Boy, Oh Boy!

I think I am finally getting into the groove of making little boy pages.  After doing pages for two little girls for over five years, it's been a challenge to do pages for my youngest, which doesn't include pink, flowers, or ribbon!  :)  But after purchasing the Little Boy digi kit from Echo Park, I think I'm on a roll.  Since he will be two in June, I am moving away from the baby pages to toddler pages.  They grow up so fast...this is his first page with a skull & crossbones!!  Ha!  :)

And I have to mention - since I am very proud of myself  - that I didn't scraplift this one or use a sketch on it!  WooHoo...doesn't happen very often, so I'm allowed to celebrate!  :)

Reuse & Repurpose - Frosted Designs 3.25

The Fabulous Friday Challenge this week at Frosted Designs, was to reuse and repurpose things you already have around the house.  The stores are filled with all kinds of scrappy goodness that we can't resist buying, but look around your house and I bet you can find all kinds of things to use on your pages.  Check out your junk drawer for starters!  How about lids or cups in varying sizes to use for painting cirlces on your lo's?  Let your imagination run wild and find something unexpected for your pages and projects.

For my lo, I used some cardboard that had come as a backing in a package I received in the mail.  I just removed the front layer of paper to reveal the corrugated look underneath.  The raffia was left over from some of the wrapping on our Christmas gifts...so what better way to use it, than on a Christmas lo?!!  The two circle "snowflake" embellies and the little Christmas tree were punched and cut from a KI Memories ad in the December '09 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine.  Most of my patterned papers were also scraps that I had been saving, because they were still too big to throw away.

The sketch I used is from Scrapbook & Cards Today:

Products Used:

Papers - Deja Views & The Paper Studio

Chipboard Alpha Stickers - Anna Griffin

Cardstock Letter Stickers - American Crafts

Tiny Type - Cosmo Cricket

Brads - Spare Parts

Pen - Marvy

Tools - WRMK Brad Setter & Expression

Circle Punch - Marvy

Other - Cardboard, Raffia

Talk about Non-Traditional!!

Christmas is probably the hardest holiday for me to scrap every year.  I feel like I get stuck in such a rut, with the green and red traditional Christmas-y papers and embellishments.  Needless to say, I still have several Christmas lo's to do that I have been putting off for months.  Well this week, Frosted Designs had a great sketch for their 3.22 Sketch Along challenge and I decided to join in and take a totally different twist on Christmas.  My photos were not great to begin with, because our dining room is painted a Terra Cotta color and it does not make a good backdrop for photos.  I once again used http://www.befunky.com/ to add a vintage tint to the photos and I used some digital brushes for the black around each photo.  I found the green patterned paper with the circle design in some of my Scenic Route papers and thought how awesome would this be for a non-traditional Christmas lo!!  I did a lot of outling in black on this one and I love how it turned out.  I usually do some kind of outling, but usually not this bold.  I was inspired to go bolder with my outline after seeing Lisa's lo on her blog Taadaaaaaaaaaaaa  You can check her lo out here:  http://scrappyfairies.blogspot.com/2011/03/i-dont-understand.html
I definitely am loving the non-traditional Christmas look...so I may be using it more frequently on the remaining lo's I have from 2010 Christmas!  :)

Here is the sketch provided by Frosted Designs.  There is still time to play along, if you would like to join in on the challenge:  http://frosteddesigns.blogspot.com/2011/03/sketch-along-tuesdays-3-22-sketch.html

Products Used:

Paper - K&Company & Scenic Route

Corrugated Alphas - Jillibean Soup

Tiny Type - Cosmo Cricket

Embossing - Cuttlebug

Embroidery Floss - Janlynn

Sharpie

Brads - Spare Parts & Recollections

Tag - EK Success

Ink - Tim Holtz Distress Ink

Font - Ravie

Pen - Sakura

Wishful Thinking

Normally, I like to do all of the photos from one event or activity all on the same lo.  But I loved this one photo of my middle daughter so much, that I decided it needed it's own lo.  I have to admit that usually these "behind" shots are my favorite, because they are not making a crazy face or squinting because the sun is in their eyes.  :)  I went for a much more layered look on this one than I usually do...mostly because of the time it takes.  I don't like spending more than at least an hour and a half on a lo and this one was a work in progress over 4 days.  I designed the circles in my desktop publishing program and then used the Expression to cut them and the large frame.  The rolled paper flowers were some that I made and I have an earlier blog post on how to make those.  I really wanted to use pennies as an embellishment to go along with the theme, but didn't want them to directly touch any of the paper, in case they caused damage somewhere down the road.  So I decided the best thing to do, was glue a button under each one to raise them off of the paper.  I painted the chipboard swirls from the ugly grayish color they come in...still didn't quite get the tint on the green paint that I wanted, but I think it works.

Products used:

Paper - Fancy Pants

Mesh Flower - Prima

Thickers - American Crafts

Pen - Marvy

Embroidery Floss - Janlynn

Pearl Accents - Recollections

Lace Trim - Spare Parts

Acrylic Paint - Apple Barrel

Other - Chipboard, Pennies



Two Down...a lot More to Go!

No matter how many lo's I finish, I still feel like I am treading water.  But I am making progress little by litte.  Here are two that I finished yesterday.

"Boys Will Be Boys"

I did this one for the 3.24 sketch challenge at Sketchy Thursdays.  I used the EP Little Boy kit.  I actually bought the digi kit and printed out my papers and embellies.  This is a great way to have access to the papers you want, anytime you want them.  I LOVE the EP kits...but my only problem is cutting up the papers.  Everytime I cut into one, I think "what if I need that pattern on the other side for something else?"!  :)  With the digi download, I can print out any paper as many times as I need it.  Great bonus with the digi stuff! 

"Being Your Mom Changed My Life"

I did this one for a Weekly Issue Challenge posted by one of the ladies on Club CK.  She searches the CK magazine and comes up with an awesome challenge this week.  This week, we had to scrap an event/moment that changed our lives.  I think all moms will agree that having a baby changes your life.  This lo is for my book.  Each of the kids have their 12x12 albums, but I have an 8.5x11 that I like to keep for my personal pages.  I went a little shabby chic on this one.  I love K&Company and I thought the papers in their Cut-n-Paste pack were perfect for this lo.  The lace trim is from Recollections.

Sketch from March PageMaps:

3.17 Sketchy Thursdays - "Why I Oughta..."

do a Three Stooges layout, so I did!  :)  When I saw the sketch this week on Sketchy Thursdays, I immediately knew I wanted to use a film strip on my lo.  These pictures are not the "perfect posed shot" (that rarely ever happens), but they capture the craziness of my three kids.  I couldn't think of any title that fit this page better than The Three Stooges.  From there, it just all came together.  The television worked great for my title.  It's a free download from SVG Cuts.  I made a little pocket behind my film strip and inserted hidden journaling.  I REALLY wanted to add some Diamond Glaze to the Three Stooges circle tags...but for some reason when I got ready to squeeze it out, it looked like chocolate milk!!  :(  Not sure what happened there...so needless to say no epoxy effect.  Befunky.com - http://www.befunky.com/ - offers some great photo effects for your pictures, so I used one of their Vintage filters for the tint on my photos.

And yes, I did add some aluminum foil to the rabbit ears on the tv!!  :)

Products Used:

Paper:  BoBunny & DCWV

Sentiment Tickets:  Tim Holtz

Distress Ink:  Tim Holtz

Tiny Type:  Cosmo Cricket

Brads:  Spare Parts

Embroidery Floss:  Janlynn

Circle Tags:  EK Success



Banner-ific!!

I am so glad that Banners are still "in", because I love using them on my lo's!  So I was excited to see that the challenge this week on Frosted Designs, was to use a banner on your lo.  I decided to use this Banner to "hold" my title.  There are some great things that you can recycle from buying some scrappy supplies and one of those things is the cardboard insert that comes in packages of Page Protectors.  It's not really thick or stiff and it helps add just a little dimension to your page.  I printed out my banner shape and traced it onto the cardboard.  Then I cut out my shapes and adhered my paper to it.  Once it was dry, I cut away the excess paper and punched holes in each of the shapes with the Crop-a-dile.  I added ribbon and American Crafts foam letters for the title.

I used a sketch from Sketch Support:

The Hot Air Balloon is from a pattern on the Paper Crafts site.  I used the same method on the Balloon, that I used on the Banner.  You can check out some of their great downloads here:  http://www.papercraftsmag.com/sentiments/index.html

Products Used:

Paper:  Echo Park, DCWV, American Crafts
Stickers:  Echo Park
Foam Letters:  American Crafts
Embroidery Floss:  Janlynn
Punch:  Marvy
Tools:  Crop-A-Dile
Other:  Buttons

Rolled Flower Tutorial

I absolutely love the rolled flowers that are showing up on layouts these days.  Unfortunately, I don't sew and there's not really any fabric laying around my house.  So today I thought, "why can't I get the same effect by using paper?".  Here is what I came up with!  Give it a try!!

Step 1:  Choose your paper.  Double sided with a simliar color scheme on both sides, works best.

Step 2:  Cut 1x12 inch strips from your paper.

Step 3:  Dampen both sides of the paper using water.  I found that using a sponge is a great way to control the amount of water.  You don't want it soaked, just damp.

Step 4:  Roll/twist your paper.  Be careful not to tear all the way through the paper.  A little tearing will add more dimension to your flower.

Step 5:  Begin rolling your flower together.  Try to keep the roll tight as you go.

Step 6:  Once you have your flower completely rolled, hold and flip it over.  Use your hot glue gun all over the backside of your flower and let dry, to secure it.

Step 7:  If you would like to make your flower larger, start with step 3 again and then attach the end with your glue gun.  Roll your paper strip along with the first flower and then repeat Step 6.

Once your flowers are complete, you can add buttons, brads, gems, etc. to the center to dress them up a little bit.  Voila!!  Then add them to your lo.  See what kind of fun ways you can come up with to use these flowers!



Very Exciting...Featured Lo!

Today, I found out that my lo "The Great Outdoors" was featured as one of the favorites on the Sketchy Thursdays blog.  You can check it out here...

http://sketchythursdays.blogspot.com/2011/03/our-winner-and-our-faves-for-week.html

Frosted Designs Color Challenge

I found out about Frosted Designs a couple of weeks ago, when one of my friends from Club CK, Melissa Johnson, was selected as one of the members of their DT.  If you get a chance, stop by their blog:  http://www.frosteddesigns.blogspot.com/  This week was my first chance to play along.  The challenge this week is a Color Challenge.  Normally, I'm not a fan of purple and I seldom use it on my lo's, but it's a "challenge" right?!  Here is the color scheme provided by Frosted Designs:

Here is my lo "Goodnight Sweetheart" using these colors:

The design of the lo is based off of a sketch from The Color Room, which is also a new blog I recently found.  Very cool blog.  They have some awesome sketches and great color palettes.  Check it out here:  http://thecolorroom.ning.com/



Double, Double, Toil and Trouble!!

The words Toil and Trouble, greatly describe how I normally feel while working on or completing a double-page layout.  Recently, I've done two double-pages that I've been very happy with...which is highly unusual.  :)  The first, "Can You Hear Me Now" was pretty intimindating, because I did not use a sketch.  I had an idea in my head of what I wanted the page to look like, so I was pretty intimidated about getting it from my imagination onto the paper.  I think using the Tim Holtz grungeboard numbers and the talk bubbles from the American Crafts Everyday pack really helped in giving me direction.  I also knew I wanted a "radio tower", so I used the Eiffel Tower from a pack of Dazzles to create the look.  My favorite part of the lo is actually the title.  I enjoyed using 3 different looks.  I didn't have the exact tiny type that I need, so I printed "can u" from Microsoft Publisher and cut it out.  "Hear Me" was also done in Publisher to mimic the numbers on a cell phone.  Instead of printing on cardstock, I printed it on glossy photo paper, printed, and cut.  The word "now" is done with corrugated alphas from Jillibean Soup.

For "Like Mother, Like Daughter", I used a sketch from Sketch Support.  I had to change the photo orientation to fit my pictures.  This was also for the 1 Hour Challenge on Club CK, to use fabric on your lo.  I just hand pleated the brown fabric and stapled as I went along.  Once I had a long enough piece, I adhered it to the lo and used the hot pink trim to cover the staples.

The Great Outdoors - 3.10 Sketch

What a fun double-page layout from Sketchy Thursdays this week.  Normally I struggle with my two-page layouts, but having a sketch really helps.  I loved that the sketch had space for two large photos, which worked great for these pictures of our son playing at Jackson's Oak.  I didn't have any wood-grain paper, so I used an old, soft baby brush and acrylic paint to achieve the effect on kraft paper.

3 in 1

I love it when you can combine multiple challenges on one layout...today it happened to be three challenges.  The lo is based on Sketch 228 from Pencil Lines.  I also incorporated two challenges from Club CK.  The first challenge is to use paint on your lo, which I used for the framing, by masking with paper and then painting with acrylic paint around the edge of the mask.  I also painted each of the fleur de lis (2 chipboard and one brad) with black acrylic paint.  The final challenge is using Green, Purple, and Yellow on your lo for the Weekly Challenge on Club CK.  The title letters are a mix of chipboard and I just embossed my yellow paper with the Cuttlebug and then glued the letters to the back and cut them out with the Craft Knife.  I grabbed some of the kids Mardi Gras beads and cut them up to use as a border at the bottom of the photos.  I made the mask, by cutting it with the Cricut, outlining with a black pen, cutting the feather shapes and adhering to the back, and using a toothpick for the wand.

Journaling reads -  Emma:  "I don't want to go to the parade!  It's noisy and loud!"

Mommy:  "Well, your noisy and loud, so you'll be ok!"

Products used:

Paper - BoBunny, DCWV

Buttons - CTMH

Tools - Cuttlebug, Expression

Paint - Apple Barrel

Pen - Sakura

Other - Chipboard, Pipe Cleaners, Beads

ST April GDT Challenge & One of My Favs!

Sketchy Thursdays posted the sketch this weekend for the April GDT Challenge and I jumped right on it!  There are times that I have a hard time getting my vision for a lo onto paper, but happily this was not one of those occasions.  To brag on myself a little bit...I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the way this lo turned out.  I think one of the biggest contributing factors is the use of Spring colors, which was part of the challenge from the ST team.  The winter blahs are getting to me and being able to use Spring colors was very refreshing!  I took my color scheme from the over-sized K&Company brad and then added in green...because you just can't have Spring without the color green.

The trim frame behind the photo was a first for me.  My photos are usually matted on paper, but this trim served as the perfect texture around the photo.  I decided to add the stitching to help anchor the trim.  For the word "Natural" in the title, I used the Cricut Colors (which I must admit, I don't use that often, but always love the results when I do).  I used a scrap piece of the background to draw out the letters on the Cricut and then shadowed the letters to cut them out.  I used the same effect for my journaling, by just printing out the strips and then outlining with the Cricut Color.  The butterfly was a Dollar Tree find...can't beat those!  I like the fact that it adds texture to the lo, but it's still a fairly flat embellishment.

Products used:

Paper - Scenic Route, BoBunny, DCWV
Decorative Trim - Hobby Lobby
Thickers - American Crafts
Brad - K&Company
Pearls - Kaisercraft
Other - Embroidery Floss, Expression, Cricut Colors

3.03 ST Challenge - "Twinkle Toes"

Wow, those are some kind of shoes...they definitely deserve a layout all their own!!  When my MIL said she wanted to buy some shoes for the kids, these were not what I had in mind.  But hey it's nana's money not mine, so the girls are proud owners of Twinkle Toes sketchers.  This was a fun lo to do and I really enjoyed matching my papers and embellies to go along with the shoes.  Sketchy Thursdays provided another awesome sketch this week and it is what the design of the lo is based on.

I think I have become a doodle fanatic.  Lately there hasn't been a lo that has escaped without some kind of doodles or lines on it.  But it worked for this one, because I wanted to give it that feel of a school folder or notebook.  For the lacing, I anchored eyelets on the pp and then added the laces.

Supplies used:

Paper - The Paper Studio, Doodlebug Design

Brads - Spare Parts

Eyelets - Recollections

Thickers - American Crafts

Pen - Sakura

Tools - CropAdile, Cricut

Disney Bound and Scrappy Motivation!

We are planning a family trip to Disney this May...with the Grandparents, our three kiddies-all 5 and under-and sister-in-law!  Should be a an experience!  Can't wait to go, because we LOVE Disney.  There's only one problem...I still haven't finished the Disney album from our 08/09 trip!!  UGH!  So I am now motivated to get it done!!  There has been progress.  I finished all of the pages from Hollywood Studios and about 1/3 of the ones from Magic Kingdom, but still have Animal Kingdom and Epcot to go.  Guess I know what I'll be doing at the monthly crops!  :)  Here are two that I finished this week.

Dancing in the Streets:  This one is my take on a lo I found about 2 years ago on Scrapbook.com.  The papers and ribbon were part of a kit that I bought at a Crop last year...various mix of manufacturers.  I also used this lo for the February Recipe Challenge (always fun!!) on Club CK.  You had to use the color red (no-brainer for Disney!), baker's twine or floss, at least one heart, the contents of your hole punch, and three photos.  I think my favorite part of the lo, is the heart embellies at the top.  I just punched three 1 inch circles, added the heart brads, and doodled a white circle with a Sakura pen.  Simple, but effective.

Dumbo:  This lo was inspired by another "Dumbo" lo done by Wendy Sue Anderson in the August 09 issue of Creating Keepsakes.  Her lo was a double page that I condensed to a single page.  For the black dots on my scallop trim, I used the fine point Zig pen to get a glue dot and then sprinkled it with black Stampendous glitter.