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

December 2019 Oversized Tag Swap (SB.Com)

#StoryOfMyLife...is running behind!  Last month (okay...LAST YEAR) I was paired up the one and only, most amazing, CJ's Corner Scraps for a Renea Bouquets scrapbook.com oversized tag swap!

I was so excited!  Let me tell the backstory that begins back in May 2019...there I was, no *bleep* no lie, working the Great Arkansas River Flood of 2019 (also known as the "One Where It Didn't Rain").  I am a spokesperson for my state's emergency management and homeland security agency, and as a one person show, I was a little busy doing on-air interviews, hauling news media around to the places where water was (that it shouldn't have been), trying to keep my sanity, etc.  One day, CJ messaged me on FB and asked "Did I see you on the news today?".  I responded yes, and she was excited...not because she saw and recognized me...but because her husband didn't believe one of her scrapbook friends was the same person on tv! 😂😂😂

Then we finally were paired up!  I originally felt a little down because I had always hoped that when we were finally paired up it would be a peaceful, "slow" month and we could meet up to exchange.  Luckily, the cards and the stars were in our favor!  We managed to meet halfway and had a great day exchanging cards, tags, and making new memories (still have some $$$ on my wine card!)

However, since I didn't mail the tag out, and since I moved my brother 6 states away the next day, I'm just getting around to posting these!  

So, without further ado:

I used plenty of Renea products on here.  I love vintage winter and so many of Renea's products are so pure vintage and so pure yummy!  I have a few stashes that I don't let intermingle with my other scraps...two of those are Christmas and Vintage Winter.  In case you're wondering, regular winter has a visible location on my Clip It Up...

However, even though I keep my vintage winter locked up for most of the year (it makes it seem like a new gift every year), I always tend to dig around and find other vintage items to use, such as the ket in the picture below.  If you've never met me, you might not know that I have a huge obsession with enjoy using tons of flower clusters on my projects.  Some of the red poinsettias are Renea's.  The gold ribbon and the white lace are Hobby Lobby specials (I think).

Below, more lace, more leftovers from previous vintage winter kits and vintage winter finds.  The chipboard snowflakes had actually been in my "regular" winter location for a bit, but they fit in perfectly here!

Finally, some of Renea's beautiful printed Beautiful Board layered onto some "snowish" colored mosaic tiles and this card was good to go! 

There you have it!  I hope you enjoyed the pictures!  And I can't wait to be paired back up with CJ...or just meet up for another afternoon of fun!!!  💓💓💓

Xoxo, Mel

Fun With the Bride

Good news!  I finally went on a different vacation..."bad" news...I am still going to be posting scrap projects of my trip to Disney from over a year ago!  GASP!  😱

This LO is no different.  If you can't remember what I was doing in September 2018 (and why wouldn't you? lol), I was at my friend's wedding in Walt Disney World!  This LO celebrates the bride's big day with all of our girls laughing a bit.  We were pretty excited at this point to get the show on the road!  Also...GREAT NEWS!  The bride just returned to the States after an overseas deployment!  💓💓💓💓

As with many of LOs that include my girlfriends, this one includes a lot of "stuff" that displays all the strong personalities in all these women! 

Without further ado:



I used one of  Renea Bouquets peacock clocks and colored it with all sorts of inks and paints.  The pink glitter glass and the strong teal hues were a tribute to the wedding colors (pink, grey, and teal).  Also tucked in a few beautiful beads, because...just because!

Prima and Renea flowers, Butterfly by Renea Bouquets, and lack from Hobby Lobby.  (I got excited in the Lobby of Hobby's one day when they were having a lace/trim sale.  I definitely may have gone a tad overboard.)

Flowers, flowers, flowers galore!  Who doesn't love flowers?  And I can promise you that all of us ladies in this picture LOVE flowers! I think we all still have our preserved bouquets (I know I do!) 😍😍

And there you have it!  I had a great time reliving this memory while I scrapped it!  Can't wait to get into my room this weekend and make all sorts of new stuff!

Hope you enjoyed this LO!

xoxo,
Melody

Beautiful Memories

So...there I was thinking that I was going to be overwhelming everyone with Disney World LOs...but then I was struck by a few other inspirations over the last few weeks.  I'll share them slowly here. 

We're getting ready to take a vacation to sunny Mexico and I coincidentally came across a picture of 4 of my girlfriends from our last vacation to Mexico.  One of the girls is battling cancer now, so I took some time to make this page for her sister (one of my dearest friends, also pictured).  

This LO is full of ephemera, flowers, trinkets, and color of course!  Interestingly enough, the paper I used for this is one I picked up at Hobby Lobby YEARS ago that already had some layered aspects to it.  For years I would look at it and decide it wasn't right for whatever project I was working on.  Even though you can't see to many of the "organic" layers, the paper was perfect!

Here is the LO:

The two pink tickets underneath the wooden clock are just about all you can see of the original layers I was talking about earlier.

Below you can see some Prima flower elements, as well as some printed Beautiful Board from the Renea Bouquets store.  

Below you can see some more layered pieces of ephemera from Tim Holtz, Prima, Bo Bunny and Hobby Lobby/Michaels store brands.  Some pinkish gold glitter helps keep it mostly feminine but totally vintage.  I didn't want to go true shabby chic because neither my friend nor her sister are particularly into that genre, but they do love the vintage look!  😍

Below you can see more ephemera, more flowers, some trinkets and one of Renea's butterflies.  Also a bit of layering with some Graphic 45 papers and a brighter pink glitter!  💓

Another one of Renea's butterflies (love the soft violet with pearls) and some other nick nacks and some green mosaic squares.

There ya have it!  Maybe I will continue to scrap my Disney World vacation pics or maybe you'll get to see some of sunny Mexico!  😍😍

Thanks for looking!!

XOXO,
Mel

Carriage Dreams

Good morning!!!  As promised here are some more great memories from my trip to Walt Disney World last year!  The whole reason we were there was to celebrate Seana and Greg's big day...and they did NOT disappoint!!!  Seana loves Disney and takes her niece there a couple of times each year.  It was one of Seana's dreams to have this carriage at her wedding, but it was looking a tad too expensive.  Luckily for Seana, there is a certain minimum amount you have to pay for your dream Disney Wedding...and the carriage fit that bill perfectly!  😍

This layout is also inspired by the Renea Bouquets Artist With an Edge November Mood Board.  The original inspiration included lots of purple and swirly do thingies and a bunch of other stuff!  Seana's bouquet (and all of ours as well) had hints of purple in it, so this mood board immediately made me think of this part of the trip!   💕

I made the bow from some ribbon I received from a swap partner last month!  I thought the delicate trim and the cheese clothe in two different shades went together perfectly!

What layout is complete without flower clusters and glitter?  Note the amazing butterfly that Renea makes and sells in her shop and the amazing beads that give a fun romantic feel to this project.  (Some of the flowers and glitter are hers as well!)

And if a layout is not complete without a flower cluster, what blog post would be complete without a close up of one of the other flower clusters???  I used quite a few flowers on this layout because I wanted to reinforce our love for flowers that day!  There were flowers everywhere!  In the lobby of the hotel (bride and groom stayed in the Polynesian), flowers along the way, flowers at the ceremony!(In fact, I still have my bouquet at home, freeze-dried, of course). 

There you have it!  Paper by Blue Fern Studios, flowers by a little bit of everywhere (I am slowly trying to clear out my flower stash...so I can buy more! 😂), butterflies by Renea, inks and sprays by a little bit of everywhere!  I had  blast working on this!  Maybe it will inspire you also!  💕💕

xoxoxo,

~Mel

A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes...

So...my New Year's resolution was to do more blogging...and I got started in March...and it's November...soooooo....

Whatevs...you're never too late!  Speaking of being "timely"...I went to my friend's wedding at Walt Disney World a year ago this past September...(if you're counting...only a little over a year late getting started on scrapping these pictures).  So get ready for an influx of Disney pics and pages!

Plus a few off the page things in the coming months.  I promise I'll try to vary my projects from time to time!  

This was my first trip to WDW and we were there during Epcot's Food and Wine Festival.  As a result, I'm now very comfortable at Epcot...and also I'm not sure why there is an Epcot if all the countries aren't serving their food and drinks?  Or what I might do in Epcot if this event wasn't taking place...Maybe see some more of the other parks?

These pictures are of us somewhere between Italy and the U.S. (I think based on what might be a bellini margarita?)

There's a lot happening on this LO...plenty of chipboard, lotsa glitters and sparklies, flowers galore (including some handmade flowers from my sweet friend Rhue), and other little odds and ends.

As you can see below, there was not shortage of inking, stamping and spraying here.  I used everything from Distress Oxide inks and to Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays.  The tag below is primarily Distress Oxide inks, but the pink is Lindy's Salt Water Taffy Shimmer Spray.  Instead of water, I used the shimmer spray on this tag.  The little purple "XOXO" piece in the bottom left corner is something that I've had in my collection for the better part of 10 years!!!  👀

The chipboard piece below was a labor of love using tons of Creameez products in various shades of purple.  I added some embossing powder and a used a few purple shimmery sprays from Tattered Angels and Lindy's.

What project wouldn't be complete without some glitter and sequins?

And some texture and sequins?

The "WDW" and "2018" chipboard pieces were also inked and sprayed (mostly with water) with a variety of Oxide Inks.

There ya have it!  A look into our vacation to the happiest place on earth with a happy couple and our happy friends!  :)

Thanks for viewing!

XOXO

~Mel