April Stack-A-Holic Challenge

It’s April and it’s also time for the Scrap-A-Holic Challenge from DCWV.  I realize it looks as though I’m only working on these challenges now, but they are my kick-start.  I’m also working on something very special which I will show to you soon – just not today.

As you may know from previous posts, I am a year behind on my scrapbooking.  For the April challenge, I have scrapbooked my mother’s birthday from a year ago, yesterday.  I’m hoping her birthday this year will get scrapped sooner! 

I used the Scripts and Music Notes paper stack from DCWV as the background.  I love this paper!  It’s so dreamy and soft and feminine.  Perfect for my mother’s birthday. 

I also used my Creative Memories Border Punch system to create a notebook effect on the side of the page and my Suburbia Cricut cartridge to make the tea cup and lettering.  When I think of mom, I think of tea.  That’s her go-to drink.  She used to take it with one sweet-n-low but now she’s switched to a teaspoon of sugar, and milk.  I propped the teacup on foam squares to give the page dimension, although you can’t see it here.  I also gave it a little bling with some glitter glue.  I love that stuff!

Did you see my flowers?  I used the leftovers from cutting my border and made them into stems and leaves!  So cute and a great way to use scraps! (Scraps? Scrapbooking?  It's a win!)

I have an extra pad of the DCWV Scripts and Music Notes paper that I will be giving away in the future.  Please follow my blog so you’ll know when that will be happening.

DCWV January Stack-a-holic Challenge

   First, this is not the project I was going to try to get to today.  The first project I wanted to do was to sand and paint this great bird feeder we have - except I can't find the sand paper and my boyfriend has the flu, so I am out of luck on that one til I get to the store or he gets better.

   I've been wanting to get to the DCWV challenge so this evening seemed like the best time.  Although I'm not sure if I will be asked to drive said boyfriend to the ER.  He should have gone earlier but he thought he'd be ok.  He's got a temp of 101.2.  And he's a man.  And he's sick.  So I'm basically living with an oversized child right now.  I just hope he feels better soon.

   Anyhoo, I got down to business and took the card challenge.  Here is the challenge drawing:

   Here is my interpretation:

   I used plain cardstock, patterned paper (Switchboard)  from Pinkpaislee, burlap paper from DCWV, and dimensional hearts by Pebbles.
   
   The notebook border was made by using my Creative Memories border maker and the tag was made with the Creative Memories Shape Maker Circle Tag.  I used my Fiskars 3-in-1 Tag Maker that I won several months ago.  I do love that little piece of equipment!  Actually, I love everything I have or I wouldn't have it!

   We just received Christmas gifts from my bf's sister this past week and I thought this would be a great opportunity to tell her thank you!  I will be writing her a personal note and then sending this out and I hope she likes it as much as I do!

A Trip to the Studio

A while back I took a beginner’s pottery class.  I did a semester in pottery in high school but my area, although filled with artsy fartsy folks, doesn’t offer “real” pottery classes.  Not often anyway.  That said, the reason I told you about the class is because the instructor found out that I was a scrap booker, sometimes card maker, painter and paper crafter and I referenced my spare room as a “craft room”.  He told me that it was my studio.  Any artist’s room where they create is a studio. 

I have a hard time calling it that.  It’s just a room in my house and I’m an amateur at best.  I don’t ever see myself painting anything as beautiful as Monet did, where people just want to gaze upon my work.  Sometimes though, I like the idea of it and I may make a sign that says just that.  STUDIO.  Big caps that will force me to open my eyes and realize I can create – anything.

So, the other night I went upstairs to the studio and took out the kid’s school days books to add their school photos we received last week.  While doing that I found last year’s photos too, so I made pages for those too.  I took a photo of Hannah’s because I thought hers came out really well. 

 

 

I used the Mariposa stack from DCWV and did a little layering.  I used my border punch from Creative Memories and added a picket fence.  I like the idea of her still being behind a fence, being protected just a little bit longer.  The world is going to invite her out to play soon, and then there’s no going back.  <sigh>  It’s already happening.  This was last year’s pic.  I cut a butterfly from one of the accent pages in the stack and layered that on with a couple of those thick stacker squares.  She just looks like she needed that on her page.

I was really happy how this turned out.  It’s an 8-1/2” x 11” layout which I don’t use very often.  I’m considering a title for the page but I wanted to get it in the album so she could see it.  It’ll get done soon enough.  I’m just glad I did it.

 

 

Toilet Paper Roll Album

             Last year at a scrapbook event I met a woman who was carrying toilet paper rolls in her stash of paper.  She talked of a toilet paper roll album that she had started making and had even been handing out as gifts.  I was intrigued, but did nothing.  I kept thinking about it, but since we use the roll-less TP, I was pretty much up the creek in the supplies department.

Fast forward to September 2014 – the local supply store has stopped carrying the roll-less TP and we have to buy the regular kind.  Finally, I can begin!  I knew immediately what paper I was going to use.  I had the Tim Holtz Lost and Found stack and had been dying to use it.  Then I started cruising YouTube to find a tutorial, and boy did I find one!  Check out My Sisters Scrapper – she has a ton of great tutorials and the ones I watched are really easy to follow! 

http://youtu.be/-8vndiRxuWk?list=UUuSLCMH4NBu0wUKEzD6Jw3w

She lists all the supplies you’ll need, plus dimensions, and it was like taking a class in my craft room. 

I didn’t do any embellishing – it’s not my strong point, plus I’m afraid to store anything that has stuff all over it.  There should be a class out there – “Don’t Fear the Embellie!”  Also, I will try to find better magnets.  The ones I picked up don’t seem strong enough when placed under paper.  I might need to use thinner paper though instead of cardstock. 

I love the product I ended up with.  Several of my friends have said it looks like something one would find in a gift shop.  I know I’m going to make several more and pass them on as gifts this Christmas.  I just feel really good about how well it turned out and wanted to share.

Tools I used:

Fiskars trimmer
Creative Memories trimmer
Fiskars tag punch
Creative Memories round tag

Fiskateers WCMD Challenge

As you may know, several weeks ago we crafters celebrated World Card Making Day.  Some of us celebrated by drinking our coffee and moving on with the day.  Others thought about crafting but went shopping instead and bought new supplies.  Others trolled Facebook and were rewarded by the Fiskateers wanting to do several challenges for the day.

The first challenge was to do a Halloween card.  As it was the beginning of October I thought this was a great idea!  Plus, I have never made a Halloween card.  I actually don’t make a lot of cards and those I do make, well, I’m a little embarrassed to send.  But this challenge pulled together a lot of colors that I like – mainly orange (the official Fiskars color), and anything bright or dark or spooky!  I love anything on black so I made this cute little card.  I used the Fiskars gingerbread man punch for the ghosts and just cut off one of the legs.

The second challenge was to create a card with a flower embellishment on it.  I used my border punch system by Creative Memories, using the notebook cartridge with some pretty patterned pink cardstock.  Once punched, I scored it using my Martha Stewart scoring board and hot glued the sucker together into a rosette.  This was after several tries of creating a ripped piece of cardstock twisted into a beautiful rose, and crumpled circles of paper manipulated to look like morning glories.  Didn’t work.  So I made the rosette.  I like it!  I ripped apart a tiny silk flower and popped an enamel dot on top and I think it looks cute!

The last card of the challenge was a thank you card.  At this point I didn’t know what I was going to do.  You can tell, because this card is by far the least worked upon.  To be truthful, I did the Halloween card the first day and then the other two I had worked in a couple of days after.  It was an extremely tough weekend and I had a hard time getting to my room to work.  You know how it is!  As I was part of the initial cheer heard on the Fiskateer FB page regarding these challenges, I persevered.  I wanted something a little more formal and I pulled out this paper pad I had purchased previously.  Now smile – that sounded cool!  I love the blues and browns in this pack and I especially loved the blue patterned paper that I grabbed.  The paper is by Colorbok, by the way.  I used my cricut to cut out “merci” and then I placed everything together with some ribbon to embellish, colored my merci with glitter glue, and voila!  The card is finished!  I ended up having to tack town the ribbon with hot glue, smudged my lettering and had to re-do the glitter as best as I could.  I don’t think it’s too bad…

After the weekend was over I was contacted by Fiskateers to let me know that my Halloween card was chosen (at random) as a winner!  There were so many other cards that were great, but this little card I do love!  I have no idea who I am going to send it to though!  I received my prize yesterday, after a fifteen hour day of work, appointments and meetings.  I have yet to play with it but I am thoroughly excited to get my hands on it and go.

Thank you Fiskateers!  It was truly a wonderful experience getting together with other Fiskateers for a day to challenge ourselves and encourage each other in our crafting and especially card making.  It’s been a long time since we’ve done this and I’m really glad I got to be a part of it.  It also made me want to kick-start this blog, so thank you!