My First Challenge

I am a subscriber to Creating Keepsakes magazine. It's such a great resource! Usually, I read my issue, tear out the pages that I like the ideas or the articles, & then pass them onto my friend, Tami. Well, sorry Tami, you won't get the September issue!! ;o) There were too many great ideas!! You'd only get the front & back cover & maybe a few ads. hee-hee

Anyway, this issue was just jam packed with ideas & things I can use as challenges. In the article "Ultra-Creative Lettering" by Lisa Ivey, Lisa encourages readers to get creative with lettering! Her first "assignment" is this: "Add Your Own Touches. With creative lettering, your writing doesn't have to be perfect! At least that's how Sherelle Christiansen feels about her fun and whimsical style. She takes a 'go with the flow, mix it up' approach, using both cursive and print and randomly mixing uppercase and lowercase letters [in her journaling]. Sherelle took her lettering up a notch by bolding and enlarging certain key words. She then used pink and green colored pencils to accentuate them."

My first challenge is this: do some creative lettering in your journaling on a page this week. Next week, I will post my result. Feel free to comment to this post how yours turned out!!

Cherish/Scrapped

You must check out this book-"Cherish" (http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4989468)! This is one of the most awesome books! It was orginally created exclusively for Close To My Heart, a home-based scrapping & stamping business similar to Creative Memories or Stampin' Up. CTMH sold the book for $29.95. However, the author went behind their back & sold it to Walmart & now Walmart sells it for HALF!!!! $15.88 This book is a must-have! It gives you step by step instructions for creating 2-page layouts including materials, papers, & exact measurements for what to cut your pictures & papers to!! I used it to create my "Animal House" layout from my blog entry "Stickers". I couldn't get some of my pictures to exact size so the page is somewhat altered but hey, that's why it's called an "idea" book. It's a nice hardbound book with an interior spiral binding. There are 50 (for 2-15 photos) layouts but each layout can be turned, flipped, & switched to create an infinate amount of layout designs! It's only $.97 to ship from walmart.com.

Ok, you've got to check out this link: http://www.scrappedmovie.com/promos.html. My Aunt Vicki sent it to me. I so have to get this DVD! I think even hubby's would get a kick out of this! There are two video clips on the site & a third one coming on 8/28. The DVD will be released 9/5.

Card Making Night

Saturday night, the Ladies of our Sunday School class had a card making night. A friend of mine, Cintha (who is my Close To My Heart consultant), hosted us & designed 5 cards for us to put together! We got 12 cards (4 blank, 2 feminine b-day, 2 masculine b-day, 2 boy b-day, & 2 girl b-day) for $15! A great deal!!! I'm posting the cards so you can see how neat they were!



I think I'm going to switch gears now for a while & do some card making. I'll come back to the scrapbooking in a few weeks. I'll post cards as I complete them. I really need to get into the habit of making multiples one card. I have a friend who is very good about that. I'm not. That's what I'm going to work on! I'm also going to try to use up some of my GOBS & GOBS of scraps!!!



Bye, for now!

Progress This Week

I am so proud of myself! I have gotten so many pages done this week! I have to stop & count...5!! Wow!! Ok, some of these I actually did last week but it was after I last posted! I've done several pages with old paper, stickers, & hand journaling!! I got into the computer journaling thing & can't seem to stay away! I've got to incorporate more of my handwriting into my pages! I also did one page where I did the title rather than doing it on the computer or using stickers. I did use a stencil but I also added my own handwriting. You'll see it below. It's the "Hannah Wonder" page. I'm only posting 3 pages, though.


I'm starting to get low on solid papers but am trying to stick by my guns on not buying anything! Unfortunately, I think I am going to have break down & get some solids. I didn't realize how much patterned paper I have! I'm not really much of a patterned paper user but I'm starting to change that. Well, I have an hour until nap time is over so I am going to try to get some scapping done. Until next time...

Stickers

Ok, first of all I have to tell you all about this great website! If you haven't heard of shutterfly.com, please check it out. But, before you do, email & I will "refer" you. Then, I can get free prints!! Anyway, their prices are competitive but the cool thing is you can add borders, remove red eye, & do all kinds of editing to your photos online. Then, you just select the ones that you want to order & then they ship them to you. They ship rather quickly, too. If you order on Monday, you'll most likely have them by Thursday. Anyway, I'm really excited about them!



Ok, onto the scrapping!!! Here's another layout that I did at Craftin' at the Creek (our church craft night on the 3rd Friday of the month). I am pretty proud of this layout because I again used old paper that I have had for years. I also used stickers that I have had for years. I used to use stickers alot on my layouts but have gotten away from that. I am trying to get back into it. They are such easy embellishments!

On a side note, I hope that ya'll are enjoying this blog. I am really starting to enjoy posting to it. I hope to start posting a weekly scrapping challenge here soon that I want to meet & I hope that you will join in!!

Out of My Box!

I only did one page this week but, I came out of my box to do it! I did a layout with only one picture on it. I've always wanted to do that but have always felt that it was a waste of a page. I don't know why but I just thought, "why waste an entire scrapbook page on just one photo". I've done single photo pages before but there's always been a facing page that had more photos on it.

Then, I came across this photo. I didn't really have anything else that would pair with it & it's such a sweet photo. I knew when I took it over 2 years ago now, that I wanted it to be a "showcase" picture. When I saw them laying like that, it reminded me of a picture that my mom took of me & my dad in a similar position. It was done in black & white, as well. At some point in the (hopefully) near future, I want to find that picture of me & my dad and do a page with it as well. Maybe it can be the facing page. Or, maybe, I'll just do a whole new page for the two pictures. I'll just get this one reprinted. Yeah, I think that's what I'll do, I'll make a 2nd layout. I don't really think that this page needs journaling but I want to tell the story behind why I took the photo & I think that would make the most sense. You know, I think I might even print out this picture of the layout & use it on the page, too. Now, I'm starting to get more ideas!!!

I'm definitely going to try to do more 1 photo layouts. You know, sometimes there's just that one photo that "speaks" to you. When I make a disc to get printed, I try to make a separate file of photos that I want to print in 5x7. I would really like to try printing a photo larger than that. I know that snapfish.com will let you print photos in weird sizes. I may have to do that. Maybe I will make that my next challenge. Yes, I will. 'Course, I have to find the "perfect" photo to do that. Time to go picture hunting!! :o)