Mid-Week Mojo

Okay, I am combining another two posts from yesterday and today because I am still playing catch-up from last week's last-minute vacay to California and then getting back home with my little souvenir of the WORST. SINUS. INFECTION. EVER. that laid me out flat until a couple of days ago. My house is still one giant sputum infestation and I sound like I've been smoking a couple of packs of unfiltered cigarettes a day for the past twenty years, but I feel human again. And by human, I mean I can scrapbook again. Because - let's face it - scrapbooking is the very raison d'etre of human existance, right? Right??? So, ummm...yeah.

Anywho, I figure the middle of the week is generally one big blur to everyone anyway, so who am I to shake things up and define each day. So - consider this my mid-week blur.

Yesterday was the Wednesday reveal over at Let's Scrap and we got to play with a card design again. I think those very nice Let's Scrap ladies are trying to give me subtle reminders that I really need to get cranking on my Christmas cards so I don't end up stressed out in a very UN-Christmaslike Spirit when I am making 50+ cards on December 23rd and wondering if I can take out a second mortgage on my home to pay for enough express postage to get them to friends and family in time. And so, being the responsible adult that I am, I made a card that is not Christmasy in the slightest. But at least I did use their design as instructed, so I am going to say that's a step in the right direction - ha! Here is the design:

And here is the link to their wonderful SITE so you can check out what our other fabulous DT ladies created as well as join in on other great challenges and the chance to win some pretty cool prizes for your stash!

Over at Birds of a Feather, it was my turn to blog with my first two reveals using the October Kit. Let me tell you, that kit was packed full of so many favorites for me, including Crate Paper's Farmhouse Collection papers and chipboard stickers, Jillibean Soup corrugated alphas (in luscious, yes I said luscious, bright red), Kaisercraft mini-folders, ribbon, and Maya Road wooden buttons. As soon as I opened up the kit, The Archies started singing in my head:

Yummy, Yummy, Yummy, I got love in my tummy
And I feel like a-lovin' you
Love, you're such a sweet thing
Good enough to eat thing
And that's just a-what I'm gonna do Ooh

Thankfully, I didn't actually eat my kit; but I'm pretty sure I did drool over it and laugh a little maniacally a couple of times as I was making my layouts. And here they are, drool stains and all:

First, I made this one of my older daughter, going with a kind of back-to-school theme since Fall IS about back-to-school (even in grad school.

I absolutely L.O.V.E.D. those corrugated alphas that I could sew through.

and all the cute chipboard stickers (cause I'm all about the 3D)

Next up was this layout, still using up pics from my trip to visit my brother and his family last Thanksgiving. I guess that's what happens when you come back with a couple hundred photos from a one week visit.

Oh, yeah, I had to had to HAD TO use those red alphas again!

I added a little Smooch Spritz to my wooden buttons and then wiped the buttons off before the Spritz completely dried to give them an older, worn look. And, of course, I misted and distressed and tore things to my sinus-infected little heart's content.

So there you have it. Stay tuned Friday when I return with more of my LCOM goodies and a few other fabulous finds that I just happened to stumble upon while lurking around the world wide web.

It's Friday, Friday!

It's Friday, and I have been so busy scrapping this week that I haven't had time to blog! So, let's do a little recap of this past week, shall we?

Wednesday was reveal day over at Let's Scrap. Here is the sketch:

And here is what I came up with:

Do you ever have one of those pages that just won't come together no matter what you do? This was one of THOSE pages for me! It inspired me quite a bit - to cuss like a sailor (under my breath) that is. I didn't like any of my ideas, not even one, and kept putting this project to the side so that my thoughts could "simmer" a little bit. I was sure my brain would keep working on this and come up with a brilliant idea even when I was working on something else, but instead I think it was off drinking margaritas on a tropical island because I got NADA from the inspiration department (except a few new phrases that I am pretty sure are anatomically impossible). So, finally, desperation kicked in and I finished my layout with maybe 30 minutes to spare before the deadline! Do I like it? Yes. Is it my best work? No. But it's done and the (mental) constipation is gone, so I feel much better, thank you!

Next, I headed over to Paper Secrets, a site I discovered back in May that has great challenges posted each month. Somehow, it gotted dropped from my favorites bar so I have missed it since the first part of July it looks like. September includes a sketch challenge, and the sketch, which is by Page Maps, takes a more minimalist approach, something I have been loving more and more lately.

Yep, I am going to make you go to the challenge to see the sketch, but here is my take:

I felt completely and totally vindicated for not cleaning all the little bits of paper and odds and ends of my scrap table when I made this layout, because almost every single thing on it came from that pile. Okay, the twine, the button, the mist and the background paper weren't laying around on my table, but everything else was. I just randomly slapped stuff down on my layout and it was done almost before I started it - a first for me! And I LOVE the result - love it!

Last, but not least, is this fun layout I created for Let's Capture Our Memories. Normally, I can take or leave KaiserCraft's papers. But when I saw the Class of '87 Collection, I HAD TO HAVE IT! Maybe because I remember being in school in the 80's or maybe it was all the bright, totally fun graphics on the pages. Either way, I couldn't resist them and made this layout with pics taken of my youngest daughter right after her re-enactment of the no-lockers-tragedy.

You can see that she is cracking up so obviously the lack of lockers has not permanently scarred her! For close-ups, head on over to the LCOM BLOG, and if you remember the 80's and want your own set of school-themed papers from that collection head on over to the LCOM STORE!

Whew! And, that wraps up the week in review! Hope you have a great weekend!

Challenge Yourself!

Yesterday, I enjoyed stretching my creative skills at two of my favorite websites. First, I created my Sunshine layout over at Let's Scrap . Challenge 111 is a Recipe Challenge in which I had to use an 8x10 photo, a sketch from Let's Scrap, ribbon or twine and at least five pieces of paper cut into one or more shapes. I have been wanting to use a large photo on a layout for quite awhile, so I was very excited to play along! And, I was actually quite challenged to balance the large photo with papers and embellishments - much more so than I thought I would be!

This is my second layout, which I created for the color challenge going on this month at Birds of a Feather.

Now I used papers from my September Kit, but you really don't have to. This month's color challenge only requires you to use the colors orange, blue, yellow and white in whatever way you want!

I'm a big believer in scrapbooking the everyday moments - and that includes the good moments as well as the bad. My youngest daughter was heartbroken to find out they wouldn't be using the lockers at her junior high this year so when we were walking by them during her orientation a couple of days later, I KNEW I had to take a picture of her standing in front of the source of her misery!

So, what are you doing to challenge yourself this month? Any recommendations on places to play and scrapbooking to do this month?

Let's Scrap August 31st Sketch

I am a couple of days behind on my sketch reveal for this week's wonderful sketch over at Let's Scrap, but to make up for it I have a story behind the layout to share with you. First, though, here's the sketch:

The papers used for my "Formal Dinner" layout come from one of the very first paper packs I ever purchased when I began scrapbooking back in 2009. BUT - I didn't get those nifty papers for myself - oh no. Don't ask me why, but I had this crazy (although perfectly logical-sounding in my head at the time) idea that my 100% red-blooded Texas husband would want to create a scrapbook, too, for all the exciting pictures I was sure he was going to want to take and souvenirs he was going to collect while working in Africa. Ummmm,yeah...no, that was never going to happen. And so, those papers got shoved into an organizer and completely forgotten about until I was trying to find some appropriately-themed travel papers for this layout. I pulled the pack back out, over two years later, with the tape still sealed around the edges!

As for the pictures in the layout - they are of my oldest daughter and her boyfriend taken last fall on a family cruise. It was formal dinner night, and I wanted to get nice pictures of everyone around the table since we were all dressed up. K and J had different ideas, however, and their mugging for the camera progressed from silly to sillier to silliest in each successive picture - thinking, I suppose, that they were somehow preventing me from getting good pictures. Well, look who made the layout using those pictures anyway. And guess who will be getting the last laugh when I post my layout on Facebook??? (insert evil laugh here)

So.....back to Let's Scrap. It's a new month and a new challenge. This month, Julie Bonner has provided a fantastic sketch for the September contest, and there is not one, but two, prizes to be given away! The first person will receive the Teresa Collins Haunted Hallows Collection, and the second winner will receive the Teresa Collins Christmas Home Collection. For more details, simply click HERE.

Everyday Tim Holtz, Marketing Team News, and Sketches!

I don't know about you, but when I think about Tim Holtz I don't normally think...everyday all-occasion cards. And I CERTAINLY don't think "quick design project" that is easy to put together! But...that is exactly what I was able to do last night using my yummy papers and supplies from the Let's Capture Our Memories STORE. I think the main thing that made creating these cards so quick and easy was that I used Timmy-Poo's Crowded Attic paper collection which, much like its namesake, is packed with old, vintage images that are perfect for cardmaking, especially when combined with some of his ribbon or those had-to-have-them-could-not-put-them-down miniature hangers.

Speaking of Let's Capture Our Memories, did you know they are looking for a new MARKETING TEAM? I can tell you from personal experience, this is a fabulous group of ladies to work with! And to get free supplies every month to create your projects - well, it just doesn't get much better than that! Entries are due no later than September 15th, and the term runs from November 2011 to March 2012.

For those of you who are having a hard time finding inspiration or simply finding the time to scrap due to school that has just begun or getting ready to begin, here are a couple of great sketches from my favorite sketch sites:

From SASSY LIL SKETCHES, here is the August Week 3 sketch:

And here is my take on it:

You know the Design Team has come up with lots of great ideas, so if you still need a little inspiration, click HERE.

And, last but not least, from LET'S SCRAP, here is this week's new sketch, hot off the virtual press:

Want to see what the Let's Scrap Girls and I made? Well, you're going to have to click HERE!

Until next time - be creative!

Let's Scrap! (and a chance to win a prize)

Want to scrap but feel like you're in a rut and need a little creative inspiration? Then check out these two sketches from Let's Scrap - they certainly inspired me! Here is the first sketch - it's an oldie but a goodie:

I very seldom use two page sketches, primarily because I use a 3-ring binder for my layouts so they never "connect" in the middle. But what I like about this sketch is that the only connecter between the two pages is really just the trim so my layout will end up looking like two coordinated pages in my scrapbook. I can definitely live with that!

I have been loving the look of black cardstock as a background paper - it makes my patterned papers, whether primary or pastel colors, POP! For my layout, I mostly used Echo Park's For the Record line because it's cute without being girly or childish.

I reduced the number of photos on my second page, but you can see the possibilities for using lots more pics if you want. And, of course, there are so many ways you can play with embellies on this page!

I added a little hidden journaling, and I was good to go!

This is my second layout, a DT project for Let's Scrap:

It was created using this week's 8-10-11 sketch:

Obviously, I only used the left side of the sketch, but that's what is so cool about Let's Scrap sketches. They give you two pages, but if you want to play along in their challenges, you have the option of using one or both pages - your choice!

Want to play with the 8.10.11 sketch? If you do so by August 16th and post it on the Let's Scrap SITE
, you will be entered in a drawing to win this:

Scrapbooking AND loot? It doesn't get much better than that!

Refrigerator Worthy

Remember when you were a little child and if you made a really pretty picture, your mom would stick it to the front of the refrigerator? No? Don't worry, my mom didn't do those things either! But I like this layout, created with my Birds of a Feather August Kit SO MUCH that I feel like a little kid wanting to show it off! And I may just stick it to the front of MY fridge!

Yes, the picture is of me lazing around in the pool with my little neurotic doggy, Bailey. She cannot STAND to be left out of anything - whether it's the room I am in or, in this case, the float in the pool I am in!

And as pleased as I was with my layout, I was positively over the moon with my next project!

I found a cheap unfinished picture frame at Michaels that was perfect for covering with papers from my August Kit. The layout was easy to make with the majority of the time spent putting together and arranging the flowers. I used sticker flowers, fussy cut flowers and flowers made from punches for my "floral arrangement" and sealed everything firmly into place with Glossy Accents - a little something I learned from my bestie Alissa. The only real difference between this and a "regular" scrapbook layout is that I covered all my papers on the frame with a gel medium to harden them somewhat and make them more durable and less prone to tearing.

Here's a close-up of the flowers I had so much fun making!

Hope to see you over at Birds of a Feather and see what YOU'VE made with your kit! They are packed with so many goodies, the projects I can make seem to go on and on and on and on!

Let's Scrap Page Maps August Challenge

You know how much I love sketches so to be chosen for the design team of a site that focuses on using sketches to create layouts (and that has an active international on-line community of wonderful women)is a very good thing! Most of the sketches are two pagers, but you can always use just one side, rotate it, flip it, combine the two sides - all things that I've certainly done at one time or another!

My Snow Cones layout was created using a recent Let's Scrap sketch from 7-27-11. I used Echo Park Splash papers and created my banner by punching out the circles from the paper with a small circle punch. I then affixed them to my twine by using teeny-tiny brads and a bit of adhesive on the back.

Enough about my layout, let's talk a bit more about Let's Scrap. Do you like sketches? Do you like Becky Fleck's Page Maps Sketches? Do you like getting the chance to win prizes? Then head over to the Let's Scrap site where, throughout the month of August, you can play with this sketch:

And have the chance to win this great prize sponsored by EnMarc:

For more info, just click HERE!