Friday, March 30, 2012

Fairy Castle---------

Wow, this is the project that is making me cry folks. I have 4 more pages to make and then it will be done, but sheesh at this rate I will throw the project away!  I learned already less is more, do not touch things while wet and stand to dry.  I have glued it to my desk, ripped things off with wet podge all over and of course over did the decorating on the front.

Its a birthday book for my niece, Kyla who is turning 4. I think she will not care about the torn paper or little "accidents". I love kids, they love things made for them and see past flaws! Can you please look past the flaws as well, I am learning as I go! Ok I am just delaying now, I will upload pictures and get it going.

I got a lot of help with the entire theme/colors of the book from CR84Fn color Challenge blog.------- As I post more pages you will see the entire book is amazing pink, orage and yellow! JUST SO NICE!

I also am entering my birthday book front page into the following challenges:

Corrosive Challenges----- : Things are looking grimm, they wanted fairy tale inspired creations and I socked them a castle...well part of it. The entire castle will take me months (because of all the complications I am getting into) so I cannot show the entire book all at once. What fairytale is even real if it does not have a castle?!
Cupcake craft challenge-----: The sound of music. ... .... REALLY? This is my favorite musical of all times, I cannot even read those words without busting into song and seeing the childern in the lonely goatherd play! Yeah, I watch this movie every time I am in my craft room and I am not afraid to admit it! I love the opening scene with Maria on the hills and the nuns singing about the problems she causes :)
Cupcake inspirations----: I loved the little mushroom house. OH I really loved it, I pulled the overall feeling into my little project. Made sure I had flowers and a little mushroom that looks right at home!
Crafty Card Makers------- Time theme...Once upon a time (the rest will show my niece growing up as a princess)
Papr Creation Ink------ things with wings
ColorQ----- Bright easter/spring Colors
Dancing In pajamas------- A few challenges over there running. You should head over for some very different challenges!
Jellypark Challenge------ weather in my area. Mostly warmish things are blooming and there is some rainy days, with a chance of paper peeling haha! I can hear the birds, the first sign that its getting nice in my area. The outside birds crank up my pair of budgies!
Meljens------ anything goes I love the fence posts and they can be used for a whole lot of ideas!




The following are all spring themed:
Daisy Doodles---------
Creative card crew-----
Stamping with the dragon------
Prairie Fairy-------





Thursday, March 29, 2012

A house is not-----

Ok, real life got in the way so this post never really happened till hours later. Here it is, and this is my new "Callie" scrapbook page. Do not worry, I still have dozens of photos to scrap so you will see more!

My layout inspiration is from Lasting Memories ---and is shown below. My main alteration is the size, this is 6x6 and the 2 photos I turned into 1. I feel like I really followed the sketch well, I love the cat paper clip I used inplace of the owl. I like owls, but kittys need to stick together!


Want to know something funny? My cat chewed on the edges of the vellum pieces a few weeks ago so they are kind of a bit bent and teeth marked.
I have entered into the following challenges as well.

SoS- circles or dots-----------
For fun Challenges- Buttons------
Inky Impressions- Flowers-----
Creative Card Crew- Spring------
7 kids challenge- spring colors----


Mom Tag----------

My moms birthday and Mothers day is very close so I usually start early with getting things together. This year for mothers day I am giving/making my mother a family tree. I think the owls on a branch attached to the tree will be really cute, it does not hurt that I love owls either!


I wanted it to stay smaller in size and simple, after all it will be going on a fully decorated tree. :)

Challenges I am entering into are as follows

Fantabulous- Animal from cricut, create a critter-----
Creative time blog------- Older cricut cart. Create a critter
Incy Wincy- Tag it!-------------
Pollycraft- Chocolate colors---------
Simon Says Stamps- tag--------
Paper Creations Ink- Things with wings-------
Do you stack up- stitching any kind-----
Crazy 4 Challenges- OWLS-------

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Naughty or Nice----

My current project is making me cry, its not coming out well my paper is tearing and the things are curling so I needed a break! A break from all the BILLION spring/easter challenges so I wanted something completly different! Christmas is always right around the corner so I can never have enough time to make them.  I LOVE the way this came out! It made me feel great and I think I know who I am sending it to.

Sketch was provided by Creative inspirations ----------I picked this one because it had 3 shapes, like in the challenge at Creative Belli Blog---------! Here is Creative Inspirations sketch



And here is my finished card. I used foam 1/8 inch strips from Martha Stewart because it seemed overall too flat.


The background is pink and purple but the colors do not show in the above photo all that well. Below is a photo of the papers I used. I LOVE the colors, its a bit different for christmas but still gives me the holiday feeling!
More to come!

ABC Christmas Challenge- Fuzzy/feather-----
Christmas Card Challenge- Pink, green, white and Purple------
The order of Opus----- Animals
Forever Friends- animal 3-d or deco--------
Pixie dust studio- My favorite things (KITTY! Pink and of course rhinestones!)----
The pixie cottage- Fuzzy critters----
Christmas Stamping ALL year long----- Anythig goes
Kaboodle Doodles------ Square and Circle


Friday, March 23, 2012

Please help me

I am hoping that the crafters of the world can help me figure out what the heck this fill in the blank tag wants!

Any tips or hints as to what it wants helps, I appreciate any input because its better than being lost. My family is puzzled and facbook friends are silent. Can you help? You can click to make it bigger.


Royal Proclamation------

Hi folks, the title says it all so please bare with me while I get things typed up. Lots of challenges and lots of love in this layout.

Lets start with the layout, its an easy place to begin after all! I came across Sketches in thyme blog challenge the other day and I adored the layout. My in laws finally got me a digital copy of these photos that were taken about 10 years back of our 9th grade Social. I decided I wanted to play with more kraft colors so I made the photo tone sepia to make it old timey, also went all out and printed a 8x11. The people in the photo are Justin (I call him hubby), in the white shirt and his best friend Peter-John in the dark jacket.  I am the nerd with the dress who was so nervous I could not even look at the camera long enough for a good photo. Yes, at one time my husband had two best friends whose names were cut short to PJ and CJ.

This recent Christmas Peter-John unexpectedly passed away so I thought it was important for my husband to like this layout as well. There was no funeral and my husband had no real way of saying any goodbyes and I really know that bothered him. I hope that this page helps bring closure, can pieces of paper do that? Normally I just scrap and do what I like and the husband says "good job, love the ...whatever you did there!" if anything at all. But this time I wanted him to be as big a part of it as he could be. SOOOO I picked up my blue tones, which are his favorite color (and our wedding if you care) and fiddled with the layout. He mentioned the other day that he loves when I add big photos into my layouts, something I did for our engagement pictures. Being a great listener and a loving wife I printed an image out in 8x11. We both pushed papers around till the layout was clear and everything was liked by him.

This morning I glued and pasted all things down, let me tell you be careful with those flourish designs. I had all things sticking everywhere and I actually had to use more than my hands to hold all pieces. When that flourish went down it was stuck, no second chances AT ALL, but it went right where he wanted it and I about cheered! I filled out the little life journaling card and let me tell you. I kid you not, I wrote our names 7 times on a scrap sheet of paper till I thought all letters lined up well and things look great. It took me about an hour to do this, then I wrote it on the Kraft tag forgetting everything I just practiced.  While I only have 1 tag and this was it I guess it works. Who needs evenly spaced anything anyway...its over rated!!


Can I please ask for the experienced women all over the world to help me?  Please click this link to another post in my blog, I need your help filling in the tag above. I have no idea how to do it, but I want it done before I place it away.

I have gone through blogs and listed below is the contest I am entering. I was informed that my paragraphs were hard to read and people were missing my links.  Sorry! I can list them too!

Layout - Sketches in Thyme--------- they currently are running 3 challenges
Plaid- Do You Stack Up----
My favorite things- Pixie Dust Studio------
Steampunk- Sarah Hurley challenges----
Circles and Ovals- Stamp n Doodle---  Can you tell that the plaid thing on the right is a circle?
Anything Goes- Crafty Purple Frog-----
Shabby/Chic Vintage- Bunny Zoe--------
Spring Clean- Crafty Calendar------ you have no idea how happy I am to use up that brown (PLAIN) ribbon. And I bought the blue flourish before I got married to use. Lost it...found it ;)
Gingham, tartan,plaid- Pollycraft----------
Get Krafty- Pink elephant------
TTT I used Lace, diecuts, ribbon, flowers, glitter, gems and "free"- Papertake weekly-----
Vintage- Creative card crew--------
Color inspiration- Party time Tuesdays----
I used all the bingo!- Simon says stamps---------
Anything Goes- Cute card Thurdsay (says they accept more than cards)------
Brown silver- Sketchy colors----------


Woa, thats a lot places. While I did read each and every post, each and every challenge rules page (if had) and side bar rules I may have missed something. Give me a test right now, I can pass it :)









Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Mod podge box-------

About 9 layers of mod podge is on this box lid, each one slightly wrinkled and unique to me :).

I am typing this up early and will post it early and then add pictures. It feels like I am watching paint dry...well not really in the in between time I have been picking up and organizing the house.  I kind of like projects that force you to take a 20 minute break for every 10 minutes of crafting. Really makes me.....oh who am I kidding DRY ALREADY, darn mod podge!
I used a CC stamp that is so cute, this little girls face is simply precious and she is carting around large flowers in her wheelbarrow. I am entering into Fussy and Fancy-- with the fairy image. I like the over all colors and the over all feel, I tried to go spring but not as bright as my last spring project. I will not get much work done if I want to sit in my craft room and look at my finished boxes. 



Not sure if one is better than another. 



The layout came from none other than Any one for Anya---  It works really well with my space and let me play with more paper space than I normally get too. Speaking of paper, I picked up most of the paper that is patterned at a "not named" craft store last year spring clearance. I loved it so much I bought 2 but now I have like 6 sheets of each page and I regret buying more just because it was at a good price. Some good does come from this, because the paper is a year old I can enter Tuesday Throwdown-- because they are asking us to use those stashed items up!  I am entering it into 7 kids college fund-- where anything goes, anything also goes with Creative Inspirations!-- It seems to be the "anything goes" week because Scrapbooking Queen--- is also hosting a challenge that is just that.  My pastel and spring colors used let me enter Digi Design studio ------, Truly madly crafty-----, Totally Gorjuss----  and Crafts and me!-------  Layering the papers and making the circle layered cut out lets me put my project into The paper shelters----- challenge.


Lots of links! Its amazing what you find when you see what you have made can be entered into. One time I entered into a challenge about 10 minutes before it closed. Nope did not win but that's not my point. I think its fun to be given direction and inspiration on projects. 

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

DIAPER CAKE! (and sleepy kitty)

No challenge just something I made for my sister. It took me a lot longer than I thought it would but all things are done! I made 1 card, cross stitched 4 bibs, plastic canvased 9 blocks and used exactly 150 size 1 diapers.  Then I added a few gifts, some bling and bows and sent it to live with my sister! I wanted the topper to be to the side so the doll can fit but as you can see by the silver ribbon it slipped too far over and this was the only photo!



Below shows the size.  My sister is in pink and I am in the green shirt not wanting to leave my creation alone :) 

See, my kitty!?!  She just sleeps where she has just played--fell asleep scratching. I thought cats were to be lazy but this one runs around plays with everything and anything!  I cannot wait to scrapbook this photo!

Duo challenge---------

There was a new kind of challenge in town and I took it on. 

Scrap fit has asked me to list things. They did not care, they wanted numbers listing something so I did a layout of my kitties favorite toys.  She can always be seen with one (or all!).  On the right side I listed them, I wanted to do a

1. playing kitty
2. playing kitty
3. playing kitty
        floor

and show images of her playing and then crashing to sleep as she usually does but I was not sure if that kind of numbering would be accepted. I played safe. I can always use that wording on many more pages. Lord knows I have photos of my cat playing and sleeping!

The layout was a goodie to be altered a bit to work with my size. I did my best to fit it to a 6x6 layout and I hope that does not disqualify me. I used the layouts inner most design and pushed it up a bit. Please (blog readers if there is anyone) let me know if you think I have pushed too far. I can still see the original design but maybe thats only me.

                                                     see below The Paper Variety sketch.






An upclose of the two pages apart.   Wish me luck, I loved making them so thats cool:)



Be inspired------------

OHHHH boy, this one has been a long time coming! Loads and loads of mod podge to coat each layer and make it shine and sparkle.  Below was my "be inspired" image and below that are the colors I was inspired to use! Do not look at me like that, I am able to kick the colors up to be brighter, I was inspired to do so!

This is a shot of the exact papers used. Notice how the lighting changes the shades so much compaired to the photos below!

The alley way stamps has challenged us to use the first image to come up with what ever moves us. I am moving all my things into better storage so I was moved to decorate a box. I am very happy with the outcome. It took days of drying and days of me scared my mod podge would get a kitty hair or paw but it turned out ok. Only my hair and my fingerprints :) Ah! I love the way it turned out! I used The alley way freebie (or else they could not reach me in time for me to join this one) of ladybugs. I printed out a few in different sizes and placed them right where I wanted them.  I have a mom up top and then two kids below playing. The mom is watching her little ones like a good mommy.

The shot below has less glare

If your curious I will decorate the entire box in spring theme and this box will hold stamps.  Why? Because I need stamp storage bad right now!

Monday, March 19, 2012

Just being myself------

Not too much to say about this ATC. In fact after 2 posts already in the past hour and me being emotional from talking about my dog it seems I am out of words! 

This is for the challenge over at Wicked Wednesday ATCs and at Incy Wincy Designs and the theme is things that fly.  I loved this fairy and had sooooo much fun coloring her in. Added a few other things to surround the picture and called her done. Mind you it was not that fast to make, it took me hours HAHA!

Reich----------

Last year in July I moved, got married and started a huge part of my life. Sadly I had to leave my German Shepherd dog that I have raised for the past 10 years behind.  He is not missing out on a lot as my mother and father loves, spoils and treats him like a king, but I am missing him so much!  At first I missed Reich so much I could not function, then over time it was a heart ache that never went away.  I love that dog of mine and the challenge that Lasting Memories has issued gave me a chance to express that.  (crying so hard right now).  I think when you leave a pet behind and visit often it keeps the pain of "loosing" them fresh. Each time I visit Reich I see him and want to take him home and have that heart break all over. This gave me the inspiration to journal page. 

ok, sniffle, lets get to the page I made.  I did not use the layout as I really really wanted to showcase a lot of the photos that I have taken over the past 10 years--My favorites.   Some of the photos are 10 years old so they show wear, but that is wear of love LOL



  A close up of some of the page.  SORRY its on my floor but my desk is disgusting and completly covered with another project.




I skipped a page in my journal and missed the other links required to join 2 more challenges.  Delightful Challenges asked for someone special.  I gave them the most special someone to me right now (Errmmmm except for my husband, daddy, mummy, sister....oh ok you get it some"thing"!)

And anything goes over at the poodles parlour and as I would love a chance to win a few digi garden stamps I am so entering my page!

Why does a caged bird sing?-----

I made this little ATC for a trade. Only thing I wish I could change is the bright red holtz pad I used.  I thought it would give it a similar color as the background but it did not at all!  While Its not my favorite color it makes my ATC special :) And something that is known by all around me is no matter how hard I try I never get anything straight.

I used a old card I had gotten and clipped it all up.  It was on my desk for half a year and bought from a store so I thought I got my enjoyment out of it and I hope the new owner does too. 


I have decided to enter it into a challenge over at Wicked Widnesday ATC weekly. This week (or last I should say) was flying things. Of course I do birds, love them, have them want them :)

I also hope my card is not too subpar to be entered into ATCs & Cards with attitudes challenge, Its the steampunk/ anything goes style. Man some of those ladies know how to work their crafts though, look at their entries!

Friday, March 16, 2012

Stuffed with love----

I am sorry, you guys (who ever is out there looking at my blog) must hate seeing all my projects of my cats scrapbook.  I gotta say a few things though, 1. I love my cat and 2 its my main project right now. HOWEVER I am going to be making 6 altered boxes in the next few days so be prepared to see a lot of those :). Also working on a diaper cake, cake toppers and scrapbook covers. More diversity to come :D

My Callie kitty is going in a few challenges, 2 that I did not expect! Its so amazing what you can find out there when you check your favorites right before you post a project.  Just so you know I had this layout/design planned since the 14th. I invited my nephew to spend a few nights and I did not get diddly done and just now getting to it!  He actually helped me print out the flowers and pick the cricut flowers off the mat so yes, I did get something done I guess.

First below will be the layout challenge.  I love when I can find a layout because then I do not push papers around all day. I can see the layout design, but I wanted it to appear that Callie was sitting in the green grass so by "top" part is a bit high.  Stella told me to do on this project and I hope Stella approves! The taller flowers in the back are a 1$ digi from bugaboo, please get them, they are great! The best part is I can have a bunch of flowers that are tall or trim them and put them in the field!!

SSS 106
 


At Totally stampalicious their challenge was a bunch of flowers, because I wanted my kitty to sit in flowers and grass I can enter this one too!

I used up the last of my polka dot paper that you see matting my kitty. It was well used as it matches well, but oh I love the paper and I will miss it! I will enter into Cup Cake craft challenges so at least I can tell my paper that it was used for the greater good.

My nephew and I cut out the tiny flowers from Create a critter in my cricut to kind of follow the 3 dots in the bugaboo challenge better.  It also works well with Paper play time blog, please check them out! I really am looking forward to each post this place puts up. I know this will be one of my FAVORITES in no time!

I also, last second discovered that I can enter into my favorite digi site Meljens (they have GREAT sentiments. I use them and want them all!) because of my butterfly that me and the nephew picked out. I thought it would take the place of a bow well and stick with the garden theme that I had---its stinking lovely. I will show a photo below as well! Please check Meljens out, they are fun to color and so easy on the eyes.  They work well with kids too, I know some of the digis out there can get a bit risky.





Thank you for looking and keeping in mind that I love my kitty!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

My state scrap page--------------

I have been collecting pictures that I have been taking of my state Pennsylvania for some time.  I only have a few good shots but I keep most that I take.  In the scrap page I did today I displayed the favorites I took of 2011.  1 was done outside my home others are taken while I was on trips. 

I will be entering this into multiple challenges.  The first two being for color The ABC challenge and The spotted chick I will not tell a lie, I never would have used my kraft papers if not for finding these challenges.  I hate (well used to) the kraft look and was actually considering tossing what I owned.  Now that I used them I am eager to use more of the color, its fun to work with!

I am also entering it into Crafts and me challenge, AND for fun challenges they both challenged the world to use circles and that is exactly what I did! I love the overall look of the circles with the kraft. It was fun to play with and my scrapbook colors were happy to be used.  I went ahead and plain free handed my journaling letting in little mistakes. The look of the page, I think, allows me to have that harsh black journaling that other pages sometimes do not allow.  (PS this is only the 3 rd page of my life that I have HANDWRITTEN the journaling. I hate my hand writing)




This is a worse photo, but a better photo of my photos :) I am unable to refind a link online of this scrapbook layout I used.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Incy Wincy Challenge-----------




Holy snaps this was harder than I thought!  I used this challenge paired with Meljens challenge and I think the results really impress me.  Sure simple things get me all the time but for real, I am happy with the projects that I make (90% of the time) Here you had to "tic tack toe" a row of three. it sounds easy but some items I just do not own.  I did my best and used all but the odd (whats odd shaped these days?) gems, heat embossing and charm. 


Callie loves to cuddle with anyone in sight, it makes for a great picture and a great kitty!

Here is a shot of just the new right side I made. Both this post and last post are made to go together I just had to stop and eat in between sides.


Hop over to incy wincy and add your project, there are SO MANY cute ones to make you feel that yours are subpar :D

Meljens Layout challenge---------

This is going to be a close call! I usually have them entered one or two days after the challenge is issued but I have been off my ball recently.  I am entering into Meljens Weekly challenge. Click here and you can be taken to it! As soon as I seen it I knew I would be able to use a Callie scrapbook page for this challenge.  I bought the lower right "friendship recipe" digi stamp for.....1 dollar and will never regret it! I adore this stamp for so many uses, it will be used in this scrapbook and many more. Its great, I love it!



Here is my scrapbook page. As always colors are a bit off.  Silly nikon, too smart for me to understand how to use it correctly! The image is my husband playing a game on the computer with his handy lap kitty snuggled in the crook of his arm.  I will not tell how much this was a mixed event. Husband loved the cat on his lap, hated the impaired movement.


And yes, all my projects are Callie approved! She hardly opened her eye to give me alook at what I was doing.


Monday, March 12, 2012

Color challenge---------

WOW EAD designs your colors turned into my nightmare as I went through my photos, stash and layout abilities.

If you click here you can see the challenge yourself.  Do not think at first sight it will be super easy, I made my best item and no matter how much I fiddle with it I am not happy with it!


Colors are a bit more neon than they are in real life.  I have chicken cooking for dinner so I need to go, I will be back to chat more though!

Lucky 13--------

I had a hard time figuring out what to do with a 10 year old photo of my husband and me as kids.  I stumbled across Lasting memories blog challenge and it kind of kick started my motor.  Lucky was the theme and us being 13 it seemed to fit perfectly! My husbands favorite number is 13, just a little on topic unneeded to know info. 

I pulled the colors of my page from the photo. That lime green, blue and grey seemed to really want to be used from my stash and it compliments the photo well.  I met Justin, my husband, when I was 12 years old I have known him half my life and I only have 2 scrapbooks completed. I will change that!



I am not sure if you click that to make it bigger if you can read the journaling.  It pretty much says that I was lucky that Justins grandmother took this photo at a reunion in 2001, its one of the only photos I have of fresh teen years.  I comment on the changes that we went through, especially the whole marriage thing :).  Anyway I am entering it into the "lucky" challenge. Wish me *luck*

Monday, March 5, 2012

Just a girl and her cat---------

Hi! Here is my layout entry over at the blog of some odd girl.  As you guys can see I am knocking out the challenges with the kitty scrapbook pages.  They help me quite a lot by giving me starting grounds on what to do. Without the challenge of color, design or materials I would just stare at the papers all day and wonder how to put them together.  




That was the best I could get of both pages together.  If it was not the glitter alphabet stickers looking odd it was everything else.  Now accepting applications for photographers! Ability to remove my blush is prefered!


It reads "Just a girl and her cat"


Reads "An ODD girl and her ODD cat"

The photos are too funny! Normally I do not develop the bad shots but these two are too good to pass up.  On the left one Callie is yawing nice and huge and I was about ready to say "really"  The right photo we both have this "duh" look on our faces, both our eyes really speak the ODD language!


Very happy with the way it turned out, I am, me the better part of the day it took!  To go watch tv and let my back pain go away I now get!  Yes, hmmm.

Other scrapbook kitty pages

I am working on another challenge and I needed a break so I decided to post a blog. Time to push away rules and tape and pull up some water and type!   Not a huge break, I really want to get this done before dinner but still a break. The pages I am scrapbooking are in no particular order, I just do them as I want the page done.  So you may see "early" Callie in one photo but the next layout there be "older" Callie.  Sorry, they are in order in my scrapbook :)



The book is only 6x6 so the pictures are main here.  These are the first two pages. The left page states "This is my kitty cat Callie" with the first photo we ever took of her.  We adopted her about 6 months old from our local shelter.  The best "donation" ( as they like to call it)  I ever gave.  On the right page she was trying out a new kitty hide toy moments later.  It states "Welcome Home________"  When my letter stamps come in it will say 11-29-11



The page layout here shows Callie playing with her basket.  Before she claimed it the basket held my out going mail. One day I come home and mails gone but she is in it. I tell her "no" but the next day was the same thing.  I am a smart girl, I picked my battles and I found a new outgoing mail storage system.  Besides this basket fits her and her blanket she claimed perfectly. 


New ones coming today! I just really need the letter stamps!