A Memory of Christmas Past

2020 has been interesting for most of us.  I don't have a single person in my inner (or outer) circle that has been rehashing this past year with words and phrases like:

"Just like clockwork..."

"According to plan..."

"Exactly where I thought I'd be in 2020 when I did my 5 year plan in 2015..."

"Best year ever..."

That being said, we've made it! We're here at the end of the year, the holidays are upon us, and we have much to look forward to.

This is a LO I did earlier this year (and didn't get around to posting it...probably because I was too busy working).  I think I finished this LO somewhere in the July/August timeframe.  I used the March 2020 Scrapbook Kit (and probably pieces from the Cards, Tags, and More and/or Mixed Media Kit from the same month) from Tres Jolie. 

We took this picture in a time where social distancing wasn't a "thing" yet, when you could still hug people who weren't in your immediate family, and when dropping in to visit friends in their home was a cool thing to do.  Luckily we've been able to responsibly visit with these friends over the past year, but not as much as we'd like to.  We took this picture after delivering some yummy liquor to them from their favorite liquor store (that is about 7 states away).  Since we were out of town and passing by their favorite place, we picked them up a little Christmas (2019) Cheer!

Here is the LO:

I used a Heidi Swapp stamp set from my stash to stamp (among other things) this phrase that says "My Loves".  I have a great circle of friends and these two are certainly some of the top notch folks I'm honored to have in my life!  Truly great people whom I truly love! 💕💕💕

Here's a close up of my stamp set with a view of my messy workspace in the background.

Below you can see a close up of some flower clusters and elements that I used on this LO.  Green is one of my favorite colors (and coincidentally golden yellow is also) so I had a great time layering all the great shades of green and golden yellow while working on this project.  I also incorporated some peach-y colored flowers (I might mention that the aforementioned favorite liquor store is in Georgia, so I thought peach colored was appropriate!)

Finally a few more flowers and some of the green accents on the paper as well as some accents that I added with paint.  I also used one of the small glass balls (included somewhere in the kit or in another kit) and filled it full of glitter...a ticking glitter bomb, if you will.  The glitter hasn't escaped yet, but I feel certain that it's always a possibility! 😂😂

So there you have it!  Once again life got a bit in the way and I got a little sidetracked away from posting to my blog.  But I'm quite certain that in a little over a week I'll make another resolution to do better.  I did much better at posting my projects this year, and in a year where progress was sometimes hard to come by, I'll take it!

Wherever you are, stay safe and stay strong!

Thanks for looking!

xoxo,

Melody

 

Things I Did In August (And Didn't Post Until September)...

Since it's now September and my Tres Jolie kit for this month will be here soon, I figured I'd better show off what I did with last month's kit!  Last month was a little hectic for me with some military training, severe weather (to include Hurricane Laura), and some more COVID-19 stuff I didn't really get much done.  I am working on a mini-album with the rest of this kit that I hope to finish up tonight!

Here is the LO:

I really loved so many of the elements that came with this kit to include the mold and modeling paste.  I used the mold to make the fairy below then colored it blue with some Shimmerz mists.  Added some flowers and a little bit of gold glitter to make some sparkle.

I absolutely LOVE resin pieces.  I used the bench from the kit and sprinkled it with some blue and purple mists from Shimmerz (Ahoy Matey and Grape Escape)

Used a couple of the tag cut outs and seam binding to make some tags (some of the rest of the tags will be in the upcoming mini-album).  More sprays from Shimmerz (same colors) If you look closely you can see some stenciling work to add texture behind the cards.

Finally, I used all kinds of paints and sprays to color the chipboard before adding some more glitter and a little gold paint.

There you have it!  My goal is to post at least once a week this month.  Hopefully things will slow down just enough to let me do that!  Hope everyone is staying safe out there!

xoxo,

Melody

 

Living in the Past

Oh, the days! Back in the past when I wasn't working almost every single day to manage COVID-19.  Back when vacations were a given (hoping that Mexico will be permitting visitors from America before October).  Back in the "good ole days"!

Last week I was looking for a picture to scrap and came across the pile of pictures from Walt Disney World and my friend's wedding.  Why in the world I thought I would scrap 5,726 all these pictures I had printed, I'll never know.  However, this one caught my eye and I was in the mood to make something beautiful!

Here it is in all is splendiforous wonder:

Below you can see the obligatory flower clusters (really, what would the world be like without flowers?)

Lots of layering & distressing.  The ceramic tile seen below has been sitting on my table for ages just waiting for me to create this specific layout!

Some Blue Fern Studio chipboard that I had been hoarding saving for YEARS for this LO! 😂😂

I took a bunch of different Renea Bouquets beautiful beads and put them in a vial.  I love how the beads' different colors bring out the different colors in the LO!

The bottle cap below didn't really match the color scheme, but it totally fit the sentiment of the LO and since it didn't clash I tacked it on at the last minute!

There it is!  It's hard to find the time and energy to scrap these days.  Most of my month was spent working on my first ever DIY mini album.  I made it for a dear friend whose sister passed away in May.  I'll be giving it to her next week, so hopefully I can reveal it then!

Stay safe, everyone and don't forget to be kind to others...whether they are wearing their mask or not!

xoxo,

Mel

My New Mail Holder

This has been sitting in my drafts for quite some time now, but since the June Tres Jolie Kit came with my Newer New Mail Holder, I figured I better get this one out there.  I am currently using this to hold my church offering envelopes, and the Newer New Mail Holder (post coming soon...or at least before 2023)

See below.  The actual holder is a Renea Bouquets product (located here) that I had purchased "just for fun" a while back.  I wasn't sure where I was going with this project when I started, but I was more than pleased with the final product! 😍


Below you can see a little closer up of the back of this.  I had some vellum sheets from (dang near) literally the beginning of my scrapbooking journey (roundabouts 2003) with some great travel phrases on them.  I guess even back then I was hoping that someday I would be able to scrap my travels in a timely manner (and since I'm STILL scrapping about Mexico '17 and Disney '18 we know that's a lie).  However, the vellum sheets managed to get put under a pile of other stuff in my scrapbook room misplaced somewhere in my scrapbook room until I found them by happy accident a few months ago.

A better close up of one of the flower clusters and the requisite unicorn that went with my mood the day I made this! 😍😍😍

Moving over to the front, another unicorn, some flowers and some of the awesome Renea Bouquets beautiful beads! 😍

More close ups of the front of the box, lace, a Renea butterfly, some more Beautiful Beads, glitter and little flair button round out part that actually holds the mail (or the meat and potatoes of this project as I like to say)!

And finally, the other side of the front of my Older New Mail Holder with some more beads, another unicorn, some Beautiful Board and (of course) MORE flowers!  💓💓

There aren't any close ups of the front (sorry about that!) but if you go back to the top of this post, you can see I used another vellum sheet on the front of the project as well.  I'm mentioning this now so that if anyone has any interaction with my husband please remember to mention how cool it is that I use my stash instead of stashing my stash! 😝😝😝

Thanks for checking it out and hopefully I'll get pictures up soon of my Newer New Mail Holder!

xoxo,

Melody

iNSD Project - Layout

As always, a little late, but never too late!  This is a layout I did for iNSD earlier this month.  I was using the Tres Jolie Kit Club May kit and was trying to "blackout" my iNSD Bingo card in the Tres Jolie Kit Club challenge that my dear friend CJs Corner Scraps made.  I think I was three squares away, but since it's been so long and since my patience is thin I'm not going to stress myself out looking for the photo of my card!

Here is the layout:

The picture is of me and my baby brother.  It was taken the day we finished moving him halfway across the country for his next big adventure!  Below you can see some of the elements...journaling, wood, flowers. (What would a layout be without flowers?)

Some more flower clusters and some tags that I cut from one of the papers from the kit.  Distressed, inked, then did some stamping with embossing powder for a little more texture.

One of the squares on the bingo card was "polka dots".  If you look closely you can see where I fussy cut a bunch of buttons from the kit, but then I decided to use this stencil and some really cool green paint as well.

And finally, below, some more elements.  The gears were cut from rice paper from a previous kit (March, I believe).  You can see a little more of the journaling and inking/distressing of paper.

Short on time today, so not much to read here.  I hope you enjoyed looking at the pictures and I hope you're staying safe during COVID season!

xoxo, 

Mel

Oversize Tag Swap (January RB)

Welcome to another addition of "Melody is Perpetually Running Behind".  I made this oversized tag for Monica L. back in January for the January Renea Bouquet swap.  For anyone who is wondering, yes, Monica received her card (and she received in January), I just haven't had a chance to WRITE about it until now!

Here is the tag:

Below you can see some of the elements and texture.  I had quite a bit of Bo Bunny Altitude and Sleigh Ride items left over in my stash, and I thought this tag would be the perfect place to use them.  I can't remember which collection the film strip is from, but I still have plenty of it left, so my winter projects next year might see some similar tones.

I used quite a few Renea Bouquet elements up in the top right hand corner! Snowman, flowers and a butterfly!

Beneath the lace and the under the smaller tag on the right hand side you can see some more of the ephemera elements from the Bo Bunny collections.  

This was such fun to create!  I love swapping with Monica!  I told her early on in the creation process that her tag had taken a hard turn to the side of shabby chic!  Originally I intended to keep it a little less shabby chic by using more of the navy and blue tones with some metallic features, but I wouldn't change this tag a single bit!

I hope you enjoyed looking at this!  As we enter another month of COVID-19 life, make sure you're taking care of yourself and those around you!

Enjoy the small treasures each day as much as you can!

xoxo,

Melody

April Tres Jolie Sketch

Hey, everyone!  How in the heck is it the end of April already? I feel like I've been doing COVID-19 stuff for ten years now, but then again, I can't believe the whole month of April is gone!

Since it's almost over, here is my take on the Tres Jolie Kit Club April Sketch.  Here is the sketch:

And here is my take on it:

Bear in mind I'm still getting my photography area in my smaller house set up, so my photos aren't as good as I like them to be, but you get the point! 😜😜

First things first, I knew I wanted to use the piece of paper with the 3 frames on it, but I wasn't sure how.  So I decided to fussy cut it and glue it down elsewhere.  The pink on the background paper was a little bright for what I was going for, so I used some gesso and lots of water to tone it down a bit give it a bit of a whitewash.

I used several paints and Coloringz products (don't ask which ones, I will tell you the color was Corona or COVID...) to color up the Roman clock and included some darker brown colors (subtly) to give it a bit (more) of a vintage feel.   I also used some of the pink colors to dab some color on the flowers here and there.

Below you can see part of the flower cluster, the fussy cut page, and a beautiful flower from the Renea Bouquets store! 

More flowers and some splatters of paint!

I really enjoyed making this layout. It's been a while since I worked with a sketch and I had forgotten how fun it could be!

On a serious note, if you have to be out and about, be safe about it.  Wash your hands, wear a mask, and protect yourself and those around you!

xoxo,

Mel

Look...I Made A Shaker LO!

Some of you know what I do for a living...and unfortunately it isn't stay in my craft room and craft all day! :( 

I can't even put into words how thankful I am that I went ahead and purchased a DreamBox earlier this year (pictures at some point).  This has given me the ability to go home at the end of every work day (all 8 of 'em each week) and destress by making things.  My husband is really concerned about the amount of craft supplies I am going through happy to see me coping so well during this event!

That being said, between the blessing of still having a job (and I might add that I truly LOVE what I do) and having a place to be creative most nights, I will have plenty of catching up to do with my blog as we move forward with COVID-19. (I feel like I'm always saying I have plenty of catching up to do...)

Behold, I used the March Tres Jolie kit to make a LO with a shaker "box" on it.  Fun fact #1, I also glitter bombed my scrapbook room at least 6 times while I made this LO!  I was more of a challenge than I originally anticipated to make the shaker part! 

Here is the LO: (please don't remind me that I forgot to crop around the edges! 🤣🤣🤣)

Flower close-up:

I used the little glass ball that came with the kit and filled it with green glitter, but I knew from the day I got the kit that I wanted to play around with the clear pages and make some shakers.  Fun fact #2, green is my third favorite color and I had some glitter leftover from a card making party that matched this kit perfectly!

Below you can see the shaker in all most of its glory (turns out photographing shakers with designs on the acetate is a bit more of a challenge than one would think).

I took one of the resin frames that came with the kit and found a design on one of the clear sheets that I liked to create the frame and the "top" of the shaker.  The goodies inside are some more of the glitter that now decorates my floor four weeks after the fact (despite furry dogs and multiple floor cleanings), some green sequins and some flowers from the kit.  

There you have it!  Short and sweet!  I hope everyone is staying safe and sane out there!  Find the things that make you happy and be your best self!  Remember, we are all #InThisTogether!

#COVID19Ark #weARstrong

xoxo,

Melody

WDW Adventure

Welcome back to the "Melody Scraps Her 2018 Vacation" Show!  😂😂

This was fun because it felt a little Valentine's-y but then a little not as well! 

Voila...the LO:



Flowers, mist, repeat; flowers, mist, repeat!  That's the name of my game and I'm sticking to it!  I should mention here that this photo used one of those super expensive frames that Disney asks you to pay for when you get your pictures from them.  Luckily Seana (the bride, pictured in the pink dress here) is a Disney fanatic so she was able to provide this print for me!  (So I could spend more $$$ on scrapbook supplies!)  The red roses are from Renea Bouquets and I added some of Renea's chunky glitter glass in Diamond on some of the flowers.

More flower, more mist and CHANGE-UP by adding some Renea Bouquets Beautiful Beads.  The Beautiful Beads are Rose Gold and another color (you'll see below).  Not sure what the other color is because I need to buy more Beautiful Beads so I can practice remembering the colors there are so many that have shades of teal in them.  (And I should write the product name down.)

In the photo below are the Beautiful Beads whose name escapes me.  But I love all things teal, and these beads are no exception!  Also note the cutesy pink trim! 😍😍😍

Here is another close up of my flower cluster that shows the trim, some paint splatters and a few flat back pearls, also from the Renea Bouquets store.  The stain that I splattered with is a 57 year old super old bottle of Maya Road stain in Pink Lemonade.  Nothing pink about it and I'm not sure what I'll do when it runs out!

So there you have it!  Just another one of my crazy creations!  Thanks for stopping by!

xoxo,
Mel

New Year, New Kit, Same Me

Before you all start thinking I've completely lost my mind...YES, I know it's February, but January was a long year and we survived!!!  😂😂😂👼So...I haven't been part of a scrapbook kit club since Scraps of Darkness/Elegance.  I noticed that CJ was using Tres Jolie Kits and I thought I'd check them out.  I ordered two past kits and two past Mixed Media kits (just for fun).  I loved the kits so much that I decided to subscribe.  I figured I wouldn't get a kit until February, but a few days later the January kits showed up.  (Yes, I subscribed to all 3 kits Tres Jolie offers).  So in a sense, it really is kind of like a new year between the month of January being so long and getting the actual January kit!  

💓💓💓

For those of you who don't know, we have our weekend house (where my craft room resides) and our week day house (where I have recently made room for and created a new craft room).  I'm a little low on products at the weekday house, and I don't want to spend a ton of money recreating everything I have the bigger house, but I was really missing the inability to create during the week.  So, I figured these kits would help me build some stash.  The current goal is to purchase a DreamBox for the weekday house, so I also don't want to get "too much" stuff "too soon".  I know...it sounds crazy, but just a few items at a time should keep me at bay until the weekends (when I can go crazy in my "real" scrap room).  😍😍

***Side Note***

I plan to buy most of the old kits that are available at Tres Jolie also!  Get ready, Kim and company!  💝💝

So...without further ado,  here are some things I did with the September 2019 scrapbook kit.  Below is the kit:

And here is a simple LO I did with it.  I have the most amazing Prima Ingvild Bolme distress tool at my big house.  Sadly, it has been discontinued, and since this kit used KaiserCraft paper (super soft to the touch, but not super heavy) I couldn't use my alternate methods of distressing (foot file/fingernail file) without tearing the paper.  Also, as I mentioned, I'm limited on supplies so most of my inks that I use for inking around the edges of distressed paper are not here.  With the low stock of ink, I didn't want to have deep tears in my paper if I couldn't layer ink to create depth.  *Such a dilemma*

That being said, I was pretty okay with the outcome of this LO.  I've gotten into the habit recently of cutting up sayings and gluing them down one word at a time (as you'll see on the rest of this post).  This picture was taken after my first run in several weeks.  I'm trying to nurse a foot injury so I can attend a very important Air Force school later this year.  The words say "Be fearless in the pursuit of what sets your soul on fire.".  I like the quote because I need all the motivation I can get to run in the cold!  I also really liked that the letters almost fade into the background because sometimes the things you need to pursue are not always easy to see.  Yes, that is your daily Life Lesson With Melody for February 5, 2020.

Below is a quick card that I made for my best friend's birthday.  Suse, If you're seeing it here, sorry...there are other surprises that will come with it! 😘😘  The other day I was shopping killing time at Michaels when I found some great paste and paint on sale.  (So sorry, been sick for two days and not near said paste, so I can't go look at the label.)  I thought the color was more of a royal blue, but turns out it's almost navy...and has sparkles!!  Perfect for the papers in this kit.  And, you can see that I cut up the phrase at the top just like the LO!  You almost can't see the huge piece of chipboard I used on the left side of the card (since I covered it up with flowers), but trust me...it's there!

The last two projects I made with this kit are a gift bag and tag for my sweet "niece".  Her confirmation is this weekend so I figured I'd hand make the bag to put her gift in...sorry...no spoilers on the gift until after Saturday...just in case.  Also...there I go, cutting and pasting words...again!  I also used some Renea Bouquets Beautiful Beads and Printed Beautiful Board on these two projects.  This was my first time making a gift bag...I didn't use a tutorial and I think it came out just fine.  I'll look at tutorials next time.  Couldn't this time because with no tv in the new room, I was streaming a show I used to watch on my phone and my iPad was charging.  😂😂 1st world problems for sure!

Here is a better look at the tag.  Y'all!  My husband picked out the ribbon on his own with minimal instructions from sick me!  He did great!!!

There ya have it!  This might be the wordiest blog post I've done in a while!  If you made it this far thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed checking out what I created!  

💓💓💓

xoxo,

Mel