First Entries

Here are my first entries in the ClubScrap PSL for this season. I'm working on getting through my paper stash, but find my use keeps dwindling as I just keep going back to digital. I love that I can change a layout a gazillion times until it's "just so" and none of my supplies ever run out!

ClubScrap April Sketch Challenge

For the unintiated, Club Scrap hosts a sketch challenge every month. They choose a winner at random and they get some extra goodies in their next pizza box. I've won a couple times in the past, and this is my submission for this month.
It's created with the Stratosphere Digital kit in PSE5 - a trial version I downloaded last month. I have the full version of Adobe PSCS, but wanted to try out PSE because so many others use it. It's an excellent program and worth every penny of the $100 price tag. But I missed layer masks a great deal... I digress... Without further ado, here is the entry:

The above cards feature some fun I had in mixing my kits up, or "thinking outside the pizza box" as Club Scrappers call it. My process with each kit I receive works something like this: Open the box and fondle all contents. ALSB the whole darn thing (usually the same day as receiving the kit). Order extras of any paper I especially loved with my next shipment to take advantage of the $1.00 shipping special, or wait for a sale and order even more. Hoard these papers until my wheeled cropping tote threatens to explode and the chair it sits on begins to sag. Begin to feel a little guilty about hoarding all that beautiful paper: it should be released to the world to enjoy! Complete any additional layouts I desire. Cut the remaining paper into my own version of greetings to go - cards and panels, but no envelopes. Then I get the best feeling of freedom and am ready to welcome the next kit into my home, knowing I've made good use of the one I just finished.

These greeting packs of my own sometimes seem to take on a life of their own. They call to me to use pieces from other kits with them. I start to see them differently than I did when they were full sized sheets of paper and it becomes easier to mix and match items.

The cards above were made with materials from many different kits, as follows:

(clockwise from top left):

1.) Asian Artisan papers, Blackberry ink from Written Word for "Best Wishes", Brilliance Peacock Tri-Color pigment shimmer ink used with the unmounted vine stamp from Ivory Elegance. The fiber is from my stash and the sentiment stamp is a clear cling stamp I picked up in a set at JoAnn's crafts.

2.) This card base uses the Collections design classic print on Framed gray paper that I received at the 2006 Phoenix Rolling Retreat as a goody! The panel is Collections brown, stamped in white versacolor using the unmounted tulip in Nature's Wonders. The words are from the same cling set mentioned in the previous card. The tulips were colored in with watercolor pencils - this was my first use of them with a Niji waterbrush, and I was very pleased with the results. The Niji brush gives so much more control of blending and saturation compared to a standard bristle brush.

3.) More Surf's Up papers from my personal greetings pack. This time in light green & salmon. The technique I tried here is from Technique Junkies (see the link in my sidebar) and is called the Modern Grid. I used clear dimensional glue to give the card a little "pop" on the dotted circle. The images are stamped from Surf's Up unmounted borders & backgrounds, and I overlaid the hibiscus with Fruit Punch Stickles glitter glue by Ranger.

4.) Surf's Up light green & blue, Club Stamp Refresh unmounted stamps and Eucalypts Stickles glitter glue by Ranger.

5.) Surf's Up light green & blue with Nature's Wonders "Tulips in a Row" wood-mounted stamp in black Palette hybrid ink, again colored with watercolor pencils and blended with the Niji brush.

6.) Surf's Up blue hibiscus print with stenciling from the "Reaching Out" kit. Fiber is from my stash and the inks used are Written Word blackberry and Versacolor white.

I hope you've enjoyed these cards as much as I enjoyed making them!

A Variety of Cards

These cards were a bunch of fun to make and represent some new techniques and products for me. Materials used, starting in the top left:

1.) Surf's Up blue & light green cardstock, Refresh JR stencil using ColorBox Stylus and two shades of Versacolor ink.

2.) Surf's Up blue & light green cardstocks, all images from the Surf's Up stencil. 3/16" eyelets & fiber from my stash. I used Ranger Stickles glitter glue in Fruit Punch to outline the petals of the hibiscus.

3.) (Bottom Right) Stratosphere Greetings To Go in Fuschia and Light Blue were used for the base. The cutout is from the Stratosphere cutouts. Bordering the panel all around is the unmounted swirl stamp from Ivory Elegance.

4.) Refresh Greetings to Go paper, sticker and fiber from the Refresh SR kit with Embellishment pack, Club Stamp Refresh cutout (white leaf) with individual leaves filled in with Ranger Stickles in Eucalyptus.

5.) Surf's Up light green & blue papers, Blackberry ink from Written Word and the collage stamp from Let Me Count The Ways, are highlighted with Clear Dimensional Glue.

The background paper these cards are against are from Club Scrap's Stratosphere Digital kit.

Fizz Badge Book

This is called a badge book because the pages are protected in their own page protectors - actually badge holders. My heavy duty, crystal clear ones were purchased from Club Scrap as well as most of the other supplies used.
This cute little book is made of 3"x4" Club Scrap Fizz papers. Stamps used are mostly Club Scrap as well and include: "Jumping for Joy" from Surf's Up, "Blessings to You" & "Whoever is Happy" from Rhapsody, "Mini Medallion Border Stamp" also from Rhapsody, and the small Paisley stamp from Paisley. The "Picture Perfect" stamp was from the dollar bin at Michael's.
Other supplies used include: ClubScrap Bookbinding, Padding, and Laminating Adhesive, fibers from my stash, and Nickel Snap Rings from Club Scrap, as well as a variety of inks.

3x4 Maze Book

Well, it's been a while since I last wrote. Work's been a little nuts with an office remodel going on. I signed up with Club Scrap at the end of February to be an Independent Consultant / demonstrator / "paper pusher".

;-) I just love their stuff and I was having parties almost once a month anyway, it just made sense to sign up and receive the benefits of what I was already doing.
This project I made in one evening. It's based on a project I learned from Tricia Morris of Club Scrap, called a Maze Book. The inner pages are all from one piece of 12 x 12 cardstock, folded and cut in a precise manner to make 12 pages that are 3" x 4", although I only used 8 pages in this project. I used just 2 sheets of paper from the Refresh kit for this stunning little project.
Thanks for looking.

ShutterBug

As far as photography goes: it's something I've loved for as long as I can remember. My very first camera was a Barbie pink 110 that I got for Christmas when I was about 6. When I turned 11, or thereabouts, I saved my money from doing chores, read all the sale ads and rode my bike to the local BigK and bought my first grown up camera. It was just a little point and shoot, but worked well and I won a few awards in the high school photo comps. When I got a best of show and spent every spare minute in the darkroom, my dad bought my an SLR - that's a "real" camera. Most people don't know the difference between point and shoots and SLRs - if you don't , just think of an SLR as being the kind with the big lenses that are usually detachable and interchangeable. I shot rolls and rolls of black and white film with that camera that I developed myself in high school. I got along very well with my teacher so he was always giving me extra film and paper - funding my habit, so to speak. I only did a little bit of color work then b/c I couldn't develop it myself. I moved out on my own early - at the beginning of my junior year of HS pretty much. After that I couldn't afford to get my pics developed for a long time, but I still took pics whenever I had a chance. I was going to the community college for double credit and didn't have access to a local darkroom anymore. I piled up about 25 rolls over the next few years and then I went to work for Seattle Film Works. Free film and cheap processing for employees - I was in 7th heaven! I must have shot and had printed hundreds of rolls in the time I worked for them. Somewhere in there, I switched from landscapes and still life to people photography. Since then, I've done several "couples" shoots - like engagement pics kind of work and a handful of weddings. I don't get my camera out as often as I like anymore. It's hard to find the time with a 3 yr old. So I do a little quick work here and there, but mostly I work with the photos I've already taken - scrapbooking and/or digitally altering them.