Scrapbook Challenges-281

Scrapbook Challenges! Remember those lovely ladies? I was part of their design team in 2010 and Brynn asked if I could Guest Design for them this February.

I jumped at the chance to play with the ladies and these sketches.

Brynn recently re-vamped the entire site and I must say, it looks gorgeous! It's well and professionally done and a great little nest for creativity. Please, check them out.

There's even a Membership Drive going on at the moment! Join or invite someone to join and you could win big =)

Here's how:

• Every person that joins the site & posts a mini of 5 times gets entered into a drawing for a $50 Scrapbook.com gift voucher!
• And if you're a current member and you refer someone (who then enters your name in the referral section of the registration process) you're entered to win a $25 Scrapbook.com gift voucher!

Easy peasy! Click on the link to find out more details.

Now on to the real reason I'm here. To share my take on Sketch 281! Isn't it fab?

My take was super literal, except that I made it 8 1/2 x 11. Hey, don't mess with a good thing right?

The photos are from Hawaii and are printed to be reminiscent of instax shots. Which is what I immediately thought of when I saw this sketch. So happy to have been able to get 5 photos on an 8 1/2 x 11 layout!

I must have felt a bit blue that day with all of these blue details. The majority of the products I used are American Crafts Margarita line with some Basic Grey Lauderdale thrown in.

I used 2 sets of Thickers and some October Afternoon & Basic Grey letter stickers for the long and ambling title. The tiny butterflies and sequins are the perfect finishing touches.

Like I said before, happy to be playing with Scrapbook Challenges again. Definitely check them out! And check back the rest of February for other sketches, maybe some posts from my trip (maybe ;) and a challenge or two.

Oh, and don't forget to post here to have a chance to win the Kelly Purkey Sketchbook/Sketchpad RAK!

cheers & besos,

Flora & Fauna

Morning yall! Just thought I jump on and share one of my latest Hawaii pages.

It's not my typical design, but I like it just the same.

I used paper from the American Crafts Margarita line and flower embellishments from Basic Grey's Lauderdale line.

It came out really festive!

These photos are for my Nana.

When I told her I was going to Hawaii, she made me promise to take pictures of the flowers. She said she knew she'd never go see them herself, so she had to see them through my photos. The scenery, the foliage, the flowers were some of the most beautiful I'd ever seen.

The photos just don't do them justice. But she'll love them just the same.

cheers & besos,

Cheat Sheet

Confession: I'm a cheater.

There! I've said it!

Well...not a "cheater" per say but a definite cheat sheet user.

I'm talking about these guys, the ones that already have all of the answers to test:

It's the secret to my success!

Well kind of...

(It more or less holds up in a cropping court of law)

You all might know by now that I love me a good sketch and I turn to my repertoire of KP Sketchbook and now Sketchpad pdfs, frequently when I make my cheat sheets.

They're my go to group because 1) they're good and 2) I paid for them. That's more or less enough said.

So let me take just a minute to explain what I do and how I do it.

I bought the Sketchpad class when Kelly released it. Opened it up, poured over the sketches and the inspiration, wiped away some droll and then walked away from it for awhile.

Later, when I was in a scrapping mood I opened it up again and went through it page by page, sketch by sketch alongside of my iPhoto, pulling pictures with the appropriate orientation (landscape vs portrait) and groupings that would work for each sketch.

I jotted a quick mini sketch of just the photo placement, wrote down the appropriate file names and determined right then and there the photo sizes. That is the biggest tip I can give you. I like scrapping with a variety of sizes, but it can be a bit difficult and often time consuming chore.

When I make my cheat sheets, I don't have to think!

It makes the scrapping and the yapping that much easier when you're not thinking so hard!

This is one of the layouts I made from my cheat sheet. They're photos of this amazing local restaurant just off of the Kamehameha Hwy on the North Shore of Oahu.

It was a tiny little hole in the wall, but aren't those the best kind of eateries?! A local guy chatted up the place while we were ordering. Heck, if it's good enough for him it's definitely good enough for me!

For this page, I just started layering patterned paper strips on top of each other on either side of the line of photos. Then I added some 3 dimensional flowers and Thickers for embellishment.

And of course I had to make a cardstock grass skirt! I couldn't not with a restaurant (and page) so aptly named.

I almost forgot!

I have to add that I made the cheat sheet weeks and weeks ago. Printed the photos and let them marinate on my desk for awhile. It was a month later when I pulled it out to actually use. By then (and still now) I can't remember a single layout from the class pdf, but I have the bones to work with and thus was/am able to put my own stamp on the sketches.

I didn't make copies of the layouts featured. I made the sketches my own.

One of these days I'll go back and look at the inspiration. It'll be interesting to see how close to the original sketch my layouts turn out.

Signing off for tonight, but I'll be back later with more completed cheat sheet layouts! If you have any questions about the process, don't hesitate to ask. Cheers!

xxbesos

Aloha

Aloha! This is the card I was talking about yesterday.

I made it for my grandparents to send along with the photos and flower seeds I purchased for them.

I think the bright colors are my favorite thing about this card! Isn't that American Crafts Margarita print gorgeous?! I love the dark blue background.

Oh and the fact that I used a mini file folder as the base (from Paper Source).

I also mailed them a few photos. They're the kind of grandparents that have their fridge doors filled with this kind of thing. I added some font work to make them look more like postcards.

And also in my package, the seeds I purchased in the Honolulu airport. If anyone can grow flowers from seeds it's my grandparents. They have a full on green house in their backyard and everything!

xxbesos