Challenge #130 -Spring

I know that not everybody is having spring right now (hello my Australian friends !), even the ones who are supposed to have it (hello my American friends !), but I hope you will be inspired by this week's challenge : SPRING !
Spring photos, spring colors, spring embellishments... Show us what spring inspires you to do !

Isbaha
 I chose this spring 2011 photo, with my disguised kids for Carnival, and because spring means to me flowers, I embellished my layout with homemade flowers.

Lynne

Spring is finally starting to happen around here.  I never thought I would see my crocuses pop through, but they did finally.  Anyway,  I was inspired by the season and the beautiful flowers an colors.    And since my brain has been in 'wedding mode' for a long time now, here is my layout ( apologize for the fuzzy upload). 

Amanda
Today was the first day we have had that was actually nice and made us think that spring may actually show up this year after all! In my scrapping I am working on late summer/fall from 2010 (just a tad behind!) so I opted to do a card for this challenge. Spring to me means butterflies and pastels!

An InLinkz Link-up

Highlights - Challenge #129 - Use a Die Cut

What a lot of entries this week!! WOW! You all really enjoy your die cuts. Again, it was tough to narrow it down to just a few but here they are.

The highlights for this week include:

Janis

The Flamingo Chronicles

Cammy

Lorraine A.

Tammy

Viv

Thanks to everyone who played along with us this week, and for those of you featured here, don't forget to grab your badge!!!

Challenge #129 - Die-cuts

Milena
This week's challenge is to use a die cut on your project. Back when I started scrapbooking (14 years ago!!) I bought die cuts by the dozen. Now I have a Silhouette Digital Cutter and can cut pretty much anything I want. However, I don't often take the time to get it set up.

For this page I used some die cut flowers from the Teresa Collins He Said/She Said line and I used  my Silhouette to cut the title.  I really enjoy the titles that are available for purchase in the Silhouette store.

Isbaha

 I don't have any die-cuts embellishments pack, but I love to use my Big Shot to make my owns ! Sometimes, I cut them but they don't fit my layout, so I put them aside in my "everything-and-nothing" box (I can't throw away anything...). But this box was very full... Time to use it !

For my layout, I decided to make a decorative border with only die-cuts from my "everything-and-nothing" box. I chose them in the same color palette than my layout. Some are cut into paper, others into cork, glittered paper, vellum or fun foam. My title is also cut with dies, and I added some Stickles on it.

(The title means "Spring at Granny's home").



Lynne

I too have not used diecuts in years so this was a stretch for me.  And, to make matters worse, I do not own a die cut machine.  So I scrounged around my stash, and found that wonderful 12 inch musical note border from Queen & Co.  (No clue how old it is).   I added some musical embellishment stickers from Jolee's.  The large photo is from the Internet of The Piano Guys (check them out on their YouTube channel, if you have not heard of them before.)  My daughter and fiance took me to a belated Chanukah present concert this past Friday night.

Amanda

Since I learnt about Cricut Craft Room I have begun to use my Cricut so much more! I love that I can blend the letters together in Craft Room and it cuts them as a word, rather than individual letters! Makes it so much easier to adhere! I love die cutting my titles because then I never have to worry about having the perfect size or color of letter stickers and I never run out of vowels! For this layout I used the cartridge Jasmine to cut my title and date out and Creative Memories Reminisce Accents for my flowers which I then attached with pop dots to make them stand out.

Tammy

I am totally in the mood for spring.  With all the snow that we have been having here, I want spring colors and spring symbols, so I created this card with both of those in mind.  I used a Stampin Up butterfly die for this card.

Barb

I 've been using die cuts more and more on my pages since I got my Silhouette.  On this page I used stars and note die cuts.

An InLinkz Link-up

Highlights - Challenge #128 - Ink

There were so many fabulous entries this week! I am glad to see so many people participating despite many people mentioning that inking is not their cup of tea! A few highlights from this week...

Viv

Sylvia

Carol C

Don't forget to grab your badge ladies!

Thanks again to everyone who participated!

Challenge #128 - Ink

Amanda

This week's challenge is to use some ink on your project! There are so many types of ink products out there now and so many ways to use it! On this layout I used ink to distress the edges of several of the pieces of paper, to mist my background, to stamp my title and finally I also used alcohol inks to change the colour of the metal hearts.

Isbaha
I love to use ink for making embellishments but I decided to try something new, thanks to Amanda's challenge ! I am usually not really comfortable with inked background in a messy way, so
I used a step-by-step on Let's talk layouts blog (I subscribe to this french magazine, but these explanations are in the free download) and I'm very happy with how it turned !

Lynne

I too am not a fan of inking.  I don't like the mess to clean up, but a challenge is a challenge, so I inked the wood veneer letters from my humongous stash and added pen (ink?) stitching.  

Barb

As usual, I'm a little late to the party. It seems that I just can't get my act in gear these days.

For this challenge I used ink mists on this layout. I wanted the monochromatic feel so I tried to keep all the colours muted.

Milena

And I am even later to the party!!! I use inks on a lot of my pages but mostly to add a bit of depth around the edges of embellishments. That's just what I did here. It's subtle but I think it makes a big difference.

An InLinkz Link-up

Highlights - Challenge #127

Thank you everyone for playing along with us this week.  Here are a few of highlights from this weeks challenge that caught my eye.  Don't forget to grab your badge and thank you again.

Leslie Turner

Ellapu

Susan Kennedy

Challenge #127 - Monochromatic Green

Hi all!  Lynne here.  Color challenges are one of my favorite, especially monochromatic colors.  In honor of St. Pat's Day this week, I chose to go with just GREEN.  Use as much green as you can muster.
I browsed through all my stash, which in itself could take hours, and came up with so many green scraps to use.  I look forward to see what you can come up with.  It is such a nice spring color, isn't it!

Isbaha

Monochromatic layouts are really a challenge for me ! This week, I also decided to make my background myself with white cardstock (tutorial on my blog). This is not what I used to do, but sometimes, it's nice to try something new, and for me, using only one color certainly is !

Amanda
Monochromatic layouts are fun to do but they can definitely be a challenge! I had never done a green one before! This is one of my silly dogs - sitting behind the wheel of my car a few years ago.

Tammy
I love green.  It's my most favorite color ever, so it was such fun to create a card using nothing but this color.  I decided to go with a sympathy card.  I don't have that many of them, and I though the green color would portray a calming effect in a time of sorrow.

An InLinkz Link-up