Saturday, September 4, 2010

Seasons of Change Blog Hop


Scrapbook challenges has a whole new look which is perfect considering we are moving on toward Fall. Fall is my favorite time of year...cooler weather, more time spent walking and out of doors, my anniversary, Halloween... I could keep going. Like I said, I love Fall. Anyhow, I digress. A lot of great things are happening at Scrapbook Challenges this weekend which include a blog hop, prizes and lots of challenges. So check it out. Before you go, have a peek at my take of this sketch for the blog hop.

I captured my son reading. While he is not reading to me in this particular photo, I journaled about how much I enjoy it when he does. He's a late reader due to some hearing issues. So seeing him read and having him read to me means a lot. I became a more fluent reader by reading to my grandfather to sleep at night. It fills me with a lot of joy when my son reads to me and reminds me of those times with my grandfather.

I chose this journal spot which my friend, Toree made for me in a Club CK swap. I love the bookworm and have been dieing to use him on a page. I added some white stitches with a Martha Stewart opaque pen. I felt like it gave a chalkboard/school theme feel to the border. The patterned paper is My Mind's Eye complete Boy stack. I loved it's grungy look and fall like colors.The title is made with American crafts thickers.

To get moving on the Scrapbook challenges blog hop, start over at Pamela's blog. To see other Scrapbook challenge members blogs and their take on the sketch, dont' forget to stop by Scrapbook challenges.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Scrap Our Stash Border Challenge: Take Off Your Guard!

  Recently , I participated in Big Picture Scrapbooking's Big Idea Festival. I loved a lot of the projects, however, many of the supplies are just not available to me where I live. So what's a girl to do? Adapt, that's what. Make the design your own. so that's just what I did. I loved the look of Lisa day's bonus project and set out to use it with a series of photos about Junk-a-noo. What is Junk-a-noo you ask? It's a Bahamian tradition...sort of like Mardi gras or Carnivale. It occurs every year around July 10th (Bahamian Independence day) and around Christmas. Unfortunately, we have never been. It occurs in the middle of the night and literally runs past dawn. While we have never attended, we do see many of the costumes and float decorations around the island. I snapped some photos of my son with those decorations and decided they would make a fun page. I took inspiration from the bold colors of junk-a-noo and from the costumes. I chose the pinks and yellow oranges to draw from the colors in the photos. The turquoise was a nice contrast. I chose the sequins and pearls b/c they reminded me of the all of the shiny glitz of the costumes. The gold paper strip and the glittery Pink Paislee Letters further added to the glitz.


  Lisa's design is pretty evident in mine. I varied it by splashing some tiger lily and patina glimmer mist onto the background cardstock. I used some Crate Paper chipboard elements from the pink plum collection. Pages like these are a great way to slip in some girl colors without making the page look to feminine. I used some fussy cut elements from SEI's jocelyn collection to make the rosette's/round flowers and the border strip on the bottom. I cut strips of PP to make the scalloped border for the rosettes/flowers.


If you are like me, you may not have a lot of border punches. I simply don't have the storage space or the budget for them. In fact, I own only 2: an ancient fiskar's punch and an EK success notebook punch. So how did I make the border scalloped? A while back I saw this tip in creating Keepsakes and decided to try it...I took the guard off of my corner rounder, and then used it to punch down a strip of paper...which created a scalloped border.


Once you have the border punched, you can easily make it fit around a circle. This will work with any punch or strip of paper and is especially handy for heavier papers that are difficult to fold and pleat. Cut small slits in even increments along the strip. In my case, I chose every 2 scallops. Just be careful not to cut too far into the strip, or it may rip.

I chose to use glue dots to adhere the strip to the flower that I had fussycut. As you adhere each section, you can carefully bend and then slide the next section under the other.

                                         

This effectively produces a rounded edge with the strip.


I really enjoy the fun look to this page with the rounded borders. This could easily be done with a straight strip of paper or with most border punch designs.

The borders along the sides of the photos are made with Pink paislee artisan tape. I simply folded it as Lisa had in her design and I hand Stitched over it .

For more inspiration, don't forget to check out Scrap Our Stash. This month's challenge focuses on border punches. Let's see how you use yours!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

September Challenge at Scrap Our Stash

The September challenge has posted!

The September Challenge is to use a Border Punch or decorative scissors on your project. You can use any kind of border punch or decorative scissors - no rules here - just use what you have. Be creative!

To participate in the Challenge just submit your projects by sending a picture and description to scrappinpsycho@live.com.

All projects will be posted here at Scrap Our Stash. All submissions must be received by 6:00 PM Central Time on September 30th. A winner will be chosen and given the opportunity to be a Guest Design Team Member for the month of November!

Be sure to check back daily for new Design Team, Guest Design Team, or Reader's projects to inspire you.

And to push you in the right direction, here is a wonderful Blog post that was just shared over at Club CK. You can create the look of the postage stamp punch by hand at home...
 http://abbygracevintage.blogspot.com/2010/08/how-to-create-border-punched-look.html