Friday, January 31, 2014

Bon Voyage! A Scrappy Time Warp...

You know that time in 1999 when I became a "DOTS" (now Close to my Heart) consultant so I could earn money for my wedding?  Yeah....I did earn money, but I spent my fair share, too (on crafty goodies, of course!).  I couldn't get enough of the stamps, papers, inks, and accessories.  I kept up with my pre-wedding pages somewhat, but then...IDon'tKnowHowButItGotGroupedInAStorageBoxForLater.  It was like the crazy aunt you don't want to acknowledge.  Oh sure, you know it's there, but you repress the thought because: new house.  Baby girl.  Life.

Fast forward to October 2007 where Heather Leopard and a couple other of my friends go to a scrapbooking retreat.  I bring almost nothing except for wedding stuff to *finally* scrapbook!  I get quite a bit done, actually, and am very proud of myself.  Then.....well, you know -- TheWeddingBoxWentBackToItsHideyHole.  

Now it's 2010 on this scrappy time-warp.  Heather and our friends decide to make our own retreat at a local Residence Inn, and we split the cost and food.  I grab my Wedding Box (and a few other projects) and voila....I get a little more done. But...BackToTheHideyHoleItWent.

Fast forward yet again to January 2014, where it's finally Scrapbooking Season.  Heather and I along with Krissy go to a bittersweet Archiver's crop (our last....still so sad....not over it at all....WAAAAH!).  I decide the easiest way to pack is to have specific projects in mind. So out came the Wedding Box O' Stuff.  And as I looked through it I realized I have successfully captured the pre-wedding (showers, bachelorett party, bridal portrait, etc.), the wedding AND the reception.  Success.  Progress.  Memories saved, ready to cherish.  But then my eye catches a Barnes & Noble bag.  I open it.  My eyes gleam.  Because it is....the honeymoon.  With notes. Sidenote:  my husband actually teased me about taking notes on what we did each day of our honeymoon, but wow, I'm so grateful I did!  I never once thought I'd be scrapbooking my honeymoon almost 14 years after the fact, but guess what?  I'm really glad so much time has passed because scrapbooking has come a very long way, my friends.  A looong way. 

So.

My husband and I went on a cruise for our honeymoon.  Wanna see my Bon Voyage layout?  Okay then, check it!



I had so much fun creating this layout.  I used Fancy Pants Designs' Happy Go Lucky collection because the colors were sooo happy, and they called my name.  I wanted to pick up that light blue color and happened to also have two sheets of an older Fancy Pants collection, The Daily Grind.  I loved the hexagons and decide to use most of the hexagon paper on the right page.  But I wanted to carry the shape over, so I cut out a large hexagon with my Cameo, traced it onto the left hand page, and then sewed the hexagon onto the right hand side of my left page.  You can see the top of it here.  



Don't we look cute holding our beers and giggling during muster training?

I love the striped paper too, so I used that in the top border of my left page as well as the banner on my right page.



I mat the photos on the left page with CTMH Colonial White cardstock and the photos on the right in red Fancy Pants cardstock.  To add dimension, I distress the light blue cardstock on the right page and sew along the top and bottom.  Under photos on both sides, I layer CTMH Cocoa cardstock, the ticket patterned paper, and some chevron vellum by Studio Calico.

I use a tag from the Happy Go Lucky collection to journal on, and for my title I decide to cut out "Bon Voyage" on my cameo, except for the "O".  Instead, I fussy cut the hexagons to use as my "O".



After I adhere the title, I sew over the "BON", and then add the Maya Road "love" clip over the center of the "O".  Finishing touches are the arrow stamp and the "Epic" stamp.

I have more honeymoon to show you, but for now, our scrappy time warp comes to an end.  I hope you enjoyed the layout.

Chocolate scrappiness,

Majken Pullin

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Inspired Scrapbooking - "Seasons" - Scrapbooking Season

Hello everyone!  I can't believe January is almost over!  Time flies when you are in the midst of "scrapbooking season".  I'm sure you are wondering what that is, so let me tell you.  But first I'll back up a bit.

Toward the end of last year, I decided to take a class with Stacy Julian at Big Picture Classes called Inspired Scrapbooking.  I felt it would be just the pace to encourage me to be crafty since it's one layout a month, and I'm purposely going out of my 2-page layout comfort zone -- I'm going to stick with one-page layouts for the class.  Well, this first month's topic is "Seasons" and we can interpret that any way we wanted to.  Which brings me back to scrapbooking season. My husband has been a deer-hunter since he was a boy, and he's had a lease for many years.  Which leaves me with the kids for almost every weekend between Nov. and the first weekend in January alone with the kids.  I do enjoy my time with them, but I always joke that January and February are scrapbook season because I itch to get back to craftiness!

I was so inspired by the Scrapbook Circle sketch for January, that I did a layout last week about my Cutie Pie, and I opted to use it again on this layout.



I used the January kit from Scrapbook Circle "This Life".  Isn't this fun?  I have always loved hearts, so this worked well for the love of my hobby. I didn't have many photos of me scrapbooking, so I asked a friend to take a few snapshots during our 2-day Scrap Mania a couple of weeks ago.  I started by choosing my papers and how I wanted to lay them out on a piece of CTMH Colonial White cardstock.  I distressed the brown heart paper rectangle and inked the edges of the green and pink papers as well as my photos.  

I cut the title and large heart out using my Cameo, and I did a little sewing along the edges and over part of the title.  I finished the page off by fussy-cutting the "I love to make" tag, and I  adhered wood die cut hearts, Basic Grey pink and red candy buttons, and fussy-cut hearts from paper in the kit to the top left and bottom right.  I punched a few pieces of paper confetti to mix in, and I topped the right photo with the Maya Road heart paper clip.

I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you have a scrapbook season, too...with chocolate, of course!

TTFN,
Majken



Monday, January 20, 2014

Cutie Pie Layout

Hello and happy Monday everyone!

I was one of the lucky ones who had today off for MLK, so I decided to take Friday off to make a 4-day weekend.  Can you guess what I did??  If you guessed "scrapped", you'd be correct! A couple of friends and I booked some time at Archiver's (probably our last crop there....so SAD about my favorite store closing).  We cropped all day Friday, left our stuff overnight and went back for a full day on Saturday.  I got three 2-page layouts done (well the 3rd layout was close to done, and I finished it today).  I'm going to show you this 3rd one first...and it's a cute one because it showcases my daughter when she was about 18 months old.  



 I had a ton of fun with this layout!  The chair in the photos matched the BasicGrey RSVP line perfectly!  And I ADORE purple. I then decided to use a sketch to help get my creative juices flowing.  I chose this Scrapbook Circle sketch.  




The sketch is for a single page, so the 2nd page is from my imagination.  I started with the bokeh/confetti paper because that was my favorite in the pack, and I used it as my base for the photos.  I layered a few of the other coordinating papers to place behind the photos and horizontal strip to make sure I liked the combination, and I misted both sides with CTMH Juniper re-inker.  Here is the left page by itself.





After layering my various pieces, I distressed the edges of the pink striped paper, matted the orange-red polka dot paper and the photos with "Velvet" Bazzill cardstock, and then sewed around the horizontal bokeh/confetti papers in the center of the layouts.

I cut the "Cutie" with my Cameo, and used the alpha sticker sheet to spell "Pie" to complete my title.





I decided to add sequins and gems to complement the misting, and I also added a banner in the top left corner.  I punched out the banner pieces from various papers in the pack, and I used some baker's twine to be the base for the banner pieces.



For the small banner/embellishment cluster underneath the photos, I used two banner pieces and a few stickers from the collection.  I finished it off with some baker's twine, a gem, and a sequin.  



For the coordinating page, I continued the bokeh/confetti paper in the center (with the sewing) and layered similar papers to coordinate with the left side.  I used a large circle cutter and cut a circle to layer behind as well.  An additional banner, sequins, gems, and vellum stickers rounded out the layout.



I really hope you enjoyed my layout!  If it inspires you, I'd love you to share it.  

Enjoy, and may your day include chocolate and scrappiness!

Majken

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

I decided to start the new year with a New Year's layout.  And as luck would have it, there was a sketch that I found on the My Scraps & More Sketches.




Isn't that a great sketch?  Here's my interpretation of it.


I stayed pretty true to the sketch, but I moved the main part down and to the right a bit because I wanted to incorporate some mixed media in the top left corner.  Isn't that a fun one?  See a list of materials below.  

How would you interpret this sketch?

Here's to a wonderful 2014 for everyone!  

Cheers and chocolate,
Majken

Materials used: