The first class I took at the CKC convention this year was Heart of Gold sponsored by CKC and designed by Megan Hoeppner. Megan was also on location teaching this class. I love taking classes with her. As a teacher she is mellow & sweet. She interacts with the class to encourage sharing ideas and ways students like to mix up the kit/class to make it more personal. Plus she has a lovely design sense.

This class focused on a large 12×12 wood veneer heart piece and using it in different ways to spice up pages. We used it as a stencil, as a misting mask and then as an actual page element using varying techniques to dress it up and make it pop.

Below you can see the intended layout designs (from the actual instruction sheet) and what I ended up doing with it. Please do click the class link above to see their YouTube video that shows more of the product you get in class. CKC classes have generous product included, clear instruction sheets, and modern, sophisticated design & techniques.

You can see two layouts here in the instructions. I’ve only finished the first.

I shifted the layout only slightly to make room for one more focal photo and shifted the title. To give a landing place for the title I added some strips of paper that span both pages of the layout.

This was my favorite class. The combination of that unique wood piece and the techniques you can do with it were exciting. And the rest of the product kit was lovely. I recommend this class for sure.

I attend the CKC Scrapbook Convention event each year in Portland, Oregon since it is near enough to me that I don’t need to travel and get a hotel room. That leaves more budget for classes & shopping. This year the event, especially the vendor fair, was very small. It turns out that the Scrapbook Expo was hosting their event at the same time in California and many of the vendors and likely teachers were there instead of here. I was quite disappointed with that. However, I did manage to take some nice classes. Over the next few days I am going to highlight the classes I took and show you what I came away with out of the class. That way you have a better idea if the class is right for you (should you happen to have the chance to take it). Our show starts of the year of conventions so we as students are often the guinea pigs for the teachers to see what is right and wrong with the kit contents, instructions and flow of the class! We get to give tips and suggestions to the teachers so all you later students get a better experience. You’re welcome. 😉

Stay tuned for later posts highlighting those classes. But in the meantime, here are some projects I worked on during the crop time.

Layout 1: For this one I found some selfie photos on my phone that my daughter took of her cosplay (costume/fashion playing for those not in the know). I just couldn’t stop smiling when I found these little gems. So sweet. Tips: print low quality phone photos in a small size and use a grid layout. Extend the page design using vertical and horizontal elements to create flow across the page.

Layout 2: Here we have same daughter and sister getting ready for their first day of “school”. We homeschool but they take classes at a non-profit school for homeschoolers in our area. I had just picked up a 6×6 pad of paper from Authentique called Curiosity. Tip: Messy layer 6×6 papers in the center of the page and top with a couple of prominent photos. Keep the eye focused on the photos by adding border strips of pattern paper to the photos. Top with embellishments with a little pop of color (here yellow) to make just a few, small embellishments have bigger impact. I love pulling simple layouts together quickly.

I’ve been having a really good time playing along with the DCWV monthly sketch challenge lately. So far this is my favorite result. I wasn’t excited about the sketch at first and was having a hard time with it as I was working. But in the process I figured out a few things. Matting the photos with enough contrast made for a much better result. Adding in a really unexpected pop of color (the pink journaling tags) gave it something extra. I used the Day to Day Photo Real stack for this and threw in some washi tape, a transparency & some wood veneer. Clean and simple.

The Sketch

My take

I encourage you to give it a try. They don’t have many entries each month, so your chances of winning some goodies are high 😉

I like to play along with the DCWV blog monthly sketch challenges. For the January sketch I entered both the card sketch and the layout sketch and I was highlighted as one of the Top Ten entries for the layout sketch. Here are the sketches and my takes.

And… the layout

I was excited to be highlighted for sure. But the most fun part? They also give away goodies for entering and I was selected as one of the winners of a goody box. It arrived yesterday and it is wonderful. They sent six 6×6 specialty “paper” stacks– Burlap, printed corck, embossed papers, glitzy (glittery), foiled velum and chalkboard. Check it out…

There is still time to entry their February challenge and you might win some lovely goodies like these! Now I am off to make a thank you card to send to Megan, who organizes the entries for the challenge.

So my scrapbooking process has been taking large fluctuations this past year and half or so. I will be “on” for a few months in a row and just cranking out projects and then I will go into “down” mode where I’m not making layouts at all. When I am down I find I am still compiling ideas, organizing photos, and getting my creative output in cards instead. I find that when I come back to creating layouts I can hit the ground running since I have organization and ideas already waiting for me. Here are the two of the four layouts I got done this week. (Photographing my projects is still a step in my  blogging that trips me up. I’ve talked about it before.)

I’m working from my backlog of kit club materials. I made myself cancel my club subscription since my file of kits was full. This is one thing I’m trying hard at… not bringing in new things when I still have old things here. I’m hoping to get through my supply backlog and go back to my kit subscription. I miss getting fresh new goodies in the mail every month. With the kit I can try a little of everything and know what things I really love to use and what things I’m finding I don’t really like. For instance I’m not really a fan of the ephemera packs that are full of text. I think it distracts from the title and journaling too much.

I’m hoping to be back often with more projects!