Hard Boiled Eggcitement-Color Me Scrappy Challenge # 35

I LOVE the pastel color palette of challenge #35. It was great to work with! I used watercolors and SC speech bubbles mask to create the background. So much fun! Instead of using regular cardstock, I chose to use watercolor paper as a base. I wasn't sure if the regular cardstock will be able to take the watercolor well without pilling. 

Anurag had so much fun coloring the eggs! He is still into making silly faces whenever I try to take a picture of him.

I am still in love with the Amy Tan sketchbook collection. Love the papers from that collection! So happy and bright! But it was taking away from my pics, so I added a layer of vellum in between. Machine sewed with a silver thread. Still loving metallics! 

Heidi Swapp color shine are lovely but I almost wish I had not misted! I used the Tinsel mist. Made such a hot mess:/ . Didn't like how dark it was, wanted a more subdued pastel look. I sprayed on top of it with some Mister Huey White. Covered the big splotches with Gesso. Oh! And something I learnt while journaling on this layout! Never journal on the Gesso with your precision pens or other good pens! It eats up and dries the ink in a few seconds. My pen is dry and doesn't write anymore :/ I used sharpie to journal where I had used Gesso after that. It was still not writing smoothly but atleast it didn't dry up and die like the other ones!

I hand-sewed to keep the thickers down and to just give it a unique look. I picked a bunch of embroidery thread from Michaels. They have some pretty cool metallic ones! I am happy with the overall look of this layout. 

I have been playing around with my Camera a lot! Loving the Oh Shoot! Photography class by Candice Stringham at Jessica Sprague's website. It is well worth the cost! Slow paced focused on the concepts.

I hope you will play along with us at Color Me Scrappy!  The color palette is as below. To add a twist to it, we had a sketch to go with it! I really struggled with the sketch, but ended up making it my own. I took bits of what I liked and worked with it. I kind of see the speech bubbles as the banner. I know, it is a stretch!!:-)

Have fun with whatever you do:-)

Can't wait to see what you come up with! Thankyou for visiting me. Please leave a link to your blogs, so I can get inspired :-) .

We R Memory Keepers-Guest Designer for Simply Spring!

I got the awesome opportunity to be a guest designer on We R Memory Keeper's Facebook page!  They sent me papers and embellishments from their  beautiful new 'Simply Spring' collection. I scrapped  some of the Easter pictures from last year using those papers.

I cut the title on my cameo, placed the green pattern paper title on the bottom and layered the stripe paper on top (just a little off) and sewed it down on the yellow background paper. Initially, I was going to journal directly on the Sweet Notes card but chose to instead print the journaling on a vellum sheet and just stapled it on the sweet notes journaling card. I like the softness and the dimension the vellum sheet adds.

After adding the banners, the circle spot, title and all the layers, I wanted to add something extra to it. So, made two polaroid frames on the cameo, smile and a heart and used the soft pink paper with the wire pattern. Sewing straight is so difficult!! I still don't know how to control speed properly. If I go to slow, my thread breaks or bundles up, If I go too fast ,it is not straight! Practice, Practice! 

Too finish the layout, I added some mist splatters! I am very happy with the way this turned out actually, considering I run away from pink:-) I guess you can use pink in moderation on a boy's layout as well! Just use it as an accent color! 

I hope to get some crafty time this weekend, although Sid is working on both Saturday and Sunday. Hoping to do something crafty with Anurag. :-) .

 Easter is almost approaching this year and I can't wait to go on an Egg Hunt with Anurag again! 

Thanks for visiting me today! Have a good weekend! 

Viji

Serenity

This is the first time I have used neutrals by themselves on a layout! I think I achieved the look that I wanted. I used Ali Edward's 'love this memory' stamp on the background paper and used a fiskars polka dot circle border stamp around it. Alternated between moss green, brown and light brown.

I added the shell and the heart stones I found at Cape Cod as accents on the layout. It is bulky but I really wanted to use them! It is a very simple layout. Just a few layers and some embellishments. I love Heidi Swapp's color magic alphas! I used memento ink on that and wiped it off with a tissue to reveal the white dots. Added a bit of journaling and an arrow stamp and a arrow from freckled fawn. 

Anurag's(my 3.5 yr old) school is reopening tomorrow after spring break. He has been so difficult the whole of last week and this week. We have started doing bite and spit at home now. He is revolting big time and his whole behavior is changing.  Just becoming very rebellious about small things. I feel bad for him. It is so tough for him. Anurag got a time-out today after months! But I had to give him a time-out so it doesn't become a pattern. He is never like this. He always listens. I hope I can do some positive reinforcement on the weekend. He prefers his individual feeding sessions more than the group feeding therapy session. The group sessions are very tough and a lot of pressure. It has been super stressful! I feel bad for him too. Our whole day off-late has been about food. Writing this here, is like a note to look back at when things are better to remember where we were. Every small positive change is a huge thing! It is:) He had his first cookie last week and that is a huge deal!! It took him a long time to eat one cookie but he ate it:) I am so proud of him for that! There are positives I need to focus on, especially on bad days!

Well, you all have a good day! I will be back tomorrow with something to show you hopefully! It is a hectic day for me! Thanks for visiting me!

Viji

I'll Never Let You Go!!

Anurag loves to hold onto our legs as we are walking and tell us ' I am never going to let you go'. I always tell him I hope you never will! I just love it when he says that. It is the cutest thing ever! I got some photos of him holding onto Sid and saying it. I had to scrap them!

I have gotten really comfortable with layering. I have been hoarding the golden dots vellum paper for so long! I think I have like 4 full sheets:) I love gold! My sewing machine was acting up big time when I was trying to stitch. The thread was breaking and making a big mess under the needle. I cleaned the machine a bit and changed the needle and then tried. It worked like a charm. It was kind of a pain because I was working on this layout in the last minute! I got some tips on how to fix the sewing issues from Lisa Wilkinson. She sews a lot on her layouts and was super sweet and gave me some great advice!

I used my cameo to do the title and layered a golden glitter paper under it. I hand cut some triangles and alternated the pattern paper and sewed it together to make a banner above it. I also added some ribbon and sewed it down. Sometimes, I really don't sew things directly down on the layout but just sew on top of the layer and just adhere it to the layout with glue. It is easier at times to do it this way. Saves me from sewing on multiple layers and getting it messed up!

  

I added some details to finish the layout. I think gold and kraft really brought together everything. It was fun to work with colors which are not my usual picks. I love being a part of Color Me Scrappy team for that reason. I get challenged to do layouts out of my comfort zone. 

Hope you are having a good week so far. I will be back tomorrow with another layout. Have a good day!

MY 2 BEST GUYS!

 I love sunshine! OK well, I guess on paper :-) and when the temperature's in the 70's and it is Sunny! I totally despise the summers in Houston! It gets crazy hot and stays that way for a good six months! Last year, for my birthday we went to Cape Cod! It was an awesome vacation, stayed at a beach cottage for a week and then to Rhode Island to spend time with family. It was stressful with Anurag's feeding issues but he had fun and that's what matters :-) We spent some quality time with each other and did fun stuff! I have been planning to do a vacation album for it ever since. It is on my to-do list! 

When I saw this color combo at Color Me Scrappy, I knew the photos I was going to use immediately. It had to be bright and fun! I used SC Sunburst mask to do the sunrays. I water-colored instead of misting to give it a washed look. Don't know if I succeeded! But I like it! Added some washi under the photos to pop them up a bit. 

I added a few bits from Amy Tan's Sketchbook collection. The 'Oh Happy Day' circle is from SC Bright Ideas class. I added a few clouds on the top of the page. I love Amy's Clouds!! They add whimsy.

I used a mix of thickers for the title. My favorites are the aqua chalkboard thicker and Heidi's Color Magic alphas. I love the las vegas look of Heidi's alphas! I had fun getting out my watercolors and using different thickers. 

I love bright colors especially Yellow and Orange!! What are your favorite go to color for layouts?

Something I have noticed about me, I like to buy stamps but hardly ever use them on layouts! I would love to see more ideas on how to incorporate stamps on layouts. Please link me up to your layouts where you have used them! I would love to get inspired!

Thanks for visiting me:-) 

Lots of Love! Keep Crafting!

Viji

You Love Puddle Jumping!

Anurag loves going out and jumping in the puddles in his galoshes every time it rains! We wait for the rain to stop and go hunting for puddles. :-) It has become one of our favorite activities! I got some awesome photos the last time we were out puddle hopping and have been meaning to scrap them ever since.

I love bright and happy colors and that's what I used for this layout. I did this for one of the challenges at Color Me Scrappy! I have been hoarding the camera paper from my SC kit for a long time. I am glad I found the perfect photos to go with it!I added some yellow taxi mist to the 'PLAY' wood veneer bubble.

 

I cut the background design on the Cameo. It was so intricate, I wasn't sure if it will cut without tearing. But, it cut fabulously! I used it as a base under the title. I used the blue shoreline glitter thickers for the word 'jumping'. . I put the washi down and repositioned it a couple of times until I got it right.   

I am so glad I got a picture of his feet in the air! Well, there is another picture under the jumping shot actually:-) I changed it up later. I added a couple of wood veneer stars, a flair and some random bits. 

I will be back tomorrow with a layout again:-) Thanks for visiting me! I hope you will leave a link to your blogs as well , so I can get inspired!! Have a good day!

Oh So Lovely! Color Me Scrappy #34

I can't believe it is March already! Time is flying by this year! We have pretty good weather right now! Not too hot, breezy most days. I am totally not looking forward for the summer to start. We are trying to be outdoors as much as possible. We went camping this weekend. Even though it was just for one night, it was great fun. Anurag loved every bit of it. We hiked a little. Anurag threw stones and sticks in the Brazos river. It was fun to sleep in the tent in our sleeping bags. He got a kick out of it! Now if only, we could get the fire to start! Well, we will be going back more prepared next time:-) We didn't have the starter fluid and it was super windy. Considering this was his first camping trip, it went pretty well. He refused to eat and drink which is a bummer because we can't go anywhere for more than 2 days in that case. Hopefully, the group feeding therapy will help. We do have a long way to go. One step at a time :-)

Meanwhile, I have been scrapping but just not blogging. Something which NEEDS to change!! I plan to blog everyday for the next couple of days and get all those layouts which I have been working on uploaded!

The color palette for challenge #34 at CMS is Pinks and Greens. I am not very comfortable with pink! My most favorite subject to scrap is my little boy! So, I tend to stay away from that color. It pushed me to scrap a picture of myself! 

Recently, I bought all of the Heidi Swapp Color Shine Mists from Michaels! I love all the colors!! They have a shine to them which I absolutely love. Somehow I never liked Tattered Angels mists but this shine, I am in love! I have had the gold for sometime now but I got the other 11 colors. I love the splatter look. I know a little late to the party, but hey I got there:-) 

I used the Amy Tan Yes Please Stitching template to handstitch the flower and the leaf. It was super easy to do. I love the template! Just make holes with the needle which comes with the template and place the piercing mat under the paper and make your design. Backstitch with the desired color of thread. I hope she comes out with more designs in the future. I didn't get the alphabet template. Might just get it. I added a few sequins to give the splatters a little pop. 

I used the transparent letter stickers again from Amy Tan's Yes Please collection. I love the Ombre stickers. They are really cool. I am still in love with gold and like to use it on my projects. I put together this layout in about an hour I think. I am getting faster :-) finally!!! I used to take hours before! 

This layout is based on the below color palette. The twist is you have to use tags and/or stitching on the layout. 

Hop on over to Color Me Scrappy to see what the other designers whipped up! I hope you will play along, the prize this month is an awesome mystery bag full of goodies!! Please leave a link to your blog, I would love to see your work! Thanks for visiting me! 

this is LOVE

Happy New Year Everyone! I am so behind on uploading projects to my blog! The last few weeks have been so busy and I am still lazying around after the holidays :) I hope you are all having a good January!

The color palette this time was a set of warm colors. Cinnamon and Saffron shades! This is what I came up with the colors! I did a ton of sewing and finally used enamel dots from my stash!

I wanted to add a lot of journaling on this layout. I decided to use one of the cut files from Silhouette Store for the journaling and tucket it behind the photo with an arrow pull tab! Lots of times, I stitch on single layers and then attach them with pop dots to create layers. It helps keep my thread from getting tangled and I still get the same look!

I also made a banner to add under the pic. I added a layer of vellum on the banner to soften the chevron banner. It was very distracting and it was taking away from the photo. I wanted to keep the focus on the photo.

I wish I had posted this earlier! Unfortunately this color challenge is now closed! I am sorry :( This layout was based on the below color palette and sketch! 

Thanks for dropping by! I love hearing from you. Please connect me to your blogs as well, so I can get inspired! There are two challenges running on Color Me Scrappy currently ! Go check them out and use them as prompts for your next layout! Have a good day!

Project Life September

Project Life has become a part of our lives. We all love it in my family. I hope to keep up with it next year as well. For this particular week, I chose to use stamps. I love Market Street Stamps. If you don't know who they are, you should definitely check them out! I am a big fan of their background stamps! They ink and stamp fabulously.

We went for the FAAN walk on September 8th. Anurag has multiple food allergies. The walk was to create awareness and raise funds for research. I hope he gets over some of his food allergies as he grows up. Life is tough with them, more for him than us. Food allergies can be life threatening, his is. He also misses out on a lot of stuff other kids can do or places where he can go just because there is a high risk of coming in contact with allergens. We are trying to educate him so he can be careful but he is just 3. So, for right now he knows he has food allergies and not to share food. Majority of the pics from this week are from the walk and there are few other everyday pics.

I got three new inks. The neon inks by hero arts. They are super cool! I am probably going to get the other three as well. They are truly neon! 

I had the perfect stamp to go with A's photo here. He is so cute, he loved the guitar but he also loved the box it came in too:) He pretend played the guitar box for days, singing loudly and dancing. Isn't the saying on the photo beautiful?

I used the saying ' be whoever you wanna be' on the gymboree pic. It was all about the mailman in the class that day and all the kids were pretending to be one. I used the brackets from one of the MSS stamps on the journaling card. 

The sun-rays card with the word saying 'Joy' is my favorite! I loved the little spaces on the rays which look like speckles instead of just solid sun-rays. 

Sid got to meet Darth Vader at the FAAN walk! Had to get his picture with him. He is crazy about Star Wars! Look at him he is so happy, even my pics with him don't turn out so good ;) I used the grid stamp for the background.

A and his cousins in Sydney facetime atleast twice or thrice a month. They haven't met in 2 years but still know a lot about each other:) I am so glad for technology! My parents finally got an ipad and now we can all facetime! Yay! I saw them after a little more than two years. So happy:) I love the little wood veneer bubble by SC. Did you see freckled fawn came out with some recently? They are on my wishlist! 

I have mixed and matched different MSS sets for this weeks layout. Any guesses which ones? I am not going to list them. Let me see if anyone can guess ;-) I haven't use any patterned paper. I started with cardstock and just went stamp happy! I am linking this to the block party challenge over at Market Street Stamps! I am hoping to be back with some more PL pages this week. Have a good week. Thanks for dropping by!

Color Me Scrappy Challenge #20

We went to Dewberry Farm in October. Every year they have a pumpkin patch and a ton of activities for kids. This was our second year. I remember last year was fun. Anurag ran around the pumpkin patch, pushed the wheel barrow and played drums on the pumpkins. It was a fun and exhausting day! This year was no different! We had tons of fun. Anurag was open to trying out more things than last year. This was Anurag at Dewberry last year. He so loved it!

And this is Anurag this year,still playing drums on the pumpkins:)

I scrapped the pictures of the farm from this year using the color palette and sketch at CMS #20. This is what I came up with!

I really missed sewing on this layout. We are sleep training A and it took forever for him to sleep. There was no way I was making any noise with the Sewing machine or the Cameo. I compensated my  thirst for sewing with hand-stitching a string of sequins. If you don't have a sewing machine or are not comfortable using it, an alternate is to hand-stitch on the layouts. I liked the way it turned out. Sequins are a good way to add a splash of color and since I didn't have any purple  paper, these sequins did the trick.

It has been gloomy since morning and I couldn't get a good picture. I kind of tweaked it with picasa to get it closer to the true colors. Need to get studio lighting ;-)

Don't you think that little OA pin with the arrow pointing to over the top is so so cute! I am also loving these wax seals by BG! I have never seen those before! This was a quick and simple layout. Working with a sketch always makes it faster. 

This challenge is open till December, 20th. Don't forget to use the sketch along with the color palette! Kimm from Beary Scrap is sponsoring the month of December! She is giving away a 20$ gift certificate to her fabulous store to whoever wins! She also makes her own stamps!! They are perfect for cards/PL/smash!. 

Thanks for dropping by! I love hearing from you. Please connect me to your blogs as well, so I can get inspired! Hop on over to Color Me Scrappy to see what the other designer's whipped up for this challenge. I hope you are having fun holiday shopping! I sure am:)