How Awesome is Too Awesome? {Our Weekly Wow for Challenge #138}

Wow! We had some great submissions for #138! Thanks to everyone that played along! We loved all of your beautiful layotus! We can only pick one favorite though...Ayoye by jloubier/Jacynthe! All of the embellishments, flowers and paper layers are great!

Congrats, Jacynthe! Your layout will go into our "Hall of Fame" and you will have a chance to win our monthly RAK!

Challenge # 139 - These are a few of my favorite things

Today is the 26th and I am in the mood for singing a little Sound of Music...........
Create a layout document someone's favorite things.
And use 26 things (or more) on the layout. (things include: pattern paper, brads, flowers, embellishments, alpha stickers).


Michelle: I took the time this weekend to quiz both boys about their current favorites. So I will be creating a layout about my other son very soon....I randomly added brads to the pattern paper. I used more than 26 things.....and it was easy and fun.

Janet M- The challenge was a fun one - I took it back to a heritage page and did it about some of my favorite things when I was 8 years old. I thought coming up with 26 items was going to be hard but as I went on it became more and more fun to find what I wanted and where I wanted to use it. Thanks for the great challenge.

Georgia: I had a great time with this challenge! I decided to do a layout using my 26 all time favourite scrapbook things: In no particular order... Lucy, Eliza, Archie, 2 or more copies of the same photo, black cardstock, white cardstock, october afternoon's fly a kite range, journal cards, american crafts lullaby thickers in sunflower, hat pins, 3D foam tape, handwritten journalling, string, rub ons, zyron sticker maker, pinecone ink, stylus tape, a clustered title, my photo printer, buttons, matting, machine stitching and of course a prompt from HMITM!



Anna-Karin: I loved the favourite-theme and it was lots of fun using 26 things, and much easier than it sounds. I found this cute hot air balloon stamp yesterday and wanted to use it and I thought it fit well together with the patterned paper. I stamped the balloon on two patterned papers and pieced it together. The journaling translates:



My feet, chewing on my fleece blankets, the little cow book, sitting in the carry pouch, be carried, sit in laps and always be with, my cousin’s moon (toy), Piglet, looking at people and smiling, the new frog (soft toy).




Kat: I actually had a bit of trouble with this one! But I got it in the end - I took the "26 things" to mean every time I added something to the page, so it went a little like this...Patterned paper, paint, sewing thread, 4 brads, Photo, doodling, 5 chipboard pieces, 2 sticker letters, 3 chipboard letters, Collections words, photo corner sticker, 3 circle embellishments and 2 rubons, phew!!

Elizabeth: I LOVE doing these kinds of layouts for my kids atleast once a year so I can remember what they were into at a certain age, so this was the perfect challenge for me. And I have well over 26 items due to my fettish with letter stickers :)

Joy: I've done J List layouts before, but it's been awhile. I love compiling lists and just adding a LOT of random stuff. So fun and bright!! I think I have exactly 26 things, but I've counted so many times my eyes are crossed :D





Remember that at the end of the week one lucky participant will be featured as our "How Awesome is Too Awesome - Weekly Wow" and will be in the running to win a RAK at the end of the month!!

Can't wait to see what everyone comes up with this week! Leave a comment here with a link to your blog showing your layout, or post your layout over at TwoPeas! :)

How Awesome Is Too Awesome? {Our Weekly Wow for Challenge #137}

Thanks everyone for playing along with us on Challenge #137! We loved seeing all the different takes on the challenge. The Design Team voted and our favorite was (drumroll, please)...Marianne! We thought the addition of the ribbon to the banner was really clever and loved the bright happy feel of the layout! Marianne, your layout will go into our HAITA Hall of Fame, and you will be entered into our drawing for a RAK at the end of the month! Congrats!

#138 - Summer, Summer, SUMMERTIME!

I don't know about you, but here in sunny Florida, we are having one sizzling hot summer! There's nothing better to beat the heat than to stay inside and scrap! :)

Use the following on a layout:
S - stamps (dig out those stamps that you never use!)
U - at least one photo of U! (ok, so I took a little liberty with this letter haha)
M - metal (brads, staples...use any kind of metal)
M - markers (yup...do some doodles or marker work)
E - embellishments (use lots and lots!)
R - ribbon (use at least 3 different ribbons)



Amanda - I decided to incorporate some sunny papers to go with the Summer theme...although my photo is from December! I dug out some old stamps and used them in my title and the flowers. I used my black sharpie marker everywhere! And I even got to use my favorite Uniball White Signo pen! (I made that white/black border with the markers!) I used lots of brads and even stapled some ribbon to my photo. Thanks for playing along everyone!



Janet M- Amanda's challenge had me digging out the stamps and using them and completely different for me was to try some doodling on my page. I stayed pretty tame on that because I didn't trust myself. I had this picture and the journaling already printed so I thought this was a perfect time to use them. What a fun layout to do and the little ladybugs on the top of my ribbon border really used up some of the stash I bought at the start of my scrapbooking. Loved the one on embellishments use lots and lots of them - so I did.

Great challenge Amanda and I can't wait to see how everyone does this one.



Debbi T: This was a really fun challenge. Got me to dig out some stuff I haven't used in a while, like the letter stamps. I mounted some of the letters on pop dots for a "leaping" effect. Somehow I didn't get the "different" part of the 3 different ribbons until after I was nearly done with my page and was checking back at the challenge. I did use 3 pieces. I'm afraid of doodling, so I used my marker to outline the letter stamps and the deco-scissored edge of my circle. I think I earn points for breaking out my Poetry Dog Tags that were all the rage about 7 years ago and using them for the metal part of the challenge--they don't photograph well, so in case you can't read them, they say split, free, and dead. To read the sad tale of the leaping lizard, click on my layout for a larger view. (A note: I was stuck where to start, and as I often do when I'm stuck, I pulled out my swatches from Color Combos Galore and chose an older color combo.) Thanks for the fun challenge, Amanda!

Michelle: S - I dug out some old Scenic Route circle stamps...I had never used these. I thought they were perfect for the tubing layout. U - I am actually in the photo. M - I sprinkled a few brads here and there. M - I journaled with a Zig marker. E - I used little KI embellishments in my journaling. R - So I cheated the 3 ribbons...I cut one piece of ribbon into 3 little pieces. :)

Elizabeth: What a great challenge! I love when I am challenged to pull out my stamps because I rarely use them, but usually love the result when I do. And the doodling, well, I went the easy way out and just put some tails on my butterflies :P easy peasy!

Debbie F:
This challenge really stretched my creative muscles. I tend to collect stamps, but not use them often. I've had these See D's stamps unopened in my stash for years. I stamped a couple of phrases that worked well with my page. My next issue is that I'm seldom in pictures. But when I took these pictures of my son skateboarding, I had snapped a few of my shadow. So I was able to sneak one of those pictures in. M for metal - that was easy. I used brads and staples, plus metallic looking silver cardstock. M for markers - I doodled with a white gel pen, then outlined my doodles with a black Slickwriter marker.I also used a blue sharpie to outline the curved blue paper. E for embellies - check, I used lots! R for ribbon - I used orange, and 2 types of black and white. Thanks for the challenge, Amanda - I had a blast!

Remember that at the end of the week one lucky participant will be featured as our "How Awesome is Too Awesome - Weekly Wow" and will be in the running to win a RAK at the end of the month!!

Can't wait to see what everyone comes up with this week! Leave a comment here with a link to your blog showing your layout, or post your layout over at TwoPeas! :)

How Awesome Is Too Awesome? {Our Weekly Wow for Challenge #136}

We loved everyone's takes on Challenge #136, and it was so hard to choose our favorite, but the layout that got the most votes from our team was Ik Hou Van Bol by Arjanne.  We loved the happy colors against the kraft background, the pleated ribbon, the beads, and the stitching, not to mention those pretty flower photos! Arjanne, your layout will go into our HAITA Hall of Fame, and you will be entered into our drawing for a RAK at the end of the month!

HMITM Challenge # 137 - It's My Party!! Kat Glossop

My first challenge!! I'm very excited to be a part of this team, my stash is completely overflowing (and lets be honest, whose isn't??!), so hope you'll join me in digging through some of those boxes and using things that perhaps you've forgotton about.

It's my 29th birthday tomorrow, yep, my final year in my 20's! About time I think too, always felt more like a 30-something-year-old....even at 18

Soooooo, I'd like to see layouts with...

1 - flower

3 - photos

7 - pieces of ribbon (for my presents of course )

8 - words (including title)

1 - journal spot

I thought I'd be clever and challenge myself to use some of the 3 jars of ribbons I have, lol, I love to buy it but never seem to use enough of it to make it look like I've made a dent! I'm also guilty of mainly using just the one photo on my pages, so it was fun to figure out how I was going to fit three on...

Janet M : It was nice getting invited to Kat's birthday party. What a fun challenge this was, I included my 8 words with the title and the journal spot, The three photos was an easy one for me with the stash I have.These are some pictures at our lodge from a few years ago.

Elizabeth: What a fun challenge, and it certainly WAS a challenge for me because even though I have lots of ribbon, I rarely use it on a layout. I used my ribbon to frame the pictures, as well as, decorate the journaling tag. These pictures were taken when I was 7-8 months pregnant and all my neighbours thought I was trying to have the baby early with all the gardening I was doing. I was just trying to stay ahead of the game so I could take some time off when the baby was born. :P



Georgia: Happy Birthday Kat!! I found this challenge REALLY hard.. I have a mountain of ribbon which I do actually use but 7 pieces on one layout was a stretch. The hardest part for me though was restricting myself to 8 words - I am a chatterbox and put a fair bit of journalling on most of my layouts so I really struggled. I finally managed to get around it by making my title part of my journalling, i could still have used another 20 words though lol! This is an older photo of my middle chile Eliza, as I was flicking through my photos looking for inspiration these really jumped out at me, they were taken just at the point Eliza started to lose her little girl face... they really made me stop and think about just how quickly my children are growing up..


Anna-Karin: Happy Birthday Kat! This was such a fun challenge. The 8 words was a bit hard for me since I tend to write quite a lot on my layouts, but I thought using few words actually worked really well with these photos. If you count the words included in the ribbon and the patterned paper, I actually used a bit more. It was fun to dig through my box of ribbon and I used some ribbons I hadn’t used in a long time. The words on my layout translate: ‘Here I come. Give me milk now!’ And ‘the thinker’ (on the top small photo, it is one word in Swedish though).

Debbi T: Thanks for inviting me to your party, Kat! I must say, this was a CHALLENGE for me (but that's what a challenge is all about, right?)! Three pics plus all that other stuff on an 8 x 8 page? Actually, I found the ribbon part to be the biggest challenge, but I had a lot of fun figuring out how to cram all this stuff on my page! Sorry for the harsh shadows--we're going out for the day, and I wanted to get this photographed before I left. The shadows obscure part of my journaling, which says: "Usually conservative pink. Not this time." (Oh, yeah--that part about limiting my journaling + title to 8 words?--that was a challenge, too!). Kat, you are a tricky girl! So here, in honor of your party, is a wild, wacky, whimsical page about my toes:

Remember that at the end of the week one lucky participant will be featured as our "How Awesome is Too Awesome - Weekly Wow" and will be in the running to win a RAK at the end of the month!!

Looking forward to seeing your takes! Pop a comment in here or a link to your page on 2peas over on this thread :)

Some exciting changes at HMITM plus Challenge #136 - Georgia

We are happy to announce that because we have increased the numbers on our team (see the announcment of our new design team members below this post), How Much Is Too Much? is returning to weekly challenges! Check in every Monday morning for a fresh, new, FUN challenge!

We'd also like to announce a new feature, which we are calling How Awesome Is Too Awesome? aka The Weekly Wow! Each week, the team will vote on our favorite layout shared by the players, and it will be posted on our blog and will go into a special gallery we are starting (see the tab above)--a hall of fame, of sorts.

One last announcement: Starting next month, we will be featuring guest designers. We hope you will play often--you might just be asked to join us as a future guest designer!

Now...on to this week's challenge!

Hi Everyone! It's Georgia here, I'm so excited to be doing my first challenge, I hope you all play along :-)

I share my name with the 4th of the 50 US states and so I used that as the inspiration for the challenge:

Create a layout using:

4 word title

5 (or more) colors

0 flowers - and that includes your patterned paper!!

I set this challenge so you would think it would be easy for me to do lol, the no flowers and 5 colors were easy but I struggled in coming up with a four word title. These photos of my son Archie are a few months old now, there is no particular story behind them, just the absolute joy of a 3 year old boy coming down a huge slide! I had planned on calling it simply "slide" but finally I found these large word rub-ons from the Lily Bee Hello Sunshine range and they matched perfectly.

Kat: You know I never realised how many of my layouts (most of which are of Clay!) have flowers on them!! Not usually pretty, frilly ones, lol, but funky little flower buttons or plastic things, I even went to pop one on here and had to stop myself. As for the 4 words, most of my titles have more than 4 words in them so I had to limit this too, and 5 colors....ummmm, yeah, hope that was a minimum of G!! Don't count black/white/grey and I think I'm all good, lol.

Debbi T: I had a lot of fun with this challenge too! I was pretty literal with the challenge, and I counted the neutral cream as one of my five colors. The hardest part for me was figuring out a title with exactly four words. I've been using a lot of flowers on my pages lately, so it was fun to try to figure out other ways to embellish my page. I had this old photo of my brother-in-law and nephew sitting on my desk, wanting to scrap my own childhood memories of playing airplane, and this was the perfect opportunity to use the fun airplane paper from a recent Studio Calico kit. I'm not sure if you can tell from the photo, but I added Glossy Accents to the airplane window to make it look like glass. I was getting ready to cut the letters from the Jenni Bowlin Bingo Alpha Tiles, when I noticed how cute the outline of the card was, so I used a paper trimmer to cut out the inside and used the outside as a frame on my layout. I used some of the fun tear strips from Cosmo Cricket papers to point the way to my journaling hidden on the back, which reads:

When we were little, we used to pretend we were airplanes too. Mom or Gram would lie on their backs on the floor, and we'd climb aboard their legs, wrap our little arms around their shins, and get ready for lift off. They'd sway their legs and make us go up and down and they'd make airplane sounds and we'd giggle and giggle and beg them to keep us flying when we came in for a landing.

Janet M.: This was a fun challenge to start off with and it was a challenge because you don't stop and realize how many patterned papers have flowers on them. I'm working on an album for my husband of moments at our lodge so this layout is my second one going into it. I love the colors and pp in here without any flowers. My journaling reads:

Some things are just timeless and if we see them in color you can pretty much tell when the picture was taken. Take away the color and try and figure out the year. It's a perfect combination boys, water, a rock and a hot summer day. As long as that combination is present it will always be a time that creates memories and it won't matter if it's 1924, 1954 or 2004 it's a winning combination for every generation.

Amanda: I loved this challenge! With two girls, I'm always using flowers so this was a fun change. I had trouble trying not to even use floral paper! I used the newest Echo Park "A Walk in the Park" line on this.

Anna-Karin: This was a fun challenge! I struggled at first to come up with a four word title and kept thinking of either three words or five words. Like everyone else, I realised how often I use flowers. I felt like doing a grungy layout and to play around with my new Tim Holtz stuff. Three of the hearts were die cut from grungeboard and three were die cut from a paper covered with aluminium tape. The hearts were embossed in different folders. The grungeboard hearts were sprayed with homemade glimmer mist and the metallic hearts were painted and then sanded. While re-organising some of my stash the other day I found this old script tissue paper by 7 Gypsies. I used multi-medium to attach it to a piece of canvas and then I stamped on top of it with different texture stamps. There are close up photos in my Two Peas gallery post. The journaling reads:

'It really feels like you are on top of the world at Blyde River Canyon. It is one of our favourite places. The view is magnificent and the water has the most beautiful colour. The canyon is one of the largest in the world (24 km long and an average of 800 m deep). I love the story behind the name of the river. In 1844 Voortrekker leader Hendrik Potgieter left with some of the men on a trek to Lourenço Marques (Maputu). The rest of the group waited at an unnamed river. After having waited for months, they gave up on the safe return of the explorers and called the river ‘Treur’ (sorrow). They went on, but shortly thereafter Pot-gieter and his men met up with them at another river close by, which was then called ‘Blyde’ (joy). This place does indeed make me feel joyful.’

Debbie F: Since I have four boys, my layouts are usually flower free, LOL. The tough parts of this challenge were the four word title and the color requirements. It took a little thinking, but I pulled it off! My LSS asked me to create a page with these new Reminisce papers and stickers, I figured this challenge was a great way to get started. My eldest boy is really into a wide variety of music these days. So I decided to make a "banner" out of the music note stickers and list some of his favorite playlist artists. I made all the papers good and grungy with some black chalk ink. Plus, I finally used some of the Die Cuts with a View chip alphas I've had in my stash for a LONG time! Thanks for a great challenge, Georgia!




Michelle: Easy not to use flowers....I am most happy about this layout because I finally used some of the Love Elsie I had been hoarding! And mixed it up with some American Crafts rubons!

Francine:

With a boy to scrap now, not using flowers is now the norm for me! I enjoyed this challenge, especially coming up with the 4 word title, which hit me as soon as I saw these photos of Kieran.

Journaling: Whatever the day, whatever the weather. Kieran 2010

and don't forget to share your creations on the 2 peas thread here!

Announcing...Our Newest Members of the HMITM Design Team!

We are so excited to announce the newest members of the HMITM team! We thank everyone who applied--it was very difficult to choose from all the wonderful entries.

We are looking forward to the clever challenges and inspiring creations our new team members will be sharing! Check back on Monday, July 5, for the first challenge brought to you by one of our new designers.

A huge thank you to Kathleen Glossop for the awesome new banner decorating the top of our blog! Smooches, Kat! Along with the new look, we are going to reveal some other new surprises soon, so stay tuned!

So, here's the moment you've been waiting for...Our new design team members, in alphabetical order, with a few words from each of them:

Amanda Torres

"Hi, I'm Amanda (Dalovely Damanda) and I live in sunny FL with my hubby and two daughters. I adore scrapbooking and being crafty! I'm just a nutty gal who loves to cut paper and glue her fingers together. I look forward to being a part of this great design team!"

You can see some of Amanda's creations on her blog, Not Vicious or Malicious...Just Dalovely and Delicious.

Anna-Karin Evaldsson

"I am Anna-Karin Evaldsson.  I have been papercrafting since 2002 and started to scrapbook in 2004. Things were never the same again. I’ve done various arts and crafts my whole life, but scrapbooking is the one that has totally captured my heart and mind and has become more of a lifestyle than a hobby. I absolutely love to play with photos, stamps, paper, ink, embellishments, paint, words and colours. Apart from telling stories, my favourite part is to play with different techniques, to experiment and try different products and tools. I also love to make cards and rarely do anything that doesn’t include at least a bit of stamping. I love challenges and I am so happy to be on the HMITM team."

You can see some of Anna-Karin's creations at her 2Peas Gallery.

Debbie Fitzerald

"My name's Debbie Fitzgerald. I'm a busy mom to five, full time maternity nurse, Facebook junkie and a compulsive patterned paper hoarder. I've been scrapping for about nine years, and love all things layered and embellished. I'm at my most creative late at night, so I usually stay up til the wee hours on my nights off. Scrapping is my realease, my escape and my "me time." I treasure the hours I spend creating the pages as much as I do the finished product. I think challenges are the best way to get inspired, so I'm just thrilled to be join the talented HMITM team."

You can see some of Debbie's creations on her blog, Silver Pool of Light.

Georgia Keays

"Hi I'm Georgia, a stay at home Mum and total scrap addict! I live in Perth, Western Australia with my hubby Bill and three kids Lucy, Eliza and Archie. I love challenges, they are such a great source of inspiration so I am beyond excited to be a part of the HMITM team and can't wait to see everyone's creations!"

You can see some of Georgia's creations on her blog, On My Mind.

Janet Miller

"Getting on the HMITM blog design team is really exciting for me. I love to do challenges and this has always been one of my favorite sources for them. I'm hoping that I can bring some inspiring challenges to all of you and I'm looking forward to working with all the talent that is in this group.

I've been married to my husband Bob for 38 years and we have survived raising 8 children. Our new found freedom lets us split our time between Florida and Pennsylvania. I never run out of pictures to scrap, it's not even possible to ever have that happen.

I love scrapping and have been since 2000 and it just gets more fun all the time. I currently am on A Cherry On Top design team and do the monthly heritage challenge over there. "

You can see some of Janet's creations on her blog, Never Knowing Where I'll Be.

Kathleen Glossop

"Hello!! My name is Kat Glossop, I’m from Western Australia, wife to Jason and Mummy to 3 year old Clay. I’ve been scrapping for about 6 years, but became a complete addict once my son was born - a day rarely goes by when I don’t do something scrappy. I’m not sure what you’d call my style, I love bright colors, and seem to flip from whimsical, to artsy, and pretty much everything in between – I love to explore new styles and techniques, and I LOVE taking part in challenges, they push me out of my comfort zone, encourage me to try things I may not have otherwise, and have more than once gotten me out of a scrappy block! I’m very excited to be a part of this team and can’t wait to start playing. :) "

You can see some of Kathleen's creations on her blog, Confessions of a Scrap Addict.

Welcome to the team, ladies! We're so thrilled you've joined us!