December Daily Days 13 & 14

A couple more DD pages for you to peruse! We are all affected by teacher job action in BC right now (since the summer!) and our school's teachers decided not to do a Christmas concert, sadly. But, Ailis's teacher did invite all the families to the classroom so we could hear the students sing carols and read a French story. When Mme. asked for a volunteer to translate the story for the parents, Ailis shot her hand up right away! She had to come up to the front, and she spoke loud and clear while translating their story - I was very proud! She has beauty and brains!!! Meanwhile, Brenna was everywhere, I had a heck of a time keeping her from falling out of desks, etc. so after the presentation, we left pretty quickly! The snowman sticker on this page is from the goodie bag Mme. Buhler gave to Ailis: it was her idea to include it in my DD!

Another Ailis page here. She has judo 2 nights a week, and is really loving it! She's talked about going for her black belt before, so I hope her enthusiasm lasts that long. I didn't know a thing about judo before going to a couple of classes with her in the summer, but it's a very cool sport! I think it does wonders for a child's self-esteem and leadership, not to mention their strength and coordination.

Well, some of you wished me a happy birthday for the 27th (thanks so much, everyone!), and I just wanted to let you know that I had a fabulous 2 days, including spending a $50 gift certificate from my mom and dad at my LSS, Creative Accents, and getting my hair cut short! I will post pics soon!

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December Daily Days 7 & 8

After stalling on Day 6, Days 7 and 8 came together in a snap! Day 7 talks about how my mom has been coming every week to help me out (I love my mom!) and this week she gave Brenna a much needed trim - her bangs were getting in her eyes! I almost added a little banner of twine and snowflakes up top, but I'm almost out of little snowflakes and wanted to save them for later.

I cheated a bit on Day 8 - this was a photo I took on December 1st, shhhhh! It's true, though, we've been getting these beautiful skies every morning. I probably live further north than anyone reading this blog, so it must sound like I'm up super early every day, but our sunrise is at 7:30 a.m. Then the sun's going down over the hill by the time the kids get off the bus at 3:30 p.m. It'll be nice when the days start getting longer again!

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December Daily Day 6

Well, just a bit behind in my December Daily, as in life! Do you ever feel like you're stuck in the mud, with the wheels spinning and going nowhere? That's me the past few months, sigh! Haven't even started Christmas shopping, but let's not go there! Look at this beautiful page I made for December 6th!!! It's actually 3 pages, because it was Jason's 39th birthday. Wow, I can't believed I'm married to someone middle aged! (I just threw that in there in case he reads this, eh, ol' man? I like to get the digs in wherever I can!) Here's a bit of detail on the first page:

I have to say the page looks better in real life, you really can't see the details of the blue patterned paper and pretty pink ribbon on the right hand side, so just use your imagination! That photo of Brenna is just awesome - I pointed the camera at her, didn't say anything, and she gave me this big cheesey grin, model in training! (How do you spell "cheesey"? It's coming up misspelled! Wow, "misspelled" looks weird, too, how come that doesn't get a red squiggly?) The grungeboard "6" is painted white and then sprayed with silver glimmer mist.

Here's page 2:

I've got a little December calendar in the upper right that you can't really see. I found this chipboard "family" word (Maya Road) in my stash, along with a bunch of others that will fit well in this album - I just painted it white, then sprayed with silver. When that didn't show up well on the background paper, I sprayed it pink - hey, you can never have enough glimmer mist! I really like the border (embossed and sanded with a Cuttlebug folder) and the little presents.

And page 3:

Another embossed and sanded border, and a couple more little pressies (as the Aussies say!), and a painted and sprayed grungeboard "6" tied on with the twine. That photo in the bottom right is Jason's mom goofing around with Ailis, she was giving her and Brenna airplane rides! I didn't know Jason was making a face in the pic I took of us, but I had to include it because it's the only one with me in it (typical)!

Yesterday I managed to get some Christmas cards done, but I still want to do more, so that's what I'll be plugging away at today. Also, Ailis's class is inviting their families to school for a singing thing - no Christmas concerts due to teacher job action, bah humbug! At least I'll have some pics for Day 13!

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Layout #71 - Creative Accents December Challenge

Creative Accents Challenges has a new December challenge up, and it's one that everyone can play along with:

That's right, anything to do with Christmas, link it up and you could win a prize! And the prize is going to get bigger and better the more entries we get, so that's something to get excited about!!! Here is what I came up with for your inspiration:

I really love how this page turned out, but again, it's one I agonized over. I've had the photos forever, and they're in B&W, so that's easy. I found a great sketch over at 4x6 Photo Sketch Blog, so that was easy, too. The hard part was deciding which papers to use, and then journaling. Can you believe I've drawn a complete blank when it comes to the Christmas of 2009? All I remember is what I derived from the photos, it's terrible!!! I completely blame it on the pregnancy hormones!

Anyway, here's a close up of some of the stitching and snowflakes I used to embellish the page (why I chose snowflakes for indoor photos, I'll never know, but I love 'em just the same!):

And a close up of the journaling:

This is why I'm so glad to be doing the December Daily process. It's a little bit uncomfortable, but it's all worth it in the end to have those little tidbits documented.

Supplies: Bazzill and Coredinations cardstock, BoBunny patterned papers, Prima journaling card and jewels, Sizzix embossing folder, Creative Memories pen, Graphicat Designs snowflake stamp and snowflake embellishments, Ranger and Close to My Heart ink, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, American Crafts Thickers, Hampton Arts letter stamps

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Scrapbooker's Paradise Guest Designer!!!

You guys aren't going to believe this, but I won another challenge!!! It's crazy, I've never been so lucky, maybe I should buy a lottery ticket! You watch, now that I've said it out loud, that will be the end of my lucky streak.

So last week I won the challenge at Scrapbooker's Paradise. That means they've asked me to be a guest designer for this week's challenge:
The prompt for Challenge #45 is: use a tree as the main image on your project. Well, I am in desperate need of Christmas cards, so I came up with this:

Supplies: unknown cardstock and vellum (I think the vellum might be Webster's Pages?), Little Yellow Bicycle patterned paper (die cut with Spellbinders dies), Stampin' Up star stamp and yellow ink, Close to My heart sentiment and Olive ink, Prima jewel

And when my prize package from Scrapbooker's Paradise came in the mail (a beautiful Christmas kit from Simple Stories), I used some stickers from the kit to make this one:

Supplies: unknown cardstock, Hero Arts background stamp, Ranger Distress Inks (Walnut Stain and Tea Dye), Simple Stories patterned paper and cardstock stickers, Close to My Heart pearls

I should also mention that I used this sketch from Sketch Support for inspiration:

I hope you'll play along with us at Scrapbooker's Paradise this week! Who knows, my luck could rub off on you! Have a great weekend, I am off to Merritt for a hockey tourney. Yay, I love road trips!!!

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Card #24 - Creative Accents Stamp of the Month

Here's the other card I made for Creative Accents for their Stamp of the Month club. I was in such a rush to send it to Tara that I forgot to photograph it, so I had to swipe this pic from her blog! I really like the vintagey feel to this card, and after much deliberation and playing around, I've decided that my Christmas cards this year will be a play on this theme. It just makes sense, seeing it doesn't require much embellishment or patterned paper, so it should be very economical to make in bulk and to mail as well.

So here's what I did: I embossed a cream cardstock base with a lovely wintery Sizzix embossing folder, then inked the paper with two colours of Distress Ink: Walnut Stain and Tea Dye. (I stamped the sentiment with Versamark and heat embossed with clear embossing powder before inking the centre section.) I stamped the snowman in Walnut Stain Distress Ink, coloured him with two Copic markers (E33 and E35), then rubbed over him with Tea Dye Distress Ink. I trimmed him out and glued him to two wonky rectangles (cut with Spellbinders dies and distressed with a distressing tool) and there you have it. What do you think? I usually have my cards done by now, so I'm hoping I can get a bunch done today. Wish me luck! Between the puppy and Brenna, it's a challenge!

Supplies: Close to My Heart cardstock and embossing powder, Versamark and Ranger inks, Graphicat Designs stamp set, BoBunny patterned paper, Copic markers, Sizzix embossing folder, Spellbinders dies

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December Daily Day 5

I could have included numerous stories for Day 5, but I decided to keep it very simple and just use these photos I took of our puppy, Hunter. He was whining and looking out the window as the kids left for the bus, and then just slumped down when they were out of sight. Poor guy, he just had me and Brenna to play with that day!

I used Basic Grey papers for this page, and I really like how the die cut piece looks layered with the Grungeboard number, ornaments, and snowflake. Enjoy!

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December Daily Day 3

Hopefully I don't need to knock on wood for saying this, but I'm so fortunate to have my health. My kids and Jason are all really healthy, too. Ailis has a best friend from school, Sayler, and her family is new to the area, too. Her mom, Rebecca, and I met at Strong Start in September, and we've been trying to set up a play date since then, but for some reason or other, it hasn't worked out. When I heard that Rebecca had to undergo unexpected surgery, I thought now might be the time to get the girls together and give Rebecca a break (she has three younger kids, too, yikes!) I took the girls sledding at the park in town, then to Tim Horton's for a doughnut and drink, then home to our place to play for a bit. The best part for me was playing with my camera and getting these awesome action shots! I just love the look on Ailis's face - she's the one in the purple toque!

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December Daily Day 2

So the bad news is, I lost my purple camera card! I have no idea where it could be, it's not in the usual places!!! The good news is, I already had my photos uploaded to the computer, so I guess it could be a whole lot worse. The other good news is, my dad brought me some printer ink, and being able to print photos at home in the sizes I want makes me breathe a whole lot easier. Thus, I was able to quickly finish Days 1, 2 and 3 today, and I think I'll be able to keep up with it through the month, phew! Here's my page for Day 2:

Once again, I've decided to dedicate myself to eating clean in order to fit into my pre-pregnancy clothes. I am at the same point now as I was a year ago, and I'm not liking it. Plus, I've decided it's a whole lot cheaper to just work my way into those 8 or so pairs of jeans that used to fit than to accept my body how it is and buy new stuff, and I'm all about saving a buck or two this Christmas! (Feeling the pinch in more ways than one, haha!) So on December 2nd, I spent the whole day at home, and a large portion of that time in the kitchen preparing food for the upcoming week. I find that if I have healthy options ready, it's much easier to resist temptation.

Supplies: Coredinations and Close to My Heart cardstock, Basic Grey patterned paper, Making Memories ribbon, Close to My Heart stamps and ink, Grungeboard number, DecoArt paint, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, Twinery twine, Fiskars punch, Sakura pen

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Card #23 for Creative Accents Stamp of the Month

I created this card using the Stamp of the Month for Creative Accents a while back, and I really love how it turned out! The stamp set this month is by Graphicat Designs - he's the cutest little snowman, and he comes with some great sentiments! I love that he's so easy to colour with my minimal Copics, and he's also easy to trim out, which I did for the card front. Aren't these papers from BoBunny gorgeous? Love 'em! I used my new Spellbinders dies to cut the shapes, and some Distress Ink to grunge up the sentiment and card base. I even did the inside:

I love how the snowman looks all vintage-y! Actually, this look inspired my second card with this set, it's on the board at Creative Accents right now! I'll post that card another day, but for now, I have to run Ailis's play date home before dinner. Make sure you scroll down to see my Day 1 December Daily post!

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Card #23 - Graphicat November Sketch

Quick post here today because I'm not sure what time Cheri's shutting down her linky at Graphicat Sketch Challenges. I managed to get some crafty time with a friend this morning (how lovely is that?) and put this cute little card together using this sketch (flipped on its side):

and one of Cheri's new stamp sets. I love all the sentiments that came with this set, can't wait to use more of them!

Supplies: Graphicat stamp set, Memento ink, Copic markers, Creative Memories orange marker, Adirondack marker (for the arms), BoBunny patterned paper, Close to My Heart cardstock, Tim Holtz/Ranger Distress Ink, Maya Road doily, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist

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Layout #69 - From Screen 2 Scrap

Well, I'm pretty bummed out about this! I've had this challenge in mind all month, and finally I sit down to do the page at the last minute, complete it, go to link it up, and...the computer's not cooperating! Grrrrr!!! So I missed the deadline. But, I did manage to use some embellies from the prize pack I won from them last month, (they arrived from Australia yesterday, yay, happy mail!) which was a lot of fun! The challenge at From Screen 2 Scrap this month was to use this poster for inspiration:

You're also supposed to incorporate the word "home" in the title, a family photo, and journaling in white. I used this Page Maps sketch to put my page together quickly:

I looooooved the Notebook paper pack from Close to My Heart, so much that I bought both the Level 1 and Level 2 packs and the stickers, but I haven't used much of it. Feels like I've rediscovered it. The die cut butterflies, doily, button, and flower are from the Storytime embellishment kit from Lovelybug Bits 'n' Bobs, soooooo cute, loved getting that in the mail! Ah well, too bad I missed the deadline, but I'm glad I have this page to show for it. This is the family photo I sent out with Christmas cards three years ago, and it's remained unscrapped all these years. Looking at it now, I realize we need one for this year's mail out! Do you send Christmas cards and photos each year? And if so, are you ready to send them, or far behind like me?

Supplies: Close to My Heart patterned paper and stickers, Spellbinders die, Creative Memories pen, Sakura white pen, accents from Lovelybug Bits 'n' Bobs

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Layout #67 - October Project 12

Didn't I just finish my September P12 layout? Seems like it! Well, this month I'm managing to get it done right at the last minute, but on time, so that's better, right? Here's the sketch we were given this month:

I changed it a bit more than I normally would, by flipping the right and left pages, then swapping out the 5x7 photo for 2 4x6's. I also had larger sizes for my other photos because I am cheap and the photo place charges more for smaller prints than the standard 4x6. Can anyone explain why this is fair? A 4x6 collage is printed on a piece of 4x6 paper with the same amount of ink as a standard print (at least I'm assuming it's the same amount of ink, there's only so much ink you can put on a piece of paper, right?), so why should it be 8 times the cost? Anyway, that's my little rant, I'm done now, haha! I'm not loving this layout, but hey, at least it's finished. I do like the felt accents, and I managed to put a dent in my brad stash by studding them up like that. I also like the stitching and the photos, and I like the fact that I was able to use up almost all of my Boom-Di-Ada paper pack to make room for more pretty patterned paper, my lifelong addiction! Have a good week, everyone!

Supplies: Close to My Heart patterned paper, cardstock, stamp sets (Giggle Caps and Cottage Floral), ink, and felt, Creative Memories pen, 7 Gypsies brads, Versamark ink, Judikins embossing powder

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The Moment You've All Been Waiting For!

Yes, it's here, the first installment of my December Daily album! I've had a heck of a time putting this sucker together because Brenna's getting so tall! What does that have to do with anything, you ask? Well, her grabby little hands are all over my stuff, so every night I have to put everything away again, and it's seriously cutting into my mojo! Why can't she just play with her toys and leave mine alone?

Last year was my first ever December Daily, and I decided to make it 7"x5", and mostly red & green. Partway through the process of making it, I won some sweet blog candy from my good friend Roz, and it was HUGE!!! And all full of Christmas papers, ribbons, embellies, and embossing folders. It was too late to use a lot of them at the time, but I vowed to use them in 2011. So, I stuck with the same size (hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!) but changed the colour scheme to something more modern. Hope you like:

Lots of cool Basic Grey and glitter papers, Grungeboard and chipboard numbers, stamped embellies, misting galore (check out that doily on day 12 misted pink!), ribbon and twine, and some cute little snowflakes I bought from Graphicat Designs for $1 a pack. I won't go into full details right now (after all, it is date night, heehee!) but you'll be seeing more as I fill it in starting in December. And hopefully I'll finish the other foundation pages BEFORE December 1st, but it's looking doubtful - I'll try my best! For more info on this project (it's not too late to join in, I started late last year and hung in until the end!) visit Ali Edwards' blog here.

I'm going to enter these pages over at Scrapbooker's Anonymous for their A to Z challenge for November: "D" is for "December Daily". I'm also going to enter these at Scrap Your CRAP (gotta love that name!) - they want to see misting on your creations, and I've used three different hues of Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist throughout this project.

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Book Review Time!

Well, I have been getting some work done in my crafty dungeon, but it's been on my December Daily and not enough to post yet, so I thought I would fill you in on some good books I've read (and a stinker to avoid). I always love to give and get books for Christmas, so if you've got any suggestions for me, please fill me in!

First up is "The Book Thief" by Markus Zuzak.

This was an incredible book, in my opinion. I borrowed it from the library in Burns Lake, read about half of it, and then we moved. I couldn't get it out of my head, so I bought my own copy when I had a chance. It's supposed to be for young adults, but don't let that stop you from picking it up - it's very dark, told from Death's point of view, for one thing. It is filled with wonderful characters, good and bad, and even though I knew what would happen at the end (no, I didn't read ahead, but there's some foreshadowing going on there!) I still bawled my eyes out!

I just finished this one:

This was a book club pick for my Burns Lake book club, and it's one of those books that probably everyone would like. The narrator is a dog (hmmm, sensing a pattern here with the odd narrators) whose owner is a young race car driver. The story takes us through the ups and downs of the master's life through the eyes of Enzo, his dog. I definitely would not have chosen to read this for myself, but I'm glad I did because it was a great story. And, while I was searching for a cover photo to post here, photos of Patrick Dempsey in racing gear kept popping up - yes, a movie will be coming out soon! I just hope they don't mess up the story too much.

I promised you a stinker, and here it is:

This book was excruciating! So hard to read, and boring, and sloooooooow!!! I don't know how it won any award, but somebody must have been paid off! It's too bad, because the cover is kind of catchy - Jason almost bought this one for me for our anniversary, and I'm so glad he didn't. Instead, he got this:

which I'm reading now. I know, 6 months after he bought it (he keeps asking, "Are you EVER going to read the book I got you?") but it's a bit more involved, so I don't mind taking my time with it. It's pretty good, though, so far. I'm also reading this one:

Okay, how can you resist a cover like that? Especially if you've always wanted a horse, like me? The reviews are great, so I have high hopes!

Well, that's it for now. I better get on that December Daily, I'm starting to stress out over it, and nobody likes a stressed out Roxy, haha!

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Card #22 - SSS133

I think I'm done with the cards for a while! I am totally not impressed with how this one turned out, but I had just won four digis from Tickled Pink in their blog hop a couple weeks ago, and I really wanted to colour some of my new images. This is one of the new Party Pinkettes, and I love her, but I made some booboos, like that atrocious shadow, and cutting off the top of her fork with my Spellbinders die. I decided to cover that last mistake by outlining the image in twine, but my Glossy Accents tip is ruined, and the glue just oozes out, made a pretty big mess. Ah, well, live and learn, right? I'm entering this over at The Sweet Stop, who had this cute sketch this week:

Thanks for looking!

Supplies: Bazzill and Neenah cardstock, Tickled Pink image, Memento ink, Close to My Heart stamp set (Say it in Style), Twinery twine, Creative Memories and Echo Park patterned paper, Copic markers

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Card #21 - Saturated Canary, CPS, and Paper Sundaes

Holy cow, have you SEEN these images from Krista Smith at Saturated Canary?! Aren't they the cutest??? I'd been drooling over them for a while, so when I opened my Dashboard one night and noticed a post for a sale on this image for a limited time (it's actually a Christmas image, comes with a present/nutcracker that I trimmed out) I snapped it up right away! And good thing I did, too, lots of people missed out! Anyway, I tried colouring with new paper for this one, I think it was the Copic X-press stuff. It's super smooth, but I think there's a learning curve to it because I definitely overdid it in a couple of places. Plus I went out of the lines a whole bunch, so I had to trim her out (seems I do that with all my images anyway!) and I had a heck of a time with her ringlets! Overall, though, I'm pleased with the results. The challenge this week at Saturated Canary is a recipe: use 1 image, 2 papers, and 3 embellishments (I used twine, flowers, and pearls). Don't you love this sketch from CPS?:

I flipped it to fit the image, of course. I'm also entering this card at Paper Sundaes, who are asking for "rectangles" this week.

Supplies: CTMH and Copic X-press cardstock, Cosmo Cricket and unknown patterned paper, Twinery twine, Prima flowers, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, Copic markers, and CTMH pearls

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Card #20 - Sweet Sketch Wednesday and Kraftin' Kimmie

My last post showed my fastest card, this post shows my slowest, but you know what? I think this might be my best card EVER!!! Hopefully I don't jinx myself by saying that! It took me about a week to make, so it should be good! I started off by colouring my Kraftin' Kimmie fairy Isabelle with my new Copics (a blog hop prize from Scrap-tures!), then printing out the funny sentiment (from Graphicat Designs) and working with this sketch from Sweet Sketch Wednesday:

I also had the Kraftin' Kimmie challenge in mind, which was monochromatic, but alas, crafty time was at a minimum and I missed the deadline. Anyway, I continued on, using this week's Kraftin' Kimmie challenge: use a pin on your project. I incorporated a Maya Road pin into my design for the inside of the card, see?

This is the first time I've really decorated the inside of a card - this elaborately, anyway. I was inspired to try this by a blog I discovered in the World Card Making Day blog hop: Tara's blog called Inking on the Edge. She has great cards, and always decorated on the inside, check it out! I had a hard time finding patterned papers to match my Copic colours (BG49 and BG53) so I made my own with white cardstock and Broken China Distress Ink, just sponged it on over some background stamping and another Isabelle image. This is going to my friend Jill, whose birthday is on the 9th. Now I just have to remember to get it in the mail on Monday! And good thing I put that pin on the inside, wouldn't want any postal workers to get stabbed, heehee!

Supplies: Bazzill, Creative Memories, Copic X-press and Close to My Heart cardstock, Kraftin' Kimmie, Tim Holtz, and Close to My Heart stamps, Memento and Tim Holtz ink, Spellbinders dies, Prima flowers, My Mind's Eye brad, Maya Road pin, Twinery twine, Graphicat Designs sentiment, Ranger Glossy Accents, unknown button and trim

Copics: Skin - E00, E11 and R20, Hair - Y23, E33, and E35, Clothing & Wings - BG49 & BG53

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Layout #60 for Once Upon a Sketch

I hope you guys appreciate the agony I went through to bring you this layout! First I had this brainwave of an idea to use my new Spellbinders dies to make four mini photo frames. Sounds good in theory, but it involved cutting 16 pieces, then laying them out. Of course, they didn't want to lay flat, so I glued them down lightly (or so I thought) with school glue. After gluing down 12 or so, I realized they weren't going to come off without tearing the paper, so I ripped 'em all off and started over on the backside with no glue and just the hope that all these little bits would stay put long enough for me to Glimmer Mist the heck out of 'em! It worked well enough, I really like the result, but then Brenna decided to rip my background piece of beautiful Bo Bunny! Grrr!!! I didn't give her away, but I felt like it for a second there! Then there's the subject matter. Yes, that is my bare nekkid butt, posted here for all of Blogland to see. You see, when I was going through all my photos a while ago, I noticed not 1, not even 2 or 3, but 4 photos that Jason had snapped of me relieving myself in remote areas on our various travels. Why he thinks this is so hilarious is really beyond me! I mean, he's the one who drags me to these places without toilets in the first place, but whatever! It's pretty embarrassing and that is the prompt for Once Upon a Sketch, use this sketch:

and talk about an embarrassing moment (or 4!) Here's a close up of some accents and me in the snow:

When I showed Jason this layout, he said, "Wow, I didn't realize I'd taken so many pictures of you going to the bathroom!" (Yeah, wow!) And then he said it was a good page, one of his favorites. And it makes for a good lesson for the kids, so maybe the embarrassment is worth it?

Supplies: Bo Bunny, Cosmo Cricket, and Echo Park patterned paper, Close to My Heart and Coredinations cardstock, Spellbinders dies, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, Creative Memories pen, and Close to My Heart ink

Anyhoo, it is late, but I promised I would post Ailis's new creation on my blog:

She used my Kraftin' Kimmie Andrea Acorn stamp and my Copics to make this fall scene. Oh, and the word bubble says, "Hi!" - it's just sideways so it's a bit hard to tell!

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