Blast from the past Tuesday- Learning from mistakes and using fabric scraps

Hello!

I was wondering where my time went this weekend.
I thought I had everything in hand.
Suddenly it's monday, I have to write a "What I Learned This Week" post and realized...
I have nothing to write about.

So today I'll share a project I made for a Creative Keepsakes article 2 years ago on using fabric on a layout.
The project never made the magazine for obvious technical issues.

I still like the ideas I had for this simple page but leaving the crease
on the fabric was a big mistake. Also? No journaling.
Normally I wouldn't add any because the story, my daughter playing in the park,  is obvious
but publish worthy pages need a good story- I needed to dig deeper and write it out.

Here I tried to add dynamism to the design with the photos but
the bright colors are distracting. The eye keeps focusing on that red rick rack.
I should have and added the rick rack horizontally and given more space to the
white grid for balance. 

The big idea behind this 2 page spread was that I used fabric from the dress my daughter had on in the photos since the dress no longer fit and I really loved the cheerful pattern.

I could have journaled about that!
That's the story!

One of the many reasons I ran out of scrap time.
We were having actual outside fun in 70 degree weather.
Oh the sacrifice!

Have a great week!
Michelle

Pie charts RULE!!!! A Studio Calico challenge page

So I've always had a "thing" for graphics, pie charts and other office related graphics meant to keep you awake during snoozefest meetings.
I just never thought to use them in a layout!
TOTAL lack of imagination!!!
Must correct ASAP!!
Here ya go:

So my LOVE of neon and washi is in full effect here. I used a while bunch of techniques I have learned from other crafters- SoapHouseMama and Miae to be specific. More on that below.
 Materials: Studio Calico Classic Calico paper, washi tape from Hambly, Smash and MT, vellum title from DCWV, Awesome word bubble from A Life Handmade on Big Cartel, Smash date stamp, gel pens from Sakura Martha Stewart multi butterfly punch and pin from American Crafts.

The layout is from a sketch by Vee Jennings for Studio Calico for their latest Sunday challenge which I encourage you to try!

My idea of a good scrappy time? Throw the paint on the page and watch it spread out or drip down, SHOVE the vellum into the sewing machine and hope a general circle shape emerges from my tugging and pulling.
My husband absolutely FREAKS when he sees me work.
He gets all itchy looking at the crooked lines, paint splatters all over the work table or the sewing machine wrestling (mostly because I DON'T KNOW HOW TO SEW.)

Some detail shots:

I bought this random travel themed DCWV pack at TJ Maxx
and I really like this vellum material. Some of the phrases
are a bit cheesy but this one has a great font and size.
Love that word bubble! I really wish I could afford a Silhouette!

Silver gel pen for the journaling. The butterfly was
colored using pastels I bought at the dime store. 

Ok so here is where I credit my scrappy friends.
SoaphouseMama (Ashli Oliver) gets credit for the stacked lines. I see this motif in her
work and I just like how it adds visual interest without distracting from the main design.
Miae of  Making Scrap Up gets credit for the wheels because I see her doodle these all
over the place!!!  Using the sewing machine was time consuming but I love the effect.
The hanging ends were something I saw  a french blogger do and it just made my jaw
drop.  I don't remember who it was (it was before I learned about Pinterest)
but if you recognize who I'm talking about lemme know ok?

I encourage you to let loose today.
Just slap some paper onto other paper, dash that paint on, take your favorite stamp and go hog wild- whatever.
If you hate the final result it's ok- go back to your regular work style!
But maybe you'll discover a new technique.

NEW PHOTO SEGMENT!!
What I learned from my two year old TODAY:
A fool and her washi are soon parted or
YOU CAN NEVER HAVE ENOUGH WASHI.

I used this page to get my engines ready for some design team assignments I really want to get right. So keep your eyes peeled over at Gauche And Scrap FX- you'll see iterations of things I learned making this page.

GRATUITOUS TODDLER SHOT!!!!!

Cute right? She pulled the ugliest 30 minute tantrum when it was time to go.
This is at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. GO! TODAY!
The Cherries are blooming!

MuChoS SmOoChEs!
Michelle

Time for a Punk Sketch!

I love the Punky Scraps sketch challenges!

Trying to come up with fresh design ideas is the hardest part of the layout process for me so I gladly hand the responsibility over to Marie who is able to provide something beautiful for us Punky Team members to work with at least 1 every month! Thanks Marie!

Here's the resulting page:

Keith's Playground (FDR Dream)
Materials: Scenic Route paper, Studio Calico exclusive radar stamp (LOOVE!) Studio Calico exclusive woodgrain alphas, Basic Grey Alphas, Tim Holt'z waxed kraft paper, Basic Grey brads, Prima heart button. Fiskar's arrow punch, K & Co arrow die cuts, Smash polka dot tape and tag. Canvas Corp tag baggie. That "T" pin is AWESOME! Got it from a pair of men's pants at Banana Republic. Looks like something Tim Holtz would package at 12 for 4 dollars.

I've always wanted to visit Keith Haring's "Crack Is Wack" mural. He painted it in the late 80's. Ever since his death from AIDS in the late 80's,  folks in the neighborhood have volunteered to touch it up to keep it from disappearing. When I arrived, 3 people had just finished retouching the orange side to erase some punk kid's silver tags. They thought I was Park Police and showed me how they stayed away from the outlines to preserve the original design. Gotta love NYC!

Here's the sketch:

Now please feel free to swing by and add your page!
http://punkyscraps.blogspot.com/

MuChoS SmOoChES!
Michelle

A Thankful page- Daily Grace Project

This week has been a little crazy schedule-wise. I've been trying to avoid Facebook (and more importantly- Pinterest!) so I can concentrate but like Al Pacino in take-your-pick gangster flick- I keep getting drawn in!

I managed to make a page:

2011 Daily Grace (Project) It's like a December daily but without the STRESS!
MATERIALS: Sassafras Lass paper, Pink Paislee Nantucket die cuts, Smooch Spritz in magenta, green and dark blue, American Crafts Elf woodgrain and Sunrise magenta alphas (MUST HAVE MOOOORE!) and kraft butterflies (ditto!!!) K and Co alphas.

Fave scrapper Sasha Farina posted this Pinterest image in her blog as part of a mini hop she participated in. I gladly surfed along since I will do anything Ms. Sasha suggests (fangirl!! stalker!!!)

Why not try it? LOVE the modern typographic design.

I suggest you swing by- the work by fellow fave bloggers Diane Paine, Emily Pitts and Kimberly Neddo is not to be missed. 

And I found a new (to me) fave- Mandie of http://lemonstolimes.blogspot.com/

Mandie is hosting a give-away with some great scrap goodies if you make a page using the illustration above.

Oh MAN!!! I really wish I had used an AC Slick Writer from the start!

How does my page relate to the illustration? I should've had the writing crawl down to each image... oh well. I'm not gonna front- it's far from the original but I credit the vaguely triangular placement of each photo to the illustration- I was going to make a simple grid layout but it just didn't seem "me"- I liked it messy and random. ;)

The Daily Grace project is now back in gear. Here are some recent additions. Another page is soon to follow.

11/13/11 Grateful for: getting to live this... 

11/14/11 ... AND this.

11/15/11 Grateful for: Apples in general

Before I forget- I've had 3 images published over at Scrapbook News and Reviews Magazine. If you have a moment swing by to check it out (you need to subscribe to see the magazine I believe) Here's a link:SNR Travel and Vacation and here: SNR Fall and Thanksgiving.
What do you give thanks for?

MuChOs SmOoChEs!

Michelle

31 days of Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween- What? You can't see the title ? It's on the lower left hand corner. 

At this time, last year, the wonderful link party website Paper Issues was born!


To celebrate, you get an extra 20% off in the Paper Shop!  Use code HAPPY20

It just happens that yours truly started blogging on October 31st last year as well. Angry that my husband had decided to work on a saturday and that the weather was so cold Lola was not able to join the Halloween Parade in Central Park, I declared Halloween over-rated.
Well not this year baby!
This year it's gonna be different!
This year Lola has her Candy Witch costume ready to go and we have tickets to the Museum of Natural History's Halloween party- it will be INSIDE so she'll have some fun.
Fingers crossed. No, triple crossed.

First edition- I  just added a great photo- the layout is.... beyond repair.

This page was made before Lola had a costume last year so I had some crazy black and white photo of weeds on there. I remember being so proud of this "creation". I redid the page for your amusement- yes I am aware it looks like the Micheal's holiday aisle threw up all over the page. Lola likes it- she keeps pointing at the googly eyes.

You're able to see Lola's SLAMMIN' orange and yellow tights here.

Love the layering in the tag.

Bottle with green flower soft- what the heck do you use
Flower Soft for anyway?

Swing by Paper Issues and join the link party fun.  For the next 31 days we will be celebrating Halloween and we hope to see you there!

AWWW! The polka dot pants with the pink hightop skips- I MISS those!!!

MuChoS SmOoChEs!
Michelle

Using fabric on a layout

I got a sewing machine so I could learn to sew pillowcase style dresses for Lola as I love them. I also wanted to make her Alice in Wonderland apron for her first birthday.
Needless to say it hasn't happened- yet. But the machine gets used- a LOT- on paper. One day I WILL learn to sew but for now I'm happy to just know how to make a straight line.

For this page I cut some flowers off the fabric that was used to make Lola's dress (purchased online- have not been able to master the pillow case dress yet) I then stuck them onto the paper using Zip Dry glue- MISTAKE! Here's what I recommend- use that iron on adhesive webbing they use to make quilts- it makes sticking things and sewing them on paper much easier- this is what happens when you skip that crucial step:

I love this series of shots- it's very Lil Red Ridding Hood.
The fold from 1 year of storage in the bed linens closet has also been preserved- oops!

I like that the stitching around the flower outline is uneven but
some adhesive webbing would have kept that fabric stuck in place.

This project came together so quickly even I was surprised- Lily Bee Hello Sunshine and some K & Company Handmade alphas and we are good to go!

Hipstamatic iPod App strikes again!!! Love the sunshine filter effect you
get using the Jimmy lens and blanko film!

My favorite detail from this project.

This is my first real attempt at a 2 page layout with matching pages. I really liked feeling like I had more room to play with but I didn't run around trying to find more fiddly bits to add- I just wanted to showcase the fabric (and my lack of ironing skills).

MuChOs SmOoChEs!
Michelle

Michelle gets PUNKY!!!

Woo HOOOO! I want to announce that I've been chosen as a 2011 Design Team Member for Punky Scraps!!! YEAH BABY! I love this challenge blog! It encourages you to be precious OR bitchy- which is what most people are- variable, changeable and sometimes inexplicable but always TRUE.

What's THIS???

I wish I had a Punky project to share but I've been concentrating on a much delayed wedding invite project for my sister, Leticia, whos' getting married July 30th in Minori, Italy.  AAAHH I just LOVE SAYING THAT!!

I promised Letty I would have everything together before she got here for her annual April visit. Letty works in London as a sports and health educator for a private school (her title is very British and I constantly forget it so I call her "Coach") I love my sister- she's awesome- she's also a true free woman- do NOT tell that chick what to do OR ELSE.

Original design concept. I look at this now and go- meh!
I like Letty's crazy butterfly parade more.

I dilly dallied on the invites. It's my first big card project. It's a WEDDING. The groom comes from a TRADITIONAL Italian family. One word-BASILICA. 

I got... skeered.

I waffled like a mid-term presidential candidate on the paper order. 

I delayed putting together the final design. 

I ordered and re-ordered ribbon samples. 

I FREAKED over the printing of the actual invite. 

I set my self up for many a neurotic break down and spasm away I did. 

Way to over-think it right?

Here are my two faves of the design fest:

On the left is my original color scheme.
On the right is Letty's color improvisation.
We made 88 of these babies! WHOOP WHOOP!

I ran my poor open-minded sister ragged over the placement of butterflies and length of ribbon. I yelled over what I called "Glue Glops".  

I actually said to my sister- THE BRIDE- as SHE HELPED ME instead of enjoying her week off in NYC: "NO Pink! You must follow PROCEDURE!!!! If you're gonna help YOU GOTTA DO WHAT I SAY!"

Oh yes I did! Told you I went completely mental!

I like the final outcome- no card is the same.

More photos, vendor details and a complete list of evil things I said will be coming next week. Right now I'm celebrating my PUNKY SCRAPS acceptance!! I will also be their  one of the DT Coordinators. Promise I will not tell you guys to FOLLOW PROCEDURE. :)

YAY!!!!! So gonna rock out on these pages!!!!

MuChOs SmOoChEs!
Michelle