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

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