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 ~ 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

Tuesday Special ~ Paper Secrets & If It's Groovy!

Sometimes I just want a little extra space to fit in some thoughts or scrapbook pages, so I'm adding Tuesday Special to the lineup. Anything goes!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Paper Secrets~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I just completed this layout Sunday and wanted to share. I wasn't liking it much at first, but it's growing on me, despite its many imperfections. Thanks to my husband for snapping these pics as I was busy having a blast while coaching a bunch of amazing little kids!

This is the November 1 sketch from Paper Secrets that made these pics come to life. Thought the banner-style was pretty perfect for some sports pics. 

Team Red Bulls by Lindsey Krauss. Supplies: Paper: CherryArte, Sweetwater, Junkitz, Cardstock: Making Memories, Bling: Heidi Swapp, Sticker: Scrappin' Sports & More, Marker: Sharpie, Bic.

*No, I'm not kidding about CherryArte and Junkitz - I told you I haven't bought supplies in a while! Really working the stash now!*

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

I'm delighted to accept a design team position on the If It's Groovy blog! I jumped right in and joined their challenge to create a hand-cut title - I don't do this nearly enough anymore!

Have fonts - Will use. 

So I chose one of my fav pics of the fall and went from there. Here's a little how-to (how I did it - ) in pics:

Step one: I chose a good bubbly font and resized it to fit in the space I had planned. I printed in black, but could have printed in brown.

Step two: I printed out a leafy picture which would become the title, making sure it was large enough to cut the font-title out of it. 

Step three: staple the font onto the picture. Staple in the white space, in the space that will not become the title) good ol' preschool teacher trick!)

Step four: Cut another title (title mat), leaving about an 1/8'' around the font. Place the cut title onto the font (it easily relieves any little imperfections in my cutting). :)

Step five: Make sure it fits. It fits! Distress, embellish as you wish!

Jump! by Lindsey Krauss. Supplies: Paper: Bella Blvd., Xerox, Cardstock: Bazzill Basics, Sticker: Bella Blvd., Pearls: Kaiser Crafts, Mist: Tattered Angels (Tsukineko), Paint: Making Memories,  Other: leaf vellum, brown ribbons, heart button, raffia. Font: Brody.

Design note: To create this hand-cut title, I printed out a picture with leaves large enough to fit in the space I planned on my page. I then found a nice, bubble font and printed that out a few times in black on another sheet of paper. I stapled the font to the leafy picture in its white space and cut the title with a craft blade. I simply cut around the black font, about 1/8" out. I laid the picture-title on the white paper-title (I like the ink behind the title because it covers some little fussy-cutting imperfections.) Although as you can see, I think imperfect layouts are pretty perfect, too (RUSTIC, we call it!) :)