December Daily 2012, part 1

So after deliberating about it a bit, I decided to make a December Daily again this year. I'd made my first DD in 2008 and my second in 2010, so I figured that it had become an even-year-thing for me. ;)

My first two DDs (click here for 2008 and here for 2010) were made as chipboard mini-albums. I'd thought of going this same route again this year and of using my polaroid frame from PTI's Fabulous Frames, but then, I thought about how I like the idea of Project Life, even though I have no desire to make a PL album. I like the idea of slipping things into the different page protector slots. So I went to Staples and bought a 5.5x8.8" album and a package of Martha Stewart page protectors with four pockets each.

For the cover, I was inspired by this card sketch that Lori posted at Love is in the Details:

Here's my cover:

I used a sheet of Crate Paper patterned paper that pulled together a lot of the colours I wanted to use in my album.

I added some PTI cardstock (aqua mist) and My Mind's Eye patterned paper diecut with my PTI dies (tag sale #5 & double-ended banner). I stamped on the cardstock with a PTI stamp from the Fillable Frames #8 set and added a Flair badge.

Inspired by this week's Make It Monday at PTI, I decided to add a pocket to the front. I diecut the "December 2012" using my PTI modern alphabet dies. For the pocket, I stamped with PTI Snowflake Medley stamps and then ran it through my Big Shot with my PTI Simple Stripes impression plate. I added a strip of aqua mist cardstock diecut with the double-ended banner dies, a couple of buttons and a Pink Paislee chipboard heart that I inked with PTI Fine Linen ink.

Here's the tag that gets pulled out of the pocket. I stamped on it with PTI fresh snow ink and more Snowflake Medley stamps, as well as a sentiment from PTI's Shutterbug Special set.

On the back of the cover, I adhered a sheet of Scenic Route patterned paper. To this I added the negative that was left over from cutting out "December" for my title page. I added a strip of MME patterned paper from my scraps, as well as a Crate Paper tag that I trimmed down. I inked up another Pink Paislee chipboard shape (this time an arrow with PTI Pure Poppy ink) and added it, strategically pointing to the "1" for my date. A little bit of kraft button twine finishes it off.

So, the title page and one day done, 30 more days to go.... ;)

Thanks for looking!

Five for Friday

Happy Friday!

1. I'm pleased to say that I'm on the ball with Christmas stuff.... I have my presents purchased for 40% of my immediate family-- meaning I have something for Sage & Jonah and need to get something still for Austin and Cameron.... Hmmm, is that 50% or should I get myself a little something, too, for the extra 20%? ;)

I have also gotten something for my mom (but I need to add something else, still, so I guess 50% of her gift), my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law, who is my secret santa recipient---- shhh! don't tell though.....Cameron insists on secrecy for these things! ;)

AND, I not only have presents purchased for my brother, SIL and nephew, but I have wrapped them and will be bringing them to my mom's tomorrow (she'll be bringing them with her to Montreal when she goes to visit.) So, I thought I'd share these wrapped gifts for you.

The gift above is for my brother, Trevor. He sometimes reads my blog (Hi, Trev!), so I won't divulge what it is.... I'll just say it's fabulous and he is going to love it! Hee!

Here's a close-up of the tag I made:

I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (white), stamps (snowflake medley, love lives here: holidays), felt, buttons, twine and dies (snowflake medley). The ribbon is Offray and the little chipboard heart is Pink Paislee, inked in PTI aqua mist ink.

And here's the present I wrapped for my nephew, Noah:

I found this paper at Superstore and had to get it, even if it wasn't on sale.... what a splurge!

For his tag, it's a little shaker one.... I made it using PTI cardstock (white, limeade ice), stamps (winter snow globe, super stripes) and dies (winter snow globe). The ribbon is Offray and the glitter is Martha Stewart.


2. I am pleased to report that I think I'm finally over my jet lag/sickness from being in the Congo! Yay! I'm sleeping through the night once again and am able to stay up past 10pm with little to no effort whatsoever.


3. I have a busy week coming up with 4 trips to Winnipeg in 6 days, which is a lot for me! Austin & I are going in on Saturday for the black belt promotion test. Neither one of us is testing, but we go to support the club and help conduct the test. We'll stop at my mom's to drop off the gifts, too.

Then, all three of my kids are participating with their choirs in ChoralFest, which take place on three different days. Thankfully, I was able to get on as a chaperone for Austin & Jonah's trips, so I won't have to take my vehicle each time. Sage & I have planned to do a little shopping in the city on Monday after her performance, so it's all good. ;)


4. I've decided to take up knitting. My mom knits and sounded quite pleased at the idea of (re)teaching me. (She taught me as a child and while I remember how to knit, I never learned how to read a pattern or do anything complicated. ) This morning, I was looking for free patterns online and found some scarves, cowls and cup cozies that I'd love to make. I'm going to bring in the patterns for my mom tomorrow and hopefully over Christmas, she can teach me.


5.  I looked through my supplies yesterday and started pulling things for my December Daily. In doing so, I came across this cool paper from Simple Stories and was inspired to make a card using this week's Make It Monday at PTI.

I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (rustic cream), stamps (nativity silhouettes, beautiful blessings: holidays), twine and dies (tag sale #3).  I heat embossed the stamped images on the front of the pocket.

The tag pulls out to reveal the verse:

And while I had the supplies out, I decided to make a second card right away, but changed up a few details...

I used the same supplies, but skipped the heat embossing on this one.

I hope you have a great weekend!

Thanks for looking!

So incredibly thankful

Today, I'm sharing the 15th Sketch for Pages With Papertrey. This month, I chose a sketch from the November 2012 Page Maps:

I'd noticed a challenge on the Crate Paper blog this week to create a project with the theme "thankful." Since I have so much to be thankful for, I decided to make a layout using this sketch.

I was having some difficulties printing my photos at home onto glossy paper, so I ended up pasting them in Word along with my journaling and printing them all out onto some Papertrey Ink rustic white cardstock.

I used Crate Paper patterned paper and Papertrey Ink cardstock (canyon clay, aqua mist, ocean tides), stamps (stitches and swirls, lovely layers, counting my blessings, beautiful blessings), buttons, twine and dies (double-ended banner, heart border, counting my blessings, love lives here, half & half).

Here's a close-up of my journaling... Of course, I thought of other things I could add afterwards (like my health!)...

I also decided to make include a little pocket instead of a photo, for this week's Make It Monday at PTI.

When you pull out the tag, it reveals...

... one of my favourite verses!

If you make a layout using this month's sketch, please post a link to it either here in the comments of my blog or here in the PTI forum, so I can see what you made.

Thanks for looking!

Two more birthday cards

I have absolutely loved using the My Mind's Eye The Sweetest Thing Honey 6x6 paper pad. I think this is the first paper pad that I have used in its entirety. I have some scraps of it left, but no more full sheets. A definite favourite!

My brother's girlfriend (& my SIL at heart!), ordered 10 cards from me, so I've working at getting these made, now that I'm back from the Congo. These cards, these cards, these cards and two of these cards are all a part of the set and I love that they coordinate!

Here are the last two of the set...

I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (sweet blush), stamps (think big favourites #12, lovely layers) and dies (lovely layers, limitless layers: squares).



For this card, I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (sweet blush, stamper's select white, smokey shadow), stamps (communique sentiments, the sweet life) and dies (half & half, the sweet life). I also used a MME stamp to stamp around the edge of the white cardstock.

Thanks for looking!

Journaling card challenge

I wanted to share another card that I made for the Journaling Cards Challenge in the Moxie Fab World. I used a Project Life journaling card, layered over for My Mind's Eye patterned paper. I diecut the journaling card and then use the negative on my card, adding another PTI lovely layer diecut overtop, along with a My Mind's Eye diecut and decorative brad.

The cardstock is Papertrey Ink (sweet blush), as well as the stamped sentiment (communique sentiments).

Thanks for looking!

A couple of layouts

I made a couple of layouts this weekend, using this week's Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink: Creating Focal Point Sentiments with Stamps & Dies. I ♥ combining my stamps and alphabet/word dies to make my scrapbook titles!

I was leafing through my photos in my box-to-be-scrapped and found this one that was taken at the Corn & Apple festival a couple of months ago...

I used Papertrey Ink stamps (fabulous frames) and dies (modern alphabet uppercase). The journaling cards are Project Life, the mistable chipboard is Pink Paislee and the patterned paper is My Mind's Eye. The two stamps stamped in red are CTMH.

Here's a close up of my title/journaling, where I diecut the negative of the letters for my title and backed it with the journaling card:

And my next layout... (photos taken by Sage)...

I used Papertrey Ink stamps (wonderful words) and dies (block alphabet lowercase). The mistable chipboard is Pink Paislee, the chipboard bicycle is Crate Paper and the patterned paper is My Mind's Eye. The "love this" stamp is CTMH.

I love how this layering worked out!

Thanks for looking!

Thank you, thank you

I have a couple more cards to share that I made with this week's Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink: Creating Focal Point Sentiments with Stamps & Dies. 

My first card was inspired by this card by Melissa Phillips.

I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (harvest gold), felt, stamps (communique sentiments) and dies (wonderful words, beautiful blooms II #1 & #2, flipping out, lovely layers). The patterned paper is My Mind's Eye and I stamped a MME stamp around the edge of the white patterned paper.

For this card, I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (harvest gold), felt, stamps (think big favourites #4) and dies (counting my blessings, beautiful blooms II #1, leaf prints, edgers #3). The patterned paper and decorative brad are My Mind's Eye.

Thanks for looking!

Getting back into the swing of things

Not getting called into work this week has left me with time to relax and recuperate from my trip to the DR Congo. However, with wanting to get my body back on a North American schedule, I haven't wanted to take naps, preferring to stay up as late as I can (10pm last night!) to recover from my jet lag.

It's also given me some time to spend somewhere I missed when I was away..... my scrap space! LOL! Sad, but true.

So, loving that this week's Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink: Creating Focal Point Sentiments with Stamps & Dies was right up my alley this week, I decided to make a few more cards using this technique. I was also able to spend time online this week, catching up on my favourite blogs. In doing so, I noticed that Moxie Fab World has a few new challenges up on their blog.

The Journaling Cards Challenge in the Moxie Fab World caught my eye and I decided to play along, using a couple of journaling cards from Project Life that my friend, Mandy, passed along to me this week.

Here's my first card:

I cut out the "happy" from the journaling card using my PTI modern alphabet uppercase dies. Then I stamped the "birthday" from Think Big Favourites #12. The two larger hexagons were cut from my PTI hexagon cover plate and mounted with SU! dimensional adhesive. The three smaller hexagons are My Mind's Eye chipboard. The patterned paper is also My Mind's Eye, The Sweetest Thing, Honey. I have one full sheet from this 6x6 paper pad left-- I've loved using it a lot! I especially love the yellow diagonal stripe along the top of the pages and have tried to incorporate it where I can. Here, I hid the little hole behind my journaling card.

With the leftover letters, I decided to use a second journaling card and make another card:

I adhered the letters to the journaling card, which gives them a cool embossed look. Again, I used the same stamps, dies and patterned paper. The buttons and twine are PTI and the chipboard pieces are Crate Paper.

Here's a close up of the diecut letters:

Thanks for looking!

Happy Birthday X 2

Today, I want to share two birthday cards that I made, using this week's Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink: Creating Focal Point Sentiments with Stamps & Dies.

For this first card, I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (summer sunrise), stamps (think big favorites #12) & dies (modern alphabet uppercase, heart border.) The patterned paper and chipboard banner are My Mind's Eye.

And for my second card, I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (sweet blush, soft stone), stamps (think big favorites #12) & dies (wonderful words, double-ended banner, half & half.) The patterned paper is My Mind's Eye.

Thanks for looking!

Five for Friday

1. Well, it was a week ago that we left the DR Congo to fly home and I feel like I'm somewhat getting back into the swing of things. I started feeling sick on the flight from Brussels to Montreal and then worse from Montreal to Winnipeg. Konrad & I chatted for most of that flight, but at one point, after we'd been silent for a while, I asked him: "Are we going backwards?"

"Like, in time?" he asked.

"No," I said. "We've landed right? And the plane is backing up?"

"No, Leigh, we're still in the air."

Oh.

So, I'm guessing I was a little out of it there. LOL!

I am feeling better physically though and I seem to be getting over the jet lag. The last two nights, I've managed to stay up until 10:30pm before going to bed and this morning, I woke up to Cameron's alarm and couldn't remember waking up during the night. Success!

My appetite is back, too. I was pretty happy about losing 7.5 lbs while in the Congo (it's my Congolese weight loss program) and I'm hoping I'll keep it off.


2. Even though I wasn't feeling the greatest, it was nice to come home and see this on our dining room window, made by my Sage:

3. I got some exciting news while I was in the Congo, which made it a little easier to keep it quiet, being so far away, and often without wifi....... I was chosen as a World Card Making Day 2012 Winner! You can see the announcement on the Paper Crafts Connection Blog here. I had sent in six cards for the five categories (love, friend, thank you, festive and birthday) and it was my birthday card that got chosen. That means that I'll be sharing the five other cards here on my blog soon. ;)


4. While I was away, my nephew, Luke and his wife, Laura, moved into the new house that they've been building this year. We want to take them supper next week to check out their new digs and bring them a gift as well, so I made them this card to go along with it. I used this week's Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink: Creating Focal Point Sentiments with Stamps & Dies. I used my PTI modern alphabet uppercase dies to cut out "happiness" and then used the negative on my card, backed with some patterned paper.

I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (rustic cream), stamps (peace, love, joy), button, twine and dies (modern alphabet uppercase, love lives here). The patterned paper is all My Mind's Eye.


5. I also decided to use this same technique to create a layout, documenting our 12 hour road trip from Kinshasa to Kikwit.

I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (aqua mist), stamps (road trip) and dies (modern alphabet uppercase and numbers, double ended banner, tag sale #5). I also used Heidi Swapp and Simple Stories patterned paper and some Pink Paislee chipboard arrows.

Here's a close up of the title treatment & journaling:

I wanted a little bus embellishment but couldn't find any in my stash, so I decided to make one. I used my SU! scalloped border punch to cut out the bottom (and then trimmed out the middle one by hand), rounded the top corners and used a hole punch to punch out the windows. When I showed my layout to Sage, she said: "I love your game controller!" LOL! When she showed it to Austin this morning, though, he said he could tell it was a bus. :)

I love these chipboard arrows.... too bad only four of these kind came in the pack!

Well, our forecast is for a snowstorm this weekend, so I plan to stay warm and dry inside, preferably in my scrap area with my little heater cranked up to high.

Thanks for looking!

Congo Trip, part three -- Mungindu

Thanks for all of your kind comments on my Congo trip so far!

Today, I want to focus on the third place we visited, one that was new to me this trip—the health zone of Mungindu. The DR Congo is divided into health zones and Mungindu is located over 100 km away from Kikwit. Edgard has a seed association there, but hopes to partner with the health zone/hospital to create more associations, in the hopes of benefiting the area. If they can grow their own food and make money doing so, then the hope is that they can afford their medical care. (The sad thing is, if you can’t pay your bill, they hold you hostage in the hospital until someone (usually family members) come and pay it for you. There was a young girl there who’d given birth to a baby who’d died. Her husband abandoned her as a result and she’s been there for four months, because she can’t pay her $75US bill. If the hospital had a seed program, then they could at least send her out to work in the fields so that she could earn money to pay her bill.)

So, our trip to Mungindu took place on Sunday afternoon. And what was just over 100 km, took us four hours to complete! It was like driving in a sandy ditch all the way there. It was super bumpy and swervy and at least twice, we found ourselves airborne in the back of the truck! Thankfully, no one got hurt (although I had a very close call with one of the benches landing on the tip of my sandal-- just an inch away from my toes! Thankfully, God protected me from serious harm!)

When we arrived, the sun was setting and we were led to this huge old Belgium house with a large veranda that over looked this gorgeous valley. I could easily imagine the orginal owners completing the house and over looking this spectacular view and feeling like kings!

Mungindu held a few personal challenges for me (one of them being no running water, no toilet and an outhouse that consisted of a little hut with a hole in the ground and two two by fours on either side!) It also stormed pretty badly that night, so I was unable to go out and use the outhouse, but God helped me out (I was able to hold it until morning!) and He also kept us safe!

Then next day we toured the village, met with the hospital staff and got a tour of the medical facilities. Here are the photos I took:

This building was the maternity ward. It was hard not to be shocked by how primitive everything in the delivery room looked. I was just super happy that I wasn't suppose to be having a baby that day!

After our tour, we met up with Edgard, who was spending time with his association:

Because we had the long drive back and a meeting scheduled with Edgard later that afternoon, we left shortly before noon to drive home. This time, we carried an extra passenger:

They'd rigged a carrier for this chicken and attached him to the roof! I'm assuming he became someone's meal eventually and I forgot to inquire about how he faired on the ride home, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was deeply traumatized!

Thanks for looking!