Post NSD excitement

Did everyone have a fab National Scrapbooking Day? Mine was pretty awesome. I went and cropped in the studio space at my LSS - Friday night and all day Saturday. Awesome! But since hubby graciously let me leave the kids with him for so long I decided that instead of doing the celebratory challenges that I should get a head start on some upcoming Design Team and Guest Design posts. No sneakies, sorry. 

But I did make these two little numbers just for fun.

This card features some Cosmo Cricket Joy Ride and BasicGrey PB&J. The sentiment is stamped on Kraft.

I used Kiwi Lane Design Templates to make the tag and the scalloped ribbon. I'd traced the scallop and then folded at the small point and tucked foam dots into the "pleats."

Then, this tag I'd made during a make-and-take sponsored by an in-state company, Genuinely Jane Studios. They have wood mini albums. So cool. I love that there wasn't any bending or warping as we applied techniques to our tags. The mixed media things that Susan brought using the albums were gorgeous. If I'd brought more money to the crop I'd have brought some home with me, but at least the LSS is adding them to their inventory. ;)

I know the paper I used for the tag were from Pink Paislee, but I don't remember the line. I also splattered on a green and a blue mist. There's a MME Miss Caroline Rub-on, some Studio G glitter glue, and two kinds of washi (they provided those so I don't know where they came from).

And a close up.

Scrap Your Story - favorites

We all have them. Favorites. And at Scrap Your Story this week we want to hear a little about YOUR favorites.

In case you've forgotten, our challenge schedule is:

Week 1: Use it (you will be given an item you must incporporate).

Week 2: Theme (your layout and/or photos needs to show this theme).

Week 3: Sketch (flip it, rotate it, tweak it...as long as we can see the basics there).

Week 4: Technique (we will describe/show a technique you must include somewhere).

And you'll have until Thursday, 11:59 p.m. CDT to get it linked up!

I know that I just emphasized the "your" in "your favorites" but I couldn't help doing another page about my older kiddo and his favorites. I'd compiled some of the questions from those "ask your kids this list of favorites every year on their birthday" from Pinterest and I *really* wanted to scrap them!

There's two tags in the pocket, one lists just favorite toys and the one with the twine has the complete list.

For those who like product listings I'm not gonna be much help here! This page is a page of scraps, but here's what I know:

American Crafts Chap

Amy Tangerine

3Bugs Blast Off!

Echo Park For the Record

Fancy Pants Rough and Tough

BasicGrey Origins

Kiwi Lane Templates Adventure and Tags

WRMK eyelet

MME All is Bright twine

Color Box Yellow Citrus chalk ink, Black pigment ink

Teresa Collins On the Edge griffin stamp

machine stitching, black thread

Stickles Turquoise

Studio G red glitter glue

Half way done - with my baby mini that is

Thanks to a couple of sketches and an unusually long naptime yesterday I got three more pages done in my Rock-A-Bye Baby mini. Woohoo! Half way done!

The first sketch I used was the second ever at the Paper Bakery. Some of my crafty friends have been talking about them lately so I thought I'd give their sketches a try. Though I have to admit I took a little creative license with it, but the idea was there. I liked that the gears could stand in for the doilies and I still have two squares - a journaling section and my photo flip spot.

And a shot of that page with it's facing page.

The second sketch I used was from Kiwi Lane's DT Doodle line-up. Normally I can pack some templates onto a page but the smaller medium somehow translated into me only using 1 (one)  template, Abbie Road mini 1B.

Teresa Collins On the Edge, Authentique Loyal, Inkadinkadoo bottle cap stamp, Studio G Glitter glue, WRMK eyelet, Stickabilities guitar, Colorbox black pigment ink, clear embossing powder

Paper Bakery Sketch

Kiwi Lane Sketch

Other posts about this mini in case you're looking for inspiration for your own baby mini album :)
 here and here and here.

Scrap Your Story - Stitching

It's another Friday! You know what that means right?! Other than being hubby's birthday weekend, it means that it's a Scrap Your Story reveal day! YAY for a technique challenge that is sure to please. We're talking stitching this week - faux, hand, machine doesn't matter as long as it's got the "look."

Don't forget that our challenge schedule is:

 Week 1: Use it (you will be given an item you must incporporate).

Week 2: Theme (your layout and/or photos needs to show this theme).

Week 3: Sketch (flip it, rotate it, tweak it...as long as we can see the basics there).

Week 4: Technique (we will describe/show a technique you must include somewhere)

I do a lot of machine stitching so I switched up my routine by switching my thread colors. Why do I get in such a rut and always leave neutrals at the ready? The red is just so much fun!

This page had been started as a Let's Get Sketchy March entry and wasn't finished in time, but since I'd already planned to do machine stitching I switched it over for our reveal today. So here's the sketch that inspired the look:

Papers are MME Kraft Funday.
Other materials that I used include Ranger Enamel and Glossy Accents, Distress Stickles and Ink in Peeled Paint;  AC Knock Outs Christmas Punch, Jenni Bowlin mini alphas, AC Thickers, Kiwi Lane Templates Adventure 1 and 5, Washi by Love My Tapes, MME, and WRMK; and machine stitching.

And now to go celebrate with the hubby while you all cook up some fabulous pages!

You Are My Sunshine Card

This week Kiwi Lane posted a giveaway to their Facebook - all you had to do to enter was make a card. What? So simple? I know! So I found a couple of other challenges that I wanted to tie in with my card.

I started with pulling out my new Authentique Renew papers. LOVE these colors! No seriously, the pack just makes me happy. And I bought it in 8x8 and can I just say that while these cards are a teeny bit smaller than A2, I love that the 8x8 is so convenient for card making.

The first challenge I looked at was Cameo Creations - Spring and bling. Okay, these colors are clearly springy, as are butterflies and I met the requirement to use my Silhouette Cameo by cutting out the doily. The bling was done with a touch of Glimmer Mist on the doily, which is clearly not visible in the photo. Boo.

The other challenge I'm linking up to is Cute Card Thursday and their challenge was to use butterflies. That beauty is a stamp from Unity Stamp Co. 

For those interested I inked the doily and sentiment with Ranger Distress Rusty Hinge. The stamp ink was Color Box Charcoal. The blue inking was Color Box Ocean. The Kiwi Lane Templates that I used were from Paisley Place and Aspen Court, both mini.

I was so pleased with myself but not ready to put the paper away yet, so I made a second card with the scraps. Okay, you know me. This card is sooooo not normal for me and I LOVE it.

The sentiment on this one is from Amy Tangerine Sketchbook.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you have a great weekend!

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

Two Little Monkeys Hangin Around

Wow! After that (albeit inspiring) card class last week I am ready to get back to my normal page challenges. Though if you followed my posts last week and "learned" along with me you'll probably notice some of those techniques hanging around in the next couple of posts!

So without further delay I bring you Two Little Monkeys.

The title is very important because over at Scrapbooksteals the Monday Craft Madness challenge was to use the theme "Tea for Two" which could be interpreted literally as something regarding tea/picnics or with "two" in the sentiment/title as I have done.

The layout is based on a two page sketch by Gail Owens for Kiwi Lane's DT Doodles. I used Tags 6, Aspen Court 2A/2B mini, and Clara Lane 3B.

I'm also entering this in the S.W.A.T. Drill #4  which was based on this color scheme which I completed with the help of Echo Park's For the Record, Ranger Distress Fired Brick Ink, and a bunch of fussy cutting, foam dots, October Afternoon Black Keys and Mini Market alphas, AC Thickers, Ranger black Enamel Accents, and some Studio G glitter glue. I sort of skipped adding the cream as a paper since it was almost the same color as my boys' skin! 

Scrap Your Story - sketch challenge

I love a good sketch challenge and boy did Christy cook up a good one for us this week at Scrap Your Story. 

Here's our sketch:

And my interpretation:

I used My Mind's Eye Kraft Funday - I like how the muted colors really make Rylan's shirt pop! There's also some Kiwi Lane Design templates, a bunch of WRMK wide sparkle eyelets, hand stitching with embroidery floss and some machine stitching, Ranger Distress paint, and Target and Love My Tapes Washi. 

I'm still working out the journaling for this, but I left the top of the chevron paper open so that I can tuck in a tabbed journaling card when I'm ready.

Thanks for stopping by, now don't forget to link up those challenges!

Watch me skate

Kiwi Lane templates have become a go-to product for me. Not because I can't put together a page, but because sometimes it is just faster to trace and cut rather than pull out the Silhouette. Can you say under an hour to do this page, even with a little hand stitching and text messaging?

I used one of their sketches for this, DT Doodles 9 by Jenn Nicholes. Please note that this is a rare picture of me! Normally I'm the one manning the camera but my mom decided that the moment was so funny that it needed to be preserved and took action. All I want to do is yell at myself to stop slouching, gah!

Here's what went into it: the two biggest pieces of paper are from American Crafts Chap line, as is that strip of blue/green and white across the bottom of the page and the red frame at the top. 

The yellow chevron paper was in my scrap pile and I don't remember what it's from, but I punched it with the Christmas American Crafts Knock Out punch. 

The brown tag (Kiwi template) is from WRMK Hall Pass, and the twine and eyelet are WRMK as well. 

The green car and the journaling block, both cut from Kiwi Lane templates, are Amy Tangerine. 

The red car and lightning bolt (also both cut from templates) and alpha stickers are from Echo Park's For the Record and For the Record 2. 

The white half circle is a Jillibean Sprout. There's washi from MME and Love My Tapes. And the paper clips are from Paper Studio.

And after I'd gotten all that laid out I realized it needed something else, so I carefully relocated the pieces and splattered some AC Mister Huey's and OA Sprinkers around the open area and then put it all back together.

Hello Card- Kiwi Lane DT Doodles

If you're here for the Scrapbooksteals.com Blog Hop, head this way. But feel free to come back and stay awhile.

I was elated to discover that this week's DT Doodles at Kiwi Lane included both card and page sketches. I've been trying to fill that box for Operation Write Home so getting a little inspiration for my cards was super handy. 

This card was inspired in two ways. I used one of the card sketches that Gail had provided and I decided to try out the glue down spiraled twine into a shape like she had done for the flower center. 

To bad I didn't have time to get to those page sketches, I'll just have to file them away for someday when I'm lacking mojo.

Jade 10 - untitled

Jade 10?! It doesn't seem like it's been 10 weeks already. Crazy.

The sketch this week for Scrapbooksteals.com MWM was by Kassandra, a Facebook fan page regular. I always  enjoy her work and was excited to get started on it ASANS (As Soon As Naptime Started).

Mmmm, so many MME scraps used here to make my hexagon and other shapes. I both hand-stitched using a WRMK Sew Easy Random head and used my sewing machine. There's WRMK washi and MME washi. And a couple of Kiwi Lane Templates helped make it happen. 

Instead of doing hidden journaling about the details regarding our little hospital visit pictured here, I wrote them in silver ink. The casual observer may not notice it and flip through quickly, and for that, hopefully, Vance will be slightly less embarrassed about this picture when his future girlfriends take a gander at the scrapbooks!

Smile Often.

I've done the Scrappy Friends challenge for a few months now. I love that it combines so many elements to mix and match. Each friend offers up one challenge and you get bonus entries for combining into one layout. Let's just say that I really, really enjoy the challenge of squeezing all the elements into one look!

My interpretation:

Brenda - Sketch Challenge - yep

Rochelle Spears ~ Color Combo - as soon as I saw the colors I knew I wanted to use MME Lime Twist

Kerys Sharrock ~ Quote Challenge -use sentences from some Subway/Word Art.

Kristi B ~ Stash Challenge - mustaches, pennants, and dry embossing - check, check, check

I didn't really know how I wanted to go about using Kerys' word art, so I started by just using one as the title. I had that decided before I laid out the page. Then I was trying to figure out how in the world I'd get mustaches into it, naturally adding one to the title seemed fun. Then as I adhered it in place I had this idea to sketch on a bunch of 'staches and add some of the other sentences from the word art that describe Rylan or that I'd like for him. I like that doing so supplied a "boyish" and playful aspect to a "girl" colored page (what can I say, the colors matched my Christmas tree so well that I just had to use these pics!). 

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. 

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!

Kiwi Lane DT Doodles 4 - cards

If you're coming for the Kiwi Lane Blog Hop, head here.

___________________________________________

I simply loved Gail's card sketches this week for DT Doodles 4. And this particular sketch really seemed to speak to me because I rarely make more than one similar card at the same time! Oh well, Operation Write Home is always looking for boy themed cards and boy do these fit the bill. Even better, everything is scraps!

I used Scallops mini 1A and 2A.

Kiwi Lane Blog Hop - photo box

Thanks for joining in on the Kiwi Lane Designs Blog Hop, if you didn't come here from Melissa's page, head back to the start.

I was excited when Kristy asked me to join the February Blog Hop. I've been a closet follower for a while - but I mostly have accessories so it's not always crystal clear when I've used them.

Needless to say, when she asked me I jumped at the chance to play with some 12 in borders - Clara Lane. I just love the soft curves of this template set! But I have to admit, that after only using the accessories for so long, it was a bit of a learning curve for me. (Read, there's a couple of "failed" projects around my house right now.)

I started my projects by redecorating a white photo box. After I'd framed one side of the box, and cut out the papers for it I realized that it's pristine white was a poor match for my Authentique papers. So I inked up the box, much of the ink rubbed right back off but enough stayed on it to make me happy.

I used 1A, 2A, 3A, and 3B.

Then, I started piecing together the base layer. My typical adhesive (ATG) wasn't going to hold up on this project - there's a shiny coating that I had to gently sand in order for even the Quick-dry Liquid Adhesive to stick.

See how this one section had to be pieced? Yep, I'm pretty proud of that part.

And the finished product! A cute little box to hold my ever-growing stamp collection.

The next thing I did with my Clara Lane templates (2A, 2B, 3A, 3B) was draw lines onto a corkboard and start painting it in bright colors that match my craft space. I also used my Scallops mini 1A. After all the horizontal layers had dried I used my 1/2 in Strips minis to mask off spaces to paint vertical lines. When all of it was dry I edged all the lines and added some pen work and stamping for interest.

I made the board to hang some cards that other crafters have sent AND to hold my templates. Sadly, I'd already made all the holes when I realized I have to many templates for this baby. It'll work this way until I buy more ("more" is pretty inevitable).

As a random but potentially useful aside, I got paint on my templates.  I was bummed that the acryllics had dried to fast thus leaving the templates stained. Quite accidentally, I spilled some non-acetone nail polish remover on one. Voila! So much cleaner. There's still a faint hint of pinks and purples on some, but they are much more transparent now. 

Now, don't forget that a random winner from ONE of the 13 blogs (including Kiwi Lane), will be given a $25 gift certificate to the Kiwi Lane Shop, just for leaving a comment by Sunday, February 3 at 11:59 MST. Winners will be posted on the Kiwi Lane blog the following Wednesday.
So go soak up some inspiration! Next up is Charissa.

7. Charissa Miller http://www.akihasmommascraps.com

8. Sherri Thompson http://www.sherrithompson.blogspot.com

9. Kristy MacKeen http://www.mamasanity.blogspot.com

10. Sherri Funk http://faithandscraphappiness.blogspot.ca

11. Roselyn Riley http://prettylittlepackages.blogspot.com/

12. Lisa Anderson http://scrappingobsession.blogspot.com

13. Leslie Prinkki http://www.scrapsofmine.blogspot.com

Chillin

It's a two-post day! I randomly decided to play along with Sketches with Color during naptime today - well, it's the 31st so that means that today is the last day of the challenge and I gotta post this baby N-O-W! 

I've never done this particular challenge, but it was fun to have a sketch, color scheme and a random something to include (butterflies). 

And as a teaser, check out those Kiwi Lane templates and figure out which ones you'll be seeing more of during the blog hop I'm part of tomorrow!

Other fun things used here: American Crafts Classics paper and some Thickers, MME Lime Twist, Ooh La La, and Quite Contrary papers, and Heidi Swap and October Afternoon mini alphas. The butterflies are a 3D cut file from Silhouette. How about those sewn on trails? Ha! Next time I need to plan those suckers out before I glue and stitch everything else to the page.

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.