Double Inspiration for Double Trouble.

I quite fancy this layout of mine. Maybe it's the subject matter, maybe it's all the wonderful product, maybe I'm just so happy I got this picture and captured this story. Then again, maybe it's all three!

Ok, a little info about the product first. I love, love, love Bo Bunny's Double Dot line! This is the second or third layout where I've used it as the background paper. The colours are yummy and the patterns are perfectly neutral (or maybe it's more understated and distressed) for backgrounds, matting or diecutting/paper piecing.
Then there's My Mind's Eye Stella and Rose. I've been drooling over this line for a while and finally broke down on my last shopping trip and grabbed my favourites, two of which I used on this layout.
And the matte for my title? That's from the Simple Stories line, which just started showing up at my LSS's and I'm assuming is a new company. This matte was from a sheet of flash cards. So far, I'm really liking their stuff!
Now, you can see Double Trouble in the picture; that would be Scott and Cole. But the double inspiration I'll have to explain a little. See, this layout has inspiration from two different sources. First off, I used this Pagemaps sketch from waaaaayyyy back in November of 2009 to get started:

I've used my sketch book a bit more lately, as I've been having troubles getting started on some recent layouts. My Pagemaps archives have been particularily helpful!

The second bit of inspiration would be in the title. Last month, Lora did a blog post on using her Dymo label maker and mine has been on my mind ever since. This just seemed like the perfect place to add a little Dymo magic!

Oh, and something that is just all me: "finger painted" inking in the background of the title block.

Supplies I Can Recall: Paper - BoBunny, My Mind's Eye, American Crafts, Simple Stories. Stamps - BoBunny and unknown stars. Twine and Paperclip - Making Memories. Button - Basic Grey. Ink - Ranger/Tim Holtz Distress inks. Fonts - Cricut and Dymo. Ricrac ribbon - superdooper thrift store find.

Practice

This is Kelsey's first season of softball. Scott is very excited about this. He loves that the kids have both taken an interest in one of his passions, something he can teach them a thing or two about. I snapped these pics while watching them from the porch.
Admittedly, baseball isn't one of my passions, but that didn't stop me from having fun creating this layout! I put some scrap cardstock through a crimper, grazed it over my Versamark pad and embossed it for a rough, corrugated cardboard look and then tore along the edges. The title is chipboard letters that I inked.

The scrap paper I used while inking the letters ended up looking really cool, so I just had to use it for a journaling block!

Products I Can Recall: Patterned paper: Echo Park. Cardstock: American Crafts. Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Barn Door. Chipboard letters: Making Memories. Embossing powder: Zing.

Coach Dad

So, in my last post, I shared the troubles I was having with my spending freeze and the decision I made to lift it. On Thursday, I made the trip out to one of my favourite LSS's with a list of layouts I needed supplies for, including the one of Scott's year as Cole's assistant ball coach. I'm very happy with the results: All the paper, except for the navy cardstock, is new Bo Bunny. The journaling tag is from a Jenny Bowlin set I found in the sale bin. The Thickers were already in my stash.

It feels really good to have finally completed this page with results I'm so happy with.

The Challenge....Revisited.

It was 17 days ago. That's when I posted about my scrappy spending freeze challenge. Friday night I sat in my studio, feeling quite defeated. I wanted to scrap. I was out of new pics. So, I decided to tackle the layout of Scott's year as Cole's assistant ball coach, that Scott has not-so-patiently been waiting for.

There's still a ton of cardstock and patterned paper. Not one scrap of it would work. It was either the wrong colour, wrong pattern or wrong dimension. None of my inks, paints or mists could sufficiently alter any of it. Every idea I came up with to "make it work" just did not make me happy. They all felt like too much of a compromise.

I later shared my disappointing news with Scott. He simply told me, "I guess we'll have to get you out for some scrapbook shopping this week."

Huh? "But I'm on a spending freeze." I argued. "I feel bad. There's still so much stuff up there!"

"You told me you weren't going to buy any more until you'd used up what you could of what you had. Obviously, you've used up what you can."

Normally, I would have argued this point further. But truth be told, he was right in this instance and the only thought I had was how I really needed to learn to think more like a guy sometimes.

"Well," I thought outloud, "maybe I've got so much stuff because I need to do a better job purging out the old stuff I'll never use."

Silence. That's code for "You got it!" Ok, sometimes it's code for, "I'm giving up on this because you're going to argue no matter what I say" but this time I'm pretty sure it was the first option.

So, does this mean failure? I'm not sure. I spent 17 days without even feeling the need to purchase any scrappy items and in that same time created roughly 5 layouts (I never thought to keep count). That's pretty good. And there's still future layouts I could easily make with the supplies I have on hand. The stuff I want to keep. That's good too.

But baseball layouts? No. And with both kids playing ball this year, I will at least need more paper to work with.

I'm not saying I've given up completely on my challenge. It just needs a bit of a reassessment. My studio needs a serious purge. I need to be making mindful purchases, such as individual sheets of patterned paper I love, over kits that I will tire of before they're used up. I also need to cut myself a little slack when the deal of the day sites all get it right at the same time and allow me to stock up on the basics for cheap.

So I'm going to stop calling it a spending freeze. Instead, I'll call it mindful spending and it will no longer be a timed challenge, but an ongoing effort. Anyways, being consistently diligent in my spending and using up of scrapbooking supplies will get me a lot further in the long run than short spurts of freezing my spending.
In theory, anyways!

Do Less. Do It Better.

Saturday was a very productive and enjoyable day for me. It was beautiful outside and I'd heard reports of rain on Sunday, so I got to some yard work I'd been itching to do for a while. Because it was so nice out, I decided to take breaks between my chores on our beautiful new patio furniture, under the shade of the gazebo. This whole work/play rotation brought a balance to my day that I haven't felt in a long, long time. I couldn't put it into words, but it just felt good!

During one of these breaks, I brought out my laptop. While reading an article on Paperclipping I happened on this link recommended by Noell. Now, normally I'd steer clear of any blog named The Happiest Mom (I have this fear and high suspicion of anything that even remotely hints at some June Cleaver-esque euphoria), but the title caught my attention. And there it was; the exact words to what had made my day so perfect. Do fewer things. Do things better. Well smack my head and hand me a V8, why, oh why couldn't I put something as simple as that into words?

And just like that, the ideas started brewing for a layout. Here's the journaling:

On a sunny, warm Saturday, I took advantage of the weather and my family being busy. I did dog duty in the backyard. I raked the front garden. I did some dishes and some extra loads of laundry. I took care of what needed to be done. And that was enough.

When that was all done I again took advantage of the weather and my family being busy. I set up the patio furniture cushions. I made more coffee. I read the paper, surfed the net and snuggled with Lilah on the patio. And that was alright.

Admission: this picture was not taken on the date shown on this layout. It was taken a week or two before, just after we set up the furniture. Lilah came and jumped up to test out it's comfiness with me so I got Kelsey to snap the shot. However, it was perfect for this layout.






And see that flower? You don't know how long it's taken me to figure those darn things out! All this time I was trying to glue the ends together completely wrong!

Other tidbits: I Glimmer Misted the Thickers, which started out leaf green. All of the paper is a combination of Basic Grey's Ambrosia and My Mind Eye's Meadowlark collections, including the diamond which is actually a MME die-cut frame.

A New Challenge Begins.

Lately, I've been having some fun (maybe too much fun) shopping for scrappy supplies, both online and in store. After making two daily deal site purchases on the same day, I decided that enough is enough. It's time to use up these supplies, both old and new before accumulating any more.
So now, I've taken on a personal challenge to freeze my scrappy spending and use up my stash. I haven't decided on a timeline yet, but I do have a few simple rules. I can still purchase adhesives and develop photos. All other supplies are off limits. Ok, that's really only one rule; but it's still simple. And simple is good!
So here is my first layout created since on this challenge. The picture is from December and is a favourite of mine that I've been wanting to scrap since I had it developed of Scott, Lilah and Kelsey snuggling together:
This layout uses paper from the Basic Grey Ambrosia kit I bought recently at a store yard sale. I believe the ribbon is also Basic Grey. They're scrap pieces. The rub-on title (that wouldn't rub on, so instead was glued on) is from an old Fancy Pants set.

The flowers were hand-cut, rolled up, glued, Glimmer Misted, squished and then attached with brads (also Basic Grey). The decorative border (Martha Stewart) was punched, and then I adhered the negative edge to the other side. The only paper wasted from this border was the tiny flower details.

The glued-on title that would not rub on.

Finished off with simple journaling.

What is great about this challenge, it's not just about saving money. It's about finding creative ways to make my supplies on-hand work for whatever project I'm doing. And to be perfectly honest, I've got plenty of stuff to keep me going for a looooong time.

Wish me luck!

MME, revisited.

Ok, so a few posts ago, I showed two different looks on two different layouts from one manufacturer, My Mind's Eye. Well, this time, I'm going to show you Be Loved and Meadowlark being used together on the same layout.

Our cat Spooky, like many cats loves to climb into boxes and bags. I snapped these pics of him getting caught in the handles of a cloth shopping bag and thought these two product lines worked well together for this subject. The patterned paper and the red border diecut are all from Be Loved. The polka dot rub-on border and two journaling/title tags are Meadowlark. The silliness is all Spooky!