Team Challenge

Isn't it interesting how each person sees things so differently. For a fun challenge three of us took the same products to see what we would come up with. The direction we set was that we were to do a layout, we had to use all of these products and we could not add products to the layout. We would allow use of a pen or something like that to work on the layout.


The products chosen by one of us (ok, me) was a sheet of the Simply Luxe red polka dot paper--one side is red with white dots and the other side is white with red dots. There was a sheet of the Daisy D paper with the little monkey faces on one side and taller monkeys on the other side. There were Creative Imagination (Creative Cafe) sticker sheet with the alphabet and other stickers and two ribbons from American Craft. Also put in the mix was one chipboard tag from a Maya Road Album and 3 black buttons. These items were not patterns that are often put together and so it made them a little more difficult to use, or so the plan was.

A couple things happened that affected the results, one bag did not end up with the tag in it, so it didn't get used. one of the sticker sheets was short a 'y' and an 'o', which was corrected, but the picture I took didn't have those on it, you'll see where that was. Anyway, here are the three layouts.






Each is very unique in the styling. Not a surprise was that each of us used a picture of a child in the layout. I think the monkeys called for that. Anyway, we had fun doing it. Hope it inspires you to do new things---1) try some papers that don't fit your normal scheme for layouts 2) try something new with the style, 3) have fun. You can see there is no right or wrong, just our own style.

To try to help with motivation, we are going to do another design team challenge with specific products to be used-like we did here. There will be packets of the products at the store to allow anyone else to join in that wants to. At the end of the time allowed, we will post all of the different layouts and will vote on our favorite done by someone not on the design team. This person will win an awesome prize! All of the details will be announced next week (July 15), so Stay TUNED!

Luggage Tag Project

Just wanted to share a project I did for some of us who went on the Alaska cruise last month.

If you have ever been on a cruise, you know that at the end of your trip, your luggage sits in a sea of other luggage that looks JUST LIKE YOURS. So I made luggage tags for four of the families who cruised to Alaska.

I was surprised at how quickly we all found our luggage when it was time to leave the ship.

Oh how I miss that ship! No one here cleans my room, makes my bed or serves me dinner on fine china!

I plan to make some even fancier tags for my upcoming trip to Utah with my friend Rebecca. CKU here we come!

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Susie

1st Pre-Teen Crop of the summer........

Today was our 1st pre-teen of the summer. The girls had a blast, so did Heidi....not sure who had more fun! You did a great job Heidi.
Check out more photos HERE!

pre-teen crop

We are in for the summer time fun! Croppin about ourselves in a book we made by ourselves! We learned a LOT of new techniques and had fun with Love Elsie, and Carolle's Creations. Journaling is the FOCUS of our album because our handwriting is our STAMP on life! But we also played with chipboard, lots of embelee's , we made our own album's!!!!! And did I mention Pizza and Soda Pop???








OK girls.... we decided July was the month to do this EVERY week! So ....sign up, get your Mom to crop while you are having FUN creating a one of a kind project!!! Let's Have a blast!!!! Goodness Knows there is plenty to scrap about!

Heidi

2008 Book

My oldest just graduated....so I made this 2008 book. This book would be great for your New Years celebrations or just recapping what has happened during this year.

The book was made by:

The papers were Bazzil Bling and Reminiscence

I used Glitz Frosting, Thickers Alphas and Sticklers.

Maya Roads- ribbons, sheer paisleys, sheer journaling spots and chipboard.

UTEE

I did a little experimenting with this. I stamped the Maya Roads Sheers and then used perfect medium and UTEE on them. You can see the effect on the paisley. I then used a little frosting to add some dimension.

I Have Always Loved

A friend at the Scrap Shanty made an album "I Have Always." She had things that she loved and hated. I decided that I wanted to do an album about the things that I have always loved.

Materials:
Maya Road: Album, Ribbon, Letters, Hearts, Crowns, Rub-ons and felt pieces
Paper: Basic Grey "Sugared"
Alpha: Luxe Rub-Ons
Ranger Inkablitlies Opaque marker, Vintage Photo and Paint Dauber
I have always loved looking at my Granny's old photos. I love looking at them to this day and can just look at them for hours. I always wanted to see what it was like when my mom and granny were little.













Reading has always been a passion. Like Abraham Lincoln, "The things I want to know are in books." When I was in Jr. High, I asked my mom what her favorite book was. She told me "Jane Eyre." It instantly became my favorite. I have read it innumerable times. I have seen every movie ever made of it.












I believe I have been a constant source of entertainment to someone in my family all my life. I love singing and musical theatre.

I can't say enough about paislies. This is one of my favorite dresses. When I see paislies...I think it reminds me of what an awesome childhood I had.













I am most passionate about my family. My Granny is a special favorite of mine.


I hope you like my book! Thanks for looking

Birthday Cake Mini Album

This is a Creative Imaginations BE cake mini album I did to showcase a few pictures from Porter's birthday party. The paper was perfect with the bright color of her suit and the water slide was bright orange as well. All the paper was Creative Imaginations and K&Co embelies. Plus my new LOVE Tim Holtz Grungeboard with his crackle paint and distress inks. This stuff RAWKS! Hope you enjoy!

4th of July project........

As Denton and I were working in the yard today, I found these firecrackers I made a couple of years ago. Have your hubby cut you some 1x6's, and 1x4's, dust off those making memories paint and foam stamps and get creative. When finished nail to a longer wood stake so it can fit down in a planter or your flower beds. Don't forget to add a little raffia and you are ready for that 4th of July party.
Denton thinks this is his flower bed, of course I am the one doing all the work. When we bought this house I put this flower bed in and filled it with all my mothers favorite perennials, she is the one who taught me all about plants and gardening. Today I added some new gray lavender and tucked some yarrow around the rocks....Nolan would kill me if he knew what I spent at the nursery today, thank heavens he doesn't know plants nor read my blog!My favorite plants are Hosta's, I cannot believe how big they have gotten this year! Next year I will have to split them, so anybody interested in some let me know. I have been eye balling this white Hosta online, but its $50 and Nolan would freak out over a plant costing $50. I shocked him with my $75 rock I bought a couple of years....he is still not over that one!

Jotters Anyone- Deep Thoughts

I can't get enough of thes jotters. What a way to have a great time. The jotters are all different sizes and patters so it is a great way to add some interest and depth on a LO when paired with glue dots and pop dots.

I gathered several of these and just wrote down the things that Sam was thing one day. It doesn't take long to gather the thoughts. I just called Sam on the phone and asked him what he was thinking about today and all these ideas spewed forth. Some are very insightful.

I paired these with some Jenni Bowlin and some more Luxe paper, stickers and letters plus Maya Road chipboard letters. I think this will be a wonderful memory to keep of Sam's active mind.

Road Trip

This layout was made using Luxe and Maya Roads.

To find my guy...you can look at the great Luxe arrows that I stamped. If you haven't used the Luxe stamps...you must! The ink lays down on the paper like butter. I am so not a stamper...but these stamps are just the bomb!

The Jotters made it easy for me to document what we did on the trip!

My favorite part of the LO besides all the picts of my cutie...are the chipboard letters. They are painted with Ranger's Crackle Paint. If you were to see it in real life, it does look like asphalt. I think used the most wonderful opaque marker around from Ranger and made the dotted lines. Luke loved the way that it turned out.

What a busy week filled with sports.......

This week Denton had soccer camp in the morning and 3 t-ball games at night. I loved watching them warm up in the morning with exercises and when Drew and him ran around the whole track I thought "how he has grown so much".

Tonight they had their 3rd game this week and I have been very proud of him, but tonight when he was playing pitcher and the batter hit a high ball, Denton caught it in mid air. I had such a proud moment, or some would say a ah ha moment! And of course I didn't get it on film.
Megan if you are reading this....that's "Tall Man"!

What can you embellish in your make-up drawer?

I have been so tired and busy, the last thing I thought I would have is a creative moment. But check this out, its pretty cool and can be used in so many things. I opened my make-up drawer this morning, and one of the mirrors had fallen out of the compact. I thought how cool would that be with a rubon, stamp or opaque writer. Now I am the worlds worse at cleaning my make-up drawer out, which this time is a good thing because I have lots of mirrors to play with. Can you believe I couldn't find ONE family rubon in my store, that's sad! So I stamped it and used my opaque writer, and this little embellishment cost me hardly anything!

I dare you to experiment with your make-up mirrors! Email me what you come up with and I will post on her next week, plus send one of you lucky ladies, or guys a RAK!

More Stunning Word Books

Two of the other word books that were extremely popular at the convention were these. First is a picture of the CRUISE book. It has been a big hit at the store for a month or so, but the convention goers were seeing it for the first time. I heard many wonderful comments on this and many, many people buying the papers to make their own.

I hate to limit you to only a couple pages of this book because it is quite awesome. Susie did this book & if you notice in this second photo you will see an acrylic page added into the book. She did this in a couple of spots and really made this a unique book. Looking at the book, I wish I was on a cruise right now--cool water in the pool...ahhh. All the papers in this book are Moxxie papers & I think there are still some left at the store. (with the sale, things are flying out of there)

This second book is the Fourth of July Book. The letters say JULY4 and then if you look on the '4' you will see the "th" completing the cover. Isla did this book as well for us. She scurried right up until 3 or 4 in the morning of the day of the convention working on projects for the store.










On this book, she used the Rusty Pickle Papers, which have nearly all escaped the store. We took them for mini store in the crop room and not many were even left after that. Since Rusty Pickle was at the convention, we kept what was left for the store. I have said to Isla that I think she sold more Rusty Pickle paper than they did with this book.

I hope these give you some ideas on what to do with some of your photos. Even though I couldn't get the full project in here, you can see that the books will hold quite a few photos AND can be expanded with extra pages. Need help doing your first one of these? Come on by the store. We'll be glad to talk you through it!

Patterned Paper

I have this passion for patterned paper. I love mixing and matching them. I have matted with card stock....but I like using patterned paper too!

I made this LO of my little cousin Maisy. I know that the bolder paper in the background is Luxe Every Day. The other is Pink Paislee. The solid breaks can often be made with ribbon. I believe in this case it is Maya Road's Velvet Ribbon.

I added a Luxe rubbon on top of the patterned paper as well.

Then I added lots of flowers and and some bling from Glitz. So...if you don't have any solid cardstock....don't panic.

Stars of the Show

 
One of the big hits at the Great American Scrapbook Convention were the word books. Some are called Word Bloom books and some have different names. They are made by many places. Many booths had these books and they are pretty popular in general, but I felt like ours were extra special because of the examples made by the Design Team members. There were some other cute examples around the floors, but I didn't think any were any cuter than the ones made by our team. OK. I know I'm biased, but really, these were very very cute.
 
First off is this COWGIRL book.

Coordinating both Carolee's Adorn It and Moxxie paper lines, Isla made this a beautiful book. She added just the right amount of great embellishments from the lines and made some of her own. The great star on the front of the book is from 10 second studio metal and molds. She outlined it with Glitz icing. Really grabs the eye, doesn't it?

 
Stunning, sharp and stylish were words that were used to describe this book by attendees.
 


The heart shape is a Heidi Swapp mirror with a rub-on.
 





Isla always does a great job on any project. I'm sure it also helped to have so many adorable pictures of her granddaughter.

 



 

The great flower of studs is from Prima Marketing.










This is just one of the great books from the show--AND just some of the pages. I'll have to post the others in separate posts. I can't show you all of them on here--you may just have to head to the store to see them all.