A few more projects....

This afternoon is turning out to be quiet at work so I am back to post the last of my crop projects.

This one is my absolute favourite of the ones that I completed during the crop.  My husband thinks it looks like we have twins.  I tried to explain that if fit the design better and that I had extras of her school photo.  He doesn't get the whole idea of design....which isn't surprising since we argue over what is actually a blue, a green and where teal fits in the spectrum.

Materials used:   Bazzill embossed carstock, Autumn Leaves pp, Making Memories glitter leaves & glitter, Prima felt, Liquid pearls, Ranger Stickles, ScrapFX chipboard, Imaginesce brads, transparencies, Prima flowers, American Craft Thickers, Basic Grey stickers, Prima bling, Paint Daubers and Kaiser Craft bling.

One of the challenges was to make a card using the animal from the Chinese year of your birth.  I was born in the Year of the Sheep.  No problem...I said.  I should have something with a sheep on it...a stamp, rubons, pattern paper...something.  Yum...NO.  I took me 3 hours before I thought to look on the Silhouette website for a download.  I seriously need to remember that I have this machine.  Anyway...it is a pretty basic card but I love this chubby sheep design.

Materials Used:  Quickutz Silhouette Chubby Sheep download, Bazzill, Stamp'n Up, & Prism cardstock.

The last challenge that I completed was to do a masculine card.  I love doing little boy cards.  They are so much fun.  My son is going to be 65 and still be getting cute little boy cards from me.  Poor kid.

Materials used:  Stamp'n Up cardstock, Copic makers, Memento ink, Prism Simply Smooth cardstock, Ranger Stickles, Tatttered Angels Glimmer mist, MAMBI bling, unknown ribbon, Dollar store googlies eyes, Cuttlebug folder.

That is all that I have for now.  I am in the process of making some sample cards for my LSS -- The Scrapbox.  I am hoping to finish them off tonight so I might have more to post tomorrow.  I am using the Great Impressions Stamps from their Stamp of the Month program and various Spellbinder dies.

It has been awhile but...

Mo and Jo have been visiting for the last few days.  I have been taking advantage of their time and trying to cram in as much scrapping time as they will allow.  I know that they will disappear again.  They are not the most constant of friends around this place.


Luckily they decided to visit during the Paper Passions Birthaversary On-line Crop this weekend.  There were lots of challenges to give me the much needed kick in the butt that I needed to finally get moving.  I love on-line crops because there is just enough pressure to make you feel like you need to complete something and yet not so much pressure that you feel overwhelmed.  You can do as much or as little as you would like.



One of the projects was to create a bucket list.  The hardest part of the this one was to come up with the actual list.  Making the actual tags took no time at all but coming up with that list...eek!  But then again journalling is the hardest part of scrapping for me.  Other than the 5 W's, I don't have much to say.  Even doing those sometimes is difficult for me.

Materials used:  Tim Holtz masks, grungeboard and stamps, Ranger Distress ink, Stickles, Paint Daubers and Crackle paint, misc. metal bits & unknown ribbon.

I think I am most pleased with the layouts that I made for this crop.  I am really happy with them.  I usually want to tweek my layouts after a few days but these ones, I haven't wanted to.......yet.

 

Materials used:  Ranger Distress ink, Basic Grey pattern paper, Prima felt, Fancy Pants journalling spot, MAMBI bling, Basic Grey letter & element stickers.

 

Materials used:  Basic Grey pattern paper and doily, Prima vine and bling, Copic maker, Basic Grey journalling spot, So Easy crystal buttons, Dollar Store pearls, Ki Gloo, pop dots, unknown seed beeds and wire.  

 

I made the beaded flowers that I used on this layout.  I have been experimenting with making French beaded flowers lately.  The five petal, open flowers are the simplest of them all to make but they really do give the layout a bit of extra pop to it.

 

I have a few more items to post from the crop but I hear my kiddos waking up.  Last day of school of the week and last day of work.  I am so looking forward to movie night and fun food tonight.  I am going to enjoy a bit of downtime with the kiddos before I have to start with the massive house reorg and cleaning session.   My parents are coming to visit in two weeks.  Adding two other people into my little cluttered house takes some editing beforehand.  I can see a number of rubbermaid containers full of the kids toys being relocated to the basement for the visit...and all of my scrap supplies too... :( 

 

I will try to post the rest of the projects later on today. 

Cards...cards and a few more cards....

Saturday was World Card Making Day and to celebrate, ScrapCentral was having an on-line crop.  As part of the design team, it was my responsibility to come up with a few challenges and examples.  As par for course lately, I was late with my examples.  Life was getting in the way of my fun I am afraid to say.

I had the topics of Funny cards and Thank You cards.  Basically my Funny card challenges, involved coming up with a card that used a comic or cartoon as part of its design and for the second challenge using a silly saying.  For the Thank You cards, it was to create two different types of Thank You cards -- one elaborate and elegant and the other fun and funky.

I downloaded a cartoon that I found on-line to use on the card and I thought it was perfect for my kids to give to my husband for his birthday in the spring.  The kids are constantly calling him "ancient".  I can't wait to see his face.

Materials used:  Bazzill cardstock, Signo silver pen, unknown pattern paper scrap.

 

For the fun and funky Thank You card, I dug out my Silhouette.  Quickutz has some amazing downloads lately for card blanks.  They are just fantastic.  This card was done using Stamp'n Up cardstock and Quickutz designs:

 

 It was so fast and simple to do.  I think it took me about 10 minutes from start to finish to complete this card.

For the elegant & elaborate Thank You card, I got carried away with pop dots.  There is something about adding dimension to a card that helps take it to a totally different level.

Materials used:  Bazzill Dot cardstock, Fancy Pants pp, Bazzill bling cardstock, Megumi 3D flowers, pop dots and unknown ribbon.

Last weekend while I was away at my retreat, I stopped at  Ecstasy Crafts in Shannonville.  I found these wonderful Megumi paper tole flowers.  They are pre-cut.  You just pop them out and layer them.  Oh my...they make fantastic cards when you combing them with Spellbinder dies.  I picked up 7 or 8 different designs but now I wish that I had bought some more.

Tonight I am going to work on some of the other challenges from the crop.  Life has finally settled down a bit for me and the crop doesn't end until Friday.  Hopefully, I can get another 4 or 5 cards done.

Retreat Layouts

The kiddos are finally in bed so I can take sometime to post the layouts I managed to finish at my retreat. 

I am still amazed that I was able to finish 5 layouts.  This is the first layout I completed.  It was for the sketch challenge that they were having.  This is a very loose interpretation of the sketch but it got my mojo flowing and I was able to get creative.  I just needed that little kick in the behind to get going.

Materials used:  Bazzill cardstock, Basic Grey pattern paper and doiley, Everlasting Keepsakes chipboard, Magenta chipboard, Prima bling swirls, Copic markers, American Craft Thickers, My Little Yellow Bicycle Transparency journalling spots, Prima felt, Olfa flowers, MAMBI bling, Basic Grey rubons, Ranger Distress Ink and Perfect Pearls, Tim Holtz stamps.

I didn't realized how much mojo would flow from this one layout but it seemed to unstop the dam and this is what followed:

Materials used:  Jilly Bean Soup pattern paper, Prima Paintable transparency, Copic markers, Ranger paint dauber, Prima flowers, May Arts leaf ribbon, American Crafts thickers, Prima bling swirls, Ranger Distress Ink, Making Memories metal butterfly, Versa ink and unknown brads

I love Prima Paintables Transparencies.  I love colouring them with the Copics and then painting the areas I want to pop with some white paint.  Very cool effect.

Materials used:  Basic Grey pattern paper, doiley and stickers, Scrap FX chipboard, My Little Yellow Bicycle transparency journalling spot, Gelly Gems, Ranger paint dauber, Ranger Distress ink and VersaColour ink.

I used quite a bit of Basic Grey this weekend.  I took a few of the new paper packs with me.  I figured that they would be an easy starting point for a crop away from home.  They proved to be perfect.  I have such a hard time figuring out what I want to use on a layout.  I tend to go through most of my stash everytime a do a layout looking for the perfect item.  You can't do that at a crop and it is one of the reasons why I don't crop away from home often.

Materials used:  Basic Grey pattern paper, stickers and doiley, My Little Yellow Bicycle buttons and brads, and Ranger Distress Ink.

I managed to get my hands on some of the stitched mulberry paper by Prima recently.  I have been wanting some of this since I saw it at CHA.  It is such beautiful stuff.

Materials used:  Prima stitched mulberry paper, Basic Grey pattern paper, Bazzill dot cardstock, Magenta chipboard, Melissa Francis glitter, Gelly Glitter, Ranger Distress stickles, Maya Road flowers and stick pin, Dollar store flowers, Prima pearl swirls, Copic makers, Rain drops, and I am afraid that I can't seem to remember who made the glitter alpha stickers.

The last item that I have to share is the card that won the card sketch challenge.  I won a cute little storage case for sitting on my desk.

Material used:  Bazzill cardstock, Prism simply smooth cardstock, Onefourzero stamps, Copic makers, Spellbinder's Impressiabilities & Nesties, Gelly Gems, Rangers Distress ink, Perfect Pearls and MAMBI gems.

Now, I think my mojo has been completely drained and I need to get it back fast.  I have to come up with some card challenges and examples for the next ScrapCentral On-line crop for National Card Making Day.  I can't believe that it is on Friday....Eek...I better send out the search party ASAP.

A Successful Retreat

This weekend's retreat was fabulous.  I can't believe how much I was able to get done for me.  I managed to complete 5 layouts and 1 card.  That is so unlike me.  The retreat was being run by Sweet Sentiments.  Thirty ladies attended in total.  It was at the Pleasant Bay Bible Camp which is a bit on the rustic side. 

The cabins were unheated so it was a bit chilly climbing into those sleeping bags at night.  Yes, those are bunk beds that you see.  This cabin holds 12 kids...I still can't believe that.  There were 6 of us staying in this little cabin.  Thankfully, none of us had to sleep on the top bunk.  I can just see me crashing down on someone sleeping on the lower bunk.  Eeek....
 

 
The location was beautiful -- right beside the water.  We even got some great pics of us sitting down at the waters edge.

We chatted, we scrapped, we ate, we laughed and had a fabulous time.  I am definitely going to be doing this again.  I even won the card sketch challenge.  Very cool!  I will post the layout and cards that I managed to get done a little later tonight.