Totally Tulip

Wow! It has been a long time since I shared my craftiness with the world. The past couple of weeks I've gotten back into playing along with the scrapbooksteals.com Mid Week Mojo challenges. And since they were nearing the end of the 10 week series (this series was titled Tulip) I thought I would be a mad scrapper and catch up and post them all at once.

Tulip 1

Tulip 2

Tulip 3

Tulip 4

Tulip 5

Tulip 6

Tulip 7

Tulip 8

Tulip 9

Tulip 10

I used a lot of scraps and last of items on these layouts - if there's something you just have to know what I used or how I did it, then ask away but the product lists for these pages would be HUGE and just not worth listing individually.

This isn't the only thing I've been up to, and I'm hoping to start carving more time for creative play and sharing again. I miss the blogging fun.

ScrapbookSteals Fancy Pants Steal - Taking Care of Baby

Happy Friday fellow Stealers! When Melodee, buyer at ScrapbookSteals, said that I'd be getting a random assortment of Fancy Pants papers for a Design Team project I was stoked, sadly my package never arrived but I did the best I could by assembling all my Fancy Pants scraps and full sheets for a full inspection before beginning this layout. I found some long lost favorites, many of which were past Steals!

I used papers from the following lines : Trendsetter, Like Father Like Son, Kraft Kuts, Happy Together, Rough & Tough, and Park Bench. I even pulled out some Fancy Pants brads, alpha stickers, and the cork sticker.

Also, I used Melodee's fab Rose 7 sketch, it was perfect for all those smaller bits of paper that I'd still had hanging around.

In addition to the FP embellishments I used more of those DIY enamel dots, some AC Thickers, BG sticker alphas, AC Amy Tangerine stitching template, and Colorbox ink.

You Make Me Happy - MWM Rose 5

I was so excited when Melodee asked the ScrapbookSteals design team to use our Silhouette die cutters to create the layout inspiration for this week's Mid Week Mojo - Rose 5.

Here's the sketch that we all used:

And my layout:

I used the Silhouette stencil material to create a textured background for my page. Using embossing paste instead of modeling paste gave me a slightly translucent finish. After the paste was dry I spritzed and splattered two shades of Mister Huey's on the page. 

This was only my second time using the stencil material and I have to say it was pretty cool to make custom backgrounds - and using something that's reusable. I super love that since it has a sticky back that I got cleaner images than I often do.

While those layers were drying I worked on using the off cuts from the stencil to make this banner - I stuck the stencil material directly to some MME Chalk Studio paper and then cut a bunch of triangles. I then sewed all of the tiny triangles into one long strand. I also sewed some large triangles from one of the Chalk Studio embellishment packs into a second strand and then crisscrossed them across the page. 

I used more of the Chalk Studio embellishments to decorate the large cluster on the left side of the page. Mmmm, and shaped enamel dots are yummy.

I didn't like the way my journaling worked out visually so I did a bit of doodling around the edge and then added the banner for depth. Decorating it made all the difference!

Scoring backgrounds - How To'sday post at Scrapbooksteals

For today's "How To'sday" on ScrapbookSteals.com I have a simple technique for adding texture without much mess or adding a lot of thickness to the page. Go grab a tool for scoring (I used the AC Cut It Up), a piece of paper, some sand paper (I used a WRMK Heart Attack) and come back. 

Using your scoring tool, draw a series of vertical and horizontal lines on what will be the back of your paper. I really like making a large symmetrical grid and then go back and add some randomly close score marks to create interest. 

Now flip the paper "right side up" and rub the lines with your sand paper. I darkened the next several photos to help you see the effect created on the paper. The one above was darkened also, it shows what the paper looks like before I was done distressing all the score marks - there's some texture but it isn't very visible. 

  

All done with the sanding!

This one I took really dark so you could see all the places I'd distressed and torn up in the process. 

Then, to heighten that texture I rubbed the page with a Distress Ink pad in Vintage Linen and set to work on my layout. I didn't worry about smudging or over inking, knowing that it would lend itself to creating a more interesting background. 

And below I have a close up of a portion of the layout, you know, just for fun.

All the papers for this project were from Teresa Collins' Memorabilia line. The ribbons are stash. 

Linking this up with the Memory Nest.

Today, tomorrow, forever

I was quite inspired by Melodee's sketch challenge for this week's ScrapbookSteals MWM - Rose 1. The sketch was simple and open ended, but I loved that she'd made a layout for her niece's wedding photos and decided to pull out some of my own.

I'm also linking this to the My Mind's Eye February Challenge - to use their products for a love themed project. 

I used a variety of MME papers - Lost and Found 2, All is Bright, and Follow Your Heart. There's also embellishments from Find Your Wings and Fly, Follow Your Heart, Chalk Studio, and All is Bright. 

The wood veneers are Studio Calico, and the lace is Graphic 45 Staples.

The rub-on hearts are from the Pink Paislee Luxe collection.

Iolite 2

Mom and I do a lot of stash sharing, when I was at her house recently she sent products home with me to sell at an upcoming stash sale and I'll bring something new and fun the next time I visit. It works well for us. Well, I was working on MWM Iolite 2 and had decided on these pink and purple toned scraps but very much needed some depth to the page, I looked down and saw these frames and epoxy dots. Love happened. 

I think my favorite thing about the epoxy dots is that while a teeny bit larger than most enamel dots they have that same sort of "look" and I used quite a few. Guess I'll have to find her something really cool now...

The background paper is Webster's Pages Trendsetter, other papers include Cosmo Cricket, My Mind's Eye, and Crate Paper. The epoxy dots were from Prima Azure and I have no idea who made those frames. 

Iolite 9

I helped as a vendor at a local crop recently and while there I did a little paper playing in my free time. In a few days I'll post the mini album I made with this Teresa Collins Far and Away line, but for now you get to see how I used the scraps. 

The layout is based on the ScrapbookSteals Iolite 9 MWM sketch and is actually about part of my adventure to the Steals Retreat last fall. I was busy painting my toe nails in preparation for my trip and Rylan insisted in joining me with some green polish. When I was done Vance wanted his done too. And I made them stand still for a picture of our tootsies. 

In addition to Far and Away papers and embellies I used some stickers from Glitz Design's Happy Travels. 

Iolite 10

A couple of days ago I posted my Scrapbooksteals MWM Iolite series round up but didn't go into any sort of details about the layouts that hadn't already shown up on the blog. This layout was for Iolite 10. 

I made it using some Moxxie Musically Inclined papers that my LSS was wanting to push out of the store. LOVE getting to kill two birds with one layout. I'm hoping that the more vintage styling of the layout helps break people out of dismissing these papers as simply "music paper." 

Naturally, I went to town with fussy cutting and thought it would be fun to "shadow" the flourishes a bit with some sketching. It really popped them from the page. 

Awww, and nothing like using some oldie but goodie Thickers, you can almost see the strips of MME stickered gems from the Miss Caroline collection. Both were such perfect colors for this layout!

Love them so Much

Today’s How To'sday project at ScrapbookSteals is probably one of my favorite ways to use those leftover sticker sheets hiding out in my stash. You know you have them too, the ones where you have used so many letters that you can’t spell much of anything. Anyway, it's a really good way to stretch my stash a little farther.

I start by picking a random scrap of paper and randomly place letters on it. Try to resist the urge to put all the letters within the edges of the scrap, let some of them hang off those edges. Apply some at odd angles. You really want them to be random. Once you’re satisfied, trim letters that are handing over the edge.

Paint over the letters and allow to dry. For this project I used Tim Holtz DistressPaint Daubers but virtually any thin coat of paint will do.

While the scrap was drying I painted the sticker sheet as well, keeping the color uneven and away from the very edges. You should probably let those dry also.

The next step will vary a bit, I used my Silhouette Cameo to die cut a couple of hearts. You could free hand a shape or use some other die cutting system. I cut my hearts in three sizes.

I just love the texture that the letters bring to this sort of die cutting. 

 And a few more close-ups for your viewing pleasure.

The layout itself was based on the Melodee's Iolite 3 sketch. 

Most of the products came from my scrap bin, but MME Kraft Funday is the majority of it. The letter sheet is from BasicGrey Origins. 

You Are Messy

I'm bringing you another installment in the "Jessica needs to get caught up on this ScrapbookSteals MWM series." Thanks for humoring me, here is Iolite 1:

I'm still really pushing to get through some of my scraps so in no particular order other than the background, which is Basic Grey, the other papers are American Crafts, Pink Paislee, My Mind's Eye, Echo Park, and at least one other. 

The main journaling tells the story about him eating his first dollop of pudding. Seriously, he had less than 1/4 cup of chocolate pudding in that bowl. Somehow it got everywhere anyway! And he loved every second. 

The journaling around the page is about the water color tag - I've been on a mission to use more of my mixed media supplies that I just "had" to have after taking some classes at my LSS. Well, as part of that I've been sharing with the boys and they did a little Faber-Castell Gelato water coloring with me. He painted a small sheet of the paper and then I cut out the tag as a secondary way to feature him. I love how the irregularity of the coloring ties with the messy face.