Stressed is just desserts backwards

Little Bit of Whimsy Sketch Contest

2012-02-06T00:04:00.001-04:00

Well I have been slacking on my posts lately, but I will try to do better. Below is my entry to the My Little Bit of Whimsy sketch contest. I used Close to my Heart's new "Stella" Collection papers. I cut out the beautiful circle flower and layered it on top of a paper where I inked the edges with cocoa brown ink and a sponge. I used several other papers to layer, and added some zip strip stripes and a little bit of lace ribbon from The Paper Studio. The picture is mounted on a piece of paper embossed in a cuttlebug folder I have long since forgotten the name of. I then used the sponge and a little bit of ink to make it pop a little. The title is stamped with Close to my Heart's Bohemian Alphabet (One of my all time favs). The flowers are layer, bottom is CTMH's new coloured paper blossoms with the lacey flowers from their new Bohemian assortment. I really like this page... the Stella paper is great... even though the stamps make her look like a skinny bitch... teehee.

Happy Scrappin all!

Contest Winner!!

2012-01-18T21:22:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

I had 3 crafty submissions for the contest, which is a good start for my first giveaway I think. Thanks Dom, Leslie and Jason/Tina (who submitted on facebook). It was a tough decision, but the winner is..............Leslie!! Her creation is shown below.

Lovely eh? I will be sending her 3 EZ Mounted Sweet Pea stamps. Thanks for participating everyone.

Strange Coincidences

2012-01-13T23:19:00.001-04:00

Well Boys and Girls tonight I would like to show you one of my recent cards. Now here is where the coincidence comes in... I first saw this stamp coloured with blackish hair on the Sweet Pea site and there seemed to be something familiar about it. So I bought it, stamped it out and it hit me that it looks like my friend (and model) Heather (well except for the whole being a mermaid thing...).
So the first picture is Heather in all her glory (taken by Shari Tucker). The second is a picture of the card I sent her... thanks for the leopard print sweetie!!

So I coloured the image with chalks, as per usual. It is cut out using a spellbinders, the base was a pair of Fiskars corner rounding scissors, as were the two mats. The paper is Close to my Heart "Wicked". The flowers are made using a Cuttlebug die (that is my new FAV!! and unfortunately they aren't making any more) then rolled using a quilling tool. There were brown pearls in the center of each flower, but Canada Post sorta knocked them off. I think that it still looks ok though.

Thanks Heather and Shari!!

Little Ray of Sunshine

2012-01-12T00:36:00.004-04:00

Well Boys and Girls,

I am having a pretty crappy week. Can't seem to be healthy enough to get to school, bad news. Especially since no work= no play (a self imposed rule, but needed to be done). So I thought I would share some cards I had done the other night with you.

This first one is done using a dry emboss technique on pergamano paper, then painted it with Twinkling H2O's. I made the bases fairly plain to let the embossing stand out. I think I like the smaller one better though....

The second one features an image from Sweet Pea (you knew there had to be one). I love the imagery in the picture. The love between Mom and babe. The image is coloured with chalks. Used a Spellbinders die to cut the image and the mat. The paper is CTMH, as is the border and the pearls. I sprayed the border with Chocolate Cherry Glimmer Mist. You unfortunately can't see the deepness of that spray in the picture, but it is really a great effect with the brown base and this beautiful red sheen to it.

Have a good night, and don't forget the contest....

Grrrr. So I will make my own contest prize.

2012-01-02T22:39:00.003-04:00

Ok, so I hope everyone had a great holiday. I want to publicly apologize for the whole stop and scrap debacle... I mean seriously who emails you, instructs you to post on your blog that a date is forthcoming and to post their blinkie and email them back when you do (which I did 10 minutes after recieving their email) then never emails you back. I sent several followup emails trying to at least get a straight response as to what happenned but nothing. Not happy.

So I am going to do a little contest of my own. Post a link to your blog in comments, and show me some of your work. It can be a card, a layout, altered art... whatever makes you happy. I have 3 stamps from Sweet Pea, that are all mounted on ez-mount and ready for action. I will give 2 weeks. Bonus entries if you make a link to the contest on your blog or on Facebook, let me know in the same post. So deadline is Monday January 16, 2012. Tell your friends.

Alright, get on it people!!

I am going to make this even easier, tag me in a post on facebook or wherever. So long as you post a link to this post so people can know you are entering in a contest.
Cheers

So Much BIG news today.

2011-11-14T22:47:00.001-04:00

Ok well let me try this again. There is so much great big news today!

To start with (yes I am a few days late) the fabulous ladies at Sweet Pea stamps featured some of my creations on their blog the other day. Click on their name to check out my work.

To end with, I have been chosen as one of the blogs featured on Stop and Scrap.com's countdown to Christmas Blog Hop. That means that 3 fabulous people will win one of a $25 or 2 $10 shopping sprees on their fabulous store website. If you haven't been there you absolutely have to check it out, they have EVERYTHING paper craft related that you can imagine. We will be having a Christmas card contest on my day, and all you will have to do is post up a link and follow my site. Easy Peasy! When I know, you will know.

Happy Crafting and you may even get another post from me tonight, I have some layouts to show.

Super Easy Christmas Card

2011-11-10T22:07:00.004-04:00

Hi All,

So everyone has a huge list of people that they would like to send Christmas Cards to, but if you are like me you have a few people that don't appreciate the awesomeness of your cards as much as you would like to. I always try to make some quick cards that still look great for those people. This is one that I made the other day that doesn't take too long to come together.

First I stamped the snowman image on cardstock, I used Staz-on but not required when using chalks to colour. Step 2 was to fire on some colour, and it went on as quick as make-up with a few little strokes. To keep the chalk in place there is a splash of Glimmer Mist over the top. I then used a circle punch to punch the image out. The card base it made using the Dahlia Spellbinders Nestabilities, with one edge up off the edge of the paper where the fold is. I then stamped one of the new Heartfelt Creations stamps (They are made to match up with spellbinder dies, how fabulous!!). I then covered the front with Sookwang tape, and obviously there was then a need to cover it with Glitter Ritz. Remember that the Glitter Ritz is fussy about adhesives, so I used liquid glass to stick on the snowman.

What do you think?

Christmas Card Stress

2011-10-29T00:17:00.002-03:00

Hello All,

So is anyone else having stress about Christmas Cards? I am not very financially solvent and so I am going to try to use up all sorts of old patterned paper and use all sorts of stamps I already have. My big issue right now is that I just don't have the inspiration to get started. So I am going to put out there the question how do you get inspired for Christmas Cards/ Holiday Cards?

My current plan is that I am just going to start colouring images and will worry about what paper to put them with and how to lay them out later. The current image count is at 7 snowmen and 1 Angel.

Blog Hop with Candy!!

2011-10-24T22:49:00.003-03:00

Hi All,

So there is a Halloween Blog Hop over at Clearsnap and Epiphany Crafts, I like prizes so check it out!!

Sweet Pea Next Card Designer Challenge

2011-10-22T22:47:00.005-03:00

Well if you have been following, you are aware of my recent addiction. I have finally gotten my new ones mounted and I got one all chalked up for this contest. I was really inspired by the soft lines and the floating bits, I could just imagine them glittering down around them. So glitter it is!!

I created the card base using CTMH paper, and covered it with some sookwang tape and transparent Glitter Ritz.

I used soft chalks on the image and set it with a little bit of Glimmer Mist. I mounted this on this super fantastic velvet paper that my LSS just got in. The large butterfly is also cut out of this. You have to get some, it feels great and cuts like butter. I cut 2, and mounted one on CTMH's new Roxie paper, and the other one is flat on the background. The top one is only attached in the center, and it gives a great 3D effect. The small butterflies are CTMH, as are the jems and pearls used.

The rosettes were cut using a sizzix die and rolled and shaped by hand. The leaves are done using a cuttlebug die.

Everything is attached using Glossy Accents as the Glitter Ritz can be termpermental with adhesives.

Sorry about the icky picture, there was some stickles that wasn't dry so the scanner wasn't an option. I will rescan when it finishes drying. Long day curling, didn't get to finish it until now. I love all the other cards I have seen though, Sweet Peas you are going to have a tough choice. Come back soon, I have an amazing technique I just learned from a friend with alcohol inks and a lighter that will be up soon.

OMG Featured Artist!!!

2011-10-14T19:30:00.002-03:00

Hey so I am super excited to be back. I will have some stuff over the weekend I hope. But big news, and I almost missed it.... I was featured on the Sweet Pea Stamps Blog yesterday. You can guess my level of excitement right now. I hope you like my work!!

Hrmmm

2011-09-19T21:38:00.006-03:00

Well hello all.

So I am back at school, and I am exhausted. This trying to keep a normal schedule is really hard on me... my brain likes to stay up late.

I was hoping to get these card in in time to be featured on Sweat Pea Stamps Blog last week, but I didn't. So I will show you a few of them.

This first one is one that you will see that I used last time, but done up differently. I am really happy with how the shading turned out, it is a little challenging when using a waterbrush. The secret is that instead of colouring and blending, use the brush directly on the pencil lead. This gives you a deeper colour and you can then blend it out as you wish. It is important to note that doing this will soften the pencil lead, so either give it some time to dry or press very lightly to start when you colour with it again.

The background paper was made by blending alcohol inks. The ribbon is discontinued Close to my Heart, the white flower is CTMH, and the others are Prima marketing. The pearls are CTMH

Ching Chou Kuik's Silk Dance

I love this card. It is made with CTMH's fall line from last year, Olivia. I will be completely honest and say that I think this is the first time I have ever actually used the My Stickease stickers... The bling on the left is from Prima Marketing. Don't you love the metal leaves?

Ching Chou Kuik's Autumn Harvest

Quick Cards with Fabu Stamps

2011-09-08T23:19:00.006-03:00

Hi All,

I went back to school today... so I am not firing on all cylinders right now, so this may be cornier than normal, in case the title didn't give it away.

So my latest addiction is most definately my amazing new stamps from Sweet Pea Stamps. I can't wait to be able to order more. I have two cards to show you, but I am way to lazy to figure out what plate and the names of the stamps. They are unmounted red rubber so they don't have anything written on them. I really love the inspiration that you can get from the painted illustrations that are the displays.

Both cards were made using random papers that I found out of my pile so my apologies for that... it is all super old so odds are you wouldn't be able to find it anyway! I do however know that the flowers for both are from Prima, the lace strip is from Hero Arts and the first card has some Glimmer mist on it. I coloured both images using watercolour pencils and a waterbrush which for some reason they look really gross in these pictures and I don't know why. The first card is very well bright. It is for my cousin who is turning 2 in a few weeks. I wanted to make lots of layers and textures to appeal to her.

(Chingchou Kuik's Kimono Butterfly Mermaid)

I really like this second card. I was trying to get away from my typical super girly colours. I think it turned out really well, she is sexy. The background paper has embossed sections and makes me happy. If you look really closely there is a strip of pearls down the black divide on the left.

(Ching Chou Kuik's Silk Dance)

Go check out Sweet Pea, and buy one for you and one for me! Nap time for Colleen!

Quicky Page

2011-08-30T23:47:00.004-03:00

Good Evening,

I thought I would post a super quick page that I did in probably under 10 minutes. I love how sometimes you just have things that are pre-done and look great together. This page is of my gorgeous little cousin Lyra, she is 4. At my sister's wedding last month she told me she was going to catch the boquet, and she did. The man who caught the garter was so sweet, kneeling down to dance with her (she had been the center of the dancefloor all night) but she got shy and just rocked a little and chewed on her gum. I can't seem to get the fingerprints off the picture to save my life. That is what happens when you don't quadruple check a picture order, you end up with glossy instead of matte photos.

The papers, title, journalling square and stickers are from My Mind's Eye "Little Miss Muffet" Collection. The flowers are from Prima Marketing and the ribbon and pink cardstock are from Close to my Heart. I put a few stickles around the title as a highlight and BAM, there is a page done. Note how the flowers are placed so that your eye is drawn from the title, to the picture to the journalling. That is the visual triangle that I mentioned last night!

Bella Blvd Design Team Submissions

2011-08-30T00:01:00.006-03:00

Hello and Happy Day to everyone,

Today I am going to share with you my submissions that I made to the Scrapbooking Layout Bella Artista Team Call for Bella Blvd. I am not as confident with these submissions as with my Viva Las Vega Stamps ones, for the simple reason that I only had a limited amount of product in stock and my local scrap store didn't have anything to offer. I am not sure if I met the required 80% of their product or not, but either way I have 4 layouts to share that I like.

The first one is my dearest boy, and his new coat, it is one of the ones that the sleeves zip off of. I used some of the paper from the Mr. Boy line and cut out shapes. I also had some chipboard accents that I threw on there. I did a little bit of distressing around the edges to give it a rugged look.

This layout is of my mother's retirement dinner. My aim was to make the circles look like balloons with a big bow at the bottom. The pink scallop was done using a Martha Stewart punch and I covered the messy corners with some pretty striped paper from Bella Blvd. The black rectangle is also from Bella and says "There is no surprise more magical than the suprise of being loved". There were so many people out that night to support Mom after her 30 some odd years of teaching, that we filled the entire restaurant and had only booked half! The bow at the bottom was made by taking quarter inch strips of paper and bending it and gluing the edges at the center, I did this with 2 different lengths and placed them on top of each other. To cover the messy center I used a chipboard flower.

For this page I kept things very simple. I used the new Art Philosophy Crickut collection from Close to My Heart to cut out the circle border and the flowers. I inked the outside of the flowers to make them stand out from each other, then put a glittery brad in the center of 2, and a chipboard flower in the center of the 3rd. The border on the left is made by using 2inch Sookwang tape covered using copper glitter ritz. I then attached the border on top. The rectangular strip is Bella and says "These are the things we do together". The pictures are of my cousin, his wife and baby and some of my other cousins playing on Coffin's Point outside our cottage in PEI.

This final layout is of my beautiful "niece" (best friend's child). I took a white piece of cardstock and masked it off, then spritzed it with Glimmer Mist. I cut out two partial circles of Bella papers and put them behind a Close to my Heard chipboard circle. Along the bottom edge of the pictures I took two strips of Bella paper and did a double accordian fold so that it would lay flat but have some dimension. The journalling block is also from Bella and there are 3 chipboard accents added on (yeah for visual triangles!!)

I hope that you guys, and Bella Blvd like these layouts! See you soon.

Viva Las Vegastamps DT Call

2011-08-22T16:59:00.009-03:00

I am really excited about this dt call. I love Viva Las Vegastamps and actually would like to visit Las Vegas not because of the gambling (which I don't do) or the drinking (which I don't partake in) but because this store looks amazing!! I literally own 3 pounds of their stamps!! There is a picture of them covering our chest freezer from a while back. For this call I picked 2 of the stamps that I use the most and made cards out of them. I couldn't narrow it down, but if I had to pick one to submit, it would be number 2.

Ok so card number one is this beautiful little dress on a hanger. I thought it only fitting that VLVS be warned about my love for glitter, so I used my spellbinders and cut out a little background of sookwang tape on cardstock and covered it with a purple Glitter Ritz. The patterned paper is from Close to my Heart's Sweetheart package, with the lace and flower ribbon coming from their pink package.

The white flowers are from Prima Marketing, and the flat white flower is from CTMH as well. The pin is from Making Memories.

As goes on the back of most of my cards, another fabulous VLVS!!

Card number two is a twisted easel card that uses a lovely 20's flapper lady. It looks way harder than it actually is to make. Cut your cardstock and make your normal center fold, then just score a diagonal that makes you happy on the front (I used 45 degrees, so corner to corner). This will be your twisty fold. You then make a shape that makes you smile on the front, I used one from the new Close to my Heart Cricuit cartridge in 5 and 4.5 inches, but there are many dies available for that particular shape. It is important that you decorate the inside of the card nicely as well, since it is ment to sit open. It is also a good idea to put something to tuck the front fold behind, it makes the card more stable. This is what the white rosette if for. I undercut the corners on a square of patterned CTMH paper and tied some ribbon around. I didn't put in a sentiment as this will be going to my friend who I will write a letter to inside.

I stamped the lady in Staz-On ink, and then used my blender pen and ink pads to colour her (please see post "You don't have to have Copics" for instructions on this). I have framed her on two ovals and surrounded that with some off-white lace. This was done by making a bead of glue around the back of the oval, and sticking the lace to it, stretching it as much as I could as I went. The patterned paper is from Close to My Heart's Mayberry collection. The ribbon is also from CTMH. The blue flowers are made using a sizzix die, and then rolled around a toothpick. They then have little decorative pins in the centers from Making Memories. The white flower is again from Prima Marketing.

I hope that you guys enjoy these and I REALLY hope that VLVS like them too!! If you would like to check out more of their projects, surf on over to their blog.

Chalk it up.

2011-08-22T01:35:00.012-03:00

Good Evening All;

I hope that people are getting their colouring entries ready for me, Friday will be the deadline. A friend asked me to show how I colour with chalk so today that is our topic. Let's get started.

First stamp your image. I am using another fabulous image from Sweet Pea Stamps today. I have stamped using Staz-On , but it isn't neccessary.

Get your chalks out and ready to go.

Option one for colouring is to use little eye shadow daubers.

Option 2 is to use a cotton swab. I always remove some of the extra cotton so that I have more control with the colour. I give a little tug, then cut off the excess. When you have picked up the chalk on your dauber of choice, give it a little blow just like you would do with eyeshadow before you apply it. This just gets rid of some of the extra little dust that comes up and will prevent it from falling where you don't want on your image.

Again I always start with the lightest colour and work my way to darkest. I don't usually worry much about shading when working with chalks because it doesn't really show up. I like to use a light pressured, circular motion. Keep in mind you can always add more colour but taking away is harder. You will have to blow excess dust off your project every so often, welcome to the world of chalk.

Move on to your next colour, this time I am using the cotton swab. Don't try to put more than one colour per dauber or clean off the eye shadow ones, it just results in a mess.

Once you have coloured your image completely it will look something like this.

To set the chalk you will need to burnish the image. For demonstration only, I used a muffin paper. Don't do it this way. Put a piece of scrap paper down overtop of your image and use a bone folder or your finger to burnish it.

Now you can stop there, your image will hold up just fine. Personally, being a glitter nut I like to spray a little glimmer mist overtop. This is diamond glaze, and just adds a touch of glimmer, it isn't overwhelming or easy to capture using a picture.

This is my totally finished image. There is a little chalk outside the lines from my muffin paper burnishing. If you use the paper method you won't have this.

I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial. Don't be afraid to get out those chalks, they are inexpensive and easy to use.

Tomorrow I am going to be posting some of my submissions for design team calls... we will see how it goes.

You don't have to have Copics...

2011-08-18T02:47:00.014-03:00

Let's try this again, since last time all my words started disappearing as I moved the pictures around to their proper position. So today I got these amazing stamps in from Sweat Pea Stamps
and I just had to get them inked up and start creating. Now as you know I am on a pretty tight budget so Copics just aren't an option for me, they are just too expensive. I have several techniques that I use that will still give you the depth, blending and shading that is such a popular draw in the copics. Option one is watercolour pencils and then blending them out using either a blending pen or a water brush (or a paint brush dipped in water). This technique takes some practice so you don't completely sog your paper while you blend, and your need to colour smoothly with the pencils or you may get an uneven look (as I did with the background in the picture below. I should have done the background first, not as an afterthought).

Option two, which is what I am going to show you today is how the rest of the picture was coloured is done using your inkpads (and I know you have them, don't lie!) and a blender pen. Let's check it out.

Supplies

A stamp with some actual spaces for colouring

Stazon ink

Water based inkpads such as Close to my Heart or Ranger's distress inks

Blender pen (available at your local scrap store, usually double ended and not refillable)

Heavy white or offwhite cardstock

Stamp your image using Stazon. This will keep the outline from bleeding while we play.

2. Shade your background colour with a coloured pencil or the blender pen and shade it out how you like. Remember it is better to start light and build. You can always add, taking away is much more challenging.

3. Next, how do we get the ink from the pad onto the blender pen? There are 2 methods and it depends on the shape of the ink pad you are using. I personally just squat the lid of mine into the top of the ink and scoop it up from there. Option 2 is a non-stick craft mat or a piece of wax paper. Stamp the whole pad down on it and pick up the ink from there

4. Now we are ready to start the fun part. I tend to start with larger areas first, but the more common (and one I will recommend) is to start with your lightest colour and work to your darkest. There are things like red lips that you absolutely can't do before you do the face, so make sure that you plan your mode of attack.

Ok now imagine this first. You have essentially loaded a paintbrush; wherever that lands will be the heaviest amounts of paint. It is the same with this technique. For the most natural looking art, I always imagine that the sun is beaming down from the left side of my workspace, making the most pronounced shadows on the left side of the image. So sweep your way from left to right (gently until you get the feel) and sweep by sweep, build up the colour until you are happy with it. Then move on to the next one.

It is VERY important that you clean the ink off your blender pen thouroghly between colours. The easiest way to do this is with a piece of paper towel or tissue and absorb it out.

Once you have all your colouring done, you can throw on some extra highlights in the hair, or on dress folds. This is the time to add things like sparkle highlights as well, but they don't show well on these pictures.

Ok, now it is your turn. Show me what you can do without using copics. Who knows, there may even be a prize in it for you.....

2011-08-17T00:10:00.004-03:00

Ok Ladies and Gents,

Sad news... my scanner will only work for cards, not 12 by 12 layouts. This means that you get a crappy blackberry picture again today. I will find my camera cord tomorrow, I promise!

So here is today's page for you. It is using a mix of K and Co. sparkley paper and ribbonthat I have only been hoarding away for 7 years. Gotta stop doing that, just use it and then I can get new expensive paper right? So the rest of the paper is Close to my Heart, the lettering is done using some Stickles (I think it is called Patina), and then I threw on some huge Heidi Swapp flowers with some unknown brand on top. There is a border under the pictures on the right which is from CTMH.

This layout features my beautiful baby girl second cousin's once removed; the next generation of our very close Coffin Clan. There are 3 beautiful girls shown here, and then 2 gentleman who were a little jealous of the attention the girls were getting. I don't know how well you can see it, but my fav picture is the first one on the right page; the little girl on the left (Leila) is trying to push over her cousin (Mya) who is holding on to the grass for dear life.

Again, sorry for the weird picture and the funny overlap. I will get better pics going as soon as possible.

Superfun with Glitter

2011-08-15T23:19:00.008-03:00

Good evening ladies and gents. Tonight for your viewing pleasure I have what may be my favorite page I have done ever. I will state straight up that this is a scraplift from the ladies at Carosel Rubber stamps.

Ok so for the items used

115 mm and 2mm sookwang doublesided tape

several colours glitter ritz

mask shapes (plastic is the easiest to get off, but paper works too)

1 piece of cardstock

mini muffin papers (I will explain later)

large craft mat or scrap piece of paper (has to be bigger than the paper you are working on)

paint brush or papertowel

An apron or garbage bag to cover yourself in....

Ok so here we go. First make sure that you have some clean space to work in because the tape is SUPER sticky. If you have one of those anti-static bags for embossing, rub down your cardstock and your craft mat, it will make things easier in the long run. Glitter ritz has a static charge to it, so it likes to stick.

Put your tape as you would like it on your page. I won't judge you at all if you would like to cover your entire page, I know how awesome this looks! Remove backing and place masks how you would like them. Ensure that they are stuck down well, or glitter will sneak underneath and your design won't look as crisp

Pour your first colour of Glitter ritz into the muffin papers. I find this is the easiest way to contain them, but you could also use a spoon or a straw. Gently cover the areas you would like in this colour. Gently use your finger to burnish (rub) the glitter into the area. This just ensures that you get a really rich covering and that other colours won't stick in the spaces

This is the hardest part right now. You can't just tip to the side like you would with embossing powder or you will end up with a line of glitter. You must flip the page over completely in one swift motion, and then tap your layout. This will put all the excess onto your craft mat, then you can put as much as you can back in the jar. Make sure that your mat is completely clean before moving on to the next colour, so use the paintbrust or the paper towel to wipe it off. If you are using one, give it a static sweep too.

Repeat with all of the colours until the tape is filled.

To finish off your creation, use the 2mm tape to create a nice clean border. Lift up your masks, then use black (or your colour of choice) to fill in the borders.

To ensure that the glitter doesn't invade your house, do another round of burnishing. The muffin cups and your fingers work well for this but you can also use a brayer.

Add in your pictures, and if you get excited a few accents. I used a Close to my Heart crocheted flower, a pewter brad and a Prima flower that matched my glitter colours. To add some dimention I also added some butterflies the same as what I had used for masks, but only attached them in the center. Remember you need heavy duty adhesive like liquid glass when attaching to glitter

Have fun!! Love to see what you would do with this technique.

In other news, I promise better pictures from now on. I think that the scanner is going to work out.

Wow. I REALLY Dropped the ball this time!

2011-08-14T16:08:00.009-03:00

Ok I have been very lapse on posting, but I have tons of projects and ideas to share so lets get back at er.

Let's start with a quick update: business has improved slightly, I am no longer having stabbing belly pains but the doctors don't actually know why other than the low dose pain pills daily, still on leave from school but I am heading back to conquor the nerds in a few weeks. Close to my Heart has a new catologue out, our new paper is heavier and gorgeous and we have lots of great new accessories so you should totally check them out.

Moving right along; I am going to show you a workshop on the go layout that I did the other day using our "Sweetheart" set. It has liquid applique on it for a little bit of dimension, some epoxy accents and a whole slew of pictures. I did change around the colour scheme a little bit, I thought that there were too many hearts and my cotton candy stamp pad was mia so I used baby pink.

Hope you like the layout and we will see you tomorrow with another!

It's been a long time...

2010-04-12T17:23:00.002-03:00

Ok so here is the 30 second catchup for everyone. Business isn't going as well as I would like, I seem to be my own best customer. On the upside I love the product and it has been all I have been using in my cards and pages lately so I will get posting so that you all (?) can see them. I had a very productive weekend at our Crop 4 Cancer getting 7 layouts done and I finally won a door prize. I am heading back to school in a few weeks and am unbelievably excited about that. I am hoping that over the summer I can manage to get more customers into my circle of people who love the Close to My Heart line.

Be back later with some new pictures and to talk about how excited I am that glitter is making a huge comeback!

Big News

2009-11-19T23:57:00.002-04:00

Well Boys and Girls.... or anyone else who happens to stop by here. I have big news. I have become a Close To My Heart (CTMH) Independant Consultant. I figured that I love to make cards and layouts so I should share my love with other people. The sailing season is over and there have been some other big changes in my life. My website isn't finished just yet, I have to get up some of my CTMH art but I would love for you to check out my website at http://colleendewis.myctmh.com/. The best part is that there is a special on this month that you can buy any 2 stamp sets and get a 3 for FREE!!!! That is right, I said FREE!!! All you have to do is place an order on the website and it will ship straight to you your door.

I love these products, and I especially love the paper packs that come all fully coordinated for you so there is no searching the store. Then as if that weren't enough, the colours in the papers match the ink, ribbon, brad and marker colours too so you can coordinate with ease!! How sweet is that?!?

Anyway, I will get back on track with my blogging since I am pretty much on a leave of abscense from life, and I am going to use it as a place to share ideas other than just finished projects that I create. Have a good one!

Simon's Challenge for this week

2009-09-04T01:27:00.005-03:00

So I am so sad that Beary Box has stopped doing challenges, but I am super excited to say that I have found simonsaysstamp.com which also has great designers and fun challenges. So this week they are celebrating one of the designers birthday (Happy birthday Heidi) and they have an amazing prize.

This week we were given a sketch and here is my take. The papers are Close to my heart from a kit I got when I went crazy one order last year. Flowers are something random that were on sale and the stamp is Rachelle Anne Miller (wish I had enough skills to put a happy face here). I just realized when I went to the blinkie that half the cards were done with RAM images. TEEHEE!!Coloured with water colour pencils and ink from CTMH.

Hope you enjoy it, thanks for looking.

Just realized that you can't see the embossing that was done with the cuttlebug folders on the green parts. It is the swirly one.

Simon's Challenge

2009-08-25T19:59:00.003-03:00

So I am making a blogging comeback, starting now. I found a new site that with neat challenges, and I am always open to more so leave me links in comments if you know of any. This one is from simonsaysstamp.com . The challenge was to create a Christmas card. I wanted mine to look sort of like an ornament for on the tree. I love the stamp on it!

I will post more as I get back into the groove of things but for today here is the picture. I used some felt fusion holly and eyelets to go with the sponged ink.

Feels good to be back!

So Many Challenges and NO Time

2009-04-30T23:57:00.004-03:00

So today I had every intention of getting to school nice and early so I could get a whole lot of work done on my term paper so I could get out for an early walk and all that good stuff then come home and unpack my scrap gear from the crop I was at on the weekend. Well obviously my day never goes as planned EVER so I overslept (only by 3 hours though...) and then I am up the dear boy gets an email from his office. Here is the story; yesterday he called in sick with some "flu like symptoms" however just a little lower GI issue, touch of fever and maybe a little headache. Well don't they decide that he can't go back to work because he may be carrying the swine flu... yep no word of a lie. He hasn't been to Mexico, stepmother we don't live with was there maybe a month ago but has showed no symptoms, some people in his office were there but he hasn't really had contact with them. So in order for him to be let back in the door he has to be showing NO "flu like symptoms", fill out a questionaire to their satisfaction and have a doctor's note.

Even though we live in Canada and have free healthcare, getting in to see a doctor can be a pain in the butt. We are lucky that I am at university and they have a doctor each day who only does same day appointments. So I call and tell them the situation and they give us an appointment but tell us not to come into the main waiting room, so we basically get quarantined. We also get the crankiest nurse I have ever met in my life (most nurses are so wonderful, so I find her strange especially since she is always like this) who freaks out at us for pretty much wasting the doctors time. She then calls the department of health to complain about the dear boy's work even though they are only trying to protect their other 500 employees who work in the building. So I am sure that there will be some fun with that when he is finally allowed to go back.

Anyways since he isn't allowed back in the building until at least monday, we ended up taking advantage of the remainder of the gorgeous day we had and went for a walk. So we got home and I was exhausted (now I am awake though, since it is time to go to bed..) and just sorta crashed and did some bloghopping. I have to say I love having the little dashboard thing that will show me my stalkee's updates and when....

SOOO there are so many challenges want to do, but first I gotta get the stuff unpacked and probably sorted back out because there is nothing organized about a crop!!! I need a better way to pack for crops I think, I can't seem to plan ahead enough to not take anything I own. I am not a good planning scrapper, I am more a dig out absolutely everything I have and see what I like and fits scrapper. Does anyone else suffer from this problem? I don't even know how all you people with kids manage to get any scrapping at all done, especially those who work on top of that.

Well thank you for reading my mildly scrapping related rant, have a great week and happy crafting!

Intregued

2009-04-28T06:51:00.002-03:00

Well that is most definately spelled wrong, but it is ungodly early and I have already been awake for too long today so I am not going to figure out how to fix it. So there.

In my blog stalking this morning I have found this cool online event happenning this weekend at Cuttlebug Challenges which I thought I would share. There are a ton of prizes going on and I am not exactly sure how things are going to work, but I am a sucker for winning stuff and may crawl over my own mother for a free cuttlebug!!! I would imagine that there will be some challenges and some chatting with other paper-holics so that will be spiffy. Here is the info

Beary Box 23 Entries

2009-04-25T22:54:00.004-03:00

Hi all,

I hope everyone is having a great week. Mine was super busy trying to finish up cards for a charity auction I was organizing, as well as trying to finish gathering items from sponsors and making sure people showed up. I am really disappointed at what my cards sold for actually, but oh well, I know they went to good homes (my Mom, and 2 friends) and I do know that if they would have paid more if the bidding had made it further.... just not a lot of people into handmade crafts I guess.

So today was another round of Crop 4 Cancer which is an all day, 16 hour crop!! I missed some of it for my sister's birthday dinner, and of course I was so not ready to be up and out of the house for 8am this morning after the fundraiser last night!

At the crop today I made a card and 2 layouts, one of which is for the contest. I was really not anywhere near as productive as I had hoped, due in part to an epic battle with a Cricket machine. I am pretty sure the Cricket won.

So my card for this week is using a super cute stamp that reminds me of my 2 great aunts who used to swim everyday in the summer, bathing caps under the chin and all. They would then join us for cocktail hour. I coloured in the image with my watercolour pencils, and there are some glossy accents on the glasses (both drink and sun) to give them some oomph. I obviously needed to use a drink brad in the center of my flower as well. I didn't want my sentiment to be too overpowering, so I put it on acrylic and used drink eyelets to hold it in place.

My LO for this week is of my gorgeous neice and I earlier this year. I used some CTMH flourish stamps as accents and had some matching chipboard and paper that I got at Michael's that I obviously can't remember the brand of and am way to lazy to go look up. I have a little bit of bling for accents, and did some stippling on the matting to give it some depth. sorry that it is sort of at a weird angle.

Thanks for looking, love to hear your comments.

First House Mouse Submission

2009-04-20T00:10:00.001-03:00

So I have always loved the House Mouse line of stamps from stampability and they have been on the list of things to buy for a while. However after my blogstalking resulting in finding the House Mouse and Friends Monday Challenge I had to splurge. I am REALLY certain that the definition of addict is to make a special trip to the stamp store for a challenge you think sounds like fun. I am so full of excuses.

So the challenge was to use multiple images on your project in any way you wanted. I ended up with 2 versions of my card and don't know which one I like better so I am posting them both. They both have several uses of multple images.

I had to stamp each image multiple times to get all the details to show up the way I wanted

I wanted to make the lollipops stand out so I stamped the image first on cardstock, then again onto white vellum. I cut the vellum lollipop wrappers out so they are a little crinkley like real suckers would be.

In one card I sent cut out a 2nd bunny too.

So both cards are on CTMH cardstock, coloured with their inks and I used a sentiment from them as well. Dollar store ribbon. To make the lollipops shiney and have some definition I added some Glossy accents, and it doesn't show up very well on the picture but the cup is painted with Vanilla Bean twinkling H2Os. Also I wanted to have some dimension in the sucker sticks they are embossed with a plain white.

I am glad I found this website ladies, you are going to get a christmas card for next week because that was the only other house mouse stamp that our store has in stock (apparently they can't keep them on the shelf right now!!).

Bryn's Beary Box Entry

2009-04-19T15:46:00.000-03:00

My friend Bryn also did up a layout for this week, but we forgot to take a picture of it until just now. His faceplant posting was a pain to link to so until I can convince him to get his own blog or whatnot I will share.

I have to tell you that I am so excited for Bryn, his work is looking really good especially considering this is his 2nd lo EVER!! That is right, EVER. I have brought him over to the darkside, and got him into cards and everything.

Beary Box 22

2009-04-19T15:39:00.003-03:00

Boy oh boy am I cutting it close today. I am going to post first, then go post the link then come back and edit.

Ok first the card. Love these little hedgehogs from Rachelle Anne Miller. I used some CTMH ink to colour them. The paper is SEI and Daisy D's, hearts are die cuts off my sizzix. Had to add a little bling so I used some glossy accents on the stamps and some stickles.

This is another wedding layout from Denices wedding. In the picture is my sister, me, Denice's sister and of course Denice. Sitting in the chair is one of our childhood nanny's Elizabeth who we were so glad to see her there and looking pretty healthy.

The title is vellum one from one of the DCWV "Once upon a time stacks" and the patterned paper is from another one of their stacks and is all flocked. I wanted to keep the background fairly simple, but I thought it needed more than just the flowers so out came the sewing machine. I have added a closer view of the stitching because I am impressed that an old hand-me-down machine had such a cool option. If you look really close you will see that there are slightly different shapes, which is because one was done in forward, the other was done in reverse.

Have a great week ladies.

Blogstalking!

2009-04-12T01:59:00.001-03:00

So I have been blogstalking again, and there is a whole series of people having "blogoversaries" with give aways. The catch is posting a link on my blog, so here I am! Seriously, this is what happens when I am sick, can't get to school and can't sit up to scrap or stamp. It is starting to get a little out of hand here eh?

I would seriously LOVE for someone to tell me how to be able to link with a picture on a sidebar so if you know how PLEASE tell me.

Loras Cards

Carols's Paper Playce

Everything Paper Crafts

Lainys Little Blog

Stamped Smiles

Creative Ideas by Katharina

Yvonne's Creative Cards

All The things I love

Judy's Crafty Moments 10000 hits celebration!!

Starsdust ribbon and gems (open until 14th)

Malin's Birthday giveaway (open until 12th)

Crafty C's Creative Library (Closing on the 18th)

Inked Inspirations (closing on the 19th)

yummy scrummy create (this is a reminder to myself cause it hasn't happenned yet!)

Beary Box 21...

2009-04-12T01:00:00.000-03:00

Oh wow, I knew I had been off the ball but I hadn't realized it had been this long since I spent quality time in the scraproom!! Well one course is totally done, and so long as I can make it to school during the days that leaves the nights wide open for getting some challenges done. A word of warning I still have a TON of wedding pictures requiring attention for my dear Denice so I should probably get going on those!

Ok so on to the challenge pics. I was so inspired by the butterfly and my new CTMH set that I knew exactly what I wanted to do as soon as I saw it. So alchohol ink on transparency, then stamped with staz-on in, cut out and bent a little. Almost everything is CTMH because I am on a binge with them lately (also they are still in the top of the pile!). Ribbon and the paper on the right edge are random Michael's brands. Sorry for the strange angle, my camera is acting up tonight. Oh I had to add a little stickles for some bling!

I wanted to show a side view because the camera didn't do justice to the gorgeous way the butterflies stand off the page, I am very happy with them.

Last but not least, for those of you who aren't face stalkers you may not be aware that one of the fabby DT member Shirley is having a very important birthday today!!! Happy 40 Shirley!!

Thanks for looking.

Beary Box Card Challenge 13

2009-02-15T01:25:00.000-04:00

Happy Valentines Day to those of you who celebrate it and have people to share it with. If you are like me and are of the school of telling those you love how much you love them at every possible opportunity, yeah for less jewellry ads!!

This week I am away from the scrap space because I am house sitting. My Dad and I do lots of really random art projects which I will post as I get my part (ie the painting part) done. I didn't even bring scrap stuff with me because I am so behind on my painting his folk art projects! Maybe I should go take a pic of the stack....

So on to more exciting things. I know that my nanny will have a Vday card for me, so I definately had to make a card for her, and my aunt is having a rough time lately (the doctors thought she may have cancer, turned out to be pre-cancer so that is good) so I made one for her too. I also divided a clover plant the other night so I am going to give each of them a clover plant too.

I haven't decided which card is for who yet, I just love each of them so much. I think that the amazing dragon (from... shoot I forget, but I bought it from treehouse stamps) is going to go to my nanny and the rainy day (bought from BearyBox of course) will go to my aunt. I hope that you like them!

Images are stamped with staz-on, then coloured using watercolour pencils. I just got one of the brushes that has a resevoir in it... best thing of life!! Used a little cuttlebug embossing folder action to get the swiss dots, and the hearts were all cut out with sizzix. Sentiments and the flower border is CTMH.

SOO, I am a little behind.

2009-02-04T00:10:00.000-04:00

So I have been feeling like my scrapbooking mojo has been off the past few weeks, I haven't had any desire to craft at all. I have loved the sketches that bearybox has been doing, but just haven't been able to get my butt in gear. I am home on a snow day today and thought "Well self, you already cleaned the house, cleaned out your closet and you have no school work home with you. Lets see if we can jump start some creativity".

I decided starting with a sketch would be the place to go. Again I am still working on my friend's wedding album so they get priority.

Here is the sketch

And here is my take. I got these great flowers from the boy when he wanted a new video game and they were still on my desk, so I started with them! Journalling is left blank for the bride to fill in with her thoughts.

I also had a page that was half done for a few weeks ago, and I love the brads that I used on it so I am going to share it while I am here. I finished it up today, although its not award winning or anything! The pics are from us getting ready for the wedding ceremony at the bride's parents house. I did the hair for 3/4 bridesmaids.

How cute are the hairdryer and lipstick brads?!?

Happy Scrapping!

Some new Challenges

2009-01-06T00:38:00.000-04:00

So I have been blogstalking and checking out stamp sites and all sorts of things over the holidays. I have found some interesting challenges, and as my stamp collection is still a work in progress there have been a few I haven't been able to participate in, but have been added to the wishlist for later.

I have also found some sites that are ok with you using products that aren't their own. I am really enjoying http://sweetnsassystampers.ning.com/forum . They had a really fun release party with a blog hop on friday night and I have started working on their challenges. I will also be purchasing many of thenew sets that were released because they are gorgeous!!

The first was the technique challenge was to use the paper tole technique in which you stamp at least 3 images they cut 2 of them apart and layer sections of the origional image. The result is beautiful, but is seriously time consuming. I pulled out a stamp that I have had for at least 10 years for this one, and it was probably not the greatest choice. The cutting was insane! It can be seen below from both the front and the side so you can see the pop ups.

The second challenge I have done is their colour challenge using black, grey, white, pink and gray. I really am enjoying the new Bazzil embossed cardstock, it makes me smile. Again these are stamps that I have had for so long I am not even sure what brand they are, but if anyone is interested I will go find them again. I like the colour combination in this one and I hope that you like the way it turned out.

I did a little bit of water colour penciling on the stampted images now that I have gotten the technique down a little better, it took a little while but one can do it with a brush, you just want a small one. And you REALLY don't need much water. So I have found if I take the brush, dip it in the water, run it up the side to get the extra water off then blot it on a paper towel I get a much nicer effect than I had been previously. This will even work if you are using a regular cardstock and not watercolour paper, just for the record.

Thanks for looking.

Its been a while

2009-01-05T23:35:00.000-04:00

Well I have been rather deliquant over the past few weeks, even though I have a bunch of things to post and have become super into stamps over the holidays. I got a shiney new camera for the holidays, so I am excited about showing you some of my pictures!! I would like to take the time to show you my first real christmas decorations with the man I love.

So that is the tree all lit up and not so lit up. I know the tree is big, but it looks SOO real and you wouldn't know that the lights were LED unless you got really close. That was the selling point for me actually and so the dear BF bought me the tree! If you will look closely you may notice that the top of the tree has a hideous topper on it, but it was the most acceptable thing we could find. I will have to either learn to crochet or hit some craft shows next year. I made the skirt myself, but its fairly plain so I won't dwell too much.

I also decided that since this is our first christmas living together and that the BF has never had his own stocking I would make one very special for him. So off we went to the craft store to pick our fabrics. He had never been to a fabric store, and very little concept of what fabric he could use. The first one he chose was drapery material and was super heavy and like $100 a meter or something obscene like that. Then next was flannel. The third he was convinced was perfect; it was a thin cotton, so I could totally make it work. He wanted pengiuns so he got them. Then I edged them with some bling ribbon so there could be a little shine, and then embroidered his name on it just for him. I did however realize upon completion that there was no place to hang these stockings other than putting tacks in the walls and that they may be a normal size but I get carried away...so the stocking was filled to overflowing and put in a pile with the rest of the gifts from santa.

Hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable holiday and is looking forward to a year of wonderful suprizes, crafting and breaking every resolution you made. Within the next 3 weeks if you are trying hard enough!!

Beary Box Card 7

2008-12-21T13:58:00.000-04:00

Does anyone else feel like the past week just sorta got away from them? I don't really have that much to show for it, but I know that I didn't get anywhere near the amount of crafting done that was on my list!! I did get this card done though. It is for my friend who is a fellow mechanical engineer (hence the gears, and since I am a super nerd they are made of thick card stock so that they will actually mesh and turn if you turn the very bottom one). I love this little stamps and I played with my cuttlebug dies too. I have also realized that after 3 years it may (ok is DEFINATELY) time to get a new cutting board for my sizzix!

I have also learned that I don't have anywhere near as many sheets of die cuts as any self respecting scrapper should have. I did a combo of tracing and freehanding the shape in the corner, and given how much I love that shape I should have more of them. I mean really!!

Ladies, I wish everyone a great holiday season. Remember that calories eaten in celebration don't actually count, so enjoy all the great flavours of this time of year. I hope that Scrappy Santa finds everyone and that the only coal is from charcoal pencils....

Beary Box Card Submission 6

2008-12-14T11:11:00.000-04:00

I hope that everyone is having a great weekend. When I sat down to make this card I was not in a Christmas frame of mind, and I really wanted to play with the new stamp I bought. Since the stamp is so wonderfully girly I wanted to use a some bling and some flowers and TADA! Here you have it ladies.

I am so very into circles right now, I love this sketch and will probably use it again.... I hope everyone's holiday shopping is going well and that santa and his elves are going full out on stamps, ink, papers and all of the things us good little girls deserve in our stockings this year!!!

I am just starting my layout so it may not be done in time, but I will probably still post it if anyone cares.

Dneero 3

2008-12-08T18:05:00.000-04:00

Beary Box Layout- Gracie

2008-12-07T14:25:00.000-04:00

I am still in a festive mood so I decided to work on some pics from last year. I accidentally printed the pictures out glossy (which I hate because they photograph badly, and always end up covered in fingerprints... grrrr.) so my apologies for the glare.

This picture is of my cousin Grace, her parents and my parents. This was our first time actually meeting this beautiful little girl and she was so well behaved and happy even though she was only about 5 months old and it was getting late. My mom looked awkward holding her at first which I found funny. My father, being the funny guy that he is, decided that Gracie (since he had already shown the rest of the world!!) needed to hear the story of his 8-ender in curling. For those of you not familiar with curling, that is like getting a hole in 1 in golf while a gopher was trying to steal your ball. It was a lovely way to spend last boxing day and I hope you enjoy my layout.

I am excited because I found my Swartz crystals (I am not even going to try to spell the rest of it). I am also lovin the Falalala line, unfortunately its super hard to get. So I have a combo of CTMH, Falalala, Cuttlebug and punched snowflakes and a little stitching for sport.

Have a great week ladies, keep up the great work!!!

Beary Box Card Submission Week 4

2008-12-07T11:55:00.000-04:00

If you are like me, you are reaching the point of having Christmas cards coming out your ears and even with the amazing array of new and non-traditional colour paper this year you are still getting a little sick of red and green!! For this weeks card I decided to use some less than traditional colours with a stamp that has been sadly underused this year.

The picture looks a little crooked for some reason, but trust me, my retentiveness would not allow that to happen. I think its just that my flash was giving a huge amount of glare and its about to pour out of the heavens here so its pretty freakin dark!!

Hope everyone is starting to feel festive!! Wow, I can't believe how that camera angle is bothering me.... that will get fixed once I finish my layout I think.

Colleen's Pylon Theorum

2008-12-01T21:04:00.000-04:00

So there has been a whole lot of construction around my apartment lately. Being a keen observer of people, I have realized several things. First off; a large proportion of people forget or choose to disregard basic rules of the road shortly after attaining their lisence. This seems to become a more serious issue when there is potential for precipitation of some form or approaching major holidays.

Secondly, and the main focus of this rant, approximately 90% of people enjoy speeding. This is despite many posted limits, and I admit that I can be a speeder. What I have issues with it that there is a newly passed law which states "Speed fines will be doubled in construction areas", which I think is a fantastic idea. However, according to the majority of the population of the Halifax Regional Municipality construction zones are not defined by the large orange signs stating "Construction Zone" followed by a posted speed limit. Nor are the signs telling you that the lane you are driving in ends in 500 metres (which is a completely different rant... seriously people, why let the jerks that rush up the ending lane in? You are just encouraging them). The theorum I am putting forward today states

"Drivers of motor vehicles will not slow down for posted limits, construction signs, construction workers or flaggers; however upon spotting a pylon they will immediately slam on the brakes. Said pylon need not be in their lane, on their side of the road or even have any potential to impact their drive whatsoever, it only need be in their line of vision. Upon passing said pylon the driver will remove foot from the brake and return to pre-pylon speeding"

I have been observing this phenomenon for months now. If you can come up with significant evidence to counter this theorum, please reply in comments.

This weeks Beary Box Entry

2008-11-30T22:41:00.000-04:00

This week I only got a layout done for the competition. Well that isn't completely true, I was at an all day crop on Saturday, and I did do a card using the layout but I forgot to take a picture of it before I put it into the box of cards to be donated to our troops overseas to send home throughout the year.

So my layout this week if of my neice and my nephew at their respective 1st birthday parties in Sept. They both thought the tissue paper was much more exciting than presents. Heck, Tyler got so excited that he tried to steal Emily's tissue paper at her party too!!

I love the bright colours that these pics allowed me to use, it was a little strange given the amount of Christmas cards I have been making.

Hope everyone is having a great week, I haven't even had a chance to see how many entries there are this week. I hope that there are lots because I am having so much fun with these challenges.

Dneero 2

2008-11-24T00:28:00.000-04:00

Beary Box Layout Submission Week 2

2008-11-23T01:04:00.000-04:00

So there is a whole lot of underlying sentimental meaning in this layout. These pictures were taken of my great aunt Fran in 2000 after I had had some bowel surgury, and she was about a year into her recovery of hers. Both of us were having slow recoveries and had lost an incredible amount of weight so we started a weight GAIN contest (can you believe it?!? In case you were wondering I have reached and surpassed the point of healthy weight...oops). Well about a month later she sent me a letter of encouragement, which I found yesterday when I was sorting out my non-scrapbooking crafting supplies to move them out of my parents house. Fran has since passed, and I think this may be the only actual letter I have from her not to mention probably one of the last that she wrote as her eyes were failing (the writing is very shakey). The letter is tucked behind the pictures.

I chose black and white because right after I found the letter I immediately had to go scan pictures of Fran to scrap with, and being at my parents house I didn't want to use all their printer ink, also, the pictures are taken at a family coffee party where the theme was "clashing" so it would have been a nightmare to match anything to. It turned out to be a great plan, because as I was pulling out paper I found the one I used as a background which happens to be called "Sparkle Rasberry Delight" from the Chocolate chalet line of Cloud 9 Designs. As soon as I saw the name I knew it had to be done on that piece because we used to pick rasberries at the cottage and she and my grandmother could live on chocolate (without putting on weight, unlike me). Finally I thought that her sparkling personality deserved the glitter letters, and then I obviously had to use some of the Heidi Swapp Glitter flowers that I have been hoarding for "That perfect layout".

I hope you enjoyed my story and that you enjoy my layout. I was wondering is anyone else having trouble with Blogger randomly rotating their pictures?

Beary Box Card Submission Week 2

2008-11-23T00:44:00.000-04:00

Well Hello Again,

I decided that I would post both a layout and a card again this week because I had come up with my card idea in my head when I found a letter that required immediate scrapbooking. SOOO here is the card.

I love the pengiun stamp. I have several of them and would like to point out to all of those who may stock websites (hint hint)that no matter what the companies try to tell you the sock monkey WILL NOT replace the pengiun this year. I have decided.

As you can also see, I felt the need to play with my brand new cuttlebug embossing dies. I want to use them for everything, they give such instant gratisfaction (definition: gratification + satifaction= gratisfaction, thanks to my boy Shawn). I am also aware that this paper is soooo last year, but I love the use of colours; playful and regal all at once.

Oh, and in case you didn't realise from the HUGE shadow, the pengiun is pop-dotted off the chipboard!!

"Most Embarrassing Layout Competition"

2008-11-19T19:01:00.000-04:00

Here is my entry for Memories in Motion's "Most embarrassing Layout Competition"

http://www.memoriesinmotionscrapbooking.com/

There are several awesome aspects of this picture I would like to point out, but have a look first.

That I embossed using a regular marker... and missed a whole lot of spots. Oh and of course there is a whole lotta dust all over the page, but you probably can't see that
There are fingerprints from the markers all over too
The LACK of colour scheme or any consideration of palette, pattern or continuity
The fact that there is a profuse use of templates to cut out pictures and paper. Only one of 4 stamps on the page has any actual relevance which is pretty rockin too
I also enjoy that the layout has no real use of a visual triangle, or any sort of outline other than the letters.
There is no journalling or labelling of any form. I give it another 2 years and I have no idea who these people are.... (ok so maybe a little longer than that, because I still talk to some of them thanks to faceplant, but you know)
I would also like to point out that there is also leopard print used as the mat of one of the pictures. I should win just for that simple fact.

I hope everyone enjoys this and has a great laugh.

Thanks for the great competition idea kelly!!

Field Mushroom Soup?!?

2008-11-19T17:57:00.000-04:00

After much ado...
I have a serious problem with Tim Horton's newest flavour of soup; "Field Mushroom Soup". Guess what Tim Hortons? Button, portebello's or porchini mushroom DO NOT GROW IN FIELDS!! They are grown in dark places in compost. There are other types of mushrooms that are grown in fields such as oyster.

It all has to do with what type of fungi the mushroom is. please refer to

http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/apr2001.html

If by any chance Tim Hortons chefs are reading this, please remember that the public is not as dumb as you think we are...and can I get some free soup because of your false advertising?

This was a far less exciting rant than I had hoped it would be. I guess I let it fester to long. Sorry Guys.

Frowny face

2008-11-18T02:38:00.000-04:00

Well I had a far less than productive day. I didn't make it to school because I was exhausted, I learned that I only needed to enter a card OR a layout instead of both for the bearybox.com challenge and neither of mine won (there was only one prize, the card that won was way nicer than mine anyway, I just wanted free stuff), my present from shawn (Christmas tree) doesn't light up all the way, and we went to see "Quantum of Solace" (major letdown).

Here are my thoughts on the Bond movie;

1) When did the Bond villans get so normal? Mr. Greene is NOT an acceptable Bond villan name and I understand they they are trying to make an action film that is relavant in today's world, however the classic Bond villans had fantastic names.

2) Why did Bond get not one cool gadget to play with? He had a sweet car, but it didn't do anything. The had some pretty cool computer screens and things of the like, but no actual toys at all.

3) Cheezy sexual inuendos were what made the classic films so good.

4) I must give props for the impressive chase scenes. They really did some neat things that somewhat redeemed the movie. I don't want to go into too much detail and wreck things.

I still think that the movie was OK, but it definately will not become a classic and is far from the calibre of the last one. That is that rant.

Moving on to Christmas Trees....SO Shawn decided that he needed to set up the christmas tree he bought me for my christmas present(I am aware that it is still November, but we are slow to do things. If we start now it may be decorated by New years). Inside the box it said "don't return to store, call our handy hotline if there is a problem". Well there is a busted string of lights so we called the hotline. It was random, but we will have to call back during regular business hours.

Again, I have not finished my research on my Tim Horton's Field Mushroom Soup expose, so maybe tommorrow.

Dneero

2008-11-17T13:25:00.000-04:00

I do a lot of online surveys, so I thought I should add them to the list here too.

Please Check out the surveys for me, and feel free to join the fun

Beary Box Card Submission

2008-11-17T03:25:00.000-04:00

Hello Again

I have completed my card and I am going to post the sketch

And I am going to post 2 pics of my card because in one you get a little overwhelmed by the glitter because of the flash, but I really want to showcase how beautiful this angel stamp I found in the depths the crop room of my Local Scrapbook Store (LSS) is.

I hope that these give you a good look. Other than the glitter and my colouring with watercolour pencils, I stuck to a very neutral brown pallet. The sentimant is "Love and Joy come to you". I am to excited about Christmas to make any other sorts of cards right now!!! I asked Santa for a Pentax D200 camera so we will see if I have been naughty or nice.

Hope you enjoy!

First Beary Box Submission

2008-11-17T01:28:00.001-04:00

So recently I have been watching a new scrap site, bearybox.com. Love the people who run it, the ideas that are being posted, the products they carry, prices and most of all AMAZING customer service. I want to help grow this site and since they have started layout competitions I figured I would stretch my scrapbooker muscles and participate. I mean how can there be anything wrong with the potential for gift certificates while getting things done. So they give us a sketch, and we then interpret it. This is the sketch we were given.

This is my interpretation. I used pictures from the summer and really loved the way that the blue of the water and the sky worked with the red in everyone's clothes so I ran with that and added some glitter (because seriously, a layout isn't done without glitter!). It didn't photograph as well as I would have liked, but there is not such great natural light happenning in my house right now...ok there is none cause its the middle of the night.

Hope that everyone likes it, I love feedback.