September Calendar Page

Hello! It's been a while! I wish I could say that it will get better, but we are entering busy photography season, so I don't think it will! I have my calendar page to share today! As usual, I starrted with the double page sketch from Stick It Down:

Since I wanted to get lots of photos on my layout, I split the photo spots, making collages for the right hand page. Otherwise, I stuck pretty close to the sketch. I pulled some random pieces of October Afternoon patterned paper that worked together and got cutting. The plastic owls and wings are several years old and from a Scrapfest class I took. For my title, I used my Cricut and Sure Cuts a Lot to cut some fonts from my computer. I finished off my page with some flowers and gems.

Completing Projects!

Hello! I realized I promised to post some projects and then never did! Well, I'm back today with a couple of layouts that I completed in the last couple of weeks. Both layouts started as make and takes from Scrapfest. They have been sitting on my shelf waiting to be completed for a few YEARS and I finally decided to pull them out and get them into albums.

First up is this one that was a make and take for the We R Memory Keepers punches. The paisley pattern across the bottom was created using a punch. I added the photo, title, journaling and a few embellishments and the layout was done!

Next up is this layout that was a make and take from Bazzill (I'm pretty sure). They put out some patterned paper the year I made this and that is the patterned paper on the page.  I added the photo, journaling, and numbers to finish off the page.

More Cards!!

Today I have a quick run down of cards I have made recently that were not for any specific challenges.

First up is a quick graduation card I made for a young man I have never met. His mom is a friend of a friend and was requesting that people send her son a graduation card. Her son has autism and doesn't have friends and wasn't having a grad party, but she knew he would love to receive graduation cards. This one is very basic, using just cardstock and heat embossing in the school colors.

Next up is an anniversary card. The bottom half of the card is a tag I made a few years ago at Scrapfest.  I pulled it out and decided to finally use it.  I had used Gelatos on the tag, so I pulled mine out and continued the rainbow up the card. I added some Stickles details to the bird, used a strip of washi tape and stamped a sentiment on the inside to finish this one up,

I have one more graduation card to share. This one is for my husband's cousin. I played a bit more with my Distress Stains, using Abandoned Coral and a mist of water to stamp the flower.  I used a Distress marker and water on the leaf stamp. A stamped sentiment, Prima Say It With Pearls, and some ink splatters finished this one off.

Easter

Hello!  I have a layout to share that I completed today amid praying and reflecting on our Savior's death today. It is a page about Easter, 4 years ago.

I was inspired by the 3/19 Throwback Thursday challenge at My Scraps and More, which was to use flowers and bling. It seems to be harder and harder these days to find collections with much purple in them, and I wanted purple on this layout, so I pulled it in with cardstock and flowers. The collection I used is October Afternoon's Woodland Park. See that green piece with the flowers and trim behind the main photo on the left page? That is a make and take from Scrapfest from 2009!  Yay for finally using it!

I added some washi tape in a few places to bring the green to some of my clusters.

I cut a few embellishments for the page with my Cricut. Here you can see a little Easter basket with some eggs.  I added some shading with some chalk. 

 I am also linking up with Paper Issues and their current issue, "Egg-cellent Add-ventures".

I hope you all had a good Lent and have a wonderful Easter!

Materials:
Cardstock- Archivers, Die Cuts with a View
Flowers- Prima, Michaels
Patterned Paper and stickers- October Afternoon
Brads- Making Memories, K and Company
Ink and Glitter Glue- Ranger
Die Cutter- Provo Craft
Cartridges- Doodlecharms, Holiday Cakes
Gems- Michaels
Paint- Plaid
Tape- Bella Blvd.
Pen- Zig

Man Cards

Today I have two masculine cards that I made recently to share. I have two brothers-in-law who celebrate their birthdays this time of year.

This first card I made using scraps from my November calendar pages (which I will be sharing very soon, I have one more to give!)  I did this one for two challenges: the 12/9/12 card challenge at My Scraps and More (use chipboard) and the 2nd day of Christmas challenge at Frosted Designs (use two stamps).  The brown piece is chipboard that I colored with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  I let that dry overnight and then I stamped and heat embossed the fox.  The sentiment is also stamped and heat embossed.

The second card used the current sketch at Unscripted Sketches.  I also did it for the 5th day of Christmas challenge at Frosted Designs which was to use 5 gold/yellow items.  I used yellow patterned paper, yellow ink for the leaf, and yellow embossing powder on the three words of the sentiment.  The leaf was stamped with Resist Ink on Glossy Cardstock.  I dried it with a heat gun and then used a brayer and Wild Honey Distress ink over it.  I then fussy cut the leaf.  For the background of my card, I used the Inkadinkadoo Stamping Gear that I received as a Christmas gift.  I got to try this out at Scrapfest and really enjoyed the effect so it went on my Christmas list!

Scrapfest Projects

On Thursday night, a friend and I attended one the the "Kick Off Crops" for Scrapfest at the Mall of America.  In six hours, I managed to complete a layout and a card and get a pretty good start on another layout.  I know it doesn't sound like much, but we also got some dinner and did some shopping.

My first layout I did for the "Health" class challenge for the Back 2 Class Crop at My Scraps and More. For each letter of the word "BODY" you need to have an item that starts with that letter.

 I decided to use these photos of my friends and me and our babies who were born two years ago. For the letters of the word "body" I used:
B- buttons
O- October Afternoon
D- Die Cut Paper
Y- Yarn (it's twine really, but close enough)

When I was packing for the crop, I forgot to pack much for cardstock, so I had to dig a bit for background paper.  I ended up selecting this wood paper by October Afternoon that was included in my "goodie bag" for the night.

Materials:

Patterned Paper- October Afternoon, My Mind's Eye, Echo Park, Doodlebug Designs, Creative Imaginations

Die cut paper- KI Memories

Journaling Spot- Echo Park

Tape- Target

Brads- Oriental Trading Company

Punch- Marvy

Twine- Pink Paislee

Chipboard- KI Memories, Basic Grey

Ink- Prima, Ranger

Pens- Marvy, Sakura

Stickers- EK Success, October Afternoon, Me and My Big Ideas

Buttons- Fancy Pants Designs, Jesse James

Rub ons- Colorbok

Next I made this card for Rick since his birthday was the next day.  Also included in my goodie bag was a 6x6 pad of Jillibean Soup Country Pumpkin Chowder.  I pulled the green background paper from that and pulled the rest from my scraps.

Materials:

Cardstock- Bazzill

Patterned Paper- Jillibean Soup, Scenic Route

Stamps- Close To My Heart

Trim- The Robin's Nest

Ink- Ranger

Finally, I started this layout with less than an hour left in the crop.  One of the things I bought on my shopping excursion was the "Harvest Lane" collection by Simple Stories.  I have been wanting to pick up this collection since I laid eyes on it when they revealed it before CHA.  I am not disappointed!  The colors are fabulous and I love all the bits and pieces that can be cut out to make creating a page super quick and easy!  

I did this layout for the "Lunch" challenge for the Back 2 Class Crop at My Scraps and More.  So, for those who are keeping track, I managed to complete the recess, health and lunch challenges... Guess I'm not as ambitious as I was when I was really in school!  The challenge was to make a layout about food.  I figured Thanksgiving was a good subject for this!  

The papers are all Simple Stories, but I pulled embellishments from several different places.  The epoxy heart is from some stickers I've had for a few years and the metal flower was also from my goodie bag.  I changed the color of the the flower using some alcohol inks.  

I had a lot of fun at the crop and at Scrapfest in general.  I will be writing another post soon about that, so keep an eye out!

Materials:

Cardstock- Bazzill

Patterned Paper- Simple Stories

Ink- Ranger

Stckers- Simple Stories, K and Company, Karen Foster Designs

Metal Flower- Momenta

Flowers- Prima

Eyelets- Making Memories

Gems- Hero Arts

Glimmer Glass- Tattered Angels

Journal Tag- Pink Paislee

Trim- Making Memories

Die Cutter- Cricut

Cartridge- Walk In My Garden

Punch- Martha Stewart Crafts

Rub On- Pink Paislee

Collage- Scrapbooks Etc. Quick Collage #212

Scrapbooking Your Faith: Mini Book

The other assignment for week 1 was to make a mini album with quotes and/or bible verses that speak to you. I decided to use the one I started at Scrapfest this year because I didn't have any other purpose for it, it was already partially done and the colors and themes of it worked well for this subject.

I added a few photos that I felt represented the verses well.  I love fonts so I had a lot of fun making each verse a different font.  I left room in a few places to add more verses as I find them. 

Making this book really made me pay attention to the Bible verses I was coming across the last week or so and made me think about what they mean to me. It has been a great experience!

Halloween Mini

The make and take at the We R Memory Keepers booth at Scrapfest this year was a Halloween mini book using their Cinch binding tool. I've decided to use it to document our family's Halloween costumes each year. I have been working on getting the last 5 years put in there. I pulled out all of my Halloween and fall papers and went to work. It went together pretty quickly and now I can just add a page each year!

Here is the cover we decorated at Scrapfest:

Here are the pages I have completed:

Scrapfest 2011

This past weekend I had the opportunity to spend 2 fabulous days at Archiver's Scrapfest, held at the Mall of America. This is the fifth year that I have attended, and it was a lot of fun once again. On Friday I took 4 classes: Pink Paislee- Home for the Summer Layout and Cards, Creative Imaginations- Life Mini Album, Making Memories- Slice Dilly Dally Pages, and Hero Arts- Thinking Inking Cards. I enjoyed each class in its own way and it is always fun to play with new products!

For the Pink Paislee class we got to use some of their Hometown Summer line. We spent the entire class time working on assembling a two page layout. We went home with lots of extras and the directions to make the two cards, which I did that night. (I have not yet completed the layout because I don't have photos for it, but once I do, I will post a picture of the completed layout.) While I didn't learn anything new, I enjoyed this class, the products are fun, the atmosphere was great (especially with Heidi Swapp there playing background music during the instructional lulls!), and we got lots of product to take home!


Next was the Creative Imaginations mini album class. The description of this class talked about working with their Twinkling H20 paints, however, we spent a total of 2 minutes painting 2 colors onto two sheets of resist paper. While the effect was cool, I had hoped for more opportunity to work with this cool product and learn some new techniques. We spent the rest of the class attaching the papers (from their Sakura collection) to the chipboard pages of the album. I will post photos of this album once I finish it (which may be a while, I still have to finish my mini album from last year!).

After a lunch break with my wonderful husband (who works just a few miles away), I headed to the Making Memories class. The description of this class said that we would be working with die cuts made with their Slice machine. I don't own a Slice, but I figured any techniques that they taught could probably be used with Cricut die cuts as well. All of the pieces were precut for us, so all we had to do was assemble the page. This makes for quick assembly (and the only class that we completed the project in the time allotted), but it didn't really teach me much in terms of new techniques. We were just given the pieces and told we could add our own flair to them. The pages turned out cute, and I will photograph them and repost them when I have added photos.


Finally, I headed to the Hero Arts class taught by Jennifer McGuire and Shari Carroll. Oh my goodness! If you are into stamping and ever have the opportunity to take a class from Jennifer McGuire, TAKE IT! I have taken a class or two from her before and every time I am so inspired and come away with great new ideas and this was no exception! We worked with 3 different techniques to make three beautiful cards. I will be doing tutorials for these in upcoming posts because they are just too cool not to share!! We just had time to work with the techniques and most of the card assembly I did when I got home that night.


After I finished my classes, I got into line to do some make and takes. I ended getting into some pretty long (or maybe just slow moving) lines and only got 2 done before they started cutting off the lines for the day. On Saturday I went back with a friend and we stood in some more lines. I ended up completing 15 make and takes. The quality of the make and takes was definitely better than years' past and several of the manufacturers had people going back in the lines helping scrappers get started on a part of the project so that once they made it up to the table, they would spend less time there and (hopefully) keep the line moving. Here are the make and takes I completed (starting from the top left going from left to right): Making Memories, McGill, Authentique, Hampton Art, Echo Park, Sizzix, We R Memory Keepers, American Crafts, Basic Grey/3L/Hero Arts, Fancy Pants, Designs, May Road, Epiphany Crafts, Doodlebug Design, 7gypsies, and Core'dinations.


So, there you have it, it was a fun weekend and I am already looking forward to next year!

Scrapfest!

A little over a week ago I attended my 4th Scrapfest at the Mall of America. The first year I went, I only did the make and takes, which was fun, but meant a TON of standing in line. The last 3 years I have taken 4 classes, which has really added to the fun! This year I took the Key to Creativity workshop with Tim Holtz,Playful Pages by Dear Lizzy, Olivia Stationary Box with Bo Bunny, and The Power of Glimmer Mini Album. I was there all day Friday and for a few hours on Saturday. Friday was the day I took my classes and I thought it would be the only day I would get to go, but on Saturday Rick surprised me by suggesting that I could go back if I brought Will. So I stood in line and did some make and takes on Saturday. Will was a perfect angel and slept most of the time! Over the two days I was able to do 11 make and takes.

Here is the book we made in the Tim Holtz class.


At the end of class he surprised us by telling us we would get to keep the inks and paint that we used in class and would also be receiving a pack of Grungeboard and some new Texture Fades (embossing folders)!

Here are the layouts we made in the Dear Lizzy class. We actually only got started on these in class. They sent directions home with us and I finished them today while "watching" football.

There were also quite a few leftovers from this class as well!

Here is a card I made today after I completed the layout with some of the scraps.

We only had time to make the box part of this project in class, but it took less than an hour to add the details and make the cards once I got home.

I haven't finished my Glimmer Mist album yet. In fact, it will probably be a while until I do. I want to get a few of the colors we used in class and I need to decide what I am going to use for pictures in it.

Finally, I did this card for the Go Green challenge at Challenge Masters. The challenge was to make a project using only cardstock, no patterned paper. I used some leftover cardstock from a layout a made about a week ago.