As Time Flies By...

Summer is coming to a screeching halt. Though the highs are in the 70's, we need jackets in the morning for the kids already... With September right around the corner, I am posting two layouts done for the Graphic 45 CHA-S. I don't know if they ever reached Aimee and I continue to hope they did get there. I think I would be okay to lose these two layouts, but the Domestic Goddess mini-album, not so much...

I have said this over and over again, you have to get your hands on the Domestic Goddess line, it's really amazing and so versatile, and oh my gosh, so perfect for strawberry photos, lol.


I used the Renaissance Faire line for this "GREAT" layout, lol. East meets West again, I love doing that :) I also lightly glimmer-misted the cardstock, fantabulous stuff!



On a different note, I have been invited to join the Creative Mini Album team!! I am very excited about this!! I think it will be a GREAT opportunity to systematically complete a few mini albums that I've been wanting to do. I also hope to expand my mini-album technique's repertoire and stretch myself a little bit by trying new things. Oh it is going to be great!

Mini Album: My Sister, My Friend

A while ago, Bo Bunny had a DT call and I entered this mini album into the DT contest. It's another one of my personal favorites. The fact that my children are siblings will forever be a subject of fascination for me. I am not a sibling, so their world as sisters is a foreign one to me. I don't think I will ever tire of exploring that topic/subject matter. I used lots of favorite photos to go with the Calypso line. Good stuff!

Rusty Pickle Summer Challenge

It's been a year since I participated in the Rusty Pickle blog challenges, but I finally got around to doing one this month! Here is the August Sketch challenge at the Pickle blog. How great it is to be using stash! Everything on this layout other than the three epoxy stickers are at least four years old! Yet it is still hard to part with it, especially that sea turtle paper!

Graphic 45 Cards Galore

So I've held onto these for long enough now. It's time to share them all at once!

This is made for the Graphic 45 and Tattered Angels mixer, but it was never shown on the Graphic 45 blog, so here it is. I love how the glimmer mist made the frame look so antique-y. Love this one, very crisp looking, very me.

Do you love Crafty Secrets like I do? I can't quite figure it out where I picked up my adoration for all things vintage. I do think it started with Times Nouveau with Graphic 45. Since then, I've been on a rampage, collecting and hoarding all things vintage. And Crafty Secret is a fantastic source of my collection!

Here's a winter card using Graphic 45's new Christmas Past line and a Crafty Secret image from their Seasonal Booklet.

It's no secret how much I LOVE Domestic Goddess!! It is just SO SO SO versatile. Here is a friendship card using that line. Oh I so look forward to getting more of that paper since I have only tiny scraps left...

BoBunny, Glimmer Mist, and Purple Cows

We got a set of BoBunny's Chunky Chips Clear Alphabet as a part of Scrapbook Obsessions' August 2009 kit. As I was punching the letters out to store in a jar, I looked at the leftover Chunky sheet and the idea of using it as a screen came to me!! It would make the most awesome background paper if I misted it! So this is what I did:

Lay the two completely punched out sheets of Chunky Chips Clear Alphabet next to each other on top of a sheet of paper:

Glimmer mist it in a box or outside! Mist as much or as little as you want to get the effect you want. I drenched my sheet!

Once the sheet is dry enough. Send it through the Purple Cows laminator "naked". You aren't laminating the paper, you are simply using the laminator as a hot iron!! Can this tool BE more useful??!! I sent it through three times even though once sufficed, but I was just giddy over the usefulness of the laminator in making my misted projects flat again that I had to send it through just for the fun of it!

Voila the end result!! Now this new sheet of patterned paper is ready for use! Thank you BoBunny Chunky Chips leftover, thank you Glimmer Mist, thank you Purple Cows laminator!

While the above sheet of paper awaits for use, I have a layout that I created with Basic Grey's Junebugs line that uses a sheet of patterned paper created just like my tutorial above:

A close up of the glimmer misted background and the actual BoBunny Chunky Clear alphabets dyed with Alcohol inks:

I'm SO excited for my discoveries: using leftover for misting screen and flattening the misted paper using the laminator!! Oh the creative possibilities that they have opened up for me!

Another PageMaps Contest

This is my entry into this month's PageMaps contest. I cut this one close as I only created this layout last night! I used the new Amy Butler's Lucky Flowers paper that I got at Michael's! And even more importantly, I used Prism's Seaside paper! It is a line of fabulously textured cardstock that I only just discovered this past Friday!! I punched around it using "Treading water" to create the scalloped cardstock to layer over the patterned paper.


Prism papers used: M400 Sand Dollar, W031-D White Prismatic, G511-E Herbal Garden Dark, B053-D Nautical Blue Light, Classic Red R095-E.

Prism Papers

Ideally, I would have a Prism Papers project to go with this post, but how about if I link you up to a project of mine on the Prism blog from a few days ago? :)

Prism Papers is having another round of guest DT call, please read all about the details here. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with Prism Papers as a guest DT. That is one highly functional team! Since I work in Corporate America, I love it when the expectations are well defined, assignments are clear, deadlines are established well in advance, and communications are clear. And, oh, let's not forget the wonderful products they offer: card stocks that look yummy enough to eat! Anyway, if you love card stock and if you love a highly functional design team, answer the call! You will love it!

I promise! I loved it so much when Prism asked me if I want to stay on as a regular DT member, I said Yes, where is the x and the dotted line? I am one happy card stocky girl!

No Domestic Goddess Here

Have you seen Graphic 45's Domestic Goddess line? I can't begin to describe how much I love that line, as it is beautiful, subtle, stunning, versatile, vintage, fabulous, and so much more!! This mini-album was a project I made for CHA-S. Remember my previous post where I talked about 2 layouts and 1 mini-album in less than 48 hours, this was the mini-album. How I love it so! I don't think it made it to the CHA show though as I haven't seen any pictures of it anywhere in the booth, so I hope it will come home to me soon. It really is beautiful and I really miss it. Good gracious, did I just say that about my own work? Have I become shameless? LOL.

Paparazzi

This is me scrapbooking. I got some photos and I got stuff to say about the photos. It all started that way, didn't it? :)

I got the Studio Calico kit because of the {paparazzi} paper. I want the {paparzzi} paper for these photos. I took photos of people taking photos of my kids when we were in China last fall. Sure they are cute, but they are hardly Suri Cruise! The mobbing sometimes got out of control. And I don't have pictures of those times, I was doing my duty as the mother, telling people off, lol.

Everything here is from Studio Calico's Documentary main kit except the alphabets. They are Bo Bunny sticker letters that are at least 5 years old, YAY, stash reduction! lol.

She's Got the Look

Color Combos Galore 130 has been revealed. Those were challenging colors!! I totally cheated by using this really bright red photo, I didn't quite know what else to do!! The Making Memories dots paper is a tad too blue for the combo, but it looked okay off the screen. I must mention that the background 7Gypsies paper is from Aubree. I continue to make dents into the stash she gave me in March.

Speaking of Aubree, she is the guest designer this month at Back Porch Memories!!! EXCITING stuff!!

Oh La La, Garden Theme Continues...

I was a lucky winner of the new MME's Oh la la collections at My Mind's Eye Blog giveaway during the CHA preview. Oh la la is right!! I love the subtle colors of this collection, very vintage MME like. You know what else I'm "dying" to get my hands on? MME's Abbey Road collection, I need it all! Yep, need! Oh la la!! Il me faut! Absolumment!

And yes, I'm scrapping my garden produce again :) My golly, this year we really had quite the harvest of beans and peas of all sorts. DH found a new recipe of green beans (lightly steamed), cucumber, tomato, and onion, toss it up with a little sea salt and olive oil. I inhale the ENTIRE salad bowl on my own, that stuff is so so so good!!! I can only be thankful that the kids and DH don't want to eat it. I swear that I use up more calories chewing all the crunchy vegetables than the calories they provide, oui oui oui!

Journey to Paris with Graphic 45

Now that CHA-S 2009 is over, I can begin sharing my projects I did for the Graphic 45 booth. I am going to put myself out there with this first share, a mini-album about my symbolic journey to Paris. I say "I'm out there" with this mini-album because it is my favorite of all the projects I sent to Graphic 45 this time around, so other projects to follow are just subpar, LOL. Secondly, I will share a little bit of the journaling in the mini-album, a part of my history, a part of my core being, unsafe territory... but here are the first two pages...

"Paris captured my imagination long before I set foot in this glorious city of light. Le Tour Eiffel, L’Arc de Triomphe, only I had known them in Chinese. I’d seen pictures of them on calendars, in books, and in magazines… They were far away places that I would never get to visit, though I had fantasized about seeing them in real life, but for Chinese people in the 70’s and the early 80’s, the door to the world was tightly shut and guarded against us.
When dad went to Senegal, a Francophone country to work, France became even more fascinating. He had to bring a French-Chinese dictionary. He talked about learning French in his letters to us. He sent us pictures of resort of Senegal where the French tourists vacationed. My fascination grew.
Then my mother and I were uprooted and moved to Senegal to join my father. I entered an American Missionary school. There, I met Madame Mourgues, my first French teacher. The first phrase she taught me was “Est-ce qu je peux aller aux toilettes?” I understood nothing she said. I just liked listening to her talk. The French speak melodiously. "

That and so much more...

Adornit Blog Party Continues Here

I have never participated in a blog hop before, I must say that it has been incredibly wonderful visiting many fun blogs and subscribing to new favorites. If you have arrived here for the Adornit Blog Hop, my entry is here.

Day Two of the Adornit Summer Blog party features a sketch by Becky Fleck. I'm a long time fan of her sketches, so it was a great opportunity to get scrapping again. Here is my take on the sketch using almost all Cosmo Cricket Jack's World line. Instead of lots of small photos, I used one 5x7 photo and one 2x4 photo. I think I like it okay :))