PageMaps Sketch Challenge on LLB

Hi everyone!! It's time for another challenge over at Lil' Lambs Boutique. For more details check out the Lil' Lambs Boutique Blog.

I created this for the challenge using Crate Paper's Little Sprout line that I got from Tammy at LLB. This line couldn't have been more perfect for this layout. As I have only girls, I don't often frequent the non-flowery/flourishy paper lines as much. But as you can tell from the photographs of my dear daughter "hunting with her camera," there is no room for flowers of any kind here. In fact, it's a wonder I'm getting away with a sheer ribbon down the side. Forgive me, I had to put something girly, somewhere!!! Anyway, enjoy the layout and take a step outside your comfort zone.

Don't forget to check LLB's Blog for the challenge details and a chance to win a prize!

Prima, Prima, Everywhere!!!

All you Prima loving people out there...this layout is for you!!! Outside of the brads and ribbon, everything on this layout is from Prima Marketing, Inc. I love that company! Lil' Lambs Boutique is carrying these wonderful Prima Stitched page kits and luscious flowers. Isn't it divine!

These are my two princesses at their very first Princess Tea Party. Oh my, you'd thought they went to heaven. The day came complete with a runway walk for each Princess, a brunch, a Princess Story Time and dessert afterwards. They are STILL talking about it.



I put in close ups of the two pages so you could see the Prima kits closer. This page is a Scraplift of ~Robbie~ from My Creative Scrapbook. It's lift a designer week. She has a wonderful bow tutorial here that I followed to make my double bow on the left. I used the masking technique to make my title this time. I printed the title on a piece of cardstock and then carefully cut out only the title portion, leaving the rest. I layed the mask directly on my paper and then sponged on several colors of Distress Ink by Ranger. It turned out pretty nice and is just another different way of doing your title work.



And then page 2, because there are just too many pictures from a Princess Tea Party. I decided to cut my Prima stitched page in half so I'd have coordinating paper on both pages. Thanks for looking and go get your Prima on!!

Don't forget your Momma!!

Or your Mother-in-law for that matter. This Sunday is Mother's Day. It's a great time to break out all your scraps and make something special from the heart. Yes, you could go to the store and stand there and look at ALL the cards and take forever to find possibly one that says just the right thing...or you could spend that time scrapping one instead. Then it can say the perfect thing.

This is another project using the Basic Grey Wisteria paper kit from Lil' Lambs Boutique. It's such classically beautiful Spring paper. I cut the dragonflies from some of the paper and outlined them with black pen for a little more depth.

The scroll and flowers are stamped and colored with Prisma pencils. I used Glossy Accents on the rose and leaves.

Treasure the Moments - More Details

I really, really enjoyed making this layout. The picture is of myself and my oldest daughter when she was only 2 months old. I treasure those peaceful moments we had together, where we could just sleep and I could smell her hair and listen to her breathe. So as promised, here are more detailed pictures of the gorgeous Basic Grey Wisteria paper kit I received from Lil' Lambs Boutique and a visual explanation of the transparency butterfly.



One of the easiest visual effects you can make, without using embellishments is adding dimension to your patterned paper. Here, if you'll notice I used my swivel exacto knife to cut around the edges of the top petals of each of the flowers, in the patterned paper at the bottom. I placed a piece of foam under each petal and slightly bent the edges. Instant dimension! Try it, you'll love the effect.



Here is my butterfly I created from a transparency sheet. The trails of the butterfly and the dragonfly are rub ons by Basic Grey.



There are many ways to acheive this same effect. This is how I did it. Not every ink type works well with transparencies. Solvent inks work best with the quickest drying time. If you only have pigment inks, don't worry you can use those too, you just need an extra step.



Take your stamp and coat it with your solvent ink pad and then press your image onto the transparency. This should dry pretty quickly. If you're in a particular hurry, you can use an embossing heat gun to dry it faster. Remember, do not hold the heat in one particular place for too long, or your transparency will melt. If you only have pigment inks, that's okay. You can still stamp your image and then pour some clear embossing powder over the image and emboss with your heat gun. This will seal the image onto the transparency.



After your image is dry, turn the transparency over to create your colors. I used Colorbox Chalk ink here because the color is saturated and intense. Again, if you use anything other than solvent type inks to color in your image, you may have to emboss it with clear embossing powder. After stamping the back of my image with the Wisteria Chalk ink, I embossed with clear powder and then cut out my image.



White pens, such as Ranger's Inkssentials White Opaque Pen do a wonderful job adding some highlighting details to your transparency. And it's as easy as that. You can bend the middle of the butterfly to have it pop up off your page or leave it flat. Either way you have a beautiful addition for your scrapbook page. Add a transparent delight to your next page or project.

It's officially National Scrapbooking Day where I am...let the party begin.

For years it seemed I went without an official holiday that celebrated me. There was no kids day when I was kid...there was Mother/Father and of course Grandparents Day, but none for kids. Yes, I know some will say that every day is Kids Day, but there's no validation unless it's printed in tiny print on that calendar. Even when I started work, I went right into accounting so I missed out on Boss' Day and Adminstrative Assistant Day.

Well eventually, I had to quit saying that because I became a Mother and what a delight. But it's still an exclusive club and I just have too many friends that aren't in a "club" yet with their own holiday...until now. National Scrapbooking Day....woo hoo...the crafters have been recognized. So here's to all of you, my fellow crafters....have a most WONDERFUL day today!!!

Interested in scrapping for a chance to win a prize? The Boutique I design for is offering 2 challenges and prizes to go with them today. All the details are here at Lil' Lambs Boutique. Here are my sample submissions below for both challenges. Intrigued yet? Well get going on over to Lil' Lambs Boutique. Prizes will be awarded Sunday morning, so you have all day.

Early next week, I'll be adding more photos and details of both layouts, so stay tuned. Happy Scrapping today everyone!


Using Basic Grey's Lime Rickey (this sure was fun to play with).

Using Basic Grey's Wisteria and Prima trim.