Hello, Story - Week 3

For week 3 of the Hello, Story class, we were challenged to create a layout and tell a story that incorporated directional elements. As I was watching the video, I thought of the photo I wanted to scrapbook first, the title I wanted to use, and how perfectly directional elements--particularly arrows--would complement the story I wanted to tell.

I used a sketch by Shimelle Laine, and the page sort of went a different direction than I'd originally intended. Starting out with a plan for clean lines with a more mature feel to the page, I wound up with a little more of a playful, childlike tone with the supplies I chose.

There are a few arrows, and I think the page overall reflects the idea of motion, so I'm happy with it. This is an important story, one that contains a lot of emotion for me. I was also to echo a little piece of Ali Edwards' design with the little "Go, go, go" sticker.

For this page, I used supplies from My Own Kit - May 2013, which is posted here.

My Own Kit - May 2013

At long last, I took a photo of My Own Kit that I assembled for May of this year, (not that I'm behind at all), and mostly because I wanted to use some of the supplies on a layout for the Hello, Story class at Big Picture.

The inspiration for this kit was that package of 6x6 papers from Little Yellow Bicycle, a little different color scheme than I usually gravitate toward. I started with some new supplies, going through my stash for older bits and pieces, even small bits cut from large sticker sheets, to add to the kit. I threw in quite a few stamps and lots and lots of different kinds of embellishments. This kit is packed! I wanted a wealth of options. The more I use these kits I create for myself, the better I get at balancing the number of each type of supply I include.

For the first layout I made with this kit, I already had to add some letter stickers as the packages of Thickers I included are already out of most of the most common letters. I wish letter sticker manufacturers would produce packets of stickers that include more E's and T's and fewer Q's and Z's. I can't be the only one running out of key letters when there are still plenty of letters I won't ever use.

But...I digress.

I still have quite a bit of the April kit to work with, and I went through my notebook of layouts to create to choose a few for that one, as well as this new one. We're having quite the busy summer, and I'm not getting as much scrapbooking done as I would like. I'm hoping to spend a few hours on scrapbooking tomorrow.

Five Favorites - CHA Summer

Throughout this week and last, I've been checking out sneak peeks and total reveals of lots and lots of new products debuting as CHA, the Craft-Hobby Association show, happened in Las Vegas.

Oh, the pretties...

Creating a Pinterest board of all the stuff that caught my eye, I wound up with 28 pins or so. Lots of absolutely gorgeous patterned papers coming out in the months ahead, some I can't wait to get my hands on, one I've already got my hands on (see this post). Some innovative embellishments and tools, too, and just a whole lot of creativity that totally inspires me to want to get crafting.

Here are five favorites:

1. Tim Holtz Layering Stencils

(photo from the Tim Holtz blog)

I want to reach into the screen and drag those stencils out and start playing with them, and I absolutely LOVE that they can be collected onto a jump ring. Oh, the creative potential and convenience! I might not need every single one, but I'm going to need most of them.

Check out all the cool stuff these babies will do on Tim's blog.


2. Webster's Pages Family Traditions

(photo from Webster's Pages blog)

I love the color scheme, the florals and rustics and some papers with both. I love the adorable bird "trinkets" and just every little piece of this collection that could be used for autumn-themed pages, of course, but certainly wouldn't have to be. Versatility is awesome. Check out the rest of Family Traditions at the Webster's Blog.


3. Merry & Bright paper from Heidi Swapp's Believe Collection

(photo from Heidi Swapp's blog)

The whole Believe collection is great, but this patterned paper really captured my fancy because I am SO into stars right now. I also love "merry and bright" as a holiday greeting, so this paper is perfect for me. Lots of other tempting tasties from this collection. Do check it all out at the Heidi Swapp blog.


4. Washi Tape from Doodlebug's Happy Harvest Collection

(photo from Doodlebug Designs Blog)

The whole Happy Harvest collection is A-DOR-able! Check it out at the Doodlebug blog. SO much bright and happy color, you gotta dig it. But I honed in on the washi tape, especially the leafy one. Such cuteness, and so many opportunities to autumn up a scrapbook page. Oh, when can I have it? WHEN?


5. Star Overlay from Webster's Pages It's Christmas Collection

(photo from Webster's Pages blog)

Oh, oh, oh. As soon as I caught a glimpse of that star overlay, I knew I would need it. Lots of it. Several sheets of it. Imagine how utterly nifty that will look in a December Daily mini book or a Journal Your Christmas album. I. Can't. Wait. The rest of the collection, which you can dutifully check out at the Webster's Pages blog, has all kinds of great papers and pieces, and I also have my eye on a stamp set that's part of this collection--again with the stars!--so awesome.


So, those are five of my favorites. I could go on, but given how many wonderful things I've seen, that could take me all night, so we'll settle in at five wonders I want to add to my stash at the earliest possible moment.

Bo Bunny Rocks!

As the CHA previews got off the ground, I entered a giveaway on the Bo Bunny blog to win some of the brand new collection, Autumn Song.

Take a look at the absolutely delectable-ness here.

So...how excited was I to find out I was the Autumn Song prize winner!

And how delighted to receive the package from Bo Bunny, containing these wonderful goodies:

Sometimes I've noticed that products do not look the same in person as on screen. Not so with these papers and embellishments. Oh, the colors are so brilliant and perfect, not only for fall, but for the color scheme of my Autumn Leaves wedding.

I can hardly wait to get my hands on the rest of this absolutely gorgeous collection when it hits the stores, and I'm really hoping that I can carve out some time to put together at least some wedding scrapbook pages as autumn turns the world all the brilliant shades of lovely you see in the photo above.

Thank you to Bo Bunny for making me smile all month long.

Hello, Story - Week 2

For our second week in the Hello, Story class, our assignment was to use a fill-in-the-blank journaling prompt. Our instructor, the talented Ali Edwards, provided three different options, and I started with a fill-in-the-blank card meant for Project Life, using it in a traditional layout, paired with a photo of me taken on my birthday.

What I love about this layout--and I admit it is one of my favorites--is the color scheme: the pinks, the yellows, the reds, all working together in such an appealing palette.

I love these two details: the word "today" on the brad, and the words, also in a typewriter font, on the strip I used to anchor the photo and journaling card.

I love the pink mist splatters, and I love the star "stamp" sticker from the same set as the number stickers. I like that I was able to echo a bit of those smaller letter stickers in the top embellishment cluster with asterisks from that same set. I admit I was a little disappointed that I didn't have enough of the red letter stickers and had to use a few black ones to fill in, but in the end, I think it works well enough.

The title for this layout was inspired by a challenge at a brand new blog called Use Your Words. Check out the details of the challenge right here.

Hoping to post the second layout for week 2 tomorrow.

A Favorite Place

Over at Delightful Inspiration, the blog for the Artful Delight kit club, they're doing a sketch challenge, which wraps up tomorrow. The sketch appealed to me for its simple grid design, so versatile, and as I thought about how to use it for creating a page, I thought of the perfect photos.

Take a look at the sketch:

And here is my layout:

The photos were taken with the Hipstamatic app on my iPhone, printed with a tiny white border by Persnickety Prints. I chose a patterned paper by Fancy Pants (part of the giveaway goodies I got from Jill Sprott) as the background, matching my other patterned papers, which are by Bo Bunny, to the swirls. The large title stickers are by Thickers, and all the rest of the stickers are by Bo Bunny, as well. I used a punch by Martha Stewart to punch those butterflies, and sprinkles of Glimmer Mist by Tattered Angels finish up the page.

An easy and attractive page that came together quite quickly, which is awesome for a busy scrapbooker like me who has very little free time to devote to scrapbooking. I love how the page turned out, and I will definitely use the sketch again.

Thanks, Artful Delight, for the inspiration!

Hello, Story Class - Week 1

The latest Big Picture class by Ali Edwards, called Hello, Story, started on July 8th. Our first week's assignment was to do a timeline layout, and just a teensy bit late (I completed the layout on Sunday), here is my take:

First of all, Michigan bugs me with its weird gloominess and lack of light. Add to that, I just don't have much time in my schedule to be picky. If I want to post a photo, it's not always feasible for me to get the best possible one, simply because I don't want to wait for a perfectly sunny day for photography.

So...one copes.

Those are some photos of my niece Olivia. I didn't have any really specific journaling for each one, so I just wrote off-the-cuff captions. I totally scraplifted Ali Edwards' design, but I changed the elements to reflect my own photos and theme. The ladybug motif is perfect because we've all called Olivia "Bug" almost since those first photos were taken, and it has stuck.

All of the photos are from 2003, Olivia's first six months. Unfortunately, I didn't have a photo from June of that year, so I went with two of July. It bothered me, the lack of "timeline continuity," but I told myself not to overthink it, to have fun with the assignment, rather than allowing it to become one more source of stress, especially since I get so little time to scrapbook, and it's supposed to be my way of relaxing and playing creatively.

Bad photography aside, I like this layout for its design and colors and cuteness factor. The photos take me back to Olivia's babyhood, and that makes me dwell in happy memories. I don't like "jumping the gutter," having photos overlap like this, but I stayed true to the scraplifted design, which I think is visually attractive. The stamps, from Stamps of Life, were a lot of fun to play with, and I always love a chance to put buttons on my scrapbook pages. They're some of my favorite embellishments.

As this class gets off the ground, I know I'm not only going to enjoy it, I am also going to learn a ton.

And I'll be sure to share my assignments as I have time--I hope!--to complete them.

NSD Blog Prize

Back in May on National Scrapbooking Day, I was fortunate to have a little time to myself--a rare occurrence!--and I hopped around to different blogs celebrating the art of scrapbooking, some with prize giveaways. I left comments on many of those, not really expecting to win...

...but I did! I won the giveaway on Jill Sprott's blog!

Now, if you don't know Jill and her paper-crafting talents, please check out her blog and her work on Two Peas in a Bucket. She is awesome, and she was very, very generous with the giveaway goodies she sent to me.

Check it:

There's brads and chipboard and wood speech bubbles, little flags, more little flags, bling and some enamel dots, which I've been wanting to add to my stash for awhile now.

Lots of Jenni Bowlin goodness. Those chipboard buttons and stars, along with those birds are simply wonderful!

Lots of stickers, all different kinds...

...and more stickers with some demension, an adorable little box (hmmm...wonder what I might do with that!), and great patterned envelopes, along with something called a "l'il bloom" I can't wait to play around with.

The whole 9 to 5 patterned paper collection from October Afternoon in 8x8 size, with some washi tape.

This whole caboodle of stamps! I can't wait to get into the holiday ones from Hero Arts, the circles, and isn't that little girl with the star silhouette so cute you can't stand it?

Then there this tasty bunch of patterned papers from Basic Grey, October Afternoon, Pink Paislee, Making Memories, and more. I'm practically drooling to jump into those!

And rounding out a huge prize that was beyond generous, some stickers and die cut papers, too.

I had the time of my life opening the box and sorting through all these wonders. Thank you SO MUCH, Jill! You rock.

Lyndsey At 14

The first handout for the Camp Scrap 2013 class encouraged us to get started. While our delightful instructor, the talented May Flaum, used a kit, I went with some supplies I wanted to get used up from a Dear Lizzy collection a season or two back.

This page was also inspired by Wilna Furstenberg's Art Class at Two Peas. I love the idea of white on white card stock, curling up the edges of the top layer and inking it. I used a lot remnants on this page, stickers and some gold spray mist by Heidi Swapp to coordinate with the gold glitter Thickers. I love how easily this page came together, and it makes me happy to highlight these photos of my niece Lyndsey who lives too far away.

Using some of the same collection of supplies, I also did a page about my little Mommy and some papercrafting fun we shared:

Again, a bunch of bits and pieces, including some stamped hearts, kraft photo corners, twine from October Afternoon I've had quite awhile, and that bold background card stock by Stampin' Up! I had a lot of fun putting this page together, clustering and layering, and I really love that photo of my happy Mom with paper flowers we created together.

My Poor Neglected Blog

No posts...in an entire month?

That just won't do.

To be fair, June was busier than ever, and I didn't do a lot of scrapbooking at all. I did keep up with my daily practice of taking pictures and documenting my life as caregiver to two people. I already have the photos printed, thanks to Persnickety Prints, and I've assembled a nice kit of supplies to use in the album I'm making with all the photos and memorabilia.

I also managed to get some pages created using a system designed by Shimelle Laine which I learned in her class The Perfect Collection. I have a few more to finish up, and I'll be posting about those in more detail shortly.

I also had a birthday, so that means I need to create my yearly page about myself at this brand new age, and that will happen (hopefully) by the end of this summer. I love doing those pages, tracking what matters to me, who I am, as the years go by.

My husband started a new job, and he is so much happier than he was at the old job. My nephew is done with his third round of chemotherapy, and we've started the ball rolling on the bone marrow transplant likely to happen later this year.

Free time, time to create, is in short supply these days. I'm hoping I can squeeze out some time for that soon. May Flaum's Camp Scrap over at Big Picture Classes provided a wealth of ideas and inspiration, and I treated myself to a shopping spree at Joann.com that I can't wait to start using. The box just arrived as I was typing this post!

Next post I'm going to share a page I did inspired by Camp Scrap, with more to follow as I work through the ideas in each of the handouts. Even though the class is officially over, I still want to put the things I learned into practice and get that creative mojo workin'...