KWerner Color Challenge

I am knee-deep in production for a quickly approaching wedding (pics to come soon, I promise), but I did manage to scrounge up 10 minutes to create this card for a friend's birthday using Kristina's color challenge for the week, as well as a Splitcoast CAS (Clean & Simple) card for Monday's challenge. Loving my Big Shot these days for time-saving projects.

Colors: So Saffron, Tempting Turquoise, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Rose Red

Dies: Bird W/ Vine Sizzix, Top Note Sizzix, Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder

Stamp: Sincere Salutations

Ribbon: American Crafts

Day 23: Logan's 3rd Birthday

This layout is one from my "Pages in Progress" book, an album where I stick layouts that aren't quite finished. They may need journaling, or embellishments, a title, or just something. These may be layouts that I get stuck on, that I don't like the direction they're taking, that don't match up to my 'vision' for them. They may be pages that are waiting for just the right accent that I don't have in my stash, but that I keep an eye out for when I'm shopping.

This layout needed journaling, a title, and a mat for the focal photo. Because of Day 23, I'm happy to be able move this page from the Pages in Progress album to Logan's album.

Day Twenty-2: Potty Animal

The title {Potty animal} was the first thing to come to me for this layout. When I saw this layout in the Two Peas Gallery I knew what I had to do: shamelessly copy it. Those animals are just too cute on their little tags and fit perfectly with the theme my title had created. I also had a vision to work in a bathroom sign icon, and was glad it worked out for one of the tags (after a bit of trimming and piecing).

After I had snapped the photo of this layout, I realized I had not journaled on this page. I will do some writing in a portion of the blank space above the photo.

Day 20: barefoot

I'm still very behind, but not giving up. Here is Day 20's layout, which also doubles as my entry for The Spark, a challenge blog for any medium. Do check it out if you need a creative kick in the pants (it happens to the best of us!)

The background for this layout was created with Heidi Swapp's Mega Masks {brackets} and acrylic paint. The process for the masks is quite easy and yields great results. The self-adhesive masks lay onto your cardstock and then you paint (or chalk, trace, spritz, etc) the area. I love seeing the results when you peel back the mask. They are made from pretty thick vinyl and are reusable.

The vine was fussy-cut from a sheet from The Stack 6 by DCWV. I then penned in the dotted stem. The letter stickers are from American Crafts. I love the font and the colors. A sprinkling of other embellishments (KI Memories and Colorbok) and the page came together. I wish they were all this easy. And it's funny how usually those easy to make pages are the ones you end up loving the most.

Felt Bag

I wanted to make a cute little bag to hold chocolates for a hostess gift, so I sewed this one up pretty quickly. I wish I had taken photos of the process, but I wasn't sure if I would be happy with the end result.

The How-To:

1. Cut a piece of felt. I used white felt cut to 6 1/4" x 12" to create a finished bag size of approximately 5 1/4" x 6".
2. Cut the felt pieces that you'll embroider onto the bag. I used the Sizzix Bigz Scallop Circle and Bird with Vine dies. I cut the Bird w Vine out of brown to form the base layer, then cut it from light blue and rose to make the bird and flower layers.
3. Trim edge of circle to desired size and pin to the white felt. Hand embroider the scallop circle to the front of the felt.
4. Turn the felt over and fold in half right sides together. Sew sides of bag closed with 1/4 to 1/2" seam backstitching on both ends.
5. Flip the bag right side out, and the scallop circle is neatly sandwiched in the seam to create a nice finished edge.
6. Lightly glue the vine piece to the bag. I only ran glue on the vine and leaves where I would not be stitching.
7. Use pins to tack the rest of the design in place and embroider with floss.
8. Cut handles to 1" x 12" and sew with a decorative stitch to the front and back of the bag.

Voila! Hang your little bag on a bottle of wine or Godiva White Chocolate liquor (yum! Bring on the chocolate martinis!!) and fill the bag with fine chocolates.

Happy Birthday Cupcake

I guess I'm really liking orange and blue together these days. And I've also been getting lots of milage out of SU!'s Big Bold Birthday set and the Happy Birthday Cuttlebug folder. I guess we've been needing lots of kids' birthday cards around here, too.

Day 18: Hello Little Turtle

Our driveway is apparently in line with the trek that the baby turtles make each spring from my across-the-street neighbor to the pond in another neighbor's yard behind us. Each spring we are lucky enough to see at least one baby turtle make its voyage to its home (this whole process is absolutely astounding to me). Last year while a friend was visiting I snapped these pics of one such voyage.

I followed the trend of creating a little scene on my page with the turtle, a hand-cut tree, punched cloud, and die cut sticker grass and sun. I forgot to leave a spot for journaling so I'll either squeeze some in a blank spot or have it slip behind a photo. All of these papers and stickers are from the Hoppy Memories Simply Scrappin' Kit. It's great for boy, school, and outdoorsy-themed pages.

Day 17: Easter '05

I wish I could say these are Easter '09 pictures, but they are not. Still, there's something to be said for being inspired by a holiday/season to scrapbook pictures from that holiday, no matter how old they are. Since Easter 2005 (when I was pregnant with baby #3) pictures still hadn't been scrapped there was no time like the present to get those out of their little envelope.
I found this adorable polkadot paper from Daisy Bucket Designs at my LSS today (picking up an order for a client--nothing wrong with grabbing a little somethin-somethin for me while I'm at it!). I had already planned out a quadrated (is that a word?) layout in my head, so this paper was perfect. But what was even better was the pattern on the flip-side: four adorable squares that include the title block and journaling flower used in the layout above.

Day 16: First Day of School

Here's Day 16's layout. It's serving double duty as one of the layouts for my Scrapbook Club this month. The sketch is from Pencil Lines sketch #128. I love teh graphic cleanliness of this sketch. It is veresatile, and I'm thinking this is not the last time I will be using it. Again, there are those letters from the Sizzix Alphabet strip. Have I said how much I am loving these?

Day 13: Great Big Smiles

I've fallen a bit behind with the 37 Days challenge over the holiday weekend. After everyone left from Easter last night, and the boys were nestled in bed, I retreated to my stUdio and managed to start a page before falling into bed exhausted. I finished it this morning while my littlest painted away at the table.

I used the colors in the baby outfit as inspiration for the color scheme for the page. The title was done with SU!'s exclusive "Billboard" Sizzlits Strip. I am really loving it, and $21.95 for upper, lower and symbols is a great value.

Day 10: Family

Woohoo, double digits. Yesterday was day 10 already. Here's yesterday's layout; I had to wait until this morning to get a good photo (last night's photos were horrific). This picture was taken after my Grandmother's funeral 3 1/2 years ago. It's remarkable to me that this whole gang came from just my Dad and his brother--three generations and still growing.

Day 9: 2 {too} Big Shoes

This page is for all of you that can remember trying on "Big People" shoes when you were a little kid. I have pictures of all three of my boys doing it, and even one of myself in my Dad's shoes (in retrospect I should've stuck that on this page). The inspiration for this page comes from this week's Splitcoast Scrapbook Sketch #184 pictured here:

I love using sketches for my layouts because it helps me to start immediately and get right to the fun stuff: color, embellishments, journaling without having to think about design and balance too much.

The journaling: printed then cut/torn into strips. I like this technique and breaks up the solidness of a regular journaling block: A close-up of the title: a combination of chipboard (2), stamping (too), handwriting (BIG) and acrylic letters (shoes):

Day 8: Popsicle

I got these pictures developed nearly 6 years ago. They are of my oldest son when he was 2. When I looked through the roll of film, these photos caught my breath. They captured the simpleness of a darling little boy enjoying a summer treat as only a child can do. His hands are slick with sticky popsicle juice, his onesie is covered in drips, and even his shoe was not spared from a glop of melting sweetness. It was so fun to finally scrapbook these pics. I'm not convinced that my page does them justice, but I will say they look a heck of a lot better here than they do in the photo envelope they've been sitting in. Afterall, isn't that what it's all about?

How to: The journaling block was created in a measured text box in Word, but I added the colored words cut from a patterned paper. Here's how I did it:

1. Create a text box and adjust to the desired size (right click on box border>format text box>size)
2. Type words and when you come to a spot where you want to add a paper (or stamped) element draw a line that measures the same as the element you want to add.
3. Continue typing and drawing lines until you like the way it looks.
4. Just before printing, select and delete each line.
5. Print, cut, and glue elements into place. Voila, a custom designed hybrid journaling block!

Day 7: Halloween 2004

I'm a bit late posting Day 7's layout. It was mostly done last night, but I just couldn't bring myself to focus enough at 12:30 am to sew on the buttons. Here's my tip for sewing buttons on a page: lay them out where you want them to be on your page and poke through the button holes with your needle (place the layout on a rug or on a piercing mat). Then sew through. This keeps your buttons from shifting around while you are sewing.

Day Six: Life Moves Way Too Fast

For Day 6, a bit pressed for time, a bit wanting to use my new digital kit, I created a digital layout. I'm still not sure how I feel about digital scrapbooking. I can remember my excitement at completing my very first scrapbook page. I thought I was hooked: there was no messing up (just a lot of "undo" key controls), it was so easy to switch out papers and try new colors, there was no arranging and rearranging un-glued elements, heck, there wasn't even any glue. And best of all, my stUdio didn't look like a paper bomb exploded when I was done. But it didn't feel all that right brained to me. I didn't have that sense of accomplishment that comes with creating a page. I didn't feel as though I had been creative. Part of that maybe my need to engage my left-brain when using Photoshop Elements because I'm still analyzing how to use this program. Whatever the reason, I still feel that doing a digital page helps me spread my wings as a scrapbooker, and I still get a page for my scrapbooks:


This page uses only content from Song Bird Avenue's Bloom and Grow kit with collaboration from Ali Edwards. At only $8, this kit is a steal.

KW Color Challenge # 48

It's been a few weeks since I've done Kristina's Color Challenge, and I had to make a birthday card for my niece (a belated one at that). So why not be really efficient and combine the two. I used the pindot Cuttlebug embossing folder to create texture on the tree. When it was done I thought it needed just a bit more so I added the blue "berries" on the tree. A blueberry tree?? I don't know, but it adds a touch of whimsy.

Day Five: Ready

Last summer I was fiddling with my camera and took a super close-up of my youngest son's face. It is one of my favorite photos of 2008. I printed it right away, and have had it hanging in various places in my stUdio. Most recently it made its way over to the magnetic strip over my desk (a sure sign I'm harnessing the energy to scrap it). Once I found the OLW (One Little Word) challenge through a blog I frequent, I knew I had the perfect inspiration (the challenge and designer Revlie's layout) to get this page put together. I dabbled on the page all day, adding a bit here and a snip there. Sometimes this really works for me in putting a page together, especially when the day doesn't allow me to sit for any length of time to work. It worked great today because there were lots of small chunks that went into this layout (and the boys had friends over to keep them occupied)."Time" is an underlying theme on this page, so this Heidi Swapp ghost clock face was perfect:

The cutout flowers are from Basic Grey's Romani line. And the felt flower was die cut with the Sizzix Flower Charms die. Felt accents have been a trend for some time, and it was fun to create my own. A bit of mini pom-pom fringe, snips of ribbon, and floss stitches create the stems on the flowers.

The word for OLW this week is "Ready". My journaling conveys my mixed emotions as I await my youngest starting school in the fall.

I'm not ready. To let this baby go. To release him to the care of someone else. To not know what he’s doing or how he’s feeling. I’m not ready. To be without him. To not kiss his little cheeks whenever I feel like it just because. To not have him by my side. I’m not ready. To see him cry because he doesn’t want to go. To feel empty after dropping him off. To miss him like crazy. I’m just not ready to let this little baby go.

But yet, I am ready. To enter the next phase of my life. To have quiet time for my own thoughts. To accomplish things without interruption. I am ready. To see if I can succeed at my own business. To have time to reach my goals. To embark on a new endeavor. I am ready. To do the things I want to do. To set goals and work to achieve them. To focus energies on things outside of Motherhood. I am ready. To create more. To dream bigger. To be more. But, I just don’t know if I’m ready to let this little baby go. It’s time to get ready.

Day Four: Halloween Fright Night

I'm all over the map with my layout topics these days: from Christmas to Halloween, three weeks ago to three years ago. I'm not a chronoligical scrapper. I used to be, but not anymore. It is crucial that I date my pages so that I'll be able to put them into chronological order in albums someday. Sometimes the date is in the title or journaling, but at the very least it's hand scrawled or date-stamped in a small place somewhere on the layout.

So tonight, I had these Halloween pics from 3 1/2 years ago. I went to my October issues of CK for a bit of inspiration, and inspiration did I find:

A few sprays of Archival Mist to neutralize the acid in the magazine paper and voila, instant accents and a title for my page. I just checked Amazon for the spray, and can't believe how expensive it is now (I picked mine up on clearance a few years back for a couple of bucks). Krylon has a similar product for a much better value.

I apologize for my poor photos, but I'm taking them at night and our tungsten lights don't make for great photos.

Day Three: Goodbye

I was able to scrape this layout together with just minutes to spare on Day Three. It's not a visually interesting layout, it's not filled with the latest products or trendy color schemes, but some layouts are just like that (especially those you pull together in just about 15 minutes!) What makes this page so special, and the whole reason I wanted to do it, is the journaling. It reads:

"In all the craziness of building a new home and packing up an old one, I neglected to think about saying goodbye to 44 Clews Street. After the boxes were packed and loaded into the truck, Perry & I had a few moments to stand in the empty stillness of our first home. I thought of all the memories made here: our wedding night, bringing home 2 new babies, countless days spent in the yard, and numerous nights hanging out on the couch. The tears streamed down my face as we embraced for the last time in our first home before closing the door forever."

I will never forget that night we said goodbye to our first home, and now that I've done this layout, I can guarantee that.

Sometimes the best pages are not the fanciest, but they're the best because of the story they tell.

Day 2: First Steps

It's actually Day Three on the calendar, but here's my layout for Day 2 of the 37 Days challenge.