Crunch - the Color Room 73

I am a little upset that I got the shade of brownish orange wrong in this palette, but hopefully the rest of the project makes up for my one off-color! 

I was cleaning out my stash a couple of weekends ago when I came upon this 2008 Dill Blossom collection by SEI, and do I love it as much as the day I first laid my eyes on these papers!  So I set out with the mission to use them for this palette.  Following Lydell's adorable sketch, I used a couple of Maya Road album chipboard pieces for my photos.  I have more of these chipboards left so I imagine I will use this technique again in the future.  After all, I have a lot more apple picking photos left :) 

As I type this, I think to myself, gosh, it's always the same ol' boring things I scrap! lol. Strawberry picking, apple picking, blueberry picking... this vegetable, that vegetable, garden this, yard work that, kid A doing this, kid B doing that, lol.  When will I ever get to scrap a trip to Egypt?!  lol :)  I can dream a little right? :)

How cute is this little My Favorite Thing gal? I do love her! :)

Tonight we meet First Born's teacher for the year. I feel nervous.  She's super excited and can't wait for school to start!  I hope she will always feel this enthusiastic about school and its related activities.  Me, I'm just worried about raising an academically accomplished child who can get a college scholarship :)  That's why I feel nervous.

Swing Low

The weekend is over and it was a busy one. I took the kids to the Minnesota State Fair on Saturday.  The crowd there could have easily put Nanjing Road in downtown Shanghai to shame.  We ate some really expensive and bad-for-you food.  The kids enjoyed a couple of rides.  We headed home after four and half hours because I developed a raging headache!  I know I should be ashamed of myself!  What is a couple of hundred thousand people to a Chinese?  I should be used to millions at a time, right? lol.

The new kits at the Sweet Peach Crop Shops are up and I have yet to post my last creation with last month's kit! This is a take on a sketch by Keri for Sweet Peach using the August Juicy kit.  This was actually the first layout I did using the kits and I adore the tags from Elle's Studio and those cut-out birds from Studio Calico's paper.  

You can see the sketch and what the rest of the Sweet Peach Crop Shop design team members have done with the sketch right here.

Well, this wraps up a short post and here's to hoping that many z's find me soon :)  Good night!

It Is "Time to..."

The latest Front Porch Kits is live and you can order it here! 

How cute is this graphic?  There are so many pretty colors in the kit and uber adorable embellishments! 

I am a little excited to share this layout because I personally like it a lot!  As for strawberry picking this year, we went as far as our own backyard.  It was almost unthinkable but due to crazy weather patterns and even crazier June schedules, we did not make it to a strawberry farm this year as a family!  So this is it for strawberry picking and its associated layouts for 2011: just a few beauties from our modest patches in the yard. These berries came from an "ever bearing" type and here we are at the end of August and they are still fruiting.  Just last night, First Born had five beautifully red ones for snack!  In the photos, Second Child obliged me with holding up the berries and looking adequately cute, lol.

Included in the kit was a set of Pink Paislee mistable chipboard letters. The resist part of these chipboards make them extra fun to use.  I didn't spray the letters, that would waste all kinds of precious mist, lol. I just "painted" the letters with my finger :)  I was too lazy to get out a paint brush!  And check it out, the Unity strawberries make another appearance, so perfect for my topic, eh? :) 

Anyhoo, the kit is up and the gallery should be updated in the next couple of days.  Get yours and enjoy!

Before I go, check out this utterly hilarious but useful Photoshop Tutorial in Rap, lol! Quite funny stuff :)

A Rant, a Layout, and an Undertaking...

Only the second year of "back to school" shopping, and I'm already fed up with it.  My local Target, store 0001 (yep, where it all began), is a popular one and sells out of everything!  I am not sure why a Second Grader needs 48 pencils and why they must be purchased up front all at once, especially considering they are not going into a community pile...  Who knew pencils would be such a hot commodity to sell out at a Target?!  L O L !

Back to the regularly scheduled programming...  Here is another layout I did as a guest designer for A Walk Down Memory Lane.  It is an LSS serving the Northwest Iowa, southwest Minnesota, and southeast South Dakota area, but of course everything you can find in the physical store is also available online.

It's so rare to get a photo of the two of us together, and it's extra awesome that we were all dressed up for the wedding.  We had to look decent as the parents of the Flower Girls! lol.  Anyway, I experimented a little with the background of this layout.  I used a Crafter's Workshop template: numbers collage and misted a cardstock with Studio Calico Mr. Huey. The result looked more interesting than a plain cardstock background, so I will give this a try again another time!  For that matter, I think I will be using the same photographs in the future as well.  Reuse is good right? :)

This past weekend I began a major project to clean and organize my scrapbook room.  A friend of mine came over to help me by taking all the stuff I have decided to shed home with her.  I told DH that I would like to reduce my stash.  He said, "It's like subtracting from infinity..."  So far he is right... 

Give Me This Day My Daily Naan

It was six months ago when I got an email from Kim Jackson asking me to create a layout for an upcoming column in Creating Keepsakes.  My assignment was to use the Daily Junque collection from Pink Paislee and create a double-page layout of my choosing.  After the initial Sally Field "You like me" moment, I went to work on this layout. 

That was my first ever request and it took five iterations to get the layout looking publication-ready :)  I have since learned to assemble the layout using as little adhesives as possible so I can move the pieces around easily should a change be needed.  There are moments of hilarity as I crouch over a layout on the deck arranging chipboard pieces and whatnots right before I take the photo. Several frantic searches for missing pieces took place because of this practice too! 

Now about this layout and these photos... I actually suck at taking food photographs because I want to eat the food much more badly than I want to take their pictures!  The eating wins out 90% of the time and the other 10% of the time the photos are just so cursory and perfunctory anyway.  However, this was a Tandoori bar on the cruise. I had a lot of time after I had completely stuffed my face and inhaled 5000 calories to go back and leisurely select my shots.  So there I have it, a layout to go into my cruise album commemorating every lunch I had on deck :)

As seen in September 2011 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. Copyright Creative Crafts Group. Posted with prior permission from the publisher.

With the photos I took on the cruise, I know I can use them to document my affinity for Naan bread and Indian food in general.  This layout is using the Sweet Peach Crop Shop's August Sweet kit.  Now I really feel hungry!  I will talk about the drops of Shimmerz mist another day, there's a story behind these droplets :)

Onto other important and exciting news! A brand new kit from the Front Porch Kits is available for pre-order starting today!  Check out the sneak peak on the left!  Do you see Daily Junque? :) There is a  slight technical delay, so the website will not be ready to accept pre-orders until tomorrow but if you would like to pre-order a kit today. Contact the Little Blue House at (817) 431-7930 and they will be happy to take your order over the phone.

As for me, I look forward to sharing the projects I have created with this Front Porch kit :)

The Missing

This is the summer of the missing teeth.  First Born was so enthusiastic about having her photos taken with the huge wide gap.  It's becoming very clear to her that all photos are taken for the sake of scrapping and she is more than happy to contribute to this cottage industry of mine. She even suggested the title for my scrapbook page: "The Toothless Wonder."  I didn't feel like pointing out that other than missing the front two, she was neither a wonder nor toothless, lol.

I used the Sweet Peach Crop Shop's August Sweet kit for this layout and all Sassafras papers.  I will continue to rave about this kit's unique color palette and how effortless it was for me to use both the sweet and the juicy kits! Sassafras' Sunshine Broadcast line has several patterns with a well defined grungey border. I took full advantage of this by layering another sheet of Sassafras paper of my choosing onto the border.  It creates a terrific outline and I like that look very much!

For the butterfly on this layout, I first painted the chipboard with gesso and then layered it with a coat of Shimmerz Pearlz.  The butterfly turned out to be a shimmering beauty! I always thought that art medium such as gesso is just way too much for a scrapper (non-artist) like me, but after reading one of Jessy's blog entries, I picked up a jar at Archiver's.  I don't plan to do anything crazy with this stuff other than painting here and there, but it is definitely nice to use as a primer!  I have an idea.  We'll see if it works out... fingers crossed...

A Walk Down Memory Lane

This month I am doing guest designing work for A Walk Down Memory Lane.  It is an LSS serving the Northwest Iowa, southwest Minnesota, and southeast South Dakota area, but of course everything you can find in the physical store is also available online.

I met Lisa, the owner of AWDML on a shuttle on our way to the LAX airport after CHA winter this year.  We were on the same flight back to the Twin Cities so we shared a meal together.  We talked about the show and the new products coming out and also worried about the weather that could have prevented us from flying home.  I am delighted to have this opportunity to showcase some products in her store!  Oh goodness, does she have a full store!

The featured manufacturers this month are Little Yellow Bicycle and Unity Stamp, which means their products in the store are 25% off!  I totally missed LYB's Travel's collection when it came out so I was very excited to get my hands on these glorious papers! I think they are the perfect mood for my photos of alpine strawberries, a new addition to DH's gardening repertoire this year.

Here is my attempt at coloring a stamped image.  I stamped it once to try out different colors and once I decided on the colors I colored in my strawberries.  It turned out mostly okay :)

Here is a close-up shot of the Unity strawberries stamped and colored and a little Maya Road watering can misted with Mr. Huey Apple Jack by Studio Calico.  

Here is a list of supplies I used to create my layout that you can find in the store:

LYB Round About
LYB Navy Wide Stripe
LYB Green hexagon
LYB Small Compass Rose
Maya Road Kraft Envelopes
Maya Road Chipboard Set Green Thumb
Copic Markers

Studio Calico Mr. Huey Apple Jack

One last thing, these berries are indeed extremely fragrant. There really not much to eat but they are very tasty!  Have a great weekend!!

On Vacation, Showing Vacation Pages

Today I am sharing two layouts using the sold-out WIP August kits. This month I got to play with the add-on kit which featured Echo Park's splash collection.  This collection is vibrant, fresh and perfect for summer and water themed projects. 

One of the staples in WIP kits are tickets, tags, baker's twine and other fun hand-made items from Trish.  I started this layout really wanting to use these items together.  Not that you need a ticket to dine anywhere on the cruise, but I liked the theme.  I was going to title the layout "Ticket to Dine" or something to that effect until I settled on the present title :)  Check out those GIANT hotdogs in front of my kids.  Is it me or that thing is almost as big as Second Child's face?!  lol.  Is that little crab totally adorable?  It came just as it is in the kit, love it!


It feels good to finally scrap these photos, sitting in an album since 2006!  We were on the Big Island and on our way to a snorkeling site.  These dolphins came up to swim next to us to take advantage of the current generated by the boat. Yes!  These are dolphins in the wild, how lucky were we to see them swimming with our boat, and how lucky was I to get them on camera!

As I prepare this blog post, I feel incredibly lucky, to have traveled and experienced so much.  My DH can testify how I am never satisfied with the amount of travel we do, but I do know I am blessed in so many ways.  Today, we celebrate thirteen years of marriage, visiting hallmarks in downtown Philadelphia, with kids in tow. Blessed indeed :)

Braidy Girl

Before I get to the palette and the layout, let me say that we had a wonderful time at our dear friend's wedding.  The girls did very well as flower girls in all their duties and through all the waiting.  I must say, it was kinda glorious being the mother of the flower girls :)  I could totally do that again! LOL.

This week at the Color Room, we have an incredibly beautiful and refreshing palette! I just drool all over the inspiration photo! I would love to move into this lovely room! 

Not only are the colors so beautifully put together, I also love this unique sketch by Lydell! I don't often cut photos into circles but this sketch is worthy of an attempt :)  I reached into my stash and used up a sheet of Fancy Pants Design paper that looks like watercoloring.  I also used an assortment of embellishments that matched the palette. This is my attempt at being whimsical, albeit a feeble one, lol. But the colors make me happy so I will call this a success :)

Thank you so much for visiting here!  Be sure to stop by the Color Room and try this palette!  Meanwhile, I'm sure we are having a grand time visiting new places and treasured friends. ;)