A White Christmas- My Version

 I live in a warm climate. So, technically speaking, there is not white Christmas here. We have palm trees, cooler sea breezes, and holiday lights. I have only seen snow a handful of times in my life. It's a beautiful thing, but something I am glad I don't have to deal with every year. So, where's the white Christmas? It's hidden in the photos and memories I have recently scrapped of a trip to Colorado. It's the magic of tiny snowmen, the falling snowflakes, and crunch of the snow under your feet.
   One of the most magical things I have ever done with my son is to build this little snowman.

Pencillines sketch #262
OA papers, recollections snowflake stickers, ATD title sticker, glass beads, glossy accents, Jolee's felt snowman, Crate paper sticker, Kaleidoscope slide with transparency by magic scraps,glimmer mist in silver sugar, viva pink and electric blue

He was the tiniest of snowmen. At 6 inches tall, he was largest snowman that my son and I had ever built. I think we shall always remember him. Building him was not just a first for my son, it was a first for me.
  The magic of falling snow may sometimes be lost on people who deal with it on a regular basis. For us, though, even the tiniest of flakes was the most amazing and wonderful thing.

Unknown papers, doodlebug snowflake brads(?),Inkadinkadoo stamp with colorbox lagoon ink,Martha Stewart snowflake punch,waterfall stickles, sequins, glass beads, i-roc jewels, unknown vellum flocked with white snowflakes,unknown quote,glimmer mist in frost,moonlight and electric blue
title block received in a swaplifted from a page called "June Faves" by Lynette Pancho

To mimic the look of the snow, I added some bits of leftover punched bits. The bits were from a sparkly Bazzil cardstock. So when I sprinkled it over the glue, some turned up on the matte side while others were sparkly.It added a nice bit of texture.

   Of course, after admiring the beauty and wonder of the falling snowflakes, children will then wonder about catching them on their tongues. I guess nothing tastes as sweet as a falling snowflake.

 Unknown papers( one of which is a vellum with white flocked snowflakes), martha Stewart snowflake punch, i-rock jewels, unknown snowflake button, glass beads, glossy accents,Karen Foster alphas outlined with an oceanview blue bic mark it,inkadinkadoo stamp with colorbox lagoon ink. Based on an Lo by Dina Wakely called "oh Fun."

Though I may not have the option for a white Christmas, making these pages sure got me into the holiday spirit. I hope your family enjoys the holidays and has a wonderful New year ahead of them!

A Tone on Tone Background

  I've been eyeing border punched backgrounds for awhile. Tone on Tone punched backgrounds always seem to make quite a statement. So when I saw the current pagerize this challenge at Scrap Our Stash, I felt the punched background would be a nice substitute for the stamped and painted background of La Vikinga's page.
Since this was a page for my wedding album, I chose to use some of Bazzil's pearlized cardstock. I only own three border punches and only one seemed to be appropriate for my wedding theme. This meant that  I had to get a little creative. I hand cut scallop borders from one inch strips. I then layered the leftovers from the punched edges and the hand cut borders in alternating patterns. Doing this made it seem as though I had more border patterns then I really did.

Pagerize this challenge#16-Scrap our Stash
Bazzill Cardstock
Apron Lace border punch- Martha Stewart
Bazzill paper flowers-white
other flowers-Prima
K and Co. brad
Webster's pages trims and lace
Little Yellow Bicycle hat pins with glass beads
Pink Paislee rhinestone button
Webster's pages sparkler's buttons

  I added an additional photo to the design and substituted flowers and embellishments for the title. I did not feel the page needed a title since it will be in the middle of my wedding album. I am happy to say that the lace I used was a scrap piece. There was just enough to make a second page with the same design.

I managed to use up the last of my Webster's pages sparkler buttons and several packages of flowers. I can say that I am happy to have used so much of my stash and I now have two more pages complete in my wedding album.

Now it's your turn!Head on over to Scrap our Stash so you can pagerize this!

Scrap Our Stash Frugal Friday tip- buttons from packaging

We are all attracted to it in some way or another. Sometimes, it's part of what inspires us to make the purchase. Companies pay top dollar to design it. What am I talking about? Packaging, of course! Sometimes, I am loathe to throw it out. There has to be some way to use it.  Today, I am going to invite you to get out some of your punches the next time you open a new scrappy supply.
  Recently, I acquired a Martha Stewart embossing button punch. I have been searching high and low for things to punch( other than patterned papers) to make buttons with. I also happen to have a very messy drawer full of recycled items I hope to use in the near future. The problem with the messy drawer is that I hate to open it and look at the mess. Thus, I rarely use anything out of it. I merely pop it open as fast as I can to shove something else in. So I resolved to actually use some of that mess. I figured that if the item became an embellishment( as I had intended it too) than I might be more apt to reach for it the next time I was scrapping. Armed with my button punch, I opened the drawer and pulled out some package bits.

   In November, I had acquired the Melody Ross chip art tool. I set aside the clear packaging portion to make ghost letters and homemade acrylic style shapes. The backing is a nice thick piece of chipboard. From it, I cut the bracket shapes outlined in yellow. These will be filed into my journal spots box. I can use them as is with the quotes intact or I can paint or cover the quotes to adapt them to some future page.
  Now to punch some buttons from what's left. Parts of the packaging had lovely wooden patterns on it. That's where the buttons on the left came from. Other parts had flowers, birds and butterflies. Those would make some lovely buttons! However, the chipboard is too thick for my punch. So, I decided to peel away the chipboard layers. To loosen the layers, I took my paper piercer to a corner and separated the edges.

Once the corner is started, you can carefully peel away the layers. I did my best to peel it in half. This made thinner chipboard which my punch could handle and also allowed me to punch images from the front and back of the package.

Try to plan out where you want to punch. I cut away the unwanted  parts of the back which had wording and the sku number. This made it easier to punch the parts of the image I wanted.

As you can see, these made some nice embellishments. If you don't have a button punch, try using one of your own favourite punches.

Twelve Tags of Christmas- Day 4

 As much as I liked the tag from Day 3, I decided to skip it...at least for now. The interesting techniques for the day 4 tag were beckoning. As usual, I lacked many of the supplies Tim used for his tag. What I did have was an embossing folder with the snowman. So I pulled out a thin piece of chipboard...the kind you can get from the top of a scrapbook paper pad. It was just the right thickness to emboss while at the same time thin enough so that I could cut out parts of the center. After embossing the chipboard, I cut the snowman out and carefully extracted the snowflakes with an exacto knife.

Once the cutting was complete, I applied a thin coat of white acrylic paint.After the paint dried, I added the rock candy crackle glaze.

While I waited for the glaze to dry and crack to perfection, I made the background sheet. I used a plain sheet of kraft paper as my base. Since I do not have all of the inks Tim used, I chose to stamp my blue ink pad onto wax paper. I stamped a square about the same size as the base paper. I then added a little bit of my homemade white mist. The white mist consists of watered down acrylic paint with a bit of perfect pearls powder.

Swirling the cardstock around on the wax paper created a wonderful sort of mottled effect. I set it aside to allow it time to dry. Now it was time to move back to the snowman. Once again, I did not have the inks Tim used. This time, I substituted glimmer mist. I opend the bottle and dabbed the dropper onto various sections of the snowman. I was pleased at how the mist seeped into the cracks. I applied the heat tool as Tim suggested and saw the white of the base coat become more apparent while the cracks kept the colour I had infused them with. I later noticed some of the glaze falling off.I am not sure why. Maybe it was the materials I used. To combat this, I applied a thin coat of glossy accents over the whole snowman.

Tim Holtz Embossing folder, Gauze from a first aide kit.glossy accents,
Ranger rock candy crackle glaze, Martha Stewart snowflake punch
clear packaging, Basic Grey Flourish stamp,
Technique Tuesday snowflake stamps
Colorbox ink in white and Blue Lagoon
Glimmer mist in electric blue, frost and spring violet

I raided the first aid kit for some gauze which I cut down and tied into a scarf. Thin clear packaging was punched into snowflake shapes. I am very pleased with the results. Most of all though, I am pleased with the new technique I learned for creating a unique background.

To See My World Before My Eyes

   This was one of those incredible photos that just begged to be scrapped in a special way. It captured my son as he beheld the beauty of the mountains around him, something that a kid raised at sea level could really be amazed by. I feel very lucky that I got this shot. I would like to say it was intentional. However, it's one of those pictures that are discovered and coveted, hidden like a treasure amidst the photos on the camera's memory card.
  So now, with this awesome photo in hand, came the job of figuring out just how to scrap it. I wanted it to stand out from others in my album. While I love the myriad assortment of winter themed papers and embellishments in my stash, they did not quite capture the spirit of the photo. This then, leaves me with an argument I find myself facing all too often lately...why buy such themed papers? I guess I will address that later. After all, I rarely let go of anything in my stash. I was drawn to it, and so, I eventually find a use for everything. Anyway, back to the photo...
  I have long been drawn to winter themed paper kits with unusual colour palettes. Sadly, I have none in my current supplies. Given a colour challenge at Club CK to use orange, brown and pink, I chose to reach for my Crate Paper Pink Plum collection. I figured that I could use my Martha Stewart snowflake punch as a way to theme the papers as needed. I also had some word art in mind for the page. The only problem...it was yellow and orange. The yellow completely clashed with everything else I wanted to use.

Original Marcella K chipboard word art before I altered it.

In the past, I would have sighed and put the word art away. I would have kept it for another day when I found the right paper to go with it.Now that I have figured out there are no rules with my stash, I grabbed some pink paint and a detail brush. Three coats later, the word art is looking more like it belongs with the papers I chose. The paint was a little dull and the orange was lost in the pink. So I used a woodsy brown bic mark it to edge the letters and then covered the whole thing in a coat of glossy accents.
  The page itself took form quickly thanks to the kit and a Sassy lil Sketch. Inspiration from Scrappin to the Music's challenge #178 shaped the title. I ended up with a page I loved. One with a variety of texture and tone which perfectly match the story I wanted to tell.

Sassy Lil Sketch 8-16-11
Crate paper pink plum collection-papers, brad, die cut and sticker
Making memories ribbon and trims
Martha Stewart snowflake punch
colorbox chestnut roan ink
American crafts rub on alphas
Acrylic paint-baby pink
clossy accents
Marcella K chipboard title

The warm, vibrant colours match my son's snow suit as well as conveying a bright happiness. The texture of the trims remind me of my son bundled into the snow suit. Snow flake embellishments remind me that we were in the snowy mountains. Best of all, despite the pink in the colour palette, I don't find the page to be feminine. I love when I get to use pink on a boy page!

Summer is here!

 What can I say...summer temperatures are definitely here. It brings with it trips to the beach, time at the pool, and afternoon thunderstorms with cooling rain. I think it's time to break out the squirt guns and get some great summer photos. It all sounded so wonderful...until I realized I still had last year's summer photos to finish scrapping. Not only that...I still had last year's summer themed papers to use up! Time to pull out those summer albums and finish up the last few pages. 

   The page I am going to share with you today is actually page two of a layout I did last summer. I scrap in an odd pattern sometimes. While my albums are chronologically organized, I scrap the photos that I feel like here and there. Sometimes, I will complete a full  two page spread in one sitting, while other times, I will do one side of the two pages. I save the photos and papers I use right there inside the page protector. It's nicely organized and things don't get lost. The only disadvantage to this method is that, as my style and skill become more defined, there is sometimes a different look to the 2nd half of the page if I wait too long to scrap it.

  Anyhow, here I sat with scraps from page one...papers and embellishments from the Fancy Pants Rusted Sun collection. I had 4 photos all 3 1/2 x 5 in size. I think part of the reason I had not gone back to this page is that I had been struggling with how I wanted to place these photos onto the page. For whatever reason, I wanted something more than a usual grid with 4 photos. I just didn't know what I wanted to do exactly, until I came upon a wonderful sketch from Sassy Lil Sketches. I saw the circular element on the page and instantly knew I wanted to cut one of the photos in a circular shape.

Sassy Lil Sketch 5-21-11

  Once the photo was cut, I realized the page needed a little something more. I wanted to continue with the sun and beach theme, but did not have the lovely yellow paper from the rusted sun collection. I chose to use a Martha Stewart plaid style stamp and some orange ink on yellow paper. It closely resembled the pattern found on the suns in paper I had already chosen to use. I then decided to add some detail with white opaque marker and brown pen. I remember using pens and markers more often in my early days of scrapbooking. I have happily found them once again. They are such an inexpensive and quick way to add just the right something to many a page.

  Since the two sun shapes seemed to be such a large attention grabber, I chose not to add a lot of other design elements to the page. I am rather pleased with the way it brings your focus right to the photo of my son. Now…I must go and try to finish off some of those other albums. It seems I have several that need just a few pages here or there to be called finished