December It's a Sketchy Challenge

Jill Sarginson designed a really neat sketch for the December sketch challenge over at Canadian Scrapbooker magazine.  I actually followed it pretty completely!  LOL  Totally out of character for me but it sure does speed things up.  All the details here if you want to play along with the challenge and have a chance to get published in CS magazine.  Here's the sketch:

And here's my take of the sketch using the wonderful Cosmo Cricket Christmas line!  I cut a couple of snowflakes with a Cricut die cutting machine, then dabbed them with Diamond Glaze so that Sparkly Fibers by Clearsnap would stick and add a little bling to the layout.  The title letter stickers are some American Crafts thickers.  

Little Black Dress

For my third (and last) month as a guest designer for ScrapShotz, the kit was primarily comprised of products from Basic Grey's Little Black Dress line.  Now I'll just go back to being a regular subscriber.  When I opened the box, I was not excited.  I don't know why, probably because I am usually drawn to happy, bright colours, and the kit papers were greys, blacks and browns....  


Just goes to show you why it is good to step out of your comfort zone (why I truly love monthly kits) and create with something that you would have never purchased in the store yourself.  I really love all the layouts I made with the kit and could not believe how versatile the papers really were.  Have a look - I used vintage photos in a couple, but also used pictures of my cat Rusty and photos from this spring.  The kit also featured Glubers, a really big glue dot from Cosmo Cricket.  I ran out of Glubers pretty quickly, and just hand cut some circles from a sheet of Sookwang Tape I had in my stash to get more or less the same effect.  On the top card, I just tied a knot in some American Crafts grosgrain ribbon, stuck it in the middle of the Gluber and wound and twisted around and around until I ran out of glue dot.  Stick pins are Maya Road. Love them for adding a little extra to cards!

I was looking around for some different things to try with my Glubers and my eye caught a roll of tulle I picked up at a second hand store once.  Perfect!  Same technique as the ribbon, just tied a knot in one end, plunked it in the middle of the glue and started winding around it.  To add a little colour, I dunked some tulle in a glass of water that I had added a few drops of a Distress Ink reinker (faded lipstick, I think).  Worked great for adding some subtle pink to the tulle.

Close up of the Tulle Flowers

my thrift store tulle - the whole roll cost somebody $9.95 once, but I think I bought it for 50 cents

some of my my fantabulous friends at my surprise 50th birthday party

I used a Spellbinders diamond Nestability die to cut the shapes.  And don't you love the leopard or cheetah pattern with a cat picture?  LOL  The beautiful textured coppery paper is from Canvas Corp.

 

I think this is my favourite layout from the bunch.  The papers worked perfectly for some old photos of my uncle who passed away a few years ago.  I also use Scrapbook Adhesives photo corners for these kinds of photos so they could potentially be removed and duplicated in future.  Not sure if any other copies exist besides these.

Some Quick Christmas Cards

I am running on warp speed these days, but that is not unusual.   I have a tendency to take on too much and try to do too many things.  Christmas cards kind of fell through the cracks this year - I don't make or send a lot of them any more, but still like to put together at least a few handmade cards for special people.  This morning, while waiting for the UPS delivery guy (who did NOT show up as promised) I starting thinking about making a few quick christmas cards using old supplies in my christmas box.  Way in the bottom, I dug out some Gin-X stuff.  I really miss Gin-X products.  I suppose it's been years since they have been in business, but I still have part of a pizza box full of their paper and chipboard coasters.  Always such great colours and fun to work with.

Anyway, I had a couple of more or less intact sheets of Christmas chipboard coasters from Gin-X.  And I was in a hurry.  So, I put together a half dozen of 'five-minute' Christmas cards.  I like them.  I got to use up 'vintage' supplies, the cards look nice and they hardly took any time at all.  
So if you are a collector of christmas supplies like me, dig to the bottom of your box, fancy the products up with a little dry embossing or sewing and put together some quick cards.  It feels good.

I embossed a piece of cardstock with a Stampin Up poinsettia embossing folder, stitched around it, glued it onto the card and stuck on bits of Gin-X chipboard with dimensional foam adhesive by Scrapbook Adhesives.

 

These ones are pretty much the same, minus the ribbon but plus an Anna Griffin 3-d sticker I also found in the bottom of my box.  I think I have enough Gin-x chipboard for a couple more cards, and if I can't find any more stickers, I can stamp something christmassy or print out a vintage image from the internet and pop it up.

Done. Time to move onto something else. The men in my house have been asking about Christmas cookies. ;-)

Sixteen Days of Giving! Win! Win! Win!

Well - if you like to enter contests for free scrapbooking supplies, get on over to Jackie's blog.   Canadian Scrapbooker magazine is hosting a fantastic series of Christmas giveaways!!  Something new and scrumptious every day for sixteen days.......  starting yesterday, December 5.

Here's how it works:
Each day for 16 days in a row Canadian Scrapbooker will be sharing a Christmas project with you along with a prize package. Leave a message under the blog post or under the facebook post for each post in order to be entered for all 16 prizes. Names will be drawn randomly and you can win more then once if you enter your name for more then one prize package!  Deadline is midnight on December 20, with winners will be announced on Dec 21st!


Here's today's project and prize package.  Isn't this great?
 

 
 
ooh, and here's yesterdays prize package that you could win too!!!  Gorgeous!!!!  Go enter!  And check back on the blog or facebook page every single day until December 20 for a new project and prize package!!!  Good luck!
 

A Graphic 45 Cone Advent Calendar

I purchased a petal cone Sizzix die from Stampin Up this summer and it inspired me to make this advent calendar.  It was photographed in the winter 2011 issue of Canadian Scrapbooker but you can't see all of it, so I've reassembled it for my kids and photographed it.  Not an easy thing to photograph, but here's some bits.    I used the Graphic 45 Christmas Past paper collection - it is actually so beautiful that I almost hated to cut it up, but the paper does look nice in a cone shape too!   I decorated each paper cone with odds and ends - lace and trim and ribbon and such, and did the numbers with Technique Tuesday number stamps and Stampin Up ink and punches.  This advent calendar goes together pretty fast.  I played around a little with the trims - they were too 'white' for the paper, I needed an aged look, so I dipped them all in some cold brewed tea (then wrung them out and air-dried) for a perfect vintage browny shade.

I hung the cones on a dead tree branch - this one in the picture is not as branched as my original model, but daylight is short, the wind is howling and I just grabbed what was handy.  You could also hang the cones other ways - maybe from a rope garland and attached with clothes pins?

 My kids just love it, and the cones are big enough to hide a Kinder Egg or an individually wrapped Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.  I have also put a loonie or a few quarters in some of the cones and anything else I could think of that was smallish and fun.

Why not just rip out the playground?

From the Wye School website:

Playground Expectations Update:

In order to clarify some recent playground miscommunications, the staff at Wye has reviewed the following expectations with their students:


Due to safety concerns we have discussed the following games: Red Rover, Sand Man, and any Tag games played on and around the playground equipment. (slides, climbing structures etc.)

Students are allowed to play Sand Man during their Physical Education classes.


This actually clarifies nothing.  Sounds to me like running is still banned on the sand since that's what is around the playground equipment.  And it also leaves me wondering if SandMan is such a dangerous game, why is it allowed during phys ed but not recess??? 
It's a ghost playground. The kids aren't playing on it because they are not allowed to run on or near it and they get chastized for doing anything that looks like running. I have heard reports of girls reprimanded for dancing and cartwheels on the sand.   So stupid and so frustrating.