A new home and faces I love.

In late December, we moved into our new house.  One week before Christmas.  It was CRAZY trying to unpack and decorate and keep the 2 kiddos from getting into everything.  Although we did have some fun times with building cities of boxes!

Anyway, I snapped this photo of our house the day before we closed, and it just so exciting (we have been waiting for over 6 months to move into a new home).  So here it is!  The Dear Lizzy 5th and Frolic collection had a lot of great "homey" sentiments and papers that went great with this theme.

In the background, you can see some faint stamping with a hexagon stamp, some layered papers and chipboard.  I added some wood chevrons pointing to the title.

I have been love love LOVING gold accent lately, so I used a sticker and some gold thread here.

To add some more gold sparkle, I painted a Basically Bare 'Jailer Key' with some gold Sorbet gel paint from Art Anthology.  Isn't the 'Welcome Home' chipboard piece perfect?  :)

And next I wanted to share a layout I did based on last weeks sketch at My Scraps & More sketch blog.
My brother took these photos of Charlotte on his phone.  She was trying to look at the handle of her cup, because there was something on it, and she had no idea of the funny crossed-eyed faces she was making.  We kept asking her to look again, and were laughing so hard.  :)

I recently reorganized in my new scrap room and started keeping embellies and certain papers/kits close by in bins to use at will.  This page I used items from 7 different manufacturers, which is not my norm (I tend to stick with a collection and use a few other bits here and there).  Here is a die cut from a scrapbook circle kit, and an old brad from MME.  I also dug into my rub-on stash, which I forgot how much I loved, and had fun with cutting them up here and there.

Some chipboard from Basic Grey and doilies from some Lily Bee paper.

I have been scrapping like a maniac lately.  And believe it or not, a lot of it has been for ME!  Hope you are staying scrappy, too!

New Glitz Releases!!! Little Driver and All Hands on Deck!

Seriously, the latest Glitz Design releases are the best YET!!  Some fun new things, like the roller stamps, and awesome designs on the classic Glitz stuff like the Peek-A-Boos (transparencies) and What-Nots (die-cuts).  I have two page to share with you today.

For some reason, I didn't scrap these photos of a ship tour that we took last summer. They have just been sitting in my "to do" pile for a while.  Well, it was a good thing I waited, because the Uncharted Waters line is an absolute perfect match!

The design of my page revolved a lot around this anchor die cut, which I misted with a Navy blue to make it stand out a bit more on the page.  I even looked up some rope knots and used one to tie on my string to the top of the anchor!  :)

LOVE this yellow anchor washi!!!!

This Giant Rhinestone was a perfect match for the strips on the patterned paper.

I layered a few Peek-A-Boos behind, and on top of the photos to add some more color on the page.

Next I wanted to do a page with the bright, colorful papers of the "Color Me Happy" collection.  It went well with these bright, colorful photos of my little guy driving his car.  He is just so happy!

I wanted to show some movement on this page, so I took the rainbow chevron washi and cut it up into pieces and taped them down.  Then I machine stitched over the washi to create a circle.  Behind the photos I layered some What-Nots and Journal Stickers.

I fussy cut some elements from other papers, and also used a cloud stamp in the top left corner of the page.

Have you gotten your hands on any new Glitz yet?  Can't wait to see!

Supplies:

"All Hands On Deck"
Papers:
Uncharted Waters "Waves"
Uncharted Waters "Scallop"
Uncharted Waters "Stripe"

Uncharted Waters Giant Rhinestones
Uncharted Waters Peek A Boos
Uncharted Waters Whatnots
Uncharted Waters tape Anchors
Uncharted Waters Teeny Alphas Aqua Stripe

"Hello Little Driver"
Papers:
Color Me Happy "Stripe"
Color Me Happy "Hearts"
Color Me Happy "Bits & Pieces"

Color Me Happy Journaling Stickers
Color Me Happy Washi Rainbow Chevron

Hello Friend Stamps
Yours Truly What Nots

Thanks for stopping by today!
-Audrey

Word Inspiration...NOW and WARM..

I WISH it was WARM right NOW!

We are smack dab in the middle of the One Little Word crop at My Scraps & More.  My challenges involve the words WARM and NOW.

My first page I made with my February kit from My Scraps & More. Charlotte loves to put her leg warmers on, and most of the time, she doesn't like to wear pants.  These photos captured her dancing around in the living room, and all I could think about was Flashdance (especially since she was pantless).  I was going to have my title be something about WARM, but instead, I decided to interpret WARM differently....I used WARM colors: red, yellow, orange, and pink.

I honestly was listening to "She's a Maniac" on my computer while I made this page!  I cut the yellow chevron paper and placed the arrows up and down to show some movement.

The polka dot paper with the bright colors really reminds me of the 80's!  :)  I added some more pink circles on the page, too.  The title is cut from patterned paper, and I used a MME die cut to mount the title.

My next page is about the word NOW.  I think it is so important to document what is happening "NOW" in our lives.  So i snapped these photos of the kids and what they are into right NOW.  Right now, I just finished unpacking the dining room, and they found some drink shakers (which I can honestly say I don't think we have ever used!) and have been playing with them.  They are fighting like crazy, but playing with each other all the time.

(for some reason I forgot to take close ups, so this is it for this page!)

I used some new Studio Calico Darling Dear.  I love the navy and the shade of green in this line.  The background I painted a bit with some Art Anthology Gel Paint (Sorbet).  And I LOVE LOVE LOVE these vellum arrows!!!

The letters are from Bella Blvd, and I misted them in navy to match the papers.

You still have plenty of time to participate in the crop. Stop over to the message board and check it out!

Creative Scrappers Sketch #244

Since I had kids, there is one special girl who doesn't get scrapped nearly enough anymore.  We have had a lot of snow since we've moved back to NY and I can tell that she really really missed it!  I think she would rather have below freezing temps and big snowbanks to stick her head in over those 100 degree days and the pool anyday!!!!

Here is my take on today's Creative Scrappers sketch #244.

And the sketch by my friend Heather Leopard:

I used some papers from different kits and some that I had in my stash, plus I raided my stash for a few other things, as well.  I have been pretty good, lately, about digging into things that I haven't used in a while.

On the background I splattered some white paint and machine stitched with silver thread.  I am really into metallics lately!

The journaling spot is an old transparency that I painted on the back with white paint to make the writing stand out more.  A few snowflake punches, and that's it!

I KNEW I had t he chipboard words" My Girl" somewhere in my stash, so I spent about 30 minutes looking for it and finally found it in the old Crate Paper Line Emma's Shoppe.

Hope you are staying warm!  It is supposed to get pretty chilly here this week.  As a matter of fact, we aren't supposed to have a day that goes over 19 degress until Feb. 11.  Joy.

What a Zoo! A mini for Basically Bare

OK, confession....I used to not like making mini albums that much.  But lately I have been LOVING them!  It helps I have an awesome stash of some Basically Bare ones to use!!!!

I used the Casually Covered album for this little mini about a trip we took to the local zoo on a very warm day in November.

Let's talk about the cover.  I just had to use the On Trend collection from Crate Paper.  It's perfect, with all the animal prints it has! First, I painted the spine black, then added my paper.  I covered the zebra paper with a light wash of gesso, and then used a stencil and some "Splashed" Sorbet from Art Anthology. I love the texture and sheen that this paint gives!!!  It is so awesome to work with!

 See those fibers on the page?  They are actually the strings from the canvas page inside the album....I took some off to make some fringe on the page, and had this little pile sitting on my desk, so I just added them on the cover.

I splattered some paint, stitched with some teal thread, and added the appropriate animal embellies and some twine.

And I always decorate the back cover a bit, too:

OK, the inside pages.  Basically, I painted the edges of each black (except the acrylic page) and then added paper to each page. I stuck with a somewhat neutral palette for the papers.

I added some splatters of mists and those were my foundations.  On each page, I added a few OLD leaf rub ons, the photos, and a few flowers, banners, twine and other bits.  In between some of the pages, I added some tags for my journaling (which I have added in at this point!).

On the acrylic page, I used a animal print stencil and some "Sand Dune" and "Tiger Eye" Sorbets (Art Anthology).

YAY!  I love this little mini!  Thanks for stopping by today!!!!

Inspiration Elevator...Top Ten and Art Journaling Intentions

A few weeks ago, I posted my Top 12 layouts of 2012.  I love going through everything I have done over the year to see how I have changed and grown, and to reflect on all those special moments!

Today for Inspiration Elevator, we are also celebrating our favorites of 2012.  I have a lot more "favorites" other than layouts, so today I am going to focus on some of my favorite things I created that were NOT layouts!

You may recall from last month's challenge that the purpose of this challenge group was to take our scrapbooking to the next level, to stretch our creative process and to grow as artists by embracing challenges that make us think, work and grow. 

So here are some of my favorite "other" projects over the past year, in no particular order:

Cards:

Mini Albums:

(Two albums that I want to share are going to be published in Create: Mini Albums in March 2013, so I can't share them at this time!)

(Two-Gether for Birds of a Feather Kit Club.  See HERE)

(December Daily Album 2012. Still have to post :) )

Art Journal Pages:

(" I Believe" for IE Prompt.  See HERE) 

("I Regret" for IE Prompt.  See HERE.)

 Other Projects:

(Paper Christmas tree for GCD Studios.  See HERE)

(Countdown Calendar for Basically Bare and Bella Blvd.  See HERE)

(Winter Houses for Basically Bare. See HERE)

I hope you will take the time to see what my Inspiration Elevator team mates chose as they reflected on this challenge. 

Sue Sykes

Lisa Spiegel

Joanne Burton

Christa Uttley

Laura Whitaker

Audrey Yeager

Lisa Moen

Laurel Seabrook

Ann Jobes

Cathy Harper

Now because we didn't have a specific "challenge" this month, I still wanted to keep on with my Art Journaling, and this post seems like an appropriate theme for my thoughts: My resolutions (Intentions) for 2013.

I wrote them down first in my notebook, and then got to work creating the spread.  I went with my favorite color: green, which also reminds me of energy, which I am going to need to do all these things on my intentions list!

I started by heat embossing an arrow pattern from a stencil, and then misted some green and yellow mists over the page and rubbed them in a bit.

Then I went over the the chunky chevron stencil and some "Evergreen" Sorbet (gel paint) from Art Anthology.

A few circle stamps, and some confetti of hearts and pink sequins for contrast.  And I dug out some OLD flowers from my stash, just because they happened to be near me and I am purging some stuff!

Thanks for stopping by for another month of IE!!!  Hope you have the happiest of times in 2013!!