Sunday, September 30, 2012

Squirrels and Dogs

Great sketch contest going on at Sketches4All this month with a great prize of one of the newest Nikki Sivils paper kits!  This picture of my dog trying to climb a tree to get to a squirrel worked perfectly.  To add some pizazz, I wove twine into the burlap and used more twine as a sort of corner embellishment - perfect for Scrap Fit #75 Trendy Twine challenge! 

I also thought it worked well for the Scrap Our Stash challenge where "BTS" in my layout stood for Burlap / Brad, Tag / Twine / Tree / Tear, and Squirrel / Square Brad / Ribbon Slide.  And can anyone resist Party Time Tuesday's Anything Goes challenge?


Saturday, September 29, 2012

Thanksgiving with Cutting Cafe

Cutting Cafe has some great digi files (her penguins and Christmas Sentiment Shapes are my favorites).  I used three different images from the Autumn Days collection - two in the circle and then the sentiment in the scroll.  The scroll stamp and coordinated scroll die are from Verve and the sketch was inspired by this week's Viva la Verve challenge).  The leaves were left over from an older project.  I hope all these ribbons are enough fro the Little Scrap Pieces "Ribbon or Twine" challenge - ha ha!  They make it look a bit like a giant award ribbon - oh well.  At least I can say I used a lot of my stash!




Thanksgiving

Just a quick Thanksgiving card using a new M-Bossibilities embossing folder I pick up tonight.  The sentiment is from My Creative Time, the two ribbons are from Hobby Lobby, and the frame from the sentiment is from SVGShop.com

Challenges:

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Trick or Treat

This is actually my first Halloween card.  I couldn't resist when I saw the amazing cutting file from Bird's Cards.  Her beautiful work is only surpassed by her generosity since she provides these images (both digital and as SVG cutting files) absolutely free. 

Challenges:
  • Hiding in My Craft Room #64 Halloween
  • dl.Art Thankful Thursday - Halloween

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Learning to Dance with Verve


I went all out with Verve stamps and dies this week for the Viva la Verve sketch challenge, beginning with this wonderful sentiment from Verve's Blue Skies stamp set.  I used their Ribbon Banner die for the sentiment and then added a flower stamped from Verve's Dream Big set.  The doily on the bottom is from my all time favorite site for cutting files - MTC SCAL E-Files.

Enjoy!



Got Game?

Adding to her busy schedule, my DD made her middle school volleyball team.  This was her very first game!  Not a lot of action as the girls are still perfecting their serving ability...read this as "watch the ball hit the net, rotate, and watch the ball hit the net".  Rinse. Repeat.

In any case, it has given me more subject matter to scrap.  I decided to use lots of photos.  I then printed all but one in a sepia tint.  This was somewhat out of necessity since the bright blue of the uniforms and walls along with the very yellow floor was giving me so many problems finding the right mix of papers to use.  I ended up using a mix of paper from PaperLoft, Simply Stories Awesome collection, and Gltizy Designs.  I made the rosette using the Cricut Artiste cartridge and topped it with a big brad.

Challenges:

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Happiness Is...a Mid-Life Crisis

I suppose I should be pleased that (a) my husband waited until he was 44 for his mid-life crisis and (b) I now have more subject matter to scrap.  But a motorcycle??????

This is actually a hybrid page - the papers are all from a digital paper set called Moody Blues from Shabby Princesss.  The title is Thickers (of course), the sub-title was created in Word, and I added some alpha brads, big silver Bazzill brads and some twine from Jillibean Soup.  Haven't decided yet where to put the journaling - probaly along the bottom...I tend to do very little journaling beyond the date so who knows.

The great sketch is from Sketch~N~Scrap #16 challenge.  I am going to also give this a go for the Aud Sentiment challenge that is Funny Sentiments.  This is about as funny as I can muster!  The extensive use of the digital papers and the sub-title created in Word makes it a great entry into the I Brake for Challenges "Use a Digital Image" challenge this month.  Since this is my "boy", it will be my entry into Scrapping Everyday Miracles "Lets Hear it for the Boys" challenge.  The use of the hoarded Thickers is for Use it Tuesday #39, and finally, the greys and blues are inspired by ScrapFit Workout #76.












Cleaning Up My Scraps

And here's a second card I made fom the same CTMH paper set as in my earlier post.  I figured it was easier to carry on than tidy up :-)

I liked the paper so much that I decided to use vellum for the sentiment rather than solid cardstock.  I also created a gold frame for the vellum to hide the adhesive and added a gold scroll-like die cut from Verve (Flourish Trim) .  While I chose a different sketch inspiration for this one, I carried on with the gold and ribbon challenges from the earlier card:




Wishing You Happy Holidays (already?????)

Yes - it's that time again.  Time to start making Christmas cards!  I bought a stamp and paper set from Close to My Heart and absolutely adore it!  The papers are so elegant!  I see several cards with this paper in my future...  Rather than copy the Close to My Heart layout suggestions I have taken some inspiration from several great challenge sites (I've been a bit out of the challenge world lately so I'm catching up with old friends and new inspirations):


Sunday, September 16, 2012

Mixing Authentique

Many months ago I won a paper kit of Authentique Splendid.  There were two great papers from this kit that I used for an altered box but I wasn't quite sure how I would use the other patterns, especially a rather orange-tinted distressed wood sheet.  When I came across this photo of my daughter having fun playing in the frontier house at the Dallas Arboretum I thought maybe....since the orange of her shirt in the photo didn't really go with anything else I said "fo for it". 

I paired it with the Authentique scraps left from the altered box project (the back-most mat is actually three different pieces plus the date tag to the left of the photo) and then brought in two papers from another Authentique line - Loyal.   I wanted one other pattern/color but the other patterns from the Authentique sets just weren't working with this layout.  So I turned to a small sheet of a blue-and-green diamond pattern I had in my stash.  This was perfect for the one mat and the tiny banners at the bottom (love these - its a new die from Verve).

And finally a few embellishments including brads, lace flowers from Close to My Heart, and some random buttons.

The photo of my DD having fun made it great for the "Something Fun" challenge as Sketches4All.  And none of it would have come together if not for the second monthly sketch from Paper Secrets.  And what a coincidence that it's Authentique month (wink) !  Since the paper kit that started this came from a "friend" (Grand Diva's blog - love it!), I thought the layout would be a perfect entry for DL.Arts Thankful Thursday challenge that asks us to use something from a friend (the paper prize) and all the paper distressing I did is for Hiding in My Craft Room's Distressing challenge.




Love and Chocolate

I love this quote from Charles Schultz, courtesy of a Verve stamp (Love Is)!  A work colleague has placed another order for cards for various holidays and Valentine's Day was one of them.  So I pulled out one of my favorite heart cutting files from Miss Vikie, dies from Nestabilities, and paper from Paper Studio.

The theme works great for Tuesday Alchemy's Peace, Love and Hapiness Challenge.  I haven't been able to enter their challenges in a while so good to be back!  The sketch is from Viva la Verve September Week 1 and the color scheme is for the Home Decor inspiration challenge at Sketches 4 All - we'd love to have some new members at this forum so I encourage you to check it out!  LOTS of great challenges each month.  And as I love using SVG files, I was thrilled to find a challenge site dedicated to SVGs - Creative Cutting Challenges (from the founder of Creative Pointe) with their first challenge going on now with an Anything Goes theme.


The color inspiration:


And the sketch inspiration:

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Go For It!

Soccer season has started up so time for more layouts!  Rather than my typical use of red, white, and black (my DD's team colors for several years), I played up the green of the grass and decided to use papers I already had on my desk from a layout I did earlier this month.  Added a few stars cut on my Cricut, some felt buttons, a tag made from a journaling stamp from Verve, and a title courtesy of Thickers.

Challenges that help to inspire this:
  • Paper Secrets:  Sketch (see the sketch below my layout; I flipped the left and right sides)
  • Scrap-Friendzy:  Sports theme
  • My Sketch World:  Bingo - I used the right-most column (buttons, tag, numbers in title)



Sunday, September 9, 2012

Hugs for a Friend (Secret Card Swap)

I am part of a secret card swap over at Sketches4All so I thought I would use the latest sketch from the Lawnscaping Challenge blog.  The flowers are from the Artiste Cricut cartridge (a must-have addition to the Art Philosophy cartridge with three coordinating stamp and chipboard sets).  The stamp if from Verve's Blue Skies set.

Check out the Sketches4All forum - come on...you know you want to... :-)


Sketches4All Challenge - Easy as 1-2-3

I just posted the Monthly Mayhem challenge I host over at Sketches4All - I would love you to join and try for the RAK I always include.  The challenge is 1-2-3:
  • ONE shape other than a circle, square, or rectangle (I used the banner shape)
  • TWO embellishments (I used pearls, ribbon, and clear embossing on the base mat)
  • THREE papers (I used five, including the base)
Please do join us!!!!  There are always several challenges going on and I can't say how much I adore the team over there and am so honored to be one of their DT members - Sketches4All.

So, on to my card...

The sketch is based on Verve's September Week 2 challenge (I turned it on it's side and overlapped the banners).  In addition to their sketch, I used Verve's Blue Skies stamp set for the sentiment and leaf flourish.  The sentiment was then stamped using CTMH Indian Corn Blue ink on a label cut using Verve's Mini Classy Labels die.

The paper is form MME Lost & Found collection.  I have a 6x6 paper pad that I frequently go to and as such, lots of scraps from it.  Since I only wanted small strips for this card, I knew I could count on those scraps at least one more time :-)



Saturday, September 8, 2012

Bring on Christmas!

I am getting started on Christmas cards and what better way than with a sketch from Mojo Monday and dies from Verve?  The papers are leftover scraps from a layout I made a while back using an older line from Little Yellow Bicycle.  I trimmed them with gold and burgundy braid and added two die cuts below (the die is from Verve's new September release - Flourish Trim Die).  I then layered on a piece of velum, hiding the adhesive in the corners with Stickles gold glitter glue.  And all was topped with another die from Verve for the base of the sentiment (Classy Label).  The sentiment itself is a stamp from Michael's dollar bin using Olive ink from Close to My Heart.

In addition to Mojo Monday, I am also entering this card into the following challenges:
- Aud Sentiments - Christmas is Coming
- DL.Art- Anything Goes
- Hiding in My Craft Room #62 - Scraps
- Tuesday Alchemy - #30 Anything Goes









Monday, September 3, 2012

Kodachrome Basin State Park

I am way behind in my scrapping projects - lots going on with back to school, work, lots of vet trips (and bills for two very unhealthy cats (totally unrelated to each other), family, blah, blah, blah!!!  But enough about my trials and tribulations - on to a layout I created this weekend.

The southwest portion of Utah is a stunning part of the country that doesn't get enough recognition.  My husband and I toured this part of Utah on a mini-honeymoon (9 months after we married, ha ha) in 2002 visiting Kodachrome as well as Bryce, Zion, Grand Staircase Escalante, and the north rim of the Grand Canyon.  Unbelievable how much beauty there is in such close proximity!  Forget Disney World - we need to appreciate the amazing natural beauty we are so blessed with.

The layout was inspired by the September sketch challenge at GrandDiva's Create Corner - rather than use the banners in the sketch I used "banners" of Tiny Text from Cosmas Cricket.  I also added a second photo to the left and For Kristi B.'s September challenge, I used come Thickers chipboard letters that I first misted with Glimmer Mist (Thatched Roof Cottage) and then over-stamped with a marble background stamp using Jenni Bowlin acrylic paint (Malted Milk).  For the third diva's challenge - the one and only Rochelle Spears - I added some Distressed Stickles glitter glue to the date tag, used five patterned papers from a wide variety of lines:
  • My Minds Eye - Breaking Free (Righteous Dots and Blue Texture)
  • 7Gypsies - Antiquaries Postale (Numero)
  • My Minds Eye - Lost and Found (Union Square Home Sweet Home)
  • PaperLoft - Serendipity
The Lost and Found paper had a little flourish at one end but I wanted it throughout so I stamped on top of the paper with a Fiskars flourish stamp. 

UPDATED to add the second page I made (apologies for the really bad photo of it).