Yup. It's another page about me. My Mom has been on me to make a book about me. Well, now that I've started, I can't stop! It's fun togo between my childhood photos and new ones. And I will admit, my older son is having fun learning my stories.

Today's page is inspired by the BPC Art & Science class as well as Let's Get Sketchy's week 4 sketch. This class at BPC is amazing.  But it has my head spinning. The ideas and challenges are just that. Challenging.  Fun, but WOW.  Today at BPC, we are talking about color and I am to create a LO with neutral or muted colors. Colors that can go with anything.  I'm finding I can come up with the ideas for the pages, but not the design elements. Brain is on overload.  Thank goodness for sketches. I need a place to start. Enter Let's Get Sketchy.

I chose my photos and papers, but was blank on design. I liked the look of the week 4 sketch. It could be really versatile.  I flipped the design to the other side to accommodate the way I am looking in the photo.  I liked the die cut as the title, but felt the left side of the page needed something. I misted into the  background of the page with yes, a neutral color. For once, the effect was exactly what I wanted. LOL.

These are not colors I use often, pale yellow and grey, but it was fun to try something so different. What I noticed is that by toning down the colors of the papers, the photo really stands out.

I'll have a few more class LO's coming up. I hope you'll continue to stop by to see what I've made.

Supplies:

PP & die cuts-Authentique

Twine-MME & Doodlebug

Wood Veneer & Mist-Studio Calico

Stencil-Fancy Pants

sequins-Doodlebug

bling-Hobby Lobby

stamp-American Crafts

Ink-VersaMagic

WASHI

Hi there.  Posting just for fun today.  I've been taking classes at BPC, creating many LO's because of the classes. But that also gives me time to browse around looking at various challenges blogs for inspiration.

Today I am sharing a LO created for BPC Art & Science, inspired by the Triple 'S' challenge at SWAT, and the Splatter & Chatter challenge at Twisted Tuesday.  Been watching both of these blogs for a while, but haven't had the chance to play along.

For BPC, I had to create a photo collage, then use it on a LO. OK, I can do that.  I looked thru my photos and decided to be silly. I've been a bit washi crazy lately and thought it would be fun to play with that.  I saw a LO on the Simple Stories blog used a heart overlay. Great idea! I laid a rainbow of washi on white CS, cut a heart out of the kraft paper.   From there I added the stitching around the heart, stamped the heart and the question mark in the title, then splattered around the page. The word 'washi' in the title and the circle/arrow are cut from a sheet of washi.  Seriously fun page both to create and also the topic.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you will become a follower if you aren't already. I create and post regularly.

Supplies:
CS-Paper Essentials
Washi-MME, Scotch, Doodlebug, Recollections, Target, Theresa Collins, Darice, WRMK, Pebbles
Stitch template-Bazzill
thread-DMC
alphas-Simple Stories, Basic Grey, Cosmo Cricket
stamps-Hero Arts, Lawn Fawn
Ink-Mementochipboard-bazzill

Out for a Bite

Good morning! It's reveal day at Child's Play Challenges.  It's our 3rd challenge of the month, and that means it's time for the Craft Challenge. This week's inspiration comes from.... Shrinky Dinks! Ok, I am coming clean here. This was not easy. I think the nostalgia kicked in before the creative thought process did.

It took a while (and some time searching some other blogs for some ideas), but I have to say, I love the end result.

I started by looking through my photos. When I saw one of these with the candy spread out all over the floor, I thought, well, Candy is 'shrink' wrapped....ok, that works! and, before it is baked, Shrinky Dinks are just cellophane... Then some of the papers I used have mini monsters on them...so they are 'shrunk'. You can call it a stretch, but I am calling it clever!

Now for the design ideas. As I browsed other blogs, I stopped at 123 Get Scrappy to take a look at this months grid. Hmm, definitely some possibilities.  Circles, Rhinestones and Die Cuts.  Then I went straight to a Scrapbook Generation sketch, then to my Halloween stash. I have a serious weakness for Halloween stuff.    So yes, there are lots of circles here that I die cut with my Sizzix. (I also thought of them as wrapped candy). The title and journal spots are also circles. Some of the circles are also wrapped twine. I added rhinestones for some sparkle and dimension.  They are not a major part of the design.

Please join us at Child's Play Challenges. for the Shrinky Dinks Challenge! We love to see the child in you!

Thanks for stopping by. If you aren't a follower, please join me as I continue to share my creative view.

Supplies:
CS-Bazzill smooth
PP-Bo Bunny, Doodlebug, SEI
Twine-Doodlebug, American Crafts, MME
Chipboard-Bazzil
Glubers
Ribbon-KI Memories
alphas-Echo Park
bling-Hobby Lobby

I Don't Think So...

Good morning!  I'm happy to be posting today.  The kids are back in school and I'm getting back in the routine of things.  That includes taking time for me each day.  Some days I get more time than others, but at least I am making a good effort.

It's mid month reveal day over at About a Boy. This was a fun one for me.  It's a sketch!

I've been gravitating to one photo sketches lately. I used to really struggle with one photo on a page. Now I am finding it really fun to do! I get to play a lot more with paper, background treatment and layering.  Here is how I used the sketch:

I stuck to the idea of the sketch, but made the papers much larger in size, and used my standard 4x6 photo.  I got a little crazy with the embellishing, but I was having fun and they add to the story.  I tucked the journaling under the photo. There is no reason except I didn't want it to get lost on the background of the patterned paper. Here is the journal card:

Short and sweet today.  I'm looking forward to seeing how you interpret this sketch over at About a Boy!

Supplies:

PP-Basic Grey

die cut & chipboard stickers-Basic Grey

Brads-Making memories and Basic Grey

Washi-MME

Journal card-Lily Bee

alphas-Authntique and Thickers

mist-Tattered Angels

twine-Doodlebug

A Good One

I just finished what I think is my favorite class I've ever taken at BPC: Stashbusters Anonymous. I had so much fun creating LO's, being inspired to try new things and use stuff in my stash in different ways. Seriously, if this class is re-run, jump on it. It was great.

We were given a sketch to use if we wanted, but I chose to use the Sept. Week 1 sketch from Let's Get Sketchy instead.  I've been really attracted to one photo sketches and LO's recently. I have to go where the mojo is...

Here is the sketch:

Here is my LO:

So this LO today is the last one from the class that I did last week. We were encouraged to try monochromatic.  Not new for me. I've done that a few times. But I've never done it in neutral colors. I thought the ability to make this sketch fairly clean was a great way to make the neutral colors work. I omitted the scalloped area and misted the background using a stencil instead.  Although I used a vertical photo, I chose not to change the orientation of the sketch. I know the wood veneer shapes are not the same color as the papers, but they are in their natural color, and therefore continued the neutral theme.  I like it. It's simple, but not really.  

Thanks for taking a look

Supplies:

PP-Studio Calico

Wood Veneer-Studio Calico, Recollections

Bling-Shobby Lobby

Alphas-MME, Cosmo Cricket and Thickers

Stencil & Mist-Studio Calico

Play-'Fall'

Well good morning!  I have to tell you. I enjoyed my summer, but I'm really glad school has started again. Everyone needed to get back into a routine, including me.  I think I'll begin my new routine on Monday.  LOL.

It's my turn to reveal at ScrapStuffz' Inspired by and I have a fun LO to share today.  We have a beautiful inspiration photo to get you started.

I looked at the photo and the first thing I though of was fall. The colors are so vivid and bright, like all the trees when the leaves are changing colors.  I love fall colors! Well, I started in that direction, but then diverted. 

Now bear with me. This is a bit of a "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie..." story.  My former next door neighbor used to do all of her canning in the fall.  Apples, pears and tomatoes. Then I started thinking about one of my favorite things about fall in my old neighborhood.  The day all the leaves were raked and the kids could play in the pile of leaves.  And I came up with this:

There are lots of browns, golds and greens in the photos.  I used some fall themed papers filled with a lot of these same colors. The other thing I really liked in our inspiration photo was the metal tops of the jars.  I wanted to do something with that on my LO too. I had some metal charms, so I attached them to the journal strips around the page. I had some fabric leaves that I misted with both brown and green to add to the theme as well. Lastly, I stitched a border around the page with a style of stitch that reminded me of a country kitchen, which brings me full circle, back to the jars.

Did you follow all that? It didn't sound as complicated in my head.

Now, I'd like to invite you to join us, then share how you were Inspired By our September photo.

Supplies:

PP-Pink Paislee, Imaginesce

Border strips and Stich template-Bazzill

Journal tags-MME and Echo Park

Metal Charms-MME

Twine-Doodlebug

Leaves-Prima

Mist-Tattered Angels

Thread-DMC

Alphas-Thickers

Scrapbook Generation Blog Hop

Good Morning and welcome to the Scrapbook Generation Blog Hop for September!

Thank you for stopping by. You should have gotten here from Cicily's blog. If this is your first stop, it's a great idea to start at the beginning so head over to the Scrapbook Generation blog and then hop through each link.

I have a fun layout to share today. We recently hosted a big family event. We had family here visiting from all over the country.  The day day before the event, my husband decided to take my family sightseeing in Seattle. First stop was a cruise around Seattle Harbor and Elliot Bay. I wasn't able to go, but fortunately, I was able to get the photos. This is the first of many layouts of that weekend that were and will be created with Scrapbook Generation sketches.

A while ago, I had purchased a page kit from Scrapbook Generation .  These papers were from that kit, but I chose a different sketch to use.I used Scrapbook Generation Sketches for Scrapbooking Volume 7.  It's a 7 photo sketch. I numbered my pages, so in my book, it's page 18. (I'm sorry for the poor photo. I thought I had taken one, but I didn't. I will retake in daylight hours).  

I loved the My Minds Eye papers with the theme of the day. It was beautiful, sunny with a few poofy clouds.  I added a small banner using MME twine and Making Memories Brads, some MME washi tape, a few Studio Calico travel icons, Studio Calico and Tattered Angels mist and a title using October Afternoon and Thickers alphabets.  These sketches are so incredible, I don't need to do much more if I don't want to.  

If you've never used a Scrapbook Generation sketch, I highly encourage you to do so. You can find the SG sketches in their books and as downloads in the SG store, and there is a free one every month in case you wanted to try it out.

Next on the hop is Tasha, leave a comment on each blog and one lucky commenter will receive a free sketch bundle of their choice from the store. The winner will be draw on September 9th, so you have one week to leave a comment. Thank you so much for stopping by. If you aren't a follower, I'd love for you to become one. I post regularly, a few times a week.

In case you get lost at any point, here is the list all the blogs

Scrapbook Generation blog - http://scrapbookgeneration.blogspot.com/

Ruth - http://scrapmachine.com/

Stephanie - http://craftyholidaygirl.blogspot.com

Steffanie - http://steffanies.blogspot.com/

Pamela - http://reflectionsofmyartandsoul.com/blog

Mandi - http://mjskraze.blogspot.com/

Brenda - http://roseblossomlegacies.com

Laureen- http://mybusyscrapbookinghands.blogspot.ca/

Andrea - http://papercandie.blogspot.com

Cicily - http://www.pinkdalmationscrapper.blogspot.com/

Devra - http://mycreativeview.blogspot.com

Tasha- http://tashascreativejuice.blogspot.com/

Tina - http://tiggersscrapplace.blogspot.com/

Alisha- http://layoutaday/blogspot.com

Solange - http://isbahashome.blogspot.com

Michelle - http://ownerofchanel.blogspot.com

Sharlene Nye-Petrone - http://inspirationstationbysbe.blogspot.ca/

Tessa Iszler - http://www.scrapwithtessa.blogspot.com

Allie - http://magicalmesses.blogspot.com

Lindsey DeLaMare - http://www.scrapping-by-the-sea.com

Janelle - http://stillscrappinlettersize.blogspot.com

Nicole - http://lovemesomepaper.blogspot.com/

Corrina - http://anotherthingoffthelist.blogspot.ca/