ScrapThat! Kit Club July Blog Hop

Welcome to ScrapThat's July Kit Reveal and Blog Hop!! 

Here are my two layouts designed with the gorgeous July kit, featuring Pink Paislee's "Hope Chest" collection.

 Both of my pages are for my mother's vintage album, which I will give to her on her birthday next November.  In the design for "Play" I wanted to capture the essence of childhood, using that adorable little girl image fussy cut from the paper.

The bride in this photo is my mother's cousin Mary, and my mother is standing to the left of her.  I just love looking at old wedding photos and admire the lovely vintage dresses.

This layout is based on Amarilys' July sketch, and I made a video to show how my design came together.  Click HERE to watch the video on YouTube or simply click on the 'play' button on the video below.

However, I do have some sad news:  this is my last month as ScrapThat's Video Educator, and I am saying Farewell.

I had a wonderful time designing with the beautiful kits and truly enjoyed being a part of the friendly and talented Design Team.  Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share my techniques and videos!  I will be sharing my last tutorial video and blog post in mid-July.

Remember to scroll down to the end of this post to find my secret word for the hop!

Now on to the exciting reveals:

We are so happy to welcome the amazing 

Natasha Naranjo Aguirre

as our July Guest Designer!!!

 

Hi!  My name is Natasha & I’m the mother of two wonderful children & the wife of an amazing, supportive man. I am a floral designer by day and a scrapbook designer by night. I love to incorporate different techniques in my work and use a variety of elements. Every day I am inspired by the work and talent of others, and I hope to be able to inspire others with my work as well. 

Be sure to stop by her blog to see more of her gorgeous creations: http://www.moments-of-tranquility.com/

Now, without further ado....  

Introducing our July Kit,

 "Hope Chest"

Featuring the Hope Chest collection by Pink Paislee, we are sure you will love this kit packed with gentle neutrals and sages combined with pops of Prima color! Whatever your scrapping style is, you can capture the beauty of nature and the photos and memories you hold dear.

Take a look:

Main Kit*

*The Circles are not part of this kit-sorry for the mix-up

Paper Add-On

Flower Add-On

 Embellishment Add-On

More details on this collection can be found here:

ScrapThat! Store 

We are currently accepting new
Kit Club Members.

For more information,

complete the form on the link below:

New Subscriber  

Now that we are in the full swing of warmer weather,

 we are so excited to show you what we have designed 

with the soothing and refreshing July Collection.

Should you lose your way, here is the Blog Hop order:

Scrap That! 
Natasha Naranjo Aguirre

Laura Gilhully

ScrapThat! Facebook Page 
Amarilys Doria 

Tracey Gregory 

Tracey Sabella 
Kelly Klapstein YOU ARE HERE
Sandi Clarkson

Scrap That! 

Look at the beautiful sketch Amarilys has created for July:

See details about the challenge here: Sketch Challenges

The DT Challenge this month is hosted by Tracey G:"Create A Canvas"
Due to popular request, Sandi will also be hosting a Round Robin challenge!

Everyone is welcome to participate in all challenges.

Entries for all challenges are due by Wednesday, July 24.

 All winners of our challenges, including Layout of the Week, are eligible to receive 10% off any 2012 Kits ~ including Add-ons!

Our Blog Hop features 9 fabulous hop sites including our Design Team blogs. 

We have been scrapping away and are so excited to show you our  creations! 

The July Blog Hop Prize is our retired "Summer In My Garden" Main Kit featuring Fabscrap's Organic collection

To qualify for this month's FABULOUS Prize, you must complete the following:

• Visit each blog listed on the hop to see what each designer has created using this month's kit and sketch (comments are very much appreciated).
• Each designer's blog hop post will feature a word or two that will make up a secret sentence, collect these words along the way.
• You must become a FOLLOWER of each blog along the way and LIKE us on our Facebook Page!
• Subscribe to Kelly's YouTube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/kellycreates
• Post the ScrapThat! Blinkie on your blog.
• For your last stop on our Blog Hop return here to the ScrapThat! Chat Blog. Leave a comment letting us know you have completed the hop.(Please do NOT include the secret sentence in your comments.)
• Email the secret sentence to Tracey Sabella: tracey@scrapthat.ca

The Blog Hop ends Sunday, June 30 at Midnight EST.

The prize MUST be claimed within 3 days of the forum announcement which will also be made on the ScrapThat! Blog.

~ If left unclaimed a NEW winner will be chosen ~
**Winner will pay actual shipping costs for sending the kit from Canada.**
Shipping costs will be invoiced via PayPal unless you are a kit member,
 then your prize will be shipped with your monthly kit.

Prizes won during the month will be mailed out the first week of the following month.

Due to Customs clearance, International mailings sometimes take 30-75 days to receive.

My secret word is:

Chest

Next hop over to

Sandi Clarkson

For your final stop, return here to the ScrapThat! Blog 

to let us know you have completed the hop.

Remember ~ only send the secret sentence to tracey@scrapthat.ca

Happy Hopping!

ScrapThat! June Kit Embossing Tutorial

The June ScrapThat! kit has so many wonderful embellishments.  

While I was designing my layout, I decided to alter the Maya Road butterflies  and the office document clip.

To learn this technique and watch a video tutorial, you can visit the ScrapThat! blog.  Click HERE to pop over there.

I shared how I designed this entire layout in a previous blog post. If you'd like to watch my video tutorial on how I created this page, from start to finish in fast forward, click HERE.

This is a beautiful kit with lots of Prima product!

A Father's Day Card

I made a Father's Day card this year for my dad.

You can learn how I made those shiny copper stripes by visiting The Crafty Power Blog, where you will find this card and a video tutorial.  Click HERE to check it out.

I have the most wonderful Dad....

....who is also the best grandfather ever.

He was always playful...

...telling jokes...

...gentle and generous.

Now at the age of 88, he suffers from the late stages of Alzheimers. 

 He has forgotten almost everything, but I refuse to forget the happy memories he has given us.

Happy Father's Day, Dad.  I love you.

Inked!

June seems to be running away on me, so before it does, here is my take on Sue Sykes' June sketch:

BabyOfTheFamily is 13 and experiments with her hair.  A LOT.  She found some YouTube tutorials on how to colour hair using chalk.  The best part?  It's temporary!

As she is talking about trying this out, I say, "Hey, let's get out my Clearsnap Chalk Inks and give it a go."  [I probably shocked her with my enthusiasm]

The bright red and teal parts are blond streaks she coloured with the ink, but I think the purple showed up well at the dark bottom parts of her hair.

TIP 1:  After rubbing the chalk ink against your hair, heat set it a bit with a blow dryer. 

TIP 2:  Vibrant and bright ink colours work best.

And the part I was happiest about?  It cost nothing!

I used Glitz Design"Uncharted Waters" collection that has some fun plastic embellishments.....

Vintage slides

A cute banner

One of my favourite butterfly punches

I cut some chevrons from patterned paper

My Little Shoebox glitter alphabet stickers

I didn't colour my own hair, but I did alter the colour of my title letter stickers using a Spectrum Noir alcohol ink marker.  I got a great deal on my markers over at Canuck Crafts.  Click HERE to visit their online store.  Awesome service....and they know everything there is to know about alcohol markers.

Here is my quick video tutorial on how I coloured these alphabet stickers.  Or you can click HERE to watch it on YouTube.

After you're finishing colouring your hair....or your alphabet stickers..... stop by the Sketchy Challenge site over at Canadian Scrapbooker and have some fun!

Motherhood

I went to a funeral yesterday.  Colleen was 49 when she passed away last week after battling cancer for a year. It is beyond tragic.

I hate funerals, but this one was especially tough....because she is a mother, and her two daughters are teenagers.   Her younger daughter is my youngest daughter's best friend.

It makes me realize how precious my children are...

and many days I wish they were little again...

Playing with blocks and not driving cars....

Not graduating from high school....

or wearing make-up...

Just sitting on the floor....

...and not walking away from me yet.

I joke around a fair bit about raising children, especially teenagers, but I'm the one with separation anxiety now, and I'm not ready to let them go.  I hope they are patient with me....it could take awhile....and a lot of scrapbooking.

L-R: BoyGenius, BabyOfTheFamily and DramaQueen with their Mama.

Double the Fun with Kaisercraft

The Summer issue of Canadian Scrapbooker has hit the newsstands and the Fall call for submissions is over....which means that I have a new Double the Fun sketch and layout for Winter 2013! [I know, I know....the "W" word should not be uttered at this time of the year]

Here is my sample layout and sketch, which you will see on the Home Page of the Canadian Scrapbooker website:

I used the beautiful "Elegance" collection from Kaisercraft for these photos of DramaQueen and one of her best friends, Lauren.  They were all dressed up to go out for dinner together.  Ah...to be sixteen again!

This layered title is actually a combination of sticker elements from a few different Kaisercraft collections, along with the pretty leafy wood embellishment.

I added some Kaisercraft pearls to highlight the journaling stickers.  Don't you love these 'faux' Dymo label stickers from the Kaisercraft "Pickled Pear" collection?

The feathers are fussy cut from a piece of "Elegance" patterned paper called "Paper Pure."

The gold doilies are from The Dollar Store, and the border punch is EK Success/Martha Stewart.

You have lots of time to work on your double layout and submit it for publishing! Have fun :)