Surf's Up! Workshop

Hello!

I wanted to share with you the projects that I had made for my August workshop.  I used the Surf's Up! paper pack, coordinating embellies and some small sparkle flourishes.  I found ALL of my inspiration for these wonderful projects from Brenda Rose, Traci Godbee; Helen Onulak; Maureen O'Sullivan & Famida Ahmad.  All very talented CTMH consultants!

The first project we did was a 2-page layout DIRECTLY scrap-lifted from Brenda Rose.

The only changes that I made were using Goldrush cardstock instead of the Goldrush pattern paper and I also made the photo mat on the right page smaller to hold 4 x 6 photos instead of 5 x 7 photos.

Our next project was also inspired by Brenda Rose...I love her clean, crisp designs.  We made a set of 3 cards.  Because Brenda's card was a circle shape, I decided to make the other two cards from Maureen O'Sullivan & Traci Godbee into circles as well.

Inspired by Traci Godbee

Inspired by Maureen O'Sullivan

Inspired by Brenda Rose

And for our third project, I combined 2 amazing artworks (using Helen Onulak's layout & Famida Ahmad's frame) into one.

I shrunk Helen's layout to fit onto a 9 x 9 page with  a frame opening of 7 x 7.  What I did was cut my base paper to 9 x 9, put that into the frame, then adhered the rest of the elements so that they would be seen within the 7 x 7 opening.  I kept the decorations of the frame simple because I wanted the main focus to be on the layout inside.  

I hope you all liked the scrap-lifting.  Be sure to check out these talented ladies' sites.  They have amazing artwork and tutorials posted.  Thanks for stopping by...

A little share...

Today I want to share my take on athomewithnikki 's home management system.  I absolutely loved her idea (even the way she organized it) that I new I had to come up with something similar.  Where I live, there isn't a Staples within 200 miles.  So I had to adapt and research where I could get my MS goodies.  I found this wonderful seller on eBay who sold most of the items I needed to duplicate Nikki's system in BULK!  It was amazing!  Not only was I able to get all my goodies, I was able to get enough to make 5 systems!  Ok, seems a bit much, right?  Well, it turns out that I shared this idea with a few of my friends and they also loved it!  We ended up changing some things a bit, but for the most part, we kept it just like Nikki's.

The only thing I wasn't able to get my hands on was a calendar insert.  So I had to get a little creative (my friends just went to our local Office Max and picked up an insert).  But, me being me, that wasn't good enough...  I had this calendar/smash/journal book/binder that my daughter found at Michaels by Recollections.  It was so cute (but limited) that I didn't want to use it.  The pages consisted of blank calendars, shopping list, contact pages, daily document pages and very cute graphics on all of them (so me!). Then, like lightening, an idea struck me.  How could I incorporate these cute pages into my management system?  I wanted to be able to use them over and over and not have to keep buying a new calendar every year.  So this is what I came up with...

The original pages were too big for the MS binder.
I ended up copying (not intended for resale - perfectly acceptable as long as I use it for personal use only) all the pages that I wanted/needed for my system.  I trimmed them down to a workable size for my binder.  Glued the pages back-to-back.  Inked the edges to hide the imperfections.  And then laminated them so I wouldn't have to do this every year.
Now all I have to do is use a dry erase marker to fill in my calendar and I am all set.
If anything happens to these pages, I still have the originals to fall back on to make more copies.

Here is a quick look at some of the sections in my binder.  It is almost exactly like how Nikki set hers up.  So if you want more info about a section, please watch her video.

I made several copies of the shopping list that came with the Recollections Binder to put in here.  I also added some of the pockets intended for the Recollections Binders.

My WONDERFUL friend is currently doing Project Life.  She came up with these amazing inserts for her filofax and then was nice enough to put them on her blog to share with the world!  Thank you so much V!!  And the dry erase markers work nicely!   I am loving this system!

I had an extra binder and some MS pocket pages left over so I am currently working on a system for the holidays.  Mostly so I can keep track of card-making/giving, gifts and events going on during those chaotic months.  I will share it as soon as I am finished with putting it all together.  Again, a HUGE thank you to Nikki for sharing her idea.  And thank YOU for checking this out!

Another album for my friend!

This one took quite a long time, not because it was hard, but because I had a LOT of things happen around the same time she had asked me to make this album.  Again and again, I need to apologize for the very poor quality of photos.  I had just moved into my new house so the lighting is very bad PLUS I couldn't find my camera AND I always have my phone on me... So after almost a year, here is the final result...

Her & her husband went to New Orleans; Biloxi, Mississippi & Pensacola, Florida.  For the front page (which is usually the hardest page for me to put together), I took left over papers that I used throughout the album, tons of business cards that she brought back, along with some post cards to create a collage affect displaying all the places they traveled.

I'm not sure if these were all taken the same day, so I gave it a generic title (knowing that all the pictures were from the same city) and numbered each photo along with the journaling spot for her to document and maybe date each one.

She specifically labelled these pictures as their first night out.  The photos themselves were very busy, so I decided to use a pattern paper by House of 3, that had embellishing printed on it.  Tucked in a few spots for her to journal on and this page was complete.

The little tug boat  and anchor are from the Mickey & Friends cart (Donald's House - so cute!). 

Who can go to New Orleans without checking out the Voodoo Museum?  My friend brought back loads of stuff about the priestess at the museum so I wanted to make sure it all found it's way into the album.  By using CTMH's large flip-flaps, I was able to add the info without having to do more than one layout.   You can kind of see it on the left side of the layout - the flip-flaps attach to the page protectors, not your pages.

The tombstones on this page are from the Over the Hill cart.

I love doing aquarium photos - so bright and colorful.  Here I used the Art Nouveau, CM Traveler & Life's a Beach carts.

This was another hard page for me to work with.  The only info she gave me about this church was that it was Catholic.  OK...so I kept the page very plain giving her plenty of room to journal about it.

This page was fun!  All the signs are from the CM Traveler cart.  On the red arrow I added some washi tape I picked up from Michaels.  

Here is another page that I had used a large flip-flap on.  This one is on the right and it holds the brochures and maps that relate to these specific pictures.  I also incorporated the wristbands they wore onto the layout.

I think this layout is my favorite.  I was going to leave the light house and title as the only embellishments.  Until I ended up with some extra "waves" that I thought I was going to use on another layout.  The first thing that I think of when I am at the docks are the seagulls.  So I cut out the three flying gulls from Life's a Beach and the perched gull from Pack Your Bags...and the page came together (I think) beautifully.

Another fun layout!  As soon as I saw this title from CM Traveler cart I knew I had to use it.  A few more random cuts from Pack Your Bags and the layout was complete.

Another title from CM Traveler.  The other cuts are all from the Summer Vacation cart.

I love how this layout fell together.  My friend brought back TONS of brochures, business cards, post cards & restaurant memorabilia.   I wanted to make sure I crammed as much of it as I could throughout the album.  Well, here was a perfect opportunity.

These "stamp" images are from the Pack Your Bags cart.

Another title from CM Traveler cart.

As usual, I started out with my favorite sketches from my favorite gals at Scrapbook Generation.  Some of the papers used are from House of 3, Creative Memories and DCWV.  For most of the written/typed out titles, I used the Type Candy font cart.  Throughout the album I used 4x4 & 4x6 flip-flaps to add more photos.  Hope you enjoy the album as much as I do.  Almost didn't want to give it away...

A quick little share

Good morning All!

I just wanted to share something that (of course) I found somewhere out in the great wide web.  Unfortunately, I can't find it again to share the original post with you :(  But I can guarantee you that I DID NOT come up with this idea.  I found it searching on Google for something and had to scrap-lift this idea.  And again, I took the pics with my phone because I wanted to make these for all the girls that were signed up for my all-day crop.  Ok, here goes....

These are CTMH's grid paper that can be purchased through a consultant.  On the right hand side (originally) is a place where the consultant can put their contact info, a wish list can be made and a small spot for notes.  I found (somewhere out there) where some GENIUS took pretty papers and personalized the edges of the grid paper.  So that is what I did.  I made 12 - all different, but of course I didn't take a photo of each design.  I also added their names to make them feel as special as they are :) 

Then I took it to my local Print N' Copy and had them laminated.  Now they have a personalized "mat" to work on over and over again!

Wasn't that the neatest idea EVER!  What a thoughtful gift!  Thank you so much for whoever originally thought of this marvelous idea!  If you know or have come across the original post, please - please - please share it with me.  I would LOVE to give credit where credit is due!