Have you Ever Had...

One of those projects. You know what I mean. The type which no matter how you play with the elements, you just aren't 100% happy with it. I just had one of those. In the end I am ok with the results...not 100% ok. I am just happy that it's done. I tried out The color room's #11 palette and sketch for an Easter Layout. I never realized what a challenge that orange and pink could present me. I just didn't have the papers in my stash to really rock the design the way I wanted it. I will say though, that there are parts of the Lo I like. I love the Easter egg. I cut an oval out of white Cardstock. Then I used green and pink water color crayons for the base. I decorated it with a Martha Stewart white opaque marker and some diamond stickles. It was a fun easy embellishment. I also liked the cottontails on the rabbits. I found the rabbits as a free dingbat font and used my cricut to cut them out. I thought they needed a little something else...so I used a cotton ball to make little tails for them. I love finding things around the house to make a lay out work.
 I am also pleased to say that I used up some old stash. I had some ek success green fibers that reminded me of Easter grass. they have been in my stash for a few years now. I also used up an old sticker...the title one that says "hopping down the Bunny Trail." The flowers are Sassafrass and the ribbons are Crate paper and MM.
  So while this is not my best ever LO...I will chalk it up to one more completed and will move on. Otherwise I think I'll pull my hair out.

Fun with Flowers

  WOW...today I have posted more than I ever have before. Who would have thought that someone like me would go from no blog to posting almost daily. Part of the reason this has happened is due to all of the great on-line challenges I have found. This current challenge is all about flowers and it's over at Practical scrappers. http://www.practicalscrappers.com/2010/06/this-weeks-challenge-is-flowers.html So I thought I would post a couple of recent flower favorites from my lay outs.

  Flowers are really a tough challenge for me. Having a boy means finding ways to get creative when using flowers. One would think I wouldn't have a lot of flowers in my stash...but well, let's just say those lovely little paper flowers sing a siren song when I am at my LSS. And when my friend offered me some scrap pieces of felt flower strips, how could I say no?Needless to say, it's not all rocket ships and robots in my stash. SO...just what does one do when they have a boy and flowers in their stash? Well, you can look for another subject to scrap about as I did here in Lil' Visitor.

This little bird flew into our utility room. I am sure he doesn't mind that I scrapped him with the purple and green of the The Color room's palette. Purple is also a color challenge for me as it's not always a boy's color.

For club CK's Challenge 16, I chose a flower as an accent for my favorite May moments. It worked well with scrapbook challenges sketch 202 and fit the theme of "May'.

When in doubt, add girls to the photo. "Seriously!" as my son likes to say. Two of DS' best friends are girls. So when they appear in the photos, I try to sneak in some girly color or flowers. Our female cat, Sweetpea, is also the subject of many an LO and the perfect excuse to use pink.

I hope you can find creative ways to use up the supplies that challenge you the most, be it a color or a type of item, like flowers.                                                                                                                         

Glitter...In the Rain

  Playing in the rain is a joy that I think all kids should experience. I have fond memories of puddle jumping with my grandparents as a small child. I take every opportunity to let my son enjoy the rain. So, a few days ago, when the cooling rains came, I indulged my son in just that. It has been so hot lately. We are already near 100 degrees and so playing outside is just miserable right now. Playing in the rain really afforded my son the ability to stretch his legs and burn off some energy. As you can see, I snapped some photos of him while he danced in the rain...while sipping a cup of coffee and enjoying the sound of the drops on the roof top.
  Rainy day photos can really capture some great moments, but, despite photo editing, the pictures can still be a bit on the blue side. Color Room palette #10 really offered some great color choices to warm up the pictures. http://thecolorroom.ning.com/forum/topics/palette-reveal-10-his-room-due
The sketch also worked well with the photos I had chosen. I took the practical scrappers challenge to use something from my cabinet on a page...I used a bobby pin as the handle for my homemade umbrella. I cut the umbrella top from an older piece of fabric paper in my stash ( manufacture unknown). Then I slightly bent the bobby pin and adhered it to the back of the Umbrella top.

 I added some Making memories crocheted passport trim. I really am quite pleased with the results. I created the rain drops with waterfall stickles. I doodled a little with the stickles around the word rain in the title to create a puddle.

The title was cut on my cricut with CK's beantree font. The title itself is actually the June 7th quote on the club ck blog.I used my word processor to print part of it for the title.
 http://clubcreatingkeepsakes.com/blogs/quote_of_the_day/archive/2010/06/07/june-7-2010-rain-themed.aspx
I find a lot of inspiration on Club CK.

As usual, I love making two page lay outs. I used the same Sketch from The Color Room for the 2nd page.

I hope that next time it rains, you will let your child dance in it. Maybe you'll even dance a little yourself. Life is too short to miss moments like these.

Pinch me...cuz I might be dreaming

It's been a few days since I found out...but I still can't quite believe it. I was asked to be a guest designer for July over on Scrap Our Stash Challenge. http://scrapourstash.blogspot.com/
WOW...I am so excited!!! this is my first guest design spot ever!!! Here is the LO that started it all...

It's my son's hand on mine. I completed it for the "get out of your box" challenge over at Scap Our Stash and for the Color room's Palette#7 challenge. My box...well, I tend to only use color photos. so I decided to experiment with black and white. Fussy cutting is something I never did before, b/c it looked like so much work and time was involved. Boy was I wrong! Now I really love fussycutting. In this case, I fussycut some Sassafrass PP and then used 3-d foam at intervals to add dimension to the page. the fussycutting was just what the page needed.

So...now I am off to work on some more challenges. I'd love to get that sketch challenge and June stitch challenge done. I have had some ideas floating around in my head. And i just need to get them down on paper...

If you need some ideas, stop by Scrap Our Stash  http://scrapourstash.blogspot.com/
or one of my other favorite challenge sites:
The Color Room: http://thecolorroom.ning.com/
Let's Scrap: http://letsscrap.ning.com/rapbook
Scrapbook Challenges: http://scrapbookchallenges.ning.com/
Just to name a few.