Scrap Our Stash On the Grid Challenge

When most people think of a grid design in scrapbooking, they tend to think of photos and papers evenly aligned. Yet here I was, painting wayward lines in a grid pattern on a piece of cardstock. The lines came first, and then came the photo. I began placing page elements around it...some floating free, other held fast with a bit of hand stitching. The placement is sort of haphazard with a plan. Fussycut items are anchored to the grid while the eye flows across it. The page reminds me of how my cat was rolling across the rug...and I hope it gives a sense of motion as you view it. I myself can see him now, wiggling and moving, pausing just long enough to shoot me that imploring look.

We R Memory Keepers papers- grandma's kitchen
K and company yellow frames- cut apart
acrylic paint
dmc floss
Kiasercraft tiny type alphas
Pink Paislee alphas
Colorbox chestnut roan ink

  In the making of this page, I have come to realize two things. 1. I almost  never use a frame as a frame. I almost always cut it apart. Sometime earlier this year, I came to the realization that I am allowed to alter and use the items in my stash as I want to. So if there is something in your stash, like a frame, and you want to cut it apart or change the colour of it, go for it! 2. One of my favourite tools is my hole punch. Yep, just a cheap school supply style hole punch! It works wonders on many pages. In this case, I punched out tiny stars from the patterned paper and sprinkled them on my page.

There is still plenty of time for you to try out the grid challenge at Scrap Our Stash. We would love to see tour work!

Quite the Trip!

    I will start off with a confession. I have an addiction to travel themed papers. This means that I have several travel theme paper collections, in their entirety, waiting to be used in my stash. I think I have more travel paper than I have trips to take. So either I need to take more trips or I need to find a way to use this paper up.( The same can be said for Halloween themed papers and pet papers, but that's a whole other post or two) So, now that I have that out of the way, I am happy to say that I have two travel themed pages to show you today. Two is a start in using stash up, right?
  I am very lucky, in that, when my husband travels he takes us along with us whenever he can. Earlier this year, he had a business conference in Aspen, Colorado. My son and I were very excited at the opportunity to see snow. Living in a warm climate means that snow is a wonderful, rare thing and not the hassle those who live with it know it to be. So I booked the tickets, knowing full well that travelling from where we lived to Colorado would take four connecting flights and an entire day of travel.

map by Little Yellow Bicycle
Arrows and patterened paper by Best Creation
7 gypsies brads
DMC floss
black alphas- Americna Crafts thickers
Making memories rub ons and rub on alphas
Prima e-line pearls
We R Memory keepers chipboard tag

I have had this wonderful map paper by little yellow bicycle for awhile now. I had the great idea of using brads and hand stitching to document our flights. This is one of those pages I just made. By that, I mean that there was not a big plan. I had a sort of idea and then just began putting stuff onto the page. It may not be perfect, but it's a page done. The process of doing a page like this is also very freeing. I find that when I am stuck and can not get myself inspired to scrap, making a page in this manner sort of opens the creative flood gates.
  Now that the creative flood gates were open, page two was completed in a snap. I saw this Sassy lil Sketch and the elements I wanted to use came together quickly and easily from my July Counterfeit Kit.

Sassy lil Sketch 7-14-11
Scrapfit workout #49-put a banner on it
We R Memory keepers papers and stickers
Making memories rub on planes

I wanted to document how light we chose to travel. So the suitcase paper worked well. I cut the subtitle from the name of the paper. I always check out the paper edges for small sections of pattern paper or words that can be used on pages.  This was one of those rare pages in which the only card stock used was to matte one of the photos. As a time saver, I cut the two wallet photos directly from the printed sheet leaving white edges from the photo paper for the matte.
  Traveling light had been an essential part of this trip. With four connecting flights between two airlines, our suitcases would have never made it safely to our destination. Our return trip was not much easier. We had three connecting flights with a ten hour layover in one airport and an overnight red eye. It was important for me to document how good a travel companion my son can be despite hard circumstances like that. He actually was a lot less cranky than I was. I had initially wanted to take photos of him at each airport. However, in some instances we were so busy scrambling to grab a meal or get to the next flight that this was not feasible. So I simply made sure to journal about our experience. Photos are not always necessary to tell the story.
  The next time you are feeling stuck or overwhelmed by the prospect of scrapping, relax and just begin putting stuff down on the page. You may end up loving what you create. You may learn a little more about the process you use when you scrap.Most of all, you will find your creative streak again.

Cool...Like a Fool in a Pool

  It's a fun title. The rhyming sing song chant of it sort of gest you amped up for a fun scrapbook page. It's one of the rub on titles from Fancy pant's beach bum line. It was perfect for these shots of my son and husband in the pool. My son was actually being quite the silly fool on this particular day. Apparently, it's quite fun to swim underneath a waterfall...which he then decided to do over and over again. I guess it's a kid thing. My favourite part about these photos is how my husband is always nearby and smiling. He's not one to pose for photos very often ( partly because I take too many photos). Quite truthfully, these are candid shots of him watching our son...which makes the shots all the more special to me.
  I went a little out of my comfort zone for this page. I chose to try some free collage software recommended by Club CK. It's called Photovisi.You just go to their website, pick a collage and add photos. Then you can move your photos around and edit it.After you are done editing, you save the collage to your computer and print.The only downside is that when you print your collage, there is a small watermark on one corner. I cleverly hid it with the ric rac trim and swimsuit style banner.

Making Memorie sabrina frames, cut and painted turquoise
dmc floss
twinery twine in carribbean
Fancy Pants paper and rub on
maya road Ric rac
Basic grey brads

The rub on and swimsuit trunks are from my July Counterfeit kit. I fussy cut those swim trunks from some of the fancy pants paper. The photo corners were my son's idea. I had scraplifted this page from Kathleen Summers ( see her page here- Fabulous 4th). Her page has photo corners. looking through my stash just did not reveal the right thing. I had this MM frame from the Sabrina collection and my son made the comment that it was a shame it wasn't blue. This gave me the great idea to paint it with turquoise acrylic paint. I cut it apart and did just that. It left enough pieces for use of my second, complimentary page.

We R Memory Keepers chipboard sign
Maya road chipboard brackets with yellow acrylic paint, gold pen, and diamond stickles
We R Memory keepers eyelets
ATD sticker
American crafts rub on alphas
basic grey brads

  This is a page of my own design. I placed the photos, in what seemed to me, a pattern that reminded me of the slide's shape. I also chose the road sign for that reason. I used scraps from the previous page with more fussy cut swimsuits. I wanted brackets to match the sign, so I painted them yellow and used gold pen.
  I can feel really good about these pages because I used up several things from my stash that, before now, I had no clue what to do with: the frame, bathing suit patterned paper, and the road sign. Combining the travel and beach theme in my counterfeit kit really helped me see these products in a new way.

* also submitted at Scrapfit for WWU#9

I want this thing off me...a Pagerize this challenge!

A very short time ago, we had a very sick cat. He had several surgeries and fought off severe infections and complications from kidney crystals. At one point, we thought we would lose him. In January, I got these photos of him trying to take the cone off of his head. It was one of those defining moments when I knew he'd be ok. Boo was back to being his clown self. He has since gained back all of the weight he lost and his personality is as playful as it ever was. When I saw Joni's page, I knew it would be perfect for this series of photos featuring Boo's attempt's at taking his cone off.

papers- We R memory keeper's Grandma's kitchen
DMC floss
Colorbox chestnut roan ink
Basic Grey alpha stickers and cat ctickers from max and Whiskers line
Making Memories Tiny type alphas in choc. and white
Bic marc it in woodsy brown

  I chose the papers for their fun, but cozy feel. I stitched under some of the title words to add some emphasis to them. The brown marker was an inexpensive and fast way to add a little detail and a more finished feel to the base paper. I used adhesive foam to add a little dimension to the paisley's.

  Now it's your turn to find the right photos and papers so that you can play along with the Scrap Our Stash Pagerize This challenge!

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.

Warm Wishes

   If you live in a cold climate, then this page may very well make you laugh. I live in a tropical clime and recently, we had a cold snap with record low temperatures. I took a photo during the afternoon of our patio thermometer. I like to document the weather. I think it's good to remember that, wherever you may live, the weather is sometimes the same, but at other times unexpected. I know that's a given...but I also know many times we have a tendency to overlook such small details. Those small details may prove interesting later on. But I digress...

   So back to the page at hand. We reached a high in the low 60's. It's not really a big deal...except when you factor in that we have no central heat. We live in a place that rarely gets this cold. So this means that the house is only 3-5 degrees warmer than whatever it is outside. So this was taken during the day, and you can well imagine when the temperature dropped 10 plus degrees at night how cold the house was. For us it was freezing! We survived though...bundled up, with lots of hot cocoa to drink and some warm wishes.

Some of you may recognize the cute snowman 4x6 card from the WE R Memory Keepers merry January line. I love the paper. For whatever reason, I thought I'd be satisfied with the 4x6 pad. I don't know why I thought this. Anyhow, since I am currently on a spending freeze, this meant I had to get really creative with my stash. The white polka dots of MY Mind's eye's Andrea Victoria line reminded me of snow. Since the color seemed to fit well, I added the matching black sheet and then inked both with colorbox white ink. For a little added texture, I ran some leftover clear packaging through my texture boutique with a Swiss dot embossing folder.

I sanded it a bit and then layered on making memories chipboard snowflakes and lush brads. Some prima lace and hand stitching finished off the page. If you like the page design, then check out Sketchy Thursday's Jan. 6th post. BTW, there is a wonderful challenge to scrap about winter over at Sketches for all in the challenge forum. Maybe I'll see some of your creations over there. I hope so. Meanwhile, I am off to start page 2...