Thursday, December 31, 2009

As we step into 2010...



The last day of 2009


I thought I could get this done yesterday, but I had some technical issues with my laptop- for some reason the card reader decided it didn't want to work right.

Today, I thought I would do something different! I was a inspired a little by necessity, but also by my sister, who got a Cricut Expression (lucky ducky!) for Christmas and has been crafting up a storm! I think I am to blame partially for creating this crafting monster because a couple months ago, she asked me to bring my Cricut to Mom's house so she could see how it worked. I have the personal-sized one, but it gave her an idea of how they work. I also have Sure Cuts A Lot and the Storybook cartridge, which I recommended, and she got those as well. Anyhow, she started off doing some cards, and I needed a Thank You card for my Grandma, so I decided to do a card sketch this time around!


For this card, I used papers from Die Cuts With a View & Marianne Richmond. I cut the shaped papers and the words out with my Storybook cartridge. The flowers I made by cutting out the flower shapes on the George cartridge in 2", 1 1/2" , and 1" sizes from each type of paper I was using. I inked each one on the edges with a coffee colored ink. For the flower on  the left, I glued down the big piece on the bottom and then curled the petals with a chop stick and glued each of them down with the smallest piece last. I did pretty much the same with the other flowers, but because the paper is only printed on one side, I actually rolled the petals inside out.

For my actual layout and sketch this week, I am still catching up on my fall pictures :)
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I also decided to do a round sketch this time. I love how it worked with these photos & papers.


I stamped the paper behind the larger photo with a swirl stamp and brown ink and used an edging ruler to tear it, then I inked it around the outside with the same color ink as well. The other papers as well as the journal spot are Little Yellow Bicycle (which is a company I seem to be buying more & more stuff from). The Alpha stickers are from WeRMemoryKeepers. The gold mesh is actually some Christmas ribbon I bought a couple years ago & just love how it adds to my layouts! I'll be sad when I run out because I haven't found any more like that since I bought it. At first, I had issues getting it to stick to my pages, but I've found that if I spray the back of it with Helmar Vellum Adhesive & let it sit for a few minutes, it sticks really well!

Today is the last day of 2009! I don't make resolutions because then I don't feel bad for not keeping them, but I have promised the kids that I will not buy any more scrappy stuff until after our vacation at the end of May (Disneyland !!!), with the exception of photos, adhesives & page protectors (which I buy at the dollar store usually, anyways). That means as the weeks go by, you will see me using up more of my stash, some of which I have been hoarding a good 5+ years now! This could get interesting!

Happy New Year!

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

The gifts


Since it is after Christmas & everyone has their gifts, I can finally post the pictures of what I made :) I'll start with my mom's present, an altered canvas.

I used Daisy D's paper on this (though it's hard to see through the paint & the flash). I started by decoupaging the paper to the canvas. After that dried, I mixed some paints together to make the pretty lavender color and also mixed it with an opaque iridescent ceramic paint and painted around the edges of the paper and on the canvas (I used a foam brush for this). I then used just the ceramic paint to cover the paper. After all the paint had dried, I cut out the frames and the Title using my Storybook Cricut font and decoupaged them to the canvas.I adhered a quote sticker from Me & My Big Ideas inside the smaller frame after the glue was dry and then painted over that with the ceramic paint and just a touch of the lavender paint. After all that dried, I then used Helmar Craft Glue to create the pearl swirls and to adhere the lace and ribbon. I then used Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots to attach the silk flowers (found @ the dollar store) and the butterflies (also cut from the Storybook cartridge). Lastly, I used some glitter glue on the butterfly bodies & put the bling on the small frame.

These are the cookie jars I made for my sister & sister-in-law (and their significant others)- although I should have taken this photo after I filled them with cookies...

I decoupaged both of these. The jar on the left used papers from Collage Press (I love the little cupcakes!), Sassafras (the little duckies), and Die Cuts With a View (the pink & brown plaid... it's also on the lid). I used alpha stickers from American Crafts & the ribbon is from a swap. The jar on the right is 100% Sassafras papers & even a paper whimsy card. I used my Cricut Storybook cartridge to cut the "Sweets", and the ribbon is some old holiday ribbon I got at JoAnn's a couple years ago. The flowers on both are Prima.

The kids and I also used some old photos of my Dad's cars through the years & made him a calendar, but I was in such a hurry to get everything dome, I neglected to document it and therefore am unable to share it. I will share what we used for it for anyone wanting to make their own. We used 13 page protectors and pretty much made 12 8 1/2 x 11 horizontal layouts featuring one car on each month, as well as a theme for each month. We then used 3 1" binder rings to attach the page protectors to  a large piece of cardboard that we had painted and we glued the first & last page of them to the cardboard itself. We then made the calendar part in Microsoft Word and printed them out and put them in the proper spots in the calendar and voile! A reusable calendar!

I'll get my scrap on tomorrow and share a couple new sketches :) Just in time for the New Year!

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Happy Holidays


There's no new sketch today... I'll resume those next week :) If you're absolutely needing one, hop over to Spunky Scrappers for my monthly sketch there :)

Friday, December 18, 2009

Altered Baby Frame


This frame was my baby shower present for my sister in law, who is due in January. I didn't get it done prior to the shower because I was looking for the perfect frame. I got this one at WalMart. It's an 11x14 frame with an 8x10 mat. I used some old papers from a Die Cuts With A View Stack that I have been looking for the perfect thing to use them with & I think I found it! I used some art glue to decoupage the paper to the existing mat and then used Helmar Acid Free Glue to glue down the ruler ribbon (I can't remember who made the ribbon... I got it at JoAnn's though).The little wood pieces & epoxy stickers are things I got in RAK's & I love how they look! I used Helmar Craft Glue to stick them to the mat The bingo card is from Jenni Bowlin, the Chipboard is Marcella by K & the banner journaling sticker at the bottom (so she can write down his birthday when he is actually born) is Sassafras. TFL!

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Pagemaps End of the Year Contest


I haven't done one of these in a while, so I figured that I should do one now... and there's a sweet prize involved :)
Here's the sketch & the prize up for grabs:


I rotated it and used one large photo with little squares... for some reason, the butterflies made me think of falling leaves, so that's why I did this one how I did. I used papers & chipboard from WeRMemory Keepers. The leaves are some that I bought at Walmart that came pre-glittered & the felt is Blu Eye Dezines.




Wednesday, December 16, 2009

I'm Amplified :)


The sketch for today actually has a layout to go with it! Yay! I am over the moon with all of the giveaways they are having for Christmas on my favorite blogs... of course, my favorite is Sassafras.They want to see Amplify creations, so I had to do this, of course :)

Here's the sketch:

And my Layout:


This is all Sassafras Amplify, with the exception of the Bazzill Cardstock, some felt from Blu Eye Dezines and the leaf stamps that I have had for year & don't remember where they are from.

I have been busy making gifts for family, so I will share when I get them uploaded (which I think may be after Christmas for most of them...

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

'Tis the Season


I don't have time today to do the layout for this sketch that I know of, but I at least have this week's sketch! I really like this one and I think it may be one of my favorites of my recent sketches. And it would be beautiful for the holidays! 


I am spending all day today making most of the presents we will be giving away for Christmas. I will post a couple of them so you can see them, but there's some I have to wait until after the holidays.

To get into the festive mood, I thought I would post some holiday pictures (ie- pictures of our tree). We went with a new tree this year, as our old one is about the same age as Chloe and starting to look a little sad. We bought this one and just love it because it looks like us! And yes, you could expect me to have a tree like this... bright and colorful.


Here's one of the kids & Zeke in front of it... (I know this one's a little dark)...


And finally (my favorite), Charlie's kitten, Smokey, playing with it (Can you believe this guy's only 8 months old?)



Monday, December 7, 2009

The Guys & no dryer...


I did this layout for the first sketch challenge at Spunky Scrappers :) BTW, my sketch is the next one! Let me know how you like it :)

For this layout, I used Orbit papers from Crate. I layered on top of a journaling tag from Little Yellow Bicycle using a Paper Whimsy from Sassafras and used a BoBunny Rub-on for the actual area that I journaled in. I used Rub-ons from My Mind's Eye Magnolia collection (the brackets) and October Afternoon (the letters).

I intended to spend my day doing laundry and scrapping, but I arrived home from work last night to find that our dryer is down. Lovely. This necessitated an afternoon of trying to research what was wrong with it (I think it's a thermal fuse) and how to possibly fix it. Joe will be dealing with that this weekend. Anyhow, since we needed clothes for the week, Charlie and I hauled our laundry to the laundromat for  couple hours spent watching laundry spin and eating vending machine snacks. I really hope that our dryer is able to get fixed soon. I don't know if I can handle another exciting afternoon at the laundromat.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Holy Cow this is Cool!


Hop on over to Urban Swank & win yourself some yummy-licious Urban Lily papers... You can find all the delightful details here: http://urbanswank.blogspot.com/2009/11/who-wants-paper.html.

Have fun!

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Two for the price of one


I decided to try something a little different this week. I have one sketch and two different layouts from it.

This is a fairly simple sketch and I really wanted two different looks that were as different from each other as I could get them to be.


For my first layout, I used papers from Die Cuts With a View (These kitty papers were in a Fall Stack I got and have never had an occasion to use until now...) and also K & Co. The alphas & Journal Spot are from Sassafras and the tiles are Junkitz. I got the little kitty tags at Walmart on clearance a couple years ago.


For my second layout, I used a bunch of papers from Sassafras' Amplify Collection. I also have a Paper Whimsy in there. The alphas are from Miss Elizabeth's, the chipboard is from Heidi Swapp, the buckles are from Junkitz & the felt is from Blu Eye Dezines.