A New Life Begins

I did this LO for Bird is the Word, where the word to use is "Begin/Beginning". I combined it with this week's sketch at Let's Scrap and this month's Inspiration challenge at Scrapbook Challenges.

Here's the inspiration pic:

Here's the sketch:

And here's my LO of my great-niece, Skylar:

Earth Day Challenge 3 - Nature Lovers

This was the third challenge I attempted at Scrapbook Challenges. The challenge was to use old book paper, a twig, a nature theme, and no more than three traditional scrapbook items (where multiples seem to count as one). So I covered some cardboard in book paper, wrapped some twigs in twine, and matted my pictures onto craft paper. Then I cut out a bird from an old greeting card, butterflies from some cardboard packaging, and added the letters and buttons as my traditional items.

We Are Family

This LO was done for a sketch challenge at Punky Scraps.

Here's the sketch:

And here's my LO:

You Color My World

I really enjoy working with paint, and thought it would be perfect for this month's challenge at Berry71Bleu, where the challenge was to use a "Burst of Color". Since we could send three submissions, I also chose "Act Natural" and "Magic".

Earth Day Challenge 2 - Recycle Your Scrapbook

This was another Scrapbook Challenges challenge that said to use only recycled materials on your page. I started with a Sketchy Thursdays sketch:

 
and then I raided the house looking for items to use.

The base is made from craft paper that I painted using green and white. The white circles on the craft paper are binder reinforcements. The picture mat is a piece of foam packing material. Behind it, I added some newsprint (that happens to say Earth Day), pictures cut out of a greeting card, and a picture of vegetables from a can of veggies. The blue flower in the top left corner was cut from a restaurant flyer, and the other flowers, as well as the green borders surrounding the foam mat, the two hearts, and the word love, are cut from old greeting cards. The metal circles down the sides are some kind of screw eyelet from my husband's tool room, and the big green, blue, and white circle decal is cut from a plastic gift card backing. Finally, the green tabs surrounding the word "love" are reusable office tabs, and the word "You" is cut from old greeting cards and surrounded by a metal keychain loop.

Here's the result:

Earth Day Challenge 1 - Nature in all her Splendor

This weekend over at Scrapbook Challenges was all about Earth Day. Most of the challenges had me recycling a number of household products for LOs. This challenge had a list of 18 criteria I had to meet. Since it will be graded on a point system, I tried to double every step. I think it's kind of a mess myself, but I thought I'd share it anyway.

The criteria:

1. Include a philosophy that you live by. A philosophy that I live by is that you shouldn't take life too seriously, and it's reflected in my journaling: "While taking some family pictures, I told you guys to "Strike a Pose", and this is what you came up with. I couldn't help but laugh at your ideas of "posing", and it reminds me of a wonderful saying I heard by Reba McIntyre, sort of a philosophy of living, if you will. "To succeed in life you need three things: A wishbone, a backbone, and a funnybone."
2. Craft paper - check.
3. Flowers - check. Five of them, to be exact.
4. Eyelets - check. Used in the four corners. I've never actually worked with eyelets before, but luckily my DH had a whole kit in his tool room.
5. Plain brads - nine of them, for the centres of the flowers and the ends of the tags.
6. Outdoor photos with nature in them - check.
7. Strips of patterned paper - check. I used an old batch of Creative Memories scraps for all of the patterned papers.
8. Hand journaling - check.
9. Decorative border punch - check. I don't own a border punch, but I used scalloped scissors and a hole punch with the green patterned paper.
10.An old book page - check. I even made sure it had a picture of kids playing to keep with the theme.
11. Three new embellishments - check. I added three Kurio stickers (Fun, laughter, Smile).
12. Paint - I got a little carried away with the paint, but used blue and green on the background, as well as for stamping.
13. Stamp with an item from around the house - I used paint and bubble wrap to stamp the circles, and then tried a penny (with mixed results) and a bottle cap (it's there, but you can't really notice it).
14. Fabric - I used two pieces of blue fabric, two pieces of grey denim, and three strips of faux leather.
15a. Tag - I used a small tag in the title, as well as three simple handmade tags (from the patterned strips of paper) in the corner fastened with brads.
15b. Something weird - twigs!!
16. Staples or paperclips - I used both. Three staples around the corners of the title, and three paperclips.
17. Twine or string - I used both. I used twine around the decorative borders, and string in sewing.
18. Tearing - check.
Well, that about covers it, I think. :) Here's the result:

Fifth Time's the Charm

Here's a LO I did for Sketchy Thursdays (sketch), Paper Issues (something to do with Mom's or Mother's Day), and The Paper Variety (use a number on your LO).

Here's the sketch:

 

And here's my LO. It's a picture of my mom with some of her grandkids. I could not get my nephew to look at the camera, no matter how hard I tried. He was too fascinated with what his sister was doing.

Dreamer - A Sketch Challenge

Here is the sketch of the week at Scrapbook Challenges, followed by my take on it. I have a bunch of artsy pictures of Kayli taken on a visit to Nova Scotia, so I thought they would be perfect.

Cousins

I did this LO for an Inspiration challenge at Candy Shoppe Designs and combined it with a Sketch at Let's Scrap. Here is the Inspiration picture, followed by the sketch, and then my LO.

Inspiration picture to use:

Sketch to follow:

My 2-page LO:

A close up of the pages:

Mine Forever

I've been doing a lot of LOs of the kids lately, so I thought it was time to switch it up and throw my hubby in the mix. I did this challenge for the Bird is the Word challenge (use the word "Forever"), and for the Scrapbook Challenges Pick of the Week challenge. Here is a link to the Pick of the Week that I scraplifted, and here is my LO:

Magic

I discovered a new web site, Bird is the Word. It challenges you to use a specific word in your title or journaling. Last week's word was Magic, so I found a quote I loved and a picture I loved, and voila! I also combined it with the Punky Scraps challenge to use only green, yellow, orange, and one patterned paper on a LO, and a challenge at The Paper Variety that said to use flowers on a LO. I painted the paper background (it's not a patterned paper) and I hand wrote the quote. I'm really happy with the way the painting came out. I may have to start playing with paint more often.

One in a Million

This is my favorite LO of the weekend. This was done for the Recycling Challenge at Paper Secrets that said to use something not traditionally found on a LO. Obviously I used the jean pocket from a pair of my son's old jeans that were ready for the trash, but I also used a piece of shoelace for the edging of the page, and some corrugated black cardboard from a packing box. Plus, I did some hidden journaling with the tags in the pocket.

Family Fun

I did this LO for the Let's Scrap challenge that said to follow a sketch. Here's the sketch, followed by my LO. Normally I would have printed smaller pics or cropped them, but I came across a bunch of 4x6 prints that I didn't want to reprint. It's a camping trip we took a couple years ago.

Barbie Girl

I did this LO for four different challenges:
-> Sketchy Thursdays: follow the sketch below
--> Crop Suey: make your own handmade embellies out of scraps. I made the banner and the stars by cutting out scraps from the party paper.
--> Scrapbook Challenges: make your own banner
--> Paper Secrets: Create a birthday theme using birthday papers, a handcut portion of patterned paper (the stars), pop dots, 2 different alpha stickers, and stickles or glitter.

Here's the sketch I followed:

 

And here's my take on it. The plastic Barbie figures on the LO are actually from her cake. The journaling reads: "Kayli wanted a Barbie cake for her 18th birthday. I saved some of the decorations."

Act Natural

I'm giving this LO it's own post so I can link it up to Paper Issues. The challenge was to create something Spring-related. My son made the large flower for me out of origami, and I thought it was perfect for this page. I also did some stitching and some hidden journaling.

Sweet

I just finished a sketch challenge at Scrapbook Challenges. I had a lot of fun with it. Here's the sketch, and my take on it. (I'll also be entering it on a Paper Secrets challenge):

A Creative Family

My stepdaughter went away for the Spring Break with her fiance's family, and made this collage for them afterwards. She doesn't do a lot of scrapbooking, but I think she did a really great job!

Paper Secrets Birthday Bash Challenges

Well, it was a busy weekend for me as I scrambled to complete as many Paper Secrets Birthday Bash challenges as I could. I managed to complete 5 total. The first was The Graduate, which was my previous post, but here are the other four:

Shabby Chic
The challenge was to use a pre-50's photo, paint, stitching, distressing, and pastel tones. This is the first time I tried stitching, so I kept it to a minimum, but I just loved the effect, as you'll see in later challenges. :)

Remember When
The Challenge was to do something related to the number 2, as it is Paper Secrets' second birthday. I tried more stitching on this layout of my daughter and her best friend.

And here's a close-up of the details:

BINGO
The challenge with this layout was to pick a row or column on a Bingo board and use everything in that row/column. The row I chose required me to use: brads, the color green, flowers, rub ons, and tearing. Here's the result:

Inspired By...
The last challenge I managed to complete for the weekend was an Inspiration challenge. Here is the image I was supposed to garner my inspiration from:

My inspired LO is below. I'm also using this for the Scrapbook Challenges Wild Card challenge to use hidden journaling, the Paper Issues challenge to do something Spring-related, and the Berry71Bleu challenge to use a Burst of Color. I was going to use it for the Let's Scrap challenge of creating three different handmade flowers, but I missed the deadline.

This is my darling stepdaughter doing silly poses. I had fun with the stitching on this one, and it's my favorite of the weekend. The big flower is actually an origami flower that my son made (he can make ANYTHING out of origami -- I'll have to put in an order for him LOL), and the yellow flower was made following a tutorial by Natalie at Scrapbook Challenges.

Pretty Boy

Scrapbook Challenges has a product challenge going on right now that says to use ephemera on a layout (ephemera is defined as something not meant to be kept forever, like concert tickets, pamphlets, paper coasters, etc.). I used Jack's last doggie grooming report.

Paper Secrets Birthday Bash - Sketch Challenge

Have you heard? Paper Secrets is having a weekend-long birthday bash! They have tons of challenges. I won't have time to do them all this weekend, but I picked a few to try. Here's the first one; it's a sketch challenge.

Here's the sketch:

And here's my LO: