Cut-It-Out!!

Happy Friday everyone...or should I say Fabulous Friday!  It's time to check out the new challenge this week for Fabulous Friday at Frosted Designs.  This week, the ladies have posted a really fun challenge - Fussy Cutting!  If you are wondering what that means, it's basically finding a design you like in one of your papers and using your scissors to hand cut the design and then use it on your layout or project.  It's that easy!!  Patterned paper with flowers, is really great for fussy cutting.  You can cut them and layer them on your page and even use pop dots to add dimension.

I had a really fun sheet of paper from Sassafras that was made for Fussy Cutting.  Everything on my layout...flowers, borders, little cards...were all cut  from that one sheet of paper.  I had fun getting all of the pieces cut out and then arranging them on my background paper for a one of a kind look.  I hope you will come over and play along with us this week for the chance to win an awesome prize!!

 

Products Used:

Paper:  Sassafras & Pink Paislee
Corrugated Alpha:  Jillibean Soup
Thickers:  American Crafts
Embroidery Floss:  Janlynn
Brads:  The Paper Studio
Acrylic Paint:  Apple Barrel
Pen:  Sharpie

Feeling Stuck? Get Inspired!

I think as crafters, we all go through those non-inspired or blah moments where we just don't feel like doing anything.  We all have different ways of dealing with these times.  Some people just like to take a break, others try a different medium or hobby, and some just push through.  I am the push through type.  If I feel a road block in my Scrapbooking, I look for inspiration in Galleries, color schemes, new products I might have, and instead of doing pictures that I feel need to be scrapped, I choose the pictures I want to scrap.

With all of that said, one of my new favorite places to find inspiration is Pinterest.  If you haven't heard of it, I suggest checking it out.  It is your-one-stop spot to keep inspiring ideas, to do ideas, favorite recipes, favorite styles...the ideas are endless!  And be careful, because it can be a little addicting too!  

The ladies at Club CK have gotten on the Pinterest bandwagon also and they had an awesome challenge for their Premium Members this week.  They offered several photos found on Pinterest for us to use as inspiration for our layout.  Here are some of the pictures they gave us to choose from:

 

I decided to use the first photo as the inspiration for my layout. I LOVED the colors in the picture, the natural look of everything, and the different textures that were included.  So here is my layout based on the photo:

  

Products Used:


Paper:  My Mind's Eye & Bazzill
Flowers & Brads:  The Paper Studio
Mini Market Stickers:  October Afternoon
Baker's Twine:  The Twinery
Pen:  Sharpie
Sketch: Sketch Support 1 page September sketch

A Little Out of My Element

The ladies at Sketchy Thursdays posted a great layout for the 9.22 sketch challenge...only one thing scares me about it - WHITE SPACE!!  :)  For some reason, I have always been the type of scrapper, that if there is background paper showing, it needs something on it!!  I have improved somewhat and even though I felt like I struggled a little more with this page, I still ended up liking my layout.  Besides, what's the point of a good challenge, if it's not challenging??!!  :)

I was SO EXCITED to scoop up some of the new My Mind's Eye Lost & Found Two papers at my local Scrapbook store, ScrapHappy in Pensacola.  They are absolutely gorgeous and I would have loved to buy 10 sheets of each design!  Yes, it was painful to cut them up...but my new philosophy is - if I don't use the paper I have, then what excuse do I have to buy more?!  :)  I misted a lot on this layout with some Smooch Spritz from Clear Snap.  It is always fun and messy...I even had yellow lips at one point, because my sprayer always sticks and the only way I could manage to get it back out was by using my teeth.  Sometimes you gotta do, whatcha gotta do!!!  I didn't plan to originally have the white paper circles above my photo, but the outlining by itself just wasn't working for me.  So, I re-cut the circles and of course they didn't match completely to cover all of the pen lines.  But I actually like the effect it created with a little outlining underneath the embossed circles.  Life isn't perfect, so I don't always expect my layouts to be perfect either!

Products Used:
 
Paper:  My Mind's Eye
Spray Mist:  Clear Snap
Punch:  Anna Griffin
Scribbles:  KI Memories
Decorative Pen:  K&Company
Button:  Crate Paper
Pen:  Zig
Ink:  Memento
Embossing:  Sizzix Big Shot
Other:  Pom Pom Trim & Paper Flowers

Up, Up, & Away

It's time for another Switch It Up Saturday at Sassy Lil' Sketches!  I am on the week 3 team, so I am switching up the layout from 9.20 of this month.  Here is the original sketch that was posted:

And here is my Switch It Up take on this sketch:

As you can see,  I decided to add a fourth photo.  This made my photos a 3x4 size, instead of the square shapes that are drawn on the sketch.  I also lowered my photo setting a little bit, which also lowered my title. I stuck to one journaling spot and I used the sun sticker from For the Record to write it on.

So, don't miss out on the opportunity to play along with us this month!  You have until October 5 to play along with any of the sketch challenges we have posted during the month of September.  Our sponsors this month, are:

Layout & Card Paper Sponsor:  

Layout Digi Sponsor:

Digi Doodle Shop 

Products Used:

Paper:  Echo Park

Stickers:  Echo Park

Thickers:  American Crafts

Baker's Twine:  The Twinery

Buttons:  Michael's
Mini Round Gems:  Recollections

Embossing:  Sizzix Big Shot

Punch:  Marvy

Pen:  Sharpie

Scrap Therapy

Has definitely been needed this week!!  Our rambunctious 2 year old decided to smack his head into the fireplace this past Wednesday and we had to make a trip to the ER to get a total of 13 stitches!!  So needless to say, it has been a very stressful week for mommy!!  I didn't think I would actually have time to get a lot of scrapping done, but I think I managed to squeeze in about 4 or 5 pages...somehow...this week!  :)

This first page is for the 9.15 challenge at Sketchy Thursdays.  They partnered with ScrapFit this week to do a sketch challenge and a layout on friendship.  I used the fun 100 Days of Summer papers from Simple Stories for this one.  I didn't really have any "friend" pictures of my own to use for this challenge, so I decided to use these cute pics of my son and middle daughter overlooking the bay.  They play really well together and are usually pretty sweet towards one another!! :)

Products Used:

Paper:  Simple Stories
Stickers:  Simple Stories
Brads:  Bazzill & The Paper Studio
Baker's Twine:  The Twinery
Thickers:  American Crafts
Ink:  Memento
Pen:  Zig
Font:  Ravie

The second layout is actually for three challenges!!  I did it for the 1 Hour Challenge from Club CK this past Friday 9/16/11, which was to use scraps on your page.  I used some Bella Blvd scraps for the punched border under my photos.  I also used this one for a second challenge at Club CK for the Premium Members, which was to add meaning to your layouts using color.  (See below for a listing of the colors and the message they convey on your layouts).  And last but not least, this layout is based on the Week #1 September sketch from Sassy Lil' Sketches.

Red conveys intense emotions. These included anger, passion, power, youth, excitement and danger. Use the color red carefully, and in small amounts, or it will overshadow everything on your page.

Pink suggests various emotions based on its value or strength. Hot pinks are energetic, youthful, and hip. Lighter pinks are sweeter and more delicate.

Orange is dramatic and intense. It's bright, vibrant, and commanding.

Yellow is associated with sunshine, light, warmth, and cheerfulness. Light, cool hues represent babies and springtime. In more intense hues, yellow reminds us of summer and childhood. Warmer yellows remind us of fall.

Brown reminds us of the earth and evokes a natural, safe feeling of hearth, home and security.

Blue is a cool color, strongly associated with the air and water that's essential for our survival. It's usually seen as a serene, calming, and stable color. In darker shades if feels traditional and institutional. In intense, saturated hues it conveys speed and energy.

Green is the color of all that's natural and life-giving. It's restful, soothing, and comforting. Blug-greens are the most calming, while electric yellow-greens burst with excitement and power.

Purple is a rich and royal color, often associated with all that is stately, regal, and tradition. It also conveys an artistic and mysterious feeling. In less saturated hues it is associated with youth and exuberance, and at its most delicate it's a favorite springtime color.

Products Used:

Paper:  Pink Paislee & Bella Blvd

Brads:  The Paper Studio

Punch:  Marvy

Word Sticker:  KI Memories

Thickers:  American Crafts

Corrugated Alpha:  Jillibean Soup

Flowers:  Sassafras

Pom Pom Trim:  Wrights

Ink:  Stampabilities

Font:  Coaster

Pen:  Sharpie

A Little Punchy! :)

Are you ready for another awesome Fabulous Friday challenge at Frosted Designs??!!  The challenge for this week is to use Punches on your layout or project.  We all have punches in our stash and now is the time to break them out and get creative!!  I love the Martha Stewart border punches.  They are so easy to use and a great quality product.  I chose to use the border punch to make a layered border going across my double page layout.  I used three different papers to add some variety to the border.  I also used a Marvy circle punch to punch circles for the scallop border.  

We have an awesome sponsor this week, Close to My Heart.  I LOVE their products and had a friend who was a CTMH consultant for about 5 years, so I got plenty of awesome goodies through her...probably way more than any one person needs!  :)  I used some of those goodies on this page...some of the clear shapes.  I traced my shape onto patterned paper, cut it out, and then attached it behind the clear shape and added them to my page.

 

Products Used:

Paper:  K&Company

Punches:  Martha Stewart & Marvy

Baker's Twine:  The Twinery

Tiny Type:  Cosmo Cricket

Clear Shapes:  Close to My Heart

Rhinestones:  Recollections

Embroidery Floss:  Janlynn

Brads:  The Paper Studio

Thickers:  American Crafts
Pen:  Zig

Ticket 2 Ride

Today, I get to reveal my second project as the Guest Designer for the month of September, at the Scrappin' Chics Challenge Blog.  In case you missed it, the theme for this month is Fair/Carnival and there is still time to play along.  You have until September 29 to link your project.  I had to think about this one for a little while, because I knew I wanted to use the Carnival theme for everyday photos, but for the life of me couldn't work the theme into any of the photos I had that needed to be scrapped.  Fortunately, we went outside to enjoy the nice cool snap at the beginning of September and I snapped some cute photos of my son pushing the tricycle down the sidewalk.  He still can't push the pedals yet, but he does pretty good Flintstone style!!  :)  I immediately knew that "Ticket to Ride" would be a great title for this one and everything else fell into place from there!

 
Products Used:

Paper:  My Mind's Eye, Glitz Design, Sassafras, Bazzill
Ticket:  Tim Holtz
Acrylic Paint:  Apple Barrel
Brads:  The Paper Studio
Punch:  Marvy
Thickers:  American Crafts & My Mind's Eye
Sewing:  Singer
Title Tag:  Two Peas
Tiny Type:  Cosmo Cricket
Card & Sticker:  Glitz Design

A Little Crabby!

One of the perks of being on the Sassy Lil' Sketches DT, is that we are still able to participate in the challenges!  I will admit it is harder to play along with the challenges, while I am trying to keep up with three Design Times, but it is fun to join in win I get the chance.  And with this month's prize being sponsored by Authentique, I couldn't help but join in the fun!!  This layout is based on the September Week #2 layout:

 

Products Used:

Paper:  October Afternoon & Bazzill
Stickers:  Echo Park
Mini Market Stickers:  Echo Park
Thickers:  American Crafts
Baker's Twine:  The Twinery
Brads:  Bazzill
Pen:  Sharpie
Font:  CK Road Trip

100 Days of Summer

I am trying really hard to work on my obsession to hoard papers, but there are some collections, where I just can't help myself!!  :)  For example the 100 Days of Summer line from Simple Stories.  It is SO STINKIN' CUTE!!  I won the collection over a month ago from Frosted Designs for one of their Fabulous Friday challenges and since I've had it, this is only the 2nd layout I've used it on.  But I really, really LOVE the way both of the layouts turned out and they are two of my most recent favorites for my son's book.

I did a little inking and outling just to add a little more definition to some of the papers and used some pop dots behind some of the embellies to add dimension.  This layout is based on the 9.8 sketch from Sketchy Thursdays.  I had 3 photos I wanted to use for this page, so I kept the same design of the sketch, but added my extra photo above the title spot.

  

And, if you are wondering what the first layout looked like, that I used the 100 Days of Summer papers on, I'll share it with you too:

Products Used (for Play & Enjoy Life)

Paper:  Simple Stories & Bazzill
Stickers:  Simple Stories
Brads:  The Paper Studio
Mini Market Stickers:  October Afternoon
Ink:  Memento
Pen:  Zig
Thickers:  American Crafts

Super Fast...In More Ways Than One!!

Today, I did this layout for the 1 Hour Challenge at Club CK and the challenge was to use journaling strips on your layout...which was right up my alley, because I use journaling strips on almost all of my layouts!!  :)  I used the 9.1 sketch from Sketchy Thursdays for this page and rotated the sketch and used two photos instead of one.  I thought this was a cute title, because my daughter always like to use those words to describe how fast she can ride her tricycle and because they say it all of the time on Little Einsteins!  We got to go outside yesterday and enjoy the beautiful, cool weather...it was so nice to be outside for a while and not have to worry about melting into a little puddle!

Since this layout had to be done and posted in an hour, I chose to work with a coordinated product to speed things up a little bit.  Even with using the EP papers, pre-made embellies, and Thickers instead of cutting my title out on the Expression, I still cut it close.  I was able to get the layout loaded with 5 minutes to spare!!  I made just a couple of small changes, after I posted it, but nothing major.  I over-estimated the length of my journaling strips and had them covering too much of my photo because of the strip going up the side.  So I cut my strip down (which was added to cover my hand-held sewer accident!!!) and then shifted over my journaling strips.

Products Used:
 
Paper:  Echo Park & Bazzill
Stickers:  Bazzill
Brads:  The Paper Studio
Thickers:  American Crafts
Font:  CK Carefree
Baker's Twine:  The Twinery
Ink:  Memento
Acrylic Stamp:  Martha Stewart
Felt Flowers:  Recollections
Pen:  Zig 

Inspiration Strikes!!

I love it when you take on a challenge and inspiration strikes immediately!!  Sketchy Thursdays posted their October GDT challenge today and the minute I saw it, I knew exactly what I wanted to do...if only all of my layouts could be that easy!  :)  Fortunately, we are getting some MUCH NEEDED rain here in the South, thanks to TS Lee and so today has been a pretty lazy day spent inside.  I knew I wanted to get at least a little time to scrap today and I am happy to say that I did!  

Along with the sketch, the challenge includes an inspiration photo.  I chose to use the color scheme from the photo, because I really loved the earth tone colors and thought they were perfect for the theme of my layout.  I used a lot of ink and distressing, also, to convey the feel of my son playing in the dirt.  I have seen several ladies using Bubble Wrap to create a cool stamped technique on their layouts and I finally bought some this past week.  I have been wanting to try it out and I really love how it turned out.  I just cut a strip out, attached it to one of my clear acrylic blocks for stamping (with some Scotch tape on the back of it), and then inked over it with my ink pad.  You could also use paint instead of an ink pad.

Products Used:

Paper:  Bella Blvd, BoBunny, Bazzill
Brads:  Bazzill & The Paper Studio
Ink:  Memento
Smooch Spritz:  Clear Snap
Corrugated Alphas:  Jillibean Soup
Mini Market Stickers:  October Afternoon
Embossing:  Sizzix & ProvoCraft
Baker's Twine:  The Twinery
Tickets:  Tim Holtz
Pen:  Zig

Frosted Designs - My First Reveal!!

I am SO EXCITED to be sharing my first layout with you, as one of the new DT members for Frosted Designs!  I have been playing along with the challenges at FD for over the past 6 months since I found their blog and it has been so much fun!  Now, I am a part of their Team and I get to spend the next 6 months working along-side some very talented ladies!  

The challenge for this week's Fabulous Friday (Sept. 2) is to use Flourishes on your layout or project.  As soon as I saw this challenge, I knew I wanted to use it for a layout that had something to do with water, because flourishes make a great splash embellishment.  I had some fun pictures of our oldest daughter, playing on the water slide at her cousin's birthday party, so I took my inspiration from there.  I've had some acrylic flourish stamps in my stash forever, so I used those along with the "Twilight" Close to My Heart ink pad, to stamp my images.  I also added a little bit of "Sparkles" from Close to My Heart for that extra little touch of bling!

Products Used:

Paper:  Echo Park & The Paper Studio
Ink Pad & Sparkles:  Close to My Heart
Thickers:  American Crafts
Embossing:  Sizzix Big Shot
Brads: The Paper Studio
Baker's Twine:  The Twinery
Stickers:  Echo Park
Tiny Type:  Cosmo Cricket
Pen:  Sharpie
Font:  CK Handprint
Other:  Quilling Materials

Are You Up for a Challenge...?

Then check out the fun going on at Love.Joy.Paper!!  Amanda (aka okanogangirl) from Club CK is starting a monthly challenge on her Blog!!  There will be a giveaway and there will be highlights of your work from the challenge!  The great thing about the set-up for these monthly challenges, is that they can be combined with many of the other challenges that are out there...for example with a sketch challenge.

Amanda invited me to be a guest for this month and offer some inspiration on the first challenge, which is to:

 
I had a lot of fun with this layout and Amanda's challenge was a great jump-start for finding time to do more pages about me now and about my childhood...so this was a perfect way to combine the two.  I chose a picture from probably somewhere around a year old, and one that I recently took after a much-needed haircut!!  :)

And just in case you are wondering...no, my ears don't stick out like that anymore!!  :)  I hope you will head over to Amanda's Blog and check out more about this great challenge and post your layout/project to Mr. Linky for your chance to win!

Products Used:

Paper:  Pink Paislee
Thickers:  The Paper Studio
Trim:  Webster's Pages & The Paper Studio
Teeny Alphas:  Glitz Design
Baker's Twine:  The Twinery
Pearl Accents:  Recollections
Other:  Flower, Button, Butterfly

Toy Story Mania!!

I have the privilege of being the Guest Designer this month, at the Scrappin' Chics Challenge Blog.  When I found out the theme for this month's challenges, I was so excited...CARNIVAL!!  The great thing about the Carnival theme, is that it isn't limited to only projects about the Fair or the Circus.  You can incorporate this theme into your everyday layouts, which is even more fun, because it's a little unexpected.  Circus-Inspired Designs are a big trend right now, too, as pointed out in the Trend Talk article of the September 2011 issue of Creating Keepsakes.  The Afternoon Muse line from Glitz Design is a perfect example of this fun trend.  

For my layout, I used papers from Scenic Route and created a fun Carnival theme with a banner, tickets, and targets.  This was a great look to go along with the pictures from our favorite ride in Disney World, Toy Story Mania!

 

Products Used:

Paper:  Scenic Route
Baker's Twine:  The Twinery
Tickets:  Creating Keepsakes Download
Pen:  Sharpie
Brads:  The Paper Studio
Punch:  Marvy
Scrabble Tiles:  Digital Alpha
Other:  Button, Chipboard
Font:  CarnivalMF