April Showers Bring May Flowers

Yes....I realize it is still March and this is probably wishful thinking since it happens to be -10 C at the moment but this was the the topic of Week 7 LCOM Big Brother Competition.  We had to produce a layout the used the phrase "April showers brings May flowers", pastel colours, painted and glittered chipboard and our own stamped pattern paper.  Cool challenge.

Materials used:  Bazzill cardstock, Prima pattern paper and flowers, Distress ink, Pink Paislee ephemera, Maya Road trinket gem, 7 Gypsies stamps, Layers of Colour stamps, Fancy Pants stamps and Martha Stewart bling.

Two more ladies were eliminated and there are now only 6 left.  I can't believe that I am still in the running.  Usually but this point in competitions, I have either been eliminated or I have had to drop out due to other commitments.  There are only two more weeks left of the competition.  This week everyone is competing to be part of the final 3.

In other scrappy related news, this weekend is the Debby Schuh event with The Scrapbox.  Last night's class was to make a mini book titled "The Recipe of Me" using a Melissa France tag book.  You can see the book over at Debby's blog under the Upcoming Class tap.

I really enjoy taking Debby's classes since she has a very interesting way of putting together books.  I love all the fold out pages, pockets and interesting details she puts in.  I have another class this afternoon to make a "Junket Journal".  I can't wait. :-)  It is going to be a creative day.

Peace and Quiet

I love getting up in the mornings before the kids.  The silence is absolutely wonderful.  I can sit and concentrate on what I am working on.  I have a cup of tea and watch the sun come up as I am going through email, perusing on-line galleries and blogs for inspiration or trying desperately to finish an assignment that I promised someone.

This morning, though, my assignments are done.  There is nothing pressing that needs to be finished.  I am just wading through photographs and scanning the kids art work while enjoying that cup of tea.  I handed in my last assignment for this week yesterday.  It was a card for The Scrapbox that I promised Jenn that I would do up using the new Spellbinder dies.

Materials used: Bazzill cardstock, Basic Grey pattern paper, BoBunny pattern paper, KaiserCraft bling, Memento ink, Prism Simply Smooth cardstock, Copic markers, Sarah Kay stamp, My Mind's Eye stamp, Distress ink, pop dots and Spellbinder dies.

It was weird.  Before the dies came in, I had all these fabulous ideas that I wanted to do with them; but, as soon as they arrived, I was just sitting there -- staring at them.  I had no ideas.  My mind was a blank.  All I knew was that I wanted to do something springy, with new product that had come into the store and a stamped image.  The card also had to be something that had some visual bang but be fairly easy to put together.

Mission accomplished. :-)

Bits and pieces....

First off, the new card sketch is up over at LCOM Sketch Blog.  It is another one of mine.  After this, I get to take a two week break.  The card that I made for this sketch is once again using the Once Upon a Springtime collection from Graphic45.  I must admit I really love this collection but I am sure that I have said that before.

Materials used:  Prism cardstock, Graphic45 pattern paper, Dollar store picks, and popdots.

Secondly, Dollarama has these fabulous coloured pussy willow style picks.  I found them in white, blue, pink, purple and green.  I separated the bunches and I am going to use them on cards and layouts.  They are fabulous -- especially since they are only a buck.

Lastly, I found out yesterday that a local craft store is closing it doors at the end of April -- The Painted Pony.  I happened to be out that way on my lunch hour and decided to stop in.  It had been a while since I had been there so I was unaware that the store was in the process of selling off all their stock.  I got some great deals on some Outline stamps and Tim Holtz dies and embellishments but I don't like getting deals at the expense of a business closing.  Oh well....

Happy St. Patty's Day.

Cardboard...

Last week's LCOM Big Brother challenge was to use cardboard as the base of a layout.  I just cringed when I heard that.  The long buried art conservator had visions of high lignin content of the cardboard yellowing my photos.  Deep breaths....After all, with digital photography is it really necessary to worry about acid-free when creating layouts?

This one was certainly outside of my comfort zone.  I don't use all acid free items on my layouts but I usually try not to use obviously detrimental items.  So I had to approach this one as a 12x12 piece of art instead that I would just frame.

Materials used:  Old box top, Tattered Angels glimmer mist, Wallacks Gesso, Golden Pearl Mica, Spectre Glitter, Tattered Angels Glitter Glaze, Bazzill cardstock & edge, My Mind's Eye Lush flocked paper, BoBunny pattern paper, Maya Road chipboard, KI Memories Alphabet Soup letters, unknown buttons, Ranger Distress ink stains & paint daubers.

One of the other required elements was to make your own flowers.  Each of the day lilies was made using the McGill Paper Blossom punches.  Once again, I was able to make quick and easy flower to match my layout.

Tonight I am taking a break from the Big Brother challenge.  I picked up some Spellbinder dies on Friday and I have yet to play with them.  All these beautiful dies and I have yet to make a single cut with them.  I can't believe that I have made it this long. ;-)

Card Sketch #23

I have joined on for another term with the Card Team at LCOM.  They have changed the format this time around.  There are now two dedicated sketch artists instead of everyone on the team taking a turn and here is the news.....I am one of the two sketch artists. :-)   Card Sketch #23 is up and it is one of mine.  Yay

I am being forced to learn more about my Photoshop program and so far, I think it is going reasonably well.  I am self teaching with on-line tutorials and forum sites.  The more I play with Photoshop, the more I realize that there is so much more I can do with it.  I also have to change my thinking.  Some things I think should be relatively easy to are actually more complex in Photoshop and not as intuitive.  Learning new things keeps you young....right? :-)

I am still playing around with the McGill Paper Blossom punches.  I like the fact that I can make a flower in any colour that I want to perfectly match the card that I am making.  This time around I made the rose in the same blue cardstock as the base of my card and the leaves out of the same cardstock I was using as a accent colour.

Materials used:  Bazzill Swiss Dot cardstock, Making Memories pattern paper and glitter, miscellaneous ribbon, popdots, McGill Paper Blossom punches, Martha Stewart edge punch, and Marianne Designs die.

Head on over to the LCOM Sketch Blog to see the sketch and check out what Team A did with the sketch.

10 Favourite Things

Materials used:  Bazzill cardstock, Making Memories pattern paper, My Little Yellow Bicycle pattern paper, Cosmo Cricket blackboard, American Craft Thickers, Prima flowers, vines and bling, Tulip bling,Kaiser Craft bling, Making Memories letter stickers, The Girls' Paperie letter stickers.

Week 4's Big Brother Challenge was to complete a layout about our 10 favourite things.  It had to have the title "10 of my favourite things", pictures and journalling.  Once again the part that I struggled with was adding the journalling to the front of the layout.  I just managed to get this one finished on Thursday night, the night before the deadline.  I kept rearranging and rewriting what I wanted to say.

This weeks challenge is another one that is outside my box.  I have to make a layout using corrugated cardboard as the base.  I have been painting, misting, and glittering all afternoon to alter the cardboard into something that I feel more comfortable using.  So far so good but now I need to figure out what to put onto the cardboard.  I guess it is time to start digging through the stash.

Life has been a bit busy....

This week has been a busy week with my job, kids stuff and with general house related tasks that were calling to be done.  Thankfully, things are starting to settle down as we approach the weekend and I am hoping to get back into crafting tonight.

One piece of good news is that my son has passed his orange belt for ji-jitsu.  We had a deal with him that if he worked hard and got his orange belt, he could quit his lessons early (they come up for renewal in June).  I have never seen a kid so motivated.  The other part of the deal was that he also had to find something to replace ji-jitsu.  So tonight, we are off to register him in a Lego engineering class for the Spring.

On to Scrapbooking stuff, I haven't done much this week -- correction -- I have done nothing this week..  I am still in the running in LCOM's Big Brother competition.  I did manage to complete last week's mini album challenge:

I used 7Gypsies book covers and Basic Grey Pattern paper and stickers for most of the book.  There are 10 different folded and transparency pages in the book.  The four pages that I posted are just a small example of the variety of pages I tried to include.

As for this week's challenge I still have time to complete it but time is running out.  I only have until tomorrow evening so I am hoping that everything comes together tonight.  I have a plan and that is half of the battle.