a random week in september

This is what I made for the second Creative Jumpstarts  challenge which was to make a pocket pages spread using all one colour. 

I chose a turquoise-blue and this is the hardest spread I have ever photographed. I think it is the combination of so much  light, bright paper and cards and two photos that had some serious sun flare in them. I photographed this spread at 3 separate times of day in two different locations and changed my camera settings a ton. Eventually I just settled. on these.

It was pretty easy finding enough product in my chosen colour and I also allowed myself to use white and woodgrain. The difficult part was not adding other stuff in, I kept thinking that a certain embellishment or letter sticker would  be perfect, but they weren't the right colour. It was a really fun challenge to use all one colour and I really like the way it turned out.

Also, my husband did some journalling about a bachelor party he went to. He does journaling for our album on an almost weekly basis and I am very grateful that he is so willing to be involved in our memory keeping.



I also got to use my most favourite thickers ever on this spread. There are hardly any letters left at all, but the pack had all the numbers I needed, so I was excited. The thickers are a lovely shade of turquoise and have a corduroy look to them. I just love them.

These are my two favourite parts of the spread. I love the wood veneer stars scattered about like that. It fills in the empty space without looking too crowded.

And I love how adding the white tag to the journal card allowed me to still use a card in my colour scheme, but the tag broke up the colour so the whole spread wasn't too blue. I will definitely be using this technique again when I love a particular journal card, but the colour just might be a little too busy for my spread.

Workspace Wednesday

Marcy Penner has a weekly instragram/blog series called Workspace Wednesday, 2, 3, 4 where she shows you a glimpse into her workspace. I adore this series and am obsessed with her workspace. It is so bright and white, with tons of vintage storage for everything.

My workspace on the other hand, is a major work in progress. I am very fortunate to have an entire room all to myself for all my crafty endeavours. We have lived in our house for more than three years though now and I have yet to finish the room. It's basically a hot mess.

I signed up for Marcy's Worksplace class at Studio Calico and loved it. I didn't however, finish the class. You could call me a Workspace class drop out if you will. Even though the class is broken into really manageable parts, I just found myself overwhelmed knowing how much work my room needs.

I have decided to hijack Workspace Wednesday to share a part of my workspace each week that is not working for me and what I'm going to do to change it, while utilizing the tools and worksheets Marcy gave us in the class.

The first week is my Thickers situation. The above photo is my Thicker purge pile. I ran out of space in the storage cube from Michael's that fit two rows of Thickers perfectly and I thought it would be best that I controlled my Thicker collection to what will fit in the cube, which is approximately 60 packs.

So I took all the packs I have either never used or are missing way too many vowels and made a pile on my floor. I wasn't sure how exactly I should deal with them, so I left them on the floor. This was about a month and a half ago and I cannot even tell you how many times I have reached for a pack I knew was in the purge pile and was perfect for the project I was working on. I now realize it's silly to limit myself to Thickers that fit into the storage spot I have. I love and use Thickers way too much. It's time for a new storage spot.

The compartment on the right has a shelf that makes up two little cubes. I usually store 6x6 pads on the bottom and embellishments up top, but all of my 6x6 pads are really just scraps now and I have moved most of my other embellishments to little storage tins. This area just isn't being used anymore. I am going to pull the little shelf out (it just slides in) and make ( *cough* ask my father-in-law to make me*cough*) a custom magazine holder for the right side identical to the one on the left so I can hold more packs.

And just like that, my Thickers addiction is able to continue.

Is there a particular spot in your craft/scrap area that is just a hot mess and you don't know what to deal with it?

go sleepie

I made this layout for the October/November mood board at Jot Magazine. Can I just say how much I loved this mood board? The colours are so perfect for scrapping my little guy and I love how much texture most of the other components could have to them.

I knew I had to use this older Crate Paper line when I saw the colour scheme. Andy's current favourite game to play is what he calls "go sleepie". He takes his 'blankie' and a bunch of his 'guys' (stuffed animals) and climbs into bed. He then asks us to turn off the light and shut the door. After a few moments, he 'gets up' and then immediately asks to "go sleepie" again.

I had to get a little creative with my interpretation of some of the components of the mood board for the supplies I had on hand. I used wood veneer stars trailing up the page instead of wood grain. There is just something about the way the starts fall up the page that make me think of sleeping.

I also used a wood veneer feather as I don't have any other feathers and used a doily instead of real lace. Those Thickers were actually in my purge pile as the font is kind of big and I've never been able to use them on anything. The shade of grey was just perfect for the colours of the mood board. This just proves that you should never, ever get rid of any scrapbooking supplies, right?

I love lining little bits along washi tape. I stuck the tape to my sweater a few times so it it would lose some of its stickiness and stick up a bit. I really love texture on my layouts.

I limited my stamping to one little phrase below the photo and the date.

I couldn't find a place on my layout that I thought twine would work, so I just grabbed some thread out of a bobbin on my sewing machine and stapled it beneath a triangle of patterned paper.

 I'm really happy with how this layout turned out. Thanks for the great mood board inspiration Jot!

jump jump

I made this layout for Studio Calico's Sunday Sketch from last week in less than an hour! I'm just loving sketches these days, layouts come together so easily! I used the paper from the Planetarium main kit and add-ons. The embellishments came from some older SC kits.

I altered the sketch a bit as I used rectangular photos instead of square and used a chipboard frame to hold my journalling instead of a fourth photo, but other than that, I kept the layout mostly the same.

I just love, love, love that Crate Paper from their The Pier line. It was so hard to use half of it on this layout as now I barely have anymore yet. The subtle colour and pattern in it makes it perfect for backgrounds.

I love these Thickers so much. I have a serious Thickers addiction and I could use a few more packs of these. They were in my purge pile as there are more Es or As, but I was so excited that I was able to make the title with them. Loving getting a little more use out of  pack I thought was done. And the little bit of glitter in these if just perfect.

That 'fly' wood veneer and 'blast off' tag from an older October Afternoon Miscellany pack was just perfect for a photo of any mid jump.

I can't seem to make a page these days without adding at least one chipboard frame. They are definitely my current obsession. And I love that yellow Dear Lizzy paper.

More cloud wood veneers. They're made by Freckled Fawn and came in the Big Dipper add-on. I've been hoarding them for a long time, but were just perfect for this layout. That "let's go on an adventure' stamp is one of my favourites. I love stamps that are little phrases like that. I've been using this one a lot lately. Life with a toddler is adventurous, that's for sure.

september part 1

I based this layout's colour scheme on Paper Issues' Pinspire Me Monday post last week. I really loved the pink with the navy and mint and yellow. I had a lot of fun with it and I loved that it pushed me to combination shades of blue I wouldn't normally put together.

I have never used the Design F page protector, but had lots of vertical photos I always use Design A unless I am cutting another size down smaller for an insert. Design A is so easy as I always know what orientation of photos I need to be taking that week. I only had to cut one 4x6 in half to fit though and I really like the way all the 3x4 photos look. I will definitely be using Design F again.

I used some I used some Studio Calico Mister Huey's and October Afternoon Sprinklers on the calender card and almost got all of the colours from the colour combo.

I placed a Crate Paper frame over a white shipping tag and attached them to a pink ombre card and did my journalling. I added some Studio Calico cork arrows and some enamel dots to fnish it off.

 All of the cards I used this week are from the Maggie Holmes mini kit. I love that kit so much and am very confident I am going to use all of it.

I backed this gold die cut banner from Studio Calico with some soft mine paper and attached it to a card that is black, from far away looks navy, so I'm rolling with it. I added a wood veneer arrow from the pack of hearts and arrows Studio Calico had a few years ago that I'm almost out of and need about a million more packs of.

I'm really happy with this spread. It came together super fast thanks to using cards all from the same core kit and sticking to the colour combo from Paper Issues.

October Part 2

 
This week was Canadian Thanksgiving and we had some beautiful fall weather, so I wanted to use some fall colours. I focused on blue, orange and green.

Woodgrain thickers are my one of my faves. I have many packs of these! That dymo tape is also neon in real life and I love how bright it is.

 
The 'Automne' wood veneer came in a pack from I think Kesi Art? And I got it in an older Studio Calico kit. It was perfect for a photo of Andy picking apples.

I also included the tag from our turkey as it was the biggest turkey I've ever picked and the card from some flowers our sweet friends brought us. I love including memorabilia in our album. It's so fun and adds great texture and interest, but I'm horrible at remembering to do it, or I feel silly saving stuff like that turkey tag. I'm sure in 40 years when turkeys cost like $75 I'll be glad I kept it.

I cut a piece of vellum to go over this patterned paper to make a pocket. I really need to get my sewing machine fixed so I can sew around the edges.

Do you use your sewing machine on Project Life or do you find it too much of a hassle? When mine was working, I would sew down everything. I think it adds such a nice touch.

A Week in July

The problem with doing my Project Life spreads on a monthly basis instead of weekly, is it is hard to know what to label them. The first and last spreads are easy, but it's hard to remember if I'm working on spread 2 of 5 or 5 of 8. I have a feeling most of these posts will be titled "random week in...."

That "There's No Place Like Home" card was just perfect for a weekend when Andy and I stayed home almost all weekend. The colours in it are perfect too for a spread of photos filled with colourful kid stuff.

I love big photos so much. I've probably done 10 6x8 photos already this year. They cost $1.99 at Costco (I put a 6.x8 photo on an 8x8 mat in Photoshop), but I just love the impact they have. I also had a little date stamping mishap on the top card. I stamped June by accident a bunch of times and then stamped July over it a few times. It looks like a mess, but I'm rolling with it because I'm not aiming for perfection over here .

Any my love of banners continues. I made the template for the two patterned paper ones from some older Basic Grey garlands and I use the template whenever I want to make own banners for a project. The silver one is from Studio Calico and I'm cursing myself for only buying one package of those.

Love Love Love

Hip Kit Club had their first online crop this weekend. I unfortunately, had a cold, so I was not able to participate nearly as much as I would like to, but I did get two challenges done- the colour and recipe and am going to do the sketch one, because it was such a good one.

This is my layout for the receipt challenge. The recipe was 4 pieces of patterned paper, 1 photo, 5 buttons, 1 chipboard, 1 alpha. 1 tag, and handwritten journalling.

I used 4 pieces of patterned paper from a Maggie Holmes paper pack that was an exclusive item at Michaels. It was on sale for $5.99- regular price $30! Michaels prices in Canada are crazy expensive. I used another piece for my background, but since it was my background, I didn't count it. :)

These are some older Maya Road chipboard banner pieces that I used some gold glitter Zing embossing powder on. Gold glitter embossing is clearly my current obsession and don't see it stopping any time soon. I made a banner with a tiny tag cut from a piece of patterned paper. Also, buttons 1 and 2. I layered it all over some neon pink washi.

I love sheets of paper that you can cut apart. The tag above is from an entire sheet that are vintage tags. It is basically the most beautiful piece of paper ever. I definitely want to use a bunch of them to make a background soon. Button 3- an older Dear Lizzy wooden one.

My only real cheating was I used 3 different colours of the same alpha font. I feel I technically only used one alpha. :) These are Dear Lizzy alphas and I just love the chunky white glitter on them. The colours are so soft and muted and they went really well with the Maggie Holmes papers

Handwritten journaling on a tag, buttons 4 and 5 and the recipe is complete. I stamped the date in Neon pink ink which is my favourite. I use every excuse I can do break out the neon.

In all, I think this layout took me maybe 30-45 minutes to make, which is super fast for me. It definitely made it easy having a recipe to work with. I also usually scrap 12x12, but I've been finding the 8.5x11 so easy these days.

Definitely hoping Hip Kit Club has another online crop soon! I'm new to the community and it was really nice chatting with all the ladies on the Hip Kit Club forum on Facebook. Everyone is so nice and very inspiring!

Apple Picking

Andy and I went apple picking last week and I took about 300 photos. You can count on seeing many, many more layouts featuring these photos.

This layout is based on a sketch at Studio Calico and is also my submission for the colour challenge at the Hip Kit Club.

I used Studio Calico's Sock Hop and add-ons to make the layout. It is one of my favourite kits and I knew the colours would be perfect for this fall layout. I don't usually use such a large piece of a bold pattern for my background, so this was definitely a bit out of my comfort zone. I really love that feather paper though.. 

The only item I used that did not come from the Sock Hop kits was that wood veneer apple. It came in another kit and was just perfect for a layout about apple picking. I know a lot of people like to stamp and mist wood veneer, but I leave them the way they are. I really love the natural look of them on a page.

This photo will be one of my favourite photos for a really long time. Andy has such a sweet look on his face and the sun flare? Be still my heart.

Also, I love, love, love that wood grain banner from Crate Paper. I'm really sad their lines don't have banners anymore as I'm still a girl who is crazy about banners! I have a feeling they're not "in" anymore and that's why we don't see them as much.

What about you? Are there any scrapbooking trends that maybe aren't in style anymore, but you still can't get enough of?

A Few of My Favourite Things

This is my submission for the Paper Issues Sketchy Saturday. I was really glad they extended it for an extra week, as I missed it.

I had so much fun with the sketch. I took a few liberties with it- like not having journalling at the bottom and I put my title on a banner instead of beneath it, but I think I got most of the components and am really happy with how this layout turned out.

I used Studio Calico's Camelot kit for this layout except for the gold letter stickers and the gold chipboard heart, which are also studio calico. The Crate Paper Frames are also from an older Studio Calico kit from 2013. I also used a few tags and a label from my stash and my trusy Dymo.


 
The title is my favourite part! I used the pink tulle and ruffled it along the top of the page. I then cut a banner with white cardstock and used some gold letters stickers for my title. I added a little jewellery tag with some dymo tape for part of the title and attached it with a Studio Calico gold clothes pin.

I finished it off with placing a few pink sequins from Studio Calico;s Atlantic line in the layers of the tulle. They perfectly matched the tulle!

Instead of just a few starts, I made a banner of starts stretching across my entire page. I placed a few gold polka dot chipboard hearts that came in an older Studio Calico kit and a jewellery tag with a gold chipboard heart. If my sewing machine was working, I would definitely have sewn across the banner as I love how that looks. 

The only chipboard frames I had left were blue, so I painted them with gold acrylic paint. I love the way they turned out.

One of the frames I did half in gold embossing powder. I really, really love the way this one turned out. 

I can't wait for the next Sketchy Saturday. It's so fun to see how everyone interprets the sketch and it's a fun push creatively. 

Creative Jumpstarts 01

Creative Jumpstarts is a joint challenge venture between Marcy Penner and Stephanie Bryan . Their first one was posted last week and I was so excited to jump right in. The challenge was to combine black and white with colour photos.

This is the layout that I came up with. I have never used such a large photo on a layout before (6x8) and I've never made a 2 page layout before.



I should take this moment to say that I complete unintentionally scraplifted Lisa Truesdell's Love This layout- I even used the same Studio Calico kit- Valley High. I was almost done and was really stumped on how to finish it off. I remembered that she did a layout using  large photo that I loved and went looking for it for some inspiration. Low and behold, I completely lifted her! I called it done where it was at and I'm really happy with how it turned out.

I love little bits all lined up in a row like that! And that is a vintage Hello Forever flair that I've been hoarding. I love them and the ampersand can be used in so many situations.

I decided to make a grid with some of my favourite photos from that day at the park. I've also been hoarding that square veneer from Two Peas in a Bucket (still so sad they're closed). 

This is only the first challenge, but I really love Creative Jumpstarts. I can't until the next one they post! If you're taking part in the Creative Jumpstarts, link your project in the comments so I can check it out.

Just Another Manic Monday

It's Monday, which usually means back to work from the glorious weekend, but it's a Holiday in Canada, so I get to stay home an extra day. Normally Monday are a little hard to get through, so it's nice to focus a few things making me happy.

1. I joined the Hip Kit Club today. I discovered them last week through instragram and was just floored by how beautiful their kits are. I was so disappointed that their October kits are all sold out because I just loved them. I knew that I had to sign up right away to make sure I could get the next kit. I really haven't made many traditional layouts in the last year or so and I'm really hoping being part of a kit club again is going to help motivate me to create more regularly.

2. I took Andy apple picking on Saturday and it was so much fun. It was the most beautiful quintessential fall day. Andy had so much fun picking apples. It took him awhile to get that he could pick them from the trees and not just pick up old, shriveled up ones from the ground, but once he did, he chose some good ones. I got some great photos and will forever remember how cute he looked carrying the apple basket around telling me it was "too heaby" and the way he grunted each time he tried to pull an apple off of a branch and the surprised look on his face when the tree branch snapped back.

3. We hosted my in-laws for Thanksgiving yesterday and it was the biggest turkey dinner I have ever made. It definitely didn't go off without a hitch (buns were a little too dark on the bottom, apple and pecan pies were a little runny, and I had to add packaged gravy to  my from scratch as I just couldn't make it thicken), but overall it was a great meal. We brought the table and chairs in from the garage (in the process of painting them white) and the white table looked great with the antique china my parents gave me years ago I hardly ever use it, but the table just looked lovely. A sweet friend bought us pink roses and they were the perfect finishing touch for the table.


What is making you manic on this Monday?