Sketch, card, sketch, card

It is always the same, I plan all my blog posts for the week, I have all intentions to post every day and than other things like cooking, laundry, driving the kids to their activities, exercising, demand their share of my time and my blogging slides to the bottom of my to do list.

Time management is definitely something that I should do better, but today I just wanted to share 2 cards.
I made the first one for the Authentique card sketch challenge. I cut out 8 big petal shapes from the patterned paper and layered them to make this big flower.

Supplies: patterned paper, tag (Authentique- Journey), ink (StazOn), button (Jenni Bowlin), stickles (Ranger Ink), twine

Few touches of Waterfall distress stickles give this card a festive feel. I also love the silver twine, it looks so elegant!

The next card has a completely different feel. I made it for the Tuesday Trio sketch blog. The added challenge for sketch 108 was to use 5 different colors. I used 3 shades of blue cardstock with pink and white. The funky stamp is from Fiskars "Birthday Cheer" stamp set. I colored the letters with blue and pink sharpie pens.

Supplies: cardstock (American Crafts), stamp (Fiskars), pens (Sharpie), pearl (K&Co), vintage button

Yellow Brick Road - part I

In spring 2008, when Lila was in 4th grade, she had an opportunity to participate in a school play. Her elementary school presented a musical - The Yellow Brick Road. 4th and 5th graders danced and performed songs from the Wizard of Oz and Merry Poppins. Lila loved every moment and 4 years later she still loves to participate in the theater productions of our Park and Rec department and plans to join the drama club in high school.

I like looking at Graphic 45 papers but I don't usually buy them. They are not my usual style. But this collection was a perfect fit. When I saw the papers from The Magic of Oz collection , especially the gorgeous Poppy Fields paper I knew that I want to scrap the pictures from the musical. I started with the group picture that we received after the musical. I made this layout as part of my November DT assignment for the Scrapbook Express. I made it simple, the letter are cut with the Lifestyle Crafts alpha dies from the patterned paper.

Supplies: cardstock (American Crafts), patterned paper (Graphic 45), stickles (Ranger Ink), border punch (Fiskars), alpha dies and die cut machine (Lifestyle Crafts), white pen (Signo)

I cut out the poppies from the paper and layered them behind the title. Few drops of black stickles in the center of the flowers make them really pop out the page.

My next project was a mini album. The pages are 6x12 and I used American Crafts page protectors. The covers are plain chipboard covered with patterned paper. I had only paper scraps left when I made the covers so they are very simple.

The first page protector contains a page made from sheet of acetate cut to size that holds the title.

You can see it better in this picture.

Here are the first two pages side by side. In the album they are layered.

I used very simple format for the inner pages: one focus picture on the left with 6x6 square of patterned paper, 2 or 3 smaller pictures on the right. I kept the embellishments to the bare minimum since the pictures and the cardstock gave enough color to the pages.

The last pages is a collage from patterned paper, tickets, stickers and one last picture.

Supplies: cardstock (American Crafts), patterned paper (Graphic 45), border punch (Fiskars), stickers (Paper House), dies (Lifestyle Crafts), letter stickers, acetate sheet, chipboard, binder rings

After I was done with the mini album I still had few pictures left. Stay tuned for part II to know what I did with them :)

For you

Supplies: patterned paper (Bo Bunny), lace (Chatterbox), dies (Lifestyle Crafts), butterfly punch (Martha Stewart), letter stickers (Cosmo Cricket), liquid glass (Close to My Heart)

Another card from this weekend. I made it for the BoBunny card sketch challenge. More butterflies and more liquid glass.

There is no one like YOU!

Supplies: patterned paper (My Mind's Eye), stamp (Hero Arts), raindots (Cloud 9), jewels (unknown)

Super simple card today I made based on the sketch from the My Mind's Eye blog. I really love the papers in the "Love Me" collection and determined to use them all. They are too pretty to end up in my scraps.

Take Twelve - February layout

Supplies: cardstock (American Crafts), patterned paper (My Mind's Eye), dies (Lifestyle Crafts), felt flower, vintage buttons

This month I took pictures every hour or so and decided to position the pictures along the edges of the layout clockwise. This did not leave me the room for the journaling block like I used for the January layout. Instead, I printed out my journaling (from here), cut into strips and added under the pictures. Few small embellishments and it was done. The blue heart pin was one of Ella's valentines that she received from her classmates.

My shovel & me

Just a quick post today to share a layout I made using Little Yellow Bicycle sketch.

Supplies: cardstock (American Crafts), patterned paper, journaling card, snowflakes, felt balls (Little Yellow Bicycle), letter stickers (Bella Blvd), swirl and zig zag circle dies (Lifestyle Crafts), corner punch (Fiskars), stickles, white pen

Eli really doesn't like being outside in the snow. Last year he even refused to wear hat or mittens. This year he is doing much better but still doesn't like to play in the snow. The pictures are from last February. Somehow Ofir was able to put him in the snowsuit and take him outside I suspect that the shovel was the thing that lured him to the deck.

 

I cut a big swirl to add under the pictures and added crystal stickles to the the swirl and the snowflakes. The journaling card was punched from a rectangular tag. I doodled little frames around the pictures with white pen.

Diction

Supplies: patterned paper, word stickers (Authentique), distress ink (Ranger Ink), smooch ink (Hampton Art), button (Jenni Bowlin), twine

As part of the Scrapbook Express Design Team I get to contribute to the newsletter. It can be a project, a tip, or a product review. For this week's newsletter I reviewed cardstock word stickers from Authentique. They called "Diction"and come on 6x8 sheets. They come with each collection in coordinating colors. For my review I used the stickers from the "Blissful" collection. I decided to show how versatile they are and made 3 projects. For the first I used the words to spell the sentiment on the card above. The papers are from the Authentique "Free Bird" collection that come in 6x6 size. I also used the card sketch from the Authentique blog.

For the second project I used the word stickers in my journaling.

Supplies: patterned paper, word stickers and die-cuts (Authentique), patterned paper (WRMK), letter stickers (October Afternoon)

Remember the butterflies from my previous post? They were my third project. I punched out the butterflies from the sticker sheet (I had small technical difficulties but it all worked out) and covered them with a layer of clear dimensional adhesive. I used "Liquid Glass" from Close To My Heart but Glossy Accents or anything similar will work. I think punched out circles with layered embellishments on top will also look cute.

Hope I gave you some ideas to try! Let me know how you would use the word stickers. I have plenty left :)

Pink overload

Although we don't celebrate Valentine's Day I could not escape my share of pink overload and made this card for Tuesday Trio sketch 106.
My Mind's Eye "Love Me" papers and die cuts and some grey cardstock from my stash.

Supplies: cardstock (unknown), patterned paper, die cuts (My Mind's Eye), corner punch (Fiskars), pen (Sakura)

And here is more pink. This is Lila's 8th grade school picture. I used Authentique "Uncommon" collection and the sketch from Authentique blog. I covered Basic Grey chipboard letters with thin layer of Silver Sugar glimmer mist and it gave them a gentle sparkle that is difficult to see from the pictures.

Supplies: patterned paper, diecuts (Authentique), chupboard number and letters (Basic Gery), glimmer mist (Tattered Angles), pearls (large - Recollections, small - Zva Creative), liquid glass - Close To My Heart), distress ink (Ranger), butterfly punch (Martha Stewart)

Do you see the butterflies? Love how they turned out! More about them in the next post.

Take Twelve - February

Saturday night I went to bed thinking about my Take 12 project and how do I want to approach February. I decided to take pictures every hour and that's what I did (more or less). I love the results! It shows our typical Sunday and I was able to take pictures of all 5 of us. Even my face made it's rare appearance. :)

8:11 My typical breakfast - instant coffee with milk with one multi-grain thin, 2 table spoons of light cream cheese and something on top - cucumber, tomato or pepper rings like in the picture. 6 WW points+ :)

9:08 While I am spending time with my laptop Eli is playing with his Megasketcher. He stamped the star shape and sang "Twinkle twinkle little star". While I got the camera he moved to the heart shapes.

10:22 I dropped Ella at Hebrew school and went to Costco for my weekly shopping trip.

11:10 On the way from Costco - not too much this time: lettuce, celery, strawberries, thins, olives, cucumbers, pretzels

12:01 Picking up Ella from Hebrew school

1:04  Ella makes hew own lunch and eats it too - malawach (I will need to explain what it is in a separate post)

2:24  Ella and Eli play together. Eli adores his big sister.

3:08  Me with the Sunday newspaper. Picture taken by Ella.

4:27  Lila in her room with her iPod. She just came back from 3 hours of musical rehearsal.

5:14  Dinner time. Our good friend Lior joined us.

6:04  Ofir takes a break from his homework and plays shesh besh with Lior.

7:10  Lila works on her school project. She will demo how to make an iris folded heart.

Tuesday Trio sketch 105

Supplies: patterned paper, die cut label (My Mind's Eye), ink (Colorbox), big jewel (Prima Marketing), small jewels (unknown), letter stickers (Cosmo Cricket), circle and flower dies (Lifestyle Crafts)

New card for Tuesday Trio sketch 105. The challenge is "kraft" so kraft it is :) I mixed two different MME collections - Life Stories 2 that is kraft and red and, believe it on not, but I added two papers from the last year Halloween collection. It is kraft and white on the back side of the papers.

Ic e dancer

Lila's ice skating is a big part of our life. Although this year we decided to take it easy and she did not join the competitive team, she still spends a lot of time at the rink, participating in the teen team practices and working on her individual skills. Yesterday we went to IL where she tested in ice-dancing. She did fiesta tango and cha-cha that are two out of three pre-bronze dances. She had only once short practice with the partner 5 weeks ago so I was a little worried. She didn't show any signs of pre-test nervousness, skated well and passed both tests. I sure was glad that the long drive to IL and back wasn't for nothing.


Fiesta Tango from Maya Oren-Dahan on Vimeo.



Cha cha from Maya Oren-Dahan on Vimeo.

Starting point

It was a while since I participated in Shimelle's Starting Point challenge and even longer since I managed to finish one on time. But today I made it, not one but two layouts based on two different starting points. It is after11pm here so I have only crappy pictures to share but I determined to post them today. I'll try to replace them with something better later.

For the first layout I pulled out the folder with My Mind's Eye scraps from the last year and the box of random bling. I don't use a lot of bling on my layouts but I like how this one turned out. The bling circles were prompted by the tiny jewels on Lila's shirt. You probably can not see them in the picture but I know they are there.

Supplies: cardstock (Recollections), patterned paper (My Mind's Eye), label (My Mind's Eye), dies (Lifestyle Crafts), white pen (uni-ball), faux eyelet(Jo-Ann),  jewels (unknown)

In December 2001 we went to Shanti Kids Festival. I don't remember any details but I found one picture and the ticket. The stroller in the back of the picture is ours, Ella was 5 months old at that time. I probably was too consumed with keeping Ella happy, hence I don't have any memories from this day.
 

Supplies: cardstock (Lifestyle Crafts), patterned paper (G.C.D Studios), label stickers (Basic Grey), letter stickers (Making Memories), die-cut label (Kaiser Craft), sequins and buttons (K&Co)

4 challenges and a giveaway

In case you are looking for something to do this weekend... :)

New month means new monthly contest at Scrapbooking Express. This month we are doing a recipe challenge. You can read the details here.I fell in love with those papers from My Mind's Eye the minute I saw them. I think they are perfect for this picture of me and Ella from 2005. Ella still has her sweet toddler face and I still look young and .... ok, we will not go there :-) I would love to see YOU participate in this challenge. Sign up and play with us. You have the whole month to submit the layout and if you win you will get a prize pack from Scrapbook Express. Heather is very generous, I am sure it will be something awesome.

Supplies: patterned paper, tags (My Mind's Eye), cardstock (blue - American Crafts, pink - Bazzill Basics), ink (Ranger), buttons (Foof-a-la), heart punch (Fiskars), tulle

And while you are checking the Scrapbook Express site, here is another fun challenge brought to you by the Scrapbook Express blog design team. It is a new year long challenge called Scrap Your Year. If you miss Project 12 this year, this challenge is for you.

Another layout using mostly MME Love Me collection and another challenge. This time at Scrap It Girl: Show some love, use hearts, xo xo, or do a layout about someone or something you love! I made a layout about my beautiful niece Hadas.

Supplies: grey patterned paper (Creative Memories), patterned paper, die-cut elements (My Mind's Eye), label stickers (My Mind's Eye), circle tag (Authentique), button (Webster Pages), border punch (Fiskars), heart punch (Fiskars)

If you don't have time for challenges but still want to win a prize you are in luck because Kimberly has a giveaway on her blog. Lots of fun goodies there!

The last one for today is my layout for Tuesday Trio sketch challenge. This week's prompt was "magic" and after scratching my head for a while I decided to go with Hanukkah magic. I love this picture of the girls from few years ago and never scrapped it yet. I used Creative Memories Hanukkah papers and sticker for this layout and spiced it up with paper doilies, silver die-cut letters and stickles.

Supplies: cardstock (American Crafts, Core'dinations), patterned paper (silver - Martha Stewart, other - Creative Memories), sticker (Creative Memories), glimmer mist (Tattered Angles), border punch (Fiskars), alpha dies (Lifestyle Crafts), file tab punch (McGill), stickles (Ranger), white pen (uni-ball), doilies

The embossed circle started as whitish core'dination cardstock with kraft core from their whitewash collection. I sanded it lightly and sprayed with deep plum glimmer mist. Love how it turned out.

In addition to working on my layouts this week I also spent some time looking at all CHA posts. After few days I realized that I actually love several new releases. I even made a pinterest board for my wish list. :) Now I just need to win a lottery...  Did you follow the CHA releases? What are you favorites?