Yes, I Think I Can Scrap!

Hello there.  How was your weekend??  Mine was good but pretty busy.  However I did find time to scrap which makes me smile. 

My MIL's house closed and she got her new keys on Friday which was pretty great for her.  She won't move in for a few weeks yet because she is getting it painted inside and some new carpet.  Just to freshen it up.

My older daughter had her two lacrosse games on Saturday and boy howdy was it COLD and windy!  BRRRR  We are having unusually cold weather right now.  I can't wait until it goes back to normal! ha  Today the high is 36 degree F which is a new record for Las Vegas. 

I think my littlest daughter (the one who had eye surgery) overdid it on Friday because she was wiped out on Saturday and feeling poorly.  So we learned our lesson and kept her pretty quiet yesterday.  She seems in good spirits today.  We decided to keep her home from school this week to give her eyes a chance to heal.  We are supposed to keep her quiet which is near impossible to do with a 5 year old.  I was following her around yesterday saying, "stop bouncing, stop bouncing..." lol

Yesterday I worked on a layout for the Crafter's Companion January "Anything but a Card" challenge.  I used the Colorful Creations - So You Think You Can Scrap Challenge #2 sketch as my starting point.  I am in love with the new Crafter's Companion - Stamp It Imagine stamp collection that just launched during CHA so I had to use one of these stamps on my layout.  I stamped out one of the quotes from stamp set 60 onto tissue paper and then used some gel medium to adhere it to my layout.

I painted the gel medium onto the spot on the paper where I wanted the quote to go and then tore the edges around the quote and laid the quote onto the gel medium.

 

Here it is with the gel medium just painted on top and still wet

 Click on this photo to see how it looks up close.

Then I painted some more gel medium on top.  I used a matte finish gel because I didn't want a shine.  Then I let it dry.  It is cool how it seems like it was always on there.  The tissue paper became almost transparent with the gel medium on top.  LOVE IT!

I pulled out some glass beads that I picked up at a thrift shop for pennies and fussy cut banner pieces from a sheet of patterned paper.  I put down a strip of Glossy Accents on each banner piece and then poured the beads on top.  Then I pressed down gently and put each piece aside to dry. 

I received some stencils for Christmas so I had to use one in a couple of random spots on the layout.  I tried to be subtle by inking over it with an inking tool using a Ranger Distress ink pad in Antique Linen.  I like how the stencil pattern kind of matched my edge punch. 

I inked some chipboard with my Ranger Distress stains in Festive Berries and Salty Ocean.  Salty Ocean wasn't a dark enough blue so I inked it in the red first and then layered the blue on top for a richer, darker blue that matched my layout better.  I left the wooden scroll piece natural because I liked the texture of it.  I made myself a little stick pen by adding a pearl to a regular pearl topped straight pin.  I put a bit of glue on the metal by the head of the pin so that the pearl I added would adhere.  Then I stuffed it behind one of the flowers I added. 

I pulled out an envelope that I had in my stash and made a tag to put inside for hidden journaling.  The photo is of my two older boys at their winter band concert.  They looked so spiffy that I just had to scrap the photo.  I really had fun working on this layout.  There were so many little details to put together.  I hope you like it too.

Okay, enough for right now.  I have to help my kids with their homework.