Scrapping Everyday Miracles Birthday Blog Hop!

I am so excited and blessed to be part of the Scrapping Everyday Miracles Birthday blog hop.
There are so many fun challenges and contests going on for the next several days.

Make sure you join us over on our FB page as well for more fun and games.

Welcome to each of you we are so excited to have you join us for our Birthday Celebration!  It has been an exciting year here at Scrapping Everyday Miracles and we are so glad that you have chosen to explore the miracles with us throughout the year.  We have an fun hop planned for you this weekend but that is not all!!  We will also have 5 fun and easy challenges that you can enter to win some amazing prizes. The celebration doesn't stop with the blog... on our facebook group http://www.facebook.com/groups/200817343359030/ we will be offering games each day of the event that will have some fabulous prizes.  We will also be posting and discussing the challenges that we created for the Birthday Celebration.  We might even sneak in some fun random giveaways.  

So let the Hop begin....

Each of the Design Team members and our Guest Design Team members have created a project with the birthday theme of  to show you on their blogs.  Make sure that you hop along to each blog because you never know where there might be more prizes hiding along the way!  In addition to prizes we have a special birthday scavenger hunt for you :)   On several of the blogs there will be a project photo that has birthday hats hidden in the photo.  As you hop through count how many hats you find.  When you are finished with the hop write the total number of hats you found in a comment here on the Scrapping Everyday Miracles blog hop post.  Have fun and happy hopping! 
                   
                                               These are what the hats look like......

And here is my card for you to search for hats on.

Can you find them all?

                        Our hop grand prize has been provided by Blue Fern Studios....

Blue Fern Studios was founded with the idea of providing unique and sophisticated papercraft designs. We offer exquisitely detailed products to inspire all styles of craft artists in all areas, including scrapbooking, mixed media, general crafting, and more! We currently offer a wide variety of chipboard designs with new items being frequently added. Be on the lookout for our upcoming paper collection and MORE ;)!

Blog: http://bluefernstudios.blogspot.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BlueFernStudios

Ready to see the awesome Grand Prize for the hop...

So are you all ready?  It is time for some hopping!  Have fun and we will see you back here at the end of the hop .  
The hop will remain open until Sunday night, July 14th at midnight PST. 
Remember in order to qualify for our grand prize you must leave a comment on all the blogs.

Nic http://scrapmethis.blogspot.com
Cara http://bitsbaublesandbliss.blogspot.com/
Elizabeth http://www.ejoym.blogspot.com
 You are here---Christy  http://creatingwiththegirls.blogspot.com
Kelly http://blsd2scrp.blogspot.com
Helen http://byheleng.wordpress.com/
Lisa  http://creativejuicefreshsqueezed.blogspot.com/
Tracey http://gracescraps.blogspot.com
Jessica http://jessica-createandshare.blogspot.com
Roberta http://thepapercraftingleague.blogspot.com
SEM blog http://scrappingeverydaymiracles.blogspot.com/



Make sure you also stop by our Facebook page for games, challenges and even more prizes.  Winners will be posted here on SEM (and on each individual blog that provides RAK) on Wednesday July 17th so don't forget to come back and see if you won any of the fabulous prizes from our sponsors!  

Scrapping Everyday Miracles July Challenge...A Few of My Favorite Things

It's another month (my does time fly) and that means it's time for another challenge at
Scrapping Everyday Miracles.


What's the challenge you ask...
well here you go!

"These Are A Few of My Favorite Things"

Cara brings you the Main Challenge this month and this is what she has to say..."I love learning new things about people, and so I wanted to do a fun challenge about getting to know someone by finding out what their most favorite things are."

So here's my Challenge: Create a layout about someone's "favorites"...it can be a page about yourself, your child, your best friend, your spouse, your parent....
well, you get the idea...it can be about anyone you choose. I think hearing what people enjoy about life can be one of the greatest ways to get to know the heart of that person. It can also be a great way to connect with someone...when we take the time to do things they enjoy, we can bless them. 

The Scrap Twist that you need to include on your project is to use some kind of "office supply item"---some ideas would be paper clips, binder clips, or staples. 

Have fun with this challenge as you show the personality of the person you scrap about through the things they love most! I'm excited to see what you come up with.

And to give you a bit of inspiration....

Here is my take on this month's challenge.

My middle daughter is a committed soccer player. She plays for both her club team and was recently chosen by our state to play for them as well.
She can be found on a field just about everyday of the week with a ball at her feet.

To her there is no better place to be than on the field.

I used 7 Dots Studio paper for my base. There is some Tim Holtz Washi Tape covered with Gesso.

Misted with Lindy's Stamp Gang Moonshadow mist.

Prima Old Road ink through a Donna Downey stencil.

My office supplies were staples added as embellishments.

Our gracious sponsor this month is...

Pure Painted Signs

Here's what Celisa has to share about her company:

My name is Celisa Schumpert and I am a wife, a mom and I have a love for all things creative.  My husband and I were blessed to spend over 20 years in youth ministry before helping begin a start up church about 3 years ago that has grown to about 1700 weekly attendance, it has been awesome watching God at work in our new adventure.  I am also a mom to three children 20, 16 and 8.  Around 7 years ago we were blessed to bring home our 8 year old from China and it doing so developed a heart for orphans and a desire to help them find forever families.  As a result, I wanted to start a business that could give to that purpose.  I am blessed to combine my two passions into my relatively new business, Pure Painted Signs.  I have always loved painting and with this endeavor I am able to give 10% to my church and 40% to orphan causes around the world, as well as supporting families who are seeking to adopt. 

Etsy:  https://www.etsy.com/shop/purepaintedsigns

Pinterest:  http://pinterest.com/purepaintedsign/

The prize is a wooden sign such as:

She is also offering a 15% discount on any orders in July the discount code is

What an awesome prize (wish I could win it)!! All you have to do is enter one of our challenges in July for a chance to win.

**NOTE: You may submit the project you create for Scrapping Everyday Miracles to other challenge blogs but your project must be mainly created for the Scrapping Everyday Miracles challenge in order to win the sponsor prize and/or be one of Top 3**

 All entries must be linked HERE by July 31st, 11:59pm PST.

*Important: Make sure your link is to the blog post with your project & not just your blog in general...and be sure to remember the SCRAP TWIST!

Make sure to link up your creation as well and get entered in for this month's prize drawing.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Cherish

Another layout to share which was recently featured in the April issue of 

Scrapbook News and Review.

Kaisercraft paper was crumpled and distressed along the edges.

A whitewash of Gesso applied over the pattern to tone everything down.

My photo was adhered to the page and then Moldeling Paste applied along 2 of the corners and out a bit.

I used a palette knife and frosted the paper almost like a cake to get some peaks and valleys.

When the paste was dry I added some color with Silks Acrylic Glazes then stamped all ver the page with a Recollections scripts stamp and Staz On in Jet Black.

The hexagons are stickers from Kaisercraft.

After placing them down I outlined each one with a charcoal pencil and smudged it a bit with my finger.

The chipboard flourishes are from Dusty Attic.

A little flower cluster with the additions of some metal trinkets I had in my stash.

There is also a bit more stamping with a "noise" stamp from Club Scrap.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Scrapping Everyday Miracles Birthday Blog Hop Coming Soon!

Look what is coming July 11th!

Have you heard we are getting ready for our Second birthday.  We have planned a huge celebration both here on the SEM blog and over at our facebook group Scrapping Everday Miracles Chit Chat Group.  To kick off the celebration we would like to have a little pre-party fun.  So I have a great prizes to giveaway from 3 Scrappy Boys

  3 Scrappy Boys is a monthly kit club and store. We offer 3 kits per month that can be purchased individually or as a subscription. Subscribing comes with benefits like 10% off your kit cost and store purchases. We also have a facebook page where you can follow all the happenings at 3 Scrappy Boys like sales, crops, and challenges.

Blog: http://www.3scrappyboys.com/shop/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/3-Scrappy-Boys/160870820644332

Wanna see the wonderful prize we are giving away?

Here is what you gotta do to enter... we would like for you to share about the Celebration...

One entry for sharing in a post on your blog

One entry for joining SEM's Chit Chat group on Facebook

One entry for visiting 3 Scrappy Boys on Facebook and telling them SEM sent you.

One entry for sharing on Facebook, Pinterest or anywhere else that allows you to.

You can either share the advertisement found at the top of the post or this one below...

You have until Sunday July 14th 11:59pm PST to link up... and dont forget to head over to our Facebook group http://www.facebook.com/groups/200817343359030/  and join so you are all ready for the big day!

The Birthday Celebration will kick off July 11th on both the SEM blog and on the FB group so make sure that you have joined the FB group before that!!!!!  We cant wait to party with you!

Keep on playing...

Today's art journal page started out as play and then a keep on working until you are happy with it kind of moment.

The base was a grid of color created with my Gelatos over Gesso.

In the land of "one layer is never enough" I kept adding more.

First some script stamping.

Then I put Gesso through a Dylusions stencil and outlined the circles.

ICK.

This is not looking good!

Followed by me blowing Ayeed Water Inks across my page with a straw.

(now I've reached the what in the world am I doing stage)

I dipped my paintbrush in Black Marble Dylusions mist and outlined my color grid and the circles again.

Better...maybe.

Stamped my favorite flower stamp (from Unity) and outlined it with black Sharpie. Painted the inside with Gesso to give a more neutral surface and colored over that with a Faber Castell Pitt Pen.

Outlined AGAIN with a Sharpie the highlites with a white gel pen.

Starting to like...

Added a quote onto a small piece of a Gelli Print.

Be Your Own Kind of Beautiful

 Kind of along the lines I worked and worked until I managed to get something I actually like.

It made me happy.

And finally some big black flourishes, mostly to tone the color down even more.

So my advice to you; don't give up when creating. Keep plugging away and you may end up with something that makes you happy.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Keep your feet on the ground...

Just doing a quick share today of a layout featured in the April issue of 

Scrapbook News and Review.

The patterned paper is from Kaisercraft. 

Gesso was used around the photo to blend it into the background.

Stenciling using a Crafter's Workshop stencil and Golden Fluid Acrylics to create the diamond pattern.

A handmade banner and doily cut in half finish off the layout.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Dream.

Today I'd like to share another mixed media scrapbook page that features NO patterned paper.

I really enjoy taking cardstock and turning into unique backgrounds for my layouts.

This one started as a piece of green cardstock from Bazzill.

Gesso was scrapped randomly across the paper and allowed to dry.

Black acrylic paint was flicked across the page for a splattered effect.

Drywall mesh tape,  black tulle, and a piece of transparency were layered under the photo.

I did some random stamping with a Clearsnap stamp and Jet Black Staz On.

Using a Club Scrap stencil I created the title DREAM by sponging black paint through it.

The flourishes were actually one large piece that I painted with black acrylic paint and covered with Holographic Embossing Powder from Ranger.

Once everything was dry & melted I cut it into 3 pieces for my layout.

You can see the tulle pretty well in this photo as well.

another closeup where you can see the transparency.

Next time you don't have a piece of patterned paper to match your photo, try making your own.

You might even find yourself doing it over and over again.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!