Cousins!

Sup!
I know. I went all out on the title didn't I? Okay, this is turning out to be one of those layouts that I just don't care for. I finished it and took a nap, hoping that when I woke up I would like it better but that just didn't happen. Wow, I set that one up real nice didn't I? Makes ya feel like ya can't wait to see it.......

Okay, so I wanted to try a different approach to this one.I LOVE layouts done by Lilith E., they are awesome so I wanted to try that approach. This is that attempt. I am going to keep working on it cause I think her work is perfect but I don't think I nailed that look yet. Sigh. I had fun with this one. I liked the stamping and the layering around the photo. Maybe its the pink I don't like. I dunno.

I tried to do lots of layering around the photo using different mediums, tissue paper, ribbon, paper, and even metal and wood. I also stamped a lot more than usual on the page. The stamp effects I actually really like. Just something about the whole bugs me. I haven't done any journaling on the lo yet and maybe that is what is getting under my skin about it.

Well, there ya have it.

SUPPLIES USED
Papers - Echo Park Happy Day
Embellies - Metal long thing - Industrial Chic. Wood flags - Basic Grey. Stamps - Lawn Fawn & Studio Calico. Ink - Distress in Broken China and Worn Lipstick. Pins - Maya Road. Paper die cuts - My Minds Eye & Studio Calico. I also cut the file tab and the tag using my Big Kick. Alphas - Jillibean Soup. Metal Pins - Crud, I can't remember, some pin company at Two Peas In A Bucket.

The Ladies Lumsden

Sup!
One of Colorful Creations monthly challenges is For Girls Only, which are challenges based on, you guessed it, girls. Octobers challenge is to scrap any summer pics you have left before we are consumed with winter. At least everywhere else but here in good ole Az.. I am working on Lorna's scrapbook still so I scrapped a photo of her, her daughter, her niece and her mother visiting Disney World last summer. I also used a sketch from Creative Scrappers. In terms of straight sketch sites, you really can't get much better. The sketches are always easy to see and interpret and they have a wonderful DT so you get a wide range of layouts. At any rate the sketch, #230, looks like this:

Here is my take on the sketch and the for girls only concept:

In terms of the sketch, first my photo is in landscape not portrait so I had to change the sketch to account for that. I then had to move the title to the bottom cause it wouldn't fit on the side. I also wanted the photo towards the upper left since the people in the pic seem to be looking downish.

The journaling says, "The lovely Lumsden ladies enjoying a summer outing." I did make a two sided tag with my die cut machine because I am leaving room for Lorna to put any journaling she wants on most of the layouts.

SUPPLIES USED:
Papers - Crate Paper Random & Story Teller collections.
Fibers - Bo Bunny
Embellies - Prima wood ribbon thing....., Joilee gold stickers. Thickers letters. Paper Studio paperclip. Maya Road stick pins. Brads, I have no idea, they have been in my stash for a seriously long time.

So there ya have it!

I Won!

Sup!
Got an email this morning from Paper Secrets advising of the newest sketch release, you know, the usual email when the new sketches come out. It was way early in the morning and I had just woken up, seriously, like 4:30 or something stupid like that. So I am scrolling down through said email and I come to the heading, "And now for the winner of our October 1st challenge" and it says Mari Anselmo. I immediately think to myself, "huh, that is close to my name." then I keep scrolling and it looks like a layout I did...... OH WAIT!!!! That IS me!!!! My last name is just spelled wrong! It was the layout I did of Irie, Lorna's pooch, for her scrapbook. Groovy!

It actually looks better in person. At any rate, that kinda made my day.
There ya have it.

Universal Law: Subtitled, I Scraplifted Myself!

Sup! A new challenge over at Colorful Creations this month is to scraplift yourself. So I went back to some of my earlier lo's (yeah, I have been doing this less than a year so I'm talking a few months back) and drew a sketch of the lo and then redid it. Here is the original layout called Hot Fun? In The Summertime

I'm pretty sure I got this from a sketch but since this was done before I started my blog I have no real data on it. At any rate, this is what I came up with:

I moved the photo section over towards the middle but kept the top title part the same. Instead of journaling at the bottom I extended the title down and mixed some hand journaling in with the pics.

I took a stupid amount of time to put this together, mostly because I wanted to create a mixed media background so I have 10 other discarded background canvas pages that I did not use. LOL, they look good but they just weren't what I wanted for this.

I did end up using a mask and some mist so go me.....???? Alrighty then, there ya have it.

Supplies used:
Papers - Cardstock and American Craft Neopolitan collection.
Embellies - Jolies - passport sticker. Little Yellow Bicycle stick pins. Smash tabs. My Minds Eye enamel dots. Lawn Fawn Washi tape.
Mask - The Crafters Workshop
Mist - Tattered Angels Tiger Lily.

I Freakin Love You Man!

Sup!
Colorful Creations Twisted Blueprints challenge this week gave us the following sketch:

With the "twist" being use mist or paints and add a shaped element. Here is my take on it.

Okay. I am gonna say, this is NOT my favorite layout ever but I have made a promise to myself to never give up and put a layout away and I haven't. Most of this came from my kit club this month and I just was unable to get it all to fit together in a manner I dug. Oh well, on with it.

Materials Used:
papers - Sutdio Calico
Embellies - Thickers letters, Studio Calico numbered clips and wooden speech bubbles. Elles Studio paper die cuts. Tim Holtz card alphas. Paper Studio paper clip. Dylusions spray mist. Washi tape, various brands.
There ya have it.

Beautiful You

Sup!
I just completed another layout for Lorna's album. This one is based off a designer sketch challenge over at Colorful Creations which looks like this:

And here is my take on the sketch

I actually completed this layout rather quickly, for me at any rate, since I had been mulling this layout over for some time. I drew it out, picked out the papers and embellies and put it together in one afternoon. Like I said, quick for me.
Lorna has been a dear friend of mine for over 20 years. We used to live together back in our early twenties in this really cool house in New Orleans that was her aunts until she passed away. We were pretty sure her aunt still occupied the place though. I would not trade one single memory there for all the money in the world. Apart from having my husband and pooches now, those were some of the happiest times of my life.
I wanted a layout that showed her how beautiful she truly is. Not just on the inside but on the outside too. Like many of us women, she has always questioned her beauty. I want her to see what we see when we look at her. That is why I chose three versions of the same pic.

The papers I chose specifically because of her love of music. I will always remember those drunken evenings of youth when she would play her casio for me after we got home from the bars. She would dedicate things to me because "she loved me."

The pearls and the lace flowers were added because she has always had a love of pearls and the finer things in life. She really loved going through all of her aunts old furniture and belongings and displaying them.
The butterflies I chose because she is a butterfly. Despite having so many setbacks and challenges and losses in her life she just keeps going forward and shining and improving her life. She has transformed herself despite all the setbacks.

The journaling says: "You are a wonderful mother, daughter, sister, wife and friend. I've never met anyone who possesses as much fight, spirit and kindness as you. Lorna, you are one of the most beautiful people I've ever met, inside and out. You will always have my unwavering love and devotion. I am a better person having you in my life."

Supplies Used:
Papers - Heidi Swapp Vintage Chic Collection.
Flowers - Cloth and lace flowers are Prima & the paper flowers are kaisercraft.
Embellishments - Butterflies - Studio Calico wood veneer & kraft. Rub on butterfly in upper right K & Company. Metal keyplate - Tim Holtz. Metal fleur de lis - Art i cake. Chipboard letters - Paper Studio. Paint for letters - liquid pearls Beautiful sticker lower right - Glitz.

There ya have it.

Our Sweet Boy

Sup!
So this layout I started on October 1st but I have been battling a toothache and an eventual tooth extraction all this week so I did not finish it up until today. For those of you who know me, you know that was torture for me not being able to scrap all week. At any rate, with tooth gone and infection under control I have completed a layout for Lorna's scrapbook titled Our Sweet Boy. It is a tribute to their dog, Irie who just passed away this past year. He had been a part of their lives for a long time so it hit all of them hard. I did not want to bring up his passing in the layout, as I know there will be a time in the future when they will be able to look at his life without thinking about the pain of his death.
I used a sketch from Paper Secrets which was this:

My take on the sketch looks like this:

I also combined the sketch challenge with the Layers Upon Layers Challenge over at Colorful Creations. The challenge, as the name would imply is to use layers in your layout. I LOVE layers. I adore them. I use them, in some capacity in every layout.

For the layering I used lots of papers behind the main paper and I layered some misting on top of the gesso on the bottom kraft paper.
The journaling talks about how a dogs ears are really angel wings that bring our babies down to us.

I found some Bo Bunny pleated fabric which I used along the bottom of the photos and I fell in love with that stuff. I used DIY Thickers for the letters which I HATE in the DIY capacity. Once you remove the top layer and expose the sticky side to DIY they lose their shape and are not cooperative at all. I left the top layer on and used them as white letters but I will not be buying them again.

SUPPLIES USED:
Papers - October Afternoon, Echo Park and Studio Calico
Gesso - Artisits loft
Mask - Prima Donna Downey Studios
Mist - Luminarte Blue Flame
Embellishments - Industrial Chic key, Maya Road pins, Prima wood trinkets Ribbons from Michael s  Bo Bunny wraps. Letters DIY Thickers.

So there ya have it.