A Birthday Card for my Daughter (and one for a laugh!)

Finally finished this card for Ailis, hope she likes it (but she will because she thinks I'm the best scrapbooker in the world - it's nice to be idolized, I wonder how long that will last?):

I really struggled with this one, I had a heck of a time figuring out where to embellish and with what. I had to cover up some cutting booboos, so that's why the end result probably doesn't look too much like the sketch by Graphicat I was inspired by:

Anyway, I got to use my new Tickled Pink digi, although next time I think I'll print her out bigger, she was pretty hard to colour with my limited Copic skills. The paper is MME, cardstock, sentiment, and ribbon are CTMH, and the felt flower, fabric button, and lime twine are from Lovely Bug Bits 'n' Bobs. Spellbinders dies, Copic markers, a bit of Broken China Distress Ink, and a Prima flower round out the supplies used here.

And here's the card that Jason made me for Valentine's Day:

He has atrocious handwriting, not to mention he was writing with a Copic marker! It says "A Window to My Heart".

I don't know how I managed to turn over my desk, it was quite scary, but I thought it turned out pretty good considering he's never really done anything like this before. It's definitely going in my SMASH book!

I'm feeling like quite the dork today! Have you ever volunteered for something, and your efforts turned out less than stellar? Well, please, do share! Here's my embarrassing moment for today: I was planning to make cupcakes for Ailis' class for her birthday/Valentine's Day, but seeing their teacher was planning a chocolate fondue for that day and she needed 100 cupcakes for 100 Day (today), I told her I would make cupcakes for today instead. She got me to make 2 dozen, and they were to be decorated with numbers 1-24. Well, I can follow a recipe, but I'm no pastry chef, and my cake decorating skills are virtually nil, but I thought I could manage. To make a long story short, I was up until 10:30 last night making the bloody things and they look absolutely pathetic! The moral of the story is: don't volunteer to make cupcakes, or anything, ever again!!! I no longer care if I look like the slacker mom, I do not need to prove myself! (Yeah, right! Let's see how long that feeling lasts, too.)

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February Counterfit Kit

There are two kits posted over at Counterfeit Kits this month, both by Scrapbook Circle, and they're both pretty stacked! I chose to copy the one above, called Note to Self, because of the beautiful bright colours and school-themed products. One of the papers, Marbles by October Afternoon, caught my eye right away, and I thought I could recreate it with some scraps. This is what I came up with:

At first I wasn't sure if I liked it, but it's kind of growing on me. It's crazy busy, so not sure what I can do with it, but it was quite relaxing and satisfying to make it (used some VERY OLD papers!), so hopefully I can work it in somewhere this month.

Here are some other papers I pulled from my stash, some brand new (top row) and some very old (the three at the bottom right):

Top row is all Simple Stories Yearography, middle is all Studio Calico, and bottom has some BoBunny, MME, CTMH, and Karen Foster.

And finally, some embellishments and alphas to go along with the theme. I started to rip up a piece of corrugated cardboard, but I lost patience and decided to leave it as is until I need it. The pieces of red and green felt are going to be felt pom poms (great tutorial here), and I would also like to print out some of the incredible journaling cards listed here, but those can be added later.

Well, we've had a very successful weekend here at the McCleary home. I managed to host a wonderful b-day party for Ailis, my mom and niece stayed over last night, and everyone is in good spirits today. Hoping for a smooth week ahead, fingers crossed!

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Creative Accents February Challenge - LOVE!

I don't know about you, but I love me a good recipe challenge! It's time for the February challenge over at Seriously Creative Challenges, and we're challenging you to include some L.O.V.E. in your project! Normally, I add layers and embellishments to everything, but I haven't used ovals much since, oh, 2003? (Yep, I used to cut ALL my pictures into ovals, and don't deny it, I know you did too!) As for vintage, well, I just had to turn to my January Counterfeit Kit, and everything I needed to make this card was there:

I quite like how it turned out, and it was relatively easy to make seeing that I already had a coloured image ready to use. It's actually from a postcard I bought ages ago and held onto for who knows what! I cut some book paper for the outer oval, and stamped the card base inside and out with a Tim Holtz script stamp. Here's the inside, finished off with a scrap of BoBunny ledger paper and another piece from the postcard:

Well, by the time this card posts, I will be cheering on my boy in his home hockey tournament. Seems like the game is starting to click for him, and he now realizes he can skate with the puck! (Go figure!) Have a fantastic weekend, everyone!

Supplies: Close to My Heart cardstock, MME and BoBunny patterned paper, Tim Holtz stamp and Distress Ink, Prima flowers, buttons, ribbon, and book paper from my stash

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Smash Book Post #2

Quick post today, just wanted to show you a couple of pages from my Smash book. This first one is one of the first I started. I was eager to try out some new things after Christmas, so I cut some wrapping paper with my new Lifestyle dies and used my IRock to blingify it a bit. (Apparently "blingify" is not a word, but I think it should be, how 'bout you?) Ailis has a heart of gold and was very upset that she couldn't buy Christmas presents for anyone, so she drew us each pictures and wrapped them up with some money she found laying around. That's the drawing she gave me on the right side, along with a recipe she wrote for reindeer food. Here's a closie:

Keep in mind she's only 6 and in French Immersion, so her spelling needs a bit of work! It says: Oats, love, sugar, dried berries. Gotta love it!

And here's a Roxy page:

A couple of semi-recent photos of me, a 12 year old gymnastics postcard that my parents picked up in Sydney, a couple of business cards, my top books from last year, and I thought that tag hanging down the center was pretty cool. It came with a pair of Converse sneakers that I love, and the date on it says 1975, my birth year (uh-oh, I just aged myself)! And I filled out a couple of journaling cards from my Smash pad, and it's done! From my last Smash post, I know there's lots of people out there with the books, so are you filling them up? If so, make sure you post your pages, I would love to see! Happy weekend, everyone!

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January Counterfit Kit

As if my obsession with "smashing" wasn't enough, now I'm in love with Counterfit Kits! Have you heard of this site?! Every month they post several kits from one of the top scrapbook kit companies, and they encourage you to pull things from your stash to make a similar kit. They also post tutorials and links for making your own embellishments and papers! Well, this month is the first time I've played along, and I must say I'm loving how my kit turned out! Here's the inspiration kit from Cocoa Daisy that I've chosen to copy:

I was really drawn to the vintage feel of this kit. Plus, I have one of the papers already in my stash, and I just bought ruler print and banner print papers, so I figured it would be easy to match at least some things. It was a little trickier than I thought, because at first I wanted to match every single item. Once I got over that and decided to go with the vintage theme, then it was easier, and this is what I came up with:

Here are the 12x12 papers I had in my stash which seemed to match. The top row is old Close to My Heart stuff, and the bottom row is brand new - the three on the left are MME, then Theresa Collins and Graphic 45.

Then I saw this great idea from one of Counterfit Kits' Master Forgers, Helen, on how to duplicate the October Afternoon paper Attic Trunk:

I used 1.5" squares of some CTMH Notebook and Blue Ribbon scraps, as well as some other unknown scraps and inked book paper, and glued them to a 12x12 sheet of cardstock to make this bright patchwork quilt type paper. Pretty neat, thanks, Helen!

Then I pulled out some more scraps, a new pack of Prima mistable canvas, some Prima flowers, a Tim Holtz stamp, some postcards, doilies, shipping tags, trim, and 6x6 papers I won to add to the kit:

I also printed out some vintage images that Counterfit Kits linked up on their site. I'm planning to use them as journaling cards or tags.

And finally, this bunch of stuff:

The top row is left over stickers from CTMH's Notebook line, and the bottom row is an embellishment pack I won from Lovely Bug Bits 'n' Bobs - very cute buttons in this kit! Now I just have to use what's in this kit, and I've already started by working on November's P12 layout with it - I think it's going to look really cool!

Now here comes a bit of a rant, so fair warning - I won't be offended if you skip this bit, and I'll try to keep it short. P12 is changing its format, and I'm really disappointed! Previously, they put out a new Becky Fleck sketch for us to work with each month. They've done away with this, there will be no new sketches. Instead, we are to use old sketches from the past two years. We can use whichever sketch we want for whatever month we want to. We can also incorporate the color suite challenge into our layouts if we want. I don't know why I was so disappointed, this seems like a lot of freedom to do it however we want, which should be a good thing, right? Maybe I'm just PMSing, or maybe I look forward to the new sketches and reveals more than I thought, or maybe I just need more direction and structure, but I'm not excited about this new format (or lack of format!) and I don't think I'll be playing along. Instead, I decided this morning that I will make a counterfit kit each month and use that to do my own month-in-review layout. Feel free to join me!

Okay, that's the end of Roxy's Rant! It is very cold here, (-36 C or something) and the school buses aren't running, but I made my kids go to school anyway. Call me mean, but I think they'll have more fun at school than doing nothing here! Plus, when I'm stuck at home with Brenna, we like to lounge all morning in our PJ's, and the older kids being here would cramp our style! What do you like to do when it's too cold to go out?

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Christmas Past!

Did you hear the sad news? This is the last challenge for Sketchy Thursdays! I am completely devastated!!! I had a private dream that one day I would be a Sketchy Thursdays Fave, but alas that dream is no more! (Unless they pick me this week, and although I love how this page turned out and it means a lot to me to scrap this photo, I have my doubts that it's "fave" material.) Anyway, here is the sketch:

I stuck very closely to it, and used a new kit I won from Simple Stories - Love. It. I had a hard time figuring out what papers and stickers to use, because they're all sooooooo yummy! I think I'm going to put aside the rest for next year's December Daily. I'm also entering this page over at Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge, where they've asked to see a photo of a Christmas in your past. This photo was the only one I could find of a Christmas with my Nana in it. She lived in Australia with my Papa, and although I've been over twice and they came over a handful of times, there was only this one Christmas with them. Now that she's passed away, the opportunity for more Christmases with her is gone. (I'm not sure where Papa is at the time of this photo - did he take it, or is he just out of the shot?)

Well, I hear Brenna screaming at me (why is she always screaming, she sounds like a stuck pig up there!) so I better end this now. Goodbye, Sketchy Thursdays, I'll miss you, sniff!

Supplies: all Simple Stories except CTMH cardstock, Tim Holtz Distress Ink, and Creative Memories pen

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Creative Accents January Challenge!

This month at Seriously Creative Challenges, the prompt is "Let it Snow"! You can make a card, a layout, or any other project, as long as it involves SNOW!!! It has been a very strange winter in our neck of the woods, with not much of the white stuff - in fact, I just heard that the annual dog sled race that happens here has been canceled! We are supposed to get a dump this weekend, so hopefully there will be enough for the Cariboo Marathon, which is a big cross-country ski race that happens here in February I believe.

Anyway, here is my project:

These photos have been in my "To Be Scrapped" pile (do you have one of those?) for a while, and they were taken close to four years ago now, but honestly, they are the most recent snowy photos I could find! I love them, because they show us on one of our many family walks in one of my favorite places in the world, Dawson City. I'm not sure why I loved it there so much, as it's one of the coldest, darkest places you can even imagine, but there's no accounting for taste! A close-up of the journaling:

Uh-oh, I just realized I made a booboo on the last line there, and I wasn't even drinking! And here's a close-up of some misting I did using a doily as a mask:

I did this on purpose so I could put this layout in over at Scrapbooker's Anonymous - they want to see some masking this month, with paint, ink, or what have you. I wish it turned out a bit darker, but, on second thought, that might have been a bit overwhelming. I used white paint on all my paper edges for a bit of a snowy effect, and I also painted my chipboard letter stickers - some are green, others are pink, but you'd never know it! To finish it all off, I made some bling swirls with my IRock tool and a Bazzill template by two of the snowflakes. I was going to add a third by the far left snowflake, but my batteries were dying and I needed to get this in on time. What do you think, should I add more bling, or leave it as is?

Well, I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, and please mark this challenge on your list of "To Enter" challenges for January - if you do, I'll love you forever!

Supplies: Coredinations and Bazzill cardstock, Echo Park patterned paper, Heidi Swapp chipboard letters, Sakura pen, Imaginisce IRock tool and gems, Bazzill swirl template, Maya Road doily, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, unknown die cut snowflakes

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