Duh!

Hi everyone! Hope you're having a terrific day so far!

I just wanted to share a layout with you today, and some close ups:

I get a kick out of the kids 'helping' us out around the house. For the most part, its ridiculously cute- when they actually do what you've asked them to. Other times it can be aggravating, because its obvious they don't want to do it, but they must because it either came from some place they shouldn't have taken it, or it just plain needs to be picked up (as in their toys). And, when I say 'they must', it usually means that mama or daddy picks it up in the end. :)

They'll help us carry the groceries from the door into the kitchen (if they deem whichever item they're carrying not 'too heavy'. Last night, I asked Maren to carry a bag with pork chops in it to the kitchen, and she promptly dropped it back on the floor, saying it was too heavy. Ok, if you say so!! (LOL) (Though, she has no problem carrying a 4 litre jug of milk to the kitchen when daddy asks her to do it).

So, when I asked Maren if she wanted to help me with the laundry, she quickly, and wholeheartedly answered, 'yes!' My first reaction was, 'oh cool', and when I discovered how she had helped mommy put the laundry away, I just had to chuckle. She put the folded laundry back into the laundry basket. Still folded! Instinct told me that what she had done wasn't really putting the laundry away, and I was about to tell her that, when I decided to bite my tongue. To her, that was putting the laundry away. How many millions of times has she seen me put the entire load back into the laundry basket, intending to put all the items away at a later time? She was absolutely right, so I congratulated her on it! (I was particularly impressed that everything, for the most part, was still folded!)

I've been wanting to create my own background for a layout for a while. A really long while. I don't really think many of my stamps are very conducive to making pretty backdrops- mostly because they're too small and not elaborate enough, but I've picked up a few in the very recent past that will work beautifully for backgrounds such as this one:

I took the vintage post card stamp I bought from Michaels, and used it to stamp the image in varying directions. I also pressed fairly lightly, to give it an even more vintage, worn look. To finish it off, I inked the edges with a sponge dauber. (I used SU's Close to Cocoa ink).

W.O.W.!!! I think it looks horrendous  fantastic, and I can hardly wait to use this again on another project! Its my new favourite thing!!

I should mention here, that the inspiration for this entire layout came from a design I found in a special issue of scrapbooks etc.- sbe page planner. Unfortunately, I don't know the year of publication, or if there's more than one publication of this particular type of special issue. You can find the original of this layout on page 29 of that particular issue. (Ha, good luck trying to find it! I know its pretty vague). Sorry!

The bird stamps come from a certain SU stamp set that I don't know the name of. I actually never thought to add the name of the collection to the outside of the box until I bought a box full of goodies from a girl off Kijiji that no longer wanted/needed as much scrapping stuff. She had put them on the outside of her stamp boxes, and I had an 'aha!' moment when I saw it. So now, if and when I ever buy anymore SU stamps, I will remember to do that!!

The birds are pretty, though, aren't they? I love the green against the brown background. I just love neutrals period. I think they're fast becoming my most favourite colour to work with. Colour scares me a little, though when I do work with bright colours, I am sometimes pleasantly surprised (such as with the one I am currently working on. That may be tomorrow's post!!)

Creating the title was a lot of fun. Every once in a while, I get into this mindset that using my cricut after the kids have gone to bed is a bad idea. I worry that the noise it makes will wake them up- especially since I'm working in the room right next to theirs!! Even with the door closed, I worry about it. You know how it goes- when you try and be as quiet as possible, thats when you inevitably end up being noisier than usual. So, when I'm in silent mode, I try and come up with creative ways to get things done without my cricut. And, I have to say, I'm pretty pleased with the outcome! I'll be doing this in the future more often now, too!

I took SU's whisper white ink, and stamped with alpha stamps on black patterned paper. Then, I just fussy cut around them to create this fun and whimsical title! Easy peasy!

And lastly, the journalling block. I stamped it onto kraft card stock with SU's Close to Cocoa ink, then fussy cut around the lines, creating my journalling block. Then, I took a sponge dauber and lightly dragged it across the front to help age it just a tad more. Voila!

A lot of the elements on this page were created using scraps. How many of you make it a priority to use up your scraps? Do you use them for specific projects, like mini albums, cards or off the page type projects? Or, do you use them in any way that tickles your fancy? And, how small is too small to keep? Do you keep every tiny piece of paper, or do you keep nothing smaller than a certain size?

I'd love to hear how you use up your scraps!

Until next time, enjoy your Thursday!