Challenge – Use Lots of Letters

Hi there!  I was so happy I had time this weekend to create a layout based on the weekly challenge posted at Shimelle Laine’s blog.  The challenge (which you can see here) was to scrapbook using a lot of letters.  I decided to use a lot of letters as a design instead of actually spelling out words.

I had a decent amount of random black stickers and Thickers that I couldn’t really use to spell out full words anymore (no vowels, a lot of X, Q, and Z’s, which I just don’t ever use).  I used what I felt was a lot of stickers, and I still have plenty of leftover black letter stickers!  I only used the number 9 on this layout since this is my son’s 9th grade photo.  I added a small amount of hidden journaling to the black tag using a white pen.  The blue dot and colorful stripe are from the Shimelle True Stories collection, and the red striped paper is an old Dear Lizzy patterned paper (I think the red dot paper is too but I honestly don’t remember).

Thanks for looking!

Challenge – Scrap an Old Photo

Hi!  I have one more layout completed based off of all the fun Shimelle Laine blog challenges this past weekend.  There were a few other challenges I didn’t get to yet, and I honestly don’t know if I’ll complete them all before the link-ups close next weekend.  The last layout I completed was to scrap an old photo.  The original post on Shimelle Laine’s blog can be found here.  Here is my layout using some old photos.

I got to use some of my new Shimelle Laine Starshine papers I just got on this layout, fun stuff!  I also used some Pinkfresh Studio puffy stickers for the title, and a couple of October Afternoon sticker tabs.

Thanks for looking!

Challenge – Gallery Wall Inspiration

Hi!  The next challenge I tackled as posted on the Shimelle Laine blog was to create a layout inspired by a gallery wall.  The original post is found here.  I don’t have a gallery wall in my home so I used the example gallery wall as shown in Shimelle’s post as inspiration.

I cut out the center of some rectangular pieces of paper to create my frames around the small photos.  I matted the main photo so it looks like a frame.  The little frames are an old Stamping Up frame set.  I used dark blue Close to My Heart ink to stamp the frames.  I kept the layout simple, and I really liked how it turned out.

Thanks for looking!

Challenge – Scrap a Large Photo

Hi!  One of this weekend’s challenges posted on Shimelle Laine’s blog is to scrap a large photo (original post found here).  The largest photo I owned was the photo I used a couple weeks ago for a monochromatic challenge (my blog post for that is Challenge – Monochromatic).  I decided to scrap my daughter’s school picture for Shimelle’s challenge, even though it is only a 5×7 photo.  At least it’s larger than a 4×6!

I used some pieces from the new Shimelle Laine Starshine collection that I just bought.  That was fun!  I love this photo of my daughter.  I have read online how some scrapbookers hate school pictures.  I don’t mind them at all.  I think they’re a good reflection on how my kids really look as the years go by.  Definitely less blurry than the pictures I take with my phone.

Thanks for looking!

Challenge – Color Blocking

Hi!  Continuing on with Shimelle Laine’s online weekend of inspiration and challenges (see my previous posts), the next challenge was to create a layout using color blocking.  The original Shimelle blog post can be found here.

Here is my layout using color blocking.

My blocks of color are pretty much two different shades of blue cardstock, some very black and blue old Star Wars patterned paper (originally purchased to scrap my son’s Star Wars themed birthday long ago), and some super duper old Scenic Route patterned paper.  Remember Scenic Route?  I loved Scenic Route.  Those were the scrappy days.

Thanks for looking!

Challenge – Something That Has Value

Hi!  If you read my previous post you will see that I’m participating in the online weekend inspiration challenges provided by Shimelle Laine on her blog (my blog post Online Scrapbooking Weekend with Shimelle).  The next challenge she posted was to create a project that had value.  Shimelle’s original blog post can be found here.  I have been working on a vacation album about a trip to Disneyland that I took my kids on this past summer.  I’m almost done!  I had several pictures that weren’t really related to each other, and I didn’t want to create a whole layout for each picture, so I created one layout with all six photos.

Each photo is important to me, and I didn’t want to exclude them from our vacation album.  So this project really does hold value to me.

Thanks for looking!

Online Scrapbooking Weekend with Shimelle

Hi!  I was so excited to see that Shimelle Laine is hosting an online scrapbooking weekend March 5 and 6 (see her announcement about it here).  Woohoo!  I’m been so inspired by her weekly challenges she started about a month ago.  Now I have a whole weekend’s worth of challenges to participate in!

The first challenge of the weekend was to create a new layout based on any of her past weekly challenges since the beginning of February.  I chose to create another monochromatic page (original monochromatic challenge posted here).

I went with a yellow monochromatic page.  My daughter was Pikachu for Halloween this year, and it was very important she wore a yellow shirt with her yellow Pikachu hat.  That inspired my very yellow page.

Thank you Shimelle for providing all of us scrappers a whole weekend of fun challenges and inspiration!

Thank you for looking!

Challenge – Inspired by Maps

Hello!  The weekly challenge posted by Shimelle Laine on her blog was to create a scrapbook page inspired by maps or globes.  You can see Shimelle’s original post here.  I didn’t happen to own anything scrappy with maps or globes on it when I first read the post, so I didn’t think I’d be participating in this challenge.  But I also had just ordered some new scrappy supplies from Scrapbook.com and I happened to have ordered several 12×12 patterned papers from the new Shimelle Laine Starshine collection, and one of them was a world map!  Lucky me, I now had a map paper to be inspired by.

I’m usually a “my scrappy stuff much match the theme of my photos” type of person, and I’m not a world traveler, so coming up with a way to use this world map paper was a challenge for me.  I read in a follow up blog post on Shimelle’s blog how her contributing designer Leigh Odynski thought of the phrase “you mean the world to me” (that post can be found here) when she thought of the world.  I decided that was what I would do with my world map paper, scrap a few old pictures of my children, who mean the world to me!

Thank you for looking!

Challenge – Monochromatic

Hi there!  I once again created a scrapbook layout based off of a challenge posted by Shimelle Laine on her blog (link here).  The challenge was to create a monochromatic layout.  I chose to go with a variety of blue shades for my page.

I chose blue because the photo was taken at Disneyland during their 60th Diamond Celebration, and most of the 60th decorations are a royal blue color, which you can see on the castle in the background.  The one thing I do not like about my layout was that I did not pay attention to the direction my dotted blue paper in the corner was laying when I was cutting it, so my dots are lined up in the opposite direction as the rest of my diagonal lines.  I didn’t have enough of that same patterned paper to cut again, and I wanted that much of that pattern to show, so I just left it as is.  It’s all good!  Patterned papers are really old Jenni Bowlin, October Afternoon, Echo Park, and My Minds Eye.  The silver chipboard “happy” is My Minds Eye, and I have no idea what the blue embellishments are from.  I went with a diagonal design because my daughter’s outstretched arms were just screaming to me “Here is a diagonal line!”

Thanks for looking!

Challenge – Mix of Old and New

Hello!  This is the third week in a row I’ve completed a scrapbook layout based off of a challenge found at Shimelle Laine’s blog.  The original post (found here) showcases a layout made by May Flaum, who is one of my favorite crafters/scrappers/stampers/mixed media guru/just plain awesome person out there in the blogosphere (link to her blog).  I really liked May’s layout, and based my layout off of her design.

The newest (as in newest release for purchase) supply that I own are some acrylic shapes from the Dear Lizzy Fine and Dandy collection (this item, not an affiliate link).  I used two stars and a banner from the Dear Lizzy acrylic shapes.  The die cut blue piece is an older Dear Lizzy item, as well as the enamel “2” embellishment.  I used Heidi Swapp Amethyst and Black Velvet Color Shine to add some shiny splatters to my plain black cardstock background.  The two smaller round vellum embellishments (the blue arrow and the purple burst) are also Heidi Swapp.  The patterned papers are older My Mind’s Eye, Authentique, and Jillibean Soup.  I added some glitter with an old glitter pen (I think American Crafts?) around the Teresa Collins “Smile” chipboard piece.

Thanks to Shimelle for starting up the weekly challenges at her blog.  I love scrappy challenges!  I find them very motivating to try new things and get more pages scrapped.  Thanks for looking!