Good morning. It's been a busy and very productive weekend. I don't expect this week to be any different.  I'm starting the week with a bonus reveal at Let's Get Sketchy. The theme for the week is all about me.  

I used the sketch that is part of the entry challenge for the Let's Get Inspired Magazine. There are still a few days to get your submissions in! The deadline is September 30.

I took a different route with my "me" page. I saw a LO with some prompts about current events in your life. I loved the idea and have not created a page like that at all. It is just some snippets of what's going on right now. Nothing special. I wonder what it will mean when I look back on it in a few months.  Here is my page: 

I knew I wouldn't have enough alphas in the same font, so I used 2 fonts. I changed the circular elements to diamond shapes. It makes it feel fresh. The rest is lots of little bits to create the embellishment  clusters. I love the way this page turned out!.  I'm also adding it to the anything goes over at Paper Issues.

Thanks for taking a look at my creative view. I hope to see you adding a project at Let's Get Sketchy this week.

Supplies: CS-American Crafts, PP, Stickers & Die Cuts-Fancy Pants-Washi-Scotch, Wood chips-Studio Calico, Freckled Fawn, Citrus Twist Kits, Badges & Clip-Freckled Fawn,  epoxy stickers-Doodlebug Designs, enamel dots-Basic Grey, Sequins-Hazel & Ruby, Stamp-Kaisercraft, ink-colorbox, alphas-American Crafts, Cosmo Cricket, pen-EK Success, Mist-Heidi Swapp, Studio Calico

Let's Get Sketchy Fall Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to the Let's Get Sketchy Hello Fall blog hop!  If you have arrived here from Shirley 's Blog welcome to the hop!! If you have stumbled across this by chance and want to play along then you can head back to the Let's Get Sketchy site to start at the beginning.  

  

The girls here at LGS are excited about the change in the season and thusly we are celebrating with a “Hello Fall” blog hop and giving away lots of daily prizes and a grand prize of a $25.00 gift voucher to Creative Embellishments.  To be eligible win any of our hop prizes you will need to visit each designer’s blog, leave some love on each of our design team’s blog’s and follow their blogs. Each member of the DT will be sharing a Fall themed project for your inspiration.  To find out how to win our Grand Prize as well as lots of other giveaways, make sure you visit the  Let's Get Sketchy  blog!

For your Fall inspiration I have created this project for the blog hop. I used the Let's Get Inspired magazine Fall Mood board for some extra inspiration.  

I saw the mood board and thought I could use some papers I received in a class I take at my LSS.  I looked for a fall photo and found this one of our first trip to a new pumpkin patch.  Ok, so now I have pumpkins and pumpkins. Well, I chose a simple design so I could feature the papers, highlight the photo and still keep in the fall theme.

Before you move on,  I have a prize up for grabs available to US/Canada residents. In order to be eligible for the prize, you must please leave a comment here as well as follow my blog.  Be sure to check out the grand prize available at  Let's Get Sketchy

Thank you for hopping with us at  Let's Get Sketchy.  Next up on the hop is Joefil

Supplies: CS-Bazzill, PP-Graphic 45, SEI, American Crafts, Stickers-G45, twine-Doodlebug, Alphas-Cosmo Cricket, Simple Stories, Ink-Colorbox, washi-Little B

Dance With Me

Good Monday to you. I generally like Mondays. Yes it the beginning of the week and it's 4 more days until Friday, but its back to the routine for everyone and that's a good thing. It's also reveal day for Let's Get Sketchy. Here is today's sketch

Here is my translation. Yes, yes, I know. Another Bar Mitzvah layout. I promise. I only have 4 more to do! But, I love that using these sketches has helped me get so many pages for this album finished! 

Like here, I just changed the square photos into 3x4 then used other elements that went with my theme. The initial design is still there, but I made the rest my own. I also used a newer to me favorite tool, the American Crafts DIY roller stamp. This one has a heart shape on it. I wanted a polka dot look. Instead of rolling it in paint or an in pad, I used mist. The thinner liquid left a more random impression, which is what I was looking for.  I made my tools work for me.  

Now turn to it's your turn to put this Let's Get Sketchy sketch to work for you. Don't forget you still have time to submit for Issue 5 of Let's Get Inspired Magazine. Submissions are open until October 1. Thanks for taking a look at my creative view today. Stop back again later in the week. I'll have more to share for the Let's Get Sketchy Blog Hop

Supplies: CS-Paper Accents, PP-Basic Brey, Stickers-MME and Basic Grey, Metal accents-MME, brads-Freckled Fawn, Alphas-American Crafts, MME, ink-Colorbox, punch-EK Success, mist-Tattered Angels, Stamp-AMerican Crafts

Cat in the Hat Meets Fanboy

Hi and happy Wednesday. It's reveal day for Child's Play Challenges today and I think this one is a good one! It's classic book week. We have a book for you that should definitely bring out the kid in you. Or at least a memory or so.

So, the funny thing about this layout? I was almost finished with another one when I remembered that one of my boys was The Cat in the Hat for Halloween. Yeah, I don't scrap the event when it happens. I do it when I feel like it. Or in this case, I had some fantastic inspiration to get this done!

Since they were little, I've always says "this meets that". I kept to that in the title here as well. I'm proud of myself that I didn't use Halloween papers and instead used papers and elements that go with the theme of the page. Cameras, the comic style washi, even the whimsical title letters. They all the support the character of The Cat in the Hat and the fun that Halloween brings to children and their imagination.

Thanks for taking a quick look at my creative view today. I've always got more material to share. Check back again soon.

Supplies: CS-unknown, PP-Bella Blvd, Making Memories, washi-Queen & Co, MME, alphas-Doodlebug Designs, Freckled Fawn, American Crafts, Stickers-Bella Blvd, Freckled Fawn, Punch-Fiskars, brads-unknown, mist-tattered Angels, Studio Calico

Inspired By...

We are trying something a little different this month at ScrapStuff'z Inspired by. Instead of one inspiration photo, we have two to choose from.

I created a layout inspired by each of the photos.  This first one is my interpretation of the office supplies photo:

Nope, it's not a first day of school photo. It's the last day of school. If you don't know me by now, I have to do something a little but off the beaten path...So really, all of the items in the photo are put away for the summer, not to be seen for 3 months!

 I used some of the items in the photo on the page such as pencils (stickers at top and bottom), paper clip (yellow arrow) and notebook paper (the background) and of course, lots of letters and numbers. (Isn't that washi tape awesome?!?) Ideas for this page also came from Scrap Our Stash  and My Scraps & More, use two collections from the same manufacturer, but at least 1 1/2 years old. I used Basic Grey- Hey You and Bowties. I really like when I can pull inspiration from several different sources.

And now for the second photo:

And my super fun layout:

There are a lot of photos on here! I couldn't eliminate any one of them. He tries so hard! Each photo shows how hard and how motivated he was to get to these balloons! He was only supposed to take one, but he wanted them all. The salesperson saw how happy he was and sent us home with the whole bunch. Did I mention this happened twice???

How did I get to balloons from a Ferris Wheel? They both go up in the air! He's also looking up in the photo much like a spectator looks up to see who is at the top of the Ferris Wheel. I did choose papers with bright colors inspired by the bright colors in the photos as well.

It's a lot to read today so I'll sign off here. Thanks again for taking a look at my creative view. It's an odd one sometimes. But I like it that way.

Supplies-School's Out: PP-Basic Grey & stickers-Basic Grey, Washi, paper clip, epoxy and mini flair-Freckled Fawn, mist-Studio Calico, Tattered Angels, Ink-Colorbox, Alphas-Autentique, Sassafrass

Supplies-Balloon Thief-CS & Twine-American Crafts, PP-Pebbles, Doodlebug Designs, alphas-MME, Simple Stories, American Crafts, enamel dots-MME, punch-EK Success, Stamp-Hero Arts, Die cuts-Silhouette, sketch by Scrapbook Generation

Cards and stuff...

I'm also taking some time this month to learn something new.  I'm taking a cards class at BPC.  I am perfectly capable of making cards. I just don't take the the time to do so.  By the end of class, I'll have 28 completed cards and plenty of ideas for future use.

Here are the cards I've made from the first week of class. Each card took less than 15 min to make.

I don't have a lot of stamps so I am using stuff in my stash to complete the cards for class. If I continue to make cards, I will be a few generic stamps to use. Otherwise, I have enough tiny alpha stickers to use for quite a while.

I also spent some time "procraftinating" this week. I have some DT projects to work on but wan't feeling inspired to do them. So I did this is instead. I used a sketch from Colorful Creations, where I have never played along before. The title is inspired by a challenge at My Scraps & More, to use Happy Moment on the page. 

Yes, it's yet another page from the bar Mitzvah. It's my husband with his sister and brother. I can say with certainty, that I have 4 more pages left to do. I am ready to be done and put the album together.  Sometimes, just getting out of a routine is enough to inspire me. It must have worked, because I was pretty crafty after this.

Glad you stopped to take a look at my creative view today. I have lots to share, so come back again.

Happy Birthday

There is a new article on the Get it Scrapped blog. Today we are discussing 2 page layouts created with a simple grid on one side of the page.  This was an assignment right up my alley and I enjoyed working on my layout.

It's a fairly self explanatory layout. We are celebrating my son's birthday.  As I've mentioned before, I have a hard time editing photos. That's one of the reasons this was easy for me to do. I chose to feature the photo of him with his cousins and use the grid for the photos of him with his cake. Although the photos are of different parts of the event, the layout is united with the paper strips that traverse the two pages. I also created clusters of embellishments in a visual triangle that cross the two sides.

There are several other great examples on the Get it Scrapped blog. It's an active creative blog week for me. But that's the way I like it. More posting means I've had more scrappy time. Its a win win. Thanks for taking another look at my creative view.

Supplies: CS-American Crafts, PP-Bella Blvd, Stickers-Bella Blvd, Simple Stories, Wood chips-Basic Grey, Freckled Fawn, American Crafts, Sequins & Mist-Studio Calico, Enamel Dots-MME, Die Cut by Brenshevia Baker , Sew Easy by WRMK, Thread-DMC, Ink-Colorbox, Pen & Adhesive-EK Success, Sketch by Scrapbook Generation





Supplies: CS-American Crafts, PP-Bella Blvd, stickers-Bella Blvd, Simple Stories, Wood Chips-Freckled Dawn, Basic Grey, American Crafts, Sequins & Mist-Studio Calico, Enamel Dots-My Minds Eye, Die Cut by Brenshevia Baker-http://scrappingever...fe.blogspot.com, Sew Easy by WRMK, Thread-DMC, Ink-Colorbox, Pen & Adhesive-EK Success, Sketch by Scrapbook Generation

Sluuurp

There is a new article on the Get It Scrapped blog today. The article talks about creative ways to use negative space in your scrapbook pages.  I contributed this page about a promise to my son of getting Slurpees since we missed free Slurpee day.

When working in negative space, I find using larger space easier to work with. I cut the design out then set it aside. I used the remaining cut out piece as a mask and sprayed ink over it in 3 colors. Each time I changed colors, I rotated the paper.  I laid the die cut back down on the misted background and this is the result; color mixed with white.  In the negative space you see peeks of color, a lot of color and almost no color.  I achieved the effect I was looking for, a slight mirror of the Slurpee cup.

Thank you for taking a look at my creative view today. I'll be back tomorrow with more from Get It Scrapped and another surprise.

Supplies: CS-American Crafts, PP and twine-Doodlebug Designs, Fancy Pants, Mist-Heidi Swapp, Studio Calico, Sticker, Pre-made die cuts & Chipboard-Basic Grey, American Crafts, Washi Tape- MME, Freckled Fawn, Enamel Dots-MME, Epoxy Stickers-Freckled Fawn, Ink-Colorbox, Sideburst Die cut-Brenshevia Baker cut on Silhouette, pens and adhesive-EK Success, Alpha-American Crafts

Creative Blog Tour

If you are looking for Let's Get Sketchy reveal post, please go here

I participated in my first blog hop about 2 years ago. I didn't know what one was or how to do it. Since then I have been in several, and currently participate in them once a quarter. Why do I like them? I enjoy looking at other people's creativity, learning their process, and finding new ideas. I often have "a-ha" moments while browsing.

Today I am participating in a different kind of blog hop called the Creative Blog Tour. I was asked by Christy Strickler . I have admired her work for several years, ever since I saw her work in a scrapbook community that we were both active in. Now, I am honored to be on the Get it Scrapped creative team with Christy. One of the signatures in Christy's style that I admire, is her ability to make multiple patterns, into a cohesive look on her pages. Thank you so much for the invite.

Now onto some information about me.

1. What am I working on right now?

I'm working on the last few pages of a project, my son's Bar Mitzvah album. I started it in May and made a lot of progress. I didn't get much done this summer and am eager to finally finish. I've been able to complete several design team projects using photos from the event.Conversely, having these assignments and sketches have helped me get the project completed. I've been using Basic Grey Hipster for all of the photos from the party. I am down to just scraps. Every piece counts! 

2. How long does it take me to create a project?

For this project, It has taken an hour or less to complete a LO. I selected all of the products for this project ahead of time so there is not a lot of extra decision making.  For day to day layouts, if I am focused (and uninterrupted) it usually takes me about an hour to complete a one page LO. Selecting papers is what slows me down.

3. What are my favorite things to create with at the moment?

Bright colors! I love working with color, and mixing simple geometric patterns: dots, stripes tonal prints.  Wood pieces, washi tape, decorative brads & paperclips, and pre-made chipboard are making frequent appearances on my layouts. I love using little bits to create clusters.

4. How does my writing/creating process work?

I usually start with the photo(s).  I choose my products to support the story or event in the photos. Sometimes I use themed products for more literal translation of the story. Other times it's more subtle. I am not a big storyteller. I usually write a small anecdote about what was going on, maybe something silly that was said in my journaling. There are some long stories I have told, and many others that need to be told. For now, I like to keep my scrapbooking light. 

5. How do I become inspired and stay inspired?

I am inspired by warm sunny days, and the beach. When I can't have those things, I choose colors that remind me, brights, blues, neutrals.  I find more inspiration from other scrapbookers. I read creative blogs, manufacturer blogs, Pinterest and fashion magazines. There is plenty of material out there to spark some creativity when I need it.

6. What is my signature style?

I don't know how to answer that. I've had it described as adaptive. I like to try new products,  but I make them work for me. My style includes signature elements, but not all are present on every page. I use 4x6 photos, bright colors, drops of mist. and hand journaling. One thing I have found though that is always present is HUMOR. It can be found in my title, or my journaling, or word phrases, or the photos, but it is always there. 

Now it's time to move on to the people who I have tagged to be next on the creative blog tour.  There are so many people I've connected with who are incredibly creative, it was hard to decide. You can use these links to go to their blogs today. They will be describing their process next week as we continue the creative blog tour. I hope you find them as inspiring as I do.

Steffanie

Cassie

Diana

Celebrating Momo

Good morning! Busy day. It's Monday. Most people dread Mondays. I happen to like them.  First up today is my LO for this week's Let's Get Sketchy reveal.  This week we challenge you to use a 3 photo sketch., Can you do it? 

I couldn't. I saw it as a way to use two horizontal photos. But that's what sketches are to me. Inspiration to create a page. Sometimes I use them literally, sometimes I don't. I loved being able to cut the circle into a baseball. You know me, any excuse to show my love of the game ;-).  I moved around some of the embellishment areas. My photos didn't allow for elements to be placed over them.

These are some photos from my Grandfather's (whom we call Momo) 90th birthday party in 2009. He has always been a baseball fan, a Dodger fan, and has shared and instilled that love in all of us, his children and grandchildren. His birthday request was to throw out the first pitch at Dodger Stadium. His wish was granted thanks to my sister, seen in these photos.  It was quite a party, quite a day spent with family from all over the country, and an event to remember. My only wish, is that I had done some of these pagers sooner, as he has since passed.  I would love for him to see the finished pages and relive the day with me all over again.   I have not written any of this on the page. This is part of a group of pages from the party. I think I will write a letter of sorts talking about the day and what it meant to all of us. This way I don't have to repeat everything on each page and I can just caption the pages instead.

One last thing before I end for today, this is my first ever entry for Paper Issues. I love the Tell me Dies, Tell me Sweet Little Dies theme this month. This LO covers several ideas: Die cuts (the baseball), family tradition (baseball), and a tribute (to my grandfather).

As always, thanks for looking at my creative view. If you are new to my blog, please follow me. 

Supplies: CS-Americam Crafts, Bazzill, PP-MME, Basic Grey, Reminisce, BoBunny, Washi-Freckled Fawn, Recollections, Chipboard, epoxy, rubons-Freckled Fawn, Alphas & word phrases-Cosmo Cricket, Freckled Fawn, Wood chips-Freckled Fawn, Studio Calico, Ink-VersaMagic, pen-EK Succcess, Die Cut-Silhouette, mist-Dylusions, Tattered Angels

Happy

Good morning. School has finally started around here. What this means for me, (beside the early mornings) is back to a routine, both for my family and for my crafting. I'm beginning today with a new (and I mean last minute new) LO created for Child's Play Challenges. The first challenge for the month is

Sequins

Here is how I used them for inspiration

I've been using sequins for a while now in sprinkles here and there, and to add some sparkle & shine to my pages.  Here I decided to use them to fill the negative space in the wood circles. Using them at the top and bottom of the photos keeps the focus where I want it, on the photos. The design idea for this page came from a wonderful sketch at Stuck?! Sketches. (Another benefit of creating for deadlines last minute is being able to see the latest challenges).

As I am working on the last Bar Mitzvah photos, I am also using the last bits and pieces of the paper collection I've been using. This sketch was a perfect way to incorporate them.

Thank you for stopping to look at my create view today. Please head over to Child's Play Challenges to join in the Sequin challenge.

Supplies: CS-Paper Accents, PP=Theresa Collins, Basic Grey, Washi-Scotch, MME, Recollections, Wood chips-Studio Calico, Freckled Fawn, chipboard-Studio Calico, sequins-Michaels, Studio Calico, mist-Heidi Swapp, Tattered Angels, stencil-TCW,  ink-colorbox

SG Fall Blog Hop

Good morning and welcome to the Scrapbook Generation September Blog Hop. You should have arrived here from Cassie's blog. If this happens to be your first stop, it would be best to go to Scrapbook Generation and begin from there.

I created this LO using a sketch from the 2 page sketch book, volume 5.

I was given these papers for a class I take at my local Ben Franklin Crafts and Frames. They are bright, cheerful and fun, and a nice compliment to these photos of my son in a fit of giggles with my sister.  

One thing I struggle with is selecting one or two photos to scrap from a group of photos.  I can never choose, so I choose them all. That is one of the things I love about SG sketches. They are great for someone like me, who likes telling a story in sequence with photos, as I've done here.

You can find this sketch and many more in the Scrapbook Generation store.  In fact, if you want to try one out before making a purchase, there is a free sketch available in the store each month.  Thank you for stopping by my creative view today.  From here, please go to TinaGale's blog.  Please leave a comment on each blog in the hop. one lucky commenter will receive a Sketch book bundle of their choice from the Scrapbook Generation store.  You have one week to complete the hop. The winner will be drawn Monday Sept 8.

Supplies: CS-Bazzill, PP-Theresa Collins, Alphas-Theresa Collins, American Crafts, mist-Heidi Swapp, wood chips-Recollections, Studio Calico, Epoxy hearts & washi-Freckled Fawn, stick pin-LYB, enamel dot-MME, ink-Colorbox