Happy Valentine's Day!!

In honor of today's holiday, I thought I'd share a page about love today.... puppy love! :)

From Flamingo Scraps: Basic Grey Curio Patterned Paper and mini mono stickers

Other Supplies: October Afternoon Campground Patterned Paper; Sassafrass Lass Entwined Blooms (Rosey); Making Memories Je t'adore Patterned Paper; KI Memories Hot Strips Over the Rainbow border stickers; KI Memories 3x3 pockets; Stampin' Up! Black Journaling Pen; Stampin' Up! Scallop Border Punch; Studio Calico Love Stamps (January 2011)

This is my Scarlet with her boyfriend, Mr. Clark Kent.  They are too cute together!!  I used this week's sketch from Sketchy Thursdays - love it!! 

Happy Valentine's Day!! ♥

Flamingo Five: Hallowe'en in Wonderland

Welcome to our very first Flamingo Five!!  We picked five products then challenged our September Guest Design Team and ourselves to use all five items in our project or layout!!  So without further adieu... here are the five items:

Up first, Graphic 45 Hallowe'en in Wonderland,Wonderland Classifieds patterned paper:

And for our second item, Graphic 45 Hallowe'en in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass patterned paper:

The third item is Prima's new Craftables Flowers:

Fourth is one of our favorite staple items -- Prima Pearls & Crystals Ice bling:

And finally, the fifth item is the Flamingo Scraps Vintage/Steampunk Embellishment Grab Bag:

Full of Tim Holtz Grungeboard, watch pieces, clock hands, keys, metal gears, vintage ephemera, navy scallop ric rac, white ball trim.... every grab bag is different!!

All items available at Flamingo Scraps (limited quantities on hand!).   We all started with these supplies and the instructions to make something using all five items.  Any other items could be added to complete the project. 

Are you ready to see what we made?! 

Cindy's take:

 

I have to admit- when I opened the package containing the Flamingo Five, I had a moment of panic. My style is simple, so it is unusual that I use five supplies on a single project, let alone five that someone else picked out!

 

Fortunately, it didn't take long before I realized that these items would make a great Halloween wall hanging. I found an old wooden plaque, inked the edges with black Staz-On, and then used Mod Podge to adhere the dotted paper. I cut out Alice from the othersheet of paper and gave her a bunch of coats of Mod Podge too. With a coat of paint inside and out, and a smear of Stickles on top, the glass dome transformed into a full moon. The grungeboard pumpkin got a coat of paint and Stickles as well, and I backed it with a scrap of black paper. Then I punched out the negatives from the grungeboard butterfly and sprayed them and the Prima flowers with Glimmer Mist to make the pumpkin leaves.

 

 

 

To make the green vines, I sprayed the off-white trim with Glimmer Mist. When it was dry, I wound it around the handle of a foam brush and sprayed it with Krylon. Perfectly curled vines!

 

Supply list:  Flamingo Five; Staz-On - Jet Black; Stickles - Star Dust; Glimmer Mist - Key Lime Pie; Mod Podge; Krylon Acrylic Spray; Paint Delta (yellow) and Americana (brown, orange)

 

Jill's take

 

 

I used both pieces of paper. The flowers are in the upper left corner.  The pearls and crystals in ice are on the letters, the centres of the flowers and are the stars around the moon.  From within the vintage/steampunk bag, I used: ribbon, Tim Holtz grungeboard (moon/pumpkin).  I used my own: piece of cardstock (Bo Bunny), piece of purple pattern paper (Basic Grey) and the lettering.

 

Amanda's take

 

I don't have too many Halloween related pictures, so I ended up making a layout for my husband's book about his bike riding!

Flamingo 5 items, Bazzill cardstock, font is 1942 Report, charcoal Maya Mist and navy Tattered Angels mist.

 

What I love most about this layout is really hard to see... if you look closely to the picture above, you'll see a really subtle watermark effect on the cream cardstock.  I used my new 7 Gypsies gear stamp from the Steampunk stamp set and iridiscent pearl Maya Mist to "watermark" the cardstock with a shimmery pattern.  Just wanted something a little more than just plain cardstock!  

Susan's take

 

When my daughter Jessica was young, my Mother-in-law bought her an Alice in Wonderland dress from the Disney Store because she thought Jessica would look like Alice, at least Disney's version of Alice. Of course, I had to augment the dress with the white tights, black Mary Janes and a Headband to complete the "Alice" look!

 

I've been waiting for the right opportunity to scrap this photo of Jessica and Flamingo Five for September gave me the resources!

 

I used a Border from the Wonderland Die Cut Borders at the very top of the Layout. Bazzill card stock is the base of the Layout and the smaller photo mat. Everything else is from the Flamingo Five Set as follows:

1. G 45's Wonderland Classifieds - The fussy cut Alice, the dotted frame and the bigger photo mat
2. G 45's Through the Looking Glass - The fussy cut Mad Hatter and the horizontal paper strip under the photo.
3. Craftables Flowers - I used Bronze Glimmer Mist on the bigger bloom and Blue Raspberry Metallic Maya Mist on the smaller bloom, then layered them.
4. Pearls & Crystals Ice - Large Pearls used as flower centers
5. Steampunk Embellishment Grab Bag - Grungeboard Moon, Vintage Key, Navy Blue Velvet Ric Rac Trim and Vintage Clock Hands emanating from one of the flowers.

This was a lot of fun!

 

Suzanne's take

 

I have to admit I was worried about this first Flamingo Five challenge!  I'm an "organic" scrapper, could I work with pre-determined products?  Well, the answer is up to you, but I am pretty happy with the result!  I have wanted to scrap these silly pictures of my cat and was inspired by the Cheshire Cat in the Jack o' Lantern. 

 

 

I used both sheets of Hallowe'en in Wonderland patterned paper (1,2), the Prima E-line pearls and crystals in Ice (3), the Prima Craftables Flowers (4) and the lace, rick rack, clock hands, tiny paper bag, gear, and grunge butterfly from the embellie grab bag!  It must be said that Tim Holtz Distress Inks and a teal water color pencil helped me pull everything together!  Now I can't wait for the next Flamingo Five!

Now that we've made it to the end, we hope you enjoyed our very first Flamingo Five and you'll come back and join us on the 15th of each month to see what we made with a new batch of five goodies from Flamingo Scraps!  We hope that we have inspired you and we'd love to see what you make if you do, so please stop by and share it with us!

Guest Blogger Kia: Cool Challenge # 2

It's Kia again!  I'm back for another week of guest blogging.  If you missed the original post introducing Cool Challenges for a Hot Summer here on Flamingo Scraps, please click here.  Are you ready for Week # 2?  Here we go.....

Cool Challenge #2 ~  Even a Dog Can Shake Hands - Warren Zevon. 
 This week I want you to showcase your, or your pet's wealth of talent. Can you juggle Pirate's Booty? Can you lick your own elbow? Can your ferret play piano? Show the world your fabulously unique abilities in a LO.

Required Item:  This week's required item is chipboard and you must use at least one piece of chipboard on your layout.

And here's a sample layout from Amanda:

A note from Amanda:  This week, I'm sharing an older layout, but hey, it illustrates perfectly the hidden talent of all three of our pets.... :)  Yep, they are all excellent nap takers and experts at snuggling with each other and with us! :)
Supplies: Bazzill Cardstock; KI Memories Pet Shop patterned paper, chip shapes & alphabet chipboard; ribbon from the stash; Signo black pen

All Layouts must be uploaded to the Flamingo Scraps blog (using Mr. Linky) or Facebook page no later than 8pm EST on August 15, 2010 to be eligible.

On sale this week at Flamingo Scraps is selected chipboard from Maya Road.

{{{{Drum Roll}}}} And the winner of last week's challenge random drawing is:

Cindy d! Congratulations!! Please e-mail your shipping info to flamingoscraps@yahoo.com to claim your prize.

See you next week!

Looking Back: Amanda

We have been busy the last few weeks reviewing all the new products and deciding what to carry in the store. So many beautiful new Primas, fabulous new papers and we still have yet to see everything. It has not left us with much time to hit the scraproom!

So today, we will take a walk back in time by featuring a look back at my style and how it has evolved over the years. I often say that I started scrapbooking back in 2005, after we got married. But actually, I rediscovered my very first mini album recently... from 1997!  A cute altered Disney photo album about a trip I went on in high school.  I had so much fun celebrating my 17th birthday with my friends!

Nothing but stickers, markers, pics, some ephemera and those Crayola stamp pens (anyone remember or still have those?!)

I kinda skipped the scrapbooking in college and stuck with putting photos in albums.... but as soon as I was out of college, Brian and I went on our first trip together - Disneyworld!  And they were selling scrapbook kits.  They had a cool album, some plain colored paper and stickers.  Scrapbooking circa 2002! :)

2002-2003:

The Brown Derby at MGM Studios and....

Topiaries at Epcot.  The entire album looks like a set of decorative edged scissors attacked!! :)

2003-2004:

I spent the first half of the year continuing to make slow progress on the Disneyworld album and the late part of 2003 and most of 2004 working on our album of pictures for our trip to Maui.  Disneyworld?  Still incomplete... Maui?  Done, but no titles or journaling!  Anyone else have albums like that?!

2005:

Spent most of the year planning our wedding, which included 80 of these.  I made them... designed, printed, handcut the red paper from huge sheets of cardstock from Aaron Brothers, hand stamped and embossed the vines on the top, tied the ribbon on and assembled.  whew.  And it included an rsvp card and this:

Front of directions card and....

Back of directions card.  And I hand drew the map, added the text markers, printed and then...

hand colored the maps on 80 of those.  Did I mention I also had a custom stamp made for the addresses on the envelope?  Or hand made 150 thank you cards (including embossing)?!  Not much time for scrapbooking that year!! :)  At least someone got use of the maps.... the owner of the bed & breakfast we got married at liked the map so much it's still on her website!

2006:

Made for my good friend Sarah in a swap.  Yes, my prima addiction has officially begun!

2007:

I still loved lots of flowers!! This is still one of my favorite layouts today.

2008:

My favorite layout of our furbaby to date!

2009:

One of my prior Scrapthatlon layouts and my first use of Flamingo Scraps products... the lace trim and butterfly!

2010:

And finally, one of my favorites so far this year.  Read more about this layout here.

It was fun looking back over the years.  I have to say I don't think my style has drastically changed.  I see a lot of similarity between the layouts.  And I love the flowers!!

Have you taken a look back lately?

Scraptathlon Week # 3

This week's challenge threw all the Scraptathletes for a loop!  Our song title inspiration was "Stupid" by Toad the Wet Sprocket and we were to scrap something stupid.  Our instructions were to showcase something STUPID... something we said or something we did.  Or make the layout about someone else or something else. The word stupid, or a synonym had to find its way prominently on to our page.

Here's what Susan had to say about her Week # 3 layout.......
I knew immediately I was going to use the word "Twp".  My mother's family is Welsh and twp is Welsh for stupid.  But it's not an insulting kind of stupid, it translates more to being blissfully unaware of something and therefore is a more endearing term.  My entire family uses the word twp.  Twp is pronounced tup.

At one family birthday celebration, many years ago now, my youngest sister offered to bring the pinata for a party game.  Unfortunately, she was blissfully unaware that she had to buy candy and fill the pinata herself!  No one noticed until the kids had whacked the pinata to pieces and still no candy and goodies!  We all had a good laugh about how twp my sister was - at least the adults did.  The kids were pretty upset about no candy!


Here's my layout for Scraptathalon Week # 3 - I used a Page Maps Sketch by Becky Fleck:

Flamingo Scraps supplies used:  Kaisercraft's Penny Royale collection papers, brads and die cuts.  Prima Marketing's Madrigal Blossoms, Prima's Say It In Pearls and Roses Pink Swirl and Corner, Webster's Pages Postcards from Paris Storyteller Alphabet Stickers, Tim Holtz Distress Inks.

I chose the Penny Royale papers because I thought the terra cotta hues were representative of the southwest and Mexico.  I think they are a gorgeous color combination and the collection comes with many more coordinating items such as rub-ons and embroidered patches.  All available at Flamingo Scraps.  Thanks for looking!

 

And here was Amanda's take on the challenge.....
This one stumped me.  And forced me to head to the one hour photo once I figured out what I wanted to do and spent an hour trying to remember what year my stupid event I was trying to scrap happened in!  Ultimately, I chose to scrap about an unfortunate stupid accident involving my husband, our cat, her tail and the front door.  It wasn't pretty!!  If you want to read the journaling, you can click on over to here to read the typed out version.

From Flamingo Scraps:  Webster's Garden Gala patterned papers (background and brown patterned), Webster's trims (aqua trim and brown lace), Webster's alphabet stickers, Coco Ruffle trim and Prima white fairytale roses

Other supplies:  brown cardstock, brown fine point sharpie pen, martha stewart heart punch, Basic Grey Urban Prairie patterned paper (under photo collage and under date/name box), brown doodlebug simply sweet alpha rub-ons

Sorry for the kinda funky scan -- all those flowers make the scanner do wonky shadows!!  I made the journaling box for nala and the date by using the die cut sheet from bayberry cottage as a stencil.  I traced it, cut it out and doodled a mirror image line along the inside of the shape.  I also traced the unique mat under the photo collage by using a Making Memories mistletoe collection journaling book page as a stencil for one edge of the paper.

Hope you enjoyed reading about our stupid (twp) moments and the layouts they inspired!

Scraptathlon Challenge - Week # 2

Our song inspiration for this week's challenge was Elton John's Border Song.  The challenge?  Create a layout with a minimum of four different borders.  The Scraptatheletes went to town and came up with some unique borders!  One Scraptathelete used journaling as a border!

Susan's layout this week was Gulf Sunset.  Here's what Susan had to say about her layout....

I have been jonesing to use some Webster's Pages Seaside Retreat collection in a layout.  This week's challenge was the perfect opportunity to satisfy my yearning.  I was inspired by Webster's Pages Design Team member Amy Tara Koeppel's layout, "One of the 7 Wonders".  I used the Seaside Retreat vellum sheet for the base.  It was a little scary when I crumpled up the vellum but it added dimension when I smoothed it out and sewed it with a zig-zag stitch to a piece of Bazzill cardstock - Border #1 complete!  I used two other papers from Seaside Retreat:  A Seahorse's Legend and Far and Away.  I used both sides of the papers for photo mats and punched a seashell border along the edge of one - Border #2 complete!  I used two different Seaside Retreat Fabric Ribbons for Borders # 3 and # 4 then I finished up by adding some embellishments in the lower left corner.  I actually managed a 5th border for good measure - it's some pretty crocheted lace from Prima at the bottom of the photo of my daughter.   Many thanks to my dear friend Andy for the Seahorse!  She used one of her Cricut cartridges and made Seahorses for all us Cropulators this year at St. Augustine Beach.

Flamingo Scraps products used:  Webster's Pages Seaside Retreat Collection - Vellum, Papers, Fabric Ribbons and Fancies, Webster's Pages Bloomers in Petal and Berry, Prima Marketing Tres Jolie Vines, Bling and Lace, Maya Road Trinket Pins - Hearts and Crystals.  Other supplies used:  Bazzill cardstock and K & Co. Seashell Embellishments.

Amanda's layout this week was Scarlet.  Here's what Amanda shared about her layout......

As soon as I saw the challenge posted, I knew exactly what I wanted to do!  I've been hoarding my Pink Paislee Queen Bee for just the right projects.... dying to use my new-ish Martha Stewart Loopy punch (I can't call it new because it's been in the house for months!).... and I had an extra copy of this picture of our dog Scarlet just waiting to be used!  Combine with a Sketchy Thursday sketch and viola!  This layout will be framed and hung in our house! As for my four borders... the first is the die cut paper for this line (gorgeous paper!!); the second is the loopy edge punched grey + yellow patterned paper; the third is the black patterned paper punched using the threading water punch from fiskars; and the fourth is the small yellow strip punched out with the small scallop heart punch.  I outlined everything with a pen, handcut my "leaves" to my flower and added my title.  The flower was made by cutting a scallop strip out with the cutterpede and gluing/folding it down to make a bigger flower-like base for my white primas.

From Flamingo Scraps:  pink paislee Queen Bee collection patterned papers, Webster's alpha stickers, Prima e-line pearl swirl (swirl, dragonfly + butterfly -- all one set!), Prima e-line pearls & crystals (center of flower) and Prima white flowers

Other supplies:  Martha Stewart loopy punch and small scallop heart punch, Fiskars threading water punch, cutterpede scallop edge, fine tip black sharpie pen

Would you like to see what all the other Scraptathletes did ?  Here's a link to the Scraptathlon Gallery.  Leave them some love by way of commenting on their work!

PS from Susan......Amanda's not about to brag on herself, so I will!  She took first place this week in both the neighbor's poll AND the judges poll!  Congratulations Amanda - YOU ROCK!

Happy Scraps to you!