Ravenwood Cottage

Challenge Layout Posted

This afternoon I finished the layout for the Inspired Blueprint challenge online. Lately I have really enjoyed searching and doing the layout challenges online. I guess I sort of cheat or rather ‘scrap lift’ as I make copies of the designer examples to help get me going on my designs. Embellishing is the hardest part for me, I am forever second guessing myself, “Did I embellish enough, or too much?”

 

I just threw abandon to the wind in doing this layout and tried to be creative in my choice of embellishments. I love using quotes and word strips on layouts but have some difficulty using them effectively. I was pleased with the results on this layout and thought they had enough ‘repetition with variety’ as Debbie Hodge teaches. Each quote also had black contained within it which helped me with my triangle trick to assist the eye in moving through the layout. I was proud that I used non-topic related embellishments and did not feel I must use the Mexican themed stickers I had in my stash. I just looked for color and shape in choosing my embellishments.

If you are looking for nice sketches to challenge yourself do try Inspired Blueprints! They have lots of nice layouts to get you going!

Inspired Blueprints

Cleaning House

While I have been dedicated to writing in my paper journal daily, I have not been equally so here at my blog. Not sure if anyone really cares one way or the other if I blog; but I will just in case I have a few interested parties. For some strange reason I have had a bout of spring cleaning hit me…lol in August no less.

Mother recently purchased a new laptop computer and is using it in her bedroom. I now have my Studio all to myself again. While it may be lonely at times, I certainly can get more work done and not have to navigate the dog, a cat, assorted pet toys and Mother’s grumbling at the powers that be at Yoville. I have let things get is such disarray that only a deep cleaning and purging will set them right again.

 Olivia, my inside cat, loves to pull out tuffs of her fur so I have rolling tumbles of kitty hair to vacuum and dust off shelves. As I work I am sorting out scrapbook papers and embellishments that no longer are my style and boxing them up to donate to my two niece-in-laws who have several small children and meager craft budgets. I am too blessed with stuff.

I have been working on several scrapbook layouts and will post my efforts below. I searched out many of the sketch challenge web sites online and have decided to try my hand at entering the challenges. Scrapbooking is such a nice hobby, one is able to display their photos attractively, share the story behind the photos and have a creative outlet all in one.

This layout is from a “Get Your Bearings” class I took at the Alabama Department of Natural Resources sponsored retreat called ‘Becoming an Outdoors Woman’ in early March. I learned how to use a compass, read and map, chart a course and follow map directions. The class gave me more confidence in navigating my way in unfamiliar territory.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next layout is from our Georgia Preppers Group Bug-Out Retreat held in May of this year at a Wildlife Management area in middle Georgia. One of the fellows had a compact wood burning stove that everyone thought was super cool.

 

 

 

My Slice Machine is Here!!

Today my order came from QVC! What a dear little thing the Slice machine is. It took me a couple of tries to learn exactly how much or how little of the adhesive to use on the glass mat, but when I did understand the adhesive held well. I am posing a shot of the storage cabinet as well as the tool holding pouch and memory card storing pouch. Now I am in business as far as cutting images out and will only purchase memory cards as needed. In the long run I hope I save money by not having to purchase alphabet letters nearly as often.

Fun with 'Stickles'

Happy Valentines’ Day!! My holiday sugar cookies are still waiting to be baked in the freezer, but they will be just as good when I do get a chance to bake them...and take photos for scrapbooking!

Took a big plunge and submitted 5 summer themed layouts to ‘Creating Keepsakes’ magazine today, Sunday February 15th. A request post for submissions was at their website and I decided to try. Secretly I dream of being published in that magazine as it is the ‘industry standard’, but if I don’t it isn’t the end of the world; I really scrapbook for my own pleasure in the process of creation and telling stories.

Did make it to the Monday night Stockbridge crop this week. It has been difficult to do so since Gretchen has had an evening class this quarter. She doesn’t get out of class until 9:30 -10:00 pm and I really dislike imposing on Mother to fetch her while I am at the crop, so I have only attended sporadically this quarter. Met two new ladies there, Darby & Susan. Marsha invited them to come when they came to the ‘Paper Source’ store that Marsha works in located in the Virginia-Highland area in Atlanta. Darby is a Registered Nurse too, so Beth & she were able to swap ‘war stories’ while we all scrapped. Very nice ladies, I hope they become regulars.

Marsha loaned me a bottle of her crystal ‘Stickles’ to try out. The latest challenge class in the ‘Product Pizzazz’ class I am taking at “Get It Scrapped” online encouraged us to add glitter or sparkle to a layout. I dreaded trying to embellish sections of a cutout flower with glue and then sprinkle glitter on it...messy to say the least. I appreciated Marsha allowing me to try the Stickles before I invested in a bottle of my own and they are splendid! So easy to control the flow of medium and it really adds a special touch to your layout. You can’t really see how sparkly the layout is, but just the touch of glitter on small areas of the decorative elements I cut out certainly enhances my work. P.S. Mind the fussy ribbon border with embellishments...another challenge from the class I am taking. I am learning so many new ways to use all the beautiful embellishments I buy more effectively. The technique is called 'clustering'. Just love it!!

Journaling on the Layout Reads:

I don't remember how Gill found my Blog, but she & I have been corresponding for two years now. She lives in a lovely small English town called Ilkley in West Yorkshire. The photos shown here are of Gill in her garden & back entrance of her home. The post card shares local points of interest. The church is the one Gill attends. It is mainly Victorian: however the towers are 14th century. 'Cow & Calf' rocks are a famous local spot which overlooks Ilkley proper. Each fall Gill & her husband travel to America on Holiday & she always posts Mother & I a parcel full of local treats for us to treasure. I hope that sometime I will get to meet Gill in 'real life'. Photos from 2008

Page Map Entry

 

This layout did double duty...I entered a Page Maps Contest/Challenge and fullfilled the first assignment in "Product Pizzazz" taught by Doris Sander at Debbie Hodge's website "Get It Scrapped". I always feel I do some of my best work while taking a class there. Thanks for looking!

Journaling Reads:
A solitary moment by the fire;
Counted thread embroidery;
Olivia sleeping nearby;
Cups of hot chocolate
While listening to the winds blow.

January 2nd...

Another cloudy day...we have certainly had our share of late. But any rain we can get in this area is so welcomed in an attempt to end the drought of the last few years and refill our reservoirs. Gretchen worked at the Hospital her usual shift today, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

I worked on a scrapbook layout using some of the photos Chrissy, my daughter-in-law, was kind enough to email me of Trudy, her dog, participating in a graduation competition from Agility classes they attended. I usually begin a scrapbook layout by selecting a design map for photo placement of a layout I find from a magazine, online class or someone else’s arrangement that inspires me. I do wish however, that more layouts used the standard 4 x 6 photos that most of us print our photos in. Anyway, I had to crop, resize and print at home the photos to do my layout. I was pleased with how the layout turned out. I am trying to create layouts using brighter colors as I love the brighter colors as opposed to the ‘traditional’ darker colors I worked with in my art several years ago.

Taking my daily photos and recording my information in a small daily planner in hopes of being one of the lucky people to get a Project 365 kit. I also received an order this evening I had placed with C-Line Company of assorted style page protectors just in case I did not get a kit and because I see so many scrappers using different page protectors in their work. Scrapbooking is a modern art form which I have embraced probably too much.

I Can't Find Anything When I Need It...Must Organize!

I took a short drive to Fayetteville today to buy cat food supplies and check out the craft stores as well. I needed some white cardstock to use in my ‘30 Days Hath September’ album I am creating whilst taking Stacy Julian’s class at Big Picture Scrapbooking. I also picked up several inexpensive divided boxes for organizing my embellishments. I re-purposed a pair of rolling carts with drawers and labeled them with color categories; Red & Pink; Yellow & Orange; Green; Blue; Violet; Metallic’s; Black & White and Brown color families. If my collection grows too much I can further divided Red & Pink into individual drawer systems.

Why I did not long ago organize my small embellishments by color categories I do not know...as I am creating a page and need brads, buttons or other items I always think to myself, “I need something blue...or I need something green”. This will make my selection process much easier that having to look through all the buttons for green buttons or the drawer originally set aside for brads for a specific color brad. It will probably encourage me to think about combining products in different ways that I might not have considered it items where in broader categories. I just did not know how much ‘stuff’ I had till I began this reorganization process; needless to say it will take some time to plow through all I own. (Note to self: Use some of this stuff up before buying more!!)  

On my way back from Fayetteville I made a quick stop at Wally World for a few things. By the time I got home I was very tired and lazily popped a frozen Red Baron Deluxe Pizza into the oven for our supper.

Big Wig Bash Crop...Part Two

In continuation of the fun online Big Wig Bash crop, another one of the Make & Take projects was an embellished pocket. I chose some of my brightly colored Cosmo Cricket papers from a Kit of the Month put out by Zany Zinnia. It was a quick and easy project. I had done a layout using this same group of papers sharing the story about our Monday night crop get together, all that remained to finish was the journaling...I thought it would be perfect to use this delightful pocket to record my thoughts on. So I got 2 for the price of 1 in doing this element.

The ‘Summer Highlight Layout’ challenge was a bit of an undertaking; but I was pleased with the results! This Make & Take comprised a 3 month calendar of activities and supporting photos during this time frame. I certainly am giving my home printer a work out by producing these ‘need it now’ and in a special size photos. Quite honestly, I am happier with the quality photos I print at home as opposed to other photo processing services.

In the 22nd hour of the crop, a question was asked ‘Who made the first wigs?’ I was the first with the  correct answer...the Egyptians; and won a Krafter’s Purse from Stone Creek Creations. I picked lime green as my color of choice...I seem to have a thing for lime green lately. It will be a neat compact item to carry a lot of supplies to crops in. I was thrilled to win a prize although I really wanted to win a place in either Cathy Zielske’s upcoming ‘Design Your Life’ class or a spot in Stacy Julian’s ‘Library of Memories’ class. It will take some creative financing for me to fund these two classes, but they should be well worth the expenditure.

Big Wig Bash Online Scrapbooking Crop Part One

 

I have been taking an online scrapbooking class at Big Picture Scrapbooking, co-owned by past founding editor of Simple Scrapbooks magazine, Stacy Julian. Big Picture Scrapbooking sponsored a completely free 30 hour online crop organized by Key Lime Crops, a new online service for offering theme crop ideas. The crop began Friday, August 22nd 3 pm ESDT and ended Saturday evening 8 pm ESDT.

Every hour a new challenge or contest was opened up on the boards and everyone rushed to see what was in that area to do. Previously from Monday until Friday we had access to daily uploads of mini-classes called ‘Make & Takes’ where we were issued a challenge or mini project to complete and post in a special online photo gallery for viewing and commentary.

During the actual crop we might some hour play a game similar to ‘Let’s Make a Deal’ and have to answer a question to have a chance to choose one of three doors for gag or good prizes. Other hours we were challenged to create layouts based on that particular hour’s requirements. After frantically attempting to try to keep up with the hourly challenges, I surrendered and just downloaded the challenge to attempt at my leisure in the future. It was too nerve wracking...about the time you would get some design idea in progress, another one would be issued. I came to the conclusion that no one was really expected to complete every challenge. Then I only had to check in at the top of the hour to see whether a contest was in progress and participate or download the challenge to do later.

It was a fun filled 30 hours! Scrapbookers from all over the globe participated...New Zealand, England, South America and Australia. It was strange as a group in the States might be going to bed while someone on the other side of the world was fresh and ready to jump back in.

I did several of the ‘Make & Take’ classes earlier in the week and enjoyed them very much. The first mini class was called “Product Playground”. We were issued a challenge to use 5 things on our layout; something soft, stickers, a sparkly element, paper with a decorative edge and an office type supply. This is my resulting layout. I used ribbon, word stickers, orange rhinestones, graph style paper with a decorative edge and a ticket stub from an office supply store. I would have never chosen these elements to mix on a layout without the challenge! What fun!

The second challenge was “Sunny Summer Photo Cards”. We made a folded card comprised of a photo of our summer activities and a meaningful quote to us. I used an old photo of my daughter when she was about 7 years old playing in the surf at Daytona Beach. I think it turned out lovely!

The third piece I created was challenged as “Summer Layout Recipe”, a preset design layout, suggested theme and embellishments. It was a July 4th layout; I substituted Memorial Day photos of me placing my American flag on display at the Cottage. My design was not as heavily embellished as the sample, but I felt I added enough to make it pleasing.

Layouts Added to the Photo Album

Please check the Scrapbook Layout Photo album as I have uploaded two more class layouts from Debbie Hodge’s ‘Scrap Yourself Class’.