Totally Topaz

In my never ending quest to win free crafty supplies, I am pleased to announce that I'm "Totally Topaz" and am in the running for a wonderful prize package from Scrapbook Steals!  I have been faithfully completing their weekly sketch challenges (I haven't missed a week since I started their challenges 56 weeks ago!)  At the end of every group of ten sketches (grouped with gemstone names), they are giving away some scrappy swag.  Even though these layouts have all been featured elsewhere on my blog,  I have to group them all together to enter for the prize, so please indulge me (and enjoy looking at my creations one more time!)

You're Nuts

This week's challenge was so much fun and my layout came together pretty quickly, thanks to the great papers from the Campy Trails collection!  I had this wooden squirrel in my stash for over a year and finally found a good use for him!  The original sketch from Scrapbook Steals looked like this:

This layout represents the 62nd layout I've done for Scrapbook Steals.  I am constantly amazed at how much inspiration and encouragement I get from this amazing group of people.  I do occasionally purchase steals (like the Campy Trails collection featured above), but the friendships I've formed are far more valuable than the deals I get!

Card Challenge

I've never really considered myself a card maker, but when I saw the contest on Practical Scrappers and the amazing prize package, I had to participate!  The requirement for this round of cards is "pink".  Ugh.  Anyone who knows me well knows this is a realy challenge for me.  I have never been a fan of pink and I'm so lucky that I only have boys, but I busted out of my comfort zone for this one and found a few pink pieces of paper to work with.  The challenge allows for up to 3 cards to be submitted, so I made these:

I used my loopy punch around the page Martha Stewart punch to make the layers of loops and added some glitter to the Congratulations sentiment, although it's hard to see in the picture.

For this card, I pulled out some of my favorite patters from Echo Park's Life is Good collection.  I broke out my Sew Easy to add the stitching and then made the flower using little scalloped circles.

This card shows off more paper and elements from the Life is Good collection.  I added a little bling with my i-rock.

If any of my "pink" cards are chosen, then I will go on to the next round and will get another topic to work on, with people then being able to vote on their favorite.  This will continue until the final round in early November.  They are giving away an amazing prize package, so I'm crossing my fingers and hoping I at least make the first cut. 

Practical Scrappers

One of my favorite blogs is looking for designers.  Practical Scrappers is a great site that encourages me to try different techniques or topics and submit layouts for their blog features.  My layouts have been featured several times and each time I still get a thrill out of seeing my work on someone else's site.  I've decided to throw in my hat for their designer search.  It's a small commitment, three months, so it would be a perfect fit for me and my busy life.  Go visit their blog and check them out!  Please tell them I sent you, so they can see how many wonderfully scrappy friends I am introducing to their amazing site.  On the side of their blog, you can see a list of current calls featuring lots of different topics.  I'm submitting this layout in their request for pages about fall:

And this is a layout I did for their 2 page layout request:

Please excuse the poor photo quality.  We've had some rainy dreary days here in Northern Indiana, making it difficult to get enough natural light for my photos. 

Thanks for looking and don't forget to check out Practical Scrappers and play along with them!



You are the...

While browsing Pinterest, I came across this typography that made my smile:

I decided to use elements of this on a layout about my wonderful husband.  We seldom take pics together and it is a rare occasion that we actually get one I like.  This photo of us was taken on a sad day, at his grandmother's funeral, but I love that it captures us looking decent and so much in love.  Grandma would love it too.  I tried to ignore the housework that was calling my name and I snuck to the basement for some crafty time.  This is the end result:

I had seen journaling like this in magazines and I decided to give it a try.  Not long ago, I was admiring scrapbooking templates that were not in my budget and I decided to make my own by cutting up frosted/clear poly binders that I found on sale for 25 cents!  I used a curvy cutter on some, traced some shapes, and hand cut some others to come up with these:

I punched holes in the end so that I can store them all on a ring.  I used these handy dandy little templates to make some guidelines on my layout.  I traced several curvy lines around the space where my picture would go and then I set out writing the journaling between the curvy lines while trying to fill up most of the space.  It was a bit intimidating because I don't always love my handwriting.  Once I was satisfied with my penciled journaling, I traced over the words using Sharpies and then I erased all of my guide lines.  Thanks for looking!

Catch a Wave

For this week's sketch challenge at Scrapbook Steals, I dusted off some fun photos from a few years back and made a layout using this sketch:

I flipped the sketch to work better with my pics and title placement. The title was a transparency and my background papers were just too busy and distracted from the title, so I painted the back side of the transparency with a light yellow acrylic paint, and added a few swipes of yellow paint around the edges.  I combined two collections from Fancy Pants -Rusted Sun and Beach Bum.  And in honor of this week's challenge at Practical Scrappers, I did a bunch of fussy cutting and made some embellishments from a variety of patterned papers.

Thanks for looking! 

My Mind's Eye Blog Challenge #27

After a long weekend of house guests, I finally returned to my crafty space in the basement, determined to find some "me time" and make something spectacular.  I found the blog challenge and knew that I wanted to work with the Lime Twist collection from My Mind's Eye.   I love the Out of the Blue and Go Fly a Kite collections and decided to mix them for this layout.  The challenge was to start with this sketch and the title "Back to _____"

With recent back to school photos sitting on my desk, I decided this would be a natural fit for this challenge.  I wanted to use multiple photos so I did some trimming and worked in three photos that document our morning routine.  This is what I created:

When I saw the journaling strips on the original sketch, I immediately thought of pencils and decided to make my own to highlight our back to school schedule.  I started with a line drawing of a pencil that I found in a clip art file.  I copied the pencil image several times onto a transparency and printed them.  After cutting our each individual pencil by hand, I set about the arduous task of decorating the pencils.  Since I used a transparency, I was able to paint the back side of the image so that the color showed through without covering up the details.  Next I cut strips of patterned paper from the 6x6 paper pad and  typed my text into my label maker.  I put the clear labels on top of the patterned paper and then glued them to the underside of the transparency to complete my pencils. 

Someday my boys will love to look back and know what their schedule was.  I added a title that I cut with my die cut machine and cut the number 2 out of a patterned piece of paper.  I added some pieced apples to complete the "theme".  I love how the papers coordinate even though they are from two different collections.  Thanks for a great challenge and the chance to win some great MME product!  The winner of this challenge gets to choose three entire collections.  I know Lime Twist would be on my wish list for sure! 

tough break

This week's challenge at Scrapbook Steals was to create a layout based on this sketch:

I dug deep into my pile of pictures and found these photos from last April, when my oldest had his first broken bone.  I had a few pieces of Echo Park's playground collection, which fit the theme of the layout just perfectly.  I included a picture of the playset so that he will remember just where this happened.

 It was a horribly scary moment for us both.  I can still remember his blood curdling scream and the way his wrist just "flopped" around as he ran into the house to tell us what happened.  We had a house full of relatives and had just shared a big meal to celebrate Easter.  Luckily, Aunt Marilyn is a nurse and she took charge and calmly assessed the situation.  Nate knew right away that he would be the one to take Jacob to the ER for x-rays.  Four hours later it was determined that the wrist was broken in two places.  He came home in a splint and waited four days to see a specialist to learn there was no need for surgery.  He chose a cast that was "Colts blue" and waterproof.  What a great invention this was!  No stinky itchy cast that had to be wrapped up each time he showered.  He could literally run water right thru it.  I'm so glad we paid a little extra and went with that one!

nature boy

I love everything about the Happy Camper collection from Imaginisce!  Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find it for sale in my area, but my scrappy friend Cathryn was kind enough to get me some and ship it to me, all the way from Canada!  I love the fun colors and the great texture of the papers, some of which are even embossed.  The only problem I have with these two sided papers is that I love both sides and can't decide which side I want to use.  I guess that's just a good excuse to buy more.  Actually, if I win this month's challenge at Imaginisce, I can WIN more.  That would be sooooo awesome!

I decided to break out my new collection and do a layout for this sketch challenge.  Here's what the original sketch looked like:

I love the grid pattern which allowed me to use a variety of the patterned papers that I love.  I only switched around a few things so that it would fit the photos of my little guy.  Here's my version of this challenge:

I distressed the edges of my "blocks" and added ink to rough them up a bit.  I made a "frame" from jute that I picked up at the hardware store and I added a homemade sun with twine stitched rays tucked behind the cloud die cut from the Happy Camper collection.  I love the way it turned out.  And most importantly, I love the chance to win more amazing products from Imaginisce!  We've done lots of camping this season and I can't wait to make more projects using our camping pictures! Thanks for looking!

Chicago

This week's challenge at Scrapbook Steals was a fun one.  My scrappy pal Charissa Miller was the lucky guest sketcher this week.  She challenged us to create a layout based off of this sketch:

I dug into my pile of pictures and realized that I had two pics from our Chicago trip that would be perfect for this layout.  I pulled out my Echo Park and started mixing and matching collections again.  This layout used pieces from Walk In The Park, Summertime, Dots & Stripes, and Life is Good.  I didn't have a ton of embellishments, so I decided to try something fun with the title.  I layered stickers and cut out circles, popping some of them up with pop dots.  Then I used my cricut to die cut a variety of letters to spell out Chicago from different fonts.  For a rather plain page, I love the way it turned out!  Thanks for looking!

Two Wheelin'

I dug into my Echo Park collection for this week's Scrapbook Steals challenge.  I used elements from 4 different Echo Park collections and love how they all work together.  This is from Dots & Stripes, Playground, Little Boy, and Summertime.

This didn't turn out the way I expected it to.  But I modified the original sketch as I went along.  It started out with this sketch:

I had trouble with my stitched letters.  I started with light blue cardstock letters and pierced holes all around them to do my stitching.  As I finished the first letter, I decided I didn't like the light blue paper anymore so I tried to remove it, ripping some of the background paper in the process.  So, I improvised and added some white puffy paint to cover the torn paper.  I piped the paint in around the already stitched "T" and then painted between the holes on the other two letters and stitched them after the paint dried.  Thanks for looking!