LOAD for May

I am getting ready for what sounds like Scrapbooking Boot Camp. I signed up Layout a Day (LOAD). Basically, you get a daily prompt focusing on a theme for the week and then you scrap a layout. Repeat each day for 31 days and then you have 31 layouts completed. It looks like crazy fun and I am hoping to have the strength to complete this awesome project.

Here come the nerves! I have travel plans for one week this month, so I am getting a homemade kit together to take with me and then I am going to beg my friend for the use of her paper trimmer. Hopefully, I will be able to scrap and tell a lot of the my everyday stories. And it gives me the chance to blog for 31 straight days on my scrapbooking. Look out gang!

Preparation has begun. First, I gathered up supplies and hit the Maple Craft Center for ribbon and flowers. I gathered my paper, cardstock and other embellishments and put them together-ready to go. Then I made sure that I have enough adhesive to last me! Next, I ordered and picked up the photos and organized them by layout plan. Lastly, I made up some casseroles and gathered my take out menus. May should be quite fun!

Get ready, I know that I am!

Punches to the rescue

I have a slight punch obsession. It probably comes from not having a die cutting machine, but I really love my punches. I use my punches constantly! My punches help me use up scraps, make embellishments, create scallops, round corners, etc.

Naturally, I turned to my punches again when I came up with an interesting idea. After the fun Jingle Belles' challenge, I started thinking about other "green" possibilities. What was destined for the trash that could be salvaged for scrapbooking purposes? Hmm, and then I saw it. I had a sheet of Hawaiian Rainforest stamps, that were now stampless. I was getting ready to toss the empty sheet, when I realized its potential. Using my punches, I was able to punch out pretty flowers from the leftover background section of the sheet. And check it out, because it was a stamp set, all the flowers have adhesive already on the back. I have loads of fun flower stickers in rainforest colors!

Jingle Belles and punches saved a useful item from a premature death!

December will be here before we know it

Thanks to Jingle Belles I am back on track! They have a fabulous challenge this week. In honor of Earth day, they are encouraging participants to reuse or repurpose items that would otherwise be thrown out.

This was more fun than I anticipated! First, I started gathering up items that were "trash bound" and reviewed them. I came up with a scrap of fabric, an old tan envelop and a group of clothing tags. Now, most of you know, fabric is not my medium. It makes me nervous. But, I put on my big girl panties and went for it! I cut it into little hearts. I figured I could not screw it up that royally and I didn't! Next, came the lovely tan envelope from some junk mail. I stamped a "from the heart" image. When I was done, I stamped a few other Christmas images and saved them for later. I then moved onto the clothing tags. I stamped a tree image onto the inside of these tags. There was already a fun chain-link image there, so the tree image in brown really looked fun and textured. Lastly, I pulled some paper from the box o' Christmas scraps. I would love to tell you what paper, but I do not remember as they are now scraps. Pulled some buttons and paper flowers from the stash and Bob's your uncle, we have Christmas cards!

I am back in the game and making some serious headway, thanks to the lovely ladies of Jingle Belles. Seriously, anyone who needs some Christmas card inspiration should head right over. They have what you need! Now come December 1st, all I have to do is turn on the Hallmark Channel and address my homemade cards! Thanks again Jingle Belles!

Back in card mode

Back in black...well, actually I am back in pink and green. Thanks to my Apron Strings Smaller than a Breadbox kit, I have new We R Memory Keepers Peep to play with. What does one do if one has lovely Easter paper and no Easter pictures...you make Mother's Day cards!

This was a great deal of fun and even though the pinks do not entirely match up, they will be loved. How do I know this? Because they are mothers! Both women think it is lovely that I make them handmade cards...it is not grandchildren, but they are still grateful!

More paper fun

Here are the results of using up your fun paper instead of saving it for the "special" project. This time, I used the paper to scrap a few of my less than "bright and happy" experiences. There is a layout on my slightly obsessive love of books and one about major life decisions.

For both layouts, I stepped out of my comfort zone to take pictures of inanimate objects to tell a story. Once again, True Scrap gave me some new photographic advice that I was looking forward to playing with. I took a picture of a stack of books that I am currently reading to do a layout on my reading habits. (Scrapping the everyday, don't cha know!) Then I took a picture of a notebook that had a blank page entitled Pros and Cons. This picture helped me build a layout around the decisions our family is making about future plans.

In the end, being encouraged to use up my favorite paper and take different photographs, helped me tell more of my story. Scrapbooking is not always chronological. Sometimes it is using pictures and words to tell a story.

Pictures have arrived!!

Snapfish has sent me the photos. Finally, I was able to put my fun True Scrap knowledge into action. I started with the Shimelle Six Step program... basically cutting up all my favorite paper into large blocks before I even knew what my layout would look like. Yikes! (Pause for indrawn hiss of breath!) It turned out to be a lot of fun. I did not use up all the paper in a way that I would have liked, but I was able to get a lot of pages done quickly. There is still a two-page layout that I am not wild about. Will have to play around with it until I like it. But the rest made me happy because... finally, I was using up my fun paper!

This first layout was the story of my fun trip to the Reagan Presidential library. If you are ever in the area of Simi Valley, you should definitely check it out. Like the guy or not, the library is incredible. It has a replica of the oval office and an actual decommissioned Airforce One. Good times were had by all.

Here are the results of a pre-cutting program for paper hoarders. You be the judge!

Back to butterflies while waiting on pictures

After my brief foray into testosterone land, I am back at the butterflies. Felt green butterflies announce spring with authority. Here are some more thank you cards and springy ones at that.

These cards are the result of shopping your stash. I pulled out a plastic case of old paper that I had not used in a while. Inside this treasure box, I discovered fun stripes and coordinating cardstock. Happy spring paper with butterflies found in my old stash box... life does not get much better than this!

Have a great day!

Making manly cards

So, I am writing more thank you notes to the troops. And I realized that most of my cards are girly. Most of my paper and embellishments are designed around girls. I have plenty of butterflies, flowers, gems, etc., but very little "guy" stuff.

Today I sat down to make some man cards. I put some Lynyrd Skynryd on the music maker and pulled out my Sumo wrestling paper. No, that is not a typo. I have sumo wrestling paper. I pulled it out and crafted. It was a beautiful thing. I felt so pleased with my work, I was tempted to do some plumbing and watch some Nascar.

Hope that you get a laugh out of this post and enjoy the results!

Waiting on pictures and playing with paint

Now I am terribly inspired to play with techniques. Last night, I thought to myself, "if I painted on paper, what ink could I use to stamp an image on top of the paint?" Today, I tried it. I used my Ranger Paint Dabbers in light green (willow). And I used some DecoArt acrylic white to see what I could pull off. Then I used Autumn Leaves Stampology ink pad in Onyx. And it worked! Thus another round of thank you cards was born. Here are the pictures to prove it.

Of course, I could not have pulled this off without a good sketch. This week CardPatterns has such a fun sketch. I enjoyed playing with it and keeping it simple. I kept wanting to add to the card, but I decided to stick with the sketch and leave it alone. Frankly, I think the cards are better for it.

For those people who are following my paper hoarding problem, I am finally using it up. I have been holding onto this October Afternoon Cherry Hill Tea Towel paper for over a year. In fact, this is one of five sheets I own. Time to pull out and use it because...they are all special projects. No sense waiting on the ultimate project as there will always be more paper!

Moving outside of the comfort zone

Currently, I am waiting on pictures. Snapfish was having a fabulous deal (11% off total order and free shipping). So, I uploaded all my scrappable pictures and ordered them. Now I am waiting. As Tom Petty says, "the waiting is the hardest part." I am so ready to scrapbook and so ready to play with all my new True Scrap knowledge.

However, I still have to work on some thank you cards. After hunting down some sketches in the blogsphere, I decided to look at Sketchy Thursdays to see what they have for scrapbook page ideas. (Did I mention that I am ready to scrapbook pages)! That is when I decided to do something that tends to make me uncomfortable. I decided to use the layout sketch from Sketchy Thursdays and make cards. Because I am not a big one for measuring, I am often uncomfortable trying to fit ideas from one scale to another. But this time, I just went for it. Maybe this is me embracing my wild side! That is right everyone, just look out! Hope that you enjoy the results.

Add a little pesto

I was in the mood for homemade biscuits. Here is where it gets fun. I do not like to make biscuits. I do not have a biscuit cutter, when I have used a water glass to cut them out, they stick. I have to pull out the biscuit from the water glass only to find it mangled and abused. Biscuits and me are not always friends.

Luckily, I have a mother who did not like to make biscuits either. She liked to make something called "drop biscuits." Many of you might know what this is, basically it is biscuit dough, scooped up and dropped out onto a baking sheet. They are messy and irregular and tasty!

The drop biscuits were missing something. I decided whatever they were missing I was going to fill it with pesto. Thus, my version of pesto biscuits were formed.

Biscuits:

Ingredients:

* 1 2/3 C whole wheat pastry flour

* 1 T baking powder

* 1/2 tsp garlic salt

*2/3 C Milk

*1/3 C oil

This is adapted from the Joy of Cooking Cookbook. My variations are garlic salt, fat free milk and olive or grapeseed oil. Mix all ingredients together. Scoop one cookie scoop of dough onto the baking sheet. Add 1 T of pesto and scoop another scoop of dough on top. Bake at 475 degrees for 8 minutes.

Pesto:

Ingredients:

* 2 C basil leaves (packed)

* 1/3 C raw cashews (pine nuts are too expensive for me)

* 3 peeled cloves of garlic

* 1/3 C parmesan cheese

*1/3 C olive oil

Mix the first four ingredients in a food processor. While the machine is running, add the oil. Or if you are afraid of flying food, throw all the ingredients in together and process until smooth.

Enjoy!

You guessed it...

Another round of thank you cards! These were inspired by the lovely Shimelle from her True Scrap class. In her scrap class she addressed the issue of paper hoarding. See, I just knew there was a program for me...instead of 12 though, she gave us 6 steps. One of the most important steps is to use the paper when you love it. I have been holding on to this My Little Shoebox paper for the longest time. This is the Sky's the Limit- Follow the Cloud page. I love the clouds, the sunny yellow on the flip side, everything is just lovely on this paper. But it was time to let go. (Don't tell, but I kept one sheet. Shhhh, it is our secret!)

So, I played! It is amazing how much fun it is to play with paper you love! I just sat down, and began cutting and arranging and came up with a series of fun cards. Another batch of thank you cards sent off to the troops! I'm just gonna keep sending cards, 'til they send 'em home!

Have a great day everyone, may it be sunny with blue and pink clouds!