Scrap Africa sketch challenge 25

Happy New Year to all!!! I really hope to do more scrapbooking this year (says every scrapbooker) LOL I do think I started 2014 out with a bang! When I saw the sketch from Scrap Africa on my Facebook news feed, I was instantly inspired!

So I got to work as soon as I could on their challenge, which you can find here. This is my result

It was so nice to have such a fun creative release after a holiday season full of craft shows! 

I had just purchased The Haute Pink stack by DCWV and had to use it! I also used Color Me Crazy flowers, distress inks, a harlequin stencil, some very old rub ons I found in my stash, gold alcohol ink and I embossed my title. 

If you have time and would love to be inspired, check out the Scrap Africa blog. You will NOT be disappointed, very talented ladies!

Have a great day all!

Cheers!

~Mindi

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