A First For Everything

Recently as a result of so many life changes in such a short span of time, I decided I needed and was well over due for some quality me time.  Being the avid crafter that I am, I made the decision to attend my first scrapbooking class offered by a LSS. *GASP*  I know for many of you this may not seem like a big deal, for me it. is. huge.  And because it was such a huge decision, I went big, and attended a class taught by Heidi Swapp.  It was such a fun time, Heidi is a wonderful and gracious teacher full of energy and just general awesometasticness.  And because I am a slow poke, this has not been posted sooner because the project was definitely not complete by time it was time to pack up and say goodbye.  I have to say, I have completed it, and here it is:

I have to say for a first class, I choose wisely.  It was such a blast, and I learned so much new stuff on how to work with spray mists.  Believe it or not, this entire mini is made from techniques learned in the workshop using Heidi Swapp Color Shines and the Pink Paislee Color Wash line.  Even better, I have a ton of left over supplies - so keep coming back because I will have a post soon (maybe) about what I did with all those delicious leftover bits and pieces.

Long Stories

I was recently listening to the Paperclipping Roundtable, when one of the panelists (Karen Grunberg) shared a current project she was working on.  The episode is Meditative Exacto Knives.    Her sharing of her thoughts resulted in an instant flood of ideas - some of which I have and are waiting patiently to move from my mind to paper.  However, today I thought I would share the two layouts I have completed as a result of her inspiration.  Karen had shared working on some 6x12 layouts, and a discussion ensued on the PRT about how that would be executed.  I recently got a new large format printer, which added to the ways in which I could take text heavy stories into my layouts. Here are two different ways in which I ended up executing this idea:

This first layout was kept rather simple.  I have to admit though, It does not feel quite finished to me so I may go back to it in a bit and add more.  This is a very personal layout, sharing my feelings and thoughts about what a photo of my husband going through a Radiation Therapy Planning Session does and doesn't show about our lives right now. 

This layout is a more traditional take and interpretation of the idea that Karen shared on PRT.  One side 6x12 side is text and the other is the layout.  I had wanted to use many photos of the new kitten my husband and I recently got.  This story is very related to the story in the first layout - I wanted to document the reason why we got a new kitten and how we got the kitten, the story of adding to our family.

And that is all for today.

Layout: After Snowfall

Hello!  Today I want to share with you a layout that I created incorporating some beautiful metal pieces I ordered a while back.  When my order of lush metal arrived, I showed my husband and he said "Hey! Those look like Snowflakes, I bet you could use them like snowflakes on a layout."  So, I have to say that my darling husband helped me find the inspiration for this awesome layout.  And here is the layout:

You cannot see it well in this particular photo (I am not sure why this photo looks a little dark), but the background has an ombre/gradient effect with the top portion being a light blue and the bottom third being a steely blue.  I got this by placing the metal upside down on a piece of plain white cardstock.  I then sprayed the top portion with a light blue glimmer mist (Patina), took the sprayer from the Patina bottle and placed it in my bottle of Twilight glimmer mist (because the sprayer on the twilight is plugged) and sprayed the bottom portion with the Twilight glimmer mist.  Although switching the sprayers was very irritating, I think it turned out really well.  Once the background was dry, I took the metal pieces off and flipped them over and used them as an additional layer of snow flakes to create a foreground/background look.  In order to add the mood and feeling of a snow day, I matted the pattern paper and photo in black cardstock.  And here are some close ups (with a more true color as well):

I hope you have enjoyed my share today.  If you like the metal, pop on over to my friend's shop and splendor in all of her beautiful metal for crafty projects.  http://www.zibbet.com/ButterBeeScraps

Supplies:  (Cardstock) Bazzill Basics White, Bazzill Basics Raven; (Pattern Paper) Stampin' Up! Winter Frost Designer Paper Stack, Heidi Swapp Album Tabs; (Embellishments) Echo Park, My Mind's Eye, Silver Filligree Embellishment #167S-P, Silger Filligree Embellishment #286-P; (Letters) Little Yellow Bicycle; (Ink) Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist Patina, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist Twilight, Studio Calico Mister Heuy's Opaque White

Hello

Popping in for a quick share.  The layout I am sharing with you today I created in response to a challenge over at Scrapjazz.com.  I unfortunately cannot remember which Challenge it was, but I believe it was a Challenge of the Week.  All I remember is that I was required to use some felt and I pulled out the Prima die cut felt stickers that I had to have when they came out, hoarded, and then had no idea how to use them or what to do with them...... Based on the challenge (which I cannot remember what it entailed), this is what I came up with:

(Supplies): Prima Ledger, Glitz Desgins Pretty in Pink (Pattern Paper); Teresa Collins, Unity Stamp Company Ledger (Stamps); American Crafts (Rub Ons); Prima, My Mind's Eye, Pink Paislee, Basic Grey (Embellishments); Fiskars (Paper Punch)

Pink Paislee Nantucket and Want2SCrap Ocean Album

I just wanted to pop in and share a mini album that I recently created.  Recently I was able to upgrade my printer and purchase a large format printer which also brought the added benefit of adding to my scrapbooking paper addiction.  This large format printer opened up the wonderful world of digital paper.  In celebration of this, I purchased the now retired Pink Paislee Nantucket paper collection.  To this day, I am absolutely in love with this paper line, so I created a mini album out of it!  Let me warn you this is a photo heavy post.  I will try and not bore you with much more writing either!

If you are interested in purchasing this mini album, you can find it on my Etsy:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThePeanutButterShop?ref=si_shop


Because I am selling this little big bad guy on Etsy, I left the front cover blank so that a custom title can be created.  The sign was created by cutting out a wood sign with my cricut and cutting apart the wood sign then reassembling.  I covered the paper in Picket Fence Distress Ink and then stamped the pieces of the wood sign with a wood grain stamp (from Stampin' Up!) and then ran more Picket Fence Distress Stain over the top of it.  Voila, instant weathered wood beach sign.  The netting that you see throughout the album is Cheese cloth which I colored using the Coffee Dye technique (first time EVER doing that).  The tags throughout the mini album were also coffee stained

I Have to pop in to say that the awesome and cute little stamps you are seeing of the sea life - those are from Stampin' Up! and Unity Stamp Company.  Apparently, I have a love of all things sea related.  In case you are wondering about my snapshot stamp - I purchased the images off of a nice lady on Etsy who customized the images to indicate various photo sizes undearneath the camera image.  I then had the proofs sent to a nice gentleman on Etsy who translated the images into red rubber.  

You can find the nice lady at this link (RhodaDesignStudio):

https://www.etsy.com/shop/RhodaDesignStudio

And the nice gentleman (2Impress Stamps) at this link:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/2impress

I have to say that my most loved page of this mini album is the coral page because of the way the netting and pearls came out.  Prior to adding these wonderful embellies it was my least favorite page (it was such a pain to file the paper down and fit it to the shape).  However, after adding the beautiful little details, it is my favorite.  Okay the seahorse may have helped as well.....

And here are some close ups of the details of some of the pages.

 The anchor, postage stamps, snorkel, sand castle, and adorable little sea horse were all created using dies from Lifestyle Crafts/Quickutz and Cuttlebue (okay on the postage stamp which came with my Cuttlebug and I have held onto).

Thanks for stopping by and have a art inspired day! 

Airport Romance

Hello,  back again with another quick share.  I created the layout below a little while back, I am not sure of the inspiration behind the layout or what prompted me to create it, however, it is still a super fun layout.  So, here it is:

Supplies:  Prima Ledger, Glitz Designs Pretty in Pink (Pattern Paper); American Crafts Thickers, Jilly Bean Soup Alpha Stickers, Prima Flower, Pink Paislee Brad, Stampin' Up! Paper Clip (Embellishments)
 
Although you cannot see it, these are some smaller photos of me and my hubby hanging out at the airport waiting to board a plane to Korea.  We spent a long time traveling to and fro without one another, so every time we travel together I make it a point to take photos and document the fact that we are traveling with one another and not in parting from one another.

Colorblocking Fun

I realize that colorblocking is an old technique, however, it was/is new to me as I have never used the technique.  Recently, Scrapjazz hosted a challenge that involved colorblocking, and I wanted to share with you what I had come up with. So here it is:

Supplies:  Cardstock (Bazzill); Pattern Paper (My Mind's Eye, Hambly, Prima); Embellishments (Mon Ami Gabby, Echo Park, Pink Paislee); Other Supplies (Fiskars)
 
I spent a lot of time laying out the blocks, measuring, cutting, and stitching.  And as a result, I did not want to cover up all that hard work which lead to me using a single photo and acetate.  I love the way that this layout turned out, although I have to admit, I may not do this very often because it takes SO MUCH TIME.  However, I can say that I did finally trying colorblocking!

Game Time

Today I thought I would share with you a layout I created of my sweetie and my fur baby playing together.  I wanted to capture them playing together as this is a regular routine in my house.  My husband turns on the Playstation and my fur baby hearing the beep of the machine turning on comes running and patiently sits next to whatever he is going to sit in and play video games.  She is waiting for him to play with her toy.  She will sit there for hours with him waiting for him to jiggle the toy for a few minutes between game matches, it is amazing.

Supplies:  Cardstock (Bazzill); Pattern Paper (Moxxie); Paper Punches (EK Success); Stamps (Unity Stamp Company)

(Super Late) Earth Day Projects

I know that it has been a while, okay a long while, since my last post.  However, I wanted to pop in and share some projects that I created in honor of Earth Day (which was forever ago).  These little projects were created using all upcycled products including button envelopes, spam mail envelopes, plastic product packaging, toilet paper rolls, the pretty packaging of scrapbook supplies, and used card envelopes.  Here is the first project that I created using these supplies AND scraps of paper, no new sheets (I love that):

I tried a new technique with the cover - using modeling paste/embossing pasted and coloring it with my glimmer mist.  I just love the way that it turned out.

The envelope page is created using Laura Denison's envelope pocket tutorial on YouTube.  I just loved it, and the idea that I would have an endless supply of envelopes I would never have to purchase (since I save the junk mail envelopes and use those instead).  Thankyou Laura Denison and unwanted mail senders.

This is the second project that I made - much quicker and more simple.  I ripped out the insides of an old photo alum I found in a thrift store.  I liked the beautiful French Country pattern on the front.  The inside is filled with pieces of whatever I had laying around that had a nice little pattern to it.  Not sure what I will fill it with yet, but I have something to play with when the time comes. 

Thanks for stopping by and taking a quick gander at my lovely paper playing projects!  I hope you enjoyed and have a lovely art inspired day.

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)