Flowers Everywhere!

  Flowers have been such a big trend, that it's no surprise they are popping up all over the place at CHA. What's a girl to do when she can't buy all of the pretty flowers out there? Learn to make her own of course! There are a lot of advantages to making your own flowers. The main one being that you can customize it to fit your page. That's a big plus when your main topic of interest is a little boy. I have always admired the flowers but really don't always want girly looking pages.

Recently, I took the fabulous flowers class at Scrapbook Challenges. It was a great class! I could do everything at my own pace and I learned how to make 6 different flowers.I highly recommend the classes there and am looking forward to taking some more! Here are a few samples of things I made:

These were my first handmade flowers. I used crepe paper and buttons.

I did not make the small red flowers. I did make the white daisies with red crepe paper. This was for several July challenges at Sketches for you. The materials used on the lay out are K and company and Making memories.

I made these roses for the MS. Scraptastic 2010  Competition using crepe paper. I cut the leaves on my cricut, then used a bone folder to crease them. I inked them, folded them and sewed them to the page. The PP used is all Basic grey.

Then, to my delight, Club CK hosted a one hour challenge involving another flower technique. I love the flower, though I do find it a bit bulky in my album.

These were made using Crate Paper lemongrass papers and some buttons from my stash.

To learn how to make this fab flower, check out the video at Club CK. BTW, I didn't have all of the supplies they asked for in the video, but still managed to make the flower. The one thing I wished I would have had was the spritz to dampen the paper and make it easier to work with.

I hope you will decide to try out some handmade flowers of your own. If you do, there is a great challenge over at Scrap our Stash for August. Even if your flower isn't handmade, they would love to see you flower embellished pages. So please go check them out...and stay tuned to the blog for more of my hand made flowers.

If I could Change One Thing...

 That's the title I have to think about and use for round 5 of the Ms. Scraptastic 2010 competition. When looking through my photos, I chose some photos of my son's first orthodontic consultation which center around yet another change in our lives.When I first thought about scrapbooking these photos, they were simply going to be about him getting braces. Now, using the title as a prompt, they have become a deeper exploration of how I wish he would not have had to go through so much. These braces are what will hopefully be the last in a series of procedures and events occurring  b/c of my son's premature birth. He looks so frightened in this photo! His eyes are so wide and he is making that weird face. They wanted him to smile so he could show his teeth and this is the best he could do at the time. My thoughts about his fears and my feelings became what the journaling centered around...all sparked by that title prompt.

  For part of the challenge, I was asked to use paint. I chose a silver metallic paint b/c it makes me think of his braces. I took a mesh style ribbon, painted it and stamped it on the page. If you try this, I highly recommend practicing a bit on a scrap piece of paper before using it on your cardstock.

I also chose to paint the title letters silver. I wanted them to blend into the background. The letters on the left were also painted sloppily. I wanted them to have a rougher texture. While the words on the right of the triangle are smooth.

The only word that's different is the word "change". I wanted it to pop. This page is about the change of getting the braces but on a deeper level, it's also about the changes my son has experienced. Triangles are often used in chemistry to symbolize change. So I cut out a triangle shape and then rolled the paper back. I stitched it to hold the rolled edges and then adhered some Sassafrass PP behind it. The PP has a triangle background to reinforce that symbolism for me. I used a wire pen to make a base for the word "change" I painted the letters with Smooch Azure ink and adhered them at intervals on the wire over the triangle.

The challenge required 3 photos. Two of the photos I chose were of my sons xrays. They were so stark across the page in comparison to the rest and drew the eye away from the photo of him. So I added a sheet of vellum over them. On the vellum, I used a word processor to add quotes about change, courage, strength and love. I also wrote in my own thoughts about these quotes. I can still lift the vellum to see the photos of his teeth.

* I placed the paper over the photos on purpose to obscure them a bit for privacy purposes..

I don't own a lot of stamps. In fact, I pretty much only have 1 set of journal stamps that a friend gave me for a RAK. So I had to get creative for the stamping portion of the challenge. I chose to use the lid from my oil of olay tube. It was pointy and easy to hold and stamp with. In fact, I enjoyed experimenting with a variety of lids and will keep some at my disposal. I finished things off by hand stitching triangles and a border.

A variety of effects can be created with lids found around your home.

This was definitely a tough challenge. As I work on future pages regarding my son's braces, I hope to change the pages to show the metamorphosis that took place.

Wired

I can hardly believe it. I am in round 3 of the MS. Scraptastic 2010 competition. It's been fun and challenging. If you want to check out some other entries, go here.So, for round 3, we had to complete a page about something we were passionate about or a hobby when we are not scrapping. I had the perfect topic and the funny thing is that I have had the photos waiting to be scrapped for a few months now.

Video games have been a huge part of our family. Dh and I grew up on them. When we first dated, we didn't have a lot of money to go out. So, we played video games together. While I miss those days, video games have come a long way. Dh and I now share that hobby with our DS. So, to scrap about it, I felt it needed the perfect elements.

I thought about using some of DH's spare parts. However, many are sharp in sections and I am not sure they are very acid free. So,I set out to make an embellishment based off a computer circuit board. I ended up pulling out one of DH's spare parts. I wanted to really do my best to capture the look of one. I chose to cut and ink a sheet of  clear scraps acrylic. I used green ink since many boards are green. I used a cotton ball to dab the ink on for better coverage.

Once the board was inked, I examined the elements on the board. There were several sku tags. To mimic the look, I cut the SKU bar codes from some PP. Next, I wanted to add the dimension of the black elements the circuit board had. I used some blackboard pieces. Brads became substitutes for screws, as well as some silver eyelets. I used some white opal liquid pearls to replicate the sodder points on the board. Gel pens in silver and gold completed the look. I am very pleased with the overall look of my board.

I had more photos than would fit onto the page. So I used scraps of the blackboard to build a pocket. I measured the tag the extra photos and journaling would go on, then cut two pieces: One in a blocky u shape for the pocket and one square shape to be the pocket cover. I added some Basic Grey origins paper b/c I felt the grid look matched the computer theme.

tip: if you have a lot of items for your pocket, layer the "u" shape until you gain enough height.

Each tag inside the pocket has journaling about some of the extra items we have acquired in our family hobby as well as some of the crazy things we do...like watch E3 on tv every year. E3 is a huge video game conference that tells about the newest releases. I tied a little metallic silver ribbon on the tags to show they can be pulled from the pockets.

 I  hand wrote the word "wired" for the title, then I used a paper piercer and dmc floss in silver/grey to stitch it. I used eyelets and satin cord to create the effect of wires across the page.

Initially, the photo placement was  a little off balance. So I used some grid paper to make wrap around journaling on the upper right page.