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.