Paper Piecing Layout

Have you ever wondered, what if I tried something new with my pages?  Have you ever challenged yourself to step out of your comfort zone and give something new a try?  I love trying new things.  Sometimes, they work out and sometimes they don't.  But I never let those little somethings set me back.  I just learn from them and then I keep moving forward.  If I don't step out of my box/comfort zone, then I feel like all my pages start looking the same.  

So these next two pages, I thought I would try something new.  We've all seen paper piecing. To me, I've seen where little objects are pieced together for an embellishment for a page.  For instance, putting a tree on your page, them attaching individual leaves to the limbs of the tree.  Or perhaps, you want to put a bird or butterfly on your page and the different components make up that bird or butterfly.  That is what paper piecing meant to me.   

Then I got an idea about doing a two page layout of nothing but paper piecing components.  Oh my goodness, did my Wishblade get a workout with this project.  

The children had such a good time, playing together outside.  This was the first time the twins were able to going outside and play.  They had just started walking and had such a good time.  I was so thankful for having a digital camera at that time, because I kept snapping picture after picture. 

Now, these pages are for Matthew's album, and I plan on doing the same layout but different pictures for each of the children's albums.  Now, I can't take all of the credit on these pages,  All I did was cut and paste all the elements. So, I would like to thank Josy Carson, for all the hard work she put into this digital design.

Besides converting all these files to .gsd files, so that I could cut them on my Wishblade, I used my Martha Stewart's "Punch Around the Page" punch for the outside border.  Then I used another one of Martha Stewart's punches for the bottom border.  I wanted to show the green field more as hilly or rolling hills, so I distressed the edges.  I've always love the crackled edge look, so I tried giving the fence a worn, weathered look to it.  You can't see if very well in the pictures. And the rest is all paper piecing.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.

Until next time...

Happy Scrappin'!!!

Hugs, 

Leanne 

Happy May Day

Happy Tuesday!  
What a wonderful day this is going to be! The sun is shining here in the high desert.  The wind is blowing, but hopefully it'll die down as the morning moves on. April was one busy month.  I had quite a few deadlines I had to meet.  But luckily enough, I was given enough time where I could meet those deadlines.  


So, the month started off fairly quiet.  We planned for Easter and we had the whole family here for Easter.  The twins are getting so big.  I can't believe they are in kindergarten.  Matthew is playing baseball this year and Deborah is playing softball.  Its a great way for them to burn off some energy.  Matthew is turning out to be quite a little slugger. We have a new addition to the family or I should say to Kelli's family. The dog across the street from her was barking and carrying on to something underneath Kelli's car.  Kelli went out to shoo the dog back into her yard and Kelli looked under car to see what the neighbor's dog was carrying on about.  There sat the most precious little pup, just shaking up a storm.  So, Kelli scoops up this little pup and yes, you guessed it. The new little pup had found a new home.  The pup was far too young to be away from its mother.  But when Kelli found where the pup came from, the owners didn't want the pup back.  Turns out the pup was only about 4 weeks old. She was tiny enough to fit into our small little kennel.

So, this all happened on Easter Sunday.  So guess what her name is?  The children named her and its (wait for it)...its so darn cute...they decided to call her, Sunny Bunny!  Sunny for short.  Sunny because they found her on Sunday and Bunny because it was Easter.  She's a litte spitfire and so darn cute. She's doing well and she is finally old enough to start on her immunizations.

So with the beginning of each month, brings all new challenges.  And since its the beginning of spring.  My challenge for the first week to ten days, I did some major cleaning.  Don't you just love spring cleaning?  Well, I've always said, I love a clean house but hate to clean.  But now that the chore is done, it feels so good to have that behind me till next year.  

Which brings me to challenge #2 for the month.  You all know I hold a monthly workshop each month.  We select from the new Spring/Summer Idea Book, the papers we would like to work with.  March was "Florentine" paper pack, which I shared with you at the end of the month.  April, we were going to work with "Pemberley" papers.  I love this paper pack and got busy in March and completed the layouts before the March workshop.  I would love to share those layouts with you, but I can't.  Those layouts have been selected to be published in Scrapbooking.com magazine.  Which was challenge #3 for the month.  But I'll talk about that in a moment.  

Getting back to my challenge #2 for the month...I like to stay ahead of things, so that I'm not too rushed to get things completed.  Its probably an unnecessary pressure I imposed on myself.  But I am always looking for some good challenges.  So, now that my Pemberley layouts are completed, I decided to work on the layouts for the next month's workshop. There is two reasons why I try to stay ahead.  1. I can work on the layouts in leisure and 2. I can prepare the layouts for the upcoming newsletter that corporate sends out for us.  So, for the month of May, the group decided to work with "Victory" paper pack.  I loved this paper pack.  Its so versatile.  You can scrap pictures from camping or fishing, or scrap about Scouts, or possibly military.  That is what I chose to do.  I decided it was time to quit procrastinating and start on Dave's military career album.  I've done a couple of layouts for his album.  But I really wanted to try to work in order on this album. So Dave and I sat down and discussed what to put in his album.  He has some terrific ideas.  I knew I had a major undertaking here trying to combine 22 years into one 12x12 album.  The challenge wasn't too hard to take on. What I found to be a challenge was to find certain elements I wanted to include on these pages.  Now, the Air Force did a major overhaul and reorganization back in 1993.  Commands had change their names, combined various wings and squadrons.  So, with the help of the internet and wikipedia, I was able to find some of the things I wanted.  But I knew I was lacking in some other areas.  Then I found this site, www.weservedtogether.com.  It was a wonderful site and so much info right at my fingertips.  I was so tired of researching and all I wanted to do was scrapbook.  My patience was running thin.  I contacted the admin office of weservedtogether.com and asked them for help.  They were absolutely the most wonderful helpful group.  They helped me find the things I knew I was missing. So, now that I have all my little ducks in a row, I could begin working on Dave's album. I had completed his Intro Page a while back.

 The next two pages, I decided to show the motivation of why Dave decided to join the Air Force.  So, I did a memorial page for his father and named the two page spread, "Life Father, Like Son."    

Luckily enough, these layouts came together pretty easily. And being the hoarder that I am when it comes to scrapbooking supplies, I had everything right at my fingertips.  The papers are from KandCompany and Karen Foster.  I distress all the edges and then inked them with Desert Sand ink. I got my inspiration from my friend, Susan Stringfellow and her blog, www.sketchsavvy.com.  I took two of her one page sketches and combined them into a 2 page spread.  So, now that I have the beginning of his album completed and all the "power scrapping" done, I was ready to tackle his Basic Training pages.   

Now, I used CTMH's Victory WOTG kit, along with the Victory My Stickease.  I inked all the edges with Chocolate ink and cut the corner stars on my wishblade.  The stars on the borders I use my Sizzix stars die. I also used some of CTMH's Independence My Stickease.  This set has been retired for a few years now.  Told ya I was a hoader!  I used one of the Abracadabra sketch from our how to book, "Magic."  Now, that I have the layouts done for May's workshop, this takes me to Challenge #3 for the month.

So, around the middle of the month, I got an email, congratulating me on having one of my layouts selected for their June issue of www.scrapbooking.com magazine.  I was thrilled.  This is the first time, my artwork has been selected for publication.  But with that priviledge, comes more responsibility.  I had to list all the products I used on the layout, I had to write about why I chose the pictures I did and I had to tell a little bit about me.  Now this is a very difficult task for me.  I hate talking about myself.  I would much prefer to let my artwork do my talking.  Maybe if I could write in third person, that would have been easier, but no...I had to dig deep and explain myself.  Saying, "because I liked it," or "because I wanted to," just wasn't going to hack it.  So, that was my challenge, which I did complete, but after numerous writings and erasings.

Challenge #4 - Earlier in the month, when I thought I might have a bit of free time. I entered a challenge that Erin from DCWV,Inc, posted on her blog.  She calls it "Stack-a-holics" challenge.  She selects a sketch from other blogs on the net, and we are to use that sketch and any of DCWV's paper stacks and complete a layout with it.  This is the sketch Erin posted:  It comes to us from a blog called, "Got Sketch."

  

I had to select a DCWV stack that I already had.  Remember now...I am the world's biggest hoarder.  I buy these kinds of thngs when they are on sale. So, I selected "DCWV's Grade School stack and of course, I changed the sketch a bit.  So, this is my submission to DCWV's April's Stack-a-holic Challenge.

So, that was my month all wrapped up, right here on my blog.  Now, to move on and get started with my challenges for May.  But before I can enter my rubber room for a month long of scrapping, I need to get the laundry started. 

So, until next time, 

Happy National Scrapbooking Day on May 5!

Hugs, 

Leanne