This challenge for Mosaic Moments was to show the things that make me smile. There are so many things that make me smile, it was hard to pick … so I opted for the biggest and most important things …
And, yes, that is one of my new baby turkeys. Isn’t he/she cute?!
Storage is an important topic when dealing with paper-crafting supplies.
For me, it is usually the frustration of not being able to find something that leads to a storage solution. Take yesterday, for example, I was looking for Globecraft & Piccolo Real Rust Embossing Powder (one of my favorite colors). I keep them all in an Art Bin “tackle box” storage container so I can transport them easily for classes. The problem comes when I need a certain color and all I can see is a sea of black-lidded jars.
After pulling out about six bottles, my frustration reached the point of no return and I decided I was going to label the jars right then and there. I shoved my project aside, pulled out all of the jars and grabbed some white cardstock and a 1″ punch.
I punched out a bunch of circles, wrote the color name on top and then stuck them through my Xyron machine.
I stuck the labels to the top of the jars and now I can find what I am looking for quickly and easily!
Ah, peace …
This, by the way, is the project I was working on
Click here for a better look and directions on how to make it!
The recent challenge for Mosaic Moments was to create a page that was inspired by the pop culture of the 1970s. Here’s the page I created …
Discover the images that inspired me and see how I created the page by clicking here …
The challenge for the Mosaic Moments Design Team was to pick an artist and then use that person’s art as an inspiration for a mosaic page.
I chose Audubon and this is my design …
Click on the image for a closer look. Then, click over to Journella to see how I created this page.
It is easy to feel intimidated when looking at another person’s creations.
Some pages are so beautifully layered, I cannot imagine ever doing something so fantastic. When I see something like that, I have to remind myself that is a special page and not all layouts can be like that. Many are designed to inspire or sell products, not necessarily to preserve memories.
Sure, I like to create beautiful art, too, but I have neither the time, nor the funds, to make every page outstanding. I have too many stories to tell and I take too many photos. Besides, simple pages focus on the photos much more than those done in the name of art.
Personally, I would rather see someone adhere their photos to a piece of cardstock and take the time to write the story behind the pictures rather than just frame one photo with tons of embellishments.
So, today I am sharing some of the pages I did last week during my scrapbooking retreat. They are not “artist” pages and wouldn’t be found on display at CHA. But they help me remember those special moments and maybe they will help inspire you to relax and get your memories recorded. (Click on the photos for a larger view).
These are some random pictures of my son while he was in Guam. I used paper, die cuts and a transparency from KaiserCraft. Some of the photos are behind the transparency and some are on top … I love the way they look! The tags talk about how wonderful it is to live in paradise.
These are photos of the chicken tractor my husband designed and built for our chickens. It is designed to be picked up and moved around the yard every week. This way, the chickens always have fresh grass to eat and the yard doesn’t get turned into a sand pit. I was pretty proud of the way he researched and engineered it. It can comfortably accommodate seven chickens. So far, it has worked exactly like he planned!
These are some pictures of my son I “stole” off of Facebook. The quality of the photos isn’t quite what I expect, but they work just fine. This is the first time I have “seen” him working since he joined the Navy, so I was pretty excited to see these pictures. When I went to scrapbook them, I couldn’t find any military paper. I didn’t want to work on plain cardstock, so I used the back of one of the Valentine’s papers from Authentique. I thought it worked perfectly … although it does make me laugh when I flip over the page to lovely pink flowers!
This page commemorates our first time growing vegetables and preserving them for later use. This year, we canned two different kinds of salsa, three different kinds of pickles and two different batches of yellow tomato preserves. I also made sun-dried tomatoes and vegetable broth and froze green peppers, corn, zucchini, yellow squash and eggplant. My mother-in-law also made pickles (her bread-and-butter pickles are so good, I won’t even try to make them), beets and tomatoes. I love looking at all of the food we put up. There is an amazing feeling of pride every time I open that freezer or closet door!
Many of the elements on this page are cut from paper, including the tags I journaled on and the jars along the bottom. This is a great way to embellish pages without spending a lot of money … after all, an extra sheet of paper is about $1; embellishments usually run $4 to $5. I used Pop Dots on the jars to make them stand out. This page uses papers from October Afternoon’s Farm Girl line.
So there you have a few simple pages. Hope you can find some inspiration in here, too!
I spend hours each week watching my chickens. They make me smile and usually they do something silly enough to make me giggle.
So, for the next challenge for the Mosaic Moments Design Team, I created a page showing off my chickens. I added paper from Authentique, a little ribbon and some hearts from Globecraft & Piccolo, colored with 3D Enamel Gels. I love how the page turned out. (click on it to see a bigger image)
Click here to read the details of how I created it and to cheer me on!
I am so excited to be a part of the Mosaic Moments Design Team this year.
I have posted my first post to Journella, an online program created by the same person who created Mosaic Moments. I hope you will click over there to see how I created this page …
You can become a member of Journella, and check out all of the other ideas, by creating an account, or simply logging in with Facebook. It couldn’t be simpler! I hope to see you there and have you cheer me on!
When I saw the new winter line by Bo Bunny, “Powder Mountain,” I fell in love — not an uncommon occurence with Bo Bunny, but this one really touched me. I love the colors … blues and browns … and I love the variety of options available in a single line … snowmen, birds, trees, skiing, snowflakes … all wrapped up in one coordinating package. The pages are a mix of all-over patterns, journaling and title blocks, and ones with border art (like the one above) that require very little embellishing.
So, when it came into my local store, I naturally bought one of each … and two or three or four of some!
Here are a few of the pages I created … the ribbon is from May Arts. The rest are Bo Bunny products.
I still need to add a title and journaling to this one …
On a side note, I apologize for how dark my photos are. One of my lights broke. Hopefully Santa will bring me a new set!
I love going to the zoo and watching the animals. I cannot help but take pictures of nearly all of them. And, while some have multiple photos and can easily be turned into their own individual pages, I also ended up with single photos of many different animals. So, I combined them and came up with this layout:
Here’s a closer look:
I used paper from Bo Bunny; cardstock from American Crafts; my Cricut (to cut out the letters); and some brads from Eyelet Outlet (don’t you love those little hippos!).
Today is just a normal Thursday, but starting next Thursday, there will be some exciting things going on …
I am going to be working with Capture A Memory, an independent scrapbook store in Flint Township, to share a new technique each Thursday. You’ll find samples and links on my page and then you can stop by the store from 2-6 p.m. to try out the techniques for yourself!
We are still working out the final details, but I think it is going to be great. You all know how much I love techniques and this will be an amazing way to learn, share and explore new techniques together.
Until then, I wanted to share another page I created about my chickens (I hope no one is sick of chickens, yet. I really do have chickens on my mind constantly, but I’ll try to move onto other topics of scrapbooking after this one!)
This one is actually about my cat, Misty. Misty is 9. Although she is an indoor cat now, she was originally an outdoor cat and spent several years coming and going as she pleased. This neighborhood is not suitable to that, so we keep her inside now.
Anyhow, when she was an outside, she was a hunter with a special taste for birds. Needless to say, I was so terrified that she would eat my chicks when I brought them home, I actually tied the door to the chickens’ room shut at night to make sure she couldn’t get to them.
Funny thing is, she fell in love with them instantly and has never attempted to do more than smell them. She doesn’t even get that close (especially after one of them pecked her). But, she loves her chickens and spends hours each day watching them and sleeping nearby. During those weeks that the door was tied shut at night, she would wait outside the door as soon as I got up in the morning so she could make sure they were OK.
It really is rather touching to watch her and I wanted to remember her love of the chickens, so I created this page. It uses paper and letter stickers I have had around for years, but I updated it a bit with a few metal pieces from Idea-ology. Just proof that you can still use the old stuff in your craft room!
candy scraps 