Next on the Blog Hope Challenge: Chirper Challenge and Scrapbooks & Stuff

The challenge for Chirper Challenge is here and the challenge for Scrapbooks & Stuff is posted here.
As time is running out for me and this blog hop I have cramps in my fingers, blisters, and chapped lips.  Well that's from licking them so much while I work!  Didn't know how bad that habit was!!!!  So here is my LO.

I am not really thrilled how this looks digitally, it looks "Sweet" in person!  A little Napolean Dynamite for you!  Anyway......I used Berry Sweet papers for the the LO and cut the font with my Craft ROBO.  I then used Autumn Leaves: Stampology clear stamps; Flowers by Rhonna Farrer.  I used the stamps with glue and then put glitter on them.  I colored in the rest with SU pens and used an EK success butterfly punch for the butterflies.  I don't have any of those cool colored staples (wish I did) so I embroidered the little fiber at the top and bottom of the vertical paper slice. 
The pictures were edited with Photoshop Elements 7.0 and I used "diffuse glow" effect.  It looks much better in person and less creepy!  This was taken a few days after my daughter's 1st birthday, May, 2008.

Blog Hope Challenge for SPCC and Sew Many Cards

I decided to combint the two challenges together.  See Scrapmaster's Paradise Color Combos challenge here and Sew Many Cards' challenge here.
This was a difficult challenge for me as chalking is not my strong suit.  But I did it anyway and it turned out okay.  I like the colors that were in the challenge. 

I used SU cardstock, pens, and chalks.  I happen to have some brads and fiber that matched as well.  I think I'll send this card to a relative I haven't talked to in a while to cheer them up! 

Scrapbook Trends Current Call

I got an e-mail from Scrapbook Trends and they are looking for layouts for their March 2010 magazine.  The link for the site is here.

Blog Hop Challenge From Whimsical Scraps and Bugs

Whimsical Scraps and Bugs challenged their blog readers to make a Halloween themed goodie bag label.  This is my take on the challenge.

      I don't have anything that embosses paper so I spritzed it with water and pressed it down on a large stamp that had bumpy-swirly texture.  I didn't have the Cricut cart with the marquee cut so I had to exacto the thing out of black paper!  I used a font called "D" for the letters.  The spiderweb is from Digital Designs by Stephanie.  I had to glue black ribbon on the orange and trying to tie it to that blasted clip was fun!  Slippery ribbon!  I used Martha Stewart onyx and fire opal glitter for the web bling.  I am not able to go shop as my foot is still recovering so I had to use some old milk duds I had!  Well, don't worry, they won't go to waste. ;)

Creative Twist Blog Hop Challenge

The next project I have completed was from Creative Twist.

........ here is your challenge for my site. I would like for you to use the following title for some sort of inspiration on your page. LETS GET DOWN AND DIRTY- for a little help I think of children playing in the mud :) For taking the time to visit during the blog hop this week, I am giving away a JoAnn's gift card to ONE lucky winner, whose name I will draw next Friday, October 2.

Here is my take on their challenge:

My daughter was enjoying eating Bar-B-Que and chicken.  She really got into it!  But look at that look of mischief!

I used a layout design from Scrap Sketch .

I used red embossed paper to match the BBQ sauce and then the greenish-blue to match my daughter's eyes and the bib.  I used distress ink to make the paper dirty and used a font called "A Da** Mess" and cut it out with my Craft ROBO.  I put distressed ink on it and then chalked white and light green on it.  It turned out feeling and looking really grungy and cool!  The larger rectangle and circle are Bo Bunny from a couple years ago.  Stickers are K and Company. Other paper is Creative Memories, I believe.  Gel pens were used for the rest of the title.  I had total scrapper's block about what to use for the decorative embellishment on the left so I will add something later.  Has to be juuuuuust right!    

The Crafting Pot Entry for the Blog Hop Challenge

Here's what they say over at The Crafting Pot:
Our Challenge:

For our challenge we are Kickin' It Old School Scrapbook Style.... put away your cricuts, your cuttlebugs and all the nifty gadgets you have received over the years and step with us into the waaaaay back machine... we are talking fiskars shape scissors... mrs. grossman stickers... pre cut page boarders.... back when your page shapes were circles, squares, rectangles and triangles. When your circle cutter involved a pane of glass, and exacto knife and a bowl... when you used stencils... traced them and cut them out by hand... when we journaled to fill empty space...

Do you remember those days? We sure do!

So break out your 8 1/2 x 11 or 12 x 12 scrapbook pages, those basic papers... put all your fancy tools and gadgets away and create an OLD SKOOL layout...

Here's my Old Skool Layout! I am so shy about putting it up because that was not my image at all back then!!!

I used to work at a ShopKo and they were having glamour (sp?) shots and so I was talked into getting them.  Apart from the experience being very corny to me I really had big hair, eh?  I had to put on 4 coats of mascara!
I inherited a box of old scrapbooking stuff that was a mish mash of old Creative Memories stuff, old premade cutouts, pattern and shape scissors, glue stick, shape templates, and well everything you see on here.  I even added some goopy gel pen journaling in neon pink!  Remember when writing on black paper became cool? 
So I  hope you enjoy this LO from the Crafting Pot Blog Hop Challenge!  I had so much fun making this one!  I felt 18 again!!!!

My first Scrap Recipe Layout

I have decided to take a break from the current album I am working on(my husband's life up to before we met) to make a recipe scrapbook of holiday recipes I love. Here is the first page. I am also going to enter this little thing in the Just Buggin' Blog Hop Challenge.

Our Challenge for the Blog Hop is simple: Use any die cut on your project but you have to ALTER IT! That's right, don't just slap your plain old die cut on your project! Jazz it up a bit first. Your die cut can be from ANY die cut machine, it doesn't have to be a Cricut die cut.

I used my Craft ROBO to cut the words on this page. I had to cut the outline and glued four copies of each word over the outline to create a raised "chipboard" look.  I used a brownish metallic paper, so if you zoom in you can see the detail in it.  The leaves are from Michaels and I put glitter on the brown one.  I used autumn brads to keep the front attached to the back.  I went to allrecipes.com for the recipe.  The green tape ribbon is from Michaels.  The picture is downloaded from the allrecipes.com site.  For the edges I used black chalk from the Stampin Up! pastels and then glitter gel pen on the very edges.  For the paper behind the picture of the pie I tore handmade rose petal paper and chalked the edges.

For the inside of the recipe card/page I took a plain piece of printer paper and used Jim Holtz Distress Inks in "antique linen" and "vintage photo".  The edges were then curled and inked darker and then outlined with glitter pen.  The catchy phrase on the upper left is matted on a red shiny fiberous paper.  The pie was cut out using my Cricut Create with the From My Kitchen cartride and then I drew drizzles of glue and put on bronzy glitter for the caramel and used paper scraps for the pecans.  The whole project is mounted on a 6 x 6 piece of dark green textured cardstock.  The red cardstock was already round with scallops and I just cut it into quarters for the rest of the album.  The glue I used is by Scotch.  It is Quick-dry Adhesive and it is awesome.  It has a very small opening in the spout and makes it so easy to glue small items.  It really doesn't seem to alter the shape of the paper like other glues in how they make it all wrinkly and such. 

More pages to come.   Please let me know what you think of this one so far. 

Take Care, Natalie
You can start from the beginning of the blog hop here: www.scrapsketch.com

Blog Hop Challenge from All About Me and the Practical Scrapper

The Blog Hop Challenge at the All About Me blog is a combination twisty loop!  I had to make a layout describing what "Color" I am.  Then the twist was to Scrap Lift (new term for me!  At least it is legal in this sense! Ha!) one of the DT (Design Team) layouts.

For my layout I chose to Scrap Lift Mette Kallander's layout and use the color brown.

I also used this layout at The Practical Scrapper.  They challenge at their site was to use die cuts.  The letters and some of the embellishments are die cuts.

I did not have the brace/bracket template or paper, so I had to create one and trace with an exacto!  My aching finger....Anyway, I used metallic light brown and that reflected a lot of light in the picture making it hard to see the journaling which says

I am Brown-Digging in the dirt-Earthy-Planting seeds-Baking for my loved ones-Chocolate-Comforting their souls-Warmth in the home-Safety-You can trust me-Feeling the bark of trees-Woodsy-Nature's gentle hue-I am Brown

I used many different scraps of brown paper I had with different textures printed an embossed on them.  I also used Jim Holtz distressed ink in Vintage Photo.  I used various embellishments I had laying around and used my Cricut to cut out the daisies, the single brown slender leaf, and the title words.  I used a Jolee's guitar embellishment and colored the leaves with distress ink, too. I altered my photo using Photoshop Elements 7 with a sepia filter, a diffuse glow filter and adjusting the color to be a more chocolaty-brown.

Blog Hop Challenge From Scrap Sketch

Here is my layout for the Blog Hop Challenge from Scrap Sketch. 

I am finishing up a scrapbook about my husband's youth and I find this challenge was a great way to inspire me to find new ways to do layouts.  I felt my layouts were starting to get less exciting.  Most of the time I do picture matting and embellishments as well as journaling and a title.  Adding the sewn or ric rak look with the brackets was something I always wanted to try.  I really wanted to use my sewing machine but it is kaput at the moment and I will get it fixed soon.

I used Blue Canopy paper and embellishments from K and Company.  The two lower flowers were cut out with my Craft ROBO.  I had to create the notebook page as I didn't have any lying around.  I used Jim Holtz distress ink to jazz it up.  The butterfly stamp on the upper right is an EK Success and the other one is from Martha Stewart.  I cut out the title with my Craft ROBO and outlined it with gel pens.  The doily that the title is on was cut out with my Craft ROBO as well.  The whole project is outlined with the same distressed ink as the notebook page. 
Have a scrappy day!  That's an order!
Natalie

Happy Fall Card

I went to ScrapFIT and they have a 2009 Challenge Blog Owner Blog Hop.  So I signed up.  Their site's challenge is to make a "Happy Fall Card".  So here's mine. Hope ya like it!

I used a dingbat of a mother and child walking together and turned it into an image and then vectorized it.  Then I cut it out on my Craft ROBO.  Then I cut out Happy Fall on some really flimsy fall paper!  Good grief!  Well I chalked the silhouette and the outline of the title and then added gel pens with glitter and metallic specks to the edges of everything.  Can't you smell the sweet smell of the leaves as they start to ferment in the sun?  Mmmmmmm! 

This is what the inside of the card looks like.  I used the same autumn paper as the front and highlighted a leaf in each dominant color with Stampin Up! pens and used the gel pens to accent the edges.  The lower section has ribbon tape from Michaels and a felt leaf with a little blingy on it!  I live where there really aren't many trees and they certainly don't shed many leaves in the fall.  So included a pithy comment for my wonderful parents as they have many maple trees in their yard and two of them are so huge it is beyond comprehension to me!

This is a close up of the upper portion of the inside of the card.  I wanted the leaves to pop out and wetting certain papers with patterns can cause them to pop!

Here is the lower portion of the inside of the card.  I wrote the sentiment with a metallic gel pen.  I did use a pencil and a guide to make lines.  I am not one of those lucky people who is blessed with perfectly straight handwriting! 

I hope you enjoyed my card and if you have any questions or want a copy of the dingbat I used just let me know.

Thanks, Natalie

Hawaii Trip Scrapbook Layouts

I posted some of my layouts from my Hawaiin Vacation scrapbook.  My husband and I had been planning this vacation for months in 2005.  We were going to be going on a whirlwind vacation that year.  First to Missoula, Montana, my hometown, and then home for a bit and then off to Hawaii in late September to celebrate our 2nd Anniversary.
My work would not give me the time off, so I ended up quitting as I was overstressed and miserable anyway.  So we got back from Montana and a couple weeks before we were to leave for Hawaii we found out that we were expecting our little Hannah.
So I still have to scrap the Montana Trip, but I finished the Hawaii one.  It is not a really spectacular book, but I  like it a lot.
Natalie

Hawaii Trip Scrapbook Layouts