Inspiration

Where does inspiration come from? For me, it comes from looking at common objects and daily activities of living. I can find inspiration for my scrapbook pages just by looking at bath salt bottles, chipped enamel coffee pots, vintage buttons, vintage lace, vintage jewelry, postcards and clothing. When working in the garden, I get the flashes of the perfect scrapbook page or title, the layouts just fall into place. The major problem I have when I get these moments of inspiration is that I don't stop what I'm doing and write the fleeting thoughts down. Then much later, when I'm seated at my desk, I try to think back on those moments only to find that they are lost. Lost in the shuffle of chaos that envelopes my daily life. So, my goal for this summer is to try and write down these spurts of inspiration as they flutter through my thoughts.

The project below was born of such a moment. I was in a flea market in North Carolina when I ran across a bag of odd earrings. There was not a matching set in the bunch. The pieces that were in that bag were fabulous, and several just screamed to be used on a page about my grandmother.

The flower center is an old clip-on earring that just reminded me of my grandmother. The hat pin is another reminder. After my Grandmother passed away and my grandfather went to live with my father, my father and his siblings had the daunting task of cleaning out their home. One of my sons, who was helping with the clean up, found my grandmother's hats. Attached to several of the hats were hat pins. After finding the hat pins, I started searching flea markets for these little jewels. The one I used on this layout is a reproduction that was given to me by a friend. Our local scrapbook Store, Treasured Memories, has a wide assortment of pins and will even make them to match your layouts.

The other two layouts also use vintage jewelry pieces.

The beautiful "buckle" on the ribbon is actually a pin that I picked up at a flea market for a dollar, the small metal disc at the top of the right hand page is actually another earring.

This layout has a clock face in the cluster of buttons and gears at the top of the right hand page, which was salvaged from a broken watch I purchased in another grab bag of old jewelry, and what a better way to reinforce the topic of "Les Le Bon Temp Rouler".

Inspiration, where does yours come from?

A couple of new projects

I have finally found some much needed down time in the studio. It has been so very hectic with Mardi Gras and our trip to Disney. School is winding down, the days are getting longer and I am getting back into the swing of scrapping. I have several 4 day crops planned in the next couple of months. I have been jotting down ideas for layouts and trying to get everything together into page kits. We will see how it works, but knowing me, I'm a fly by the seat of my pants kinda scrapper so planning page kits is beyond my comfort zone.

On to my latest projects.

I have been wanting to do this layout for months. I saw a button tree on the internet and loved it so I adapted the design by adding a few pictures of my ancestors and came up with a family tree. The pictures are of my Parents and Grandparents. I'm about 4 and Mom says the photo was taken on Easter Sunday.

This is the third time I have created layout using this photo of my grandparents. I did a two page layout last summer for myself, and a shadow box similar to the one above for my dad for Father's Day. Well over the Christmas holidays, my aunt saw it and fell in love with it, so I told her I would make one for her. It will be shipping out this weekend.

This was created for a co-worker who snort whenever she laughs, which in turn makes me laugh. Anyway, I saw this saying in a magazine and decided it was perfect for her. I cut the letter out using my circut.

This is my example of the tape transfer process. I am a bit disappointed that my lady didn't show up better, but hey not bad for my first time.

I have some other photos I need to post, but for now I'm signing off and heading to dreamland.

My Latest Project, flowers and a class layout

I have not been working in the studio for some time now. I have been busy getting ready for Mardi Gras pictures and visiting with my son who came home on leave for a week. I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things next week. I will have the week off for Thanksgiving break. I can't wait!!!

I have been tinkering with this layout for weeks now and have finally completed it. I love the photos of my family. We were all so young.

What do you think about my rose? I recently stumbled across this wonderful tutorial on how to make your own beautiful roses out of cardstock! This technique is sooooo easy. Please understand that this is not my idea. The only credit I can take is the copy and paste part, LOL. This is a stolen tutorial from the Scrap a Little blog. Enjoy!

To start you will need 18 hearts in 4 different sizes. If you have a Cricut it comes in real handy here. Cut from sturdy card stock: 6 hearts at 2 1/4" 5 at 2" 4 at 1 3/4" and 3 at 1 1/2"

If you don't have a Cricut you could use a Fiskars heart template.

Ink all edges Punch a tiny hole at the bottom of every heart. Take a brad (in the same color) and turn it upside down and start stacking all the hearts from smallest to largest

Now the magic starts: take petal by petal and scrunch them up and around towards the middle. Don't be gentle here; the more manhandling the better!

Last step is to spray the rose with glimmer mist. I have tried this with smaller sized hearts also.

Lastly, I want to share with you a fun layout below that I recently completed as part of a calendar class which is offered by Treasured Memories, my local scrapbook store, The class was taught by Wendy R, a very talented friend of mine. Every class she teaches she makes sure to include several new techniques like the fence on this one.

Well like I said things have been slow in the studio, hope to post more later.