The Scarlet Lime

Lori Jolley: February projects and March numbers

There are so many ways to share the things we love. We can take photos of moments and family and document them like I did in this layout of my son enjoying the sunshine and warmth of summer. We will love looking at them and remembering again and again.

I kept it simple since I want the photos to shine. The February frugal fab kit was full of fun things that reminded me of summer - vivid greens and yellows and reds and fun beach-themed ATC cards and bright buttons. I decorated one of the buttons with parts of the alphabet stickers in the kit to make a smiley face in the top corner and I used some of the Pink Paislee bling stickers to look like water droplets.

I love to give handmade gifts whenever I can. Since spring is coming and there are always several weddings and bridal showers that will be coming up, I made some simple recipe cards to give to new brides. I know I appreciated some of the recipes I received when I was first married. It was nice to have some recipes I knew were tasty and that my new husband liked.

If I have some of these cards on hand, it is so simple to add some kitchen towels and an apron for a personal and fun gift.

And since I love surprises and surprising people and  I love gifts in pretty packaging, I'm sharing another of my loves a friend - peach jam - tied with lace from the February frugal fab kit and dressed up with tags and paper from the February main kit. 

And I think I've found a new love! The little gift bag made with pretty paper and the pinwheel sticker would be perfect filled with cookies or candy or scones. I love it! Wouldn't it be so fun to give or receive a goodie in one of those?! 

And as we jump into March, we will be thinking about numbers. We use numbers in so many ways during each day without even thinking about it or realizing it! We make lists (at least I do), we have to wake up and go to work or take children to practice at a certain time, , we have to watch the number on the speedometer when we drive, we measure ingredients to bake or buy a certain number of items at the store, we have time limits or we try to beat a certain time, we say or do things a certain number of times in a day or a week, we count down the days to holidays and on and on. 

Numbers are everywhere in our lives and it will be fun to see how our numbers add up this month for the design team.

Join us! Leave a comment or a link on any of our posts this month or add your projects to the Scarlet Lime Gallery so we can see them! We absolutely love to see your work - you can count on that!

Mimi Leinbach: What's my style?

When I heard the challenge for this month, to name our style I went into a bit of panic mode. What is my style, hmmmm...I  have a hard time saying I have a particular style. If you asked me this question 2 years ago, my answer would have been very different so this is what I narrowed it down to. Evolving!  I sometimes create in a very simplistic and linear style.

Scarlet Lime October 2010 Main Kit

I love color, the bolder and brighter the better! I have to say that in my mind, to much color is never enough.

Scarlet Lime January 2011 Main Kit

My style has really changed quite a bit in the last year...I think we can blame Christy and the Mixed Media Store for that. She has inspired me to do things that I NEVER would have tried because I would have been scared to make a mistake. Now I know that a mistake may be just what a projects needs to make it special!

Scarlet Lime May 2011 Frugal Kit

I started my first art journal...oh, how fun! I never was one to use many stamps. I always felt an image had to be just perfect for it to be right, boy was I wrong...there is not a single perfectly stamped image on these pages and I love it anyway. I have to say it is very freeing to feel that way when I create.

Scarlet Lime October 2011 Main Kit

I even did my first canvas this year, so my art is sometimes off the page now! I made this canvas for one of my nieces. I must say they are very happy I ventured further into the mixed media world! They reap the rewards of getting my fingers dirty.

Scarlet Lime September 2011 Main Kit

So what I know about my style is that it is what it is today...and may very well be something else tomorrow. And I just love that!

Lori Jolley: What is my style?

What is my personal style?

This is a hard one because I'm not sure I have a defining style. I doubt if anyone sees a project I make and they immediately just say, "Lori made that." Plus I love to try new things so I am always trying a new technique or a different pattern in my projects. Here is an example - 

I loved the look and texture of iris folding and used the technique on a scrapbook page. 

So - my style is ecclectic and constantly changing because of my love of experimenting and trying new ideas.

I know I love vintage items and colors and I love pretty, girly things so I love to use buttons and ribbon and lace. I also love to sew and quilt and crochet so there is stitching or fabric or some item from another hobby on my projects, too.

And as I looked back at the projects I've done this past year I noticed that I like my photos to be in a line or in a group but the embellishments don't necessarily have to be grouped together or with the photos. I just like the photos to be grouped together in a line or a grid.  I also like the elements on the page to help tell the story or be related to the photos or other items. So if I'm doing a page about picking apples, I probably won't use veggies or  pears on the page or if I'm telling about a child who pretends to be a star, I probably won't put hearts on the page. I want the colors, photos and embellishments to all be part of the story and to be consistent with the story. That doesn't mean I would never mix hearts and stars because I definitely would! If somthing helps tell the story or expresses an emotion or mood then I will mix and match any elements that show that.  

I guess my style is a mix of lots of styles - linear, ecclectic, logical, evolving and unpredictable. Fun! I love it!!!

Looking forward projects: Lori Jolley

Hello and Happy Holidays!

I am going to share my projects using the December "Chestnuts and Cinnamon" kit this time. I have some projects started using the Dec. frugal fab kit, but I need to put them away for a few days and concentrate on the holidays. 

The "Chestnuts and Cinnamon" kit is definitely Christmasy, but I find its easy to take elements of the kit and create so many great non-holiday projects. 

I made a small and very simple pocket album to remind me of my goal to show more gratitude in 2012 and added tags with some of my favorite quotes. 

The quote above is one of my very favorite and I want to make some art soon based it that I can display and look at often.

I am absolutely in love with these giant floss bobbins I made from the kit papers. I was inspired by this image

Photo courtesy of Pinterest  

on my Pinterest board. It will be perfect for my goal to organize. I can't wait to use some of my pretty paper scraps to make more bobbins and then untangle my ribbon and vintage lace and put all my pretty organized bobbins in a basket to look at and use! I almost want to work on this one during the holidays because I am so excited about it!

My last little project is a letter charm using that fun wood alphabet from the December kit. I just glued a small jewelry bail on the letter and let it dry. Then I used a piece of ribbon from the kit to make a pretty monogram necklace. I made several of these letter charms for personalized and easy gifts.  I also want to use some of the letters tied onto packages with bows to add some cuteness to my holiday gift wrapping.

Lori Jolley: Inspiration Projects

I really love looking at magazines and I keep them for a long time because the things that catch my eye right now might be completely different several months from now. That is what happened when I looked through the Aug/Sept 2011 issue of Somerset Studio's Artful Blogging Magazine again. (Yes - that is the issue that features Christy's blog)

Of course, the first time I looked at this issue I wanted to see Christy's article but this time I studied the photos and fell in love with this one on page 83. I love everything about those apples - the colors and black stitching and the simplicity! 

I took everything I loved and made a set of cards using the October frugal fab kit "Falling Leaves". I hand stitched the apples with black embroidery thread and used pop dots to give them dimension. I'm making several sets of cards to give as teacher gifts for Christmas with a jar of apple pie filling. 

My second project is also inpired by a magazine. I love to quilt so I used this photo of a quilt in the Better Homes and Gardens Amercan Patchwork & Quilting magazine (February 2011, page 36-37) to create a layout about the quilt group I attend. 

I used the October frugal fab kit for this layout also.

And finally - I am usually inspired to make at least one of my projects from items that come in the kits. There is always something in the Scarlet Lime kits that I just have to use right away. I used the items in the October main kit "Blueberry Pie" to make a page about

apples! There are truly so many things to inspire in this kit!! It's so fun!

What inspires you? Please share with us because we are inspired by all of you!

Hugs!

Dena Hamlin: Inspiration Projects!

Well last week, I shared my love of wanelo and a certain color combo with you....and now this week, I shall share the layout that I made based off of my inspiration. As a quick reminder, here is what I posted for my inspiration: My love of the site: wanelo and these lovely goodies:

 
So I sat down with this month's kit and came up with this little number:

 
My own little STYLE FILE! I pulled any and all papers from this months "Blueberry Pie"Main Kit that fit the bill. Yellow and grey are ABUNDANT and Crate paper just hits the spot! I am going to make a STYLE FILE album using the same basic idea each month: By creating a vignette/ style board and a layout based off what inspired me that month. I totally think YOU should do the same. Keep a running count of all the cool things that we have floating in our hard drives or stacked up in our junk drawers!

I also created two other projects for this month. One more project from the "Blueberry Pie" Main Kit:

 

 
If you haven't noticed, I have a TOTAL weakness for all things vintage. Clothing, shoes, jewelry, (cough cough PAPER cough) and the vintage products from Glitz just SCREAMED use me. And the title I borrowed from my friend Eryn's adorable online store Vintage Glam!

My next layout I created with this month's Frugal Fab "Falling Leaves" kit. Such a great mix of colors in this kit!

 

 
 
I took a different approach with the kit and went girly as opposed to autumnal. See how flexible these kits really are. The rub ons in the kit from Kaisercraft and American Crafts are just darling!

Hopefully, some of my projects will give you inspiration as this month's kits arrive on your doorstep. Please feel free to leave links to your projects that you create using Scarlet Lime Kits so we can all ooooh and ahhhh over them.

Creative Wishes From My Craft Table to Yours,

 

Sketches in September

I have loved seeing how our other team members have interpreted the Anthropologie ad sketches this month and now its my turn.

I really love the colors of the first sketch and I love the simple design so I wanted to use those in my own design.

I used the 7 gypsies tape and other embellishments  from the September "Indian Summer" kit from Scarlet Lime to do this project. I let the tape mimic the random placement of the drawer elements in the photo background and used a blue sticker in the corner of the photo to echo the look in the sketch. Then I used buttons for bullet points and rubons and stickers for the journaling. I loved those yellow shoes in the sketch and the yellow felt key accent in the kit was perfect to pull just a touch of yellow into my page. 

The second sketch was fun, too. I really liked the notebook paper accent so I definitely had to use that on my own.

I chose to use the September frugal kit for my second sketch. It all worked together perfectly for the idea I had in mind for this page and the flower and paper ribbon accents were the perfect contrast to my Mother's Day gift from my boys.

I had to use both photos of my boys because they both tell so much of the story with the one photo of them both picking glue off their fingers and the other of one boy pointing to the other and saying, "It was his idea," and the other saying, "You wanted to do it, too!" So I just used them both - close together - as the large photo in the sketch. By extending the patterned paper down the side I tried to bring emphasis to the photo of their artwork and then I added the text to the top just like in the sketch. 

These sketches and kits were a blast to work with! Please join us this month and use the sketches to inspire you to create your own pages or projects!

Gettin' Sketchy With It!

Long time no see my fellow Scarlet Lime friends! How I have missed thee. After the summer off and a LONG move from Oregon to Texas, I am ready to be back in the game and have had a blast creating with the new September "Indian Summer" Scarlet Lime Kit AND creating projects based off of this month's sketches!

Sketch #1

 
Here I was inspired by the notebook paper in the Anthropologie ad and the layering as well. I loved the lightly stamped looking images in the ad and used some packing bubble wrap from one of my many boxes as a stamp to help mimic that look. 

Sketch #2

 
Clearly I was inspired by the cardboard in the Anthropologie ad. And Lord knows I have cardboard in spades right now. So once again, USING WHAT I HAVE on hand to create a layout. I followed the same basic design and was really intrigued by the use of tape in the ad and the tape that was included in this months kit was PERFECT to help replicate that look. I also dug into my kiddos school supplies and found some really cute glitter pens that I used to recreate the bullet points that were found in the ad:

 
Thank you CRAYOLA! I think I may totally have to get a pack of these for myself.

Christy put together 2 amazing and incredible kits this month. And if you are like me you have PLENTY of left over doodads and goodies. So I decided to create a cute little gift set to give as a thank you to one of my new neighbors, and with a few simple supplies you can do the same.

 

Here is what you will need: a bracelet  and ring blank (you can purchase at your local craft store for just a few dollars!), the Basic Grey felt flower sticker from this month's kit, any left over large size flower (I happened to have one from a Scarlet Lime kit from last year that was handy!) a button and BasicGrey Brad from this month's kit as well. A hot glue gun or your favorite heavy duty liquid adhesive will be necessary too.

Then it just becomes a simple 5 minute task of layering and glueing the embellishments to the jewelry blanks. To make the bracelet, I simply glued the paper flower to the bracelet and layered the BasicGrey Felt flower over the top, adding just a little bit of extra adhesive to help ensure that it was stay on. 60 seconds later, SUPER cute bracelet:

 

The button ring is JUST as easy to make! I loved the look of the yellow zebra stripish looking  button. A simple dot of glue onto the ring blank and there you have a 10 second ring, but the Basic Grey brads in this month's kit caught my eye. So I wanted to add just a little something extra. Just snip off the brad with a pair of scissors and then glue the brad top to the button. You will end up with this little gem that looks like you spent a small fortune in a boutique somewhere, but SHHHHHHH!! no one needs to know our little secret:

 

So I hope I gave you some great tips and ideas for using those little kit leftovers to create a cute something for yourself or a friend.

And we look forward to seeing your take on this month's sketch challenges. Now go forth and be creative!

 

Hi Everyone...can it really be August already? It is, so it is time for a new challenge. This month we are going to creating something sweet and charming from something so simple! I took some plain old notepads and made these sweet decorated ones...perfect for a little gift or sitting on your own kitchen counter to keep up with that shopping list.

Now here are a few details...

So dig into your stash and create something special. Some great ideas are adding a little trim to a lamp, dressing up a waste can for the bathroom or even making some notepads a little more special!

Be sure to leave a comment on this post with a link to your project so we can see it (not just to a general blog or site - please link to the specific post or flickr page so we don't have to hunt for it :) and you will be entered to win a $25 gift certificate from Christy to purchase anything you want from the Scarlet Lime Shop.

July Challenge Follow-up

Hello! Melanie here, following up with a project on Mimi's July Challenge. I love repurposing things for storage--especially because DH said I cannot buy any new scrapbook storage items! LOL

I had this frosting can container on my desk, holding my most-reached-for items:

 
Lame, huh?

Well, along came Mimi's challenge. Instead of digging into my stash though I decided to use the current JULY Scarlet Lime kit . . . because I had to use that rose trim again :)

I covered the can with paper, added the trim to the bottom, then adhered one of the Glitz stickers with some of the Basic Grey pops on top. So much prettier, right?

 

Be sure to upload your projects by the 31st for the challenge. The winner gets a $25 gift certificate to the Scarlet Lime shop--whoo hoo!