Challenge time!

Hey, all!! I am about to go traveling for the next two weeks so I will not be blogging during that time. I did, however, want to leave you with a challenge!! Here's what you need to do:

1. Create a layout using one of my past sketches:

2. Post your link here by January 10th! You may only enter one layout, but you can share as many as you like...just let me know which one is for the challenge.

It's as simple as that!!

The winner will receive a $25 gift card to Scrapbook.com. This will be a random drawing, so I will put your name in twice if you link your layout back to my blog. If you're a follower your name will go in three times!

Have a very safe and happy holiday season!

FINALLY!

I am FINALLY done with Christmas shopping. That is not to say that I won't end up buying more gifts for people. It just means that now I don't have to anymore. Haha. Knowing me, I will continue to buy things until the last minute and will spend a small fortune...but that's okay...that's one of the best parts of Christmas...making others happy.

Tonight I made a gift for a family I'm close to. They have a very strict "Kat, do not buy us anything" policy. But I always find ways to bend the rules a bit. This year I made them a wall hanging...and of course, I had to buy the frame for it. But, I don't really think that counts as buying them a gift.

Here is the wall hanging I made. I scraplifted Cindy Tobey's layout "Laugh With Me." It's one of my favorite layouts of all time and I was totally inspired by it. I have a feeling that this will not be the last time that I scraplift this particular layout. I know it's not the greatest picture...photographing stuff has never been my strong suit (I guess I should have taken the glass out, then taken the picture, but that's an awful lot of effort...ha!)

Christmas spirit

Hey, all! So, I have been completely overcome with the Christmas spirit...I am so, so excited...I can't believe it's only a week away. Then shortly after that, it will be a New Year. This year has really flown by quickly. It's exciting, though. A whole new year, time to make fresh new memories...I can't wait to see what the future brings!

I just wanted to share a few more of my recent holiday layouts with you. I know this first one looks a lot like the layout featured in my paint technique post from yesterday:

I actually do not like this layout very much, but decided to share it nonetheless:

It also appears that I really enjoy tying baker's twine around my layouts recently...I just noticed that when I made this post...ha!

Until I talk to you next...happy kraftin'!

Paint technique

Hey, all! So, I definitely do not have a vintage scrapping style. I love vintage layouts, but I've never been one that could really pull that look off. I am too in love with bold colors and patterns. However, every now and then, I love to dabble in the vintage style of scrapping.

One of the trademarks of a vintage look is distressing. A lot of people do this with ink...but once again, that's not something I'm very good at. I prefer to use paint. As always, I use acrylic paint since it dries so fast (awesome). I like to put paint on a Q-Tip and run it around the edges of paper and pictures. And the good thing is, you can be totally random about it...it doesn't have to look perfect...it's not supposed to!

So, while using paint for distressing doesn't look completely vintage, it does give a "quirky vintage" look to the page...and I love that. Here is an example of a layout I did recently using this paint technique:

Giveaway opportunity!

Hey, all..I just wanted to let you know about a great giveaway opportunity. It's on Sarah de Guzman's blog. I don't know if you all are familiar with her work, but I'm pretty sure you have seen it somewhere before and just don't realize it. This talented lady is on about a billion design teams and is super, super creative. The most impressive thing about her? She does most of her layouts in about 30 minutes. That's awesome to me. So, definitely run by her blog and check out the giveaway. I don't think you'll be disappointed!!

SOTB Challenge

Hey, all! A few weeks ago, I found out that I made a design team: Scrap Outside the Box. SOTB is a challenge blog that challenges you to use nonscrappy items in your layouts. It definitely makes you think outside the box.

This month's challenge asks you to use Band-Aids! Here is my take:

Head on over to SOTB to see what the other lovely ladies of the design team came up with and enter your own layout for a sweet prize!!

Krafter's Block

Hey, all! I have recently been suffering from a bad case of creativity block. I sit down and try to scrapbook and everything I end up producing is total rubbish. No fun :( I really want to create something, but my brain just isn't working right. Oh well. I'm sure I'll get my groove back soon. In the meantime, I did draw a sketch today when I was really, really bored. I have not made a layout for it yet. I'm hoping that when I do sit down to use this sketch, I will finally be able to produce something good. So here it is:

I hope everyone has better luck than me being krafty!!

Challenge winner

Hey, all...I want to thank everyone so much for entering my first challenge. I received so many great layouts. The winner for this challenge is Angela (aka: Foreverscrapping). Here is her fabulous layout:

She will have a week to get me her contact information, or another winner will be chosen and will win all the yummy Christmas goodies.

I also decided to send Caroline Hancock a goodie bag filled with random embellies for being such a dedicated follower. I can do these kind of things you know... :-)

If you didn't win, don't despair...I will have another Challenge coming up soon...plus another out-of-the-blue winner, I'm sure. So, ladies, if you won...just email your mailing address to kraftykat9@gmail.com within the next week.

Thanks to everyone for participating and congrats to the winners!

Quick reminder

This is just a quick reminder that the entries for the Christmas/Winter Challenge are due tonight at 6pm PST. I will announce a winner tomorrow.

Here are a few of some of my recent layouts. This is a scraplift of an awesome layout that I saw in "creating keepsakes." It is called "celebrate" and it was done by Jen Jockisch. You can find it on page 24 of the January 2010 issue:

This is another layout I did last night. Sorry for the bad scan...it was the best I could get, though...I'm so in love with the Crate Paper "Bliss" collection. It's so perfect...and it goes really well with all the pictures from my best friend's wedding:

Make letters!!

Hey, all! So, I am here with a fun gift idea that you can make for your scrappy friends or your kids...paint them a letter! It's cheap, super easy to do, and it lets people know that you care about them, since you put so much time and effort into their gift. You can buy 9" wooden letters at most craft stores...I got mine at Michaels. They usually have a few different fonts to choose from also, so you can pick a letter that matches your style. This is a letter that I made for an 11 year old girl. She wanted a letter 'A' for her bedroom. She loves lime green, turquoise and flowers (her bedspread is also lime green and turquoise), so this is what I came up with...
I've also seen these given as wedding gifts. Decorate the first letter of the last name for the newly married couple. You can make it ultra classy (wedding colors, pearls and diamonds)...or you can decoupage it with pictures of the couple together. You may even be able to pass this off as a good gift for a guy if you decorate it with the colors of his favorite sports team for an office, etc. I love this project because anything goes...and you can really tailor it to fit the person who it is being made for.

As always, I would love to see any projects you make...so if you do decorate letters, leave a link to this post and I will definitely go shceck them out!

sketch time!

Hey, all! I have another sketch for you! Remember how much I like squares? Well, if you remember that, then this sketch should be no surprise to you. I like sketches that have a lot of squares, because you can insert pictures or squares...two totally different looks, but both look good. Here is the sketch:
And here is my layout:

And another note about this layout: the background paper was super easy to make. I just took some acrylic paint and squirted it around randomly. The blue paint was almost out, so it had a different effect when I used it compared to the red paint. It looks a little messy, but I like the way it ended up turning out anyways...

Holiday Layouts

Hey, all. Unfortunately, I do not have too many words of wonderful wisdom (sarcastic) tonight, but I figured I would share some of my most recent holiday layouts with you anyways...

This one was based off of a sketch by Helen Croft:And, if you liked the different paper strips in that one, then enter my Winter/Christmas challenge (the link is on the left side of my blog)! All that paper comes in the paper kit that is up for grabs...yay!

And this is just a random layout I did...nothing too special...it looks oddly similar to my "tree trimming" layout from my last post ;-)

Thanks for following!

Hey, all! So, today an idea popped into my head and I decided that I would do a random drawing of my followers and send one of them an embellie grab bag. I think it's so great that total strangers can provide people so much support for all the things they do. I love that people take the time to take an interest in other people's work. All those comments, love and support can really help someone to become even more creative.

I went to Radom.org to generate my winner...and that winner is...Karen Lee! So, Karen, please send your mailing address to me at kraftykat9@gmail.com and I will get that grab bag in the mail to you!

And for all my other followers, don't despair...I will continue to do this from time to time. Sometime it will be random and sometimes it won't... :-)

Here is a layout that I did recently...I'm getting so psyched for Christmas. I love everything about the season. I love spending time with family, and shopping for family and friends, and decorating, and going to church to recognize the reason behind season...and of course, I love the time after Christmas, too, because then I get to scrap all my fun new memories!!