Monday, October 25, 2010

Project 365 Week 10

Kind of a crazy week here, it definitely didn't end as planned. I totally forgot to take a photo on Thursday, so I included two from our trip to the zoo on Wednesday.

10/18 The end of laundry day, time to put it all away!


10/19 Addy peeking from behind a tree, this was part if my attempt to get a two year picture of her.


10/20 The girls comparing their wingspans to those of Minnesota birds.


10/20 The girls and a friend checking out the baby dolphin and her mom. This was the first week the baby has been on display and only the second day so we had to stay back from the glass.


10/22 Addy's second birthday. We had pizza and cupcakes for dinner, here Addy is blowing out the candle on her cupcake.


10/23 Addy's Dora cake after I had finished decorating it.


10/24 This is where a photo of Addy's birthday party would've been, but we had a sick Daddy in the house so the party was postponed and we hung around at home and tried to stay away from the germs! It was an overcast day that really makes the remaining yellow leaves on the trees look vibrant.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Santa's Little Helper

I got one layout done this week and it was for the Blade Masters Challenge at Challenge Masters. The challenge for this month was to stamp two images and cut them out. I did the two ornaments on the layout. I also used a technique I learned at Scrapfest to stamp them. The technique was to use a marker to color the image (although an inkpad would work too, it is easier to get the two tone effect as on the top ornament with markers), then spray it once or twice with a clear glimmer spray (I used Iridescent Gold Glimmer Mist) to give the stamped image some shimmer. It is hard to see in the photo, but it is pretty in person. This paper had the tree cut out of the bottom corner so I backed it with patterned paper and used brads as ornaments.


I used the scraps from the above layout to make a birthday card for a friend's daughter who turned 1 this past Thursday. I also used some scraps of tulle (from making Ellie's tutu for her ballerina costume) for the wings.


Well, that's probably one of the last layouts you will see from me for a while. I am in the process of preparing photos to print for 3 calendars I am making as Christmas gifts and I won't be sharing those until after they have been given!

Project 365 Week 9

Here are my photos for the past week. I missed one day, but I am enjoying documenting more of our lives.
10/11 I made these for the buffet table for MOPS so that we could label our dishes. A fun, quick little project!


10/12 One of the photos I took of Will during our 3-month photo session. I wasn't totally satisfied with the photos I ended up with, so we may have another this week...


10/13 I wanted to see if this bee costume fit Will and so Ellie wanted to try on her costume too.


10/14 Leaves on the lawn


10/14 The girls laying in the leaves


10/16 Metro Game Day IV at our house- John and Rick playing a game while Will "helps" out


10/17 Ellie and Will snuggling

Monday, October 11, 2010

Project 365 Week 8

Here are my photos from the last week, we had lots of "adventures"!

10/4 Will looking up into the trees in our backyard

10/5 Ellie with her rose craft at Toddler Tuesday

10/6 Addy's mouth, the night before we went for a walk to enjoy the beautiful weather. We got about 3 houses away when Addy was running and fell flat on her face. We didn't notice until the next day that she had chipped her teeth (there was a lot of blood and swelling at the time of the fall.)

10/7 Rick and Will on the couch smiling at each other

10/8 Ellie at ECFE

10/9 Addy eating a freshly picked apple at the orchard

10/10 Will straining to see the TV, this kid loves the TV!

Project Scrapbook Finale

Last week was the final week of Project Scrapbook. Our final challenge was called, "Almost Perfect, But Not Quite". Here was the challenge:

This week's challenge is to work with the "oops"'s we all face in scrapbooking. Get out the bent, broken, creates and nearly destroyed items in your collection.

Suggestion: if you are fortunate enough to have perfect pieces... why not hand them over to your child/grandchild/neighbor kid and let them go nuts ripping/crinkling ect and see what you get back.

8 x 8 - 10 points
8.5 x 11 - 15 points
12 x 12 - 20 points
12 x 12 Double Layout - 40 points
*remember for double layouts pick 1 page to count embellishment points
Title - 10 points
Pictures - 10 points per picture
Embellishments/stickers - 5 points per
*Title stickers count as 5 points
Journaling
50 words or less - 25 points
50+ words or more - 35 points

"Make it Work" Bonus - 100 points
Use 1 of each type of "broken item":
Embellishment
Picture
Paper (patterned or cardstock)


I didn't have much for destroyed products so I printed the photos and and chose the patterned paper and gave it to my girls for a few days. The paper came back to me with a few scribbles and the pictures still looked fine. They still fit the bill since they were all of Addy in and "imperfect" state and the one on the right I blew up quite a bit so it is a little grainy. The butterfly had lost one of its wings, so I glued that back on. Here is my result:

And my points:
12x12= 20 points
Title= 10 points
Pictures x 3= 30 points
Embellishments x 19= 95 points
Journaling= 25 points
"Make It Work" (patterned paper was scribbled on by DD, all the pictures are "imperfect," but the one on the right is kind of grainy because I blew it up, and the butterfly had lost a wing so I glued it back together.) 100 points

Total= 280 points

I also got the "Go Green" Challenge at Challenge Masters done for this month. The challenge was to make a project from scraps. I'd had the scraps from my Manufacturer Challenge layout laying on my desk waiting to be made into a card and yesterday I got the chance. I actually ended up making a second since I had enough of everything (except the ribbon, which is completely gone!). I also used this week's sketch from "So Sketchy":


Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Chronicles of a Flower Girl

I have gotten two layouts done in the last 2 days! Hooray for scrap time!

The first was for the "Scrap That Tune" challenge at Challenge Masters. The challenge this month was to scrap the "Birthday Song" and use the whole song. I have photos from a couple of birthday parties sitting in my stack waiting to be scrapped, but decided to use this challenge to do a pocket page with Rick birthday cards from last year. As I was going through his cards, I found the one on the left side of the page that had most of the words on it! So I used some cardstock and patterned paper across the bottom of the page and used adhesive on 3 sides to make it a pocket. Then I took the card on the left and ran a line of adhesive across the bottom on the inside to make that a pocket as well. I used my Cricut and some stamps to add the rest of the words and voila, it's done!


The next challenge was the Manufacturer challenge. This month we had to use 4 of the following manufacturers: My Minds Eye, Die Cut With a View, Cosmo Cricket, Prima, Kaiser Crafts, Heidi Swapp, Jenni Bowlin. While I have products by all of these companies except Jenni Bowlin, it is mostly bits and pieces so I had to seek out some products that would work together. I used patterned paper by Die Cuts With a View and Cosmo Cricket, flowers by Prima, and a iron on by Heidi Swapp (the word "Favorite"). The sketch for this layout is based on a layout from Scrapbooks Etc. from a couple of years ago. I have used the sketch before for another layout, but it was fun to see how it worked with different photos and products.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Wedding Fun and Birthday Cards

Here are the projects I completed this week.

The first is a layout I did for the challenge at "Scrap Your Crap." The goal of their challenges is to get you to use what you have. The current challenge is to use products from at least 10 manufacturers on a project. This was actually really simple. Here is my list:
Cardstock- Bazzill
Patterned Paper- Die Cuts With a View, Target
Border Strip- Making Memories
Border Punch- Martha Stewart Crafts
Vellum- The Paper Company
Stamp- Autumn Leaves
Ink- Tsukineko
Embossing Powder- Joann Craft Essentials
Flowers- Imaginisce
Pen- Zig, Uniball Signo, American Crafts
Buttons- Oriental Trading
Foam Stamps- Lil Davis Designs, Pebbles
Paint- M. Graham and Co.
Ribbon- Morex
Die Cuts- K and Company
Glitter Glue- Ranger
Brad- American Crafts

The sketch that I used for the layout is from page 35 of the July/ August issue of Creating Keepsakes.

After I completed the layout, I made this card with the scraps:

I made this tag for the September Tag Challenge at Challenge Masters. The challenge was to use dry embossing somewhere on the tag. I don't have an embossing machine, but I did have a sample of Core dinations cardstock that was pre-embossed, so I used that. I put the tag on a baby gift.

Finally, here is the birthday card I made for my 11-year-old nephew's birthday. I was feeling a bit at a loss for what to do that would be "mature" enough when I came by this post on another blog. Suddenly, I felt inspired and made this card. I played a little with some Grungeboard and distressing.

My daughters wanted in on the card making action so they made cards as well. Ellie's (3 1/2) is on the left and Addy's (almost 2) is on the right.

Project 365 Week 7

Here are my photos for the week, I will be posting some projects later today.
9/27 Will smiling at the ducks on his stroller

9/28 Addy at the playground

9/29 Leaves at Lebanon Hills County Park

9/30 Ellie building with Legos

10/1 Will laying on his side

10/2 Baby shower Bingo

10/3 Will trying out the exersaucer for the first time

Friday, October 1, 2010

Published Again!




I have another layout featured in Scrapbooking.com's e-zine. This time it is a Halloween layout with pictures of Addy from last year. You can find it here.