Sketch Challenge Layout

Hi everyone,  I was just dying to scrap but was short on time so did what I usually do in those circumstances... I went with a sketch.  I followed along with the April Week 1 sketch over at Let's Get Sketchy.

Here's the sketch:

And here is my take:

Thanks for stopping by!!

Jen

Project Life process video

A quick post to let you know I got a process video done today and uploaded.  I used up the scraps from my January Hip Kit to get 2 weeks of my January Project Life done.

Thanks for stopping by!  Next up is a walk through of my portable Project Life bag that I take with me whenever I have to hang out for a while waiting on my kiddos.

Jen

Another couple layouts with my January Hit Kit

Hi everyone!

Unfortunately illness and crop prep have hit my house (I sort of associate them both with bad feelings, haha!!!) so I have been MIA a bit.  Here are 2 layouts I did recently and apologize they did not get posted here.  It is hard to post everywhere...

This first was a white on white challenge from the Hip Kit forum on Facebook.  I also have a Process Video for this one:

This second layout I do not have a process video for as I had a wee incident with my platform :)  I had fun using the chipboard and cut apart sheet from Crate Paper Love Notes. I am not a huge pink person so this is just the right balance for me.

 I also use the super cute roller stamp from Dear Lizzy that came in the embellishment kit to stamp that "love" on the blue tag.

The You and Me phrase stickers are from the Dear Lizzy alphabet and the "remember this" is from the Elle's Studio cork embellishments that were both in the main kit.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Up next, I am doing a video and blog post on how I prep for a crop.  While I really get frustrating when I am doing it (as I would much rather scrap than prep!!!) it means I get a TON done at a crop and used to get 30-40 layouts done at a weekend crop.  I am only going on a 12-hour crop this Saturday but over prepping is NOT a bad thing!! It means I have leftovers to make scrapping at home super fast and easy.

Jen

Second layout with the January Hip kit

Here is my 2nd layout using this month's kit.  I will be totally honest, I REALLY struggled with this layout!!  I did some misting, gesso, 3 discarded backgrounds, changed the orientation, changed BACK the orientation to finally land here.  And here I am good with.  It is not quite where I had wanted it but... it highlights the photo and that was really what I had wanted.  I think I was just struggling with the floral paper from Heidi Swapp.  It is stunningly beautiful and even though this has just one, relatively simple, photo... I was stuggling to keep the paper from being the star.  I ended up gessoing it a bit (a bit unevenly but think I kind of like that actually).  It softened it just a bit and let me move on to finishing it.

You can't tell from the photos, despite me really trying, that there is a very faint pink mist on the upper half.  It is white cardstock that looked just a bit too stark white so I actually sprayed Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Blush on a baby wipe and gently dabbed it on.  It is very soft and gave me the look I was going for (I had really wanted just a very soft pink cs but did not have any!).

Oh, I almost forgot to mention!! I used the current sketch (#424) from Scrapbook Challenges to get me started on this layout.  I only had 1 photo though so changed it up a bit that way.

Thanks for stopping by!!  I should be back tomorrow with a HUGE HUGE HUGE project I have been working... photographing my entire 2014 album series. Wow, if I even feel like I don't get to scrap enough... I will just go take photos of 3 albums full of creations again.

Jen

Check out my YouTube Channel!

First layout with the January Hip Kit

Here is my first layout using my January Hip Kit.  I have been a subscriber here since October (started with the November kit) and I could NOT be happier with them.  I find the kits always have so many amazing papers and coordinating products... I am never at a loss creatively and in fact, if you see my previous posts about how I killed my November and December kits you will see I used them to the max!!!

This layout I did with a photo I took in early May of 2014.  I was sitting on our comfy chairs on the front porch enjoying some "porch sitting" as we call it.  It is just our time to sit and be quiet or my husband and I will sit together and talk or read or whatever.  It is like our "adult room" so to speak. Our place to get a break and take a breath and think.  We love our boys to death but... with work, school, kids, activities and now the uglies of puberty starting ... a break is so necessary sometimes :)

Here is my layout:

Such soft pretty colours in this new Dear Lizzy Serendipity line. I could not resist immediately using this pink/rose gold background paper. The border along the top of the page was fussy cut from the B side of that paper which was a pink notebook-style page that had a pink scallop border on the top.  I layered it up with some other papers from that collection and the Kraft Hello Love paper from Amy Tangerine Stitched.  This was finished with that stunning Crate Paper "Kiss Kiss" chipboard tag (isn't that chunky gold glitter killer?!) The puffy pink scallop and "love this" stickers are also from Dear Lizzy as are the "shine" script word and gold hearts which were from the December kit (also from the same line).

Thanks for stopping by!!

Jen

Check out my YouTube Channel!!

"Kill a Kit" using the December 2014 Hip Kit

Hi everyone!  I certainly had a heck of a good time playing with my December Hip Kit!!  I had such a good time that all I really had left were some branding strips.  And I actually have plans for those (check out this killer sketch, perfect for these!!)

So without further ado, here is my video showing you all my layouts and I will include stills here as well.

And there you have it. A kit successfully killed. I forgot to take a photo of what was left of my kit but do show it at the end of the video... so, you will have to go watch it!! :)

Thanks for stopping by!!

Jen

Grid layout and process video

Good morning scrappy peeps!!  I have a layout and process video to share with you today.  This was made using the December Hip Kit.  Sorry, I think they are all sold out but the February ones are up and are fabulous!!

Here are some stills:

And here is the process video I just uploaded to YouTube:

Thanks for stopping by!!

Jen

November Hip Kit - "Kill a Kit"

Hi everyone!  I am back and have LOTS to share.  First off, I'm pretty excited to say I started doing You Tube videos.  I've been a chicken about doing them and now that I have a few done I can say they are not as hard as I thought... although editing the first couple was not pretty :)

My very first video was this "Kill a Kit" video for my November Hip Kit.

I have not yet gone back to my Project Life pages but can tell you I have barely any scraps left at all!  I actually did something I haven't done before and cut up the whole 12x12 sheets to fit the pockets and used the entire sheet on one layout (rather than individual cards).  Then I am going to just embellish each differently.

Here are the still shots of all the layouts I got done with this kit. I truly had so much fun playing with it.

Also a process video on this last layout (my very first process video, sorry, I KNOW I sound a wee bit frustrated with my voiceover issues... I'm over it now! LOL)

I will be back tomorrow with a Project Life blog post.  I did a couple of videos on "my" process for Project Life and also how I used up my December Hip Kit for the first couple weeks in January.  I love doing this as then my layouts and PL "match".  I also just did my "Kill The Kit" video for my December Hip Kit so watch for that soon.

(and let me tell you I REALLY do not care that much about the matching and only recently have started doing this.  But... I will admit it looks nice)

Thanks SO much for stopping by, please let me a comment or question!

Jen

12 Days of Christmas - Day 3!!!!

So, let me start by saying one thing first. I am dumbfounded I have done 3 layouts in 3 days.  Seriously.  And 3 I like!  But I am going to just ride the wave and enjoy it.  (while also believing this can't possibly happen a 4th day in a row... or can it?)

The fun challenge for Day 3 of Victoria Marie's 12 Days of Christmas challenge is "Three awesome die cuts (or more)!"  So... I went to town and there are more die cuts on this layout than I may EVER have done before. I borrowed VERY heavily for the concept from a layout Irit Landgraf over on the Hip Kit design team in October.  She had used die cuts and other pieces all around a square photo.  It was really fun, like a reverse puzzle. I started with that blue snowflake tag and just kept picking up and putting down all the pieces from the Elle's Studio die cut, wood veneer and cut-apart sheet until I was happy with how it looked.

BTW, super happy coincidence that the advent calendar on the picture (a CTMH kit from about 3 years ago) was all red, green and blue, the same as the Elle's Studio pieces.

There are also some very tiny sprinkles of Heidi Swapp Color Shine mist in Citron and Blush to pull in a bit more of the lime green and pink.  (and I believe I am actually in capable of doing a layout without adding color shine).

Here it is:

Thanks for stopping by!

Jen 

12 Days of Christmas - Day 2!!

The second day of Victoria Marie's 12 day of Christmas challenge is mixed 2 fonts! Well, as the proud owner of 100+ sets of Thickers (who am I kidding, it's like more like 200+)... this was an easy challenge for me :)  I used my November Hip Kit for this as well.  Only additions were the Thickers as the totally adorable striped ones that came with... I just couldn't get to work on this :(

Here is my layout:

Thanks for stopping by!

Jen

12 days of Christmas challenge - Day 1

I'm participating in the 12 Days of Christmas challenge over on the Victoria Marie FB page.  Our first day's challenge was to use distress ink in a new way.  As I've only ever really used it to ink the edges of my stuff... for me, pretty much any other way was going to be new :) haha.

But, I really wanted to try it with a stencil to get a soft, starry kind of look.  I took these photos Sunday night while we were setting up the Xmas tree. I asked everyone to pick their favourite ornament as we were decorating and I snapped a pic.

AND... hurray, I finally cut into my brand spanking new, first time I got it Hip Kit!!!  The November kit is so pretty with reds, blues, pinks and a touch of green.  I actually got a wee bit stuck too as... I wanted to use EVERYTHING all at once and that would have been a disasterous page :)  So I took overnight to step back and go... it's OKAY, you can use the other pretty things on the NEXT page.  Anyone else have that problem?  I am pretty pleased on the stepping back and how the page turned out.

Here it is:

Thanks for stopping by!

Jen

Hip Kit Weekend Challenge

So, I am totally in love with the Hip Kit club :)  I haven't even USED one of their kits yet (been using up my October kits) and I love them!  haha...  Their DT post something daily for inspiration and almost always with a process video.  Heaven.  They do WEEKLY challenges with a prize.  Heaven.  They have gorgeous kits that do not take 3 weeks to get to me.  (and this is NOT the fault of any previous kit clubs I have been in. At ALL! We are just on the same coast of North America and that means way faster shipping).

Today I played along with their weekend challenge from Nov 14th.  It was a recipe challenge to use:

• 1 cardstock (white)
• 3 patterned papers (scraps from October)
• 1 tag (black and white)
• wood veneer pieces (arrow, clip, totally missed star that I see I somehow didn't put on)
• some bits and pieces (die cuts) (tucked in all over)
• something gold ( heat embossed all around the edges, gold arrows)
• 1 rub-on or one stamp sentiment (3 rub-ons - I NEVER use rub ons, yay me)

And here is my layout:

Thanks for stopping by!!

Jen

Pumpkin Carving

Okay, I have been sucking at keeping this up to date. I have been creating (albeit slowly) lately and not posting so I will try to start posting, even if it's a quick photo.

Here is my latest using my Scraptastic and Gossamer Blue kits from October.

I have also been trying to decide on what kit club I want to go with.  I had incredibly specific things I was looking for and after several months of looking I finally figured it out.  Here's what I was looking for:

1.  No stamps included - I rarely stamp on my layouts (to be honest, on ANYTHING) so didn't want a stamp included as the cost of that included means less other product in the kit.

2.  No or very little cardstock (and if cardstock neutral usable cardstock).  I have an entire Expedit cube full of 12 x 12 cardstock from years of kits and I never use any other than white, cream, kraft and occasionally grey.  So again, I don't need more and cost of this means less other stuff.

3.  Thickers - It's a weakness so I wanted them in every kit OR at bare minimum not other alphas that I'll never use (too big or not usable colours).

4.  A fantastic DT and active kit club members!  Part of the awesomeness of being part of a kit club is being inspired by the DT's creations and by others in the club using the kits. I'm a busy lady, and inspiration helps a lot.

5.  New product.   I am also on a BUDGET so getting the latest and greatest in my kits means I spend far less on the product I wanted but didn't think I was getting in kits (and when it shows up in kits months later and I bought it... sooooo annoying).

6.  Shipping doesn't take forever.  I'm in Canada and most kit clubs are not.  Shipping can mean I wait weeks for the kit everyone in the States got only days after release. That, to put it bluntly, sucks.

So, what kit did I land on?  I'm excited to say the Hip Kit Club.  Their DT do process videos constantly (not on my list but a huge bonus) and it met every single picky thing I was looking for.  I just received their November kit which is excellent.  It's got lots of Xmas-y stuff in it and I have LOTS of October kit stuff left to use so I will continue to post my creations from the October kits for the next while and as we move into the Xmas season... you will see my Hip Kit creations coming soon.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jen