Sketchabilities Reveal > Sketch 48

Another great sketch by Karan Gerber was revealed today on the Sketchabilities blog!

I used the WeScrap Whimsy kit for my project for the sketch this month.  While this kit looks very feminine and pink, I found that many of the papers' reverse sides were pretty neutral or masculine!

Here's my layout:

Supplies used:  Bazzill Basics cardstock; Girls' Paperie patterned papers; Jenni Bowlin calendar card (as template); Martha Stewart Crafts and Marvy Uchida punches; Maya Road chipboard banners and heart; Basic Grey alpha stickers; Jillibean Soup Journaling Sprouts; Happy Tape; myStamp Box stamps (Funky Flowers); Tsukineko and Tim Holtz Distress inks; Glossy Accents; white gift card (We Scrap kit); American Crafts Memory Marker; Glue Dots; The Twinery twine; unknown ribbon.  Photo by Gary Sykes.

After tracing the Jenni Bowlin calendar card on the reverse side of my paper, I hand cut them out, inked the edges and doodled.  Using a ruler, I also drew a running stitch around my page border, once punched.

I matted my photo and tied a wide satin ribbon around it.  Using a subtle Vanilla ink, I stamped the swirl from the Funky Flowers stamp all over the white gift tag and inked the edges.  I fussy cut the birdcage and covered it with Glossy Accents for an epoxy-like finish, and then added it to a cluster of embellishments: 

The chipboard banners were covered with cardstock and inked.  I threaded twine through the holes (not easy!!) and added the letter stickers.  I looped and curled the ribbon to my liking and then stapled it down, keeping with the masculine theme.

To create the pink accents (who says boys pages can't have a little pink on them??), I used my Happy Tape and covered a scrap piece of white cardstock, and then punched out two hearts.  For the open heart on the title, I covered the Maya Road chipboard heart with tape and then used my craft blade to remove the excess.

Thanks for looking!  Be sure to add your page to the Sketchabilities Gallery for a chance to be a Guest Designer!

It's Hump Day Again!

It's been a crazy week around here.

Well, crazier than normal.

I started at my third store this week, but with a statutory holiday on Monday and Connor's upcoming swim meet on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I've been trying to cram in 38 hours of work into three days!  And with Gary starting work at his new job, I have to be home by 3:45pm when the kids get home!

Did I mention it was my quarter end at work?  For THREE stores?

[Sigh]

The good news is that I am LOVING my new store, and still love my job.  Ask me again in a few months, when the honeymoon is over and I'm pining for my Thursdays and Fridays off again! LOL!

The bonus is, of course, the extra spending money!  We have lived quite comfortably for the last five years with me just working part time, and now it's nice to have some extra funds to put into making our house more of a home.

I mentioned that Gary and I went across the border a few weeks ago to pick up our bedding for our new king-size bed.  Here's a photo of it, taken from the website:

Isn't it pretty??!!  It looks a bit washed out in the photo - it's more of a dark chocolatey brown background and the gold/steel blue is a shimmery pattern that turns different colours depending on the light.  

Of course, it doesn't go with my dark red walls, so we'll have to paint.  But I want to paint our main floor (kitchen/dining room/living room) first.  We have an open concept ranch so if we paint one room, we have to paint all three!  I have my eye on a gorgeous couch/loveseat set with tables so that's the first thing on our "Home Project" list.

Then comes the hard part trying to coordinate paint colours to match the living room furniture with the existing kitchen counters/cupboards!

Of course, the easy solution would be to renovate the kitchen, right? :)  Somehow, I think I'd have a hard time convincing Gary of that...

Anyhow, just wanted to share a couple of somethings with you before I hit the hay... a sneak peek from my project for Sketchabilities Sketch #48, set to reveal on Tuesday:

And a sneak peek of my layout for Round 1 of ScrapLift Tag at WeScrap:

This one was "old school" for me - it may actually even LAY FLAT in my album! *gasp*

Shocking, I know.... ;)

Sketchabilities Reveal > Sketch 47

Today, Sketch #47 revealed on the Sketchabilities blog!

As always, another fantastic sketch to work with from Karan made it easy!  I was already working with the Fun House kit from WeScrap and the colours worked perfectly for this photo of Connor that I snapped last Thanksgiving.

Here's my layout:

Supplies used:  Bazzill Basics cardstock; Echo Park patterned papers; myStamp BOX stamps (Tree for All Seasons); Martha Stewart Crafts scoring board; EK Success and Marvy Uchida punches, JilliBean Soup kraft journal tags; Tsukineko ink and Fantastix; Glossy Accents.

I found the Martha Stewart scoring board on a trip across the border with Gary a few weeks ago.  We stopped in at Michael's (because I had a 40% off coupon burning a hole in my purse...).  I came across this gorgeous card by Kristina Werner and instantly wanted a scoring board so I thought I'd peek while in the U.S.  Turns out that it was only $19.99, compared to its' $39.99 Canadian counterpart!  Plus another 40% off and well, I just couldn't resist.  I used it to create an asymmetrical diamond pattern on the cardstock before designing the rest of the layout.

I stamped the tree trunk and leaves on white cardstock in brown and green, respectively.  After fussy-cutting both, I added touches of orange to the leaves using my Fantastix (brush tip).  I then covered each of the leaves in Glossy Accents.

I wanted to use a JilliBean Soup scalloped journaling tag, but the only scalloped one I had left was one with a brown border, which clashed with the black.  So I layered a square notebook printed one over top and added the handwritten quote:

"There is always music amongst trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it."  

~ Minnie Aumonier

Be sure to add your layout to the Sketchabilities gallery for a chance to win a Guest Designer spot!  And if you're so inclined, there's also a call for a new Sketchabilities Design Team - deadline is June 10th!

Sketchabilities Reveal > Sketch 46

Today, Sketchabilities revealed another awesome sketch:

I took some liberties with it and came up with this:

Supplies used:  Bazzill cardstock; Fancy Pants, Cosmo Cricket and Jillibean Soup patterned papers; KI Memoires lace paper; Marvy Uchida punches; Doodlebug Designs alphas; Glue Dots; Creative Memories scalloped ruler; Jenni Bowlin tag sticker, miscellaneous ribbon.

Very simple - not a lot of embellishements, but I really like how it turned out!  The lime green really pops with the red and black!

Here's a close up of the simple accent - just a punched circle and heart, doodled up and adhered with foam tape:

Be sure to check out the rest of the design team's reveal - they are truly talented! - and if you create a layout from the sketch, share it in the gallery here for a chance to be a guest designer!

Happy Hump Day!

Who ever came up with that name, anyways?

Mid-week and we're on our way to the end of tax season - do you have your taxes done?  Luckily, because we are self-employed, we have a bit of time before our returns are due.

But they still want our money early!  Now I ask you, if I'm going to go through the trouble of calculating my taxes to figure out how much I owed the government, why wouldn't I just file them at the same time??

*shrugs*

Anyhow, just a quick note to let you know about a blog hop that is going on, starting at the WeScrap blog on National Scrapbooking Day (May 7th) - lots of prizes to be won!  More details on the blog here...

I also want to share a sneak peek at my layout for the Sketchabilities reveal that will post on Saturday:

Simple layout for me - trying to return to the days of less dimension and clutter... I'm running out of wall space for all of my 3D layouts!

Sketchabilities Reveal > Sketch 45

Today is my first reveal with the Sketchabilities design team.  What a talented bunch of designers with whom I get to work!  Be sure to check out their blogs, listed in the side bar, on the right, for more of their amazing work...

Today's reveal is for Sketch #45 - you can view it here on the Sketchabilities blog. For this sketch, I chose to use two photos that my brother-in-law sent us, taken by Mark Woolford.  He's an actor in Toronto (you may recognize him from a Rogers commercial that is running nationwide right now).

Supplies used:  Bazzill Basics cardstock; Bo Bunny patterned paper; Fancy Pants transparency (owl); Heidi Swapp chipboard letters; Skribblz Art vinyl transfers (Favourite/Scroll); myStamp BOX stamps (Itty Bittys); Tsukineko Versamark ink; Stampendous embossing powder; EK Success and Martha Stewart Crafts punches; Glue Dots; Tim Holtz Color Wash; unknown doily and chipboard stars.

I spritzed the white doily with the Color Wash to coordinate with the layout better.  Using three different patterns from the Itty Bittys stamp set, I stamped the cardstock with Versamark ink and heat embossed.  I then used it to cover the chipboard stars:

The Skribblz Art scroll was sliced prior to attaching to the layout, so that it would lay smoothly over the raised photo.

The Skribblz are super easy to use - just peel off the backing, place on your layout or project, burnish by rubbing with your fingers and then peel off!  The look of a handcut title, without the fuss!!

FYI:  If you are interested in the Skribblz Art vinyl transfers for your walls, you can visit Skribblz Art.  However, she no longer creates the scrapbooking transfers.  I have some left in the Just Cre8 store as we clear out of inventory, if you want to take a peek - they fit in an envelope so won't be very expensive to ship.

Now head over to the Sketchabilities blog to view the rest of the team's layouts. And while you're there, be sure to check out our new gallery!!  If you decide to share a layout made with one of the Sketchabilities sketches, you may win a spot as a Guest Designer!

Karan has also started a Readers' Request post - if you have any requests that you would like to see incorporated into our upcoming reveal

Thanks for looking!

Scrappy Sneak Peek!

Ahhhhhhh...

I made myself sit down and scrapbook on Monday.  I've been swamped with deadlines (scrappy, work AND household related) and have been going non-stop, it seems.

But my very first deadline for my new DT position with Sketchabilities is due on Sunday and I know that with ScrapFest this weekend, I won't be back in time to m meet it.  So, a-scrappin' I went!

Here's a sneak peek:

I love this little owl from Fancy Pants - and be prepared to be seeing him a lot.  I had 8 of them in inventory for the store and I liked him so much that I pulled  them all for me!! :)

And can you see myStamp BOX stamps used??  I'll give you a hint - they look shiny... :D

The Sketchabilities new sketch and DT reveal will be on April 15th!