Ahhhh.....Christmas is over!

Phewww.... Christmas is over and I finally have some scrappy time to myself again! Never mind that the downstairs looks like Christmas exploded with packages and such that my husband and I dumped on the floor. Cleaning can wait...I need some scrap therapy after the holidays! :) I also need to get into my December kit from The Scrap Room...it's almost January and I haven't even made one LO with it yet! Not until last night that is....

With a lot of snow coming down last night and blizzard conditions outside, my husband was called into work to plow and I hunkered down to create at least one Christmas LO. Amazingly, I have already printed out all of my Christmas pictures! Since all of the kits from TSR were holiday themed I really wanted to use them in some Christmas LOs.

This first LO I made is about my Mother In Law's love for all things Christmas and especially vintage Christmas items. I love going around her house and taking pictures of the holiday set-ups that she has, most of which are displayed year round. I wanted to document these on a LO so that future generations will know where these items came from and a little bit more about my Mother In Law.

Materials Used: Girls Paperie Dec. FOTM kit with add-on PP and Embellishment kits, Cosmo Cricket alpha stickers, Fiskars scallop scissors, Colorbox chalk ink in Creamy Brown, Zig journaling pen in 05 Black. 

I just love how vintage the paper from the Girls Paperie Tinsel & Twig collection  looks and it went so well with the theme of my LO! I am very pleased with the end result. This is a lift of Melanie Call and a LO that she provided for the Ideas Gallery at The Scrap Room.

The main photo is actually the front of a flip book that I created to showcase more photos of her holiday displays without creating a LO that would be too busy. The brads hold the book together on the side and when taken out of the page protector you are able to flip through the decorations. Here are the pics underneath:

Hope everyone had a great holiday and I hope to do some more scrapping this week!

Fire Academy Gradute

My little brother recently graduated from the Fire Academy in MA and the whole family went. This is the first of many LOs from the day we had there, including touring the buildings used to train the firefighter recruits and the ceremony itself.
This is a picture of my brother and his Fire Chief that was taken outside of the building after the ceremonies. The lighting in the ceremony was horrible so I was happy to get a good pic of my brother and his chief outside. The picture went so well with these papers from the Sept. Doubleshot kit from The Scrap Room. I love Jenni Bowling and her embellishments and this was the first time I got to use some of her papers.Sadly, they were not double-sided but they were fun to work with anyway!

Materials Used: Sept. Jenni Bowlin Doubleshot kit, Thickers alphas, Cosmo Cricket alpha stickers, pewter brads, twine, Tim Holtz Grungeboard, Sizzix embossing folder, Distress Ink in Red Barn Door and Black Soot, Colorbox Chalk Ink in brown.

I had a great time turning these papers into two banners that run across the top right side of the page. I used pewter brads in the corner of each triangle and used twine to 'hang' the banner on it. A fun challenge this week on The Scrap Room Blog is to use pop dots on a layout and I used them all over this one! The first place was on the banners themselves, to give them more dimension.

I also used pop dots on the title banner that I made. Once again I used twine to 'hang' it on and I also used staples to attach the pieces to each other. I love how this gives it more texture.

I had a blast finally using some Tim Holtz Grungeboard I bought over the summer. I ran it through my Epic six and dry embossed some stripes onto it. Then I used Distress Inks in Red Barn Door and Black Soot to color the stars I had cut with my Cricut. I added some buttons and twine to the largest star and then clustered them together, adding some pop dots for dimension.

 This is the final kit from last month's Scrap Room shipment and it is just in time since I got my new kit yesterday! I'll have to see what I can come up with for it!

Keep On Flying Without Wings

I got this great pic of my niece over the weekend and I just had to scrap it ASAP! Sometimes, a picture just screams at you. I started perusing the internet for some good old fashion MOJO inspiration and I found it in two places. The perfect sketch was at Pagemaps in their October sketches and the perfect title was at Scrapping The Music .  I also had the perfect papers for the pic with my September Doubleshot kit from The Scrap Room.  The LO is one I will give to my niece when she is older and it basically says that I love her personality and I hope she keeps on enjoying life. :)

Here is the final product:

Materials Used: Sept. LilyBee Design Hello Sunshine Doubleshot kit, Thickers alphas, Cosmo Cricket sticker alphas, sewing machine & cream thread, Martha Stewart butterfly punch, Colorbox Chalk ink in brown, Zig journaling pens in 01 & 05 Black, floss.
I love the colors of the LilyBee Designs 'Hello Sunshine' paper! They are so vibrant and were so much fun to work with.

I had so much fun making these little butterflies and sewing them onto my page. I love the effect that stitching them on gives and it really wasn't all that hard!

 As a final embellishment I used some of the paper from my kit to make a large circle flower that I hand-cut and then used scissors to fringe the edges. I love how 'bohemian' it looks and it adds the perfect touch to my page.

Well, that's all for tonight! I hope to have some more work to show you by the end of the week!

Welcome To The TSR MOD Squad Blog Hop!

I am so excited and honored to be a part of this blog hop for the MOD Squad of The Scrap Room! I hope you are enjoying the cards and sketches so far! It is such an honor to be part of a group of ladies as creative as this one.

My name is Amy (playswithpaper on the TSR forums) and I have been a member of TSR for a little over a year now. The inspiration and  ideas I get from the ladies of TSR has been amazing and I love getting my kit every month. In fact, my husband even knows what day it will arrive usually! :) I joined TSR because most of the LSS in my area closed and I love seeing the new paper lines. That is why TSR is such a great fit for me...Tammy picks out the paper, matches it with great embellishments and I simply have to wait for my kit to come!

I have been scrapbooking for about 6 years now but I have always enjoyed many crafts, including jewelry making and quilting. Although, scrapbooking has been my main obsession for the last 6 years :). I have also recently started getting into photography more (the heart of scrapbooking really) and have started making my own sketches. I really love the entire aspect of creating something with paper and making my own sketches lets me start from the beginning.

For World Card Making Day on Saturday we thought it would be fun to share some cards we made & I hope you are inspired to create some too! Here is the card sketch I came up with for the blog hop:

 Here is the card I came up with using some of my leftover kit from TSR from September. Making cards is a great way to use up those small scraps and since the kits are always loaded with paper I always have some extras to make a couple of cards. The bright and fun colors of the Jillibean Soup Pasta Fagioli kit came to mind to create a fun birthday card.

Materials Used: Jillibean Soup Pasta Fagioli kit from September Scrap Room FOTM kit, Zig pen in 01 & 05 Black, Flower stamp from Autumn Leaves and Happy Birthday stamp from Inkadinkado, Tim Holtz Die

I love pop dots and use them a lot on cards to add interest to such a small scale project. Here is a close up of the many layers of this card. I used four different types of pop up dots on this one!

Speaking of birthdays, did you know that TSR is celebrating it's 6th birthday this year? Happy Birthday Tammy & TSR! I know there are some things planned this month to help celebrate so I hope you can join us over at TSR for some fun challenges and ideas!

Your next stop on the blog hop is Marcia and her blog The Cherokee Cropper. I can't wait to see what card she came up with! If you happened upon this post and wish to start at the beginning of the blog hop you can with Barbara and her blog Our Crazy Little World. Enjoy the hop!

Friends

Actually got a LO done this busy weekend! Friday I went to the Boston area to celebrate my brother's graduation from the Fire Academy, Saturday we went to the Big E with my in-laws and had a great time and today I went to a class at the LSS and also celebrated my anniversary two days early with my hubby (Tuesday does not seem like a good night to have fun after work!). Phew...I'm tired just thinking about it all again...but it was a fun weekend! Here is a LO that I actually got done! Armed with the fabulous Sassafrass Lass Indie Girl kit from this months Flavor's Of the Month kit from The Scrap Room and a wonderful sketch by Helen Croft from Let's Scrap I was ready! By the way...I loved the vintage feel and look of these papers!

Here is the sketch:
and here is my take on it:
Materials Used: Sassafrass Lass Indie Girl September FOTM kit from the Scrap Room and add-on embellishment kit, Thickers Alphas, Zig journaling pens in 05 & 01 Black

I just loved the little little chipboard sticker flowers that came with the kit and had a blast layering them and inking them up!
My favorite new obsession is banners....and this one from the Sassafrass Lass line did not disappoint me! The sticker sheet that came in the add-on embellishment kit had 4 different ones to choose from and I loves them all! Here is a close up of the one I chose!
I just love how this line all looked together on a LO! With the kit, the only thing I had to add was my journaling pens and alphas for the title! Combined with the sketch it was an easy LO to put together!

Getting Excited!

As a part of the MOD Squad team for the upcoming year I am getting excited about the changes and new ideas we have over at The Scrap Room! Hope to see everyone there!

Making a Recycled Album

A recent fun challenge over at The Scrap Room was to make a mini album from something in your recycling bin. A cereal box or something made of cardboard was an obvious choice for the cover material. However, I took it a step further and everything I used for my mini album, except the book rings and alphas for the front, was something I saved from the recycling!

Here is the before pic of the materials I used:
Here is the mini album I made:
Materials Used (non-recyclable): Stampendous Opaque Embossing Powder, Distress Ink in Antique Linen, Walnut Stain and Black Soot, scissors, hole punch, various Alphas (from opened packages only!), Alcohol Inks in Stream & Wild Plum, pearl beads and a Tim Holtz flower die used on my Epic Six

I used newspaper, which I doubled up, for the base of my paper on the cereal box. I inked it up with some Tim Holtz Distress Inks, embossed it with some opaque Stampendous embossing powder and then inked it some more. I then roughed up the edges a bit and inked them with a darker color.

For the plastic flowers, I had to think a little. I cut the neck and bottom off of the bottle and was left with a circle of plastic that I cut in the middle to make a sheet. My Martha Stewart punch that I wanted to use wasn't cutting all the way through the bottle, so I decided to use my Epic Six machine with some Tim Holtz dies. Have I mentioned that I love Tim Holtz's products?? The big die cut through the plastic like butter, it was so easy! I then used Adirondack alcohol inks to color the flowers and added some pearls on top of them with some glossy accents.

Here is a close up of one of the flowers:
I plan on using the album to create swatches of my ink colors and Copic marker colors. That way I can see the color on paper when I am making something but I can also toss it into my purse when I am headed out shopping for supplies. Then, I have an easy list of what I already have!

This was a great way to save some items from the trash and also showed me what I can create when I sit down and think about it. What can you come up with from your recycling bin?

Sailing

My husband and I went sailing on a vacation to Newport, RI this summer and loved it! It was the first sailboat ride for both of us and I can see us doing it again!

When I got my September kit from The Scrap Room and saw these October Afternoon papers, I knew they would be perfect for these pictures! I used a sketch Julie Bonner created for The Scrap Room for the September kit:

Here is my take on the sketch:


The picture in the top right is a group of kids learning how to sail in these little sailboats the size of a bathtub. They were so funny to watch because I've never seen anything that small sailing in the ocean before!

One of the papers from the kit is the Seaside: Seashell paper and I loved using one of the banners from the paper to cut out for the top of my page. I love the effect it has and I still have almost a whole page of them to use!


One of the stickers from the kit was the perfect place to do some quick journaling. It was a great place to add the who, when and where!



I'll be back later this week with some more scrapping!

Feral Kittens!

My husband and I recently fostered 6 feral kittens from the feral cat colony at work. They were from 2 different litters but all related, so one big happy family! They went to work with me everyday and lived in our upstairs bathroom for 3 weeks!! It was getting a little cramped :) We did keep the little tiger and I'm sure you'll be seeing more pics of him soon!

I loved this Basic Grey paper and I thought it was just wonderful for this LO. I used a sketch posted at The Scrap Room for their Got Sketches challenge. The sketch is by Pamela Young for Scrapbook Challenges.


The paw print embellishment I made all by myself! I used a stamp from Elle's Studio, stamped it on cream cardstock with Memento Ink in brown and then covered it with Ranger Glossy Accents. After it dried I cut it out and glued it onto a matching stripe paper from the BG paper. Roughed it up a bit on the edges and used my Colorbox Ink to ink the edges. Looks like I bought it from the store and I love it!

I love mixing up the alphas in my titles lately. For this title I used both BoBunny and Cosmo Cricket alpha stickers. Love the combination!



I also recently bought a white pen from Inkssentials to create the frame around the LO. I love it, it works great and it really shows up on the dark cardstock!

Materials Used: Basic Grey Max and Whiskers Paper, Making Memories and Cosmo Cricket Alpha Stickers, Inkssentials White Pen, Elles Studio stamp, Memento Ink in Brown, Cream Cardstock, Ranger Glossy Accents, Fiskars Corner Rounder

The Kits Are Coming!!

With the Scrap Room kits set to ship and arrive this week I thought I'd post the last two LOs I made with last months kits. Somehow, getting them to the blog never happened :)

This first LO is a picture of my Great Grandmother and Great Grandfather taken during the depression by my Grandmother. I never met my biological grandmother, she passed away when my mother was young. So seeing these pictures that she treasured enough to hang onto in albums, was well, a treasure to me! I loved the vintage feel of these Sassafrass Lass papers and how they looked like a quilt from the depression when I cut them out.

Materials Used: Sassafrass Lass Cherry Delicious August Kit from the Scrap Room, Dream Street Papers Alphas inked with Ranger ink in Walnut, Vintage Lace & Buttons, sewing machine and cream thread, Zig Journaling Pen in 05 Black.

This next LO I made to showcase a picture I took of a Monarch that had hatched out at work one day. Yes, I was stalking them on my lunch breaks! I used a sketch from the August Pagemaps and the KI Memories Groovy kit from the Scrap Room. I used mainly the "B" sides to showcase my picture.
Materials Used: KI Memories Groovy August kit from the Scrap Room, Thickers alphas, My Little Shoebox alpha stickers, satin ribbon in various widths, Kaisercraft rhinestones, rhinestone brads from my collection, Zig Journaling Pen in 05 Black and a Martha Stewart border punch.

Can't wait to get the September kit, I have lots of extras coming with it! :)

Restoring A Classic

My dad recently restored his '59 Mack truck and is so proud of it! I'm proud of him, since he has had this truck since we were younger and finally got around to restoring it. I just had to make a scrapbook LO of it so the future grandkids can hear the story!

I used this sketch from Sassy Lil' Sketches and part of the August kit from The Scrap Room. I think the sketch is just wonderful, really allowing my picture to shine and the patterned paper from Glitz really matched the picture wonderfully! This is the first time I have seen or used paper from the Glitz company and I was definitely impressed! Heavy paper and a wonderful vintage feel. Perfect for a page about restoring an old truck!

Isn't she beautiful? I'm talking about the LO but I'm sure my dad would be talking about that truck! :)

Materials Used: Glitz Kismet PP from the August Scrap Room kit, button, photo turn and ribbon also from the scrap room kit, CS from Bazzill, Alpha stickers from Cosmo Cricket (small) and American Crafts (large), Martha Stewart border punch, Colorbox Brown Ink and Zig 05 Black Pen

Busy Bee

I just love this pic I got recently at my Mother In Law's house. She has amazing gardens and right before my camera died I snapped off this last pic. I didn't know how well it had come out until I got home and loaded it up. I have just recently started using the Manual settings on my camera and this is one of the first great shots I got while playing around with the settings. I love it! This is a cropped image of it:

I of course had to create a LO for my special bee and I was torn between a whimsical LO or a serious LO where I show off my new photography skills. When I saw the August sketch at the Scrap a Little blog by Helen Croft I knew the Whimsical LO was going to win! Combined with the Echo Park Sweet Summertime kit from The Scrap Room kit this month, I was ready to go! Here's my take on the sketch:

I really went all out with the whimsical theme, using pop dots to lift up the cloud, flowers and little saying. I also doodled around almost everything to make it stand out against the busy background.

Materials Used: Echo Park Sweet Summertime kit from The Scrap Room, Size 01 Zig Pen in Black, Pop Dots, Colorbox Brown Cat's Eye Ink Pad

Some Recent Cards

I recently made a couple of cards that I thought I'd show off! The first is a Christening card I made for a co-worker. I made it blue since it was for a little baby boy and found this great cross on my Cricut Wedding cart. I used a glue pad to cover the cross with glitter and then used glossy accents to set it. The bookplates are also from my Cricut cart. and the flowers are from Hero Arts. I love the way it came out, but more importantly my co-worker loved it!



A close up of the cross and flower details:
This second card I made to send to a friend. I recently started buying stuff from Crop Chocolate and bought a pack of the Making Memories Anthology paper. First off, CC is super cheap and has some great deals, so it was a score. Second, the paper made excellent cards since it has a white backside and is a little bit thinner than CS. All I had to do was cut a card form and fold! I love how the colors are soft and make a great "hello" card. I used a sketch from Mojo Monday.
A close up of the Hero Arts flower with button detail:
That cute little birdie stamp is a Hero Arts stamp too! Love their stuff! Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend and I will be back later this week to share some great LO's I've been working on!

Nobody Wants To Be The Last One

I had so much fun this past weekend and tonight working on this LO! When I saw the challenge at Scrapping The Music this past week to create a LO with the lyrics from Nickelback's song Gotta Be Somebody I knew I had to do it! After reading the lyrics through I decided to scrap these pics of my Mother In Law's Cat and kittens. She had gotten the basket to put their toys in but the cats all love to sleep in it instead. She decided to put a blanket in and now they basically all try to squeeze in at na
p time! It's so cute but they don't all fit in there, which is where the idea for the LO came from. I decided to use a sketch from Let's Scrap since it looked like so much fun. Enjoy!!



What is it about these banners that we all just love??
Close-ups of the adorable Hero Arts flowers!
Materials Used: Bo Bunny Sophie PPs, ribbon, brads, Hero Arts flowers, EK success border punch

Spring Beauty

Here is the latest LO I made. We have a Cherry Tree right outside of our condo that I get to see every morning in the Spring before work, loaded with it's beautiful flowers. It certainly is the best remedy for those gotta-go-to-work blues!

I used part of the Fancy Pant's Road Show kit from this month's The Scrap Room kit and the sketch Julie Bonner made for The Scrap Room this month.
Other supplies: Bazzill CS, trim, ribbon, buttons, pearl brads, vintage hat pins, American Crafts Thickers and Rub-On Alphas, Jenni Bowlin Butterfly

Happy Mother's Day!

A little early but Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers in the world. Whether biological or not, you are what makes the world a better place! I'm wishing this a little early since I won't have time to stop in tomorrow since we are visiting both sets of parents. Here are the cards I made for my mother and mother-in-law:

I used a new ribbon-rose tutorial I found at the blog Ideas for Scrapbookers to make the flowers and they are soooooo stinkin' easy! These are literally my second and third ones. I love the cards and they each have their own personality, just like our moms! I used a sketch from The Scrap Room for these.

My New Favorite Layout

I made this layout using a sketch from Let's Scrap and I used a song from Scrapping the Music from a few weeks ago. The song was Will Smith's version of "Just the Two of Us" and one of the lines goes.....Just the two of us, Building Castles in the Sky. I immediately though of a pic of my two cats in the window. When I saw the sketch I knew that it was perfect to use and I wanted to make a whimsical fun page of my two cats enjoying their window seat. I just love how it came out! The Bling frame from Making Memories really adds the perfect touch!