Still speaking of crops

 Whilest attending the current crop, a lady popped in 

and gave Holli and I a photo of the previous

crop. And how cool is that.

 I really am not happy with alot of photos that get taken of me

but I was really pleased with this one so I decided

to scrap it.

 Because other than blogging about it and showing

the completed pages - I never scrapped about it.

Shocking I know.

 I found this wild paper from Studio Calico - loved it

and found it was perfect for the photo and topic.

Early on I went to crops and really didn't like them.

I sort of fly by the seat of my pants when I scrap and neeeeeeed

all my stuff around. Even with homemade kits

its the little details that make a page and if I don't have them

I stop dead in my tracks - or used to.

Therefore, after the first several fiascos I learned that I 

needed to suck it up and just pack a majority 

of "the stuff".

And doesn't that make for a more enjoyable experience.

Almost.

Now I need to get over the annoyance I feel that I have to hunt

and dig for stuff that I can find sort of quick at home.

Always something. 

LOL.

8th and final Kit from the crop

Would you believe I counted wrong and if you look back at my

posts I had TWO kits in the title of the blog - that said 4th Kit.

Headslappin' doh.

I knew I finished - but the count seemed wrong.

I either need to learn to read, stop guessing or learn to count.

 And there you have it. The sparsest of all kits I believe.

 So I changed things up a bit.

Well okay - alot.

I swapped out the white cardstock for black - it just seemed more dramatic.

I also dug about in my scraps box

and found some Studio Calico I loved.

the gold and white always a good pick to pop off black.

The other paper had 3 different patterns like block style so I cut them

out by the blocks and used them for mats.

I then fussy cut the flowers and used them as an embellishment which was fun.

Found some Basic Grey embellishments that worked 

and added them.

I did take a stencil with some modeling paste and puts some dots

from right to sortof left.

It just needed that something more and it kindof modeled the

chalkiness of the flowers.

Love this photo and it just pops off. 

Again I'm glad I waited until I got home to do this kit as was well.

I think overall I kitted pretty darn good

it just seems that the last couple I ran out of steam

since they were the kits with the least amount in them.

I'm sure I would've thought of something

had I got to them - but that would have really optimistic.

6th kit from the crop

So this was Halloween kit had one photo in it which I changed out - and then added several more photos of all the grandkis because a). well the paper was adorable b). I had it forever, and c). it was time to use it up. If you want to see the kitted kit go here.

Of course I went back to my favorite Halloween stamps to add as embellishments. And I used the card that came in the Studio Calico kit because it just worked so well. Basic grey came through with Halloween colors from the Kelly Purkey line. Total win-win.

Annie and Owen looking totally adorable. In hindsight I wish I had not tossed the mist about because I feel it ruins the "crispness" of the page which I was digging. Sometimes that one more thing should be thought about a bit more.

Next up since the paper was getting low I went with a piece of white cardstock for the next set of grandkidlets looking adorable. I did some fussy cutting on the owls and those buildings were perfect.

The spider is another favorite stamp - and Basic Grey comes in handy again to fill in the blanks. I did the swirly mist thing again because it really is fun and festive and since this page wasn't about being spooky - it just works.

Started with kraft paper on this and got to use my new skull stamp that is totally adorable from Stampin' up, along with the bats that were basically fillers and a new arrow stamp that mostly got covered up. I tried to be creative with the watercolors and ended up gessoing most of it. I really need to work on that.

Basic Grey came through again.

It was fun trick or treating with this bunch and Amelia was totally adorable - in a sing-song voice her "happy trick or treat" and "thank you" got her alot of extra treats. She also outlasted her older brothers which I found totally amusing.

So are you as shocked as I that I made three pages from this kit.

I'm really glad I waited and did the kit at home

because of that reason.

I was on the fire yesterday and did five pages.

I KNOW....

So now I need to get a move on to fill in the rest of the week.

5th Kit from the Crop that was done at home

and Prior to leaving for NH.

Just been hanging around and doing Halloween

so I figured I'd post this.

I did sortof use some of this stuff.

 I whacked this down to 8x8 and for some

reason I punched shapes out of the paper and did

so where I had a slight chunk taken out of a corner as

it wasn't a total 8x8.

Shocking I know.

 I pieced the corner together with a coordinating sheet

 of paper and then used a creative cafe round stamp

and a flair button with some washi to highlight it.

 I used a couple more creative cafe stamps to stamp

around the page - I love that look.

Found a vellum feather that worked and used

the Basic Grey washi strips and chipboard embellies as well to ground

and accent the photo.

The clusters turned out to be really fun - using WRMK puffy dots and 

geo tags - The frame is from Paper Issues and of

course the date stamp is from Shimelle that I really need to 

learn how to work. 

Fourth Kit from the crop

This one was the last at the crop and

it  was kinda called on account of time ran out.

I did use the papers but not necessarily those 

stickers and cut apart sheet.

I found that they were not the look I was

looking after I was putting it together.

 Still Basic Grey but clipping lines went much better.

and because it wasn't busy enough I added some 

American Craft roller dots with my favorite Vintage photo ink.

Also a bit of mist was splatted about.

 I sort of called it "done" at the crop but when I 

got home I studied on it more

and it just needed that something extra.

 At the top here I added some Carte Postale

behind the gold "notebook" mat and also below

and a banner sticker next to the arrow on the right.

It does bring more focus to the photo

which is a totally cool photo.

This is all Basic Grey except for the

alphas - Studio Calico.

Third kit from the crop - bright and sassy colors

Putting together this kit was fun.

Bright, fun primary colors for the fingerpainting

duo just having a blast.

 Love that I had a bunch of choices in the kit

some didn't make it to the page - and that's okay.

Then some not in the kit totally worked out as well.

 Using more of the transparent circus stuff from

Studio Calico - just made the page.

 Since it was obvious what the artistic duo was

doing I didn't feel it necessary to have

"fingerpainting" as a title - but when I saw "my happy place"

as I was kitting - that was a sure thing.

Actually the only sure thing LOL.

I brought in the tag and splats to help

bring it down a smidge.

The white splat is enamel paint - as my white mists

ain't so white and hard to see and it

needed to be seen.

This was totally overwhelming color-wise but

I didn't struggle as much as I thought

just by keeping everything simple.

Studio Calico - all the way........

except for the banner punch and twine.

Second kit from the crop

Is Basic Grey - Soleil and I love

that paper - its really all done for you and

of course, I struggled because of that.

You know I really hate covering stuff up - so this

was a challenge.

And and then there was the color / b&w debate.

After a census was taken......

 The details are amazing and look so real I

started with doing some background work with some

soft Tim Holtz vintage photo ink, my hero arts bird stamp

and american craft? I think, rolling stamp-hearts.

 Doesn't that masking tape look real??

Its not - but I did use some real tape on the right corner cluster.

 And as usual I used a mix of BG embellishments

because they use the same color dyes they

easily roll from collection to collection.

 This is where I put real masking tape and used 

studio calico alphas because I wanted to continue the softness.

 Doesn't that cluster - look awesomely real??

It pains me that I forget to do stuff like that ....

And...B&W won!!! 

It just works so well with the softness of the page.

Annie being a silly girl.

Love the photo!!

Aftermath of the crop & First page completed

Dragging it all out of the car and dumping

it on my desk - it really wasn't too

hard to put everything back.

Somethings I just threw in exactly as is so the

basket and yellow tub went

right back on the shelves and the 3

baskets were diecuts and punches went

easily back in their drawers

as well as the inks, paints and mists.

I'll have to remember doing that next time.

First up was this kit that was actually the first one.

I think I was doing them in order.

Who knew.

 I really love that yellow and black - however

it had cut aparts on it - and not realizing - I whacked something

out of the middle - SIGH - so I need to figure how

I can salvage it.

I actually wanted to use that paper until.....

 I figured the circus theme would be fun for my

sleeping Amelia - and it did start as a 8x8 BUT.....

 I started the embellies on the right side and decided that it needed to be 12x12

because I couldn't fit them on the page.

And I had packed the other piece soooooo win-win.

I did use the orange from the writing to make it pop off the page

and in the title.

And the adorable transparency lion fit just perfect.

I jacked the title from her mama's hashtags which is

why I really wanted to make it 8x8 -

Sorry Jill you'll have to get a bigger album LOL.

All Studion Calico - expect for bow and Sissix die..

I actually completed 4 kits - and helped my pal Holli finish

100 wedding invites. We rocked it.

Optimistic kits for the upcoming crop

I kitted 8 which if I get half of them done 

I'll be totally thrilled.

Imagine my delirium if I get them all done.

If not, I'll scrap them at home using the kits unless

I feel that I totally missed in putting them together as

has at times happened in the past.

I put this mix together with papers from

Studio Calico along with some

of their kit embellishments.

I can't decide if this photo is for me or Jill

which means either 8x8 or 12x12.

 Halloween - love this using some old

Bella Blvd with some leftover

stamping I did from the cards.

 Love these bright colorful papers to go

with the finger painting artists.

 I wanted something masculine for this b&w photo

and I'm heading to my Basic Grey Haul.

 I originally put this kit together using these 

really pretty papers from Basic Grey

for the colored photo- However, I decided

to throw in a b&w photo because of the colors in

the photos and the pretty papers 

seemed to be a bit jarring when I did a double take.

We shall see....

And I love having the flexibility.

 This page will be turned into an 8x8

yes....using 2 4x4 photos.

It could work - however, I can always go 8.5x11

Basic Grey second city - should be fun.

 This to will be 8x8 androlling with Basic Grey and

Studio Calico mix with some Paper Issues.

 Another 8x8 and I wanted this to be soft and pretty.

So the watercolors will be there to help.

Or not.

 Not everything is hard and fast which is also fun.

AND I'll be throwing everything and

the kitchen sink in the trunk of my car to take to the crop.

Stamps, inks, mists and more do-dads

will be tossed into the mix.

If not, we'll be scrapping at our LSS

so I can purchase stuff.

A total win-win.