Egg Hunt

Dala and I had a crazy plan a few weeks before National Scrapbook Day, I would create a few easy layouts that we would pre-cut and kit up and have stations in the store for participants to put together in a snap. So I took home a pile of random loose papers that had haunted the store for a while and set to work. Because of the nature of the papers chosen (ones that had multiples that she wanted to clear through) I know brands but not paper names or lines, sorry guys.

And check out my way fun usage of my pony beads/enamel dots. I sort of thought they were perfect with the plasticity of the eggs. 

A little twine looping and curling never hurt either. Though I'd love to figure out an easy way to give directions for that one!

I don't know if this is normal or not, but my students on NSD thought it was unusual to incorporate the transparency into the bottom layers and have photos on top like I've done. What can I say? I like to make them think outside the box. ;)

Supplies:

Jenni Bowlin green, yellow, and birds papers

Fancy Pants transparency

White cardstock, stash

Heidi Swap mistable tags

Faber Castell gelatoes

Blue pigment ink

WRMK twine

Glossy Accents

Pony Beads

Page Maps sketch

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.

Paper Girls Challenge Blog - Use Christmas paper for a non-holiday layout

I seriously love that Charissa offered up this challenge at Paper Girls Challenge Blog - you need to use your Christmas papers for a layout that isn't about Christmas. Finding ways to use my stash unconventionally, especially themed papers, is something I am all about! 

For this layout I combined a design team assignment from my local store, they provided Fancy Pants Merry Little Christmas and simply wanted me to use it. Love when things work out like that! If you've been watching my posts all month, you'll know that I've really gotten some use out of the kit they gave me too.

Since the paper was a new line (and free) I thought I'd dig way into my stash and pulled out those buttons, one of my first purchases from Scrapbooksteals over 4 years ago, and some Thickers that are so old they're falling off their sheets. 

Thanks for stopping by, now take a break from those Christmas projects you've been working on and link up a fun layout!

Red Cups - Practical Scrappers Sketch

It's sketch time at Practical Scrappers and I'm using more of that fantastic paper that my LSS provided me to make samples for the store. 

Here's the sketch: 

And my interpretation:

There are somethings that just scream Christmas tradition and red cups are decidedly one of those things that customers look forward to using. Vance just likes hot chocolate, he doesn't really care so much about the cup, but I was surprised when I went looking for red cup photos that I only have the two. Really?! As often as we go there there really should be more!

Those speech bubbles were from a coordinating ephemera pack that I bought to help with my assignment. The reverse sides say "nice" and "coal" but I thought it would be a fun way to highlight the title so I flipped them over.

This layout is super thick, with lots of layering and foam dots it is not really a surprise.

The green ribbon and red Thickers are American Crafts and the buttons are from MME Winter Wonderland and were from my stash. 

Shaker Cards

One of my favorite things about being on design teams is that they push me to get outside my comfort zone and try new things. Today's challenge for Paper Girls Challenge Blog did just that, I had to learn how to make a confetti shaker.  

Uh, and it's soooo easy that I don't know why it took me so long to try! I loved the process so much that I used paper that my LSS provided (Fancy Pants Merry Little Christmas) and will be teaching a shaker class there this weekend using these cards as samples.  

Easy, but it did take a little experimenting, this first one is a little wobbly looking. I attempted to make a pocket out of plastic and then adhere the pocket to the frame. The result was eh, it might work with a larger frame but I moved on.

I liked the effect of this one much better! I essentially made a shadow box with clear plastic packaging (yay for upcycling!), foam tape on all sides, and paper.

Products used:

MME twine

Pink Paislee Luxe Stars and Rub-ons

Unity Stamp Co. Grandma's Closet sentiment

Teresa Collins sequins

MME Winter Wonderland chipboard stickers

Zoo Day

It's Friday again! What are you looking forward to this weekend? I'm looking forward to an uneventful, quiet, boring weekend. I might even get some messy fun in if things go well!

In the meantime it's time for "sketch week" at Scrap Your Story, hopefully you'll have time to play along:

Edited: It seems there's some problems with some of the posts right now. It seems this week's challenge is being postponed, watch the SYS blog for updates! Some of you might just have a head start on the sketch. ;) Thanks. Jess

For this layout I used Fancy Pants Designs Park Bench, and some of their brads (but don't ask me which line those are from!). The yellow mesh ribbon is Bo Bunny and the alphas are from American Crafts.

Puddle jump

What a short weekend, just dropping by to post this layout for the Scrapbooksteals MWM Aquamarine 3, and then it's back to chasing kiddos. 

I used Fancy Pants' Park Bench for this, I just love how the colors really let these photos shine. Some of those brads are from American Crafts Chap. And I used lots of pop dots.

I'm also linking it to the following Scrapbooksteals MCM challenges:

# 32 journaling
# 36 life

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!

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. 

MWM Coral 9 - Trucks Up Close

I don't often push these things to their deadline, but with Thanksgiving this week I sure squeaked under the wire to finish up my Scrapbooksteals.com Coral 9 on time. I loved the sketch when it was posted - especially when I saw the initial interpretation. The papers just screamed at me to buy them. I resisted, partly because I was to busy! So here I am, blogging after the deadline so that I can find the link easily because at the end of the series there's always a little drawing for those who completed all ten. Sweet. I've never won it, but the prizes are normally out.of.this.world.

Favorite thing about this layout?! That I  used up a lot of  bigger scrappy leftovers from various collections. Don't get me wrong, I still have scraps from these scraps...the scraps seem to be neverending!

MCM 108

These cards are nearly identical, but I like their differences. Such different statements. 

I made them based on the Scrapbooksteals.com MCM #108. 

The paper is Fancy Pants Designs. I used my WRMKSew Easy to help line up the banners for stitching. The stamp is from Teresa Collins. The brads were from a goodie bag at a crop I went to recently. 

Buds and bros

Normally, I just do pages about one or the other boy, or at least where one was very much the dominant kiddo. That's my attempt to make sure they realize they were equally important to me (let's just say a lot of my childhood pictures have me in them but aren't necessarily a picture of anyone in particular).

But every time I looked at this picture I was struck at how into each other my boys were/are. Truly enjoying each other's company and liking each other. So I wrote them a little note talking about how much they loved each other and how a lot of times the "fighting" was because they were trying to enjoy the same things. Maybe when they grow up they'll look back at this moment and see that for themselves.

For this page I used some American Crafts Thickers and the last of my Fancy Pants Rough and Tough. I'm kind of sad to see that one go!

Maybe now that I'm back into a crafting groove I'll be able to start adding to my card collection and doing some challenges again. Anyone have a favorite challenge that I should try?

oh boy! did I get a lot done

Every so often I sit down to craft and a page takes ten years. Most of the time I get one done during a 2-hour nap. On the day I made this page I did four during naptime! Granted naptime was a 3.5 hour affair that day, but it felt good to get a lot done. 

I used Fancy Pants Rough & Tough and a bunch of Helmar Zapdots to pop up some of the fussy cut stars. I also used one of my journaling pens to trace the background paper and help add depth and color.

Boys will be boys

Rylan is non-stop action. I know that boys "are" but this kid is far more so than his older brother! When we just can't take it anymore we go to an indoor climbing gym thing and let the wild things free to climb, slide, and climb some more. This was the first time he was big enough to leave the toddler area and hoist himself through with the big kids (notice that the biggest kid in the world, his dad, is behind him). 

Fancy Pants Rough & Tough used here. I really like the layers that the 12x12 transparency created but taking a picture of it was a bit Rough & Tough. Sorry, couldn't help it.

Coral 1 - in two takes

It's not often that I find the time to do a repeat of a sketch. But I'd really liked the sketch that Kristy Lee provided for this week's MWM Coral 1. And I really didn't like my first interpretation of it. 

While working on it Wednesday, it sort of came together on it's own and I was loving it! But when I stopped to take a picture I felt like it was way busy. So many patterns! EEk! 

Looking at it while editing it I realized that it wasn't as bad as I'd felt it looked like so it was sort of a bonus that had already scrapped a second instead because now I have two more pages done. 

My favorite feature of this one is the library card pocket - 10 pictures of average scenery shot from a moving car are tucked into that little wonder. 10 on a page? Nice. 

Okay, and then I was just plain entertained by the title "Not Just a Hobbit Tale There & Back Again"

The pictures are of our drive to Lewiston, ID for a family reunion and then back to Seattle during vacation. There and Back. I die. 

This one still has a lot going on, lots of paper scraps used, but cutting the circle to a semi-circle opened it up a lot. You can tell on one slice, but three of the slices have foam dots with their corresponding piece from the other half, providing dimension. I really liked the effect it gave.

All those little pennants and banner pieces are stash scraps. I know that some are from Fancy Pants Designs and Imaginesce but couldn't tell you which collections to save my life!

Everything got a good old school inking and then I ran a WRMK heart distresser over everything!

pearl 8 Break time

It doesn't seem possible that it's time for another Scrapbooksteals.com sketch, let alone that we've almost completed a "gemstone." The title of this page is appropriate because it's been crazy here with getting Squirrel onto a new schedule for our pre-preschool work. And that has left me with less time for craftiness. He loves it, I miss it. *sigh*

This week, Kristy's sketch featured a large doily in the background and layers of paper with tons of buttons. Not so bad. But I wasn't feeling it so I turned to another challenge to tell me what to do. 

I took my paper choices and some of my elements from the CSI:Color, Stories, Inspiration challenge this week. Not a palette I typically work with but I was able to assemble pieces from a variety of collections that work nicely together. 

Background paper: Cosmo Cricket Cosgmo Cogs

Doily: BasicGrey 12x12 cut to size

Fancy Pants Kraft Kuts and Lilac House

American Crafts Thickers

Stash buttons, bias tape, and floss

WRMK Sew Stamper fuchsia head

October Afternoon and Studio Calico Mists to create that green plaid paper

Ranger Distress Ink, walnut stain and broken china

Sewing machine

Cards for Heroes

I posted yesterday about how a friend and I had made red shirts for her to wear to support her family. Well, while everyone I knew was out being patriotic and supporting the community in the heat my little guys were napping. I was doing what I could to support our heroes too - I made three more cards to send to OWH. Simple, funny, quirky. I love them and hopefully someone else does too. 

We'll start with my favorite: 

Fancy Pants Designs Like Father Like Son
Fancy Pants Designs Kraft Kuts (star fussy cut)
MME Good Day Sunshine guitar die cut
MME Follow Your Heart yellow twine 

And then I really really love what the Crackle Accents did for this one:

Fancy Pants Designs Lilac House
Fancy Pants Designs Like Father Like Son (angel fussy cut)
MME Pretty Please die cut
MME Laundry Line crushed velvet ribbon
Authentique Uncommon die cut
Helmar Zapdots
Ranger Distress Ink, Walnut Stain
Ranger Crackle Accents

And this one is just plain funny to me. Nice Ride with a bicycle on it. I'm a dork. Sorry.

Fancy Pants Designs Lilac House
MME Good Day Sunshine bicycle die cut
MME Abbey Road nice ride die cut (and then cut so it wasn't large and oval!)
MME Abbey Road paper "clip" die cut
MME ribbon (it was on the Lost and Found chipboard mini album package)
MME Abbey Road scalloped die cut, stamped with a Tim Holtz stamp on the back
Ranger Distress Ink, Walnut Stain, Fine China

Project Goal 100

To date: 23

MCM 93

Scrapbooksteals Monday Card Madness is always a starting point for me in my crafting week. Unless I have a challenge I'm specifically following these sketches are the basis of my weekly card evolution. Sometimes it's a graphic element that I carry on, sometimes it's the paper's "look."

MCM 93

I'm really trying to get through some of the stuff that I bought in my early scrap days (so things before I discovered that I can always scrap with the good paper and the random stuff that I bought while I was deciding my style preferences). Out came the stash of Fancy Pants - I'd purchased a Scrapbooksteals Mega Paper Kit (one of my first dozen steals) and am very very slowly making my way through it.

This card features paper from Like Father Like Son line as well as piece from Kraft Kuts. The sentiment is Pebbles. I inked the card and embellishments using Ranger Distress Ink in Walnut Stain.

As a side note, this is the first card in my next stash for Operation Write Home. YAY! 

Project Goal 100

To date: 18

You fill my world with color

Paper Girls Challenge Blog issued a new challenge this week and this one was tough for me. I looked at the photo below several times before I finally came up with an idea that seemed to fit my style - I'm not really a rainbow person nor did I feel up to making a mosaic of scraps (which would have been epic had I been up to that level of challenge this week, alas with getting ready for vacation next week there's no time).

So here's the photo inspiration they provided. 

The mosaic was created and made by British artist, Natalie Warne. You can check out her online gallery here.

And here's my interpretation:

I really liked the movement and the colors in the inspiration piece so I started by wrapping washi tapes across a 4x6 card stock scrap. The colors by themselves lacked interest so I finished by putting the black washi in the space/overlapping the colors. That gave a lot of dimension and made it more interesting. Then I cut the corners off and made it an uneven hexagon. 

Scrapbooksteals Turquoise 8 was a launch point for this page but something I really wanted to adhere to on this one was limited color so that my "wheel of washi" would really pop. Lots of neutrals and muted colors with only the ribbon and the photo bringing other bright colors onto the page. 

Materials used: 

Paper Studios Affinity paper and ribbon

MME 6x6 Miss Caroline Fiddlesticks

MME Good Day Sunshine and Abbey Road die cut pieces

MME Lush 2 Orange brad

MME Holly Jolly ribbon

Piggy Tales Twinkle Twinkle 

Fancy Pants Kraft Kuts sticker

BasicGrey Oliver Alphas

Amy Lou font sketched with Silhouette Cameo

WRMK washi

Target washi

ColorBox Chestnut Roan

MCM 85, 86 plus one

Father's Day is next weekend so in honor of our dads I made some masculine cards. So hard. Every time there's a guy card to make I struggle. But these ones sort of make me happy, and I even managed to make an extra to have in my stash for a birthday, thank you, whatever. Excellent.

For MCM 85 (a sketch by Cyndee Kawa) I used a Paper Studio card base and papers with MME Abbey Road die cuts and a Fancy Pants Kraft Kuts sticker with Jenni Bowlin mini alphas.

For MCM 86 I used another Paper Studio card, ribbons, and cardstock, MME Good Day Sunshine papers and die cuts, some MME Indie Chic Nutmeg Washi, and inked all the edges with Color Box Chestnut Roan or Pumpkin Spice

The other card I made used Paper Studio card base and cardstock, a MME Abbey Road journaling card and chipboard tag, Jenni Bowlin mini alphas, a little bit of cord, some paper ribbon that I bought ages ago (so probably Paper Studio) and the Sew Easy Stamper.