My Mind's Eye Andrea Victoria and Adorn It's Gone Fishin'

People, summer is nearly here. That means two things: weddings and being outside. My Mind's Eye Andrea Victoria is perfect for weddings and parties, and Adorn It's Gone Fishing line is great for scrapbooking your photos of fishing and the great outdoors.

My Mind's Eye Andrea Victoria is fancy...snazzy...and deserving of more than pictures of a baby. I started out with a photo from my friend Oscar's wedding last summer. It was a lot of fun, and at a beautiful garden in Kennewick. The Andrea Victoria paper fit really well with the theme and tone of their wedding (or even weddings in general).

I also did a layout with some photos of my friends when they were eighteenish and what they know now that they didn't know then. It turned out really cool, and I love having something like this to remember my friends by. And yes, inquiring minds, that is your DT Member Anita in the lower left hand picture--what a babe!The cards I made with this line were also fun and elegant--the die cut tags and borders really make your work pop.

Does anyone else get Bon Appétit? Because someone wrote an article in this month's issue talking about her family's freezer full of salmon. My dad would also go fishing every year in Alaska and stock our freezer with fresh and smoked salmon. When we go home to visit, salmon is one thing I always request. To honor the deliciousness that awaits me when I go home, I used some of the photos from my dad's fishing trips in 2008 and 2006 to various lodges in Canada. I also used the divided scrapbook pages from We R Memory Keepers. The page used is the one with 3 - 4x6 openings, 2 - 6x4 openings, and 1 - 12x12 sleeve. It was incredibly easy to create a well-designed page in hardly any time.

The fishing cards were also a lot of fun to make. What, you don’t think you could make cards with paper designed for fishing? You totally can!

And last but not least, there is one thing that I've discovered in the last week that I have used on every layout: Ranger's Glossy Accents. Anita talked about them before in her last post. It's amazing! It's like clear, shiny puffy paint that adds a little somethin' somethin' to your layouts. It’s like Diamond Glaze, but it holds it’s shape and adds dimension to your projects. Since I do relatively simple layouts, I rely on the details to make layouts and cards special. I used it to highlight the title on the "Gone Fishing" layout, as well as the design elements in the Andrea Victoria line. I love it when I find something that just works, and is totally worth whatever I paid for it (Stickles are also up on that list).

So: go out, take your fancy and your outdoors photos and make some new pages for the summer. Or, better yet, grab your friends and family and make some new memories (and then scrapbook it!).

Part I Basic Grey Wisteria

This is featuring some of the new wisteria from basic grey. Loving all the purples in this line! I was a little crazy with the spray paint this weekend so it sort of transferred over to the layout...click on the image for a larger view!
So, I have sort of an odd request from all you lovelies....if you have/keep any of the chipboard letter templates that you punch the letters out of...such as what these letters above come in. (so you punch out all the letters and you still have the chipboard sheet that held them...kind of looks like a stencil afterwards.) I would LOVE if you might pass them on to me instead of tossing them! I am using them on canvas' for the art walk. Let me know if you have any! Thanks gals!

More Lime Rickey by Basic Grey and Adornit by Carolee's Creations

I have a bunch of great stuff to share... so check this out and then go shopping at the store!

First: Basic Grey came out with a super fun and bright line called Lime Rickey. Anita posted a couple of layouts using the papers, and now here's even more from me:
On this layout I focused on two things that I don't do enough (in my own opinion). 1. focusing on words versus photos. 2. scrapbooking about my Christian faith.

I made the one photo match the paper by re-coloring it in Photoshop Elements and used the glitter letter Thickers to make the title pop. I'm always really drawn to busy patterned papers, and think that painting them is a great way to tone them down. I love the way the pattern still shows through the red paint.

My daughter recently brought home this great drawing of a bird she did at school. I am constantly amazed at her talents, and really wanted to feature her work on a page. This bold bird paper worked as a great background to the kraft paper drawing she made. My favorite embellishments on this page also come in Lime Rickey line-- a fantastic cardstock sticker sheet (including the title "you're the coolest") and the glazed brads. They just made this layout so much fun!

And, here are several cards I created with these papers (and one using the Adornit paper line too).
I had a lot of fun making the pinwheels on the one card. I found a template online on how to make them.

And, in honor of this Memorial Day and traditional first weekend in the great outdoors, here's some camping/fishing layouts! (So go print the pics you took these last couple of days and pick up these papers at the store!) The paper line used is Carolee's Creations Adornit Scenic Outlook A & B.
This first one had a beautiful but busy landscape paper. I wanted to use as much of it as possible, so I used a kraft knife to cut out a "window" where I placed a photo of my husband and son fishing. It fit pretty well into the landscape illustration.

The big chipboard letters in the title were given to me at a convention, and I don't like them too well in their original form. So I sprayed them with adhesive and literally tossed them into my kids' sandbox. They turned out so unique and fitting for the page. So if you have some supplies that you're just not sure you like, try to come up with a different way to "embellish" and use them!

And this last layout features trees cut from another Carolee's Creations Adornit scenic outlook page. I also added a couple of the line's cardstock stickers, some paint and Bazzill cardstock for the background. Makes me want to get outdoors and get more photos this summer!

New Basic Grey - Lime Rickey

The new Lime Rickey paper line from Basic Grey is oh so fabulous, bright, cheery and fun to use. Now, those of you that are "faint hearted" about patterned paper, fear not...you can do this! The paper is gorgeous, and you can get great coordinating accessories (like chipboard letters, cardstock sticker borders, etc.) and put together a page in a snap.

This page came together in about 20 minutes by using "strips" of paper, ribbon, cut-out from the patterned paper, chipboard lettters and stickers from the accessories sheet. Of course, I was compelled to use more Glossy Accent and fine glitter (my thing right now if you've been following my "trends")...these took about as long to dry as to assemble the layout.



If you are among those that have a cardinal rule about not using an entire sheet of patterned paper as a background (...smile here), you are probably shocked and amused that I did just that for this layout. I spent more time pondering what to do here than assembling the page. Once I had the idea to use 3 photos to fill the width of a page, added two strips of paper and the letters, boom...a whole 20 minutes had gone by. Again, had to add Glossy Accents and glitter...this girl loves the sparkles!

A few more accesories and scraps and look...3 cards. There is so much in this line and on the accesories sheet that I could've kept going...

If you haven't been to the store lately, you really must get there soon. The other parts of the Lime Rickey line are very different and really cool. You'll see some new layouts with that coming soon from other Design Team members!
Enjoy your weekend!

Stamping challenge...late later latest

Well, since heather was delayed I don't feel AS bad. lol. I don't ever really use stamps anymore, but I did find some pictures of an older project I used stamps in! This was made two years ago for my brother's wedding. I put pictures of their first ceremony where they eloped in vegas and also pictures from my beautiful SIL's pregnancy. the stamps were Autumn Leaves designed by Rhonna Farrer. I bought them at Paper Pals!

DT Challenge: Stamps

Remember how we were moving? Well we did, and we're settled-ish. But the cord to connect the camera to the computer vanished...hence the delay in my DT challenge post.

I used kraft paper because I love it, but it didn't highlight the stamps very well. I remember reading on Jennifer McGuire's web site that colored pencils really pop on kraft, so I used a couple different colors of pink to go over the "eva & me" and to highlight some of the letters stamped around the photo (which are hard to see on the photo...but trust me, they're there).

The large letter stamps are from KI Memories, and I can't find them online to get the specific fond name, but they are carried at Paper Pals. The letter wood stamp I also got at Paper Pals a while ago. The stars are from London's Etsy shop.

New Basic Grey & Adorn it!

Are their any pictures out there better than the ones taken in the great outdoors? Camping pictures are the best, or any pictures on a day trip or a couple hours in the park. These camping papers and stickers were fun to use. They helped me put together quick effective lay-outs with either a subtle background or adding to all the color with colorful stickers and and patterned paper. What fun!

I absolutely adore the wisteria paper by Basic Grey. In fact, I loved some of the pattern so much I broke one of my own cardinal rules. "Never use patterned paper as a background for pictures...I mean the whole thing." But it was too beautiful to crop. So my challenge was to embellish and journal without making it too busy. It's a close call. I added a little white paint so I could journal. I put my stickers on buttons to give them a lift. I painted my chipboard to blend and I added lots of lovely embelishments because it was too hard to resist. The top lay-out I did after the "juicy" one and I kept it simple, more of the traditional style I am most comfortable with. Once again I used a full sheet of patterned paper as the background...How could I resist?

Stamping challenge...

Ha...I may have posted a "stumper" of a challenge.

Whether you own stamps or not, you can stamp on layouts and cards! You can cut simple shapes out of potatos, foam core board, apply paint to a flower or leaf (yes...saw it in a magazine), or other objects like the end of a pencil, hands/fingers, feet/toes, etc.

I entered the paper crafting world through stamping, so I have a quite a few stamps and seem to collect them still (although I should use them more!). This layout came together really quickly with an alphabet set and 2 stamps from an arrow set. The background paper is Cosmo Cricket that Paper Pals sold some time ago. I "enhanced" the stamps with stickles to help them pop (have I mentioned that I love Stickles?).

Enjoy!

Anita

DT Challenge: Stamps

Anita's challenge left me stamped... er, stumped.

I'm not your "average" scrapbooker. I really don't own many stamps. (gasp!) I DO have a couple of alphabet stamp sets, but decided against using them for this challenge.

SOOOOO... I cheated!

I created a layout using the digital equivalent to the rubber stamp: brushes. Anyone who is familiar with Photoshop will know about brushes. They're a fun technique to use on digital layouts.
This layout is an 8x10 to put into a photo frame for my mom on Mothers Day. The "rubber stamps" (brushes) that I used were the brown flourishes on the background and the date stamp next to the journaling block. I created the page in Photoshop Elements 7.

So, how will the rest of you be challenged by Anita's idea?

other projects

This is my latest project. I got this idea from Ali Edwards website. It is called : "A week in the life" I thought the idea was totally awsome. It's a fast and fun way to document a slice of life. She used baseball card sleeves and made 6 sets of about 5 different styles of wallet sized tags, and then she took pictures of everyday things, everyday. I developed my pictures in wallet size and then just stuck them and a few tags into a sleeve. Of course I goofed and didn't realize until later that she used both sides of a baseball card sheet for one day and a 81/2 by 11 sheet holder for a picture and journaling. I stuck my journaling page onto the back of one of the baseball sheets and decided that it is good eneough for now. It was totally fun to do !

Design Team Challenge

OK friends...I have a challenge for us!

Create a layout (no cards this time...) that draws upon stamping as a primary feature of the layout. So many of us have so many stamps and use them most of the time for cards, and we forget to use them in our scrapbooking.

No other restrictions...just stamping as the front and center element :)

Anita

Work in progress?

My family is packing up our belongings and moving. Down the road.

It seems like a big to-do for not a lot of...doing, you know? There is more satisfaction in packing up all your worldly belongings when you are moving, say, a thousand miles. Packing any and all worldly belongings to move a mile seems excessive.

But that isn't so much the point of this post. The point of this post is (another?) confession.

My name is Heather, and I have yet to finish a scrapbook.

I know (I know!!). But please hear me out.

I'm dutifully going through my lovely crafting lovelies, and of the (two) scrapbooks I've done--a Hawaii one and Birdy's baby book--neither are what I would consider a "finished product." Now, since Birdy is just 2 months over a year, I feel like I might have a reprieve with some sort of statute of limitations clause. Something like "thou hast 2 years to finish the scrapbook of the fruit of thy loins documenting their first twelvemonth." Or something. So I feel less guilty about that one.

But the Hawaii scrapbook? That one is all the worse because I thought it was done. And it definitely isn't. And we went nearly three years ago. I'm missing a few pages and some journaling. But the kicker is I thought I was done! I was so proud, and dare I say it: SMUG. I could point at that little book and say: "see, husband? See? I document our lives! We shall remember the trip forever because of my efforts! And take that, because I do finish craft projects."

Ugh. I guess I have a new project.

Thus, I ask you all: How many of you have legitimately, 100% finished a scrapbook?