've had in my stash FOREVER (and I mean forever--from when I first started scrapping a decade ago) rescued me when I was trying to figure out how to get 13 buttons on my page.

So what are you waiting for? Join us and embrace YOUR inner geek. Go see what the rest of the geeky team made and play along--you might find yourself in our How Awesome Is Too Awesome Hall of Fame and be invited to be a future guest designer!

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

Work in Progress - A Summery Page

2011-05-21T15:56:00.000-07:00

Holy cow! May is getting away from me, and I haven't shared all my May Work in Progress pages. Here's one of my favorites I made with this kit. When I saw that paper with the wavy pattern, I knew I wanted to use it for this photo of my sweet little nephew, taken years ago. I had printed it out long ago and never scrapped it. Everything on this pge, except for the brads, was made with the kit, which features Pink Paislee/Collage Press's Hometown Summer collection.

Here are a few close-ups. I cut some of the waves from the paper, inked the edges, outlined them with blak pen for definition and set one on pop dots. Gosh, it's hard to draw straight lines on chipboard letters. Good thing I never became a surgeon!

The "Summer" label came from the tear strip on one of the patterned papers.

How cute is this little chipboard pop? The "Summer Fun" is a little bit trimmed from a tear strip off of one of the patterned papers. I added those mini brads at the last minute.

Love the "Summer Fun" print, which is comprised of a whole sheet of these little letter and character cards, and my favorite paper in this collection is the Thermometer paper--again, a whole sheet of these images, so you can use it again and again.

Thank you for stopping by and reading about my page!

A Soft and Dreamy Palette with a Touch of Drama

2011-05-20T15:06:00.000-07:00

Challenge 193 went live at Color Combos Galore last night. I got to make the inspiration board again. I was in love with this picture, and it made for a fun Designer's Challenge--to tell a story. Sometimes we get all caught up in the "eye candy" when we're making layouts, so I thought it would be fun to challenge the design team and CCG players to tell a story on their page. Here's the Inspiration Board:

And here's the page I made. I put the beginning of my journaling on the front and told the rest of the story on the back. As I was digging through my stash to find the right pink, I came across BasicGrey's Sugared collection, and the green was in there too! I tend to hoard my BasicGrey papers, so I was pleased to use some this week.

I used this sketch from Once Upon a Sketch, a challenge blog run by one of my design teammates, Nadia Cannizzo, as inspiration for my page design:

Journaling on the back reads: I fell in love with the ring when I saw it at the antique market in Adamstown, Pennsylvania. We were saving money to buy a new refrigerator, but Farzad said I should get the ring because I loved it so much. (Who needs a refrigerator, anyway?) The ring was a gold hand holding a ruby. The ruby was a very light red, almost pink, and it had a big flaw in the bottom, but I didn't care. This ring was so unique and beautiful to me. I was completely enchanted.

I had the ring for a couple of years and wore it daily, until one day I discovered the ruby had fallen out. We searched and searched for that little gem, but it had disappeared. And so my gold ring sat on my dresser with its empty prongs mocking me. One night, at least a month after the ruby had disappeared, Farzad woke up out of a dead sleep, went downstairs, and found it buried in the carpet. So uncanny and so, so wonderful that he has this strange ability to find things. I truly think he's psychic. We had the stone put back into the ring, and there it has stayed ever since.

Here are a few detail photos... The cool dimensional butterflies are by Pink Paislee. My layout didn't originally have those butterflies. I have recently learned that it helps to let a layout sit overnight and then look at it the next day with fresh eyes. My layout looked fine the day before, but when I picked it up the next day to photograph it, I realized that it was just too plain, and I searched for something to add some interest.

I also added the word stickers the next day. That puffy "treasure" sticker is by K&Co. I love that border punch--it's by EK Success.

I punched some of the designs from one of the BasicGrey papers and adhered them with pop dots.

The jouraling spot is from The Graphics Fairy. The black puffy letters are actually sparkly--doesn't show up that way in the picture. They're American Crafts Thickers, and I got them in a "value pack" at Home Goods--there were four packs of Thickers for like five bucks.

I used pink rhinestones on the centers of the circles, and at the last minute, I added one to the ring in the photo.

The design team did a beautiful job, as always, so you should pop over and see what they made with this challenge! And I do hope you'll play along. So fun to tell stories...

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

CCG + CP4U = One Lovely Challenge!

2011-05-13T16:12:00.000-07:00

I'm a weekend scrapper, and last weekend was especially busy, so I had to combine my challenges for Color Combos Galore and Creative Prompts for You. Our challenge at CP4U this week was an all-play, with several of us contributing parts to the challenge:

Nicole - use a doily
Me - include a banner
Solange - use lace
Kaori - use rub-ons

I had the pleasure of making the Inspiration Board for CCG this week. Everyone on the team says they hate purple, but we haven't done a purple in the while, so I jumped at the chance of including it in the palette!

And here is what I created by combining these two fun challenges. While searching for papers in the proper colors, I found lots of old stuff, plus a few newer things to use. The papers I used are My Mind's Eye (the polka dot and the stripe), Melissa Frances (the lavendar strip), Webster's Pages (the lanterns), SEI (the leaves), American Crafts (the journaling spot-looking things), and I think that painty-looking lavendar paper in the circle is Kangaroo and Joey (that shows you how old my stash runs!).

My hidden journaling reads: My wisteria has taken over the tree shading our deck, turning our back yard into a veritable jungle. But I adore the cascading lavender blooms draping the branches and the lovely fragrance that greets me when I open the door, and my wisteria always lets me know that spring has finally arrived.

Here are a few detail shots. As I was searching for the right colors, I came across a Webster's Pages paper that had these teal lanterns, and I thought I could make them into a sort of banner. I added lilac brads to the top and stuck some pearls on them and then added some baker's twine meandering across the grouping to make them more like a banner.

You can see I used two doilies on this page, the larger one forming the circle on my page, and this smaller Martha Stewart doily under the flower. The purple flower is just a silk flower I got at Michael's and attached it with a pretty fabric K&Co brad which was just the right shade of green for the color combo I was working with. I was delighted to discover the SEI Poppy paper that had these teal leaves. At the last minute, I added those Kaiser Craft pearls beneath the word sticker to go with the pearls I had added to the lantern banner.

I knew I wanted to include some butterflies, but of course I didn't have any purple or teal butterflies, so I searched for a butterfly on the internet and then changed the colors of them, and printed them on photo paper. The transparency thingy is an old My Mind's Eye accent that's been in my stash for years. My letters are also really old Wordsworth rub-ons. I outlined them with a fine-line pen to make them stand out more.

Here you can see that lavendar paper I used, and I found some purple lace in my stash! What a lucky find!

The CP4U and CCG design teams did fabulous work with these challenges, so pop over and check them out, and as always I hope you'll play along! There are fun prizes to be won, but more importantly, the challenges themselves are great fun!

Thank you so much for visiting my blog today and reading about my page.