Christmas 2019

Christmas was an exciting time for me this year.  I finally got to visit with all five of my grandchildren.  This is something I don't get to do very often.  My oldest is in University in Ottawa and is also in the Canadian Armed Forces so even when University is not in session he doesn't necessarily get to come home.  The next oldest is attending the University of Western Ontario in London so I rarely get to see her.  The next two usually work on the weekends so if I get to see them it is a quick pop into the store where they work and that is the limit of my visit with them and the youngest one tends to go to Simcoe on the weekends to visit her other Nana.  So it was a real treat for me to get to spend the day with all five of them.

My wonderful daughter and the family gave me an Apple iPad air for Christmas so now I am able to finally activate my Instagram account and upload my layouts to that part of social media.  Not to mention that I just love playing around on the iPad. :)

My darling husband gave me a boom tripod and now I am finally able to shoot process videos when I am creating layouts.. I am so excited that I can finally do that.  I have been wanting to do that for a long time but being able to get my camera in the right position has kept me from being able to do it.

Creative Impressions has their Christmas mini crop going on right now and one of the challenges is to do a family Christmas layout. This is the layout I created for that challenge.

Products used:  Paper -  Basic Grey Aspin Frost

Chipboard - Creative Embellishments

Frames - Forever in Time

Flowers - Silhouette cut file

Title - Silhouette cut file

Stickles

Liquid pearls 

Lace - unknown

cheesecloth

Here is the video of the process.

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 Thank you,
 Jackie

Challenge Yourself

Yes, today is a challenge from the Challenge Yourself blog.  This challenge is to use snowflakes but the twist on this one is that we must use a photo of ourselves. Now this was a tough one for me, because I knew the exact photo that I wanted to use but for the life of me I couldn't find it anywhere. So I set my darling daughter to searching her photos for it but she couldn't find it among her photos either.  I know that I have it somewhere because I have already scrapped it once. It was the only photo I had of me playing in the snow with my grandchildren, So, I had to fall back on another photo.

To create this layout I used some very old stash papers by Bo Bunny from their Winter Joy collection. I love this collection because it isn't the normal Christmas colours. I used a snowflake punch (unknown) to punch some snowflakes from the paper, a Martha Stewart punch to punch a lace edge, and a Sizzix die to cut a circle from the same paper collection. A KaiserCraft wooden sleigh covered with Stickles, some Forever in Time frames, a bit of cheeseclothe and some Nuvo drops completed the layout. This is the layout I came up with.
This layout was also created for a sketch challenge at Scrap, Paper, Scissors.

Thanks for stopping by, please leave a comment to let me know you were here.

Jackie

Scrap Our Stash Challenge

Okay so I am still working on blog challenges and today I created a layout for the Scrap our Stash Blog challenge. Well this was really from some old stash because I for my papers I chose Basic Greys 29th and Pine, I think I have had these papers forever. LOL  As usual, after I cut my papers I distressed them and layered them using cardboard in between to give dimension. Then I gave the base layer a coat of clear Gesso so it would hold my paint well.  After that I sprayed it in some areas with Lindys Stamp Gang inks. When that was dry I used a stencil and texture paste to add more dimension and a bit of a pattern on my background.  Then I layered on my other patterned paper, and added my photos. I fussy cut the ornaments from another sheet of the 29th and Pine paper and popped them up with some foam dots and put some Stickles on them to give them some glitter, they reminded me of some ornaments we used to have when I was a kid. :)  I added a bow, some Liquid Pearl drops a title and I was finished.

This is the sketch we were given to work with:

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 Jackie

Products used:
Basic Grey Papers
Tim Holtz Distress Ink
Tim Holtz Stencil
FinnaBair clear gesso
Lindys Stamp Gang ink
Stickles
Liquid Pearls
Simply Texture Paste

Another Challenge

Yes, I did another challenge, this time from the Studios Challenges Blog . I created this one using the Simple Stories Heart collection again. Since I am doing a lot of old photos for my client I will probably continue using this line of paper until it is finished and then will go looking for more of it, I just love it so much and it fits with those photos so well.
To start this layout after I had chosen the papers to use, I distressed all the edges, distress distress distress. Then I layered on some texture paste using a stencil. Added a bit of shine with some spray ink. Then I started layering on my paper. I used cardboard between the layers of paper to give dimension and popped my photo with foam tape.  I coated my chipboard with gesso before giving it a nice coat of Clearsnap Mixed Media Inx. Then I added my flowers, tucked in some bits of lace and cheesecloth, added some glass beads, some butterflies, the stars and the title to finish it of.

Here is the sketch we were given to use:

Products used:

Simple stories Heart Collection

Creative Embellishments Chipboard

Prima Flowers

Tim Holtz Butterflies

Lindys Stamp Gang Ink

Simply Texture Paste Medium

Golden Soft Gel Medium

Clearsnap Mixed Media Inx

Layers of Color  Art Stencil

Lace Unknown

Glass beads unknown

Heidi Swapp edge distresser

Cheesecloth

Thanks for visiting, please leave a comment to let me know you were here.
Jackie

Remember

I created this layout using the Simple Stories Heart collection. I really love this collection, it has just about everything you need to create many stunning layouts.  The paper is fabulous to work with. I loved working with it, the feel to the fingers was fantastic.  First I cut a couple of slits in my paper in the top and bottom and distressed them. Then I added some contrasting paper to the back. I tore the edges of the top sheet of paper and distressed those.  Then I just basically added my elements. The only thing that didn't come from the collection was the flowers and those I just pulled from my stash and they are unknown. I added a bit of cheesecloth for an added bit of texture. The bling is from Forever in Time. The Washi Tape and Title are both from the collection.

Product used:

Simple Stories: Heart collection

Forever in Time bling

Heidi Swapp Edge Distresser

Tim Holtz Distress Ink

Flowers unknown

Cheesecloth

Some challenges

Well I decided to join up with some challenge blogs and today I did a challenge for the Lasting Memories and the White + 1 blog.  The Lasting Memories challenge is to scrapbook a Christmas tree or about Mittens, I choose to do one about a Christmas tree.
The White + 1 challenge is use white with green.. the sketch provided is:

I really had a lot of fun creating this layout. I started with paper from Craftsmart's Evergreen Cabin. Because I was creating a page about trees I loved the feeling of birch trees that the paper gave.

I then sliced a few slices into the paper and distressed the edges.  I inked the edges with distress ink. I tore off a piece of the green paper and distressed the edge of that and inked it and adhered it to the background. Then I adhered my photos with foam tape to pop them up. Next I cut my pointsettias with my Silhouette Cameo. I gave them a bit of colour with my Faber Castel Gelatos and drew some veins with a Tim Holtz Distress marker, next I gave them a bit of shimmer with some Pearlescent mixing medium, then added some centers with Stickles. I added a bow with some unknown ribbon. To add a bit of "sawdust" to the birch bark using Flower Soft in ivory. After adding my title with wooden alphas from Forever in time I finished of with some Nuvo pearl drops in white.

Product used: Craftsmart paper.

Tim Holtz Distress Ink

Tim Holtz Distress Marker

Silhouette Cameo

Faber Castel Gelatos

SargentArt Pearlescent mixing medium

Stickles

Flower Soft

Nuvo Pearl drops

Forever in Time alphas

Thank you for visiting, Please leave a comment to let me know you were here.
 Jackie

Sweet

I had so much fun creating this layout.  I started with KaiserCraft's Enchanted Garden paper and Recollection's Rose Garden paper.
First I cut into the sides of the Enchanted garden paper and then sprayed it with water to make it easier to pleat the paper. I used Distress Ink in Frayed Burlap to ink my edges after I had used my Heidi Swapp distresser to destress them. I primed my paper using DecoArt Gesso, then using Lindy's Stamp Gang's Starburst Alpine Ice Rose and Icy Primrose Gold I misted the paper. I used a stencil from Folkart and Liquitex Matte Medium to create a pattern around the page. Using an unknown text stamp I made a bit of a pattern on the page by stamping here and there. I tucked a bit of lace into the V.  I cut my frame with a Silhouette cut file, gave it a gesso coating and then covered it with Luminarte H2O Burnt Umber and added some Viva Pearl Pen drops in Iced White.
The flowers are Prima's St.Tropez, I tucked in an antique floral tag from Forever in Time and some pearl loop from A Bride's Wish.  Some bits of cheesecloth, some pearl beads and a title and the layout was complete.

Thanks for stopping by, please leave a comment to let me know you were here.
Jackie

Merry Christmas

It was a very exciting day for me.  Last month I had my regular visit with my eye doctor who told me I had the start of Macular Degeneration in my right eye and that was why I was unable to see anything when I looked directly at it.  He made an appointment for me with the eye specialist and I saw him today.  Good news and bad news, I don't have macular degeneration which is wonderful news because that can't be cured.  The bad news is that I have a hole in my retina and a fairly large one at that and it is right in the center of my eye. The good news is that it can be repaired with surgery, the bad news is that I have no idea how long I am going to have to wait for it. So I am going to be sitting here waiting for the phone call.

Now I have been trying for over a year to figure out how to download the photos from my cell phone to my computer.  According to everyone, it should be easy peasy, just plug it into my computer and then just download them but darn if it would work for me and I tried just about everything.  Today I took the phone to my dealer to see if he could figure it out, he is pretty good and he is so patient with me every time I go to see him about anything.  Well he couldn't figure it out and believe me he tried. Well I really wanted this to work because I have discovered that my cell phone actually takes much lovelier photos of my layouts than my so very expensive Canon does.  This is because with my cell phone I can shoot the picture from the top of my desk where I have the lovely Ott lighting and with my Canon I have to shoot from farther away because I don't have the Macro lens. Well when I got home I took that baby and I started playing with it, I played with settings, I moved things, turned things on that were turned off and I turned things off that were turned on, I locked that thing up so solid a couple of times that I had to do a reset on it.  However, I finally found a spot that said "backing up your data to another device".. OMG a haha moment!!  Within ten minutes I had all my photos transferred over to my computer without any more problems. Only if we would learn to read first!!!


Today I created another challenge for Scrap Paper Scissors. The challenge was simple, to use some fussy cutting or die cuts.  Well, I don't have much paper that I can do any fussy cutting on and I don't have any Christmas dies at all so I was stuck going to the Silhouette store and getting some cut files from them.  Of course they have lots and lots to choose from so there wasn't much trouble finding one to go with my chosen layout.

I started with paper from Craftsmart's Evergreen Cabin, paper pad. Now when I first started scrapping forever ago, I bought the ever needed spindle of wacky edged scissors which I never use, so I decided to pull a pair of those and cut the edge of the paper I was going to use for the second layer.  Then I distressed it pulling the little circles toward the center of the page.  A bit of Distress ink to match the layout was in order, so I sprayed a bit of water on it to tone it down a bit. Next I used a Martha Stewart edge punch on my photo mat and one of the paper layers.  I used a Heidi Swapp edge distresser to distress all my edges.
I tucked a bits and pieces of cheesecloth and burlap between the paper layers for some interest. I also layered some cardboard between my patterned paper for dimension. The clocks and gear chipboard pieces are from Creative Embellishments. After coating the gears with a coat of Gesso I then embossed them with black sparkle embossing powder from Ranger.  I added some white circles using a medicine cup and gesso.  The stitches were added using a stitch stamp from Gel a Tins (I don't know if they are still in business, I have to check that out) To finish the layout of, I used some red Nuvo pearls.

Now I also completed two more challenges for the 12 days of Christmas at Creative Inspiration.. only one more to go there!
Day 4 was to use stamp and die set.. Well I just had the die no stamp so I had to go with what I had.

Day 9 The challenge required us to create a layout using tags. I managed to use two tags on this layout.

Thanks for stopping by, please leave a comment letting me know you were here.
Jackie

Giddy up go

I completed another challenge for Scrap Paper Scissors. This time the challenge issued was by Victoria. The challenge was to use music paper or music notes, and to use red and white paper.

I should note that the photos I am using are not my own, I am scrapping for another lady and these are her children. She is obviously quite happy with the job I am doing since I keep getting boxes and boxes of photos. :)

Of course I am continuing with the 12 days of Christmas over at Creative Inspiration, and today I have completed:

Day 5 a gift bag: To create this bag I used a Cameo cut file, they I used a Sizzix die to cut the tag to which I adhered a puffy sticker, a sentiment sticker and a bit of ribbon finished it off.

Day 6 the challenge was to create a card with ribbon. Now I have to admit my card doesn't have a lot of ribbon but it do have ribbon so therefore it counts :)  Now if I had the rectangular dies this would have been much easier but since I didn't I had to do all the measuring and cutting by hand so it took me longer than necessary. ( the dies are on my wish list) I do love the slider cards.  For this card I used a new stamp set from Inkadinkado and I love the font on the sentaments.

Day 7 Challenge to create a card with fussy cutting. Now everyone knows I love a fussy cutting challenge and this one was no different. I have had this paper in my stash for a long time with all these beautiful ornaments on it. So I decided to cut them out to put on the card. First I gave the card a bit of a coating of Pearlescent mixing medium to give it a bit of a shine. Then I added the ornaments.
Some Nuvo drops and a sentiment finished it off.

Well that is it from me today. Please leave a comment to let me know you were here. Thanks for visiting.
Jackie

Welcome to December

The last month of the year has arrived, oh my gosh where as the time gone!!!!

With December comes new challenges of course and boy we have some goodies! At Creative Inspiration we have the "12 days of Christmas" crop challenges but I can't say that they have anything to do with the song. LOL  You really need to hop over there and check them out.  I completed some of them today.. well some of them last night/the wee early morning hours when I couldn't sleep.

Day 1. Challenge by Stephanie was to create a gift card holder. Here is mine. I fussy cut the ornament and the scroll.. was very pleased with the way it turned out.

Day 2 Challenge by our fearless leader, Bev, was to create a shaped Christmas card..

Day 3 Challenge from Sandy to create a mixed media tag... I had a lot of fun creating this tag.  I just cleaned out my drawers and found a bunch of stuff I had forgotten I had and had never used it so I decided to use it on this. I used Inka Gold mixed with Pearlescent mixing medium and love the way it turned out.

Day 10 was my challenge to create a monocromatic embossed Christmas card with one touch of colour. I used white and embossed my card with a tree and touched it off with a touch of gold stickles.

Day 11 Challenge by Sandy to create a tag using Dies. Once again I had fun by pulling out some things from the stuff I had forgotten I had.  I used some Perfect Pearls in Forever Red here. Then I used a new stamp set from Inkadinkado to stamp the bottom of the tag and then embossed it with winter wonderland embossing powder from Stamp-n-swift. Again I love the way this pulled together.

For Day 12 the challenge was once again from Sandy to create a Christmas layout.  I combined this with a challenge from Scrap Paper Scissors  who are having their "December 's Olde Fashioned Christmas" crop.  The challenge I have combined it with is from Linda's challenge. That requires that we use a red base, red and gold embellies, stripes and ribbon.  Here is my layout.

That is it for me for today, I shall be back with more tomorrow. Thank you for visiting, please leave a comment to let me know you were here.

Jackie