Challenge # 83 - week of March 25th, 2013

Well, hello again. 

It has now been one week since my move and I finally got everything in order in my scrap space. So I can join in again on live prompts. I have been itching to create and craft, but unfortunately my new schedule and lifestyle left little room for all that. 

I have been taken in by the city.

And thus, your prompt for this week is born. I want you to be inspired by BIG CITIES. I would have challenged you to be inspired by New York City but I wanted to make it broader than that to give you some flexibility. 

Perhaps you can document a vacation to London or Paris or Madrid or Miami or Chicago or San Francisco  ... or your love/hate of big cities... or something specific about big cities, such as the noise, the pollution, the people... You can just use products that remind you of big cities, like skyline stamps which are trending... or list out your bucket list of cities to visit... or write about your favorite big city... or your city... 

Oh, the possibilities!

I have more than my share of stories to tell this week, so I will leave you to it. Can't wait to see how you are inspired by big cities. As always, please remember to share with us on the gallery with the tag WM#83.

xo,

Pamage

ps: the images above were mostly taken by me (of course not the aerial view although I have taken a helicopter ride over Manhattan) and represent some of my favorite things and parts of this city I now call home.

#82 Inspired by hidden journallling

I've been busy preparing hand made embellies for four layouts for a magazine commission which meant that I was running low on time for my WM challenge today. Yes, I leave everything to the last minute! I always have the best intentions. So I was glad when the following process came together more quickly thank usual.

I went around my creating a little differently this time around as I wanted to find a subject that would call for hidden journalling. And once I had that, I looked for some photos. As they were boy based, my February Counterfeit Kit, Urban, was perfect and it didn't take long for me to sort out a collection of products to use. The next challenge for me was to come up with a way to hide my journalling in way I haven't tried before. That was fun.

The layout itself, once the selection and ideas were ready, didn't take long at all. I kept it simple and am happy with the way it turned out. And the fun thing is, no one will ever really notice where the journalling is unless they really look for it.

Counterfeit Kit Challenge February kit, Urban layout #6

 

Did you notice? My title block is actually a spinner and the journalling is tucked on the part you can't see. He he!

So to recap, my process today was subject, story, photos, kit, create. Very different from my usual jumping around and just making it work. Sometimes it's fun to shake things up and head at things from a different angle. You should try something different and let us know how it worked for you.

What did you do to keep your journalling out of view this week?

Don't forget to share over at our Flickr gallery (here) with the tag WM#82

#82 Inspired by hidden journaling

This prompt couldn't have come at a better time for me...

I have been going through so many changes and emotions and moves that I needed to get it all down on paper. The problem here is that when thoughts and feelings are so fresh I don't like to expose them to the world. Further, some of these thoughts were super private.

And so, hidden journaling gave me the opportunity to express myself freely. Here is what I ended up with.

The secret life of a Unicorn

this layout dealt with my feelings at work and about my job. 

I used one of the speech bubbles on the paper to house my title using the small BG letters which were a good match to the color of the bottom pp.

For my secret journaling I stapled three large tags together and ran some washi tape to hold them together. 

i added a piece of patterned paper to the bottom of the tags to write my journaling.

Love 

the theme here is simple and obvious. There isn't really a title even. Just some stamped words, a sentiment sticker, my photos and my hidden journaling. I decided to embellish with some stitching. 

did you find creative ways to hide your journaling? I hope you will share with us. Thanks again Lisa for inspiring me.

xo,

Pamage

Challenge #82 week of 18th March 2013

Welcome to your new home Pam! We all hope you will be very happy with your new cosmopolitan lifestyle!

I've had some sneak peeks of her new home and it's lovely.

And off we are on another week's creative adventure.

I hope you know that I try to always have a bit of a story on my pages. Sometimes it's out in the open but sometimes, it's a bit more tucked out of the way. Sometimes only I know it's there. It's my little secret.

So that is my prompt this week. Go hide your journalling! Maybe you'll go the regular way - pockets, tucked behind the photo, slipped under the papers, slapped on the back of the page. Or you might get a bit more crafty (in both meanings of the word) and find a new way to hide it but it's still there. A little translucent pocket perhaps, a flap under the photo, a letter in an envelope, even coded (too much hard work for me but I know there's a few of you out there who might go the extra mile!)

Here are a few of our recent pages which could qualify for this prompt for a bit more inspiration:

A vellum pocket shows you that there is journalling to read but the confetti also in the pocket gives the words some protection

The brown paper bag covers up the journalling strip completely but the stitched tab gives an enticing peek of what might be inside

Partly visible, partly hidden behind the photo, the tab gives a clear instruction

My closed up doily envelope really keeps these words under lock and key 

I'm going to ask Pam to connect up one or two of her pages here too. :-) I'm sure she will wow us with her creative hiding skills!

So, get going and cover up those words. Don't forget to share over at Flickr with the tag WM#82. Can't wait to see what you make.

#81 inspired by paper punches

Pam asked us to dust off those punches that we know you have tucked here and there in your scraprooms and get them working again.

Sensible advice as we all know how much they cost and if you have invested money into buying them, then you should certainly try to get your money's worth from them. Well, that's the way I think about anyway.

Punches are one of the items that I will suddenly remember to use and you'll see the butterfly or the heart or the tab appear on every layout, only to be as quickly forgotten again while I move on to another item. So it was nice to be nudged to open my punch drawer and remind myself of what I have.

No one will be surprised to hear that I have not one but two maple leaf punches that get used from on my Canadian adventure pages so that's the way I went this evening.

This layout was very much inspired by this week's Glitter Girl video where she used 4 6x6 papers to form the background. I haven't filled the page with paper for a long time and most of the other pages from our Yukon adventure are more my older style and there was a lot more "stuff" on my pages. So this will fit in more with the style of the other pages. I have high hopes of one day fishing all those Yukon pages out of the boxes and putting them into their own album(s) so at that time we'll see how well that works!

Anyway, I used both the maple leaves, with the smaller one making a negative punched border. Then I mirrored Shimelle's clustering in three placed and layered up leaves and both sizes of leaves for a bit of variety.

Counterfeit Kit Challenge November kit, Dempster layout #9

I really like all the punches and the overall design, but the strip of three smaller photos disturb me. However, they were part of the story and so they will be staying put.

It was nice to fill the page with paper so I'll be doing that again sometime soon!

Don't forget to share the details of your own punch collection over at our Flickr gallery :-)

#81 Inspired by Paper Punches

Hey!

Ok, by now you may have picked up on my hints about my big move into NYC. But in case you hadn't, I am in the middle of it all this weekend. Knowing my life would be chaotic for a while I was forced to prepare my pages for WM ahead of time. 

And of all the layouts, this is the one I was itching to share with you guys. Of all my recent layouts, this one feels the most like me. It has so many things I love and use time and time again. Those are the simplest pages to make.

 I didn't end up using punches in an unusual way. I have used this technique before... but by incorporating other items into my grid and using it as journaling spots as well as embellishment, I was able to create a dynamic and happy page with just a few scraps. And I mean scraps. Every single piece here measured just barely more than 1"x1" before I punched it. What a scrap stash buster.

One of the things I am most proud of on this page is the incorporation of random elements. In purging my scrap collection I found some forgotten treasures and decided to use them on a page. For example, I found a spool of wire and couldn't remember the last time I used it on a layout, so I made these litttle rings and stapled them to the page. I also found a little bag of handmade clay embellishments. For those I just used air-drying clay, made little balls, flattened them with my hand and pressed button shapes into them. The tone on tone dimension they add to this layout is the perfect embellishment against the bright pops of color.

So a few punches (circle, heart and notebook border), a few scraps and a few found items in my stash and we have a page I love.

Did you end up using punches? Please share with us in the gallery.

xo,

Pamage

Challenge # 81 - week of March 11, 2013

So from time to time we ask you to focus on a certain type of product or trend. And those prompts are exciting because they get stash used up...

But what about our tools? So often we make an investment in our tools (which aren't ever cheap) just to forget all about them and let them collect dust. 

Here are a few layouts to give you a hint at which tools I am referring to...

In case you didn't guess it, those tools are PAPER PUNCHES. This week's challenge is intended to make you break out those expensive (and often big and bulky) punches and use them to fill up a page. Believe it or not they are the main element on each of the pages above and with just a few basic shapes I get so much variety. The punches I used above are: large circle, small square, butterfly, small circle, tiny flower and decorative edge. With just those 6 punches I was able to create these very different layouts and this is just a small sampling of my use of them (and my obsession with collecting them). 

So dust yours off and try to use them in a new creative way. The price of this tool will only be worth it the more you use it. Use it to create your own patterned paper, masks, grid layout, layered embellishments, decorative border or fill up a background.

Can't wait to be inspired by (and probably copy) how you use your paper punches. Here's hoping I don't end up with more in my collection.

xo,

Pamage

#80 - inspired by vellum

As you might have guessed, I love vellum. I've been using it from the very beginning and have enjoyed finding different ways to use it on my pages.

I think I could find dozens of pages from the last few years using vellum in various ways and one of my favourites is mini envelopes for my journalling or confetti, or as fluttering butterflies across the page.

But then I remembered this layout from back at the beginning of our WM time...

and remembered the lovely effect of the vellum over the photos. I decided to do a lift of myself. I have a small selection of vellum that I just pick up from the stationary department and was pleased to find that I had a large peachy coloured square and some smaller pieces of regular white. I had an image of what I wanted to achieve in my mind and the double of the same photo one of which would be behind the vellum matched this exactly. It's rare that what was in my mind appears on the page so I'm really happy with this one!

I used my March CKC kit, Disconnected (LO#3) for this

I tried to find as much as I could for layering up

Soft colours with just the odd pop

I used a ready made brown bag as the place for my hidden journalling

I love the way that you can still see what is under the vellum but the effect is soft and dreamy. I also really like the tint that this peach piece gives the rest of this very neutral coloured layout as well as the vellum helping to link into the title with the photo partially hidden.

What will you be doing with your vellum this week?

Hope to see your layout in the Flickr gallery with the tag WM#80.

#80 inspired by vellum

I am easily inspired by vellum. I love the stuff. I was one of those folks who was using it when it was "tacky" and out of trend. I was ecstatic once products started popping up using vellum though I haven't bought that many beyond the ones that came with the Studio Calico kits when I still had a subscription. 

I like to use it just plain.

But Lisa's challenge had me thinking outside the box a little and I wanted to find new ways to use it. So I had the perfect excuse to try this technique {here} and make my own vellum embellishments with a little ink and clear embossing powder.

And these are the results -

 although the raised stamped impression is subtle, I love how pretty these images turned out. I had never clear embossed over colored ink. What a genius concept!

 I also created double layers by adding my embossed vellum image over a punched plain vellum circle which I stamped with the phrase 'oh snap'. and a sticker and butterfly finished off my mini-clusters.

another fun fact about this layout is that my "patterned paper" is actually the shopping bag from west elm. I couldn't resist the x's and o's pattern on craft. too darn cute. 

I hope you dug into your stash for some vellum and put it to good use on a page. 

xo,

Pamage

Challenge #80 week of 4th March 2013

These prompts come around faster and faster. I can't believe that it's already March. How's life in your neck of the woods? Out of winter? Heading into spring? Or maybe moving towards autumn? Whatever you have, take a look out of the window and enjoy what you have right now - in the blink of an eye, we will be heading towards the end of the year! Ha ha...

Well, we've had a couple of weeks of more thoughtful prompts to get your journalling or story telling ideas down on paper, so this week I thought it might be nice to take a turn down the product route.

It's a product that is back in fashion although I've been using it from the very beginning and still love it. That's not to say that I don't want to get my hands on some of the new trends - mostly with big gold dots on it or printed with pretty clouds. But whatever, I love it plan white or gently tinted and if I can manage to track down the newer designs, then all the better.

Yes, I'm talking vellum.

I used it a few weeks ago for my little embossed bag

or to hold some confetti 

or just to soften the background

And I know that Pam has used it a few times recently too. 

For a journalling block

Or an oversized ephemera bag

And here are the Dear Lizzy papers I referred to earlier in my post - if you have them, I'm jealous!

So, be inspired to find a way to use vellum in your project this week. Personally, I can't wait to pick up some new ideas for me to use my vellums on my pages. I love to be inspired by what you create!

Don't forget to link up over at Flickr with the tag WM#80.

#79 inspired by "born to..."

A prompt from Pam that could have turned into a very deep and meaningful one but this week I went with absolutely the first idea that sprang to mind when I first read the prompt.

Then it was just a matter of thinking what approach to take and which photo to use.

It's a bit of a running joke in my family that I must have been born German as the life here in Germany suits me so much! I like the order, the control, the rules - well a lot of the time anyway! Sometimes it's a bit too much, even for me :-)

But a new life in an new country so very different to the UK could have been much more problematic than it proved to be and a lot of that is due to my personality.

I don't have many photos which show me in a very German way of life so I had to go back a few years to a whistle stop tour of Berlin that we took and to a place which is instantly recognisable. Here in Europe at least.

I used my new "Disconnected" Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit and was happy to find that I had some papers which could be emblematic for the colours of Germany. A sly insertion of some red mist to accompany the yellow and black I had with me at the crop yesterday and I was all set to subtly but deliberately concentrate on these three colours to support my theme.

This was a lot of fun, a little tongue in cheek and quick to bring together. 45 minutes and I was complete! A record for me probably.

The label is a little skew but apart from that, I'm happy with how this one turned out.

What were you born to do? We can't wait to find out.

Don't forget to share over at the Flickr gallery (here) with the tag WM#79 and tune in tomorrow for another prompt to inspire your creativity next week.

#79 Inspired by "Born to be ----"

Hey there!

I can (and want to) do a page like this for every member of my family... but since I've been so introspective lately, I decided to focus on myself. 

I searched pinterest for the right quote and came across the cutest print by Rachel {here}. That was my inspiration piece. I also tried a new technique I saw on 2peas - stamping with mists using a mask. It added the right flair of whimsy to my page and I adore it.

i wanted the focus to be on the words and I didn't want the page to feel overwhelmed, so I treated the photo to have a washed out faded look and printed the same photo twice. The second and smaller one then pulls your eye to the edge of the page, but the focal point stays on the quote. I love that.

I kept the embellishings really simple - just a few wood veneer accents. And presto!

What story did you tell this week? Did you dig deep or keep it light?

Can't wait to see.

xo,

Pamage