Amber 2 layout and a shout-out

Okay kids, here's the deal. I had a life changing experience when my friend, Misty, explained on her blog how to DIY enamel dots. I may already be amassing a large stash and I only just watched the tutorial. 

The video was perfectly timed for this layout. The page is based on the Mid Week Mojo Amber 2 sketch at Scrapbooksteals and I was really wanting something in the elephant's spray that would resemble air bubbles/texture.

I used MME's new Collectable "Memorable" line for the papers, the washi also MME though don't ask me which lines. The elephant and spray were cut from Silhouette Studio files. To make the bigger spray "puddle" I rubbed gesso on the page and then added blue acrylic paint when the gesso was nearly dry and then swirled the two together for texture. Interspersed with my new enamel dots are some periods from the AC Dear Lizzy Thickers pack that I used for the title.

Dear Santa...

When I saw this week's Let's Get Sketchy sketch I knew that I had to pair it up with the Scrapbooksteals.com MCM challenge to use rosettes on a project.  

A few weeks ago I'd pulled some floral-type embellishments that I rarely use and put them in a basket on my desk as a reminder to use those suckers! So finding a project where I could use a bunch at once was perfection.

 The sketch lent itself well to these photos of some of the antics of our elf on the shelf and I thought the rosettes would lend a festive vibe without going over the top. Most of them were spring colors so I misted them. I also removed or covered the center pieces/buttons on most (Halloween!) and replaced with stickers from the MME Dear Santa line. 

Card-y weekend

I've been getting a lot of pages done lately so I decided to dedicate my crafty time this weekend to cards for my Operation Write Home box. 

The first is based on a card that OWH posted to their Facebook page and I lifted. The original used a row of teeny punched butterflies, but since I don't really own punches I thought I'd lift it into a more masculine/gender neutral design. 

The arrows were cut from a variety of scraps using my Silhouette Cameo. The sentiment stamp is from Studio G. The embossing folder is from Lifestyle Crafts. Because I was putting the machine to use, I went ahead and made 6 just like this one.

The next group of cards is based on an Operation Write Home sketch challenge.  I love the idea of using vintage means of communication on cards for troops, yep, I'm a dork like that!

This one took a bit to get the Crackle Accents in focus, making the rest of the card out of focus. Boo.

The others based on the same sketch. All the bases are cut from the same paper, with the elements fussy cut from other papers in the same Graphic 45 pack.

That's 11 cards this weekend. Not bad. Not bad at all. Now to wait and see if Snowpocalypse 2 happens and how much crafty time I can work in during it. ;)

Scrap Your Story

I'm so excited about the beginning of the Scrap Your Story challenge blog. You see, I love a good challenge blog. And I'm in for a big challenge with this one - my first design team position! So.Stinkin.Excited.



And let me tell you, the line up of designers is looking pretty awesome. One of the things I'm loving about it already is that while it is a layout challenge blog, it isn't *just* a sketch blog. Each week will bring you something a little different.

The challenge format is: 

Week 1: Use it

Week 2: Theme

Week 3: Sketch

Week 4: Technique

How fun is that?! Hopefully I can keep up with it all. ;)

Well, I hope you come play along. The first challenge starts March 1. See you there!!

When Going Stops Going

The sun is finally shining here, after a dreary week and then getting a foot of snow in less than a day. Now, some of you truly northerners will say that's nothing for you, but we've been busting out spring wear since December so it was dramatic to say the least!

In those dark and dreary days I got a lot of scrapbooking done and all this sunshine means I can take some pictures and share them with you. 

This one is based on the Let's Get Sketchy Feb week 3 sketch.  

As soon as I saw the hexagons I wanted to play with MME Follow Your Heart. Then I had this feeling of being a little to copy cat because some of the design team used that line. So I busted out my Silhouette Cameo and made my own hexagon mask. I adhered it with my Repositionable Xyron. Misted, splattered, and removed the mask.  Then while all the bits were still on the carrier I misted those in another shade, and glued some back into the pattern. I hadn't used many of them so I stuck down some MME washi, and then piled up the tiny hexies and made "buttons" out of reverse side. The chevrons are the reverse side of that MME Follow Your Heart hexagon paper I was talking about. The heat embossed banner was stamped using Glitz Designs Love Games stamp set. More MME washi and a little heat embossing on the photo and I was pretty much done. 

Get Dirty - Amber 1

I'm really busting through some of those scraps I keep talking about -- NOT -- another page done with older papers and scraps but the pile still looms before me. *sigh* The paper stash really needs to get down sized because I'd like to be at a place where I'm scrapping with year old lines. This goal is also really helping with making David happy with my scrappy spending, for right now at least. ;)

This page is based on the Scrapbooksteals.com MWM Amber 1 sketch by Kerys. I love, love that she went grid on it. Such a different feel for me than all my layers I am used to using and yet this one still feels, "me."

I'm also linking it up to the About a Boy Challenge to use photos of a boy 12 months or under, in this photo Rylan's 10 months.

For those that like to know resources used, this one uses a bunch of MME papers, scraps and die cuts - Andrea Victoria, Quite Contrary, Wild Aspargus, Kraft Funday, Ooh La La, and Abbey Road with some machine stitching to finish it off.

Monkey Kid

It seems like so long since I scrapped! A whole week?! Riiiiight, I realize that's only a long time to, well, to me. But this week was an interesting one - Rylan decided that he was ready to ditch diapers and was literally doing so so we began the arduous process of potty learning. He's getting so big!

I still needed some "me" time so I combined a couple of challenges together in between potty runs.

The sketch is based off of Drill #2 at S.W.A.T by Jenessa. I loved how open to interpretation the sketch  is. So simple, yet full of possibility!

I'm also linking it up to Scrapbooksteals.com MCM - Citrus colors and Paper Girls Challenge Blog - use washi.

There's a couple of older MME lines - Wild Asparagus and Andrea Victoria, with the newer-ish Oooh La La and Lime Twist. The washi is also MME. The bright embellies are Amy Tangerine, though the ribbon is Imaginesce.

Homemade Marshmallows

I know, we made homemade marshmallows. Pretty cool. I wouldn't have even tried if there hadn't been so many pins for them! So much easier than it sounds, though you really do have to stir/cook them for a bit and that got boring for this guy which means I'm really glad I didn't try it with both around. ;) 

Anyway. I designed this page based on Krisy McKeen's Kiwi Lane DT Doodles sketch. I'm also linking it to the Use It Tuesday - Fasteners challenge.  

Most of the page is MME Follow Your Heart, plus some scrap from their  Lime Twist and stickers from All Is Bright. Inked with Color Box Ocean. Kiwi Lane templates include Aspen Court, Abbie Road, Tiny Sweetheart, and Adventure. The buttons are actually brads and have been around since not long after I started scrapbooking (over 3 years old).

Jade 10 - untitled

Jade 10?! It doesn't seem like it's been 10 weeks already. Crazy.

The sketch this week for Scrapbooksteals.com MWM was by Kassandra, a Facebook fan page regular. I always  enjoy her work and was excited to get started on it ASANS (As Soon As Naptime Started).

Mmmm, so many MME scraps used here to make my hexagon and other shapes. I both hand-stitched using a WRMK Sew Easy Random head and used my sewing machine. There's WRMK washi and MME washi. And a couple of Kiwi Lane Templates helped make it happen. 

Instead of doing hidden journaling about the details regarding our little hospital visit pictured here, I wrote them in silver ink. The casual observer may not notice it and flip through quickly, and for that, hopefully, Vance will be slightly less embarrassed about this picture when his future girlfriends take a gander at the scrapbooks!

Smile Often.

I've done the Scrappy Friends challenge for a few months now. I love that it combines so many elements to mix and match. Each friend offers up one challenge and you get bonus entries for combining into one layout. Let's just say that I really, really enjoy the challenge of squeezing all the elements into one look!

My interpretation:

Brenda - Sketch Challenge - yep

Rochelle Spears ~ Color Combo - as soon as I saw the colors I knew I wanted to use MME Lime Twist

Kerys Sharrock ~ Quote Challenge -use sentences from some Subway/Word Art.

Kristi B ~ Stash Challenge - mustaches, pennants, and dry embossing - check, check, check

I didn't really know how I wanted to go about using Kerys' word art, so I started by just using one as the title. I had that decided before I laid out the page. Then I was trying to figure out how in the world I'd get mustaches into it, naturally adding one to the title seemed fun. Then as I adhered it in place I had this idea to sketch on a bunch of 'staches and add some of the other sentences from the word art that describe Rylan or that I'd like for him. I like that doing so supplied a "boyish" and playful aspect to a "girl" colored page (what can I say, the colors matched my Christmas tree so well that I just had to use these pics!). 

Love card, blue?!

I don't know what sparked the idea to use blue for this card, but I love the way it turned out. Because who said that all lovey-dovey cards need to be red anyway?

The Scrapbooksteals.com MCM this week was to use white and one other color. There was lots of blue in the scrap pile on my desk that needed to be put away, it just seemed natural to use it I guess. 

The stamps are from Unity Stamp Company. The doilies are an embossing folder for Lifestyle Crafts. Three of the blue papers are My Mind's Eye Follow Your Heart and Lime Twist. The blue cardstock is American Crafts Amy Tangerine. The doilies and paper edges were inked with Ranger Distress Broken China. The stamping was done with Colorbox. The pearls were from Michael's dollar bin.

London Bridge

You know the nursery rhyme. You're probably already signing it because of the title. Now that I've put that little diddy into your ear too, here's my most recent interpretation of a Let's Get Sketchy sketch, February week 2. 

I used lots of scrap bits from Echo Park's For the Record and For the Record 2. The spray mist, didn't end up quite like I wanted but I really like the splatters - and in the end, the two big mists splots could almost be smoke coming up from a destroyed house. Would work better if we'd burned it. Maybe next year if it collapses I will.

Thankful for Food

I absolutely loved this week's DT Doodles at Kiwi Lane. I only had time to knock out one of the sketches though. This one's about Thanksgiving Day foods, things they've liked in the past, this year, and then that they discovered putting olives on their fingers. True family traditions right there!

This one is also getting submitted to the new blog, About a Boy. Their first challenge was to include your boy/boys' name on the layout in some way. I built mine into the title. 

Soul Sisters

I about died when I saw that this week's sketch at Scrapbooksteal.com (Jade 9 MWM) featured a starburst pattern. I love the look they give, but man-oh-man such a lot of work. To make it ever so slightly better, I busted out some of my scraps and gave it a go. Pretty cool that everything except the Thickers were out of the scrap bin! I really need to do starbursts more often. Or not.

I'm also linking this up with the S.W.A.T Drill #1 - to do a page about yourself. S.W.A.T. (Scrap Warriors Advanced Training) is a new challenge blog that some online friends are part of and I can't wait to see what they bring with their drills and basic training and advanced training. Drooling just thinking about it.

Simple moments

Still plugging away at that December album. I'm pretty certain it's not even gonna end up with an every day component at this point. A couple of days will have extra pages - birthday party, Christmas, two sets of grandparents in town. But I'm liking it regardless. And thinking that I'm not gonna attempt a daily book ever again. Or more realistically, at least not for a few years.

For this page I used the Let's Get Sketchy February week 1 sketch. I also tied in the Paper Girls Challenge Blog challenge to use twine in a layout. Tied, twine.  Ha!

This one features a MME All is Bright page with some scraps of Follow Your Heart that were still chilling on my desk. The twine is WRMK. Alphas are from American Crafts and October Afternoon.

Edited: updated the photo with one from my regular camera instead of my cell phone!

Rockin' with my Dad

Ever start a project only to realize that now that you've picked papers that you have to abandon it to help the kiddos, make dinner, etc.? That's what happened with this layout. I'd set out to do it and realized that it was time to start dinner for company. When hubby's alarm woke me the next day I woke with a start! I had a crazy idea about what I wanted to do for this page. 

I have LOTS of pictures of my guys throwing these pebbles at our local park's lake and I wanted to take this two photo Paper Secrets sketch and give it a few more while maintaining the sketch. 

In addition to the sketch, Paper Secrets challenge included using a chevron. I accomplished this with some paper piecing that I then sewed together.

So I laid out what would go behind the multi-colored doily page and stitched the doily paper down on just one side to make a flap. I even decorated the back of the doily paper with another photo. 

The inside of my three page single page layout!

All the papers are My Mind's Eye Follow Your Heart, as are the dimensional stickers and clips. There's WRMK and MME washi. The alphas are a variety of American Crafts Thickers and October Afternoon alphas. In addition to machine stitching I used two WRMK Sew Stamper heads. And lastly, Kiwi Lane templates provided some of the shapes, and I used a Lifestyle Crafts embossing folder.

Meeting Buzz

I just want to give a bit shout out to all of my new friends from Kiwi Lane that have joined errantscraps! I hope you all had a good time with the hop and that you stick around for a while so we can all get to know each other better. 

One of the advantages of knowing people when you go on vacation is they show you the sights from a different perspective. My sons will never know Disneyworld the same way as most other kids because my brother works for the Mouse. We planned trips to parks based on where he was working and often he'd have little surprises for us. 

This particular day? Let's just say that we're 99.99% certain that we are genetically related to everyone in the picture (there are days I still swear my bro was adopted) and he made that little boy's day by spending so much time with him. Naturally there were lots of pictures, many which never got scrapped while I was working on our trip album. So.Many.Pictures. Now I'm trying to finish some of those up. 

This page is for the Scrapbooksteals.com Jade 8 Mid Week Mojo challenge. Only two more weeks in this series, have you been playing along? There's the weekly challenge and then a separate drawing for those who complete all 10 in a series. Better get your scrap on!

Kiwi Lane DT Doodles 4 - cards

If you're coming for the Kiwi Lane Blog Hop, head here.

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I simply loved Gail's card sketches this week for DT Doodles 4. And this particular sketch really seemed to speak to me because I rarely make more than one similar card at the same time! Oh well, Operation Write Home is always looking for boy themed cards and boy do these fit the bill. Even better, everything is scraps!

I used Scallops mini 1A and 2A.

Kiwi Lane Blog Hop - photo box

Thanks for joining in on the Kiwi Lane Designs Blog Hop, if you didn't come here from Melissa's page, head back to the start.

I was excited when Kristy asked me to join the February Blog Hop. I've been a closet follower for a while - but I mostly have accessories so it's not always crystal clear when I've used them.

Needless to say, when she asked me I jumped at the chance to play with some 12 in borders - Clara Lane. I just love the soft curves of this template set! But I have to admit, that after only using the accessories for so long, it was a bit of a learning curve for me. (Read, there's a couple of "failed" projects around my house right now.)

I started my projects by redecorating a white photo box. After I'd framed one side of the box, and cut out the papers for it I realized that it's pristine white was a poor match for my Authentique papers. So I inked up the box, much of the ink rubbed right back off but enough stayed on it to make me happy.

I used 1A, 2A, 3A, and 3B.

Then, I started piecing together the base layer. My typical adhesive (ATG) wasn't going to hold up on this project - there's a shiny coating that I had to gently sand in order for even the Quick-dry Liquid Adhesive to stick.

See how this one section had to be pieced? Yep, I'm pretty proud of that part.

And the finished product! A cute little box to hold my ever-growing stamp collection.

The next thing I did with my Clara Lane templates (2A, 2B, 3A, 3B) was draw lines onto a corkboard and start painting it in bright colors that match my craft space. I also used my Scallops mini 1A. After all the horizontal layers had dried I used my 1/2 in Strips minis to mask off spaces to paint vertical lines. When all of it was dry I edged all the lines and added some pen work and stamping for interest.

I made the board to hang some cards that other crafters have sent AND to hold my templates. Sadly, I'd already made all the holes when I realized I have to many templates for this baby. It'll work this way until I buy more ("more" is pretty inevitable).

As a random but potentially useful aside, I got paint on my templates.  I was bummed that the acryllics had dried to fast thus leaving the templates stained. Quite accidentally, I spilled some non-acetone nail polish remover on one. Voila! So much cleaner. There's still a faint hint of pinks and purples on some, but they are much more transparent now. 

Now, don't forget that a random winner from ONE of the 13 blogs (including Kiwi Lane), will be given a $25 gift certificate to the Kiwi Lane Shop, just for leaving a comment by Sunday, February 3 at 11:59 MST. Winners will be posted on the Kiwi Lane blog the following Wednesday.
So go soak up some inspiration! Next up is Charissa.

7. Charissa Miller http://www.akihasmommascraps.com

8. Sherri Thompson http://www.sherrithompson.blogspot.com

9. Kristy MacKeen http://www.mamasanity.blogspot.com

10. Sherri Funk http://faithandscraphappiness.blogspot.ca

11. Roselyn Riley http://prettylittlepackages.blogspot.com/

12. Lisa Anderson http://scrappingobsession.blogspot.com

13. Leslie Prinkki http://www.scrapsofmine.blogspot.com