A Day In The Sun

I like to save my favorite page for the Saturday blog post. This week I used the Paper Secrets Sketch Challenge for my inspiration. I've been planning a page like this for quite sometime. So glad this sketch fit all the elements so perfectly.

A Day In The Sun

To begin with, I pulled a piece of Kraft paper from the DCWV; Love Letters Stack. Then I laid a wood cut by Art Minds on the paper and started spraying Tattered Angels mist. I began with Fully Purple, moved on to Black Cherry, and finished up with Dragonfly. Then I opened Tattered Leather and splattered the paper. Next I opened my Ranger: Paint Dauber and splattered gold paint across the page. After a great deal of drying time I was ready to start embellishing.

While I waited for the page to dry I wrapped spiral roses made with Drafters Vellum, Border Scissors (EK Success), and CTMH, ink. I attempted to come up with a fool-proof set of instructions for making these, but alas, it will take more work before the instructions are ready.

I used Recollections resin ellements and alpha, WP netting, Theresa Collins gems, and CTMH ink and cardstock. The pearl swags are stash and the border punch is EK Success.

~charity becker~

Free Spirits

Sketch # 201 at Creative Scrappers intrigues me. It is offered as a primarily dark papered sketch with embossing or gems as highlights. There are also stars on it and since I just bought a star punch from The Paper Studio I am thrilled to be using it.

To begin this Layout I traced and machine stitched a star onto the background, then I highlighted the star with a white gel Marvy pen. I punched 2 stars from Echo Park; This and That and adhered them to the page, embellishing with stitched buttons.

To represent the circles on the top of the page I added clear acrylic drops then outlined them with the white gel pen.

I added more buttons (all are Basic Grey) and twine from my stash to create banners. The stickers are EP; This and That. I doodled around the edges of the trimmed photo to highlight its shape and used dimensional adhesive to help it stand out. The 4x6 photo is matted with EP; This and That.
I used a Basic Grey alpha and traced star shapes here and there on the background. The floss holding the buttons down is stash and the background paper is CTMH as is the ink edging the stars. The edges of the LO are inked with Colorbox, pigment ink.

~charity becker~



So Glad I Found You

Another Paper Secrets and Creative Scrappers combo today. This is for the Technique Challenge posted by Nicolle Kramer. I used Creative Scrappers sketch # 200. This was one of those Layouts that got revised repeatedly. When I started I had a specific idea in my head, this was NOT it!!! But now I like it better than my original idea. It was a happy mistake that put me on this track.

So Glad I Found You

Nicolle's challenge was to use punches. Lucky me, I have plenty! My punches on this layout were made by EK Success and by CTMH. The patterned papers are all Graphic 45 and the cardstock is CTMH as is the ink. The mist is Tattered Angels; Cranberry Zing and the masks were several balloons I cut out of Graphic 45 Steampunk. The twine is Doodlebug Design, the other fibers are stash, and the alpha is Basic Grey.

~charity becker~

My Boy

With fewer classes I have so much more time to scrap!!! I was invited to try out Paper Secrets by my scrappy friend Doris Widder and did one of each challenge over the weekend. This is for the Manufacture Challenge. I also used Creative Scrappers sketch # 199.

My Boy

For the patterned papers I used Graphic 45; Transatlantique and Steampunk. The flower gems are Creative Charms, the Trim is Coats and Clark, the brads are Spare Parts, and the alpha is Basic Grey. I used three inks, CTMH, Ranger, and Colorbox. The large metal flower is an uphostery tack from my stash.

~charity becker~

Scrapbook Steals How To'sDay: Detailed Matting

One of the elements I love best about these Layout is the detailed matting. It takes the design aspect to a whole new level. But how to do that so the matting matches perfectly? Stop by Scrapbook Steals blog and check out todays How To'sDay.  http://scrapbooksteals.stealnetwork.com/wp/

Muse

this little Piggy



~charity becker~



Amethyst # 5: Snuggle

Still completely in love with the MME: Follow Your Heart I bought from Scrapbook Steals. I used it on this sketch by Kristy Lee for the weekly MWM, Amethyst #5. My sweet Lori is so adorable, sitting with her aunty in this photo.

Snuggle

Although the majority of the supplies on this LO are MME, I did use CTMH ink and Ranger: Liquid Pearls. The punch is EK Success and the alpha is Basic Grey. The Hexagon frames were a quick little addition to the page and add interest. Watch for a tutorial on those!

~charity becker~



the days of Wonder and Whimsy

I decided to try out a new challenge this month. The sketch for this L/O can be seen at Once Upon a...Sketch. Go see it for yourself then whip up something for these wonderful designers to see!

the days of Wonder & Whimsy

The patterned papers here are CTMH and Prima. The teal and rhinestone blossom is made from Recollections trim. The purple flowers are Imaginisce, and their gem centers are CTMH. The tiny type is Girls Paperie and the alpha is Thickers. I layered three colors of Tattered Angels mist on this L/O. They are Dragonfly, Patina, and Spanish Moss.

The paper strips on the left are Kaiser Craft and the twine is from The Twinery and Doodle Bug Design. The Liquid Pearls (Ranger) are Key Lime and I used a Pebbles Inc. stencil for placement. The butterflies are Melody Ross with Recollections gem strips down the center.

My journaling (on a scrap of DCWV, Mariposa) reads, "I miss the days we spent in Mayille, especially the long summer days spent with friends."

~charity becker~

Sunny Smiles

I was so fascinated by Kristy Lee's MCM sketch # 72 that I decided to make it into a full page layout.

The mustard tones in these photos meshed beautifully with Webster's Pages, Botanical Christmas. The sketch was a fairly simple one so I was left with plenty of room for embelishment. The Inks are Colorbox, pigment, the medallion punch is EK Success, the gems and cardstock are CTMH and the brooch is Prima. The stamp is Glitz Design, the twine is Jillibean Soup, and the stick pens are stash. The patterned papers, alpha, and flower are CTMH.

My Family: Creative Scrappers #198

I'm really enjoying the red elements of (Echo Park) This and That: Graceful. On this layout I added Basic Grey buttons (from Scrapbook Steals) for bright pops of color. 

My Family

Just to be a little different I used a mesh onion bag as background texture. I tied the buttons down with Jillibean Soup twine, and the layout is stitched to an MME basics polk-a-dot paper. The sketch illustrated here is Creative Scrappers #198.

~charity becker~

Reflection: DCWV Stack-a-holic Challenge

We lived directly across from this park for 4 years. In that time I had the opportunity to take many beautiful pictures of the mist on the pond. These were taken just at sunrise, when the sky was losing the last of its pink glow.

Reflection

The papers are from DCWV, Mariposa stack. The flowers are Imaginisce stacked with velvet 7 Gypsies. The brad-centers are MME. The butterfly punch is EK success and the Pearlescent accents are Duncan. The stamps and ink are CTMH and the Stickles are gold.

~charity becker~

Party Dress

I had so much fun with Melissa Dehne's MWM sketches that I decided to give the second one another go. (see the sketch here).

Party Dress

I used Authentique, Uncommon and Blissful on this layout. I love the pattern on the "Gifted" paper. First I trimmed several of the circles out with my scissors, then used my craft knife to cut the centers out. I adhered them to the LO and stiched them down.

For the circle element I traced two sizes of circles and then stitched the lines. For the corner flourish I used a very pale ink and a CTMH stamp, then machine stiched the impression.

The alpha is thickers, the ink is CTMH, and the trim is Coats and Clark. 

~charity becker~

Paper Girls Challenge: Sheryl's Sketch

Another exciting reveal day for The Paper Girl's Challenge Blog! Today we are treated to a sketch by the amazing Sheryl Kloke. Check out the details here: www.thepapergirlschallenge.blogspot.com/

~ this little PIGGY~

I snapped this classic boy pose at the county fair. I love that my youngest is offering the piglets his toes to snuff. What a ridiculous boy!

I went all MME on this one. I have such a thing for the navy blues and gold of the Hattie collection. The, gems, inks, and stamps are CTMH and the tiny type is EK Success. The floss is stash.

 

~charity becker~

MWM Amethyst 4: Cousins

Amethyst 4 gave me a fabulous opportunity to dip deeply into my brand new (Echo Park) This and That: Graceful kit from Scrapbook Steals. Kristy Lee really poured on the layers with this sketch. I was thrilled to find a photo that looks like it was taken with these exact papers in mind.

Cousins 

Aside from the brown Sharpie I used for the faux stitching and the CTMH ink (chocolate) this page is made entirely from the kit. Check this tutorial for the instructions on making the accordion embellies on either side of the photo. Brettany Quinton gives excellent step by step instructions. For the banners I trimmed out a stripe from "Border Strips"and layered it with stickers from "Elements" and "Alphas" then adhered it to the page with dimensional adhesive. 

~charity becker~

We Match: MME Sketch Challenge

I had so much fun making a card for the My Minds Eye sketch challenge that I had to follow it up with an entry for the layout challenge. Again I used Follow Your Heart: Be happy. This photo was taken just before my daughters first concert. She was so excited to go that she picked out our clothes and sparkly tattoos.

We Match

Besides the Be Happy papers, twine, buttons, and diecut/brad butterfly I used an alpha from Lost and Found, and stamps from Stella and Rose. To frame the page I used a wide layer of Color Box chalk (coral) and a narrow layer of CTMH ink (chocolate) on the very edge.

~charity becker~

Beautiful Soul

It's Authentique challenge time again. Their sketch artist NEVER fails to impress. Check out the Layout sketch here: http://blog.authentiquepaper.com/2012/03/march-sketch-challenge.html

Beautiful Soul

Another photo from our trip to Rushmore in October. Hubby was trying to set his camera up and the kids were tired of the process. Although she was really quite annoyed, she looks pensive and dreamy. I'll take it!

I used an assortment of Authentique paper lines on this page. The main portion of papers are Gathering (grow, reminisce, and flourish), but there is also Free Bird (blush and delight) on the pennants, and Blissful foundations on the pennants and the flowers. I used Gathering, Diction for the journaling.  

Other products I used on this LO were Basic Grey buttons; Doodlebug Designs twine; CTMH pearls, brads, and ink; and Thickers for the alpha. The flower punch is by EK Success.

~charity becker~

MWM: Amethyst #3

Last weeks MWM at Scrapbook Steals was two beautiful sketches by Melissa Dehne! I enjoyed them both immensly.
http://scrapbooksteals.stealnetwork.com/wp/2012/03/07/fancy-pants-its-the-little-things-mid-week-mojo/
In fact I decided to make a two page l/o with them.

Cookie Monsters

I pulled out my MME, Lime Twist, purchased from Scrapbook Steals, for these pages. Although the majority of the products used on this page are MME there are a few exceptions. The brads are Basic Grey, the ink is CTMH, the eyelets are Making Memories, and the Ranger Stickles are Fruit Punch. Check out this weeks MWM on the Scrapbook Steals blog.

~charity becker~

Blog Prize and a Tutorial

I promised to choose a prize winner from my blog followers today, so here it is:
random.org has chosen *****Judy Stech*****
Send me an e-mail with your address and I'll get your prize out to you!
Now for the tutorial...
I promised a how-to for the misted flowers on this layout:

Head right over to Scrapbook Steals blog for this weeks How To'sday and read all about it!

~charity becker~

PERFECT: just the way you are

My Minds Eye has wonderful sketch challenges each month. Now that I've finished with my crazy course load and will only be taking 1 or 2 classes per term I can participate again. Saturday my shipment of Follow Your Heart: Be Happy arrived from Scrapbook Steals. I went right to work on this sweet little card and am excited to enter it for the challenge. http://mymindseye.typepad.com/blog/2012/03/blog-challenge-33-card.html

For the base of my card I used Life Stories: Description of Activity. The flower motif is cut from "Be Joyful." I trimmed the edges of the wild roses and curled them to add texture.

After inking the motif and adhering it to the page I placed gems from my LUSH collection in their centers. Next I stamped the bird cage from the Stella and Rose: Mable stamp set onto the "Happy Doily Paper" with the same ink I used for the edge of the motif.

I laced the twine from the "Be Happy" collection across the card and around the birdcage, adding pennants, flowers, and hexagons from "Striped Pink," "Follow," and "Be Joyful" papers.

For the final touches I added a flower brad beside the bird cage and wrapped the twine around it, then went with a butterfly brad above the pennants. The sentiment is from the Follow Your Heart layered stickers. The title needed one more pop of color so I added a strip of LUSH gems underneath.

This card is made entirely out of My Minds Eye products with the exception of the white pigment ink on the card edges and the brown ink on the cage and edges of the flower motif. Both inks are CTMH.

~charity becker~

Scrapbook Steals Blog Hop : Tag Book

All right all you frogs and rabbits, hope you're having fun skipping through the projects displayed for your viewing pleasure. I know the ladies involved in this hop have bucket loads of talent so be sure to fill up on inspiration.

For my project I choose to do a tag book made all of scrapbooking supplies from my favorite company, Scrapbook Steals! Authentique, Uncommon was recently offered as a daily steal and it found it's way onto my craft table in double time. When I was contacted about providing a project for this blog hop using Basic Grey Buttons and Brads I knew these two products were MEANT for each other.

All the miniature buttons and brads by Basic Grey made it super easy to embellish my tags. The color assortment was phenomenal and so many of the hues complimented this paper pack.

Here are detail shots of a few of the pages:

front cover:

interior accent pages:

I loved how easy it was to match embossing powder to the BG brads and ink to the BG buttons!

back cover:

That's all for me, hope you found a reason to fill you cart up with these delightful Basic Grey Brads and Buttons. Please join my blog, I'll be thrilled to see your name on my list and will be doing my own little give away Tuesday from my blog followers.

If you are following the hop in order you should have come here from the delightful Venetia Holbrook's blog (http://winningatfailing.blogspot.com/). Your next stop is with the amazing Van Nguyen at  http://likethecar.blogspot.com/. If you didn't get a chance to start with Scrapbook Steals check them out here ( http://scrapbooksteals.stealnetwork.com/) and get all the blog hop details. Be sure to check out everyone's blog for a chance at the $20 Gift Certificate Scrapbook Steals is offering!

~charity becker~

Muse

DCWV; Love Letters stack is full of yummy patterns and is FULL of craft paper! I am having so much fun creating with these muted tones. This layout features my sweet Mickey, a kitten we fostered a few years back. He loved laying on the couch and watching me scrap. These photos were taken at the house we moved from last April. I had a full back porch turned in to a scrap room.

Except for the light green flourish paper (which is so old I have no idea where it came from) the papers are DCWV. The alpha is Making Memories, the flowers are Imaginisce, and the brads are Spare Parts. The Stickles outlining the floral motif are burgundy. The buttons, jute and floss are all stash.

~charity becker~

Hall Pass

Yesterday I took a break from my Happy Hallway and spent some time in my Linty Laundry Room. I keep my sewing machine set up in there so I can nip in anytime and zig-zag a few stitches on a layout. While I was in there I appliqued three of these:

My son is completely obsessed with knights in shining armour and with dragons and swords etc... I've been in the process of hand appliqueing him a dragon quilt. I have two different dragon patterns in multiple colors that I stitch onto the blocks with a contrasting color of thread. Lots of fun, but honey child thinks he's going to die of old age before I finish it (hence the machine applique). My goal is to get the remaining quilt blocks finished during my spring break. Wish me luck!

~charity becker~

Summer Breeze

Creative Scrappers always posts such fun sketches...perfect for layering and clustering. I used Sketch 197 (http://creativescrappers.blogspot.com/2012/02/sketch-197.html) for this layout. I also incorporated Practical Scrappers latest Challenge Me Tuesday. (http://www.practicalscrappers.com/2012/03/challenge-me-tuesday-polygons-with-5.html)

In honor of CHA products hitting stores PS suggested we use Something Old, Something New on a layout. My something new is the brand new Sunday Picnic from Webster's Pages (the orange strip). My something old is the background cardstock also from Webster's Pages. Sweet Charity was a pre-2008 line.

The doilies are cut with a cricut using the CTMH cartridge. The flowers are all Petaloo. The gold chip board accents are thickers, and the border punch is EK success. The ink is CTMH and the stickles (by Ranger) are Gold and Fruit Punch. The alpha and green threads accent are WP.

~charity becker~

Happy Hallway

Getting my scraproom picture ready is always a challenge for me. I'm definitly a messy crafter. However, I am on a two week break from college so I decided to bite the bullet and get that space beautiful.

I scrap in a superflous hallway off the living room. My husband built a work table with different levels, font and back, for my scrapping pleasure. On the outside the dogs get the bottom level, school books get the second and the top is for overflow from my desk.

On the inside is my crafting suface with various drawers and shelves for my tools and neccessities. And yes, that is a cassette shelf housing CTMH inks! I'm a little ADD so I have trouble holding still for lenghts of time. I usually craft standing, but the stool is necessary for any time I need to spend cutting with a craft knife.

To the left of the desk my sweet man lined the wall with shelves, 6 in all with room for my totes of paper underneath. I store my buttons and ribbon in candy jars so I can see all those colors readily. I have all my embellies sorted by type (rub-ons, die cuts, flowers, gems, etc...) in stackable containers.

One last shot of the Happy Hallway; from the entrance, down the length of the shelves, all the way to my custom made table. Wish you could join me in my crafty place!!!

~charity becker~

I'm so excited to be designing for The Paper Girls Challenge blog! Challenges on the first and third Mondays of the month. Check them out here http://www.thepapergirlschallenge.blogspot.com/. Today the challenge is all about stamping.  Play along with us!!!

I am just in love with this edge stamping method I saw on Webster's Pages blog. (linked here http://www.menemenetekeluniversity.blogspot.com/2012/01/garnet-6-sisters-forever.html ) An additional, favorite stamping technique is using white pigment ink on a dark background. This card was made with CTMH cardstock, inks, and flourish stamp. The adorable hedgehog is by Penny Black, the flowers are Imaginisce, and the buttons are Basic Grey.

~charity becker~

where ADVENTURE lies

Reading has always opened my mind to new worlds. I'm all about adventure and fantasy from my arm chair. I'm proud to say my children all have the same intense love of reading. But why stop there? My siblings, my aunts and uncles, my grandparents, my nieces and nephews...YEP we love to read. Here are some shots of us indulging ourselves.

where ADVENTURE lies



I pretty much made a run through the scrap room and grabbed something from each organizer to add to this page. The patterned papers are Prima and DCWV. The elephant and card cut-out, the ferris wheel stamp, the number tickets, and the tiny type are Glitz design; Afternoon Muse. The remaining tickets/tags are 7 gypsies and CTMH; the roller coaster stamp, inks, and gems are all CTMH, as is the matting for the photos. The twine and alpha are MME, the balloon stamp is Hampton Art, the flower center is WP. The flower, star and moon beads, airplane, and paislee stickers are all stash.

~charity becker~

So Unique: pages 8 and 9

Last two pages of my Authentique Mini for today. Hope you've enjoyed this album. I'll have another for your viewing pleasure on March 10th!

This page Uncommon; 6x6, Headlines, and Excerpts. The Rub-ons are Basic Grey and the twine is Doodlebug Design.

With this page I went super simple. The paper is Uncommon 6x6. The stamp and ink are CTMH. The flowers are Imaginisce, and the twine is Doodlebug Design.

~charity becker~

So Unique: pages 6 and 7

Page 6 has a variety of products. The papers are Uncommon 6x6 and Free Bird, Blush. The title and diecut are Uncommon, Icons and Tabloids. The rub on floursh and gems are  K and Company, the tabs are Making Memories.

Page 7 is Uncommon Noteables stiched over a 6x6 pattern. This is inked with CTMH, Chocolate Ink.

~charity becker~