Fall back (or behind)

Maybe the time change has everything all messed up, but since the state fair, I've been doing a lot of cakes, and scrapping has taken more of a backseat.  And to top it off I missed a deadline for Color-Me-Scrappy!  Boo!  I had the thing ready for ever, and was just procrastinating on writing the post.  Ah well, enjoy it anyway!  :)

I love the new idea they are doing over there with a four or five challenges a month, and combining with more than just a color palette.  Fun Fun!

ScrapFit #79

I don't know that I would have tried this new tape trend had it not been for this challenge.  Not because I don't like it, but because, well, it's so damn expensive!  A single roll of cute tape was like, $9.99!  Without tax!  :)  It's about a million yards of tape, but still, a bit much if you're not sure you're going to be into it.  I found the cheapest roll, ($5.99) and decided to find a way to use AS MUCH OF IT AS POSSIBLE.  :)

Otherwise, I wanted to keep it very simple and let the tape do the talking.

The kids look cute, but I have to tell you, they were MAJOR BRATS that day!  You can practically see them planning their next stunt to piss me off in this picture.  :)


Also, the ladies chose my October submission as Runner Up!  Thanks a bunch!  It's an honor to be recognized by you!

Pre-Halloween Spooks

I'm in a mad rush today, since I have to complete two Halloween costumes by tomorrow night, so let's get right to it!

ScrapFit Workout #78

Who doesn't love a sketch challenge?  Not me!  Here's the sketch:

And here's my take, using a picture from my husband and my second anniversary dinner this month:

The words are from a transparency that I've had sitting around looking for a use for awhile.  The words are a little cheesy-ball-y for me, but my husband LOVES it (he leans a bit on the cheese ball side).

Paper Mixing Bowl - October Recipe

Time to get seasonal!  And just in time for it to get chilly around here.  Hurricane weather aside.

OK, it's silly I know, but my favorite part was hand drawing the spiderweb in the corner.  I think it turned out kinda rad.  :)

Happy Halloween!  May all your tricks bring treats!

Fair!

The state fair was a great success!  My cake took third place in its category (Novelty Design), and my scrapbook page entry took an Honorable Mention in the "Babies & Kids" category.  Very nice!  Here's me and my ribbons for posterity.

Now that all that craziness has moved on, I'm back to peacefully scrapping!  Here's this week's contributions...

Color-Me-Scrappy #14

Love the colors!  So bright and joyful, and perfect for our trip to the FAIR.  (It's the ongoing theme in my life this month, excuse me.)  And like the fair, I took the opportunity to be about as subtle as a sledgehammer.

It also gave me a chance to use these crazy cute bird stickers that I've hoarded for just the right moment.  

My Creative Sketches - October 

I started in on this sketch with this photo, not realizing how nicely the "Three Generations" idea fit in with the repeating threes on the sketch.  Serendipity takes such good care of me!

I'm thinking of framing this one up for my mum- she hasn't even seen the photos yet!  She complained a lot on that day about the photographer shooting too low; she didn't want anything below her bust to show up on the pictures.  Maybe a nice layout will make her let it go?

One more bit of good news: the ladies at Punky Scraps chose my September contribution as their fav for that challenge!  Thanks a million!  That layout was one of my most favorite this year.  It's amazing what you produce when inspired and driven out of your comfort zone!

Mi Familia

It's almost state fair time around here, which means scrapbooking is taking a backseat to my submission for the cake decorating contest.  But I do have this to show you all!  My in-laws came to visit, and I sat them down with the kids for some pictures.  Let me tell you, out of 100 pictures this was the best one; trying to get all four of them to both hold still and look at me was next to impossible!  But I took it and made them this as a souvenir of their visit.

I've had my eye on these 12x12 frames at Archiver's for quite awhile, and I've just been waiting for the magic combination of an excuse to buy one and a coupon. 

Oh, and I managed to get my Spanish spellings right this time!  Thank you google translator. 

One for each kid!

Taking this chance (while my kids do the magical double nap - SCORE!) to post these.  From my laptop on my front porch swing, in the GORGEOUS fall weather.  Lucky me, all around.

Two challenges, and turns out, one for each kid!  :)  You'd think I had no life... BUT last weekend I had a girls weekend, so I'll scrap some of that later this week, so we can all take a break from my kids.

Color Me Scrappy #11

Love these late summer colors:

 Especially the multiple grays; so elegant!  I swear I would decorate my house in these colors... if I could afford to redecorate my house.  Here's my entry for the challenge:

Does it make you want a Freeze Pop?  :)

Again I got to buy something I've wanted for awhile, the gray ruffle.  I also cut a piece of the ruffle to make the yo-yo in the corner. 

ScrapFit Workout #75

The challenge with this one was to use twine in a creative way.  Their design team had some GREAT inspiring ideas; I especially liked the way that Lynn and Leah wrapped letters with twine.  It got me thinking, is there any other way I could make letters with twine.  So this is where that got me:

Thanks for the spark of inspiration ladies!  Once again, thanks to both of these challenges, I went where I know I couldn't have gone thanks to you!

My first DT fav!

The ladies at Color Me Scrappy chose my layout from Challenge #10 as their favorite!  Wow- I love all their work and it's really cool to be recognized by them this way.  Especially cool, being that they are the first challenge blog I started playing along with! Thanks, CMS! 

Almost done with my entry for Challenge #11...  tomorrow!

Summer Vacation DIES HARD

Took a break when things got busy in the summer, but that's over, in a big way!  Let the fall begin, I present to you... six challenges!  :)

Color Me Scrappy #10

The color scheme this time around was a unique garden-cactus-inspired one.

We had just taken these photos of the Bean, and they worked perfectly, and even better, I was able to shop my own stash for most of the supplies:

My husband called me out when I got home: I spelled Mijita wrong!  Sorry, my Spanish spelling isn't so great.  

Scrapfit #73

The ladies at Scrapfit challenged us to use the words "I remember".  I began with my new best friend, Picasa, and blurred the edges of the photo, to ramp up that old memory feel.

The colors are more purple than brown in real life, but you get the idea.  I LOVE this ribbon, I now own it in two colors, as this page was the perfect excuse to buy more.  What I don't love: glitter.  The letters are the kind that are sticky on both sides, so you can add any color glitter, and then stick them on your page.  I used "holographic" glitter (I guess that crafty for clear? white? silver?).  And now that glitter is EVERYWHERE: my clothes, my bag, my scrapbook.  I have no choice with the unused portion of the letters, they will have to be holographic because it's all over the place.  I used a paint brush to get as much off of the page as possible for this picture.  When I was complaining about it, a friend told me about this post on Pinterest:

Amen to that.

ScrapFit #74

A challenge to work with this sketch:

And this is my contribution:

My journaling is barely visible in the scan... ah well, the better to hide my despicable handwriting!

Another Freakin Scrappy Challenge Aug 1

The challenge for the beginning of the month was to scrap a pet; really quite serendipitous, since my 10 year old pug was just recently diagnosed with cancer and given a couple months to live.  So I've been taking lots of pictures of him, the sweet old thing.  Here he is:

Love this bandana paper!  And I played with a little distressing ink around the borders, which I never do.  Now I want the little distressing tool to artfully tear the edges of paper.  Weaseled my way into another purchase.  :)

Another Freakin Scrappy Aug 15

And for their next one, this sketch!

My take:

Isn't she Hardcore!  And so fresh and clean.  

Punky Scraps #50

My fav for the week, a challenge to use this picture as inspiration:

I loved being pushed out of my comfort zone with this, and am really excited about the result.

Not to mention it's a sentiment I hope the Bean really takes with her.  

Til next time...

Color-Me-Scrappy #7

WOW, what a weekend: just got home from a two-day crop with a bunch of great ladies, including the indomitable scrapper Star.  I'm simultaneously creatively charged and exhausted!  I'll show off an array of my pages tomorrow, but for now, my Color-Me-Scrappy entry:

I loved these candy-inspired colors!  For me, working in an all-neutral palette is more challenging, even than this, where the colors may not instinctively seem to "go" together.  My favorite piece was finding the perfect little tag in my stash (AKA, mountainous pile of scrapping crud) to complete the title.  Is this why I should never throw anything away?

Found another great challenge blog: Another Freakin' Scrappy Challenge!  Realized the deadline for their June challenge is, um, tonight, so I threw together this entry. 

They're having a Design Team call, at which I think I might throw my hat... in that spirit, I'll also post this page that I made for a DT call awhile back! 

OK, Wonderful Hubby being very patient and playing iphone games while I work, so I better go to bed! 

ScrapFit #70

Thank you, ScrapFit Challenge blog.  You make me feel like I worked out, when I haven't come within a mile of my gym for two weeks. 

I did work out though.  I flexed my imagination muscle.  HA.  (rimshot, ba-dum CHING)

Here's what I came up with for their 70th challenge:

I was pumped about this one, because I've been looking for an opportunity to use the "Polaroid" function on Picasa for awhile!  I loved Polaroids; I'm a junkie for instant gratifcation (and blurry tiny plastic-paper shots?). 

I guess Polaroids are hip now?  They just stopped selling the stuff in 2009.  If only they had known!  Ah, the irony of Polaroid going bankrupt because of the digital photography movement only to have people use their computers to edit their pictures to look like Polaroids. 

OH MY GOD it's HOT.  Guess the summer is HERE!  Which means, for the Nugget, two things: he gets to wear his swimsuit to day camp any day he wants, and he gets to wear nothing when it rains!

This layout was for a challenge at My Creative Sketches, whose sketch of the month looked like this:

My Scrapfriend Star was glad I substituted stars for the butterflies and flowers, because I LOVE butterflies and flowers and she HATES when I put them on my son's pages.  :)  Hey, I'd love if he eventually likes the scrapbooks that I've put together, but let's face it, they're probably for me.  At least until he's 30-something or has kids of his own.  And I like flowers. 

My other layout is for Color-Me-Scrappy's Sixth Challenge.  I loved this color scheme; you could go kind of punk rock/80's pop with it if you wanted. 

When I saw this picture, then this paper, this song popped into my head, and it all came together!

So delish!  Now, how long before that damn song is out of my head?

Sadness!  Scrapbook Calls & Challenges, my go-to spot to find, well... scrapbook calls and challenges... is closing!  Nooooo!  Where will I get my fix.  Guess I need to maniacally follow as many of my favs as possible. 

Anyway, this week, two challenges.  Color-Me-Scrappy #5, which I was excited about because the palette was heavy on neutrals, and I am more, shall we say, colorful?  (Refer to blog header)  Here's what I came up with.

Best parts of creating this page:
* tried to shop my own supplies before raiding Archivers.  That enabled me to use this awesome fence paper I've had around and loved but wasn't sure what to do with.
* Used Picasa to edit the picture colors to better match the theme
* Love the tiny keys from Tim Holtz. 

Second page for today was an entry for My Creative Sketches.  The sketch they're working from this month is:

I was looking for an excuse to scrap my daughter wearing my latest yard sale purchase, and this was just the time.  My take:

ARGH!  Bask in her adorableness!  I do. 

A little less scrappy than normal this week, with my Hubby out of town.  Just me and the kids holding down the fort, so my weekly Archiver's crop was postponed.  I did get out there to pick up a couple things (ah, the ever-present siren's call of Archiver's), and of course, an hour after I left, I got their weekly coupon in the mail!  How dastardly of them!  Impeccable timing.

Speaking of the siren's call...  here's one of my much-photographed Bean.  I had to decide between a bunch of shots for the smaller picture, and I had better ones of her smiling and such, but I just love her little expression in this one, I couldn't pass it up. 

And wow, doesn't my carpet make a lovely background?

Oh, I should holla at the sketch source, from The Big Book of Scrapbook Pages, which I have had checked out from the library now for at least three months.  Thrifty (cheap?) scrapbookers of Durham who also fulfill your inspiration needs at the public library, my apologies.  I promise I'll buy it.  With my coupon, even!

Paper Mixing Bowl #3

Ooh, almost forgot to post this one.  Coming in under the wire!

From The Paper Mixing Bowl, whose challenge blog I LOVE!  I'm not so much of a cook, more an eater myself.  But these "recipes" are a blast to put together.  This is my first try at their challenges and it was a lot of fun trying to make all the pieces come together.  I don't love how the scan came out, the top of the page looks wobbly when it's really straight, so I was going to take a picture instead, but I don't have time!  ah, excuses excuses!  Without further ado...

Color-Me-Scrappy #4

REFRESHED!

Had my weekly visit to Archiver's (aka, scrapbook wonderland) with my scrapfriend, Star (see her blog here).  Hoowhee, did I need it; about an hour before heading there, my son and I had the following conversation:

Nugget: (upset that it was time to turn off the TV and go to school) "But this is MY TV, mama."
Me: "oh!  You bought this TV for yourself?"
Nugget: "no..."
Me: "well, then it's our family's TV and it's time to turn it off and go to school"
Nugget: "I'm sick of this crap, mama."
Me: "What did you say?"
Nugget: (looking at me with most innocent face EVER) "I didn't say nothing, mama."
*pause*
Nugget: "I said I'm sick of clapping mama."

Yes, he's 3 going on 13.

Anyway, if you want to find me on Thursdays, I'm usually in Archiver's cropping room, chatting and munching chips with the other Thursday regulars, getting our craft on.  I used to get all stressed out about how many pages I got done during these visits, and having something to show for my time, staying on top of things, to try to feel less guilty about having a day off, but now, I just enjoy my time.  If I get two pages done, oh well, I still enjoyed myself.  I have other hobbies that, as much as I enjoy them, drive me semi-crazy (cake decorating: basically me and my entire kitchen covered in powdered sugar, totally pissed that I can't get the fondant to lay flat at the bottom of the cake).  Scrapbooking is my zen hobby.  Well, as zen as I get, anyway.

This week's page is for Color-Me-Scrappy.  I've participated in each of their challenges, and I think their format is pretty cool.  It's really amazed me how much inspiration you can draw from just a few swatches of color!

The colors this time around were perfect for our annual visit to the strawberry farm earlier this month.  So, two birds one stone, I guess: a challenge entry and a page for the Nugget's scrapbook!

Begin-a-Blog

Let's start off this blog in a lovely cliche way... a quote!

"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step"  - Lao Tzu

oooh, or how about this one:  "There is a woman at the beginning of all great things." - Alphonse de Lamartine

One step... check.  One woman...check.  I think we can begin.

I had a very loose idea in my head for a layout from pictures I took at the Got to Be NC Festival a couple weeks ago.  The pictures had such a great sense of motion and whimsy, I was really looking forward to scrapping them out.  Then I saw a call from Scrapstreet looking for "Sweetly Simple" layouts that "showcase a minimalist style."  Put it together, and I came up with:

I'm really enthusiastic about this layout, although getting a good picture was a challenge.  First I used the Truly Amazing Scanner at Archiver's, but for the first time ever, it didn't give me a good image.  It picked up a lot of the watermarking on the page, and you couldn't see the birds at all.  So then I had to fuss with my camera and iPhoto, and in the end, maybe the colors aren't perfectly true, but I got it on the web! 

Yes, that is The Nugget's (my son) first ride on a carnival swing.  And yes, the Barbecue at the Fair was to die for.