Chance to win THIS!

Hi Scrapfans...

The Ribbon Carousel is giving away one of their fabulous carousels.  They are so functional and pretty, I need about 2 or 3 of them! 

Head on over to their blog and find out all the ways you can enter to win one of these sweet prizes!find out about it all HERE.

Crop Chef Challenge #6

For this challenge, we were asked to use a wooden element, some red, paint a border and use a big tag.
My son Paul recently turned 11 and for his birthday he got a computer program that records music, a mixer, two microphones, speakers and a music stand and bench for his keyboard. Basically he got a mini recording studio.  He and my youngest daughter write and perform music together.  They call themselves "The Bubbles."  Paul plays drums and piano and Mary plays drums and guitar. 

Background paper is chipboard,  patterned paper is Carolee's.  Wooden letters--generic, "to" Heidi Grace, and "rock" grunge stamps from Autumn Leaves. Game spinner and sprockets from Tim Holtz.  Embossing powder on "rock" from Ranger.  Vintage lay away tags.

Crop Chef challenge number #5

I had SO much fun with this.  I bought this scrapbook paper about 4 years ago and misplaced it.  I found it the other day and it was made to use markers on!  So I busted sbout the Spectrum Noir markers and went to town. :)  The challenges for this LO were: Use a die cut, lace,  a circle, sticker or rub on, dangle something, use sanding, and use fabric.  I sanded the photo.  I know you can do this kind of thing with brushes in photoshop, but I don't know how to do that...much easier to bust out real sandpaper for me!!!  I used fabric to mat the photo, a lace doily, a dangling gem under the doily, butterfly and letter stickers.  I didn't have any green spectrum noir markers or copics so I used Luminarte's twinkling H2Os  water color paint for the green leaves. And of course, my sweet subject is my little girl, Mary.  She's 2 in this photo, taken on Mother's day, 2005.

Here's what the paper looked like in process:

Crop Chef Challenge #4

Here's my #4 layout for the Cookin Up Creations Crop Chef Challenge.  For this challenge the necessary elements were:  a key, buttons, flowers, torn page or photo and ruffled paper. 

I'm very happy with the way this turned out.  I made this, in part, for my husband for Valentine's day so a lot of love went into it. :)  I used the lyrics to the Beatles' song "Real Love."    PP Basic Grey and Making memories, key Tim Holtz. Stephanie Bernard stamps used for background on heart and banner. "Real Love" cut on Silhouette with "cotton candy" font. "crown" border cut on Silhouette. Distress ink "Tattered rose" Tim Holtz. Ribbon by Making Memories, velvet trim by Wright.   I really like how the ruffled edges around the hearts turned out.  It was my first time doing that and I really like the effect.  Also I got inspiration from my friend Shar Hoff in making the flowers.  She makes such gorgeous flowers on her projects.  I didn't have the Tim Holtz die she uses so I thought I'd try making them by hand cutting a spiral with wavy edge scissors, and it worked pretty well! 

The photos are of us at our wedding and the other one is us on our 10th anniversary cruise.  I liked the juxtaposition of the formal and informal pictures.

Please go visit my friend Shar's blog to see her fabulous creations and get inspired yourself!  :)
http://scrapendipity.blogspot.com/

...and give a listen to the beautiful Beatles song....Real Love.  I'm so thankful to have Real Love with a man I love more every single day.

Cooking up Creations Crop Chef Challenge #3

The challenge this time was to include, embossing, a clock face, trims, hand written journalling, a postage stamp, stickles and masking technique.  I decided to to a LO about winter.  I have quite a few relatives who live in Florida and California, and they always gloat about their "good weather."   I actually like winter.  It serves a purpose in my life, is part of the rhythm of nature.  I like being warm in my house, making warm comfort food, and watching the occasional snowstorm.  Sometimes it's incredibly beautiful.  And I think it makes spring truely welcome and miraculous.

Journalling says: "It seems to me that many people miss the blessing of winter. Instead of cursing the cold or wishing it away, I prefer to focus on home and family and the warmth I create there. It is a time to be reflective and dormant, like nature itself. It is a preparation for the miracle of renewal that happens in the spring. I <3 it."

Spread the love...

Here are the Valentine's I made this year:

Finally done with my Valentines for this year. :)  I had a lot of fun making them.  I hope the receipents like them too.

As you can see, I used a lot of the black and white polka dotted paper. It is from Making Memories, and I found it at Big Lots, a pack of 25 sheets for $2.  I would suggest to any new scrapbookers/cardmakers, that if you ever see a deal like that to buy in quantity.  Dotted paper is very versatile, and looks so good paired with solids or other patterns.  I'm glad I have a lot of it!

Cookin' up Creations Crop Chef Challenge #2

Here's my second layout for the Crop Chef Challenge at Cookin' up Creations. 

I used Bazzill Cardstock for the background, Patterned Paper is Basic Grey.  I punched circles out of an old book and used them as a border.  I inked it using Tim Holtz distress inks.  Journalling says, "To maintain a joyful family requires much of both the parents and the children.  Each member of the family has to become, in a special way, the servant of the others."

Requirements for this challenge were:  Use ink, use a metal tag, a heart, and a border.

Thanks for looking!

Cookin' up Creations Challenge #1

Here is the layout I did for the first challenge of the Cookin' up Creations Crop Chef competition.  The requirements were: 

dotted paper
double matted photos
ribbon photo corners
bottle cap or other metal embellishment
punched shape
doily
and...use pictures of your pet.

If you have been following my blog you'll know that I LOVE doing layouts of my fabulous wonderdog, Chai. :)  So I was delighted to see that requirement!

The red paper is Bazzill, dotted pp is Making Memories.  I got that Making Memories paper in a pack of 100 sheets at a Big Lots store, and I LOVE it.  It is so versatile, I am glad I got so much of it....and for only 2 bucks!  Ribbon is by Making Memories.  The doily, lacy envelope, and the letters are all cut from my Silhouette machine.  There was a big learning curve for me with the Silhouette, but once I learned to use it, the things I've been able to make on it are amazing.  As you can see, it can cut very intricate shapes.  I put red glitter and UTEE in the bottle cap and embedded a punched heart shape in there.  The bottlecap is attached to one flap of the envelope and does a good job of holding the envelope flaps down. I put some journalling inside the envelope about the first day with Chai.  The pictures are of that first day. Wasn't she cute? 

Romantic Valentines

These Valentines look so complicated, but they really aren't!  If you have a xyron X sticker machine and a paper trimmer with a ruler, it's easy peasy!   I picked out a bunch of papers that have similar colors or a coordinating color scheme (like the cream, red black), and made sure to use at least one with writing on it.  Then I made a card base from heavy cardstock and matted it using one of the papers and some solids. I cut one inch squares from the patterned paper and ran them through the X machine.  Then I adhered them to a piece of cardstock that was cut to fit within the last mat.  I adhered them diagnonally, making sure that the first row I did on the top of that paper had the corners lined up with the edge of the mat, with half the square hanging off of the mat. (I simply cut those off even with the mat after I laid them down)  I staggered the patterns in a pleasing way, added some paper lace, a metal label holder and used the little clown figure on pop dots. 

For the second card, I changed it slightly.  I made the flower with pink vellum.  I cut out circles of the vellum, secured them in the middle with a brad and sprayed it with pink glimmer mist, scrunching up the paper while it was wet.  When it was dry, I put a button and some embroidery floss in the middle of the flower.

If you make your Valentine a card like this, they will know without a doubt that they have your heart!

CROP CHEF Challenge!

I'm going to be participating in Cooking Up Creations "Crop Chef Challenge." 
Hopefully I'll be posting what I make here too... 

You can visit and sign up for the challenge yourself at

www.cookinupcreations.com

Penguin Party!

I made this birthday invitation for my son Paul's 11th birthday party.  He loves penguins, so the Penguins4Christmas and the More Penguins2love stamp sets from Stephanie Bernard are very useful here in my house!  For this card, I used Stephanie's stamps, her ink in licorice and strawberry, and copic markers. I highly recommend Stephanie's line of stamps, they are fun and inspire me to make all kinds of interesting cards.  She has a club that if you join, you get a monthly stamp set for $10, and club member discounted pricing on her other products.  In my opinion, you get a lot for your money. You could spend $10 a month easily on cards, why not make them yourself and send a little love as well? 

This is another card using the same stamp set.  I used crayola markers on this one, and used black embossing powder on the penguin and gifts.  Paul had found a $20 bill on our front street while he was out walking Chai.  Instead of keeping it, he took it to our neighbor because it was in his yard.  As it turns out, our neighbor's daughter *had* lost $20 earlier that day.  Our sweet neighbor rewarded Paul with a gift card and praised his honesty.  I was very proud of him, because he knew just what to do by himself.  The inside of the card reads, "When you do God's will on earth, you store up treasure in heaven." 

Check out Stephanie Bernard's Stamps of Life website for more fun ideas for cards.

http://www.stephaniebarnardstamps.com/index.htm