Challenge Layout #5 - Craft Time at Nana's

So I had eight pieces of patterned paper in the Burlap and Bouquets collection pack and I am up to five pages completed!  This page was a challenge to do with this collection because almost all of  the papers have a distinctive grayed background and the photos had brights and whites... 

I used a white cardstock background because of the white styro cones in the photos...nothing else I placed it on looked right.  Then the white cardstock got trimmed slightly and centered onto kind of a peachy pink, dull red paper from the collection.  The other side of this paper was a reddish, peachy pink zig-zag pattern...just too busy. 

The photos were layered onto several papers (a happy scattered dot pattern, a minty green tiny chevron, the diagonal stripe and a small scrap of the aqua floral).  I wanted to use the bitty little alpha set that came with the collection pack, but I didn't want it to get lost, so I placed the title on a small kraft bag (kraft -- craft time,  silly pun intended).   The edge of the bag got tucked in behind the photo layers, journaling went on the tag that slides into the little bag.  Then I just added a couple of strips of paper at the top edge of the page and a few of the stickers, the flair badge and little sticker banners.  Last was to sprinkle on some of my homemade enamel dots (note to self:  must make more colors to choose from!). 

The phrase stickers I thought were particularly in sync with the layout; they read: "good things are going to happen" and "love you more each day".  Bella especially just lights up when I tell her we have a craft project to work on.  I want her to always remember these times with me as something special.  Kind of our thing together. 

happy scrapping today,
Cheryl

More is Better

Sometimes serendipity takes over... "more is better" not only applies to my page title but is also pretty descriptive of the page design. 

I was watching a video on ohsnapgonzo's you tube channel and she was working up a layout with all these strips of paper and I thought it was so very cool that she was not seeming to worry about color coordinating anything, but was just going for it, gluing all the strips across the page and curling up some of the edges.  Plus, what a wonderful way to use up scraps! 

So here's my take on the strip piecing technique. 

The Jacob man insisted (way back when--I think he was 4 here) that he could indeed wear both pair of sunglasses...so he did.  More is better, he said. 

And with all the paper layers on this page...more is also better....  Plus it was just a lot of fun to grab a stack of strips and start gluing 'em down.  Now I think this technique would look really good with stitching across the strips.  But with no sewing machine, I opted to draw in some sketchy black pen lines on some of the paper strips.  And since there is so much going on with all the various paper patterns, I trimmed the whole thing down and centered it on a black piece of cardstock and kept embellishments to a minimum. 

I also spied another layout done using the same paper strips kind of technique, but this one arranged the strips by color, in a rainbow fashion. I think I have this layout pinned in my scrapbook folder on pinterest. 

But I thought I would try the technique on a more monochromatic page.  And this time, I only did a half page with the strips, varied the width of the paper strips more, inserted some scalloped border punched pieces plus a couple of stitched border pieces (those were from Basic Grey).   

I will definitely be using this method again.  Loved using up all those bits and pieces!  (Yeah, I know, it's getting a little weird how much I am into the using up the scraps thing.  Just. Cannot. Seem. To. Stop.   Note:  I also do not seem to have any shortage of scraps with which to amuse myself. )

does this require a 12-step program? 
Cheryl

Two posts in one day?!  And the occasion?  Just cuz I did this layout one evening this past week and I just love it and had to post it.   (Usually I do up several layouts and then photograph 5 or 6 of them at one time...trying to have a backlog of layouts ready to post for when I don't have access to scrapping materials.)  But, I love this one so much...could. not. wait.  

Now I don't know if it's the layout I love so much, or if it's the photo... Jacob absolutely hates this series of photos.  Had them done with one of the photographers that brings a slew of old timey clothes and props and then prints them in sepia, and sometimes uses some hand coloring to tint sections of the photos.  He just hates these pictures.  But, sorry, kiddo, Nana loves them and they're gettin' scrapped! 

I was watching a video the other day and watched this gal take scraps of paper and a pile of embellishment ephemera and put a few together, then she stapled the packet.  She did several of these packets and then just slid them in and around her photo and plunked the whole thing down on a 12x12 paper, titled it and boom, was done.  Now my take on this did not go quite as quickly, since I am old school and always start with the photo and slide things in and under till I am happy, then I try and take great care to not alter the stacks while I glue everything into place.  But I have to say, even though I did not do this as quickly as I saw it done in the video, it did come together pretty darn fast (for me anyway). 

I used a couple of ephemera packs from Crate Paper (Maggie Holmes Party Day and DIY I think), an embellishment pack from Amy Tangerine (the stitched heart, "favorite," and the layered "best" sticker), and a piece from Crate Paper Close Knit stitched embellishments.  I also added some paint splatters, a wood veneer piece, and a few of my homemade enamel dots.   

Something I've noticed is that I am doing a lot of white cardstock backgrounds.  I like, never, I mean n.e.v.e.r. used plain white backgrounds a few years ago.  Everything was patterned paper and I would use a colored piece of cardstock as a base.  But I am really liking the white backgrounds more and more (still loving my pattern paper---just using it differently now). 

So today, I find myself in need of more white cardstock... oh darn that means a trip to Hobby Lobby I guess... gee that's a real shame... not. 

Now I am off and running... 
Cheryl
  

Oh boy, today is Sunday.  DH is gone all day, no showings, the only couple of things I have to do outside the house today is drop off some goodies at a friend's, pick up some photos at Walgreens, and get dog food.  And the rest of the day is mine, all mine...gonna spend it up in my little room, scrapping away! 

But before I get going, I thought I'd post a layout. 

Bella and Jackson (and Nana) spend loads of time with the Thomas the Tank train tracks, getting it all set so multiple trains can run at one time...So much fun to see the two of them so engaged (and kind of playing together...) 

Papers are from a little 6x6 Simple Stories pad I picked up on clearance at Hobby Lobby.  It was falling apart, held together with a rubber band, but the price was right so I didn't care if it was missing a sheet or two.  Even the phrases and the little arrows were cut from sheets in the pad.  The star stickers and the camera sticker are Recollections also purchased on clearance.  The alphas are from a Webster's Pages sheet (one of those that had multiple colors and sets of alphas on one sheet---loved those!).  The diagonal black strip at the top and bottom of the page are from Crate Paper, the DIY collection pad I picked up on clearance a month or so ago).  And the enamel dots---homemade! 

Best!
Cheryl

A small homemade enamel dot update...  I bought some cheapie "melty" beads at Walmart (yea, I succumbed due to the low price I heard about and went into Walmart).  And they did NOT melt well at all.  At, all.  Awful.  I went back to Michaels and bought the name brand Perler beads and they melted great.  (So I've added aqua, darker turquoise and lime green to my cache of enamel dots, hurray!)  ok, moving on,

It's getting cooler at night, something about the air that feels fall-ish, and I hear the geese honking overhead.  But, bear with me while I indulge myself yet with a few more layouts that speak to me of summer. 

Really wanted a soft, light summery feel to this page.  Didn't want to over power the softness of the flowers or the bright clear colors, so I chose a white cardstock background and added some textural interest by using modeling paste and a honeycomb stencil.   Pattered papers are from the super saver 8-1/2x11 $5 packs of Maggie Holmes and Amy Tangerine that I had purchased a while back (except the top piece, that's a scrap of Basic Grey from maybe Lime Rickey?...maybe.)  Added some buttons, cut a couple of banners. 

The sticker that says Pure Goodness is from a Maggie Holmes sticker book and the tag and "best" is from a Heidi Swapp ephemera pack.  I added a flower and some hot pink pearls, stamped the date (did the multiple stamping thing) and thought I better stop before I over work things.  (Me? over work something---do too much of a good thing...uhh yea, I do that, so I stopped). 

here's to making that summer feeling last a little while longer...
Cheryl

There have been quite a number of items posted on pinterest about making your own enamel dots.  After reading different versions, I decided on baking perler beads.  Perler beads are a children's craft item and can be found at Walmart (although I have a healthy aversion to shopping there), Michael's, and various online sites.  I bought a small set I found on clearance that had three colors of blue, two shades of yellow and an orange in the set.

I found that the hardest part was snipping the little devils in half so as to get a smaller enamel dot.  But even with my RA, it was very do-able (even if I did have to chase a few that launched themselves right off the end of the scissors and shot across the room--much to the surprise of the cat).  I stacked a few of them to get a larger size, left some as they were and cut a bunch down. 

Since I didn't have any parchment paper to bake them on, I used my Teflon craft sheet (folded in half to fit it on my baking sheet (I used an old baking sheet though--just in case).  Set the oven to 300 degrees and the timer to 15 minutes.

Just like baking cookies, the length of baking time will differ depending on your oven, how many beads you have on a baking sheet and how many are stacked.  The good news is, even if I did leave them in longer to melt the double stacked ones more--the smaller ones did not seem to burn.  There was no noxious odor and no residue left on my Teflon craft mat. 

 And this is what the blue ones looked like after baking...

Pretty easy... I'll probably make more... now the hardest thing will be to decide what colors to do next. 

Of course I hade to use a couple on a layout right away...  Papers are from Dear Lizzy, the Lucky Charm collection as well as the noted sticker and the little hearts sticker in the middle of the doily.  Kind-a don't remember where the "Special" die dut came from--it was laying in one of the little dishes on my desk, a leftover or cast-off from another page.  The "Life is Sweet" sticker came from Jillibean Soup and the fabric yo-yo's were part of a $.99 pack of nine of them... Two received a decorative fabric covered brad through the center and the third one got a white flower shaped button to cover the center.   Title letters are Thickers, but they were too, too yellow; so I dabbed on some Picket Fence white distress stain to tone the yellow down, and that worked quite nicely.  A piece or two of black striped washi tape and my own homemade enamel dots finished the page. 

So, what colors are next?  Could use some red, black, gray, pink of course, light green, bright green, dark green, brown, oh white too...