Load 512 Progress report

It's Friday! For the past few years, Friday has been my favorite part of the week. It means that when my husband comes home from work, there is nothing to do except for enjoying time as a family, scrapbooking and playing video games. This weekend is going to prove a bit challenging for me in regards to LOAD. Diablo 3 came out this week. I have been able to complete my pages in the early mornings, but now, with the weekend, Hubby is going to expect that I play this game with him. Quite honestly, I do want to play. Even my son can play with us. With rain in the forecast for the whole weekend, what better way to spend the weekend. The problem being, that hubby and I will most likely be playing the game pretty much non-stop. I know that sounds excessive, but you have to understand that this game has literally been a decade in the making. For fans like us, the Diable 3 release is EPIC. I guess I will be scrapping during the game's load time sequences. LOL It takes a long time to finish a page that way. However, you'd be surprised how doing a little thing here or there adds up to make a whole page. Last night, I stitched on an LO every time the game had to stop and load. Consequently, I have a page pretty much complete this morning.

As for the page I am sharing with you today, I must confess that part of it was made before hand. I started making base pages earlier on in the year. It's sort of a creative jump start for me. I play around with stamps, paints or found items in the house to see what effects I can get on paper. In the case of this layout, I had stamped with the bottom of a yogurt cup and some yellow acrylic paint.

Cardstock: Colorbok; Patterned Paper: American Crafts; Alphas: Sassafrass; Other: Buttons and ribbon

The daily prompt had been to use something from the trash. Since I had made this page a little while back,  and with the use of a yogurt cup rescued from the trash, it certainly fit the bill.

      It's a page made in under 30 minutes with a minimal use of supplies. Quick pages like these are another great way to jump start your creativity. I suggest choosing photos that don't have a great significance. You would not want to do a 30 minutes page of your wedding day( or maybe you would, but not me, I want it detailed and extravagant). These quick pages are also a wonderful way to use up scraps or spare supplies laying around on your desk.

I had taken these photos of my cat laying on my desk when I was practicing with my camera. Yep, you guessed it...another creative jump start for me. I am not a great photographer. So I like to practice and try things out with my camera settings. I end up with sets of photos like these that don't have a specific story to them. In this case, I did journal about practicing with my camera. However, you could easily use photos like these to tell a story about the subjects personality or to document a story for which you do not have any photos.

Ok, so now I am off to make my LOAD page for today. Ideas are already brewing in my head. I'll check back with more LOAD progress after the weekend. let's see of I can play my game and make my pages. Only time will tell!

Mother's Day Blog hop,2012

  Welcome to the Mother's day blog hop. You should have arrived here from Andrea Joy's page. If you stopped here first or have gotten lost along the way, please pop over the Amanda's blog to get going on the right path.
  Mother's hold a special place in our hearts. So do grandmother's. Today I wanted to share a page which highlights the photo of someone who was very special to both my husband and son. Her name was Pat and she is my husband's grandmother. I was very lucky recently to have been given some wonderful photos which feature her in it. This series of photos immediately caught my attention. For one thing, the cute little boy is my hubby. For another, I really loved this photo of  Pat.

Papers from JBS Mercatile April 2012 kit: Pink Paislee and Hambly Screen prints
Alphas: Sassafrass, chipboard: Crate Paper
paper border: American Crafts, mist- homemade

When I received these photos, they were very yellowed. My husband and I discussed at length the quality of different cameras and film over time. Since these photos are special, I made sure to scan them right away. I then touched them up as much as I could in photoshop and printed a set to use on my page. The original will be stored carefully in an envelope which I will attach to the back of the scrapbook page.
  We didn't live close to Pat. I really wish we could have. My husband always has such wonderful stories to tell about how she would take him to the toy store or of things they did together when he was younger. On the few occasions she was able to spend time with my son, she captured his heart. He remembers just walking around her property looking at ants and talking with her. She would sit and listen to him rambling on and on. It was something not many adults did, and he really appreciated her for it.If you notice, I have not yet journaled on this page. The story here is my husband's to tell. I hope he has the time to share it with me soon. It will be nice to have his own words on a page, rather than just mine.
  Thank you for stopping by and sharing just one brief moment in the life of a great lady. Your next stop on the hop is the blog of a truly talented, young lady( boy does saying that ever make me sound old!). So click your mouse and see what Jordan has to share with you.

Happy Mother's day!!!

Easter is almost here

  My son is counting down the days. He is pretty spoiled. Last year we took him to the Easter Fair at the resort my husband works at. We might go again this year, since we all had a blast. They had a ton of crafts, games and of course, the usual fair foods like slushies and cotton candy.

Floral paper- cosmo cricket, polka dot paper- sassafrass, grid paper- october afternoon. Ribbon- MM, paperclip-MM, journal spot-Jillibean soup, flowers- sassafrass, waterfall stickles, glimmer mist in electric blue and viva pink, boy epoxy button- pink paislee, sweet acrylix button- KI memories, 7 gypsies red mini paperclip, October afternoon stickers, Martha Stweart background stamp with clear embossing powder, Webster's pages alphas with glossy accents, DMC floss
Inspired by Peppermint Granberg's "First Day"

I guess I need to get into the spirit of things. Easter sort of crept up on me this year. I don't even have our decorations up yet. I guess I better do that today. Whether you celebrate Easter or Passover, I wish you a wonderful holiday!

Recycled Box Top Lids

  Since discovering mists and gesso, I have been watching household items, looking for the chance to re-use them. It occurred to me that box top lids are a wonderful shape to incorporate onto a page. I could have misted with them. Instead, I chose to lay them out onto the page, then use gesso.

I spread the gesso over the box tops. The picture above shows two 12x12 sheets of paper with the box tops on them. While the gesso was still wet, I peeled the box tops away.

I then allowed the pages to dry. At this point, I was a bit unsure of how I would use these pages.The box top lids made wonderful "windows" in the gesso. I contemplated putting patterned paper in the open spaces. perhaps I would even cut the cardstock out and layer paper underneath. I finally decided to put the pages aside until I knew what I wanted to do. Fast forward a few weeks. I was listening to the Doodling webinar at Scraphappy.org. Inspiration struck and I began doodling inside the blank spaces left by the box tops.
   It took me a little while to finish the doodling. I drew on the pages off and on while homeschooling my son. Once done, I had 2 blank pages with black and white designs on them. My next stroke of inspiration were a set of photos I had taken of my son at the arcade. I drew my colour palette from the photos. Using markers, chalks and water colour crayons to accent the doodles. From there, the pages took shape. I ended up with a fun piece which was very me and told my story just as I had hoped.

 

Project Life, January 2012

  Since the theme this month at Scrap Our Stash is all about taking a leap( and this is a Leap Year), I thought I would share something that I just ventured into. I never thought I would try Project Life. It seemed like a daunting task to add it to my long list of photos that I want to scrap. During the past month, I have been reading various designer blogs and admiring all of the neat little pockets and pages filled with  journal cards,photos, mementos and memories. I finally decided to take the leap and try out Project Life sometime in mid-January. I am not using it in place of my scrapbook pages, but rather, as a way to introduce and supplement each month. So the plan is to make the PL pages for each month, then later on, print out the best photos for the month so I can scrapbook those stories in more detail.
  So now that I had decided to begin project life, I was faced with the decision of what products I would use. Buying a project life kit was not an option for my budget. I can see how it would have made things a whole lot easier for me, but well...maybe next year. I was happy to find that I had a whole set of  those divided page protectors in one of my albums. I had always struggled to use them with my regular pages. So now, I am happy they will get some use. I decided that, for the cards, I would cut my own from my stash. Each month, I will make a kit from my stash of supplies. It might take me a little more time than reaching for an item from a pre-made kit, but it will sure be fun.

papers- My Mind's Eye
Pink paislee ticket, stickers, border and alphas by Echo park
Jenni Bowlin journal spot
MME chipboard journal spot, star, tag
MME border
Maya road sheer calendars and trim
October Afternoon buttons
Twinery twine in cappucino
Crate paper photo croners
Sassafrass alphas

   Though I may have gotten a late start, I am not too far behind. I have my title page and the first page for January. My PL pages will be more about monthly happenings rather than weekly ones. So I think it will be easy to complete each month.  I always like to make an introductory page for each album. However, finding the right photo for those can be a struggle. The PL pages will be a nice substitute and an easy way to divide up my albums in a way that makes sense. Hopefully, this will translate to more pages and more stories to be shared in my albums.

A Slightly Sour Adventure

  Last Easter, we took my son to a carnival at a local resort. There were a lot of great games, arts, crafts...and the opportunity to fill the bottle of your choice with powdered candy. What child could resist that?!?! There were a variety of flavors to choose from. Some sweet. Other sour. We advised my son not to choose the sour. He is not much for sour candies. Inevitably, some sour candy was put in his bottle.
    I'd like to show you his reaction to the candy. I did photograph it. Not to tease, but, I must say that I loved his reaction! Alas, it's part of my chinese whispers page for Club CK which I can not yet reveal( stay tuned). So for now, I will just share page one with you. I made it for the new CSI challenge group and I used some of the materials from my January Counterfeit kits. At CSI, you get a folder or case file like this one:
                         
Then you use it as inspiration for your page.It's sort of like a recipe challenge. Anyway, it provided a great jump off point for my page. The colours reminded me of the powdered candy. My counterfeit kit had yellow and turquoise papers in it. I felt like I could add some mists and embellishments to warm those colours up and meet the challenge requirements for CSI.

Creative Scrappers Sketch#198
Papers by sassafrass, pink Paislee and October Afternoon
DMC floss, Iroc jewels,
Ruby Rock it button
Little yellow Bicycle- tiny alphas and purple glitter alpa
Amer. crafts thicker-forest
salvaged ribbon
fruit punch stickles, pink paislee die cuts

  The title was inspired by the idea to document an adventure. The full title reads " Sandy Candy: a slightly sour adventure for the tastebuds."  The idea of using advice in the journaling set the stage for the story I told about my son and the sour flavors.
  That sort of odd looking thing under the title...well, it's a mask of sort. I made it from the top of some packaging. It's the part that would hang from a hook. I cut it out a bit more. I am not sure it it counts at the architectural element.It sort of looked architectural to me in an artsy sort of way. Regardless, I sort of liked how quirky it looked. I used this moss coloured glimmer mist which looks more blue green to me than deep green. I know I only really needed two pieces of evidence...but I did manage to get some other items from the evidence list on my page. The circles were cut from a sort of purple sheer ribbon. I hand stitched the swirls and added flowers and gems( my version of stones).

   Once again, I have managed to add some of my nemesis colours to a layout. I don't much care for yellow. Pink and purple are hard to get onto boy pages. On this page though, they had a little meaning. This carnival was at a resort hotel. So the yellow and turquoise remind me of the warmth of that day. Those colours, along with the pink and purple, are also colours of the candy. So it all sort of fit together. Adding the black to the page gave it a little masculinity. Overall though, it was the theme of the page that drove me to choose the elements that went on it. Proof positive that a page with a boy can have girl colours and flowers without being feminine.

January's Counterfeit kit

 I started participating in these challenges at the Counterfeit kit challenge about a year ago. While I could not participate in every month, I sure did enjoy partaking in them. I have become more aware of the contents of my stash. I have found new ways to use my supplies. I have also learned a little more about why some patterns go together and how to pair papers from different lines. So if you have never tried counterfeiting a kit, I really encourage you to do so. You may be surprised about the things you learn about yourself and your supplies.
  As usual, when I make my kits, I tend to go a bit overboard. That's the terrific thing though, about using your stash. It's not like when you are in the store and you overspend. There is no real penalty. I chose to lift three of the Cocoa Daisy kits suggested for the January challenge. The first is based on the cocoa and marshmellows kit.

Papers: October Afternoon: ducks in a row-sleep tight( yellow) and
Fly a kite-sprinklers, Sassafrass- Vintage yummy- darling dear
K and co. jeweled brads-wild saffron
October Afternoon- farmhouse flower sack
October Afternoon- 5 and dime found alpha
ribbon- webster's pages fabric

I am still not too sure about using the darling deer paper. I like the pattern, but I am trying to think about what I might use a deer with in my photos. So that's why I chose the OA blue paper pattern as well. it will be a nice alternate if the deer paper does not work.
  The second kit is based on the Sunshine and Snowflakes kit. I plan to use my Martha Stewart snowflake punch if I make any winter related pages. I also added a touch of blue. I am not a huge yellow fan. I am ok with it as an accent colour but am not fond of it in large doses.

Papers: Sassafrass sunshine broadcast-static( grey polka dot)
all other papers are from the Pink Paislee house of three soiree collection
Pink paislee Printed tissue
Pink Paislee soiree wood shapes
American crafts thickers-forest
Ruby Rock-it summer house bitty buttons
misc. ribbon

The last kit I chose to lift is the Amber Snowflake kit.

Papers: Crate paper- farmhouse( ruler) and Restoration-cents( die cut)
sassafrass- life is beautiful- Piccadilly( rose print)
all others- October Afternoon farmhouse( black print) and Thrift store
Misc. white doily, wood banner pieces
Sassafrass alphas-goldenrod
Prima button pieces

I know some people have mentioned to me that they would be frustrated to not be able to match each exact piece. I know that when I first started counterfeiting kits, I felt the same way. I have found though, that it is very satisfying to find a similar pattern that works. I feel like I get more from my stash this way. I hope others try this challenge in 2012. It's very budget friendly! Now...since it's a Saturday, I hope to play with some of these kits!

Cookies For Santa

No...we did not bake them this year. At least not yet. I just finally got around to scrapping about last year's cookies. LOL. Nothing like being a bit behind, right? Months ago, I scrapped the photos of my son baking said cookies. As I was flipping through last December's album, I thought now might be a good time to use the scraps up. I must say, that when I saw that the Sketchy Thursday sketch really helped this page come together quickly.

Sketchy Thursday 12-8-11 sketch
Little Yellow Bicycle canvas border
Basic grey papers
Sassafrass alphas with glossy accents and glass beads
glimmer mist in Candy apple red and meadow
October afternoon stickers
I-rock gems
K and Co. brad
coffee filter

Perhaps soon, I shall get to baking this years cookies. Those photos sure make me hungry for some!

The Silly Rabbit

Yes, I know it may seem odd to scrap an Easter page during December. However, the photo wwas really begging me to scrap it. I was keeping current pretty well up until a few months ago. Now I am woefully behind. Aren't we all though!?!? Anyway, here's a little something spring during the cold months of winter. We had taken my son to an Easter carnival earlier this year.  When I saw the rabbit walking around, I knew I wanted a photo of my son with him. My son obliged and the rabbit added a little silliness to the whole thing which equaled the perfect photo!

Sketchy Thursday 12-1-11 sketch- Cosmo cricket papers-floral and bunnies, polka dot paper-sassafrass, sassafrass flowers, cosmo cricket border sticker, Sassafrass chipboard, pink paislee button, DMC floss, MM ribbon, American crafts rub on letters, Webster's pages alph stickers with glossy accents, glimmer mist in Electric blue and viva pink

update: on 12-8-11, this page was chosen as a Sketchy Thursday Fave! I am so excited. This is the first time I have been picked!

Sneaking in Some Pink and Yellow

  I think everyone has a colour nemesis. Two of mine are pink and yellow. Yellow...I just don't care for a whole lot. Pink... well, I've talked before about how a male dominated household means scrapping with pink is not a regular occurrence. So I really surprised myself with this next LO for the November challenge at Scrap Our Stash.  I pulled out this plaid paper by Cosmo Cricket. The yellow and pink reminded me so of a cozy morning. It became the basis for the design behind Pancake Morning.
  While there is nothing wrong with pancakes from a box, it's really not hard to just make your own mix. My son loves helping me and so, when the challenge to scrap a family recipe was issued, it was the perfect excuse to make pancakes for breakfast. I should do this more often. I guess I am just more of a " let's have cereal" type of mom. Anyway, to make your own pancakes " not from a box", try this recipe"

Ingredients: 1 1/4 cups flour, 1/4 cup of sugar( yes I know it's a lot of sugar. We like em' sweet. You can reduce the sugar if you want to), 1 Tbsp. baking powder, 1 egg, 1 cup milk, 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

- stir dry ingredients together
- in a separate bowl, mix egg milk and oil. then mix with dry ingredients
- spoon onto a heated pan, allow to bubble, then flip and cook until golden brown

It's such an easy recipe! It makes a lot more than we can eat. So I proportion the leftover pancakes into zip loc bags and freeze. I then have my own toaster pancakes!

paper- Cosmo Cricket
ribbon- unknown
BG paper clip
Sassafrass flowers
glass beads
 K and Co. chipboard- Let's eat
Pink Paislee pink foam alphas
Rusty pickle brown alphas
 glossy accents
Webster's pages sparkler button
knife and Fork- unknown
tiger lily glimmer mist
Plum pudding smooch spritz
maya road sheer journal spot- recipe card

  To make the page more quickly, I left the white edges from the photo paper.The smaller photos are all one sheet of wallet size photos, three to a row. Some of them printed in groups with the photos in those rows aligning the same direction. I kept one group of three and simply cropped away the excess white. I cut the two photos which were horizontal and left the vertical photos in groups of two. This allowed me to save time( and supplies) by having photos that were already matted and easy to place on the page.

  I don't have a lot of cooking themed embellishments in my stash. I had a Eureka moment when I discovered food themed embellishments in my travel supplies. Prior to this page, I might never have thought to look in my travel stash for such a thing. I noticed many of the travel themed collections had papers or items about places you had eaten. So next time I have a cooking themed page, I will also look to the travel themed papers.

 I am very happy with the title. Glossy accents is one of my go to adhesives. It allowed me to add dimension to the flat brown letters. Now they look more like epoxy letters and I was able to add some glass beads to add more texture.

  This year, my goal was to learn how to take better photos of my pages. I am best at photographing one page LO's. Two pagers are very difficult given that they often have a warped or bent look to them. With this two pager, I think I finally found a trick to reduce the warped look and get a more flat, even photo. I placed the LO on a travel trunk which reached to my knees. I was then able to bend over the photo and I found that if I cocked my wrist as I photographed the page, the page came out more flat as I cropped in afterwards. So try finding something to lay your page on that is about the height of your knees and experiment with moving the angle of your wrist. 

  Overall, I really enjoyed making this page...from staging a photo shoot with a pancake breakfast, to adding the finishing touches on the page. Yes, it's true...I staged the photos. So now it's your turn. Find a recipe you like and stage your own photos to make a wonderful LO. Don't forget to submit it to Scrap Our Stash.

Without a Doubt

Without a Doubt...life has been busy. First a hurricane, followed by a move,starting back to homeschooling then a sinus infection coupled with muscle spasms. Despite it all I have had a little time to scrap. So today's post will be short and sweet. I made it for September's Mother LOAD. The prompt was to scrap about an emotion. Going back to the title( which is for the blog post and the page itself)...it's a lyric from Scrappin the Music's current challenge. Without a Doubt, I can always count on my husband to act silly and get my son laughing...so much so, that my son's infectious laughter will get me to laugh. Then, full circle, all of us will be laughing and joining in on the silliness. My husband's since of humour always gets me through everything.
I think this page is a nice way to end the month.

Materials: Echo park For the record
 papers,stickers, borders
Sassafrass flower
Artsylicious brads
Maya Road Sheer Calendar
Basic Grey paper clip
DMC floss
Sketch Support 2 page sketch

Baker, Baker

  When I started scrapbooking a little over a decade ago, I never imagined that I would be using anything other than traditional supplies. Yet here I am today, using things like coffee filters. What a wonderfully versatile and cheap supply! I do admit that I spray mine with archival mist before using them on a page. Since beginning to use coffee filters( just this past week), I have discovered a variety of tutorials and crafting ideas for using them. I anticipate using them often in the future!
 In the Mother Load class at Big Picture Classes, we have been discussing the reasons we choose specific items for a layout. Sometimes we choose things unconsciously or because they are an obvious means of conveying our story. In this page,I chose to use a single coffee filter. The filter itself reminds me of an oversize cupcake liner. The texture of the filter paper also reminds me a bit of a chef's paper hat or of being in the kitchen. So it was an easy fit in the page about my son and our holiday baking.

Sketchy Thursday 8-11-11 sketch
glimmer mist in Meadow and Candy Apple Red
coffee filter,cut in half
Little Yellow Bicycle canvas border
Basic grey paper and border sticker
Colorbox chestnut roan ink
Artsylicious brads and flower
Sassafrass alpha-Burlap with glossy accents

I chose the papers and embellishments for their colour and mood. The red and green symbolize traditional Christmas colours. While the papers patterns and gently aged appearance remind of cosy times in the kitchen with my Mom and Grandma. In my home, baking goes hand in hand with a mess. We try our best, but things always get splattered around a bit. So I felt the splashes of glimmer mist would be a subtle reminder of that.
  Though the reasons behind the items I chose may not be traditional ones or even obvious to everyone, the overall composition of the page delivers the tone I wanted to convey. I invite you to explore some non-traditional supplies in your scrapbooking. Like the coffee filters, they just might help you embellish your story in just the right way.

My August 2011 Counterfeit Kit

  I must confess that for this month's Counterfeit Kit challenge, I sort of just did a grab and go type of thing. I am in the middle of packing for a move. We are not moving far, but far enough. ;) Anyway, my hopes are to still be able to play with my stash while we await for our moving day. So I am trying to pack my supplies in such a way that I can still use them. Since I have been busy packing, I really did not have a lot of time to dedicate to making kits. I chose to grab some of my pre-packaged kits to which I then went overboard adding embellishments. I think I have enough variety in them to work with plenty of photos in various themes.

  I decided that it might be a good idea to work some more on my wedding album. I started it last year. I hate to admit it, but it's been a little over 13 years since I was married. I really didn't start scrapbooking until my son was born. His birth and the invention of the affordable digital camera really pushed my scrapbooking career( along with my husband's encouragement). Last year, I had gotten Basic Grey's periphery collection pack. Many of it's papers will be perfect for my main kit and for scrapping my special day.

Main Kit contents:
Basic Grey Periphery collection pack
pink paislee  Parisian anthology trims
crochet doily- from a thrift store
unknown ribbons
Pink Paislee Queen bee flip notes
My Mind's Eye clock die cut
American crafts chipboard shapes thickers
Studio Calico Journal card
Prima say it in crystals
beads- from the craft store
K And Co. Elizabeth Brownd metal art frame
maya road chipboard album
sassafrass vintage brooch

And while I am at it, I might as well have a go at my honeymoon photos. I have not yet touched my Treasure Box Club kit from last month. It has the Basic Grey Out of Print line in it. I figure that it's whimsical patterned papers might be a fun way to scrap our trip to New Orleans. I did add a few items to the kit. I can't help but add stuff sometimes. ;)

Limited Edition kit contents:
Basic grey's out of print papers: 2nd edition, daily news, reprint
publication, bits n pieces, special feature, batik and giclee
Amer. crafts mini jewle brads
Fancy pants die cut- damask Floral
7 gypsies metal tags
Amer. crafts pink check ribbon
Amer. crafts thickers- by the yard fabric letters
music fabric
Prima Flowers
7 gypsies Numero tissue paper
K and Co. chipboard frames
Making Memories Sabrina frame-pink
7 gypsies foldover stickers in classic black
7 gypsies train tickets
Studio Calico journal card
Prima say it in pearls
Pink paislee bayberry cottage cork buttons
Twinery twine in carribbean
Making Memories simply stated alphas
Glitz designs metallic rub on- damask
Webster's pages fabric flowers

For the album kit, I decided to just use last month's Fourth of July kit. I loved the kit I had made and I still have a few photos I did not get to scrap with it. I could have made a birthday kit similar to what was shown, but  the Fourth is America's Birthday...right? So to save time and scrap the photos I am motivated to work with, that's what I chose to do.

Album kit content:
Sassafrass papers and cardstock stickers from the cherry delicious line,
also from anthem and Life is Beautiful
October afternoon paper- from modern homemaker and road map
Cosmo cricket garden variety paper-sunshine
Basic Grey sticker trims-basics
Webster's pages flowers
Jenni Bowlin bingo card
prima flowers
K and Co. transparencies
Unknown ribbons
twist ties-recycled from my husband's dry cleaning
My Mind's Eye lost and found die cut
Simple Stories die cuts

Since life right now is going to involve a new home and also because I still have Easter photos to scrap, I chose Crate paper's neighborhood collection for my Creative kit. I felt it gave me a nice variety of papers for various topics. Finding embellishments to match it also came quite readily for me.

Creative kit contents:
Crate Paper's Neighbourhood collection pack
unknown die cut
Making memories Paperie greenhouse felt clips
Webster's pages princess petals
Craft Affair brads
Webster's Pages Designer threads
Making memories Chloe's closet frames
Making memories Spring pebble clips-butterflies
Maya Road felt badges-birds of a feather

When I saw the Theme park/fair add on kit, I knew exactly the one to use...my new echo park Summer days kit! I have some photos I have been wanting to scrap about us at a small fun park. I can't wait to see what the challenge will be for this kit!

Theme park kit contents:
echo park Summer days kit pack, chipboard and rub ons
doily- from Ikea curtain section
making memories Chloe's closet stick pins
sassafrass felties
Sassafrass in stiches clossoms in: kelly green, orange and kraft

Last month, I managed to make 7 layouts with my kits.I had so many ideas for more pages, but life had other ideas for me. I have managed to add past kits and past kit items to my August selection of supplies. I hope I can use up some partial packages and add to my page count for this month.

Flowers for the Fourth? July Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog hop

Welcome to the July Blog Hop for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge!   You should have arrived here from Angela's Blog. If you are lost or arrived here first by mistake, hop on over to The Counterfeit Kit's website to find the right path. I hope you enjoy all of the projects being shared!

If you had come to me last month and asked me which papers from my stash would be used to scrap our family Fourth of July memories, Floral prints would definitely not have been on the list. Yet here they are on this next page! I got the idea from the counterfeit kit club challenge.If you don't know what it is( though most likely you do if you are hopping along)... The idea is to scraplift a kit from a kit club using what you have in your stash. One of the kits I saw had a lot of blue and red  floral papers in them. Since flowers are not always easy to use on a page for boys, I felt this would be a great opportunity to use them. Oh...and would you believe there are travel themed items on the page too!?!? The journal spot and the tab sticker on the corner of the photo are from travel collections.

page maps sketch For Counterfeit Kit's 4th of July sketch challenge
starburst paper- Cosmo Cricket
all other papers Sassafrass
sassafrass border
Prima flowers
foof a la buttons
7 gypsies tab sticker and paper clip
Journal spot unknown( Maybe K and Co.)
Making Memories rub on alphas
hand made denim flowers
Basic grey Border sticker-cut apart

Originally, this was going to be a page about sparklers. However, I kept looking at this photo of my son and a sort of, deeper meaning manifested itself. He doesn't have the "trying too hard,sicky sweet smile" that he has had lately. It's the real him...just sweet and pure. So I journaled about that. The title for this page comes from a song by Bob Marley called "three little birds" which is the current challenge at Scrapping the Music.

  I did manage to make another page about the sparklers. We have not had any at the fourth for several years. So it was a nice treat for my son to have some and to share the fun with friends this year. Once again, the floral paper came through for me. I think it gives it sort of a vintage, yet warm feel to the page.

Sketch Inspiration #229
diamond Stickles
otherwise, everything use are scraps are from the above layout

I printed out my photos in wallet size. They were so nicely done on the photo paper, that I trimmed it down and used it as a collage style block. It was a HUGE time saver. My rub on alphas did not go on perfectly. I used a black marker to fix the letters as best I could. The "f" is still a little wiggly though.

 The next time you are feeling a little blue about not having the right themed papers in your stash, check out a kit club or the counterfeit Kit challenge. It just might give you some ideas to help you rethink how to use products you already own. Now it's time for you to hop on to Emily's Blog.

The Method Behind the Little Monsters

  I am in the process of training for a Marathon. It's not the kind you run. It's the kind you scrap. It's also known as the Mother LOAD. Over the next few weeks, we'll be training to scrap 26 pages over the course of 26 days. For those of you who don't know what LOAD stands for, it means LayOut A Day. Finding the time to make a scrapbook page every single day is quite the undertaking. I have completed two other LOAD's this year. During the first one, in February, I managed to create a page every day. For the second one, in May, I managed to make a lot of pages but did not get to scrap daily. I did learn a lot during both. The main thing being that letting go of perfection is fine. Just choose your photos and products and start scrapping. I have made a lot more pages since then. I find that I am loving more of my pages now that I have freed myself from making them perfect. After all, people are looking at your albums for the story, not your page composition.
 As part of the Mother Load, we were asked to go over our creative process. While creating pages this week, I realized that I have more than one process. I think this is a good thing, as it open me up to different means of inspiration. I thought I would share a couple of those creative methods with you today.
  The first page was inspired by an HTC phone ad that I saw while reading a magazine at the hair salon. It looked a lot like this one:    
                                                           
                                                     
So I snapped a photo of it on my smart phone. What I liked most about it was how the phone made the letter O in the center of You. I wanted to do something like it on a page.I actually held onto it for awhile until I came across the right photos. I ended up using a photo and hand stitching to create the O in Monster's.

SEI papers and sticker
Basic Grey alphas
paper trunk Black alphas
colorbox black ink

This was one of those photos that I had been unsure what to do with. Sometimes ideas or thoughts sort of stew around for a bit in my head.The same went for the paper( no clue how to use it), but once I got the idea for the title, the page came together. By sticking with the SEI kit, I was able to quickly select papers and stickers to go on the page. Paint has become a go to medium for me. I can always get the colour I need versus spending time searching for the perfect Cardstock. In this case, the paint helped tone down the busy pattern. I used to hang onto elements like the sticker because I felt they had to be used a certain way as they were intended. Now, I have no fear about altering them. In this case, it was designed to be about one person. I just chose to cross over the word "is" and write in the word "are" so that I could include all of the kids' names. I also made an error on this page. I wrote the date incorrectly. While I was able to wipe it off, it left a smudge. I decided I was ok with it, since the page was a bit messy anyway.
 Sometimes photos inspire me. Other times, I see a sketch and instantly know what photo to use with it. I tend to print off a bunch of photos and I have them in my albums in the order I want the finished pages to be in. When I saw the Sketchy Thursday 7-14-11 sketch, I knew at once which photo I wanted to scrap. I had a second little monster themed photo.

Sei papers and puffy black alphas
Cosmo Cricket tiny type alphas
dmc floss
white acrylic paint
Sassafrass chipboard number
Sketchy Thursday's 7-14-11 sketch

Having made the prior page, it was easy to find and use the same supplies. In fact, I often tuck scraps from the first completed page into the album right along with the other photos. Then they are right there when I am ready to work on page two. Having the sketch right there meant it was easy to pull the elements I wanted for the page from the scraps. The title took a little more thought. often on the second page, I will not include a title or will make a subtitle. In this case, the title is part of the journaling which reads " I could hear them giggling. So I peaked under the bed and 6 eyes stared back at me." The white paint helps anchor the photo on the page along with the shelf created by the scraps and stitching. A visual triangle has been created with the orange monster, orange writing in the journaling, and the orange strip of paper under the title.
  I have a few other creative methods that inspire me to work. Most of the time it's a photo. Sometimes, it's a new product or a kit I made from shopping my stash. What allows me the most time to scrap is the way I arrange my photos. I think that's something I shall have to photograph and share in another blog post.

Top O' the Morning to you!

 Or good afternoon, or evening...or whatever time of day it is as you are reading this. I hope you are having a good one! I just had a minute or two to share a very belated St. Patty's day LO that I just made with items from my counterfeit kit. I know that June's kit is supposed to be all about summer. However, I realized I had some lovely greens in the kit and I am a bit behind in getting some of my photos scrapped ( because I take WAY too many photos). When I printed this photo of my son from St. Patrick's day, I knew the greens from my kit were perfect for it.

Pencil lines sketch 243
DMC floss
Colorbox ink-Olive
Studio G Stamp
Basic Grey brads
Making Memories - rub on alphas
Making Memories flowers and buttons
Making Memories chloe's closet leather frame ( cut)
Sassafrass border
Scenic Route PP

The matte that the photo is on is actually not a matte at all. I took two Making Memories journal spots, trimmed off the notebook edges and then glued them down together. There was a slight seam which I hid with a Sassafrass border and some buttons. I used the basic shape of this to influence the shape of the Patterned paper. The flowers and brads were not in my kit, but they went so well, so I used them anyway.
   This month has been hectic and I am sad that I did not get to play with my supplies as much as I wanted to. Here is wishing all of us who scrap a month of July full of me time and happiness! May we all get many pages done!!!

The Rainbow Connection

    Sometimes a song will just spin around and around in your head. For whatever reason, Kermit the frog singing " the rainbow Connection" popped into my skull every time I looked at these photos of my son with the food colouring. We were conducting an experiment for school. It really had nothing to do with colour. The experiment focused more on the properties of water and it's movement. The colour just facilitated our ability to see the movement of the water through the tubes. The idea was to produce a syphon effect and to get the water flowing between each container. The colours would mix and you would have this sort of rainbow between the curved tubes and the bowls. The photo in the lab manual was spectacular looking. Our experiment, well...less spectacular. We did get it to work though not as intensely as the lab manual suggested it would be. What we did have was another moment of mom and son sharing their love of science...a connection if you will. So that's where the title really took shape...the song, the rainbow of colours we used, and the connection between myself and my son. I guess you could say that Kermit was singing inside my head for a reason.
   I chose to use one of Scraphappy.org's 15 minute page idea for this. As usual, it took me longer than 15 minutes to complete it. It was more like 20-30. None-the-less, I find 15 minute page sketches quite satisfying and an overall sound way to get fast, but cool pages that I love. Initially, I had only wanted to use the Sassafrass paper, Cosmo cricket ribbon and various chipboard parts for the title. My son took one look at the page and said something to the effect of, " I know you taught me about white space, but that page is just too white. Add some more colour to it." So, taking his advice, I splattered a lot of glimmer mist all over the page. It produced some very happy non-white white space which seemed to please him quite a bit.

Sassafrass paper
Cosmo Criket ribbon
SEI inke blue ink(on paper edges0
glimmer mist- tiger lily, sapphire, meadow green and candy apple red
bread tage with Nerdy bird fussy cut rainbow dude from sassafrass
Inkadinkadoo bracket stamp in green paint with marker
Sassafrass chipboard alphas(rainbow)
American crafts minimarks rub on alphas on crate paper chipboard cloud
Maya Road william chipnpard ( connection)
Bic mark it in playful purple

  Page two was easy to produce. I simply extended the design over to the second page on the left. It truly was a 15 minute page...well, sort of. The journalling made it take longer than 15 minutes, but who is really counting, right? Overall, it's a simple two pager with a lot of pop. I am happy with the results and am now off to try for another quick page before my son wakes up for the day.

Soft Kitty, Warm Kitty

   If you watch the Big Bang Theory( one of our favourite shows) than you might recognize the little song. My husband suggested I use it for a page about our cats. It's one of the few times he has had an idea ( or interest in sharing one) for a scrapbook page. So of course, I obliged him. I chose a soft palette form my June Counterfeit kit.The pink and blue tones of the Sassafrass indie girl papers seemed the purrfect way to convey the warm snuggly feeling of my cat's napping.

Scraplift of "Love These Moments" By Kelly Noel
Sassafrass papers, pink glitter alpha, and paper whimsy flower
Basic Grey Brads
Colorbox Stucco ink.

  On both pages, I chose to use foam adhesive to lift parts of the patterned blocks from the paper. I had seen this on other pages before, and had loved the way it added dimension to the page. On the second page, I was struggling a bit with photo placement. I realized that cutting one of the photos in half made the page more interesting.

Sassafrass June Sketch challenge

I don't know about you, but photos of cats always make me smile. Now I am off, to hopefully use up more of that counterfeit kit. Seems like life keeps getting in the way of scrapbooking lately!

June's Counterfeit Kit

   It's that time again! Like a little kid, i have been eagerly awaiting the reveal of this month's Counterfeit Kit Challenge. While a part of me know's the things I will be using are already a part of my stash, another part of me is excited. Putting these kits together is almost as exciting as receiving a kit club in the mail! Those of you who have followed along with my other kits will not be surprised to see that, as usual, I went overboard as I shopped my stash. My only justification for that is that A. I did not spend any money in the making of this kit and B. I always intend on getting the most that I can out of it. Last month, I was able to make seven pages from my kit's supplies. This month, since I have no plans to travel and DH has a few paid holiday to burn, I hope to get even more pages done. Let's see if I can top seven pages.
   As for the kit itself, It may be a bit of a challenge with so many floral accents. Since the kit is styled after Burlap and Buttercups June 2011 kit, which has a slight summer tone, I am hoping I can utilize these summer florals in some masculine pages by playing up the colour palette. I got as close to the kit as I could in paper pattern and colour. I chose not to use any butterfly accents. Should I make any pages where I wish to use a butterfly, I shall cut one out of the Patterned paper from the kit.

Papers: turquoise- from the Best of K and CO.
Basic Grey basic-ledger
Crate paper restoration-Slip Cover
Crate Paper restoration-doilies
Sassafrass- Indie Girl-Pocahontas
Pink Paislee 365 degrees 6x6 pad
frame- Making Memories Chloe's Closet
Maya Road chipboard album-classic scroll frame
Maya Road Signature ribbon/trim in blue
Twinery Baker's Twine in Pea Pod and Caribbean
Sassafrass In stitch blossoms in kelly green,kraft, and vintage rose
Jenni Bowlin die cut journaling cards
Scenic route Garden grove laebls
Little Yellow Bicycle stick pins
Fancy Pants Write Now Rub ons
K and Co. fabric brads
Making Memories poolside brads
American Crafts thickers-Forest
Pink Paislee 365 degrees rub on
Pink Paislee 365 degrees borderlines

   You may be wondering about the chipboard album. I am not one to make mini albums, though I do greatly admire them. What I prefer to do, is to take the album apart and use the wonderful shapes on my pages. I thought the scroll pattern of this mini would make a wonderful substitute for the chipboard frames in the original kit. I can also opt to cut my own chipboard frames if need be.
  I also opted to make the add on summer kit. I chose a variety of papers from the scenic route grab bag I had received recently. They are the types of papers I might not reach for right away. I felt they complimented the papers from the main kit and that with the addition of the turquoise paper, the colours had a very summery feel to them. I do realize that there was only one bottle of mist in the original add on kit. However, lets face it, I LOVE to mist. So we all know it's highly likely for a variety of these mist colours to end up on a page.

papers: Sassafrass Indie Girl- free spirit
Sassafrass Indie Girlaffection
October Afternoon- patio umbrella
Scenic Route - Providence:Green st,Franklin St. and Scrap Strip
Scenic Route Sonoma- Plive Ave.
Making Memories Paperie greenhouse spiral journal book
Pink Paislee 365 degrees flip notes
Sassafrass paper whimsies- beatnik buds
K and Co. chipboard frames
Creative Memories black alphas
Making Memories simply stated rub on alphas
glimmer mists: patina, sapphire,tiger lily,viva pink,meadow green and candy apple red

  For both the main kit and the addition, I tried to choose papers I might not normally reach for. When I make these kits, I can often perceive new options for the papers and patterns that I might not have seen before. I also made it a point this time to choose some embellishments from pre-opened packages. I am challenging myself to try to finish those packages off. Stay tuned for further posts showcasing pages made with my June Counterfeit kit...

Get the Ball Rolling

For the Sketches for all blog hop, please click here. Otherwise, please feel free to read the posts below until you get there.

Just a quick hello on this Monday morning...and then I have to get the ball rolling on some housework. I just wanted to share this page I made for the NSD festivities last week. It was a quick page, however, I absolutely love the fun splash of colour and the whimsical doodles. Proof positive that a page need not take hours for it to be special or fun. This page was made in under 30 minutes.

Made with scraps from my May Counterfeit kit
sassy lil sketch 5-7-11
basic grey alphas from Life of the party
candy apple red glimmer mist
fancy pants PP-stripes, Sassafrass-number

I did take some photos of my husband and son bowling, but I had wanted a few unusual photos of our excursion. So I made it a point of capturing the name of the bowling alley on the ball and on the side of my son's shoe. the next time you go out, I invite you to look for opportunities to take photos that are out of your norm, especially if you are going somewhere or doing something you have done before. You may find it will spice up your pages just a bit.