January Pep Rally for Tailor Made!

Hello everyone, if you just came from Sandy at the Pink Camera, you are at the right place, and if you were just stopping by to visit me today:
Welcome to my version of the pep rally starring the January Kit from Clique Kits: Tailor Made: 

The only thing on my page that wasn't included in the kit are those chipboard Thickers from my private stash, I thought with an added freehand outlining of black pen they went perfectly with this kit, oh and a single piece of black cardstock to add a border around my layout. I love the faux stitching and watercoloryness (I'm saying this is a word) in this kit. It's really, really lovely and it brings to my attention one of the reasons I enjoy being in a kit club. These papers aren't something I would have just chosen for myself, I may have picked a couple of them, but it really stretches me out of my box to look at a group of supplies and think about how to use them together. I hadn't made a layout yet this year and there are some big memories I want to get on paper and in my scrapbook. This layout is a pic taken from a co-workers IG feed showing the surprise wedding shower they threw me at work after I eloped! I had no idea!!! And my favorite things on this layout are the doodly circle that I cut out of one of the 4x4 cards and that strip of gray and white hearts that was on the bottom of one of the 12x12 sheets of paper, I love those hearts!! This was the challenge for this month's pep rally: In the true spirit of Tailor Made, we want to see something sewn, stitched, embroidered, quilted, knitted, or crocheted on your project this month!  For extra credit, share some goals, hopes and dreams for the new year, or even your "word" of the year if you choose one.

So I kind of bombed the challenge, but I did use a paper that has those lovely faux stitched squares, and I got a special memory preserved, and that is why I scrapbook! Those Amy Tan stickers in the kit have to be one of my favorite things, so plan on seeing more of those really soon, I am trying hard not to hoard them! Don't miss out on the rest of the hop:

 (BTW there IS a GIVEAWAY!!!)

January Line-Up
Clique Kits https://cliquekits.wordpress.com/
Jody http://spiegelmomscraps.com/
Lacey http://laceybugcreations.blogspot.com/
Sarah M. http://sarahmoore4.blogspot.ca/
Bonita Rose http://www.bonitarose.com/?view=classic
Nicole M http://www.nicolemartel.blogspot.com/
Cari O. http://cariilup.blogspot.com/
Carolina S http://www.carolinaschulz.com/
Sandy http://www.thepinkcamera.com/
Charity http://www.scrapfaire.blogspot.com/
Kat http://kraftykat9.blogspot.com/
Kim http://kimsscrappyblog.blogspot.com/
Mariah http://www.fun2scrap.blogspot.com/
Alisha Www.alishabuggins.blogspot.com
Danielle http://picsandcheesecake.blogspot.nl/
Aliza http://peopleofthescrapbook.blogspot.com/

Jen McGuire Inspired!

I have some favorite inspirational people that I like to watch to learn new techniques, or how they may use techniques the I already know, but in new ways. Jen McGuire posted this video last week:

I LOVE distress ink and this technique inspired me to get out some Lawn Fawn and Paper Smooches stamps to see 1. What did I already have in my own stash that would give me a similar card and 2. What would other images give me? So here is what I came up with: (the chevron paper is from the Sketchbook Collection by Amy Tan... using my stash you see :)!

Paper Smooches Calico and Chit Chat

Paper Smooches My Peeps and Chit Chat

Lawn Fawn Woodgrain Backdrops and Here's the Scoop

Lawn Fawn Woodgrain Backdrops and Here's the Scoop

Lawn Fawn Woodgrain Backdrops

Superstition

So I have been a busy little scrapper lately. This layout is a TWO PAGER :) and I am using a ton of hoarded stash here... there three different thickers and the last three full pages of my Amy Tan Sketchbook line. You can also see a heart cut out from a Cut and Paste 3x4 card and some tiny stickers from the Glitz Design Wild and Free Sticker sheet. Those letters are from Seven Gypsies and the slide frames are from the Basic Grey Capture line. The title I cut out with my Cameo in several sheets of black cardstock. I then layered those together and covered them in Crystal colored Stickles. 

I am also working on different ways to take and edit my photos of my layouts as we've had a ton of cloudy crappy weather lately and I've been kind of unhappy with my photos. Any tips are appreciated. The second page I tried to echo the hand drawn looking border of the first. I LOVED that paper and have been way too intimidated by the frame on it to use it. OH and funny how inspiration happens, but since I made this page and was discussing it with a friend, I'm thinking of another page I want to do to go along with this. Have you dug into your stash lately? There is no project that's not good enough for your precious hoard... it's something I'm working through myself... I'd much rather flip through it in an album than in my storage containers :).

Hugs and happy scrapping!

January Birthdays... another year begins ;)

What better way to begin the year than with a family full of Birthdays! I have some close family/friends that mostly have birthdays in January (with the exception of one household member who just had his in December.)
I decided I should go ahead and start making cards, that way MAYBE I can get them in the mail on time for their actual birthdays.

I have some acrylic card basis just hanging about in my stash so I pulled out a scalloped card base and what was left of my October kit from Scrapbook Circle. That 3x4 sheet from Cut and Paste has that lovely polka dot background, then I pulled a mini muffin wrapper out of the kitchen cabinet, used my FAVORITE Thickers from Maggie Holmes and that cute hb2u sentiment I've been seeing around. I finished up with a sticker from Pink Paislee and some sequins.

I was afraid you wouldn't be able to see the scallopped base, but you can :).

I think it turned out adorable... now I need two more card ideas!

Do You Realize?

I seriously love the Glitter Girl Video Series over at the TwoPeas youtube channel!
This week's episode #96, had a challenge that included using a sketch for a layout. I thought this sketch would be perfect for a layout about my going to see Flaming Lips this year with a friend of mine at the Merriweather Pavillion. All things I had never done before:
Gone to MD for a concert.
Gone to Merriweather Pavillion.
Seen the Flaming Lips live.

So much fun...

Here is the LO:

I combined Cut and Paste by Amy Tan with some Wild and Free by Glitz Design and Recorded by Allison Kreft, my fav new thing which is Glitter Tape by American Crafts and some REALLY OLD THICKERS that I am so excited to use. Some various sequins and Art Anthology Mists and boom, I'm done :). I did use a photo collage rather than two 4x6 photos as shown in the sketch and I did turn the sketch on it's side but I love all the movement and color, it really brings to mind everything that was happening on stage in the concert!

Thanks so much and I can't wait for you to see the projects I have in mind for this week. 

Beautiful Living City

When I first started scrapbooking in 2008 I subbed to a kit club. It was called Bad Girls and it was completely AWESOME and inspiring. It really helped me learn to do whatever I want on a page or in a minibook because basically the designers there used anything they liked and found inspiring and the kits included found objects and antique ribbons, etc.... Fast forward through them shutting down and me moving and I finally decided I might like to try out another kit club. Mostly because sometimes you get things in kits you might not normally buy on their own and for the fab mix of products picked out for you to work together. Also sometimes I am crippled because I can't just buy every single thing I want right now! Um, and this helps :).

After googling kit clubs I found the October 2013 kit at Scrapbook Circle and signed up for a 2 month membership. My favortie thing right now is that I am CRUSHING this kit! I have made three layouts so far and have my fourth planned and I think after the fourth I will have just some bits and bobs to add to my stash, the papers in this kit were to die for. Here was my first and second... now for the third:

I used the sketch challenge from Scrapbook Circle for November for the creation of this LO. That rainbow paper from Glitz Design's Wild and free collection makes me so happy! There is journalling on the LO so don't think I skimped on you ;). I'm not sure I ever would have gotten any of those ADORABLE little Allison Kreft bags without getting them in the kit but I love how it looks peeking out from behind my freehand half circle. And I am loving those Canvas stickers from Pink Paislee.

What have you been making lately?

I didn't know then (another page of "hard stuff")

I had some hard (and when I say hard I mean I had some emotional stuff that was trying to claw it's way out of my insides and I had to let it out so the words on the page may be hard to understand, unpleasant to read, etc...) stuff to scrap and I had been wanting some new papers and stuff to get my creative juices flowing. I found this kit club through google by just plugging in scrapbook kit clubs... it's Scrapbook Circle. The October Kit is called So Happy Together and it is just yummy! I was so excited to make something with this kit that I printed and scrapped a photo that I took in 2011 about a month before my late husband (God rest his soul) took his life. It's not as chunky and embellished as I normally do, but the soft color of the paper just lent itself to getting my emotional baggage out. It's weird. I can think and decide how I feel but unless I actually do something that counts as releasing (apparently that's actually scrapping or blogging in my therapy blog) it just sits and festers. I love that I got the emotions out. That I was able to release them. I do love that picture and I'm glad it now has a home in my scrapbook.

How to handle a sensitive subject part I

So in 2012 I posted here about a LO that I made which was full of some sensitive journalling and really I guess it was a more art journally type page, but whatever. Today I want to share this LO with you.

I will be the first to admit it's a bright, happy, springy, colorful thing to look at. (OMG I've been wanting to use those papers on something lovely for so long). The photo is of me and my now deceased DH from Easter 2000. The vellum to the left of the photo covers a LOT of journalling. Some really painful journalling about how that day seems in the photo and the reality that was my life for so long. I love so much about this LO. But most of all I love LOVE the way I felt after I wrote all of my feelings down. It was like breathing a sigh of relief. I worked a desk job for several years, and this photo sat in a cute but really cheap little frame that had plastic on it rather than glass. One day a glass of water spilled on my desk and damaged the photo. The plastic from the frame is STILL stuck to the photo, it will tear up the photo if I try to take it off, so if you think it looks weird, that's why. I wouldn't change a thing about it... I wouldn't put anything on here straighter. I think it's awesome just the way it is. I used my favorite products, a stamp, some trim that I misted, some stickers that I've been hoarding shamelessly... and design tips from Shimelle Laine (I'm kind of addicted to her videos right now).

Do you scrap the hard stuff? Do you keep a journal that's private to put your feelings in? I'm kind of combining my therapy blog with my scrapping. I think it's good for me, and hopefully one day if any of my good friends takes a look at this page, they can share their own feelings, or they may not stop and read it. I think either way it's a really good idea.