:: b & a ::

I don't know about you but I love kraft and white together. I also love Ali Edwards. I think that she is a genius when it comes to telling stories, documenting life, and making it beautiful; artful; all at the same time. That's why, when I saw this layout on her blog November 2012, I pinned it with the idea that I would use it as inspiration at some point. What I didn't know is how little I would change the basic design. Why mess with perfection, right?

I used the July Scrapbook Circle Kit and Ali Edwards stamps for this layout. In fact, I got the stamps in the mail the same day I took the photos of this tea party. As soon as the stamps arrived, I thought I'd try them out with my new frost white ColorBox pigment ink. When I stamped it, I loved the sentiments and the softness of the white on kraft. It reminded me of the Ali layout I had pinned, so I got to work!

At the same time I had been working with this awesome Studio Calico Mister Huey's Mask that I'd gotten in the Scrapbook Circle July Embellishment add-on kit. I tried the mask with Mister Huey mist, then stamps, then paint, but none of them really gave me what I wanted. So, I tried the absolutely magnificent White Signo Pen (an aside: I was about halfway finished making this background paper when the mail arrive with the Ali Edwards stamps.....). Here's a close up of the mask + pen:

Remember me saying that I like the softness of the white ink on the kraft? Well, the signo pen, while usually perfection, is very.....WHITE. Not soft. So I covered the whole background with vellum. Love! It brought the focus back to the photos (another aside: the photos were taken right after I stamped the stamps for the first time....I added the softness to them in Photoshop, because I knew I would use the photos, with the stamps).

I added a bit of tiny circle stamping (from an Ali Edwards December Daily stamp set that I can't seem to find to link up)! 

And pretty much nothing is complete these days without a bit of stitching! :-)

Thank you to my friend Kirsten for taking my scrapbooking emergency text while I was creating this LO. (I couldn't decide on b&w or color photos)!

I will have another LO to share with you tomorrow, using the same Scrapbook Circle Kit.  Here's a sneak:

Did you know that my blogaversary is coming up (it's Sunday)!!??! I will be doing a special giveaway on my blog -- don't forget to check back later this week for the details.

It's not too late to play with Scrap Your Story and the great sketch this week! Check it out here!

Scrap Your Story :: Hello Cheap Trick

It's FRIDAY!  You know what that means, a great challenge @ the Scrap Your Story Challenge Blog! This week we are working with an awesome sketch!   The sketch (as seen on the right), was a fun one to work with! Two photos, a giant circle,and both a vertical and horizontal line. I stayed fairly true to the sketch, but remember, you can flip, rotate, tweak, whatever you need! I hope to see you play along with us this week!  I grabbed my June Kit from Scrapbook Circle, a few scraps from my scrap box and this is what I came up with :

This past weekend the three of us attended a concert at the zoo in Apple Valley, MN. We had front row seats at this outdoor, all-ages show.  It was Bea's first concert! You will see more photos from this trip at some point; I am currently working on a mini book all about it!

I took the main background paper (Basic Grey :: Bow Ties :: kick the can) and cut a big circle on my Silhouette, then placed another piece of patterned paper (Farmhouse Paper Company :: where ideas take root) behind it. I machine stitched around the circle to define it a bit more, and then added a few stitches in other locations (can never have enough stitches!).  The bright orange arrows are all from the kit as well, they are fuzzy rub-ons (part of the Hipster collection by Basic Grey). I also added some wood veneer shapes that I tinted with orange ink. The "hello" is also from the Hipster Collection, and the "cheap trick" is from Recollections. This was a fun layout to make!

Check out Scrap Your Story and play along this week! I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Scrap Your Story :: Beatrice @ bat

UPDATE:  I'm linking this up to Paper Issues Feb. 7, 2015 Issue Hip to Be Square (I used square photos and some {aflairforbuttons} flair.

It's FRIDAY!  Scrap Your Story Challenge blog has a new challenge posted! This week we are all about childhood!

This week I was fortunate enough to be able to hang out with a friend and scrap & chat all afternoon! Love getting that time to catch up, and share some creative juices! I had the basic idea of this page (and even some of it created) before we met, but it was so awesome to be able to say, "What do you think of this....or this...or..."! I think we each created 2-3 pages that day -- we must do it again soon!

Most everything came from Jillibean Soup :: Irish Farm House Soup collection pack.  I added some wood veneers, washi and "today" flair from A Flair For Buttons.

For the painted stars in the background I made a stencil using my Silhouette Cameo.  Then I used Tim Holtz Distress paint (Antique White) to paint the stars on. Best part: I used blank stencil "paper" (did you know you can purchase that at Michael's?) to create the star stencil, so I can use it over and over again!

Fun!  We are off to a great adventure this weekend!  I am going to attempt my first "Smash" book to document the trip! I'll update you soon!