Adore YOU .. with Scrap Our Stash

Heh peeps!

I've lost a day. I would have sworn in a court of law that today was Saturday, not Sunday.  :O  I digress. Whilst I was losing yesterday, I scrapped! I bet you that was where I lost my day .. sitting at my scrap table playing with paints and paper. What a lovely way to lose a day.

Adore YOU

I found inspiration in this month's Tic Tac Toe sketch at Scrap Our Stash.

I followed the top line .. the colour orange, cardstock and staples. I used Dylusions Paint (Pure Sunshine), lots of cardstock including my base and old MME strips, which I attached with my Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher. Lots of fun! Here's a few close ups ..

Looking back I think I can see how I lost Saturday lol! Meanwhile, you can find all the details you need for the Scrap Our Stash Tic Tac Toe challenge HERE. But you'd best be quick (super quick) as the challenge closes at midnight on the 29th!

Happy scrapping!

Alz

:)

PS: A special shout out to Michelle from Vernon, Vermont for the handmade tag I recently received in a handmade embellishment swap. As I said, I love it and, as planned, have you used it on the very next layout I created. Thank you!  :)

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I love us .. with Scrap Our Stash

Whilst scrapping on the weekend I found myself yet again seeking inspiration from Scrap Our Stash. Their challenges always get me digging deep into my stash to find things I'd forgotten I had.

I love us

I'm enjoying their Tic Tac Toe Stash Challenges. There are so many opportunities for inspiration that really, one would be hard pressed not to come up with something. I've used the middle, horizontal row .. stitching, flowers and ephemera. Whilst digging through my stash I came across a super old 'ephemera' pack (K&Co) which belonged to nothing else in my stash, which is super weird. I was a huge devotee of K&Co back in the day and would always buy the paper pads with lots of matching accessories. I'm not sure what I was thinking when I bought this pack!

Scrap Our Stash

A few close ups ..

I tried a new technique for me when creating this layout. For a while now I've been wanting to heat emboss template and texture paste backgrounds. But how was I going to do that without getting embossing powder all over my page? Can you imagine trying to clear the excess off with wet texture paste everywhere? So anyways, my girlfriend Sandy was sharing some layouts she had created with texture paste and Ken Oliver Color Bursts. She told me she added the powders whilst the template was still in place. Hmm. So yes I would lose some embossing powder in the process, but I would get the effect I was after. So I gave it a go with some Lindy's Stamp Gang embossing powders on this layout and it worked! You can expect to see more of that technique being used on my future layouts.

Anyways, you can find all the details you need for the current Scrap Our Stash challenge HERE.

Happy scrapping peeps!

Wonderful girl .. with Scrap Our Stash

I am now starting to have a lot of fun getting back into my scrapping and checking out what challenges are around each month to help get the creativity flowing. This month's challenge at Scrap Our Stash was right up my alley.

Wonderful girl

The challenge is a Tic Tac Toe one ..

On first glance I was like "oh yeah this will be an easy one". Nope. I had already gathered the materials for my next layout. As in prior to finding a challenge. Gold was not amongst them. If anything, I had a lot of silver products out lol. I don't have any charms, nor shamrocks, so, lol, I could only use the one line, the bottom one. Now, I'm a reformed Crate Paper junkie. Seriously. I have friends who can attest that I used to religiously buy every single collection as they were released, whether I liked them or not, and one year ended up with three of the one Christmas collection and I don't even 'do' Christmas! Thing is, I have started having a huuuuuuge clean out of my stash and have culled more than two-thirds of my patterned paper and what is remaining is, for the most part, now colour co-ordinated. So I had to dig on in and just start hunting me some Crate Paper!

Some close ups ..

My mini alphas are Echo Park, the flairs are Flutterby Designs, and the Crate Paper is my brown strip of patterned paper. I wanted to give it a lift and texture so die-cut one of Tim Holtz's rosette flowers to get the accordion, scalloped, perforated look.

If you're interested in giving this challenge a go you can find all the details you need on the Scrap Our Stash blog HERE.

Happy scrapping!

PS: Photograph courtesy of Lauren Ninness, Little Red Door Photography.

Butter wouldn't melt .. with Scrap Our Stash

Heh peeps!

I'm scrapping again this weekend and having a ball! The mojo still seems to be in the building lol. Strangely though the mojo for mixed media just isn't there. I wonder if I'm returning to grass roots after six months off? So anyways, I still need inspiration to kickstart a layout and this time I hit up Scrap Our Stash who have a fabulous Tic Tac Toe Stash Challenge up this month.

Butter wouldn't melt

Our puppy Harry, who has just turned one, has special needs. He looks innocent, adorable, and just cuter than cute, and he is all of those things; but then there's his high maintenance, cannot sit still, needs to destroy everything in sight, side. Imagine a super mischievous puppy on steroids times 1,000 and you'll get a 'glimmer' of what Harry is like. lol.

The term "butter wouldn't melt in his mouth" has been used colloquially over the years to mean a lot of different things. When I was growing up, it was used to describe someone (usually a child) who looked innocent, but was anything but. That's what Harry is like. He has the cutest, most adorable, loving face, and when he looks at me with his sweet, sweet, loving face, my heart melts, but then he'll destroy a cushion, eat a trinkets box, chew on some towels, pull a lamp over, and the list goes on. All before breakfast.  Lol our home now looks like we're moving out. He he.

I've included all this, pretty much, in my journaling on my tag at the top of my layout. I couldn't quite bring myself to have it all 'out there' if you know what I mean. Besides, the title says it all for me.

Some close ups ..

The Tic Tac Toe Stash Challenge was so much fun! I went with a diagonal row requiring a tag, heart and doily.

I absolutely made the most of my old stash when creating this layout. I've had the yellow coloured doily hanging around on my desk for I'd guess, conservatively, about two years. I know right?! The same with the chipboard heart. Does anyone else have a box that is full of bits and bobs you don't know what to do with, but you can't bring yourself to throw them out? Well that's where they were malingering (lol). Oh and my papers were Basic Grey Max & Whiskers. Old, old old.

Thanks for the inspiration guys. I'm now eyeing off the mood board. I hope to continue scrapping through the week so fingers crossed, I'll get to it. Meanwhile, for those of you out there who like a fun challenge like the Scrap Our Stash one, you can find all the details HERE.

Happy scrapping!

A young woman .. with Scrap Our Stash

The latest 'word' challenge at Scrap Our Stash is ALBUMS ..

A young woman

A .. alphas

L .. lighthouse

B .. Bazzill cardstock

U .. "u" in my title (I know its a 'stretch' but I was desperate LOL)

M .. metal wire

S .. stitching

The U had me seriously stumped. I did think of Umbrella but didn't have any suitable photos for my mum's album that would work. Initially (cheekily) for the letter M I was going to say "mum" because it was a photo of my mum LOL. Luckily I had some red metal wire hiding in my stash.  ;)

Meanwhile, I'm struggling more and more with scrapping older, less 'inspiring' photos, and without using a plethora of mixed media. This is like a complete return to my scrapping beginnings .. its all about the memories. A year or so ago it became all about the art. Whilst I've been enjoying the CAS style I've been trying to use for my mum's album, I'm growing weary of it. Hmm .. maybe its time to start an art journal?

Anyways, enough of my random ramblings. If you'd like to give this challenge a go, you can find all the details you need HERE. Oh and heh, don't forget to keep checking back with the Scrap Our Stash blog for loads of inspiration from the fabulous Design Team!

Happy scrapping peeps!

Everyday .. with Scrap Our Stash

As mentioned in my previous post, this month Scrap Our Stash teamed up with The Memory Nest, My Scraps and More, and Challenge YOUrself to bring us a host of challenges for 'ScraptoberFest'. All up, there were four challenges, one from each of the blogs, plus a bonus challenge. The bonus challenge was to create a layout incorporating all four challenge criteria. I didn't get to all the challenges, including the bonus challenge, but I'm figuring three out of four, or five, ain't bad.

Having already completed the My Scraps and More colour challenge and The Memory Nest's sketch challenge, I moved on to the Scrap Our Stash challenge to incorporate at least two different types of washi tape on a layout.

Everyday

Such a great challenge given that, like so many of us, I have collected, collected and then collected some more, washi tape. Yet I rarely use it and it lasts forever. As in you can never, ever, ever finish a roll. It literally lasts forever. I've incorporated four different washi tapes in my patterned paper layers and yep, you'd never know it to look at my washi tape stash.

Some close ups ..

This layout was a 'do-over'. As I finish off my mum's album, there are some pages which just need re-doing. Sure they show an interesting progression of my scrapping over the years, after all I did start this project ten years ago, but some pages really, really, really just needed a fresh approach. This is one of them. Originally all four photos were on a double layout. It was completely unnecessary and as my mum hasn't seen this new page, it will be yet another surprise for her.

Anyways that's it for me today and this month. I've no idea what scrapping I'll get to in November. With school, study and vocational placement, on top of managing a home, time to scrap is scarce. Plus I'm so, so tired that quite truthfully, the mojo has long deserted Camp Alz. Nonetheless I am determined to finish my mum's album as soon as possible, and well before Christmas, so I have my fingers crossed there will be some fabulous challenges next month to inspire me to continue with the final few layouts.

Wish me luck!

A Merry Christmas .. with Scrap Our Stash

The word challenge at Scrap Our Stash this month is INKS. If we set aside the word for just a moment, I have to say that I love this challenge more and more every month. I really dig deep into my stash and find things I can use up and throw away the packaging, and in the process I find treasures I can use on new layouts. I love, love, love their word challenge.

A Merry Christmas

This is what my word INKS looks like ..

I .. ink (Tim Holtz Distress Ink)

N .. numbers on the left edge of my patterned paper

K .. K&Co chipboard embellishments

S .. stitching (lots of stitching!)

I was so happy to get these photos of GB as a young boy visiting Santa scrapped. Because the photos were taken when he was little, I didn't think he'd have enough memories of this time to warrant three individual layouts. Boy was I wrong LOL! He thinks I'm a terrible nag LOL, hearing "I need your memories for the journaling" over and over until I finally get them. But then when the layout is finished, he's ever so pleased to see his memories written down.

Anyways that's probably enough waffling! If you think you'd like to give this challenge a go yourself you can find all the details HERE.

Happy scrapping!

Perfect .. with Scrap Our Stash

School holidays rock. Especially when you're the student and there are no rug rats to cater for! LOL! I confess that studying this year and, recently, commencing work placement in a very demanding job has been a whole new experience for me, and one which I've found quite tiring, and at times, testy. But I'm on school holidays now and like I said, school holidays rock!

So I've found myself with a little time to scrap and, seemingly having forgotten how to, headed straight to Scrap Our Stash for some inspiration. The word this month is LAYERS.

Perfect

I've used Layers of various textures, Archival ink, Yellow polka dot patterned paper, Enamel dots, Ripped patterned papers, and Sewing.

I had such a lot of fun playing with my stash and creating this layout. Because I'm not scrapping so much these days I tend to forget whats actually in my, not insubstantial, stash so having to think about what I can use for each of the alphas in the word LAYERS certainly got me thinking, and exploring.

If you think you'd like to give this challenge a go, you can find all the details you'll need HERE. Meanwhile, I'm off to scrap the Scrap Our Stash Sketch challenge and the Stuck?! Sketches sketch which was an optional extra I didn't take up with the LAYERS challenge.

Happy scrapping!

Max's grevillea .. with Scrap Our Stash

Scrap Our Stash have done it again with yet another fabulous 'word challenge' for August. I know you all know how much I love these 'word challenges' so I won't go on and on like I usually do. LOL.

Max's grevillea

The word this month is PAPER ..

My 'PAPER' looks like this..

P .. photo corners

A .. alphas

P .. prills

E .. enamel dots

R .. rub-ons

I think as I do more of these challenges I'm getting the hang of finding items in my stash to fit the 'words'. In fact I have ideas flooding in, which is not usual LOL! Plus, in the spirit of the challenge which is to use up your stash, I went digging and found some treasures I'd forgotten about or weren't even sure if they would still work they were that old!

prills, enamel dots and photo corners (old and altered)

oh and some seriously ancient Basic Grey paper .. from the Aged & Confused Sublime Collection

oh and alphas .. some old (Carolee's Creations) and some not so old

photo corners, old and altered photo corners

just some stuff I have in a clear tub on my desk full of bits and pieces

rub-ons .. now these are from the Dark Ages of Kaisercraft

LOL I'm surprised they still worked after all these years

oh and more enamel dots

and finally, lots more prills (LOL)

I had such a fun time creating this layout. Thanks so much to the team at Scrap Our Stash for yet another fabulous challenge and lots of inspiration. I'm hanging to see the sketch challenge mid month and desperately hope I'm able to find the time to do it.

Anyways, if you think this challenge sounds like fun you can find all the information you need HERE. Good luck!

Living the dream .. with Scrap Our Stash

I love doing the washing. I seriously do. Its become my time to do things for me in between loads. Whilst there's a load on I get to read or scrap or whatever. Once upon a time that time was used for housework but not anymore. So I really, really enjoy doing the washing. Today I took advantage of that 'me' time to scrap.

Living the dream

I was inspired to create this layout by the current challenge over at Scrap Our Stash. One of the things I love about the Scrap Our Stash challenges is that not only are you given a challenge criteria, but that the whole purpose of the challenges is to use up your stash. Get out those old products just laying around not being used, and use them. I love that by mixing the older products in with the new, and by using current techniques and trends, those old products just blend on in.

This month's word challenge is the word PHOTOS. You need to use something on your layout starting with each of the letters and no, LOL, things like embellishment for the letter E or photo for the letter P aren't accepted!!!

Because I'm a self-confessed nerd, I love the word challenges. They get me thinking and basically I just love word puzzles. My PHOTOS went something like this ..

P .. Pink Paislee tape (this is seriously old stuff!)

H .. Hearts (less old)

O .. Oval wood veneer frame (new .. I mounted my title on top of it)

T - Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher (a must have)

O .. Old, old, old K&Co Die-Cut Mats (Urban Rhapsody .. that's how old LOL)

S .. Sticker (the word 'journey')

Fancy giving this challenge a go yourself? You can find all the details HERE. Be sure to make note that the due date is the 29th of the month. Oh and keep an eye out for their sketch challenge which goes up mid month, or thereabouts.

Happy scrapping!

Faith .. with Scrap Our Stash

Each month the gang over at Scrap Our Stash provide two challenges .. one is a word based challenge and the other a sketch with a twist. You must also create a card using left overs from the layout you created for the sketch. Ordinarily I try to get to the word based challenge done and, in fact, have it all set up and ready to go on my scrap desk if I can find the time. But this month I gave their sketch challenge a go first.

Faith

I thought the sketch was ever so pretty ..

Scrap Our Stash June Sketch

I recently had passport photos taken for a couple of IDs and wanted to scrap the ones I didn't use. Whilst the photos are pretty awful like most passport photos are, they provided me with the opportunity to get some 'stuff' out of my head and off my chest, so to speak. I love that I was able to create my layout with not much more than some off-cuts of pretty patterned paper already on my desk.

As mentioned earlier in my post, the sketch challenge at Scrap Our Stash has an extra component .. you must also make a card with your off-cuts. LOL seeing as I was already using off-cuts it quickly became apparent that my card was going to be very clean and simple.

And I must say, I really rather like it. There's something to be said for Clean And Simple scrapping and I'm going to play with that style a lot more in the future.

If the sketch speaks to you as it did me, why not head on over to Scrap Our Stash where you can find all the details HERE. Enjoy!

Precious little miracle .. with Scrap Our Stash

So, when I should have been studying yesterday, I decided to scrap. I suspect the same thing might happen today. Oops! LOL! Note to self .. do not make a habit of this! But how could I resist when I saw the new challenge at Scrap Our Stash? The word for April is STAMP .. you need to "create a layout and include an item from your stash for each letter in the word s-t-a-m-p". Love it!

Precious little miracle

It takes some thinking when it comes to selecting products from your stash for each of the letters. I definitely rely on the inspiring work of the Scrap Our Stash Design Team to get me started. Plus when there's one letter that's stumping me, it always seems so obvious after what I've read the Design Team have used! LOL!

S .. sequins

T .. tag

A .. aluminium foil

M .. metal speech bubble (also by Maya Road LOL)

P .. Prima flower

I originally planned for my "A" to be arrowheads which are also on my layout, but when I got out what I thought was 'silver' foil and found it was 'aluminium' foil, LOL you can imagine my glee! By the way, I applied it to a frame behind my photos on the left of the layout. Ordinarily when scrapping with mixed media the "S" and the "T" would have been easy 'no-brainers' for me as I would have used stencils/templates and stamps. This layout though I wanted to keep bright and fresh, and clean and simple, so the letters were just that tad more difficult to work with, for me.

I love this challenge. I really do. I highly recommend you give it a go. Just remember that unlike other challenge blogs, the due date for this one is the 29th of the month. You can find all the details HERE. Oh and remember to keep an eye on the blog for inspiration as the Design Team layouts go up, day by day. Happy scrapping!