Mother LOAD, Day 1

It's Day 1 of the Mother LOAD scrapbooking marathon! (See button on the right.) For nine weeks I've been diligently (ha!) training for a 26 day layout-a-day marathon, and today is the first day of the "run". I was exhausted after work today, but more than that I was determined to not fall behind on the first day so I knew I needed to get a layout done. In typical me fashion I didn't have a plan, so I just meandered through my photo files until I found a photo that inspired me. I found a great one of my cousin on her wedding day, and here's the layout I came up with:

(I apologize for the less than beautiful photos. I was taking these at night and had only an Ott-Lite for lighting.)

The design of this page was inspired by Shimelle's Sketch of the Week, and ironically, it's wedding week over on her blog this week. This is my first time doing a Sketch of the Week despite the fact that I've been a big fan for a while.
This layout kind of cracks me up because all of the pieces are from different companies. The background sheet is Crate Paper (Emma's Shoppe), the patterned piece is DCWV (Linen Closet), the dimensional flower is Studio Calico, the small flower is Basic Grey, the journaling block is Jenni Bowlin, the strip is October Afternoon, the letters are Grungeboard and the ticket is Idea-ology. (I guess Tim Holtz is the winner here, because I used two of his products plus some Antique Linen Distress Ink. =P )
My proudest achievement on this layout is the "lace" in the middle. For one thing, it turned out beautifully, and again, the photos can't really do it justice:

It started out as a lowly strip of white cardstock, and then I punched it on both sides with a Martha Stewart border punch. Then I aged it with some Antique Linen Distress Ink and sprayed it with Biscotti Perfect Pearls mist to give it some shimmer. It turned out exactly how I wanted it to. Also, putting this strip in the center allowed me to make use of this brown patterned paper behind the photo. I was totally in love with this piece of paper, but it was only 8x8. So I had the genius (if I do say so myself =P ) idea of cutting it and putting the lace in between the pieces, and suddenly it was the perfect size! I love it when a plan comes together. =)
I couldn't get a good photo of the letters, but they were just painted pink with some acrylic paint I had lying around, and then "whitewashed" with the new Picket Fence Distress Stain. This is precisely why I bought this product. It muted the paint beautifully so that the letters had the perfect look for this layout. If you like doing anything shabby/vintage, you NEED this stuff.

Thanks for looking! Wish me luck with the rest of LOAD! Ack!

*~M~*

Scrapbooking challenge with Shimelle

Holy cow, Bloglanders, I have completely neglected my blog lately. Life got a little crazy this month. I was assistant stage manager for my community theatre group, Twelfth Night Productions, and the last three weekends we had performances. I'm actually writing this post backstage before our second to last performance. These summer musicals are always fun, but I'm also looking forward to getting back to crafting and blogging. I feel so behind!
Anywho, last weekend Shimelle had a whole online scrapbooking weekend, and of course I missed out on most of it, because I was busy pulling the curtain backstage. =P Today I managed to make a layout based on one of my favorite challenges from the week. I was really inspired by the misting on the background in Shimelle's layout, and I had just gotten some Turquoise Perfect Pearls mist that I couldn't wait to use. I also decided I would scraplift the layout design.  I loved the white space in Shimelle's page, and I wanted to see if I could duplicate it. Here's the layout:

All the paper and embellishments are from the October Afternoon Thrift Shop collection (I'm in LOVE with this) except for the turquoise and white circle piece behind the title (a die cut from the Basic Grey Sweet Threads collection) and the "brother" and "sister" rub-ons, which are Jenni Bowlin. I especially like the thin border piece at the bottom, which is cut from a sheet that is covered with text. When I saw the "We do not remember days, we remeber moments" amongst all the text I knew I needed to cut that part out for the border. I love it. =) The title letters are from various Grungeboard alphabets which I colored with Black Soot Distress Ink and then coated with Glossy Accents.  Of course the rosette is Tim's rosette die.

Here is a close up of the title letters. You can almost see some of the Perfect Pearls mist in the upper left corner there. It was much more subtle than I thought it would be, but in person it looks great. And for all you grammar-philes, I know that "Me and Timm" is not proper grammar. "Timm and I" just sounds too formal to me for a scrapbook page. =P



I think that's it.... it feels so great to do a blog post again! Thanks for looking!

*~M~*

 



A New Tag, A New Record

Hello all! Killing three birds with one stone again today, or rather, three challenges with one tag. =) So, let's see, first we have Grungy Monday, which this week features Rock Candy Crackle Paint and Stickles, created by the marvelous King of Crackle, Tim Holtz. (And special thanks to Hels Sheridan for bringing this new title of his to my attention. =P ) Here's the link to Tim's great video explaining how to use this stuff. Challenge number two is over at the Inspiration Emporium, where we've been challenged to use any kind of embossing. (I also entered the ATC from my last post, since it featured some dry embossing.) And last but definitely not least is the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge, which is "anything goes"! Easy enough. =) So here's the tag:

I apologize for the huge photos. I haven't quite figured out this photo sizing thing and it seems my choices today are too small or ridiculously huge. =P Anywho, here's the supplies I used:

Ranger manila tag; Distress ink: Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Faded Jeans, Chipped Sapphire, Bundled Sage, Forest Moss, Vintage Photo, Embossing Ink; Grungeboard; Tattered Florals die; Sketchbook tissue tape; Rock Candy Distress Stickles; K & Company butterfly embellies (not sure which collection these are from); ribbon; Pink Paislee flair; clear embossing powder; all stamped images by Inkadinkadoo except for "Listen to your Heart", which is a Tim Holtz mini.

The first thing I did was stamp the background image with the Distress embossing ink and then embossed with the clear embossing powder to create a resist image. This is the only point where I wish I would have done something differently, as I realized too late that what would show through was the manila color of the tag (obviously =P ). I wish I would have used a light colored ink, maybe Antique Linen Distress or something. Oh well. Then I colored the background using the Tumbled Glass, Broken China, and Faded Jeans. Note to self: Tumbled Glass and Broken China are so close in color as to be nearly indistinguishable, especially on manila paper. =/ The party really didn't start on this background until I brought in the Faded Jeans. Then I stamped the other images with black Archival Ink. The flower was cut out of Grungeboard with the die, colored, and then the Rock Candy Distress Stickles were used on the "leaves". I love the way this turned out and the photos really don't do it justice. Here's an attempt at a close-up:

Not sure if you can tell in the photos, but the butterflies are also glittery, but that's not Rock Candy. They came pre-glittered. =) I added the tissue tape ruffle before gluing down the flower, aged my butterflies a little with some Vintage Photo and stuck those down, added the ribbon and...voila! Tag finished.

Before I sign off I just wanted to point out that this is my FIFTH post this month, making July the month with the highest number of posts since I started this blog! Hooray! You've got to celebrate the little things. =P

Thanks for looking!

*~M~*

ATC, Again

Hello Bloglandians! I hope everyone is having a good weekend. Today I'm posting my entry for this week's Grungy Monday and Simon Says Stamp and Show challenges. Just getting in under the wire on this one. =) This week at Grungy Monday the challenge is to use Grungeboard or (Grungepaper) in the project of your choosing. I have to admit I'm a little bit in love with Grungeboard. I even like the way it smells. =P Btw, here's the link to Tim's site. You need to check it out, if you haven't already. Also, the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge was to use any type of embossing. I was inspired by both of these challenges to get out my ATC die again and make an ATC out of Grungeboard and then emboss the background with an embossing folder. I was also asked by a friend to make an ATC and I decided to kill three birds with one stone and make her ATC using these techniques. See if you can guess what letter her name starts with... =P

The background was colored with Victorian Velvet and Aged Mahogany Distress Inks, then embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder. Then I sprayed it with Perfect Pearls Mist in Perfect Pearl. The corners were cut from a shimmery cardstock in the DCWV Mariposa Matstack. Here's a close-up of the background before embellishment:

I'm finding these backgrounds so fun to make and sometimes it's hard to cover them up! The flower is from Prima, the E is a sparkly chipboard piece I've had in my alphabets forever, the swirl is a Sizzix die cut, and the butterfly was cut with my Martha Stewart butterfly punch out of a piece of Tim's Vintage Shabby paper stack, and then inked with Victorian Velvet on the edges. You can kind of see the pattern on the butterfly in this close-up:

I'm pretty sure that's all there was to it! I think I may be addicted to ATCs now...it's so fun to use the die and play with the backgrounds. =)

Thanks for looking!

*~M~*

1st Baby Photo Layout

Right now I'm taking a really great scrapbooking class at Big Picture Classes (see button in my side bar) and we're on week 3, during which we're supposed to be examining our scrapbooking process. I've been meaning to scrapbook some of my cat's baby (kitten? =P) photos for a long time, so I finally decided to get to work this week.

This is definitely the cutest photo I have of my cat as a kitten, and I took it on the first day that I brought him home, so I wanted to make a layout focusing just on this photo. I was inspired by the blanket in the photo to stick with blue embellishments and make this a monochromatic layout. The background cardstock is from the Core'dinations Whitewash collection, which is REALLY cool. =) All the other paper pieces on this layout are from Tim Holtz's Vintage Shabby paper stash. The top piece is one of the border strips in the stash and I was so excited to find this pattern because it works perfectly. The big "baby" letters are some Heidi Swapp acrylic letters I've had for ages. The other letters are Grungeboard Minis that I painted with light blue acrylic paint and "whitewashed" with a little Snow Cap Paint Dabber. Then I decided they needed a little more contrast so I added some Broken China Distress Stickles. The buttons are some Basic Grey Kioshi embellishments, and the brads I acquired this weekend at the Scrapbook Expo from the Eyelet Outlet. I also edged all the edges of my cut paper pieces with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink.

So part of the class this week was paying attention to how much time we spent on parts of the layout. I spent a rather disappointing 4 HOURS on this layout. Holy cow. I'll never manage a layout a day at that rate. It did take a significant amount of time to make the custom letters....the problem is I LOOOOOOVE making custom letters. =) It's become a bit of an addiction. I also wasted a lot of time figuring out what ink to use to stamp the "You're purr-fect" sentiment. I didn't have the right shade of blue, so I hemmed and hawed, then I had to quit working. When I came back to it I somehow had the genius idea to use a neutral color, and I finally stumbled onto the gray. I like the way it looks, but I didn't have a great matching gray pen for the journaling. Oh well.

Overall I'm really happy with the layout. I hope the lack of dark colors anywhere else makes my kitten really stand out. =)

Thanks for looking!

*~M~*

Grungy Monday ATC

Hello Bloglanders, and welcome to my first ever ATC! At the risk of being immodest, I'm kind of proud of it. =P It was inspired by this week's Grungy Monday technique, highlighting as always the genius of the fabulous Tim Holtz (this is the link to the post with the technique). Without further ado, here is the finished product:

I cut out the ATC from a manila tag using the Sizzix ATC Alterations die. I altered the technique a little bit because I wanted a background image, so I stamped the cherry blossom image with Coffee Archival ink, and let that dry well before doing the background. My background color is Worn Lipstick Distress Ink. The corners were colored with Vintage Photo re-inker and Perfect Gold Perfect Pearls mixed in a Mini-Mister. Here's the background before I added the embellishments:

The texture was a little bit different from what Tim ended up with, I think because I only have ultra fine embossing powder, so it looks quite pebbly. My boyfriend thought it looked like aged embossed leather. =P After I had the background how I wanted it I just embellised with some K&Company butterflies (which were the inspiration for the whole color scheme/design), a Tim Holtz Adage Ticket, and an Idea-ology Memo Pin. I had to age the butterflies a little with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

This was extra fun to make, and I will definitely be using this die more to make more ATCs!

Thanks for looking!

*~M~*

Young Crafters Unite Blog Hop!

Hello all and welcome to my post for the Young Crafters Unite Blog Hop! Incidentally, this is my first time participating in a blog hop, so I hope everything goes smoothly. =P Young crafters (of all ages!) are participating in this hop, and there's some great giveaways for some lucky commenters. Personally, I feel like no matter how old I get, crafting will always keep me young. I feel like a kid at Christmas every time I get a delivery from one of my online crafting stores. In fact, I refer to the packages as "presents". =) Also, I'm pretty sure taking some time out to craft is keeping me from aging prematurely from the stress of my "regular life"!
As you can see from the graphic there, the theme is "our favorite things," and we were asked to make a project incorporating our favorite product, technique, color....anything! Frankly, I think I suffered a little from so much freedom. I had a hard time settling on what I was going to do. Since it was clearly impossible for me to choose one favorite product from my stash, I finally decided on picking a favorite theme. The theme I chose was "butterflies". I have a weakness for butterflies. When I was doing this project, I discovered 2 butterfly stamps I didn't know I had. =) I also have this fantastic Mariposa Matstack from DCWV which I knew would have the perfect paper for my card. It's full of beautiful paper and almost every piece has a butterfly on it somewhere! So here's the final outcome:

In addition to being covered with butterflies, this card also features many other favorites. Besides the paper already mentioned it has:

1. My newest favorite card layout. Found it in this fantastic magazine.
2. Core'dinations carstock - those beautiful turquoise pieces are all from one sheet.
3. Distress Inks - I used Vintage Photo to edge the pieces and Stormy Sky to stamp the flourishes and sentiment.
4. My brand new (just received this week!) Martha Stewart butterfly punch. I've been seeing this on other people's projects for ages and finally broke down and got it. I'm so excited to use it on more projects! =)
5. Flowers custom colored with my Copic Markers. (The one I used here was R37)
6. Adirondack Alcohol Inks. I colored the sequins in the flowers' middles with Butterscotch. I love these inks!
7. And last but not least, Rock Candy Distress Stickles. You can kind of see them on the butterfly in this close-up:

In addition to a new project, we can also include a link to a favorite post from the past, and I chose this one. It also has a butterfly on it. =)

Well I hope you all are enjoying the hop. You should have come from Neha's blog, and your next stop is Tania's blog. Don't forget to leave some comment love for these talented ladies! Also, here is the link to our lovely host site, Young Crafters Unite. Have fun!

Just want to end with one more pic that makes me smile:

As you can see, I keep all my important supplies under this window, including my Crafting Cat. =)

Thanks for looking!

*~M~*