Five for Friday

1. The kids and I are competing in a tae kwon do tournament in Winnipeg tomorrow. Sage will be doing patterns and sparring, Jonah will be doing patterns, Austin will be doing board breaking, sparring and patterns and I'll be doing patterns and board breaking. Should be good, as long as the weather cooperates.... apparently it's suppose to snow!

2. For this week's Spring Sketch at MSS, I chose Sketchabilities #44. Here's the layout I made with it:


(I used Crate Paper patterned paper and border stickers & MME stamps, alphas and brads.)

3. Austin had a rough day (literally!) on Wednesday. He got hit in the eye at recess with a soccer ball really hard (and when you wear glasses, the pain is just intensified!) Then, later at tkd that evening, he was holding a rebreakable board for someone to practice breaking and when it broke, it went flying and grazed his cheek, leaving a cut! Ouch! So, I got up early on Thursday morning to make him a card to encourage him. I used my new PTI Grunge Me stamps and some PTI cardstock and decided to try this week's Make-it-Monday at Papertrey Ink again (hoping that practice will make perfect!)




4. I also got to scrapbook a little this week. I decided to tackle two of the sketches for Kelly Purkey's Sketchbook 3 class that I hadn't gotten to yet. So here's the layout I made for sketch #6:


(I used Bazzill cardstock, Pebbles, MME & Crate patterned paper, Crate border stickers and American Crafts thickers.)

And the layout I made for sketch #10:


(I used Bazzill cardstock, Pebbles, Girl's Paperie, Echo Park, & Crate patterned paper, Crate border stickers, my Quickutz Reuse alphabet dies and a SU! (yellow), PTI (red) & Basic Grey (black) buttons.)


5. MSS is having a mini-online crop this weekend. If you'd like to participate (or even just check out some challenge to get your mojo going), click here.

Thanks for stopping by!

A card for Sage

After I gave this card to Jonah, Sage asked why she didn't get one. So I promised to make her one while she was at school and I decided to use this week's Make-it-Monday at Papertrey Ink to do it.



I used PTI cardstock, Turning a New Leaf stamps and die and the sentiment stamp from the Signature Sentiments set. The background paper is SU! and the butterfly is made with my Martha Stewart punch.

Thanks for looking!

A couple of things to share...

The first thing I wanted to share was a layout I made for the MSS April featured product challenge. This month's featured product was border punches and at the time of this posting, I own 5 of them.

For this layout, I turned to my very first border punch (& truth be told, very favourite), my SU! scalloped border punch. I also added some Crate Paper pp, chipboard and border stickers, as well as some AC thickers and Pink Paislee letter stickers:

And the second thing is this:



As I mentionned in an earlier post, my iPod Touch died a couple of months ago. So, I had to pick up a new calendar for work to keep track of the days I sub. I'd originally asked Cameron to pick one up for me, but the one he bought was huge (like maybe 8x10" and a little cumbersome in my purse), so I bought this one at Walmart. And while Sage liked the dogs on it, I didn't.

So I changed the cover to this:

I used some Bazzill cardstock, Crate Paper pp and a PTI die and sentiment stamp. A little distressing and stitching and voila! A much more attractive cover for my calendar (& a little something to make me smile every time I see it!)

Thanks for looking!

A card for Jonah

I decided to participate in my first Papertrey Ink Blog Hop.

Here's the challenge: Boys To Men
This month's blog hop is dedicated to all the boys and men in our lives! Now's your chance to create Father's Day projects, boy birthday cards and more to build up your stash! Focus on masculine color schemes, fresh pattern combinations, understated embellishments and unique uses of images you may already have in your stash!
And here's the card I made:



I used PTI cardstock (smokey shadow & spring rain), my PTI seeing stars die (the middle one), PTI Fresh Snow ink (for the Hero Arts music notes stamp and around the edges of the card) & a PTI stamp from my Signature Sentiments set.

Using my star die, I ran the blue cardstock through my die cutting machine and used the negative part on my card, creating a window. Before adhering it to the dark grey background, I stamped the music notes in white ink in the middle of the cardstock, so that the design could show through the window.

Thanks for looking!

Embossing with dies

I wanted to share the card I made for this week's Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink:



I used some PTI cardstock and my PTI Turning a New Leaf die to emboss on the cardstock and make a die cut to add to the card. I also added some MME and BG patterned paper, some PTI buttons and a flower I cut with my PTI beautitul blooms II die. The sentiment is a SU! stamp and a PTI mat stack #4 diecut (or half of one).

Thanks for looking!

Catching up

The past two weeks, on top of our regular activities, we've been busy with the Morden Festival of the Arts.

Last week, Austin, Jonah and Sage all participated in the Speech Arts category. They all memorized and presented two poems each: one in English and another in French.



They all did really well! Sage and Jonah both got As on their poems. And Austin got an A- on his English poem and an A+ on his French one! I was really proud of them!

Then, this week, Austin & Jonah participated in the Piano category.



Austin played 3 songs on Monday afternoon and got an 82 on each one. Jonah played two songs on Tuesday morning and got an 82 on the first one and an 85 on the second. Again, I was really pleased with how well they did!

And amid the busyness, I've been able to get a little scrapping done...

Although I don't scrap chronologically, I do often like to work with a certain line as a kit. And, I also like to work with groups of photos taken at the same time period.

So last weekend, I decided to scrap my photos from my trip to Montreal last Spring. I thought the new Crate Paper patterned papers complemented these photos very nicely.

I created this layout with Shimelle's sketch for 2.23.2011 and some AC cardstock, Crate Paper patterned paper, Studio Calico letter stickers, my Papertrey flower die and a My Mind's Eye brad:




This next layout was created with the April Sketch on the Crate Paper blog, some AC cardstock, Crate Paper patterned paper, my Quickutz Jolly alphabet dies, a Papertrey Ink mat stack die and My Mind's Eye brads:




This next layout about my brother's girlfriend (isn't she beautiful?!) was made with some Fancy Pants & Crate Paper patterned paper, some October Afternoon letter stickers, some MME and Fancy Pants brads, my Papertrey Ink Turning a new Leaf die and a AC Dear Lizzy journaling card:




I used the Kelly Purkey Sketchbook 3, day 7 sketch for this layout, as well as some Crate Patterned paper, a Papertrey Ink Mat Stack #4 die, some October Afternoon and Chatterbox (read: really old!) letter stickers, my Papertrey Ink Turning a new Leaf die and some My Mind's Eye brads:




And for this last layout, I used some Crate Paper and My Mind's Eye patterned paper, my Papertrey Ink Mat Stack #1 die, my Quickutz Cotton Candy alphabet dies, my Papertrey flower dies and some Basic Grey buttons. The border sticker is Crate Paper:



Thanks for looking!

An inspiration challenge

This month was Jen's turn to post something for the DT inspiration challege at MSS. Here's what she picked:



Don't those look great?

I was inspired by the colours and circles to create this layout:



And I just realized that subconsciously, I must have been also inspired for my title: so sweet! Ha!

I used Bazzill cardstock, Crate Paper pp, a MME diecut (which I punched into a circle for the title), MME brads, some SU! felt circles, my Tim Holtz styled labels die and a Bo Bunny stamp.

Oh, and before I end this post, I just wanted to say how excited I was to discover one of my layouts on the Crate Paper blog today. Check out this post. How cool is that!

Thanks for looking!

Some masking technique projects...

...for this week's



I love this week's video and tutorial (which you can see here.) What a great way to use dies-- just cut the die from a sheet of paper and use the negative part as a mask! I decided to try out this technique by using the medium sized die from my PTI Seeing Stars dies. Here's a card I made:



I used SU! Baja breeze ink and my blending tool to apply the ink to my card, with the mask over top. Then, I stamped with my Hero Arts stamp over top to add the music notes. I added the SU! bar code stamped image to the card and then repeated the masking technique using the smaller star and a Fontwerks stamp & versamark ink. I added a star cut with the smallest die from MME patterned paper, a birthday greeting stamp and on the yellow background, I repeated the music notes stamp with SU! Basic Grey ink.

And here's a layout I made using the same technique times 3:



Again, I masked with the PTI die cut stars, with blue, yellow and grey ink and stamped over top with my Hero Arts stamp. I added some more PTI die cut stars cut out of MME patterned paper and a title made with Studio Calico letter stickers.

Thanks for looking!

Just popping in...

... to share a layout I made with Kelly Purkey's Sketchbook 3 Day 4 sketch.



I used some white AC cardstock (from Elizabeth!), some Crate Paper pp, my Quickutz Harmony alpha dies and Tim Holtz flower die and a BG fabric brad.

Thanks for looking!

First day of school

I remember being so excited when the school-themed Crate Paper arrived at MSS last fall. It was so lovely and fun, I ended up purchasing most (if not all!) of the patterned paper and the stickers and chipboard shapes, too.

But for some reason, I didn't work with it right away (although I did enjoy looking at it when I'd search through my files of patterned paper!)

Well, a few weeks ago, I pulled it out and made this layout and about four others as well. Here's one of them, something I made for April's MSS DT Triple Threat Challenge: to use a journaling tag, a stamp and polka dots.


In addition to the Crate goodness, I used two Pink Paislee stamps and a Little Yellow Bicycle journaling tag.

Is there any product that you loved when you bought it (more than six months ago) but haven't used yet?

Okay, one more....

I managed to make one more layout with heat embossing for the Papertrey Ink's Make It Monday challenge tonight.



Just like Austin's layout, I photocopied Sage's written prayer onto white cardstock and will place it beside this layout in her 8.5x11 album.

For the layout, I used Bazzill cardstock for the background and Crate Paper patterned paper. I also used Kelly Purkey's Sketchbook 3 sketch for Day 3. The alphas are October Afternoon stickers. The pink & coral cardstock & buttons are Papertrey Ink. The dies and stamps are also Papertrey Ink and I stamped them in a light blue versacolor ink and then in SU! Baja Breeze to the the colour I wanted. For the frame, I just left the ink as is, but I heat embossed the leaves with clear embossing powder.



Thanks for looking!

2 more heat embossed projects

Well, I managed to get two more projects done today for Papertrey Ink's Make It Monday challenge: a layout and a card.



Last week in church, our pastor handed us each a sheet of paper and asked us to write a prayer to God. I loved Austin's prayer so much, I decided to photocopy it onto a sheet of white cardstock to preserve it. It will be placed in his album beside this layout.

I used My Mind's Eye patterned paper and my Quickutz Studio alphabet dies for the title. The stars were cut with my Papertrey Ink dies and the cardstock is also Papertrey Ink. On the largest star, I stamped with versamark and a SU! stamp. I then used clear embossing powder and heat embossed it. A little stitching finished off the layout.

For the card, I used the same stamp on the star (just the middle sized one instead of the large), as well as on the background. The technique was the same, and I added a second SU! stamp to the background (this barcode is from the same set as the numbers) and the sentiment is from my PTI Signature Sentiments stamp set.



Thanks for looking!

Some heat embossed projects to share

In the past couple of months, some friends and I have gotten "hooked" on Papertrey Ink. This became glaringly obvious when we attended a crop yesterday together and another friend of ours kept exclaiming over our goodies: "Oh, this is cool! Where did you get this?"

"Papertrey Ink."

And "Oh, I need some of these! Where did you get them?"

"Papertrey Ink."

...

So, yeah, a little bit hooked. ;)

I've also loved following Nichole Heady's blog and have started playing along with their Make-It Mondays. Because, well, you know how I love a good challenge. ;)



This week's challenge was heat embossing.

This card was inspired by this card by Dawn McVey. I picked up some balsa wood at Michael's to try to make my own.



I cut the wood using a Papertrey Ink Mat Stack's #1 die and inked the edges. I stamped on it with the same stamp from the Turning a New Leaf set with three different colours of ink. Then I added some Heidi Swapp mini-brads that I'd found in my stash.

For the background, I used some PTI cardstock. I used my PTI woodgrain impression plate with some PTI brown cardstock and added a strip of Crate Paper patterned paper and another strip of PTI green cardstock that I punched with my EK Success border punch.

Finally, I stamped with versamark ink a sentiment stamp from the PTI Turning a New Leaf set and heat embossed it with white embossing powder.

Here's a card that I made for a 90th birthday party we went to on Friday:



I used Crate Paper patterned paper and Papertrey Ink cardstock, Beautiful Blooms dies, a Turning a New Leaf stamps (leaves & sentiment) and die. I heat embossed the sentiment with versamark ink and clear embossing powder. For the leaves, I stamped in Versamark and then in some SU! Certainly Celery ink, sprinkled it with embossing powder and heated it with my heat gun.

Then I wanted to see how I could incorporate this technique into some layouts.

So here's a layout that I made at yesterday's crop, using the Stuck April 1st Sketch:



I used some Bazzill cardstock and some SU! patterned paper that was on my table when we arrived. I also used some Pink Paislee alphas and some felt flowers that I found in my stash. I used my new Papertrey Ink Turning a New Leaf stamps and die to make the leaves on the one flower and on the journaling diecut. For both of them, I stamped in Versamark ink and then in some Tim Holtz Antique Linen distress ink, sprinkled on some clear embossing powder, which I heated with my heat gun.



I also used my Papertrey Ink Beautiful Blooms dies for the flowers and some PTI buttons (in Ocean Tides) for the centres. What really brought this layout together, though, was the twine that Carol let me have-- it was the perfect touch! Thanks again, Carol!

And lastly, here's another layout I made at the crop yesterday.



I used Kelly Purkey's Sketchbook 3 Day 3 sketch, along with some My Mind's Eye patterned paper, alphabets and brad (with a Papertrey ink Beautiful Blooms die cut behind it). I also used a Papertrey Ink Mat Stack #1 die & stamps, some PTI ink and the PTI Turning a New Leaf die and stamp, which I stamped with versamark and then SU! old olive ink and then heat embossed using clear embossing powder.



Thanks for looking!

Five for Friday

1. It's a day off here today! Yay! So we're spending the day relaxing at home this morning and then this afternoon, we'll run some errands (Jonah needs some new runners and socks) and take the kids bowling.

2. I'm really enjoying the Kelly Purkey Sketchbook 3 class that I signed up for. Day 2's sketch inspired me to dig through my scraps and create this layout:



As I uploaded my layout I realized I didn't add any journaling! Ooops! Will have to fix that.

I used some MME pp, American Crafts thickers, a Studio Calico stamp (which I heat embossed with white embossing powder), some buttons and I used my Papertry Ink die to make the little white flower.

3. In other scrappy news, I'm super excited for the crop that Anne is hosting tomorrow. Should be a great time!

4. My friend, Susan, & I drove to Walhalla yesterday to pick up some parcels we'd ordered. One of them was this DVD that we'll be giving to the kids for Easter (now we have the whole set!) Another one was from Papertrey Ink, where I got this set (with the matching dies, this set (again with the matching die) as well as a some felt, cardstock and buttons that Susan & I split. I'm looking forward to playing with my new goodies tomorrow at the crop.

5. I posted another Spring sketch on the MSS blog this morning. I chose Sketch #68 from Inspired Blueprints and this is the layout I made with it:



My daughter took some photos of me recently and when I spotted this one on my computer, I immediately came up with the title. Initially, my journaling was going to be a little different, but I was challenged recently to do be "real" with my journaling, so this is what I came up with. I stuck pretty closely to the sketch, trading the banner for a row of flowers instead. I used My Mind's Eye patterned paper and cut some flowers out of the one piece. I layered these over some flower shapes that I cut with my PTI flower die and added some MME brads and handstitching to finish off the "banner."

Thanks for looking!

Some layouts to share...

I made some layouts on the weekend with the MSS online crop and wanted to share a couple of them. This one was for Flo's colour challenge: light blue, lavendar, yellow, pink and white.



And this one was for a recipe challenge to use 5 pieces of patterned paper, a label sticker and a punch. I was inspired by a Davinie Fiero layout in the December Scrapbook Trends magazine for this one:



And this last layout is one I made last night using the Day 1 sketch from Kelly Purkey's Sketchbook 3 class:



Thanks for looking!

A+ in creativity

I wanted to share the layout I made for the MSS Monday Challenge for April: Frame it!

The challenge was to put a frame around it: create your own frame(s) with your supplies, use products that were designed to be used as frames, create a piece of art and frame it for your home, etc.

Here's the layout that I came up with for the challenge:

I had some Studio Calico frames in my stash that I wasn't quite sure what to do with. When I recently took out some of the Crate Paper paper and chipboard that I was hoarding, I thought mixing the two together would be the perfect solution.



In addition to the Studio Calico frames and Crate Paper pp, border stickers & chipboard, I used some American Crafts thickers and my SU! border punch.

Thanks for looking!

More blending technique cards

After much searching, I finally found the card I'd made earlier, using the blending ink technique. Here it is:



I used some Papertrey ink cardstock, a PTI die and stamp, as well as sentiment stamp. The flower stamp is part of a SU! stamp and the ribbon is Offray. I was a little disappointed with how the white on the top of the flower turned out. I saw on the PTI how they added some PTI white snow ink with some Q-Tips, so I think I'll see if I can pick some up (the Q-tips-- I already have the ink) and try it out.

And, I decided that since I had one last piece of cardstock all inked up with the blending technique I'd practised, that I might as well make a card with it.



This was probably the "worst" card I had for blending. Something had happened near the middle, too (some blotches) and I thought I'd just toss it. However, with some creative placement of the patterned paper strips, you can't tell

For this card, I used some Papertrey Ink cardstock and sentiment stamp. The patterned papers are Fancy Pants and Glitz. The butterfly punch is Martha Stewart and the border punch is SU!

Thanks for looking!

A couple more cards...

I made four green backgrounds with the blending technique, just to get a feel for it. One of them I used on this card and here's another card where I used one. (I actually made three cards, but I can't find the third!)



I used a new Jenni Bowlin stamp that I picked up at MSS yesterday, some MME patterned paper, three Basic Grey buttons and a Papertrey Ink sentiment stamp and some PTI cardstock. I also added some Smooch to give the butterfly a little shine.

Here's another card I made with my ink blending tool and a little bit of masking.



I used some PTI cardstock and my SU! stamp set. The die is Tim Holtz's Alterations and the little owl is a Hero Arts stamp. I tore a sticky note in half and placed it over my tree and then used my ink blending tool to add some green to make the grass.

I sent this card along with my pastor, Konrad, to the Congo for my friend, Brigitte who I met there last year. I hope she likes it!

Thanks for looking!