Brick Layers

I knew right away what to do for the Child's Play Lego challenge.  A few years ago my son went Namibia to help out a school for orphans.  Being one of two males on the trip, he moved a lot of rock and did a lot of rubble clean up.  He was there for a month and was one of the best things he has done.  Really good to get a dose of reality on how many others in the world live.

Noel

Shhhh....I'm really not a fan of traditional Christmas colors, but this week's CSI are right up the traditional alley!  I set to work using my new doily stencil, with some gel medium, and red ink.  Really loved the way this background turned out!  I dug in my stash for some vintage Christmas paper and a layout that I really like was born.  That is one of the benefits of a color challenge.  You use colors that you don't necessarily like or wouldn't think of using and are often thrilled with the results!

Evidence used: birds, paint, horizontal lines, wood, and twigs

Testimony is on my love of all things pretty, at Christmas, on the back of the title tag.

Case file

Black Friday

Welcome back for the 2nd of our December inspiration challenges at ScrapStuffz  Think of it as our gift to you, our wonderful players!  For our second inspiration photo, Stacia chose an great grid design!  So many options with this photo.  I love the overlapping photos, the news print, the simplicity.

I really liked that print background and I was hunting for some paper that simply had writing on it.  I just was striking out when all of a sudden I found this columned piece!  Talk about a score!  I went with the matted photos that overlap each other.  I decided to use red instead of green because I brought home the Starbucks bag from our annual breakfast stop.  This year my hubby decided to join us.  We really did have a ball.  Even me, who didn't want to go in the first place and hates shopping!

Ready, set, CREATE!

Feather Boa

It's sketch week at CSI! I recently got a stencil from The Crafter's Workshop that was PERFECT for this sketch!  There were lots of fun evidence prompts so I decided to scrap this photo of my son's cat.  My DIL wrapped this feathery toy around his neck and I snapped photos.  He was not impressed, but I caught this awesome look on his face!  Totally looks like he is talking.  Since feathers were included in the evidence list, I went for it.

Evidence used: branches, birds, dots, feathers, circles

Testimony is on the little tag and tells this story.  My title is also part of the story too.

The case file

Pinned It, Made It

Child's Play Challenges decided to use that good old classic Rudolph movie for their challenge this week!  That is such a great movie and will never get old.  Love the animation.  It's just funky and fun.

I knew right away what I would scrap about.  I recently saw these super cute cards on Pinterest and I decided to make some.  Now funny thing is, I also just recently saw a blog post on Pinterest fails.  Hilarious!  I know that sometimes Pinterest can make us feel like a complete looser and wonder why we can't be as awesome as all the other people there.  Of course they are probably paid to create such wonders, but that is neither here, nor there.  I'm happy to say that I thought these turned out pretty cute.  Here is a link to the blog it was pinned off of.  

Time 2 Ski

Seriously loved the color palette at CSI this week!  They worked perfectly for these photos of Kayla and her friend snowboarding last year.

Evidence used: something dangling, frames, circles, something shiny, and something transparent.

Testimony is tucked into the slide frames.

The case file

Photography

Very interesting colors this case at CSI.  So very elegant.  Just a splash of color.  I thought they would be hard to use, but it came together very quickly.

Evidence used: frames, stripes, lamp

Testimony is a fabulous quote that so sums up why I love photography!

The case file

Boots

This was a real eye popping case this week at CSI!  I loved the boldness of the palette.  Such a change up after the soft, blue hues last week.  I wasn't sure what direction I was going to take, so I visited the journaling site, One Minute Writer, and found a prompt that sparked an idea.

Recently I attended my nephew's wedding.  It was held at a group campsite, deep in the high dessert woods.  The RSVP cards had lots of mentions about you attending, or not, with or without boots.  So we decided to find some cowboy boots to wear.  I found the perfect pair and right next to them was this great hat!  I picked them up and shot this photo to show friends that knew I was looking.  One of the One Minute Writer prompts was simply, "Boots".  The site has a little timer and you are to write for one minute, that's it.  Bam, done.

Evidence used: mesh, typewriter accent, typewriter font, frame, and gems

Testimony is from the journal prompt and is in the frame.

The case file

You & Me

I was sort of ho hum about this color palette at CSI this week.  Not sure why.  I usually really like earthy tones.  I loved the sketch though and the journal prompt "repeat one phrase over and over" made me want to use You & Me and scrap about my hubby.

I found a photo that my friend, Adele, took when she was here over my birthday, so I printed them off in two sizes and cut them into circles to match the sketch.  I used some gel medium and a stencil to create the fun diamond shape in the background.  Next I added layers of spray ink and water, letting the color drip down.  When dry, I sprayed some teal ink on my craft mat and pressed the page into the dots and splats.  Seriously love how the background turned out!  I layered some paper in strips and in banners, added some branches and embellishments.  I stamped the You & Me onto journal strips, added a flag with the same message and a title of the same too.

The case file

Best Gift

First off, I LOVED this inspiration photo!  It is just so fun and festive.  Here it is again, if you lost it.

Isn't it such a cool idea???  I would so do this if I had a truck like that.  I was so very inspired by the dark background with the bright lights, that I decided to do just that.  I got out a piece of black, spritzed with with spray ink, then through sequins at it, in super bright colors, then glued them down.  I added the ribbon to be like the strung lights too. I really like this photo of us last Christmas and thought it made for a pretty backdrop to get it scrapped.  

I can't wait to see what you come up with for you creation!

Japanese Garden

I seriously love origami!  When I saw that Child's Play was doing an origami challenge, I had to make time to get that one done.  I also saw the magazine cover challenge at Paper Crafter's Corner and fell in love with the design!  Unfortunately, I was too late to play along there, but decided to use the inspiration anyway.

I visited the Japanese Garden in Portland about a year and a half ago, so I found some photos that fit the design and laid out the layout.  I folded some origami grass, fan, and flowers, added interesting bits of paper and stamps, put the origami on top.  Really loved this challenge!

Sonic

After a month of guest designing with Child's Play Challenges, I am back to playing along.  The first week's challenge was Xylophone.  Honestly, I sat on this for weeks, with no clue what to do!  Then my friend Adele came.  We exchanged Christmas presents early and one of my gifts was a sonic screwdriver.  We are BIG Doctor Who fans and every fan NEEDS a sonic screwdriver.  Then I was flipping through her stencils and came across this awesome technology one and I suddenly knew what I was going to do for this challenge.

I went with the bright colors and lines of design that are found on the toy.  I used a gel medium through the stencil, waited for it to dry, and then used a variety of colors of spray ink to make each item a different color.  I think I need to procure this stencil for myself!

Love

Try as I might, but the only thing I could think o,f for this month's inspiration photo, was Thanksgiving.  That is ok, because I still hadn't done anything with last year's pics.  I didn't take a ton; just a few with my phone.  But with all the fun apps you can get on your phone now, you get some pretty awesome photos without having to haul around a large camera.

As well as thinking about Plymouth Rock and the first Thanksgiving, I also love the warm colors and the lines on the ship, which I used stitching to mimic.  To create my layout, I first took some watercolor paper and sprayed it with spay inks, two colors, and misted with water.  Then I misted with a brownish ink on my craft mat and pressed the paper into the dots and splats.  I added a stamped water ring and two film strips.  Then I laid my photos into the grid and stitched in between.  Next, I matted the watercolor paper, which was under 12x12 to a piece of dark brown card stock, adding more stitching around the edge.  Finally added the extra bits and journaling.

Be sure to link up your page by the end of the month for a fabulous prize!

Mt Hood

My last Guest DT layout for Child's Play.  It was a fun month and look forward to playing along again next month.  This month was the game, Risk.

I was inspired by first, the name Risk and taking risks in life and second, the world map.  So I went on a hunt for photos that had to deal with risks and travel.  I came across these photos of the hubby and his friend climbing Mt Hood.  Talk about a risk!  In fact, a snowboarder died this day, after they were done with their climb.  They had never been up this mountain and didn't have a ton of time to put into planning either.  Talk about the view and they have some fabulous stories to share. And they are smart people and don't take unnecessary risks either.

Remember

My first thought was, "This is going to be really hard to be so monochromatic" for this CSI  case.  Turns out it was quite easy once I had the subject.  One of the journal prompts was to journal something sad.  It's been just over a year since our family lost someone way to soon and too young.  Simple really was the best.  This fountain is right next to his grave site and I like to think that it brings comfort and peace to him.

Evidence used: paint, distressing, wood, tie something, and tearing.

Testimony is something sad and is on the little tag, peeking out of the right side of the photo.

The case file

Cool Cat

Such a fun and funny inspiration photo this week at CSI!  Totally made me laugh!  We had my son's cat living with us for about 6 months, he is hilarious.  I found him lying in front of of my mirrored closet looking as cool as can be.  I thought it was the perfect photo for this case.

Evidence used: book pages, stacked elements, black background, something crinkled.

Testimony: is from the cat's perspective on the tag, just peeking out from behind the photo matte.

The case file

I {Heart} Fall

It's the first ever ScrapStuffz Inspired By blog hop, Hooray For Fall!  You should have come here via Shirley's blog.  If you get lost along the way, be sure to go to ScrapStuffz to find the full hop list.

We were given this inspiration photo

And this sketch

This is what I came up with

Seriously, Fall is my favorite time of the year.  I think the new year should start September 1st, not January 1st.  I love the crispness in the air, the color in the trees.  I love football and school starting just seems like a new beginning.  We have these concrete sculpture things at a park in town that have shape cutouts in them.  I lined up my shot, through the heart shape, to include the pretty leaves in the background.  

To make my background, I die cut some leave and applied some gel medium through the negative.  Then I pulled out my new gellatos and scribbled color in various places, wet, and spread around.  I set it aside to dry and when I pulled it out, I almost chucked it to the side because it was really bright and not quite the look I was going for.  Instead, I pulled out my distress ink and stamps and went to work grunging it up.  I like it a lot better!  It gives that rustic feel that comes with Fall.  The leaves not only turn colors, but start browning and have a cool distressed look about them.   I added some burlap and paper, a fun embellishment, cute title letters and a bit of journaling.  

I hope you have enjoyed your stop here.  Be sure to play along by leaving comments, making your inspired by layout and joining ScrapStuffz.  Your next stop on the hop is Devra!  Be sure to find our what creative genius she has for you! 

Flower Girl

I am guest designing this month at Child's Play.  Our first challenge this month was Barbie.  Hello, the first thing I thought of was these photos from our recent wedding.  DIL is so pretty and blonde and her flower girl is as well.  And the colors of the wedding included Barbie pink!  It was the perfect choice for this challenge.

Come on over and find your inner child!

FTLOP!

I am enjoying my month of guest designing for Child's Play!  I have just recently checked them out and I'm so glad I did!  I always thought it was just for moms with young kids because toys are the inspiration.  I soon found out that the toy photos were just a tool to bring out the kid in me!  And take me back to childhood.  I have actually had fun thinking outside the box doing something unexpected.  Enter Pete's Dragon.  This is so a movie from my childhood and loved watching it, but what do I pull for inspiration???  Lately I have been saying, "For the love of Pete!", a lot and that would just make the perfect topic for my layout.

I have been group texting with a bunch of iPhone users, but I have an Android phone.  I have an app that makes it pretty easy, but it can be totally frustrating too.  It's slow, I am frozen when messages are downloading, and every now and then my messages split out to go to each individual.  I would get a bunch of messages back telling me that only they received it...duh... Enter FTLOP!  They know that a split message followed by these letters means I know exactly what happened and that it has totally frustrated me.  I just took a screenshot of one such instance, printed it off and created a layout about it.

Come join us and find some inspiration and find YOUR inner child!

Dream

After last's weeks difficult color palette at CSI, pastel, I found this week's to be so fun and refreshing!  Just makes me think of some island adventure with a citrus drink.  The journal prompts had me going in a different direction though and I used one from the daring site; write a letter to your future you.

The subject of self worth and dreams has come up a lot lately, so I decided to use this topic for my letter.  I decided to use this photo I took of a really cool building, with a water feature in front of it, for my photo.  It looks really dreamy and not quite solid.  Sometimes our dreams can feel this way and I thought it lent itself to the message quite well.  I used spray ink and a water bottle to create my blue sky.  The clouds are done the same and then die cut out.  The yellow strip is a mix of gel medium, a stencil, gellatos, and water.  It originally it was part of a whole piece of paper, but I seriously did not like the rest of the page so I just cut out the strip and mounted it on my sky paper.  It worked out pretty good too, because I really like the raised look of it.

Evidence used: airplanes, string, stripes, mixed media

Testimony is a letter to my future self.

The case file

Scandia Festival

Plugging right along in my month of guest designing for Child's Play.  This week is stringing beads.  
The letter beads and stringing gave me the idea to hang my title, or at least part of it, although, you could have strung up a variety of shapes.  The letters even look like little beads.

These photos are from a recent trip to a local festival.  The town was settled by a large group of Scandinavian peoples, so they hold a festival each year.  Every day is in honor of a different Scandinavian country.  There are booths with food and art and trinkets, as well as singing and dancing in native costume.  I have always enjoyed the meat pies, so we went out one day and had a little treat and looked around.  One of our friends was working there and was in full costume.  She is hilarious and totally gets into character and is a great actress.

I hope to see you come over and find your inner child!

He Said, She Said

The month of weddings continues at CSI!  One of the journaling prompts was He Said, She Said.  That instantly brought to mind a game played at Leah's bridal shower.  The guests were asked a series of questions and were given two answers.  We needed to decide if he said it or she said it.  It was a ton of fun! It's funny the difference you get from two people's answers.

For my evidence I used: metal buckle, transparent accents (frame), paint.  The testimony is the he said, she said prompt.  The questions are in the lime bubbles and the answers are in the outlined bubbles.

The layout

The case file

The One

June was all about weddings at CSI.  Good thing because we had a wedding in the family!  This layout is all about celebrating Leah finding The One, the wedding dress of her dreams.

For my evidence I used: woodgrain, jute, and an envelope.  My testimony is all about finding that perfect dress, on the tag, in the envelope

The layout

The case file

Hay Fever

Another fabulous sketch at Pamela Young's blog!  I really loved all the circles on this one.  I pulled out my photos from my church's Hay Fever festival, from last Fall, as I thought this was the perfect way to scrap them.  I turned the single page into a double, by just extending the design all the way across the page.  I felt it fit my story better than the double posted by Pamela. 

I punched the circles out of a Swagger 6x6 paper pad.  Paper pads are the perfect size for this sort of thing since they shrink the design.  I then pop dotted a few of them up to give my dimension.  I love the way this turned out and I'm so glad to be able to play with the sketches again.  It's been forever and a day since I was last able to play!

The layout

 

Pamela's sketch

 

Future Mr & Mrs

I recently re-discovered Inspired Blueprints.  They had a new look and a new site and I love it!  I found myself with time to do some challenges just for fun and I love the sketches.  Hope to play along a lot more.

This sketch really inspired me to scrap one the engagement photos of my son.  I had been running around doing all those last minute preparations for the wedding and didn't even get to post it until now.  They are no long the future Mr & Mrs, but Mr & Mrs!  The wedding was lovely and I can't wait to get my hands on the photos!

I used modeling paste on a heart stencil and then smashed gold glass glitter into the paste.  I love the sparkly look it gave.  The hearts are perfect for this photo and I did not change from the sketch.  I used a combination of a punched border,bird washi tape, and baker's twine for the grounding strip.  I just love that red piece of Crate Paper!

The layout

The sketch

Shower

I just loved the colors, at CSI, this week!  So fun and so ready for a party!  What better photos to use than those from a party?  I chose three photos from Leah's bridal shower.  I stretched the sketch a bit to have the center photo.  I kept the circles and banners, but put them in different locations.  I love the fun feel that the watercolor paint adds.  For my evidence I used circles, small patterns, and frames.  My testimony is done caption style, over each photo, letting the viewer know what is going on.

The layout

The case file