Are you and yours back into the swing of the school year yet?  We’ve just started week 2, and I already feel like the year is starting to take off!  Since my eldest is only in 1st grade, I haven’t had enough experience saying “No!”  in my short experience and have volunteered to be the room mom for her class.  It is already proving to be an interesting experience….  wish me luck!

So, if you don’t know, I’m a digital-turned-hybrid scrapper.  That being said, I love the beauty of being able to use the computer to do all kinds of things…  edit photos, save images, add shadows, etc.  Usually, when doing hybrid work, I edit the photos and add journaling to my work via the computer.

As we are focusing on embellies this month, I thought I’d try something a little different.  I tried to create a layout using only a minimum of attachments on a page – four staples!  That means no glue, no tape, no sticky back smooshie foamy things, no photo corners…. you get the idea.

The trick is to get it all laid out and then photograph it, as is, without messing anything up.  A few fun things about this are 1) you can be non-committal like I often am and rearrange and rearrange, 2) you can see how the finished product looks before sharing, 3) you can get some really cool shadows on elements and 4) you can reuse the embellishments without wrecking your work!

The four staples – two are holding down the vintage paper and two fastened the “Happy” to the vintage price tags.  None of these were necessary, however, for this challenge!  Everything but the “Happy” and vintage paper is from one of the July KR kits!  The others are from previous KR kits.

Now, if you are a paper scrapper who tosses finished layouts into a “to be albumized” pile or actually makes  it to putting your work in an album, not to worry!  Since you are most likely sharing your work online anyway, you can easily resize an image such as this to print (Scrapbook Pictures offers great printing services) and then add it to your album.  Your kids won’t miss out on any of the fun flipping through and seeing themselves if you create something digitally!

Happy scrapping!

1. Ethereal Season, 2. Flash Cards, 3. 102/365-H is for Hopscotch., 4. Laundry Line Time, 5. Untitled (Thread and Cardboard), 6. My School-Day Autobiography-1933, 7. my grandma’s first day in school, 8. I hate my Homework… – Odio mi tarea.., 9. Book of Tranquility 01

While I realize most of you are just receiving your August boxes we are already gearing up for our September release and our sneak night on the 31st. Showing more of the process and how I create each kit is something that I have wanted to do for a while so I thought that I would share some fun pictures from flickr that i pooled together to loosely represent what I have in store for the September kits at Kenner Road. These images are amazing, and I highly recommend that you check out the galleries of everyone who’s work is featured here.

now… let’s see how many of you can figure out what a few of these images represent. Any takers on guessing? I would love to hear them.

happy thursday!
xo

ps : don’t forget about our August gallery challenge {{here}}. you could win a KR Sept. add-on of your choice if you win!

I’ve got a confession to make.

I love leftovers.

You know, those little bits of kit leftovers that litter your craft desk after you’ve been scrapping & creating away with your Kenner Road kit?  I just can’t bear to throw even the little teeny bit away.  I’ve got a serious hoarding problem when it comes to little pretty bits of patterned paper & those adorable embellishments & scraps of ribbon.  And the thing is, all these pretty things look so much better on a project than in my stash.   Also after a scrapping session, I’ve always got extra photos.  I tend to print in various sizes because I never can make up my mind which size photo I want to use.

So, in those spare seconds when I just want to create a little something, I’ve challenged myself to USE IT!  USE IT!  USE IT!!  The something I create today will ALWAYS be better than that “just perfect, future, maybe one day I’ll do something unbelievably wonderful with that” pipe dream of mine.   And so what if I’ve used that photo before?  I like it!

So, in addition to using bits & extra photos up on various journal pages, I’ve started creating little mini binder ring “books” with these elements.  These books are perfect to pop in my handbag & take along with me.  They are especially handy on those rare occasions when I’m actually out & about WITHOUT my kids, lol!  Everyone always asks me “OH!  How are the kids?”  Now I’ve got cute pictures to show off right at the ready. :)

Obviously, these books are also great for grandparents & family who live far away.  You can soar to “top daughter-in-law” in 3 seconds flat if you pop one of these in an envelope & send it off to your in-laws.  I guarantee it. :)

So, here is a little leftover book I’ve started creating this month with my kit leftovers.  And the thing I really like about it is, that as I continue to go through my kit, I can continue to pop in some more little pages.  It’s so fun!

A bonus I’ve noticed about creating these little books (other than the top daughter-in-law award) is that I’ve discovered some new color & pattern combinations that I hadn’t thought of before, or I’m giving an embellishment that I didn’t get to try out a place to shine.  It is just plain fun to sit & cut & piece it all together.    These little books are really providing quite the creative spark for me!

I hope you’ll give it a try too!

Happy Creating!!!

gigi

I’ve seen flowers like the ones on my layout above popping up in scrapbooking galleries on the Internet. I think they are so pretty so I did some research and found out how to make them. I thought they’d be perfect for this flower girl photo of my niece.

Here ’s how you do it…

1.)    Draw a spiral on a 4×4” piece of paper. You can vary the size of your end product by changing the size of the paper. As well, the tighter the spiral, the more layers the end product will have.

2.)    Cut out the spiral along the lines. I’ve seen these also made with wavy lines, by tearing the spiral out, and you could even try deco scissors for a different look.

3.)    Place a glue dot on the outside end of the spiral and begin rolling from the outside. The glue dot will help the flower to not unravel.

4.)    Keep rolling until the end. The last bit sometimes doesn’t want to go so I just cut it off. Let go of the flower and work the layers a bit. Put a glue dot on the end of the flower to keep it from unraveling.

5.)    The finished flower!

 I made three  for my layout. I love how they kind of look like ranunculus!

Here are the directions for the flower girl layout.  A little birdie told me some of you were interested in directions!

1.)    Cut green cardstock to 8.5×11”.

2.)    Cut Cosmo Cricket Earth Love Recycle brown paper to 9.5×7”. Using Heidi Swapp edge distresser or fingernail, distress edges of paper. Adhere near center of Green Paper.

3.)    Cut Pink Paislee Grid paper to 8×5”. Using Heidi Swapp edge distresser or fingernail, distress edges of paper. Center on brown paper and adhere.

4.)    Place photo near top center of Grid paper and adhere.

5.)    Using border punch, punch across hot pink cardstock. Cut 7x¾” strip and adhere along the bottom of the photo.

6.)    Make three spiral flowers (see above) – I made one 4.5”, one 4” and one 3”. Adhere to left end of pink strip – I think wet glue works best for this. I used Zip Dry.

7.)    Cut two leaves and two twirly stems off of Prima flower bunch from add-on and adhere near flower.

8.)    Rub title onto bottom of photo and adhere chipboard letters below.

9.)    Using a McGill File Tab Punch, punch tab out of one of the Labels on the Cosmo Cricket Earth Love Elements paper. Cut the word beautiful or another word out of the other side. Adhere upside down to top of brown block.

10.)      Cut out one of the labels from the Cosmo Cricket Earth Love Elements paper. Cut the label in half lengthwise. Adhere the two pieces below the pink strip, lining up the lines. Write your journaling on the blocks.

If you make one of the flowers and use it on a project, be sure to post it somewhere and link me up. I’d love to see your take on it! 

Have a great weekend everyone!

xo Celeste

cd muckosky

It’s time for our monthly gallery challenge and for august our emphasis, but in the challenge and the creative teams monthly blog posts is embellishments! show us how you rock the embellies and load your creations, whether layouts, mini books or projects, into our flickr gallery by September 6th and you could win a free september add-on of your choice!

and to get the inspiration started make sure you check out the amazing canvas above that our august guest designer cd muckosky created and scroll down below for the entire kenner road creative teams projects.

amy

celeste

debee

dina

gigi

jessi

katie

kl

lisa