Hello Sanrio Puroland

Documenting our visit to Sanrio Puroland in Japan. Awesome place. Shots of this family of mine walking in. Leia is holding up her ticket for me to photograph.

Sketch #414 at Sketches in Thyme Blog

This is a great sketch. Really liked working with it for my March DT layout. Having all the prompts for placing my embellishments was fun, especially since I really enjoy arrows and chevrons. The Hello Kitty embellishments were cut on my Cricut from the Hello Kitty cartridge. Although it didn’t turn out like I had hoped, I applied light texture paste over a stencil. Really not noticeable, need to work on my texture pasting and make sure it will show up as planned. The kangi stamp is an old one from Stampin’ Up!. I used 3 chipboard arrows, a chevron die, and the black arrow I cut when I cut the title letters on Cricut. Added some punched stars to the cluster, added some sequins here and there, and called it done.

Thanks for popping in. Hope you are getting some inspiration to go make your own memory pages sometime. Do pop in at Sketches in Thyme and play along with one of the sketches yourself.

Stay safe! Stay crafty!

Hugs, JoyceAnn

A Day of Fun

My challenge from “Lasting Memories Layout Challenge” #441 was titled No Housework Day. I grabbed these photos of my daughter and me at the zoo enjoying our day and taking a train ride.

The title and train image I made with Cricut Explore Air. Lots of stamping, die cutting and work to make the flowers. Also DD cut the insert under the photo of us with a Tim Holtz die in chipboard, then rubbed it with Distress paints and stains. Strips from a catalogue of Lionel trains were pasted down. The entire page got a good washing of paints, inks and stains some areas over stencils. Hemp twine and Nuvo Drops added to among the flowers with Stickles in the centers.

See Goodness in Others

Watercolor backgrounds are so amazing to me.  I have always admired the true scrapbook artists who make such stunning pages.  I’m not there yet, but I sure had fun.

I feel like I couldn’t get it, so I kept adding.   After each session of play I let it dry, then packed it under some 12 x 12 pads and weight to flatten.  Then, tried something else.  I actually gave myself a bruise on my index finger banging a brush of watercolor over the page to make spatters.  Finally used something else to bang on and it worked great and wasn’t painful.  I used a few stencils but they didn’t give the watercolor effect I wanted, however using some Inka Gold over a stencil was okay.  I still need work on that technique, my placement isn’t very artistic.

So, this is for the challenge at Lasting Memories #421.

My title work was done with my Cricut Explore Air.  What got me to do this title and find this photo of my dear son was a prompt challenge at A Cherry On Top.  Their challenges are fun and have gotten me motivated to scrap more.  Do visit!

Thanks for stopping by, and keep making those precious memories!

You Go Girl – Lasting Memories Challenge

Our challenge is to use the technique of tearing paper for a layout.

I completely remember the first time this idea of tearing was introduced to me, probably 10 or so years ago.  I was appalled at the idea of tearing into perfectly good scrapbook paper.  We all know attitudes change, and in our art of creating memory pages with our scrapbooking supplies that is part of the fun.

This layout starts with a base sheet of Graphic 45 from the Botanical Tea collection.  Additional papers are from Heartfelt Creations, from which I fussy cut the flower accent in the bottom corner.  The torn edges are distressed with Ranger Oxide Frayed Burlap ink.  I wanted this to be a girly page, because that is who she is – my little great granddaughter.  So, I layered it up and added more flowers, butteries, buttons and some sweet vine die cuts.  The title was cut on the Cricut.

Please visit the blog for all the details – LM #419 – Techniques – Paper Tearing

A Triple Play of Emotion

Today has been one of those days that sets emotions all over the scale, quickly!  It was a morning that brought a much anticipated package and before it was over, two phone calls with sad news.

The good news is the mail lady brought my Stamp Platform!  Once opened I was overjoyed to see it and touch it and know it is everything I had hoped for.

I must tell you how happy I am with Oozak.com, the on-line store through whom I placed my order way back before production was interrupted.  It is really amazing that I got mine this early in July, and I’m thankful too.  I had a scrapbook page on my table nearly done, so needed to finish it up before I can pull anything else out to play stamping on.  I am looking forward to stamping directly on my 12 x 12 layouts now that I can place them perfectly without the horror of miss-stamping something.  I’ve pretty much only stamped background images that do not matter if they come out poorly, other images I stamp on another piece of card stock and cut it out before pasting to the page.

Here is the just finished layout.

The papers are from a pack I recently picked up at Michaels for $7.  It’s all about Arizona, to me, for which I have a big reason to scrap such photos.

My challenge was to use a summer song.  I chose this old song.  According to Wikipedia “Summertime” is an aria composed in 1934 by George Gershwin for the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess. The lyrics are by DuBose Heyward, the author of the novel Porgy on which the opera was based.  I did not know this!  Definitely before my time for real.  For this layout I let the paper do all the work, I just cut and placed.  The title letters were cut with Cricut cartridge, the “sun” stamp is from a set by Stampin’ Up!, the “dream catcher” is from a set by Fun Stampers Journey.

For the sad news number one, while waiting for daughter’s friend to come pick her up for their road trip she got a call from this friend that she had hurt her ankle.  We went over to her house to assess her situation.  With a wrapped ankle she insists on going to this event the girls have been looking forward to all year.  She may be seeking medical attention by the sound of it.  She missed the last step of her front stairs and actually heard a pop.  Oh my – that can’t be good.

After a couple errands I headed home.  I got a phone call from the Prayer Chain lady requesting prayers for the son of a couple we all know.  Brian took an overdose of his medication and is on a respirator.  Very scary.  I promised to pray as soon as I got home.  At my sacred spot, I am now calling this location my sacred spot for prayer and meditation.  It is where I can feel focused and concentrate on praying.  I felt I must read something from my Bible.  I opened it up to Psalms.  I used to sit by Joey’s bed and read to him, especially from Psalms, when he was dying at Hospice, and I sometimes do just that when I need comfort in my grief for him.  So, what I turned to I want to share with you now.

Psalm 5, Prayer for Divine Help

Hear my words, O Lord; listen to my sighing.

Hear my cry for help, my king, my God!

To you I pray, O Lord; at dawn you will hear my cry;

at dawn I will plead before you and wait.

This seemed right, as if the Holy Spirit led me here.  I shared here, not because I believe God will read blog posts on the Internet, but, in the hopes you will join me in this prayer to God for Brian’s well being and that of his family.  Also, why not pray for your loved ones too.

Sweet Dreams Layout

Created with the Fan-tasy Lea France stencil:

After selecting this stencil because of the ovals I was able to whip it out last night rather quickly.  Following lunch I spent a happy afternoon yesterday showing a friend how to use these Lea France stencils.  It wasn’t until the evening came that I couldn’t get the urge out of my system to make myself a page so I pulled this batch of photos out and played.

My granddaughter set up this photo shoot on her bed, mainly to get a photo to share with the ladies who gave the blanket to them.  The ladies who make and give baby blankets to the military families in their area request one thing in return – a photo of baby with the blanket if possible.  So, the photo session was staged with my two great grand babies.

Not needing the full shot of the blanket, I focused here on the precious baby boy by showcasing him in the ovals.  I think the two accent pics create a nice balance showing them together.  The title was cut with the Cricut, using “Cuttin Up” cartridge.  The sub-title came from a sticker sheet.  As soon as this title had come to me I know just the embellishment that I needed.  I stamped the cute sheep with the same ink color (Huckleberry Fusion) as the darker card stock.  Some glitter paper and hand doodling and I called it done.

The Moments that Matter Most

The other day Kara texted this photo to us.  It spoke to me immediately. I knew I wanted to do a scrapbook page right away.  A weird thing happened when I got the photo copy from Walgreens, I lost it.  Really couldn’t find it anywhere and I know I had left the store with it.  So I ordered another.  This morning, once the page was complete, I found the photo.  Isn’t that how it always is?  I opened the passenger door to my car and there it was, fallen between the seat and door, impossible to be seen without opening the door, which I obviously hadn’t done.  All is good in the end, I still think this is a precious photo and it will likely be used again in something, somewhere.

For the base I used a sheet of beautiful pattern paper from the “Vintage Paris” collection by Fun Stampers Journey.  It is a most dreamy collection of soft colors and delicate patterns.  This page is the product of an inspiration layout for a challenge on Splitcoast Stampers site where we had to choose one from all the past uploads for the Virtual Scrapbook Night challenge.  There were lots and lots of pages to go through.  As soon as I spotted Sharon’s page here: I knew that I wanted to use the photo that I did.  For my background I added some rubber stamping.  I used pink SU embossing powder with the Fun Stampers Journey background Basics stamp.(SS-0008 from rep #96).

 

 

Here is a close up of the background stamp, just soft and  subtle.  Not that this intricate design on the paper really needed it, I still think it adds a bit more charm with it’s texture and color.  You can also see the letters I made with the Cricut cartridge Hello Kitty Fonts.  For my flourish, Sharon has a large one, I cut two from the Tim Holts Elegant Flourishes die from some scraps of Pink SU solid cs.

Although Sharon did not do this, I added a smaller strip to the larger gray of pattern paper that I had dry embossed with a Cuddlebug script folder.   Added a bit of interest, I hope.  Each of the edges have been distressed, as well as the delicate floral print under the photo.  I had wrote the sub-title and the journaling.

Tiny Top is now in ballot and gymnastics, and her Gigi is certainly looking forward to more photos to play with in scrapbooking.

National Scrapbook Offerings 2015

I’ve neglected to post on a frequent basis again.  A while back I vowed to post a few times a week.  Starting again, I thought I’d share the latest scrapbook pages done for challenges at Splitcoast Stampers for the Virtual Scrapbook Night during National Scrapbook month.  Now that it was last month (May), I have probably made all the pages I am going to do for those challenges.  Having my Tiny Tot here was a blessing but it was nearly impossible to get any crafting done.

The challenge for this page was to scrap-lift one of fellow scrappers Wendy who is a digital scrapper.  This is Wendy’s page…

With my photos being paper instead of digital, the size is quite off, but I tried to follow her layout idea and I even used close colors. The stamps I used are from Fun Stampers Journey, TH, and Stampin’ Up!  Notice that I used starfish for Wendy’s stars?

The challenge for this page of Tiny Tot’s mother in high school was to create using school colors.  I used a Lea France stencil and put this together quick and easy, so fun.  I had to use ric-rac, washi tape too.  The stamped cheerleader is in a set from Stampin’ Up!.  I heat embossed the “It’s a Cheer Thing”.  The colors are blue, green and white for the school. I have a serious problem seeing colors at night in my dining room, so the background card stock isn’t as blue as first thought.  Letters from Cricut.

Very fun to research for the challenge on the emotion of color, I found out Goethe did something of interest.  I printed out a part of his article on yellow paper, cut the letters from Cricut Hello Kitty cartridge, and told the story of how Leia thinks the DD is much better here.  Her grandma and I make it a celebration, that’s why!

Now that she has been swished away by her parents, I shall begin to scrap some of the many photos I took of her this past month!

Lantern Treats on Scrapbook Layout

My challenge was to follow a sketch from Splitcoast Stampers.

My choice of photos are these from last year’s JCPenney photo shoot.

My embellishments came from the Lantern Treats Fun Stampers Journey stamp set and the Cricut cartridge Art Nouveau.

I love how this stamp set was perfect in gold embossing for the Asian feel of the photos, even made a nifty little journaling block for the date.

This page didn’t need much of a title, so I cut out the one word.  The koi is a nice touch, simple and just a little something.

Work-it Tiny Tot

I simply adored these photos when my grand daughter sent them.  So cute, and they tell a story all by themselves.  You can tell the little guy has a hard time keeping up, and Tiny Tot doesn’t give it a second thought.

This page came from a scrap-lift challenge on Splitcoast stampers to find a layout in the gallery of the person ahead of you in the sign up thread to copy.  I picked this layout by Anavon when I had these photos in hand.  Perfect colors, and the happy style went well.

I stayed close in colors (pink and green) and some basic design (large font, strip, small words, and corner punch for arrows).  The words and the large letter is cut with a Cricut cartridge.  Patterned papers are from my stash and the solid green is Stampin’ Up!’s Lucky Limeade.  Those cute little wooden hearts and arrow I just recently found in the scrap bin at Jo-Ann’s the other night.  I am so happy with myself for actually using them so soon.  I’ve been known to buy something and put it away – for too long.