More spring goodness

It's -5 degrees celcius here today. BBBRRRRRR! It'll be hats and mitts for the kiddos for a little while longer I'm afraid. In hopes of bringing the warmer weather back, I'm posting another spring page I did a couple of weeks ago. The photos were taken while we were having milder days, and the kids got to pull out the tricycles for the first time this year. Parker for the first time ever.

I used a Crafter's Workshop template and different colours of Glimmer Mist to add some starburst shapes to the background. I used another template to cut the shaped paper. 

Materials used: 

Cardstock : Bazzill Basics Paper

pp: Bella Blvd, MME ( I'll have to double check this)

Stamps: Gel-a-Tins

Ink: Stazon

Letters: Sassafras, Pink Paislee

Glimmer mist

Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch

Gems: Dollarama

Make it new again.

This week's challenge at Practical scrappers is to use stuff that's been in your stash for over a year. Sure it might be easy if you grab those buttons or sheet of patterned paper you've never gotten around to using, but the real fun comes when you dig a bit deeper and pull out something really old, or really dated! Try putting a fresh spin on old products, so that your resulting page doesn't end up looking more than a year old too :)

I pulled out a rub-on title by MME that I've easily had for 2 years if not more. That led me to some much older paper by Autumn Leaves and Reminisce. Another product that I have lots of and have problems using are those arrows by Scenic route- and I got 3 on 1 page!!

 

Good thing I actually managed to snap a couple of pictures of the kids in their St Patrick's Day shirts, or I would  never have found a use for a lot of this stuff!

Other materials used:

Felt- Fancy Pants

Chipboard- American Crafts

Gems- Doodlebug Design Inc.,Kaiser Craft

Journaling spot- Scenic Route

googley eyes- Dollarama

Shamrocks- Bazzill Swiss Dot Cardstock cut with Cricut( Child's Year Cartridge)

I forgot about the cards!

oops, I did mention that I would post the cards I made for the Jillibean DT call.  Here they are! The bunny pulls out of the basket, and can be placed half out or just  his ears peeking out. For the sunflower, I used 2 different sized scallop punches for the yellow, trimmed between each scallop then folded each petal.

 I don't know what the weather is like where you are, but we got snow yesterday, and there are still traces of it left on the ground- yuck. I'm ready for some sunshine!

The Jillibean Dream...

The new Jillibean Soup team has been announced, and there are some very talented ladies on there! Unfortunately, I am not among them. I must say I'm really happy I tried out for the team, it made me work with products I love but had forgotten about for a few months- and guess what stuff got thrown into my shopping basket last night at the Scrapbook store?!- Yep-Jillibean Soup.

So hurray to fellow Canadian Melanie Blackburn for making it on the team- it is so well deserved!! Congratulations to all the other talented ladies who also made the team and guest DT.

Here are the pages I submitted for the call:

published in Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine, Spring 2011, p57.

I'll come back and post the cards tomorrow.
Have a great Friday!

The Waiting Game

It seems all I'm doing these days is waiting with anticipation for things. Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying each day for what it is, but I find myself with lots of things ( big and small) to look forward to.  My miscarriage at the end of January has had me waiting for all kinds of things- period, ovulation, then for pregnancy test results ( OK I got overzealous and tested too early). I've also been waiting for news on contests that I've participated in, for the DT announcement for Jillibean Soup, for Friday night out at crop. For my 3 year old to decide its time to use the potty, and for our upcoming trip to Jamaica.

Then there are the things that I look forward to everyday; naptime, dinnertime with Mark and the kids, and then the "me" time that follows once the kids are bathed, read to and in bed.

I think we all need stuff to look forward to, it helps us to mark time, and enjoy the moments leading up to something.

I'll keep you all posted on the pregnancy news as it happens- BUT you'll have to be patient and wait...:)


While you are waiting, here's a layout I did for this week's chipboard challenge for Practical Scrappers.

It's not my best layout, but I love the pictures of my kiddos, and I used some stamps I've had forever!

Materials:
Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper
PP: MME, WRMK
Chipboard: Fancy Pants
Sticker: Pebbles
Stamps: Gel-A-Tins
Ink: Colorbox chalk & pigment inks
Glimmer mist
Cuttlebug embossing folder

Spring has sprung!

I know know that I've said that, we're going to get a huge snowfall! It's sunny outside today, and that's what counts right now I guess.  Yesterday was a bit of a drama day, sadly my elderly neighbor was found  dead on the front walkway of their house. She had an apartment upstairs from her daughter and family. It seems that she either fell or jumped out of the window. What added insult to injury for the family, was probably the 3 squad cars that stayed from late afternoon until almost 9pm, and the fact that the bright orange tarp covering her body stayed unmanned on the walkway for all that time.Today I'm trying to shake the shock and sadness that crept in yesterday.

So let's celebrate the sunshine today with a layout I did on the week-end for the Jillibean Soup sketch challenge. I may enter this one for the Tombow challenge too  seeing as that's 99.9% my glue of choice all the time.


here's the sketch:    

and here's my page:

Materials used: 

Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper

PP: Jillibean Soup- black beans, flour tortilla, mixed veggies and hot water ( very little!)

letters: American Crafts

journaling spot: Jillibean Journaling sprout-numbers

pearls: Martha Stewart

pen: uniball signo white, staedtler triplus fineliner

adhesive: Tombow Mono Permanent Adhesive Roller

Enjoy the sun everyone!

Erin

White pen Challenge

This week's challenge over at Practical Scrappers is to use your white pens and markers. We've all used them for journaling, but there are so many other great things you can do with them! The Design team has come up with some fun techniques.
We've also been lucky to be sponsored this month by The Stamping Boutique, and I got this fun digi Monkey Pocket Patootie stamp to play with. This is my first attempt at paper piecing a stamp, and I must say it was lots of fun. I even dug out some of my Doodlebug flock for fur!

This stamp will probably be used a few more times in this house, as my Ethan is a bit monkey crazy- in fact last night, I was listening to monkey noises coming from in the baby monitor, and then I heard him say to his stuffed monkey Murphy " SHH! it not time to make noise Murpy!- it-time-to-leep! What a card!

Up Up and Away!

My eldest Ethan loves it when his Uncle Evan comes to visit. Since he's moved back from England,  we've seen him almost once a month, and it's nice to see the kids finally starting to bond with him.
This layout is all about just that. Aren't uncles great?

 

Materials:

Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper

PP: My Mind's Eye

Chipboard: Collage Press, Dollarama

Letter stickers: Webster's Pages, Kaiser Craft

The sun and plane shapes were cut on my Cricut using the Graphically Speaking Cartridge

Down The Rabbit Hole

I love Alice in Wonderland,.I've been a huge fan for very long time- since high school I guess. I even went as far as to do several art projects in College and University with the theme, including a performance piece where I staged a tea party for my classmates.
Needless to say I was eager to get started on The Greeeting Farm's challenge  to make an Alice inspired card.  I used A Child's Year Cricut Cartridge to cut the Hat shape, an Alice Stamp from The Greeting Farm, and lots of fun stuff from my stash.

 

I may just have to do a few more cards along this theme, but the problem is I'm the only person I know who would appreciate an Alice inspired card LOL!

Chalk it up to...a challenge!

Yep- it's that time of the week again; time for me to have a cliche blog post title, and to tell you about this week's challenge at Practical Scrappers. This week break out your chalks and ink!
I was just telling my buddy Claude how I was using so much more of my stuff these days, and I think it's all because of the challenges at PS. If I wasn't on the DT, I think I would pass up a challenge using something like chalk, but I'm so happy that I take up the challenges week after week, and push myself outside of my comfort zone sometimes.
So what are you waiting for? Come do a challenge with us!

This week I dug out some chalks that we received at an all day crop at Scrapbook Centrale (the owner Natalie always has little goodies for us.) If it hadn't been for this challenge, I think the chalks would have remained in my tote untouched until the end of time- now they aren't so scary!

I used a Crafter's Companion template, and various colours of chalk to make a design behind my photo. I added glossy accents to some of the spots, and then dusted them with glitter while they were still wet.  I also coloured the stamps and journaling spot with chalk.

The effect was just smudged enough to go well with these Easter pics of my eldest. I just wish I had had brown chalk instead of black. (believe it or not, I did actually contemplate buying more chalk after this project :) )