Back in the Saddle

Hey - I'm back. It's the end of my semester, so forgive the sporadic posts. Once all the grades are done and in, I'll be a bit more on the ball. So, without further ado, here's a few goodies:

What's that, you say? Wacky Tim Holtz paper? Sure, I can figure that one out. And I'm pleased with the results! I also got to break out my awesome Tim Holtz Sizzix die -- that ticket strip there (which is perforated, by the way -- just like the real thing!). Used a couple of his stamp sets, too, along with that rockin' film strip ribbon. Lots of Tim Holtz goodness here!

Now, let me tell you about those flowers. I made 'em all! The little ones are die-cut vintage sewing pattern paper, held together with a brad and all scrunched up, pretty-like. 

That tulle flower was inspired by Mary at Scrappy Chic, who said Tim Holtz was going nuts with tulle when she saw him demo-ing his new stuff. So I picked up a roll of brown-ish tulle from the wedding department (the official color is "champagne" -- hmm, that's some dirty-looking champagne!), die-cut a bunch using a scalloped circle nestie, then folded each layer up and stuck 'em in a circle. Make sense? No? Well, too bad I didn't take pictures! Maybe next time.

Also in it: AC Dear Lizzy Thickers

Next:

And now for something completely different! I figured I'd let this lovely Little Yellow Bicycle Clothesline paper speak for itself and didn't even add a title! The papers and stickers are from the same line, and I added a few snippets of ribbon and a brad. I promise this page doesn't look quite so busy in person! Sure is springy, though -- those photos are of flowers that bloomed super-early this year, thanks to a lovely warm spring.

Also in it: MME Lush brad

One more for tonight:

How could I get a pile of Graphic 45's On the Boardwalk line and NOT use these awesome photos of my grandma from back in the day? Besides the G45, I added some of Pink Paislee's awesome artisan tape, some ribbon and rick rack, Studio Calico stamps for the title (love that font!), and a couple more handmade flowers. Look at me, makin' flowers and stuff. The reddish one is made just by pleating and turning, pleating and turning...and hoping those glue dots will hold!. The turquoise flower is another small burst of genius. It's one of those rolled-ribbon flowers I'm seeing everywhere, but I made it with American Crafts ribbon. You know, that skinny stuff that's super-cute but...skinny. Mine tends to pile up in a shoebox. Turns out, it's great for this technique! Plus, the resulting flowers stay relatively flat. Sweet.

Also in it: giant bling sticker thingie from Jolee's -- the new line is surprisingly fun! Also used a paint dabber.

The first two layouts will go up at the store; the third at Mega Meet. Looks like I'll be hanging out in the Scrappy Chic booth on Thursday -- fun!

Soon, I'll post photos of my mini-book, and you'll see a lot of mini-me along the way.

Took Chris's first jewelry class tonight - made 8 (!) pairs of earrings in, like, 2 hours. Super-fun! Maybe I'll post photos of those, too.

Enjoy, folks!

Scrapping Maniac

Yep. More. Lots more. And I've gotten sleep, and done laundry, and all that other stuff. I'm just scrapping really fast these days!
I must say, I'm kind of proud of how different these are from one another. I don't know if I have my own "style" as a scrapper, but I think I'm ok with that. So, without further ado:

This one is my favorite of the bunch, and it doesn't even use my DT stash -- I was at Scrappy Chic on Wednesday, and the new October Afternoon lines had just come in. They are super-cute! I showed remarkable restraint: only picked up the paper pad, a few sheets of stickers, and a stamp set -- all from Thrift Shop. Actually, that's kind of a lot. But I did have a coupon! Anyway, this layout features mostly October Afternoon, with some alphas from Making Memories and some cute little rick rack. I love this picture, too -- me and my parents in our old living room!

I was a little stumped on this paper from Graphic 45 -- I had no good reason to cut it up and use the elements separately, and the colors are really saturated and overpowering on their own. So I layered a sheet of vellum over the paper: problem solved! More pictures of little me (got a big stack of scanned childhood photos in the mail yesterday) -- here, on the big old boat we had from the time I was about 4 until about 5 years ago. 

Finally broke down and tried a Prima swirl on this one, too, along with some old Cosmo rub-ons (Jack's World) -- they were in a bin of older stuff I hadn't used. I put an "expiration date" on the bin, and everything I don't use by then goes in the "garage sale" pile. I might put these in the garage sale, anyway -- they don't exactly rub-on too easily -- frustrating!

I hope a layout about beer is appropriate for Mega Meet :) Maybe the flowery Material Girl paper is a bit of a stretch for this particular topic, but I like the colors! Andrew took the photo of me -- I love his eye for quirky shots. I stitched on some rick rack and ribbon, then stuck in a couple pins from Little Yellow Bicycle. There's a line of stitching at the top, but I had to call it quits b/c my machine is doing wonky things whenever I zig-zag these days. Gotta work on that.

I like the simple, graphic style of this one -- and the cute pic of our godson from last summer. I love it when red and green manage to not look Christmas-y :) This one's mostly Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety (from the mini-deck), with paper whimsies (fancy talk for circles and flowers) from Sassafrass.

Whew! Plus, my mini-album is nearly done (need some rings and maybe a bit more flair). Also have a few cards, but I think I'll just post those in my Splitcoast Gallery. Enough for one day, for pete's sake!

Thanks for checking it out!

Four plus One

So I've been working on these layouts using Cosmo Cricket's Joy Ride line, which is travel-themed, kind of. I wish I traveled more, but I had to reach all the way back to last spring and scrap my trip to San Francisco. (Which was for a conference, by the way - I was just a tourist in my free time!)

Using one line makes all four layouts hang together, but they're still all pretty different, probably b/c I have issues doing the same thing twice! I even have a hard time teaching the same books multiple times -- I get bored way too fast for my own good!

Ok, up first:

I'm usually a one- or two-photo type, so 6 on one layout is pretty wild for me. Calmed it down by making a pretty linear layout.

Next:

Ooh, 4 photos! Still pretty good for me! I sewed my own journaling lines over a big schmear of paint. I like the look, but sewing straight is clearly not my strong suit! Next time, I'll save this one for a less-linear layout, I think.

#3:

Amoeba Music is a huge-o-rama independent music store. I had to go there for Andrew (who did not come on this trip)...it was a long, dark walk to get there!

And, almost-finally:

My fave. You MUST go to City Lights Books. Well, I must, anyway. The entire upper floor is all poetry. Sigh. Anyway, I think this layout still needs a little something in the upper-left quadrant, but maybe I'll leave well enough alone.

All 4 layouts have little chipboard flowers in the top-right corner, which I guess is my dorky way of remembering that they go together :)

In these four: Cosmo Cricket Joy Ride paper, elements, chipboard stickers, and buttons. CC chip alphas and tiny type, too. The "Signs" layout uses LYB rub-ons, and the Castro layout uses some BG alpha stickers.

And now for the Plus One (like a date, I guess, only papery-er!):

What you can't see in this photo is that Andrew and I look very sleepy in this photo -- his choir was performing on the Saturday morning news, which for Channel 4 meant we had to be at the studio before, oh, 6am. On a Saturday, mind you.  Fun, though.

In it: Pink Paislee 365 papers, stamps and artisan tapes, Coredinations cs, Jillibean Soup journaling spot, plus a star punch and some bakers' twine for stitching.

Hooray! Many more in the works for this month...plus who knows? Maybe I'll keep tinkering with these. Right after I go enjoy the sunshine for awhile, anyway.

All of these will (eventually) go up in Scrappy Chic's gallery, plus the Cosmo layouts will be up at Mega Meet in May.

Thanks for looking!

Up to my neck!

...In paper goodness. No photos to post, but I am literally in the middle of four (yes, 4! simultaneously!) layouts, with a ton to go, plus a mini-album. All for Scrappy Chic, and lots of Cosmo Cricket and Graphic 45 for Mega Meet.
Well, those layouts aren't going to finish themselves! (Neither is the laundry. Or the dishes. Or the giant stack of essays to grade.) What am I doing online? Back to work!
PS - I decided to change my background and header. I love shabbyblogs.com! Liz's blog is so lovely, I had to give them a try!

Catching up...with cards.

So I haven't posted in awhile -- there's not too much new, but here are a few cards:

One of my best pals from college just had baby #3 - a boy. This fun card was for him!

In it: lots of Papertrey (cs, paper, stamps, button), Hero Arts cloud bg stamp (awesome!), nesties.

And these little 3x3 cards are for kids #1 and #2 -- congratulations on becoming big (and bigger) siblings.

In them: AC Dear Lizzy stamps, We R stamp, and some other random stamps, Papertrey cs and paper and inks.

Easter has come and gone -- here are some cards for family.

In them: Papertrey cs, stamps, ink; WeR paper (DT leftovers!), CB folders.

And the rest of the cards.

In them: Papertrey stamps, inks, and cs; Basic Grey Green at Heart ppr, nesties, cb folders.

There's more, but it's not too exciting :)

What IS exciting is all the goodness in my new DT kit from Scrappy Chic -- so much fun stuff to play with! So I guess there will be more scrap goodies posted soon!