Ummm, so it seems that one of the giveaways that I was going to post this week is a bit delayed (it's of the digital variety and the release date slipped), so I'll instead regale you with the tale of a recent scraplifting adventure and will post the last giveaway when it becomes available!

I have a confession to make.

I love to scraplift. At any given time I probably have 42 tabs open in my web browser with various projects that I'd like to copy. Unfortunately, I stay so busy with my own designs that I rarely have time to play with any of the things that are inspiring me, and every once in a while I'll go through and clean those tabs out and close a bunch that I know I'm just never going to get to.

I was doing just that last weekend when I came across a lovely page by Wilna Furstenberg at Dear Lizzy's Paper Party showing a great idea for layering up stickers on a layout. I loved that part of the idea quite a bit, but what really caught my eye was that she made her page over a piece of that fabulous ruffled crepe paper from the Dear Lizzy Neapolitan collection. The same piece of paper (well, hers was pink and mine is yellow and white), as chance would have it, that's been sitting in my scrap room ever since it arrived in a Studio Calico kit...last February. I loved the look of that lovely sheet of ruffles, but I was always too chicken to use it for fear of messing it up.

And then it happened. An ethereal, Obi-Wan like voice spoke from out of nowhere and said to me, "use The Stash, Melissa."

With reverb and all. Really.

Or maybe I just forgot to take my medications* that morning. Who knows.

In any case, I pulled that old kit along with a few little extras out and pretty much copied Wilna's layout, changing just the number/size of photos and using a bit less embellishment than she did, because, dude, I am so not the master of layering that she is!

Supplies:

In the spirit of keeping the scrapping inspiration going around here even with a slightly lighter posting schedule, I'm challenging you to lift Wilna, too! Whether you use her layering technique to use up some of the stickers in your stash or you, too, have a sheet of this crepe paper in your stash that you find just a bit intimidating, let's get it used up! If you participate, please leave Wilna some love on her post, and I'd love it if you'd comment here, too, with a link to your creation so I can check it out!

*actually, the only medications I'm on are for asthma and some weirdo condition where I have an overactive histamine reaction- all the time!

back to the future : sassafras sweetly smitten {video + layout}

Yesterday's Back to the Future post introduced the Studio Calico Snippets collection (which I know is technically present and not future since it's available now, but I'm choosing to ignore how the analogy completely falls apart there...), and today I'm going back into the archives of my scrap room to choose a collection to use along with it. I probably won't always stick to a single collection when it comes to the "past" part of this series, but I just love Sweetly Smitten by Sassafras (so much, in fact, that I bought it all up when it came out and then never used it, out of fear of "messing it up!") that I wanted to play with it all on its own. Today you'll see a layout using just this vintage Sassafras collection, and then tomorrow we'll take a look at combining the old and new!

Supplies:

InLinkz.com

This layout is based on a sketch at Life Paper Scrapbook, but as you'll see in the video (which is slightly longer than my normal ones) that didn't make this page any faster to put together! I love how it got me out of my box, though, as the circles on the page are a bit of a departure for me.


Those circles also gave me a chance to play with Laina Lamb's fab Pie Chart dies again, and I used them to mix a bit of geeky with the soft florals- perfect for a layout about the day Darren brought home a discarded test tube rack and some old lab glass for me! I'd actually been looking for one to use as a flower vase for a while (after seeing it on someone else's blog, which is how all of these things seem to start), and I was thrilled when he walked through the door with it one afternoon!

Sweetly Smitten and Snippets might not be the most obvious collections to combine, but in tomorrow's layout I'm going to do just that- see you then!

sketches for stashbusting (and a tiny citrus twist peek!)

I'm gearing up for my Year of Stashbusting in 2013, and I'm getting so, so excited for it! I talked all about it in this post, and one of the things I mentioned was using sketch challenge sites for inspiration (and also because I work best with some sort of deadline involved :) ). A couple of people commented and asked for recommendations for sketch challenges, so I put together a list of the challenge blogs that I frequent- feel free to add your favorites in the comments if you don't see them here!

• Creative Scrappers
• Inspired Blueprints (yes, they are coming back!)
• Let's Capture These Sketches
• Once Upon a Sketch
• PageMaps (of course!)
• Scrap Fit
• Scrap Map
• Sketchabilities
• Sketchalicious
• Sketchbook 365
• Skissedilla

There are also a few manufacturers/kit clubs who put out great sketches on a weekly basis, including

• Elle's Studio
• Citrus Twist
• Studio Calico
• October Afternoon
• Lily Bee

Manufacturer sketch challenges are especially great if you're trying to use up supplies from a particular company.

I also love Scrapbook Generation sketches and am finding them easily adaptable to my style, so I'll probably be purchasing their digital downloads each month, as well. 

And, because I'm a) very excited about these and b) physically incapable of posting without including an image of some sort, I wanted to give you a sneak peek of something that will be coming to the Citrus Twist Kits blog in January- Project Life sketches!

I ran the idea for little sketches for the 3x4 and 4x6 pockets of a Project Life page protector past Trina and she loved it, so these will be a new part of the weekly Project Life posts there starting in the new year! Trina has already come up with several (one shown above), and I'll be contributing, as well! Hopefully these will help with including a larger variety of photo sizes and arrangements on Project Life layouts for those who like that sort of thing.

So excited for what's to come in 2013!