Scrappy Fun

Once every three weeks or so a terrific group of local ladies gets together for a scrap booking party.  Yesterday was just such an occasion and luckily I was able to attend this time around.  Because of scheduling conflicts, work, other activities I hadn't been able to attend for a couple months and it was really getting me down.  So just the fact that I was able to go yesterday totally made my day. 

Meredith and Becky usually take turns hosting and introducing the new projects and yesterday was Becky's turn and oooooooh was it a fabulous one.  Somehow she had convinced her husband to cut, sand and put together three 4x4 cubes for each of us to work on as our proverbial "canvas".  Four of the sides of each cube were devoted to pictures, quotes, and decorations while the other two sides provided the means for feeding a rope or ribbon through to hang the blocks once completed.  Most of the women did a vertical hanger but I did a horizontal one so that the blocks could spin and be adjusted when I wanted rather than free spinning.

It was so interesting to see how each of us did something a little different.  We needed 12 photos that we could cut down and incorporate on to each block after we'd taken and ink stamp to them all to add a base color on top of the wood grain.  I am a person that seems to be stuck on earthy tones so I used a nice green, a dusty blue, and of course maroon as my block colors.  I then tore pieces of similar colored but varied patterned scrap booking paper to add texture to the background behind my pictures.  Finally I glued my pictures on each block face and added some extra bells and whistles afterward. 

Since my printer is on the fritz (and has been for way too long) I had to find a theme with prints I already had so I dug in my old college trunk and found some awesome pictures of my friends and I goofing off and making funny faces.  So my project was themed around friendship and having fun.  I tell you its a lot easier to find pictures of us goofing off then ones of us being serious.  Plus using just head shots made for easy trimming and provided a nice mix of combinations that my blocks can be spun to when I hang it up.

While I got all the "hard" work done.  My hanger isn't quite finished because I'm going to put nice natural wood beads between each of the big blocks to give a little bit of space in between them as well as allow for better form when I hang it horizontally.  That way the blocks wont knock into one another and they will be free to spin individually rather than as a whole unit.

Meredith did a great series themed on Halloween and included pictures of jackolanterns, ghosts, skeletons, and family photos around her house and made for an adorable hanger.  Robert did one that was based on all things beach and ocean.  It looked like an amazing beach vacation and the finished product was great.  I didn't get to see Becky's but hopefully she'll post pictures of it in the next few days.  Now I just need to finish mind and I'm thinking that I want to do another one with a Christmas theme to give to my Mom for the holidays.  I just need to make sure my printer is up and running by then so I have more variety to choose from in terms of pictures.  I've also thought about miniaturizing it to make it into a series of Christmas tree ornaments rather than a wall hanger.  We'll see what I come up with.