Card #8 - Scrapbooker's Anonymous and CPS 223

My poor auntie, she just had surgery on her foot. Something to do with nerves and/or tendons, and she has to stay off her feet for a while still. I made her this card, even though she might not get it for a loooooong time, seeing Canada Post is on strike.

I still had out my pretty Basic Grey "Sugared" scraps I used for my last layout, and discovered that my measly supply of Copics matched pretty well. (Making a card from these scraps means I can enter the Scrapbooker's Anonymous challenge twice!!!) I coloured up this image of 50's Kaylee from Some Odd Girl, and used this sketch from CPS (flipped around):

I had a heck of a time trying to embellish this card! I really like the paper flowers I came up with, but I still think the card is kind of plain. I tried a grungeboard fluorish and ribbon, but nothing was really working out. Here's something I discovered which was like, a total light bulb moment for me: see how Kaylee is placed on embossed cardstock? Well, she's raised up just the slightest, and my light caused a shadow. I took my C3 copic, and traced the shadow!!! I didn't even have to think about light sources and how big the shadow should be or where it should go, it was just there! So cool, I just can't believe it! Then there's my dumb blonde moment (and I'm not even blonde!): this is 50's Kaylee, but isn't "groovy/grooving" a 60's term? I thought of that after, but maybe my aunt will be so doped up on painkillers she won't notice!

Supplies: CTMH cardstock, ink, watercolor pencil and gems, Some Odd Girl image, Basic Grey patterned papers, Hampton Arts stamps, Creative Memories pen, Ranger Glossy Accents, Copic markers

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Photo Fun Day 21 - Micro

My camera has an actual mode for taking photos of flowers close-up in bright light, so that's what I used to get these shots of our front porch flowers and the lilacs I had in the mason jar for Day 16. The trickiest part was keeping my camera steady and getting it to focus, but I did manage to come up with these, the best of the bunch! I think they might look good printed out and framed, don't you?

I think Brenna's napping (fingers crossed), so I am going to forgo the housework to finish the page I'm working on, and I promise there will be a layout on this blog before midnight!

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Photo Fun Day 19 - Summertime

Once again, I am cheating, but it's my blog and I can do that, so ha! Jason took these photos yesterday, but if I was there, I probably could've taken ones just as good! The first photo shows a little spit of land where the fawn was lying - it is just amazing how close he and Ailis were able to get. Isn't it adorable? And the photo of Ailis by the fire sums up "summertime" for our family, getting out in the great outdoors. Ailis said she will remember this Father's Day forever! (I just realized I've been posting a lot of Ailis and Brenna pictures, I'll have to even it out or somebody's going to get a complex!)

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Photo Fun Day 17 - Bokeh?

OK, I'm not embarrassed to admit I didn't know what the heck bokeh is. I thought maybe it was a game like Sudoku! Anyway, googled it, and it's a photography effect where the foreground subject is in focus and the background is blurred. After thinking about it for a while, I remembered I'd taken these action shots of my teammate Danielle at Femsport that I thought looked really cool. Although it was completely unintentional, I think I achieved "bokeh"!

(By the way, those jugs are really freakin' heavy!!!)

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Photo Fun Day 16

June 16th's prompt was Mason Jar/Jelly Jar. The lilacs have been blooming here like crazy, and oh, they smell sooooooooo good!!! So I snipped a few off the bush in our front yard, placed them in a mason jar, and snapped away. It was really fun to experiment with different angles, and I'm not really sure which I like best. What do you think?

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Photo Fun Day 15

The prompt for June 15th is "Action". Brenna has always been fairly active, even in the womb, but never more than now that she's learned to walk. I took these photos while my mom was visiting, and she was showing off all her tricks within a 2 minute time span. This is how it went down: walking, sitting (and sucking), up, down, yoga pose, "nose" - the last one is unfortunately a bit blurry, but I think she was walking while I was zoomed in to get her "nose" face. It's really cute, she says "nose" at the same time she scrumples up her nose and sniffs! And I did NOT put her shirt like that, she did it all by herself!!!

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Photo Fun Day 14

I was supposed to photograph someone I love on June 14th. I already have hundreds of photos of the kids, so I thought it might be nice to take a couple of the main man in my life. Now I know I called him a jerk in one of my more recent posts, but I know he wouldn't take it personally. That's kind of how our relationship is, lots of laughs and bugging each other. I really do love him, and to show my love, I'm posting these pics of him on Father's Day as a tribute. Haha, got ya, Papa!!!

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Photo Fun Day 13

"Reminds You of Childhood" is the prompt for June 13th. I kinda cheated on this one. I took this photo (and a few more) of this Easter Bunny on moving day. I won him in a colouring contest when I was six - first prize! He sat at my parents' house for all those years until my mom showed up with him in Burns Lake one day. I guess she got tired of housing him! I didn't want to keep him any longer, he was kind of a dust catcher, so he got left behind when we moved. But, I did want the memory of winning that prize, and seeing as it was Easter, I thought I would snap a few photos as memorabilia. Isn't he cute? His ears had wire in them so I could bend them around.

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Card #7

I made this card up for three different challenges, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out! First off, iCopic Lover wants to see how I can colour with Copics from the E family only, and believe it or not, this entire Tobie image is all done in browns. (Perfect challenge for me, as I only have a few copics, and nearly all of them are E's!) Some Odd Girl wants to see a white or kraft card with only 2 pops of colour. Well, I think this should qualify, with blue and brown being my only colours. Then I based it loosely on this weeks's Mojo Monday sketch - had to flip it, change the shapes, etc. Hope you like!

Supplies: Close to My Heart and unknown cardstock, Some Odd Girl image, Copic markers, Spellbinders Nestabilities dies, Provo Craft embossing folder, unknown ribbon and buttons

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Photo Fun Day 12 - Sun Flare

I haven't had any luck yet with the June 11 prompt, which is "Silhouette". But I guess I can always post that one later. While I was hunting for that elusive sunset photo for Day 8, I inadvertently obtained these sun flare photos - who knew? Kinda cool, eh? I like!

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A Macho Card...

...for my manly man, haha! I whipped this up yesterday using the sketch over at Creative Accents Challenge blog:

Don't ya love it? It made putting this card together very simple. I just misted the base and the bingo card with some Tattered Leather Glimmer Mist, distressed all the patterned papers, and stuck everything on! The "Dad" bingo card is a digital image I found at Articrafts through Free Digital Stamps blog. I just didn't have any stamps in my arsenal that suited Jason to a T, and time is of the essence here. Usually my cards are late because I'm so slow! Probably I shouldn't be posting it here before Father's Day, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't check my blog that much (only when I harass him to!) Hmm, maybe I best make my dad and his dad one of these cards too?

Supplies: Close to My Heart cardstock, Scrap Within Reach patterned papers, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, unknown ribbon, Articrafts image

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Photo Fun Day 10

The prompt for June 10th was "Animal". Well, normally I would just take some photos of my beautiful Karelian bear dog Casie, but she is being babysat at the in-laws' place right now. This yard is not exactly ready with a proper fence for her yet, but I'm starting to miss her. Sometimes I even forget we have a dog! So we have to work something out ASAP!!! Anyhoo, it was a little trickier to get the animal photos, but this weekend we went to Mahood Lake in Wells Grey Provincial Park, and I got my chance. Here you see a shot of a seagull and a loon ignoring each other, and one of two seagulls ignoring me. I guess maybe they're not technically seagulls seeing as we're nowhere near the sea, I think I should be calling them just "gulls". Some habits are hard to break!

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Photo Fun Day 8 - Sunset

The prompt for June 8th is "Sunset". I tried for 3 days to get a decent sunset pic, and this is the best of the bunch. I had to go for a drive around the neighbourhood to capture this one, and even then, I'm a bit disappointed. There's telephone wires EVERYWHERE around here! I'll have to track down my Hawaiian sunset photos, now THOSE are something else!

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Photo Fun Day 7

The June 7 prompt for the 30 Day Photo Fun Challenge is "High Angle". I didn't know if this meant to take the photo from up high looking down, or from down low looking up high. So I just followed Hollie's lead! I snapped these photos at the 100 Mile House Visitor's Centre. Did you know that 100 Mile is the home of the world's tallest pair of cross-country skis? Well, now ya do! There are all these beautiful blossoming trees around here, and I just loooooove 'em! I don't know what they are, though! Any gardening geeks out there, help me out on this one, please!!! Is the carving self-eplanatory? A guy (gold miner?) and a bear on an inukshuk? That's what I'm going with. And the flags, well, Canadian and British Columbian. I like the sense of movement in that one. (Do I sound like I know what I'm talking about? Haha!) Now you may be wondering why 100 Mile House is called 100 Mile House. I got that question a lot when I was growing up in 150 Mile House. Well, it's got something to do with the Gold Rush Trail. Mile 0 is at Lillooet (or is it Lytton, I always get that mixed up! Either way, they're both on the Fraser River.) Those poor delusional people would make their way up here hoping to strike it rich at Barkerville. 150 Mile House used to be booming back in the late 1800's, but now it's a bedroom community for Williams Lake. 100 Mile House is a stand-alone village. We've lived in 3 villages in a row, I wonder if we'll ever graduate to "town" or "city"! Ah well, village is just fine for now, I'm not in a rush to go anywhere else anytime soon.

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Layout #23 for Twisted Sketches

The twist for this week's Twisted Sketch is "result", so I used that word to inspire this layout about how it feels for me to get a decent haircut! It took years of ho-hum cuts and stylists for me to find "the one", the perfect stylist for my head o' hair. Whenever I leave her chair, I feel gorgeous, and although that feeling usually only lasts until I wash my hair and realize I can't get it to look the same way she did, it's still worth waiting to see her every 6-12 months. Now that I'm closer to her shop, I should be able to go every few months. I can't wait to get some colour(s) put in! (As an aside, Ailis had some interesting comments about these photos. She thinks the "before" photo is better because I look like a dog, and she says I look like a raindrop in the second. I guess beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder!)





For this layout I got down and dirty with the Glimmer Mist, using 3 different colours to make the background page. Next, I embossed a bunch of 2x2 inch squares to make the 8x10 black background block, then sanded them to show the white core. Lots of fun playing with that little Cuttlebug! Some letter stickers, journaling strips, and that cool rhinestone arrow finish it off.





Supplies: Close to My Heart cardstock, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, Little Yellow Bicycle patterned paper, Memento ink, Making Memories tiny alpha stickers, American Crafts Thickers, Creative Memories pen, Glitz rhinestone arrow, Provo Craft Cuttlebug and Embossing Folders

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