... just Laura

CK Club: NSD Countdown Kitchen Challenge

This week, on both the Creating Keepsakes Blog and the CK Club Blog, we are celebrating the week leading up to National Scrapbook Day with the theme "scrapbooking around the house". Each day this week, we are focusing on one room of the house. There are activities, tips, challenges, and prizes, on both blogs. Today, we are visiting the Kitchen, and I volunteered to do the Recipe Challenge over on the CK Club blog.

If you've never done a recipe challenge before, you're in for a special scrapbooking treat! Sometimes it's really easy to get stuck when you have a scraproom full of beautiful papers and accents. Forcing yourself to use a few specific items on your scrapbook page is a great way to switch your creative gears! Today, we are giving our challenge a little bit of a kitchen twist! Think of your supplies as ingredients. Pull out a little bit of this, and a little bit of that, just like the recipe calls for. Then follow that recipe, as you assemble and mix your ingredients together, to create a perfect layout!

The Five Ingredients:
1. 3 patterned papers - measure out 1/3 of each paper, to use on layout
2. 1 all purpose title - letter stickers or die cut title
3. 1 perfect photo
4. 1 baker's dozen journaling strips/blocks/tags
5. 3 sprinkles of embellishments - button and/or brads

The Recipe:
Step 1: Start with 3 patterned papers. Measure out 1/3 of each paper, to use on your layout.
Step 2: Add 1 all purpose title, using letter stickers or a die cut title.
Step 3: Find 1 perfect photo, and combine with the layout.
Step 4: Computer print or hand journal 1 baker's dozen journaling strips/blocks/tags.
Step 5: Sprinkle on 3 clusters of embellishments, such as buttons and/or brads.

All you need to do for this challenge is to create a scrapbook layout using the five ingredients, and keeping to the basic recipe. Upload a picture of your layout to the Club CK idea galleries and you could win some scrapping goodies! For all of the details and cut off dates, go HERE.

Supplies Used:

CK Club - Pinterest Challenge

Today, I have the opportunity to host the November Pinterest Challenge over on the CK Club website. I really do hope you guys join in on the fun and would love to see how the various images had inspired you.

I choose four images for this challenge. I intended to just use this first image (source), for the inspiration for my layout. I loved the taller, narrower prints. And the black and white prints, since I don't scrap black and white photos much anymore. 

Somewhere along the line, I decided to use this second image (source) as part of my inspiration as well. I didn't incorporate all the colors, but I think my layout has a lot of the same colors mixed in.

I printed up these old photos of Alyssa, and made them 3.5 x 7.5 inches. It was a bit of a challenge to find images that could be cropped in this taller, narrower size. Especially, since I tend to crop in so much when actually taking my photos. But I found these three photos that worked.

Since I printed my photos in black and white, I was able to choose any colors and papers that I wanted to use. I decided to go with the Summer's End collection from Fancy Pants. I like that it picked up a lot of the colors from the second Pinterest image that I had chosen.

I cut a bunch of strips of the pattern papers, ranging from 1 inch wide to 2 inches wide. I cut them in varying lengths, and trimmed the ends to mimic flags. I distressed the edges, and then adhered them across the page, overlapping them just slightly. I adhered a strip of ribbon, to cover up where the photos and the pattern paper strips meet.

For my simple title, I used some text printed chipboard alphas from Bella Blvd. While I do usually journal on the majority of my layouts, every now and then, a layout doesn't really need any extra words on it. I felt that "spunky" summed up these photos nicely. I threaded some buttons and glue dotted them to the ends of the ribbon to finish off the page.

To see the rest of the images from Pinterest that are included in the Challenge, and get all the details on how you can join in the challenge, click HERE. You have until November 24th to play along with us.

favorite fall photos: my mind's eye guest designer

it's challenge day on the my mind's eye blog today!

The challenge: Design a card based on this wonderful sketch and use “FALL” as your theme (sketch by Anam Stubbington).

The rules: Use ANY My Mind’s Eye products (current or past) as long as your project has at least 80% My Mind’s Eye products.

The deadline: Add a link to your project to the bottom of THIS POST using inlinkz by Sunday, October 23, 2011 (midnight, MST). Please include your first and last name and project name when uploading. (a photo of your layout or project will show directly in the post)

The PRIZE: The winner will receive three ENTIRE collections of their choice! We will also award an honorable mention winner with one collection of their choice! All winners will be featured in a blog post and have bragging rights!

i have a confession to make. i'm a wingnut. i did the "fall as your theme" part of the challenge. but i totally missed the part about the sketch. i mis-read my email, and didn't piece all the info together correctly. leave it to me. soooooooo. here's my fall layout, which looks nothing like the sketch;)

the closest i could come to fall photos, were a few from the pumpkin patch, a few years back. these are the times when i really wish we had more of a "fall" season here. we get the fall weather. what we don't have much of, is the fall colors. the trees around here aren't grown up enough, to really drop that many leaves. not like in the movies, where you see the streets lined with huge trees and leaves ALL over the yards and streets. yes, i sort of want that look. lol! and our trees are pretty much green. we get a touch of orange leaves on one tree, and there's a few down the street with yellows. but overall, not a huge "fall" look around here.

 

but i love fall colors, and i found lots of fun my mind's eye products in my stash, in fun fall colors. some of my papers are definately on the older side,  mixed in with some newer ones. i went with browns, tans, blue, and a touch of orange and yellow. i love their buttons! such unique designs, with lots of texture.

 

this transparency was meant to be a photo frame. but i thought it would be fun to use it as my journaling block. i adhered it to my layout, and then adhered my journaling strips right on top of it. we used transparencies in a lot of the classes i taught at CKC's this year, and i always got asked about the best way to adhere them. transparencies are clear, so they're a little trickier. but i simply adhere them with mini glue dots. i just try and put the glue dots behind a darker spot on the transparency, or behind a letter. if someone was to really look, they might see the glue dot just a bit. but i don't stress over it.

 

and here's my card. i used scraps that i had out from the layout, to create the card. i love those banner stickers. they come on a sheet, with about 5 different colors, and they have the little letter stickers to add to them. i've been holding on to that sheet forever, and was glad to finally use them.

 

i hope you'll play along with the challenge! remember, you can find all the details HERE, where you can also check out layouts by a few of the my mind's eye design team members. and you can see how they used the sketch ;)

bella blvd: dream team challenge

i'm excited to be sharing the bella blvd blog today, with one of my best friends, wendy sue anderson. bella blvd was one of our very generous sponsors for the CK dream team for 2010 (and for the upcoming 2011 team as well), and had invited us to create some projects for their blog. wendy and i decided it would be fun to team up for a challenge together.

 

we decided to start with an inspiration layout. we searched through the blog, and of course, we found tons of great layouts to be inspired by. but we eventually settled on one particular layout that we both loved, that was actually created by the genious behind bella blvd, stephanie hunt. we also decided to use the new socialite collection for our layouts. while this collection is definately geared towards new years and festive parties, i think wendy and i did a good job showing how it can be used just as easily for everyday photos.

and you can see the inspiration layout, wendy's layout, and more detail shots of my layout RIGHT HERE on the bella blvd blog. 

pencil lines - guest designer

i was asked a few weeks ago if i would be interested in guest designing for pencil lines, an international sketch challenge blog. 

 

anna asked if i wanted to provide a sketch of my own, for this week's challenge. so this is the sketch i came up with. i drew it out by hand with pencil and paper, and they turned it into this nice and pretty one. i really enjoy working off of a sketch. it gives you a starting point, for your page design, so you're not so overwhelmed. if you have a plan for the photo sizes and placement, and the papers, it makes starting a page so much less work. and then you just add all the fun stuff as you go.

 

and here is my take on my sketch. i took these photos of sarah a few months ago. we were all downstairs, watching tv, and i had taken over the remote at one point. sarah disappeared upstairs for a while. and when she came back down, she was dressed up in joe's clothes. she had on his work pants, one of his shirts, his dodger hat, and she had some of my big clunky boots on. she actually does this sort of thing ALL the time. the clothes were huge on her, it was the funniest thing. she had made herself a paper badge, that said "cool police" on it, and pinned it to her shirt. then she pulled out a pad of paper, and wrote me a ticket. for stealing the remote. lol! i tell you, she's funny :)

 

i was actually stumped on my title for a few days. i was trying to think of something funny, and was just drawing a blank on it. i'm so glad i noticed the "cool police" badge, since it made the perfect title. and see that black paper with the numbers on it? i cut that off a tag. sort of an inside joke around  here. having to do with "the plate". like when you get arrested and you have to have your mugshot taken, and you hold up a plate with a number on it. there's a whole story behind why that became a joke to us. but when i saw that number strip, i had to use it.

 

a closer look at the journaling. i pulled out these really old dyed tags, and adhered them down so that they overlapped a little bit. part of me wanted to handwrite my journaling. but i never really like the look of it. so i typed up my journaling on the computer, and just adhered the strips over the tags.

 

when i was looking for some journaling tags, i came across some old 7 gypsies tags from years ago. i cut a few pieces from 2 of the tags, just using the parts that i thought went with the layout. i liked the "trouble with a capital "T"" part, and added my name with some tiny alpha stickers.

i want to thank pencil lines for inviting me to play along with them this week, on this challenge. make sure and visit their blog HERE, so that you can see what all their talented designers did with the sketch. and if this sketch inspires you to create something, you can play along with the challenge as well. there's a spot at the end of their post on their blog, where you can link your layout up to participate. and they choose a winner to receive a special RAK , from those that played along :)

supplies:
cardstock - american crafts
embossed cardstock - core'dinations
pattern paper - studio calico
ribbon - maya road, pebbles, making memories
letter stickers - making memories, doodlebug
tags - rusty pickle, 7 gypsies
brad - making memories
punch - fiskars

bella blvd guest artista: designer challenge

i got lucky, and have back to back days on the bella blvd blog, as one of their november guest artistas. today, they are sharing our designer challenge layouts. here's a peek, but make sure and go check their blog HERE, to see more details and the other two designer's layouts.

 

my challenge was to scrap a layout, using black and white photos. i actually LOVE to scrap with black and white photos. but i know i have gotten away from that a little bit this past year. partly, because the magazine loves color photos more than black and whites. so i guess i've just been in my color photo zone. one thing that i love about using black and white photos, is that they will go with any pattern paper and any colors you want to use. i used the lovey dovey collection for my layout. these softer colors were just made for black and white photos.

little light studio challenge

i know i posted for the day already, but i wanted to share this. my first post is up on the little light studio blog today. i have a fun project that i'm sharing, along with a challenge for you. i'll show you a peek here, but you have to go HERE to see the entire project and read more about it ;)

favorites challenge time

i had this idea a week or so ago for a layout about the girls favorite TV shows. i was emailing my good friend erin clarkson at the time, and we were chatting about our girls, and all that tween and teen stuff that goes with them. so we decided to put the two together, and make a fun challenge out of it. creating a layout or project, that would document what the kids are into these days or what their favorite things are.

when i got the idea to document the girls favorite shows, i started looking for some pictures online to use. i just used google images, and typed in the show name + cast. so if i was looking for wizards of waverly place, i typed in "wizards of waverly place cast". it pulled up pages and pages of photos, and i just dug around to find ones i liked. i also tried to find photos that had the same general size. a lot of photos online have really low resolutions, and don't print well. so i was able to find most of these photos in a 1280 x 1024 size, which printed just great (they're all printed 2.5  x 3 inches). i loved how all the disney channel shows all had such similiar group shots, with the name of the show printed across it. those are the ones i looked for. the nickelodeon shows were harder to find. and "make it or break it" is an ABC family show (about gymnastics), and i had to add my own title to that photo.

i used the free spirit collection from little yellow bicycle for this layout. everything on here is from that collection, with the exception of the black rubon letters and numbers (those are doodlebug). it is such a fun and colorful collection, and just perfect for teens and tweens. for my title, i mixed in a clear cut shape, canvas stickers, fabric stickers, and epoxy shapes. so much to choose from, that i had to use a little of everything :)

see that circle, with the "our" on it? i didn't plan on this. but when i went to rub on the purple letters, i spelled "our" wrong. i always start at the end of the word, and go backwards. and i really should learn to write the word down on scratch paper first. because i usually spell something wrong. lol! i just punched a circle out of an extra journaling tag, and added it on top of my mistake. easy fix.

i went ahead of punched another circle out from the journaling tag. it had the word "date" on the tag, and i fit it into my circle and then added the rubon numbers for the year. i added a little strip of rubon peace signs, and a few epoxy shapes on top of the flowers on the pattern paper. and a few staples, since no layout is complete without staples. i was going to add some hand written journaling to this layout, on the ruled lines. but i started to worry that if i did, it would be way too much and too busy. there's a lot going on here, with the fun doodleing on the pattern paper. i think the layout itself is pretty self explanitory, so i don't think i neccesarily need any extra journaling to explain it.

head over to erin's blog to check out her take on the challenge. and then we would love it if you played along with us. you could do this same idea for a child's favorite shows, favorite music, you name it. if you do create something, please come back and share it with us. we'd love to see your take on this challenge :)