ScrapnWin - I won!

I joined this great website called ScrapnWin. Basically you pay to upload your scrapbooking layouts and they hold contests based on all the layouts posted for each month.

The first time I uploaded just one layout and it was my favorite one I had just recently done and it was entered in the December contest. Earlier this month I received an email notifying me that I won 1st place! I was really shocked. The only contests I have ever won were hosted on myspace and were just with "from my stash" prizes.

For this contest I won $8 cash (yes I know not the 'grandest' prize, but it was based on how many entries there were and since this seems to be a fairly new site, there weren't that many), a $20 gift certificate to MyKI, 10 upload credits to their site and a certificate of accomplishment.

Let me tell you my favorites of the prizes was the certificate of accomplishment! I got it and I want to frame it! :)

I uploaded another layout this month but it seems they changed the rules, the most comments a layout gets determines the winner. I don't know if I am liking that new rule so much, only because all the people I know won't want to be bothered with doing that. Oh well... at least I got to win once :)

It is a great site and I do recommend it, so for all of you scrapping followers I have go join and have fun!

Goals for 2009

Happy New Year!!

In 2008 I set out a goal to complete 75 layouts in the year and unfortunately I wasn't able to meet it. I know people who have done hundreds of layouts and I couldn't get a few done. My life is a bit hectic and the time I have to scrap I end up crashing in front of the TV.

This year, I plan to keep the same goal of 75 layouts and I am hoping I can pass that goal. I have pledged not to get involved in myspace swaps (other than box swaps because I love those), like tag swaps, etc. If I need tags, I can make my own, I have never used something someone else has made (no offense). I think if I do not join these kinds of swaps, I will have more time to do layouts for myself.

I even have a pregnancy scrapbook to make for a friend which I have not started yet. It is also on my to-do list. It will be an 8x8 album which I have never done. I am pretty nervous about this. No one has ever asked me to make them anything before and I don't think my work is that great that I should be sharing it! But I am honored and will try my best at it.

Some pictures that I have floating around that I never got to in 2008 are:

- making pizza

- 1st day of nursery school

- school picture

- Christmas 2008

- playing with Cars

- birthdays (I have yet to scrap any of my sons 3 birthdays!)

... and all of the 2009 pictures that will be taken.

And all of these are of course of my son. I would also like to try to do some more adult layouts of my friends and my husband. I even have a nice new 12x12 album waiting for such layouts!

I would also like to try embossing. I don't know much about it. I think there are 2 embossing techniques (please correct me if I am wrong), dry embossing and heat embossing. I see a lot of layouts using this technique and right now I know nothing about it but I hope at some point in this new year, I can learn about it. Any help and advise would be greatly appreciated!

And lastly in this New Year, I want and desperately need to get re-organized! My scrap supplies are in such chaos! I am running out of room and unfortunately just keep buying and buying more with no where to put it! So I am hoping to come to a happy medium with my 'stuff'!

Wish me luck!

My Favorites

I have done a few layouts this year and here are some of my favorites from earlier this year which I have not yet blogged about:

1st Snow

This picture did not come out as great as I would have liked but... it is a great layout! The background paper is blue with white and silve snowflakes. The word snow that is on an angle is chipboard and the 'O' in snow is a cleaver little snowflake. Some of the snowflakes that are on the corners of the journaling and photos were made for me by a fellow scrapper and have blue glitter in them - so perfect for this layout! At the bottom is a Jolee's winter title. There wasn't any better way I could have captured this moment for my son!

Cheers!

What a great picture. My son and my father in law, toasting to a great dinner. My father in law with his glass of 'vino' and my son with his cup of water. Priceless.

I went with a green and brown theme on this layout. It went well with the colors in the pictures. There are lots of great touches here. Riboons, swirls, pop-up words, etc. The title came out great. When I created this layout, I had just purchased by Fiskars circle side punch and I cut out the circle to matt the letters which I cut using my Cricut. I used a lot of antiqueing on this to give it the old feel.

Cool Guys

This is another great one! I had the perfect paper, which is very masculine and did a lot of layering behind the picture, all in different shades of blue.

The brackets around the 2 and the word guys are all raised using my favorite product, 3D-dots.

I added ribbon to the mat of the picture by stapling it down with blue staples. A nice little touch, if I do say so myself!

I framed the light blue mat with my Daisy D Zig Zag tape runner. I made a mistake in the lower right hand corner but I easily disguised it with a chipboard flourish - no one could be the wiser!

All of the letters in the title I cut out using my Cricut and antiqued the edges with my ColorBox Cat's Eye inks.

Play Time

This is a nice and bright layout. Primary colors normally seen and used amongst kids.

I used a piece of green string on the top and put it down with yellow mini brads and strung metal letters, "Play Time". I thought that was a unique way to display the title. I am not sure how I just thought of it, but I did!

The other embellies are a Soft Spoken set. And I made the paper clip by gluing down a foam ball sticker to it.

Christmas 2007

I did this layout in July. I was part of a Christmas in July swap on myspace where we traded all Christmas items and after doing that, I was put in the Christmas mood!

I think this might be the first time I used 4 pictures in a layout.

There are a lot of cute Christmas items on the layout: ribbon, buttons, gifts, etc.

I punched the corners out with an ornate corner adorner - a little fancy for the holidays. The red paper behind the matted picture has a border of Christmas phrases and song lyrics. Not sure how I got that paper but it was a nice addition.

And of course how could I go wrong by adding pictures of my Christmas tree and my son opening his gifts Christmas morning.

Aquarium Layout

I took my son to the New York Aquarium in Coney Island for the first time last year... he was 2 years old. We have visited the aquarium a few more times since and I may or may not scrap those pictures. Only time will tell.

I have been holding onto this 1 picture... I took many but this one stood out the most. After exactly 1 year it finally dawned on me.

This is the layout I came up with. It is pretty simple but it says a lot.

I had purchased the 12x12 "Our Trip to Aquarium" paper for this trip and held onto it with the picture. The dic-cut shark is a Paper House product that I found on ebay. It was a set of 3 but I used just the one and saved the other 2 for future projects.

I used 3 different matts behind the picture and the largest one, I used 3D dots to raise it. I also raised the shark as well as my circle journal. It is hard to tell but you can see the shadows from the 3D effect and it looks pretty cool.

Thankfully I saved our ticket stubs as well as the map and I was able to incorporate them in the layout. I placed the map on the layout just so you can still open it and see the inside. I attached the tickets with a binder clip that I received in a scrapbook swap (actually a package with a few different colors and the opposite side, not shown, has words on it - I believe vacation themed).

The "New York Aquarium" epoxy sticker was from a sticker set I purchased for my son that trip. He used up all the fish stickers and put them in his sticker books and I stashed that one for me! He never missed it :)

One of my favorite parts of this is the seaweed and glittery fish. These are from Jolee's By You. When I opened the package, I thought the seaweed would be a one piece sticker but it was not. Each piece of seaweed was separate but it worked out pretty well because I used the 3D dots on those as well and each one is layered on top of one another and it looks so regal. And the fish add the color that the layout would have been missing.

I hope you like it just as much as I do.

Halloween Layouts

Since Halloween is quickly approaching, I thought it would be a great time to catch up on my Halloween layouts.

My son is now 3 years old and I have never scrapped any of his Halloween pictures. I have done fall layouts just not Halloween. So these past few weeks I was able to do 3 layouts for the past 3 years.

I am hoping that this years layout won't be as late as these. Maybe I will make a goal to scrap them quickly - maybe in the month of November. Let's see if I can do it.

All of his Halloween costumes have been cute - nothing scary so far :) This year he will either be a spider or a turtle (he wants to be a monkey, so we are still tossing the idea), but I am sure which ever he is will be cute, not scary.

His 1st Halloween 2005 - ROOSTER:

Here I used a traditional Orange and Black color scheme. I used double mats behind the 2 pictures and rounded the corners of the mats as well as the pictures. I love my corner punches! I cut out the title using my Cricut and layered it.

The number 1 and the H in Halloween have a raised dimension by using some foam dots. I was once again able to use Stickles in yet another layout - I love that stuff! I created my journal in MS Word and added a clip-art image to it and then ink'd the edges for the antique look. Other embellies are store bought.

His 2nd Halloween 2006 - SHARK:

Here I used a black background with orange, green, white and purple dots. I matted the pictures in orange and rounded the corners on both the pictures and matts.

Using foam adhesive squares, I raised the 'Happy Halloween' tag, the journal square and the year.

I used a variety of embellishments from Jolee's jack-o-lantern filled with treats, to felt leaves.

His 3rd Halloween 2007 - LION:
Here I used a solid orange background paper and matted the pictures with a carmel color brown paper. I added a patterned harvest paper to the background for a something little extra. I added brads, buttons and embellies by Jolee's and Pebbles. In the center is a great fabric adhesive in a pumpkin design that I got at Oriental Trading - another fabulous spot for great deals.


This years layout to follow in November.

My 1st Sketch Challenge: 3 Pictures

I am part a handful, well maybe 2 handfuls of scrapbooking groups on myspace and I have to say I have befriended many great women.

One of my scrap-friends, Denise, posted a sketch challenge. She sketched out a layout and challenged the group to put together a similar layout.

This is Denise's sketch:

I have known about this challenge for about 2 weeks now, and it is due month's end and I hadn't given much thought about it until tonight. I just sat at my scrapping area (my dinning room table!) and it just came to me. What is the most prized possession that my son has at this moment? All of his cars.... but his 'own' car tops his list.

This is my version of the sketch:

I think it came out fairly well. I have a lot of car themed embellishments (brads & stickers) because I know I will use them pretty often. I was even lucky enough to find a journal tag with a car on it from my K&Company Tag Pad and attached it to the layout with a red car brad.

Thanks Denise! I can't wait for the next one!

My 1st Scrap-Lift

I am not one to literally copy something that someone does. Try to get ideas, yes, but copy no. I have come to learn that 'scrap lifting' is something that is usually welcomed in the scrapbooking community.

I subscribe to the magazine Scrapbooks Etc. and they had a layout with a sketch and templates for it, basically inviting you to scrap lift.

This was the article in the magazine:

And this was my version of the layout:

I started with a 12x12 sheet of blue paper, and cut down a green sheet of 12x12 for a pop of color. I added corner embellies to the green paper for a little extra touch. I matted my pictures with a bright yellow card stock from one of my "Designer Matt Pads" by K&Company and added anchors and brads to the top corners.

I didn't use the exact colors of the original - I wanted to make it my own.

I liked the idea of the little white tags to add the journaling, so I grabbed that idea right away!

I used my Cricut to cut out the clouds and title "My Pot of Gold". I also ink'd the edges of the title and white tags.

I like the idea of adding the colored buttons to the clouds but for some reason my version doesn't have that scattered look like the original does.

I hope to do more scrap lifting soon!

Layouts in 2007

I started scrappin' in the Spring of 2007 and I think I did plenty layouts in about 6 months.





All of these layouts are part of my son's "1st Year" album.

Now keep in mind, I was a beginner :) I already posted my 1sts.... these are the rest:


The layouts without matts behind the photos are ones I did earlier, not knowing matting brings out the photo :)





*These are not necessarily the order I did them*

my 1st attempt at journaling:

I tried using stencils on this one... that was the last time I ever used them!

I love this one... my friend Joey cut out the watermelon for me!

These are 2 Valentine layouts and the 2nd one is not a favorite at all... has to be one of my worse



You can see that at this point they are starting to improve a bit.

I love how this one came out.... one of my best that early on (at least I think)

This pool layout was my time ever using my Cricut!

Sorry for the photo dump.... but now I will be able to show you my 2008 layouts in more detail!

Thanks for lookin'!