Thank You :)

Hey Bloggers! I just wanted to pop in and share a quick thank you card I made for Ethan's teacher. I am so blessed to have such a great school available for my kids to go to, and also that we can afford to put them into a private school (so far! lol) Don't get me wrong, we are by no means rich, but Chris and I both think it's important to send our kids to a school that teaches our Christian values as well as their regular education. I have to say after this year with all the striking going on in the public school system, I was really glad that we didn't have to deal with that! Ethan's teacher this year is pretty awesome and he really enjoys her class (which is a good thing because he has her again for grade 2!) aaah!!  I can't believe he's going into grade 2! It makes me a little sad I have to admit!

Anyway, enough of my blabbing...on to the card!

I used this sketch from Sketch Saturday, but I didn't get it in on time...oh well, it's not about winning a challenge, it's about making a card right?! lol

Here's the card that I made:

I pretty much dug through my scraps to make this card, which makes me happy, because I have waaaaay too many scraps...I never think to use them. I'm thinking I might be challenging myself in the very near future to use them all up before I can move on to whole paper again :)

I can't get enough of these paper towel flowers! They're so easy and fun and funky! I just love them!

I used my Dylusions stamp sets for the stems and leaves then I coloured them in a bit with my Distress Markers. Looving both of these goodies! I'm thinking they are going to be getting a loooot of use in the future! 

I die cut the ticket with a Tim Holtz ticket die, and stamped it with a stamp from (Idk?! and I'm too lazy to go downstairs and check right now! lol) Then I added some glossy accents to it to make it look like epoxy stickers or something.

You can kind of see the shiny letters...couldn't really get a great pic of it though...

Anyway, I have to go make lunch for my kiddos! Thanks for stopping by! 

(I just overheard my 3 year old tell Ethan and his friend that Luca (our giant dog) is going to step on the zombies because he's big...lol I sometimes wonder what goes on in these little boy's minds...funny how Ethan (the oldest) would have never even known at all what a zombie was at 3...guess that's what happens when you have older siblings hey?!)

BTW: You still have a little time to get in on the buttons and twine seriously creative challenge @ Creative Accents Challenges :) go over there and check it out!

I'm entering this card into the challenge over @ Stamptacular Sunday

It's a color challenge :)

Have a great day!!

Sarah

Vegas Style

I've been wanting to play along with Canadian Scrapbooker's It's a Sketchy Challenge for a long time now, but I kept forgetting about it when it came time to find a sketch. When I saw this one I knew it would be perfect for the picture of my sis and I in Vegas with some seriously funny sunglasses on! 

Now you don't have to be Canadian to enter this challenge, but if you want a chance to be published in the Canadian Scrapbooker magazine, you have to use at least one Canadian manufacturer on your layout.  I had some Harmonie papers from last year, and a gorgeous Harmonie stamp from when I was in the Stamp of the Month club at Creative Accents that I hadn't ever inked up, so I thought it was the perfect time to use both of them!

Here's my take on the sketch:

I had a hard time getting a decent picture of this layout...the natural light here has been kinda sketchy...

I made those flowers by die cutting some paper towel, stamping a script stamp randomly on the layers and then I put all the die cut flowers in a pile and sprayed a few different colours of mist on them...then I crumpled them up, and dried them with my heat gun...I'm kinda loving them :)

 

The punched circles were made from a manilla file folder. I stamped the Harmonie stamp with a paint dauber, dried it, then sprayed it with a couple different Dylusions sprays, then punched them out...kinda loving this too!

The faux stitching was done with my Picket Fence Distress marker. It's so fun using this on dark or kraft paper. When you first write with it, it doesn't show up, then magically, it appears! It's kinda like those invisible markers I had when I was a kid...fun fun :)

I made this layout for the Memorable Seasons "Last Scrapper Standing" week 4 challenge: Paint (Yup! I'm still in the running...although I'm not sure for how long...there are some seriously creative ladies playing along!)

Well there you have it! Thanks for stopping by! I really appreciate you taking the time to come over and visit!

Cheers,

Sarah

Graphicat Sketch 11

 I hope your afternoon has been as awesome as mine! Ethan had his school end party today and they went swimming then to the park. I took Caleb and Kieran to the park and met Ethan there.  The kids all had so much fun! Now they're all fed, and tired and almost ready for an early bed...which will leave me with plenty of play time in my crafty room tonight! yay!

It's Monday, so it's time for another Graphicat Sketch!

I just recently got a set of Distress Markers, and I've been really wanting to colour with them. So this stamp was coloured with a mixture of Distress Stains and Markers. I really loved pairing the two together! I mostly used the stains, but I love that you can add some dimension and darken up the colours a bit when you go over them with the same colour marker.

The sentiment is a Graphicat stamp that Cheri gave me last year when she got her stamps made into rubber and I have really wanted to use it lately! I know it's not halloween or close to it at all, but as you can see, you can use halloween stamps on a non halloween card! lol

Loooove these gloskulls too! You can get them at Graphicat Designs too!

The ribbon was actually blue, but I crumpled it up and sprayed it with 2 different colours of green Dylusions sprays....LOOOOVE these inks! They're my new fav sprays!

Well there you have it! Now it's your turn! Go get crafty and link it up over at Graphicat Sketches for a shot at a prize!

Thanks so much for stopping by and taking the time to give me some love! You know I love it! 

Have a crafty day!!

Sarah

Frosted Designs Fabulous Friday

Alright! Who's ready for another Fabulous Friday?!  This week we want to see your hand made embellishments! Get creative! Challenge yourself! I can't wait to see what you come up with!

This is what I made for you this week...

I made both these little cameras with my Lawn Fawn stamp set. The bigger camera was stamped onto acetate, coloured with my copics then I stamped it again onto some patterned paper and backed the acetate with it. The smaller one was stamped with the same image...what?! you say...but it's so teeny!?!  Yup! Gotta love shrink plastic!! I stamped it, sanded it, coloured it with some copics...then blasted it with my heat gun and....voila! Teeny version! The small one is the way it's originally supposed to be facing...that's why I stamped the big one on acetate...because I wanted it to be facing the opposite way :)

Here's a little close up of that cutie camera

I got these fun Tim Holtz Sizzix numbers dies a while ago, and I've been dying to use them...so I taped some washi tape on grunge board and cut all of em out! It was awesome! lol I wanted to use all of them because they're so cool, so I did, then I just circled the number one for his grade. Love love love these letters!

The numbers behind the camera are a fab new stencil from Dylusions that I used a pen with, then sprayed with Dylusions ink.

I used this great sketch from Boys Rule for this layout: 

I just flipped it to fit the orientation of my pic :)

Don't forget to head over to Frosted Designs to check out all the amazing inspiration from the rest of the Design Team, then get crafty, make some embellishments and link it up to win a  $25.00 Gift Certificate to Oh My Crafts! Go Check them out! They've got some awesome goodies!!

I'm going to also enter this into the challenge over at Use Your Stuff: Make it by hand

Thanks for stopping by my blog! You know I love it when you do ;)

Cheers

Sarah

Beautiful Boy

Well, we survived our camping trip (it was nice one day and rained the next) but it was pretty fun overall! I hope you enjoyed seeing a peek of my crafty space too! I loved checking out all the different craft rooms of my fellow DT's! So fun!

I made this layout for the Last Scrapper Standing challenge at Memorable Seasons. I'm late in posting it here, but it was for the second challenge which was "borders and/or banners", and I made it through! I must say it's really fun, but holy the anticipation kills me! 

I got this fabulous linen paper from Creative Accents and I thought it I'd try using my Cameo to cut a bunch of decorative borders with it. It cut beautifully, and I love how it turned out! I used some kraft cardstock too that I cut with a couple border strips (Tim Holtz and Lifestyle Crafts).

I wanted to make sure that I kept it really simple with the rest of my layout. With a background like this, it could easily be overdone. I used one of my favourite Quickutz alphabets for the title (Gazebo) I just love it, but I don't use it often enough.

Well, I'm off...I have to go vacuum and finish my father in law's card.  

Happy Scrapping!

Frosted Designs Crafty Spaces Blog Hop!

Well hello Bloggers! I hope you've been getting some fabulous ideas on this hop! If you came here from Lori's Blog then you're on the right track. If you're not hopping, but you'd like to, head over to  Ann's Blog and start there.

 I wrote up this post early as I'm camping this weekend, but I can't wait to get home and check out everyone's crafty spaces!! I'm kind of seriously addicted to organizing my scrap space. So much so, that I often forget where I put things because I've re-organized too much! You might not know it to look at my space though that I enjoy organizing...It's a little bit of organized chaos! 

I took the first picture of my craft room when it was in the midst of a creative hurricane! lol I had just been working on a couple layouts, then make a card, and before I could clean up, my son Ethan wanted to make a card for his dad for Father's Day. So I took the picture with him making his card...so cute. Warning: it's a freakin mess!!! lol

As I look at this picture of my oldest son, I just can't believe that he's only 6! He looks so much older from this angle! He's concentrating very hard on his Daddy's card! What a sweetie!

Okay, now here's a picture of my table all cleaned up:

I've just recently gotten some fabulous garage sale finds to add to my scrap room: I looove using old spice racks for my mists. And I got that "shelf" that's beside the spice rack for like a dollar! The only thing I did to it, was sand it to distress it a little and I just LOVE it! Believe it or not, that's almost all the wooden stamps I own! I much prefer my clings, but I do love displaying wood stamps...they're just so pretty!

This "mail sorter" shelf is another garage sale find that I got last year...for 10 bucks! It's one of my favourite shelves. It holds all my sizzix bigz dies perfectly...my punches and paints and stains hang out here too...and of course my lovely Distress Inks on top :)

I got my sewing machine from my mom...she ordered it with her Save On points, because she was going to start sewing apparently...then like 3 years later it was still in the box, so I took it off her hands and told her that I'd give it back when she decided that she wanted to use it...that was about 3 years ago...I'm kinda thinking it's mine now ;) 

The shelf that it's on was in my grandma's shed and when she moved, she had to downsize and when I saw it, I knew it would be perfect for my room! It holds my dies and paper pads quite brilliantly...and of course my sewing machine :)

This beautiful piece of work is what my husband made for me...he loves me so much! lol He's so funny because one minute he'll be talking about ideas for my scrap room, then the next he's like "you have way too much crap!" lol But he does love being able to make things for me, and I love it too!! There isn't really a rhyme or reason to what's on this peg board...there's a ton of stamps, some masks, some dies and my grungeboard collection...amongst other stuff. It changes randomly too...ya never know what you'll find here *s*

This is my die cutting station...I got the idea for the painted tray hanging on the wall to hold my magnetic dies from my friend Tara. I have another one, but I still haven't painted it yet...it's on the ever growing list of "to do's" 

I made a little "tag hanger" to hold Tim Holtz's 12 tags of 2012 as I create them...I'm a month behind right now!

As you can see, I "clean" by putting things under other things...lol

This shelf was in my bathroom when we bought our house, but I didn't like it there...at first we were just going to get rid of it...then I had a brainwave that it would be perfect in my scrappy space...next to yet another spice rack full of misty goodness (I think I'm a little addicted to ink...)

Right under that shelf is where I keep my paper. My cardstock is on the top arranged by colour...and the patterned paper is arranged by manufacturer right now...I just changed it from being arranged by colour for the last couple years...I think I'm liking it this way better. Beside it is random stickers and whatever I like to put in it at the time.

And this...atrocity...is what it looks like underneath my table...I have yet to find an organizational thingy for this space...I want to organize my scraps into colour and file them...but that's going to take some serious time...once that's done though, I think I'll have an easier time using them...and this space will definitely look waaay less cluttered!! 

Well there you have it! I hope you enjoyed taking a tour around my scrap room!! Hopefully you picked up some organizational tips and ideas! Let me know what your fav part was, or if you have any ideas for my room! I'd love to hear them!! 

Now your next stop is Lydia! 

Here's the whole list in case ya get lost too!

Ann  http://annsnovemberrose.blogspot.com/ 

Teresa Jaye http://teresajaye.blogspot.com/

Anita http://theflamingochronicals.blogspot.com /

Lynn http://scrappyhappymom.blogspot.com/

Michelle http://daisymaisiejournalingmomma.blogspot.com/

Lori http://scrappinmystressaway.blogspot.com/

Sarah http://scrapsbysarah.blogspot.com/ (you are here)
Lydia http://kiwimumscraps.blogspot.com/

Sassy http://sassymoments.blogspot.com/

Ashley http://ashleyspaperdoll.blogspot.com/

Brenda http://www.brendasscrappyblog.blogspot.com/

Susie http://www.thedieshaveit.com/

Laurie http://www.laurielariviere.blogspot.com/

Lori M http://frugalscrapper.blogspot.com/

Carol http://carolpaperie.blogspot.com/

Channa http://crafts-pieces.blogspot.com/

Happy Hopping!!

-Sarah

Graphicat Sketch 10

Alright everyone, it's time to conjure up your inner Crafty Cat and get your sketch on! Cheri's really outdone herself with this one! I just love the circle elements in this...so many possibilities!

I made this card for my husband for Father's Day. The image is a Tickled Pink stamp, but he totally reminds me of Kurt Cobain. Which makes me think of Chris (hubs) who is a hardcore Nirvana fan. That's why this card is perfect for him :)

 

Alright, so now it's your turn. You're playing for a chance to win either a rubber or digi version of the Graphicat Sushi Set: 

So, go get sketchy! I can't wait to see what you create!!

The Boys Club

Hello and Happy (almost) Friday! lol It's time for another Fabulous Friday challenge over at Frosted Designs and this week's challenge is Sewing (machine, or hand stitching). That one's easy hey?! Even easier when you cheat like me! haha 

I used a "pre stitched" paper by We R Memory Keepers, which worked out perfectly for me because I love the look of a sewing machine stitch on my layouts, but I am pretty impaired with a sewing machine, and the other day I went to use mine, and I pressed something on the foot (I think that's what it's called) and it fell off! I have yet to figure out how it goes back on...pray for me...I think I'll need it! lol

So I was super grateful to have this paper in my stash! I could have hand stitched it, but I wasn't feeling the love with hand stitching, so... there you go!

This week's sponsor is Prairie Bird Boutique. They have some faaabulous vintage ribbon and beautiful buttons among other goodies. You'll definitely want to head over there and check it out, and play along for a chance to win some yummy prizes too!

I soooo love this picture of all my boys! Chris brought home those mechanic hats from work one day and each of the boys put one on and posed for me. They're so great to indulge me with my need to take pictures of EVERYTHING! 

I have been wanting to ink up this stamp from my Tim Holtz set since I got it, and I figured what better time than on a layout with all my boys in mechanic's hats?! I used Ranger Archival ink and my new Distress Pens *eeeek!* Love them!!!

Well there you have it! Don't forget to play along with us this week and go do some shopping at the Prairie Bird Boutique!

I used this faaabulous sketch from Boys Rule Scrapbook Kits:

I'm entering this layout into the following challenges: The Studio : Vintage

Scrapfit: Stickers (I actually used 2 stickers other than the alphabet ones, which is rare for me. I don't often use stickers.

Have a scrappy weekend!!

Supplies Used: Paper: Simple Stories, We R Memory Keepers, Tim Holtz paper stash, corrugated cardboard. Stamps: Tim Holtz Stamper's Anonymous, Ink: Ranger Industries Archival and Distress Ink and Pens, Dylusions spray ink. Tim Holtz  gears, Stickers: Echo Park.

for the first time

Good Morning Bloggers! I was junkin out on blog land last night when I came across this site called memorable seasons. They're doing a really fun summer long challenge called "Last Scrapper Standing". It's kind of like Survivor where they vote you out. You have to create a layout every week based on their challenges that they provide. The first one was due today and I really wanted to play along, so I hopped downstairs and created this layout! The first challenge requirements where to use the colours Red, Yellow and Blue. Those 3 colours are almost never in my layouts together, so it definitely was a challenge, but when I saw this paper from Prima that I just got recently, I knew it was perfect for these pictures!

Here's some close ups, but I'm not going to go into too much detail, because unfortunately, it's time for me to clean my house...boohoo!! 

There ya go! Wish me luck!

I'm also entering this layout into the following challenges:  Craft Challenge: Background Text

Scrapfit: Workout #69-Sketch

Off to clean! And I'm kinda really wishing it wasn't pouring rain here right now...I know we need it, but more than that, I need my kids to go outside...they really want to and they're at each other's throats...I can only pray for the rain to stop!!  

Have a great day everyone!