My Own Kit - September 2013

Busy weekend coming up as one month closes, and a new month begins. As I get ready to welcome September, here is the kit I put together for this month.

Lots of My Mind's Eye goodness in there, A Darcie's stamp set, random stickers and chipboard stickers from my collection, including some Little Yellow Bicycle, My Mind's Eye, Bo Bunny, Martha Stewart, American Crafts, and Girls Paperie. Gems from Prima, scraps of trim, some buttons and findings from Stampin' Up! Letter stickers from American Crafts, adhesive lace trim from Maya road, doilies from Kaiser and Bo Bunny and some 6x6 patterned papers from Basic Grey to add to the 12x12 ones.

September promises to be a busier month than ever, preparing for my nephew's bone marrow transplant and the month he will spend in a hospital in downtown Detroit. I don't know how much, if any, time there will be for scrapbooking, but if there is, I'm going to have a lovely kit to play with.

Hello Story - Week 7

For week 7 of the Hello Story class by Ali Edwards at Big Picture, our focus was pie charts. For a variety of reasons, mostly related to time constraints, I decided to use that focus as a design element only, as Ali did in one of her example layouts.

(Card stock by Coredinations. Patterned paper by Echo Park Paper. Stamps, linen thread and light blue button by Stampin' Up! Ink by Ranger. Green button by Crate Paper. Pink flower button by Bella Blvd. Light pink button, unknown manufacturer. Enamel dots by Basic Grey.)

Originally, I was going to use kraft card stock as the background, but I didn't quite dig the look, and when I tried it on white, it popped. The patterned paper came from my scrap basket, remnants of one of my favorite collections of all time, Echo Park's Country Drive. Adding a bit of a hand-drawn border was the perfect finishing touch.

The journaling was inspired by one of the strategies from the Grammar Free Journaling class, also at Big Picture, quizzes. Although these are statements, rather than questions, it still qualifies as a quiz and answers a challenge for the class.

The "pie charts" were a little bit tricky at first, but once I got the hang of it, I had a lot of fun putting this layout together, and looking at it makes me smile.

Bathroom ReDo

The supplies for this page came from My Own Kit, May 2013, and while it is not an astounding layout--hey, let's face it, this is a story about our bathroom!-- I really like how the colors came together. Such a disparate mix from several different manufacturers and collections, and it thrills me to bring all those supplies together for one cohesive, appealing page.

That's why I do this whole kit thing!

Hello Story - Week 3 Part 2

At long last, I completed the second layout for week 3 of the Hello Story class at Big Picture. The focus was directional stories. It took me awhile to get the photo I wanted taken, then printed, and finally to assemble the layout.

(Card stock by Coredinations. Stamps by Basic Grey. Ink by Ranger, VersaMagic and Tim Holtz. Letter stickers by American Crafts.)

Although this is a scraplift of Ali Edwards' layout, I went a bit simpler. I like the clean look of this page, and I really do dig the large photo as the background. I know it's going to mean a lot to me many years from now when I read about what I was navigating right now.

My Own Kit - August 2013

My Own Kit for August 2013 was inspired by that mini sheet of stickers right up front. I chose papers from that same collection by My Mind's Eye, some from the Echo Park Paper collection called Here & Now, one sheet from Dear Lizzy, and one from Bella Blvd. I collected a bunch of flowers, some leaves from Amy Tangerine, buttons from Stampin' Up! I added those Mistable arrows from Studio Calico, some enamel dots from My Mind's Eye, lots of Thickers (some remnants, one new), a roll of washi tape, some ribbon and die cut borders from Bazzill. A few bits of chipboard, some die cut tickets, some stickers from October Afternoon, and some Kaisercraft gems, and a frame by Maggie Holmes round out the collection, and I chose some letter stamps, some circle stamps by Ali Edwards, and that great stamp by Elise Blaha that I don't use nearly enough.

The little twist on this kit is that I chose some colors that aren't typically at the top of my list, like navy and that oh-so-bright green. But that's one of the reasons I originally wanted to subscribe to kit clubs--to stretch my creativity--so I'm looking forward to playing with My Own Kit for August and seeing what kinds of pages I can come up with.

Summer Moment

The first layout from My Own Kit, July 2013, is based on a great sketch from the Artful Delight kit club blog, Delightful Inspiration.

Here's the sketch:

And here is the page I created:

The photo I used was taken with my iPhone, and I used one of the new photo apps I learned about during the Phone Photography Project class at Big Picture Classes to alter the photo and add the word "summer." The rest of the title fit perfectly underneath, chosen for the August 1st challenge over at the Use Your Words blog.

This page came together so quickly, even with cutting those circles. I love the simplicity and that I was able to capture one of my favorite summer moments.

I almost forgot! I've been taking a class from Angie Lucas at Big Picture Classes called Grammar-Free Journaling, and one of the strategies for that class is one-sentence journaling. This layout was just the right fit for that strategy, too.

My Own Kit - July 2013

My Own Kit for July of 2013 is another bit of a departure from my usual kit assembly process. For this kit, I started with an entire collection, Beautiful Life by Echo Park Paper. I added a glittery letter sticker set by American Crafts, some buttons and flowers and doilies from a variety of companies, gems from K&Company, enamel dots from Basic Grey, leftover October Afternoon stickers from my stash, some die cuts from Jilliebean Soup and a kit club kit awhile back. There's also glitter tape and rose trim from American Crafts, butterfly Mistables from Studio Calico, cloud stickers from Heidi Grace, flocked felt stickers from Colorbok, adhesive heart-shaped buttons by American Crafts, pins from Making Memories, and part of a package of clear acrylic embellishments from Little Yellow Bicycle.

A few other odds and ends round out this bright bunch of goodies, and I added a stencil this time, along with a background stamp. I have so much fun putting these kits together, and this one was easy-peasy, starting out with all that coordinating (and truly beautiful!) patterned paper in the pack. Oh, and I did add one item not in the photo, a free printable of tags that coordinates with this collection.

Nifty, no?

Coming up, my first layout with this collection that I put together in less than an hour and totally love.

My Own Kit - June 2013

My Own Kit for June, 2013, is a bit different: it's a project kit containing supplies I assembled for my June Daily album. Yes, yes. I am running a bit behind schedule, I admit, but at least I'm consistent! All of these yummies, which I do hope to start working with very soon, are from Simple Stories, the Snap system, mostly from recent collections, but some other bits and pieces from previous collections. I'm looking forward to sitting down and making it all work together.

Of course I'll share as pages are completed.

Scrapbooking on the Vertical Challenge

Unfortunately, I was not able to complete all of Shimelle Laine's challenges from last weekend. The week here at LaLa's house was quite a busy one with very little time to scrapbook, so I'm going to let go of the ones I just couldn't get to. This last one I was able to complete is the scrapbooking on the vertical challenge, and I totally scraplifted Shimelle, making just a couple of changes to the overall design.

Most of the supplies for this page came from My Own Kit, May of 2013. I did add some autumn stamps by Just Rite Clear stamps, designed by Amy Tedder--GORGEOUS, I will be using these little wonders a lot!--and I used gold paint by Ranger and gold mist by Heidi Swapp.

This one was a little challenging to put together from the kit supplies, but I was determined to make it work, and I do really like how it turned out. I also used the idea of stacking up punched/die cut shapes to create embellishments. I'm going to remember to use that technique in future layouts. Imagine the possibilities if I put some of the Silhouette Cameo cut files to use!

Super huge shout of THANKS to Shimelle Laine for all the inspiration. I love her challenge weekends because the challenges always generate such great ideas for me and get me creating layouts I truly love.

Scrapbooking In Triplicate Challenge

Putting our embellishments to work in groups of three on a scrapbook page was the focus of this challenge by Shimelle Laine. With My Own Kit from April, 2013 used up, I went to My Own Kit from May, 2013 to create this page with Shimelle's challenge in mind.

My trios of embellishments include a button tied with twine, a brad, and a wood veneer asterisk. This layout is also the second one for Week 4 of Hello, one of the prompts suggesting a layout about what life was like five years ago. To refresh my memory, I flipped through the three volumes of scrapbook pages I created for 2008, and I was amazed--astounded, really--at how different life was then from what it is now. Really eye-opening, and it made me even more grateful for the documentation I do of my life through scrapbooking.

Stack of Punched Pieces Challenges

For this challenge from Shimelle Laine, we were encouraged to create our own embellishments with pieces punched (or die cut) from paper. I dragged out my old standby punches, a scalloped circle, a regular circle, a trio of flowers (I just used the smallest one), and my favorite butterfly punch. Here's how I incorporated those into my layout:

All of the supplies, except the punches of course, came from My Own Kit, April, 2013. In fact, this was the last layout from those supplies, and I really had to get creative to make it come together. I love the result, though, and I think the April kit was a smashing success.

Hello, Story - Week 4

The focus for Week 4 of the Hello, Story class by Ali Edwards at Big Picture was Time. One of Ali's prompts was to write a letter to time, using that as journaling on a page.

I was going to use a photo of myself, but I decided to go with this shot of the sun through the clouds, taken with my iPhone on one of my many, many trips to the hospital to visit my nephew, who is recovering from leukemia. The journaling is somewhat negative, I admit, but that's what's going on in my life right now.

One thing I really like about this layout is the use of the clock stamps. I could do that with other circular stamps, obscuring some of the image so that there's just a hint of it on the page. Supplies for this layout came from My Own Kit for April, 2013. I added the alphabet stamps by Studio Calico (look for those as part of an upcoming My Own Kit), the clock stamp by Hero Arts, and the photo corners by Recollections.

Olivia's New Glasses

Another page created with My Own Kit from April, 2013. Can't help but love these photos of Olivia posing with her new glasses. She's so much fun! I was hoping this page could qualify for one of Shimelle Laine's challenges from last weekend, but I didn't have enough stickers left in the kit for the stickers challenge.  The only non-kit item I used was a few letter stickers from Glitz. A bit of a different type of design for me, and I definitely dig it.

Your Choice of Sketch Challenge

If you follow Shimelle's blog at all, you know she frequently posts a Sketch to Scrapbook Page video and invites her readers to play along. For this challenge, she asked us to choose any sketch from these posts to use in creating a scrapbook page. I chose the one from November 30, 2011.

Oh, the possibilities...no?

For my page, I continued using supplies from My Own Kit for April, 2013, and this is what happened:

I didn't have two photos, so I used a 4x6 card in the second slot instead. I also added some doodled lines around the box and some green marker (from Stampin' Up!) to complement the green in the rest of the layout. Designs like this are so versatile, and I could see this sketch being one of my go-to's for two photos. I'd like to try flipping the sketch on its side since I take mostly landscape photos.

And let me only say that making a choice out of all Shimelle's wonderful sketches was a challenge in itself.

Favorite Design Challenge

For this challenge, Shimelle encouraged us to choose a favorite design. All sorts of designs appeal to me. I keep lots of sketches, both in a folder on my Mac and printed-out sketches in a binder, and I have some design inspirations saved on two different Pinterest boards. To choose just one favorite felt a little tricky to me, but I realized that one design concept appeals to me probably more than anything else.

I like to gather up a bunch of bits and pieces that look great together on a plain or subdued background, kind of messy and collaged with a bit of a haphazard tone. Those are the layouts that catch my eye and make me happiest, so that's what I chose for this challenge, and here is the resulting page:

Everything came from My Own Kit, April 2013, and I used a lot more of those pages from the Dear Lizzy mini, including the pocket. I liked tucking in the journaling so some of it could be hidden since I wanted to include the whole story, but not all of it is entirely happy, and I didn't want it all on display.

I just love how I was able to use remnants of the kit, even scraps of paper. Although the photo I took of the page could be better--let's face it--I like this page so much. No wonder this type of design is my favorite.

Supply You've Been Saving Challenge

Sometimes, I buy the CUTEST supply, something that just grabs my attention, and I feel like I just can't WAIT to use it...except I DO wait, and there it sits...sometimes in the bag with other pieces of the kit I've assembled.

I hear I'm not the only one. ;)

Shimelle challenged us to use something we've been hoar--er, saving on a layout. When I created My Own Kit for April, 2013, I included a Dear Lizzy mini-book with lots and lots of adorable pages that I figured I could tear out and use, especially since that would mean that torn-out edge so popular nowadays.

I went for it on this layout about my adorable niece Olivia:

I LOVE this layout. I really do, and I can tell you the times I feel that way about my own creations I can easily count on one hand. I like the colors. I love the title. I love those butterflies I've had for ages and how well they go with this page. What I love most is how easily this page just fell together. Seriously. I was sort of tidying up my workspace, and those two patterned papers were stacked on top of each other and looked so good together, I let that be my foundation for the page. The only supply here that wasn't in the kit, those Glitz letter and numeral stickers.

This makes me want to look for other supplies I've been saving and get those into action.

3x4 Card Challenge

Next up, Shimelle challenged us to use three 3x4 cards in a layout, which gave me the opportunity to create a layout that's been on my list for quite awhile. I did not use My Own Kits for this; instead I chose some supplies from Jilliebean soup as my jumping off point, and here is the photo of the layout created from the sketch I used. (I wasn't able to get a good photo of the sketch as it was quite small on the page from Scrapbooks, Etc.,. magazine page.)

From the moment I saw this layout, I liked the design, the simplicity, the lines, the minimal embellishments. It was the perfect design for 3x4 cards, and here's what I did:

(Supplies: Card stock by The Paper Studio and Stampin' Up! Patterned paper and enamel dots by Basic Grey. Cut apart cards, letter stickers and die cuts by Jilliebean Soup. Stamps by American Crafts, Studio Calico, Ali Edwards for Technique Tuesday, and Stampin' Up! Ink by Ranger and Stampin' Up!)

One of my favorite things on this layout is the card with the song lyric because I often sing that song to my husband Daniel, only I say, "no matter what color the skies are." :) I like to add little bits like that to my layouts, pieces of my personal life that usually only I or the people very close to me would recognize. Really happy with how this scraplift turned out, and with how popular those 3x4 cards are, I'm sure this is a design I could use again and again with a variety of results.

Flexible Template Challenge

Last weekend, Shimelle Laine hosted another of her awesome weekend challenges that never fails to get me creating. Her focus was using her Best of Both World kits, and I followed her lead, using mostly My Own Kits, particularly (so far) the one I created for April, 2013.

The first challenge was to use a flexible template by Noell Hyman to create a scrapbook page. At first, I ran into a snag with the page I envisioned. I tried creating a background for a certain patterned paper with white card stock and some mists that didn't quite coordinate well, so I opted for a different look altogether.

The only thing that wasn't from the April kit was the pink background card stock from Stampin' Up! I really love how this page turned out. The design of Noell's flexible template is...well...quite flexible, and I can definitely see using the idea of photos on the top of the page, everything else on the bottom again.