Life Outside the Fishbowl

Stencling on Layouts

This month's DT kit for ScrapbooksPlus is the Plumeria line by Basic Grey.  Coincidentally, it coordinated quite nicely with Rachel's Easter dress... heh heh heh... and since I hadn't scrapped any Easter pics from this year I'll have quite the few coordinated spreads.

My first layout for the month uses stencils from Crafter's Workshop and Adirondack paint dabbers.

On the background paper I added snow cap paint with the reverse chicken-wire stencil. I then brushed some old paper distress ink from the edges, highlighting the stenciling in places. It's  very subtle, but I liked the added texture.

Over the golden strip I used another Crafter's Workshop stencil and purple twilight paint. I used Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's technique of using cheap cosmetic sponges to apply the paint.  I even used the sponge to apply paint to a stamp (Donna Downey - Unity Stamps).

 

A Seven Year Old's Fashion Sense...

I kept saying I was going to take pictures of my daughter on a daily basis so I'd have a plethora of blackmail material when she's a teen. She's since stopped the total clashing and gone into total monochromatic looks.

But I do have some pictures! Including this lovely ensemble from last summer. This isn't the worst one, trust me.

And so I started this layout for one of Shimelle's starting point challenges, but couldn't find the right alphas to finish it in time for the challenge. However, challenge 9 from last weekend's scrapbooking weekend challenges was to revisit any of her previous challenges. So I am.

The original starting point challenge is here. For my layout I started with a piece of Lily Bee Designs paper. I used a scrap of Basic Grey for the middle, and have paper and ephemera from Pink Paislee, October Afternoon, 7gypsies, Echo Park, and Studio Calico. Most of the word stickers are from an old sheet, with clear alpha stickers and the sticker phrases from Cosmo Cricket.

More Echo Park

So I just spent a good half hour putting together a blog post with photos, links, etc. etc... only to have my browser crash on me losing the entire post. Grrrrrr......

So, instead I'm going to post another Echo Park project I did for ScrapbooksPlus this month. Let's see if it can handle one photo and no links.... That's what I get with a "vintage" computer of a ripe old age of five years....

And these photos make me smile, which I really need right now ;)

We had the This and That collection this month. I dove into the "girly" papers for this layout using  four Hipstamatic photos of Rachel hamming it up, as usual. I added a few accents with black, starting with the border strip to tie into the black frames around the pics. Then I continued adding - a Maya Road tag, Tim Holtz plastic alphas,  Jenni Bowlin tag and black flower.

A Few Scrapbook Pages...

Shimelle had a weekend online crop going on over the past weekend, with scrapbooking challeges. They kept popping up in my twitter feed, so I checked them out. They were a great inspiration to dive into my paper stacks, grab some neglected paper and embellies and make some pages. In fact, I made four and have another one half done. Pretty quick for me!

And it got me cleaning out my stash. I've been collecting art supplies left and right and running out of room. A trip to Ikea to pick up a kitchen trolley helped get paints organized, but my drawers were overflowing. So... I've been spending time consolodating, weeding out, and reorganizing buttons, flowers, brads... slowly moving around tackling all my drawers.

And I found I have lots of flowers, brads and buttons not being used. So one of the things I challenged myself to do was to add them to my layouts.

Look at all those flowers & brads! And even a butterfly....

The entire layout. Shimelle had a challenge to use an envelope on a page to hold something. Here, it's holding my journaling. And I also used old stash - a scrap of Daisy D's - and mix up paper companies. Hmm... Basic Grey, Daisy D's, Lily Bee, and Cosmo Cricket. Embellishments - Basic Grey, Crate Paper, Maya Road, Making Memories and Jenni Bowlin.

And another shot from the same night. While the layout above focused on the Cherry Blossom dance the Girl Scouts had, this one focuses on the kimono itself (well, it's more like a robe, but don't tell Rachel that...)

I think I got three different paper companies in this one - Simple Stories, Cosmo Cricket, and Graphic 45.  Embellies are from Jenni Bowlin, Basic Grey, Studio Calico and Crate Paper.

Fancy Pants Layout

One of the new things we're doing this year at ScrapbooksPlus is making layouts - minus the photos and journaling - for new collections that come into the store. Kinda like our Wednesday layouts, only these are just one-pagers. April is once again my month. I picked up the Fancy Pants "Be You" collection for my project (with some cute Amy Tangerine stickers added in). The Subway Art paper really grabbed my attention, and you gotta love the birds!

You can get a supply list & directions, as well as the products at the store.

Here's the layout, ready for you to personalize....

April's Kit - Echo Park

For April we were given Echo Park's  This and That Charming and Graceful collections. I've always been a fan of Echo Park, and this collection is no exception. Love these papers!

I gravitated more towards the Charming line -- greens, plaids, browns. Yummy! March was full of scouting activity - Girl Scout cookie sales, Webelos badges.... and my projects for ScrapbooksPlus reflect that.

What's better for a Girl Scout cookie layout than green and brown?? And the little numbers in circles were perfect for my theme -- selling cookies. How many? 207! (Just don't ask how much of those 207 my family bought.... and ate..)

On this layout I used the Dots&Plaid, Numbers, Border Strips papers along with a tag from Jenni Bowlin and sticker phrase from Cosmo Cricket.

 

Easter Configuration Box

So ... it's been a really busy weekend. I took a encaustics workshop yesterday, which was fabulous, then came home and crashed. Spring break has been a great week for learning - pastels, gelli plates, encautics, art journaling... and more.

And then the kids woke us up bright and early this morning. We were hoping they'd sleep until at least 8, but they were up before 7 ready to see what the Easter Bunny had brought them.

Speaking of Easter, I finally put together my first configuration box. I used ScraPerfect's the Best Glue Ever to adhere everything - including some of the tissue tape that wouldn't stay stuck. The large egg started out as paper mache. I put a thin coat of the Best Glue Ever on the egg and covered it with 7Gypsies tissue paper. Love it!

Other embellishments include: - nest from Red Lead Paperworks, Echo Park paper, Tim Holtz configuration box, tissue tape & metal, Prima resin birdhouse & flowers, Kaisercraft flowers, Webster's Pages flowers and Little Yellow Bicycle stick pins. The bunny and bird I picked up from Michael's.

And, since I had a package of the paper mache eggs I decided to play around and do each one different - but more on that tomorrow!

All that Wander....

Here's another layout I did for ScrapbooksPlus with My Mind's Eye. I loved the sentiment on the paper - and it immediately made me think of the maze we visited in England this summer.

I really like how the hexagons in the paper echo the design & corners of the maze in the photos. This was a really fun layout to put together. I added some chipboard alphas from Little Yellow Bicycle and a few odds & ends from October Afternoon.

More Follow Your Heart

I love how this layout came together so easily with Follow Your Heart collection from My Mind's Eye.  This is one of my favorite pictures from my childhood. The outfits - classic '70's for sure.

I loved this part of the driveway. The little area behind the stone wall was perfect for making snow forts in the winter. And surprising Dad when he got home from work (with snowballs, of course!).

Follow Your Heart

Our March projects are up at ScrapbooksPlus. We used the new Rhonna Farrer collection from My Mind's Eye this month. I loved this collection at CHA, so I was very happy to get a chance to play with it.

Here's one of the layouts I did with an old photo of the boys. I think Thomas was a little over a year and a half at the time and we took him downtown to the FDR memorial. He was fascinated by all the water, but a little hesitant to get too near. But he really wanted to be on the stones next to the water that the other kids were standing on, so Tom took him there.