SUPER EXCITING NEWS!

I have TWO very important announcements to make!!!  *tapping on the microphone*


First, I have been selected to be a part of the S.E.I. design team for 2011!!!!!

I am so so SO excited to be a part of the team!  I can't wait to find who else made the team, too!  I am really looking forward to working with all their products!  Check out the announcement on the SEI blog and store!


Next, I am so thankful to have WON the Treasured Scrapbooking Contest!!!  I got first place!!!!!  It was such a tough tough competition, and there were some fabulous projects by all the other participants!  Just for a quick re-cap, here are the four layouts for each of the four weeks (starting with week 1). 

Some journaling ideas...

I got this idea a few years ago browsing through some scrappy sites.  I have so many journaling spots and note pads, but ironically the thing I hate most about doing a page is the journaling!!  I mean, it SHOULD be the most important part...getting your stories down on paper, but it is usually the last thing I do on a page.  Maybe it is because by the time I get to the end of completeing the LO, I am too tired to focus on the journaling!

(NOTE TO SELF:  This post made me realize that maybe I should switch it up a bit....for my next LO I am going to do the journaling FIRST.  I wonder how this will affect my creative process?  Hmmmm...)

Anyways, one way to get around this is to have OTHERS journal for you! 

I brought a little baggie full of different journaling spots with me when I went home this summer. At the end of the summer, I had my mom, my and dad and brother each choose one that they liked and write a note to Charlotte about their time with her.  When I got back home, I chose a photo that I thought represented their journaling the best, and then comleted the LO!  How easy is THAT??!!!

These first two are based on a sketch by Ronda Pallazarri for Cocoa Daisy:

Don't you love Echo Park???

And this last one was from a sketch by Liz at "The Scrappiest".

I have got a whole bunch of goodies on their way to me that I can't wait to play with and share!  And I also have some other SUPER exciting news that I will share next week!

I've been scrapping for me!!

Sometimes I just get too caught up in trying to meet deadlines or trying to do things for my classes at my LSS that I forget to scrap about things I really want to get onto pages!

So the past few nights I have been doing some things FOR ME and because I want to!  Some of them have been inspired by challenges, others by sketches.

Scrapdango has their "Back To School" crop going on and it is so much fun!!!   I have done a whole bunch of LO's so far and the challenges have been so inspiring. 

This one I used some of the new AC City Park papers.  I LOVE this line!  The colors are so bright and cheery.  The challenge was to use an animal photo, along with a few other requirements.  I took this photo last summer when my dad caught a frog.  I love the photo, but what I REALLY love about the LO is the memories that it brought back.  My journaling is all about how I used to catch frogs with my mom and dad when I was a little girl.  I am so glad that I got to scrap a memory like that!

Next up is my FINAL entry for the Treasured Hunt at Treasured Scrapbooking!!!  YES!  I made it to the final round!  There are 6 of us left.  We had SOOOO many things to do on this page:

• Use a closure of some sort on your layout, this can be staples, a paper clip, the little clippy off a manilla envelope, those tie thingies, anything that closes or holds things together.
• Use the word "end" in your title.
• Include journaling (if it's hidden, please give proof that it is there)
• Use FOUR or more photos to symbolize each week of the contest
• Use fibers, cord, ribbons, twine, thread, anything like that.
• Include a handmade element (week one)
• Use lined or ledger paper- handmade is fine (week two)
• Use bling (week three)

 

This LO came to me right away because I have been thinking about the end of summer lately, so naturally I had to use the word "end" in reference to that. My title was made with some black Cosmo Cricket chipboard letters which I painted white, then yellow, then used glossy accents and sprinkled yellow glitter on top. This is my BLING! The "I wish it never had to end" part I printed on a transparency and cut out.

The closure I made on this little pocket/envelope. The metal pieces are some jewelry making parts and I just added some ribbon around the envelop and through the metal to make a belt-like closure.

Inside there is hidden journaling which I typed because the space was very small.

There are 9 photos on the page that are my summer highlights.

For ribbons/threads, i used yellow embriodery thread and I crocheted the sun (which is my handmade element). I watched a tutorial on you tube! I then took the crocheted circle and added it to a sun sticker and put a button on it.

I also used some ribbon on the red pocket/envelope, and some bakers twine to hold the pinwheels together. I also made the pin wheels using a tiny square of paper, some brads, and some toothpicks for the sticks. My lined paper is on the square with the pinwheels.

OK, one other thing I forgot to share on my blog, but that I shared on the Scrapbook Circle Blog is my mini album all about Charlotte's friends!!!  There was a sticker on the Cosmo Cricket "Happiness" sheet that said "My Friends" and when I saw it, I knew that that was what I wanted to do.
 
 

It is simple, really...just a piece of paper on each page, with a circle cut out and gesso'ed for journaling, a sticker border, and the name of her "friend". 
 
 

 
 
 

She seriously LOVES it...Froggie is her bestest friend, and she always wants me to flip to that page.

Well I have a special "trio" of pages to show in the next few days that are some things that I WANTED to scrap, and I'm so glad I did!  Will share in a few days...

Some embossing, a horticulturalist, LOTS of spaghetti, and a lighthouse....

Is that the strangest blog post title or what????

Speaking of titles, I think I have the longest word EVER for a title on a LO.  You see, Charlotte loves The Wiggles.  And there is a song about picking flowers, and in the background the guys are singing "he's a horticulturalist....he's a regular botanist....".  Whenever we see flowers, I sing that song, we smell them, and she goes..."Mmmmmm".

She also has a facination with dirt...and mulch...I have even had to scoop some from her mouth before.  So this summer, she wanted to play in grandma's garden and since I was right there, I let her, and she had so much fun!

I used the uber beautiful Sept. Scrapbook Circle kit.

I distressed the heck out of some cream colored CS, misted it with some black and brown Chalkboard mists, then inked the edges.

The pleated fan flowers I made out of the lovely piece of paper in the kit that has all the colorful borders on it.  Yes, I fussy cut them all out....

I used the same beautiful kit to make this LO using some of the Sassafras Mix N Mend papers along with the Crate Paper Restoration. 

I used some of the sticker border sheets and pleated them and squished them on the page.  I also did a little bit of stitching here and there.  The title spot, the journal spot, and the two darker buttons are all from the Digital Download that comes with your kit purchase!!  how awesome is that????

OK, as you know I am guest designing at Citrus Tree Studios this month.  On the 10th of each month the challenges are posted. Mine is pretty simple....use a photo corner.  But you have to make it AND it has to be a focal point on your page!!  Easy Peasy, right????  Come on over and play with the challenges! 

I used this months CTS kit "Paisley Heights" for this LO.  Charlotte loves sketti.  Yes, this was a disaster to clean.  I know she looks like an Oompa Loompa...but she was enjoying it so much...

I tried to mimic the colors of the sketti with the orange and the texture by fringing the title block...I think it looks like strings of sketti.

Last, but not least, is my THIRD LO for the Treasured Hunt.  I am so so so nervous about this one.

I wanted to choose a technique that I didn't think anyone else would choose, and one that I love, but haven't used in a while, so I chose embossing!

I did both dry embossing and heat embossing on this page.

For the embossed cardstock background, I sprayed some glimmer mist on a brayer and ran it over the negative side of the cardstock so that the pattern would show through in white.

The birds, the swirls, the black and white waves, the title, and the journaling block are all heat embossed with different colored powders. For my bling, I went over some of the embossed flourishes with Stickles.

I did some dry embossing with plates right on the photo itself!!!
I also embossed the strip of patterned paper, and the little heart. For the heart, I cut out some chipboard and painted it, then put glossy accents on it. When the glossy accents dried, I ran it through an embossing plate.

The photo in this LO itself is a bit blurry, but I loved it so much....it is my mom and my daughter, and I just love both of their expressions. I wanted the photo and the technique to be the "stars" of this LO, so that is why there is a lot of white space.

OK, so there it is!!!  Hopefully I will make it to the next round!!!!!

Some Sassafras and Jenni Bowlin...

A few of the add-ons available at Scrapbook Circle include this Jenni Bowlin playdate set, and the Sassafrass Lass Indie Girl Collection.

I loved the colors in this Jenni Bolwin collection, and these photos I had of Charlotte in a swing this summer were just perfect!!!

I used this page for a challenge at Scrapdango where you had to use grid paper, a ruler, two geometric shapes, and numbers.  The contest this month at Scrpadango is all about "Back To School" and this challenge was the Math challenge (grid paper, ruler, numbers...get it?).  Anyway, I was so honored to be chosen as "Teacher's Pet" this week along with Terri for the favorite LO of the week!


OK, so now onto the Sassafras Lass paper.  I loved these papers when I looked at them online!!!  I ordered them from my LSS so I could use them in a class that I teach, and these are the LO's that we did.

For this first one, I embossed some pieces of the green paper and layer it and tucked some of the scallop borders and some other bits and pieces in the layers.

I love the LO of this two pager.  I am going to add a few more things to it, but it was already complicated enough to do for my class, so this is how it is right now.

And lastly I just LOVE this page.  Charlotte's little funny, smiley face...she is such a riot.

I stamped with some bubble wrap and then a script stamp.  Most of the things are here are from the sticker sheet that came with the collection kit.

I used one of every sheet of the SL papers in these LO's!!! 

I am still working on some things with the Sept. kit and can't wait to show you!!!

Citrus Tree Studio September Reveal!

I was so honored to be chosen as a guest designer this month at Citrus Tree Studios!!  I just LOVE the kits there....they are packed with so many embellies!

This month's kit is called "Paisley Heights", and was just PERFECT for photos of Charlotte!

So of course I wanted to highlight the "paisleys" in this kit, so I fussy cut a whole bunch of them out for this page.  Then I cut out the same shapes again, and added the centers to each paisley with pop dots.

I did a lot of stitching on the outside of the circle, and I just love how the stitching and the paisleys make this page seem to move.

For this next page, I took a brayer and a green ink pad and I inked the negative side of an embossed piece of cardstock so that the embossed area would be white. 

I then used some of the glitter stickers for a frame around my photos and used the entire package of flowers!  :)

Lastly, I saw this idea in Scrapbooks etc. magazine to layer brown paper with different border punches, so that is what I did to make the "tree". 

The little blong birdie I added to some what patterned paper to make it stad out a bit more.

I am having so much fun over there this month!!  I will be posting my challenge on Sept. 10 with yet another layout that I did, so be sure to stop by and check it out!