Grandparents page (My Creative Sketches March Sketch)

One thing I've noticed about my scrapbook pages is that they make me look like a real narcissist. Nearly all of my pages are about myself! For this particular sketch challenge from My Creative Sketches, I decided to do something a little different, and used a beautiful portrait of my grandparents.

As I made the page, I was reminded yet again how much I look like my Gran-Gran. And while there may be no physical resemblance and no blood relation, my Granpa was absolutely the best grandfather a girl could have ever wanted. Even someone who uses words as much as I do can't really put all of those feelings onto a scrapbook page. My imperfect handwriting will have to do for now, but I have lots more pictures of them to perhaps include more journaling with in the future.

Anyway, here's the page!

It's difficult to tell in the pictures, but the frame around the page was painted to match the paper I used. I had to mix a few colors to get the right shade, but I think it turned out nicely. I tried several different papers before settling on a kit that I had actually bought for my mom. The polka dots were too perfect, though, with the way they mirrored the pattern on Granpa's tie. The buttons were another nice touch to mirror that, I thought.

Supplies:
cardstock -- Bazzill patterned paper and chipboard frame -- Colorbok Page Kit - Family
acrylic paint -- Apple Barrel in Indian Red, Tapestry Wine and Chocolate Bar
label -- Martha Stewart
colored pencil -- EK Memory Pencils
flowers -- unknown
brads -- unknown
buttons -- unknown

Color Challenge #1

Here's my entry for the Color Challenge at The Memory Nest!

First, I just want to say that participating in this challenge is what gave me the final push to create a blog. I'd been debating it for a while, and this challenge looked like too much fun to miss.

It's a pretty simple card. I used a premade ivory colored card (with a matching envelope). On top of that, I placed strips of brown cardstock, topped with a beautiful green, blue, brown and ivory floral cardstock. This is one of my favorite pieces of patterned cardstock I've ever owned, and I wish I'd bought more than one sheet! Below that, I stamped "Just a Note" in green ink, and thankfully it turned out. Stamping directly onto cards always makes me nervous. Next to that, I attached two glittery blue flowers with green felt covered brads in their centers.

Supplies I Used (or similar ones):
card and envelope: Unknown
cardstock: Bazzill
patterned cardstock: Unknown
acrylic stamp: Unknown
pigment ink: Martha Stewart
glittery flowers: Petaloo
felt covered brads: Unknown

Looks like in the future I need to keep better track of who makes the supplies I use! If you really like this card, it just so happens to be available in my Etsy shop! Click here to view it in the shop.

Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge (15 March 2013 Sketch Challenge)

I really love creating scrapbook pages from sketches. The sketch articles were always my favorites when I subscribed to scrapbooking magazines. It's just so fascinating to see how different people can interpret the same sketch. It might seem straightforward, but everyone will have a different take on it. So when I happened upon Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge and their monthly sketch challenges, I knew I had to participate!

Here's the sketch they asked people to use.

I've been holding onto this picture for a while. It's from my nineteenth birthday, and it was just a beautiful little moment that my mom captured while we were walking around campus. Sadly, they've since cut down the beautiful tree behind me. It always made me sad when my college started chopping down trees. Anyway, here's my interpretation of the sketch. Click on the photos to view larger versions.

Double sided cardstock is the bane of my existence! It's so hard to choose sides. In this case, I didn't! I flipped up one corner and taped it down to show off a little bit of the back side, then used two small strips of that side in the upper corner as an accent. I'm really happy with the way that worked out. Busy patterns are hard to work with, but I think these turned out well.

My supplies, as best I can remember them:

cardstock -- Bazzill
double sided cardstock -- Echo Park Paper Co., Sweet Day Lovely Chevron
felt button embellishments -- American Crafts Pebbles
letter stickers -- American Crafts Thickers
word stickers -- unknown

Sunday Social

Found this on Leslie's blog, The Memory Nest, and decided to give it a try. This should be an easy way to share a little more info about myself while I'm still figuring out the more interesting content for my blog!

1. What is your favorite thing about Spring?
The warm weather! I'm not a fan of extreme weather in either direction, whether it be cold or hot. Spring and Fall are my favorite seasons, weather wise, but Spring is definitely the best.

2. Favorite kind of flowers to grow or receive?
Lillies, any kind of lillies! Pink and red ones especially, because those are two of my favorite colors.

3. What is your favorite nail polish color?
I tend to wear lots of grays and pinks. I have Sally Hansen Diamond Strength in Fuschia Bling Bling on my toes right now.

There's a pic of a rather sloppy manicure I gave myself a while back with two of my other favorite colors -- Wet N Wild Wet Cement and Hard Candy Mr. Wrong. I did clean up the little mistakes after posting the pic, don't worry!

4. What is your favorite out door activity?
While I don't do nearly enough of them, I really like going on walking trails and some of the easier hiking trails around. I live so close to the Smokies that I really have no excuse for not exploring the parks more.

5. Do you have any fun Spring plans? Details
I guess my biggest plan is to get started on a vegetable garden. It's been my mom's project in the past, but I plan on helping a lot more this year. According to her almanacs, we should start setting plants out on April 15, so you can probably expect a blog around that date about all the dirt under my fingernails ;)

Welcome to my blog!

Well, here it is! My first blog post. I'm not really sure what to say right now, but I've spent the better part of the afternoon and evening setting this up the way I want it. I guess I could start by introducing myself.

My name is Bethany, and I'm twenty six years old. The name of the blog is also the name of my Etsy shop, May Queen Crafts. That comes from Led Zeppelin's song Stairway To Heaven. I'm a big classic rock fan, but I love lots of other genres of music. I'm a pretty big fan of the arts in general, and in addition to crafting I also love to write.

The crafts are the main reason for this blog, though. My biggest craft is scrapbooking, but I also occasionally embroider and play around with other paper crafts and some painting. Basically, I'll try any craft that strikes my fancy! On this blog, I plan to post pics of my craft projects, anecdotes and how-tos. I think it's going to be really fun, and I hope people enjoy reading it. I promise a more entertaining post soon.