Encre, papier, ciseaux

Beautiful Moments Captured

Inspiration: July 2022 Page Maps Sketch + Lasting Memory Layout Challenge #643 (Use at least one outdoor picture on your LO)

I had heard that Simple Stories was changing designer for their Simple Vintage collections and I was curious to see if a change in style would be obvious when the first collection from the new designer would be launched. This was Simple Vintage Life in Bloom and I'll admit I didn't know what to think when I first saw it. I was not immediately convinced, probably because the collection has a lot of floral details. But once I started seeing samples online, it grew on me. This is the first project I've put together with the collection and I had such a fun time using it!

This two-page layout came together very easily. I was able to use the title from the Page Pieces kit, which helped simplify the process. Those pictures were taken while we were riding the Kilimanjaro Safari at Animal Kingdom in Walt Disney World. I love the picture of Arielle and her dad sitting quietly together. It captures a nice father-daughter moment. The pictures with her struggling to keep her hair out of her face also crack me up. She's never liked having her hair tied up and would immediately pull out any kind of elastic or barrette with tried putting in it, so I guess this was the price to pay for it that day! 

Most of what was used for this layout came directly from the Simple Stories collection. I snuck in a doily, a few buttons, stitching rub-ons, washi tape, ticket essentials, metallic thread, cotton twine, an eyelet and sparkle kraft-stock. I think the colours are just yummy, This reminds of the early Bo Bunny years.

I was able to get a longer banner by pairing the die-cut one from the Page Pieces kit with the one from the cardstock stickers sheet. I added button in matching colours to the pennants. I used a tab sticker from the sticker book and got the idea to add a stitched star rub-on over it. I have to admit this became one of my favorite part of the pages. Another cool detail is that I had this empty space at the right of my left-page pictures. It was too narrow to put much there, but the gap was drawing the eye there. I found this half wreath in the chipboard clusters that was the perfect filler. That's another favorite part of the layout. I also used sparkly gems to create a little Mickey head on the tag, as I'm trying to add Hidden Mickeys to my Disney layouts whenever I remember to do it.

 

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: This & That Date Stamp (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Highland Heather (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers, Cardstock Stickers, Sticker Book, Chipboard Clusters, Glitter Enamel Dots,
Page Pieces: Simple Vintage Life in Bloom (Simple Stories)
Accessories: Eucalyptus Ticket Essentials, Black Roughly Sewn Rub-Ons (49 and Market); 
Pastel Dreams Sequins Mix (28 Lilac Lane/Buttons Galore & More);
Beautiful Things Doilies (Bo Bunny); Eyelets (We R Memory Makers); 
Stampin' Dimensionals, Mini Stapler, Cotton Twine, Rose Metallic Thread (Stampin' Up!); Buttons (Foof-a-La);
Sparkle Classic Kraft-Stock (Idea-ology); Clear Art Pebbles (Prima Marketing)

 

Joyful

Inspiration: October 2019 Page Maps Sketch

This picture was taken at an office party a few years ago. The chalet theme worked really well with the Simple Vintage Christmas Lodge collection from Simple Stories, which I was looking forward to using. It was not hard to come up with something pretty as this collection has a lot of choose from. 

The sketch I was working with was a Halloween one and had a spiderweb in the top right corner. I replaced it with the doily from the chipboard clusters (I am loving this new addition to the Simple Vintage elements). I picked one of the beautiful woodgrain foam sentiments to create my title. For the patterned paper on the left side, I used one of the papers that already has a cluster printed on it. I cut the top and bottom at 3½" all the way to the image and then I fussy cut the rest of the overlapping image. I really liked the plaid patterned paper but it was clashing with the buffalo plaid from the main picture when I was using it as a paper on the right side of the page. To split the difference, I ended up creating a scalloped border to slide underneath my Santa paper. I added green sparkly washi tape along the edge, and I added 49 and Market Hardware stickers to both ends. I secured it in place with black brads.

The main image was matted in grey with paper from the Basics kit. I roughed the edges up with the blade of my scissors. I had a piece of white cardstock that was embossed with the Ski Lodge embossing folder on my desk. I inked it up with Lost Shadow Distress ink and slid it under the black patterned paper to add another layer. Since I was using a larger picture and my left-hand border was a tad larger than the original sketch, I moved the tag from the right of the picture to the bottom. I looked at my tag dies and picked the Square Tag from Graphic 45, which gave me plenty of room for journaling. I used word editing software to print my text on green paper (also from the Basics kit). This die has quite the large hole, so I used a few stickers from the sticker book and a button I had previously made with my button press. This die set also includes a clock and I realized this would get me three extra points if I die-cut a clock out of gold foil paper.

Total points for this page: 36 points

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: Metallic Kraft-stock (Tim Holtz for Idea-ology)
Ink: Lost Shadow Distress (Ranger)
Patterned Papers, Chipboard Clusters, Sticker Book, Foam Stickers, Cardstock Stickers,
Decorative Brads, Enamel Dots: Simple Vintage Christmas Lodge (Simple Stories)
Dies: Square Tag & Clock (49 and Market)
Accessories: Pastel Dreams Sequin Mix (28 Lilac Lane/Buttons Galore & More);
Button Press (We R Memory Makers); Black Roughly Sewn Rub-Ons (49 and Market);
Stampin' Dimensionals, Green Glimmer Washi Tape, Black Brads, Rhinestone Basic Jewels (Stampin' Up!);
Blending Brushes (iCrafter); Ski Lodge Embossing Folder (Spellbinders)
Font: Harrington

 

Wow Presentation

Inspiration: August 2019 Page Maps Sketch + Just Add Ink #645 (No Stamping)

As I was digging through paper collections, I got inspired to use Simple Vintage Lemon Twist. I love the bright colours of this collection, but I don't necessarily find it easy to match with pictures. As I was going through my printed pictures box, I found those really old pictures that date back to 2010, where we see me present on stage at a stamping event. What caught my attention was the colour of the sweater I'm wearing, as the teal matched the papers nicely.

I found a sketch with multiple pictures to base my design on. I changed the left page a bit and only included one picture, since the sketch had portrait pictures and all of mine were landscape (and couldn't be trimmed without losing details). To give visual weight to the single picture, I used one of the chipboard frames (one of my favorite element from the Simple Stories collections). 

For my pages' background, I picked the lighter yellow pages from the Basics kit. Since the Calvinball list has stencil on it, I pulled out my Transparent Gloss Texture Paste and a Stamperia stencil. I really love this paste - when it dries, it gives a beautiful clear raised surface, similar to having embossed with thick embossing powder. I used the font in the top left corner and the "Alchemy" word with flourish at the top, and it added so much flair to the page.

In the center, I followed the sketch and layered two papers. I picked based on colours, but I realized that the bee paper was giving me an additional point as bee is on the list. I also realized later while I added my title with Thickers that the space between the punched border and the black glitter washi was just the right size for the letters I wanted to use. I love when things work out like that by sheer dumb luck.

Behind the framed picture, I layered various elements inspired by the list: gold-foiled acetate, gold-foiled vellum that I tore for an extra point, an embossed piece of paper, punched hexagons and a bow made out of black tulle recycled from a previous project. I added a circle just like on the sketch and used polka dot paper for an extra point. The list had "banner" on it and I had purchased the Banner Stickers, so I was able to pick from that to fill in the space at the bottom. I included the second word of the title in the tag frame (which I filled with sparkle kraft-stock. I picked typewriter chipboard letters from Stamperia. I added a decorative brads at the bottom, as brads are part of the list as well.

On a side note, I purchased Tim Holtz's new  Sparkle Classic kraft-stock in my last order and I am AMAZED by this new product. It sparkled so much and I love that the gold is actually more of a champagne shade, which I find easier to use and less obnoxious than the yellow-gold papers. I also couldn't believe that the paper is perfectly smooth and has absolutely no texture. Tim mentioned that this is printed paper, but I have a hard time wrapping my mind around that. How do you print glitter? Not sure, but what I do know if that I feel that you're getting a really good value for the price versus quantity and that without the texture, this paper will be really easy to work with. My only disappointment with Tim's paper is that he never offers 12" x 12" and so when I scrapbook, I can't make a full-size piece since his papers are 6" x 9".

On the right page, I added a decorative flourish using Opaque Crackle Paste this time. It made my paper curl pretty obviously, so I ended up gluing both yellow papers on white cardstock to stabilize the pages. I found a long journaling block on the cut-apart page, so I handwrote (one point) my journaling on it. I added a strip of patterned paper with the decorative edge. I liked that it had a doily in the image, which was another point. I cut my pictures to a slightly smaller size and stacked them on the left edge. I was not sure I liked the look of the pictures floating on the page, but the second I found the photo corners on my sticker page and added them, it immediately grounded the pictures.

I added embellishments to the page. I placed another hexagon so I'd have three. I added a heart sticker (one point), a sentiment banner (one point) and a chipboard tag (another point). I threaded twine in the tag (one more point) and added a cute yellow flower to it (point for bling). I added my date (one point) using the same Thickers. As I scanned the Calvinball list for inspiration, I decided to add buttons as well, so I placed three (yellow and black) around the two pages. I also added enamel dots around. And then I saw clear stickers and I remembered I had black clear stickers from Maggie Holmes so I pulled them out to see if they would fit the look of the page. They had a doodled look to them, so a bit different from the vintage look, but I decided to make it work. I added a doodled heart around my floral heart cardstock sticker. I added little stars around the date. I added Let's Have Fun at the bottom of the page and Always be Brave on the left page. I tucked little stems around my left-page cluster. And finally, I also wanted to do rub-ons, so I plucked "This Moment" from the Simple Vintage Life in Bloom rub-ons pack. The black was working well with this layout, and the typewriter font gave me an additional point.

I also got the idea to use my new Teal wax beads since the colour was matching so nicely. I happened to have a Honey Bee seal that has a rainbow on it, so that gave me one more point. I added tickets to the corner of the frame for an additional point as well.

I had two leftover pictures that I had not been able to fit on the page, so I got the idea to use one of those mini pockets that can be inserted in the album's rings. The only one I had left was 5" x 7" so I grabbed a piece of patterned paper, matted my pictures in white and added them to both sides of the paper. I realized this gave me another chance to embellish with items I had not marked points for yet, so I added wood veneer, arrow, fussy cutting, sequins, branding strip, ribbon, burlap, chevrons and puffy stickers to my tally. I was surprised to get all of those extra points from that very small insert.  

This double-page layout totals 69 points. (This is my highest-scoring layout so far.)

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Patterned Papers, Basics Kit, Chipboard Frames, Decorative Brads, Banner Stickers,
Cardstock Stickers: Simple Vintage Lemon Twist (Simple Stories)
Cardstock: Sparkle Classic Kraft-Stock (Tim Holtz for Idea-ology);
Gold-foiled Vellum, Golden Garden Designer Specialty Acetate (Stampin' Up!)
Dies: Circle Layering Set (Tonic)
Accessories: Transparent Gloss Texture Paste, Opaque Distress Crackle Paint (Ranger);
Say It in Crystals (Prima Marketing); Clear Stickers (Maggie Holmes for American Crafts);
Stampin' Dimensionals, Black Glimmer Washi Tape, Grey/Black Baker's Twine, Eyelet, Finial Presse
Embossing Folder, Plenty of Patterns Stencil, Scalloped Border and Eyelet Border Punches (Stampin' Up!);
Enamel Dots, Simple Vintage Life in Bloom Rub-Ons (Simple Stories); Buttons (Foof-a-La);
Alchemy Stencil (Stamperia); Romantic Christmas Adhesive Chipboard Alphabet (Stamperia);
Garden Party Thickers (American Crafts); Black Tulle (Recollections);
Teal Wax Beads (Spellbinders); Rainbow Wax Seal (Honey Bee)

 

Let's Cruise

Inspiration: July 2022 Page Maps Sketch + Lasting Memories Layout Challenge #642 (Make a LO about something that makes me happy - Going to Walt Disney World and riding the Jungle Cruise makes me happy!)

This is the second page I made using the Say Cheese Adventure at the Park collection from Simple Stories. I really wanted to use the Jungle Cruise images, but I realized I had not taken any pictures while we were on the ride. (We rode it after dinner and it was already dark, so I think the pictures would not have shown much.) I picked a cute picture of my niece and let the embellishments set the theme instead.

The starting point of the design was the torn paper I had leftover from my previous project. I liked how the white edge looked like seafoam on top of the waves, and I had a larger scale boat in the Page Elements pack. To create the sky, I used a piece of Robin's Egg Color Vibe cardstock. I made sure to use the polka dot side to get a point, and I ran it through the Stitched Cloud Backdrop: Portrait die from Lawn Fawn. Adding cloud also produced a point, but it was nice way to create the scene as well. I played around with the vine from the Page Elements and ended up hanging it at the top, dividing the scene and the picture on the side. I didn't like the top part leading to nowhere, so I added a flower cluster foam sticker.

I created my title using a cardstock sticker that reads, "Let's Cruise." From this same sheet, I pulled the music notes, as if people on the boat are singing. I had quite a bit of journaling to include, so I use a word processing software to type it out and I used the Typewriter Rustic RNH font to get a typewriter font extra point. I printed it directly on patterned paper to create my lower right panel. I had room at the top, so I wrapped a piece of tiki pattern washi tape.

The day we visited Magic Kingdom, after dinner, we had limited time to try and squeeze in additional rides before we went to see the firework show. We had to decide between Pirates of the Caribbean and Jungle Cruise. My sister and brother-in-law voted for the former; my oldest niece and I voted for the latter. My sister said, "It's too bad Arielle is too young to vote as she would have been the tie-breaker." She was two at the time and LOVED animals. She kept making animal sounds all the time, so when I pointed out to my sister that should Arielle vote, she would most likely be more interested by animals, we ended up going to queue for Jungle Cruise. That being said, the discussion ended up being a moot point as the lines were under 20 minutes each and we ended up being able to ride both!

This page was surprisingly quick and easy to put together, despite the result being fairly embellished. There's a lot of stickers and die-cut layering involved. Because of that, I didn't think it would score me that many points for the Calvinball challenge, but it turned out to be the second-highest scoring project I've made so far! There are a few elements that I auditioned and decided not to add to the page even though it could have scored me a few extra points. In the end, I aim at ending up with layouts that I really love, so I will take pleasing design over additional points.

Total points: 37 points

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: Robin's Egg and Lime Color Vibe (Simple Stories); Foil Sheets (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers, Cardstock Stickers, Foam Stickers, Sticker Book, Enamel Dots,
Page Elements: Say Cheese Adventure at the Park (Simple Stories)
Dies: Stitched Cloud Backdrop - Portrait (Lawn Fawn); Curves Ahead (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Lagoon Vintage Bits Filmstrips, Sunbeam Ticket Essentials (49 and Market);
Stampin' Dimensionals, Tropical Elements, Crushed Curry Baker's Twine,
In Color Printed Designer Brads (Stampin' Up!); Clear Art Pebbles (Prima Marketing);
Into the Wild Puffy Stickers (Simple Stories); Clear Stickers (Maggie Homes for American Crafts)
Font: Typewriter Rustic RNH

 

Bewitched

Inspiration: May 2022 Page Maps Sketch + TGIF #412 (Magical)

This is my latest project done for the Calvinball challenge. The picture was taken 3 years ago. My niece has started to love the Harry Potter movies and her mom had gotten her this cute HP outfit. I snapped a picture of her as she was playing around with a wand.

I used the Witches & Wizards No. 2 collection from Echo Park. I followed a Page Maps sketch to get my page started. The sketch has multiple pictures, so I substituted cut-apart images to fill in the space. I looked at the Calvinball list for ideas of additional embellishments I could add to the page. I combined Books and Fussy cutting to create a book stack ornament. I also remembered I had purchased doilies in Stampin' Up!'s clearance rack, so I picked a blue one to put underneath the books. One of the cut-apart was a tag, so that covered another item. I had also started inking the edges of my paper after I put the newspaper print over the star pattern to help it stand out more, and Inking was another item on the list. I remembered I had purchased the Wizard Wear dies from Echo Park, so I die-cut a wand and s broom and added them to the page. Since Metal Ornament was on the list, I looked at my Tim Holtz embellishments and I found a Word Plaque that says "Season of Magic." This is technically a Christmas plaque, but it tied very nicely to my page, and I was able to score an additional point by stitching the plaque onto the page. I used Pewter tickets and saw that one of them had arrows on it, so I made sure to incorporate it to get a point for Arrows.

I added a Wood button from Cocoa Vanilla with a star on it. As I was getting the buttons out, I found the Garden Party heart resin stickers, so that gave me a point for Heart. I added washi tape and enamel dots and I sprinkled a few of Tim Holtz's Mirrored Stars around the page. The title was created with Midnight Thickers and red Tiny Type stickers from Cosmo Cricket (those date back to 2010!), so I got a point for using two different fonts for the title. I got a point for Label by fussy-cutting a label from the Cut-apart page and writing my journaling on it (that was a point for Handwriting as well). The label was put on foam tape, so I got a point for Dimensional Adhesive as well.

I used Stencil set 38 from Tim Holtz and gold pigment ink to add stars to the top of the newsletter paper, using a stencil brush. I cut a rub-on image from the Eccentric remnant rubs and added it to the corner of my picture. I added a red pearl to the wand to get a point for Bling, and I added two pieces of washi tape to the tag. I stamped the date the picture was taken with a date stamp on the tag in black ink. I sprinkled enamel dots around the page to get a point for Enamel Dots.

I ended up with a total of 28 points for this layout. My goal is to see if I can beat my own score from last year's Calvinball (which was 506 points. I think it will mostly depend on how much time I can free up to create until the end of March (and how tired I am, as tiredness seems to be my creativity's biggest enemy).

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: This & That Date Stamp (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); Antique Linen and Walnut Stain Distress (Ranger)
Cardstock: Bravo Burgundy (Stampin' Up!); Metallic Kraft-stock (Tim Holtz for Idea-ology)
Patterned Papers: Witches & Wizards No. 2 (Echo Park)
Dies: Wizard Wear (Echo Park)
Accessories: Red Tiny Type Alphabet Stickers (Cosmo Cricket); Midnight Thickers (American Crafts);
Eccentric Remnant Rubs, Mirrored Stars, Christmas Word Plaques (Tim Holtz for Idea-ology);
Garden Party Resin Stickers (Maggie Holmes for American Crafts); 
Set 38 Mini Stencils (Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous); Distress Stencil Brushes (Tim Holtz for Ranger);
Pewter Ticket Essentials (49 and Market); Glossy Berry Pearls Mix (Little Things from Lucy's Cards);
No Limits Wood Buttons (Cocoa Vanilla); Stars Halloween Mix Epoxy (Bella Blvd.);
Holly Jolly Enamel Dots (Simple Stories: Gumdrops (Your Next Stamp); Oh What Fun! Enamel Dots (PinkFresh);
Stampin' Dimensionals, Sponge Daubers, Midnight Mist Stampin' Write Marker,
Heart & Home Doilies, Green Baker's Twine (Stampin' Up!)

 

Training Required

Inspiration: September 2022 Page Maps Sketch + Festive Friday #130 (Children + Squares + Patterned Paper)

Those pictures were taken during our day at Animal Kingdom. My sister had purchased Mickey binoculars for the girls and even though we kept insisting they were looking in them the wrong way in, they were refusing to turn them around! 

I pulled out the Say Cheese Adventure at the Park collection from Simple Stories. It's arguably my favorite of the Say Cheese collections they released last year, because the colours look really good together and the tiki images are really cute. I've noticed that their Say Cheese collections are inspired by Disneyland as they include the Indiana Jones images, the whale image from the Storybook ride, the submarine, and the collections are based on the different lands, which are not the same in Disney World. For example, I used the Frontier at the Park collection to scrapbook my pictures from Pirates of the Caribbean, but in WDW, this ride is in Adventureland. So I went about it the other way around: I pulled the collection, looked at the sticker images, and decided which pictures from the trip could go with it. When I spotted the binoculars, I decided to pull pictures from our day at Animal Kingdom, where we see the girls playing with their souvenir toy.

I had a lot of pictures to choose from, so I pulled a two-page layout sketch that included 5 pictures. In order to stretch my patterned papers, I added Color Vibe cardstock in matching colours for the base page and the central block. I also cut out the center of the green patterned paper so that I had some leftover for other projects (since part of it was going to be hidden underneath the Coral cardstock.

I started by cutting the main papers to size and putting them in place with the pictures. Then I immediately went to the Calvinball list and started pulling out elements based on the list so I could work my design around them. I will tell you, it made a huge different on how many elements I was able to fit on my page, rather than doing that step when I was ready to start embellishing. For example, the list had "cut-apart cards" so I cut three of the little square images, then I snipped the bottom of the definition one as a banner (because that was also on the list), and I fussy cut the map from the page as well since fussy-cutting was on the list. So rather than put a die-cut on the bottom right circle, I selected my hand-cut image instead. I also slipped an arrow under it as I had since it on the list.

I like that Calvinball made me pull out some older supplies (chipboard and wood veneers) and also mix and match items from other collections. The chipboard flowers are from a My Mind's Eye collection that is not the same colour scheme, but I was able to pull out the aqua flowers an the green leaves, which did match the collection. I also used my travel-theme rub-ons from 49 and Market and go the idea to add them to an acetate (which was on the list), which I then cut underneath the photo frame die-cut. And I was inspired to use this die because I was looking for a camera die and found one in the same die set. Which happened to have a heart in the center so I was able to top it with a heart enamel shape and check that off the list as well.

I found a chip frame in a P13 set and saw that one actually was a vine, so that went with my theme very well. The wood veneer set had chevrons, so I made sure to pull those out. I was debating leaving the wood bare or not, but I got curious to know how Distress Glaze would look on it, so I pulled out Peeled Paint to try it out. I thought since the glaze is sheer that we would see the wood underneath. The first layer turned out very uneven. I let the pieces cool, and I pressed them in my VersaMark pad again and added a second coat of glaze. The result got a bit more even, but it did not end up like I hoped it would. It was good enough to keep on the page, but I might favour embossing powder over glaze next time.

The foam stickers for this collection have some really cool images in it. I realized that contrary to most of Simple Stories' foam stickers pack, which include large words meant for page titles, this set contains a large selection of images and a few words that are smaller and therefore usable as accents. I wish their foam stickers sets were always done that way - they'd definitely work better for my scrapbooking. So I used the binoculars, the safari shirt and the "welcome to the jungle" sentiment. Because I love that collection so much, I did get the matching washi, which has really cute patterns. I cut my branding strip with pinking shear decorative scissors and wanted to add washi at the top. I usually would have picked one of the thematic patterns, but I realized that the brown tape had a woodgrain pattern, which allowed me to score a point for that as well. That strip also became the grounding point for the first part of my title, which I did in two different fonts for an additional point. Last time I ordered from Elle's Studio, they were offering an alphabet grab bag, which included a white cardstock alphabet. I don't know why it never occurred to me when I ordered to get white cardstock alphabets, but it suddenly dawned on me after looking through my sets and not finding the colour I was looking for that I could pull my alcohol markers out and make my own yellow letters. 

I scored a total of 53 points for this double-page layout.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: This & That Date Stamp (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Always Artichoke (Stampin' Up!); VersaMark
Cardstock: Espresso, Lime, Coral and Dandelion Color Vibe (Simple Stories);
Acetate (Lawn Fawn); Foil Sheets (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers, Bits & Pieces, Washi Tape, Foam Stickers, Cardstock Stickers, 
Enamel Dots: Say Cheese Adventure at the Park (Simple Stories)
Dies: Planner Essentials 37 Letters & Numbers, Planner Essentials 4, Sidekick Essentials 11 (Elizabeth Craft Designs);
Cross Stitched Circles (Lawn Fawn); Curves Ahead Sizzlits (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: White Jane Alphabet Stickers (Elle's Studio); Chasing Adventures
Puffy Stickers (Jen Hadfield for American Crafts)
Frames Light Chipboard Embellishments (P13); Yellow Say It in Crystals (Prima Marketing);
Vintage Artistry Travel Anywhere Rub-On Transfers, Eucalyptus Ticket Essentials (49 and Market);
Light Mango Melody Stampin' Blends Marker, Mini Stampin' Dimensionals, Jute Ribbon, Mini Stapler,
Butterfly Punch, Essentials Wooden Elements, LIbrary Clips, Tropical Elements, Mini Vintage Tags (Stampin' Up!);
Star-fetti Shape Sprinkles, Heart-fetti Shape Sprinkles (Doodlebug Design); Peeled Paint Distress Glaze (Ranger);
Happy Days Chipboard Elements (My Mind's Eye); Disney Mickey Icons Punch (Ek Success)

 

Low Prices

Inspiration: June 2018 Page Maps Sketch + Time Out Challenge #234

This picture was snapped during quarantine. This is the cheapest I've ever paid for full since I own a car. It goes without saying that at that time, fuel was half its current cost because there was nowhere to go to with that full tank anyway.

This gave me the chance to pull out the Quarantined collection from Simple Stories. I kept the design pretty simple. I cut my picture to 3" x 4" and matted it with Blush Color Vibe cardstock. I used a cut-apart image in lieu of the second picture from the sketch and matted it with Olive Color Vibe cardstock. I used a puffy heart sticker to frame the red heart that was already on the earth image.

I used the aqua patterned paper as my background strip as the design was subtle enough to print my journaling on. I cut the strip in half so I would be able to run it through my printer. I made sure to select a typewriter font to get a point for that in the Calvinball grid.

For the title, I found that the pink and red letters from the Tinsel Town set fit with the Simple Stories collection, so I used those for the main word and gold letters from the Courtyard Thickers set for the rest. I added my date with navy puffy letters from Elle's Studio.

 

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: Calypso Coral (Stampin' Up!);
Blush and Olive Color Vibe (Simple Stories)
Patterned Papers, Cardstock Stickers: Quarantined (Simple Stories)
Dies: Sentiment Labels (Spellbinders); Foundation 4 (Queen & Co)
Accessories: Mini Library Clips, Stampin' Dimensionals, Brads, Min Buttons (Stampin' Up!);
Enamel Dots (Simple Stories); Aqua Enamel Dots (Hero Arts);
 Tinsel Town and Courtyard Thickers (American Crafts); Sugar Brads (Doodlebug Design);
Navy Jane Alphabet Puffy Stickers, Gold Heart and Star Puffy Stickers (Elle's Studio)
Font: Elegant Typewriter

 

Rocking Chairs

Inspiration: December 2022 Page Maps Sketch + Lasting Memory Layout challenge #641 (Plant a Flower Day)

I was excited to see the new collections that would be released by Simple Stories this Spring. The second I saw a preview of their Wildflower collection, I thought the style was reminiscent of My Mind's Eye. Turns out I was right, as it says on the packaging it is a collaboration. While I am not usually big on florals, there is something very soothing about the colours and patterns of that line.

I was eager to put it to good use and I ended up pairing it with a very old picture that dates back to 2011, when I visited Nashville to attend a Leadership convention. I was really surprised to find out the Nashville airport had rocking chairs! There is something about the chaos and fast-moving rhythm of an airport that does not quite fit with the cozy, laid-back nature of a rocking chair. The dichotomy of those two elements together really stood out to me and kind of gave the tone of the week that was waiting ahead for me.

I'm still playing in the Calvinball challenge, so this is another layout that's shock-full of elements. The one I'm most happy about is the canvas tag I used to back my journaling tag with. It's from Pink Paislee, and it says on the packaging this was released in 2009. So if you do the math, this has been sitting in my stash for 14 years. I'm happy to finally have found a use for it. It made me very happy when I found out that 49 and Market was releasing boxes of stamps and tickets in a myriad of colours, and I've found out with their last two releases that they keep adding colours to their offering. I purchases Blossom (pink) and Eucalyptus (soft aqua) earlier this Spring and you can see both colours here peeking from underneath the tag. Those boxes of tickets are making me very happy, as it's one of my favorite elements to add to projects.

The metal paperclip is another embellishment I've had in my stash for a long time. The pink was fitting nicely, and I topped it with a cardstock sticker. I noticed that the patterned paper are printed with inked edges, so to keep the look once papers were cut down to size, I pulled out my Distress Lost Shadow ink and inked the edges with a dauber. I have the full Distress Oxide ink collection, but for this new colour, I decided to get the regular Distress ink pad instead. I've tried a few grey inks in the past and they were never as pale as I hoped they would be, so I think this one fills the gap and I knew I'd use it more as a dye ink rather than a pigment one. It was the perfect option to shade my papers without overpowering the soft colours.

For my journaling, I used a tag from the cut-apart sheet, and I specifically selected this one as I remembered that Chevron was an element on the Calvinball list.

Calvinball Points

• Die-Cut
• Striped Paper
• Use a stamp
• Add a date
• Clean your desk between projects
• Heart
• Handwriting
• Titles with 2+ fonts
• Circle
• Butterfly
• Torn Paper
• Bling/rhinestones
• Label
• Ribbon
• Use 3 patterned papers
• Inking
• Enamel Dots
• Green
• Use a punch
• Metal Embellishment
• Use a sketch
• Floral patterned paper
• Chevron
• Pink
• Ticket
• Dimensional Adhesive
• Tag
• Multi-challenge project (with scrapbook floral theme challenge)
• Chipboard

With the points allowed for posting online, this is totalling 32 points.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Date Stamp (Office Supplies)
Ink: Lost Lagoon (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Burnished Rose Mirror (Tonic)
Patterned Papers, Cardstock Stickers, Sticker Book, Chipboard Stickers,
Enamel Dots, Foam Stickers, Floral Bits: Wildflower (Simple Stories)
Dies: #9 Borders (Photoplay); Mixed Media Motifs (Sizzix)
Accessories: Cecily Thickers (American Crafts); Pink Jane Tile Alphabet Stickers (Elle's Studio);
Blossom and Eucalyptus Ticket Essentials (49 and Market); 
Strawberry Milkshake Say It in Crystals (Prima Marketing); 
Pink Metal Clip (Making Memories); Amber Road Canvas Tag Patches (Pink Paislee);
Stampin' Dimensionals, Soft Succulent Organza Ribbon, Sponge Daubers,
Misty Moonlight Stampin' Write Marker (Stampin' Up!); Eyelets (We R Memory Keepers); 
Round Binding Edge Punch (EK Tools)

 

Mini-Cindy

I got really excited when I saw the reminder in my calendar that Calvinball was right around the corner! This month-long creative challenge pushed me to create a lot of layouts last year, so I was eager to draw inspiration from it again this year.

This layout was easy to make since the beautiful 49 and Market paper did most of the work for me. The most time-consuming part was the tone-on-tone hand stitching I added to each section using matching colored floss. I added washi tape to a couple of sections before adding the stitching, and also a piece of white sparkly washi at the bottom of the page.

Once that was done, I picked a few die-cuts from the Spectrum Sherbet laser-cut elements and Mix & Match packs to mat the image with. I create three clusters around the picture using additional die-cuts and I included layered circles to the center of the stitched sections. I also slid a filmstrip under the picture, as it was one of the temporary bonus points and I had the Lagoon film strips from 49 and market. (And that is why I find the Calvinball challenge both fun and useful - it makes you pull out a variety of elements from your stash, inspiring you to dig out older elements as well.)

I wanted to make my titles with two alphabets in matching tones. I ended up using the Adventure Thickers, which has a wood pattern that matched the dusty yellow nicely, and since I didn't have anything in the right green, I went to the Fernwood Thickers. Those are nice because they are black and white and meant to be colored in. So I pulled out the Stampin' Blends markers and colored them in a matching shade of green.

I also added jumbo eyelets in matching colours on each of the paper's sections. I handwrote my journaling with a matching pen in the dark teal section. To finish up, I saw that the list had punch and vellum on it, so I punched small stars and I stapled them in place for additional texture.

Calvinball elements:

• Stitching 
• Metal embellishment (staples)
• Vellum
• Filmstrip
• Chipboard
• Use a punch
• Green
• Circle
• Title with 2+ font
• Handwriting
• Gold
• Washi
• Heart
• Use a frame
• Clean my desk between projects
• Add a date
• Use a stamp
• Die-cut
• Star

For a total of 20 points. 

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: This & That Date Stamp (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Lost Lagoon (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Vellum (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Paper: Painted Foundations - Kaleidoscope - Spectrum Sherbet collection (49 and Market)
Embellishments: Lagoon Essentials Filmstrips, Tidal Wave Ephemera Bits, Sherbet Essential
Laser-Cut Elements, Sherbet Remnants, Eucalyptus Ticket Essentials (49 and Market);
Mini Stapler, Stampin' Dimensionals, Washi Tape, Mini Star Punch, Pretty Peacock
Stampin' Write Marker (Stampin' Up!); Gold Puffy Heart & Star Stickers (Elle's Studio);
Large Eyelets (We R Memory Keepers); Fernwood and Adventure Thickers (American Crafts);
Needlepoint Floss (DMC)