Wild Water

Welcome to Thoughtful Thursday!  Be sure to check out this installment of our thoughts at Thinking*Through*Designs.  This thought is all about adding a bit of fun with splattering!  You can splatter paint or ink and it just adds a level of interest as well as playfulness.

I chose these photos of Kayla's summer camp from last year and some of the water fun they had.  Adding blue splats to my papers, before adding photos, adds to the story of water drops flying.  You can use splattering like this, to reinforce the story, or to just add some texture and interest in an otherwise empty space.  I like the look and have been adding splattering to a lot of my projects.

Come on over and learn a thing or two about splattering on your next work of he{art}

The Layout

Beach Bums

The Challenge:
Use slang on your project or layout.

I also made this layout for case #28 at CSI.

I actually had a really hard time starting with this project as I begin my layouts with the photos, not the title.  It was pretty difficult to try to find a photo that would work well with slang.  So, I set it aside and decided to work on my CSI layout.  I picked this photo of my nephew and his mom at the beach in Cali, when it came to me.  Bum is slang and would be perfect for this photo!

For my evidence I used circles, robots, metal, and dry embossing.  My testimony is documenting a silly thing in a circle journal spot.

This layout was even chosen to be highlighted at Club CK this week!  That was a nice surprise.

The layout

The case file

Summer Camp

The Challenge:
Use a sun on your layout or scrap summer, but try to use a sun

I used a sun, one wants to have sun at summer camp!  Been to a few with rain and sun is much better :)  I am just getting to scrapping Kayla's group from LAST year's camp.  I figured I needed to get them done before she is home from this year's camp and since she is there now, I'd better get moving.

I also used Ashley Horton's July sketch for the design.  It worked well for a two pager.

The layout

The sketch

The New Me

I finally got around to playing along with a scraplift challenge over at Club CK!  They give out awesome prizes, but I never seem to be able to pull of getting one in before the deadline and there is such great inspiration there, that I am so happy to be able to give it a go.

I lifted this layout by Mrsski07.  I was struck by the frames the first time I saw this layout.  It made for a fun way to highlight my new look with some words of encouragement.

My layout

The 12 Days of Christmas

It's my turn to host the weekly challenge at Club CK and since I will be celebrating Christmas in July with my family, I thought I would make my challenge to create a layout about Christmas, Hanukkah,  or winter.  What better way to beat the summer heat than to make a layout about snow or a winter holiday?

I did my layout about the 12 gifts I received from my secret santa at Club CK.  It was amazing!  6 little packages showed up, one for each day.  By the end of the 6 days, I was feeling so blessed, when 6 more showed up.  Honestly, it made me cry.  My santa was very good to me, so I must have been good too, right???  Right?!?  Right.  I had fun photographing each day's gift after I opened them and I even used the Christmas paper from day 7.

The layout

Peaceful Walk in the Garden

This is really a fun color pallet this week at CSI!  Green, blue and brown are my faves and the yellow just adds a fun pop!  I chose these photos of a recent trip to the Japanese Gardens in Portland, OR.

I used grass, clouds, tree, long title, and it's a bridge, but sorta like a fence. My hidden journaling says, "There is something so peaceful about wandering around a Japanese garden.  I so appreciate all the work and care that goes into making such a beautiful space.  I could spend all day here just being deep in thought."

I decided to play around with paint a little bit.  I'm trying to learn how to do cool painted backgrounds, but I have a long way to go.  I guess I am a bit intimidated at mixing colors together and not making a big, muddy mess.  I played a little with wiping away some of the paint for this project.  The clouds are just the paint cleaned off in the shape of a cloud.  I did mix the free, artsy feel of the paint with more elegant papers though and added an Asian flair with my stamp and die cuts.  I based the whole look of a Creative Scrappers sketch.

The layout

The case file

A Trim

The colors at CSI are some of my favorites!  I love green and blue and this week we had various shades of both paired with brown.  This speaks nature to me.  I did a layout about giving our favorite tree a much needed trim.  We got dirty and we got wet (it started raining halfway through), but we got it done.

For my evidence I used foliage, wood, clouds, and a boarder.  The leaves came from a Cricut cartridge and I just love them!  The shape is just fun.  I cut them out of the two shades of green and in various sizes and let them explode from the photos in the center.  I love the wood embossing folder by Tim Holtz.  It's one of my very favorite folders.  Applying darker distress ink over the raised parts just gives it a very dimensional feel.

For my journaling I talked about my home, the tree and how it is part of my home.

The layout

The case file

Let's Dance!

The challenge:
Use die cuts on your layout or project.

I have recently discovered my Cricut and how awesome it is so I thought I would be all over this challenge.  Not so much.  The die cuts just don't excite me very much.  I think it might be that I kept having to push this aside to take of other things that kept popping up, so I never really got to sit down and get into the moment with it.  I don't know.

I like the layout though and it is all about Kayla at kid's camp last summer and the fun dance they had to do one night.  They were given a theme, told to make up a dance, given dress up props, and then finally heard their song and performed it for the crowd.  I like the bright papers to go along with the darker night photos.  It really brings out the colors in the costumes and brings an element of fun.

The layout

Face Plant

The Challenge:
Use a cupcake liner to make a design element

I have to admit, I kind of did this challenge kicking and screaming.  I just haven't seen what all the fuss is about in using cupcake liners.  I didn't want to miss an Issue Challenge, so I just did it.  I have to say that I am pleased with the results!  I've mostly seen them used as flowers, so I knew I wanted to do something different.  I picked these super cute photos of my nephew diving into his first birthday cake; literally diving into the cake!  I decided to use my liner as a sun and it works really well for that.  The rays are great and you could cut into them even more to have a more frilly sun, but this is a boy page so I stayed chunky.  I then stamped a sun stamp to place in the center.  It was nice to be able to weave the clouds into and under the rays of the sun.  I topped it off by using bright paper and trims and added a fun party hat.

The layout

Thankful To Laugh

This month we learned about visual triangle for our Thanks Living tutorial.  This is something I have been doing for a very long time.  The brain likes odd numbers and odd shapes, so the visual triangle is like visual crack for our brain.

For my subject I chose laughter.  It's been a kind of stressful and overwhelming couple of months and I can always count on my family for loads of laughter!  You just never know what one of them are going to do.  I have so many goofy photos of them too, but that is ok, because it reminds me to laugh and of the fun we have together.  I chose to use bright paper and fun embellishments to give that playful feel.

The layout

Mr & Mrs Lion

I did this layout for the June round of Chinese Whispers at Club CK.  It's like a game of telephone.  You only see what the person before you creates and see how close to the starting sketch it was at the big reveal.

I did these fun photos from the zoo that I took on my birthday.  The lions were quite cooperative and posed very nicely.  I think they just look so regal.  Truly king and queen of the savanna.

The layout

Rash

The Challenge:
Use cupcake liners on your layout.

John decided that using your cupcake liners to make flowers or suns was just way too pedestrian for him so he decided he needed to invade my craft room and make his own version of this week's challenge.  He found just the right photos for his message and had me print them off.  He pulled some paper and made his explosions.  He had me cut out the photos and then he arranged them to his liking, doodling in some of the details.  He arranged all the photos to just where he wanted and had me write in the captions.  Very creative, this man is and I will look at this and laugh for years to come!  Best part was spending time in my craft room together.

The layout