Scrap Friends Color Challenge #20 - "Be Merry"

Hi everyone!

Well Scrap Friends' final Color Challenge for 2013 is here! It's a beautiful mix of traditional and modern colors don't you think?

For whatever reason, I don't often make Christmas layouts but I was totally inspired to do so with these colors (though of course your project doesn't have to be!)....

And pages do have a way of taking on a life of their own don't they? I made this background with the KG Christmas Trees font and cut it out on my new Cameo (YEAH!) to use as a stencil but it decided it preferred to take center stage ;)

So whether you are in sun or snow, I hope this holiday season is treating you and your family well. And I do hope you find some time to play along with this Color Challenge!

Scrap Friends Sketch Challenge - "One Fine Day"

Hi everyone!

For those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you had a joyous one! We have traditionally gotten together with our family and next door neighbors to celebrate and this year was no different....lot's of food, family, and friends! For all that I am very thankful.

So Scrap Friends has their new Sketch Challenge # 20 up. It's the last sketch challenge for 2013...oh my! I hope you all get a chance to join in!

This is such a cool sketch so I stayed pretty close to it...I was also inspired to keep the photos circular as I've never done that before. I hope you like it!

Here's a few close ups....

I thought the UWS chipboard Heart Strings and Wild Flower flair added just the right unique elements to jazz up my page. 

That's all for now....I hope you do join Scrap Friends and play along with this sketch!

ScrapFriends Color Challenge "Memory Lane"

Hi everyone!

ScrapFriends has their latest color challenge up...#19 to be exact! It definitely reminds me of fall, cooler weather, warm soup...yum!

My take on the had more to do with warm weather and adventure but that's what I love about the versatility of color challenges :)

This is different from my usual style and I didn't really plan it this way but isn't that just how some pages go? I have always wanted to use a jar and try a negative cutout as a title so I'm happy for that :)

We took a trip to Korea a few years back and that's my mom having fun, pretending to ride a bike. She was reminiscing about the Korea she left back in the 1970's.

The Sodalicious paper was really just perfect for this. And thank you Yvonne Yam for the just right sequins!

Cut this out with my Silhouette...I've had this shape for so long, so glad to use it!

Hope you all are having a wonderful weekend!!

Catching Up With UmWowStudio

Hi everyone!

My vacation already seems AGES ago.... *sigh*
Now is that anyway to start a post? No, so I'll steer us towards something other than my whinging.

I'm sharing two pages today, both which I made for UmWowStudio and both of which I am late posting (!)

The first is my page with UWS and 7Dots Studio. I always have fun working with my UWS products and of course getting to use the Messy Head and Love is in the Air papers was awesome!

One of the most amazing and beautiful places we visited during our trip to Iceland was Jokulsarlon,
a glacial lagoon. Walking down the beach among the pieces of glacial ice will always be a striking memory.

I love to use big arrows. Great embellies to use for bringing focus to your photos.

My next page is for this month's Throwback Thursday hop with UWS and Authentique. We're using the oldies but definitely goodies to make our pages. I worked with the Joyous collection from Authentique which is one of their Christmas lines. The papers are beautiful but I didn't feel exactly ready to scrap the holidays yet so I decided to use it for a completely, non-holiday themed page.

One of the highlights of our trip to Vietnam was eating! We enjoyed roaming around,
 seeing where the crowdwere and sitting down on little stools (right on the sidewalk) to eat "street food".

OK, hope everyone has a great day! Thanks for stopping by!

ScrapFriends Sketch Challenge #19 and Some Catching Up!

Hello everyone!

I'm back from vacation and it was WONDERFUL! Me and the hubby celebrated our 10 year anniversary by going on a trip to Cambodia and Vietnam withOUT the kiddos (oh thank you, oh thank you, oh thank you mom for watching them!!). I'll share some photos before parting adieu but on to other fun things as well!

ScrapFriends has another fabulous sketch challenge up and I hope to encourage you to play along!

I stayed pretty close to the sketch because it was such an awesome one and had one of my favorite trends on it....feathers!

It is a wordless ode to some of my favorite scrapbook things and as I wanted to make those things standout, I kept the background neutral.

Here's some close ups.....

And as promised, here are a few photos from our trip...

Angkor Wat at sunrise....need I say more?

Ta Prohm 

New travel hats :)

Eating street food...yum yum!

Hiking in Sapa

Ha Long bay on our private junk boat!

I always forget this part....

Papers: SODAlicious, ILS

Washi tape: Freckled Fawn, Gauche Alchemy

Feathers: Silhouette

Pens: Zig Writer and Zig Photo Signature

Paints: Luminarte Twinkling H20's, Angora watercolors

Hope everyone is having a grand week!

Might As Well Jump! - Scrap Friends Color Challenge

Hello everyone!

There's a new color challenge up at Scrap Friends and it's such a pretty one! Of course there's nothing pretty about my interpretation ;) We love to do these jumps wherever we travel. In this case we were in the middle of nowhere Iceland, heading towards a glacier when we decided to get out the car, go exploring, and as the Van Halen lyric says....jump!

Now let me show you those pretty colors before I go on:

Doesn't it truly look yummy??

Hope you get a chance to play along with this month's colors!

Having Fun With Embossing Powder!

Hi everyone!

I wanted to get this post out a bit sooner but it's been busy, busy here with work, friends visiting from out of town and prepping to leave on holiday this Thursday!

Anyhoo, I've got my first tutorial up for Scrap Friends here and it's on using embossing powder. I'd love for you all to go check it out of course and tell me what you think!

Here's the page I made:

Again, I've got all the "how to's" over at Scrap Friends, hope you find it fun! Cheers!

Friends - ScrapFriends Sketch Challenge #17

Hello everyone!

It's time for a new sketch challenge at ScrapFriends! Angela makes such amazing sketches and this month's is full of energy and fun!

I feel there's a grungy energy to this but what I love about sketches is the endless different ways to interpret them. They can be suggestive, or inspire or guide you. I wanted to scrap these super adorable photos of my youngest daughter and one of our pooches. It was going to be all about girly and sweet with a dash of grunge...here's what I came up with..

I used Prima flowers and UmWowStudio hearts for the girly feel and of course I had to try and match that tutu's color. Faber Castell gelatos came in handy to get just the right colors in the background. 

I hope you play along! Thanks for stopping by!

"This Moment" for UmWowStudio

Hi everyone!

September is a busy month in my household because 3 out of the 4 of us share September birthdays. But not this little one, she gets a month all to herself! I snapped this photo back in May, one day before my baby girl turned two. Busy busy little thing she is and I love capturing the random moments.

This is my latest page up at UmWowStudio. I really wanted to put their new masks to use. On this page I used the Star Confetti Mask to create my background.

I colored the mask with Faber Castell Big Brush pens, spritzed the mask with water, and randomly pressed down on paper (like a stamp really). 

Here's flair from the Black and Blue set dressed up with Heart Confetti...

And of course some chipboard! I've used Star Confetti here.

Thanks as always for the visit!!

ScrapFriends Color Challenge #17!

Hello everyone!

ScrapFriends has their Color Challenge #17 up and it certainly is a yummy one!

Aren't those colors gorgeous?

I had fun with this one..........!

And the story...my daughter discovered the meaning of photobomb during our trip to Iceland and she made it her mission to, how shall we say..."practice" the act of photobombing as much as possible for a time. Here she jumped into the pic, enthusiastically blocking her younger sister.

I used the 7Dots paper from the Love Is In the Air collection...wow I love those papers! I just went and added some gesso stenciling, water colors, and stamping and the background pretty much made itself!

And these Studio Calico mistable cameras came in very handy considering the topic of the paper...

The challenge runs through until October 14th so why don't you come and have a play?

Thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend!!