A Slightly Sour Adventure , part 2

  It's the usual morning routine here. So there is not time for a long post. I just figured that I would share that second layout I promised. You know...the one in which my son tasted the sour candy? Since the round of Chinese whispers is over, I can now officially share the page.

Papers by sassafrass, pink Paislee and October Afternoon
DMC floss, Iroc jewels,
Ruby Rock it button
salvaged ribbon
fruit punch stickles, pink paislee die cuts

 If you are wondering what Chinese Whispers is, well, it's sort of like the telephone game. Except, in this case, one person receives a sketch, they make a layout, then send the photo of the layout to the next person. The next person scraplifts the layout and sends their page to another person. And so it continues until you have made it through the whole group. It's very interesting to see how the sketch gets transformed though the whole process.

Battery Powered?

  I homeschool my son and one of our favourite subjects is science. I tend to hoard science kits like I hoard scrapbook supplies. So my son and I made a commitment to not bring any more home until we used some kits up. This kicked off some good fun in our home, though I must admit, some of those kits were duds. As in...duds, not working, it's a no go. This was one such kit. Maybe the citrus was too old to conduct a charge.( we live on an island and it's shipped in). Maybe we had the wrong kind of penny or paper clip. Who knows!?!? We never got the light to come on using oranges and lemons as batteries. We still  had a great time and managed to learn about electricity. I took a bunch of photos for me to scrap which meant I not only used up a science kit, I used up stash too. It was a win-win all around.

Sketch from Cathy Zielske
Jillibean soup papers, stickers
Webster's pages sparklers
Twinery Twine- cappucino
glossy accents
star punch
DMC floss
Glimmer mist- Electric blue
Maya Mist- Creme Metallic
Pink paislee alphas

  Can you tell what's new on my page? Probably not. No hard feelings about that. It's hard to tell unless you know. I got Adobe Photoshop elements 10. I must say that it has helped me out quite a bit in the "having better photos" category. I still need to learn to take better pictures, but at least the ones I have look a tad better. I also used a large photo on my page thanks to the Cathy Zielske Design your life class at Big picture Classes. It's not something I would normally do. There is one other new thing on my page...I finally got around to weaving.
  Initially, I had just stitched boxes on the right hand page to even out the design.After stitching the boxes, I thought it needed a bit more than just a plain box with mist droplets in it. I was, sadly, too lazy to stitch a whole pattern inside the box. If I had planned things out, I would have evenly aligned the holes to make the weaving easier. So the weaving is a bit uneven. No matter, it turned out to look pretty interesting. I added some punched stars with a bit of glossy accents and ended up with some nice texture on my page. Here is a close up:

I wove the threads at random through various strands of the thread. It created this lovely pattern through the block. Proof positive that trying something new can yield a wonderful result.

So now it's your turn. Try a new tool, a new technique...anything new will do. Then share it with us at Scrap Our Stash!

A Little planning Never Hurt

  This year, I chose Endeavor as my one little word. I figured it encompassed quite a lot. My goal is to strive to learn more, do more, and in general, be more happy. I joined the thanksliving challenge at Club CK so that each day I remember to look back over the big and little things I have to be thankful for. So far so good...except for the whole organizational part of things.
  Some people have told me I am an organized person. I am not sure how true that is. I don't, in general, feel organized.My husband would agree that I can live quite happily in a state of organized chaos. After a while, the chaos becomes a bit too much. So this year, one of my endeavors was to have a more organized scrap room. I also wanted to use more of my own supplies. I keep seeing those cute things to make on pinterest, but have only ventured to make a few of them. I have the ideas, but they don't always see fruition. In an effort to make more of this become a reality, and hopefully to make things a little less overwhelming, I got myself the memory log book system from Log Your memories.I heard about it on an episode of Paper Clipping Roundtable. I figured it would be a great way to sort of make an all in one book.

3 ring binder covered with kraft paper
TH tissue tape
Pink alphas- Basic grey
Little yellow Bicycle Tiny type alphas
Anna Griffin background stamp

   Inside are calendars, prompts for both pages to make and record keeping, day planning pages and space for my ideas. I decided it would be an all in one book for me. I usually like to write down challenges and prompts I am interested in for each month. I tend to lose that tiny notebook or miss due dates. So here, in the calendar pages, I can write down challenges and submission deadlines that I want to participate in. I have a list started of page topics I want to gather photos for. I can write down blurbs of things my son and husband say. I have begun doodling embellishment and page ideas. I have plans for my scrap space organization. So, in short, I am just a tad bit more organized.
  While the rest of the house is in a relatively organized state of existence, my scrap space is not. I know it's going to sound shocking, but, I think I have too much stuff. I came to this realization during our past move. We move a lot. Not that I like that, but, it's reality. We rent because we live abroad. One never knows when the landlord will decide to raise the rent way too high or sell the place you currently reside in. So during each move, we've decided to have less in the way of material things. We are down to owning our clothes, our homeschool materials, holiday decorations,my son's toys, my husband's hobby supplies( video game related) and my scrapbook stash. We have a few other things like bed linens and pots/pans. For the most part though, living in a tourist destination means being able to find fully furnished rental units.
  I know my American friends find it odd that we don't have our own furnishings. I have been lucky enough to rent places that, for the most part, I like or can tolerate the furniture. What I like most, is how we, as a family, have really discovered the things that mean the most to us. Having less stuff also means less to clean up and keep stored. This I really like since I find housework to be a necessary evil. What I find difficult about our way of living is decorating my scrap space. I can not nail things to wall. I have to choose things that are easy to move and that store my stuff in such a way that I can move it, if need be. This past year has been a definite work in progress.
  Our last move brought us to a place which enabled me to have my own space. I am officially out of the dining room. This made us all happier. It made me ecstatically happy that my husband acknowledged that I need the space and that he know how important my hobby is to me. I am happy that my space is out of the line of sight when guests come to the house. My space is not the largest and it is a work in progress.
  Over the past year, I have taken a long hard look at how I use my supplies and what I use/how I use  the supplies I do have. Take, for example, my card stock. If you had asked me about buying cardstock when I first started scrapping, I would have told you you were crazy if you did not buy the bulk rainbow multi-pack. Now, I realize I really only use certain colours as my base for pages. So I now concentrate my purchases on buying those colours in bulk. I have also really gotten choosy over the stamps and tools I want to get. I don't have a lot of space, so I need to choose things that get a lot of mileage. Background and border stamps are a good investment. The cute kitten stamp my son tries to get me to buy every time I am in a craft store, not so much of an investment. Which leads me to the following realization...I have too much paper. Gasp! I know...none of us paper scrapbookers ever want to say such a thing. Patterned paper is such an addiction. Nonetheless, I have a lot of it. The better I become at my hobby, the less I tend to need of it on a page. I have become quite good at making a single 12x12 print of paper stretch over several pages.
  So what does this mean? I think it means that 2012 should be the year without buying paper.  I need to try to use up a large part of what I have. Maybe then, I can stretch my small scrap budget into buying more tools so I can try more techniques. I can maybe then get a little bit more versatile scrappy storage. We shall see. I am not sure I can resist the lure of the manufacturer mystery box sale. Either way though...I have plans and I endeavor to try.

A Slightly Sour Adventure

  Last Easter, we took my son to a carnival at a local resort. There were a lot of great games, arts, crafts...and the opportunity to fill the bottle of your choice with powdered candy. What child could resist that?!?! There were a variety of flavors to choose from. Some sweet. Other sour. We advised my son not to choose the sour. He is not much for sour candies. Inevitably, some sour candy was put in his bottle.
    I'd like to show you his reaction to the candy. I did photograph it. Not to tease, but, I must say that I loved his reaction! Alas, it's part of my chinese whispers page for Club CK which I can not yet reveal( stay tuned). So for now, I will just share page one with you. I made it for the new CSI challenge group and I used some of the materials from my January Counterfeit kits. At CSI, you get a folder or case file like this one:
                         
Then you use it as inspiration for your page.It's sort of like a recipe challenge. Anyway, it provided a great jump off point for my page. The colours reminded me of the powdered candy. My counterfeit kit had yellow and turquoise papers in it. I felt like I could add some mists and embellishments to warm those colours up and meet the challenge requirements for CSI.

Creative Scrappers Sketch#198
Papers by sassafrass, pink Paislee and October Afternoon
DMC floss, Iroc jewels,
Ruby Rock it button
Little yellow Bicycle- tiny alphas and purple glitter alpa
Amer. crafts thicker-forest
salvaged ribbon
fruit punch stickles, pink paislee die cuts

  The title was inspired by the idea to document an adventure. The full title reads " Sandy Candy: a slightly sour adventure for the tastebuds."  The idea of using advice in the journaling set the stage for the story I told about my son and the sour flavors.
  That sort of odd looking thing under the title...well, it's a mask of sort. I made it from the top of some packaging. It's the part that would hang from a hook. I cut it out a bit more. I am not sure it it counts at the architectural element.It sort of looked architectural to me in an artsy sort of way. Regardless, I sort of liked how quirky it looked. I used this moss coloured glimmer mist which looks more blue green to me than deep green. I know I only really needed two pieces of evidence...but I did manage to get some other items from the evidence list on my page. The circles were cut from a sort of purple sheer ribbon. I hand stitched the swirls and added flowers and gems( my version of stones).

   Once again, I have managed to add some of my nemesis colours to a layout. I don't much care for yellow. Pink and purple are hard to get onto boy pages. On this page though, they had a little meaning. This carnival was at a resort hotel. So the yellow and turquoise remind me of the warmth of that day. Those colours, along with the pink and purple, are also colours of the candy. So it all sort of fit together. Adding the black to the page gave it a little masculinity. Overall though, it was the theme of the page that drove me to choose the elements that went on it. Proof positive that a page with a boy can have girl colours and flowers without being feminine.

The Making of a Monster Shirt

  I have a very vague memory of making an iron on shirt with my mom as a kid. The memory is so vague that I am not sure if it ever even happened. Saying that makes me feel quite sad. So much so that I hope  my son manages to have more vivid memories of me. At the least, he will have tons of scrapbook pages to reference what some may believe is an over-documented childhood. Isn't it great to be a mamarazzi?!?!

  Anyway, When I saw Amanda's page for the Scrap our Stash Pagerize this challenge, I knew I had to lift it. I loved the dynamic look of the circles on her page. I also liked how the smaller cropped photos acted like embellishments to support the main photo.

SEI papers, Basci Grey Brads,DMC floss, glass beads
artsylicious green brad, Fancy pants star sticker
papr trunk alphas, basic grey woolie
Cosmo cricket chipboard arrow with souffle pen in white
colorbox black ink

   Can you spy my new favourite product? I began using them on my pages within the last few months. They are glass beads. I have some that have been in my stash for awhile now. They are sprinkled onto the word   "monster" and then adhered using glossy accents. The little black beads were salvaged from one of my favourite evening bags( I was pretty sad when it broke!). I am finding that glass beads are an economical way to add a little more umph to my pages without breaking the bank. I have made my own stick pins as well as using them to decorate pages or embellishments. I hope to add more colours to my stash at some point in the future. Meanwhile, I am glad I finally pulled these out to play with.
  If you have something new to share or would like to pagerize Amanda's page, please pop over to Scrap Our Stash and drop us a note.

Painted Out

  About a year or so ago, I would have never considered painting on a scrapbook page. Paint has become  a staple product in my arsenal of tools. I was glad to have it when I pulled out some Halloween photos from a carnival we had taken my son to. I always struggle with photographing him at carnivals. There are just so many people around. It seems like strangers always get into the shots. When I do come around to scrapping pages from events like these, I often find myself trying to come up with ways to hide the unwanted people in the background. Sometimes I use embellishments. Other times, journaling on strips of paper does the trick. For this page, I chose to use paint.

Frosted Designs Sketch #31
Basic Grey papers
DMC floss, white acrylic paint
Glimmer mist in black magic and tiger lily
K and company border stickers
Prima black ribbon
Cosmor Cricket tiny type alphas
glossy accents
 Marcella K large black alphas

 I just started the photography class at big Picture. So maybe the next time I take my son to a carnival, I will know some tricks to take better photos in crowds. Meanwhile, I have photos of the less than perfect nature from past years. I guess it's a good thing that I like paint!

January's Counterfeit kit

 I started participating in these challenges at the Counterfeit kit challenge about a year ago. While I could not participate in every month, I sure did enjoy partaking in them. I have become more aware of the contents of my stash. I have found new ways to use my supplies. I have also learned a little more about why some patterns go together and how to pair papers from different lines. So if you have never tried counterfeiting a kit, I really encourage you to do so. You may be surprised about the things you learn about yourself and your supplies.
  As usual, when I make my kits, I tend to go a bit overboard. That's the terrific thing though, about using your stash. It's not like when you are in the store and you overspend. There is no real penalty. I chose to lift three of the Cocoa Daisy kits suggested for the January challenge. The first is based on the cocoa and marshmellows kit.

Papers: October Afternoon: ducks in a row-sleep tight( yellow) and
Fly a kite-sprinklers, Sassafrass- Vintage yummy- darling dear
K and co. jeweled brads-wild saffron
October Afternoon- farmhouse flower sack
October Afternoon- 5 and dime found alpha
ribbon- webster's pages fabric

I am still not too sure about using the darling deer paper. I like the pattern, but I am trying to think about what I might use a deer with in my photos. So that's why I chose the OA blue paper pattern as well. it will be a nice alternate if the deer paper does not work.
  The second kit is based on the Sunshine and Snowflakes kit. I plan to use my Martha Stewart snowflake punch if I make any winter related pages. I also added a touch of blue. I am not a huge yellow fan. I am ok with it as an accent colour but am not fond of it in large doses.

Papers: Sassafrass sunshine broadcast-static( grey polka dot)
all other papers are from the Pink Paislee house of three soiree collection
Pink paislee Printed tissue
Pink Paislee soiree wood shapes
American crafts thickers-forest
Ruby Rock-it summer house bitty buttons
misc. ribbon

The last kit I chose to lift is the Amber Snowflake kit.

Papers: Crate paper- farmhouse( ruler) and Restoration-cents( die cut)
sassafrass- life is beautiful- Piccadilly( rose print)
all others- October Afternoon farmhouse( black print) and Thrift store
Misc. white doily, wood banner pieces
Sassafrass alphas-goldenrod
Prima button pieces

I know some people have mentioned to me that they would be frustrated to not be able to match each exact piece. I know that when I first started counterfeiting kits, I felt the same way. I have found though, that it is very satisfying to find a similar pattern that works. I feel like I get more from my stash this way. I hope others try this challenge in 2012. It's very budget friendly! Now...since it's a Saturday, I hope to play with some of these kits!

Endeavors in 2012

2012 is finally here! I hope everyone had a wonderful start to the new year! I know I did! We are lucky enough to live near several resorts. So our year began with us sitting on our patio and enjoying some fire works. How awesome is that!?!? I got some spectacular photos!

  So... here we are at a time of year in which many people make resolutions or commitment to change. I am not one who usually makes resolutions. Yet this year, I find myself setting out on some new endeavors. In fact, Endeavor is my one little word for the year. I want to try new things, create more, be more positive and challenge myself. I want to improve my design skills and my photography. To that end, I just enrolled in a photography class at Big Picture. Maybe just maybe, my pictures will get better. Just in case they don't, I did take the plunge and I bought Photoshop elements. I hope both add a little more polish to my page. I'll continue taking Masterful Scrapbook Design workshops. I also have a few other design classes sitting in my computer files to finish up. The thanksliving challenge at Club Ck should help me develop a more positive attitude toward everything.
 Speaking of thanksliving, I want to thank my followers for taking the time to read my posts. I hope I can spice the posts up a bit more during 2012. I may( or may not) post some tweets. I have the account which I opened purely for the purpose of supporting my newly acquired Pinterest habit.
 2011 was an ok year. Not the best...just ok.I know a lot of people found it to be a hard year. I am hoping that 2012 will be a year of new possibilities. So here's to change, hope and new endeavors for everyone!