Scraps by Sarah

Deepest Sympathy

2012-01-28T14:33:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! I hope you're having a crafty weekend so far! I'm working at my LSS and I've been hoping to get some time to play, but it's been sooooo busy!! I did manage to get this sympathy card done last night after work though. It's never fun to have to make these, but it does need to be done unfortunately. I used the sympathy set from Kraftin Kimmie and a new set from Hero Arts. They make dies to go with their stamps now! Yay!!

I used a cute little nestie in the middle, and a sizzix embossing folder on some neenah paper to make my cute little cluster. I also used Distress Ink in stormy sky to color the ribbon...added a few little pearls to the center of the flower and topped it all off with some smootch paint to color the stamen?! is that what the middle thingy is called in a flower?! I have no idea! Maybe some of you gardeners or flower lovers out there can help me out with that! hehe :) The sentiment originally said "With Deepest Sympathy" but I really wanted to use the new Hero Arts stamp and die and it didn't all fit in there, so I just used the last part...hey it works right?!

I'm gong to add this card into a few challenges: Stamptacular Sunday is "Seeing Spots", Paper Sundaes wants fussy cutting, and I used the sketch from CPS.

I'm hoping to get some actual scrapbooking done this weekend, but ya never know...this working thing could just kill me! lol

A goofy picture and a sad goodbye

2012-01-18T10:50:00.000-08:00

Good morning Bloggers! This is my second post for today, so if you'd like to see my SIL's birthday card, scroll down please!

Last night I went to Walmart to print some pictures (do any of you have a hard time remembering to say "print" instead of "develop"?! I do it all the time!!) and I found these photos on my memory card! I laughed so hard! I'm guessing my sister must have grabbed my camera and taken these when I was sick over the holidays because I don't remember this at all, but I'm sure glad someone captured these!! It's pictures like this that make me smile so much and remind me to take time to be goofy and play! I was finally able to use all that girly paper that I buy because I love it, but never use because I have boys! What better way to capture a dress up moment than with purses and pink?!

I used my Silhouette to cut that tag out and then I did something really fun with it...I put a sketch pen in place of the blade and did my journaling on it too!! How fun is that?! I just made sure I didn't take my cut piece of paper out of the machine before I sketched the journaling! I just love this machine more and more every day!!

This layout was inspired by Sketchy Thursdays last and final sketch!! I know right?! I'm sooo sad that they're closing up for good! So knowing it was my last time to play with them, I had to play along! I'm so sad to see you guys go! I loved playing along with all your fab sketches!! *sad face*

I'm also entering this into the challenge over at Scrapfit, which is to scrap the simple things in life that you cherish...nothin quite like playing dress up with the boys is there?! Also, Frosted Designs is challenging us to use paint! How fun?! I love painting on my layouts!

Well there you have it! Thank you so much for stopping by and leaving a comment! I do enjoy reading them and I really appreciate it!! Time to go make the boys some lunch! Have a great day and try to enjoy this FREEEEZING weather if you're in Canada!

Oooh Pink!

2012-01-18T01:16:00.000-08:00

So it's 1am, and I'm having a hard time falling asleep and I fiiiiinnnaaallly found my usb cord for my camera, so I thought I would share a card I made for my Sister in Law's birthday. I was kinda late on this one, but better late than never eh?!

I made this card on Friday at a crop at Creative Accents. I don't know what was up with me, but I just wasn't into colouring, and it shows! I am happy with the way her hair turned out, but her dress is horrific!! I can't even blame it on the benadryl either! (I found out at the crop that I'm allergic to apricots of all things and I had to dose myself with some antihistamines! yikes! Thanks to Carla who is always prepared, or always carrying drugs?! lol !!)

I used a sketch from Mojo Monday, but I couldn't find my cord in time to get it posted before monday! lol

I'm going to enter this into the challenge over at CAS-ual Fridays, because they want to see a card with scallops.

Thanks for stopping by! I'm going to try to go to sleep now!

Goodnight!

Let it Snow!!

2012-01-14T10:23:00.000-08:00

Good morning Bloggers!! It's Challenge time again at Creative Accents, and this month we want to see some snow!! It must be working too because I'm looking out my window right now and it's snowing!!! Yay!! Now normally I'm not as excited about snow, but I can still see my grass right now, so we are in desperate need for some!! My kids would love to use their sleds they got for Christmas and maybe even build a snowman!

For this month's challenge, I made this layout of my middle son Caleb's first time playing in the snow. He kinda hated it, but it made for some super cute pictures!!

I cut out the new Lifestyle crafts snowflake border with vellum and I really like how it turned out! I also used the edge set from Lifestyle crafts....love that set!!

Poor little guy! What a cutie though eh?!

So there you have it! Show us your snowy cards, layouts or altered projects and enter them in Here.

Well, I'm off...it's my 30th birthday today and I'm heading out to Big Lake with my boys so my hubs can get everything ready for my party tonight!

Have a great day!!

Finally! A layout!

2012-01-11T15:00:00.000-08:00

Good afternoon Bloggers!! I wanted to show you a layout that I made last night. It's been soooooo long since I've done a good old fashioned 12x12 layout! It felt so good to get to make one last night! My hubby just got me a Silhouette Cameo for my birthday!! My birthday isn't until January 14th, but it came in yesterday so I just haaaad to open it up and try it out! I LOVE that I can cut 12x12 now! And it cuts beautifully!

Another thing I love about the Silhouette is that the online store has so many title ideas! This layout came together really quickly, except for the title...I just couldn't think of what I wanted it to be...so I jumped onto the Silhouette store and browsed some phrases and there you have it! I cut the big label shape with the Cameo...it's pretty sweet eh?!

I just love this pic of Chris and Kieran. It was taken the day he was born...it truly is a moment to cherish! And it totally makes me want to have another baby!!

I used this sketch from Sketches in Thyme....I gotta admit, I do miss being on their DT!

I'm also entering this into the Scrapfit Weekly Warm Up, which is to use stars on your layout.

Well, I'm off...My husband should be home with the kids soon then I've gotta start thinking about dinner!

Hubby's Birthday Card

2012-01-09T23:39:00.000-08:00

Hey Bloggers! Just a quick post to show you my husband's birthday card. His birthday was actually October 24th! I totally had it done for his birthday, but I just didn't get around to posting it!

I wanted to make a kinda sexy, guy card for him, so I went with this steampunk chick from Kenny K...she's kinda hot isn't she? lol The sentiment is from Graphicat Designs...love that one :)

It took me forever to colour her, but I'm pretty happy with how she turned out...I'm kinda loving the black and white colouring!

I used my Spellbinders gears set and embossed them with Distress Embossing powder to make it look kinda rusty...then I added some of Tim's gears too. The tag was made with Distress Ink and Perfect Pearls powder over the stamps...love that stuff!

Look! I even did the inside of the card! lol I hardly ever do...hell, I hardly even make cards! They're usually just fronts! lol I kinda love these gears :)

So there you have it...I hope you like it as much as Chris did! Have a good night everyone! Happy Crafting!

December Daily pgs 1-15

2012-01-06T00:24:00.000-08:00

Hello Bloggers! This is going to be a very picture heavy post, so I'm going to keep the rest short! I have been working like a mad woman the last few days on my December Daily album. It's kind of like a way for me to kill two "resolution" birds with one stone. One of my resolutions is to lose weight. A crafty one is to scrap more often, and by getting crafty at night when the kids go to bed, I am not munching mindlessly in front of the tv! So I've managed to get 15 pages of my album done, thank God, because I'm really not into it this year! It's been soooo long since I've done a 12x12 layout and I'm dying to get back to it, but this album is itching at me to get it done, so I still have 11 pages to go, but I'm over half way there! This album is really about getting the pictures to pages and really telling a story of a month in our life, so it's quite simply made and really focuses on journaling, but I know that 15 years from now when I look back at it, I'm not going to care so much as to how many fabulous techniques I did, but I know it's going to be a great memory to have. That's why I do a December Daily album every year. Wow, and here I said I wasn't going to blab much!! oh well, without further adieu...

Well there you have it! Hopefully I'll be back by the end of the weekend with the rest of it!! Have a great weekend and don't forget to get a little crafty!

January SOTM

2012-01-01T00:10:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year Everyone!! Does anyone have any resolutions? I have quite a few this year, one of which is to try to blog more often. December was a pretty slow month on the ole blog, but I was super busy with the holidays and all. I hope everyone had a great holiday! I had a pretty amazing Christmas, minus the Shingles that I got on Ethan's Birthday (Dec. 23rd) I swear I would rather give birth again without drugs than the pain that comes with Shingles! Nasty stuff it is! But I'm on the mend now, and the hubs got me a brand spankin new puffy leather chair for my craft room, so I'm going to be scrappin like a mad woman in the new year!! And here's my first card of 2012: It's the January Stamp of the Month at Creative Accents. I just love these new Bellas!

I used my Copics to colour the image, except for the scarf that I paper pieced. I used my new Epiphany Crafts Shape Studio thingy too. It makes these fun little custom epoxy shapes out of any paper you want!

I entered this card in the following challenges: CAS-ual Fridays Kraft and Twine

Sketch Saturday: I used this sketch, but didn't make it in time to enter the challenge! Oh well, it was a fab sketch anyway!

So, Happy New Years and I hope all your resolutions work out for you! I'm totally committed this year! Or maybe I'll have to be committed! lol ya never know ;) Anyway I'm going to bed! Goodnight all, and Happy Crafting!!

Guest DT Spot!!

2011-12-19T21:40:00.000-08:00

Wow! December is flying by and I have hardly posted anything on my blog all month!! I've been so busy getting ready for Christmas and we have a lot of birthdays in December, I haven't had a lot of crafty time. But I wanted to remind you that Graphicat Sketches' Challenge this month is a Choose your favourite Graphicat Sketch. She's got such fabulous sketches that it'll be hard to choose just one!! And the prize this month is a Guest DT spot for Graphicat Designs!!!

I used August's sketch:

And this is what I made with it:

I had originally wanted to use Graphicat's "Cotton Headed Ninny Muggins" and "That's Elf Slang for Merry Christmas" on this card, but I realised at like midnight, that I didn't have those digis!! So I went with the Island of Misfit toys instead...then I realised that Cheri used the same stamp and sentiment on a card that she made recently!! Oh well, she did a waaaay better job on hers of course!!

The sentiment on the inside is one of Tim's and it was cut with one of the new Lifestyle Crafts nesties.

I coloured this cute little Tickled Pink stamp (which you can get at Graphicat Designs) with my copics and added a little sparkly Spica to his hair. See that background Postage Nestie from Spellbinders? I stamped it with my new Hero Arts gears stamp! LOOOOVE IT!!!

Well, that's all for tonight, don't forget to play along with us at Graphicat Sketches!!!

I hope to blog again before Christmas, but if I don't, I do wish you all have a fabulous Christmas! And don't forget the reason for the season!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

Challenges: Raise the Bar It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Paper Sundaes: Celebrate!

December Daily, Creative Accents Challenge and Tim's First Tag!

2011-12-05T15:50:00.001-08:00

Wow! How long has it been since I've posted anything?!?! almost a month!! Crazy I know! And I'm totally behind on my DT stuff too! I thought that having my husband gone away at school for 3 months would make it easier for me to spend hours downstairs in my craft room at night, but I have been finding that with hubs gone, so is my mojo...Sad I know ;)

Anyway, I can't believe it's December 5th already!!! And that means it's time for another Challenge at Creative Accents! We've made it a really easy one this month...specially if you're getting any Christmas cards or layouts done...You've guessed it:

For my challenge piece I used my cover for my December Daily album. I actually got this started way before December 1st, but I've been slacking off in the December Daily area too...I need that mojo back! Tonight I hope to get downstairs relatively early and get a whole bunch of stuff done!

I can always rely on Tim Holtz for some major inspiration, so it couldn't come at a better time that he's doing his 12 Tags of Christmas! This year I decided to play along! This is the first one, and I didn't stray really at all from the original design. I made it on a day when I was having a major lack of sleep meltdown and I actually just left my mom with my kids and went to Creative Accents to play with a few girls while we all made Tim's Tags! I wasn't much into being creative, so this was perfect! I just followed it exactly, still made something, but didn't have to think much about it! And I looove all the fab techniques he shows you! be sure to check it out if you haven't already! http://www.timholtz.com

Here's Mine:

And Here's Tim's

I'll be posting more of my "12 Tags" in the next few days hopefully! And hopefully I can get my December Daily caught up too! It's not too good when you start out behind! haha

A little note from Tara( CA owner)...

***PLEASE READ****

Normally on the challenge blog we award a prize to a random winner... and we're doing that this month as well, but IF we get more than 10 entries, we'll also award another prize to one participant selected by members of our Design Team! Our random prize will 'grow' dependingon the number of entries... starting with a 6x6 pad from one of our fave paper companies.Watch for more specifics on the prize next week, but for now... get out there and create something for Christmas!

He's gonna be a Heartbreaker :)

2011-11-11T21:46:00.001-08:00

Hello Blog Land! It's Remembrance Day here in Canada, and I know other countries have their own version of this holiday today as well. It's a day to stop and remember all those soldiers who fought for our freedom, and those brave soldiers who are currently enlisted. I know I take it for granted sometimes, but when I stop and think about all the rights and freedoms that we enjoy today, I am so grateful for those men and women who risked their lives so that we could live ours! We took the kids to the Remembrance Day Ceremony this afternoon and they got to see all the soldiers, cadets and veterans. It was pretty cool to teach Ethan about the reasons why we observe this holiday.

Here's a layout that I created about my "little middle" and his super caa-ute smile! These photos were taken last year at our Church's Father's Day picnic.

I used the super fun Coredinations gear paper. When I sanded it, I found even more embossed layers that I didn't even know existed! I thought the Tim Holtz Gears would go perfectly with this paper too. I cut them with acetate and used some alcohol inks and distress stickles on them.

I cut the hearts with more of Tim's dies, and embossed them with the Sizzix brick folder. I painted them, then added some glimmer glam on top of them and smeared them around. I really like the effect it gave them!

I'm entering this layout in the challenge over at Frosted Designs. They're challenge is "embossing".

Well, that's it for tonight. I'm cropping tomorrow, so I've gotta go pack up my stuff....that's the one thing I don't like about scrapping somewhere else...I could easily become a hermit scrapper if I was a little more lazy and a little less social. lol

Thanks for stopping by!

Graphicat Sketch Challenge

2011-11-07T08:00:00.000-08:00

Good Morning Bloggers!! It's time for another fabulous sketch from Graphicat Sketches! Are you ready to get sketchy and get some of those Christmas cards done? Now it doesn't have to be a Christmas card, it doesn't even have to be a card, but if you want to play along, it does have to be based on this sketch, which rocks, so it won't be hard!

See?! How fun is this?! I flipped the sketch for my card...and *gasp* I made a Christmas card!! I must admit, it wasn't easy for me, as I'm not big on making Christmas cards, but I suffered through it, and I must say, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!

Pretty cute eh? The image and sentiment are both new releases from Graphicat Designs. I just loooove this cute little snowman!

Most of the papers are from the Prima North Country line...LOOOVE IT!! The music paper is just from my stash, and the die cut paper is the Kraft Core...soooo amazing! One thing I learned when die cutting and sanding this awesome paper is that you should always sand first! lol now most of you are probably going *DUH!!* but, well, it was late ok?! lol And on another note, for those of you who think that you don't need the Adirondack Paint daubers...you do! I always thought I would never buy them, because I can just use acrylic paint...and that is true for a lot of things, but they work soooo amazingly for distressing edges with that little sponge! I used my white dauber on the die cut flourish and I love how it looks like snow :) I used perfect pearls and water to paint the edges of the frame.

Well, there you have it! You have until the end of the month to play along with us and you could win some digis from Graphicat Designs!!

Creative Accents Sketch Challenge

2011-11-04T23:30:00.000-07:00

Good Morning Bloggers!! It's that time again, the beginning of the month when all the fun new challenges come out! This month Creative Accents Challenges has a fab sketch for you to play with!

I love that this sketch is so open for interpretation and works perfectly for a card or a layout! I did a layout for this sketch. I've been making so many cards lately, I've been just itching to scrapbook!! So here's what I made:

I'm so happy with how it turned out! I can't take credit for the title though, I saw it on another fabulous scrapbooker's blog: D's Paper Studio. If you want some inspiration, definitely check her out...she's pretty awesome :)

I cut these leaves and acorns with my trusty Tim Holtz dies out of canvas, then I mixed Glossy Accents and Perfect Pearls together and painted it on. I really like the way they turned out!

I did the same with this cute little TH pumpkin die. I wasn't even going to add the pumpkin, but then I die cut the flourishes and put them down and it reminded me of the curly pumpkin vine thingies, so I decided to make a little pumpkin to go with it...it seems fitting doesn't it? lol

You have until the end of the month to create a card or layout with this sketch and link it up here for a chance at a prize to be announced later!

I Wanna Be Krafty Guest!!!

2011-10-30T22:56:00.001-07:00

Hello Bloggers!! I am soooooo excited that Kraftin Kimmie is giving us scrappy girls a chance to be a guest designer in December and all we have to do is make a card with our favourite Kraftin Kimmie stamp! Now, that may seem easy, however I have so many favs that it was pretty hard to narrow them down! I chose to ink up Patsy. I love her big hair and her fun musical dress! I also used sentiments from Fanny and Danny (I just noticed that they’re names rhyme! hehe). I like how the sentiments that come with the stamps can be used with a few different images sometimes…it stretches out my stamping budget…haha anyone who knows me knows that budget is almost a foreign word for me! I can justify ANY crafty purchase!! Need a reason to buy something? just call me, I’ll give you a few ;) Anyhoo…on to my card:

I am just starting to learn how to colour in black and white, and I must say that I’m lovin’ it!! I thought this image would be perfect to do a monochromatic black and white image with the papers to match as it’s kind of a 50’s image and it goes hand in hand with that era :) I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out! I’ve gotta tell you though, that this is my first time doing a monochromatic card, (which just happens to be the challenge over at the Kraftin Kimmie Challege blog this week!) and I definitely found it challenging! But I love a good challenge!

Here’s a close up:

It’s hard to see it in the picture, but I put a little Glossy Accents on her sunglasses to make them shine ;)

The cut off for this guest DT call is October 31st (I’m cuttin er a little close I know!!) but I would absolutely LOVE to be a Krafty Guest! So….Pick Me! Pick Me!! lol ;)

Supplies Used: DP: Crate, Echo Park, Basic Grey. Cardstock: Quickutz, American Crafts , CTMH. Ribbon: May Arts. Bling: Dollorama. Doilie: Wilton, Glossy Accents, random buttons, Markers: Copics.

Oh, and I used a fab sketch from Sketch Saturday that I flipped on it’s side.

1 more sleep till Halloween and me and my DH’s 7th wedding anniversary!! Wooohooo!!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a krafty night ;)

and she blogs again! (finally!)

2011-10-28T00:07:00.001-07:00

Hello Bloggers!! I can’t believe it’s been over 3 weeks since my last post!! Life has totally gotten in the way of the blog…not to mention technical difficulties as well. My laptop was on the blink, so I took it to a friend of mine, who got rid of 17 viruses!! Isn’t that crazy?! and that’s all while my Telus internet security was “scanning” for viruses every day and coming up “clean” HAA! So, anyway, he fixed it all up, I got it back and the next day my son knocked it off the side of my couch and it broke!! So long story short, I am now blogging on a new laptop! I thought that I would have soooo much time to scrap since my husband was going away to school and I would have my nights to myself, but so far, it hasn’t really turned out that way…but I have had some time…I went to a crop held by Creative Accents a couple weeks ago, and I made my first easel card! I know it’s not a crazy awesome feat, but I was quite proud of it, and I’m really happy with how it turned out!

I just LOOOVE this Mad Hatter stamp from Tickled Pink Stamps (which you can get at my girl Cheri’s store Graphicat Designs) and as soon as Cheri got them in, I got mine and I have been dying to ink it up ever since! I knew that it would go perfectly with the Tea Set from Graphicat Designs…and I was right! All the DP is from Graphic 45 and I coloured this fab little Mad Man with my Copics. I used Cheri’s sketch from Graphicat Sketches which you still have time to play along with, so head on over there, check it out, and get creating!!

PS: 4 more sleeps till Halloween!!! WOOOHOOOO!!!

A card, and a donation freebie

2011-10-04T00:18:00.000-07:00

Hello Bloggers! I just wanted to do a quick post tonight to ask you for some help for Betty from Simply Betty Stamps. Her 17 year old son Christian was just diagnosed with Stage 1 Throat Cancer and she's offering a really cool digi image in return for donations that can really help their family in covering some of the medical and travel costs that are coming their way. You can read more about it Here.

So this cool guy is what she's offering everyone who donates to help them. I have 3 boys and I couldn't even imagine what they're going through right now. Any little bit helps, plus you'll be getting this fab image too!

And speaking of Simply Betty Stamps, this card I made is featuring one of Betty's stamps! It's funny. When I started making this card, I hated it! It took me like 4 days of coming back to it and tweaking it and I STILL didn't like it. So I kinda wrote it off and left it in my little corner on my desk thinking I might come back to it one day. Well tonight I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do, so I pulled it out and started working on it again, and I ended up LOVING it! It's amazing what happens when you walk away from something you're just not feeling the love for, then come back later...

I colored her with my Copics, which I'm finally starting to feel like my husband didn't totally waste his money on when he bought them for me for Christmas 2 years ago! lol

I've used a sketch from Sweet Sketch Wednesday for this card!

Thanks for stopping by!

Graphicat's "Fright full of Layers" Sketch and Digi release!!

2011-10-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

Hello Blog Land! I've had a busy weekend full of fun family stuff and now I'm sad that it's over! My husband is in school 3 hours away from us for 12 weeks, and he comes home on the weekends, but as I write this, he's getting ready to head back up north for another 5 days, so I'm a little sad :(

But there is something that's going to cheer me up a little...this kick ass sketch from Graphicat Sketches!!

Isn't it AWESOME?!?!

I had so much fun with this sketch! And Graphicat Designs has some Faaabulous new Halloween Digis! This is one of them, but you need to go check out all the amazing stuff the DT has done with all the new goodies!! You can go Here to purchase them...because you know ya wanna!!

I love this sentiment SOOOOO much, and when I saw it I knew it had to go with the Graphic 45 Magic of Oz papers and the Tim Holtz Rickety House!

I fussy cut the witch and her sister's feet from the G45 papers...

And it was my first go at coloring in black and white...then I took a class in it the next day...lol I know, I do things a little backwards...

I soooo love this new bling from Prima too! They're wicked!!

So now that you've seen the sketch....Go! Create!! and have a chance to win some yummy Digis from Graphicat Designs!!!

I'm entering this into a few challenges:

Simon Says Stamp : Anything goes

The Pink Elephant : Trick or Treat

Stamp with Fun: Halloween

Frosted Designs: Fussy Cutting

Scrapbooker's Anonymous: mini challege- Use your Halloween Stash

Pretty Little Ribbon: Anything Goes

Paper Sundaes : LOTS of layers!

World Card Making Day Hop and Creative Accents Challenge!!

2011-10-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

Yippie Bloggers, it's World Card Making Day!! And to celebrate us Canucks are hoppin' Canadian style!! We've got a crazy talented group of card makers here to give you some fab inspiration, so grab a cuppa coffee and get hoppin! You should have come here from Tara Godfrey's blog, but if you're just wandering in here and would like to start at the beginning, you can go to http://creativeaccents.blogspot.com and visit Tara Nixon first!

It's also that time again for another challenge at Creative Accents Challenges, and this one is totally in season! We want you to break out all your fun orange stuff and use it on your creation! Easy eh?! What better time to use orange than now with all the gorgeous Autumn colors to pull inspiration from?

For my card, I used 2 Canadian stamp companies: the sentiment is from Graphicat Creations, she has the best sarcastic and snarky sentiments around! And the image is from Kraftin Kimmie. I love this little girl with the frog on her head and it just seems to go perfectly with that sentiment! The cake is a Quickutz die and the paper is from Kaiser Kraft. I used my trusty little I Rock to adhere those blingies (a little secret: you can use Silhouette rhinestones with your I Rock! Cool right?!)

Here's a few close ups:

This sentiment cracks me up and it was sooo perfect for my best friend's birthday (this card is for her) because she is such a cake junkie! You can get the sentiment here and it's only a dollar!!!

Well there's my card! Happy World Card Making Day Everyone!!! Your next stop on the hop is the ever so talented Tracy. Happy Hopping!

Ps: We had such a long list of Canadian Crafters that we broke the hop up into two, so you can do the whole hop at once, or break it up. The start of the second part of the hop is Nicole and she is wickedly creative, so don't forget to hop over there on your next coffee break!

Cheers,

Sarah

Sketches in Thyme Open Challenge!!

2011-09-21T21:29:00.000-07:00

Good Evening Bloggers!! It's time for Sketches in Thyme Open Sketch Challenge! So that means all you need to do is create a layout based on a sketch and you can play along with us! I used Creative Scrapper's Sketch 173 for my layout. I love all the white space in this sketch, and it's something I don't use often, but I really like how it turned out!

I'm also entering this into a couple other fun challenges. Scrapping the Music is having their 4th anniversary, and they are going nostalgic and their challenge is to get inspiration from their very first song they challenged everyone with 4 years ago! The song is "Like a Star" by Corinne Bailey. I really like this song and the lyrics proved to make for a great title for this layout :)

Scrapbooker's Anonymous's challenge this month is to use chipboard (my cute little heart is grungeboard...hope that counts!) and they're also doing an A-Z challenge and this time it's anything with the letter "B" and since most of my papers are from Basic Grey, I'm going to enter it in that one too! I'm not sure if I'm allowed to enter the same layout into both challenges, but I'm sure they'll let me know if I can't! lol

So there you have it! Go find a sketch and get crafty and you can win some RAK from Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker!!

Also don't forget to join us over at Creative Accents Challenges and create something with 1 ribbon, 2 embellishments, and 3 patterned papers!

Have a great day everyone, and happy crafting!!

Graphicat Designs Grand Opening and Blog Hop!!!!

2011-09-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

OMGosh!!! I’m sooooo freakin excited to finally get to share this with all you crafty peeps! Today is the Grand Opening for Graphicat Designs and we’re kickin’ it off with a bang and having a blog hop loaded with giveaways and AMAZING inspiration!!! So if you just wandered in here and would like to start at the beginning of the hop, you can head over to Cheri's Blog (the amazingly talented card maker extraordinaire/owner of Graphicat Designs) and get hoppin!!
Graphicat Designs is a fabulous new stamp company that specializes in sarcastic and witty sentiments and trust me they’re hilarious!! They are the only Canadian retailer for Tickled Pink Stamps, Simply Betty Stamps, and Glo Skulls, which makes me a happy little scrapper! I was lucky enough to get to check out the website ahead of time, and it’s awesome!! It’s got all kinds of crafty goodness including a brand new blog, card gallery and events page…and of course the most important part…THE SHOPPING CART!! LOL!!
Speaking of shopping cart, Graphicat Designs is offering FREE SHIPPING this week until September 26th, so you better get yer little butts over there and do some serious shopping!! I know I’m going to!!
This is the card I made using one of Graphicat Designs fabulous digis. I just loooove this one!! It’s totally true though isn’t it?? You can’t be evil with fab shoes right?! lol I used a white glo skull over the spider web shoe buckle…It was a tough decision to make because I really love that shoe buckle as it is, but I really love those glo skulls too and I wanted it on my card, sooo there it is!

I added a little glossy accents on her shoe to show off the shine, and I used black stickles over the spider webs in the corner. The whole image is coloured with Copics…I’m slooowly getting more confident with those fabulous markers!!
PRIZE ALLERT!!!!
*3 digis will be given away to one lucky commenter on each of the blogs in the hop!! So don’t forget to leave us some love, you never know, you might be the lucky winner!!
*There is a Grand prize drawing from all hop participants for a $25 Gift Certificate to the store!!!
Your next stop on the hop is the ever so talented Nicole! Thanks for stopping by and don’t forget to check out Graphicat Designs you won’t be disappointed!

Sketches in Thyme Thursday Takes #56

2011-09-14T21:55:00.001-07:00

Hello Blog Land!! I’ve been seriously behind on my blog lately! Back to school has definitely kicked my butt, and we also had company for 4 or 5 days (and they slept in my scrap room, so totally no time for scrappin lately!) But we had such a great time catching up with hubby’s lifelong best friend and his family! They have a brand new little 3 month old baby and I was in heaven playing with him! He totally made me think that I’m not done having babies yet!

Anyhoo, it’s Thursday, so you know what that means! Another fab sketch from Sketches In Thyme!! I am soooo lovin this one!!

I love how many pics you can fit into this sketch, or if you just want to use one, you could totally use some fun embellies on the side!! The versatility of this sketch rocks!!

Sorry for the horrible picture. I tried to get my photo done in daylight today, but I ran out of time and before I knew it, it was dark…so flash I went and tried not to shine on my photos!

I channelled my inner Tim Holtz for this layout and made some super fun and grungy tags! I put a few different colors of distress ink on my splat matt and sprayed some water on it to make droplets. Then I smushed the tags onto them to see what happened, dried them with my heat gun, stamped them with my (autographed Tim Holtz stamp set hehehe) and this is how they turned out! Pretty sweet eh?! I must say that I’m pretty happy with the way this layout turned out! Now it’s your turn!! Take this sketch and run with it and see what you come up with!! You have until the end of the month and our sponsor this month is Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker!!!

Also, don’t forget to head over to Creative Accents Challenges and join our 1,2,3 challenge!!

Graphicat Sketch Challenge!!

2011-09-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

Good Morning Bloggers!! I hope you are all having a better long weekend than I am. Apparently I have a problem driving my van, because I backed it into a tree and smashed out the back window, dented the frame and took out my rear light! And of course it’s on a long weekend, so I can’t even phone a body shop until Tuesday to make an appointment to fix it! I’ll be able to laugh about it soon, but right now it’s still just annoying me ;)
Well, enough about that, it’s time for another sketch challenge from Graphicat Sketches! Now normally we would be showing you another fabulous sketch that Cheri has created, but she’s soooo busy getting all her awesome stamps made into rubber and getting her new website up and running that she hasn’t had time to, so this month it’s ANYTHING GOES!! So, as long as you use a sketch for your creation, you can link it up HERE by the end of the month for a chance to win some of her fab digis!!
For this layout I used a sketch from The Scrappiest:
and here’s what I did with it:

The sentiment is from Graphicat Designs, and I just love it!! The first time I saw this I knew I wanted to use it to make a layout of my middle son, Caleb. Not at all because he’s evil, he’s actually a very sweet boy, but he is a bit of a challenge, because he does things like opening a can of tuna on my carpet, or getting his head stuck in our door because he tried to escape when we had the chain latched (so he couldn’t just run outside whenever he pleased). He actually squirmed his whole body outside, but got his head stuck. I came to see what was wrong when he started crying and found him like that. So I had to kinda twist his body a bit and try to get his body inside again, because I couldn’t close the door to unlatch the chain! lol Like I said, he’s a challenge. :) And he’s also got the best “stink eye” I’ve ever seen. That’s why I knew that this sentiment would be perfect for this picture of him!

I used smootch to colour the “half evil” on the sentiment and I painted the edge of a glass to “stamp” the rings on the layout. One thing I found was that smearing distress stain over the embossed gears gave it kind of a wood grain look. I kinda like it :)

I also wanted to make sure that when he gets older and sees this layout that he knows that it was all in fun, so I added some sappy journaling to it as well to redeem myself for the sassy sentiment! lol
Well, there you have it! I hope you play along with us this month. And stay tuned, there will be some fantastic things coming up closer to the end of the month with Graphicat Designs!! Trust me, it’ll be worth the wait!!

Creative Accents September Challenge

2011-09-03T09:00:00.000-07:00

Can you believe it’s already September?! The summer went by so fast it’s crazy!! But, with September, comes another fun challenge from Creative Accents!! This months we have a 1, 2, 3 challenge:

How fun is that?! So get out your papers, embellishments and ribbon and join in the fun with us!! My card will not be up at the store as I’m sending it away to a little girl named Olivia who would be starting kindergarten, but has just undergone surgery for a brain tumor. You can read more about her story HERE. She got a couple emails from friends when she went into the hospital and it made her day, so imagine how much it will brighten her cute little spirits when she receives tons of cards from all over the world!! So if this tugs at your heart strings like it did mine, please make her a card!! Here’s mine:

I used a little more than 2 embellishments, but I just couldn’t help myself!! It’s a totally fun challenge this month and I hope you all play along!!

I used a sketch from Twisted Sketches for this card. You can see the sketch Here.

Well, I’m off to bed. I’ve only got a couple more days until school starts, so I have to try to get my butt into bed a little sooner than 1am these days so I can start getting used to getting up at 6! Yikes! I’m sooooo not a morning person!! lol And to add insult to injury, Ethan’s school starts 15 minutes earlier this year…it doesn’t seem like much, but I had a hard enough time getting him to school on time when it started at 8:25!! Now it’s starting at 8:10! I told Ethan that he’s just going to be late for school every day! He informed me that I’m not allowed to do that! lol So I guess I have to just get my butt in gear and possibly get a few more alarm clocks! hehehe ;)

Counterfeit Kits Blog Hop Y’all!

2011-08-28T21:01:00.000-07:00

(2nd post today, for Janet's Birthday Blog Hop scroll down!!)

Anyhoo, there’s this lovely little blog called Counterfeit Kits and every month they give you this lovely kit for inspiration in making your own out of your stash…I’ve played along with them before, so those of you who read my blog may or may not have heard of them. Well, this month I didn’t get around to making up my counterfeit kit, but when I saw the sketch for their blog hop, I knew I had to do a layout with it. So the lovely ladies over at Counterfeit Kits were nice enough to let me in on the hop anyway!! Aren’t they sweet?!

Well, let’s get hopping shall we?! If you just wandered in here and want to start at the beginning of the hop, go here to begin!

So this is the sketch that we’ve been challenged to use this month. Isn’t it AWESOME?!?! It’s been soooo long since I’ve done a 2 page layout that it almost was a challenge! I so love the design of this sketch though! The fabulous ladies over at Sketch Support made this one just for us!!

Anyway, when I got to figuring out what photos I wanted to use, my brain kind of malfunctioned and I totally thought that my pictures were taken the right way, until I had picked all my papers, and even started cutting the paper, that’s when I realised that I had 3 4x6 length wise pictures and 1 4x6 vertical…so, I thought about finding different pictures…for about a second, then I decided to flip the sketch a little! So, here’s what I did with it: (click to enlarge)

I have to apologize for the quality of the picture, but my camera and I were arguing today, and I lost…

These pictures where taken at the Mother’s Day party that Ethan’s kindergarten teacher put on for us this Mother’s Day. We had so much fun! They did a play for us called “Are You My Mother?” based on a book where this bird falls out of his nest the day he is born and starts looking for his mother…he asks a cat, a dog, a cow etc until he finds his mom! It was ADORABLE!! We had lunch, made some crafts, and put together a puzzle, then they gave us a handmade pottery piece that the kids had made earlier in the year! I just love the school that Ethan goes to, they put so much effort into things!

Anyway, all of the papers are from Studio Calico, I cut the stars from my silhouette, the journaling tags on the side are We R Memory Keepers (I think) and the pleated ribbon and other journaling card are from Pink Paislee.

And even though I didn’t make up a kit this month, all the products that I used were older ones from my stash…I wanted to make sure that I kinda kept up with the reason for counterfeit kits…ya know, using up that stash!!

Well there ya have it! I hope you liked my take on the sketch, thank you so much for stopping by and now it’s time to head on over to Glinda's blog and see what fabulous creation she’s got for you!!

Thanks for hopping!! Have a great day!!

(I’ll also be entering this layout in the challenge over at Scrapbooker's Anonymous which is to use those journaling blocks!)

Speaking of using your stash, you still have a bit of time to enter the challenge at Creative Accents Challenges! We want you to dig out all those goodies you’ve been hoarding and USE THEM!! You could win a prize to add to that stash if you do!!

Happy Birthday Janet!!! (another blog hop!!)

2011-08-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

Well, it’s another one of our Seriously Creative DT members birthdays and we’ve got another hop to show off all the fab cards that we’ve made for our friend Janet!! Now Janet is going out for brunch with a bunch of crafty friends and I’m sorry i couldn’t make it, but I hope you have a WONDERFUL day!!! (sorry Janet, I scheduled my blog post for 8pm accidentally!! lol)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JANET!!!

Here’s the card I made for her. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out!

I got this Kraftin Kimmie stamp a while ago and I’ve been wanting to ink it up, and I thought that this was the perfect opportunity! I coloured her with my Copics and I think I did not too bad of a job if I do say so myself! lol

I used this sketch from Sweet Sketch Wednesday, I really like all the clean lines. It’s something totally not my usual thing, but it’s always nice to try something different eh?

Anyway, Janet, I hope you have an awesome day, you deserve it!! Now hop on over to the ever so fabulous Tanya's Blog and see what she’s got for ya!!

Sketches in Thyme Open Challenge!

2011-08-25T00:54:00.001-07:00

I can’t believe that August is almost over! The summer has gone by so fast and it hardly seems like we even had much of a summer weather wise. I haven’t decided if I’m looking forward to school starting or not…I’m kinda liking the lazy mornings, and I’m realizing that more this week as we’ve had hockey school every morning this week. Which means I’ve had to get all the boys ready early every morning. The sad thing is that “early” this week is 10:30am, and I’m struggling with that, so I’m not sure how I’m going to get back in the habit of getting ready to have Ethan at school at 8:20am!!

Anyway, it’s time for Sketches in Thyme's Open Challenge, so all you have to do is find a fun sketch and create a layout with it to play along!

I used this sketch from Sweet Peach Crop Shop:

Here’s what I did with it:

I must say this is not my favourite layout. I think it’s because when I saw this awesome sketch I had such great plans for it, but when it came to creating it, my mojo went missing. But I’ve decided that life is too short to ponder a layout for too long, so here it is! lol

Well, I’m heading out now, I still have to make my husband’s lunch and it’s already 1am, so I hope you all have a great day and please play along with us at Sketches in Thyme!!

*hugs*

Sarah

For a Great Cause

2011-08-13T01:30:00.001-07:00

Hello Bloggers!

My friend (and yours) Kellie Winnell, owner of the FABULOUS Tickled Pink Stamps is doing something AMAZING. Her and her equally amazing daughter are cutting their hair to raise money for Alopecia. Read all about it HERE. Cheri over at Graphicat Designs is helping them out. She made up a couple of sentiments to sell and donate ALL their proceeds to Kellie for her cause. The following sentiments are ONLY on sale for the next 2 weeks, ALL money will go completely to Kellie. Cheri has made up 2, one with her sarcasm and one with a little more heart, and they’re both only a dollar each!! Kellie has some of her awesome images on sale at her website as well, so go over there and check them out too!

I made this card for my little sister (who’s 12 and totally starting the ‘feel like crap about yourself cause you’re a teenage girl’ phase). So I thought this might cheer her up a little :)

For this card I used a sketch from The Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge Blog. You can see the sketch here.

The image is from Simply Betty (I just love this cute little chickie!) I coloured her with Copics, and I’m slowly getting better, but man those things are a learning curve! This was the first time that I had to add a pupil to an eye by hand, and it was kind of scary because it was the last thing I did, so if I messed it up…well, total disaster right? lol so thankfully her eye turned out okay! I cut the flower from some scrap paper and this funky weird material I found at the dollar store and I bought it thinking that if it die cut, it would be pretty fun to use, and it worked! yay! I love the way the flower turned out! I used a Spellbinder’s nestie to layer her on…it’s about time I get to use some of these things that I love to buy, but never use because I don’t make cards! (like nesties and 6x6 paper pads! lol) Anyway, I’m rambling because it’s like 1:30 in the morning as I write this and I think that it’s finally time for bed…

I’m also entering this card into the challenge over at Going Grey with Scrap Creations. They’re having a fun challenge this week, it’s a bingo challenge! I’ve used a flower, a digi image and a die cut, so BINGO! lol

Please head over to Graphicat Designs and buy those sentiments! They’d both be great for cards and scrapbook layouts and they’re for a great cause!

Sketches in Thyme Thursday Takes #53

2011-08-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

Good Morning Blog Land! It’s time for another fab sketch from Sketches in Thyme! I’m heading out for a camping trip, so I’m going to make this post short and sweet so without further adieu, here’s the sketch:

Isn’t it great?! It’s so open for interpretation! And with that, here’s mine: I found this picture that was taken of me the day I had Kieran. I didn’t know it at the time that I was going to have a baby that day, I just knew that I was 40 weeks, and going to the hospital to have an ultrasound done for extra fluid…turns out, I had too much, so they induced me right then :) I was quite happy, because he was the first out of 3 that actually went full term, and I was totally ready to be not pregnant anymore!

Close up:

I punched 4, 12”x1” strips of paper with my punch, then box folded them so they would go in a circle a bit, then taped it to my main circle with my trusty score tape, then added the raffia (which colors nicely with distress inks) and a row of those pretty pearls. Once I got that done the page came together quite easily, but I’ll tell ya, that part was definitely NOT easy ;) but it was worth it because I’m quite happy with the way it turned out :)

Well, so much for this post being short! I can’t help it, I think I just like to blab too much! lol Anyway, I hope you play along with us this month at Sketches in Thyme! This is the first of 3 challenges, so get crafting!!

Also, don’t forget to join us over at Creative Accents and use that ever growing stash!! That’s why we buy the stuff right? that and it’s just so darn fun and cool! lol

I’m off to go camping for the night! Wish me a night free of bears!!

*hugs*

Sarah

Stash Raid!!! Creative Accents Challenge :)

2011-08-06T10:10:00.001-07:00

Good Morning Bloggers!! It’s challenge time again at Creative Accents and this month they want you to dig out all that beautiful product that you’ve been hoarding and finally create something with it! You know it *is* okay to cut that fabulous paper, that’s why you bought it in the first place right? lol I’m guilty of it too, but for this layout I pulled out quite a bit of hoarded product! The Tim Holtz button snaps and Kraft Resist Paper, that lovely big corduroy button, and that awesome polka dot paper by crate (I’ve been seriously hoarding that stuff…and I’m sad to say it’s almost gone!! Love that paper!) Everything I used for this layout was from my stash, some of it (like the flourish) was from a die cut pack that I bought like 4 years ago!

Here’s some close ups:

The letters were cut with a Quickutz font English Rose and then I painted Glimmer Glam on top of them…I like how it gives it a faux metal look :) I cut the letters out 3 separate times and glued them together to give them a chipboard look. I die cut the chipboard gears from the Tim Holtz Gadgets and Gears die, painted it with Picket Fence crackle paint, then rubbed in some Antique Linen Distress Inks to give it that lovely worn look ;)

The film strip was stamped on acetate as well as the phrase inside it, then I cut it out and adhered it to a label that was also part of that hundred year old die cut pack lol ;) I just love that stamp set by Ali Edwards, it’s so perfect for scrapbookers!

I sooo love that giant button, and I’ve been waiting for the perfect layout to come along so I could use it!

Well there you go! There’s my layout, now go on and raid your stash and play along with us at Creative Accents this month!!

other challenges entered: The Paper Variety (circles)

Frosted Designs (coloring: I coloured the flourish, font and gears)

Happy Belated Birthday Tanya!!

2011-08-02T19:51:00.001-07:00

Well hello all you scrappy peeps!! A while ago while I was on holidays, my friend and fellow DT member Tanya had a birthday and I did not get my poop in a group fast enough to get her card made before I left, so when I got back home, and got organized, I headed for the scrap room and made this card for her. Happy Belated Birthday Tanya!!! I hope your day was amazing! You deserve it!

Now Kraftin Kimmie’s challenge was definitely just that, a total challenge. It’s to use NO EMBELLISHMENTS!! Hard right?! I know!! It was extra hard for me to do because I know how much Tanya likes all things blingy and totally embellished, plus this image and sentiment just screams EMBELLISH ME!! lol So yeah, it was a hard one, but I did it! The butterflies are cut out of paper and I had to use my tiny attacher to staple them on because I couldn’t get them on there any other way, so I hope that doesn’t count as an embellishment!

The sentiment is a new one from Graphicat Designs, and it’s available now on her site. Isn’t it freakin hilarious?! I LOVE it!!

And a close up:

I also used this sketch from Cute Card Thursday, so I’ll be entering it there as well :)

Well, there you have it! Another card. I’ve been told by my fellow scrappers that I’m not allowed to say that I’m not a card maker anymore, so I guess I’ll add that to my repertoire ;)

I just wanted to say thank you so much for taking the time to check out my creations! I really appreciate it, and I cherish each and every one of your kind words!

*Hugs*

Sarah

How Awesome?! Graphicat Sketch Challenge

2011-08-01T21:18:00.001-07:00

Hello Blog Land! This is my first official post as a Crafty Cat, and we’ve got an awesome sketch for you to get crafty with courtesy of Cheri at Graphicat Sketches! Every month she hosts a sketch challenge and the winner will receive some of her fabulous digis! You can check out her digi store HERE.

Anyway, onto this month’s sketch!

Isn’t it fab?! And here’s what I did with it:

The image is from Simply Betty Stamps and the sentiment is from Graphicat Designs of course! I won this image last year and hadn’t used it, but when I saw this sentiment, I knew they would go perfectly together! I’m still trying to learn the Copic ropes, but I was pretty impressed with how this turned out. I really like his hair! :) I’m going to enter this card at Simply Betty Challenges, they want you to use your dies, and I cut the blue circle, the black circle (was the inside of the Tim Holtz clock die), the wave is a die, and the senti was cut with a wonky square from Spellbinders.

Supplies Used: PP: Fancy Pants, cardstock: Bazzil and Neenah, Images: Simply Betty Stamps, Sentiment: Graphicat Designs, Stamps: Tim Holtz, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, Colored with Copics, dies: Quickutz, Spellbinders, Tim Holtz. microbeads: reflections, embossing folder: Tim Holtz, Distress Ink, and embossing powder.

So, head on over to Graphicat Sketches and get crafty with us!!

Just for You

2011-07-30T21:46:00.001-07:00

We just got back from a 4 day camping trip in Sicamoose and we had a blast! The weather could have been a bit better, but with all the rain we’ve had lately, I can’t complain too much because we only got one day of rain, so all in all it was pretty great!

We got back on thursday night, and it was the first time ever I think that I got a holiday from my holiday! Friday morning I was off to a 2 day crop at Creative Accents and I managed to make 3 cards! It was a lot of fun crafting it up with some fab ladies! This card I made for my mother in law for her birthday:

Here’s a close up:

All the papers are from Graphic 45, brads are Basic Grey, and I coloured the Bella with Copics. I added some glitter glass to the poppies to bling it up :)

I used the sketch from Mojo Monday, so I’ll be entering it there.

Well, I hope you’re all having a great long weekend (if there’s a long weekend where you are) and stay tuned for some more cards :)

Sketches in Thyme Open Challenge!

2011-07-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

Well bloggers, it's that time of the month (and don't worry, it won't make you bloated or cranky! lol) I mean it's time for Sketches in Thyme Open Sketch Challenge! All you need to do is create a layout based on a sketch and play along with us!
And I know I'm totally late in getting this challenge up to you, and I apologize, but my hubby is on holidays, and it would seem that I should have more time to get some crafty stuff done when he's home, but we're soooo busy right now I've hardly had time to think! We're getting ready to go on our first family camping trip tomorrow, and things are crazy busy here! But without further adieu, here's our final challenge for the month!

I used this fab sketch from Let's Capture These Sketches

And here's my take on the sketch:

Now, I couldn't seem to get a good photo of this today, it just wasn't working out for me, but in real life, it's not as yellow as it looks here, but it's as good of a pic as I was getting today! My photo mojo must be missing!

You can see the colors a little better in the close ups...

I cut that label out of grunge board with one of Tim's dies...it was a bit too big, so I cut the ends off it...then I painted it black, then blue, then sanded it to reveal the black underneath. The craft paper on the middle pic is stamped using one of Tim's stamps and embossed to create the pattern on it

The flourishes were cut with grunge board and painted the same way as the frame...the letters were also painted to match the rest of the blue :)

Here's what I learned: If something isn't working on a layout, ditch it. I tried forever to make something work on this one and I sprayed, inked, stamped and wasted a whole bunch of time and supplies, because I ended up getting rid of the paper all together, and I was much happier with the outcome!

I love the "sew easy" by WR Memory Keepers! It's soooo easy! lol the only thing you have to worry about is getting it straight, but it pierces the paper for ya like nothin and makes a great pattern for you to stitch and add some interest to your pages! love it!

Well, there you have it! Don't forget to play along with us at Sketches in Thyme!!
I'll be back next week with some camping layouts hopefully!

Happy Birthday Leslea!!!

2011-07-18T09:00:00.001-07:00

Hello Blog Land!! I just wanted to show off a quick card I made for one of our Creative Accents DT members, Leslea!! Happy Birthday Leslea!!! I hope you have an amazing day!!

Some of the other DT's posted cards on their blogs too, so if you want some fab birthday card inspiration, go check them out!
Tara
Janet
Tanya

Anyway, I'm off to work (those of you local gals can come and visit me at Creative Accents!

I hope you like your card Leslea, it'll be at the store waiting for you!

I’m a Crafty Cat!!

2011-07-13T18:27:00.001-07:00

Good evening Bloggers!! I wanted to share some exciting news with you…I’m now a Crafty Cat!! A friend of mine and AMAZING artist and graphic designer, Cheri, has opened her own fabulous digi store Graphicat Designs. She has some awesome digi images and hilarious sentiments, and I’m now on her design team!!! I’m sooo excited to be a Crafty Cat, because as you all know, I’m not much of a card maker, but I’ve been really wanting to challenge myself and do something different, so for me, that’s making cards. And speaking of challenges, Cheri also has a monthly sketch challenge blog where you can play along and create your own card with her fabulous sketches!! So without further adieu, here’s July’s sketch: (there’s still lots of time to play along!!)

Here’s my card: Both the image and the sentiment are from Graphicat Designs. I just love the witch in the martini glass!!

Here's some close ups:

I used Glossy Accents over the sentiment to shine it up a bit ;)

Here's what I learned:
You can make really cute flowers with used dryer sheets, a little glimmer mist, stickles and a brad or some kind of center! aren’t these great?! I made these ones black in keeping with my theme, but the possibilities are endless!! and they’re super easy! I’ll post a tuturial later!

Pumice Stone Distress Stickles looks quite a lot like salt on the martini glass, but glossy accents doesn’t quite measure up for creating bubbles…I think maybe if I added something to the glossy accents before it was dry, they would show up more.
The sentiments print very easily on patterned paper, just make sure you have a laser printer if you’re coloring with Copics!

I’m pretty happy with how this card turned out! It really helped to have such a fabulous sketch!! So don’t forget to play along at Graphicat Sketches and you can win some of Cheri’s fabulous digis!!

supplies used: Pattern Paper: Websters Pages and Fancy Pants Designs, Trim: Webster’s Pages, Markers: Copics, Distress and regular Stickles, Glossy Accents, Score Tape, MME brads,Ranger Industries Distress Ink, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, Bounce Dryer Sheets.

Thank you so much for stopping by and for all your comments! I cherish each and every one of them!!

Sketches in Thyme Thursday Takes #51

2011-07-07T09:53:00.000-07:00

Good Morning Bloggers!! It's time for another fabulous sketch from Sketches in Thyme! Check this one out, isn't it fun?!

I just love all the little elements to this sketch!

Here's what I did with it:

As soon as I saw this sketch I new I wanted to use my Tim Holtz gears die to create my circular embellishments!

This is also going into the challenge at Scrapfit to make paper embellishments.

Anyway, just a quick one today, I'm off to the lake with my kids!! Have a great day, and I hope this inspires you to get creative! And please pray for no rain for us! Thanks for stopping by!!

Freeebie!!!

2011-07-06T00:56:00.000-07:00

Hello Bloggers!! I just wanted to do a quick post to ask you all to help my friend Cheri over at Graphicat Creations get her stamping business off the ground by doing a super quick marketing survey for her. It literally takes 2 minutes to complete and she's giving away a free sentiment from her digi store Graphicat Designs for helping her out!! There's some AWESOME sentiments there!! Totally worth your 2 minutes to help her out!! Just email her at graphicatcreations@gmail.com with the subject SURVEY and she'll email it back to you to complete, then you can get yer free sentiment!! Easy Peasy!!
Thank you guys sooo much for doing this!! It really means a lot to me for you to take the time to help out a friend of mine!!!

Hey Scoob, which way to the water?!

2011-07-04T00:06:00.000-07:00

Hello Blogland! It's challenge time at Creative Accents Challenges again, and this time we want you to show us your Summer creations!
Easy peasy eh?! Just show us your summer cards or layouts and link it up HERE and you'll be in the running for some scrappy prizes to be announced later!
Here's what I made for the challenge:

and here are some close ups: When my mom brought back this outfit that Ethan was wearing from Hawaii, he wanted to wear it all the time. He would put it on and have "beach parties" in the middle of winter!

here's what I learned:

The I Rock...ROCKS! and you can use your Silhouette (if you have one) and cut out the rhinestone templates to use with it as well. My only piece of advice would be to glue them down as you go as long as you're very sure that's where you want them, because it can be kind of a pain to get them placed 3/4 of the way then bump your paper and have to start over again!

If you want to cut your laser cut paper, keep it in the plastic packaging and trace your shape on it before you cut it, then you can just cut it through the plastic...makes it super easy!

This might just be another one of my "duh" moments, but while doing this layout I realised that I could stack my letter stickers on top of each other to create a "chipboard" look. Don't know why I never thought of that sooner...as long as you have enough of the same letters, it works pretty darn good for some extra dimension!

Well, there you have it! I would love it if you joined us in the Summer Challenge!!
this layout was made using my summer add on Counterfeit kit
I'll also be entering this layout in the following challenges:

Try it Thursdays at the Sweet Peach Crop Shop photo inspiration

Twisted Sketches sketch and "water" twist

Studio Calico use 3 patterned papers

Thanks so much for stopping by and thank you for your wonderful comments, I do appreciate each and every one of them!!!

Happy Birthday Carla!!! Surprise, we’re early!!

2011-06-30T09:00:00.000-07:00

So, another one of our fabulous DT’s is having a birthday soon! It’s actually not Carla's birthday until July 1st, but we thought we’d trip her up and do her birthday blog hop today, because she wouldn’t be expecting it ;) We’re sneaky like that…hehehe ;) So, Happy Birthday Carla!! You’re an amazing lady so filled with talent!! I hope your day is filled with Awesome-ness :) Here’s my card for you: (you’ll have to forgive me, but I have been so busy lately I finally had time to make your card tonight (it’s 1am as I blog this) and it was a super quick one, but it’s made with love!) Oh, and I’ve been staring at this card all night trying to figure out the last little thing to finish it off and I didn’t once notice that I embossed the stinkin thing upside down!! So now, if you notice in the corner, there is a lovely little upside down 13…I’m just going to say it’s a 31, because that’s how old you are Carla…right?!?!?! I totally meant to do that!

I thought I’d try my hand at a shaped card this time too, Counterfeit Kits is challenging us to use a shape on our card or layout…I used the Quickutz gift set (gingerbread) to cut the card out (it’s a mini album cover page, cut out twice and glued together!) I’m also entering this into the challenge at CAS-ual Fridays. They want you to “get edgy” and use a border punch on your card. I used one of my new ek success punches :)

Well, Carla, I hope you have an awesome day on your birthday, and enjoy the hop!! Next stop is the fabulous Janet. Have a great day Girl!!

Counterfeit Kit Blog Hop!!

2011-06-28T01:01:00.001-07:00

Good Morning Bloggers!! (I say morning, but only because it’s almost 1 am!! aaah!! it’s almost past my bedtime!! lol Well, this is my first time taking part in the blog hop over at Counterfeit Kits Challenge Blog and I’m pretty stoked to be joining in this month! You should’ve come here from Bethany's Blog, but if you didn’t and you want to hop along, start over at Counterfeit Kits and get hoppin!

Their challenge for us for this hop was to create a layout or mini album with the word “I” in it. So, in other words, we had to scrap about ourselves! That for me is definitely a challenge!! Anyway, this LO came together quite quickly (except for the journaling!) and I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out :) I decided to journal 25 things about me (you can click on the picture to enlarge it and read the journaling if you’d like)

Some Close ups:

Here’s what I learned: Do not mist your layout when you have other pictures close to your paper! I had a different photo chosen for this layout, but I wasn’t thinking and I sprayed my paper, then realized that I sprayed my whole face on the other picture! (This pic of me was from when I was about 17 years old! it’s pretty sad that was the only other photo I had of just me in it!)

Also, paint mixed with water can spray very far when flicked onto your page, so make sure you have nothing near that you don’t want to be painted!

Decorative tape makes a great frame for your pictures and can draw your eye to your picture if you’ve got a lot of stuff going on in your LO. (Plus you don’t have to use adhesive then! I’m always looking for ways to save adhesive…I just hate spending money on it when there are so many other cool scrappy supplies I could be buying instead! lol)

Well, there you have it! I hope you enjoyed my layout! I certainly had fun making it (I just love getting my hands all inky!)

Have a great day, and happy scrapping!!

(Don’t forget to head over to Counterfeit Kits and leave a comment on their blog to win a great prize!!

Ooops! A little late! (Sketches in Thyme)

2011-06-26T16:41:00.000-07:00

Hello Blog Land!! I thought I had some time for this post, but it turns out it went up a few days ago on the Sketches In Thyme blog! Ooops! Anyway, It's time for their open challenge which means you can do a layout based on any sketch and link it up to win a $20 gift certificate to
The Paper Trail. You have till the end of the month, so hurry up and get those sketches and create something!!

I used this sketch from Page Maps.

and here's what I did with it...This page was made for a friend of mine's baby shower. 2 of my really good friends just recently had babies, and for their presents I made them each a layout that I framed.

Here is Sue's baby Alexander James:

And here are some close ups:

I used the resist paper from (I think) House of Three...and cut out the flourishes and added it as a frame to the photo.

I also made a layout for my best friend Erin.

I love this layout. I think it's my favourite so far...notice the background paper? recognize the stamp of the month from Creative Accents? I stamped the whole background paper with the Hero Arts background stamp, and embossed it with clear embossing powder to make my own resist paper. Then I inked the paper with Tim Holtz Wethered Wood, and Broken China Distress Inks. I love the way it turned out!

This layout was really special to me because Erin's family is like a second family to us, so I was really glad to make this for her. I must say I had a little tear in my eye as I finished it last night...

Well, I hope you like it! Thanks for stopping by!!

Ps: these layouts were made using my Counterfeit Kit

Don't forget you still have time to play with us at Creative Accents Challenges!

Hope you're having a great weekend!!

Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-19T22:37:00.001-07:00

Well it’s seems I’ve been turning into a regular old card maker these days! lol I haven’t even minded doing it either! I find that as long as I have a sketch for it, then I’m okay. I seem to wander aimlessly if I don’t have a sketch! So for this card I found a sketch over at Sketch Saturday that I used for this card:

My hubby is quite the motorbike enthusiast, so when I saw the card that Tara used for her dad’s father’s day card, I couldn’t help but use the same image, because it was perfect for him!

When I found this card in a seven gypsies atc pack, I had to buy it, because (I know this is really mushy) my hubby and I always say to each other “I love you” then he’ll say “I love you more” aaaaaaww!! lol I know *barf* hehe what can I say? sometime’s we’re just downright cheesy! The other sentiment and stamp are from CTMH.

Here’s what I learned: If you think that something is too thick to cut with the steel rule cutting dies…they probably are! I tried to cut our some super thick chipboard that I had kickin around and it cut it out, but I ended up spending the next half hour picking out little pieces out of the die, and it was so stuck in there that the clock was ruined when I tried to get it out.

When you have too many supplies, it’s hard to remember what you have! I thought for the longest time that I didn’t have any grey Copics, so I asked my aunt if I could borrow hers, and when she came over with them, I got mine out and realized I had all the same ones she did! lol it pays to check out your stash sometimes!

The Copic Spica red pen makes quite a lovely Candy Apple Red look on the motorcycle. I was quite impressed with how it turned out!

This card is also being entered into the challenge at The Paper Variety. They want you to use two or more text types in your project. I’ve got a few ;)

Well, that’s all for now :) I’m off to make some cards for my kids for “Son’s Day” (our oldest asked me why there is a father’s day, and a mother’s day, but no Son’s Day, so I think we may have started a new tradition in our family! The day after father’s day is now officially “Son’s Day”! So, happy father’s day everyone, and happy Son’s day tomorrow!!

Happy Birthday Chris!!

2011-06-17T09:00:00.000-07:00

Hello Blog Land! So, today, 29 years ago, a very special lady was born named Christine! hehe Happy Birthday Girl!!! I made you a card, you should feel freakin special! haha! (but you won’t actually get it until after the postal strike is over…stupid mail anyway!)

So Chris likes tea and the color blue, and that is how this card came about.

I used this sketch from Graphicat Sketches to make my card…Cheri has the best card sketches ;) they ROCK! So anyway, I’m going to enter my card into her sketch challenge this month :)

Here’s my Take:

And some close ups:

Here’s what I learned:

Kraft Glassine made by the fabulous Tim Holtz is verrrry cool stuff, you can crumple it and add perfect pearls to it, then heat it and it imbeds into the material. However, the thing about the Glassine that isn’t so cool, is that it’s very hard to get it to stick to things and to get things to stick to it. You definitely need to use a liquid glue…I used the Claudine Hellmuth matte medium and it worked, but I tried glue dots and score tape before that, and nothin!

If you need just one sentiment out of a background stamp, why not just stamp it and cut it out?! I know it sounds kinda like a no brainer, but trust me, sometimes those no brainers get me stumped!! lol

Goosebumps Clear Texture spray is my new fav thing! It’s this really cool spray that gives shiny texture to whatever you spray it on…very cool!

Well Chris, I really hope you like your card….I actually like it so much that I don’t want to give it to you! LMAO!! But you totally deserve it, because you’re awesome! I hope you have a fabulous day!! and HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOOOO YOUUUUU!!!

You can hop over to Carla's Blog to see what she’s got for you (although I think she’s the start of the hop, so you’ve probably already seen it! But if you’re not Chris and you want to see the amazing card that Carla made, please stop by and give her some love!

And please everyone, don’t forget to hop over to Chris's Blog and wish her a Happy Birthday!!

Ps: Everything I used here (except for the wood grain and happy birthday papers, were part of my Counterfeit Kit!

Enjoy the Journey

2011-06-14T23:29:00.001-07:00

Good Evening Blog Land! Just a quick post tonight to share another journal that I made a while ago. I have to admit that I’m kinda liking the journal making. It’s a nice change and there will be more to come!

Here’s what I learned:

I love using my Tim Holtz texture hammer to smash brads and make them look all old and antique. It gives a nice shabby effect to a normal brad.

a brown paper bag die cuts nicely and adds to the grungy feel of the journal.

Well, that’s it for now, I thought I’d leave you with a cute pic of Caleb and I that I took the other morning. I just love it :)

I just love this picture!

Well, have a good night and happy scrapping!

Dreaming of summer holidays…

2011-06-12T09:24:00.001-07:00

Good Morning bloggers!! After I made my summer add on counterfeit kit, I was totally dreaming of summer holidays and it had me inspired to create this summery layout of Caleb’s first time at the ocean.

Now, I’ve seen a ton of layouts with these awesome flower clusters, and I’ve always wanted to try one, but just never had the perfect layout for it (having 3 boys doesn’t give me the opportunity to use a ton of flowers on too many layouts!) It was rough going when I started it. I have to admit that I hated it (it was too girly! lol) but after I sprayed it with some brown glimmer mist and added some seashell buttons to grunge it up a bit, I am growing quite fond of it!

I also did a hidden journaling “book” by hinging my main pic. I’ve seen this a lot too, but just never tried it. This layout seems to be the layout for new things for me :)

Here’s some close ups:

Here’s what I learned:

My Tim Holtz scissors do a much better job of distressing the edges of cardstock than an edge distresser does.

Hinging paper together is really fussy work…but worth it. Make sure when hinging with brads not to try to make it pretty by putting the brads from the journaling cardstock on the front, because it won’t lie flat at all.

If you run out of the letter “r” on your sticker sheet, most of the time you can cut a piece off of an “n” to make your own.

Glimmer mist has a totally different look to it if you spray water on it after you’ve misted it on your paper.

I entered this layout into the challenge at Scrapbook Challenges.

Well, that’s it for today! Hoping to have some father’s day cards to show you tomorrow! We’ll see how the day goes ;)

My Counterfeit Kit

2011-06-10T21:13:00.001-07:00

Well I tried it once before and didn’t end up using my kit, but this time I’m determined! I love the idea of creating a kit out of my own stash! So I’m playing along with Counterfeit Kits this month! Now, my kit doesn’t really look anything like their inspiration kit. But the kit (although great) was too girly for what I’ve got planned this month…well let’s face it, with 3 boys, it’s pretty much too girly for any month! But that’s the great thing about Counterfeit Kits, you don’t have to make your kit look exactly like the inspiration kit, you can counterfeit the elements of the kit if not the colors, and that’s what I’ve done with mine!

Here’s the inspiration kit from Burlap and Buttercups Kit club:

And here’s my kit:

Now some of the girls over at Counterfeit Kits have created a summer add on for this kit, and I have too because I’ve been in the mood for some summery layouts lately…but I have to admit that once I got started creating the add on, I couldn’t stop, and I’ve pretty much just made a second kit rather than an add on…it’s quite possible that my add on kit is larger than my original kit! lol Anyway, here it is:

So there are my kits…It looks like I’ve got a bit of scrapping to get done to use up all this yummy goodness! I’m totally inspired now, so stay tuned for what’s to come!

Happy Birthday Julie!! (a birthday blog hop)

2011-06-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

(Second Post today---for Sketches In Thyme Sketch reveal scroll down!!!)

Today is one of the owners of Creative Accents, Julie’s birthday!! So the Seriously Creative Design Team have organized a blog hop to celebrate! If you haven’t come here from the beginning of the hop, you can go Here to start hopping!

I made this card for Julie because I know she really likes flowers and I was dying to use my new Hero Arts (Basic Grey) stamp!! I love it :) I think I must’ve been dreaming of summer when I made this card too! It’s quite beachy ;)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIE!!

Here’s what I learned:

When you stamp this with embossing ink, and use Distress embossing powder, it has a pretty good resemblance to sand.

I shouldn’t second guess my paper/fabric/embellishment choices because this was the first project I’ve made in a long time that I didn’t start out with 5 different choices of paper to use and then had to decide which ones to use . I swear because of that, it only took me like half an hour to make this card! Including picking my paper!

sometimes it’s okay to not stamp your image perfectly. In this case it made it look kinda shabby and distressed, and I really like the look of it :)

scrap fabric makes good flower leaves, so don’t throw those scraps away!

I hope you enjoyed your blog hop Julie!! Enjoy your day off! Now you can hop on over to Tanya's Blog to see what fabulous things she has in store for you!

Tara http://creativeaccents.blogspot.com/
Janet http://hilltopcreations.blogspot.com/
Sarah http://scrapsbysarah.blogspot.com/ you are here!
... Tanya http://obsessed-crazymomma.blogspot.com/
Eulanda http://eulandasilvey.blogspot.com/
Carla http://scrappinrpnprn.blogspot.com/
Cheri http://graphicatcreations.blogspot.com/

Well that’s it for me! Don’t forget to go to the Creative Accents facebook page and wish Julie a happy birthday!!

Sketches in Thyme Thursday Takes #49

2011-06-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

Hello Blog Land! We’re having some beautiful weather in Williams Lake, and I hope you all can say the same! I’m definitely enjoying the start of summer!

Well, it’s Thursday, so you know what that means! It’s time for another fab sketch from Sketches in Thyme!

Here’s the sketch:

Awesome isn’t it? I love those circles!

Here’s what I did with it:

Here’s what I learned:

If you spray Glimmer Mist on a screen, you can then flip it and smush it on your paper for to get the outside of the design too…

saving and taking advantage of those little scraps of paper can save you time on your layouts…just remember to use them!

The inside of the Tim Holtz clock die has quite a nice tattered circle (that I used for my “journaling” circle)

the I Rock by imaginesce ROCKS! It was sooo easy to use and adds fun bling to your layouts! It’s my new best friend! I’d been humming and hawing about it, but after visiting Debby's Dares and seeing the amazing things she’s done with it, I had decided it was something I NEEDED to have! lol like I need more scrap supplies! hehe

And some close ups:

Our sponsor for June is The Paper Trail. One lucky winner, drawn at random from all June entries, will receive a $20 Gift Certificate!!

I can’t wait to see what you create with this sketch! It was so much fun playing with this one!

Have a creative day!

Sweet Peach Sketch

2011-06-05T00:13:00.000-07:00

Hello Blogland! Just a quick post to show you my layout that I created using this sketch from the Sweet Peach Crop Shop Blog.

Isn't it great?!
Anyhoo...this is what I came up with for this sketch:

and some close ups:

The photos are from a couple weeks ago in our back yard. My oldest son Ethan was climbing the tree in our yard, and Caleb (our 2 year old) wanted to go up too...so I put him in the tree, just a little above the ground, and was trying to get some pics of him smiling...it didn't work ;)
The journaling reads:

Mommy:"Smile Caleb!"
Caleb:"I want down!"
Mommy:"Caleb smile for mommy, then I'll get you down!"
Caleb:"I want DOWN!"
Mommy:"smile!" (mommy makes some funny faces in a last ditch attempt at getting Caleb to smile)
Caleb:"Mommy! Want DOWN!"
Realizing defeat, mommy throws in the towel, and finally takes Caleb down from the tree.
Caleb remains undefeated.

I had to chuckle, because Caleb is even more stubborn than I am...I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree! When that kid doesn't want to do something, there is absolutely no way he is going to do it! It makes for some very fun, but also very frustrating days!

supplies used: papers: We R Memory Keepers, BoBunny, Tim Holtz-Coredinations, Crate Paper, and Bazzil. Inks and Paints: Distress Ink-Ranger, Crackle Paint. Brads: Basic Grey. Baker's Twine: the Twinery. Embossing Folder-Tim Holtz (sizzix), Die: Tim Holtz (sizzix), alphabets: (wood) Pink Paislee, Tim Holtz alphaparts.

Well, there you go! I hope you enjoy! I really appreciate you all taking the time to check out my work, it means a lot to me :)

ps: Thanks to Aunty Laura, and Marianne for the two extra brads!! (the package that I had only had one of those funky cool brown and white brads, so I had to go on a scavanger hunt for the other two...because I NEEDED to have 3 on my layout! lol and my Aunty Laura, and friend Marianne were gracious enough to part with theirs for my cause! lol I know, I need help...what can I say?!

Creative Accents June Challenge

2011-06-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

Hello Blogland! Can you believe it’s already June?!?! This year is going by sooooo fast it’s utter insanity! lol Well, I’m sure all you challenge junkies know what the beginning of the month means though….It’s time for our new challenge!! And this month it’s another fabulous sketch from our very own Cheri!! So all you have to do is create a card or layout based on this sketch, oh and since Father’s Day is coming up, your take on the sketch should be kinda masculine! So you have until the end of the month to create something with this awesome sketch, and link it up here and one random winner will be chosen :)

So, seeing as how I have 3 boys, a male dog, and a husband that I live with, doing a masculine layout was not hard for me at all! lol I think there’s a daily overdose of testosterone at my house! The only thing I had a hard time with was deciding which of my boys I wanted to scrap about. Now I usually scrap about my little boys, but I found this pic of my hubby, and I knew that was the one for this sketch!

The title is from a song by Chantal Kreviazuk. It was the song we walked down the isle to when we got married almost 7 years ago! aaaawwww!! how sappy am I?! lol

here’s some close ups: and I just have to mention one thing…holy blue eyes! Aren’t they beautiful?! That’s definitely where my boys get their amazing eyes from!

Aren’t these buttons great?! I got em at a garage sale last weekend…a couple jars of antique buttons…there are some pretty great finds in those jars and I couldn’t wait to use some on my next layout!

I’m also going to enter this into the challenge at Scrapbooker's Anonymous. This month they want you to use your 6x6 paper packs. Another great challenge for me because just like last month’s use your stamps challenge, I love to buy those paper packs, but hardly use them! I think I’m starting to see a trend…I just love to buy all those purdy scrap supplies! I’m a little bit of an addict…but come on…aren’t we all?!

anyway, here’s the deets of my layout: Patterned Paper: cosmo cricket, my mind’s eye, Fancy Pants, and Crate Paper. Stickers: Basic Grey, Die Cutting Machine: Vagabond and Silhouette. Die: Quickutz (Diesel Font), Inks: Distress Ink (Frayed Burlap), Chipboard alphabet (unknown), Glimmer Mist, Paint: Claudine Hellmuth Studio, Buttons: cool antique garage sale buttons hehe

Well, thanks for stopping by my blog! I can’t wait to see what you all come up with for this sketch! Don’t forget to link it up at Creative Accents Challenges by the end of the month for your chance to win some goodies!!

Have a good day!

Creative Accent’s Stamp of the Month

2011-06-03T10:07:00.001-07:00

Good Morning Blogland! I’m a little late on posting this, but better late than never I always say! lol

So this was my month to create a couple cards for the SOTM board at Creative Accents, and I couldn’t have been more excited to create something with this fabulous stamp from Hero Arts!

The first card I made I stamped the whole kraft background with the stamp. then I die cut circles with a Lifestyle Crafts die and stamped the circles with them too (because two of the wordy circles on this stamp set POP OUT! How cool is that?!) Then I pop dotted them onto the paper and added some Glossy Accents to them to make em all shiny ;) All the papers are from Fancy Pants-It’s the Little Things collection (LOVE THIS). The frame was cut with my Silhouette and I used Memento black ink for the stamps.

The second card I made I stamped that fabulous stamp as the background, then I made a cute little envelope and cut out some hearts with my Tim Holtz heart die and stuffed the envelope full of hearts! I used some baker’s twine and a teeny flower topped off with a bronze brad on the envelope, and the sentiment I typed with my typewriter…that’s right, I’m old school like that! lol

Well, that’s it for my cards! I hope you enjoyed them! Thank you so much for taking the time to look at my blog and for your comments, I cherish every one of them!

I’m off to make a few more cards now *Gasp* I know!! You’ll have to wait to see these ones though! lol

Sketches in Thyme Open Challenge

2011-05-26T09:45:00.001-07:00

Good Morning Blogland! It’s time for Sketches in Thyme's Open Sketch Challenge!! So if you’re feeling inspired by a fabulous sketch, come and play along! I used this sketch from Once Upon A Sketch and I’ll be entering it into their challenge to use typed journaling along with this sketch. So here’s my take on this sketch…enjoy!!

supplies used: bazzil cardstock, basic grey, fancy pants and cosmo cricket papers, basic grey die cuts, making memories paint, mister huey’s mist, Lifestyle Crafts die (alphabet-handmade font), CTMH brad, and Peeled Paint Distress Ink.

Here’s some close ups:

I just love these pics of my boys eating their giant M&M cookies! the journaling says: You two were quite excited to see giant cookies filled with M&M’s. You were even more excited to learn that you each got to have one, and neither of you minded an impromptu photo shoot inspired by these huge cookies and your goofy grins!

My mom brought my husband home a mug from Disney Land, and it was wrapped in this really cool protective paper…that’s what I used to mask the spray ink! I think it turned out pretty cool!

Well there you have it! I hope you join us at Sketches in Thyme! You have until the end of the month to play along with us!

Also there’s still time to party on with us at Creative Accent's Challenge Blog, just create anything party related and link it up by the end of the month!!

Have a great day!!!

Frosted Designs and Scrapbooker’s Anonymous

2011-05-23T00:13:00.001-07:00

Hello blogland! I hope the weather where you are is treating you a bit better than it is here! It’s been raining all day today! I’ve been trying not to complain about the rain because we had so many fires last summer, but I think I’d like to order just a little bit of sun to go with that rain!

On a dryer note, I was inspired to create a layout for frosted designs’ Sketch Along Tuesdays when I saw the sweet sketch for this week’s challenge.

I also wanted to play along with Scrapbooker's Anonymous challenge this month to use your stamp stash. They want you to make a background paper with your stamps as well as 3 stamped embellishments. I was pretty excited about this challenge because buying stamps is my guilty pleasure, but I don’t use them nearly as often as I should, so I jumped at the chance to get inky!

I know that my layout doesn’t look much like the sketch, but it was totally inspired by it…so that’s all I have to say about that! lol

The phrase above the picture is one of my stamped embellies, I stamped it with Stayz On on some acetate packaging and then stapled it onto my layout with my trusty tiny attacher.

The clock was stamped with Walnut Distress Ink, then embossed with Distress embossing powder in Vintage Photo. I love the shabby texture you get with the Distress powder!

The third embellishment is the “family” tag. I used the same technique with this one as the clock. I’m happy to say that I used this stamp set the very same day I bought it! It’s a new one from MME, and the background paper I made was stamped from that set as well. To make the background paper I stamped the pretty flower in lines, embossed them then I inked the paper with walnut distress ink. I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out!

These butterflies were cut from a Tim Horton’s coffee sleeve using my Tim Holtz die, then I sprayed it with some Mister Huey’s and Glimmer Mist. I love the way they look like they’re flying off the page!

I hope you like it!!

Don’t forget to play along with us over at Creative Accents and create something with a party theme! You don’t have to live in Williams Lake to play along, and there’ll be a prize involved, so you’ll want to come out and play!

There’s also some fabulous sketches going on this month at Sketches In Thyme, so don’t forget to check them out too and get inspired!

I hope you’re all enjoying the long weekend!! Thanks for stopping by!

My first Art Journal

2011-05-15T15:15:00.001-07:00

I started this project because I wanted a new journal to write in, and I was sick of paying big bucks for cool looking journals when I have all the stuff to make a really cool one myself…Then after I made it, I was pretty darn impressed with it, and I thought that maybe other people would be too…So I brought it in to a funky local store in town here called The Hobbit House to see if they would sell these for me…and Leanne loved it and wants me to make a bunch of them! I was pretty stoked to hear that. She said that she had this journal for a day (I had to leave it there until she got there on monday) and she could’ve sold it three times already! So that’s going to be my next venture…my husband is so sweet because I told him about it and he told me that he works so I don’t have to! I told him that I wouldn’t count on these journals taking over the family income, but they’re fun to make! I love my hubby so much!

anyway, here’s my journal…and there will be a lot more from now on ;)

Here are some close ups

I made this rose out of a coffee filter…I can’t remember where I found the tutorial, but I will post my own here sometime soon!!

Hope you enjoy! Have a great day!!

My First Sketches in Thyme Challenge!!!

2011-05-11T20:54:00.000-07:00

All right everyone, today is the day that I can show you my first layout that I did for Sketches In Thyme!! I’m so excited to be a part of their design team and I’m really looking forward to working with their sketches each month!

So without further adieu, here’s this month’s sketch:

Isn’t it great?!

And here’s what I did with it:

Supplies Used: PP: Basic Grey, Cardstock: Bazzil, and Distress Coredinations, CTMH brads, Sizzix texture fade, Quickutz (handmade) font, and I can’t remember what the letter stickers are from. Stamp: Hero Arts.

Thanks so much for stopping by, don't forget to head over to Sketches In Thyme to see what the rest of the fabulous Mavens have created with this sketch, and go have fun and create something amazing with that fantastic sketch!

Rock Out baby ;)

2011-05-11T19:55:00.000-07:00

(second post today…scroll down to see first)

Good evening! I hope you all had a great day! It’s raining and kinda gloomy out here today, but I actually don’t mind it. It makes me want to put on a warm sweater and cuddle up with a book!

I just have a quick post tonight to show you a layout I did this weekend at the Fiesta. The pics are from Kieran’s first concert. We bought tickets to see Hedley and after we did, we found out that it was an outdoor concert and kids 5 and under were free! So we brought all 3 boys with us and the older 2 had a ton of fun! Kieran didn’t really know what to think of the rain and the loud music, but we can tell him that he went to a rock show when he was like 3 months old ;)

I’m entering this into the challenge at Frosted Designs to use something that you would normally throw away (cardboard), and use your die cutting machine (I cut out the font and the flourishes).

By the way, don’t forget to stop over at Creative Accents Challenge Blog and play along with us there! All you have to do is create anything party related and share it with us!!

I hope you enjoy looking at it as much as I enjoyed creating it! Have a good night bloggers!!

splish splash kiddo cuteness

2011-05-11T01:00:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone out in blogland! I hope you’re having a good night (and not staying up as late as I am!) I just wanted to get in a quick post to show you a couple cute little kids playing around in the water :)

This last weekend Frosted Designs hosted their first annual online crop to celebrate National Scrapbooking Day. I couldn’t participate because I was at our LSS’s NSC crop all weekend, but I did want to get in on the challenges they had going on over at Frosted Designs. To be gracious to all of us who were too busy to get in on the fun, they gave us until this Wednesday to get our layouts in. Now they had a ton of challenges this weekend, and I’m not sure if I’m allowed to do this or not, but I managed to get in quite a few in just this layout. The first one was to use birds and/or butterflies, another one was to use a border punch, another was to use 3 basic shapes, another was to use circles so I kinda combined those two...another one was to use ribbon…and they wanted you to use stitching on your layout. So I somehow managed to do all that and not have it look like I was trying to cram challenges together (even though i kinda was! lol) It was kind of fun though, because I just made a list of all the things they wanted for these different challenges and used it as inspiration! That can be a great way to challenge yourself to step outside of your comfort zone and do something different! Anyway, here’s what I came up with! I used this sketch from the scrappiest for this layout as well :)

Here’s some close ups:

This last pic is a picture of Caleb’s footprint that I cut out and glued to a facet (Tim Holtz) using glossy accents. How cute is that?! I just love it!

Products Used: PP: CTMH, Fancy Pants, Jillybean Soup. Cardstock: CTMH + Distress Coredinations, Quickutz: Handmade font (love this!), Tim Holtz: Distress Ink, and Facet, Making Memories Paint, Unknown ribbon, and thread.

Well, there it is. I hope you like it! If you have time today head over to Frosted Designs and check out all their challenges! You have till tonight to get your creations in! They also have a pretty wicked tutorial on their blog right now too, so go check it out!!

So stinkin’ cute!

2011-05-08T22:04:00.001-07:00

Well I hope you all had a great National Scrapbooking Day! Hopefully you all got to do something creative this weekend. I had a blast at the Fiesta! My only complaint was that I only got 2 layouts done in like 19 hours of scrapping! lol I guess that’s what happens when you’re easily distracted! I should know by now that I never get a lot of work done at these crops, but I DO have a lot of fun! Our table was the rowdy table…we actually got SHUSHED!! LOL But we had a blast, and my little sister won the grand prize, and I was so happy for her because she was so looking forward to this weekend and she got sick so she was only there for probably 2 hours in total. So I was really happy that she won a whole bunch of scrappin goodness!

Anyway, this layout is not one that I made this weekend, but a while ago, and I just haven’t managed to get it blogged! You’ll just have to wait and see what fabulousness was created at the fiesta! hehehe ;)

I just looooove Kieran’s smile in these pictures! They kinda just melt my heart! He’s such a cutie pie, and I’m still getting over the fact that he’s a year old already! All my paper that I used here is from Crate. Man I love Crate Paper!! The feel of it is sooo awesome and texturey (I’m just makin up words now lol), and the patterns themselves, well…you know they’re just freakin amazing! Anyhoo…I didn’t use too much else for this LO except some chipboard alphas from my stash, some paint and of course, some distress inks and a lovely stitched stamp courtesy of Mr. Tim Holtz.

Here’s a couple close ups…

I’m really happy with how this layout turned out, and I just can’t get enough of that smile!! Thanks for taking a look, and don’t forget to create something party related for the Creative Accents challenge! Make a card, or layout with ANYTHING related to a party (wedding, birthday, anniversary, ANY kind of party!) Get creative, and you could win a prize! Anyone is welcome to play along, and I hope you do!!

Have a good night!

It’s a Party challenge!!

2011-05-07T09:00:00.000-07:00

It’s that time again! Creative Accents Challenges is having their second challenge, and they want to party! So all you have to do is create a card or layout, or anything really as long as it has a party theme and link it up here before the end of May and you’ll be in the running for some yummy scrapping goodness!! So come and party with us!!

Here’s my layout that I made for the challenge: I figured since my oldest son is now 5, I should probably scrap his 3rd birthday…lol He was playing around with the hats and blowers and being a goof, and I love these shot that I got of him playing around.

Here’s some close ups:

I used the new Tim Holtz mini rosette die for the party banner. I must say that when these rosettes first came in I was really not into them at all, but they’ve definately grown on me, and I totally love them now!

There’s a little hidden journaling tag that I tucked in there. It was cut with another one of Tim’s dies. I used some distress stains (LOVE THESE) to dye the ribbon.

Well there it is, thanks for coming and taking a look, and don’t forget to come party with us at Creative Accents Challenges!!

My Baby turns 1!!

2011-05-06T17:08:00.000-07:00

(2nd post today...for giveaway scroll down!)

My baby boy turned 1 today!! It kinda makes me sad because I'm pretty sure he's our last baby...I can't believe how fast this year has gone by. It really makes me realise how quickly time flies and that we need to cherish these moments!!

I love this pic of Kieran because it looks like he's thinking "what?! I'm already 1?!" hehe

Anyway, I'm off to scrap the weekend away!! Have a great weekend everyone!!

Happy National Scrapbooking Day!!! and a giveaway!!

2011-05-06T10:13:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to say Happy National Scrapbooking Day!! I'll be busy working at my LSS this afternoon, then I'm off to the Fiesta! (for all you non-local readers it's our LSS's weekend crop to celebrate NSD!) I'm pretty excited to go this weekend, because they've had this crop for like 5 years, and every year I've been working, or nursing a baby, or just having a baby, or my husband is working! So this year I'm not really doing any of that, so I can finally go!! WOOOOHOOO!!
Hope you all have a really creative weekend!

PS: leave me a comment telling me what you're doing this weekend and spread the word and I'll give one lucky person a surprise prize! lol (I'll draw a name on monday, so you have until then!)

Happy Scrapping!

New DT!!

2011-05-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

Good morning everyone! Just a quick post to let you all know that I was chosen to be a Design Maven at Sketches in Thyme!! I’m super excited to be designing for them, and I can’t wait to get started on my first challenge! Stay tuned for some awesome sketches from them, and I hope you all join me and play along!!

A little love ;)

2011-05-02T09:53:00.001-07:00

Just a quick post to show you a cute little layout I did last night of our dog Luca. This pic was taken on Christmas day, but I think he’s doubled in size since then! When I saw this paper at Creative Accents I knew I was going to have to use it to scrap Luca, and since I haven’t done any pages of him yet, I thought now was as good of a time as any!

I’m going to enter this layout into the sketch challenge at Sketches in Thyme. Click here to see the sketch.

supplies: pp: Moxie, alpha stickers: cosmo cricket, Distress Inks, unknown die cut paper, quickutz (circle).

I’ve also decided that in order to use up my scraps I will try to make a card with my leftovers. *gasp* I know what you’re thinking “but Sarah hates making cards!” I know, but I think it *might* be growing on me…plus I like the idea of using my scraps and not having to make a card when I need one. I’m hoping to create a nice little card stash where my giant scrap paper pile used to be! lol

supplies: PP: Moxie, stamp: CTMH, Distress Ink (black soot and stormy sky), Quickutz (tag), sticker: echo park, twine: karen foster

Well that’s it for today! Thanks for stopping by…don’t forget to check back in to see what our May challenge at the Creative Accents Challenge Blog will be!! You won’t want to miss it!!

Scrapbooker’s Anonymous

2011-04-25T13:00:00.001-07:00

So Scrapbooker's Anonymous is having a DT call and it’s the last day to enter! Talk about getting in down to the wire! They’re all about using your stash (something I’ve been really trying to do lately). Anyway, their asking everyone who wants to try out to make a layout using stamps! We’re supposed to make a background using stamps, and make at least 3 embellies with stamps. I was super excited to challenge myself to use my stamps, because I LOVE buying stamps, but I don’t make a lot of cards, so sadly, my stamps often end up collecting dust on my shelves. I have to admit however, I was a little bit intimidated by this challenge because stamping is not my strong suit, but I always love a challenge, so I bit the bullet and ended up stamping this layout like crazy, and I LOVE IT! This is one of my favourite layouts so far, so I’m really happy that I challenged myself to use my stamps, and I can definitely say that my stamps will no longer be dusty! lol

This picture is of my middle son Caleb when he was about a month old. I just wish they would stay that little for longer! They’re so cute and squishy, and they don’t run around and destroy your house and talk back to you! lol

Anyway, here’s some close ups: These are the embellishments that I made. I stamped the circles with a cool little stamp from Memory Box, inked the edges with Tim Holtz Distress Ink (walnut stain) then I put in a gromlet with my cropodile and covered the whole thing with Glossy Accents. Now, the heart was made with a Tim Holtz stamp, and I have to tell you that man is a genius. I know that a lot of you already know that and it’s just stating the obvious, but maybe you don’t know this: the stamp that I used, that is all about love, fits perfectly in the little movers and shapers heart die that I used to make my little heart…coincidence? I think not. Anyhoo, I stamped that beautiful little sentiment then inked the edges with walnut stain, glossy accented it, let it dry (overnight) then hucked it in my freezer for a while…took it out, bent it up, and voila! cracky-glossy accents! hehe

For the background I stamped a sheet of white cardstock with my Basic Grey (by Hero Arts) dots stamp, then distressed the edges of the paper with antique linen and chipped sapphire distress inks. Then I made a second patterned paper out of acetate. I stamped an alphabet stamp (by cornish heritage farms *sad they’re gone*) with black Staz On and layered that on top of the first paper. Now I have to give a little props to a certain product here. Claudine Hellmuth Studio multi-medium in matte is freakin awesome for adhering clear stuff! It dries absolutely invisible and it dries fast too! Love it!

Well, that’s that! Here’s to the longest blog post in the world! lol

Supplies Used: bazzil cardstock, pp: crate, letter stickers: MME and Heidi Swapp, Cutting Dies: Quickutz, Sizzix, Tim Holtz: Tissue Tape, Distress Inks, Distress Stains, Tiny Attacher, stamps: basic grey, cornish heritage farms, and memory box, Ink: Staz On, stampin Up!, Gossy Accents.

Don’t forget you still have time to enter the challenge at Creative Accents new challenge blog! The entries are due April 30th, and there’s a sweet prize to be won!!

Thanks for checking out my blog everyone!! I really appreciate all your kind comments!!

A little snuggle time

2011-04-22T11:50:00.001-07:00

We just got back from Prince George last night. We had a good trip. It was nice to get away for a while and visit my sister. We also got to meet her new boyfriend, and him and Ethan are now best friends! We originally had to go to PG to see the Geneticist for Caleb. He has a big head and a birth mark under his arm, and those are characteristics of NF, so they wanted to make sure that he didn't have that...and he doesn't. I wasn't super worried about it, because I was pretty sure that he didn't have it anyway, but it's nice to have that reassurance :)

Last night after we got home, I spent a little time in my scrap room and finished up this layout. I just love these photos of my husband and youngest having a snuggle. Kieran was sick and cuddling with his daddy :) So cute! (I also used my Counterfeit Kit for this layout)

Supplies Used: PP: Crate, Bazzil cardstock, random buttons, Tim Holtz Distress Ink and Tiny Tags Die, Quickutz Heidi Swapp alpha, ek success punch, brown twine.

Thanks for stopping by!!

A couple Awards, and I WON CANDY! woohoo!

2011-04-19T09:42:00.000-07:00

So my friend and fellow DT member from the Seriously Creative Design Team Carla was so sweet and gave me the Versatile Blogger Award!! Yay! Thanks Carla!

There are rules after receiving this reward:
Thank the person who sent it to you
Tell us 7 things about yourself
Send Reward to 15 bloggers
So, here are 7 things about me

1. I have 3 beautiful boys ages 5 and under

2. I have a serious addiction to scrapbooking supplies (and working at my LSS just feeds it! lol)

3. My husband and I have been living together since before we started going out! (almost 11 years now)

4. I am a hairdresser (now SAHM)

5. I am a total Twilight junkie (but just the books)

6. I would love to travel around the world one day

7. I feel SO BLESSED every single day for the gifts that God has given our family!!

Now, this is going to be hard because there are sooo many great bloggers out there, but here is my fifteen (in no particular order):

Lisa @ Taadaaaaaaaaaa
Liz Chidester @ The Scrappiest
Lynnda @ Arty Scrappy
Eulanda @ Cards Cards and More Cards
Tanya @ Obsessed Crazy Mama

Janet @ Hilltop Creations
Tara @ Creative Accents
Scrappingmom73 @ My Life Upside Down
The girls over at Scrapliftable
Chris @ Chris's Creations
Teila @ Teila's Tidbits
Cheri @ Graphicat Creations
Lisa @ Pictures 2 Pages
Barb @ Crafty Girl
Heidi @ ARTiql8

I also got the Liebster Blog Award from my girl Teila! Thanks lady!

(It's a blog award passed on to your favourite 3-5 blogs, that have less than 100 followers)

As a recipient you must share the love and pay it forward by following these simple rules:

1. Thank the giver on your blog.
2. Link back to the blogger who awarded you.
3. Copy & paste the blog award on your blog
4. Reveal your 3-5 blog picks.
5. Let them know you chose them by leaving a comment on their blog.

So here are my picks:

Lynnda @ Arty Scrappy
Karen @ I Could be Scrapbooking Instead
Tracy @ A Scrap at a Time

On another note, I won some blog candy at the Studio Calico Blog hop!! I was pretty excited, especially since I won my choice of 2 Mister Huey's spray mist! I've never used it before, so I'm pretty stoked to get my inky little fingers on it!
I'm going to Prince George in the morning for my middle son Caleb's tests, but I'll be back on thursday night, and maybe I'll show you my new layout then!

Have a great night!

Blog Candy at Tanya's!!

2011-04-13T12:28:00.001-07:00

My "Obsessed and Crazy" friend Tanya is celebrating her 2nd year Blogoversary, so she's giving out some pretty sweet candy!! Go HERE to check it out. But don't just check out the candy. It's seriously worth your time to check out her blog. It's quite amazing!! She is one super talented "Obsessed Crazy Mama" lol

Sketches in Thyme DT Call

2011-04-12T11:20:00.001-07:00

I’ve been taking part in quite a few challenge blogs lately, and one of them that I found that I really like is Sketches in Thyme. They have some really great sketches and great prizes too!! So when I found out they were having a DT call I thought I’d try out!

This is the sketch they want us to use for the tryout. I love the simplicity of this sketch as it leaves it open for so much interpretation! So with that, here’s mine:

Here’s some close ups too:

supplies used: Pattern Paper and stickers: Crate Paper, Ek Success Punch, unknown chipboard letters (coloured with Copics) and tag, Distress Ink, Bazzil embroidery floss, Basic Grey letter stickers, Tim Holtz Grungeboard and Distress Stains, Coredinations Cardstock, and white acrylic paint.

I also used my Counterfeit Kit for this page!

Thanks so much for taking the time to check out my little neck of the web!

Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog

2011-04-12T11:00:00.001-07:00

Hello Bloggers! I just wanted to do a quick post to tell you about a fun challenge blog I found that will help you use your stash! Now if you’re anything like me, you like to shop for supplies more than you actually use them! So when I found this site, I was totally inspired! It’s called Counterfeit Kit Challenge and they take a monthly kit site and choose a kit for you to use for inspiration to create your own kit using your own supplies. They also have challenges throughout the month that you can participate in using the kit you’ve created! How fun is that?! So here’s my kit that I came up with. I’m pretty excited to use up some of my stash (so I can justify buying more! lol)

So, stay tuned this month to see what I come up with using all this fun stuff!!

April Challenge at Creative Accents!!

2011-04-09T12:16:00.001-07:00

It’s that time again!! Time for another challenge at Creative Accents! And this time we’ve got a new challenge blog too!!

You can check out all of the fabulously creative DT’s work there for inspiration, and link up your work too!

So, onto April’s challenge! I had a hard time with this one, but it wouldn’t be called a challenge if it was supposed to be easy! It was definitely out of my comfort zone, but it’s good to stretch your creative muscles and jump out of your norm every once in a while! So anyway, enough of my blabbing….on with the challenge!

Here’s the pic…now, the challenge is based on this, you can use all or one of the colors and you get extra points for using a tag!

So, for all of you who know me or who have seen most of my scrapbooking, you’ll know that pastels are not my favourite things to use…but once I got into it, I had a lot of fun, and I quite like the way it turned out! Here’s my take on it:

I used a sketch from The Scrappiest for this LO.

Here’s some close ups:

For the background I used white bazzil cardstock and sprayed it with 4 different colors of Glimmer Mist, then stamped it in a couple different spots with a Tim Holtz stamp. The tags are cut with a Tim Holtz mini tags set and I used this super fabulous crepe ribbon (available at Creative Accents) on the tags as well. Both the ribbon on the tags and on the layout were cream coloured originally and I coloured them with the ever so amazing Distress Stains!! I heart these stains!! they’re amazing!! I used concord and peeled paint on them, and I’m loving how they turned out! The loopy border is a new Lifestyle Crafts die that I fell in love with too!

The Easter egg is another new Lifestyle Crafts die that I had to have! I cut it out after I covered it with score tape, then added doodlebug glitter to it.

There’s my take on the challenge! I hope you join us and try it out!! It’s the perfect time for these colors too! Get some of those spring layouts done, or make some Easter cards and challenge yourself to do something different!!

A few Quickies

2011-03-31T23:57:00.001-07:00

Just a quick post to show you a few last minute challenges I wanted to get in on this month..talk about cutting er close!

The first one is for the The Scrappiest challenge. It was a sketch challenge. You can see the sketch here.

and a close up

The second challenge was another sketch. This one was from the Studio. You can see the sketch here. They had a twist on their challenge to use ribbon…that I found was kinda hard for me to do, since it was a girly page…that I didn’t really make girly at all. The pics are from when I was 2 months old with my mom. I love the pics, but I’m n0t crazy about the LO. All I can say about it was that it was fast. Anyway, here it is.

and a close up

Well, there you go…Hope you like em. Sorry this is so fast…my 10 month old is awake right now too…pretty cool Kieran…being awake at midnight…pray for me that he goes back to sleep soon! lol

Goodnight!

My Favourite Pastime

2011-03-28T00:37:00.001-07:00

I saw this challenge on the These are a Few of my Favourite Things challenge blog and I immediately thought of these pictures I took when I was making bread in my trusty Kitchenaid mixer and I had a bit of a mishap! The challenge is to scrap your favourite pastime. I love making fresh bread! There’s nothing like it. And I also get great satisfaction out of creating something with my hands (if you don’t count the mixer! lol) but also knowing that I’m making healthy food for my family. I never thought I’d be one to make bread from scratch, or anything else for that matter, but I love baking! I never thought I’d say that either! When I started going out with my husband I told him that if he was looking for a housewife he’d better look somewhere else! hehehe! Little did I know that 10 years later I’d be a stay at home mom to 3 amazing boys and be glad to be able to do it! Anyway, on with the layout…I’ll explain the pictures first, you’ll get a kick out of them. My mixer can easily knead 2 loaves of whole wheat bread, probably 3, but NOT 4! I found that out the hard way! I was being lazy and wanted to make 4 loaves of bread but I didn’t want to have to knead it by hand, so I thought I’d try it out in my mixer and see if it could handle it…it couldn’t. It overheated and shut itself off…then Kieran who was a newborn at the time, started crying, so I went to go nurse him and forgot all about the bread…until I went back into the kitchen after Kieran was fed…and this was what I found...

And here are some close ups…

I cut the title out with Tim Holtz’s Vintage Market alphabet and perked up the color with Barn Door Distress Ink, then I covered it all with Glossy Accents so I could make it look all purdy like my Kitchenaid (I’m a little obsessed with that color of red)

I used the Tim Holtz on the edge scallops for the bottom two scallops. You can’t see it that well, but I cut the middle scallop out of tin foil.

I cut the bracket out of a piece of cardboard (which btw, is super hard to cut with a craft knife that is semi-dull!), and I painted it with Old Paper Distress Crackle Paint, then used Vintage Photo Distress Ink over it to give it a more antique look.

Products Used: Patterned Paper: LYB, Basic Grey, Cosmo Cricket, Stampin Up, MME, and October Afternoon. Bazzil cardstock, Tim Holtz Distress Inks, Distress Crackle Paint, and Dies. Acrylic Paint, Ranger Glossy Accents, Quickutz Dies, Fiskars punch, and Basic Grey letter stickers.

I’m also entering this into a few other challenges: I used sketch 147 from Creative Scrappers. Frosted Designs Fabulous Friday Challenge was to reuse or repurpose something from around the house, and I used tin foil and cardboard that was kickin around here. I’m going to add it to the Do You Stack Up Shine On Challenge. and finally, I’m adding it to the Sketches in Thyme open sketch challenge.

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to check out my blog! I appreciate all the comments and kind words from all of you!

Graphicat Sketch Challenge (and others)

2011-03-25T00:48:00.000-07:00

Well I’ve just discovered that I can blog using Windows Live Writer and it will publish on my blog…so we’ll see how this goes!

Anyway, a friend of mine, Cheri, has just recently opened up her online business, Graphicat Designs where she is selling some pretty awesome Digis that she has created! She’s also doing a monthly sketch challenge and all you have to do is create something based on her sketch and you could win 2 free digis! So, here’s my take on her sketch. You can check out the sketch here.

I did this layout about the funny things my son Caleb says. The way he pronounces words just cracks me up, and I didn’t want to forget the cute things he says, so I had to scrap about it! The journaling says: Thaanthaan=Ethan, Keeyan=Kieran, Yahyah=Maia, Gaga=Luca, which later turned into “Hooka”, Guckie=Suckie, Dodo=Thomas, Yinnie-A-Pooh=Winnie the Pooh, Sammy=Sandwhich, Cracko=Cracker, Hattoo=Tattoo, Hoakie=Cookie

It’s the cutest thing in the world when I make train sandwiches (using a train shape cutter for the bread) and he sits there eating his “Dodo Sammy”!

I made the title (on top) with Tim Holtz ticket die cut, Vagabond, stamp, font, and Distress Crackle paint and Distress Ink. ( I really Holtz’d this LO up, as Tara would say! lol) anyway, here’s a close up: You can also see in the close up the fabulous new Tim Holtz pointy finger stamp that came in the set that my awesome bosses at Creative Accents brought me back…um…SIGNED BY TIM HOLTZ!!! Did I tell you guys that I love you?!?! hehehe

I made the border with my Silhouette, then glued it to some adhesive backed cork (quickutz)

The stars in the bottom corner are some pre cut Grungeboard stars that I sprayed with Glimmer Mist, and then topped it off with Distress Crackle paint (rock candy), then smudged it with Distress Ink (Walnut Stain).

I also used Coredinations cardstock and embossed it with a Tim Holtz Sizzix folder. The patterned paper is Fancy Pants Rough and Tough.

I’m also entering this LO in the DYSU challenge. Their challenge is “Shine On”. Now this might be a stretch, but my stars are totally shiny! And the title on the top of the page is so shiny I could barely get a decent pic of it! lol so I figure that should count! It’s also going to be entered at Sketches in Thyme. They’re doing an open sketch challenge. So as long as you used a sketch, you can enter!

Anyway, I really hope you guys go check out Cheri's Digis, they’re freakin AWESOME!! You will NOT be disappointed!

Thanks for stopping by!

Cute and Twisted?!

2011-03-16T00:25:00.000-07:00

Here's a LO I just finished tonight. I made it for the Twisted Sketches challenge. I loved this sketch, and the "twist" is chipboard. I've been thinking about it since I saw the sketch on their site a few days ago, and I started putting this LO together last night a bit, then I came home from work tonight, put the kids to bed, and proceeded to finish it...WITHOUT ANY CHIPBOARD ON IT!! LOL
So after it was all said and done, I realised my severe lack of chipboard, and cursed my memory (or lack thereof). So I brought it back downstairs to my scrap room and thought that if I could find some piece of chipboard that would add to the design I'd put it on...if not, I'd just have to give Twisted Sketches props for their fab sketch, and not enter it...but ALAS, I found this adorable little chipboard "e" to put on it (since it's a LO of my first born Ethan, I found it to be quite fitting!) So, I hope you all enjoy it. I think it's super cute if I do say so myself! hehe ;)

And here's some close ups...I added Glossy Accents to the words in this little tag to jazz it up a bit...I quite like how it turned out!

Here's my little "e". And my banner that I made with my Silhouette, sewing machine and those great little letter stickers!

Most of my papers are from My Mind's Eye from their new Good Day Sunshine collection (which I totally LOVE), except the shaped paper is the outside of a die cut paper from the fabulous Harmonie (love these guys too! and they're Canadian!! wooohooo!)

Anyhoooo...thanks for stopping by!!

Preschool and Sketchy Thursday Challenge

2011-03-13T21:46:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to show you my layout I finished last night. I used a sketch from Sketchy Thursdays, and I'll be entering it in this week's challenge. Here's the sketch I used:
And here's my take on it. I didn't alter too far from the sketch this time, but I really like the way it turned out!
The pics are from Ethan's first day at preschool. He was so excited! I just love these pics with him and his best friend Ethan.
Here's some close ups:
I cut the circle out of chipboard and sprayed it with dragonfly glimmer mist, then added thickers to spell Preschool.

I used pop dots on the small pics to help them stand out more...

On another note, My fab new bosses at Creative Accents are away right now at a crafty thing in Edmonton where they met and took a class by the fabulous Tim Holtz!! Tara just sent me a message on facebook letting me know that she got me an autograph from him!! WOOOHOOO!!! I'm pretty stoked!! It's the next best thing to being there!! I was trying to find a way to fit into their suitcase, but it just didn't work out! lol So, thanks Tara and Julie for thinking of me!!

Anyway, I hope you like my layout! Thanks for taking the time to check it out!

Top 3 baby!

2011-03-10T22:56:00.000-08:00

Hello all! Just a quick little post to toot my own horn ;) My layout Mr. Mohawk made the top 3 at Frosted Designs!!
Just kinda made my day today, that's all ;)
Have a great night everyone!!

29 and holding ;)

2011-03-08T23:53:00.000-08:00

This layout was inspired by a couple different challenges going on. The one that I made this page for originally was from The Studio. Their challenge this week is to scrap your age. I thought that was kind of fun! It gives me a reason to scrap myself, since I spend most of the time scrapping about my kids. I need to remind myself that when my kids are older and they're looking at these scrapbooks, they might actually want to see something about their mom and not just them...maybe lol ;) The second inspiration for this page was from my favourite LSSCreative Accents. They're doing a facebook challenge to use your 6x6 paper pads. I liked this challenge, because I'm notorious for buying those pads because I love the line, but I'm not a card maker, so I tend to not use them as often as I buy them! I'm into using my stash these days, so I thought I'd do just that!

I made these flowers with Tissue Tape from the fabulous Tim Holtz. I looove that stuff!! They were so easy to make! You can find the tutorial HERE

The journaling reads: "I'm in my last year of my 20's and I must say I'm pretty happy with where my life has taken me so far. I have an amazing and loving husband who loves me (despite me), 3 beautiful boys, and last year we bought our first home! I have been able to stay home with my boys for the last 3 years, and I'm so grateful to be able to be a stay at home mom. The only area in my life right now that I'm not happy with is my weight, but I'm working on that right now, and I hope to be at my goal weight by my 30th birthday!"

Here's what I used to make this page: Cardstock-Bazzil and Coredinations, Patterned Paper-Cosmo Cricket 6x6 pad Circa 1934, Tim Holtz-Tissue Tape and Vintage Photo Distress Ink, Quickutz- "No. 48", and Webster's Pages designer trim.

Thanks for checking it out!!

Holy Candy Batman!!

2011-03-07T15:11:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! My buddy Carla has some serious blog candy going on over at her blog! It's her 1 year blogoversary, so she's celebrating in style!! It's on until March 9th, so you still have a couple days to get in on it!! Head on over to check it out! CLICK HERE FOR CANDY!!

Head on over and check it out!!

My little Punk Rocker

2011-03-05T23:56:00.001-08:00

It's been quite a while since my last post, and I do apologize. Life has been pretty busy. I'm trying to juggle kids, exercise, eating healthier (which does take up a bit more time than just winging it), a new job and trying to become more organized at the same time! But it's been paying off. I've lost almost 17lbs, and my house has never been cleaner! Anyway, I've finally found some time to get downstairs and do some creating, and here's what I've come up with:

here's a few close ups...

And just for fun, I think I scrapbook like a tornado...here's the aftermath! lol

I'm entering this page into the challenge at Frosted Designs. They're doing a recipe challenge. You have to use 3 patterned papers, 2 fonts and 1 journaling tag. It's also being entered into the challenge at Do You Stack Up Their challenge is "Just Green It". It's also going into the challenge at Punky Scraps, another recipe challenge to use 3 out of 5 of these things: distressing, misting, black & white photos flowers or sparkly things.

here's what I used: PP: Fancy Pants, Cosmo Cricket, Echo Park, Bo Bunny. Cardstock: coredinations, Die Cut scallop circle and paint, Making Memories. Tim Holts: embossing folder, tissue tape, mini paper clips, distress inks, grungeboard, die cutting machine and dies (elegant flourishes). Basic Grey letter stickers, Quickutz alphabet (Katie), Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, Ranger Distress Crackle Paint, Bo Bunny Buttons, CTMH Sanders, Cropodile, Zig Pen, and unknown journaling tag.

Thanks for checking out my blog!!

My New Job!

2011-02-23T08:05:00.000-08:00

Just a quick little post to let you all know that I'll be starting my new job at Creative Accents on Friday!! Just thought I'd let you all know, so you can come in and say hi!!
See ya Friday!

Wait...you mean it's NOT still December?!

2011-02-14T21:46:00.000-08:00

Ok. So I know December is close to being 2 months behind us now, but I'm still stubbornly plugging away at my December Daily album. I refuse to have this be one of my projects that I start with great intent, then lose interest on because it's taking too long, or the season is over. So here's a few more pages that I've finished on my album.

To be perfectly honest, I have no idea what days these were (except for Ethan's birthday party day {14th} just because I remember the day we did his party) because I haven't done any of the journaling on the album yet. I have decided to get all the pages finished before doing the journaling and dating.

I'm not going to go into huge detail about the products I've used, because quite frankly, I just can't remember! But I have been using a lot of the Basic Grey Jovial line for the paper (I went a little crazy buying up all of that line I could get!) and of course some fab Tim Holtz dies and random other cool stuff! I had some time at the "Chocolate Crop" at Creative Accents (my fav LSS) to get quite a bit more of this album finished, but I just haven't had time to photograph them yet, so stay tuned! My goal is to finish this album before March starts!

A Chocolatey Challenge

2011-02-07T08:39:00.000-08:00

Well, it's that time again! Creative Accents is having another challenge, and this one might just get you craving some delectable goodies! And hopefully it gets you craving some time to get creative too and join in with us!!
The challenge is called "For the LOVE of CHOCOLATE" and here are the details:

The idea is to let the theme inspire you... could be a valentine's project, could be anti-valentines & pro-chocolate, could be about your love of chocolate, love of your family... the basic requirements are that your project
- includes some shade of 'chocolate' (ie. brown) on it
- highlights products found at Creative Accents

When I found out about this challenge I was sure I could find a picture of one of my boys with a cute chocolate covered smile, but I didn't find any in my stash of pictures, and I've kind of made a resolution to scrap the pics that I have already printed before I print more. But I did however find a super cute pic of Ethan on his first birthday with cake all over his face and a sad look on his face. Now I'm pretty sure he was sad because he had a tummy ache from eating his whole giant piece of cake, but I thought the look was perfect for the caption on my page...So here's my take on the challenge. It was a fun one, I hope you all decided to join in!

Here's what I used (and it was all found at my favourite LSS, Creative Accents!): PP:sassafrass lass, DCWV-Greenstack, October Afternoon, Apple Glimmer Mist, Alphabet Stickers: Lush, and Thickers, Tim Holtz: Distress Inks, Alterations (scallops), stamps and Vagabond, Adhesive: Zip Dry and American Crafts pop dots.

Teila's Birthday Card

2011-01-25T23:35:00.000-08:00

Well, it's late, but better late than never I guess! I had great ideas for this card, but when it came to put it all together, I kind of think it fell short of what I pictured for it in my mind. Like I always say though, I'm not a cardmaker, and I don't ever claim to be! lol

I used bazzil dotted swiss cardstock, and stamped a hero arts background stamp with distress inks and embossed it with distress embossing powder. I used quickutz flowers and "celebrate".

I hope you had a great birthday Teila! Enjoy the card!

Happy Birthday Teila!!

2011-01-22T09:00:00.000-08:00

Well, January seems to be a pretty busy month for birthdays! Mine was a week ago, our middle son Caleb's was yesterday, and one of our talented DT members is today! You know what that means?!? Yup! Another Birthday Blog Hop!! And like usual, I didn't get my poop in a group in time to get Teila's card finished on time. Caleb has been sick with tonsilitis with a fever of 105 and he won't let me leave his sight, and it was his birthday yesterday and we had the whole family over for a party for him. I totally thought I'd have time to make her card last night, but the last guests didn't leave until almost 10, then we had to get the kids to bed, and by that time I was not feeling so creative!! lol

So I'll just have to say, Happy Birthday Teila!!! You're a great mom, a kick ass cook and a very creative chicka!! I hope you have an amazing day, and I'll try to post your card tomorrow!!
Now, hop on over to the ever so talented Cheri's Blog. And don't forget to go to Teila's Blog and wish her a happy birthday!!

Creative Scrappers Sketch 137

2011-01-10T21:56:00.000-08:00

Well, I have to start off by telling you all that as I write this it is officially the end of "day 3" of Weight Watchers and I'm pretty stoked because I've been stuck on "day 1" for a loooooong time! lol My best friend and I always joke around about "day 1" because it's always tomorrow (meaning: better stuff your face full of junk today because day 1 starts tomorrow!"). So, like I said, I'm pretty excited to be at the end of day 3 and still going strong!

My favourite LSS Creative Accents, gave me a stamp from Hero Arts to do something with (the perks of being on the DT!), and ever since I got it, I had the idea to stamp it on cork and emboss it, which was what I did on this layout. Then I saw sketch 137 over at Creative Scrappers and I knew that I wanted to use that stamp to create this page! So here's the sketch:

and here's my take on it:

Products used: (unknown patterned paper) smooch spray, quickutz adhesive cork, distress inks in stormy sky, clear embossing powder, hero arts stamp, random cool buttons, tim holtz die cut and stamp, close to my heart brads, white acrylic paint.

Thanks for taking a look! Have a good night!

December Daily (missing day 3)

2011-01-07T20:56:00.001-08:00

I saw the idea for doing a December Daily album in my Scrapbooks etc. mag. I really loved the idea of taking at least one pic a day, and journaling every day to record the events in your life counting down to Christmas. I just thought it would be really cool to look at these albums each year and reminisce about previous holidays.
So I decided to tackle this project in November, the idea being that I get it all done ahead of time and that way I can just take the pics and do the journaling each day. Well, that worked about as well as project of mine that I want to get finished on time! lol So, without further adieu I will present you with my first 11 days of my December Daily album! lol (as you may have gathered, I still haven't finished it!) I haven't done the journaling for them yet (I just journaled on my laptop every day, and then once I'm finished the album I'll write them on the pages).

1.

2.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

I'm not going to go into too much detail on the pages in this album except that my Vagabond ROCKS!! haha, but if you have any questions about any of them, just email me or leave a comment!

By the way, in case you've never tried to take a picture every single day for a month...It's not as easy as you might think!! I realized after taking on this project that I sucked at it! lol

Happy New Year's (Resolutions?!)

2011-01-01T10:42:00.000-08:00

Well, it's a new year, and with it there is ALWAYS resolutions, and however lame it might seem (because it seems to be the same every year), mine is *still* weight loss. I came across this blog that has totally inspired me though, and I have found a way to keep myself accountable. Her name is Cathy Zielske and her slogan is "Move More, Eat Less". I think that is a very simple way to look at it, but it's really all we ever need to do to be healthy (as long as we're eating healthy foods mostly too). She started her weight loss journey last year and documented the whole thing in a scrapbook!! I love the idea of creating a monthly scrapbook page with all the details of your progress. It is definately a way to hold me accountable because I won't want to scrapbook (and blog) a layout in which I haven't lost weight! So, I think I've got that resolution covered.

My other resolution is to be more organized. I am always quite chaotic because my organizational skills are severely lacking. I resolve to organize my time better so that I have more time to play with my kids without my house becoming a giant disaster too...I have to find a way to get it all done in the day...anyone know of a way to add a few extra hours to the day?!

I think that loosing weight will actually help me with my other goal as well, because I'll have more energy to devote to my kids and my house as long as I first devote some time to myself!

There are always more things I'd like to resolve to do, but it's been my experience that if you try to do too many things at once, nothing gets done at all! So, for now, those are my goals.

Happy New Year's! I hope it's full of blessings for everyone!

The Name's Bond...Vagabond!

2010-12-28T23:24:00.001-08:00

Happy early birthday to meeee!! I got my new Vagabond today, and I must say Tim, you have outdone yourself on this one!! It is AMAZING!! For all of you who think you don't need this because you already have a die cutting machine (like I did), you're wrong!! You soooooo need this! It cuts through chipboard like butter, and you don't have to worry about getting tendonitis from cranking your dies through the manual one...trust me, it's well worth the 275 bucks!! And to top it all off, it's the coolest looking machine EVER! (I swear I'm not getting commission, but I should! lol)

2010-12-27T21:41:00.000-08:00

Well it's been over a month since I last posted anything, and I do apologize for that, but we've been sooooo busy in December I can't even believe I had time to breathe!! I did manage to get in a teeny bit of scrapbooking this month, but I'm not sharing it until I get the whole album finished (It's a daily December album), and don't worry, it shouldn't take too long now!

Anyway, I thought I'd share a little of my December with you!

First things first, we always have to have our tree up as close to the first of December as possible, and this year we did it on the second, so we weren't too far off!! It was our first Christmas in our new house, so it was extra special!

This year Ethan is old enough to do quite a few crafts, and he is quite creative and artistic. We made quite a few Christmas crafts this year, but this one is my favourite!

Every year, the church down the road from our house hosts a gingerbread decorating day. It's a fundraiser, it's 5 bucks and you get the house all prepared, plus all the icing and decorations you could ever need! It's pretty amazing! It's definately become a family tradition!

Ethan also performed in his first Christmas concert this year! The kindergarten's stood up on stage and sang songs and did actions to go with the songs. When there were no actions for the songs, Ethan made his own up and decided to play air guitar! It was pretty stinkin cute!

Of course, we also have Ethan's hockey every weekend too...

Then two days before Christmas is Ethan's birthday. We did his party for his school friends on the 15th, so they could all come before school was out for the holidays. Ethan wanted a "Mighty Bean" cake...

And a "Lego Indiana Jones" pinata (which took me about 6 hours to make)

And then, we celebrated Jesus's birthday, and it was Kieran's first time! I also hosted Christmas dinner for the first time!

All in all, it's been a crazy busy month, but one I wouldn't change for anything!
I'm heading to a "Wrestling Day" crop on the 3rd of January, and I'm sooo looking forward to getting some creative time in! (For those of you who aren't from Williams Lake, Wrestling Day is a holiday celebrated in Williams Lake. It's the day after New Year's Day. You know...Boxing Day after Christmas....Wrestling Day after New Year's...lol I know...we're a crazy bunch!

I'm baaack ;) with a super late challenge!

2010-11-20T22:23:00.001-08:00

Wow! It's been a while since I've posted anything here! Life has been quite busy these days! My oldest son started hockey in September when school started (and I haven't quite adjusted to having to take Ethan to school every morning, let alone hockey 3 times a week! My youngest son has just started getting his teeth in, and my middle son is just getting over tonsilitis and double ear infections, so sleep has been a little shady, and I guess I was just feeling like I had way too much free time, so we got a puppy! His name is Luca, and he's a Black Lab cross. With what we're not sure, but we think maybe a Border Collie. He's such a good puppy too! I've definately been blessed to have a pup that's calm (most of the time) and really smart! He's 3 months old, and (dare I say) I'm pretty sure that he's almost house trained! So you can look forward to some doggy layouts in the future!

Isn't he cute?!

So, I'm extremely late on this challenge! The rest of the "Seriously Creative Design Team" had this out on monday...I'm working on being a week late on it! The challenge was to do a take on this fab sketch that one of our fellow DT members, Cheri made. I had a bit of a hard time with this sketch. Don't get me wrong, it's a great sketch, but I think it's geared more towards cards, and I am extremely stubborn, and refuse to make a card unless I absolutely have to, so I made a layout...lol, but I tell ya, I almost made a card! I was wracking my brain as to how to create a layout with this sketch. I actually had a dream about what I wanted to do with it. I guess when I don't get a chance to scrapbook enough, I start dreaming about it! lol So, here's my take, I hope it was worth the wait!

here's what I used: Cardstock: Bazzil, PP: Basic Grey-Pyrus collection (freakin LOVE this paper!!), Die Cutting Machines: Silhouette (vinyl cutout), and Quickutz font: Gazebo, Glimmer Mist, and Smootch Spray, Brads: CTMH, letter stickers: Making Memories, punch: EK Success, Copics.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Pumpkins and pure cuteness!

2010-10-29T19:41:00.000-07:00

I sooo love the fall! And I was totally feeling like I haven't been doing enough fall pages, so I printed these pics from last year's pumpkin patch, and they are soooo cute! These pics were of Caleb at his first pumpkin patch! He was so teeny there, it's hard to believe that he's walking and talking this year! Time does go by so quickly!

products: I don't know what pp I used for the base, but I used Basic Grey for the strips (I soooo Love this new paper!!) I sprayed some smootch spray and glimmer mist on the pages, and I used distress inks on the pumpkins (both cut with Quickutz), the bling is unknown from Chris's stash. I couldn't find the color I wanted, so I colored it with Copics. (thanks Chris!!), and the alphabet is Katie from Quickutz too. Hope you like it!

It's a quick post today...I'm feeling kinda sick and I think I'll be off to bed soon...have to get up ridiculously early to take Ethan to hockey in the morning! ugh!