Saturday, December 29, 2012

Playing with Pop-Pop

My daughter calls her maternal grandfather Pop-Pop.  It's what I called my grandfather and what my mom called her grandfather so it's sweet to see the name continue.  It also makes it a little easier to distinguish grandfathers.  Ha Ha!  This was a photo taken many years ago when my parents had a houseful of people and pets - my family, my parent's West Highland Terrier, and their friend's ShitZu they were pet sitting.  Alex had a blast with the dogs and with Pop-Pop.

Sketch is from My Scraps and More #8 and the papers are from Colorbok.  I added corduroy and copper brads, an edge anchor and brads from Close to My Heart, journal tag from EveryDay Life, gold and olive ribbon from Michael's, tile letters from Thickers, and the last piece of burlap ribbon from a roll (I actually completely used something up from my stash!)

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

My Favorite Two People

This is one of my favorite sets of pictures of my hubby and daughter taken in Westhampton Beach NY back in '04.  I wanted to avoid the expected beachy theme and since the photo was taken in March, it wasn't actually very "beachy" weather.  So I went with just blue-grey colors from Cloud 9 to let the photos pop.  The title is from a really old set of ribbon slide letter from Making Memories and the silver brad-like embellishments are Jolees (All That Bling line).  Sketch is from Sketch N Scrap's Dec 15 sketch and I am also using this for ACOT's Spelling challenge where I had to spell "Christmas" with ingredients.  What I chose is:
  • C = Cloud 9 paper
  • H = Hand-made embellishments (the flowers fussy cut from the paper)
  • R = ribbon
  • I = inked corners (Studio G stamp)
  • S = silver embellishments
  • T = teal cardstock
  • M = matted photos
  • A = aqua cardstock
  • S = Sizzix die cut (journal card) and slide letters


Sunday, December 23, 2012

Christmas Card Stragglers

OK - a few final Christmas cards are trickling out my door....  This one used scraps from an earlier card and is based on a sketch from Sweet Stamps.  Stamp is Hero Arts and twin is Queen & Co.



Some Assembly Required

We all hear stories of parents staying up to the wee hours of Christmas Eve assembling bikes, train sets, and other complicated toys for the wee ones...OK - it hasn't happened since we were kids before the electronic game era...  But wait - it DOES still happen, at least when the gift is a ping pong table! 

But how do you sneak in a huge (and heavy) ping pong table, get it upstairs to the game room (which is next to my daughter's bedroom) and fully assemble it without my DD suspecting anything (complete with the bickering and arguing over why page 4 of the instructions was skipped, and debating over why there are screws left over).  The answer to this long question is - you don't.  After two weeks of debating the options and another week of finding a truck we could borrow to even get the darn thing home, we decided and early Christmas present was simply the only option.  So last weekend, my husband and I toiled away, laughed at our occasional stupidity, agreed to disagree on the extra screw, and "surprised" our daughter with the table a week early.  They haven't stopped playing since.

P.S.  This is for ACOT's die cut challengeSketch N Scrap December Bonus, and Hiding in My Craft Room #77 Anything But Christmas.  I used papers from Prima (Craftsman series) and several different die cuts from Crea8ive Cuts as well as some self-created die cuts (the nuts and bolts and the shadow of the screwdriver and wrenches).  LOVE how the diec cuts turned out - very fusy to assemble and ink the edges but so worth it.  Letters are Thickers from the Amy Tangerine series.


Saturday, December 22, 2012

Catching up on Card Creations

As with all of us, I have a lot of events coming up - birthdays, Christmas of course, New Year's, and unfortunately, the passing of a friend's near aunt.

In addition to the Verve and My Favorite Things sketch challenges, I am also submitting these to:









Monday, December 17, 2012

Hybrid Scrapping

While everyone seems to be going digital, I am still holding out - if only because of my excessively large supply of paper :-)    BUT, I am occasionally playing around with hybrid scrapping - in this case, using digital papers on a traditional layout.  I took the easy way out and simply used Word to create the hearts, journaling circle, and mats and then filled the shapes with the digital images, print and hand cut.  Easy Peezy Lemon Squeezy!  (As easy as it was, though, I am looking forward to getting my Silhouette Cameo where I can do all the print and cut semi-automatically).

The use of digital paper is perfect for Hiding in My Craft Room #76 Go Digital challenge.  The specific papers I chose were inspired by Paper Secret's color challenge, though I did swap in a charcoal grey rather than the moss color.  To play up more of the light grey, I created my own embellishment by wrapping twine inside one of the hearts.  Very fussy to create but love the results.  The sketch was based on My Scrap & More Sketch #7 challenge and the twine-wrapped heart is perfect for ACOTs' December Trends & Techniques challenge.

The photos, by the way, are of my daughter buried in paper as we unpacked after moving to the great state of Texas - can't believe we've been here 8 years when the plan was no more than 2 years!  Ha ha.

Enjoy!










Christmas Packaging

So I have begun to wrap all of the various presents for family, friends, and teachers.  Not just for the great "Wrap It Up" challenge at My Craft Spot or the Holiday challenge at Little Scrap Pieces of course, but because I like adding a little handmade touch to things!

Each year I find myself with odd shaped items that are not easy to wrap - especially round stocking-stuffer items, be it nail polish, chocolates from Starbucks, or other little round trinkets.  This year I solved it - simply and elegantly.  I used a Christmas Cracker cutting file from Bird's Cards that I used with my cutting machine.  You can use this file with Silhouette, Black Cat, Zing, and other cutting machines - you can also hand cut it using a .pdf template she provides on her site.  While I have had a number of other cracker cutting files including a few from Cricut cartridges, this one is my favorite - the hexagon shape makes a much nicer end result!  They are so easy to make - I shall never wrap a round gift again.

And I can;t forget the little pillow boxes I have made using the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge.


Friday, December 14, 2012

Multiple Photos, Multiple Papers

Sketches4All has a fabulous guest DT member this month - Brandi Matos.  Her work is beautiful!  She's running a layout challenge this month to use multiple photos.  Your wish is my command, Brandi!  And I don't want to leave out the gals over at Paper Girls - they, too, have a challenge to use multiple photos.

With this goal in mind, I then sought out a great sketch to use and My Favorite Things had a perfect one, though I did decide to turn it on its side.  And to further challenge myself, I added a challenge from ACOT to use 12 different papers on a single layout.  It's not quite as easy as it sounds.   The papers I ended up with are:
  1. Basic Grey - Basics and Out of Print
  2. My Minds Eye - Surfs Up
  3. Close To My Heart - Elements, Dotty For You, and Stella
  4. Simple Stories - Snap
  5. Echo Park - Dots and Stripes (2 different papers)
  6. Misc Pink paper from scrap
  7. Cardstock - Recollections and Bazzill
The title was designed in Make The Cut and cut on my Cricut, I then used an embossing folder on the initial letter of each word and added some ink.  The embossing and the banners are perfect for the latest challenge at The Cuttlebug Spot.  And I almost forgot about Pause Dream and Enjoy - their challenge this week is anything with snow - need I say more?

Monday, December 10, 2012

Sketches 4 All December Sketch Challenge

Sketches4All has a number of challenges this month and every month and this is a layout I did for our December Sketch XI challenge.  Come join the fun!

I also took inspiration from the 4-way NOEL challenge from the Grand Divas and friends:
  • N = number in the title or sentiment (Keri's challenge at Scrappin' Happy)
  • O = Oval - the oval on top of the journal card (Kristi B's portion of the challenge)
  • E = Eyelets - five of them on the left edge of the scalloped frame (Rochelle's portion of the challenge)
  • L = Lined paper on the journal card (Brenda's portion of the challenge)
I am also using this for the 4x4 Challenge at A Cherry on Top.  This challenge was to use only two sheets of 2-sided paper for the whole layout plus no more than 4 embellishments.  I used a sheet from Authentique' Original collection and a sheet from Bella Blvd Paper Boy.  The embellishments were the eyelets, the journal card, the stars in the upper right


Sunday, December 9, 2012

Christmas with Graphic 45

I created this card with Graphic 45 papers (Christmas Emporium) using a take on Iris folding to create the main section.  Sketch was based on Mojo Monday sketch.  The sentiment is from a stamp set from Close to My Heart and I cut the tag for the sentiment on my Cricut for this week's Creative Cutter Room Graphic 45 challenge.  The green colors in the paperes and the base make it perfect for DL.Art Green or Red challenge this week, too (I love Diana's creations)!  I'm also entering this in the Little Scrap Pieces Christmas challenge (love their crinkle ribboon)






Wednesday, December 5, 2012

New Challenge at Sketches4All with Prize!

Welcome to the December Eureka/QKR Challenge!! 
 
The latest monthly challenge has now been posted at Sketches 4 AllWe're thrilled to be sponsored by Eureka Stamps and QKR Stampede.  The lucky challenge winner will receive 5 digital stamps of his/her choice.
 
Our challenge to you is a simple:
Christmas or Winter Holiday project
 
The Sketches4all design team has used stamps from these two companies to make projects to inspire you to join in on this challenge. 

       



Details:
  • You are not required to use a stamp on your project.
  • The challenge starts December 5th and ends on January 3rd. 
  • Your project must be new as of today and you CAN NOT combine with other Sketches4All challenges.
  • You may enter a maximum of 3 times. 
  • The winner will be randomly drawn and announced on January 7th.  
  • Post your project on the S4A discussion thread here
 
Now GO, have fun and get to scrapping!! We can't wait to see your Winter Holiday themed projects!!