Monday, February 28, 2011 Card Challenge - "And I Quote..."

Hello, cardmakers - this week's challenge is to use a quote on your card! Leave us a comment letting us know where to find your stuff...and I'll leave you with a quote, to kick things off..."You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have." (Maya Angelou)

Happy Creating!!

Scraplift Challenge by Virginia Wong

Scraplifting - the very sound of the word is ominous! When I first started scrapping I would never dream of lifting an idea or element from another scrapper. It subsequently took me ages to complete anything because I never wanted to be labelled with plagerism. Then I found out, everyone did it and it was perfectly fine as long as you gave credit where credit is due.

I often use Valerie Salmon sketches from her Got Sketch blog. There is something about her sketches that I adore. Now I can't remember which sketch it was but I know it was several months if not a year or more ago. My interpretation of the sketch is below - I rarely follow a sketch exactly as I am compelled put my own Virginia-ism on it!

Supplies:  SEI (pattern papers, die cut stickers, glitter alphas); BasicGrey (chipboard alphas); American Crafts (ribbon of roses); Prima (pearls)

Over the years I have loved this classic design and find myself scraplifting myself over and over again as shown below.

Supplies:  Bazzill (cardstock); The Girls' Paperie (pattern paper), Urban Lily (chipboard sentiment); Prima (flower, pearl); ribbon (source unknown)

Here I added a strip of pattern paper on the top and played with the die cut pattern paper.

Supplies:  Bazzill (cardstock); Nikki Sivils (pattern paper); Heidi Swapp (chipboard alphas); Prima (bling heart and gems)

Here I added a third picture and fussy cut a few images.

Supplies:  Close to my Heart (black cardstock); Cosmo Cricket (pattern paper, chipboard elements); American Crafts (Remarks alphas, pen for journalling); Basic Grey (large chipboard alpha); Tattered Angels (glimmer mist); Little Yellow Bicycle (chipboard square journal spots)

Here I had a swack of pictures showing my youngest learning how to roll into the water! To compensate, I shrunk the pattern paper portions and added extra pictures.

Supplies:  Bazzill (cardstock); American Crafts (pattern paper); Quickutz (die cut alphas); Evalicious (felt accents - these are to die for!!!!)

These pictures just called for me flipping the pictures from the top to the bottom.

I hope you can see how fun and time efficient it is to scraplift. So what about you? Do you scraplift? Can you show me your creations?

Friday, February 25, 2011 - The 'Scraplifting - It ain't a crime!' Challenge...

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery", so this week's challenge is to pick a layout, project, etc. that caught your eye on a blog or in a gallery - or maybe even something of your own creation that you are really pleased with, and scraplift it!! We'd love to see your inspiration piece and your own take on it so leave us a comment with a link where we can find you!

All About Me - by Cari Locken

I'm a little bit late to the party. Sorry everyone.

I've been busy kitting and getting ready for the Great Canadian Scrapbook Carnival in Victoria, BC February 25-26th. This coming weekend! I'm so excited about it and look forward to teaching my classes and working in the CS booth. Hope to see you there if you live in the area!

I actually find it quite difficult to create layouts about myself. But I realized that's important for my children to know about me when they look through the scrapbooks later on in life. These layouts below have been created because of various assignments I've had to do ... not because I just "felt" like scrapbooking about myself. So I'm thankful for those assignments as they push me outside of my comfort zone.

I hope you're enjoying your weekend and this beautiful weather that we've been having!

Friday, February 18, 2011 - The 'It's All About You!' Challenge...

This week's challenge is an 'AAM' (AKA 'All About Me')challenge. For all the scrapbooking we do, it seems that most of us are missing from our scrapbooks. Those of us who scrapbook are almost always the family photographers as well so pictures that include us seem to be hard to come by. We go to great lengths to document everything from the wonderful everyday moments to the milestones of our family members lives BUT we are missing from these pages, in photographs AND in presence or point of view...Sometimes I know I can feel a bit sheepish about shining the spotlight on myself. Not only am I very rarely ever happy with a picture of myself, but I also don't feel as comfortable focusing on myself as the subject of a scrapbook page or project...I'm hesitant to say, "Let's talk about ME now!". However, when I shift perspective just a bit and think about how much I would love to know more about my mother, or my grandmother, as a person beyond the role of mother or grandmother, or - the opportunity to get an inside glimpse of their thoughts or feelings about their role as mother or grandmother - wow! What an opportunity that would be. So then, I think of my children (or imagine my grandchildren) and realize - wouldn't they get a kick out of it? They would enjoy it. As well, how much might I enjoy it decades in the future, being able to look back at myself now? It makes sense, so throw off the cloak of modesty and declare, "Here I am! This is me!" I put the challenge out there for all of us, the family historians/photographers/scrapbookers...treat yourself, and your family, to a page (or an album!) all about you. To quote a well-known slogan, "Because we're worth it!"

All About Me Challenge By Susan Tutt

Ok so lets just say that todays challenge was a bit of a challenge for me! I scrapbook everyone in my life except me. Now that is not on purpose there are just not many photos of me because I am the photographer. Creating this page made me realize that I need to be in front of the camera more often and that I need to document my feelings and thoughts more often!

I was thrilled to be using the newly released "For the Record" by Echo Park for this layout. Love, love, love it!!

So I know scrapbooking ourselves is difficult but I would love to see what you create with this weeks challenge.

Happy Valentines Day!!!

I hope that you all are able to spend the day with the ones you love.

Supplies: Imaginisce (papers, ribbon, rub-on) Core'dinations cardstock. Prima flower & bling, Fiskars border punch

Supplies used: Core'dinations cardstock, Imaginisce (paper, chipboard, sticker and ribbon), Fiskars border punch

Cari

Love, Love, Love Challenge by Virginia Wong

Do you remember the song, "Love is in the Air" by John Paul Young? Do you recall these lyrics?

Love is in the air 

Everywhere I look around 

Love is in the air 

Every sight and every sound 

To me, truer words were never spoken. I see little signs of love everywhere at our house. From the glimpses of sibling love (shown below) and not sibling squabbling...

Supplies:  SEI (pattern papers, glitter cardstock alphas, journal spot); BasicGrey (chipboard alphas); Prima (pearls); American Crafts (ribbon)

to the heart shaped ham sandwiches I pack in their lunches, to the heart shaped cookies, to the impromptu dandelion bouquets and sweet heart warming love notes (seen below)...

Supplies:  Close to my Heart (yellow cardstock); BasicGrey (pattern papers, brads, die cut journal spot, canvas tags, alphas, paper clips); American Crafts (pen for journaling); Versamagic (chalk ink)

These are examples of what love is; it is the everyday sweetness that surrounds us. I notice this everyday everywhere love so much more since I've started scrapbooking.  I love this love, don't you?

Valentine Flower Wreath

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, I thought I'd share this project!  

The flowers were made using Cuttlebug Quilling Dies, and the ones inbetween are Recollection flowers.  The base is just a styrofoam heart (actually it was a solid one that I cut out the inside).  And I punched some hearts out to add a bit of sparkle.

Supplies : pp Best Creation, Tim Holtz Tissue Tape, MS heart Punch, Cuttlebug Dies for the flowers.

The quote reads " Kindness in giving creates love"  Lao Tzu

We'd love to see any of your valentine creations! 

Love, Love, Love! By Susan Tutt

February is always a month filled with love for us, as we celebrate our wedding anniversary as well as Valentines Day! My husband and I just celebrated 17 years of marriage on February 5th. Now the kids are looking forward to getting Valentine cards ready for their school mates. I have created two Love cards for your viewing pleasure.

The first card has a vintage feel to it. I used an old heart shaped doily, from my stash, to embellish my card as well as the new 7 Gypsies 97% complete stickers and heart stick pins from My Little Yellow Bicycle.

My second card is a super quick one as I just sprayed some maya mist over a heart stencil. I then sewed around one of the hearts and stamped my sentiment using a Heidi Swapp Stamp. To finish it off I used some decorative tape from Pink Paislee. This card took about 15 minutes to create, how is that for a quick card.

I would "love" to see what you create for Valentines Day!!

Monday, February 7, 2011 Card Challenge - Love, Love, Love!!!

With Valentines Day drawing near, a 'Love' card challenge is the obvious choice, isn't it? You can never have too many 'love' cards though...after all, there are 364 other days every year that deserve a little love too! So, whether your focus is specifically Valentines Day, or any other day or reason to send a little love, leave a comment with a link where we can go to see your loving best!

Lunar New Year | Colour and Photo Inspiration

In honour of the Lunar New Year and to celebrate the Year of the Rabbit,

I chose this art piece by Li Lin as an inspiration challenge this week. 

I was inspired by the branch of blossoms and the colours to create a 5X7 canvas.  

I started by painting over the canvas with some Dimensional paint, just to give it some texture and shine. 

I cut out some branches from some very old Basic Grey pp. 

 I hand cut the hearts and added them to the branches to kind of be like the blossoms. 

 I added a quote, and finished it off with some pink stickles.

Supplies : Basic Grey, Best Creation, Echo Park, Stickles, Heritage Handcrafts Dimensioanl Paint

"There is no remedy for love but to love more"  Henry David Thoreau

We hope you are inspired to create this week :)  Happy scrapping!

New...Photo Challenges!

The Inspired Scrapper now presents PHOTO CHALLENGES to get even more creative juices flowing. Challenges will be posted on the 1st of each month and will expire on the last day. Join TIS Photo Challenges on Facebook by clicking HERE. Add photos to your album and post a link on the group page. There's no limit to how many pictures you upload...the more, the merrier!

February's Photo Challenge (expires Feb 28th): Take photos that depict these words...CONTRAST, HARMONY, and/or SYMMETRY.

Here are my photos, just to give you an example:

Contrast
(sunset...a celebration of light and darkness)

Harmony
(two friends toasting to a fun day in Mexico)

Symmetry
(two Carnival cruise ships docked side-by-side)

Happy Snapping!