Scrap Your Story - embossing

Heat embossing, dry embossing either way you see them a lot on cards and at Scrap Your Story we wanted to see how well we could implement those techniques in our layouts.

I ended up using both processes. The dry embossing was done using two different Lifestyle Crafts embossing folders. A doily folder that I inked blue before running through my Big Shot, which gave just a bit of depth and texture and sort of cooled off the white white of the paper. Then the other was a small flower pattern that I ran the paper through in two positions to fill up the banner, I was going for a snowfall look there and a different folder may have done better but I still like the texture it gave.

My heat embossing comes in on the top of the page and then on the photos. I used white Martha Stewart pigment ink and white Zing! embossing powder for both the Martha Stewart snowflakes and the Unity Stamp Co. lace border.


I'm also linking this up with a couple of challenges:
S.W.A.T. - use 4+ pictures on a single page layout
About a Boy - use hoarded (1 year or more) product. My hoarded items are the brads, white ink and embossing powder, and the Echo Park for the Record paper

Dapper Dudes

I was so excited to get My Mind's Eye's newest collection in the mail that I just had to bust into Collectable "Memorable" for this page based on a Paper Secrets sketch. The twist this week was to use Thickers. 

The Thickers I used are from an older line, so old that I have to reapply glue to each letter when I use them! For this project I also misted them with OA Sprinklers because those babies were white, white, white. I love the way the "Wheat field" transformed them, a perfect color match!

I also did a little altering on the flowers, which were to pink for me. I rubbed white paint on most of each flower and then misted with more Wheat Field. 

The doily stamp is from Unity Stamp Co. "Grandma's Closet," I stamped it with black ink and then the one at the top I heat embossed with Gold Zing! embossing powder. 

You'll notice I busted out one of my homemade enamel dots again, such a nice little touch in that cluster.

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.

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.

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.

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!

Brothers throw stones

Okay, in this case they were throwing pebbles. And into water. But the throw stones part was a witty thing I came up with as I was putting this post together, and will probably be added into the page in some manner at a later date. 

This layout was inspired by Let's Get Sketchy's January week 4 challenge. I also used the color blue for the Scrapbooksteals.com MCM Baby Blues challenge. 

And while this used mostly My Mind's Eye Follow Your Heart, there's also touches of Indie Chic Nutmeg, and a Miss Caroline wooden embellishment that I colored on with American Crafts Metallic Markers. The splatters and mists are from October Afternoon and Mister Huey's. The doily embossing folder is Lifestyle Crafts. 

Party Set Up - another Dec Daily post

I joked when I started my Dec Daily project that it might take me until February to finish that mini, and I might have been right. But here's one more for that project - Dec. 21. Vance's birthday, which we spent waiting for grandparents who were due in town at any moment, while we waited we decorated for his party.

My page was inspired by Let's Get Sketchy: January Week 3 Challenge.

I'm also linking this one up on: 

Use it Tuesday: Warm it up Red, Orange, Yellow. Hoarded items include Jenni Bowlin alphas and Imaginesce dotted ribbon are over a year old. The American Crafts Chap papers and yellow ribbon have been in my stash since last April. Paper clips are over 3 years old.

Paper Girls Challenge Blog: Wood/wood grain. I misted the wooden buttons to complement my page colors.

Jade 6 - Tree

Chugging away here at my December album. This page is inspired by the Jade 6 Mid Week Mojo sketch at Scrapbooksteals.com, chopped down to an 8x8. 

I'm also linking it up at Cameo Creations for their Pink and Brown Challenge.

The base/brown paper is American Crafts Classics Collection. All the other bits are Authentique, mostly Uncommon. The title is on brown cardstock, cut from my Silhouette Cameo. Everything got inked with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

On the Up and Up

This page is based on the Paper Secrets sketch with a twist. I used American Crafts Chap for most of it, but there's also some MME washi, a Glitz Designs journal sticker, Jenni Bowlin mini alphas and an assortment of chipboard alphas that have been chilling in my stash.  I used Kiwi Lane Clara Lane templates and inked  it up with Ranger Distress Inks. 

Paper Secrets' "twist" was to include washi on the page somehow. Using it in the bottom corner seemed pretty natural and I really like how it tied the title to the corner shape. 

Great grandma present

Mom and I were discussing all the creative things we've done this year, which made me remember that I never shared the Christmas present that I made for my grandma. And sadly, before we sent it to her (in pretty frames), neither of us took a good picture - this is from my phone on the day I made it. 

The layout had to feature both sets of great-grand boys, be on two pages, and have relatively fair representation of my sister's kids. Thankfully, mom and I are planners and had decided in June that I'd make this present and mom would buy the scrapbook frames, which means that when my sister visited in August there were LOTS of pictures taken for *this*  purpose! My sister thinks we're cray-cray, but that's okay.

There's a couple of scraps in here, but most of the page is American Crafts Chap - paper, ribbons, tabs, accordion flowers, etc. We sewed that red ribbon to the blue, and also the blue ribbon to the photo and then glued the yellow over the seam. The circle border was cut on the Silhouette Cameo. There's lots of distressing - tearing, crumbling, inking. 

Off

Wooohooo! 2013. We made it. Now it's time to get back to life as normal. I sure wish someone could tell me what that is. ;)

Day glow. Neon. Florescent colors. Whatever you call them, I have a love/hate relationship. You see, I'm a child of the 80s. I owned a *lot* of clothing in these colors and through junior high hot pink was my *favorite* color.

That might be why I tend to scrap in traditional colors, but love when others use them. Thankfully, I still have some of my Amy Tangerine Sketchbook that I won awhile back because the Paper Girls Challenge was to use that particular color range.

I also incorporated Let's Get Sketchy's challenge for this week - to use a photo that is Not Picture Perfect. This one is out of focus. I like the softness it gave the photo, but I'd given up on using it because it wasn't challenge worthy!

Scrapbooksteals.com Jade 2

Kerys did a fabulous job with the sketch this week! I was very excited to play along with the Scrapbooksteals.com MWM - Jade 2.  Once again, I used a weekly sketch to knock out one more page of my December Daily album. 

December Daily 9

I'm also entering this page into the If It's Groovy challenge - create your own paper/background. I made the background by laying tree die cuts (from a mis-cut, yay for still finding a purpose!) onto a piece of American Crafts Kraft Cardstock. Then I used three shades of mist, from October Afternoon and Mister Huey, and sprayed and splattered away.

The other layers are an assortment of scraps from LilyBee Designs, Echo Park and My Mind's Eye. The twine is WRMK. Embossing powder is American Crafts Zing!. Green glitter glue is Studio G.

Teacher Gifting

Gifts for teachers. Such a broad concept. At this stage, since we aren't doing a preschool, our only teachers are the ones at church. I started planning a project and realized I couldn't figure out where to draw the line regarding which teachers/helpers to leave off the list so I ended up making a little ornament for every preschool teacher and helper who is volunteering this month - 15 ornaments and wrappings made by yours truly! Rylan's nursery workers got a card with a silly kid-craft ornament that Vance helped make, but his teachers got something just a little nicer looking - also known as made by mommy!

All of my teacher gifts. 

The boxes were a file I bought from the Silhouette store during their Cyber Monday sale. It's supposed to be an ornament, I think. I cut them from American Crafts Kraft Cardstock. I also used my Silhouette Cameo to cut the tags, My Mind's Eye Andrea Victoria. Then I stamped a MME All Is Bright stamp in gold and "inked" with Copper embossing powders. 

Close-up of the boxes and tag.

For all the Users at Use it Tuesday - this is my challenge post to make something Christmas/Hannukah with hoarded supplies. The ornaments (and paint on them) were from a project I helped with at church this fall and probably the newest items used. The ribbons have been part of my stash for probably 3 years. Some of the ornaments have buttons inside, some of which have been around for a *very, very* long time.

Stop by tomorrow for a little more about that cute pink tree in the first picture - it's all made from upcycled, scraps and hoarded products. ;)

And don't forget about my Christmas present giveaway that ends Dec. 15 at midnight.

Not while I'm eating!

So this week I have jury duty. Now in my county that means that the night before you have to call in to see if you go to the courthouse the next day. Monday and Tuesday, didn't have to go in, so I dedicated the day to getting ahead on some things (like blogging and Christmas present making)- just in case I get to spend a couple of days doing my civic duty.

Without further ado, I present my December week 2 Let's Get Sketchy interpretation! 

I started with two groupings, like in the sketch. The elements just sort of morphed themselves. They're still sort of there. Sort of.

I used a bunch of mismatched Fancy Pants Designs papers, American Crafts Thickers, Jenni Bowlin Designs mini alphas, several Kiwi Lane Designs templates, a Lifestyles Crafts embossing folder, my sewing machine, and of course some good ol' inking. 

Let's Get Sketchy Dec. wk 2 sketch

And don't forget to checkout the Christmas present (aka giveaway) I have for one of my followers. 

Joy-flake

Joy-flake. Sometimes my own humor kills me. *sigh*

I made this card for three purposes.
1. To include a fun greeting in my sister's Christmas package.
2. For the Cameo Creations Challenge Blog - using the theme "White Christmas"with my Silhouette.
3. For Scrapbooksteals.com's MCM challenge of creating any sort of project as long as you mix two or more collections.

Look at me getting all my multi-tasking going on.

Needless to say, the snowflake is from the Silhouette Studio store. I cut it out of a 6x6 MME Signature Christmas pad. The base of the card is American Crafts Kraft cardstock. I traced the word part of the snowflake with Studio G glitter glue and inked the card base with Alabaster ColorBox ink to make it a little lighter.

Now I just need to mail that package to my sister!

And don't forget to checkout the Christmas present (aka giveaway) I have for one of my followers.

Perspective

Every day can't be a mountain top experience, and we all have some valleys. I've been in sort of a creative valley for a few weeks now, my adventure as Scrapbooksteals MWM guest sketcher being an oasis of light in that sea of despondency.

I was in email correspondence with Kristy Lee, seriously my guru when it comes to scrapbooking and definitely an inspiration as a mom, and she pointed out how far I've come in the past year and a half. With that in mind, I thought I'd share some of my pre-blogging adventures with you all.

Ready for this?

My.First.Page.Ever. I was trying to find something to fill time while hubs was in class and I wasn't at work. I seriously felt that paper crafting was not for me (and quite lame!). My mom had started a book about me, I had all my pictures, and a less than half filled book. It's still not full...

in reality, it's not a horrible way to start, but it sure isn't an interesting or pretty page!

First layout of Vance, August 2008. It may not have been the first first, but it was definitely one of the earliest ones! I didn't date or photograph my pages back in those days so I really don't know. But you get the point.

Look! same sketch on each side. And lots o stickers. FUN!

My first Mid Week Mojo, August 2011, Topaz 5, but even though I started mid-series I did go back and catch up.

Better structure, colors, etc., but man oh man, this picture is worth a thousand words.

The page I made today. You know, I'm glad I stuck with this whole scrapbooking thing.

Beautiful moments 

I'm entering this page into the Paper Girls Challenge Blog. This week's challenge was to have a multi-photo layout (3-4 being minimum for a single page). I just love how Amy Tangerine Sketchbook matches my mom's energy and shirt! And my Kiwi Lane templates made it a snap to create during naptime. YAY!

And don't forget to check back tomorrow for information about that Giveaway that I have coming!

Wishes

Vance hasn't taken a nap since around the time Rylan was born - so for a little over two years now. And I can sense that I'm losing that time with Rylan now too. Which is so not fun! Today I barely got started working on my My Mind's Eye December Challenge - Wish List when the napper started playing which set the quiet player into full playtime mode.

I was thinking about doing something along the lines of the song "Grown Up Christmas Wish" but losing that time today made me realize how ::sacred:: it is to me. I'm going to have to figure out a new way to get "me" time in if this no/low napping business continues. So on my wish list this year I have one request: that my kids take naps. If you look closely you'll see that I actually wrote things and changed them, I was going for humor - changing "taking longer naps" to just "taking naps" and the like.

This page is Day 5 in my December Daily and will eventually include a picture of my scrap space which is of course a hot mess right now since we have several projects going at once! Part of what's on my desk is a Giveaway I'm working on, check back next week for more information. ;)

Christmas tags

I've never made my own tags before, but when this week's Scrapbooksteals.com Monday Craft Madness was to use embossing powder I knew that I really wanted to make tags for one particular set of gifts. These gifts are getting packaged into fabric bags that held the boys' twin sheet sets. So they'll look like little blue and grey Santa bags with tags. I'm fairly excited about the prospect!

Here's the tags. I simply "inked" the tags with the embossing powder. It is quite possibly my favorite way to use the powders.

The family has a couple of duplicated first initials so I just wrote their full name in my scribbly scrawl on the backs.