Scrap our Stash Frugal Friday tip: stamping with found items

Stamping is something I would like to do more of. However, being on a limited budget means I can only add to my stamp collection slowly. I also like recycling, so I am always on the lookout for items that I can re-use. I buy glue sticks for my son in bulk. After he used up the last one, I realized that part of the packaging would be perfect for a background stamp. It had a black stand to which all of the sticks were attached.

I used a little red paint, and stamped directly onto the paper. I love the effect it produced. Ink could also easily have been used with it. I splattered some red paint on the page as well. I also was able to use some leftovers on this page. I had some chipboard circles left over from a minibook project and some thin strips of papers from my DCWV green stack and Stampin up paper pack. For added effect, I used pens on these for a simple accent, though it's a little hard to see in the photo. The simple pen borders give new life to old scraps.

The colors I chose were based on the Tortuga rum cake sign. These are sold here in Nassau. I was recently in a challenge about scrapping local foods. I had never thought about that before. I realized it could be very important. Places change, even if we don't move around a lot. My Dad still lives in the town where I grew up, but a lot of the favorite places we ate are out of business. On the flip side, it could just be nice to record a restaurant and see it recorded in our albums as a family tradition years later.Especially if it's a place you and your family frequents. Anyhow, I am on a mission to scrapbook local treats and foods that we eat while living here. I just need to get DH on board so we can go eat some conch down at the fish fry. Local foods and family recipes have become one of my many projects to complete. They may take a little time, but I do also hope to scrap some of my grandmother's recipes.

I hope you'll take the frugal Friday challenge or get "that" project scrapped. You can submit them to Scrap Our Stash.                                                                                                                                        

Scrap Our Stash October challenge- That Project!

We all have them...projects that need to be finished. I personally have a list of them. I think that is because I take WAY too many photos. I just love photos though...so I refuse to stop. I love looking back on my son and my husband...enjoying all of the moments. Especially since, sometimes, little details slip my mind. So, here I sat, with all of my projects, trying to decide which was the one I was going to work on today. There is my wedding album, honeymoon album, the 2008 photos, current pictures(because, I try to keep up), and childhood photos( both from DH and I). I finally settled upon some photos from our trip to Vail in 2008.

  Dh was lucky enough to have to go to a conference there. This meant my son and I could tag along b/c hotel, rental car and DH's expenses were covered. We were so excited! I had seen snow, but never this much and this was my son's first time. We were told how lucky we were...it usually doesn't snow that much during the time of year we went. And here was this beautiful winter wonderland. My son was ecstatic! I captured these photos our first evening out. I had bought a ton of different winter theme papers to scrap them, but in the end, I chose to let the beauty of the photos accent the papers. To keep it simple, I stitched across some Ms. Elizabeth's stickers by hand. I did accent the photos with silver colorbox ink.

I love the simple and elegant effect. I was inspired by a friend of mine ( Erika H) and her "nature" layout over at Club CK. I am also happy to finally be using up the stash I bought to scrap these pages over 2 years ago! So, now I'm off to work on some more pages... Don't forget to work on projects you need to complete and post them at Scrap Our Stash!

Halloween Bonanza

  If you don't know by now, I love Halloween. I love the costumes, the trick or treating, carving pumpkins...well everything! Sadly, I am WAY behind in documenting the photos that go along with this holiday. So, with many recent challenges focusing on this spooky holiday, I took the opportunity to use some of my new BG Eerie paper to get those photos onto paper.

Let's Scrap sketch 10-13-10

Pumpkin carving is a favorite family pastime, so I wanted a fun, pumpkin theme page. Add to that the fun of incorporating your senses into the page...for carving pumpkins is a very touch based experience. Orange Cardstock set the mood and I loved the textured feel of the embossed felt pumpkin trim from Recollections Autumn collection. To add to the sense of touch, I used Chatterbox corduroy brads to hold twine and handmade felt banners. I found the poem on-line,printed and stamped a tree onto the background, then used colorbox inks in chestnut roan, olive and creamy brown to mimic the tones in the BG paper. I did the same with the title. Hand stitching added a warm cozy feel while i-rock jewels and orange peel stickles added a little glitz to the pumpkin stamp.

To scrap the trick or treat fun, I used Eerie papers over a DCWV purple Cardstock base. This is a hybrid page. I used a printed title from CLUB CK which I fussy cut and distressed with colorbox inks. I also distressed a prima flower with black ink, then added an Eerie brad for the center. This was the first page I had made with my new I-rock. I love how easy it is to put on jewels. The trim is from my local fabric store. I have been finding some great deals on trims and lace there.

completed for Sketches for All Sketch-a-thon

I love how the many challenges out there get me in the mood to scrap. There's a ton of Halloween challenges right now from the Halloween party at Sketches for All, Workout #30 at Scrap fit, to the Halloween/Fall challenge at Frosted.  Also, don't forget to submit to Scrap and Stamp Saturday if you use a stamp on your page. So go on out there...find challenges, make pages!

DT Sketch reveal at Sketches for All

  It's another wonderful month full of sketches and challenges at Sketches for all! There is a Halloween sketch party, The Sweetest day challenge. Not to mention all of the great challenges my fellow Design Team members are hosting. I am really enjoying being part of the Design Team. We had another great sketch to complete for the big reveal today! You can see my fellow DT's sketch at the main site.

Here is the sketch we were given:

I chose to scrap my son's birthday cake since we are focusing on sweet things this month. I even incorporated the whole  birthday song on the page! I used CK's happiness font which was a perfect fit.

The papers I used have been in my stash for so long that I don't even know who makes them. I am glad to use them up for such a fun page. I used some of the papers to roll into candles which I bundled with some fun fiber. To make the rolls look more candle like, I used some EK success Floss which I inked with black colorbox ink(to look like scorch marks). The ribbon is from a swap and I used a new Martha Stewart punch on some musical paper( which I felt went great with the song lyrics). I doodled for an easy added pop to the page and added some jewels with my i-rock to a sassafrass stamp. It was a fun happy page! I love that I have pink accents but they don't feel girly at all on this layout.

I ended up making a wonderful two page layout. I used some K and Company Stickers on both pages.

The ribbon helps both pages connect and flow together. I was also able to get the correct number of candles for my son's age by using them on 2 pages. I hope you like my page...but I also hope you'll check out all of the great examples at Sketches for All! Don't forget to share your own take with us there!

Cards...pros and cons

  I have never been much of a person to sit and write(unless you count notes for friends in high school,LOL). Life is just always a thing of motion for me...full and complete, sometimes hectic. Sitting down to write or send a card has always felt so sluggish to me. Couple that, with the way some people regard cards. There are those who cherish a card for always while others say thank you and promptly deposit them in the trash. So card making is, for me, a difficult undertaking. I value my stash and I hate to see it put into the waste bin. I think it is for that reason, that my cards often lack something. When I am making a scrapbook page, it is always tied to an emotion. So it comes easy for me. It is easy to use things I love from my stash. For the cards, it becomes a more..."should I really use that here?" type of thing. Only a few cards have come easily for me...though with practice I am getting better.

   Yes, I am practicing card making. I should say, it might be a bit embarrassing, but it was the allure of the RAKs available that lured me in. As many of us know...scrappy mail and RAK's have an addictive sort of quality. And also, there seems to be a little more purpose behind the cards, which means making them is easier. DH asked for some to use as thank you's at work. He also asked me to make a baby gift card for a co-worker. It seems as if his request has opened the flood gates of creativity. So I guess I'll share a few of my endeavors with you.

This was made using a Sassy Lil' Sketch from the October card Crazy event. It was for the baby gift. I of course had to use my new cute little duckling stamp!

The following were created using sketches from the Sketch-a-thon at Sketches for all. There are monthly and weekly card activities as well as Scrapbook page sketches there...along with lots of chances for the beloved RAK's.

I used Stampin up's paper for these. The papers were so easily matched and easily used. To make the tree trunks, I used a Halloween stamp...but only inked the bottom of the tree. I then fussy cut the trunks and added the tops.

A cup of Co: A Scrap our Stash Pagerize this challenge

When I saw Joni's layout, the first thing I noticed was all of the wonderful paint. I love the look of it on a page.

 I loved her bold color and the way your eyes were drawn to the photo in the center. I chose also to use paint...though I was not as bold as she was. This is a page about a cup of cocoa. As silly as it is, my DS has always referred to hot cocoa as " a cup of Co". I realized I had never documented this cute saying of his when he asked me for a cup on a recent rainy day. He's 10 now, so there probably are not too many more years with cups of "co" in my future.

I used the white paint around the edges of the brown card stock because it reminded me of the frothy cocoa. I chose this October Afternoon paper because the browns reminded me of the cocoa while the blues were like the color of the rainy day in the photo. To get more out of my double sided patterned paper, I cut a window out of the center and glued a scrap piece of brown cardstock to the back.

I then was then able to use some scraps with the polka dot pattern to create faux ribbon. I have some of the paper left over to use on the 2nd page when I come back to it later. The felt flowers are Fancy pants and the buttons are Foof-a-la.

Don't foregt to stop by Scrap Our Stash for the current pagerize this challenge along with many others!

A Monstrous Halloween Event

   Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. It is also a favorite of my son. Every year we make these little monsters and aliens out of these mix and match molds. My son loves mixing the jello and picking the monster parts. The hardest part is always waiting for the Jello to solidify. It's a very special occasion, and it was one of those time's when I saw some challenges and immediately knew that the photo was a fit.  Scrap Fit's Monster Mash workout gave me the perfect idea for the title.  I could easily visualize the photo of my son in the sketch over at Sketches for All's Halloween party.

   This page fell together quickly because I was so inspired. I chose to cut rectangular windows from the orange cardstock. I adhered Making Memories paper behind them. Then I added MM paint in green meadow around the edges of the rectangle and the photo. I doodled a whimsical border around the photo to help it stand out. I cut the title from my cricut as well as the Monster and the bat. The title font is Oh (photo) Shoot. I added google eyes to the monster and bat, while I used paint and stickles on the title. 3-d adhesive made them pop from the page, while sequins added some fun to the title.

 If you love Halloween as much as I do, check out the Halloween party going on over at Sketches for All. You won't regret it...it's a great group with a lot of great challenges.

Hidden Messages

  Do you ever leave hidden messages on your pages? I really have not thought to until recently. Earlier this year, I chose to use a pocket for journal tags when I ran out of space on my page. On a more recent LO, I chose to use a hidden tag because I hope someday it will be a nice message for my son. One he'll understand as he grows up. I probably would not have done this had it not been for the recent Project Scrapbook challenge at Challenge Masters. I had to do a page about me...which is not my favorite topic. I would far rather scrap my wonderful son, handsome hubby or quirky cats. However, Given the challenge, I chose to make a page for my son ( and hopefully soon, one about his Dad) which tells him a little about me, my hopes for him and some facts about the time when he was born.

   I have wanted to include more of my son's art work in my pages, so I used this drawing he made of he and I if we were mice. I sewed it into a pocket on the page. I loved the warm cozy feel of the My Mind's Eye Be Loved papers. They reminded me of a quilt, so I used this Sassy Lil' Sketch:

I fussy cut some of the paisleys from the blocks of paper and used 3-d foam to make them pop. From the title block, I cut the word "mom" and then wrote variations of mom on the paper. I covered it with vellum, and once it was stitched on, added the word mom back with 3-d foam. The flowers were hand made from a wonderful tutorial found here. I made mine smaller using some scraps left over from making the blocks. Just remember to keep all of your paper strips the same length and to vary them in width by 1/4 inch. I finished the project with prima trim and K and company border stickers from the poppyseed collection.

If you do make the flowers, pop on over to Sketches for You. DT Member Brenda was the one who offered the tutorial and she has a monthly challenge with a RAK for you.