A Perfect Weekend Retreat...

I know I am playing catch up - but at least I am posting (right?)!  The following layouts are from the May 2 weekend I spent at Bittern Lake Lodge.  This is a retreat I go to every November and the first time I have been able to got to the spring one - what a difference going in the spring verses the usual 4 feet of snow (or was it?)!

Arrived Friday afternoon to a beautiful view and the creative juices were going (once all the visiting was done)!

Friday arrival....

Saturday, Good Morning?!?!

Decided to work on my pocket style scrapbook, I do it a bit different than everyone else (surprise surprise), as you know I do various size pages in my 12x12 Ring Album (12x12, 8.5x11, 8x8, 6x6, 11x8.5") so I have carried that over to my 'pocket style' pages (12x12, 8.5x11, 8x8, etc) and mixed them in with my original various sizing....pretty cool outcome!

Here I started out using a Project Life Pocket  Design G (10x12") Page, my inserts are from the Kaisercraft Captured Moments Base Coat  3x4 and 4x6" Cards.  I also stayed with a bit of a theme this time around which is so unlike me, but hey - always trying to switch things up!  So my 'theme' was using Kaisercraft Base Coat (everything)!  If you notice, I have used different sized photos inside the pockets as well.  This one has an 8x10" cropped down to work in the pockets (so love how it turns out).

Here is another Project Life Page (12x12") Design D

One thing you will note as well is that I never just leave the card 'as is' since I have a hard time letting go of the creative process of scrapbooking.  By jazzing up the cards, whether it with stamps, inks, washi tape and or die cuts - it makes me feel like I am doing something with the creative process and it is not simply sliding in a card and sometime journaling on them.

Project Life (12x12) Design B

This next set is from We R Memory Keepers Multi Pack and the page has 3 - 2x4, 3 - 4x6 and 2 - 6x4" pockets.  Again, here I used a larger photo and cut and cropped it to fit into the pockets.

Here is the standard Project Life (12x12") Design C.  My photos were printed off in 3x5" format so I could put them onto the onto 4x6" patterned sheets of paper and added some die cuts and stamps to make them just a bit better.

Now I am back to a good ol' 8.5x11", American Crafts in this case 

 

Back to Project Life (12x12") Design B 

Project Life (6x12") Design H.  On the next two layouts I used my Tim Holtz Frameworks Dies either on the photo itself or on the embellished paper. 

Back to 8.5x11 again....

Now a 12x12"!  Now that is a shocker!  So love how these ones turned out!  Added some Dusty Attic Fish Net Chipboard (12x12")  and messed it up with some Modeling Paste and Old Paper Distress Stain to age it.  Then I also added some more Modeling Paste using a Crafter's Workshop 6x6" Stencil (I think it was called Sketch Grid)

Another 12x12", this one was inspired by an Art Journal page I saw in Pinterest.  I used paper strips, washi tape, filmstrip ribbon and gaffer tape.  Stamp in the background is Kaisercraft Textured Stamps Numbers, and then some added embellishments of Tim Holtz Remnant Rubs Elements, Twine, Maya Road Vintage Findings, 7 Gypsies Reinforcers and Prima Wooden Icons in a Box Borders.

Here are a few close ups...

I layered a 5x7" with a 4x6" of the same photo and used pop dots to give it a 3D look.

Back to Project Life (12x12") Design K

Now I am playing on an 11x8.5" and used Modeling Paste, Time Holtz Frameworks Die, Distress Paint and Lindy's Stamp Gang (Blue & Green)

 

The reverse side is some fun! Dusty Attic Chipboard Chicken Wire and Jillibean Soup Placemats Hexagons inked up with Lindy's Stamp Gang Sprays Turquoise and Distress Inks n various colors. 

 

Having some real fun using Wendy Vecchi Transluscent Embossing Paste on the Base Coat paper with a Kaisercraft 12x12" Stencil Bricks then inked it all up with some Lindy's!

This 8.5x11' layout turnout out great!

The reverse of the above, again using modeling paste and templates; washi tape and such 

The last 'layout of the weekend was a Project Life (12x12") Design Design F.  Once again I used larger photos and cropped/cut them down to fit into the pockets.  One of my favorites is the bottom photo (first photo) where I tweaked a panoramic photo into 3x4" photos making it a 4x12"!

Thanks for stopping by!  

A Creative Weekend...Part 2!

Day two woke up a a crisp one...

Not a bad view for 7:30 in the morning!

Today's layouts starts with this 12x12" one, once again done on 7 Dots Studio Dreamer 'Sleepless' with a tad bit of Dusty Attic Chipboard Chicken Wire that has been sprayed with a variety of inks (probably some Heidi Swapp Color Shine) and then dirtied some more with of course - Tim Holtz Distress Ink Gathered Twigs and Wendy Vecchi's Archival Ink in Orange Blossom (seemed to be my color choice for the weekend)!  I attached the Chicken Wore Chipboard with my Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher. Other elements here are the use of the Tim Holtz Alteration Decorative Strip Die 'Washer Border' and if I remember correctly, the three brads are from Teresa Collins World Traveler Collection (my stash)!

This is an idea I have been playing around with for quite a while.  It stems back to the Ali Edwards days when she was using different sized photo sleeves in her 12x12" albums.  I ran with it even further but incorporating different sizes of the 'pocket' pages within my different sizes of pages - cool idea right!  That is what I thought - then some other designer I think came up with the same idea and has made millions!

Really like the idea but, honestly, it takes so much time, as I can't seem to just use the 'ready made' stuff, I always want to make my own.  One day I will learn and finally be caught up - ha!

Once again I have used 7 Dots Studio Wonderland 'Mushroom and Smoke' and you will notice the most awesome distressing here - yup, used the Prima's Ingvild Bolme Distress Tool!  I have constantly brought them in and they go out faster than I can count and needless to say, had to borrow a friends while there as I once again have none left in stock! If you see one, grab it they are amazing! I added a bit of 'script' ink here and there throughout this 8.5x11" layout.

This one is pretty simple - only thing I did this time was use my Tim Holtz Mask Ransom Alphabet and inked around the letters!

Now this 12x12" layout (sorry about the finger, that is a 14 year old for you). This layout I decided to use up some of my 6x6" paper pads (in this case think it was an Echo Park) and added embellishment by Ormolu (Tree Hugger), which is kind of a joke towards my son as he tripped on a tree root and broke his arm!

This one (above & below) is using Kaisercraft's Attitude Collection, which if you look back - you will see I have used a ton! This is a 12x12" layout.

Now this 12x12" one...was just about the death of me - took me 3+ hours and still now totally what I envisioned, but will have to do for now as I really don't think I ever want to even look at it again!  It is what started as 6 4x6" photos cut into 1" squares!  Was I smart enough to graph out the back and number them...nope! so needless to say the better part of the 3+ hours was cutting and piecing it back together!  I wanted them to all blend together and then have some pop up off the page whether it be with pop dots or fragment tiles.  Well if you look hard, you will see one fragment tile!  I was so confused with all the squares... I think I just gave up!

So after that one, I wanted a fun one - this one took me about 30 min from start to finish and I LOVE it! It too is a 12x12" done on a sheet of Elle's Studio printed paper with some Kaisercraft's 75 Cent papers. The canvas in the background is a Prima that is out of stock, but the Creative Imaginations ones are just as great! The key and brads are both Prima (Mechanicals and Junkyard Findings), 7 Gypsies Metal Enforcers, Dusty Attic Chicken Wire (inked up with sprays, embossing powders and more I am sure) and attached using some twine!

These last two are 11x8.5" layouts (a very hard size to find).  I used my good ol' reliable 7 Gypsies Off the Wall Paper Collection and jsut had fun with them.  Not a lot of work on these, but love how they turned out. The 'epic' is from the Heidi Swapp Memory File Collection, Photo Captions and simply added the photo to it (with a little ink to bring down the brightness of course). Cut out around the shoe to incorporate a strip of different paper, the Bird on a Wire are from FabScraps and I simply inked them roughly so they were not perfect.  The number '9' is from Tim Holtz Numeric Alpha Parts, and some Red Dots Washi Tape to add a little pop along with the Tim Holtz Flourish Mask inked up with Wendy Vecchi's Archival Ink Red Geranium.

 

Finally, another 11x8.5" layout with 7 Gypsies Off the Wall Paper Collection. Embellished with some Prima Junkyard Findings and Mechanicals, Wood Icons in a Box; Tim Holtz Tissue Tape, Enameled Tags, Remnant Rubs, and Film Strip Ribbon.

Thanks for popping by and checking out what I have been up to, one more post to come with part 3!