Never A Dull Moment

Good Monday morning!  Surprise, surprise, I have another layout to share!  I am trying really hard to get back into the swing of things.  The Powers That Be might have helped a little.  Much of last week was spent dealing with weather-related headaches.  The most comfortable room in the house (the cool basement) also happens to be where I craft. Awesome coincidence!  Anyway, on with the share, yes?

The photo is from Mother's Day this year.  I've held off from scrapping it because I couldn't decide on design.  I've loved multiple sketches that in the past two months, but none screamed out to be matched with this page.  Colors have been tricky, too.  Also, my printer was bratty and made this far too blue. I still might not have gotten the color choice right, but it was high time I got this photo taken care of.  THAT was enough struggle for me.

Confession of a Challenge Junkie:  I've relied on inspiration from other people for so long -- give me a sketch to follow; tell me what colors to use; tell me what elements to use -- that I stopped trusting myself.  I learned a BIG problem with that in the past few weeks.  While I LOVE participating in challenges, and likely will continue to do so, I will actually STRESS about fulfilling them; all of them.  I will stress over esthetics, time management, and rules to the point that my blood pressure spikes even more than some stupid chemo drug can manage and then I'm physically worse off than I would have been otherwise.  Then nothing is fun, nor relaxing.  Screw that, right?  Agreed.  So, while I am looking forward to seeing what fresh challenges await in August, I am going to practice chilling out and seeing what I can make all on my own.  On that  note, how about some close ups?

First off, this is how it all started.  I wasn't sure if I really liked it (or if anyone else would, either), so I posted this in the Facebook group, NicoleJones911.  I then got loads of great ideas from others.  Thank you so much, ladies, if you happen to stop by!

One of the big changes I made was to create a lot of torn layers.  It's such an easy thing to do -- tear paper -- but I have hesitated to do so for... over a year.  I know! So, I did it.  I also happened to pull out this little airplane while I was grabbing tiny bottle of sequins.  Yep!  Aint no party like a sequin party!

Initially, I was just going to use the layers of torn paper below the photo.  Unfortunately, that headache I mentioned earlier also meant that all of the patterns and colors were too much for my eyes. It was fun to create but painful and distracting; so I layered some vellum overthe top.  Instantly, I was able to concentrate on the photo again. As for the journaling, I kinda wanted to add some interest and attention to the area, so I used up roughly half a sheet of alpha stickers.  I really like the alphas from MME, but I can see how it will be wise, going forward, to buy two packages of the ones I like.  They played it well by NOT supplying enough vowels.  OR I can play it my way and stop giving them money because I kinda think that's a shady thing to do.

Back to the page, I had originally intended to put the title on top of the vellum, but the shiny gold Thickers just weren't working for me.  Also, I discovered a card that had my desired title, "Never A Dull Moment" that won the day.  Instead, I snagged a coordinating photo frame, attached left-over strips from the cream cardstock and worked on adding journaling.

Basically, "See the vellum hearts that I cut out by hand?"  This was the awe-inspiring moment in the FaceBook conversation that started a complete overhaul.  One member of the group suggested I trade out the stars in the circle for hearts; to match the bockeh in the photo.  Then it became vellum hearts.  It's possible that the was also thinking that I should ditch the circles and stars altogether, but I just couldn't do it.

More vellum hearts and a stray, clear, sequin.  It amused me so it got it's own photo.

I still feel like I want to add more to the page, but I'm making myself stop.  It's supposed to have a light feel with the vellum. It could be counter productive to add more, right?  Also, in this moment, I've getting 104 comments in the background about Minecraft.  I'm a distracted human being.  As always, I will work on posting this page to my galleries at A Cherry On Top and Scrapbook(dot)com in the next day or so.  There, you can find links to all the of the products I've used.... or at least as many as I can find on those sites.

Thank you for stopping by!

Without Even Trying

Hello again!

 I have another page to share; this time it's inspired by the White With 1 Challenge blog. The May challenge is White with Gold. This was perfect for me because I recently decided that I needed a lot of gold schtuff. Sure, I see it's quite fashionable right now, but also my son has taken a liking to all things gold. Not even my crafty stash is safe! Here is my submission:

Much of the embellishment on this page is thanks to the recent acquisition of gold embossing powder.  I've known for months that I wanted some, so I finally broke down and got some.  Yeah, I think I like it. 


Other details were on a whim:

• I used a brick stencil (my favorite) to spray a nearly-invisible layer onto the white cardstock.  It helped me focus.
• Around the photo, I painted some of the bricks with a layer of gold glitter glue, like an extended frame.
• I added water to some gold acrylic paint for splatters.
• I then used the too-much leftover to paint the frame...that also has random leftover glitter glue.
• From the hexagon matting -- which was originally a whim of just playing with the embossing powder -- I cut a random arrangement to add to the bottom corner.
• To highlight the matting, I ran my embossing dauber along the edges, dipped in powder and embossed for a distressed edge.
• The nautical stars were cut, using the Indie Cartridge (Cricut); and I couldn't help but use the negative space for a variation with the stars.

I think that sums it up.  Again, thank you for looking.  I'm excited to see what the color combination will be for June.

Crazy?

Good Wednesday Morning!

I finished a page last night and wanted to share it with you.  It's based off of Sketch 268, from Creative ScrappersSketch 268, from Creative Scrappers:








And here is my take:

Really, I did start off looking a lot like the sketch; until my loose circles fell to one side as I lifted the cardstock from the table.  As you can see, I really liked it.  Still, to be sure, I slept on it; put the circles back; turned the sketch on it's side and wound up putting it back the way The Powers That Be intended for it to be.  I really do like this sketch enough that I intend to keep playing with the general design. It might become my go-to sketch when I'm stuck.

I only took a couple close-ups but I want to mention several things about this page:

• The plain cardstock in the back was NOT making me happy.  Still, I knew I needed a large chunk of "white space" for the journaling that I'm adding, now that the pictures have been taken.  A bottle of Ranger mist has been sitting unloved for a couple years, so I combined that with my favorite stencil to create the slightest hint of interest in the background.  That was apparently my premission to have some fun.
• While I spent about 24 hours trying to decide on where I was going to put my circles, I fussed with each of them to start the layers as seen in the sketch above.  I managed to distress and ink the edges of the two navy circles before I left for a crazy-long appointment.  By the time I got home, I was tired and had forgotten to finishe the rest.  I'm telling myself that the outlining I did on two other circles AND the heart (also before the appointment) made that okay.
• Several days ago, I was finally brave enough to stop "loving" my foil paper and start cutting some of it up.  The bajillion gold and red stars are in a container, waiting for their turn, but I wasn't about to throw out the left overs.  Ergo, the red foil strip behind the circles.
• Sprinkled ink and sequins are slowly making their way into the "I Freaking Love This" category.

• What do you think about the paper airplanes?  I have been inspired by one of the sheets that Crate Paper released recently.  Then, I remembered that a couple other crafters used handmade paper airplanes on their pages within the last year.  I'm absolutely doing that again.

• Did you recognize the Dr. Seuss quote?  I LOVE that man, and about flipped my lid when I saw that Fancy Pants had a stencil with this quote.  Problem:  I only have the one stencil and am not yet prepared to attach IT to a single page.  Solution:  I popped out the letters inside the stencil for a furture page (that's one use).  I traced the inside of the stencil for this layout (that's 2 uses; but I can really do this as many times as I want).  When I start to get tired of looking at the thing, I can give myself permission to get the stencil messy by dabbing out the quote with inks, paint, etc (that's three/more uses).  Finally, when I'm REALLY done looking at the thing, I can just paint it; embellish it, do whatever I want with it and add the stencil itself to the page (that's four uses; and kills the stencil).  OH!  But check this!  I've still got the letters that I popped out, so I can pretty them up and use them as well (five/more uses to make that buck stretch.  Score!).
• That last (pretty empty) third of the page will be used for the lengthy journaling.  When The Boy starts to act overcome with energy, he will often ask me if he is crazy, or weird.  In that moment, I easily answer yes.  He quickly tells me, "Wrong answer."  My mom thinks I'm putting negative thoughts in his head.  I don't see it that way; so I want to explain to him how being crazy, or weird, is a VERY GOOD thing; that the world needs more weird people who aren't afraid to be creative, energetic, genuine, and true.  He's not "normal," and I love that about him.  I wouldn't have it any other way.

The quote in the top left is a stamp from Jillibean Soup.  It was the reason I bought the set.  It was time to start using it.  Oh, and the circles of stars are part of that same set.