Midnight Scrapbooking

I am the queen of insomnia.  Some nights I don’t get to sleep until 3:00 in the morning.  Sometimes I just wake up hours early.  Last night I had the fabulous experience of doing both.  One thing that sometimes helps me get my mind to stop spinning is to get up and work on a page.

Last night I managed to complete a page from start to finish.  Well, in all honesty, I already had the papers and photo picked out for this layout.  My goal is to use some of my die cut papers.  Remember when they were all the rage?  This one is from Bo Bunny’s Block Party collection.  2010 is in the house!  The other papers were in my scrap basket.  I cant identify them all.  If I had to guess, I would say there is some Pebbles, Fancy Pants, and DCWV mixed in there.

Paper placement was pretty easy on this one.  I started with the light blue chevron to mat the photo.  Then I flipped the off-cut over so the navy blue with the white stars was showing.  The brown, red, and green strips were pretty much just stuck down at different lengths to add interest.  I also rescued the quote from my scraps bin.  It was perfect for a page about my dad looking at vintage cars.

As far as embellishing went, I first grabbed for stars since the background paper features stars in the upper right and lower left corners.  It gave me a chance to pull out that American Crafts star garland.  At first I was only going to put one string of stars below the photo.  It just looked awkward.  So, I arranged a second messy line below the first.  That helped fill up the space and made my chaotic placement look more deliberate.  (It was!  I promise!)

Cork stars were also carefully placed in order to frame the photo.  Really, I was also trying to cover some of the square corners of the papers.  It’s a good trick to soften some of the “boxiness” that occurs with lots of rectangles on a page.

I also sprinkled in some stickers.  I may be a bit obsessed with Shimelle’s puffy hearts.  I’ve used them so often lately.  They have some nice masculine colors, something that can be difficult to find when searching for sticker hearts.  No, not all hearts need to be pink and girly.

For something that got thrown together in the wee hours of the night, I’m really happy with this layout.  Die cut papers with printed embellishments in the corners are not easy to use. The photo and papers were placed just perfectly to show off this oldie but goodie.  Now I think I need to do all of my scrapping in the middle of the night.

Christmas Cards Finished

I’m done.  Okay, I am pretty sure that I’m done.  I haven’t made a list and checked it twice, but I’m somewhat confident there are more cards than people I need to send them to this holiday.  (And yes, I know I need to get them in the mail!)  Sadly, I start way back in the summer with my card making.  It’s the only way that I’m not tearing my hair out in December.  After all, I do have the attention span of a gnat when it comes to a large project such as this.

My first two cards feature the Winter Trees set from Neat & Tangled.  I *adore* this stamp set.  I’m not quite sure what it is about those whimsical trees, but I’m in love.  I stamped the trees on watercolor paper, then again on white cardstock and patterned paper.  I also stamped stars on the background of each.  You can’t see it on the card on the right.  I used a clear embossing powder with sparkles that simply doesn’t show up in the photo.  Then I used some Tim Holtz distress ink to add color on the background.  This is where I flubbed up a bit.  The black ink didn’t have enough time to dry, so you can see where it bled.  The last step was cutting out and gluing down the trees.  The center tree in each is raised with a bit of dimensional adhesive.

By the way, the inspiration for the second card came from the Sooner Rather Than Later blog.  Miriam made a gorgeous tag using the stamp set.  It was only after I was done that I realized my background patterned paper is the same paper she used for one of the trees.  You can find it here!

My second set of cards is just a rag tag bunch of scraps.  You know me.  I get itching to work through my scrap basket or use up old product.  If it doesn’t get used, what is the point in buying it?

The first two cards are made entirely with scraps and old chipboard, die-cuts, and 3×4 cards.  They aren’t fancy, but they get the job done.  The last card was a bit of an experiment.  I just got the Hero Arts Coffee Cup stamp and die set.  So this was my first attempt at using it.  I really love the floral cup.  I’m torn about the tan cup holder.  It covers up so much of the pretty cup.  Still, it’s a perfect place for stamping the sentiment.  I think I have more playing to do in order to get it right.

Trying Something New… Or Not

I had every intention of doing something completely new.  It was time to break out of my box.  The comfort zone had become too comfortable.  So before starting my next layout, I tried to make sure what I did was new and different.  I pulled materials that I don’t generally use.  I started with some stamps to create a background.  Then I pulled kraft cardstock as a base, something I don’t typically use.

And then this happened.  *Sigh*  Yes, it looks just like my other layouts.

You see, I started digging through my scraps.  I found that green paisley.  (Oh how I adore a paisley.)  That resulted in more digging, which led me to all of the other papers.  The papers practically laid themselves out onto the page.  And the next thing I know, I have a very familiar layout with no stamping.  (The stamps are still sitting forlornly on my desk, waiting for a little love and attention.)

I chose to embellish this quite simply with hearts.  The cork hearts live on my desk.  It seems that I purchased not one, but two packs of them over a year ago.  I keep them within reach, hoping that some will actually get used.  I also had a pack of Shimelle’s puffy hearts handy.  So I added in some punched hearts, and one giant natural wood heart to form my embellishment clusters.  It still needed something, so I sprinkled in the green pearls.

Honestly, it still needs something.  It is a simple design.  No trumpets or fanfare to be found here.  I think it is a lot like me… straightforward and gets the job done.

The next project I make will really be different.  Wait, haven’t I said that before?