Two Pages in One Day - New Record!!!

In my last post I told you how I need to scrap faster, and I did!  At least, for today.  I really wanted to participate in Scrapbooker's Anonymous final challenge, so I created this one for them:

The challenge this month was to use a map or map paper, and brads.  Well, I dug up this map of Murtle Lake from our first ever camping trip together and used it as the background.  The placement worked out well because I could mark with a brad where we were when I took the photos.  And, I'm sorry I have to comment on this, but wasn't my husband just gorgeous?!  Look at all that hair!!!  I used some old and new products here - old brads and stamp set (Close to My Heart), new washi tape (Queen and Co.) and mist (Lindy's Stamp Gang).

This next page is for the sketch challenge at Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge:

The prompt was to scrap something about rain, and this is the sketch:

Most of the products used are by Fancy Pants, rub-ons by Love Elsie, and some dollar store stickers and ribbon.

Well, just a fast post here, as all this time scrapping and I haven't had a shower, ack!

Hopping Mad and a SMASH Page!

Here's a page I made for this month's Scrap the Girls sketch challenge.  I love how it turned out, but it took me entirely too long to make, so I've decided I need to scrap faster and more efficiently.  How I'm going to manage that feat remains a mystery, however, so if you have any tips, by all means, send them my way!

Here's the sketch I was inspired by:

I flipped the sketch and centred everything to fit my pics, and also upsized it to 12x12.  Then I added a bunch of stuff, like these flowers:

 And some clouds:

 Probably the best part of making this page was getting to play with some new products, like brand new paper from My Mind's Eye and Basic Grey, and the tissue tape from Tim Holtz.  Fun fun!

And here's a SMASH page that's been in the works for quite some time.  I decided to SMASH my favorite music of the moment, so first I had to identify my fave songs, then google the bands, choose photos, and print them out.  And then I just wrote away!  The washi tape you see is stuff I made with Sook Wang tape, tissue paper, and background stamps.

 Kind of a plain page, not much for embellishment, but gives a glimpse into my taste right now.  I started off SMASHing the way it's supposed to be done, but lately I've been overthinking it, and same as the scrapping, it's taking way too long.  Come on, Roxy, get it done before the memories are gone, eh?

And now you've reached the second edition of Roxy's Rambles.  Feel free to skip this bit, but please leave a comment after the beep, heehee!

• Who takes care of car maintenance in your household?  Before I met Jason, my dad took on that responsibility, and he kept my car spic and span, and even tried to teach me a thing or two i.e. I know how to locate the dipstick and fill my windshield washer fluid.  (I also know how to pay for gas at the pump - laugh if you must, but I know for a fact there are people out there who don't, for example, my mom!)  Other than that, though, I'm pretty clueless.  Therefore, it's been a very stressful two weeks for me in that I had to bring our vehicle in FOUR TIMES for various things!!!  With a TODDLER in tow!  It's a new vehicle, too, so I'm really hoping we didn't get a lemon...  Anyway, I survived, and hopefully don't have to go back...EVER!
• My kids got their report cards a week ago, and I was pleasantly surprised with Nolan's - he made the Honour Roll!  Of course, he was upset that he didn't get straight A's like the other boys in his class - what?!  First of all, hardly anybody got straight A's in my class, and certainly not the boys!  And second, getting on the Honour Roll is awesome, especially for someone who struggles every day not to get in trouble!  It took a while, but I think I convinced him that I am extremely proud of him.
• Ailis did great as well, but that was to be expected.  She also performed a poem at the Festival of the Arts with two other girls from her class.  It took a lot of courage to stand up in front of a crowd, and they were up first, too!  They did very well!!!
• Jason passed his Registered Professional Forester exam, so he can officially call himself a forester now.
• Brenna fell in a mud puddle yesterday, and Hunter continues to chew toys and generally drive me bonkers.
• Have you ever tried to comment on someone's blog, and the word verification thingey comes up, asking you to prove that you're not a robot, and you realize you must be a robot because you can't read the damn letters?  Happens to me all the time!
• Something happened the other day that's had me very discouraged.  I was at Strong Start (a free playgroup they have at the school) with Brenna when an autistic girl started to have a bit of a meltdown.  Brenna stared at her for a bit, but since she's used to chaos from being born into it, it didn't phase her too much and she went back to playing with the train set.  I couldn't help but notice, however, the looks of disgust on the other mothers' faces, and that's what has got me so bummed out.  These other two mothers are people I don't know well, but they seem like nice people - well put together, outgoing, they volunteer for the PAC...  In short, people I thought I might like to get to know better.  But once I saw how they glared at that little girl with their lips curled up, and how they quickly packed up their kids to bring them elsewhere to play, it changed my opinion of them 180 degrees!  I've had those looks directed my way so many times in the past, but for some reason it just really got my goat this time.  This little girl is nonverbal, so all she was doing was expressing herself in the only way she can, and it wasn't even that bad - her caregiver was able to redirect her and get her playing again in what I thought was a reasonable amount of time.  It really surprised me to see these other moms displaying no tolerance whatsoever, but it is also kind of freeing to realize that I don't want to be friends with people like them.  How do you choose your friends?  Has your opinion of someone changed completely by witnessing how they treat others?

Well, I hope you enjoyed my post today!  I haven't tried out this new version of blogger yet, so hopefully posting this works!

Homemade Brownies!

So this layout was inspired by two different challenges, both of which I was too late to enter! (Story of my life these days!) The first was for a February challenge at Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge, where they asked us to scrap childhood photos from a group we were in, like Brownies. Well, we are currently living in my mom's house, and she left behind some albums with these gorgeous photos of me in my Brownie uniform circa 1981. I hope you don't think I'm vain for saying this, but I think I could have been the poster child for Brownies - I just look so darn cute here! (This was my cute phase - the following year, I got an awful hair cut and started growing the most terribly crowded teeth you've ever seen. I was very self-conscious, for good reason!) Anyway, missed the deadline for that challenge, but put aside the Brownie photos to scrap later - I even found my old badges, if you can believe it! Then along came the challenge at Use It Or Lose It, where my friends Jenn and Jenn are part of the DT. Their challenge was to alter a piece of paper, turning it from drab to fab! Well, I've had this Sorbet and Chocolate patterned paper from the CTMH Twitterpated pack for ages, and haven't found a use for it. The Sorbet (orange, really) kind of went with the orange on my Brownie scarf, so I pulled out this sketch from Page Maps:

and went at it! I had a stamp set that matched perfectly (CTMH's Thoughtful Seasons) and did a resist with some Tattered Leather Glimmer Mist, so the orange shows a bit, but not as overwhelmingly as it did before. This sketch was also great for using up some scraps leftover from the pack.

A close-up of the journaling (I just did some notes about what I remember about being a Brownie):

And a close-up of some of the chipboard buttons I had to match the set:
When I had this layout on my table, Ailis became curious and asked what Brownies is about. That's how I got to thinking about my journaling. After I finished describing what I remembered, she said, "That sounds like fun! Do you think we could have our own, like, homemade Brownies?" I thought that was pretty cute, and it got me thinking about starting up a group here. A couple of days later, I brought Brenna to Strong Start and was talking about it to a friend there, who is going to coach soccer again this year, and... long story short, I think I volunteered to be a soccer coach! Ack, I used to despise soccer as a kid, with the kind of loathing I usually reserve for broccoli and cauliflower!!! The things we do for our kids, eh? I'm looking forward to it, though, it'll be our mommy/daughter thing.

Speaking of doing things for our kids, I kind of volunteered to do the hockey thing with Nolan this weekend. Jason's been in Kamloops for work, and I think he has to go back next week. Then on Thursday, he and Nolan are off to Edmonton for the last tournament of the year, phew! Anyway, I thought the poor guy could use a break and hang out with the girls at home for the weekend. But, Nolan's practice is at 8 am in Williams Lake, so we'll have to be up and out of here by 6:30. Bring on the coffee!

Oh, and speaking of hockey, Jason brought Nolan down to Surrey/Delta for a big tournament last weekend (they stayed in Surrey, played in Delta - also a long story!) His team lost most of their games, but the manager's brother owns a diamond mine (seriously? Who OWNS a diamond mine?!) and comped the team 40 tickets to the Canucks game!!!!! Not only that, but when Jason and Nolan were walking around after the first period, some Canucks rep asked them if they wanted to sit BEHIND THE NET!!!!! Yep, they had a blast (Canucks lost, but what else is new?)! Anyway, my husband really needs one of those man purse things, because he left our camera in the car. He borrowed his brother's camera, but whether I'll ever get a copy of those photos remains to be seen.

Whew, is that a long enough post for ya? My fingers are seriously cramping, time for a hot shower! Have a great weekend, everyone!!!

Some "ME" Time!

Oh, wow, did I ever have fun making this 2-pager:

And I'll tell ya why - hold onto your hats, because I had a whole day to myself! That's right, Easter weekend, I went to Williams Lake on Saturday, all by myself, and got my scrap on at Creative Accents with Tara! Holy, did I ever need a break!!! The last time I had a day with no kids or husband was my birthday in December, and I'm thinking I need to do this at least once a month - is that too much to ask? How much "me" time do you get? (Hopefully it's more than me, because than I can show Jason this post and say, "See? I told you so!") The other fun part about getting away to scrap is that I can use the cool tools at the store, things that I don't have at home. See the pinwheels? They were made using a die (Quickutz?), which made it so easy even I couldn't mess them up. Then the title was made using a brand spankin' new Tim Holtz Alterations die! I was soooooo excited to try that puppy out, it's a little ridiculous!

This was one of Ailis' last days of Kindergarten in Burns Lake. I had trouble thinking of a title, and then I remembered the school motto, Soar Like An Eagle. Just the other day Ailis was crying her heart out, all homesick for Burns Lake, her old room, her neighbours, her friends, etc. I'm thinking maybe she saw this layout I was working on and that brought these feelings out, because she hasn't cried about our move to 100 Mile House in almost a year! Anyway, a couple of days later she informed me she has a new best friend from her class, and she's been a lot happier. Kids are pretty resilient, aren't they?

I used this sketch from Sketch Support for inspiration (love their sketches, but this is the first one I've used):

Oh, and I almost forgot to say that I went to the movies with my mom (her treat, gotta love that!) to see the Hunger Games that same Saturday!!! Could a day get any better?! It's been a year since I read the book, so I'd forgotten a lot of the details, but I thought it was a great movie! My mom was so funny, she kept saying things like, "Oh no, I think he's going to die! Is he going to die? Oh wait, you've read the book, don't tell me!" There was one part where I think we both screamed and jumped out of our seats - fun, fun! So, if you aren't a Hunger Games fan yet, get yourself a copy of the book, read it, then go see the movie - that's what I'm sayin'!

Supplies: Close to My Heart cardstock, Studio Calico, Theresa Collins, MME, Pink Paislee, and unknown (pinwheels) patterned paper, Close to My Heart brads, Creative Memories pen, coffee stir sticks, Alterations and Quickutz dies

Seriously Creative April Challenge!

Woohoo, time for a new challenge at Seriously Creative Challenges! I was all over this one:I'm already kind of addicted to sprays, and I just bought a couple more, so time to play! Here's what I came up with:
Hmm, now that I'm looking at this on my screen, I don't think the photo is doing the page justice. I almost used a plain pink piece of Bazzill as my base page, which would have been fine, but I decided to make my own background piece with MME Stella Rose stamps, clear embossing powder, and some pink Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist and homemade Perfect Pearls mist (using Tea Dye reinker and blue perfect pearls). I'm glad I did, because the result is subtle but unique.

Here's a closie of one of the crochet flowers I made for this page (tutorial here):
And here's a closie of the handmade washi tape I made! So fun and easy, just use some Sookwang tape, tissue paper, and your fave background stamp! (Here's a tutorial I pinned!) Also a better photo of the doily stamp resist:
And the journaling:
The patterned paper is from the new Simple Stories Fabulous line. Oh my gosh, I had a heck of a time narrowing down my paper choices from this line, so I just bought the 6x6 pad so I could have 'em all! The pad is full of smaller scale cards that will be great for SMASH journaling too!

So I hope you all have a chance to join us for this challenge! I know everyone has some mist in their stash, and if you don't, it's the perfect opportunity to splurge a bit. It needs to be a staple in your scrapping arsenal, trust me!

Thank You Cards Inspired by Pinterest

So in case you thought all that pinning was in vain, this post should prove that it`s not! Thanks to Pinterest, I`ve finally figured out how to crochet flowers!!! It took a lot of messing and fiddling, but I think I`ve got it, and I`m going to love adding these little doodads to my layouts in the future! Here`s the set of cards I made for Ailis`s thank yous (a little late, but better late than never, right):

These were shamelessly cased from Nicole Heady`s card here, also found on pinterest and also the first crochet flower tutorial that I was able to decipher:

I don`t know, my cards look a bit too plain in comparison, but seeing that they`re going to a group of 6 and 7 year olds, probably doesn`t matter too much. It was a learning experience, and I`m just stoked that I was able to pick up a new skill!

And now it`s time for the first ever edition of Roxy`s Ramblings!!!

Did you guys all see the Hunger Games? I`m so jealous, I haven`t made it yet, and I heard it was really well done.

Speaking of movies based on YA novels, I rented Breaking Dawn a couple of weeks ago. Usually, I let Jason choose the movie for Friday date night, but this time I picked. Now I`m not the biggest Twilight fan out there, but I have read all the books and enjoyed them quite a bit, although Breaking Dawn was my least favorite. Anyway, I hate to say it, but this movie really stunk! What`s with the talking wolves? That part was just laughable! And the whole thing was just BORING!!! Big disappointment.

It snowed here last night!!! And it still hasn`t melted!

Did you hear that Scrapbooker`s Anonymous are having their last challenge? I`m so bummed, love their challenges and all the DT.

What do you all do for Easter? We`re usually pretty low key, but we`re having friends from Victoria come to stay, so maybe I should plan something special...

That`s about all for now, hope you enjoyed my cards and my rambles, have a great Easter long weekend if I don`t post my new project before!