Sunday, March 31, 2013

Welcome to Our Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Sketches4All Blog Hop and Scrap-a-Thon challenges running April 1-7.  We're celebrating spring and celebrating our newest design team members - Libby and Brenda and our guest designer for April - Rachelle.  Join in the celebration by visiting our designers' blogs, joining Sketches4All, and joining one or more challenges - you could be crowned Queen of the Hop and win an amazing grand prize worth more than $75, 2nd place prize, and other prizes along the way.

Lineup:
  1. Becky     ( http://rebelbblog.blogspot.com )
  2. Brandi     ( http://luckyflutterbycreations.blogspot.com )
  3. Brenda    ( http://granddivasscrappyplace.blogspot.com )
  4. Cheryl     ( http://capturingamomentintime.com )
  5. Fia:          ( http://myhappyscrap.blogspot.com )
  6. Jessica:    ( http://myscrappycorner.blogspot.com )
  7. Libby:      ( http://northernmainescrappygirl.blogspot.com )
  8. Lisa:         YOU ARE HERE
  9. RachelleNEXT UP   ( http://scrapping247365.blogspot.com )
  10. Stacy:      ( http://scrapwithstacy.blogspot.com )

Each of our design team members have created a fun challenge for you - just hop along to see the challenges and inspirations.  Leave some love for each along the way and post your challenge entries in the Sketches4All Photo Gallery.  If you are not yet a member, just sign up - membership approval is very fast.   One lucky participant will be crowned “Queen of The Hop” - this is the person who leaves some love on each blog in the hop and participates in the most challenges.  The Queen will win this fabulous prize package worth more than $75!
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Hc5OHXKYguA/UVDaLfhP3rI/AAAAAAAAIvQ/7j0qh65gPDo/s1600/014480x640.jpg
We will also have a 2nd prize of a $25.00 {US} gift certificate and other chances for prizes along the way.
Hop Challenge #8: My challenge to you is to scraplift any project from the Sketches4All Gallery.  There are so many projects to chose from and anything in that project could inspire you.  Once you find your inspiration, create any non-digital project and post it back to the Sketches4All gallery with a tag of HOP8, giving credit to the project you lifted.  In addition to being eligible for the grand prize and 2nd place prize, one lucky participant in my challenge will be entered in a random drawing for a 6x6 paper pack.

For my example, I chose to scraplift a layout from a fellow DT member - Brenda Ragsdale.  The elements I pulled out where the overall design (though I turned it on its side), a sentence for the title, and the use of both large and small alphas in that title.


And this is the layout from Brenda that I lifted:


So join Sketches4All, take a look at our gallery and get inspired!  Some simple rules for this challenge:

Don't forget to visit all of our great designers for even more inspiration and challenges:
  1. Becky:  http://rebelbblog.blogspot.com/
  2. Brandi: http://luckyflutterbycreations.blogspot.com/
  3. Brenda:   http://granddivasscrappyplace.blogspot.com/
  4. Cheryl:  http://capturingamomentintime.com
  5. Fia:  http://myhappyscrap.blogspot.com/
  6. Jessica:  http://myscrappycorner.blogspot.com/
  7. Libby:  http://northernmainescrappygirl.blogspot.com/
  8. Lisa:   YOU ARE HERE
  9. Rachelle:  NEXT UP - http://scrapping247365.blogspot.com/
  10. Stacy:  http://scrapwithstacy.blogspot.com/


Snowmen on Parade

Thanks for stopping by - hope you're joining in the fun with the Sketches4All Blog Hop!

So what else am I up to?  It's nearly 80 degrees here in Dallas yet I am scrapping snowmen!  Why not?  These precious creatures are from my daughter's preschool when they did a snowman parade for their holiday festivities.I created this for my Sketches4All Monthly Mayhem challenge using a sketch from My Favorite Things.  It's a 1-2-3 challenge as follows:
  • 1 photo
  • 2 colors only (white, creme, kraft don't count)
  • 3 or more embellishments
I used lots of paper scraps and lots of different embellishments for this including:
  • Paper:
    • Paper Studio
    • Little Yellow Bicycle - Swoon
    • Teresa Collins - World Traveler
    • Simple Stories - Summer Fresh and Snap Cards
    • My Mind's Eye - Lime Twist and Winter Wonderland
    • Fancy Pants - The Good Life
  • Embellishments:
    • Plaid fabric brad and red/black ribbon - Paper Studio
    • Glitter ribbon - Michael's
    • Baker's Twine - Jillibean Soup Bean Stalks
    • Buttons - Fancy Pants Good Life
    • Alphas - Thickers Daiquiri, October Afternoon Sticky Keys, Prima Alphabets



 


Sunday, March 24, 2013

Blog Hop April 1-7 with Massive Prize

I am getting excited about the upcoming blog hop I am having with my fellow designers at Sketches4All.  We'll have lots of challenges and prizes along the way including an amazing grand prize of an entire 24-piece set of Spectrum Noir markers, case, and stamp.

So save the dates, bookmark this blog, and come back to join on the fun.




Reorganizing Scrapbooks

I have always used post-bound scrapbooks and have never really had any "order" to those books.  I scrap randomly and not chronologically and then the layouts go in the books in that order.  As my layouts become more detailed with many more embellishments and thickness of the layers, the post bound books just weren't working as the pages were just being crushed.  Worse, when the quantity of layouts grew, I really wanted them to be chronological in the books but what a nightmare to insert pages in the traditional post bound books.

So I bit the bullet, took advantage of a 50% off sale at Hobby Lobby and bought seven 3-ring binder books.  The next task was to then take apart all of my old books and start from scratch.  While it was quite the chore, I loved it!  It let me see the progression of my scrapping but also to once again, relive each and every memory I had scrapped.  Even my daughter got into into - not to help per se, but to comment on "why on earth did you take that photo?", "I remember that dress - that was my favorite", "that was a fun trip" and even an occasional "this is a pretty layout, Mom" .  And THAT is why we scrap - to preserve memories and create conversations many years later.

And this led to the idea of scrapping the scrapbooks!  Any excuse for another layout, right?  Inspiraiton was contributed by many, as always:

And don't forget to come back April 1 for a blog hop with a grand prize of an entire 24-piece set of Spectrum Noir markers and more!






 

Sunday, March 17, 2013

The Big D

I have been so caught up with a few projects for work that I haven't been able to get much scrapping in but all work and no play....So I forced myself to pull out my supplies and created a two-page layout.  Early on in my scrapping days I created lots of two-pagers but haven't for ages.  It was fun to do one again.

This layout is photos from a trip to downtown Dallas we took with a friend visiting from overseas.  The "Big D" of the title is doing double duty.  First, Dallas itself is often referred to as the Big D.  Second, we have also referred to this friend as the Big D - he is 6' 4" and named Derrick.  He has been a dear friend of my husband's for more than 40 years - since kindergarten!  Amazing how friendships can last so long over many continents (Derek is from the UK, lived in New Zealand for many years and is now in Canada while we're in the states)!

The start for this layout was one of the weekly challenges at Sletches4All.  You only have to complete two of nearly 20 different weekly challenges by the end of month for a great prize.  In this challenge - Let's Get Cooking Week 2, the challenge was to a bingo board where I chose metal (the jumbo brads and silver studs), ink (the butterfly stamp and inked diamond stencil), and 3 patterned papers (three from Marjolaine by Basic Grey and one by Glitz Vintage Blue).

The sketch is from Scrappin' Happy's March challenge.  The color scheme was inspired by Rochelle Spear's March challenge.  For the diamond embellishment in the corners, I created a stencil using my Silhouette and sponge stamped the diamonds using a moss green ink and a denim ink.  Perfect for Kristi B's masking/stenciling challenge!.  The tags were inspired by Lasting Memories but I didn't get the layout posted in time - instead, I am repeating the green for this week's Green challenge :-)

Not to leave anything out, I added some simple stitching to the tags on both pages and the butterflies for ACOT's March Stitching challenge.  I was happy to have the butterfly prompt as I felt something was lacking before I added them.





Friday, March 8, 2013

Fun with Polaroids

I had a lot of fun creating this layout!  It's a lot brighter than what I typically do and I'm glad it is! The inspiration came from so many places including:
  • Sketch - this was a PageMaps sketch for last month's challenge at Paper Secrets.  Even though I didn't use it for the challenge, I loved the sketch so kept it handy knowing I would use it.
  • Photos - the idea of using the Polaroids is from Brenda Ragsdale - she is our guest designer this month at Sketches4All and has a great challenge running that calls for Polaroids, layers of paper, and mixed alphas.  Check it out here.
  • Title - in addition to Brenda's inspiration, I saw a graphic design challenge at A Cherry on Top that presented the idea of tucking parts of your title in with other parts.  Given how huge the letters where in "ride", this technique worked exceptionally well
  • Stamping - I am trying to do more stamping on my layouts, if only to justify the plethora of stamps I have!  Scrap It Girls and Scrapbook.com have challenges this month to include stamping so all the more motivation.
  • Punches - love using punches so thanks to Shopping Our Stash and Scrap It Girls for continuing that!  For this I used a circle punch for the stamped "best day ever" circle image (added Glossy Accents to top) and then a notebook paper border punch for the red strip - great addition to the layout for
  • Paper - no motivation needed here!  I have so much paper that I always try to use as much as possible.





Recipe:
  • Paper: Simple Stories Snap; My Minds Eye Miss Caroline, On The Bright Side; Echo Park Photo Freedom; Paper Studio
  • Alphas:   Little Yellow Bicycle Corrugated Alphas; Pressed Petals Chipboard Chatter; Colorbok
  • Stamps:  Close to My Heart (the arrows and the "best day ever" sentiment)
  • Stickers:  Echo Park Hello Summer
  • Washi tape:  Queen & Co.
  • Punches:  EK Success circle punch and notebook edge punch

Monday, March 4, 2013

White on White Card

White on white is so pretty but rarely do we think of it so I have to thank Stacy at Sketches4All for the challenge (check it out here)! 

I chose a winter theme for the card - a bit early to start on Christmas cards but one of the blogs I follow (Paper Girls) challenged us to use snowflakes.  I thought it was perfect theme for white-on-white.  I began with a white card base that I edged in Winter Snow glimmer paint from Creative Inspirations.  For the next layer, I created my own pattern paper using a snowflake stamp and clear embossing powder.  The next two layers are white shimmer paper that I embossed with a Tim Holtz folder and the old stand by Swiss Dots.  Finally, the snowflake was cut on my Silhouette and then painted with more of the CI paint.  And all topped off with a snowflake brad (painted with the CI paint) and a rhinestone.  Sketch design is from Mojo Monday.



Sunday, March 3, 2013

S4A Monthly Mayhem Challenge - Outdoors + Sketch Challenge

As one of the design team members at Sketches 4 All, I host a Monthly Mayhem challenge.  This month the challenge combines a sketch from PageMaps with an outdoor photo/theme.  For my project, I am using a photo taken in Betws-y-Coed (pronounced BET-iss-ee-coyd) in Wales.  The area is known for beautiful rivers, mountains, and hiking trails and my husband and I went there often when we lived in England.  On this trip, we were extremely amused to see one of the trails marked for handicap access.  But when you look at the trail, you wonder how one could even walk it, let alone navigate a wheelchair.  So amusing!

All kinds of materials were used including three printed kraft papers from Paper Studio (perfect for the March Scrap Our Stash challenge), two different green cardstocks, gesso, droplets from a brown Dylusions ink, Thickers from Studio Calico, border sticker from Fancy Pants, mustard-colored bookplate, rub-on letters from L'il Davis, "adventure" tag from MME Indie Chic, twine around the stone circle, and a corrugated arrow from CTMH that I painted with acrylic paint.  The use of the pewter square brads as inspired by Lasting Memories #129 where the challenge was to use 2 or 3 of something so I used TWO sets of THREE brads each :-)