Yay, It is Friday!!!

I was just bopping along to the music this morning on the way into work.  Just knowing that it was Friday and I will have two whole days off to enjoy myself, put me in a good mood.  My inlaws are coming into visit tonight to see the kiddos.  It is going to be a quick visit since they are only staying until Sunday morning.

While they are here, I am going to take the opportunity to get my Mother-in-law to pick out some photos from this past year that she would like included in her yearly album of the kids.  This is the only Christmas gift that she asks for every year.  I usually do 30 to 40 8x8 layouts showcasing different events that have happened in the kids life over the past year.  Since they live 7 hours away, they don't get to be included in many of these events so the album is a nice substitute.

When I was in the store on Wednesday, Jen from the Scrapbox challenged me to do the Tim Holtz 12 Days of Christmas Tags with her next week.  Even though, I have avidly followed Tim's tags, I have yet to actually make any while he was doing them.  So I took up Jen's challenge and I will be making tags this year.  I will be following along and trying out the techniques that he will be showcasing.  I will be posting them here on the blog so Jen can see that I am actually doing them. ;-)

I don't have any pictures to post yet.  I keep forgetting to bring them with me to work but I have my ATCs for the November ScrapCentral's ATC exchange to post later today and a birthday card for that I completed for my SIL birthday as well.

Happy Friday! :)

Fun Crop

Yesterday, I was off to a day crop run by Tina's Scrapbooking Creations.  I had a lot of fun.  I met up with friends, had a great potluck lunch and even managed to get a layout and a card completed.  Finally getting something done, jump started my mojo again.  So now I have a number of layout ideas swimming around in my brain.  The only problem now is that I don't have time to work on any of them.  My inlaws are coming up to visit at the end of the week so I am in massive house cleaning mode again.  I think I am just going to have to sneak in some creative time somehow.

At the crop, Tina hosts two sketch challenges -- a layout and a card sketch.  I am not very literal in my interpretations but I usually try to take 3 or 4 elements out of the sketch to apply to my layout.  This time I pulled out the retangular clusters, the strip journalling and horizontal strip in the center. 

 Materials used:  Making Memories pattern paper, Bazzill cardstock, Riff Raff chipboard, Grungeboard letters, Ranger Paint dauber, Prima flowers and pearl vine, Basic Grey Bling it rubon, Maya Road clock face, My Little Yellow Bicycle trasparency, Kaiser Craft bling, Imaginesce metal flower, K&Co brad, Webster's Pages cameo, Versacolor ink, Memento ink.

Everyone votes on the submissions and a winner is chosen for each challenge.  There were lots of fabulous submissions this time.  I can't believe the talent of many of the scrappers that were attending. 

Last time I won the card challenge and this time I won the layout challenge.  Very cool!  The prize was a fatastic kit from The Paper Passion.  Lots of yummy goodness in this kit.  I can't wait to dig into it.

Rosa makes wonderful kits but I haven't used one of hers before.  I have drooled over them though. :-)  I kind of moved away from kits in the past year but they are great for when you don't want to think about putting co-ordinating lines together.  Someone else has done the work for you.

My card for the card challenge was just a quick card that I made with Dufex layered punch outs.  Quick, easy with dramatic results.

Materials used:  Dufex layered punch outs, Bazzill cardstock & dot cardstock, Prism cardstock, October Afternoon pattern paper, Memento ink, Distress ink, Fabricland ribbon, & Spellbinder dies.

The only thing that I used for the card sketch was the placement of the sentiment, the horizontal ribbon & pattern paper element.  The cards that were submitted for this challenge were unbelieveable.  I wish I had taken my camera with me.  There were lots of inspiring cards.

I am starting to see the value of going to more crops.  Without my husband and kiddos around, I am getting some stuff done even with all the chatting.  They are a bit painful to pack for but having to use limited supplies actually pushes me to be more inventive and creative.  They are a nice day out with friends.

I see more crops in my future.  I guess I should start looking into getting some half decent crop totes to replace my pizza boxes and milk crates.

Finally finished something....

Yay!!  It took two days to do three cards but at least I have done something.  I needed a challenge to kick start my mojo.  ScrapCentral's 12 Days of Christmas Crop is going on for the next 12 days.  These cards were completed for the 5th Day of Christmas challenge which was basically to use any kind of glitz or glam to make either a layout or 3 cards.

Now that I have finally gotten something done, I was able to complete some birthday cards for my sisters-in-law.  Two of them have birthdays this week.  I have an idea for a layout swimming around in my head too.  I am just waiting for it to gel a bit more.  I can see the basic layout and have an idea about embellishments but I need to figure out subject and photos before I can start to really put together a design.

Here are three of the five cards I have done so far this weekend.  The sun went down before I could photograph the other two.  That is one thing I hate about this time of year is how soon the sun goes down.  There is such a short window for photographing items in natural light.

 Materials used:  Peel-off stickers, Bazzill cardstock, Watercolour paper, Gelly powder, Ranger embossing powder, Versacolour ink, Tombow markers, unknown bling, MAMBI bling, and pop dots.

I decided to play with my Tombow markers.  Ever since I started using Copics, my Tombows have been feeling neglected.  All three of the Christmas cards were done with some kind of peel-off sticker placed on watercolour paper and coloured with Tombows.

Materials used:  Bazzill cardstock, Prism metallic cardstock, Dazzlers stickers, watercolour paper, Tombow markers, Fabricland ribbon, Perfect Pearls, Spellbinder pendant dies, Cuttlebug embossing folder, and pop dots. 

I love backing the Spellbinder pendant die cuts with a contrasting paper to make them pop more.  These dies really add an extra level to cards.

Materials used:  Bazzill bling cardstock, Bo Bunny pattern paper, gold pen, Dazzlers stickers, MAMBI bling, Tombow markers, Fabricland ribbon.

I don't think any of these three will  be the Christmas card that I mass produce and mail out.  They are too dimensional and would cost a fortune to mail.

Look what I found....

When my parents were down last, they brought down a few boxes of stuff that they were holding on for me.  I didn't get a chance to look inside the boxes until recently.  I found these fabulous old stamps in a bag in one of the boxes.  My Dad's boss was throwing them out and he grabbed them thinking I could use them.

The rubber is old and a bit dried out.  It has started to crackle and craze....absolutely perfect for distress layouts, cards and ATC's.  I am going to be channelling my inner Tim Holtz with these.  They are 2" high.  I wonder what they were using them for but they go from 1 to 12.  I know what I am going to use them for....I am thinking some fabulous distressed 12 days of Christmas cards....

Hmmmm.....

My scrapping break turned into a full fledged vacation.  I have dug stuff out, moved it around, bought new stuff to add into my stash, opened packages, put things away, stared at all my pretty stuff but no mojo is flowing yet.  I have even managed to get my hands on the new Cuttlebug folders this week and they haven't even caused a spark of an idea to germinate.  Ah well...maybe someone will give me a swift kick and get me jump started.

Off to check all the wonderful creative blogs out there....maybe I can scrap lift something.