A Little Bit of Hot Air

  So what comes to mind when you think of hot air? Some might think of the hot summer weather. My husband might jokingly tell you it's the things I say. In regard to science, it's what can make a balloon go up. No...I didn't take a ride in a hot air balloon, though part of me wishes I had. It would have been a wonderful way to teach my son, first hand, about the heating and cooling properties of air. We settled for our own tiny little hot air balloon, made in the comfort of our kitchen with a party balloon and some heated water. We attached a little balloon to an empty glass bottle, then boiled the bottle. My son's reactions to such simple things never cease to amaze me. As the balloon began to expand and rise, he cried out in sheer amazement. Then as we began the process of cooling the bottle in a container of cold water, I heard his tell-tale exclamation of  "ooohhh, cool!" Another lesson learned. Another series of cute photos to scrap. More requests of " Can we start with science today?" What can I say except that I love being able to homeschool my son.
  The experiment and photo taking was the easy part. Picking the right paper was also very easy for me. I had gotten some Kaisercraft papers with balloons in a recent club kit last Fall. How I was going to align the photo and place them on my page seemed to elude me. This past week, a challenge was issued at From Screen 2 Scrap which featured the movie poster from Disney's UP. When I saw that poster I knew it would be the perfect challenge to use these photos on, but I also knew how the photos should be placed on the page.
                                                                       
    Before placing the photos, I splattered the card stock with some home made mist. I had mixed some walnut ink with silver paint as a sort of experiment. The walnut stain had turned the silver paint into this wonderful golden mist. I next matted the photos on a cream and brown paper, rolling and tearing the edges as I went. I felt like it gave a "well travelled" feel to the papers as did adding a little Colorbox Chestnut roan ink. As I placed the photos, I followed the images of the people in the poster.I anchored the photos to the page with strips of patterned paper. I used the title and date as places to add my title and embellishments. I used my new WE R Memory Keepers cloud stamp on the page. and then strategically added chipboard and fussy cut images of hot Air Balloons. I used 3-d foam on the fussy cut balloons to add dimension. Little Yellow Bicycle alpha stickers and some older scrabble style letters created the title floating among the clouds.

  I love how the elements add a hint as to what the photos are about, even though we did not get to experience a real Hot Air Balloon adventure. Using the poster as a guide, I was able to make a fun, yet quick page to add to my album. The poster is also a reminder that we can make a scrapbook page sketch from anything we see. We don't necessarily need someone to make a sketch for us. So if you are stuck in a creative bind, try checking out a few movie posters or ads for inspiration.

Phrases Can Be More Than Meets the Eye

  Every so often, the kits I choose come with a pre-made word or phrase that I find difficult to use. These will often then sit, unused, as I don't have a clue what to do with them. In this particular case, I had the word "girly" in the form of a rub-on. There is nothing really girly in my house ( other than me and my female cat). Everything else is well...very much male dominated as I have a son, my wonderful husband and 2 other male pets. So the question was " when will I ever use this?!?"

Crate Paper Seasons rub-ons

The answer arrived while making my latest page. It's probably not new to some, but it's new  for me. I could simply cut the word apart and use sections of it in the title!

Scraphappy.org March Inspiration Scraplift of Maggie Holmes'
" I Absolutely love your Laugh"

Using the rub-ons and a variety of letter stickers made the title more interesting and allowed me to use up an otherwise unusable item in my stash. I invite you to also think a little more out of the box with the words and phrases in your stash. You just might like what you end up with.

March's Counterfeit kit- Into the Woods

  I will be the first to admit that I went WAY overboard with this kit. I am finding that while shopping my stash, the same "must have" impulsiveness that sometimes hits me while shopping in real life scenarios is very evident here. It's a good thing it IS my stash...or hubby would be broke! Looking at what I chose this month, I know there is NO way I will use it all...but it's going to be fun trying to!
  This month's Counterfeit kit challenge  was inspired by Studio Calico's Into the Woods Kit. For my main kit, I chose to mimic the colour and nature theme as closely as possible. I have a lot of Sassafrass, so this was a wonderful opportunity to use some of that paper up.many of the papers I chose were double sided so I can get more bang for my buck, so to speak.

Papers: Cosmo Cricket- earth Love/Recycle,Artsylicious fine illustrated paper in chocolate
sassafrass-apple jack/translate, life is Beautiful/intertwined, Serendipty/chirp, chirp, brown paper
and cherry delicious
alphas: K and co. actopus to zed( loved the wood grain) and pink paislee in chocolate
tags from scrapbook ID in tangerine
Frames from k and co.
K and co. transparency
K and co. journal spots
My Mind's eye chipboard journal stickers
K and co. green stack chipboard ( for the owls, mushrooms, birds and wood grain pieces)

Since money is no object, I chose to have ALL of the add on kits. Why not?!?! Right? For the Babbling Brook add on, I thought some of my Basic Grey papers would closely match the pattern and colour. I chose Crate Paper's showers since this matched the water theme of the kit. Since I had a lot of the matching embellies, those popped into the kit as well.

Basic Grey papers: offbeat's nonchalant and casual
Crate paper: Season collection winter and showers, die cut paper- cloudy
Making Memories Passport alphas ( as a substitute for the handwritten paper)
Kaiser craft mini alphas in chocolate and white
American crafts mini marks rub on alphas in purkey
ribbon-unkown
K and co. brads
Artsylicious fabulous brads in chocolate
7 Gypsies foldover sticker book in Bureau ( as a substitute for the office pockets)
Marcella K adhesive chipboard in Sabrina
Crate Paper Season title stickers and borders

  I don't have anything quite like the circle stamp in the kit.I think I might be able to use my cricut to cut a mask or perhaps some recycled bottle lids to make my own stamp. I shall have to experiment with it.

   Now, for the Mossy Knoll kit... sounds a bit ominous. Or maybe mysterious. If I were buying this kit in real life, this would have been the point at which my budget would have been lost amongst the proverbial tall grasses. I actually made this add on kit before I made the others. I was searching to find a page with the blue stripes similar to the actual Studio calico kit. This is when  had my Eureka moment. The crate paper season kit was a perfect set to incorporate with  the sassafrass papers and nature theme.It had the right colours and a fun whimsical tone which went well with the Sassafrass papers.

Crate paper:  restoration ruffles( as a substitute for the calendar die cut)
Crate Paper die cut- restoration-Cents
Crate paper: seasons- Fall and Love papers
Sassafrass; Life is Beautiful-golden love and apple Jack
Crate Paper Season chipboard accents, plus restoration bicycle
Crate Paper Seasons art brads
Making Memories Chloe's Closet green leather frame
Making Memories Chloe's Closet clips-2
Prima lace
Webster's pages lace
ribbon unknown
Crate Paper Prudence Glitter borders
Crate paper prudence Alpha twist
K and co. Borders
Making Memories Paperie Greenhouse felt clips

I added some of the crate paper restoration papers to add the vintage feel of the original kit. I don't have any circus theme pages planned. If I change my mind, I might go out on the world wide web to find some vintage images to print off. One of my favourite sites for free vintage printables is found here.

  The sunny Clearing... The name connotes warmth. So I set out to duplicate the warm feeling of the original kit as best as I could. I noticed that Studio Calico used some Cosmo cricket paper. I don't have the fish tales paper, but I  do have Snorkel. I chose a sun and a bicycle from that collection. There is less paper here, b/c the gingham papers I have do not coordinate well with the other papers I have chosen. So I compensated with extra embellies.

Crate Paper: Season- friendly paper
Crate paper; restoration- fringe( has a wonderful orange pattern on the back)
Sassafrass: Life is Beautiful- rose thicket( a wonderful warm rose pattern on the back)
Pink Paislee Old school glitter alpha
Crate Paper restoration border stickers
Cosmo Cricket: snorkel collection- bicycle/lazy days and sunshine
Crate Paper chipboard flower border
Artsylicious deluxe brads
red crochet flower- from Ikea, it's a curtain decoration
Fancy Pants write now rub on's
Making Memories Chloe's closet square gem stickers
Fancy pants ric racs-red, yellow and cream
homemade red flower
crochet lace- unkown
Sassafrass in stitch blossoms-orange
Jillibean Soup clear stamps- top ten
Making Memories Chloe's Closet tags- 3
Making Memories Chloe's closet paper clips and clips

And now for the final kit.... wild flower. Since I have a boy, the original was too floral for me. I toned it down a bit with the more masculine colours and whimsical flowers of the crate paper Season collection.

Sassafrass paper- yellow hearts
Crate paper : Seasons- Spring and Summer
Crate paper; prudence-discretion paper
Crate paper Season journal stickers
Crate Paper Seasons rub ons
Maya Road Fresh chipboard-motifs
Artsylicious Splendid treasures in chocolate
Making Memories ribbons and trims
Cosmo Cricket lil. man ribbon

I had more trim than I originally intended. I just could not decide which one to pick...so I picked them all!
Now it's time to see what I can create with this kit. I already have a few pages in mind and with my husband having a three day weekend, I have plenty of time.

Valentine's Day Blog Hop

 WELCOME!!!
 Valentines day is about more than just love and romance. It's also about friendship. In the spirit of friendship, I am very excited to share a variety of wonderful projects from my scrapbooking friends(from Club CK). I hope you will enjoy this blog hop as much as I. Should you get lost along the way or have not arrived here from Kathy's post, just pop on over to Amanda's Blog. She'll get you back on the right track...and if you follow everything in the right order, she has a grand prize in store for you.

Here are all the wonderful blogs you will be touring:
Candice
Gina
Linda
Becky
Andi
Adele
Janice
Kathy
Christy- you are here now
Briana- Your next stop!
Veronica
Traci
Holly
Cassie
Laurie
Jackie
Margie

WOW! That's a lot of inspiration!


Now...back to the subject of friendship. It's something everyone feels...even animals. I decided to share a page about my cat today. Her name fits her personality. She is indeed a sweet little girl. Sweetpea loves to cuddle and to share time with those she loves. In these photos, she had cuddled up next to our dog, Max.

Basic grey Max and Whiskers papers and Embellishments
Bic Mark it pen in Misty blue and Honey brown
Kaisercraft mini alphas
page is based on CK Magazine 15 minute Layout Nov./Dec. 2010 issue

It was important to me to document this page, but as many of us know... we have more pictures than time. I have lately been exploring the world of 15 minutes pages. I am still learning how to let go a little as I move on in my quest to make fast, simple pages with impact. I can do a page in about 30 minutes now.  I invite you to try one too. You might be surprised with your results.

Thank you so very much for stopping by. I hope you will check out the rest of the blog. Now it's time to go see Briana.