Scrap Africa challenge 16

Good morning all! I was feeling frisky and wanted to try something new. My friend Elizna Parsons suggested I play along with the current Scrap Africa challenge which can be found HERE.
As I was reading the challenge, I figured b&w photos, easy enough, triangles, also pretty easy, and then the confetti! Oh dear, what do I do with confetti???? So I started the page with the hopes that an idea for that fun little element would come to me. At the very end, it did! Whew!

Firstly, I have to say....I have had these 2 photos and the idea for the title picked out for about 6 years from when I first started scrapping. The photos aren't great, as my mom took them and well, she wasn't the world's greatest photographer, but she took tons of photos anyway! Bless her heart! I say a blurry picture is better than no picture! Anyway, for some reason I thought of these pics as soon as I read the challenge. So thank you for inspiring me to FINALLY do this page!

Requirements for the challenge

~black and white photos- 2 of them

~triangles-the banner

~confetti-across the ribbon and one at the top by the small banner

Supply list

background brown stock-unknown stash

teal stock-The Paper Studio Meadow Night stack

banner stamps-CTMH Chantilly Workshop

corner stamp-Tim Holtz Nature's Elements

harlequin stamp-Tim Holtz French Market

words behind harlequin- Tim Holtz Urban Grunge

ribbon-American Crafts

scrolls-image on internet, used SCAL with Mark-its on my Cricut

drama faces-image on internet, printed and colored with EK Memory pencils and Zig Markers

Inks- Versacolor Lagoon blue, Bark, Pinecone, Turquoise and Distress Ink vintage photo

Thanks for looking and have a super great day!

~Cheers!

Mindi

One last Linky!

You know, I wish I would do things while I am thinking of them, instead of waiting until the 11th hour! LOL I have been meaning to post several items that I was inspired to create by Heather at The Kraaft Shaak, but of course I wait until the last second!

I have made so many items that have been sparked from something I saw on Heather's Kraaft Shaak Youtube channel. She has so many great ideas and wonderful short cuts! There is the occasional crash or camera bump, but to me, that is what makes watching it live "real". She is her wonderful self every time! She will be taking a break from live shows, but will be back at the end of the month. You can always check out her channel and watch the previous episodes to "catch up".

The last item I would like to share is a photo album/brag book that I made for the store. I used the fab stamp set I ordered from Heather, as she is a Close to my Heart consultant. It was the stamp of the month for March and I ordered it in addition to the monthly kit I get from her. I did a layout with the set previously, and this time I used it to "make" my own paper for a wedding brag book.

It is bed time for this girl! Make sure to check out Heather's videos!
Cheers!
~Mindi

Inspiration From Heather

So I was working on a layout last weekend and getting absolutely no where! It was the night before a show and my mind was not on scrapping at all. I let it sit until the next week, then I tried again. Since I had already glued lace and ribbon around a 5x7 photo, I wasn't sure where to go next. Then I remembered a video I watched from Heather at The Kraaft Shaak and the video is here. She was glittering some stuff up!! So I stamped the heart with wings image (which was a 50 cent stamp from Michaels! Woohoo for a bargain) and I embossed it with some powder mixed with glitter. It is just a small embellishment, but I love the look it adds!

Cheers!
~Mindi

DCWV April Stack a holic Template Challenge

Good morning all. Wait, it is 12:03 here. Good afternoon all!
It has been quite awhile since I have played along with a DCWV monthly challenge, but I saw this month's sketch and was immediately inspired!

How fun is that???

I have been watching my friend Heather's show almost every morning (you can catch up on episodes here) She has so many neat ideas and tricks! So between the awesome sketch and some serious motivation from Heather, this is my take on it

I used the Black Currant stack and a little bit of the Glitzy Glimmer stack (which is fab!!) Since I have my new "magic glasses" I can actually see what I am doing without taking off my glasses and squinting. So, I was feeling sassy and spent 2 days fussy cutting for this layout. All the flowers and flourishes are cut from pieces of the stack. I did use my Cricut for the title work. Then I had to add tons of rhinestones and some liquid pearl dots. I didn't realize until later, when everything was dry, that I had smudged one :( Oh well, adds character!

The Adult prom, well that was beyond a blast! We went to dinner with our 2 friends and then met up with more friends at the Prom. It was an amazing time!! They are supposed to be doing them yearly, which would be great! It is hard to find a reason to dress up fancy and go out!

Lots to do around here today, so off I go!

Cheers!

~Mindi

2 more done!

I finally got a couple more layouts done for my jumbo gigantic wedding album! These photos do not do any justice to either of these layouts, as bling and shimmer just doesn't photograph well.

This page was started at the first crop on January 26th! Yikes Mindi!! Glad to have it done!
Here's what I used
Let's Scrap sketch 12-26-12
Silver sparkle paper SU!, the rest of the papers are stash
Bling is all from Michaels in there awesome dollar bins
border punch EK Success, ribbon that is ran the holes is Offray, the white ribbon in the back is The Ribbon Boutique
Family Stamp is Inkadinkado Vintage Expressions
Other stamps are CTMH Potential and Notice the details
grommets are Making Memories


This layout was started way before the previous. I could just never get it to go any where. I wanted a way to shadow the triquerta, but could never get it to look right. I went thru about 10 different sets of background papers. Then again the inspiration came! From two different places. The first being Val's make your own background challenge and the second being from Heather's Kraaft Shaak show from yesterday where she was masking with her stamping and misting.

The page seems kind of plain at first look, but there are a lot of details that went into it. The background start out as plain silver-ish cardstock. The rolling stamp is Love Swirls from SU!. I used graphite glimmer mist and masked off the 2 triquerta's and added glossy accents to the one in the bottom left. The picture on the bottom right was cut with my Sizzix into layers with shimmery white cs in between. I printed our handfasting ceremony onto vellum and hand stitched it on the page. I masked it off also when I was misting the page. The tiny envie is handmade with a key tag covered in the graphite glimmer mist as a closure. It has a secret note for my honey in it. I used Let's Scrap sketch 11-4-09 as inspiration for the photo layout. The title, oh boy, the title! I used the DCWV Adhesive fabric stack and used my Cri-kits gel pen to write it. Then I tried to cut the letters out. I wasted a sheet trying to find the sweet spot to where it would cut but not pull it off the backing. I never did find that sweet spot, so if anyone has successfully cut this stuff on their Cricut, please comment and let me know which settings you used! I gave up and fussy cut the letters by hand and then painted them in with Perfect Pearl colored perfects pearls with a bit of water. I love the end result of the fabric letters, just turned into way more work than I expected.

So many more projects to do, so I better get on it!

Cheers!

~Mindi

Challenge 158 from Let's Scrap and..

of course Linky Party with the adorable Karli for the Kraaft Shaak!

Val's challenge at Let's Scrap was
"to create a layout using only one piece of white cardstock and black ink and black pen. Well you can use another colour but the whole exercise of the challenge is for you to create a background on the white cardstock for your photo which you may mat in another colour if you like but it must be plain"
To say the least, I was instantly inspired by the challenge! At first I thought it would be perfect for a wedding layout, since they are all b/w. The more I thought about it, I wanted to try to "color" the background a bit.
Then the same day I read the challenge, I received a package from Heather at The Kraaft Shaak with my new CTMH stamp of the month "Floral Happiness". Happiness indeed, as I have been waiting very patiently for these to arrive. I just so happens that Heather had used the set on her live show today (which can be viewed here)
So now I am super inspired! I started going thru my engagement photos, and one caught my fancy because of the brick red train car that we were standing on. The creative juices started flowing as I thought I could use some Fired Brick distress ink for the background!! I am very jazzed at this point because it has been so long since I scrapped.
Now to find a sketch. I jumped out of my comfort zone and looked thru the card sketches at Let's Scrap since I was using a single photo.
 

So now I was ready to rock. As I looked at my single, white sheet of 12x12 and at the photo, it struck me that my dress pattern is almost identical to the stamps I would be working with! Then I was off with a blaze! I used Distress crackle paint with Fired Brick distress ink on the smaller corners. Then I smooshed (technical terms here folks) my Gathered Twigs and Vintage Photo distress inks on my craft mat, spritzed them with water and painted the two larger squares. I really enjoy the canvas look it has because of the textured cardstock. I used gold distress stain and a coarse bristled paint brush and went over the edges of the colors to make it appear to have "seams" or be piece together. Then I got to play with my new stamps!!! I used black Versacolor to stamp the flower images. I used my Sizzix to cut the photo and mat. I also used it to cut my title piece and inked some white stock with the Fired Brick before I heat embossed it with gold embossing powder. The saying is also from the same stamp set. I found some fun yarn to add, a few red rhinestones and VIOLA!! A messy masterpiece!

Thanks for looking! Off to cook dinner!
Cheers!
~Mindi

Happy Anniversary...

My hubs and I celebrated our 2nd Anniversary on March 19th and I wanted to make a super special card for him. I dabbled with gesso, distress inks, distress stains (which are new to me) and even some embossing.

The tag was inspired by my dear friend Heather at Kraaft Shaak and the video she did that had a tag done in the same fashion. By inking a craft mat, spritzing water and dragging the tag thru, you get this great marble look. I used Barn Door distress ink and Brushed Pewter distress stain for this tag. The background was done almost the same way with Black Soot and Barn Door distress inks. The harlequin patterned stencil is from TCW and the gesso is Pro Art. The tissue tape and clock stamp are Tim Holtz. The "love" stamp is from Glitz but I had to stamp it in halves so it would fit right on the tag. I used Versamark ink and Pewter Perfect Pearls. The brads are stash that were white so I heat embossed them with black.

He of course loved his card and we had a wonderful anniversary.

I have lots of work to do, so until next time!
Cheers!
~Mindi

For my honey

I had the urge to get crafty this morning, so I thought I had better get a valentine's day card made for my awesome hubs. My disclaimer here is that this is not what I had originally wanted the card to look like in any way. I made the hearts and it took on a life of its own.

For the embossing on the hearts I used Core'dinations Black Magic cardstock and Sizzix embossing folders. The key stamps that I heat embossed are Tim Holtz with Ranger clear emobossing powder and the the red key/key hole stamp is from Michaels with Stampin Up! Really Red embossing powder. The inside I used a Versamarker watermark pen with the same red powder. I have to say, the red powder really did make a mess and left smears which I tried to erase. Therefore, the crinkled corner :(

Anyway, I have never made a window card (that I can remember) and I was inspired by Heather at The Kraaft Shaak while watching one of her morning episodes on her YouTube channel. I am gonna have to say, mine did not turn out as cool as hers, but I am sure that hubs will still love it, and that is what counts!

Cheers!
~Mindi

Colored pencil box, finished

Hi all! Just a quick post this morning. I have finished my colored pencil box and would like to share the completed project with you.

The "crayon box" has 6 individual "cups" that can be removed for easy access. All the panels except the lid, are 2 layers of canvas. The outside layer is stitched and inside layer plain so the cups will slide out easier. They also have a piece of heavy chipboard covered with black cardstock in between them for strength. 

I had a lot of fun making this! Now I am on to working on items for my booth I will have at the Spring Fling :)

Have a great day all!

Cheers!

~ Mindi

Other than scrapbooking, I like to....

So I am wondering, what does everyone like to do other than scrapping and card making? Not exactly a portable hobby, as we all well know! What do you like to do while watching tv or during long car rides?

There are a lot of crafty things I like to do. I crotchet, cross stitch, and play with plastic canvas. What is plastic canvas you ask? This is how I explain it to people who ask me. Remember those yarn covered boxes that Gramma always seemed to have over her tissue box or toilet paper rolls? Yes, that is plastic canvas! A more "official" explanation would be such - it is like cross stitching as it is composed of squares, but it is a stiffer plastic and the holes are further apart. You stitch on it with yarn and can make 3D objects with it like boxes, etc.

So last week I finished a carrier/case for my 48 classic Zig Markers. So, slightly scrapbook related :) This is what it looks like closed

 and then the awesomeness of it open!!! For those of you wondering, yes, I store all of my pens, inks, etc by order of Roy G. Biv ;)

 This is how I get them stinkers to stay in place. The outer cover is completely covered with the chevron yarn stitching and the inside is blank. I used thin elastic and sewed it thru the holes of the canvas to make the pen loops. Then when I stitched the front and back together, I inserted a piece of heavy chipboard between the layers to make it more "book" like. 

Fun, right? I am currently working on a colored pencil case. There are 6 individual boxes that can be removed separately (by color family of course!) and I am making a crayon style box to hold them. I am almost to the construction phase, just a bit more to go.

I work on these in the evening while watching tv or in the mornings while I am watching Heather do her morning broadcast of Coffee, Chat and Kraaft on her YouTube channel

I would love for you to comment on what kinds of projects you work on when you are not playing with paper!

Have a great day all!

Cheers!

~Mindi

Fun with embossing and distress ink

Well hello!!!

I have been having a blast watching my dear friend Heather and her LIVE web shows in the morning. I shall now insert a shameless plug for her....
Here is the link to her YouTube channel Coffee, Chat & Kraaft, which is very similar to the name of my blog, so should be an easy mental association :)

Anywho, I have several Tim Holtz distress inks, but hardly ever use them. So Heather was playing with them on some Kraft resist papers in Episode 10 so I thought I would give it a shot. I did put my own twist on things by embossing on some scrap kraft I had instead of using pre-made.

You will have to forgive my messy stamping as I was excited to try this out! 

The one on the left is using mowed lawn, salty ocean and picked raspberry distress inks. The top flourish is clear embossing powder and the lower is pearl. The stamps are CTMH. I had never sprayed water or heated distress inks before, but Heather did indeed inspire me. I love it! The bright colors look like tie dye to me. Super fun! 

The one on the right is a mish mosh of several inks including antique linen, bundled sage, iced spruce, frayed burlap and walnut stain. The stamps are also CTMH and the dress form is clear embossed while the sentiment is gold. I really smudged the colors around, big fun and big mess!! After doing the main part, I inked the helk out of the edges with the walnut stain, sprayed lots of water and let it run down before I used the heat gun. I think I have found something to keep me busy for hours on end! What a blast!!

While we are on the topic of embossing, I just have to share this bit of awesomeness! At my crop last Saturday, and friend of mine bought a few things and couldn't find a pen to write a check. So what does any clever paper crafter do in this situation??

They emboss the check of course!!!! LOL For those of you wondering, yes I took it to the bank and yes they deposited it! :)

Off to make dinner for the troops, have a great night!

Cheers!

~Mindi

Busy, Busy!

I have actually gotten several wedding album pages done in the last couple of days! For me this is monumental, as I am usually a very slow and methodical scrapper. I guess getting most of my tax paperwork was such a relief that my creativity came flowing freely from deep down!

This was our receiving line after the wedding. I didn't have a lot of photos to work with, but made due to a least get a single page out of them. I matted all my photos with silver chrome paper, then embossed the circle mats with different folders in my Sizzix. The ribbon is velvet and the buckle was just in my stash and came from who knows where :) The butterfly is laser cut felt from Multicraft Imports and started out grey. There is a lot of silver Stickles on that guy, and also some clear and black mini rhinestones. I used the right side of the 6-9-10 sketch from Let's Scrap

For the wedding, I had super glued rhinestones on the bottom of my shoes that said "I do". For our first anniversary we stayed in the same hotel in the same room that I got ready in and we stayed in for our wedding night. Before we left for the evening, I got out my silver Sharpie and wrote "we did" on the shoes I was going to wear. The photos are taken on the same couch in the hotel even! A super fun memory for us and in my opinion, made for a great scrapbook page! This is also my entry for this month's Stack-a-holic template challenge at DCWV. I used the Bella Armoire stack.

Of course you can't be legally married without signing the ol' marriage certificate. The papers are all also Bella Armoire stack. The doves are Jolee's I believe. The white flowers (and black one peeking out from underneath) are Color Me Crazy and the two smaller are Prima. The centers are pearls and rhinestones from Making Memories. The dots around the scalloped circles are Liquid Pearls in White Opal. The inspiration for this was from a sketch I saw on Pintrest, but boy I surely strayed far from the path. 

One of my scrappy goals this year was to try some of the design elements that I see on other people's layouts that I like, but shy away from doing myself. So on this page, the mixed title was that thing.

Lot of fussy work on this page. The dress came with a small jacket, that of course didn't fit my football player shoulders. So I hung on that darn thing since before the wedding so I could use pieces of it for this page. All of the black embroidered pieces are fussy cut from that jacket. Of course the beading all fell off when I cut the pieces apart so they are all individually glued back on. As well as the loose black sequins and the tiny rhinestones inside each of them. Whew!

I also made the rose with inspiration and instruction from Heather Corbitt and her video

Coffee, Chat & Kraaft (CC&K) episode 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_aoWK2w-r4&feature=g-high-u. 

I did ink the edge, brush some Stickles on it and shoved some silver ribbon in the center for fun. :)

Papers-all stash

title - "2" is Tim Holtz, "nd" is Colorbok, "dress" is DCWV (actually Mango Frost but I painted them black and added some sparkle paint)

journal tickets - Brilliance Ink pad "Graphite black", Stampin Up! stamp and punch

Sizzix die - Decorative frames #2

harlequin mask - TCW, Colorbox chalk ink "Charcoal" and SU! ink "Illuminate"

mist - Tattered Angels "Silver Sugar"

white flowers, sequins and mini stones - stash

I used the 4-27-11 sketch from Let's Scrap

So again, I am amazed at the amount I got done this week! Tomorrow night a good friend is coming over and we are gonna have a Wine, Scrap N Chat, which I am totally looking forward to! 

Have a great night!

Cheers!

~Mindi

OH ME, OH DEAR!

August? Really? I haven't blogged since August? What a pity! I deserve a blogger flogging! I guess the good news is, I have gotten back to scrapping. Ironically, my last post was the last scrapbook page I did until a few weeks ago. That is a long time without scrapping! I was very busy and I did manage to stay out of trouble, just didn't any layouts done!

As of a few months ago I also became an administrator at Let's Scrap. A challenging position at times, but rewarding all the same.

Onto some scrapping! This layout was started shortly after I posted my last one in August. I did not get finished until the begining of December! I have to give every bit of credit where it is due for this layout. I found the idea on Pintrest and was linked to Virginia's Scrappy Place and her use of a Sketch support sketch. I really loved her layout and searched for the perfect picture to work. This photo is from our engagement photo shoot and I think it worked beautifully for this format.

 This was my first layout using a Let's Scrap sketch since August. This is the 12-5-12 sketch, using just one side. I really wanted to push myself to something new. I always admire the pages like this, with one photo, surrounded by the embellishments with a lot of "white" space. It took every muscle in my body to not put the title in the lower right hand side and spread the arrows out and run more strips, etc! It was worth the mental anguish, as the result pleased me :)

I was without printer when I was working on this layout, so no journaling or title. I guess I could have used my Cricut, but I didn't feel it was absolutely needed. The sketch is 12-12-12 from Let's Scrap. I used some of the fabric that was hanging at the wedding to make the swag on the page. Scrapbooking in its truest form. I do realize that there are 2 photos the same on the left side and that the photo of the disco ball is sideways. C'est la vie I guess. I am not one to re-do pages, so I can laugh at myself in my old age that I was dumb and didn't notice as I was printing the sheet out LOL

This is Let's Scrap sketch 9-28-11 using one side. Not the typical wedding album page, us out having a cigarette, but I love that the photographer captured Mike letting me have his jacket. A great memory for me to cherish. What a gent! 

So, last but totally my fave right now! This is the current sketch at Let's Scrap, 1-2-13. Another example of me not exactly where I am used to being, but enjoying the process. I love the "shabby chic" look, but really struggle to get it on page. This sketch and layout, really got the royal treatment. I kept adding and adding and adding! You just can't have too much bling! I have swirls and sequins and pearls and liquid pearls and even the old keys got blinged! The part of this that is the dearest to me is the "chain" that the keys are hanging from. I used leftover beads from Susie working on my dress to make it :) 

Speaking of my Susie (bestie of 16 years turned sister-in-law), she is expecting her first child! I am so very excited for her and her husband! No due date yet, but she will be finding out more on Wednesday! Wishing her all the love and comfort in the world!
~Cheers!
Mindi