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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Card #16 and Blog Candy Winner!

I promised to draw for the $25 Graphicat gift certificate on Saturday, but I kind of forgot it was Thanksgiving, so alas, I am late, but here it is: Winner, winner, chicken (or turkey) dinner!

My lovely assistant Ailis picked BARBARA out of the hat. Congratulations, Barbara, I will contact you soon with details on how to claim your prize!

So this past week has been full of ups and downs. On the upside, this card was chosen for a top 3 award at Sweet Sketch Wednesdays! Then I found out I won not once, but twice in Graphicat Designs grand opening blog hop!! Then yesterday I found out I won over at Scrapbooker's Anonymous for this layout!!! YAY!

On the downside, Jason had to write a professional forestry exam on Friday, and he was stressing out over it all week (well, for months, really). Once it was done, I thought there would be a big sigh of relief, but no. Now he's stressed out about the results! Guys, eh? He is NOT fun to live with when he's stressed! Then midweek, Brenna got sick, puked all over her crib, then all over me. I think it's some sort of flu bug, and she's still not quite over it. Also not fun! But the worst was when my mom called on Thursday to tell me my dad was in the hospital!!! She took him in because his leg was swollen to twice its normal size, and after running some tests, the doctors found he had blood clots all through his body, most disturbingly in the lungs. So of course we were all very worried, many tears were shed, but he's been in the hospital all weekend and it seems like the blood thinners are doing their job - hopefully he'll be out soon.

Needless to say, it was pretty chaotic around here, but I did manage to make this card for my Mother-in-law's birthday yesterday:

Isn't it hilarious?! Cheered me up a bit! I had to make it very quickly, so although I coloured this Bugaboo image with my Copics, I didn't worry about shading or highlights or anything. I was able to use up some scraps, and I even recycled some Prima packaging for that scalloped printed bit, a tip I saw in a Canadian Scrapbooker magazine! I loved playing along with the Sweet Sketch Wednesday crew so much, that I used this week's sketch so I could play again:

I hope all my Canadian friends had a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend! A few years ago, I vowed to my husband that I would never make a turkey - sorry, just not my thing! Somehow, due to circumstances, I ended up in charge of the turkey and stuffing!!! My mom and I teamed up and exceeded everyone's expectations (it was like the blind leading the blind, she doesn't do turkey either!) with only one war wound to speak of (my poor mom dropped the turkey and the drippings splashed all over her bare foot! Burnt her pretty good!) Now onto turkey pot pie!

Supplies: Close to My Heart and Bazzill cardstock, Bugaboo image and sentiment, Prima flowers and packaging, Three Bugs in a Rug patterned paper, Close to My Heart ink and pearls, Copic markers

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Layout #55 - Sketchy Thursdays and Scrapbooker's Anonymous

This has to be a very quick post because Brenna's screaming at me, but I really want to get it in before the Sketchy Thursdays deadline in, like, 30 minutes. So, hope you like it! It chronicles my first solo camping trip with Ailis, and I loooooove this photo of us with our headlamps on! That mess all over Ailis's face is our attempt at s'mores (note to self: dark chocolate does not melt enough to make a decent s'more!) I'll have to make another layout at some point with more of the story, because I played the best crank phone call to Jason on this trip, and I still get giddy when I think of just how good it was! I'm also entering this over at Scrapbooker's Anonymous for one of their mini birthday challenges, Bling! and at Scrapbooker's Paradise for their distressing challenge this week (all my edges are distressed).

Supplies: Fancy Pants papers and sticker, KI Memories sticker, MAMBI bling word, creative Memories pen, machine stitching

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Card #15 - Kraftin' Kimmie and Sweet Sketch Wednesday

So while I had all my orange scraps out for this challenge:

and all my card making stuff out for World Card Making Day, I decided to make another card. This one features Andrea Acorn from Kraftin' Kimmie, and I paper pieced her skirt for this week's Kraftin' Kimmie challenge. I also used this sketch from Sweet Sketch Wednesday:

I love the mix of My Mind's Eye papers and stamps on this card, but I had a really hard time with the Copics on her hair and cape. I'm thinking I need to get some more instruction in those areas, but all in all I'm pleased with how this one turned out.

Hopefully this will serve as a reminder to get your orange projects in this month at Creative Accents Challenges! And if you missed our all-Canadian blog hop for World Card Making Day, then here's a reminder to make a comment on this post (and become a follower) so you can have a chance for my BLOG CANDY!!! 25 smackeroos to spend as you please at this store:

It's a brand new online store created by a local gal (well, local to me, anyway) and she's got great stuff you can't get anywhere else. You've got until Saturday, so get on it!

Supplies: My Mind's Eye patterned paper, stamps, and brad, Close to My Heart cardstock, inks, gems, and watercolor pencil, Kraftin' Kimmie stamp, Memento ink, Copic markers, Bazzill cardstock, Ranger Glossy Accents

P.S. - Holy cow, this is my 300th post, I can't even believe it!!!

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World Card Making Day Blog Hop

Welcome to my little ol' blog, and thanks for visiting on this momentous day, World Card Making Day! If you came here from Tina's blog, then you're good to go, but if you're lost or want to start from the beginning, head on back to Tara's blog, she has the whole line-up there.

I'm so excited to be a part of this blog hop, one reason being that it's my first EVER, and second because it's ALL-CANADIAN!!! So, I made up a new CANUCK ROCK play list for ya (warning: there IS some profanity, so don't let your kids listen in, unless they're like mine and know all the swears and use 'em like commas) PLUS I figured it's about time I gave out some CANDY, ding ding ding! Now, it's not a huge candy, but it's easy to win: simply become a follower if you aren't already (feel free to scroll down, look around, see if maybe you might want to hang here once in a while - I promise I'm [mostly] normal!) Then leave me a comment telling me about your biggest card-making faux pas. Come on, you know you wanna! Just to break the ice, here's mine:

Bwahahaha! Isn't that something that your primary school kid would make? I made this for my husband before I had any cool tools or mad skillz, (actually, still pretty limited in those areas) and I can't believe he KEPT it!? Must be love. So what's the CANDY, you ask? My cool new friend Cheri from Graphicat Designs is adding on to help me offer a $25 gift certificate to her BRAND NEW ONLINE STORE!!!

Thanks, Cheri, you rock! I'll do a draw from the comments next Saturday for the lucky winner.

Anywhoo, here's my real card:

Since I'm mainly a scrapbooker and I know there are some uber-talented card makers in this hop, I wanted to make something that stood out a bit, so I did the easel-card thing and added that retro red button from my mom's 70's jumpsuit. That bottom layer? It's a mesh bag from a trio of garlic. Awesome thing is, you don't even need to cut it, it just stretches and wraps right around the 4" panel! Hope you like!

I also made this card for my Design Team over at Creative Accents - incredible store and great team members!!! The challenge this month is:

I hope everyone will join in, 'cause you could win a sweet prize, and really, it doesn't get much easier than this.

Have fun with the rest of the hop, your next destination is: Freya's blog. And, if you're so inclined, there is a 2nd hop going on right now, too, starting over at: Nicole's blog! And I think there may be candy throughout that hop, too, wink wink!

Supplies: Close to My Heart, Bazzill, and Prism cardstock, My Mind's Eye patterned paper, C.C. Designs and Kraftin' Kimmie stamps, Memento and Ranger inks, Creative Memories and Copic markers (E00, E11, R20 for skin, E35, YR23, Y23, Y38 for hair, YG0000, YG25 for wings), Close to My Heart gems, unknown ribbon and fiber, vintage button, mesh bag

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