Scrap Your Story - Polaroids

I just have to come out and say it, I love the look of polaroids but always forget to use them in my scrappy arsenal. When Christy said we'd be using them for this week's challenge at Scrap Your Story, well I got pretty excited!

For your polaroid, it can come from anywhere you like, be it an actual nostalgic polaroid, one you hand cut, an embellishment, or like mine that I used my die cutting machine to cut and frame my photo.

My page today has some fun stuff going on, including the oldest paper in my stash. Check out that faux crocodile, wowzers! I don't know why I bought it because it's spent the last four years hanging around in my stash, I've nearly thrown it away half a dozen times. I think it was waiting for this moment.

There's also a few reclaimed items - the washer type thing around one of the brads, two bottle caps, and a penny that the boys wanted to run through one of those souvenir penny machines. 

As for other products:

Papers are from BasicGrey PB&J, MME Lost and Found, and Authentique Loyal

Brads are Paper Studios and Teresa Collins On the Edge

Washi is Love My Tapes

Stickers are 3Bugs Blast off!

Ink is Colorbox Black Pigment

Playing Games Embossing folder from Tim Holtz 

Flocking, tags, tab are stash

I'm entering this one in a couple of challenges as well:

Scrapbooksteals MWM Peridot 5 sketch

Scrapbooksteals MCM Life: celebrate an everyday event (playing with siblings)

SWAT Drill #9 Cool Colors

Scrap Our Stash #4 All About Our Guys + use 5 or more brads

Cute Card Thursday Guest Design - Fly like a bird

It's my last week as Guest Designer at Cute Card Thursday and it's been so much fun! 

This week we're asking you to 

"Fly like a bird"

any way that you can find the inspiration. 

Maybe because I have boys but when you start talking about flying I don't often think "bird" I think rockets and airplanes. So I pulled out this airplane stamp from Martha Stewart that I've had since Vance was an infant. I matched it up with some Basic Grey PB&J, MME washi, BasicGrey brads, Stickles, and a Lawn Fawn sentiment stamp. The airplane was stamped with Ranger Distress Fired Brick and the sentiment with Black Soot. 

Organization

I don't often post photos of my workspace - normally because the photos turn out weird colors and I'd have to clean up my mess, but today I had to clean up anyway so I thought I'd make an exception. It just so happens that Scrapbooksteals has a MCM that focuses on organizing. Good timing, me!

This little pink shelf I picked up at a thrift store, it was a boring color (pine?), but I knew it would work to hold the inks that I use most frequently. At that time it wasn't all Ranger Distress Inks, but you know when you're addicted to buying a supply... anywho, I labeled them all with my K&Co Smashbook labeler. The glue on the back of the labels wasn't tough enough on its own and needed some help from my Scotch Quick Dry adhesive.

Speaking of buying supplies, here's my glitter glue/Stickles, washi, and buttons. Um, all the washi and buttons are two deep so I only see one row normally but at least it's all handy when I need it! 

In case you were curious, the shelf is from Silhouette and was their advent calendar two years ago. I'd bought it as a steal right after the holidays and "accidentally" put it to use here, thankfully another popped up in the Steals archive so I could buy a second for it's original purpose. 

And for those who are new around here, my desktop is super brightly colored - I painted it after converting Rylan's crib into a desk. You can read more about that here, go check it out, it was much cleaner a year ago!

Peridot 7 - Trail stop

Several years ago my store started volunteering at trail ride across part of the state that supported AIDS research. I went a couple of times with work, but after Rylan was born we realized that it would be a fun, outdoor activity for all of us. Hang out at one of the trail stops, cheer on the participants, hand out snacks and in between just let the kids run around and play. What's not to love?

Unfortunately we were busy the weekend it happened this year, but I still had these photos from last spring's event.

This page is being linked up to the following challenges:

Scrapbooksteals MWM Peridot 7 sketch
Scrapbooksteals MCM #28 Fussy Cutting (the camera)
SWAT Basic training: hand stitching (used a Sew Easy sewing head to place the banner before stitching)

Products used:
Paper: Cosmo Cricket Joy Ride
Buttons and brads: stash
Washi: WRMK
Sew Easy/Sew Stamper: WRMK
Twine: MME Kraft Funday
Alphas: American Crafts Thickers

Peridot 6 - Let's Go Go

Doing a little challenge catch-up this week since challenges are about to wrap up for the month. This one is for the Scrapbooksteals MWM Peridot 6 sketch and SWAT #10 Summertime.

I adapted the sketch from a one photo to fit these last three from our vacation to Seattle last summer, all of these were taken at the zoo in Seattle.

Papers: Cosmo Cricket Joy Ride

Ribbon: American Crafts Chap

Buttons: Crate Paper Random

Paper clip and photo corners, stash

Ink: Colorbox Pigment Black

Machine stitching

Practical Scrappers - Wedding feature

On Practical Scrappers today we're featuring ways celebrate those special nuptials - whether your own through a layout or a card to the bride and groom. 

My card features papers from MME Lost and Found 2. I just loved how that sentiment said "love" without having traditional wedding icons or sentiments. While I initially intended it for another couple, I might have to hang onto it and use it as an anniversary card for the hubs (9 years in August!). Only time will tell, our anniversary and their wedding are fairly close together so there's plenty of time for me to make another fab card!

The flowers are canvas resist flowers from Prima and at their centers are brads from Teresa Collins On the Edge and Paper Studios. Accenting the flowers are two pieces of ribbons, the silver is stash and the lace is Bo Bunny. The paper clip with gem is from Tim Holtz. 

While I had all those goodies out, and was feeling romantical, I pulled out some of the photos from our wedding that I didn't originally want to scrap. (My original book was done with  one 12x12 for each major theme and is quite small when you consider that the photog gave us all the original prints.) This page is about the grandmothers who came to the wedding.

In addition to other products listed, this one has banners from MME Indie Chic, stickers from Glitz Design and MME Miss Caroline, tickets and tabs from 7 Gypsies, ink from Ranger Distress.

And another close up:

Scrap Your Story - sun burst

When Christy announced that this week's technique was going to be sunburst I inwardly groaned. Love the way they look, but not such a fan of making them. I was looking through my papers for an upcoming project and found this MME Ooh La La paper that had a burst printed into it. Scoooore! 

I had two pieces so I cut one set of the pattern and popped it up to give a touch of dimension - don't worry I used the yellow part of the second sheet on that other project I mentioned. 

Then I just layered up a bunch of scraps from the line/similar colored lines. I just love how it turned out  AND I didn't have to give blood sweat and tears to make that burst perfect. 

Now, go check out what the rest of the design team did over at Scrap Your Story. 

Just trying to make my little ol' blog more accessible with all the google changes in the works.

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Cute Card Thursday Guest Design - In the summertime

I don't know about you but when I hear about summer I think day glow, flip flops, and the beach. (yeah, I live in the middle of the country, so what? summer means beaches or at the very least lakes)

This week at Cute Card Thursday we're challenging you to use 

"In the summertime"

 as inspiration. Let us know how you're inspired by that phrase. 

I went for a sunny, colorful scheme. 

The sun was cut using a Kiwi Lane Design Template, as were the swoosh things under the clouds. Papers and fabric stickers come from Amy Tangerine Sketchbook and were inked with Color Box Pumpkin Spice or Ocean. The alphas are from Jenni Bowlin. I machine stitched with black thread and used yellow Stickles to enhance the sun a bit since it was on cardstock. 

Lovey-dovey cards

I've been on a total card binge lately - I think it has something to do with a recent adventure that I had while putting away layout from the past 5 months. Uh, let's just say that when I started scrapbooking I could fit one album per child per year and on that day I filled one per child. That math makes me think I'll need 2.5 albums per kid per year. Yikes! And so the card binge began...

The bases of all of these cards are from MME Lost and Found 2. Other papers include scraps from Lost and Found and Carta Bella Beautiful Moments. Other products are listed with their card.

This card's stickers are from Crate Paper Random (border) and MME Miss Caroline (sentiment). Brads are Paper Studios.

This features a Paper Studios Affinity border sticker and the heart with wings is from Prima. 

These two also have Paper Studios Affinity borders and Glitz Design stickers. And check out my faux Kiwi Lane "templates." I didn't have one the right size so I tried to mimic the look. Freehand.

Beautiful Mess

No seriously, it was a mess, at the time it was fairly funny but I wasn't to thinking it was beautiful yet. So I'm sitting in a class, merrily using a Tim Holtz Distress dauber and suddenly I'm wearing white paint. Thankfully it seemed to miss the quilt behind me and cleaned off the floor easily enough but it took a full on shower to clean the paint from my skin! 

Now to the beautiful part, I love my art. Through that crazy mess I managed to have some great conversations with other crafters and made a mini album to boot. See, beautiful, so this page is my tribute to that evening. Yes, I made almost as big of a mess creating those paint globs as I did on accident at the class.

And a close- up so you can see just how bad it was as well as some of the details on the tag. 

So the class was taught by Sue from Genuinely Jane Studios and we were talking about one of the challenges she had going - to use the logo on a project. I got overly excited and cut their Jane out of an insert that came when I recently ordered from them and planned to adhere it to this 12x12 page. When I went back to get the link to the challenge I realized it was supposed to be a silhouette of Jane and on either a 6x6 or in a journal. I'm not a huge fan of 6x6 so I decided to try my hand at art journaling about a favorite summer memory, in this case a summer tradition. And I definitely got the direction of my journaling from the page so I'm glad I made that oops!

For a first run, I give it a thumbs up! I realize that most art journaling is heavy on the art but I really had a story to tell this time so I just used the Jane as an accent on the page.  I even went one farther and explained the inspiration for choices on the left side - dude, if I ever become famous someone will love it. Hahaha!

I forgot how rough it is to read through Glimmer Mist, so I'll summarize the journaling: growing up summer was all about arts and crafts. I think my mom did that so that we were busy and not fighting. Eventually I grew to love it and am so thankful to her for giving me "permission" to explore my creative side. Things with arts and crafts can be quite messy, but there's always beauty to be found in the end. 

More cards to share

Last week I posted some cards I'd made using a template created by Kathryn for Operation Write Home. I'd finished embellishing most of them and went ahead and shared, reserving these until I could finish them. 

As before, these cards feature MME Lost and Found 2 6x6 papers, other products used will be listed with individual cards.

This stamp is from MME Miss Caroline, scalloped stickers are BasicGrey and the twine is MME All is Bright.

Again, scalloped stickers from BasicGrey and MME All is Bright twine. The circles were cut using Kiwi Lane templates and the inside of a roll of washi and then covered with washi from MME. The other stickers are from Glitz.

The next two have scalloped stickers from BasicGrey, sentiment sticker from Glitz, and twine from MME Kraft Funday.

These two both have stickers from Glitz Design and BasicGrey, twine from MME All is Bright (red and blue).

Thanks for stopping by, there's more cards on the way in addition to my design team postings. 

Beach mini album

So last night I went to a class at my LSS and we made these fabulous little mini books using Bo Bunny papers and Genuinely Jane Studios wooden albums. Let's just say wooden albums rock my face off - I'll definitely be taking more classes that Sue teaches (and she told me the next one is a banner album with a variety of mixed media techniques! I'm so there!!!).

On my drive home I remembered that I never did start a project for the Paper Girls Challenge Blog's beach theme. Since it's due today I took some quick photos of the album with my phone, sorry they are a bit funky but nap time's almost over. ;)

Scrap Your Story - sketch

Normally I am all about the layers, layers, layers but when I saw this week's sketch at Scrap Your Story I decided to go for something more clean. 

I made the circles by tracing a couple of my Kiwi Lane templates and then inside of those circles I traced the inside and outside of the roll of washi that I had used to decorate the circles. 

The square I sketched on and then traced with a WRMK Sew Easy Random sew head, and stitched with some MME Kraft Funday twine. 

Brads are assorted from Amy Tangerine and Teresa Collins.

The zig zags were the negatives from a card I'd made using MME Kraft Funday.

Add in some silver gel pen doodling and lots of paper crinkling and it's done and pretty true to the sketch.

Cute Card Thursday - Once Upon a Time

It's Thursday again so it's time for my Guest Design post at Cute Card Thursday. This week the theme is "Once Upon a Time." 

Immediately, I thought of princesses and castles and such. Ugh, boy mom, I didn't have anything that could fit that in my stamp collections or in my paper stash. 

But I did find this cute typewriter and thought it would be such a cute romantic card to have the typewriter "typing the story."

I don't know who made this stamp, I'd lost the packaging somewhere along the way. I think it was either Glitz or Girl's Paperie based on the other stamps. 

The papers are from Cosmo Cricket Joy Ride. The washi is MME. Alphas are two different fonts from Glitz Designs. I also used my scissors to rough up the paper a bit. I inked the circle elements with Ranger Distress Black Soot before applying Glossy Accents. 

OWH Card template

Last week Operation Write Home posted a tutorial on their Facebook page on how to use several papers from a 6x6 pad at the same time with minimal waste/maximum cards produced. Sweet. So I pulled up Kathryn's blog, converted the dimensions of her templates into two Silhouette cut files (6- 6x6 sheets) and got to work. While setting it up as a file took a bit of time, it's all set up for next time!  

I used the template twice, and still need to embellish six of the cards, but here's most of what I got done using the template.

Kathryn had matted her shapes using solid cardstock, I used more sheets from my partially used 6x6 MME Lost and Found pad and managed to finish off the pack because I did. Woot. 

Some of my embellishments are from Glitz, like these word stickers. 

These brads are from my stash, probably Paper Studio.

There's also several die cuts from Authentique collections - Blissful and Gathering.

I'm soooo using this template idea again. Seriously, I got all that done in one naptime!

Scrappy cards

I haven't been around much and I apologize for that, last week we decided to move my craft space out of our bedroom and into the living room. That has left me struggling to find my mojo - and everything else that I haven't gotten used to finding while I am working. 

Pretty much all these cards use scraps, leftovers and cast-offs. Well, except the first one this one was just for fun and uses October Afternoon Rocket Age. 

All of the cards are headed for my Operation Write Home box which means no glitter and not so much depth. Always a challenge to follow those rules. 

There's a couple of each of these cards but I thought I'd save you from looking at each slight variation on the theme. 

This card's epoxy phrase is from Glitz Designs stickers and reads "dreams really do come true" but I couldn't get them to photograph.

There's more cards to come, check it out tomorrow!