Good Friday Feb 1 to you!  I'm pleased to be part of opening day at  About a  Boy! Our first challenge is a fun one. Introduce us to the boy(s) in your life. 

I did something I've never done before.  I took apart a LO I made last February and used some of the parts on a new LO.  I really never liked the page, had made it in a hurry, just yuck.  Here is the page I took apart. I'm not sure if I meant to add 2 small photos or was going to add it to his baby album. Regardless. Ick!

I had the vellum pieces custom printed a few years ago.  I thought they would be a good way to Introduce my older son on the new LO.

I try not to use his name too much online, but you get to see it here.  I love his name. It really suits him. My sister took this photo, it is a favorite of mine.  I had some scraps from another LO I finished, so I decided to do a grid.  Not a straight grid, a slightly off kilter grid.  I replaced the flower brads on the vellum with plain green ones, added some meaningful word stickers onto the photo, splattered some paint and called it a day.  There is no extra journaling. The name definition is enough. It's a little personal, but I'm happy to share.

Please come join us at About A Boy, and introduce us to the boy(s) in your life.

Suplies:

CS-Bazzill

PP-Fancy Pants

stickers-Cosmo Cricket, Fancy Pants

mist-Tattered Angels

ink-ColorBox

brads-making memories

vellum name-custom

Kindling the Lights

Well, it's taken me 4 weeks into the new year, but I think I am finding my groove again.  I am one of those people that gets more done when there is more to do.  Some of it may get sone at the last second, but it all gets done.  Take this page for example.  I started thinking about it about 2 weeks ago, but didnt sit down to work on it until Sunday.  That's ok. Art, therapy, (whatever you want to call my scrapping) has a process.

I am hosting this week's Issue Challenge at Club CK.  The challenge is to create a LO using mobile phone technology and/or social media.  It's funny. I've done this before, but when I have to stop and make myself do something for a purpose, I get stuck.  I even had to go back to the Jan/Feb Issue and re-read it.  So, what to do, what to do. I don't use Instagram (gasp!). I've created LO's using a blog post, and email already.  I do like to use Hipstamatic on my iPhone.  Ok. Done. I decided on this:

My older son took these on the last night of Hanukkah using Hipstamatic. One uses the 70s filter, the other uses an 80s filter.  I printed them at home 4x4. What can I say, I like larger photos. The sketch is inspired by the Sketch It Out Challenge, also at Club CK.  The colors are off because of the filters so I chose kraft and black to keep it fairly neutral.  I didn't want it to be so solid, adding the houndstooth paper accomplished that.  I often like to play on the subject, so I thought it would be fun to use the fire stencil.  I outlined it, then painted it using a few different mists. Playing again, I used the number washi tape, tearing it off at '8'. I painted the letters in "light', but the yellow was too bright. While they were still wet, I sprinkled gold glitter over them.  I tried to mist  the background, to give it some shimmer, but it didn't show up very well.  Lastly, I added the bits of orange. It both complements and contrasts the rest of the colors.

Supplies:

CS-paper by the pound

PP-Belle Blvd

Punch-EK Success

Stencil-Crafters Workshop

Mists-Studio Calico and Tattered Angels

Bling-MAMBI

Tape-Bella Blvd, Recollections, Darice

Pen-EK Success

Alphas-Sticko, Cosmo Cricket, Thickers

Glitter-Martha Stewart

All Aboard

All Aboard the Mama Train....yep, that's me. The Mama. Everyone loves The Mama in my house. Want to see?

This is my entry for this week's Issue Challenge at Club CK.  The challenge was to lift one (or more) of the Moderators.  Totally fun!  I lifted my ideas from Laurie's Gallery.  Laurie uses lots of white space, strips of paper and patterned paper to ground the photos.  I created my LO based on those ideas. Oh, and I borrowed one of her titles too.

The photo was taken by a friend of mine and I love it. He was just giggling as he hugged me while we walked.  

All supplies are Echo Park except the wood cameras are Studio Calico.

Winter Day

I thought since it is so cold on the other side of the country, I would co-miserate and do a winter page.  Just kidding. I will not pretend I like the cold & snow. I don't. 19 years in Chicago and I never liked the cold, or the snow. Especially the snow.  But I will say, my older son sure did! "Did it snow Mom?" "Is there a snow day?", were frequent questions from him.  So, I have plenty of cold snowy pictures to scrap.

When I saw the inspiration for this weeks Child's Play Challenges Craft Challenge: Paper Snowflakes, I knew it was time to pull out the snow photos and get busy.

This page didn't take too long to put together. I gave myself one hour to play and I was finished in 55 minutes, including photographing.  I took the negative space from the snowflake sticker and used it as a stencil for the mist.  I punched a few small snowflakes, glued them onto the twine then stuck on some bling.  My way of the snow 'falling'.  I cut two pieces from the same patterned paper and used both sides as the photo matte. The wave piece is also from that same paper. Since the title letters are the same color as the background paper, I outlined them with black and used pop dot adhesive.  I liked the way the page looked, so I decided to journal around the photo matte.  

Supplies:

Patterned Paper: SEI and TPC Studios

Stickers & Title: TPC Studios

Twine: MME

Bling: Queen & Co

Mist: Heidi Swapp

Pen: EK Success

All About a Boy!

Hey there! I'm excited to share that I will be a part of the new challenge blog About a Boy.
Umm yeah, can you say "right up my alley"? Those that know me, or have seen my scrapbook pages know that I have 2 boys who are my primary inspiration.  They are the center of my world.  This challenge blog will be so much fun!

I'm hoping you will join us for our first challenge at About a Boy on Feb 1st. 

I'm even offering an incentive.  I have a giveaway!  Head over to About a Boy and become a follower. Leave me a comment here that you did so. Oh, and if you aren't following me, please follow me as well.  I will draw a winner next Wed, Jan 30.

Kit Club Layouts

Sick kids and doctor appointments left me with little free time this week.  But I was able to work on and finish some pages from my Scrapbook Generation kit club.  I find them easy to work on while watching TV at night.  I also find them fun when I have no mojo, but feel like doing something creative.

These papers were hard for me to work with. I imagine Nov and Dec are a hard time of year for kits.  Most of the lines out are Christmas oriented. New lines aren't being released until February.  I made the nest of it.  I printed a bunch of photos from my Grandparents 65th Anniversary party.  I thought the papers lent themselves to a celebration.  I also changes the sketches up a bit to accommodate more photos, added more embellishments to add 'my' touch, and help tell the story.  The only thing I haven't done is journal.  My Grandfather has since passed away and I can't decide how and what to write.

This one is also from the kit. Color wise, the photos don't go with the papers, but the sentiment was right on! Again, I added my touch with the twine and the scallop punch to soften the lines a bit.

Looking forward to this week. I should have some time to hang out in my scrap room! Ideas have been swirling around in my head. Time to get them on the page!

New Challenge blog!

Hey, so cool!  A new challenge blog ALL ABOUT BOYS!  Woo Hoo!  Go check out About a Boy Scrapbooking Challenge Blog!

So if you know me, you know this is right up my alley!!! Brown, blue, dirt, sports, bring it on.  You all know my saying..."there is no pink in my house:...

Oh Yeah!

Well, the good thing about having kids is there are always photos available to scrap.   I often have a hard time deciding how many I need to print to tell a story.  I usually wind up printing too many, then having a hard time deciding on a design.  Case in point, photos of my younger son trying to get some graham crackers off the table. He was trying so hard and had so many great looks on his face!  I narrowed it down to four and managed to get them onto one page, thanks to Sketches in Thyme Sketch #98.

I stayed true to the look of the design, but used my standard 4x6 photos, cropping them a little where necessary.  Though I did move the journaling to the top row.  Using larger photos means less room for extra papers and embellishments.  Thank goodness for washi tape.  Always an easy way to add pattern, and embellish at the same time. A few wood button and some twine were the only other things I added, and that was enough.  A fun sketch.  I might revisit it in the future, using fewer photos and more PP instead.

Star Wars Style

I celebrated Winter Break being over by giving myself the day off.  What did I do you ask?  I spent an entire day scrapping. I started by looking through my stack of photos, then browsing a few challenge blogs for ideas and inspiration.  ScrapFIt and Frosted Designs stood out to me.  I haven't played there is a while.  Then I sat down to play.  Pretty pleased with myself.  I finished a 2 page LO and 2 single page LOs before my kids got home from school!

These two here are of my older son's 7th Birthday.  He was all about Star Wars. I guess I started it by suggesting we watch the original Star Wars movies...I made the invitations, and even remembered to save one which I placed on this first LO.  This is my entry for ScrapFit Workout #83, Stars. The title alone made me think of ScrapFit, but there are stars elsewhere as well.

I started with this Creative Imaginations StarWars kit I purchased. How could I not use it? After i made the invitations, I saved the  rest of package of StarWars "confetti". I knew I wanted to use it when I finally made these pages.  Those are the Yodas on the banner as well as the small circular ones I pop dotted onto the Papyrus Washi Tape. THe banner is made of the embellishments from the kit as well as the cluster on the bottom left.  All the little stars are Studio Calico wood veneer.  They are from the galaxy, far, far away.....The focus is still on the photos, which are some of my favorites, but there is definitely a theme here!

This is the last one from the party. It is also my entry for the Frosted Designs Recipe Challenge.  These photos of my husband make me laugh.  I think he was having as much fun at the party as the kids were!

The Recipe Ingredients I used are brads, stamps, mask/mist and stickers.  The rest of the StarWars papers were too busy, so I just used some of the embellishments (stickers). The silver stripes at the top and bottom are created from a Creative Workshop stencil and Heidi Swapp spray mist. I used a paint brush to paint over the stencil, adding some striped washi tape for definition. I also splattered some Mister Huey and Tattered Angels mist. The brads are in the clusters at the top right and bottom left, and also around the title sticker.  The stamps are the journal lines and the "confidential".  This page make me smile. I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

Thank you ScrapFit and Frosted Designs for inspiring me.

XoXo

Happy New Year Everyone!  Feeling great today!  We had a wonderful 2 weeks off and now it is time for life to get back to normal. The kids are in school, husband is back at work, which means I get back to my routine!

Today I am sharing a fun new LO.  It is my turn to share on Child's Play Challenges.  It is also my week to host the Issue Challenge over at Club CK.

Today's Child's Play Challenge is based on...JACKS!

Ok, this was tough for me.  We have no jacks. We have no photos of anyone playing jacks, including any of myself as a child.  Hmmm, color? I just did that for our last challenge.  Photos of my kids playing with anyone named Jack?  Nope.  Come on, think outside the box!  Well, I could do the shapes....so I did! Yes, I came up with x's and circles, and also, the color red.  A bit of a stretch?  Maybe.  (Let's just hope Tic-Tac-Toe doesn't come up for me next!) While I was looking for PP for another project I was working on, I came across this very old Scenic Route paper.  I knew I would build my page around it.  I chose this photo out of my stack. The colors were great.  I even used a Scrapbook Generation sketch.  All the little details play back to the x&o theme. The stitching, the buttons, the title.

Oh, so how does this work for the Club CK Issue Challenge too?  Ha!  Polka dots!!!!    I purposely chose to use polka dot washi tape for two reasons.  One, it was red like the ball, and two, I liked that it added a nice visual element.  It really made me look right to the photo when I laid it down. Besides, dots & stripes, what could go wrong there?

The red background paper is actually the Doodlebug double dot paper. It was a subtle way to add texture to the colors.

I hope you will come join me over at Child's Play Challenges and also over at Club CK!