Travel with a twist layout - 12 X 12 using the May Scraptastic Kit

Well hello there and happy Sunday to you all !  Summer has definitely arrived here in Southern Quebec - it did keep us waiting a little this year, but it is here in full force now - it is about 30 deg C today, with bright sunshine.  Unfortunately, when it gets hot here, it also tends to get muggy - but oh well, it is such a short season, I won't complain !!

I thought I would pop in today with the 8th layout I did with the May Daylight kit from Scraptastic.  I have almost killed the kit I think LOL.  I will get one more layout in for sure, with scraps and bits of die cuts, but that is probably it.  But I really, really (did I say really?) enjoyed my first kit and am so happy I subscribed.  I am certainly scrapping more and spending less time choosing product.

So now... this layout gave me trouble.  I love the end result but it is nowhere close to the idea I had in my head when I started.  It all started with a layout my friend Roni did (Ronisuescrapper on You Tube - check her out, she does great layouts).  It was a grid type layout and I really find that I am loving them lately.  It seemed perfect timing to also do a grid type layout since I was starting to get into the scraps with my kit.  So I cut a few 3 X 4 cards out of the scraps with the intention of making 6 mini layouts on a cardstock background.  But then I got side-tracked by one of Nicole Jones layouts where she cuts up scraps and glues them to the page to create a background .... so, well here is the background piece I made : 

Now the photo I had selected for this layout was a 4 X 6 but once it was matted on a piece of  yellow-gold cardstock, I just couldn't find placement for it  on this background - no matter which way I turned the photo, or the background LOL.  So  off I went to get a series of small photos I had printed (mainly 2 X 2, or a little larger) from one of the Will Craft for Supplies Day in the Life days that I had participated in.  Well, the colours were all wrong - so that didn't work either.  So I had to change my idea completely.  I found three 4 X 6 photos that worked wonderfully with this background, so I cut them down into smaller pieces and made 5 photo blocks with them.  Here is the resultant layout :

Would you call that grid style ?  PL style?  Collage style?  I don't really know what to call it but in the end I actually like it LOL.

So, on to why I call this "Travel with a Twist" ...

The story behind this page:  My l'il sister and best BIL love travelling as much as I do and three years before I embarked on my one-year backpacking trip to Europe, they went on a 15 month sailing trip!  They took a sabbatical, sold the house and off they went.  They bought a small (really small for that kind of trip) sailboat - a 26 ft Tanzer (BTW, my BIL is 6 foot 5 LOL) and left from Valleyfield here in Quebec, did the intercoastal for part of the way through the States - went to Florida and then crossed to the Bahamas where they spent their 40th birthdays (that was in 2002).  In 2012, when they were turning 50, I asked them what kind of party they wanted.  They asked for a virtual return trip to the Bahamas.  So that is what we did - a full menu of Bahamian food (sweet potato salad, pigeon peas and rice, particular Caribbean coleslaw, tomato dip, Bahama Mamas of course), I decorated the house in Bahamian colours of turquoise and yellow, we had to wear those colours as well, played Bahamian music, I made little party favours .... the whole nine yards!!  We had a wonderul day and they were so happy.  Part of their present included a scrapbook layout of photos from when they were in the Bahamas.

Oh my, I do go on, and on, and on.  If you are still reading, my gosh thanks so much!!  I will be back during the week, with my last layout and a sort of kill the kit blog post.  I hope you have a wonderful Sunday and a great start to the week.  I must just take a minute to thank you all for the sweet comments.  You Tube, our Facebook groups and this blogging world are just amazing - well actually I think it is the Scrapbooking community that is just amazing.  I have made so many lovely friends here - thank-you so so much.

Hugs xoxo   

Scrapping some more of my "passions" with the Daylight Kit from Scraptastic

Happy Sunday to all !  What a glorious day here.  The sun is shining; it is lovely and warm, but not hot and muggy ... so all in all a YAY day.  I spent a lot of time outdoors yesterday so today will be more of an indoor day, but with all the windows open and the occasional few minutes sitting outside to take full advantage :)  Hope you have, or are having, a wonderful day!

I wanted to pop in today to share my 6th and 7th layouts using my augmented May Scraptastic Kit.  This time we are moving away from travel layouts for just a bit to focus on a couple of my other passions - my animals and the garden !!

The first layout is of my cat Chopin, relaxing and snoozing on my craft table.  It is one of his favourite spots.  There are two warm and bright lights above my table; and he seems to think that it is a kitty spa, or tanning salon LOL.  It also keeps him close in the event that any fun strips of paper fly of the paper trimmer, or any flowers, flair, wood veneer or buttons become all of a sudden within chasing and playing distance :) :).  You will also notice that is head is resting on the trimmer.  He loves to sleep with his head slightly elevated - at night my legs seem to be the perfect pillow.

I really like this layout, except for the misting that I decided to add at the last minute.  I should have left well enough along (sigh)... Because of the colour of the cardstock and the mist I used, it just looks dirty and stained.... oh well !

The next layout is going to be the final page in my 2013 garden album; the transition page to this year's !  I love spending time in the garden and once the chores (weeding, harvesting, transforming ....) are done, I love just sitting and gazing out at the view. It is so peaceful and relaxing.  This year I will have a little over 3 weeks there, from mid July to the 7th or 8th of August. 

So that's it for me today - I am working on another layout using some of the patterned paper scraps.  I am cutting them up in blocks a la Nicole Jones, or grid style, to create a background and then... well I have a couple of ideas.  I'll be sure to come back and show you the result.  There are a few cards in the making as well.

As always, thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful, restful Sunday.  Hugs xo

Two more travel layouts with the Scraptastic Daylight Kit for May 2014

Well hello there, welcome and happy Saturday !  It is a glorious day here so it looks like we will be able to plant the garden next weekend as planned.  Meanwhile, it is still a little too wet to get out there today, but I accomplished the next best thing:  buying the seeds, YAY !  On Thursday, we will buy the plants and then we should be off to the races :).  I hope the sun is shining wherever you are.

Today, I want to share the second and third layouts I did with the Scraptastic Daylight kit for May 2014.  But, first let me just say that I don't think I have ever done 3 layouts in one week - ever.  I am just so happy with the kit and am very glad I decided to subscribe. Getting the kit and putting together an add-on from my stash, is really the best of both worlds.  I get new goodies every month without breaking the bank and I use up some of my great and voluminous stash :).

So we are still in Europe, still scrapping the photos from my 2005-2006 year-long backpacking trip and I am still enjoying it.  i hope you are too.

Here is the first of two layouts today :

I used my augmented kit entirely for this page, with the exception of the doily (can't believe that I forgot to add doilies to this kit !).  As I mentioned in the previous post, I used the Weathered Wood Distress ink to ink all the edges and I find that it really complements the kit wonderfully. 

The story behind this page:  While I was visiting some very good friends in Madrid in September 2005, I spent a jam-packed day visiting Segovia.  Located about an hours + drive north from Madrid, Segovia is a small city of no more than 55,000 inhabitants but it sure packs a lot of history and landmarks!  Of course the famous aqueduct,  the Alcazar and its beautiful gardens (more about all of these in future posts), but also one of the most beautiful and famous cathedrals in Europe.  The Catedral de Santa Maria is located right in Plaza Mayor, the main square of the city as can be seen in the first photo.  It was built between 1525 and 1577 in a late Gothic style. It is massive and beautiful inside and out.

For my next layout, we are off further north - all the way to Amsterdam :

I love this layout !  It is really a far cry from my normal style and nowhere close to what I had as an idea when I started the page.  Actually, I just started with the photo and the mats around it.  The page then took on a life of its own.  I think I was influenced by a couple of pages on the Scraptastic facebook page as well as a couple of videos on You Tube (one by Sandra (ohsnapgonzo) and another by Gina (Gina Beth). The idea for the ampersand came from KittyScrapper (Nancy Sinclair)  I am really proud of this page LOL (I even researched the Dutch words for Bye and thanks - the title of the page).

The story behind this page :  Well there really isn't much of a story to this one.  it will be the last page in the Amsterdam portion of my trip.  The picture is simply one of me going into the train station in Amsterdam after an amazing 10-day visit in July 2005.  I really loved Amsterdam, so much so, that I actually went back in May 2006 just before coming back home.

As always, thanks so much for sticking with me to the end of this post.  Have a great weekend and I'll be back soon with another layout - I am on a roll with this kit!

First Scraptastic Layout - 12 X 12, using the Daylight Kit

Good morning and happy Thursday to all !  I hope the sun is shining wherever your are.  We have had a lot of cold and wet weather so far this Spring and are having trouble getting out to play in the garden.  Planting is now scheduled for next week (sigh ...) but I should be out there getting things ready on Saturday (hope springs eternal LOL) !

Meanwhile, I am off today and the sun is shining and it should stay out all day (small wonders LOL).  It is also Roland Garros time, one of the four grand slam tennis championships; this one from Paris, France.  So I am keeping a keen eye on what is going on there.  For the first time in the history of ATP tennis, there is a Canadian in the top ten men's ranking - Milos Raonic from Ontario is No. 8 in the world and safely through to the third round.  On the women's side, we are making history as well.   Montrealer Genie Bouchard is no. 18 in the world and is also safely through to Round 3. Yay !!  

So on to the layout ...  Even though this is just the first layout, I already know that I am loving the Scraptastic kit.  It made this layout come together much faster but with just as much fun.  I did not get the kit to make my scrapping experience faster - I am a slow scrapper and don't mind - I do it for fun and enjoy every second.  But I was finding that a lot of my time was spent choosing my supplies, going back and forth, dilly-dallying ... you get the picture LOL.  And getting the kit, and then assembling my own add-on was a fun process as well as  eliminating much of the dilly-dallying.  To see my kit, with the list of supplies I added from my stash, check-out my previous blog post here : 
 http://lifescrapsbymoira.blogspot.ca/2014/05/my-first-scraptastic-kit-daylight-kit.html.

Hereis the layout :

I am really happy with the outcome.  I went back into my stash for just a couple of things:

• Tim Holtz Layering Stencil - Harlequin
• Tim Holtz Distress ink in Weathered wood.  I think this will be my go to ink for this kit.  I used for the stenciling but also to ink my edges, for more definition.  I am already half way through the second layout and also used this ink for edging.

The story behind this layout:  We are still in Romania, still in Brasov as we have been for the last couple of layouts.  Every morning, coming out of our pensione, we would turn towards town to go exploring.  One morning, after about a week, I decided to turn in the opposite direction.  It didn't look as if there was anywhere to go from there, just forest, brush and minimal plant life.  But off I went anyway.  Well, 2 km later I wound up at this oh so lovely look-out point with the most beautiful views of Brasov and its surroundings.  It was evidently well known to all but I since it was full of people - tourists and locals alike.  It was a small park, with benches to just sit and contemplate the city.  I am so happy I went the "Other" way.  A layout, showing the gorgeious view will follow soon and will be the facing page to this one in my album.

As always, thanks for stopping by.  Don't hesitate to leave a comment if you have any questions, or just want to say hi!  Have a wonderful day and I will be back soon with Layout No. 2 from the Daylight Kit.

My first Scraptastic Kit - the Daylight kit - May 2014

Well hello there and happy Saturday.  I hope you are having an amazing weekend.  It turned out beautiful here, although they had announced some rain.  So yay !!  My day is winding down and I am about to settle in with a glass of wine after all the chores (the last load of laundry is in the dryer LOL).  But on to the reason for my popping in here today :

I got my first ever Scraptastic kit!!!  Oh my, I was so excited and it seemed to take forever to get here LOL.  It shipped out to me, from South Carolina, on the 1st of May and didn't actually make here until Wednesday.  Since, I was at work, I had to wait until today to pick it up.  I am really pleased with the contents.  I had been on the fence for several months, trying to decide if I would subscribe to a kit club or not.  It became clear about 3 months ago, after seeing Tracy Banks (Mercy Tiara on You Tube) and Nicole Jones use theirs that If I did subscribe to a kit, it would be Scraptastic.  Then, quite a few of my other You Tube, and Facebook, friends also subscribed; and started making process videos with the kit.  So I had to join the club (LOL, pun intented)!

For the first month, I got only the main kit : 

and I am quite happy.  It is a well balanced kit with lovely patterned paper and cardstock, and definitely enough embellishments (which often seems to be lacking in other kit clubs).

Right after joining Scraptastic, I put myself on a spending freeze, except for the kit, for at least 90 days.  So, this afternoon, I went through my stash and added to the Daylight kit, to create my own kit for the next month.  Here it is :

These are the supplies I added :

• Alphas :  Studio Calico Essentials in blue and yellow, SN@P aqua, Amy Tangerine Thickers in Ocean and American Crafts Thickers in leaf
• 2 pieces of cardstock - vanilla and aqua and a couple of smaller scraps in pool and yellow.  I added a few sheets of patterned paper - from Jillibean soup Chilled Cucumber Soup and another from Stampin' Up from the Sweater Weather collection (in crushed curry).
• Additional chipboard shapes from Studio Calico essentials in the blue, yellow and green (some cameras, stars and hearts)
• partial sticker sheets from the Jillibean Soup Chilled Cucumber Soup collection and from October Afternoon Woodland ParK
• I added additional wood veneer pieces from my stash - mainly some wood chip from my Citrus Twist PL kit.
• A small collection of buttons from SU in coordinating colours to the kit
• 4 washi tapes and two ribbon spools, also in coordinating colours
• Enamel dots and shapes from My Mind's Eye Milo, Basic Grey Basics, Freckled Fawn and Studio Calico 

There you have it!  That is what I will be working with for the next month.  I am challenging myself to work with a kit for the whole month, something I have never done before.  I think it should be fun.  i will post the layouts and let you know how it goes.

I think this could be a great way of getting a little new stuff everymonth (without breaking the bank) and using up a lot of my lovely stash - the best of both worlds :).

Thanks for joining me again today and I'll be back soon with my first layout from this kit.