making the most of bad photos

Sometimes I take photos at an event and when I get home there's not a single shot that I would be proud to show someone. It happens. Therefore, I deal with it (but I don't have to like it!)

When the Dallas Mavericks had their training camp at UNT, staff and students were able to attend and bring a guest. Keith and I took lots of photos, but a combination of a dim coliseum, fast action, and people who kept sticking their stupid camera phones in the way (but I'm not bitter) resulted in a stack of disappointing photos. The overall experience was neat, though, so I decided to make a layout with a collage of photos. I feel like this focuses on the photos as a whole and not on any one particular (stinky) photo. And as much as the photos are busy and cluttered, the clean and streamlined layout design makes me totally happy with the final result. That, my friends, is considered a victory.

Bazzill Basics cardstock; KI Memories die cut paper; American Crafts foam letter stickers; Delicious font

No Waste Wednesday: reusing the rejects

If you're like me, then sometimes when you're working on a project you have an element cut out and ready to go, but then it just doesn't work. Wrong color. Wrong size. Sometimes you don't even know why, but you know you're not happy with it. Instead of recycling the rejected piece, challenge yourself to put it to good use on a card!

The blue frame on this card was originally created for a journaling block on a layout. I ended up doing something else on the layout, but instead of tossing the frame, I used it as the perfect starting point for a card. All the other supplies are also ones I had sitting out after finishing my layout, so the card came together very quickly.

Bazzill Basics cardstock; American Crafts patterned paper (brown) and felt flower; Rhonna Farrer for Autumn Leaves patterned paper (pink); Prima paper flower; Making Memories brad; Glue Dots International vellum adhesive; vellum; MigraineSerif font

Interested in seeing the layout the blue frame was originally supposed to go on?

I had planned for the cardstock frame to go around the journaling (see how it was going to complete the visual triangle with the blue title and blue felt flower?). However, once I actually cut it out and laid it on the layout, I felt that it was too visually weighty and threw off the design of the layout. I still wanted to repeat some blue there for design purposes, and I already had my journaling printed on vellum, so I used a blue Prismacolor pencil and drew a border around the journaling. Perfect!

I'm gonna be in CK!

I'm super excited because I received an email from Creating Keepsakes Magazine letting me know that they want to publish one of my layouts in their February 2010 issue. It's been a little while since I've had something picked up for publication, so I the encouragement comes at a great time. Now I NEED to scrapbook more so that I have more work to submit!

loopy

A quick simple card. By now you would think I'd be used to the fact that I'll over analyze even simple things. It's who I am, so I'm just going to embrace it!

Bazzill Basics cardstock; K&Co. patterned paper; Recollections tiny brads; Papertrey Ink Mega Mixed Messages stamp; Ranger stamping ink; Martha Stewart loop border punch

fairy godmother

I started this page during last week's Super Secret Crafting Club and finished it on Saturday, but I had to excavate my scanner before I could post it. In fact, I had to take a few days off of crafting just to get some important things done around here. You know...laundry, cleaning the house, cooking dinner. Things I forget about when I'm in a creative groove.

We call our Cinderella Project volunteers fairy godmothers, so when scrapbooking photos of my boss and I in CP dresses, it felt a little like I was scrapping a Disney page. I mean, Belle yellow and Sleeping Beauty pink just begged to be paired with Cinderella blue, don't you think? Add in some sparkle and it's even more fitting. The white strips on the page have glitter polka dots on them, and the scrolly patterned paper is a subtle metallic silver. The fairy "sprinkles" are pink and yellow gemstone brads and some clear smooth adhesive gemstones. I love the letter stickers and how they connect to form a seamless script word.

KI Memories patterned paper (blue dot); American Crafts patterned paper (silver and white scroll) and puffy letter stickers; K&Co. glitter paper; Making Memories rhinestone brads; Hero Arts smooth gemstones; Fontin font; vellum; Glue Dots vellum adhesive

custom background

First, I wanted to let everyone know that my CT scan came back normal, which is great. However, since I'm still feeling pressure and pain I'm going back to the doctor for another appointment this week. I have no idea what she has in mind, but we'll see!

To make the background design for this card I repeated a foam stamp on a diagonal across the card, flipping it 180 degrees in some places. I used Versamark ink and then embossed it with gold embossing powder. The sentiment is embossed in black on gold cardstock. I like the somewhat ethnic feel of the background pattern with the mix of gold and bright pink. The foam stamp is a cool image, but it reminded me of how much I love clear stamps and how easy they are to perfectly arrange!

Bazzill Basics cardstock; Making Memories foam stamp; Papertrey Ink stamp--Damask Designs; Stampendous! embossing powder; QuicKutz label die

Australian inspired card

Nichole's last challenge was based on Australian-style art and was to incorporate dotted outlines or masking into a project.

I created a card using masking. I cut circles out of a piece of thin paper and then used the negative image as a mask while I stamped a damask pattern on the card. Since this is a simple single-layer card, I added some interest by cutting out a large circle and then stamping the full damask image on the inside of the card. When the card is closed it looks like the image inside the large circle has been masked off, too.

Papertrey Ink cardstock and stamps--Damask Designs; Ranger stamping ink; vintage seam binding tape