Weekly Challenge #7

This will be the last weekly challenge until mid-August - I'm going on vacation! Please feel free to use this time to catch up on any challenges you haven't had time for, or come up with your own and share them with us!

The technique challenge for this week is to wrinkle or crinkle paper on a layout. Some people go as far as wadding paper up, getting it damp, and ironing it back out - personally, I feel like that's too much effort (I don't iron my CLOTHES, I'm certainly not going to start on my paper!), but if that appeals, feel free! I just wad mine up and smooth it back out. It adds an interesting texture to the page.

The journaling challenge for this week is to scrap an emotion - happy, sad, scared - anything!

As always, I look forward to what you do with this! (:

Use something old challenge - Shauna

In Shauna's words: "I used embossing powder for the first time in ages. I honestly can’t remember the last time I used it. I stamped a square with the embossing ink then poured silver powder over it, when it had melted, I poured more powder over it before it had a chance to cool off. I did these four or five times. When it was thick and before it had cool off, I stamped it. This way I got the image of a “blue jeans” button."

First home challenge - Maria

Maybe this is "cheating," but on this layout I used something I'd had for a really long time (the paper - one of the first 12" paper I ever bought! I've been waiting for a good time to use it); used ribbons (the fiber challenge from this week), and journaled about my first place - yup, three challenges down in one layout! (;

I'm posting a smaller image with both sides, and larger ones of each side so you can click on it if you want and read the journaling.

It was fun to do something so colorful. I kind of went off of the tie-dyed shirts I was wearing in the photos for inspiration. The ribbon on the bottom under the "home sweet home" one is actually an upside-down chartreuse ribbon - the blue underneath it was the closest thing I had to what I wanted. Normally, I would have matted at least one photo, or the journaling, but the paper was so bright I figured it all stood out from it enough. (:

Pet Challenge - Maria (#3)

Here is the third - and last - set of pictures from the cat album:

Pet Challenge - Maria (#2)

Here are more images from the cat album. I tried to keep things simple by keeping more or less the same neutral color scheme throughout.

Pet Challenge - Maria

This is an album I did to help the kids with their grieving process when the cat died last week. I sat down with them and talked about all the things they loved about her - all the happy memories - and then printed out pictures and put them in a book, along with what they'd said. I had them write on the back cover - Colin showed unexpected humor (he really WAS devastated) by drawing her as a ghost cat. (:

I think I can only upload 4 or 5 pictures at a time, so this will be spread across two or three posts. If you want to read what the kids had to say (and some of them are pretty cute), just click on the picture for a larger version.

Weekly Challenge #6

I hope you all had a nice 4th of July week! Without further ado, here are this week's challenges:

The technique challenge will be to use fibers of some sort (yarn, floss, twine, etc.) on your layout. If this is old hat to you, take it a step further and dangle something (a small photo, beads, charms, keys, etc.) from the fibers!

The journaling challenge is to do a page where you write about a current or past pet - beloved or not. (; This is another one where you could easily take it a step further and do a mini book or album on this topic, depending on how much you have to say about it!

Oh, and I need some more pictures from you guys! This is not all about me!!! (:

Did You Know? - an article about stockpiling

Here's a fun (and enlightening!) article about scrapbook stockpiling, from Organized Scrapbooks. For example, did you know that an inch of cardstock is the equivalent of 50 finished pages, and an inch of patterned paper is about 75-100? And here I thought I didn't have enough paper! (:

http://organizedscrapbooks.com/article71.html

Catch up week or vacation (:

Happy July 4th week! This week, instead of having a new challenge, we can either use our time to catch up on some previous challenges, or just take a week off and enjoy the holiday. Have fun!