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

Oh my goodness!!

It has been so long since I have posted here.  It's no wonder I don't have any followers, I just neglect this blog so much and when I don't neglect it I don't have much to say LOL

Well, I worked hard from the first part of September up to the first part of November and from then til now I have been very ill.  Caught a bug in my lungs that just wouldn't go away until after a few trips to the Emerg and some Ventolin and oxygen treatments, then some steroid treatments.  Finally I am starting to feel a bit better and can breathe much easier.  Hate that I missed the last months work though.

I really did enjoy working at Pride Seeds though, OMG it was so much fun and I earned myself a wack of money that I wouldn't normally have had so I really enjoyed spending that on things that I really wanted but never thought I would get. :)  Getting up at 6 in the morning was so new to me and I never thought I would be able to do it since I am not a morning person but I really did enjoy it and having Ester to ride with me every morning was just a joy.  I am already looking forward to next year, and planning where I am going to spend that extra money.  I know a lot of it is going toward my scrappy addiction. :)   Working at LaPrise Farms was no fun and I did NOT enjoy that at all, sitting there watching Brussel Sprouts passing by on the conveyor belt for 8 hours was just not my cup of tea at all.  It was extremely cold and the cold cold air did not help my lungs.  I was so very happy when the doctor said "stay home, it is making your lungs worse, working there", I could have kissed him. LOL

The only thing was that while I was working I didn't have any time for my scrappy addiction, heck I didn't have much time for anything.  I left home at 7am, got home about 6 or 6:30pm, made dinner, tried to eat without falling asleep... took some time to relax for a while and was back in bed by 8:30 pm at the latest.  Sunday was my day off and I tried to catch up on my housework and laundry.. to get ready for the next week.  So I am really happy to be finally able to get back to my scrapping again. However, I do need to get out and get some scrap happy supplies which I plan to do on Wednesday. :)

I have been working on DT challenges but I can't post those right now, so you will have to wait to see what I am doing with those.

 For the present time I have been watching a lot of YouTube Videos... Jennifer Mcquire mostly... OMG, she sure does some lovely work and I like that she only promotes stuff that she really likes and not because she gets free stuff to promote.  She has some amazing technique videos on her blog which means a lot to someone like me who has absolutely no talent whatsoever.  I absolutely recommend her blog for anyone who is looking for something new to try.  She mostly works with cards.  Desiree Kuemmeile is also absolutely fabulous, I have watched so many of her videos that I have gone wonky.. she is fabulous!  You really do need to go check her out!  Those are just two that I have been stalking.  I recommend that you keep a notebook open while you are watching because there is so much that you will want to write down while you are watching them.  I have a notebook with each page given a different title, embossing & dies, Stencils, etc so I can make the notes in a place where I can easily find them when I need them. Other wise they would just be jibberish when I need them the most.  The main thing I have learned is that I NEED a lot more dies, stamps and many other supplies.  Oh yes, many many supplies.  I think I am going to have to cut food out of my budget.  I have learned that I am going to have to start drinking wine while crafting... no, I didn't learn that directly from them, I learned that if I want my projects to look as good as their's, I am going to have to be drinking wine ;)  I know that this is only the end of November but I am going to make a resolution to be better at blogging and I am going to find some way to get more followers.  I am going to start making projects that will attract those followers to my blog to see what I am creating.

I am not on a lot of Design Teams, or on Design Teams for any manufacturers, but I do use a lot of supplies from different manufactures and they should be interested in seeing how their products are being used so somehow I am going to drag them to my blog to see.  Yes, this is a big resolution but where there is a will, there is a way so I am told.  So we shall see.

I would like to leave you with an explosion box that I completed but don't have any photos in just yet.

This is what it looks like closed.

When you remove the lid.

When it is fully opened, you can put a photo on each one of the patterned paper squares. It will contain 30 photos, or you can just add journaling on one of the squares or even an embellishment.

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

Best Mom Ever

Today's challenge was to use lot's of layers.  I think I pulled that of with this layout of Tammy with her oldest son.  I used Photo Play's  Best Mom Ever papers for this layout. All embellishments are from the same paper line. I love that Photo Play includes such great embellishments with their paper packs.

Thanks for stopping by.
Jackie