December Mini 2013

Hi - sorry for the lapse in posting, I'm attempting a December Daily-ish album this year and time seems to go by so fast with doing stuff with my kids and general day to day household things as well.  Just a busy time period.

Yesterday I finally sat down and worked on the cover of my album.  Two HOURS later I had to stop.  Kids were waking up and I was getting overwhelmed.  I've never attempted an album like this, so I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do.  My album is a Simple Stories chipboard Sn@p 6x8 album in red that I picked up at Michael's.  I didn't realize until I opened it that it came with paper, chipboard pages and clear pages. 

Here's my cover:

I have a bunch of supplies in an iris case that I collected the last month or so.  I have some Silent Night from October Afternoon, a few items from Crate Paper's line (the name is not coming to me right now), some Chic Tags, Ali Edward stamps, and a few other odds and ends.

The paper circles are from the Silent Night 8x8 pad and the lined paper is actually one of the paper pages that came in the album that I decided to use for my stamped title.  All the inks are Stampin' up and I inked the edges of everything in Chestnut Roan chalk ink.  The white splatters are from a white Mr. Huey mist/ink.  Sequins are from Lawn Fawn.

Thanks for stopping by!
Nicole

SG December Blog Hop - Photo Arrangement class - week #3

Hello!

Welcome to the SG Blog Hop for December, if this is your first stop, you might like to start at the Scrapbook Generation blog and then hop through each link.

For the hop I'm sharing a layout from Allison's Photo Arrangement Replay class.  I participated with a group of ladies online in working along with the class materials.  I still need to complete the final week, and the class in now over, but there's always time to catch up later.  I cannot say enough great things about this class.  I now look at sketches and see so MUCH more than before.

After I finished the pages, I realized they don't line up...oh well, right?!  Here's some close ups of the details:

You can find the SG sketches in their books and as downloads in the SG store, and there is a free one every month in case you wanted to try it out.

Next on the hop is Tina, leave a comment on each blog and one lucky commenter will receive a free sketch bundle of their choice from the store. The winner will be draw on December 9th, so you have one week to leave a comment.

In case you get lost at any point, here is the list all the blogs

Scrapbook Generation blog - http://scrapbookgeneration.blogspot.com/

Ruth - http://scrapmachine.com/

Michelle - http://ownerofchanel.blogspot.com/ 

Steffanie - http://steffanies.blogspot.com/

Stephanie - http://craftyholidaygirl.blogspot.com

Devra - http://mycreativeview.blogspot.com

Tasha- http://tashascreativejuice.blogspot.com/

Pamela - http://reflectionsofmyartandsoul.com/blog

Brenda - http://roseblossomlegacies.com

Sharlene - http://inspirationstationbysbe.blogspot.ca/

Louise- http://madeatnumber27.blogspot.com.au/

Brenda R ~ http://granddivasscrappyplace.blogspot.com/

Cassie - http://allsmilesandsunshine.blogspot.com/

Lori - http://loriannie670.blogspot.com/

Elizabeth - http://ejoym.blogspot.com 

Mandi - http://mjskraze.blogspot.com/

Cicily - http://www.pinkdalmatianscrapper.com/

Laureen - http://mybusyscrapbookinghands.blogspot.ca/

Janelle - http://stillscrappinlettersize.blogspot.com

Melissa - http://www.scrappyjedi.com/

Corrina - http://anotherthingoffthelist.blogspot.ca/

Lindsey - http://www.scrapping-by-the-sea.com

Nicole - http://www.lovemesomepaper.blogspot.com/  <>

Tina Gale ~ http://tiggersscrapplace.blogspot.com

Thanks for stopping by!

Nicole

Welcome to 3 Scrappy Boys Four & Fabulous Anniversary Hop!
If you found your way here from Christy's blog, keep reading you are right where you should be!

If you have stumbled across this hop by chance hop back to 3 Scrappy Boys so you don't miss the HOP!  There's a ton of inspiration, fun, challenges and prizes along the way.

To celebrate our Anniversary I created a layout with a photo of just my husband and I from our family photos taken last month. It just happened that our photos were taken on our wedding anniversary so I decided to make a page celebrating our 11 years together.

I have the March Main Kit to play with this month, and I was so excited to see the kraft Maya Road die cut tags.  I've seen so many people using similar products to create a unique canvas for journaling.  For my layout, I decided to write down 11 things or reason why I love my husband.  I then typed them up and formatted them to fit on the die cut tags.  Here's a look into my process for printing on tags and die cuts:

Here's where I made my list, and figured out a placement for the tags in a way that I liked the look.

I then typed them all up and formatted them in my word processing software.  I had to run it through a couple times and change my font size and spacing.  I just used my computer monitor as a light box and held the paper and die cut together to make sure everything would fit.

Then I lightly applied some scotch tape across the top and bottom of the die cut tags.  Normally I would only place the tape along the top, but since there were so many tags and the paper was going around a roller in my printer I opted for extra protection against a jam.

And here they are ready for my page.  I did stamp some Ali Edwards Technique Tuesday phrase stamps in white ink on a few of the tags that I felt had some extra empty space to add some more interest to the journaling.

Before you leave make sure you leave a comment here to qualify to win our blog hop prize.

Just in case you get lost along the way, here is the complete list to get you back hopping in the right direction: (Links need to be added to each Blog)

3SB
Heather
Christy
Nicole  << you are here >>
Sally
Valerie
Michele
Stacia
Lynn
Lanette


Now don't forget when you are done hopping head on over to our forums and join the fun!  We have lots of fun challenges and fabulous prizes waiting for you.

Now you’re off to Sally's Blog.

We will be hopping until Sunday 24th at Midnight.

Our winner will be announced early in the week on the 3 Scrappy Boys Blog and Face Book Page make sure you LIKE us to stay in contact.Have fun and thanks for hopping with us today and good luck with the prizes!!

Nicole

3 Scrappy Boys - 2 page layout for November

Hello!

Today the newsletter for 3 Scrappy Boys went out.  If you haven't already signed up, be sure to here - scroll all the way to the bottom of the main page.  Each month on the 15th Lanette sends out the newsletter packed full of inspiration, reveals, challenges and sometimes sale information.  I have some tips for creating two page layouts in this months newsletter.

For November's newsletter, I created a 2 page layout using my November kit - which is actually store product in the form of the March Main kit - LOVE this kit.

Because I loved so many of the patterns in this kit and wanted to use a bunch, I chose to just trim them into strips and sort of block my photo templates in.  I used the same photo template from Keri Bradford on both pages, I just flipped one of the upside down.  If you look closely in the following photos, you can see how I fixed a goof.  I spilled the tiniest drop of water on one of the my photos and I really didn't want to rip up the collage and have to reprint the whole thing.  Instead, I picked three other photos and reprinted those four and layered them on top of the collage and roughed up the corners with my fingers so you could see the added layers a little better.

I layered a kraft die cut and piece of pattern paper from the kit, with a scrap of vellum from my stash and die cuts I cut with my Cameo with papers from the kit and then added some of the Basic Grey enamel dots, also from the kit.  The yellow and white striped strip is actually the Maya Road adhesive ribbon that was in the kit - I chose to leave the wax paper backing on the ribbon and just attach it with glue dots.  This made the white sections of the ribbon remain white.

Thickers from the kit (love!) mixed in with die cuts from my Cameo and papers from the kit, another scrap of vellum from my stash and more of those Basic Grey enamel dots.  For the "Preserve" portion of my title, I cut two layers with my Cameo - one in the pretty blue cardstock from the kit, and another out of some cream I had in my stash.  I used a Hero Arts newsprint stamp on the vanilla layer and inked it with some Tim Holtz distress inks. I did the same thing to the little lizard die cut.

I chose some kraft cardstock in my stash to print my journaling on, and then layered some more of my DIY die cut pieces from the kit papers.  I also tried to splatter some white Mr Huey ink on the journaling...ya, I need some more practice with that.  And you can see in the photo of myself and my DS the addition layer of some of the photos.

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to go sign up for the 3 Scrappy Boys newsletter!

Nicole

3 Scrappy Boys November Kit reveal & plan of attack!

Hello there!

Today I would like to share with you the kit I received from Heather at 3 Scrappy Boys for November.  The Design Team is on a rotating schedule for the kits, and for November I was scheduled for "store product" - and that ended up being the March Main Kit.   I'm soooo glad this kit was sent to me.  I love every single piece of it and was immediately inspired to use it.  Here's what it included:

Life around my house has been getting a little hectic and backed up this month.  So I came up with a plan of attack of sorts to approach my kit this month.  I'm going to scraplift the heck out of it.  I am like so many other scrappers out there with a ton of projects saved in my favorites in online galleries, or pinned on Pinterest or even printed out with notes jotted down.  There are so many talented scrapbookers out there that it's not hard to be inspired and want to recreate something that you have seen.  For me, it's actually remembering to do it and to follow through.  I'm so bad about telling myself "oh I want to make a page just like that with these photos..." and then I don't actually do it.

So for my kit this month, I am challenging myself to get out some inspiration projects and either scraplift them, or use them for basic inspiration, or try new techniques shown in them.  My personal go to favorites lately are Nichol Magouirk, Jen Gallacher, Nancy Damiano - I love scrapbookers who use B sides of paper, die cut shapes and have a more linear design to their pages.

Be sure to check out the 3 Scrappy Boys blog on Sunday, November 10th to see my first creation from this kit!

Photo Arrangement Replay class - week #2

Hello - I'm back with some more from Allison Davis' Photo Arrangement Replay sketch class fun.  You can find the class here to purchase through Scrapbook Generation.  I love their sketches and have yet to be disappointed with anything they produce. 

I chose some photos from this summer when a friend and her daughter came to visit.  We let our kids play in the splash pad and then went to have lunch so us mommas could catch up on things going on.  Here's a look at the whole layout:

I ended up just using the cut apart cards from the I Heart Summer collection by Simple Stories to block out the bottom portion of the layout.  And I tried to use the chalkboard stamping technique that Nichol Magouirk showed on her blog a while back.  

I used some scraps to make a few banners and added them to the upper left corner with some enamel dots.

My friend's 5 year old daughter took this photo of us, so my face was cut off and I couldn't really make it a true 6x4 photo, so I just layered some papers and stickers to cover up the blank area of the photo.

I used foam adhesive to pop up some of the stickers, a glitter gel pen on the "bring your own" portion of the card and the sun sticker, and the heart with "summer lovin" is actually a transparency that comes with the collection pack that I just cut down to fit the 4x3 area.

Thanks for stopping by!

Nicole

Photo Arrangement Replay class - 2nd page for week #1

Hello - I'm back to share a second page I made for the first week of the PAR class/challenge I'm involved in.  I decided to take the sketch and make a one page layout.  This chubby little girl is my Sarah Bear and she is wearing a special dress that her great-great-aunt brought back from Hawaii for her.  She seemed to enjoy it.

Here's a look at the page:

And here are some detail shots:    I used some Ali Edwards stamps, SU inks, enamel dots and a little wood veneer girl that I embossed with white power and then smooshed into a pink ink pad to color it.  LOVE it!  he papers are by Echo Park and I used vellum again to help the photos stand out off of the busy papers.

I cut a doily in half and layered some stickers from the collection pack and a few enamel dots.

And I tucked the other half of the doily under my letter sticker title to help it show up on that pink polka dot paper better.  I punched two tiny hearts and covered them with glossy accents.

Thanks for stopping by!

Nicole

Photo Arrangement Replay class - Scrapbook Generation/Allison Davis

Hey there!  Today I am sharing a layout I did for an online challenge.  A group of us online are working through the Allison Davis sketch class called Photo Arrangement Replay.  You can find the all the details here and I highly recommend this class.  I now look at sketches in a different way and can change so many things with the simple ideas that Allison presents with this class.

Here's my layout for week #1 of the class:

And here are some of the detail shots.  My photos are from the same sunday dinner in which my son was enjoying one of his favorite foods (corn ON the cob) and my daughter was trying watermelon for the first time.  I used papers from October Afternoon and I *think* they might be from the calkwalk collection, but I'm not positive - I can check if anyone wants to know.  

Since my photos were representing to different stories, I separated my journaling about each munchkin on either side of the title.  The title, corn, and watermelon are all from the Studio online store.  

To help my photos stand out off of the pattern papers, I used vellum and inked it in Chesnut Roan ink.  And the photos I edged with some white paint instead of matting them all with white paper.

For all the die cuts, I used Nichol Magouirk's technique of cutting another set with a dark cardstock and creating a shadow layer.  I LOVE this look now.  I ran the corn through an embossing folder (the wrong way, but I was too lazy to cut another one so we'll pretend that is what I WANTED it to look like...) and I added glossy accents to the sections of the watermelon that look like seeds.

Some enamel dots and label stickers finished off the page.  Thanks for looking and be sure to comment if you have any questions!

Nicole

"Happy Days Are Here" - 3 Scrappy Boys kit

Today I am sharing the second layout I created with my first 3 Scrappy Boys kit.  I received the October Main Kit which can be found here.  I shared the first layout on the 3 Scrappy Boys blog earlier this week.  Heather has some great deals on some of the older kits right now, so be sure to check out the kit section of the store.

The October Main kit included a 12x12 sheet of transparency overlays that were in 4x6 and 3x4 sizes.  I knew as soon as I saw this, that I wanted to make a divided page.  Especially since I knew I would be using lots of scraps in order to use my kit to it's fullest potential.

Meet Jake.  Next month he be 2 and HALF years old.  From 18 months on, he's pretty much been like this daily when he doesn't get what he wants, wakes up, the day end's in a "y", etc....  So the little 3x4 card that says "Happy Days are Here" from the My Mind's Eye Cut & Paste collection made me giggle.  And I thought it went really well with the 6x4 card that I used on the journaling that says "This is what's happening right now".  I'm all about the nitty gritty in my scrappbooking.  We aren't always happy and smiling each and every day.  Plus, I think my little man is still pretty cute even when he thinks his world has ended because I said "How was your nap?"

Here is the 6x4 card I mentioned above.  I just trimmed it down to 4 inches wide and used the remaining 2 inch section I cut off to tuck behind the 3x4 card at the top of the layout after I used a notebook border punch on it.  I then ran the card through my printer to add my journaling, attached it to a 4x6 overlay, tucked a couple of the Studio Calico transparent arrows under the card, and the "Details" pennant is actually cut from one of the other 3x4 My Mind's Eye cards.

I added a cute little wooden mustache (also from the kit) to the journal card, stamped on the scrap piece with a Technique Tuesday/Ali Edwards stamp, and added some glossy accents to the chevrons on the card.  I also used the same border punch on some scrap cardstock and framed my photo with it.  

For the last section, I just took a scrap of pattern paper and cut it down to 4x6 then punched some different sized circles and popped them up with foam tape and lined up the patterns.  One of the circles has another clear arrow stapled with the Tiny Attacher for added interest. 

So far I am having a lot of fun with this kit, and this is my FIRST time scrapping with a kit like this.  It's a challenge to make things work, but I think a challenge every now and then helps motivate myself.  The only things from my personal stashed I used are the buttons, the staples, and the stamps/ink.  EVERYTHING else is from that one kit!  

Thanks for stopping by!

Nicole

Exciting News!!!!

Hi all!

I'm a little late in haring this news, but I've been super busy in scrappy life and real life.

I applied for a Design Team position with 3 Scrappy Boys kit club and I was SELECTED!!!  I'm so excited!  I've never scrapped with a kit and I know how popular they are.  I think it will be a fun challenge every month to create pages, cards and other items using ONLY the supplies in the kits I receive.  I'm so used to picking exactly what I want and love that this will definitely push my creative boundaries. 

I love how friendly the other design team members are and the forums on the site are very positive.  Take a peek at the forums and the store and blog.  Heather has done a great job with the store and I'm loving what I've seen from the other design team members so far.  Makes me wonder what Heather was thinking when she picked ME! 

I'll be back in the next day or two with more of my assignments from the Allison Davis 6x6 class.

Thanks for stopping by!
Nicole

- Allison Davis 6x6 class

Okay here's my take on the #5 sketch from the 6x6 class:

Left side:

Right side:

The sketch called for the 2x2 squares only on the left page.  I only had the one sheet of 12x12 paper that matched the pad I was using, from the Take a Hike collection from Simple Stories.  So I cut that in half and used one half on each pages, and filled in the middle area with all the 2x2 squares from the paper pad.  A couple of the square are actually from the cut apart pages and I like the added detail it gives.

Let me show you a bit of my process since I remembered to take a few photos as I went along this time.

Here you can see when I decided to cover the right side with the little squares as well.  And you see that my squares are not neatly lined up where they meat the 12x6 piece of paper.  To hide this I just punched a border with some brown Bo Bunny Double Dot paper (I'm addicted to this stuff).  You can also see a gap at the very top of the squares.  Turns out my cardstock I was using was a tiny bit taller than 12 inches.  I ended up just trimming a tiny strip from the stripe pattern and covering it with that.  I wasn't concerned about it because I was planning on using some larger element clustered up there.

I really enjoy using computer printed journaling.  I do not like my own handwriting and typing it out allows me to think about what I want to say and I have been known to change it a few times prior to printing.  With this page I really wanted to use a new (to me) background stamp from Hero Arts that is a little notebook page.  I tried to print the journaling in my usual way - print it out on paper, align die cut ontop and tape it down, then print again.  I did this THREE times and messed up everyone single one.  I ended up just printing in on a full sheet of cardstock and using my stamp-a-ma-jig to line up the stamp.  And before I cut the stamped image out, I used some coffee stain stamps to add some interest to the notebook paper.

And here's a tip if you are like me and keep forgetting to buy a stamp press - the notebook paper stamp comes as a cling stamp and my blocks were too small.  So I just used a wood mounted background stamp as a block.

Here's some detail photos:

Thanks for stopping by!!

Nicole

"Family" - Allison Davis 6x6 sketch class

Here's my version of sketch #4 from Allison's class found here:

This is one of my favorite pages from the class, and it's probably because I tend to love sketches/pages where the photos are "wall to wall".  And I love treating each area of pattern paper as a mini page and embellishing them.  I used the 6x6 pad from Pebbles - Family Ties I think is the name.  It's one of my favorite lines of all time.  I inked all the edges with Chestnut Roan chalk ink.  A tip I can offer is that if you ink the edges of your papers, ink the edges of your stickers and embellishment pieces as well.  It helps tie everything together.

I decided to use some Ali Edwards stamps and computer journaling.  Here's where I laid the stamps out and tried to figure everything out once I had printed my journaling.  I used Soft Suede ink by Stampin' Up!

Then I just started pulling stickers and embellishments from my stash.

Here's the journaling finished - I added a banner from the papers, a word sticker and a little Tim Holtz paper clip.  Then I used a hole punch and made three hole down the left side to mimic notebook/ledger paper.

My little man was NOT a happy guy during our photo shoot last November.  You can see from these photos that he's crying.  All my husband and I could do was laugh and go with it.

And I will leave with you with a few more detail shots of the individual embellished areas.

Thanks for stopping by!

Nicole