Color Challenge #12

This week's color challenge was inspired by all the bright color combos on the bella forums the past few weeks. After making some fun cards I felt the need to make the color challenge for this week bright! I usually have a really hard time using the bright colors so this was also to get me out of my box ^_~ To play make a project using at least 3 of the colors. If you don't have CTMH colors and want to play just use whatever you have that's close. Please leave me a comment if you play so I can link your artwork to this post as well and have fun!

Pink Carnation
Citrus Leaf
Crystal Blue
Orchard Bouquet


Sue's Flower Card
Jenn's Adorable Elephant Card

My example :

This is one of the very few layouts I've tried that just uses cardstock. It was quite a challenge for me since I LOVE pattern paper. I sanded the cardstock to give it a softer feel and add some texture. The purple journaling mat was embossed with the cuttlebug and then sanded, the pink background paper was scored then sanded as well for more texture. The only embellishment is a single big bloom flower from CTMH that I cut up to fit with the page maps layout that I used. Playful Petals and Serendipity stamp sets were used for the flowers and Extreme Caps was used for the title. I wasn't sure if I'd like the page seeing as in the beginning it didn't seem to flow but the end result turned out super cute!

A couple more Thank Yous and this week's Bella Challenge

Colors : Pink Carnation, Baby Pink, Taffy, Key Lime (BCC21)

Stamps : Bubblebella, From Me to You

Accents : Fakey dew drops :D, ribbon, white brads, cuttlebug birds embossing folder

I just love using my bellas to make cards! They make it so easy to make adorable cards. This was done for this week's sketch challenge (BSC22) and for last week's color challenge. These colors are so fresh and fun together and it's such a treat to have Sparkle doing the Bella forum color challenges because she also puts the CTMH colors on there as well, so no more trying to compare and hunt down the closest color! Yay ^_~

This one uses one of those adorable house mouse images that my secret sister sent me and also some ribbon she sent. I was following an older SCS sketch challenge and after I made it I realized I should have just aligned the main image on the left like I had wanted to in the first place, but it's still cute and the only person that will really notice is me. Uses some scraps from the old CTMH Lazy Days paper pack, garden green buttons, white waxy flax, and a cute thank you charm I got on clearance at Joanns (12 for $1). And there is a lot of coloring to do on these little mouse images, lol. I'm so used to coloring bellas that this was quite a feat for me and I was half tempted to just leave the rest uncolored after finishing the mouse and pencil.

And this one was just me experimenting. I tried random stamping again and found I am still not too good at it. I know the old addage practice makes perfect but I hate wasting paper on bombed efforts, lol. A little galaxy gold distressing on the embossing and around the sentiment though you can't tell at all in the picture. It's quite subtle in real life as well. The gold glitter with my glue pen really came out on the butterfly and I hope to get some gold wire later to create some antennae for the butterfly since I cut them off while cutting her out, lol. Colors are Vineyard Berry, Topiary, Bamboo, and Desert sand and I used the Butterfly Kiss and For Every Occassion stamp sets.

Bella Challenge Cards

I love my bellas, really I do! And they have been neglected lately since I've had the scrappin' bug the past month or so. But I really need some specific cards right now. I realized that I used up all my thank you cards in my stash so I decided to settle down and just make some cards. I wasn't in the mood at first so I did the past sketch and color challenges that I've missed on the bella forum on SCS. After I got started I had so much fun! The color challenges were really a challenge and I still have this last week's challenge to do. The sketches were just what I needed, I love not having to worry about the design and just being able to create and have fun with the card. So here they are along with one card that I made just out of scraps from some scrap pages.

For BSC17, and BCC16 challenge. The colors were to use rusty oranges and purple. I instantly picked up a gardenbella image I got from my SBS4 secret sister and these scraps. The orange CS is textured though you can't much tell in the pic. Bella colored with pencils and all CTMH paper and embellies used. I wanted to stamp thank you some where but figured it was fine and I'd just stamp the inside. Papers were the retired garden b&t and enchanted, the color scheme being pansy purple, goldrush and autumn terracota.

Made this one for my niece's birthday coming up this next month. She's going to be nine so I didn't want too kiddie of a card for her but still wanted something fun. Used the BSC18 sketch and the BCC17 colors which were olive green and purple. The image is from a RAK that Sue had sent me and the glitter flower stickers were from my secret sister. Uses more of the retired b&t, this one the cozy set and also uses a small piece from the paper garden pack. Colors are Olive and petal.

I was actually really hesitant to make this card. I loved the colors : Crystal Blue, Buttercup, and Chocolate (BCC18), but the sketch to make a tent topper card (BSC19) really intimidated me. After putting it together it was really easy! Silly me for thinking it was going to be hard ^_~ I used my cuttlebug to emboss the flowers on crystal blue CS and used more of those fun fakey dew drops. The image is another from my secret sister. This was the only card I made that I don't have an immediate use for. But I'm sure someone is bound to have a baby boy soon enough, lol.

These colors (BCC19) seemed like a real challenge and the minute I saw them I thought of Super Why! lol. So I had to use a superbella image (another RAK image from Sue though I already have this bella ^_~). The sentiment was printed out using my computer and the classic 'super you to the rescue' saying from super why. I would have used the swiss dots for embossing, if I had it. I've been waiting and waiting for it to get in stock here and I'm starting to think I'm just going to have to order it online. Also used the BSC20 sketch. This is going to be for my MIL. She's always there to help us out and this last week it was really great to have her house to stay at even if we did only stay one of the days.

This one is for my friend Julie. Both her and her hubby make the BEST food! Really, when we go there for dinner it's better than dining out, lol. This last time Julie made stuffed pork chops. It was soooo good! So this is for her, I even gave the bella red hair like Julie even though it's not curly and Julie almost never wears a ponytail, lol. I used the colors for the Bella 20 challenge and the 21 sketch challenge.

And this one was made from some strip scraps I had. I really had no idea what to do, lol. It very different from what I usually try to make but I think it turned out kind of cute. It reminds me of a quilt or country home stuff. So that's what I did this past week, 4 layouts and 6 cards ^_~ Not to bad and I have to admit it was kind of nice just making one post for the week. I also got to read a short novel, The Dream Thief, which is nice since the last book I got to read was in September! I love reading but feel I rarely have the time and my girls LOVE to lose my place and steal my bookmarks. Hopefully I can do better this year than the last. I miss it so much, I must have read over a dozen novels when I was preggo with Audrey but since she's been born I've only read maybe 5 or 6 and she's almost 2 1/2 years old now! Yikes!

Layouts from the week

Yay, I'm back ^_~. The bathroom is nearly done, all we need is the new mirror to be put up. It's so nice now with a new floor, newly painted walls and a new faucet. So over the past week I did four layouts. This is the first one I did on Monday while at my dear friend Julie's.

Uses a page maps layout, I used some leftover Valentine Minds Eye papers along with some CTMH paper and CS. The hearts, photo corners, and oval sentiment tag are all chip board covered with Cranberry or Hollyhock CS then the edges sanded. Waxy flax on the buttons and twill ribbon used for embellishments. And I just happened to have that cute printed grosgrain ribbon out and realized how cute it would look with this page. If it hadn't been already sitting on the table I wouldn't have thought to add it. The journaling was the toughest part since I have done so many Daddy/Daughter pages of Caitie at this age with Paul. I didn't want to just say the same things over again.

This one I did at my MIL's. Uses Minds Eye Confetti papers, CTMH Textured white CS and kiwi CS as well as another page maps layout design. I love how this one came out. These pictures are yet another pair that I've not had any idea on what to do with, mostly because the colors are so drab in the photos. I went against my usual trying to match colors in the layout to the pictures and I love how it came out!! The fun colors really liven up the photos. I covered the chipboard flowers with the minds eye paper and used some of those fakey dew drops from Michael's. They came in really big packages and I found them on an end basket with the floral supplies. While there wasn't a big selection in colors (a pink, blue, green, and clear/frosted packages) the price was great at only $2 for each large bag so I didn't feel guilty at all putting a bunch on the layout ^_~ CTMH, Minds Eye and misc ribbon cut by the yard were used as well as the Adorable stamp set to stamp out sweet (done in hollyhock ink). You can't see it in the picture but the white CS is textured and slightly ink distressed on the edges with kiwi. I love the colors in this!

I rarely use stickers if ever. Personally I feel I don't really know how to use them very well and I'm terrible at getting things in the right spot the first time. But I think I did pretty good with this layout. Uses a Making Memories packet. The pattern paper, flower and alpha stickers all came from the one kit. I stamped out Hanging in cocoa on chocolate CS and cut it out for part of the title and stamped out the & on the bottom right as well as the together on a tag that came with the kit (in ocean). Another pair of pictures that I didn't know what to do with but just went with the theme of the papers and used another page maps layout. I really like how it came out even though I'm not a sticker person ^_~

This is the only layout I'm not thrilled with. I love the colors, but it just seems to be missing something, plus I started this layout when I was already very tired so I think my mind was a bit blank on what I wanted to do. I'm thinking of stamping out the fairies on the cream and coloring them in to place over the simple chocolate stamped fairies, maybe pop dot them and see if that helps. This layout started out based of a page maps layout but the picture didn't really fit (was for a large vertical pic) so I moved things around quite a bit. It's also one of those just miscellaneous pictures that I have laying about. I was trying very hard to finish all the Feb/March '06 pictures by the end of this month. I have I think 5 pictures left but they will end up being 3 different layouts since it's 2, 2, and 1 for the events.

Secret Sister!

A big thank you to my SBS4 Secret Sister! I got this fun package in the mail Monday, but haven't been home to play with it or post my thank you yet.

She sent me a bunch of fun images, an easter stamp, fun chipboard flower stickers, flower rhinestones, sisters buttons, ribbon, and a cute quickie card kit. Thank you so much, I love it all!!

And I have been creating the past couple days. I have 2 layouts, one that I did at my friend Julie's on Monday and the other at my MIL's house today, but it's late and I'm just getting on real quick to post this and do some replies before crashing in bed. We're getting some plumbing replaced in our apartment so we've been hanging out elsewhere's while everything's getting torn out and replaced in the hall bathroom. It's a mess right now but we should be all finished up by Friday ^_~ Until then I probably won't be posting much if at all. But I'll have a bunch of fun artwork to show when I do!

Color Challenge #11

This week's color challenge is inspired by Easter, but it kind of looks like baby boy colors now that I look at it, lol. To play make a new project using at least 3 of the 4 colors. Leave me a comment with a link to your artwork and I'll post a link to it on this thread. Have fun!

Heavenly Blue
Sweet Leaf
Buttercup
Chocolate

Chris' Frog Card
Laurel's Bella Card
Marcia's Baby Boy Card
Emilee's MFT cards
Sparkle's Bella Baby Card
Sue's Pretty Birthday Card
Y.Poulsen's Audubon Zoo Layout
Mary's Cape Flattery Layout

My example :



Colors : Heavenly Blue, Sweet Leaf, Buttercup, Chocolate, Colonial White

Papers : Retired Harmony and Cozy B&Ts, Let's Get Together

Stamps : Friendship Flowers, Essential Alpha, Sans Alpha, Charmed Uppercase, Doodle Alpha, Free Spirit

Accents : Chocolate Grosgrain, Edge Anchors, Heavenly Blue Accents, Waxy Flax Pop Dots, Dimensional Elements, Chocolate Brads, Cream Eyelets

This was also made for Jules scrapsidaisy forum challenge to use a particular Page Maps Layout. I made this one for the week two challenge. I flipped the layout horizontally so my title would make sense. All the flowers are pop dotted as well as the 2, U, and S in stuck. This was a really fun page to do since I thought these pics were so cute but I didn't know exactly how I wanted to scrap them. The colors for the color challenge fit perfectly with the colors of the marshmallows and this page maps layout seemed just what the pictures needed.

Easter Egg Fun and finishing the Mommy layout

I'll let you see the layout first ^_~. I finished the second page to my Mommy Layout that I did a couple days ago.

Colors : Key Lime, Hollyhock, Colonial White, Black

Papers : Minds Eye, Silhouette, Sweet Harmony, Paper Garden

Stamps : Homestead Alpha, Typewriter

Accents : Primas, Heidi Swapp Flowers, Just Blooms White Daisy, Waxy Flax, Key Lime Bigger Brads, Key Lime Buttons, Rhinestones, Dimensional Elements Alphas

This one was made using up the leftover papers from the first page. I thought of doing a bigger typed up journaling square but I really like the look of the strips especially since the left page used them as well for the little saying. Journaling reads "I dreamed of you, but I never knew how sweet and lovely you both would be. How blessed and lucky I am to have you. Caitlyn and Audrey, you make me everything I never knew I could be."

And today we hid eggs for the girls outside and did our fun little Easter stuff today. I'll take pics of them tomorrow in their Easter dresses. This year it has been nearly impossible to get smiles out of either of them for the camera so it's going to be a real challenge getting ones I like tomorrow! Here's some of the pictures of us today:

The girls and I. Caitie is on the left and Audrey is on the right. Paul actually got a picture with both of them looking at the camera. Caitie even has a smile! Which is really hard to catch ^_~

The girls were really tired of pictures by the time we tried to get some with Paul. Audrey was doing her best to escape and Caitie just wanted to crack all her eggs open and get to her goodies.

Caitlyn and Audrey enjoying their spoils ^_~. They got a couple cute strawberry shortcake clips and bracelet, a cute kitty key chain, some cute bugs, and lots of candy!

Paul and I trying to take a picture of us together. This one came out alright but we decided we just need to get someone else to take pictures of us together, lol.

Girl in the spotlight

Papers : Minds Eye, Cosmo Cricket, CTMH Textured CS, Bazzil Textured CS

Stamps : Simple Stitches

Accents : Dimensional Elements Alphas, Doodlebug Orange Glitter, Chipboard Stars, Buttons (various), Minds Eye confetti ribbon; Minds Eye accent, title, journaling prompt, and transparency

This has got to be one of my favorite layouts. I love the colors, the sparkle and all the dimension, so many fun little details and especially this crazy face Caitlyn is making in the picture. I started out with a sheet of Honey textured CS. Using another sheet of scalloped CS as a template I traced then cut the scalloped edge on my Honey CS and used the lighter back side. I played with a few scraps I had, the dotted paper and orange floral (minds eye) and the green flower (cosmo cricket) until the layers looked right then added a bit of my new striped minds eye paper to pull it all together. I am loving the new spring Minds Eye sets. The star transparency, 'in the spotlight' title, journaling prompt and bracket are all from a few different sets that are very interchangable. The orange stars are from a multipack of chipboard I got that came with hearts, stars, and flowers. I covered them with textured Autumn Terracota CTMH CS then sanded the edges and top. I used some textured bazzil for the plain green. Goldrush ink was used to stamp the stitching and goldrush CS to mat the picture. The chipboard letters were simply covered in glue and then had the orange Doodlebug sugar coating sprinkled on top. A lot of work went into this layout and I am so happy with the results!

Poor Little Bunny

Made for Jena's #4 inspiration challenge, some pictures of a cute set of home decor bunnies for Easter time. I went totally inside the box and scrapped the only 3 pics I took last year Easter. Poor Audrey was so sick that we didn't do anything really. After she was well enough the girls got some Easter eggs with candy and some bunnies from Nana but I forgot to take pictures of that X_x

Colors : Baby Pink, Amethyst, Bamboo, Colonial White, Chocolate, Heavenly Blue

Paper : Sweet Pea

Stamps : Rustic Alpha, Extreme Caps, Sans Alpha, Simple Stitches

Accents : Chipboard Flowers, Chocolate Grosgrain, Heavenly Blue Brads, Spring Buttons, Chocolate Embroidery Floss

I totally lifted this from the spring CTMH catty. I love the layout they have in there and this set of pics seemed perfect to recreate it with. I changed a couple things, but the basic layout design is the same. I was going to add a bunny, but after getting the flowers and title set, it seemed just perfect to leave it the way it was. The picture is rather washed out. I have a hard time taking pictures of layouts. If I take them in the kitchen where my good lighting is I get a huge glare on the photos, yet if I take it with the flash it washes certain colors out. Or... I could wait until the next day and use the natural light, but I'm not that patient ^_~

Color Challenge #10

I feel like I've hit a milestone! Ten color challenges.... that means I've been doing this for 2 1/2 months. It doesn't feel like I've been doing them that long, but I guess I have! This week's challenge is very green in celebration of St. Patty's Day!

Kiwi
Buttercup
Citrus Leaf
Topiary

Sue's Frog Card
Sparkle's Hanna Card
Jenn's Wish Card
Y.Poulsen's Swamp Exhibit Layout

My Sample :



Stamps : For Every Occassion, Friendship Blessings, Fairy Dust

Accents : Rhinestones, Prisma Glitter

Wow how long has it been since a made a card?! I had to check the date on my last card post. It was 22 days ago! I can hardly believe the last card I made was three weeks ago, lol. This card was inspired by a site that Kathi had a link to. The blog is called Freedom In Creating and her style is awesome and very artistic (like a painting!). She's AMAZING with the brayer and it was her cards that inspired me to do this one. I actually used my brayer that I bought months ago and hadn't touched. I'm really kind of a scaredy cat when it comes to trying new techniques though I know there's nothing to be afraid of. It's art, I should be fearless!! But no, it takes me forever to try out new techniques. So I got out my brayer and brayered the top half of my col white CS with buttercup, then the bottom half with kiwi. I sponged citrus leaf along the branch, on the leaves, and around the entire base. Terrifying, isn't it. ^_~ The fairy was stamped in Citrus Leaf and colored in with pencils just a little so that she didn't feel so flat. I glittered her wings and her sparkles. A simple and quick card but I think it came out rather pretty.

Mommy... It's more than a name

Colors : Key Lime, Hollyhock, Colonial White, Black

Papers : Minds Eye, Silhouette, Sweet Harmony, Paper Garden

Stamps : Homestead Alpha, Typewriter

Accents : Primas, Heidi Swapp Flowers, Just Blooms White Daisy, Waxy Flax, Key Lime Bigger Brads, Key Lime Buttons, Rhinestones, Dimensional Elements Alphas

This layout is much richer in real life. The papers seemed to get washed out in the photo :( You might recognize one of these pics. I often use the top one as my MSN messenger ID pic and it's also my SCS ID pic. I've been saving these pictures because they are some of my favorite. This layout took quite a while mostly just due to cutting out all the letters, lol. I had wanted to add some of the matching silhouette ribbon but I don't have them yet and I might make another page to go with this layout for journaling. Plus I have two more pictures of me with both my girls that we took that day (you can see one of them on the top right of my blog). If you can't read it the journaling says "It's so much more than a name. It's a calling." These pictures make me want to grow my hair out again. And it's funny because I think the main reason I cut it off (just chin length) was because Caitie was using my hair as reins and would always call me Mama Pony. She wouldn't call me Mommy anymore. It was always Pony or Mama Pony. This went on for a couple months. So I got it cut that summer and it was a fun change plus Audrey didn't pull my hair as much and I got to be called Mommy and Mama again. Now that it's getting longer she calls me Jasmine. But I think I can handle that quite a bit better than Mama Pony, lol!

Feeding Time

Colors : Goldrush, Hollyhock, Garden Green, Indian Corn Blue, Col White

Papers : Best Friends Forever

Stamps : Rustic Alpha, Essential Alpha, Charmed Uppercase

Accents : Garden Green and Hollyhock Accessories, Hollyhock Ribbon Rounds, Stickease

So I was going to play with my new papers and was looking through photos when an idea for these photos hit me. I immediately set to work on these since they are some of the many pictures that I'm stumped on what to do with. This is the layout that was born ^_~. The journaling was what inspired me and it was just the simple thought that one of my favorite things to do is just watch Paul take care of our girls, especially when they were babies. There is nothing sweeter than watching the man you love hold your baby!

A Sweet Get Well

Sparkle sent me this super cute get well card along with these fun bootybella images and a note saying she's happy I'm feeling better! Thank you Sparkle, it really made my day!! I love this card and it's even more fun to have since it smells heavenly!! I also got some new Minds Eye stuff today. I went to Pebbles and they had just put out this week a bunch of new Minds Eye papers and sets!! I was like a little kid in a candy store and wanted it all, but I'm a girl on a budget ^_~ so I settled for getting all the papers from one of the new sets and some fun transparencies, titles, tags, and ribbon to go with it. Luckily for me I had a coupon so I only spent $11. Hopefully now that the kids are in bed, I can play a little. We'll see how fast I can clean up since our place is quite a mess lol.

This is what I picked up. It looks so pretty all together that I couldn't help but take a pic! 8 sheets from one of the new sets and one double sided sheet that I just couldn't pass up, 3 transparencies, 4 titles, one tag sheet, one tag separate, one packet ribbon, and one yard sparkling pink ribbon by the yard all for $11. I'm so happy! That and I got my $10 off coupon as well to use for next time! :D

Sweet Bloom

Colors : Hollyhock, Pink Carnation, Key Lime, Lilac Mist/Spring Iris, Black

Papers : Silhouette, Cutie Pie, Sweet Harmony

Stamps : Doodle Alpha, Playful Flourishes

Accents : Buttons (CTMH & Doodlebug), Waxy Flax

I saw the cutest layout by Vicki on the CTMH forums and had to recreate that giant flower. This layout was a toughie for me since I was really trying to scrap out of my box. It was also made for Jena's 3rd inspiration challenge, a picture of her daughter's room. All I could recall when I started to scrap was the garden/ladybug theme. I went with the garden thing and did bold bright colors though I don't they are the same palette as the room. Lots of fun doodling again ^_~

Procrastinating my Tags

So I'm looking though my email and realized I had been tagged with these over a week ago. I've been really limiting my time on the computer since my migraine because screen light can be a cause for headaches, so when I read the comments I thought to myself 'I'll get to these tags later when I have more time'. Only later didn't quite show up so I finally just sat down and did these! Laurel nominated me for a You Make My Day Award on the 6th :

Thank you Laurel!! Now I have to nominate 5 people for the award. Y. Poulsen because she always leaves such wonderful comments on my blog and on the CTMH forums; Jenn - her art is always fun and it makes me smile, Sue - she's such a sweet lady, I love exchanging snail mail with her; Seleise she's always commenting on my art and it helps keep my spirits up to continue to post; and Chris - she and Deb have done wonders to make our SBS4 group so great! There are so many ladies I would love to nominate but I think they've already gotten this one ^_~

And I was also tagged by Kim to do this 7 random facts thing. The rules of the game:

• Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
• Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog, we all want to know them.
• Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
• Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1 - I love to make lists. I even make a list for my scrapbook shopping!
2 - I'm totally freaked out by slugs ~shiver~
3 - I love yummy food scented things like vanilla, cocoa, and hazelnut. My favorite candle is German Struesal Cake and my favorite body wash is whipped cocoa ^_~
4 - I really, really like my feet, lol. I used to paint my toenails all the time and give myself little pedicures and I love wearing sandals (still do :D) And now I adore both my daughters' feet! Caitie's are just like mini versions of mine and Audrey has the cutest little fat toes! I told myself when they started walking there was no way I would still kiss their dirty tooties but Caitlyn is 4 now and I'm STILL kissing her little piggies!!!
5 - I'm half Filipino.
6 - I hate going down stairs. I always feel like I'm going to fall!
7 - And I've never had my nails done.

And now I have to tag 7 random people so I'm tagging : Alison, Donelda, Tammy, Pammie, Alyssa, KJ, and Carolyn.

Fall Garden

Colors : Crystal Blue, Sweet Leaf, Black

Papers : Minds Eye (orange floral), Cosmo Cricket (green floral), Silhouette and CTMH CS

Accents : Buttons (various), Ribbon, Dimensional Elements alphas, Just Blooms White Daisy, Waxy Flax

This was such a fun layout to put together. I wanted to use the colors the girls were wearing, but didn't want the page to look Halloweenish. So I opted for a softer orange and threw in the blue for some pop. This color combo is so different from what I usually use but I really liked the way it turned out! I tried my hand at doodling which I haven't done in ages but I think it turned out alright :D I'm really liking the whimsical imperfect feel of the layout. Anyway, lots of fun stuff in these two pages and they used a lot of my favorite papers, the new tres jolie from Minds Eye, Silhouette, and this was one of my favorite sheets from the Cosmo Cricket packet I had in my stash.

A couple layouts

Colors : Heavenly Blue, Kiwi, Bubblegum, Sunflower, White Daisy, Baby Pink

Papers : Precious Paisleys, Cutie Pie

Stamps : Friendship Word Puzzle

Accents : Buttons (various), Big Blooms, Just Blooms white daisy, Dimensional Elements simple alpha

Yesterday I finally got to scrap with my friend Julie! She hasn't gotten to scrap hardly at all and we haven't be able to visit their family much in the past few months. It was so nice to get to spend some time with them, just hang out, and for Julie and I to get a little scrappin' done! This was the first layout I did last night. I lifted the layout from one of her Simple Scrapbooks Magazines. I don't have any magazines myself so it was a treat to look through all the different ones she had. I was having trouble keeping it as simple as they had it in the magazine and ended up adding buttons (they had left the area blank), and changing up how I did the title. Last night I still felt it wasn't 'done' but this morning I'm glad I left it as it is because I think the layout is just so cute!

Colors : Pansy Purple, Autumn Terracota, Black, Garden Green, Goldrush, Col White

Papers : Enchanted, Textured Harvest CS, scrap from Julie

Stamps : Doodle Alpha, Simple Stitches

Accents : Buttons, Dimensional elements alphas, Garden Sassy Strands

I still have so many of these Halloween pictures to do. I finally finished up Audrey's pictures with this two page layout. I think I had done 6 other pages of her in this witch costume! I went a bit crazy that year with pictures of the girls in their costumes since they didn't get to go out for Halloween (they were both sick that year). So now I have all of Caitlyn's left to do and the ones of them together. Luckily last year I was a bit more sane and only took a single roll of film ^_~. I used an Imagine layout for this one. I can't remember which, I only remember that it was supposed to hold 12 photos and I just used 8. It was another of those few layout designs that I haven't used yet. The cute cat/pumpkin/witch hat paper was from Julie. We were both surprised how perfectly it went with the enchanted paper pack. This was a fun layout to do and it got me in the mood to try and get the rest of the Halloween pics done for that year too. So that's what I got done last night!

Mirror Mirror on the wall....

Colors : Baby Pink, Blush, Hollyhock, Black, White Daisy

Papers : Stylin'

Stamps : Playful Flourishes, Believe Lowercase, Delightful Alpha

Accents : Rhinestones, Flower Rhinestones (CTMH CC Reward), Pink Glitter (stampendous)

A very fun blingy layout. I used a one page Pagemaps layout (the left page) and then created the right page to go along with it since I had so many pics of my girls in this cute snow white wig. There's pink glitter on the bottom 'mirror' and on 'fairest' though you can't tell in the pic. This was a very fun girly page to make though it took me quite a while! The circle or rhinestones around Audrey's picture was probably the most time consuming thing on the layout. I actually had to adhere each one of those tiny pink rhinestones! I love how sparkly this one came out ^_~

Color Challenge #9

This week I'm going for some fun spring colors again. The combo is actually inspired by the skirt I wore on Sunday. To play use at least 3 of the 4 colors. Send me a link to your creation and I'll post the link here on this post ^_~ Thanks ladies for playing and keeping this challenge going!

Hollyhock
Sunkiss Yellow
Sweet Leaf
Cranberry

Sue's Card
Deb's ATC
Sparkle's Card
Nicole's Card
Y.Poulsen's Layout
Mary's Layout

My example :

Colors : Hollyhock, Cranberry, Sweet Leaf, Sunkiss Yellow, Colonial White

Papers : Garden, Harmony, and Cozy retired B&T

Stamps : Friendship Word Puzzle, Delight in Everything

Accents : Sunkiss bigger brads; Hollyhock buttons, nail heads, and brad; Primas (green flowers), Just Blooms white daisy and bigger blooms; white brads, dimensional elements simple alpha (brackets)

Using another March Page Maps layout. I love these colors together! They are so fresh and airy. The inspiration for the colors comes from my favorite skirt though the layout doesn't take any inspiration from it. I random stamped the small flower strips of pattern paper to pull the colors together. The title and subtitle were also stamped with different shades of the color combo to help pull it together more. I thought that I would have too much room for the journaling but after I got going I realized it wasn't too big at all. In fact, I practically ran out of room, lol.

You call this stuff food?

Colors : Goldrush, Autumn Terracota, Garden Green, Pansy Purple, Col White

Papers : School Zone, Floral Tapestry, Enchanted, Harvest Textured CS

Stamps : Cobblestone Alpha, Boutique Alpha, Essential Alpha, Homestead Alpha

Accents : Garden Green Buttons and brads, Autumn Terracota brads and photo clips, Just Blooms Autumn Sunflower and White Daisy, Ribbon, Dimensional Elements simple alpha

For that past two days everytime I went to try and go craft, something else came up! So today I told my hubby I'm going to make at least one layout NO MATTER WHAT! lol Even though I still ended up having a ton of distractions and interruptions, I did get this layout done so far. It took me about 3 hours because of all the interruptions but hey, at least I got one done! :D Hopefully I can get in a couple more. I was going to try and make some cards but I just haven't been in the mood for cards, which is totally okay by me since I already have so many! I used one of the new March page maps, I'm excited for the book. I ordered it off of amazon since you can get it for $16 and some change instead of the retail 24.99 :D But it doesn't release there until the 28th of March, so I'll have to wait. I'm also excited for the new Reflections book which I get to get next month ^_~. So I'll have two fun new sketch books in April!!

Inspiration Challenge #2 and Catching up on my Layouts Goal

So sometime yesterday our router went kaputz. I couldn't get internet access on my computer at all and we had thought that maybe it was the DSL modem. But Paul fiddled around and found out it was the router so last night he tried to get it to work with no such luck. This morning he decided to try again before he had to leave for class and got it to work again! Yay :D I had done a lot of layouts last night and wanted to share but without the internet that makes it pretty hard, lol. So here's the first layout, well actually the last layout I did yesterday. It was for Jena's Inspiration challenge. This is the outfit we were to get inspiration from :

My Layout :

Colors : Bamboo, Garden Green, Breeze, Chocolate, Colonial White

Papers : Best Friends Friends (green/bamboo dot), Blossom B&T (back of the paisley print breeze), CTMH CS

Stamps : Simple Beauty, Flutter, Classic Alpha, Adorable, Playful Flourishes

Accents : Garden Green Conchos, Chocolate bigger and mini brads

The bamboo CS was scored every 1/4 inch and sanded to mimic the corduroy pants, I pieced the butterflies to be more like the cute patchwork butterfly on the pants and basically used the entire color palette of the outfit for the layout. Uses a Page Maps layout as well. I had wanted to random stamp the background but it just kept not coming out the way I wanted on my scratch paper so I decided to just use the colored flowers as accents instead. Flowers are colored in with pencils since I don't have these marker colors yet. This was a fun layout to put together though it was really slow in getting started :D

My other layouts :

Colors : Buttercup, Garden Green, Lilac Mist, White Daisy, Spring Iris

Papers : Lazy Days

Stamps : Flutter, Cobblestone Alpha

Accents : White Sassy Strands, Rhinestones, Prisma Glitter, White Brads

This one was so much fun to make. I used the technique Jamie, my upline, showed when she introduced the Flutter stamp set a few years ago when I was her customer. It's called the tissue paper technique. You wad up a small piece of tissue (the kind you put in gift tote bags) then get some ink on it and blot the stamp. I used three colors: buttercup, lilac mist, and spring iris. Then after you've got all your colors on the stamp, huff on it then stamp! It's so funny that I remember these techniques when I see the stamp sets we used with it. Prisma glitter was added to the flutter bugs with a glue pen and I put the rhinestones on with liquid glass. I wanted to keep the layout really clean so that the sparkly bugs would really pop :D

Colors : Cranberry, Crystal Blue, Buttercup, Colonial White, Garden Green

Papers : Let's Get Together

Stamps : Delight in Everything, Boutique Alpha, Adorable

Accents : Just Blooms White Daisy, Garden Green Brads, Cranberry Spirals, Garden Green Ribbon Rounds

I had these pictures inside my Cherish book last week before my migraine hit. It uses Then & Now in the Cherish book, one of the few layouts I hadn't used yet. I love these papers and just had to use them even though they don't really match the theme of the photos. But the colors were just right :D

Colors : Dutch Blue, Sunflower, Clover Meadow, Cranberry

Papers : Route 66 Level 1 kit

Stamps : Cobblestone Alpha

Accents : Blue Brads, Col White edge anchors, Stickease with the lvl 1 kit

There are some level 1 kits that I can use so easy and make layouts I love and then others that I just have the hardest time scrapping with. This level 1 kit is one of those that I just have no idea what to do with but I didn't want the entire lvl 2 paper pack and the level 1 looked like it would work out great. The first pages I did with this kit I wasn't ecstatic about so I tried something a little different with this one. I like this one a lot better but am still having a hard time falling in love with something other than the fun colors. I think it looks good, I just think it looks... boyish, lol. And since it's with my dear daughters, I'm feeling like the layout doesn't fit. I'm sure once I get it in my album (gotta start working on that!) than I'll be fine since I have a dozen cute girly bath pages. I'm just SO used to making girly pages where there is ALWAYS something feminine on the layout that this strikes me as out of place, lol.

So that's what I got done. I must have been scrap starved because I didn't want to stop creating! And now I'm caught up with my page a day goal again :D Maybe now I can try and catch up on some of the other challenges I've been wanting to do!