Club Scrap Blog Hop - Lock & Key

Hey you!  Welcome to the October edition of the Club Scrap blog hop!  This month we got to hoard, I mean, use the gorgeous Lock & Key collection.  I made an eclectic mini album with some of the fantastic goodies that are available in this kit.

If you've wandered over here from Lisa's blog, then you are on the blog hop trail!  If you've lost your way or just want to see all the links in one place, head over to the Club Scrap Creates blog to see a list of all the talented bloggers participating today.

When I saw the theme for this month's kit, I knew I wanted to to use to scrap some of my pictures from my trip to New Zealand.  I took a lot of pictures while I was there, but I think the most I took in once place was when we went on the Hobbiton movie set tour.  The nerd in me just couldn't help herself.  I'm working on my traditional scrapbook album of the entire New Zealand adventure, but all of the Hobbiton pictures didn't make the cut for that.  So instead of having the remaining photographs sit in a drawer somewhere, I decided to make a mini album devoted just to Hobbiton.

There were so many cool embellishments and beautiful colors in this collection that I had an easy time incorporating these into an album.  I started out by creating my own covers to the album by cutting four pieces of chipboard into 6.5x8.5 pieces, then gluing two of the pieces together to make a double thick rectangle of chipboard.  (I used the kind of chipboard that comes with my orders of paper - any type of relatively stable cardboard will do.)  I wrapped each of the covers with papers from Club Scrap's Pattern Basics, which are such an ease to work with for wrapping!  Just the right weight so your finished product looks great.  If you're new to wrapping or need a refresher, be sure to check out Tricia demonstrating this technique here.

I wanted the basic size of the album to be about 6x8, but I also wanted some of the pages to extend past the outside edge of the album to add some interest.  On the cover I used the AMAZING 12x12 stencil that came with my Lite kit and gold mist.  I also took advantage of this free printable for this kit and printed this on tan cardstock so I could use them throughout my album.  Printables are fun to work with - I find that if I ink the edges of the cutaparts that it tends to look more cohesive with the rest of the collection.

Click to enlarge!

One of the things I liked about having a separate mini album is that I didn't feel the need to do too much journaling since I knew I would be journaling in my main album.  That way I could just put lots of pictures in with no worries!  I created a couple of pockets to house extra photos by using the printed bags that came with the kit and by making a pocket out of acetate paper and washi tape - both types of pockets make this album interactive! This album is still a work in progress since I have a pile of pictures left, but I'll be able to add a page or two here and there thanks to the binder rings I'm using to keep it all together.

Thanks for stopping by!  Your next stop on the hop is Annette Dragon.  Go check out her take on Lock & Key and make sure to stop at the other blogs along the way.  Next month we will get to play with Fire & Ice, so come say hello again in November!

Supplies // Paper: Club Scrap Lock & Key Copper, Teal, Dark Brown, Teal Print, Pattern Basics Neutrals, From stash: tan, acetate / Inks: Club Scrap Earth / Tools: Club Scrap ink applicators, Lock & Key stencil, Cropodile Big Bite / Embellishments: Club Scrap: Comfort Zone Library Cards, Bookshelves Library Card Pockets, Lock & Key Printed Bag, Metallic Sunbursts & Mini Brads, My Mind's Eye Indie Chic - Birds washi, Prima Metal Paper Clips - Key, We R Memory Keepers Baker's Twine - Neutral, Heidi Swapp Gold Lame mist, Studio K Black Label Alphabet, Thickers - Muse, eyelets from stash, American Crafts Slick Writer Pen,

Happy Fall!

Whoa, October has been busy and crazy, but I'm trying to get back on the crafting train.  Luckily this past week I received cards from the Halloween/Fall swap I was participating in at Club Scrap and it definitely helped with inspiration.  Look at these amazing cards I got back!

I had fun making my cards too - when you're making a lot of duplicate cards at once, you don't want it to get too complex, but I still want to have the final product be interesting.  It was fun looking through all my stamps to try to find something autumnal to use.

I really wanted to create a plaid panel for this card so I used the technique in this video to make it.  (BTW, whenever I feel a little uninspired, I usually spend an inordinate amount of time watching scrapbooking videos - my favorites are here, here, and here.)

I used a different stamp than the one in the video, but this technique is so fun - definitely something I'll be using again if I need to make a more masculine card.

I signed up for the Christmas card swap as well, so I need to start getting those completed soon!  Pinterest, here I come.

Supplies // Paper: Club Scrap Mirror, Mirror, All That Jazz, Matrix, light orange, dark green, kraft and cream from stash / Stamps: Club Scrap Brewed Awakenings, Give Thanks, Welcome, Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler / Inks: Club Scrap Leaf, Tangerine, Topaz, Earth, India Ink

Welcome to Fergburger...

...home of the Fergburger, can I take your order?  Anybody?  Anybody?

I'm finally trying to tackle all of my New Zealand pictures and my issue with vacation photos is that I like to get a lot of pictures on my layouts - some days I can go for one picture layouts, but I feel like my vacation album should be chock full of pictures.  That's why I like turning to Club Scrap's sketches - they usually provide a lot of room for photos and embellishments and look good too.

September's sketch challenge was using Take Wing's monthly sketch, so I used that for this page.  I just grabbed some coordinating papers and took off!

I wanted to use some of Pattern Basics papers, so I grabbed some plain cardstock that would compliment it.  I used up some of my leftovers from the Peacock kit and added some stamping with the Tribal stamps.  I gussied up the background with some mist and a mask.

The mist was a bit more subtle on the second page, but there was a lot more real estate being used by photos and paper that I was OK with that.  These colors were so much fun that I thought they really helped with the mood of the page - even though it was cold and rainy this day in Queenstown, we were so happy to be chowing down on gigantic burgers.  Because obviously food = fun.

Supplies // Paper: Club Scrap Aurora Borealis, All That Jazz, Peacock (green, blue, and gold), Pattern Basics Brights / Stamps: Club Scrap Tribal Borders & Backgrounds, K&Company Smash roller date stamp / Embellishments: Heidi Swapp Gold Lamé Color Shine, Studio Calico Circle Graph mask, Jillibean Soup Memorable Hexies, washi from stash, Peacock sequins, Peacock cutaparts, Meagan Elizabeth White Cloud alphabet stickers, pink letter stickers from stash