A quick page.... Kind-a quick, it sat in my pile of half started pages for a couple of years.  Yes, y.e.a.r.s!  The photos were not the best, taken in a community meeting room with little light and using some themed papers, well let's just say those results were sad.  Colors too bright and overpowered the photos, papers way too busy.  But, just using the colors in the photos led to a dark and dreary looking layout.  I just kept putting it all aside.  Once I pulled the stickers and the embellishments together, it went together really fast, though. 

I used the color appropriate papers  on a kraft base and added tabs and word stickers that kept with the theme of scouting, plus the air balloon sticker and it went zip, zip, zip.   

I used some K&Co. tone on tone star paper, layered some color coordinating pieces under the photos, cut the words and a border strip from a scouting paper (gosh it's old--I think from It Takes Two) and used several pieces of brown vellum to tuck under the border and the photos.  I still felt it needed a little more depth, so I stamped the mesh background (stamp is from Magenta) so that the mesh imagery would be peeking out from around the photo.  Last was to add the buttons and the folded yellow embellishment (that's from American Crafts).  This brought in the "gold" from the Blue and Gold dinner theme. 

Title was cut using my trusty old Cricut. And I dug around and found a fluer di lis brad to add to one of the tabs.  The balloon sticker adds a welcome bit of bright white and helps tie in all  word stickers on the following page.

The tabs and word stickers are from various Echo Park  and older 7 Gypsies sticker sheets, as well as the ones cut from the scouting paper. 

So, while this is certainly not the most exciting layout I've done, the photos deserved documenting and I am finally satisfied with the pages now!  These photos encompassed two years of Blue & Gold dinners---so very few of the photos turned out--my goodness these rooms were dark--so I picky chose the better and broke them up across two pages. 

I am off to get ready for work and after that to run to job #2 to turn in I-9 stuff and do scheduling (yes, I did get that 2nd part time job thanks for all your kind words and thoughts on that).  Let the juggling act begin! 

Another card posting!   Warning!  Oak leaf heavy images to follow.... 

I must be having a thing for oak leaves lately.   No explanation...I have none. 

The first card is again one that I designed originally for a card class and am just now getting around to assembling one for myself.  I didn't change too, too much from the original, other than sanding off the edges of the stamped image and adding a drawn in border around the edge of the background panel. 

The background panel is stamped with Versamark for a tone on tone effect, then adhered to an ivory card.  I stamped the text background of the smaller rectangle using brown ink and overstamped the oak leaf on top of that, then sanded off the edges to expose the white core.  This was layered onto a slightly larger dark brown rectangle and tied with a piece of tan scrapper's floss (Remember that from Karen Foster?  Still loving that stuff!).   Just adhered that to the front of the card using pop dots.  My new favorite pop dot is from Stampin' Up cuz they are much lower in profile, but still give some dimension. Stamps are all from Hero Arts 

That was it. Easy, peasey. 

The next card is a departure from autumn colors, but still using an oak leaf!  The stamp is an older Hero Arts stamp I've had for ages.  Stamped in Chipped Sapphire  Distress ink on a scrap of ivory cardstock, then cut it out.  I layered upsome navy cardstock panels with coordinating scraps of olive green prints (scraps left from a My Mind's Eye 6x6 pad).  Adhered the leaf, a greeting stamped on a punched tag to peek out from one of the panels and tied some navy and white baker's twine on the remaining panel.

The last card in this bunch started with a stamped background of kraft cardstock and the same oak leaf stamp used above.  This time it was stamped randomly on the kraft using several colors of Distress inks, Scattered Straw, Old Paper, and Rusty Hinge.  Added a border at the bottom using some handmade or designer paper scraps, then adhered the bundle onto an ivory panel.  I cut the oak leaf using a Tim Holtzx die and a scrap of some sort and applied it with pop dots down the center of the leaf, curling the edges down a bit.  Tied the whole bundle up with an ivory and orange polka dot ribbon and placed it on an orange card.  Added a few beige-y toned pearls  and called it done. 

I think I should move on from the oak leaf thing now though.... 

How is it that I seem to make an even bigger mess out of my desk (and surrounding areas) when I am making 4-1/4 x 5-1/2 greeting cards as opposed to 12 x 12 scrapbook pages?  I had to spend some time last night reclaiming my space and started a page after the last couple of daysof  making cards.  While I was puttering about putting punches and scraps of ribbon and papers away, I was thinking about the mess I made, then later as I was working on a page, it occurred to me that there was a lot less out and about me on the desk...  Sorry, I digress.  Just one of the rambling thoughts that sometimes sneaks up on me and makes me go h-mmmmm. 

So anyway, I have some cards to post today (big surprise, huh?). 

This first one was originally created for a card class.  I re-worked it slightly for myself, changing the border, adding a ribbon and little butterfly punches and drawing in a border.  The daisy stamp is from Inkadinkado and it was stamped twice.  Once on the card panel and again on another piece of kraft cardstock, colored with white pen, cut out and layered on top of the card panel using pop dots.  Added some little white pearls and a bit of black sparkly Stickles. 

The next card has an embossed background (Tim Holtz embossing folder) which I brushed with a metallic copper ink pad all around the perimeter and layered onto a lighter brown cardstock panel that is a bit more red in tone than the dark brown cardstock used for the card itself.   The oak leaves were cut with the Tim Holtz leaves die from a metallic cardstock.  After arranging the leaves on the card and securing with pop dots, I tied on a small piece of twine and added the button and several copper colored pearls. 

The last card in this batch also has an embossed background (kind of distressed stripes).  The tree is from Hero Arts stamped in brown ink on a scrap of grid printed paper.   Used my trusty old Tombow markers to color the tree, added a little sparkle with several gemstones and some Stickles.  Then layered the stamped image on a small piece of red tone on tone printed paper before adhering to the embossed panel, which I also layered on the red paper.  Tied the whole bundle up with a piece of twine and placed it on a kraft colored card. 

You'll probably notice that there are no greetings on the outside of these cards.  I often make cards without wording on the outside so that I can add the appropriate greeting when I am ready to send the card.  I am always on the look out for tiny greetings that I can stamp on little tags and tie into place. 

Have a great day today! 

OK, Monday is here again.  It was kind of a gray and rainy weekend here.  Saturday was a good day to spend making Louisiana Red Beans and Rice since it takes almost all day to cook.  And to make chocolate chip cookies.    I have to say, I still miss my old stove.  Still guessing on baking times with this new one.  Well it's new as of last year Christmas when the oven went in the middle of making a batch of cookies.  I set it at 7 minutes and the cookies were underdone---stuck them back in for 1 minute more--perfect!  Next batch, set it at 8 minutes and they were not burnt--but well overdone.  argh#!  It's a process I guess.  I had the old stove for 20 years, so I suppose a learning curve is to be expected.  After 20 years, I just knew what to expect and what to set the thing at with the old one. 

Learning curves... they are everywhere.  Tried and true things may need to be shaken up a bit in order to make things work sometimes.  I think that can hold true for scrapbooking too.  

I tend to scrapbook from a color standpoint, matching and coordinating colors with those that are worn by the primary subject matter in the photo.  And I learned something, sometimes that just doesn't work.  And this was kind of a surprise to me.  I had the perfect colors for this layout on its first go round, the paper picked up both the pink that my little Izzie was wearing, the coral that her mommy had on and brown... and it just didn't work.  It was too busy, it was way too much pattern (and that's saying something for me, cuz I like pattern).  So a tore it all apart and went with softer, more pastel colors and my tried and true border stripping.  Much better. 

Papers and alpha are Prima.  I cut the scallopped piece to peek out from under the polka dot piece and then added the strip of smaller print on top of that.  Another scallopped piece and another floral strip went across the top to act as kind of a header. 

I did save the floral stickers and the flourish sticker from the original layout and used them again on this one.  Those are from Echo Park (I think it was from A Good Day--was that the name? ee-uh I don't know--got it in a collection pack from Hobby Lobby quite a while ago). 

Anyway, I used the backside of the Prima papers and roughed up the edges under the lead photo.  Then added a piece of lace as a little extra horizantal grounding.  I also wanted to use the alphas as kind of both journaling and title.  She has changed so much since these photos were taken, but she is still seldom quiet and a little bossy! 

Well, that's about it---I have some paperwork to wade through, phone calls to make, and the ever present dishes to do before I can get up to my little room to play with paper. 

Oh my goodness, it's Friday all ready!  Allergies have kept me kind of on the down low this week.  The bleary-teary eyes make working at scrapping and stuff a bit, um challenging, I guess would be the word.  And then come the gi-huge-y sneezes.  Now that's attractive, sneezing all across papers and photos.  Eeee-yuk.  So, not a lot accomplished the last couple of days. 

Just a little on the sidelights of life here...  I do have a job interview this morning, so I'll try to be brief.  You are reading notes from  58 year old here and no one it seems wants to hire anyone my age anymore in an administrative field.  No pity party, just fact--- you fill out on-line app after on-line app and no they can't ask your age in the app.  Companies get around that these days by having you fill out background check info when you do the app.  And there it is---your birthdate.  Now, I've gotten over the rather depressing thought that in the age group I and husband are in, and given the hit that 401K's took, that we will always have to work.  There will be no retirement or golden years for us.  And given that most places now want to hire part time as opposed to full time, I have to get a second part time job.  Them's the facts.  Now on the one hand, I am happy to even get the call-back for this job after more than a year of looking.  But on the other hand, it is a longer drive for just a part time job and not an easy ride in the dead of winter.  So I've also been a bit sidetracked the past couple of days with my own thoughts and concerns and what-ifs.  

Now to turn this back to scrapping----I am thinking that these topics are going to appear in scrapbook pages in the future.  Jobs, gas prices, living economically.  It's what life is today, so I am going to scrap it, as well as the other monumentous and historical events of my (our) lifetime. 

But on to a layout that I have in hand!  I had finished this first page last year, then turned up another photo of my grandson on the beach.  I knew there was going to be another page, so I had set aside the scraps from the first page. 

My journaling was about how happy I am that he has had the opportunity to explore the beach and see the Pacific Ocean.  I love the ocean, the sound of the waves, the smell of the air, just love it.  And I am so glad he was able to have this experience. 

I used a beachy-summery themed paper line from Fancy Pants.  It was from two summers ago, I think.  I used very little of the A side of the papers, I loved the organic feel of the distressed brown for a base.  And I cut the waves out of another sheet to use as accent pieces.  Didn't want a lot of foof on these pages, so I added only some penwork in white and just a little piece or two of a natural colored lace scrap.  A couple of punched borders using two different size scallops and a couple of skinny strips at the bottom of the pages added a horizantal base line for the photos, but that was it. 

So, today, maybe think about scrapping today, your real-time life.  There is much to be said for the birthdays, the milestones, the smiles; there is also much in our lives that I think future generations will want to hear about.  Where were you on 9/11?  What has the great recession changed in your life?  Are there local events in your community that are important to you?

That's all... I'm getting off my little soapbox now!  

 

Switching things up a little bit and hopping back to a summer themed layout of Jacob and his cousins again.  These kids truly could make a party out of doing the most mundane little things.  They were a delight to be around and made every day we spent together so much fun.  Now that they are all next to grown up, I hope they remember these days as I do, with much love and a big ol' grin on my face. 

I reverted to one of my go to formats when I have multiple photos, which is to put a focal point photo on the lead page and stretch the others straight across the second page.  I know that even though I use this format again and again---none of the pages will be one right after the other, nor maybe even in the same album. 

Because the placement of the photos is one that I use a lot, I wanted to distribute the papers a little differently.  Chopped those puppies  up into three different sizes of little squares and tucked them all in across the top rather than layering strips of patterned paper across the bottom (which is more the norm for me).  This left more white space open at the bottom of the layout.  To balance the title on the first page of the layout, I layered some paper, a tag, journaling block  and stickers on the right side. 

Most of the papers and the stickers are from Basic Grey, the Picadilly collection.  The exceptions would be the red polka dot paper (Basic Grey, June Bug line), the green rectangles at the top of the page (scraps from an older My Mind's Eye paper), and the yellow border sticker (Crate Paper).   Alphabets are from Webster's Pages and Cosmo Cricket.  Other than drawing in some stitch lines and my journaling, that's about it! 

Happy Monday!  I don't know why, but Monday's have almost always been my favorite day of the week.  It holds such promise for everything that I want to get done.  This week that means another load of stuff to Goodwill, to unbury the kitchen table from all the stuff that seems to accumulate there, a job interview on Friday (for a job I'm not r-e-a-l-l-y sure I want, but not sure I have a choice at this point; it's not the job, but the logistics) and the arrival of my Stampin' Up order, not to mention the pages and cards that are started, but not yet finished! 

I was having a difficult time finding the right tone of blue to scrapbook this page of Jacob with his Great Grandma Elaine (everything I looked at had an aqua cast to it and didn't look quite right), when I happened to spot my box full of handmade and specialty papers.  These were all purchased years ago for collage and mixed media projects.  But it was the blue paper that was calling out to me---here I am; I'm the right color blue---see me?! 

After I loosely cut a hunk of it for use on the layout, I started layering papers under the photo and yes, I even took out the old sewing machine (not really working quite right, the poor old thing).  But it did behave long enough to sew through a couple of the layers. I wanted the photo on straight, but the layers to be on a little wonky and crooked.  Besides the blue handmade, I used a white waffle textured handmade and a couple of pieces of Basic Grey and My Mind's Eye for layering and two doilies.  The alphabet strip sticker is off an older Creative Imagination's sheet.  Flowers are Prima.  I didn't want to use gems or buttons for flower centers on the medium size flowers you see, so I scrunched up smaller flowers and glued them to the centers.  I like the dimension it gives them.  Some light blue buttons also found their way onto the page

The challenges with this page were not over yet, though!  The letter "L" in the woodgrain look Thickers set that I liked so much, didn't look like an "l" when I laid it down.  It looked like a capital "C", so I chopped part of it off.  And I stuck on a few of the little asterisks (they kind of look like flowers) to bring a bit of brown into the flower-y areas. 

Apparently, challenge was the name of the game with this page---because although the blue Primas are perfect in color in reality---they photographed with this slight peachy tinge to them---I'm guessing it was my flash (it was pretty overcast the day I took the photo of the page) -- but by this point, I wasn't going to haul it back outside and re-photograph. 

Whew, done.  So there, she says, triumphantly sticking her tongue out at all those little challenges trying to get in her way! 

This kid was such a ham bone!  Dancing a little happy dance in Boppa's garage.  For no apparent reason, just being goofy.   You know, when I am having one of  t-h-o-s-e days, when nothing seems to be going right, when I just want to throw my hands in the air and give up; it's looking back on these moments that lighten my heart and bring a smile to my face. 

I used a combination of papers on this one, the base sheet is from Authentique, the Loyal collection, the layering pieces are Basic Grey (really just pieces left from other projects), Silly Boy sticker title is from Echo Park's A Boy's Life.  Once the paper layers were assembled, but before I attached the whole stack, I stamped the honeycomb pattern (a Tim Holtz stamp) and spattered some black ink and white paint.  Then stamped some stars and started tucking in some tabs (stamped Ali Edwards "Remember" journaling piece) and XOXO from a Creative Imaginations sticker sheet, cut out the medallion shape and punched a couple of stars.  It was really just a matter of adding little snippets and pieces of stickers and things--pieces of washi, some buttons, the star shaped paper clip and the little number "7" sticker (since he was 7 at the time of this photo.  Last was to draw in a border around the edge of the page and add my journaling down the right side. 

Hope everyone has a great weekend--you never can tell when a scrappy moment will occur! 

I am on a card kick all of a sudden.  My inventory of cards is somewhat depleted so I've been spending some time on Pinterest getting inspired.  There are loads of pretty cards there to peruse, I highly recommend taking some time to look through the various categories.  (Note---take some time is kind of putting it mildly--you could get lost there for hours looking at cards, scrapbook pages, recipes, home decor and holiday ideas.) 

But my card today was NOT inspired by anything on Pinterest though.  I picked up some cute layered bat stickers last season when they went on sale, and then, yep, never got around to making any Halloween cards.  They were on my Clip It Up--mocking me--so I got busy and made some Halloween cards.  I had purchased enough packages to make up four cards. Now I don't see similar stickers for sale this year--but there are some other ones that I may pick up for a different set of cards. 

I smudged the edges of the white cardstock layer using a Charcoal catseye pad and stamped the tiny little stars (from an ancient Hero Arts set of stamps) just at the edges of the panel.  Orange woodgrain paper is a scrap--the back side of a Basic Grey, Life of the Party paper.   Thepurple scallopped layer is punched using my favorite EK border punch.  Layered 'em all up and tied on some purple ribbon I found in my stash. 

The inside greeting is done using an alphabet set and one more stamping of the tiny star grouping.  Gosh, I think this alpha set is a generic one--I don't see any brand name even on the box.  I purchased it many years ago when I first started stamping.  Boy, oh boy, I've really gotten the mileage from this set. 

Now I'm headed off to do laundry, doesn't that sound like fun?!  No, huh?  Maybe a little card making while the wash is a sloshing about in the machine will make it a bit more interesting!   

I said I jumped around a lot when I'm scrapping.  Today's layout is about Jacob tree hunting and the reindeer at the tree farm.   He really isn't sobbing in that last photo--but running and yelling "Boppa, I found the perfect tree."  He found l-o-t-s of "perfect trees." 

Now, the problem I had with these photos was that many Christmas papers are SO Christmas-y that the colors didn't go with the browns and greys of the reindeer and Jacob's blue jacket looked just obnoxious.  I did find these Basic Grey papers (from their Wassail line)  that color wise seemed to work, but I was still trying to be careful not to overpower the photos with too, too many prints.  I had to use at least a few---duh...

For some reason, I had a bunch of this paper--enough that I must have had at one time, a project in mind.  Haven't a clue anymore, just what said project was... H-m-m-m  That's happened more times than I care to admit.   Anyway,  I cut the trees from one sheet and turned them upside down, added a teeny punched snowflake or so and the baker's twine to make the banners. 

While all the papers are Basic Grey, the decorative fabric brads are from an older K&Co. line, the chipboard alphas are old Heidi Swapp, and the border sticker at the bottom is from just a stray sticker from my stash. I also used my favorite EK border punches the small scallop and the dotted embossed scallop.

Gotta get me some coffee now and get ready for work.  Later all! 

It feels a little funny to be posting a summer layout when the colors here are reaching their peak and Friday nights are spent under a blanket at the football stadium.  But I jump all over the place when I am scrapping.  Something clicks into place for a particular set of photos and that's what I'll work on. 

I have this bunch of photos scrapped all ready--they were done for Stampington & Co.'s Inspiration magazine several years ago.  And I do still like those pages---they will go into my album(s).  This more recent rendition of the photos will go into Jacob's album(s). 

Papers are mainly from My Mind's Eye; the Penny Lane collection.  The exceptions are the solid cardstock pieces, the title block and the floral block and  the green with blue polka dot.  I also picked up a couple of stray embossed papers that were on my desk from another project and then kind of went h-m-m-m, they look kind of nice laying here on the page.  So I trimmed them down, layered them on some coordinating cardstock and tried tucking them in here and there till I found a spot that looked like they belonged.   

I added the thin white punched borders and punched a few of the circle prints to scatter here and then. The little white tabs on the second page are actually made using aEK's ticket punch.  Added a few aqua gemstones, some washi tape and the punched arrows.  I even journaled---gasp---right on the page. I'm not crazy about journaling right on the page---but I am doing it!