Lipstick Chick December Challenge: What's Your Style?

For December's challenge on the True XOXO Girls blog, I created a layout which depicts my Modern Rocker side. Since all of the Lipstick Chicks have chosen a different style there is, again, a ton of inspiration over there so check it out and get lifting! This month's challenge is sponsored by Candy Shoppe Designs, who have the most amazing kits that you will just drool over.

I began here:

and sketched a little idea for my layout:

 ...feeling very pleased with my little pun. Then I got making:

Almost everything on the page is reclaimed - a postcard, a beermat, a good handful of clothing tags. It is possible to keep it simple. You just have to save everything you come across, in case it comes in useful!

Some of the stars are raised up with foam pads to give body to an otherwise quite flat page (I didn't use any patterned paper except for the Basic Grey lined paper from which I cut the stars).

And most of my title I wrote by hand:

The thick cardboard and the beermat added further body to the page:

Actually, it didn't turn out at all how I had imagined. I think at this point, after trying this style twice, I can say that even if I am a fashion chameleon, I'm not necessarily a scrapbooking chameleon. I much prefer this style, which - although disordered - is softer, more visually stimulating... and more me.

A Snowstorm before Christmas

With all the snow outside there's every excuse to hole up and make, make, make! I've been quite busy with my cards these past two weeks.

First of all, I'm LOVING using kraft card for Christmas this year - it gives that homey, warm feeling of being around a tree and a fire, surrounded by presents and family.

 

I love the gingham fabric stars too - they're lightly padded, which really gives the cards dimension.

Next, I was asked by a friend to make her a few cards for her family, which would feature her daughter. She sent me a cute christmassy photo, and I immediately knew I wanted to put little Rosie in a bauble...

 

 

 

I used a big rectangle mask to make a snowflake border, and - as always with Christmas cards - stamped a few images on the envelopes.

Then, I made some simple gift tags:

 

After that, I turned away from the traditional colours and used the gorgeous Christmas scene stamp from LaBlanche, which I talked about in Tuesday's post.

 

Again, I used a big circle mask to get the snowflake border. Also, I highlighted the snowy parts of the stamp with Stickles (although you can't really see that in the photos). BIG disappointment though - the two products didn't combine well. The ink was Memento (Tuxedo Black) and the Stickles were Ranger (Frosted Lace). I'm not sure which one to blame, but after applying the Stickles to the inked parts, the (black) ink seeped out and into the (white) Stickles, resulting in a pink-tinted snow. I'm really disappointed as the ink is supposed to be fast. And I did let it dry before applying the Stickles. Any recommendations for better inks, anyone?

Paris, Here I Come! (One Day...)

The December challenge for the Mini Book Anonymous DT was titled 'Cream, Blue and Paris, Too'.

I LOVED this challenge as soon as I heard about it. I was excited about the possibilities - it was the perfect opportunity for my first visit to Paris! Especially now we live quite close, there really wasn't an excuse not to go.

Well, after one thing, and another thing, we didn't end up going to Paris. Instead I made a mini book - without photos - filled with my impressions of Paris and a sense of hope that one day we will go there. (Incidentally, instead of going to Paris, we went to Brighton, where I happened to find my wedding dress, and get my dad to buy it for me. So it ain't all bad.)

My snapshots of Paris come in the form of tiny shadow boxes, glued to the inside of my mini - little windows into the Parisian soul. With two on the right-hand side of one page, and one on the left-hand side of the other page, when you close the book, they slot together nicely.

Oh, and I made another video. Those of you who watch it - please bear with me! It's only my second video attempt. This time I tried the 'make and speak at the same time' technique. I'm not great at coordination or multi-tasking, but I think I did OK. The only problem is I'm a bit slow, and take up too much time talking, so the video is just a snapshot of some of the aspects of my mini book, not a step-by-step from start to finish. Maybe I need to focus less on the music and graphics and more on the content? Feedback welcome!

Don't forget to head over to the Mini Book Anonymous blog soon to check out all the other DT projects!

PS thanks Mum for those Paris rubons you got me many years ago. They finally achieved their intended purpose!

Stamp, Stamp, Stamp, Stamp, Stamp

No, that's not the sound of my foot making contact with the ground because I'm having a hissy fit. (Believe it or not, mum, I've finally grown out of that behaviour!)

I've recently come across a few stamp stores that I love, and simply wanted to get your attention so that I can share them with you.

First of all, Stampotique Originals. I am in awe of and in love with the artwork of Daniel Torrente & Jill Penney. Go check them out! The other day I saw on the lovely Carmen's blog an amazingly evocative snowman stamp, and desperately want it for myself.

Second, Bombshell Stamps produce images that are right up my street at the moment. Even if I wouldn't really know how to incorporate them into my art, I still love them for what they are. Plus they're having a giveaway contest on their blog at the moment, so go check them out too.

I suppose I have to mention that I also really quite like Tim Holtz's stamps. No need to link to anywhere here. But I think they will remain out of reach for me, price-wise, for a long time (*pine*).

Finally, there is a German shop, LaBlanche (yes, with a French name) which sells very finely detailed stamps. A lot of them aren't to my taste, but the skull stamp I used here was from there, and I've got a lovely Christmas scene one to show you soon too.

To round everything off, I have to give special mention to my recent purchase of grey ink - Versa Colour 'Cement' - because it is awesome. I am especially liking it for snowflakes at the moment.

So, share time - what are your favourite stamps? Tell me everything! I am having a stamp-obsessed week and must see more!

Watching Things Unfold

Over at Scrapbook Challenges this week's sketch challenge looked like this:

I rarely respond to sketch challenges, because I don't have time, but mainly because I already have my own ideas (I usually think about layouts for weeks in advance. That's why it's annoying when they don't always turn out the way I thought they would. Although sometimes actually it's a nice suprise when they turn out better!).

This time, though, a lot of things coincided perfectly and I was able to make a fairly spontaneous layout. It's a little record of the fun we had taking photos for our Save the Date cards. There were lots of photos we didn't think were up to scratch, including this one below (I vetoed it because of my expression. Otherwise it definitely would have made the cut!):

Anyway, here is my take on the sketch, just a little record of how we're getting on. It'll be interesting to look back on and see how things unfolded...