~~Hello ~ Goodbye ~~

We are sad to be loosing Laurie from our Design Team. We have enjoyed having her as a part of the team, unfortunately she has decided to step down due to her busy schedule. Hopefully she will stop in regularly to take a challenge. We want to wish her our best.

We are happy to be adding two new Design Team members. Guest Design Team member Missy has agreed to stay on as a Design Team Member. She will be starting in December. She has made some great contributions to the blog already, and I'm sure she will continue to be an inspiration for us all.

We are happy to also be adding Guest Design Team Member Denise as a DT member. She will be starting in January. We have enjoyed her contribuitons to SOS during November and we are looking forward to seeing more of her talents in the future.

Would you like to become a Design Team Member? See all the details on our Design Team Call on the sidebar.

November Challenge Winner

Congratulations to Sarah Cooper our November Sketch Challenge winner. Sarah submitted two layouts, but this one is my favorite. Sarah will be our featured Guest Designer for January.

Would you like to become a Design Team Member? Check out our Design Team Call - on the sidebar.

Guest Design Team Member - Karen Williams

Meet our Guest Design Team Member, Karen Williams.  She said, "I am a 36 year old mother of three who has been scrapbooking since the birth of my daughter three and half years ago ( Nancy thinks the half is very important). Originally from the UK, I am currently living in the Netherlands, hence my new found SAHM status, ( In the UK I was a teacher). I like simple scrapping, half an hour is my average time on a LO, and with three children in the house you can understand why. I set myself the challenge of making 365 LOs this year, I stopped count a month ago when I got to 370!

I love chocolate, pizza boxes from the postman, day trips to Amsterdam, shoes, crime novels, knitting, CSI on TV, baking, taking photographs, Strictly Come Dancing/ dancing with the Stars, scrapbooking of course, and the spring.

I hate talking about myself, bananas, dentists, taking my children for jabs (one coming up on Monday eek) having my hair cut, bananas, that I still bite my nails, and my oven. ( the oven is a long story) (yes bananas is in there twice- I really hate bananas - another long story).

Karen submitted this layout as her favorite. 

It will be fun to see what Karen will contribute to our upcoming December Challenge.  Be sure to come back regularly - there is something new here everyday!

Pagerize Dawn by Laurie

Reader Laurie submitted this layout for the Pagerize This Challenge.  She said, "this is a page of my favorite bands U2. I am thinking it has some of the elements. The three pictures, the one-line descriptions.

The patterned paper is Cosmo Cricket and the purple paper is from my stash. The star is a clear plastic star that I added alcohol ink to to give it more dimension."

Now it's your turn to take the Pagerize This Challenge.  See Dawn's layout and all the details in Pagerize This Challenge #4 below.  You could become our next Pagerizer.

November Challenge

The November Challenge is to do a layout, using one of the sketches provided. All three sketches are by Helen Croft from Scrap A Little. You are not limited to only one entry and you are encouraged to Scrap Your STASH! 
To participate in the challenge just complete a layout using one of the sketches and send a picture of your layout to scrappinpsycho@live.com  along with a description and which number sketch you used.
All entries will be posted here at Scrap Our Stash and a winner will be chosen and given the opportunity to be a Guest Design Team Member for January here at Scrap Our Stash. All entries must be received by 6:00 PM central time November 30th.

Sketch #1

Sketch #2

Sketch #3

Be sure to check back regularly to see how our Design Team, Guest Design Team and other Readers have taken the challenge. 

November Challenge by Denise

Guest Design Team Member Denise submitted this layout for the November Challenge. She said, "I used this cute and fast sketch to get a couple of my Halloween pictures scraped. With Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up, I knew I needed to do these quickly. The haunted house, fence, and pumpkins are all from Reminisce. The paper is from Creative Imaginations and the letters are from Fancy Pants."


Now it's your turn to take the Challenge. See all the details in the November Challenge post below.

Thanksgiving Show N Tell!!!

Hi...Joni here...sharing a fun kids project that we did for Thanksgiving...  At the American Crafts blog, we found this cute little "handprint turkeys" and Joseph (my 7 yr old son) thought they were soooo cute...so we traced his hand, spent lots of time cutting them out and then we used these as place cards for Thanksgiving dinner.  Each grandparent then had a handmade souvenir to take home!!

Show N' Tell Sunday

Man, how things change in 1 Week!  I love this time of year! All we need now is snow!  :)

November Challenge by Sarah Cooper

Reader Sarah submitted a second layout for the November Sketch Challenge.  She said, "For my 2nd layout for the November Challenge I used Sketch #1.

I really liked the almost 'film strip' feel down the center. I thought it would be perfect for Our TV Hero's Halloween Pictures. :O)
I stuck with the 3 pictures, the circles and the embellie 'bunch'.  Adjustments were made to accommodate the different width pictures.

All the Patterned Paper is Sassafrass Amplify, love how the 'busy' paper works so well with the 'action hero' theme. Busy Boy... Busy Paper!!! lol  The Power Ranger Logo was printed then mounted on black Card Stock.  Prima 'Say it with Crystals' in black, cut up and applied top and bottom of page. Brad Bling here & there, star buttons and a silver 'believe' buckle.
Journaling:
Octobert 31st 2010
Thomas turned
into the Red Power
Ranger for a night,
My Hero!


Full post and an additional Photo:
http://keepsakescrafts.blogspot.com/2010/11/scrap-our-stash-november-challenge-take.html

Now it's your turn to take the challenge.  Submissions are due on Tuesday - see all the details in November Challenge - below. Don't miss the Pagerize This Challenge going on right now also, see the details in Pagerize This Challenge #4 below.  

How would you like a spot on our Design Team?  See all the details in Design Team Call - below or on the sidebar.   

Show N' Tell Sunday!

I Remember back in elementary school when we had Show N' Tell.  It was always a day I looked forward to.  So why not do the same here. 
 
Every Sunday will be SHOW N' TELL SUNDAY - and will be a forum where you can share anything you want to Show N' Tell. For example a layout you've completed that you'd like to share - but it doesn't fit into the challenges, or maybe a new technique you've tried and want to share, a new purchase, a great bargain, a great picture you've taken, a link to a great blog, a special accomplishment in your life. Anything that you'd like to share. It will be open to anyone who wants to share.  Just email me a picture (if possible) and a description to scrappinpsycho@live.com.   - I'll collect the submissions throughout the week - and then post them on Sunday.

I do retain the right to edit or not include any submissions I deem inapporpriate for this forum.

November Challenge by Monica

Hi there! I love using sketches when I scrapbook, in fact I almost always use them! I orginally picked a different sketch to use but as I was starting this page I changed my mind. This is the sketch that I used.

I have been wanting to scrap these pictures for a year now, I love them!! Daniel is always outside with his daddy and wants a screwdriver in his hand! I could not pick just one picture for this sketch so I used two! The black lettering is a little hard to see on the top of the picture but I didn't want to take it all off.
I was able to use lots of my stash for this lo. I bought this paper over a year ago at a Scrapbook store that no longer exists. Also I wanted to add stars but didn't have any but then remembered that I have a Slice!!! lol Sure enough one of my cards had a star! I really need to use it more often!!


It's not to late to play along, submit your layout for the challenge soon.  See all the details for the November Challenge below.

November Challenge by Stacy H-W

Design Team Member Stacy submitted this layout for the November Sketch Challenge.  She said, "I took the opportunity to make this layout while I was in Bellevue, WA at CKC. I knew we would be going to the evening crops so I put together my own little "kit" of pp and embellies, I printed out the sketch and off we went.

I've been wanting to make a layout using some pictures I took of my kids bobbing for apples. A perfect fall activity (if you don't mind all the germs! lol).

Anyway, this sketch just seemed to work perfectly.

I decided to change out the flowers and use leaves instead. They just seemed to go so much better with the great Scenic Route paper I used. I used 3 of the Sonoma line, Oak Lane, Rosalie Street and Scrap Strip 3.

I found the fun chipboard leaves in my stash (not sure who they are from??) The chipboard alphas are from My Minds Eye, their Dear Santa collection. I just inked them with some brown ink to help make them stand out on the patterned leaf paper.

I added a few jewels from my stash. I put some Stickles on a few of the leaves and added that fun paper clip.

The die cut journaling paper is from a sweet notebook by Bo Bunny that my friend, Denise gave me.


So there you go, my take on the November sketch challenge. Where's yours?  See all the details on how you can take the challenge in the November Challenge post below.

Thanksgiving Scrappy Challenge

What Scrappy Thing are you most THANKFUL for. 

November Challenge by Christy

 Recently, I bought a texture boutique. I have been wanting to have the ability to emboss. I love that I can use almost any brand name embossing folder in it. One of the things I stumbled across in my quest for embossing folders was a cricut kit to make your own embossing folder. Essentially, what you do is to cut a design on the provided sheets and then adhere the design to the plastic folder. This produces a custom design of your own.


What you will need: a cricut machine, the cricut embossing kit, 1 pack of extra sheets to cut( optional, but I highly recommend it if it's your first time. I messed up a few times and ended up using 3 sheets), a design to cut.

I HIGHLY recommend thinking out the design you want to use very carefully. Choose something you just can't find in an already made folder. I bought my embossing kit at Joann's for $10 and then another $10 for the spare sheets. So this can be an expensive folder to make. The design needs to be unique for it to be worth the cost. Also, I won't lie...this was a lot of work. At least for me on my first folder. I think my mistake was in choosing such a small design. I had these chipboard people and I had decided to make an embossing plate to match them. I found a dingbat font of a man, woman and boy holding hands...which matched my chipboard people perfectly. It was a small design though! So it took me 3 hours to make the folder!( now that I know what I am doing, it will be a lot less next time- I hope!)


Step 1: choose your design and set your cricut to do a double cut. I used SCAL and a dingbat font. I do not have a deep housing blade. One is not necessary if you use the double cut. I didn't use the double cut the first time...so I had to use another sheet. thank goodness I had some!

Step 2: carefully remove the design from the cutting mat. the negative space will be on one side, so you will remove the backing and adhere, then run it through your embossing machine to make sure it sticks.

Step 3: take the parts that were cut out, remove the backing and stick them to the opposite side of the folder. this is where I had some trouble. Take the image that was cut out and put it back inside the negative space, then remove the backing on the image. Run it through the embossing machine and it will stick...in the right place to the opposite side of the folder.

As you can imagine...with such small images, this took me quite some time. It was especially hard to get all the little heads poked out and then adhered to the folder. I do think it was worth my efforts though! I used one of the November sketches to make a title page for an album.

I embossed 3 sheets of carstock and inked the edges on colorbox black ink. I used naked chipboard from K and company and Maya Road. Basic Grey June bug embellishments were added for a hint of color. Hand stitching softened the hard colors of the red cardstock and making memories 5th avenue ribbons.In place of the photo, I used a sheet of vellum with the title for the album. The word family was a die cut given to me by a friend. To create a visual triangle, I used a silver hat pin slipped inside the stitching. It helped balance the silver on the chipboard people and the silver S( for our last name) on the tag. The silver S was a find at a thrift store. It was inside a tin marked We R memory keepers for $1. A great find as I have a lot of metal letters now. You can see that I shifted some of the sketch elements around to make it work for my page.

As far as the cricut embossing folder kit...I do plan to try it again. Now that I know what I am doing, I think it will take me less time and effort. I am very happy with the results of the folder I made. It's unique to me and to my page. That's what made it all worth it!

Pagerize Dawn by Karen

Guest Design Team Member Karen submitted this layout for the Pagerize This Challenge.  She Said, "at first glance it might not look very similar but here are my inspirations:

1. Kraft back ground
2. Music theme- mine is called family rock band as that's what I think they look like
3. Journalling on strips of paper

Now it's your turn to take the Pagerize This Challenge.  You could become our next Pagerizer!  See all the details in Pagerize This Challenge #4 below.  And don't miss our November Challenge (below) or the opportunity to apply for our Design Team.  See all the details on the Design Team Call - on the sidebar.

November Challenge by Sarah Cooper

Reader Sarah submitted her layout for the November Sketch Challenge.  She said, "I decided to use Sketch #2 with the Big Single Picture for William's Halloween Page.
I copied the 3 strips of paper but moved the photo over.  The Title 'Travel Log' is still there but the journalling is moved up under it.
I still have the 3 'clumps' of embellies.

This was a true Stash Dive Page!  I stamped the Boot Prints around the edges and across on the Card Stock base. (Stampin'Up!: Roughing It).  I've have had this sheet of patterned paper for 4 years or more, last of a kit.

I always have keys (luvs me some keys!) and used postage stamps around.

I really like how well the real stamps went over and around the ones already on the patterned paper.  The Magnifier 'Dish' has been in my stash for at least 3 years, last of a set of 3.  The squished fly sticker has been kicking around forever too... lol, I never knew what to do with a Flat Fly!

I always thought 'ewwwwww!' every time I'd run across it while digging.  I really love challenging myself to use what I have... this page was perfect for that!

Journalling:
October 31st 2010, The famed explorer William Russett set out in search of the treasure known as "Halloween Candy" in an ancient ritual known as 'Trick or Treating". It was a long cold journey but
he came back triumphant!

Now it's your turn to take the challenge.  See all the details in November Challenge below.  Don't miss our Pagerize This Challege #4 or our Design Team Call - details below.

November Challenge by Missy

Guest Design Team Member Missy submitted this layout for the November Sketch Challenge.  She said, "I chose sketch number one to work with this month. This sketch was my favorite because I love the look of tall, skinny, photos. I was able to complete this layout with just two pieces of paper. The backside of one page was color blocked, so I was able to get the three colored panels from different parts of the paper. I hand cut and stamped the sun with flourish stamps. I embellished with a cluster of chipboard, Studio G stamps, and one of my new favorite tools, my i-Rock!!

Now it's your turn to take the Challenge.  See all the details in November Challenge below. 

Don't miss our Pagerize This Challenge - and our Design Team Call.   

Show and Tell Sunday by Denise

I am thrilled to show you what I've been working on the past few days.  It's Santa's House!!!

I started with a precut house from Doodlebug.  

First, I followed the directions to glue the house together.  It called for a hot glue gun for assembly, but since I did not have one, I used Beacon's 3-in-1.  It worked fabulously.   I then covered the house with BoBunny's Noel line.  I love the traditional colors and images in it.  I wanted to add a lot of glitter to the house, so before covering the roof with paper, I spray the paper with 3M Spray Mount (which I got at Michael's) and then sprinkled ultra fine red gitter all over it.  I highly recommend this spray.  It really held all the glitter beautifully.  There were absolutely no splotchiness or spots without glitter.  For the roof decoration, I took a piece of yellow ribbon, sprayed it with the 3M adhesive, and covered it in ultra fine gold glitter.  I used red and green stickles to glitter up the window frames, door, Santa's hat and mitten, and the letters JOY in the banner.

The Reindeer, Santa and Joy banner were cut from the Christmas Cheer Cricut cartridge.  The reindeer is also a movable piece.  To do this I used a "Wobble".  Wobbles are two adhesive pieces which are attached together with a small spring.  I cut the wobble down to the size I wanted so it would not show.

This was the first house I have ever decorated and I had so much fun with it!  I highly recommend finding a cool house you like and decorating it with your favorite Christmas paper and colors.  It will make a wonderful keepsake for years to come.  You could even do one a year until you have a little village :)  Why not buy some Halloween webs when Halloween is over and it is cheap.  It looks great as snow. 

Show N' Tell Sunday by Kathy

 My friends and I had a scrapping Garage Sale today.  I made almost $200 - and still have lots of STASH left. 

It was a lot of fun - but a lot of work.  Now I have to find a home for everything until the next sale.

Show 'n Tell Sunday - Stephanie

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and Christmas is lurking in the shadows! I can't believe the holidays are already here! The season is filled with pies, cookies, candies, and all types of cinnamon-y goodness. This year though, I'm saying move over to my traditional pumpkin and apple pies and I'm making room for CAKE! I just started taking a cake decorating class which I'm hoping will lead to more cross-crafting goodness (I envision matching cakes, invitations, and birthday cards...not to mention the memory-laden scrapbook pages!) Here's a shot of my first at-home practice cake.

It's a strawberry cake (semi-homemade) with (homemade) dark chocolate frosting. To add to my repertoire of cake skills I also torted it (meaning it's filled with delicious strawberry jam)! It's kind of a little guy because I wanted to get some extra practice out of my extra layers, but I think it turned out pretty good anyway.


I took it to work to welcome a new member to our team and the cake quickly disappeared! My boss made one recommendation for the next cake "bigger or nastier...you can't bring in tiny delicious cakes, that's just not right!" I guess if I never get the hang of writing, I've certainly got the flavor aspect covered! I wonder if there's a crafty blog that needs some birthday cake recognition soon? ;)


I'll be posting my cakes weekly on my blog as I go through all of the decorating courses.

November Challenge by Christy

Design Team Member Christy submitted the following layouts for the November Sketch Challenge.  She said, "One of my biggest challenges is finishing off albums. It's not always the lack of scrap time. Sometimes, it is getting inspired by newer photos and moving on to new albums before one is finished. The sketches for the November challenge gave me the inspiration to complete some layouts in some albums that have awaited completion for months.
   The first sketch sprung to life in my mind as the title page for a spring album.

 I used the making Memories Panorama collection and some vellum. Since I live in a  tropical locale, this collection of papers was perfect!

I love the palm trees on the paper, but really hated the idea of covering them up. The stitched vellum panels still allows the design to show through while providing an anchor for the title block and embellishments. Since I used a collection of papers and embellishments, this page was made in a snap!

  I love using memorabilia on a page and I felt this 2nd sketch was perfect for some that I had from a recent trip to Planet Hollywood. I sort of adapted the sketch and my page is a very loose interpretation of it. I believe strongly that you make a sketch work for you...you don't work for the sketch.

The place mat was used as the base piece for the layout. I again used vellum to allow the design to show through. In this case, the vellum also helps tone down the loud design and colors of the place mat while giving me a place to fit in my journaling. The large vellum block and smaller vellum pieces are my interpretation of the hearts from the sketch.

Don't forget to use an archival mist on keepsakes like this place mat. I fit in 2 photos I had taken...one of us and one of the restaurant. I moved them down a little to cover the stock photos on the place mat. I also used a found VIP coupon as the title block.I will say that I love the quick versatility of embellishing with a hat pin. The silver pin through the prima flower gave it a little extra something I felt the title block was missing. I handstitched around the drink glass my son got as a souvenir (since I did not have good photos of it) and then added some glossy accents to make it pop more.


Using a collection of items and sketches provide a fast easy way to get pages done. If you don't buy kits or items from a  collection, you may want to try sitting down and making up little kits with items from your stash. You may find that you create some pages you love in a short amount of time.

Now it's your turn to take the sketch Challenge.  See all the details in November Challenge below.

Don't miss your chance to apply for our Design Team - see all the details in the sidebar.

Our Pagerize This Challenge is a fun way to lift someone else's creation.  Check out all the details in Pagerize This Challenge #4 below.