Club challenge

So here is what I just finished up for my Quickutz Club. We were given paper by Basic Grey, some chipboard pages and a die. "Put a book together using every element" that was given to us, but we didn't have to use everything up. Honestly, I didn't care too much for the paper...so it was hard trying to make this project look good. I found out that the other people in the club felt the same way, so am looking forward to seeing what their books turned out like.

For this project, I decided to make a little vaca. memory book for my cousin who came back east for a week. The cover page says "Pack your Bags" (rub ons) and then "..." with robin's nest bling. "Zoe & Zach GO EAST". I used more rub ons on the first 2 pages...they say "Off we Go!" and "are we there yet" I left spots for her to put a few pictures from the airport. I also included a tag behind the matting on the second page for any journaling she may want to do.




The next page is for "Great Grandparents" I had a picture of my grandmother with my cousin's son - we call her GG, thus the title of the page. The next page is for her to fill in. I made a little fold-out booklet for her to add pictures from the other side of her family.

There really isn't anything special about the next couple of pages. Here they are for your 'viewing pleasure' Nothing special about this book at all. Was fun to make because I know that it's going to be great for the kids to have to look at and remember their trip to the east.

Every Day Magic

So, if you're reading this and you don't know my whole story, you wouldn't know that my husband is in the military (Coast Guard, exactly). He is currently under way and has been for a long time. Not so long as a year or anything, thank goodness, but longer than we're used to at this point.

It has become almost a daily routine for me to take pictures both of Eleana and myself to send to Joe so he can have faces to put our kind words and thoughts to (Eleana's kind words and thoughts usually only consist of "da" and "ice cream" but she means well). Sometimes these photos are of us together, just doing day-to-day things, others are individual photos, more thought out.

I don't know how but I managed to snap a really sweet candid shot of myself and Eleana playing her new favorite game "pop the air out of Mommy's cheeks." This photo was Joe's favorite of all the ones I've sent him, and I quite love it too. I felt it was a special, tender moment that we haven't really captured of the two of us together yet...most of our photos appear so rehearsed.

I took the oppurtunity to showcase not only the moment between mother and daughter, but also use some fun new products from my Scrapologie subscription. Yes, I know I mention that a lot here. I can't help it! I love it so much. Best thing I've bought in years!




Everything I used in this layout besides the pen I wrote with and the glitter on the chipboard circles came from the September Scrapologie kit. Oh, and the two word stickers inside the metal rectangle at the top of the page, those were from my personal store (they say "happy experiment").

I used a couple of new techniques I've wanted to try for some time. First of all, the metal rectangle at the top, with the orange filling, actually has a paperclip attached to it. I tucked it behind the journalling block because it made the page bubble if I tried to put it on like a regular clip. the rectangle came as plain silver. I painted the center using the same paint I used on the chipboard circles (poppy paint by making memories) then attached the two word stickers.

Then, using UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel) I made it look like a glass charm. You simply sprinkle the UTEE powder where you want it, heat it with a heat gun, then sprinkle some more for thickness. It melts to form a glass-like surface. Pretty spiffy. I've tried this technique before, but messed up royally last time.

I originally planned on keeping the two chipboard half hoops as a whole ring, but it wouldn't quite fit anywhere on the page, so I cut it in half to make two half hoops. This was after I painted it with the poppy paint. Then I sprayed adhesive onto the hoop and sprinkled glitter over top to make it shiny and magical.

Nothing else is really special, just your standard scrapbook stuff. I added some dots with the paint onto the smaller chipboard disc that reads "fun" (you can click the image for a bigger view I think). The black flourishes are Basic Gray rub-ons. Some of them were really big but I just cut them into smaller pieces so they'd fit where I wanted them. The title is stickers by Scenic Route, the round chipboard discs are also Scenic Route.

Hope you like it as much as I do! I can't wait for the next challenge, gals! I am SO ready!

My latest creations...

The first project is for my BIL and his wife.
They had an Ice-Cream themed wedding with hot pink and chocolate brown as the 'flavors'.

We agreed that for Christmas, we weren't going to do anything for each other, but I need to give them something from my tiny man...so, here it is.

The frame is from Creative Imaginations. I found some vellum that had hot pink hearts and another vellum that says "simply beautiful". I wanted to use both papers, thus the color blocks. On top of the vellum, I used stickers that say "a Love to last A LIFETIME". I outlined the stickers with a hot pink marker. You can't really tell in the picture, but they really do stand out more.

In the upper left corner, I used a tag that they had tied to the bird seed. It says "Happily Ever After..." I accented the tag with a hot pink flower. I need to find something to put under the date...tomorrow I will go shopping.

The lower right hand corner says "Holy Crap! It was a wedding" I said that because that was what was on their invitation. The "S" signifies the first letter of their last name, and the Ice Cream is there because that is what they love.

This next project is one that will be a work-in-progress for years to come. I found this Creative Imaginations album with just plain old white paper inside, and thought about how I would love to keep track of the fun and silly things that Curtis says and does. What better way than to have a journal right on hand. My thought is that I can have this book handy and can write in it when something fun happens. Then later, I can go back and create a page to go with that moment.

The letters on the cover are wooden. I inked them up, then added hand-written words or doodles on each letter....I just realized though that the 'I' lost it's bling :(.

Open the book, and you'll find a letter to my son, along with his picture. I need to embellish this page a bit, but need to find that perfect embellishment.

The following 2 pages are just lined. It's where I can write his mispronunciations and cute phrases.

This is what a page may look like when it's done.

each day is a gift

Last night was a peaceful, productive night. My fridge was full (yay payday!), my apartment was untidy (yay I don't give a eff!) and the phone didn't ring much. I managed to spend only a minimal amount of time last night on a sweet and fun project, when I usually end up spending HOURS scrappng.

Recently I ordered a subscription to this fabulous site called Scrapologie. If you're reading this and you've never been to Scrapologie, you should go there now, but then come back here. The site is actually being remodeled, so a couple of the functions are disabled now (like the message boards/user galleries). You can sign up for a free membership which gives you access to all the boards, newsletters, etc. I did that at first...like 6 months ago. Every month for the past 6 months I've drooled over their kits.

Evidently there are a lot of independent scrapbooking sites out there, each providing their own kit services. I had no idea about any of this until a short while ago. These sites take products from all sorts of popular scrapbooking companies and compile monthly kits containing elements that complement one another. So the kit you end up with is coordinated but not matchy-matchy from the same line/company. We all do this at home, right? Some of us are better at it than others obviously or these kit services wouldn't exist. Of course, for me the kit service is an oppurtunity to own products which I preivously had no access to other than the internet. Hambly, for instance, is hot and new, but none of my local stores carries it. The same goes for Love, Elsie products. I am in LOVE with Love, Elsie, especially after having the chance to touch and use the products. The beautiful thing about Scrapologie is that you can purchase a monthly kit without the obligation to the subscription! (I have Celine to thank for introducing me to Scrapologie, by the way!)

Okay, so my kit subscription started with August, which means that last week I got 3 kits in the mail! One each for Aug-Oct. For the next 3 months payments will be taken out automatically from my paypal account and I'll get happy surprises in the mail!

You can imagine how itchy I was to use my new stuff...but where to begin? I knew that no matter what I wanted to create a layout using supplies from one month only, so as not to mix the product. This way I can post at least one layout from each kit on the Scrapologie site.

Sharon sent me this lovely picture of us together, and posed a personal challenge: scrap a page using this photo. You can see that the photo is rich in brown tones, with a hint of turquoise (thanks to my jewely), which made it PERFECT for the August kit supplies I had! WOOP! A hidden challenge arose when I tried to print a larger version of the photo Sharon sent. The file was so small that I could only get a wallety size photo out of it. Talk about challenging! I think I pulled it off though...a touching page about friendship that encompases Sharon's funky fresh vibes.

Here is a detailed view:

The notebook paper, star quilt paper, and teal love paper are all Love, Elsie! These papers are even more fabulous in person! I hope I can snag myself some of her other products as well, like the jellies and chipboard. Sorry for the glare...the orange rectangle on the twill ribbon says, "Established 7/2004."

I also really wanted to use the fold over tab that came with a sticker sheet...it says, "fun, proof." I cut the bg piece of paper to looke like a file folder. I cut the tab in half so that I would be able to use both sides rather than folding it over and only seeing one. I stuck the round parts of the tabs to a piece of scrap cardstock, leaving the bottom anchor of the tabs sticky, then trimmed the tabs out of the cardstock and stuck the tabs to the top of the page. So one tab became two! (apologies for the ugly blue border in the first image, it's my cutting mat...yuck I know...wish I had a pink one!)

The photo and surrounding papers, etc, are all mounted on a scrap piece of cardstock. I found this to be the best process, considering I needed to staple the twill on and didn't want it to reach all across the page. I added red ink accents to the center collage to tie it together with the bg paper (filled in the letter holes with red, wrote my journalling in red, and added the dots to the twill).

What do y'all think? I can't wait to see what Sharon has done with this picture!

time for magic!

Ah, my favorite time of year is here - Fall! Or, at least it's here in spirit. In the hot hot land of Newport News we haven't seen much fall action yet. In fact, it was 90 degrees today. Not too fallish at all. It actually bums me out in a major way.

I'm taking baby E (toddler E now) to a thing called Fall Festival at the park this weekend. Haven't decided if we'll go on Saturday or Sunday yet. There will be crafters, fall activities, food booths. It should be fun and very festive. And cheap, we love cheap!

The fall/Halloween decor is out here at Chez Nichole. I always have so much fun spooking up the place. I added a few new things to our collection, including a black faux owl and a spooktacular banner. I intended to hang this on my book shelf, but it didn't work well there.



Neat-o, huh? Yeah, that's me trying to act scared. Joe says this picture reminded him of the movie The Ring. I like the banner on this mirror a LOT.

Halloween always revs me up, and in the spirit of the season I joined a new ATC swap at the Faerie Zine (which is a Flickr group I belong to). The theme is magic, of course, and the cards are due by Oct. 21. Mine are done, and going in the mail asap!



This is one of 5 identical ATCs, almost finished. I added a black glitter border tonight, and they are all drying right now.

The little girl's dress was originally blue, the same shade as her socks, but I decided to change it to orange with the magic of technology.

I added some details to her with pen: darkened her shoes, gave her socks stripes, outlined her dress for definition, put a little rouge on her cheeks, and gave her curls.

I cut the hats out of black cardstock, then hand drew a silver moon on each one with a silver leaf pen.

The papers are meant to represent wallpaper. The green polka is from Brenda Walton's Dollhouse collection, the Halloweeny pattern I have no idea...all I know is I saw it and had to have a piece, and it ended up working perfectly for this project.

The rubber stamp alphabet I used to spell "time for magic" is actually from the $1 bin at Target. Yeah, so Sharon you might want to go over there and see if your Target has them, too! I love them!

So, until Halloween this is really all the fall stuff I'll have to show. Eleana is dressing up as Lumpy this year, so I have some Halloween papers that incorporate purple for just that purpose.

Hope to see more fall projects here, y'all!
<3