Creative Scrappers Sketch #212

I've been away from scrapbooking and blogging for a while now, but after nine months, a breakup, and a move I am getting back to it! 

 

The photos for this layout are of my kitty, Brie.  I used miscellaneous paper, deco tape from Little Happy Things, and string I believe I purchased from Crate & Barrel.  The layout is based on Sketch #212 from Creative Scrappers.

 

I am super happy about the stitched string.  It took forever but I think it makes a big difference. 

Homecoming

This layout is from Paul returning from his deployment to Iraq.  We were pretty excited about it.

 

I used various papers, gems, and brads.  The decorative letter tape is from Little Happy Things.  The layout is based on Sketch #213 from Creative Scrappers.  Cool sketch, as always.

I am really happy with the way the pennants turned out.  I used grungy red paper, covered it with the deco tape mentioned above, and distressed the edges.  So much distressing!  WORTH IT.

First Date Scrapbook Page: Sketchy Thursdays 9-1-2011

Sketchy Thursdays, why are your sketches always so awesome?

I used paper and stickers from Echo Park's Be Mine collection, flowers, and sparklies. I also hand-wrote the journaling, which is tough for me! I have the worst handwriting ever, so writing on my projects is very risky. Looking at it now, I should have made the photo black and white. Oh well, next time!

The photo is from my fiance and I's first date. Well, I call it our first date because before that I had just wanted to be friends! We had known each other for a few years but that day when he took me flying I finally decided I wanted to date him. No girl can resist a pilot!

The Scrappiest Sketch 134 - August Scrapbook layout

This is my attempt at The Scrappiest sketch 134. Holy balls, this took me forever. It turned out to be a much more ambitious layout than I usually do, with the stitching and ribbon flowers and distressing. That stuff is labor intensive!

The photos are from my recent trip to see my brother, mom and nieces when we went hiking. My nieces are ridiculously cute! In addition to supplies purchased at the normal craft store, I used wood buttons and text tape from Etsy. Yay for handmade scrapbooking supplies!

The flowers were challenging, I've never attempted ribbon flowers before. I have seen better! I am really happy with how the collage hearts turned out though, particularly with the stitching. Even if it took forever.

It's weird, I haven't felt like scrapbooking or crafts generally much lately. I think it's mostly a bit of depression, my fiance's deployment is making me a little lonelyer than normal. I guess my art is not inspired by sadness!

As always, comments and suggestions on my amateur scrapbooking are hugely appreciated!!

Ostrich Layout!

I used my favorite three pictures from my trip to the Litchfield Park World Wildlife Zoo in this page. I'm pretty sure the ostrich was trying to bite us. I feel a little bad for teasing it, but these pictures crack me up!


I used paper from a GCD Studios Chic Bebe stack and some miscellaneous pink paper. The letters were also from the GCD Studios stack and they turned out to be really shitty. They mostly fell apart as I was trying to remove them from their backing. That was really disappointing and I am going to make it a point to not buy more GCD Studios supplies.


I based this off of Sketchy Thursdays' June 9 sketch, below. I probably stuck to the sketch a little too much. It turned out to be one of those times where I realized I wasn't feeling creative partway through. Oh well, you win some and lose some. It came out ok I guess. I'm not sure what I would do differently in the future aside from a more applicable and less inane title. Insert creativity everywhere!


I am having so much trouble photographing my layouts. I have two photo lamps that I shine upon it, and I get above it as much as possible by standing on a chair. It always comes out crooked and wonky though. Suggestions? How do you get straight on photos of your layouts?

The Scrappiest Sketch 123/ Comicon Zombie layout

OK I am super pleased with this layout!! I used a really cool sketch from The Scrappiest and photos from the Phoenix Zomicon standing next to a display for a Vietnam zombie comic book. Everything just sort of came together and I am super proud of this layout!!


I used papers from a few different kits and stacks, decorative tape, stickers, foam letters, and splatter stamps. Even with lots of black stamp ink it wasn't dark enough on the splatters so I colored over the stamps with pen.


This sketch was really inspiring, I new upon seeing it that I needed to use it. It took me a lot of thinking to come up with what to use (splatters!) instead of flowers. Pretty sure smoke was coming out of my ears while I was pondering.


I am really happy with how this came out. I think the only thing I *know* I would have done differently in retrospect is to not round the edges. Any suggestions?

Caturday: Flower Kitty Scrapbook Layout

I made this layout using photos of Brie, the cutest cat ever. I knew I had to use the red and blue polka dot paper to go with the photos, and just went from there. It got super busy!


I think it might be too busy. What do you think? I think I added to much crap. I've never used glued string for scrapbooking before. I was always hesitant because it seemed difficult, but it turns out it was really easy with Beacon's 3 in 1 advanced craft glue (my new favorite glue EVAR). Either way, I fail to see how people do beautiful AND busy layouts! Mine either look naked or shitty. Sometimes both!


I based this layout very, very loosely on Sketchy Thursday's July Challenge, below. As you can see the layout is roughly similar and I tried to use reds from the inspiration photos.

May Scrapbook Layout

This is my page-a-month layout for May 2011. It is of my fiance and I's adventures at the Phoenix Comicon. It was the first day my fiance was back on leave from his deployment too.


My favorite part of the comicon was seeing the author Max Brooks. I got a photo with him (above) and had him sign my book. He signed it "Mark Twain can suck it" after I told him he was my favorite author! Hence the quote. We also got lots of photos of us with various people in epic Star Wars costumes and stuff like that. Sadly few pictures of us together though. My fiance hates letting strangers hold his camera to take photos of us, so it was pretty much just one of us in all of them.


I tried this layout based on a really cool layout I was inspired by and made it a little simpler and more comic-y. Still pretty ambitious for me and scrapbooking! LOL! I feel like the squares should be more involved, but I wasn't sure what else to do with them. Also, extreme glitter paper sucks to photograph!

Ideas/ comments/ suggestions would be appreciated x1,000,000!!

The Scrappiest Sketch 119

I made this layout with pictures of my niece, Hazel. She's so cute!! All of the paper is from a super cheap walmart kit. lol. I also used letters from "The Girls' Paperie" which were sort of obnoxious because they weren't self-adhesive. Boo!


I used the following sketch from The Scrappiest #119. I don't have one of those super cool cutter things, so circle layouts are always challenging. I happened to have circles from the above-mentioned kit!

Clever gift/ scrapbooking tags

Aren't these clever? I just wanted to do a quick post to feature this item because it's super cool.

Locks of Love Scrapbook Layout

I used Sketch 117 from the Scrappiest as the basis for this layout.


The pictures are a before and after of my epic haircut. I got like 10+ inches cut off for locks of love!

Sketchy Thursday's 4-7 Layout!

I used photos from summer 2009 for this week's Sketchy Thursdays layout.


I used paper paper from Echo Park's For the Record collection, decorative tape, sparkly gems and border stickers. Fun stuff! I can't figure out how to take a photo that doesn't distort the image!! As much as I rotate the image, it's still screwy.

Scraptastic!

I was looking at some of the amazing scrapbooking supplies/ephemera/embellishments available on Etsy... so inspiring!! Check out the treasury list I pulled together here or look at some I've selected below:

The Scrapiest Sketch 114 Layout

I made this layout for The Scrappiest's sketch challenge. I used photos from a few years ago when my friends and I floated the Boise River. So cold!


The paper, chipboard, stickers, etc is pretty much all from a kit. I will post more on this kit depending on how a customer service issue gets resolved! Below is the original sketch:


As always, comments and suggestions on my scrapbooking are appreciated!

Sketchy Thursdays Challenge Layout

I am going to improve my scrapbooking skills by finding and entering cool scrapbook challenges! I was inspired to make a layout for Sketchy Thursdays tonight. I am super happy with how it turned out, although I don't usually use quite so much ephemera...


I used paper, tags, and stickers from Echo Park's "For the Record" collection (so fun!!), distressing ink, flowers, sparkly gems, buttons and decorative tape. It took forever, and I tried a number of variations on things before committing to it!


The photo is from my 2004 trip to New York City. It was a high-school graduation present from my parents... my mom, my favorite cousin, my aunt and I all went to NYC for a few days. It was super awesome. Here, my cousin and I are posing with the so-called Naked Cowboy in Times Square.


I am trying to find more scrapbook challenge blogs! Any ideas? As always, tips and critiques on my scrapbook projects is greatly appreciated.

March's Epic Scrapbook Layout

In March the thing I did that made it into the scrapbook was going to the Renaissance Festival! I have been going pretty much every year, it is so much fun! Last year, I bought a renaissance dress, and I wore it again this year. It was really warm out so I was pretty much dying. It is a big incentive to diet so I can wear a more revealing (and cool temperature-wise) costume next year! I have again blurred-out faces other than mine for the internet because I don't want to piss anyone off.


This layout was pretty unambitious of me... It definitely could have stood to be a little more elaborate. I also just wanted to finish it when I got to embellishing, if I had had more patience I should have gone out and bought flowers that matched instead of just using what I had at home. It definitely would have looked better if the flowers matched. Maybe next time!

February's Scrapbook Layout, etc.

Last night and this morning I worked on February's scrapbook layout. I try to do a page a month, with memorable things happening in my life (I am enough of a dork to have included jury duty for last January's layout...). When I don't do anything worth commemorating or don't have good enough photos I typically just make a layout with pictures of my fur-babies.


In this layout I used a paper from a cats themed 8x8 stack from TPC Studio. So cute! The big problem here was that I didn't have on-hand any 12x12 paper that totally matched the cat papers. I like the way the grungy, stripey bit looks but I probably should have done something different on the orange on the outside. The different tone makes it look a little off. But I am fairly happy with it, I guess. Aren't my cats adorable? I never get tired of looking at their adorableness!

Also, I went to my favorite bead store in Tempe yesterday, and hit it like the hammer of an angry god. I did a lot of damage even though most of the store was 40% off AND I had a $20 for $10 groupon. Check out my haul:


These will start appearing at my Etsy shop in jewelry soon. I also got some beads for a Pandora knock-off bracelet for myself. Even the knock-off Pandora style beads are expensive, wtf?

January Scrapbook Layout

This is January's layout for my epic, page a month scrapbook! It is pictures from one day of my brother's family's visit to Phoenix. We went to Encanto Park and did paddle boats and amusement park rides. Fun stuff. I blurred out faces that aren't mine because my brother would pretty much have kittens if he saw photos of himself on the internet, much less photos of my nieces. LOLZ.


Most of the paper and embellishments are from a kit, whose brand is escaping me. I feel like I got it from Walmart though. Now that I look at it again, there are definitely things I would have done differently. I would probably not have used the lace border punch outs on the borders of the lower photos, or distressed the edges there. That could be improved. Also, there is no contrast on the letters in family, they blend right in. Maybe I should have put them over a more distinct color of solid paper or something. I don't even know. Still learning, still in trial and error mode lol!

As always, comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated! <3

December Scrapbook Layout

I think I ought to start posting my scrabbook projects here! I have my Epic Scrapbook, to which I generally add a page month. It really focuses my creativity and shows the highlights of my life! This is December's page:


It's showing my fiance and I's trip to Pittsburgh for Christmas. It was so much fun! We spent a lot of time with his family, who are all awesome, and went to the National Aviary and the Carnegie museums. The photos got way dorkier after the one of my fiance making a face in front of the penguins. I am pretty sure I molested a statue lol! I learned that fashion in Pittsburgh is much simpler than in Arizona. Wear a Steelers sweatshirt and you are totally good to go!

I am super proud of the way this layout came out! It is straight in real life, I swear. I just cleverly photographed it on a bendy surface. I didn't use any particular kit or brand, just what I had laying around. I printed the pennants off my computer and glued them on. This was the first time I tried distressing the edges with ink! I used a cheap painting sponge and brushed a little ink on the edges of the white colored paper. I think it looks so cool!

I am a scrabooking newb, any comments or suggestions are hugely appreciated!