Tag, You're It!

At the beginning of June I participated in "Layout Tag" with some of the other ladies at Challenge Masters. How it works is someone picks a layout to start from, it is sent to the first person who uses it as inspiration for a layout they make. The new completed layout is sent to the next person who uses it as inspiration and so on. There were 16 participants. I was the first person. The layout I was given for inspiration was this:


Here is the layout I made:


As you can see, I copied the placement of the elements very closely. I like the distressed background so I used some paint and a dry foam brush to distress my background paper. Instead of the beaded string spiraling diagonally through the page, I added some buttons. Finally I added my journaling in strips to the bottom right corner because I needed more space than was available in the original design. You can see the rest of the progression here.

Technique Challenge

It's been a while since I posted, but I have a good reason: I had a baby! William was born July 9th and we are so excited to have him as part of our family.

My first layout is from my brother and sister-in-law's wedding last year using photos from the ceremony. (I've had this one done for a while, I just hadn't taken a photo of it.)



The next layout I started before William was born, but then it sat for over a week on my desk. I finally had a little time yesterday to finish it. It is for the Technique Challenge at Challenge Masters. The challenge was to make patriotic pinwheels. I thought these pictures of Ellie at the county fairs last year worked very well with the red, white and blue.



Finally, a picture of the reason I haven't been scrapping. :)

Happy 4th of July!

I was hoping to be holding my baby by now, but I guess we will have to wait a few more days to meet him/her. We spent the day with family having a BBQ, playing games and shooting off some fireworks. It was fun and took my mind of being pregnant for a while.

While I've been waiting to go into labor, I have been getting some more scrapping done. My first project was a birthday card for my sister-in-law whose birthday is on Wednesday. I used this week's sketch from Get Sketchy.





My second project was a layout for the July Surprise Challenge at Challenge Masters. Colette challenged us to use the Becky Fleck sketch below and turn the single photo into a multiphoto photo collage. I had just bought the Cosmo Cricket DeLovely collection yesterday and the fun patterns and bright colors had me inspired to create.

Playing with Alcohol Inks

I made a couple of cards this week using glossy cardstock and Tim Holtz alcohol inks. I am having a lot of fun playing with these inks and the different effects I can make with them. The first card I made a plaid background using instructions from Tim Holtz's blog. This is for my brother-in-law whose birthday is on the 4th of July. I am really happy with how it turned out and will definitely use this technique more!


The next card is for my brother and sister-in-law whose anniversary is also on the 4th of July. For the squares on this one I used red alcohol ink, copper metallic mixative and blending solution to make the mottled effect. I also love how this one turned out and will be trying it again. I used the current sketch at 2 Sketches 4 You for this card.




Here are a couple of layouts I have completed in the last week or so. These were all just for fun, no challenges involved! The first is a layout with pictures from a wedding we went to last summer. This page went together quickly as I used the invitation and other items from the wedding to embellish the page.

I've Been Published!

Today is the release date of the Scrapbooking.com July issue. About a month and a half ago, the editor of this e-zine requested that I write an article about two layouts I had submitted of my girls playing in their pool. Here it is.

I'm on Fire!

I got two more projects done yesterday! The first is a card for my sister and brother-in-law's anniversary next week. I made this for the Stash Challenge at Challenge Masters. The challenge was to make a card or layout in a size smaller than we normally do. I normally make 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inch cards. This card is 3 3/4 x 4 3/4 inches. All of the paper was scraps!!



The second project is a layout with pictures from my nephew's birthday. I did this one for the Sketch Challenge at Challenge Masters. Audrey gave us a great sketch to work with. It is so fun sometimes to work with fewer photos and I had a lot of fun with this one. But, I realized that I don't have much for little boy paper, all of the paper I used on this layout is really old. It was satisfying to use some of that stuff that has been sitting around for a while though!

Some Quick Projects

I've gotten a few more projects done in the last couple of days for challenges. Two of them are cards for a couple of birthdays next week. I have an anniversary card I should get done too so that it is done and ready to go in case I go into labor.

The first project is another pocket page for my birthday cards from last year. I did this one for the Blade Masters Challenge at Challenge Masters. The challenge was to use die cuts as a border. I cut the party hats using the "border" feature on my Cricut and then cut the two individual cupcakes to cap the end of my border. Both images are from the Doodlecharms cartridge. While I was working on this one both of my daughters wanted to play with my supplies so I pulled out the "Paper Doll Dress Up" cartridge and we made a doll for each of them. I don't have pictures right now, but I will snap some and post them in the next couple of days. It was fun letting them choose how they wanted their dolls to look and it was interesting letting my 3-year-old choose paper to cut the layers from.



The next project was a birthday card I made for my father-in-law whose birthday is next week. I also made this one for the Cards Challenge at Challenge Masters. The challenge was to make a masculine card and do some heat embossing on it. The "Happy Birthday" and leaves were heat embossed with silver powder.



Finally, I made a birthday card for my Grandma whose birthday is next week as well. This one was for the Stamping Challenge. The challenge was to stamp on patterned paper. I ended up choosing a subtle patterned paper (the red) the stamp my flower on. I like how the patterned paper adds a little texture to the image.