Go Crop Yourself!

Recently I was looking back through all my albums and all the scrapbook pages I've done and it became quite obvious to me that mostly what I do is about my kids.  I am sure I am not alone in that discovery.  My kids mean everything to me and are always the most fun pictures or memories to capture.  Aside from my scrapbooks, I also have utilized the triangular wall created by the staircase in my living room as a sort of framed collage of family photos.  There are alot of kids on that wall too.  Not many of my mom or my mother in law, because, like me, they are usually the ones capturing the memories.

I've seen many others do layouts that capture the things that are important to them, their top ten favorite things or moments in time that they can pinpoint as make or break decisions in their life.  But I'm not one for journaling.  Still, the idea of doing a layout that was just me, was, although a bit narcissistic, intriguing all the same.

Simultaneously, my husband got a new camera and would learn about a technique and jump to try it out, me being the most available model.  However, his timing was usually inopportune...I was in the middle of something, wearing "around the house comfy clothes" that aren't necessarily flattering, no makeup, wild hair, preoccupied expressions on my face, all combined with bad lighting and busy backgrounds too distracting for a good photo.  In short, most of those pictures were deleted at my insistance!  He started taking online tutorials and I told him if he wants to practice, he needs to give me 'notice' so I can clean myself up for decent photos.

Every once in a while I am thrown a set of unrelated things and try to make something of them.  One day we were at Walmart (honestly, it's a rare occurance, but sometimes it's the only place that has what you're looking for) and were walking through several aisles of clearance.  I stumbled upong a packet of quilting squares is a totally cute yellow, black and grey set of patterns.  I don't quilt.  Frankly if it can't be done in a day, it doesn't happen.  But...I did think of making something.  *Ding* went that lighbulb of creativity and suddenly I HAD to have those quilting squares.  The next day I went to Kohls and got a plain grey v-neck t-shirt.  An idea was formulating!  Then my Tim Holtz Tattered Flowers Sizzix die arrived in the mail and I just knew what I had to do!

A quick trip to JoAnn's for some double faced interfacing and some buttons in various sizes in black, grey & yellow and I was ready.  First I ironed the interfacing to the squares then ironed them together, to make double sided squares of fabric.  Next, I used the Tim Holtz die and my Cutlebug to cut out all the flowers. 

{Did you know you could cut fabric using your Cuttlebug, Sizzix, etc?  Fabric, Felt, whatever!  Simply figure out which set of cutting plates you need to roll your die through the machine.  Place your die, cutting side UP, then place your fabric over the die, put a piece of scrapbook paper (I usually use scraps) over the fabric, then your top cutting plate and roll on!  And as the French say, 'Et Voila'!  I keep the paper cuts in a box for future use, along with any unused fabric cuts.}

I arranged the flowers on the t-shirt to cascade down from my left shoulder and pinned then into place until I sewed them in place using the buttons.  I left the petals of the flowers loose, and only secured the centers.  I also had a little Sizzix Bumble Bee die and cut a little Bumble Bee out too.  I placed him on the shoulder and secured him, leaving his wings loose.  I used some black thread and embroidered a little bumble bee trail and added a few more bumble bee trails here and there on the shirt as well.  It turned out kinda cute, I think.

I needed a picture of the shirt to post and decided that since hubby could use the photo practice, we'd kill two birds with one stone!  We picked a beautiful day and went to a local park and he took al sorts of pictures.  Remarkably, I was happy with most of them!  So happy, I decided to do an "All About Me" layout using them. 


This is the resulting t-shirt.



Then I selected a number of pictures from the set of photos he took; some I printed in the collage format, so they were smaller and a couple I left at 4x6.  I looked through my stash and found a set of old papers from American Crafts called "Moda Bella".  They were all in yellow and grey.  The scalloped paper was originally only grey and white and I took a sharpie marker in yellow to add color to the centers of the flowers.  I used an EK Success embossing punch to make the scallops.  I pulled a couple of sheets of Bazill Basics swiss dot in "Black Cow" to use as the foundation.  On another trip to JoAnn's I found rag ribbon that matched the fabric, so used that to embellish the circle! I used Recollections glittery buttons and crystals in the centers of the flowers and the black crystal flourishes are also from Recollections. The "K" is my first name monogram and I used my Storybook cricut cartridge to cut it out of a piece of silvery grey cardstock.  The felt bird was in my stash from some clearance rack find a couple of years ago. And of course, the flowers I used, were left over from the t-shirt, plus some little yellow felt blossoms from Recollections.



2 Page Layout



Detail of left side of layout



Detail of right side of layout

 Now my challenge to everyone is to go out and create a layout of you, that captures you.  It doesn't have to be a two page layout or multiple pictures (I just couldn't choose one!).  Make it a layout about you, doing something you love...playing with your kids or crafting or whatever.  Someday someone further down your family tree will be looking through your albums wondering where all the pictures of you are!

I know I usually ends my posts this way, but this time I really mean it... until next time... Go Crop Yourself!!

Artistic Personal Challenge

Happy New Year!  Finally, at last, a minute to post!  It has been a busy holiday season!  I had all sorts of craft projects jump up and surprise me this year (or was it last year?).  

It started in November, when my aunt asked me to make 30 place card gifts for her bridge club.  Off to Michael's and we bought 30 3" clay pots, which I spray painted gold.  We got garland which I cut apart and used the pieces to make wreathes around the rim of each pot, then wove holiday ribbon through the garland.  I added a bow and a silk poinsettia to each and filled them with foil wrapped candies.  Apparently they were quite the hit.

Then my 15 year old son signed me up to make 2 "blank" scrapbooks for his chorus' Silent Auction.  Within a week, I managed to fill 2 8" albums with "blank" pages.  That is a roaring speed for me, as during an 11 hour crop, I typically might almost finish one 12" page. Have I mentioned...I work full-time outside of the home, so this cropping was done in the evenings after work?

Yeah, ok, I do chat...alot...during a crop and it does slow me down, but I also usually do very detailed pages with lots of embellishments on them.  I painstakingly choose just the right papers to match the colors and feel of the photos, and then labor over the design and finally embellish, taking time to pick just the right things.

Friends Are Our Chosen Family
Here is one of those detailed layouts that take me hours to complete.
The hardest part was finding papers to coordinate with the layout;
then deciding on a design for 2 photos.  I really like using only one
 photo per layout, so I matted the two photos into one space, as if
they were one 5x7 photo.  P.S.  I love these fabric Prima flowers!

California PoppiesAnother layout that took me a long time.  I know, It doesn't seem
like it should, but t did.  Picking the papers was more difficult than you
may think.  The colors are a bit "off".  I inked the chipboard flourishes
to match, using a couple of different inks.  The photo seems to
wash out some of the color, so some details disappear.  Papers and
bumblebee are all by K&Co.  The flowers are from Prima.  The rhinestone
and pearl flourishes are from Recollections. 

I've never done a "blank" album before, so this was my personal challenge.  I usually have pictures to work around.  On one hand, it made it easier to just choose a color scheme and a theme and go from there.  I did still labor over which papers to use on a given layout, and how to sparingly embellish with impact.  It was a challenge that took me longer at first, but then I kind of got into the swing of things.  By the 2nd album, I was seriously short on time (thank goodness for "work at home" days ;-) ), so I used alot of the same layout designs, so I wouldn't have to think so long about it.

The first album is "A Gift of Music".  I used my Cricut cartridge Quarter Note for most of the embellishments and titles.  Te cartridge proved to be quite inspiring for this project!

The Gift of Music
I stitched the music notes and added red paper to fill them in.  The title is from the Cricut Quarter Note cartridge.  I used a combination of polka dot and music note paper, accented by a deep red.  The ribbon detail is actually a red satin ribbon with a red organsy ribbon tied in a knot.

Where Words Fail, Music Speaks
The polka dot flowers seemed to fit perfectly with this design.  I had a red polka dot fabric covered brad, but just one, so used it on the left flower.  I repeated the red ribbon I used across both pages as a bow in the center of the bigger flower.  The music notes are from a Cuttlebug die and edged them with black felt tip pen.  It is hard to see, but the white paper under the music notes is embossed.  I used my Cuttlebug music staff embossing envelope to create it.

Musically InclinedA simple design, but the papers make it pop.  The white paper is a white card stock with embossed swirls, so there is visual interest which is not captured in the photo.  The red scallops are from the same Fiskars scallop edge punch, but the one on the bottom is just tucked under father to hide the dot detail.  Connecting the red and white papers is a sparkly black ribbon.

I Got The Music In Me
The title is formed using Thickers chipboard letters.  I added clear rhinestones to the letters to give it "oomph".  I also used solid red ribbons, then tied knots using red organdy ribbon.  I also used the organdy ribbon as centers for the flowers.  Rhinestone flourishes add sparkle to the finished pages.

Make a Joyful Noise
I hand-stitched the black scallops around the edge of the pages.  The title I created using several different Cricut font cartridges.  The whole title is cut in black, but I used silver Stickles to highlight the joyful.  It took several layers and lots of time for each layer to dry between applications so the paper wouldn't warp.  The grey bar at the bottom is actually a silver cardstock detailed with a Martha Stewart corner punch.  The unique flowers are metallic stickers from Recollections, and the black rhinestone flourishes really help bring joy to the page.

Music To My Ears
The Quarter Note cartridge from Cricut produced the title and Treble Clef.  Note the red rhinestone to dot the "i".  I am glad t worked - because I lost the dot for the "i"!!  The little music notes are "trash" from my music edge punch.  I saved them to be used again.  The photo squares are from a Sizzix die.  I think between the title and the red polka dots, this layout makes me think of Minnie Mouse!  Perhaps the new owners of the album will fill the layout with pictures or playing music of singing at Disney!

Music Soothes The Soul
The title comes from a sticker that I adhered to a piece of red paper and inked the edges in black.  When I placed it on the layout, I popped it up with a couple of foam squares.  The white paper has music words on it.  The flower on the right is centered with a little sequin flower.  Black rhinestone flourishes complete the layout.

Hear The Music
Another simple layout.  The red paper is textured swiss dot dot paper.  The music notes are an edge punch from EK Success and punched out of silver metallic card stock and backed in black.  The title is from the Cricut Quarter Note cartridge, cut in black with a silver shadow.  The photo frames are mylar "journaling transparencies" with black ink details from Recollections.  The silver music notes are "trash" from the punch above, and detailed with clear rhinestones.  I added a rhinestone flourish with a black ribbon, an the stripes at the bottom are two different ribbons (grey/black stripes and a black satin ribbon). 

A Night To Remember
The title is from a musical sticker collection.  I cut the red "doily" using a Fiskars circle punch.  The white paper has an embossed swirl to add detail; it is trimmed by polka dotted ribbon, a rub-on black flourish, red flower and music notes from Jolee's (I think).  More ribbon, flowers and rub-on flourishes accent the bottom right corner.  The red paper is finished with a Martha Stewart edge punch.

Take a Bow
 The roses and title are from Quarter Note.  The roses are cut from red glitter paper and it really pops, but the photo doesn't convey it.   I also edged the black stems with a silver gel pen to give them definition.   The trim on the right page, bottom pics, is also red glitter paper.  I outlined the red glitter paper images and words with a thin black felt tip pen.  I also use a red velvet ribbon on the left page, and black rhinestones.

"In Memory Everything Seems To Happen To Music" {Tennessee Williams}
The title is a rubber stamp I have, stamped onto distressed red paper, and it's edges are inked in black.  It is then matted on white, then black paper to give it "importance".  When placed,  used foam squares to pop it up.  The red paper is a distressed music patter.  I tok plain white paper and stamped flourishes in black ink, then detailed the flourishes using clear rhinestone flourishes.   added music notes and little black flowers, along with a ribbon.  The top right corner is folded to reveal black paper and more rhinestones.

Well, that was the first album for the Silent Auction.  I was quite happy with the results, and my son was thrilled.  It did sell at the Silent Auction, but there wasn't a hot bidding war on it.  I put the price at $50 to cover (most of) the supplies.  I am just glad it sold and went to someone who will hopefully appreciate it!  Personal challenge met.  Have you had a personal artistic challenge?  If so, please share by entering a comment!

I will post again with the second album.  The theme for the second album was his school's mascot - the Wildcats. Check back to see what I did with that!  Talk about school spirit!  Until then...go crop yourself!

T'is the season

T'is the season to be jolly.  That's what the song says, and I firmly believe.  But some days it's harder than others.  It's been pretty busy at work and I've been pretty jolly there...but then I get home and I'm pooped.  It's hard to be jolly when you're pooped.  Ask a mall santa.  I've been dressing in holiday apparel every day of December.  It's tacky, I know, but it brings me joy.  It makes me feel jolly.  Until I get home...to a bunch of Ebenezers.  It's hard to be jolly with an Ebenezer about.  How can I be such a "Christmas Person" and yet spawn Ebenezers? Well, I guess they aren't really Ebenezers, they just take it down a few notches.  If I pay attention, I can see the little things they do that show their Christmas spirit.

On the first day of Christmas, my daughter brought to me a candy cane in a cup of cocoa.

On the second day of Christmas, my oldest son asked for two small presents and a candy cane in a cup of cocoa.

On the third day of Christmas, my youngest son donated three silver dimes, asked for two small presents and a candy cane in a cup of cocoa.

On the fourth day of Christmas, my darling spouse gave me four chocolate kisses, donated three silver dimes, asked for two small presents and a candy cane in a cup of cocoa.

On the fifth day of Christmas, my daughter brought home five hungry friends, four chocolate kisses, donated three silver dimes, asked for two small presents and a candy cane in a cup of cocoa.

On the sixth day of Christmas, my oldest son called me with six gift ideas, brought home five hungry friends, four chocolate kisses, donated three silver dimes, asked for two small presents and a candy cane in a cup of cocoa.

On the seventh day of Christmas, my youngest son gave me seven sticky gumballs, six gift ideas, brought home five hungry friends, four chocolate kisses, donated three silver dimes, asked for two small presents and a candy cane in a cup of cocoa.

On the eighth day of Christmas, my loving spouse showed me eight funny videos, seven sticky gumballs, six gift ideas, brought home five hungry friends, four chocolate kisses, donated three silver dimes, asked for two small presents and a candy cane in a cup of cocoa.

On the ninth day of Christmas, my daughter picked nine angel tree tags, showed me eight funny videos, seven sticky gumballs, six gift ideas, brought home five hungry friends, four chocolate kisses, donated three silver dimes, asked for two small presents and a candy cane in a cup of cocoa.

On the tenth day of Christmas, my oldest son hung ten ornaments, picked nine angel tree tags, showed me eight funny videos, seven sticky gumballs, six gift ideas, brought home five hungry friends, four chocolate kisses, donated three silver dimes, asked for two small presents and a candy cane in a cup of cocoa.

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my youngest son sang eleven Christmas carols, hung ten ornaments, picked nine angel tree tags, showed me eight funny videos, seven sticky gumballs, six gift ideas, brought home five hungry friends, four chocolate kisses, donated three silver dimes, asked for two small presents and a candy cane in a cup of cocoa.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my family showed me quiet Christmas joy, sang eleven Christmas carols, hung ten ornaments, picked nine angel tree tags, showed me eight funny videos, seven sticky gumballs, six gift ideas, brought home five hungry friends, four chocolate kisses, donated three silver dimes, asked for two small presents and a candy cane in a cup of cocoa.

Wishing you all the Peace, Joy and Love this season brings in all the big and little ways it appears.

Where has the time gone?!

I know it's been a long time since I last posted...but when I looked at the date of the last post, I was shocked that it's been nearly 6 months!  I wish I had a good excuse, like I ate the wicked witch's poison apple and have been waiting for Prince Charming to wake me with a kiss...but alas and alak, no such luck.  I've just plain run out of hours in a day to do everything I want to do!  Does that happen to anyone else?  Please, oh, please tell me so!

I know how it started, the lapse in posts.  Does that count?  So, here I have a blog about scrapbooking, and I post pictures of the projects that I am working on and share techniques.  What I haven't posted and was pretty successful in keeping a secret was a scrapbook project I had been working on for 2 years.  You see, 2 years ago I went on a "girlfriends' Weekend" trip (5 days, really) with my best friends.  We went to Maine in October and had an amazing time.  I took almost 400 pictures, and they took nearly the same.  When we all flew back to our respective homes all over the country, I asked them for dvds of their pictures.  They obliged and sent me theirs and I had the "brilliant idea" of creating a scrapbook album for each of them.

No, not a little chipboard album...not even an 8x8 album.  No, I decided to make 12x12 albums for all 5 (five, cinco, cinq, cinque, fem, funf, piec, bost, viisli - yes FIVE!) of us.  However, I did concede to make all five of them identical, making 5 page ones at the same time, and so on..

Yea, I know, I haven't gotten to the "excuse" part yet.

So, in July or so, we started planning our semi annual "Girlfriends' Weekend" and settled on October again.  3 months to finish the books...since I wanted to give the girls their books when we all gathered.  Did I mention I didn't tell anyone I was making the books, I wanted them to be a surprise?  I still had a ton to do!  So weekend, after weekend (because I work fulltime outside of the home), I buried myself in my scrapbook room and worked on the books till the wee hours of the morning.  As a result, I was blowing off posting on the blog, because I didn't want to share the pictures of the pages before the girls got to be surprised.  Well, I gave them all their albums and they were, indeed, surprised and loved them.  :-)

That explains July through October...apparently I pricked my finger at the beginning of November and fell under the same spell as Sleeping Beauty, sleeping through the whole month!

Then... my son (15 years old) signed me up to make a couple of blank scrapbook albums (thankfully only 8x8) to auction off at a Silent Auction for his Chorus program next week.  So, I've spent every waking, non-working moment of the last week creating a Music-themed Album and a Wildcats Album (school mascot is a Wildcat).  I turned these in this afternoon.  We'll see how they do at auction.  Some people just don't have an appreciation of the work that goes into scrapbooking, so it's an "iffy" venture.

So, I thought, before some other project hits me ('tis the season, you know) I would throw a post up on the ol' blog.  And while I spent most of this post telling about these (5) albums of Maine that I made, I think I'll post a different layout and chat about it briefly, and save Maine for a series of devoted posts.  Because you know, it's the holidays, and I'll have lots of free time on my hands... ha ha ha, ho ho ho!

Since it is the holidays, and the holidays are about gathering together and creating memories that last a lifetime, I'll share a recent layout I did of a set of pictures my family took about 10 years ago, while we were having some  good Old Fashion' Family Fun.  I think I even used the family pose in or Xmas cards that year.

The photo op was an old time set up with costumes from the 1920's and the photos were developed in sepia tone.  I had been holding on to them until some papers inspired me.  Finally inspiration struck and it was a combination of papers and embellishments.  It was nothing I went out and bought for this layout, just a bunch of stuff I had acquired over time.  Bits of this, and some of that and with a dash of creativity.  

I wanted to pay homage to the Twenties, remembering the depression and how folks made due with what they had.  My mother's family created beautiful dresses for the little girls of the family, using flour sacks, which often had a print of some sort in the fabric.  They made quilts salvaging scraps of old clothes that were too worn to wear.  The quilts were amazing works of art and filled with memories. My mother would sit on my bed, picking out quilted petals of the flowers and tell me, "oh, I loved that blouse", or "that was my favorite dress".

So in nodding my head to past generations, I used scraps for the flowers, and combed through my stash, finding odd bits of lace and buttons, ribbons and thread as well as odd assortments of embellishments that came in sets that had been abandoned after I used what I bought the set for.

I made the flowers.  I was inspired by some calico flowers at my local scrapbook store, "Scrappy Boutique", but the colors didn't go.  So, I decided to make my own out of scraps I already had.  I didn't use a die, just cut some (imperfect) descending circles by hand out of 4 different fabrics (for each flower, cutting some with scalloped edges.  I used a thread and needle and a button in the center of each flower.  I also made one little ribbon rosette, threading the needle along one edge of the ribbon and gathering it tight, until I liked the look of it, then sewed it closed.  I centered that one with a pearl embellishment.  I did some stitching, adding details to the word "family" (which was created using Thickers) and a little "xo" in the bottom right corner, as well as used the punched-out holes of the border punch used on the bottom-most piece of paper, as stitching guides.

I love the eclectic look of how it all came together.  It kind of reminds me of going through the old trunks in my grandmother's basement and finding all the treasures that lay hidden between the folds of dress up clothes (old bridesmaids dresses) and tucked in the corners of the bottom of the trunks.

Lesson Learned:  keep everything because you just never know when it will be the "perfect thing" to add to a page!

I hope you have forgiven my latent posting and will continue to follow me.  I have so much more in store!  Until the next post...go crop yourself!

Up to the Challenge

I have been so inspired by The Color Room challenges lately.  I missed a couple of weeks because of vacation, but came back this week and found a challenge made just for me!  This week the challenge is to use  light and dark pink, light and dark brown in a layout. I love pink and brown together (think Neapolitan ice cream!).


I sorted through my stash of papers and embellishments, flowers and inks, put my creative cap on and went to work.


I decided to use a picture of my daughter, when she had her First Communion about 10 years ago.  I love this picture of her, she looks like such an angel in it.  Next I searched my Cricut cartridges for a frame design and found on on my Sentimental cartridge.  I cut the frame out of a pale pink designed paper and the shadow out of a darker pick paper.  I cropped the photo a bit and used the dark pink paper to create a narrow mat for the photo.  I used a Creative Memories corner punch with a simple "nipple" design to crop the corners.


Next I had a white chipboard frame a bit bigger that the frame.  First I misted it with Glimmer Mist "Sand", but it was the wrong tone.  So I then misted with "Vanilla Breeze", but that still wasn't right.  I looked through my tings and found some Shimmerz Pearls in "Ballet Slipper" pink that a friend gave me.  It is a very thick paint and I thought that by itself, it would be too baby pink.  So, I took a little bit and put it in a small container and watered it down, making a pink wash.  I washed it over the "sand" and "vanilla breeze" and it came out perfect!  Next I used some of the chestnut ink to antique the edges of the chipboard frame.


I placed the Cricut frame slightly to the right of center and set the chipboard frame around it.  Then, the fun began!  In my stash I had a K&Co packet that had a piece of vellum with a brown floral garland on it.  I cut 1/4 of it off and place the 3/4 piece under the photo frame and over the chipboard frame to the left, an place the 1/4 piece likewise to the right.


As a base to the floral arrangement I was planning to add, I chose some Maya Road chipboard flourishes I had laying around.   covered them in some dark brown scraps and affixed them to the lower right corner of the now pink chipboard frame.


I had a stem of tiny dark pink silk roses (from the floral department), so I popped off the buds and clipped off the plastic shaft that held them to the stem.  I placed them here and there, sporadically, tapering off to a single bud at each end of the arrangement.  Next I clipped some of the leaves from the rose stem and placed those.  I also had a stem of small pink "cherry blossom" flowers.  I used those to accent the dark pink, centering them with pale pink brads.  It was looking pretty, but not quite complete.


Next I dug out some pink pearl swirls from Basic Grey and embellished here and there until it pleased my eye.  It was still missing something, so I took some antique-looking lace I had and cut bits off and tucked them behind the flowers.


I was going for an antique, opulent look and still hadn't quite achieved it.  I searched my stash again and found some brown hat pins, so I added those.  I decided the layout needed more darker brown, so I selected a small flourish stamp and used it sparingly, but it added to the over all desired affect.  I added pink rhinestones to the base of each flourish too.  To carry on the pink rhinestones, I added them around the chipboard frame too.  I also found a pink/brown chipboard set in my supplies that was mostly used, but had some small paisley pieces, so I used them to further accent the stamped flourishes.


I sat back and looked, but it still needed something else.  Nothing in my stash seemed quite right and then it dawned on me.  Since this is a First Communion layout, a cross would set it off - but a small one so it didn't overpower the layout.  I didn't have anything like that so off to Hobby Lobby I went.  I found a small antique style, bronze cross in the jewelry aisle.  I picked up some pink organdy ribbon while I was there too.  I tied a piece of the ribbon through the part of the cross that was destined to loop it to a necklace.  I placed the cross to the right of the photo, snuggling it in between roses.


I added snips of the pink organdy ribbon amidst the flowers to finish it off, and was quite pleased with the result.  :-)


However, the left side of the layout needed balancing.  I used a dark pink dragonfly from K&Co over the brown vellum flowers, and used some of the pink pearl flourishes to create a trail.


The layout also needed a title...one that fit in the space I had!  That meant it had to be short words!  "Bless Me" seemed appropriate. I used Thicker letters in the "Mirror Mirror" font that I just so happened to have in a Rose color.  Love it when things just work out!


All in all I am very pleased with the result of this challenge!

The final result: Bless Me

Detail of the floral arrangement and cross

Detail, including the title

I encourage anyone who needs a little challenge to inspire their creativity to checkout The Color Room!  I have included their Blinkie to the left to help you navigate your way there.  In the meantime...go crop yourself!

Spreading My Wings

Have you ever had an idea bouncing around in your head, but didn't give it much thought until someone else did it first?  That's me.  I gave a passing thought to wondering how the techniques and tools I use in scrapbooking could carry over to into other realms of my crafting world.  I often see things in stores and think, "I could do that!", look at the price and think again, "Really?  I could do that - for alot less!" so I pass it up.  I promptly forget that fabulous idea... until I see someone else has done exactly what I thought!

Summertime and Sunkist Kisses

Happy Summer!  The skies are blue, the sun is bright and the temperatures are skyrocketing!  Oh! And here, in Florida, that means afternoon thunderstorms start rolling in to drench everything!  The other day when I left the office for lunch and walked into the parking lot I raised my face up to the sky to soak in the rays... and I felt a little like an iguana basking in the heat!  But I digress...

Apparently I'm not the only one feeling the warmth of the summer sun.  The folks over at The Color Room released Palette #62 labeled the Sun Room.  The palette was three shades of orange (light, medium and dark), plus white.  To me they were the colors of a sunkist afternoon.  Then I remembered I had this cute picture of my teenage daughter during her "strawberry blonde phase" and making a "kissy-face" and *BOOM* I was inspired.