Best Things In Life Aren't Things

I am back, again, with  more to share.  Today I thought I would share a layout I did as part of a challenge over at Scrapjazz.com a little while back.  This layout gave me a chance to play with a ton of new things I had gotten recently in addition to use up my scraps.  So, here is the layout:

I had so much fun making this layout.  I created the Hexagon shapes using scraps of paper and the Spellbinders Hexagon dies to create the background.  I loved the look of the background that I did not want to cover it resulting in my using a single photo.  To keep with the lacadasical feeling of the background, I used a photo I had not intended to and was sitting at the top of my recycling basket.  I felt that the white space on the photo resulted in trapped space, so I used a stamp that communicated the feeling of the photo and used the white space.  The journaling spot I created from scraps as well and then incorporated into the layout.  And because I have been working on creating embellishment clusters on my layouts, I created the cluster/title in the upper left side.  So much fun!  And here are some close ups:

Good Times In Korea

I recently took a 2 week vacation to Korea to visit family.  It was a great time filled with lots of food, touring, and sleeping (always a plus in my busy life).  This trip happen to be my husband's first trip to Korea, and so this trip also held special meaning.  As that was the case, I got started on scrapbooking the photos I took while we were there right away.  Today, I thought I would share some of those with you.  They are all two-page layouts and are based off of sketches provided by Allison Davis and Scrapbook Generation.  And here are the layouts:

1.  Paris Baguette

• In my experience the delicisans of Korea have not always been that fabulous, but as this was my husband's first trip and he was curious to see what they tasted like, we went and got some at the local grocery store on the corner.  He was super excited, and after this experience we frequented the place fairly often.  This is a layout about his first experience with Korean bakeries.

Supplies: Die Cuts With a View (Pattern Paper); Bazzill (Cardstock); American Crafts, Making Memories (Alphabets); Die Cuts With a View (Embellies)
 
2.  Korea By Train

• Korea is not a large country, you can travel the whole country by train in approximately 2 hours.  On this trip to Korea, my family and also traveled from Seoul to Busan.  I love the Bullet Trains of Korea, they're just awesome, so going to the train station and riding the train is always a pleasant experience.  As this was my husband's first trip on the Bullet Train I also took photos of this.  

Supplies: Graphic 45 Bird Song (Pattern Paper); Bazzill (Cardstock); Prima Flowers, Graphic 45 Bird Song Chipboard (Embellies); Korean Calligraphy TTF, Graphic 45 Bird Song Stickers (Alphabets); Spellbinders Labels 8, Stampi' Up Butterfly Embosslit (Dies)
 
3.  Welcome to the Market

• One of the things that Korea is most well known for are the open markets.  The open markets of today still exist where they originally were in the old days.  There is a market at each cardinal point of the city, and is the place where most of the commerce of the city happens.  I love going to the markets, they are full of life, food, fun things to buy, and busy people.  TONS of busy people. The cool thing about this layout was that on this particular trip to one of the markets I was able to find Korean themed stamps made in Korea, which I used on this particular layout.

Supplies:  Graphic 45 Bird Song (Pattern Paper); Bazzill (Cardstock); Ssomi (Stamps); Graphic 45 Bird Song Stickers (Alphabet); Spellbinders Lacey Circles (Dies)

Friendship Page

Today's share is of a page that I did recently for a dear friend of mine.  Because of the nature of her husband's job, she moves often, moving is tough, but moving as a scrapper I think is even more difficult.  The most recent move she made was probably also the most difficult for her because of all the friends she had made and would be leaving behind.  So, being the great friends that we are to her, some of them decided it was time to create a MASSIVE friendship book with each friend contributing a page. Here is the page that I made:

 

Supplies:  My Minds Eye, Basic Grey, Die Cuts With a View (Pattern Papper); Stampin' Up! (Ribbon); Pink Paislee, My Mind's Eye (Embellies); Fiskars, Stampin' Up! (Punches); Cheery Lynn Doily Die (Doily)

Endless Beauty

          I love the sunsets that can be seen from my childhood home, they are a continual reminder to me of the glory and grace of my Lord.  For me, sunsets put a lot of life into perspective.  I have been holding onto this particular photo for ages, and I am unsure of why.  I have put it into numerous crop kits to get scrapbooked while away and I just never got around to it.  I immediately thought of this photo when I saw the January 2013 Scrapjazz Get Messy Challenge.  The challenge was to get inky and messy - use our mediums to create a layout - and that is what I did.  I pulled out the colors that are reflected in the photo and a set of swirl stamps which I had never used before despite having for 5 years.... This was a gorgeous and simply layout for me, but despite it's simplicity it turned out wonderfully.  As part of my self challenge, I added white rub-ons to a dark part of the photo and incorporated it into the design.  Another exciting part of this layout was that I got a chance to use some of my new Cheery Lynn dies and my handmade journaling cards.  

Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing in my crafty adventures.  Have a crafty inspired day!

Supplies: Basic Grey (Pattern Paper); Bazzill (Cardstock); Dear Lizzy American Crafts (Alphabet Letters); American Crafts (Rub-On); Tattered Angels (Ink, Butterfly Mask); Prima Build-a-Swirl (Stamps); Cheery Lynn (Die); Making Memories (Butterfly Brad)

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I know it has been ages since I have posted anything crafty and fun, please forgive me!  I have hoped and wished that I could be a regular poster but unfortunately with the chaos and business of my life, posting will be sporadic.  I know, sad days.  However, I have had some extra down time recently and thought it would be nice to use it to post some crafty inspiration and shares with you all.  So, I am starting the New Year off with the Old Year.  The layout I am sharing today was created in December and left on my desk while I left the country.  I finished it when I returned from my extended vacation.  And here it is:

I struggled with this layout a lot.  This was started for a challenge over at Scrapjazz, in which we were to use a Christmas Song as the title of a layout - Christmas themed or not.  I love Winter time, I love everything about the Winter season - the snow, the cold, the short days, the crisp clear days, wood fires.  All of it.  So when I saw the challenge, I immediately thought of all the photos I have of Winter.  The scalloped piece of paper was cut from a piece of 12x12 DCWV paper.  The snowman was originally part of the pattern paper, and I turned it into it's own embellishment - in the same spot that I cut it out from.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a beautiful day full of creativity!

Supplies: Die Cuts With a View (Pattern Paper); May Arts (Ribbon); American Crafts Thickers, Pink Paislee (Letter Stickers); Martha Stewart Skylands Punch (Border Punch); Spelbinders Scalloped Labels One, Spellbinders Labels One (Dies); Recollections (Embellishments)

Card Challenge and Share

This month at Scrapjazz.com, Nora is hosting a card sketch challenge.  This is what I came up with:

I really enjoyed making this little card, it was simple, but very beautiful.  I really wanted to showcase the background stamp on this card, which is why I think the sketch was so awesome - it's perfect to showcase your large stamps.  If you would like to play along - here is the link for the thread for this month's challenge:
http://www.scrapjazz.com/forums/showtopic.php?tid/323154/

Thanks for stopping by and have a happy crafty inspired day!

Supplies: (Cardstock) Bazzill, Recollections, Stampin' Up! Garden Green; (Ink) Stampin' Up! Chocolate Chip, Stampin' Up! Marina Mist; (Stamps) Stampin' Up! Petite Pairs, Stampin' Up!  Sweet Floral; (Dies) Spellbinders Lacey Circles, Spellbinders Circle

Envelope Mini Album

I have to admit to everyone, I really like getting junk mail - weird right?  Well let me say that I used to not, but I stumbled across a tutorial on YouTube by Laura Denison showing how to use up those junk mail envelopes - and I look forward to opening my junk mail just to get the envelopes!  While cleaning my crafting area the other day, I realized that I had a rather large build up of these envelopes, so I decided to make a real quick mini.  The tutorial that inspired this can be found on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjzRGSevuuQ

Here is what I came up with:

I have not added photos or anything yet, mainly because I was not sure what I wanted to use this for - I just wanted to create.  The nice thing was that I was also able to use up a lot of my scraps from other projects in this mini album - I didn't cut new paper, just used what was left over from other projects.  For the large tags, I added ribbon by stapling it to the tags - I was also able to use up some old ribbon!

Supplies:  (Cardstock) Bazzill, Stampin' Up!; (Pattern Paper) My Mind's Eye, Provo Craft, Die Cuts With a View; (Stamps) Stampin' Up! Established Elegance, Stampin' Up! Faith in Nature, Stampin' Up! Friends 24-7; (Ink) Stampin' Up! Chocolate chip, Tim Holtz Gathered Twig; (Dies) Stampin' Up! Framelits, Spellbinders Lacey Circles, Spellbinders Circle, Spellbinders Scalloped Rectangles