More Retreat Layouts

Here are a couple more layouts from the retreat.  The first one has lots of hand cutting and I used one of the Marianne Designs dies.  The flower die is designed to run a thin ribbon through it.  There are two slits in each petal and the ribbon from the slits down through the central hole of the flower.

Materials used:  Basic Grey pattern paper, My Mind's Eye pattern paper, Echo Park pattern paper, Bazzill cardstock, Prima flowers, American Craft thickers, unknown glitter brads, Tattered Angels glimmer mist, Robin's Nest dew drops, Basic Grey stickers, Maya Road trinket pins, and ribbon from Fabricland.

This is how I will often find my daughter watching TV.  What I would give to be this flexible again.....

Materials used:  BoBunny double dot pattern paper, Jenni Bowlin pattern paper, Bazzill cardstock, American Crafts thickers, Prima flowers & doily, Studio G glitter glue, Kaisercraft pearls & bling, and for the life of me I can't seem to remember the brand of paper I used for the base.

I used a Martha Stewart all-around punch to make the border.  I backed it with cardstock since the lacy look got lost in the pattern of the background paper.  I also used the Cuttlebug quilling dies to make the leaves, the scrolls and the couple of the flowers.

I also made 3 cards at the retreat -- a Christmas card, an all-purpose card, and a little girl's birthday card.

Material used:  Bazzill cardstock, Kaisercraft bling, May Arts ribbon,

Here is yet another Marianne Design die.  I love poinsettias and I just couldn't pass up this die when I saw it.  I curled the petals to give the flower more dimension.

Materials used:  Bazzill cardstock, Prima flower, dictionary paper, clear glitter, and Tattered Angels glimmer and chalk mists.

The Spellbinder lotus pendant die helps give this card a water lily feel.  As you have probably noticed, I have been on a cyan kick lately.

Materials used:  Bazzill swiss dot cardstock, Copic markers, Memento ink, Kryon gold leafing pen, Prima Flower, Making Memories brad, May Arts ribbon, Prism Simply Smooth paper, & Ranger Stickles.

This last card is the one that came in second for the card sketch challenge.  We were provided with a layout sketch and had to interpret it in a card format.

That is all the projects that I have to share at the moment.  With October being a quieter month, I am am looking forward to being able to do more crafting.  I don't want to loose the momentum or the inspiration that I found at the retreat.

 Happy Thursday....only 1 more day to the weekend. :-)

Where did September Go....

Seriously, I blinked and it is the end of September.  How did that happen?

This month has been crazy busy with school starting, my birthday, my daughter's first class friend birthday party, other family birthday parties, ballet classes, my son's ji-jitsu, work, and travelling.  I only have one more weekend of commitments before I finally get to have a breather.  My parent's are arriving on Friday so this week has been spent re-organizing my tiny house to fit in two more people for the weekend.

Due to all the stuff going on, my crafting time has been seriously curtailed but the silver lining is that I attended a fabulous scrap retreat put on by Sweet Sentiments in Belleville this past weekend.  This yearly retreat is in a children's camp with a fabulous view of Lake Ontario. 

I managed to convince my friend Carmen to accompany me...it didn't take much to convince her. ;-)  She was looking for an opportunity to jump start her creativity just like I was.

We left for the retreat earlier than we planned and was able to stop at Ecstasy Crafts in Shannonville.  I love that they carry products from Europe.  The major score this time was a number of Marianne Design dies.  Wow....I wish I could afford to buy them all but I ended up limiting myself to 3 butterflies, 1 poinsettia and another flower die.

The crop ran from Friday night to Sunday afternoon with the crop room open all night for those individuals who were die hards.  The weekend went by very quickly but it was a very productive.  I ended up being able to finish 4 layouts, 3 cards and a Christmas ornament.  I even won the layout sketch contest and came in second for the card sketch contest.

This was the layout that won:

Materials used:  Bazzill cardstock, Graphic45 pattern paper, Pink Paislee pattern paper, BoBunny die cut paper, Riff Raff chipboard, Prima flowers, Wilton cupcake wrappers, Prima crochet doily, iRock bling, American Craft Thickers, pop dots, Martha Stewart all around punch, Prima packaging, dictionary paper, Tattered Angels glimmer mist and chalk mist.

  

It was the first project that I completed and after that mojo just flowed.  My second layout was about the kiddos and their cousin who looks more like their sister.

Materials used:  Making Memories die cut paper, Bazzill swiss dot cardstock, Prima flowers & doily, Wilton cupcake liners, Reminisce bling, Prima packaging, & Copic markers.

The butterfly in this layout is one of the Marianne Design dies.  I love the lacy look.  The only complaint I have with the dies is that it is not easy to remove the die cut from the die itself.

To be continued.....dinner is calling at the moment.

It is 1 am....

and I am still up.  I have been playing with Mix and Match Flower Outline Stamps.  I picked them up on a recent trip out to Heathers Stamping Haven.  I wasn't sure about them when I was looking at the stamps on the wall but when I saw some of the projects made with them....Cool! was the word that went through my mind.

I could see lots of fun cards and layouts...basically just stamp on whatever pattern paper I wanted a flower.  Cut out.  Give them a bit of dimension by pop dotting and curling them with a knitting needle.  Lastly, glam them up.

Naturally, there are all different styles and sizes of flowers, different centers and leaves.  Oh yes, another reason to be broke.  So I picked up four stamps.  I figured I could start with 3 different styles and sized flowers and one set of leaf clusters.  I would be able to play and layer to get different effects with these three.

So tonight, I dug out that enormously large bin of left over scraps of pattern paper and cardstock hiding in the corner of my dining room (I really need to learn to let things go).  I started to stamp and cut, layer and pop dot, glimmer and glam.....the verdict of this experimentation....I want to go back and get some more styles and sizes.

It is too late to take any photos tonight so I will share tomorrow.

On that note, I do have the card that I completed for the Great Impressions August Stamp of the Month contest to share:

This time I actually designed an interior panel.  I don't normally do much on the insides of cards other than stamp the sentiment but this time I did something a bit more elaborate:

Materials used:  Great Impressions stamps, VersaColour ink, Canson Watercolour Paper 90lbs, Tombow Markers, ClearSnaps glitter, KaiserCraft rhinestones, Bazzill Dotted Swiss cardstock, My Little Yellow Bicycle Zinnia Jewels & Pearls, BoBunny Peacock Lane pattern paper, Spellbinder's dies, popdots, & Zip Dry adhesive

If you are wondering if my card won....not this time but I did had fun making it.  September's challenge is with Halloween stamps.  I am not sure about this one.  I am not big on Halloween cards so I might have to think up some kind of layout instead.

I really should be thinking about hitting the hay.

Good night and Happy Friday....No...Happy Early Saturday of a long weekend no less.  Three days to play, scrap and experiment.  Oh dear, starting to ramble.....

Summer is almost gone...

It has gone by so quickly.  I can't believe the little monsters head back to school in a little over a week.  I had so many plans and projects that I wanted to get done over the summer....ummm....and what I managed to complete - nothing, nada, zip, zilch.  Oh well.

I did finally manage to finish a layout I started over 3 weeks ago while the kiddos were away.  This is the layout that went on and on and on and on.  I couldn't seem to get it to come together.  Finally, last night, it did and in a way that I am reasonably happy about.

Materials used:  Bazzill embossed cardstock, Webster's Pages patterned paper, BoBunny pattern paper, Fancy Pants pattern paper, Prism cardstock, Prima Say It with Pearls, Prima flowers, DMC embroidery floss, Making Memories pearl clusters, Dollar Store cupcake holders, AC thickers, India ink, Ranger Distress ink, Webster Pages ribbon, unknown gathered ribbon, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist and Glam, and pop dots. 

Now that this one is finally done, I can move on to something else.  I get stuck in a loop until the project that I am working on is completed.  Even though I will come up with ideas for other layouts or cards, I can't move on to new project until the previous one is completed.

On to a new project....wonder if that Graphic45 has come in yet?

Extremely Quiet Saturday

I had forgotten how quiet this house is without the kiddos.  This is the first time since the kids were born that my husband and I have had the house to ourselves on a Saturday.  No children climbing into bed waking us up early looking for food, no ji-jitsu or ballet, no arguing, bickering or "But Mom..." all day long.  I am not sure that I like it.  It feels wrong somehow.

I spent most of the day working on my next entry for the Great Impressions Rubber stamp company's monthly contest.  I will share later on in the month but here is a little teaser:

I have the itch to work on a couple of layouts but I am not sure what layouts -- summer or winter, kids or myself, event or every day life.  I think I will just go through my photos until something pops out at me.

I do have a few other cards to share.  I did these last November as demos for the ScrapBox and had forgotten to take pics of them.  Both of these are using Great Impressions stamps as well:

Materials used:  Copic Markers, Prism Simply Smooth cardstock, Memento ink, Spica Markers, Ranger Stickles, VersaColour, Bazzill Dotted Swiss cardstock, Making Memories Holly Leaf Foil Mistletoe pattern paper, Spellbinder dies, Prism cardstock, pop dots, BoBunny ribbon, Great Impression stamp.

Materials used:  Prism Simply Smooth cardstock, Copic markers, Memento ink, Spiga makers, Angel Wing Shimmerz paint, Zig 2-way glue, Flower Soft, VersaColour ink, Bazzill Dotted Swiss cardstock, Making Memories Holly Leaf Foil Mistletoe pattern paper, Spellbinder dies, pop dots, Great Impressions stamp.

I think that I am going to head out to Timmie's, grab myself a nice large double-double, in preparation of a creative night.  One good thing about the kids being gone, I can leave my scrap supplies all over the dining room table.  My husband can just eat his breakfast in the living room tomorrow.

Happy Saturday :-)