Being Adopted

Do any of you out there in the scrapping world have a lot of supplies and yet don't get a lot of projects done? Then you go out shopping again to add to your stash!! It becomes a vicious cycle. Well there are many of us out there in scrapping/crafting land that seem to be getting more and more supplies...scrapping/crafting goodies...creating bigger and bigger piles, closets and boxes that are bulging or overflowing, and are just simply being overrun with our passion or should I say obsession!  Well I want to encourage you to join some of the Facebook groups like "Will Craft For Supplies" or "50 Projects" or blogs like "CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration" or one of the other great groups and blogs out there to get inspiration, ideas, and encouragement to use up your supplies and have more projects completed. I did and I am getting more done, being held accountable, stretching my creativity and making friends along the way.

I am starting to use up my stash...slowly but surely...and getting more done. Using up those supplies that I already have. Here is a two page layout I did about my daughter picking out a dog at the pound to adopt. I used up papers from a kit I have had quite some time ago. I also used followed a sample layout that was on kit because it made things a lot easier and it worked with the pictures I had.

In addition to using elements from the kit I added some washi tape, some DIY enamel dots, some bling to the flowers, a tag, a wood veneer arrow, and splattered some Heidi Swapp ink...all from my existing stash.  I feels great to use up what you have in your stash.

They are older papers and embellishments but I added more current elements with the old to bring it more current. Not necessarily my normal style but hey, I getting more projects done while using up my stash so I can't complain. Have a great weekend and happy scrapping!

CSI Case File 143

Hey Scrappers! Well I hope everybody is looking forward to this weekend. It is starting to cool down just a bit here in South Florida and we are enjoying it very much. Recently I joined a group called C.S.I.: Color, Stories, Inspiration and every week they have a new case file, a challenge so to speak. They give you clues such as the colors you have to use, a list of evidence items that you have to choose from to use on your layouts and sometimes a sketch and lots and lots of sample layouts. So I did my first one and when I seen the colors and the sketch I knew I wanted to do a layout of my son when he was on the swim team. Now he went to one high school for the first couple of years and then to a different one for his last couple of years but the colors were perfect for the first high school. We had to use five different colors which were sky blue, scarlet red, gray, black, and teal blue. So I interpreted the clues as the sky blue and teal blue as water in the pool and the scarlet red and black were the school colors and they also show up in the swim suit and the the red in the floats for the lanes in the pool. I used the gray as an accent color. Out of the list of evidence items (you had to use at least 2) I used mixed media background, pen work, and circles. And for the journaling I did some handwritten journaling directly on the layout.

Here is the sketch that was posted that I used as inspiration for my layout.

So I did mine very similar to the sketch because it reminded me so much of what you would see at a high school swim meet. I used rosette flowers in the red and black for the school colors and strung the pictures on some red and white twine which were the color of the lane floats. I added banners in the sky blue and teal blue colors and some in the scarlet red and backed one with the gray. I matted the photos with the scarlet red and then gray. I used some older paper in my stash from Rusty Pickle called Swimming Words and the other half was plain black cardstock. 

I did a mixed media background using some modeling paste with some pigment powder to add the blue color to it. I used a stencil from The Crafters Workshop called Mini Splats which I thought was perfect to represent the splashes of water from the pool. I did pen work on the banners to make the stand out more and red, silver, and blue sequins to represent the circles and it reminded me of patriotic colors that would be represented during sporting games. Also I splattered Tattered Angels Plain Jane Baseboard ink called Water (very fitting) around the layout. The only problem was it really did not show up on the black carstock very well at all. But if you look close it is there.

You should head over to CSI and check it out. It is really fun and a great way to get some inspiration and get out of your comfort zone especially with color combinations. Here are some close-ups of the layout and I hope you enjoyed it.

My Creative Life 2014: Which watercolor paper is right for you?

My Creative Life 2014: Which watercolor paper is right for you?: Watercolor paper can be confusing and expensive.....so you want to make sure you purchase the right product for the job.This is a very good video about the different types of watercolor paper and how to pick the right one that you need. We all have some type of water activated product such as watercolor paints, gelatos, Twinkling H2Os, etc. so which kind of watercolor paper should you use when there are different kinds? Take a look at this video and learn which is the best for you. 

Bliss

I did this layout today using watercolors for the first time! I have had them for some time but I had not used them yet. When I seen the picture in the stack on my table I knew right away that I wanted to use some water colors. And living in Florida we always have beach, boating, pool, water parks, anything to do with water type pictures so I have a ton of embellishments in those themes. I used water color paper and some paper from Colorbok called Poolside. The poolside paper was some of the same paper I used on some of the altered clothespins I did for a swap on Mini Album Scraps a few months ago. I used some light brown cardstock that was torn and I used some Beachcomber embossing powder from Sparkle N Sprinkle which looks just like sand...Love it! Then the epoxy surf boards are from Jolees, a metal sign "to the beach" was from Karen Foster Designs, Ride the Waves chipboard piece was from Cloud 9 Designs, and the epoxy words around the picture was from Creative Imaginations...all very old stuff in my stash! YEAH...using it up! Then I used some black letter stickers from Pebbles and some old Prima flowers, some regular sequins and some flower sequins from Queen & Co., and some little arcylic dots that were the center pieces from some packages of flowers from the dollar bins at Michaels.  I also inked a few of the pieces of paper with Weathered Wood Distress Ink. All in all I think it came out pretty good. My son had this posted on his Facebook a few years ago when a friend of his took the picture. The great thing about FB is that when your grown children post pics you can download them to scrap!!! I love this pic of him because you can see how he is in his element and that is where the title came from...BLISS!

Dory

Hi everyone! Well I made a layout of my daughter's cat who became my cat when she moved out some time ago. I know some of you know exactly what I'm talking about. Of course she says "she loves you more than she loves me." Hmmm...I wonder why. Could it be that I gave her attention? Or that I fed her everyday? I know you can relate...LOL. Anyway, I posted earlier how my goal is to use up a lot of my old stash and donate what I will not use or that I have an abundance of. I already have a big box of supplies to donate which I am going to call the local children's home and see if they can use it. So this layout I used an old overlay from Karen Foster on top of some old paper that I believe was from an old kit. I used two brads of a kitty face and a paw print from the Happy Hammer in the top corners to adhere the overlay to the paper. Again very old brads. I used a little bit of ink on the paper and a couple of metal embellishments that I believe came from a dollar bin somewhere. One of them I put on the paper and the other on top of the overlay. I also used some DIY enamel dots on top of the overlay. And then I stamped some arrows on the letter sticker that points over to another stamp that says "you are loved."  So get out your old stuff and mix it up with newer design elements to make it updated and fresh. 

Old Scrapbook Kits

There is so much I want to get done in my craft room but I am so busy with my full-time job, my part-time business, and my family that it makes it hard to get time to craft. But the other part is that when I go into my craft room it is such a jumbled mess and there are so many things I want to do to the room but can't afford to do it right now. So I have decided not to let the lack of funds stop me from at least organizing and do what I can do so when I have the funds I will have a lot less to contend with. Back some years ago I subscribed to a couple of kit clubs but the only problem is I got so busy with my children, working several jobs and then went back to school that I didn't use them. I just pulled them out of my craft room and below is a picture of just some of them. These kits are about 10 years old or more and products have changed a lot since then. So my goal as soon as get some order to my room is to start to use them up and what ever I do not want donate to one of my local organizations that could use the items. I do have several gift mini albums to get done but in between I can use these up. It will be interesting to use older products with how much I have changed as a scrapbooker. Of course that doesn't stop me from combining the old with the new so come up with something I will be happy with...LOL. So pray for me...here is just some of what I need to get used up!

Chloe

So it has been a while since I have been able to get any scrapping done. But that is life! So here is a layout of my fur baby Chloe the weekend I got her a little over a year ago. I said I wasn't going to get another animal for a while but the moment I seen her I was doomed. She stole my heart immediately. But I had to see how my other dog was going to take to her. Well you can guess what happened since I still have her. And she thinks she rules the house! LOL

So I did a two page layout and I wasn't sure how I was going to do it. I just kept adding and moving and this is what I came up with. I used nothing but things I had in my stash. Somethings I have had for a long time while others were more recent. I even used some of my homemade enamel dots. I love the feeling of using up my supplies!