The Sky's The Limit

My first page with Scraptastic's Nostalgic Summer kit showcases a photo of my son and his friend playing at dusk at a park in Mississippi. Their Cub Scout pack was camping nearby, and the "beach" area near the lake held an old fashioned teeter-totter. You don't find those things very often anymore, most likely because of the lawsuits that crop up after one kid jumps off and the other goes crashing to the ground! This was quite an interesting diversion for the two boys as I don't think either had ever been on one. They continued their fun as day faded into night.

A sticker sheet in the kit gave me both my title and the idea to create the kite embellishments. Tying each of those little bows onto the thicker jute string took a bit of dexterity but I love the finished look it gives to my kites. Not wanting those bows to come untied, I dabbed a bit of liquid adhesive onto their centers to keep them secure.

Some inking, a bit of pen stitching, and pop-dots when layering stickers, kites, and title letters added a little more interest to my design. In order to use both sides of that awesome patterned chevron paper, I cut out the middle portion of my page, flipped the cut-out to the opposite side and mounted it onto a slightly larger piece of kraft paper which I then positioned over the "hole" in my page. And there you have it...my frugal tip of the week!

Next week I will share another page created with this kit and a link to a jute flower tutorial that I used in creating an embellishment for that layout. I hope you'll join me.

Wonderful Sweet

This collection from Simple Stories has to be one of my favorites at the moment. And the best part of that collection is the most awesome sticker sheet, chock full of fun and colorful designs. It's like having a big bag of embellishments perfectly matched to the papers. I love the casualness of their pieced and stitched look, ideally suited for summer activities both indoors and out.

For the page below, I utilized my favorite technique of backing the stickers with chipboard and/or pop-dotting them off the page. It brought to life my photos of a day outdoors, canoeing through the swamps near Manchac, Louisiana. We may not have had balloons floating above our heads, kites skirting the clouds, or pinwheels poking out our canoes, but adding these whimsical designs to my page served to accentuate the carefree day that we had experienced. And it WAS a wonderful sweet happy perfect day!

 

(This page was mostly created from items from Scraptastic's Summer Picnic kit. Additional supplies: corrugated cardstock, red cardstock, pop-dots, kraft baggie, and title block.)

Flag Retirement-Part 2

I've completed three pages with one of Scraptastic's new July kits, Nostalgic Summer, and can't wait to show them off. But I haven't stopped to photograph them yet! Whenever I work with these kits, I tend to create my pages all at once, literally laying them each out and planning which papers and pieces thereof will go where, before I make that very first fearful cut. Once I do hack into my papers, I'm on a roll, and can't tear myself away until they're done.

Meanwhile, here is the second page of the Boy Scout flag retirement ceremony. It's a mix of old and new, new Authentique patterned papers, an old bingo card, some ancient Rusty Pickle letters, a Sticker Studio sticker, an embossed metal from who knows where, and an envelope that I made a gazillion years ago.

 

 
Yeah, I put off the journaling...again. I get antsy to finish and don't finish. It's a very bad habit. Maybe I should add a few words and the date before I forget.

Here's the kit I've been working with this week. Off to do some more creating!

Taps-Flag Retirement Part 1

We're back from vacation and I can't wait to get scrapping those beach pics! But first I need to get them off the camera and over to Sam's photo center. That's always quite a task as it usually involves a bit of editing before they're ready to be printed. Meanwhile, I'd like to share a patriotic page in honor of the upcoming 4th of July holiday.

The Boy Scout's flag retirement ceremony was pretty dramatic, held just at dusk in the schoolyard of St. Ann's. Luckily I noticed the bugle lying atop the old flags and snapped a photo before the rendition of Taps opened the event. The still life of flags and bugle in the fading light of day was such a serene scene.

There were seven flags retired on this evening...flags that had flown in front of homes and even over the Capitol in Washington, D. C.  My parents had donated one of the flags, a tattered cloth that had flown outside their house. It was pretty ragged and worn, ready for a proper disposal. 

That wonderful background sheet from Pink Paislee with the cool "airmail" stripe running around the perimeter seemed the perfect start for my page. Next I pulled out all my red and blue scraps, arranging some on either side and underneath a strip of BasicGrey doilie die-cut paper.

Corrugated letters were used to spell out a simple title, and additional pieces of kraft corrugated cardstock help unify the page. I love that I found places for the little bird button,

and the blue soldier button, items I've held onto for quite some time.

 

I wanted this layout to remain somewhat simple and uncluttered (as best I could!) so as not to detract from the still-life photo and I even left a little white space on there. ;) Actually, I'll probably add a bit of journaling in that spot. Additional pictures from the ceremony will be finding their way onto another scrapbook page.

In case I don't get that layout posted in time for the holiday, have a save and happy 4th everyone!

That 70's Style

Today I have another page using Scraptastic's June Oh Snap! kit. All that colorful goodness was the perfect compliment for the hippie look we sported on Mardi Gras Day two years ago. We had six families dressing up for the occasion. All of the girls wore tie-dye looking shirts of pink, lime green, yellow, blue, and purple (inexpensive WalMart finds no less!). We bought an extra shirt and tore it into strips for the guys' matching headbands and I stenciled bright blue peace signs on the front of their lime green shirts.

Cool dudes and groovy gals we were...except for one little detail. Evidently, we had not seen a peace sign in quite a while, and no one corrected me when I accidentally stenciled Mercedes Benz symbols on all of the shirts! Too funny. When one of the kids caught a peace sign button at the parade that day, and I compared it to the shirts, only then did we realize the mistake. We laughed so hard, and now I have a pile of shirts that need another spoke of blue!

Inspired by the quintessential 70's bead curtain, I created a paper chain to embellish the left hand side of the page. It was a great use for all those leftover bit and pieces of patterned paper. And I could make use of both the fronts AND the backs of my favorite designs.

 

A little snippet of banner was hung beneath my photo. These are from a pack of various banner shapes by Heidi Swapp called Color Magic Resist. Each one can be custom colored to match any project. I simply rubbed a little Tim Holtz distress ink with my fingertip onto the all-white banner and the resist portion of the paper remained white, revealing the design underneath the color. So cool!

 

Do you remember the last Mardi Gras photo that I scrapped? It's hard to believe that I used the same kit, with the two very different looks achieved. Gotta love the versatility of these papers!

Rama Jama's

This iconic eatery in the shadows of Bryant Denny Stadium near the University of Alabama campus is a site to behold. Inside, it is wall to wall memorabilia, Crimson Tide football memorabilia. Framed pictures, ticket stubs, footballs, jerseys, autographed photos, and more line every wall, fill every nook and cranny, and hang from every available space. It's almost too much. And it could all use a good dusting and top to bottom scrub!

Chris suggested it for breakfast on the last day of our visit to Tuscaloosa. Although we came for the atmosphere, we found the food was pretty good also. And they had milk shakes, which made Kevin  very, very happy.

This page was a lot of fun to piece together...and piece I did. I cut a multitude of strips from the many patterned papers and adhered them along the perimeter of the page to make a colorful and carefree border.


Then I sifted through my stash and picked out some fun miscellany to cluster.

I can just imagine how crazy this place must be on game day. It's name, Rama Jama's, is a reference to a traditional and controversial cheer which taunts the Crimson Tide’s football opponents. It is typically played towards the end of a game when an Alabama victory is certain, and goes like this:

Hey (opponent's nickname)!
Hey (opponent's nickname)!
Hey (opponent's nickname)!
We just beat the hell outta’ you!
Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer
Give ‘em hell, Alabama!

According to Wikipedia, the lyrics originate from The Rammer-Jammer, a student newspaper in the 1920s, and the yellowhammer, Alabama’s state bird. I think it's fun to carry on little traditions like this, and I hope no one is really offended when they hear this cheer.

Supply List:
Patterned paper-Simple Stories, October Afternoon. Stickers-Simple Stories, Little Yellow Bicycle. Letter stickers-Doodlebug Designs. Fabric letter stickers-American Crafts. Card-Daisy D. Houndstooth stamp-Maya Road. Other-tags.

Oh The Places You'll Go

I captured this cool shot of Jesuit High School's Class of 2011 after they received their senior rings. All the boys gathered downstairs, cheering, whooping and hollering, happy to be one step closer to graduation. They had processed out of the Chapel of the North American Martyr's first, so when the parents stepped out onto the 2nd floor landing we were at a great vantage point to witness the celebration...and snap a few pictures. Now we play the Where's Waldo game whenever trying to find Christopher in the photograph. Thankfully he was one of only 2 or 3 boys wearing a maroon shirt, making it just a little easier to spot him in the crowd below.

It is hard to believe, but I now have four kids who have graduated high school and two who have earned college degrees. Where does the time go? And where will they go? 

In life I hope they go far. 

In distance, I hope they live close...or at least some place accessible and fun to visit!

 

Patterned papers-Echo Park, Studio Calico, Crate Paper, and Amy Tangerine. Stickers-Crate Paper, Echo Park. Chipboard-Maya Road. Chipboard letters, fabric letters-American Crafts