Very Mary

Chatterbox.

So I didn't make the design team, and I was secretly holding out in the hopes that they forgot to include me on the US list and I would magically appear on the International list. Sigh. Sometimes I can be such a nerd.

I have to admit that I was pretty disappointed. But that is how rejection goes. And scrapbooking for publication and for design teams always involves a fair bit of rejection. As I was telling a friend, sometimes, it's easier to handle than other times.

The new (and old) Chatterbox team is wonderfully talented, and quite honestly, I was honored to even be selected as a finalist! There were truly so many talented designers on that list. And after all is said and done, I have three more beautiful pages to add to my albums. And that's ultimately why I scrapbook anyway. So, it's all good.

I worked really hard on my pages. No denying that. And I'm proud of them. I'm not sure if they'll be up on the Chatterbox blog, so I'd love to share them here with you...

This is "Jingle all the Way."

My assignment was to use the Artsylicious line in Ruby to create a scrapbook page. At first, I was a little panicky because I am typically not a monochromatic girl. But I used metallic rub-ons to change the color of some of the Chatterbox paper to gold. I loved the rich look it gave the paper and that extra contrast made this page really festive.

I love to add detailed touches to my pages. I was struggling to think of something for this page, and I kept going back to the oversized Chatterbox jewels included in Splendid Treasures, thinking," holly berries, holly berries."

I cut half of two holly leaves from a layer of Fine Flocked Paper and folded the layer back onto pop dots. I colored an underlying layer of Fine Flocked paper and the folded side of the leaves with gold metallic rub-ons.

As always, lots of stitching (it's sort of become my trademark) and one this particular page, it turned out to mimic an "olde-fashioned" Christmas stocking.

Supplies are all by Chatterbox. Except the punch by Martha Stewart.

Fine Summer's Day (A Layout)

Finishing up a couple of self-induced scrapbook projects and hanging out with my momma has turned me into a lazy blogger. I had the best intentions for this week, but as always, I end up underestimating how much time the rest of my life takes!

Another day, another wedding page. This one details the actual ceremony itself. I used our actual wedding invitation on the page (notice that I made this before I knew what I was doing? I think I would do a much better job these days, but frankly, in mass-produced handmades, maybe simple is better, don't ya think?) and created an oversized pocket for a copy of our wedding ceremony.

I wanted to include the wording that we used in the ceremony because we selected it all ourselves. Used some lovely velvet ribbon (I think from Maya Road) and another word plaque from Making Memories to dress up the page. I thought coating some of the words with glitter would be cool, but as you can see, it makes it slightly difficult to read. If I would going to be usual obsessive-compulsive self, I would paint over these, but I am leaving it for another day...

And then one of my absolute favorite photos from the ceremony.

I love how our photographer included the whole room so we can see all the guests and of course, the light makes it look like a fairytale.

A fitting spot for one of those Heidi Swapp gemstone frames. I'd never used one before. I'm not usually a fan of putting things on the actual photo, but in this case, it worked to highlight us at a very important moment. So cool (if I do say so, myself. LOL!).

Fifteen Months

Dear Sadie,

Grandma says that you are a "ham." You love to entertain us with your antics, and when you are in front of a small group of people, you become increasingly hyper, crawling quickly from place to place, rolling around on the floor and laughing loudly "HA! HA!"

You love to wave bye-bye and yell "thank you!" At this point, it is recognizable to us but we have to translate for others as they are unaware that "Dan-Koo!" requires some sort of response on their part. You also say "uh-uh," "kitty," "hey!" "cheese," "garbage," "mine," "milk," "Grandma," "Daddy," bye-bye," "cracker," pants," "no" (which you yell loudly), and I think I heard you say, "book." I was quite impressed by your very early studiousness, but I have to admit, I would be even more impressed if you would squeak out "momma" sometime in the immediate future.

You think it is hilarious to have Mommy chase you, and you laugh so hard you will collapse in a heap on the carpet. Peek-a-boo is also highly entertaining, and you have moved on to the role as "peek-a-boo-er" rather than "peek-a-boo-ee," most often clutching to the edge of the coffee table and bouncing up or peeking around the corner of a wall or door frame. Sometimes you misjudge the alotted distance, and smack your head. That part isn't so funny.

You still love airplanes. You listen intently for them and then demand with an arm wave and a yell to be carried outside to see them fly overhead. You have recently discovered trucks and buses, and you point them out to Daddy and me on a regular basis.

You adore kid-sized furniture and while at Grandma's house, you have made excellent use of one pint-sized rocking chair. You crawl into it repeatedly, and you especially love to haul a board book with you. Unfortunately, you usually put the board book into the chair and then crawl up and sit on it. It's a frustrating process, removing the board book without toppling out of the chair, but you are nothing, if not persistant. And in this case (and most others), persistance pays off. You can sit back with a satisfied grin and "read" to your heart's delight.

You cannot get enough cheese, and we cannot remove a plastic bag of cheese slices from the refrigerator without you tuning in, signing "cheese," and saying "CHISZ, CHISZ," over and over until we give you some. You love your stuffed animals. You hug them to your chest and then when you are done, you fling them aside like dirty laundry. You love flowers love to destroy flowers. You also hug them to your chest and then proceed to curiously pluck them apart petal by petal. Future botanist perhaps?

This month and always, we love and adore you.

Long Overdue

Thanks for being patient (I decided I better do this right away before I get distracted!!!). The winner of that collection of flowers (and I have a few more things to throw in on account of being ridiculously slow getting to this) is....

"What a beautiful wedding album, I can't wait to see them all! It's been three years for me and I haven't even started mine! I still feel a little overwhelmed with the amount of pictures we have! I love how you picked a general colour scheme and theme and stuck with it for the entire album--great idea! "

Posted by: Vanessa Gooch | August 01, 2008 at 10:30 PM

A New Heart To Love (A Layout)

A quick share of a page that was recently returned to me from Scrapbook Trends. It was in the June issue, and I wanted to share it here because they neglected to credit the amazing photos to my good friend Heather. She is so talented, and I am so lucky that she captured the brand new innocence of my little one.

The page was originally shown in the gallery on the American Crafts Studio blog. All product is from The Goods Baby line. I adore that baby girl ribbon. So cute.

In the lower righthand corner, I used the photo's negative space and cut a circle into the photo with my Creative Memories circle cutter. I added a small foam heart accent, decorated with a sweet little "it's a girl" rub-on. I think you can see it fairly well in the close-up.

No journaling on this one (which is contrary to my scrapbook belief that I should always tell the story). But all I really wanted on this page were the beautiful photos. I think they say just the right thing all by themselves.

Thanks for looking! I know I have a freebie to award so I'll be doing that later today. And I have sent out all previous freebies, so let me know if you haven't gotten yours yet, ok?

Wedded Wisdom (A Layout)

An oldie (you can't miss the stencil letter, that trend burned through the industry a couple years back) but a goodie that was published in Simple Scrapbooks. I think it was my first ever layout published in SS, and I was astonished that they chose this one. Someone once told me that SS won't publish any page with over ten items on the supply list, but when I saw the wedding call, I thought what the heck?

I'm glad I did. This page is really special to me. My stepdad and I have always been very close, and he walked me down the aisle on my wedding day. He always has excellent advice, and he wrote some words of wisdom (on a paper napkin) just a couple of days before Derrick and I got married. So before losing the napkin to a kitchen incident or a sneezing fit (ha ha), I typed it all up into my computer. On our wedding day, I requested our photographer to get some photos of my dad and me, and voila! this layout was born.

I love the look of the transparency layered over the black pinstripe patterned paper. Subtle details can do so much for a page.

I think the font on this one is Scriptina. A little different than the rest of the album, but it still blends nicely.

Supplies: Patterned paper: Chatterbox,7gypsies; Transparency: Creative Imaginations; Floral pin: Darice; Ribbon: Michael's; Stamps: Making Memories; Embossing Powder: ?

Monkeyin' Around (A card)

Does this look familiar? I posted a card of almost the exact design here back in June.

Just revamped a few things, namely, added the ribbon and the rub-on from KI Memories to make a birthday card for the Hero Arts Challenge this week! Using the same design made the whole process super speedy! And I love speedy!

The Bride (A Layout)

Diving right back in with some more wedding pages! I created this page last January for Creating Keepsakes' 101 Things You Can Do With Your Scrapbook Supplies.

The technique was using ribbon to form a pocket for photos.

Can you see that tiny bit of stitching on the red ribbon - those form the pockets, which held my photos (I used some glue stick also). You could use this idea on a larger scale to make pockets for memorabilia or to hold a removable journaling card in place.

This page design is great for several photos, and no trimming required - these are all 4" x 6" with the exception of the larger color photo (5" x 7"). It would have been a wonderfully quick and easy page had I not decided that I needed to stitch the background with a fancy-pants diamond design.

A couple hours of mind-numbing machine stitching (I could've made a quilt or something) and about 15 minutes into it, I realized that I didn't want to do it anymore, but I had just stitched through both pieces of the last black cardstock in my stash (really!), but deadlines dictated that I finish it or drive myself mad - honestly, I annoy even myself sometimes. And then, and THEN, AND THEN...it wasn't even visible in the magazine!

And someone asked about the fonts I used in my wedding album. The titles are all Carpenter ICG and journaling is completed with Sansumi (one of my favorites). If you all have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask. I'd be happy to share!

 

Dear Blog, I missed you...

Instead of blogging or otherwise surfing the internet and wasting time, I have been scrapbooking! Scrapbooking so much that I have not cleaned or cooked or folded laundry or - I must admit - done anything exceedingly productive. Very busy indeed. But I am a lucky woman because my husband of four years has not complained once. Very lucky indeed.

I just received some layouts and cards back from Scrapbook Trends. And I just purged a car load of scrap stuff. So you'll have to excuse me while I get back on track. I have more wedding pages to post. More Alaska photos to edit and to post. And I owe a Friday freebie to some lucky girl who likes flowers.

So, rest assured, I'll be back shortly...

But for now, I am off to dinner to celebrate my last year as a twenty-something.

Sarah, sarah, sarah...

She's leaving American Crafts to pursue art school in NYC. Seriously. How cool! Livin' the dream (and eating cupcakes along the way). Some of the designers on the ACDT made cards. You can see them here.

 Supplies: American Crafts.