Go Big! Challenge

I've had a bit of a scrappy hiatus, thanks to a pesky pinched nerve in my neck.  I'm finally feeling better, thanks to some amazing muscle relaxers, and I decided to play along with the Paper Girls challenge.  Some of my scrappy friends are part of the Paper Girls Challenge and this month they challenged their followers to go big, using a picture 5x7 or larger on a project.  I printed my photo 11x14 (less than $3 at Sam's Club) and then cut my photo down to fit within my 12x12 page. 

This layout came together very quickly, thanks to some crafty short cuts I took.  I adhered my large photo, added a paper strip at the top along with a homemade sun.  For the strip along the bottom, I just cut up a piece of the packaging from the Echo Park Splash collection. I used a border punch along the bottom and added the "Fun in the Sun" strip and some stickers for my title.  Voila!

 

Amazing

I decided to feature my grandfather in this week's sketch challenge for Scrapbook Steals.  The one photo layouts are hard for me, as I often have too many pictures to choose from.  The pressure of having only one photo also means it must be a great one.  I came across this photo of my Grandpa Wilford and decided that it was perfect for this sketch, as I had a lot to say about him and this sketch had plenty of room for journaling. 

I combined papers from MLS, October Afternoon, Simple Stories, the Paper Studio, and Echo Park, in the perfect tribute layout to my amazing grandfather.  He really is an inspiration and a blessing to me.  As I wrote out this journaling, I found myself teary eyed and missing home more than ever.  It's hard living 6 hours away from my loved ones.  November will be my next trip home, so I'm looking forward to a great visit with my Grandpa.

Here's the sketch by Kristy Lee that inspired my layout:

Carefree Summer

As we are back to school, consumed by football, and heading into fall, I decided to celebrate what's left of Summer by doing this week's sketch challenge with a summertime theme.  These photos feature Caleb enjoying last summer's adventures. 

I used more papers from the Summer Fresh collection by Simple Stories.  I even snuck a little floral print in my boy layout!  Here's the original sketch by Regina Mangum that inspired my work:

I hope all of my faithful followers are enjoying what is left of their summer.  Thanks for looking!

Becoming You

This week's sketch at Scrapbook Steals was another great challenge. I seldom do layouts with only one picture since I usually prefer multi-photo, multi-page layouts. Here's the inspiration sketch by Kristy Lee:

For this layout, I chose a recent photo of Jacob.  On a recent road trip, we stopped at a winery to pick up some bottles for a friend, and we saw this beautiful landscape.  Jacob asked to have his picture taken here, so I happily obliged.  He seldom requests his photo taken, since he often complains about how he looks (like mother, like son!). In the past year, it seems he's having more and more of these issues, which I didn't expect to deal with until his teenage years.  Kids are growing up quicker than ever, and it seems he's already facing big kid stressors related to body image, fitting in, and peer pressure.  We have had many discussions and I think I've raised a pretty confident boy, but my heart still breaks a little when I hear him talk negatively about himself.  He's got a lot of growing yet to do, and I'll help him through as best I can.

The papers used in this layout are from Simple Stories, the Awesome collection.  It's one of my favorite go-to collections for boy pages.  The patterns are great and the colors are perfect!

For this layout, I used some uncoventional items. I started with mesh drywall tape that I used as a mask for spray ink.  I originally intended to write over the masked ink, but the texture was too much and I had to go to plan B.  My original messed up journaling was cleverly covered up by the clustered stickers at the top. The drywall tape has a little adhesive on it, which is just enough to stick to the layout but still be easily removed once the paint is dry.  I just stuck on various lengths of tape, sprayed Mr. Huey's, and the peeled off the tape, leaving behind a great textured effect.  The drywall tape comes in a huge roll for just a couple dollars and can be used as a mask, painted, or left in it's original form:

The other item that I incorporated was plastic gutter guard.  I found a roll of this for $1 at my local Habitat Re-Store and I didn't even know what is was because it had no label on it.  I just knew I could get crafty with it, so I snatched it up.  The lightweight plastic cuts easily with scissors.  It was a little tricky to adhere, but some strategically placed glue dots did the trick.  The roll is about 6 inches wide, so it's easy to work with and doesn't have any sharp edges thanks to the soft plastic material.

I love thinking out of the box and repurposing items that were never intended for scrapbook pages.  Having a handy husband with lots of tools and maintenance supplies doesn't hurt either.  Being the frugal scrapbooker that I am, I'm always on the hunt for cheap embellishments!

Princess & the Frog

This layout was created with two different challenges in mind.  It features my darling niece Isabel proudly holding the frog that her brother Gabe caught.  I was afraid the frog wasn't noticeable enough in the picture, so I added a green heart to highlight her little froggy friend.  This layout was inspired by the weekly  mid-week mojo sketch challenge at Scrapbook Steals.  Kristy Lee created this lovely sketch that was perfect for  my froggy photo:

I choose a fun selection of papers from Authentique and played along with their monthly color challenge.  The layout had to be inspired by these colors, which I thought coordinated perfectly with my Princess and the Frog theme:

Authentique papers used:  Gifted from the Uncommon collection, Magnificence from the Splendid collection, Richness from the Splendid collection, diction stickers, and foundations bi-fold papers.  

Together

After a long Saturday full of haircuts, laundry, housework, and cooking, I snuck to the basement for some "me" time in my scrappy space.  Since I knew it was just a matter of time before someone discovered me down there, I knew I had to work quickly and knock out this week's sketch challenge for Scrapbook Steals.  Lately, my go-to collections for creating super quick layouts are all from Simple Stories.  This week I used papers from the Awesome collection to compliment some recent photos of my boys. 

This layout came together so quickly, by cutting four strips from different papers and layering them on my page.  I distressed some edges and added a piece of twine tied into a knot.  The title stickers are woodgrain letters from Paper Studio (Hobby Lobby).  A little journaling and a star sticker and I was done!  Before anyone came looking for me!  This layout varies just a little from the original sketch, but was super quick.  Here's the original inspiration by guest sketcher Jennifer McDermott, my super talented scrappy pal:

Back to School Teacher Gifts

It's that time again!  School starts for my kiddos in less than two weeks.  I love to start off the year by sending in a gift for the teacher.  For my son's second grade teacher, I decided to create a "survival kit" filled with fun goodies for his new teacher.  I started with a plastic hardware organizer with removable dividers. 

I filled the individual sections with a variety of school supplies and items the teacher might need throughout the year.  I raided the dollar section at Target for back to school goodies.  To make sure the items I was shopping for would fit in my box, I carried one of the extra divider pieces with me in my purse.  I was able to hold the divider piece up to items in the store to see if they would fit inside the space.  From top to bottom, left to right the box includes pencils, rubber bands, small post-it notes, glue sticks, wooden stamps, hand sanitizer, pencil top erasers, a roll of reward stickers, star shaped erasers, bookmarks, vitamin C drops, a variety of chocolates, and a bottle of Tylenol for good measure.

For the finishing touch, I decorated the top of the box using scrapbooking supplies and ribbon.  Now we're ready for 2nd grade!

I struggled with gift ideas for my 5th grader's male teacher, so we decided to recreate a gift we did last year for the 4th grade teacher.  There are lots of melted crayon art ideas on Pinterest, and this gift was a huge hit last year, so we figured we couldn't go wrong.  For this project, you'll need a blank canvas, some crayons with the paper wrappers removed, an old pencil or stick to use as a plunger, and a glue gun that you never want to put glue in again.  After tediously peeling tiny pieces of paper off of crayons last year, I learned that the quickest way to remove the wrapper is to slice down the length of the crayon with a craft knife, allowing the wrapper to be peeled off easily.

I propped up my canvas at a slight angle with scrap paper taped behind it and on the floor underneath.

I started with red, going in ROYGBIV order, shoving the crayon into the business end of a hot glue gun and letting it melt onto my canvas.  The "trigger" mechanism doesn't actually work to feed the crayon through the gun, so I push the crayon through by hand and use a pencil to push it through once the crayon gets shorter.  I tried to take photos of this process, but I just didn't have enough hands.  The melted crayon shoots out all over the place and is sometimes hard to control, so you may want to practice this technique ahead of time.  When switching colors, it is also necessary to squirt out the muddled mess of mixed colors on a scrap paper and wait until the new color is flowing out before going back to the canvas.   Thanks to some crazy lighting, the colors aren't coming out well in my photos, making the purple color at the end look more like black.  You'll just have to take my word for it and use your imagination.

I ended up using a pencil and the handle of a paint brush to push the colors through.  Lots of extra wax will drip out from the gun, so use caution with the hot wax.  This is why you'll need to use an old glue gun or one that you will dedicate to melted crayons from here on out.  Your gun will literally be a hot mess when you're finished, but some of the dried crayon drips can be peeled off.

To finish off this project, I personalized the canvas with die-cut letters spelling out the teacher's name.  Now we're officially ready for the start of school!

Thanks for stopping by!  I'd love to hear about more fun ideas for teacher gifts.