Going Simple

So I decided last night after my very layered LO I did last, to go simple. I have a difficult time with real simple. There are ladies that do it so well and I ohhhh and ahhhh. But when I do it I’m left thinking I should add more, this time is no different. We all have those LOs when we are done that don’t make it into our favorites category. But that is part of the growing process as a scrapbooker.

I picked up these circle nesting dies at Michalels (with a coupon) and decided to give them a go. I used some scraps from the Wonder collection and just sort of went for it. I used whatever circles I could find in the cardboard element sheet, which wasn’t much, and just went with a simple page. I added some words with the inky black color theory alphas because a title just wasn’t working for me.

And this is the end result. I’m so so about it but I think it will grow on me because I love this picture. My next LO will have loads of layers I’m sure can’t switch all together 🙂

Back to scrapping

It has been a while! I really don’t like being out of my craft room for too long, this is my happy. But I am currently undertaking painting half of my house. Well hey if you are going to do it..do it I say! It is going to look awesome once completed but doing it by myself means it will take a while especially when I take a detour to my craft room. But I’m sure my fellow scrappers can relate, dishes waiting, laundry needing a second rinse, kids ordering pizza, we all do it.

So I decided to get a bit messy this time around, kind of get it all out of my system so I can go back to painting. And let me tell you it didn’t work out as planned. I started off with a white background and really bright colors so I trashed it. Hey that  happens right? we are in our creative grove and think this is going to be a masterpiece until we notice we hate it. But I decided to stick with it go for a darker background and get back in there.

I knew I wanted to use the Ceder Lane line again so I wanted a more darker background and dug in my stash. This is Victorian from Crate Papers Random Collection. I also have a load of 6×6 neutral scraps that I cut and layered and used gesso over the area. I than added some distress inks and than continued on with a mask.

This was definately the fun part of this. I like to play with mixed media at times but I realize I need to do it some more to really get a mastery of it. I’m in love with the look of many of the LOs using mixed media and I like the depth of such LOs it is a nice change to just go for it.

This was the end result of my craft room time. I have bits from both Ceder Lane and Wonder collections. These two go together very well so I twas nice to get into my stash and combine them. I picked up some leaves in Michaels the other day which went very well with a fall theme. Then I dug into the my photo stash and got an oldie out of my 4th child climbing in a tree.

I do love layers, as if that wasn’t obvious. I love the depth and how it all pops off the page. I do like clean pages as well simple, flat, not so much going on but not today 🙂 This was fun and I’m so looking forward to the next time I can sneak off and create I hope you get some time to do it for yourself today.

Rocking Hybrid

It must be the fall-ish weather we are having that made me so slow to move today. I could have taken a nap at any point today but I didn’t I did what any normal scrapping gal does I scrolled through galleries. And I came across a LO with The Lillypads freebie template challenge and I thought I need to do this. Its an awesome template that is so simple but can really stand out in a gallery.

The image is linked so don’t forget to go check it out. I did point out in another post that digi stores are a great source of templates that any paper scrapper can use and adapt to make pages. The Lilypad doesn’t make their templates in many formats which is a draw back but its easy enough to convert a layer into a png and than import in to your software for your cutting machine. Even with no cutter its simple to select and outline a layer to print and than cut by hand ( I did that for some of the elements as it was easier for me) Perhaps one day I may need to make a tutorial on how to follow these steps because I have a habit of assuming people know.

Before the summer I picked up Mix Tape by Forever Joy Designs this little bird and how one of her creative team members did a page forced me to buy this collection. I knew I could use the elements for a paper page quite easily but I haven’t gotten around to doing so until today. Oddly enough last month I spotted Basic Grey’s B-side at I think A Cherry on Top and knew that I had to pick up some papers and the frames to go with this digi kit. I love how things work out. Now there is a long list of digi I would love in paper and this is one so having it come together like this means it was meant to be.

See totally meant to be right!! These two kits were made for each other. I used Forever Joys’ bird, you rock arrow, the word strips and the tape for this LO. It all went together perfectly but the bird as on the top of the list. And this theme of music had to include my middle daughter. Shes the one who is always dancing, singing and moving. It is just so HER and the energy of this page captured her perfectly.

I used two different types of stitching for the paper strips a larger one on the outside and a straight stitch on the others. I also ran the straight stitch around the entire LO to tie it all together and I was quite happy with it.

As I mentioned above I outlined some of the elements for easier cutting. I did it by hand because its relaxing for me and it was only a few pieces so no threat to hand cramps. The larger paper cuts I did on my silhouette and a few bits clustered and this worked out wonderfully. I had such a fun time with this LO and it has put some pep in my step today. So go check out the template and give it a try.