May Scrap Our Stash Blog Hop

Happy Friday - I am so glad you are hopping along with us to get the weekend kick-started!  You should have arrived here from CHERYL'S BLOG.  If you are just stopping by and want to start at the beginning of the hop, head over to PRACTICAL SCRAPPERS.

I have two confessions to make to you while you are here.  The first is, today is my birthday!  And I think that being involved in a blog hop with my good friends is the perfect start to the beginning of my *cough mumble mumble cough* year.  LOL!

My second confession involves my layout, which is really, really (really) bright; however, after several days of heavy downpours and dark gray skies, I needed some bright sun, even if it only came from my paper stash:

You may be saying, "Krissy, this is a new(ish) summer collection by AMERICAN CRAFTS.  How could you possibly consider this to be scrapping your stash, which is kind of the point of the whole blog hop?"  Okay...time for confession two.  You see, through a stroke of sheer luck, I managed to score these papers way back during CHA in January.  Then, well, life happened (in ways that I would have preferred it not to have done) any my scrapbooking goodies got shoved in a bag under a table, where they sat alone and neglected.  Do I have older stash?  Oh, yes.  But I am positive I don't have anything brighter and more sunshiny than these papers!

To get started, I used this sketch by CREATIVE SCRAPPERS:

As you can see, I stayed pretty true to the sketch.  Here are a few close-ups (go ahead, put on your sunglasses if you need to):

As you can see, I was one layering crazy woman!  But what can I say?  I wanted to use all my bright pretty papers.  And then I found some cool transparancies that I HAD to use; and the same with the cute stickers; and, gosh, how could I NOT use the adorable wood veneer shapes?  

And, of course, I had to include a little flair.  And include tiny type stickers to add a little visual interest to my title.  And sew.  And fussy cut.  And cut fringes...

But - my stash is just a little more scrapped now, and my work here is done.  Or at least my layout is done...you know what I mean...

Next up on the blog hop is WENDI.  I am sure you are going to love her project!  

Have a great weekend and happy hopping!

Be You

The Huntress - she's got her own style.  It's quirky, it is definitely anime-inspired, (these days it is often a little pouty-faced), and it's all her own.  Some days she is a rock star, and other days she is the ultimate teenage drama queen.  There may be a lot she still has to figure out in life, but she knows who she is, and that is a huuuggge start!  

I took her out to do a fun little photo shoot recently, and I got a memory card full of photos that capture her in all her pouty rocker/anime glory perfectly.  I knew I needed papers that captured the love, optimism, and hope I have for her - so I went digging through my stash for my HEIDI SWAPP stuff, which turned out to fit the bill perfectly.  I primarily used the Mixed Company line, which had the clean, simple graphics I wanted.  

To help me get my mojo kick-started, I also used the SKETCHABILITIES SKETCH #115.  I know a lot of ladies on the Sketchablities design team take a more vintage, mixed media approach to the sketches.  However, I think they work well for any style!

I love the way my layout turned out!  I was a little worried, since I haven't scrapbooked in so long, that I had forgotten how to glue together two pieces of paper, much less create a complete layout.  But, I guess it is just like that old saying about riding a bicycle...(thank goodness).

Here are a couple of close-ups:

A lot of layering and some symbolism, too...

My girl is a superstar to me, so of course I had to include a star and then, for good measure, layer it with another star.  I guess that makes her a super superstar...

Here are a few other photos from our little shoot that I imagine I will be creating layouts around in the near future:

A Few Favorites

Still playing catch-up and wanted to quickly share these layouts - all made with MY SCRAPS AND MORE SKETCHES.  Tammi makes some sketches that, apparently, really work well with my way of scrapping because each layout came together effortlessly and quickly, and I love the results!  I used CRATE PAPER'S STYLEBOARD COLLECTION to create this first layout, which features a photo of the Huntress who is just full of all kinds of attitude but still just as sweet as she can be.

My next layout:

I used an oldy but goody FANCY PANTS collection - Trendsetter - which coordinated perfectly with this photo of Little Lula who, at age 4, is already a little trendsetter with her own style and buckets of personality!

Finally, another of Lula and one of her Lala Loopsy dolls going beddy-bye:

I used my February PAPER BAKERY KIT and some random bits and pieces sitting out on my work table to create this fun layout.

That's it for me today.  Hope your Saturday is full of happiness and spent doing the things you enjoy doing most!  Until next time...

Today Was Golden - My Scraps and More Sketches

Today we are playing along with a new sketch over at MY SCRAPS AND MORE SKETCHES.  Head over to blog to see what other design team members have done with Sketch #76, then play along and link up your take on it!

This is what Sketch 76 looks like:

And here are a couple of close-ups of my layout:

This was an Instagram picture that I took of the Golden Gate Bridge during a recent trip with the Hubster to San Francisco.  We were walking along trails around the Presidio and there were several spots, such as this one, that provided the perfect vantage point to take pictures of the iconic bridge.  I loved the way it turned out and knew I wanted to use it in a layout.  I used a mixture of BELLA BLVD papers from the Snapshots and Freestyle Sophisticates Collections.  I always love it when different collections "play nice" with each other!  I haven't used Bella Blvd in quite a while, but these papers seemed to work perfectly for my layout.

I had a LOT of fun creating the title for this layout.  Often, my title is an afterthought for me, but not this time!

That's it for me today.  Be sure to stop by tomorrow as I continue my catch-up and post a few more layouts that I think you are really going to like.  I know I do! (snicker-snort)

I Am Back - with Pretty Little Studio!

I am back with PRETTY LITTLE STUDIO, and I can't think of a better layout to lead with than this one featuring Lou, one of my beautiful daughters, taken during one of the happiest days of her (and my) life - her wedding.  I created this for PLS using the NEAPOLITAN, BABY JACK, and BIRTHDAY CAKE collections - some of the happiest collections I can think of!

Very quickly, let me apologize for not dazzling you with my brilliant scrapbooking abilities for the last month (insert laugh track here).  I had some serious family issues that took awhile to be resolved, and then I have spent the past few weeks playing catch-up with the rest of life that didn't want to stand still and wait for me while I was trying to get my "shiz-nit" together - pretty rude of life, if you ask me!  But I am back in the saddle, so to speak, and want to catch up - so grab some coffee and stay a little while.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

And - playing catch up, here are several other layouts that I created for Pretty Little Studio recently.  I have truly loved the way each and every one has turned out!

My Always layout (packed full of symbolism):

Two fun cards that I absolutely adore.  A little bit of whimsy always brightens my day:

This layout  - featuring a spring photo I took of The Huntress - and more of those fun Pretty Little Studio paper ribbons that I adore so much!

I had a lot of fun with the layering of this one:

And - finally - these two layouts that I have affectionately dubbed "twinsies" - why?  Because even though I created them weeks apart, they ended up looking almost exactly the same!  Clearly my brain likes something about this design!

Twin 1, or Smaty Pants:

I love this layout and have to share a few close-ups:

And...Twin 2 a/k/a This Girl.  Also notice how I have used the same "this moment" journaling card for my selfie layout.  Yep, I like that particular journaling card a lot.  Quite frankly, I have an obsession with ALL of the Pretty Little Studio journaling tags and cards.  

A couple of close-ups:

Whew!  I feel like I just ran a marathon!  Did you make it to the end with me?  Well, if you did, pat yourself on the back and enjoy the rest of your Wednesday!  And thank you - thank you so much for sticking with me!

Project Life Week 6

I told myself back in December that I would give Project Life a try.  And I did try it, right on cue, the first week in January.  Annndddd...my layout, or whatever you want to call it, for the first week was just awful.  Nothing felt like it was coming together correctly.  So I shoved it to the side and tried to forget about it.  I tried very hard. But - I really like the idea of Project Life or Pocket Pages.  My "regular" scrapbooking tends to focus on my thoughts about a person or thing, or I create layouts simply because it makes me happy to do so; I stopped chronicling everyday events on my layouts quite awhile ago.  I wanted to find a way to still keep track of those events and this seemed like a good way to do that.

I tried again, and what you see is the end result.  And you know what?  I LOVE it!  It took me awhile to finish.  I am a slow scrapper anyway, and I could not resist embellishing.  The end result, though, was well worth it!  This is what I started doing to help me along.

1.  I keep a daily planner so that I can write down different appointments and design team deadlines.  I started writing a sentence or two each day in my planner about something (or some things) that stood out to me.  This takes less than a minute, and I can refer back to it when I am creating my weekly project.

2.  Whenever I take an Instagram or cellphone picture that I think I might want to use, I immediately email it to myself.  This not only gives me all the pictures I plan to use right in my inbox but I know by looking at my email exactly what day it was sent.  

3.   The first time I tried this back in January, I was using papers that had a weird beige cast to them rather than a true white.  The papers had no journaling cards and no solid patterns that would allow me to make good journaling spots.  For me, the color scheme and patterns made it very difficult to match anything up.  While my colors don't have to match perfectly, they shouldn't look "wrong" together - for lack of a better description.  This time, I used a collection that had lots of tags and cards; the colors weren't an off shade that made them clash with other collections either.  Things went much more quickly with significantly less muttering and gnashing of teeth!

I may backtrack and re-create the first five weeks later on, but right now I am just happy to be moving forward!

I primarily used FANCY PANTS Wonderful Day and Trendsetter collections to create my week's project.  Here are a few close-ups:

I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut the number six and the doily used on this:

I love big journaling spots like this that already contain a cute graphic.  Of course, I couldn't help layering an extra cloud sticker to the top of my card!

This tiny bag that is holding my journaling tag was simply glued to the top of my pocket.  The bag came with some scrapbook supplies I received in the mail, but it was so cute I couldn't throw it away.  I added a few gold rub-ons and tiny enamel dots to dress it up.  I love how the cheerful stripes of the tag show through the bag, don't you?

This is the right side:

It was important to me to include a few personal words of encouragement to myself as I am on a quest to start living a healthier life.  Because they were personal, I enclosed them in this sweet envelope that I embellished:

And that's my Week 6!  I have no idea if what I created was right or wrong or even if there IS a right or wrong with Project Life, but I am happy with the end result and that makes it right to me!

GIVING BACK SOME LOVE

This morning I wanted to quickly share a layout I worked on, off and on (well, more off than on) over the weekend.  I used Elle's Studio Love You More Collection that I got during a recent fantastic sale at the My Scraps and More Online STORE.  I also used a gold doily and a heart punch to make my gold hearts that are scattered across my layout.  Now, I gotta tell you, I am new to the Elle's Studio party.  My interest was piqued when I saw my friend HEATHER playing with this very line at our last ever Archiver's crop (still crying over the loss of that store).  But, in playing with these papers and all the coordinating journaling cards and strips that I can fussy cut to my heart's content and then use however I want - well, call me a fish because I am hooked!  This Elle's Studio collection is some awfully sweet bait, though!!!

Can you tell I had a lot of fun layering?  Repeat after me: layers are our friends...

Now, you are probably saying, "Yes yes your layout is pretty but who won the sweet Pretty Little Studio gift certificate?"  Using my fabulous random method of asking my youngest daughter to pick a number between 1-18, THE WINNER OF THE GIFT CERTIFICATE IS SUE DOWNEY!  Sue, I will order your gift certificate today and email the code to you once I receive it!

Thank you to everyone who played along and who left some love and kind words, not only for me but for others!  Words of kindness leave such an incredibly large impact on our lives.  Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

I hope you have a happy crafty week ahead of you.  And if YOU have created something you would like for ME to see and comment on, leave a link in the comment section.  I would love to leave YOU some love, too!!!

The Paper Bakery Sketch #20 Reveal

Happy Sunday folks!  I am up on The Paper Bakery's BLOG today showing my take on the latest sketch, by the wonderfully talented Juliana Michaels!  This is what the sketch looks like:

Sketches make me so happy!  They allow me to just sit down and get started without having to think overly long about a design.  They are invaluable and allow me to actually have time to get crafty, despite having children, cleaning, work, animals, cooking, and a husband all vying for my attention!  

As you can see, I stayed very true to Sketch 20, only changing a few minor things.  I really like this sketch and could see myself using it several times!

All my papers as well as my bits and pieces came from a couple of older Paper Bakery Kits that I purchased when they were having a huge sale at their SHOP.  I just put everything in a big pile on my desk and started crafting!  Here are a couple of close-ups:

Would you like to play along?  Just head to the PAPER BAKERY BLOG and link up your take on Sketch #20.  We would love to see you use Paper Bakery Kits, but it is not necessary.  And, if you are chosen as our random winner, you get a $10 gift certificate to the shop!  The deadline is March 1st at midnight!

Happy crafting!

PRACTICAL SCRAPPERS - SCRAPPING YOUR STASH BLOG HOP

Welcome to the Practical Scrappers Blog Hop 

where we are Scrapping our Stash.

 If you want to see five darling, adorable notecards I made for PRETTY LITTLE STUDIO, then click HERE.   If you want to see the latest coolio sketch, and my take on it, by MY SCRAPS AND MORE, click HERE. 

This month we are focusing on scrapping our Valentine's stash, or at least stash that has to do with love. We are thrilled to have Kiwi Lane Designs sponsoring this month!  

Kiwi Lane Designs creates templates that help take the frustration out of scrapbooking!  And one lucky winner will get a border set and an accessory set from Kiwi Lane.  We are big fans of Kiwi Lane Designs and in fact have several members of our design team who either currently or in the past have been a part of their design team!  Details on how you can win this prize are at the bottom of this post!

Here is my layout that I created for this blog hop:

Now, I have a confession to make.  I don't have any Valentine's paper left in my stash.  I used to hoard collect Valentine's paper along with all the holiday papers, but then I realized I had lots of cutesy papers that I probably wasn't going to use.  So I gave most of it to a certain 4 year old in my family who was most appreciative!  

That being said, I am on the design team for PRETTY LITTLE STUDIO and have been very fortunate to get the new collections as soon as they come in.  And to make way for the new, I need to use up some of my older stash, including some appropriately-themed heart papers and lovely pastel papers.  I l-o-v-e these papers, which is why I held on to them.  But there is no better time to use them, I think, then on a layout about my youngest daughter and her daddy.  She is a Daddy's girl, through and through, and he has often said he would give her the world.  Unfortunately, he didn't realize "giving her the world" might include giving her his favorite Irish cap!

Here are a couple of close-ups.  I love the way the bright yellow hearts pop against the softer pastel papers, don't you?

I cut up my background paper and then layered it in angled strips, which I machine-stitched onto a piece of cardstock.  I added a little peek-a-boo strip of heart paper for fun.  I used rub-ons (also dug out of my stash), a label-maker, and alphas to create my extremely long title.

 Okay, back to the blog hop...we this is a huge list for the blog hop and would love for you to visit as many as you can...but we are not making that mandatory to qualify for the big prize.  BUT - many of the designers are offering prizes of their own so the more you hop, the more chances you have to win!

Here is the list if you are just joining in and want to hop along:

Practical Scrappers Blog Hop List

PRACTICAL SCRAPPERS

Krissy Clark McKee (YOU ARE HERE!!!)

Christine Meyer
Kim Ryden
Patty Selah
Charity Hotrum

Lissa Mitchell
Jennifer Haggerty
Alison Day

Bobbi Smith
Michelle Johns
Kerri Yarus
Cathy Harper
Nicole Laha
Lanette Erickson
Majken Pullin

Erin Morehouse

Lisa Peeples
Claude Campeau
Wendy Coffman
Lee-Anne Thornton

This is what you need to do to win the big prize! You can do any or all of the following for up to three entries! 

1) Become a follower here; or

2) Become a fan on our facebook page; or

3) Become a fan on the Kiwi Lane facebook page, and make sure to tell them we sent ya!

WANT TO WIN A PRIZE WITH ME?  IN THE SPIRIT OF VALENTINE'S DAY, I WOULD LIKE YOU TO LEAVE A SWEET MESSAGE ON SOMEONE ELSE'S BLOG ON THIS HOP.  THEN LEAVE ME A MESSAGE TO LET ME KNOW WHOSE BLOG YOU COMMENTED ON.  What's the prize?  How about a $15 gift certificate to my favorite store - Pretty Little Studio!

This contest will close at 11:59 pm CST on Sunday, the 16th.