Game Face - layout

First of all, I have to say this.........

GO BIG RED!!!!!!!

Okay, now that I have that out of my system....lol I also have to say that the photo of my kids on the second page (acting like the statues) is by far one of my most favorite photos of my kids ever! lol I have a copy of this on my fridge and it makes me laugh every time I look at it. It's great for those times when I'm grumpy. lol This layout covers a couple of challenges. It was my submission at Practical Scrappers for their Bling Challenge that was last week (yep, I'm late on sharing mine here on my blog!) and it's also for a sketch challenge at a great Yahoo! Group called ScrapFromYourStash. The sketch is by Shawn at Nuts About Sketches. She has tons and tons of awesome sketches, so be sure to visit her blog to see them!!!!

Things are still crazy here.....I'm averaging one page a week......which I guess is better than zero! I'm trying to pull out all of my winter clothes right now, pack them up and move in my summer clothes. I need to do that for little GG, too, so I have quite a bit of clothes to go through!

I hope to share more with you soon!

Practical Scrappers Card Sketch

The current card sketch at Practical Scrappers is just awesome! I really enjoyed making this Thank You card.....(I need to mail it! I keep forgetting!). Be sure to go here to see the sketch and all of the other amazing cards that have been made following this sketch.

For my card, I chose to use a small doily for the main circle. I'm not sure if you noticed, but the scalloped-rectangle piece of paper is a scrap left over from the paper that I used on the layout I shared a few days ago. The title is stamped.....I'm embarrassed to say that I have had that Stampin'Up! stamp set for probably 8 years and I just now cut that stamp out to use on this card. For the flower, I punched out 4 different sized flowers and curled up the edges with a small, wooden skewer. Then I added fine glitter to the edges with some liquid glue and added a small rhinestone in the center. I am really having fun making these 3-dimensional flowers!

I hope you all have a wonderful, crafty day!

Markers Challenge @ Practical Scrappers

Good morning! This weeks challenge at Practical Scrappers is to use your markers! I have had the full set of Stampin' Up! makers for many, many years and I must say I can't believe they still work so wonderfully. I guess that's a bad sign that I really haven't been using them that often. ;-) So, I was really excited to see this weeks challenge. I have been trying to use them more and I think that I'm actually really enjoying all of these markers for the first time since I bought them ages ago!

I really wanted to challenge myself and think of something that I hadn't done before. So, I decided to color on some thick, cotton "ribbon". I'm not sure what this stuff is called, but it's not ribbon, it's more like yarn or flat cotton twine. Anyway, I decided to use blue and pulled out three shades of blue markers. I put some Mono Adhesive on both ends of the twine and stuck it to my work surface, so it wouldn't move around while I colored on it. Then, I just started making lines of different thicknesses for each color and followed the pattern all of the way across the ribbon. Easy as pie and it matches my layout colors perfectly!!!! :-) If you click on the picture, you can see a bigger version of it....I forgot to take a close-up of the colored twine!

Obviously, this layout is about our love of Whole Foods. lol We go there a little too often.... ;-) It can be pricey, but I find that their 360 house-brand is quite reasonable. Really, all that I buy there right now is organic produce, some beauty/bath items, Keifer and organic coffee. That's my one, big splurge. Organic coffee. lol My little one loves Whole Foods, too, especially their cookies! I know that people like to call it "Whole Paycheck" but I really do find that if you buy what's on sale, use coupons, and buy their house-brand, that it's not too bad. Plus, I'd rather pay the extra for things that I know are better for me and my family.....but that's an entire different topic! ;-)

I hope you all join in on this challenge at Practical Scrappers! Please visit us there, check out all of the amazing projects and add your own to Mr. Linky!!!!! It's a wonderful place with wonderful people and a great place to get inspiration to use the supplies that you have!

Rub-On Challenge @ Practical Scrappers!

There are always lots of great things going on at Practical Scrappers and I sure do hope that you make some time to stop by to see all of the fabulous projects that are shared there!

This weeks challenge is to use Rub-On's! I don't have many and it took some rooting around in my stash to find some, but I finally stumbled upon a sheet of rub-on words that all focused on "love". So, I thought of the stamps that I have seen where the words are all fitted together to make a shape and I thought that would be a great thing to try to do with these rub-on's! I crossed my fingers and started rubbing each word on, one by one, and just hoped that it would turn out into a rectangle shape. It worked great and I'm really thrilled with my card!

For the flowers, I punched a large flower from three shades of blue, a medium flower in pink, and a small flower in light pink. I crumpled them all up and the unfolded them a bit, stacked them on top of each other and used a small, flower-shaped brad to hold them all together.

Please stop by Practical Scrappers to see all of the great inspiration there for using rub-on's! Join in on the fun and leave a link to share your projects! We sure would love to have you visit!

Flowers challenge at Practical Scrappers

This weeks challenge at Practical Scrappers is to use flowers! I'm really sick, but wanted to quickly share two projects where I have used flowers.......

For my layout I punched out several flowers and added them around my journaling....

For my card, I added a crochet flower that I had accidentally made while trying to make a round dish cloth. lol I really messed up following the directions, but ended up with this and I knew that I had to use it on a card or layout. Silly, I know, but I think it looks kinda cute!

I hope you all are doing well......I started feeling sick yesterday and it hit me fast and hard. I tried to get some sleep tonight but just couldn't, so here I sit at 1:38 a.m. Ugh......I hate bad, head colds! Take care........ :-)

Card Sketch at Practical Scrappers

Here is this weeks card sketch at Practical Scrappers!

And here is what I did with it......

I stamped the title and colored it in w/ a blender pen and markers. I hand-cut the hearts from some scraps of felt and then did a simple stitch around the edges with brown DMC floss. Kinda fun, huh? lol I think I'll try making some other shapes from felt, too.....like flowers!

We would love for you to play along and show us your creations using this sketch, so be sure to go to Practical Scrappers and post a link to your card on the Mr. Blinkie for this weeks card sketch.....you will have to scroll down a bit to get there!

Valentine's Day Card - coloring your brads

Here's a card that I made for the brad challenge at Practical Scrappers. It's funny, because this card isn't anything like what my original idea was! I actually used the images that I had stamped for this card to make another card with. Crazy how that happens! lol

I have some alcohol inks that I hadn't ever used and I honestly don't know anything about them or all that they can do. But, I wanted to color my brads red! My embossing gun broke, so I couldn't cover them w/ embossing powder......I tapped them in some red Ancient Page ink, but I didn't know if that would every dry.....so then I remembered my alcohol inks! Luckily, I had some red, so I put a couple of drops on a metal lid and dipped the tops of the brads in the ink until they were covered. Then I stuck the ends in a piece of thick foam and let them dry over-night. I was so happy that it worked! lol Like I said, I don't know a think about all that these inks can do and I'm sure that a lot of you already knew that this would work. I really need to do some research on these, because I know that they are a great tool just sitting in my drawer unused. The stamped image is colored in with my Stampin'Up! markers and a blender pen.

An easy card for one of my special Valentine's!!!!! ;-)

Brad challenge at Practical Scrappers

This weeks challenge at Practical Scrappers is to use brads! I had so many ideas running around in my head on how to use them for some samples, but I just didn't have the time this past week to work on much of anything crafty related. I did get one layout done, that I'm sharing with you today.

For my layout I put a brad in the top two corners of the patterned paper and then holding a strip of fabric on that's at the bottom edge of the patterned paper. I knew that I had to pep those brads up a bit, so I ended up putting a small, blue rhinestone on top of each brad to give them a bit a razzle-dazzle. lol This is a super-simple layout of my little Gracie when she had her first cold. She looked so pitiful. And, now that I'm sitting here looking at this layout, I forgot to add my journaling! I told you it's been a crazy week! lol Guess I had better go do that!
Please be sure to visit Practical Scrappers to see all of the amazing projects that are being posted by the design team and the wonderful people who submit their creations with Mr. Linky. All of the inspiration there is absolutely amazing! And please join in on the fun, too, and share your creations using brads this week!

Die-Cut Challenge @ Practical Scrappers

Here is a card that I made for this weeks challenge at Practical Scrappers to use your die-cut machine or store-bought die-cuts. I used 3 different Cuttlebug dies and added some small rhinestones in the center of some of the flowers to jazz it up a bit. lol I stamped the phrase in black ink and then went over it with a light pink marker and blender pen.
I also made this bookmark that's created using the corner of an envelope. I have been wanting to share this idea for awhile, so I went ahead and did up a tutorial for you all. You can find it in the post below this one or just click here. I used a paisley die from Cuttlebug and cut out three colors of cardstock. Then, I mixed and matched the pieces to make colorful paisleys to decorate my bookmark.

I have more to share, but I'm buried under tons of Girl Scout Cookie paperwork right now! lol I need to be working on it, but I keep getting distracted by sharing new projects here and working on layouts. That's not good! So, off I go......time to work.....it's just 12:50 a.m.....eek. It's going to be a long night!

Envelope Bookmark w/ Tutorial

Something on my mind....I -heart- Books

I've been wanting to share with you how to make these super-easy and totally fun bookmarks for quite awhile now. I made one for this weeks challenge at Practical Scrappers (which is using a die-cut machine of any type) so I decided to take pictures as I went along making it and now I can finally show you how to make them!

The base of the bookmark is made from the corner of an envelope. You can use any size, I have a business-sized envelope and a card-sized envelope pictured above. You can use regular-sized envelopes as well, but your bookmark will be smaller. These work the best if you know that you'll be using your bookmark in a small, paperback book. So, you might want to think about what size you need (how big or small your books are) before you start. For my bookmark, I used a business-size envelope.

Seal the envelope first. Then, make a cutting mark with pencil as shown above:

*business-size envelope mark at 3 3/4 inches at the top and at one side

*card-size envelope mark at 4 inches at the top and at one side

I'm sorry, I don't have the measurement if you use a regular envelope. Just measure the envelope and see how tall it is and make your marks about 1/8-1/4-inch smaller than your measurement.

Place the envelope in your paper cutter so that you can see the cutting mark lines. Center the lines in the center of your paper cutter and then cut the envelope. If you don't want to use a paper cutter or don't have one, simply draw a line from one pencil mark to the next and then cut. You can also draw the line and then cut it with your paper cutter. This helps if it's hard for you to see exactly where you need to cut your envelope.
You will end up with a triangle, that has one open side, like a pocket. I forgot to mention that you can sometimes make two bookmarks from one envelope, if it's long enough to cut the corners off of each side! This would also be a great recycling project. You could use junk mail envelopes, because we will be covering the envelope with paper and that would hide any printing, etc.
The next thing that I did was to figure out how I wanted to decorate my bookmark. You can do this first, of course, but I usually get my bookmark base done first and then I start pulling out things that I think I might want to use to decorate my bookmark with. Sometimes I already have an idea, but a lot of times I don't. This time I didn't, except that I knew I needed to use a die-cut for the Practical Scrappers Challenge and I was leaning towards using my paisley one. So, I pulled out my sticker binder first and started flipping through it. I knew that I wanted a word of some kind on there and I found this sticker w/ a Bible verse on it. I liked that it was about "hope" because I really need to be putting my hope and faith in God better, so that's when the rest of it came together. I started going through my paper scraps and found the paper (one pattern for the front and one for the back), then I went through my blue color drawer and found some paint swatches. I liked this one because the name of the paint was "Inner Harbor" and I thought that was pretty fitting for a bookmark about hope.....God is my Inner Harbor. Whatever you decide on, just be sure to think FLAT. You don't want to use buttons, brads, eyelets, Prima flowers, etc., because this will be too thick. You want you bookmark to be flat so that it lays nicely in your book and doesn't blemish or mark the pages of your book.
Next you need to cut your patterned paper to cover the base with. You can either measure it like you did above for the envelope, or place your base on the corner of the patterned paper and use it as a template to mark the patterned paper. Cut one triangle from each piece of patterned paper, or two of the same.....or just one for the front. You don't have to cover the back really, unless you want to! lol Adhere the patterned paper to the front and back (or just front) of the bookmark base. I use a glue runner and I run the glue all the way around all three sides, as close to the edge as I can. I don't like the paper to gap between the patterned paper and the envelope base, if that makes any sense. It also keeps it nice and smooth and stays together better....helps keep the edges nice and flat.

For this bookmark, I cut a piece of the patterned paper that I was using for the back that was about 1/2-inch thick and then cut along one edge with some scallop deco scissors. I then put it on the side of the triangle where the opening pocket is. Then, I turned it over and trimmed off the excess.

So, here is my finished bookmark. I really love how this one turned out!

Find Rest, my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from Him. - Psalm 62:5

And here are some other bookmarks that I have made as some more inspiration for you!

This is my spot
I made this one for my 13 year old daughter who has her nose in a book as much as I do....all of the time! lol

There is a time....for everything (Thomas Edison)
especially BOOKS

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that it all made sense! If you have any questions, please ask! I'll do my best to help! And, if you make one of these bookmarks, I would LOVE to see them! Share you link in a comment here!

Take care my friends and happy crafting!

Pattern Paper Challenge @ Practical Scrappers

This weeks challenge at Practical Scrappers is to use 2 or more designs of patterned paper on your project. Well, I am totally addicted to patterned paper. I have tons of it. I collect it like fine china. lol I say that because a lot of it I treat like fine china! I file it away in my cabinet and leave it there, because it's so pretty, I just want to look at it all of the time....just like if it was china in my buffet. lol It's silly, I know, but true. Silly and sad! lol So, I've been trying really hard to not collect patterned paper like I used to. I only buy new patterned paper if it's for a specific project. My goal is to use up my massive stash of patterned paper that I have collected in the many, many years that I've been scrapbooking.

So, here's what I have to share:
For this layout, I used eight different squares of patterned paper. I keep all of my paper scraps organized by color in drawer units, so it was easy for me to look through my color drawers and pull out scraps of paper that worked well together for this layout. So easy and lots of fun! I've had such a scatter-brained week (more on that later!), I can't remember where I got the sketch idea for this layout from....sorry! This is my little Gracie during her first feeding of cereal. Such a cutie-a-tootie!

I'm sorry about the darkness of these next photos. I tried to take the photos at night, which wasn't too smart of an idea! The idea for this idea came from sheer desperation. lol My husband gets up a lot earlier than I do, and since I've had Gracie and I sleep in with her as long as I can, he has often left for work before I get up and moving in the mornings. So, almost every morning, I had to call him to see if my little Sophie doggie had been fed or not. Needless to say, this got really old. So I made a sign that I put on our fridge w/ a long magnet. The sign is double-sided....one side says "Sophie HAS been fed" and the other says "Sophie HAS NOT been fed". I used five different patterns of paper on this one. Another project made mostly from my scrap drawers. I also raided my ribbon box and used lots of different ribbons!

For the title, I used my Big Shot to make the letters for "Sophie" and "been fed" and my good, old-fashioned plastic letter template for "HAS" and "HAS NOT". The dog, dog house and food bowl are all stamped using an old Stampin'Up! stamp set that I've had forever. I used pastel chalks and a blender pen to color them in.

Now, before you ask, because I know your wondering......did my husband ever use this? Well. Nope. Not once! lol All of that work and it doesn't get any use at all! He just doesn't think to use it and I don't bother him about it. Oh well. It was a lot of fun to make and sure does look cute on my fridge beside her food bowl. And, I guess I do still bother him about it in a way, because every now and then I do have to call him and ask him if Sophie has been fed! lol

I totally forgot to share my projects for last weeks challenge at Practical Scrappers. It was to use embossing of any type. My daughter had her Confirmation this past weekend and all of last week was complete chaos! Let me just say that it is almost impossible to find a decent dress for a young lady to wear. One that isn't too short, too low, too sparkly, too slinky....too EVERYTHING! lol It took 3 days of shopping and going to almost every clothing store in town before we found something. But, it was so worth it! She looked absolutely beautiful and the ceremony and Mass was wonderful! I will try to share my projects from last week in a day or two.

Take care, my friends.....and happy crafting!

Practical Scrappers Blog Hop Winner!!!

First of all, and most important.......I want to thank all of you who came and visited me over the weekend during the Practical Scrappers Designers Blog Hop! It was so wonderful to see so many new visitors here and to read all of your kind and wonderful comments! I really, really do appreciate you taking the time to visit and comment about my creations! Really! lol

Now, on to the fun part! I had a set of handmade cards up for grabs as a prize for commenting over the weekend on my Blog Hop post. There were 28 comments made and when I used the random number generator at random.org, it gave me this number: 24

Molly O'Bryon-Welpott said...

LOVE how unique you are with your challenges, great stuff and the towel exchange idea is something I am gonna be stealing for my BUNCO group I think:)

Congratulations Molly!!!!!!!!! Please send your mailing address to me at: diannef3@yahoo.com
I'll get your prize out to you as soon as I hear from you!

I invite you all to come back and visit me tomorrow, because I will be posting my submissions for this weeks challenge at Practical Scrappers which is to use two or more designs of patterned paper. I am quite obsessed with patterned paper, so I had no problem with this challenge! lol I also had a few people say that they would like to see how I made my bookmark that I shared in my Blog Hop post, so I am going to try really hard to get that tutorial done and shared by the end of this week. They are super easy and make great, little gifts! My daughter had fun making some for her girlfriends!

Happy Monday to you all and I hope you have a wonderful and crafty week!!!!

Toot Toot!!!! It's the Practical Scrappers Blog Hop!!!!

Hi! I am so happy and excited to be a part of the Practical Scrappers Design Team Blog Hop! If this is your first time visiting me, I sure hope that you enjoy your stay here and thanks so much for stopping by. With February coming up on us very quickly, we were asked to feature a project about something that we love. So, here are some layouts about some of the things that I absolutely LOVE!!!
Coffee. Yep. I LOVE it!!!!! Just LOVE it!!!!! I try to not drink so much, but right now it's almost impossible. This cold, winter just begs for me to have my coffee pot full at all times. lol

My other true love is my iPod. I just can't live without it. I absolutely LOVE music and I always have my iPod by my side. I can't wait until I can get one that has more memory. I have so many songs and it's hard for me to pick what to have on my Pod. lol My main play list is titled "my pod rocks". lol Yep. I love my Pod!

This layout is about all of my most favorite things. I really had a blast putting this layout together, except after I was all done with it, I realized that I didn't have anything related to Coke-a-Cola. I am a tried-and-true Coke-a-Cola fan and I can't believe that I forgot to put it on this layout! There used to be all sorts of Coke scrapping products and now that I need one, I can't find them anywhere! Oh well.....guess I need to cut part of a logo off a 12-pack or something! lol

I couldn't share things that I loved without showing you this bookmark that I made. I am a book addict. Yep. I am. I totally admit it. I have books EVERYWHERE! I can't walk into any store that sells books w/o buying one. I just can't do it! I just wish that I had enough time to read them all! Maybe one day.....lol I need to do a tutorial on how to make these. They are super easy and lots of fun! Plus, they stay in your books really well!

Thank you for stopping by and visiting my blog during the Practical Scrappers Designer Blog Hop. Now here's the really fun part! I have eight cards - handmade by me- and I am giving away as a prize for the visiting me during the blog hop. I am sorry, but I am only able to ship to those of you who live in the United States. All that you need to do to qualify is this: you need to become a follower here and leave a comment on this post. I will announce the winner on Monday, January 25th so make sure to check back in! You should have arrived here from Amys' beautiful site - Paush Design. Your next stop is Joy's wonderful blog - Craftstash. If this was your first stop head over to Practical Scrappers to start at the beginning of the hop. The designers are giving away some great prizes and have some absolutely amazing projects to share - you don't want to miss your chance!

Thanks again for visiting me, please come back often and I hope you enjoy your ride on the Practical Scrappers Design Team Blog Hop!!!! Toot! Toot!!!!!

Bling, bling, bling.....

I'm not quite sure where this past week went, but it sure did go by....I can't say that it went by fast, but it's gone! I meant to share some things with you all here this past week, but I'm just so out of sorts lately. We have been going through so many snow storms and blizzards....I have serious cabin fever! My children just went back to school today! They were supposed to go back last Wednesday, but we ended up having snow days on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday because of snow and bitterly cold temperatures. It was -45 with the wind chill! I wasn't able to get any crafting done then because my scrap area is in our mudroom and wow, was it ever cold in there! It's on a cement base, so the floor was freezing and the window are old, so we had some major drafts. Today was actually in the low 30's and it felt like a heat wave! lol So, my little one and I spent some time in my scrap room and I was able to make a card for next weeks challenge at Practical Scrappers. I can't wait to share it, but you're just going to have to wait and see!

This weeks challenge at Practical Scrappers is to use bling! Bling of any kind - glitter, rhinestones, anything sparkly!
I needed to make a sympathy card for a dear friend of mine who lost her father on Christmas Day. So, I decided to use this lily and I added pale, yellow glitter to the flower and then a small, yellow rhinestone in the center. I stamped the image on water color paper and then went around the edges of the image with my blender pen. That created the water color look outside of the edges of the image and also colored in the centers of the leaves and flowers. I did some old-school embossing on the oval. This is something I learned ages ago before home die-cut/embossing machines were even a twinkle in any of our scrappers eyes! I didn't take any pics of how I did it, so I'll have to make up a quick tutorial on it sometime soon. It's easy and cheap and great for anyone who doesn't have a die-cut machine.

I also shared these samples at Practical Scrappers for this weeks challenge. My Gratitude Journal cover and one of my journal pages where I used glitter, plus this layout that you can see here. I've already shared those here on my blog, so I won't re-post pictures of them now.

I have been up to lots of other crafting! Crafting that I can do in my living room and no in my freezing mudroom! So, keep a look out because I'll be sharing them here soon!

I hope you're all having a wonderful and are keeping nice and warm!