Crazy Days

What happened?! I thought I had everything under control. But then things got a bit out of hand. Sorry about letting this blog go stale. I have excuses. 

First off, I decided to look for a J.O.B., a job that pays, something I haven't really had for over 13 years, since the youngest was born. Yikes! Not fun, especially since I let my medical technology license expire in 2004. Ooops.

Secondly, I am the sole "school bus" driver as we were not able to find a carpool for Kevin this year. It feels like I'm ALWAYS in the car. When he had exams last week (half days) I didn't even bother going home. I dropped him off each day and went to a nearby park to read...or walk...or take pictures, then picked him up a few hours later. 

And there's our crazy evenings...2 hours of swim practice followed with hour after hour of homework. Yes, homework involves me. You wouldn't believe how much science and history I've relearned this year. And math. I'm getting pretty good at algebraic word problems!

So, that's my story. 

I might not have done much in the way scrapbooking...but I have pictures from my walks in the park! Enjoy!

 

Done Is Done

Back in August, Susan Stringfellow created this wonderful design for the sketch challenge at Scraptastic. I loved all the layered papers, the fun little banner and the circle elements, and decided I would use it for one of my kit layouts. 

I kept my page very close to the original sketch, horizontally flipping a few of the design elements, but otherwise following Susan's prompts for the rest. 

My favorite part of the page is the little cluster of elements below the photo: a paper frame, cut apart tags from Elle's Studio, and an exclusive Scraptastic flair.

What I am not so wild about is the cardstock background. Sigh...I should have added mist, paint, or stamping. But done is done! It now has journaling and is in the books...literally.

When you have a scrapbook page that doesn't meet your expectations, do you let it go and just move on? Or do you try to "fix" it?

The Chalkboard Trend

The chalkboard look has become a popular trend. The September Scraptastic kit, Everybody Talks, includes many of these chalkboard inspired pieces and I used several on a recent beach layout. Yep, chalkboard isn't just for school anymore!

I love the contrast of the black chalkboard with bright blue and green colors. A smattering of gold mist and gold-toned die-cut elements add a little shine to the page.
 

 

Turquoise cardstock flowers were created with Susan Stringfellow's Hibiscus Cut File. Curling the petals and popping up their centers gave a nice bit of dimension to the paper flowers, which also mimic the tropical design on my son's swim suit.

Don't you love that hashtag flair!? It's colors are gorgeous!

Chalkboard is such a fun trend, and combining it with vivid colors worked out nicely. I will definitely be trying this again.

Embellishing With Paper

Today I'm sharing two pages that were featured on the American Crafts blog last week. 

On this first page, I took clues from the photo for my color scheme, and ended up with lots of blues, as well as a few distinctive pops of red. A fun accent is the garland that runs across the page, where hearts, punched from one of the patterned papers, were sewn together and popped up with adhesive dots. The title combines a negative die-cut with corrugated Thickers that were embellished with a brushing of glitter glue.

Supplies (all by American Crafts): Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm patterned paper, Zazz glitter glue, twine, Knock-Outs border punch, Precision Pen, and corrugated Thickers.

The second page combines one photo with two decorative elements.

Supplies (all by American Crafts): Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm patterned paper, 5th and Frolic patterned paper, twine, Knock-Outs border punch, Precision Pen, and Thickers.

A layered circular accent features a fussy cut mason jar with heart, branch, banners and twine, a punched border and lots of machine stitching to hold it all together.

The bottom half of the page holds a fringe of woven paper, whose colors bring out those in the photo.

Both of these layouts demonstrate ways to embellish a page using nothing more than patterned paper!