Lasting Memories Design Team

Good day 

I am so doing the happy dance.  Look over a my right side bar...do you see it?  I am now officially a lasting Memories Design Team member.  I am blogging this from my phone so I don't know how to add a link inside the post but if you click on the badge it will take you to their site and you can see it's official.  I really didn't think I had a prayer.  I never even made Top 3, but I am so thankful to everyone.  Yeah...I will add all the designers tonight under the badge.  I am currently at work and let me tell you, it is going to be a long day, hehehehe.  Thanks again to everyone who voted for me and had the confidence in me.  I can't wait for my first posting.  Remember, you can go to my email subscription link and you will automatically get an email everytime I add a new post.  See you all soon.

Hugs

Brenda

MIA and E-craft is in the House

Good Morning all -

Just a quick update why I haven't been here.  I am having some major dental work done, it's a long road, but it will be so worth it in the end...just hope the end is soon.  I even called in sick to work one day this week because of it and I never call in sick.  My craft room is being neglected and I am going through withdrawls...ugh.  I haven't even been on the puter much, missing bloghops, my favorite sites and my email is out of control.  I might just delete it and start over...nah.  Anyway, I am just asking you keep checking back and hopefully I will be on it again next week. 

I did get my E-Craft yesterday and I can't even get myself to set it up...wow, huh?  And it's Purple...YEAH!!!  I am hoping to have a tutorial for you next week early.  If you have any questions about the E-Craft, leave me a comment and I will try to add that in the tutorials.  Hope to see you all next week.  Oh, before I forget, DON'T you forget about Simply Sundays at Getting Cricky and here, of course.  We will be back in full swing this Sunday and it's gonna be Sew Fabulous.  hehehehe  Also, this Sunday I find out if I made the DT over at Lasting Memories.  Remember, even if I don't get on the DT, I will still be participating and hope to see some of you there also.  Okay, that's enough for now.  See you tomorrow!!!

Lasting Memories Challenge #35

Good morning-

This is the last week for submissions for the Lasting Memories DT call.  I've been faithfully making my pages and keeping my fingers and toes crossed.  Just kidding, if I don't get picked that's okay, at least I am getting some pages done.  I really needed this boost and am so glad I found Lasting Memories.  Even if I don't make the DT, I will still be playing along over there...so if you are in a funk when it comes to scrapbooking, please go to Lasting Memories and join in.  The girls over there are wonderful and very incouraging.  Each week they have a different challenge, sometimes it's a sketch (like this week), sometimes it's using certain product (like bling), you just never know what each week brings.  I look forward to Sundays, that's when they announce the current week's challenge and then I mull it over until Monday night or Tuesday and get right to work.  Okay, okay, enough of my blabbing, wanna see what I did this week?

So again, as I said before this week's challenge is a sketch and this is what I had to work with.

Since Sunday was Easter and it was Bella's first Easter here with us, I couldn't resist scrapping her...hehehehe, been doing that alot lately.  So I went to print a darling picture of her, but there is something wrong with my printer...it won't print the true colors.  I cleaned the heads, swapped ink cartridges, etc and I am at a loss.  I think I wasted more ink than anything tonight...ugh.

Here is the original picture:

So, I remembered a technique I saw a few hundred years ago on how to turn a black n white picture into color in certain areas.  I changed the picture to black and white and printed it on glossy white photo paper and while it was still a bit wet, I used a q-tip and my chalks and colored in the frog green and a little bit of the pail in pink.  (Those were her Easter presents, and a swing, but I don't have pictures of that).  I was pleasantly surprised it worked as well as it did. 

Here is the chalked version and it does look better in real life, but I am very pleased with the outcome:

I used my paper pack from Sam's club in blue and pink.  I used my fiskar's border punch to punch the white cardstock and then layered the pink cardstock ontop of that.  From my stash I added some shiny green foil like paper that I used as the inside strip of the pink and I embossed a piece of lavender with my cuddlebug folder and highlighted it with my purple stazon to layer that inside the green foil.  Basically if the picture were in color these are all the colors used. 

Bella's dress was white with itty bitty blue flowers, so genious me...hahahaha, I gotta boast every once in a while.  I used the rest of my photo paper from too many mishaped picture printing and blue stazon and inked a flower pattern onto it.  Then using my SCAL I cut the letters for Easter in Black Rose font and also punched 4 flowers. 

I found a tutorial here on making some flowers and decided to try it with success, but omitting the water usage. It was really simple and fun, so much so, that I am going to make a bunch more...hahahaha.  Because

I can't seem to have a layout without bling of some sort I added a beaded blue on white strip to the top and bottom of the border.  Again, very simple but meaningful.  Here is the entire layout, Love it!!!

So that's it for my Miss Bella and Easter and I hope to see you next time again. Remember, I love comments, so if you are so inclined to leave me some I will be forever greatful.

Mom Monday - technical difficulties

Good day all -

If you've come for Mom Mondays I am sorry to disappoint, she couldn't send me her postings since she was busy with Easter.  I do hope to have something for you next week though.

If you missed my post yesterday regarding the Design Team call over at Paperclay, I made the team.  YEAH!!!  Be sure to check back on May 10th for my first posting.

I also wanted to let you know that I belong to a cricut/card swap on FB and these are the cuts I made for April.  I made some extras and have used one on a previous layout and I am going to use them for some cards I want to make.  I got some awesome cuts back also and can't wait to use them in some layouts or cards.

Well, that's all I have today, I will be back tomorrow with a layout I am working on for Lasting Memories.  This week it is sketch week and I am so excited about the LO.

Happy Easter Pail

Happy Easter all -

I wasn't going blog today since it was Easter and we were going to be doing family things, but here I am anyway.  We were going to cook at home today, but last minute decided to go out to eat.  Since my SIL works such weird hours we aren't sure when he will be home, so snacking until he gets home and then off to lunch or dinner.  Hahaha  We will keep the ham till next weekend...I could eat it all the time anyway.

I thought I'd share Miss Bella's Easter Pail. I made her a pail instead of an Easter Basket. This way she will be able to use it in the sandbox this summer. I bought this pail at Target. Normally they have these pails in a smaller size, but when I saw them in this size I snatched em up, 5 of them I believe. Using my SCAL I cut her name at 5.5 inches using the baby pirate font. It had some cute swirlys in the letters, but I broke the design apart an only cut the actual letters. I also used the basic shapes in the shape library to cut the flowers and added one flower bling. I didn't want to go too overboard decorating it up since it will be used in the sandbox this summer. 





Bling





Bella and her new Easter Frog



Special Announcement

Good Morning Crafters -

I would like to make an announcement: I am now one of the official Design Team members for Creative Paperclay. Woot, woot. This assignment is for 6 months and I am so excited to have been chosen. Terri Sproul is our Design Team Leader and she has some awesome ideas and is a wonderful instructor. Please go visit their blog and look for the other designers that are on the team with me; there is alot of creativity for sure.

I will mainly be showing you how to use Creative Paperclay for embellishments to use in your scrapbooking and card making. My postings as a Creative Paperclay Designer will post the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month. My first postings are on May 10th and 24th, but please go to Creative Paperclay and become a follower over there also and meet all the designers. It would be great if you also liked them on Facebook.

I can't wait for you to come back on the 10th of May to see what I have in store for you. On my right sidebar there is an email subscription link for your convenience so you won't miss out on any of my postings. See you in two weeks.

Festive Friday 4-22

Good Morning and welcome to another Festive Fridays.

If you are new to us, sit back, grab a cup of coffee, relax and enjoy some wonderful Christmas Cards. Yes, I did say Christmas. Festive Fridays will be every other Friday with samples of Christmas cards. This way, you can be making your cards all year long and you will avoid the mad rush when you could be enjoying the Christmas Season. You should have just come from Debbie. If you stumbled upon this post you can go back to Terri and start at the beginning. I also have a complete list of the Festive Friday bloghop participants on my left sidebar so you won't get lost.

This week's card is a cricut less card.  It's a standard 5.5 by 4.25 card base and I punched the bottom of the card with my EK border punch. 

The base is layered with a green mulberry paper and the ribbon is so sheer you can almost not see it on the card.  I then used my Emagination flower punch and punched 2 red and 1 green flower.  I layered sheer ribbon over the flowers and trimmed around them and embellished with some pearls beads.  The sentiment is a paper punchout that came in a paperpack with some Christmas papers.

I also layered the mulberry paper inside the bottom of the card so that the border showed up more. 

Super simple card, but elegant.  Let me know what you think of it...and now onto your next stop Angela

 

Earth Day Linking Party

Did you know Earth Day is this Friday?  I didn't, but I do now.  C.R.A.F.T. is hosting an Earth Day linking party.  Show off anything crafty/clever/creative that is recycled or re-used!  I personally love to recycle or reuse, so of course I've already linked up.  Now it's your turn.  Go Green!!!

Lasting Memories Challenge #34

HELLO

sorry didn't mean to shout, LOL  I am really excited about this week's challenge over at Lasting Memories.  This week's challenge is to create a layout about Easter.  YEAH... you may wonder why I am that excited about this challenge over all the others?  Well, it's because we had just taken Miss Bella to see her first Easter Bunny...didn't go so well (I will explain later in the post), but regardless we got pictures and I can scrap them not only for her album but for this challenge also. 

So we took Miss Bella to the mall that day because it was my only day off and I wanted to see her interact with the Easter Bunny.  Unfortunately that morning she also had a doctor's appointment and she got 5 shots ontop of it...ugh.  She was in a pretty good mood, so we thought we'd risk taking her.  Everything was fine until...yup, you guessed it, I sat her on the Easter Bunny's lap.  This picture is the best of them...  She wanted nothing to do with this large furry thing.  I even tried sitting next to the Easter Bunny with her on my lap and no way, no how.  Then her mother, who is definately afraid of costumed figures did her best and tried to console Miss Bella...no way, no how.  All in all, the picture isn't that bad, but I think we traumatized her.  Now when she looks at the pictures, she looks up at me and says:  "OH" and looks away.  I hope she gets over the fear of the Easter Bunny.

The background paper is from Heidi Grace, I got it at Big Lots.  The ribbon is also from Big Lots and it was from American Crafts.  The Easter Bunny was cut on my cricut with SCAL at 5 inches from the Scrapping Table  Easter collection.  I added my new peachykeen stamped face, now I wish I had some of the critter faces...hint, hint (family).  I also added stickles to the bow.  The eggs were also cut with SCAL at 2.5 inches.  I had received an egg in a swap and she had layered it with a flowery pattern.  I, of course, didn't have such a thing so I created it by just adding some flowers in the egg without welding and cut it out...it gave it a nice pattern affect. 

I then used the cut outs of the flowers and added them to the tulips stems that were cut in SCAL also from the Scrapping Table Easter collection and highlighted with stickles.  The grass is the last piece of metal paper I had (handcut)...love the dimension it brings.  The chick was received in the Spring swap through Facebook. 

I matted the picture of Miss Bella and the Easter Bunny with a core like cardstock I got on clearance at our local Paperwerks store.  That's where I buy most of my vinyl and they always have a clearance section that I must visit while I am there...LOL. 

I have seen people "speckle" their background paper, so I tried it also.  Not sure if I really like how it came out, but what's done is done.  I layed a paper doily that I had cut in half onto each side of the paper and hit it with my glimmer mist.  The I took one half of the paperdoily and adhered it over the open area a bit offset.  The other side I added my "journaling tag" that I cut using my TBBM...a real cricut cartridge cut.  So, I hope you enjoyed my layout for this challenge and keep your fingers crossed that I make the Design Team.  You have to enter all challenges this month to be considered for the Design Team.  So far, so good...

Oh and by the way, I created this entire layout on my new Scrapin' Easel...and boy do I love it.  I can change the look easily using the magnets that come with it as you can see by the picture below versus the finished layout above.  Check here if you have never seen it or know what I am talking about.  I love that I can scrap at an angle, makes it a lot easier for me because I stand when I scrap.  LOVE IT!!!

Quilt Square

Good day crafters -

Today I have a quick post of a quilt square I made for some members of our church.  Our church puts together a quilt of all members who have passed away and it is displayed in the main hall.  A couple of sisters in our congregation asked me if I would make theirs of their mother and father.  They gave me a little bit of background of their parent's likes.  They loved playing bingo at our bingo hall.  They played cards once a week with three couples and also played dice.  Their mother's favorite color was a deep pink also. 

The church furnished the quilt square and I was allowed to do whatever I wanted.  In my photoshop program I brought in a bingo card I got off the internet.  I layered five cards from the ten of spades through the ace of spades ontop of the bingo card.  I also layered a set of dice on the bottom of the bingo card.  I then added a picture of their mother and father ontop of those three layers and printed it onto transfer paper.  The bingo card, cards, and dice were black and white whereas the picture is in color to give it depth.  I then ironed that onto the quilt square.  I added stickles to the wording of BINGO and sewed buttons as the bingo placements.  I also added two pink brads to the dice holes.  I made the label by writing their names on a white piece of paper and layering it onto the label.  I used dimension mod podge to seal it and after letting it dry for 24 hours I then sewed that onto the picture.

The sisters were very happy with the way it turned out.  I like it also, but forgot to take a decent picture of it.  I used my cellphone camera when I gave it to them and I am not very pleased with the outcome.  It honestly looks very nice in real life.  I hope to take a better picture of the quilt square once it's attached to the quilt and displayed at church.  I will add another post at that time.

Mom Monday "Lemon Poppyseed Cake"

Good morning -

I had to work yesterday after picking up another shift for my manager.  Her mom's passing is really affecting her and she will be out for another week at least, so I will be working a bit more also.  Anyway, since I am working so much I am trying to pre-post alot of my blog posts including my feature for "Mom Monday".  I texted my mom asking where her post was for today and she came back with I am working on it right now...LOL  2 hours later I finally got it...She's killing me, hahaha  So here it is...my mom is a really great cook and she loves to bake also.  She made a Lemon Poppyseed bunt cake.  Oh how I wish I was close by her, it looks scrumpy and I really want some.  I do miss my mom's cooking and baking.  Isn't her place setting so cute with those yellow and white flowers?  The only thing missing...where's the coffee?

Recipe:

2 1/2 cups flour, 1 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of orange juice,

1/2 cup of water, 1/2 cup of oil, 1 tsp baking powder,

2 tbs sourcream, 1tsp lemon extract, 2 tbs of poppyseeds, 5 eggs.

Mix all together. Do not use mixer. Put in bundtcake form. Bake at 350 , 45 to 50 min

Glaze is powdered sugar and water, thicken to liking and drizzle over bundt cake.

hmmmm Nummy!!!

 

Simply Sundays "Let's Get Campy"

Good morning all -

okay, this week I nailed the challenge...I am so excited to show you this week's project for Simply Sundays at Getting Cricky.  I love designing for Kristal's challenges, but this week I excelled.  LOL  (Yes, I am bragging a bit), but I really loved this idea. 

First I bought a new cartridge and some stamps just for this challenge...hehehehe, needed a good excuse anyway.  I bought the Paper Dolls Dress Up on ebay last week and because of that, I also needed some Peachy Keen Face stamps.  I've been dying to get some and I finally took the plunge and am I glad I did.  They are so adorable and they just fit the Paper Dolls perfectly.  So, onto why I bought these goodies...I've seen alot of these stair step cards and I've been wanting to make one for awhile now, but really didn't know why I would.  I have seen a lot of them and they are all so cute, but most of the time there's been a theme to them, like a holiday or birthday or something to that.  So, I decided to make a calendar stair step card.  We go to Boundary Waters every year, for some camping, canoeing and hiking.  Boundary Waters is a canoeing area way up northern Minnesota almost to the Canadian border.  We love it up there, it's so peaceful.  It's alot of work camping up there, but nonetheless we still go every year.  You have to submit for an entry permit by December and then there is a lottery in January.  You get to sign up for approximate dates and keep your fingers crossed you get the date you wanted.  There is a limit on how many people can enter Boundary Waters per day that's why they do this lottery.  We got the date we wanted this year...Yeah.  We will enter Boundary Waters on the 1st of August and leave anytime between the 5th through the 8th.  It always depends on the weather and how much fish we've caught.  If you're bored and don't want to read about Boundary Waters anymore we will get onto my card, if you would like to read more about BWCA you can go here

I designed everything on my gyspy last week at work after I bought the cart.  This way when the cart came, I could just link it and cut away right?  NOT, I can't find my cord anywhere.  I've searched high and low and I don't know anyone with a gyspy to even borrow a cord just to link my cart...ugh.  So I had to redesign everything on my DS.  I cut the man at 3 inches, the canoe was cut at 2.5 inches and the rest of the stuff anywhere between 1 and 2.5 inches.  The trees are from my Winterwoodland cart and the water and grass is from Plantin Schoolbook.  The tent I cut using my SCAL from the ScrappingTable Great Outdoors theme.  I love these SCAL files too.  I also cut the letters in SCAL using a simple arial bold font and layered them.  The rocks I just free hand cut mounds...it'll do.  I used my white gel pen to hightlight some of the cuts.  The best part of this card also is that I used only my scrap paper and my stash.  I downloaded the calendar pages a long time ago and now I can't remember where from.  I added a swirly thing to a brad and now I can use this card every year for "Days till BWCA"  I love it...and I hope you've enjoyed my little stair step card also.

As always, have a great day and god bless. 

Paperclay DT Call

Hi all-

Today I am going to show you a few items I made using Paperclay.  I've worked with it years ago and really loved the idea of making my own embellishments.  Paperclay is so lightweight that it can be incoorporated into scrapbooking and cardmaking with ease.  You can paint it, color it with chalk, leave it plain the possibilities are endless.  You can even embedded objects into the paperclay and when it dries they are stuck in it.  I've sometimes even dug the "item" out and glued it in just to make sure it lasts.  I've even added glitter directly to the clay and smushed it together and hnven gotten a really cool effect.  I love stamping on it and I've recently discovered that I can even use some of my cuddlebug folders to impress/emboss it.  So, in my world, embossing folders aren't just for papers anymore.  LOL

Terri Sproul is the design team leader for Paperclay and she has sent out a Design Team call.  Just for giggles I am submitting some of my Paperclay projects.  I've seen so many talented people using Paperclay and thought maybe I could make a few things also...mine are strictly for use in my scrapbook pages and card making.  Enjoy:

Cuddlebug folder embossing
chalked



Bella's Handprint 4 x 4
to be used in a LO
Very lightweight

Bucket (freehand molded)
colored with markers

Cuddlebug folder embossed
colored with markers
spritzed with Glimmer mist

LO Title is Paperclay
and a few embellishments
around the pictures

Closeup of the title
Stamped into the clay with letters
Colored with markers

LO with Paperclay pieces

Paperclay bucket
free hand molded and
colored with markers
(made in 2004 and still looks good
hasn't crumbled or discolored)

Closeup of the LO tag,
star button imbedded and embossed,
rock imbedded into paperclay (glued after it was dry) and sprinkled with sand while still wet,
water embossed with Fiskars water template and highlighted with blue marker
made in 2004 and still as good as the day it was made

Another cuddlebug folder embossed
Highlighted with metallic rubons



 I hope you try Paperclay on some of your projects.  You can find it at Michaels, Hobby Lobby and also at Joanne's.  Again, it's very versatile and has endless possibilities.

As always, have a great day and god bless.



Stylish Blog Award

Good evening all -

So I received another Stylish Award and this time I got it from Leanne over at Leearts  She has some amazing cards, so please go over there and check her blog out.

To receive this award the rules to be followed are:


Step 1 - Make a post linking back to the person who gave you the award.

Step 2 - Share 8 random things about you.

Step 3 – Award 8 recently discovered bloggers with this award.

Step 4 – Contact these bloggers and tell them they have won the award.

My 8 random things I need to share. 

1.  I am a DT member at GettingCricky.com
2.  I love chocolate cake with cherries, (Blackforest cake, yum, yum)
3.  I love to wrap up with a blankie and read a good crime novel, (James Patterson or John Grisham)
4.  I don't like to be alone overnights.
5.  My dream car is Ford Mustang
6.  I am allergic to blueberries.
7.  My favorite store other than scrapbook stores is the Dollar Tree
8.  I fall asleep at the movies

So now I have to send this award off to 8 other bloggers...that's so hard because I follow so many of you and love each and every one, but since I can only choose 8 here they are:

1.  Celeste 
2.  Tami
3.  Kraftykash
4.  Abby
5.  Ellen
6.  Janice
7.  Mitzyrose
8.  Christy

These are blogs that I have recently discovered and believe they deserve some love.  Please go and check them out and give them some blog love also.

As always, have a great day and god bless.