1st Birthday!

Well I guess you could say I am a bit behind on scrapping the "main events".  These can be quite a daunting undertaking.  You see, I scrap more "moments" than events, I think because the events usually mean an excessive amount of photos.  This particular event was my baby's 1st birthday (she's 2 now).  I was overwhelmed with the amount of photos I took on her birthday so I separated them into themes - presents, cake, family.  I decided to tackle "cake" first. I still had lots of pics and I didn't want the layout to look cluttered so when I saw this week's Sketchabilities sketch I had an idea.  First, here's the sketch and the layout.

Supplies: Sassafras Serendipity "Hog Heaven" - Chirp Chirp, Pinstriped, Lots O'Luck papers; Hog Heaven Journal/Tag Stickers; Hog Heaven Sweet Treats cardstock Stickers; Tattered Angels Pink Bubblegum and Spring Rain Glimmer Mist; Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type alphas; American Crafts crocheted flower; Queen & Co Felt Fusion; My Mind's Eye Twine


There's actually 12 photos on this layout.  I made a sort of mini album by cutting 2 strips of cardstock and then folded them evenly like an accordian.  I put the photos in the appropriate sequence on the folds.  I have 3 on the front and 3 on the back of each set. 

I used the very last sets of folds to journal on... 

I glued these cute little buttons on the top flaps and tied some twine around it.  I'm thinking I'll cut slits in the page protector so that people can untie it to see the photos instead of having to pull out the entire page. 

I also free-hand drew the balloon and then misted the background paper and the "1". The mist was a homemade mix of purple "gypsy" re-inker and Ranger Perfect Pearls "Blush" that I misted in a mini mister tube.  Then I used self-adhesive felt fusion for the balloon string. The felt typically runs in a continuous loop in the same direction, like in the upper right corner, so I cut it up and turned it around to give it the effect of floating in the air, hence the cloud. I LOVE clouds on my layouts, btw. The banner is actually made from the decorative cutaway trim that came with some of the coordinating paper. I just cut it up, free-style hand cut the purple starbursts and then applied alphas and then more twine.

Please vote for ME as Sketchy Thursdays Guest Designer...

I got sooooooo many comments on my Who Wore Them Best layout both on the blog and in person so thank you all.  I was honored to be selected as a finalist for the Sketchy Thursdays December Guest Designer.  I promised you all I would beg for your votes if I was selected as a finalist soooo.......
PLEASE vote for my layout! Are you picturing me down on two knees?  C'mon, I'm not THAT desperate for votes, or am I?  Okay, I'm in a mood tonight I guess.  I think the problem is that people can't SEE that the wheel spins so they are missing the ORIGINALITY, cool spinner effect.  Here's the layout showing the spinner series and just how hard this was to get everything in JUST the right spots.  Now if you don't mind, I need YOU ALL who like my layout to vote for it BY WEDNESDAY at NOON ET/11 am CT.
Thanks! ~Heather

 

Who Wore Them Best?

The grandparents came to celebrate Rheagan's 7th birthday so we all went out to eat at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants.  The wait staff came out and placed a huge sombrero and these groovy glasses on her and sang a very off-tune version of Happy Birthday.  After the song, we took turns sporting the green glasses from the 80's and I of course captured the silliness. 

I saw this sketch challenge over on Sketchy Thursdays for the December Guest Designer and I thought I'd give it a try with the intention of NOT submitting it but after working SOO dang hard on this layout, I decided to go ahead and enter the contest.  It's harder than it looks to get those pictures JUST the right size in JUST the right place for the wheel I made with cut-outs in JUST the right places.  I kept the rest of the layout somewhat clean and simple as I thought the wheel was quite a bit in itself. Oh and there was a twist to this sketch...in addition to making a layout using this sketch, you needed to use at least 5 pictures AND give them a little bit of sparkle (glitter, foil, etc). I used 8 photos (4 on top and 4 on bottom) and the sparkle was on the alphas and the swirlydoos on the spinning wheel.  I hope you like this and if chosen as a finalist I will indeed be asking you for votes. ;)  The sketch and my layout:



Supplies: Jillibean Soup Atomic Soup: Cup of Equations patterned paper and die cuts; My Mind's Eye Shabby Dots paper; Thickers Alphas - Niki Riki Glitter letter stickers & Delight foam letter stickers; Tattered Angels Tattered Leather Glimmer Mist; Glossy Accents misc. buttons and ribbon.

Yes, the wheel actually spins, see the pics below.

The handmade flower with clear button

Thanks for looking!

Heather

My FAVES/Your FAVE - Share Your Favorite Layout for a Chance to WIN!

Hello, hello!  I wanted to let you know about the easy peasy contest going on over at Crop Suey right now.  Mia has teamed up with Heather from 3 Scrappy Boys to celebrate their 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!

Want a chance to win a 3 Scrappy Boys kit? Become a follower of Crop Suey and leave a comment linking to your FAVE creation that YOU have made! Mia asked us to post our fave layout, project or card so don't forget to check out the Crop Suey DT faves that are posted on the Crop Suey blog.  I have to say that it was hard to chose just one...I chose my most recent layout  to post over there but since I have new faves and old faves so I am posting a few more here. Look at how far I've come in the last year. 

 I was playing with Photoshop Opacity & Poster Edges on this one. There's a tutorial for this HERE. I also included step by step photos to make the accordian flowers HERE.

Won the NVS Challenge with this one. I received 44% of 136 votes! Post is HERE.

Lots of hand stitching and playing with masking. Sketch & LO is HERE.

There's a tutorial for this handmade sea shell HERE:

Love the white space (something I never seem to do enough of). Sketch & LO HERE.

I doodled the border and water painted the blue. Also includes hidden journal tag behind the pictures. See more pics of this (including the journaling) by scrolling down to the bottom of the post HERE.

Banners...LOVE them. I was trying to make the page look like a rock wall - from the kraft paper to the fussy cut circles, buttons, etc. Sketch & LO HERE.

My 1st and hopefully not last Sketchy Thursdays Fave win! Check it out HERE.

I like the layering on this one & the circle looks like the ropes on the pony ride. I had fun with the alphas here too. LO posted HERE.

Oh, lots of painting, embossing, misting and a hidden photo/journaling pocket!!! Blog post HERE.

This one was so fun! I got crazy with my stitching (border and on the squares), love the lace cloud, and the journaling was so much fun! See up close details HERE (along with another FAVE not included here called "Fasten Your Seat Belt).

I just posted this one this week but I really love it. The challenge was to use unusual shapes and burlap on a LO and I happened to have photos AND paper with hexagons in it but I couldn't just use the paper, I HAD to fussy cut them to really play up the odd shapes.  Check it out HERE.

The Pick of the Patch

I love pretending that we have a change of seasons here in Texas.  Every "fall" we head to the Pumpkin Patch to pick pumpkins and play on the farm; Dewberry Farm, that is.  I just had to do a pumpkin picking layout for Reese from last year using Karan's latest Sketchabilities sketch. Reese was a little indifferent to all the pumpkins and activities.  It was definitely a different story this year!

Be sure to check out what the rest of the Sketchabilities design team did with this sketch!

Cute Little Chicks: Coordinates Collections November Blog Hop Challenge, Sketchy Thursdays and ScrapFIT

The kids were at their grandparents this weekend so I had the chance to go on a couple of dates with the hubby but between that and sleeping in, I scrapped away in my new scrap room! I promise to post photos some day. ;)  So, I've got quite a few new layouts to post.  The one for today combines 3 different challenges:

• Sketchy Thursdays - create a project based on the sketch below for a chance to win Copics
• Coordinates Collections - create a fall or outdoor themed LO using burlap
• ScrapFIT - use shapes you normally don't see in a LO and use fall colors.

To meet the challenge requirements I used photos that actually include hexagon shapes (how perfect was that?), plus burlap and then I fussy cut hexagons from paper from the Scrapbook Circle November kit. I love the paper and embellishments combos that Lisa puts together. And the sketch was just the inspiration I needed to put it all together!!

Supplies: Crate Paper School Spirit Collection - Ruler and Chemistry paper; misc. burlap; Jillibean Soup corrugated shapes; Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type alphas; Basic Grey archiac alpha stickers; Martha Stewart baker's twine; Tattered Angels Tattered Leather Glimmer Mist; Glossy Accents; CTMH Chocolate Ink; misc. buttons

BoBunny Challenge & Hippity Blog Hoppin' Time!

Here for the blog hop? First, check out my take on BoBunny sketch challenge and then scroll down.
Supplies: BoBunny - Back to Basics Sophie Dot, Sophie Silhouette, Petal Pushers Chipboard, Alphas and borders; Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type alphas; Queen & Co Little Letters black; misc. bling.

Now, I have to tell you how excited I am for this blog hop.  5 different challenge blogs have teamed together to provide you with a "recipe" challenge.  How cool is that?? It starts with an awesome sketch and then you hop around to the rest of the blogs to get the ingredients.  Once you've completed the recipe, post your layout to the final site for a chance to win the grand prize. 

I'm participating as part of the Crop Suey design team.  This challenge was so much fun that I'm going to do a random suprise giveaway too. Just become a follower of my blog if you aren't already and leave a comment telling me your favorite holiday dish/dessert/drink (including the recipe gets you a bonus entry since this is a recipe challenge and I always like to try new things). I'm asking international participants to pay the difference in shipping.

Here's the sketch and my layout.

Supplies: Glossy Accents; Sassafras Pattern Paper - Buttercream Bliss, Gum Drop Garden, Sugary Love, Fruit Slice Land, Sprinkled, Dreamsicle; white Delta paint mixed with Close to My Heart Crystal Blue re-inker; CTMH pink and blue sparkles; misc. thread.

Now hop around to get the full recipe! Here's how I incorporated the ingredients:

• Sassy Lil' Sketches - see the sketch above
• Crop Suey - I inked the edges of every paper and used paint (colored it blue with re-inker; spattered and brushed on with my fingers)
• Scraptiffany - the lace is actually fussy cut inside the cloud in the upper left square
• Cuttlebug Spot - it's hard to see the embossing but it's randomly on the paper cut outs. I also added lots of texture with the stitching, glossy accents and paint splatters.
• ScrapFIT - my three things are the birds AND I also stitched 3 peace signs on the squares and and on one of the birds I cut out to pull out the peace sign in Rheagan's shirt.

Thanks for looking!

My Heart Melts for Those Baby Blues

I was checking out My Paper Treehouse again this week and found this challenge to include something your heart desires AND she included a sketch from my girl Shawn at Nuts About Sketches so I had to make a layout.  I chose to focus on Reese's gorgeous blue eyes and how my heart melts every time I see them.  I did a bit of fussy cutting and manipulating of ribbon and lace to make the flowers.  You have to look closely because it's a little hard to see in the photo but I also fussy cut two of the scallop flower circles from the blue paper and applied them to the back of the clear buttons and placed them on 2 of the large red cutouts.  I also used glossy accents on each of the red flowers in the paper on top and then added a couple of teeny tiny red bling to a couple of the red flowers to make them stand out just a bit more.  Oh and I only had a little bit of blue lace and it wouldn't fit around the entire ribbon flower so I cut it in half and pieced it together to make the flower.  There's actually 4 cuts of lace pieced together but you can't tell. I did the same thing with the cream ribbon for the bootom right flower.  How's that for extending and not wasting supplies?

 Supplies: October Afternoon - Thrift Shop One of a Kind, Complete Set & Near Mint; October Afternoon Mini Market Stickers (tiny alphas); CTMH Ink & Bling; Glossy Accents; Misc. ribbon & lace

Gifts From Above

I stumbled upon a fun challenge at My Paper Tree House and I was eyeing this week's Sketchy Thursday sketch so I thought I'd mix the two together.   I didn't want to layer with too many patterned papers (from my Scrapbook Circle November kit) on this layout so to give it an effect to resemble the sketch I misted over some Tattered Angels stencils with brown mist.  Then I took the stencils that had been heavily doused with mist and applied them to plain cardstock.  I loved the effect so I cut them out and included them on the LO. I misted them again with the same blue mist I used on the border and title paper. Thanks for Looking!

Supplies: lilybeedesigns paper - fall festival & caramel apple; Tattered Angels Tattered Leather & Spring Rain mist & stencils; handmade flower; Thickers Delight fabric letters (dyed barn red); CTMH Doodle & Tiny Typewriter Alphabet stamps

Here's an up close of the flower I made:

Here's an up close of the stitching I am proud of ;) and the frayed title to match the flower

Adorable You

Check out the first challenge over at Crop Suey, with the new owner and new Design Team. Mia challenged us to use at least 3 out of the following 5 items on our scrappy project/layout/card.

Here's the list of items and comments on how I incorporated 4 out of 5 of them in the layout below:

• White cardstock - it's there under all that mist.
• Buttons - I used square buttons as photo corners on some of the photos.
• Stamp - I used the reverse image of 3 stamps to create the journal areas.  Basically I determined the size of the stamp, journaled and doodled in the area before stamping, flipped the acrylic stamp over  so I could stamp using the back of it, inked it with Versamark, and added clear embossing powder.  I wanted to show the white underneath and use it for journaling but also to resist the misting.
• Ink/mist/paint - I inked the edges of the paper and misted the white cardstock.  I used Tattered Leather and Pink Bubblegum mist. I normally don't mist THIS much but I was going for that stamp embossing/mists resist effect.
• Distressing - not included on my layout unless you consider the inked edges.

Here's the corresponding sketch I created for this layout.  I love using sketches created by others so I thought I'd create a sketch for this layout.  Please let me know if you use it and link me to your layout.  I'd love to see your creations based on this sketch.

Check out what the rest of the Design Team did and be sure to play along with this challenge for a chance to be eligible to win 30 (yes, 30) 3' lengths of ribbon from May Arts, our November Crop Suey sponsor! You can see pics of the ribbon on the Crop Suey blog. You have until midnight EST on November 20th to submit your creation!

Oh and last but not least come back next week for the Hippity Hop Blog Hop.  6 challenge blogs have teamed together for a few days of fun and prizes.  You don't want to miss this!