What is a scraplift?

What's a scraplift? It's a term us scrapbookers use when we get inspired by someone else's layout. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it. It's not considered steeling someone's ideas or anything. That's why we have on-line galleries and scrapbook magazines loaded with layouts...for inspiration! Scraplifting can be used in different forms. You can scraplift a layout by copying the basic format, the theme, the layout of a title and embellishments or all of the above. You can take it to the extreme of copying the whole layout and just placing in your pictures or get your own ideas by looking at the "lifted" layout.
At www.ebbcreations.com we're playing a Tag Scraplift game. You tag the person in front of you and "lift" one of their layouts. Personally, I love the idea of someone "lifting" my layout for one of their own. It's flattering and I love to compare the difference and similarities of the final results.
I'll be "lifting" a layout, too, and will post both versions when I'm done. Depending on how many details are actually lifted, it's always polite to give the original creator proper credit for the ideas.
My "Beautiful" layout (no point intended ;) ), was "lifted" by Sarah. This was also featured as this week's Creative Inspiration Of The Week at EBB. She did an excellent job. I love how she took the place where I had one photo and added two on hers. Here are the results...

Fluffy, wet, white stuff!

These aren't all from yesterday's storm. Some are from the past week. I know some of you are whining about constant rain. Some of you in warmer climates would love to play in this. But, us people who have been here all our lives, don't always appreciate it as much. The girls, of course, love sledding. Even, I, the "winter grouch" went sledding, too, this past weekend! It was a lot of fun. But, I still don't like the stuff! lol

Oh the weather outside is frightful....

Yeah, yeah, I live in Upstate NY, what do you expect. No, not posting any projects at the moment. Just hoping for a snow day, tomorrow. So I can stay home and play with more projects! I already had a day off on Friday, but not enough for a scrapbooker like me! I just got a bunch of new goodies for the DT call over at EBB and I'm dying to dig into them. Thanks to Ebay, I've managed to get my hands on some yummy Daisy D's, Scenic Route, and 7 Gypsies goodies. Now, I, normally go for the bargains and don't pay too much attention to the brand names. Having select shopping places has formed me that way. When you only have Michael's, JoAnn's, ACMoore, and Wal-mart, our options are limited. It's a lot compred to some, yes. But, we don't have an LSS anymore, so I rarely get my hands on that fancy stuff. I have to find other alternatives. EBB Creations has opened a whole new SB world for me.
Anyway, it's snowing, CAE classes at the institute where I work have been canceled. I can guarentee, that when I get home my internet will be down. Which, maybe I'll get something done!

Let's go racing!

It was a tough race weekend. Mother Nature wasn't very cooperative. But, I'm pleased with the results. I'd like to congratulate Tony Stewart for winning the Nationwide Series, yesterday! Here's our tribute.

Think PINK.

We cleaned up and re-arranged Sarah's room, this weekend. Her favorite color's pink and coincidentally, she has a pink, princess room. We took a bunch of pictures, and of course, I put them on a layout. Actually, it was for a COCOA challenge-to use pink and purple on a layout! I saw that and said PERFECT! So, here's Sarah's pink room!

I'm working on other projects, too. Some of my goodies that I ordered on ebay came in, for EBB's dt call. I'm just about done with my ATC's for a swap (which I'll post about later in the week). Plus I have to get going on Easter cards for a card swap. Why do I do this to myself??? lol

Hope you all had a great weekend and got lots of projects done!

Jen

Tag, you're it!

Here are the rules:

1. You have to post the rules before you give your answers.

2. You must list one fact about yourself beginning with each letter of your middle name. (If you don't have a middle name, use your maiden name).

3. After you are tagged, you need to update your blog with your middle name and your answers.

4. At the end of your blog post, you need to tag one person for each letter of your middle name. (Be sure to leave them a comment telling them they've been tagged and that they need to read your blog for details).

so here is mine:

E - Easy going
L - Loving
L - Like to laugh
E - Easily confused
N - Not a lot of patience

1. Corina
2. Anita
3. JuliesAddiction
4. Shari
5. MichelleJ

What's scrappenin'!

Nope, I haven't posted any projects this week. I did work on a layout that I submitted to CK for the Summer Festival page call. Sorry to disappoint you all, but I cannot share it with you, as of yet. Contest rules! Anyway, I'm really excited about this layout. Even if it doesn't get published, it's one of my best.
I haven't worked on anything for EBB's DT call, in awhile. I'm waiting for some new products to come in. I've done some ebaying this week, so there'll be some goodies showing up at the door over the next few days.
I'm having issues with my PSP9 software. Can't seem to get it working on the new laptop. Very, very, disappointing. It works on Jim's. Hopefully, maybe, we can get the two computers networked and I can have my favorite program back. The other option I have is, a friend at work has an unopened older version of photoshop elements. Not as good as my psp, but better than nothing.
Oh, just remembered a recent challenge that I did do. Last weekend. Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. Self explanatory. Doesn't have to relate to a wedding, but I chose mine to be.
Speaking of challenges. I won the drawing at EBB for the January challenges. I'll be getting some yummy Cosmo Cricket goodies in the mail! Woohoo! Love freebies.
Have a great day!

Sketch it!

I started working on Becky's sketch, this weekend. The one that's due for submissions this week. I still haven't decided, yet, if it's good enough to submit.

But, have you scrapped from a sketch? Ever do your own sketch? Here are some of my sketches. It's all I've done, so far. I have to come up with the layouts to go with them.

So, challenge yourself. Make your own sketch and do a layout to go with it! It's a lot of fun! If you don't have the fancy software, you can hand draw it.

Yes, DEER

Jim's Valentine's Day present! I think the title speaks for itself. But, these are a few of his pics from his trail camera. Thought he'd enjoy it. I framed it for him to hang in his future hunting room.

There's a masculine card to go with it, that I'm pretty proud of. I'll post that over the weekend.

TGIF!

Happy Valentine's Day

Not a huge holiday in our household. I think we do it more for the kids, than anything else. We do exchange gifts, but it pretty much ends there. It's way too commercialized (much like most holidays, this day in age). But, we do the cards (handmade, preferred) and the Valentine's for the kids to bring to school. Yes, I'm wearing red today and the girls are wearing pink.

So, here are a couple of cards that I've made. The one with the heart doily was for a challenge at EBB. The other, I made several for the card swap at CK. They're all not identicle, but pretty similar. I get bored making 40 of the same exact thing! lol

A nice little Valentine's gift I got was being featured in the New Reader Spotlight at CK this week! At the CK website, every week a member is featured. There's a little questionaire and a chance to show off a layout. The members chosen weekly and is an active member of the CK message board. So, if you're a CKMB, go check me out. If not, it's easy to sign up and free! You should definitely give it a go. www.creatingkeepsakes.com

First, ever, altered clipboard.

Well, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the term (like my darling husband), altering is one of the latest fads in the paper craft world. Altering an item is adding all kinds of good stuff to something, that you probably wouldn't even dream of. People alter things from regular trinket boxes, to tin lunch boxes, mailboxes, etc and so on. In this case, even clipboards.

This project I did for the EBB Design Team submissions. Originally, one of the requirements was to alter something, anything you wanted. I'm not thrilled with altering boxes. I did several at Christmas time and, to be honest, I hated it! I'd do them if I had to, but not my favorite paper projects. So, I thought, hey, a clipboard would be easy. It's flat, not too much to it. Immediately, I knew what I wanted to do and the theme I wanted to create. As I started gathering materials, the DT requirements were changed. Not a huge big deal. Actually, a little simpler and more versatile, I think. Just a matter of finding products to use, locally. Anyway, not to roam off topic. But, one of the manufacturers judging the contest is, YES, K & Company. One of my, most favorite, SB companies!!!! Since the submissions had changed to making projects (of any kind) featuring each of the four manufacturers involved, I knew this one would be easy. I already have tons of K & Company goodies on hand, seeing that they are my favorite!

Being that Valentine's Day is tomorrow, I thought about a wedding theme. I went back and forth between a couple of ideas. But, with the products I had, at hand, I knew the wedding one would be easy to do. Our colors in our wedding were peach and green. More of a hunter green, than this particular shade. But, I love how these Primas look with the peach paper! Also, they make a great border, hiding the brown from the clipboard!!!

I love this picture from our wedding. My base started with Bazzil Bling cardstock. Then scalloped the edges of the K & Co. Metallics. Stamped it with the stamp that has the verse from 1 Corinthians 13. The bottom of the clipboard is trimmed with another sheet of the K & Co. Metallics, topped with some lace. The lace is garnished with K & Co. Rhinestones (I love those). The glitter flourish is the K & Co. Glitter Rub Ons. The flower border is made with the Primas from EBB's January kit. The pen used was a Sakura. There are also a few of K & Co. felt flowers.

I'm very proud of this project and am thrilled to show it off. When I showed it to my DH (darling husband) last night, he says, "It's very cute, but how are you supposed to write on it???" I'm convinced he was kidding about that, but it was quite funny!

I'd love to hear your comments! Thanks for looking.

The Progressive Challenge!

Ok, let's talk about progressives, today. I'm very proud of this week's challenge over at Cocoa. So, I thought I'd share the details with you. First of all, I'll explain that COCOA is a scrapbook group...not just a drink! COCOA stands for "Challenge Obsession Complete Our Albums". I love challenges. They're so inspiring, especially when you're in that "rut". Anyway, COCOA's famous for their daily challenges, called "Instant Cocoa". We also have second cups which are the Instants completed after the day they're posted. Make sense?

Onward with the progressives. The progressive challenge is usually a four step process. A cocoa member posts the sign-ups on Thursday. There are usually two or three choices for a theme. You pick the theme you want then sign up. Each day a new step to the challenge is posted, starting on Fridays. We tend to start with a "base" of the layout and work from there. Depending on how generous the challenge poster is, depends on how much you add to your layout each day. Sometimes we run out of room, other times, it works out great. We may have an idea in our head for something, but it may not work, then we have to change it. That's the whole creative process. That's what keeps our brains going! Sometimes it's frustrating. Other times it's a lot of fun. But, watch out, because these challenges can be addicting! I love them, myself! Oh, and don't look ahead, at the steps...that's cheating!!!

With this week's challenge, posted by my friend, Sarah. The theme was "Scrappers Choice." Which means, basically, anything goes. Whatever pics you have laying around that you feel like scrapping. I chose some Girl Scout photos from our Overnight event last month. The girls did some sewing and had a fashion show. Coincidentally, these pics worked perfect with this challenge, since Sarah made me do some paper sewing! Like I said, sometimes, these challenges are fun!

Step A...the base! We were asked to choose three pp's (patterned paper) and a solid cardstock. The pp had to be no bigger than 4" x 10". I totally took that the wrong way, thinking they had to be that size. But, it all worked out, in the end anyway. Since I'm using Girl Scout photos, what better pp to use, than K & Co. Girl Scout paper! Then, to choose some photos and matte them. Sarah was nice enough to give us a hint, that we would have space to add another photo later on. Not all COCOA-nuts are that nice to us! lol So, here's my step A...

Step B was the hard part. I almost chickened out here. We were to make a, kind of, book on our layout. Take a piece of pp (patterened paper), preferrably double-sided and fold it in half. Inside is where you add your journaling and the optional additional photo. I'm glad this was hinted to us. I chose the group photo of the girls. The journaling was simple, "Girl Scout Overnight with Daisies, Brownies, Juniors, and Seniors. Fashion Show" The front I decorated with girlie "Studio G" stamps.

Part C was easy! Add your title, and use some form of ink. This could be any kind of ink..stamping, pen, computer, etc. So, I used chipboard letters to make the word "Fashion" and used my Sakura pen for my "ink" to write "Statement". Making the title "Fashion Statement". I, then, used my Eucalyptus Stickles (like a light green) and went over the chipboard letters to add a little "bling". You can't have a fashion page without any "bling"!

Finally, Step D. This was fun. More stitching and final touches. But, this time, the stitching didn't necessarily have to be needle and thread! Yay, that's my favorite kind. I added the K & Co. Girl Scout flowers (they have a touch of bling, already). Then I go that awesome Sakura pen and "stitched" the stem and the leaves. I also "stitched" a little border around the cover of the book thingie. The ink on the Sakura pen makes it look like real stitching. Totally cool! Oh, and to coordinate with the title. I had to use those Stickles again. I Stickled the inside of the leaves to add some more bling.

In conclusion, here's what we came up with. This was one of the "funnest" progressives I've done in a long time.

One Smart Cookie

I confess, it's not a new layout, but it's not that old, either. This one I did right before Christmas to put on a calendar. This is the month of March (last year). In honor of Girl Scout cookie time, I thought I'd share it with you all. It's one of my favorite Girl Scout layouts. C'mon, aren't those cookie costumes just adorable???

I'm cookie manager for our Brownie troop and our cookie booths are a lot of fun! The girls brush up on their math skills and get to have a great time, too.

A great use for that gorgeous K & Company Girl Scout line!

Pipe cleaners

I've worked on several projects this weekend! Got a lot of scrapping done. I wasn't even sure which one to post first. But, I decided on the pipe cleaner layout. The joke started on EBB. Then the "unofficial" challenge was posted. Create a layout using pipe cleaners. So, I did. Different and fun. Jim took a whole bunch of winter pictures, yesterday. I hate the season, I don't like snow or the cold. But, I have to say, these pictures do it justice. I wanted to create a layout with a few of them. Lizzy had purple pipe cleaners. Sometimes we associate blue & purple with being cold. So, I figured, it works. Here's the layout...Winter Wonderland. This paper's really pretty. The writting already on it. Hated to cover it up.

What's scrappenin'???

No pics to post, today. Not, yet. I'm working on some serious projects this weekend. I've decided to go for the EBB Design Team. My creative juices are flowing. It'll be a nice honor to win, but even if I don't I'll have some pretty neat stuff to come out of it. Submissions are do by mid-March. So I have to craft my little heart out, while I've got the time.

I should be working on finishing up V-day cards. I will. But, I have to do it when the mood strikes. Last night I couldn't wait to get going on the DT "Me" layout. After a couple of hours, still not done, yet. Almost. This is totally something new. I've done "me" layouts, before, but nothing at all like this one. The style is way past my boundaries and I'm really excited about how it's turning out! I will post the layout when finished.

For the altering project, I bought a clipboard, yesterday. I have more ideas flowing in my head for that one, too. Sooo exciting this is. Like I said, even if I'm not chosen, I'm already likeing the outcome of the projects.

It's snowing, it's race weekend, and some of us are sick. Perfect opportunities for scrapping. Off to the store to raid the pharmacy, then back to playing!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!!

PS. If you think about it, Tuesday, be sure and check out the www.creatingkeepsakes.com Reader Spotlight. That's all I'm gonna say!

Aloha! Creative Inspiration of the Week!

Well, I picked a great week to start a blog. I was just informed that my "Aloha" layout chosen for EBB's Creative Inspiration of the Week, weekly contest. Which means, that the layout will be featured on EBB's home page during the next week, for all of you to see. What an honor. Just as exciting as being published!

This layout, I did at a crop I went to last weekend. I felt like doing a little something bright & cheery. It's the middle of winter in central, NY. It's blah and dreary. This was a fun layout to create and includes one of my favorite embellies....flowers! Can never have enough!

The story behind the layout is simple. Lizzy wanted a luau for her 8th birthday party, including swimming. She had about 12 kids, I think. We had the place set up with lais for the kids and Hawaiian decor on the porch. Including a couple of Tiki torches (the real kind, that really light). The weather was a little cool, for July, but the kids swam, anyway! It was a great success.

So, when you're out and about, surfing the net, check out http://www.ebbcreations.com/ , next week, for this layout! Thanks EBB!

Let's get started, shall we?

What's a scrapbook blog without any projects to share? I'd like to post a project a day, but I know, in reality, that will be next to impossible. But I'll do as much as I can to keep interest. In the beginning I'll post some older projects that many of you may have already seen. But scrapbooking is one of those never ending hobbies, so there will be a lot of new goodies to share, as well.

I have, slowly, begun to go beyond my boundaries in the scrapbooking world. This whole blogging thing, being one of them. But, related to layouts...have you ever tried stitching on a layout? This is a first to me. Thanks to EBB Creations and they're amazing monthly kits. With the January kit, I received a couple of stitching templates. So, why not use them? I managed to stitch this bird during lunch hour, at work. Very simple with a template and relaxing and fun. I am far from a sewer, so this is the perfect way to ease into this, for me.

I'm not one for following the latest sb trends, just because it's what everyone else is doing. In I see a lot of birds and owl type things randomly placed on layouts even though it has nothing to do with the theme of the page. Yes, sometimes it looks nice, I'm not knocking it. It's just not me. So, I came up with this layout, so I can use this pretty bird. The template came with two birds, a small & large. I didn't want to take the time to do the smaller bird, too, lol. That is how I came up with the title for this one. As it turns out, it's one of my favorite layouts. I love the colors and the combinations of the papers.

"Sisters flock together"

Welcome!

Hi everyone! I've decided to start this new blog just to display my scrapbook projects. I do blog on MySpace, but not everyone has a MySpace account or wants to be bothered. So, to make all my scrapbooking friends' lives easier, I thought I'd use a more "user friendly" route, too. I hope you enjoy viewing my projects. Feel free to leave any sort of feedback, once I get posting.

Jen aka ScrapbookingPrincess