Ready For Adventure!

It’s New Year’s Eve and anything can happen! Simon Says, "let’s break 2013 in with a crazy week of projects!"

Are you mad as a hatter? Do you love a good tea party? Is it your un-birthday? Do you like to break all rules and just do your own thing? Use wild colors and bold design? However you choose to interpret the challenge, we’re sending 2012 out with a bang - and one anything goes Mad Tea Party!

I certainly couldn't pass up an opportunity to scrap some pictures of my little one hugging the Rabbit, for this challenge. After all, we were at Disney and as many of you know, anything can happen at Disney!

Here I have my photos pulled along with some of the super fun papers from the American Crafts Soho Garden collection:

 All arranged in an off-kilter way:

 Look at these adorable tea cups! Time to fussy-cut!

 Oh, yes. Love those arranged in a haphazard and upside down way:

 More fussy-cutting? Why, thank you... don't mind if I do.

 All nestled in:

 Title work:

 A bit of red for an accent:

The next page in this album is a pocketed page FULL of crazy photos of a street parade, so this little arrow indicates that there is plenty more adventure to be seen:

Some sequins follow the title, down the page and into....

The Rabbit Hole...

 Ta Da!

I hope you will join our little Mad Hatter tea party! This is an 'anything goes' week - so enjoy!

We can't wait to see what you Link up! You even have a chance to win a $50 gift voucher for simonsaysstamp.com!

Wanna take a trip into fussy-cut tea pot land? A complete supply list is below: (affiliate links used)

InLinkz.com

Layout Love Linky - December 2012

Here we are!

The end of a year is just around the corner and it's time for our final Layout Love Linky of 2012!

LLL is a bit like a virtual craft club... A show and tell of sorts.

We all (well, most of us) upload our projects to online galleries and/or blog about them. 

But, they do tend to get lost in the shuffle sometimes, don't they?

One of my favorite parts of blogging is the sense of community within the scrapbooking world. I love this network of sharing ideas and inspiration, documenting our successes and failures, and commiserating with one another through our hobby. 

One of the best ways to get to know a crafter is through what she is most proud of, yes? 

Perhaps you did that one layout that just blew your socks off and you can't stop smiling at it.

Or maybe you tried something new and your project survived the process!

What if you only had time to scrapbook 1 page last month, but that is 1 more than usual? 

So, you uploaded said project to an online gallery, or your blog, or both. And then....

Well....

Not much happened?

That doesn't mean anything, really! 

There are SO many scrappers sharing their work every minute of the day. 

This really is a great thing.

A good "problem" to have. 

But, there are only so many hours in a day and well, things just get lost in the shuffle of cyberspace.

What am I getting at here?

It's show and tell time, that's what!!!!

THAT really is the heart and soul behind Layout Love Linky. 

What started as a place for me to blog (in a somewhat wordless fashion) my un-blogged layouts of the month has become so much more.

I can't tell you how excited I get when I click on a link-up to leave some love and I see a comment that says, "I came over here from Layout Love and really enjoyed your layout!"

That is what this is all about, people!

Sharing, inspiring, learning, and growing our little scrappy cyberspace community.

Every month, a winner is drawn at random from the link-ups. They receive a fun scrappy prize and a little tag made by yours truly :)

I LOVE making these tags. It is so fun to start out with no plan what-so-ever and know that whatever happens, the finished product will be sent off to a fellow scrappy friend. Fun stuff!

So, in place of my un-blogged layouts this month, how about we take a look at all of the happy mail tags that I got to make during a year of Linky Love? Speaking of a year of Linky Love, check out that new button up there on the right hand side of my blog. That will always take you to the LLL posts, with the most current one being on the top. This way, it is super easy to check back and spread the comment love. YAY!

OK, now for those tags!

(What about my un-blogged layouts? I guess you will have to dig them up from cyberspace in My Two Peas Gallery :)

What's that you say? You have never seen that last one? 

Right! That is the tag for the current winner!

Speaking of the winner...

Did you see all of the awesome entries last month?

You guys are all so talented! If you didn't get a chance to leave them some comment love, please take a moment to do so.

So, who is the lucky winner from the above? Nirupama! That gorgeous layout on the top left is her's. Nirupama, I have emailed you for your details so that you can get your tag and your special prize of a $25 Two Peas gift card ASAP :) 

YAY! Celebrate!

Alrighty!

So, now it's your turn. 

Anything goes here!
Layouts, cards, altered art, art journals, mini books. 

If you love it and want to show it off to a few more like-minded crafty peeps, link-it-up! 

In fact, if you did a blog post showcasing your favorite layouts of 2012, link-it-up!

Oh yeah, and if you want to be entered into the giveaway, all you have to do is be sure to mention in your post or gallery entry that you are linking up here.
Also, please link up the direct URL to your post so that when people click the thumbnail to view your fabulousness, they can find it.
That's it!
Easy peasy!

What's the prize for the next winner? It's a surprise. But perhaps it will be something wonderfully fresh and new, hot off the CHA show room floor :)

Oh, yeah - don't forget to check back all month long to leave comment love for our scrappy friends, using our new LLL button, of course!

And if you tweet or share on Instagram, use #LLL for all things Layout Love :)

Our Complete Christmas Heritage...

Well, as complete as something like that can get. There will always be more stories to be told and memories to scrap. But, as for this project...

I am done! Good thing registration to Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas includes a lifetime membership...

If you have missed any of my posts about this project, the list below should help you out:

Preparing to Journal

Our Christmas Heritage...A Beginning

I've Been Journaling

Some Very Merry Gluing, Cutting, and Journaling...

Journaling All The Way

Here's What That Stamp Did

And that brings us to this point:

 With a visit from the North Pole:

And some joyful giving 4 U:

Full of garlands on acetate:

 That warm the heart:

 A good dose of all things sugary:

 And little moments of the today (LOVE these printables from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer):

 Cozy Moments at Home:

 On Christmas Eve:

And lots of photos included for Christmas! Some from Christmas past and some from Christmas present. Thanks to a modified photo stack for making that possible:

I LOVED doing this project! 
(Subway word art made on wordle.net. Thanks to Stacy Julian for that tip!)

 Full of bits and pieces...

 Tidbits and twine...

 Of Our Christmas Heritage:

Crafted with Love... For My Family:

Thanks for joining me this December as I worked on this! Your sweet and encouraging comments were so delightful, not to mention super motivating! 

As with any project, especially a larger one like this, I learned quite a bit as I worked my way through this (that's part of the fun, isn't it?):
01. Having supplies pre-set and pre-fussy-cut really IS key.
02. Never underestimate the worth and importance of a glue dot.
03. TOMBOW is my friend.
04. The combined weight of paper and chipboard is astounding!
05. Large albums are exceptionally difficult to photograph...
06. ...As are pages within a page protector.
07. Looking at my heritage photos on the same page as modern day photos is priceless.
08. It is surprising how many things WILL NOT stick to a page protector.
09. Page Protectors buckle, a lot, when stitched on multiple times.
10. It was all worth it as I love the finished result just as much, if not more, than I thought I would!

And that, my friends, is always a great way to end a project.
More detail shots of each page are uploaded (or will be soon) over at my Two Peas Gallery.

I will see you next time for a special year-end edition of Layout Love Linky. You still have 2 days to link up for your chance to win for last month! (It's a really great prize!)

See you soon!

Here's What That Stamp Did...

Recently, we put one of my holiday stamps to good use and tried lots of fun things with it. I asked you all which technique was your favorite and there was indeed a clear winner! Number 4, with Number 11 following up in second place.

So, let's put those techniques to use on a layout for my Christmas Heritage Album, shall we?

First up, I have my background paper (which happens to be one of my most favorite neutrals right now and was even my pick-of-the-week when I was on the Paperclipping Roundtable. I may or may not have ordered 10 sheets of this one particular pattern), and I have made a little envelope of sorts for my photo and journaling to live in:

With my background paper at the ready, I just start messily stamping on our winning technique. A bit of blue, red and green distress ink all blended onto the stamp:

 Ah yes, that makes a nice little background for my envelope:

Now, I thought I would get all fancy and try out the other favorite technique of the gold Gelato press on vellum. But, as you can see in the image below with the favorite technique on the left and the vellum version on the right... well, let's just say the vellum didn't quite work out:

Moving on!
The Gelato stamped paper gets cut into strips for some lovely layering:

 Ah yes! Likey so:

Time to dress up that envelope. I can't tell you how excited I am to use these brads that have been sitting on my desk for way too long!

But, I don't want the brand backing to scratch my photo, so a little washi should cover the prongs up nicely:

 A little twine and there we have a nice way to secure the envelope:

 Title time! On the envelope?

 Hmmm, I like it better at the top:

I want the title to sit on top of my page protector for this project, so before I adhere that, I am going to get the rest of the page ready to go into the protector. A little more embellisment:

 Some doodles to enhance the stamped image:

 Some ink splats:

 Journaling pocket tucked in:

 Inside of the envelope embellished:

And into the protector it goes! Then, a quick once around the envelope with the exacto knife let's it retain it's interactivity even while inside the protector:

Title glued on and Stickles applied...
Now, I wait for it to dry...

 And there it is!

All nestled in it's paged protector:

 Easy to interact with:

 And full of stamped goodness!

 This made a lovely addition to my growing Christmas Heritage Album:

See you tomorrow with more on that :)