Covering the month

If you're here to check out the Second Page 

of my Scrapbooksteals.com MWM sketch, head here.

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I've sort of gone about this whole December Daily thing in a mismatched order. Most people start with the cover, I've started with interior pages. But here's my thing. It doesn't matter. In the end, there'll be days that I don't journal or photograph or anything. That's just how it is. 

That being said, my whole mini album will probably be filled with pages from various challenges. Because those challenges are what's going to keep me sane in this craziness! Bwahahahaha.

Which brings us to the cover of my album. The colors are inspired by the Paper Secrets team's color palette.

So how fun is that? I made the cover from a piece of cardboard (thanks to Scrapbooksteals.com for always including a nice large sheet in paper packages!). 

• I covered it with some Lily Bee Design paper, 
• gessoed on a tree, spritzing October Afternoon mists into the pattern, 
• then added some iRock gems, 
• glittered some pop dots, 
• added the rub on and Thickers and word stickers, 
• and finally, wrapped the edge of the board with WRMK washi.

Cousins

I love that my scrap challenge repertoire is expanding - more to keep me busy, busy, busy! I found out this week about Use it Tuesday. Their premise is to encourage you to use up your stash by using hoarded items, and for obvious reasons they don't give away prizes! Prizes or not, giving me some sort of direction is tremendously helpful. That's part of why I've loved using sketches for a little over a year. Now I have someone telling me to use up the forgotten stuff creatively. Sweet.

This week is all about thankfulness, and you can use anything hoarded. That I can do! I may have only been scrapping for three years but there's some kit leftovers hanging around the room.

The oldest thing on the page are the chipboard letters. They vary in ages but have all been in my stash for plus or minus two years. Check out the BasicGrey Oliver letters, those are the oldest and among the last of their kit. (It was a very sad day for me when I used up all the papers and stickers from it!) The paper is a hold-over too. I bought that Imaginesce kit while pregnant with Rylan - and it was sitting in my stash at the point I planned his first birthday party and was the inspiration for the party decor.

So what's not old here? The letter "C," I got it at a crop a couple of weeks ago. 

MWM - Coral 7

This week's Scrapbooksteals.com MWM, Coral 7, was provided by a Steals team member, Karina. And what a fun sketch it was! She used Authentique Enchanted and Glowing and I just have to say I was a little crushed to get home from work and find it sold out!  BUT at least I got to play around with the sketch right away because the little guy pictured below went down for a nap right away. Silver lining. 

The background paper is WRMK, but I forgot which line (it's a school themed one!) I  used a bit more of my Glitz Happy Travels for this page about Rylan's first zoo train ride. The flowers are Imaginesce, brads are Girls Paperie, and some American Crafts Thickers. And how about my faux Kiwi Lane borders?! 

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!

Messy

Whew, what a week it's been! Glad things were back to normal enough for me to squeeze in this crafty project as a gift for a friend.

The frame was a white frame with a white mat that I picked up on clearance from Target. Boring, right?   I knew it had potential though so I bought it to stash away until the right moment. 

I covered the mat with pieces of MME Lost and Found scraps. Then I added some stash ribbon and a whole bunch of heat set gemstones (I really should play with my iRock more, so fun!). Next, I stamped a Tim Holtz flourish in the very center and then ghost stamped on each side twice. The finishing touch under the glass is a die cut from Authentique Uncommon that quotes Dr. Suess. All the papers are inked with Distress Ink Walnut Stain.

On the glass itself are four Bella Blooms (flowers with button centers) that I spray misted from a bubblegum pink to black. The flowers took the ink really well and are nearly black, the buttons didn't dry as quickly so I smeared them around a bit that way the pink really shows through. I adhered them with quick setting glue. 

I'm glad I got a little messy with this one because now I can enter it into the Paper Girls Challenge to do something messy creative. 

Feels funny to leave the sample photo in the frame but I still need to print the 5x7 that'll take its place. ;)

card frenzy

Now that birthday party is over and I'm caught up on some of my challenges, I'm ready to get started on some more cards for Operation Write Home. 

The first card you'll see more or less again when I post for the Scrapbooksteals MCM 97. I cut the card shape on the Cameo (love that flower border!) and since I had it out for that card I cut a two at the same time. 

For this one I just put a piece of colored paper behind the flowers, added gems to half of the flower centers, applied glitter glue to the other half, and then layered on two strips of the same ribbon.  Easy cheesy, cute, and a good use of scraps.

MME Lime Twist card base
MME Andrea Victoria
Paper Studios ribbon
Studio G Glitter Glue
$1 bin gems

This next card features a couple of Glitz stickers that have been hanging out in my stash for a couple of months.

I applied Crackle Accents to the rose and then scribbled a little glitter glue under the sentiment.

Paper Studios Affinity pre-cut card
Echo Park This and That cardstock
Glitz stickers
American Crafts Amy Tangerine Thickers
Studio G Glitter Glue
Ranger Crackle Accents

 I still had some of the Hip Hooray elements on my desktop from making the Pearl 6 layout for Scrapbooksteals so I decided to make a birthday card. Another cute, low supply, fast little card and it could be used for just about any recipient. Bonus!

Stash Cardstock card base
MME Hip Hooray paper and die cuts
Imaginesce Dino Roar ribbon
Ranger Distress Walnut Stain

Authentique - July Color Challenge - Pieces of my heart

I do love a good challenge. Add Authentique into the mix and I'm there! This month's Color Challenge  was an extra stretch for me though. I only have two lines of their papers and a few of the 6x6 pads and extra goodies from 2 more. That's not a lot of options when you don't generally buy pink and two of four colors are pinks! 

The July Color Challenge

But I made it work in the end. I remembered that Stephanie, one of the girls who is also frequently a part of the Scrapbooksteals Facebook community, had posted a page using 6x6 pieces in a swirl, showing just part of each paper. Perfect since most of my pink and all of my green papers were in tiny size.

I inked up all the edges with Ranger Distress Inks, fussy cut out the doilies, slapped on the Prima ribbon, folded up some Imaginesce flowers into clusters and adhered them, then added some extra flair with $1 bin gemstones. It wasn't quite enough though. I kept feeling like something was missing and realized I'd forgotten a space for journaling (very important to me) so I created a border around the page with the text and it was just. right. Go back and say that again in the voice you use when reading Goldilocks and the Three Bears because that's how I felt about it. 

Not bad for someone who gravitates to blues...

Authentique Product List:
Free Bird Series One: Familiar
Free Bird Series One: Delight
Free Bird: Poised and Warmth
Gathering Foundations Bi-fold Solid
Uncommon Original
Splendid Icons and
Splendid Tabloids

Other Products:
Ranger Distress Ink, Walnut Stain
Prima ribbon
Imaginesce flowers
Michael's $1 bin gems
American Crafts Metallic Marker

Project Goal 100

To date: 18

Homemade Monday: mirrored, again

Sometimes I get into a design rut. Same thing over and over and over. So I altered a mirror again - rut. Sort of, this was the original mirror project and Squirrel managed to break off some of the spoons so I regrouped and made the papered mirror for the Paper Variety's challenge a couple of weeks ago.

But I still wanted the spoons to hang in my dining area (next to a mammoth one a friend gave me that used paint sticks a la Pinterest) and I really wanted it to still have that starburst effect to complement the one from my friend.

Here's what I had done: Gorilla glued all the spoons to the back of the mirror. In normal, non-preschooler circumstances it would have worked. It was mirror side down and he went under and popped the spoons off of the mirror. Grrrrr

Having learned to never trust my creation when preschoolers are nearby the second time I traced the mirror on cardboard and cut it. Then I started hot gluing the spoons down, more immediately secured that way. When the spoons were two layers deep I squirted a whole bunch of Gorilla glue in the cavity created from the spoon ends as well as across them. Carefully placed the mirror and a heavy object on top of it all and left the house for a few hours.

When we got home the mirror had slid a little and I could see part of the cardboard. Not enough though to need to scrap the project or anything. Instead, I took some ribbons and a flower and gave it a more decorative feel. It had been feeling really empty to me anyway and I think it was a nice touch.

Now where did all those weird looking spoons come from? Well, the friend who gave me the starburst mirror had around the same time discovered Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt. Our two families went together one evening, and while the yogurt is tasty and the restaurant is tons of fun I fell in love with the unique shape of the spoons. So I started making everyone give me their spoons when we went out. There's 38 there, that's a lot of sharing good times with friends and family.

The mirror I'd picked up for $2 at Goodwill.

The ribbon was leftover from a couple of other projects - some MME Lush 2 Orange and some Paper Studio.

The flowers are Imaginesce with a MME Lush 2 Orange brad.

MWM Turquoise 7

Sometimes a sketch speaks to you. Well, to me. I don't know if they ever speak to you, but this week's Scrapbooksteals MWM screamed at me - I almost instantly knew what papers, pictures and techniques I'd use to get this one done. I also knew that with just a little fussy cutting I could also enter into the MME first June challenge. I love when I can get two for the time of one. 

Here we have mostly MME Miss Caroline Dilly Dally, but there's a teeny bit of 6x6 Miss Caroline Fiddlesticks. All of the flowers are fussy cut from Dilly Dally - the big ones were layered over themselves and then over a "shadowed" fussy in the same shape, after layering I used glossy accents to give them a bit more punch (can't tell from the pic though, sorry). The mini alphas are Jenni Bowlin and the larger alphas are AC Thickers Typo. There's a lot of distressing from the actual papers, some twisting/crumpling, and then some from inking and using the Imaginesce D-stress.