Keeping it Simple

I am going to admit that I have been in a scrapping funk for about the last 6 months.  In fact, I don't remember the last actual layout I did.  I LOVE making the Punky Sprout's mini albums and I think that is because I can start and finish a project in a day or two.  Sometimes I feel I'll never get "caught up" with my layouts!

When Becky Higgins introduced her Project Life way of scrapping, I didn't want to even look at it...here was one of my favorite inspirations telling me how to make scrapping easier.  But I knew if I started PL, I'd probably never scrap layouts again! :)

This last fall I finally took the plunge.  I decided to use my own stash for this instead of buying the kit.  I knew I would never keep up with a photo a day type of project and so to get my feet wet in this type of scrapping, I decided to do a National Parks album.  Since we've been married (14 years) we have visited close to 20 National Parks...starting with Yellowstone on our Honeymoon.

I have absolutely loved doing this album and in fact in just a weekend getaway I was able to scrap almost all of the parks!

Here is the first double page spread of our trip to the Redwoods.  You can see that I do mostly pictures with  a title and some journaling mixed in.

For my title block, I used some Lil' Blossoms along with a Denim Lil' Stem to give some texture.  The numbers are Cocoa Daisy stamps and have a textured pattern as well.

On my journaling spot I used a Cocoa Daisy border stamp to decorate the grid paper and added a bit of Lil' Twiney to add some dimension.

Fifth Farm Field Trip

Erin ended her preschool career about a week ago!  One of the last things they did was this farm field trip.  It was my 5th field trip there!  4 times with the preschool and Isaac went to the same farm in 1st grade!  I could be a tour guide! :)


At Punky Sprouts this month, our assignment was to use our new denim embellishments.  Anyone who knows me, knows how much I like jeans so these are right up my alley! :)

The Tutu Punk has corrugated covers and sandwiched between are scalloped chipboard pages and wet media paper pages.  It gives a great layered look.

I decided to use 2 different masks throughout my book...the chickenwire one is from Crafter's Workshop and the circle one is Studio Calico.  All 3 types of pages took the Lindy's mist fabulously!  Loved getting all messy! I cut 2 of the Lil' Petals into smaller pieces for the title.

Once I had sprayed the mists using the masks, I realized I didn't need to add much paper there was already such great color and pattern.  The Lindy's sprays are very vibrant!

Here I used a Lil' Petal and one I cut to make a little embellishment.  I flipped the smaller one over for some contrast.  I also used the Lil' Twiney to stitch some x's at the top.  The lollipop flower is layered Lil' Blossoms, paper and denim.  For the denim circle, I cut it from the wide Lil' Stem.

These next couple pages really show the vibrance of the Lindy's sprays.  There is just no way to go wrong with these! 

There is nothing wrong with your eyes...that picture is blurry!  As the sheep turned to my daughter, she backed up quickly with a surprised look on her face and I snapped a picture.  Even though it is blurry, it is one of my favorite pictures in the book!  The Lil' Petals that say Baa are the regular size.

On this page I took one of the skinnier Lil' Stems and pleated it.  This is a simple way to add a lot of texture to a page.

The Lil' Lacey Blossoms take the Lindy's Spray great too!  Love a colored doily! :) 

Punky Sprouts Supplies: Tutu Punk, Lil' Petals (denim), Lil' Stems (denim), Lil' Twiney (denim and kraft), Lil' Seeds, Lil' Blossoms, Lil' Lacey Blossoms

Lindy's Sprays: Red Hot Poker Orange, Cattail Copper Brown, Cajun Carnelian Red

Other Supplies: Paper (Pink Paislee), Epoxy Stickers (Pink Paislee), Grungeboard Letters (Tim Holtz), Paint (Kaisercraft), Sea Monkey Spray (Shimmerz), Masks (Crafter's Workshop and Studio Calico), Letter Stickers (Paper Trunk and Jillibean Soup)

Teacher Gifts

As I mentioned in the previous post, the dt at Punky Sprouts got to work with Pink Paislee this month.  I received the Indigo Bleu and Prairie Hill lines.  I am saving the Prairie Hill line for a mini album in June.  With the end of the year coming up I knew I needed some gifts and this Indigo Bleu line was the perfect combination!  I wasn't sure what I wanted to make so I went to my stash of alterable stuff (Yes, I have a stash!) and found some big clothespins and some regular clothespins.  I had given the preschool teachers the large clothespins 4 years ago when my son was in preschool so I decided to make them some clothespin magnets and make the large one for his 2nd grade teacher along with some matching magnets.

For the large clothespin I mod podged the papers on and then tied a Denim Lil' Stem around it to give it some texture.  I also mod podged over the top to keep it from peeling.

The little clothespins have the paper mod podged on and then I embellished just a few with the Indigo Bleu die cuts and some Lil' Twiney.

For the cards I decided to keep it simple with the same design for all 3 teachers.  To make them just a little different, I made 3 different flowers using a Denim Stem, small Parchment Blossoms and medium Parchment Blossoms.  

Hope you are inspired to make something for someone in your life today! :)

Punky Sprouts Products: Lil' DenimTwiney, Lil' Denim Stem, Small Parchment Blossom, Medium Parchment Blossom
Pink Paislee Products: Indigo Bleu: patterned paper, die cuts, alpha stickers
Other Products, large clothespin, clothespins, Mod Podge

Punky Sprouts and Pink Paislee

All this week the dt at Punky Sprouts is playing with Pink Paislee product!  There is a chance to win some goodies on the Punky blog AND the Pink Paislee blog so be sure you go check it out and leave a comment!

Here are some peeks of what our dt has done so far!

Erica:

Joscie:

Leah:

Ilene:

Punky Sprouts and My Little Shoebox

This month at Punky Sprouts, we got some great My Little Shoebox lines to play with.  This is the 3rd time we've swapped with them since I have been on the team and it is always fun to make a mini album with their product!  I made this Trunk Punky album using the very cute Keepsakes line from My Little Shoebox.  This is for my friend Sta'Cee who just had baby number 4!  She is a scrapbooker but I knew with 4 kids, it will be awhile until she can play so I wanted to give her a little book to keep some of the first photos of baby Adalie!  I kept it pretty simple since I know 4 kids will be thumbing through it!  I also left lots of space so she can put in as many photos as she wants.  I am going to give her the leftover journaling cards and (even though these are my favorite!) the matching tiny alphabet.

For the cover I wanted to leave room for her to add a picture so I just put her name and then made a flower using one of the medium size Lil' Lacy Blossoms.

Here is some room for pictures to go with a few journaling spots.  I also used a mask and some mist to add some polka dots to the canvas pages.

I wanted to make this girly and so I added some pearls to the center of the flowers in the hanging frame.

I loved Erica's idea of this birdy picture in the middle of a small Lil' Lacey Blossom so I stole the idea from her!  Thanks Erica!

I used my Sakura 3D Crystal Lacquer to make these cut out flowers glossy and even put pearls in the middle before adding the lacquer.

  

Here is the book opened up.

 

This was my favorite paper from this line.  I decided to leave it alone so that Sta'Cee can add little pictures or words to the frames.

Another Lil' Lacy Blossom, this time on the acrylic pages.  I glued one on the front and one on the back too.

The acrylic pages are a gate fold just like the cover.

 

Last page.

 

The entire book opened up...one of my favorite things about the Trunk Punky but it makes it hard to photograph! :)

Color Pop!

This month for our assignment at Punky Sprouts, we used some black and white paper from The Robin's Nest and we all picked a different color as a pop of color.  I chose green for my color.  I used my new Lindy's Stamp Gang spray ink in Frankenlime Green and love the color!  I sprayed both a Lil' Lacy Blossom and a Lil' Stem.  The Lil' Stem I then twisted and coiled into a flower.  The Robin's Nest dew drops were the perfect center for the flower.  It seems that I am always in need of a thank you card, so I dug out some old stamps and found one that said thanks! :)  Be sure to look at the rest of the dt's color pops!

Inspired by A Sweethaven Summer

I have been in a creative funk for the last couple months...add to that shoulder tendinitis and then a bout of pneumonia and you have zero layouts!  I was able to get my book done that I was teaching at CKC and was able to teach the class with only a few coughing fits thrown in!

Now that I feel much better, I wanted to do a layout using some of the stuff I bought at CKC!  I found this contest, Inspired by A Sweethaven Summer and knew exactly the pictures I wanted to use!  This is a book by Courtney Walsh and it looks wonderful...combining 2 of my favorite things reading and scrapbooking!  Doesn't get better than that!

On Courtney Walsh's site, she is having a contest to be inspired by the book or some layouts that some friends of hers had done and make your own layout! She said to choose one of the layouts for inspiration but I couldn't pick just one!  Here is mine and below it is my inspiration!  I can't wait to get my hands on this book!

 My layout is about taking the kids to the same beach that I grew up going to and how that brings back my summer memories!

I liked the color palette from this layout by Vicki Boutin.

From Anabelle O'Malley, I got the idea to use black and white photos and the little camera!

I absolutely loved all the punched borders on Lisa VanderVeen's layout, and although I don't think I did it quite as well as she did, I used that idea too!  I also decided to make my layout a double like her.

Greta Hammond's layout about Vacation Memories was my inspiration about what to scrap!

 

CKC Portland!

I can't believe a month has gone by since I posted!  I have started my first Project Life type album.  I decided to start with National Park pictures...we have been to 18 parks and I had never scrapped any of them!  Thought this was the perfect way to dive in to PL!

Another thing keeping me busy is...I'm teaching at CKC Portland!  I am going to be doing a Punky Sprouts mini album on both Friday and Saturday.  Our owner, Shelly, is also teaching.  Her's will be an altered wall hanging.  Here is the info!

Wild About Mixed Media  (C123)
Friday from 4-5:30 and Saturday from 1-2:30.

Sponsor: Punky Sprouts

Are you wild about mini albums? Then this is the class for you! Who wouldn't want to go home with a completed mini album? That is just what you'll have from this class. Just add pictures and journaling at home! You'll work with one of Punky Sprouts' newest albums, the Teenie Beanie Sprout with pages of corrugated board, chipboard and canvas. Using mists, twine, canvas embellishments and handmade flowers you'll make a textured work of art to hold your beautiful photographs. This is a versatile mini using shades of coral & green florals, stripes and circle patterns with some wild zebra thrown in! Adorable!

What you’ll make: A mixed media mini album including canvas, chipboard and corrugated board pages
What you should bring: Basic supplies, wet adhesive (like Fabri-Tac or 3 in 1), Crop-o-Dile, border punch
What products you’ll play with: Punky Sprouts Mixed Media Album and Embellishments (Lil' Blossoms, Lil' Stems) Mists, Die-cuts and a fabulous line of patterned papers!
What techniques you’ll try: Handmade flowers, misting
What scrapping skill level is best: Intermediate to Advanced
How long class lasts: 1 ½ hours
Class price: $35.00 PRE-REGISTRATION, $37.00 AT EVENT

Sprout Your Inner Artist!  (C123)
Friday from 1-3 and Saturday from 4-6.

Sponsor: Punky Sprouts
Join Punky Sprouts for a fun and energetic class where you will make a beautiful piece of art to frame or hang as-is. You will leave class with a mixed media wall hanging and learn oodles of techniques that you can incorporate into your layouts and mini albums. Step outside your box and expand your skills and techniques to help your memory-keeping come alive!

What you’ll make: 12” x 12” mixed media art piece suitable for framing
What you should bring: Brown ink (such as Chestnut Roan Chalk ink or similar), scissors, liquid glue (preferably Fabri-tac or 3 in 1), heat gun, paper piercer, apron or paint shirt highly recommended.
What products you’ll play with: Punky Sprouts' Punky Playground, Lil' Blossoms (parchment), Lil' Blooms (metal); Lil' Stems (canvas); mist sprays, Acrylic Gel Mediums, paint, patterned papers, die-cuts, chunky glitters, doilies, ribbons, tulle, bling, decoupage
What techniques you’ll try: Building layers & dimension with gel mediums and many different textures, blend custom colors with paints and spray mists for an ethereal look, learn to work with a wide variety of textured embellishments. Learn to make the most trendy flowers used in scrapbooking, card-making and mixed media.
What scrapping skill level is best: Intermediate to Advanced (you should be comfortable with using a heat gun)
How long class lasts: 2 hours
Class price: $40.00 PRE-REGISTRATION, $42.00 AT EVENT
 

Creative Changes or Changing Creatively

Not sure if the title reads right but I am changing up some of the creative things in my life...namely scrapbooking!  In 2011, I ended my design team stint with Scrapdango in March and I think since then, I have only done about 4 or 5 layouts.  And the weird thing is...I don't really miss it.  I think I had sort of burnt out on it.

I had resisted Project Life (even though it is from my favorite scrapper!) because I thought it would make me not scrap at all.  When I mentioned that to Tadd, he said "So?"  At first I thought to myself...but I like scrapping but after a few days of pondering, I decided I would do it.  Now, as much as I love Becky and all the product, it seemed a bit ridiculous to buy all the stuff when my scrapbook room is busting at the seams with stuff.  So, I went to Craft Warehouse today and bought some variety packs of pocket page protectors and I am going for it!  My plan is to still do some layouts but mostly switch over to this format and make little layouts in some of the pockets.  I think it is exactly what I need creatively!

I also want to focus a bit on getting better with my photography.  I ran across the Take 12 project at Ella Publishing and am going to take that on too!  It is simply to take 12 pictures on the 12th of each month.  There are even themes...which I love!  I am going to try to stay on top of that so that I don't have 144 pictures at the end of the year that I need to do something with!  My plan is to do a 8.5 x 11 album with them.

And I will still be doing my Punky Sprouts dt gig!  Every album is different and I haven't seemed to get creative blocks when doing those assignments!  In fact, as another new thing, I am teaching a mini album class at CKC Portland in March!  I'll post here when I know the times!

Top 10 Layouts of 2011

I did this last year and it is a fun way to see some favorite layouts altogether.  I included a couple mini albums since I do so many of those!

 

 You can see all of the Play, Imagine, Pretend album here.

You can see all of the Seattle album here.