February ATCs

I finally got these done.  They were due yesterday.  Opps...at least they will only be a little late.

ScrapCentral has a monthly ATC exchange with it members and this month's theme was of course -- Love.  I wanted to find away to use these dictionary flowers so my interpretation is Poetry and Flowers.

Materials used:  Stamp'n Up cardstock, Prism metallic cardstock, dictionary paper, Tatter Angels glimmer mist, Cuttlebug embossing folders, Basic Grey stamps, Tim Holtz stamps, paper doilies and Spectra clear glitter.

I haven't been feeling very creative the last little bit so it was a bit of a struggle to get these complete.

The Olympics have more or less taken over our house.  We have been cheering on our Canadian team.  We couldn't be more proud of our athletes.  They are doing an amazing job.  Even though, there have been a few glitches with the games and the weather is not co-operating, the games have been exciting and fantastic. 

Seriously, who could have predicted that it would be one of the warmest winters in Canada.  I still can't believe how little snow we have had this year.  We haven't had to shovel the driveway since December....you wouldn't believe how rare that is.  My husband who grew up in Southern Ontario is loving it but me who grew up on the north shore of Lake Superior would love some decent snow.

So I don't expect my mojo to come back, until the distraction of the Olympics are over.

GO CANADA GO!!

Scrappy brunch...

I met a scrappy friend for brunch today.  It was lovely to get caught up, to visit and to talk to someone about all the new scrappy products, making layouts and just being creative.  My husband just doesn't get it and tends to roll his eyes when I start talking about anything scrapbook related.  I thought his eyes glazed over fast when I was talking about inherent vices and preventive conservation techniques...that was nothing to how fast he tunes out when I talk about scarpbooking.

Speaking of scrapbooking, I managed to finish a layout last night.  ScrapCentral began its February online crop on Friday with a fresh bunch of challenges.  This months theme is to use your stash...and boy to I have a stash that needs to be used.

One of the challenges was to use a kit that we haven't used yet.   Most of us have belonged to various kit clubs over the years and many of us haven't used all of our kits.  I will not mention how many kits I have that have gone unused.  As I was digging through pizza boxes, I found a kit from one of my ScrapCentral friends.  She had sent it to me as part of a kit exchange last year.  Perfect.

I have absolutely no idea who manufactures any of the papers or embellishments she sent but this is the final product.

The only things I added was a piece of white Bazzill cardstock, some Heidi Swap Bling and a Making Memories stick pin.

I used the Silhouette to cut out the title, the scalloped flower lace, and the leaves.  All designs were downloaded from the Silhouette store.  The butterflies were punched out with a Martha Stewart punch and the flower centers on light pink flowers were punched out with an EK Success punch.

Have a happy creative Sunday.

Home Day

Today turned out to be an unexpected home day.  My son is currently snuggled up on the couch watching Scooby-Doo and running a fever.  I think he is just coming down with a cold or at least I hope so.  It is often hard to tell with him since he usually gets a fever for a day or two whenever he gets sick no matter what he has.

While he is watching TV, I figured I would get some much need house cleaning done as well as finishing off some projects that I have been working.  I started this card last week.  It is for my Mother-in-law's birthday next week so it was the first project that I finished off today. 

Materials used:  Bazzill cardstock, Little Yellow Bicycle pattern paper, Prism Simply Smooth cardstock, Memento Tuxedo Black Ink, Spellbinder Nesties & Impressabilities, Copic makers, Gold paint dauber, Darice finishing accents, Ribbon from Fabricland and pop dots.

I love these new Hero Art Curly Flowers.  They are perfect for colouring in with Copics.  There are 3 stamps in the set and I used two of them in this design. 

I must say that I am so happy that Hero Arts is finally doing cling stamps.  I don't like having to store wood-block mounted stamps in my small space.  Acrylics are nice (and I have a large collection of them) but I find that they don't stamp as nice as the red rubber.  I hate wasting the wood block so I would only buy the stamp mounted if I had no other choice and only if I really, really wanted it.

Now that this card is finished, I am itching to get to another layout...but first, I have to wash the kitchen floor.  I would love it if someone invented a self cleaning floor.

Yay...Layout is finally done...

I started this layout Friday night and I have been fiddling with it ever since.  I tend to tweek a layout a lot.  I will cut out my paper to the size I want and then I will layer everything without gluing it down.  Then I start to play...shifting everything to the top.  No...don't like that.

Shift everything to the bottom corner....no...still not quite right.  Dig through some more paper...see if anything else can be added....Hmmm...that looks right.  Cut, distress, ink everything.  Start the process of layering all over again.  Add in the embellishments that I have either made or selected when I started the layout.

Still not quite right...dig through some more embellishments...what can I add?  That looks good and maybe this...Shift...layer and shift some more.  Not quite right...start at the beginning again.

This is more or less my process.  Over and over again until I just give in and glue it down.  Well I finally glued everything down on this one....

 

Materials used: Scenic Route pattern paper, Basic Grey pattern paper, Core-dination Core Impressions cardstock (Jenni Bowlin), dictionary paper, Making Memories vintage findings embossed ephemera, Prima bling & vine, Prima adhesive felt, misc. tag, Glimmer mist, Distress Ink, May Arts Ribbon, Webster's Pages cameo, gold embroidery thread, Archival Ink, Creativity Street glitter, gold paint dauber and pop dots.

The balance is not quite right but it is close so I am going to stop and just let it be...even though I still really want to tweek it a bit more.

Happy Sunday!

Another week down...

It has been a long week.  My boss has been on vacation and of course, it ended up being a very busy week covering both his job and my own.  Usually when he is away, there is only a couple of critical things that need to be dealt with but not this time, it seemed like everyone need to have something completed ASAP.  I certainly don't begrudge him his time away, lying on a lovely beach somewhere hot and sunny, but I will certainly be happy to seen him on Monday.


The one thing about busy stressful weeks at work is that I don't feel like being creative when I get home.  I was so looking forward to Friday, finally getting my hands dirty and creating another layout.

Alas...it was not meant to be last night either.  I had picked up some of the new Core-dination embossed cardstock -- the Jenni Bowlin line -- at the ScrapBox earlier in the evening.  Wow...I love this stuff.

I was inspired.  I could see a really cool layout starting in my mind.  But first I needed to make some more dictionary paper flowers to match.

 

As I was making these beauties, I hear a noise upstairs.  It is 2 am, I am putting the finishing touches on the flowers...a bit of gold dauber paint on the edges.  There is that noise again....Oh no....It is my son.  Being sick.  All over his bed...He didn't miss a single blanket.  Eekk...OH....YUCK!

Oh well....After cleaning him up, tucking him into our bed, stripping off the bedding off his bed, getting the first load of blankets in the washing machine and washing down his mattress, I was zonked.  Sleep was calling and it was now after 3 am.  Thankfully, he is much better this morning and hasn't had another episode; but, what a way to end an already icky week.

So today, I am keeping my fingers crossed that he continues to feel well and I am going to start looking for a photo got with the paper and the flowers.  So hopefully, sometime this weekend I might actually get something creative finished.  One can always hope.

Happy Saturday!