Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Authentique card sketch


A quick card based on the Authentique card sketch. I love the quote they used on the manufacturer strip and decided to use it as a sentiment. I used my last scraps from Blissful collection. Definitely one of my favorite scrapbooking lines ever! Scroll down to see my take on the Authentique layout sketch. (Yep, two posts in one day)

Supplies: patterned paper (Authentique), border punch (Fiskars), pearls (Kaiser Crafts)

On the farm - Authentique layout sketch

I am playing again this month with Authentique layout sketch. I love their new Gathering line, especially the paper with the big bold flowers. I used three pictures of Eli from our visit to the pumpkin farm in October.

Supplies: paper (Authentique), border punch (Fiskars), circle punch (Marvy Uchida), circle templates (Fiskars), house and alpha dies (Lifestyle Crafts), stickles (Ranger)

I cut out the flowers and tucked them behind the pictures. Few drops of black stickles were the obvious choice.


I added this small house made with an old Quickutz die. I think it looks adorable with it's polka dot walls and rusty red heart.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Window card tutorial

I got to design the make-n-take for the United States of Fiskateers crop. Lead Fiskateer Tami sent us awesome products to work with - the new LED SureCut(TM) Folding Rotary Trimmer, scallop circle everywhere punch, stamp press, postage stamp squeeze punch and a cute birthday stamp set. I added few other squeeze punches to the mix and designed this simple window card that features the scallop everywhere punch.





I wrote a little tutorial how to make this card.
  1. Start with 6”x7.5” kraft cardstock. Score in half making 3”x7.5” card base.
  2. Cut 2.75”x7.25” piece of white cardstock. Stamp the sentiment and punch the scallop window making sure the word “Fiskars” on the punch is facing you. 
  3. Lay the punched white piece on top of the card base and center. With pencil and ruler draw a vertical and horizontal line in the center of the punched window.
  4.  Position the base of the everywhere punch in a such way that the marked lines are in the center of the circle. Punch. Adhere the white piece to the card base aligning two punched windows.
5.       Stamp the sentiment inside the card
6.       Punch a circle, scallop circle and heart. Adhere to the inside of the card making sure it is centered
7.       Punch two leaves and adhere to the front of the card.
8.       Make another one  :)

      After making the card I realized that I didn't use the postage stamp squeeze punch. After a little experimenting I designed a little birthday tag that I will show you in the next post. I hope this week is treating you well. It is almost December!

Monday, November 28, 2011

United States of Fiskateers Crop - recap

Three weeks ago I participated in the United State of Fiskateers - Wisconsin crop. Kelly did a fabulous job, organizing everything. We had great food, prizes and fun games. I got to pick up stickers with my nose! Way too much fun! LOL

 I came home with three new punches and a new pair of scissors. I need to find a way to display all my scissors, they are too pretty to be stashed away. Thanks, Fiskars! You are the best!


I met some old friends and made new friends. Check this beautiful card with flower hair pin that Kelly S made and the cute baggie with yummy oatmeal cookies that Shelley brought to share with us.

I also wanted to make a little something for my Fiskateer friends. I ended up making small orange flowers with beads. Love hoe they turned up. I also designed a make-n-take for the crop. Stay tuned for the pictures and tutorial.

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Thursday, November 24, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today America celebrates Thanksgiving Day. I want to wish a very happy holiday to my American friends and blog readers. I am very grateful for the time you spend reading my little blog and for your kinds words. Thank you for being part of my life!



I made this card using My Mind's Eye Lost & Found Blush collection. It is one of my November DT projects for Scrapbook Express.

Supplies: patterned paper (MME), dies and diecut machine (Lifestyle Crafts), distress ink (Tim Holtz), distress stickles (Tim Holtz), stamp (Fiskars), ink (Colorbox)

Happy Thanksgiving!
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Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Wednesday - what's on my mind...

* New free Holiday class at JessicaSprague.com!You can find all the info here. Thanks, Cheri, for sharing!

* Lifestyle Crafts is hosting a series of awesome weekly giveaways. This week you can win the Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, ect) and a Bamboo Create Tablet! You can also get an entry in a drawinf by participating in the weekly make-n-takes. Here are the instructions for today's week make-n-take. I made this card for the first make-n-take. I didn't have the same dies that were used for the sample card so I had to improvise. I love how it turned out!

Supplies: patterned paper (Martha Stewart), die and diecut machine (Lifestyle Crafts), ribbon, button

* Hanukkah is getting close. I started to collect ideas for gifts but I need to be done very soon since some gifts need to travel thousands of miles.

* New class with Stacy Julian at Big Picture Classes. It is called Twelve I really want to take it .... Thinking... thinking....

* 6 days ago I joined the Weight Watchers. I wish I could say I am doing well but I am really struggling with meal planning and cooking for 4 picky eaters and myself..... Help? Please?

So what's on your mind lately?

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Are you up for some challenges? (Tuesday Trio sketches and Scrapbook Express monthly contest)

Hello my blog friends. It looks like when the life gets too busy than usual the first thing to go is my blog.  I guess I just need to accept that I am a sporadic blogger.  In the last week and a half we had WI Edge picture day, dentist appointments, Lila's birthday and her sleepover party with 6 friends. That doesn't mean I didn't scrap! Not as much as I wanted but I was able to finish few layouts and lots of cards. I am done with my Christmas cards! Very early for me! :)

This is the layout I made for today's Tuesday Trio sketch. I picked up Martha Stewart Halloween paper pad at Michael's on clearance. Love all the silvers and blacks. I think it will be useful not only for Halloween layouts. I used it to scrap the pictures of Ella's costume back from 2007. Dailly challenged us to re-purpose something and I used the top part of the black cat cupcake topper.
Supplies: patterned paper (Martha Stewart), letter stickers (large - Heidi Grace, small - Bazzill Basics), snowflake punches (Martha Stewart), scallop and circle punches (Fiskars), ribbon

You have to see the layout Orli made for this challenge. She re-purposed an empty paste tube! LOVE this!

I made the next card for the last week's Tuesday Trio sketch. We had to make an autumn card and what is better than WRMK Autumn Splendor collection. I used quite a few tools to make this card - Fiskars border punch for the border strip in the middle of the card, Fiskars scallop punch to punch out the flowers from the paper, Fiskars corner punch  to decorate the corners of the owl tag and Lifestyle Crafts foliage die to make the leaves.
Supplies: patterned paper, journaling pad (WRMK), border punch, scallop punch, corner punch (Fiskars), leaves die (Lifestyle Crafts)

Both challenges are still open! Show us what you can make. The winner of the weekly challenge is entered into the monthly prize drawing.

The last layout I want to share today is the one I made for The Little Things contest at Scrapbook Express. I think it was one of the most challenging contests I ever did - everything on the layout, except pictures, should be less than 1"! I played with several ideas and eventually decided to make layered circles that I cut in quarters. I used the same papers to make the colorful title and added few drops of mist. Not my usual layout but that's what I like in the challenges - they really make you step out of your comfort zone! There is still time to join the challenge! It is open till the end of November. Join the message board and show us what you can make. :)

Supplies: patterned paper (MME, WRMK, American Crafts, Bo Bunny, S.E.I., Making Memories), alpha dies and diecut machine (Lifestyle Crafts), punches (Fiskars, EK Success), smootch spritz (Hampton Art), colored pencils

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Friday, November 11, 2011

11.11.11

For few weeks now I was thinking about doing something special with the kids on this day. Special and simple and not very time consuming. I decided to go a time capsule similar to this




For now I decided to include the following:
1. Mini album with pictures from the day
2. Pictures of the girls assignment notebooks
3. School papers with the date
4. Gas and basic grocery prices
5. Printouts of random emails from Ofir's and my inbox
6. "Me, right now" questionnaire (still looking for something interesting)
7. Kids height, clothes and shoe sizes
8. Eli's handprint
9. What we ate for dinner
10. Anything special that girls want to include

What do you think? What you would include in the time capsule?

P.S.
Me, this morning: Lila, can you bring some papers from school with today's date? I want to make a time capsule
Lila, with cynical expression: Really?? And than we will dig a hole and bury it?
Me: No, we will put it on a shelf
Lila, starting to like the idea: Ah, ok.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Tuesday Trio Sketch 92

I had a great time on Saturday cropping with Fiskateers!  I will have some pictures to share later but meanwhile just wanted to say huge thank you to Kelly that organized this awesome event.

Today I am going to share my layout for Tuesday Trio blog (on Tuesday! I know, shocking! edited: I started this post yesterday but ....). It was a color challenge this time - banana yellow, blue, pink and brown. I cut two circles from Heidi Grace paper and added few stickers and some K&Co vintage looking diecuts. My new Fiskars corner punch was on my desk so I used it to punch the corners of the layout. I finished with little doodling along the edges. I love those pictures of Ella sitting in her tummy tub, so glad they are in her album now.

Supplies: cardstock (The Paper Studio), patterned paper (Heidi Grace), stickers (Heidi Grace), chipboard number (Heidi Grace), diecuts (K&Co), button (Recollections), border punch (Fiskars), corner punch (Fiskars), alpha dies and diecut machine (Lifestyle Crafts), colored pencil



And here is another sweet girl, Lila, approximately at the same age as Ella in the photos above. I adored this mustard colored dress from a french boutique that my MIL bought for her. It came with matching tights and a sweet jacket that I think was never worn. I did this layout for Scrapbook Express using the beautiful Autumn Splendor collection from We R Memory Keepers. I used my new Lifestyle Crafts die to cut the leaves. The bracket under the picture is hand cut.

Supplies: cardstock (Bazzill Basics), patterned paper, border sticker, chipboard (We Are Memory Keepers), letter stickers (October Afternoon), border punch, circle punch (Fiskars), dies and diecut machine (Lifestyle Crafts), staples, colored pencil, date sticker




I don't have a lot of dies and I give a lot of thought what dies to buy. I want to be sure I will use them. I think my new Foliage die will one of them. I think I will use it over and over. I also have a little extra motivation to use my dies - Lifestyle Crafts announced a I Made It challenge on their blog with weekly giveaways and a huge grand prize. I love their new blog - great source of ideas for to use your dies!

Friday, November 4, 2011

Friday Lift and Tuesday Trio on Friday


Hmmm, it looks like I missed a week of blogging... Life is getting busy here, or should I be honest and just say - more chaotic? Let's play a little catch up - I am going to share my Tuesday Trio projects from the last two weeks. 
This week the challenge was to use something raised. I made a layered card with 4 layers of punched around the edges squares. It was my week to write a tutorial so you can see step-by-step photos on the Tuesday Trio blog.
 Supplies: cardstock (American Crafts), patterned paper (Martha Stewart), corner border punch (Fiskars), liquid pearls (Ranger), vintage button, twine, sticker

 
Last week challenge was to use lots of layers. I used one of the digital stamps from out sponsor - Crafty Sentiments Designs. I decided to leave the stamp uncolored and just added some color to the flowers with souffle pens. I used Cosmo Cricket Upcycle papers.
 
Supplies: patterned paper (Cosmo Cricket), sircker (Cosmo Cricket), digitla stamps (Crafty Sentiments), pens (Sakura), buttons (Foof-a-laa), circle punch (Fiskars)

And finally my Friday Lift for this week. I lifter Lisa Dickinson's layout from JBS December gallery. All products here except the letters and the raindots are from an old Jenni Bowlin kit.
Supplies: cardstock (unknown), patterned paper (Jenni Bowlin), border punch (Fiskars), big flower and circle punches (Fiskars), small flower punch (EK Success), raindots (Cloud 9), letters (Bella Blvd), paint
My scissors got a good workout. The cherries and the leaves were part of the patterned paper. The flowers are done with Fiskars lever punch and small EK Success flower punch.

I will sign off now because tomorrow I an going to a crop and I still have tons to do before. Can't wait to see my old friends and meet some new friends. It is going to be awesome!