Vanessa's Challenge

Last week Vanessa issued a challenge - to take a self portrait and post it. That very day I took a great number of pictures in search of one that I would consider posting. I'm still not really happy with the one I've come up with, but it's the best of the bunch that I took.



Just today I posted a post on my personal blog about my struggle with accepting pictures of me and I shared why I think it is important to overcome that struggle and get more pictures of me. Vanessa's challenge couldn't have come at a better time. Now, hop to it and do the challenge yourself. ;)

Carla's First Blog Card Tutorial

Carla, aka Moralia, posted her first blog card tutorial and I couldn't resist giving it a try. I didn't follow her instructions exactly, but I know Carla won't mind cause she hardly ever follows the rules. :)

I love Carla's cards! She's the one that got me started on cards when she was part of the DT at ScrapShotz. I always looked forward to her card challenges. Now she is DT on Lil' Scrappers, handing out card and layout challenges, but I'm thrilled that she's also decided to post monthly card tutorials on her blog.

I like to make my cards to fit either letter or business size envelopes that I have on hand or can easily pick up anywhere. So that was my first little change to this card - I made it to fit a letter size envelope. Also, I don't have any deco edge punches so I tore the edge of my patterned paper instead. Then, because my tag was a little too big for the size of the card, I decided to also tear the bottom edge of the tag. Because I don't have much in the way of bling, I also decided not to include the bling on my card. I still like how it turned out.



Here's a list of the sizes of the papers I used, just in case you might want to try making one the same size.
Card base - cardstock cut 7 by 6 1/4 and scored at 3 1/2
Bottom Patterned paper - 1 1/2 by 6 1/4
Top Patterned paper - 2 1/2 by 6 1/4, then I tore the bottom edge.

Check Carla's blog for the rest of list of items used and the instructions on how to put the card together. Let me know if you try it.

Creative Scrappers Scrap Pink Contest

I just learned about Scrap Pink through a blog and was hoping to find someway to participate online. I should have known that I could count on Creative Scrappers. They are not having a crop but they are having a Scrap Pink Contest. You can read about it on their blog. You have until Sunday 4pm est to create a layout inspired but the sketch.

In a Pinch Designs Blinkie Contest

Just a few more days to participate. Read all about it here. In a Pinch Designs is a Canadian company that offers easy to use kits. Read all about it here.

Savvy N Sassy's Ten Day Crop!

From Lacintha's post today I learned about Savvy N Sassy's Diva-licious 10 day Crop which starts today, Friday, September 26th, and goes until Sunday October 5th You can read the rules and guidelines here. They already have 8 Make & Takes, 13 challenges, and 6 classes listed in the forum here. Lots of great inspiration! There are also games besides all that. I doubt I'll get much time to do anything again this weekend but I sure will be watching and wishing I could.

Nancy's Digi Freebie

If you are into digi, go check out the freebie Nancy is offering on her blog right now. She and her family just survived, and are digging out of the mess left behind by, IKE. She's titled her kit "Relief" as an expression of how she is feeling right now. It's a great, full kit. Go check it out.

I won!

Carla offered up some great blog candy in this post and I just found out in this post that I'm the lucky winner! Thanks, Carla!

Looking for inspiration this weekend?

I didn't manage to get one thing scrapped last week or weekend, and this weekend is not looking much better, but I'm scooping out inspiration just in case I happen to get some time.

Because I haven't found time to check out the boards much at all this week, I completely missed the fact that Lil' Scrappers is having a Back to School online mini crop this weekend. It started yesterday and you have until Monday to upload your creations.

ScrapShotz Scrappy Hour is Sunday, September 21 at 8pm est and they've posted a sneak peek of the project and a list of things you need. Looks very interesting!

Scrapbookers ClubHouse Scrappy Island crop is coming to an end. Deadline for uploading projects is Sunday, September 21 at 9pm mst. There are lots of great challenges there. I've been popping in once in a while during the week to check them out just in case I got time to scrap and I finally had to stop checking because the challenges are great and they were making me really, really want to scrap but I just was too busy. If you have time check it out before it's too late. I'm still hoping to get something done for it.

Jean's celebrating!

My good friend Jean is celebrating her one year blogoversary and is offering up a wonderful Halloween RAK. All you have to do for a chance at the RAK is share a favorite fall project with her by leaving a comment on her post. She will be picking a winner September 24th so hurry over. While you're there be sure to take some time to check out her blog. She's a real inspiration!

Inspiration this weekend

Scrapbooking Fanatics has started up their bi-weekly Friday Night Crops again, starting tonight. They have 10 great challenges posted. I love the challenges they post for their FNC. They're usually very simple, yet challenging.

Scrapbookers Club House is kicking off a 9 day Scrappy Island Crop Saturday! Can't wait to see what they have in store.

Today's SALT challenge

SALT is a challenge blog I discovered a while back and have been following, though I haven never actually participated in a challenge. This is what part of their About Us section says: "We are a diverse group of card makers, scrappers and altered art fans from across the world who have been brought together through our love of Jesus Christ and our desire to express our faith in creative ways." They post a challenge every two weeks.

Todays challenge post is titled "He knows us inside and out" and is based on Psalm 139. This happens to be one of my favorite scripture pages and I have used it as inspiration for a couple of layouts in the past, so I decided to repost them.



The above layout is a digital that I created created March 22, 2007 and was inspired by the March Scripture Challenge at Digitals. I used a Heart charm provided by Lifesong Kreations and fiber and paper by Arvita. It is to remind my beautiful daughter that no matter where she goes or who she meets nobody will know her better or love her more than God.




The layout above was completed October 18, 2006 for a journaling challenge at Scrapternity. It is only the 4th layout I'd ever done and I didn't have any fancy supplies. I used just plain cardstock and computer paper. I printed the title and Psalm 139:13-17 with my computer and cut it out and stuck it on the layout. The picture is a photocopy of one of my ultrasounds. In this particular untrasound you can very clearly see the baby's face. My husband and I both journaled our thoughts on computer paper and I backed it with some black paper I found around the house somewhere. My husband's journaling reads "The first time I saw your face in the ultrasound I was amazed at the miracle of life, knowing there was a living human being living inside. I thought of how blessed we are to be having another baby to love and bring joy to our lives." Mine says "I remember the day so well. Your dad and your sibling were all there to have their first look at the little miracle that was you. I couldn't believe how clearly we saw you. You even moved your little hand like you were waving and covered your face like you were playing peek-a-book. We fell in love with you that day and the love just keeps growing." I knew nothing about inking or any of the other cool techniques at that time. Maybe some day I'll redo it but I still love it just as it is.

Like making cards?

Deanne introduced me to a great blog today - Card Sketch A Day. It's a brand new blog just started by Susan last month. I love what I see there! It is so organized.

Part of what I love about this blog is the "Searching for Card Artists" call in the sidebar. If you love making cards check out the calls and get involved. You email Susan to tell her which call you're interested in and she sends you a sketch, or a few sketches, to work with. I think the concept is brilliant! Anyone that wants to can get involved. Run, check it out!

For Us Ordinary Joes

I just discovered "Just Your Average Scrapbook"(JYAS), a blog that features us ordinary joes of scrapbooking. It is a fairly new blog, having only started in April, and you can read the concept of the blog in the first post titled "The Beginning". Part of that page describes the blog as "A place for the ORDINARY, everyday, average scrapbooker who is proud of their work! A place to brag and show off their artwork!". And the post ends with this: "This is for ALL scrapbookers. Beginning and Advanced. Spread the word. You too can be "published!""

I love that concept! It's part of the reason why I started the Canadian Scrappers Blog Carnival, as a place where any, and all, Canadian Scrappers, famous or not, could share their creations.

I found the JYAS blog because a good friend of mine, Carla, was the JYAS's Featured Scrapbooker recently. I happen to think that Carla is far from an ordinary joe when it comes to scrapbooking, however. I just love her style!

Anyway, go check out JYAS. Let me know if you end up as a featured scrapper.

Stamp out word verification!

Back in April Allison wrote a post announcing that April 29th was Global Anti Word Verification Day. Julie had declared it so in her blog post titled Is this necessary? I was thrilled! I was finding it more and more frustrating to have to type in word verifications to make comments on blogs and often decided not to leave comments when faced with it. I was also embarrassed to admit that I had both word verification and comment moderation enabled on my blogs. After reading this posts I changed my blogs so that they no longer had word verification enabled and I haven't had any trouble with garbage coming through. I still have comment moderation enabled.

The topic has shown up in blogs again today. I read it on Heidi's post and Deanne's post. Through their posts I found this site that is offering a RAK for those that leave a comment saying they are considering changing it and this post offering blog candy to those that change it.

Maybe we should declare September to be Global Anti Word Verification Month. I know that I would be thrilled to not have to type them any more and people would be more likely to get comments from me if I didn't have to type them. They are frustrating and time consuming. If you want to protect blog from garbage comments use comment moderation instead. The blogs linked above tell you how.

Pictures of Prizes and Happy Anniversary to Me!

Back a while ago I recieved some prizes for participating in crops, but at the time I didn't have a camera to take a picture ot the prizes so I kept them unused until I could get a picture. I finally took pictures of them tonight.

This is a prize I got from Scrapbookers Clubhouse. I can't wait to start playing with it because it's so yummy!



This is a prize I got from ScrapShotz. Can't wait to use these either.



And because today is my anniversary, I am posting pictures of us from 21 years ago, and today. I was hoping to get to scrap them but I didn't. Maybe tomorrow. We'll see.