Drill #20 : Feathers

Good morning! It's time for another Saturday with SWAT! For this challenge, we're asking you to use the sketch below from Page Maps, as well as use FEATHERS. 

I started out with some crazy photos taken with my roommate. The feather trend is one of my favorites, because, like arrows and triangles, it's an element that can be incorporated into almost any layout or card theme. 

I chose to use a feather stamp from A Muse Studio. I stamped it with black StazOn onto two patterned papers that coordinated with the layout. I used my fingers to fold the edges, creating some texture, before adhering them to the page. To add just a bit of glam, I added Stickles too! 

For the line on the bottom half of the sketch, I used two strips that I had previously cut off patterned papers. They're the strips along the bottom that hold the barcode and name of paper. These ones had patterns on one side. You would never know that they were meant to be trash! 

The products from this layout are a mixture of November's Studio Calico Scrapbook Kit and Amy Tangerine's Cut & Paste Collection. The tag in the scrapbook kit was a perfect place to add my journaling. I stamped the 'i love this' image onto the top of the tag, also from the kit. 

Thanks for dropping by the blog today and checking out my take on the challenge. Now it's your turn! You have until November 28th to create your own project - using the sketch and feathers - and link it up to the SWAT blog. As always, there's a fun prize up for grabs. I can't wait to see what you create. 

SUPPLIES :: Studio Calico (Cuppa Scrapbooking Kit, Yellow Twine, Mister Huey's), American Crafts (Amy Tangerine Cut & Paste Collection), Tattered Angels (Glimmer Mist), A Muse Studio Stamps, Star Dust Stickles, Paper Cut Vellum

TOOLS :: StazOn Jet Black Ink, A Muse Studio Acrylic Block, Bic Acid Free Writer

NYC Part 1 : Documenting A Trip With Project Life Products

Do we have any pocket scrapbookers out there? I'm a huge fan of using pocket page protectors and journaling cards to easily document daily life, along with events that have lots of photos. Before I ever dug into Project Life, I used the items to create an album of a girls weekend in New York. It's about time I finally shared the pages with you! 

Most of the products in this album are from Becky Higgins and BasicGrey. The pictures were from a combination of my cell phone and camera. I loved how easy it was to get the whole trip into one album, while documenting all the little details. 

Back in January when I first started the album, I shared the picture above on Instagram. I enjoy writing and stamping directly on photos. Here I wrapped a rubber band around the letters I needed to make for evenly spaced letters. It also takes far less time! 

Pocket pages help incorporate memorabilia into the album as well. Rather than glueing anything down, I can slide it into a pocket and call it done! 

I've used the Design H Page Protector by Becky Higgins in a few spots as smaller inserts, like the one below. You'll see the front on the left side, and the back on the right side. I printed a 6x11.5" photo on my home printer, cut it into sections, and included it in the insert. It looks amazing in person and makes a bold statement. 

I also included just a few page protectors from We R Memory Keepers. The 2x12" strip adds just a bit of color and a spot for added journaling. 

Another Design H insert. I've used a few pockets inside the pocket protectors for hidden journaling and smaller memorabilia. The photo below shows off a few of my favorite products. I love the Tim Holtz labels for adding quick dates and journaling to photos, Chic Tags die cuts, and Studio Calico stamps. They're the perfect additions to pocket scrapbooking. 

I use Photoshop to resize my photos before printing. I've added journaling to a few of the photos with the program as well. 

Thanks for checking out the first few pages of my travel album. Have you given pocket scrapbooking a try? I have included a few 12x12 traditional layouts throughout the album. I've blogged about a few of those, and you can see them here, here and here.

Yummm

Wisconsin takes things seriously. A few of them include football, beer, and cheese. And I indulged in a few of those last night at one of our favorite places, Titletown Brewing Co. As you can see from the photo above, we may have had one too many home crafted root beers. They're so good, you need two. or three. or seven. Along with cheese fondue and a bison burger. with more cheese.

Creating Titles with Movie Quotes

Hello! Yesterday I shared a sneak peek of today's post on my Facebook page. I've been spending my nights working on my travel albums, including this layout from a recent trip to New York City.

My roommate and I love the movie, Remember Me. We quote lines from the movie often, including this one: 

"Yeah, Tyler. Can we make this a non-smoking statue?"

The statue they're talking about in the movie is located in NYC's Central Park. Therefore, we just had to locate it while there this past summer. I used the quote as the title of this page documenting that special moment. It's the small details like this that I want to remember long from now.

I layered a few different patterned papers to the base cardstock, adding a few doodle lines to each piece with a black marker. I've seen vellum popping as a layer on various blogs and loved the added texture it gave. For this page, the vellum works as a mat for two of the larger photos.

The title is a mixture of American Crafts Thickers, BasicGrey sticker letters, and stamped words. I used KinderStampO's Say It In Type clear stamps and StazOn black ink to finish off the quote. 

Thanks for stopping by today! Come back tomorrow for a new layout sketch from Practical Scrappers. 

SUPPLIES

Cardstock: American Crafts (Light Kraft)

Patterned Paper: GCD Studios (Melody Ross Soul Food)

Chipboard Embellishments, Metal Flair, Alphas: BasicGrey Facts & Fiction Collection

Bling: Paper Studio, A Muse Studio (Black Pearls)

Stickers: American Crafts (Organize Yes, Please Amy Tangerine)

Chipboard Letters: Studio Calico (Heyday Black Bliss Thickers)

Cut Outs: Ormolu (Made Little Labels)

Stamps: KinderStampO (Say It In Type)

Inks: StazOn (Jet Black), ZIG Writer (Black)

Dig Deep

Happy Saturday, friends! It's time for another S.W.A.T. Drill, and this challenge is made especially for all you hoarders out there! 

Don't worry... You are not alone. Let's be honest, we all have excess embellishments, paper, ribbons, and stamps! S.W.A.T. is challenging us to DIG DEEP into your stash and find that product you bought years ago and find a way to make it trendy and new! Here's the layout I created for the challenge:

The background papers are from the Weekend Market collection by Bo Bunny. I love, love, LOVE this collection. I needed to get my hands on every piece of it! When I did, I held on tight, hoarding every piece. The colors are muted, fall colors and the paper is a distressed style. To make it more trendy, I added some gold accents and arrows cut from my Silhouette Cameo.

After arranging the photos on the page, I realized I didn't have a focal point. Therefore, I added a mat to  the main photo and adhered it to the page with foam risers.

I had a lot of journaling, so I added a pocket with a pull out tag and wrote on both sides of the tag. I added a few embellishments to decorate it. 

I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out the title as well. Just love that machine! These photos were from a recent show I went to at the last moment with my roommate, Rachael. Her aunt called her the day of the show with 2 tickets. We found ourselves in the FRONT ROW of the Colin & Brad: 2 Man Show at the beautiful Weidner Center for Performing Arts in our city. If you're familiar with the show Who's Line Is It Anyway, then you know how much we did LAUGH at this show. Rachael was even called up on stage as part of one of the skits. What a wonderful evening!

Head over to the S.W.A.T. blog to see the beautiful creations my fellow design team members have created. They have turned old, forgotten products into beautiful, trendy treasures! Then dig deep into your own stash and create something. We'd love to give you a little blog love, but more importantly, you could possibly win this great pack of American Crafts goodies to replace your hoarded items!

Practical Scrappers February Layout Sketch

Hello world, I have an announcement! I LOVE being a part of the Practical Scrappers Design Team. The ladies are talented, encouraging, and just plain amazing. Additionally, the content of the site, the challenges, and the card and layout sketches are out of this world. I've had so much fun contributing to the Practical Scrappers blog, and it's only just begun! If you haven't checked out this great site yet, YOU MUST! But first, take a look at February's layout sketch below created by Liz Chidester:

Is it not the greatest?! Here's my take on the sketch:

When gathering supplies and memorabilia for this page, I didn't plan on having so much journaling. Knowing the end result, I probably would have moved everything up farther on the background paper or incorporated a hidden pocket. Lesson learned! 

Part of my day job includes designing invites and announcements, mostly with future brides. Hoping to expand that area of our business, I grabbed my mother and roommate, Rachael, and we headed to a local wedding show. None of us were planning a wedding. Instead, we were hoping to gather some information about the current market, wedding show set up, and decide if this was the right next step. Even though we were honest about our intentions, many vendors still asked us to sign up for giveaways, threw business cards our way, and let us indulge in free samples. We laughed it off and became experts at saying "No, thank you." However, when it came to pictures with props and delicious cake, we went for it!

 

I cut the blue circles from patterned paper with scissors, cutting around each doily design. To give some texture and depth to the pieces, I used the Tim Holtz Distressing Tool on the edges.

  

The faux stitching was created with the Sew Stamper by We R Memory Keepers. The black ink was dark and bold. It stood out as a focal point with just one line. Therefore, I added it in a few other places on the page. I added additional doodles with my ZIG Writer, along with flowers and sequins.

 

The white flower above is from KinderStampO. The flowers are gorgeous, and their soft texture allows them to keep their shape and fit nicely into my albums or an envelope without the extra bulk. 

Head over to the Practical Scrappers blog to see creations from the rest of the Design Team. There are so many creative takes on the sketch!

My personal tour guide...

Hello blogland! I've spent almost every night in my craft room catching up on Design Team projects, albums, and baby shower invites; however, I haven't been documenting them much. So sorry! I spent the afternoon yesterday photographing lots of cards and pages, and I'm so excited to share them with you. Where do we start?!

One of the albums I'm working on is dedicated to my travels and experiences in NYC, particularly a girls weekend with my roommate and best friend.

I had spent time in Central Park before this trip but hadn't explored too much of the park. There were several sites within the park that we wanted to view, so my roommate, Rachael, was up to the task of leading us. When it comes to travel, I'm the laid back type. "If we get there, we get there" is my philosophy. For that reason, I'm never the one to be in control of the map or the group. I'll be the first to admit that we would have never seen the statues, castle, or memorial that we wanted to visit. 

I started this layout with a base of green cardstock from American Crafts and gathered together embellishments and papers from Crate Paper's Storyteller collection. I fell in love with this collection when it was first released and knew it would be a great fit for these photos.

For the date, I stamped numbers from the KinderStampO Say It In Type set onto a vellum tag using black StazOn. The yellow scallop, along with the pink scallops that frame the white cardstock, were cut from the bottom portion of the 12x12 papers. I love when companies choose to add decorative elements to their barcode area. 

I use a combination of traditional scrapbook layouts and specialty page protectors in all of my scrapbooks. I first started out with Project Life page protectors but have added pages from American Crafts and We R Memory Keepers to my collection. {Click on each link to be taken to their protectors and learn more about this system} Here's a look at how the pages work with each other. I'll be starting at the beginning of this album and showing you each of the pages in the coming days. 

The journaling card in this sheet is from the Storyteller collection as well and is waiting for me to add some journaling. I would need to create far more layouts to include all of the photos I have of this trip. That's why these sheets are so great to use! 

Thanks for stopping by today! I'll be back tomorrow with a new card sketch from Unscripted Sketches!

Roar

This is my second post for today. If you're looking for the Secret Birthday Blog Hop for Jess, please scroll down to the next post. Thanks for stopping by!

It's been ridiculously cold here in Wisconsin the last week... We're talking NEGATIVE NUMBERS! Luckily, Use It Tuesday is challenging us to Warm It Up! This week's challenge was to Use Red, Orange, and/or Yellow in your project.

 Here's the project I created for inspiration on the Use It Tuesday blog:

I had these three photos in a 12x12 page protector inside my scrapbook just waiting. The pictures were a little blurry and orange. One had not enough flash, and the others had too much. I wouldn't even include them normally, but they mean a lot to me. Believe it or not, my roommate and I talked non-stop about the giant t-rex long before arriving to New York. It was highlighted on our itinerary. We're just a little crazy like that. The Use It Tuesday challenge was perfect!

Remember, Use It Tuesday calls for you to use your hoarded supplies! One might say the hoarded supplies in this project were the pictures! The polka dot and calendar washi tapes, along with the flag paper clips have been in my Smashbook stash for more than a year just waiting to be used. 

I made the pieces of washi tape small with dramatic tears in hope it would mimic slash marks - Jurassic Park destruction. For the title, I used the negative, left over packaging of some chipboard letters to trace t-rex. This is a great for when you're in a pinch - Ran out of the letter "e?" Don't want to get out your die cutting machine? The colors just don't match? No problem! Just trace any letters or negative you do have!

Now it's your turn. Create a project with one or more colors - Red, Orange, and/or Yellow - and link your creation to the Use It Tuesday blog by noon EST on Friday, February 1, 2013. Please make sure to mention you are playing along with a Use It Tuesday challenge so we know you are participating! 

As always, one lucky participant will be randomly chosen to be a featured guest designer in an upcoming challenge! Will it be you?

PAGE SUPPLIES

Cardstock: A Muse Studio (Sugar)

Patterned Paper: BasicGrey (Fact 12x12)

Embellishments: BasicGrey (Fact Fabric Stickers), K&Company (Flag SMASH Clips)

Washi Tape: K&Company (Black Dots SMASH, Calendar SMASH)