A Million Little Things

art inspiration challenge

hello there everyone!

I am excited to bring you the art inspiration challenge again this month. If you have never participated in an art inspiration challenge before, I encourage you to try it. Art is an awesome way to find new color combinations or design ideas. When I am stuck trying to find an idea for a page or to break out of a rut, I turn to art. If you try it, I would love to see what you do. Please link to your layout in the comments section.

I will start with my layout and the art piece that inspired it:

 
 

Monica also used the same art piece, and here is the gorgeous layout she did:

 

Next up is Elizabeth's fabulous layout:

 

and the art piece (by Vincent VanGogh) that inspired it:

 

and finally, we have Rebekah's beautiful layout:

 

and the art piece by Pablo Picasso that inspired it:

 

I hope you are able to find a little inspiration here today, and remember the next time you need an idea, think of using an art piece as a jumping off point for your layout!

Shelby

Banners!

Hi everyone...Katie here:) I don't know about you all but I have been noticing a ton of banners being used on pages out there and I just love the look! I think it adds a fun element. There are several different banner products on the market right now...from stickers or chipboard banners or banners found in patterned paper. Here are a few pages I made using banners:

I cut these banners from the October Afternoon patterned paper:

This banner is an October Afternoon sticker:

And on this one I used Sassafrass Lass sticker banners:

Hope I have inspired you to try out some banners on your pages if you haven't yet!

October Round Robin.

We've had fun with this Round Robin! This time we invited our readers, and we were lucky enough to have Karen, Jacqui and Sam join us. Here are the results:

I started with a fall layout with a white background and fall colours as accents. Ink stains, patterned papers and an embossed stamp were used to decorate the page.

Karen got my layout sent to her. This is what she wrote about her "interpretation": The "paint splatters" struck me from the minute I saw your layout. I also was inspired both by your Fall theme and by the horizontal paper strips across your layout. This layout is about a Hay Ride we took with my little one and how much he enjoyed discovering the hay- especially the touching part *LOL*.

Here is Jacqui's beautiful page! I love the colours she used.

This cool dude made my day when I found him in my inbox! He's so cute. Sam changed the orientation of the page when she scraplifted Jacqui’s page. (See- she got back to Karen's design!)

Finally Elizabeth made this cute page. She was inspired by the border across the layout, the arrows, the placement of the journaling (title) block, and the single photo design.

I hope you all enjoyed following this Round Robin! I sure did. Hugs to all participants who willingly shared their works!

There's a Round Robin coming up...

I'm just waiting for a layout before I can publish this fun round. Hold on!

Copy Cat Monday

I know not everyone has a house full of kids like ours, but for those of you who have a bunch of related topics to scrap, find a sketch that works and just do multiple layouts using the same design. We had three children in swimming lessons this year, so I decided to use the same sketch for each layout. I only have 2 layouts done so far, but I am going to work on the third one this afternoon. Here is what I did...

 
Once I had this layout finished, I began working on the second layout using a similar design.

 
Even though they followed the same design, they ended up looking quite different. I think I might turn the layout sketch for my last one because the pictures are in a different orientation. Regardless, I will be happy to have this set of pictures finished and move on to something new. Enjoy your creative process!

Shaped papers...

Hello! Elizabeth here serving up some ideas on shaped papers. Who doesn't love the look of a unique shape on their layout? But sometimes it is tough coming up with a plan of how to use these pretty little things. So I have a few examples for you. I made these first 2 layouts a while ago (and I think I have shown them on the blog before) but thought I would show them again seeing how it is relevent to today's topic...

 
This is a very simple layout (with some of my favourite pictures ;) where I lined the pictures up on one side of my layout and cut my shaped paper to rest against them, making an easy embellishment that puts the focus on the pictures.

 
I didn't cut this piece of paper, instead I cut the pictures to fit onto the paper, so the scalloped edge was unified around the whole outside.

 
I used some pretty Making Memories paper for this layout, it has sparkly purple dots around the outside giving the shape even more definition.

 
I had fun with this one. I cut the red (Creative Imaginations) paper into quarters and positioned them on opposite sides of the layout. I used Dream Street papers (from the discount section!) to fill in the opposite sides. I made the layout for my son who is looking out the window at his older siblings getting ready for their first day of school.

 
Using the leftover piece from the previous layout, I cut the white scalloped edge off and only used the red part for this layout about my son going back to school.

 
This is a 6x12 layout that I made using half of a shaped paper. I cut slits in the shape of the paper to insert my photo and journaling right into the shape.

I hope you try out these tips and break open the gorgeous papers you have been hoarding ;) I know they are beautiful and hard to cut into, but they will look even more beautiful in your scrapbooks! Give it a try!

Finding treasures in the clearance section!

Everyone enjoys a good bargain, right?

Have you looked through the AMLT clearance outlet or inventory liquidation sections lately? Jill has all kinds of goodies in there, for a steal.. really! I regularly check those sections out, I'm so behind on trends anyway :P  I tend to find items I might have missed out on completely otherwise.

 
Lovely "gotta haves" like these yummy yellow sticker letters by Bella Blvd..

 
Or these cuter than cute robot rub-ons by Maya Road!

Did you notice I have the same amount of robots on my page as there kids in the layout?

I'm all about mixing and matching anyway.. using the new alongside with the old. Love it.

Now off you go.. I hereby send you out on your mission to grab a bargain.. or three...  :D

Susanna

Tuesday is Boo-day!

I love everything about Halloween, and have since I was a little girl.  I love pumpkins and candy and getting dressed up - Halloween tricks are fun, but Halloween treats are the best! 

Here are a few Halloween decor treats for you, all made with my favorite collection of the Halloween season this year, "Happy Halloween" by Echo Park.

 and a few Halloween-flavored scrapbook pages as well!

as a matter of fact, it would be safe to say that not only is "Happy Halloween" my favorite Halloween collection of 2010, it may be my favorite Halloween collection... EVER!  :)

Hope everyone has a frighteningly fantastic day! 

Sketchy Thursday

How about a new sketch?  This one is simple, but you can dress it up as much as you want, which makes it a lot of fun!

 

Here's my take on the sketch, all decked out in Christmas cheer with Echo Park's collection "Everybody Loves Christmas".

Elizabeth played along and sent me not one, but two awesome layouts using the sketch:

and

Hope you have a wonderful day!

New Products in the store Tonight.. New Sassafrass, and new Glitz.. go check it out!! http://www.amillionlittlethings.com/store06/products_new.php