Wizarding World for Muggles

Two years ago the family and I went to Universal Studios in Florida to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We'd been there in 2012 but they added a whole other section since that visit, so we were pumped. This time, you could take the Hogwarts Express to see Diagon Alley and see the Gringott's Bank and Joke Shop. 

They tucked it away a little and you have to go through the entrance to see it all laid out, which is a little different than the other side of the park where the rest of the Wizarding World is. The train was really cool, with the outside of the windows showing the scenery as if you're headed to Hogwarts and the silhouettes of Harry, Hermione and Ron showing outside your train seats, as if they're in the corridor. Even though my kids are young adults, they really enjoyed it.

I did this two page layout with paper from Scrapbook.com. It already has the title on it and I just cut off the top and bottom of the papers and added them to a pine green scrapbook page.

 

Those cutie stickers are from Paper House and the Harry Potter in a frame was a ring from a long-ago cupcake that I save. We snipped of the ring part and I used glue dots to adhere.

At the bottom of each page, I added brochure elements and the ticket holder and ticket from the park. That's me hanging out at the Joke Shop and the edible Dark Mark ad.

This trip was a good one and we really enjoyed the park. Any Harry Potter fan would have a blast, and that's just part of the park's appeal. They have a water park, Marvel Comics and Dr. Seuss areas, Jurassic Park rides and more. Looking forward to going on vacation some day again!

Happy Friday!

Chark

Memories Captured

I'm still scrapping and trying to get ten pages finished in two weeks, mostly because I have a bunch of photos ready to scrap and I've been making more cards than pages. Time to get it in gear and get those memories captured!

On this page, I wanted to document my now-adult daughter's middle school obsession with Perler beads. They are tiny plastic beads you arrange in a pattern on a special base and then iron the project to melt the beads. I did a lot of ironing back then :) I used some Echo Park I'd Rather Be Crafting papers and stickers.

I had squirreled away some of her projects because I knew they could be used in scrapbooking and so, ta da! here they are. Perfect for this page. One thing I love about this kid is that she is constantly trying to help others and she even turned this into a charity project. She sold these as locker magnets to her fellow middle-schoolers and donated the money to charity. So, she got to keep creating and she helped out other people at the same time.

This next layout is to document a trip to the Sea Life Aquarium in the Mall of America. It's fairly small, but they had a ton of exhibits, including an octopus, which made my daughter happy. I personally like the sea horses and jellyfish, so they made it onto this page.

I used some Doodlebug Design papers for it, since I love Doodlebug and have a good supply. I tried a thousand times to get a photo of the sharks circling Matt and this was the best one. Turns out I'm not a great photographer, or the shark was too sneaky.

I really like the blues in these photos...aquariums are great places to photograph.

Happy Friday!

Chark

 

Let's Get to Scrapping!

Although I started crafting a bunch after I went to a Stampin' Up party and got some rubber stamps, I really dove into scrapbooking more than stamping. Then, that got replaced by card making, because scrapbook pages took me sooo long to finish. It was fun to do, but I found making cards so much faster and just as fun.

But I have a million photos and wanted to scrapbook with some of them, so I challenged myself to do 10 pages in 2 weeks. It's one week tomorrow and I have half, so I guess I'm right on schedule.

For this page, I went super simple, with a busy patterned paper, matted photos and minimal journaling. I wanted to document 80s Day at my son's high school in 2015, since I'm an 80s kid and Ben raided his dad's closet to get the tie, Miami Vice jacket and sunglasses. It's the Circle of Life, my friends...lol.

For this next page, I went with a slightly more complicated for this photo. My son indulged me by letting me photograph his Braces Off Day and the goodies the orthodontist gave him, but I'm pretty sure he was just rolling his eyes at me when I wasn't looking.

I used a cork-look paper and lined paper to give it a kind of school feel, with little rubber teeth from a promotional brush-your-teeth rubber bracelet from a dentist. I didn't add any journaling at all to this one, except I wrote lookin' good in a font similar to the stickers I used for the title. I tucked in some die cut ticket things and two journaling cards and added an arrow and enamel dots to mimic pushpins on a cork board.

I do prefer the bottom page, even though it took more time with me flipping through my supplies to find just what I wanted, but it did take longer of course. The process of trying to find the right elements is what makes this fun for me.

I'll keep going on my 5 pages, but if I get too close to deadline, I might throw in another fast and simple page like the top. There's something to be said for getting those memories down, no matter what. 

Happy Friday!

Chark

Happy Pineapple Day

So, today is Pineapple Day and although it's not my most favorite fruit, I do like it once in a while. And I definitely like it in Pina Coladas or cake form :) One way my mom used pineapple was in these Soft Pineapple cookies. They are so tasty, though she always added some buttercream frosting and this recipe doesn't call for it. They are very soft cakey cookies, which is probably why I like them frosted!

If you want to celebrate Pineapple Day, you could always buy this adorable partial die from Hero Arts or the color layering stamps over at a2z Scrapbooking. Pineapples are pretty popular right now in the craft world, perhaps since pineapples can be a sign of welcome. 

Although while we were visiting an old plantation near Baton Rouge, they told us that guests received a pineapple on the breakfast tray when it was time for their visit to be up. We found that kinda funny--hey, nice seeing you, take this pineapple and get out now.

While I didn't feature any pineapples, I did make a scrap page (it's been awhile since I made one) with my new Pretty Little Studio goodies. I think I should probably get a commission from them since I'm so enamored lately :)

I'm loving the bright colors of the Hello Heather collection and the gold striped paper is so lovely. You can see the shine of the stripes on the right edge. 

I added some gold die cut hearts (that they threw in for free--they always give a little something free in my orders!) and used a 12x12 sheet of teal shimmer paper.

I think it's pretty colorful and fun for this pic of my daughter. The black word die cuts and tiny phrase were from the same Heather collection and the ampersand was a gold sticker from PLS. They look good together I think. 

Happy Monday!

Chark

Throwback Monday

Ok, it's not Thursday, but I thought I might do a throwback post any way. Here is my first scrapbook page, in our Vacation Travel Scrapbook. I thought we needed a scrapbook because we plan to see all fifty states and my husband's idea was to see them alphabetically.

Of course, I thought he was crazy since we drove to the farthest point in Alabama from Ohio with an infant, but the baby did fine and we had a blast. We were saving Alaska and Hawaii for when the kids were old enough to remember them and now we saving them because our kids are making us broke! :) We'll get there one day, just not now.

This is our very first state and my very first page. Here in the close-up you can admire my use of decorative edge scissors and trimmed ephemera from the guidebooks, apparently we stayed at a Days Inn. 

Of course, my favorite part is the adorable kids in the photo, sitting on the edge of the minivan eating candy from Miss Colleen's Kitchen near Gulf Shores. We had to go there, since our daughter is our very own Miss Colleen. She was excited to see her name there and more excited to eat a yellow chocolate sucker.

We're on the letter M now and turns out, we have a lot of states that start with M. We've seen Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts and Michigan and now we have four more M states to go. This year is Minnesota. So if you have any suggestions on what to see there, be sure to let me know!

I still need to scrap the Michigan page in the official Travel Scrapbook and I'll probably use some beach themed items from Pretty Little Studio, since we went to the lake. They have a new collection that I'm coveting, along with some vintage die cuts. Love PLS, where I keep getting pretty things to hoard use. I promise I will use them soon! (I'm not affiliated, just like them). I bought this little die cut and lurve it, but still not sure what I'll do with it. Probably a baby page from when my old kids (15 and 21) were babies.

Happy Throwback Monday...Throwback Thursday really does sound better, doesn't it?

Chark

Watercolor Your World

Hiya! Welcome to the Watercolor Blog Hop hosted by Pretty Pink Posh...love their store!

My watercolor entry uses the Hero Arts White/Cream paper flowers, lots of Tombow marker (in blues, purple and pink) as watercolor, and some Gelato metallics. Fun!

 1. Color on a craft sheet with metallic gelatos. Spritz with water.

  

2. Place your (7 Dots Domestic Goddess) paper facedown on the wet surface and press the paper so it picks up the colors.

 

3. Color with Tombow markers on an acrylic block, spritz with water and lay the Hero Arts paper flowers on top so they pick up the color.

4

4. Adhere everything together after it all dries. Add some bling and your title...and voila!

I added a little gelato to the photo background (of me and my daughter), because I didn't like the wall color and it looked kinda artsy, so I also added flowers to our hair too. I love that the paper already has different images and colors. It adds a lot of depth without a lot of time and effort.

And Yep! I have blog candy! 

1. Leave a comment and 

2. follow my blog 

by Monday, June 8, 2015 at 11:55 PM, PST 

 

and you'll be entered to win your choice of Stencil from a2z Scrapbooking Supplies and some Gold Outline Stickers for your crafting adventures! Open to international blog followers as well!

Giveaway Closed Now--winner: Karen LK!!

Happy Hopping!

Chark

Bo Bunny And Me

I'm entering this in the May Challenge over at Bo Bunny here. You have til the end of the month if you want to join me! I'm using the sketch and lots of Garden Journal paper and buttons (both paper and regular buttons) from the collection. 

Here's the sketch.

Here's my page with my daughter.

I used red and black cardstock and a handmade blue textured paper as well. The word is from Heidi Swapp. 

Here's a close up of some of the buttons and paper. I used Vintage Photo Distress Ink on some edges.

Fun sketch with lots of layers...thanks, Bo Bunny, for the inspiration.

Happy Wednesday,
Chark

Still More Pinkfresh And Winnie & Walter

I'm so into the NSD challenges from Pinkfresh and Winnie & Walter that I entered my third challenge here. 

The challenge is to create your own background. I did so for this page by using the Pinkfresh stencil and stickers that came with my January kit. I added some Thickers for the title and a picture of my daughter who is about 4 here and who is now almost 21! Those darn kids just keep growing up on me!

Here's a close up of the stenciling. I love this stencil! It's not huge, but it's fabulous and a great accent or focus for a card. The stickers were perfect for this picture. I have to add some journaling because she said she remembers thinking "this is the worst candy." And, of course, it's just wax, so it kinda is the worst candy.

I love the idea of creating your own background, but I'm not sure I can pull it off like some people...but I had fun trying. The die cut, the xo rub ons in gold and the little heart card are all from the Pinkfresh kit. And these kits are packed with good stuff. I still haven't used the gold flair or the canvas tags or heart confetti. Luckily, there are more NSD challenges, so I may still get to use them today!

Happy Friday redux! 
Chark

New Stencils In Action

* Edited to add to the Stamplorations stencil flash linky...you have til May 31 to join in here and you can use any stencil project! Dying to get my hands on some of their stencils!

So, I received my Pinkfresh kit awhile ago and of course, was anxious to use the products, but it wasn't until their challenges with Winnie & Walter Stamps for NSD that I really got to play with the new stuff. This card uses another of the new stencils. I masked off the leaves and just inked the rose bud and stem with my new Abandoned Coral and Pistachio Distress Inks. 

The washi isn't Pinkfresh, but the sentiments are rub ons from the kit. They were the perfect colors! I added a red bow to match the red hearts. I normally don't mix my reds, but I think it works with the coral. I used the circle applicator with the distress inks, but it left more marks than the rectangle applicator. Probably operator error...but I think I'll just use the circles for stenciling small areas.






You can still join in here if you want! Here's the sketch.

Happy Friday again (see the post below for another Pinkfresh/W&W challenge entry)!
Chark

Whales Galore

We went whale watching last summer in Massachusetts and saw literal tons of whales. I took a million pics, mostly because my new camera didn't have a  viewfinder (I realized then) and the day was so sunny, I couldn't see the screen. So I just pointed and snapped and hoped for something good. I got some good ones, although some are far away. At any rate, I printed a lot of them, mostly because it was such a great experience that we probably won't repeat.

Here's a page I made yesterday with the coolest clear overlay (the words are printed on there) and that I've had soooo long, the store I got it out has been gone for years. It was tricky to photograph, so this is what I got so it doesn't show the reflections in the overlay.

It looks as if I boosted the color on these, but if you look at the kraft page, you'll see it's a normal color. The ocean and sky were just these colors that day in June. 

Check out my daughter's hair...it was sooo windy on the boat. And cold, even though the temperature was fine when we left. Luckily, I read that you should take a jacket, so we did. 

I added some pebbled paper at the bottom to mimic sand (I just tore it in hill form) and used some gelatos on the pre-embossed kraft cardstock. I used white, purple, green and blue. 

It wasn't a hard page, but it took me forever to choose the pics and placement.

It was a Whaley Good Time (you're welcome for the pun)!

Happy Monday,
Chark

My Flapper Auntie

One of my relatives posted this picture of my Aunt Irene from the 1920s (with her bestie, Gail) and I pulled it off and printed it for myself (the lesson is—any pic you post can be copied and printed by any of your fb "friends" or "friends of friends" or whoever is allowed to see your pics). Since it's my aunt, I feel that was okay to do, but it's kinda weird to know that any of your pics can be printed anywhere...doncha think? 

At any rate, Aunt Irene was a flapper of sorts in our small town, even though when I knew her, she was just an kind older woman who let me stay way too often at her house. They had a lovely house with lots of gorgeous woodwork and a red kitchen stool that I always commandeered when I visited. 

When I saw this picture, I had to make a scrapbook page of it. Cool car, cool clothes and saucy-looking Auntie. I used a bunch of Glitz products for this page. Unfortunately, their website is no longer up and running, although you can still buy their products here and there.

Love vintage family photos because they can give you a glimpse into the past and the people who came before you. I like the family stories that get passed around too for the same reason. Hope you have some good ones!

Happy Monday,
Chark

Trampolines Are Fun For Everyone

So, we took our kids to Skyzone, the trampoline place, with trampoline basketball, dodgeball, ball pit and trampolines on the wall and floors. One, I didn't get on. With my lack of grace, I probably would've ended up in the ER with a broken something. Two, my husband did. He decided that a half-hour was more than enough time and that we shouldn't have paid for the full hour. Guess why? It's exhausting! Perfect place to take the kiddies when you want them to sleep well that night, but it takes a lot of you. Even my older kids were wiped out after an hour of trampolining. Which is a verb I just made up.

Here's a page I did. The pics are bad (the lighting, the colors, the movement all make for weird pics unless you're, y'know, a good photographer)...but they kinda capture the essence of the place—blurry movement.

 

Luckily, my fun-loving (read oddball) family will pose for just about anything, so I did get some fun pics out of it. The caution washi is actually for Halloween so I just took the word and cut off the skulls so I could use it here. The paper is from a fab DCWV paper pack called Teenage Dream. I got it at Jo Ann's for like $7. So worth it because it has a lot of fun prints and colors. See if it's on clearance at your Jo's too! 

p.s. Hero Arts is shipping their new Spring line this week, so if you wanna see the new goodies, head to a2z Scrapbooking Supplies and check it out! If you find some stuff to buy, you can use CHARK15 for a discount code of 15% off your $25 and up purchase.

I'm planning to get the Stamp & Cuts with the words and fun confetti like this.

Happy Wednesday!

Chark

Who Are You...Who...oo...Who...oo

I think this song is a good one by the Who and it's running through my head as I write this post. Sharing the video (I'm assuming this hair means the video was recorded in the 70s) just in case you're not getting the song I'm thinking of...it's the theme song to the original CSI, if you watched that.

 

It's a different Who I'm thinking of today, since I did a Dr. Who layout yesterday. I put a bunch of related pics on a page to show how Dr. Who has invaded our lives through the years. My daughter was a Dalek at Halloween, she had a Who birthday cake one year (I made it before I even started watching the show, she gave me the highlights and I looked up what a Tardis looked like) and the little stone angels are pound cake cut with a cookie cutter. My son took his Sonic Screwdriver to his get his photo taken and asked for Who gifts for a later birthday. Seriously, lots of Who stuff here.

I started with the paper and die cut from Scrap Your Trip. It was the only place I found Dr. Who related scrap paper (except digi paper). The quality is good and they were on time with their products. The Dalek and word 'exterminate" are theirs, the Tardis and "hello sweetie" came from Viva Las Vegastamps. They have the best fun stamps and naked rubber if you need to save money. The set I got with the police box has great Dr. Who phrases (fish fingers & custard) and images (bow tie, weeping angels). If you're a Who fan, check these sites out.

I'm entering it over at Viva Las Vegastamps for their February challenge. 

The rainbow swirl reminded me of the time vortex swirl from the show. I didn't use the whole rainbow, but used these colors together (Picked Raspberry and Salty Ocean alcohol inks) on acetate to make the swirl, stamped the police box and colored with Prismacolor pencils and then cut it out and popped it up on the design. It was originally a card, but I thought it would go on this page perfectly.

Oh, and hey, Happy Bagel Day today! Love bagels and they are actually easy to make, so if you're interested, here's a recipe. I love homemade bread and these bagels are no exception. They're not fast (you gotta let them rise) but they're fun to make and then be all like, "yeah, I made those from scratch."

Happy Monday!
Chark