mirror mirror

A few weeks back I was at a thrift store and found a stack of mirrors for a song, so when The Paper Variety Challenge was to create something using paper other than a page or card I instantly turned to my new toys! They were begging to be used after all.

I started by cutting 12x12 sheets of MME Lost and Found (two colors, 16 triangles) into 6x6s and then triangles. Then I inked them all up and folded into ruffles and glued them to the back of the mirror. I used some scrap cardboard and cut a hangar groove out of the back and then Gorilla Glued the cardboard to the paper/mirror. When it was nice and dry I used hot glue and adhered two layers of ribbon to the beveled edge. Then I misted a too white Prima flower with my Wheat Field October Afternoon Sprinklers, layered all the flower pieces together with a MME Lush Orange brad and then hot glued them to the ribbon seam. 

close-up of the flower

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I could use a bit more pink in my life

It's not often that I design with a softer color palate, let alone with pink. But when I saw that the challenge at MME was to use colors/embellishments that were opposite the sex of the subject in the photo I just had to jump on the opportunity! I teamed that challenge up with the sketch over at Paper Variety for this layout.

If you look at the PV sketch you'll notice that there's two pictures in their version, I just couldn't get two pics together that I loved and kept coming back to this one instead. I did keep the rest of the overall structure and am quite happy with how it turned out. Though given that this one is sort of about my photography skills/learning the new camera *and* I called him a pretty boy it won't be going into Squishy's album, it'll go into the one about me!

Paper Variety Sketch

As far as resources used, this one's all MME and quite a few collections at that! There's 12x12 Lost and Found, 6x6 Lost and Found, Abbey Road, Pretty Please, and Out and About (and one piece of scrap that has the MME "look" but I'm not positive about).

Rainy Monday Crafting

It's a drizzly, stay inside sort of day so I decided that I'll work on some more of those National Scrapbooking Day projects that aren't due for a couple of days.

But first up are some regularily scheduled challenges.

Up first we have Authentique's May Sketch. LOVE it!  And I love the way that my interpretation turned out. I used Blissful for all the papers, alphas and die cut pieces, ribbons were stash, ink was ColorBox Chestnut Roan, flowers were hand made from vellum and their brads are American Crafts Chap.

This page is doing double duty for me, I'm also entering it into the Paper Variety's challenge: use a handmade flower in a project. I had to learn how to make a flower to accomplish this, and let's just say there's a lot of options out there! I read so many great tutorials before throwing up my hands, grabbing scissors and paper and just having at it. 

This one is MME's first May Challlenge: use brads creatively.

Now, normally I don't scrap about myself and I definitely always use a picture. I don't know why I decided to do this diary sort of entry about what the month of April was like for me, but I did and I am really happy with how it turned out!

All that orange (paper and brads) is from Lush 2, the dark paper is from Lost & Found, the "celebrate" chipboard sticker and twine is Follow Your Heart. Ink is Colorbox Chestnut Roan.

And last, but not least scrapbooksteals.com MCM 83.

For this card I used Authentique Blissful papers, die cuts, and alphas again. Twine was from MME Lost and Found, gems and ivory cardstock were stash.

Scrappy weekend

Oh man did I get a lot done this weekend! I finished up my page for the Paper Girls Challenge Blog, worked on a couple of extra Mid Week Mojo's (still trying to get all the original ones done), and a card. I had lots of fun, can you tell?!!

So here we go: Paper Girls Challenge #6 was to use the following photo as inspiration.

from Martha Stewart. com via pinterest

 "You can take whatever you want from this photograph - colors, patterns, grid, squares, materials (glass, metal, fabric) and use that as your inspiration for your creation this week. I'm so excited to see what you make!"

"Don't Forget"

 Well, I pretty much only took the grid from this picture. I did a page that I'm not in love with but it was fun to do something so very different from anything I've ever seen! I used Cosmo Cricket papers, American Crafts Chap accordion flowers and both the stamp and blue ink are Martha Stewart.

Then, I opened up the Scrapbooksteals.com blog and pulled out some old MWMs.

MWM 3 - This page originally just had the one 4x6, but I really liked the idea of making those tags into pics too. Squirrel was doing these crazy smile faces for a few months around the holidays and I just wanted to capture that. Papers, stickers, stars and twine are Jillibean Christmas Soup. Brad is stash. Eyelets are We Are Memory Keepers.

"We're all a Little Flaky"

MWM 4 -This sketch was originally a 3 pic that I converted to get a few more pics of Christmas onto the page! They weren't the best pics so cropping them made the focus seem a little better. The papers, stars, stickers and twine are Jillibean Christmas Soup. American Crafts Delight Thickers, inked with Color Box Chestnut Roan.

"Our Christmas 2011"

MWM 5 - When I started scrapbooking (just over 3 years ago) I always did  2 pagers, but I haven't in a while and this 5 picture spread was a challenge! I cropped some of the pictures down and squeezed an extra two on this page about hanging out at the park during our very warm winter! Papers and stickers are Fancy Pants Rough and Tough. Brads are stash.

"Boys will be boys"

Then, I made the following card for The Paper Variety's current challenge - we were to scraplift an idea from somewhere on their blog to use as inspiration for a project. I chose to "lift" a tutorial about creating a title with twine by Kate.

Papers for this card are Authentique Blissful, brad is Paper Studios Affinity, ink is Prima Terra, and twine is WRMK Sew Easy Yellow.

And finally, this morning I made a card using the Scrapbooksteals.com MCM #81. Papers and embellishments are all Authentique Blissful. Ink is Terra by Prima. Glitter glue by Crayola.

50 Project Challenge
Done: 21
Confession, I "stole" today from Scrapbooksteals.com - just couldn't pass up on the MME Lost and Found 2 Sunshine. *sigh* Time to hop back on the wagon.

Card with matching envelope

The Paper Variety blog's newest challenge is to create a card with matching envelope. The envelope needs to have two elements that complement the card's design.

The first thing I did was pull up the Silhouette Studio software to see what I already had on file. Since I haven't done any envelopes yet, there wasn't anything. A quick trip to the store awarded me a card and envelope file that fits so many trends right now that it was worth $1 from my subscription balance - a hexagon card with envelope!!!  Sweet, I can use that hexie again with a little bit of editing.

Next, I decided to use up some of my lingering MME Lost and Found papers. Two papers from Union Square and then one from a 6x6 Lost and Found 2 paper pad. The 12x12 Union Square became the base of the card, the envelope and an embellishment for each. I used some scrap Union Square on the card and fussy cut some of that 6x6 sheet for both the card and envelope. Almost all of it got inked with Colorbox - Chestnut Roan and a little bit of Gold. The sparkly flower stem is Prima. Twine is MME.

Hexagon Thank You Card

Hexagon Envelope (closed)
Two coordinating elements include papers from the card  and part of the floral stem through the eyelet.

Hexagon Envelope open with Hexagon Thank You card inside

Now obviously this is not a card that can be mailed. It was designed for a special person in my life and will be hand delivered very soon!

Project Challenge

Done: 6

Card challenges - MCM and Paper Variety

This week's MCM from scrapbooksteals.com featured so many gorgeous blues that I decided to not only follow the sketch but do a blue card from my scrap stash.

I also decided to tie this card into the newest challenge over at The Paper Girls Challenge Blog - use a stamp as a background/accent element. That was one massive stamp by the way, I had a bit of a fuss with it, but it turned out all right in the end.

Amy Tangerine - blue cardstock
MME - scraps and die cut
Jenny Bowlin - Butterfly embelly
Martha Stewart - butterfly stamp
Zing Powder -silver
ColorBox - Ocean 

For The Paper Variety Challenge I decided to start with this sketch from SS and then it sort of evolved. I had also really taken to the idea of using a stamp as a background element. The TPV challenge was to use three in a row or diagonally of a tic-tac-toe board full of options. I chose: embossing/card/die cut.

Embossing: green on green as a background element
Card
Die cut: MME Abbey Lane tag