Very Mary

Weekly Challenge

My layout is up today for the weekly challenge at Two Peas. The challenge is to write your journaling from Santa's perspective!

 

Supplies:

• Kraft cardstock
  
• Making Memories Mistletoe patterned paper
• Bo Bunny Poppy Double Dot patterned paper
• Fiskars scalloped sentiment border punch
• Making Memories Mistletoe 4 x 6 Journaling Book
  
• Making Memories Mistletoe Mixed Die Cuts
• Making Memories Mistletoe Deco Pins
• Hero Arts Thank You Flourishes
• Heidi Swapp acetate clocks
• Other: Button, tag

Get more details right here. And play along if you can (pleeeease?). I don't want to be the only Garden Girl ever who thinks up a challenge that nobody does! 

Challenge #9 (with Laura and Lynn)

Welcome to Challenge #9 with my good friend Laura and my new friend Lynn!

And lest you read it elsewhere, I will be the first to admit that I am indeed the one who delayed this challenge, and yes, I do feel guilty about it. Guilty enough that I finished this page today even though I didn't even feel like even looking at my scrapbook studio, much less standing around in here trying to be creative! Guilt is a powerful motivator. But then again...maybe it wasn't guilt, maybe it is in fact, "dedication!" Yes, I like the sound of that...

So, dedicated scrapbookers unite! And do our challenge, won't you? All you need are:

1. Glitter - love the look, but not the mess...

2. Die-cuts or die-cutting machine - I am loving my Cricut!

3. Scallops - scallops are still the rage, right?

4. Pink - my biggest collection of patterned paper is pink, and I'm blaming that on Sadie!

Here's my layout:

I used the this super cute patterned paper from the We R Memory Keepers Heart Attack line. The pattern is all ready arranged in four different patterned blocks, so if you wanted, you could slap your photos down and call it done! I wanted to change it up a but, so I cut apart the blocks and mounted three of them on white cardstock. I exchanged the fourth pattern for a square of red and white polka dots (in the lower left corner) from Doodlebug Design Inc.

The large blue heart is a die-cut from Provo Craft's George and Basic Shapes. I used my Cricut Expression to cut it from both chipboard and cardstock, then I layered the two and added Stickles glitter. I cut a second heart from red cardstock and attached it with stitching. The flourish, cut from yellow cardstock, is a design from the Home Decor Solutions cartridge.

Here's a closer look at my little photo collage. At the center, I layered a chipboard heart over two vellum circles cut with my Cuttlebug using 2 x 2 Circle Dies. I highly recommend these if you have a Cuttlebug and use a lot of punched circles for your scrapbooking and cardmaking. I was having a lot of problems getting my hand punches to cut a clean circle. Especially with thin material like vellum, but these little dies work perfectly!

My journaling is printed on vellum, which I attached with stitching. And I thought this adorable chipboard bunny deserved a close-up:

And these two adorable people obviously deserve a close-up:

Thanks so much for looking! Be sure to take a peek at Laura's adorable layout HERE and Lynn's classy layout HERE! Hopefully, between the three of us, we've inspired you to get out your supplies and scrap something glittery and pink this weekend! :)

Supplies: Patterned Paper: We R Memory Keepers, Doodlebug Designs; Chipboard: Doodlebug Designs; Die-cutting machine and cartridges: Provo Craft

Challenge #8 (with Laura)

You know how Laura and I like our challenges, right? Sporadic little adventures into scrappy-land. Designed to capture creative mojo at it's best! And if mojo is nowhere in sight? Fake it!

This challenge included:

1. SEI Poppy - A paper pack that both Laura and I received in recent Scrapbook Trends goodie boxes. We decided to put it to good use!

2. Circle Punch - Tried and true. Although, my favorite circle punch is starting to stick, so I ordered the 2 x 2 Circles Die from Provo Craft to use in my Cuttlebug.

3. Buttons - The easiest embellishment.   

4. Chipboard - Can't use it fast enough!

My layout was inspired by Robyn Werlich's A Year of You page for March:

I tweaked her design because I didn't take as many photos in March. Instead of creating a pocket for extra photos, I added a trio of photos under the title.

I paired the Hero Arts Dot Circles stamp with the "Enjoy Every Moment" stamp from the Thoughtful Messages set to create the stamped accent on my punched circle. And some chipboard letters, buttons, and a little stitching. Done! Make sure you check out Laura's challenge layout here!And once again, if you want to play along, be sure to send us a link. We'd love to see what you create!

Supplies: Patterned Paper, brad: SEI; Stamps: Hero Arts; Ribbon: American Crafts; Chipboard: Heidi Swapp; Buttons: The Paper Studio, Foo-fa-la

Challenge #7 (with Laura and Wendy)

And here we are again with another Challenge! Laura and I invited Wendy again for our latest challenge featuring:

1. Embossing- When Laura and I discussed this as an option, I'm pretty sure that she meant dry-embossing, but I took some artistic liberty and interpreted it to be stamping and embossing. Mostly because my Swiss Dots failed me on this layout.

2. String - Like this is even a challenge? Ha!But a little creative twist involved hemp instead of my typical white string.

3. Paint - Sadie used the paint, so this part was easy.

4. Green and Teal - Two colors I'm liking a lot lately. I added a bit of red for punch.

Here's my page:

I have to give a little shout-out to Ms. Sara Rossi who gave me the idea for this page. We were discussing scrapbooking/art with your kids, and she mentioned that I should give fingerpainting a try and to be sure to get an imprint of Sadie's little hand. I was a little hesitant because Miss S does not like to have dirty or sticky hands (she usually shouts "sticky!sticky!STICKY!" as in, "hey Mom, come running and clean this off me quick before I have a complete meltdown"), but she was intrigued with the paint and proceeded to rub it happily all over the paper, herself, and finally, the floor. All in all, artistic success.

I used Close to My Heart's Rustic Alphabet for the title. Stamped with Versamark ink onto teal cardstock and sprinkled with white embossing powder. After heat setting the powder, I cut each letter out and attached it to my layout with pop-dots. The "little" is my own wretched handwriting (used only when necessary).

I love this quote by Pablo Picasso (fashioned into a scrap-friendly form by KI Memories):

And my very favorite part of this whole layout is the paint imprint of Sadie's little hand. I added a caption underneath, and that's it for journaling. The photos and the handprint tell the story with enough color that I think I'll save my words for another layout.

To view the challenge layouts from my talented friends, check it here and here. And be sure to link us up. We've had a few participants from the last couple challenges, and it's been awesome to see your work! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: My Mind's Eye, Making Memories, Carolee's Creations; American Crafts; Tags: Avery; Pen: Staedtler; Buttons: Foo-fa-la, Chatterbox; Sticker: KI Memories; Font: AL Remington; Stamps: Close to My Heart, Fancy Pants

Challenge #6 (with Laura and Heather)

Hello, scrappies! Laura and I invited the lovely Heather Ruwe, owner of The Scrapbook Bakery, to join us in Challenge #6 featuring:

1. Die-Cut Paper: is it just me or is this stuff kinda hard to use? 

2. Enlarged Photo(s): sometimes a photo says more than words ever can. In that case, I like it super-sized.

3. Tags: Easy to use. Easy to embellish.

4. Stamping: Gotta love the versatility of stamps.

Here's my page:

A interesting tidbit about this photo: it was taken approximately 30 minutes after her birth by her adoring mother. Yes, that would be me, new mother and photographer extraordinaire. I am (obviously) still quite proud of the fact that I managed to give birth and take a decent photo all in one day. 

I've had this photo out on my desk for just about two years now. It migrated during the studio move, and has now finally made its home on a layout. YAY! It was obviously waiting for the perfect die-cut paper.

I used an Avery tag as a template for my tags because it would have been just too easy to use the plain ol' Avery tags. Plus, my stamping showed up a little better on the lighter colored tags. I embellished each tag with a stamped floral frame from the Frames and Messages set by Hero Arts. The title was printed on the top two by running them through a printer, and the tag on the bottom was stamped with a sentiment from the Thinking of You Messages set. And of course, you saw my little friend the Heart Winged Butterfly. He'll be making another appearance here, I am sure. On this layout, he was stamped with pigment ink and colored with Crayola pencils, which I blended with Mona Lisa odorless paint thinner.

If you are hankering to scrap some enlargements, be sure to check out some other great layout ideas from my two talented friends. You can see their layouts here and here. And if you play along, be sure to link us up, hey? We'd love to see what you come up with!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Making Memories; Stamps: Hero Arts; Eyelets: We R Memory Keepers

Challenge #5 (with Laura and Sasha)

I just know you were all waiting with bated breath to see what we were cooking up for the challenge this week...well, do we have a treat for you! We invited color whiz and scrapbook expert Sasha Farina to join us in Challenge #5:

1. Brights + Kraft paper: I used a combination of papers from the Everyday and Celebration II lines from American Crafts and the kraft paper grounds them out.

2. Stickers: Because I have too many. Way too many.

3. Arrows: I have a lot, and I had yet to use any of them, until today, that is!

4. Corner Rounder: One of my most-used tools. I actually have two different corner rounder punches.

Here's my page:

These photos are from the very first time Sadie climbed the whole set of stairs, and as you can see, she was wearing quite the colorful outfit! So my challenge within a challenge was to find paper that would actually work well with these photos...enter American Crafts...just one more reason to love their bold, bright style.

When I put the layout together, I still felt that the peacy-pink background paper needed a lil' something, so I used Banana Frog's Super Stars stamps to add a little depth and help carry the theme of the superstar "Stairmaster." I stamped the stars repeatedly with Versamark and embossed with clear embossing powder. The resulting watermark effect is just dark enough to add visual interest but not too busy to add chaos to an all ready busy layout. 

The little chipboard arrow is from the ClubHouse collection, but the pattern on it didn't do it for me, so I covered it with paper and sandwiched the entire thing in my Swiss Dots folder for some Cuttlebug embossing. After I embossed the arrow, I tried a couple techniques to enhance the texture. Stamped images didn't show up. Covering it with clear embossing powder made it look cheap. Swiping it with white Staz-on ink resulted in a white-streaked mess. In the end, I used a dry embossing tool to hand-paint the dots with white Staz-on ink, and I really like the polka-dotty effect. If you happen to have a teeny-tiny polka-dot stamp (Hero Arts has a great one: Raindrop Background), you could bypass the dry-embossing entirely, and just stamp the arrow with dots and save yourself a lot of trouble. 

I had to laugh when I saw Laura's layout because we both used the American Crafts Everyday line, and we both Swiss Dotted our arrows! You know what they say...great minds!;)

Be sure to go over and check out Sasha's take on the challenge. Her style is so unique and colorful - I just love it. Love, love, love. 

Thanks ladies! You rocked this challenge!

Supplies: Patterned paper, chipboard, stickers, ribbon, rub-ons: American Crafts; Stamps: Banana Frog; Corner Rounder: Marvy Uchida      

Challenge #4 (with Laura and Heather)

Welcome back to our very sporadic product challenge, in which Laura and I make scrapbook pages and attempt to inspire the masses! This will be Challenge #4, and this time around, we have invited our talented friend Heather to provide a third take on our challenge items:

1. Scenic Route Paper Co. patterned paper: the stash is large, but the paper is oh so yummy!

2. Buttons: sneaking their way onto every page these days...

3. Heidi Swapp plastic letters: I saw Laura use these on a layout, and I remembered that I still have some or lots, depending on your perspective. Time to break them out again!

4. Brads: a scrapbooking staple.

Here's my page (with home-printed photos that are soon to be replaced):  

For the layout design, I started with KP's January Super Sketch, but as you can see, I changed it up by centering the foundation and flipping the location of the title with respect to the photos. It made it much easier to have a starting point. I've actually had these photos and papers pulled and sitting out for some time now, but just hadn't had the opportunity to get the layout started. On a sidenote, Sadie had discovered the supplies I piled together and had taken to carrying the photos ("See-dee pitchoos") and the green felt ("geen bink-eee") around the basement. One day, I even found them in the dryer, carefully loaded with several pairs of her socks.

The cute little flowers are from Banana Frog's adorable Funky Flowers set, which just so happened to match the flowers on Sadie's bathing suit! I stamped the flowers with Versamark onto two different colors of yellow cardstock, then I heat embossed with clear embossing powder for a subtle tone-on-tone effect. The flower stems were handcut from felt and stitched with my sewing machine directly onto the page.

 

I also used the polka dot stamp (with Versmark) from Banana Frog's Backgrounds set to add a little interest to the kraft background.

One of the things I love about these challenges is finding new ways to use my supplies. I added brads to the center of my one of my button flowers, which is a technique I had to try after seeing it popping up here and there in magazines and on the web. Laura also used this one on her challenge layout!So be sure to check it out on this fun layout of her cute daughter! And not only did Heather rock the challenge by creating TWO layouts, she gave us a great idea for layering sticker letters over mega-size alphabet letters for a fun, unique look with lots of dimension. Check out these adorable layouts about her baby boy here! Thanks ladies for another great challenge!

And hey, should you all be tempted to play along, don't forget to link us up!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Scenic Route Paper Co., Buttons: The Paper Studio, Chatterbox, Letters: Heidi Swapp; Stamps: Banana Frog

Challenge #3! (with Laura and Wendy Sue)

I had a very cool opportunity come my way late yesterday, so....I didn't quite get the chance to finish Day 2 of the dreaded Christmas album. I will though. I will. And I might even get around to posting it too. To make up for it....

Welcome to the third official challenge! And what a challenge it is just to find time to scrapbook in the midst of the busiest time of the year, no? Not surprisingly, the dreaded Christmas album was shelved for a few days while I made time for our challenge:

1. Basic Grey paper: which I consistently buy with good intentions but never fail to never use

2. Rick-rack: a fun twist on standard ribbon and always good for that "handmade charm"

3. Stitching: this one isn't even a challenge for me, it's a MUST!

4. Metal: I used to use metal a lot, but these days, it's been missing from my pages.

Laura and I invited the incredibly talented Wendy Sue Anderson to join us in the challenge this week! Nothing like a few Making Memories designers to make a girl feel intimidated...

Rather than overanalyze, I'll just share! Here's my page:

 

"Crawling" has been a topic on my "to-scrap" list for a while now, and the Basic Grey Urban Prairie paper with it's cute little ladybugs was the inspiration I needed to get it done!I borrowed the ladybug design from the paper to create my own ladybug accent with a circle cutter, a black pen, and some brads. Here's a closer look:

 

And because I wanted to include multiple photos from different times, I created a photo collage in Photoshop Elements and then I added the dates directly onto each photo.

 

(We're changing things up and trying to keep these posts to a more readable length, so you can see Laura's challenge page here and Wendy Sue's challenge page here).

Supplies: Patterned Paper, stickers: Basic Grey; Stamp: Stampin' Up; Brads: American Crafts; Rick-Rack: unknown

Challenge #2! (with Laura and Lisamarie)

Welcome to our second official challenge, where we celebrate Black Friday by creating scrapbooking pages using items from our stash (and probably easily found in yours too)! No shopping required!

Laura and I invited fellow scrapbooker Lisamarie to join us this week in our continuing quest to be creative with paper products!

Our challenge:

1. Purple: this, my friends, was Laura's idea, just so you know. Yes, the girl can issue a challenge, to be sure.

2. Vellum: one of my "go-to" supplies and definitely a comfort zone in my scrapbooking. I use vellum on just about everything.

3. Thirteen things: A fun way to get creative using thirteen of anything: tags, brads, rub-ons, photos, etc.

4. Ribbon: I have a whole shelf of ribbon, and I know I'm not the only one!

First off, here's Lisamarie's double page layout:

 

And here is the second page:

 

The first page totally makes me think of a page in a home decorating magazine! Lisamarie claims she is also not a fan of purple, but it looks perfect paired with the hot pink and some bling to make this super girly page!

And the challenge page from the ever-talented Laura (more details HERE):

   

Laura used a whole sheet of KI Memories tags, and she tells me she just pulled them from the packaging and put them down on her page in the exact same arrangement. Isn't that clever? And what perfect use of product to record the details of her day. Here's a closer look:

   

Here's mine (and just so you know, the ribbon actually matches in real life. Not sure what happened right here with the lighting):

 

And so, as you may or may not all ready know, I truly dislike the color purple. So it makes sense that I would use it to scrapbook a page about me, right? Yes, exactly :) 

Purple was a bit of a creativity inhibitor because for a while there I couldn't get past the fact that it's vile. And while I was pondering how much I disliked it, I had the semi-brilliant idea to work that particular characteristic into an "about me" quiz type page. The quiz is Two by Two (with a few added items to reach 13 things) from Simple Scrapbooks Scrapbook Shortcuts With Quizzes and Questions, which I highly recommend for any scrappie but especially if you have any difficulty with journaling. The special issue has 25 quizzes that are quick, fun, and versatile. Easy enough, right?

And as they say, voilà!

 

I had to resist the urge to add alot more things to this page, but ultimately decided that simple and streamlined was best. In the end, I was pleasantly surprised to find that a) I actually like the purple/brown/white color combo and b) purple is good for black and whites. (I was, however, unpleasantly surprised that in the two years since I've had a head shot, I developed some unsightly wrinkles. I'm blaming Sadie.)

And...as before, if you feel inspired, play along! We saw a couple great pages last time from carla and carine, and we'd love to see more this time around! Be sure to send us a link.

Supplies for my page:

Cardstock: Bazzill (brown, lavender), American Crafts (purple); Ribbon:Offray; Sticker, Brad: American Crafts; Corner Rounder: Marvy Uchida; Scallop Punch: Fiskars

Another Challenge! (With Laura and Lovely)

Do you ever walk into your studio/scrap space and feel totally overwhelmed by the endless options? That would be me, staring at the piles of ribbon and mounds of patterned paper while my creative time trickles away.

Enter: the challenge.

Not only will challenges get us scrapbooking, it will also help us scrap faster (in my case, this would be a small miracle) by having a starting point. A suggestion from a blog reader and fellow scrapbooker, Lisamarie, has inspired my good friend Laura and me to attempt challenges on a more regular basis. Every two weeks (if we remain ambitious).

Our challenge:

1. The color pink. As the mother of a daughter, I have a mega-stockpile of pink. What color are you stockpiling?

2. Flowers. I am admittedly flower-challenged. Does anyone else have this problem?

3. KI Memories patterned paper. Ooooh, baby, do I love me some KI paper!

4. Sticker letters. All I can say is that I have many, many stickers to use up.

AND as a fun twist, we hoping to include a "guest challenger" to participate and show an additional take on the challenge.

For the kick-off, we invited the talented Miss Lovely Cutler. I met Lovely at a scrapbook store in my hometown, and I knew we were going to be friends when the first words she said to me were, "So, are you totally addicted to scrapbooking?" I know a kindred spirit when I see one.

Lovely is one of the most charming, funny, and humble people I know. Her signature style often includes fabulous, fabulous enlargements of her sweet little daughter. Here's Lovely's page (more details HERE):

 

And a closer look:

 

Love that she included the layer of vellum over the patterned paper, and the multiple rows of scallops are the perfect girly touch for this page about her little girl. And btw, isn't that little sweetie completely adorable?

And here is Laura's fun interpretation (more details HERE):

 

A closer look:

 

Laura is a pro at combining fun, colorful elements but still keeping the design clean and focused on her photos. Love that she used the photos and the mega-sized purple brad to create a visual triangle that moves your eye around the page. And isn't her little sweetie also completely adorable? (I think we have a trend here...can you guess what my page is about?)

In case you weren't sure, here it is:

When I made these cards a while back, I noticed that the American Crafts Detailed embellishments matched these photos of Sadie shredding flowers. So when "flowers" were suggested as a challenge item, I can't say I was exactly excited, but I was game for it! I pulled some matching American Crafts paper and paired it with this KI Memories paper from the Holiday Collection. In case you can't see it, the paper reads "LOVES ME LOVES ME NOT" which is a very happy find for a page about a petal-plucking baby. Here's a closer look:

If you've managed to read this far, you might just deserve an award. Or maybe just the promise of another challenge in a short two weeks. In the meantime, feel free to play along and if you do, send us a link to your layouts!Thanks Laura and Lovely for a great challenge! And big thanks for being so patient with me while our self-imposed deadline WHOOSHED by!

Supplies on my page: Patterned Paper: American Crafts, KI Memories; Stickers, Ribbon, Brads, Flower: American Crafts; Chipboard: Heidi Swapp, American Crafts; Stamp: gel-a-tins; Buttons: Chatterbox; Journalin Card: Lisa Bearnson Kit of the Month - April 2008