Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge at The Studio!

A new challenge starts today at The Studio Challenges. It's a tic-tac-toe challenge. I love those! Here's the board:

 

It took me a while to decide which row to go with, but I finally settled on using four patterned papers, chipboard, and paint splatters. I splatter paint on most everything lately, so that one was easy. :) Here's my layout: 

 I am tickled with the way this page turned out. I am all about geometry in my layouts lately and it's working for me. Just don't ask me to actually, you know... do geometry or anything. ;) 

Hope you stop by The Studio and play along! :)

Crop Time!

Hi everyone! I'm excited to share that an online crop is going on today at the paperclipping forum! I am also excited to report that I created a challenge for the crop!

While listening to past episodes of the Round Table, I noticed that one topic of discussion jumped out at me. Noelle and her guests were discussing whether or not we involve others in our scrapping. It occurred to me that I'm a pretty solitary scrapper. There aren't other scrappers living near me, and no local crops at all. I am usually all alone in my scrap room. Unless, of course, my little boy decides to pay a visit. He's almost twelve now and too cool to hang out with me, so these visits are becoming quite infrequent.

I decided that for my challenge, I would ask you to get others involved in the scrappy process. Do you have a child running around your house that would love to help Momma be crafty? Maybe a friend living nearby could use a new hobby. Could someone you love help you choose photos for a page? Maybe they could even take the photos for you. Perhaps you could even convince your hubby to help you choose a color scheme. (That last one would be stretching it at my house! lol)

My thought was just that maybe we need to get the people we love involved in the hobby we love every now and then. So, my challenge for the crop is to drag someone else in on the fun! I'm not really concerned about how they contribute, so long as they do. Here's my example layout:

I drug my very non-crafty kiddo, kicking and screaming, up to the scrap room and somehow convinced him to help me. After we got started, he had a ball! I dropped some blobs of paint under the clouds on my layout and had him blow the paint with a straw. That process created this cool, dripping effect. It also led to him wanting to blow paint all over everything, lots of laughter, and a new memory of a fun time for both of us. 

Hope you come on over and play along! :) 

Mood Board Challenge at The Studio!

Hi everyone! Today marks the beginning of a new challenge over at The Studio Challenges. Here's the mood board:

 

I just loved the color scheme I saw here. Red, yellow, and turquoise is one of my favorite color combinations, so I was happy to see this board. Here's my layout: 

 

This layout was super fun to create! I attached the straws to my page, dropped paint in them, and let it drip. The mood board made me think of happy summer memories, so I chose to use this photo of my son hanging out in our yard, enjoying the sunshine. 

Be sure to stop by The Studio and share you pages with us! We'd love to see your work! :)

The Twinery and Pretty Little Studio Blog Hop

Welcome everyone and thanks for stopping by! I am so excited to be taking part in this blog hop. I adore PLS products (and I'm a former design team member there). I also love using twine from The Twinery, so this hop is a real treat for me.

You should have arrived here from Stacey Shafer's blog. Here's the lineup in case you're lost:

The Twinery - http://thetwinery.com/blog
Pretty Little Studio - http://prettylittlestudio.com/plsblog/
Aimee Maddern - http://aimeesarmoire.typepad.com/aimees-armoire/
Julie Ranae - http://juliesopenwindow.blogspot.com/
Tami Brundage - http://butterflykissphotography.com/blog/
Amy Crockett - http://www.scrappingmommy.com/
Becky Litz - http://www.scrapcircus.blogspot.com/
Stacey Schafer - http://stampinwithstacey.blogspot.com/
Sindi Jeffers - http://www.sindiscraps.blogspot.com

Be sure to check back in at the Pretty Little Studio blog tomorrow morning for more hopping! 

I received the Marigold collection from PLS and coordinating twine from the Twinery. The colors are simply gorgeous. I created this coptic stitched notebook:

 

I used covers that had fallen off an old children's book that belonged to my son and stitched them together with the twine. Here's what the spine looks like: 

This twine is perfect for coptic stitching. It doesn't fray while going through the paper and it's plenty strong enough to hold up to my tugging and pulling.

I also created this layout:

 

I love the word cut outs that are part of the Marigold collection. The watercolor effect that they have is just gorgeous! I wrapped the twine around my banner piece to create a "net" effect. Here's a detail shot: 

I am so glad you stopped by today! I hope you'll come back soon and consider becoming a follower. I'd love to have you! Don't forget to go back to the PLS blog tomorrow! :)

My First Challenge at The Studio!

Hi everyone! Today is my first official reveal as a member of the design team over at The Studio! I was super duper excited when I saw the first challenge because I knew it would be a breeze for me: buttons! I've spoken in the past about my addiction to patterned paper. Now I guess I will confess that I also have a slight button problem. I just love buttons! I can hardly pass them up when I see them somewhere. Now, on to my layout:

 

I decided to be all sneaky-like and use pink on this layout because I never get to use pink. My son has serious objections when he sees his photo on a layout that involves pink. I'll just have to slide this one in the album and hope he doesn't notice. 

This photo was taken on our trip to DC in June. I got a pretty clear shot of the Lincoln Memorial, but the massive crowd meant there was zero chance of getting a good shot of Caleb standing next to it. I took a picture of him by the wall outside the memorial and stuck it under Abe. Worked like a charm.

I used buttons on this layout as centers for my geometric-ish-half-circle-ish-triangle-thingies. I was tickled with the way it turned out. I adore these papers from Bella Blvd. They have went unused for far too long. 

I'm going to be taking part in a blog hop next week, so be sure you stop by on August 11! There will be some REALLY awesome prizes involved! 

Thanks for stopping by!