Scrapbook steals

Every day I am checking the sites like Peachy Cheap, Crafty Steals and Scrapbook Stealsfor bargains but so far I wasn't tempted to buy anything. Till earlier this month when the Scrapbopk Steals had an awesome Pink Paislee kit. I decided to give it a try. 2 days after my order I found a huge package in my mail box. Lots and lots of patterned paper, clear stamps, alphas, rub-ons and pixie sticks. Looks good! I made 3 layouts and probably have enough paper for 30 more :)
I liked the woodgrain paper and thought it will be a nice background for the Central Park photos. I added a border with Fiskars border punch and used several rub-ons that came with the kit.
The little tree is a rub-on. The tiny flowers are left from punching the pink paper with Fiskars corner border punch. I added chocolate pearls to the rub-on border.

Supplies: cardstock (Wausau Paper), patterned paper and sticker borders (Pink Paisley), rub-ons (Pink Paisley), Chipboard letters (Pink Pasiley), pearls (Recollections), punches (Fiskars)


Here is another layout - I made a bow from the patterned paper to match the bow on the headband. The butterflies are cut from another patterned paper. Pink raindots cover some of the pink polka dots to give some dimension.

Supplies: patterned paper (Pink Paislee), chipboard letters (Scenic Route), stamp (Pink Paislee), raindots (Cloud 9), button (unknown), punch (Fiskars)


Another simple layout - few strips of patterned paper, journaling card and stamped label.

Supplies: patterned paper (Pink Paislee), journaling card (Pink Paislee), stamp (Pink Paislee), ink (Bazzill), chipboard letters (Heidi Swapp)

One of my Black Friday purchases (actually it was Saturday) is Martha's around the corner punch set (50% off with the coupon!). Unlike the Fiskars border corner punch that is one tool, Martha's version is two separate punches, one for the corner and one for the border. Here is what I made:
Supplies: patterned paper (7 Gypsies, Amanda Johnson), Journaling card (Jenni Bowlin), letters (G.C.D. studios)

Let's see what else I bought this weekend - 3 (yes, three) paper pads at Michaels and several Quickuts dies including 2 alphabets! My dies arrived today, can't wait to try them.

Blog Around the World

Shimelle's Blogging for Scrapbookers class is over. Three weeks went so fast. It was really a great class and I am so glad I took it. One of my favorite things during the class was reading the blogs of my fellow classmates - get inspired by their wonderful projects, read their thoughts and plans, laugh with them and make connections.

One of the several collaborative projects that grew out of this class is Blog Around the World event. About 40 scrapbookers and bloggers around the world will post a picture from their window and if they want, a picture of their creative space.

If you are coming from Amber's blog, welcome. You already know what it is about and how to move forward. If you are reading about the Blog Around the World here for the first time, at the end of this post I will give a link to the next blog in this virtual adventure. You can continue blog hopping till you will make the full circle or you can start from the beginning of the blog chain here.

So, without future delay, this is what I saw yesterday morning from my kitchen window. I love sitting by my kitchen table with a cup of cofee and look outside. It always look so peaceful and serene.

And now to my creative space. After our move I decided to scrap in the family room. I organized most of my supplies in this closet. About 60% of my supplies is still in the basement. To be honest I am doing just fine with what I have upstairs...

The left side of the closet from top to bottom:

• Cropper Hopper file holders with cardstock and patterned paper. The first three on left are Jenni Bowlin kits. The rest is cardstock and some papers that I used lately like Halloween and fall themed paper. The rest is in the basement.
• Fiskars squeeze punches
• Two shelves with clear shoe boxes. All my embellishments are sorted by color in those boxes. In addition to the color boxes I have a box for my bling, chipboard, journaling spots/cards/whatever, halloween/fall, winter, baby, travel and the newest embellishments
• Cropper Hopper box with my stickers and rub-ons sorted by color and by theme.
  
• The last shelf has binders with pictures in chronological order. Those are just printed 2009 and 2008 pictures. The rest is in the basement
• On the wall, clear pockets with my Fiskars border and circle punches

The right side of the closet from top to bottom:

• Binders with my clear stamps and 2 CTMH boxes with more clear stamps. Mikey Mouse ears from Fiskars 360 birthday party. I didn't attend the party but was lucky to receive the ears from Rebecca
• 12x12 drawers with my scraps sorted by colors, chipboard, and the drawer with newest stuff. Everything that is not a full sheet (and was not part of the kit) goes into my scrap drawers.
• 4 drawers with card making supplies, alpha chipboard and rub-ons, punches and miscellaneous stuff
• On the wall I have a tiny slatwall with my ribbons (sorted by color of course) and a basket.

That's all. It is definitely work in progress but so far it is working for me.

Thanks for stopping by in my corner of the world. Now I am going to send you to visit Sharyn. You are not going too far - she also lives in Wisconsin. I promise you will enjoy her creative projects, inspirational posts and delightful photography.

Things on my mind

1. Tomorrow Lila is going to her first synchronized ice skating competition of the season. She is travelling with her dad this time but I still need to do all the packing. She will be an alternate this time, so less stress for her (and us) but still lots of fun.

2. No time for scrapbooking - I am knitting scarves for Lila's team. Almost every year the girls are getting new scarves to match their costumes. 5 are ready, I have yarn for 2 or 3 more. I NEED to finish them today.

3. Today will be busy. Me and Eli will pick up the girls from the school, drive to the ice rink - Lila has a private lesson. Than I need to feed them somewhere. After that hopefully my DH will come and take Ella and Eli home. Me and Lila will stay for the synchro practice till 9pm. After that back home, do the laundry, finish packing. Oh, I need to make lunches for the bus. Not sure when this will happen....

4. Sunday I volunteered to do a Hanukkah card making class at our Hebrew school. Still need to decide what we are going to do and gather the supplies.

5. I am falling behind on my Adventures in Scrapbooking class (obviously)

6. I really like the Blogging for Scrapbookers class. It is clearly above my expectations. I think I will be going back to the prompts and the ideas on the message board several times.

7. Kids Crafts Committee on fiskateers message board is hosting kids ATC swap. I am so excited. I think it will be really fun swap. Tell your kids about it and join. If you are not a fiskateer yet, you are welcome to join the message board. Email to one of the leads and say I sent you (I am getting a pair of scissors for each member I send...... just kidding!... I am not getting anything of course, just new fisk-a-friends!)

8. I am hosting a fun project for kids and adults on fiskateers message board. I am not saying what it is yet.

9. I hope to get ready for Lila's sleepover party while she is gone. At least clean the house....

10. This Saturday I will be part of the special Blog Around the World blog train. So excited about that.

Adventures in Scrapbooking: Using kits - week 1 (part 2)

I am a little bit behind on posting the rest of the layouts I made from my week I kit. The days are so short now, it is really tough to find a good time to take a decent picture of the layouts. So here they are:

In this layout I firs covered chipboard letters with red ink but didn't like the look so I painted a thin layer of Ranger Crackled paint.

This is probably my favorite layout from the kit. I used Fiskars corner border punch and few circle and scallop punches. The felt circles are handcut.

I really wanted to cut the title from felt but got lazy and did it using paper. Fiskars scallop square punch and chick punch

I almost decided to put this stars paper in my "not going to use pile" but than I found this picture of Ella and decided to give it a try. I asked Ella what title should I use and she said - Rock Star Ella! :) That gave me an idea to put "No papparazi!" as a title. (I just realized that I didn't spell it correctly. Well, that's too bad, but I am not changing the layout)
I like to check the Jenni Bowlin Design Team Gallery. Those girls are so creative. The next two layout are scraplifts from the design team layout with minor modifications.

This layout is a scraplift from Lisa Dickinson's layout. I made a border using my Fiskars border embossing punch. The butterflies are punches with Fiskars squeeze punch. I added tiny antennas to 3 butterflies using the punched out swirls from the border.
I added Cloud 9 red flower and some thread.

This layout is Becky Novacek scraplift. I almost didn't change a thing except the size.

So, here it is. Not bad for one kit. Moving on to week 2.

Lila is 11

Today my oldest daughter turned 11. We celebrated last night at the restaurant. She asked for fondue restaurant and we found one that we never tried before.
It was great. We had all 3 types - cheese, meat and fish and of course chocolate for desert. The girls loved the food and the process, the atmosphere was delightful and had really enjoyed.


The only tiny problem was that the restaurant had just 4 bar height tables. It is a charming place but definitely not baby friendly. We would expect them to tell us that on the phone when we made reservations for 4 people and the baby. We took turns taking Eli outside and playing with him in the small lounge area. The rest of the time he was standing on the bar stool holding tight on Ofir and playing with fondue forks. We survived. It could be much worse.
With Lila's ice skating practices and competitions it is really hard to find time for her party. She will have a small sleepover party with her friends during the Thanksgiving break. I am looking for ideas.

Adventures in Scrapbooking: Using kits - week 1

Last Thursday I started a new Big Picture Scrapbooking class that is called Adventures in Scrapbooking: Using Kits. It is taught by super creative May Flaum. I know May from her years as one of the Lead Fiskateers and she is always up to something fun. During the first week May used the August kit by Jenni Bowlin that of course I have. So far I made only one layout from the kit so I was glad to dig it out and create few layouts.

Summerfest 2009. The letter stickers are also by Jenni Bowlin but they came in a different kit.

Those little flower sequins are so cute!

In this layout I was inspired by May to stitch a photo mat from the journaling cards.

I had those cute pictures that I took during one of my stroller walks few weeks ago. I used 2 pieces of deep burgundy cardstock that was not part of the kit but fit nicely with the colors. The leave and the squirrel are cut with USX using this and this templates.

The punched border is sprayed with some gold glimmer mist. The layout is based on a sketch by May.
I have another layout in works and probably enough papers for 2 more layouts.

Just another addiction?

I love scrapbooking challenges. Here, I said it. I LOVE them. Sometimes it seems like I don't scrap any more if it is not for a challenge, class, DT call or whatever (don't worry, I do)
The truth is that challenges really help me to experiment, try things I didn't try before, explore my creative style and use my stash of products. So, why not?

Ever since I discovered Treasured Scrapbooking (thanks Pinky!), I try to participate in as many challenges as I can. Not all of them speak to me but each month I make 3-5 layouts or projects for the challenges posted by TS design team. Here is another one. It is for the Chrysanthemum challenge by Laura Jean. What? You didn't know the Chrysanthemum is the Flower for the month of November? Now you know.

The challenge was to grow a Chrysanthemum... no. It was to use lots of different flowers on the layout and lots of bling. Here is what I made:

I took a Prima flower and used only 2 layers of it. I added flowers that I stamped with silver ink on yellow and mustard papers and also some punched flowers. Pearls and jewels are finishing this layout of my sparkling girl. Did you notice that her sweatshirt also has jewels?

Supplies: From Jenni Bowlin October 09 kit: cardstock (Bazzill), patterned paper (Jenni Bowlin, Amanda Johnson), flower (Prima), tab (Ormolu)
other: letter stickers (Scenic Route), punch (Fiskars) , stamps (CTMH), jewels (Zva Creative, Target), pearls (Target), brad (unknown), ink (Brilliance)

Officially, it is my current favorite layout :) Hooray for challenges!

Edited to add: Lots of the comments mentioned the newspaper print paper. It came with my Jenni Bowlin kit and was designed by Mandi Johnson.

Finds from the blogosphere

One of my favorite things from Shimelle's class is to check the blogs of other classmates. I wish I could check them all, but it is just impossible. So every time I login into the classroom I click on few blogs, read, leave comment and try to notice if I like something in the blog design or blog content.
One of the cool blogs I found is by Gennifer from Brought to You by the Letter B (What a cool name for a blog!). I like the blog design, white background, signature at the end of each post and the scrolling layouts widget she has. But the thing I liked the most is her gorgeous family trees that she creates and sells in her etsy shop. Just beautiful! She is having a giveaway right here, at her blog. I don't know about you but I am in. Love it!

Ad Inspired

This week the challenge at Write.Click.Scrapbook was to create an ad inspired layout. Emily Pitts posted an ad and the layout she did few years back.
Here is what I made (yep, more Halloween pictures)

Super simple. I punched two scallop borders and layered them. I than added the cat embellishment (Target dollar spot!) and Making Memories sparkling stickers.

Supplies: patterned paper (K&CO, Cloud 9, Target), embellishment (Target), border sticker (Cloud 9), letters (Making Memories), border punch (Fiskars)

But that's not all. As I always tell to my daughter - first you need to read the instructions! This time I didn't read the instructions and thought that the challenge was to create a layout inspired by any ad. I found this ad in our local magazine:

And created this layout:

I used my new Brackets and Journal USX template to cut the journaling tag and few strips of Basic Grey paper that came in the Jenni Bowlin kit for the frame. The story behind this layout is that after Eli learned how to crawl he didn't want to sit still during our monthly photo shots with the bunny. He always tried to crawl towards the camera or just outside my little photo scene.

Supplies: cream cardstock (unknown), patterned paper (Basic Grey), letter stickers (Sassafras Lass), pearls (Recollections), shape cutting tool and template (Fiskars)

One challenge + one misunderstanding = 2 layouts

Twisted Sketches Guest Designer

Today I am a Guest Designer for Twisted Sketches. I worked on sketch #22 where the twist was to use rub-ons. I liked the big rub-on the came with the Jenni Bowlin September 09 kit but wasn't sure how to use it. After some thoughts I just applied it to the notebook patterned paper close to my picture and added the chipboard title on top of it. All supplies are from the Jenni Bowlin kit, except the Amercian Crafts & sign that I slightly sanded. The picture is from summer 2001. Just few short weeks before Miss Ella arrived.

Go and check the design team work - some great layouts and cards there!

Next three weeks

Next three weeks I am going to be a busy blogger. I am taking a class from wonderful Shimelle called Blogging for Scrapbookers.
What does it mean for my blog:
-more posts - that's ok, as long they are not too long, right?
-more interesting posts - hopefully
-some visual changes - it's the time

I hope that this class will push me to make the changes to my blog that I always wanted and more important - decide what do I want from this blog.
If it's your first time here - welcome! I hope you will stay for a while.

More Halloween

Yes, another Halloween layout. And I have to warn you - more is coming. I am determined to scrap all Halloween pictures I have.
So here it is - Halloween party October 2005

I like using stamps on my layouts. Here I used Making Memories bat stamps. I stamped one on a scrap of orange paper, cut it out and added to the corner of the picture with a pop-dot. Scrap and Stamp Challenge blog are having Halloween challenge - I think this layout fits perfectly.

Supplies: paper (scrapworks, K&CO), rub-ons (Recollections), stamps (Making Memories), letters (Heidi Grace), sticker (Making Memories), embossing powder (American Crafts)