July CKC Challenge #2

I love a good sketch. It helps the creativity flow...and I like to go with the flow! This week we had an Awesome sketch from Deconstructing Jen. Head on over and check her out! (Do it now..I'll Wait-hehe) Now this site normally does cards and so when I headed over to look at the sketch I was a little worried about how I was going to translate this awesome design to a full 12x12 page.

This is the sketch:

Deconstructing Jen  

The first thing I thought of when I saw this sketch was a sunburst. They are very popular right now and I have never tried one. So I thought with this the month of many firsts why not! I will have a tutorial up later this weekend about how to make the mask I used for this page. 

So using nothing but my Counterfeit Kit Challenge  Kit for July "Summer Sky"  this is the page I came up with for my brother and his childhood love of Giant Jawbreakers! 

Sorry for the fuzzy pictures!!

The title is a play off of James and the Giant Peach. Those striped Thickers are so large that I decided to use them as a focal point and to ground the layout! 

The journaling says " I don't think he ever finished one of those things but man did he love them. Every time we went to the mall it was Giant Jawbreakers and Gummy Sharks" 

What I did to create this layout was to lay down my homemade mask and start splattering...I even splattered my entertainment center a bit! When I pulled up the mask I noticed that the rays really didn't stand out like I thought they would so I used some of the embroidery floss that was in my kit to outline every other ray. And then from there it was just a matter of layering it one. I added a bit of the floss curled up and poking out from behind the photo because I thought that I should pull the black lines from the rays to the photo! 

Have you guys ever made your own masks? If so, Did it turn out the way you wanted it to? 

I can't wait to see what you guys come up with for this challenge. Upload it to the July Mr. Linky here so that I can stop by a take a peek! 

Until Next Time "Stay Crafty, My Friends" 

Ashley Crafty

Time for The Tutorials

I promised tutorials on the 8th and here they are. I cant wait to show you what I am working on for the rest of the month!! But for now the Tutorials. Both of these are relatively simple and can easily be done while you are making your pages but if your like me and prefer to have pre-made embellishments on hand than by all means jump right in.

The first thing that I decided to counterfeit was Elle's Studio Serendipity Lil' Snippet Labels. I love these labels but they didn't fit my colors. I had a few of these left over from some earlier projects but when I put them up against Summer Sky (My July Kit) they looked oddly out of place.

Now I could have thrown them in there and and been one step closer to having my kit look that much closer to the inspiration but the whole point of making these kits is to help us make the pages and be productive. I am known to be a waffler....Every decision takes two or three hours so if they were in my kit I would have tried to make myself use them and I would have not liked the results so instead I made some that matched perfectly and I am so happy I did. 

These are super easy and all you need is scraps and bits and bobs. 

That's it. Really quite simple. I cut the strips to be about two inches by 1/2-1 inch and I think they came out pretty well.  

The second thing I counterfeited was the Pebbles Basics Mini Clothspins.

All you need for this is mini cloths pins ($1.29 for 50 @ Wal-mart) and fingernail polish....And what girl doesn't have at least one bottle around! 

Then paint...That's it. I am very happy with both. Stay tuned because on the 12th we have some inspiration and a challenge to use your kit going up over on the CKC Blog. I hope you stop by and join us!!

Until Next Time "Stay Crafty, My Friends"

Ashley Crafty  

Oh So Happy

I love all the diagonal scrapbooking I have been seeing lately and it made me think about the last page I did with a slight slant to it. About a month ago I set out to do a diagonal page  but every piece of pattern paper that I had looked horrible to me. Has this ever happened to you?

Now I don't have a particularly large stash (and that was cut in half when my apartment went up in flames last month) but I don't buy it if I don't love it. I guess after thumbing through the same 200 sheets of paper anything would start looking dated. So I decided that I would take my washi and some scraps of paper that was still appealing to me and make my own.

This is the result:

The picture is me in 1989 and it is overexposed and bleeding at the bottom but I still love it. My mom says I was a "Ham" for the camera when I was a child. I can only hope when I have my own that they will be the same way.....Hey, every scrapper can dream...Right?!?

So All I did was take strips of washi (grey) and strips of paper (pink) and lay them down in alternating stripes. I used the same pink paper covered in silver washi for the top mat and them a blue dot from a MME 6x6 pad for the bottom mat.

With the white grey and pink the almost sepia toned photo looked out of place. So, I went through my stash and pulled out every embellishment that I could find that matched the stripe in my dress from the picture. This made the picture look like it was part of the page.

That is Oh, So Happy. So I guess by now you all know that I was chosen to be a part of a great team of ladies over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog...And more excited I could not be!! So stay tuned in the coming weeks to see the pages that I have made using both their challenges and a couple of mine. I also have a couple of tutorials coming up.

On a personal note....Has anybody ever designed their own wedding invites because man I am having bride brain and I keep moving letters back and forth in millimeter increments.....I guess if I waffle in scrapbooking their is no reason that I wouldn't designing my own invitations, huh?

Until Next Time "Stay Crafty, My Friends"

Ashley Crafty

Counterfeit Kit Challenge-July

I am so, so, so excited to announce that I have been chosen to be a Master Forger over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog. Yay!!  My guess is you've landed here from the amazingly talented Angela. If not head back to the CKC Blog to start the hop from the beginning and check out all the awesome kits for this month!  So this month we were given an inspiration kit from Scrapbook and Cards. (I didn't even know they had kits, Did you?) called "Summer Fun".

This is a great kit full of primary colors.....Oh No...Primary just happens to be my scrappy "cryptonite". Here is a look at the kit.

See what I mean? I love the kit and it is so very summer but I also know that I have next to nothing in my stash in those colors. So I decided instead of counterfeiting the colors how about go for the patterns. I laid out about 200 papers in my living room floor and starting matching pattern for pattern. When I thought that was about right I went back through and lost the papers that I knew I wouldn't use and replaced them with more neutral patterns that I commonly use. 

My kit ended up taking a turn for the blue....So without further ado...(hehe that rhymed) I present "Summer Sky".

I am kind of an Alpha Junkie so you will notice there is five, yes FIVE sets of letters in this kit. That is what I love about putting together my own kits is that you can find a kit inspiring but know that you will not use half of it. This way I can take what I know I will use and what I know I like and put something together that will truly keep me scrapping for at least a couple of weeks.

Just for fun here are the embellishments by themselves:

And the papers:

I am so excited to be a part of this great team of ladies and even more excited to see what you do with this months kit!! Stay tuned as we have lots of inspiration coming up this month! And I have a couple of tutorials that will be up on the CKC Blog on the 8th!

Now head on over to Dawn @  Dawn's Scrapbook Cottage to continue on your journey of Counterfeits and inspiration!!

Until Next Time..."Stay Crafty, My Friends"
Ashley Crafty

A Big Cub Scout Giggle

I love this page.....I Love Love this photo. This picture is my brother when he was about 7 years old, I think.I hate that a lot of these older pictures dont have dates on them...Even the year would be a big help!! 

I chose this photo and the yellow tissue paper behind it to go together and the rest just kind of fell into place. I started layering papers from the Amy Tangerine Daybook and journaling cards from Echo Parks Memos Collection and once I started I figured I would just pull everything I have in these colors and throw it on there. 

This layout just set itself up for some hidden journaling...I used a Dear Lizzy tag and rolled some of the tissue paper up and used it like raffia.

I actually had to start over on this page because the yellow mist went on a little heavy on the first page and turned the background into a solid yellow. I didn't really want to use the Swiss Dot background for this one but hey, gotta roll with the punches right?!?

Since I am so big on black lettering and this layout has no black anywhere else I decided that in order to pull the color into other parts of the layout i would use the asterisks that come with the letters as an embellishment of sorts. I think it helps to draw the eye around the page. I did the same thing with the Splish Splash layout.

He was so very happy!! He was always very jovial as a child. So there it is the Most Layered Layout I have ever done! I think it turned out well especially since I moved those papers around for 2 hrs. before I had it looking right!!

So thats it from me tonight-Until Next Time-"Stay Crafty, My Friends"

~Ashley Crafty~

And The Waffler Waffles No More

I have a really bad habit of putting things down and not being able to leave them alone. I call it waffling, I waffle on a lot of things. I guess you could call me indecisive. I will move and embellishment back and forth on my page 30 times before finally deciding to stick it down. 

When I can't figure out where I want to start with a layout I sort my scraps and 9 times out of 10 a color scheme will present itself to me. So I decided I was going to use those scraps and create a layout and no matter what I was not allowed to pick anything up and move it to another spot once I thought it looked okay!! 

I pulled out my mat and my camera and told myself that I had to finish the layout before I was done cooking dinner. (Luckily I scrap in my Living Room which is right off of my kitchen) I am amazed at how quickly I was able to finish this page when I didn't "waffle"!

(Please excuse the photos, I over-processed them so you couldn't see how badly out of focus they were)

I put together this collage as a reminder to myself to just stick it down!! There will always be more paper, more stickers, more embellishments and more photos to scrap!! (If I ever get my camera back)

Close up of Step 6

So this layout was completed in 45 minutes and that is a miracle for me as it can take me up to 6 hrs. to do one layout!!

If you have trouble like me with over thinking every little thing leave me a comment and let me know what it is that you do to speed yourself along.

Until Next Time "Stay Crafty, My Friends"

~Ashley Crafty~

Splish Splash-Taking a Bath

I am back with another layout....My favorite layout. For the time being anyway. I have always loved this photo...It captures my brothers 7 yr. old attitude so well! Wasn't he just the cutest!!

I love this green grid pattern by October Afternoon and I knew I wanted to use kraft accents. That's where the Simple Stories came in! Soft greens, mellow yellows, kraft and black I love this color scheme.

Does anyone else remember "Splish-Splash, I was taking a bath" . There was an episode of Americas Funniest Home Videos when I was about 7 that had a little boy playing in the tub and singing that song. For some reason it has always stuck with me. Plus I like using song lyrics for titles!! :) 

I really love this layout and the colors are more vibrant in person. So that's it from me today...So until next time "Stay Crafty, My Friends" 

~Ashley Crafty~