Second Page of Paisley Challenge Layout

As promised, here is page 2 of the LO challenge from Splitcoast this week. Once again, I used the quotation marks from Tear Drop as paisley accents. To do the journalling card, I used my Stamp a ma Jig to line up the lines on my stamp. Even with an acrylic block, I couldn't get it perfect, since I couldn't see exactly where the lines were on the stamp. Took me a couple of tries with the Stamp a Ma Jig, but I think I have the hang of it now.

To me, the top of the LO looks a bit bare...I'm thinking it needs a flower or some kind of accent in the top left corner. Suggestions welcome.

This Week's Splitcoast LO Sketch Challenge

This week's scrapbooking sketch challenge on SCS was a 2-page LO using paisley. I went through all my chipboard stash, but no paisley....yikes! Then I got the bright idea to cut a paisley shape using one of my Cricut cartridges. Decided that the quotation marks looked kind of paisley-like. The one in the centre is cut from the George cartridge and the ones on either end are cut from Tear Drop. In both cases, I used the Shadow Blackout feature.



I'm still working on page #2, and will post as soon as I get it finished.

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Halloween Witch

It seems like every blog I go to lately there are Halloween cards/scrapbook LO's being featured, so I decided I might as well jump in and try one of my own. Since I liked the Cami's trifold sketch so much (see the card with the purple fish for another example), I decided I would use it again for my Halloween card.

I really wanted to use some black paper on this one, but couldn't decide whether to emboss it or stamp it with white craft ink, so I decided to try both. The spiderweb is embossed with Pewter embossing powder, while the sentiment is stamped with white craft. Can you tell the difference? Which one do you like best?

Background of card is the Little Pieces stamp set, stamped in Basic Black and Mellow Moss. Witch is from the Hey Ghoul Friend set, and is colored with a blender pen. Spiderweb is from a company that was going out of business....sorry I can't remember the name, but boy am I sorry I didn't buy more from her; the stamp quality is very, very good. Scallop frame and window are cut from the Mini Monograms Cricut cartridge once again. Boo!

You Brighten My Day

A friend and I got together recently to try some new techniques. I decided to combine one of the SCS sketch challenges with a challenge on a blog that asked for fall colors. This is what I came up with...I love the colors but am still debating whether to use a butterfly in the centre instead of the flower. Planning to try it as soon as I get a chance.

The patterned cardstock is from Pocket Full of Posies; plain CS is Stampin
Up Close to Cocoa, Always Artichoke and Apricot Appeal. Stamps are SU's Petal Prints and a set from Verve Visuals (the lettering and dots around the word window punch. I used the Rock n Roll technique to do the flower.

Great Card for a Guy

I was so excited when I got this new clear stamp set from My Favourite Things! In addition to the tv scene shown here, there are slippers, a golf club and tee, a bunch of sentiment stamps and more. In this example, I colored the picture using a blender pens and various shades of Earth Elements markers. I didn't have a ribbon that coordinated with this paper, so I cheated and used some word window punch cutouts that I found in my ScrapRack. I also found the pizza slice there, and thought it went perfect with the recliner and TV theme.

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If you are a blogger and would like to review a new glue stick, please click on the link to Maria's blog (to your right, under "Blogs I Like Best"). This offer is available to bloggers in the U.S. and Canada....you don't even have to pay for postage. I ordered my free sample today and got a really nice email to say it is on its way. Can't wait to try it out and post what I think.

Trifold Card, Cami Style

I bought this retired stamp set a week or so ago...it's called Toucan of My Love. Then, when I saw the challenge for the Trifold Card, Cami Style on Splitcoast, this stamp set just seemed to call out to me! (You can get a tutorial on how to make this card at SCS in the Tutorials section).

This technique called for using the slit punch to make the flap, and I don't own a slit punch, so I used an oval coluzzle template and just cut out a little less than half of it. Then, I was supposed to use punches or a coluzzle for the window and insert, but I didn't have either of those, so I figured out a way to do it with the Mini Monograms cartridge of my Cricut. And my patterned cardstock isn't two sided, so I improvised by stamping with the leaves from my Petal Prints stamp set onto the exposed white side of the card stock.

This is definitely a card I will be doing again. A lot of thinking went into substitutions for things I don't have, but I'm really happy with the result and love the look of the card.

My Baby is Three!

This week's scrapbooking sketch challenge on Splitcoast was a 2 page layout that I thought would be perfect for the pictures I took at Kelton's birthday party. I can't believe he's already three ~ my little man is growing up waaaay too fast! I'm also proud to say that his party was June 7, so I'm only a little over 2 months behind in my scrapbooking...I'm so proud of myself for being caught up! (Of course, we won't talke about the fact that I haven't even STARTED scrapping the other 8 kids except for a couple of events here and there~ bit of an overwhelming task to go back almost 27 years to their baby photos).



I'm thinking I might add some arrows to this LO to show the progression of the photos, starting from bottom left. What do you think ~ does it need arrows, or is it self-explanatory?



For this second page of the LO, I made my own BG paper, using 3 of the images from the Favourite Teddy Bear stamp set. I'm quite pleased the way it turned out. I got a bit lazy on my letting, though, and used the Kristen font on my computer to do the journalling and the title for the page. Note that one of Kelton's favourite books is the Stampin' Up catalog! How cute is that!

Happy Anniversary, Joe and Nancy

Our friends, Joe and Nancy, are celebrating their 23rd anniversary today ~ way to go! DH asked me to make them a card (and believe me, I am always thrilled when DH asks me to make anything), so I decided to combine it with a challenge someone had posted on Splicoast asking you to use a stamp you'd never used, then also combined it with a challenge on Jen's blog to make a square card using hearts.

After some thought, I decided on a trifold card...it folds into a square, so I think that counts, right?

What you see below is 2/3 of the inside of the card ~ just imagine another third on the right, with plain CS the same as the other sides, and you've got the whole picture.


Stamp sets used were "A Light Heart" and favourite greetings. I have no idea where I got the patterned paper with the hearts on it ~ sure wish I knew, as I really like it and would love to get more.

Teenagers

I received an email the other day inviting me to join an online crop at www.goscrapping.ca I've never done an online crop, before, and wow, was it intense! There was a new flash challenge each hour from 7-10pm, and AT THE SAME TIME, there were games going on, AND a series of week-long challenges! I was totally exhausted by the time I finished. I made cards for all of the flash challenges, and then decided to tackle some of the week-long challenges.

Here's one of my entries:


My scanner cut off some of my journaling. It reads, "Love how you two could look so serious and mature for the camera one minute, and be totally at odds with each other the next!"

I couldn't decide what lettering I wanted to use, so I looked in my ScrapRack section where I keep all my "oops" letters. (When I cut a letter with my Cricut that I decide not to use, I put repositionable Xyron on it, then stick it to a sheet of CS that I keep in the lettering section of my ScrapRack. I can't stand to waste anything.) Lucky for me, I found a combination of "oops" letters that worked really well for this LO. I'm pleased with the way it all came together.

Hot Summer Card

A fellow blogger had a challenge this past week ~ make a nautical or beach-themed card, use blue as one of the colors,and use flowers on the card. This is my contribution. I used my cuttlebug on Tempting Turquoise CD, colored the sandals from a Michaels dollar stamp with markers, used the sun and part of the greeting from the SU "Some Like it Hot" set, and punched out some flowers from the Little Pieces set with my 1/2" circle punch. Sandals were also heat embossed before coloring.

Zander's Birthday

Not only am I a mom to 9, the youngest of whom is only 3, I am also a grandma! My daughter, Briar, is mom to Zander, who turned one year old this week. His birth only missed DH's birthday by a few days, so now I have a hubby, a daughter, and a grandson all celebrating birthdays in the month of August.

I made Zander an A to Z scrapbook for his birthday, but naughty me didn't take photos of the pages before giving it to his mom. I'm hoping she'll let me have it back so I can post some photos...I used a common color scheme throughout but a different technique/idea on each page.

Anyway, here's the card I made for Zander. The truck and background BEEP is from the "By Land" SU set, lettering is an All Night Media alphabet set, star behind the lettering is a Michaels clear dollar stamp, sentiment is from "Favourite Teddy Bear' (SU), scalloped circle is cut with my Cricut Mini Monograms cartridge, and the greeting is on paper punched out using the Designer Label punch from Stampin Up.

Buddha's Gone

Not feeling much like stamping or scrapping. We had to put our dog, Buddha, out of his misery this week, as he had an incurable immune disorder. I am devastated.

Hey! I won a prize!

I'm so excited....the online crop I attended last week has won me a couple of prizes. Here's my winning entry in one of the categories. The challenge was to create two cards and 2 gift tags from one sheet of CS plus paper scraps. Here's my entry.
My prize is an album and some chipboard. I'll be stalking the mailbox until it arrives.

Here's a card I entered in yet another blog contest. The challenge was to do an animal theme, loosely based on a sketch provided on the blog. Sorry I can't remember whose blog it was....if you read this, please fill us in!

I didn't win, but I did have a lot of fun making this card. I embossed the black, and then filled in the color with an aqua painter. I'm pretty sure I got the cute dog stamp on clearance at Wal-Mart. It came packaged with the pawprint.

My Boys

My husband came up behind me when I was mulling over this scrapbook layout challenge from Splitcoast stampers. He immediately said, "I know the perfect thing for you to do with that ~ there are four photos on the centre strip, and we have four boys, so "My Boys" would be the perfect layout. Thanks, dear!

Here's what I came up with:





Lettering is from the Tear Drop and Mini Monograms cartridge from my trusty ol'cricut, and I used a green gel pen to bring out the edges of "My"...it seemed to fade into the background paper until I did that. Background paper is all from a Studio K Super K paper pack I picked up at Big Lots, Cricut frogs are from the Animal Kingdom cartridge, frog stickers are unknown, vellum quote is from a ColorBlok quote pack of baby boy quotes, go Dad is a SEI rub-on. I cut the paper with my Creative Memories wavy trimmer (not sure if that is what it's really called), and used my CM corner rounder on the photos, as well as the Stampin Up Square Steps corner punch on the photo of Kelton and Daddy.

Do you use rub-ons often? I always seem to have a terrible time getting them onto my LOs....think I'm going to give up soon. It probably took longer to do the rub on than the whole rest of the LO...yikes!

SU Catty CASE

A fellow blogger's site had a challenge to create a card based upon something in a catalog, so I designed this one based on the level 3 hostess set card sample on page 23 of the SU catalog. BG paper is tempting turquoise, I used the stamp sets Riveting, Small Sayings and You Make Me Happy, and some leftover PP I had sitting around in my ScrapRack. I think it's even prettier than the card I CASE'd!

And the winner of my first blog candy is....

My 16yo stepson is here for the weekend, so I wrote all the names on ballots and asked him to pick one for the magazine. The winner is............jodene!!! Jodene said she would like a tutorial on anything altered ~ watch for that coming up soon!

Congratulations ~ please email me at keltonsmom@gmail.com with your snail mail address and I'll get it right out to you! (This is a long weekend in Canada so it won't actually go anywhere until Tuesday, but I promise it will be sitting in the outgoing mailbox waiting for the mail lady to pick it up).

Loved having the contest, thanks everyone for participating, and I hope to incorporate some, if not all, your suggestions in the future.

Goscrapping.ca Online Crop Card Challenges

Well, here are the rest of the challenges for the goscrapping online crop that I participated in the other day. Normally, I like to think for awhile about what theme I want to use for a card, what papers, what embellishments, and so on. With these challenges you had just short of an hour to design and make a card using the guidelines that were given. It was "really" tough. For this first card, we had to use paper that we thought was ugly. Here's what I came up with:



This card had to have a monochromatic color scheme, and also the greeting had to be hidden. (Mine's in the pocket).



This card used a digital download from a specific site. Since DH's birthday is this week, I decided on this one:


And finally, the challenge here was to use a black and red theme, and some paper tearing:



All challenges were given a ballot for participation, then the grand winner got a Creating Keepsakes font CD. Sorry to say, I didn't win, but I did have fun. It was sure exhausting, though!

Are you all getting excited to find out the winner of the blog candy? Keep your fingers crossed, and stay tuned tomorrow for the winning announcement.