Paper Issues Link Party

Paper Issues is having a link party going on until September 14th, and by linking up a layout that fits any of the following categories, you have a chance to win a goodie bag of Jillibean Soup products!  

Okey-dokey...I love Soup! ;)

• Show us your mad fussy cutting skills.
• Use scissors or sewing notions as embellishments, maybe even sewing-themed paper.
• Use die cuts of all kinds — pre-made, from a manual die cut machine and/or an electronic machine. Be sure to check out the wonderful Jillibean Soup cut files in the Silhouette store.
• Put the focus on your journaling.
• Share a family story that's been passed down from generation-to-generation.
• Are bedtime stories part of the nighttime routine in your house (as in "tell me a story")? Is there a favorite, one you read over and over and over?
• Show us memorial pages about loved ones who are no longer with us.
• Create a layout that's all about you (as in "all about me")
• Use Jillibean Soup products.

I found a few contenders, and linked the following for its focus on journaling. It caught their eye at Paper Issues and was featured on their blog yesterday.

If you know me, I'm not a prolific "journaler" (is that a word?), but I had a lot I wanted to remember about this fun little jaunt. Seems so long ago, and like yesterday...all at the same time. How is that possible?! Guess that's why we scrap, to remember the good times a little more clearly.

A Flatlander's Fascination

A window seat is the ONLY way to go! I love to watch the world in miniature below me as I fly, and I snapped a photo of the mountainous snow-covered landscape from the airplane window as I flew from New Orleans to Seattle last year. I thoroughly enjoyed the view, and had a crick in my neck by the end of the flight! Here is how I scrapbooked that picture:

The page is a mix of Basic Grey, October Afternoon, and Simple Stories travel-themed papers, chipboard, die-cuts and flair. 

 

The mountains were pencilled in and watercolored, their peaks highlighted with shimmery Stickles glitter glue! The plane is a stamp from American Crafts/Amy Tangerine.

 

I love those grey fabric Thickers, and the casualness they add to my page.

As a flatlander, AND a southerner, I never get to see such beautiful snow-covered peaks. This is just one more reason it's worth the extra $ for Early Bird check-in when flying Southwest Airlines. I need that window seat!

Do You Believe In Magic?

The sign beneath the altar said "SERIOUSLY, DO NOT TOUCH". Another sign in the shop asked that pictures not be taken. Seriously? How could I NOT...take a picture, that is?! Unless the sign were in a museum or some other venue where a flash would cause harm to the artwork, a sign such as that seems more like a dare. And only solidified my determination to take a picture. Camera at my waist, flash off, I stealthily snapped one of a really creepy assemblage of artifacts. Odd statues, dead flowers, candles, jewelry and coins were scattered beneath a weird painting of a snake-haired lady.

This was Marie Laveau's VooDoo Shop in the French Quarter of New Orleans. The place obviously attracts a lot of tourist traffic, but look around and you will see that the shop definitely caters to those who believe. "Recipe" books and the ingredients for any sort of "potion" you can imagine are in the back, along with knowledgeable staff who will read your palm and help you choose whatever talisman or charm you need to help ward off those evil spells...or cast one yourself. Voodoo dolls anyone?

Here's how I scrapped that furtive photo:
  

I was inspired by THIS sketch from the talented Susan Stringfellow's Sketch Savvy blog.

Most of the patterned papers are from Echo Park's Chillingsworth Manor collection. Other supplies include patterned paper and die cut paper from BasicGrey, wood veneer birds from Studio Calico, alphabet stamps, an old script background stamp, a foliage stamp, date stamp, ink, ribbon, and shipping tags.

Eeek! Do YOU believe in magic?!

In Real Life

Several months ago I had the chance to visit with some scrappy friends on the west coast, most of whom I have known for years. With the exception of one, I had never met them in real life! I was in the Seattle area for a Fair Trade workshop and added on an extra day so that I could meet the girls at the beach. We had SO much fun. 

After lunch on the day of my departure, we had a group picture taken by the restaurant's friendly hostess. It was a bit blurry but still a treasure. Here we are, together, in real life.

We sure packed a lot of fun in those last 24 hours. (The other girls had the whole weekend.)

Then off again to catch my plane.

Supplies: Patterned paper-October Afternoon, Simple Stories. Chipboard-Crate Paper, Basic Grey. Labels-Jenni Bowlin, October Afternoon. Brad-Simple Stories. Flair-Basic Grey. Bitty bag-Webster's Pages. Letter stickers-October Afternoon. Sheer letters-Heidi Swapp.

 Good friends, good food, and a couple of art projects to top it all off. In fact, I'll have to share those projects one day!

With Blinders On

Road trips...I LOVE them! The journey is just as important as the destination, and every bit as enjoyable. In the passenger seat, I'm perfectly content to watch the world go by. Back roads, small towns, scenic rural highways and byways are all good.  But Kevin travels differently, and that is what this layout is about:

Below you'll see a trio of Studio Calico wood veneer cows, painted up as Holsteins, and set on a watercolored map background:

And a cluster of fun elements:

In my journaling I related how as children we would play travel games, count VW bugs, and look for farm animals. We were city folk, so cows, horses, barns and silos were fascinating! Video games are Kevin's distraction. Ipad in hand, he travels "With Blinders On", oblivious to the world passing by just outside his window.

What kind of travel habits do you have? 

TI"double guh"ER

How do YOU spell "Tigger"? Winnie the Pooh's bouncy, trouncy, flouncy pouncy tiger friend spells it in a cute, unique way: T, I, double "guh", ER. His silly spelling presented me with a wonderfully different title for my layout. Having snapped various photos with every single one of the characters during our lunch at the Crystal Palace Restaurant, and scrapped a few already, I was running out of captivating title ideas. I was glad to have thought of this one! 

Here's the tape and stitching technique I shared a few weeks ago, and used again! In case you missed it:

Washi Tape Heart Technique:

1. Lightly pencil in a heart shape (or other simple shape) on cardstock.
2. Place strips of washi tape edge to edge horizontally to completely cover the penciled in shape. 
3. Using a fairly tight stitch, sew heart shape twice. On the second pass, don't be too precise if you like the carefree, sketchy look.
4. Peel up the strips of washi outside the sewn heart and tear carefully where the thread perforated the tape.

After layering my patterned papers and photo, I reached way back into my stash for the metal embellishments (frame and flowers) that grace this page. Their bright orange color complimented our tiger friend and the colorful KI Memories papers that I chose.

And look! I have remembered to include a little "hidden Mickey". Can you see him tucked in among the suitcases?

Truth be told, it was tricky finding time to chow down between all the character visits, but this restaurant remained one of our favorites, both for the food and the bountiful photo ops. Can't wait to return one day!

Team Building Fun (w/faux mist)

The Sharks' Swim Team party began with a feast of fruit and veggies, cupcakes and sports drinks, and, of course, pizza. After the food, came the fun. One of the most popular games in the X-arcade turned out to be this large electronic floor game. It was like playing dodgeball, trying to avoid the blocks of color that would bounce off the sides of the game area, and it was very reminiscent of those ancient Pong games! The kids really had a blast, especially when the coaches joined in. It was tricky to get a photo in this low light arcade, and sharpness is definitely sacrificed, but overall I love this photo:

Supplies include papers from Echo Park, KI Memories, Simple Stories and Jillibean Soup, brads from Echo Park and Basic Grey, an envelope from Fancy Pants, stickers from Doodlebug and Cosmo Cricket, and mist from Heidi Swapp. Fun mix of elements!

I love how the words on the bingo card and sticker so seamlessly blend together with the rest of the title to form the phrase,  "Best Ever, Laugh Out Loud, Team-Building, FUN"! And check out the splatters below:

After splattering drops of blue mist, I wanted to add another color, but didn't have anything in my "mist stash" that would work. I DID have a brand new bottle of Liquid Pearls and it was a perfect shade for my layout. I dabbed on various sized droplets and left them to dry. Easy-peasy! Bonus: I could actually PLAN where they were to go. The trick to making them look like "real" splatters is to vary their size and place them in odd configurations...just like you'd see with typical mists, inks, or paints. Pretty cool! I'll have to remember this one!

Our (Christmas) Tree

One of my favorite types of patterned paper are those with tickets, tags, receipts, and other cut-out-able artifacts. I used several on a page about my Christmas tree. The journaling block, North Pole receipt, and Festival of Trees ticket, were all part of Echo Park's This & That Christmas collection. On top is a Santa image, punched from another of the collection's papers and adhered to a chipboard circle. Peeking out from these beneath these layers are two more of my favorite paper embellishments, a viewmaster reel and bingo card. I love those little random pieces. They add fun details without the bulk.

Here's my completed page with three little trees randomly cut from various patterned paper:

This year I thought I'd like to take a few pictures of my favorite ornaments. But gosh...where to start?!

DIY Sheer Flowers

Although I scrap a lot of boy pages, every once in a while I go searching for that little something to make a page a bit more fancy or feminine. Yes, I have a few flowers, but most are too casual, usually made of paper, and just don't have the softness that I am sometimes seeking. While I admire the gorgeous sets of Prima flowers that are found in stores and on websites, the price always deters me from the purchase!

But, recently, as I was straightening up my scrap stash and clearing out some old supplies, I came across a box of fabrics...tulle, organza, etc., and I remembered a little technique I'd learned a long time ago. When many of these synthetic fabrics encounter heat and flame, they sort of melt, their edges curling up and shrinking. Tulle is one such fabric and this property makes it perfectly suitable for creating sheer, layered flowers that resemble some of the more expensive Primas. I shared the technique for creating these beauties on the Scraptastic blog.

Here's a recently completed project, where I used a single blue bloom to add the bit of femininity I desired.

The pretty blue flower contrasts nicely with the lightly inked chipboard.

a

Here's a closeup of the stamp banner detail, an idea borrowed from the Sweet Paul blog.

These fancy flowers are so easy; you have to try them yourself!

Priceless!

With one of my four sisters living out of town, her visits to New Orleans are nicely anticipated occasions. At some time during each stay we have a day out with my mom. Of course it usually involves a nice lunch followed up with some sort of adventure. 

 

On this warm day in August, we decided to walk around the French Quarter and enjoy a bit of the city where we don't often venture, peeking in a creepy VooDoo shop, relaxing in Jackson Square, and taking lots of picture of the streetscape before us. I even managed to get into one of those photos:

 

The textures of the French Quarter are all so lovely together, with a building's worn wood and stained stucco offering a pretty backdrop. This inspired me to use a woodgrain patterned paper as a background for my scrapbook page, with an assemblage of bits and pieces on top. I overlapped envelopes, tags, notebook paper, a library card, bingo card and receipt for a casual look.

The "Guest Check"  holds journaling in the style of those old MasterCard "priceless" commercials.

Lunch @ The Gumbo Pot,
Window shopping in the French Quarter
A fun day with my mom, sisters and the 3 youngest cousins...
PRICELESS!

Finally, a very old tape transfer technique was used for my "fake washi", seen above and below.

This technique was used on a lovely page by LG Belarmino HERE. She got the idea from a Pinterest pin which linked to THIS tutorial. I remember using this technique years ago to transfer images. And as for making your own pretty tapes, it's quite handy for those times when you want the washi look, but just don't have the color tape you want.

Just Beachy

Good morning! Today I have two pages created from the Just Beachy kit from Scraptastic. These photos have me feeling nostalgic and really missing the white sand beaches, that soothing sound of the ocean, and the relaxing days of our summer vacation.

First up is a picture of my son coming in from a few hours on the waves. His tropical flavored swim suit and bright yellow board accentuate the colorful papers and vice versa.

 

I began my layout with a big yellow sun-like circle, off-set to one side of the page. I then layered a few more colors and patterns, working in a strip of that awesome sailboat paper. A dark blue awning stripe hangs beneath the boats, with randomly sized scallops cut by hand. The blue sideways banner, divided by my photo, becomes the perfect place for my title, with "Surf's Up" cut from patterned paper, and letter stickers making up the rest.  Here too I find a place to layer some of the fun stickers from the kit.

A little banner was made to drape across the top of my layout, but before adhering it to the page, I had one more thing to do. Using a star punch, small circle punch, and regular hole punch, I made confetti from my paper scraps, scattered them about, and adhered them to the page in an arc from top left to bottom right. I might have gone a little overboard, but I do like the celebratory feel it gives to the page.

My second layout is somewhat subdued, using the more muted papers and accents, those that compliment the soft colors of my photo. Two rectangles of patterned paper, criss-crossed on the white cardstock background make up the base of my page.

I enjoyed tucking all the little bit and pieces from the kit behind and around my photo: a tab here, a flag there, a big sun and checklist.

A trio of yellow triangles draws the eye to the real starfish in Kevin's hands. I handcut a simple starfish from paper to decorate my title. The Scraptastic negative cut "beach" card worked well as a title block, with the smaller letter stickers making up the first word.

Their sails painted white, two of the little wooden boats from the kit found their place on a blue sea sticker. Aren't they adorable?!

Hope you enjoyed these two pages from September's Just Beachy kit. I'll be back later this month to inspire you with two more layouts from Scraptastic's current kits.

World Of Wheels

Recently, Kevin was invited to attend World of Wheels with his best friend, and he jumped at the chance. Not too long ago, whenever the two boys got together, they would pull out the bucket full of matchbox cars passed down from my older boys, and have the best time. Video games have taken the place of matchbox cars during playtime but it won't be long 'til their interest in cars peaks once again...as they prepare to drive. Scary! 

In a photo taken at the World of Wheels, the boys pose with a mime who was decked out head to toe in silver...silver shirt, silver pants, silver hat, silver bugle, silver skin.

Don't look now, but I actually stamped AND stitched on my page! Uh-oh...I see the tension needs adjusting.

There are papers or bits of papers from at least six different manufacturers on here: 7-Gypsies, BasicGrey, Melissa Frances, My Mind's Eye, Echo Park, and KI Memories. It's a real mix of supplies!

Bermuda Longtails

See, I found another spot to use those little wooden birds! It wasn't much of a stretch to find a place for one on this page. It's about birds actually.

On our walk about the town of Hamilton, Bermuda, we stumbled into a beautiful park, Par-la-Ville Park, since renamed Queen Elizabeth Park, and happened upon a statue depicting a flock of these longtails. Another day, we spotted several flying alongside the boat that was taking us to a cycling activity. The really cool thing about the second picture on the page is that it not only shows the birds in flight, but their nesting site on shore as well. The white "igloos" that you see are artificial nests cemented into the rock, where the natural holes and crevices that would normally hold their nests have been lost to erosion. The birds make do quite well with these substitute nests and their numbers are increasing. Although the Bermuda longtail isn't the national bird of Bermuda, it is often associated with the island.

I set out to use  Sketch #92 from my friend Susan Stringfellow's Sketch Savvy Blog and it gave me a great start to my page. It's such a lovely design, one which I plan to use again.

Did you notice the trio of bird embellishments on this page: the wood veneer bird from Studio Calico, the "Fly Away" snippet from BasicGrey's clipping collection, and bird stickers from American Craft's Dear Lizzy sticker book? I love when I can employ embellishments that help to tell the story!

(Patterned papers are a mix of October Afternoon's 9 to 5, Crate Paper's Story Teller, and BasicGrey.)

Stars, Stripes, and Swimming

Today is a double feature, two pages created with a patriotic collection from My Mind's Eye. The first layout uses a Starting Point by Shimelle and features two photos from last year's Disney World vacation. Shimelle's basic layout jumpstarted this page nicely. Once the background papers were down, the rest was easy, with small changes to title and journaling placement.

Don't you just love those little birds holding the twine?! They are wood veneers from Studio Calico, and with dozens of birds in the pack, they will be showing up often on my pages. At first I was worried that their small size would be a detriment, but their size means they can fit anywhere and they make the cutest accessories. I'll be trying to fit them in whenever I can now.

With all of those red, white, and blue papers sitting out on my desk, I thought it would be nice to do a second page before putting it all away. The perfect photo was on my desk as well. I had recently rescued it from tape and plastic (a makeshift photo frame my daughter had crafted), carefully wiped off smudges and residue, and now hope to keep it safe in the scrapbooks. It was from the summer of 1998, the second year my swimming-obsessed daughter was chosen for the state zone team, and this one picture of the Louisiana team was her only photographic memento. Those were such exciting times for her, as she was preparing to attend LSU and swim for the Tigers! 

There are a lot of swim quotes I could have included on the page, but decided on a movie quote from A League of Their Own. "It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard everyone would do it. It's the hard that makes it great." It says a lot. Every one of the kids in that photo knows about hard: two-a-day practices, 5:00 AM workouts, going to school with wet hair and smelling of chlorine. Making this elite team was quite an achievement for Laura.

Now my youngest has decided to swim. At 12 years old, he's getting a late start, but Kevin is just as enamored with the sport as his older sister. I just want him to have fun. It will be great to have another swimmer in the family.

Well Done

His first year at Christian Brothers was not easy! Many, many nights he was up late, once or twice until the wee hours. Homework was a bear. Kevin would come home from school, ride his bike a little while, get a snack and then get right to it. A short break for dinner and he was back at it again. He was so discouraged when he would just miss honor roll by the slightest each quarter. Finally he made it in the 4th, along with an award for Spanish. Way to go Kevin! But all that hard work truly paid off in his standardized test scores. He would rather have remained at his old school, but I think we made the right choice. The all-male faculty, P. E. every day, intramural sports and activities, and the advanced curriculum all make for a great boy's middle school. One more year at CBS and there's no doubt he will be well-prepared for high school. 

Here's my page, using a photo taken by one of the Brothers. I wish his teacher didn't have his back turned, but it's a pretty good shot of Kevin receiving his awards.

 

I started with a sheet of BasicGrey's Clippings and piled on a few scraps, ending with an old walnut-inked tag, a Clippings sticker and snippet, and wood veneer "potty people" from Studio Calico. The background paper had a nice little spot for a stamped title, so that's what I did! Well Done!

Studio Backlot Tour

This attraction is one of our favorite at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Orlando. (See, guys, I said it correctly!) This was our first trip back to WDW since the name change and old habits are pretty hard to break. I quite often referred to the place as MGM by accident, and got reprimanded from the kids every time.

We love this ride so much that we had to experience it twice, and each time I snapped dozens of photos. Not only are there lots to see and experience, but it ends with a relaxing tram ride...once you pass Catastrophe Canyon...and that's my favorite part. Whenever you are given the chance to sit in one place and be entertained at WDW, I'm all for it. Here are three of our crew ready to check out the Studio Backlot Tour for the second time.

I have been longing for a "real" blue for quite a while and one of the blue diamonds and a skinny line in the plaid of this newest paper collection from October Afternoon, are pretty close. It also nice when older paper scraps can be mixed in with the new. In this case, I was able to work in some O. A. Boarding Pass, Rocket Age and Road Trip. My title is a mix of chipboard letters (a T. J. Maxx find), rub-ons, and a negative cut paper backed with cardstock. 

Next I need to pull out some of my photos from this "tour" and scrap them as well. It should be a lot of fun to work with those pictures. :)

It Happened When...

Chris took a small point and shoot camera with him on his mission trip to Mexico, but he didn't manage to get in front of the camera very often. I do however have tons of pictures, videos even, of the poor pig that became dinner one evening. I am not kidding. There were probably 50-60+ pictures AND video clips of that disturbing episode. It must have been the highlight of his trip. The guys drew straws for the honor of wielding the knife. Then they proceeded to take photos of the entire process, from gutting to roasting on the spit. Boys!

I was particularly happy to find these great photos of my son on the same memory card. Thankfully he had one of his friends snap pics of him leaning against one of the Aztec pyramids on the day their toured the area. Finally, a pleasant subject for me to scrap. In spite of his slightly apathetic attitude towards picture-taking and scrapbooking, I believe that there will come a time when Chris will be glad that I've preserved these memories for him. If not, well I at least had fun creating this page. ;)

 

 

Papers and stickers are a mix of Crate Paper, Studio Calico, Echo Park, and October Afternoon. Large letter stickers are October Afternoon (blue) and BasicGrey (red). Small letter stickers are Making Memories.

The Waiting Game

We arrived at Hollywood Studios too early for our dining reservations on this our first day of our WDW vacation last year. But we didn't have enough time to do anything else, so we picked up Fastpasses for Rock 'N Roller Coaster and headed over to the Streets of America to chill. In the photo on this page, Kevin has his nose in the Disney Guidebook for kids. He read that thing cover to cover before the weeks preceding our trip and took it with him everywhere while we were there, determined not to miss a thing. While he read up on the attractions at Hollywood Studios, the rest of us began...The Waiting Game.

 

Of course I had to do a banner on this, the 4th page created with my build-it-yourself kit. It's the perfect solution when you have a bunch of bits and pieces.

It's a fun challenge to combine and arrange all the interesting tidbits that populate the banner...tickets stubs, cards, tags, flowers, buttons, charms, etc. I don't think I'll ever tire of creating these fun and trendy embellishments.

And We Danced

This page combines the kit challenge with an idea I found on the UK Scrapper's site. Shimelle Laine of Glitter Girl fame has a monthly step-by-step tutorial and I was quite inspired by her May creation where she scrapped a strip of photobooth pics. The design was incredibly beautiful and every scrapper who completed a project inspired by the tutorial came up with a masterpiece. As luck would have it, we attended a wedding just a week or so later where a photobooth was provided for the guests' entertainment, supplying me with the necessary strip of pics! Shimelle's formula inspired the resulting page, And We Danced:

The recipe: a little BasicGrey What's Up, Nook And Pantry, and Plumeria, a couple of Crate Paper stickers, a Jenni Bowlin bingo card and Scenic route scrap from DEEP in the stash, a doily, small letter stickers from Making Memories and large letters from Crate Paper.

This design is so pretty and versatile. I challenge you to give it a try yourself!