End of a Good Thing

It was a great, scrappy weekend, and here's the last of the weekend's creativity:This is a switch up of Sassy Lil Sendoff Sketch #3 from Sassy Lil' Sketches. I increased the size of the photos until they filled my entire 8x8 page and swapped the order of the large and smaller photos. Farewell to a great weekend and farewell to Sassy Lil Sketches.

Don't leave....I've only just met you...

Inspired Blueprints, one of my favorite scrapbook sketch websites has temporarily closed. In my search for a new site to fill the gap, I came across Sassy Lil' Sketches. Now they are also saying farewell. I hope this isn't a sign of something going wrong in the scrap world.... Before they leave, I have one last contribution to a website I was just starting to get to know and love....This is for the Scrappy Lil Sendoff Sketch #1 on Sassy Lil' Sketches. The photo of this LO doesn't do the glitter or foil paper justice. I switched it up by rotating the layout 90 degrees, increasing the size of my photo, and switching up the circles and embellies a bit.

So I will say farewell to Inspired Blueprints and Sassy Lil' Sketches the way I said farewell to my maiden name.....with the hopes and excitement for what is to come under something new.

Croptoberfest 2011 (Part II)

After about 12 hours of scrapping at Croptoberfest 2011, I came away with 4 completed layouts. That was my goal for the day, so I should be happy about that. I noticed some ladies are able to do an entire album in a day because of their pre-planning. That would be nice to feel that more was accomplished after a full day, but I'm okay with continuing as I have been since I enjoy the relaxation, fun, and randomness of scrapping with the approach I take on it.

The page above was my take on a sketch for Challenge #103 for Scrap Whispers. Compared to the sketch, my photo looks large because of my 8x8 page size. I tend to use a lot of bright colors & sparkle in my scrapping, so this page was an interesting change for me as I tried to make it more masculine. This page goes along with a series of other pages for a trip to the Oregon Coast with friends years ago.

Croptoberfest 2011

What a great day I had yesterday! My first ever big crop event. I had joined small groups for a day or afternoon of cropping, but never such a large event. What fun to be surrounded by energy and enthusiasm for one of my favorite hobbies. There were about 60 ladies who attended, and it was put on by a few Close to My Heart reps in the Tricities area. I snapped a photo of the scene:

(That's my space where the tan sweater is slumped over the back of the chair.)

My first work of creativity was inspired by Challenge #102 from Scrap Whispers. The challenge was to scraplift the layout shown below.

And here's what I came up with.

The main concepts I focused on keeping were the 2 photos in circles on the outside, a large circle connecting the two, the center titled, busy embellishing through the center, and journaling around the edge. This is such a beautiful layout by Scrap Whisper's Rosey, and I'm glad such an interesting layout was chosen for the challenge.

Mountain Biking-Mt St Helens

Justin & I were so busy with wedding preparations at the beginning of the summer, and after that special day in May, we were ready to go go go with activities for summer fun. One adventure we embarked on was camping & mountain biking at Mt St Helen's. We knew this would be more adventurous than our usual more flat, desert biking, but we had no idea just how intense this riding would be! The bike path was less than 2 feet wide with STEEP edges to either side of us. If something were to go wrong, broken bones would be the minimum result of sliding off the edge! The heat became very intense as the 1980's eruption of Mt St Helens took out the forest that used to surround it. Next time, we'll bring more water and lunch so we can do the full 30 mi loop rather than the short out & back that we did bike (but took a long time because of challenging terrain).

Scrapwhispers Challenge #101 provided a great color scheme to use for my "On the Edge" layout, and I used old sketch from Inspired Blueprints (Sketch #10). Sadly, IB has temporarily closed their website. The owner said she is taking a break, but the goodbye is not permanent.

Spokane Falls

I had some fun with sketch challenge #66 on Inspired Blueprints and a great color scheme challenge called "Minty Fresh" on Scrapwhispers.

I threw in a lot of enhancements with acrylic paint and distress ink. Proudly, the hobby title "scrapping" was really taken to heart, as all the patterned paper was leftover scraps.....and they both happened to be 2 sided so I used the reverse of what was used on previous layouts.

I have a pack of random quotes on vellum about family and friends. The quote I found in the pack couldn't be more perfect to describe my fiance!

4th of July in 3D

It's a few too many months early to talk about 4th of July, but I was inspired by a challenge on Scrapwhispers to create a page which uses something recycled..... And I had been saving just the perfect thing for inspiration like this..... The first 4th of July that Justin and I enjoyed together was spent in Portland. As we approached the river for the light show that night, 3D glasses were handed out. The glasses made for an interesting twist on an event that's becoming somewhat ordinary. (Who could call fireworks displays just downright ordinary or dull with all that boom and sparkle!)

Anyway, the awesome challenge was "Go Green & Recycle" by Scrapwhispers, and I caught up on another past sketch (#13) from Inspired Blueprints. The 3D glasses were a nice touch for the layout.

No Bites - No Worries

Free Fishing Weekend 2010 in Washington was June 12-13. We spent that time camping at Bumping Lake near Mt. Rainier. Picked up a cheap pole+tackle package for the trip, and we did cast a line a couple times at the lake, but didn't even have a nibble. Regardless, there was so much to enjoy about the perfect campsite with good friends.

Scrap Whispers' Challenge #88 was to dive to the bottom of the scrap stash and see what old unused items were down there. I found a whole package of old tags for "Outdoor Fun" and "Summer Fun" that just never seemed to work...until now! I also have a bottle of felt flowers that just never seemed to have the right place. Fortunately, the 2 coordinate very nicely and worked perfectly to bring out the essence of the camping trip. Also, back in 2004/05 my sister and I posed for an "old tyme" photo. The photo came with a mat that I had hidden away in my scrap stash but pulled out for the background on this layout.

Even the sketch used for this layout was dug up from the old stashes.... I've been meaning to go back and use some of the old sketches from Inspired Blueprints. Sketch #1 was just right to incorporate all these old items into the layout.