Monthly Archives: March 2015

Mar31

A Little Splat

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A Little Splat

I don’t know about you, but I love a simple technique.

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It’s so much fun to play and find something fun and interesting, if a little violent and messy. Even better is when you can adapt an inspiration piece to different supplies.

I’ve loved the crayon art paintings I’ve seen on Pinterest for ages. (There are even tutorials, check out this one!)

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Rather than melting my son’s crayons, I played with distress stains.

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A few vigorous pounces of each color later, and voila! A card that calls to mind the crayon art, without the heat gun or time commitment.

Would you like to see how to do this? How about a quick video?

And a close up of the card for you:

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What’s your favorite technique? Link up a picture or video, and share!

Mar30

A Huge Pile of PL Pages

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A Huge Pile of PL Pages

When preparing for a crop, I prefer to bring projects that don’t require a lot of thinking. I can NOT journal in company. Just having people around thinking is too loud for me.

For the crop two weekends ago, I brought Project Life pages with me to assemble, thinking that they would be easy to do while chatting. So not true.

Project Life was intended to make scrapbooking simple. It really doesn’t work that way for me. The simple arranging of photographs and choosing of journaling cards takes much longer than creating a page. Although, PL does allow me to cover more volume quickly than if I were to make a page for every story covered in my PL album.

But then again, I will probably use these photos again to tell variations on these stories, because I’m crazy like that. Who said you can’t repeat yourself? I apparently plan on doing that!

Heh.

Anyhoo… How about a few photos of PL pages for you? Or should I say, 20 zillion?
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Welcome to January. And lots of iPhone photos! (In fact all these photos are from the iPhone I got for Christmas. Very cool birthday and Christmas  present from my family.)

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You know how you plan on doing something, and then midway thru it, you forgot what you were doing? Yep, that’s what happened with the journaling labels on the star card. There was going to be a rainbow of labels, but I forgot I was doing that while writing. Literally decision made and forgotten within 10 seconds.

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I brought an old Studio Calico kit with me to the crop, just in case I wanted to switch gears and make a regular page. I found all sorts of things I could use on my PL pages. Including these stickers. Also, the love is a punch from mirror cardstock. My cheap, use what I have, version of gold foil for the day.

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Before I put myself on a spending freeze, I treated myself to the mini superheroes stamp set from Mama Elephant. I love their stamps!

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I have a little jar, filled with tiny flat or almost flat things to use on PL pages. I think it’s time to replenish the jar. I used a lot of bits and bobs.

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I am loving playing with the filters on Instagram. Also, we’ve made it to February!

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I tried a watercolor technique on a Heidi Swapp card, but it came out very subtle. Not a bad thing, but hard to see here. Also, a bit of stamping, and the ink wasn’t completely dry when I slid the card in the pocket, so there’s ink transfer to the pocket itself.

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I found the Creeper Valentine’s card on Rebecca Cooper’s blog. I love being able to use something from an awesome scrapper.

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Using up some more stickers and chipboard and overlays. And, the super cure kitty from the Mama Elephant stamp set.

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The month at a glance cards are from the old Turquoise PL set that I am still working on using up. Fit perfectly to point out when winter vacation was.

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A few shots of the paint I put on the walls at my sister’s house. and on my hands as well. The splats of distress ink on the Heidi Swapp card really seemed to emphasize the theme.

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A last day at my sister’s and then back home to try to get some work (at least planning) done.

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I don’t know about you, but I am very tired of the cold at this point. And getting sick didn’t make it any more fun.

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Shhh… Don’t tell my husband there’s a picture of him sleeping on the interwebs! Also, hello March!

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My mother and I have been walking more. Laps at the mall when it’s yucky outside, neighborhood walks when it’s nice out. You’ll be seeing that window display again.

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Big fluffy snowflakes at the beginning of March and my son dressing up for school. He actually was looking forward to school that day. I wish that was the case all the time.

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How about some funky food holidays? Pumpkin pie for Pi day, and very green deviled eggs for St. Patricks. Maybe I should do something funky for Easter and Passover too. (The only traditions we carryover from my Jewish Grandfather, Jewish food on Jewish holidays. Which means latkes and matzos and occasionally matzo ball soup.)

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Which brings us to the middle of March, when I went to the crop. The bottom card has space for a photo, and then I’ll finish out the month on the next few pages.

One of the big reasons Project Life takes me a bit longer to do than average, is because I do not consistently take horizontal or vertical photos. I’ve been taking photos for a loooong time. I’m used to turning the camera to suit the composition and topic of the photo. I don’t think I could stick to one orientation to save my life.

How about you? How do you usually take photos?

Mar24

Embracing Your Inner Geek

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Embracing Your Inner Geek

I have a confession to make. I am a geek.

Bet that doesn’t surprise you at all, does it?

I am a fan of storytelling, of huge epic stories that create worlds worth exploring. Whether it’s books, or TV, or movies, or comics, or even world creating tools and games like Dungeons and Dragons or Minecraft, there’s something about immersing myself in a fully realized, but not completely explained world that just makes me happy.

You know what’s even better? Combining these passions with another — scrapbooking.

D & D || noexcusescrapbooking.com

There are lots of ways to add bits and pieces of your passion onto your scrap pages. When playing D&D, mapping is an important part of the game, and it seemed appropriate to add a map to the grid paper on this page.

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Of course, if you can save and re-use packaging materials from your favorite geeky passion, there’s every reason to put it on a page. (This is my youngest’s favorite game. He spends hours playing it and watching videos about it. He’s a certified Minecraft geek.)

And then there are the things you do to surround yourself with the people and objects that make immersing yourself in geek culture so rewarding. TV watching parties. Midnight showings. Posters plastered all over the wall. (Am I the only person out there brainstorming Doctor Who patterns for a digital kit?)

My friend Laurie is loving Supernatural right now, so of course she made a page about it:

Supernatural || Laurie Louis

Don’t you just love how she took detailed shots of all the bits and pieces she and her friends do to increase their enjoyment? (And the grungy red, white, and blue color scheme suits the tone of the show so well!)

Are you a geek? What have you done to celebrate your geekiness? Don’t forget to document it too!

If you’ll excuse me, I’m in the middle of season 6 of Supernatural on Netflix. I’ve got a date with the couch, and my crochet hook.

 

Mar20

Got a Date with Myself!

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Got a Date with Myself!

I just realized today that I have been falling into an excuse-making pattern. I’ve made very few pages lately. Most of what I’ve created has been for the blog, or LOAD. I haven’t really been scrapbooking strictly for myself.

modern alchemy blanket || noexcusescrapbooking.com

Also, when I do work on making stuff, I’ve been forcing myself to work on finishing crochet and sewing projects, rather than playing with paper.

Do you know how sad that is?

Everyone falls into the trap every once in a while of putting fun last on the to-do list. They tell themselves that they need to do X first, before they can get to Y or Z. They think that getting other things done is more important, or will give them energy and time to focus on the fun stuff.

Don’t believe it.

Putting fun on the schedule, making it a priority, energizes you. When you make time for fun, you’re happier, and that leads to more happiness around you as well.

That’s why I’m glad I’m heading out for a free crop at the local library tomorrow.

While I really do want to finish my crochet and sewing projects, I need some play time too. Signing up for a crop at an external location means I am committed to playtime for myself.

It’s very freeing to realize that I can play with as much paper as I want, because it’s part of the schedule.

What sorts of things on your to-do list prevent you from paper-crafting? Schedule some time for fun now!

 

Mar19

Trends vs. Personal Style

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Trends vs. Personal Style

Have you noticed all the fun new trends hitting the scrapbooking world lately? Gold foil, pretty planners, hand lettering, even faith scrapping. Stamping has become more popular again (about time!) and party supplies are everywhere. Watercolors and variations on Pantone’s color of the year are popping up as well.

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Click the picture to find it on Amazon (affiliate link)

What do you think about all the new trends? Do you love them or hate them or do you just not care about them?

For me, there are certain things that I’m loving — hand lettering, for example — and others I could do without. (I just want a simple planner that works for me. I don’t feel the need to make it pretty.)

The thing about trends is that while they are fun to be aware of, you don’t have to follow them. The best thing to do with new trends and ideas? Make them your own.

How do you go about doing that? Start with what you have.

If you don’t have any gold accent items on hand, but have lots of mirror cardstock, use that instead. Embossing powder, leafing pens, and golf leaf are also good alternatives.

Uncomfortable with hand lettering? Try stamping instead. Uncomfortable with stamping? Use a pretty font from your computer, and print something out.

The point is, you have options.

If there’s a trend you want to use, but can’t get it for whatever reason (hello spending freeze!) find something in your stash to substitute or alter.

If there are trends you don’t love, don’t use them. You can make your pages look timeless and up to date without having to follow all the trends.

There are so many trends that passed me by. There used to be a time when every page you saw was pastel and shabby chic. So not a good fit for me. And before that there were the days of paper dolls and sticker sneezes. I delayed beginning my scrapbooking life because that were what everyone was doing, and I was never a fan.

Fifteen years ago, stamping was a big deal, with more stamp stores than scrapbook stores. It faded though, as scrapbooking became more and more popular. Now stamping is back, with lots of new designers and companies leading the way.

In short, trends come and go. Personal style is the glue that holds your crafty life together. Whether you prefer a graphic look, or lots and lots of embellishments, you can make trends fit how you create. You may be bored with how you create pages, and think they all look the same, but trust me, they don’t. And, you can use the latest trends to freshen up your style, without compromising the parts of memory keeping that you find important.

If there are trends out there that you want to try, do it! But don’t feel like you have to in order to stay current in the world of scrapbooking. What’s hot and trendy now will be yesterday’s news in a year’s time. Find what works for you, and make it your own.

Now to figure out what I can make that’s inspired by current trends, and with what I have on hand. That spending freeze I’m on is certainly a motivator for creativity!