Frosted Designs, Challenge Me Happy & 2SF sketch Challenge Combo

So I was over at Two Scrapbook Friends on the weekend for a crop, and DT member Jayne was working away on the LO she is using for her sketch challenge to be posted today. She mentioned that in passing, so I borrowed her LO, sketched it up, and went to work (I really love that LO!)

 

I will update this post with the sketch when I get it tomorrow off the forum.

 

In addition, I am also using this LO for two more challenges:

• Frosted Designs - use wings - the wings chipboard is from Bo Bunny Cambridge (2010)
• Challenge Me Happy - Make your own embellishments - I made two folded paper flowers that Jayne also had on hers, as I loved them and wanted to try them out!

 

This is the final project:

 

 

If there was a challenge for using as many manu's as possible, I would get it too! I used DCWV Photo Stack 2 for the background, Creative Memories Reminisce for the light orange flower and the scalloped strip thing, Cosmo Cricket EverAfter for the three circles other than the dark one. The dark one is Colorbok, the chipboard and two round brads are Bo Bunny Cambridge, the charm is My Mind's Eye, and the buttons and jute I will call 2SF brand since I got them loose in the store! Phew! Longest supply list ever!

 

Oh... and I used my Staedtler pens to write the title on the wings... those are the pens I always use and never remember to tell you all!

 

 

 

Both flowers are made the same way. Cut 5 circles, and fold 3 of them into quarters. Glue onto the 5th circle. For the bottom flower, I then folded the top layer of each folded circle back into an eighth size to give the added flair. I think you can go further by changing how you fold the 1/8 portion and placing them next to each other or alternating like I did. You do need a glue gun to get the button to stick though!

Berry 71 Bleu December Sketch - My Heart Belongs to You

Berry71Bleu featured a great PageMaps sketch for their December Challenge.

I always immediately think of tropical and fun when I look at most PageMaps sketches, and so this time I decided I should get away from that and do something different... and of course that led to the wedding :)

This all got started when I remembered the Cosmo Cricket EverAfter chipboard had these little circles with flowers in them, just like on the sketch. Then I found a black tag... forcing me to use my last piece of black cardstock (luckily I got more for Christmas).

TIP: To make the top PP blend in more with the black, I inked the edges with Black Soot except for the one that is stitched to make it look more cohesive. That way there is a continuity in that all the edges of the LO are black. Likewise, I inked the two centre pieces with Black Soot to pair them with the background better, but left the edges where they met plain.

I used Anna Griffin background stamps and Versamark Champagne to stamp a pattern on the white behind the DCWV quote. Its really subtle, and you can't see it here, but it did make a difference.

For the tag, I used a Deja Views clear sticker, and stuck it onto a piece of the teal paper used on the left block. That gave the letters on the sticker some color and really helped the pattern pop. The ribbon is also from the Cosmo Cricket EverAfter collection, as is the fuzzy scalloped edge piece.

Thanks for looking!!

Creative Scrappers #181 - Boys

Creative Scrappers was back again this month with another 4 great sketches. The first one I tackled was #181.

I was excited to do the chevrons... found it a bit difficult, wished I had looked at a tutorial like the one on October Afternoon's blog.

The photos are of the boys walking the important guests down the aisle at the wedding. Dylan walked my mom, Cameron walked his mom, and Brandon got to walk the grandparents.

The paper is Cosmo Cricket Everafter - I used both sides of the paper. Flowers are Recollections, Alphas K&Co. Ribbon is random as usual!

Hope you enjoy!

Use it Tuesday #19 - Cooking Up Fun

So I found a new challenge blog this week that I love so much I applied to their Design Team!

Use it Tuesday is a blog with varied challenge types, and the whole goal is to use up your old stuff in your stash... so right up my alley as I am still banned from Michael's until after Christmas (did get a hall pass to go buy some more adhesive as I ran out last night).

So finding it yesterday and the challenge is due tomorrow, I was in a bit of a rush.

Here is Challenge #19:

COOKING!

One of my favourite topics, and a refreshing break from the two color palette challenges I did last night too! Plus, Two Scrapbook Friends is having a Burst of Color online crop right now, so I've got color challenges coming out the.... hoo hah? I have no idea how to spell that word!

Anyways... back to the challenge:

I decided since I had to use old stuff I would actually finish a layout I prepped about 2 years ago and that has been sitting in my album waiting for me to put it together. All I had made was the base for the door and the papers amassed. This is what it came out to be:

My friend Laura made my wedding cake for me. It was sooo yummy - we used a Martha Stewart lemon recipe, and was slightly oversized (I have 2 pieces still in my freezer), but it was gorgeous.



I made a little door to hide the final product. Originally this door was supposed to open vertically back 2 years ago, but I changed which photos I wanted to use and changed the door. 

Here is a closeup of the title on the door and the stamping.

Here is the closure on the door, the twine actually hooks to hold it shut.

So what did I use out of my stash:

1. old unused papers that were sitting in my album for 2 years (who knows when I bought them to begin with, I think another 1-2 years earlier)
2. photos I printed 2 years ago
3. a paper and cardstock door I made two years ago
4. All three stamps (bell, cake and arrows) which I bought before the wedding (June 2009) and have not used those specific stamps off the cards yet
5. The letters for CAKE - this is some old pack of stickers I don't know when I bought it, but it was a long time ago because there is lots missing out of the pack and I'm at the point where I wish I had bought two  (TIP: always buy two packs of alphas. You'll need them. Guaranteed)

What was new:

1. The twine! I just got my twine in last month and I am using it up quick!
2. The "Making the" letters - also bought them last month although I bought them from my Creative Memories Consultant's stash of stuff.... so sort of old

And the brad I used I will classify as neither old nor new. I've had them for about a year so I don't think they fall in either class.

Back to always buy two sets of alphas... look at the "e" in "the". Can you tell its a "c" I made into an "e" with a marker? That's why you need two sets. Because sometimes you need extra letters. And to be honest, its not always the obvious ones. I.e. L. My friend Kelly used both my Ls. So the layout I did that day using the same chipboard letters was missing an L til I picked up another pack. Haven't used an L since and I have done at least 3-4 more layouts with those alphas lol

Another TIP - when you buy alphas, look at if you get extra vowels, "s", "t", "r". At the very very least you want an extra of each of those letters otherwise you're stuck with a page of W and X at the end. (at least you can make a W into a M)

And a final TIP - look for punctuation and other add-ons to your alpha set. Jillibean Soup has great alphas that include some shapes, punctuation etc. I also really love my Nancy O'Dell Hummingbird letters from Creative Memories as they came with little doodled flowers to match those on some of the capital letters.... I just wish they came with more as I have capitals left over and no more flowers :(

Well... that was a bit of a long one! Thanks for reading and please comment and follow.

Also, I have now labelled all my posts so you can find similar ones. Use the TIPS label to find all my tips to you my wonderful readers!

Thanks

 

 

 



The Color Room #84 - The Cog

The Color Room brings us fun palettes every week to base a project on. This week's is shown below. It is a whitewash palette, meaning you can add no neutrals to the palette - what you see is all you get.

 

They also provide a totally optional sketch to include with your palette:

I thought with the woody colors it would be perfect to set off more of the photos from the cog (see my entry for the Paper Variety Smile challenge to get the full story).

I couldn't find the exact colors I wanted so improvised with three browns to match (the third being the Walnut Stain ink).

Everything came from the stash - nothing special or new here. I did use my new Martha Stewart letter stamps for the title with the Walnut Stain distress ink.

Here's a hint: if you are having a hard time getting your Distress inks to stamp easily, there are a few things you need to do:

1. Store your inks upside down. All your inks should be stored this way, but it is especially important for the distress inks to keep that pad moist for when you need it
2. Spend a good amount of time charging your stamp with ink. I press and hold then wiggle rather than dabbing and I have pretty good results. Generally I count 10 wiggles (side to side, top to bottom) to fully charge the image

Thanks for looking and I hope that tip helps you all out!