Make it Snappy at Scrap Orchard and Template Chat at GingerScraps

Yesterday was another Make It Snappy at Scrap Orchard. Here is my layout:

Too Much T.V.
Authenticity by Secret Stash
Journaling Font: Printcess
Title Font: Painty Paint

I love speed scraps. Speaking of speed scraps, Unforgettable Moments and Valarie Ostrom are hosting a template chat on Saturday morning over at GingerScraps.  Come on by, get a free template and chat!

Scrapping Survivor Week 2

The Week 2 challenge for Scrapping Survivor over at GingerScraps was a recipe challenge. Our recipe box is a hard drive. We keep all of our favorites on my computer or my husband's computer.  The ones we use a lot, we eventually print out and place into page protectors. So I decided to "print" my recipe on dot matrix paper. I had to make my own scrap of dot matrix paper and then I went back and looked at the challenge guidelines and I had put the recipe on a recipe card. Ugghh. And I slaved over that piece of paper. Here are the challenge guidelines:

• The LO must have at least one photo of your favorite recipe (a photo of the actual food)
• You can not use a photo from a cookbook or online. It MUST be a photo you or a friend of family member has take. A photo from your personal collection.
• The LO must have a Recipe Card *With the full recipe written/typed on the card*
• Your LO can have additional photos BUT the Recipe must be the focal point
• The Recipe Card must be fully visible, although a bit of overlapping is allowed.
• In your description box in the gallery, you MUST type out the complete recipe.
• Remember NO TEMPLATES in this challenge.

Here is my original layout, with my scrap of dot matrix paper:

Reverse Engineering Gabriels' Guacamole Recipe
Kit: French Bistro by Pixels by Jen and Lilacs in Bloom
Staples from Remember the Moment by Unforgettable Memories with Amy Peck
Title Font: Uncle typewriter
Journaling Font: sf Jeff
Recipe Font: JD LCD Rounded

Reverse Engineering Gabriels' Guacamole Recipe
Kit: French Bistro by Pixels by Jen and Lilacs in Bloom
Staples from Remember the Moment by Unforgettable Memories with Amy Peck
Recipe Card from Cooking with the Heart by Sus Designs
Tomato by Pattie Knox from Penscappers May 11 kit
Title Font: Uncle typewriter
Journaling Font: sf Jeff
Recipe Font: LB Lisa B

The journaling reads:
We love the Guacamole Especial at Gabriels. We love it so much we decided to make it our guacamole recipe, so we went to Gabriels over and over and paid special attention as  it was made. Some ingredients were easy, like the juice of half of lime, some were harder as we'd argue over how many onions they put in: 2 teaspoons? One tablespoon? We'd go home and make the guacamole and tweak the ingredients until we had it perfected. And then we'd go back to Gabriels to compare their version to ours. Imagine our surprise when we rushed in for take-out one evening and noticed that they had the guacamole recipe posted on the wall. We were going to snap a photo, but we didn't have a camera. Someday we will have to compare our recipe to their official recipe.

And the recipe is:
Reversed Engineered Recipe for Gabriels' Guacamole Especial.

4 Large Hass avocados, halved
4 TBS tomato, diced
3 TBS onion, diced
1 TBS jalapeno, finely diced
1 tsp garlic, minced
3/4 tsp salt
Juice of 1/2 lime squeezed
1 TBS fresh cilantro (optional)

Place all ingredients into a molcajete and
mix vigorously with a spoon and whisk.

We love this guacamole so much we even went out and bought a molcajete to make it in.

Scrapping Survivor

Scrapping Survivor began on Wednesday at GingerScraps.  I've never watched Survivor, so I'm not sure how this works, but I know people are going to be eliminated. I'm not even sure that my first layout meets all the requirements as I "interpreted" them a little. Here are rules for the first challenge:

• The LO must have at least one "Aged" Photograph.
• The "Aged" Photograph must be shown twice on the LO, the original and the aged version.
• Your LO can have additional photos BUT the "Aged" Photograph MUST be the largest and the focal point of the LO.
• Remember NO TEMPLATES in this challenge.

And here is my layout:

White Boots
Layout Credits:
Friday Afternoon by By Becca;
Just Dis-Stressed Out Samples by JustJaimee;
House of 3 Sampler Brushes
Fonts: Printcess, Porcelain
Photo Aging Credits:
House of 3 Sampler Brushes
TTV texture is  Texture-Fake TTV #1 (bus stop window) by Steffen Jakob
Photocorners by PSHero

The journaling reads:
When I was in third grade and making my First Communion, I wanted to wear white cowboy boots with my dress and veil. My mother refused to allow it and forced me to wear shoes. In a fit of anger I told her that I'd wear white cowboy boots when I got married. She said that would be fine. They weren't exactly cowboy boots, but they were close enough to live up to the dire predictions of an eight year old.

GingerScraps September Buffet

Today is September first and you know what that means, it is time for a fresh buffet at GingerScraps. Every month the GingerScraps Designers release a slew of coordinating products; such as mini-kits, templates, paper and element kits, etc. with a common theme and color palette. And on the first day of each month, all of these buffet items are on sale for a dollar each. However, this month, it is GingerScraps third birthday and in honor of that the buffet items will be $1 each for the first week of September. The theme for this month is birthdays.


I combined two of the buffet items to make this layout, a template by Unforgettable Moments and a mini-kit by Pixels by Jen:

Made with Love

It's My Birthday Template half-pack by Unforgettable Moments; 

It's My Birthday by Pixels by Jen;  

Fonts: Chalkboard, AYummyApology, CKJournaling

And here are the product previews:

It's My Birthday by Pixels by Jen

It's My Birthday Template Half-Pack by Unforgettable Moments

Continuing the 4th Vacation and Grab bag at GingerScraps

I am continuing to scrap my way through our Fourth of July Vacation layouts.  One of our very stops in DC was the Natural History Museum to see the Hope Diamond. The Hope Diamond has been removed from its traditional setting and placed in a more modern setting to celebrate its 50 year anniversary of being on display at the Smithsonian.  While we were there we took in the rest of the mineral and gem collection which includes:

The Logan Sapphire, which at 423 carats is the second largest known faceted blue sapphire.

A gold butterfly set with 333 fancy-colored Montana Sapphires.

A platinum flower brooch made of tanzanites surrounded by diamonds.

A natural sandstone formation from Fontainebleau, France. 

The Portuguese Diamond, the largest cut diamond in the collection at the National Museum of Natural History.

A veritable rainbow of minerals.

An ore specimen from Bayard, New Mexico of Chalcopyrite. The large brassy crystals of chalcopyrite were covered with black sphalerite and white dolomite.

And a gold nugget from the Maxwell Land Grant in Colfax County, NM. 

All of these can be found in my layout below.

Rocks (click for larger)

Block Party Template by Unforgettable Moments from the GingerScraps Free With Purchase grab bag; 

Smile For the Camera by Unforgettable Moments from the GingerScraps Free With Purchase grab bag;  

Fonts: CenturyGothic, CKPirateHand

And close ups of the two sides:

I had photos cross the half-way point in this layout, which I have never done before. I guess I'll find out if it was a good idea after it gets printed!

I used the new September "Free with 10 dollar Purchase" for this layout. It's by Unforgettable Moments with Amy Peck and it is free with a 10 dollar purchase throughout the Month of September. Here is the product preview.

And here are detailed previews of what's inside! (Click for larger images)

Another Template Challenge at GS

There is another template challenge at GingerScraps. This one is hosted by Unforgettable Moments. I love working with templates in general.  I always feel that as a non-artistic person, page design is one of my weaknesses and while I've been trying to learn it doesn't come naturally to me. I'm always repeating a random series of phrases in my head as I scrap. It goes something like "Visual triangle. Don't fill in the triangle. Use an odd number, 3 or 5 or 1. Find a line and make it stronger.  Make a pattern and then break it." So when one someone else has taken the page design out of my hands, it is somewhat of a relief. The template for this challenge is wonderful. It has that split layered page design that I see so often in the galleries. And every time I see one of those layouts. I think "That looks great! I'm going to make a page like that someday", but I never seem to remember to actually do so. (Probably because it is not in my silent mantra.)

I used the template to make a layout about one of the dogs. I know, you are shocked that I am scrappin' about dogs. This layout is for my husband. He's always asking me to get a photo of the German Pinschers with their lips curled. They do this because my husband is trained to give them food when they curl their lips. Unfortunately, most of time I miss the photo. This time I actually got the photo of the lip curl. Unfortunately, I was on the wrong side of the dog. But if you look carefully you can see that his left lip is curled up.  The journaling reads: Blue loves going to the vet because they have those special treats that taste like super-delicious heartworm pills in all the exam rooms. And we always give him some while we wait for the doctor. On this day, Blue was doing the "Ly lip curl". Ly always curls up one side of her lip when she wants food and Richard adores it. And he usually gives her food in response, so Blue has begun doing it too. Anyone that believes that dogs can't train people has never lived with a German Pinscher. 

July 22, 2011

Lip Curl

Template by Unforgettable Memories (GS August 15-31 Template Challenge)

Mommy's Little Monster by Unforgettable Moments

Stitches from Urban Daze by Wyld Web Designs

Ric Rac from Thoughts of You by Unforgettable Moments, and from Because {I love U} by Pretty in Green

Fonts: VNI Thufap2, Twelve Ton Sushi, You Are Loved

14 K-Another Restaurant layout (and a template challenge at GS)

I think this is the third layout that I've made about restaurants this week! Isn't that funny? Any one would think that my full time job was as a food critic or something. This one is yet another July vacation layout. (I told you, almost 900 photos!) While we were in DC last month, dear hubby downloaded a cool restaurant app for my iPhone. It's called MenuPages and while it only works for certain cities (8 major cities in the US at this point) it sure is handy if you are stranger in one of those cities. You can search for restaurants close to you by type of cuisine and it had menus and reviews and price ranges. We used it a lot that week. We used it to find this great breakfast buffet just down the street from our hotel. Look at the size of those blackberries! Do they grow them in DC or something? We had similar sized blackberries in our blackberry crêpe at Point Chaud. I loved this place so much that I posted a facebook status update about it.

14 K

French Bistro: Bundle by Pixels by Jen and Lilacs in Bloom

Fonts: LB Sharpy, KissMeKissMeKissMe and I hate Comic Sans

I used a really unique and nifty template by Pixels by Jen from the template challenge at GingerScraps. The challenge only runs for the first half of August, so you should rush over and check it out. I also used the nifty collab that I blogged about the other day. It is called French Bistro and it is gorgeous. This collab has a set of those pre-made paint splatty/glittery things. I love those things. And it comes with glitter styles. That's right you can make your own glittering things!  I love glitter styles.  But you don't have to take my word for it; here are the product preview for the bundle:

And here is a closer look of everything that is included.

Lil' Bandits

When I saw this new mini-kit from Unforgettable Moments, the first thought that popped into my mind was "vintage". Lately, I've been trying to scan old photos when I visit my parents. (And what I should be doing is placing the originals into some sort of archival album instead of replacing them in those horrible magnetic album, but that's a whole 'nother subject. ) 

These are photos of my brother and myself playing with pop guns that our older brother, Albert, bought for us. Albert is 12 years older than Adrian and 16 years older than me and he spoiled us rotten. These photos aren't dated, but have to be from sometime between 1974-1976. 

Lil' Bandits
Summer Cottage Mini by Unforgettable Moments
Summer Cottage Alpha by Unforgettable Moments
Font: VT Portable Remington

The products I used for this layout are a part of the GingerScraps Buffet. Every month the GingerScraps Designers release a bunch of coordinating alphas, minis, papers, elements, etc with a common theme and color palette. And on the first of each month, all of these buffet items are on sale for a dollar each. Head on over to GingerScraps to check it out.

Here are the product previews for the buffet items I used in the above layout. I love that crocheted flower. (Previews are linked to the product in the store.)

Unforgettable Moments-Midsummer Sunset

Unforgettable Moments is releasing this stunning mini-kit today at GingerScraps. I really love that distressed and textured white paper and the orange lily. I hate lilies in real life because I think they smell really bad, but this one doesn't smell at all!

Midsummer Sunset

I used this kit to make a layout about our Angel Fire Fun Day that we had in February. My husband and I like to go up to Angel Fire Ski Resort every winter and go inner-tubing, and this winter my brother and his family came with us.  The Polar Coaster layout in my last post was also all about Angel Fire Fun Day.  My niece had no interest in inner-tubing as she is a snowboarding manic. I was able to get a couple of nice action shots of her snowboarding, but the best photo in that series is this one, when she screeched to a halt in front of us and then sat down laughing at our feet.  As a matter of fact I replaced an actual action shot of her in this layout with a close up of her laughing face, because I thought it was better.

Zoey
Template: Spending Time with you by Unforgettable Moments
Kit: Midsummer Sunset by Unforgettable Moments

Do you remember when I blogged about the cliche challenge at GingerScraps?  Well, Unforgettable Moments is hosting the challenge and the Midsummer Sunset Mini kit is the participation prize! Hurry over there; you have till the end of this weekend to complete the challenge and win this kit.

The Welcome Wagon at GingerScraps & the Inspiration Challenge

Are you familiar with the Welcome Wagon at GingerScraps?  It's a part of the forum, opened to registered users only, where the GingerScraps Designers give away free mini-kits.  I picked up this kit from Unforgettable Moments this weekend:

Available in the GingerScraps forum!

I used it to make this layout for the Inspiration challenge at GingerScraps this month, which is being hosted by Unforgettable Moments. The challenge was to be inspired by a cliche.  I chose "the Bee's Knees", which means the absolute best, the height of excellence, the cat's pajamas.  I focused it on my adorable husband, of course:

Remember the Moment by Unforgettable Moments (the Welcome Wagon freebie)
Individual elements:
Flat ribbons from Thoughts of You by Unforgettable Moments
String from Coffee shop with Friends by Unforgettable Moments (the newsletter freebie)

I had to throw in some string and ribbons from other kits, well... because, I needed strings and ribbons. The string came from a newsletter freebie that Unforgettable Moments sent out last week.  Isn't she awesome?

While we are talking about how awesome Unforgettable Moments is, I should mention that the participation prize for the Inspiration Challenge this month is a free mini-kit that hasn't even been released yet!  How awesome it that? Here's a sneak peek:

The challenge ends on the last day of this month; you have a little over a week to complete it.  So, run on over to GingerScraps, register in the forum and participate in the challenge.  There are a million good cliches, I'm sure you can think of something! As a matter of fact, I had an entire series of cliches that I was considering using with pictures of their literal meaning such as:

• Airing dirty laundry–I'm sure I have or could get a picture of dirty laundry
• All that glitters is not gold–I love platinum and silver jewelry and just took photos of the Hope Diamond in it's temporary platinum setting
• The whole enchilada–my favorite food
• As easy as falling off a log–recently got great photos of my dogs crossing a log on a hike
• It's not the size of the dog in the fight. It's the size of the fight in the dog–We have a 4.5 pound chihuahua, need I say more?