Young Love

As part of the BasicGrey Fresh Cut class I'm teaching we decided to include a couple of layout samples/instruction sheets for class participants. It gives me a way to highlight a different style using the same paper and makes sure that I put it all to good use. 

I do love me some crumpled and sewn paper, throw in some fussy cutting and I am a happy lady! Probably what I love most about this style of layout is that it looks soooo intense but crumpling and tearing are such fast techniques that I did this layout in under an hour - including that fussy cutting!

Supplies:

BasicGrey FreshCut paper and waterfall packs

Stash buttons and feathers

Sewing machine, thread

Worn Lipstick Distress Ink

WRMK pink/white twine

Valentine's Greeting Card

Happy Valentine's from Practical Scrappers. Today we're sharing the love with a lovely bunch of Valentine's Day inspired projects. Are you feeling the love yet?! I crack myself up sometimes. 

I doubled up and also created this card for a make and take at my LSS, Soul Sentiments. As a family we don't do much for the "Hallmark" holidays so it was really a struggle for me to embrace the pinks and reds but I'm really happy with how cute it turned out in the end. 

This card will be a featured Make and Take on Feb. 1. Contact the store for questions.

Cardstock: Coordinations/Tim Holtz Distressed

Washi: WRMK, Bo Bunny, and I forgot the other

Journal Card: Echo Park

Twine: WRMK

Stamp: Hero Arts

Inks: Ranger Distress Worn Lipstick and Black Soot

Flowers: Imaginesce and American Crafts

Lace: stash

Scrap Your Story - mixed alphas

Why is it that when someone wants you to use a technique suddenly coming up with it is rough? I use mixed alphas is titles on a regular basis, but when I sat down to work on this week's Scrap Your Story challenge all I could come up with was one word titles? Yeah, I'm a mess. But I made it work after checking out a friend's challenge blog - more on that in a minute. 

So for Scrap Your Story this week we want to see at least two fonts used on your layout - titles, journaling, random words as embellishments, it doesn't matter as long as they're there. 

Remember I said I got outside inspiration? I went to the Scrappy Friends challenge and Rochelle had posted some word art to use on a page somehow. I picked one tiny section of the text but I think it sort of sums up the point of the word art!

For the other Scrappy Friends:

Kerys: recipe using stars, layering and stamping (the doily/flourishy thing on the star)

Brenda: sketch

Kristi B.: use logo from packaging (didn't manage to include that one but thought I'd include it in case you wanted to play!)

And here's a close up of that title. Isn't it fun? I just love how the boys are holding hands - Vance wanted to help Rylan on our walk home from the park. So cute. 

Most of the papers are BasicGrey PB&J, but there's also AC Amy Tangerine, Carta Bella Beautiful Moments, Cosmo Cricket Joy Ride, and EP This & That yellow cardstock. 

Sticky alphas come from American Crafts Thickers, BasicGrey PB&J, MME Lime Twist, and Jenni Bowlin. 

The word banners are Glitz Designs, then there are WRMK eyelets, MME washi, Ranger Distress Faded Jeans, MME twine with a WRMK Sew Easy sewing head, and 7Gypsies brads. 

I also used black thread for machine stitching. 

The arrow and heart are from the Kiwi Lane Sweetheart mini design templates, the flower, bracket, star, and tags are templates too. 

Birth Stats Mini Book Page

I don't know if it's because it's a break from my normal 12x12 routine or what but I am loving working on this baby book for my friend! So stinkin' fun! If you want to see other pages I've made for the book, then head here and/or stay tuned because there's a lot of pages still in the works. I love that I've still been playing along with my favorite challenges while putting it together, and there's so many pages left! Hopefully, I get it done in time. Eeek!

Anyway, this page brought me much excitement. I used the sketch at Scrap our Stash to finish it up, they also had the challenge to dig a little deeper and use 6 buttons.

 I said in my previous post that the base of this project is Teresa Collins On the Edge (which I was about to destash before I adopted this project) with splashes of Authentique Loyal, you'll see both here. There's also some American Crafts Thickers, buttons, EK Success Sticko (hands and feet!), and my newest toy the Tim Holtz Texture Trades embossing folder (admit one ticket), WRMK eyelet, and Studio G glitter glue.

Here's a little close up for you. You'll notice that I inked up both the Thickers and buttons, deliberately not coating evenly. Yummy. And check out the baby hands!

The Scrap Our Stash sketch:

It's my birthday, I'll get messy if I want to, messy if I want to...

Kudos to all of you who sang that title. You're welcome. ;)

So here's how I had a messy-rriffic birthday:

Okay, that's actually where I started,  I whitewashed some gesso onto this MME Good Day Sunshine paper. 

And the next step takes some explaining. My desktop is made from particle board that I painted before I set it up in my space. When things get messy I don't worry about keeping the board clean - I can always repaint it after all! So I took the damp paper and rubbed it on the desktop which pulled up some of the dried on mist projects AND tore up the paper quite nicely.

Now, I don't normally design on double pagers but I happened to have two of that bicycle paper and was wanting to use them up since they are the last of their kit. To help me, I pulled out some of my Kiwi Lane Templates. 

Part of why I wanted to use up that paper was S.W.A.T. asked us to dig deep into our stashes and use hoarded items. Things that I used that have been in my stash for over a year: MME Andrea Victoria (gold paper), Paper Studios Affinity ribbons (Family and stripes), brads (I bought on Scrapbooksteals so long ago that I can't tell you which company they're from!), Fancy Pants Rough & Tough (trees), BasicGrey Origins (star).

Other supplies used:
sewing machine
Amy Tangerine Thickers
AC chipboard Thickers
Girl's Paperie brown ribbon
WRMK Sew Easy Twine
WRMK sparkly eyelets
MME Indie Chic and Kraft Funday
Ranger Distress Rusty Hinge
Kiwi Lane Templates Adventure 2, Tags 5, Clara Lane 3B, Holiday 8T

Beautiful Moments

If things have seemed quiet around here lately, well, they have been! I've still been crafting, mostly trying to get ahead on a few projects (read, you'll have to wait to see them!). But I did scratch out time to get my Paper Secrets Challenge done. YaY!

They had a fun twist this time, use ribbon/trim in addition to the sketch. So I busted out my hoarded Carta Bella Beautiful Moments and some burlap trim. It's not often that I buy papers *right* after they come out, but I just loved the look of these papers, can't believe it took until today to use them! Gorgeous papers, love that texture. Yummy.

Now that I've gushed about my feelings regarding this paper, have a looksie at the Paper Secrets sketch. You'll notice that I switched around some of the orientation of elements, but this was definitely my starting point. 

products used:

Carta Bella Beautiful Moments

MME Lost and Found 2 burlap trim, Miss Caroline pearl butterfly 

Black thread

Sewing machine

Ranger Distress Walnut Stain

Kiwi Lane Tag template

Joy & Cheer

This one's for the Let's Get Sketchy March Week 2 sketch + Color combo challenge. When I saw the colors I wanted to rebel and not do a Christmas themed page, then my spidey sense kicked in and reminded me that naptime is only so long and going with the obvious would get the job done faster! 

These photos were taken Christmas Eve while we played Mario Kart Wii with my in-laws. Vance has a fascination for the game, but kind of stinks at it still (which is mostly because we don't let him play much!) so the grandparents had to figure it out on the fly. It made for an interesting evening anyway.

The papers and stickers are from Simple Stories. I finished off the page with some inking, DIY enamel dots, and some glitter glue. 

I'm also linking this up with the Paper Girls Challenge to use Snowflakes. 

Operation Write Home Sketch Interpretation

I'm really getting into the weekly Operation Write Home card sketches. A great way to use my scraps!  So far, all the cards are just card faces and need to be adhered to the folded part and readied for the mail. But here's my interpretation of Sketch 162.

This one was the first I did in the batch, and is my favorite! The background I stamped with a Market Street Stamp. The pigment ink I used got a little splotchy and smeary so I heat dried it and then used the WRMK Sweetheart Distressing Tool to disguise it a bit. All the layers got inked and sanded to "blend" in my mistake on the base. 

The papers are an assortment of MME scraps. The sentiment is a Studio G $1 bin stamp. I'm linking it up to the Scrapbooksteals.com MCM - Stamp it! Challenge.

For the other cards, I again focused on my huge pile of MME scraps. The hello sentiment was a wooden block $1 bin stamp, can't remember where I picked that one up and it doesn't say.

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.

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).

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.

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. 

So It Began

My sons have/had a Cars obsession, but it didn't really begin before we went to Disney World in 2011. Neither son would have been disappointed to miss this duo, but they now rank as some of the most important characters in our lives! So much so that I busted out this older picture to document the change. 

I used the January Sketch from My Mind's Eye for this page. Also from MME is all that Kraft-ty goodness, Kraft Funday to be exact! I love how the colors complement the characters.

Other things I used include Kiwi Lane Designer Templates (Tags and mini scallops), Jenni Bowlin Mini alphas, Color Box Charcoal ink, and WRMK Sew Easy Random Stitch head.

Babies wear diapers

When I got married my mom gave me a box of my childhood photos. I've at various times attempted to scrap them. Sometimes I include true stories or captions, normally I just try to write some type of witty caption for the photos instead. I realize that long-term it may not overly educate my future generations about the individuals in the photos but it may shed a light into my personality. Besides since there's nothing on the backs of the photos I'm certainly not hurting history! LOL.

I mean, I could text a copy of the photo to my mom and have her write a journal entry for me. Naaaaaah, that's a lot of work.

Today's layout features one such photo coupled with Authentique papers and Kiwi Lane Templates.

Kiwi Templates I used: Tags 4, Bracket 2, Paisley Place mini 1B

Snow - Kiwi Lane DT Doodles and Scrapbooksteals MCM

For this week's Kiwi Lane DT Doodles (week 3), I busted out more snow photos and Authentique Peaceful with some touches of Original. I love how these collections really worked with the photos - and the Kiwi Lane Templates remind me of snow drifts which was perfect for these snowy papers!

Templates used: Paisley Place mini 1A/B and 3A/B, Tags 1 and 7, Sweetheart 4T, Floral 3T

I'm also linking this one to Scrapbooksteals.com MCM - Sparkle and Shine. I used some Zing embossing powders (Copper Metallic) to add a touch of texture and shimmer to the page.

After lots of fussy cutting, some distressing and a bunch of sewing this page really just sort of came together.

Love your face - Paper Secrets Challenge

Here's another for the ol'December album. Day 7 - a trip downtown to Living Windows (shops have mini scenes in their windows that you walk past and watch)  and hot chocolate after.

This page was inspired by Paper Secrets SketchSavvy #79 with a twist (use twine). 

For the twine, I used one of my Sew Easy heads to add a banner across the page. I then distressed inside each banner's center and roughed up the twine. After inking the layers, I adhered them, and inked and heat embossed the base layer. A strip of washi, a washi flower, some epoxy words, and rhinestones and we're good to go. 

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.

Charming and Adorable - Kiwi Lane DT Doodle week 2

This week's DT Doodles at Kiwi Lane spoke to me. Paper and sketches do that sometimes, though I don't know how many people experience that effect. It's been a couple of months since I played along with the DT Doodles challenge, but I'm hoping to add it into my regular routine this year.

I pulled out some pics of my biggie taking photos and generally having a good time at the park and set to work cutting, inking, sewing, crumpling. So much fun - and this baby came together in about an hour! Sweeeeeeet. 

Papers are MME Lost and Found

Epoxy stickers are Glitz Design

Design Templates used: Wildflowers Tiny, Brackets, Tags, Paisley Place mini

Dec 18 Cookie Baking

I avoid glitter like the plague. It gets everywhere, but when Use It Tuesday decided it was time to "make it sparkle" I knew that I really needed to bust out some Martha Stewart glitter that I'd had since I started scrapbooking! I used the glitter to make a little flourish in the background of the page (and still have way to much of just that one bottle). Also hoarded/seldom used, I don't think I've used that Sew Easy head since right after I bought it, about a year ago. The Jenni Bowlin mini alphas are about a year old as well.

For sketch inspiration I used Let's Get Sketchy's week 2 challenge.

Dec Daily - December 18 Cookie Baking

The papers are from the Authentique Festive and Peaceful collections. I inked them up with Ranger Distress Ink Peeled Paint.

One more page done in my December "daily" album. Only 23 more to go. ;)

Jade 4 - Fashionista

I waited days for photos to arrive, when they still hadn't arrived after the Scrapbooksteals.com MWM deadline I decided to pull out some photos of myself. I have always like this one of me playing dress-up. But it says so much more about me. My passion for my own fashion sense. My need to shop to fulfill the fashion. And I love the hat (I recently rediscovered hats and wear them almost every time I leave the house).

My friend, Michele Duffy, created the fab sketch that my page is based on. I got all fussy with my Graphic 45 Fashionista papers and so it took on a different feel from her very clean sketch. But I love this page like few that I've created in the past couple of months. 

Thanks for stopping by, I'll be seeing you around.