Thursday, March 28, 2013

Cancellation of 30 in 30 Scrapbooking - April 2013

Due to extreme illness of a close family member, I am cancelling the April 2013 rendition of 30 in 30 Scrapbooking.

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Announcing 30 in 30 Scrapbooking - April 2013


April is our next month with 30 days, so it's time for another rendition of 30 in 30 Scrapbooking!

The Challenge and the Prize

So, you may ask, what's the challenge?

Bascially, you create 30 scrapbook pages in 30 days, no daily requirement.

Every participant who creates 30 pages in 30 days is eligible for a prize drawing: $30 gift certificate to Two Peas in a Bucket.com.

The Cool Part

As a continuing introductory offer, the April 2013 edition of the 30 in 30 Scrapbooking challenge is absolutely free.

That's right. You can participate in a fun, productive challenge, preserve some memories, perhaps make a few new friends, and possibly win a prize.

At no cost to you.

How awesome is that?

(There may be a nominal fee for participation in the future, but for now, 30 in 30 Scrapbooking is still free.)


The Details: Rules and How to Participate

To participate in 30 in 30 Scrapbooking, all you have to do is email me, and I'll send you an invitation to the Yahoo group where you'll upload your completed pages, chat with the other participants, and hopefully be inspired. You can also go directly to the Yahoo group and click on the join button. Please be sure to join as soon as possible. I'll send invitations for this round through April 7th, 2013, but the requirement to be eligible for the prize drawing is still 30 pages.

Please be sure to read all the rules and FAQ’s at the 30 in 30 Scrapbooking blog, and feel free to email me with any questions.


The first three renditions of 30 in 30 Scrapbooking were a blast. We all got to know each other, inspire each other, and we got a lot of pages done. Oh, and we had a lot of fun doing it.

I hope you will join us!

Friday, March 15, 2013

Autumn Day


Another page for my anniversary album, this one comprised mostly of supplies from last fall's Simple Stories line, which I still heartily adore. I went with a grid design, simple and quick, for this layout, cutting the title out of a 4x6 card included in the collection. Those cameras are from Maya Road, inked with chestnut roan chalk ink by Colorbox and sprayed with gold ink by Heidi Swapp. I grabbed some buttons and bling to dress things up and added some of that same gold ink to the title, dribbled rather than sprayed.

My favorite part is those autumn trees.

I'm about half done with this album, so there'll be more pages to share soon.

My Own Kit - March 2013

The beginning of March, I was not feeling well, and that meant that I didn't start working on creating my own scrapbooking kit until the month was well underway.

With March half over, here is the kit I assembled:


My inspiration was partially St. Patrick's Day, with its focus on the green we all start to crave around this time of year, at least those of us who live in areas where winter is lingering, and you can see some specifically themed St. Patty's bits and pieces that I hope to use in documenting our celebration of our Irish heritage. I was also inspired by the pinks in the new Doodlebug collection, as well as those similar tones in the Amy Tangerine collection called Yes, Please.

Once I established my color inspiration and picked up a few new goodies, I went to my stash and grabbed anything that was either pink or green or white. Some of the pieces I added were stickers cut from a stickers sheet because I want to use up as much of my current stash as possible. There's lots of wonderful things to play with there, including a mini-book from Amy Tangerine, which contains pages I plan to tear out and use on 12x12 layouts. (I can't recall where I saw that done in the past, but I love the idea.)

I'm hoping to make some time this weekend to start crafting with that lovely kit, and I'll share as soon as we lose the gloom so pervasive in the fair state of Michigan. (It's even supposed to snow again this evening!)

Coming soon: I'll be sharing my own kit for April, along with an announcement for next month, involving the creation of 30 scrapbook pages in 30 days. ;)

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

First Sign of Spring


On the way in from picking up dinner the other night, I noticed the snowdrops pushing through the cold, cold ground and the mulch from last year into the still wintry air.

Such shy little things, the snowdrops, delicate and coy, bowing their heads against the winter wind.

Their arrival means spring is coming. They are harbingers of sunshine and rain and new green sprouts pushing through to the warmer air.

Everybody knows I love the winter, but I've lived in Michigan long enough to be like the natives here in looking forward to the sweet delicacies so typical of a Michigan spring.

These little white blossoms whisper to me, "it's coming..."

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Taking Pictures


Taking a bunch of scraps of patterned paper and a few other bits and pieces, a couple photos, is one of my favorite ways to create a layout. I like to get leftovers from patterned papers used, along with cut-offs from journaling cards, a sticker here and there, adding some stamping to round it all up.

And that is the last of the layouts I created with my own February 2013 scrapbooking kit. In the next few days, I hope to start working on the March kit. March has always meant green to me, but I'm also thinking it might be time to add some pink to my scrapbooking...

Yummy


Getting down to the remnants of my own scrapbooking kit for February, 2013, I love the challenge of creating pages with what little's left, especially patterned paper. This page loosely based on a sketch, but I departed enough from the sketched design to make it my own.

One more layout from the kit left...

Pure Happy


For this layout, I totally scraplifted May Flaum in this guest post on Shimelle Laine's website. Been quite awhile since I actually scraplifted, and it worked really well for these two photos.

FYI, May does a great video about using stencils that you won't want to mist. (LOL. I'm married to a man who likes a good pun, what can I tell ya?)

And speaking of mist, that background card stock started out white. I used a lot of ink and a lot of mist, and then some more ink and more mist to get that effect. I totally dig it. I love working with mists, and I want to do more of it.

Hayride


Another layout from my own February scrapbooking kit. Simple, fun, lots of cuteness, and another memory of my 10th anniversary preserved.

Have I mentioned that I really dig assembling my own kits? I've gotten a lot of mileage out of this one.

Three more to share...

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Leaf Season


For this layout, I used another Shimelle sketch, and it was a little tricky, getting the paper cut to the right proportions for the design. I admit I had to put a duplicate of one of the papers to use to make it work. I do like how it turned out, so it was worth it.

General Store


Another layout from my own February kit. The last week and a half, I've been under the weather, and my progress with scrapbooking with this kit has been slowed and interrupted. I've got a couple more layouts to make before the kit's used up. I bought a few other papers and supplies to use for the anniversary album, so there will be more photos of those pages as I create them.

I'm thinking about what I want to do for the March kit, and as soon as I feel better and can assemble some things, I'll share.

Meanwhile, next layout...

p.s. I forgot to mention that I used this sketch by Shimelle Laine for this layout. I replaced the three small photos with embellishments because I had only the two photos for this story.