Let's Scrap Leap around the World blog hop!

As one of the 50 international host blogs, I am gearing up now for the upcoming Let's Scrap "Leap Around the World" February blog hop!!  This fun event will start at 10:00am on February 1 and end on February 29th at 11:59pm according to the main page clock on the Let's Scrap website (your clock may vary, so check the time difference).

I would love it if you joined me in this big hop!  There are several things you can do RIGHT NOW to be prepared:

• Make sure you are signed up as a follower on this blog.  Just scroll up to the right-hand corner and click on JOIN THIS SITE.  
• Click here to join the Let's Scrap website.  It's free, simple and quick, and not to forget: One of the friendliest communities on the web! 
• Find all those scraps of paper you have been setting aside for the last 5 years.  You will need them because the blog hop is all about making CARDS!
• Clean off your scrap table, I assume this is a MUST for most of us, LOL  
• Get ready to make a massive amounts of cards, each from a different sketch, so lots of variety!

OK, a few more details.  You did read correctly: there are 50 blog hosts!  Once you have joined Let's Scrap, at each blog, you will get two chances to win some blog candy (aka: booty, prizes)!  Do the math!  You will have 100 chances to win free stuff...and good stuff, too!  This is also the perfect opportunity to restock your card stash!  The first chance comes when you join/follow each blog and leave a comment.  The second chance comes when you use the card sketch on each blog to create a card, layout or other project based upon the card sketch appearing on each blog--they are all different! You then must post your creation in the Let's Scrap website gallery, then go back to each blog and leave a second comment linking back to your gallery post.  Don't be overwhelmed...you are doing only one card at a time!  Our hope is that you will visit every blog, but, remember, you have the whole month of February to do this.

Thanks for popping by and hopefully you will join me and all the others in the hop fun! 

LOAD challenge and scrapping with kraft

The LOAD (layout a day) challenge that Cathy is hosting at Let's Scrap sure made me scrap. I can not say I am totally up to date but so far my count is #24. Not bad for someone who did a 106 LO's last year.
As you will all know by now I am a huge fan of single LO's, single photo pages and kraft cardstock. Ooooh, do not want to forget machine stitching, LOL.

For this LO I used a photo from DD Jinte where she is showing off her Mr. Patato Head. We found him in one of the boxes in the attic that were filled with toys from DS Joram when he was younger. And Jinte LOVES playing with it. And mostly to make funny and weird looking faces with two pairs of eyes, an ear on the spot the nose should have been. In the gallery at Let's Scrap was mentioned twice that the creature she created looks like one of Picasso's paintings. Oh my, that is true, I never looked at it that way!

PP: Basic Grey, Bo Bunny, Lily Bee Design
Border punch: Martha Stewart
Photo corner: Daisy D's*
Misc: sewing machine, button, embroidery floss


* Companies marked like this are no longer in business. 

The title was cut with my Silhouette


I am also putting this LO in for the ScrapFIT #23 challenge, which is to use kraft cardstock. Got to love a challegne like that, LOL. Always loved and still love the Basic Grey kraft lines. Too bad it did not became one of their basics.


Thanks for popping by, I can not believe it is Wednesday already. I got the cold from Jinte so now I am sniffing, sneezing and coughing. Maybe I'll hit the hey early today.

How versatile are sketches????

Every other week one of our DT members at Let's Scrap hosts a challenge. This time it was Beth's turn and I was certainly surprised and had LOTS of fun doing the challenge.
These are the tips she gave:

Do you ever have a sketch you want to use, but you either have more photos that you want to include, or your photos are not in the right orientation?  Often this problem can be solved by using smaller photos.

A horizontal 4 x 6 can become:

• 2 vertical 3 x 4 photos
• 2 horizontal 2 x 6 photos

A vertical 4 x 6 can become:

• two horizontal 3 x 4 photos
• two vertical 2 x 6 photos

The above ideas can be used without changing the sketch at all.  With just some slight changes to the sketch you could also use:

• two 3 x 3 photos
• two wallets 

If you really want to include a lot of photos, try using 2 x 2 photos.  You can substitute six 2 x 2 photos in place of just one 4 x 6 photo.  

Isn't that the coolest? Well, I played with one of our sketches and this is what I came up with. For those who recognize the patterned paper on this one: Yes, it is the Girls Paperie Christmas line. When I saw the sheet with the roses on there I knew I HAD to have it, you have to agree with me: There's nothing Christmassy going on on this LO. When I would not have told you, you would not have known. 

For me this was #22 in the LOAD challenge (layout a day), so I am doing pretty good. I do not think I have ever made so many LO's in such a short period of time. 

I splashed some StazOn re-inker on my background cardstock to make it more appealing. Just used a small brush and started playing. Just make sure your ink ends up ON the cardstock, not on everything around you. The splashing is really hard to control, LOL

CS: Bazzill
PP: Prima Marketing, Girls Paperie*
Border punch: Fiskars
Ink: StazOn
Misc: Sewing machine, felt stickers, wiggly eyes

* Companies marked are not in business anymore.

Only a week to go until the Let's Scrap Leap around the world blog hop starts. It is going to be so much fun. There are going to be 50 (yes, fifty!) hosts and they will all provide a prize. To be able ot win a prize you must be a member of Let's Scrpa and start scrapping as soon as February starts! 

Thanks for popping by and have a great week!

Card

I am still not a fan of card making, even though I make the card sketches at Let's Scrap, LOL. 
I made a card last week that i really like. It probably helped that I made it with  kraft cardstock, my favorite cardstock EVER! 
I used of of my own sketches that I made for Let's Scrap and this is the final result:  I have no detailed pics from it since I send it before I had the chance......

CS: Bazzill
PP: My Little Yellow Bicycle
Border punch: Avec
Sentiment and Cupcake: Silhouette print and cut
Twine: Divine Twine
Misc: Ribbon, paper piercer, button


Thanks for popping by and don't forget to prepare for our HUGE blog hop at Let's Scrap starting the 1st of February

Mixing patterned papers from different manufacturers

TGIF! I am so ready for the weekend! But first of all I would like to 'teach' you something'..............

I always love mixing patterned papers and I am not afraid to mix 'non' matching colors and patterns. But I do know that many of you have a very hard time with this.
So I will try and tell how you can start doing it without the feeling of being the worse designer in the world, LOL.
Let me start with this: It is all about your personal style and taste! Well, that did not really help, did it?
Okay, even though it is about personal style there is also a little thin line between a good combination and a total patterned paper disaster.

Many of the rules that apply in home decor also apply in scrapping. In home decor they say that you can easily combine 4 or 5 different patterns together, but many more will be too much.

If you have never mixed patterned papers from different lines or different manufacturers before you might want to start like this. Start with combining similar colors.

• Go through your patterned papers and grab similar colors. 
• Do not look at the patterns or hues of the PP
• Do not overkill! Don't take 20 different PP if you normally only use two or three on a LO

And now: Just start scrapping!

Another way to combine papers is to go with patterns. Colors are not the main focus. What you are trying to do is find a couple of patterned papers, all with different patterns. 

Find some stripes, some dots, checkered, plaids and maybe some argyles or flowers. Even though your colors are not the main focus, it is necessary that one color comes back in every sheet of PP you picked. So, for example, your dotted paper can be having several different colors but one of those colors matches with your flowered PP. 

Now put the patterned patterned you picked out on your work space and start looking at the patterns, you can make three different categories: small patterns, medium pattern and big patterns. Pick one sheet out of every category and there is your combo! 

There are a couple of patterned that combine very easy with others. Those are: ledgers, stripes, dots and text. They can be used as you main patterned paper or even as your background sheet. 

You can get great mixing inspiration looking at the lines form manufacturers. They also mix their patters and they do that because they know some people do have a hard time with mixing. Well, they also want you to buy their whole line..........

NEVER never forget that the main focus on your layout should be your photo's, not your patterned paper. 

Hopefully this will give you a bit of trust to start mixing. And even when you do not feel safe to start mixing on such a big thing as a 12x12 LO, start small and make a card. Just do not be afraid of doing something wrong, there's no wrong in scrapbooking, every piece made is a piece of art! 

Last but not least I am going to show you a LO I did today with 6 PP (including my background sheet) from five different manufacturers. I combined reds and added a tiny black, all on a ledger background paper (there's the easy to combine pattern.........) 

PP: Basic Grey, 7Gypsies, My Minds Eye, Bo Bunny, Collage Press

Chipboard: Bo Bunny
Stickers: American Crafts, Making Memories, Adornit, Bo Bunny
Twine: Divine Twine
Safety pin: Queen & Co
Misc; sewing machine, hearty pins, puffy heart sticker, heart pins.

The heart pins were originally pink but I covered them with Tacky Glue and dipped them in fine glitter. All patterned papers were from my stash and the 7Gypsies one (the text book PP) is about 10 years old, still love it.......

Somehow the middle pennant of the banner looks sort of yellowish, but trust me, it is NOT, I think the scan made it look that way. But right now I do not feel like taking a regular photo of my LO, I just don't have the energy for it.

For those of you who need a scrapping boost: At Let's Scrap we still have the LOAD (layout a day) challenge going on, and we are busy preparing on of the largest blog hops ever, starting February 1st: Let's Scrap Leap around the World blog hop.

Thanks for popping by and have a great weekend!

Free printables

I have to admit; I am a sucker for free printables. And when you browse around the internet you will find tons and tons. But since I am browsing way too much anyway I thought I might as well link some cool ones up for you. So your visit here is not completely useless, LOL.
Though I did finish a LO today so I am up to date on the LOAD challenge at Let's Scrap. Which is by the way hosted by one of our fabulous DT members, Cathy. Cathy, thanks so much for doing this, you are one of the reasons why Let's Scrap rocks!

Now let's get back to the printables. Like I said, there are so many free ones out there. I used to store most of them on my computer or bookmarked the sites. Now I have many many of them pinned on my Pinterest board. Gotta love Pinterest!

There's some very cute free printables at Love vs Design, if you are a graphics lover you will definitely like these.

Love vs Design

You will find lots of free printable journaling tags/blocks at Creativity Prompt. Every time I print one of these I always wonder why I still buy journaling blocks

Another great set of tags/blocks I found at the Scrap Pit, these come both in red and black and can be used for so many different things. 

Scrap Pit

I absolutely love ledger papers of all sorts. I love to scrap with them and you can count on me having every sort of ledger scrapping paper available. Just can not resist those. 

MelStampz has a great one, just love the blue.

MelStampz

Shareese-Pieces (love that name) is having a great one for all of you who have a girl. And if you do not have a girl you might want to use it for yourself. We HAVE to scrap ourselves too, you know. 

Shareese-Pieces

And for all of you who can not resist button cards, here's such a cute one to use on a baby welcome card. I still need to make one for a baby that is about to be born, so I might use this one. 

mazcrazyhaberdasher @flickr

And for the more lazy types among us, there's always the round ups. They are great if you do not want to spend the entire night on your computer. You might as well take advantage of other people's crazy habits; looking for free printables. A great site for a printable round up is Ishare printables

Ishare printables

I have done enough for today, I am signing off and will hopefully be scrapping some more. Need to stay on my toes with the LOAD. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Let's Scrap Leap around the World blog hop

Even though January is only 10 days old I am already thinking about February. This year is leap year so we all know what that means. We have an extra day to scrap!!!!!!! ROFL.
There is going to be a huge blog hop at Let's Scrap starting the first of February and ending the 29th. And trust me, if you want to finish all the challenges: You need all those days!
Everyone can participate but to be in the draw for a prize you will have to be a member of Let's Scrap.

I will be one of the hosts and trust me: It is going to be fun! 

I'll have to say thank you to one specific person, or else this blog hop would not have been organized. Mindi, thank you so much for organizing the most part of this hop, you are the best! 

Have a great week! 

Ooooh, have I been............

A terrible blogger lately. I can not believe my last post here was in October. Well, sorry for being MIA but a lot of other stuff got in the way. I got the great opportunity to take over Let's Scrap together with Betty Anne, who is now officially my partner in crime.
I love Let's Scrap and already did way before I became an administrator. I can honestly say it is one of the friendliest communities I have ever seen.

So taking over Let's Scrap is the main reason for being such a terrible blogger lately. It is a lot of work to find sponsors, make sketches (I have been doing the card sketches for a little over a year now) and making sure the site is running smoothly.
This whole thing made me scrap a lot less than I would want but hey, you can't have it all! I did scrap and my goal was to make a 100 Lo's in 2011 and I made a 103, no bad at all.............

I started another 'goal' group over at Let's Scrap again and my scrapping goal for 2012 is again to make a 100 layouts.

At this point we have so much going on at Let's Scrap, we have the LOAD (layout a day) challenge that Cathy, one of our DT's is hosting and so far I am doing good, I have already done 3 layouts and a card.

Let me finish this post with showing some of my LO's I did in the last two months. I am not going to put a supply list with every LO as I usually do but if you want to know anything about it: Please just ask!

Thanks for keeping up with me and I promise to be better........................