Artprize

 I love, love, love, love ArtPrize.  If you aren't familiar with it, here's ArtPrize in a nutshell from artprize.org... check out the website for more info.

"ArtPrize^® is a radically open competition. Open to any artist in the world who can find space. Open to anybody in Grand Rapids, Michigan who wants to create a venue. Open to a vote from anyone who attends."

I took a LOT of photos at last fall's ArtPrize, and narrowing down which ones to scrap was hard.  I was thinking of doing 4 pages, but I didn't want to do much cropping, so it ended up being 6.

My son loves elephants, so he was quite taken with "Elephant Walk".  Also on this layout are a big cow made out of little cows, a giant penny made of pennies, and a loveseat made out of a Cadillac Fleetwood... on which the tail lights lit up and radio played the Beach Boys when it was sat on!

This layout was done with "Cocoa Mint" by Cloud 9 Designs.

 

 

 

 

 

The first exhibit on the next layout is a series of pianos placed all over the city, individually painted and inscribed "Play Me, I'm Yours".  A big hit with kids and adults!  The second was my personal favorite, speed painter Martina Hahn.  She paints amazing canvases on a rotating stand to music in under 6 minutes.  As the music ends, she spins the canvas upright to reveal the finished painting.

For this layout I used "Boom-Di-Ada" by Close To My Heart.

The first exhibit on the last layout is a family of lions made entirely of nails- super cool, and my son couldn't stop hugging them.  I think they reminded him of our black lab.  The last exhibit I scrapped was truly mind-blowing- a mosaic of Martin Luther King Jr made entirely of Rubik's cubes.  The artist twisted each individual cube into the configuration he needed, then stacked them all vertically in an enormous frame.  The contrast between the view of the mosaic from far away (it was displayed in a church) and the up-close view of the Rubik's cubes was astounding.

For this layout I used "Animal Cookies" by CTMH. 

I'm glad there's less than a month until ArtPrize 2011... I can't wait!

Beach

OK, I do a LOT of beach pages.  But there are so many fun summer scrapping products out there, and little kids in bathing suits are adorable.  So there.

I ADORE this collection, "Undersea Adventures" by TPC Studios.  Bright colors, shiny paper, super cute sea creatures, puffy stickers, clear epoxy stick-ons, big brads... hence the 6 pages I couldn't resist doing:

   
When I first saw CTMH's "Caprice" collection in the catalog, I didn't think I really liked it, but after using it at a party I changed my mind.  I've discovered I especially like the colors and patterns for beach pages:  

Here's a couple more done with another favorite collection, "72 & Sunny" by We R Memory Keepers.  

Today's lesson:  if you find truly fantastic paper, like "Undersea Adventures" or "72 & Sunny", it is not possible to make an ugly page with it.  Of the masses of paper in my stash, my "can't go wrong" list is short and sweet, and these two are both on it!

U2360

I have set a new personal record: scrapping photos within roughly 24 hours of them being taken!

I am very lucky to have crossed "U2 concert" off my bucket list! I have been wanting to see them for, oh, 15 years or so.  They are rarely in my neck of the woods, not to mention I could usually buy at least 2 weeks' worth of groceries for the price of one ticket... but I have an awesome husband, and he surprised me with tickets as a Christmas gift.

The photos got immediately scrapped because my date for the concert was also my scrapping BFF... so the next day we immediately printed, shopped for supplies, and scrapped!  All the photos are from her Blackberry, so they are nowhere near the usual Canon quality I'm used to, but they are absolutely worth preserving!

The pages are simpler than my usual style too, since I was not concerned about mixing and matching fun patterns, just about cramming as many photos as possible onto the 4 pages I wanted to limit myself to.  I may have set another personal record there... 21 photos on 4 pages, plus a ticket and a (small) journal box!

I used CTMH's "Emporium" collection, plus a random piece of blue patterned paper and some sparkly things.

So anyway... here they are :)

And to show off my bestie's talent, and show what amazingly different pages can be done with the same pictures, here are her U2360 layouts:

 

Favorites: the newborn days

Here are a few of my favorites from those early, new-baby days... 

I think my favorite thing about these pregnancy pages is the color scheme.  I love the turquoise and orange, and especially how the bright colors contrast with the black & white in the photos:

These newborn pages are kind of opposite from the pregnancy ones; black & white paper, with a large color photo standing out.

 If you look closely, you can see the black-on-black glitter swirls on the background pages.

Turquoise and orange must do something for me, because I love these pages with the same color scheme:

I love the Cricut Storybook font too.

I'm glad to see that so many people are enjoying this blog... watching the pageviews number climb higher every day makes me glad I started it!  Feel free to leave me comments, questions, or suggestions for other things you'd like to see here.

"Splendor" pages, flowered pages

One of my favorite collections is "Splendor" by Close to My Heart... even though some of the patterns in it are flowered, it is still great "boy" paper in blue, green, and gold.  
 

Seriously, it's impossible to make a page you don't like with paper this cute.
 
A friend once told me it's OK to use girly paper/supplies/etc. for pictures of boys as long as there's a girl in the picture too.  I figured these photos of my son with his Aunt Katie (whom he calls "Go") were a great excuse to use this flowered paper I've had forever.

Enjoy! :)

Platform Nine and Three-Quarters

Here's a few Potter pages for your viewing pleasure :)  All Harry Potter products are from scrapyourtrip.com.  

nerd-tastic

I'm super geeky-excited about the project I am just starting... for my 30th birthday, my hubby surprised me with a trip to Orlando with my sister to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  Harry Potter scrapbook pages?!?  Oh yes!

I have a lovely purple leather album that I thought I would use... but I just couldn't bring myself to use an album that wasn't the same beautiful scarlet as the Hogwarts Express.  So I got this one instead.

D-ring, so I can add lots and lots of pages easily :)

 

 

Now, come to find out, Harry Potter scrapbook supplies aren't exactly easy to find.  I made a fantastic discovery in www.scrapyourtrip.com.  While most stores or sites have a little bit of everything, they have "everything of a little bit"- everything you could want for travel, vacation, or location scrapbooking, including super-specifics like Disney Animal Kingdom, Epcot, Sea World, and yes, Harry Potter :)  Plus their S&H is very reasonable.  Super friendly service too!  I can't say enough good things about SYT.

So here's my first Potter page... complete with my very own Hogwarts acceptance letter!  (Yup... I'm really THAT nerdy.)

 I used the paper "frame" from my overpriced-but-had-to-have ride photo and put a clear pocket in it to hold the letter... that way you can see the letter, plus when you take it out of the pocket the WWoHP logo shows through.

I did a layout of the resort we stayed at with CTMH's Twitterpated paper pack, one of my favorites:

 Can't wait to get my hands on all those Potter photos and supplies at my weekly Monday night scrap session tonight!