Reimagine

It's time for a new challenge at Paper Girls Challenge Blog, this time Charity has asked us to do something with pine cones - a little "pine cone pizzazz" if you will. I wasn't having much luck finding pine cones on my papers so I went a different route and cut a apart a pine cone to use on this little wall hanging. 

While I'm not technically participating in Ali Edward's one word program, I do find the idea of having a focus word for the year to be inspirational and chose "reimagine" to guide me through the year. To reinforce the concept I wanted something that I'd get to see everyday to remind me to find new ways to look at things/situations and decided to have a little mixed media fun. Everything here has been "reimagined" in some way - some examples: the canvas itself held David's advent calendar, dried up paint was thinned and given new life, the last bits of various glitter glues put to use, ribbon that has sat unused for ages, last pieces of gems, rubber bands, paper clips, and of course the pine cones that I dismantled and reassembled into flowers. 

There was a point very early in this process where I nearly through it away. I'd primed it and painted the entire thing yellow (the paint is old and I had more of it than any other color). Awful, even with the bits of gesso and book pages showing through. I plopped some pinks in the corners and added these numeral Thickers (again, last of their packs) and it started to hold promise. So many layers later, I'm glad I stuck with it. 

That red thing is the sack from clementines and the dotted tape is drywall joint tape that an instructor at my LSS didn't want to take home.

A few rubber bands, some disjointed gems (they were those designed kind and I'd removed some for various projects), with lots of glitter glue melding it all together.

Just a fun and funky title, it is actually the only newish stuff - an unused clipboard from a class, new wood veneer alphas, modeling paste, glitter, and a new to me stencil from Dylusions.

Here's those pine cones I promised. Now what are you gonna make with yours?

Reimagine the Possibilities

 This week's MWM sketch, Iolite 7, at ScrapbookSteals was created by one of their buyers and my friend, Brittany Perry. I just loved it! And I'm loving playing along again. 

The base of the layout is BasicGrey's Little Black Dress. I'd been eyeing it for ages and my LSS put it and another BG on clearance and I broke down and finally bought all that she had. As many times as I almost purchased it I think it would have hurt more to let someone else have it. 

Other than the lacy black and cream piece and the letters from the same line, this one is a stash buster. Three partial embellishment packs used up and lots of scraps! 

Papa's Stool

Here's another layout that I worked on while David was gone at the beginning of the month. This one used the Scrapbooksteals MWM - Iolite 4 

I had so much fun dumping out my scraps to find all those soft blues! 

Take to the Sky

While David was out of state for an annual conference some of my online girlies and I were talking about our serious need to create, and to create more often than just because something was assigned. I plunged right in and by the point that I'd made this layout he'd only been gone 5 days and I'd made as many layouts, a mixed media piece, and a card. Now some of those did end up getting used as DT projects but I was just having so much fun getting it done that it was like breathing to create them. LOVE that feeling.

This was just for fun. I love that I got four photos onto it AND used a bunch of misfit Thickers. I used the Cameo to cut the starburst on a piece of "ugly" single sided cardstock and then saturated it with black gelatto. I also painted between some of the points in order to have that big chunky one to journal between.

I almost don't need to tell you how excited I was to use up those speech bubbles, I painted over the original text and put them to work. They've been laughing at me from their home in my stash for more than two years, it was time to show them who's the boss!

Jan Card Sketch

It's time for the Practical Scrappers card sketch. I just loved the large triangle in the center and had to play along!

I did modify it a bit and made the card portrait style and eliminated a couple of elements, but you can definitely see the inspiration here. 

The papers came out of my scrap bin and I don't remember where they're from. 

The black triangles and the coloring on the edges was done with gelattos. 

The stamp is from Tim Holtz and it and the corners were inked with black pigment ink. 

Feels like forever

I've made a little goal this year to spend more of my free time creating for creating's sake (or at least to participate in a challenge). While I'm realistic enough to know I'd never make it through a year of "just my stash" using it is part of the goal. 

All of which has led me back to playing along with Melodee's fun sketches at ScrapbookSteals, this one is based on the Iolite 6 sketch. 

It gave me a bit of a headache to photograph, with all the colors I couldn't get it balanced correctly. I don't know if it was the lighting or what, but you get the idea. 

The close-ups have a bit better interpretation of the colors. Check out all the scrappy goodness I used! 

ETA: this one is also being entered with the Scrapbooksteals MCM series: Journaling

Practical Scrappers Blog Hop - Scrapping our Stash

As CHA-W sneak peaks started popping up on my Facebook feed and on manufacturer blogs I heard my credit card groan with loathing. So much cute stuff is coming out! Needless to say that I was pretty excited when Christine at Practical Scrappers decided that we should have a blog hop celebrating a destashing. Gotta use it up to make room for all those papers that I "need." 

 A special shout out to the sponsor of today's hop: Kiwi Lane Designs!

Kiwi Lane Designs creates templates that help take the frustration out of scrapbooking!  And one lucky winner today will get a border set and an accessory set from Kiwi Lane.  We are big fans of Kiwi Lane Designs and in fact have several members of our design team who either currently or in the past have been a part of their design team!  Details on how you can win this prize are at the bottom of this post!

  We recognize that this is a huge list for the blog hop and would love for you to visit as many as you can...but we are not making that mandatory to qualify for the prize here.  That said, many of the designers are offering prizes of their own so I do recommend seeing what you can get in on :).

I love when projects just sort of work out. I'd finished this mini book only hours before Christine suggested the hop - my only goal with the mini book was an excuse to use up my MME Collectable papers and pair it with my unused WRMK envelope punch board. I'm so glad that I came up with this crazy idea! 

If you can't tell, I created the binding for this book by punching two holes and simply threading them with ribbon. Instead of tying a simple knot or bow I wanted to bring in some more of that office supply sort of feel and knotted the ribbon ends to a paper clip.

Most pages have a mini layout/journaling area on the left, with an envelope on the right. Inside each envelope is a mini layout. Every second picture is what the contents of that envelope look like.

This book was done with almost no extra embellishments, with the exceptions being enamel dots and some American Crafts flowers.

And finally, the back of the last envelope and the end sheet - both have lots of room for some journaling and photos. Below is a photo of the back cover. 

Practical Scrappers Blog Hop List

Practical Scrappers: 

Charissa Miller 

Cathy Harper  

Jennifer Haggerty  

Christine Meyer

Kristina MacKeen

Erin Morehouse 

Nicole Laha 

Krissy Clark 

Wendi Robinson 

Lissa Mitchell 

Deborah Johnson  

Jessica Arrant ****You Are Here

Kerri Yarus  *****Go Here Next

Lisa Peeples 

Kim Ryden

Laura Cox

Kelly Jean

Lanette Erickson

Alison Day

Wendy Coffman

Michelle Johns

Lee-Anne Thornton

Marcia Dehn-Nix

Kelli Fortier

Remember you don't have to visit all of the participating blogs to enter in the Kiwi Lane drawing.

Now, how to get in on that prize! You can do any or all of the following for up to three entries! 

1) Become a follower at Practical Scrappers

2) Become a fan on our facebook page

3) Become a fan on the Kiwi Lane facebook page and make sure to tell them we sent ya!

Leave us a comment so that we know what you did! All entries need to be in by 11:59 p.m. EST on Monday, January 13, 2014. The winner will be announced on the Practical Scrappers Blog on Tuesday, January 14.