Creative Scrappers - Sketch 255

Sorry, a quick break in my studio tour to post my version of the CS Sketch 255.  I need to retake the layout shot tomorrow (it's evening here so I can't get a shot without a shade of me in front of the light!) but wanted to post.

Here is the original sketch:



And here is my version!  I used a mix of the Sept & Oct Noel Mignon kits as well as some Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Navy (from the new Nov kit as I just could NOT keep my hands off of it!!).

Here's a close up of the top embellishments. I kept this layout pretty simple.  This was my son's1st birthday (the aftermath of his first cake eating) so finally got to use this wood veneer 1!!

Close up of the title and large star. Can you see how GORGEOUS the new Heidi Swapp navy is?  Oh I'm in love!!!

Be back soon with the rest of my studio tour!

Jen

Kit Storage

Sorry it took me so long to get back to this. I had company all last week and... well, I wasn't able to sneak away up here and finish this off.  So here I go again now!

First, my last 2 months of kits are stored in empty Project Life page protector boxes.  This is a relatively newer system I'm working on.  You can see them there:

To the right of my Project Life stuff there are boxes with labels you can't read :)  I use a bit of washi tape on the ends and label them with the month and name of the kit that is in it.  These are my Sept and Oct Noel Mignon kits - which is my montly scrapbook kit and the only kit I get currently. These kits are HUGE and keep me more than going all month long for both layouts and Project Life spreads! 

So here's what is in these boxes:

Not so helpful but that's the view from the top.  I completely and TOTALLY stole this method from Tracey Banks (Mercy Tiara).  She hangs up her alphas and long sheets on a peg board while I leave it all in the box but otherwise, stolen from seeing her work in her You Tube process videos. And ironically, about 2 weeks after I started this, she did a video about her kit storage.  It was funny as I'd pieced it together first! (wish I'd been lazier and waited until after this video... but I didn't know she was doing it, LOL)

So the bottom of the box has my cardstock, then patterned paper (this kit is well used), then my alphas. This kit has a photo tucked in as I was messing with a layout and it all got shoved back into the box. The ENTIRE REASON I use this method.  Easy, fast clean up but it's all still right there when I am ready to pull the box down again.

So, the silver tray has the larger embellishments in it.

The crystal dish has the smaller embellishments in it. All easy to find and poke around in.  My very wonderful and thoughtful friend Sweet Scrapista bought me the tray and dish.  I had told her I started using this for kits and funnily enough so had she (and we hadn't even talked about it with each other!!).  So when she saw these, she bought them and sent them to me.  BEST SCRAPPY GIFT EVER!!

So there you have it, my kit trays.  Once I get the majority of the kit used up or am just ready to move on, I put all the stuff left into my stash and the next month's kit goes into the tray.

This method now means I don't need to store a lot of kits elsewhere but the few I do have from before are all in one of the blue cubes in my expedit:

Next post will be my new method for embellishments!  I hang them all on book rings.  It's new, I love it and I am USING UP so much stuff cause I can see it and it doesn't take me long to find anything.

Until then...

Jen

PL Sunday

Well, I kept going on Saturday with my Project Life spreads.  I did clean my office too (I'll post a pic on Monday) but most got done on the floor as I used up bits and pieces rather than having to put them away.  It's motivating when you know you need to clean... I use up so much stash that way :)

This week I had a full "side" but had a couple extra pictures I also wanted to use.  Rather than trying to fill up another full page protector I found an insert to put in the few extra pictures.

I look at it now and see I really was cramming a lot in so likely just doing a double page spread would have worked better with a couple filler cards.  Oh well.  Used mostly Elle's Studio on this one.

Here's the front side of the insert for the same week.  We had all gotten new shoes the weekend before and I thought it was cute we all had New Balance so took a picture. It also surprised me with how BIG my boys feet are now.  Not so very far off from adult sized shoes!

Filler cards, a picture of a friend's baby wearing a sweater I bought when she was born (bought it big as they didn't have any smaller sizes but was SO cute I had to send it!!)

Also used this "everything is going to be OK" card as life was very hectic and crazy and I was feeling it a LOT this week.

Here the next week.  My youngest and I were fighting colds so got a shot of our bodum of tea (we drank a LOT of it all week to help with congestion and achy bodies)  I also got a few random everyday shots of us.  A Costco run, my son doing school work, a failed dinner where we ended up having tuna melts as the chicken wasn't ready, a cool display of apples in a grocery store.  I also documented our ferry ride to Vancouver.  We live on an island but it's big and has most everything here so... I think we forget sometimes it is an island!

And here is the next week (and caught up now to the spread I posted Saturday!).  Again, taking pictures of everyday things; T to B, L to R, : big grocery shop that I prepped for easy dinners, my son at art class, my first attempt at making calzones, me at the hairdresser finally getting my hair done after months and months of having to cancel appts, my husband WAY up on a scary ladder changing the light bulb on our 2nd story ceiling fan (and cleaning it for me, yuck!!), my brother and niece, a Skype call with them and a gorgeous shot my husband took of Mt Baker when we were out doing family pictures that weekend.

This layout incoorporates Scraptastic, Simon Says Stamp and Noel Mignon kits!!  

Happy Scrapping! 

Jen

Happy Scrappy Saturday!

Hi all!  I have some time today to scrap (also have a huge to-do list too...) so my first goal was to clean my scrap space up so I can work on my work space rather than the floor (as the work space is covered in piles from unpacking from a crop last month!!).  But I was mid-PL spread so I did that first, LOL.  On the floor.  Oh well. It's done and I'm happy.  NEXT I am cleaning up my scrap space.

Anyways, here is my PL for Oct 7-14.  I usually do just 1 side per week but this was a long weekend (Thanksgiving in Canada) so I did both sides as we wandered and took pictures over the weekend.

Here's the full spread!  I used bits from my Noel Mignon October kit and from the September Scraptastic This Life Noted grab bag (didn't buy the full kit, just the cards).  Think they worked quite well together.  I try not to buy must PL-specific stuff as: 1. I'm on a budget and my Noel Mignon kits take up that budget but also provide me with ALL the stuff I need to scrap all month long! 2. As I have a ROOM FULL of supplies and scraps and embellishments so I really don't need more stuff when I can just use that.

 Here is the left side.  I had my son fill in the details on his field trip.  (which unfortunately he did while distracted by the tv, should have removed him to elsewhere!)  But I'm glad his voice is on here and I added the postcard he'd hung onto after the field trip.  It's sideways but I don't care.  I wasn't with him on the field trip so happy to include something.

 This is the right side.  Our long weekend adventures (all the nature pictures) as well as a shot of our non-traditional Thanksgiving dinner (long story) and a picture of my niece.  She lives a day's drive away so I love getting pictures of her from my brother and SIL. I try to include special ones in our PL layouts. (this one is her first solid food).  She always has the funniest expressions on her face.

Hope you are all having a great weekend. It's overcast and cool here... so perfect scrapping weather!  (and chore weather, and get some school work done weather, and finish putting up the Halloween decorations weather, and... )

Jen

Noel Mignon - October Sketch

HI all,

A quick post to show you my October sketch challenge layout.  I snuck it in on Friday.  I altered Julie's sketch just a bit as I had 3 photos I wanted to use.  This is using the September kit.

Here is Julie's sketch:

And here is my take on it!

Wee bit busy photos but in person it is much easier to see (and I was rushing a bit and took this at a terrible time of day... oops).  The journalling tells about how when the big group of us does New Year's together we do appies all night (rather than dinner) and the adults play canasta and the kids play video games. Then we gather together close to midnight to watch the Seattle space needle fireworks on tv and have champagne.

Keep scrapping!!

Jen

Taking inspiration...

Evening all.  I have a confession.  My little happy morning routine (almost every morning) is to grab a cup of coffee (or when I'm super lucky my hubbie BRINGS it to me!) and sit in bed and watch YouTube videos about scrapbooking.  I'm not a rise-and-shiner.  I don't wake up ready to face the day and JUMP out of bed ready to take on the world. What I am is a slow-to-wake, need a bit of time to get my brain functioning, person.  I need some caffeine and I don't need someone talking at me.  Well, at least not so I have to talk back at least.  So this little routine for 10-20 minutes sipping my coffee and soaking in some scrappy inspiration works very awesome for me :)

This morning I was watching the Two Peas videos (hurray there is a new one almost every day... special request for a Sunday one too, please...LOL) and today's particular one wasn't my "style" but I am learning to watch them anyways as while I might not want to do an exact scraplift (which I am completely incapable of... but that's another blog post in itself...) I do always pull something from each and every video I watch.

So, I super hope she doesn't mind (or take offense) but I wanted to post todays and what I pulled from it. Here is today's layout from Celine Navarro (see it HERE in the 213 in 2013 video series).

And here is what I pulled from this layout (which is a LOT when I typed it all out):

1. 6 horiztonal photos in a collage taking up approx 1/3 of the page.
2. Could print two sets of these on a 12x12 print and save $$ but also get 2 layouts from it OR a double layout.
3. This would be a very easy convert to a double layout.
4. Mixing the colour and B&W shots looks really cool.  Need to try!
5. Layering PL-style cards.  Would be a very easy layout to get done and/or to use up extra PL cards.  While watching I had an immediate idea to do this top and bottom and layer my title over it.  Must try!
6. BIG title on the Silhouette is super striking.  Like the mix of fonts too.
7. Not a colour scheme I might have tried on my own but love the mix of bold green, yellow, black, white, grey and hints of the teal.  
8. The camera welded onto the title lettering is super cute.  Can't say I would have thought to do that.
9. Mating the entire layout on that red background.  Rather than centering it she's justified it to the left and just see the red top/bottom/right.  NEVER done that but like it. 

Think that's it but likely later something else will fly into my mind when I least expect it :)  If it does, I'll try to come back and add it.

***EDIT: Sept 3, 2013

Ended up having a brain wave with a layout that has been sitting out for a while and used elements from this to finish it.  Can you see what I pulled?

Happy scrapping!

Jen

And ode... to Dance-Cleaning...

Yes, dance-cleaning.  Yes, I just made that up :)  But that is what I do!  I crank up the tunes and clean.  Makes it way more fun for me and Runaway Baby by Bruno Mars is my fav.  I ALWAYS start with that song on.  I'm lucky enough to have speakers wired into my kitchen so I can plug in my iPhone and hit play.

And here's a layout I did to document this quirk of mine (that I have been doing since I was a teenager!!).  It was a challenge over at Noel Mignon to use song lyrics on a page.  I am very sure she didn't mean like this but this song immediately popped into my head and I had the really funny idea to make this layout.  I ALSO (multi-tasking mama) scrap-lifted a Pea (the weekly challenge over at Two Peas in a Bucket) in making this layout and the original layout by hollystar is HERE.

Enjoy and have a scrappy day!!

Jen

imagine. create. inspire.

Yee- ha... rodeo...

Okay, it's a bike rodeo not a rodeo rodeo but still, it's fun to say Yee-HA!  My boys are in different schools as a result of our move in December so I went and volunteered at both rodeos. Result... next to impossible to help and take pictures at the same time.  End result... totally crap pictures :)  But I managed one of each boy on their bikes and thus made the best of it.

This is mainly using the Summer Wind kit from Noel Mignon (bought limited edition, sorry don't know what month!) which was fabulous.  Lots of My Minds Eye which I love.  MME and Pink Paislee are really catching my eye lately!!

Fairly simple layout this time with an approx 10.5x10.5 block of pp and a mat for the 2-4x6 photos.  I layered in a few cards, some border strips, a piece of washi tape to hide that my photo didn't quite fit properly (oops on the cutting) and done.

imagine. create. inspire.

Jen

August Sketch Challenge

Well, I took so long to get the July one done I thought I'd do the August one right away :)  Here is my take on the August sketch challenge over at Noel Mignon.  I changed it up a bit as their's had circles and I continued the banner theme and added the triangles pointing to the picture.  I journaled right onto the page which is new to me and a bit hard at first to just put pen to paper.  But think it looks okay and next time I'll do better.

My fav thing about this layout? (other than the colours and that this is another 2011 one done!) Is that I finally stamped on a layout!!  I always see people doing it, think it looks great and then don't.  So I finally did. Helped that the August kit had a fabulous little stamp set in it (Dear Lizzy by American Crafts - the camera and the "Smile")

imagine.  create.  inspire.

Jen

PS: Please leave me a comment with your blog address.  I'd love to see what you are working on!!

Hi All!  I did the July sketch challenge over at Noel Mignon and wanted to post the result.  Here's her sketch:

  And here is mine:

Enjoy!!