Hanging Chads??!!

Well, I guess they're not technically hanging chads...but have you ever noticed those quarter inch strips at the bottom of your 12x12 patterned papers?  Let me just tell you, that they are pretty awesome!  I love, love, love to use border strips on my layouts, but I hate cutting them from a full sheet of my 12x12 paper!  Why, you may ask?  Chances are, that I am going to want to use that piece of paper for a full background, so I don't want to cut a small amount off and not be able to use it later.  That's why the quarter inch pieces at the bottom are so great...they save a full 12x12 sheet.  Most of the time, the quarter inch strips are a preview of what's on the other side of the paper and they are 12 inches in length.  Echo Park papers, usually have a shorter preview piece, but definitely still useable.  And lately I've noticed a fun trend, where the companies make the quarter inch piece a totally different pattern that still coordinates with the papers.  

Now you might be wondering what other ways these could be used, other than just border strips across your page.  You can use them to punch small holes and use for confetti across your layouts.  You could also use them with your border punches.  For my second layout in this post, I cut the smaller strips from the bottom of the Echo Park papers and used the as the pennants in my banner.  And I am sure there are a ton more uses for these skinny mini patterns!

First, I'll share a layout, where I just used them as border strips at the top, center, and bottom of my page.

I loved Sketch #205 from Creative Scrappers and knew it would be perfect for these photos!!  I really thought little boy pages would be a challenge, after doing pages for two little girls for over 4 years, but I am definitely getting the hang of them.  And I think the industry has started putting out some awesome products lately for little boy pages...Sasparilla by October Afternoon, Charming & A Boy's Life by Echo Park, Chap by American Crafts, Awesome by Simple Stories, and of course the one I used on this page, Technologic by Kaisercraft!

Products Used:

Cardstock & Brads:  The Paper Studio
Patterned Paper & Rub Ons:  Kaisercraft
Font:  Euphemia & Arial Black
Thickers:  American Crafts
Punch:  EK Success
Embroidery Floss:  Janlynn
Buttons:  Michael's
Acrylic Paint:  Apple Barrel
Pen:  Sharpie
Metal Rings:  Avery (Office Supply)

On this second layout, I used the small preview pieces for my pennant banner and I also punched a few of them with the notebook edged punch.  This layout is also for one of the fun weekly challenges, hosted by my friend, Erika Hayes at Club CK.  Our issue challenge this week, was to create a button banner (inspiration taken from the March/April CK magazine).

  
This was a really fun page to do, because it was my "inaugural" layout using Echo Park's Charming line.  Now I will say that it is definitely hard to pick favorites when all of the new CHA releases come out, but this one is definitely in my Top 3 from CHA-W!  So using the little preview pieces at the bottom of the page worked great for this page.  I was able to add 7 different patterned papers in my banner, without having to cut from my full 12x12 sheets.  And just another little tip...the preview sheet at the front of each of the packages, is also great for cutting little bits and pieces, here and there!


I hope I gave you a few new ideas to try on your next layout, and I would love to hear any other fun ideas you could think of for using the quarter inch strips.  I'm sure the possibilities are endless!!  :)


Products Used:


Patterned Paper & Stickers:  Echo Park
Brads:  The Paper Studio
Smooch Spritz:  Clear Snap
Buttons:  Dill-Buttons & Close to My Heart
Embroidery Floss:  Janlynn
Punch:  EK Success
Washi Tape:  SEI


 

 

Fabulous is Fabulous!!

And I am sure you would agree, if you've seen the new Fabulous collection from Simple Stories.  I was so excited to see that they released a girl's line and a boy's line, this year, since I have both!!  :)  So, I decided it was time to break open my package and use these pretty papers for our Fabulous Friday challenge at Frosted Designs.  This week, we are challenging you to use Rolled Paper on your layouts, cards, or projects.  Since all of the Simple Stories papers already have a sepia/distressed look to them, I thought they would be perfect to use for this challenge.

  
Once I cut the border strips to go under my photos, I used the edge of my scissors to distress the edge and then I just pushed and curled the paper with my fingers.  I also decided to tear away some of my 12x12 background paper and just added a piece of the blue gingham behind.  I used the same technique to distress and roll the edges.  And I have to say a huge thank you to Jennifer Shaw for the giveaway she did on her Blog several weeks ago.  I ended up being the winner and they were some amazing things in the prize package!!  The pretty little orange butterflies and teal and white flower on this layout, are some of the items that were included in the prize.

If you haven't tried this fun technique yet, then I hope you will come play along with us this week at Frosted Designs!!  Tearing and distressing is really fun and kind of therapeutic...and if you want to  go really crazy, grab your ink pad and ink up those edges!!  :)  Looking forward to seeing all of the entries this week and you will have a chance to win from our sponsor, Scrappy Stuff Supplies.


Products Used:

Patterned Paper & Stickers:  Simple Stories
Thickers:  American Crafts
Brads:  The Paper Studio
Pearls:  ZVA Creative & Recollections
Pom Pom Trim:  Wrights
Edgers:  Provo Craft
Other:  Die Cut Butterflies & Paper Flowers
Pen:  Zig Memory System

Mastering Misting

I LOVE the look of Spray Mists...on other people's layouts!!  :)  HA!  But really, I own several different spray mists and I've used them before, but never felt I achieved the look I was going for.  Recently, Kim Watson hosted a class at Club CK, and used spray misting as one of the techniques.  She give some great tips, one being taking the nozzle out of the mist bottle and tapping it lightly to add larger splatters to your page.  DUH...now why didn't I think of that!!  :)  So ever since Kim's class, I have taken up a renewed interest in spray misting.  I attended my monthly crop this past Friday night and 3 of the 4 layouts I completed, included spray mist!  I think that just might be a record for me!!  :)  So I wanted to share one of those layouts today, using one of my favorite new CHA releases...MME Miss Caroline.

 
I used October Afternoon's Strawberry Cream Sprinkler for this page.  First I sprayed my background and then removed the nozzle, to create the larger mist splatters.  I also used the mist on the MME wooden butterfly accent.  I love the soft look it created on the butterfly.  I am definitely happy with the result of the misting on this layout, and I think it may be showing up on a lot of future layouts!!  :)

Products Used:  

Patterned Paper, Brads, & Large Wooden Butterfly:  My Mind's Eye
Smaller Butterflies:  Studio Calico
Thickers:  American Crafts
Mini Market Stickers & Sprinklers:  October Afternoon
Punch:  Martha Stewart
Washi Tape:  SEI
Stick Pins:  Recollections
Baker's Twine:  The Twinery
Doilies:  Hobby Lobby 

New York visits the South

Please click HERE if you are looking for the Design by Diana Blog Hop.  You have until April 30 to participate in the Hop and link you layout back to Diana's Blog.

Last year for Vacation Bible School, our theme was "Big Apple Adventure".  All of our decorations for the week were a take on things from New York.  Our kids LOVE VBS and usually ask me all year round when the next one is coming up!!  :)  I will admit, that I am usually pretty slow in getting the pictures scrapped from the week, though.  I usually teach 2nd or 3rd Grade, so it is hard to get photos of our own kids sometimes, since they are in the younger grades.  And my camera doesn't always take the greatest inside photos, so it usually takes me a while to get inspired to scrap these pages.

So, I was really excited to see our April One Page Sketch for Sketch Support!!  I knew it would be perfect for the photos I had from this past year's VBS.

Miraculously, I stuck very close to the sketch this time!!  :)  I decided to add border strips of Smash tape to the top and bottom of my page, because I have this weird thing, where I usually like to "close in" my pages.  :)  I hope you will come over and visit Sketch Support this week!!  We are only on our second day of reveals for this Sketch and I have seen some amazing work so far and I'm looking forward to see what my other fellow DT members have in store for the rest of the week!!

Products Used:

Cardstock: Die Cuts With a View
Patterned Paper: Creative Imaginations, October Afternoon, My Mind's Eye, The Paper Studio
Punch: Marvy
Chipboard Embellishments: Martha Stewart
Thickers: American Crafts
Buttons: Michael's
Embroidery Floss: Janlynn
Tape: EK Success
Pen: Sharpie

Look in a Book

Please click HERE if you are looking for the Design by Diana Blog Hop.  You have until April 30 to participate in the Hop and link you layout back to Diana's Blog.

This past Friday, we had our monthly Crop.  Thankfully our Church let's us use our Fellowship Center once each month to get together and talk, and snack, and hopefully get some pages done!!  :)  I managed to finish 4 layouts...which might not sound like a lot, but I usually average one and a half to two hours per page, so I think I did pretty good!!  I can only share one page today, because two of the others are reveals for Sketch Support in May and the other is for a challenge called Chinese Whispers that I play along with at Club CK (but I think I will give you a little sneak peek of this one, because it was my favorite of the night!!).

If you've been following my Blog for a while, you know I am a BIG fan of CSI.  Their weekly challenges are always so much fun and Case File #15 was one of my favorites so far!  Here is my layout and the CSI case file:

 
CSI offered some great elements for Evidence this week.  I chose to use Book Pages, Stacking/Layers, Pom Pom Trim, and I framed the page with a thin white line.  For the Testimony this week, I documented reading.  These were not the greatest photos, because I took them on my phone in Barnes & Noble, but I loved that he was looking at a book with his favorite characters...the Toy Story gang!!  

I also used the April Sketch from Artful Delight for this layout.  I really loved this month's sketch and decided to use two photos instead of the one larger photo.  It worked pretty well and I love how the design of the page turned out.

Products Used:

Cardstock:  The Paper Studio

Patterned Paper:  Authentique, My Mind's Eye & Crate Paper

Pom Pom Trim:  My Mind's Eye

Thickers;  American Crafts

Mini Market Stickers:  October Afternoon

Font:  CK Crescent

Baker's Twine:  The Twinery

Date Tag:  Jillibean Soup

Pen:  Sakura

Mini Round Gems:  Recollections

Other:  Tag, Book Pages, & Pleated Flowers

And, as promised...here is a little sneak peek of my Chinese Whispers layout...hopefully I will be able to reveal the full page by the middle of this week!!  :)

Design by Diana Anniversary Blog Hop

Hi Everyone and welcome to our Hop!!  Diana Fisher is celebrating her 3 year blog anniversary by giving the anniversary gifts to YOU — the readers! Hop on through the Blog Hop to find prizes and inspiration along the way.

You should have arrived here from the Blog of the very talented Tessa Buys.  If you did not, please go to the beginning of the Hop, by visiting Design by Diana and then follow through the Hop.  You won't want to miss out on all of the amazing inspiration and some awesome prize giveaways!!

Plus, there's a chance to play along with us! Use the sketch Diana made, link your entry back at her blog, and you could win a $30 shop credit to Scrapbook Circle.  You have until April 30th to complete the hop and link up your sketch challenge entry to be eligible for the hop prizes!

I just want to say how honored I was when Diana invited me to be a part of the Hop!!  I have been a big fan of hers, ever since I started participating in the weekly Sketch Challenges that were hosted at the former challenge Blog, Sketchy Thursdays.  So, needless to say, I was a little giddy to be included in such an amazingly talented group of Ladies.

Diana provided us with one of her amazing sketches to work with, and I decided to have a little fun and go bold with this one.  I recently purchased some of the BoBunny Alora collection at my LSS and thought the colors would be perfect with some photos of our oldest daughter enjoying an ice cream cone.  And a big plus, the paper colors worked well with the colors of her t-shirt, and I always love pulling colors from my photos to pick out my patterned papers!!  :)  These papers are also awesome for fussy cutting embellishments!!  I love to create embellishments for my pages, using elements that I cut from one of the coordinating papers.  Flowers are a favorite.  You can "dress" them up by adding buttons or brads for flower centers and add dimension by using pop dots.  Quick, easy, and cheap embellishments!!  So, here is the page I created and the sketch from Diana:

Now, I will admit that halfway through my page, I considered not using this layout, because I felt there was something that just was not working...but I usually think this on just about every layout, halfway through!!  :)  But when I added the black Thickers in my title, I had an A-HA moment!!  I decided to add in a little black accenting with some stitching and added some black punched half circles and then I loved it!  Voila!!  You never know what can turn a page around!!  :)  I used some bubble wrap and white acrylic paint to stamp on the Bazzill background paper to mimic the feel of the Birthday Cake Ice Cream that our daughter had in her cone.  And I stayed fairly close to the sketch, but decided to use the journaling area for a layered flower cluster and just added my journaling to the circle element on the right hand side of the page.

I hope you enjoyed stopping by to see my take on Diana's sketch...and what would a Blog Hop be without a fun giveaway and I just happen to have one!  To enter the giveaway, here on my Blog, become a new Follower and leave a comment letting me know you are.  If you are already following, you can just leave a comment on this post...random whatever you would like to say or any comments on my layout would be appreciated!!  :)  Since Diana is leaving the Hop open until April 30th, I will do the same and select a random winner and make an announcement on May 1st.  Wondering what you can win??  Here it is:

My Mind's Eye On the Bright Side Collection Pack - 

includes:  9 sheets of 12x12 double sided paper and a coordinating accessory sheet

AND THAT'S NOT ALL - also a collection of Smash products by K&Company

30 Sheet Blank List Pad, 6 Piece Pockets, 20 Piece red & white Clips; 
70 Piece Sticky Notes

So, now you are off to the amazing Sara Zenger's Blog to check out her awesome craftiness!!  Enjoy the rest of the Hop!!

Products Used:

Cardstock:  Bazzill
Patterned Paper:  BoBunny
Felt Flower:  Recollections
Thickers:  American Crafts
Font:  CK  Girl & CK Anything Goes
Mini Round Gems:  Recollections
Button:  Michael's
Brad:  Heidi Grace Designs
Acrylic Paint:  Apple Barrel
Embroidery Floss:  Janlynn
Punch:  Marvy
Other:  Bubble Wrap

 

The Bella Buzz

A  little exciting news to share today!!  I was contacted a couple of weeks ago, by Laura Vegas, scrapbooker extraodinare and she asked to use one of my layouts in the April issue of the Bella Buzz Newsletter for Bella Blvd!!  Ummm, let me think....YES!!!!  The newsletter for April was sent out yesterday and my layout is a part of the Facebook Fan Love article.

If you love Bella Blvd., you will definitely want to check out all of the great inspiration in this month's newsletter.  You can click HERE and download your copy and check out some of the back issues!

Thanks for checking it out and don't forget to stop by this weekend, for the 3 Year Anniversary Blog Hop with Diana Fisher.  Believe me, you will see some amazing work and there are some awesome prizes up for grabs!!

Amy Tan LOVE

If any of you are friends with me on FB, you have probably seen me complaining (multiple times) about impatiently waiting for a pre-order of scrappy goodies from Stop & Scrap, that I placed back in December...well, I am happy to say, that it FINALLY arrived last week!!  WooHoo!  I had a variety of stuff in the order, but one that I couldn't wait to get was the new SketchBook line by Amy Tangerine for American Crafts.  And it is beautiful online, but let me just say, that it is absolutely A-MAZ-ING in real life!!  I couldn't wait to use it, so I broke it out yesterday and used it for a layout, that I had actually planned before I even had the papers!!  :)  I thought the bright, fun colors would work perfectly with some of the photos we had from Easter weekend when we dyed Easter Eggs.

I also created this page, based on several challenges:

1.  March/April Issue Challenge at Club CK, to make your journaling into a decorative strip or other design element.

2.  "Spring Flowers" class by Kim Watson at Club CK.  Kim Watson is my #1 go to scrapbooker, whose pages I love to drool over and find fun ideas.  In her Spring Flowers class, she walks you through creating fun pleated flowers using Washi tape (or you can use patterned paper strips, if you don't have Washi tape).  She also gives info on creating your page title, by masking with stickers and using Spray Mist.

3.  I based my layout on Sketch #204 from Creative Scappers.

I used the Washi (or Smash) tape on two of my flowers and tried a thin strip of patterned paper for the third one.  I had a lot of fun with these, and they will most likely show up on future layouts!!  After I misted my title, I realized my yellow wasn't as "yellow" as I thought it was.  Even though my title letters were visible, it was still really light, so I decided to add the multi-colored stitching to work in with the colors on my layout and I just outlined the word "world" with a fine tip Sharpie.  One of my favorite things about the SketchBook line, is that there are some awesome patterns that are perfect for fussy cutting!!  The cute circular flowers, camera, and cloud were all cut from some of the 12x12 papers.  I love adding dimensional adhesive to pop up some of the elements on my pages, to help add visual interest.

If you get a chance, check out some of the fun stuff going on at Club CK!  I think you would really enjoy getting some tips from Kim's class...I know I did!!  :)

Products Used:

Cardstock:  Bazzill & The Paper Studio
Patterned Paper:  American Crafts
Smash Tape:  K&Company
Mini Market Stickers:  October Afternoon
Stickers used for Masking:  Crate Paper & Bella Blvd.
Font:  CK Emily
Spray Mist:  October Afternoon & Tattered Angels
Embroidery Floss:  Janlynn
Brads:  The Paper Studio & Bazzill
Edgers:  Provo Craft
Rub Ons:  Basic Grey
Baker's Twine:  The Twinery
Punch:  Marvy
Buttons: Michael's  

A WINNER, Some News, and Layouts!

I want to say a HUGE Thank You to everyone who stopped by this past weekend for the Sketch Support Blog Hop!  I really enjoyed reading through all of your comments and thanks for your kind words!!  And on top of that, I picked up 35 new followers...Holy Smokes!!  :)  So, I know you are waiting to find out who is the Winner of the newest Scrapbook Generation One Page Sketches book!!  I used Random.org and lucky #13 came up:

Congrats Angela!!  Please email your info to me at ashleyhorton010675@gmail.com

 Angelasaid...

Wow Ashley! I love your sweet layout with your adorable little boy! I like the way the main photo has a little tab behind it and I really like the stars along the bottom! Another great layout from one of my favorite crafty ladies!

And for some other BIG NEWS, that you might be interested in...I will be involved in another Blog Hop this weekend, starting Saturday, April 21.  Diana Fisher, owner of the Sketchy Thursdays challenge Blog will be celebrating her 3 year Blog Anniversary at Designs by Diana!!  I was so honored to be invited by Diana, to be a part of her Hop, and believe me when I say, there are some TALENTED Ladies participating in this Hop.  And along with amazing inspiration, you will have the chance to win some AWESOME prizes and participate with the sketch challenge.  So check back this Saturday for fun inspiration and great giveaways!!

I also wanted to share two layouts very quickly!  I didn't have a chance to post these, this weekend because of the Blog Hop and thought I would share them today.  I will be brief, since this is a loooonnnnggg post already!! :)


Sketch Support Two-Page Sketch #27

CSI Case File #14

Thanks for stopping in today and enduring the longest post ever!!  :)  I will have another layout to share tomorrow, based on a sketch from Creative Scrappers.  And don't forget to come join us this coming Saturday for Diana's Anniversary Blog Hop!!

Hop Along with Sketch Support

Welcome!!  I am so excited to be participating in my first Blog Hop with Sketch Support as one of the new DT members this year!!  If you are just starting at my blog, make sure you begin at the Sketch Support Blog to begin the hop!  You should have arrived here from the very talented Virginia's Blog, if you have been following along with the Hop starting out at Sketch Support.

Our fearless leader, Allison, provided us with an amazing sketch from one of the newest Scrapbook Generation books, Sketches for Scrapbooking One-Page Sketches Volume 2.  But before we get to that, she also gave us some fun questions to answer, to help the readers get to know the DT members a little bit better.  So here is a little more about me:

How long have you been scrapbooking?  I have been scrapbooking around 6 1/2 years.  I started right after our oldest daughter was born.
 
Why did you start scrapbooking?  When I first heard about scrapbooking, I didn't really know what it was.  I was invited to a crop by a friend and immediately fell in love with it.  I found that it was a great creative outlet for me and I loved telling the stories behind my photos with the journaling and themes of my layouts, rather than just sticking photos in a photo album.
  
What is your favorite time of day to scrapbook?  My children all still nap (most days anyway), so mid-day is a great time for me.  I also like working on pages, once they are in bed at night.
  
How often do you scrapbook?  I probably average 4-5 days out of the week.
  
Where do you scrapbook/what does your space look like?  My scrapbook area moved into our master bedroom, once our youngest son had to move into our extra bedroom, which was our office/craft area.  I have an 8ft table for my work area and it also holds my laptop, Cricut, and some of my drawer sets that hold embellishments, punches, and stamps.  I have a shelf over the table with other odds and ends of things and wire rack stands at each end of the room.

When I'm not scrapbooking you can find me...Teaching Homeschool for our 6 year old, spending time with family/friends, reading, or cooking.

What is your favorite thing about using sketches?  I love the fact that sketches are versatile.  You can use it as is or you can use it as a starting point and go in a totally different direction.

What is your favorite sketch from Sketch Support?  It is really hard to choose just one, but I really loved the Add On Sketch #9.  It is a cute little camera Add On and it was one of the sketches that I chose to work with as one of my DT submissions to join the Sketch Support Team.


And now I can share what you're all here to see!  :)  Allison chose one of the sketches from the new book for us to work with.

I changed things up a little bit, but the sketch is still very prevalent in my layout.  I used a portrait photo in place of the landscape photo and extended the size of the 3 smaller photos.  I used one block of patterned paper behind my photo, instead of the 3 pieces.  And I decided to move my title down with my journaling area.

So here is where it gets interesting for you!!  :)  Want a chance to win the new book??!!

All you have to do is become a new follower, if you are not following already and leave a comment letting me know.  Current followers can leave a comment telling me what you like about using sketches.  I will leave comments open until 9PM (CDT) on Monday, April 16.  Check back on Tuesday, to see if you are the lucky winner!!  You also have a chance to win the Grand Prize giveaway from the Sketch Support Blog.  You must visit each of the DT Member's Blogs and comment, in order to be eligible for this prize.

So now you are off to see the amazing inspiration, from the very talented Jill Sarginson!!

Products Used:

Patterned Paper & Alpha Stickers:  Simple Stories
Thickers:  American Crafts
Font:  Eurostyle
Brads:  The Paper Studio
Buttons:  Blumenthal Lansing
Embroidery Floss:  Janlynn
Stick Pins:  My Mind's Eye