Scrapbook Challenges-284

I've saved the best for last!

I'm back today to share my last Scrapbook Challenges sketch as the February Guest Design Team member.

Just look at it! I was excited to do something with it. But what, I wasn't even sure. I've had the sketch in my inbox for about a month now and so I let it percolate around in my brain, until I came up with an idea.

I thought the large round shape would make a perfect clock. But then I wasn't sure what my page with a clock would be about. So I let it percolate a bit longer.

At some point, as my trip was fast approaching and I was busy trying to work out the logistics of how to get from Houston to Lisbon via London and realizing how many hours it would take to get there and then all of the different means of transportation and even the different times zones, I had my idea.

Instead of just talking about how I flew than took the train, then the Underground, then a bus then another plane to get to Lisbon, I took pictures along the way. This is the first time I've ever taken photos to match a design.

It's a bit backwards really, but I'm so happy that I got to see this sketch and then make a page I might not have created otherwise. And also document something I do and have done a lot, taking different modes of transportation to get where it is I need to go.

So here's my glorious 2 page spread! I totally went for it with this layout. I decided to mix my neutrals & metallics, which I seem to be doing a lot lately.

I created the clock totally from scratch using a plate as a template for the circle. Then I just went to town with stamps, mists & embossing powder. I decided to try out the new Copper Glitter Zing! embossing powder. The color was just so gorgeous, I decided to get over my aversion (haha, makes me think of Phil Dumphy now :) to glitter.

Well, I still hate glitter and am cursing it for getting all over my desk, my apartment and even inexplicably onto the boyfriend's face, but the color is so puuurdy!

I made little tags for each photo, that feature the hour in both time zones as well as where I was and what I was doing. I didn't take pictures in ever place, so I substituted a few stamps for these. I think it helps break up the design a bit.

Well ladies, it's been so great getting to play with Scrapbook Challenges again. I love their sketches and will keep coming back to use them. If you haven't already, I suggest you high tail it over there and check out the site!

cheers & besos,

Scrapbook Challenges-283

Happy President's Day! If you're in the US, I hope they gave you the day off :)

I'm so so thankful for this extra day of rest. It's just the time I needed to fully overcome the jet lag. And I've been doing really well I think, falling asleep at a decent hour and not getting up too early.

But back to what I'm sharing today, the latest sketch from Scrapbook Challenges, No. 283.

I didn't have a big photo, so instead, I replaced it with 2 4x6-ish photos. And I used Studio Calico's Glee Club which had tons of great little details.

This page has a then & now theme, although the now is a few months old at this point.

The photos are of my old flat mates & a class mate from my time in London.

I miss these guys. To death really. I was very unhappy coming back to Texas without them. Very sad even for a few days. I wish these guys could still be a part of my everyday life.

Journaling Reads:

Mountbattened is a term Kori and I came up with at some point. If it was listed in the dictionary, at the end of the definition it would say, “See also bamboozled” i.e. we thought one thing and yet something completely different has occurred.

Back in the day it was a derogatory way of describing a situation. These days, I’ve begun to think otherwise.

I can concretely and with 100% certainty say, that I have been Mountbattened. For me that means, walking away from an experience in which long lasting friendships have been created.

Friendship has always been something that I’ve struggled with. A loner at heart, I prefer home and a book, to some loud awkward social gathering. But in that year and a half of living across the world, and being thrown together with the most random smattering of the human experience you could come up with, I found it. Again and again and again.

The people I met, and even had the privilege to live with, become some of the best friends I could have ever asked for. My heart was the happiest it had been this weekend in 2011 when I got to see some of their familiar faces.

Friendship is also having history together. Here we are, at the beginning of an experience of something, we weren’t even sure yet what it was, so young and excited. And then again, out on the other side, not quite so young, but still together.

Thanks yall for stopping by! And don't forget to comment on this post for the chance to win the KP Sketchbook/Sketchpad RAK and a little prize pack of goodies from London & Lisbon. You have until midnight tonight!

cheers & besos,

Scrapbook Challenges-282

Ok this is just something completely random about me. Well, two random things.

1) I like to watch DVDs while I scrapbook; movies, television series, you get the picture.

2) When I look back at my pages, I usually remember what I was watching while I made them. Weird huh?

I know, SUPER random but just something I thought I'd share :) Does anyone else have this kind of sensory memory?!

Anyway...happy Monday to you all! Ugh Monday! At least I can seek solace in knowing I woke up in London this morning :) I'm here for work for the rest of the week. So happy to be "home" but it's also very bittersweet. I miss all of my mates!

Man, another rabbit trail! I'm off on another tangent today (might be the allergy meds...)

Back to the reason I'm posting today, to share a brand new hot of the press Scrapbook Challenges sketch and my take on this one.

Bam! Sketch 282 for your viewing pleasure:

And here's my creation: tada!

It's a silly page of me and MT.

We were at lunch several months ago, sitting at the table, faces resting in our crossed arms looking back and forth at each other. Just being silly. You know, the usual :) So I took photos of the both of us, knowing I'd use them in a page.

Here's the one! It ended up being about our similar and dissimilar personalities.

I used a slightly vintage American Crafts Fall/Halloween line, since the colors worked so well with the photos. Some buttons and a few of the 3D embellishment stickers + scrolls were added for extra dimension. Also a Studio Calico wood veneer star with some baker's twine as a finishing touch!

I love this big guy. No matter how different we might be, we still (and probably because of it) make it work!

Be sure to check out Scrapbook Challenges if you haven't already! Also, don't forget to comment on this post for a chance to win the RAK. I picked up a few little things in Portugal for the lucky winner. Comment and stay tuned!

cheers & besos,

P.S. In case you were wondering, I was blowing through Season 4 of Gilmore Girls while making this page :) :D

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,

Blog Hop

"Hip. Hip Hop. Hiphopononymous?!" Yep, that's right folks. It's time for another Scrapbook Challenges blog hop! Even though I'm retiring this term, the ladies were generous enough to let me play along in one last hop as a part of the design team.

Oh, and if just come to visit my blog and would like to hop along, it's best to start at Pamela's blog and go from there.

If you're new to blog, I'd just like to say, hi, hello and welcome!

A little about me?

I am a 26 year old Texan.

I live in Houston.

I work for the British government.

I have a boyfriend.

I want a cat!!

I read, scrapbook, paint and travel with any spare time I have.

That's me in a nutshell :)

So on to the fun bit! The scrappy part, the shiny new sketch! I used bits and pieces of my Studio Calico kit for this layout, which is my new favorite color scheme gray/yellow/teal. Hehe, can you tell I've been using it a lot ;)

These are my besties, Kim and Tara. I love these girls and we've been through so much together. It was nice to get back to my roots, to hang out with them like old times this past New Years Eve!

So back to the hop, wanna hear about the prizes? Huh? Huh! Huh?!

The team lined up so amazing prizes this go around! For the chance to win a goodies from Webster's Pages, Echo Park, Helmar or Unity Stamp Co, head over to Pamela's blog for details.

Tag! Brynn is it! Head on over to her blog to finish up this round hopping!

xxbesos

Sketch 234-Scrapbook Stud

Happy post-holiday Monday! I'm back with another Scrapbook Challenges sketch, my last of the year and as of today, my last as a design team member. I'm a little sad at the prospect of leaving the design team, but my 2011 is already shaping up to be a crazy one. And with all of the fun that's about to ensue on the site, well I just can't keep up. But I'll be around. The community over there is just too good to pass up :)

But on to the sketch! It's a goodin' let me tell you. I love the dangling stars Pam used.

I'm soooo happy that I finally scraped these photos of Matt scrapbooking [read the story here]. I thought about title-ing the page "Scrapbook Star" but figured "stud" was a better way to go. He's so proud of his scrapbook page!

I went to town with my punches and die cuts. Just kind of layered them around, then stitched through with red thread. The page come together quick and easy!

Only one more page left in my 2009 Christmas album!! I'll post the finished project tomorrow :) Hope your holiday hangovers are easy on ya this year!

xxbesos

j.leija

P.S. Don't forget about my holiday giveaway! See my 25/12 post for details :)

Sketch 233-Box in a Box

It's Monday again, you know what that means! Another Scrapbook Challenges sketch!

And yes, apparently December is all Christmas on the blog. I don't mind, I love this holiday so much. I've had this pile of photos in my "to scrap" folder for...well, 12 months now. I'm glad they're finally scrapped!

It was Matt's and my first Christmas together, so I went a taaad bit overboard on all of his gifts. That doesn't mean I spent a lot of money, I just got creative with the packaging and the surprises. Like with this one, I wrapped one box inside of another box inside of a bigger box! Each box had a theme and its own card. [Check them out here] I think he liked it. That smile makes it seem like he did :)

I took a few liberties with the sketch but it's my favorite from this month by far. I distress inked the edges of three squares of kraft cardstock and layered them on top of each other, tied some baker's twine around them and made my own "bow" out of folded circles.

I love the graphic look of text and I also love mixing letter stickers with my own handwriting. I think they make my page!

xxbesos

j.leija

Sketch 232-First Christmas

Seriously, Pamela knocks it out of the park every week! And this December she's totally stepped it up with 4 amazing sketches. This is Week 2 or rather Sketch #232 (No really, how does she do it?!) from Scrapbook Challenges.

Since I'm still feeling the Christmas spirit, I'm whittling away at the remainder of the 2009's photos. These are a few shots I got with Urijah, a few days after his very first Christmas.

I'm so in love with the American Crafts on this page, it isn't even funny. All of the patterned paper + that gorgeous ribbon + the larger letter stickers are from their ever so classic lines, Dear Lizzy (my fave) included. The so lovely kraft envelope is done by Maya Road.

I love the look of this Tim Holtz die but don't actually own it. BUT, it was super easy to re-create with the help of my latest obsession, Papertrey Ink dies. This is their Banner Builder collection. (I stalked the store so hardcore waiting for it to get back in stock!) I cut out nine little scallops, punched a hole in each and glammed them up with red jewels.

White text adds a classic feel to this layout. I love my trusty white pen!

Journaling Reads: Christmas 2009 was Urijah's first. We didn't get to spend the actual day with him, but Matt and I delivered his loot a few days later. He was only 8 months old and not that interested. But we did get him to tear into the gift wrap. Oh, look at those chubby cheeks!

This last bit is my favorite part. I turned what could have been 3 photos, according to the sketch, into three tiny presents wrapped in Baker's Twine. Oh! And if you're in the market for it in red, Crate and Barrel has a huge spool of it for only $7.95. Believe me, you'll never run out! Happy Scrapping!

xxbesos

j.leija

Sketch 231-Christmas 2009

Happy December!! I'm so happy to be blogging and scrapping and enjoying my favorite time of the year :) I adore Christmas. It's my absolute favorite season. I get to go overboard and make lots of projects, plan out gifts and think about all of my loved ones.

Hate to admit this, but I still hadn't got around to scrapping all of the photos from last year. There's a page or two left to add to my '09 album. As December is my month for sketches over at Scrapbook Challenges, they're going to help me out with that for the rest of the month.

This week's sketch was a perfect one for a re-cap of Christmas last year's photos.

I played around with the elements of it a bit, instead of patterned paper strips I opted for photo strips. Just a random smattering of photos from last year, all printed in black and white.

I'm loving the look of letterhead and title pages, so the Recipe Box Label stamp set from Papertrey Ink was the perfect touch for my journaling.

And this color scheme is my favorite of the season! The purple from Dear Lizzy's Enchanted line is the absolute perfect shade. Coordinated with a lime green, pink, tealish blue and maroon, it's so lovely :)

xxbesos

j.leija

Color Challenge: Colorblind

This month I get to issue the color challenge for Scrapbook Challenges. I've never issued one before so I was super stoked to do things my way, which is of course always a little different. I decided to go for a very unconventional color scheme: turquoise, orange and purple.

My most favorite dress in my wardrobe is of this color scheme. Sadly, I've never had an occasion to wear it. But one of these days I will.

Coincidentally, my page is about both dresses and color. Well, colorblindness to be exact. I had some fun with the journaling, and poked some fun at our male counterparts and their visual deficiencies. I'm experimenting more with this type of journaling, telling a story. It's so much more fun than, "Kim and I at Mo and Joey's wedding"!!

Ki Memories and American Crafts Dear Lizzy work so well together! As I hope this layout does attest. It's been forever since I've used my huge stash of Ki and I'm so happy I took the plunge and made the cuts. I also went to town with my favorite design element, repetitive circles. I had some trouble balancing them and it still looks a little off for me, but I'm happy to call it done.

Supplies: Patterned Paper (Ki Memories, American Crafts, 7 Gypsies, Studio Calico), Buttons (American Crafts, Papertrey Ink), Punches (Fiskars, EK Success, Mavy Uchida), Stamps (Studio Calico), Paper Clip (Ki Memories)

xxbesos

j.leija

Hybrid: Journaling Strips

Hello Dearies! It's me again. Shocker, I know. No one has missed scrapbooking and this blog more than me, that's for sure. But I finally feel like I'm getting a handle on that tricky work/life mix that has eluded me these past few months. I'm all moved into my new apartment, still in the process of unpacking and decorating, but I'll get there. And yesterday, I organized (as best I could) all of my scrappy goodness!! Thus, I was finally able to take some time to sit down and scrap.

Even without work and all of the things I've been doing, I still haven't felt as inspired to scrap. And I know it's because I'm bored with the troves of old photos I have, just waiting to be put on a page. They aren't inspiring me at the moment. So when Urijah came to visit last weekend and we got the chance to take him to the pumpkin patch, my scrapbooking was reinvigorated.

So here's my happy little pumpkin page! I had to compartmentalize my life a bit, and created this page for two challenges I'm issuing this month. One for Scrapbook Challenges, the other for Ch{all}enge Masters.

This month, I get to issue the By the Numbers challenge over at Scrapbook Challenges. Typically, I'm suppose to provide a "formula" or "recipe" of elements to include on your page, but, I want to do things a bit differently this month. Since signing up to do this challenge, that old song "1..2..3..4..5! Senses working over time" has been on repeat in my head. I looked it up, it's originally done by XTC but I know the covered version by Mandy Moore. I thought now would be a great time to challenge you all to create a page using the theme of senses. You don't have to use all of the senses, just pick one.

Urijah was only interested in patting the pumpkins, on our trip to the patch. He'd touch them and thump them and that was about as high as his level of interest would go. But now I have all of these great photos capturing him using his sense of touch. I choose a few choice tactile embellishments to highlight my touch theme. Like that great braided ribbon done by Making Memories. It's all nubby and a bit rough. I also used some textured cardstock and those glitter accents have a grainy feel to them.

So that's your challenge fellow Scrapbook Challengers! Create a page highlighting one of the five senses: touch, see, hear, smell, taste.

And now on to the Ch{all}enge Master portion of this duo challenge!! Since I'm the hybrid diva, I had to add some hybrid elements to the page. This month's challenge is a tried and true method of many a scrapbooker, the use of journaling strips. I had fun with these, varying the fonts, bolding things here and there, and then placing them in a non-linear way to emphasize the light-heartedness of the story.

I love how fonts can be a great visual element for emphasizing the story you're trying to tell. I wouldn't be doing my hybrid diva duties justice, if I didn't include a challenge using the variety and versatility of fonts!! So go to town! Mix them, bold some, italic others. Add Wingdings. And when you've cut them up and are placing them on your page have fun with spacing. Wrap them around a photo. Link them with eyelets. Get crafty!

Just to make it clear, this month's Hybrid Challenge for my fellow Ch{all}enge Masters is to incorporate journaling strips onto your page.

So that's the bit about the challenges, now on to the bit about the photos. As the journaling above tells you, we took Urijah to the pumpkin patch, only vaguely caught his interest and then lost it completely when he saw a dog being walked on the street. He loves dogs!! He set off trucking on his tiny little legs after it, as soon as he noticed it on the sidewalk. After that, he couldn't be less interested in those crazy orange things. But my mama was happy that we at least got a photo or two with him and some pumpkins.

Aaannd...I feel like I've done enough talking in this scattered and random post! So I'll just about stop now. I only want to add that if someone creates a page that's good for both challenges, link it up in the comments and you'll enter in for a chance to win a $10 gift certificate to the online retailer of your choice! Just as my little treat for the brave soul that chooses to tackle both :) And when you think about it, they aren't to difficult to combine. Just saying...

Happy Scrapping yall!!

xxbesos

j.leija