Happy 7th Birthday, PAGEMAPS!

Hey, everyone!!

Guess what!? It's PAGEMAPS 7th Birthday and I am so excited to help them celebrate! You know how much I adore that site and all the FREE (yes, FREE!!) inspiration it provides so I'm all about sharing the love for them at every opportunity! 

My challenge over on the PM blog was: PaperMixology! I love mixing patterned paper and usually have anywhere from 4-6 on a given page. This layout below is just slightly different where I used a textured cardstock as one of my prints. Read below to find out a bit more!

Supplies: BasicGrey PP, buttons, brads, alpha stickers; Scenic Route PP; Bazzill CS; Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L adhesive; Uniball pen; twine; Fiskars star punches & circle punches.

First, I've had this photo to scrapbook since 2008. Seriously. 2008. It's one of my favorites of my two youngest but I never could figure out just what I wanted to do with it. And let's be honest, that royal blue is so vibrant so adding patterned paper with it could make it overwhelming if I wasn't careful. 

So I decided to minimize the patterns just a bit and go more for texture. I used textured cardstock in place of where I would normally use a pattern and it gave me the same result but with a bit less busy-ness. I added elements like buttons and brads and even chipboard under some of my punched stars for extra dimension and "oomph." And to really go crazy, I lifted up the photo with foam adhesive to make sure it stood out and was noticed.

Mixing patterned papers can sometimes be tricky, but if you break down your papers by scale, you'll discover it's much easier to bring them all together!

So try your hand at some paper mixology and you could win a BasicGrey collection pack of your choosing! Just create a layout, based on this sketch, and mix up some patterned paper. You can even convert the sketch to 12x12 if you'd like! This contest starts today and ends at midnight MST on Thursday, June 7, 2013. The contest is open to everyone, everywhere! Be sure to link your project up in the comments section on the PageMaps blog!

And speaking of winners....Hey ABBEY! You're lucky winner of the Hipster+Mint Julep prize package from BasicGrey! Email me at kellydotgoreeatgmaildotcom to claim your prize!

Have a wonderful weekend!

xo, 

k

COLLECTION COLLISION: Hipster+Mint Julep

Hi there!

Welcome! I'm so excited to have a fun little surprise to share with you! I have a little stint over on the BasicGrey blog today! And even better it's featuring one of my favorite things - the COLLECTION COLLISION! Most of you know I've always loved mixing patterned paper and this time I got quite the challenge: combining the soft florals of Mint Julep with the retro-rad Hipster!

When I was initially asked to do this collection collision between Hipster & Mint Julep, my first thought was, “WHAT?!” I couldn’t think of two more opposite lines that BasicGrey had ever developed, but since I live for a challenge I plunged right in. 

To get started, the first thing I did was lay out all the papers from each collection trying to find something that might coordinate. I didn’t have much luck! The pinks and the peaches/oranges from the two collections were so very different. Then I started looking to the solids and found that the pretty crackled off-white/yellow paper from Hipster went so well with the yellow/creams in the cobalt floral pattern in Mint Julep. As I started putting those two together, I added in some more of the pink from Mint Julep and then the baby blue from Hipster and it all just fell into place.

Supplies: BasicGrey Mint Julep: MIN-4122 Zola, MIN-4124 Carolina, MIN-4128 Bonnie, MIN-4132 Marion, MIN-4144, Printed Chipboard Shapes; BasicGrey Hipster: HIP-4097 Betty, HIP-4090 Neato, HIP-4099 Hip, HIP-4095 Nifty; Other: BasicGrey brads; Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L; Stampin' Up! scalloped border punch; Fiskars large circle punch; Silhouette electronic cutting machine; thread.

This layout is of my sweet niece, Jennifer, and features some of her senior photos. Jen will graduate from high school next month and it’s such an awesome accomplishment. I’m so proud of her and what a beautiful young lady she is inside and out. I based this page off an fab sketch from Becky Fleck. I love how it featured such a nice space for either a title and/or journaling. Since I wanted a large cut title and some of what I wanted to say to/about Jennifer was private, I featured the journaling on the tag tucked on the left side of the page. Then I was free to play around with the title work a bit and create something fun using the beautiful quote I found on the internet.

I hope this inspires you to do a little collection collision of your own! I can't wait to see what you come up with! And of course to get you started, how about WINNING a little Hipster+Mint Julep prize pack of your very own?! Simple hop over to Facebook and "like" BasicGrey, then come back here and tell me that you did or do :) It's that easy! I'll choose a random winner sometime tomorrow! 

xoxo, 
k.

May PageMaps + BG Album WINNER

Hello, all!

In the craze that has been both Crop & Create - Burnaby (SO amazing) and National Scrapbooking Day (equally amazing), my PageMaps post had been put a bit on the back burner! But now that I have returned home from the most incredible weekend, I wanted to fix that really quickly...

This was the fun sketch I got to do this month. I really loved how the elements went right across the page and gave them all the focus. I had some American Crafts Studio Calico Here & There in my stash that I have been itching to use and this sketch gave me the perfect excuse. 

The backstory is this:

Last August we (my family) rescued the most adorable chocolate lab. He was around a year old and seriously the sweetest dog ever. He was very timid and had visual cues of the abuse he had taken (I so wish I could get my hands on whoever did it to him), but he absolutely flourished under the love of 3 energetic boys (and my husband and I too :)). Not long after we had him, we took him on a Boy Scout canoe trip. It was his first real family outing and his first time at the water and you would have thought he had died and gone to heaven. He was sooooo excited!

It wasn't long before the boys discovered a rope swing along the river. Everyone got out and took turns jumping off the swing and making splashes. The dog who was running along the bank went crazy! He couldn't stand to see his boys out there in the water and one by one he started bringing them back to shore. I couldn't believe it. We really knew he had become "ours" that day.

This photo below captures Scout rescuing Carson and tells the same story. :)

Supplies: American Crafts/Studio Calico Here & There patterned paper, diecuts, stickers, brads; PageMaps for Spellbinders pennant dies, bracket die & border die; BasicGrey alpha stickers; BoBunny carstock; Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L; Zig pen; Silhouette electronic cutter; toothpicks.

So speaking of PageMaps - this month is PageMaps' 7th Anniversary! Can you believe it?! All month long there will be fun things going on over on the blog & site and you won't want to miss it! I promise oodles of inspiration and PRIZES!!! (I'll be posting on the 17th with a fab BasicGrey prize!)

And one more thing before I go - the winner of the fabulous BASICGREY ALBUM BUNDLE is KATHERINE (Sutty)! Katherine, please email me at kellyDOTGoreeATGmailDOTcom to claim your prize! Thank you to all who entered! 

xoxo, 

k

HELLO, everyone!!

Happy National SCRAPBOOKING Day (and Derby Day, too, to my Kentucky friends!)! I'm so excited to be here with you today on the blog as well as with the amazing ladies at Crop & Create - Burnaby! We have been having such an incredible time and learning so much and eating tons of chocolate...it's been a perfect weekend - weather included! I totally HEART VANCOUVER!

But since we couldn't all actually be together today, we have cyberly (do you like that one?) gotten together over at the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog for tons of inspirational posts, tons of prizes and even more good times!

The post I get to share with you is a PageMaps inspirational post. My challenge was to grab a PageMaps sketch from Scrapbook & Cards Today's Spring 2013 issue and create a new project with it. 

Those of you that know me even a little know how much I love Becky and her sketches, so I was all over this one. And here is the fun sketch I picked:

I had just gotten some of the wonderful new Fancy Pants Trendsetter line and wanted to put it to work. The papers were so fun that this project almost scrapbooked itself. And yes, I know I can't seem to get away from my framing in a page and those stars. What can I say, I like what I like ;)

Supplies: Fancy Pants Trendsetter Patterned paper, alpha stickers, stickers; PageMaps for Spellbinders die; Colorbox ink; Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L; BasicGrey alpha stickers; Fiskars star punches.

And finally a look at the sketch I used (lower left) and my layout side by side. You can see that I almost took this sketch exactly as it was. That's perfectly okay! There's no reason to reinvent the wheel if you don't want to. Sketches are such a perfect way to jump start your creativity and inspiration.

Please stop by the SCT blog all day today for more inspiration and PRIZES! My hour they are giving away an amazing prize pack from FANCY PANTS featuring TRENDSETTER - the very line I used for this layou! Whoot!

Have a wonderful day!
xoxo, 
k

ONBC + Crop & Create BURNABY!

Hi everyone!

Happy Wednesday and Happy 1st day of MAY! It's MAY DAY! How exciting! I so remember dancing around the May Pole and all the fun May celebrations when I was in grade school. I really miss that tradition, but I'm also getting WAY off topic!

The first of the month for me always means that the new installment of my OLD NEW BORROWED COOL blog post at Scrapbook & Cards Today goes up! This month, the old was this adorable photo of my mother & me (circa 1974 or 75) and it's just in time for Mother's Day, too! I hope you'll hop over there to find a bit of inspiration, a little challenge and learn a bit more about me when you do it! Full blog post HERE.

Supplies: American Crafts Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm & 5th & Frolic PPs, flair, epoxy flowers, stickers; BasicGrey alpha stickers; My Mind's Eye word stickers; Montana Misfits twine; Fiskars circle punch; Zig pen; Bazzill cardstock; Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L adhesive; Stampin' Up! butterfly punch.

Also, the arrival of May also means the arrival of NATIONAL SCRAPBOOKING DAY and this year some of the SCT and I will be celebrating from VANCOUVER at Crop & Create BURNABY! Catherine has generously decided to allow more ladies to attend even if just for one day so she has opened up registration to allow for "Day Passes" as well as for the entire weekend! So trust me when I say it's NOT TOO LATE to join us! I promise, you don't want to miss all the fun we're going to have there as well as on the SCT blog!Click this link HERE to find out more!

Have a wonderful day and I'll be back tomorrow with just a bit more!

xo, 

k.

BasicGrey Album Bundle + Giveaway!

Hello, everyone!

Happy last day of April! (Can you believe it?!)

I have something so fun to share with you today. I created this Year of Us album using my Project 365 photos and BasicGrey's amazing BowTies album kit + a few BowTie embellishments. I absolutely LOVED doing this project and getting all those fun photos down in one place where I could look at them and remember rather than just have them sitting there on my computer. And I have to tell you. I have never been a Project Life-r...The large scaled intimidated me and to be honest, my family isn't all that interesting ;) but this small scale (7x9) was perfect for letting me try the PL style and not feel overwhelmed. And I LOVED it!

What is even more fun for you is that BasicGrey is giving one of my lucky readers a kit of their very own to make their own special album!
You will get the album, inserts, page protectors, 6x6 pad, snippets, alphabet stickers, element stickers and either buttons or chipboard pieces!
Seriously! Isn't that amazing! 

Here are a few images of the album I created below (and you can see a few more pages in the BasicGrey promotion material as well). 

Now, here's what you have to do: Simply leave me a comment here on my blog between now and Saturday, May 4th at midnight est (National Scrapbooking Day, of course!) telling me what kind of album YOU would make and you'll be entered to WIN!

Now, don't despair if you don't win - BasicGrey is offering these albums kits to EVERYONE for just $25!! What a deal! You want want to miss out! In fact, I suggest getting yours now and if you win, then it's a double bonus! ;)

Have a wonderful day!

xo, 

k

PageMaps!

Good morning!
I know, another post, right?! But I have at least one more thing that I wanted to share today - something that has me so excited!

If you know me and my scrapbooking at all, most likely you also know how much I adore Becky Fleck and her website PageMaps. Beck and I have been friends since my very early BasicGrey days and I have admired her and her work since then. I truly think she's a scrappy genius but don't tell her I said that, it might go to her head ;).

Anyhow, I have never been able to get enough of her sketches. I have a folder on my computer that constantly keeps new Becky ideas in there and it is one of my first "go to" places when I'm stuck creatively. I LOVE THEM. Seriously.

So when Becky asked me if I'd like to be a part of the first ever PageMaps design team, I couldn't say anything but YES, YES and YES again! Truly, it's a perfect match for me.

We started with February's newsletter and this is the very first page I did. It also features Becky's new PageMaps dies for Spellbinders - this one uses the tickets. We LOVE family game night at our house.

Supplies: PageMaps for Spellbinders dies That's the Ticket, MME Sweet Caroline PP, BoBunny Cardstock, Pink Paislee Portfolio PP

And here was March's newsletter. It was a bit different for me with all that fuchsia and pink, but I loved it! Some fun BasicGrey Hey Girl! here along with the "Charmed I'm sure" and "On the Border" PageMaps/Spellbinders dies. We have the cutest little bakery literally right down the street and Carson & I had to check it out when it first opened.

Supplies: PageMaps for Spellbinders dies Charmed I'm Sure and On the Edge, BasicGrey Hey Girl! PP and alpha stickers, Assorted Butterfly punches (Stampin' Up, Martha Stewart, Fiskars), Queen & Co. pearls, BoBunny Cardstock

And then finally for April's blog - this one was a bit of a flashback for me - This was Carson in kindergarten! Oh, how I miss that baby face! More BasicGrey Hey Girl! here along with the "On the Border" Pagemaps/Spellbinders dies.

Supplies: PageMaps for Spellbinders dies On the Edge; BasicGrey Hey Girl! PP, chipboard, brads, alpha stickers; Bazzill Cardstock

I hope you'll subscribe to the PageMaps newsletter and check out the amazing monthly inspiration. Not only are there always design team contributions, but many other guest designers as well showing how wonderfully versatile sketches can be!

Have a wonderful Wednesday!
xo, 
k.