Another Assignment Posted

About the same time we were celebrating Julian's 3rd birthday, my layout of his 1st birthday photo shoot was created then posted at Sketches: Creatively Yours.

I don't know why it took me 2 years to get to these photos, I guess I didn't want to mess them up. Once I started looking through them, I had a really hard time choosing just two... they were all so cute. I finally decided on these sweet shots of Julian with his mommy. I am so inspired by the relationship between my sister and her kids, she's a great mom.

The sketch I followed for this layout was created by Ann Seleshanko and the papers are MAMBI from last year's fall collection.

I've actually been anxious to share this layout on my blog and was unable to until it was posted at Sketches: Creatively Yours. I just got a little busy once it was posted so I'm a few days behind.

I can't believe it's been 2 years since these photos were taken, and how big Li'l J is now! He's my buddy.

Kudos for a 2nd Consecutive Day

The week got by me and I didn't even realize that Scrapbookers Clubhouse had awarded me with Kudos of the Day for the second consecutive day (11/18) for the invitations that I made for Belle's Zoofari this summer.

I used Creative Imaginations paper, Bazzill Cardstock, my Cricut Zooballoo cartridge and some fun embellishments for the Elephant's ear. Each was different, most had flowers with iTop brad centers. The tiara elephant was a special copy for Annabelle.

The invites were MME "tickets" stuck into a pocket behind the Zoofari Elephant.

I was inspired by a Cricut elephant that I saw somewhere online. I don't remember the where. I thought I had bookmarked it but if you created an elephant with a red and white Hawaiian print (where mine is leopard spotted) thank you for the inspiration! Please let me know so I can credit you properly!!

Blogging via mobile

I just saw a little phone icon on my Blogger dashboard & wondered, "hmmm... would it work?" so here we are, testing it out. I'm always amazed by technology!



*edited via computer to fix the title. I will have to work on that :)

Kudos!

Today I found out I received Kudos of the Day at Scrapbooker's Clubhouse for this card:

This little creation took on a life of it's own when I started out with just white cardstock and some almost clear sequins. The Fall Ball mini crop that happened over this past weekend at SBCH featured a challenge to make a Celebration card that included the use of sequins. My sequins were rescued from a camisole and had been laundered enough that the colors were practically nonexistent. I used some alcohol ink directly on each sequin and they came out these great colors... which got me thinking "peacock" and after a quick web search for peacock clipart, I realized that the neatest ones I saw looked surprisingly like stamps I happen to have and I remembered a photo I had taken earlier this year. I really struggled with the "time to quit" on this. I couldn't figure out what I could do to embellish it further, then I realized that I was overthinking it.

So, some Autumn Leaves stamps, CTMH inks and a little creative license brought this fun little card to life and today it was honored with Kudos. I am very happy with the honor!

Tag!

A darling tag sketch is up at Sketches: Creatively Yours. You should definitely check out the beauty that is there.

I did my tag before I did any other challenges because it just fell together. I love to do small things like Altered Trading Cards and Tags. They are a great way to use up those little bits that are too cute/lovely to toss in the recycle bin.


This proceeded from a piece of blue paper that resembled blue jeans to me. I used the copper eyelets because of that resemblance. The paper needed a little bit of "oomph" so I had at it with a flower stamp that I found in Michaels $ bin and some denim colored CTMH stamp ink. I followed this with an Autumn Leaves swirl stamp and pink embossing powder. I double-stamped and smudged the ink a bit so that I could get a misty sort of look. The word "adore" is from a Making Memories sticker and the "I Love You" is another sticker - the source escapes me. The flowers are Prima and the button is a Making Memories vintage style button. The sketch is by Ali MacDonald.

Don't forget to drop by Sketches: Creatively Yours and see all the inspiration that there is to be had there.

Happy Birthday to my Lil Buddy

My adorable nephew Julian turned 3 yesterday! I can't believe it's been three whole years since he first melted my heart and he still does an incredible job of this heart-melting every day that I spend time with him.

Today we went to Disney on Ice and he got to see Mickey and Minnie Mouse and Aladdin and the Genie (also lots of princesses were there to entertain his big sister, but he didn't care). After the show we went to Olive Garden (his request) and then we went to my sister's house for Cupcakes.

Last weekend when we were together, we got to talking about his upcoming birthday and Annabelle asked if I would be making cupcakes for Julian's birthday. I agreed that I could do that and as I asked him what kind he wanted we found out that the requested cupcakes should be "Blue Ones" and their frosting should be "Blue with sparkles". I asked if they needed to have Lighning McQueen on them and he nearly screamed "YES" in his excitement.

I did as requested, with the help of some premade decors for the cupcakes. I'm a fair hand at cake decorating - when I'm in the mood - but you wouldn't think so when looking at these fun little things :)

All that counts is that the kids loved 'em, they tasted great and we don't have them floating around OUR house!!!

a new sketch-new inspiration

Sketches: Creatively Yours has been updated with another new sketch by November Guest Sketch Artist: Ann Seleshanko and some great projects! This team I am working with is incredible! I'm inspired by all the talent!

Weekend Plans?

How about a Mini Crop?

Scrapbooker's Clubhouse is having a Mini Crop this weekend, starting in the afternoon on Friday, November 13 and running through Midnight, Sunday, November 15. Join us for Challenges, Prizes and lots of Fun!!

**just for fun I created the above image using scrap blog and their free images**

Third Time's a Charm?

I am buzzing over being "featured" on Scrap Scene for a third time! The first time was out of this world! I had done an article for the "Scrappin' Green" feature on Scrapbookers Clubhouse's blog and I was shocked to see a picture of my project featured on their blog; the second time was earlier this year when I did a month as a Design Team member at Scrapbooker's Clubhouse; and this time it is announcing the Design Team for Sketches: Creatively Yours! I don't know why this is such a cool thing for me, but there you have it...

interested in the latest feature? of course you are... Scrap Scene: New Scrapbook Designers

Perhaps I should prepare a speech?

Nah... that's just silly...

Assignment #1 Complete!

My first assignment for the Sketches: Creatively Yours design team is complete, turned in and posted along-side some great work by others on the team... check them all out, you won't be disappointed.

The sketch is by my dear friend Ali and let me just say, she always knows how to force me out of the ole' comfort zone. This sketch almost kicked my butt... then the inspiration came after my bedtime one night when I wandered over to my paper cubby and found 2 sheets that I've loved for a long time but had no idea what to do with. That was it... the challenge of a sketch needed the challenge of papers (the layout itself and a previous post will tell the tale of the challenge of my layout-subject).

"In Spite of Chaos"
Journaling: "I have the hardest time following the simple rule: "clean as you go" so I am always trying to scramble through piles. Luckily I am able to create.... In Spite of Chaos."

Papers are some unknown brand that I got from Big Lots! a few years ago. I've loved them but never had "the project" for them. The photo is what my table looked like as I was working with the paper for the layout... (I actually made some progress in that area today)

The flowers are Cosmo Cricket Blackboard. Alphas are Thickers and "other". Ric Rack is velvety and is from Making Memories. The semi-circle chipboard is from MAMBI and was painted yellow then stamped in CTMH Sweet Leaf green ink with a herringbone stamp.

Sketch# 24 from Sketches: Creatively Yours is by Ali MacDonald

New Blog Header

It's time for a change... I still love Scrapblog.com for my stuff - since I don't have any fancy (make that any) image creation/editing program. I just decided to simplify and have fun with the image that welcomes you to my little piece of the WWW!

Besides, who could resist our little tea party host?

Inspiration

It's amazing what can inspire you to do something. I had the smallest strip of paper left from a page of replica sheet music and the words to the tune turned a bunch of scraps into this:

supplies:
Making Memories - Vintage Findings
(papers, tags, pin, sheet-music, ribbon)
Making Memories - tiny type alpha stickers
Prima flower
ProvoCraft (gold/cream embossed paper)

More Vintage - This Time - ATCs

Well, true to form, instead of packing up and putting away all those lovely scraps and bits and pieces, I put them to work for me. I used my leftover Vintage Findings bits and pieces with some other fun things to create both sides of this "I {heart} Vintage" ATC.

See that flower center (on the left)? That was made with my I-top brad maker. I love that gadget. I've used it several times on several projects. So far, I've covered brads with bits of ribbon, canvas, paper and even a piece of a doily. I am in love with brads and bigger is better! :)

Creating in Chaos

I tried to do my sketch assignment for Sketches: Creatively Yours last night. I was feeling creative even though it was past my bedtime. When I found the papers I wanted to use I realized I had no photos for the layout.

The fact that the entire table was a study in chaos didn't even faze me at first. Then I decided I would document my huge weakness. I took photos of the area and sent them to be printed. I'm not proud, but I am who I am and it is what it is.

I try and try to put things away as I go but I'm always so engrossed in the latest project, and when I try to clean up the bigger mess, I end up inspired to use the scraps or embellishments I find and there goes the whole idea of cleaning.

If this is who I am, then why not create my story about it?

That's just what I'm going to do... and then, maybe, I'll clean up...

It Can Be Easy to Be Green

I'm trying to be green. I think many of us are. In our office we have paperless methods in place and some are actually not so complex that it's a no-brainer to use the paperless method... some are more complex and time consuming, making them really difficult to keep up on.

We have some things that just can't be paperless and in those cases we use reams of copy paper. Each ream is wrapped with a sheet of paper that is roughly 15" x 22"... often these are not recyclable due to the glue used to seal them shut... you could tear/cut off the glue parts or you could save these large sheets of paper that have a pristine white side (the inside) that could be used for gift-wrap, mailing, kids' art, etc.

There are sheets of chipboard which one of the gals and I both take home for our own purposes; hers is for her little one and his preschool to use for art projects and mine is for making boxes and chipboard shapes for creating.

The crazy thing is that there are some reports that we pull and if there isn't a report for that day, instead of getting a pop-up window, it prints a sheet of paper with the line "nothing to print" on the top. So many of the girls shred these... ok so they're recycling but wouldn't it be even better to reuse them? I have put them back through the printer and used them to tape credit card receipts to, who cares if the in-office people see "nothing to print" in addition to the actual information on the scanned paperwork?

Just think of all the uses for things that might otherwise be wasted... including this great link that was featured in today's Scrap Scene email: How About Orange: Make a Gift Bow from a Magazine Page