Be Extraordinary...another page from my March kit

Can you believe that it is already the next to last day of the month? I am back to share another page from my March kit, "Welcome Sunshine":

The journaling says: "Every now and then, I look at you and see a stunningly beautiful woman staring back at me...don't grow up too fast, little one. You have a sparkling future ahead, and while I am excited to meet that stunning woman that I know you will become, I want to hang on to that sweet, mischevious little girl that you are as long as I can! I hope you will always cling to a piece of that sweet innocence inside of you."

Sharing My Homework...Paige's Pages

Today, I will be sharing for what I think will become a regular feature here on my blog. I am addicted to taking classes to improve my skills, and I was fortunate enough to win a 6 month membership to Big Picture Classes new monthly membership site. I have been looking over the content-rich new site, and I am so happy that I am getting the chance to learn from all of these uber-talented teachers, in so many different areas (the great thing about the new site-for a small monthly membership fee, you gain access to all of the classes and teachers, and they are all very talented and inspiring!) I also revisit class content from classes that I have taken from Shimelle, Wilna, etc. As I am inspired to make layouts from these classes, I will share my "homework" here on my blog. Today, I am sharing a layout that was inspired by Paige's Pages, a class taught by Paige Evans. There is no one as skilled as Paige at the use of patterned paper, which was one of the reasons why I chose Paige's class to focus on first. I had a 6x6 paper pad from My Mind's Eye included in my March kit, which was perfect for this design!

My page:

I love how my page turned out, messy stitching and all. And I love that I really got some use out of that 6x6 paper pad!

Saturday Scrapbook Stamping: Using Stamps To Enhance your Backgrounds

I  am back, as promised, to share what I am doing with my stamp-inspired kit. I have decided to use the stamp set included in the kit in several ways to enhance my layout. The first way I am using my stamps is to create butterfly embellishments by stamping the butterfly stamp in several various colors.

Adirondack Sunset Orange:

After I would stamp a few, I would use my trusty favorite (baby wipes) for stamping to clean my stamp before moving on to the next color:

I stamped in several colors, but my favorite was one of my oldest ink pads, VersaColor Raspberry (at least 13 years old and still super juicy!):

After I stamped several butterflies in several colors, I fussy cut them, and moved on to my background paper. The plan was to enhance the paper and create movement across the page with Walnut Stain Distress ink:

I started in the adjacent corners, making sure to stamp over the edge:

Next, I wanted to enhance the stamping with some splatters of Mr. Huey's:

I let it dry, and then it was just a matter of putting it all together:

I also added pearls to enhance the stamped flow across the page:

I love the feeling of texture and movement, and it was great fun using my stamps and inks on a scrapbook page!

Layout for C.S.I. #156

I played along with CSI (Color, Stories, and Inspiration) for their very first challenge, and followed their challenges ever since, but haven't played along again until just recently. Since I had several of the colors in my March kit for this challenge, I decided to use the inspiration and play along, even though the prize deadline has passed.

 Here is the layout that I made with my March kit, in response to the challenge:

My evidence and the colors are in the frames (love that I was able to use so many of the frames, plus a good bit of scraps):

For my evidence, I used date stamps, and there were leaves, flowers, text print, and chevrons, which are basically a line of triangles. I love that I used so much color and pattern, but the white background helps to keep it  all contained and clean looking. For my testimony, I journaled a recipe- Butterbeer from my son's Harry Potter birthday party.

Counterfeit Kit Challenge Member Blog Hop

It's one of my favorite times of the month! Time for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Members' Blog Hop, where we show off what we've been making this month, and how we have handled one or more of the challenges for using our stash kits. I hope you will grab a cuppa and hop along with us for loads of inspiration! We would also love to have you join us next month-everyone is welcome, it is free, and we love to see your kits and what you are creating with them!
I chose to play along with Challenge #1:  Border Craze:  Get crazy with borders, for my page:

I used my scraps from the kit and off cuts with punches to make border strips to tuck underneath the edge of my top photo. Such a simple thing to do, but a great way to use scraps and add dimension and emphasis!

I made this page about sitting on the "American Idol" couch when we visited World of Coke in ATL. It was fun to "sit where the stars sat" and I love that we got a photo of all of us together!

Thank you for visiting me today, be sure to come back later this week, as I plan to continue sharing what I created with my March kit...can you believe it is almost time for April's kit reveal?!

CKCB         http://www.counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com

Lisa           http://lisahausmann.blogspot.de

Clair          http://obstinatepursuit.blogspot.com

Gemma    http://thesteelenook.blogspot.co.uk

Margie      http://scrappinmargie.blogspot.com *You are here now

Tina           http://tinasscrapcorner.blogspot.com*Go here next

Laura         http://beadsbuttonsandbirds.blogspot.co.uk

Virginia     http://celtichouse.blogspot.co.uk

Sherrie      http://sherriesmuddlepuddle.blogspot.ca

Jemma      http://just-jimjams.blogspot.co.uk

Scrapbook Saturday: Focus on Stamping

For this past week, I have been think a lot about what I am trying to do with this blog. I first started this blog back in December of 2008 as a way to share bits and pieces of my life, photos, recipes, and all of my crafty endeavors. I have truly enjoyed doing that, and have worked very hard at improving in all of those areas, so it is so much fun for me to go back and see some of my earliest posts. Lately, I have been searching for a way to refresh things here, and keep improving. I have had an idea here or there, but nothing that really stuck with me. Well, last night I was in my craft room labeling my inks (so funny that this is what I chose to do on a Friday night, I must be getting old ).

  Anyway, as I was labeling them, it struck me that I have quite a few inks that had never been even opened, much less used. And I have four binders of clear stamps, plus a fair amount of rubber stamps.

 And while I love the beautiful designs and the gorgeous colors, I haven't done very well at actually using those collections of stamps. It got me to thinking. What could I do to motivate myself to use all of those lovely stamps and inks that are collecting dust on my shelves? I make cards from time to time, but scrapbooking is my first love, so I would really prefer to find ways to use my stamps on my pages. And then I had my "lightbulb moment". I know that I can use stamps on my layouts, I just need the motivation to remember to use them, and a blog series might do just that! So, my intention is this: A scrapbook segment on my blog exploring my stamps and different ways or techniques of using them. And Saturdays seem like a good time to share it, if for no other reason than that I love the alliteration of "Scrapbook Stamping Saturdays"! So, I made a plan, and I wrote it down, and today is the first one. I have other plans for this blog as well, but for today, we will focus on the stamping.

I found this fun inspiration of making a stamp inspired kit, and, since making up kits to scrap with out of my stash is almost as much fun to me as making actual scrapbook pages, I knew I should definitely try it out to give me a jump start on this blog series. This is the stamp set that I used to inspire my kit:

I love butterflies and this stamp set took me in a rather "Valentine's" direction, as it instantly brought to mind Tim Holtz's Kraft resist, which lead me to think of browns, pinks, and creams. Here are the papers that I chose to coordinate with the stamps:

And here is the kit in its entirety:

I can't wait to play with it this week! It will make some very pretty pages, I think! And I can't wait to explore the joys of stamping on my scrapbook pages with you all. Next week, I will share what I make with this kit, and how I used the stamp set. Be sure to come back for more Saturday Scrapbook Stamping!

Time for a Challenge!

It's time for a challenge with the Counterfeit Kit club, and my March kit, "Welcome Sunshine". Our challenge is:
Challenge #3:  On Your Desk Challenge!  Take a look at your desk...

Does it look like this:

or this?

If your desk is messy, clutter, then make a project that has lots of layers of embellishments, stamping, misting...STUFF!  If your desk is neat and tidy, then minimal is the way to go!

You may NOT do anything special to your desk now that you know what the challenge is...be honest about what the state of it is NOW.

You saw the state of my desk in my last post, so I did a layout to fit, with clusters, layers and a sprinkle of embellishment. I was very inspired by CSI Challenge #157:

Loved the messy piles, felt they suited the look of my desk right now, and the colors fit my kit. So, with all of the inspiration I drew on, what did I come up with? Here is my page:

I drew on my old pictures for this one! A layout with a photo of my son's birth, over 13 years ago. For my "Evidence": camera, circles, labels, and a polaroid frame.

For my "Testimony", I journaled on a circular label. the journaling for this page is short and sweet; " Welcome to the world, Evan Wayne Visnick! You are so very loved!"

I have put together several pages with my March kit, which I hope to share throughout the week this week. Thanks for stopping by today!

What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday...

A little bit messy today, with a tray of little scrappy bits, a budget binder, heat tool, Jamberry nails, scissors, journal, stacks of photos...

What's the state of your desk? I am linking up to http://www.stamping-ground.blogspot.com/:

In Like A Lion...

Out like a lamb? I wonder if the old adage will hold true for us, as march has definitely come in like a lion, with the snow and ice last week, and the rain that is pouring down outside now!  Although I do think it is hard to get motivated to exercise or clean when the weather is bad outside, I do feel motivated to scrap! I started in to my March Counterfeit kit, and here is my first page:

I was inspired by this sketch from Stuck Sketches (I just rotated it to suit me):

It is not a page that requires a title or journaling, just pretty pictures from the beach that I wanted to include in my album. I used some of the cork pieces, some die cuts, some off cuts from the 6x6 pad, wood veneer that I colored by scribbling on them with the orange Gelato, then blended it/rubbed it in with my finger, a handful of the sequins, one of the doilies, and one of the flair badges.

A closer look at the details:

What are you working on today?

Supplies used:

Monday Morning Mood Booster

On my first weekday of Daylight savings time, I look out onto a dreary and chilly, drizzly Monday. And I have so much on my agenda for today, that I feel the need for a bit of a pick me up and inspiration this morning. With that being said, here's a bit of sunshine from around the web this morning.

etsy

Bethany Canon Watercolor

etsy

shoes

dress

And to add some warmth of my own, heaps of sunshine and roses from the Ringling rose garden, taken on our vacation to Sarasota FL last year:

I was so entranced with the beauty of this English rose garden in Florida that my husband took the kids to Starbucks so that I could linger and photograph the flowers and statues-so grateful for this opportunity. I am thinking that these rose garden photos will be in a stand alone mini album seperate from our vacation album-they don't need much journaling, just a place to put them so that they can be appreciated.