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!

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
 

Fancy Gift Bag

Hey everybody!  I want to show you an easy way to dress up a plain old brown paper lunch bag and make it into a gift bag!  I have made these before but for this one, I added in a Lil' Stem ruffle along with some Lil' Bloom embellishments from Punky Sprouts.


Here is what you need:
*Paper Lunch Bag
*2 Pieces of Patterned Paper
*Glue
*Lil'Stem
*Lil' Blossoms
*Small Square of Velcro

1. Cut the top off your bag so that it is 6" tall. Mine is 5" wide...check yours and adjust the measurements I give here!

2. Cut the pp you want for the front of your bag to 5" (width) x 6".
Cut your other pp to 5" (width) x 8.5". This will be the back and front flap of the bag.
Cut a 5' (width) x 2.5" piece for under the front flap to hide the pleats.

3. Now you are going to fold the bottom flap of the lunch bag down. Like this:

 

 
4. Glue the front onto your bag...this goes on the side without the flap. You want to line up the bottom edge with the bottom edge of the bag...you can always trim at the top if you need to.


5. Grab your piece of pp that is the back and score (or fold) it at 6".

 

6.Take your Lil' Stem and pleat it.  I glue mine as I go to hold it all in place.  This doesn't have to be perfect (as you can see!).

7. Glue this pleated strip to the underside of the flap...this is the piece that you scored.

 

8. Now glue the 2.5" piece to sandwich the canvas in between the 2 pieces of paper.

9. Glue the back on. Line up the scored flap with the top of the bag. There WILL be a lip at the bottom...you want that! It will make your bag stand straight when we're done. 

9. Add a piece of velcro on the flap to hold it down. Your bag is finished unless you want to add some decorations!  I added a few different sizes of Lil' Blooms.  I chose to leave all my canvas natural but you could also mist them for some color!

 Here are a couple shots of the finished bag: