Purging high

Wow, it feels good to have so much scrap stuff OUT of my scrap room, and money in my bank account! I ever-so-slightly exceeded my goal of $200 in sales, combining my garage sale a couple of weekends ago with a community garage sale (with 5 other scrappers' stashes!) at a friend's house this weekend.

Of course, with school ending soon, I have relished my remaining time at home alone by completing a whopping 4 layouts from 2011. Some great, some not-so-great, but DONE :)

The Fourth, 2011...K & Co "Americana" paper pad, Sizzix star die, October Afternoon letter stickers

I wanted to put a shirt on my sister's boyfriend, but figured it would only draw more attention to him. Look away! Seriously, though, he is such a sweetheart, and they were both a big part of our Fourth that year. I couldn't not include him.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2; K & Co "Urban" paper and epoxies, Studio Calico paper and chevron stencil, Maya Mist spray ink, Jenni Bowlin journaling label, Tim Holtz film strip embellishment, Creative Imaginations HP epoxies, 7Gypsies triangle labels, crown washi tape from Gauche Alchemy, blue pearls from Queen & Co.

 I'll admit, this is not my favorite LO. I should have printed out the photos on the left in a smaller format, as they are from inside the dark movie theater, taken with my iPod, so...not the best quality. Certainly not 4" x 4" quality. I was going to line up the patterned paper horizontally, but when I turned it along the side, the whole layout clicked better for me. Especially since my feature photo is a tall, narrow one (Tess in the theater lobby with Bellatrix). I could have left off the photo on the bottom right, as it is from day camp (not movie night). But what's done is done. Sometimes you just have to call it a day and move on!

Stampin Up! hearts punch, Krylon silver pen, Ali Edwards arrow stamp, My Mind's Eye "On the Bright Side" chevron paper, CTMH heart stamps, SU white craft ink, Studio Calico "Anthologie" and Thickers "Nutmeg" letter stickers, Sakura white paint pen, polka dot washi tape.

This is my favorite of the four. BH &G's Scrapbooks Etc. "Page Planner" special edition made it to the keeper list  in my recent destash, and it is my go-to resource for single-page sketches. It can be hard to find those sometimes, and every design in this edition is easy to adapt.

Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type & Pink Paislee Captivating letter stickers,  American Crafts pleated flowers with button centers, October Afternoon label sticker, Basic Grey scalloped border sticker, LOTS of washi tape (Gauche Alchemy, Queen & Co., etc.)

I learned the washi tape chevron trick in Lain Ehmann's free webinar with Monica Bradford of Scrap Inspired. It reminds me of a homey quilt pattern, perfect for the subject matter.

This past Thursday I went with my mom to a fabric store in South Lyon called Lake Street Merchantile. Every quilt shop features their own favorite fabric lines, and this one specialized in two of my favorites, 1930s feedsack reproductions and modern lines from Moda (she also carries Civil War repos and lots of wool felt "primitives" projects).

I brought along fabrics that I needed to match up with solids and other patterns, perhaps fat quarters, and I was not disappointed! The solids I purchased were all from a company I'm more familiar with for scrapbooking papers -- Basic Grey. They have a line of "grunge" solids that add great texture to any project. Craft crossover! Love it. I will share photos when I take some, preferably in the daylight ;) as it is evening now and I'm not going to get true colors indoors ;)

Summer Energy

Took a break from Project Life (caught up through March 2013) one Friday at a crop, and just started doing regular 12x12 layouts again with photos from 2011. I had originally printed out 300+ photos for a weekend crop in October 2011, and then pretty much stopped scrapbooking in 2012. I'm planning on putting together this digital photobook for 2012 and calling it done, but since I still have all these 2011 photos printed, I'm taking time (and my renewed mojo) to get them scrapped.

So, here's what I've accomplished in the last two weeks (not including the two I just finished this week...more on those later).

On the Diag...Piggy Tales Hickory Dickory Dock papers, Making Memories  glitter letter stickers, various floral, label, and rhinestone embellishments

 I've had this LO sketched since August 2012. That made it only about a year old at the time. But then I did all of January 2013 with this line, and didn't want to look at it for a long time. Until recently ;)

October Afternoon  & Thickers letters, Club Scrap transparency, Webster's Pages and Jenny Bowlin labels, and every. cherry. paper. in my stash (to be fair, just two, but man. that's a lot of cherries). 

 I almost used the back of the background cherry paper (it's plain red-peach colored), but liked the texture of the cherry pattern better. Oh! and I used my new cherry blossom washi tape from Mega Meet. Now I never want to do another LO with cherries. Ever.

Everything from Webster's Pages Hollywood Vogue collection. Except my handwriting.

Tess's transformation at the hands of a skilled beautician was nothing short of amazing. She's since cropped her hair, which makes it look nice and thick, but wow. Was her hair ever long! But it was also quite damaged, so I'm happy she's gone short. Between brushing that mess, and the amount of chlorine her pale hair could suck up in a summer (even after deep conditioning, it still smelled of chlorine), short hair is just easier on her overall beauty routine. She was younger here, and believe me, as a pre-teen, she has quite the beauty routine now.

Lo-Fi...not quite as fun as the A Beautiful Mess app, but good enough on my desktop.

Hopefully I'll share the rest of my completed LOs soon. Last weekend I had a garage sale, and sold over half of my unused stash. With everything priced at $1 or 10 cents, it went quickly, and I was delighted to watch every out-of-date stamp set, paper pack, and embellishment walk away. I can breathe again in my scrap room! I will sell what's left at a community garage sale in Chelsea next week. Then the rest gets donated to the Ann Arbor PTO thrift shop. They sell craft stuff there, which is awesome. This time I'll be glad to donate instead of purchasing (mostly fabric, books, and office supplies...cheap)!

Why I'm drinking the Kool-Aid in 2013

Week 3 of my own version of Project Life

I'm just a week behind on my own version of Project Life -- Echo Park and American Crafts page protectors, and a paper/embellishment pack for each month out of my stash (I would go crazy using the same set all year...sorry, Becky!) -- and today, working on Week 3, I realized why I love this process.

I thought last week was kind of dull. Oh no, I thought, only week three and I'm already giving up! I finally sat down today and processed my photos, thinking I hadn't taken that many, when suddenly I had TOO many. Despite a slow start to the week, due to recovering from an awesome scrap weekend with friends, things not only picked up, but in going over everything that happened last week, I understood how rich life is, even when it seems dull.

That's a prize.

Each month I'll use a different paper pack, and embellishments, if they are included. January is the Hickory Dickory Dock collection from Piggy Tales. I ordered it during a summer warehouse sale; for $15 plus shipping (not knowing what set I'd get, only that it would be a new release), I was really happy with the colors and theme of this set. Although it's a bit summery (overblown roses, dragonflies, and lots of butterflies), the pale colors work really well for winter. There's stripes, and a number of different polka dots and two diagonal patterns. I also received ribbon, letter stickers, jewels, buttons, and pearl brads.

February's kit is already chosen...one I bought at a sale of Rhonda's: Walnut Grove, by Pebbles, Inc. So many kits and paper collections come with a page of tags, journaling boxes, and stickers...this one came with a set of Thickers. Pinks, reds, blues, sweet yellows...perfect for February.

Are you doing Project Life? What works for you?