Sunday Scrappin: June 21, 2009

Well, it is Christine’s first Sunday at host over at Sunday Scrappin’! I hope you’ll come join us.  This week wasn’t QUITE as fulfilling craftwise as last, but I managed to get some stuff done!

TA-DAs:

Last week’s challenge was to use complementary colors (opposites on the color wheel) with your favorite color.  Well, my favorite color is green, and its complement is red.  I took a more liberal view and stayed within the color families, LOL (not in the mood to do Christmas layouts!!)  Here are the two LOs  of my rehearsal dinner:

As you can see, they fulfill the challenge!  The second one was created using the Non-Conformist collection from ScrapInStyleTV with some Marrakech papers (BasicGrey) thrown in for good measure!

I also tried a brand new technique–iris paper folding! I’m quite excited about this and used it for the frame of the picture on this LO:

I wove the ribbon through the paper and interspersed it with some cute owl epoxy stickers (Paperchase).  The sentiment is from Anna Griffin Friendship rub-on kit.  The wooden tulips I picked up at Cost Plus World Market (I think!) and I placed them around a journaling tag from Maya Road.  I think the photograph is too dark for the paper I chose, but c’est la vie.

And finally I finished this mixed media card up this morning (which just coincidentally happens to meet last week’s challenge):

I was curious to see if some old fabric dye I had would work on paper. Well, it was so old it was gooey, so I smeared it with a tissue. It also was very sticky, so I coated the entire card with mod-podge to get rid of the tackiness (it worked!). The Mod-Podge allowed the orange ink from the fish to bleed a little and I liked the sort of batikish effect.

STAMPS: “Happy Birthday” (All Night Media) and “Gus” (Mostly Animals)
EMBOSSING POWDERS: clear (Ranger) and gold tinsel (Personal Stamp Exchange)
INKS: Versamark and Gold Pigment (Colorbox); fabric dye (Tulip Tye Dye); Marvy Orange Le Plume II (on fish)
OTHER: braided sequined thread, eyelets, Mod-Podge

I also made another birthday card that I can’t show you yet.

TO-DOs:

Next week’s challenge: Show off a card you made or a scrapbook page you completed featuring dear ole Dad or someone who is like a dad to you.

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!!

Sunday Scrappin’: June 14, 2009

Join us over at Sunday Scrappin’, won’t you?

TA-DAs:

• This week’s challenge was to let Christine’s work inspire us.  I liked this layout, and while mine doesn’t really look like her’s, her LO inspired me to use circles for the first time, and the ribbon at the bottom is en homage to her LO as well. It is another LO for my Childhood Album.  It is a tribute to the house in which I grew up.

MATERIALS: PPs: Martha Stewart; Textured Paper: Martha Stewart; Rub-on Alphas: Anna Griffin; Journaling Sheer: Maya Road; Paper circles: Crate Paper; Photo Corners: Jolee’s Boutique/EK Success; Ribbon: American Crafts & Michael’s.

• I’m also working on a series of “scrapwork quilt” cards in an attempt to use up my paper scraps.

Most of the papers are Marrakech (Basic Grey), Paper Source, and Amy Butler Designer Mat scraps.  I hand-etched the gold foil ribbon to give it some texture. The decorative ribbon tape is Martha Stewart and the brads are from Queen & Co.

• I participated in this week’s Creative Therapy.
• And I made a Father’s Day Card for my dad–his name is Bob, so I altered a vintage Bingo card and each square has an image that has some meaning or significance to my dad.  His initials are RVG, so that’s why those are in there!

• And finally, I made one other card, but I can’t show it just in case its recipient happens to look at this blog anytime soon.

TO-DOs:

• Sunday Scrappin’ Challenge for this coming week: Think about your favorite color. Now, think about what’s on the opposite side of the color wheel… and use those two colors in your project! Hmm…that means I’ll be working with red and green.  Christmas in June I guess!!
• A couple of other secret projects…

Sunday Scrappin-June 7, 2009

Once again, I’ve been forced to take a hiatus from Sunday Scrappin’.  But I return!  I’m awfully glad summer is here…I’ll be VERY busy this summer, but my time is more my own.  I spent this weekend organizing my craft space, and to celebrate–I did a layout for my “Childhood” album.

This is the other side of this layout.

This LO posed several challenges.  I chose to use bright (but NOT TOO BRIGHT) colors because the photos are old (1979) and the colors are washed out.  My bedroom was actually creme and light blue, but there was no sense in tryng to bring that out in these photos.  They were taken by my late grandparents and I’m so grateful to have them even though the photos aren’t super.  Because I was working on the reverse side of another LO (that had embellishments and texture), the stamping did not come out very well.  I covered up the middle stamp with a ribbon and I just let the owl go—live and learn.  I’m happy, however, with the colored photo corners.  They really made the LO much prettier and helped disguise the fact that the photos aren’t great.  The photos were also cropped with rounded corners (which I didn’t like), so the photo corners helped with that.

PP: Martha Stewart; ALPHAS: Thickers (American Crafts); RIBBON: American Crafts and Martha Stewart Decorative Tape; STAMPS: owl (Inkadinkadoo) and border stamp (Anna Griffin); INKS: Lavender and Silver (ColorBox); EMBOSSING POWDER: Rainbow Sparkle Lite (JudiKins); PHOTO CORNERS (waste not paper).

I’m excited that Christine is going to be co-hosting Sunday Scrappin’.  Next week’s challenge is to take a look at her work for inspiration.  The inspiration will be easy–it is the execution that might be a problem, LOL!

Sunday Scrappin’ 3/15

Come join us over at Sunday Scrappin’ the weekly meme for paper crafters.

TA-DAs for this week:

Actually, it was pretty darn good…two cards and a layout!

NEW BABY CARD (Sunday Scrappin’ “use pastels” challenge):

Patterned Paper is  Heidi Grace for Fiskars “Baby Boy/Buggy”; scrap of gold ribbon, blue brads from Frills (Textured Trios-Spring) from Queen & Co.

BIRTHDAY CARD for ALICE (my niece)

White cardstock, covered in “Blossoms on Chocolate/Pinwheel” double-sided PP from Paper Source (#23908); ribbon and brads (lavender/green set) from Making Memories (#27199); Cosmo Cricket – Hello Sunshine Collection – 12×24 Die Cut Button Fashions – Alphabet

OREGON, 2005

I’m finally going through my old photos and starting to get them in scrapbooks…these are from a trip/conference to Eugene, OR (these bridges aren’t in Eugene, but nearby).  As it often is in the PacNW, it was a grey and drizzly day, but still very beautiful.  I wanted to use muted colors that would complement the photos.  I might go back and add some journaling, but we’ll see. PP: Making Memories Travel Collection; Cardstock stickers: Scrapworks Magpie Collection.

TO-DOs:

I don’t plan on getting much accomplished this week since I’ll be in Denver, CO.  However, I WILL take lots of photos to scrapbook (maybe in another four years or so…LOL).

Creative Therapy: Catalyst #22

Creative Therapy asks this week, What is your biggest accomplishment?

Hah! No small question, that. I had several options here, and I was reticent to go with this one as I was worried I might seem elitist or pretentious or something like that. But truly, this was ONE of my biggest accomplishments…not because of the piece of paper, but because of who I became over the 9 years I spent working toward it. It was a really rough road, both professionally and personally, but I also had many bright spots along the way. But mostly, in the end, it was something I set out to do, and while for a long time it seemed that grad school owned me, in the very end, I owned it. I took charge and finished…for me and no one else.

Labor of Love? Dr. CraftyLyra

I used a draft of my dissertation (printed on 100% cotton bond) for the distressed hearts, the question mark, and the chipboard letters in “labor” and “of.” I needed something rough and distressed represented in this layout. The journaling reads:

Above and beyond anything else, I earned a degree in self-awareness. It isn’t about academic prestige. It is about setting a goal and learning about yourself as you strive to achieve it.

MATERIALS: A la Carte “Bruschetta” paper (American Crafts); Amy Butler Designer Mats (K & Co); Tim Holtz Distress Ink “Scattered Straw” (Ranger); Chipboard letters (Maya Road); “Pistachio” and “Rosebud” pigments (ColorBox); Rainbow Sparkle Lite EP (JudiKins); Stick-IT felt letters (CPE ImageCo)

Two Layouts and a Tutorial (sort of)

Hey there loyal blog readers (all three of you!),

It might seem that I’m posting a lot more frequently (which would be true) and it might then follow that I’m just chock full of free time and have nothing pressing, right? Wrong. Actually, the opposite is true. However, I’ve taken to using scrapbooking as the carrot at the end of the stick. IF, and only IF, I get a certain amount accomplished in the morning, I’m allowed an hour or so of scrapbook time. So, the fact that I’m scrapbooking more means I’m actually getting quite a bit of work done.

Ok, with that disclaimer out of the way (guilty much?), I present the following for your viewing pleasure. These two layouts are for my wedding album and are from the rehearsal that was held at the beach. Apologies for the blocked photos and/or blurred photos—-nothing personal!!

First, we have one that features photos of my jr. bridesmaid and another bridesmaid hanging out at the beach:

Beach Bums

No one can accuse me of sole allegiance to one brand, LOL…here we go with the MATERIALS: patterned paper is “Beach Fun Flip Flops” (American Traditional Designs); top mat is Capris “Basil” (Luxe Designs); tag is from Target dollar bin; “Beach” acrylic stamp (Imaginisce); 5th Avenue Shimmer Stickers (Making Memories); Round vellum “Brite” tags (Making Memories); flower embellishments (Marcella by K); ribbon (American Crafts)

Next up we’ve got another layout that uses a technique for which I’ve included a brief tutorial. I’ve been surprised by several people who have told me they haven’t tried embossing yet. The only reason I’m surprised is because these folks create amazing stuff with complicated techniques and embossing seems like child’s play by comparison! I’ve been embossing for at least 15 years and I feel dumb that it is my only real “technique.” At any rate, my latest fascination is with embossing chipboard. So without further ado:

Candid

As you can tell, the photo is pre-journaling. This is how I did my chipboard letters.

• Cover all chipboard letters with a pigment ink. I used ColorBox’s “Tropical” multi-color stamp pad for a really neat effect.

• Lay out letters on a scrap piece of paper and sprinkle LIBERALLY with embossing powder of your choice. Remove letters and tap off excess. I used JudiKins Rainbow Sparkle Lite because I wanted the color of the pigment to show through AND because glittery/clear EPs are much easier to use than solid colors (I’ll get into why in another post sometime). (FIGURE 1)

• Incidentally, you’ll find it easier/less messy if you use tweezers (mine are from Making Memories) to handle the letters (FIGURE 2)

• Emboss (with a heat gun) each letter one at a time, making sure to completely melt the EP. Wave the heat source around as to avoid burning the EP. Yes, you CAN use a hair dryer, but it takes a lot longer and the heat is less focused. I’ve had my heat gun for over 10 years, paid $15 for it and it still works great. (Figures 3 & 4)

1. 

   Figure 1

   

   Figure 2

   

   Figure 3

   

   Figure 4

   MATERIALS not mentioned: Maya Rd. chipboard; patterned paper (Target!); tag (Target); ribbon from stash

Wedding Album Pages

Sorry, for privacy reasons, I have covered the photos, but you can get the general idea. These are two layouts for my wedding album, both with pictures from the rehearsal. The first, “Three Faces of Me” has three shots that are almost identical, except for my facial expression. My husband and I are standing in front of the pastor, but you can only see my face. In the first one, I’m looking at the pastor with this confused look on my face. In the second, I’m listening intently and in the third, I’m looking quite adoringly at my husband (its kinda cheesy and funny, actually).

Three Faces of Me

MATERIALS: Background paper (with the wonderful ginkgo leaves) is #34468 Amplified FM Radio line from American Crafts; Letter stickers are “5th Ave Shimmer Stickers” (Making Memories); and the scalloped circle for journaling is from Maya Road. Journaling reads:” Confusion. Interest. Adoration. An expression for every emotion as we “practice” for the next day.”

The second layout, “A Father Prepares” has two photos of me and my dad as he “practices” giving me away.

A Father Prepares

The photo does not do the paper justice. This paper was marked “Zinnias” but I have no idea who the maker is. It might be Paper Source as I’m pretty sure that’s where I bought it. All I know is that I love it, and the Amy Butler Designer Mats (K & Co) coordinated perfectly! I used a plastic tag from Maya Rd with noah rubons (also Maya Rd). The yellow tag is cut from a cheapy sample I received in the mail, trying to get me to sign up for some scrapbooking club.

Unconditional Love

I was inspired by Creative Therapy’s Catalyst this week, #21: “First memory of Love,” to start a mini album on the theme of my family. I went with a really sparse layout because for me, that was most emblematic of the love my grandparents had for me. Simple, uncomplicated, and unconditional. I decided not to journal because I felt the two words “unconditional love” said it all. It is perhaps not my first memory of love, but it is certainly one of the most potent and least complicated. I found this photograph in the stash I received after they died last year. The quality of the photo isn’t great, but the sentiment is there. This is the first time I’ve used a monochromatic layout (in lavender shades with small celadon accents)—again, to keep things simple and unencumbered.

MATERIALS: I used some of the Maya Road materials I received in my first RAK win at Creative Therapy.

Maya Road Chipboard Album “Lunch break”; paper stash (Provo Craft); Lavender ColorBox pigment brush pad; Maya Road Noah Rubons (RUB 630); Hero Arts “Heart of Love” stamp (C2046); Dashes, Dots & Checks Ribbon

AND, just a reminder, as of this posting, only 60 more hits until my reasonable, not over-the-top giveaway.

Catalyst #16: Dream Home

Originally I was going to do all the Creative Therapy catalyst projects on postcards (like this one), but this week’s catalyst required a full-on layout. I opted for no journaling, but I’ll give you the scoop here. This is for Catalyst #16: Dream Home.

Click on photo to see a closer image.

I’ve already lived in my dream home. It was the house in which I grew up. We called it the banana castle because to me, at my young age, it seemed as large as a castle and it was painted the color of the inside of a banana. My mother was the Queen and I was the Princess (of course). I think dad got to be the de facto King.

In the box of snapshots from my grandparents were quite a few pictures of that house. This was a real treasure for me as I had no photographs of that house/that time in my life prior to discovering that box!

In some ways, the house was very much a dream–a dream borne from childhood innocence. I loved to sashay down that staircase, like Anna in the King and I. Even now, decades later, I can still feel the textured wallpaper on the walls, and i can still smell the apricots fresh off the tree in the backyard. I remember the smallest details of that house, down to the decorative shapes on the heating grates.

The house no longer looks like it does in that picture but in my dreams it is always my Banana Castle.

MATERIALS: Chelsea Vine Flowers Flat Glitter Vellum (Brenda Walton for K & C Co., #635395); recto & verso sides of Bo-Bunny Press Summer Sage Vine #12SGV802 (mat for photos); pink stripe vellum #13306 by Susan Branch for Colorbök; Mark Richards pearls; “Meadow Flowers” ribbon from Michaels; Martha Stewart blue tags; and “Printer’s Type Alphabet” stamps by HeroArts.