~Scraps of Darkness Spring DT Call~

Hello, all! Just wanted to let everyone know that Scraps of Darkness Kit Club is looking for a couple new Design Team members! Here is the announcement from the Scraps of Darkness Blog:

Scraps of Darkness kit club is looking for designers to add to our talented Design Team! If you love the alternative side of scrapbooking or would like to venture into this realm, then we encourage you to try out!!

Commitment is important, so we want to be straightforward with what we are looking for. We want to see ambitious, outgoing, forum savvy scrappers that share in the same love as we do.
This DT position will start with our May, 2011 kit and end with our October, 2011 kit and we are looking for 2 designers for this term. This is open to everyone. Anyone outside of the US or Canada will have to pay shipping fees.

Here is what we will need from you:

1. You must complete a minimum of 5 layouts/cards/projects per month and have 4 of them ready to upload by reveal day, which is the 15th of every month, and the 5th layout/project should be uploaded about a week after reveal day. These layouts need to be placed in the SOD gallery, blogs, scrapbook.com, and any other public galleries that you participate in.

2. Daily participation on our forum and a daily check in on our Design Team forum, as well as keeping up in the galleries is a must. DT responsibilities, such as posting a Question of The Week, will be rotated amongst our DT and we would also like you to start new threads that encourage posting by our members.

3. You must complete at least 2 tutorials within your 6 month DT term for SOD. These can be either photo or video tutorials.

In return for your commitment, you will receive the entire main kit, as well as TWO additional add-ons free of charge!! You will also have first dibs on any additional add-ons featured throughout the months you are a DT at a 50% discount. In addition, we offer a 30% discount in our store for DT members.

Here is how to apply:

Please send all applications and attachments to dtcall@scrapsofdarkness.com

Please include the following:

1. Name, Address, Phone Number

2. Submit three layouts total - Include two layouts that show us your alternative side or the darker side of your work. For example: Distressed, Grunge, Steampunk, Mixed Media, Dark, etc. Then also include a third layout that you would say is your favorite or best layout, and this can be any style.

3. Tell us why you think you would be a good addition to the SOD team

4. Provide links to blogs and galleries, and any resume you may have

5. List of all current DT commitments, and please note that our designers may not design for or in any way advertise other kit clubs. We have no problem with DT members designing for manufacturers, sketch sites, local stores, etc, but it is counterproductive to have them advertise our competitors.

All submissions must be received by April 15th and we will have an official public announcement by April 20th!!

Good Luck Everyone!!

Whatever Wednesday 3-30-2011

Hello, All! I am taking the opportunity on a Whatever Wednesday to talk about a rather large project I am going to begin working on. Last year, when I first started this blog, I had worked on my own version of Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas. I called it the 12 Layouts of Alice. I created a layout based on each one of Tim's Tags and used Wonderland as the theme. As I pondered about doing a series of layouts based on this year's 12 Tags, I looked up my old layouts and found that I began them all on April the 22nd. The 22nd happens to be my belated mother's birthday and I thought it fitting to do this project as a celebration for that day. I hope to make it a yearly tradition. So starting on the 22nd and every Tea Time Tuesday after that, I will post a layout or two for this series (12 Layout in all). I really hope you all enjoy them as much as I enjoy creating them! Have a great rest of your day!

Tea Time Tuesday 3-19-2011

Hello, all! What a fabulous morning! I am finally relaxed after finishing up a large amount of homework for my ethics class and I just got some scrappy goodies to play with, so you know what I'll be doing today! But first I must share with you a Wonderland-inspired project that I've been wanting to complete for some time now. It was even on my Unfinished Projects list for Becky's Unfinished Projects Challenge over at Becky's Bits N Pieces from a couple of month's ago! Well I finally got the supplies I needed and I created my very own custom memo board for my scraproom!

Before:

This is the memo board before. I bought it on clearance at Hobby Lobby. I love the whimsical look of the frame so I thought it was perfect for what I wanted to do.

After:

Wonderland-Inspired Memo Board. I added batting, covered it with checkered fabric, ran red ribbon in a crisscross pattern and trim around the edges, then added buttons for a tufted look. Now I can hold pictures, notes, and whatnot in my scraproom. And it has places to hold some photos, too!

Monochromatic Monday 3-28-2011

Hello, all! Today is the last Monochromatic Monday this month! I am usually very excited at the end of the month because of the anticipation of finding out the next month's colors. I can't wait! lol! This month, the Monochrome Challenge at scrapbook.com had 5 colors, one for every week plus a bonus one. The first four were Fuchsia, Bright Yellow, Bluebird Blue, and Kelly Green. The bonus selections was whichever color you that made you think of spring with the twist of Irish Folklore or Tale. For me, the color that screams spring is turquoise! It's so bright and energetic! I used a Creative Scrappers Sketch created by Amarylis. Here is my entry for the bonus selection with the twist:

A Toast layout. I chose turquoise for my bonus color and used the My Mind's Eye Lush 2 Collection, Thickers Glitter Rainboots alphas, and an assortment of Prima flowers. I also used a sketch created by my friend and fellow Deliciously Distressed Diva, Amarylis. She created it for the Creative Scrapper - sketch #147. This is a photo of my husband with his best friend having some fun playing drinking games. The journaling says "There are several good reasons for drinking and one has just entered my head. If a man can't drink when he's living, then how the heck can he drink when he's dead?"  which is an Irish toast.

Saturday Steampunk

Hello, all! And welcome to another Saturday Steampunk! I have a project to share with you that I have been planning to do for a while but haven't had the chance to complete until recently. I had planned to make this around Valentine's Day but here we are more than a month later! Lol! I'm also sharing a layout I did for a couple of challenges below.

Steampunk Heart Ornament. This started off as a paper mache heart; which you can find at most craft stores. I cut slits in the heart where I wanted gears to come out. I covered the entire heart in Bronze UTEE and heated it until I got this hammered metal look. I used hot glue to set the gears in place in the slits (Gears are from Tim Holtz and 7 Gypsies). Then I add some ribbon roses I made and assorted Prima flowers in aquas and oranges, plus some more gears. I cut out a butterfly from some Graphic 45 Steampunk Debutante (which is what inspired the color scheme) paper and glued it onto the flowers.

Friendship layout. This layout was created to enter in the Scrap Your Faves Challenge (Lift of Kaye222's Cute As A Button) and the Cosmo Cricket Challenge at scrapbook.com. The Cosmo Cricket papers I used are all from the Halfway Cafe Collection. I used my Cricut Expression to cute the circles, frame, and background, the title is Thickers Glitter Rainboots and the flowers are Prima. And of course, I added Stickles in Turquoise.

Correction: I was notified that the above layout was not allowed into the Cosmo Cricket Challenge because it was not 90% Cosmo Cricket products. Oh, Well! 

Blue, Green, and Orange!

Hello, all! I cannot believe it but I actually finished all the challenges I signed up for this month over at scrapbook.com! And early, too! So now I am looking for new challenges to take and ideas for some more layouts. Here are a few pages from me with the same color combination. I was really feeling these colors this week! And I actually created more pages in this color combo than I'm sharing since those others are for submissions for a magazine. So here we go!

The More That You Read... layout. This is for the Dr. Seuss, Colour, and Scraplift 101 Challenges over at scrapbook.com. For the Dr. Seuss Challenge, you had to use a Seuss quote or related topic. For the Colour Challenge, you had to use Blue, Lime Green, and Orange as your palette. And for the Scraplift 101, this is a lift of Exploring the Land in Epcot by Godschild94. The photos are of my son (my daughter is in there a bit, too) after school on March 2nd, Dr. Suess' birthday. They had celebrated at school by reading the book Green Eggs and Ham and eating real green eggs and ham! He was so excited when he got home that I took out all the Dr. Seuss books my daughter's had from storage to give to him. He's been reading them non-stop!

The More That You Read (1)...Close-Up. I used some DCWV Animal Crackers papers and photos I took that day, plus added the little announcement all the kids in my son's class got for this day.

The More That You Read (2)...Close-Up. More photos of my son reading his "new" books. I used Thickers in various styles to make up the long title. I colored them with Adirondack Alcohol Inks in Sailboat Blue, Lettuce, and Sunset Orange. I used my Cricut Expression on all the stars.

Sketchy Thursdays Sketch for 3-24-2011.

The Pier layout. This is my take on the Sketchy Thursday sketch for 3-24-2011. The photos are of my son and niece, and of a restaurant called The Pier we stopped at on our mini vacation to visit relatives. The shark is real, just stuffed, and it was caught from the boat pictured at the top. I used my Cricut Expression on the stars and Stickles in Lime Green, Waterfall, and Orange Peel. The paper is from the Where the Heart Is Paper Pack from My Mind's Eye.

Night at the Pier layout. I had so many pictures of this occasion that I decided to make a second page to the sketch layout. I used the same paper pack and Stickles to complete this one as well.

Whatever Wednesday and My 1st Blogiversary!

Hello, all! I can't believe it but it has been an entire year that I've been blogging! Where has the time gone? It doesn't seem like it's been that long but I can say that I have really enjoyed it! I've learned a lot this past year and cannot wait to learn more; about blogging, scrapping, mixed media, and other crafts. Then today the UPS man brought me a nice surprise: I ordered the Vagabond and it was delivered early! I'm so excited to play with it! Well, on to my layout for today. This is based on the Thursday Sketch at the Pages in Time Blog for 3-17-2011.  I am also entering my page in the Military Challenge and Scrap Your Pet Challenge over at scrapbook.com.

Thursday Sketch at Pages in Time for 3-17-2011.

Miss You layout. This is my dog Attila. He loves my husband's Army gear; the dirtier and smellier, the better! Here he is on some of that gear when my husband was gone for training. He has been so sad over my husband's deployment and is slowly adjusting to my husband's absence now. The papers are from Echo Park's A Walk in The Park kit. The letter brads are from The Paper Studio and the alphas are Thickers Rainboots.