I love combining challenges!

It's something I used to do a lot but haven't done so much lately, but I just love when I manage to do it. I managed to plan this double pager so that it met 4 different challenges! Two of the challenges were DT challenges at ScrapShotz and two were from an email crop amongst friends.

Aimee had given us an October Quoted Inspiration challenge to use a great quote by Judy Garland as inspiration for a layout. I loved this quote and thought of my DD as soon as I read it. I knew I had to use it on a layout about her. Though it doesn't show up at all in the picture the quote is written on the right hand side of the two pager. It says "Always be a first rate version of yourself, instead of a second rate version of somebody else." One thing that I love about my DD is that she is not afraid to be herself and I absolutely love who she is.

In Wendy's Sixth Sense challenge she posted a layout she had done and challenged us to do a layout inspired by her layout. I loved her layout and decided to scraplift it so her layout gave me the basic design for my double pager. Her's was just a single page but I just mirrored it to make it a double pager.

I have a great group of friends on an email list. We are a group of Christian home educating mothers from all across Canada. The list is special because everyone on the list has been known in real life by someone on the list and invited to the list by that person. We are a very close knit group. Recently we discovered that a number of us were into scrapbooking so we set up a special list for us to share our scrapbooking. Every once in a while we put on a crop through the list. We are in the middle of a week long crop right now.

One of the challenges was to use stamps in a layout. Once again it doesn't show up well in the picture but in real life it looks real cool. I used an Autumn Leaves Flower stamp and versa mark ink to stamp all the plain cardstock I used in the layout. It looks really neat in person.

Another of the challenges was to use 5 or more different ribbons. I had just recieved my prize from winning the Sisterhood of Scrap Card day contest and in it were a bunch of beautiful ribbons. I used 5 of them on the double pager.

My DD is a hat fanatic. She's rarely seen without a hat of some kind on her head. She has dozens of them, all different styles, and she looks great in them all. I had decided I wanted to use some pictures of her in her hats and she happened along while I was picking them out. She started talking about her hats and how much she loves them and how each one makes her feel different and she said the phrase "you have to feel your hat." I loved it, and decided I had to use it as the title of the layout.

So, here's what I created:

Mini album - finally!

I finally managed to get pictures of the mini album that I made a while back. I am really pleased with how it turned out. Jen, at Creative Crafts and Stickers, challenged us to make a fall themed mini album, while Amy, at the same place, challenged us to do a hybrid project. At the same time, Heidi, at ScrapShotz, also gave a mini album challenge and included instructions on how to make an accordian fold mini album. All of these challenges were inspiration for the mini album I created. The album's theme is pictures of my children taken in the fall. I created the cover, title pages, and name tags digitally and printed and pasted them into the mini album. Love how that turned out! It took some figuring out but I finally figured a way to use the accordian fold album so that I could tie it shut with ribbons on both sides and so that all the pictures on one side were of the boys and the other side of the girls. I just love the final product! And, yes, Mom, it's a present for you. I'll bring it to you this weekend. :)

The top picture here shows the cover and then the next two show both sides of the album opened out:



I have some other things to post too but I think I'll wait until tomorrow to post them.

Layout Tag Again

I can finally post my layout from the layout tag game at ScrapShotz. It is so much fun to see how that layout changed as it passed hands! You can see all the layouts if you scroll down through the pages at the link to ScrapShotz above, but here's mine:



I haven't managed to borrow a camera yet to get pictures of the mini albums. I also have to get a picture of the layout I did at an actual real live crop this past Friday night! It was great to have a night out but I didn't accomplish much scrap wise, but I did manage to do one layout. I don't especially like the layout, but it's done. The crop was a part of the Creative Memories Great Gathering and I found out about it through a Facebook Page. It was put off byWendy Power and Renee Mason. When I finally manage to borrow a camera and get pictures of the mini albums I'll post the layout, as well as a couple of cards I've completed.

This Weekend's Layouts

While I'm not a fan of Halloween, I couldn't resist checking out the fun at Creative Crafts and Stickers Creepy Autumn Crop this weekend. I had a little trouble getting into anything there at first but finally managed to wrap my head around some things I could do for some of the challenges. In the end I completed 3 layouts and a mini album.

The first layout was inspired by Jess's Title Challenge. She listed some titles to inspire us. I tried some new techniques on this one. I used a stencil and acrylic paint to paint a border around the cardstock. I also did the title with stencils and paint.



This next layout was inspired by Ally's Sketch Challenge.



The last layout was inspired by Tara's photo challenge. One of the games at the crop was a photo treasure hunt run by Tara. She posted a list of things that we had to try to get pictures of. One of the things on the list was a horse in a field. DD loves horses and she was helping me with the treasure hunt and she took some beautiful pictures of a horse in town that she likes to visit once in a while. When Tara posted the challenge to use one or more of our treasure hunt pictures in a layout I knew right away which ones I wanted to use. The design of the layout is based on a Christy Mack sketch which was featured at the Sisterhood of Scrap blog.



I just remembered that I actually did two mini albums this weekend - one I just finished tonight and the other that still doesn't have photos or embellies yet. I'll post about them tomorrow if I get a chance.

Christmas Card Crop

Thanks to the two great crops I participated in this weekend, I had a very productive scrapping weekend. I made 9 Christmas cards and 3 layouts. I also started one mini album and have plans in my head for more mini albums, cards, and layouts, but I didn't have time to do any more this weekend.

The 9 completed cards are thanks to ScrapShotz's "12 Cards of Christmas and a Mini-album in a Pear Tree" Crop. At first I wasn't sure how much I was actually going to get to do because my one and only Christmas/Winter related stamp is a snowflake. I have absolutely no Christmas sentiment stamps and the alphabet stamps that I have are really too big to make them to fit the cards, but I came up with an alternative that I hadn't thought of before and I was quite pleased with how it turned out. I printed what I wanted using a program on my computer! Anyway, here's my cards:

This one was inspired by Julie's CrissCross Card Challenge. Julie posted great instructions for making this unique card style. I used yummy paper that Carla sent me in a wonderful Rak last week. Thanks again, Carla! The card is actually like a little pocket into which you insert a notecard type thing. The picture shows the card tucked in the pocket and then out of the pocket.



Jen's Whimsical Monochromatic Card challenge was the inspiration for this one. The stamped image was part of teh RAK from Carla. I colored it using pastels and added some glitter to it.



Carla's 5 Step, 5 Minute Christmas Card Challenge took me way more than five minutes to created but I had fun doing it and will probably do more like it, especially after seeing all the great creations others came up with for this challenge. The top picture shows the card closed and the bottom picture shows it opened. Once again I used papers from Carla's great RAK.



This was a fast, easy one inspired by Nonie's Scraplift Challenge.



Another fast and easy one was inspired by Wendy's Card Sketch Challenge.



Amiee's Trimming the Tree Challenge had me stumped for a while but I'm pleased with what I came up with.



I had great fun with Carla's Non-Traditional Christmas Card Challenge. I used another of the many stamped images Carla sent me in the RAK. The top picture shows the front of the card and the bottom one shows the inside.



Had great fun with Aimee's Frosty Footprints Challenge! The challenge was to trace a child's foot print and to use the trace to make a snowman for the front of a card. I also used a technique my sister told me about. I glued a used dryer sheet onto the footprint and sprinkled it with glitter. I used some bling for the eyes and buttons, some ricrac for the scarf and cut out a hat. I also cut a piece of white paper to make a snow bank and cut out a couple of trees from another paper to put on the snow bank.



Here's another fun one inspired by Carla's Pop-Up Christmas Card challenge. I cut a tree out of a patterned paper to use as the pop-up and made a fun card to give someone who had their tree fall over on them last season. The picture on the left shows the front of the card and the right shows the inside.



I'll post about the other crop and my creations for it tomorrow, hopefully, right now little one needs my attention.

Lots of Layouts this week!

I've had great fun creating layouts this week. My inspiration were sketches from a few different places.

Ally's sketch on the Creative Crafts and Stickers blog was the inspiration for this one. I also used mostly materials from the CC&S's October kit which Ally rakked to me.



Used materials from the same kit for this one, which was inspired by a Patti Hutchinson sketch that was posted at Sisterhood of Scrap.




This double pager was inspired by a blog sketch at SnapShotz and also by Julie's October Catch Phrase challenge to use the phrase "eye on the prize" as inspiration for a layout. The sketch was actually for just a single page but I just mirrored it to make a double pager.

Scrappin' Tag Games

I love playing scrappin' tag games! I actually posted a post about it on my old blog where I explained all about it but I thought I'd do it again on this blog just in case someone might not know what it is. Also, the game is fresh on my mind because I just finished a game with a group of friends and I'm in the middle of a game on ScrapShotz.

I was first introduced to the game by a friend. She organized a game for a group of us friends to play online. It was so much fun! I was hooked.

Here's how it works. An organizer decides to organize a game and asks for people to sign up if they're interested. People sign up to play and the organizer makes a list of them in the order they will be IT. The organizer picks out either a layout or a sketch and, either does a layout herself based on it, or else forwards it to the first person on the list to do so. Once the first person is finished they usually forward the layout they created back to the organizer, who then forwards that layout on to the next person in line. This continues with each person creating a layout based on the layout of the person ahead of them until everyone has had a turn. Then comes the big reveal when everyone gets to see all the creations everyone made. It is so much fun to see how things change as they go through the line.

The tag game can also be made into a race. I was introduced to this idea at Creative Crafts and Stickers. Here they divide the list of players into two teams and the teams try to race each other to the finish. Sometimes each team starts with the same layout but sometimes they start with different layouts. Personally I like it best when both teams start with the same layout because I find it even more interesting to see how the same layout changes as it goes through two different teams. The race adds a little more excitement to the game but it's really fun either way.

The game I just finished was another one with my online group of friends. We're just some Canadian home educating homes that hooked up on the internet and this past year we discovered that there was a group of us that were interested in scrappin'. Here's the layout I did for the game:

Past Weekend Creations and Online Crops this coming Weekend!

I have been nursing a bug all weekend so I didn't go out anywhere. That gave me some time to create. Yesterday I printed pictures for and planned basic layouts for 5 layouts, one of which is going to be a double layout. I even managed to complete 2 of them yesterday. One I can't post yet because it's part of a layout tag game so I have to wait until the other players are finished. The other I will post in this post. Now to find the time to do the others. I think they will come together pretty quickly because all I have to do is pick out the papers and embellies and put them together. I'm hoping to have them all done before the end of the week, because I hope to have a busy weekend scrapping for crops I'll tell you about shortly. :)

Anyway, here's the layout I can post from this weekend. It was inspired by a SnapShotz Blog sketch. It's my first creation using the wonderful October Kit (full of wonderful Jenni Bowlin merchandise) at Creative Crafts and Stickers. The kit was an unbirthday gift from Ally. Thanks again, Ally! I'm doing my best to stretch the kit as far as possible so I even cut out the middle of the papers that I used to mat the photos! Couldn't imagine wasting that beautiful paper by hiding it behind a picture. :) So, here's the layout:



Looking for something to do this weekend? Scrap Shotz are holding a 12 Cards of Christmas Crop and promises to throw in some challenges for non-card makers too. That's where I'm hoping to spend most of my weekend, but Creative Crafts and Stickers are having a Creepy Autumn crop and their crops are always full of fun so I'm going to have to pop in there when I get a chance too. If your looking for something to do you don't have to look any further than these two places. I'm sure they'll keep you busy, and you'll have lots of fun. :)

This Week's Cards

I managed to do this week's card sketch challenge at ScrapShotz:



And the weekend sketch too:



I also did a couple of cards inspired by a challenge to make 3x3 cards using a sketch at Moralia's Blog. I made a mistake and used the wrong sketch for the first card, but I still ended up with a cute card.





The last two cards I did this week were inspired by a challenge at Stamping Diva's blog:

Phew! ...

I think I've moved over everything that I wanted. Welcome to my new blog! I just spent most of the morning moving posts from my old blog to this new blog. I was afraid that the site that was hosting my blog was going to disappear and I didn't want to lose all my hard work. I had been thinking about switching over for a while and after asking for some advice I decided this would be my new home for my scrappy blog. I hope friends will follow me here and I hope to make lots of new friends. I'd love for you to leave a note and let me know if you visit, and please, if you find any links that are not working let me know about them so that I can try to fix them. I'm hoping to fancy this place up a bit as time permits but in the mean time I hope you enjoy your visit and come often.
Happy scrappin'!

Hybrid Scrapping

Long before I knew there was such a thing as hybrid scrapping I was doing it. :) Depending on your definition of hybrid scrapping, all of my paper scrapping creations are hybrid. I always use my computer and printer for printing pictures and often for titles and journaling. First when I started scrapping and didn't have any patterned paper or elements, I found a site where I could download and print off things I wanted to use. I had no idea that what I was doing was hybrid scrapping.

If you're curious about what hybrid scrapping is and want some ideas check out these articles: What is Hybrid Scrapping, Hybrid Scrapping . The first article has this to say "Any use of your computer as a scrapbook tool on a paper layout is considered “Hybrid” these days."

My last two paper layouts have been even more consciously hybrid than most of my layouts. For the first one all but the papers, brads, and ricrac were digital elements that I printed off, cut, and pasted to my layout. The flowers I printed off multiple times and cut in various ways to create a more layered effect. I also pop dotted the layers to give them even more depth. The last one was inspired in part by a hybrid challenge at ScrapShotz. The challenge was to use your computer to add print to your picture before printing it.

Here are the two layout, with credits for inspiration and elements used:



This one was inspired by a number of challenges: a friend layout challenge and a blog puzzle at Creative Crafts and Stickers, and a Blast from the past challenge at ScrapShotz. The digital elements used in the layout are: Sunglasses by ScrapGirls, Frame by Dea Spina, Flowers by Joyce de Jonge & Anita Spaberg, and Journaling Tag by Selana. This pictures shows the hidden journaling tag:





This one also had a number of inspirations. Sarah, a lovely girl from England, issued a kit challenge at ScrapGalaxy for anyone that wanted to sign up for it. She sent anyone that signed up an envelope containing two beautiful pieces of patterned paper, three brads, two flowers, two bling flowers, and chipboard letters to spell HOME. We each had to use these same supplies in a layout. While trying to think of how to use the chipboard HOME in a layout I started thinking of quotes, sayings, and songs with HOME in them. Then I perused my pictures for something that might grab me to go with some of what was going through my head. The song "This World is not My Home" was sticking in my head and the picture of my little one looking out into the wide open space seemed to go with it so a plan started formulating. I thought about the hybrid challenge at ScrapShotz and decided to work that into the layout too. I painted the chipboard letters and added a touch of paint to the journaling strips. I'm pleased with the results.

Originally Posted October 12, 2007

What a wonderful day yesterday was! I was not feeling the greatest physically, coming down with a bug of some sort, but, boy, was I feeling good emotionally! It was a day full of wonderful surprises, all from my great friends at Creative Crafts and Stickers.

Earlier in the week I found out that I won the World Card Making Day contest that they had, but yesterday I found out what the prize was for winning. For quite some time now there has been a buzz on the board about an upcoming book release. Catherine, of Scrapbook and Cards Today (a wonderful "free to consumer" Caanadian based magazine, available in both paper and digital format) has been working on a book, Simply Cards Today. Jen, owner of Creative Crafts and Stickers, was taking preorders for the book and I really badly wanted one. Wednesday she posted some sneak previews of the book which made me want it even more. Well, yesterday Jen announced that the prize I am getting for being the lucky winner of their card contest is a copy of this book! I'm so excited!

My second wonderful surprise was from CC&S design team member Ally. Ally is an amazing scrapper and she also designs wonderful sketches. You can see some of her great work on her blog. Well, CC&S has recently started a kit club and I have been moaning and groaning on the board about how much I wanted to join but just couldn't see how it was possible financially right now, though their kits are quite reasonably priced. The CT have recently revealed the beautiful creations they made with October's Kit full of amazing products by Jenni Bowlin. Dear, sweet, Ally took it upon herself to send me October's kit as an early (very early as my birthday is not til March) birthday present! I couldn't believe it when DH came home with a pizza box for me and when I opened it to see what was inside.

Then, number three surprise was when I got an email from Tara, another CC&S CT, asking if she could feature my newest layout on the CC&S's blog! Every week, on Sunday, Tara posts a fun sketch puzzle. This week the puzzle wasn't actually a sketch, but an poster announcement of an upcoming crop. I decided to use the poster as inspiration for a layout, and Tara liked what she saw. :) I was honored that she wanted to feature it. I'll post the layout, and information about it later.

What a great day! Thanks to all my friends at CC&S! What a great, fun bunch!

Originally Posted October 8, 2007

Did you know that Saturday was World Card Making Day? I started celebrating early. :) I arrived at my sister's house for the weekend on Friday night. I quickly checked the boards for challenges and sketches for inspiration and then we set to work. Sisterhood of Scrap had been posting card challenges and sketches all week and ended with an extra flood of them on Saturday. I managed to do most of their challenges and actually just found out that I won a RAK for completing and posting the most to their blog this week! Creative Crafts and Stickers also had a flood of card challenges on Saturday. I didn't manage to get them all done but I sure had fun with the ones I did get done. I'm still hoping to get to the others. My darling sister took a while to get motivated this weekend but she sure made some beautiful cards once she got going. I'm not posting her's her today because she joined a board or two this weekend and I'm hoping she's going to post them herself, then I'll post them here.

Here's what I created this weekend:



This one was inspired by the weekend sketch challenge over at ScrapShotz.



I actually gave this one away yesterday. My aunt had 22 of us family members over to her house for Thanksgiving Dinner, so I made this card especially for her. It is one of two based on a sketch challenge by Ally at Creative Crafts and Stickers.



This one was based on the other sketch in Ally's sketch challenge.



One of Mel's challenges was to use ornaments on a card.



Mel's second challenge was to make a card for your special someone. I made a Thank-you card for DH because he kept little one occupied this weekend so that I could play.



This is one of three cards inspired by Jess's challenge to make money/gift certificate holder cards. She included some great instructions with her challenge. These are so fun and easy to make! I ended up making three because I wanted to make one to fit a normal letter size envelope and it took me three tries to get it right. :) I will probably post the measurements and instructions for that here in the next day or so if anyone is interested.

Here are the other two cards inspired by this challenge:





The design on the front of that last one is based on a sketch by Deanne Burton and was sketch challenge #4 at the Sisterhood of Scrap Blog.



This one was also inspired by one of Deanne's sketches, sketch #5 in their World Card Making day sketch challenges at their blog.

Originally Posted October 5, 2007

Earlier this week Jen posted an October Kit challenge at ScrapShotz. Much as I wish I could join their kit club I just can't find the extra $40 a month in the budget to do it. It's not that I don't think it's worth the money. It actually looks like it's more than worth the money. Included in the kit this month is an acrylic circle album which really has me drooling over it, especially after seeing the beautiful creations the DT at ScraptShotz (Kathy, Wendy, Nonie, Carla, Heidi) have made with it.

Anyway, I got way off topic there. What I wanted to share was that Jen's challenge was a 10 Picture Sketch Challenge. I just loved the sketch for this and planned on using it, even though I didn't have the kit to use the papers and supplies needed to fulfill the challenge properly. Then, joy of joys, the next day I discovered that the same sketch was their blog sketch challenge this week! Yippeee!!

I've been struggling all week trying to figure out which pictures to use for this sketch and it finally came together today. Every summer there are these street preformers, called Buskers, that come to the city for a weekend. Usually DD#1 goes in to visit with my sister and check out the preformers. This year DS#2, his girlfriend, little one and I decided to join them too. Well, there was a bit of a mix up and the only ones that actually got to see the preformers were DS#2, his girlfriend and DD#2. DD took loads of pictures for us though. Only problem was she took so many pictures of the first two performances that the batteries ran out and that's all she got! It was funny. Anyway, she took some great pictures that I wasn't really sure what to do with, but they work perfectly with this challenge. I picked 10 of the pictures to use. I decided to do a digi and all the elements I used are by April Staker, but I did recolor them. Here's what I created:

Originally Posted October 5, 2007

I woke up at a very unusual hour this morning. I was wide awake at 5 so I decided to get up and scrap. :) All week I've been watching the Card Challenges at Sisterhood of Scrap but I didn't get around to doing any of them yet so that's what I set to work on. Every day this week Deanne has been posting a challenge in preparation for national Card Making Day, which is October 6. The first three days she posted sketches that she designed, and yesterday she posted a challenge to use chipboard alphabet, buttons, and lots of color on a card. Here's what I did for the challenges she's posted so far:

Originally Posted October 4, 2007

I've had a great week of creating! I am so hooked on cards! Creative Crafts and Stickers has a card contest happening on their board leading up to Card Making Day, which is October 6, so I've been making cards like crazy. I did, however, manage to get a couple of layouts done too.

Well searching the web for card making ideas I found this great tutorial on how to make a neat buckle card. I had to give it a try and I love how it turned out!

Here's the front of the card:



and here's what it's like opened up:



Carla's October Scraplift Challenge over at ScrapShotz was to scraplift a card. Here's what I did for that:



Carla also does weekly card sketch challenges. Here's what I did for this week's sketch:



I made both of the cards above specifically to fit into a normal letter size envelope. I hated making cards and not having envelopes to fit them so I decided to start making them to fit envelopes that I had on hand. I actually love how they turned out.

I also decided to line envelopes for the cards that I made to fit in business size envelopes. I really love how they turned out. Here's pictures of the cards with the envelopes:





Last month at ScrapShotz Carla had a Card Box challenge complete with instructions on how to make a box to store your cards in. I didn't make it in time for the challenge but I just had to make one. I love my card box and it is now almost full of cards that I've made.



Every Sunday on Creative Crafts and Stickers blog Tara posts a sketch puzzle. These are so much fun. You have to put together the puzzle to find out what the sketch challenge is for that week. Last week's sketch puzzle was a beautiful sketch by Allison Cope. Here's the layout that I did based on that sketch:



We also played another game of layout tag at Creative Crafts and Stickers recently. I just love layout tag! Especially the way they play it at Creative Crafts and Stickers. If they get enough people they divide them into teams and there's a race to see which team can finish first. My team didn't win this time but it was still lots of fun. I love seeing all the different creations. Here's what I dis inspired by the latest layout tag game:



Unfortunatley the layout is done on a white background and that makes it hard to really see where the layout starts and ends against the white background of the blog. I may try to do something about that later.