Oh No!

I think I have a new addiction. Or should I say another!
I've always enjoyed being a part of scrapbook forums. First there was Scrapbook.com and Scrapology then Pick of the Patch, Just Cre8, Scrapbook Fanatics and a few in between. More recently there's been Art Freckles. A couple months back, at my friends insistence, I registered on Sisterhood of Scrap. I haven't been on it since.
Then this past weekend my hubby helped our son and daughter-in-law move into their new condo. I chose to stay home knowing that I would hinder more than help being in a wheelchair. So, with nothing (important) to do I decided to do some web surfing and ended up on Sisterhood of Scrap (SOS).
Boy, does this forum have a lot going on!
There's no store which is a good thing as I'm trying to use up my stash. Besides, I don't really need anything. (shhh - DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT ever say you heard me say that!)There's product talk and techniques which is great but I can get into that in more detail on other sites and/or tutorials. The thing I like is the everyday scrap and non-scrap conversation that goes on between a lot of very friendly girls. They are all supportive and respectful of each other and have fun along the way.
Now, I am not a huge fan of challenges. And they have lots of them! I do not work well under pressure and generally any layouts I do for a challenge, I do not end up liking. But, I happen to stumble across a card making one and an altered art one.
I made a card (using a metal frame) and had an altered cheese container (the laughing cow) that I made a while ago. So, I added those. But the one that really made my mojo jump was a culinary challenge having to do a layout about pancakes. Well, from a young age I taught my daughter how to make pancakes from scratch - none of this 'just add water' box stuff. She is now a pancake pro and I have an awesome picture to prove it. Actually I have a regular picture of AWESOME pancakes that she made for Shrove Tuesday.
So, I journaled and made a layout.



It's simple but it's all about the story - oh yeah, and the pancakes!!!!!!! I taught her well but her finishing touches by far make her the Pancake Queen!
I think the challenge called for the recipe but I thought it would look too cluttered so I guess I fail the challenge.
That's okay, I feel like I'm a winner just by having reconnected with SOS.
Drop in and say hi.
Be warned though - you may just get addicted!

'Spotlighting' Technique

Thanks Marlene. No, I really mean it, THANKS!
Marlene let me in on a little secret. I had discovered Splitcoast Stampers but little did I know that you could go to their gallery and find cards for every SU stamp invented. It's jammed pack full of inspiration. After spending way too long in the gallery, I decided to read the forum. I went to the 'Techniques' section where I found this tutorial on the 'spotlighting' technique. I decided to give it a try. Again I used one of my favourite stamps - 'Elements of Style'. (lol - how'd you guess!)
I stamped the image with black ink on white cs then again 2 'portions' of it on more cs. I coloured the smaller portions and punched them out. I then punched a larger circle to create a border. I glued them down lining them up with the main image. I stamped the hummingbird and handcut and used foam tape to adhere for a bit of dimension. I made a banner label and attached a little brad. It was all matted on 2 layers of patterned paper (SU Blueberry Crisp).



And a Closeup



Love it - think I just may need to do this technique again.

Pretty in Pink

I love the colour black paired with anything - but especially with pink. It gives a feminine touch without being too 'girly'.
I also love,love, love the look of toile.(especially black) So, I took my SU 'Elements of Style' stamp and loaded it with black ink and stamped away on a piece of smooth white cardstock. I then had to do something with it so this is where the pink came in.
I inked up the flourish stamp in the same set with versamark and stamped on pink cs to give it a soft, subtle background. I put it all together with more cs and black dotted paper (Websters Pages) then decided that for the centre I would punch a circle and partially stamp and colour with SU markers. I added the 'for you' sentiment, again from the same set, and some black dotted ribbon, a button and bow.

Here is my card



And a Closeup



My card was finished - or so I thought. My creative juices were still flowing but I didn't want to start another project so I thought I'd make the inside pretty too.
I used a decorative corner punch and matching border punch on a piece of the lighter pink cs. I adhered this to the inside base and added white cs for my sentiment. It still needed something though. So, I drew a black border along the white cs and stamped and coloured a single rose in the corner. I added a strip of sheer ribbon along the top with a little bow. (yeah okay - I admit that the cs was crooked and I messed up - gotta love ribbon! LOL)



And a closeup



NOW I'm done! It looks so soft and pretty seeing the scalloped border along the edges when the card is closed. It's the finishing touches that count. (or at least satisfy the finickiness in me!)

Have a good week folks!

ONEderful

I can't believe that hubby's little grandson is 15 months old. It seems that the older I get the faster time goes - another reason to never get old!
My stepson and his wife live in Ontario so we've never gotten to hug or cuddle our little grandson. We do hear him cry and scream and laugh and gurgle on the phone though. It's also entertaining to hear stories from the 'kids' as they adjust to their new role of parenthood.
We keep up to date as much as we can and were recently given a 'Sears' photo taken last month.
I wanted to scrapbook it but knew that I didn't have the right paper. So when I browsed the pages of my Stampin Up catty and saw the 'Blueberry Crisp' paper, I knew it was just what I needed!
So, here's little Alex at one year old. He's such a cutie!!!!



And a closeup



It's hard to see but the edges are distressed all around then purposely torn on the right side. I wanted it to be like old torn blue jeans or rough and tumble like a little boy. I decided to cut a circle for his name and ink and 'stitch' it like a baseball to mimic the one in the photo.

It was fun making this of our ONEderful grandson but not as wonderful as it would be to actually hold him.

Love my 'Geek Club'!

Well, it's actually called 'Technique Club' but hubby calls it 'Card Club' which is okay by me but my beloved offspring, who I will not mention, refers to it as 'Geek Club'- lol. That's okay by me too because I enjoy it no matter what you call it. And isn't that what it's all about?!
Anyways, last Sunday we made 2 amazing cards.
The first one was quite involved.
But you know, it's my own dang fault! I commented on the beautiful card and how I'd like to make it when I saw it on the instructor's blog. The talented Marlene Peters
a demonstrator for Stampin Up. At one point when I had no idea what I was doing, I thought to myself 'this'll teach me for opening my big mouth!' - lol. But as I did one step at a time, it all fell into place.

Here is the beautiful card I ended up with.



Here's a closeup - blurry but you get the idea.



The Big Shot was used a LOT! We used a letterpress plate to add the 'love' background then each of the butterflies (cs and vellum) were both cut and embossed with the Big Shot and also a dotted texturz plate was used to emboss the cs 'panels'.

Lots of steps but it's so purty though.(yeah, that's my geekiness talk).

The next card, I absolutely LOVE. As a matter of fact, I just may need to order this stamp. Again, we used the BS (no, the other BS!) to emboss the edges of the card then masked it and added an allover french script stamp. We then stamped the cherry blossoms and coloured it in with SU markers and added a touch of white gel pen. A button and fabric bow was added.



And a closeup



Beautiful!

But the real fun begins when you open the card up. We scored and stamped and folded and cut and what a great effect - love, love, love it!



And a closeup



When I got home and showed it to hubby, I commented that I was going to send it to my mother for Easter - he agreed but then added - or MY mother - she'd like it too!
Looks like I better place that stamp order quick.

Card Club? - true.
Technique club? - oh yeah, I learned a lot - Geek or not!

Celebrate Good Times - Come On!

There's a party goin' on right here
A celebration to last throughout the years
So bring your good times, and your laughter too
We gonna celebrate your party with you
Come on now
Celebration
Let's all celebrate and have a good time
Celebration
We gonna celebrate and have a good time.

Okay now that I can't get Kool & The Gang's song out of my head as I'm sure anyone else who is reading this, I guess I should at least let you in on the celebration!
This weekend we are going to my son and daughter in-laws first home. They just bought a new condo in Langley (a Vancouver burb) and become proud first-time homeowners this weekend. We'll pick up a bottle of bubbly and we'll order pizza. Of course there will be no furniture yet but one of the advantages to having my disability is that I come with my own chair (w/c) and always have a seat.
So while everyone gets comfy on the floor I'll be sitting high with my pie!
To make this happy occasion even more exciting, they just found out that their little one due in the summer, is going to be a BOY!
WOOHOO!! - another generation of goalies.
So, in honour of this double celebration I have made them a 'It's a Celebration' card.



I 'borrowed' the idea from a card made by the talented Jill Sarginson. Thanks Jill!
Cupcakes seem to be the 'in' thing now and I didn't have a cupcake punch, die or stamp. So, I followed Jill's lead and made my own out of some punched circles. For the cup I just cut a square and trimmed the sides on the diagonal. The circles were inked as was the cup which was also lightly sanded (core-dinations textured cardstock).All was matted on 4 different layers with a SU stamp used for the sentiment. Ric rac, bows, buttons, brads and even some bling for sprinkles were added. I usually don't like working with bright colours but I enjoyed making this and it really does look like a celebration!!!

...We're gonna have a good time tonight (Ce-le-bra-tion)
Let's celebrate, it's all right
We're gonna have a good time tonight (Ce-le-bra-tion)
Let's celebrate, it's all right ...

B stands for Busy and Big

I've been busy this week getting ready for our important BC Ataxia Society meeting. You may recall how I went to Toronto last month to attend a meeting with Santhera Pharmaceuticals about putting in a submission for drug coverage of a recently approved drug for Friedreich's Ataxia - the first one ever!! It gives all ataxians hope and regardless if it helps me the important thing is that it may help my grandchildren or future generations!
Exciting times for research!
Well, now I need to have a special meeting with our members to explain the gist of our workshop and prepare a submission to the CADTH - basically the big shot drug guys in the gov't.
So as a result, my scrapbook desk is cluttered with legal papers, documents and files rather than paper, scissors and glue. Something I do not like!!
On a brighter note though - I have BIG news! BIG as in BIG SHOT! That's right - I'm getting one!! WOOHOO - Doing the happy spin just thinking about it!
My hubby has been out of work for some time now so there was no way it was in my near future. Meanwhile, there was a lot of talk on a scrapbooking forum about Copics. There seemed to be a lot of people wanting them (many of them being SU demonstrators) Well, I just happened to have about 70 Copics with storage cases, blending pens, blending solution and a DVD and tutorials all about them. So, a little incandescent light bulb went off in my head. Seeing how I seldom use my Copics then maybe I could trade them to get something I really wanted. Hmmm??? I placed an ad (okay - so it was a post). Of course you get inquiries and those who want something for nothing but then BINGO! A SU demonstrator was willing to order me a brand new Big Shot with the extension, texture plates, etc. and some new dies of my choice and ship it all to me in exchange for all my Copic stuff! All I needed to do was pack 'em up and ship 'em out! Sweet deal for both of us - no money exchanging hands, she gets what she wants and I get what I want which makes two very happy campers!
She's still waiting for the rest of my order to come in - the Big Shot itself is on backorder - figures with my luck! - but then it'll all be on it's merry little way!!
I can hardly wait!! Watch for lots of texture coming soon to a blog near you!
Meanwhile, I better get back to the 'ol grind - still gotta make up the Agenda for our BCAS meeting, do laundry, make supper ... I hate when reality calls and gets in the way of my scrapbooking!

That's all for now Folks. Have a great weekend.

A Tutorial - kinda/sorta

Still feeling under the weather a bit (must be the dull, rainy days) so this weekend I decided to just do some blog hopping and make a couple of cards.
Thanks to an on-line scrapping buddy I was pointed in the direction of a new blog - chic n' scratch. I love it and have added it to my fave's list on the right. It is chock full of tips, techniques, tutorials and tons of inspiration. Anyways, I saw a card on there that I thought I'd make - it was cute and simple - perfect!
It's a tri-fold card. I decided to make two of them - heck if you're going to pull everything out and make a mess you may as well go for it.
I'm going to give you the dimensions and basic instructions hence the title - a tutorial - kinda/sorta!
These are the ones I made - a 'Happy Birthday' one and a 'hello baby' one. (both stamps are Stampin' Up)






I like to cut all my paper first, so this is what you'll need -
11.0 X 4 1/4 - for the actual card base (we'll call this colour #1)
2 3/4 X 2 3/4 - colour #1
2 1/4 X 2 1/4 - colour #1
2 1/2 X 2 1/2 - colour #2
2.0 X 2.0 - colour #2
1 3/4 X 1 3/4 - colour #3 (white or cream)
4.0 X 3 1/4 - colour #3 (inside sentiment)
4.0 X 1 3/4 - colour #4 (see *note)
1 1/2 X 1 1/2 - (optional - see **note)

Note:
* - colour #4 is the panels on the front of the card. They can either be in a patterned paper, a cardstock run thru your Big Shot and given some texture or a fabric, lace, whatever - use your imagination.
** - You can either stamp a greeting or image onto your small white piece for the centre (as I did on the 'Happy Birthday' card) or you can cut a smaller piece of patterned paper and adhere to small white piece (as I did on 'hello baby' card)



Okay, are you with me so far?

Good - now score your card base at 2 inches and again at 3 3/4 inches. Now do the same on the other end.
Use a bone folder and neatly crease, folding the 2" line back and the 3 3/4" line forward. (if you look closely you'll see that I messed mine up - oopsy!)

It should look like this:



Adhere your panels onto the sides of card front.

Adhere your large white piece onto the inside of your card.

Now start layering to make your centre square:
Start with your 2 3/4 X 2 3/4 colour #1
Add your 2 1/2 X 2 1/2 colour #2
Add your 2 1/4 X 2 1/4 colour #1
Add your 2.0 X 2.0 colour #2

now either stamp a sentiment or image or adhere your 1 1/2 X 1 1/2 piece of patterned paper onto your piece of small white cardstock.
Use a pop dot or dimensional to adhere this to the centre of your layered square.

Now simply adhere this to the left side of your card center.

And voila! Go ahead and embellish as you like.I added a flower and pearl to my HB card but kept the other one simple by just inking the pp and white cs edges before adhering.

I like this card because it's so versatile. You can stamp or not, colour or not, paste or not, add embellies or not, use patterned paper or not and you can make it for any occassion.

I hope I didn't make it sound complicated. It really is easy - promise!

Have a good week.

And the Winner is...

I've been feeling under the weather lately - something hopefully the antibiotics will clear up soon ... BUT today I was perked when I read this:

Ingvild Bolme
Hi all. It's the 1st of March today, and I promised to draw the winner of the new Prima flowers today!
And the winner is;
-...

Shannon Burt Connors! with this comment "Beautiful as always! Was more than happy to share".

Congrats Shannon! ;O)

Ingvild is one of my most favourite scrapbookers. I love her style and shabby chic designs. She designed the new 'Corine' star shaped flowers for Prima (also one of my fave) and offered a giveaway on her facebook page - all we had to do was leave a comment and share her link on our wall. Eh Voila!!
I'll be stalking the postman (all the way from Norway)!
I'm feeling better already! :)