July 30th, Prompt #40

This post is brought to you by our DT member, Margrethe!!
Hello! Welcome to the Gutter! This has been one busy month, and it felt SO nice to get in the gutter.

The prompt this time is:
The PROMPT: Memories
The SONG: "No, I don't remember" by Anna Ternheim
The Product/Technique: Overlays/transparencies

Our guest designer this time is Angela!

Hi! I’m Angela. I live on Cape Cod, in Massachusetts. This is actually my first time as a guest designer for a blog. And I’m more than a little excited about it!

I graduated last May with a Bachelor’s in Fashion Merchandising. Recently obtained my license as an Esthetician in Massachusetts. I work retail to pay the bills, and I scrap to save my sanity.

I started scrapbooking about seven years ago in 2003 – when I was 16, in my junior year of high school. Holy.crap. That seems like forever ago. The first thing I made was an album for my Mom for Mother’s Day and her birthday. I dabbled in it here and there throughout the rest of high school and still have that album kicking around somewhere..

I became *serious* about my scrapping in 2006, during my sophomore year of college. Or about as serious as you can be when you live in a room the size of a closet and have no space for storage, let alone to crop. Mini albums are where I started but right now layouts are where most of my pictures end up.

Recently I’ve moved more into the direction of what I like to call paper crafting; scrapbooking seems really lame to other people [especially dudes] when they ask you what your hobbies are. I’ve found a new love for creating canvases and attempting altered art.

My new favorite products are the Ranger Color Washes in the Tim Holtz line of products, Stampotique “artsy fartsy” girl rubber stamps, and deco tapes. I’m finally starting to use my stash of Hambly, love, Elsie, and American Crafts. And my old stand-bys, American Crafts Thickers, Bazzil white cardstock, and Bazzil kraft cardstock, are usually visible on ALL my layouts : ]

I’m always looking for new techniques online through blogs and tutorials, and I love picking the brains of the girls I scrap with at my LSS. Right now I’m *loving* watered down acrylic paints and my color washes, with masks, to alter white cardstock into something new. Paper flowers using circle punches are also a new favorite that keep popping up on my layouts. One thing I’m trying to incorporate more of onto my layouts is my handwriting.

You can find my ramblings and my layouts at http://angelaspangela.wordpress.com

My Layout:

This song was one I had never heard, but upon reading the lyrics all I could think of was my most recent ex-boyfriend.

• I altered one of the lyrics, ‘I forgot how to cry,’ to make my title.
• I used pictures of just me because I wanted ME to be the highlight of the layout and not him or our relationship.
• I used the masked areas to do my journaling that I wanted everyone to read. It’s mostly random memories from the last year, stuff he and I talked about, and memories from when we were together for those couple months. I used the color washed areas to do hidden journaling for some stuff I needed to get out but didn’t want everyone to be able to read – such a neat trick!
• My journaling reads: I have never cried over a guy as much as I did for Matt. I never want to do that again. Eventually I’ll pull my life together. Emotionally, financially, socially, romantically. Right now I’m just working on staying afloat - & that’s just fine. No one figures their life out before the age of 25 anyways! I miss the security blanket of college but I don’t think I could do classes anymore. Somewhere along the line I lost myself - & that’s not always an easy thing to find again. But I did. & then Matt happened. When we broke up I was an emotional mess for two weeks. It took me a considerable amount of time to want to be social again, & I’ve only recently started to date again. I’m not 100% the me I was before Matt, but I don’t think I’ll see that girl again. I’m starting to like this girl more. I hold all my pain inside. So many promises made & not a single one kept. No more tears for him unless I can drown him in them.
  

Journaling close up:

More from Angela:

Patti:
Great prompt. I used the title of the song in my journaling. The song title inspired my journaling. I had fun using the overlays. I love how they look on a layout. I forget to use them alot of the times though.
In case you can't read my journaling here it is:
No, I don't remember many happy loving memories of my childhood. I look back on this snapshot and it forces me to try and remember good memories, but all I come up with is the bad. Growing up I preferred to stay in my fantasy family - you know the one - where I’m Cindy Brady. I used to hope and pray for a ‘normal’ family, but we just never made it. I sincerely hope I’ve grown into Carol Brady and that I’ve created the loving family for my son - one that I was never able to enjoy.

Glenda:
I used the word "memories" from the song and scrapped some pictures that I had been meaning to scrap for a while. Scrapping to me is about looking back, preserving the memories and having fun at the same time.

Nikki
My brother passed away when I was 7, he was just 3...it was only a few months after this photo was taken. He was the first person I thought of when I saw the prompt...I remember a few little things about him, but not very much at all. I wish so badly that he was still with us. I would love to know what kind of a father, husband, brother, son he would have made. I know it my heart he would have been great at all of them. I used a white frame overlay as well as the wing transparencies....

Sarah
I used the word memories and looked back on my childhood love for my easy bake oven. Oh how I loved baking brownies with that little light bulb. I still love to bake and Im always experimenting with new delicious treats! I also used the transparency. Hambly oh how I love thee.

Christi
I used some of the lyrics from the song as my title, and got crazy with transparencies!

Twice a month, we choose a guest gutter girl to play along with us! At least once a month, that guest is chosen HERE from those of YOU that play along! All you need to do to be considered for a guest spot, is create YOUR art from OUR prompt, then leave us a comment with a direct LINK to your creation in a comment here. Please be sure when you leave your comment, to include your email in the space provided in our comment system. Your email is not shared publicly, but it allows us to email guest invitations!!
Can't wait to see what you create!!

July 15th, Prompt #39

Please join me in hopping over to the Scrap Your CRAP blog and shouting at the gals over there! We SWAPPED with their Design Team!!
Before you head over their way, take a look at what their team did with our PROMPT!!
THE PROMPT: Mindless
THE SONG: Dickhead by Kate Nash
PRODUCT/TECHNIQUE: Trash
Kristin Fougeron
I would say most of my page is "trash" ...well, lets say when i was going thru all my scrapbooking supplies this is what stood out to me...
First I used the piece of packaging from some chipboard pieces as my background and spray painted the clouds onto it, then used the top of my snack for the sun and some plastic that you line you shelf with for the rays, then I had all these stamps so I thought that I would put them all under the picture and then I painted the fence and added some crackle to it with the bathroom fixtures as flowers ...
I also like the line in the song ....
Will you stop, no don't show
Just have a think before you
Will you stop it, oh will you just have a think before you..
My son sometimes does not think before he acts ....he does not use his mind... Thanks for letting me play along!!!!


Sarah
I used part of the lyrics but changed the “f” word to “yucking”, as I found a rat out on my daughters play mat and it completely yucked up our play time! Rats remind me of rubbish (you know they’re scavengers and disgusting), so the “Trash” theme worked perfectly with this. I made a ruffle from a Milky Way packet, I used a bottle top, old cardboard that I tore the top layer off and then used the curls as embellies as well, I found a ring pull from a can, some scrunched up paper balls that my daughter had used for craft and no longer needed, some staples and lots of scraps of paper that I tore up. I also used some new bug stamps. All together this created a rubbishy theme to go with my disgusting rat! Thanks for making me think outside the box! This was a real challenge!

Angela
I found the prompt VERY challenging because the song uses language I don't use and hate hearing. I tried to get past the language to the meaning in the lyrics, and I ended up thinking about how I refuse to let other people ruin my life. They may make bad choices, but I get to have a choice about how I respond and how I see my life - a life truth that I do want to record as a scrapbook page, something I believe to be true. As for using trash in the prompt - I used some embellies that were nearly garbage, they'd been sitting on my desk so long, as well as an old key that doesn't belong to anything.

Kim
Even though I swear like a trooper I could not find a use for any of the lyrics in my layout (maybe I haven't met a proper dickhead yet...LOL) but the MINDLESS prompt did work for the picture of my with a "fat" lip.
Being someone who detests flying, the only way I was going on a plane after 5 years of refusing to do so, was to get completely wasted. I did not think of the aftereffects this had, as my boyfriend who only speaks English, had to pick me up from the airport floor in Salzburg/Austria, when I tripped and split my lip. Apparently we had to sit for about four hours at the airport until I sobered up enough to find the way to out hotel....needless to say I never acted so mindless again.
TRASH: the part of sequin waste tucked underneath the picture on the left hand side of the layout. Thanks for swapping with us!

Leslie
Here is my image for your Kate Nash challenge. This song made me think of being stuck in LA traffic, and dealing with jerks on the roads. You know, the ones who drive on the shoulder and cut everyone off, the men in mini vans who drive like maniacs. The endless stop and go of the freeways... God I love LA!!! That awesome K&Co sticker of the man's mouth wide open is me, screaming in my car!! Thanks for letting us play, I had a lot of fun on this one!

Illy

I had so much fun doing this layout! For the background I used a torn page from a composition book and I added a piece of a broken paper-doily (directly from the trash bin). For matting the photo I used a piece of the paper that I usually use as a cutting mat (paper written on a side). Then I glued and stapled tiny bits of patterned papers (I keep them in a box, even the smallest scraps). I also used masking tape, white ink and a brown chalk. The page (and the title!!!!!) is dedicated to my ex boyfriend.Thank you very much!!!!!!!

Thank you SO MUCH all you gals at Scrap Your Crap!! I love design team swaps!! This one is no exception! It's so fun to see what other gals will do with our prompts, and what directions they will take. You did NOT disappoint!!
Stay tuned on the 30th for another great prompt, and don't forget to play along with us here! Leave a comment and be in line to be invited to be a guest designer!

DT SWAP and the NEW YEAR!

First:
DT SWAP!! Don't forget to hop over to Scrap Your CRAP challenge blog, and tell 'em the Gutter Girlz sent you!! We'll be sharing the SYC gal's work here on the 15th.

Second:
We also have some changes coming to the gutter!!
A break down of the changes:

1. Our design team will not be providing prizes anymore. It gets to be spendy for the team, and they don't get any compensation for helping me keep this place an AWESOME place for inspiration GUTTER STYLE. If we have offers for sponsorship, we'll still share THOSE as a prize, but prizes won't be something we do regularly any more.
2. We'll be going back to TWO prompts per month, but instead of little old ME creating all of them, your very own dirty girlz will be coming up with their own prompts at the end of every month!! They'll also be choosing their own guest hosts!!
   

A break down of what is staying the same:

1. Prompts will still be posted on the 15th and 30th of every month. (the 28th in Feb.)
   
2. We'll still be choosing guest hosts from those of you who PLAY with us and leave links in the comments.
3. The prompts will still consist of three parts, which you can choose to create with using all or some of the three parts.

I'm looking forward to the new year!! We'll be entering our THIRD YEAR in the gutter!! Thanks to each and every one of YOU who help make this place a great place to be. We hope that our changes will keep you coming back, and having more fun than EVER.