Sketchbook 4 -- Sketch #5

I'd forgotten how challenging some of Kelly Purkey's Sketchbook sketches can be.... they're definitely good at getting me outside of my comfort zone! I thought yesterday's circles were challenging, but today's sketch had large rectangles placed on.... gasp!.... angles! Eek! For someone who loves 90 degree angles, this can be a little stressful!

But here's what I came up with...

For my layout, I chose a photo I took of Jonah displaying his talent on our trampoline. I cut strips of Simple Stories patterned paper and adhered them on an angle with some PTI Distressed Stripes stamped in between.

I used PTI cardstock (rustic cream, canyon clay), stamps (distressed stripes) and dies (block alphabet). The patterned paper is Simple Stories.

I typed out my journaling on the computer, after my patterned paper was adhered. I adhered my strip of cardstock in place and then trimmed off the edges of my background.

And here's the card I made:

I used PTI cardstock (rustic white, aqua mist, harvest gold), stamps (distressed stripes, modern wood mats, boy basics: game on) and dies (mat stack #5, seeing stars). The patterned paper is Studio Calico and the star border stamps & decorative brad are My Mind's Eye.

Thanks for looking!

Sketchbook 4 -- Sketch #4

Today, I'm sharing a layout and a card that I made using the fourth sketch from Sketchbook #4. I was a little stumped at first, as I'm not a huge fan of circles on layout (I like my straight edges!) But, then, I remembered the April Challenge on the My Mind's Eye blog: to use hexagons on your project. From there, my layout came together pretty quickly...

I used My Mind's Eye patterned paper & decorative brads. I also used Papertrey Ink block alphabet dies and smokey shadow cardstock to make my title.

Here's a close-up of my journaling:

For my card, I was inspired by the placement of the circles and decided to selectively ink the large image from my Lace Bouquet stamp set:

I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (soft stone, ocean tides) & stamps (lace bouquet & Think Big Favourites #5), buttons & twine.

Thanks for looking!

A banner birthday card

Did you have a good Easter?

Ours was good, but loooooong..... LOL! We got up at 6am to attend our church's sunrise service at a cemetery on the hill..... There's something so fabulous about having a sunrise service celebrating the One who conquered death in a cemetery.... Then we had a continental breakfast at church, followed by another church service, then Sunday school (where I got to play a crying and babbling Mary Magdalene). After a quick lunch at home, we drove to my mom's in Winnipeg to celebrate Easter with her. It felt so good to climb into my bed last night....

I thought I'd share a card today. I made this card last month for the Papercrafts submission call. It was for one of their sketches...

I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (stamper's select white, soft stone), stamps (Boy Basics: Game On), buttons & dies (tag sale #5 (trimmed down to make the banners) and tiny tags). The patterned paper is My Mind's Eye.

Thanks for looking!

Sketchbook 4 -- Sketch #3

This afternoon, I made a layout and a card using the third sketch from the Sketchbook 4 workshop.

Here's the layout:

I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (sweet blush, raspberry fizz, vintage cream), stamps (wonderful words additions) & dies (double-ended banner, half & half, mat stack #5, wonderful words). I also used Bazzill cardstock (12zx12), My Mind's Eye & Crate Paper patterned paper & MME decorative brads.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

And here is the card, which I made with this week's MIM challenge at Papertrey Ink: Generational Stamping:

I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (rustic white, harvest gold), stamps (happy day, pretty peonies), ribbon, twine, buttons & dies (happy day).

Thanks for looking!

Five for Friday

Five things that are making me happy this week:

1. Our community Good Friday service this morning. Great praise & worship, a wonderful sermon, communion & a few minutes of visiting with friends afterwards. It's my favourite church service of the year!

2. Getting a shout-out on Nichole Heady's blog for this card that I posted earlier this week.

3. Decorating Easter eggs with the kids on Tuesday evening...

I love that they all still want to participate in our yearly tradition!

We started with dyeing our eggs...

Then, once they were dry, I decided to try Betsy Veldman's technique for stamping on Easter eggs. I stamped with some Rosie Posie & Scrambled Eggs stamps on some tissue paper and then cut out the images. I used a paint brush and some white glue mixed with water to glue the tissue paper to the eggs. When Sage came to join me & try some on her own, we made a discovery.... the ink bled through the tissue paper and onto the eggs! So we removed the tissue paper and ended up with stamped images on the eggs!

For the butterflies and the sentiments, we stamped directly on the eggs.

On this top egg (above & pictured below), I stamped the Rosie Posie stamps using this week's MIM challenge at Papertrey Ink: Generational Stamping. It's faint, but has a pretty effect.

4. Sage & I decided that we wanted to use our PTI Scrambled Eggs stamp set to make some cupcake toppers for our Easter gatherings this weekend. This morning, we baked our cupcakes & iced them after lunch.

And here are the toppers we made last weekend (they turned out so adorable!)

Sage made the little white bunnies (& on the back, we added little cotton ball tails!)

We're looking forward to bringing these to Cam's family gathering tonight & to my mom's on Sunday!

5. Anticipating Easter & all it represents, celebrating Jesus' death & resurrection with family & friends!

Thanks for looking!

Sketchbook 4 -- Sketch #2

I wanted to share the layout and card that I made with Sketch #2 for Kelly Purkey's Sketchbook 4 workshop at Studio Calico. First the layout...

I had these super colourful photos that were taken at the waterpark last summer that I thought could work well with the sketch.... I used some Crate, Fancy Pants, Echo Park, My Mind's Eye & Lily Bee patterned paper from my scrap folder, along with my Papertrey Ink Simple Circle border die to make the circle stacks. I also used my PTI Wonderful Words Additions stamp, along with this week's MIM challenge at Papertrey Ink: Generational Stamping to create a drop shadow on my word. I used my PTI Block Alphabet & Layerz Mat Stack #5 dies for my title, and a stamp from the PTI Movers & Shakers stamp set for my journaling.

The teacher I've been subbing for all week lost his father in an ATV accident on the weekend, so I thought I'd use the sketch to make a sympathy card for his students to sign and give to him when he gets back.

I used PTI cardstock (spring moss, rustic white), stamps (modern wood mats, love & marriage, botanical silhouettes), twine & buttons. The patterned paper is Crate.

Thanks for looking!

Scrapbooking workshops

A couple of weeks ago, I registered for the Scrapbook Stamper's Workshop at Two Peas and have been enjoying working through the challenges. Then, because I enjoyed it so much last year, I signed up for Kelly Purkey's Sketchbook 4 workshop at Studio Calico. Scrapbook Stamper's Workshop is self-paced, which I really enjoy. I was a little stressed about signing up for Sketchbook 4, with wondering if I'd be able to stay caught up.... I made a goal of making both a layout and a card with each sketch, but then yesterday, when I looked through my photo box for some photos to use, I came across two sets that would work.... so I ended up making two layouts and one card! Woohoo!

For both of my layouts, I pulled out some brand new Bo Bunny patterned paper that I picked up in Winnipeg last week.... and for my first layout, I also used this week's MIM challenge at Papertrey Ink: Generational Stamping:

I used Bo Bunny patterned paper and Papertrey Ink stamps (Simply You) and dies (journaling tabs). Pretty simple, as I didn't feel I need very many embellishments with this patterned paper. But, I was pleased with the generational stamping technique for my title:

Then, I didn't want to waste the back of the piece of patterned paper I used for my background, so I made another layout, using photos taken the same day/week... and for this layout, I also used Lesson #5 from Scrapbook Stamper's Workshop, to add hand stitching to a stamped image:

I used Bo Bunny patterned paper and Papertrey Ink stamps (Iconic Images) and dies (Wonderful Words).  I made some decorative brads with the tiny Iconic Images images using my SU! Build-a Brads. The green foam thickers are American Crafts.

And lastly, here's the card I made with the sketch:

I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (kraft, pure poppy, rustic white), stamps (text boxed , modern wood mats) & dies (half & half).

Thanks for looking!

Combining challenges

I wanted to share a birthday card that I made last night for two challenges: for this week's MIM challenge at Papertrey Ink: Generational Stamping and for Melissa Phillips' Monday With Melis Challenge #1, which was a recipe challenge to include: a heart, Birthday themed, scallops, a background stamp & buttons.

Here's the card I made:

I inked up my new Tremendous Treats Birthday stamps to make this card that I think would be great for a kid! I stamped the MIM technique using PTI Turning a New Leaf stamps. I also used PTI cardstock (stamper's select white, rustic white, aqua mist), button & dies (heart border die, cloud). The patterned paper is all Echo Park, except for the My Mind's Eye piece that I used for the monkey. I covered the cloud die with some Smooch for a little shimmer and shine.

Thanks for looking!

A late-night post

Okay, more like a later-evening post, but late-night sounds cooler, right?

I just wanted to post one more layout that I made for this week's Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink: computer generated sentiments on diecuts. I also used Scrapbook Stamper's Workshop Lesson #4: where we were challenged to stamp the same stamp multiple times using different colours. I decided to use my new PTI Beautiful Butterflies stamps/dies to create this layout...

I used PTI cardstock (stamper's select white, harvest gold), stamps (Beautiful Butterflies) & dies ((Beautiful Butterflies, tag sale #5).

Here's a close up of the MIM technique:

Thanks for looking!

Pages with Papertrey -- Challenge #8

Hey there! I'm just popping in today to post the latest Pages With Papertrey challenge, which is to use ribbon on your layout. Yep. That's it. This might not seem like a difficult challenge for you, but it's something that I personally struggle with.....

I found that one of the easiest ways to include ribbon is with a tag (that way there's no "bow-tying" to worry about...)

I used Papertrey cardstock (sweet blush), stamps (wonderful words additions, rosie posie) ribbon & dies (tag sale #3, block alphabet). I also used My Mind's Eye patterned paper, AC cardstock (12x12) & decorative brads (SEI & MME).

I also used Scrapbook Stamper's Workshop Lesson #2: stamp on a tag. I used the hexagon shapes from my Rosie Posie set to stamp on the background of the tag.

If you'd like to play along with this month's Pages With Papertrey challenge, just link up your layout here in the comments or here on the PTI forum, so I can see what you created!

Thanks for looking!

Six for Saturday: the Spring Break edition

1. We've been enjoying a great Spring Break this week! On Saturday, Austin & Sage participated in a curling tournament with their schools. (& can you believe I didn't take any photos?? It was busy in the morning and I couldn't get close to the windows to take any. I figured, I'd taken some later on that day..... but I never went back! It was rainy, so Cameron offered to take them for me--- and I forgot to send the camera along. Ooops!)

On Sunday, after church, Sage & I attended a sparring workshop in Manitou, which was great! I thought I'd just help out with reffing if they needed help, but I ended up suiting up and participating in all of the drills. Hard work, for sure!

Then, in the evening, Cameron & I went to volleyball at my church, which was so much fun! Everyone is so accepting and encouraging and we laugh a lot!

2. On Monday, we went through all of the kids' summer clothes to try them on and see what would fit. I was pleased this only took until lunch! After lunch, Jonah & I jumped on the trampoline for a bit and I got this cool shot:

In the evening, we were invited to join the Manitou club for taekwondo... what a great experience to see how another club trains!

3. Tuesday was a great "stay-at-home" kind of day. I love these kind of days! :)

4. On Wednesday, we drove to Winnipeg to do a little shopping (I ♥ Old Navy!), where I found some things for the kids & a sweater on the clearance rack for me. :) We went to my mom's for the rest of the day (& she took us out to Applebee's for supper.) We spent the night there....

On Thursday, we hung out at my mom's and did a little more shopping before coming home.

5. On Friday, we took the kids to Brandon for the Royal Winter Fair. It was a first for all of us and everyone had a great time! Here are a few photos I took:

And a few more highlights.....

The kids enjoyed walking around the Trade Show, a magic act starring Sean Watson, some acrobats from the Circle du Soleil, a SuperDogs show, horseback riding, a petting zoo, more horseback riding and watching a Jumping competition in the evening. A very full day....

6.  And lastly, I did squeeze in some crafting time this week...... I made some Easter cards based on a card by the amazing Betsy Veldman in the last issue of Papercrafts Magazine. As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to make a bunch of them to give away to friends & family for Easter. I used this week's Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink: computer generated sentiments on diecuts.

I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (stamper's select white, aqua mist), stamps (distressed stripes) & dies (mega mat stack #4, clouds). My sentiment is computer generated, using one of my favourite fonts: BlackJack and I used some Martha Stewart glitter on the clouds. Thanks for the inspiration, Betsy!

Thanks for looking!

Scrapbook Stamper's Workshop-- Lesson #3

We've been busy enjoying our Spring Break this week, despite the rainy/cool temperatures.... I thought I share the layout that I made for Lesson #3 of the Scrapbook Stamper's Workshop at Two Peas in a Bucket, where the challenge was to stamp an image onto layered diecuts. For this challenge, I decided to use my new PTI Framed Out #1 and Iconic Images stamps. Here's my layout:

I used Bazzill cardstock (12x12) & PTI cardstock (pure poppy, stamper's select white), stamps (Framed Out #1, Iconic Images, Label Basics) & dies (Framed Out #1, block alphabet, double ended banner). The decorative brad is MME & the strip of polka dot patterned paper is Echo Park.

Here's a close up of my stamping:

And here's a close-up of my journaling, where I've used this week's Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink: computer generated sentiments on diecuts:

Thanks for looking!