On Trend with BasicGrey

Hello!!

Guess what?

I have a confession.

I am admittedly not overly trendy when it comes to my scrapbooking. It used to worry me however, I have found that I am much more comfortable with trying to incorporate the occasional "new hot thing" everyone in a while. However, that doesn't mean I don't have a hopping Pinterest account where I see and LOVE some current trends! Just some of those that I have been noticing include gorgeous multi-layers (especially in photo matting), ink splatters, chevrons & arrows, Silhouette negative cuts AND die-cuts, fresh color combos like aqua & orange or yellow & grey, flair (both real and digital), and metallics. 

So when Shara at BasicGrey asked me if I would do an "On Trend" layout for the blog, I  decided to challenge myself and see just how many of those fun trends I could use on just ONE layout (without it going over the edge...I hope! ;))

Supplies: Carte Postale PP, chipboard buttons, snippets, flair, wood veneer, diecuts. Hey Boy chipboard alphas. Basics Micro Mono alphas.

Other: chalk ink, pens, waxed twine.

For this layout about one of my favorite vacay photos ever, I used the gorgeous Carte Postale line and honed right in on the aqua and orange (trend #1!) papers in that collection. I definitely wanted to layer color under my fun photo, so I selected an accent color of yellow and created a banner with edges that I curved up for added texture (trend #2! I'm on a roll!). 

If you have seen the new Carte Postale wood veneer shapes, you'd have to have used those too! So I did! I grabbed up the cute geotag and the chevrons (wait - a trend within a trend! Does that count for 3, 4 AND 5?!), inked them with a bit of chalk ink and added them for a fun accent. 

Then my friend Mary Kay told me, flair is the new "flowers for boys" so I had to throw a bit of it on there, too. I thought it looked really cute as the "O" in "explore" and gave me one more trend to add to my list (I think we're up to 6!). 

And finally...because I've always wanted to try it and fellow BG gal Marinette Lesne makes it look SO cool, I broke out my mists and added a few splatters. I so obviously need practice and I won't tell you about the mess I made, but it did finish up my layout with a total of SEVEN (whoot!) trends! 

I promise I won't ever do that many again, but I hope that it's inspired you to do something a little different yourself and if it does, please link me up! ANNNNDDD - if you hop over to the BasicGrey blog NOW, you can be entered to win the Carte Postale line of your own! :D

Happy Scrappin'! 

xoxo, 

k

A Memorial Day Thank You....

Hello!

I just wanted to take a minute to wish you all a very blessed Memorial Day. I hope that you are having an amazing weekend and that while enjoying the official start to summer you might also take time to recognize all the men and women who died for this country so that we may do so. They truly deserve all the appreciation we can give them. 

Saturday, the boys and I went with the Scouts to this gorgeous cemetery (where their great-grandparents are buried) to place flags at the graves of those that bravely served our country. It is one of our yearly activities that I look forward to the most. It always makes my heart catch in my throat as I see these young men pay their respects and leave a small tribute that while not enough is least we can do.

 This was Turner's first year placing flags as a new Boy Scout. 

The boys take their work very seriously and make sure not only to wipe clean each marker but to say a word or two of Thanks. 

This image makes my heart stop. It's so beautifully peaceful in this part of the cemetery.

 

A few of our boys that helped out this day.

Our cemetery is very old. We have quite a few Civil War veterans, but this particular gentleman served in the War of 1812! The boys were pretty impressed and may have just left more than one flag as his resting place.

When I pay my respects, I like to address each soldier by name. This is Lieutenant Joe Bell and he was a member of the Confederate Army. 

Carson placed the flag for Mr. Jacob Harris who died a prisoner of war at Camp Douglass during the Civil War. I was amazing to be able to pay tribute to such a person and be surrounded by the incredible history of it all. It was a solemn reminder at the blessings and liberties we get to enjoy as citizens of this country.

So thank you once again to all those who serve and have served our country valiantly but especially to those brave men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice during that service. We will always remember.

xoxo, 
k.

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.