SS bookclub

it's been a good long while since I have blogged about my bookclub at nest happenings.....
It's one of my most favorite nights of the month......We convene at Simply Scrapbooks, the place other wise known as "My Happy Place"...... and we chat, share, inspire, create and occasionally eat. I bet you are wondering where the "books" come in right? Well.... we are more of a "kit club" than anything.... but the basis for starting the group was picking a craft book and handpicking techniques and challenges (from the book) to go along with our monthly kit... go home create the challenge with our kit materials ... come back the next month and share what we made. Well - we have kinda lost the "book" part of our club and now just have the kit part. I personally would like to see the "technique" or concept challenges be more consistent but I'm being patient. I have created my own challenges each month, to appease myself.
I have been part of the bookclub for a little over a year, I feel like in this short time I have been a part of the club, we have each grown creatively and likewise in friendships. I was not sure at first (maybe I was shy and a little insecure).... but I have truly come to love and admire these lady friends of mine. They are all SUPER talented and just a hoot to be around! So that brings me to the month of APRIL..... our kit consisted of 2 sheets of 7 gypsies patterned paper - a sheet of linen (12x12), chipboard, metal photo corners, tulle and twine, a few 7 gysies ephemera doodads and the challenge of scrapping a 3 generations photo..... At first- I had grand plans to make a mini book about it all and have it be about my maternal side of my family.... but I never could dig that deep into my photo collection. I only made it a few years back (5 to be exact) and here's what I came up with.......

the LO (layout) is the 12x12 linen sheet.... I sewed (YAHOO!!! my bernina got some fresh air this month....) yes - I sewed all around the border of the linen - then I sewed the pieces of scrap papers onto the LO. The picture is 4 generations of Tremblay men. I spent some serious time in photoshop trying to "erase" evidence of girly hat above grandpa fred's head.... I think I did my Photoshop teacher proud... Then I downloaded oodles of grunge brushes off the internet hoping to grung-ify the picture..... (this is where I failed my photoshop teacher -sorry candra) I tried and tried to figure out how to apply the mask but all the instructions I found (on the internet) were not working for me- I don't know why????? ANYHOW - I found an OLD PAPER effect and went with that... I am happy with the results but still eager to figure out this brush thing..... I digress.... I cut out some tree branches from anna griffin "flora"line and distressed the heck out of the back of the 7 gypsies tag..... applied 2 rub-ons and distressed them - (love u tim holtz)..... and there it is.... my distressed (almost grungy) kinda manly layout of the 4 gens of Tremblays..... I used EVERY bit of the kit this month (I love it when I do that) every bit BUT the chipboard..... here's what I made from the rest of the kit...... I call it
"Junk Gypsy"

here's a few of the pages inside....





It's kind of a tribute album to Linda. She's the one to blame for it all (just kidding - she is the one who saw my creative soul.... and urged her to come out and play - with paper... that is....) The album is a MINI mini..... I normally do mini albums/books that are 4x6 - 6x6 - 8x8..... but this one was just a result of some ULTRA thick left over scraps of chipboard..... and it just came to be. The first page is 3 1/2 x4 - then 4 x 4 then 4 1/2 x 4 then 5 x 4 then 5 1/2 x 4. The only thing I added to this mini (that was NOT in our bookclub kit) was some prima crystals and 7 gypsies "GYPSY" stickers.... left over from my junk journal a few posts back.

Now - we tread forward to the month of May...... I am creating the kits for this month and all I can tell you is .... It's a heavy metal with a twist of American Idol....... You'll see girls - I'll be hosting a demo, too. Should be fun......
xo,
amt