Challenge Birthday Card

Ted at Happily Ever Crafter has another fun challenge and here is my creation:

It has the colours purple and green and for my 4 items I used 4 rhinestones. I hope you join in on the fun too for a chance to win a gift certificate from Papertrey Ink!

Happily Ever Challenged #14

Using the Mojo Monday sketch #169 I decided to make a card to play along with Ted's Happily Ever Challenged #14. This month's challenge is to make a Valentine's day card. You can use any colors, embellishments etc, the only catch is that your sentiment on both the inside and outside has to be in your own handwriting. Here is my card for my DH:

I'm not a big fan of my handwriting and would much prefer for the sentiment on the outside to be a stamp but this will add an extra special touch since it is a little love note for my hubby.

So are you going to play along too? Join in on this fun challenge! You know you have to make a card for Valentine's day anyways so you might as well play along and have a chance to win a 10$ gift certificate from Ted for Papertrey Ink (which is my fave place to buy stamps and matching dies. Seriously awesome company, super cute designs). Check out his blog and the challenge details here.

Valentine's Challenge

Happily Ever Crafter has a challenge for Valentine's day. The task is to make a Valentine's Day project that uses the colours of an NFL team and NOT traditional Valentine colours. So teams with red are out! You may also add black or white. I don't really follow football, so I chose the St. Louis Rams solely on the blue and gold in their logo. Here it is:

And here is my card:

I embossed a dark blue sheet of paper with one of my cuttlebug folders and then rubbed versamark ink on it. I was hoping to get only the raised part covered with the gold powder but it didn't work out that way. Since the paper and powder was used anyways I decided to heat it and see how it turned out and I liked it! Then for extra shine I used my versamark ink pad to cover the entire piece of paper and put white pearls embossing powder on it. It heats up to leave a translucent pearly sheen that is very pretty. Here is a close up of the detail:

Then I used my newest SU! stamp set (the squirrel is so cute and the whole reason I bought it), my SU markers, some gold card stock and the nestabilities labels one dies to finish it up.

The prize for this challenge is a 10$ gift certificate to Papertrey Ink. And although that will only cover half of the shipping to Canada it will give me an excuse to shop there again, lol! They really have the cutest stamps!

Anyone else going to play along with this challenge? I'd love to see what you create!

terrible twos 2.0 and spongebob

I updated my terrible two's layout with a new picture that better illustrates a tantrum:

And a two for one layout - one for a challenge on MSS to make a home made embellishment and another challenge to take a break from the holiday craziness to enjoy a moment with someone you love and then scrap about it.

What I've ben scrappin'

A few pages that have been in the works have finally been completed. Sorry for the quality of the picture of the first one. I either had it kinda fuzzy like this or lots of glare. It's a page about how DD can count to 10 and pretty much say the entire alphabet and she's only 23 months old. So proud of my smart girl! DH even helped with this one a bit, I couldn't figure out what looked wrong and he suggested I change the background cardstock from white to green and it worked! The layout is from Creating Keepsakes magazine.

This layout used a sketch from the MSS blog. I also used some of the paper I won on the blog and incorporated a couple of challenges from this weekend's online crop. I embellished my embellishments (the gems on the snowflakes) and I used my own cursive handwriting for the journalling.

For the album I'm doing for ds I need a couple of single page layouts so I decided to do one with the lyrics to John Lennon's "Beautiful Boy" song since I love to sing it to him.

I've also caught up on putting the pictures that I haven't used in layouts into the special page protectors at the end of the album. Again, sorry for the lousy photos.

Winter is here

After an unusually warm November we finally had our first big snowfall last night. What a beautiful and fitting way to start December!

This is the view we woke up to out our window:

DD was thrilled - "Snow! Wooooow!"

I took DD outside to play in the snow. She loved stomping around in it and kept asking me if she could touch it. She was a bit timid about touching it, but that will soon change I'm sure! I built a snowman for her and now she keeps looking out the window at it. She's totally thrilled!

And the latest with DS is he's rolling over by himself. Look how proud of himself he is!

And in the world of scrapping I finally did a challenge from last months online crop - I got DH to choose 4 things and I used them in a page. He chose the alphabet stickers, the patterned paper, the white ribbon and the flower brad. I had the pictures lying around and had never gotten around to scrapping them so Voila! It didn't take long. I love it when the creative juices run freely!

More Scrappy Projects

My first layout to share is one that I made for my little sister's birthday. So if you aren't my sister, then click here to see it :)

I made this one for the current book of me challenge. To use your fave color on a LO. I love the color combo of blue and brown, and was saving this sheet of paper. The picture is of me feeding a chipmunk when I was little.

And last but not least, I scrapped a pic of DD's halloween costume. I had the giraffe paper in my stash and just cut out the giraffe. I was proud of myself for making a LO without having to go and buy Halloween paper. :) I like how it turned out and I like the journalling I did in the chipboard frame.

Past 2 weekends and update on Mom

First off, I apparently forgot to post a picture of dd from Hallowe'en. Cutest Giraffe ever! She had lots of fun trick or treating down our street, and even ran into our neighbour's house two doors down to see their dog. LOL!

And here is what I did last Friday when Dawn came over to make cards:

a layout for ds from 5-6 months. And since there was an online crop at MSS this weekend this is the only thing I have to submit. Too busy to do any other scrapping. Luckily it fits in with the unusual sizes cropped photos category.

a bday card for dh this Wednesday, using a Mojo Monday card sketch.

and I finished the 36 of these Christmas cards I was working on

As for an update on my Mom, she is doing well so far. The surgery went well and she is now in the hospital recovering. We went to visit this Saturday and she is looking good. It's going to be a long recovery, but it's nice to know the surgery went well. Thank you for all of the thoughts and prayers! Prayer is still needed though, as we don't have the lab results back. Hopefully they got it all and no chemo or other treatments are required, and she has a speedy recovery.

a Christmas memory

Scrapping during naptime to keep my brain occupied so I don't worry to much. Mom is undergoing surgery right now.

Monday's book of me challenge was to scrap a Christmas memory. Here is mine:

Note the cool journalling done by using the old portable kiddie typewriter that was mine when I was a kid and was found in my parents garage. Which is awesome cos it fits nicely in it's own case and is pretty small.

another BOM challenge

Finally another Book of Me challenge on the MSS blog. This time to do a layout about yourself using some favourite supplies. I used flowers, buttons, stitching and a new favourite: Paint! I love how the orange paint looks on this layout!

DT Call submissions

Well, the new members of the My Scrap Shoppe Design Team have been chosen. I'm disappointed to say that I wasn't chosen :( although I'm proud of myself for being brave enough to try.

Congrats to new shoppe girls Nicole and Flo - I can't wait to see what you have in store for us. :)

Now that the decision has been made, here are the layouts that I submitted:

this one was a challenge to use 5 patterned papers,

buttons (I heat embossed mine silver to go with the layout)

and staples (I stapled on strips of ribbon for added texture).

Say Cheese!

I finally was able to get the cheap sewing machine from Canadian Tire on sale this weekend when we were in the city. It was on sale for 20$! It's really small so it doesn't take up much room in my scrapping area (about the same size as my cuttlebug). It only does straight stitch and I wouldn't mind being able to do a zig zag - but I didn't want to pay 80$ more for the next cheapest model just to be able to zig zag! For 20$ it's perfect since I only wanted to be able to sew on my layouts.

that's my cuttlebug behind the sewing machine

I completed my layout that I designed using 5 patterned papers, buttons and staples. This was going to be for the design team call at MSS but since the local Canadian Tire was sold out I didn't get to complete this layout in time for the deadline. Boo-urns! I like this layout a lot and wish that it had been done in time to qualify. My other layout using the challenge items is good, but I like this one better. I will post my entries for the DT call after I know the results (beginning of October), for now they will remain a secret!

click on the picture to see it bigger and in more detail...

I used orange ink to color my chipboard letters and then clear embossed them. I stitched a frame around my photo using light blue thread.

It's hard to see the details in the other picture, but I stitched without the foot down so that it would be all wavy and not perfect lines to secure the hand cut shapes out and add texture. Then I stapled on some clear accents.

More online crop fun

Since I had the photos printed and my layouts planned out I quickly whipped these up for the online crop during Liam's naptime.

For challenge #3 I used yellow and blue, #7 I doodled around the title to help it stand out a bit more, #10 I stacked the title, and #11 I matted the photos.

This one doesn't work for any of the challenges but I've had it sitting on my desk needing journalling and a title for months now. So I quickly cut some letters freehand out of a piece of scrap cardstock and journalled on a tag and voila! Finally finished :)

The layout idea for Summer fun was from a CTMH sketch and Zoo was from a Becky's sketch.

Online Crop at MSS

This weekend there is an online crop at My Scrap Shoppe with lots of great challenges to choose from! DH let me have the evening to scrap and stamp with Dawn (thanks honey!) and I had tons of fun and really love the layouts I've made.

Remember, you can click on the photo to see it in more detail :)

For challenges #2 and 11:

Challenge #2 was to scraplift a layout from the MSS gallery. I used Jen's layout for the sun and clouds idea and Nicole's for the title idea of using the badge for the word "sunshine". I used the september kit for everything but the sunshine button. Jen's layout and this paper was the main reason why I wanted the kit!

Challenge # 11 was to mat your photo.

For challenges 1, 3 and 11:

Challenge # 1 was to hide something on your layout. The beachball on the tag behind one of my photos pulls out to reveal more pictures:

Challenge 3 was to use yellow and blue, and challenge 11 was to mat your photos. Check!

I have some more ideas for layouts but that's all there was time for tonight. I really ought to get to bed!

Oh, and by the way I've decided to go for it and try out to be a member of the MSS design team. I just need to take some better photos of my layouts that I'm using to apply. Fluorescent light in our basement at night doesn't make for nice pictures. I need it to get nice and sunny so I can use natural light. I figure that if I don't try for it I will always wonder and regret that I didn't go for it. Cross your fingers for me!

Goodnight!

a couple of new layouts

Another week, another MSS blog book of me challenge. This time it was to do a "Note to self" page. You can click the picture to see the page in more detail. Mine is about how my house will never be clean again. DD is a little hurricane leaving toys behind her everywhere she goes. She can make a mess faster than I can clean it up! This was also my first time cutting out elements of a patterned paper to decorate a page. It's too bad that it took me so long to get my act together and participate in last weeks challenge cos if I had managed to post my take on the challenge just a few hours earlier I would have been the winner of the challenge by default since there were no other entries - I guess it's been a busy week for everyone!

The shoppe is also looking for new design team members and I sooooo want to apply. I'm still deciding if I should as I would have to post a minimum 3-4 layouts to the gallery each month and also post on the blog and leave comments on the gallery. Right now I'm doing that already, but with DH back at work now that school is back on I'm not sure I would have the time. I think I could manage, but I'm worried that my Turbo Jam would get cut out. But how cool would it be to be a member of the design team? It would be like having an awesome (although unpaid) scrapbooking job! I don't know if they'd pick me anyways since I'm still a relatively new scrapbooker, but it's something to consider. Whaddya think? Should I go for it?

I also finished DS's 4th month layout for his baby book. I'm using the Sweet Baby Kit of the month from Creating keepsakes. It comes with everything you need for baby's first year, plus the paper is all double sided so that you can order it ahead of time and it doesn't matter if you have a boy or girl you are set either way! Sorry about the lousy photo, I was too lazy to try and take a better one :)

busy busy

Summer is going by way too quickly. DH has been going back to school to prep and will be going even more next week. All of us really miss him already, it's been such a treat to have so much family time. This past couple of weeks have been fun. DD went for a sleepover at my parents house so I got to go along to hang out with our friends - yay! The Bergen's came over and we made dinner and then they babysat while a group of us went to see District 9. What a luxury to be able to watch a movie all the way through in one sitting! That is very rare ever since having kids! And today we went to a local pool with some friends and DD played in the kiddie pool and LOVED the slide. It was so cute how she went from holding my hand and slowly walking around and going on the kiddie slide to climbing up all by herself and sliding down into my arms. It was great to see her so happy and having so much fun (we didn't have our camera though). Also at my 8 week measuring I am up to 3 inches total lost from my tummy - yay!

Here are some pics from this past week:

me and DS

I love his smile!

DD eating mac n cheese

the lasagna I made (recipe is here only I use a 500mL container of 1% cottage cheese instead of ricotta. And you can totally use no name brand everything (their jarred sauce and cheese are so much cheaper!) and it tastes great for not much money. Easy too.)

Eggplant casserole - I combined her recipe and the original. I used seasoning salt in her recipe instead of salt, and used a smaller amount of thyme. This worked well as a main dish, but we think it would be a great side with some steaks. If we could afford steaks and knew how to cook them that is.

My homemade burgers. I only took a pic of the burgers cos we forgot we were out of buns and it looked weird on bread.

And last but not least, My page about my hamster Sugar for the latest challenge. You can click on it to see it in more detail