Rachel's May Results

Using this month's classic kit, I altered a composition book (Target, 98 cents) as part of a birthday gift for my dear friend, Joanna, who is a beach-loving kind of gal and a big fan of bright, cheerful colors (to match her personality).

Here is the cover:

I covered the inside cover as well (in green and blue to match the front and back covers). I wanted to cover up the school related charts printed inside.

And here is a look at the back cover:

This was a fun project. I used Zip Dry to adhere the paper and I sanded the edges. I'm not sure how it will stand up to the test of time (not to mention wear and tear). Fingers crossed.

Marieke's April Results

Wow, I think I am officially caught up...well, at least for a day or two, as I haven't started May's kit.


Another scraplift. I stole this idea from a card I saw on etsy. I colored the strips of text different shades of brown using my Tombow markers. The leaf stamp was from the $1 bin at Michael's - I picked it up last year some time. I was a little bummed because when I went to pull it off the plastic thing the stamps come on, it ripped the tip off. It's still usable, but I don't like that it's broken. Man, those things are really stuck to that plastic the first time you go to use them. :-(


Extra Credit:


I stamped it first on white paper, then colored the image using cheapy watercolors. Not enthralled with the end result, but it'll do.

Rachel's April Results

For Marieke's April photo challenge, I made a simple Easter card using some of Tammy's stamps and tools. I've never tried stamping a scene before. Seriously fun:

I have also been dying to make dry embossed clouds (I have a layout idea in mind involving kites) so I was happy to get some practice at that.

As for the extra credit, it doesn't exactly count, but I have to share a snapshot of the layout I made at the Scrapbook Expo Class last month, taught by Linda Sturdivant of Close to My Heart:

I'm not sure what photos I'm going to use yet. I love the Magnifique line! That is all.

Tammy's April Results

I knew exactly what I wanted to do when I saw Marieke's challenge picture for April. I had seen this post by Betsy Veldman a while back and knew I had to use that concept for my Easter cards. After seeing Marieke's picture I knew I wanted to blend them. As you can see from Betsy's post, my card is not an original but I love the challenge colors and those speckled eggs. Here is my take:

I also wanted to make the card in purple for my niece so I thought I would show you that one as well. Thank you Theresa for the gorgeous "dingleberry" ribbon :)

And here is one last picture of them together. Again, I apologize for the sideways pics!!

I'm looking forward to see what you all come up with. I didn't get a chance to work on the "bonus" card. Maybe later this week...

Marieke's April Challenge

There is also an extra credit portion to this month, too. :-)

Challenge

Okay, so the guidelines are pretty simple for this one.

1. Look at the photo.
2. Think about how you can use your supplies, any of your supplies - yes, that's right, ANY of your supplies - to incorporate the colors, textures, or themes into your project.
3. Make your item.
4. Oh, and have fun!


I wanted to do a nod to Easter, but wanted to avoid the pastel color theme from last year. Not so popular. Live and learn. I'm pretty sure that was everyone's least favorite kit by far. So, I picked this photo which features eggs, but manages to avoid the Easter palette.

Here is an example of someone else running the same kind of challenge recently on their blog: Get Picky. I love how the last one looks so similar to the photo in color and theme. So pretty!


Extra Credit

It hit me like a ton of bricks tonight that I had access to some awesome photos to use as inspiration for a project. When I first started thinking about this assignment (about 4 months ago), I knew I wanted to use a photo that would fit into the Easter theme without being too Easter-y. I got stuck on the idea of incorporating a photo with eggs and I got tunnel vision. But, I know an awesome photographer and I would really like to include one of his photos in this challenge. So, this part of the assignment is for extra credit. We all usually end up making two projects anyway, so I thought it'd be fun to mix it up a little. Use the following photo as inspiration to make a card or layout. The same guidelines posted above apply here. Anything goes.

This gorgeous shot is by Anthony Langford and can be found on Anthony's blog, AntTree Blog.

Marieke's March Results

I wanted to use some stamping on my layout, so I went looking for ideas. I stole the idea of stamping the doilies from the Pencil Lines sketch blog. The doily stamps are My Mind's Eye Stella stamps and I got them for $1.06 after my $5 off coupon. Sweet deal! I stamped the butterflies from stamps I had.

The patterned paper I used is from a kit I bought about 6 years ago on QVC that was put out by Lisa Bearnson, the founder of Creating Keepsakes. It just happened to go really well with the colors in the letters.



I made a card and couple of boxes at one of my weekly Archiver's crops. I really like using the dies at Archiver's. They're super fun and easy to use and best of all they cost me nothing. :-)

Tammy's March Results

In all honesty, I intended to complete a scrapbook layout with this kit. I promise, you can ask Rachel and Theresa. I even had pictures picked out to match and everything. As I sat down to complete my project I couldn't find the spark to get started with the layout so I reverted to my safe zone and made several cards. Here they are together (please forgive my terrible photography skills):

And here they are one at a time. This first one is for Marieke. I used Papertrey's Turning a New Leaf stamp set (oh, and by the way, they are releasing a die set to go with the stamp set on the 15th!). Initially I tried to clear emboss the leaf image but it didn't show up on the card stock so I went with a green ink.

Next, I had to borrow from Theresa and include a butterfly image. Not as sparkly and fun but still pretty cute. After taking the picture I wish I hadn't used a green flower and stem. Oh well...

I'm not sure why but this one is my favorite of the bunch. Another Turning a New Leaf stamp used:

And, last but not least, a birthday girl card with distressed edges:

Thank you for inviting me to join your lovely group! I still have quite a bit of paper and letters and look forward to making a few more items with March's kit.

Tammy

Rachel's March Results

This month I decided to test out some of my Project Life materials in making a layout about Hanna's 3rd birthday.

I still need to get the hang of photographing page protectors, but here is my layout:

A closer look:

The journaling card includes a pull tab, which was handy because I had a lot to say:

I have used page protectors with photo pockets before in my albums. For instance, for last year's January project I did a one-page layout on my own third birthday and I had a lot of extra photos from that event. I put the layout in a three-ring scrapbook album with the additional photos in an adjacent page protector for 4 x 6 photos:

But this was the first time I had incorporated other elements (journaling cards, embellishments, etc.) to make it more than just a group of photos. I have a lot of post-bound albums but I'm finding I like the versatility of being able to move pages around more easily and mix things up a little. I have been reserving my post-bound albums for two-page layouts (so I don't have the ring in the middle) and the three-ring albums for combining one page layouts with photos in page protectors of varying sizes. While I love the idea of chronicling daily life and recording the little things that don't usually make it onto a scrapbook layout, I am daunted by the idea of taking a photo everyday or doing a spread for each week. I have been using my Project Life album as a holding pen for photos and memorabilia that I can purge for future layouts, or leave as is. It gives me the illusion of being organized, and I have all of my photos in chronological order.

Marieke and I had discussed whether this style of scrapbooking was really scrapbooking at all, or if it could ever replace what we think of as scrapbooking. After having worked with the materials in the kit, I can definitely see the appeal. But I don't think it will ever turn me off of making layouts the old-fashioned way. But I really like the versatility of the product, and how I can still include 12x12 layouts (or 8x8s) in my Project Life album. The possibilities really are endless.

Theresa's March 2011 Results

Pretty simple, eh?

I was organizing some kit supplies on my table one day and these items from the January and March 2011 kits fell out of a bag together. That happening after a recent discussion with Rachael about Leeloo's birthday party - and voila! My March idea was born.

The inside - which I don't have a picture of right now - has a series of butterflies stamped up the inner seam. I like that stamp! (Thanks Marieke!)

Theresa's non-kit cards (through 3/6/2011)

Just some things I've been playing around with the last few months.

I love paper. I just do.

(Thanks for inspiring this one, below, Tammy!)