Compendium of Curiosities Challenge #6

Hello all! I've been absent lately, I kind of fell off the crafting/blogging wagon for a bit there. Today I came home from work and decided to try and do something for the latest Compendium of Cusiosities Challenge at the Studio L3 blog. This challenge features the techniques of the ever-amazing Tim Holtz, and this week the challenge was to do the technique on page 38 of his awesome book, Compendium of Curiosities 2. So, I made a pretty nice tag (if I do say so myself =P) but it turns out....I was two hours too late to enter the challenge! Oh dear.... =P But I had everything ready so I decided to blog my tag anyway. Here's some photos:

I went a little purple/butterfly crazy. =P I'm really excited about the coloring on the background because I got that awesome purple color by mixing two colors of Claudine Hellmuth's Studio paints: Sky Blue and Dash of Red. I just put a big ol' blob of the blue on my craft sheet and then added the tiniest amount of red and it came out way better than I could have hoped! The flowers are from Prima, and the butterflies are punched from the Distress Core'dinations paper using my Martha Stewart butterfly punches. The lacy edge is cut from the Vintage Lace die and then colored with the Pearl paint dabber. I really just can't get enough of that dabber. =) Oh, I almost forgot! I also covered my butterflies with Rock Candy Distress Stickles, which you can see a little bit of in the close up.

I really had fun making this tag. I got to try a couple new techniques and just had fun with it! Thanks for looking! =)

*~M~* 

LOAD, Day 8

Hello Bloglandians! Another LOAD layout to share with you today. For some reason this one had me stumped for a while. I basically just really wanted to scrap a pretty photo today, but then had a heck of a time figuring out which papers and embellishments to use. I really like how it turned out, it just took sooooooo long to get there. Oh well, we all have those days. =) Here's the pics:

The stamping in the corners was done with Vintage Photo ink and two sets from the My Mind's Eye Follow Your Heart collection. The letters are the new DIY Thickers. I covered them with some Core'dinations cardstock from the Distress collection. This was pretty time consuming because I had to hand cut them, sand the edges, and then add some Stickles for sparkle. Totally worth it, although I wouldn't recommend it for every page! =P

A note about the photo: I took this photo of my fuchsia with my iPhone and then edited it using the Camera + app. I applied the nostalgia filter to it, then just e-mailed it to myself so I could print it from my computer. I didn't have to do any other editing before printing, it was all done in the app. I'm loving working with this app and if you take a lot of pictures with your phone I would highly recommend it!

Thanks for looking!

*~M~*



LOAD, Day 7

Well I'm feelin pretty good today, Blogfriends. I made myself get up early and get my scrapping and blogging done before work so that I didn't fall behind today. One obstacle to keeping up conquered! =) Today I did a quick layout about a funny little story involving one of my cat's toys, which now has it's own theme song. It makes me laugh when I think about it, so I decided I should get this story down in my scrapbook! Here's the layout:

I got the sketch for this layout from Kelly Purkey's Sketchbook class over at Studio Calico. I highly recommend these classes if you like to work from a sketch. It was fun to just grab a bunch of bits and pieces from my embellishment basket and kind of collage them on there. I especially liked sneaking in bits of the spider web tissue tape (Tim's Hobgoblin tape collection). I get so cheesy in my scrapping sometimes.... =P

Thanks for looking!

*~M~*

LOAD, Day 6

Hello, Blog Readers! Another layout for today. I'm feeling pretty good that I've kept up for the first 6 days of LOAD. Tomorrow will be tough because I work late so I won't really have any scrapping time but we'll see what happens. I'm currently working on scanning/editing/preserving the family photos from my childhood so I'm also scrapping them as inspiration strikes. This is the reason for all the childhood photos so far. =) Here's one with my brother's first grade photo:



When I was scanning in photos I discovered that my brother had written on the back of some of his school pictures and I thought his handwriting and the way he had preserved his "statistics" was so sweet I had to scan that in too to preserve it. Almost everything on this layout is Jenni Bowlin except for the wooden letters which are Studio Calico. I love those things and should probably buy a couple more packs before they stop making them! I'm not sure if the wooden rulers are actually made by Jenni Bowlin but I got them in one of her kits. Using up more kit stash and breaking into my huge stash of paper...not to mention getting adorable photos and stories scrapped....all reasons I love LOAD right now! =)

Thanks for looking!

*~M~*

LOAD, Day 5

A very lovely Saturday to you all out in Blogland! I'm got in some early scrapping today because I'm about to head out to see the new Avengers movie. I'm so excited! I've been waiting on pins and needles for this movie ever since the Captain America movie was out, which I believe was almost a year ago. Yay for fun action movies! (Especially ones with Robert Downey Jr. =P ) I went away from the LOAD prompt today just because I didn't have an immediate idea for it and I didn't have a lot of time for thinking today. I found this amazing layout on the Two Peas site today amongst their NSD festivities and decided I needed to scraplift it NOW. =) So here is the result:

I used a bunch of goodies from my Studio Calico kits, some Crate Paper patterned paper, brads from Basic Grey's Picadilly collection, and the big 3D butterflies are from the new PB&J collection. Then I sprinkled in some rhinestones and some stamping and it was done!

I hope you're all having a very crafty weekend, and thanks for looking! =)

*~M~*

LOAD, Day 4

Still keeping up with LOAD and feeling pretty good about it. =) For today, I scrapped a funny quote of my brother's from our last game night. I am really enjoying the LOAD prompts because they are getting me to scrap things I wouldn't otherwise have thought of, and this layout is a good example. We will be laughing about this for years in my family but I never would have scrapped it if it weren't for this challenge. Anyway, here's the pics:



I went 8.5x11 today just because I felt the layout would fit better on that size. I used the Sizzix 1&1/2 inch hexagon die for my hexes. They were cut from the Tim Holtz Lost and Found stack as well as some Core'dinations cardstock that had been embossed with the Bingo and Patchwork embossing folders. After everything was done I added a few Idea-ology game spinners and bingo pieces, and one of those little hanger clips just for the heck of it. The twine is Lawn Fawn's new twine. I used this on yesterday's layout too....it's so versatile! Before I know it I'll have to buy another roll. =P Oh, and this fantastic sketch is on the Studio Calico blog this weekend, as part of their National Scrapbooking Day challenges.

Speaking of NSD, I hope everyone has a great one, and gets some time to craft! I will be going to see the new Avengers movie in the afternoon (so excited!!) but hopefully I will get some scrapping done in the morning. Happy National Scrapbooking Day, and thanks for looking! =)

*~M~*



LOAD, Day 3

I very gloomy, rainy day to you all! We're supposed to be getting nice weather this weekend, and I can't WAIT. =) Here's my third layout for the month:

Once again I was taking photos without daylight so they're terrible, but I think you can get the gist. =P This is just an adorable photo I have of my brother as a toddler that was too cute not to scrap. I got the inspiration for the design of the layout from this sketch on the Twisted Sketches blog. I also knew I wanted to use those fun yellow Thickers for the title, which was the whole basis for adding the rest of the yellow embellishments. It was fun to add those little pops for color.

Thanks for looking!

*~M~* ....crossing my fingers for sun.....