I was so lucky to receive a copy of Michelle Skinner's new book Your Words, Your Story: Add Meaningful Journaling to Your Layouts.  I read it cover to cover several times and fell more in love with it with each reading.  It really gave me a new perspective about how I have been scrapbooking lately.  Michelle's book, besides being filled with gorgeous layouts, will really encourage you to tell your story.  There is tons of great advice on different journaling techniques and ways to get your story on the page.  Michelle's writing style makes you feel like you are working with a friend.  I guarantee at the end of reading her book you will feel a little more courageous with your journaling. 

After reading her book I decided to attempt to scrapbook photos of my husband.  I really wanted to tell the story of my journey to finding him BUT I wanted to keep it a little bit private.  The book's advice to use envelopes for intensely personal journaling was the perfect choice for me.



Michelle also writes about finding the perfect title for your layouts.  Her advice was helpful here.  I used some of my favorite song lyrics that matched the mood of my journaling for my title.



Without going into full detail my journaling focuses on my life before I met Brandon.  I had difficulty in college but there was nothing that seemed like the right path for me.  I have spent many years lightly kicking myself for the mistakes that I made. It wasn't until a year or so ago that I realized that this long road only led to Brandon.  Brandon and I were on completely different journeys.  Cities apart and completely different worlds, if it hadn't been for the mistakes that I had made we would have never crossed paths.  Of course when I met him I didn't know that I would marry him but I did know that he felt familiar.  He felt like home. I was a tired road weary traveler and I am so blessed that he was my destination. 
Thanks to Michelle for making me feel brave enough to tell my story. 
Have a great week! Enjoy! Love, Melissa

Good Sunday afternoon everyone!  I was so happy to get the chance to lift Ronda - I absolutely ADORE her work.  It's full of layers, gorgeous color and so much attention to detail.  I had a really difficult time choosing which layout to lift!  I loved them all so much!  In the end I chose her Now layout:

 

and here is mine:

 

 

Instead of using green paint, I opted to stamp glitter on the background paper and use green hole punch dots :o)  I added 3-D Foam dots to make the little "sprinkles" of green stand out! 

(Supplies:  Studio Calico Kit: Making Memories Patterned Paper, Sassafrass Patterned Paper, October Afternoon Patterned Paper Crate Paper Patterned Paper, Studio Calico Rip Strips, Sassafrass Alphabet Stickers, K & Company Die Cut Butterflies, Making Memories Greenhouse Felt Clips; Other: Pink Paislee Patterned Paper, Jenni Bowlin Patterned Paper, Heidi Swapp Bling, Gems, Stickles, Notebook Paper, Scotch Photo Stickers, Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L 3-D Foam Dots, Xyron Create A Sticker Adhesive)

Have a great one!!

Happy Sunday :) I was very excited to get the chance to lift Jaime. What some of yo may not know is that I have known Jaime since  2005 when were started designing for Arctic Frog and I just adore her work. When I looked at her gallery for a layout to lift I got lost there were so many I loved. Her use of color, layers, subtly distressed edges and white space is just perfect. I ended up picking this layout:

 

Here is my layout titled "Guarenteed Fresh"

 

Supplies Used: Cardstock (Bazzill), Patterned Paper from (October Afternoon & Scenic Route), Die Cut (Making Memories), Rhinestones (Prima), Buttons (SEI), Eyelets (Heidi Swapp), Chipboard Circle (Scenic Route), Alphas (American Crafts), String (DMC) & Font (Traveling Typewriter)

Thanks for stopping by ...

YAY! My turn to scraplift! I got to scraplift the fabulous Kim Frantz who can rock the paper as well as the digi! I loved looking through her work on her personal blog as well at all the cool things she has shared on this blog. It was hard to choose just 1 layout to scraplift but I finally narrowed it down to this one:

Now, Kim's layout is a digital masterpiece but I scraplifted it with a good ole fashioned paper layout.
I love the way her background looks like a crumpled paper bag so I cut up a brown paper bag to make part of my background.
I flipped my title and embellishments to the right side instead of the left side like Kim has on her layout. 
Using Kim's layout as my inspiration, I love how mine turned out!

(Supplies: Patterned paper-KI Memories; Chipboard embellishments, alphabet stickers, epoxies, brads-KI Memories; Felt alphabets-American Crafts; Misc-paper bag, embroidery floss, ribbon)

Thanks for the great inspiration Kim!

Have a great week!
gretchen

My turn in the lifting of the Masters!  Too Cool that I got to lift the talented Melissa Blair.  While surfing through her galleries I found the sweet layout titled Dare to be Fabulous.  I absolutely adore the tone on tone white hearts with that one pop of color.  I love how she placed the photos on one side and the word strips on the other side.  and I love how she broke up the page into halves with the ribbon.  I knew this was the layout for me to lift!

I knew exactly which picture I wanted to use, this one my friend Erin took of our friend Susan's daughter. When starting my layout, I knew I wanted to mimic the tone on tone hearts somehow.  I also love that the page is split in two so I grabbed two scraps of pattern paper to piece them together.  With ribbon and my pattern paper, I knew I could hide the seam.  I used one of my favorite punches and made the butterflies out of the same pattern paper.  Like Melissa, I kept the words to one side and the picture on the opposite side.  I also wanted to make sure the layout had some of my touches so I looped the ribbon, added the stitches, placed the flower & buttons by the picture, and sanded my title.




details of the butterflies and title.


and the ribbon. 

Thanks Melissa for the inspiration!

Supplies: Alpha Stickers (Doodlebug Designs), Cardstock Stickers (Scenic Route), Pattern Paper (Scenic Route), Punch (EK Success), Misc (Buttons, Ribbons)

Hi everyone!  I hope that you all had a wonderful Halloween :o)  We had a good time, the girls looked so cute (and scary of course ;o)) 

Okay, okay, on to the scrapping fun!  I have been seeing layouts using corrugated board as a fun and unique way to stamp!  I'm always up for a little bit of stamping, so, I thought I'd try my hand at it. :o)  I simply cut a piece of cardboard from a box I had (I always save the boxes my scrapping products, etc. come in!) and ripped the top layer of cardboard off.  It took a bit of work but finally I was left with a clean piece of corrugated board to stamp with.  I used both paint and glitter to stamp with!  I simply took a triangle face sponge and lightly dabbed white paint onto the corrugated board.  Then I pressed it onto my background paper several times, both vertically and horizontally.  It created a really neat and distressed looking grid.  I let the paint dry and then began creating my layout!  I also used it to stamp onto my clouds - I simply smeared some Stickles onto the board and then pressed it onto the clouds. 

 

 

I really love the way my layout turned out - the corrugated board stamped image gave it a fun, grungy distressed look!  This is an excellent way to recycle some old boxes ;o) 

(Supplies:  American Crafts Patterned Paper, Me & My Big Ideas Patterned Paper, Pink Paislee Patterned Paper, Graph Paper, Heidi Swapp Silhouette Word, American Crafts Glitter Thickers, Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch, Maya Road Office Sheer, Best Occasions Rhinestone Swirls, Gems, Dymo Labeler, Scotch Photo Stickers, Therm O Web Glue Dots, Scrapbook Adhesives 3-D Foam Dots)

Have a great evening everyone!