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 #68 - Bird is the Word and Scrap-it-Lah

Two challenges I've never played along with before! Fun, fun, I love a good challenge, and the one this month from Scrap-it-Lah had me really stumped for a bit, but once I got into it - well, I love the result so I'm glad I played along. The challenge was to use at least 6 layers, stamping or embossing, and journaling tags or cards on your layout. It was tough, but I do have 6 layers (what do you think of that book paper? Torn right out of a book printed in 1958!) I had some little journaling tags already stamped and left over from last year's December Daily. Then I had some journaling cards my mom gave me last year for Christmas, never used, but I used one for an accent ("daily delight), cut out the flowers and glued them elsewhere, and used another for the journaling, cut up into strips. I've also got half a misted doily and some oooooooold tags tucked into various places, some cool tortoiseshell buttons, and a ribbon bow I tied myself and stuck on there. I had a lot of fun playing with the embellishments on this layout, a little more haphazard than I would normally do!

I'm also entering this layout over at Bird is the Word. The word prompt for this challenge is "Adore", and seeing that word is prominent on this gorgeous MME paper, it totally fits. Scrapbooker's Paradise has a challenge this week to use something normally not in your stash - I've never used book paper before, so I think that fits as well!

Supplies: My Mind's Eye and Bo Bunny patterned paper, Colorbok journaling cards, Creative Memories pen, date stamp, Memento ink, Close to My Heart hemp, stamp, and ink, Twinery twine, Maya Road doily, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, found buttons, tags, ribbon and book paper, Lifestyle Crafts border die

P.S. Isn't Brenna adorable here? I just can't get over her pudgy arms!!!

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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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A Card By Ailis

I found a challenge site that encourages young crafters to enter: C.R.A.F.T. Challenges. This week's challenge is to use stars, so I gave Ailis my "Shining Star" stamp set from Close to My Heart and some ink, and she got busy stamping and cutting. Then we decided to add this beautiful unicorn, a Whimsy stamp I bought for both of us at a craft fair (Cheri from Graphicat Designs had her booth there!) Unfortunately, I made the mistake of letting her try to colour the image with my Copic markers while I went off to do something else. I heard sobbing a while later, went in, and she'd made a mess of the unicorn's face, and ruined one of my markers! Grrrrr!!! Once I cooled down a bit, I convinced her I loved her more than a pen and it wasn't the end of the world. I stamped her another unicorn and she coloured it with my older markers. I cut out the unicorn and tied the ribbon bow (she can't even tie shoe laces yet!) but she glued everything down. I'm very proud of her for not giving up, and it was a wonderful learning experience for us both! (Listen to me, channeling my inner therapist, haha!) Anyway, enjoy her card, and she is eagerly awaiting all your comments!

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Layout #66 - Creative Accents November Challenge

Hey, all, this is the mid month reminder to get your layouts or cards in to Creative Accents Challenges using this sketch:

And here is what I was able to do with it:

I love this sketch, but I had a bit of a hard time with it, not sure why. I think because I didn't pile on the embellishments, I was thinking it looked a little blah, but the paper (awesome pack from Studio Calico I won at the Creative Accents Masquerade Crop!) is so busy that I didn't think I could really fit more in. Anyway, now that this page has had time to grow on me, I'm liking it more than I originally did. Funny how that happens! This was Ailis's kindergarten class celebrating with their certificates. At this point in time, she'd only been with her class for 2 months or so, but she didn't have an ounce of trouble making friends and fitting in. It's a quality that should serve her well all her life!

Supplies: Studio Calico patterned paper, Close to My Heart cardstock, ink, and stamp set (Classmate Alpha), Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Walnut Stain), Twinery twine, and Sakura pen

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Layout #65 - Scrapbookit's B-day Sketch #1

Hey, everyone, just had a great weekend away from home - sort of! Took the girls to my parents' house for a couple of nights, kind of a "staycation". The weather was crummy, but I was able to go to a crop at Creative Accents, and Ailis was able to go swimming at the pool. Ailis was also able to invite her cousin (my brother's daughter, Harmony) to sleep over at Nana and Papa's, and they had a riot! It was really cute to see them hugging and playing (they're both 6), but man are they loud!

Anyway, I was able to get this layout completely finished at the crop. I used this Page Maps sketch that Scrapbookit is using for one of their birthday challenges:

and flipped it to use the mirror image. If you love Page Maps, you should check out Scrapbookit because they have four challenges going on right now using these sketches, and they run until the end of the month. I have plans to do at least one more!

This page shows one of the last minute things we did this summer. We heard that there were NASA scientists doing research about an hour's drive south of here, and that they were having an open house type dealie on their last day. Nolan used to be waaaaaay into NASA, so we thought this would be awesome for him. We didn't get to see the submarine, unfortunately, but we did get to see the research truck and some scientists and rocks - sorry, "microbialites"! The waiting was the worst, but it's not like this kind of opportunity pops up every day around here, so I'm glad we suffered through that part. This page is for Ailis, and I have another using the same sketch and papers in the works for Nolan.

Supplies: Crate Paper and Bo Bunny patterned paper, Twinery twine, buttons from Sarah (thanks, chickie!), Sakura pen, Quickutz die

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Layout #64 - Scrapbooker's Anonymous

I started this layout weeks ago, and it just kept getting pushed aside in favor of other projects. It changed forms a few times, too, but I'm pleased with the end result. I followed my own sketch, but it still looked a little blah. Then inspiration struck in the form of Scrapbooker's Anonymous November challenge, which is to use 7 or more ribbons. Well, I always have a ton of ribbon in my stash, so this was great for me. I even have a couple pieces on here that I used to wear in my hair as a kid!

Ailis was right beside me as I was finishing this page today, and she filled in some gaps of the story. She actually brought the can with the already dead beetle to school for show 'n' tell, then couldn't find the beetle when she got there. Her teacher even went with her to Nolan's class to see if he'd stolen it! He denied it of course, but the "Missing Beetle Mystery" remains unsolved to this day!

Then she says to me, "Mommy, I don't think you're going to win with this page, not because you did a bad job or anything, but... well, people will just think the story of me caring for a beetle is, well... boring and... kind of gross." Gasp!!! No, how could they? I don't know, I think it's kind of cool, and it shows her caring heart!

Supplies: My Mind's Eye patterned papers, Close to My Heart stamp set (Classmate Alpha), ink (Indian Corn Blue), and some ribbon, Making Memories and unknown other ribbon, Creative Memories pen, staples

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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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Card #19 and a Toot

All right, this card is probably the fastest card I've ever made and it comes with an explanation: I've been dragging my heels when it comes to Hallowe'en, every year, but this year especially! I was put in charge of costumes, and I did nothing to get them together other than think to myself, "Ugh, what am I gonna do about costumes this year?" then moved onto more pressing thoughts, like, "Oh, I better call the principal because Nolan's been in another 'altercation' (polite way of saying 'all out brawl with gangs and sticks'!) at the bus stop!" (Side note: all a misunderstanding that the kids worked out on their own, but still a sample of what I deal with almost every day with him, sigh.) We got our pumpkins on Saturday, but didn't carve them Sunday because we went to the in-laws all day. Excuses, I know, but on Sunday, Ailis said, "Are we ever going to be ready for Hallowe'en?" in this sad, pathetic voice. Oh, it broke my heart, and I thought, you poor thing, having such a party pooper for a mom. So yesterday, I thought, "Suck it up, Buttercup, and get your act together so your kids can have a good memory!" I found this card from last year in my stash:

and decided to give it to Ailis, but then I had nothing for Nolan. So, in between getting out decorations and cleaning pumpkins, I pieced together this:

Supplies: Close to My Heart cardstock, stamp set (Thriller), and ink, unknown patterned paper

I used a card pattern from a Close to My Heart idea book called Originals, cut some paper, stamped an image, put it together and wrote in it! Then, I placed the cards by their pumpkins so they would see them right away, and what do I get?

Ailis: Nice card, Mummy!

Me: It's for you, sweetie! Read it!

Ailis: Aw, thanks! (kiss, kiss)

Me: Here, Nolan, I made you one too!

Nolan: Grunt.

Granted, he was mad at one of the bus stop girls for making fun of his non-existent costume, but still, I felt my effort was wasted on him! I'm going to keep it, though, and one day he'll appreciate it (fingers crossed).

Here's me getting into the spirit, by myself!

Good thing I took this self portrait, because there's no pics of the kids carving this year! And here's one of the kids right before trick-or-treating, getting into character:

Ailis is a vampire, and Nolan's a zombie, in case you couldn't tell! We had a great time walking around the neighborhood, then somehow we convinced Jason to bring them to town for the fireworks, which they missed half of, but all's well that ends well. I'm just glad all that crud washed off their faces!

And while I have you enthralled with my Hallowe'en tales of woe, I just wanted to toot my own horn for a sec, because I was chosen as a fave at Scrapbooker's Anonymous, and I won the Golden Globe at From Screen 2 Scrap! I'm riding high on cloud 9 right now, and not even the thought of the kids coming home in an hour is enough to bring me down!!!

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