Load 512 progress report

 So far so good. It always seems to start this way. I keep up just fine. This go around, I am really shocked that I have found a way to keep up with the daily prompts. I made it a point to have all of my page calls and assignments done for Scrapbook News and Review magazine.  Working on their staff has been awesome so far. it was a bit harrying at first, as is any job. Now I have a handle on the workload and am just enjoying being a part of the team. What did throw me a monkey wrench was life, as usual.On day one I was dealing with a sewage back up in the house. I haven't been feeling my best. The landlord asked me to show our house( it's for sale.) Little things here and there, but I have still manages to pull out pages.


Day one was to use a self portrait. I really dislike these type of prompts. Then I remembered I had a wedding photo of me prepping for the big day. So the issue of the self portrait became a non-issue. I used Paula Gilarde's ad inspiration challenge and was able to crank out a page with ease.

Cardstock: Bazzill; patterned paper: Basic grey
alphas and Stickers: basic grey, trim: Maya road
stamp: glitz designs with colorbox gold ink
mist: tattered angels, other: pearls, button, DMC floss, tulle

I am not 100% in love with the page. I liked everything until I got a little experimental. I painted the vine design with glimmer mist in the hopes of mimicking a design on the BG paper is was using. I then stamped the frames to use as journal spots. I have received many nice compliments about that portion of the page. I personally feel like it's kind of flat. It's funny how the parts you love are usually a miss but others rave about the parts of the page you think look horrid. LOL.

Day 2: I worked on my project life pages for February. I am no where near finished with those. I will share the full February pages in a later post. I know I am seriously behind with PL. Quite honestly though, it's not worrying me in the least.

day 3: My favorite page so far.  I have these HORRIBLY grainy photos of my new kitten meeting the family dog. Since these photos were a one of kind/ time deal, I am using them. I cleaned them up with photoshop the best I could. I used a stencil to make a custom background. Then I just layered some paint and embellies. The page came together fast. It's a fun page and I adore it!

Patterned paper: Die Cuts with a View
paint: claudine hellmuth; Die cuts: the Girls' paperie and
iloveitall- etsy; Buttons: October afternoon
Stickers: October Afternoon Other: acrylic paint, stencil,
and heart button

For whatever reason, the Beatles song was stuck in my head while I made this page. : You say "goodbye, I say hello..." It's time for me to go make dinner now. Check back with me later for the Mother's day blog hop and more LOAD pages.

Wedding Day Sandcastle

    A few years ago, We were invited to attend a beach wedding. It was a lot of fun, though I will admit it felt very odd to attend a wedding dressed in a bathing suit and beach attire. My son thought it was awesome. He hates to dress up. The bride also made sure all of the kids who attended would receive a backpack of sand toys. The sand toys kept all of the kids( and my husband) occupied while we awaited for the wedding to start. It was a definite win-win scenario!
   I left my camera at home since the wedding was at a beach. I opted for some disposable waterproof cameras as I had no idea what we might encounter in regards to sand and water. When I began scrapping these pictures, I decided to try some of the 4x6 pocket sleeve style page protectors rather than the traditional 12x12. I had received a package of them for free with an album purchase.I figured this would be a great opportunity to use them since the photos were all standard 4x6 prints. I found there were a lot of pro's and cons to using these page protectors. You really need to plan where these will go in your album as the pockets are on both sides of the page protector. Using the photo sizes the pockets are intended for makes things a lot easier. I think If I had used one of the kits, like the simple stories line, which are designed for these types of page protectors, I would have had a much easier time. Once I got going though, it made for a quick and easy page.

Items from my July counterfeit kit:
Fancy Pants Paper and rub on's
Making Memories alphas
not from kit:
Jillibean soup twine
dmc floss
DCWV chipboard bird
Studio G stamp in white inke with clear embossing powder
Coredinations CS embossed with swiss dots folder and sanded
Colorbok CS
Maya Road Acrylic starfish coloured with eggplant and ginger alcohol inks

I did crop the 4x6 photos down. Not cropping them would have allowed me to just slip them in the pocket. I also chose a Pagemaps sketch, which meant it took a little more time and thought. For a faster page, I could have just decorated 4x6 cards and journal spots and slipped those in. On a positive note, I was able to use scraps for almost the entire page!

Shown above, are the backs of some of the 4x6 blocks. The white sections are the photos. You can also see how I covered page scraps that would otherwise have had gaps or sections missing with other pieces of paper layered over it.
 I could have left the tan paper and white clouds plain. However, embossing them gave just a tad more texture to the page. The sand coloured Coredinations cardstock was embossed with swiss dots using my texture boutique. I lightly sanded it to reveal the slightly darker core colour. I chose to use white ink in a cloud shaped stamp with clear embossing powder to add a subtle lining to the clouds. While these would have been just fine plain, this tone on tone embossing gives it a more finished look as does the hand stitching under the sand castle rub on.
 Now that I have the hang of working with these type page protectors, I will certainly consider using them more often. I think I will try some soon with one of the kits that are designed for these. Maybe then, I will find I like them even more than I do now.
 

0001110101

   I have no clue as to what I may have said in the title's sequence of numbers. If you are not familiar with these types of number sequences, they are the language of computers. My son is sure getting curious as to how he might translate the way a computer speaks. So to that end, I bought a homeschool computer programming course for him last fall. I say it's for him, but truth be told, it's for both of us. This is all so new to me that I have to learn right alongside him. This has caused quite a few challenges for us in a short time( I am not very savvy with computer programming), though I do enjoy learning something new. It's nice that my son can see, first hand, that even adults learn new things. Learning should be something that does not ever end.
  As boring as programming may seem, I was stoked when my son programmed his first text box which proclaimed " hello world" as it popped up onto the screen. I took a lot of photos of the text box and my son working diligently at his computer. Now I needed an interesting way to document photos that, while a huge milestone for us, were in reality quite mundane. Page one was completed last fall.
                                                       

Sassy Lil' Sketch made for Sketches for All's Fall Sketch-a-thon
DCWV Tech generation Stack paper
Bazzill Silver CS
Pink Paislee alphas
DMC floss
MISC. ribbons stamped with colorbox white or black inks
Basic Grey Brads
Black magic glimmer mist

  DCWV had made this wonderful computer language paper in its' tech generation stack. Paired with the Metallic silver card stock, it perfectly symbolized computers and technology.I used some chipboard numbers to create a mask for some black magic glimmer mist. I carried the number patterns off the patterned paper using DMC floss to sew little ones and zeroes onto the page. I stamped more ones and zeroes onto ribbon. It varied the embellishments a little while at the same time, continuing the theme of computer progamming. In the end, I had a layout I loved. However, I still had enough photos and paper scraps for one more page.

  Those leftover photos and paper scraps sat waiting  until recently when I saw the Pagerize This #10 challenge at Scrap Our Stash. I decided to make a page which highlighted my son's dreams of becoming a video game programmer. In place of Lea's block of rub-on's, I used the chipboard numbers to once again make a mask. I chose to use 3 photos rather than just one. I had just enough white space on a photo of the computer screen to place my journaling.

 Scraps of paper and ribbon from the first page were arranged around the photos in such a way that they gave the appearance of creating a background of data strips behind the photos.

In reality, as you can see from the  picture above, the scraps are just sort of tucked in underneath the photo. This method is both a wonderful way to use scraps and a paper saver. I use this with papers of all sizes. It has allowed me to really stretch my stash just that much farther. From the photo, you can also see a close up of the stamped ribbon. Stamping on plain ribbon is another way to optimize the theme on your page. Plain ribbon can often be found in large rolls at the fabric store and is much less expensive than printed or fancier ribbon. It's something I plan to add more of to my stash in the future.

  From the original page down to a wonderful scraplift made with, well quite literally, scraps, I have two wonderful pages documenting my son's dreams and one of the milestones he reached in getting there. There is still time to pagerize Lea's wonderful page. Pop on over to Scrap Our Stash to check out Lea's page and to submit your work. We'd love for you to share it with us!

                                                            

Echo Park's Fresh Face Campaign

   Recently, I realized that I have a big love of Echo Park's paper lines. Each kit is so easy to use and most of them are very unisex. I love that a quick change of embellishments can make the paper have a masculine or feminine feel. Papers from one kit easily interchange and mix with other kits. Of all the paper kits I have, I find theirs to be the most versatile.Since I have such a big crush on everything Echo park, I figured I would give their new fresh face campaign a shot. How awesome would it be to be featured on their blog?!?! So wish me luck, sit back and enjoy some layouts I have created using some fabulous Echo Park papers!
   This first layout is one of my new favourites. I love the bold, bright feel and overall tone of the page. Every time I see " Swing Like a Demolition Ball", I immediately smile. I love how the rich colour and layered details  highlight these wonderful photos of my husband as he pushes my son and his friends on a tire swing. I hand cut all of the elements on this page.Inking the patterned papers and using the Bic Mark It's added subtle detail to the page. Lately, I have really been favouring my pens and stamp inks as an inexpensive way to add a more finished look. I used an EK Success punch along the notebook style paper. I wanted it to look as though it was really torn from a notebook, so I bent and ripped the tabs a little to provide that effect. Rolling the paper at the edges also gave it a more worn feel, adding another subtle detail.

Scraplift of Little Stingray by Amy Peterman for Club CK Scraplift challenge
Card stock: white- Colorbok,
 blue-Coredinations sanded slightly to show the core
Patterned papers: notebook paper-Basic Grey
all other papers from Echo Parks' Summer Days,Sweet Summer time and Playground collections
Ek Success notebook border punch
Alpah stickers- Echo park - green alphas from Echo Park's Playground collection
all other alphas from the Echo Park's Summer days collection
Arrow and yellow photo corner from Echo park's Summer days collection
Bic mark it's: Rambunctious red,Sunset orange,tuxedo black and Blue Skies Blue
SEI ink blue ink on patterned papers
Studio G orange ink on the sun's papers
DMC floss-white

  If you are wondering about the title...it came from some song lyrics. I love using song titles or lyrics on my pages. They provide some very interesting titles that jump from the page and capture your attention. This particular set of lyrics comes from " Write a Song" by the Dave Matthews Band. It's part of challenge#173 over at Scrappin' the Music.
  When you think of the colour pink, you don't immediately think of boys or fish. So this next page may surprise you a little. I chose pink as the base card stock, not because of it's feminine quality, but rather for how it reminds me of the Caribbean. It ended up being a nice compliment to these photos of my son feeding stingrays at the Atlantis resort on Paradise Island, Bahamas. The bright shade of pink with this fun combination of  Echo Park Papers screams out "summer fun". Papers cut into round shapes give the hint of bubbles floating on the page. I used a black pen to add a bit more detail and to refine the idea of a bubble. Hand cut fish also lend to the theme.

Scrapbook Challenges Sketch #240
White Acrylic paint
Card stock-DCWV
Bic Mark it-tuxedo black
papers,border sticker and Alphas from Echo Park's Sweet Summertime collection

   Since the title of this page is feeding frenzy, I chose fun alphas over a layer of white acrylic paint. The messy paint and splatters of glimmer mist add to the feeling of chaos amidst a feeding frenzy. If you are now wondering whether or not to ever participate in a stingray feeding, have no worries. The stingrays are really quite gentle and are more like excited puppies wanting a treat when they see you holding that metal bucket full of fish.
   The last page I will share with you tonight is one you may remember is you have been following my blog. It features the only other female in my household, my cat Sweetpea. This page is the perfect example of how a few embellishments can make a page more feminine. For " A Pair of Roguish Eyes", I wanted a fun,yet girly page. I chose pink and yellow papers paired with prima flowers to achieve that effect. the use of an orange pen adds to the fun feel of the page and provides the added detail it needs without adding bulk.

Scrapbook challenges sketch#252
plum pudding spritz
martha stewart border punch on vellum
prima flowers
making memories jewels
chipboard stamped with a studio g stamp in colorbox white ink
K and co, wood alphas
making memories tiny type alphas
bread tags
Echo Park Sweet Summertime Papers
Bic Mark it in Sunset Orange

My husband captured this photo of Sweetpea peering out of the bathroom sink. It's one of her favourite places. She loves to lay init when she's warm. She also loves playing with the water out of the faucet. She is quite the little imp, hence the title of the page.
   I hope you have enjoyed these pages featuring some of Echo Park's paper collections. Now it's time for me to cross my fingers and hope that just maybe you will get to see some of my pages featured on Echo Park's blog.

A Sassy Lil' Sketch

As you know by now from my previous post, Cherie from Sassy lil' Sketches is a guest at Sketches for all. We are so excited to have her there as part of the sketch-a-thon. I thought I would share my take on her sketch with you.

Yes, I rotated the sketch...and you can too. ;)

Since the sketch-a-thon is all about school and Fall,  I decided to do a page about my son learning computer programming. I used paper from DCWV's Tech generation stack. Since computer language is all 1's and 0's, I used them all over the page. I used Black magic glimmer mist and chipboard numbers to create a mask for the background. I stamped numbers on ribbon. I even was crazy enough to stitch them as a border on the page. All in all, I love the effect it made.

There is still a few days left of Cherie's contest. The sketch-a-thon goes on all month and we will soon be visited by Nikki Sivils. So pop on over...you have plenty of time to play!

It Girl

Sometimes, it's hard to use pink when you have a boy. My only baby girl is my little cat, Sweetpea. So when I get the chance, I highlight her as a subject in the photo and go crazy with girly colors and bling!

For It girl, I chose to use a black pearlized card stock for the background and white pearlized cardstock for the mattes. DCWV's All dressed up collection was the perfect patterned paper. I layered it over ripped pink cardstock and inked everything with ruby satin colorbox ink. The left page is a sketch from Sketches for you. I painted some chipboard letters pink and used fruit punch stickles on the top. Painting your stash is a great way to make it work for you. Don't be afraid to be versatile. The word girl are colorbox punch outs which I used Glossy accents over. Glossy accents provide wonderful dimension and can easily update older stickers or die cuts. I used Making memories 5th avenue trim and sewed small pearl beads onto it.

The brads are K and company, Sassafrass and Basic grey(with stickles on them). The crown and Feather are basic grey rub ons to which I added stickles and perfect pearls. The journal spot is a Fancy pants rub on in just that perfect shade of pink. So while my son is in the picture, I can add lots of fun pink and girly accents by focusing on my cat.

Submitted to : Sketches for you
                       Scrapfit

jump for Joy: a recipe challenge

Recipe challenge can be...well, a challenge. That is the fun in them though...and they are a great way to use up you stash. Frosted currently has one underway. As I perused the ingredients list, I realized that the page I had just made using Scrapbook challenges sketch #212 fit the bill.

Lets see: bird(check),ribbon(check), felt flowers( that marks of two ingredients),buttons(check), and glitter(in the form of stickles). I believe that covers it! 6 ingredients! YES! There were 10 to choose from. perhaps you should head on over and see the list for yourself.

Meanwhile, I am a firm believer in combining challenges. So going through my challenge notebook, I realize I can also submit this page to:
                                             Big picture Scrapbooking for the "I Live" challenge today
                                             Scrapbook Challenges August color challenge
                                             Club Creating keepsakes Scrap your stacks challenge
                                             Sketches for you: Brenda's Fall colors challenge
                                             Challenge masters:go green inspiration challenge

being organized means being able to track and submit my work for a variety of challenges while still getting lots of pages done. I find I am creating more a lot more. So go get organized  and see just what you can come up with!

Ella's Inspiration Chain

  Do you remember that game called telephone...the one kids play a lot? Some people call is Chinese Whispers. In the case of Ella Publishing co., they call it an inspiration chain. Instead of a word or phrase, you take someone 's project and scraplift it, then pass on your version and so on, until you reach the last person. Ella did one recently, and I made a version based on the last page in that chain.

This was the last page in that chain. This digi page was made by Katrina Simeck.

I loved her simple design and wanted to replicate that on my page. Mine of course is not a digi, but a traditional creation. I used DCWV Natural stack card stock for my base. I cut a square out of the back so I can get more out of the paper. It was easy to do with my purple cows free style mouse.

The photo is one I took when I was experimenting with sun light. I am looking up through the branches of a Royal Poinciana tree. I liked the way the Fancy pants harmony paper complemented the colors of the photo. I used a quote from DCWV Nature and inspiration vellum quote stack. I accented the quote with a Fancy pants felt flourish. On the lower left corner, I fussy cut 3 small circles from some Crate Paper pink plum paper. I stitched over them with Bazzill floss.

All in all, a simple page and one I hope to use as the ending to one of my summer albums.

Capturing A Hummingbird

  I had never seen a live hummingbird until recent years. Now I am lucky enough to see them quite frequently. The community which we recently moved to seems to support a thriving population. I have long wished to capture them on film. It's a daunting task considering that they won't come too close and fly at incredible speeds. For whatever reason, on this particular day, one hummingbird decided to hang out on our patio. Not to mention, that she was gracious enough to allow me to come within a few feet of her. I saw her flitting about, teasing our cat with her aerial acrobatics, and thought she would fly away as soon as I came out the front door with my camera. She just flew around...watching me. I snapped furiously...and though the photos are not of the greatest composition, I am so happy that I captured her photo.

I chose DCWV Far eastern stack paper for its red flowers...since hummingbirds love them so much. I fussy cut some of the branches and blooms.The background card stock is also DCWV. Since it had an oriental feel to the paper, I rubbed platinum colorbox ink on a red strip of card stock. I added a gold brocade Crate Paper trim. This is Sketchy Thursday's 8-5-10 sketch.

The above is page two of the layout. I completed page one during a Club CK one hour challenge. I used part of a chipboard stack remnant to create a frame. I inked it with Autumn Leaves red ink and colorbox Platinum. The alphabet has been in my stash for some time. I don't even remember who makes it. To update it and add dimension, I used glossy accents over the letters. The brads are K and company.

My First Sketch!

I never thought I would be one to draw my own sketch. Yet, here was a challenge that required me to do just that! At first, I was really intimidated. Finally, I just decided to slide the photos around on the page and then work from there. This worked well for me as I began to see ideas form while sliding the photos around. I finally settled on a design and then sketched what I had made.

I used my cricut to cut the title with "a red bucket" font. The journal spot is K and Company. I tore a cs border, used an old fiskars border punch on another shade of green, then added some ek success fiber. I fussy cut some K and Co. scalloped pp from the recycle green grass matte stack. I then added a cloud 9 design baby boy stitched sparkle sticker. I fussy cut the green flower from the DCWV all dressed up stack and added a brad. The little green flowers were part of a ribbon strip I got in a rak. I cut them apart and added a green pearl to each. I stamped dots with green moss colorbox ink and a pencil eraser.

I am really happy with how this turned out and now I think I can draw a sketch almost any time I would like to. To try your hand at this challenge, pop on over to Sketches for you.

Bloom

 It's been a long time since I have used my embossing powders.Years, in fact. So when Club CK had an embossing challenge for its summer camp, I pulled out my old heat gun. I ended up using a free paper piecing pattern from Club CK. I stamped the bird with colorbox blue lagoon and then heat embossed some blue powder over the top. Instead of using the branches that came with the pattern, I fussy cut some branches from a DCWV green stack paper. The nest is also from the green stack. I wanted the nest to "pop" so I tried another recommendation from Club CK. I used my crop-o-dile to emboss the dots on the paper. I don't have a cuttlebug yet, so this was a nice easy alternative.You can see a sample of the nest partially embossed here:

 A little tip...if it's a thick glossy paper, don't press too hard or you'll "crack" the finish. I decided to use a Maya road acrylic paisley which I had inked with Stream alcohol ink. I decorated with some diamond stickles, a staple in my supplies...and voila! A lovely bird in nest. I now have the Club Ck nature badge. I'll have to go back to earn the heat embossing badge...but it does help me use up some stash.
   The background paper is DCWV greenstack. I loved the rest of the stack, but until today had no idea what I would use this particular sheet for. The edges are inked in prussian colorbox ink, while the yellow CS is inked in apple green. The inked edges just help define things a little more...at least in my eyes. the title was cut with the AMORE att font on my cricut. This was completed using the sketchy Thursday 7-8 sketch challenge. http://sketchythursdays.blogspot.com/2010/07/78-sketch-challenge.html

For anyone completeing the club CK heat embossing challenge, don't forget to submit your Lo to Practical Scrappers. They are having an embossing challenge this week: http://www.practicalscrappers.com/2010/07/this-weeks-challenge-is-embossing.html

I honestly do not know what the name of the berry is in the photos. Guess I need to do some research...

Danger! Sharks!!!

A few years ago, we had the wonderful opportunity to go on a deep sea fishing excursion near Nassau,Bahamas. it also happened to be my son's first ever fishing trip. I ended up with a lot of great photos! So many, that I ended up with two 2-page Layouts!

  I created this first LO  using a sketch from Let's scrap.
http://letsscrap.ning.com/photo/ls128-november-25?context=album&albumId=2186252%3AAlbum%3A94293

I have been wanting to scrap these photos for a long time. I had even bought a specialty paper from Wubie papers for this LO. However, for the longest time, I never knew how I wanted to work with that paper. Now that I am doing more fussycutting, I felt a little more confident about cutting the paper. I cut a slit along the fishing rod which allowed me to slide in a photo of my son and, at the same time, hide someone's arm that had gotten into the shot. I had so many oddly sized photos that I wanted to use. So, on the right hand page, I tore a strip of DCWV white core cardstock. This allowed me to group like photos together while distracting from the various sizes.

The 2nd LO utilized a Sketchy Thursday's 5-27-10 sketch:
http://sketchythursdays.blogspot.com/2010/05/527-sketch-challenge.html

 I loved the way that the words wrapped around the borders on the sketch...but every time I tried to type a word border or write one, I was unhappy with the results. I have seen a lot of color on color punches used lately and have wanted to experiment with the look. So I used my cricut and cut arrows and "Danger Shark" with the Cry Kitty font in white cardstock. I then created a border around the edges. The red "danger" signs are fussy cut from a sheet of Creative imaginations transparency. I cut the sharks using an SVG file on my cricut and then sprayed them with Sapphire glimmer mist. For the background, I framed the white 12x12 cardstock so i would leave a white border...and then spritzed the center with Patina Glimmer mist. I journaled on leftover paper strips, then inked the edges with Colorbox Prussian blue. Overall I like the results...it's just hard to keep the page flat as the glimmer mist made it buckle a little.

On a side note...I have just found another great challenge site: http://www.practicalscrappers.com/

and I hope to submit this page there for the vellum and transparency challenge.

Just in the Nick of Time

First off...pardon the appearance of my blog. I am still getting the hang of this. I am trying to personalize it a bit, but found I haven't had much time to play with it. We are getting ready for a week long trip, which is part of the reason the blog is a work in progress. Of course, when given the choice for my spare time, I chose to scrap rather than play with the blog settings. I just managed to finish the latest Sketchy Thursday challenge:
http://sketchythursdays.blogspot.com/2010/05/513-sketchy-thursdays-challenge.html

I chose to use some photos of my pets sitting together. Some of the photos had some goofy shadowing in them, so I used the title tag to hide it. The tag is from My Mind's Eye...one of the great pieces I scored from a peachycheap purchase. All of the PP is DCWV from the pet stack(one of my favorites). The stack is literally in tatters. I really hope to get the new Max and Whiskers collection on my trip. Anyway, back to the LO. I had some red ribbon that I had bought in the dollar bin. I managed to use up some EK success fibers too. The fibers look so good in the package but always seem to be a challenge for me to use. I so prefer ribbon.

And without further digression, my LO: