Thursday, March 31, 2016

Road trip album - scrapping on the road

I have some questions which is why its not done - yet.

This is the BG chipboard album that I had forEVER.
The size is 8.5 x 9.5 perfect for traveling actually.
I decided to go wild on the cover 
mostly because I could - I used Studio Calico color theory.
I started with pink and then decided I didn't want pink
so I covered it up with blue and green.
Found various stamps and bubblewrap to add more fun and depth.
 I found I love chaotic stamping and decided it was 
perfect for the inside covers.
I used watercolors on the inside - just to mute the stamps a bit.
Inka gold to round it out.
 And then there are these kraft pages & envelope.
And here's the question
which is why we are here - and why I'm dithering about.

I can't decide if I want to do those kraft pages now or on the trip as I go.
I'm also going to include those pocket pages 
too for more photos and cards.

Things to keep in mind - 
I will not have a trimmer with me,
Also with the selphy printer the largest size photo is 4x6.
Then there's the journaling and how windy will I be.
This is also going to be a short trip.

Therefore, if I do the pages early - how will that affect things on the road.
And if I wait, how will minimal supplies affect it.

Inquiring minds want to know.

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

I have and am a work in progress

I was going to tease and share and then changed my mind.
But just a hint - we're heading out for about
4-6 weeks on an RV trip and I'm making my journal/album
ahead of time so I can scrap our adventures along the way.
Not close to being done with it yet - the desk is a mess so until
it's done........

Therefore, I shall talk about my other work in progress.
Me.
This is toward the end of my battle of 16.5 open.
It was ugly and hard - ain't gonna lie.
If you aren't into Crossfit - they have games to see
who's the fittest in the world.
Five weeks of the worse combinations that can be
thought of are done by everyone in the crossfit world.
You can pay to play to see where you rank
and if your really really good - you get to go regionals
and compete and then to the world.
Or something like that and
then there's me over here in the box just caring to get through them all.
Without dying or crying
-both were close.
 So the workout was made of thrusters and burpees - just
two of anyone's favorite moves. NOT.
The reps for time was 21-18-15-12-9-6-3.
And didn't those numbers strike terror in everyone's heart.
There was a 30 minute time cap and I finished in 25:14.
Totally not bad.
Those two exercises somehow engage every single
solitary muscle, tendon and bones in the body.
I was the last man standing so to speak - but I didn't get smoked.
I finished and am stronger for it.

So just to recap - ANYONE CAN DO CROSSFIT- yes that means YOU
 - no matter what your age.
The hardest part is starting - find a great box, great coaches
and the rest will fall into place.

As soon as my album is done - there's a page coming on this.

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Seeing RED

 I love red.
It's my favorite color but you wouldn't
know that by looking in my closet and how
weird is that.
 I kept doing all kinds of hoop jumpin' in my head
 with these photos
because the subject is teeny tiny but in pinky/red
that does stand out against the snow.
 Also I was lovin' the white polka dots indicating a "snow"
thing going on which is in the photo.
And I stole the title from Adele over at Inky Quill.
Yes, yes I did try my own handwriting,
and as you can see I didn't like the results LOL.
 So the paper really works with the photo.
Every now and then I go matchy matchy because well
it just works.
 Therefore I just kept to the red, white and black 
colors going on with the embellishments because I love the look.
Used up some stash, fought with the sissix machine
and became annoyed with those itty bitty
alphas sticking to my fingers
but 
SHAZAM!
Love the page.

Studio Calico, Lily Bee alphas, a Shimelle tag,
 diecuts and punch.

Monday, March 28, 2016

It was all about the heart cutout

The moment I saw this Recollections chipboard onesie hanging 
in Michaels that had the heart cutout
it became about making a shaker box with it.
In full disclosure it took a couple of times to get
the heart on the right side of the right side of the papers.
Right?
LOL.
What's a project without some issue.
I managed to have several.
 Anyhoo,
I am also not the best fussy cutter
nor a cleaner upper with a craft knife either
so getting the edges right was a real challenge.
 Then I dithered about with the pages flipping up.
Do I do the page where its read from 
that direction or do I want people to keep flipping it about.
I decided to roll with the flow however, now that upside
down shaker box was making me nuts.
Always something but I rolled through it.
 Then without thinking it all the way through
I decided a pocket page with tags would be the key.
Surprisingly, they haven't fell out.
Yet.
 So it was odd with all this space as I always
have done my baby albums 6x6 size.
 This is really nicer because bigger photos
can be used. The mats are 3.5 x 5 or 3x5.
 How freakin' adorable is that frog and again
with the tags. This time I put them on the right side. LOL.
 And the back, the end. 
The duck.

So this is the Echo Park Bundle of Joy kit and
I love this kit.
I have used it before but what was cool is that
not all kits are the same- similar though and I was
able to use old/new together.

Hopefully the giftee does not follow my blog.


Friday, March 25, 2016

Chaotic Stamping Reigns

Well.
What can I say - I got carried away.
Really carried away.
Because it just seemed to work.
 I had this paper in my stash forEVER
that had houses on it in a semi-circle and what
do you do with that.
Well I addressed something similar on another post here
but I didn't want to do the same thing.
 Therefore I went into a stamping frenzy because
the paper and the photo were perfect for it.
 I fussy cut out the bikes and well that's pretty
obvious and sometimes you have to roll.
Also the title - I had the HUGE alphas forEVER too.
So, why not add to the chaos.
And kidlets riding their bikes in the hood.
That adds to the chaos as well.
Studio Calico, Dear Lizzy and Stampendous.

All the pages this week were completed on Sunday as
well as a baby album.
Whew!

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Mixing a bunch of greens

And I'm not apologizing
because it seemed to work.
I wanted this paper because it wasn't in your face
and I had the shamrock paper which was.
For some reason I whacked a chunk out of the background
paper so the only way to use it was to
cut into 6x12 size.
Love it.
 I fussy cut the shamrocks out because they
were totally adorable and
just used a strip as an anchor.
 The title came in a PL card (again with that I know)
Do you find you get on a streak with something?
Anyway I first cut the words in strips
and it didn't really ring my chimes so I fussy
cut each letter.
Love that result.
I also got to use a bunch of enamel dots too.
Woohoo stash going down.

Studio Calico, Paper Studio, Evalicious enamels.

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Project Life card as a title

I got to use my new stamp from my pal Holli again.
I love the fonts on it -so cool
and since the page is going to different places
no worries about overusing it.
I don't think that's possible anyway.
And the chili, again was randomly die cut one day
and slapped in my box for future use.
Note to self: Glue top and bottom together prior to tossing in box.
 I have been beside myself wanting to use this card.
Everybody I know LOVES their coffee and
FINALLY a photo about coffee more or less.
I did have to cut it down - as it had a border of b&w hearts
around it - that I used as part of the mat.
The heart and bow - die cut box.
Just sayin....
 Because I went a smidge crazy with the mats
on the PL card, I decided not to use a mat on the photo.
Gasp. I know.
But it works and still stands out because of Miss Amelia
and friend being posers.
The PL card maybe from Paper Issues.
I try to keep stuff separate but you know how that goes.

Studio Calico for the rest, except for Shimelle sticker peeking out.

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Circles- go round and round

I love circles.
They can be fun and happy.
And they can highlight something.
 This is a mix of Shimelle and Basic Grey.
I started the page with the happy photo and then
went digging in my die cut box.
 My die cut box is full of random die cuts
from random scraps.
Sometimes they work - sometimes they don't
but if I'm lazy and they work.
Win-win
 Using the positive and negative on the entire page.
 And then I felt the bottom of the page needed
a little something-something so I used
hearts
already punched from another project
that didn't make it to the page.
I find I'm quite liking the project life cards
for titles and such.
And Lou has such a great smile going on.

I'm also having issues with splattering mist.
How can you splatter wrong.
I can do it.
It either comes out OMG STOP or not enough.

Monday, March 21, 2016

Using a Rescued Page

You may remember this page from this post.
I did rescue it from the garbage because it was to pretty
to waste it even though it annoyed me.
I decided that layers and doodads was the way to go.
And I got to use my new stamp from my pal Holli as the title.
Not to mention an adorable photo to zero in on
so the boo-boos recede into the background.

 It really was too pretty to toss.
Since the pages are going into 2 different albums
for 2 different families it doesn't bother me
that they look similar.
It wouldn't bother me if they were in the same album.
Just need to keep them far far apart LOL.
It's okay to lift yourself even if its inadvertently.

Studio Calico, Bazzil cardstock.

Friday, March 18, 2016

Hippity Hoppity hippity hop

Easter's on the way!!!
Made some simple cards for the grands from
The Paper Studio.

Nothing fancy, little fussy cutting on some and
cotton tails.
Now all I need to remember to do is mail them.

Thursday, March 17, 2016

So many cool photos - Break out the pocket pages

I had some pocket pages leftover from the road trip and
finally found where I had stashed them.
Safely keeping them - never to be found again.
Except.
Found them!
 Even after doing an entire album I feel I still have
problems making them snappy.
I think it comes down to actually sticking stuff on a photo.
I really should be over that.
 Of course I did a front and back.
 And because I could I switched things up.
Fun to do - need to do them more to get better at it.

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Punching out a background

I used the Martha Stewart go anywhere punch
and punched out this background.
It's actually the flip side of the paper that I wanted.
I then squirted some paint and ran it down the card stock page
and made a freakin' mess unlike Soaphousemama - where the idea
came from.
Because that's how I roll.
Therefore, this paper annoyed me and I started again.
I did pitch it and rescued it because in hindsight its not too bad.
So this is the new version
and of course I didn't think to take a pix of the start.
 However, I punched and painted again and liked the
results much better.
The punch is weird though you have to line it up just right.
Imagine that.
 This time if you'll notice my sewing machine went bonkers.
Somehow all the threads got tangled and I
must say it takes a real talent to screw the threads up in the bobbin.
 Totally love how this turned out.
Well except for the stitching but its part of its charm.
Right?
All Studio Calico I think.
I'm up in the air about the critters.
Could be Paper Issues.

No Amelia doesn't where glasses but she freakin' rocks them.
In her mind all mom's wear glasses.
LOL. Kids.






Tuesday, March 15, 2016

This page was just too much fun to do

You ever have one of those?
I have actually had a few and I still get a kick
out of it and it still surprises me.
This is a lift of Fiona Paltridge whom I "met" when
we both designed for Off the Rails Scrapbooking.
 This has a bit of texture and stamping.
The texture is what I tried on yesterday's page that
worked out soooo much better here.
I actually used modeling paste instead of ink 
on the stencil.
For some reason - ink & stencils don't work for me.
I know you're surprised.
 I had a blast adding the stamps.
I had to dig around for the music stamp
and added some goodies from Shimelle's collection.

Love how it turned out -
Studio Calico, Shimelle and assorted stamps.

Monday, March 14, 2016

Someone else's selphy/selfie

Love the Basic Grey Kelly Purkey
because purple can be sooooo dramatic
and cool.
When I was young it was my favorite color
and its actually my birthstone.
It just occurred to me I spelled selfie wrong but I'm rolling with it.
Sigh.
I knew there was something wrong and couldn't
put my finger on it.
Till now.
My bad.
And the transparencies are soooo cool.
This sat on my desk for awhile because
being the decisive person
that I am,
I couldn't decide on anything.
Then I decided it was plain and tried to use
some white ink with a stencil on the background.
Sigh.......
but it did add something.
So this is my handsome son who is also
a photographer - more so than me,
and he was messing with dramatic lighting.

Nailed.it.