Inspiration Elevator - September 2012

You may recall from last month's challenge that the purpose of this challenge group is to take our scrapbooking to the next level, to stretch our creative process and to grow as artists by embracing challenges that make us think, work and grow.

This month our challenger is the very talented Laurel Seabrook. Laurel loves flea markets and garage sales and would love to incorporate more of those items into her art. We have also invited a valued guest designer to join us this month; her name is Christy Riopel. We welcome Christy from her regular writing and creating job at Canadian Scrapbooker magazine.

Here's a bit of what Laurel had to say about her challenge this month.

"I love going to garage sales, flea markets and thrift shops to find fun items for me to upcycle into something else, either for my own home or to give as a gift. I also love just to pick up some old things that appear to have some sort of story to them. I love the shabbiness of old, worn items and the warm comforting feeling they evoke.

My challenge for you is to scrap an old photo/photos. Not only that I want you to incorporate something that is not normally a scrapping item, upcycle/recycle something to include on your layout. Vintage is definitely not my style when it comes to paper crafting. I like clean and simple so this will be a challenge for me."

Wow! This month's challenge was just that! A challenge! I started with a couple of photos of my paternal grandfather, but the creativity just wasn't happening. Then I remembered a photo I had of my mother with her sister that was taken when my mom was only 3 years old. That is the one that I ended up working with and I am quite happy with the end result!

My personal goal on this layout was to incorporate lots of white space. This was a challenge for me as I kept wanting to add more, but I really wanted the focus to be the photo so I kept it simple.

I started by using my Silhouette to cut out the title for my layout. Instead of adding the title to my page, I subtracted the title! I love the look of a negative title and it worked really well on this design.

I then created a tag cluster that I felt added to the vintage feel of the page.

It was fun digging through all my supplies to find just the right items to add to the cluster. I was so delighted when I found the little button with a bow on it! It mimicked the bow on my Aunt's dress and the colour was perfect!

The upcycle/recycle item on my page is the string I used on the tag. I know... pretty lame! But, that was the only thing I could find! It was attached to a tag that I had saved to use on a page.

I wanted to incorporate the date on my page, so I added a small banner tag in the corner. It is hard to believe that the photo was taken in 1931! My mom was only 3 years old and my aunt was 6 - the only two girls in a family with 6 siblings. To this day, my mom and her sister are still very close and they try to get together every couple of weeks for lunch or for special occasions. They are now 84 and 87 years old and still share a special bond. They especially encourage each other in their struggles, the most difficult being that they have both lost their husbands after many, many years of marriage. I can only hope that my sisters and I stay as close as my mom is to her sister.

Here's the list of my IE friends, who have been working all month to create gorgeous and inspiring designs. I do hope you'll pop by each of their blogs to see what they have created and perhaps take a moment to leave a comment for them.

Ann Jobes

Audrey Yeager

Cathy Harper

Christa Uttley

Joanne Burton

Laura Whitaker

Laurel Seabrook

Lisa Moen

Lisa Spiegel

Sue Sykes
Christy Riopel (Guest Designer)

If you would like to take on this month's challenge, please do so! Just leave a link in the comment section below and I will be sure to take a look :)

Little Red Wagon #150

This week at Little Red Wagon, Rosanne has challenged us to use hexagons! I adore hexagons so this was a really fun challenge for me!


I pulled out my new Die-namics Hexagon Die and I dug through my wagon for some bits and pieces of paper that I could use. Then I added a yummy bow and a button for good measure the there you have it!

Why not join in the fun at Little Red Wagon this week? Show us your hexagons by linking up your project. We would love to see what you create ♥

Refrigerator Pickles

I actually made my first batch of pickles and they turned out perfectly! Cool and crisp and tasty!

I have always been intrigued by Refrigerator Pickles as they are far less complicated than regular pickles to make and when I saw a recipe on Pinterest, I decided to give them a try.

So after a trip to the Farmers Market for the cucumbers and numerous other stores to find the right spices (they were all sold out of coriander seeds!) I made up 16 small and 1 large jar of yummy pickles! It turned out to be quite easy to do and it was exciting to see how they would turn out! Plus, I kept thinking of how proud my Mom and Dad would be as they always did lots of canning when we were growing up.

This is the recipe I used and I will definitely be making them again :)

Refrigerator Dill Pickles (from One Perfect Bite)

Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups distilled white vinegar
1/4 to 1/3 cup granulated sugar
4 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
3/4 teaspoon dill seeds
2 cups hot water
2 pounds kirby cucumbers, sliced 1/4-inch thick
3/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh dill
3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped

Directions:

1) Combine vinegar, sugar, salt, mustard seeds, coriander seeds and dill seeds in a heatproof bowl. Add hot water and stir until sugar dissolves and liquid is clear. Cool to room temperature.
2) Place cucumbers, garlic and dill in a large bowl. Toss to combine. Pour brine over all and turn to coat cucumbers. Cover them with a plate to weigh them down and keep them covered in brine. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight, stirring once or twice.
3) Transfer to an airtight container and store for up to three weeks. Yield: 1 quart.

Farmers Market

Mr B and I woke up early this morning and went to the Farmers Market! We have not been all summer because we have been busy every weekend, but today we finally made it there.

Guess what I am going to try making for the first time ever?

Little Red Wagon #149

This week at Little Red Wagon, Regan has challenge us with a school theme. I love making school themed cards and the one that I made for this challenge was inspired by a card I saw on the Paper Crafts blog.

I used my Silhouette to cut three apples and I put them on a plain white background. I used my computer to add the sentiment and I used a border punch for the notebook paper edge.

A little piece of twine completed my card and I love how it turned out! Thanks Regan for a fun challenge.

Check out what the other Girlfriends created and if you want to play along with us this week, be sure to link up at Little Red Wagon. See you there :)

My card also works for the CAS-ual Fridays challenge this week and the repetition challenge at Moxie Fab!

Nothing Wishy About Washi!

I adore Washi Tape! It is just so easy and fun to play with and there are so many different ways that you can use it on your cards or layouts. I made a couple of cards recently using washi tape and I love how they turned out.

For the first one, I created a sun element using washi tape, a cardstock circle and a button.

I also used the tape to create a banner pattern at the bottom of the card. This worked really well with the chipboard banner pieces I used.

Then I tried a new technique for creating flowers with washi tape.

I started with a circle that I punched out of cardstock. Then I started adding the washi tape along the outer edge of the circle, pleating it as I followed the circle shape.

I created the flower centers by simply adding washi tape to cardstock and punching out different size circles.

The washi tape, chipboard and Happiness Is banner are all from MME, The Sweetest Thing collection.

For more great ideas check out this post on the Two Scrapbook Friends blog! Then pick up some washi tape and have fun creating!!

Little Red Wagon #148

Today's challenge at Little Red Wagon is all about numbers! Judy wants us to use a number(s) on our project. This was a fun challenge and I had the perfect paper for it!

This numbered pattern paper by MME was the perfect background for my card and then I created a fun little element cluster using coordinating pattern paper.

We hope you join in the fun this week and link up your numbers project at Little Red Wagon! Be sure to check what the rest of the Girlfriends created using numbers. You are sure to be inspired :)

Little Red Wagon #147

This week's challenge at Little Red Wagon is brought to us by Tammy and it is all about recycling any household item on our project. It can be any item you wouldn't normally find in your favourite paper crafting store or aisle.

I looked around my house and the only thing I could find was an old, damaged paperback that I had put aside thinking I might be able to use the pages for scrapbooking one day. With back-to-school being right around the corner, I thought how perfect it would be to include a page from the book on a school themed card!

I worked with an adorable digi image from Tiddly Inks called SchoolGirl and I used my Copic markers plus a little paper piecing on her skirt.

The papers are from Authentique and I finished off my card with a bit of stitching, a clip and some twine.

I hope you join in the fun this week! Hop on over to Little Red Wagon to see what the other Girlfriends created - I am sure you will be inspired!

Inspiration Elevator - August 2012

You may recall from last month's challenge that the purpose of this challenge group is to take our scrapbooking to the next level, to stretch our creative process and to grow as artists by embracing challenges that make us think, work and grow.

This month our challenger is the very talented Lisa Moen. Lisa, like most of us, doesn't always take the "perfect" photos. In fact, sometimes, the imperfect is all you have to tell your story. This month Lisa challenged us to use those imperfect photos to tell a story. Here's what she had to say about her challenge:

"I was digging through some old 1980's photos the other day and realized how bad some of the pictures were. Cameras have come a LONG way since then!

I have lots of pictures I haven't scrapped because they were/are poor quality pictures and I am sure you have pictures like that too. So let's dig out those blurry, bad pictures and tell the story behind them! My challenge to you this month is to use a bad photo and journal about it."

This was a tough challenge for me! I will often delete my bad or blurry photos, assuming that I will never use them. But I did find a special photo of Mr. B and myself from a few years ago. We were visiting Mackinaw City, Michigan and before we left for the day, we stopped by the lake shore to take a photo. The sun was setting and the fog was rolling in and it was almost impossible to get a good picture. It was such a wonderful day though, that I decided to keep the picture and now I am glad that I did!

Here is my layout:

I had fun creating a multi-layered background, using a variety of papers. I also added an accordion heart that I created using this tutorial from Jayne Morgan.

A paper doily seemed to work well with the feel of the papers and photo...

...and some washi tape was the perfect addition to my layered design.

A fun little cluster along the top border gave the page balance and there you have it! A page with a blurry photo that I actually like!

Here's the list of my IE friends, who have been working all month to create gorgeous and inspiring designs. I do hope you'll pop by each of their blogs to see what they have created and perhaps take a moment to leave a comment for them.

Ann Jobes

Audrey Yeager

Cathy Harper

Christa Uttley

Joanne Burton

Laura Whitaker

Laurel Seabrook

Lisa Moen

Lisa Spiegel

Sue Sykes

If you would like to take on this month's challenge, please do so! Just leave a link in the comment section below and I will be sure to take a look :)

Little Red Wagon #146

This week at Little Red Wagon we were challenged by Jan to create a card with an animal on it.

I decided to use this cute little kitty digi image that I colored with my Copic markers. I kept the card really simple and I did not put a sentiment on it as I am not sure what occasion I will use it for.

Why not join us at Little Red Wagon this week? Just make something with an animal on it and link it up! We would love to see what you create :)

Scrapbooking Olympics!

We have been having lots of fun at the Two Scrapbook Friends Forum! While the London 2012 Summer Olympics have been taking place, we have been having our own Olympic Challenges - scrapbook style!

Each of the Design Team members, plus Carolyn and I, have been issuing Olympic related challenges to our scrapbook friends. Plus we have been having some fun with Olympic games!

My first challenge is to create something with chevrons on it. The chevron pattern represents the highs and lows that the athletes experience as they compete. Here is my inspiration layout.

Then my second challenge is to do something water themed. Swimming is one of my favourite summer Olympic sports, so a water-themed challenge seemed perfect.

I created this layout using a photo of my son from a couple of years ago when we were in Myrtle Beach. He is a true beach bum - totally enjoying the beach each and every day that we were there.

I you haven't been to the Two Scrapbook Friends Forum in a while, it is not too late to join in the fun! Check it out and give the challenges a try. We have some prizes up for grabs and at the very least you will get a couple of layouts done for your album :)

Have a great weekend ~

Little Red Wagon #145

Happy Wednesday to everyone! It is my turn to post the challenge at Little Red Wagon this week and I decided watermelon would be the perfect challenge!

I know that Watermelon might seem like an odd challenge, but it is the middle of summer and it is the perfect time of year to enjoy this yummy fruit and there are so many cute things you can create with watermelon as a theme! And who doesn't love watermelon?

This is a card that I created as inspiration.

I colored a sweet digi image from Whimsie Doodles and made a summer card for someone special :)

I hope you decide to play along this week and get creative with watermelon! Please link up your project at Little Red Wagon and be sure to visit the other girlfriends to see what they created.

Launch Day Giveaway!

Courtney Walsh is the author of "A Sweethaven Summer" - a great novel about childhood friends reconnecting years later and piecing together their memories from the past with the help of a scrapbook.

Courtney has also just released her second novel, "A Sweethaven Homecoming", and she is offering a fabulous Launch Day Giveaway!

Courtney is not only an author, but she is a scrapbooker as well! So she has also published two scrapbooking related books, "Scrapbooking Your Faith" and "The Busy Scrapper". The best part is that she is offering a giveaway that includes all of her books! (Specially wrapped in happiness and sealed with love.)

She is also including a few extra items in her package!

What an awesome giveaway! All you have to do is go to Courtney's Blog and comment for a chance to win.

And if I don't win, I hope you do :)