Take In the Sunshine

Have you been catching a theme since my month hiatus from blogging? I've pretty much been just creating for classes for my LSS, which is super great because I get to play with all the new pretty papers. 

This one features BasicGrey Fresh Cut. The store's had a rash of people asking for layout classes and since most prefer double pages I have been trying really.really.hard to give them what they want! The problem I faced with this BG pack, and another I'm working with right now is that they don't have two of the same anything in the packs so I'm adding some neutrals so that I can pull all the same colors across the page. 

Now, here's the start of some close ups. I'll start with the layouts not side by side. Is it just me or are white background pages really hard to photograph?!

Then the real details: 

I'm in love with the way I managed to splatter on this spread. Mists still scare me a bit but this time I think I got the flick down nicely!

I may be obsessed with my Amy Tangerine stitching templates lately. No surprise there given how much I like stitching on my layouts anyway! Hopefully some of my students will catch the bug and Dala will order even more templates than she has already. Bwahahaha. 

What do you do when a paper pack needs some bling but you don't want rhinestones? You heat emboss wood veneers, naturally. Seriously, that's the most time consuming element in the whole class because the heat gun kept blowing the shapes away so I had to hold them down with a paper piercer and do one at a time.

Supplies:

BasicGrey Fresh Cut

Studio Calico wood veneers

Pigment Ink

Gold Zing! embossing powder

Amy Tangerine stitching templates

Studio Calico mists

Stash embroidery floss

A wood themed blog hop with Practical Scrappers

Welcome to the Practical Scrappers/Paper Secrets Blog Hop!  We are so excited to have you hop along with us today!  For this blog hop we are featuring the Ten Things Team from Practical Scrappers and members from the Design Team at Paper Paper Secrets Blog. Our topic for this hop is a fun, trendy one that will definitely catch your attention: wood! We have a collection of wood goodies from Paper Secrets to give away and you can get all the details on that below.

If you didn't come from Lisa's blog, head back and start at the beginning with Practical Scrappers, I'll be seeing you again soon.  Here's my project: a wooden mini album using the gear mini from Genuinely Jane Studios. I just love these little books that my friend Sue makes! I thought that a book documenting my boys' love of Lightning McQueen would be important to add to my collection.

I adhered the reds from a pack of Core'dinations/Tim Holtz Shattered Collection Cardstock. I inked up the Thickers with pigment ink so as I applied them they smeared a bit on the cover and I just love how they helped make it a bit more mechanic "greasy."The Tim Holtz metal gears were a nice finishing touch.

I didn't decorate the back side of the cover, but I did heat emboss the ends of the gear on the first page.  You'll see a lot of Simple Stories Snap stickers on the following pages. The circle banner is from MME Kraft Funday and the wood veneers are from Little Yellow Bicycle.

And finally, the back cover. 

Thanks for stopping by, here's the blog hop list in case you've gotten lost:

Practical Scrappers

Charity Hotrum

Lisa Moen

Jessica Arrant

Kristi Biesel 

Stephanie U

Patty Selah 

Karen Sessions

Kelly Holfield

Wendy Coffman

Deborah Johnson

Krissy Clark

Rochelle Spears

Kerri Yarus  

Lee-Anne Thornton

Leslii Wagner

Kelli Fortier

Kim Ryden 

Kenya Guard

Lucy Kelleher

Sue Kithcart 

Brenda Ragsdale

Charissa Miller

Christine Meyer

Sarah Clark

Kelly Jean Guzlas

Paper Secrets

Here's what you can win from Paper Secrets!

You can do any or all of the following to get entered:

1) Be a follower at Practical Scrappers

2) Be a follower at the Paper Secrets Blog

3) Like our Practical Scrappers Facebook Page

4) Like the Paper Secrets Facebook Page

5) Leave us a comment at Practical Scrappers telling us which of those you did :)

You have until 11:59 PM CST on Sunday, August 25th to enter.  A winner will be announced early next week!

Scrap Your Story - stamping

We all have them, stamps. I don't even use my stamps often and somehow they keep multiplying in my stash! Probably because when I do use them I really just how much fun they can be. 

So this week for Scrap Your Story you're going to have to give it a whirl. Stamp somehow on your layout - the title, a background, your journaling, an embellie. Just let us know how you used the technique! 

I actually stamped several times to make my background. On the top half of the page are the circles, those were created by inking up the lid of an embellishment container and then stamping on the paper. The other stamp is the Misplaced Chevron from Unity. I adore this stamp! It's pretty awesome as a background on a layout, in the past I've just used it for cards with some heat embossing(yummy!).

And just because I also loved my pennants, here's a close up of the other side of the paper. 

I used: Cosmo Cricket Joy Ride, an assortment of MME and AC scraps for the pennants and photo mats. Stickles, Color Box Ocean, Bo Bunny ribbon and flowers, a MME Miss Caroline wood veneer and MME Lime Twist pennant letter stickers.

My Rock-a-bye Mini

A little over two weeks ago a coworker's daughter had a surprise baby, at 31 weeks no less! Needless to say the Grandma is in one of those gushy love the baby but still in shock sort of moments in life. The day I found out I started plotting what kind of card I'd make for the baby gift - the baby's mama is totally a rocker/hippie sort of gal so it wasn't going to be something I could pull from previously made and stashed cards. 

For some reason I kept thinking about making a mini for her and just couldn't bring myself to start either project. The next time I saw the new grandma I asked her about making a baby book - and she was sooooo excited at the idea. You see Rocker Mama wasn't digging the pastel duck/bunny/bear books you can find at the baby/toy stores in our area. (Not that I can blame her, I didn't buy them either. Pastels make me want to...bleh.)

I just so happened to have some Teresa Collins On the Edge in my pile of scrappy stuff I was getting ready to sell at my LSS stash sale so I pulled it out, bought some "edgy" embellies (glitter skull and cross bones?!) and set to work planning out my first requested piece. I also decided to incorporate Authentique Loyal into the book to give me another color to work with - bonus being that the baby's room is in the process of being decorated with green, blue, brown and black. Can you say perfect?!!

This first page (the second page in the book since the cover was drying while I was working on this one) was based on the Scrapbooksteals.com MWM Amber 9 sketch. 

I know that they're already taking a lot of cell phone photos of baby so I wanted to keep them square and have a few hidden pics to get as many as possible into the baby book. The blue panel lifts for room for two more pics. 

The next page, for month 1, was inspired by the Paper Secrets April 15 sketch with a twist to use wood embellishments. Again, I modified the sketch to fit my needs/get a couple more pics onto a smaller page! We have four photo spots and two journaling blocks, my thought being that the outside journaling can be "normal" milestones and the inside block is for things about their hospital life the first month. 

Check out my little Studio Calico wood veneer tab! It was the perfect size for these TC stamps that came with the paper kit. 

And the outside of the book, I intended to ink the back but forgot that I hadn't until I'd already taken the photo. Oops, but you get the idea. 

Scrapbooksteals Sketch

Paper Secrets Sketch

You'll be hearing a lot about this book in the coming days, I want it done before their "Baby Get Together Thing" the first weekend in May (shower after baby is born, baby still in hospital so whatever you want to call it). It is also the reason I haven't posted much this week, just planning it to this point has taken a lot of my crafty time and last week I was getting my stash together for the upcoming sale. 

Don't forget that tomorrow is Friday, so that means a new Scrap Your Story Challenge! 

Mid Week Mojo - Amber 8

Typically I try to do the Scrapbooksteals MWM the day they post. I don't know why, but since it's my habit I stick to it. ;) This week I was waiting for the mail to get it done - you see the sketch (Amber 8) had this nice vertical strip and for some reason I just felt like I needed to use some Studio Calico wood veneers that I'd ordered from Scrapbooksteals to fill that space. They arrived Saturday! I'd almost given hope up for lost and started a new plan, boy am I glad that I stuck to my original idea - love it!

The papers are a slightly older line (over a year for sure) from BasicGrey, PB&J. I don't know why I never use my BG papers because when I do I absolutely love them! In particular I liked the nearly primary colors (without  looking to back-to-school) and the little chipboard banners and the house were a perfect touch for this page about our regular adventures to the Magic House in St. Louis. 

I'm also linking this up to the Use It Tuesday  to use hoarded items and something sticky. There's plenty of chipboard stickers on here to qualify! Though my oldest item on the page is the Colorbox Ink pad that I used to change the veneer to blue - it sees little use since I began investing in Distress Ink pads, and I've had it for over 2 years!

The Amber 8 sketch: