Unproductive Weekend

Inspite of the great challenges posted at Scrapbooking Fanatics and the wonderful Scrappy Hour project posted at ScrapShotz, I didn't manage to get a thing scrappy done this weekend. Too much going on at home. Saturday was DD#2's second birthday. DS#1 put his truck off the road in the wee hours of Sunday morning. Thankfully he was not hurt in any way but his truck appears to be unfixable. That's just a couple of the major things that kept me from scrapping this weekend, but there were lots of minor things in there too. DS's near miss has me re-evaluting, yet again, how I spend my time and what is truly important in life. I've been making the most of every minute with my family. I will get back to scrapping again because I think it is important to my family but I really need to rethink what my scrapping goals are and work toward them.

Sketch reminded me of Christmas Card Design

I was checking out some blogs this morning and came across Poetic Artistry and the sketch she has posted for her Mojo Monday challenge for this week. Way back in October I had signed up for a Christmas card swap at Creative Crafts and Stickers and Julee's sketch for this week reminded me of the cards I made for the swap, so I decided to repost it. Here's my card again:

Friday Night Crop at ScrapFan

Every second Friday night the DT at Scrapbooking Fanatics puts on a Friday Night Crop (FNC). They post 8 challenges sometime Friday and you have until sometime Sunday to post your creations. I had forgotten about their crops but I just took notes on the challenges for this FNC. If you're looking for inspiration check it out.

Crop Cards

I'm finally getting around to posting the cards that resulted from this weekends crops.

There were two card challenges at Scrapbook Heaven - Holly challenged us to create a Birthday Card and a Fall card. Meanwhile, Jen, at ScrapShotz, gave us a challenge to make 3 cards from on 12x12 sheet! I loved this challenge. I decided to use two of these cards to fulfill the other two challenges. The picture shows the three cards made from the one sheet of 12x12. The birthday card is on the left and the fall card is on the right.



Carla, the card queen of ScrapShotz, posted two great challenges with great instructions. The first one was to create a unique pop-up card.



The second one was to make a cool shaker card. You can't really see it but the image is in a shaker filled with glitter that you can shake around.

The rest of the layouts

Before I head downstairs to watch NCIS and then to bed, I'd better post the rest of the layouts from the crops.

Julie, at ScrapShotz, challenged us to use buttons on a layout and Jenelle, at Scrapbook Heaven, challenged us to use at least 5 buttons.



Susan, at Scrapbook Heaven, challenged us to put all the elements in the center of the page, while Nonie, at ScrapShotz, challenged us to do a simple, clean page.



Still have to post my card creations from the crops yet, but that's going to have to wait until tomorrow. I'm off to watch NCIS. :)

Fun, Fast Layouts!

Little one is sleeping so I'm sneaking in again to post more of my creations from the crops this past weekend. I was keeping an eye on two crops all weekend and I planned my layouts so that they would meet challenges at both crops. I love it when I can do that!

Jen at ScrapShotz's challenge use to create a layout using products all from one line. Holly, at Scrapbook Heaven, challenged us to create a layout with at least 5 embellishments. I used felt flowers, a felt button, real buttons, a frame, and a journaling tag, all from a Jenni Bowlin kit that Ally sent me a while back.



Carla, at Scrapbook Heaven, challenged us to create a layout with a 5 letter or 5 word title, while Aimee, at ScrapShotz, challenged us to use one descriptive word as a title.



Wendy, at ScrapShotz, gave us the interesting challenge to only use pictures that didn't have faces in them! Meanwhile, Susan, at Scrapbook Heaven, challenged us to us at least 5 photos in a layout.



Jenelle, at Scrapbook Heaven, gave us a sketch to use for a layout, while Nonie, at ScrapShotz, challenged us to use at least 3 different distressing techniques in our layout. I had so much fun with this one! I sanded the edges of the pictures, inked the edges of the papers and the cardstock, stamped the patterned paper and cardstock, tore a couple of the pieces of patterned paper, and used paint to put the title on!



Heidi, at ScrapShotz, challenged us to find a layout in the gallery to scraplift. I decided to scraplift Nonie's "You are my Heart". Jenelle, at Scrapbook Heaven, made a list of decorations and we had to choose at least 3 to use on our page. I chose ribbon, brads, and gems.



Little one is awake again so I'll have to finish posting the rest later.

Fast Scrappin'!

While I didn't manage to get much scrapping done over the weekend I did manage to get lots of ideas in my head while going about things around the house so when I finally got some time to scrap, boy did I scrap! I did 2 cards, have two more in the works but not completed, 2 make 'n' takes, and 7 layouts, 5 of which were completed yesterday afternoon! I tell you, that's a rare happening for me to scrap so fast.

Aimee at ScrapShotz posted a couple of really neat Make 'n' Takes at the crop. One was an Envelope Gift Bag. These are super easy to make. I see more in my future. I made mine quite simple because I just wanted to do it quickly to see what it was like. There were some really beautiful ones posted at ScrapShotz this weekend. I stress these are real easy to make and oh so beautiful and functional. Don't just look at mine and think blah. Check out the super ones in the thread at ScrapShotz. They'll blow you away and make you have to try it. Anyway, here's mine:

The other was an Origami Gift Box. It took a while for me to wrap my head around the instructions but it was pretty easy once I started it. Once again mine is real simple but the others posted at Scrap Shotz are just gorgeous!


That's it for my computer time right now. I'll post my other creations later.

Where I'm hanging my hat this weekend

It's way late and I should be in bed but instead I've been checking blogs and boards. Today was DD#1's birthday. I really meant to do a post especially for her but was so busy here all day that I didn't get around to it. I also didn't get around to doing any scrapping. Well, I did start a digi layout for DD this morning and I did manage to do a card tonight but that's it. Hopefully tomorrow will be better, but we'll see. I seem to be having trouble getting myself in gear - that and I need some pictures to scrap.

You'd think I'd be busy scrapping because I sure have plenty of motivation coming at me this weekend.

I'm hanging out at ScrapShotz's last crop of the year and they're promising it's going to be a good one. The prize is wonderful and the challenges are great so far, with lots more still to come.



Same at Scrapbook Heaven's Birthday Celebrations. Wonderful prize and great challenges so far with lots more to come.



It's not to late to join in the fun at either place.

More scrap happy mail!

Wow! I'm really being spoiled lately.

Today I received a lovely surprise package from Jen at Creative Crafts and Stickers. A while back they ran this really cool contest on their board. You can read all about it and see the creations I made for it in this post if you're interested. I had so much fun in the contest and I was really pleased with most of the things I created. Anyway, today I got a package from Jen as a thank-you for participating! How cool is that! The package contained products from Imaginisce Candy Cane Lane Collection - Snowflake Glitter Glamour, Fantastic Freeze, and Poinsettia Vendetta! What beautiful stuff! I can't wait to play with it.

Then tonight a friend came knockin' on the door with another surprise. A mutual friend of ours had received a gift certicate from on online store but when she perused the store she didn't see anything that interested her, as she has a scrapbooking store quite close to her where she gets her supplies. Knowing that I didn't have that luxury, she graciously offered me the gift certificate. I wasn't a member of the store board but the friend that came knockin' was so she suggested I get her to use it for me. I didn't have a clue what to order so I told her to surprise me. What great stuff she picked out! I have some yummy Crate Paper Samantha Collection - the 6 papers and the sheet of bands, tags, and frames! There's also 4 sheets of what I'm assuming is the Bazzill Card stock. Wow! What great stuff!

The only problem now is, after seeing all the great stuff that is out there, how do I go back to being satisfied with the dollar store and WalMart stuff I normally use? :)

Happy Scrappy Mail and Upcoming Online Crops

I just love happy scrappy mail! Today I got a cool card and envelope of stamped bella's from my dear friend Kelly! Thanks, Kelly! Love those bellas! Though I don't have a bella stamp of my own yet, and I stress the yet because it's definitely on my wish list, I now have a pretty good collection of stamped bellas thanks to the kindness of fellow scrappers rakking stamped images. The more I see the more I want them. :) I've yet to try Carla's coloring tips, however. Man do they look good when they're colored! I'm dying to try my hand at it but I have to get me a set of coloring pencils first - they're on my wish list too. :)

Haven't done much scrapping this week - actually, haven't done any. Been too busy. Hoping to get to do some this weekend but we'll have to see. There are two online crops happening that I'm really hoping to get the time to pop in on. I had told DH about it early last week, preparing him to take responsibility of little one so I would be free to scrap. Well, he got a call last night and now he has to officiate games all weekend! I'm bummed! Anyway, I'll be popping in as I get a chance. ScrapShotz's crop starts Friday and is sure to be full of fun. My friend, Carla, recently joined the DT of Scrapbook Heaven and this weekend they are throwing a Birthday Scrapabration. Though I haven't yet taken the plunge and joined the board I am seriously considering it. I hoping to pop in and check out the celebrations if I get a chance.

Update: right after I posted I went and checked out Scrapbook Heaven's schedule for the weekend celebrations. I couldn't resist - I joined. :) I sure hope I get a chance to play.

Google Reader

I love following blogs of all sorts but I found I was wasting a lot of time checking out blogs to see if they were updated only to discover that they weren't so then I wouldn't bother to check them for a while and sometimes I'd forget about them. I had a list on my blog, as well as in my favorties list, that I would try to keep track of but it was a hit and miss sort of thing. Well, thanks to the Barefoot Stamper, I recently discovered Google Reader. What a great thing! I love it! Google Reader helps me keep track of the websites I want to and notifies me when they are updated. I simply have to check into my google reader home page to find out if any are updated. I can read all the updates right there in google reader if I want and if I want to comment on them I can just click on the title and be taken to the post to comment. If I don't have time to really check them out right then I can mark them to be kept for me to go back to later. I just love this thing! No more wasting time checking sites unnecessarily and no more missing new posts. Let me know if you already use it or if you decide to give it a try.

And the winner is...

...me!!!! Yeah!!! I'm so excited! I won the Texas Holdem' Poker game at Sisterhood of Scrap with a flush of diamonds! I was dealt the 2 and 4 of diamonds and didn't think I had much of a chance of winning but got pretty excited when I saw all the diamonds coming out in the community cards. My only fear was that someone else was also dealt 2 diamonds, because their's would have been higher than mine. What a fun game that was! DD asked me what I won and I told her I didn't know if I won anything or not, other than the pleasure of winning the game, and I was perfectly happy with that. Curiosity got the better of me, however, and I had to go search the blog to see if there was a prize for winning the game, and there is! I get a great Daisy D Scrapbook kit! Wahoo!!! There were eleven of us in the game. Bev was looking pretty strong with a pair of aces and Jennifer and Laura were pretty strong with two pairs. Jean didn't have much of a hand but she sure put on a good poker face. This game resulted in some great layouts and tips and memory sharing and a whole lot of fun! Thanks again, Sisters!

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

In honor of Mom and Dad's anniversary, I thought I'd repost a couple of layouts that I created earlier.

Here's one with a picture of them in their dating years and one of their wedding day. This one was a hybrid I created when I didn't know what hybrid scrapping was. :) All the papers were printed from a Free Printable Scrapbook Supply site I discovered first when I started scrapping and didn't have any supplies. The rose images were found on the web, printed off, cut out and stuck on. The title was designed and printed using my computer and then cut out and stuck on.



And here's one with a picture of them on a cruise they went on this past year. This digi was created during a digi scrapping class at Creative Crafts and Stickers.

Card Kit Creations

At ScrapShotz I've been introduced to the concept of Card Kits. They are so much fun! A card kit is an envelope with everything in it to make a card. There are a number of different ways they come into play.

One on one Card Kit Swaps
Sometimes someone will set up a one on one card kit swap where everyone that signs up to play is paired with someone else. Each person must make two card kits - one for themselves and one to mail to their partner. Everyone posts thier creations when they are done.

Card Kit Swaps
Sometimes someone will put out a call for a card kit swap with a particular theme. Everyone that signs up for it has to make a card kit for everyone else that signs up.

Card Kit RAKS
Every once in a while someone will post on the board that they have x number of card kits ready to go in the mail and the first people that sign up will get one, or everyone's names will be put in a draw for them.

I loved watching the creations people made with thet card kits they got. It was so much fun to see what different people did with the same materials. Soon watching wasn't enough and I wanted to play too. :)

Here are some creations I recently completed with card kits I've received:

The very first card kit I received was from a Stampabella Card Kit Rak offered by Carla. It took me a while before I got up the nerve to actually do something with the kit, but I finally managed to do it.



This one was from a Christmas Card kit Rak offered by Virginia:



Here are my creations from a one on one swap put off by Carla. My partner was Wendy. The first card is from Wendy's kit and the second from mine:





Card kits are so much fun! I hesitate to sign up often because I don't have much to offer anyone else in way of stamped images or nice paper but I'm thinking I'm going to have to invest so that I can play more. :)

The game is coming to a close!

Texas Hold'em Poker week is almost over at Sisterhood of Scrap. What a fun game they came up with! By the end of this post I will have completed all the challenges and I think I will end with a pretty good hand.

I finally got around to doing Thursday's challenge tonight. Earlier today DD#1 took DD#2 out to play in the snow from our first snowfall of the year and she took some great pictures while outside. I knew I wanted to use them. I was thinking I was going to do a paper layout but just before starting in on it I was surfing some scrappin' blogs and I got bit by the digi bug again so I decided to go digi with this one. All the elements, except for the red matte behind the one picture, are from Selena's A Formal Affair, though I did recolor all elements except the paper.



I don't think I really need the card for Friday's challenge but I'm going to do it anyway. My mom is crazy. She loves to have fun and is known for all the fun she creates and enjoys. This halloween was no exception. She, and a friend that shall remain nameless for the time being anyway, decided to dress up and go knocking on the doors of their friends. I have many pictures of Mom dressed up ready to go out and have some fun with her friends over the years. She has had a great collection of different masks, teeth, wigs, glasses, outfits, etc. Her dressing up and going out is not confined to Halloween - oh no, Mom dresses up like this all throughout the year. You never know when or where she's going to show up in costume. She has many stories about her dressup times. Maybe some day I'll share some of them. For now, I'm going to leave it at that and share with you the picture she sent me of her and her friend this halloween. Mom is the one with the lovely green face. Love you Mom! :)



There, I've completed all the challenges and I'm feeling pretty confident about my hand, but who knows. We'll find out how I made out tomorrow when everyone lays their cards on the table.

Thanks, Sisterhood of Scrap girls, for a super fun game!

Layout Tag Again

Just finished another game of layout tag, this time at Creative Crafts and Stickers. Unfortunately I made my team lose because I was out of town when it was my turn, but it was still fun to play. I'm also pleased because I managed to design the layout so that it also met a challenge at the Sisterhood of Scrap blog. Here's my creation:



The journaling reads "Anna's first visit to a MacDonald's playplace. She wasn't too sure of it at first and was saying, "No, 'fraid!", but with Sis's help that soon changes to, "'Gain!" November 7, 2007, Gander, Newfoundland"

I finally got to do some scrappin' again tonight and finally got around to putting together cards from card kits I got in the mail. Hopefully I'll get them posted tomorrow.

Home again!

Had a great time visiting with my sister and her husband for the weekend and then my parents for the night last night, but it is good to be home. DD took lots of great pictures that I'm anxious to get to. Haven't done any scrappin' for days! Been some stuff happening at home that kinda knocked the wind out of me for a bit, but hopefully I'll get back at it soon.

Got some great scrappy mail today! Actually, it probably came while we were away but I just got it today. Two card kits from ScrapShotz gals- one from Carla and one from Wendy for a card kit swap. Can't wait to play with them. I have another from Carla that I got a week or more ago that I haven't played with yet either. I'm hoping to get to all of them tomorrow.

Got some great news yesterday! Creative Crafts and Stickers message board is going to stay open! The store and gallery are still going to close but there was such an outpouring of love and good wishes that Jen decided to leave the board open so we could all still connect. Yeah!!

Now, I need to try to catch up on some of the poker game challenges at the Sisterhood of Scrap blog.

Tuesday there was a challenge to share a tip or technique. I have been enjoying creating hybrid layouts lately. There are so many great digital papers and embellishments available and it's great fun to use them on paper layouts. Digital embellishments are great fun to play with because before you print them you can make them as big or as little as you like and you can also adjust the color on them so that you have the color that you need. How you do this depends on the program you use. Once you have it the size and color you want you just print it off and cut it out to add to your layout. A great way to give a digital embellishment more depth on your layout is to layer it a couple of times, and maybe even popdot it. I did this recently with a layout. I wanted to add digital flowers. I sized and colored them how I wanted them first then I printed off a number of copies of them and cut them out and pasted them on top of one another to give the flowers more depth. I was really pleased with the finished porduct.

Today's challenge is to share at least three sites that you get inspiration from. That's pretty easy. My two favorite scrapbooking forums at the moment are Creative Crafts and Stickers and ScrapShotz. I love how fun and friendly the people are at both boards. Ally, at Creative Crafts and Stickers, is an amazing scrapper! I just love her work, and she also creates great sketches. Carla, at ScrapShotz, is amazing with cards! She is the card queen in my books. She regularly posts card challenges with sketches in the forum and also at her blog. I believe she creates most, if not all, of the sketches. Two of my favorite digi designers are Amy and April. Both these gals create wonderful digital kits and elements that you can check out on their blogs.

Digital Scrapbooking Day

Today is Digital Scrapbooking Day and there is so much going on! I'd love to be playing along but I'm far away from my computer and all my digi stuff. I'm visiting my sister for a few days and I don't think she has anything I can use for it on her computer, though I may end up having to try. Mind you, they're all trying to drag me away from the computer. :)

Anyway, if you are into digi scrapping be sure to check out the Digital Scrapbooking Day site. If you've never tried digi scrapping and are curious make sure you check it out too. They are posting hourly challenges and there is lots, and lots, of great info on the site. Leave a note and let me know if you try some of their challenges. I'd love to see what you create.

Fun Game at Sisterhood of Scrap this Week!

I got some sad news yesterday. My favorite scrapping board is closing. :( I'm so sad. I was by far my best scrapping board experience so far. I only joined there this past January but I have so enjoyed it there. The owner is wonderful, the CT is amazing, and the members are so much fun! It really was a fun place to hang. Hopefully we'll all still be able to hang together through the blog, which is going to continue. Plans are to continue to offer challenges and inspiration through the blog adn there's even talks of a newsletter through the blog. Won't quite be the same but it sure is better than nothing. I wish Jen nothing but the best and I'm so thankful to her for being upfront with us about the closure rather than just let it sizzle out. The board isn't sceduled to close until the last week of November and I'm sure there will still be lots of great stuff happening there until then.

Now, this morning I got some good news! Sisterhood of Scrap is playing a game of Texas Hold'em at their blog next week. Sounds like a lot of fun and there's a great prize for the winner too. Be sure to check it out soon. If you want to play you have to email them before Monday so that they can deal you in.