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Friday, August 31, 2012

Ugly paper....and a little layout!

 Back in June, I found a fun swap on challenge blog called "Inspired to Scrap", but unfortunately saw it too late to participate.  The ladies in the swap each sent another person two sheets of the ugliest paper in their stash, which they were then to do a layout with.  My scrappy buddy, Joyce, happened to receive two very ugly sheets of paper, that I also had in my stash!  Can you believe I actually bought the left piece of Sassafras Lass when I found it in a local store!  I had just found out SS was going out of business, and thought I should grad some sheets while I still could.  It's kinda cute, in a weird way.  The other sheet, is just plain ugly.  I had received it in a kit with the rest of the line from SS Amplify.

So, that's how the idea for this layout began.  I was going through a bad patch with my oldest son, Leo, and found this awful photo of him which is a self portrait from his iPod.  I tried to express my mixed emotions in this layout, which is much harder than you think!  It's much easier for me to scrap about things that make me happy!  When I showed it to Leo, he said he hated it, and never wanted to see it again!  I'm pretty sure he is not a follower of my blog, so I'm pretty sure I'm safe.  Can you keep my secret?

Friday, August 24, 2012

End of Summer Blues!

I can't believe summer vacation is over, and I've only posted once during that whole time!  My kids went back to school on Wednesday, and we are all trying to get back into a routine.  I've done a few projects over the summer, but have not posted them.

My biggest discovery this summer has definitely been Shimelle Laine's videos!  I never knew what all the uproar was about her.  I thought she was a pretty and quirky girl with an interesting accent, but never understood the hoopla.  Then, I started watching her Adventures of Glitter Girl free videos on Two Peas in a Bucket.  I was hooked after the first few!


I finally decided to bite the bullet and take one of her classes.  I chose Hitchhiker's Guide to Scrapbooking, because it was such a cool title, so it had to be good!  I had also heard really positive things about the class on the message board.


I've managed to do a few layouts using inspiration from the Hitchiker's Class, but not in any particular order.


In chapter two of the Hitchhiker's Guide, Shimelle discusses "Starting Points" which are sort of like sketches, but with more freedom.  In a later chapter she talks about "Scraplifting".  I kind of morphed these two challenge points in coming up with this layout.   Shimelle did an example almost exactly like this, although it was the mirror image.  I even used a photograph of a waterfall like she used in her layout.  I did not have any of the same embellishments she used, so I used some that were similar in feeling, but not exactly alike.  I quite like how it turned out, although I just realized I forgot to add my journaling.  Ooops!
 

Here is Shimelle's page:

 
Chapter three of the guide was all about sketches.  I did the following layout using a sketch from the reference section of the Guide.  So, you can see I did not follow the guide exactly, but I was definitely inspired by the class.  I am thinking of signing up for another one soon.  Now, I just have to decide which one!


Wednesday, August 8, 2012

August Counterfeit Kit "Summer Lovin"

 I was so excited to have put together a kit this month.  It seems like it's been forever since I made my last kit.  At first I was hesitant, because the inspiration kit is digital, and I'm definitely a paper girl.  Then, as I started looking more closely at the kit, I thought of papers I had in my own stash that matched the feel of the papers in the inspiration kit.

I tried to stay pretty close to the color scheme and patterns in the original.  My plan is to make some of the adorable embellishments that were shown in the inspiration kit, using supplies from my own kit.  

Here is the original "Summer Lovin" inspiration kit by scraporchard:


Here is my version.