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