True Beauty

Today's project was a labor of love, a layout that I created for my oldest daughter. I am using a few current challenges that I wanted to play along with, and my "Hearts And Flowers" kit from February. I followed along with the sketch for this month from Artful Delight:

And played along with Tim Holtz's Tattered Florals challenge:

To be honest, I was a little intimidated by this contest-I have so many great ideas for projects swirling around in my brain, and the projects that have already been submitted are AH-MAZING! But, scrapbooking is what I love and do the most craft-wise, and the time is drawing down to enter. So, I cut some flowers out of paper scraps with this die (I am happy to report it worked quite well in my Cuttlebug with 2 "B" plates), and inked them up with Tattered Rose and Tumbled Glass Distress Inks, and scrunched and shaped them with my fingers.

 

I am also entering this layout in this week's Simon Says Stamp Challenge: Easter/Spring, since the photo was taken in the spring, and nothing says "spring" to me more than flowers!

 

Here is what my finished layout looks like:

 

Supplies used: Basic Grey, Doodlebug, Graphic 45, DCWV,and My Mind's Eye patterned paper, bling by ZVA and Want 2 Scrap, Basic Grey letter stickers and Butterfly sticker, Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die, Tumbled Glass and Tattered Rose Distress Ink and Ranger ink blending tool and pads, MME brad, and Mr. Huey's mist.

A Couple Of Pages for Creative Scrappers

I think I have made pages for all of the sketches this month(except the one that just posted yesterday)! Wow!
Sketch 190:

 The layout I made:

A Closer Look at the flowers and bling flourish:

And Sketch 191:

My layout, "Snow Friends",

 A closer look at my handmade flowers-I made these with hand cut scraps of the sheer ribbon from my January Counterfeit kits, and snowflake button centers:

 And my chipboard snowpeople-I put these together from my ancient stash, and dressed them up with Pebbles glitter dots, buttons, and Glossy Accents:

Thanks for dropping by-come back tomorrow for a peek at the wedding invites I helped my SIL-to be make this past weekend!

Your Special Day

Today's layout is another from my stack of pages that I completed last week. I started with this month's sketch from Artful Delight:

I also took inspiration from the Paper Variety:

and

Runway Inspired Challenges, challenge #3, This fantastic ensemble by Gareth Pugh:

My Layout:

What could be better for a runway inspired challenge than this yummy Basic Grey Little Black Dress Collection (from Scraptastic Club's Little Black Dress Kit)? For the "kiss of color" this lovely light aqua swirl paper and embellished stick pins from my January "Cozy Cabin kit", and I layered aqua and white flowers with a decorative brad for the center.
If you would like to see more about the "Something Blue Bridal Shower" I threw for my little sis with lots of handmade/paper crafted touches, I blogged about it here:
http://www.scrappinmargie.blogspot.com/search/label/Something%20Blue%20shower

Sketch Challenge at Sketches 4 All

Good morning! I hope you all had a great weekend! I did! I had some time to myself to scrap this past weekend, and it was such a treat! I have to say, this month's Counterfeit Kit really seems to suit my style, because I am really enjoying scrapping with it, and the pages just seem to flow so easily! The page I am sharing with you today is one that I did for a sketch challenge over at Sketches 4 All .

The sketch:

(Isn't it gorgeous?)

My Layout:

 A Close-up of my embellishment cluster:

Everything I used for this layout came from my January Counterfeit Kits. The background, photo mat and paper strip under the Mistables trim is Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses paper, along with a piece of diecut paper from Target's $1 spot, and I added a piece of light green swirl print paper tilted under the photo mat. The snowflakes were cut from a transparency, using my Cricut E and SCAL (still love what my baby does for me ;-) ), and then I dabbed it with a pearl paint dabber to make it stand out. The title is made up of Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type Stickers and Basic Grey letter stickers, which outlined with a thin black Sharpie pen to make them stand out. For my embellishment cluster, I covered a large white chipboard snowflake with glue, then silver mica flake, used a ZVA crystal swirl, then layered the glittered snowflake with light blue chipboard snowflakes, an embellished button, and a little eskimo girl from the Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses Chip Sticker pack. I added a pink "ticket style" journaling spot, some {crooked} hand-journaling, and I was finished! I have to say, that since I had that moment of self-discovery when I was sharing my favorite layouts from last year, it feels a bit easier to scrap! I don't feel like I am "wandering without a map"-I know my style now, and what I like in a finished layout, so it helps me to make decisions much more easily as I am putting my pages together. I have been inspired to find my style ever since I read about how Melissa found her style-and it was refreshing to find mine!

Now that you've seen my take on the sketch, won't you come and play along for a chance to win a 6x6 Echo Park Happy Days paper pad&Thickers? And while you're there, check out our guest design team call for February?

Tag, You're It!

The Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog gave us this challenge for using our November kits:

Challenge #1: Tag, you're it! Create a project using tags!

Here is my Entry:

I based it on this sketch from Elle's Studio blog:

Supplies used:

Basic Grey Marrakech "Sencha", charcoal colored cs, Blush Blossom cs, paper doily that I spray painted with chalkboard paint, printed cardstock journaling spot from Creativity Prompt that I printed and punched to make a tag, and added peachy colored shabby seam binding, Making Memories white velvet word, border sticker from Crate Paper, Petaloo flowers, and a ZVA bling flourish.

"Paddleboat Fun"

I saw this awesome color challenge over at The Color Room, and since I had these colors in my October kit, I decided to play along (albeit a little late).

The challenge:

My take on the challenge:

Again, with a crooked photo...gaggghhh!!! Oh well, you can get the idea-I just have to get used to shooting my pages w/o tons of sunlight (it has been very fallish, gray, and rainy here lately). Any way, on to my layout:

I finally scrapped a few photos from my honeymoon! Supplies I used: Pink Paislee Vintage Moon Harvest Moon paper, scraps of Crate Paper Emma's Shoppe Dresses paper for the photo mats, Echo Park Life is Good Element and Alpha stickers, several Girls Paperie vintage buttons, ZVA bling flourish that I colored to match my layout with a Copic marker, black glitter chipboard Thickers.

Oh, and if you don't read the Dear Lizzy blog...she had the AWESOMEST recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies on her blog this morning- 16 oz can pumpkin, 1 box spice mix, and chocolate chips. It sounded so yummy, and I had some of the stuff, so I tweaked it to what I had-1 cup of pumpkin pie mix, 1 butter recipe yellow cake mix, 1 egg, 1 tsp vanilla, and just added in some spices-ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and a cup of chocolate chips, dropped them on a greased cookie sheet and baked at 350 for about 15 minutes. They were SOOOO yummy with a glass of ice cold milk-and I think they still would have been awesome with out the chocolate chips. Try them out and let me know what you think!

A Few Challenges and some Scrapbooking to Share

Sorry, I have been a bit of a bad blogger lately. I have spent some time creating, but not nearly enough time sharing. So, I thought it would be a good time to share some of the pages I have made with you.

First up is a page that I did for the CKCB blog's layering challenge. I used sketch #177 from Creative Scrappers. I also took the prompt to make a fall/Halloween page from Sketches 4 All, and this is what I came up with.

Sketch I Used:

The page I made:

 Supplies I used were all from my October Counterfeit Kit:
Swirly gray background paper was the backside of the Heidi Swapp, "The Lounge", and the green stripes were the backside of the Heidi Swapp "Groovin". I used a black glitter pumpkin border from the KI Memories Wicked border stickers, We R Memory Keepers Blackout felt border, a green ZVA bling flourish, an assortment of Primas from my kit, along with some of the Basic Grey Eerie brads, and a black and a few brass brads the chipboard letter stickers are American Crafts Thickers.
I am also sharing a page that I made with another sketch from Creative Scrappers.
The sketch I used, #175:

The page I made :

I still need to do some journaling, but I love the way it turned out so far!The supplies were all from my October Main kit: the back of the Echo Park Life Is Good "Bold Stripes", the polka dot and flowered paper is Crate Paper Emma's Shoppe "Dresses" (both sides), and used some border stickers and letter stickers from the Echo Park Life is Good Element and Alpha Stickers, pink satin homemade flower, some of my digital elements that I printed out on sticker paper for my kit: a Cosmo Cricker "Gluber" flower, and a yellow journaling spot from Echo Park's Digital collections, and pink Thickers that I used my pearl colored paint dabber on.

If you'll check back, I'll be sure to share the rest of my October pages through the next week, I promise ;-). Thanks for stopping by today!

Bubble Beauty

Just a Quick share of the page I made for this week's Sketch Inspiration sketch.

The sketch:

Here is my layout:

I will probably add some journaling in the near future, but for now, it is what it is...

All supplies used were from my September Counterfeit Kit ,with the exception of the black Thickers, which came from my August Counterfeit Kit.

Supplies used: patterned cardstock is The Girls Paperie Paper Girl "Green Brocade", I diecut the label shape with my Cricut and SCAL from the cream Co'oredinations Woodgrain Embossed Cardstock, and inked it with a petal shaped Martha Stewart leaf colored ink pad, then added the American Crafts Thickers (I had to get a little creative with the green fabric ones, since I didn't have an "L"-could you tell?), I also used peach and green hand-dyed shabby seam binding, a peach handmade flower ( I made it with the Cricut Mother's Day Bouquet cart), and a green ZVA pearl flourish.

My favorite part about this layout is definantly the photos, since I am really working on improving my photography skills, and I feel like these are some of my more successful attempts.

Family...

I love my family more than anything else!And I rarely get to scrap photos that I am in, so it was so much fun to scrap this one of my brother,sisters, and me. I was inspired by a couple of challenges for this page: A sketch (#172) from Creative Scrappers, and the challenge from The Paper Variety to "make a monochromatic creation using your favorite color"- my favorite color is blue of all shades (aqua, navy, sea blue, periwinkle (my wedding colors were periwinkle and white), teal, sky....I could go on and on...

This is the way I do monochromatic-a few different shades of the color I am using, mixed in and tempered with a good bit of neutrals (kraft, cream, and black in this case):

Supplies used for this layout:

Lily Bee Designs This&That "Milk Bottle" patterned cardstock,Lily Bee This&That banner stickers, ZVA cream pearl flourish, handmade blue houndstooth (made with Lindsay's Stamp Stuff Uptown Houndstooth digi paper) flower, a sky blue glittered cardstock punchout border from Colorbok's Flea Market Punchout pad, American Crafts puffy black Thickers, scraps of cream shimmer and kraft cardstock, pale aqua pearls from the wedding section at Hobby Lobby, and an ANCIENT quote from one of those DCWV vellum quote stacks (this was one of my earlier scrapbooking obsessions-I loved those stacks-not that I used them much ;-p  ). I mounted the quote on another scrap of the cream shimmer cardstock and inked the edges with Tim Holtz Sapphire Distress Ink, and attached it with pop dots to make it stand out.

Handmade Flower Mini Tutorial:

Here is a closer look at my handmade flower:

For this flower, I first printed out this paper from my Counterfeit digi kit:

I printed it out on 8 1/2 by 11 white cardstock first, then I cut out the 6 pt flower on the Mother's Day Bouquet Cricut Cartridge (last flower on the right, third row down) in several different sizes, starting at 2 3/4, and then stepping down a quarter inch at a time, with the exception of the last one, which is 1/2 to 3/4 smaller than the previous layer. I misted each layer of petals with Sea Glass and Turquoise Glimmer Mist, and then dried with my heat embossing tool. I scrunched and shaped the petals with my fingers (another idea would be to use an icepick or pencil), then glued them on top of one another, offsetting the petals, with my trusty hot glue gun. I put Crystal Stickles on a paintbrush and dabbed it on the edges of the petals and left the flowers alone to dry over night. I really do have to say, this is such a fun way to use those digi papers that you are hoarding!! Try it out-you can even flip the paper over and print on the other side for your own double sided paper!

Time for some Scrappy Fun!

I finally got to play with some more of those awesome goodies from August's kit, and I participated in some of the fun challenges I have seen out and aound on the web! Here is the layout that I made, using this week's sketch from My Creative Sketches (a fantastic new sketch blog!). I was also inspired by The Paper Variety's Favorite Things Challenge, "Use Your Favorite Photo" (I love, love, love this photo of my son, it captures his personality so perfectly!).
The Sketch:

My layout, "Special Son":

 A Close Up of One of my Embellishent Clusters:

Suplies I used for this page:
Pink Paislee Butterfly Gardens "Dew Drops", a white paper Doily (Wiltons), punch out borders, journaling card, letters (brown), and word "Special" from the Colorbok Flea Market punch out pad, a Prima flower, a Spare Parts Antique Flower brad, a brown button and Bazzill brown corduroy button Flower from my September kit, and the remainder of a brown ZVA crystal flourish.

The journaling reads:
"Evan- I just love this photo that Nicole took of you the day before Mother's Day. You eyes are windows to your sweet spirit. Love you!   May 2011"

Thank you for visiting!

Twin Sisters

When I was a little girl, I dreamed of being a twin, or having twins when I grew up. I read and reread The Sweet Valley Twins and Sweet Valley High series, and wanted so much to be like Elizabeth and Jessica, two blue-eyed blonde girls with opposite personalities. So, it is a little amusing to me that I "grew up" to have blue-eyed blonde twins myself. It's not all fun and games, but I love my little girls more than life itself! So, this page is to honor that special relationship that they have, but aren't quite aware of how lucky they are yet to have it.

Here is the sketch I used, from Sassy Lil' Sketches:

 

I also took inspiration from another of My Scrapbook Nook's challenges:

Shakespeare once wrote, “What a deformed thief this fashion is”. Here is your challenge: Steal inspiration from Elizabethian fashion, frocks made for men or for women. Think corsets, ruffled collars, doublets, leather belts, braided fabric, and more.

Inspiration photo:

And here is my layout:

I was inspired by the pattern on the top middle photo's collar-this background paper was reminiscent of it, and also added the brown bling, and the ruffled flowers remind me of the ruffles on the collars.

Close up of the embellishments:

 The supplies I used (all from my August CKCB kits):

SEI Chocolat "Nougat" paper (reverse side), Pink Paislee Butterfly Gardens "Botanical Gardens", 2 pink Prima fabric flowers, 2 Brenda Walton for K&CO layered butterfly stickers, bits I trimmed from a brown/amber ZVA Flourish for the butterfly trails, brown letter stickers from the Echo Park Walk In The Park collection, pink Making Memories Chipboard letter stickers, pink rick rack border and "Laughter" punch out die cuts from the Colorbok Flea Market pad.

Thanks for visiting with me this morning, be sure to drop back in on the 27th (Saturday) for my Counterfeit Kit Design Team Blog Hop post!

My Beautiful Daughter

The Sketch I Used (from Stuck On U Sketches):

My Layout:

Close Up of my flowers and embellishments:



This layout also qualifies for the Stuck On U Sketches Challenge to Use Die-cuts : the frame behind the photo, the journaling card, the word, "beautiful" ,  and the borders (all premade die cuts from the Colorbok Flea Market Punch-out pad).

I also used: Pink Paislee Butterfly Gardens, "Butterfly Wings", a paper lace doily, a brown crystal ZVA flourish, a K&Co. "Rose" sticker, Basic Grey painted brads, pink Primas and tiny pink roses that I made with a punch and scraps for my August Kit, American Crafts Thickers chipboard letters, and a partial sheet of the Pink Paislee Botanical Gardens (the pale pink), which I distressed on the edges with my scissors.

The journaling says: " Almost 12 in this photo, you are growing up so fast, and becoming a beautiful young lady. I have noticed quite a change this year in the way you act, and an increased self-consciousness. Stay confident, you are beautiful!" I just wrote a note from my heart as a little reminder for my 12 year old, who is growing and changing so much before my eyes. Let your kids know how much you love them, they need to hear it!

Finishing Up My Layouts for July

 Well, I made myself a rather large kit to use for July, so I have been busy as a bee this week trying to use up as much of my kit as possible. And then, on  last Wednesday, my computer crashed. I had to do a complete system recovery because Windows would not even start up.  So, I lost all of the photos that I have taken this month, includung my layout photos, which I had to redo. Which means you will get a big post with all the rest of my layout photos that I have for the month!
"Sunday Morning Together" layout:

A Close Up of Flower Cluster:

It was Based On This Sketch From Stuck On U Sketches:


Evan at the Beach layout:

 I based it on a Page Maps Sketch

"Gotcha" layout, based on another Pagemaps sketch that I missed the deadline for:

 
"Inky Fingers" layout:

based on sketch from Creative Scrappers, #165:

"Need A Nap?" layout:

A Close Up:

Based On Sketch 130 from The Scrappiest

"Preparation" layout:

Based on Sketch from Stuck Sketches
"Sweet" Layout:

A Close-up of my Crepe Paper Handmade Rosette:

"Radio Flyer" layout (I still have to get the picture printed for this one!):

Based On Sketch 230 from Sketch Inspirations:

"Time For Tea" Layout:
A Close Up Of the Embellies:

It was based on this Sketch from Creative Scrappers, :

"Rebound King" Layout:

Whew! Now on to next Month! Thanks for sticking with me, I promise I will try to spread the layouts out more next time! Come back on the Sixth for my newest Counterfeit Kit reveal!