Creative Thursday ~ no cameras

I've found that I now take about 80% of my photos with my phone. Occasionally I turn out the iThings, and my camera (finally fixed!) seems to come out for occasions - not necessarily special, but outings. So this month's challenge from XoXo Scrapbooking was to use photographs from anything other than a camera. Lots of fun information over there about editing and apps - go take a look!

Here's one of my favorite pictures off of Instagram, of little McKenna in the cutest outfit. I had originally designed this for SOS (before they shut down to revamp - it's back up, with tons of talent, as I mentioned, and my layout will be up on the 7th!) so I was reaching way into the stash.

Simply Beautiful by Lindsey Krauss. Supplies: Paper: Pink Paislee, Flowers: Prima Marketing, Inc., Buttons: Junkitz, Glitter: Stickles, Title: My Mind's Eye, Other: Photo Corners, rhinestones, mesh.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Matthew 5:8

Creative Thursday ~ 3 in a day!

So a few weekends back, I finally joined Two Scrapbook Friends and just in time for a crop! I ended up getting three pages done on one snowy day here in NY. That hasn't happened in quite a while...

Hunting Season

This is the page I revealed for XoXo's Leftover Valentine post just a few days ago. Go see! We have three brilliant new design team members and of course, the talent that's there normally. Three posts this month!
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So this one I turned out for Shelby's Twitter challenge (add a bird, keep under 140 characters):

Hunting Season by Lindsey Krauss. Supplies: Paper: Basic Grey, Crate Paper, Cosmo Cricket; Sticker: Karen Foster design; Rhinestones: Recollections, Studio 18; Chipboard bird: Maya Road; Flowers: Prima Marketing, Petaloo; Ribbon: Cosmo Cricket; Other: Mulberry paper. 

Put Me In Coach, I'm Ready To Play

This one, I just love, love, love. I've had the photo printed out for months -years?- and finally found somewhere to put it. This was for Christa's bloggerita challenge (scraplift someone - I scraplifted Christa herself here): 

Put Me In Coach by Lindsey Krauss. Supplies: Paper: A.W.Cute, October Afternoon, American Crafts;
Sticker(s) Letters: The Paper Studio, Websters Pages, Rusty Pickle, American Crafts,
Pink Paislee, Doodlebug Design, Inc., Jillibean Soup; Clipboard: Stampendous; Chipboard: various unknown.

 Blues Clues

And the last one, I was getting a little punchy. I've had this layout barely begun for years. Yes, I said it. Years. All it has was the felt photo negative frame and the five pictures at the bottom. Luckily, I'm pretty organized when it comes to photos on the EHD, so I found the two to add to the top. (History: these photos came from some sort of challenge on -I believe- one of those famous Friday Night Crops at ScrapStreet. Then I just lightly embellished from there. Eh, it's okay; it's done. This was for Jayne's Facebook challenge (choose from a list, I chose close-up photo, journaling, favorite embellishments, tag, 3+ photos, music):

Blues Clues by Lindsey Krauss. Supplies: Paper: Little Yellow Bicycle, Sassafrass Lass; Sticky Stitches: Colorbok; Tiles: Stickopotomus, Inc.; Letters: White Blossom; Die cut: Pink Paislee; Flowers: Prima Marketing, Inc.; Other: felt negative frame.

Journaling: McKenna - October 5, 2008. You loved Blues Clues. You dressed as Blue for Halloween this year!

Tuesday Special ~ The Bet.

Superbowl ~ SuperBet

So, "brilliant" me bet "my" girls at XoXo Scrapbooking over the big game. I thought we had it. I really did. But we didn't. And then we did. But ultimately, we didn't. I'm proud, but a loser in this bet.

So the challenge was toward another Ravens fan, and the girls got to weigh in something they wanted to see on the layout. Here's how the evil plan turned out:

Stencil
Lace
Purple
Red & gold
purple washi tape
Lobster/embossed stamping
Mist
Distressing
Stitching
Index cards

And here is how my page turned out. Busy. There's a lot to it, but it's Christmas afterall. Or, was. Whatever. :)

Happy Christmas 2012 by Lindsey Krauss. Paper: daisy d's, Flowers: Prima Marketing, other, Diecut: Prima Marketing,  Letters: Making Memories, Prima Marketing, Rub-ons: DCWV, Pink Paislee,  Stamp: Inque Boutique, Ink: K & Company, Mist: Tattered Angels, Artisan Tape: Pink Paislee, Other: lace ribbon, rhinestones, index card. Sketch: Rebecca Ludens.

So
*Stencil -- On the bottom right of the photo mat (now almost completely covered with the last S of ChristmaS, is a stencil of a corner piece - I traced it and then misted it with graphite.

*Lace -- black lace with silver - it was this questionable 3-layered ribbon. I took it apart and used the black for lace.

*Purple -- accent color.

*Red & Gold -- red as a major color, yellow as printed on paper.

*Purple Washi tape -- I don't have purple Washi, so it's artisan tape and it's in the flower, at the edge of the 2012 rectangle, and along the top right edge of the photo.

*Embossed stamping -- I flipped the layout, stamped on the back, dry embossed, flipped it back over, went over it with an almost-dry black in pad, slipped pearl mist on my finger and ran over it again.

*Mist -- the flower and dry embossing have pearl, the stencil and index card pieces have graphite.

*Distressing -- does the background print count? I didn't add any myself.

*Stitching -- sooooo rub-on. But it's stitching nonetheless.

*Index cards -- I heavily misted an index card and hung it overnight. It puddled at the bottom and made this cool border (see under '2012'). Then I used other pieces of the index card under the photo, under the artisan tape, and under the 3 squares on the left of the layout. It's that cool-gray color.

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Why the copyright?

No, I don't think I'm a celebrity. I don't even think anyone will steal my designs. It's to protect the kids. I think the photo adds a lot to the page, so without completely blurring them out, I'm marking them up. I've heard one too many true horror stories lately. Have you seen Catfish? A true-life friend of mine had her some's photo stolen and put on an adoption website -and put up for adoption! The only reason she knows is that someone Good Imaged the picture and contacted her. Google Image, people. It's our friend. So for now, it's the best way I can keep the kids for myself and share my full page with you.

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And just for fun...

I'm slightly obsessed with houndstooth right now. So from now on until... well... till I want to stop, there will be a bit of houndstooth on every layout I design. Remember that year I named all of my layouts like FRIENDS named their episodes? "The One With..." I thought I'd have a little design fun. Feel free to comment if you find the houndstooth!

Creative Thursday -er- Monday!

Got a rare day and a half off and used some of it to scrap. I began with a sketch from My Creative Sketches, continued with the October challenge from Scrap Our Stash, and ended up with this:

I haven't done a flower layout in a while and apparently I was inspired by circles... I've had yellow + brown on my mind for a while, so it ended up a perfect fit for SoS Hot Chocolate. I guess this is just a fun way to relieve all of my current scrapbooking craves. :)


Supplies: Paper: Pink Paislee, Crate Paper, Flowers: Prima Marketing, Bazzil Basics, Rhinestones: Studio 18, Jeannie's, Imaginisce, (other), Bows:  Letters: Making Memories, Marker: Sharpie, Other: Ribbon.
Journaling: 9.5.12 McKenna, you slept for half an hour on the chair in the kitchen on the first day of 1st grade. Daddy even tried to give you $1 for the snack bar! Eventually, you woke up & were very excited!



My Creative Sketches Sept. 2012 Sketch

Scrap Our Stash Oct. 2012 HOT CHOCOLATE challenge:

Creative Thursday ~ Coney Memories

Just needed some time to myself and a creative outlet so I stumbled upon a challenge - a 4-in-1 - right up my alley.






Started with a sketch from Granddiva's Creative Corner

which led to the Sept. and bonus challenges at Rochelle Spears's

• 3 patterned papers
• stamped image OR masking
• glitter

and then to Kristi B's technique challenge
Paint, ink or mist your chipboard alphas then add a pattern with your stamps.

and finally landed on the 3 of 5 color combo challenge at Scrappin'n'Happy

...and here is my final result. It was nowhere where I began, but I like where it ended! 

I guess I missed the part where they told us we only had to do 2 of the 4 challenges, but I managed them all in!
1. sketch (I chose a series of pics from Cony Island for the sketch, but I adore this photo and needed a close up, so I blew it up and decided on no other pics on this page. I think it now requires a page two.)
2. 3 patterned papers (tough to 4 squeeze in there!), stamped image on the chipboard, glitter (flower center)
3. technique (Sharpie-d, inked, sprayed and stamped white on chipboard)
4. color challenge (it was close, but I see yellow, brown and gray-white).

Can't tell you how good it feels to use some old GinX flowers I've had for, oh, ten years or so?! Go Old scrappin'!

Supplies: Cardstock: Making Memories, Paper: Basic Grey, My Mind's Eye, Chipboard: , Ink: Ink It Up, Marker: Sharpie, Flowers: Prima Marketing, Imagination Project, Eyelets: Making Memories, Other: ribbon. Font: 2Peas Tattered Lace.

Creative Thursday ~ My Dude {2012 page 7}

Man, am I falling behind! Even counting my sunflower project as a page, I'm still three behind of my goal of one project per week. Just haven't had the scrappy time. And I've noticed that my blogging time is directly related to my time in the scraproom, too, by the way...

Supplies: Paper: Daisy D's,  Flowers: Prima, other, Felt: Fancy Pants,
Ribbon: Making Memories,
Other: sticker letters, button, brads, ribbon, rickrack.

The post for True XoXo Scrapboooking is up (remember! new web address!) and the challenge was to be "Pinterest-ed". Man, these girls continuously amaze and surprise me. Here is my humble project for the challenge, inspired by a graph of some sort. Honestly, I never even looked closely at the Pin until a while after I finished this page! Funny how inspiration comes in the oddest forms sometimes...

and its Pin-inspiration (PINspiration?):

Enjoy. And please visit the new XoXo! https://truexoxoscrapbooking.wordpress.com/

Creative Thursday ~ Green Eggs & Ham - the follow up {2012 page 5}

You might have read my previous blog post on our little green eggs & ham experience in early January. Well, the shock has worn off, I laugh when retelling the story, and I am ready to scrapbook it.

There have been a very few times that I have felt completely vulnerable while scrapbooking. The first time was a page I made about our tiny Matthew's first time-out and how I was learning and determining a lifetime route with discipline. The second was a full-disclosure photo of a smiling McKenna in her leg braces at just a few months old; it's not easy to admit you have a child who isn't perfect by the world's standards.

This would be another one of those times. Yes, I chose this battle. No, I don't regret it. I do hope it will make us both better people in the end.

Yes, I realize that this layout is completely erratic and chaotic. I was hoping it would be! It's pretty much how I felt inside, however it might have appeared that I had it all under control in the house that morning.

I just loved the background for a Dr. Seuss-themed layout. I also played with the charcoal filter in PhotoShop for a fun feel to the main pic. The file folder under the large photo holds the journaling I copied and printed out from my blog. It was 2 1/2'' x 2 pages long!

Help! I don't know who designed the background page. I either cut off and lost the tab or it didn't have one. If you know who owns it, please let me know!

Green Eggs & Ham by Lindsey Krauss. Supplies: Paper: ?, Crate Paper, Cardstock, Bazzill Basics, Metal flowers: Making Memories, Rhinestones: Kaiser, Glitz It Now, Flowers: Prima Marketing, Letters: American Crafts, other (bright green), Sticker: Sassafras Lass, My Mind's Eye, Other: bright green sticker letters, file folder, paper clip, postage stamp. Sketch: Memorable Seasons.