Do Over layout

This one went right outside my comfort zone and box.  It has pink on it.  It has flowers on it.  It's about me.  What the !#*% is THAT all about?!  :)

So.  The first July challenge over at Better Living Through Scrapbooking is

“When I Grow Up”

Make a layout or project about what you want to do – what’s your dream job or what career goal are you working toward? If you’re already doing that job, show why you love it.

I could write a novel about all of the jobs I've considered, planned on, and/or worked towards.  Did I mention the long list of ones I've done?  I worked all of that into this because I think where I'm coming from is as important as where I'm going sometimes... or maybe not and that's just one of those hangups I need to get over... I'll get back to you.

Ingredients:
Paper: Pink, Kraft, Vellum: Stampin' Up
Stamps: Botanicals. Antique Background: Stampin' Up
Ink: Pretty in Pink: Stampin' Up, Versa Mark
Misc: Chipboard letters: Heidi Grace, Flowers: Marcella K, Embossing folder

Challenges:
Better Living Through Scrapbooking: July #1
1. Use one of the following combinations as your main color scheme: -Pink and brown, -Blue and white, -Yellow and green, -Red and black
2. Use paper lace on your project. (Buy it or try making it yourself with a paper punch or die cutter)
3. Use rhinestones (gems, bling, whatever you want to call ‘em)  They're in some of the flowers
4. Include a fabric flower on your project.

Apron Strings: Old with the Old, In with the New #13
Today's challenge is use your oldest kit with the scariest (to you) embellishment in it and combine it with a new embellishment or paper that has no "scare factor."

GAB #24: Use something you have never or rarely use.  Pink.  Flowers.  Those flowers in particular (my aunt gave them to me 3yrs ago at Christmas I believe.)  Chipboard letters.  This layout SCREAMS of things I don't usually use.  :)

Well, that's a funny thing.  The scariest was the flowers- I don't do flowers.  I just don't.  At least not on layouts since I typically just do ones for my son.  The newer, no scare one was SUPPOSED to be the chipboard letters.  However, they were dull.  I stamped on them.  It didn't show.  I inked them.  They were the wrong color.  I embossed them.  It didn't show.  I ran them through 2 more times.  The ink almost vanished.  I sanded them for contrast.  They started to fall apart.  I stopped there though they're still rather dull.  Now I think chipboard letters are scary.  *sigh*

Well, we did it

1787 miles.  Through 6 states.  6 major stops in 3 of those states.  8 days.  A few major meltdowns but nothing more than what was expected from a 3yr old.  Home at 1:18am yesterday.  All laundry is clean, most everything is put away.  Good to visit.  Good to be home.

Signing off for a few days

Well, tomorrow's the day.  The day when we start what's going to be more than 1550 miles on the road.  Some people call it a vacation.  I'll let you know what I call it when we get back.  The question is to how well Boy handles being on the road that long.  My hope is that since we'll change places every few days and every stop will bring new people/kids he likes and hasn't seen in close to a year, if not more, and there will be a few 4th bday celebrations for him along the way, it'll stay fresh for him.  Fingers crossed!!

Nikki Sivils giveaway!

Check it out- she's giving away her new CHA lines before they're released!!

Parade Page

7/8 Update: I did add another strand of twine to each twirl and I definitely like it more:

What can I say- getting my papers picked ahead of time is DEFINITELY working for me.  This page is pretty simple but that tends to be my style.  I'd like to go more decorative but when I'm working, I just can't come up with loads that I want to pile one.  However, on this one, I think I'm going to add more twine to the swirls- they're a bit too thin this way.  I realized once I had everything done and made that one of my pleated paper circles had a decorative edge, the other straight but at this point, they can just be that way.  They were a PAIN to make- the paper was only 1/2" wide and the pleats were on the 1/8th" so they were small to work with.

Ingredients:
Paper: Cardstock: Stampin Up & Michaels  DSP: October Afternoon
Misc: Twine: Whisker Graphics, Rubons: October Afternoon, Stickers: Thickers

Challenges:

• Whisker Graphics from Facebook- use any WG product
• Apron Strings: Out with Old, In with New Day #3: Use old scraps with some new products.  The only paper that's "new" is the 12x12.  All of the photo mats are from my scrap folders and some of the papers have to be at least 5-6yrs old.  Yeah.  I know.  On the other hand, the twine was from a FB prize I won from Whisker Graphics- it arrived in the mail yesterday.  That's pretty new.  :)
• Practical Scrappers: July Sketch: I got pretty loose with this but it was definitely my launch point.

Land of Make Believe pages

Check me out!  3 pages in less than 24hrs!  Whoo HOO!  :)  I think I found something to get me a bit in a groove.  I have a lot of photos bagged up in Ziplocs by event.  I usually find a sketch, find the bag that will work with it (those 2 sometimes reverse), then find papers and accents for them and THEN scrap it then and there.  This time, I picked out 2 bags (events) of photos the other evening, picked out the papers and accents and the specific photos I wanted to use (I print out a bunch that I think are good but generally don't use all of them) and then set both stacks aside.  Last night when I found a sketch for the Halloween page and went to scrap it, it went pretty darn fast and today's definitely did.  Splitting the material search and the sketch/crop/put-together into 2 separate events seemed to help.  I was kinda trying it out before I go to CKC later this summer since I want to take a few pages for the evening scrap.  However, I'll definitely be doing some more of this to see if it keeps working for me. 

So.  Onto the spread.  Sorry for the crummy shots- too stormy here to get anything good today.

 

Ingredients:
Paper: Cardstock: Stampin' Up, DSP: BoBunny
Accents: BoBunny, Gauche Alchemy (Punchinella aka Sequin waste)

Challenge:
Apron Strings: July 1: Out with Old, In with New.  Use your old summery stuff (I've had the BoBunny paper and accents hanging around for quite a while now waiting for the perfect summer use) and your newest metallic.  That 2nd part was hard because I don't use a lot of metallics.  I was going to sprinkle the suns with glitter and stumbled on something I got the other day from a Better Living Through Scrapbooking prize: Gauche Alchemy's Punchinella.  It's sequin waste and when a hole is trimmed out of a large orange piece, it makes a nifty sun.

Halloween Page

Obviously I don't scrap chronologically.  :) 

Ingredients:
Papers: Black: Michaels, Halloween print: Target, Black DSP: The Paper Loft, Orange/White: Stampin' Up
Stamp: Stampin' Up
Ink: Vintage Linen & Walnut Stain: Ranger
Misc: Accents: K&Co., Glitter: Joann's

Challenges:
Craft Your Passion: Challenge 65: Anything Goes
Desert Island Crafters: #11: Use 3 from the list of 10 "ingredients
    4: Distress Tool (Loosely- I used distress ink on the title and the journalling), 6: Crystals (I scattered olive green crystals here and there on the page) 7: Halloween Paper, 10: Pop Dots (all of the accent items are pop-dotted)
Sketchy Thursday: 6/30:  I used the 2nd page as my sketch... loosely.

BLTS Challenge 2- Then and Now

First, just a reminder that Better Living Through Scrapbooking June challenges end tomorrow.  I see a few people jumped in this month but since they're from "anonymous", I'm not sure if it's any of you.  If it is, go and comment on the challenge posts because there's no way to know whose entries those are!  That would be bad when it comes to prize-drawing time!

Second.  Second challenge.  This didn't go quite as I planned but when I was part-way into it, I realized that I just couldn't comfortably get where I thought I was going.  Originally, I was going to do a 2013 column with wants/expectations but that didn't feel right.  However, that's why the title is just "Then" because it was going to be past-then #1, past-then #2, and the then of the future.  Instead it's more of a "now" without being in the title. 

Challenge:
Make a project showing you and a longtime friend, a family member, or a significant other and how you’ve changed together over the years.  Obviously, this is pretty much just me.  I honestly wasn't coming up with anyone else that I wanted to feature for this and I'm trying to exorcise some of my own demons this year and putting them to paper may help a bit so I stuck to myself on this one.


Use at least 2 of the following:
1. Include a playing card or game piece. (Scrabble tiles)
2. Make frames for the pictures on your project (out of paper, ribbon, etc)
3. Include at least 3 brads
4. Include a clock or watch (can be an embellishment, a sticker, paper, etc).  I thought I had a large clock stamp somewhere but I can't lay my hands on it.  I have some embellishments that would be nice but I LOVE the White Rabbit image and even without the pocket watch out, he's an indicator of time, always checking it, always in a rush.

Crayola Factory Layout

This is the first page of a 2pg spread... I'll get to the 2nd page tomorrow hopefully.  Sorry for the sun-glare on some of the photos- if it's not middle of the night and no light, it's middle of the blazing day.  *sigh*

Ingredients:
Paper: Prints: October Afternoon, Cardstock: Stampin' Up
Misc: Dicuts: October Afternoon, Large Chipboard C: Heidi Grace Designs, Other letters: Piggy Tales, Dimensional Glaze: Stampin; Up, White glaze pen

Challenges:
Sketches in Thyme: June Open Challenge
Apron Strings: My blues are more aqua and royal/navy but it's as close as I could come.

October Afternoon:

Meet Me on Monday

1. What is your favorite food?
Back to the wall, one favorite... Thai Red Curry.  It could be shrimp, chicken, beef, tofu, mussels... I don't care.

2. What color scheme is your bedroom?
We bought a house with 40+ cans of paint in the garage.  Yeah.  No kidding.  Luckily, the previous owner had GREAT taste in decorating.  Our room is a taupey-brown with a white ceiling so we added a brown and turquoise theme through curtains and bedspread.

3. Do you carry a donor card?
Yep- it's on my driver's license.

4. In your opinion, is the glass half empty or half full?
I'm more pessimistic than I'd like.  Most of the time I think it's shattered on the floor.

5. Vanilla or Chocolate?
Funny thing is, I don't like plain chocolate.  I worked at M&M Mars for 10+ years and when I worked at the office where the actual M&M's plant was, I HATED the smell.  I also was one of the original 13 Dove Chocolate at Home (Dove Chocolate Discoveries now) home consultants (should have stayed with that one, no?  Imagine the downline!), part of the reason I got out was I HATED the smell of melting chocolate.  That said, I will chew your arm off to get to a piece of chocolate covered fruit.  I love chocolate cake, rocky road ice cream, brownies... seriously dislike chocolate ice cream, can't stand chocolate chip cookies...  I wish I understood it.

Life in the Craft Lane site

You guys should check this one out.  Julie McGuffee has a site called "Life in the Craft Lane."  It's tied in with a webring- Designer Crafts Connection.  The participants have a range of creative passions from papercrafting to jewelry-making to altered art and mixed media and much of their work is just amazing! 

Once a month there's a giveaway that involves going around the ring, essentially a blog hop, and looking for a particular image, just picking out a project you like... each month the scavenger hunt is different.  This past month I was the winner and the prize was 2 awesome scrapbooking reference books.  Julie, the "ringleader" (sorry, I couldn't help myself) said she'd throw in a few page kits.  Ok.  I was picturing something that could make 2 or 3 pages, NOT 4 full Lisa Bearnson page kits that make 6 pages each PLUS a pack of extra goodies PLUS page protectors! 

The July giveaway is promised to be spectacular and I wouldn't doubt it.  I HIGHLY recommend checking it out!

CAS Birthday Card

Crafty Steals is celebrating their 2nd bday and posting a few challenges along the way.  One today was around a sketch that I thought would be perfect for a stamp I've been wanting to use and a bday card I need to make for a friend.

Ingredients:
Stamp: Verve (I bought the set for this one stamp... though the whole set is great thankfully!)
Ink: Elegant Eggplant, Pink Passion: SU
Paper: Whisper White, Pink Passion: SU,   Print...?

Crafty Steals Challenge:

Layered Poinsettia Card

Deets:
The poinsettia was stamped/embossed/colored/cut four times from kraft paper and each of the layers was popdotted to the next.

Ingredients:
Stamp: Poinsettia: Holly Berry House, Sentiment (Four the Holidays): SU
Ink: Gold: Encore:
Paper: Kraft, Very Vanilla: SU,   DP: Little Yellow Bicycle & Making Memories
Misc: Jeweled Gold EP: Stampendous, Copics, Dew Drops: Robin's Nest

Challenges:
Winter Wonderland: Christmas Flowers
iCopic: #35: Anything but White
The Emerald Faerie: #3: Petals
Veronica's: Part of CropStop Summer Hop: Make it pop/3D (Ok.  It's not summery at all but it pops!)
Pear Tree Designs: #54:

BLTS Challenge 1- What I do after a bad day

The first challenge this month at Better Living Through Scrapbooking was to scrap what we do to de-stress or what we do after a bad day. I wish my habits were a bit more positive... another thing to work on. I'll get to that eventually... maybe.

We also need to do at least 2 of the following:
1. Use a sketch for your layout. (below)
2. Stamp without ink. Use paint, glue for flocking or glittering, etc. (mist... still ink but a bit different than an ink pad for stamping. I wasn't wild about the result so I went back with a black pen to do more coloring)
3. Include a bird in your layout in some way, whether a picture, stamp, sticker, etc
4. Use an item you have laying around on your project. Anything at all, as long as it’s not specifically made for scrapbooking.

Ingredients:
Paper: Print: My Mind's Eye, Greens: SU, Journalling tag: October Afternoon
Stamps: Letters: Studio G, Crow: SU
Coloring: Basic Black: SU, Mist (to color crow): Log Cabin Smooch Spritz: Clearsnap

Challenges:
BLTS June Challenge #1
Sketchy Sunday: TG023

Better Living Through Scrapbooking- June Challenge #2

The 2nd challenge of the month was posted yesterday- Then and Now.  I highly recommend checking it out.  So far, no one has entered either challenge yet this month so your chance of winning is pretty darn good.

"Creative Girl" tag

I picked the Creative Girl stamp up for a few bucks the other week at the Unity sale.  I didn't know what I was going to do with it but I HAD to have it.  There's a lot more I've got to find to do with it (I'm seeing some cards in its future) but when I saw My Unity Place was having a tag challenge, I thought it would be perfect.

I actually used a panel I saw online as my starting point but I knew I wanted to use a lot of blue (I'm still there after the ornaments card last week.)  There are actually 5 copies of the stamp on this tag. 

1. her dress

2. her body/hair (the red heart is a separate layer)

3. the embossed silver swirl background

4. the edge sentiment (the red heart is a separate layer again)

5. the 1st blue background which I distressed the edge of

The last layer was embossed and the embossed areas were tapped with TH's Denim and Walnut Stain.  I didn't care for those- they didn't pop enough, so I went back and tapped them again with silver ink.  Better.  Much better.

Ingredients:

Paper: Home Collection: Deja Views, Brocade Blue, Whisper White: SU, Manilla Folder, Michaels

Stamp: Creative Girl: Suzi Blu/Unity

Coloring: Silver ink: Encore, Brocade Blue, Basic Black inks: SU, Tuxedo Black ink: Momento, Copics

Misc: Lg. eyelet, Elegant Lines embossing folder: SU,  Silver EP: Joanns, Misc ribbons

Challenges:

My Unity Place: Make a tag

Craft Your Passion: #63: Paper Piecing

Southern Girls Challenge: #21: Anything Goes

Non-traditional Christmas card

This has GOT to be one of most edited cards I've ever done.  It started out with nativity scenes, colored with Copics and mounted on scalloped circles on a b/w card.  This is what I ended up with.

Yeah.  A bit different than the start with lots of changes in the middle.  I like it though- not your traditional red and green.  I put a layer of black behind one side of the ornaments to play up the "shadow" even though they're pop-dotted and tie in some more similarity with the black paper layers in the background and on the sentiment.  I also clear-embossed the ornaments with 3 layers of EP to give them a bit of gloss and more depth.

Ingredients:
Stamps: Antique Background, Tree Trimmings, Four the Holidays: Stampin' Up
Paper: Whisper White, Brocade Blue: Stampin' Up  Black: Michaels
Ink: Brocade Blue, Whisper White, Basic Black: Stampin Up
Misc: Clear EP: JoAnn's  Pearls, Silver cord

Challenges:
Winter Wonderland: Swirls & Pearls
Pixie Dust Studios: #78: Let's Cool Down
Top Tip Tuesday: #38: Open Challenge
Sweet Stamps: #19: Embossing
A La Card Monkey: #60

Meet Me on Monday

1. What is your favorite yogurt flavor?
Hmmm... Key Lime? Raspberry? Lots of possibilities there.

2. Ankle or knee socks? and on the same theme, white socks or coloured??
White ankle socks. I'm much too casual for anything else. In the winter with my Sketchers, I will wear nifty cotton, colored, print mid-calf socks for a change of pace.

3. How is the weather right now?
This evening's storm finally broke the mid-90 degree temps we've had for 2-3wks. This week is supposed to be mostly low-80's. Still warm for someone who prefers 40-60 degree days but it's an improvement if only temporary.

4. Are you a fast typer?
I don't know my typing speed but after numerous college papers, a Master's thesis, and many years in documentation, to put it simply, yep.

5. Red or White Wine?
As long as it's not dry, pretty much anything. I used to like dessert wines- that sweet. I've backed off of that but I still like a touch of sweetness. And oaky/woody flavors... ummm... I may as well lick a tree. :)

Quick Graduation Card

I realized this morning that our neighbor's daughter was graduating from high school today.  Oops.  No card, no gift.  While they're not required, with these folks, it would be a nice gesture.  Enter quick grad card.  I actually CASED the basic card from a grad card I saw in Paper Crafts (May/June: Julie Masse's "You Did It!" card.) 

 

Ingredients:

Paper: Old Olive, Whisper White: Stampin' Up, Star print: Michaels, Chipboard scrap (for mortarboard)

Stamp: Studio G

Ink: Basic Black: Stampin' Up

Misc: Pearl-Ex Mists (Interference Bronze), WOW brad: Making Memories (?) Pastels: Stampin' Up

Challenges:

Apron Strings: Five for Friday.  Use 1 Sheet cardstock, 1 Sheet patterned paper, 1 Set brads, 1 Set chipboard, 1 Length ribbon.  Obviously I blew this one a bit with the use of a stamp, pastels, mist, and white paper but I stuck as close as I could to the challenge while accomplishing what I needed so I thought I'd throw it out there anyway.

Scrapmaster's Paradise: Lime-a-licious Challenge.  Sorry.  No lime, only Olive.

Better Living Through Scrapbooking - 1st June Challenge

I mentioned that I really like the Better Living Through Scrapbooking challenges. I'm struggling a bit over the first one this month but I wanted to share it with you in case you wanted to enter.  I highly recommend it!


What do you reach for after a bad day, a disappointment, or when a project or plan fails? Do you have a favorite comfort food or a preferred activity? Do a project showing what makes you feel better again.


Use at least 2 of the following:

1. Use a sketch for your layout. You must credit the artist that created the sketch in the comments section of this post. If you use an online sketch, include a link.

2. Stamp without ink. Use paint, glue for flocking or glittering, etc.

3. Include a bird in your layout in some way, whether a picture, stamp, sticker, etc

4. Use an item you have laying around on your project. Anything at all, as long as it’s not specifically made for scrapbooking (price tags from clothes, junk mail, etc).
Be sure to upload your project to the mini-gallery by May 31, 2011 to be eligible for this month’s prize. Happy Scrapping!