Creative Thursday ~ lil lady liberty at SOS!

Ohhh, it feels so good to scrap again. :) My 20th page on the year, can you believe it? I used to do 20 a month so many years ago... Thank goodness for SOS, or I'd probably never get to add any scrapbook pages... ever!

Anyhow, the time out felt good and this one is working for me (even though it's yellow!)

Scrap Our Stash told us: At least one of the following premade embellishments: airplane, train, bus, car, or boat AND...you must also include a travel signage embellishment.

As I searched through my papers to find something to travel with, I ran into a little Basic Grey Urban Couture (who needs new supplies, lol!) and held on to the yellow I'd normally run from. Thought about the cabs, thought about this pic, and found those super old NYC stickers in the stash I have tucked away for my husband's NYPD books.

N.Y.C. lil lady liberty by Lindsey Krauss.
Supplies: Paper, Sticker letters: Basic Grey; Cardstock: Wausau; Rhinestones: Kaiser Scrapbook;
Stickers: Me & My Big Ideas, Frances Meyer, Stickopotamus; Rub-ons: _____;
Chipboard stars and letters: ScrapWorks; Bracket: _____, Mist: Tattered Angels.

Just a few tips and tricks:

• I had about dozen of the cab and Liberty stickers. To give the sticker just a bit more dimension, I layered the same stickers to the left and to the right, and then centered the top sticker.
• Also, I really envisioned checkered paper on this layout, but couldn't find any at all! So I used the old CM punch and made my own - in two sizes. ") hey - whatever works!
• Lastly, I realigned the number line to put the date in the middle of the line, then bracketed it. :)

Um, doesn't it look like the Lady Liberty's torch is smoking? Didn't plan that one... 

Have a GREAT day. 

p.s. the real layout is *not* crooked...

PEACE.

Feelin' sunny yellow:

The Lord your God is with you,

    the Mighty Warrior who saves.

He will take great delight in you;

    in his love he will no longer rebuke you,

    but will rejoice over you with singing.

Zephaniah 3:17

Creative Thursday ~ A sketch and some bling at SOS!

And yet again, a red, white, and blue layout! They must be my summer colors...

So another sketch from Scrap Our Stash! Love...

Flag 13 by Lindsey Krauss. Supplies:Paper: CherryArte; Cardstock: Canson; Letters: Pink Paislee, American Crafts; Metal: Craft n Craftin'; Corrugated shapes: Jillibean Soup; Glitter: Stickles (Ranger), Paint: Making Memories, Cutting tool (for tracing): Creative Memories; Ink: Ranger; Other: Glitter buttons, glitter brad.

SOS's sketch: I always look forward to these...

And a little fun with my own fingers! Since I didn't have any mist in the color blue I wanted, I made it! Actually, truth be told, I made it long ago. It's just a mix of Stickles, blue MM paint and some water. I have a few of these made, and I keep them in those little plastic containers with lids, that you might get soy sauce or dressing in. I guess I couldn't find a paintbrush, because it was just easier to use fingers. Finger-painting!

Creative Thursday ~ Friends and Angels @ WOW

I had one more WOW piece to work with and as much as I loved that chipboard, I found myself devoid of all inspiration. So I took a walk around looking for a sketch to jump start the process. I {re}found my friend Pam's blog and a fun sketch to boot. Yes, another McKenna layout, I must play catch up after this with some Matthew pages...

See this on XoXo, too...

Friends and Angels by Lindsey Krauss.
Supplies: Paper: Daisy Bucket Designs, Brads, Staples: Making Memories, Flowers: Prima Marketing, Mist: Tattered Angels, Title: Words or Whatever. Sketch: Pamela Young.

For the WoW title, I colored with Sharpies (ombre and all) and then misted with Tattered Angels Dragonfly and Party Pink (my two colors of choice as of late). I found the pink flowers that I misted for my last projects and didn't use and paired those up with a few little yellow petals to complement the dark blue. The sunshine was an afterthought, after I was trying to arrange my banner scraps. And as haphazardly as I tried to arrange my banner pieces, somehow they still came out, well, arranged. :) 

Thanks for looking and another huge thanks to Words or Whatever for donating pieces and prizes. These are truly one of my favorite chipboard companies to work with - I think it's because of the flexibility of the pieces. 

Anyhow, enjoy. and a verse to go with friends and angels:

Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

I'm on this journey with "edification", as I started and learned of in our own Graceland kids ministry. Love that.

Creative Thursdayl ~ WOW & SOS!

A patterned paper party to go with some sweet new chipboard!
Actually, I made a mistake and accidentally combined two design team layouts, but the more, the merrier. :) Scrap away!

find that sweet chipboard here: WOW

and

find this fun challenge here: SOS

,

JUMP by Lindsey Krauss.
Supplies: Paper: Making Memories, Rhonna Farrer, Lilly Bee Design; Cardstock: Bazzill Basics; Stickers: Making Memories; Artisan Tape: Pink Paislee; Marker: Sharpie; Mist: Tattered Angels; Glitter: Stickles, Studio G; letters: VivAmerica;
Chipboard: Words or Whatever.

Scrap Can you tell I'm trying to get rid of those old monograms? I could almost spell JUMP, and was going to hide the letters in all that patterned paper, but I was missing an 'm'. So we got a 'j' with lots of extra polka dots - my favorite, anyway! It looked too plain when I got done, so I added the pink spray at the very end. 

Oh, and don't do what I did - I forgot rub-ons! You have to successfully enter a layout with all parts of the challenge to win over at SOS... Got them in, tho; be sure you do, too! 

Creative Thursday ~ Stash & Buttons at SOS

This is a fun one! Last day to enter, so if you you have some scrappy time, get 'em in!

Here's my edition of sketch + buttons:

Cousins by Lindsey Krauss. Paper: , Crate Paper, Letters (and Numbers): American Crafts, Heidi Swapp, Making Memories;
Buttons: Maya Road, Wood art: BasicGrey.

The background paper helped me keep it simple, but I'm kind of thinking that I might add a little sumptin' sumptin' before I put it away... 

Anyhow, hop over to SOS - take a look thru all the dt layouts and all those entered; SOS is rockin'!

Creative Thursday ~ Mixed Alpha Sketch at SOS

Always love a sketch - especially a sketch by Rochelle Spears at Scrap Our Stash!
We got to use Rochelle's sketch and tried to use up some {mixed}alphas. Not only was my title using up some bits and pieces of orange alphas, but my two tiny chevron in the lower right are actually upside-down "v's" - which I'm guessing is how the whole chevron trend started. :)

McKenna's CYO Basketball by Lindsey Krauss.
Supplies: Paper: Flair Designs, WUBE; Letters: Doodlebug Design, Inc., Basic Grey, Heidi Swapp; Felt: Fancy Pants, Rhinestones: Kaiser Craft; Rub-ons: Sassafrass Lass, K&Company, DCWV, Marcella by K; Sticker: My Mind's Eye; 

See more layouts by the design team from this sketch:
http://scrapourstash.blogspot.com/search/label/mixed%20alphas

to be continued...

Creative Thursday ~ Kraft at SoS

So Scrap Our Stash is back up and better then ever! It's been one of my favorite ideas in scrapbooking, as I have been on almost a complete no-buy for years now. I'm not in this to be famous, I'm in this because it's my preferred art and it will hopefully preserve a few memories. And I certainly have enough stuff already to work with!

So our first challenge was to use 50% kraft and 3+ metal. You know when I hear a challenge like this, I tend to go a little overboard. :) So my layout is about 95% kraft and 5 metal. When I hear kraft, it's more about the raw color to me. So I started by gathering every single kraft item I could find. I wanted to use some naked laser chipboard pieces, but it didn't work this time.
Click for kraft it up label on SOS
Click for my layout on SOS

There is no ink on this layout and the only patterned paper is the outside frame, which I added because the page was a little too boring without it. The brown you see is all rub-on or transparency. Remember those old Heidi Swapp letters? Still love those after all these years... I had actually forgotten the metal, so gathered a few bronze brads and scattered those around. I actually really liked the way this one turned out, and that makes for 4 out of 4 of my last pages monochromatic. Not trying to, I just prefer it right now.

Anyhow, onto the good stuff.

Not Yet Glasses by Lindsey Krauss. Supplies: Paper: Jillibean Soup, Basic Grey, Graphic 45, Letters: Vivamerica, Corrugated shapes: Jillibean Soup, Chipboard: Junkitz, other, Rub-on: Scrap Within Reach, Frame, Transparency: My Mind's Eye, Brads: Making Memories, Letters: Heidi Swapp.

Where can I go from your Spirit?... All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Psalm 139

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!
--

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!

Creative Thursday ~ recap and a little nap

Well, if you were keeping track of last year's New Years resolution, I hit it by exactly half plus one. 27 pages (not including a few digital birthday invites and our Christmas Card) on the year under a goal of 52. I can remember when I would create 50 in a quarter! So I will rerun my scrapbooking resolution: goal of creating 52 in a year and, as much as possible, scrapping boy then girl, boy then girl, and so on. My other scrapbooking goals are to get my camera fixed, to send out my broken lens, and to go back to taking more closeups - with my camera! I've found that those truly are my favorite to scrapbook, and I take almost all my pics from my phone unless it's a special event.

So while I'm thankful the rest of my life is pretty balanced, I'm looking forward to a little more scrapbook time. For now, I'll kick off 2013 with my last page of 2012.

(Welcome, if you're coming from SOS and True XoXo scrapbooking!)

Dream!

Dream by Lindsey Krauss. Supplies: Cardstock: Bazzill Basics; Artisan tape: Pink Paislee; Rub-on, dimensional sticker: Little Yellow Bicycle; Labels: Pebbles, Inc., My Mind's Eye; Buttons, Flower: Sandylion, Colorbok; Fiber: EK Success; Chipboard: Magistical Memories, Stitching: Daisy D's; Glitter: Stickles; Bling: Heidi Swapp; Laser cut: Twiddlebitz; Shimmer shape 'm': ScrapWorks; Other: white circle chipboard, packaging, monogram.

Cluster close-up

Monogram close-up

Creative Thursday ~ These are a few of our favorite things!

I just wanted to use this space to urge you scrapbookers, home goods makers and other crafty people to stop by True XoXo Scrapbooking every day this month! This month's theme stemmed from the girls wanting to show their off-the-page projects. We also had a 'December, Baby!' project due mid-month. So we combined both of these and then I wanted to showcase these super talented gals. So each girl is getting a day... or two... or maybe even three! Here are the links that are up for the first eight days. Go take a look at each and then go visit their blogs for more information on each. It's so much fun, you may get some holiday gift ideas, and you never know if you may encounter an opportunity to win a prize! Have fun, Merry Christmas!

Deb’s project #1

Alaina’s project #2

Miae’s project #3

Kimmy’s project #4

Khristen’s project #5

Michelle’s project #6

Jaclyn’s project #7

Tess's project #8

Creative Thursday ~ Izzy!

I figure this will be one polarizing layout. You're either going to love it or hate it! It certainly looks like pink puked on my page (aw, amazing alliteration at its awesomest). Okay, whatever.

But this truly is almost exactly how I envisioned this page. See, when I snapped this picture, McKenna, who was dressed like Izzy from Jake and the Neverland Pirates for Halloween, was throwing pixie dust (glitter) into the air and was watching it fall (all this is in hidden journaling on the back). So that's pretty much how I imagined this page from the onset: as much pink as I could get on the page!

Since we ran a "stash" challenge at XoXo, it was a pretty easy choice what to do. Hey - there's no mist and no Stickles on this one it could have been worse busier!

Izzy! by Lindsey Krauss. Supplies: oh yeah right! give me 24 hours or so - there's a lot to record!

So go check out XoXo's new mid-month challenge! Use your stash, it's all I've got! I figured out the last time I bought any supplies was a year ago; I bought some cheap letters at Hobby Lobby the same day I bought an awesome teal glass pumpkin for my living room. I love the pumpkin, I don't even know where the lame letters are. Before that, I can't even remember the last time I bought supplies. It's amazing that I can fit all this stuff on one layout when I haven't bought much in years. yep. I bet we all have too much stuff!

Creative Thursday ~ Groovy, Stash, Timeline, and XoXo

I look busy, but this is the work of the last few weeks, and lots of extra time off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~SoS~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Next, I somehow got a sweet bunny layout (no, really) done during #Sandy. The kids, dogs and I were bunkered down in the smallest room of the house when the storm really hit. It was scary for a while, but we fared really well. Lost a playground, lost a car window, lost some pieces off the roof, lost phone/internet/cable for a few days, but we are alive and healthy. My heart goes out to NY/NJ and if you can donate - anything from prayers to supplies to cash - please do!

So I was hanging out at Scrap Our Stash, and saw this "pagerize" challenge - basically a scraplift or inspiration challenge - but a fun word! I loved Wendy's 3-photo layout with the design at the bottom, so I took that to a page of my own. I added a little layering, a few critters, and sprayed away!

Her layout, My layout.

Little Baby Bunny Rabbit by Lindsey Krauss. Supplies: Paper: Crate Paper, Flocked Lace: We R Memory Keepers, Sticker letters: Adornit, Glimmer Mist: Tattered Angels ((Tsukineko), Template: TheCraftersWorkshop.com, Marker: Sharpie.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~xoxo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Onto True XoXo scrapbooking! I challenged the girls to be inspired by Timeline or Facebook and I even made a sketch for them. (girls = such troopers!) They didn't hate me and no one left the team running...) lol!

Here we go - my take, the sketch and a link to the blog. Be inpired by us, scraplift one of us, and have a chance to be a guest team designer - try it out! 

Cutie by Lindsey Krauss. Supplies: I'll get back to ya on this!

I didn't use the sketch :P I was "inspired" by it - and timeline. 
I forget how I was inspired, exactly, (lol) but this did come from looking at
my profile page. The four squares came from both!

Facebook/Timeline -inspired sketch. Tear it apart, use half,
use all, turn into two pages, whatever! Have fun!

Now, go play! Can't wait to see what you create!
https://truexoxoscrapbooking.wordpress.com/2012/11/01/challenge-35-timeline/

Creative Thursday ~ Boo, or not!

Okay, so the real backstory to this blogpost. I hate Halloween. Loathe It. I strongly dislike the gory, spooky, gross stuff that comes of it. I don't have a problem with it, I just don't enjoy that part of it.

Now, as a disclaimer, we do get good out of it. We get a sense of community, we get to see old friends, we get to be creative with our costumes, and hey, we're allowed to talk to strangers! (joke, folks.)

So, with that said, I find first-day-of-school pics and Halloween pics are my two worst picture-taking seasons. I'm not sure if it's just the anticipation of the once a year, so I'm always dissatisfied with the photos, or if it's light or time of day, who knows. But I always hate my Halloween photos. Therefore (yes, I said 'therefore'), I usually hate my Halloween layouts.

So I challenged the XoXo girls to deliver Halloween layouts without the normal Halloween stuff. They fought it mostly by not being able to use black, but they once again outdid themselves. These girls work so hard every month, climbing out of the box, swaying completely out of their comfort zone. Please support them by checking in at the blog, and maybe even creating a project based on their projects (scraplift)?

True XoXo Scrapbooking Blog
be inspired.

If you know my daughter, you know that she is anything BUT girlie and has never played dress-up in dresses in her life! So we were shocked when she chose the Tangled dress, complete with wig! So you know I had to take the layout to girlie extremes, and go all pink and purple on her. I found some old Elsie and remember those ancient Making Memory stickers? They were all perfect for this temporary fairy tale. :) This was not my intended design; I had a whole other design laid out and somewhat taped down! The pumpkin idea trumped the old design, so the pumpkin here is a little rugged. I added pink ribbons and purple vines to make a virtual pumpkin for my little Rapunzel.

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 ~ me @ 35

Well, I missed another Thursday, so I'm just posting as I just finished this page.
Soooo far out of my comfort zone: rainbows, all-about-me AND splatters! all inspired by The Nook...

Realized, after a convo at The Nook, that I haven't done tutorials - at all or in a very long while. So today I have two How-To's - or How I Do's! The first is adding a color overlay, the second is making a rainbow overlay. I hope to work on the page How-To over the next few days.


Color overlay 101


Step 1

Choose & edit your pic to black and white (either by a filter or by Image>Mode>Grayscale in PS CS2).

Step 2
Merge layers if applicable; Add a new layer on top of your photo (in PS CS2, Ctrl/Shirt/N).

Step 3
You may have to put your canvas back into RGB Color.

Step 4
Select a foreground color - start with a bright color, you can always adjust it later.

Step 5
Use your paint bucket tool to completely fill in the top empty layer.

Step 6
Adjust the Opacity to obtain your desired effect. I chose an opacity from 30% - 50%.

Step 7
Repeat steps 5 & 6 with different colors. You can create new layers (and turn lower layers invisible) or open new windows.

(flash forward ahead to creating steps 5 & 6 with all desired colors):

Step 8
To prepare a document to print, create a new window the size of your printer (mine doesn't print 1/4 in on all sides so I open a doc 8"x10.5").
Add in bottom layer and one of the colored layers. Merge color and photo layer.

It may look something like this:

 Last step
Print, cut and enjoy!


Rainbow Overlay 101


Step 1
(Please disregard the previous layers with other colors - they are turned 'off', or are invisible, as you can see, and have no baring on the following tutorial.)
Copy and paste original/black and white into a new layer.
Select the Gradient Tool (often close to your Paint Bucket Tool).

Step 2
Select the rainbow (or desired effect).

Step 3
"Draw" a diagonal line through photo - drawing in different directions and angles will effect the gradient in the next step.

You should see something similar to this:

Step 4
Just like in the Color Overlay tutorial, adjust the Opacity of the gradient layer.

...and voila! Rainbow You!

Creative Thursday extra ~ Easter Hat {2012 page 10}

Special thanks to my NY friend, Michelle Hernandez and Do More With Less for inspiring this page, and to Valerie Salmon at Got Sketch for her sketch #136.

Michelle asked for neon, I delivered. Might have even gone a little overboard... I have to say, this is the most obnoxious(ly bright) page I have ever done, but the challenge and neon task at hand kind of grew on me. I shot the layout in direct sunlight so you can get an idea of just how bright this thing is.

It was so much fun rummaging thru the stash for anything neon. Look at that old Gin-X I found! Oh, and I got this layout done in just over 12 hours - I haven't gotten one done that quickly in quite a while!

When I went neon, I automatically thought 80's, too. I knew I want to acid-wash my background (aka Clorox Clean-up bleach spray). "Frosted" the edges with Sakura glaza and EK Success Chalk markers. If only I could have permed something... I knew I wanted deco scissors (Fiskars Colonial around the orange). I also had visions of the strings upon strings of beads, jelly bracelets, and large hoop earrings we wore, which is where the circle-over-ribbon idea came from (an easy-to-fit-in bonus when I found the Got Sketch!) The last thing I just had to do was to layer the neon color - yep, just like my scrunchie socks back then. Oh, and don't forget the title upper left fashioned after the keds sign. =)

Oh, I so wish I had a picture of me in my floral headband that matched my floral leggings and shirt cuffs on the bright pink and turquoise shirt, matching (and switched layered) bright pink and turquoise socks, completed with pink and white strand of beads and large pink hoop earrings.

Or - maybe I don't wish a photo of that.

Either way, here is McKenna in her Easter Hat. Supplies: Paper: Imagination Project/GinX, BasicGrey, Jillibean Soup; Cardstock: Bazzill, other; Transparency: Hambly Screenprints; Markers: EK Success, Sakura, Marvy; Ink: ColorBox by ClearSnap; Other: flowers, sticker letters, ribbon; Bleach: Clorox.

Journaling: McKenna's Easter Parade at E.R. Hat, yes, but it's *not* a dress! Apr. 4, 2012

Creative Thursday ~ Cool Rider {2012 page 9}

Another month, another True XoXo post! This time we all lifted each other secretly and all lifts were revealed together! Seriously, this team of ladies is so much fun!

So here is what I created - can you tell how far OUT of my box I went? LoL! I've never been this messy! But boy, was it fun!

from Miae's original here:

Head on over to True XoXo to see what the other artists did as well - they will knock your socks off! For a chance to win a GDT spot with us in our super secret FB group, create a project using inspiration from one of ours and you have a chance to win!