Play Date Cafe Challenge #159

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving! I know I did.

This week, we have a wonderful challenge, it's a color splash!

After my non-painty card last challenge, I knew I wanted to do something kinda messy this time. But the problem with red is that you can't really add red splats, especially with no other colors....because it looks like blood drops!

So, I found this pin on pinterest and thought it would be fun to create a red birdie. That way, I can play with my paints but it wouldn't look like a crime scene :)

Here's what I came up with:

And yup, it is another tag. I really like making them! This one would actually work really well on a package, I think.

I drew the bird by hand on some book paper, painted it red, and added some gesso and glitter. The background of the tag is stamped.


If you want to participate in The Play Date Cafe Challenge, it's easy! All you have to do is make a crafty project of any type using the above color story, then link it up at the PDCC blog. This week, you can win a fabulous prize from the Play Date Cafe vault.  I can't wait to see your creations!

Christmas Tag Tutorial at Paper Haus

Here's a sneak peek of what you will find over at the Paper Haus blog today:

I had lots of fun making these tags, and you can see the step-by-step of the red one :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone in the US has a Happy Thanksgiving today, and even if you aren't in the US, I hope you have a great day also :)

The Play Date Cafe doesn't have a new challenge this week, due to the holiday, so that means you still have another week (until Tuesday night) to play along with Challenge #158!

Check out The Play Date Cafe blog for complete challenge information!

December Daily Base - Days 5-12

Sharing some more of my December Daily pages...still not getting the color in the photos quite right, though.

Here's Days 1-4 and other information about my album.

 Here's the cover in case you missed it before:

December Daily (sort of)

Last year, I remember seeing December Daily (if you don't know what it is, click the link) everywhere...but never did one of my own. I was all digi at that point and didn't really feel like making a digi mini.

But,  I LOVE the look of mini albums in general, and actually have tried to make my own a few times. I've bought chipboard albums from Michael's (curse you, dollar bin!) but have never actually made one yet.

Well, when I went to a chat about DD at Simple Scrapper a few weeks ago, I was inspired. The Simple Scrapper kit was reasonably priced and it had free shipping...which is always a big draw for me! But my craft budget was spent already :( Fortunately, I have the best aunt, who offered to get me the kit for my birthday, which was conveniently last week!

Now, the thing is, I don't have kids and I don't really do enough interesting stuff every day to document it. (My life consists mostly of work, eat, dink around on the computer) BUT I think I do have enough fun Christmas memories over my whole lifetime to share!

So, my album is going to be a mishmash of my Christmas memories, including some from this year. There is a lot I want to say and remember, so I think I can fill up 31 pages (yes, I decided to go past 25. I have enough numbers, papers, and embellishments, so why not?)

I want to share the first couple now. (the color turned out weird in the photos, and even though I fixed them some in GIMP, I may rephotograph for the next batch)


Here's the cover and the first few pages:

Check back later for more!

Playdate Cafe Challenge 158 - A Card!?!

Can you believe that for this challenge, I actually made a rather clean-and-simple card? I didn't use any paint at all! I don't know why, I guess these beautiful colors just screamed CAS to me!  Check out the color story:

Here is my card:

 

Even though it's not my usual style, I love how it turned out (don't worry though, I will be sure to head back to some messy art journaling next time!)

Do the colors inspire you? Then create a project and you could win a prize from Scor-Pal!

Make sure to visit The Play Date Cafe blog for all the challenge details.

Also, because of the Thanksgiving holiday next week, this is a special two-week challenge. So, you have plenty of time to participate! Can't wait to see what you make!

Happy Birthday to Me!

I was dreading this birthday, the big 3-0, but I am actually at peace with it now. We really should celebrate our own birthdays, because it means that we have been given one more year on this earth with people we love!

I was fortunate enough to have a post over at Paper Haus today, and here's a little peek:

(Click here to see the whole page)

I hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Play Date Cafe Challenge #157

And the colors are: Plum, Fuchsia, and Wisteria! Purple (in all its various shades) is my favorite, so I was super happy to see this color story.

Here is my project, another tag:

Supplies of note: washi tape by Queen and Co, glitter swirl chipboard piece by Colorbok, big flowers from Tattered Flowers Die/Tim Holtz, stamps for "beauty" by Studio g and Making Memories, and everything else is from my stash.

I feel like I am getting the hang of tag making, and I love that if I mess up, it isn't a huge deal...I can either gesso over it and start over, or just start a completely new tag :)

For complete challenge information, check out The Play Date Cafe blog!

If you play along by completing a project and linking up, you are eligible to win this week's prize from Simon Says Stamp!

Creative Scrappers Challenge #233

Well, I scrapped again but this time I had a rough time of it at the start. I used a sketch from Creative Scrappers. Here it is:

I started by using a Crafter's Workshop stencil for the chervons, but it turned out horrible. It was way too big, and in the wrong color for where I was going. But because I am a cheapskate, and had just spent 50 cents on the bazzil cardstock, I wasn't going to give up. I covered it with gesso and started over! You can see the slight discoloration of the white where the gesso is.

So, instead I used a stamp by Alley Way stamps for my chevrons. I added lots of paint, ink, and scribbles. I used a vellum quote and rubon from my stash, and an alpha by making memories. Tape from Queen and Co and from Freckled Fawn. The arrow is by Pink Paislee, and flowers from Kaisercraft, recolored.

I know that I drifted away from the original sketch quite a bit, but I like the end result! Apparently my scrap style is "painty and messy" :) I tried to add some journaling at the bottom but hated it, so covered it up with gesso and paint as well.

Thanks for looking!

On a Roll! Challenge Me Happy

Since I had so much fun with my first paper layout, I decided to dive right in and make another. Since I love challenges (they give me motivation and help me focus), I found this one at Challenge Me Happy to inspire me:

 

 

 

 

 Supplies of note: I really mixed new and old and messy and neat on this one, I guess.  Arrows and  Die Cut ephemera from Pink Paislee, washi tape by Freckled Fawn, flowers by Kaisercraft and some die cut from a Sizzix die, (misted using Heidi Swapp color shine and others), cloud die cuts from Paper Issues. I also used gesso, black paint, puchinella as a stencil, a bottle cap as a circle stamp, and a vintage doily! It belonged to my grandmother, who was an avid crafter herself.

Hope you like it!

My First Paper Layout...

...in several years. I used to do traditional scrapbooking back in 2004-2007 or so. I made a whole wedding album, scrapped several friends' weddings, my (at the time) baby niece and some trips that we went on. Then, I discovered the world of digital scrapbooking. At that time in my life, it was perfect for at least two reasons:

 A) It was cheap. My whole first year of digiscrapping, I spent a total of $15.  Being poor grad students meant that we had to pinch pennies. To this day, I still use GIMP because I was too cheap to shell out money for Elements.

B) We had absolutely no extra room in our apartment for anything. Our apartment was tiny, about 450sqft, and we had no room to store stuff or to set up a craft area.


Well, fast forward about 5 years, to now, and my husband and I both have jobs and we can afford craft supplies. We just bought a nice size house and I have a whole craft room!

So, I figure it is time to get back to my roots! I still love digiscrap, but it was definitely fun to get back to making a paper layout.

However, my style has certainly changed since 2005! Here are some paper layouts from back then I was pretty proud of:

Now, I think these layouts are fine, but looking at them now, they just look so empty! When it comes to my digiscrap style now, I am definitely not a clean-and-simple type. And with art journaling / mixed media, I have gotten used to piling on the layers.

So, here is a look at my first paper layout in 5 years:

This is a scraplift of a layout from amusing-to-create.
Supplies of note: Heidi Swapp color shine (silver/grey) and SEI Tumble dye (pink and yellow), "remember" banner from Pink Paislee, washi tape by Smash/K&Co and also some by Queen and Co. Most everything else was from my stash of random stuff, so I'm not sure who the manufacturers are.

Thanks for looking!

Play Date Cafe Challenge #156

Well, the beginning of this week certainly was eventful! We lost power sometime Monday night and I had to get ready for work in the dark Tuesday morning. With the way people were talking, it sounded like we wouldn't have power back for awhile, but by the time I got home from work, power had been restored, yay!

Unfortunately, many of my family members weren't so lucky, and they are still without power. But, I suppose it could be worse...at least they didn't get any flooding or permanent damage (except to their frozen food :/ )

Anyways, the color story this week is all about neutrals and fall colors!

I decided to make a tag:

 

I really struggle sometimes with tags but I absolutely love how this one turned out. It looks like I am getting better at making them!

Our sponsor this week is DRS Designs. They have a really wide range of rubber stamps! They were quite generous and sent me the the interlocking circles background and  butterfly stamp I used in my project! I will definitely be using these again!

Other supplies: DCWV paper, book paper, corrugated cardboard, punchinella, acrylic paint, ribbon, yarn, die cut flower by Sizzix, and the words are cut out from a book. The little date tag is from Tim Holtz. The white flower is from Paper Bliss.

Thanks for looking! As always, for challenge and prize information, visit The Play Date Cafe. We can't wait to see your creations!