#85 inspired by divided page protectors

a few days late, but I did it. I was completely frozen and intimated by this prompt, despite coming up with it and raving about how cool it was last week. Truth is, sometimes I challenge myself too much to come up with something innovative for you guys. But after missing my deadline of Sunday I sat myself down and had a serious talk with myself. No more undue pressure.

So I looked for a story with lots of pictures and not a lot of story left to tell and went to work. I found a gap in between a few pages I had done at the beginning of the year from a recent trip from my best friend and all it took to complete the story was one 9-pocket page protector to get the job done.


this came together so easily and quickly that it felt like cheating again. I just focused on embellishing two pockets on each side and the rest were photos and memorabilia.

I added colors and elements to each side to match the existing layouts. Although I did those two other layouts a few months back, I found some scraps and other leftover embellishments that matched the colors, style or exact products such as the washi.

 

I also tried to repeat elements such as the circles and butterflies on the second spread to create visual triangles for the double-page layout.

 

and of course, I added mini collages of photos to complete the rest of the story.

overall, I feel this was the best way to complete this story. I made a total of 4 pages 12x12 to use up the photos I really loved and tell my story and the rest of the photos from this vacation quickly fit into this divided page protector and my vacation is now effectively scrapped.

(some of you may remember this page from the goodbye prompt at the beginning of the year).

 

thanks for being patient with me. I can't wait to see what you come up with. Is this a technique you can use on your own albums to complete a story?

xo,
Pamage

Challenge #86 week of 15th April 2013

Another week rolls by and here we are again?

Ready?

Wie soll ich das denn sagen? Ich dachte wir könnten ein bisschen in Deutsch machen? 

No? 

How about Français? 

Español?

Italiano?

Yes, you've got it! I'm challenging you to incorporate foreign words into your scrapping in some way. For some of us, that might be easier than for others. I know that for both Pam and I, we live with two languages and can take our pick so to say. But still, I think we will both probably try to find a new way with foreign words.

I know that even if you "only" speak English, then you still know a whole lot of words from other lands. Have a play around with this and try some words out for size!

I've lived here for almost 12 years now and up to a year ago, as a teacher of Business English, I spent most of my time with my native language, learning German as I went along only. Now that I work back in the "real world", I have to communicate a lot in German and I have improved a lot! It's normal for me to flip between both languages within one sentence and that can't be easy for my colleague who has had to learn to follow my haphazard way of speaking. And I'm losing my English if you can believe it. Very often, that new language comes to mind and I am fighting to find the right word. It's made me think a lot about our preconceptions of language - to what sort of people speak what language. How it sounds to outsiders. Which words are "pretty" and expressive!

To be honest, even though I spend my day switching between my two languages, I have only scrapped a handful of pages with any German on them.

I made this one a bit more recently:

Where will you take this prompt today? What words do you have in your every day that are foreign to your native language or where you come from? What language do you wish you spoke?

We'd love to see what you come up with so make sure you share over at Flickr (here) with the prompt WM#86

#85 inspired by divided page protectors

Ha ha! Pam always knows just how to stretch me the most!

This was the first time I've scrapped with divided page protectors even though I have a full set of PL stuff here ready and waiting. I've done some small flip photo album scrapbooks à la Stacy J and that was a lot of fun but a full 12x12 divided into different sizes? New.

I obviously need practice because this took me AGES! Longer than a normal page in fact and even then, I'm not fully satisfied with the result but I have photos and some story as well as a bit of memorabilia captured so it can't be all bad :-)

I tried to use a bit of each of the papers across the three pages and mix up the photos but can someone tell me what I'm supposed to do with the small photos that I use so often - the Instagram squares and the 2x3s? They just didn't "fit" anywhere.

And even then, I had lots more photos to include - maybe I will just put them behind one of the blocks to find later on.

This was hard work but also quite a bit of fun. I think I need to practice and think it through a bit more next time.

 

Another week of creative stretching - thanks Pam! I will be trying this again!

How did you get on? First time, a Project Lifer or just a divided protector fan? Don't forget to share over at Flickr (here) with the tag WM#85

#84 inspired by the ombré trend

I know! I'm late. I'm a bad scrapper and a very bad blogger at the moment. Big apologies.

I'm trying to catch up but honestly, where does the time go?!?

I did manage to get a layout made yesterday evening though and that was a good thing. It's a great stress reliever and I'm in need of that right now :-)

So, I challenged you to take up the ombré trend and get colourful.

Whenever I put these prompts together, I'm rarely organised enough to actually think about HOW I will make mine and I certainly didn't have any papers in mind. So it was pure luck to open up my April Counterfeit Kit, Opposite,  and discover a selection of creams, yellows and oranges which seemed to be calling to be put together. This was most definitely not planned but such a pleasant surprise.

I've been missing using lots of paper on my layouts recently so I decided to just select a group of papers, cut them into strips and use one of my favourite border punches in order to get a large block of colour on my page. I placed them all a bit off kilter to make it look less structured and quite like the higgeldy piggeldy look to it.

After laying them out on the page, I decided that the page didn't need much else. The kit didn't have much that fitted the look I wanted to achieve so I settled on a few resin roses, a couple of über-old rub ons including a Doodlebug alpha which must be four or five years old, and some pearl sprinkles. A few glitter mist splats finished this off.

Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit - Opposite - layout #2

My journalling is minimal but heartfelt and the photo is one I adore so you can be sure to see that again and again on various layouts.

I loved seeing the ombré effect appear with the papers and I will be trying this again - practice makes perfect I think!

We really hope you share your colour choices over at our Flickr gallery (here) with the tag WM#84. 

Challenge #85 week of April 8th 2013

Hey there. Finally Spring here so I am spending less and less time at my scrap table and more time having fun.

But you all still need a challenge and I hope that is what I am here for...

I know many of you may have jumped on the Project Life train. I still haven't made the leap. But I do love the idea of making a layout with bits and pieces of life instead of a large 12x12 canvas. I am talking about divide page protectors. Those awesome little things aren't exclusive to Project Lifers. In fact, I incorporate them into my regular memory keeping all the time to tell more complete stories. 

Here are some examples -

from a trip to boston

     

  

 and from a roadtrip to Washington DC

you can see I can fit a lot of memorabilia, especially from trips, into these types of layouts... and create mini sections within a larger album of cohesive pages. So there you have it. Your challenge this week is to create a page (or two ... or three) using divided page protectors. Don't have them? No problem! I will post on the forum a bunch of resources from Shimelle and Julie FFB on how to create your own. Have fun with it and if this isn't something you use, just see where it takes you.

xo,

Pamage

#84 inspired by Ombre

Ok, I will admit that I have always been a little ombre crazy. Every before it was popular. Even before I knew the name of it. I used to call it "gradient" which is a much less fun word to say. 

Anyway, I have paintings I did in 2007 that will prove that I was onto this trend way before it started. And I jumped on it's bandwagon from the very beginning, mostly creating my own effects with paints, mists, colored pencils and patterned papers.

So of course, I was thrilled by this challenge - and I wanted to challenge myself in the same ways... but also in new ways. I bring you my two layouts.

 this first layout wasn't all that different from what i've done before except i threw it all on the diagonal for a little twist. love this color scheme and how the photo just stands out. This is a funny/silly story that was just begging to be told.

this next layout I wanted to do something a little different. So I thought long and hard for a story involving ombre effect... and in the end I ended up with something which is sort of a continuation of the page from last week. 

   I cheated a little by using the paint chips I collected when choosing my paint colors to tell this story. I say I cheated because the paint chips are set up in a gradient so I had a ready made ombre effect. I searched long and hard for a sketch to use since I was out of my mojo but ended up just moving things around until they fit and creating my own design. 

 again I added some splats to grunge things up a bit. And since my title was pink I was really happy with the die cut card I found to bring in some more of that color.

Lastly, I used my mistable alphas to created another ombre effect with some inks. I added a lot of pink working up from the bottom and a touch of orange to the tips. 

Overall, I love my two ombre pages almost as much as I love this technique. Thanks Lisa.

xo,

Pamage

#83 inspired by Big Cities

Well, it should be said that big city living is BUSY. I have been in a whirlwind of activity this past week and it feels like I don't own my time anymore. but I am still loving it.

Anyway, I felt super bad when I didn't get to post my layout before going away last weekend. However, I did complete it in time and I finally get to share it below.

 I decided to keep it simple and current. Ended up using up the rest of the letters in this alpha set to create my title and design element on the bottom. The idea isn't originally mine but I forget now where I saw it to credit it.

 i wanted to keep everything a little mismatched and grungy - just like my city! So the embellishments don't really go together and that is ok by me.

  

i also ran some ink over the letters to grunge them up a bit. Nothing clean about big cities (unless it's Washington DC or Boston. Those two cities are impeccable).

thanks for standing by (and even beating Lisa and I to the punch on this one). You guys are the best readers. Keep posting your big city stories!

xo,

Pamage

Challenge #84 week of 1st April 2013

Happy April Fool's Day everyone! Do you carry out any practical jokes on anyone today? I always forget and I'm sitting here alone anyway so it would be a bit superfluous really!

But here we are in a new week, a new month and a new season. Not that you would know that where I am - we had a snowy Easter and spring is definitely finding it hard to break though. But spring will come when it's ready and everyone will be happy to see it when it does. You can't rush Mother Nature :-)

This week I'd like to challenge you all to try out one of the newer trends that I have been loving. Ombré.  This trend is literally everywhere and just a quick look at Pinterest brought up these three different takes:

Pinterest credit

Pinterest credit

Pinterest credit

And if you go to any scrapbooking gallery you will find many, many interpretations. These three caught my eye over at TwoPeas:

Liz Kartchner at TwoPeas

Jen Gallagher at TwoPeas

Shimelle at TwoPeas

So select your favourite colour (that mint green is calling me at the moment!) and give this trend a go.

Don't forget to share over at out Flickr Gallery (here) with the tag WM#84 if you complete this prompt.

And of course, we love to see your interpretations of all our prompts so please feel free to go back and hunt around for one that takes your fancy. The list of past prompts can also be found on the page in the top bar.

ps. with Easter breaks and a busy life, Pam and I are late uploading our contributions for prompt WM#83 but we will try to catch up as soon as we can. Can you beat us to the prompt?

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