June Blog Hop with {Practical Scrappers}

Scrappin' Our Stash Blog Hop 

June edition

Hope everyone is having a great day today!  We have a great blog hop for you at Practical Scrappers - the design team is such a creative group!!

Here’s my entry for this month’s blog hop - our son’s marching band’s program this year was entitled “Trilogy” and featured several soloists and grand flags toward the end of the program.  They took #1 in the State at the ABODA State Marching Band Championships.

I really love the chippies from Creative Embellishments - and - joy of joys - I have learned how to work with them (finally!).  I cover each piece with gesso - let it dry and then apply either Mr. Huey’s Mists or stamp ink or even paint from my kids’ craft kits.

This is one of my favorite chip pieces that they carry

the steampunk balloon:

Want to win a bit of scrappy stash of your own?  
I have several CE pieces up for grabs you just need to become a follower and leave a comment.  

One lucky winner will be chosen next week Friday.  

I can only ship to scrappy pals who live in the United States or Canada.

Next stop on the hop is Suzanna 

Have a great day and enjoy the hop!

Return to Sending {Paper Issues}

Practical Scrappers Scrap Your Stash Blog Hop

Click here

Good morning! Here's a layout that I created to share with Paper Issues for their newest challenge - The focus is on travel, vacations and all things round.

As the end of the school-year comes and goes, I always get a bit sentimental.  I cannot believe how fast my kids are growing and each year our school year goes by so quickly.  One week, I'm introducing students to the school - the next week, we are talking about classes for next year!

So, my boy, as you continue to grow and learn - don't forget that there is always a safe haven for you here at home.

Celebrate Good Times - PGCB Turns 2! {blog hop}

Welcome to The Paper Girls Challenge blog hop!

We offer our regular challenges every two weeks on the first and third Mondays of the month.  What do we do in the event there is a fifth Monday in the month?  Why we have a blog hop!

And this is no ordinary blog hop. We Paper Girls just recently celebrated our second anniversary! Happy blogiversary to us!

For our hop today we have created projects that have a Celebration theme and that use either wood veneer or chipboard shapes.

For my part on the hop, I created this very colorful layout of my son's 15th birthday.  Yes - in the Johnson house, we take great care to select a "theme" for birthdays and then go all out.  My son, who is rather creatiave, too,  came up with the balloon banner after looking on Pinterest.

Game time, see if you can spot the items that are used in pairs - to celebrate our Second Birthday at PGCB.

The fabulous store Creative Embellishments is offering a $25 gift certificate to our random winner! Creative Embellishments carries wood veneer shapes, chipboard, and stamps.  They have so many wonderful designs to choose from.  Please give them a big thanks from The Paper Girls over at their blog or facebook page.

And here's the hopping order:

Paper Girls Challenge Blog 

Erica

Charity

Deborah <<you are here

Michele <<next stop

Cathryn

Kristy

You have through Friday, April 4th to enter to win the gift certificate.  Good luck!

Ten Things Team: Brads {Practical Scrappers}

This morning at Practical Scrappers, we share with you several ways to use brads and eyelets.  Probably like most of you, I have so many brads but don't always use them in creative ways so this was a fun challenge.  

I used several different shapes and sizes of brads to create geometrical interest to my layout.  

Materials:  BoBunny paper and brads, Stampin' Up! brads, Creative Embellishments Gears

Pinecone Pizazz {PGCB #48}

Challenge #48 Pinecone Pizzazz

Good morning!  Our challenge at Paper Girls Challenge Blog is to use pinecones somewhere, somehow on your card, layout or other project.  There is quite the variety of projects on our main blog page - so go check them out.  Don't forget, we give away prizes there, too!!!  

For Challenge #48 Pinecone Pizzazz, I created a layout of the kids with these amazingly huge pinecones.  We were tent camping in Idyllwild, CA and went hiking on several different trails.  The kids were amazed at how large these pinecones were - the pinecones are so heavy that they are nick-named "Widow Makers".

Have a scrappy-happy Monday - and don't forget to enter the challenge!

Band - Day and Night {Nuts About Sketches}

Happy Monday Morning!!

This week’s sketch from Nuts About Sketches is a two-pager.  I don’t remember the last time I worked on a two-pager - but this one was truly fun.  The great thing about a two page layout is that you can load up several photos for a beautiful look.

These photos were taken between July, which was the beginning of the marching band season, and November, which was the conclusion of the season.

Here’s the sketch:

Here’s the layout:

Have a scrappy-happy day!

Top 10 ... er... 13! for 2013

Several of my scrappy friends are doing a blog-hop today highlighting their favorite projects from 2013.  Its a great hop you should check it out (click here).  I enjoyed the hop so much, that I decided it was time to look through past layouts and projects and try to pick my top 10 {more like top 13 for 2013!}

And here they are!

1.  Gesso - this was my first application of gesso on a layout and I really loved the simple look.

 2.  This is a card that I just loved and it was one that I entered in a card contest - made it all the way to the top 5.

 3.  This was my first time using corrugated cardboard and the texture it helped to create was fun - really added to the dirt road in the photo.

 4.  I finally - FINALLY - used this Bo-Bunny kit - after three years of hoarding it!  Ijust loved the colors and my niece's photo - this was a gift for her.

 5.  October Afternoon's line was just perfect for a reflection on my son's first day of kindergarden.  I created this during the summer before he started high school.

 6.  Probably one of the cutest layouts of my little cutie!  The colors just made this layout one of my favorites.

 7.  Simple Stories became one of my most loved collections for scrapping - and I tried something new - using ink to draw on my layout.

 8.  I've always loved the papers from Wester's Pages and this is a layout that hangs in my classroom.  I just smile each time I look at it.

 9.  Without a doubt, this layout of the family on vacation was a favorite from the minute I started working on it.  Lots of shapes, patterns, colors and KLD templates.

 10.  After reading a scrapbooking magazine where this technique was featured, I grabbed a photo from many years ago and tried my hand at extending the photo.  Even my kids think someone else did it - Pure LOVE!

 11.  There's not much I can say about this one - other than I loved the photo and the way the layering came together on this layout.  (smooch)

 12.  Another cute layout of my girlie using Simple Stories.

 13.  All things marching band this fall ... we had such a great time with band and we were certainly busy bees with the preparations necessary to get the band on the field each week.

There you have it - a trip down memory lane.  Cannot wait to see what 2014 will have in store for me and my sweet family.

Lens View {Nuts About Sketches #293}

This week is Sketch #293 at Nuts About Sketches.  Time for another sketch and layout!  I've been using up Authentique's Thanksgiving line on summer vacation photos and a few Thanksgiving cards - I really love the colors in this line!  Anyway - The sketch that I used has circles on it and I really felt that photos that my son had taken would work perfectly for this sketch.

Here's the sketch:

Here's the layout:

Materials used:  Authentique's Thankful collection

#NICE {My Boys}

Good morning,

Last night was a night of craftiness for me - little girl is sick - so there's not much that I can do - except sit by her and try to get her to eat some soup.

While sitting with the cutie pie, I created this layout of my boys using a photo from vacation.  We were at The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, CA getting ready to watch the IMAX movie about Monarch Butterflies.  They are such handsome men!

Materials used:  Creative Embellishments, flair from a friend and Authentique's Thankful collection

Trick or Treat {Practical Scrappers October Layout}

This month’s layout sketch is all about Halloween or Fall.  I have wanted to use this cute monster paper from Jillibean Soup Monster Stew - and last year my girlie wanted to make her own costume - a Tutu Monster!  Yahoo!!!!  We bought yards and yards of tulle just so that she could create the best monster tutu ever.  My boy wanted to create a Steampunk costume and he did a fantastic job putting this together.

Here’s the sketch:

Here’s the layout:

Material's used:

Contemplating the Beach {Drill #13: Trendy Triangles}

While on vacation this year, my sweet husband took several photos of the kids as they roamed the beach.  It was a tad chilly when we started our adventure, but then the sun came out and we were amazed at all we could see in Monterey, CA.

I adore photos of the kids when they don’t even know we’re taking photos - my son looks like he’s really contemplating the ocean and its hidden treasures possibly even mapping out his day of discovery.

Using triangles on layouts helps to highlight or point the way to a focal point on your layout and I’ve added a bit of machine stitching to the triangles - I think it gives them an “arrow” look.

Be sure to upload your layouts, cards or other projects to S.W.A.T’s Drill #13 - Trendy Triangles.

Materials:  Simple Stories 24/Seven and Mr. Huey's Mists

Sketch is from:  Me!

Stellar Start S.W.A.T Blog Hop

Welcome to the first S.W.A.T. blog hop!  

Today S.W.A.T is welcoming our new team members and to celebrate we are having a Red, White and Blue Blog Hop and Challenge. What a great way to introduce you to the new team members.  (That’s me inlcuded!!)

Here in the USA its almost the 4th of July so everywhere you look you will find Red, White and Blue, so that’s the challenge we have for you! 

For my project I created a layout.  I went through my stash and pulled the ever adorable October Afternoon paper.  While looking at the paper, I kept thinking about my son and his first day of kindergarten.  He was so excited to be starting a new adventure.  He had wanted to start school when he was two years old and I can still hear him saying, "I go school Mommy.  I ride big bus."  He wanted to go to school with me and ride the bus that would travel through our neighborhood.  Too CUTE!  Well - he finally did get to go to school and his first day of kindergarten was a Stellar Start for him.  He was firmly convinced that every day should be a school day so he could learn and play and learn some more.  That was nine years ago.  This fall, my "little" boy - who towers over me and has a deep voice - will be attending high school (eek!).

Capturing special moments through scrapbooking is part of why I do this crafty "stuff".  I also absolutely love creating something given just a tiny bit of inspiration such as a photo or a sketch or a conversation that I've had with my gal pals.  Here's the layout and I hope that you've enjoyed a little walk down memory lane with me, this morning.  This has been a Stellar Start for me as well!

Remember just use Red, White and Blue - anything goes maybe even a layout about fireworks that go way {HIGH} up in the sky and you have until July 28th 11:59PM EST to link up your project over at S.W.A.T.  As an extra incentive for my blog, I am also giving away a little bit of scrap happiness just be sure to be a follower and comment by Monday, July 1st at 11:59PM EST.

The Rules are:

1.    You MUST be a follower of each S.W.A.T Girl’s blog and leave a comment on each blog and; 

2.    You MUST also be a follower of the S.W.A.T blog.

3.    You must email your quote answer to: swatscrappygirl@gmail by Monday, July 1st at 11:59PM EST

Now hop on over to Doris’ blog to see what she has in store for you!

Here is the lineup in case you get lost!

Alison - http://alisondaydesigns.com

Becci- http://b-handmade.blogspot.com/

Bev -  http://beeceecreativity.blogspot.com/

Claude http://imzadi481.blogspot.ca/

Deborah - http://scrappinthelittlethings.blogspot.com/    <<<<<----you are here!

Doris - http://distressedscrapper.com

Lisa- http://www.snappinandscrappin.blogspot.com/

Michele http://stuffbybelle.blogspot.com

Nicole- http://shezigzags.blogspot.com

Nicolle- http://nicollelovesscrapbooking.blogspot.com/

Venetia http://atomicvenetia.blogspot.com

Lanette  http://stacksofscraps.blogspot.com/

Sea Monster

Happy Crafty Monday!

As I was working on this beach layout for the Paper Girls Challenge Blog - I came across my We R Memory Keepers' Sew Easy supplies - this is the very first layout that I've actually used the Sew Easy for a layout.  I typically pull out the sewing machine ... I think I've just been a bit intimidated by the whole get the paper piercings correct on the page and then the time it takes to hand stitch ... anyway - I really love this look!

 A close up of the stitching ...

 Sketch from Scrapbook.Steals.com - Peridot #6

Materials used:

Echo Park,  We R Memory Keepers