What a difference a day makes, or ten to be exact

Wow! Quite a journey we've had the last week & a half...
But let's do a wrap-up of my LOAD journey in the month of May. For those who don't know, LOAD is a great month long scrap escape achieved by attempting a LayOutADay (check it out)! Challenging, energizing, nerve-wracking - all taking place in a wonderfully welcoming community of scrappers. Thanks, Lain :~)

This LOAD was possibly my most successful yet, in spite of my not completing a layout a day (23 pages, though)! All the credit goes to my Counterfeit Kit, the perfect go-to for scrapping an unknown prompt. I mean, I already love everything in there & it goes together, no matter what I'm doing with it. Perfect.

  But this was by far my favorite:

Welcome tiny, perfect little granddaughter :~)

It's late - I'm tired...

But I wanted to share the beautiful beginning to my day!

I'm a little sad because usually I get a few dozen stalks from this iris, but I think our wacky weather must have frosted at just the wrong time. I am hopeful for next year, but in the meantime I will enjoy this one perfect stem of beauty.

CKC May 2012 Challenge #2 Use fabric in a creative way

Another fun challenge from the Counterfeiters!

I am a quilter as well as a scrapbooker. My fabric stash is only rivaled by my scrap stash, lol! As I learned new techniques, took classes & challenges, I accumulated a variety of sample-sized or single blocks - all wonderful in their own right but not really useful. Like this one:

Isn't he cute? The method used here is foundation piecing, sometimes called paper piecing. You place the fabric on the front side & sew on the lines of a paper pattern piece (the foundation) on the back side - one by one - trimming each seam as you go. In the piece shown above, I started with the pink, added the small sky piece to it's right & then flipped that piece open (see how the two make one unit?), then added the sky piece below that unit, then the dark blue to the left added to that unit... hopefully you get the idea! Here is the reverse side where you can see the pattern & the stitching. The numbers show the order in which to proceed.

 

If you've ever seen a log cabin quilt block, it is the same idea.

You can find a more comprehensive discussion about this (here)

So on to my trusty French Connection May counterfeit kit for some inspiration. What did I want to do with my sweet little bluebird? As I am a bird watcher & have just begun in the last few weeks to fill my feeders again  (my Orioles have returned - yay!) I was thinking that having the birds back is probably my favorite thing about Spring. Here's what I found after a bit of a rummage through the magic blue box:

 (Oops! I had already started fussy-cutting the piece of the rose paper before I remembered to snap a photo, lol! This blogging stuff sure interrupts the process, but it's also making me examine the process, which is good.) As it turned out, I actually used a different alpha set, didn't use the Joy stamp, but ferreted out my French washi tape from my kit & used that. Here it is:

I have been seeing that cute little accent of a single punch of a border punch a lot lately & love it! I remember some scrappy discussion at one time about how each page really needs a frame or border of some sort, (or mat effect, if you will), and I think this serves nicely. Although this page is not mounted on black, it does show up that punched detail well in the photo. Thanks for looking :~)

Where did this week go?

Wow! It's hard to believe that I haven't been here since Monday. But I have been creating.

My dad had an incessant sense of humor. This layout was about a conversation my aunt (his sister) had with him on his wedding day. When she asked if he & my mom had a song, he said, Yes - Mr. Wonderful (hahaha!) The LOAD challenge was to scrap someone else's story, so this fit the bill. I do wish I had either shifted the title over or the journaling block down - oh, well. Finished is better than perfect!

I also used this page for our Whimsical Musings challenge this week to do a Lisa-inspired cluster. I feel like part of my struggle in doing the clusters is the background work - the layering & detailing. I chose a number of papers to try with this layout:

Yes! That big butterfly is purple foil, lol! But I loved the sketchy stuff in the background so it got to stay in my stash. That K & Company flowers/hearts pack was a real deal - the photo shows what was left after my layout! I really wish I had gotten off my franny & found my crochet twine for a laced detail around the buttons and maybe one of Lisa's signature loose twine details - may have to add those later...

Next was a quickie page - had a 3 photo lifted layout that I was working from so I had chosen the photos, but wasn't really sure what color direction I wanted to go in.

The background paper is actually from a Christmas collection, but you'd never know it. I rummaged through the border drawer, then chose some happy letters for my Sunshine layout.

Today I combined the Day 17 LOAD inspiration "Cartoon" with Day 18 "Smell" & documented this funny conversation between my boss, Jean & I using my lovely French Connection CKC kit.

Letting the patterned paper do the work! I love how this turned out :~)

Tomorrow's challenge (today's???) is to repeat something from today's layout - uh-oh!

CKC Vintage Hat Challenge

Well, isn't it funny how inspiration can strike and stymie you at the same time? As soon as I heard about the vintage hat challenge I thought of this hat worn each year for our Old Fashioned Sunday services,

 which made me think of my grandma and her love of "lavender" (really any shade of purple.) I knew I had some netting that reminded me of those veils on old hats. On my desk were these green buttons, and then I happened upon the purple flowers - done deal!

 

Then a reality check: none of this was in my kit! I couldn't seem to get a new vision for the challenge & my spirits fell. I would have to pass on this one...

Today I realized I needed to start from square one - my kit. I wanted to stay with the green/purple combo, but settled on a pale pink polka dot which was meant to mimic the dotted veiling. Okay - this was good! I was actually counterfeiting my original idea in a very creative way..

I was already inspired by the May sketch:

It struck me that I have a lot of blingie items in my kit that would be great for that swath of sparkling goodness so I dove in again. I was liking this more & more! Now to find a photo - I found this one of my "vintage friend" et voila! (this IS the French Connection kit, after all, lol) The title.

Now to work the magic...

I decided to work on counterfeiting some Heidi Swapp disco hearts. 

I covered some white cardstock with double-sided tape.

I punched out some heart shapes and covered them with sequins.

Added some glitter

 I think I like mine better than Heidi's! I added some Glossy Accents to be sure nothing would come loose.

 Decided I needed a little more vintage, so I fussy cut an image from one of my Smash journaling cards.

Done! 

"Separated by years & miles, reunited with tears & smiles - June 1994"

Sabbath reading

Psalm 4:1
I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep:
for thou, LORD, only
makest me dwell in safety.

Great Lakes MegaMeet!

I made it! Truly thought I would miss it this year. 

(Wish I knew these ladies - says Scrappy Mamas on the pink sign!)

Here we go! Amazingly enough I saw some friends from Trinity :~)

 

The candy jar:

Scraparazzi spies Jenni Bowlin! 

(Cool graphic on the other gal's shirt...)

*sigh* Prima...

Managed to whip through in less than 2 hours!

And look what I got :~)

Want a closer look?

Off to happy scrappy land :~D