Hunkering Down

It's been rough in the Chicago area this winter in case if you haven't seen the news lately.  This has left me more time to scrapbook which has been nice but I'm definitely going stir crazy now. 

I decided to try and endear myself to the winter a bit more by scrappy a fond chilly memory but the jury is still out on how much it actually helped.

These photos were taken at a winter ale fest which I figured would be a perfect occasion to use some of these chipboard phrases I had hidden away in my stash.

I'm trying to get more comfortable with pattern mixing and pulling together papers that don't match "perfectly".  This page helped me expand on that idea and I really feel more comfortable with the concept.

Identifiable Elements:

• Chipboard words- Layered Chipboard from the Merry January collection by We R Memory Keepers
• Silver swirls- Adhesive Borders by K & Company

Skittles

I'm still trying to make it through my stash and luckily I'm getting some pretty nice pages out of it.  I had a lot of random photos of this little pooch that my friend had in college named Skittles so I decided to make and entire page dedicated to her.

I didn't have any pictures of the two of us printed but she liked me more than most people because I brought her empty water bottles to play with.  I'm not above bribing a dog for their love.

I'm glad that I got  to use this background paper because I've always really liked it.  It didn't occur to me that I could use these flowers with it until I accidentally set them down next to each other when I was digging through my stash.  Fate was at work that day!

Identifiable Elements:

• Background paper- "Enchanting Garden" from the Simple Pleasures Collection by Three Bugs In A Rug
• Flowers- Textured Elements by Petaloo

Down With The Thickness

This was an attempt for me to use the massive silver flowers on this page.  I ordered these online and they did not look as huge and dimensional as they actually are.  They are about an inch thick and I thought I would never actually use them.

I'm very surprised that I was able to make them work with the page aesthetically and equally surprised that I was able to physically secure them to the paper.  

I'd like to say that I've learned my lesson about blindly purchasing things online but I know in my heart that I haven't.

Hopefully next time I won't end up with such a surprise but at least this one made for a decent page!

Identifiable Elements:

• Background paper- "Push Me Pull You" by Studio Calico
• Brown dots- Enamel Dots by We R Memory Keepers
• Silver flowers- Sunrise Sunset Collection by Prima Flowers
• Background swirls- Adhesive Borders by K & Company
• Sequins- Mixed Sequins by Advantus Corp.

BFFFL

It's been awhile since I've had the time to sit down and do some scrapping but I went ahead and made this page.  I had totally forgotten that I had bought the glittery quote stickers.  Usually I don't like quote stickers but I remember realizing that these were ones I could actually use and I'm glad I got them!

I love the way the page turned out and I'm glad I got to add a little more sparkly to my life in the process.

I'm thinking I might have to reorganize some of my scrapbooks by year since I've been trying to put them on as many pages as possible but that's a project for another day, I believe.

Identifiable Elements:

• Flowers- Burlap Daisies from the Forever in Time collection by Paper Craft Collection
• Gray dots- Enamel Dots by We R Memory Keepers
• Sequins- Mixed Sequins by Advantus Corp
• Thickers- Alpha Chips by Me & My Big Ideas

Out With the Old

I have decided to challenge myself to do some real work clearing out my old stash this month.  I'm looking to potentially relocate to another state and quite frankly, the ammount of craft items I'd have to haul with me is intimidating.  To do this I'm going to be doing double time 4 days a week.  Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays I will be featuring 2 Fast Cards and Wednesdays will have 2 Hoarder's Hump Day pages.  Each of these days I will try and use as many of the same elements for both projects to try and cull the herd.

I would say "new year, new me" but 1. I've always disliked that phrase and 2. I don't have any delusions that this purging of the stash will become a real habit.

Today's cards aren't as closely related as I hope to make moving forward but they were made from the same background card stock and both are birthday cards.  

Since I'm mostly purging my collection I won't have many elements that I can identify.  This is all about finally getting rid of the excess (and hopefully not purchasing much more).

Identifiable Elements:

• Green flowers - Burlap Daisies from the "Forever in Time Paper Craft Collection" by MultiCraft Imports Inc.
• Floral background paper - "I Love My Family" by Echo Park Paper Co.
• Blue washi tape - "Summer Party" collection by Echo Park Paper Co.

Warming Up to Yellow

As I've mentioned multiple times on this blog, yellow is my least favorite color by far.  That being said, I think this page might be slowly changing my mind.  I'm still trying to cut back on the massive amount of scrapbooking stash I have and decided to go a little crazy with the yellow flowers on this page.  I really like the way that they ended up looking.

I think being able to bring some black into play (which is one of my favorite colors) helped me tone down the yellow and endear me to it more.  I think it also gives the page a bit more dimension than it usually would have had.

Identifiable elements:

• Flowers- Textured Elements by Petaloo
• Cameras- Rub-Ons by Hambly Screen Prints

Hiatus is Over

I really didn't mean to get as far behind with this blog as I have but I suppose that's just life.  I'm back (hopefully for good this time) and I made this page in celebration.

This page was really fun for me to make and I really like how it turned out.  I had fun using papers I love and getting to use some of my stash at the same time.  For awhile I had felt fairly uninspired but after my unintentional break I got some of my mojo back.  Plus, with it being as dreary out as it is this time of year, the bright colors really cheered me up.

Identifiable Elements:

• Background paper- "Mayfield" by Studio Calico
• Letters- Alphachips by Me & My Big Ideas