Scrapbook Swaps

Right now, I am looking for a few more participants in some open swaps over at Scrapbooking Fun

If you are interested - register and sign up. The paper line for Imaginesce Apple Cider is beautiful and so much fun to touch!

If you want to create a swap that is not paper based - check out the anything but paper swap.

If you want some fun Christmas embellishments, check out the Christmas Kit swap.

Note: If you are new to the site or swapping, you may be limited on participation. If you do a lot of swapping, please be sure and let us know which site and then you should be allowed to sign up for more than one.

Thanks!

Free Online class

I am teaching an online class over at Scrapbooking Fun on Monday 9/13. It is a basic notepad - the type you hang on a refrigerator.



If you are interested or would like to attend - check the details and supply lists over at Scrapbooking Fun. You need to become a member of the site to participate in the free monthly classes.

Above is a photo of the project. I did not create this project on my own or anything. I found it at a craft store and thought the notepads really looked fun and useful and could even be added to gift baskets with appropriately themed paper.

Great Blog Candy!!

Looking through blog links and found a great blog candy giveaway over at Scrap'n for Fun. You can find the information HERE

Also - anyone into scrapbook swaps, I will be setting up a rather challenging 52 week swap on several boards. No, you don't mail weekly, but every other month you will need to mail items. You can sign up for one week, two weeks, every week, every month, whatever. Nothing too hard, but should be lots and lots of fun. Right now I am looking at listing on the Cricut board, Scrapbooking Fun.Biz board, Sketches 4 All Board and maybe one or two more. Limit of 9 participants per week to keep things moving. More info by September 1 :)

Some scrappy file folders from old swaps that I have created.

It has been a while

since my last posting, but things have been flying. Another short trip coming up for dd and myself. Should be a lot of fun. Not a typical shopping and sight seeing, but camping and the great outdoors.

If you have some time to do some surfin' ran across this fun blog with wonderful candy this morning over at LiFe AnD tImEs of A 12x12 ADdiCt

Putting together a new swap group, using microscope slides as a base over at Scrapbooking Fun.Biz. Come join in the fun if you enjoy swaps. Check out the Day 2 Day section if you are looking for some simple challenges. This great group of ladies just finished up an 11 day scrapbooking challenge. Wow are some of these women talented! I wish I had more time, but with Day Camp in the midst of the challenge and temps near 100 for most of that time, I just didn't have the energy to complete anymore. However, I do have a pile of items on my table to finish putting together when there it time. Too bad non-adhered layouts don't count. LOL

Speaking of Challenges - have you visited Sketches 4 All yet? There are a ton of really fun (and challenging) things going on over there and some of the gallery items are really rockin!

I have a few layouts posted at the sites mentioned above, so just sharing some fun type photos. The kids have been very busy this summer - below are a few pictures either they or their friends have taken from around the United States.





For those of you who know us, we do have a lot of pictures of each flying item at the Air and Space Museum and at the AFB another boy visited. Boys went to different sides of the country and guess what I have the most pictures of? Just makes me smile - and I am getting better at scrapping various airplanes, rockets, helicopters, missles, etc..







Why a photo of the Tick Habitat sign - we just had to laugh. After living in this area, it is easy to forget that looking for ticks each night was not a common/daily practice when we first moved up. However, this sign just made the boys smile and reminded them of home.

Check out this fun giveaway

Head on over to Stacy's blog HERE and look at all the wonderful Tim Holtz products she is giving away this month!!! Hope I win :)

Another Sketch

Just completed another sketch challenge for Brenda's group over at Sketches for All.

Here is her original challenge sketch:

I really liked the simple lines and ability to focus in on a single photo, however, when looking through my page kits (kits of paper/photos/embellies I want on a page), I found photos that just seemed to fit better than my thought of a single, larger photograph. I am not sure why the photo looks as it does - however, you can see the whole sketch over at Sketches 4 All.

Below are my results:


The papers are from DCWV Rock Star Stack, the music note stickers are very, very old - I cannot remember when I purchased them, but they are me & my Big ideas stickers, the flocking is from a rub-on flocking kit by We Are Memory Keepers and the letters were all cut from the Alphalious Cricut Cartidge (top ones are Short Stack, lower ones are standard). Brads are from Around the Block and another I can't remember and the flower, I think, is Heidi Grace. Best part - everything came from my stash and the layout was a blast to pull together.

For those who know me, you know that the back piece of paper has a rather large hole in the center - that is what I used to cut my letters out for the titles. Black scrap served for other accents - same with photo mat - it is a scrap from a My Mind's Eye Laundry Line swap I recently completed. Love using stash products. Everything was pretty much "leftovers."

Found some Thyme

Time to surf that is and came across this fun blog called Sketches in thyme. They have a challenge going right now, using this sketch:



The wonderful sketch above was designed by a very talented woman, named Monma, and you can find her blog and absolutely beautiful work at her Blog .

Anyway - my results are a bit different, definitely more masculine, but I am pleased.



I used Basic Grey's Max and Whiskers line, Cricut Everyday Paper Dolls cartridge, AC Cardstock, and other stash items (like the Cabela's lure spinner thing, assorted scraps and journal note card, which, when lifted, reveals journaling underneath).

All in all - a really fun project. Hardest part for me, once I chose a picture, how to adhere everything so I can put the final copy of the photo down. This one didn't come out right, so I have ordered a replacement.

"old" Advertisment inspiration?

Yep - paging through an old Stamping Arts and Crafts magazine - it suddenly hit when I saw this part of an add from All Night Media, Inc..

While I didn't want to use stamps - I thought about dry embossing, core-dinations and how that may look. I finished the standard dry-embossed one, looking for the right core dinations papers now.

Below are my first set of results (as well as the ad).




I created the above as a card front, but then found a picture of kids "scouting" out new bugs. It goes well, so this "card" may be converted/used as a photo mat. My older pictures are all 3x5, so it will fit perfect.

Short Term contest over at Scrapbooking Fun

With all that has been going on lately, I wanted to do something happy and fun, yet very, very simple.

Visit Scrapbooking Fun and you will find details under challenges. It is the June Quickie Challenge. Each entrant can earn up to six entries into the drawing and things are pretty simple - create a layout, create a swap, take a photo, etc. Stop on by, say hi, and enter. You may win a fun set of stamps I found when clearing my desk :)

Busy time here. My grandmother passed away and we have been rather busy. I grew up two doors down from her and she had taught so many lessons. It is rather bittersweet to let her go.

I am sad that we have to let her go here on earth, but rejoice that she is now in heaven. She now partakes in an eternal celebration.

And the race is on . . .

Here they go - Jiggles vs. her shepherd. She runs all over wherever he tends to be. So they decided to race around and back to the bucket. Know what we found out????

Jiggles Cheats!!!!! Silly Lamb - cheating isn't good. Her little shepherd is going down here and she won the race! She discovered that hitting behind the knees will bring down whoever is in front. However, she did come back to see him once she realized he was no longer with her.

If you want to see how Jiggles has grown, go back to January 2009 posts - that is when she was born. Sheering next week.

One Relaxed Cat (and boy)

Orange-o and his owner sacked out for a few zzzzz's on a Sunday afternoon. Sure wouldn't want to think the cat isn't comfortable.

Below is the new dog, Freddy. He is a Beagle/Basset mix and will hopefully train well and quickly to take over for Spot who is currently 15, and having quite a few health issues (we thought he would pass away last summer, but made it through with some TLC). However, we did need a new dog to take over Spot's duties of keeping animals out of the barn and garden. Fred is learning quick, but is still scared of the sheep, cows and ducks. He keeps coming to me when I try to snap photos another will come soon.

Keeping Busy

New Babies, Scrapbooking Fun Swaps and Practical Scrappers Challenge projects (scroll down for details :)).

New babies all around and swaps - yes, it has been busy. Helping with a petting zoo tomorrow, so the animals are all getting ready. Below you see Walnut (the little guy) and Peanut. Peanut is growing well and still gets excited to see her bottle. Walnut is now a bottle baby because his mother tried to kill him. She will be leaving soon. Walnut got his name because he will be bigger than a Peanut when he is grown.



Below are some layouts I created for my page sketch swap over at Scrapbooking Fun. I had a ton of fun putting them together and they will accommodate 4-7, 4x6 prints.

Beach Layout - created with the Cricut Life is a Beach cartridge. The blue polka-dot paper in the lower of the two images is removable - just there for photo placement. All the swaps have different backgrounds.Family/Heritage Layouts. Below is my starting sketch (it will be included with all swaps). I vary a bit, but not too much. When designing these pages, I have a stack of 4x6 photos on hand that I place upside down onto layouts for sizing. This layout allows for 6 photo's, easily, more if you scoot stuff around. This layout is also the first one of my pieces for a Patterned Paper challenge at Practical Scrappers I used three different patterns from the DCWV Indian Summer stacks. The other is below in the Primary Colors section





Nature Layout - I am having fun with the Whitewash Core'dinations papers. They really do well when trying to create understated embossed images. I also used some pre-glittered felt with these (as well as regular felt). My design studio comes in handy for titles. This sketch is very similar to the Heritage layout sketch, but I think that one large and two 4x6 would look best. However, it easily accommodates 4-6 4x6 photos.





Primary Colors Layouts - I enjoy mats for some pages, others, I don't. Lately I have been using a lot of Stazon and inking the edges of my photos or leaving a white edge on the photos rather than matting. You can see a small version of the sketch for the top two layouts in the second layout. The third layout is designed to handle 2 larger photos with memorabilia up near the top or 5, 4x6 photos. The Blue background layout is my second one for the patterned paper challenge over at Practical Scrappers . I enjoy using different patterned papers, though kept them pretty minimal here to maximize the user's ability to utilize the layout.




One regret with a few layouts - now I wish I had thought to do a bit more inking :(. Maybe next time.