Monday, July 05, 2010

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!

Saturday, July 03, 2010

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!

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

A Fond Farewell to Paula

We are so sad to say goodbye to our friend Paula who has been such an inspiration here for so many years. We know she will continue inspiring us with her creations at Designer Digitals, Core'dinations, Jillibean Soup, and The Scrap Review, and we wish her continued success in all her scrappy endavors.

Paula, we'll miss your sweet smiling face whenever we log on to HMITM. We hope you won't forget us and that you will visit us and play every once in a while. xoxo

Monday, June 21, 2010

Challenge #135 - Party like it's 1999 {June 21 - July 4}



Are you singing now? I am.
Nothing like a little Prince song to get you going on a Monday morning.

Challenge #135:
Create a layout with:
1 word title
9 squares
9 brads
9 pieces of pattern paper


Michelle: I am so embarrassed...this is my challenge and I messed up the 1 word title. LOL. Pretend that Family Guy is all one word.....ok? :) I had fun layering the squares. And the brads were super easy. Pattern papers and sticker by Bella Blvd (Man of the House line).
Debbi: Yeah, I have the song in my head now, too! I had a lot of fun with this challenge. I used a Studio Calico kit for my page (plus a few odds and ends from my stash). I counted the background papers in my 9 squares since my layout is square. For some reason, I had a little trouble deciding where to put the last two brads, but after pondering and pondering, I added them to the little square above the picture. I've added my hidden journaling below my layout, in case anyone wants to know what's in the pocket.

Hidden journaling reads: Every year when we go to the reading conference, something memorable happens that we always laugh about the next year. This year, there were two defining moments: 1) The Garage Barbecue: Martha has connections and she managed to get us invited to a dinner hosted by a publisher. We're not sure what we were expecting, but one thing for sure was that we didn't expect to have our barbecue dinner in a garage! 2) The Key Fiasco: Our hotel room keys didn't work and the front desk guy didn't believe us and kept giving us more keys that didn't work. After three or four trips back and forth, we made them come and try out the faulty keys.


Elizabeth: Another fun challenge. I chose to use the squares as my embellishment feature on this one and used the brads to dress up the butterflies and flower.

Joy: I love a good grid design! I went with the obvious. I love this old photo of my 3rd child when she was a baby!

Monday, June 07, 2010

Challenge #134 - six of one, half a dozen of the other

Can you believe it's June already? The 6th month of the year! And that brings me to this next challenge - six of one, half a dozen of the other: use 6 patterned papers and 6 stickers on your layout.

Here's what the team members did:
Paula: I went clean and simple. I've had these photos sitting on my desk for quite some time but never could figure out what to do with them. I picked up this heart punch and was done pretty quickly after that! I counted the thickers as stickers and added a couple more down at the bottom.


Elizabeth: Fun challenge, once again. This one came together quickly for me, which is always a good thing. I used several pp's as the background paper and covered the dotted paper with a printed transparency (kinda hard to see). I used more pp to accent the pictures with a red border and also punched a few snowflakes out of patterned paper. It was fun to look through my word stickers for this layout, I used to use them ALL the time, but got out of the habit. Here's my layout...


Michelle: I finally scrapped these photos from this past December of our day trip to Memphis. Yes. I used 6 pattern papers; there is one piece of pattern paper hiding behind the chipboard circle tag. And it felt so great to finally use that Heidi Swapp chipboard tag I have had in my stash for a long time.


Debbi T: One of my many crazy photos of my husband. This is going into my book of silly photos. I had just finished another layout using this old Studio Calico kit from over two years ago that I'd been hoarding, and as I was preparing to put the papers away, I realized they were perfect for the picture. The clock and gear accents were perfect to go with this funny quote I found.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

HMITM #133 - National Smile Month {May 24 - June 6} and a Design Team Call!

How Much Is Too Much, one of the oldest-running scrapbooking challenge blogs, would like to add a few fresh faces to our team.

The mission of our blog is to post interesting challenges that encourage participants to use their stuff because, let's admit it, we all have too much stuff!
Design team members will be asked to post challenges on a rotating basis. Challenges are posted every two weeks, so if you are chosen, you will be creating a layout for our challenge every other week.

To apply, please send the following to: dftehrani@aol.com (use "HMITM DT Call" as your subject) by midnight on June 6:

* create a layout using the current challenge* a link to your blog (if you have one)
* a link to your online gallery
* three ideas for possible challenges
* your name, phone number, and e-mail address


Please also link your layout on the HMITM thread at the Pub and mention that you're trying out for the team.

The new team members will be notified by e-mail during the week of June 21 and will begin their first challenge on July 5.

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Now, on to the challenge:

Did you know that May is National Smile Month? And that it takes 43 muscles to frown but only 17 to smile? Let's use those numbers in our scrapping:
* Use 43 things on your layout (yes, that can include your photos and the letters in your title)
* Use 17 words or sentences in your journaling or 17 letters in your title
We can't wait to see what you come up with. Post a link to your creations on the HMITM thread at the 2Peas Pub so we can take a look at what you made.

Elizabeth: What a fun challenge! I was a little scared about the 43 items, but when I got a 17 letter title on my first try, I knew this would be a breeze ;). I decided to do a layout about my son's chicken pox, seeing how I could just add more red dots to the layout if I needed more things to make 43! LOL The title is a little hard to see in the scan, but it says 'your turn for the pox'.



Debbi T: I was a little worried about my own challenge when I sat down to pick out 43 things, but I found a 17-letter title, so that took me almost almost half-way. I actually went over by one item when I counted at the end. I kept losing count!


Michelle: Debbi T likes to freak me out with these mega challenges. But I shocked even myself. Between the pattern paper, circles, stickers, brads, rub on letters, and chipboard letters...I used more than 43 things on my layout. And exactly 17 letters in my title. Thanks for the challenge Debbi. It gave me a great excuse to use all the Scenic Route I have been hoarding.


Francine: Like everyone else this challenge scared me! Especially since it's my first one in a long time. But I also managed a 17 letter title, and then the rest was a breeze. I think I actually have 44 things on this layout!


Monday, May 10, 2010

HMITM #132 ... 9,7,6,2 {May 10-24}

Can you guess what these numbers represent? 9, 7, 6, 2?
Well, in less than a month we will be adding another little baby to our family (or not so little, I usually have 10 lb-ers!), so I thought we would do the ages of my children before the little/big one arrives ;)

9 - circles
7 - brads
6 - photo corners
2 - stamps

Use these things on a layout and post a link to the Pub at 2peas so we can all take a peek. Have fun with it!

Elizabeth: I had an idea when I started with my layout but it didn't come together as easily as I had hoped. But I had fun trying ;)



Debbi T: I think circles are so fun and whimsical. I haven't done a page for my silly family photos in a while, so I thought I'd use this prompt to make a page for that book. Since I had planned to use my photo as a circle, the photo corner part stumped me, and then I decided to add them as a border. I mounted most of my punched circles on pop dots.





more to come...

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Challenge #131 {April 26-May 9}

April sure has flown by...Today is April 26th.
2 X 6 = 12

Use as least 12 things on layouts. Things include pattern paper, brads, buttons, rubons, stickers, die cuts...


Michelle: I had fun add brads to the center of this flower. I used some rubons and some of my favorite 'old' Basic Grey letter stickers too.



Elizabeth: I understood this challenge to be 2x6 things, which was a fun way to interpret this challenge. I used 2 cardstocks, 2 pattern papers, 2 lace papers, 2 types of rubons, 2 word stickers, 2 foam embellishments.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Challenge #130 {April 12-April25}

It's FONTastic!

Come on, we all know we have WAY TOO MANY alphabets laying around...so use them up!
The challenge is to use:
- at least 2 different fonts in your title
- add some sort of fabric or stitch
- and some sort of bling or pearls!

Can't wait to see what you all come up with it an be sure to post your layout to the thread in The Pub for praise :)

Debi:
Love these cursive alphas by American Crafts. My hand stitching is the trail to the butterfly and the pearls are on the butterfly!























Debbi T:

I have so many packages of these tiny letter stickers, and I always forget to use them, so I was happy for this challenge that got me to add them to my title. I used crepe paper, which sort of looks like fabric, and I did lots of stitching on this--I stitched the ribbon, machine stitched the crepe paper and polka dot paper, and I sewed the pearl beads onto my page.




Elizabeth: I have so many letter stickers, so this challenge was just up my alley! I did a little hand stitching on the photo collage and the gems are around the snowman sticker. Great challenge!

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Challenge #129 - Cloud 9 {March 29 - April 11}

I'm officially on Cloud 9 since I'm on spring break! So I'm calling my challenge "Cloud 9":

Use clouds on your page (as embellishments or patterned paper with clouds) plus 9 different embellishments.

Post a link to your creations on this thread over at the 2Peas Pub.

Debbi T: I adore this picture of my nephew and me. He always has the cutest expressions! I used the April Noel Mignon kit to make this page and had fun playing with my new Cuttlebug to emboss the clouds. It's hard to tell from the scan, but the letters are a fun sparkly brown.





Paula: Like Debbi, I embossed my clouds! I also used some embellishments to make new embellishments (the sun and the kite)!



Elizabeth: What a fun challenge! I have had this cloud paper from 'Around the Block' for AGES, so it was nice to have the push to finally use it. I handcut a few more clouds and raised one on chipboard. And how do you like the ancient Chatterbox letter stickers, I used to use them on every layout! :)


Michelle: Sorry to be late to the party here. I have been shuffling the clouds (cut from American Crafts Heat Wave pattern paper) around on this page for a while. And then I got a little excited with some stitching.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

10x10x10 HMITM #128 {March 15 - March 28}

There is no real significance to the 10s in my title, we're just going with it :) Elizabeth here, with another challenge to help use up that stash you have been collecting! The challenge this week is to use ...
10 - rubons
10 - buttons
10 - stars
Sounds fun, doesn't it?!?!

All you have to do is create a layout using these 30 things and link us a peek at the 2peas thread in the Pub. Can't wait to see what you create!

Elizabeth: I have so many rubons but always seem to gravitate towards stickers instead. I guess that permanancy factor keeps me away from using rubons. But they are so fun and cool, so I challenged myself to break them out. Buttons and stars were an easy addition ;) I have been doing a lot of 2 page layouts, trying to get a lot of pictures tackled at once. This is a birthday layout for our youngest who turned 2.




Michelle: Stars...easy! Rub-ons...easy! However, I am not a button kinda girl. So that was difficult for me. I found a bag of Halloween buttons from a kit I received over a year and a half ago. Yeah! So I decided now as a good time to scrap this Halloween photo of the boys....




Debbi T: I was glad for this challenge because I have a TON of rub-ons, and I always forget to use them. Not sure why--I really like them. I've had these teeny-tiny butons in my stash forEVER (they were one of the first dimensional accents I used on my pages), so I was happy to use some of them up. That's my 90-year old Gram in the pictures.




Sunday, February 28, 2010

Challenge #127 -- March 1st - M-A-R-C-H

I am so ready for spring. Warm weather would really make me happy right now..So let's celebrate March.
M - Metal
A - Arrow
R - Red
C- Chipboard
H - Happy

Use at least one metal, arrow, red item, and chipboard. And the topic of the layout should be about something that makes you happy.

Debbi T: Yeah, I know I made a layout about tea last time, too, but this is what's making me happy lately! I'm guest designer over at Work in Progress kits this month, so almost everything, except the metal arrow and the jewel on the flower comes from that kit. I promise not to make a layout about tea next time!

Michelle: Metal star brads. I created arrows using photo corner stickers. The arrows are red. I used up some oldie Heidi Swapp chipboard stars. and. Hanging with my boys makes me happy...

Paula:
Well, we don't have warm weather to be happy about right now in Massachusetts but we make the most of what we've got :) This photo of my kids with their friends just screams happy to me, even if we are barely above freezing!




Elizabeth: This was a fun and easy challenge! Hope you will join in!

Monday, February 15, 2010

Challenge #126 -- Feb 15th - A stitch in Time Saves 9

A nice and easy one this week - our theme is the old adage "a stitch in time saves 9": use stitching and 9 different things. Post a link to your layout in the thread in the Pub on 2Peas so we can see what you have done!

Paula:
I used a variety of patterned papers and cardstock on my layout and stitched some of the layers together with my sewing machine. I really need to do that more often!




Debbi: I love stitching on pages! I only stitched around the border of the green paper for this page. It looks like I used more than nine things, but I counted them (I counted patterned paper as one thing, even though I used several different patterns, and I counted brads as one thing, even though I used three of them). I scrapped about my current obsession with this awesome tea. I used the March Noel Mignon kit to make this layout. The left side of the page scanned darker because of the lump factor.



Elizabeth: This was a nice and easy challenge this week. I decided to follow the challenge for a couple pages I am doing for my friend's baby album. We all have to bring a page for her 8x8 album to the baby shower. The pages are simple and sweet...




Debi: Tried some misting on my page! Think I am addicted now!