Color Us Happy

The Fabulous Friday challenge over at Frosted Designs this week is Paint...and that is what I did here in more ways than one. I used several colors of acrylic paint and scattered brush strokes over the page and then this layout is of my son and his girlfriend painting some projects in my craftroom one evening. As you can see they were a litlle messy- I think they got more paint on them than the projects...lol  I also drew and cut out my own paint-brushes and painted the tips of them.
 I used a colorful patterned paper for background, torn graph paper- so the photo's would show up better, cricut cartridge- Ashlyn's Alphabet for title and acrylic paints. I think this turned out great- such a colorful and fun page. So be sure to get out those Paints this week and have fun on a project and be sure to enter for a chance to win a prize at Fabulous Fridays at Frosted Designs....can't wait to see what you come up with!!!

Farwell Miss Antioch-layout

Here is a page I did the other day for a challenge to use 5 or more photos on a layout - The Studio Challenge this week. The photos are of my son's girlfriend saying farwell this past summer and giving up her crown to the new Miss Antioch.

Materials used: K&Company background paper, Webster pages die cut heart, white cardstock for all matting,Gypsy and Cricut Cartridges for cuts of the title and crown, Stick pins, K&Company border strips, lots of bling. I made my own flowers from paper towels and used some florist silk white leaves.

I made this a two page layout so here is the other page that goes with this one- but there is still 5 photo's on this one page for the Challenge.

a treasured POEM

This was a challenge alright- 4 of them-- First one is Frosted Designs to use cardstock only ( this was stepping out of the box for me) Scrap Our Stash "NEW" challenge - so this was a new technique of cardstock only & no pictures- a poem instead, Scrapbookers Anonymous to use either ink, mist or paint along with masking on a project and the last challenge I used was the sketch from Sketch Along Tuesdays over at Frosted Designs.

 All my papers are plain cardstock- which I masked stars on the background, chalked a rainbow,  embossed on the sun and clouds, and fringed for the grass.  I used Tattered Angel Mist, several inks and jelly roll markers. This cardstock was a great challenge for this layout of mine- because I wanted the poem to really be the main focus of this page for my daughters scrapbook.

 She wrote this poem the night her grandfather (my father) passed away and gave it to me the next day, which was also 2 days before I was getting remarried- so it was an emotional roller coaster in our household. I tried to bring out a few of the embellishments that she had written  about in her poem such as the birds, clouds, the sun , rainbows and grass. I used some rain drop like rhinestones  to represent rain from the clouds which she mentioned also in this lovely poem.

I drew some birds and some swirls to represent the wind- which might be kinda hard to see in this photo. This is the original copy that she wrote on -so this will be a treasured page for sure in her book. I know the sketch is not quite the same as Sketch Along Tuesdays- but I was inspitred by the sketch and tried to follow it the best I could with this poem- instead of a photo.

B & W and hint of Color Layout

Black & White and a bit of Color is the challenge at The Paper Variety and this is my layout of a  friend of mine's- daughter (Aubrille Lynn). And this challenge was just perfect for this black & white photo I had  and I choose yellow as my hint of color with a few bumble bees and ribbon.

 I used a border punch and Cricut font cartridge ( Calligraphy Collection) and did some fussy cutting of  the white flowers and staggered them with pop dots on top of the black flower paper. I then used diamond Stickles on the name and the white flowers to add a little bling to the page. I think this page is so elegant and perfect for this adorable photo. Sweet & Simple.

Camp Buddies

Here is my take of the sketch over at Sketchabilities this week- but I used 4 pictures instead of the 3 to keep them all together in one layout. My daughter recentlly went thru some of her older photos and is giving them to me to scrap for her book...but I have already chronilogically passed this time in her life- so I am kinda back tracking in her scrapbook. 
I used Recollections-Charming Stack papers, buttons, scrappers floss, inks, pop dots, sticker alphas, scalloped punch, fine black marker and misc cardstock and scrap papers.

Some cute little gift bags and tags

I made about 70 of these cute little gift bags with tags for  my friends at work, my bowling buddies and my relatives- each bunch of people got different goodies in their bags. Some, I made my Christmas tidbits (seasoned oyster crackers) some received a variety of chocolates, and the other relatives got gummy bears- which everyone seemed to enjoyed what ever they received. So of course, I was making these too --at the last minute- so I wanted something fairly simple to put together 70 of them in an evening or so.

 I already had the little plastic bags on hand- so that was great- didn't need to go out and buy them. Then I remembered that I had bought a few bags full of cardstock scraps from the Scrapbook Expo for $2.00 and Yes!-- I found this shiny white cardstock strips in the package- so I used it all up. I knew I would put it to good use sooner or later.

 I found a simple tree cut from Christmas Cheer Cricut cartridge and again went thru my larger scraps of green paper and cut out 70 trees and  also cut from Tags, bags, boxes & more cartridge 70 tags out of white cardstock.While that was all cutting went to my stash of red papers and found 5 sheets of the same floral leaf-berry paper and cut them into 3 x 3 squares and mounted them on my white cardstock -which I earlier used my scor-pal to make all the fold lines

 Then when everything was finally cut I inked all the edges of the trees with brown and the tags I inked in multi colores of pink, red, blue and greens. next step-- was too get my stamps out and stamp all the tags with my saying "Joyful Greetings" and on the back I stamped a swirl design and " handmade for you" then took a red marker and wrote my name. Then with scrappers floss I curled and tied it on the tags and used pop dots to attach them to the card- for a little more dimension  and then I quit for the evening after about 3 hours.

The next day I filled all the little plastic bags with the different goodies and stapled them to the back side-inside the tag holder...and put them into the boxes for each group of people I was handing them out too. Some of them I wrote their names on ( on the tree) so I knew who was getting what. I had fun making  these little goodie bags this year- I always come up with a new project every year for my friends and family - so they kinda expect something from me and it is always something handmade with LOVE.
   Note* the gummy bears I had were soaking in vodka for 4 days prior to putting them in their bags- (keep refrigerated)- thats why I also had names on the tags, so I knew who was getting these with alcohol (which the young/old  folks really liked them)  lol
 Thanks for stopping by and checking out my little project last week--Wishing you all Happy Holidays and a very safe and Happy New Year.....

waiting till the last minute this week

Here is the quick 2-page layout I did tonight for Sketches in Thyme. I had a  few hours to spend in my clean and reorganized craftroom, so I thought I would do one challenge during these busy holidays. It's pictures (that are not very good in lighting) that I took when I took my girls ( the dogs) to Bass Pro Shops to have their pictures taken with Santa in the beginning of the month.

 I used white cardstock for the background, Daisy D, and Basic Grey papers and some ho-ho ho paper from my stash. Cricut cartridges were Ashleys Alphabet & Christmas Cheer for the title and all the snowflakes. I used Tatered Angel Mist in lime green and Espresso for the title and covered the snowflakes with a light blue Stickles.And some distressing done in Vintage Photo ink by Tim Holtz.

The girls had so much fun running around the store (of course on leashes) and visiting with all the workers and customers- they just loved all the attention they received from all, and all the treats too.

My DT project for cloth/fabric challenge

I decided to do a layout this week for the DT  and Challenge for Frosted Designs this week instead of a project- using fabric/cloth . Which was pretty simple to do. I titled my page Apple of my Eye..its a picture of my oldest daughter and her father back in the days when she was in high school.

I had so much fun doing this layout-and I really like how it turned out- even tho it took me a few hours to do- well worth it all in the end and my daughter will really appreciate this page also.The cloth/fabric is the burlap I used behind the picture, which I unraveled the edges a bit and used the twine to tie a bow on the corner of the photo.Materials used in the page are: October Afternoon for apple/checked paper, KI- alpahabet paper, Burlap, Tree Cut from Cricut - My Community, chalks, inks, Stickles, 4 apple brads, alphabet tiles cut out and mounted on barn red cardstock and attached with pop dots- and bakers twine for the banner effect of the title
I hope you get a chance to do a project and enter it over at Frosted Designs for a chance to win some fabulous prize they have to offer- Happy Holidays to all.

My daughter H.S. graduation...

I was busy this weekend and got 5 layouts done for challenges and here is another from Sketchy Thursday. The sketch called for a background broken up in 4 squares and to use 6 pictures which is alot- but I managed to find 5 with the same theme so here it goes for my take....

I used my scraps for this layout the school colors were royal blue and yellow so that was easy for the cardstock to find the blue, and their dresses were yellow and blue floral prints  -so the whole thing pulled together for me. I made the banner flag using Hero Arts banner stamps amd upper case Alpha rubber stamp set for the title. Tied on some blue cord with knots in between each flag. Did some simple journaling in the middle of the page, and lots of pop dots on the banner also.

Monkey Business...

Here is my take for the sketch from Sketchabilities  this week...and its a silly page of some older pictures I found of my daughter and a friend of hers having a silly sleep over and monkeying arond. I used Recollections (monkey cuts outs) K&Company (Rhapsody paper) and misc scraps of black and grey papers.

 I painted the mats of the circle cut out pics with white paint and added glitter to it (which doesn't show up here at all) Also with the white paint I splattered all around the edge of the page to resemble the white powder or whatever it is on their faces.

I used my Cricut to cut the scalloped piece of paper for the journaling area- which my daughter can do later. and a small circle punch for the title  and inked the edges in green. other materials used were pop dots, inks, chipboard flowers, hearts and buttons, scrappers floss and a Big letter M from my stash.

Frosted Designs-ribbon challenge (DT)

I was so excited to make this ornament for this challenge at Frosted Designs  this week... here is my ribbon pinecone ornament.
     I will have a tutorial on how to make this ornament on the Frosted Designs blog on Sunday- December 18th- so be sure to come back and check it out.  (just click on the name)
     It was very simple and fun to make this - and would make a great gift for anyone on your list this year. The dimensions on this ornament or 2" x 3" so it is a great size- not to big or to small- just right!
The challenge is to do any project using ribbon this week for an entry and a chance to win not 1 but 3 fabulous prizes this week from our generous sponsor GRAPHIC 45--- so be sure to give this a try and let me know how your ornament turned out.

SOUS sketch challenge

I was busy this past weekend doing layouts- it felt so good and of course I had to do the SOUS challenge love that blog site- great sketches and ideas all the time.

I always try to do a layout using all my older scraps if I can and this is the one I decided to do that with this week. So all the papers are from my Holiday stash. I used my Cuttlebug to emboss the trees and added Stickles to them also. Some misc gold vellum stickers on the photo corners, and ornaments cut out of paper and layered for some dimension. This is a photo of my daughter and her cousin (who is in the Marines) and was home visiting- they are the same age.

All Dolled Up...

This is for the challenge over at Sketchy Thursday this week and I found some older photos of my daughter at a variety of her high school dances- so I thought I would do a page for her. I was trying to pull the colors out of the dresses that my daughter and her friend  were wearing on top pic throughtout the layout.

The background floral paper is by Paper Studio"Boho Chick paper stack" and the strips are from my stash including the gold ribbon and the pinky/purple floral acetate by Mambly. I used my circle cutter for the musical paper and found some sticker alphas in the purple color that I wanted to pull out and applied them with pop dots. Inked the border of layout with black

I needed something else for this page - but wasn't sure whated- I didn't want to put flowers on this one- so I was looking at the photo and noticed the gold necklace my daughter was wearing and thought...I can make that. So I took out my acetate and Stickles and drew the necklace on the acetate then added a fine glitter in gold to really shine more than the Stickles. I then trimmed around the necklace that I had drawn and placed it on the page and I kinda like how it turned out. So why stop there I added some more gold stickles to the floral pattern paper in several areas and  purple Stickles in centers for some more added bling.

Clubbing...

Clubbing...back in the days that my daughter was in High School and they use to go to these teanager clubs at night(against my better wishes) and get all dressed up and stay out all night(well not all night but you know what I mean) Well I found these 2 photo's and thought I would scrap them for her book. I still have to laugh at those red leather pants my daughter had on- she must of thought they were hot stuff back then and they probably were.

I used papers from The Paper Studio and K&Company, black & white polka dot ribbon and lots of different stamps that I have in my over abundant stash. I stamped and cut out the flowers and added rhinestones to the center of them .

The title alpha's are from a book of letters that I punched out and added pop dots to attached them, and the purse and shoes were stamped also I added some silver Stickles to them

I also used more rhinestones on the center of the black and white diamond pattern and some more silver Stickles in the small diamond pattern on the paper- which might be hard to see. But this page has alot of bling which is what those girls were dressing up like back in the days..
                             I will be applying this over at Sketches in Thyme this week

Over the River and thru the woods...

To grandma's house we go..... is the title of my layout this week for 2 challenges, one at The Paper Variety to use a Christmas song or lyric  and over at SOUS to use "tree" die cuts. This photo is of my 2 daughters and their cousin in Upper Michigan after Christmas one year. The girls decided to take therir first rode trip alone to Michigan to celebrate the New Year with family. And they went over plenty of rivers and thru the woods to grandma's house --so the title is so right for this page.

I used several Cricut cartridges on this layout: DoodleCharms (trees) Graphically Speaking (snowflakes) Accent Essentials (hearts) Calligraphy Collection ( title words) . I also used my Cuttlebug and embossed the trees and layered them with pop dots and used green and diamond sStickles on them for some added bling.

Papers used were by Basic Grey -2-sided paper with houses on one side and blue swirls on the other- .also used red c.s. for mats and title cuts, brown inks, Stickles in pink, green and diamond, Rhinestones on snowflakes and my Xyron can in handy tonight to attached the title on.

I added some Stickles to the hearts and snowflakes and some pretty 3 colored ribbon and made my own journal spot.  The sketch I got from my handy PageMaps 2 book page 29 a 8 1/2 x 11 layut I convereted to a 12 x 12.

BFF- glitter project

Here is my DT project this week for the challenge over at Frosted Designs to use GLITTER on a project- which was so easy to do- because I put glitter on almost everyone of my pages somewhere and with the holidays - glitter is everywhere.

 I love the colors and patterns in the K&Company papers I choose, which I mounted and torn the edges onto the black cardstock- so the colors really stand or pop out at ya. I cut out the butterflies from K&Comapny papers also and added glitter (purple) to them and used pop dots for some dimension.  The chipboard letters- I also covered in glitter the same colors of the alpha's.  I  reprinted the original photo on plain paper so it would look a bit different and not as colorful and cut them in two different sizes- so they kinda look like two different photos.

 I torn two areas and used black embroidery floss to weave the threads in- which I really like how this turned out...kinda represents friends tied together....

I made my own flourishes with black tulip paint and the saying is something I found in my stash of friend stuff, which I also put silver glitter on the frames edge. A simple layout but a big bang of color and I really like it and so did my daughter- which is the one with the strawberry blonde hair in the photo with one of her best friends9old roommate) taken a year ago when she came home to visit during the spring- she lives in Las Vegas and doesn't get to come home much- so this was a special time to get together with some friends.

Sketchabilities #60- Best Friend

I found some older photos of my daughter and some of fher high school friends and she wanted me to scrap them for her- so here is one of the layouts I did with one of her friends (Lisa) as some candid shots of them during the school year.

I used Recollections Stack-Charming- which I just love all the papers in this stack, misc papers from My Mind's Eye, and stash sayings which the title Best Friends I mounted on 2 pieces of chipboad to give it more dimension.

I used 2 different flower punches and inked the edges and attached a rhinestone in the middle. I also hand painted with white acrylic paint a wavy border on the photos to also make them stand out a bit more. Stamped the branches with a rubber stamp and cut out- also using more of Tim Holtz distress inks.

I will be applying this over at Sketchabilities #60 sketch challenge- I changed it up a bit and used 4 photos instead of 3- but everything else is much like the sketch called for.

Homecoming 2002

Here is my take this week for the sketch challenge at Sketchy Thursdays

I used School pride paper by Stampin Station and blue and yellow cardstock. The title was also from School Pride pre-cut die cut and I stamped my own other embellies with sports stamps from Paper Studio, several pop dots and black ink- pretty simple but tells the story of Homecoming and the school spirit that week.

Fun trio= Holiday, tag & glitter

This month over at Scrapbookers Anonymous the challenge is to use the trio on a project- Holiday-tag and glitter. So I have done a 2 page Christams  layout with a believe tag and glitter on the tree and a few other places. These are a variety of family photos taken on Christmas day back in 2006- before I was scrapbooking so they're not the best and we did not pose for any of them...lol All candid shots thats for sure.

 I used several different papers by My Mind's Eye-tree patterned paper, Graphic 45=cut out tree, Anna griffin=green snowflake paper, Bo Bunny tags and strip paper in the middle, Memory Box=floral poinsetta fields design, Hot off the Press for 3 santas cut out, and white cardstock for all mats. I used my Cricut and Gypsy to cut out the title "Traditions" from a green glitter cardstock  and did a little journaling on a Bo-Bunny tag

I used coffee bean (brown) ink, red Stickles on the tree and traced the word -"December and #25" and used Ivory Flower Soft on the tree to look like snow. Then in my Christmas stash I found some epoxy sayings, holly and floral stickers and  scatterd them on the page.

Anything goes..at Scrap Our Stash

So here goes my 2 page layout called Double Vision- which I did a few weeks back and thought this would be great for the challenge this week over at Scrap Our Stash- ANYTHING GOES. - besides this has such  silly photos of my son and his girlfriend taken at college this past fall one evening...I think they were bored or something. But they sent them to me just for kicks on Facebook and I had to copy them and do some kind of page for his scrapbook.

 I don't know how they did the special effects- but I like it and thought they were pretty funny... I didn't want to use to much decorative papers to take away from all the silliness going on = so I found this black and white striped paper and pulled out the color peach in the polka dot paper and a die cut by My Mind's Eye "so sophie". Plain black cardstock for all the mats and used a circle punch with Making Memories paper(black and white patterns) and scattered them on the page with pop dots for dimension.

 I used my Cricut & Gypsy to cut out the arrows with the title cut out in the centers and backed with black cardstock. And use black ink on all the peach edges of  thecuts.

So just for kicks....I did a silly page for his scrapbook- which I'm sure he is gonna really like-great memories for him and his girlfriend. So I will be applying this over at Scrap Our Stash-Anything Goes challenge.