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Better late than never — the May #1 challenge is here!

WOW! I can’t believe it is already May! Where has the time gone? Evidently it flew right by me because the May #1 challenge reveal date was supposed to be yesterday.

I have a good excuse though for forgetting though. My mind is already in vacation mode because my husband and I are leaving tomorrow for a 17-day vacation in Ireland! We have wanted to go to Ireland for years, and with this being our 10-year anniversary, we figured this was as good a time as any. So y’all will have to forgive me if I am totally scatterbrained!

Our first challenge of every month is a color challenge and this month’s color combo is:

YELLOW AND CREAM/BEIGE!

To play along with our challenge, just upload a picture of your layout/card/home decor project using yellow and cream to our Facebook page by May 23. The project with the most “likes” is entered into our quarterly prize drawing!

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Lorrie, May 10th 2012 | Posted in Uncategorized

Design Team Reveal: Beth Gaddis

Hi again, everyone! These are my projects for our first May challenge. This time I decided to make some cards instead of a layout.

Thanks for looking, and I hope you’ll all be sure to come join us in the challenge!

x Beth

Materials

Paper:
Making Memories (English Garden), My Mind’s Eye (Lost and Found)

Inks/Mediums:
Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black), Ranger Distress Ink (Antique Linen), Ranger Stickles (Yellow), Prismacolor Pencils

Stamps:
Queen Kat Designs (Ballerina Francis Mary), TPC Studio (Whimsy Greetings)

Embellishments:
Prima flowers

Materials

Paper:
Making Memories (English Garden), K & Company (Julianne), Basic Grey (Basics Manila)

Inks/Mediums:
Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black), Ranger Stickles (Yellow), Prismacolor Pencils

Stamps:
Queen Kat Designs (Little Cuties), Fiskars (Wishes All Around)

Materials

Paper:
K & Company (Julianne)

Inks/Mediums:
Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black), Ranger Distress Ink (Antique Linen), Ranger Distress Markers

Stamps:
Queen Kat Designs (Side By Side Francis Mary), Fiskars (Wishes All Around)

Embellishments:
Prima floral border

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Beth, May 9th 2012 | Posted in Uncategorized

Design team reveal: Lorrie McCullers

Hello crafty peeps! I am super-excited to share my take on this challenge because it’s all about my kitty cats! My husband and I don’t have children so we love to show off our “fur-babies” as much as we can.

This is Kitty and Minnie. They are two of the most spoiled cats on the planet. They were both strays that just showed up at our house. We’ve been wrapped around their little paws ever since.

For this challenge, I used 2 of the criteria: I hand-drew a border around my letters and I double matted my photos.

Hand drawn letter borders

I was thrilled to get to use paper from a company that I discovered at Winter CHA called “Glimpses by Signify Pink“. This paper (called “I Heart Cats/Here Kitty Kitty) comes from their “Sit. Stay. Love.” line that is perfect for your pet pages! I fussy cut the words “I heart cats” from the front of the paper, then used little scraps from the “Here Kitty Kitty” side of the paper that features these cute kitties.

How cute is this paper?

Materials used:

Paper/cardstock — Bazzill and DCWV cardstock; Glimpses by Signify Pink “Sit. Stay. Love.”; Bella Blvd. “Making the Team”; Basic Grey “June Bug”; Sassafras “Monstrosity”‘ American Crafts

Embellishments — Basic Grey letter stickers

Ink — American Crafts Precision Pen; Quick Quotes Powder Puff Inks in “Blue Moon” and “Midnight Confessions”

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Lorrie, April 18th 2012 | Posted in Challenges, Reveals

Design Team Reveal: Beth Gaddis

Welcome back, everyone! This challenge was perfect as we are a family of pet lovers and there is never any shortage of adorable pet photos. This layout features my sister’s ~~small horse~~ dog Nala. I love this pic since it looks like she’s grinning at the camera.

The three challenge criteria are:

- To make the title of the page “Hi, My Name Is ___.” And since I couldn’t fit “Nala Pala the Disney Dog” in the little space, we have to just make do with “Hi, My Name Is Nala.”

- To doodle or draw a border for the photo, which I did with a Zig marker directly on the photo.

- To double or triple mat the photo.

Done, done, and done.

To finish the whole thing off, I embellished the little strips randomly with some Prima flowers and Stickles.

Thanks so much for looking, and please be sure to come join us in the challenge!

x Beth

Materials

Paper:
Basic Grey (Green At Heart)

Inks/Mediums
Ranger Distress Ink (Ripe Persimmon), Ranger Distress Stickles (Spiced Marmalade) Zig Posterman Paint Marker

Embellishments:
Prima flowers

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Beth, April 18th 2012 | Posted in Uncategorized

April challenge #2

Hello crafters! I hope everyone is having a great April so far. This month is flying by so quickly. I’ve been busy getting ready for a big weekend crop event here in GA. I will be leading a make-and-take project which I will share with y’all next week.

So are you ready for our next challenge?

The theme for this challenge is “Your Furry Friends”. Yep, that’s right, it’s all about pets! Don’t worry if you don’t have a furry pet; we want to see all pets, so feathered, scaled, and all other pets are welcome too!

The requirements for this challenge are as follows (use at least 2 of 3):

1. Use “My Name Is (pet’s name)” as the title
2. Doodle or draw a border
3. Double or triple mat the photo(s)

Just make a card, layout, or home decor/altered art piece at least 2 of the requirements for this theme challenge and post it to our Facebook page by the time the next challenge goes up (May 9). The winner of the challenge will be the project that receives the most “likes” on Facebook. The winning entry will go into the quarterly drawing that will take place after the end of the second June challenge. So post those projects and get your friends to vote for you!

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Lorrie, April 18th 2012 | Posted in Challenges

Design team reveal: Lorrie McCullers

Happy April!

This month’s first challenge was to use pastels. If you know me, you know that I’m not a super “pastel” person. If I were a package of markers, I would be labeled “BRIGHTS”! However, I created this little altered art piece using pastels and I love it! Very girly and a cute addition to my scrap room. Click the picture for a larger, more detailed view.

Click the picture for a larger, more detailed view.

This is a paper mache “L” that I purchased at Hobby Lobby. I covered it with scraps of paper from my stash using Mod Podge and then just added on things from my “fancies jar”. My “fancies jar” is my glass jar of little goodies like postage stamps, small buttons, keys, pins, shells, bells, and more that I have been collecting for ages. I wanted a vintage feel to this project so I knew I’d find something that would work in my jar. So if you find yourself with a bunch of little odds and ends, don’t toss them out… make your very own “fancies jar”!

Materials used:

Paper — Heidi Swapp, Marah Johnson for Creative Imaginations, 7Gypsies

Embellishments — The Girls’ Paperie dress form and heart die cuts and “follow your heart” stickers; Making Memories postage stamp, ephemera die cut, and metal crowns stickers; Heidi Grace and Prima flowers; Heidi Swapp “Ghost Clock” clock face; pearls, key and buttons (unknown)

Ink – ColorBox Cat’s Eye Fluid Chalk Ink in “Chestnut Roan”

Adhesives — Mod Podge, Glue Arts glue squares

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Lorrie, April 4th 2012 | Posted in Challenges, Reveals

Design Team Reveal: Beth Gaddis

Welcome back for another challenge, everyone! This challenge is another color challenge, and it’s all about spring time pastels.

These photos were taken as part of a session that my sister and I gave our mom for Christmas. I’ve been planning to start scrapping them (there are ALOT of them) but just never got a fee minute. But, even though the photos were taken in November, the park was still so green that the photos look perfectly at home on this spring-y background.

Most of the tags and banners on the left side of the page are part of the paper design. For the right side I cut banners from another sheet and backed them with foam adhesive to give them some dimension.

I love this foam adhesive. It’s a big sheet that can be cut to any shape or size, so I cut it slightly smaller than the banners in order to make it less visible from the front while being sturdy enough to keep all the angles and corners from being smooshed.

I used a Bare Basics Blossoms and Leaves set from Basically Bare for a few floral bits. I covered the chipboard flower with a Zig Painty pen and added it to a banner. Then I took the canvas leaves from the set and drew some veins with a Zig Fabricolor pen and tinted them with Glimmer Mist.

To finish it off I used buttons in place of flower shapes on the leaf bunches.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you join us in this challenge. See you on the Facebook page!

-Beth x

Materials

Paper:
Pink Paislee (House of Three Daily Junque)

Inks/Mediums:
Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black), Ranger Distress Ink (Black Soot), Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist (Blarney), Zig Fabricolor Marker (Lt Green), Zig Millenium Pen

Stamp:
“Laugh” Stamp from Michael’s Dollar Bin

Embellishments:
Basically Bare Bare Basics Blossoms and Leaves

Misc.:
Glue Arts 3D U Cut It adhesive foam

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Beth, April 4th 2012 | Posted in Reveals

April challenge #1 and an announcement!

We’ve got two exciting new things going on here on Better Living Through Scrapbooking. The first new thing is our first April challenge!

As always, the first challenge of the month is a color challenge. For this month, it’s all about PASTELS! So get some inspiration from those spring flowers and those Easter candies and show us your layout/card/home decor/altered art project featuring pastel colors.

To join in the fun, post your project to our Facebook page by the time the next challenge goes up (which will be April 18th). The winner of the challenge will be the project that receives the most “likes” on Facebook, and the winning entry will go into the quarterly drawing that will take place after the end of the second June challenge (I am working on a pretty great prize for the drawing but I can’t tell you yet!). We would love to see your creations!

Now for the second exciting thing happening here at BLTS: Lorrie is taking over! Beth, our wonderful site owner and DT member has been running BLTS for a while now, but with her work and her other DT commitments, she just doesn’t have time to run the day-to-day stuff. So I (Lorrie) have stepped in as the new owner/administrator! Beth and I will still be posting our projects as usual, but you are going to see some cosmetic changes to the site. We will also be holding a design team call in the very near future!

Thanks to all of you for your continued support!

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Lorrie, April 4th 2012 | Posted in Challenges

Design team reveal: Lorrie McCullers

This layout was so much fun to make! It’s about my wonderful friend Kerry. She and I met several years ago when I hosted a crop and we hit it off immediately. We are both scrappers, both New Kids on the Block fans, both Disney addicts, both fans of cheesy 90′s dance music… the list could go on and on! I am so lucky to have her as a friend!

For this layout, I used two of the three challenge items: ribbon (fabric embellishment) and a brad (metal embellishment).

Materials used:

Paper/cardstock– Hobby Lobby kraft cardstock, Fancy Pants, Bella Blvd., My Mind’s Eye, Sassafras Lass, American Crafts, Teresa Collins

Embellishments– GCD Studios chipboard embellishment; Colorbok stickers; American Crafts chipboard embellishment; Girls’ Paperie die cut; Making Memories letter stickers and flower; button, brad, ribbon (unknown)

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Lorrie, March 21st 2012 | Posted in Challenges, Reveals

Design Team Reveal: Beth Gaddis

Happy challenge day, y’all!

I know I’m running the risk of turning into the crazy cat lady that is constantly scrapping pics of her cat, but it was unavoidable for this challenge. I am happy and lucky to live in a house that is shared by the greatest husband and pets EVER.

I included one little ole’ metal brad down in the lower left-hand corner to meet the metal embellie criteria.

I cut a couple of circles from some fabric that came in a Gauche Alchemy monthly kit to meet the fabric element criteria (the corrugated cardboard and metallic Punchinella that are also cut into circles came from another GA kit. Super kits, y’all. Be sure to check them out!).