Valentine's project and an announcement!!!

I'm so EXCITED to finally be able to share with every the GOOD NEWS that I made the Creative Team over at Crop Stop, you can hop on over to the Crop Stop Blog to see the official announcement. Its a great challenge blog and store that features a new challenge every week. I look forward to working with this great group of ladies and look for my first project to be posted on Feb 2nd.

Also with being on the Crop Stop team I get to offer all my friends and fans a 10% off coupon to the Crop Stop store. Just use code LWCT-02

TaDa Creative Studios Project
Valentine's day is quickly approaching so I created this quick little project featuring TaDa Creative Studios papers for V-day. The tube is from SRM Stickers that I filled with valentine candy hearts, the heart card is from the Pocket Notes from the Festivus collection. Just punch a hole at the top so you can attach the ribbon, or in this case Baker's twine which I wrapped around the tube several times. I also wrapped a strip of paper around the top and bottom of the tube. I made sure I placed the top on the tube and pressed it closed before wrapping the piece around the top.

Closeup of top of tube, I punched a circle to cover the top - paper is from the Festivus collection My Sweet Valentine paper.

Closeup of side showing strip of paper around the top and several passes of Baker's twine.

Next Up a card Sketch

I found a great sketch for a card its Sketch 34 at the Deconstructed Sketch. I just loved all the layers on this sketch. I pulled out this super old tag (the green one) which is from K&Co and that developed the color palette for the whole card. On the brown paper I pulled out the cuttlebug and an embossing folder to add some texture and pattern to the cardstock. Add some patterned paper scraps and the sentiment is a Rubon from Dream Street Papers.

Fun at the all day crop

On Saturday I went to an all day crop that lasted 12 hours, we had lunch, dinner, tons of snacks and my scrappy friend Tami came and scrapped with me. Oh we had the BEST time, we had sooooo much fun. The hall was pretty quite but we were just having such a great time we didn't pay any attention to anyone else. We were at round tables of 2 so it was perfect for us to chat the whole time, and we did lots of chatting and not that much time scrapping. In 12 hours I managed to get 5 layouts completed (one I can't show yet as its for DT work). That was a little better than Tami who completed 2 layouts and a valentine's banner. Honestly I have no idea how she even completed the 2nd layout, she did it sooooo quick! It was a FAB time and I hope we can get together again soon and do it again!!

These are all the layouts that I completed at the crop. This first one was for the Glitz Design Jan Blog Challenge. The challenge was to be inspired by this photo.

It inspired me to create a banner on the layout under the photo, similar to the way the foliage creates a banner under the mirror. I was also inspired by the foliage above the mirror so I added a doily above the title in the middle. I absolutely LOVE the Title in the middle (its a Glitz Whatnot from the Love Games collection) and was sooooo perfect for these pictures of my son after a visit to the hospital. All the papers are Glitz Design from Vintage Blue and Love Games collections.

Closeup - I used a lovely new border punch from Fiskars to create the double border, its the Kaleidoscope Border Punch. I hand cut the banner, and used another border punch before creating the accordian flower. In case you have trouble reading the title it says "Smile like every thing is going your way even if it isnt.

Memorable Seasons still has the Sketch-a-thon going on and I used sketch #11 which was from Pagemaps.

I created this layout about cooking hot dogs over the campfire (in the backyard). I just loved the woodgrain paper from Authentique, it matched the flames from the fire, the starburst pattern and the blue paper are from My Mind's Eye and the orange triangle border, was cut from a decorative edged sheet from My Mind's Eye. The brown border is a Crate Paper Border Sticker and the Fabulous Campfire embellie is October Afternoon Tin Pin from the Campfire collection. Alphas are Authentique (Cream colored) and Making Memories (Orange). This was my last project of the night.

I loved all the bits and pieces on the January Layout sketch at My Sketch World so I wanted to use it for a layout.

Unfortunately I like my layout a lot less than I like the sketch, but I do love the picture of Jasper sitting on the window ledge. I remember walking through the kitchen with my camera and the cat turned and looked at me and I said oh wait don't move that's a great picture and he listened, LOL!! These papers are from an OLD kit club and feature Basic Grey and October Afternoon. The To do list is Crate Paper. The to do list reads "Get back to looking outside".

These stuffed animals were Easter presents from one of the Grandparents. I guess since it was Easter I wanted to go with a lighter color palette, a bit more Easter feeling so I pulled out My Mind's Eye Quite Contrary collection.

Closeup/detail

Woke up to exciting news!!

Practical Scrappers is having a layout contest and I was picked for Round 1. To move on to Round 2 I need votes from you wonderful ladies. There will be a new group of layouts posted everyday starting today (Saturday) til Friday. Well mine is up on Day 1. The voting for my group ends TODAY (Saturday) at Midnight.

I'm very excited to be picked and really want to move on to Round 2 which will be difficult because its going from 70 to only 25. I will be very grateful for your help!

Also I created a card for the Create: blog. This weeks challenge Rolled paper. Love the look of rolled paper, its soooo fun. Plus I used the card sketch from Love my Tapes, unfortunately I don't own any of their lovely products but I would love too.

Sketchy Thursdays

I used the Jan 5th sketch from Sketchy Thursdays for this layout. I loved the simplicity of the sketch. It worked so well with this photo of a plane trip I took in the summer of 2010.

This sketch was also the day 4 sketch for the Sketch-a-thon at Memorable Seasons.

Cardstock: Bazzill
Patterned Paper: Little Yellow Bicycle - Sweet Summertime, Aqua Dot
Jillibean Soup - Pasta Fagioli, Blended Beans
Sticker (Itinerary) Making Memories
(Life is Good) Bella Blvd
Transparent Tag: Meking Memories
Journaling Card: Best Creation Inc - Travel Forever
Rub-on: October Afternoon -Boarding Pass
Chipboard Thickers: American Crafts -Rocketeer


This layout was also based on a sketch from Sketchy Thursdays it was the Dec 29th sketch. Which I had done but forgot to photograph by the deadline. Oh well I'm posting it now anyways, besides the photos are almost 6 years old. On the "Mark" alphas they were plain chipboard letters that I stamped with Grey paint.

Papers: Scrap within Reach, My Mind's Eye
Ticket: My Mind's Eye
Buttons: Graphic 45
Cork: Pink Paislee
Stamp: Gel-a-tins
Alphas: Studio Calico, My Little Shoebox, Maya Road
Ink & Paint

New DT GIG

New DT GIG!!
I'm so excited to announce that I'm a FITgirl now!!! I made the DT over at Scrap Fit!!!

Its a great group of talented ladies and I'm honored to be part of the team. I'm very excited and can't wait for the new challenge in Feb!!


I also completed this layout at the end of December and not sure why I keep forgetting to post it. Its sketch #61 from sketchabilities. Cameron was soooo excited for this day, because you get to be first in line for lunch.

Closeup

Closeup

Create: Blog plus a Sketch-a-thon

Create: Blog

The challenge this week over at the Create: Blog was to create a card with vellum. Yep vellum, you know the stuff you probably haven't used in 2-3 years. I started working on this challenge right away. I decided I would emboss the vellum with a Spellbinders Impressabilities Circles die. The Gray patterned paper was an American Crafts piece of scrap. The flourish and journaling spot was from a company that went out of business at least a year ago, the ribbon was from a christmas present that I saved, Prima flowers (I've had for ages), Stamp is Imaginisce.

Winter Wonder Sketch-a-thon
Memorable Seasons is having a sketch-a-thon for the month of January. There will a total of approximately 20 sketches this month. I know that I won't complete them all but I was able to complete sketch #1. It was a great sketch from Liz Chidester.

I also created this layout for a challenge over at My Sketch World. The challenge is called Intitled, and what I did was use an object (the chipboard Santa) to create part of the title.

When I was creating the layout I cut the large circle and then decided I needed something else around the white circle because it was just toooo white. Well the Peppermint pattern is the backside of the white so I decided to take my circle cutter (the Kreaxions Circle Cutter from Just Imagine Crafts) and created a bordered circle. I LOVE how PERFECTLY I was able to cut these circles.

Here is a picture to better illustrate the great cuts this circle cutter makes, plus the small blue tool IS the circle cutter.

This is the first christmas related layout I have created since last February. I pulled out Crate Paper's Peppermint Collection the chipboard Santa was just the perfect touch to use on this layout. The only thing not from Crate Paper is the beautiful ribbon which is Webster's Pages.

Top 10 List

Goodbye 2011 and Hello to 2012! With the start of the new year I always tally up what I created in the past year to see how much I created. Well 2011 was the least productive year I have had since keeping track in 2008. My totals are 144 layouts, 57 cards plus 1 Mini Album, an Altered Bottle and an Altered Xmas Tree.

But with the look back I also want to showcase my top 10 layouts I created this past year, in no particular order.
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10.

Happy New Year!!

Hope everyone has a wonderful New Year!! Here is wishing 2012 is a great one!! Now on to the January challenge over at True XOXO Scrapbooking. The Challenge this month was the number 1. Here is my One layout,

I have one Patterned paper, transparency, doily, mist, felt swirl, sticker, metal snowflake, border, ribbon, rubon, paper clip, flag, chipboard snowflake, button, one word title, ticket, pearl, journaling spot, tag, snowflake, baker's twine, and brad.
Closeup -You can see how I added the baker's twine to the snowflake.