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!

Day 2 of NSD!!!

First off...Happy Mother's Day!!!

It's been nice having so much time to relax and scrap this weekend. I have two more pages to share with you. Also, if you haven't checked it out,Scrapbook Challenges is having an NSD blog hop. You can start the hop here with Brynn's blog. The cool thing is that you too can participate in the hop by completing a Scrapbook Challenges sketch and then linking your blog to the hop. For my sketch, I chose a more current one.

Sketch 252 Scrapbook Challenges

Some items are from my Couterfeit kit for May
Echo park papers
prima flowers
making memories jewels
bread tags-recycled from pantry
recycled note pad cover, cut into circle then stamped with a studoi G stamp
colorbox white and chestnut roan inks
Plum pudding shimmerz spritz
making memories tiny type alphas
K and Co. wood veneer alphas
marth stewart opaque punch on vellum
Orange Bic mark it-faux stitching

I wanted to enter a current challenge while still getting a page completed. I love combining things. I get a lot of challenges done by combing them with others. It can be a challenge in and of itself, but it makes things a bit more fun.Which is why you may see this page at a few spots around the web like BPS, Frosted and Sketches for You. (hint: it will be part of an upcoming challenge over hosted by yours truly at Sketches for You). Since the word roguish means michievous, I wanted fun, playful colours. I paired them with pink and flowers for a feminine tone. My husband snapped this picture of our cat, Sweetpea hiding in the sink. She is always full of mischief but very girly...so I think the page suits her well.
  My second page features our other cat, Boo. He is one of those long slinky cats. I call him the contortionist, because he looks folded up when he sleeps. To capture the theme, I used bright colours and circus style papers. The paint and stars remind me of circus paint and clowns.

Sketchy Thursday 5-5-11
Sassafrass papers and borders
white paint
star punch
yellow stickles
My Mind's Eye chipboard frame centers
Colorbok die cuts-arrow and star

I chose to use some leftovers from some My Mind's eye chipboard frames. I wrapped them with thread and used them to frame the circles for a fun pattern.
  There is still a little more time to get in on the NSD fun. Don't forget about being part of the Scrapbook challenges blog hop. I am off to try to get a few more pages done...

a Bright and Happy Sketches 4 All DT sketch reveal

WOW...it's been a few weeks since I have posted. I must admit that family illness and travel have left little time for blogging and sadly, scrapbooking. I did manage to find a little time to complete the DT sketch for Sketches 4 All. I am honored and excited to continue to be a part of their Design team. I was also happy that this sketch helped me to complete a page that was several months overdue!

My son has a fascination with most things SCI FI. He gets it from his parents. What can I say...except that it's very awesome to share something in common with him that both my husband and I love. In the past few years, my son has developed an obsession with aliens. When he found out that we had seen an alien statue at Planet Hollywood in Orlando, he requested we take him there for a birthday lunch. We happily complied...however, it's been so long since my DH and I have been there that many things have changed. Including the props showcased there. The alien is no longer on display. We did enjoy a nice lunch and DS got to see many sci fi related props. It was still a great trip. I love that they take your photo as you go in the door. I have a wonderful photo of my DS.

I sprayed some of the napkins with archival mist and found they worked great with the page. Kraft paper toned down the rich purple photo frame. I pulled the red and yellow from the napkins. I used borders punched from a swap I was in and added a purple recollections Halloween border. The I-rock allowed me to easily add some bling to the prima flowers and border. The tickets were from a Rak I had just received. I am a sucker for these little tickets and was so glad to use them here...along with the silver hat pins I have had in my stash for months. Now I am hat pin crazy! LOL You may be seeing them on other pages. Stay tuned for page 2 of this layout....

P.S>since I love the bright colors of this page and since it just makes me happy, I am submitting it over at Scrap Whispers!
P.P.S.Don't be surprised if you see this at frosted designs 11-5-10 challenge. ;)

Then and Now: One Concept, Two Takes

 Recently, I did a one hour challenge at club ck. I was very rushed. My son needed help with school, and that comes first. So after assisting him, I had about 30 minutes left to complete the challenge. I almost didn't...but then thought. What the heck, let's give it a go and see what you get. The overall result of my 25 mad dash of scrapping was not horrific. I had pulled out my Cosmo cricket earth love kit to make it easier on me. The challenge centered around showing a timeline of change. So I had quickly pulled together photos of my son highlighting 4 years of his life. I was in love with those photos. Each one depicting his sweet self at each wonderful stage of life.

There was just one problem...I was bothered by the fact that in my haste, I had covered my Sweet boy's hands in one of the photos. Not to mention the fact, that though I loved the border with the birds, as whimsical as it was ...it just wasn't working for me.


I generally come to a point in which a page is just considered done. This page, though simplistic, was important to me because it depicts my son's growth from 2001 until now. So I ended up making the page over. When I pulled the bird border off, the page was damaged. I wanted to salvage it, so I used an Martha Stewart punch to create a border on Cardstock. This, coupled with the Making memories ladybug trim from the Flutter collection, maintains the earthy feel of the paper while hiding the rips and tears. It also adds a little dimension to what was before, a very flat, basic page.

I changed the buttons from blue to yellow for a pop of color and also because the light blue just did not match the turquoise of the ladybugs. Though the page is still simplistic, I corrected what was bothering me about it and I feel, made it a little more interesting.

That being said, I will be shortly popping over to Scrapwhispers to enter this project in their "Then and Now' challenge.  I also have some future then and now projects planned. I would love to scrap about my son's change in favorite cartoons and also do a timeline for video games we have played from "then to now". So stay tuned...

You Have...

  For awhile now, I have been wanting to do a page about my son's characteristics. We always tell him things like " you have mommy's nose and Daddy's eyes." So, while we were waiting in the car for his swim lessons, I snapped off some photos of his hands, feet, and other features. I created this page based on a project at Big Picture Scrapbooking.

I used Some glimmer mist in tiger lily and patina to splatter the background onto the white cardstock. The flowers are prima's e-line as are the blue jewels. The patterned papers are crate paper and cosmo cricket. I used a very old fiskars punch. For the title, I used black cardstock to add a shadow effect and to highlight it. I journaled about his personality traits and who he gets some of those from and then on the photos, I added journal strips about where his physical characteristics came from.

Camp is over and now...

it's back to work. I had a great time participating in the Club Creating keepsakes summer camp activities. I used up more stash, which is always a good thing and means more pages are complete. As always, I try to combine challenges, both to save time and to push my limits. For my last Club CK project ( journaling), I chose to complete the July 1st Scraplift over at Sketches for You and Frosted's Border punch challenge. I also chose to make the sample for my July Start it Simple Color challenge posted at Sketches for you. My color palette was fun but challenging. It's called Hello calli: http://www.colourlovers.com/palette/1214904/Hello_Cali . 

This Lo  by Stacy R. was a wonderful page to scraplift:

It's a  fun and appealing page. I had a great time lifting it.

I chose PP from Cosmo Cricket's Boyfriend collection since I felt it best went with an LO about my DH at work. I also used some grid PP by Fancy pants. On some of the strips, I used an EK success notebook punch to match the work theme. Sometimes, color from a palette can be subtly used, especially when it's one you don't care for or don't have a lot of in your stash. In my LO, I used brown in the form of Catseye colorbox ink to ink the edges of the paper. The yellow/orange was used sparingly as an accent in the form of foofala buttons and the title. I chose the CK newsprint font as I felt it fit the theme of the page well. I also liked the "business" feel of the Basic Grey periphery ribbon. The 7 Gypsies journal tag also fit the theme well.

Here is my take from Stacy's page:

There is still time to play. So check out these sites and submit a creation of your own.
Sketches for you: http://sketchesforyou.ning.com/
Frosted:
http://frosteddesigns.blogspot.com/2010/07/lets-see-those-border-punches.html