91 Candles

(Orginally published on the Paper Issues Blog)

Hi there! 

This morning I am sharing a birthday page featuring my beautiful mom, celebrating her 91st. 

The Lions & Tigers & Bears! Oh My! June Challenge asks you to find a movie quote or movie title, and use it to inspire the title of your page. I chose the title, 91 Candles, as an ode to the 80's classic. If you take that 91 and turn it 180 degrees...voila! 16 Candles. 

Poor Samantha. In the movie, no one seems to remember it's her birthday. At the end she gets her cake, with all 16 candles, which is 16 more than we put on my mom's cake. I'm afraid blowing out candles has become a relic of the before times...before Covid-19. 

Simple Stories has recently released two fabulous birthday collections, one with all the lovely pastels you see here, Magical Birthday, and one with a more masculine feel, Birthday Blast. I used strips from the 6 x 8 paper pad and tons of adorable die cuts to create my page. 

Bonus: The Simple Stories Color Vibe Foam Alpha Stickers have colors that coordinate with the colors in these papers.

The embellishment pack includes so many sweet icons:

In case you missed it, here's another page created with this fabulous collection:

Check out ALL the new Simple Stories collections in the Paper Issues Store.

Find this and the rest of our June Challenges in Paper Issues' Friends and Fans Facebook Group. Play along and share for your chance at winning a prize. And as always, use my code for 20% off your entire Paper Issues store order. 

Take 5 | First You Make A Roux

(Originally published on the Paper Issues Blog.)

Good morning! It's Madeline here today, sharing a page for Paper Issues' Take 5 Challenge. I started with black, white and red, always a favorite color scheme, but then I drew from the photo and added a little pink to the mix. Here it is:

It was a real treat when my oldest son took over in the kitchen, cooking up two gigantic pots of gumbo. If you've ever made it yourself, you know that "First you make a roux". And there's my title!

Here is the Take 5 Challenge list for May:

To complete the challenge, I used black and white papers, and enamel dots:

I added twine and ephemera (ticket stubs):

These are a few more items that I used from the Paper Issues Store:

Whip Up some Baked Goods cut file (free)

Pinkfresh Studio Super Cool Pocket tags, acetate elements, and paper

Fancy Pants Cherry On Top tags and labels

When you shop, use the code MADELINE for 20% off your entire order.

May Sketch-Virtual Happy Hour

(Originally published on the Paper Issues Blog)

Good morning friends! It's Madeline here with a fun interpretation of this month's sketch. Thanks to a couple of Paper Issues cut files, I created an ode to the virtual Happy Hour. 

Here is the May sketch:

On my page, wine bottles and glassware stand in for the shapes and tags above. 

I found my drinking elements in the Cheers Time! and Cinco de Mayo cut files, free in the Paper Issues Store. After arranging them in rows as in the sketch, I cut them from white cardstock.

Next, I carefully removed the cuts and placed them aside (to be used later). I splattered the background with inks, then backed the holes, some with patterned paper and others with gloriously colorful packaging from a Vicki Boutin stencil set. 

Finally, I backed a few of the cuts, "filling" some of the glasses with Merlot, "labeling" the wine bottles, then loosely attached all to the page.  

From there it was easy to complete: photo, title, and journaling. Done!  

Are you up for this month's sketch challenge? If you do play along, please share your page in the Paper Issues Friends and Fans Facebook group. I'd love to see what you make! And when you shop the Paper Issues Store, use my code for 20% off your entire order.

Seeing Double-Mission Trail

(Originally published on the Paper Issues blog 4/24/20)

Good morning Paper Issues Friends and Fans!

When I look back at my scrapbook pages from a decade ago, I notice one thing: my pages almost always held more than one photo. If I look back even further, I see that my pages were sometimes double-paged spreads. I definitely took more photos when my kids were young, especially since there were five of them! So the Seeing Double Challenge is a good one to get me back into that more-than-one-photo mode.

Here's my two-photo page:

When I travel, I ALWAYS take lots of pictures. My layout is about some of the sights in San Antonio, Texas, the missions that line the river gong south from the city center. It was fun clustering all of the map and travel ephemera from Vicki Boutin's Let's Wander collection here, there, and everywhere.

I took dozens of photos, and had many more that I loved, so of course I had to do a second page with some of my favorites. This time I added FOUR photos!

Now, I dare you to take the Seeing Double challenge! Share your pages in the challenge album on the Paper Issues Friends and Fans Facebook page, and visit the Paper Issues Store for all your paper craft needs. When you shop, use my code for 20% off everything in your order.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Big Ass Title-Fresh Quac

(Originally posted on the Paper Issues blog 4/9/20)

Good morning Paper Issues Friends! It's Madeline here with my take on the Big Ass Title Challenge. There are two ways to take this. You could have a very l-o-n-g multi-word title OR something more like the page below:

I chose to create a title with big ass letters, 4 1/2-inch tall letters!
A little avocado guy fills in for the center of my letter "A":

The beautiful backdrop to this page is a sheet of mixed media paper from Vicki Boutin. She did all the work; I just layered my stuff on top.

Papers, stickers, die-cuts, and journaling pieces are all from Vicki Boutin's Let's Wander collection, a collection filled with beautiful papers, fun ephemera, and accent pieces galore.

I'd love to see your interpretation of this Big Ass Challenge!
Post your page in the Paper Issues' Friends and Fans Facebook Group in its corresponding challenge album for a chance to win prizes.
When you shop the Paper Issues Store, use my code for 20% off your order.

Everywhere Else...

I missed Mardi Gras this year. Sad at first, it was probably a very good thing as much of the spread of Covid-19 in my area seems to coincide with that holiday and the influx of visitors to the city!

So here's a photo from last year, when we headed out to the avenue and stood shoulder to shoulder with thousands of our closest friends. ;)

Patterned papers and the vellum cityscape diecut are all from Vicki Boutin's Let's Wander collection.

Chipboard letters are from the gazillion half-used packages from my stash. It was a fun challenge mixing up colors and finding all those letter "e"s! I love the look:

Here's hoping next year finds Covid-19 a distant memory, and the parades can roll again.

Laissez les bon temps rouler!

Heavy Metal-Reward

I've had this photo for a while and the Cocoa Vanilla Legendary collection helped me get it on a page.  Now that my son no longer swims, these ribbons and trophies, as well as a small fortune in dry rotting tech suits are the remnants of a sport that consumed him for a good 6-7 years. I wanted to document his collection of awards in a fun way, so I created a bustling banner decorated with die-cuts, stickers, flair, and brads from my stash.

Brads are still a favorite embellishment, so I was happily inspired to use a few for Paper Issues' Heavy Metal challenge. 

I actually scrap lifted myself with this one, and in turn scrap lifted Susan Stringfellow, who inspired my Spongebob Monopoly page below. It's still one of my favorites!

Thanks for stopping by today. Check out the Paper Issues store for brads, die-cuts, the fabulous Legendary papers and so many more new collections. Use my code to save 20%!

Scraplift Sunday

(Originally posted on the Paper Issues blog 3/29/20)

Good morning everyone! It's my favorite day of the week...Sunday, otherwise known as Scraplift Sunday! This week I scrapped about the delectable oranges that grow on my daughter's tree. It may not be in my backyard, but we get to share in its bountiful harvest. Lucky us!

Here's the page I lifted, Happy created by Lacey:

See those scallops? When I saw the rainbow paper from Amy Tangerine's Picnic In The Park, I immediately knew that flipped upside down, they would make cute colorful scallops. For the horizontal strips I went to my tear strip jar and picked a few with colors found in those rainbows. I never throw those tear strips away; I keep a tall vase on my desk and add to it constantly!

My three orange slice embellishments were created from a free Paper Issues cut file, How Sweet It Is. 

Backed with orange patterned paper, they look good enough to eat!

The leaves were also cut from a free file, Leaves and Laurels.

In clusters around the matted photo, they provide a nice contrast to the bright colors elsewhere. 

Sun Kissed indeed! I love having an orange tree in the family. ;)

And I'd love to see your scraplift! Share your page on the Scraplift Sunday thread on the Paper Issues Friends and Fans Facebook page for the chance to win one of the monthly prizes. 

And as always, when you shop the Paper Issues Store, use my code for 20% off your entire order.

Shades-Paper Issues Spring Crop

Every summer my sisters and I take one day from our week at the beach to shop/window shop and go to lunch...just us. No kids, adult or otherwise! We always end up at the same stores, and eat at the same restaurant, taking a sisters' photo in front of "the frogs" at George's. Somehow we ended up taking a photo elsewhere this year, in sunglasses!

This layout is for the Bohemian Rhapsody challenge during Paper Issues' Spring Crop. The challenge is to create a page full of color and pattern by using 5 or more patterned papers and 3 or more die-cuts. Done and done!

The background paper is a cool worn wood from Heidi Swapp's Art Walk collection.

Other papers, stickers, tags, etc. are from Vicki Boutin's Let's Wander collection.

They look so pretty together!
And we look so much better with our shades. ;)

Thanks for stopping by today!

Check out the Paper Issues Friends and Fans Facebook group for all of the crop challenges. They are a lot of fun and you have all week to work on them! Post your pages for a chance to win prizes.

When you shop, use my code for 20% off the Paper Issues Store!

Take 5-Rock On

(Originally posted on Paper Issues blog 3/24/20)

While I was awaiting the arrival of Vicki Boutin's new collection, Let's Wander (now in the Paper Issues Store), I pulled out some of her Kaleidoscope collection, and created a page for the March Take 5 Challenge.

That background paper worked so well with my photo, a stunning mural painted on a brick wall!

And here is the list of items that I tried to incorporate:

See if you can pick out 5 or more elements on my page 

that fulfill the requirements for this challenge:

Actually, I was able to use seven things from the list:

GREEN

YELLOW

TRIANGLES 

TAB(S)

CIRCLES

FLORAL

STRIPES

I also used elements from the following free cut files: Tropic Like It's Hot and Rock N Roll. 

I hope you've been enjoying the March Challenges. 

Check them out over in our Friends and Fans Facebook Group. 

We love it when you play along! 

As always, use the code below when you shop the store for 20% off everything every time.