Did I Mention...

Hi everyone, thanks for stopping by! I'm just hopping in to share a layout I completed for a challenge at the Paper Clipping Forum. If you haven't wandered over there yet, please do! It is a wonderful, friendly place that is just full of inspiration. I had never listened to the Paper Clipping Roundtable, but I'm now officially hooked. I've been binge listening to old episodes while scrapping and I'm loving it.

The challenge given on the board was to do a layout about yourself. There was a sketch involved, and of course I promptly forgot about it and just started scrapping away. I thought about not sharing my finished layout, but since I put so much time into it, I'm going to share it anyway. Here it is:

I am so proud of this page! It's all about the fact that I despise having my picture taken, and, if I'm being truthful, I have to admit that I'd like it even more if my photo wasn't on it. But I love that I got the chance to use some pink for once and I'm really digging those Bella Blvd papers! They've been hanging around unused for too long. 

Thanks for stopping by! :) 

Say Cheese!

I decided to play along with Paper Issues again. The current issue is "Say Cheese". It made me think of my son telling cheesy jokes and acting like a goober in general. I found this old photo of him with a 'stache. And I don't want to think about the fact that he's almost old enough to grow one of his own now... waaaahhh! Here's my layout:

And a close up: 

So I had this weird idea that I wanted to do a bar graph on a page. I've been seeing pie charts everywhere so I officially declared bar graphs fair game. I wanted the bars to have a 3d effect so I just doodled around my paper squares. That doodling led to more doodling and this page was born. Then I thought "Hey! What if the whole stinkin' page was a 3d cube?" And that's when I embarked on a journey that took a half hour and wasted more paper than I care to admit. I had originally cut the background paper and was trying to make it look like a cube by gluing other paper around it. I finally wound up putting it back on a piece of 12 X12 white card stock and drawing in the 3d details. Then I cut the corners to make it look more realistic. And then I discovered that it's super hard to get a good photo with cropped corners. Hence, my deck is showing in the corners. Oh well. I know it's not the typical scrappy look, but I dig it. :)

Thanks for stopping by. :)

Locked Up

Hi there everyone! I just stopped by to share a layout I finished the other day. This one has photos of my little boy "escaping" from the replica of the Mayberry City Jail in Mount Airy, NC. If you've never been to Mount Airy, I'd highly recommend it. If you are an Andy Griffith fan, it's a must.

 

This was a "just for the fun of it" layout. I'm finding I love doing layouts that aren't for challenges or DT assignments lately. Although, I'm hoping to get back to being busy with some DT assignments very soon. ;) 

The chevron/dots papers are from the DIY collection by Simple Stories. I love the bright, vivid colors.  The other yellow paper has been in my stash for quite a while. It might be from We R Memory Keepers? Not sure? 

Thanks for stopping by! :)

 

Creative Blog Tour

I was recently asked by the lovely Angie Vallejo to take part in a creative blog tour. I had never heard of this before, but it's actually a really good idea. I was glad to get to meet more bloggers through the tour. I am a couple of days late with my post, but here it is! First, I was asked to answer a few scrappy questions:

1. What am I working on? We are in the midst of vacation bible school, which is taking up the majority of my time lately. I did manage to  squeeze in a few minutes to work on a new layout. This is it so far: 

Please tell me that everyone has a work mat that is stained with paint and mist? Please? Here's a project I finished last week, just so you have something decent to look at! 

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre? This is a tough one. I don't know that my work does differ, other than the fact that I'm a little all over the place. I tend to get on a messy layout kick for a week or two and suddenly merge back into a cleaner style the next week. It's official, I'm weird. ;) 

3. Why do I write/create what I do? I create because I enjoy it. That's a simple one. :) Really, though, I scrapbook so that I can be sure I remember all the little things that I would otherwise forget.

4. How does your writing/creating process work? It sort of goes like this: I get an idea for a page. I sketch it out. I start putting things on paper. I decide I love it and start gluing stuff down. I stand back to take a look. I decide it's the most horrendous thing I've ever made. I rip it all apart. I decide I should have left it alone. I get annoyed. I glue stuff down again and lament over the wasted products. I look at it again, decide I'm still not crazy about it, and eventually leave it alone out of sheer annoyance. :) 


Now I'll introduce you to two other bloggers who agreed to take part in this tour. First up is Mandi.

Here is her bio: My name is Mandi.  I am in my twenties and live in Michigan. I have had the honor of working on several design teams. I have been crafty ever since I was a little girl. I love to do scrapbook pages, cards, altered projects, sewing, etc. I really started getting into all paper crafts  when I was a tween.   I consider my style shabby and cute with a little artsy thrown in. My go to items are doilies, twine, washi tape and mists. Besides crafting, I love to spend time cooking, reading and being with my family.

Here is Mandi's blog, where she showcases her beautiful work.  http://mjskraze.blogspot.com/

Next up is Megan.

 My name is Megan and I am a bilingual special education teacher! I have been a die hard scrapbooker since 2004. I enjoy mixed media scrapbooking and making things my own. I like to experiment with inks and different mixed media supplies within my scrapbook pages while still focusing on my story. My goal in scrapbooking is to tell my stories and the stories of my family. I want to document who we are and what we like to do. Outside of work and scrapbooking I enjoy photography, cooking, running, biking, hiking and water sports.

Here is Megan's blog. http://creativitybymeg.blogspot.com/ Be sure to stop by and see her beautiful work.

Thanks for stopping by today! :)

Paper Issues: July

Hi everyone! I just stopped by to share this layout that I created for Paper Issues new issue: Getting the Scoop on the Sweet Days of Summer. For this issue, I chose to scrap about our latest vacation. It was quite a trip. We drove from east Tennessee to Niagara Falls, NY and looped back around to Washington DC. Those were just the major spots we visited. There were also side trips to the pro football hall of fame, Lake Erie, and Andy Griffith's home town in North Carolina. So, to sum up, we were in 8 states plus the District of Columbia in a grand total of four days. Whew! I am seriously behind on scrapping all the amazing pictures I took. Here's my layout:

I have been getting a lot of inspiration from Pinterest lately. Specifically, I've been looking at amazing pins related to graphic design. The idea of diagonal lines with squares inside came from an ad someone had pinned. It's been interesting for me to watch my scrapping evolve. I have went from an over the top, throw- more-stuff-on-that-little-baby kind of scrapper to one who is quickly embracing simplicity. Although I'm guessing I'll be back to drowning my pages in stuff next week. Ha! Thanks for stopping by! :)

Just For Fun Layouts

Hi everyone! I just wanted to stop by and share a couple of layouts I created just for the fun of it. It's been a while since I did a layout that wasn't design team work or for a challenge.

I was inspired to play with paint after pinning approximately 1,423 layouts by Wilna F. My expiramentation resulted in the first layout without patterned paper that I've ever created. This is not a good thing, because I am a patterned paper hoarder and I'll never use it all if this becomes a habit!

Here are my layouts:

 

The first one was created by simply watering down some acrylic paint since I didn't have watercolors handy. I splotched it with a little water after doing some willy-nilly brush strokes with each color.

The second layout was a mess, start to finish. It was one of those pages that was started and stopped several times. I had a large geometric circle in mind and I tried to construct it with pp. I intended for it to be bigger, but finally gave up on that idea and decided to use the small geometric-ish-circle-thingy (I totally just made that a word, you're welcome), as a smaller piece and paint around it. I am very happy with the way it turned out, just wish it hadn't given me a headache in the process! :) 

Thanks for stopping by!