Some More Layouts!

This first lo was done for the Sept. Challenge over at Scrapbook.com for the EFG that I am with.

September Technique Challenge: Use Die-Cuts!! You may choose any subject, any number of pics, etc., but you must use at least one die-cut on your layout! This can be as your background (as in a die-cut paper), or it can be an embellishment. You can even die-cut your photo(s)! It can be from a kit/paper collection, or you can cut it from a die-cut machine. 25 points!

TWIST: Distress something, somewhere on the layout--use scissors or an edge distresser, tear something, crumple something--just distress at least one item for an extra 10 points!

I have had these two pictures out forever wanting to scrap them of Avery... Heck I think he is about 2 or 3 here.. I will have to go hunt now to put a date on. But I used BG paper and my die cut it the snowflake which I added stickles and a button to. Then I distressed the edges of the cardstock and added stickles along that as well, you can't hardly see it, but it looks very nice and is eye catching. The santa and Spirit of Christmas are actually from the dollar store from way back when. Added the ric-rac for a simple interest as well as the row of buttons!

I just love these pics of Avery, even if he has his meal all over his face!



This second lo was for the September BOM Challenge: Create A Layout About Someone or Something That Inspires You! This can be anything, really! A special person--you don't have to have actually met them, either! Or it could be a family member, friend, whoever! Or maybe it is a thing, place, object, etc., that inspires you! Whatever it is, scrap it for your BOM so you can remember it! 25 points!
TWIST: Use buttons! You must use at least 2 buttons on the layout to get an extra 10 points!

I did my lo on my best friend Cynthia. I listed the things that inspire my about her, although I can't believe I left off the word intelligence! I realized that when I was finished... ugh... oh well, this is quite simple, but I love the green and pink which is basic grey papers. I used the buttons as you can see as well as the twist.




I guess I am starting to get the hang of a simple lo...lol... when I get down to hours before they are due, I guess that happens, although I do really like them both.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek and if you, please leave me a message and tell me hi!

These are 2 layouts I did a few weeks back, but because I have been so busy getting things up and going with my new venture I am just now getting over to post them. These were done for challenges over at scrapbook.com with my ETG that I am a part of. I have to laugh, because one looks so fall and the other so springy!

This first one was done for the "AUGUST TECHNIQUE CHALLENGE: Old Meets New". Scrap any subject you like, but use some of the oldest-purchased supplies in your stash, as well as the most recent supplies you've purchased--together on the same layout! This can be anything--paper, embellies, tools, etc., BUT photos and adhesive are excluded . Be sure to tell us what you used! TWIST: inking something!

OK.. to be honest most of this is really really old! The pp in the background is actually from the dollar store. I use to buy a lot of pp there when I first started scrapping. This was really pretty and to be honest I am surprised I have never used it. I outlined all the leaves with a thin sharpie to blend with some of the black I placed elsewhere. The letters are also from the dollar store, the Autumn title I believe I got from a swap way back when and the lollipop flower is really recently new months back and the green card stock I bought actually today in a stack. I cut that out and then added the black doddle around the edges and printed off my butterflies from a program I have. The picture is back in 1996 when I was doing daycare out of my home. This was my group of children I watched. This was a our annual trip to Waterman's pumpkin patch. I always loved getting a pic with us all on the big pumpkins! I also inked the edges of the pp with moss green near the leaves.


This page is for our BOM challenge. It was to scrap a message to yourself--your past, present, or future self! Is there something you'd like to go back and tell your past self? Does your present self need a pep talk or need to address an issue? Is there something you've learned that would help your future self? This can be totally lighthearted--like, you might take a pic of your laundry and tell yourself to do it , OR, you may want to address something more serious and/or thought-provoking. TWIST: use 2 or more photos relevant to your message on the LO.

OK.. This lo is kind of simple in style and I was just hours under the deadline, so simple and quick was my motto that evening. My page actually opens like a book. The pink stipes with the birds on top are actually one piece. I cut the paper off that was on top of the birds and then placed a piece of purple card stock behind that. So, you open that whole piece from the birds down like a page in a book. The journaling is focused around the three key words I have on the front; Dream, Believe and Be. Since I am in the process of fulfilling a dream of mine with my new venture I really wanted this to be mainly about dreams being like a bird on a wire and they can take flight at any time.

I don't have all my journaling finished just yet. I am about 1/2 way through it and still in draft because how hard I have been working on other things right now. Although it is about dreaming big while you are young when you truly believe dreams can come true, about believing in yourself and your dreams when you're old enough to give up on them, because they don't seem to be attainable and then just being true to who you know you were meant to be and realizing your dreams are always at reach, if you only reach a little further then you think you can. So, that is a brief overview without really reading it here. So, of course that is a picture of me when I was about 5, 30 and 45.


OK.. well, it feels kind of good to post something other then one of my images! LOL... thanks for stopping by and have a creative kind of day! MAKE ART!

Finally, some scrapping!

It's seems like forever since I have scrapped a layout and I really wanted to participate in the Challenges for July with my ET group over at scrapbook.com. I just made the deadline too!

This lo was for the technique challenge: Scrap any subject you like, but use some packaging from any product (does not have to be scrap-related) on your layout!

Twist: In honor of Independence Day in the US, use the colors red, white and blue on the layout for an extra 10 points!

My repackaging was that little black tag that says "My moments" it is a Wal-mart packaging that had little black bow ties in it. Not much, but it worked. This is a picture of Rachel and Avery many years ago after swimming and Avery was super tired and wanted his sissy. It's one of my favorite pics of them.


This next challenge was our JULY BOM CHALLENGE, which I love to participate in because it's a all about me, which I personally hate to scrap, but nice to have them after I have accomplished them! I really liked this idea; it was:

Scrap A List!!
Scrap a list of things that mean something in your life, and use pics that correspond to things on your list. Could be places you'd like to visit, your "Bucket List", a list of your favorite things, people, tv shows, etc.--whatever you like, as long as it's a list!

I personally love this statement "It's not having what you want; it's wanting what you've got" in the song by Sheryl Crow, "Soak up the sun". I think if we really lived this way we would surely see how truly we are blessed in our daily lives. So, my list are of things that I already have and feel very blessed to hold. My list was: Faith, Freedom, Love, Family, Good Friends, Good Health, Place to Call Home, My Girlfriends


Thanks for stopping by today and taking a peek if you did, leave me some luvins it always makes my day. Plus, if you haven't already done so, hurry over on my new blog "There's Magic In The Air". I will be releasing my first free digital image on Monday, August 3rd. So, scurry on over there and become a follower so you don't miss out!! I think you will love or at least like what I have a brewing over at "There's Magic In The Air"


So, in the meantime... Soak up the sun..... and rock on!

Dream Big

Ok.. so I wanted to complete the challenges for the group that I am a part of over at scrapbook.com, so to do that I had to pull a couple of late nighters to get them accomplished by the due date... LOL... which I might add was today. It was well worth the lack of sleep, well it seemed good at the time! LOL.. but the end result was what I think to be 2 great layouts. This first is for the Eiffel Tower Group - April Technique Challenge In honor of April Fool's, this month's Technique Challenge is to use something on your layout that corresponds with the word FOOL(S) as follows:
F - Flora or Fauna. You must use plants (trees, flowers, etc.) or animals (ladybugs, butterflies, etc., also ok) somewhere on the layout--this could be in your actual picture(s), papers, or as embellishments!
O - Odd. You must use something odd on the layout (the "odd" thing can be something not normally used on a layout, OR--an odd number of a certain supply, such as 3 patterned paper s, or 5 brads, for example.)
O - Oval. You must use something in the shape of an oval on your layout. This can be anything.
L - Light Colors. You must use light colors on at least 50% of the layout. Think Spring! Pastels, muted colors, light colors.

All of these things make the LO worth 25 points.

TWIST:
S - Sewing Or Stitching. For an extra 10 points, you must use sewing or stitching on the layout. This can be freehand and freeform, by machine, or with a template--whatever you like!

You can also use any subject matter for this LO.

SOOO for my lo I chose to use one of Rachel's senior pics. My background cs in real life is a little more creamy/vanilla but doesn't really reflect that here.. grr the rain! LOL..

F: flora or fauna - I have that lovely lollipop flower from Prima and some butterflies.

O: Odd - Well, I actually have 3 pieces of different pp, 3 butterflies, and that green circle thingie in the bottom right corner is a washer with paint and stickles on it.

O: Oval - I made a hidden journaling tag which is to the right of the pic. I made an oval pull with the butterfly on it.

L: Light color - I believe that 50% of my lo is in light color.

S: Stitching - Twist extra 10 points - stitching.. I stitched the "X" and also stitched the washer on the lo.

Renew Me - Challenge

This layout was done for the ETG April BOM Challenge. In honor of Spring, the BOM Challenge theme for this month was Renewal. What is something you do for renewal of your body, mind, soul, environment, etc.? This can be anything--the time you take for yourself, something you do just for you--whether it be daily, weekly, monthly, etc. Or--did you just renew your environment? Possible examples: redecorate a room in your home, plant a garden, or even a new purse or new shoes that make you feel refreshed and renewed, etc.; anything with the Renewal theme! So use your imagination on this one! This challenge is worth 25 points, with a Twist: If you use the word "Renew" or "Renewal" in your LO title, it's an extra 10 points!

So, I truly think the thing that renews me from the inside out, in the depth of my soul daily is truly my relationship with Christ. When I prise him in song, in his word or through lo's such as this. Christ certainly has renewed me in ways that are beyond words and how could I resist not doing my lo on this.

First I just LOVE this pic of Jesus with the lamb and knew as soon as I found it I wanted to use this on my lo. I kept this very simple and let that beautiful pp from K & Company do most of the work for me. I did cut some of the background pp out and let it lay over the pic and then I cut another piece that is to the right with the bluish flowers and glued that down. My title says it all. My journaling are words from the song by Avolon "Renew Me". This was what instantly came to my mine when this challenge was presented. I love these words and what else can I say, this is exactly what he has done for me over the years and still does for me daily, the journaling reads "So renew me, remake me, Undo me, Unbreak me, Come into the empty spaces, Of my broken places, And consume me, Complete me, Pursue me, Redeem me, Let Your Holy Spirit living through me, Renew me, I need you to renew me" just love those words

Blast from the past... LOL

Well, I am slowly starting to feel back to myself. With Rachel about to graduate there is a lot to plan and to accomplish with the senior stuff and college plans, so my creative flow seems to have come to a halt for the moment. So, I thought since my last few posts have not been paper related, I thought I would post some of my work that I did prior to starting my blog. These are a few of my favorite layout's and are not on my blog, well, maybe in my slide show, but thought I would post something scrappy. So enjoy and hopefully I will get a few challenges done by months end!








Thanks for stopping by and taking a look...

I would have never guessed...

nor would I have thought of this, but heck, what a great idea for a mini book!! LOL.. I don't know about you, but I am headed directly to the bathroom trash so I can give it a try!! LOL.. heaven know's we end up with plenty of these!!

BE Morgan (using a masking technique)

This lo was done for the ETG Feb. Challenge which was TECHNIQUE - MASKING.

This is something that really interests Laura and she had us try masking. Wanted us to do something unique and not sure how unique my idea was butt, I did mask. We could have used any medium we liked, ink, paint.. etc and I used different colored inks.

I started off with this huge pic of my youngest dd and thought since she/the photo was missing the top of her head I would have these "thoughts" floating out of it... LOL.. now not sure if I accomplished this or not but I cut some flowers, hearts and stars using my cricut george cartridge and then I masked with them using my inks. you can see that my shapes are more true to the cs color but with all my doodling they don't look as masked at they did in the beginning stages, but that is ok, because I really liked how this lo turned out. It is soo morgan too. This really was a simply and fairly fast lo too. Good thing since this was the last day to upload for the challenge. Nothing like waiting till the last minute to see if you can pull if off... LOL... Rachel my oldest dd took this pic of her sister... I am starting to think that Rachel truly has hidden talents in her photography skills and she seems to be able to catch a lot in a photo. I simply loved this photo of morgan, she looks sweet with a bit of mischievous shining in her eyes... kwim? LOL... yep.. certainly morgan!



This is a closer look at the doodling and masking... but with all the doodling it is kind of hard to see the masking now!

BOM (book of me) Challenge

Here is the layout I did for the BOM Challenge for the ETG over at scrapbook.com. The challenge was to scrap a page about things that make you happy. You also received extra points if you included at least 5 things. I kept this fairly simple and knew exactly what I wanted to do. I kept it all in the neutral zone for the colors. Printed my picture off in sepia and inked the edges with some different browns and reddish browns with colorbox chalks (I just love those things). Then in Print Shop I typed the beginning of each of my boxes with sentences such as "Happiness to me consists of" and I'm Happiest when" or "It makes me happy" etc. (get the idea?) then I left room to finish the sentence in my own handwriting. So I cut all those boxes, inked them and then finished the sentence about things that make me happy. I then also made the title in Print Shop and punched out the tags and added them to the title with brads. I used a mesh type embellishment behind that and put together the layered flower and added a button with hemp in it as well as some hemp around my picture. I then just added the little extras and also added a little bit of doodling, not much though. I laid this all out prior to writing in my boxes just to make sure it would all fit nicely. I think I actually had about 3 boxes left over. I think I will do a few pages kind of like this for my BOM about things I love, things I dislike.... :O) we'll see, sounds good now! LOL... SOOO, if you don't have a BOM going I suggest you start one. We always tend to scrap everything and everyone except ourselves. I am glad I have started doing these challenges because now I have a book just for myself and all about me... some day someone just might pick it up and take interest in it!! I really liked how it turned out the only thing I might do a little different is use a little thicker marker to write in. I may go back and go over it all, or maybe not!!





THANKS for looking! and thanks if you left me a message!

Use that pattern paper challenge....

I did this lo for a challenge on scrapbook.com for my ETG the challenge was: "We all have it. We all love it. Yes I do mean patterned paper ! For this challenge, let your PP take center stage. Use it to cut out your own amazing embellies and flowers. Use as much as you like, as many patterns as you like, just have FUN!! All coloring agents and any metal embellies are allowed. Also you can use anything you like for the title."

So consider challenging yourself to do the same, limit yourself to a certain supply or just a few and then attempt to do a layout using "just" those supplies. You just might be surprised at how much you can really do with a limited amount of supplies.



ok.. so I used DCWV Pet stack for this... LOL.. I know I know, but some of that pp is super cute! The background pp is K&Company - Wild Saffron. I cut the flowers, the heart and the side boarder from the paper (the pet stack), the little owl I made out of pp and some distressed pp. The title is cut from the same pp that is the boarder around the pictures and the arrow I cut from a green stripe from a piece of pp that I made myself and doodled on it. I used the opposites attrack cricut cartridge for the title, doddled on the page some and added the little chain, tag and page anchors. Behind that picture with the anchors there is hidden journaling.

Hidden journaling reads: I see a young girl growing into a young lady. You are becoming independent, responsible and growing into being very much your own person. You have a kind and caring way about you. You are very sweet, but you certainly have a sassy side to you too. You are becoming more beautiful with each passing year. I love what I see! Love Mommy

Also, Rachel took these pictures of herself too, which I love! That is also why there is a shadow in the center pic it is her shadow. She messed around with the one on the top left in photoshop and changed the color around, I love the fact that all these pictures are looking at you at a kind of different angle too on the layout.

Freebie Digi Scrap Kits By Stef

Well, I thought I would share some great freebie digi kits with you from Steph Scraps blog. She designs these herself and would love to have some traffic come through. So I am giving her a plug here, plus we all get an extra add-on if 10 people place a link to her blog, so go check her out and if you love what you see, and you will, link her! Her link is in my side bar under "Places I Love To Hang" or click on this title. Although I don't digi scrap, I just kind of mess around in it right now, it is all kind of new to me, I do love to downloads her kits and a few others because some day I will sit down and make a digi layout. I might just try this new kit out and do one, if I do, I will post it here and give Steph all the credit. He blog also has some more great links to other digi blogs. So, if you are a digi scrapper make sure you check them out, they are great eye candy!