October 2012 – Page 3 – Craft With May

looking back: cars layout

I’m back to digging in some of my old Disney vacation albums and sharing pages. Today, I’ve got a page that features a lot of Jenni Bowlin products…

I still love this page. I love the papers, and how they really worked with rusty old Mater and the old Route 66 feel of the meet & greet area. I love that I got the exact date on there. And I love that I got three different photos of the girls as they say hi to their favorite cars. To say that I love taking pics of the girls with favorite characters would be a massive understatement. For me, it’s good on every level. I get a unique photo opportunity, the girls love looking at them and remembering the time they met that famous so-and-so, and they’re massively fun to scrapbook too. True story? I have 5 characters left from our Disney World trip 2 years ago to scrapbook because I am hoarding and savoring and didn’t want to run out. Yeah, I love it.

On this page, I really am glad I didn’t try to get too funky. I think I’d have left off those three extra stars that I used as decoration. I think I’d have added in some metal and maybe some distress ink and such… but that’s ok. I think I was insane to cut out then stitch that title – but back in the day I did that kind of title stunt often. I should get back into more hand crafted titles – they’re time consuming and a pain in my behind… but I always ALWAYS love them when I revisit scrapbooks.

If you want to see my very early work, and read about my creative journey start with the last post on this page, and work your way up!

looking back: Snow White

Over the next few weeks I’ll be digging into some of my old Disney vacation albums and sharing a few pages that are 3+ years old. I’ll be looking at them, evaluating what I like (or dislike), if I have any regrets or would change anything, find things I’d like to scrap-lift, and more. I hope you enjoy the look back. I’m specifically picking pages that stand out to me for some reason, and that are within my more current “style” (meaning, not my earliest work.) If you want to see my very early work, and read about my creative journey start with the last post on this page, and work your way up!

Let’s start with Snow White. I know this page was for a class I did, and the challenge was interpreting/scraplifting. I know I scraplifted the general design (I *think* it was from Lisa Dickinson, but I could be wrong!)

What still works for me:

The design: I still love the overall look and feel of this page.
My use of cardstock and how I managed to use Snow White’s colors without overwhelming or getting brighter than my photos.
the painted chipboard apple. I love what this adds to the page.
the border punched paper strips (I need to get back to doing more of these!)

What doesn’t work for me anymore? Not much. It is light on journaling, but I expect that with vacation pages so often. When you have little snippets and stories from a trip where there are maybe 50 possible “scrapbookable moments” every day – not all of them are super long. That’s ok.

It is unfortunate that I didn’t use better glue, and that my red glitter is rubbing off onto my photos and page – but that’s ok. I’m going to re-seal it with some perfect paper adhesive, wipe away any excess glitter than I can, and return it to the album.

An upcoming trip to Disneyland has the girls and I seeking out our old albums to walk down memory lane, and I’m glad! Looking back isn’t just fun to see all the photos, but it also gives me a chance to look at what I love, what I notice, what I’d like more of or to try again, and what I am not loving as well.

Give-away: EK Tools

Don’t you just love some random happy mail? I know that I do – and I am delighted with these EK tools…

What could be better? I’m going to share some EK tools with one of you!

If you’d like the chance to win this fabulous assortment of glitters, scissors, foam dots, and a craft knife just leave a comment here! I will draw a winner on 10/28. Good luck! and thank you to my friends at EK Success for these goodies that I’m able to share!

challenge: Your Favorite

New week… new challenge!! Head over immediately (if you’ve not done so already) and visit Simon Says Stamp & Show – we’re inspired by our favorites. That could mean ANYTHING! A favorite technique, product, idea, color… you name it! Just create something and enter it by posting it to flickr, your blog, or whatever for a chance to win. JOIN US! The rules + post can be found over at the Stamp & Show blog. You want to enter because it is fun, plus Simon Says Stamp gives away (randomly) a $50 voucher each week to one lucky entrant!!! You can get all the details at the blog here.

I took the “favorite” theme to the extreme – creating with favorite techniques, products, and colors!

How-to:

1. Stencil on color using distress ink + blending tool. Then use blending tool + distress to color background of tag.

2. Coat tag with rock candy, let dry. Then rub brown distress ink all over the tag, wiping off excess. After that, coat with PPA in matte finish to take away the shine.

3. Finish tag by adding (inked) chipboard, metal flowers, letters, and filmstrip.

Supplies Used:

InLinkz.com

That’s it – and that is my project for this week! I hope you enjoyed it – I’ll be doing a rock candy video next week – that stuff is such fun…

Happy Crafting!

Halloween Canvas: repurposed treat container

I adore the pumpkin treat containers by Martha Stewart! They’re a fun size, they could be a lot of fun to decorate, and if you were so inclined, you could just use half of one to make something entirely different…

I took a 5×7 canvas and coated it with a generous layer of molding paste. Then I took this 1/2 of a pumpkin treat container, edged it with perfect paper adhesive, and squished it down into the molding paste. I used a plastic knife to really make sure the paste had a good seal all around the edges, and let it dry overnight.

and – that’s it! Ok not totally it, but it is that easy. All I did after that is to paint the pumpkin and edge with gold pen, paint paper with a glossy (green) paint for my leaves, and of course painted the background of the canvas brown.