Layout #67 - ABC challenge, PPC and a sketch

I was going to make a short post on Monday to express my extreme happiness! I was reading through some of the blogs I follow, and I found out I was a winner at not one, but two of my favourite blogs! I couldn't believe my luck, and on such a dreary rainy day, too! Purple Pumpkin is sending me something, and I won an ABC package from my favourite LSS, Creative Accents in Williams Lake, BC. They had a blog hop, and they also have an ABC challenge going on right now until the 15th of October, so make sure you check it out!

I really like how this layout turned out! I used a sketch from the Scrappiest, the colours from Picture Perfect Creations, and I completed the ABC Challenge for Creative Accents (A=alphabet, B=bling, and C=chipboard). Normally I wouldn't have sparkles on a boy layout, but I added some prisma glitter to the snowy flourishes, and I LOVE it! And isn't this the cutest little snowman you've ever seen? He is from a CTMH stamp set called All Decked Out, and you can assemble your own snowman with all sorts of hats, scarves and accessories. It's a great one for kids to play around with, too! I can't believe these photos were taken before Hallowe'en last year. Now THAT'S scary!!!

Supplies (all CTMH): patterned paper from You Rock, Splendour, and Emporium Level 2 paper packs, All Decked Out and Classmate Alphabet My Acrylix stamp sets, Exclusive Inks stamp pads in Black and Sweet Leaf, Liquid Glass and Prisma Glitter

Other: Cosmo Cricket blackboard photo corner, Basic Grey rub-on, Staz-On ink in Black, unknown cardstock, journaling ticket, and chipboard journaling spot

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Layout #66

I made this layout for the Design Dollies Trifecta last week, but I missed the posting deadline! I was really grumpy last night, too, because it just seemed like I was busy all day doing stuff for everyone else - laundry, baking, cooking, comforting, etc. etc. - and all I really wanted to do was finish this bleepin' page. That's the life of a mother, ain't it! Everybody else's wants and needs come first. Ah well, eventually I got to scrap this old photo again, and play around with stamps and ink and glimmer mist, so all is good in the end. The top right piece of paper was made with stamps coloured in with water colour pencils and stamping ink/blending pen combo, and the bottom left piece I made by brayering a piece of white c/s with ink and stamping over top. I realized as I was journaling that this photo is almost EXACTLY seven years old. The same photo makes an appearance in another album, but it is one of my faves, so I did it again on its own.

Supplies (all CTMH): cardstock (Colonial White and White Daisy), Exclusive Inks stamp pads in Black and Garnet, Exclusive Inks marker in Black, Intrinsic Backgrounds and Felicity My Acrylix stamp sets, watercolor pencils, blending pen

Other: Creative Imaginations, Scrap Within Reach, and Little Yellow Bicycle patterned paper, Black Staz-On ink, Hero Arts stamps, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, unknown ribbon

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New Site - Get Picky!

Just wanted to spread the word about a new challenge site called Get Picky! It is going to have sketches and inspiration challenges each month, and it sounds like a lot of fun. Can't wait to see the first challenge! They are also having a giveaway for new followers, so go check it out.

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Layout #65

Here's a page I finished a while back using Creative Scrappers Sketch #120. This is Nolan at his Christmas concert last year, which I missed due to work, but Jason managed to snap these photos for me. Not great quality, but better than the ones from the year before! I used some Basic Grey paper I bought ages ago, some old tags, and some bits from blog candy. I stitched around my star to make it stand out a bit, grunged up the mustard yellow circles with mist, and made a silver frame out of cord and brads. I really loved working with this sketch, it made my page come together so quickly!

Supplies: Basic Grey patterned paper, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, CTMH brads, unknown tags, ribbon, cord and Christmas ornaments, Top Line Creations stickers, and Sakura white pen

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Lauout #64 - Smitten!

This was a fun layout for me to do! I challenged myself to make it as quickly as possible, and I finished it in an evening. Kind of hard to say exactly how long it took because I kept getting interrupted! I used a sketch from Creative Scrappers (#119) and a prompt out of my Scrapbook Play book: #15 - scrapbook about an obsession. Just a note here, this is an old obsession! My new obsession is scrapbooking, but before I ever discovered this wonderful hobby, I used to loooooove going to concerts and drooling over rock stars! The new generation can have their vampires and werewolves, but I'll take a rock star any day (but not the old ones, hee hee!) Here you can just barely see Edwin and David Usher from Moist. I pulled colours from their shirts, and then scoured my stash for old and new stickers to coordinate with the "smitten" theme. Some machine stitching and journaling strips, and there you have it, another embarassing layout for my kids to laugh over one day when I'm old and grey!

Supplies (all CTMH): Tulip and White Daisy cardstock, patterned paper from You Rock Level 2 paper pack, Exclusive Inks marker in Tulip

Other: Stickers from Jolee's Boutique, Creative Memories, Top Line Creations, and Little Yellow Bicycle

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Layout #63 - Trifecta!

Just wanted to blog this really quickly before I miss the deadline, but I finally completed another trifecta at Design Dollies, woohoo! So, trifecta means colours, this week Red, Orange, Green and Blue, then elements, which is a birthday theme this week, and finally a sketch, which I followed very closely this time, only I swapped out the three photos for this one really cute one of my boy. It was his golden birthday last month - he turned 8 on August 8th, and I'm just so pleased with him right now because we've barely had any fights for two weeks since school started. Maybe I need to consider summer school for him...

Supplies (all CTMH): White Daisy cardstock, patterned paper from Starstruck Level 2 paper pack, Exclusive Inks stamp pad in Moonstruck, Chocolate Alphabet small My Acrylix stamp set

Other: Unknown red cardstock, Creative Memories orange and green cardstock and green pen, Tim Holtz Grungeboard "8" and "!", K&Co button brads, unknown chipboard star, ribbon, and buttons

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Quilted Birthday Card

This is my first foray into the world of quilting, and I must say, I'm glad I wasn't using fabric! Yikes, what a mess that would be! I needed to make a birthday card for my brother-in-law, so I looked through mags until I found this quilting idea in the summer issue of Scrapbook and Cards Today. You have to sew 1"x6" strips of patterned paper together, then turn the block 90 degrees and cut it into 1" strips, which you then sew together randomly. I wanted to use the Design Dollies colours this week, so I rummaged through my scraps to find strips of Red, Green, Blue, and Orange. I also had this chipboard piece that came in the mail from Mel in Australia, and the peachy orange and pale blue coordinated perfectly with the patterned papers. And then the problems began: what to put on the chipboard piece and where, I won't bore you with the details. But finally I settled for a cupcake in the middle. Huh. So, although I don't completely love this card, I did enjoy trying a new technique, so it wasn't a total loss, and really, Mike's never going to know what an almost-disaster this was! He should be happy to be getting a card at all, because I think he missed out last year, woops!

Supplies: Prism cardstock, Crate Paper, unknown, and CTMH patterned paper, CTMH Moonstruck ink, Good Times stamp set, and Clear Detail embossing powder, Versamark Ink, unknown chipboard

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Layout #62

I entered a contest at Creative Scrappers, and my name was pulled from over 100 entrants to win a kit from Scrap-tures! The kit arrived on Monday and I was just drooling as I pulled out each piece of paper from the box (for real, ask my husband!) Of course I had to play right away and this is what I came up with. I used a sketch from My Little Sketch Blook, which I flipped, but I love it so much I may use it again in the original orientation. I cut a square out of the purple patterned paper (this was the only piece that didn't come in my kit- I already had it in my stash from a little summer spree), flipped it over and stitched it into place. So it looks like two pieces of paper, but really it's only one. It took me a while to figure out which papers to use, but I'm really happy with the result. It's a nice momento to remember the fun we had with my hubby's cousin and his family this summer!

Supplies: Patterned paper, pins, felt accents, cloth flower, and epoxy buttons from Little Yellow Bicycle, Bazzill cardstock, Hot off the Press letter tiles, Sakura pen

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Cute Baby Card

I know I said I was going to stay away from the cards for a while, but my best friend had a baby boy almost a month ago, and I still haven't even sent her a card! Bad, yeah, I know! I blame her for having him a couple of weeks early, hee hee! So this is what I came up with. Kinda plain, but I think it's still cute. I love this Ms. On the Go stamp set, but it's not very realistic, at least not in my case. I mean, Brenna's almost seven months old, and there's no way I'm going to be prancing around in a short dress and heels! Don't you just love her earrings? I used liquid glass and prisma glitter. I used the colours from Picture Perfect Creations, and I also used a sketch from Our Creative Corner. It's their last sketch until the new year, boohoo!

Supplies (all CTMH): Cardstock and patterned paper from Emporium Level 2 paper pack, Ms. On the Go My Acrylix stamp set, Exclusive Inks stamp pad in Black, Exclusive Inks markers in Parchment and Cocoa, Watercolor Pencils, Liquid Glass, Prisma Glitter

Other: unknown chipboard photo corner

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Layout #61

Here's a fairly simple layout I did for this week's Sketchy Thursday challenge. I doctored up a grungeboard "5" with Perfect Pearls, fussy cut some butterflies from a some girls' clothing tags, and did a bunch of machine stitching. I almost went with a purple background, but I'm glad I used more of the brown and green. I think it makes the purple pop.

Supplies (all CTMH): cardstock and patterned paper from Bella Level 2 paper pack, Exclusive Inks stamp pad in Olive, Giggle Caps My Acrylix stamp set

Other: Tim Holtz Grungeboard, Distress Ink, and Perfect Pearls, Prima journaling card, Magenta stickers, Bazill Basics trim, Creative Memories pen, butterflies from clothing tags

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Layout #60

Don't you just loooooooove this paper? (Here is where you can picture me doing the Homer Simpson mouth-watering drool sound!) I had a hard time cutting into it, but I love the back as much as the front, so I used my new technique. I trimmed out a photo mat-sized piece, flipped it, and stitched it together with a couple of scrap cardstock strips in behind for support. The purple strip under the photo is pleated to look like ribbon, and the key is grungeboard doctored up with distress ink and perfect pearls (I'm loving that technique, too!) When I showed Jason this page, he said, "Uck, I've got food in my mouth!" Well, duh, you're the one who thought that was funny when we took the picture! It's pretty typical of him, so I figure it's fair representation. Anyway, I used a sketch from Kristine Davidson, who drew this one up for Scrapbook Sussies, and I really like how it turned out!

Supplies: CTMH felt, stamps (Chocolate Alphabet small and Key to My Heart), and ink (Olive), Webster Pages and Creative Imaginations patterned paper, Maya Road fibers, date stamp, Tim Holtz/Ranger Grungeboard, Distress Ink, and Perfect Pearls, Creative Memories pen

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Layout #59

I've wanted to do a page like this for a long time! I found a box of school memorabilia at my parents' house, and in it was an autobiography I made in Grade 6. It is sooooo cute! Really, it's like an ancient scrapbook, or something from a time capsule. Anyway, on the very last page I had to write my future plans, and I was shocked when I read it! It is right on! Well, except for the part about being in a rock band or an actress, but everything else, down to going to university and getting married and having kids. Doing this page, I figured out my printer's scanner (the photo is even printed out on cardstock) and I got to use prompt #5 from my Scrapbook Play book: copy your journaling from a childhood journal. The ruffle is from a band used to wrap a Woolrich sweater that I kept in my stash forever. I basted it, then pulled the stitching to form the ruffle. I used a sketch from Design Dollies, and also their elements challenge (this week's challenge was to use a school photo of yourself), and I also used the colours from a Scrap That challenge in an effort to win their monthly kit. All in all, I'm very pleased with this layout, and now my kids can see just how nice my handwriting was!

Supplies (all CTMH): patterned paper and cardstock from Topstitch Level 2 paper pack, Classmate Alpha My Acrylix stamp set, Exclusive Inks stamp pad in Chocolate, Exclusive Inks marker in Cocoa, Liquid Glass

Other: Prima flowers, handmade ruffle, unknown jumbo flower, brown cardstock circle, and glitter, Bic pen

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Layout #58

Well, not totally lovin' this page, but at least the story is down and preserved! Ailis is so cute, she's always singing, and it's usually songs she makes up as she goes along. She made this song up one day when she was getting impatient for me to clean the kitchen so we could bake cookies. I put the journaling with some photos of her baking with Jason's dad when we were visiting this summer. They had a great time, putting in all sorts of wacky ingredients and watching the garage sale find-of-the-year do the mixing! I used prompt #4 from my Scrapbook Play book for a little bit of inspiration: add a thought bubble to a picture.

Supplies: Cosmo Cricket patterned paper, Creative Memories pen, CTMH liquid glass, prisma glitter, and Crystal Blue stamp pad, unknown date stamp

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Argh! I give up!!!!

I love the colours for Design Dollies colour challenge for this week: black, white, green and pink. I have tons of pink and green scraps from Ailis's baby album, so I thought I could whip up a beautiful card. Boy, was I wrong! These cards turned out nothing like I had envisioned, and I am soooooo frustrated that I think I'm going to skip card making for the time being (at least until my Copics come in and I can play with the digi stamps again!) I used a pattern from CTMH's card pattern book, Wishes, for the first card, and after deciding it was kind of blah, I used Mojo Monday's sketch for the second card. Still kinda blah! So I decided to throw in a funny photo that I took a couple of days ago to brighten your day. Jason was playing with Brenna after a feed, and this was a result of her favourite game, 3-2-1-BLASTOFF! Enjoy, everyone!

Supplies (card 1): CTMH White Daisy cardstock base and Black cardstock, unknown pink and green cardstock, Jolee's Boutique sticker, Basic Grey rub-on

Supplies (card 2): CTMH White Daisy cardstock base, stamp pad and embossing powder, Chocolate Alphabet (small) My Acrylix stamp set, Doodlebug Designs patterned paper and sugar-coated cardstock, Maya Road chipboard paisley, unknown pink patterned paper, ribbon and lace, white acrylic paint, MAMBI glitter sticker, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist

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