Cropping....

I actually went cropping yesterday at the Scrapbox.  It was the first time since the Scrapbox opened 3 years ago that I have gone to a crop there.  I rarely crop outside my house.  I find the whole process of packing up my stuff, preplanning what I am going to work on and then putting everything back where it belongs afterward, a pain in the royal behind.  There is also the fact of finding the time in between work, the kiddos activities and the business of every day life, is difficult to do.

Since I was off work this week, the kids daycare was open and my lovely husband was working, I decided that I was going to go and crop.  There was nothing stopping me from taking a "me" day.  I had a great time.  The ladies were hilarious and I even managed to get two layouts and a card completed.  My mojo is flowing and I am feeling creative again.

Materials used:  Basic Grey pattern paper, BoBunny pattern paper, Bazzill Swiss Dot cardstock, dictionary paper, Tattered Angels glimmer and chalk mist, Distress Ink, Tim Holtz stamps, Basic Grey stickers, Prima vine, roses and leaves, misc. metal embellishments.

Materials used:  Bazzill cardstock, BoBunny patterned paper, Prima patterned paper, doily border, Imaginesce rub-ons, dictionary paper, Distress ink, American Craft Thickers, Kaiser bling, and Basic Grey stickers.

I need to try this more often....at least more than just the September retreat which I am already counting down the days too.  It really does jump start my mojo.

If you are wondering about the card, I am afraid that you will have to wait until next week when it is revealed at Lets Capture Our Memories Blog.  There will be a new sketch unveiled...and it is one of mine. :-)

Happy New Years Eve....I can't believe that 2010 is almost gone.  It is scary how fast the years seems to be passing now.  I guess it is one of the downfalls of getting older.  One year when you are 10 is only 1/10th of your life and it seems like such a long time but when you are older...than say 40ish...it is 1/40ish and one year seems much shorter.

Yay....all finished!

I managed to get all the layouts completed for my mother-in-laws yearly album last night.  That is a huge weight off my shoulders and it was completed in time to head out with the rest of the Christmas presents today.  I still have a few things left to do on my Christmas list but it now seems more manageable.

My card was posted over at Lets Capture Our Memories blog yesterday.  This week's sketch is a fun one so if you are interested, hop on over there.  I really enjoyed doing the sketch.

Materials used:  Bazzill cardstock, Basic Grey pattern paper, Pink Paislee pattern paper, Penny Black stamp, Tim Holtz stamp, Copic markers, Memento ink, Distress ink, Prima bling swirls, Krylon 18kt gold leafing pen and lots of pop dots.

Also, mark this in your calendars:

I can't wait.  It is going to be so much fun.  I have never been one of the stops on a blog hop before so I am looking forward to it.

I can't believe that it is already Wednesday and that Christmas is only 3 sleeps away.

Holiday Season

The holiday season is usually a fairly quiet time around our household.  Most of our family lives at least 7 hours or more away from us and if you live in Canada, you are familiar with all the things that can happen on a winter road trip.  We decided that while the kiddos were young that we would not be making the long road trips in winter.

So even though our holidays are quiet, I am still feeling a little overwhelmed with the to-do list.  I have an 8x8 album to finish for my mother-in-law.  16 layouts are still left to be completed -- all of which have to be done tonight.   Tomorrow is the last day that I can ship out the Christmas gifts if I want them to be there for Christmas day.  Oh yes, the Christmas gifts for the family...none of them are wrapped so that is also on the to-do list for tonight.

As I am looking at this list, I have decided that I need to be more reasonable in my expectations.  Do I really need to do any Christmas baking?  There are only 4 of us.  Maybe a quick trip to a nice bakery would be better.  What about make all these Christmas cards?  I love making them and I love giving them but I really don't have the time.  A nice store bought card will have to do.

 Speaking of Christmas cards, make sure to check out Lets Capture Our Memories blog.  The card sketch for this week will be revealed today.  I completed a nice Christmas card....one of the few that I managed to complete this year.  Here is a little sneak peek:

Only 3 left to do...

Three more tags are completed so that only leaves three left to finish.  It is hard to believe that the 12 Tags are finished for this year.  The twelve days passed by so quickly.  It is also hard to believe that it is only 11 days to Christmas. 

It has been a busy couple of days.  I had meant to post these on Sunday but time got away from me.  My son had eye surgery yesterday to correct his crossed eyes.  Everything went really well and he is home.  Today is just going to be a rest day for him and hopefully a bit of a crafting day for me.  The only other plans that we have is a post op appointment with the surgeon this afternoon.

Back to the tags....I really enjoyed making the poinsettia for Tag #7.  Since I don't have the leaves die and I wasn't sure how the Spellbinder's would do cutting through the thick grunge board I was using, I decided to use some fabric Prima leaves as a substitute.

Materials used:  4x6 coaster, manila file folder, Cuttlebug embossing folder, Distress ink, Archival ink, Rock Candy Distress Stickles, grunge board, metal flower (I think it is from Imaginesce), Tattered Angels glimmer mist, and paint daubers.

I love the Prima leaves.  I use them quite a bit as filler in flower clusters on my layouts.

Tag #8 presented a more interesting problem since I don't have any of the holiday masks nor do I have any Christmas dies that I could use to make my own.  What I do have was a couple of sheets of the holiday grunge board.  I had used the large deer from the sheet on one of last years tags so I still had his negative image.  I traced the deer out onto a mask sheet and then cut it out by hand using an Exacto knife.

Materials used:  4x6 coaster, manila file folder, Distress ink, Archival ink, Making Memories metal element, gold embossing powder, grunge board, KaiserCraft rhinestones, Rock Candy Distress Stickles, paint dauber and misc. brads.

Tag #9 came together very quickly.  I had a couple of rosettes that I had made earlier that I hadn't used on a project yet.

Materials used:  4x6 coaster, dictionary paper, Distress ink, misc. buttons, Pink Paislee pattern paper, grunge board letters, Glossy Accents, Melissa Frances tinsel, Prima roses and Dollar store organza.

I am still contemplating what I am going to do about Tag #10.  I am going to have to do some substitution on this one as well.  Lots of thoughts are swirling around at the moment.

Two more down

Last night was a surprising productive night.  Especially when you consider that I wasn't able to get started on any of my projects until after 9:30 pm.  The kiddos were in full bed-time avoidance mode.  I managed to get two more of the panels completed based on Tim Holtz's Tags.  Now, I am only 4 tags behind. :p

My panel #5 is similar to his Tag #5 even though I had to do quite a bit of substitution.  One item that I haven't been able to get my hands on is Sparkly Fluff.  I used Styrofoam instead.  Basically, I rubbed two Styrofoam balls together and "grated" them.  The result is a Styrofoam particles that look like snow.  I was planning on adding in some clear glitter to make "snow" sparkle but decided that I liked the matte look better.  The stickled holly leaves add enough glitter to the panel.

Materials used:  Distress ink & embossing powder, Paint dauber, Stickles, Archival ink, Signo white pen, grunge board, Tim Holtz metal flowers, Tim Holtz stamps, manila file folder, and 4x6 coaster.

Panel #6 required a complete rethink.  I had very few items that he used on his tag.  As I was digging around in my stash, I found a grunge board snowman from a partially used holiday grunge board pack.  He was perfect to use as the basis of my panel. 

I tried to use all the same techniques demonstrated.  I think my favourite was the stamping on the embossing folder.  I can see a lot more cards in my future using that technique.

Materials used:  Distress ink, Paint daubers, Archival ink, Tissue paper, manila file folder, 4x6 coaster, miniature holly garland, grunge board, Spiga pen, miscellaneous red ribbon bow, Cuttlebug embossing folder and Stickles.

I am still debating on whether or not I am going to add in a face on the snowman.  I can't seem to decided which I like better.

Hopefully, I will get a chance to work on the other tags this evening.  Friday nights are fun food and movie nights so we will see if I even get one done.

Running a little late....

I am running late on projects as per usual.  I always have good intentions to get things completed quickly but I seem to need a deadline to actually get something finished.  I know that I have until the weekend after next to finish my mother-in-laws Christmas gift.  She already knows what she is getting since it has been the same gift for that last few years.  I do an album of the kids that show their progression during the year.  It is usually about 40 8x8 layouts.

So how many do I have done? If you guessed, zip, zilch, zero then you would be right.  I seem to be stuck at choosing which pictures I want to put into the album.  This is the part that I find the hardest every year.  When you take so many photos, it is difficult to limit it down to 40 or 45 photos.

So instead of working on the photos last night, I finished Tag #4 of Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas and started Tag #5.  I am not sure I like my #4 as much as the others.  The balance seems to be a bit off.  I think once it is added to the rest as part of the wall hanging it will probably work.  I will be adding other bits and baubles once it starts going together.

Materials used:  Melissa Frances pattern paper, stickers, and chunky glitter, Tim Holtz's facets, Prima bling, Gelatins bling, Distress ink, Ranger alcohol ink, 4x6 coaster, Bazzill cardstock, Maya Road chandelier gems, and miscellaneous beads.

Tonight, I am once again planning on tackling those photos but I have the sneaking suspicion that Tag #5 will call me instead.  I left it at the Stickle drying phase last night.

Happy Thursday...only 1 more day left of this work week.  Yay!

Number 3 is all done...

I had a fairly productive night last night.  I managed to get my mother's Christmas gift done which I am not going to post today.  I also finished Tag #3 of Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas and managed to get a start on Tag #4.

I was hoping today would be just as productive but no such luck so far.  Lots of little things that need to be done around the house have been distracting me.  I am hoping that I will be able to get back to it tonight.

Here is the next panel in my Christmas wall hanging based on Tim's Tag #3:

Materials used:  4x6 coaster, manilla file folder, Distress ink, Ranger paint dauber, Tim Holtz trim, Pink Paislee tinsel, Dollar store moss, tissue paper, miscellaneous button and bling, Melissa Frances sticker, Maya Road chipboard bird, Rock Candy Stickles and Grunge Board.

Since I didn't have any of the tissue paper tape in my stash, I made my own by stamped some white tissue paper that I had for wrapping gifts and tore it into strips.  I, also, don't own a bird die so I used a chipboard bird from Maya Road instead.

It is going to be interesting to see how all the these tags are going to fit together as a panel.  I have a few ideas for spacers to make sure that the portrait and landscape panels fit together.  I am just waiting to see how the rest of the 12 Tags are oriented before making a decision.

Don't forget that tomorrow is the reveal for this week's card sketch over at Let's Capture Our Memories Blog. 

Tag #2

I had hoped to share both my version of Tim Holtz's Tag #2 and #3 today but I am afraid that Tag #3 did not even get started last night. I sat down with my husband and kids last night for a chapter of Harry Potter and the Philosopher Stone and promptly fell asleep to the sound of my husband's voice.  I must have been more tired than I thought since I woke up on couch this morning.  I usually wake up after a couple of hours and move to my bed if I fall asleep on the couch.  That was not the case last night.

So, here is Tag #2 or I should say panel #2 of my Christmas wall hanging:

Materials used:  4x6 coaster, manilla file folder, Distress ink, Tim Holtz stamps, Stampendous embossing powder, Glossy Accents, Ranger Alcohol ink, Dollar Store bling, Melissa Frances Chandelier drops, Making Memories Chandelier beads, Teresa Collins Blingage, black acrylic paint and unknown ribbon.

I altered the Teresa Collins Blingage accents with alcohol inks and black paint.  I found that it was too silvery and shiny for the tag.  Once I had muted down the metal component, I wanted to change the colour of the jewel in the center from clear to red.   It has a more vintage look to it now.

Hopefully, I will be able to share Tag #3 and #4 tomorrow.  I am planning on spending as much time as possible today crafting. 

A Bit of News

I have a little bit of news to share.  I have accepted a 3 month Design Team position on the Card Team for Lets Capture Our Memories.  I have been a member of their forum since the beginning of the year and have been really inspired by all the talent that their members display.  They are a friendly, welcoming bunch.

My first DT assignment will go live next week on the their blog.  I am pretty excited to be part of a DT again.  It has been a while since I have agreed to take on anything like this due to every day life time constraints.  I don't like letting people down so I don't commit to something unless I am sure that I can make time for it.  The next three months are historically pretty quiet.  It was the perfect time to take this on again.  Plus....I must admit I really needed the kick in the behind to get some cards done. ;-)

Tim Holtz is once again doing his 12 Tags of Christmas.  I participated last year and learned a few new techniques and tricks.  This year, I have decided to follow along again but I am not going to be making tags.  I decided that I am going to make panels from 4x6 coasters which I am going to join together to make a wall hanging instead.

This is the first panel:

 Materials used:  4x6 coasters, Manila file folders, Cuttlebug embossing folders, Tim Holtz stamps & grungeboard, pipe cleaner, Prima wired stars (stars removed), embossing powder (red, green & black), DecoArt Snow Writer, miscellaneous glitter, q-tip, transfer plastic, & Distress ink.

Not bad considering both the house and the fence are cut out by hand.  I raided my sons stash of pipe cleaners to make the wreath.  I wonder if he will notice. :-)

I am still not sure about the rings.  I was originally planning on joining the panels with the rings but I think I am going to join them with ribbon or twill instead.

Tonight I am going to tackle Tag #2, work on my mother's Christmas gift and enjoy the fact that my fingers are stained with ink and covered with paint.